With South Africa unlikely to deviate from their strategy of seven batsmen and three seamers, Duminy will have to get accustomed to being the second spinner, starting from this tour

Firdose Moonda07-Oct-2013JP Duminy will not be drawn into discussing in detail exactly how he felt when the back of his ankle popped, as he described it last November in Brisbane, rupturing his Achilles’ and condemning him to six months on the sidelines. But it must have been some shade of disappointment, especially considering the stage of his career he was in.His replacement for the remainder of that series against Australia, Faf du Plessis, remembered Duminy being in “peak condition,” at the time and predicted he would play a crucial role in the contest. Du Plessis’ assessment was based on Duminy’s form over the previous nine months – he scored a century on his comeback against New Zealand and an important 60 in South Africa’s mace-winning victory over England at Lord’s – and the increased responsibility the management team were about to give him.In last November’s Australia series, Duminy was due to graduate from a part-time bowler into a more important part of the attack. He was picked as the sole spinner in the Test he took no part in. It’s been 11 months since then and South Africa have been given a second opportunity to see whether that strategy could work.Russell Domingo, the coach, confirmed Duminy will slot back into the starting XI and that his bowling is one of the reasons for that. In conditions which are certain to offer something to the spinners and with a team make-up that seems uncertain to deviate from its seven batsmen-three seamer strategy, Duminy will have to play the role of the second spinner.He seems to have identified that as being a job that will require holding up an end. “Consistency in my length is key to my bowling performance so that’s what I am going to keep working on,” he said. “There’s a lot of responsibility that goes with bowling more. I am not going to put too much pressure on bowling miracle balls.”So I’ve been bowling a lot because the amount of overs you put in gives you some confidence. And I’ve also been discussing fields and strategies with Claude Henderson (spin consultant). It’s just about having game-plans in place, especially with the wickets turning more.”Duminy will have a first opportunity to sample his new job during South Africa’s only warm-up match, a three-day affair against Pakistan A in Sharjah, which gets underway tomorrow. The match will be Duminy’s second outing in whites since making his comeback in June.Playing for South Africa A, he top-scored in the first innings with 84 and took three wickets in India A’s first innings. Despite being in the squad for the second match as well, Duminy was thought to have done enough to show that he had not lost what it took to play in the longest format and he was not included in the next XI.Lack of first-class game time is always a concern for players making comebacks but Duminy is confident of being able to get back into Test cricket habits quickly. “I am pretty happy to be slotting back in. Even though I had a long layoff, the last two months has been really good from a performance point of view so I am excited to be back in Test cricket again,” he said. “It’s just like riding a bike and I will be trying not to do too much differently.”The whole South African unit is thinking along the same lines and basing their game plan on doing things the same way they always have. But they also know keeping the challengers to their No.1 spot at bay will not be easy. Even beating Pakistan 2-0 in the UAE will only result in a gain of one point on the ranking. Any other outcome will result in them losing a point. That’s why, despite the gap between the two sides (Pakistan are at No.6), this series is actually worth a lot more than face value suggests it is.Duminy, for one, knows that. “We are coming here expected to do well being No.1. We are going to be under pressure. The quicker we accept that, the easier it will be,” he said.

An auction veteran gives an insider’s view of how teams prepare for two days of madness

Amrit Mathur11-Feb-2014Between the first IPL auction in 2008 and the one to be held in Bangalore over the next two days there have been many trials, a few errors and much experience. There is much that has morphed around the IPL from its first year and in Bangalore on Wednesday we will have a “mega-auction”, where teams will be built from scratch.In 2008, the first auction blew into the IPL like a tornado. The auction was hit-and-run, trial-and-error, for many teams; it felt like it had come and gone before anyone had time to assimilate what was going on. Nobody understood the dynamics of a market-driven bid process and the accompanying uncertainties of multiple buyers chasing one product. Many thought, “Let’s prepare a wish list and we’ll learn and decide as we go along.”In one very fundamental way, though, the first IPL auction set the ground rules for subsequent auctions. Not for the modus operandi but for the essential building blocks of the IPL teams. The nomination of “icon” players ensured that Indian players would fetch prime value and those players would become the face or brand of the team with the squad built around them.It also brought to Indian cricket the word “marquee.” Teams understood instinctively that nothing and no one is more valuable in the IPL than the Indian “marquee” player. Everyone now builds their squad around these players and agrees to pay top dollar – now rupee – for them.The mandated presence of seven Indians in every starting XI, and the resulting gap between demand and supply, ensured that Indian players would go for serious money, and consequently teams with better Indian talent would be stronger. The icon player rule also meant that, in the Indian context, players took precedence over teams. This is completely in contrast to other sporting leagues where the team or brand is supreme. But the IPL was a new tournament and no one knew the brands it was putting out on display. The known entity, and in the Indian context the household names, in this mix, of course, were the Indian players.Six years later
If in 2008 the auction was driven by the reputations of players and their past records, the air has certainly cleared in that regard over the past six years.Auctions now are more focussed, teams have far greater clarity about what kind of team they want and the type of players needed to execute their plans. This learning has come from experience and better awareness of the nuances and complexities of 20-over cricket and, more importantly, better assessment of players in T20 situations.

Each player is assessed by a very rigorous system, not just strike- and economy-rates but a much deeper analysis of actual performance in crunch match situations

Each player is assessed by a very rigorous system, not just strike- and economy-rates but a much deeper analysis of actual performance in crunch match situations and data analysts are coming up with more and more precise figures about pressure indicators and similar issues when going into an auction. Auctions are more rational, the bidding more precise and focussed. But we are not at Moneyball yet, despite Rajasthan’s early success and its general branding as the ‘poor man’s team.These days the cricket operations people play a more prominent role. Some owners who were front and centre in 2008 chose not to attend last year’s auction. For sure, frantic calls on mobiles ensured they were always involved in key decisions but they left most decisions to their highly-paid experts. Shah Rukh Khan, for example, has not sat at the owner’s table since the first auction. Some owners are more hands-on while others choose to keep a low profile, restricting their role to holding up the bid paddle or signing the transaction/purchase document once the hammer comes down to close the bidding.The Auction war room
What has happened in these six years is that, the odd choice based on whim or instinct apart, the selection of players tends to be more sensible and made by cricket experts. There is now an exhaustive process where inputs from owners or experts are discussed and taken on board or not. Pre-auction brainstorming sessions resemble a war-room situation, where every eventuality is carefully considered, options weighed and each response carefully calibrated.Ahead of the auction, each team has several plans with spreadsheets detailing options A to B to C for every key position. Laptops are filled with every manner of information and analysis, including the names of ‘must haves’ and ‘preferred choices.’There must be clarity about the kind of team you want to build. Focus on Indian batting with foreign bowling – or the other way round, because Indian batting is very expensive? Among foreigners there is another shuffling through the options – do you punt on ‘value picks’ (smart, cheap T20 specialists) or go for the big boys? Or look for bowlers according to the character of ‘home’ pitches?From this nucleus arises the choice of your top Indian players. Once these are secured through an auction, the rest of the team is built around them. Top Indian players ensure fan support, give comfort to potential sponsors, provide captaincy options.At ground zero
Team owners are now generally happy to leave decisions on selection of players to cricket experts•AFPInside the auction room, the table of eight does not usually include, as has been imagined, someone working a calculator to do the numbers of how much cash a team has left to spend. There are updates on a wall for all the teams to understand the number of players being offered, the purse available to each team at each stage, the slots to be filled in with Indian or foreign players. As most teams have retained some players, their strategies can be anticipated. They have, in a way, already revealed their hand.All teams really need going into the auction is their most-wanted list, its options and the buzz they have picked up from everyone else. For example, at the last auction it was common knowledge that KKR would go hard for Gautam Gambhir.Auctions may look like an eyeball-to-eyeball contest but they are more rational, there is little room for emotion and decisions are based on cricket and commercial considerations. As the IPL combines cricket and commerce, players are gauged on these terms – their T20 skills and their commercial appeal with sponsors and fans.Teams know they are restricted by the available purse. The buying has to be prudent because, ultimately, resources have to be spread over 27 players – the maximum permitted squad size – and it will not surprise me if more than one team now restricts its squad size to between 23 and 25.Teams are now very smart about how far they are willing to go chasing a certain kind of player. Ideally no team will go into any auction based on an emotional or personal choice. There are always options for each position that teams need to fill. If a much sought-after player is “lost,” you wait for the next option. It is there that the order of the auction plays an important role. Splurging on a player can hit a team badly and leave little money for others.Then there are other calculations to be worked on through gut instinct: if your second choice player is on offer first, you can either bid aggressively or pass. The risk in letting the second choice go (only because he is offered first) is you might be outbid, later, for the first choice and therefore lose both options.In such situations, instinct matters. Not science or strategy. It is why not everything goes to plan. Auctions are dynamic, impossible to control and throw up surprising numbers. Like Mashrafe Mortaza being picked by KKR for US$600,000 in 2010, or Dan Christian by Hyderabad for $900,000 in 2011 and Mumbai spending $1m on Glenn Maxwell in 2013.The joker in the pack

Every auction has had its moment – like the complete silence in 2011 when Sourav Ganguly was passed over by all teams. Or the hush, that same day, when Gautam Gambhir became – at $2.4 million – the most expensive IPL auction buy ever

The unexpected drama at this auction could well spring from the right-to-match (RTM) or joker card. There is no telling how much teams would bid for a player knowing they could lose the player anyway. In such a situation, it comes down to instinct again – how far a bidding team is willing to stretch itself, how far do they think the player’s original franchise would be willing to stretch to keep their player. It is very possible some teams could be tempted to push up price of a select favourite of another team with the sole intention of hurting their purse. This, though, is a high-risk game: in case the original franchise refuses to buy the player after the bid process, then you could be stuck with someone you did not want or at best, someone who should not have cost that much.Regardless of all the cold calculations that have been made, there will always be drama at an IPL auction. Every auction has had its moment – like the complete silence in 2011 when Sourav Ganguly was passed over by all teams. Or the hush, that same day, when Gautam Gambhir became – at $2.4 million – the most expensive IPL auction buy ever. That year the low bids for Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and VVS Laxman – three legends of the game – were put into sharp perspective when KKR spent $5.6m in the first hour bidding for Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan ($2.1 million) and Kallis ($1. 1 million). Not only did this stuff make for great television, but the room began to buzz on its own.There’s a very good chance it is going to happen again tomorrow.

Plays of the Day from the Asia Cup clash between India and Pakistan

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Mirpur02-Mar-2014The near-collision
During the Asia Cup, fielders seem to have forgotten the law of physics which states that two bodies cannot occupy the same point at the same time. India have suffered two collisions, and Pakistan nearly added another when Mohammad Hafeez and Sharjeel Khan went for the same catch after Rohit Sharma miscued a pull off Mohammad Talha. Hafeez, running back from midwicket, completed the catch, but not before treading on Sharjeel Khan’s toes as he ran in from deep square leg. Sharjeel limped off and didn’t field after the incident, but looked in no trouble when he came out to bat.The angry professor
A skidder from round the wicket hitting a left-handed batsman on the pads – this is the trademark Hafeez wicket. He had dismissed Shikhar Dhawan in this manner earlier in the day, and now he turned around to appeal after bowling a similar delivery, with similar results, to Ravindra Jadeja. Umpire Nigel Llong was unmoved, though, and Hafeez made his displeasure clear. Llong beckoned to Misbah-ul-Haq and had a long chat with the bowler and captain. Four overs later, Hafeez dropped a sitter from Jadeja. Was he still thinking about the lbw decision when the ball came down at him from the sky?Run-out, again
Against Afghanistan, Misbah had responded to a call from Sohaib Maqsood only to end up finishing second in a bizarre race to the same end. Now, it was the turn of Hafeez – yes, he had a pretty eventful match – to push a ball to the off side and call Misbah for a run. Misbah ran. When he was halfway down the pitch, Hafeez sent him back. He turned and attempted to get back to his crease, but a clever little flick from a diving Amit Mishra beat him to it.DK fluffs another stumping
Dinesh Karthik’s missed stumping of Kumar Sangakkara proved crucial to India’s narrow defeat against Sri Lanka on Friday. He now had a chance to make amends when R Ashwin foxed a charging Maqsood with a ball down the leg side. The partnership between Maqsood and Hafeez  – no, this isn’t just a gratuitous reference – had just crossed 50, and this would have been a good time for India to take a wicket. Maqsood was nowhere near his crease when the ball popped into Karthik’s gloves and popped right out.

Yuvraj Singh was hardly convincing to begin with against Delhi, but a big dose of crowd support and a helping of poor bowling meant he had the opportunity to hint at a possible return to form

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Sharjah18-Apr-2014″I’ve got a feeling,” sang the PA system at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, not long after Yuvraj Singh had walked in to bat. Before the song could proceed any further, and declare that Thursday night was going to be a good night, the DJ stopped it abruptly. He or she was a Yuvraj fan, perhaps, and didn’t want to put a jinx on him.This was Yuvraj’s first innings since that 21-ball 11 in the World T20 final, and his first innings since a group of fans had reacted unreasonably to that 21-ball 11. It was also his first innings for Bangalore, who had paid a not untidy sum of money to buy him at the auction, despite the fact that he hadn’t made a half-century in his last 19 IPL innings.The man at the other end, meanwhile, was Virat Kohli, whom he had denied the strike during that 21-ball 11. Kohli, Bangalore’s captain, had played a persuasive role in signing him.This, then, wasn’t just another innings.Yuvraj couldn’t have chosen a more congenial setting in which to begin such an innings. He had the crowd’s sympathy, yes, but he would have had that at any stadium; only a tiny fraction of sports fans, surely, are mean enough to revel in a player’s house reportedly getting stoned. Sharjah, though, was also showing itself to be a stronghold of Bangalore fans.In India, it’s often hard to get an accurate picture of the extent of home support at the league’s venues. At most stadiums, someone has placed a home-team flag on your seat well before you’ve parked your car. Most emcees, meanwhile, only ask the crowd to cheer for the home team. If you support the other team, you seldom get a chance to voice it. Here, given equal opportunity to cheer for either side, the Sharjah crowd voted with their vocal cords.Granted, for the most part, the spectators did or chanted whatever the emcee asked them to, no matter how ridiculous it made them look or sound. What they didn’t do, though, was chant “Delhiiiiiiiii, Delhi!” Each time the emcee tried to get them to follow his lead, they drowned him out with shouts of “R-C-B! R-C-B!”It was as much a show of approval for Bangalore as it was a sign of Delhi’s lack of appeal. They haven’t tasted too much success in past seasons, and, perhaps because of that, haven’t retained an easily identifiable core group of star players. For Bangalore, on the other hand, the signing of Yuvraj added yet another highly marketable name to an already swollen roster. It cost them a lot of money to sign him and that may well have caused gaps to form in other areas of their squad, but Sharjah didn’t seem too concerned. As soon as Yuvraj had swung Rahul Sharma over long-on for his first six, a bearded man in a red T-shirt held up a hand-drawn banner. “More risk = More profit,” it said. “Great bid Mr Mallya.”There is no doubt Bangalore and Yuvraj had all the support they could possibly hope for. It is far too early to say with any certainty, though, that Yuvraj has turned a corner with his unbeaten 52.At the start of his innings, he was late on a couple of short balls from Mohammed Shami, both of which went whistling off his top edge. Right after that over, Dinesh Karthik, Delhi’s captain, took Shami off when he still had an over left. Having survived those few discomfiting deliveries, life became much easier for Yuvraj, with Jimmy Neesham serving up length balls and Rahul Sharma dropping his legbreaks right into his hitting zone.Sometimes, though, you want bowlers to feed Yuvraj’s strengths, just to marvel at the way he strikes the ball. One pick-up shot off Neesham left you missing your TV, left you wanting to watch slow-motion replays from 15 different angles. Since that wasn’t possible in the West Stand at Sharjah, you wanted the DJ to at least play the rest of that song.

A year after the ECB announced a major push to integrate Asian cricketers into the English game, we examine the progress made

Sahil Dutta04-Jun-2014This is not a tranquil afternoon on an English village green. Instead it is inner-city East London, cricketers wear garish colours, and games are just ten overs a side. What is more, there are four stumps in place, no lbws offered, and the vast majority of players are Asian. Most strikingly, this unorthodox cricket is entirely endorsed by the ECB.Asian cricket is deeply established in Britain. ECB research found that ethnic minorities – mostly south Asians – make up a third of all cricketers in Britain. Asian leagues and teams have existed since the 1970s but have been invisible to the authorities running the game.Now, finally attempting to rectify this, the board last year launched a major initiative to reach the cricket-loving Asian community in Britain. This led to some important steps, including intelligence meetings with British Asian media as well as infrastructural changes like encouraging county grounds to make prayer areas and halal food available.”We know there is a huge demand with Asians who would like to play more cricket, and also we know that there is a whole lot of cricket being played outside of traditional structures,” said Jane Hannah, volunteer and participation manager at the ECB.”It’s a huge part of our market that traditionally we’ve not reached and we’re now taking the extra step to do so.”It is a challenge Gulfraz Riaz of the Club Cricket Conference has taken up. The CCC, an association of more than 1000 clubs across the country, claims to represent grass-roots cricket in England, a statement more valid in some regions than others. And Riaz in his role as its development officer, has over the last year tried to link the Asian cricket leagues to the county boards so that resources and opportunities are shared.It has been a painstaking process. Riaz began by seeking out the “underground” leagues that were not affiliated to any county board or formal organisation. “It wasn’t a case of picking up the phone and telling them they now belong to us,” he says. “It was a case of going there, talking to them, and understanding their achievements and needs. That won their respect.”His early efforts appear to be paying dividends. Starting in London and the South East there are now 13 leagues affiliated to the CCC, totalling over 300 teams and 5000 players. In January, the CCC brought these groups together for the first Asian Leagues Forum at Lord’s, an event Riaz hopes will become nationwide soon.”Some teams had been going for 35 years and for the first time they had a chance to share ideas and concerns with each other. It gave them a voice.”The ECB, through the county boards, is now trying to contact such teams but the boards are traditionally conservative in outlook and Riaz argues that it may take time for some in Asian cricket circles to overcome the “suspicion and resentment” they feel for their years of neglect.One county making progress is Essex. As part of the ECB’s “target cities” programme launched last year they used the CCC to forge initial links with the Asian leagues. They now oversee a number of schemes cultivating cricket in the Asian community, with a view to keeping an eye on emerging talent.

“People want to become coaches and do umpiring but they just don’t know where the courses are and how to get on them”Gulfraz Riaz of the Club Cricket Conference

In 2012 they made their old county ground in Leyton – in the heart of East London – available to ten different leagues to share, granting them the kind of quality pitches normally reserved for established clubs.”The leagues have real insight into the needs of the players,” said Dan Feist, Essex’s cricket operations manager. “They told us they played four-stump cricket because it’s quicker, more explosive, and there are no arguments over lbws. That has been really popular.”So it’s a question of: how can we support that with facilities and promote their work. But through them we’re also reaching the further 80% who don’t yet play the game.”One plan was to deepen the well-established Chance to Shine programme – which provides one-off cricket sessions to state schools – by ensuring interested kids had further opportunities to play.”We’re setting up satellite clubs to those schools based on Street Chance [the charity taking adapted cricket to urban settings] so kids can either go to a traditional club or, if they do not exist, a borough hub which goes up into regional cricket sessions. Then we linked up by having a representative team from all this East London cricket play against our Essex Second XI.”The first player to break through from here was Tanveer Sikandar. Born in Pakistan, he made his first-class debut for Essex at the beginning of May and two weeks later bowled Hashim Amla at The Oval.It’s a story to celebrate. But plenty of work remains. Leicestershire, for example, is another “target city”. But with limited resources, the county is still trying to discover the precise needs of its Asian cricket community and has not yet built the links others have managed.Closer to the ground, a major issue both Riaz and the counties identify is that many Asians prefer looser ties to the teams they play for. “Family, education and work expectations are different and some don’t have the same time for the voluntary side of traditional club cricket,” says Feist.”People like to turn up, play and go, like five a side in football. Rather than set it up, run it, organise it, cut the grass etc.”Riaz agrees to some extent but insists the appetite is there. “People want to become coaches and do umpiring but they just don’t know where the courses are and how to get on them.”He suggests one route could be to build on what’s already in place. “The Telugu community, for example, run a T20 tournament like the IPL. Teams are like franchises with sponsorship, and they have generated £35,000. There is enormous potential in examples like this for a club culture to develop.”It has taken a long time for the English cricket establishment to accept its failings. Asian cricketers too are embracing change. Attitudes are shifting, connections are strengthening, but it will take more than a year to overturn history.

For much of the second day Sri Lanka toiled without reward and the Test match was slipping away from them, but they refused to yield and their hard-working seamers have ensured they retain hope

Andrew Fidel Fernando at Headingley21-Jun-2014The Sri Lankan community in Leeds is small and scattered. Only a smattering turned out at a sold-out Headingley on Saturday. It is partly because the Sri Lanka fans abroad are yet to develop a taste for days out at a Test, much like the hordes at home. Maybe there are more pragmatic reasons as well. This Sri Lanka team, with this bowling attack, will inevitably spend long, tortuous days in the field. Many times, there are modest rewards for the team, and their supporters.On social media, Sri Lanka fans likened most of the day’s play to watching plants grow, but that is exactly what the team is doing too. This is a green pace attack, on their first trip to England. There is a little bit about each bowler that suggests they could be a force in Test cricket in the future. But for now, Sri Lanka is tending shoots, hoping the opposition do not trample on them too heavily. The pitches at home are about as lively for seamers as Colombo morgue. In recent years, good fast bowlers have lined up at the hospital as well, with long-term, career-threatening injuries.Another day of toil seemed to be firming up at Headingley, until finally, their luck turned. On the whole, Sri Lanka’s attack might reflect they did not bowl to their potential, but for Shaminda Eranga, it had been a different kind of day altogether.Shaminda Eranga had Ian Bell caught down the leg side – it was the least he deserved•Getty ImagesIn the morning he had swung the ball the most, and had the batsmen missing so emphatically that their photographs should have been printed on milk cartons. Post-delivery stride, Eranga’s hands would clutch at his head, almost by reflex.Later in the day, the ball grew soft, but Eranga’s effort remained undiminished. He had bowled 48 overs at Lord’s – more than any other quick in the attack. In the first innings here, he has sent down more overs, than any bowler, from either team. He also has the best economy rate, at 2.33. Of the six boundaries he has conceded in the innings, four have come off edges. The other two were drives off the front foot. Swinging it away from the right handers, closing the lefties up, off the seam, Eranga begged for a wicket with his body language. His pitch map screamed out for it.England had gunned Sri Lanka down with their wicked, varied arsenal on the opening day, but Eranga’s method was working class to the core. It is not difficult to see why he endures through long, luckless spells better than most. He has done it that way all his life.Growing up in a small fishing town on Sri Lanka’s west coast, Eranga’s father died when he was 10, thinning the family’s already slim resources, to say nothing of the trauma. There were no high-flying cricket leagues for his school, no accredited coaches in the area. He had not even placed in the top five in the pace-bowling contest that earned him his big break.

‘Rangana has a great chance’

A first-innings deficit has not necessarily killed Sri Lanka’s chances in the Test, thanks to a surface that may be given to turn in the second innings, Dimuth Karunaratne said. England lead by 63 runs with four wickets in hand, but a late string of wickets and a touch of variable bounce suggested the pitch was already becoming harder to bat on.

“The first few sessions they batted really well, but if we can get them for under 400, we still have a good chance,” he said. “If we bat well in the second innings, we can put them under pressure. They are batting in the fourth innings, and Rangana Herath can do something.”

A few balls spun hard off the pitch for Herath, including one that turned past Gary Ballance’s blade, raising a raucous appeal, as well as the umpire’s finger. But Ballance would review that decision to find the ball was heading past leg stump.

“I think the wicket will turn in the coming days, because if you saw the lbw shout for Rangana, the projection showed it would turn quite a lot. When England bowl in the third innings, the rough will become more pronounced. Rangana’s got a great chance.”

When he won through to under-23 cricket, Eranga would board a bus in Chilaw before dawn, play a full day’s cricket in Colombo, then return home at close to 11pm. When he played three-dayers, he sometimes repeated this gruelling routine thrice in a row. No easy way to chase a far-off dream. But then, Eranga barely had a choice.Earlier this year, in the UAE, Eranga delivered 130.3 overs inside 21 days, went at 2.64, and averaged less than 30. Then, as at Headingley, his wickets did not so much bring him joy, as they gave him relief. Only when Ian Bell glanced a rare bad ball through to the keeper did Eranga allow himself a smile on Saturday. Taken in isolation, that wicket was a lucky dismissal. Maybe Eranga’s smile was at how comical cricket can be sometimes.At times in the day, other bowlers were wayward from the opposite end. There were no shelled catches off Eranga, but Sri Lanka missed three clear-cut chances and a difficult fourth. At least behind the stumps, Eranga had a kindred soul.Dinesh Chandimal kept faultlessly through the day, with unflagging energy. At the end of almost every over, he would race through to give the bowler a pat on the back, and a few kind words. His attention spread to the fielders as well, as he clapped on at his post, chirping into the evening. In between, he pouched four good catches, including both of Eranga’s scalps.From modest beginnings himself, Chandimal has lost everything in a tsunami, then gone on to cricket acclaim at one of the nation’s top schools, in his own, homespun style. As the Sri Lanka team gradually moves beyond its Colombo-centrism, perhaps more deserving men, who have done it tough, will play for their country. They know a day on their feet at Headingley is no great difficulty, in the grand scheme. It is the staying up, and staying hungry that matters.The few Sri Lankans in the stands will have been lifted toward the close. But the Yorkshire crowd went home happy as well. They watched a local lad hit fifty. Another youngster scored a ton. For Sri Lanka, it was a day of grit. A day of honest work and belated reward. It was a day for their survivors.

Plays of the day from the IPL match between Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians, in Sharjah

Siddarth Ravindran27-Apr-2014The seven
Mumbai Indians desperately needed early breakthroughs so they brought Lasith Malinga back for his second over as early as the fifth. It didn’t quite go to plan though, as Malinga fired his second delivery well down the leg side. The wicketkeeper dived to his left and got his gloves on it, but couldn’t collect the ball, only deflecting it onto the helmet positioned behind him. The batsmen had scampered a single as well, which meant seven came off the delivery: the wide + the single + five penalty runs.The gamble
With Michael Hussey struggling for form, Mumbai decided to shake things up by sending in their captain and best IPL batsman, Rohit Sharma, to the top of the order. The gamble didn’t work, though, as Rohit went for an ill-advised single in the second over. He dropped the ball to the left of the pitch, hesitated before deciding to go for it. It was much too late a call; the bowler Mohammed Shami got quickly across and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Rohit’s only chance was if the throw missed. It didn’t, and Mumbai were off to another shaky start.The yorker
Hussey, last season’s highest run-getter, was having another difficult time in the middle. On a slow surface, he couldn’t quite time the ball, and there were plenty of edges in a short innings that consisted only of dots and singles. His struggle came to an end in the 14th over when Jaydev Unadkat delivered a loopy, 104.4kph yorker on offstump. The slower delivery surprised Hussey, who tried to jam his bat down to keep the ball out, but he couldn’t, and lost his offstump. Unadkat was overjoyed at seeing the variation work so well.The over
Laxmi Shukla is not exactly a fearsome bowler, relying on line and length to complement his military medium pace. Kieron Pollard, one of the most fearsome hitters in the world, had serious problems against Shukla though. In the 13th over, Pollard got the strike after the first delivery. The next ball was a loud lbw appeal, but he was struck outside off. The ball after that was also a loud lbw appeal, and he seemed to have been struck in line though the umpire thought otherwise. There was one lofted hit that just cleared the bowler, and another lbw shout to round off a torrid test for Pollard.The flying bat
Even as late at the 18th over, the Mumbai run-rate was floundering well below six. They needed to throw the bat around, which is what Pollard did, literally. An attempted heave sent the bat flying towards the keeper, resulting in a dot ball. He called for a change of gloves, but that hardly improved matters as the bat flew out of his hands again in the next over as he swatted the ball to midwicket.

Plays of the day from the CLT20 game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings

Rachna Shetty17-Sep-2014The drop
On a track with good bounce and carry, the slip fielders were expected to come into play early. Yusuf Pathan at first slip was in the thick of things in the first over itself, when a slash from Dwayne Smith off Pat Cummins’ bowling came straight to him. Yusuf raised his arms over his head to collect the ball but it got through him and Smith, who was on nought, managed to get off the mark. Fortunately for Yusuf, Smith scored only 20 before falling in the fourth over.The stumping

Manvinder Bisla had played just one game in IPL 2014 but made an impact while replacing Robin Uthappa for this game. In the 13th over, a delivery from Piyush Chawla sneaked between Faf du Plessis’ bat and pad and Bisla was alert to the fact that the batsman had overbalanced and raised his foot in the air for a bit. He whipped off the bails and the umpire ruled in the fielding side’s favour, reducing Super Kings to a shaky 86 for 4.The line call
In the over before Du Plessis’ stumping, there was another close call for Super Kings, which was eventually ruled in favour of Knight Riders. Sunil Narine appealed for an lbw against Suresh Raina after the batsman missed a late cut and was struck on the pad. On-field umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave Raina out but when the third umpire was brought in to check for a no-ball, it seemed as if Narine’s heel was in the air but possibly in front of the crease. It looked tight, and the third-umpire ruled Raina out.The bowling change
A typical Knight Riders innings is always high on drama and Super Kings added a few moments of their own to the mix. Ashish Nehra took two in two to leave Knight Riders gasping at 10 for 2. Mohit Sharma then began his run-up to start the third over but MS Dhoni stopped him and asked him to give the ball to Ishwar Pandey. The umpire said to Dhoni that Mohit would have to continue, having begun his run-up, and by the end of the first ball, Dhoni might have had a word of thanks for the official. Yusuf Pathan poked at an outswinger and du Plessis was only too happy to take the catch at slip.

Some key numbers at the end of the first day’s play of the Lord’s Test between India and England.

Bishen Jeswant17-Jul-201411 Number of times that both Indian openers have been dismissed for less than 25 runs in 18 away Tests post 2010. While the openers have individually made 13 50-plus scores, including four centuries in this period, there have still been numerous twin failures.8 Number of English bowlers who have taken 250-plus career Test wickets. Stuart Broad became the eighth and latest addition on that list when he had MS Dhoni caught behind by Matt Prior.233 Number of wickets that James Anderson has now taken in England, a record. Fred Trueman with 229 wickets, from 47 matches, held the previous record. Anderson, started his 55th match on 229 wickets, and went past Trueman’s record when he picked up the first Indian wicket, that of Shikhar Dhawan.2011 The year which saw the last instance of India’s last three wickets doubling the innings score. In today’s game India were 145-7, and finished the day on 290-9. The last instance of the Indian tail wagging so vigorously as to double the innings score was at Edgbaston during India’s last tour to England, when last three wickets took the score from 111-7 to 224 during India’s first innings.72 Number of Test wickets that Anderson has taken at Lord’s, more than by any other bowler. The earlier record of 69 wickets was held by Ian Botham. Anderson went past Botham’s record when he picked up the wicket of Virat Kohli, caught behind by Prior.106 Ajinkya Rahane’s strike rate once he had crossed 100 balls. Rahane scored 46 runs off his first 100 balls, and 57 off the next 54. During his first 100 balls, Rahane was in control of 91% of the shots that he played. Though he had a higher strike rate after his first 100 balls, his control factor reduced to 81%.4 Number of Indian batsmen who have a scored a century during their first Test at Lord’s, with Rahane being the latest. The other three players are Saurav Ganguly, Dilip Vengsarkar and Ajit Agarkar.6 Number of instances of Indian batsmen scoring a century in England while batting at number five. The five instances apart from Rahane’s knock of 103, involved Mohammad Azharuddin (twice), Vijay Manjrekar, Polly Umrigar and Saurav Ganguly6.51 India’s run rate when the English bowlers bowled a full length. Out of the 116 deliveries that the England bowlers pitched up to the bat, the Indians scored 126 runs. On the contrary, India scored only 61 runs off the 213 balls that were delivered on a good length, at a run rate of 1.71, and even lost six of their nine wickets to length balls.80 Percentage of instances where Bhuvneshwar Kumar was in control of his shots. To put this in context, MS Dhoni was only in control of 70% of his shots, Shikhar Dhawan 67% and M Vijay 63%. Apart from the fact that Bhuvneshwar played a composed innings, this could also be indicative of the fact that the pitch has eased up a little, something that Indians might not have been hoping for.3 Number of instances where the Indian eighth wicket pair has posted a 90-plus partnership in England. Today’s partnership between Bhuvneshwar and Rahane was the third highest. It is interesting that an Indian eight wicket pair has not posted a 100-plus partnership in England despite now getting to 90 on three separate occasions.600 Number of runs that India’s first five wickets have contributed in this Test series. However, the bottom five wickets have more than pulled their weight by scoring 538 runs. Both sets of five wickets have contributed one century partnership and three fifty partnerships each.

Although South Africa lost a home series to Australia after Jacques Kallis retired, they are unbeaten under the new captain Hashim Amla and have been successfully introducing new batsmen into the side, sans the stumbling other squads go through

Firdose Moonda in Port Elizabeth23-Dec-20140:48

Successful year for South Africa – Amla

From the Summerstrand beach in Port Elizabeth to the Sea Point promenade in Cape Town, the sea looks pretty much the same: sparkling blue and sprinkled with sunlight. Sight alone cannot tell you that one is the warm Indian Ocean, the other the icy Atlantic. And when you visit the point where the two merge, the gentle slap of one wave over another will not convince you that water has a border. It simply flows into itself, like any good transition, especially the one the South Africa team is currently experiencing.It has only been a year and seven Tests since Jacques Kallis retired and nine months and four Tests that South Africa have been without Graeme Smith but the twin departures have not dented the team as severely as the loss of 283 Test caps and 30 years of collective experience should. Although South Africa lost a home series to Australia after Kallis retired, they are unbeaten under the new captain Hashim Amla and have been successfully introducing new batsmen into the side, sans the stumbling other squads go through.Of South Africa’s last six Test debutants dating back to November 2012, four have been batsman, starting with Faf du Plessis. He has already made notable enough performances to be considered a senior and attributes that to a welcoming set-up. “The most important thing for a new guy is the environment and this is the best environment you can ask for,” du Plessis said. “Straight away you feel like someone who belongs. You don’t feel like a junior player who has to score three hundreds before you get accepted.”South Africa have developed a system of identifying the players they believe are close to playing Test cricket and including them in the squad early and du Plessis is proof it works. He traveled to England in 2012, when South Africa took the Test mace off England. Later that year in Australia, he debuted in Adelaide and saved the game.Dean Elgar was the next reserve and made his first appearance in Perth in the game after du Plessis’ debut, where he suffered a pair. He played eight Tests out of his preferred opening position before being moved up on Smith’s retirement and his example proves that South Africa are willing to persist with the players they’ve picked.”Even you if you look at Rilee Rossouw, he didn’t have the best start to his ODI career but we all backed him and if you have that, it’s more important than anything else,” du Plessis said. Rossouw scored four ducks in his first six ODI innings but remains very much in South Africa’s plans and was even brought into the Test squad when Quinton de Kock was ruled out of the West Indies series.De Kock’s injury means it “looks likely,” according to du Plessis, that the next batsman in the squad could debut at St George’s Park because South Africa are unlikely to deviate from the strategy of seven specialist batsmen. Temba Bavuma was the reserve when the squad was first announced and if South Africa follow their pattern of promotion, he will play ahead of Rossouw.Although Bavuma is a regular No. 3, he will likely be deployed in the lower-middle order where South Africa’s debutants have featured. They arrive after players such as du Plessis, Amla and AB de Villiers which should mean they are shielded from the early assault of the opposition attack. But they may still face a second new-ball, which du Plessis explained can be difficult to negotiate on South African surfaces. “The new ball offers challenges. It’s important to be really tight. Once you get through that, that’s when you can score the big runs and so when you get in, you have to make sure you convert.”Stuttering after a start was the theme of the West Indies top-order at Centurion and has also become a trend for one of South Africa’s openers, Alviro Petersen, who has been dismissed under 35 in 19 of his last 24 innings. If he can put that right, du Plessis hinted that South Africa could post a total even higher than the 552 for 5 declared they made in Centurion.”We’ve got a batting line-up that becomes really dangerous when we don’t lose wicket upfronts. We saw in Centurion, West Indies had a sniff with the three early wickets but then we had a big partnership and we blew them away.”Personally, du Plessis is hoping to make a contribution on the ground where he scored his first home hundred, in January 2013. “In the previous innings, I got a good ball. That happens to everyone but I am looking forward to playing here again.”