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They have a mountain to climb on the final day but England’s chances of survival were aided by another unflappable display from Haseeb Hameed

George Dobell in Visakhapatnam20-Nov-20162:17

Compton: Hameed’s style is perfectly set up for Tests

Just for little while, it seemed the almost impossible was becoming the merely unlikely.As Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed resisted for 50 overs, it seemed England really might be able to defy India in the sort of conditions English players grow up to fear. The last 10 overs – and most of all, that last ball – were a harsh way to wake from the dream.This has been an odd game. Whatever happens on the final day – and victory for India remains highly likely – England will leave Visakhapatnam encouraged by their performance. There seems every chance that this will turn out to be that most British of things: a heartening defeat. Really, it might be the most heartening defeat for years.Why? Because they’ve proved (to themselves as much as any of us watching) that they can compete in such conditions. They’ve shown that they have the character and skill to cope with losing the toss and playing against good bowlers in turning conditions. And, just as importantly, they’ve shown they can claw their way back into games from unpromising situations. You could make a strong argument that they have had the best of days three and four. It’s just the damage inflicted on days one and two was too deep.They have learned several useful lessons, too. They have learned, or been reminded, they cannot afford even half a bad session in such circumstances. So the loss of their first five first-innings wicket before the end of the second evening – a couple of them to somewhat soft strokes – was a setback from which they have never been allowed to recover. The footwork has to be more certain; the techniques more solid. They cannot afford a bad hour here.And, while there are no easy answers to dealing with Virat Kohli – he has looked magnificent in this series – England will reflect on the chance he offered when on 56 in the first innings and know that, had they been better organised and had a better fielder than Adil Rashid in position for the hook trap, the whole complexion of this game might have been different. It was a fleeing moment, certainly, but that may well prove to be as good an opportunity as England find in this series. If they are going to win, they have to seize such moments.They may rue the tenth-wicket stand of 42 they conceded on Sunday, too. A target of 363 in 160 overs would, perhaps, have been scarcely less daunting in practical terms. But in terms of morale? Final-wicket stands drain and dispirit like little else. While England hardly bowled a poor delivery in the first 100 minutes or so of the day, when they took six for 64, they may reflect that, just for a few minutes, they then allowed their concentration to drift and were punished for it.Generally, though, since Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes resumed on the third morning, there has been much to admire about this England performance. Stuart Broad has never bowled better in India, Rashid has never bowled better in Test cricket and, for all the praise lavished upon India’s spinners, Rashid and Moeen Ali have better bowling averages and strike rates than R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja at this stage in the series.But perhaps it was the performance of Hameed that provided most cause for encouragement. For the second Test in succession, Hameed demonstrated a calm temperament in an unhurried display that belied his 19-years. It took an almost impossible ball, one that kept horribly low, to dismiss him.These were desperately tough circumstances for Hameed. On a pitch offering turn and, most pertinently, variable bounce, he was tested in just about every way a batsman can be tested. India’s seamers examined his discomfort against the short ball and India’s spinners examined his ability to play the turning ball.His struggles against short-pitched bowlingt will have had fast bowlers around the world taking note. Whatever he achieves in the next few weeks, it is inevitable now that Hameed will be on the receiving end of many bouncers when he comes up against West Indies, South Africa and Australia. And they will almost always be directed at him on quicker, livelier tracks than this.Haseeb Hameed faced down his first barrage of short balls in international cricket•Associated PressThere was talk of this potential weakness before he arrived in India. He was troubled by Surrey’s fast bowlers (Stuart Meaker and Mark Footitt) in the English summer and by Taskin Ahmed in Bangladesh.Here he was struck on the hand by the first delivery he faced – he later received treatment on his little finger, but the England camp played down any serious damage – after taking his eye off a fine, head-high bouncer from Mohammed Shami and took two more deliveries in the rib area. He wore a chest guard in this innings, but he may have a bruise or two for the rest of this week.But, whether he had been hit or not, he was right back in line for the next delivery. And whether hit or not, he was right forward to the next delivery as required. There’s no question of courage with Hameed, he is just learning to deal with that line of attack. The challenge confronting him might be compared to that confronting Ben Stokes and spin. Stokes overcame that challenge; how Hameed manages may well define how far he progresses in international cricket.There were, in all, nine deliveries that might reasonably be described as bouncers directed at Hameed. While his inclination seems to be to sway out of the way, he also ducked once and played the ball from in front of his face straight into the ground on other occasions. Short-leg was never in business and the two men out for the hook seemed utterly redundant. It was painful, but he survived.The manner in which he dealt with spin was even more impressive. Having been dismissed in Rajkot by Ashwin bowling around the wicket, he has resolved to watch the ball harder and be even more precise in his foot movement. He leaves the ball well outside off stump and gets further forward than most to smother the spin.While other batsmen – and not just young batsmen – might have become uncomfortable with the slow rate of scoring, Hameed looked supremely unworried. And while other batsmen might have allowed the match situation to play on their mind, Hameed seemed to enjoy the prospect of five sessions of crease occupation. Where else would he rather be?Every day, in every way (it was Hameed who was most insistent that England should utilise their review which resulted in KL Rahul being given out) he seems to be growing more comfortable with this level and the environment of the England team. This was a terrifically tough day and he came through it bruised but unbowed. It was another step forward in his development.It is for such reasons that, whatever happens on Monday, England will leave Visakhapatnam with spirits and heads high. They are learning and improving all the time.

Kumar Sangakkara could not have done a much better job of putting Bangladesh under the cosh – but the visitors only had themselves to blame

Mohammad Isam in Galle07-Mar-2017One of Bangladesh’s major narratives ahead of this Test series was the absence of “senior cricketers” from the Sri Lanka line-up playing into their hands, and giving them the best chance to win a Test series against them for the first time. Kusal Mendis’ unbeaten 166, and his 196-run fourth-wicket stand with Asela Gunaratne, provided haunting memories of one such senior cricketer who had tormented them for 13 years in this particular contest.If any one of the Bangladesh fielders saw the apparition of Kumar Sangakkara walking in from the ocean side of the Galle stadium, or even his name appearing on the scoreboard on the western end, they could be forgiven.Sangakkara has the most runs for any batsman against Bangladesh in Tests, averaging 95.57 in 21 innings with seven centuries. But just like Muttiah Muralitharan’s retirement in 2011, meaning no more additions to his 89 wickets at 13.37, Sangakkara leaving the international stage in 2015 was quietly welcomed by Bangladeshis. His last Test against Bangladesh, in Chittagong in 2014, featured a triple-hundred followed up by another century in the second innings.Mendis hasn’t yet done anything quite as big, and this is not intended as a comparison between him and the legendary Sri Lankan. But his grinding innings eroded most of the spunk out of Bangladesh’s system by the second session. He turned Sri Lanka’s fortune with his straightforward effort, hardly giving a chance after his first ball (from which he earned a reprieve through a no-ball after being caught behind). And it wasn’t just a singular performance; he increased the impact of his innings via the repair work he and Gunaratne undertook after the fall of three wickets.

‘We have to bat well’ – Mehedi

Bangladesh offspinner Mehedi Hasan has said that they are pinning their hopes on Sri Lanka’s shortened batting line-up for a return to the fight on the second day.
“Already they have lost four of their top-order batsmen,” Mehedi said. “They have two main batsmen left so hopefully if tomorrow we can get those two at the crease, their lower-order batsmen will come to the crease. And they will not be able to score many runs on this wicket. So our target will be to check the runs and get the wickets in the morning.”
Mehedi said that from this point onwards in the game, a lot will depend on how the Bangladesh batsmen respond in their first innings. “We believe that we have played very good cricket in the last few Test matches – be it in New Zealand or India. Our seniors have played well, I hope we can get a good result.
“If we can bat well then we can hope for a good result.”

He was around when stumps were drawn in the dying light of Galle, walking off tired but with the satisfaction that the home side were fully in charge.It would be easy to blame Subashis Roy’s no-ball for all that went wrong for Bangladesh but the game slipped away from them slowly, starting roughly in the second hour of the second session. Coach Chandika Hathurusingha had said before the Test that he wanted the Bangladesh players to keep shape for the whole session and not just the first hour or the second hour.The bowlers were in a groove that was built by dot balls, and enjoyed particular success in closing down Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka’s most experienced batsman in this match. The shot he got out to, an airy drive that ended up at gully, showed he was looking for a way out after being stifled for a sustained period. It was similar to how Keshav Maharaj held him back, and then took his wicket, in the second innings of the Port Elizabeth Test in December.Even the wicket that brought Mendis to the crease, that of Upul Tharanga, had buoyed Bangladesh. Tharanga had struck 386 runs in seven innings in last year’s Dhaka Premier League so, in the sixth over of the day, he was a big wicket for Subashis, his Mohammedan Sporting Club team-mate.It looked like Subashis being chosen ahead of Kamrul Islam Rabbi was vindicated but, after that first spell, he was ineffective for the rest of the day. Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman bowled more on the stumps and made all the batsmen play regularly, although Taskin was erratic in patches, giving wides and taking his time finishing his overs.Bangladesh slipped off the pace soon after Chandimal’s dismissal, with Gunaratne batting quite freely from the start of his innings. His acceleration, and the stability of the fourth-wicket partnership, made sure Sri Lanka picked up the overall tempo of their innings. Where they scored at 2.54 in the first session, it rose to 3.24 in the 29 overs of the second session, and a whopping 4.74 in the final session.This let-off of the scoring rate due to the lack of maiden overs and a general dot-ball build-up is what cost Bangladesh ascendency in the game. Not Subashis’ no-ball. If he had not bowled that no-ball, the scenario would have been different; but what Hathurusingha had wanted from his team – sustained pressure on the opposition throughout the day – was still missing after the first session.Sri Lanka’s 321 for 4 and Mendis’ 166 should certainly serve as a reminder – but not of Sangakkara and the long days he kept them on the field even after reaching a century. It should motivate them to fight back, and regain a balance between the two sides, the balance they have talked up ahead of the series.

India’s victorious captain sits down with his IPL buddy and rival captain AB de Villiers to assuage the latter’s disappointment after coming up short in yet another ICC tournament. Or so we think

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval11-Jun-2017Virat: Hard luck, AB. So much for staying calm….AB: (Rolls his eyes)Virat: So then, man, what happened?AB: Well, for a start, you won the toss, which, ok, fine, you did lose the first two. But then Hash and Quinny decided they’d take it slow and sweet. Thirty-five after ten? More slow than sweet, eh? Mind you, you guys don’t exactly bolt out of the gates, do you? Thirty-seven for Rohit out, and what was that shot?Virat: We knew you guys haven’t been rushing out, though. What is it? Second-worst run rate in the first Powerplay (3.8) this tournament, behind Bangladesh (3.23). I mean, come on, even Pakistan’s openers are getting out faster. And Rohit… well, only he can play those kinds of shots. I was a little worried that you hadn’t lost wickets in the first 15, though.AB: Yeah. But imagine. Hash and Quinny, so settled, eyes, limbs, heads, everything in. And then Hash does what he did. Why?Virat: Oh, yeah. Big wicket. Came easy. Great catch too, MS, because that was edged hard. Saved me too. Hash should’ve been long gone, if I hadn’t fumbled the pick up in that third over. Note to self, eh? Stop diving all the time.AB: You know, till Quinny was around, I was confident. I mean he is one heckuva talent, right? He has what, some ten hundreds against India?Virat: Easy now. Just five, actually.AB: And how many innings? That’s right, just 10. A hundred every other innings, that is. And him and Faf looked so positive, so much intensity. And then…Virat: Bam! Sir Jadeja.AB: I reckon Quinny just got overconfident. Or something. Why sweep Jaddu, a guy who’s at your pads and stumps like flies around a fruit bowl? Take your front leg out of the way, get the lbw out. You know, I knew he’d bowl there. He’d just survived that lbw shout and I just knew the next ball would be that little dart at the stumps.Virat: And then you, pal. What happened there? That wasn’t on.AB: (A quiet, blank stare)Virat: (Pats AB on the shoulder, sympathetically) It’s okay. I understand…AB: No, no. I really thought I could make it. Sure, it was a cheeky one, especially now with you guys fielding like you do and MS, yeah, he’s going grey but boy those hands are getting younger. Whiplash hands. Crazy quick hands, those. Who’d think it, me and Faf. Best mates, two fastest guys on the field but an accident waiting to happen between the wickets? Six times now Virat, six. Can you believe that?Virat: Never take MS on, that’s what we say in Indian cricket.AB: We were bad, but Faf and David? I don’t even know what happened there. It was like they were Olympic swimmers in a race to hit the wall first. I mean, we’re professionals. We’re trained to know who makes those calls. It was behind square, it had to be David’s call. But Faf panicked and, well… he panicked, they both panicked, we panicked.Virat: (Holds back the automatic urge to blurt out the ‘ch’ word, and not the ‘ch’ word he didn’t use against Australia.) Yes, we couldn’t believe it either.AB: You must have thought the match was yours then, right?Virat: (With uncharacteristic understatement) I was confident. But you know our bowling’s been mixed this tournament. Pakistan wasn’t enough of a challenge, but Sri Lanka really shook us. I’ll be honest: we thought we’d win that game, but that was a real wake-up call. Funny game. Sometimes, you think you have it under control, but then, like a saline drip, it trickles away and out of your grip. And you’re just there, dazed.AB: Tell me about it. We’ve just been here so many times, coming into these crunch games, full of enthusiasm, energy, hope. You should’ve seen us at training on Saturday. We went at it hard, with so much intensity. We said to each other we wouldn’t get overexcited. We said we’d enjoy the match. We said we’d put in an honest fight. I just don’t get what happens on days like this. I just…Virat: I said this yesterday, mate, and l’ll say it again. I empathise with you. I’m sorry. It’s just a game.AB: At least my captaincy’s safe. At least I think it is.Virat: Go well, mate. Maybe next time.AB: Maybe.

The ACA and the CA have sorted out their disagreements over the PP, the PPP, the ACR and the ACRA, to say nothing of the IP. The fans, meanwhile, have only this to say: TGIO

Brydon Coverdale03-Aug-2017It’s time someone finally explained the Australian cricket pay dispute in simple, easy-to-understand language. So here goes.The CEOs say the HOA paves the way for an MOU between CA and ACA, who will share ACR via the PP and the PPP. Don’t confuse the PPP for the PP – it has 50% more Ps. And don’t confuse the PPP in this HOA for the PPP in the last MOU – this PPP is 27.5% of ACR, the last PPP ranged from 24.5% to 27%. See? At least half a percent more.But – and here’s where it gets a complicated – there’s also an adjustment ledger, so if ACR exceeds $1.67 billion, players receive 19% of the upside to $1.96 billion ACR and grassroots receive 8.5%, whereas above $1.96 billion, players receive 27.5%.Meanwhile, the players gain greater control over IP, and the ACRA will be improved via a CA/ACA working group.Reports have also suggested that the pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle, and following a breakage of the chalice from the palace, the brew that is true is held by the flagon with the dragon, while Who’s on first, What’s on second and I Don’t Know is on third.So, now that you have all the relevant information, the obvious question is this: after 10 months of negotiations, 34 days of unemployment and one cancelled tour, who won?Actually, here’s a better question. Who cares?Seriously. Outside of the players and administrators themselves, who even cares which side came out better at the end?For the majority of the cricket public, only one thing matters. It’s over. Now the players can play, the administrators can administrate and the spectators can spectate.Come November 26, when Mitchell Starc is steaming in to bowl the first ball of the Ashes, or David Warner is waiting to face the first delivery, how many of the 40,000 fans at the Gabba will be thinking, “I still reckon that PPP percentage was a little high”?’Naw, mate. You’re confusing the PPP for the PP’•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesTo see James Sutherland and Alistair Nicholson sitting at their press conference at the MCG indoor nets on Thursday was like watching a pair of political rivals forced to come together in uncomfortable coalition. That image was only heightened by Nicholson, representing the players’ union, wearing a red tie, and Sutherland, the board’s man, sporting a blue one.And the past 10 months has played out like a political campaign. Both sides have put forward their cases via press releases or propaganda videos, infographics claimed to show that only they truly cared about the grassroots of the game. There was only one problem. The public wasn’t voting in this campaign. This could only ever be resolved behind closed doors by the two parties themselves.Does the average punter think the players were greedy? Maybe. But the average punter will have forgotten about that by tomorrow. Footy season is still going strong, and by the time the cricket rolls around again, this will all be a distant memory. A few million here, a few million there, to most people these figures are so abstract they might as well have been painted by Jackson Pollock.There are two great shames in all of this. One is that Australia A’s tour of South Africa last month had to be cancelled. A chance for the likes of Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Kurtis Patterson and Chadd Sayers to be rewarded for their domestic performances and audition for higher honours has been lost.The other is that this agreement is a landmark for women’s sport in Australia. Under this deal, female player payments will increase from $7.5 million to $55.2 million, and the female cricketers will share in revenue like their male counterparts. That is a significant step that should not be overshadowed by the acrimony of these negotiations.Anyway, the winter of discontent is over. Whether it turns into a glorious summer remains to be seen.And if you’re still reading now, congratulations. Your prize is a glossary of all those abbreviations, all of which were actually used in press releases explaining the agreement on Thursday. FWIW.ACA – Australian Cricketers’ Association
ACR – Australian cricket revenue
ACRA – Australian Cricketers’ Retirement Account
CA – Cricket Australia
CEOs – Chief executive officers
HOA – Heads of agreement
IP – Intellectual property
MOU – Memorandum of understanding
PP – Performance pool
PPP – Player payments pool

They took care to not permit Starc or Cummins to get a four-for in Brisbane, that’s why

Andy Zaltzman29-Nov-20171. England Have Done Their Statistical Research
It is a fact universally acknowledged that it is impossible for England to win an Ashes series in Australia without statistically replicating previous successful campaigns. England’s skilfully executed strategy of not letting any Australian bowler take four or more wickets in an innings was a strategico-statistical masterstroke which ensured that their ostensibly soul-crushing Brisbane defeat in fact renders their eventual victory gloriously inevitable due to the immovable ballast of statistical precedent.This was only the fourth time that no Australian bagged at least one four-or-more-for in an Ashes Test at the Gabba. The previous three occasions were 1986-87, 1970-71 and 1954-55 – all series that England went on to win. With nine men out in the second innings, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all had three wickets to their names. By allowing Pat Cummins to take the tenth – just as Hazlewood’s final wicket in the first innings had deprived Starc and Cummins of a precious fourth scalp – England ensured that the urn will be metaphorically as well as physically staying at Lord’s until 2019.England’s batsmen also contributed to an impressive all-round statistical effort, moreover. It was the first time that six different players in England’s top seven had made 40 or more in an innings in the same Ashes Test since 1970-71 – another triumphant tour. At this early stage of a long series, it is far, far, far, far more important to have the stats on your side than the results.2. Slow-Scoring Cricket is Not What it Used to Be
At 2.70 runs per over, this was the slowest-scoring Ashes Test since the MCG match in the 1994-95 series, 61 Anglo-Australian Tests ago. (It was also the slowest of the last 98 Tests in Australia, since the 2.42-runs-per-over Gabba showdown versus West Indies in November 2000.)However, that puts it only 163rd out of 326 Ashes Tests, precisely halfway up and/or down the all-time fast-/slow-scoring table.To illustrate how today’s grinders are not fit to pencil the dots into the scorebooks of the stonewallers of the past, consider this: runs in this historically Boycottian throwback Test were still scored faster than in 24 of the 25 Ashes Tests played in the 1950s.3. Even Temporarily Close Ashes Matches Are a Precious, Endangered Beast
For three and a half sinuous days (or from my perspective, nights), this was a brilliant Test match, an attention-clasping, sleep-depriving wrangle for supremacy in which both teams showcased numerous strengths and weaknesses, some expected, some surprising. A slowly bubbling momentum-shifting epic of cricketing tension was grinding towards a climax for the ages. Then, in the time it took to make a very-late-night sandwich in London, it speed-mutated into a harrowin, recurring English nightmare and an old-school flogging.Nevertheless, we should appreciate the rare closeness of the majority of the Brisbane Test. The 26-run Australian halfway lead was the smallest margin after the first innings of an Ashes match since The Oval in 2005, and only the fifth two-figure difference in 28 Ashes matches since England turned similarly tight first-innings tussles into equally crushing defeats in both Adelaide and Perth in 2006-07.Since the 2005 apotheosis of Ashes competitiveness, in 31 Tests there have been seven innings victories, and only three winning margins of under 150 runs. The five successful fourth-innings chases have been completed with six, ten, eight, eight and ten wickets in hand. Two of the five draws – Cardiff in 2009 and The Oval in 2013 – had dramatic endings, although the latter was a contrivance.The Ashes are, by reputation, supposed to see England and Australia bring the best out of each other. Recently, they have done exactly that. But not at the same time.”Gah! Mr Fantastic would never have gotten stumped!”•Getty Images4. Steven Smith is Better at Batting Than Jake Ball
Any lingering doubts were laid to rest over the weekend. Smith, with his wizardrous hands, physics-defying bat-work, and tungsten-teak-hybrid temperament, is also better at batting than himself, if you compare his first-innings record with his second.England restricted him expertly in the second innings, exploiting his relative weakness in the latter half of Test matches. In the first, however, he is better than Bradman. On current form, at least. In his last 34 first innings, since December 2014, Smith averages 100.85, with 15 centuries (out of 19 scores of 50-plus) (see above). In Bradman’s most recent 34 first innings, since December 1931, he averages 87.81, with 11 centuries.5. Cricket is Needlessly Obsessed With “Highest Successful Fourth-Innings Chases” Statistics
As England battled to recover from Smith’s genius and Cook’s baffling and tragically flawed Roy Fredericks impersonation, attention turned to the Highest Successful Run Chases in Tests at the Gabba. No team, the facts told us, had ever chased down a target higher than 236 to win on this ground.Such a stat is, simultaneously, factually correct and completely irrelevant. It is not as if sides had been repeatedly crumbling to defeat when chasing 237 to secure a Brisbane victory.In fact, while there might only have been two successful Gabba chases over 200, there had also only been two unsuccessful chases of below 300. The first was in another Ashes encounter, in 1950-51, a match famous for rain-induced declaration mayhem on a day when 20 wickets fell for 130 runs. England ended that day 30 for 6 in pursuit of 193, before losing by 70. The second un-victorious sub-300 chase in Brisbane was in the tied Test of 1960-61, when Australia, needing 233 to beat West Indies, reached 226 for 6, then unleashed a deluge of run-outs in perhaps the most chaotic ten minutes of cricket ever played.So while it was true to say that no side had ever successfully chased more than 240 to win at the Gabba, it was also true to say that almost no sides had ever unsuccessfully chased less than 315 at the Gabba either. And all but one of the successful chases below 240 had been completed with considerable ease.More relevant than the scarcity of successful 200-plus chases was the fact that last year, in the fourth innings in Brisbane, Pakistan made 450 in 145 overs, coming within 40 runs of a record-breaking victory. Furthermore, seven years ago, days four and five of the Ashes Test brought a total of 605 runs for two wickets. More relevantly still, since 2000, elsewhere around the world – where, after all, most teams play most of their cricket – teams chasing 200 to 299 in the fourth innings have won 35 and lost 29 (although this decade has seen a drop in successful run chases in the 200s, with 11 wins and 16 defeats).In the end, such matters were academic. No team, after all, had lost chasing between 168 and 174 in a fourth innings in Australia since January 1911. The extra 400 or 500 runs England would have scored, had Moeen Ali encased his left boot in a millimetre-thick covering of pastry, proved ultimately decisive.

Since India’s last tour of South Africa, their slip and gully fielders have dropped more often than they have caught. Whether it’s an issue of technique or temperament, they will have to sort it out quickly if they hope to win matches on pitches with pace

Sidharth Monga in Cape Town03-Jan-2018In the last five years of Test cricket, 407 Test wickets have fallen to catches off fast bowling; 131 of them (or 32%) have been taken by slips and gully. The corresponding number for Test cricket in India is 150 and 38 (25%). That difference in percentage should worry India coming to South Africa. And it doesn’t get better if you delve further.From the start of the South Africa tour of 2013-14 – the first time all India’s past slippers were gone – their cordon (slips and gully) has dropped at least 45 and taken 32 of the opportunities their fast bowlers have created in Test cricket. Incredibly, even if through playing five more Tests than South Africa’s 39 over this period, India’s fast bowlers have created more opportunities for their cordon than South Africa’s. Still South Africa have held on to almost as many – 44 – and dropped significantly fewer in a minimum of 23 chances. That despite losing Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith during this period, two of the best slip catchers of all time.Visiting short legs and silly points to India are not known to do as well as the India fielders, but here difference is notable. Almost everybody apart from the really hopeless close-in fielders has had a go and dropped catches for India in the cordon. M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have all hurt the fast bowlers. Karun Nair is not even on this trip. Until last December, if everyone was fit, India fielding coach R Sridhar’s ideal slip cordon was Vijay at first, Kohli at second, Nair at third and Rahane at gully.We have come a long way since then with all of them dropping catches and only Rahane able to lay some sort of a permanent claim to the gully position. Sridhar has often said that with frequent injuries to batsmen – especially the openers – and with India generally chopping and changing – Kohli is yet to field an unchanged XI as Test captain – they have not been able to nail down the ideal personnel for the job.At some point, though, technique has to be questioned apart from just familiarity, especially when embarking on a tour where the quicks will have to pick up more wickets through the cordon than they have to in India. Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid have spoken about the catchers getting up too early and their heads, consequently, having to move quickly for low catches and ruining what the eyes see. In that regard they should relax a little because in South Africa they won’t encounter too many low catches, but not all of their drops have been low catches.Dravid also advocated a narrower stance with the weight on the inside of the feet and not flat or on the heels. Weight on the inside with a narrower stance makes it easy to move to the ball if it is not coming straight at you. Even a tall fielder such as VVS Laxman used to prefer bending his knees to get low instead of going wide and risking losing balance.One of the theories that goes around is these current players are an excitable bunch, which is not the temperament you need in the slips, where you are expected to wait through long periods without an edge and not make a mistake when one arrives. This shouldn’t be an issue with Vijay, though, for example. India’s fielders are not wanting in the number of catches they take every day, but it could possibly be hard hands at slip to go with wide stances.Brian McMillan, one of the best the world has seen, says he doesn’t remember too many catches he dropped. That self-confidence along with big, soft and fleshy hands and the fitness to bend low for long periods made McMillan the slip catcher he was. When he was young he would face golf balls as a batsman, get in line, drop the bat and catch them. Catching those hard balls in his fingers helped him develop those soft hands and the feel for the hard ball hit hard at him.Speaking to ESPNcricinfo in 2011, back when real data was available to players but perhaps not to those on the outside, McMillan said that a success rate of anything between 60% and 70% in the slips was acceptable. This Indian team has been going at under 42% with no real improvement over the last few years. South Africa have been catching 66% of theirs.McMillan spoke to ESPNcricinfo while watching the Newlands Test, a week after India had won the Durban Test to level the series. It was only India’s second Test win in South Africa, following up on the one in Johannesburg in 2006-07. In Johannesburg, India held five catches at slips and gully, in Durban three. More importantly, nothing went down except for one at leg gully off the spin of Harbhajan Singh in Durban. The culprit there, Cheteshwar Pujara, used to stand at third slip to the fast bowlers despite that being his first away tour.Sridhar, who has been with the team for more than three years now, deserves to have questions asked of him. To be fair to him, he is working with fielders who don’t seem to be naturals in the slips, and is also working with a team that doesn’t let slip fielders develop by chopping and changing too often – Pujara, for instance, is back in the slips after a five-year gap – but the cold numbers are just too bad.Some of these drops have hurt India particularly badly. It was before Sridhar joined the backroom staff, but it is a moment nobody who follows Indian cricket forgets. India had England under the pump in England after winning the Lord’s Test, their under-pressure captain provided an early opportunity on the first morning of the third Test, and Jadeja displayed poor technique in dropping him. The series turned on its head, and India lost 3-1.Two-and-a-half years later, in the return series in India, Jadeja found himself at slip again, and dropped Alastair Cook once again, early into the Test. This time, though, the spinners kept producing chance after chance, which is why this drop is not remembered as much. In the last five years, catches in the slips and at gully have accounted for close to one in five wickets in South Africa. That is two such wickets per innings. India can’t afford to keep asking their bowlers to create more than four opportunities for those two wickets, if they are to take 20 wickets.

In averting the kind of slip-ups made by Bangladesh, in backing the hitting power of their middle and lower-middle order, Afghanistan prove they know how to win and are ready for a bigger challenge

Sidharth Monga in Dehradun06-Jun-2018Twenty20 is too unpredictable a format to term unexpected results as upsets, but one of the traits of better, more fancied sides is that their cricket is more deliberate when things get tight. On a difficult pitch, during a spell of good bowling from the opposition, they appear more in control, unhurried even if it might seem to those outside that time is running out. The better sides target the weak bowlers in these situations. Those who don’t trust themselves go after the good bowlers. It can come off at times, but it is low-percentage T20 cricket in tight situations.In winning the second T20I against Bangladesh, and with that the series, Afghanistan have left no doubt over who the better, the more fancied team was. They faced two maiden overs from left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam at the start of the innings, went 33 balls without a boundary in the middle, but rarely played shots that they are not comfortable playing. The slightly desperate sixes were straight hits and not slogs across the line. In a similar scenario, having gone 39 balls without a boundary, three of Bangladesh’s left-hand batsmen got out trying to hit Rashid Khan for a six.The situation in both the innings was pretty similar. Rashid came on to bowl in the 11th over, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi soon bowled out, and Bangladesh had to know they were going to get three overs of pace towards the end that they could target. Afghanistan also got stuck against the spin of Nazmul, Shakib, Mahmudullah and Mosaddek Hossain, but they also knew Bangladesh couldn’t forever continue bowling spin.Bangladesh didn’t wait for the overs of pace. Imagine a batsman like MS Dhoni in this situation. Bangladesh were 101 for 4, Rashid’s third over was the 16th of the innings, the other two spinners were bowled out, and you have three overs of pace to target. Dhoni is not always the best example on flat pitches, but in this situation, what would he do? He would not even mind as few as eight runs off Rashid’s two overs as long as he doesn’t get a wicket, which in turn leaves them in a position to gather 40 off the other three. That is an effort that takes them to 150, which is what Bangladesh felt was a winning total on this pitch.Instead, Shakib, Rashid’s team-mate at Sunrisers Hyderabad, went to hit six off the first ball, and Tamim Iqbal – who must have felt the pressure of having faced 47 balls for 43 – off the fourth. The next ball, Rashid got Mosaddek with a wrong’un. Soumya Sarkar soon became the fourth batsman to get out trying to hit Rashid out of the ground.There can be two explanations for this approach. Bangladesh didn’t have the luxury of knowing what they were chasing, which must have made them feel they were going under par. Having got the match-ups right – they had stacked left-hand batsmen against Rashid, who went at close to 10 runs an over against left-hand batsmen in the IPL as compared to under a run a ball against the rest – they possibly felt obliged to chase the match-up and attack Rashid.However, Bangladesh need to ask themselves if the third one was true: that they failed to judge the pitch and back themselves against the quicker bowlers. Even if you get historical match-ups right – and they do tell you a lot – you have to sometimes respect the conditions, and this has not been the pitch to be going after the spinners. In this series, the quicks have gone at 9.75 an over and spinners at 5.29. One of the two senior batsmen – Shakib and Tamim – should have taken it upon himself to be there against the returning quicks.In contrast, Afghanistan made sure they had set batsmen when the quicks returned. Shafiqullah later said the captain and the coach had told the batsmen going out that if they had five wickets in hand in the last five overs, they would win. The confidence comes from their faith in the hitting power of the middle and lower-middle order. While a tiring Samiullah Shenwari kept going for his hits, Mohammad Nabi took no risk at all against spin. Bangladesh played it well by continuing with spin till the 18th over but Nabi knew he still had time. Nabi was telling Shakib he is not going anywhere, that he will be there to see the spinner should he still fancy bowling the last over.Shakib eventually gave in and went to Rubel Hossain in the 19th over, and clinically, without fuss, Nabi ended it in the that over itself. This is a team that has come a long way from being the emotional side that coaches wanted to calm down. This is a side that is extremely good at T20 and knows it. They have two of the best spinners going around, they have experience in the batting, they are all naturally strong batsmen who have now honed their techniques to hit sixes efficiently. They know how to win. They are now waiting for bigger prey.

How Dale Steyn’s former team-mates and adversaries reacted to him going past Shaun Pollock’s South African Test wickets record

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Dec-2018Forty-one months since picking up his 400th Test wicket, Dale Steyn went past Shaun Pollock’s tally of 421 to become South Africa’s most successful bowler in long-form cricket. Leading the tributes was Pollock himself, who was on air when Steyn reached the milestone.

Well done @DaleSteyn62 pic.twitter.com/YzZM7O7ghg

— Shaun Pollock (@7polly7) December 26, 2018

Well done @DaleSteyn62 Well deserved. The work you put in behind closed doors pays off. This is a perfect example.Hopefully many more wickets still lie ahead

— Jacques Kallis (@jacqueskallis75) December 26, 2018

Congrats hooly @DaleSteyn62

Wonderful touch from @7polly7 #422andbeyond pic.twitter.com/fGdB0LYn94

— Graeme Smith (@GraemeSmith49) December 26, 2018

The man who flattened my Off Stump with his 1st Test wicket is now the leading wicket taker in SA Test History … Well done @DaleSteyn62 … Great bowler & top man … #Steyn

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) December 26, 2018

…except Vaughan was Steyn’s Test wicket. That small detail apart, who can forget that ball?

Congratulations @DaleSteyn62 Great to watch … Probably the best going around.

— Russel Arnold (@RusselArnold69) December 26, 2018

Dale Steyn, we salute you! What a man, what a player. Fitting that “Simply the best” is playing at Supersport Park, where everything started! Congrats legend @DaleSteyn62

— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) December 26, 2018

Well deserved for a true champion. Lengend of a cricketer and a legend of a bloke. https://t.co/qUC99pgvAL

— Kumar Sangakkara (@KumarSanga2) December 26, 2018

Congrats to the coolest surfing, fishing , skateboarding fast bowler on the planet on becoming the leading wicket taker in Test cricket for South Africa Dale Steyn you beauty… https://t.co/GrAIortFaC

— Robin John Peterson (@robbie13flair) December 26, 2018

@DaleSteyn62 LEGEND!!!

— mark boucher (@markb46) December 26, 2018

If Ashwin is fully fit for Sydney, and if the pitch demands only one spinner, India might have an interesting decision to make

Sidharth Monga in Melbourne29-Dec-20182:30

Laxman: Tired Lyon couldn’t put as much body into his action as Jadeja

Let’s say all goes to plan. India win the Melbourne Test, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy stays with them, they travel to Sydney to try to preserve their lead, and R Ashwin is fit. Who will India pick then? Ravindra Jadeja, who has bowled 57 overs for 127 runs and five wickets in Melbourne, or Ashwin, who bowled 86.5 overs for 149 runs and six wickets in Adelaide?Of course, the conditions will decide whether they can play both of them. If the Sydney pitch is true to character, and there has not been much rain in the lead-up, there’s a good chance both of them might play if they are fit, with Hardik Pandya possibly slotting in as the third seamer. But there will be a big decision to make if either the pitch is not dry or Pandya, coming off a back injury, is not ready for Test cricket yet. This is where some of Jadeja’s history comes in first.Between Southampton 2014 and Melbourne this year, he didn’t play a single live rubber as the lone spinner. When India went in with two at Lord’s, Kuldeep Yadav was picked ahead of Jadeja. Unless there have been other fitness issues, which were not disclosed as with the time in Perth, there has been clear lack of faith in him.One of the reasons for that lack of trust could be the number of left-hand batsmen India have played against. England and Australia both have a good amount of them, which makes Jadeja a less potent threat, according to conventional wisdom. But as he showed in this Test, when Jadeja can latch on to a spot of rough, that conventional wisdom doesn’t always hold true. This is also what happens when India’s right-hand batsmen find themselves in the headlights with opposition offspinners. And with sides bowling more right-arm seamers, in theory left-hand batsmen should have more rough to contend with than the right-hand ones.4:03

B Arun reveals the secret to Bumrah’s pace

The one problem with that is left-hand batsmen grow up facing this all the time, so they are more adept at handling a left-arm spinner hammering that rough than offspinners landing it in the rough outside a right-hand batsman’s off stump. Moreover, the rough created by a left-arm fast bowler is more prominent and pronounced than the one created by various right-arm quicks. A conflict exists in theory as does on the field. In pockets, Jadeja seemed unplayable to left-hand batsmen, drawing short-leg catches from Usman Khawaja and Marcus Harris. And yet, in this Test, he averaged 42 against left-hand batsmen and 15 against the right-hand ones, also maintaining a better economy rate against the right-hand batsmen.By no means can Jadeja’s contribution to what should be a memorable win be understated. He has bowled a major share of the overs, keeping the run-rate down, making sure the fast bowlers remained fresh, and has himself contributed five wickets, more than 25% of those fallen.”Jadeja has matured a lot over the years,” India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun said. “What he has done in the last one-two years, he has gained a lot of confidence and the way he has progressed today and also the way he did in England at The Oval, we can be quite confident that Jadeja can lead the spin attack.”I would say that a spinner maturing is about him understanding and discovering himself. And how he does it is he tries various angles with which he can bowl and variations in position of wrists. In the last couple of years, Jadeja has learnt quite a lot and that has helped him evolve from what he was earlier.”Getty ImagesJadeja’s fielding might give him an edge over Ashwin, but he loses it right back when it comes to batting on bouncier tracks. This is where Ashwin’s other quality comes in. If Jadeja is good at hitting the rough over and over again, Ashwin has the subtleties to beat batsmen in the air, those small changes in pace and trajectory that Harris acknowledged in Adelaide. It is when nothing was happening for him that Jadeja began to fire the ball in on the fourth day. Tim Paine’s wicket was a bonus when Jadeja went over the wicket and the batsman went to cut. Who can draw a genuine error when nothing is happening is a question India’s think tank will ponder. Kuldeep Yadav remains unlikely to play if it is deemed only one spinner is required; playing him as a lone spinner is a big risk because he can go for runs and you can’t afford one of the four bowlers to be unusable.If India go to Sydney with a series lead in hand – which should be a mere formality – it could come down to their lead spinner to preserve that lead, which will make this selection between Jadeja and Ashwin important. However, with his performance in Melbourne, Jadeja has done enough to earn the team management’s trust should Ashwin not recover in time.

And has Prithvi Shaw failed to address an old technical flaw?

Srinath Sripath and Karthik Krishnaswamy12-Apr-2019Nitish Rana has never made a half-century after the first six games of an IPL season.Over the past three seasons, he has routinely got off to flying starts, only to fade away as the season goes on, a reputation he is aware of and wants to shake off this time around. He followed up a 333-run season in 2017 with a 304-run 2018, with over 50% of the runs coming in his first five innings on both occasions.Is the trend repeating itself? After starting IPL 2019 with 68 and 63 in the first two games at a strike rate of 162, Rana’s form has tapered off, as he has managed just 49 from his next four innings.On Friday, he walked in at No. 4 with Kolkata Knight Riders on 63 for 2 in the ninth over. Delhi Capitals, though, kept their pace bowlers on, allowing him face just three balls of Axar Patel. Nearly five overs after coming in, having managed a single boundary in 11 balls, Rana fell to Chris Morris. It was a perfect yorker that he couldn’t dig out.ESPNcricinfo LtdIyer’s use of Rabada reaps dividends…… until he ran into Andre Russell at the death. Rabada went for 12 in his only Powerplay over, the logic being that he was being saved for the likes of Dre Russ and Carlos Brathwaite later on.Kagiso Rabada had memorably smashed Russell’s middle stump in the Super Over in Delhi earlier this season. However, Shreyas Iyer brought Rabada in twice during the middle overs, a phase where had bowled only 18 balls in six previous games. Both times on Friday, Rabada struck, first getting Robin Uthappa in the ninth over with a vicious bouncer, before getting Dinesh Karthik in the 16th. The second wicket was a lucky break, Karthik flicking straight to deep square-leg, but Iyer’s experiment to use his strike bowler in the middle period of the innings did work well.Russell, however, ruined Rabada’s figures by cracking 26 off nine balls in the end, but Rabada had done his job earlier in the innings.Andre Russell smacks one over midwicket•BCCIShaw’s old weakness makes an appearancePrithvi Shaw’s back foot does an unusual thing when he plays fast bowling. Rather than go back and across to the off side as the textbook recommends, it tends to slide away towards the leg side. It means he plays from besides the line of the ball rather than behind it.It’s a double-edged sword. Staying leg-side of the ball gives him natural room to free his arms and score a lot of runs square on the off side, much like Virender Sehwag did.But it can make him vulnerable to balls leaving him from the off-stump channel. In the Under-19 World Cup final, for example, Will Sutherland bowled him with a peach that angled in and straightened past his outside edge, leaving him playing down the wrong line.A similar delivery, albeit shorter, ended his innings today. Prasidh Krishna angled it in towards the stumps and got it to straighten away with extra bounce. Shaw’s back foot had moved towards the leg side at first, following the ball’s initial angle, and when it pitched and nipped away he was nowhere near the line of the ball to defend it. This resulted in his body opening up in a late, involuntary movement to try and catch up, but by then it was too late, the ball kissing his outside edge through to the keeper Dinesh Karthik, who completed an excellent catch diving to his right.What’s happening to bat-first KKR of late?You’d think a side packed with power-hitters like Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell would have a good record batting first, especially with a strong bowling attack to defend totals. The results, though, say something else. Since 2017, Knight Riders have a 6-9 win-loss record batting first, an equation which flips to 16-7 while fielding first. It also explains why, since 2015, they have never once chosen to bat first after winning the toss.Some of the reasons for this lopsided record have been on view this season. Narine and Lynn, in particular, have fired far more often with a target to chase. Top-order collapses (against Capitals and Super Kings) and a middle-overs slowdown that was on view on Friday night have left Russell and the bowling attack with too much to do. Russell, in particular, has produced rescue acts – and, a couple of times, miracles – to bail them out of tricky situations.Even in a thumping for his side, Russell’s 21-ball 45 (a full four runs per over more than Knight Riders’ innings run rate) and a crucial early wicket made him the most impactful player from either side, as per ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats. Without him, where would Knight Riders be on the points table?