Plays of the day from the tri-series match between West Indies and South Africa in Barbados

Firdose Moonda24-Jun-2016The passion Kagiso Rabada had flown under the radar in the tournament until the fourth ball of his second over. Having seen Wayne Parnell draw Andre Fletcher’s edge the over before, Rabada tried the same against Johnson Charles, but with an extra yard of pace. He breached the 147kph mark with his third delivery; Charles had a waft and was beaten. Then, Rabada hurled in another delivery around the same speed. This time though, he held the length back. Charles, clearly startled to move his feet, sent the outside edge to Chris Morris at second slip. Rabada responded in a celebratory style reminiscent of Dale Steyn’s – he fist-pumped, leapt up and roared – in a clear demonstration of how much it means to him to lead the attack.The expectation Eleven years earlier, South Africa’s current bowling coach Charl Langeveldt took a hat-trick at Kensington Oval. Today, one of his charges, Kagiso Rabada, had the chance to do the same. After removing Andre Fletcher and Marlon Samuels off successive balls, Rabada was on a hat-trick. At the top of his mark, Rabada received some instructions from his captain. At the crease, Denesh Ramdin shuffled into position. On the sidelines, Langeveldt moved nervously into a better viewing position. All of it was for nothing. Rabada’s hat-trick delivery strayed down the leg side, well out of Ramdin’s reach and Langeveldt’s piece of history.The reprieve Both Darren Bravo and Morne Morkel’s days may have turned out differently after the second ball of the 11th over. Morkel banged in a short and wide ball, Bravo was late on the hook and top-edged to long leg. Wayne Parnell could have simply stood in place, raised his arms and taken the catch but thought he needed to jump as well. In doing so, he parried the ball and himself over the rope. Not only did he shell the chance but he cost the team six runs too. Bravo was on 11 at the time and went on to score 102.The catch West Indies put down their first opportunity to take an early South African wicket when Denesh Ramdin put down Hashim Amla , but he made up for it two overs later to give Shannon Gabriel much deserved reward. The opening bowler drew the bottom edge from de Kock, Ramdin was moving to his right and then had to change direction to take the catch. Ramdin celebrated but only after Gabriel pleaded with Umpire Kumar Dharmasena and de Kock was sent on his way.The celebration Kieron Pollard was a visibly irritated man when he was caught on the long-off boundary, but he may have been a little more irked when asked to field at backward point with Sunil Narine in operation during South Africa’s reply. But if Pollard was annoyed with his lot, it didn’t show. When Chris Morris jabbed at a quicker one to get an inside edge, Pollard leapt at it one-handed. He grabbed the ball with his right hand and took off on a celebration Imran Tahir-style towards the boundary. As is his style, Pollard stopped short of running too much and took a bow instead: first to the crowd and then to change room. It was his night, after all.

Digging the pitch, repetitive body movements, talking to themselves, superstitious behaviour, visualisation – different ways that batsmen deal with the pressure of their profession

Michael Bond26-Oct-2016All sportspeople like to imagine that their discipline is the most mentally challenging, that winning or losing comes from within. But batsmen have a stronger claim than most. What other sport demands such intense concentration, affords participants so little control over their situation and penalises mistakes so cruelly and with such dramatic ritual?Batting is a game of life and death like no other. Success – a century, a match-saving last stand – can live with you forever. But getting out feels like the end of everything: you are dismissed not just from the field of play, but from your own dreams of hopefulness and redemption.Dismissed batsmen are like mourners at their own funerals. The dressing room falls silent as they return, “in respect for the dead”, as Mike Brearley puts it in The Art of Captaincy (1985).”There aren’t many situations in sport where you have this challenge of one tiny mistake and that’s it, finished, the rest of the day you’re watching from the sidelines,” says sports psychologist Steve Bull, who worked with the England cricket team for 17 years. “It creates a particular type of pressure which I don’t think other athletes experience.”Given the intensity of the mental drama, it is little wonder that a batsman’s struggles are with himself as much as with the bowler he faces, and that a lack of confidence can invite negative thinking and a fear of failure. For top-level batsmen with near-perfect technical skills, protecting themselves from such tendencies is critical. The methods they use to reduce anxiety, stay positive and maintain focus are idiosyncratic, often eccentric and tell us as much about the quirks of the human mind as the nuances of cricket.If you watched England’s three-match Test series against Sri Lanka this summer, you will have spotted a graphic example of one of these methods. Before each ball, the Sri Lankan opener Kaushal Silva performs what psychologists call a “pre-performance routine”. He adjusts the velcro on his gloves, moves his bat from his left to his right hand and holds it up in front of him, moves his left elbow back and forth eight times (fewer if he’s facing a spinner) as if pulling on an imaginary rope, then, gripping his bat with both hands, arches his back before settling into his crease.The repetition looks neurotic, but Silva has developed it to help him feel settled. “I don’t really count the exact number of times I do it, it just comes from my body,” he says. “I do it until I have calmed my nerves and I feel OK and I’m really focused. These small things help me to be myself and to just concentrate on the next ball.”

“When I’m nervous I start talking. It would help me concentrate. It annoyed everybody, including the people who played with me”Derek Randall

It seems to be working. Sri Lanka lost 0-2, but Silva won his team’s Player-of-the-Series award for his 193 runs.Most batsmen have pre-performance routines, though few as elaborate as Silva’s. They might wander a few steps towards square leg, tap the bat on the ground a particular way or pull at their shirt. What psychological purpose does this serve? Brearley thinks it’s “a way of clearing the mind of the last ball, getting on with the next one, making clear to oneself that a line needs to be drawn under the last one”.In Jonathan Trott’s case this is literally true. He marks his guard with a shallow trench, which he reinforces before each delivery, as if to bury everything that’s gone before, a habit he repeats whether he’s batting in the nets or in a county or international game.Such repetition is critical to why routines work, says Bull. “It has to be 100% consistent, every ball always the same. You need to get your routines habitualised to the point where you don’t think about them, to practise them so that when you’re in the middle you go into automatic pilot.”In other words, batsmen should tune their mental routines alongside their physical ones so that the two coalesce. Consider Kevin Pietersen’s advice to a 12-year-old budding cricketer who asked him on Twitter how to stop “second-guessing” himself when playing a shot, a common mental error among cricketers still developing their technique. “Practise, practise, practise, and trust your practise,” Pietersen replied. “Hardest thing to do but when you do it changes your game.”Perhaps the most tangible function of routines is that they give the batsman a sense of control over a situation which, for the most part, is out of their hands. The state of the wicket, the weather, the path of the ball through the air and off the pitch are beyond his reckoning; his pre-ball ritual is all his own. This need for control amid so much uncertainty may explain why batsmen are particularly prone to superstitions. Unlike a pre-performance routine, a superstition – essentially an irrational belief in implausible causality – is unlikely to improve performance. Yet cricket is full of them.The Glamorgan opener Steve James avoided eating duck meat until he retired, and he wouldn’t allow his daughter to have plastic ducks in her bath. Mike Atherton had to be first on to the field at the start of an innings, even if it meant barging past his opening partner on the way down the pavilion steps. The South African batsman Neil McKenzie used to tape his bat to the dressing-room ceiling because his team-mates had once done this as a practical joke prior to him scoring a century. Steve Waugh batted with a red rag in his pocket for similar reasons.Mike Atherton was known to be one of the most mentally tough batsmen in English cricket, highly motivated, competitive and self-confident•Getty ImagesDerek Randall, like many batsmen, hated being on 13. “I couldn’t wait to get off it,” he says. “Sometimes I’d get out because I was trying too hard to get off the blooming thing.”Ed Smith, one of the most notoriously superstitious cricketers, had a habit of asking the umpire, mid-over, how many balls were left. For the first part of his career he did this always after the fourth ball, then switched to asking after the third ball. Since he batted for around 15,000 overs in his career, he must have asked this question of the umpire around 15,000 times.”It was silly and I knew it,” he writes in Luck: A Fresh Look at Fortune (2012). “It was unintelligent and I knew it. It was a source of mirth and I knew it. But I did it anyway. Superstition was a dependency I found hard to give up.”Many batsmens’ superstitions revolve around an obsession with their kit. Trott is scrupulous about how he arranges his bats. Atherton always followed the same padding-up routine: box, chest guard, inside thigh-pad, outside thigh-pad, left pad, right pad, arm guard, gloves, helmet. This kind of fastidiousness is not too surprising since batting is much about organisation, repetition and structure.Yet rigorously adhering to a ritual is unlikely to put you in the runs and could make things worse. “If the superstition is something you might not have control over, like wearing your lucky socks, what happens when you lose your lucky socks or they fall apart,” says sports psychologist Stewart Cotterill. “It will have the opposite effect: you’ll feel you’re not ready.”Once all the fussing and the rituals and the routines are done and the batsman is settled at the crease, he can then focus on the bowling. This is where the real test begins. Unless you are an expert meditator, paying close sustained attention to something for long periods can be mentally draining. To deal with this, coaches encourage batsmen to “dial up” their focus when the bowler is running in and “dial down” between balls.Atherton says switching on and off like this is “absolutely vital” and came easily to him, a naturally relaxed character. “All studies show you can’t concentrate for lengthy periods without a break. The ball is ‘live’ for maybe six to ten seconds, so that is all you have to concentrate for.”Silva pares down the window of concentration even further, to three or four seconds, switching on only when the bowler is halfway through his run-up. He calculates that this way, if he sets out to score a century in, say, 180 to 200 balls, he will have to concentrate deeply for just ten to 15 minutes. “So it’s 15 minutes to get 100 runs. If you cut it down like this then it will be easier. You don’t worry about the long term, you just focus on the particular ball.”

“Mental skills are like physical skills. You have to work at them relentlessly. You have to challenge your brain to get better at blocking out the negatives and replacing them with positives”Steve Bull, sports psychologist

The thought of surviving hours at the crease can seem overwhelming if you don’t break it down.Tammy Beaumont, who this summer became the first woman to hit back-to-back ODI centuries for England, during the series against Pakistan, worries only about the next five runs. “I’ll tell myself: get to five, once I get to five get to ten, keep it like that, keep it all about the next ball.”Another approach is to segment time. Brearley and Randall did this during the Centenary Test between England and Australia in Melbourne in 1977. Needing 463 to win with a wicket down, they decided to take it in 15-minute sections. “Stick at it, Skip. In ten minutes there’ll only be 15 minutes to tea,” Brearley recalls Randall saying, in The Art of Captaincy. They lost by 45 runs; Randall scored 174.You don’t have to be an international or even a professional cricketer to benefit from these mental heuristics. Bull says the key difference between elite and “Sunday afternoon batsmen” is that “Sunday afternoon batsmen tend to overcomplicate things. They’re standing there tapping the ground as the bowler runs in, thinking about where the fields are, thinking about their left-hand grip, where their shoulders are. The best players in the world are just standing there saying: watch the ball.”Mental routines are a way to simplify things, to shut out technical thoughts, memories of mistimed shots and other internal distractions, and to help the batsman settle into a state of readiness that Bull calls “relaxed alertness”. But routines alone may not be enough, especially in international games where the pressures can be immense. To settle nerves and maintain confidence through an innings, many batsmen engage in what used to be considered a symptom of mental illness but is now recognised as fully functional: talking to yourself.In a 2013 study at an English first-class cricket club, psychologists at Cardiff Metropolitan University found that batsmen used self-talk regularly, either to motivate themselves in challenging situations – when walking out to bat, for example, or after a poor shot – or to deliver instructional cues that focus attention, such as “Watch the ball!”Younis Khan had conversations with his alter ego to motivate himself at the crease•Getty ImagesIn fact, “Watch the ball” seems to be the default cue for most batsmen. Ricky Ponting used it. You can sometimes see Eoin Morgan mouthing it before a ball. Beaumont, after watching one of Ponting’s masterclasses, adopted it then adapted it – her current cue is “Time the ball, play straight”. Easy if you know how.One of the most notorious self-talkers in cricket history is Randall. He did it constantly and out loud. “It was spontaneous, it was a natural thing to do. When I’m nervous I start talking. It would help me concentrate. It annoyed everybody, including the people who played with me.”During the fourth Test of the 1978-79 Ashes, when Randall scored 150 during the second innings and turned the series in England’s favour, his monologue continued throughout the nine hours and 42 minutes he spent at the crease. Here’s a snatch of it, as relayed to Sunday Times journalist Dudley Doust by his opponents and team-mates: “Come on, Rags,” he says. “Get stuck in. Don’t take any chances. Get forward, get forward. Get behind the ball. Take your time, slow and easy. You idiot, Rags. Come on, come. Come on, England.”Younis Khan, who averages 53.72 in Test cricket and is Pakistan’s highest-ever run scorer, also talks to himself all the time when he’s at the wicket. But he has a slightly different approach to most, conducting his conversations with an alter ego that he conjures up as he goes out to bat.”I imagine there is a guy standing in front of me and he is Younis Khan, and just talk with him. It’s like there are two Younis Khans standing face to face like a boxer, and they are talking and looking each other in the eyes. Come on, Younis Khan, you can do this, you can do that.”Self-talk can keep you focused, and it can also help maintain confidence, without which batting can feel like Russian roulette. Mark Ramprakash, the England men’s batting coach, says confidence and self-belief are “absolutely paramount. They can work wonders: they can make up for a less-than-perfect technique. The thing with cricket is that you have a lot of bad days. You make one wrong decision, or someone takes a great catch. The best players, like Alastair Cook, are incredibly resilient to those bad days. They maintain a belief in their own ability.”Ramprakash himself suffered a crisis of belief early on in his England career when he failed to make a big score and began to question whether he belonged at Test level. Then in 1998 he started working with Bull, brought in by England as team psychologist.”He gave me a very simple framework of coping with all the scrambled thoughts that were going on in my head,” says Ramprakash.

Silva pares down the window of concentration to three or four seconds, switching on only when the bowler is halfway through his run-up. “So it’s 15 minutes to get 100 runs. If you cut it down like this then it will be easier”

It proved pivotal. Soon after meeting Bull he scored 154 against West Indies in Barbados – his first Test century – and then topped the averages the following winter in Australia. His team-mate Atherton, writing in his autobiography, said he sensed at the time that Ramprakash was “a totally different person, and consequently, player”.Today the mental side of batting and the pressures that come with playing at international level are taken very seriously by England’s management, due in no small part to Ramprakash’s influence. Yet confidence is a fickle trait. Sometimes it’s necessary to fake it to make it, so to speak. Psychologists have known for decades that feelings and emotions stem from changes in the body, rather than the other way round – a phenomenon known as embodied cognition – which means it’s possible to generate confidence simply by acting it out.”Shadow batting” – practising sublime strokes between balls – or walking out to bat with head held high, can have a positive effect on the way you play. The sports psychologist Jamie Barker, who works with Nottinghamshire Cricket Club and the ECB’s performance programme, makes a point of getting players to focus on their body language as they leave the pavilion, to appear confident even if they don’t feel it: “If you’re assertive, your brain will pick up on that.”Another way of “faking” confidence is to visualise the way you want to play in your mind’s eye before the game begins. In 1974, early in his career, Randall suffered four first-class innings in a row without scoring a run. “It was a nightmare,” he says. “The pressure just builds on you.” So on the morning of his fifth innings he got up early and arrived at the ground while it was still deserted, strapped on his pads, walked out to the middle, played a cover drive and took a run, “just to remember what it was like”. He scored 93 that day.Ramprakash encourages England’s batsmen to use this kind of visualisation, which serves as a cognitive rehearsal for the main event. There is much evidence that it works. One problem with all these approaches is that worrying too much about your own performance can easily make things worse. Steven Sylvester, Middlesex’s psychologist and author of the recent book Detox Your Ego (2016), thinks that for players at the top of their game what really matters is “where your heart is, why am I here?”The important thing, he says, is to believe at an emotional level that you are playing not for yourself but for your team or your country, or some other ideal that transcends you. “When players start to think about their performance as serving the group it increases their self-esteem, their belief goes up and they become a bit freer in their skills. It gives them a little bit extra.”Mark Ramprakash suggests using visualisation techniques before going out to bat•PA PhotosIn 2013, Sylvester helped Australia and Middlesex batsman Chris Rogers after he was called up to the Ashes squad more than five years after his previous Test. “It became blindingly obvious that his fear of representing his country in the Ashes as an opening batsman was stopping him from moving forward,” he says. “Through a deep discussion of how to serve his country he came up with a more compelling reason to doing well than if it was just about him.”Sylvester coached Moeen Ali through a similar process, helping him put his cricket in the context of his faith and his desire to be a role model. The Pakistan batsman Asad Shafiq, who has scored eight Test centuries at No. 6 – a world record – gives an equally compelling reason for his own success: “To bat at No. 6 you have to be patient, as most of the time the tailenders are with you. You have to give them confidence and support.”Shafiq is batting not just for himself, but for Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 as well. He epitomises CLR James’ portrait in his classic Beyond a Boundary (1963) of the batsman as the ultimate team player. When facing the ball, writes James, he “does not merely represent his side. For that moment, to all intents and purposes, he is his side.”Without doubt, all batsmen can improve their confidence, resilience and other mental attributes if they’re willing to practise. “Mental skills are like physical skills,” says Bull. “You have to work at them relentlessly. You have to challenge your brain to get better at blocking out the negatives and replacing them with positives.”Yet it also seems clear that some people are inherently better at this than others. In 2005, Bull carried out a psychological analysis of 12 English cricketers from the previous two decades whom county coaches had identified as the toughest mentally in the country. Among them were Atherton, Graham Gooch and Alec Stewart. Bull found them all to be highly competitive and motivated, full of self-confidence and with a never-say-die attitude, some of which derived from their upbringing, some from the teams they had played with and some from their personality.For the rest of us, it is comforting to know that we can learn such skills – and that even the greats can struggle at times. Even Don Bradman called batting “a nerve-racking business”. In The Art of Cricket (1958), he implores us to give a thought to the batsman’s travails as he wends his way to the wicket: “He is human like you, and desperately anxious to do well.”

Taking 20 wickets against England was a significant step forward for Bangladesh – but work is required, particularly on pace bowling, to maintain their progress

Mohammad Isam in Chittagong25-Oct-2016The Chittagong Test has become a prime example for Bangladesh on how to benefit by giving deeper thought to their bowling attack. In other words, the team hierarchy gave more priority to a winning approach rather than settling for a draw.Enforcing their game plan on England, who were playing their first Test in the subcontinent since 2012, was itself an encouraging sign. It was hardly a gamble, though. Apart from Shakib Al Hasan, there was hardly any other reason for the visitors to really fear the Bangladesh attack going into the match.They ended up taking 20 wickets in the game for only the ninth time in their Test history (though this was the first time that they did so in a loss). The three-man spin attack made all the running, taking 18 of the wickets to fall. It was quite obvious that the management would put more emphasis on making sure that the spinners got the best use of a sporting pitch, the best condition of the ball and for them to bowl at almost every juncture. Unlike England, there was no team effort to ensure the ball was maintained for reverse swing because there was hardly any trust put on the two pace bowlers, Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Shafiul Islam.Their success was mostly due to the trio of spinners – Shakib, Taijul Islam and Mehedi Hasan – and despite the ineffectiveness of Rabbi and Shafiul.Shakib led the pack superbly by finishing with seven wickets in 52 overs, which included his 150th in Tests. His steadiness through his consistent use of the shoulder and the crease, subtle variety that includes short bursts of spin on the ball and endurance in bowling marathon spells regularly, has been the bedrock of Bangladesh’s bowling for the last eight years. It was at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, on the day before the Test against New Zealand in 2008, when Jamie Siddons pronounced Shakib as the leader of the bowling attack in Bangladesh’s first Test after Mohammad Rafique’s retirement.

“I don’t think Shafiul and Kamrul bowled that badly. It was a learning experience for them, and they realised that they need to know how to bowl with the old ball”Mushfiqur Rahim

Shakib responded with 7 for 36 in the first innings of that game and, since then, he has been the attacker, the stock bowler and the end-blocker in nearly every Test. Because of his quality, specialist spinners in Bangladesh line-ups are often called the second spinner, among whom Taijul moved past Sohag Gazi as the highest wicket-taker during this Test.Taijul, who is slightly different to the conventional Bangladeshi left-arm spinner with his high jump before landing on the crease, has big fingers which help him control the amount of spin he wants to impart on the ball. He picked up four wickets in this game, and was the most economical among the three spinners. He has shown the consistent ability to hold up one end, which is what Bangladesh has always looked for in a second spinner bowling opposite Shakib.Bangladesh also got a glimpse of Mehedi, the debutant offspinner who finished with seven wickets in the game. Coming off a simple action, Mehedi produced heavy turn on the ball. Ben Duckett found out first hand when he went to defend a ball pitched on leg stump but saw it turn back to hit the inside half of the off stump. It was a remarkable way to pick up a first Test wicket, and Mehedi finished with 6 for 80 in the first innings.His ability to make full use of the brand new ball, and then doing the conventional spinner’s duty of bowling with the old ball was impressive, and so was his attitude on the field. He looked eager to be listening in on conversations that involved the senior bowlers. His hunger has been talked about widely in the domestic circuit, where he usually partners left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak for Khulna Division in the first-class competition.A run-out accounted for one of the other two England wickets in Chittagong. The other one went to Rabbi, who was also making his Test debut. It was the only wicket that went to the pace bowlers, who accounted for 28 overs in total, giving away 108 runs. Shafiul was the only one given the new ball, but bowled just four overs with it. Shakib, Mehedi and Taijul were the bowlers mainly entrusted with the new ball.The trend will continue in the second Test for which Bangladesh have picked the uncapped seamer Subashis Roy. If he makes his debut in Dhaka, he will be part of one of Bangladesh’s least experience new-ball attacks with Kamrul Islam Rabbi having played just the one Test. But there’s no guarantee that both will be picked, or whether any one of them will get the new ball.England also handed the new ball to their spinners but, unlike Bangladesh’s quicks, the likes of Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes generated much reverse swing in both innings, tellingly on the final day when Taijul and Shafiul were victims of late movement into their pads.According to Bangladesh’s captain, Mushfiqur Rahim, there is a dearth of pace bowlers in the country who can offer variety in the longer version, especially bowling with the old ball. He said that it would be foolish to expect bowlers like Shafiul and Rabbi to have skills mastered by England’s seam attack. He suggested that Al-Amin Hossain and Rubel Hossain, both of whom have Test bowling averages over 75, wouldn’t have made much of a difference.Shakib Al Hasan led the way with the ball but he was given solid support by Mehedi Hasan and Taijul Islam•AFP”Al-Amin and Rubel also don’t have an extraordinary Test record,” he said. “Does anyone know how many first-class bowlers we have who can bowl well with the old ball? It is hard to find such a bowler. If you look at a scorecard from our first-class competitions, you will invariably see a spinner taking a five-for and the pace bowlers taking one or two wickets.”If a bowler doesn’t know how to set up a batsman, and bowl according to the field, then you can’t expect him to do it at the Test level. It is easy for guys like Broad and Stokes who have been doing it for years. I don’t think Shafiul and Kamrul bowled that badly. It was a learning experience for them, and they realised that they need to know how to bowl with the old ball.”Mushfiqur said that the Chittagong pitch suited their game plan, which wasn’t always the case in previous Tests at home. “[Zahid Reza] Babu bhai made an outstanding wicket. I think this is the first time that we played on a surface which suited our game plan,” he said.”Our bowlers did a great job. If we could have played on such wickets in domestic cricket, we could have prepared differently for this game. But still, we took 20 wickets which I see as a positive sign.”The question mark on Bangladesh’s first-class structure crops up every time a Test is lost, and even on the rare occasions when they win or draw. At other times, it is called “picnic cricket” because that is all it has been sine 1999 – a big picnic where the players get together to play for three months in various towns, get less pay than they do in the Dhaka Premier League and only focus on personal records rather than enriching the four-day game or the competition.There is little effort being made to cleanse this attitude, with most of the interest in Bangladesh cricket lying with one-dayers and T20s. Test cricket, as a result, suffers. But a Test match like the one in Chittagong gives more reasons to take it seriously, and plug the large holes in the make-up of the team. Taking 20 wickets against England is a good start, and Bangladesh must look at ways to maintain this performance.

The likes of England and New Zealand have them already, and West Indies need to consider them seriously if they are not to be deprived of their best players

Tim Wigmore13-Oct-2016West Indies have always been vulnerable to their players earning more by representing someone else. Garry Sobers almost played in English league cricket in 1963 instead of for West Indies. Two rebel tours took place to apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, exploiting the financial insecurity of fringe players. So those who harrumph that today’s Caribbean stars lack the pride of their forebears in representing the region miss the point. West Indies will not return to having their stars available for every game through appeals to romance.Incentives matter. It is not in the financial interests of West Indies’ T20 stars to devote themselves to the national side. While that remains the case, the dispiriting cycle will continue: at full-strength in the World T20, West Indies will remain formidable, but the rest of the time they will be deprived of most of their best players, with predictable results.The heady talk in April of a resurgent West Indies, after the men and women had triumphed in the World T20 and the Under-19s had won the World Cup, already seems like an age ago. There are a few more trophies on the mantlepiece, but nothing has changed. The internecine squabbling between the players and board continues. Phil Simmons, the most popular coach with the players for many years and the man who oversaw the men’s World T20 triumph, has been sacked. Some stars from that tournament are now absent friends; others are only glimpsed in a West Indies shirt when they are underprepared.Dwayne Bravo arrived in the UAE the day before the first T20I against Pakistan, highlighting how West Indies are emasculated by the absence of contracts for their white-ball specialists: the only WICB contracts are for those who play Test cricket too. All the while, other countries are successfully grappling with the notion of white-ball specialists. England have just introduced lucrative new white-ball contracts, which could allow leading limited-overs players to earn more than Test players. Could West Indies’ limited-overs cricket be reinvigorated by doing the same, and creating six to eight contracts for white-ball specialists?It is much easier for the ECB to award bumper central contracts than for the WICB to do so because the ECB has so much more cash: the result of more lucrative commercial deals. A lack of cash is the reason why, in order to fund the creation of 90 professional contracts in the domestic game, the WICB had to reduce the amount that the top international players earned, and phase out the seniority principle in international payments, under which senior players received higher match fees than less experienced ones did.

What West Indies players are paid

• US$1735 per T20I

• $2300 per ODI

• $5750 per Test match

• Plus $1000 image rights per day if selected in a game

• Three contract tiers: Category A, $140,000; Category B, $120,000; Category C $100,000

The WICB has made some effort to compromise with leading limited-overs players. Outside pre-existing arrangements, the WICB has created a window for the IPL in the cricket calendar. “That is a big chunk of the prime cricket months in the Caribbean. It is also lost revenue for WICB not scheduling cricket in that window,” says Richard Pybus, West Indies’ director of cricket. “Having done that, we wanted players committing to play in West Indies domestic cricket, to give value to fans and sponsors and bring depth to the competitions. So they would have been able to play in the IPL and CPL, then give a commitment to West Indies cricket, international and local. This hasn’t been the case.” The WICB has ruled that ODI selection is predicated on playing in the Nagico50, the regional 50-over competition, but as that clashes with the Big Bash, the ruling has left a coterie of players unavailable for ODI cricket.So while the WICB is far from blameless, to some extent it is also simply a victim of wider financial imbalances in international cricket. And yet even New Zealand, a board with similar financial realities, finds a way to accommodate white-ball-only contracts.An insider believes that US$100,000-150,000 a year would persuade West Indies players to sign up to limited-overs contracts that allow them to play the entirety of the IPL and CPL but otherwise gave the WICB first refusal over their services, and the right to manage the players’ workloads. With such security, players would be less inclined to play in every possible T20 competition.In Florida in August, the WICB held discussions with limited-overs specialists on how to work together; among the options proposed by the players’ representatives was including white-ball contracts and relaxing the requirements to play in the Nagico50. As yet nothing has materialised from the conversations, though the WICB is understood to be considering introducing some form of limited-overs contracts.

An insider believes that US$100,000-150,000 a year would persuade West Indies players to sign up to limited-overs contracts that allow them to play the entirety of the IPL and CPL but otherwise gave the WICB first refusal over their services

There would be significant advantages if they did so. While the cash needed for white-ball contracts – probably close to $1 million a year, depending on the number of contracts – is not insignificant, it could be seen as an investment. If West Indies are able to tie down their limited-overs stars, they would become a much more attractive proposition to broadcasters, sponsors and opponents alike.In March, Bravo suggested that West Indies could dominate T20I cricket just as they had dominated Tests in the 1980s. While the West Indies of the 1980s generated cash by being invited to tour the wealthiest nations – they toured Australia six times that decade, including four times in Test series – so the side of the 2010s could become huge draws in limited-overs cricket, leaving West Indies better off financially and in cricket terms. Few want to watch the T20 world champions play as meekly as in the two whitewashes by Pakistan in the UAE.Of course, a new system could create new problems. The WICB’s current contracts show an organisation that puts Test cricket above the other two formats. If that changed, then West Indies’ limited-overs sides might be strengthened – but at the expense of a further decline in their Test team.”One of the West Indies’ challenges is to keep their best players playing Test cricket,” says Tony Irish, the executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations. “Lucrative white-ball contacts may bring some of their current ‘free agent’ players back to playing ODIs and T20Is but it may well also encourage future West Indies players to make that choice over Test cricket.” Irish believes new contracts need to be more lucrative across the board to keep players playing all three formats – emphasising how West Indies are hampered under the ICC’s revenue distribution model. However much it is maligned, the WICB faces a series of unenviable choices.The beating at the hands of Pakistan has left West Indies in a precarious position in regards to the World Cup•Getty ImagesBut the current impasse between the itinerant T20 stars and the WICB is debilitating and, without substantial reform, shows no signs of improving. “My feeling at the moment is that things could get worse before they get better,” says Eddie Tolchard, managing director of Insignia Sports International, which represents, among others, Samuel Badree, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy. “There are financial considerations, of course, but in any form of employer-employee relationship, there is a duty of mutual trust and confidence.”For players to enter into any form of retainer with the WICB, it wouldn’t be purely down to the financials. The relationship would need to be better. Goals aligned. Continuity and confidence installed, with everyone knowing where they stand and what exactly they are agreeing to commit to each year, and importantly, a thriving and positive environment for the youngsters to be exposed to created.”If that does not happen, the current batch of T20 globetrotters will be trendsetters in the Caribbean, and young players might use West Indies as little more than a vehicle to attract T20 scouts. Already the lack of availability of West Indies’ best players has cost them a place in the Champions Trophy, and the $250,000 participation fee that comes with it. Now, having slipped back to ninth in the ODI rankings after their drubbing by Pakistan, West Indies are at risk of not merely having to play the World Cup Qualifiers, but doing so shorn of their best limited-overs players, jeopardising their chances of reaching the World Cup itself, and thus potentially losing out on the $1 million given to each qualifier.A new contract system would be no panacea. But increasing the incentives for leading players to represent West Indies would give the team a chance of ending the blame game, and fielding something resembling their best side in the two limited-overs formats. Without substantial reform, the fear is that West Indies’ performances in bilateral limited-overs cricket will get even worse.

Changes to the toss in England’s county game were intended to encourage spin back into Championship cricket. But have they been successful?

Alan Gardner28-Sep-2016Last year, when announcing the ECB’s decision to change the coin toss before the start of Championship matches, Peter Wright, chairman of the cricket committee, set out the thinking behind the move: “By giving the away team the option of bowling first, we hope the home side will be encouraged to produce the best possible four-day pitch. That will be good for cricket in general, and not only for spinners.”So, with the dust settling on a four-day finale to remember at Lord’s, has the new regulation succeeded? Did better pitches help to rebalance the game, allowing English spinners to gain more traction?Leaving aside the sight of Alex Lees and Adam Lyth serving up a few declaration lobs against eventual champions Middlesex on Sky TV on the final day of the season (probably not the sort of exposure the ECB had in mind), there were certainly some encouraging signs.Speaking earlier in the month, Andrew Strauss, England’s director of cricket and a member of the ECB’s cricket committee, indicated that the governing body has been satisfied by the trial.”Anecdotally it’s been a really important step forward,” Strauss said. “We’ve played on better pitches, more games have gone to the fourth day, the bowlers who have done well are those more likely to play international cricket, there have been different challenges on batsmen and spinners have bowled more overs.”From an anecdotal point of view I think it’s achieved most of the objectives we set out. I’ve always thought we can judge it too soon. But the noises are encouraging, and once people have got their heads round the idea, in my opinion, it has nudged the right behaviour.”In Division One, the effect was marked by two spinners – Warwickshire’s Jeetan Patel and Somerset’s Jack Leach – topping the wicket-takers’ list. Not since 2009, when Danish Kaneria and James Tredwell led the way in Division Two, were the two most successful Championship bowlers both purveyors of spin.Patel, a vastly experienced international, has been recalled by New Zealand on the back of his good form and was already regarded as the best spinner in the county game, having taken 50-plus wickets in each of the past five seasons, although this was still his best return; Leach on the other hand enjoyed a breakthrough year as Somerset tailored their surfaces to suit the slow left-armer as the summer progressed and they narrowly missed out on a first title.Middlesex also benefited, eventually. Despite drawing seven of their first eight games and not winning at Lord’s until August, they came through strongly in the second half of the season and held off Yorkshire and Somerset in a taut last round. Ollie Rayner’s 51 wickets (another personal best) made him a vital component of their attack.”It has made a difference,” Middlesex’s director of cricket, Angus Fraser, said. “If its design was to get spinners more involved then it’s been a success because you just have to look at the top wicket-takers in the country.”This time last year, Rayner was writing for ESPNcricinfo on the difficulties of bowling spin in England. Given greater responsibility and more overs – 444 compared to 273 in 2015 – he has risen impressively to the challenge, though ultimately neither he nor Leach won inclusion for England’s subcontinental challenges this winter.

“It’s been a new learning skill for a lot of county cricketers, who haven’t had to face the prospect of serious spin before”Somerset captain Chris Rogers was positive about the experiment

Fraser is also an England selector and, as well as having greater options to discuss – Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Zafar Ansari and the 38-year-old Gareth Batty were the slow bowlers selected for next month’s tour of Bangladesh – he suggested cricket “is more complete” when spin plays its full part. He was in no doubt about the strides that Rayner has made.”The pitches have meant, one: he’s bowled more overs, two: he’s been in the game and three: he’s grown in confidence,” Fraser said. “So the fact he’s been used as a potent weapon rather than just a stopgap has given him far more confidence, and extra overs, so therefore he’s got into rhythm and the whole thing’s opened up for him because of it. So it’s been hugely positive for spinners in that respect.”The fact is, he’s done a bloody good job, because on pitches that weren’t offering a great deal, as in the past he’s offered us control, but then on the surfaces when you’d expect him to come to the front, he has done. We would have won two or three more matches but for weather and a lot of that would have been on Ollie.”While Middlesex would have liked to see a bit more pace and carry in the surfaces at Lord’s – they have discussions with the MCC and groundsman Mick Hunt at the start of each year – the team they pipped to top spot went down a different route. Somerset also won one and drew seven of their opening eight matches; they then lost on a green Taunton pitch that improved to the extent that Middlesex chased 302 in 46 overs. After that, in the words of their captain, Chris Rogers, Somerset were “forced to try the spin path and it worked”.Rogers, who has suggested a similar tweak to the toss rules could work in Australia, admitted that the change of tactics did not play to his strengths, as an opening batsman with huge experience against the new ball nibbling around in damp conditions, but said his own game – batting and as a captain – had improved in the process.”Initially it didn’t overly help, there were so many draws and a lot of sides were struggling to find the best ways to create results,” he said. “But certainly towards the back end of the year, there were a lot more results and teams worked things out a bit more – for instance we made the pitches spin and sometimes those games were over very quickly but at least it was a contest.”If anything it’s been a new learning skill for a lot of county cricketers, who haven’t had to face the prospect of serious spin before, and facing so many overs of spin, so in many respects I think it’s been good for the English game.”

By one measure, Division Two spinners were entrusted less. The number of overs of spin delivered in the second tier dropped from 4295 in 2015 to 3581 this year

He did sound one note of caution, however: “My only worry is whether you won’t find as many high-quality seam bowlers coming through that England have always seemed to be quite proud of, and even fewer opening batsmen who learn the skills to be able to play the swinging and seaming new ball. But I do think in the end it’s for the benefit of English cricket.”The full picture will take time – perhaps several seasons – to come to light. While spin became an instrumental factor in Division One, the rule change had a negligible effect in the second tier, where the leading slow bowler was Northamptonshire’s Rob Keogh, with 31. That more than doubled the number of first-class wickets Keogh, a top-order batsman, had taken in his career.By one measure, Division Two spinners were actually entrusted less. While the number of overs of spin delivered in Division One rose from 4395 in 2015 to 6231 this year, in Division Two it dropped from 4295 overs to 3581.This could have been down to a number of factors. There were few experienced spinners beyond Tredwell at Kent operating in the second division, so clubs were inevitably less inclined to set up that way; if young talent is not (yet) there, it will take time to bring through. Another consideration may be that, with only one team going up, there was greater pressure to get results. Essex, the Division Two winners, relied heavily on their seam-bowling strengths but head coach, Chris Silverwood, was positive that better pitches had been good for Essex, and the game in general.”I think it will help everybody produce better cricketers,” Silverwood said. “Playing in good conditions, you’ve got to bowl well to get your wickets but, equally, you’ve got to bat well to get your runs. To me, the blend itself will produce better cricketers, full stop, and possibly bring spin back into the game.”One inarguable statistic was that the number of results dropped from 93 to 71, although if, as Strauss suggests, the priority is to produce battle-hardened players ready for the drawn-out rigours of Test cricket, that need not be a bad thing.There may well be dissenters out there, though. Yorkshire’s captain, Andrew Gale, spoke against the move when it was announced and the change possibly contributed to his team missing out on a third straight title, having suffered rare defeats at Headingley and Scarborough (only one opponent, Surrey, opted not to insert Yorkshire on their own patch). Others grumbled darkly about Somerset switching to turners – their victory over Warwickshire saw 21 wickets fall on the opening day – to fuel an unexpected Championship bid.Fraser has even suggested taking the rule change a step further. “You wonder whether the toss should be taken away completely from the home side, so then you avoid any of those contentious situations,” he said.It is perhaps too early to tell if the fortunes of English spin are on the turn but, either way, the flip of a coin has never been so hotly discussed.

Australian cricket finds itself at a critical juncture, not unlike a few instances in the past, and the results of the next two days in Hobart could have far-reaching effects on the system and players

Daniel Brettig14-Nov-2016Australian cricket’s story is littered with crucible moments; times when the national team has either stood up or flaked out. In the moment, these instances may not seem that important, only gaining resonance through what happens afterwards. Other moments stand out like beacons almost from the second they take place. Whatever is decided at levels above, whatever reviews or appointments take place, the fate rests ultimately with the players.The third dull, wintry day in Hobart felt like one such day and the next two to follow are no less important. Australia are so far behind South Africa they have only slim hope of getting out of Bellerive without a match and series defeat, but it is vital that they show evidence of improvement. The jobs of many, from the chief executive James Sutherland down to the debutant Callum Ferguson, are on the line.How much hinges on all this? Remember the words of the coach Darren Lehmann after Australia were bundled out for 85 on day one. Asked about the future, he did not want to think about the consequences of a hiding. “I’ll probably tell you in a few days,” he said. “Hopefully we fight back really well and the future is bright. We know we’ve got to get better in a lot of areas, we’ve always said that. Even four Tests ago when we were No.1. Now we’re way away from that.”Each of the past five Australian captains have met moments of similar weight – of both the winning and losing varieties. For Allan Border, perhaps the most resonant was day one of the 1989 Ashes series at Headingley, when he came out to bat after a pair of early wickets on an overcast day and played an innings so brazen it included one six cut hard over backward point – back in the day when that shot was almost unheard of. Sixteen years of Ashes dominance were forged that morning.Border experienced the other side towards the end of his career, when he and his team were unable to take a chance to defeat West Indies in a series for the first time in 17 years. A chase of 186 to win in Adelaide was left too much in the hands of the tail, leaving Australia one run short of victory, and Border to hurl his “worry ball” so hard into the dressing room floor that it rebounded to strike the ceiling.For Mark Taylor, a personal turning point did not dovetail with team success, but foreshadowed it. By the time of the second innings of the first Ashes Test in 1997, he had gone 19 innings without passing 50, and a previously happy and dominant team were feeling the strain. Rolled by Darren Gough and Andy Caddick, then clattered to all parts of Edgbaston by Graham Thorpe and Nasser Hussain, Australia started their second innings 360 runs behind.Without a hundred, Taylor’s captaincy would have been at an end, and in the early overs the tension was close to unbearable. But in the company of Matthew Elliott and Greg Blewett, he carved out an “ugly” hundred, adding respectability to the scoreboard and allowing the team enough breathing space to regroup and ultimately win the series. Taylor led the team for another two years.Again in England, Steve Waugh’s captaincy came under enormous pressure during the 1999 World Cup, following on from a surprising 2-2 Test series draw against West Indies in the Caribbean. The team was not happy, Waugh and Shane Warne butting heads, and losses to New Zealand and Pakistan left the team needing to win each of their last seven matches of the tournament or face elimination at every stage. Waugh’s response, most pointedly in a pair of nail-biters over South Africa, was to make critical runs. Warne, by now toying with retirement, overcame doubts about a shoulder still regaining strength after surgery to rip the ball in his former fashion. The World Cup was won, and Waugh stayed on as leader until 2004.Michael Clarke’s leadership tale turned triumphant when Mitchell Johnson was given the ball before lunch on the second day of the Gabba Test in 2013-14•Getty ImagesDespite a winning record overall, Ricky Ponting’s leadership is remembered most for a pair of Ashes defeats. The first in 2005 was said to have swung on Glenn McGrath’s injured ankle, but Ponting’s call to send England in even after he knew he would be without his best pace bowler proved much the more fateful juncture, leading ultimately to the loss of the urn for the first time since Border’s 1989 redemption.Move ahead to 2010-11, and a home Ashes series now viewed as one sided may actually have pivoted on the loss of two wickets either side of the first drinks on Boxing Day. Phillip Hughes and Ponting were prospering well enough in front of a mighty crowd when the former skewed Tim Bresnan to point, before next over the captain snicked Chris Tremlett into the slips. The former coach Tim Nielsen still gnashes his teeth about that one and all the ignominy to follow – it proved to be Ponting’s last Test as captain.Michael Clarke’s leadership tale always teetered between triumph and disaster with little in between. The pivotal point leading to the former came when Mitchell Johnson took the ball just before lunch on day two of the first 2013-14 Ashes Test at the Gabba, worrying out Jonathan Trott as per team plans and sending momentum flooding to Australia. The latter, perhaps harder to isolate, was arguably the second afternoon of the Cardiff Test in 2015, when a series of squandered starts sentenced Australia to an opening defeat in a series they would never lead. Clarke, fighting his own inner battles, was en route to retirement from that moment.So it is that Steven Smith’s men find themselves in the crucible at Bellerive. They enjoyed a far better day on Monday than Saturday, even if Quinton de Kock’s impersonation of Adam Gilchrist gathered impressive depth. The batting spine shown by Smith and Usman Khawaja, in particular, demonstrated a level of self-knowledge about where this team now stands after four consecutive losses and the distinct prospect of a fifth. The heaviness of expectation was not lost on Josh Hazlewood.”Extremely important I think,” he said. “Everyone knows we need to improve and improve quickly. We talk amongst ourselves and everyone knows we need to improve. So I think it’s about everyone individually doing what they can on or off the field, and important to do it as a group as well. Hopefully it happens on the field. We’re obviously a pretty tight group, we play a lot of cricket together and we’re on the road together a lot. Everyone gets along fantastically on and off the field, but now’s an important time to stick together and even be tighter.”Australian cricket has never been richer or better resourced. The national team’s players have never been better paid nor looked after. There are problems with scheduling, and issues of coaching philosophy as it relates to the business of batting. But Australia’s Test team is ultimately in the hands of the players who shape it, through their own skill and presence of mind. The next two days will, once again, tell that tale.

Odisha have qualified for the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy for the first time since 2001-02, but life was anything but comfortable for them for the last ten days or so

Arun Venugopal10-Dec-2016When Delhi were battling for a win against Saurashtra in Baroda to stay alive in the knockout race, some 1500 km away an anxious Odisha side was keeping close tabs on the match. With Odisha only one point ahead of Delhi’s 21, the latter’s victory would leave Odisha needing to win outright against Jharkhand in their last league game beginning on December 15.However, unlike his team-mates, Odisha captain Govinda Poddar wasn’t sweating over the outcome. He was attending a family function in his hometown Rourkela, and had decided to take his mind off the game. His team-mates, though, wouldn’t let him be.”I wasn’t following the scores because I didn’t want to be nervous about something I couldn’t control. But, every once in a while, someone or the other would ring me up to tell me the score,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I would tell them: ‘, please put the phone down. Tell me at the end if they have lost or not.'”Not long after, Saurashtra snuffed out Delhi’s chances by four runs after last man Navdeep Saini was adjudged lbw. As a result, Odisha were into the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy for the first time since 2001-02. This time, Poddar didn’t mind the phone calls.”I have two phones and both started ringing at the same time. Our wicketkeeper Saurabh Rawat, and Ranjit Singh, the opening batsman, were the first guys to call,” he said. “When I picked up the phones, I heard their excited voices: ‘, we have qualified, congrats.’ Then, I called our coach Debasis Mohanty and we congratulated each other.”Allrounder Biplab Samantray was one of the players who bombarded Poddar with score updates. He was at his home in Cuttack, discussing the match online with his team-mates. “We were all sharing updates on our team’s Whatsapp group, and whenever my internet slowed down, I would anxiously ask the others what the score was,” he said.”It’s been 15 years since we have qualified for the knockouts, so obviously there is bound to be excitement. It was a dream of mine, personally, to play in the quarter-finals. We have been doing well this season and God has given us another chance to prove ourselves. We had our team’s practice session this afternoon and everyone was excited about performing in a big match. Such things don’t come easily.”Odisha leave for Thiruvananthapuram on Monday for what would now effectively be a practice match against Jharkhand ahead of the quarter-finals scheduled to begin on December 24. Had Delhi won, the trip would have been a lot more tense, especially with what Odisha have gone through in the last week or so. They were grounded in Dindigul for a week after their last league fixture against Jharkhand was a non-starter following the death of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Poddar called the “hotel arrest” a new experience that transcended cricket.”From December 2 to 8, we were in Dindigul,” he said. “We went for practice only on the first two days, and a few hours before she passed away on December 5, there were rumours about her passing away. Our local manager feared there could be acts of violence and said we had to return to the hotel, which was about 35 km away from the ground [in Natham]. After we reached the hotel, we couldn’t step out until December 8.”It was frustrating, but it was a new experience in the sense we got to know a lot of new things. The passing away of a leader of such stature is sad news, and we could see what it meant to the people there.”There was some anxiety over Odisha’s travel plans, and for a brief period, they didn’t know the fate of their match against Jharkhand. “There was a bit of apprehension over whether we could get out of town or not, and what would happen to the match,” he said.”So there was a lot of chaos, but all the boys got together and reassured one another that we couldn’t afford to worry about the game. Whenever it took place, we had to be ready – there was nothing more we could do. For those five-six days, all we did was wake up, gather in somebody’s room and order room-service. That we have bonded well all season has helped.”After the team eventually got back to Odisha, they have had well-deserved downtime. Poddar hoped Odisha, rejuvenated by the break, would go further in the tournament. “I was very desperate because some of our players have been performing well over the last few years, but still they are not getting to play at a certain level,” he said. “To come into the limelight, you need to play quarter-finals and semi-finals. Your matches are broadcast live and people know there is a team that is trying hard to come up the ladder.”For now, though, Odisha have earned the right to celebrate their biggest achievement in a while. “We haven’t planned a party yet, Samantray said, “but we will have something for sure before we start for Trivandrum.”

Aakash Chopra analyses Mushfiqur Rahim’s response to India’s spinners on the fourth day of the Hyderabad Test

Aakash Chopra12-Feb-2017Mushfiqur’s varied responses to the same length

Mushfiqur Rahim has played the Indian spinners quite well in this match. Confidence in the forward defence has formed the foundation of his game. Bowlers try to target the good-length area and to counter that regularly you need a good defence. He has played with soft and high hands while keeping the bat ahead of the front pad. The second response to a same length ball is his wide range of sweep shots. He can play the ball fine, square and even drag it from outside off to hit towards midwicket. Once he was set, he started using his feet to drive through covers and down the ground. That forced spinners to drag the length shorter and he is quite good at cutting. A bit of a masterclass in playing spin.A unique trigger movement
In his stance, Mushfiqur’s back toe is on the middle stump and the front toe on the leg-stump mark. Most players either go back and across or have a forward press, but Mushfiqur is different. He goes slightly towards square leg with the back leg, which leads to the front foot falling across. He makes up for it by playing late.Bhuvneshwar’s first four balls
Bowling the first over of the day, Bhuvneshwar Kumar brought the first ball in, and swung the next one away. Then, he went to the corner of the crease, for the first time in the match, and kept the shine as if he was bowling an outswinger but used the angle to bring it in. He followed it with the sucker ball from the middle of the box, which finished within the stumps and dismissed Mehedi Hasan. It was a good example of using the crease and the old ball well.A pitch map depicting the lengths Indian seamers bowled to the Bangladesh batsmen•ESPNcricinfo LtdYorkers gone missing
While everyone has, quite rightly, appreciated the Indian seamers’ ability to reverse swing, the absence of yorkers has left a little void. Shoaib Akhtar’s suggestion for the old ball is to target the nose and the toes: bowl a couple of bouncers to soften the target and then follow it up with a few toe-crushers, especially when bowling to the tail.Captain’s hunch
At the start of the fourth day, Umesh Yadav gave his hat and sunglasses to the umpire to prepare for the first over before Virat Kohli intervened. He asked Bhuvneshwar to bowl that over and told Umesh to bowl from the other end. As luck would have it, Bhuvneshwar dismissed Mehedi on the fourth ball. Cricket captaincy is a lot about hunch and gut-feeling, and Kohli’s decision was a fine example of that.Tamim’s distinctive front-foot defence
Tamim Iqbal is one of the four Bangladesh batsmen who’ve scored more that 3000 Test runs, and is currently their leading run-scorer in the format. He has a unique way of defending the fast bowlers on the front foot, for his front toe never touches the ground. While he allows the ball to come to him and is a fluent player on the front foot, the toe in the air suggests he would not be throwing his weight towards the ball. It’s never a bad idea to bowl full and a little wide early on.

Some of the reactions on Twitter to Virat Kohli’s record-equalling hundred during India’s chase in Pune

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jan-2017Virat Kohli began 2017 with his 17th ODI hundred while chasing, equalling Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the most second-innings ODI hundreds. For some, it put an end to a big debate.

Best Test player … KOHLI Best ODI player … KOHLI. Best T20 player … KOHLI

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 15, 2017

While it also opened up a few others.

VIRAT KOHLI IS FROM ANOTHER PLANET #Fact

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 15, 2017

Why don't you just admit you are an alien, Kohli? Why don't you? Why? #INDvENG #Kohli #replug pic.twitter.com/GuHF54vCbg

— Sonali Dhulap (@pillya) January 15, 2017

@imVkohli quite simply the greatest one day batsman India has produced.

— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) January 15, 2017

Unbelievable. Is there anyone in team sport in the world that is dominating their profession as much as @imVkohli right now? A modern legend

— Stevie J (@StevieJ_23) January 15, 2017

It was just another awe-inspiring day for Kohli.

Just another day at work for @imVkohli. Brushed his teeth, had a shower, breakfast, century in a chase. Just another day really!

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) January 15, 2017

Consistently in awe of this man. I feel so lucky and privileged to commentate on his ridiculousness. That's why I said 380 #kohli #engvind

— Isa Guha (@isaguha) January 15, 2017

Virat Kohli is the ultimate batsman! One of the greats already! The best around at adapting to the situation put in front of him! #EngVsInd

— James Taylor (@jamestaylor20) January 15, 2017

There was even a “wow” moment in Kohli’s innings.

33.2 Woakes to Kohli, SIX, that’s unbelievable. Rub your eyes and watch this again. This is against the law of physics. Slower ball, short of a length, no room to free his arms, and Kohli still goes in the air, and clears cow corner. It is just power from arms. I can imagine some West Indies batsmen having the audacity to even try such a shot

It was really jaw-dropping.

Did I just see that @imVkohli stop it #INDvENG

— Alex Tudor (@alextudorcoach) January 15, 2017

Shot of the era by Virat Kohli

— Mojo (@Singhlicious) January 15, 2017

We don’t think so.

Tendulkar has posters of Kohli in his bedroom.

— Shailesh Shinde. (@ShaileSHinde) January 15, 2017

Kohli put on a partnership of 200 with Kedar Jadhav, who scored a fantastic 120 off only 76 balls.

What a knock, Kedar Jadhav..it's not easy to upstage Kohli, but he just did!!! #INDvENG

— Hemant (@hemantbuch) January 15, 2017

Kedar Jadhav ,take a bow.
An innings one dreams to play.#INDvENG

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) January 15, 2017

Kedar Jadhav will be my Man of the Match. Not often you see someone overshadowing the class of Kohli in a run chase. Well played.

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) January 15, 2017

Cramps in his legs but still had might in his hands & a big heart to go with it. Well played Kedar Jadav

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) January 15, 2017

Mushfiqur’s day with the gloves, Thisara’s absent-mindedness and Taskin’s shoulder catch form part of our plays from the second ODI in Dambulla

Mohammad Isam28-Mar-2017The catchIs it a mere coincidence that Mushfiqur Rahim’s work behind the stumps has improved following the team management’s decision to remove him as permanent Test wicketkeeper? He did miss a stumping during this game but he showed fine awareness for most parts, as he did during Bangladesh’s historic 100th Test in Colombo where he was a last-minute wicketkeeping replacement. In the third over, he called loud and early, and seemed to endlessly chase a top edge from Danushka Gunathilaka. He ended up around square-leg, where he needed to dive to his right to complete the dismissal. Two other fielders had converged but fortunately they stopped and watched their Test captain take a fine catch.The fatal venture-outUpul Tharanga needlessly ran himself out while trying take a single after Mustafizur Rahman bowled a beamer down the leg side. But Thisara Perera did something worse: he ran down the pitch aimlessly after being struck on the pad by Mashrafe Mortaza. Mushfiqur showed alertness by removing one glove, aiming at the stumps and hitting it to catch Perera well short of the crease.The double hitBatsmen find it hard to pick Mustafizur Rahman. It wasn’t too different for Upul Tharanga, who decided to invent a new way to get runs off him, albeit inadvertently. Tharanga pulled Mustafizur’s first ball of the 25th over to the midwicket boundary. Replays showed the ball struck high on his bat, before meeting the middle and racing away. This might not happen regularly, but when Mustafizur is bowling his cutters and varying his pace, all bets are off. If Tharanga had done this in cricket, chances are he would’ve been given out.The awarenessKusal Mendis hammered Taskin Ahmed’s slower delivery back at him. The blow, on Taskin’s left shoulder, may have been a stinging one. He could have keeled over in pain and no one would have said a thing to him. But Taskin showed awareness by turning back quickly, taking a couple of steps backward to complete a catch off the rebound. It was only after exchanging a high-five before he finally winced and asked his teammates not to touch his shoulder.