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The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket

Steven Lynch15-May-2006The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:

Murali had to wait 103 Tests for his first Lord’s outing © Getty Images
I was surprised to see that Muttiah Muralitharan hadn’t played a Testat Lord’s before. Has anyone else played 100 Tests without appearingthere? asked Barry Jameson of Doncaster
No, MuttiahMuralitharan’s 103 Tests before playing one at Lord’s is easily arecord. He hands over this rather unwanted milestone to anotherdoosra-delivering offspinner – Harbhajan Singh, who has played55 Tests so far without appearing at Lord’s. Saqlain Mushtaq, the man whomight be said to have invented the doosra, is third with 49, level withanother Sri Lankan, Romesh Kaluwitharana. Spinners seem to dominate thenot-at-Lord’s list: other current players on it include Nicky Boje (41Tests), Stuart MacGill (40) and Danish Kaneria (36).What is the most prolific fielder-bowler combination in Test history?Is it c Jayawardene b Muralitharan? asked Nuwan de Silva
It is now – at least as far as an outfielder is concerned. Mahela Jayawardene’s catch to send back Andrew Strauss in the Lord’s Test was the 52nd he had taken off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan, beatingthe previous Test record by a fielder off the same bowler of 51 (c MarkTaylor b Shane Warne). Jayawardene also took one more catch off Murali, as a substitute fielder in 1997-98, but that one doesn’t count in the overall records. If you include wicketkeepers, the most common combination remains c Rod Marsh b Dennis Lillee, with 95, although c Adam Gilchrist b Glenn McGrath is closing with 85.Is Jehan Mubarak the first American-born person to play in a Lord’sTest? asked Neville Jayasinha from Colombo
Jehan Mubarak, who was bornin Washington in 1981, is only the second Test player to have been bornin the United States. The first, the Boston-born West Indian Kenneth “Bam Bam”Weekes, only played in two Test matches – but the first of those wasatLord’s, in 1939.I was wondering who was the last person to score 1000 runs in May,and was looking for the list of all who achieved this rare feat?asked Al Berry from Australia
Only three batsmen have ever scored 1000 first-class runs duringMay in England: WG Grace, in1895, when he was almost 47; Wally Hammond in 1927; andLancashire’s Charlie Hallowsin 1928. The feat of reaching 1000 for the season before the end of May- but including some runs in April – has been managed on a further sixoccasions: by Surrey’s TomHayward in 1900; by DonBradman, in 1930 and again in 1938; by Bill Edrich, also in 1938, whenall his runs were scored at Lord’s; by Glenn Turner in 1973; and mostrecently by Graeme Hick, in1988.Johnny Briggs, Wasim Akram, Abdul Razzaq and James Franklin are theonly four players to have done what in Test cricket? askedMatthew Finn from New Zealand
Sounds like a quiz question! The answer is that they all scored at leastone Test century, and also took a Test-hat-trick. James Franklin joinedthe club with his recent innings of 122 not out for New Zealand againstSouth Africa at Cape Town: he’d previously taken a hat-trick againstBangladesh at Dhaka in 2004-05. The man who came closest to joining thelist is Shane Warne, whose highest Test score remains that tantalising99 against New Zealand at Perth in 2001-02.

Graeme Hick was the last player to score 1000 runs in May © Getty Images
Mark Ramprakash made 292 the other day, and still hasn’t (yet) made atriple-century. Has anyone got nearer than Ramps yet ended his careerwithout a 300? asked Colin Giles from Guildford
Probably the most famous near-miss in this respect is Martin Crowe’s 299for New Zealand against Sri Lanka atWellington in 1990-91. That remained the highest of Crowe’s fourcareer double-hundreds. Others who have exceeded Mark Ramprakash’s 292 yetfallen short of 300, and never did get reach that magical figure, are Les Ames, whose ninedouble-centuries included a highest of 295 for Kent v Gloucestershire atFolkestone in 1933; BhupinderSingh, 297 for Punjab at Delhi in 1994-95; Ramprakash’s Surrey team-mate Ally Brown, 295 not out against Leicestershire at Oakham School in 2000; John Gunn, 294 forNottinghamshire v Leicestershire at Trent Bridge in 1903; Gursharan Singh, 298 not outfor Punjab v Bengal at Calcutta in 1988-89; Arthur Jones, 296 forNottinghamshire v Gloucestershire at Trent Bridge in 1903; Allan Lamb, 294 for Orange Free State v Eastern Province at Bloemfontein in 1987-88; Harry Moses, 297 not outfor New South Wales v Victoria at Sydney in 1887-88; the former NewZealand captain John Reid,296 for Wellington v Northern Districts at Wellington in 1962-63; Jack Ryder, who made 295 in Victoria’s world-record total of 1107 against New South Wales at Melbourne in 1926-27; Shantanu Sugwekar, 299 not out for Maharashtra v Madhya Pradesh at Poona, 1988-89; JohnnyTyldesley, 295 not out for Lancashire v Kent at Old Trafford in 1906;and another Surrey player in David Ward, 294 not out vDerbyshire at The Oval in 1884. Ramprakash’s 292 – the 11thdouble-century of his career – came for Surrey against Gloucestershireat The Oval earlier in May.<B<Finally, Farhan Asrar has an addition to another recent column:
“Regarding brothers on opposite sides, a similar incident did take placein an ODI (well, technically). In the Austral-Asia Cup in Sharjah inApril 1994, Arshad Laeeqrepresented the United Arab Emirates. His brother Athar Laeeq was also selectedfor the tournament, but representing their native Pakistan.Unfortunately Athar did not get a chance to play in any of the matches,but he was the 12th man in the game against the UAE. Both Arshad and Athar Laeeq were on the fieldrepresenting different countries, when Arshad was batting and Athar wasa substitute fielder for around ten minutes.”

Who better to teach England to deal with spin than past master Andy Flower?

Andrew Miller01-Dec-2007

Flower: a supreme technical batsman who was among the finest players of spin ever © Getty Images
If there’s one characteristic that has defined England’s recent tours of Sri Lanka, it is attrition. Under Nasser Hussain’s leadership in 2000-01, England clung to every fragment of every session, and clawed their way back from a hiding in Galle to produce hard-bitten victories in Kandy and Colombo. Three years later it was Michael Vaughan’s turn to cling to the cliff face. His team mustered a brace of exhausting, straw-clutching draws in the opening two matches, but then lost their footing in the decisive final Test. Two series, two wins apiece, and scarcely an ounce of spare energy upon which to draw.The message for the class of 2007-08 is simple. The challenge that awaits them in the coming four weeks will be, physically, one of the most draining they will ever encounter in their Test careers, but as Hussain’s men showed in the revelry that followed their 2001 triumph, it could also be the most rewarding. The one thing that could count against them, however, is inexperience – Vaughan is the only veteran of both tours, while Paul Collingwood and James Anderson played only bit parts on the most recent trip. The rest are rookies, and no matter that they won the one-day series in October in impressive fashion, the exuberance of youth will not be sufficient to counter the genius of Muttiah Muralitharan.Fortunately for England they have in their ranks a man who knows all about the art of battling beyond one’s boundaries. Andy Flower made his name as the most stubborn nugget in a Zimbabwe side that was invariably outgunned but only rarely embarrassed. For a decade he fought tooth and nail to bring respectability to his country’s cricket, and in so doing rose up the rankings to become recognised as the world’s leading batsman. He’s now England’s batting coach, a somewhat incongruous appointment given the innumerable occasions he crossed swords with the English. But for this series above all, his knowledge is going to be invaluable.Flower has a quiet and deliberate manner about him. He speaks slowly and lucidly, like a man who knows he has time to play his shots, and you can sense him weighing up the value of his every word. “I think we can beat them in this Test series, but to do that we’re going to have to play out of our skins,” he says. “We’re going to have to play really skilful and resilient Test cricket, because there’s going to be a lot of hard times and a lot of fluctuating fortunes. They have a very varied attack, with four very different bowlers and it’s going to be very, very close.”To hear Flower talk of England as “we” comes as a surprise, not least to the man himself. “It’s pretty bizarre, to be coming from a little government school in Harare to this,” he says. “But I’m learning a hell of a lot, and it’s really nice to be part of a really exciting period for English cricket. I’ve been watching these guys prepare, and I’ve been a part of what they do and how they think, and hopefully how they go on to win the series from here. I’m just a small part of a group all going in the same direction, and it’s going to be a whole lot of fun.”Flower has been in and around the England set-up for two years now. He was Peter Moores’ sidekick at the ECB Academy for two winters, and in May of this year, when Moores succeeded Duncan Fletcher as England coach, Flower retired from first-class cricket to take up a full-time role as assistant coach. It was not a career path he had envisaged. “I’ve never been one to plan ahead,” he says. “I went into coaching at the academy because I thought it would be really interesting, and it was. And then this opportunity came up, and it’s been fascinating. Every day I’ve been learning something new – in coaching, in management, in communication. It’s a great way to be working.”It is not what Flower can learn that matters in the short term, however. It’s what he can pass on to his charges. Apart from being one of the toughest nuts to crack on the international circuit, Flower was a supreme technical batsman in his own right, and in the opinion of many who witnessed his most triumphant performances – such as histally of 540 runs for twice out in India in 2000-01 – he was one of the greatest players of spin of all time.This, Flower attributes to the influence of two men: the former South Africa and Zimbabwe spinner John Traicos – “one of the most accurate offspinners I’ve ever come across” – and Dave Houghton, Flower’s first Test captain and role model. “Traicos was a wily old fox who gave me a brilliant grounding in playing spin,” says Flower. “We used to practise into the dark of the night, and he always used to bang on about picking length, and choosing my scoring areas, and how I was moving around the crease. He’d bowled against a lot of great players and he really knew his stuff. No other player in the tour party, not even Vaughan, has dug so deep into their soul in the quest for self-improvement. “I’ve always been interested in the processes you have to go through to gain success,” says Flower “Houghton, meanwhile, was one of the best players of spin I’ve ever seen. I used to watch and copy him, and from him I learnt how to manoeuvre the ball, and how to get your body into position for certain shots. He taught me the sweep, the reverse-sweep, about hitting over the top, and shifting the momentum against the spinner so as not to let him settle. His lessons were invaluable.”There is a fine line between coaching and preaching, however, and for all that Flower has experience in spades to share with his England charges, he knows full well that the battles at Kandy, Colombo and Galle are not his for the fighting. “My experiences are good to call on, but most important are the players’ experiences,” he says. “Most of them have played Murali in Tests or county cricket, so they’ve got their own memories to call on. My job is merely to throw ideas around, and give them options and methods of how to play or think. But they’ve got to choose their own way. They live and die by their decisions.”Flower has another, more subliminal, role in the England squad, however. No other player in the tour party, not even Vaughan, has dug so deep into their soul in the quest for self-improvement. “I’ve always been interested in the processes you have to go through to gain success,” says Flower. “When I used to research my own methods, I would look closely at my technique but also at my emotional well-being or mental strength. I wanted to do things differently. I wanted to train harder, concentrate for longer periods, and become more mentally resilient. I suppose that gave me the preparation to be a coach.”Either way, coaching was always in his blood. Flower’s first contract with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union was not as a player but as a coach – he and his brother Grant worked five days a week around the schools and townships of Harare. Tatenda Taibu, a wicketkeeper-batsman and natural leader, who displays so many of Flower’s indomitable traits, was one of his first pupils, along with Stuart Matsikenyeri and Hamilton Masakadza. “I’ve known all three of them since they were knee-high,” Flower says. “They were lovely blokes to work with.”For now, he has an older but similarly enthusiastic band of cricketers to work with and alongside. Whatever the result of this month’s series, he believes in the journey that Moores and his squad are undertaking. “There’s huge scope for us in international cricket,” he says. “There’s much more capacity in the side than we are seeing, and I genuinely believe we can chase Australia. There’s a huge gap in the rankings at present and that’s about right in reality. But we’re taking steps towards bridging that every day. Every practice we have, that’s our goal, to make ourselves just that little bit better.”

Right from the time that he revolutionised top-order batting in ODIs – few teams had ever sent their best man in first before Tendulkar’s little dash at Eden Park in 1994 – he has added strokes to his repertoire, remaining a step ahead of bowlers that sou

Dileep Premachandran13-May-2008
With innovation being the name of the Twenty20 game, Sachin Tendulkar is unlikely to come up short © AFP
For Sachin Tendulkar, this is 1989 all over again. Just as the old Iron Curtain was opened to let in the winds of change and an abominable wall came down, so a young boy started his journey to cricket’s promised lands. At 35, after a career that has spanned 147 Tests and 417 one-day internationals, he stands poised on the threshold of a brave new world.Tendulkar’s Twenty20 passport has just the one stamp on it, from the Wanderers in Johannesburg 18 months ago. That game was succour to the Indians after they were humiliated in the ODIs but, on a night when bowlers were heroes, Tendulkar’s contribution was negligible; he managed double-digits before a delivery from Charl Langeveldt was chopped on to the stumps.Now another set of Indians, those from Mumbai who have invested in him to the tune of more than $1million a season, eagerly await his IPL bow. Half the season passed while he recuperated from a groin injury, and the Indians’ fortunes have waned and then waxed. After the embarrassment caused by Harbhajan Singh, Slapgate, and four defeats on the trot, a team, led from the front by Shaun Pollock, has reeled off three consecutive victories against sides expected to make the semi-final cut.Two home games follow and, with Tendulkar back, the buzz on the streets is of a determined push for fourth place and maybe beyond. Even before he has struck a ball in anger, the burden of expectation is squarely on his shoulders and those that have venerated him as India’s Atlas won’t want him to buckle now.Twenty20 though is a very different game. Sourav Ganguly has shown signs of getting to grips with it, but other titans of the one-day game, like Ricky Ponting and Herschelle Gibbs, have struggled to impose themselves in the frenetic atmosphere. Two of Tendulkar’s old sparring partners have been outstanding though, and those in blue shirts with the number 10 on their backs will hope that he follows their lead.Glenn McGrath has continued to make grinning faces at Father Time, even as the Delhi Daredevils have lost their way in recent days. Eight games in, he sits atop the best economy-rate list, and has seven wickets for good measure. His old mate, Shane Warne, has done even better, taking 11 wickets and bamboozling the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni while leading the Rajasthan Royals, the rank outsiders, to the brink of a semi-final.Everyone has been harping about Twenty20 being a batsman’s game, and men like Gautam Gambhir and Shaun Marsh certainly won’t argue with that. In a sense though, the bowlers’ job is less taxing. While taking wickets remains important, the main objective is to keep the runs down and pressure batsmen into mistakes. Miserly overs, or maidens like McGrath managed in his first outing, are pure gold.A new breed of batsman has flourished. And while not all of them are crude sluggers, they’ve managed to clear the mini-skirt-like boundaries with ridiculous ease. Those who operate within a more classical framework, like Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis, have found it an ordeal. Not only have they struggled to go over the top, but even the helter-skelter singles and twos have proved beyond them.With fielding sides studying batsmen’s weaknesses ever more closely, innovation has become the name of the game. In that regard, Tendulkar is unlikely to come up short. Right from the time that he revolutionised top-order batting in ODIs – few teams had ever sent their best man in first before Tendulkar’s little dash at Eden Park in 1994 – he has added strokes to his repertoire, remaining a step ahead of bowlers that sought to contain him. He plays the paddle-sweep, to pace and spin alike, perhaps better than anyone has done, and Brett Lee could tell you about the bunt over the slips that tormented him in Australia earlier this season. The inside-out shot over cover is also frequently unveiled, but it’s the neat tuck off the pads and the gorgeous straight drive that have been the defining strokes of an unparalleled one-day career He plays the paddle-sweep, to pace and spin alike, perhaps better than anyone has done, and Brett Lee could tell you about the bunt over the slips that tormented him in Australia earlier this season. The inside-out shot over cover is also frequently unveiled, but it’s the neat tuck off the pads and the gorgeous straight drive that have been the defining strokes of an unparalleled one-day career.The skills are not in doubt, but his performances as the tournament nears its business end will come in for minute scrutiny. Warne can concede 27 in an over, and put it behind him in time for the next game. A Tendulkar nought is quite different. The Indian media may be gentle when it comes to analysing Adam Gilchrist’s stop-start season, but Tendulkar will expect no such leeway.A couple of low scores and TV channels will wheel out the same hackneyed question: Is Tendulkar finished? If he does score, but gets out a few balls before victory is clinched, the debates will centre around how he’s no finisher. In many ways, it’s a lose-lose situation, but the man who has been a winner for 18 years will surely find his way.

It was a strange kind of start, but Tendulkar’s thoughtfulness made it an intriguing, and possibly tone-setting, one

Victor Brown18-Apr-2009For gnarled, one-year veterans of the Indian Premier League there will be always be Brendon and Bangalore. The bar was set so high by last year’s curtain-raiser, when Brendon McCullum lit up the night sky with a pulsating 158 not out, that whatever happened today was destined to feel like an anti-climax. Sure enough, Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 59 from 49 balls was a model of good sense. Despite the impression given by some of its officials, the IPL can’t have everything.Tendulkar, though, knew what he was doing. MS Dhoni had asked the Mumbai Indians to bat in conditions that must have made tournament organisers wince after they backed South Africa as hosts ahead of England partly because of the weather. Drizzle was in the air and the outfield looked lush. The only thing persuading Andrew Flintoff that he hadn’t just rocked up at Derby or Northampton was the sight of Table Mountain, although even that was shrouded in party-pooping cloud.The result was that Tendulkar and his opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya actually had to play themselves in, a concept that struggled to catch on in India in 2008. The first boundary did not come until the 10th ball – that was only a leg-side tuck for four – and it took until the third over, when Tendulkar lofted Manpreet Gony over extra cover, that the first shot was played in anger. Look out for the role of the seaming new ball as this tournament progresses.”At the start of the day the wicket was damp,” Tendulkar said. “In the first six or seven overs it was not easy to get the ball away. Later, when it dried up a bit, there were more shot options.” Asked whether he intended to bat through the innings on a regular basis, he replied: “If we disclose all our strategies, they won’t be a secret any more.”As wickets kept falling at the other end, Tendulkar’s secret may have been that he just kept on going. It wasn’t always easy. A quadruped of indeterminate pedigree made its way onto the field after 6.1 overs and wouldn’t leave for 11 minutes, thus eating into crucial advertising time and, as security guards missed a succession of rugby tackles. Then, the man in charge of the musical system held up play for a further two minutes, obliviously banging his drums while the players waited and waited. Finally came the time-out.But Tendulkar was not to be distracted and found a more gung-ho ally in Abhishek Nayar. In fact it was Nayar alone who briefly stirred the ghosts of McCullum past, mowing three sixes in four balls off Flintoff and making a mockery of the IPL’s market economy in the process. While Flintoff fetched $1.55m, Nayar was originally signed for just $40,000 – a figure that was upped to $100,000 this year. Take pro-rata calculations into account, and one Flintoff in effect equals 10 Nayars.Tendulkar needs no such formula to work out his worth. He gave himself room to ease Thilan Thushara over extra cover, then moved to a half-century by Jacob Oram for four over long-off. Another boundary in Flintoff’s final over provided a final flourish. Last year, McCullum hit 13 sixes all by himself. Today, Mumbai had to make do with Nayar’s brief flurry.Yet Tendulkar’s calmness had quietly built the kind of total – 165 for 7 – that commentators had decreed in advance would be a match-winner. And so it proved. Matthew Hayden enjoyed himself for a while to hit 44 from 35 balls, and Flintoff contributed a muscular but flawed 24 off 23, but not even Dhoni’s notoriously broad blade could keep up with a mounting asking rate. “We were let down by our bowlers,” Dhoni said afterwards. “We didn’t bowl as we planned.”Tougher conditions for batsmen here in South Africa could place a greater onus on tried and tested techniques. To the relief of the purists, the sloggers might not have everything their own way. It was a strange kind of start, but Tendulkar’s thoughtfulness made it an intriguing, and possibly tone-setting, one.

He skis, he speaks broken Japanese, he plays the sax, he keeps McGrath out of the side. Delhi Daredevils’ Dutch import via Australia opens up

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi14-May-2009What’s your claim to fame?
Being Jack of all trades, master of none.So what are the trades you’ve tried your hand at?
I’ve tried my hand at music, business, skiing, and now cricket.What sort of music?
I always wanted to be a musician growing up. I played saxophone but gave up after a while.And the skiing and snowboarding?
I was a mobile skier – basically freestyle skiing – and I represented Australia at the World Cup, the most prestigious tournament in the sport.Is there any sort of correlation between skiing and cricket?
Absolutely none.What’s the most dangerous thing in skiing – the closest to facing a 100mph delivery?
That would be going off a massive jump for the first time. My personal best was 30 metres long and eight metres high.You speak Japanese, we’ve heard.
I speak it, but very broken if at all. I can’t put a sentence together.What would you tell your grandchildren about keeping Glenn McGrath out of the team?
I would tell them their granddad once got picked ahead of the best fast bowler in history. And for one day at least, I was better than the best fast bowler – even though he was retired.If you were batting to McGrath, what do you think would be the first ball he’d bowl to you?
Chest-high full-toss or bouncer. I wouldn’t score, but I wouldn’t be dead either. I would cut it away with my glove maybe …If you were teaching Jesse Ryder to ski, what would your first instruction be?
Try and stand up [with the skis on].What’s the one thing in your cricket career that you regret?
Dropping about 50 catches over my career.Do you still have butterfingers?
No, I’m okay now, but I used to s**t myself under catches years ago.Who’s your favorite commentator and why?
Michael Holding and Damien Fleming. Fleming takes the piss out of everyone and I enjoy it and laugh all the time. He talks sense as a former fast bowler.What’s the one sledge you’re tempted to use on the field but can’t?
I can’t really use it in an interview either. I would love to be an angry fast bowler and just abuse people, but I really don’t have it in me to do it.What’s the dumbest nickname anyone’s given you?
“Dirty Dirk”. I just hate it. I don’t know how it came about.Tell us something we don’t know about you?
[] My wife says I’m an excellent father and I’ve always got time for my kid.When you’re being belted around the park, who do you think of?
Brad Hodge. Six years ago he took 29 off one of my overs. Even it if it was in some practice game in Victoria, I remember it and it does trouble me.If not for cricket what would you use cricket balls for?
Use them for lawn bowls for my son.What are you are a proud owner of?
Five musical instruments, five computers, and 600-odd CDs.Complete this sentence: When in Australia, don’t forget …
To use sunscreen.What do you like to drink when celebrating a win?
Beer.When you travel to a foreign country, what do you look for?
Something unusual that I wouldn’t see in my country. Vietnam, Japan are places with cultural differences that I have visited.Do you own any unique cricketing record?
I’m probably the only fast bowler to have figures 0.1-0-2-1. I bowled a knee-high full toss, which was caught at point. The next two deliveries were full-tosses past the head and were called no-balls, and I taken off the attack. There’s another one where I bowled the first ball and faced the first ball for Victoria against Queensland at the Gabba in 2006-07.What’s the best compliment you have received so far?
The best thing various people have told me is I’m far better than what I think I am – that I belong at this level.

No match worth the name, but a result to please the hordes of Chennai fans

Ariel Jackson05-May-2009Team supported
Chennai Super Kings. They represent southern India, where I hail from. And I like MS Dhoni as an inspiring leader.Key Performer
Once again it was Shadab Jakati, the new “mystery” slow left-arm spinner. Not forgetting Dhoni’s crucial knock.One thing I would have changed about the match
I would have had Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs firing on all cylinders, which would have made for a closer match.Face-off I relished
Albie Morkel v Herschelle Gibbs. It was short-lived, and Albie had the last laugh.Also, RP Singh v Dhoni. Dhoni won all the way.Star-spotting
Sivamani, the indefatigable drummer. Always cheerful, never says no if one wants a photograph with him.Wow moment
Dhoni’s six off Pragyan Ojha over long-on left us gasping. It was simply breathtaking. There were a couple of Dwayne Smith moments that were also worthy of some fireworks.Cheerleader factor
Chennai Super Kings all the way. Their cheerleaders are by far the best I have seen in this edition of the IPL, and they are ably assisted by Sivamani.Crowd meter
Not surprisingly (since it was a Monday) the crowds were thinner. Still, there were more than enough people to raise a racket when the signature horn was played by the DJ. The Super Kings might have felt they were playing in Chennai because of the support visible on the ground. One six hit by Smith over midwicket came near where we were sitting. A little fellow tried desperately to latch on to it in vain.Local hero
The local hero I wanted to see on the ground was Makhaya Ntini, who did not play. The others, Gibbs and Morkel, were greeted warmly, but not at the decibel level reserved for JP Duminy on Mayday.Overall
It was a letdown. Two super teams enacting a one-sided show. Chennai’s fielding leaves a little bit to be desired. The Chargers: pathetic batting, worse bowling.Marks out of 10
Super Kings – batting and bowling: 9, fielding: 6
Chargers – batting and bowling: 5, fielding: 6

During his seven-year reign as England coach, Duncan Fletcher made a mantra of ensuring that his bowlers could contribute with the bat, and now he’s crossed the floor to join the South Africa set-up

Andrew McGlashan at Centurion17-Dec-2009One man will have watched South Africa’s batting performance and been immensely satisfied. During his seven-year reign as England coach, Duncan Fletcher made a mantra of ensuring that his bowlers could contribute with the bat, and now that he’s crossed the floor to join the South Africa set-up, he was in position to savour every run their lower order managed to eked out to edge them over 400.From the moment he witnessed Alan Mullally, Phil Tufnell and Ed Giddins line up at The Oval in 1999 – the last match before his reign began – Fletcher set out an insistence that he wouldn’t accept genuine rabbits in his batting line-up. His methods helped England secure some of their most famous victories. From Dominic Cork and Darren Gough at Lord’s in 2000, to Ian Salisbury in Pakistan later that year, through to Ashley Giles and Matthew Hoggard against Australia in 2005.Now that Fletcher is wearing the green tracksuit of South Africa, it is their lower order that has come under his radar. The early evidence suggests he is being successful. When South Africa beat Australia in Melbourne last year to take the series, Dale Steyn made a crucial 76 at No. 10. Now Fletcher’s work has meant his old team had to toil through more than five sessions to wrap up South Africa’s innings. When Kallis went in the seventh over of the day and JP Duminy was dismissed for 56, England would have expected to be batting well before tea.Around the world, lower-order runs have become the expectation rather than the exception. Gone are the days of Tufnell, Malcolm and Courtney Walsh. Chris Martin is keeping the spirit alive with his endless run of ducks for New Zealand, but tail-end batting is now a serious business. Some say the game is poorer for it, and there was something wonderfully liberating about watching Malcolm swing blindly at a rapid red object, but the license to hit and hope is a thing of the past.The likes of Daniel Vettori and Mitchell Johnson have taken No. 8 batting to a new level, but even further down than that, knowing which end of a bat to hold is now not an optional extra. Last week, Daryl Tuffey showed what can be achieved with a career-best unbeaten 80 against Pakistan, when his previous best had been 31.South Africa have always had a good line in lower-order strength with players such as Dave Richardson, Shaun Pollock, Nicky Boje and Pat Symcox providing valuable runs, but the current crop don’t have a Test fifty between them. Yet it still took England a further 44 overs from the fall of the sixth wicket to close out the innings.Morne Morkel stood tall (in every sense) to set the tone for the tail. During South Africa’s training camp in Potchefstroom he had one-to-one tuition with Fletcher to prepare him for the No. 8 slot. He drove James Anderson handsomely down the ground, but was rattled after taking a nasty blow on the chin against Graham Onions. The waft outside off stump that brought his downfall was a direct reaction to being shaken up. On his Test debut, against India in 2006, Morkel produced two vital contributions of 31 not out and 27 and his Test average should be higher than 12.52. With Fletcher’s help it can start to head in the right direction.Having Mark Boucher at the crease was important when the bowlers started to arrive because it meant they had more reason to occupy the crease. Paul Harris, who has worked hard on his batting since breaking onto the international scene, took his lead from Boucher, and was ready to take over as the senior man when the keeper finally fell. He doesn’t have many shots, but he plays within his limitations and he was there for so long that cramp set in shortly before he dragged onto his stumps.However, the most unexpected resistance came from the debutant Friedel de Wet. It’s probably safe to assume England don’t know too much about him, seeing as he was the surprise choice in the squad, but when Steyn went lame yesterday morning he was summoned into action. He opened his Test batting account by creaming his second ball, from Graeme Swann, through the covers and the dose was repeated later in the over before he also drove Onions down the ground. Not bad for a guy with a first-class average of 15.80 in his first Test. It will have also earned him a valuable early tick in Fletcher’s book.

Plays of the day from first day of the second Test between India and Australia in Bangalore

Sidharth Monga at the Chinnaswamy Stadium09-Oct-2010The debutant moment
Cheteshwar Pujara wouldn’t have expected to make his debut during this series. Things, however, have changed quickly. In Mohali, he substituted for VVS Laxman, and pulled off a stunner at silly point. On the morning of the Bangalore Test, Laxman pulled out with a bad back and Pujara got his first Test cap. Minutes into the game, he made a diving save, and glanced straight at the giant screen to watch the replay. A nice little moment that summed up what a debutant goes through: a little doubt, lots of enthusiasm, and of course, the desire to see how that cap fits.The lesson learned
Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting were going well in Mohali when Watson called Ponting for a single after the ball ricocheted off the forward short leg’s body. Ponting was run out in a massive turning point. Bangalore provided a déjà vu moment when Watson turned Harbhajan Singh to leg, and the ball deflected off M Vijay’s body. The batsman on the other end was Ponting. This time the call from Watson was a loud and clear “no!”The close call
In Nagpur earlier this year, Vijay surprised Jacques Kallis on numerous occasions with his quick reflexes. Kallis was at the non-striker’s end and Vijay was so quick, he nearly ran him out when backing up. He collects the ball at forward short leg and lets rip, giving the non-striker no time to recover. He did that with Marcus North today, but missed the stumps and conceded four overthrows. The replays showed it was worth a try because he would have caught North short had he hit.The banner
After booing Ricky Ponting and friends as they came out to bat, the Bangalore crowd got cheeky. Adam Gilchrist was one of the spectators and he was cheered loudly. A banner read: “Look Punter, Gilly is on our side.”The bowling change
MS Dhoni’s honeymoon period as India captain may have ended, but he still comes up with inspired moves every now and then. Today’s came when Ponting and North had added 58 for the fifth wicket, and there wasn’t much reverse swing on offer because of the damp conditions. He brought on Suresh Raina to bowl the 76th over, and with the second ball, a gentle offbreak that Ponting looked to work around the corner and missed, got India the prized wicket. That was the difference between Australia’s day and having the honours even.

While the Indian bowlers and fielders had a largely forgettable day, India’s fortunes in this series rest on whether their batsmen can turn things around against the short ball

Sidharth Monga at Kingsmead13-Jan-2011India’s start to this ODI series has been painfully similar to many of their earlier outings in South Africa. In the 2003 World Cup, they were bundled out for 125 in their first game against a top-level team. Their 2006-07 tour got underway at the same venue, Durban, after the washout in Johannesburg, in almost identical fashion: lose the toss, concede 250-plus, and get bowled out for a paltry total to lose by more than 100 runs. In their first ODI this time around, they have managed 18 more than they did in the first innings of the Test series. Their bowling, too, looked listless as it had on their various previous starts.After the defeat, MS Dhoni didn’t waste too much time pondering over the reasons behind the slow starts. “I think we could have done better,” Dhoni said. “When you play with four bowlers and part-timers, you have that pressure that if one bowler has a bad day, you have to put the rest of the overs on the part-timers. Fortunately in this game, the part-timers did a good job; they brought us back into the game, but still chasing close to 280-285 in Durban is quite a difficult task.”The bowler with the bad day today was Ashish Nehra, who looked like a man who had just got off the plane and come on to bowl. Pace, movement, sting, were all absent, and the figures of 1 for 61 in six overs were well-earned. Dhoni, though, knows that he doesn’t have too many choices apart from the bowlers that are on the tour, plus the injured Praveen Kumar.”The most important thing is, these are three or four fast bowlers that we have got,” Dhoni said. “So whatever the conditions may be, we have to back them to do well. So we don’t have too many options right now. We don’t see too many options when it comes to fast-bowling department. Right now I am not bothered about whether they have any match practice or not, we need these four or five fast bowlers to be fit going into the World Cup.”While the bowling was a big letdown today, and India lost the game in the field, it is arguable that it can improve on short notice. What will need more work are the limited-overs batsmen, who still remain suspect on pitches with bounce. That is a shortcoming that makes coming back from this setback difficult. It will take either a lot of improvement from the batsmen or real flat pitches for them to make this more like the 2003 World Cup and the recent Test series, as opposed to the 4-0 defeat they were at the wrong end of in 2006-07.The pitch didn’t change too much in the evening; not as much as it does usually. It was just bounce, with zero swing, and not much seam movement. M Vijay played back to a full ball. Rohit Sharma was worked over by short bowling from Morne Morkel, who got the ball to straighten just a touch. The difference between Moses Mabhida and Kingsmead couldn’t have been starker. Rohit’s bowling made sure India didn’t miss Yusuf Pathan in the field, but it was his being a specialist batsman that had made India play him on what they expected to be a tough track. Yuvraj Singh fended at a short ball without getting behind the line. By the time Suresh Raina came out the game was over.However, it doesn’t look likely that India are going to include a fifth bowler or even a bowling allrounder like R Ashwin. “People may say if six batsmen don’t do the job, the seventh won’t or may not do the job,” Dhoni said. “You have to see if four bowlers can do the job, or if four can’t do the job, how and why will the fifth do that job? I think it’s debatable. It always depends on what kind of team you play with. If you see the history of Indian cricket, we have always been comfortable playing with four bowlers. One of the major reasons being we don’t have a seaming allrounder.”Still there was a positive on a day that India will like to forget as quickly as they can, in Virat Kolhi, who with every game is giving the team management more and more reasons to have him in the starting XI in Mirpur on February 19. He is still unlikely to make it if the others are all fit, but at least the team management knows there is a solid back-up who is in good form and eager to take the chance.In the absence of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, the team once again looks overly reliant on Sachin Tendulkar, who didn’t look in discomfort until a risky shot didn’t come off. Tendulkar might need more than just Kohli’s support if India are to turn this series around.

Zaheer Khan is now a very different bowler to the one who ran in eight years ago in a World Cup final and was overwhelmed by the occasion. His skills are controlled by containment in the mind of what precisely has to be done

Sharda Ugra in Ahmedabad22-Mar-2011The world may not have noticed it, but there’s a tumultuous opera on between Zaheer Khan and Australia. The first time they met in an ICC event, the 2000 Champions Trophy in Nairobi, Zaheer kicked down the door, burst onto stage, got Adam Gilchrist, yorked Steve Waugh and said, ‘hello, sunshines.’ The next time the two protagonists met at an ICC bash, the Australians were waiting: in a World Cup group game in Centurion, Zaheer was targetted and could only send down four overs of his spell. Yet it was his 15-run first over in the World Cup final that knocked him and the Indians sideways and sent the Australians on their way to their second straight title.They meet again on Thursday, in the quarter-final of the World Cup. Not merely in another league or group or roundabout game, but a knockout. Between 2003 and 2011, the protagonists have had another minor scuffle, last May at the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, but let’s get real, this is the big one.For Thursday’s game, Australia are somewhat differently displaced from the champions of 2003 – only Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee are still around – Zaheer himself is a very different bowler to the one who ran in for India eight years ago and was overwhelmed by the occasion and his desire to burst through the batting. He is now a bowler whose physical skills with the ball are controlled by containment in the mind of what precisely is needed to be done. To keep himself fit enough to bowl ten overs and spend three-and-a-half hours in the field, to rest and recover in time to play the next game, and the next game. Finally, after all the preparation, he has got to the game where the opera will reach its abrupt conclusion.In the tottering-teetering four weeks of India’s World Cup, if Yuvraj Singh has been fire fighter with the bat and the ball, Zaheer has been its game-breaker. The leader of a bowling union that has been pilloried for lacking express pace and incisive spin, Zaheer has kept it all together, now second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 15 from six games. The next Indian behind him is Yuvraj with a somewhat distant nine wickets. By numbers alone, Zaheer appears to be carrying almost double the load of the rest of the bowlers.He has become more than what the commentatariat love to call the ‘go-to’ bowler. He is now India’s make-it-happen man, the partnership breaker, the kind of performer who can produce a performance from what seems like sheer will and a glowering expression. But this cricketing Heathcliff has been born out of the monotony of long practice and hundreds of overs bowled.Michael Hussey, who will be facing Zaheer on Thursday, said the key to Zaheer’s success was a decade of experience, “and knowing your game well – that’s a big part of success in international cricket.” Zaheer’s skills begin with the basic bonus of being a left-armer who comes at an essentially testing angle to right-hand batsmen, automatically opening them just a little, if bowling over the wicket. The advantage is amplified, due to what Zaheer is able to do with his wrist and fingers, swinging the ball in or out, over or around the wicket, often keeping hiding it in his hands to disguise any grip that transmit clues. Javagal Srinath wrote this week, “I can say with conviction that I have not seen an Indian bowler show as much control as Zaheer has.” And Srinath has seen several, some holy cows, others merely famous names.In the World Cup, Zaheer’s spells, particularly with the old ball and a command over the reverse, have been Aerodymanics 101 dished out with a soundtrack of cacophony. It is left-arm bowling with the illusion of angle and change of pace, in which the fast may be fearful but the slow can be equally sinister; as if sending the ball down 22 yards to a brute with a bat has nothing to do with either earth or air, but is merely a sleight of hand.”He’s a very skilful bowler… with the new ball and the old, and can play a role throughout the whole bowling innings, rather than being a specialist death bowler,” Hussey said. “It certainly gives a captain a lot of confidence to be able to go to someone like him.”Dhoni has gone to him, several times, to bring a batting team from fluency to a dead halt: two wickets in two deliveries against England turned their measured chase into mayhem. Against Ireland he struck early, against Netherlands, he stepped in and made a statement, against South Africa, he was the most parsimonious of bowlers. Against West Indies, his second spell turned the match towards his team and set up their most confident win in the World Cup so far. If you want to understand what bowlers like Zaheer are to captains, maybe Sachin Tendulkar can explain. He described what it was leading a team that had Anil Kumble. “If something was happening, I would give the ball to Anil. If nothing was happening, I would give the ball to Anil. If you needed to contain runs, you give the ball to Anil. If you needed to attack, you give the ball to Anil.” Right now, replace the regal ‘Anil’ with the cool nickname of ‘Zak’ because it is what he has become in Tests and ODIs.In the last decade, Zaheer has found himself in the white heat of the India Australia rivalry, centered around a string of intense Test series. His spells in the Mohali Test of 2008 and in Bangalore 2010, sent out the first signals to the world that Australia’s aura was disintegrating. In the last two Border Gavaskar series at home, Zaheer has 23 wickets against the Australians. In the last ODI series between the two teams in 2007-2008, it has gone in the opposite direction: eight wickets from seven games in which a full strength Indian side lost 2-4 to an injury-depleted Australia.A World Cup knock-out, however, is a completely different beast of a contest.At one time, Zaheer used to be one of India’s earliest 21st century bad-boy cricketers, his name clubbed in with that of his mate Yuvraj, who ironically, is another of India’s standout performers in this World Cup. Today, Zaheer is a pillar of his team’s bowling, a seasoned performer, whose career could turn into a case study in India’s National Cricket Academy curriculum about how fast bowlers don’t always have to fade away. They can just get smarter. VVS Laxman said of him, “People won’t look at him for statistics, they will look at Zaheer for impact.”If he had to pick a moment of enormous impact, Motera on Thursday would be a pretty good choice.