All posts by n8rngtd.top

Despite the weather forcing a draw, the Trinidad Test fit in much that was worth savouring

Daniel Brettig at Queen's Park Oval19-Apr-2012Rain giveth, and rain taketh away. The same precipitation that on day four had pushed the Trinidad Test towards a contest open to both sides had the ill manners to return about the same time on day five, and so consign the match to the dustbin of history occupied by most weather-affected draws. But the 11 overs of the West Indies chase, and the handful that had concluded the Australian second innings before them, a little more than an hour’s cricket in all, left a feeling of warmth about the leadership of both the hosts and the visitors.At the same time the rain reduced the chance that the 20 minutes of bright sunshine lost for murky reasons on the third morning would be pored over with greater intensity, for had it been played the match would not ultimately have been much closer to achieving a result. Nonetheless it will stick uncomfortably in the craw of all present at the ground at the scheduled start time that technological and commercial concerns had been deemed so critical as to stop a Test match in what were the best and sunniest conditions of its five days.Two days on, Darren Sammy and Michael Clarke tried their very best on the final afternoon to bring about a result, by whatever means they had within their power. A draw was enough to secure the Frank Worrell Trophy for Australia, retained on every occasion since it was so enterprisingly won by Mark Taylor’s men in 1995, but Clarke was thinking of victory every moment of the day until the rain closed in. Bad light was the initial cause of the players’ departure, and Clarke argued the point quite forcefully with the umpires Ian Gould and Marais Erasmus before reluctantly walking off for the last time.”Unfortunately there’s nothing I could do about the weather,” Clarke said later. “Darren and I spoke on the ground right at the end before we came off for bad light and both captains wanted to do everything we could to stay out there but as the umpires said it was just way too dark unfortunately, even though I said I’d bowl spin at both ends. I said at that stage, because I’d had Shane Watson bowl the last over from that end, is it okay if I bring on two spinners but they told me it was even too dark for that.”There’s going to be times throughout the rest of my career that it [being aggressive] might backfire and we might lose every now and then. But I enjoy the brand of cricket that we’re playing at the moment. I know the guys are really focused on the team having success and trying to win as many games of cricket as we can. And I think it’s bringing the best out of the team, to be honest. We’ll continue to do everything we can to try and keep winning.”Sammy, meanwhile, led his team with more intent and aggression in the field than at any stage of the final day in Barbados, harnessing Fidel Edwards, Kemar Roach and Shane Shillingford adeptly while also bowling with typical intelligence himself to fields that were neatly balanced between attack and defence, albeit on a pitch less likely to punish aggressive captaincy or wayward bowling.Once Australia’s prospective target had been shrunk by the quality of the bowling that had confronted them, leaving the West Indies 215 to get in 61 overs, Sammy maintained his notable streak of pro-activity by attacking in his choice of batting order. The obstinate Kraigg Brathwaite was sent down the order to be replaced by Kieran Powell, an opener for the team in ODIs. Powell drove his first ball smartly to the cover fence, but once Ben Hilfenhaus had pinned him lbw, who walked out but Sammy, intent on a thoughtful attack on the bowling. He was making a few of the visitors sweat, too, before the rain arrived.The enthusiasm engendered in the West Indies team by Sammy, and among the Australians by Clarke, has been admirable. But all parties must take a share of blame for the ridiculous sight on the third day of the two teams walking to the middle, being informed of a power cut at the ground, then traipsing straight back off for 20 minutes of postulating about the implications of simply playing cricket without the assistance of TV. Clarke admitted after the match that he did not know the rule about continuing matches without the DRS in the event of technical difficulties, while the West Indies coach Ottis Gibson said shruggingly that it was simply an example of television’s power over sport.Jeff Crowe, the match referee, and the two umpires, were much more aware of the playing conditions, and as such should not have allowed 20 minutes to tick by without any action on the field. The rain pelting Queen’s Park Oval on the final afternoon was a staunch enough reminder that cricket has ample elemental obstacles without others being created by technology and bureaucracy. As ever, the spectators at the ground were thought of last of all, none given a satisfactory explanation why they were teased by the sight of the teams emerging and then retreating.For all of that, the Trinidad Test fit in much that was worth savouring, from the batting of Shane Watson, Michael Hussey and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Australia’s rare use of tandem spin to slide through the West Indian first innings, to the unbridled pace and keen intelligence shown by Roach. At 23, he is a bowler of tremendous promise and considerable threat to Australia’s transitional batting order, guided soundly by the professional and ECB-approved savvy of Gibson.Many greats of Caribbean cricket have lamented how subsequent generations have had little time for the wisdom they offered, but in Roach’s case there was the tangible inspiration and ingenuity of the late Malcolm Marshall in his heart and mind. His unprompted acknowledgement of what would have been Marshall’s 54th birthday on day four was a heartening moment for West Indian cricket, one that suggested the team led by Sammy is learning to take on the best lessons of the years of plenty that preceded them. Alongside the enterprise shown by Clarke and Sammy, Roach’s efforts should not be washed away from cricket’s collective memory by the showers that ended any chance of a result in this match.

Also: magpie-spotting, barramundi-eating, and interviewing players clad in towels

George Binoy23-Aug-2012August 13
Electric plugs in Australia are different from those in England and India. They are smaller, thinner, triangular. A world standard is needed for such things. A suitable converter takes some finding. A Nepal Under-19 player, Krishna Karki, comes over to the press area and wants to borrow mine. “Can I charge my camera, sir?” he asks. Plugs in Nepal are like those in India. “Of course, but don’t call me sir,” I reply. “Okay sir,” he responds.Two days later, Karki has Australia’s Jimmy Peirson caught at mid-off, giving a surprisingly large contingent of Nepal fans at the Tony Ireland Stadium early reason to celebrate. Dressed in purple jerseys, waving Nepal’s unusually shaped flag, and cheering everything, from wicket to dot-ball, they outnumber the Aussies easily.Watch Gurinder Sandhu fling a ball in anger straight at a Nepal batsman, who hurries out of the way. Wonder if Sandhu would have reacted similarly had it been England or South Africa.Despite all the attention on fast bowlers, Australia offspinner Ashton Turner is top of the wickets list with seven in two matches.August 14
Kirwan State High School, en route to Tony Ireland Stadium, has a sign outside congratulating Mathew Cameron, a Paralympian. He has popliteal web syndrome and has had 25 operations since he was born. He’s only 26, and is part of Australia’s wheelchair-relay team in London. Inspirational.Harry Conway’s hat-trick against Nepal makes the back page of the . A photograph of a vividly painted water reservoir on Castle Hill is splashed across the front.See a magpie for the first time. Only ever read about them going for shiny objects in Enid Blyton books. Apparently known for attacking people. Two cameramen shoo it away.Eat barramundi for the first time. From the size of the cut-up pieces, it seems like one massive fish. Can’t detect a distinctive flavour.August 15
Townsville is massive for the number of inhabitants it has, like most places in Australia. Space for what seems like hundreds of thousands more people. Most of the apartments are recent developments, lots of vacancy signs outside them. The older, more traditional, houses are Queenslanders – made of wood and raised on stilts, some short, some longer, to allow air to come up through the floorboards and cool the insides in summer. Each one looks quite different from the other at first glance, in terms of colour and construction, unlike row houses in England.A five-day culture festival is on at the Strand, by the beach. Food, music and dance from various countries, many of them small islands in Oceania. Watch an aggressive stage performance from Papua New Guinea – huge men with painted faces, dressed in coconut leaves, shouting each other down. Eat food from the Torres Straits Islands (mussels, and sweet potatoes cooked in coconut milk) and the Phillipines (various kinds of pork). Too full to sample Fiji and El Salvador. Stay away from the masala dosas.August 16
Catch the 208 bus at 8.05am from Walker Street to Endeavour Park for a couple of days. The next 208 is 30 minutes later. Share the ride with the same people both days – a mother and daughter, two girls going to school, and several William Ross school students. Get a couple of nods of recognition. Very rare to see the same people on the same bus in India, even if everyone is following a daily routine. Never have to wait 30 minutes between buses at home.Cover cricket the old-school way at Endeavour Park. No television to look at for replays; no ball-by-ball commentary on ESPNcricinfo either. Miss something and it’s lost forever. Two matches on at the same time: India-Papua New Guinea and West Indies-Zimbabwe, on adjacent grounds. Imagine two circles drawn next to each other with a ten-metre gap between the closest parts of their circumferences. Press tent is pitched in that gap. Turn head to the right for India-PNG, to the left for West Indies-Zimbabwe. Like watching tennis. Sightscreens for West Indies-Zimbabwe are two freight containers stacked on top of each other and covered with black tarp. No one asks for them to be moved.August 17
Taken to interview the Aussies after they finish a pool session. Speak to Kurtis Patterson dressed in just a towel. Will remind him of it if he plays international cricket one day.The quarter-finalists arrive from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. Five Indians are seated on a couch in the small lobby of their service apartment building. A bus draws up and out troop the Pakistanis, wearing green blazers, dragging suitcases and huge kit bags. They crowd the lobby. The Indians watch from the couch; the England players look down from the floor above. New Zealand also arrive, dressed in crisp white shirts, dark trousers and striped ties with the white fern on it. They wait patiently outside until the Pakistanis check in. Not much talking between opponents. Imagine they’re sizing each other up.England captain Adam Ball is a Charlton Athletic fan, but finds it hard to play as them on because everyone else is playing as Real Madrid and Barcelona.Castle Hill, the pink granite monolith in the centre of Townsville•George Binoy/ESPNcricinfo LtdAugust 18
Getting tired of answering questions about what I have been up to in Australia apart from the cricket. Nothing much at all, is the answer. No games in Townsville today but there are teams to meet ahead of the quarter-finals. Grateful for the patience of the receptionists at Oaks M on Palmer as I repeatedly ask them to connect me to various rooms. Spend the day gathering information; spend the night writing. Haven’t seen the panoramic views from atop Castle Hill yet. Was five days before I wet my feet in the Pacific for the first time. Covering cricket is not as glamorous as it may look from the outside, but it’s pretty damn good.August 19
South Africa are playing England in the quarter-final at the Tony Ireland Stadium when sounds unusual for Townsville are heard: the revving of motorcycle engines and blaring of truck horns. About 200 of each pass by in a convoy that is part of an event raising money for a children’s charity. They make a din that won’t be out of place in Mumbai, during which England wicketkeeper Ben Foakes drops South Africa’s Murray Coetzee.Wasim Akram watches Pakistan practise ahead of their quarter-final against India. The team takes a group photo with him afterwards. And then they all want individual photos with Waz, who patiently strikes a pose and wears a smile and holds both for several minutes.August 20
India-Pakistan quarter-final. Indian fans outnumber the Pakistanis, who try valiantly to compete in the shouting. It’s a battle they cannot win unless their team does. The core group of Indian supporters seems to be from the Malayali Association of Townsville – someone shows up with a huge banner saying as much. The cheers are in Hindi, so that the Indian players can understand, but the chatter is in Malayalam.Ravikant Singh walks to the midwicket boundary in front of the grandstand to field, immediately after taking two Pakistan wickets in an over.”That’s not Ravikant, that’s Rajinikanth,” someone shouts. Ravikant turns and laughs.August 21
Australia’s captain, William “The Barnacle” Bosisto, finally has an average. It’s 189. After four unbeaten innings, two of which strongly influenced Australia victories, he is dismissed by South Africa, but not before his 40 takes Australia within four runs of a semi-final spot. It needs a run-out to remove Bosisto; no bowler has got the better of him yet. The South Africans drop three catches. Wonder if the ace fielders in their senior team get better after 19.August 22
Townsville being a port town, it’s quite common to see boats on the streets, being towed by cars. Try to read names of boats on the river while walking over the bridge. See painted on the side of a catamaran. Not the most reassuring name to see in the sea.Call a cab to go back to the city from Tony Ireland Stadium. The little lady driving it is old enough to be someone’s grandmother. Talks about how sprawling new shopping complexes are sprouting in the town and about how the Goods and Services Tax has made everything more expensive. “We pay a tax on tax,” she says.Get a call from the bus company saying that someone I called at 9.42am has left their phone on a bus. Check records and see it’s the New Zealand team manager. Give them details of where he’s staying and make a note to check with him at the semi-final. That’s the second lost item I’ve seen try to be returned by the bus company. Wonder if it’s common in larger Australian cities too.

David Hopps in Colombo20-Sep-2012A kindly message to the future mother-in-law of Danny Briggs, proud husband to be and excited England spinner: when he remarked in Colombo that the World Twenty20 was a priority compared to his wedding, the words probably just got tangled up and it did not quite come out as it should have.After all, he had just taken three Pakistan wickets in England’s final warm-up in Colombo and can now anticipate playing a central role in their defence of the trophy. If he did not seem entirely abreast of the detailed arrangements for his wedding, it was probably just a touch of the sun.He might be flighty as spinners go, but he does not seem at all flighty off the field. He is a softly-spoken, polite lad who still lives on the Isle of Wight and travels over for Hampshire matches on the ferry.If Briggs’ future wife, Linsey, was naïve about the itinerant life of a professional cricketer, she was naïve no longer when their wedding, scheduled for the end of September, was postponed until October so England’s up-and-coming young spinner could take part in World Twenty20.Actually, even the rearranged wedding date is far from perfect as it clashes with Hampshire’s qualification matches in the Champions League, meaning that Briggs will only fly out if Hampshire reach the final stages. For cricket obsessives, it is a bit of a shame that it was not postponed for a second time, but priorities can be tricky things.Briggs himself, the first of Isle of Wight cricketer to represent England, shrugs it off manfully. “It is so busy with cricket, you never know where you are going to be,” he said. “I do miss the Champions League qualification because of the wedding, but I changed wedding plans once for World Twenty20, which was obviously the priority. I will fly out if Hampshire qualify.”It is to be hoped that the Champions League does not cause the honeymoon too much disruption.England’s World Twenty20 campaign begins in earnest at the R Premadasa Stadium on Friday and instead of his wife-to-be whispering sweet nothings in his ear under candlelight, he is likely to be faced by the wanton aggression of Afghanistan’s batsmen under floodlights. He cannot be sure of selection, though, so early in the tournament on a Premadasa surface that will favour the pace bowlers more than spinners before the pitches tire, but his time will come.The wedding is in Taunton, but his thoughts after he had seen off Pakistan were with cricket and he was not noticeably eager to discuss family arrangements with a bunch of journalists. “My wife to be and her family are organising everything,” he said. “It’s their choice, I just go along with it.”The English tabloids raised a toast with the story. The headline had him assuring the family that he would turn up on the big day under the headline: “Aisle Be There.”

England’s bowlers need to be more aware of the lines they bowl at different stages of an innings in India

Aakash Chopra22-Nov-2012As the Indian batsmen put the English fast bowlers to the sword at Motera, one couldn’t help feel sorry for the visitors. They made for a rather depressing sight: when the outcome is inversely proportional to the input, you tend to feel for the player.The ball (especially the new ball on day one) did not swing in the air or move off the surface. The faster they bowled, the quicker it went off the bat. Whenever they bowled a bouncer, it either didn’t bounce above chest height or bounced twice before reaching Matt Prior.While the odds were stacked heavily against them because of the conditions, their predicament was also a result of a few technical slip-ups. Here’s a look at a few things England may want to consider while preparing for the second Test match. If the pitch in Mumbai is remotely similar to the one in Ahmedabad, they’ll need every bit of help they can get.Vary lengths, stick to one line
Every fast bowler with a new red ball in his hand is tuned to look for early swing or lateral movement off the surface. But in India the new SG Test ball doesn’t move much in the air, and so the tried-and-tested formula of keeping it in the air for as long as possible doesn’t quite work. If you pitch the ball full, hoping for swing, you will most likely see the batsman safely play through the line.I’m not suggesting bowlers avoid bowling full, but in India, full balls should mostly be outside the off stump. An outside-off-stump line forces the batsman to play square of the wicket, and that could possibly provide a window of opportunity for the bowler if the batsman is a shade late on the ball.On the dry but not very abrasive pitches of India, the ball doesn’t dart around after pitching either. So it’s important to change your length while keeping the line of operation about six inches outside off stump. If there’s no deception in the air or off the surface, you need to ensure the batsman is kept guessing about the length at least.The odd bouncer – dug in really short to ensure that it rises above shoulder height – can also be a handy tool. There’s nothing wrong with being defensive
However tempting it may be to bowl straight at the batsman (hoping he’ll miss and you’ll hit), it’s worth remembering that quality players aren’t likely to miss straight balls, unless they’re bowled at extremely high speeds.

In India the new SG Test ball doesn’t move much in the air, and so the tried-and-tested formula of keeping it in the air for as long as possible doesn’t quite work

Since there’s little movement in the air in India, and hardly any off the surface, straight lines will not only give the opposition easy runs, they will also make it more difficult for the fielding side to create chances.While the ball is new – that is, till it hasn’t started to reverse – it’s better to pack the off-side field and bowl an outside-off-stump line consistently. Many would consider this defensive, but in India defence is interpreted as patience and is often the biggest weapon. With the new ball, it’s almost impossible to contain, and so it’s better to make sure that you’re hit only on one side of the pitch.The art of the old ball
This is the real deal, more so for the faster bowlers. It’s no surprise that Zaheer Khan regularly bowls with a scrambled seam to scuff up one half of the ball, for that’s when the SG Test ball starts moving a little in the air. The earlier you can reach that stage, the fresher your fast bowlers will be to bowl quicker in the air, and hence more effectively.Once the ball starts reversing, you must start targeting the stumps. Now you can pack the on-side field, and have at least one man catching in the midwicket region for an uppish stroke off the legs.But these tactics are effective only if every ball you bowl finishes within the stumps and does not drift too far down the leg side – which would result in easy singles for batsmen with supple wrists. And if you err towards the off side, be prepared to fetch the ball from the fence. You simply can’t (like the English bowlers were regularly in Ahmedabad) get square-cut and flicked off the legs in the same over.Don’t let them score easily
While fast bowlers are likely to have a bigger say when the ball starts reversing, spinners, at times, find it tough going once the ball has lost its hardness (which means there is less bite off the surface).Once that happens, it’s important to find other ways to bring the batsmen out of their comfort zone. Drying up the flow of runs works wonders in India. Not that it’s easy to stop uninhibited Indian batsmen from scoring, but going around the wicket to bowl into the rough for a while could work as an attacking option.In-out fields work best on slow Indian pitches, where there isn’t enough pace off the surface for the batsmen to work the ball into the gaps for easy singles. Mostly it’s either attacking shots, in search of the boundary, or defensive prods to keep the bowler at bay. If you sit back and wait for things to happen, you’re doomed.

New Zealand’s performances against South Africa suggest they are back to the starting blocks in Test cricket

Firdose Moonda in Port Elizabeth14-Jan-2013The development of a butterfly has four stages. It starts as an egg, grows into a caterpillar, enters a metamorphosing pupa phase and, finally, becomes a grown adult. If Brendon McCullum’s theory is to be believed, New Zealand are still eggs.”This team and its life cycle is different to the South African team,” he said, before glumly admitting that he could not think of a time when they had been fully formed. “It would have been a fair few years ago, I guess. There have been constant changes, be it for injuries or other reasons. This team is pretty young, as a group we haven’t been exposed to such hostile cricket before.”To ask McCullum to remember the home triumphs over India and West Indies in 2002, or the win over Australia in Hobart last summer, or the recent win over Sri Lanka in Colombo, may be inappropriate in the aftermath of two crushing defeats. But his inability to recall a time when New Zealand had a solid grip over Test cricket seems to point to a harsher reality about their status.McCullum is correct in his explanation of his team now because they exit this series as a unit searching for a beginning. With a batting line-up unable to hold their own, and bowlers who are constantly under strain because of that, the wide lens would say New Zealand have to start from scratch. The zoom will reveal more specific points for restructure.The opening partnership has already been discussed, and in defeat McCullum conceded that is in area that will be reviewed. “We have to confront the new ball with some steel and some resolve,” he said. But it is not the only area that could face overhaul.New Zealand do not have a top six any bowling attack in the world would be nervous of. Occasionally, as BJ Watling and Dean Brownlie showed, they are able to put together a partnership or two. But those stands do not threaten; they merely irritate.Once they are broken, the roadblock clears itself en masse, as Graeme Smith explained: “They were able to put small partnerships together but once we had broken through, we were able to run through them.” New Zealand did not have a single century stand in the series, with their highest being 98 between Brownlie and Watling in this match. They had three half-century partnerships across the two matches.Popular opinion is that the return of Ross Taylor will go a long way to changing that. Taylor is regarded among New Zealand’s best batsmen and even if he does not come back to lead them (which seems to be the case), his contributions to the run chart will be needed. Taylor is due to play first-class cricket in the lead-up to the England series, which has been earmarked as his comeback.McCullum is looking forward to it but spoke about it in the same way the England camp described Kevin Pietersen’s return. “Reintegration must be smooth. I am sure he wants to come back and do well for New Zealand,” he said. His choice of the R-word was interesting because, unlike Pietersen, Taylor was not the main protagonist in his own demise.

“We trained hard but the ability to transfer that on to game day is what we need to work on. We’ve also got a pretty good blueprint of how the best team in the world goes about their business”Brendon McCullum

Poor communication and the coach, Mike Hesson’s lack of faith in his ability to captain led to him being left out, not shenanigans like text messages and being a cause of dressing-room disharmony. Many of New Zealand’s players support Taylor – Martin Guptill, whose Twitter profile picture is of the two of them together, most obviously. Even Hesson, who has had differences with Taylor, admits that the team would be stronger with him in it.If Taylor’s return is a given, New Zealand’s line-up will have a more solid look to it. McCullum will ponder moving down the order and there may be a move to bring Luke Ronchi in to keep wicket so BJ Watling can be promoted up the line-up. A certain amount of toying with combinations will be needed to get the best six in order, but it does not seem an impossible ask.The bowling department is a simple puzzle for New Zealand to solve. Tim Southee will return to fitness soon, giving them back the leader of the attack, and Trent Boult was impressive in South Africa. Their veteran seamer Chris Martin said he believes Southee, Boult and Bracewell will form the pack that will take New Zealand into the future. If they all click, they could form a formidable trio.Questions will still be asked of the spinner. Jeetan Patel may end up fighting Bruce Martin for a place. Todd Astle is also in the mix as is Tarun Nethula, but given New Zealand’s other talking points, this one may fall slightly under the radar.The tactics will definitely change but McCullum is warning against sweeping personnel changes because it will affect team culture. “There needs to be a little bit of change, but at the same time have to protect the core of the group,” he said. “Players have come over here and learnt from the best. We are trying to find the right balance.”In experimentation, New Zealand have ended up falling to some of their heftiest defeats, but McCullum said there were things they could take out of the South Africa trip, like commitment to the cause. “I can’t fault the preparation. It’s hard to replicate facing guys like Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel in the nets but I can’t fault the efforts. We trained hard but the ability to transfer that on to game day is what we need to work on. We’ve also got a pretty good blueprint of how the best team in the world goes about their business.”Something McCullum will want to take note of is that the current No. 1 side also started as eggs. They spent years in the interim phases, building for what they have achieved now. Some of that time was spent in frustration, some of it was in losing, but through consistency, South Africa learnt to turn that around. From being defeated, they turned into being defensive and eventually were able to transform that to winning. That is the kind of cycle New Zealand will want to replicate.

Andy Zaltzman admits Mohammad Aamer is a better bowler than he was at his age, and turns his stern eye to all matters statistical concerning debutants

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013

Ricky Ponting and Mohammad Aamer attempt to break into a Scottish dance routine
© AFP
After a painstaking 98-year reassessment study following the botched triangular series experiment of 1912, neutral Test match cricket returned to England yesterday. It was, according to those who were lucky enough to see both Syd Gregory’s Australia play South Africa almost a century ago, and their modern-day baggy-green descendants take on Pakistan, much improved from its previous incarnation.It was a compelling opening to the series, with everything you could want from a Test match – some good batting, some bad batting, some outstanding swing bowling, a bit of decent legspin, a bit of less decent legspin, a couple of influential umpiring bloopers, a couple of rampantly irritating bouts of going off for bad light, and perhaps the most minor piece of argy bargy in the history of all sport, as Ricky Ponting and Mohammad Aamer lightly brushed elbows.To the untrained eye, this could easily have signified the beginning of an outbreak of Scottish dancing, but fortunately the umpires were on hand to ensure a full-blown ceilidh did not break out – there is simply no place for it in Test match cricket. Ponting, an inveterate dancer, was understandably irritated, and left the field visibly chuntering his displeasure to the umpire that his trademark Strip The Willow had been cut off in its prime.Aamer’s opening spell was prodigious. He could have had all of the top three Australian batsmen out lbw, but ended up with none. Katich should have been given out, Ponting could have been given out, and Watson was being given out but escaped because he had the good sense to deflect the ball into his stumps and be out bowled instead (thus depriving Umpire Gould, the first English umpire to stand in a Lord’s Test since umpires were deemed to have become so universally and flagrantly patriotic as to be utterly untrustworthy, of his moment of finger-raising glory).Katich escaped for no discernible reason – Gould claimed to have heard and/or seen an inside edge, in which case Katich’s bat must have invisible wings stretching a good eight inches beyond the visible wood. The only other conceivable explanation why the umpire did not despatch the self-proclaimed Elvis Presley Of Stepping Across To Cover Off Stump And Deflecting The Ball Into The Leg Side, after his extremely Australian leg interrupted a delivery that was heading towards the middle of the middle of the middle bit of middle stump, was that Gould had been playing with a ouija board before the start of play, and had been told that the ghost of Gubby Allen would pop out from under the Lord’s turf and headbutt the ball away before it hit the wicket. Thus the benefit of the doubt was given to the batsman.I can, without jealousy or hyperbole, state definitively that Aamer is a better bowler than I was at his age (notwithstanding my then career-best spell of 2 for 35 off four overs of occasionally reachable legspin). His mesmeric opening spell was later supported by a hypnotic burst of platinum-quality trundle by Asif, a masterfully skilful and crafty onslaught of 80mph dobblers that broke both ends of the Katich-Clarke partnership, almost dismissed North three times in three balls, and thus exposed Australia’s untested middle order.Paine and Smith, in their first Tests, were doomed to failure – not by the excellent bowling nor the helpful conditions nor the pressure of their own expectations, but by the sheer weight of statistical history. This was the first time Australia had picked debutants at both 7 and 8 since their first Test against Sri Lanka in 1982-83, when Roger Woolley and Tom Hogan proudly donned their baggy greens for the first time, and then collectively failed to trouble the scorers. Largely, in fairness, because Australia declared on 514 for 4. This however, merely spared them from inevitable actual failure.Fourteen times since their first Test in 1876-77, Australia have sent out a brand new 7 and a previously unseen 8 in the same Test, and between them, in their debut innings, they have now scored a not especially grand total of 318 runs in 26 innings at a piddling average of 13.25. The top score of these was Clarence “Nip” Pellew’s immortal, unforgettable, era-defining 36 in the first post-Great-War Ashes Test of 1920-21. (Feel free to use this fact in your next attempted seduction. I cannot guarantee it will lead to success, but it will certainly elicit a reaction of some kind.)Australia’s coaching staff has clearly not been checking their statistics. If they had, they would surely have split the two debutants, sandwiching them around a more experienced player to divert the unstoppable hand of cricketing inevitability from slapping them both back to the pavilion.Assuming they bat according to the listed scorecard, Pakistan will also launch two players into their debut Tests back to back in the batting order. Umar Amin and Azhar Ali are listed to bat 3 and 4, making this already historic match even more historic – it is the first time Pakistan have had their numbers 3 and 4 making their debuts together since the entire Pakistan team made their Pakistan debuts in Pakistan’s debut Test against India, in Delhi in 1952-53. So this is the first time they have chosen to play a Test with an uncapped 3 and 4.In that game in 1952-53, Israr Ali and Imtiaz Ahmed scored 1 and 0 respectively in the first innings, so Umar and Azhar will be desperately hoping to set a new national record for most productive joint debuts by a 3 and 4.It is a risky, and almost unique, selection. They may develop into one of the all-time great 3-4 combinations, but, currently, their joint total of 0 career Test runs and 0 lifetime Test centuries, cannot match up to Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf’s Test total 12,600 runs and 40 centuries. But the unusualness of Pakistan’s selection is revealed by the fact that this will be only the 27th time in the entire history of the human race that a Test team has had debutants at 3 and 4. Here is proof, courtesy of the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful Statsguru.Bear in mind that, of the previous 26 such occasions:Ten were in a team’s first ever Test match, when debuts are largely unavoidable; seven more were whilst Queen Victoria was still alive;
one was in 1907, the year Picasso painted , and ace Russian science whizz Ivan Pavlov was messing around teasing dogs with bells, so the world was understandably a little confused; four more occurred whilst Hitler was still largely viewed by the world as a jaunty curiosity; and two only happened due to the use of a night-watchman.That leaves only two other Tests since the Second World War in which numbers 3 and 4 have debuted together. The first was when England sent a shadow team to India in 1951-52, and the second when Sri Lanka, in just their sixth Test match, against New Zealand in 1982-83, decided to start all over again and throw seven debutants into the Test arena at once.(Incidentally, a brand new opening partnership is almost as rare – 28 occurrences, the most recent being last year, when a commercial dispute led to West Indies having to ask if anyone in the crowd fancied a game against Bangladesh.)This shows how reluctant teams have traditionally been to throw two completely unproven players into the top order together. But in mitigation, not many Test countries have been piecing a team together after speculatively banning then unbanning a large wodge of key players, and not many Test teams have had Shahid Afridi as captain. It sounds crazy, but it might just work. Unless the ball keeps swinging, in which case, it probably won’t. It all adds to the ceaseless fascination that is Pakistan cricket, and it is a delight to see them play just their tenth Test on these shores in the last 18 years.

The TV cameras focused on him a few times, his fan report made it to ESPNcricinfo, and his team won. Franklin Joseph is a lucky man

Franklin Joseph20-May-2013Choice of game
Having watched in disbelief as RCB surprised CSK on Saturday, I realised I was right in picking up tickets for this match. Now the Sunrisers needed to win to get through and I had to be there to take them through.Team supported
I have always backed the Hyderabad franchise. Last year, the Deccan Chargers knocked Bangalore out of the tournament in the final league game, but the victory was only half sweet since Deccan finished in the bottom half. But this time there was a lot more riding in the result for the Sunrisers. I was in the same Sunrisers jersey I wore to the victory against Rajasthan, and the good-luck charm worked wonders again.Expectations sky-high
We could sense the intensity in the air. Normally, when Hyderabad plays the popular teams the support would be 50-50. But today, the stands were a sea of orange. The tension was evident when the crowd watched in silence as the Kolkata openers got through the Powerplay without much trouble. There was applause whenever Dale Steyn ripped in his short balls or when Anand Rajan kept it tight. The crowd was cheering, but cautiously. Things changed gradually, though, and as the match proceeded, the carnival set in.Key performers
The Sunrisers openers Parthiv Patel and Shikhar Dhawan. Having watched KKR make only 130 I feared the SRH openers would struggle. But they took off instantly and grabbed the match out of KKR’s grip with a fluent 89-run stand.One thing I’d have changed about the match
The sudden twist in the climax made it too nervy – especially the maiden over from Sunil Narine. I’d have preferred to have a smoother finish. But then, to make it up, Darren Sammy’s sixes made it a grandstand finish instead of a heart-stopping one.Face-off I relished
After Steyn delivered sweet chin music to Yusuf Pathan, the next ball was duly dispatched over the fence. Yusuf instantly dropped his bat and put his hands up in mock-applause. After seeing the celebration on the big screen, Steyn returned the compliment at the top of his run-up with applause of his own. The two were inseparable till the end of the over.Close encounter
Steyn kept playing to the gallery as he’s done all season. He began with the ‘I can’t hear you’ gesture towards the crowd on the Eastern stands and applauded every time the crowd responded. But he did curtail his antics after a misfield miffed him.We were in the front row in our stand, which afforded us a close-up view of the action at third man, or long-on. Amit Mishra put in a dive in front of us, and Yusuf’s sixes fell into our gallery. After returning home, I watched highlights and got to see myself on TV every time the ball made it to the boundary at our end.Shot of the day
Shikar Dhawan’s jump-and-cut off Jacques Kallis for six was the shot of the day for me. That shot had the words ‘This is T20 my friend’ written all over it.The careful banner banter
I had wanted to bring a ‘Bye-bye RCB’ banner to the ground, but I was aware that it could backfire. So I decided against it. I looked around the ground and on the big screen for at least one such banner. But clearly, everyone was apprehensive. But finally with the target under 40, I got the first glimpse of a banner that had exactly those words.Crowd meter
It took the crowd some time to get pumped up and the Manvinder Bisla dismissal triggered off delirium. When the SRH innings started, no amount of coaxing from the DJ or the big screen could get them going. But a few minutes into the chase, all that changed when Parthiv Patel crashed one over the top.Hardship factor
Having a cricket stadium in the middle of a hugely populated residential area does not help at all. Parking is a big mess with cars parked all around the ground, and along the roads abutting the stadium. Drinking water is not available for sale at the ground – soft drinks are the only thirst-quenchers on sale. Mobile phones and cameras are not allowed inside the ground, but some people managed to sneak them in. One person in the crowd was even caught on the big screen taking a picture of the roving cameraman.The farewell
As has been the case at other stadiums, the fans got a view of the home team players on a victory lap. A lucky few also got to take home jerseys that the players flung into the crowd during the lap of honor. The franchise representatives were there too, with a ‘Shukriya Hyderabad for the support’ banner.Marks out of 10
I’d have to give a 10/10, if only for the favourable result.

Cricketing heaven is watching Dravid, Steyn and co. do battle from free seats in the players’ lounge

Shubham Arora28-Apr-2013Choice of game
I am a big fan of the IPL, thanks to the format that makes all the teams go through crests and troughs. Teams that underperform in the first half eventually get their act together and give it their all in the later stages while teams who are consistent in the first half of the tournament often lose momentum. Rajasthan Royals fall in the latter category, barring their consistent run in the first edition.Sunrisers Hyderabad may have been rebranded and rechristened, but they retain the core of the Deccan Chargers. They were champions in the second season, but have otherwise always been off the boil. So this match was supposedly between equals. This year’s points table says so, anyway.The atmosphere
“I’ll be going to the match today,” I informed a friend who isn’t from Jaipur. “Oh, to that ground that has more moths than spectators,” he responded. I gave a laugh and let it go. He is a Delhi supporter and I can understand his frustration this year. Thankfully, this was an afternoon game and the moths didn’t pose a problem.The Sawai Mansingh Stadium is small and beautiful. The outfield is lush and the view is clear from every corner of the ground. I was lucky to have premium passes to the players’ lounge on the west side of the ground. The lounge had the closest view, and a sumptuous buffet to go with. I couldn’t have asked for more. This is the sort of experience for which you don’t regret splurging. In my case, I didn’t have to since I got the pass for free.One complaint that I’ll always have with the crowd in Jaipur is that we are not as loud as the RCB fans at the Chinnaswamy. Maybe it’s got to do with the people.Early exchanges
Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid, Dale Steyn. You pitch the first two against the third and the match-up seems delicious. I had never seen Steyn in action live before this match so it was exciting to watch him bowl at a blistering pace. Hyderabad decided to bat first upon winning the toss, but ran into some spectacular bowling from Rajasthan. Within no time, Hyderabad were reduced to 29 for 6. It seemed a lost contest for Hyderabad, until Darren Sammy intervened.Key performer
Darren Sammy resurrected Hyderabad and took them to a healthy score of 144. The outfield was quick, and his shots reached the boundary in no time. This was a competitive total given Hyderabad’s bowling depth. James Faulkner was a joy to watch as well. He was a class apart from the rest of the Rajasthan attack. England might have a tough time later this year with Faulkner in Australia’s Ashes squad.However, Watson’s show in the evening shadowed everything that went before. I was expecting a lot out of him following his century against Chennai, and he didn’t disappoint.Face-off I relished
Rahul Dravid v Dale Steyn. The first ball from Steyn to Dravid was a classic outswinger, and resulted in a play-and-miss. True to his reputation, Dravid absorbed the pressure and kept Steyn at bay with the calmness of a monk. It was a good ploy to shield Watson from the initial Steyn overs. The ball was swinging and once again Dravid shouldered the responsibility.Wow moment
The last over of the game was remarkable to watch. Watson was keen on getting to his century and it seemed like Steyn was adamant on stopping him. Watson kept hitting towards deep midwicket, where Steyn kept leaping and diving to save as many runs as possible. It made for spectacular viewing.Entertainment
This being a day game, the 10 pm restriction on loud music didn’t impact the experience. The DJ has been awesome all these years in Jaipur and it was once again a musical evening. All the activities on the ground reduce the cricket to a side show, and I think that’s what makes T20 a hit. There is so much happening even between the overs making the spectator the ultimate winner.One thing I would have changed
I had thoughts of reaching home early given how the initial overs went. But Hyderabad managed to reach a decent total in the end which was kind of good. However, the game wasn’t close, which left me a little disappointed. The ease with which Rajasthan won surprised me – there were no tense moments, no anxiety, nothing.Marks out of 10
All in all, it was a satisfying experience, and I’ll give it 8 out of 10. It’s always good to see your team win, but this was emphatic and came against one of the better teams this season, making it even more special. The last time Shane Watson performed this consistently, Rajasthan won the IPL. I can hear murmurs of people now saying we aren’t underdogs this time. I welcome them all.

England’s Test series against Australia begins in a fortnight but if there is any sense of fatigue at nearly five months’ competition against New Zealand, it was not discernible at The Oval

Alan Gardner26-Jun-2013Much had been made in the brief build up to the two T20 internationals between England and New Zealand of their superfluity. The first, won by New Zealand after nearly 400 runs had been scored at The Oval, came two days after the final of the Champions Trophy and, for some sections of the media, the series has already been swallowed up or otherwise eclipsed by a spike in the Ashes mercury.England’s Test series against Australia begins in two weeks’ time but if there is any sense of fatigue at the continuing engagements with New Zealand, it was not discernible on Tuesday night. Almost five months after England’s tour of New Zealand began with three high-scoring T20s, a full house at The Oval showed their raucous appreciation for more of the same on the return leg.Even though England rested a number of players, including Stuart Broad, the regular T20 captain, Graeme Swann and Steven Finn, and New Zealand are approaching the end of an intense tour that has already taken in two Tests, three ODIs and the Champions Trophy, both Eoin Morgan and Brendon McCullum, captains on the night, defended the scheduling.”It’s very important,” Morgan said of the game. “The majority of the Twenty20 team obviously isn’t involved in the Test match or one-day international team so for a lot of guys this is the pinnacle of their summer and I think it’s very important.”England’s Twenty20 specialists – the likes of Alex Hales, Michael Lumb and Luke Wright – seemed particularly keen to grasp their opportunity to participate at last in what the ECB has been marketing as the ‘Summer of Cricket’. If a carnival atmosphere at a packed ground is what the governing body is after, this was another salient reminder of the importance of Twenty20 to the overall health of the game.”It was brilliant,” McCullum said. “Obviously I didn’t expect to have such a big crowd today, but I thought it was brilliant. There was probably a little bit of criticism about these two T20 being tacked on at the end but I think what we saw today was justification for them and hopefully we get another big crowd on Thursday.”Surrey will harbour similar hopes. The club paid a staging fee for both games but, even with discounted £1 entry for under-16s, the economics seem likely to have worked in their favour, once the spending at various food and drinks outlets is taken into account. On Thursday, the expected return to England colours of Kevin Pietersen, also a Surrey player, plus the greater proximity to the weekend could make for an even livelier affair.And all this excitement for an England defeat. Morgan admitted a modicum of disappointment at the result but felt the difference was as little as “one blow and we would have won the game”. He had praise for England debutant Boyd Rankin, who took 1 for 24 on a night when bowlers were fodder, and the way his less-experienced side fought to stay in the game after Hamish Rutherford and McCullum had given New Zealand a ferocious start.It was perhaps Morgan’s dismissal, caught at slip in the 14th over with England matching the required rate, that was the game’s pivotal moment. McCullum’s decision to put Ross Taylor in a catching position, rather than try and protect the boundaries, was indicative of his mindset as a captain and provided the crowd with another moment to savour.”It took a pretty special catch for it to come off,” McCullum said. “We had to take wickets, to me it wasn’t necessarily a risk. If we didn’t have the slip in place we would have seen the game peter out, I think, so we had to keep trying to make some plays and sometimes they come off and it looks great and sometimes they don’t. Thankfully today it did.”

Duncan Flethcer hardly interacts with anyone except his bosses and the players, and the players have always been full of praise for him without being able to articulate how exactly he helps

Sidharth Monga13-Dec-2013Enigma is a word loosely used in sport analysis. Duncan Fletcher the India coach, though, is one man on whom the word enigma won’t be wasted. Fletcher the England coach was ruthless, result-oriented, modern, even before his time. He worked best with young batsmen, preferred pace, and didn’t mind gamesmanship – remember how England riled Ricky Ponting with their substitute fielders during the 2005 Ashes? From what we know of him as the India coach, or rather India under him, for whatever reason youth hasn’t been pushed for actively despite poor results – eight straight away defeats in Tests, accurate trundlers have been preferred to pace, and batsmen dismissed purely by their own fault have been called back.The extent of Fletcher’s role in all this is not known. We don’t know if he has had the free rein he needs. He hardly interacts with anyone except his bosses and the players, and the players have always been full of praise for him without being able to articulate how exactly he helps. You knew Fletcher’s role as a member of the support staff better when India last came to South Africa. No, he had nothing to do with India then. This was when Fletcher was the part-time batting consultant of South Africa. Back then, he would attend press conferences, talk about his role and about his players.Therein might lay an advantage for Fletcher, a big chance to improve the overseas record of the India team under his watch: one win and eight losses outside Asia. Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis were part of the ODI squad that Fletcher worked with. That edge might not have been visible during the ODIs where India struggled to make an impression on pretty much the same set of batsmen – Quinton de Kock being the addition – but Fletcher’s knowledge of South African cricket and conditions will still be a cane to this Indian team walking blind into the den, with negligible experience and little match time.Other than this, Fletcher finally has a young side that he can mould. His expertise, it was said, was the main reason he was brought in as the coach in the first place, after Gary Kirsten didn’t extend his contract soon after the World Cup win in 2011. At the start of his stint, Fletcher followed the Kirsten strategy of letting the senior players be, but with their games waning, it didn’t work. Fletcher, though, managed to stay under the radar. Now, when he is back to what he was supposed to do – aid India in conditions he knows well, in England and South Africa, and facilitate the transition – Fletcher’s role will be under more scrutiny.The problem with scrutinising Fletcher’s role, though, is the same: we don’t exactly know how he works. What is clear, though, is that the players are impressed and singularly take the blame when the team fails to perform. “See, I think no failure can be pinpointed upon the support staff sitting back,” R Ashwin said. “As players we have to accept the failure and say, ‘Yes, we have failed as a group.’ A person cannot go through the entire 11 players on the field, and what’s going through their head and all that.”Support staff can definitely facilitate you from behind. Support staff’s role is always about creating a good environment. Having good facilities to practice and try and aid somebody who is going through a lean patch, and all that. On those regards he has never been short of what he has done. We had poor tours of Australia and England, but he has always been on the mark in terms of arranging practice and in terms of what guys want, going to them, talking to them. He has wanted to make a difference.”There are two things: wanting to make a difference and actually creating a difference. [For] creating the difference the player also needs to play a role. He has always wanted to be the difference that a player wants. He has never been shy of going to talking to anybody, he has never been shy of going and offering a new suggestion for somebody to change his game. It’s always up to the individual to take it or not. But I think for a failure the team has to accept the failure as a lot rather than saying the coach has not had a great record and all that. have not had a great record.”That’s a glowing endorsement at one level, but it doesn’t really say much about Fletcher’s role, other than facilitating training and ensuring good facilities. As a professional, Fletcher will see it as his failure, too, that he oversaw eight straight defeats away from home. He will be desperate to make sure it doesn’t become 10 before 2013 is over.