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South Africa saved their strongest statement for last – a crushing win in Johannesburg – and with these two sides meeting again early in the World T20 it could yet have even greater significance

Firdose Moonda22-Feb-20164:02

‘Series wins give us confidence before World T20’

From a wide angle, South Africa’s summer has not been as successful as they would have hoped. They lost the Test series against England and with it their No.1 ranking. But zoom in and you will understand why they smiling at the end.Whisper it, because of course a global event is looming, but in the ODI and T20 series, they have shown they can handle pressure. They came from 2-0 down in the ODIs to win 3-2 and won both T20 matches to finish England’s visit with five successive wins. That all of them were achieved chasing, the area of the game where South Africa are known to be soft, and two of them – the Wanderers ODI and Cape Town T20 – became nail-biters only makes it sweeter.South Africa now have reason to be confident they can do it again, when it really matters, at a major tournament. “From a mental point of view, it’s great,” Faf du Plessis said afterwards. And from an immediate point of view, it has allowed South Africa to rescue a summer in which they were dictated to by a team they may have felt they could have had the better off.”We felt if we could land a good punch on the English team, they might disappear – and that’s what happened,” du Plessis said, referring to England’s final match of a long tour.South Africa may actually have felt that way over much of the last two months but they have only really been able to land proper blows in the last two weeks when, perhaps jolted by the reality that they could lose a home Test and ODI series for the first time in 14 years, they made real changes.In the personnel department, South Africa have reinvested in genuine allrounders. Chris Morris, who featured across all three formats against England, has an opportunity to establish himself as a regular. David Wiese is also in the fray and JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien have been left to focus on their batting, which Duminy especially needs to do. As a result, South Africa have restored some balance to an XI that had become skewed.That’s not say South Africa have answered all the questions. Not everyone in the line-up is performing as they should. Apart from Duminy and Behardien, Rilee Rossouw, albeit with limited opportunities, also needs more consistency. Leaving it to Morris to perform last-minute, million-dollar-man heroics is exciting but not ideal and in the shortest format, there is still a conundrum over Quinton de Kock.Hashim Amla’s form against England means it could be difficult for Quinton de Kock to find a starting place•Getty ImagesHashim Amla is close to his best, after battling through a lean patch, and showed his ability to score as quickly and destructively as anyone else at the Wanderers. With AB de Villiers now being given the chance of a full 20 overs, de Kock, despite prolific form in ODIs, could miss out. Nonetheless, it’s a problem South Africa are happy to have.”It’s not a headache, it’s great to have options,” du Plessis said. “I’d like to have AB to the top so there is only one spot.”Who gets that one spot could depend on how things go against Australia early next month. Those three matches will also be crucial for solving another dilemma. Dale Steyn should return and if he does, fitting him into an attack that has done well without him could be tricky. Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada have shown their quality, particularly at the death, and with the two allrounders and a specialist spinner a necessity, one of them will have to be left out to get Steyn in.Given the praise du Plessis has heaped on his bowlers and the fact that not so long ago South Africa did not have someone who could reliably contain at the end of an innings, it is difficult to decide who that could be.”To bring it back like we did with those seven wickets is unheard of in Twenty20 cricket,” du Plessis said, referring to England’s decisive collapse. “That’s something we pride ourselves on now, having great options at the death.”The variation in their squad is why du Plessis believes they “are not weak in any area,” as they approach the World T20. South Africa’s recent record which includes eight wins in nine games and series victories over Bangladesh, India and England, makes it difficult to argue with that and easy to see why they may start to be spoken of as serious contenders for the title.Du Plessis was careful not get too carried away, especially as the T20s came at the end of a long tour for England but was equally calculating in reminding them when they will meet South Africa again – in just a few weeks time.”It’s always tough when you’re playing your last game, you’re already thinking about going home and you’re 1-0 down in the series,” he said. “But for us, you always want to imprint something on a team, so that when they meet you again, they will remember the result.”So for now, it’s goodbye England. Thanks for a great summer and see you again on March 18 in Mumbai.

Always a monster at scoring on the leg side, Virat Kohli has become so adept at playing inside-out drives that he can now pierce any gap from point to mid-off, and this evolution has contributed to some insane numbers

Alagappan Muthu in Bangalore19-May-2016There was one thing Virat Kohli failed at on Wednesday night: trying to restrain his grin as he walked off with a century . He bit his lip. That didn’t help. He bowed his head. But that only made him look cooler.There was a time when Kohli simply seemed agitated playing Twenty20 cricket. He wasn’t always as strong as he is now. He couldn’t thwack sixes as often as he does now. It had bred frustration, which clouded his mind and reduced him to base instinct. For a bottom-handed player such as him, that roughly means slogging into the leg side. Until December 2015, he averaged 35.37 with a strike-rate of 128.97. No centuries. Thirty-two fifties.Kohli’s first boundary on Wednesday came off the first ball he faced, standing tall to dispatch a back of a length delivery through the covers. A shot like that depends on the top hand for timing and direction, so bottom-handed players have trouble getting the maximum out of them. The same holds true for inside-out drives through the off side.But Kohli is a master of those, against pace and spin. He has become so adept that he can pierce any gap from point to mid-off and this evolution has contributed to some insane numbers. Since January 2016, his average is 99.33 and his strike-rate 148.11. Four centuries. Twelve fifties. That is half as many 50-plus scores in one year as he had made in the previous eight.Kohli was always a monster on the leg side with the power he generates with his wrists. Now he is a phenom on the off side as well.You have to put yourself in the bowler’s shoes to understand the impact of that. You think you can be safe with a nice, fifth or sixth stump line, but he can carve it to third man, drill it through the covers or thump it back over your head. Okay, target the stumps then. But the bottom-handed meanie will whip it anywhere between square leg and mid-on. Is it any wonder that Kohli has hit 443 runs on the off side and 422 on the leg side in this IPL?A bottom-handed player being more productive on the off side is a sign he has broken his limitations. Kohli has done so by developing a shot that could eclipse his flick and become his new trademark, at least in one-day cricket, when there is considerably lesser swing and seam movement. The cover drive.It was the first thing he practiced when he got to the middle – off the front foot and the back foot – and it brought him the first of his eight sixes against King XI Punjab when he charged at KC Cariappa and hit with the legspin. He can play it from the crease, or outside it, on the up and any which way he pleases. Kohli’s strike-rate through the covers in this IPL is 156.20. In all T20s prior to the start of the season, that figure had been wallowing at a mere 118. Party to this improvement is his knowledge of when to use the shot.”Your head should always be where your toe is, that’s how your body is dictated when you’re playing the drive,” Kohli demonstrated in a batting masterclass for in April. “And that’s how you connect [with] the ball close to your body, close to your head and it stays in control.”If the ball pitches ahead of [where] your foot [can reach], you have to play it along with your pad and make sure your follow through is such that the ball bounces right in front of you. If the ball is a bit fuller, the sensible thing to do, which I do most often, is I collapse my back foot rather than bending on the front foot.”So many factors at play. So many decisions to make. And all Kohli gets is a split second. In addition to that, a bottom-handed player has to let go of his natural inclinations to play the drive well. Otherwise, he might hold the bat too tightly, the wrists lock up and a full flow of the arms is not easy.Creditably, Kohli hasn’t been pushed into overhauling his technique to expand his range. He has adjusted by moving his feet and himself into a position – usually quite a distance outside leg – where the bottom hand does all the work to get the cover drive away. There have been times when he has nailed the shot without making room too. Remember the fours he shovelled through the off side against West Indies and Australia in the World T20? The wristy flourishes at the end are a clear indication of his bottom-hand dominance.So Kohli, it appears, hasn’t abandoned his natural game. He has merely augmented it in the quest to become a complete batsman.Victory may not be that far off.

Watch @imVkohli battle stitches in his hand to score his fourth hundred in #IPL https://t.co/TIvU8BDVFO

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 19, 2016

Stats provided by Shiva Jayaraman and Bharath Seervi

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Sep-2016Virat Kohli hit three fours in his knock of 18, before holing out to deep midwicket off Mark Craig’s bowling•BCCIPujara departed for 78 soon thereafter, edging a fizzing legbreak from Ish Sodhi to Ross Taylor, who took an excellent diving catch at first slip•Associated PressAjinkya Rahane survived a few close calls early in his innings…•BCCI…and went on to score 40 before becoming the fifth wicket to fall•BCCIRohit Sharma, at No. 6, scored an unbeaten 68 off 93, which included eight fours•BCCIWith him was Ravindra Jadeja, promoted to No. 7, who plundered an unbeaten 50 off 58•BCCIJadeja twirled his bat in celebration upon reaching his fifty and India declared at 377 for 5, setting New Zealand a target of 434•BCCIR Ashwin removed New Zealand’s openers in quick time, leaving the visitors in early trouble at 3 for 2•BCCIKane Williamson and Ross Taylor resisted for 14 overs but fell in quick succession as New Zealand stumbled to 56 for 4.•BCCIAshwin became the second-fastest bowler to reach 200 Test wickets when he trapped Williamson lbw on the back foot•Associated PressLuke Ronchi was aggressive from the outset and struck an unbeaten 58-ball 38 to help New Zealand to stumps without further loss, but they were still 341 behind with six wickets in hand•BCCI

The battle over the future of domestic T20 in England is set to come to a head once again. At its heart is a conflict between profitability and growing the game

George Dobell19-Aug-2016There is a line in the film where Gideon Haigh asks the question: “Does cricket make money to exist or does it exist to make money?”It is a question that ECB executives should consider over the next few weeks as they seek to persuade the counties of their plans for a new-look domestic T20 competition.Make no mistake: this debate is about money. If it was about reaching out to a new generation of supporters, there would be more emphasis on free-to-air broadcasting and less on the size of a potential broadcasting deal.If it was about the quality of cricket, there would be recognition of the success of England and the relative failure of Australia and India in recent World T20 tournaments.It’s all about money.While the ECB executive will claim they have no preferred option among the five proposals suggested to the counties for the future of domestic T20 in recent weeks, it has become clear – it has been clear for months – that they want a city-based T20 competition involving eight freshly branded teams starting as soon as possible (realistically in 2018). This, they believe, will bring in substantial new revenue in broadcast deals – up to £50m is claimed – and a new audience to the game.Sounds good, doesn’t it? But there is a downside. To maximise revenue, the competition would be sold to a subscription broadcaster – with a perfunctory amount of action shown free over other platforms – and it would be played only in a few larger cities.So, no place for Northants (who have reached Finals Day three times in the last four years), no place for Leicestershire (who have won the competition more than anyone else) and no place for Somerset (who sell out just about every game they host). Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, who have seen ticket sales improve markedly in recent times, would also be among the excluded, as would Sussex and Essex, who have been selling out T20 games for almost as long as the competition has been played.Not just that, but to appease broadcasters – Sky’s current deal for live English cricket runs until 2019 – the competition would be played in a block that would see games scheduled just about every day of the week in a July window.If that sounds familiar, it is because it was tried as recently as 2012. It left the competition dangerously at risk of a bad spell of weather – gate figures dropped by more than 50% (from 633,957 to 313,215, though there were also 54 fewer games) that year – and asked too much of spectators. Instead of inviting them to attend a home game every second Friday, there might be two or three in a week (Surrey hosted four home games in five days in 2012), with no predictability of schedule, no pattern and no time to budget. There are good reasons it was discontinued.The smaller counties are rightly worried that they will be marginalised by this new competition. They point out not just that it is contrary to the ECB’s constitution to stage a competition involving only eight sides – the constitution states explicitly that all competitions must involve all 18 counties (though the definition of the word “involve” may be open to some debate) – but that if they are seen to play in a lesser competition (the “LDV Vans Trophy of cricket”, as one CEO puts it), it will impact on their ability to attract players, spectators and, in time, their viability.Those clubs would either surrender their best players to the city-based team for the duration of the tournament – not ideal as one of the options sees the County Championship season continuing at the same time – or lose them entirely.

There is another option: two T20 divisions with promotion and relegation, and an FA Cup style knock-out involving the minor counties

Yes, they would share in some of the revenues – it looks as if they will be offered £1m each if they sanction the new tournament – to alleviate some of their short-term financial pressures but, long term, they risk sinking into irrelevance.Because if there is no cricket broadcast free to air, if there is little cricket in state schools, if the mainstream media stop reporting on domestic cricket (the fact that the no longer provides independent coverage of county cricket should send warning bells around the game) and the most attractive competition is removed from the market towns and smaller cities where it thrives, how can the game in those areas sustain itself? How will a new generation stumble upon its charms? How can any decision to embrace a city-based T20 competition be anything but short term?While the ECB points to the Big Bash as the template for a new-look competition, there are important differences. The Big Bash sets ticket prices far lower than we do in England in the knowledge that it is crucial to attract families. It provides better match-day entertainment off the pitch and, crucially, it is played (in part) over the Christmas holiday period.But, most importantly, it has been, in recent years, shown on free-to-air TV. Cricket Australia, realising it had an opportunity to win over a new audience, took the sort of long-term view that is both so rare and so admirable in sports administration. Viewing figures trebled. The ECB appears less keen to adopt those characteristics of success.We have not even scratched the surface of the practical issues. What evidence is there that English and Welsh sports fans will support newly branded teams? It certainly didn’t work in Welsh rugby. Could an eight-team competition make room for unproven youngsters? How will young players – the likes of Ben Duckett or, before him, James Taylor and Jos Buttler – gain experience without the ‘smaller club’ development period? Wouldn’t taking so many players out of county cricket threaten the integrity and strength of the Championship and, as a consequence, dilute the strength of the Test team? How would a club sell tickets for two T20 competitions at the same venue within the same week?Oh, and good luck getting all Lancashire and Yorkshire supporters to cheer on a side with “Manchester” or “Leeds” in the name.There’s actually rather a lot to celebrate in the current NatWest Blast competition. Attendances are up for the third year in succession. Despite rival events (football’s European Championship and the Olympics) and a prolonged period of poor weather which dragged numbers back sharply, final average attendance figures for this season will be about 5% up on the record achieved last year. Anyone who says it doesn’t attract quality overseas players simply hasn’t been paying attention.And it should improve markedly next year. In 2017, the competition will start later in the season (meaning most of it will be played in the school holidays, rather than finishing just as they start), be played in something approaching a block and without any major rival sporting attractions. It is entirely possible that attendances will pass a million for the first time.As a result, some of the counties feel the ECB should take the domestic competition to the market after next year’s competition. And they feel it should be taken to the open market; something that you could argue has not happened since 2004.Why, they argue, is the ECB so keen to do a deal with Sky now? Before the market is tested? Before the current TV deal expires at the end of 2019? Before the current format is given the ideal schedule in 2017? Why the hurry?Smaller clubs such as Sussex have enjoyed packed crowds for the T20 Blast•Getty ImagesThe ECB executive stance is not without support. Generally, those clubs deep in debt – Durham, Hampshire and Warwickshire spring to mind – are for the city-based competition, while players and coaches make persuasive arguments about the benefits of playing each format in a block.While some, such as Hampshire, have a long and sincere commitment to city-based cricket, others are simply desperate for a cash injection to help them survive. Durham know they may well be excluded in a city-based competition, but a starving man probably doesn’t think about the consequences when they’re offered a meal. The same might be said about several of the smaller clubs.You might ask why some counties are so impoverished, though. Why, when the ECB has reserves of more than £70m, are some counties so desperate that their survival is in doubt. Might it be that the ECB has kept them poor in order to keep them amenable? You would hope not. But it is convenient, just as it tries to push this plan through, it has the carrot to dangle in front of the counties: £1m is a colossal sum for some of these counties.The smaller clubs (and for those who claim there are too many clubs, look at the excellent record the likes of Essex, Northants, Leicestershire and Somerset have in producing players compared to some of their big-budget rivals) also have the support of Surrey, probably the MCC (who are mindful not to be seen to push Middlesex into oblivion) and perhaps Yorkshire, who insist they will not change their name but owe trusts formed by the ECB’s chairman, Colin Graves, around £24m.Many of the clubs will feel the need to consult with their members – again, it is their duty as part of the constitution – over decisions of such magnitude. The ECB’s desire to operate in secrecy and without consultation with spectators seems oddly high-handed. As ever, the wishes of the spectators are way, way down the list of priorities. The sooner a supporters’ group is formed, with a seat on the ECB board, the better.All this means that, if the ECB tries to force the issue through in the coming weeks – and it appears it might despite failing in attempts to alter the make-up of the ECB board – the outcome is too close to call. And if it fails, the position of both Graves (who you may recall called this competition “mediocre” at the start of the season; a Gerald Ratner moment if ever there was one) and the chief executive, Tom Harrison, will be compromised. They have, since their first days in office, tried to push this idea through.If they fail – and they may well – the ECB could well be looking for a new chairman and chief executive before Christmas.The perception is that Graves and Harrison have stopped listening to the counties. And, judging by the way they have suggested marginalising the County Championship – one of the recent proposals suggests playing the new city-based T20 competition at the same time as the Championship, meaning the best 80 or so players would be withdrawn from first-class cricket – they seems to have diminishing faith in Test cricket, too.By chipping away at the foundations of the Championship, the ECB isn’t protecting Test cricket, it is in the vanguard of the attack upon it. England’s results in Test cricket have improved largely – not entirely, the introduction of central contracts was among the many other measures to contribute -because of the improvement of the County Championship since the introduction of promotion and relegation in 2000. Meddle with that and you meddle with everything good in the county game. You compromise its essence.There is another option. The compromise solution remains available: two T20 divisions with promotion and relegation. Broadcasters could focus primarily on the top division but all teams would retain the potential to win the competition. Add on an FA Cup style knock-out involving the minor counties and given to free-to-air broadcasters, provide the marketing budget the new-look competition would be given and you have the recipe for growing the game, reaching new areas of the country and, yes sustaining all 18-counties and the futures of Harrison and Graves. Any other outcome will see either counties fail or individuals leave.That option will not bring in the same short-term revenue, but it may well best provide for the long-term health of the game. All of which takes us back to Gideon Haigh’s original question: does the ECB exist to make money or propagate cricket? The answer should be obvious.

First picked as a legspinner, Steven Smith has achieved phenomenal things with the bat in his second coming as a Test cricketer. More than six years after his debut, he is set to play his 50th Test, with a remarkable batting average of 60.63

Brydon Coverdale in Sydney02-Jan-2017Steven Smith has raised the bat for so many centuries that it seems trifling for him to celebrate a 50. But this week at the SCG he will do exactly that when he walks out for his 50th Test match. If it is not a particularly rare milestone – 50 Australians before Smith have reached the 50-Test mark – it is at least an opportunity to reflect. And for Smith, the reflections are startling in their contrast.It was against Pakistan at Lord’s that Smith made his Test debut in 2010, batting at No.8 behind fellow debutant Tim Paine. In hindsight that seems remarkable – Paine still has only one first-class century even now, compared to Smith’s 29. And even at the time, Smith’s batting potential was obvious. In the previous summer he had made four Sheffield Shield centuries, more than any other player in the competition.But Smith was picked as a legspinner for his Test debut and the sometime rigidity of Australia’s selection habits – Cameron White had also batted at No.8 when picked as a Test legspinner two years earlier – meant that he batted below the wicketkeeper. Six years later, Smith will enter his 50th Test match as the No.1-ranked Test batsman in the world, and with the phenomenal Test batting average of 60.63.That means that among batsmen with at least 4000 Test runs, Smith sits third on the batting averages behind only Don Bradman and Herbert Sutcliffe, an unbelievable achievement for a man first picked as a bowler. And with 4669 runs from 90 Test innings, Smith is very well positioned to become just the third Australian after Bradman and Matthew Hayden to take less than 100 innings to reach the milestone of 5000 Test runs.”I was fortunate to play when I was quite young, obviously as a spinner when I debuted in England,” Smith said in Sydney on Monday. “I’ve always seen myself as more of a batsman and that’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, to put that [bowling] on the backburner and just concentrate on my batting. It’s been a good couple of years, I’ve enjoyed every moment of it and playing my 50th Test now – it’s an exciting time and hopefully I can have some success this week.”Not that Smith was not an accomplished batsman when he earned his baggy green – as his figures from that 2009-10 Sheffield Shield summer prove. In fact, when he made his Test debut, he was already averaging 56.22 as a first-class batsman. But much honing of his technique was required in order to progress from a natural talent who relied on a good eye to the consistent high-class performer on display today.”Probably walking about a foot across my stumps,” Smith said when asked what he would identify as the biggest difference between his batting in 2010 and 2016-17. “I used to bat on middle stump and not have any prelim movements. That was actually something I started in the 2013 Ashes out in the middle of the WACA. They were bowling quite short at me out there and I started a prelim movement, it was like everything sort of just clicked into place.”I just love batting, and love batting for long periods of time. You don’t get to do that in T20 cricket, so I love playing Test cricket”•Getty Images”It’s gradually got a little bit bigger over time, but it’s just getting me into a position to pounce on anything. Whether it’s full or short – I know where my stumps are and I get people bowling at my stumps, which is nice. I think that was a big turnaround for me, and everything has felt pretty good since then. So hopefully that can continue.”The Perth Test of which Smith spoke came less than a year after his second coming as a Test cricketer. When he was picked in a 17-man squad for the tour of India in early 2013, Smith appeared the 17th-most likely to play a Test. The selectors made it clear that Smith was a backup batsman rather than an allrounder, but the structure of the side meant that he wasn’t even the first backup: that was clearly Usman Khawaja.But then came the homework saga, and it is arguable that no Australian benefited more from that fiasco than Smith. The likely scenario after Australia’s loss in the second Test in Hyderabad was that the struggling Phillip Hughes would have been dropped and replaced by Khawaja. Instead, Khawaja and Shane Watson were suspended for not doing their homework, so Hughes was retained and Smith came in for his first Test in more than two years.He quickly proved what he had learnt in that time away from the game. In the first innings in Mohali, Smith struck an assured 92, and since that moment he has not missed a single Test. In fact, since his Ashes century in Perth, the second of Smith’s Test career and his self-described turning point, nobody in the world has scored more Test runs than Smith’s 3844, which he has made at the remarkable average of 73.92.Second on the list of Test run-scorers in that same period is Joe Root, and in third position is Smith’s vice-captain, David Warner, who has 3407 at 53.23. At the MCG last week, both Warner and Smith scored the 17th Test century of their respective careers, and they are without question the two key planks of Australia’s batting order. They are also well aware of their numbers, and enjoy the challenge of trying to outscore each other.”There is that sort of healthy competitive nature there,” Smith said. “I know after he got his hundred in Melbourne, I said ‘oh I’m going to have to get one now’. It’s obviously not that easy, but fortunately I was able to equal him and try and keep it going for this Test match. I’m sure he’ll be keen to go out there and go one better. I’m going to have to do the same.”Perhaps only Warner can match Smith for the most surprising Test career trajectory in Australia’s current line-up, the Twenty20 slogger who turned into one of Test cricket’s most productive batsmen. Like Warner, Smith emerged during the T20 era, and like Warner, he has mastered the long format.”I always wanted to play Test cricket,” Smith said. “That was the pinnacle for me and I just love batting, and love batting for long periods of time. You don’t get to do that in T20 cricket, so I love playing Test cricket.”The Australians love having him. Perhaps the scariest prospect for opposition teams is that Australia could have Smith for another decade, for he is still only 27. For now, it might only be a half-century that he raises when he walks onto the SCG on Tuesday morning, but what an extraordinary 50 it has been.

There is no doubt about Mushfiqur Rahim’s importance to Bangladesh as a batsman, but concerns over his wicketkeeping and tactics resurfaced in Hyderabad

Mohammad Isam in Hyderabad11-Feb-2017In the 118th over of India’s innings, Wriddhiman Saha ventured a long way out of his crease to blast Taijul Islam but missed the ball. Mushfiqur Rahim completed the stumping, so Saha’s confident nod after the stumps were broken looked rather out of place. Moments later, it was revealed that the Bangladesh captain had missed the stumps on his first two attempts, and by the time he had removed the bails, Saha was safe.India were 466 for 4, with Saha on 4, at the time. The ball had just started to turn, and for the first time since the first hour of the Test, Bangladesh had begun to exercise some control on the run rate. After his reprieve, Saha went on to score his second Test century and India batted another 48.5 overs and added 221 runs.There is no doubt that Mushfiqur is integral to Bangladesh’s plans as a batsman. He has the proven quality of a dependable middle-order player, one who takes great care to get his team into strong positions and is their go-to man when the side is in trouble. The first two days of the Hyderabad Test, though, have put his decline as a wicketkeeper and captain in the spotlight.On the first morning of the Test, an edge from Cheteshwar Pujara off seamer Kamrul Islam Rabbi fell short of Soumya Sarkar at first slip. It was Mushfiqur’s catch because the ball was never going to carry to slip. Elite wicketkeepers convert these half chances. Then came the fluffed stumping, which could become a pivotal moment for the Bangladesh captain.There were more examples of Mushfiqur’s recent struggles behind the stumps in the ODI series against Afghanistan last September. He missed catches at different stages of the three games and a stumping, which hurt Bangladesh in a two-wicket defeat in the second ODI.Mushfiqur’s main skill has always been his batting, the reason he was picked ahead of Khaled Mashud for the 2007 World Cup. Bangladesh wanted a batsman who could keep, and to this day Mushfiqur has fit the mould.On the recent tour of New Zealand, he underlined his importance in that role. Until Mushfiqur was hit by a Neil Wagner bouncer in Wellington, New Zealand could not get the upper hand in the Test. Mushfiqur’s 159 in the first innings was a superb display of controlled aggression, and his 80-minute second innings, with a finger injury, was an example of pure grit. He had also repeatedly taken blows to his body.Grit alone isn’t enough for a captain, though. The ability to size up a match situation, balancing control and aggression, knowing what the bowlers are capable of and then getting it out of them, are all essential requisites in a leader.The first time India got away from Bangladesh after the early fall of KL Rahul was in the sixth and seventh overs of Kamrul’s first spell, when the bowler’s intensity was clearly down. Kamrul is no stranger to bowling long first-class spells, but to ask him to bowl a seventh over after a flaccid sixth showed rigidness.Against Virat Kohli, Mushfiqur persisted with aggressive fields when his bowlers were not reciprocating with controlled bowling. There were boundaries for the taking either side of the wicket. A captain at times is as good or bad as his bowlers, but Mushfiqur’s optimism was not in sync with his team’s abilities. When the grind was needed, Bangladesh were being generous with the field placements.Mushfiqur has also displayed the other extreme as captain. In the home series against Pakistan, for instance, Bangladesh played the first Test with the more defensive Shuvagata Hom instead of legspinner Jubair Hossain. In the Mirpur Test, on a pitch with some grass, Bangladesh picked only two frontline quicks in Mohammad Shahid and Shahadat Hossain. Shahid ended up bowling 41 overs after Shahadat was injured in the first over of the game.A year earlier, Mushfiqur had kept his main bowler Shakib Al Hasan out of the attack despite Sri Lanka slipping to 67 for 8 in the first ODI. By the time Shakib was brought back, Sri Lanka were 143 for 8. The theory was to not give the left-hand batsman Thisara Perera, who made 80 not out, a left-arm spinner’s angle – it is not always a sound plan and has cost Bangladesh in the past. Offspinners were bowled to Perera and he went after them easily. Catches also went down in that game as luck deserted an inflexible captain.In the light of such decisions, and Mushfiqur’s tendency not to adapt mid-session, look at events in the Test Bangladesh won against England more closely. In Mirpur, on the instructions of coach Chandika Hathurusingha, Bangladesh were led by Tamim Iqbal in the session in which they sealed their seminal Test win.Mushfiqur and Hathurusingha later explained that the senior players had been told to step up, but it was evident that Tamim and Shakib were calling the shots at a crucial time in the match. The directions came because Hathurusingha had been disappointed with Bangladesh’s approach in the previous session.To look at specific instances and results alone can be a bit harsh on Mushfiqur. There is a reason why, before MS Dhoni, no wicketkeeper had captained in more than 18 Tests. Mushfiqur is No. 2 on that list with 25 matches. If anything, Mushfiqur’s burden is bigger than Dhoni’s was: as a batsman he is more integral to Bangladesh than Dhoni was to India, and he has had to lead a less seasoned side.Bangladesh are a team looking to take that next step in Test cricket, after having become competitive in limited-overs cricket. They need Mushfiqur the batsman, but perhaps it is time for fresher ideas from a captain. Being relieved of captaincy could rejuvenate his wicketkeeping too. With a series against Sri Lanka next month, it may be the right time to discuss Mushfiqur’s workload in the Test team.

The CoA has not been adamant in its discussions with other boards over the new ICC constitution, but the BCCI will be represented at the ICC meetings by its secretary, who is part of the old order

Nagraj Gollapudi23-Apr-2017Will the BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhury adopt the conciliatory approach established by the Committee of Administrators when he represents the Indian board at this week’s round of ICC meetings? Or will Choudhury, a loyalist of former BCCI president N Srinivasan, be confrontational like previous Indian administrators have been?The new ICC constitution – the focal point of next week’s meetings – was approved in principle in February but the BCCI, represented then by CoA member Vikram Limaye, was one of two boards to vote against it.Limaye had criticised the governance structure reforms, and in particular the proposed financial model because the BCCI’s share of ICC revenue is considerably reduced. The objections have since been spelt out in detail and sent to the ICC. To a large extent, the fate of the new ICC constitution will depend on how the BCCI approaches this meeting.Over the last two months, the heads of several boards have travelled to India to meet the CoA to try and ensure the BCCI isn’t hostile at the April meetings. Though CoA members, Vinod Rai and Limaye, and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri have expressed reservations to the draft constitution, they said they would try and resolve the issues amicably. Their conciliatory approach is in sharp contrast to that of past BCCI office-bearers, a difference that hasn’t been lost on other Full Member boards. They came across as a set of officials without “agenda or baggage,” said one visitor.Contrary to public perception of not being strong, however, the CoA and Johri have bargained hard and not compromised the BCCI’s interests.”The rest of the ICC Board could have easily said you can object but we will get the reforms done,” one official said. The fact that board heads travelled to India for meetings suggested, as one member director said, that the “importance of India” remains. And every visitor was given the message that, “if India lose something it is bad for everybody.” They were also told the BCCI would like to resolve the issues beforehand rather than take it to a vote during the meetings.This week, however, Choudhury will be attending the ICC meetings as the BCCI representative, a decision taken by the Supreme Court of India. And the relationship between the CoA and the board’s office bearers has been difficult because of the issue of the implementation of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations.Though both parties have started communicating better, tensions are unavoidable: the office bearers insist the BCCI should be run according to the old order in which they have the power and authority. They have refused to abide by the Supreme Court order that approved the Lodha Committee recommendations; the CoA has been tasked with supervising the BCCI while those recommendations are implemented.All three BCCI office bearers – Choudhury, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and president CK Khanna – have submitted affidavits in court saying they will adhere to the order and work under CoA supervision. But in reality they say they are empowered by and answerable to the state associations, who want to take a divergent path to the CoA.Before Choudhury left for Dubai on Friday, the CoA sought a meeting with him to ascertain what stance he would take during negotiations with ICC directors. Choudhury is understood to have said that he would either ask the ICC board to defer the decision on the new constitution, or oppose it if it went to a vote. When the CoA said that a “rigid mandate” would run into difficulties, Choudhury said he would speak to other boards.”If they go for an extreme position they will be outvoted,” one ICC director said. “Why would the other countries agree to defer any decision to June? They – other Full Members – would instead think this is their best chance to get whatever they can.”A top official of another board, who has been in touch with the CoA and Johri, said Choudhury could not afford to stall matters. The official said that most members on the ICC Board were united in pushing for the new constitution to get approved. “What this gentleman (Choudhury) might want to do is use the delaying tactic. I don’t believe anybody will want that to be case. You cannot go into June and still not know. It needs to be decided in April.”The CoA and Johri have tried to gain support at the ICC through engagement and subtle tactic, not through coercion. Will Choudhury play ball?

Amid the wreckage that has been Sri Lanka’s ongoing “transition”, Kusal Mendis has, repeatedly, shown the skills and temperament to put smiles on often-pained faces

Andrew Fidel Fernando at the SSC05-Aug-20171:02

Dasgupta: Kusal Mendis was very clear about his innings in his mind

A series victory over Australia that put the island on a one-month high; a South Africa tour so disastrous, self-immolation seemed less painful than watching it; a record ODI chase against India at the Champions Trophy; a resplendently comic fielding performance against Pakistan – such has been Sri Lanka’s last year.Transition, if that is still what we are calling it, is supposed to be this lukewarm, intermediary stage. Sri Lanka, however, have lurched at light-speed from calamity to success and back again, winning incredible T20s in Australia, losing spiritlessly at home to Zimbabwe, making wrecks out of their fans, and maybe their fanbase as well – so frequently have the losses come in recent months.One player, however, has been a consistent source of joy. Think of Kusal Mendis as the box of jewels the burglars didn’t ransack. The one fledgling banyan the deforesters did not chop down.Let us go through those happy Sri Lanka memories of the past 13 months. When they overcame an 86-run deficit to defeat Australia in Pallekele, it was 21-year-old Mendis, who, with the kind of transcendental innings that even good batsmen strive for all their lives, transformed that game, and as it would turn out, that series. When Sri Lanka crushed Australia inside two-and-a-half days in Galle, there was Mendis hitting the game’s highest score again.This year, who played the definitive innings in the Test victory against Bangladesh? Mendis. Who top scored when Sri Lanka ran down India’s 321 for 6 at The Oval? Mendis. Who has more ODI fifties than any Sri Lanka player in the last year? Which batsman looked the most fluent in South Africa? Who has been the one clear discovery from Sri Lanka’s “transition” years, while more experienced batsmen have had their outside edges repeatedly assaulted, and seen their averages go into retreat? Mendis, Mendis, Mendis. He has been the driftwood to cling to in the shipwreck of Sri Lanka’s recent run.There have already been suggestions that Mendis is a 10,000-run batsman, and based on Saturday’s evidence, there may be few to argue against that. In his innings was the fusion of ambition, skill and temperament only available to the very best. On a pit viper of a track, he broke the chokehold India’s spinners had imposed. He had slapped R Ashwin for consecutive fours while fresh at the crease, cracked four fours off five Ravindra Jadeja deliveries not long after, and in his effervescence, pushed several India fielders out to the boundary for the first time in the game.That the ball was leaping out of the surface like it had been shot out of an underground cannon only makes Mendis’ ferocious sweeping more remarkable. He kept nailing them flat and hard through square leg, fielders on the boundary often only good for fetching the ball after it has stung the boundary board. Seven of his 17 fours he achieved with that shot – eight if you count the reverse sweep that went backward of point.The clever touches that make coaches squeal and swell fans’ hearts were sprinkled lavishly all through this knock. Where Dinesh Chandimal had earlier been caught at square leg trying to sweep, Mendis constantly ensured his bat came down over the top of the ball, so that if he mis-hit it, the ball would hit the ground, rather than shoot up to be caught by a close fielder. The risk in sweeping as he did was that an under edge could perhaps wangle its way into his stumps. But then, maybe that was a hazard Mendis himself had considered, and chosen to ignore. There are no safe options on bad pitches – the best you can do is choose the least perilous one.All three Mendis Test hundreds have been of outstanding quality, though in the final wash-up, this one is unlikely to mean much to the team. Having collapsed with almost admirable efficiency in the morning, Sri Lanka still need 230 runs to make India bat again.But even in this depression-inducing series, Mendis has now scored runs. As long as he does that, Sri Lanka’s hope floats.

They came to England and were quite surprised by the lack of swing and seam. But to their credit, they have adjusted well enough to be in the semi-finals

Nagraj Gollapudi13-Jun-2017Last Saturday afternoon, the day before the South Africa match, India coach Anil Kumble placed three cones in the short-of-a-length area on one of the practice pitches at the Oval. Then India’s fast-bowling group, comprising Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya and Umesh Yadav, ran up and hit the placed targets repeatedly as Kumble kept close watch from behind the stumps.To the untrained eye, it seemed like the seamers were focusing on finding the right length – and it might have been that – but the primary objective, it turned out, was different.Kumble would have studied the inconsistent lines India had maintained against Pakistan and then Sri Lanka and hence wanted to make corrections. He knew the straight boundaries, and the one at square leg towards the Peter May stand, were on the shorter side. The smallest error in line could lead to a lot of runs and, ahead of a must-win match, India had to plug every possible weak link.Next morning, Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah put into practice what they had learnt, tying up the South African opening pair of Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock with tight lines and unbeatable lengths. The slowness of the pitch – it was being used for the second time in three days – added to the batsmen’s misery. The slow pitch did not help the bowlers either, forcing Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah to bowl defensive lines.South Africa did not utilise the field restrictions in the first 10 overs and seemed happy to be 35 for 0. But when they started trying to up the run-rate, Amla and de Kock perished. The onus was now on the middle order to patch the innings up but all that followed were two embarrassing run-outs. South Africa had succumbed to the pressure built by the Indian bowlers and their agile fielders. AB de Villiers, after the defeat, admitted his batsmen had been “squeezed” dry.To an extent, England’s hard, dry pitches have surprised the Indian fast bowlers, who were expecting conditions where they could find movement in the air. The absence of swing made the jobs of newcomers like Bumrah and Pandya that much harder.Most bowling teams try to attack when the ball is new, and that is what India had done as well in their first two games of the Champions Trophy. But, in light of the unhelpful surfaces, plans had to be changed. Having given away 51 and 44 runs in the first 10 overs against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, India improved significantly against South Africa.”Generally, we always go for wickets in the first 10 overs when the ball swings,” Bhuvneshwar said after the side sealed the semi-final spot. “But now we look to contain them and then take wickets when pressure builds. Teams try to save wickets till the last 10 overs before going big at death. That is why we thought our plan should be to contain in the middle segment to limit the total to not more than 300.”Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the rest of the Indian bowlers had been surprised by the lack of swing in the Champions Trophy•Getty ImagesHaving played in the 2013 Champions Trophy also held in England, and in India’s Test tour of the country the next year, Bhuvneshwar knows these conditions well and has been heavily involved in making the team’s bowling plans. “The only thing you have to change is length. Everyone is bowling a bit back, compared to what they normally bowl.”India’s lengths in 2017 have been virtually similar to those they bowled in 2013, when they won the title. Of the 20 wickets the fast bowlers took then, 13 came from deliveries that were short-of-a-length. By accessing that same area of the pitch in this edition, the quicks have produced five of their 12 wickets.Understanding such nuances will certainly help the growth of up-and-coming players like Bumrah. He was given the new ball for the first time in the tournament on Sunday and did well enough (2 for 28) to earn the Man-of-the-Match award. “The wickets have been a little different,” he said. “I expected slightly different wickets – the wickets are a little hard, favouring the batsmen.”You have to be proactive, you have to vary your lengths all the time and you have to be consistent as well. So the margin of error is quite less. We were just focusing on that and trying to hit good, hard lengths and not to give them room.”As for Kumble’s exercise before the South Africa match, Bumrah said, “Basically he was telling about the lines. You don’t want to give room to the batsmen because there is no lateral movement. There is no swing or seam on the wicket.”They are very flat so you can’t be one-dimensional. If you continuously bowl on one area, the batsman would line you up. With the four-fielder rule [outside the circle between overs 10 and 40] it is difficult for the bowlers as well, so you had to use the occasional yorker or a bouncer and it worked.”Virat Kohli has become better at making moves in the middle as well. He brought R Ashwin to bowl as early as the 10th over sensing South Africa were itching to accelerate and the moment they tried, it resulted in a wicket.But it was India’s fast bowlers who made the biggest difference on Sunday. Regardless of the conditions – and despite being surprised by them – they have worked hard to follow the lines Kumble has drawn.

From a period where no target seemed out of reach, to one where 250 is very defendable – several Indian pitches have changed since the 2015 World Cup, and this is a good thing for the team and the format

Vishal Dikshit at the Wankhede20-Oct-20171:16

Seven recent low-scoring encounters in India

During the home seasons over the past few years, Indian fans have celebrated dominant series wins, Rohit Sharma’s double-centuries, the rise of India’s new-look pace attack and the birth of a promising allrounder in Hardik Pandya, among other things. Even though India’s fortunes have hardly changed in ODIs, barring the loss to South Africa in 2015, one factor that has largely gone unnoticed is the change in the nature of the pitches.While players mostly use words such as “slow wicket” and “two-paced” to describe the tracks in interviews or press conferences, scorecards and performances show there has been a definite change in the nature of pitches that curators have prepared over the last couple of seasons.In 2013 and 2014, Indian fans would scream their lungs out as teams scored 300 with ease and India often chased that down without much trouble. When India hosted Australia in late 2013 for seven ODIs, the lowest first-innings total in the series was 295 even as scores of 359, 303 and 350 were chased successfully, which clearly showed teams – especially hosts India – preferred to bat second on such flat pitches. Just consider the run rate the Indian pitches produced in the two years leading up to the 2015 World Cup: 6.05. From February 2013 to February 2015, India topped the list when it came to average run rates for ODIs at home, the only country to have the figure above six per over.However, since the 2015 World Cup, India have dropped to fourth – excluding Pakistan as a venue, as the country has hosted only three ODIs in that time – with an average run rate of 5.73 behind Australia (6), England (5.98) and South Africa (5.95). While it not only means lower scores have been posted in the last two and a half years in India, it has also shown that totals around 250 have been defendable, like against New Zealand last year and versus Australia recently. The reasons for that are not restricted to pitches though.Earlier, teams winning the toss would often opt to bowl to avoid bowling with the dew later on. That factor has changed, however, as the start times of ODIs have been brought forward from 2.30pm to 1.30pm local time since November 2014, when India hosted Sri Lanka for five ODIs.Also, unlike England, South Africa and Australia, India has a varied array of conditions because of wide-ranging venues across the country and the dynamic factors of soil and regional weather conditions. Even as the other three countries play on more standardised and flatter pitches which last the full 100 overs more frequently, the average scoring-rate per match has reduced in India because of the lack of uniformity in conditions even within an ODI series.The dew, for example, does not show up in all cities across the year, which means bowling second is not as big a risk. While the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi has remained slow and low, a relaid pitch at Eden Gardens is prominently greener now and the ones in Mumbai and Bengaluru almost always promise a big score.As a result, teams have started batting first on winning the toss – like during the recent Australia series – as chasing 320 is not the norm anymore and pitches are now being prepared to assist slower bowlers more.These changing results may not be just an act of chance or fate, though. India suffered losses in the knockouts of the last three world events – the 2015 World Cup semi-final, the 2016 World T20 semi-final, and the 2017 Champions Trophy final – on flatter pitches, so they probably wanted to change things at home at least; flat tracks meant India could post big scores, if batting first, but could not always defend them because of a weak bowling attack and its inability to curtail other batting line-ups. It may not be an accident that India have moved away from batsmen-friendly pitches in recent times.”The last few series we played [at home], it was challenging wickets, slow wickets that were turning and some of the wickets we played were little damp, where it was stopping and coming – two-paced wickets,” Rohit Sharma said on Friday. “If the wicket has something in it for the bowlers, there comes the challenge for the batsmen.”A statement like this would have been unimaginable from a batsman who scored two double-centuries within a span of a year from 2013 to 2014, when thick bats and shorter boundaries were ruling the roost. But the change in trend has meant his new team-mates – Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal – get more purchase from the pitches as India have started to defend totals under 300 more consistently.The result is a much more even contest between bat and ball as was seen during the ODIs against New Zealand a year ago when the visitors successfully defended totals of 242 and 260 in Delhi and Ranchi respectively. For a change, it gave a bilateral series a scoreline of 2-2, adding interest not only within the matches but to the fifth ODI as well. Such variety of pitches and results has produced some of the more entertaining and balanced ODIs in recent times, and with the proposed ODI league still three years away, this may not be a bad trend for the format at all.