England’s bowlers were powerless to resist India’s advance in Chennai, but the fault lies with the administrators more than the players

George Dobell in Chennai19-Dec-20161:43

Ganguly: None of current spinners can be England’s frontline spinner

As India’s batsmen flogged a tired attack around Chennai, as they accumulated record after record, with the foul smell of sewage wafting from the Buckingham Canal, just behind the Anna Pavilion in Chennai, adding to the agony, it became painfully obvious that England had no answers to the questions posed of them this tour. At least it isn’t a timeless Test; England could have been out there for weeks.It would be nice to think that a day like this – a day when the paucity of England’s weapons in such conditions were laid bare – would lead to change. It would be nice to think the ECB would act to improve things.But they won’t. And they won’t because it won’t pay to do so.Oh, they would like to win in India. It would be great.But they wouldn’t like to win so dearly that they will give their players a decent chance of doing so. They wouldn’t like to win so dearly that they will seek to prevent the increasing marginalisation of spin bowling in county cricket, or to alter the path upon which they are set which will continue to prioritise white-ball cricket to the detriment of everything else. They say they are the guardians of Test cricket, but scratch the surface and almost everything they do is about developing the shorter forms of the game.Absurd though it may sound, England really haven’t bowled badly here. Their seamers, in particular, were almost heroic on the fourth day. Despite having been in the field since the dawn of time (well, that’s how it felt, anyway), they generated pace and hostility with the third – yes, third – new ball and their fielders flung themselves around with admirable commitment. Jos Buttler’s gully catch would have been outstanding at any time; in the 171st over of the innings, it was incredible. There is no faulting them for effort.The spinners will probably receive the bulk of the flak. And it is true that they are, judged dispassionately, probably not up to the challenge they have been given on this tour. Liam Dawson at least kept the run-rate under some sort of control and Moeen Ali bowled about as well as he can. You can reasonably ask no more.But they have been let down by a system that treats tours like this as necessary evils. They have been let down by a system that is based around winning the Ashes – at least at home – and, of late, winning limited-overs tournaments. But it is Asia where the heart of the game beats strongest and the Ashes, for all its charm and (crucially) value, is increasingly the cricketing equivalent of the Boat Race in its parochialism. There’s no reason it should be prioritised above all other series.It’s worth revisiting the causes of the current malaise.As things stand, a disproportionate amount of the County Championship is already squeezed into the opening two months of the season. That means counties have little use for spin bowlers as their seamers can do the job just fine on surfaces that are often helpful. A new ball is available at 80 overs and, in recent seasons, there have been various experiments surrounding the use of the heavy roller which have, inadvertently, sometimes made life even easier for seamers.Meanwhile, counties have sometimes prepared pitches that provide copious assistance to their medium-pace swing bowlers. While Jesse Ryder and Darren Stevens are both admirable cricketers in many ways, there is no way they should have been taking the quantity of wickets they were able to plunder in recent years. As a result, the role of the spinner has diminished.

Asia is where the heart of the game beats strongest. The Ashes is increasingly the cricketing equivalent of the Boat Race in its parochialism

Last season’s controversial but well-intentioned change to the toss regulations have helped to redress that imbalance a touch. However, any county thinking of signing a young spinner has to think carefully of the value they will gain from them. Unless they can bat and unless they can contain in the short forms of the game, it is hard to see how they will gain the experience they require to develop to their maximum potential these days.One of the most talented young spinners in England, the left-armer Ravi Patel, has played three first-class matches in the last two seasons. Why? Primarily because he isn’t much of a batsman and his team – Middlesex – rely on a strong seam attack and the off-spinning all-rounder Ollie Rayner. It’s not his fault, it’s not their fault. It’s the system.The situation is compounded by the stance towards turning pitches. While few blink an eye of a side is bowled out in a session by seamers – atmospheric conditions and swing were credited when Sussex blew Warwickshire away before lunch at Edgbaston in 2014 – if spinners achieve anything similar, you can be sure there will be penalties. Hampshire discovered this in 2011 when they were penalised despite producing a pitch that resulted in a game being drawn in four days. More recently, there were whispers from rivals during the 2016 season that Somerset were, in some way, doing something untoward by preparing pitches that helped their spin bowlers. A good argument might have been made to suggest they were providing a service for English cricket.There is a theory expounded by former spinners that the prevalence of limited-overs cricket threatens to ruin the action of young spinners. With their living being dictated largely by their success in T20, they are encouraged to develop their white-ball skills – the quicker, flatter deliveries you tend to see in that format – rather than learning the art of flight and guile that rendered Graeme Swann, who was brought up on spinning surfaces at Wantage Road, such a fine player.But it’s not just spin bowlers who struggle because of this situation. It is developing batsmen who find themselves on tours of Asia having never experienced anything like it before. Yes, there are development tours, including increasingly frequent camps in Asian conditions, but these are minor details when a major change of mindset is required.And it will only get worse. From 2020, if current plans are passed, there will be no first-class cricket at all in August with the new-team T20 competition running as the priority. From 2017 there will be 14 (rather than 16) Championship games a season with every chance it will reduce further within a few more years. The opportunities for spinners to gain the volume of overs they require to develop their skills will diminish, along with the schedule. We may see ever more players who can bowl a pretty tight four overs, who can field with athleticism and have tremendous power and bat speed. But we’re losing skills that used to be common in English cricket and once they’re gone it will be very tough to recover them.It would be simplistic to blast the ECB for not caring and not acting. Their priority – probably quite rightly – is the survival of the game in England. They know how desperate the plight of the game is and they are to be applauded for trying to arrest the decline.They have concluded – again, probably quite rightly – that the vehicle for recovery is T20. If they can get more people to see the game, they believe those people will fall in love with it. Again, they’re right. It’s still a great game. If we can expose more people to it, there’s no reason they won’t fall for its charms. It is ironic, though, that it was the ECB who put the sport behind a paywall and have kept it there – despite gathering evidence of the downsides – for more than decade.So get used to losing in India. Because it’s the price we’re going to have to pay for our brave new world of T20 cricket. It’s an avoidable scenario, but we don’t seem to want it enough to make the changes required.

Also: which Test ground is closest to the equator?

Steven Lynch07-Feb-2017England lost their last eight wickets for eight runs in the T20 match in Bangalore. Was this a record for an international game? asked Nitin Agha from India
England’s rapid decline in Bangalore last week – from 119 for 2 to 127 all out – was easily the worst such collapse (from two down to all out) in Twenty20 internationals: in Karachi in April 2008, Bangladesh subsided from 85 for 2 to 101 all out, so lost their last eight for 16. There has been one worse collapse in a Test match: in Wellington in 1945-46 New Zealand were 37 for 2 in the first innings against Australia, but then lost eight wickets for five runs to be all out for 42. The record for one-day internationals is ten runs, by Sri Lanka (45 for 2 to 55 all out) against West Indies in Sharjah in 1986-87, with Courtney Walsh taking 5 for 1.Which Test ground is nearest to the equator? asked Ian Kelly from England
I was surprised by the answer to this unusual question. My first thought was that it was probably a ground in the West Indies, and I suspected that Georgetown in Guyana was the nearest to the equator. And that’s right for the Caribbean region – the distance is about 470 miles (755 kilometres). But actually there is a nearer one: Galle, on the southern tip of Sri Lanka, is only 418 miles (672km) from the centre line. I think the nearest international ground is the Ruaraka club – one of the six venues that have staged official ODIs in Nairobi, which lies only 89 miles (143km) from the equator.One simple way of rating allrounders is to subtract the bowling average from the batting one. Who comes out on top this way in Tests? asked James Clarke from England
Don Bradman leads the way overall – if you deduct his bowling average of 36 (two wickets) from the famed batting one of 99.94 you get 63.64, which puts him just in front of England’s Ledger Hill (62.75 – 2.00 = 60.75) and Barry Richards of South Africa (72.57 – 26.00 = 46.57). Jayant Yadav of India is currently fourth on this list at 44.11, just ahead of Alastair Cook (39.46). But really, you have to impose some sort of qualification, to ensure you’re talking about proper allrounders, not just batsmen who bowled a bit. I restricted it to players who had taken at least 30 wickets, and was satisfied when Garry Sobers came out on top: he scored 8032 runs at 57.78, and took 235 wickets at 34.04, so his overall difference is 23.74. Second is Jacques Kallis – 13,289 runs at 55.37, and 292 wickets at 32.65, a difference of 22.72. The only other player over 20 is Wally Hammond – 7249 runs at 58.46, and 83 wickets at 37.81, a difference of 20.65. The worst of the 552 players who meet this qualification is Rubel Hossain of Bangladesh: he has a batting average of 9.57, and a bowling one of 77.94 (32 wickets), so a difference of -68.37!Maharashtra’s Swapnil Gugale (left) and Ankit Bawne added 594 for the third wicket against Delhi in the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy•Prakash ParsekarI noticed that Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow added 399 together at Newlands early last year. Are there any other big near-misses like that? asked Keith Catford from England
That stand by Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow – the record for the sixth wicket in Tests – came in Cape Town in 2015-16. It was actually the second stand of 399 in Tests: against England in Bridgetown in 1959-60, Garry Sobers and Frank Worrell put on 399 for West Indies’ fourth wicket, in a stand that started on January 8 and finished on the 12th. Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh put on a world-record 449 for Australia’s fourth wicket against West Indies in Hobart in 2015-16. There was a first-class near-miss earlier this season in the Ranji Trophy: against Delhi in Mumbai in October, Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawne had put on 594 for Maharashtra’s third wicket when Gugale declared, soon after reaching 350. Apart from being six shy of 600, they were also only 30 short of the largest stand in all first-class cricket, the 624 of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara for Sri Lanka’s third wicket against South Africa in Colombo in July 2006.Which wicketkeeper made the most dismissals in his first Test? asked Kieran Jamieson from Scotland
Two wicketkeepers share the record, both making eight dismissals on their Test debut. Brian Taber set the mark with seven catches and a stumping for Australia against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1966-67, and that was equalled by England’s Chris Read (also seven caught and one stumped) against New Zealand at Edgbaston in 1999. Six further wicketkeepers made seven dismissals on debut: Gil Langley (Australia, 1951-52), Artie Dick (New Zealand, 1961-62), Alan Knott (England, 1967), Saleem Yousuf (Pakistan, 1981-82), Chamara Dunusinghe (Sri Lanka, 1994-95), and Peter Nevill (Australia, 2015). Only one outfielder has taken seven catches in his first Test – Yajurvindra Singh, for India against England in Bangalore in 1976-77.England’s loss of eight wickets for eight runs in Bangalore was the worst collapse in T20Is•AFPWho has played the most Tests at a single venue? asked Harpreet Laxman from India
The long-lasting Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene is top of this particular list – and third too. Jayawardene played 27 Tests at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo – his home ground, as it happens – and 23 in Galle. Muttiah Muralitharan played 24 at the SSC, while Kumar Sangakkara also played 23 in Galle. Alastair Cook has played 22 so far at Lord’s, while Jacques Kallis had 22 Tests in Cape Town. Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya both played 22 at the SSC. Alistair Campbell and Grant Flower both contested 21 in Harare, and Daniel Vettori 21 in Wellington. Graham Gooch played 21 Tests at Lord’s, and Chaminda Vaas 21 at the SSC.The one-day international record changed hands recently, when Mushfiqur Rahim of Bangladesh played his 78th match in Mirpur, beating Wasim Akram’s previous mark of 77 in Sharjah. Shakib Al Hasan has played 73 ODIs at Mirpur and Tamim Iqbal 71; Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardene both played 71 at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Mushfiqur has also played 19 T20Is in Mirpur, but he’s pipped on that particular list by Pakistan’s Umar Akmal, with 20 in Dubai.Mushfiqur and Shakib, with 111 and 103 in Mirpur, are the only players to have played more than 100 international matches on a single ground in all three formats; Tamim has played 99 there so far. Next comes Hamilton Masakadza, with 93 internationals in Harare.Post your questions in the comments below

In-flight selfies, hot sauce, dessert shenanigans, and video games galore: it’s all going down in our Twitter round-up

Alex Bowden03-Feb-2017Virender Sehwag’s been reduced to miming cricket shots – just like the rest of us.

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We have so much in common! Bet he pretends he’s Virender Sehwag as well. It’s probably easier for him, though.Ravi Bopara’s also been doing without the real thing. He’s been reduced to video-game cricket.How’s it going, Ravi?

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Doesn’t he know anything? Cricketers play FIFA. England may not have won much on the pitch in India, but two members of their party will at least take home the Kanpur Vase Cup.

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The Kanpur Vase Cup? Which is it? A vase or a cup?Speaking of cups, Kevin Pietersen’s remains filled with exactly what you’d expect.

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Viv Richards gave us so much. You wouldn’t think he could do much more. Then this…

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Despite the sweat, this sounds rather less hot.

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And in terms of style, the jury’s out on this one.

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Whereas it doesn’t get much cooler than this. Mark Richardson’s hit the big time in his new job.

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Ed Cowan has some tips for us, the first involving his daughter.

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He also knows a thing or two about economical personal grooming.

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Life’s not all plain sailing, though. He still has to engage with every cricketer’s worst nightmare… air travel.

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Morne’s not happy either.

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Nor do things improve for cricketers in retirement.

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You’ve got to feel for the airports really. They’re the ones who have to deal with all these irate sportsmen.

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But at least there’s always the eventual silver lining of yet another opportunity for an in-flight selfie.

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Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland explains why he feels the current payment structure for Australian cricketers is in need of a revamp

Daniel Brettig21-Mar-2017Why change the model?
It is a variation of a model that has stood the test of time over the course of the last 20 years, but in our view, it is a model that has served its purpose and is now outdated. The model we have proposed is one that not only secures increasing guarantees around player payments, but at the same time international cricketers – men and women – for the first time will share in surpluses from international cricket. It’s a slight variation on the previous model but an improvement for all of cricket overall.You’ve been a supporter of a revenue sharing model in the past. How have your views changed?
I was there from the outset in managing the very first model. I’m very clear in having seen it serve its purpose in providing guarantees that were coming from a long way behind in terms of player payments. It’s become very competitive in terms of both international and domestic players, and we’ve seen 63% increases over the last five years for international men, and 53% for domestic men. I’m very comfortable this model has served its time and the model we’re proposing will serve Australian cricket well.Why is the fixed revenue percentage model outdated?
The initial purpose of the old model going back to 1997 was to secure payment levels for players and keep the game to account because state cricketers in particular were coming from a long way behind. Over the course of the last two decades, payments to state cricketers in particular have increased significantly, their payments are now highly competitive with the football codes. Over the last five years they’ve had increases of 53%, so we’re very comfortable the model has got player payments to the level intended. International cricketers, men and women, will continue to share in the surpluses of international cricket, but for domestic cricketers there’ll be a slightly different model.Why do only international players deserve a fixed percentage of revenue?
One of the real fundamentals in all of this is that international cricket actually funds the game. It funds everything we do, it funds the domestic cricketers’ wages, it funds female cricketers’ wages, and it plays a really important role in ensuring that we can develop the game from the bottom up – the grassroots but also our domestic competitions, and also ensuring our talented young cricketers have an opportunity to pursue objectives of playing for their country and be paid for it, even though they’re playing in competitions that don’t generate the revenue.Doesn’t the advent of the BBL and WBBL mean that domestic players are actually now contributing more to the financial health of the game than before?
In terms of funding, the international game by far outweighs any other format of the game. It’s true that on the surface, the BBL may be starting to break even in certain quarters, but we’ve still got a very significant deficit from previous years that we’re still trying to recoup from bringing forward the launch of the BBL in the first three or four years before it starts to be profitable. Down the track of course if the BBL is generating significant surpluses, then we could look at that in a different fashion, but right now our proposal is that for surpluses over and above the scenario we’ve painted, we’re prepared to share that with the men’s and the women’s [international] players.Why is now the time to make this change?
We’ve consulted very widely, done a lot of research, a lot of checking to understand how the model stands up and made sure it is in the best interests of the game. That’s our responsibility, to ensure we find the right balance for the game at grassroots level to ensure it grows, but also ensure we deliver objectives for international cricketers and domestic cricketers, male and female. It’s exciting to be making a seismic shift in the way female cricketers are paid. To recognise the longstanding disparity and try to make amends for that.What makes you think players will support this model when it seems little changed from the initial submission that they opposed?
It’s a matter for the ACA to consider our proposal in detail. We believe we’ve got a very strong case to argue and this is a very strong proposal in the interests of the game, but also of all players – the players of today and the players of the future. I’m optimistic there’s strong will on both sides to see this through and to achieve those deadlines. June 30 is looming, there’s a fair degree of urgency around that, but from our perspective, our member state associations and the broader cricket community would be very keen to see us progress. Similarly, the ACA, their members and players will be desperately keen to see the ACA work through this situation.Can you understand ACA’s reluctance to accept fixed amounts before the result of the next round of TV rights deals is known?
We have put this proposal on the table in regards to a certain scenario, but we will as we work through the detail with the ACA talk about other scenarios that are potentially forecastable. It’s important to understand that at this time, we’ve only got about 20% of our future revenue over the next five years locked away. That makes it really difficult to accurately forecast and we don’t want to be in that position.But in this case, we have based this proposal on a scenario, and we will talk through with the ACA other alternative scenarios that may unfold in time, contingent on certain things that happen with Australian and international cricket in upcoming discussions. First the nature and structure of the Future Tours Programme, but then beyond that our television broadcast deals here in Australia and also overseas, particularly in the Indian market.The players have in recent times sacrificed parts of their percentage of revenue to fund areas like the retention of senior players in club cricket and support for past players falling on hard times. Does this proposal indicate that CA would prefer to be making those decisions?
We understand the history to those various initiatives, and I’ve got nothing but praise to offer the ACA and the cricketers themselves who’ve made decisions about effectively sacrificing money to invest back into grassroots. We’d love to see that investment continue, we believe that those investments are highly valued by the cricket community, so that’s detail that needs to be worked through.Previous MOU agreements included an annual grant to fund the ACA and CA’s previous submission questioned whether this was appropriate. To what degree will that be maintained?
That’s something that is in the detail of the proposal, I don’t want to go into that right now. It’s something we can talk about later. In the first instance, we see that as a matter for the members and the ACA to consider and we can talk through that detail in the future.

The forays down the pitch and the leaves outside off stump revealed a largely unchanged batting formula that has brought Cheteshwar Pujara rich rewards

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Ranchi18-Mar-2017A bye. On a day as gripping as Test cricket has ever seen, a bye shouldn’t be a particularly significant event. This one was.Pat Cummins was playing only his second Test match and bowling a spell that might remain among his ten most hostile spells even if he ends up playing a hundred Tests. He was getting 140kph cutter-bouncers to snarl at batsmen off a pitch that had largely nullified his three bowling colleagues as attacking threats.Cheteshwar Pujara was batting on 117, holding India together in their reply to Australia’s 451, and refusing to make mistakes against an attack that, Cummins apart, was built around maintaining pressure and inducing mistakes.India were six down and trailed by 123. The ball was reversing. Cummins had just taken out R Ashwin with a brute of a bouncer. A new man was at the crease. Whether India got close to Australia’s total or not seemed hugely dependent on the fate of Cummins versus Pujara.Cummins versus Pujara, however, was simply not happening. Cummins was halfway through the fifth over of his spell, and of 27 balls so far Pujara had only faced two, both in the first over. Of the other 25 balls, Ashwin had faced 20 and Wriddhiman Saha five.Pujara had been stuck at the other end, facing Steve O’Keefe’s left-arm spin. O’Keefe was bowling from over the wicket, into the rough outside Pujara’s leg stump with a single-saving field. Apart from one boundary, a full-toss whipped wide of mid-on, Pujara had not scored a run in O’Keefe’s five overs. He had kept padding the ball away or defending, refusing to sweep – a shot he isn’t too comfortable playing – or try any other unusual means of either hitting him off his line or getting off strike.Now Cummins bowled a short ball, down the leg side, and Matthew Wade, diving to his left, got a glove on the ball but couldn’t stop Saha and Pujara from scampering a bye.The strike had changed, for the first time in 43 balls.***Pujara’s hundreds usually follow a pattern. Against Australia in Hyderabad in 2013, he made his first 18 runs off 65 balls (strike-rate 27.69) and finished with 204 off 341 (59.82). Later that year in Johannesburg, he was on 9 off 64 (14.06) at one point, and went on to make 153 off 270 (56.67). More recently, at the SSC in 2015, he went from 32 off 116 (27.59) to 145* off 289 (50.17).Here, in Ranchi, he had accelerated from 28 off 120 balls (23.33) to move to 109 off 232 (46.92) by tea on day three. The forces around him, though, would conspire to add a third phase to his innings – the final session would bring him only 21, off 96 balls, at a strike-rate of 21.88.One of these forces was the effect of India losing the rest of their top six. Another was Australia’s bowling which, after tea, was at its most disciplined.This hadn’t been the case in the second session, which was lit up by Pujara’s shot-making against seam and spin. Cummins and Josh Hazlewood kept bowling too full to him, or too straight, and he kept driving them down the ground and flicking them.O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon dropped a few slightly short, and he was right back on each occasion, inches from his stumps, to whip to the right of midwicket. More frequently, and almost always profitably, he sauntered down the pitch to them, to drive or whip either side of mid-on and mid-off.In the last over before tea, he left his crease again to Lyon, didn’t quite reach the pitch of the ball and could only block it. The stump mic picked up the wicketkeeper’s voice.”Ooh, I love it when he comes down.”It was just Matthew Wade being Matthew Wade. No wicketkeeper actually likes Pujara leaving his crease.By the end of the day’s play, according to , Pujara had stepped out 471 times in his career, scored 396 runs – strike-rate of 84.08 – and had only been dismissed twice while doing so.***Over the course of his career, Pujara has shown the tendency to overcome slow starts•Associated PressJumping down the track is an adventure for some batsmen, but not for Pujara. M Vijay is a fairly frequent leaver of his crease; he has stepped out 208 times, according to , and has scored 389 runs (strike-rate 187.01) while being dismissed six times. For Vijay, leaving the crease is more of a risk than it is for Pujara, and can also bring greater reward.While scoring his 82 in Ranchi, Vijay skipped out to launch O’Keefe for a straight six, drive Lyon along the ground through mid-off, and loft
him over extra-cover. He also skipped down the pitch when O’Keefe brought mid-on and mid-off up, missed the line of the ball, and got stumped.Pujara’s forays down the pitch and his leaves outside off stump reveal the same batting personality. It is a risk-averse personality. He will step out to the spinners, but he will do so only when he thinks he can reach the pitch of the ball to drive along the ground, failing which he will adjust and play a defensive shot. He can score rapidly once he’s set, because he sees the ball better, can find the gaps more frequently, and is often facing less fresh and therefore less accurate bowlers. It’s not because he is taking more risks.***Post-tea, facing O’Keefe’s defensive line while Cummins roared in at the other end to other batsmen, Pujara had two options: wait for the bad ball while defending or kicking away the rest; or try something different to disturb his line or get off strike. Pujara went for the Pujara option.He had good reasons to do so. India were still trailing by a fair way, and Pujara getting out at that stage while trying to take a risk against O’Keefe – even a small, calculated one – would have been just what Australia wanted. Cummins was giving Ashwin a proper examination at the other end – he dropped a difficult caught-and-bowled the over before he dismissed him – but Pujara may have felt he could back Ashwin to survive it. And Cummins, a fast bowler returning to Test cricket after six injury-ravaged years, couldn’t keep his spell going indefinitely.Still, the other members of India’s top six may have thought differently in the same situation, and looked to sweep O’Keefe out of the rough, maybe, or reverse-sweep him, or step out and hit him against the turn or inside-out despite all the footmarks.Then again, they were all back in the dressing room and Pujara was still out there. Vijay had been out stumped on the stroke of lunch. Virat Kohli had edged to second slip while trying a forceful drive off the very first ball he had faced from Cummins – it also happened to be the first time he had faced the second new ball. Ajinkya Rahane had nicked off while trying to ramp a Cummins bouncer over the slips.Pujara had tried none of those things.And so he kept kicking O’Keefe away or blocking him, waiting for that slightly off-target ball he could put away for runs. He would have loved to get to the other end and deal with the greater threat of Cummins, but he wouldn’t do anything out of the ordinary to make that happen.On another day, Cummins may not have conceded that bye. On another day, he may have got a few more balls at Saha, and possibly bowled him something unplayable, leaving India seven down and trailing by more than 100.On this actual Saturday in Ranchi, Cummins conceded a bye. Saha got on strike against O’Keefe, who immediately went around the wicket. Saha swept and lofted him for two fours in two overs. Pujara, facing the sixth over of Cummins’ spell, cut him away for a four and a two, either side of point.Cummins went out of the attack; Pujara and Saha survived the last ten overs of the day. India ended it six down, trailing by 91. It was still anyone’s game, and Pujara was still out there, undefeated.

Shahid Afridi’s maiden T20 century has arrived, more than two decades after his stunning first coming into cricket’s big time

Jarrod Kimber at Derby22-Aug-2017Shahid Afridi is coming out to open the batting, and it’s a beautiful day. Quite why he’s got his pads on already, I don’t know. So far this season, he has been overlooked when he should have been asked to bat, he was dropped (or at best rotated out) for another fixture, and all season long, he has only made 50 runs off 52 balls. That’s less than a run a ball. Afridi doesn’t do less than a run a ball in a nightmare.And here he is out in the middle, like a tickle-me-Elmo come to life, ready to face Wayne Madsen. Madsen has been a first-over banker for Derbyshire, his cunning little offspinners, frugal and occasionally wicket-taking. His last five first overs have gone at 5.2 runs per over and have yielded two wickets.This is a data-centric, modern T20 pinch-hitting hunch at Hampshire. If they start with Madsen, we’ll send out our golden Furby, Afridi. Gary Wilson doesn’t blink as Derbyshire’s captain; he backs his man Madsen. Afridi is straight at him, smacking the first ball to midwicket with saliva dripping from his mouth. Next ball he gets inside the line and swings into a sweep, before a mow through long-off and another slog over mid-off. Sixteen runs from the over. For Madsen, this is hardcore.Shahid Afridi hits out during his maiden T20 hundred•Getty ImagesBut the quick is at the other end, Hardus Viljoen. Once upon a time, Afridi wouldn’t have worried, but Viljoen is bowling at over 92 miles an hour. This looks dangerous. Afridi doesn’t even get on strike. Instead he faces Ben Cotton, Madsen’s replacement. Madsen is darker than a mood ring gone black, and like mood rings, we won’t see him again.Afridi spends another Viljoen over trying to make sure he doesn’t face much of it, then faces Cotton again. He slaps one over long-on for six, and then follows that up by landing one on the media centre roof. No diggity.Viljoen stays on for one last over; you know why. Afridi, much like the aliens in , had to be stopped, even if you had to fly your fast bowler into the belly of the beast. Afridi doesn’t care now; this is the last Powerplay over, he just swings. He mishits and should be caught, he isn’t. He mishits and should be caught, he isn’t. And then he mis-hits and should be caught, but he isn’t. He takes ten runs in lucky mis-hits. I don’t know how he’s getting away with it; it’s like some sort of CIA conspiracy that can only be unravelled by a smoking guy. But it’s too much fun to care.The Powerplay is over, Hampshire have 71 runs, Afridi is 45 off 18. This is when T20 matches slow down, but this is Afridi, this will keep going or come to a glorious end. Put out your ramblers, Derby, let’s get rambling.Matt Henry comes on, he decides to bowl short to Afridi, but who cares, he just swings, a top-edge flies over his head and into the crowd. Henry pitches up and Afridi hits him over cover for six. Matt, what’s your favourite scary movie?Afridi is now stealing the strike; this was Derby’s big day but it’s his now. He is bigger than Britpop. Imran Tahir comes on; these two have been playing cricket against one other since the last century. Afridi puts him into the Derby Pentagon, Tahir looks about as cool as a girl with a Rachel-cut wearing a scrunchie. But then Afridi clumps one straight to mid-on. Madsen is waiting, he can unbreak his heart. The ball bounces in front of him for a second before hitting the turf.Afridi is still coming down the wicket to have those really intense mid-over chats. What on earth does he discuss? “Some say the end is near. Some say we’ll see armageddon soon”, or “I’m gonna try smack every ball for six, please get me back on strike”. At one point, the bails are whipped off by the keeper, Afridi runs off to retrieve them, he just wants to hit the ball. There is a three dot-ball pause from Afridi, like the slow bit in a grunge song, before he smashes one onto a car windscreen from, who cares, just some bowler.Viljoen comes back on, but he unleashes a beamer and it’s heading for the head of Afridi. For a second, Afridi does that thing where he’s too excited to look in one direction, before holding his hand up at Viljoen, and then walking up to him and having a hug. It’s like the scene where they start slapping each other before kissing in . Except, next ball, Afridi is violently smacking a freehit four.And then, as if it was meant to be, against the guy who knew him back in 1996 when he set the world alight in Kenya, Imran Tahir is bowling to Afridi and gets hit for six, and then is cut away for a four. It’s his hundred, after 2.4 billion T20 games, his first. Five balls slower than that magic day in Kenya 7627 days ago. All night, it’s been like this retro flashback, and Afridi even poses like it’s the old days. As he stands there, adoring his own work, wanting the world to adore him, you can’t help but ask, could you be any more Shahid Afridi?Oh, the beautiful people, the beautiful people, it’s all relative to the size of your steeple. Hey you, what do ya see? Something beautiful or something free? You magnificent creature of madness. You bizarre wonderboy. It doesn’t matter that you are out while not looking at a short ball that you are trying to slog away, in fact, that makes it better. Forget the data, the form, the everything, just swing, you beautiful freak. Everything is right in the world, I have travelled back in time to the golden days of Shahid Afridi, the man who will not age.Shahid, there is nothing left to say, I love you. You, you complete me.

Given the relative inexperience of her side, West Indies women’s captain Stafanie Taylor believes one of the ways for her team to move forward is to consciously work on their self-belief

Firdose Moonda24-Jun-2017The consistent chorus mourning the decline of West Indies cricket hit some of its higher notes in the last few weeks with their absence from the Champions Trophy. While their swagger and style were missed in the UK, it has not been entirely lost and the Islands will have a presence on the global stage after all. It will, however, not be through the men’s national side.”We are the example. Seeing that the men didn’t go to the Champions Trophy and we are here at the World Cup, everyone is looking at us to do well,” Stafanie Taylor, the West Indies women’s captain, said. “The expectation is high.”It would be.The West Indies women became the darlings of the game when they beat Australia to win the World T20 in April last year. Everything about their campaign was a fairytale: from a tense opening win over Pakistan – defending a total that should have been indefensible – to the drama of losing to England by one wicket and recovering to beat India by three runs to force their way into the knockouts. They had the steady hand of allrounder Deandra Dottin, the breakthrough performances of teenager Hayley Mathews and the exemplary leadership of Taylor, who was never shy to show her emotions. Not then and not now.Taylor is, as the rankings confirm, among the top women’s cricketer in ODIs. She is ranked fifth on the batting charts, second on the bowling and tops the allrounder’s list. Without her, West Indies would not be the team they are. Consider her contribution with the bat as an example: on 26 of the 31 occasions Taylor has crossed fifty in ODIs, West Indies have won. She knows they need her but, equally, she knows her team needs more than her.”If I don’t play in a game, the team seems to struggle so it’s just to remind them that they do have the belief, they’re talented and they can do it. A lot of us lack that belief. It’s just to remind them that they can do it,” Taylor said.The West Indies women became the darlings of the game when they beat Australia to win the World T20 in April last year.•AFPTaylor’s confession that there is a lack of self-esteem seems at odds with everything that is West Indies cricket. They are the team that talks the talk (“Yeh Viv, Talk Nah”) even when they are not walking the walk. But Taylor showed unexpected vulnerability when she admitted that the growth spurt in the women’s game in other parts of the world might have left some of the West Indies players behind.”Some of us don’t play that many international leagues. Playing the Big Bash and Kia League helped me, Deandra and Hayley, so if we could get more players being out there, exposed to different things that will build their belief,” Taylor said.The trio are the only ones to have competed in international leagues in a squad with four uncapped players and three others who have played less than 20 ODIs each. Taylor’s concerns about inexperience, especially in English conditions, are well-founded. Although the squad have been in the country for more than two weeks, Taylor said they are still “finding their footing” on pitches unlike anything they play on in the Caribbean. Coping with pace and swing is going to be their biggest challenge and batting, therefore, will be the first focus area for West Indies.Taylor wants them to break out of the stereotype of being swashbuckling stroke-makers and concentrate on strike rotation. “We tend to believe that we need to hit big shots but I believe we could definitely knock the ball around and get our ones and our twos,” she said. ” It’s just a perception that people have for West Indies players – that we are big and we are strong but we can knock the ball around too. Because we are strong, we can hit boundaries at any time. We are naturally strong, so we need to work on different areas of our game like rotating the strike.”Not necessarily an eye-catching strategy, but one that could prove effective when it comes to building totals, a job Taylor knows she cannot do alone. “We have a lot of players who are strong, fit and talented, so it’s not just one person,” she said.Stafanie Taylor calls herself “one of the rare ones” who has consciously worked on her self-belief• CWI Media Photo/Adriel RichardBehind the scenes, Vasbert Drakes and Ezra Moseley, the coach and assistant coach, have been working to get that message across to their players. “We get a lot of talks from them – in their day, they were dangerous bowlers. They stress on the fact that we need to be fearless because they saw themselves as fearless. We need to get that into our culture,” Taylor said.But Taylor has already adopted that mantra. She calls herself “one of the rare ones” who has consciously worked on her self-belief. “I read a lot in my spare time. I love to read. Reading and talking to a lot of people helped me with my concentration,” she said. “Playing in different leagues and getting that exposure and having a mentor telling you how important you are, that’s how everything started for me.”On the eve of the tournament, Taylor is engrossed Jojo Moyes’ romantic novel . Curiously, the title is the exact opposite of the way she approaches the game: the team before herself, the pride of the Caribbean before her own, even though it would seem they are inseparable.During this tournament, Taylor will play her 100th ODI; if all goes to plan, it will be against India in the second game – and doubtless she will be keen to bring up the same number of runs at some stage. Taylor hasn’t crossed three figures since 2013, having scored her maiden century in 2009 against South Africa. In spite of that, she has been at the heart of the team’s greatest successes. A World Cup trophy would surpass all of that and for Taylor, it would go a long way to encouraging people to rally around the women of the West Indies.

De Kock and Jennings shared a common cricket path till their under-19 days, after which the latter left South Africa for England

Firdose Moonda29-Jun-2017Two schoolboys spent their summers preparing to become professional sportsmen and one took the road less travelled. Their paths will cross again over the next three days in Worcester, 13,500 kilometres from their original path in Johannesburg, and though theirs is the sort of story that is not new to the globalised world, its contrasts hold charms.Twenty-five-year-old Keaton Jennings and 24-year-old Quinton de Kock are not just any pair of players, they are contemporaries of the closest kind. They attended the same school, King Edward VII, in the same year and played in the same teams, both batting left-handed.While de Kock was the rebel who relied on sheer talent, Jennings was drilled to work meticulously on his game from the age of five under the guidance of his father and coach, Ray. As irony would have it, it was the carefree character who fared better early on.”I remember our head of cricket at the time gave Quinton a free weekend – so he could leave hostel on a Friday night – if he got a hundred the weekend before,” Jennings told ESPNcricinfo at the unofficial Test between the Lions and South Africa A in Canterbury last week. “And there weren’t too many weekends he didn’t get hundreds.”Any hint of envy Jennings might have had quickly evolved into admiration. “Quinton was a sensational player ever since I was 13. He was very driven, very clinical in the way he went about trying to achieve success in cricket. He hit the ball cleaner than most other guys.”It takes all sorts to make a solid batting line-up: the fearlessness of de Kock and the fastidiousness of Jennings. They progressed to the same provincial side and the national Under-19 team together.The time Jennings spent fine-tuning his technique and his temperament had matured him. He emerged as a leader and was made captain of the side, while de Kock remained an explosive enigma. The pair took turns sharing the spotlight.Less than a year apart, both Quinton de Kock (left) and Keaton Jennings are left-hand batsmen who started their careers in the same school•Getty ImagesIn early 2011, Jennings led the U-19 team to a 5-0 win over Zimbabwe and topped the batting charts. Later that year in England, de Kock was the leading run scorer. It seemed Jennings and de Kock would be in a race for franchise and, eventually, international honours, but Jennings had already been directed elsewhere.Jennings senior, who was the coach of that U-19 side, encouraged Keaton to make use of the British passport he had courtesy his English mother and seek a career in the UK, because he thought his son would struggle against the “serious talent” that was coming through the South African system at the time – talent he had had a first-hand look at; talent like de Kock.Perhaps Jennings senior realised de Kock would be the biggest obstacle in his son’s way. As top-order batsmen, they could ultimately compete for a similar spot, and though de Kock was, by his own admission, not a big believer in hard work in the early years, Jennings must have known that could change. He pushed his son to apply the meticulousness he had learnt in South Africa to a county career, even as he grappled with the frustration of trying to tame de Kock at home.”My dad is a passionate guy and he cares. If he is sitting on your back, it’s because he cares about you and he sits on my back like nobody else’s,” Jennings said. “He will try and push you to new heights. It’s when he turns the other way, that’s when you worry.”De Kock was not as receptive to the disciplinarian style of Jennings senior and only began to see the value of extra work after he was picked for the South Africa side. In 2013, de Kock had a first stint at the highest level and a top score of 31 in his first seven ODIs. He knew that was not good enough and he went to his franchise coach, Geoffrey Toyana, to ask for extra hours in the nets. When de Kock returned to the South African side, he scored four hundreds in eight matches, including three consecutive centuries against India.In that time, Jennings had been working his way up from the Durham Academy to the second side and eventually into the county first XI all while studying an accounting degree through the University of South Africa. In 2013, he tasted his first major success when Durham won the County Championship, but he then had to wait three more years before he would put on an international shirt. When he did, de Kock was among the first to congratulate him. “Quinton sent me a lovely message after I got picked for the India series, which was awesome after not hearing from him for a while,” said Jennings, who went on to make a century on Test debut.Keaton Jennings: “My life brought me here and I am really thankful it has. I am happy with the way things have worked out”•Getty ImagesThe two have continued to keep an eye on each other’s careers, though they are not necessarily close. “I wouldn’t say we’re friends, we don’t stay in touch, but I’d say we are friendly,” Jennings said. “If we walk past each other, we catch up over a beer or chat about school times. When you’re in different countries, it’s hard to stay in touch with guys you went to school with.”Harder still, perhaps, because of their journeys continue to differ. De Kock is a regular on the international stage and a sought after T20 player in leagues around the world. Jennings has only played two Tests and, at the time of this interview, knew he was not necessarily a shoo-in for the South Africa series. The Lions squad included two other openers who are also vying for the English Test side: Haseeb Hameed and Mark Stoneman, who outscored Jennings.”In a way, its healthy competition,” Jennings said. “When you’ve got a lot of players scoring good runs, vying for limited opportunity at a Test level, that’s really healthy. You put us all in the same side and we’ve all got to score runs in order to be picked and that’s the main currency we deal in. It’s a cutthroat environment and you need to score runs to be able to stay there. Simple as.”De Kock lives by the same mantra.”See ball, hit ball,” is the philosophy he underlined at the launch of the CSA’s Global T20 last week. Even in the longest format, he has retained his aggression and Jennings knows how destructive he can be. “To see Quinton perform the way he is no surprise. To see the way he has handled international cricket is awesome.”Now Jennings wants to be able to show that he can handle it his own way, especially after having taken the scenic route. “When you’re 13, that’s the way you look at it [that you will play together as adults], but as you go up through the school levels, it doesn’t. My life brought me here and I am really thankful it has,” Jennings said. “I am happy with the way things have worked out and it would be awesome if I can play against him in a Test in a couple of weeks.”

The Bangladesh allrounder emulates New Zealand great in scoring a half-century and taking a ten-for in the same Test more than once

Gaurav Sundararaman30-Aug-201710 – Wins for Bangladesh in 101 Tests. Australia is the fifth opposition they have beaten. Zimbabwe (five times), West Indies (twice), England and Sri Lanka are the other sides they have won against. This is the second consecutive win at home for Bangladesh and the second instance of them winning two home Tests in a row.14 – Out of the 25 instances in 553 Tests where teams have lost by less than 20 runs, Australia have featured in 14 of them.0.142 – Australia’s win-loss ratio over 19 Tests in Asia this decade, the second-worst among all teams. Zimbabwe have lost all four Tests played in Asia. Australia’s two wins came against Sri Lanka (Galle, 2011) and India (Pune, 2017).2- Number of cricketers to score a half-century and take ten wickets in a match more than once. By achieving this feat in Mirpur, Shakib Al Hasan joined a rare club with Richard Hadlee. The New Zealand great did this thrice, one more than Shakib, who also became the sixth cricketer to achieve this double against Australia.5- Cricketers to have taken a ten-wicket haul in their 50th Test. Trevor Bailey, Richard Hadlee, Muttiah Muralitharan and Harbhajan Singh achieved this feat before Shakib did it in Mirpur. This is Shakib’s second instance of taking ten or more wickets in a Test. Previously, he took 10 for 124 against Zimbabwe at Khulna in 2014. Shakib also got his third Man of the Match award, the most for Bangladesh in Test wins.2014 – Last time David Warner made an away hundred. He’s gone 34 innings without a century outside Australia. Only two of his 19 Test tons have come in Asia.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 – Centuries scored by Australians in the fourth-innings of a Test in Asia. Warner joined Ricky Ponting, Bob Simpson and Mark Taylor to this feat. This is Warner’s second fourth-innings century, one less than Don Bradman. Ponting’s four second-innings centuries is the highest. Incidentally, both of Warner’s centuries have come in a losing cause.130 – Runs added by Steven Smith and David Warner for the third wicket. This is the highest stand in the fourth innings for Australia in Asia. The previous best was the 107 Smith and Mitchell Marsh added against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi in 2014.

Revamped squad selection and the subsequent results, as well as the administrative groundwork the ICC has done to boost the game in the country, provide a glimmer of light at the end of a long tunnel for USA

Peter Della Penna04-Nov-2017When the Auty Cup resumed in 2011 after a 17-year hiatus, the identities of the two national organisational setups were reflected in the respective squad selection for Canada and the USA.Canada, at that time, still had ODI status with centrally contracted players, and picked a full-strength side and dominated the visitors. USA, an amateur setup with ODI aspirations but limping around under the muddled administration run by USACA, haphazardly cobbled together a squad comprised of whoever answered their phones in the week before the team was sent off to Toronto for a shellacking on a winless tour that also featured sizable losses in T20s to Afghanistan and Trinidad & Tobago.That debacle now seems like a lifetime ago as a new era in American cricket started to take shape this autumn. First came the victory in the Auty Cup to break a barren 26-year run. Then came the announcement of the new administrative identity orchestrated by the ICC, which will be known as USA Cricket.Over the last two-plus years, since the ICC has taken charge of the organisational affairs while USACA was suspended and the subsequent restructuring in the wake of USACA’s expulsion, many surveys have been sent out to solicit feedback from people across the USA cricket community. One question stood out among the initial series of surveys that has served as a fundamental chicken or egg question for US cricket: are good cricket teams a product of good administration or good administration a product of good cricket teams?Under USACA, it was far easier to disprove than prove these theories. No matter how good the players were, poor tournament results always came to USA teams hindered by the incompetence of their administrators. One former USA captain resorted to gallows humor about team preparation, saying he was readying himself for “another Jamaican ghost tour”, a frequent USACA promise that never panned out ahead of whatever was the next ICC qualification event.While the results across each of USA’s national teams haven’t done a 180-degree turn overnight – the men, juniors and women all failed in their attempts this year at advancing along their respective World Cup qualification pathways – the Auty Cup selection and performance has shown there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. ICC staff have spent many months laying the groundwork for success and while identifying the best talent was the chief priority initially, that has taken a backseat to positive attitude and chemistry to find success in the overall mission for advancement.That new philosophical mindset was underscored by quotes from selection chairman Ricardo Powell when announcing the squad for USA’s upcoming December tour to the UAE and Oman. It was also harped on by coach Pubudu Dassanayake before and after the Auty Cup success. It should leave no doubt that regardless of the number of runs and wickets accumulated, the so-called intangible qualities such as work ethic and attitude are being given more emphasis at the selection table going forward.In the past star mentality took precedence because the second tier of talent was never good enough to challenge seriously for places. It was prevalent under the captaincy of Steve Massiah, who led the team from 2005 until 2014 and was USA’s all-time leading scorer in one-day cricket. In spite of his prolific scoring, he developed a reputation within playing circles for the poor influence he imparted on younger talent. Among the current generation that influence could be seen on Timroy Allen, Steven Taylor and Muhammad Ghous.Allen is USA’s biggest matchwinner but there have been question marks placed over his commitment over the years. He retired in 2013 at age 26, then, after coming back as vice-captain at the end of that year’s World T20 Qualifier, he made himself unavailable for selection for USA until the World Cricket League Division Four last year due in part to various clashes with team management. He was USA’s best player at Division Four last year, but had his worst tournament in national team colours earlier this year at WCL Division Three in Uganda.Taylor is a once-in-a-generation born-and-raised American talent who has an eye for a career with West Indies, owing to his parents’ Jamaican heritage. However, his indiscipline with the bat has cost USA more matches than he’s won for them and such careless shot selection meant he was dropped from the Guyana Amazon Warriors line-up after just two games this summer despite fetching a handsome $30,000 price-tag at this year’s Caribbean Premier League draft.Ghous, meanwhile, rarely batted above No. 11 in most USA teams but put himself at No. 6 at one of the first opportunities after taking over as captain in 2015. At that summer’s World T20 Qualifier, he was the target of thinly veiled criticism from a senior team-mate after bowling himself for just two overs for nine runs against Namibia while everyone else was getting hammered. Since being dropped in 2016, he had been given several opportunities to work his way back into the squad but no-showed twice after receiving invitations to USA trials, most recently in August after his plane tickets were already purchased by the ICC Americas staff.All three players are now on the outside looking in and may be there for some time yet because the broader USA squad depth has finally started to outstrip their usefulness as evidenced in the most recent Auty Cup. Among the players who stepped up in their absence are ones who would not be considered great by any stretch, but good ones who buy into the team-first concept frequently espoused in recent interviews by Dassanayake.Those good players – a trio of Patels in Japen, Mrunal and Nisarg – were able to produce positive results for the team with key contributions at significant moments. As the squad uses experiences like the Auty Cup and the upcoming tour to the UAE and Oman to patiently gear up for some key events in the 2018 calendar – including the next WCL Division Three expected for late in the year and the start of qualifying for the 2020 World T20 – they are the kinds of players who are being rewarded with opportunities to grow and, hopefully, shine.Shepherded by a cagey and savvy veteran like Ibrahim Khaleel, greatness is being coaxed out of sensationally gifted talents like left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige, the kind of player who can be a cornerstone for USA to build around for the next decade. Even though he only made his national team debut in May, the 26-year-old Kenjige has commanded a tremendous amount of respect within the squad in a relatively short space of time not just because of his skillset both with the ball and through his aggressive fielding but more importantly through his unfailingly positive attitude and unflinching commitment to fitness and training.While Dassanayake and Powell’s USA selection panel deserve a large amount of credit for piecing together the puzzle for a winning side, an unsung hero to the general public but one frequently cited by the players as a secret to team success is outgoing USA high performance manager Tom Evans. The Australian has done yeoman’s work to build the framework for a sustainable winning culture, chiefly with implementing regional and national talent-identification programmes over the last three years, before heading home in September to accept a role with Cricket Victoria.The new logo introduced by USA Cricket embodies the changing face of cricket in the country on and off the field. As the last vestiges of USACA are being scrubbed away from American cricket’s organisational and operational affairs, the same is occurring on the field with the makeup of the national teams – and better days likely lie ahead for both.