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Stats highlights from the second day of the first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Karachi

Cricinfo staff23-Feb-2009

• Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera’s partnership of 437 is the highest for the fourth wicket in Tests. It’s also only the second 400-plus stand for that wicket in Tests, after Colin Cowdrey and Peter May’s 411 against West Indies in Birmingham in 1957.
• This is the fourth instance of two Sri Lankan batsmen – and the 15th overall in Tests – scoring double-hundreds in a single innings, which is the most by any team. Australia and Pakistan have achieved this on three occasions each. The last time this had happened in Pakistan, Sri Lanka had been at the receiving end, as Qasim Umar and Javed Miandad hammered doubles in Faisalabad in 1985.
• In 27 innings, Jayawardene and Samaraweera have averaged 68.80 together, which is marginally higher than the 68.59 that Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara average. Click here for Jayawardene’s average stands with each batsman.
• Jayawardene scored his fifth double-century, and his first outside Sri Lanka. Only two Sri Lankans – Marvan Atpattu and Sangakkara – have scored more double-hundreds. Click here for the full list of Sri Lankan double-centurions.
• There were no sixes in the Sri Lankan innings. It’s the eleventh time a team has scored 600 or above in an innings without hitting a six.
• Sohail Khan conceded 131 runs in 21 overs. His figures are the fourth-worst in terms of runs conceded for debutants who’ve gone wicketless in an innings.
• In their epic stand, Jayawardene and Samaraweera scored 110 runs behind the point region – 60 of them in boundaries. Most of these runs came on the first day, as Pakistan did not keep a third man.

Under Daren Ganga’s enlightened leadership, the team is all that counts – and the trophies are a testament to that ethos

Andrew Miller in Antigua28-Oct-2008

Daren Ganga is becoming cosily familiar with Sir Allen Stanford’s largesse. In 2006, he was the recipient of the runners-up cheque when Guyana pipped Trinidad to the final of the inaugural Stanford 20/20. Earlier this year, he and his team-mates made handsome amends for that setback by winning the follow-up event and the million-dollar cheque that came with it. Now, by seeing off Middlesex in the most compelling match yet witnessed in the Stanford Super Series, he’s claimed a further substantial slice of Texan pie to see him through the economic downturn.It was Stanford himself who handed over the spoils, and he could scarcely have been more satisfied at the outcome. Though the match once again lacked the pyrotechnics usually associated with Twenty20 cricket, the end result was a vindication of the quality that Stanford would have the world believe he is fostering through his involvement with Caribbean cricket. Middlesex arrived in Antigua with pedigree and were the favourites for this contest in many people’s estimation, but on the night they were outwitted – brought low in a tactical battle that arguably had more in common with Test cricket than the biff-bang-wallop format that most people had turned up expecting to see.It certainly wasn’t the manner in which a West Indian side might be expected to make off with the loot, but under Ganga’s guidance, Trinidad have become a cerebral bunch of cricketers. They paced their chase to perfection, keeping themselves in touch with wickets in hand before locating a vein of aggression at precisely the right moment. The match was sealed with a six, a towering clunk over long-on from Darren Bravo, but it had been in the bag for several overs beforehand, during Bravo and Denesh Ramdin’s momentum-shifting stand of 67 in eight overs.”We came here switched on, and we totally deserved our victory,” Ganga said, whose stature as a leader continues to mushroom. Eighteen months ago, he was leading West Indies on a tour of England, and though that appointment unravelled through a debilitating loss of form, the reasoning behind it remains sound to this day. Not so long ago, Trinidad cricket was synonymous with Brian Lara, a consummate genius but a selfish and divisive character. These days, under Ganga’s enlightened leadership, the team is all that counts – and the trophies are a testament to that ethos.In the space of four years, Trinidad has become the powerhouse of West Indian regional cricket. In that time it has won two 50-overs titles, the four-day regional championship, consecutive Carib Beer Challenge Finals, and now two of Stanford’s crowns. “Trinidad & Tobago cricket has a bunch of young players eager to make their mark, who want to enhance their reputation, and our reputation as a team,” Ganga said. “We had everything to play for, and have relished the opportunity to compete against teams outside our region. Our planning has been spot on and it all came to fruition.”

Ganga added that people might have questioned the thinking behind the team selection for this series, but sure enough there was no quibbling with the end product. Rather than fret about the vagaries of the wicket or the balance of the side, Trinidad concentrated on the dressing-room first and foremost. Three debutants were blooded in the Superstars match on Saturday evening – Justin Guillen, Kevon Cooper and Rishi Bachan – and all three acquitted themselves well in trying circumstances.For the money match, however, Trinidad delved deeper into their squad and introduced the greater experience of Amit Jaggernauth and Richard Kelly, not to mention the teenage fearlessness of Bravo Jr, whose love of the big occasion could prove every bit the equal of his brother, Dwayne.It all left Middlesex feeling rather bewildered. “When it came to the big occasion, we just weren’t quite up for it,” said their captain, Shaun Udal. “We didn’t bring our A game to the party, which I was confident about us doing. For some reason we were slow out of the blocks with the bat, had a dodgy spell and if it wasn’t for Neil Dexter at the end, we would have been lucky to get 100.”Ultimately the match was won and lost in six balls of bedlam at the end of the 16th over of Trinidad’s chase, which was arguably the first sighting of Twenty20 cricket as the world knows and loves it. With the hapless Neil Carter in the thick of the action, two sixes and two dropped catches marked a momentum shift which stayed till the end.”All the teams have struggled to hit boundaries,” said Middlesex’s opener, Andrew Strauss. “But the way Trinidad did it today was to stay in the game, keep wickets in hand, and then [attack] in the last five overs. This was an important game for us, we were representing our country as Twenty20 champions and it hurts we weren’t good enough. But these are very different wickets to England and we haven’t adjusted quickly enough.”In truth, Middlesex were not allowed to be good enough. The speedy legspin of Samuel Badree, who shared the new ball with the Man of the Match, Ravi Rampaul, left them groping for a response right from the start. Later, when it seemed they might start to reclaim the ascendancy with the ball, they were thwarted first by Ganga – whose unflustered style of accumulation has rarely been so suited to 20-over cricket – then by Bravo and Denesh Ramdin, whose spunky innings of 41 from 28 balls was the real difference between the sides.He was not able to make it to the finish, but as he trooped off the pitch with a satisfied waft of the bat after carrying his team to within two runs of victory, Ramdin offered another insight into why this match had been Trinidad’s to lose, rather than Middlesex’s to win. Three Trinidadians were named in the Superstars squad – Keiron Pollard, Dave Mohammad and Rayad Emrit. Ramdin, the incumbent West Indies wicketkeeper, was not among their number, and there’s no doubt it rankled. “Us players left out of the Superstars (squad) wanted to prove a point,” said Ganga. They’ve done just that, and in some style.

The inaugural ICC Women’s World Twenty20 witnessed several statistical highlights. Cricinfo looks at some of the interesting numbers from the tournament

Siddhartha Talya22-Jun-2009

60

Pakistan sunk to the lowest score in Twenty20 internationals against England at Taunton. They were not expected to challenge the hosts, but had done a reasonably good job with the ball to restrict England to 123. However, they were shut out in their reply, as only two batsmen reached double-figures. Just three days earlier, they had been bowled out for 75 – now the third-lowest total – against India, while Sri Lanka had limped to 69 for 8 in England’s previous game.

10

World champions England inflicted a ten-wicket defeat over India in the league stages of the competition at Taunton. It’s the only instance of a ten-wicket win in a Twenty20 international in women’s cricket. New Zealand beat Australia in the league stage by nine wickets, the second-highest margin of victory, but there have been two other instances of teams winning that heavily. At the other end of the scale was West Indies’ three-run win over South Africa at Taunton, which is the third-lowest margin of victory in terms of runs.

122

The World Twenty20 witnessed three of the highest partnerships in the format. Beth Morgan and Player-of-the-Series Claire Taylor added an unbeaten 122 for England in their thrilling eight-wicket win in the last over of the semi-final against Australia at The Oval. The stand is the second-highest in Twenty20 cricket, only bettered by the unbeaten 147-run fourth-wicket stand between Karen Rolton and Kate Blackwell for Australia against England at Taunton in 2005. There were two other century stands in the tournament (there have been a total of five overall): Suzie Bates and Aimee Watkins put together an unfinished 118 in New Zealand’s nine-wicket win over Australia, and Charlotte Edwards and Sarah Taylor added an unbeaten 113 in England’s ten-wicket rout of India. The two partnerships are at No.3 and 4 in the current list of highest partnerships in women’s Twenty20 cricket.Priyanka Roy [left] took only the second five-wicket haul in Twenty20 internationals•Getty Images

27

There have been a total of 70 sixes in Twenty20 internationals, of which 27 were struck in this World Twenty20. The average per match for this tournament was 1.8 sixes, marginally better than the 1.66 overall. New Zealand struck the most sixes in this competition, leading with eight, followed by Australia at six. Lucy Doolan and Aimee Watkins struck three each, while Charlotte Edwards chipped in with three for England. Amita Sharma struck a solitary six for India, while Pakistan managed none. New Zealand had four sixes in their innings against West Indies at Taunton, and Australia cleared the ropes as many times against South Africa. It’s the second-highest number of sixes by a team in an innings, three behind West Indies’ seven against Ireland in 2008.

22

Of the 29 half-centuries in women’s Twenty20 internationals, Deandra Dottin’s effort against Australia at Taunton is the quickest. She raced to her half-century off 22 balls, bettering Suzie Bates’ fifty off 26 balls against South Africa at the same venue in 2007. There were 13 half-centuries in 15 games in this competition, an average of 0.87 per game, significantly better than the figure of 0.69 overall. Aimee Watkins top scored with an unbeaten 89 against India, which, for a while, was the highest score in both the men’s and women’s World Twenty20 competitions taking place simultaneously before Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 96 not out against West Indies in the semi-final at The Oval. Watkins, Claire Taylor and West Indies opener Stafanie Taylor managed two fifties each in this tournament.

21.24

Like in the men’s ICC World Twenty20, spinners proved more effective than pace bowlers. Pace bowlers bagged 85 wickets at an average of 23.75 and an economy rate of 6.11. Spinners captured 62 wickets at 21.24 and conceded fewer runs per over, going at a rate of 5.95. In the men’s version, pace bowlers raked in 184 wickets at 25.68 at 7.97, while the performance of spinners was even better, with 114 wickets at 20.98 and a rate of 6.72 an over. There were three instances of bowlers taking four wickets or more in an innings, and spinners featured twice in the list. Shelley Nitschke, the left-arm spinner, took 4 for 21 against South Africa while Priyanka Roy, the India legspinner, bagged only the second five-wicket haul in women’s Twenty20 internationals, taking 5 for 16 in India’s five-wicket win over Pakistan.

6

Going against the general trend in women’s Twenty20 cricket, the side batting first lost more games than it won. Of the 15 games in the competition, only six were won by the team batting first. Overall, however, the team batting first has won 23 of the 42 Twenty20 matches. Teams opted to bat after winning the toss on 11 occasions in the tournament, winning only five of those games.The highlight for the minnows was Deandra Dottin’s half-century against Australia – the fastest in Twenty20 internationals•Getty Images

18.65

The average runs-per-wicket in the World Twenty20 was only marginally better than the overall stats – 18.35 – for the format in women’s cricket. Australia, England and New Zealand fared well, averaging well over 20. However, it was Pakistan (8.85) that did quite a bit of damage to the overall figures. They managed a highest score of 105 in the tournament, and were bowled out for 60 and 75 in their other two games – they lost all three. India, considered one of the elite teams in women’s cricket, were disappointing, averaging just 14 per wicket, lower than West Indies and South Africa.

163

The highest score chased down in Twenty20 internationals. Australia would have been quite confident of defending the sixth-highest score in the format in women’s cricket but were undone by a superb third-wicket stand between Claire Taylor and Beth Morgan at The Oval, which took England to the final. However, Australia did a better job of defending the highest score of the tournament while batting first – 164 – against South Africa in their league game in Taunton.

3.45

A run-rate of 3.45 is decent going for a minnow team in ODIs but is unacceptable in the Twenty20 format. When Sri Lanka crawled to 69 for 8 against England in Taunton, the second-lowest score in Twenty20 internationals, they also achieved the record of scoring at the slowest run-rate in a completed innings in the format. Pakistan, in their effort of 75 all out against India, achieved the lowest run-rate in a completed innings by a team batting first.

The seven-match one-day international series between India and Australia, with its sellout crowds and high TRPs, has made the talk of ‘the death of ODIs’ sound premature

Judhajit Basu and Sidharth Monga15-Nov-2009The seven-match one-day international series between India and Australia, with its sellout crowds and high TRPs, has made the talk of ‘the death of ODIs” sound premature. Over the last three weeks, the world’s biggest cricket market accepted the format with glee: All six matches played were sold out, and TV ratings in India suggested it got more eyeballs than the three big events that preceded it: the World Twenty20, Champions Trophy and Champions League Twenty20.The whole talk of the irrelevance of the ODI format reached its peak in England in August and September when Australia were beating England 6-1 in a lacklustre series. Curiously, healthy crowds came in to watch those matches but the one-sided contests and consequent lack of meaning in the later games did raise doubts. But the recent series in India seems to suggest it is the scheduling, and not the format, that is at fault.The Indian ratings (TRPs) compiled by TV audience measurement agency Audience Map (aMap) for the two ICC premier events this year – the World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy – go in favour of the shortest format of the game, but not by much.While the average TRP for the 27 games of the World Twenty20 was 2.11, the figure was 3.98 when India’s games were taken into consideration. In comparison, the average TRP for all matches in the Champions Trophy in South Africa that soon followed plummeted to 1.1 as India fell at the first stage, though their three matches fetched an average of 3.16. In fact, India’s matches drew 88 million viewers on the government-run channel Doordarshan 1 (DD1).The ratings, expressed as a percentage, took into account 15-years-plus viewers across all-India cable and satellite households (CS+15), with the top six metros in India under survey.The Indian audiences, however, didn’t quite warm up to the Champions League – a new tournament and a relatively untested domain where clubs from across the globe jostled for supremacy – according to data from another TV audience measurement agency, TAM Peoplemeter System. Among the target group of CS+4, the tournament delivered an abysmally low TRP of 0.74, even though the Bangalore Royal Challengers and Delhi Daredevils promised much.

The return to form of ODIs was signalled by the India-Australia series, aired in India on Doordarshan 1 and Neo Cricket, which had an average TRP of 5.52 – five times that of the Champions League

The return to form of ODIs was signalled by the India-Australia series, aired in India on Doordarshan 1 and Neo Cricket, which had an average TAM TRP of 5.52 – five times that of the Champions League. The highest figure was recorded for the fifth ODI in Hyderabad at 7.1.The 50-over format also seemed to enjoy favour from players on both sides in the series. After that heady Hyderabad match, MS Dhoni said: “Whenever there are ODIs played in India, we see lots of people for them. I don’t think it will die. It’s an art to bat in one-day cricket. [It’s] Still interesting. Games like this make it more interesting.”Dhoni was the second-highest run-getter in the series, and the leading scorer, Michael Hussey, also spoke about the art of one-day cricket that made the format interesting. “I think 50-over cricket has a huge future in the game,” he said before the series. “It caters to a wide range of players, you can have your very aggressive batsmen, you can have the good runners between the wickets, it calls for tactics, you can have good spinners in the middle. Fifty-overs cricket has a big role to play still.”The marketing man seems to agree. “I always believed the talk about the death of ODIs was premature,” said the head of a media-buying agency. “For me the World Cup will always be a 50-over affair. Eventually cricket is not so much about entertainment, it’s all about the quality of the games. And one-dayers, which will continue to be a powerful property, have eventually demonstrated that it is good cricket.”

After enjoying success against mediocre batting line-ups during the last home summer, the offspinner’s limitations have been ruthlessly exposed by India

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Oct-2010The pink-red stains all over Nathan Hauritz’s whites were oddly symbolic as Australia’s inexperienced attack endured a bruising couple of sessions before wickets with the second new ball gave them a thin sliver of hope heading into the fourth day. Hauritz, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus came into the game with a combined total of 65 caps, while Peter George had played just 19 first-class games. Zaheer Khan alone has 73 caps.Since the retirements of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, Australia have had to endure some tough days in the field. When they were around, partnerships like the 376-run one that VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid shared at the Eden Gardens in 2001 were notable exceptions rather than the rule. When Sachin Tendulkar and Laxman put on 353 at the SCG three years later, neither was present, with McGrath injured and Warne serving a suspension for pills that his mum gave him.Since those halcyon days when the mere sight of legends in baggy green was enough to terrify most opponents into submission – India were the exception – the bowling resources at Ricky Ponting’s disposal have dwindled steadily. Brett Lee has faded away, Peter Siddle got injured after a promising start, and Ryan Harris too has succumbed to niggles and pains.The paucity of options was apparent on Monday morning. An early wicket or two and India, 350 behind at the start of the day, would have been under real pressure. Instead, Hauritz bowled two terrible deliveries down the leg side, Tendulkar cashed in to reach his 50 and the crowd came alive.Hilfenhaus was again impressive, hitting the pitch hard and also trying variations unexpected from someone often pigeonholed as an out-and-out swing bowler. But Johnson’s efforts to bounce Tendulkar out were contemptuously swatted away, and the first hour saw India seize the initiative to such an extent that they could ease off either side of lunch.”We were probably a little bit flat when you look at it,” said Johnson after the day’s play. “When we went out there, we probably tried a bit too hard and it didn’t work for us. As the day went on, Vijay and Tendulkar obviously batted very well on that wicket.”With the sun shining and the pitch doing little, Australia created little by way of chances. The one they missed could have changed the game, as Hauritz made a hash of a throw to the keeper with Vijay, then just 49, stranded nearly mid-pitch. Hilfenhaus was unlucky not to have Vijay leg-before when he had made 77, but that and a Tendulkar inside-edge that streaked for four aside, there were desperately few what-might-have-been moments.As the day progressed, Ponting’s mind might have gone back to Perth in December 2008, when South Africa scored 227 for 3 on the penultimate evening, before knocking off the remaining 187 for the loss of just Jacques Kallis on the final day. Tendulkar, in particular, was imperious, punishing every bad ball and threading the ball into gaps pretty much as he pleased.”No doubt it’s tough out there in Test match cricket on wickets like that, and he [Tendulkar] has scored 14,000 runs, so it’s pretty hard yakka out there,” Johnson said. “I said when I arrived that I enjoy the challenges of these wickets and coming up against such great batsmen. But it’s not disheartening. Hilfenhaus did extremely well without any luck. He had a chance almost chopped on from Tendulkar, and bowled extremely well today. We’re sticking together as a bowling unit and we’re going to keep fighting hard to win it.”Ponting plumped for Hauritz over Jason Krejza a couple of years ago because he felt that he would offered him more control. But after enjoying success against mediocre batting line-ups during the last home summer, his limitations have been ruthlessly exposed by India. He has gone for nearly four an over, without presenting anything like the attacking threat that Krejza did on his debut in Nagpur two years ago. With George clearly nervous on debut and mostly entrusted with bouncing Vijay, Johnson and Hilfenhaus were the only wicket-taking cards in the Ponting deck.The second new ball is now 32 overs old and if Australia don’t break through early on day four – a little cloud cover could help a great deal – another long day beckons. On this type of surface, running through the tail is not guaranteed either, and Ponting will still have nightmares of that day at the MCG when JP Duminy, assisted by Paul Harris, Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini, added 275 for the final three wickets to transform a game that Australia had under control.MS Dhoni hasn’t done as well against Australia as he has against other teams – he averages 31.66 against a career figure of 41 – but the impetuous stroke that Suresh Raina played to get out right after Ponting had moved the long-on in has given him the perfect opportunity to put the series out of Australia’s reach. With Tendulkar looking serene at one end and little sign of reverse-swing, it could just be a question of surviving half an hour and then batting on as long as they can.It took Hauritz four years to return to the Test side after the Indians took a shine to him at Mumbai in 2004. And if he doesn’t perk up on day four, it’s not inconceivable that another spell on the sidelines beckons. That shirt certainly doesn’t need any more red on it.

How to approach this politely? Ian Chappell was pretty polite. “If his batting was as good as Don Bradman’s,” he said on air, “he couldn’t score enough runs to make up for what he costs them with his keeping.”

Osman Samiuddin in Pallekele08-Mar-2011How to approach this politely? Ian Chappell was pretty polite. “If his batting was as good as Don Bradman’s,” he said on air, “he couldn’t score enough runs to make up for what he costs them with his keeping.”There are many ways in which the depth of denial in Pakistan – in all spheres of life – presents itself to the observer. No better example of it exists than the continued presence of Kamran Akmal in the side, the man to whom Chappell refers so politely. The world knows the worth of Akmal as a wicketkeeper: to be short, he is not one anymore. He is, to steal and twist the wonderful sledge Jimmy Ormond dished out to Mark Waugh once, not even the best wicketkeeper in his family. He’s not even the second-best: Umar Akmal has looked safer than him on the occasions he has kept.Yet as Pakistan has changed everything about its cricket over the last four years – captains, selectors, chairmen, players, coaches – Akmal has remained unchanged, unchallenged in his incompetency. Until the beginning of Pakistan’s last summer in England, when there was still a will left to count, he was fluffing comfortably more than one chance per Test: 32 in 25 Tests. His ODI rate cannot be far behind.There appears no sane reason for it and even an insane one right now would be handy. Shoaib Malik thought him the second-best wicketkeeper-batsman behind Adam Gilchrist during his captaincy, a hallucination rather than delusion. The pair are close, so nepotism was as good a reason as any. But what were the reasons for Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Salman Butt and now, Shahid Afridi to persist with him?After every show of calamity, when the question is put to anyone in charge, the response is to say it is only one match, that everyone drops a catch occasionally, or the line Waqar Younis trotted out today, that we can’t just blame the one person. We can at least blame those who keep selecting him. Those who argue that he compensates with his batting will kindly direct themselves to the brutality of Chappell’s verdict: no amount of runs can make up for the matches, and as importantly the moments in matches, he has lost.Despite consistently letting his side down, Kamran Akmal has been a mainstay of Pakistan’s team over the last few years•Getty ImagesThe few times he has been dropped in the last four years – for the Asia Cup 2008, after the Australia tour last year, during the English summer – the performances leading into it have been so monumentally negligent that not dropping him might have risked the kind of revolution in Pakistan seen in the Arab world. It would probably take that still to shift him.In any case he has returned back to the side at the first opportunity. Whether they forget or choose to overlook his errors is irrelevant: it is criminal in both cases. He sneaked into this squad only after being cleared by a board integrity committee. A wicketkeeping committee might have been better placed to rule on it.Akmal’s three misses – two off Ross Taylor – set the tone for the rest of the innings, Pakistan’s most bedraggled performance in the field in this tournament so far. Their last one, against Sri Lanka, was sparked incidentally by two missed stumpings.Short of injuring Akmal and sending him back, the only option Pakistan could explore is to play the younger Akmal as a wicketkeeper. In keeping with the cautious nature of the team’s leaders, that seems unlikely. Asked whether they would consider it, Waqar Younis said, “After the World Cup maybe we can think about it, but we are in the middle of the tournament and I don’t think we can make such a change. We have five days off in which we will try to rectify his mistakes because in such a short time we can’t rectify all mistakes. We can’t kick him out at the moment, we can try to make him better for the next game and make sure he won’t make the same mistakes.”Meanwhile, the state of denial Pakistan remains in about the balance of its side should also take a few knocks here, hopefully. They persist in playing a specialist bowler short to buffer their batting. Playing a batsman at eight – Abdul Razzaq may open the bowling but he is no opening bowler, as tournament figures of 21-4-111-1 testify – has not helped their batting much in their last two games, precisely the situations the strategy is aimed at. Razzaq’s 62 will, no doubt, be used as justification at some point in the future.When Umar Gul had to be bowled out during the batting Powerplay – and his fine bowling will not even be a footnote – it left the last four overs to be bowled by someone who wasn’t Gul. Those four overs, shared by Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar and Abdur Rehman, went for 92. Razzaq’s four overs of the day went for 49, “a bit off-colour” Waqar said: a little yes, like black and white.Yet the top order collapse seemed to confirm to Pakistan they need the batting. “We were 120-7 so we were short of batsmen,” Waqar said. “I think 300 was chaseable. We can’t afford to have another bowler in the side, as we are playing with six if you consider Mohammad Hafeez and Razzaq. I don’t think we can manage another bowler.”

ESPNcricinfo brings you the plays of the first day of the third Test between South Africa and India at Newlands

Firdose Moonda at Newlands02-Jan-2011The toss
After losing 13 of his last 14 tosses, it was becoming more important for MS Dhoni to practice making the right calls at the toss, than to fine-tune his batting. Indian fans had begun to ask for the captain to send out a representative in his place as he was going through such a lean run of form with the toss. Then, as though by a miracle, he called correctly under cloudy skies. Having been inserted in similar conditions in the first two Tests, he had no second thoughts about asking South Africa to bat.The fear factor
Graeme Smith showed just how nervous facing Zaheer Khan made him when he opted not to take first strike and let Alviro Petersen see off his first two overs. When Smith faced Zaheer, in his third over, he could hardly wait to get off strike. Off the fourth delivery of the over, Smith worked the ball through midwicket and ran one, with a second run comfortably on offer. Harbhajan Singh, who saw Smith waiting at the non-strikers end ambled to the ball, backpedalled a little, stood around and offered the extra run. Smith didn’t budge, leaving Petersen to face the last two balls of that over.The act of caution
Jacques Kallis is not one to see if lightning can strike twice. When Hashim Amla drove a delivery straight back to Zaheer Khan at the Wynberg End, Kallis rushed back to his crease anxiously, fearing a repeat of his Durban dilemma. Then, Kallis was run out at the non-strikers end by Ishant Sharma in the first innings at Kingsmead and his extra backing up today was a sign that he has learnt his lesson.The glee
Sreesanth did not have much to celebrate in his first nine overs, having gone for 47 runs. Hashim Amla had taken a particular liking to him in the post-lunch session, having hit him for two glorious cover drives and an emphatic pull shot for six. His fourth boundary off Sreesanth was an outside edge that evaded VVS Laxman at second slip and the break-dancer’s blood was starting to boil. Two balls later, it was all over. Amla top-edged a bouncer and was caught at deep midwicket, an act that unleashed Sree’s glee. He charged around like an unrestrained border collie and it was up to Hrabhajan to rein him in before he ran right out of the ground.The light
It got too dark to play in the morning and afternoon sessions but Cape Town was saving the best for last. The Mother City revealed her best side as early evening approached. The clouds climbed their way up Table Mountain with blue skies finally unveiled. Bright sunshine soaked the ground and a day that could have been truncated by poor overhead conditions, and had eight minutes short of two hours lost to the elements, ended up having 74 overs of play. There are some benefits to the city technically being in the wrong time zone, it seems.

ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan Editor examines the Indian team and finds MS Dhoni a calm figure amid much machismo and aggression

Osman Samiuddin in Mohali29-Mar-2011The modern India is predominantly an India of stability, a point that can and often does get swamped by all the sound and fury of Indian cricket. Since Sourav Ganguly took over as captain in March 2000, India has had just four full-time captains for all formats. The more recent India is that of MS Dhoni, who has mostly kept his counsel and preferred to win matches rather than get involved in the screaming and shouting around him since 2007 when he took over as Twenty20 and ODI captain.It sounds unremarkable but how Pakistan would love that kind of unremarkable, where the biggest controversy of the last four, five years has been that of a divisive coach, one that would struggle to make it to the back pages of most newspapers in Pakistan.Since Ganguly took over, Pakistan has had nine full-time captains in all forms of the game. In the time that Dhoni has led India, they’ve had five alone. If India has been Dhoni’s, Pakistan has been everyone’s and, sadly, no one’s. Currently it is Shahid Afridi’s and it isn’t a bad one. But it could be anyone’s tomorrow: Misbah, Younis, Razzaq, Malik, Akmal even, who knows?For many reasons to the outsider, Dhoni remains the most compelling personality in the Indian side, not just because of the way his game has become unrecognisable from what it was when he emerged. In the permanently overheated milieu in which he operates, where a haircut is a mass-spectator sport, he has not been seen celebrating topless at Lord’s and he has not been so consumed by the job that he has had to relinquish it. Both Ganguly and Rahul Dravid had endearing qualities as captain but Dhoni’s equilibrium is startling. It is actually unnerving.Sure, there is probably much more to him than that. He is smart that much
is certain, perhaps too smart, in the way we in the subcontinent might call him and just the number of brands that piggyback off him is ludicrous. There is nothing wrong with that and none of it is actually important because the central point, from here, is that he is MS Dhoni, captain of India, and he has remained that way for some time and probably will do for sometime more.He hasn’t given up the captaincy, he’s not been caught out spot-fixing. If he’s had run-ins with the board, they haven’t been big enough to change the status quo. If he’s had problems with the players, they haven’t been bad enough to inspire revolts. He has even managed to take most of the catches that have come his way. He is mostly unquestioned as captain, given the time and space to build a side, no matter whether it has been successful or not. Whether it has happened by design, or default, it has happened. If you know only chaos, stability soon acquires its own myth.It may become harder in time of course, when time is called on possibly the greatest middle order the game has seen, but that is for another day. It is a fact that no Indian captain has been able to call upon as rich a bounty of talent as have the last few, and especially Dhoni.When you have a man such as Virender Sehwag, for example, as your opening gambit in any game, half the game is often won. Sehwag has not just been a reminder of Pakistan’s problems with openers but he has been a particularly insensitive and brutal one, each innings as abrupt and disorienting as a slap on the face. Few batsmen, maybe Brian Lara on occasion, have been as dismissive of Pakistan’s pride – their fast bowlers – as Sehwag has; triples, doubles, big hundreds, all to go with some of the best sledges.So Dhoni has led arguably the greatest Indian Test side – but not a great one – and an ODI side that hasn’t progressed as much as it should have after early promise. It remains a formidable one particularly at home and it might yet win a World Cup. But the one thing that has held them back is the one thing that has sustained Pakistan over the years: a class fast bowler or two.India has started producing some finally but they haven’t yet worked out what to do with them. One from RP Singh, Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma should currently be much more than they actually are: forgotten, mad and underachieving, respectively. Some edge is missing. Maybe they are too pampered too soon, or over-coached. A little bit of struggle is never a bad thing for a fast bowler.Still there has been Zaheer Khan, himself a tale of redemption fast bowlers can learn from. The comparisons with Wasim Akram are probably unfair to both, but a Zaheer spell is as compelling to witness as one from Mohammad Asif, where the real craft of fast bowling is obvious and apparent. Ball by ball a batsman is worked on, one this way, one that, one shorter, one a change of pace, one reversing, one not; the modern day batsman is such a protected and empowered brute that anytime he is made to look timid and embarrassed is a special moment. The one to get rid of Michael Hussey in the quarter-finals will stand among the deliveries of the tournament.Now Indians are more like what they imagined Pakistanis to be in the 80s and 90s, in their long-haired, moustachioed pomp. Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Sreesanth, Gautam Gambhir are a different breed to the well-behaved, mild-mannered Clark Kents that mostly made up India in the 80s. Now there is attitude, aggression and square-ups.But there doesn’t seem the rawness. Somehow it seems manufactured because, the argument goes from Pakistan, if it was real it would naturally lead to a level of crazy only Pakistan have ever attained. Ganguly’s aggression came from a natural place inside. For those who followed, the sense still can’t be removed that where Pakistan used – and still use – that undirected energy and testosterone to win matches, here it is used to sell cola as well.All except Dhoni who remains hinged. And still sells cola.

On the second day at Trent Bridge, Rahul Dravid and Stuart Broad shined. But what could be the decider in the series is the distinct difference in capabilities between India and England’s lower orders

Sambit Bal at Trent Bridge31-Jul-2011Perhaps the most incredible thing about this Test match is that it remains on an even keel even though India have won three-fourth of it. Any team that wins four out of six sessions in the first two days should expect to carry a natural advantage in to the third day, but so dramatically impactful have England been in the sessions they have owned that they remain another couple of good sessions away from gaining an unassailable lead in this series.Another monumental effort from Rahul Dravid, India’s greatest match-winning batsman, failed to win a decisive advantage for his team, as Stuart Broad, the most compelling performer of this series, intervened in the most spectacular manner possible. He has experienced the joy of a hat-trick before, but school cricket somewhat pales in comparison to the stage of Test cricket. That he turned the match England’s way in the space of seven balls, after Dravid had batted six hours to build India’s platform, was a tribute to Test cricket itself.It was the cruellest of twists for Dravid, who has been on the field for all but six hours and 20 minutes of the seven days during the series, and who had played one of the finest innings of his long and distinguished career. But Broad’s spell was the reaffirmation of the most fundamental truth about cricket: batsmen set the pace, but bowlers provide the decisive thrust.In the pre-series hype about the battle for the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings, few scriptwriters saw it boiling down to a shootout between the India and England’s tails. This Test is expected to keep turning, but one pattern has been incontrovertibly established: England have knocked the stuffing out of India in the matter of lower-order runs. In this Test, and consequently the series, that could end up being the difference.The numbers tell the story vividly and strikingly. England lifted themselves from 85 for 5 to 221 on the first day with the last two wickets adding 97 runs; India capitulated from 267 for 4 to 288 all out in a matter of six overs to provide a dramatic twist to this thoroughly riveting Test.The overall figures from the six completed innings in this series so far are even more astonishing. England’s last five wickets have amassed 547 runs so far as against India’s 220. And given that England declared twice at Lord’s, their lower order now has an average of 60.77 against India’s 14.67. As numerical evidence goes, nothing can be more damning.In their three innings so far, India have lost their last five wickets for 46, 36, and 15 runs. MS Dhoni has been outscored by a massive margin by Matt Prior and his dismissal on the second day at Trent Bridge was the outcome of a poor stroke; Harbhajan Singh, who has scored two hundreds and two half-centuries in his last ten Tests, has never looked like scoring a run here; only Ishant Sharma among the tail has looked inclined to get behind the line.Of course the conditions make a difference. Invariably, lower-order batsmen find it far more difficult to cope with unfamiliar challenges. Even top-order batsmen have struggled with the moving ball in both Tests, and it must be an advantage that Trent Bridge is Broad and Graeme Swann’s home ground. But Test matches are tougher to win when your batting line-up ends at No. 6.The series isn’t even halfway through yet, but plenty of comparisons have already been made with the 2005 Ashes. In that vein, it would be fair to put Broad’s performance in this series parallel to Andrew Flintoff’s six years ago. Broad does not quite have Flintoff’s presence or his menace, but apart from his first-ball duck in the first innings at Lord’s, he has always made things happen.For a man who cut a desolate figure against Sri Lanka only last month, the turnaround has been sensational. James Anderson has swung the ball more, and Chris Tremlett extracted more bounce than him, but Broad has provided the breakthroughs. That he was a fifty-fifty choice for the first XI before the series now seems staggering. With him batting at No. 9 and Swann at 10, England now have the deepest batting since South Africa had the luxury of Shaun Pollock at No. 9. It makes them a harder team to beat.Conversely, Dravid has run out of partners in both the Tests. His dismissal on Saturday, through a slice to third man, was uncharacteristic, but it was a stroke of desperation. For over six hours he had provided an exhibition of Test-match batting of the highest quality. For his innings to end with a wild flail was a travesty.Even though Broad conceded England were still behind in this game, the chase in the final innings will be tricky. The best possible way for India’s tail to avoid another embarrassment would be to ensure that there are not too many to chase in the first place.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the day from the second ODI between New Zealand and Zimbabwe, in Whangarei

Andrew Fernando06-Feb-2012The miss
In their first association of the day, Elton Chigumbura and Tatenda Taibu combined to cap off perhaps the worst all-round piece of cricket of the match. Having pushed to mid-on, Martin Guptill and Rob Nicol started, stuttered then started again, giving Chigumbura plenty of time to effect the run out. Despite a dismissal almost being guaranteed at Guptill’s end, the fielder threw to Nicol’s end. Zimbabwe should have still got the wicket, but Taibu fumbled a straightforward collection. Better fielding teams could have dismissed one batsman, and broken the stumps at the other end for good measure.The miss – II
Taibu and Chigumbura’s second bungled dismissal could have cut Jacob Oram’s devastating knock short. Hamilton Masakadza induced a top edge that flew high, and Taibu raced after it, calling for the catch as he did. Chigumbura hung back at mid-on after hearing the call, but Taibu, realising he could not get there in time, yelled for the fielder to take the catch. Too late. Chigumbura couldn’t lay a hand on the ball, despite having started metres from where it eventually fell.The plan
Rarely do promotions in batting work so well, not only in the context of the match, but as a confidence boost for the player being shunted up. Despite his batting prowess, Jacob Oram has been picked primarily as a bowler following a drastic decline in batting form over the years. His promotion yielded him a fifty at a strike-rate of over 200, and helped him reprise a few favoured shots from his early days, in what New Zealand will hope is a rediscovery of his batting talent. In 2003-04 Oram laid waste to the South African attack with a series of such stunning knocks. A week before they arrive in 2012, he seems hungry to do so again.The dolly
Having begun brightly, Zimbabwe’s fielding suffered a rapid decline in standards once the batsmen began to pepper the ropes. Perhaps the most woeful of their fielding misadventures was when Kyle Jarvis dropped a sitter off Brendon McCullum in the 37th over. McCullum mistimed a cut, and the ball looped to Jarvis, who only had to put his hands in front of his face to collect the ball. He dropped it cold, and an unimpressed Brendan Taylor repositioned him elsewhere for the rest of the innings.The belated boundary
After New Zealand’s 372 for 6 featured 45 boundary hits, Zimbabwe were expected to come out playing their shots. It was not to be. After three early losses, the batsmen began to treat the lifeless Cobham Oval pitch with respect, and shelved all their shots. With the batsmen dropping like Lady Gaga singles early on, one might have wondered if Zimbabwe would hit a boundary at all. But Malcolm Waller finally did the honours in the sixteenth over, slamming Andrew Ellis past point for four.The redemption
After having combined to ruin two simple wicket-taking opportunities, Taibu and Chigumbura found a dollop of respectability with the bat, as Zimbabwe’s top scorers. With five wickets down, and the target still miles away, the visitors were in danger of slumping to their worst one-day defeat ever. But Taibu and Chigumbura added 80 for the sixth wicket and provided some substance to the reply, ineffective though it was.