Punjab won the game in the pressure-cooker moments, their teamwork enabling the bowlers to defend 119 against Mumbai’s mighty batting line-up

Karna S29-Apr-2009Kumar Sangakkara, the acting Kings XI Punjab captain, was confused about whom to throw the ball to for the 19th over. Nineteen runs were required with JP Duminy shepherding a thrilling chase alongside the dangerous Harbhajan Singh. It was then that Piyush Chawla walked up to Sangakkara and asked for the ball.Chawla removed Harbhajan, and Duminy fell in the next over to the inexperienced but increasingly confident Yusuf Abdulla. Game over, and it was won in these pressure-cooker moments. It was never going to be easy to defend 119 against a batting order boasting Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Duminy. Not many would have given them the chance but, as Tom Moody gushed later, it was perfect team work.It helped that the pitch got slower and the ball started to stop a bit. It helped that Mumbai Indians are yet to show that they can win without a contribution from Tendulkar and Jayasuriya. Punjab’s bowling line-up doesn’t possess the force to blow away the opposition but they hunted in a pack and were superbly aided by a great fielding unit. Not one catch was dropped, not one bowler or fielder crumbled under pressure.It was not something you could say about Punjab at the start of the tournament. In fact, Mahela Jayawardene admitted the bowling was inexperienced and yet to gel. They were desperately trying to identify specific roles for the individuals. Things turned after a win fashioned by the batsman against Royal Challengers Bangalore before they defended 139 in their last game against Rajasthan Royals. Yuvraj Singh said that the Rajasthan game had given immense confidence to Punjab’s bowling unit.It certainly seemed that way. Irfan Pathan, not a regular in the Indian team, bowled his best ball of the tournament to remove Jayasuriya. It kicked up from back of a length and took the edge to first slip. It was the first moment of success. Tendulkar handed them another with a cut to point off Vikramjeet Malik. Suddenly, given Mumbai’s dependence on their openers, you knew it could be a tricky little chase.With the Durban pitch taking spin, Yuvraj introduced Ramesh Powar as early as the third over and he bowled with guile. He looks like a cricketer from another era and he bowls like a spinner from another era. He stands in contrast to modern spinners, who tend to fire their deliveries. Tonight, it was another tease act from the underrated bowler. Powar almost lobbed the balls across and got the drift and turn to keep the batsmen quiet. He lured out Dwayne Bravo, who was looking good in his brief stay, with flight before beating him with dip.Mumbai had one silver lining in today’s defeat: Duminy and his fine innings under pressure. His batting is beginning to evoke memories of Arjuna Ranatunga, especially in the cut shot, the lap shot and the swing over square leg that were Ranatunga’s forte. Today, like Ranatunga, Duminy showed admirable cool to guide the lower middle order. He almost finished the game as well but fell, caught at the boundary ropes going for the shot that could have finished the game. Still, he showed the ability to soak up the pressure of the big-name openers’ loss and can carry the team along.The man who dismissed Duminy was not an known name in most parts of the world before the tournament. Not many batsmen would lose sleep over the prospect of facing Abdulla in the final over of a tense chase. Yet he possesses a good yorker, has the confidence to use it and has the brains not to try to bowl it every ball in a night game with dew and in a pressure situation. That takes some doing.A couple of games ago, Chennai Super Kings struggled under lights with their bowlers hurling full tosses, while trying to bowl the perfect yorker. Abdulla slipped in a couple of slower balls and tried to hit it just back of length in the last over. The highlight of Punjab’s teamwork came in the last two balls. Powar, not known for his fielding, hurled himself full stretch at cover to prevent some vital runs. Not many would have thought him capable of that. Then again, not many would have thought Punjab capable of winning this. In fact, even their captain thought they were 25 runs short.”I didn’t think 119 was defendable,” Yuvraj later said. “But I just told the boys no matter what’s the result we have to keep our energies and fight it out till the end.”It’s not an awe-inspiring speech but sometimes you don’t need one.

A four-man attack works when three of the individuals are on top of their games. When your main spinner has an off day and the other is callow, life can be a struggle

S Aga05-Dec-2009Unless Sri Lanka can show the sort of defiance that characterised their great escape at Lord’s in 2006, India will wrap up this match at some point on Sunday and climb to the top of the Test tree. The No. 1 ranking, though, could have been captured today with some better bowling and that, in some ways, was a precursor of what awaits. Invariably, as South Africa found out on home soil earlier this year, staying top dogs is a lot more difficult than assuming the mantle.India didn’t bowl well, except in the second session where they took four wickets for just 60 runs. Even then, it was the seamers that did the damage with the scuffed-up old ball, and not the spinners, who were getting enough assistance from the pitch. Harbhajan Singh’s only wicket of the day, if you can call it that, went into the file of evidence that
should make the review system essential in all future Tests. Regardless of whether Tillakaratne Dilshan was foolish to keep padding the ball away, a batsman cannot be given out when the ball’s not only missing a second set of stumps but also doing a big Fosbury Flop over them.Harbhajan got dramatic turn at times but too often the line was awry, allowing the batsmen to leave the ball easily. Pragyan Ojha took two wickets off beautiful deliveries and should probably have had another, but was clearly less effective when bowling to the left-handers. Kumar Sangakkara and Tharanga Paranavitana played him without too many alarms, and the experience will stand him in good stead for future tests.With the expected wreckers rendered largely ineffective, MS Dhoni was left to rely on pace for breakthroughs. Sri Lanka were making unhurried progress when Sreesanth came back to get immediate reverse swing and thud one into Paranavitana’s pads. And it was the spell that he subsequently bowled that built up the pressure to such an extent that Sri Lanka crumpled.In the 10 overs before tea, they lost three for 11. Zaheer was in the thick of things, getting lift and movement, and varying his angles enough to tempt both Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera into pretty ordinary strokes. With Ojha then producing a peach to send back Angelo Mathews, an early finish seemed likely, but having crawled to 50 by the interval, Sangakkara came out intent on showing that his repertoire of attacking shots hadn’t been left behind at home.”You have a world-class batsman like Kumar Sangakkara around – they don’t give it away too easily. He has halted things,” Gary Kirsten, India’s coach, said after the day’s play. “I thought in the first session, we kept it really tight, did not give away unnecessary runs and put them under pressure to create opportunities after lunch.”I am certainly happy. We thought if we can get six wickets today we would be happy. The second session was a very big one for us, we were able to pick up four wickets. The third session wasn’t good enough as the guys were a little tired.”Attacking fields helped Sangakkara find the gaps with ease, but the manner in which India bowled to both Prasanna Jayawardene and Nuwan Kulasekara was desperately disappointing. Runs came easily for Prasanna, and after he survived a strong shout off the first ball he faced, Kulasekara was rarely troubled. Anil Kumble in his prime would have made short work of the tail, but neither Indian spinner showed much nous on a surface where the ball was turning and bouncing.In an extended final session, there were 130 runs made in 32.1 overs, 83 of them off Sangakkara’s bat. As with his innings in Hobart two years ago, it’s unlikely to stave off a Sri Lanka defeat, but it gave India enough to think about. A four-man attack works fine when three of the individuals are on top of their games. But when your main spinner has an off day and the other is callow, life on Asian pitches can be a struggle. Thanks to the runs in the bank though, it probably won’t be a futile one.Kirsten hoped India would be able to wrap up the victory smoothly on Sunday and displace South Africa on top of the Test ranking. “It is something that we aspired to 18 months ago before we started against Australia,” he said. “We wanted to become the best Test team in the world. So, it will be a great achievement.”

On the third day in Kanpur, Sreesanth didn’t need the verbals; the ball did the talking for him

Cricinfo staff26-Nov-2009Sreesanth covered his face as soon as the ball flashed from Mahela Jayawardene’s outside edge and past the narrow alley between MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar at first slip. It was probably the ball of the day: it was the first ball Jayawardene was facing and, perhaps sensing his vulnerability, Sreesanth pitched it fuller and shaped it away just enough to prompt Jayawardene to play at it. Where once Sreesanth might have walked up to the batsman and indulged in a bit of verbal, today he walked back quietly with a faint smile.Today, Sreesanth didn’t need the verbals; the ball did the talking for him. Such was his allure that each time he ran in Green Park buzzed with expectation. And when he had finished his job and led his team off the pitch, it was incredible to think he was coming into this Test without any international cricket for the past 19 months and without much match experience of any sort.Yet, as he later said, he was “hungry to take the “new ball”. The aim was not to go full throttle straightaway, though he did hit Tharanga Paranavitana’s helmet with an accurate bouncer. On a docile pitch Sreesanth understood that trying to hit express pace would be futile; the focus was on hitting that length from where he could make the batsmen play and vary pace.”This was a wicket where the faster you bowl the easier it is to bat. It was important to make him (batsman) play early and make him play late and it was a mixture of lots [of deliveries],” Sreesanth said while explaining his strategy.He then started shaping the ball both ways, sowing the seeds of doubt in the Lankan minds. The first over was a maiden to Paranavitana, who was clearly edgy and eventually nicked an outswinger to Dhoni. Then came Mahela who, though lucky to escape off that first delivery, found Sreesanth pounding in relentlessly, banging the ball unerringly on the same spot.Against Sangakkara, Sreesanth used the crease to produce his angle. He came round the wicket and bowled a slower ball that the Lankan captain picked smartly but had him next ball. It was a straighter one, fuller and wide on off stump and, though apparently harmless, Sangakkara dragged it on to his stumps. Thilan Samaraweera fell in the same fashion after being pegged down by Sreesanth’s movement early on.Sreesanth returned halfway into the second session when the two Jayawardenes – Mahela and Prasanna – were attempting to retrieve the situation. The ball was old and with his pace Sreesanth had the advantage of extracting reverse swing. Continuing to attack the off stump Sreesanth speared a toe crusher into Prasanna. The Lankan got his bat down in the nick of time but the crowd roared as the Indians appealed anyway. The next ball, though, Sreesanth pitched on the seam, cut the ball out and the batsman went fishing. This time contact with the bat was debatable but the decision went the bowler’s way.

Fast-bowling greats like Allan Donald have always cited Sreesanth’s example to youngsters, particularly pointing to his erect wrist position at the point of release as exemplary. The energy, the ability to swing at 140-plus speeds, and that priceless quality of pitching ball after ball on the same spot make Sreesanth a terrific package.

He would soon bend Ranganna Herath’s off stump with another straightening delivery to bag his second five-for – roughly three years after his first, during India’s brilliant victory in Johannesburg in 2006.Perhaps that performance became Sreesanth’s albatross, increasing public expectations and, indeed, those in his own mind. He was 24, relatively green, and wanting to get a wicket every ball. The next three years were up and down, with lots of plateau thrown in, and a 19-month spell on the sidelines.He now seems to have turned full circle. Sreesanth’s fast bowling skills have never been in question: fast-bowling greats like Allan Donald have always cited his example to youngsters, particularly pointing to his erect wrist position at the point of release as exemplary. The energy, the ability to swing at 140-plus speeds, and that priceless quality of pitching ball after ball on the same spot make Sreesanth a terrific package.The doubts that have persisted have always been about his temperament. He was always vulnerable to adrenalin and bravado, a heady mix that has frustrated and irritated the team management, co-players and selectors.Though he spent a month at Warwickshire and then the season-opening Irani Cup, no one, perhaps not even the man himself, knew whether he was ready for the return. He was fined during the Irani Cup game for abusing an opponent and received a stiff warning from the BCCI against breaching the code of conduct. And it’s fair to say his selection for the first two Tests did not evoke universal approval.Remarkably amidst such chaos Sreesanth maintained his calm. All through the last two weeks he has been restrained, doing his job, head down in a silent manner. In training session teammates have consciously left him alone, while praising him silently as he bowled at good speeds, beating the bat consistently.He’s been quiet since his comeback. And today, he let the ball do the talking.

For Guyana, the point to prove was that they were a team worthy of this stage despite losing all their matches. They batted like men in sharp suits rather than surfer dudes fresh off the beach

Telford Vice21-Sep-2010Georgetown, Guyana is the kind of place where even some of the locals won’t drink the thin viral soup that dribbles dubiously out of the taps from whence water would elsewhere come.A wall of grim grey concrete, three metres high and another three metres wide, keeps the Atlantic from flooding a city built three metres below sea level.So, the miserable wind that whipped up a hail of gritty beige dust and flung it viciously over Johannesburg and all who dwelled in it on Tuesday, wasn’t going to scare any son of the country that broods uneasily along South America’s northern coast.That seems as good an explanation as any for Ramnaresh Sarwan’s decision to put the South Australia Redbacks in to bat in their Champions League game at the Wanderers.Thus unleashed, the Australians leapt lickety-split to a total of 191 for six, the second highest of the tournament so far. Their flow of runs started as a stream, strengthened to a gush as Callum Ferguson and Cameron Borgas set about proving their middle order mettle with a stand of 88, and finished in a flurry of 61 off the last four overs. That last bevy of blows, particularly in a 17th over – bowled by Steven Jacobs – that hemorrhaged 22 runs, was difficult to watch dispassionately.And yet, even after that battering, the West Indians looked unruffled as they loped languidly towards the dressing room. Could it be that, like the weather, which was previously perfect wherever CLT20 matches have been played, Guyana could no longer give a damn? As cynical as it seems, at some level you couldn’t blame them if that was their sad state of mind going into the game. The Redbacks were in the semi-finals before Tuesday dawned bleak and blustery, even as Guyana were no doubt packing their kit for the long trip home.The brash flash, dash and cash of T20 cricket is all very well. But it can’t take away the numbing effect of one loss piled on top of another, and another, and yet another in a matter of days. Similarly, all the thrills and spills in the world wouldn’t be able to resolve the limbo that the Redbacks must be feeling trapped in as they await their opponents in the final four.Which left expectations of Guyana’s reply intriguingly poised. Would their lack of purpose overcome them, and lead to embarrassment they would be too underwhelmed to face with dignity? Or would the Redbacks’ bowlers be so focused on the semis they wouldn’t know off stump from leg? The answer, happily, fell between those two extremes.South Australia’s attack didn’t quite spit the same fire as earlier in the tournament, which was due in no small way to Shaun Tait’s omission with an elbow problem. But there was no questioning their basic commitment to taking wickets at minimal cost. Australian cricketers are nothing if not canny, and they know that an engine once started in an event like this is best kept purring smoothly. That was their mission and they accomplished it impressively.For Guyana, the point to prove was that they were a team worthy of this stage despite losing all their matches. They batted like men in sharp suits rather than surfer dudes fresh off the beach. There was, as there must be in this format, a lurch of wickets late in the innings. But that couldn’t spoil a job done well.They were handsomely led by Sarwan, who survived being dropped on the boundary on 45 and prospered to a fine 70. It was an innings driven from within, like all the best have to be. In the end, Guyana looked up and saw they had fallen just 15 runs short. Or did they look past that and realise that the wind had dropped and the dust had settled?Whatever. Let no-one say they do not care.

It is a credit to both teams that despite the overkill of cricket between the two nations, despite the dead pitch at the SSC, despite the lack of bowling resources, they played out two tense Test matches

Sidharth Monga in Sri Lanka08-Aug-2010This Indian team is pretty adept at digging a hole for itself. It is equally adept and finding a way out of it too. That’s why writing this side off is hazardous. Here we are talking about the Test side, not other disciplines. It was an incredible show of character that with their most inexperienced attack since 2000-01, on a ground where Sri Lanka have not lost since 1994, with three first-choice and one second-choice player out, India came back to square this series. India, after losing all the tosses, also ended Sri Lanka’s nine-year run of not losing a home Test after winning the toss.When asked if this was the most special win of his captaincy career, considering the huge effort required, considering that for the first 11 days of the series a Test win looked completely out of reach, MS Dhoni sounded blasé. He had reason to feel so. “It’s not the first time I’m the captain and we’re one-down and we have to win to level the series,” he said. “To pick one of the Test matches among the few I’ve played or captained is difficult. Every win is special, like the South Africa Test we played in Kolkata or any other.”There is some truth to that. This team has developed a habit of bouncing back immediately after a devastating loss. In 2007-08 South Africa absolutely demolished India in Ahmedabad, only to see them come back in Kanpur. Later that year India bounced back in Galle after a demoralising loss at the SSC. After the infamous SCG defeat, they stunned Australia at the WACA. Earlier this year, they staged a comeback in the Test Dhoni talked about, immediately after Dale Steyn’s destruction in Nagpur.”It shows what this team is all about and what we can do in pressure situations,” Gary Kirsten, a man known for doggedness himself, said of the P Sara win. That they keep putting themselves in pressure situations is something India need to address.For starters, they haven’t played a single international game – across formats – with their first-choice XI since Sri Lanka’s last tour of India, last November. When they were fighting to justify their No. 1 status, they should ideally have been nursing their niggles, getting ready for a season that will culminate in the World Cup at home. They made a slow start obviously – it took the rookie bowlers three Tests and a helpful pitch to make an impact.The batsmen failed in Galle, for which they had only one excuse, that of Lasith Malinga’s magic, and since then India were fighting a near-impossible fight. Good fortune arrived when Sachin Tendulkar was dropped with India fighting to avoid the follow-on at the SSC, and since then the batting line-up ceased being just Virender Sehwag. Tendulkar, Suresh Raina and VVS Laxman joined in, playing big knocks at crucial times.That to the Indians this drawn series seemed as good as a win is a tribute to how good Sri Lanka are at home. They know their conditions perfectly, they know exactly how to play in those conditions, and they rarely fail to execute those plans. For the first 11 days, it went almost perfectly according to the script, except for Tendulkar’s dropped catch.Kumar Sangakkara batted beautifully for his century, double-century and fifty in the three Tests, Tharanga Paranavitana promised to solve their opening problem, Mahela Jayawardene contributed even though he didn’t look at his flowing best. Thilan Samaraweera wasn’t exactly needed in the first two Tests, but when his team needed him in the third Test, he was there.Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan made for a heady first Test, a perfect farewell to Murali. The need to preserve Malinga hurt Sri Lanka in the second Test, and even in the third, Sangakkara got him to bowl just six overs on the final day. It would be premature to call it bad captaincy, because perhaps Malinga’s body was at the brink again.It is easy to forget that Sri Lanka were themselves low on resources after Murali’s retirement, a fact underlined by the need to risk Malinga’s body. Suraj Randiv was a good addition, as he showed with that valiant spell over the last two days at the P Sara Oval, but the bowling cupboard looks slightly bare.The first Test wasn’t gripping throughout, but once India started crumbling, it was always going to be an exciting finish. P Sara Oval was perhaps the perfect Test, except for some tired captaincy at times from both leaders. It is a credit to both teams that despite the overkill of cricket between the two nations, despite the dead pitch at the SSC, despite the lack of bowling resources, they played out two tense Test matches. Now for some break in India-Sri Lanka ties…

While the ODI series has not matched the three Tests in terms of quality of cricket, the fact that it has gone down to a decider provides a fitting end to a closely-contested tour

Sidharth Monga in Centurion22-Jan-2011Can somebody separate these two teams please? The Test series went into its final day with all three results possible, and ended level. The same scenario awaits the finale of the ODI series, for the forecast for rain on Sunday, which follows a week full of rainy days in Centurion, makes a drawn series a probable result too. To determine a winner, we go back to where it all started what seems like an eternity ago – in reality it has only been a month and a week since the tour began – the stunningly beautiful SuperSport Park.The weather back then was similar too, with rain in the air, the pitch under the covers, and India got off to a typically slow start to the tour, on a damp surface. They have surprised many with the fight they have shown since, especially in the one-dayers, in which they have fielded a side with much less experience than the Test one.MS Dhoni is eager to get back to Centurion. “I don’t mind a damp wicket again,” he said. “I don’t think it will really happen. And I am hopeful there won’t be any Duckworth-Lewis involved in the match.”It doesn’t get any better than this: the best teams in the world playing against each other, and once again the series has gone down to the last match. That’s an ideal set-up for the end of the tour. I am just hoping it will be a perfect day for cricket, and may the best team win.”In terms of skill-levels and the quality of cricket on display, the one-dayers haven’t quite lived up to the lofty standards that the Test series set, but it is not exactly a bad thing for the Tests to maintain that primacy, not in some corporate talk from the administrators but out on the field.The series has left South Africa captain Graeme Smith drained. “I am looking forward to the two weeks off,” he said. “With two top teams playing, it’s competitive, and there was also the matter of selecting the World Cup squad. So it can be quite heavy on players, and especially captains. We’d love to finish the series strong on Sunday and freshen up for the World Cup, during which we have to be at our best for six whole weeks.”The tour has, indeed, taken its toll on minds and bodies. India had to send three players home after the Test series – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir – while South Africa lost Jacques Kallis, who is always considered more than just one player because he contributes with both bat and ball.Tempers have flared, respect has been earned, records have been broken, we have celebrated the presence of people of Indian origin in South Africa, we have seen a South African support team help India excel, and going into the last day of a tour that has lasted close to two months, we don’t have a winner.After having seen fortunes swing this way and that over the tour, Smith, who will be captaining South Africa for the last time in a home ODI, is not even thinking of making brave statements going into the decider. “At the moment no one holds the advantage,” he said. “It’s about who performs better on the day. Obviously sitting here, I would love to say that I back us to do well, but you have got to be realistic. You have to go out on Sunday and do the same things well, keep staying positive about the way we play, sum up the conditions there and just perform. Centurion normally has a slightly better batting wicket than we have played on in the series so far. So we may need to adapt to that.”For one final day, before the cricketers from these two teams go spend time with their families and then go into their respective World Cup camps, they will put in one big effort to keep the level of competitiveness and quality up to the standards that have been maintained through the entire tour. For one final day, it will be about this tour, and not about the No. 1 ranking or the World Cup. And as Dhoni said, may the best team win.

India have lost four of their last five first Tests in overseas series against the top teams, which suggests it’s becoming an unwanted habit for the side

S Rajesh20-Dec-2010The curse of the first Test has struck again for India in an overseas game. The innings defeat in Centurion means India must now win at least one of the next two matches to return home without a series defeat. Of course, if their aim is more humble – to retain their No.1 ranking – then all they need to do is draw one of those games, but a team which has so many stalwarts will surely have greater aspirations. The Centurion defeat, though, has just made the task harder for the visitors, and it opens up, yet again, India’s tendency to begin poorly on tours.It’s been a recurring theme of several of India’s overseas campaigns – lose the first Test, and then try and make up the damage through the remainder of the series. In their last five tours to one of the top eight countries (including the current tour), India have lost the series opener four times – against Sri Lanka in 2008 and 2010, and against Australia in 2007. The only glorious exception was the tour to New Zealand, where India won the first Test, and then went on to draw the next two to win the series. They’d won the first Test on their previous tour to South Africa as well, in 2006-07, but on that tour India slipped in the next two matches, losing both of them and the series.Since the beginning of 2000, India have played 16 overseas series (excluding the ones in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh). They’ve lost the first Test eight times and won only thrice. There was a period between 2003 and 2007 when India seemed to have rid themselves of this bad habit, not losing the first game for six series in a row (in Australia, twice in Pakistan, in West Indies, England and South Africa), but over the last three years the habit has crept in again.As the table below indicates, India’s results tend to go up after the first Test – they’ve won less than 19% of the first games, but in subsequent matches they’ve won ten out of 35 – a percentage of almost 29. Similarly, the loss percentage comes down from 50 in first Tests to 34 in subsequent games.On the seven previous occasions when India have lost the first Test of an away series since 2000, only twice have they come back to level the series – in England in 2002 and in Sri Lanka earlier this year.

India, in first Tests and other Tests, overseas since 2000

MatchesWonLostDrawnFirst Tests16385Other Tests35101213After the match, MS Dhoni seemed to indicate that India tend to start a series poorly even at home, but recent numbers don’t bear that out. In 18 home series since 2000 (excluding a couple against Zimbabwe), India have lost the first match only four times, of which two were before 2002. They’ve won five and drawn nine.India’s batting failure in the first innings ultimately cost them the Test, so here’s a look at how India’s top order has fared in first Tests overseas since 2000 (in countries excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe). Virender Sehwag failed in the first innings in Centurion, but his overall first-Test average is splendid – 59.42, with four centuries in 12 Tests, including two in excess of 250. Sachin Tendulkar is equally impressive, with a first-Test average of almost 58, and four centuries, in Bloemfontein, Multan, Hamilton and Centurion.The others, though, have clearly underperformed. Rahul Dravid averages ten below his overall average in these countries during this period, but his recent starts to series have been even more dismal: in the last four years he averages only 21.69 in first Tests, with one half-century in 14 innings. Gautam Gambhir averages less than 40 in the first Tests but more than 70 thereafter, while the situation is somewhat similar for VVS Laxman: an average of 37.86 in the first Tests, which goes up to 56.30 in the second, and 50.57 in the third. Going by these numbers, South Africa should be prepared to be out in the field for much longer in the next couple of matches.

Indian batsmen in first Tests of overseas series since 2000*

BatsmanFirst TestsRunsAverage100s/ 50sOverall away ave**Virender Sehwag12124859.424/ 251.26Sachin Tendulkar14115657.804/ 451.72Rahul Dravid1699341.372/ 551.10Gautam Gambhir427138.710/ 256.13VVS Laxman1587137.860/ 649.88

After the bowlers did their job yesterday, England’s No.3 ensured there was no let-up with another impressive display

Andrew Miller at the MCG27-Dec-2010Some batsmen specialise in the counterattack, others major in attrition. Jonathan Trott, however, nestles into another comfortable and entirely enclosed genre, that of the specialist bloodletter. Like a medieval physician faced with a case of apoplexy, Trott draws his scalpel across the artery, and drains all tension from the situation until the patient is totally becalmed.And so it was, on one of the most volatile days of the summer, with Ricky Ponting inviting ICC censure for his run-in with Aleem Dar and Peter Siddle pounding in on a still-lively track to give Australia the outside chance of a sub-200 deficit, Trott bedded in, zoned out, and finished the day on 141 not out. It was his third hundred in his first five Tests against Australia, the first England batsman since Michael Vaughan in 2002-03 to achieve such a feat, and for the second time in as many games, it moved England into a position from which an Ashes-sealing victory appears little more than a formality.”I don’t think it’s anything about batting against Australia in particular,” said Trott. “I’ve played five games against Mike Hussey and he’s also scored three hundreds, so you might also have to ask him why he likes batting against England. It’s just one of those things. I’m very fortunate. I work really hard on my game, along with everyone else in the team, and I’m just happy to be able to contribute to getting us into a good position.”A total of 67,149 spectators turned up to the second day at the MCG – some 20,000 fewer than attended on the first, but still the largest crowd that he had ever before encountered. Trott, however, anesthetised the lot of them as he treated the occasion with his habitual equanimity. “Each hundred you get is in different circumstances,” he said. “This is definitely an important Test match and one I’ll definitely savour. They’re all pretty special but Boxing Day, [with] the hype around it and the support from the English fans, it would definitely be right up there.”Like South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, a fellow Capetonian, Trott is not exactly a man to set the pulses racing, but it’s hard not to admire the unfussy manner with which he goes about his work. All of the fuss, in fact, is fast-tracked into his ritual between balls, which involves constant guard-taking and crease-scratching, and enables him to expend any excess nervous energy and leave the business of seeing and hitting cricket balls to a combination of a sound instinct and a water-tight technique.”Any batter that’s out there in the middle, in the zone, is tough to bowl to – especially him,” said Siddle, whose adrenalin-fuelled method has been thwarted by Trott in each of those three centuries. “It is tough work. The wicket is not offering a lot of bounce, which keeps it in his favour a little bit – knowing it’s going to be pretty much up there for him on the front foot.”Trott’s current average against Australia is a Bradman-esque 96.33, while his career average – at his overnight score – of 62.92 puts him second behind the Don in the all-time averages for batsmen who have made more than 1500 Test runs – a figure he ghosted past during the afternoon accumulation with Matt Prior.As with the best of Trott’s performances, notably his 184 in partnership with Stuart Broad at Lord’s last summer, the latter stages were fuelled by an absolute certainty of outcome. The morning drizzle and early life had made survival tough for all the batsmen, and both overnight incumbents, Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, fell without significant addition.But as the evening drew in and the crowds dissipated in droves for the second day in a row, Trott’s love of crease occupation and eye for the loose delivery allowed him to ease to within nine runs of his third 150-plus score in seven months. To put that in context, Pietersen (on six occasions) is the only English batsman to manage more so-called “daddies” in the whole of the past five years.”I think it’s important I don’t over-rev when I’m batting and try and over-hit the ball,” said Trott. “Sometimes I find I’m a bit tense, it’s too much. I try and be nice and patient and play my natural game, which is to accumulate here and there and let the other guys hit boundaries and sixes.”In fact, Trott was so under-revved, he claimed he did not notice or take an interest in any of the controversy that took place early in the second session, when Kevin Pietersen survived a caught-behind appeal off Ryan Harris that led Ricky Ponting into an angry discussion with umpire Aleem Dar. The only moment he was truly unsettled came when he inside-edged Ben Hilfenhaus onto the side of his kneecap.”It was one of the most painful things I’ve felt in my life,” said Trott, who required lengthy treatment after falling to the crease in a heap. “I asked for the runner to put the pads on and see how it went. I gave it 20 minutes to see if it stiffened up. It did a little bit … but that’ll teach for me inside-edging it.”That incident aside, Trott’s resolve was scarcely tested, as he re-entered the zone that he and Alastair Cook had occupied on the final day at Brisbane, when England served notice of their series intentions with that formidable second-innings scoreline of 1 for 517. “Obviously the cloud cover was there and a bit of drizzle early on,” he said, “but fortunately the sun came out this afternoon and the wind sort of dried the pitch out.”But despite the looming prospect of a very handsome victory, Trott was not ready to take anything for granted just yet, the very same trait that has served his batting so well throughout a memorable 2010. “We all know that the Australian team – like we saw in the last Test match – has got some good players,” he said. “We’re going to have to be at the top of our game to make sure we keep the pressure on them the whole time.”I wouldn’t say that they were demoralised,” he added. “I thought they bowled pretty well today … [but] things went our way. It was a good day for us but it’s important to remember they’ll come at us tomorrow morning and try and get themselves right back and get as many wickets as soon as possible. It’s important I’m on my game from the start tomorrow. There’s plenty of work for us left to be done in this Test match.”

Ian Chappell thought Baboo Ebrahim better than any white spinner in South Africa. Given the opportunity, he could have played for the country, but his era was not a time for opportunity

Sidharth Monga18-Jan-2011Ismail “Baboo” Ebrahim’s story could be that of any non-white South African cricket in the apartheid era. Except that, by all available accounts, he was not just non-white cricketer. says he would have been a star in “any first-class arena”. Craig Marais, former Boland wicketkeeper and now a commentator, remembers how Ian Chappell said Ebrahim was better than any white spinner in the country. Brett Proctor, who played with Ebrahim and is now Kingsmead’s ground manager, says Ebrahim “may have made it to international level, given the right opportunities”. However, the sixties and seventies were not times for opportunity: even the 48 first-class matches that Ebrahim managed came after struggle, though they left memories to last a lifetime.In January 1957, when watching from the small non-whites section at Kingsmead (“Couldn’t go anywhere else”), 11-year-old Ebrahim saw Johnny Wardle bowl Roy McLean through the gap between bat and pad with a chinaman. “That’s when I said, ‘This is what I am going to do. This is what I am going to be.'”A left-arm spinner he became, and like Wardle, chinamans he bowled. When he grew slightly older, he came to know of a Natal team being picked for a match in Cape Town. “I said, ‘Wow, cricket can make me see the world.’ And I said I was going to be good, I was going to see the world.”Ebrahim was slightly fortunate in that the boards representing coloured, Indian and black cricketers had unified to form the South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBOC), thus ending the era of segregated cricket. Still, non-whites could only play on torn matting wickets, where a delivery could hit you in the head and the next one on the ankle. The outfields were bumpy, the equipment substandard. And even with the boards unified, all the players could manage was three games a year. They didn’t have the money to play more than that.Cricket, at least on paper, was somewhat welcoming, but society wasn’t. When Australia travelled here for what would be South Africa’s last series before isolation, Ebrahim was at Kingsmead to watch them practise. “I asked them if I could bowl,” remembers Ebrahim. “And one of them said, ‘Yes, let him bowl.’ Security steps in and says, ‘No he can’t bowl. He is black.’ But they insisted that I bowl. I remember bowling Ian Redpath in the nets, and suddenly it was a case of ‘Who are you, my boy?’ and this that and so forth. And to this day, Ashley Mallett, whenever he comes to South Africa, still remembers me.”As the leaders of the community fought for independence, the cricketers went about their own quiet struggle. Ebrahim, Omar Henry and a few others decided to test the white clubs’ promise that they were open to any cricketer who merited a place. “Omar joined a club in Cape Town, I joined a club in Durban, Tiffy Barnes in Jo’burg.”They were always saying that they were open to everybody. And we said, ‘Let’s test it.’ We joined them. At first it was a case of the dressing room. We said, ‘No, we want to get into the pub as well.’ You must have heard of incidents when restaurants didn’t want to serve us guys, and we kicked the table and walked out.”I remember the third game I played for the white club, I got 10 wickets in an innings, and they insisted that I come to the pub,” Ebrahim says. “I said, ‘I don’t drink, I am sorry.’ They asked me to just come in and have a Coke. So I thought I’d have a Coke. And there were some people who didn’t like the idea, and the guys told them, ‘If you like it, stay around. If you don’t like it, you can go away. This person and we are staying here.’ That’s how we started breaking apartheid.”Proctor remembers Ebrahim as a bowler who was quick through the air but also someone who turned the ball, and “never gave anything away”. “To be fair to him, he played on green tracks in Durban, and the thing to do in South Africa then was to bowl as fast as you could.” Proctor says. “To wonder if he would have played ahead of Alan Kourie [Transvaal’s left-arm spinner, whose career span was roughly the same as Ebrahim’s] is a question similar to debating how good Barry Richards was. But both could have made it to international cricket at that time.”Neither of them managed that in the end because of isolation, but Kourie did have a first-class career that lasted 127 games to Ebrahim’s 48. Ebrahim rates Denys Hobson, the former Western Province legspinner, higher. Chappell probably saw Ebrahim on the International Wanderers tour in 1975-76, when he got just one game, in Durban, and didn’t even get to bowl in the first innings. In the second, he ran through the visitors with 6 for 66.Ebrahim found the Lancashire League more welcoming. “It was professional,” he says. “If you didn’t produce results, they told you in no uncertain terms. Those days were different. You must remember, many Test cricketers played in the leagues. And the toughest league was the Lancashire League. You had one professional in each team, one of the top guys from world cricket, to draw the crowds from that area, but on the side they had three-four other Test players who played as amateurs, who were just as good.

“Security steps in and says, ‘No he can’t bowl. He is black.’ But they insisted that I bowl. I remember bowling Ian Redpath in the nets, and suddenly it was a case of ‘Who are you, my boy?’ And to this day, Ashley Mallett, whenever he comes to South Africa, still remembers me”

“When I went there I was already 30-plus, and couldn’t tell them that I was that age. Took off a couple of years, acted a bit younger. I was much skinnier, fitter. After all, I had to take the place of one of the great cricketers of the world, Garry Sobers.”It was here that Sulaiman “Dik” Abed took 100 wickets and scored more 1000 runs in a season on more than one occasion. Unlike Ebrahim, though, Abed never managed to play first-class cricket. There were others too who missed out. “I don’t think I will go into names,” Ebrahim says. “At the time the bodies [non-coloured ones] got together and got cricket going, we had a lot of good cricketers.”The only way you judge them is by who they played against. One cannot just judge playing one-two games, which is all they got then. Coming from matting to turf was a big challenge for our boys. Unless you play it, you have no idea of the difference. We didn’t even know how to doctor a wicket. We only learned it afterwards. Where did I learn it? Playing in the Lancashire League. Home game, make a wicket that suits your spinner. Matting was the same thing for both sides. Only given the opportunity did we learn these things. You don’t know where those guys would have been.”Now, at 64, Ebrahim is a respected figure in Durban cricket. His son has coached Kwazulu-Natal. Ebrahim says he doesn’t feel much bitterness when he looks back. “As you got older, you get wiser,” he says. “So many other things come into the equation. Thank almighty. Through cricket he has made me see a lot of places, meet a lot of people. I thank god for that.” That happened mainly through the Lancashire Leagues, and Masters events, where he finally got to represent South Africa, and where, as he proudly mentions, he got Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge out in the same game.And he always has happy memories to fall back upon. Like this story.”Rohan Kanhai used to play for Transvaal. Rohan Kanhai, the great West Indian. The ground is packed and a lot of people have come to see Kanhai. And in the second innings – there were about two hours – we made a declaration to see if Kanhai wanted to have a go. They tossed me the ball. ‘Bowl to him.’ I told him, ‘ [I’ll toss them up for you].’ He was finding it difficult to hit the ball because I was turning it so much. The more air I gave, the more it bit [the surface]. And after a couple of balls he comes down the wicket and he tells me, ‘Eh, [They have come to watch me, not you].’ These are the small things that happen in cricket, and then you look back and say, ‘What a wonderful experience.'”

While USA require intense work in all three departments of the game ahead of next year’s global qualifiers for the World Twenty20, they should also consider a change at the top taking into account captain Steve Massiah’s prolonged form slump

Peter Della Penna25-Jul-2011Contrary to 2010 when they were handed a wild card spot for the eight-team World Twenty20 Qualifier despite being in ICC World Cricket League Division Five, USA clinched a berth on merit this past week in Florida for next year’s 16-team global qualifier in the UAE. USA finished second behind Canada at the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament to claim one of the two available spots from the region, along with Bermuda who finished third, while Canada was already assured a spot in the global qualifiers by virtue of their ODI status.USA completed the job they were expected to do this week, roughing up the likes of Argentina, Cayman Islands and Suriname for big wins before finishing the event with a strong victory over Bermuda. However, USA’s loss to a second-string Canada side exposed some glaring weaknesses. If they are to have any chance of finishing in the top two at next year’s global qualifier and make it to the 2012 World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, they’ve got a lot of work to do to.The bowling attack is a bright spot for USA. Bhim George took 13 wickets to finish on top of the tournament’s top wicket-takers’ table. While the rest were solid also, but USA lacks sufficient depth should one of the frontline bowlers go down with injury. Such was the case with Timroy Allen last August and it opened up the door for problems with team balance at ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong, which contributed to the team getting relegated to Division Four.The fielding in Florida was below average. At next year’s qualifier, USA’s best chance to neutralise the advantages teams like Ireland and Afghanistan have in the batting and bowling departments will be to one-up them in the field. On the evidence they showed this week, USA will be lagging behind in all three disciplines unless they do some intense work on their catching and ground fielding. For a nation teeming with all-round athletes, USA’s cricket team is not very athletic.Yet, the team is definitely capable of producing a few upsets as they proved at the qualifier in 2010 by notching a six-wicket win over Scotland, a match which USA dominated all through. But that team had four players – Sudesh Dhaniram, Kevin Darlington, Lennox Cush and Carl Wright – who had first-class experience in the West Indies and each of them contributed to that win. Two of those four were also part of the squad that won the inaugural ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 last year in Bermuda.All four are now gone and while some of their replacements were picked with an eye for the future, the fact is that they are a long way from reaching the standards of those before them. It once again highlights the lack of attention given by the USA Cricket Association to establishing a proper development system.The batting depended heavily on Gowkaran Roopnarine, Aditya Mishra and Sushil Nadkarni. It’s no coincidence that the success of Nadkarni and Mishra can be tied to their experience playing Ranji Trophy cricket in India prior to migrating to USA. The fact that Nadkarni finished with the most runs and highest average for USA shows what a major mistake it was when selectors dropped him when the squad was originally announced, before doing an about turn ten days before the tournament.The most alarming performance of this past week was turned in by captain Steve Massiah. Over the last year his technique has turned into a mess. Six times in his last nine innings for USA he has gotten out lbw. This week he scratched his way to 21 runs in four innings and looked completely out of sorts.Since his first Twenty20 match for USA at the 2010 World Twenty20 Qualifier, Massiah has managed 121 runs at 10.08 in 13 innings, including four ducks, at a strike rate of 72.46 – dreadful stats for a top-order batsman. Massiah is not a slogger, but even if a player’s game is not suited to clearing the ropes the least he should be able to do is knock the ball around for ones and twos. It can be a struggle for him to turn over the strike and the team’s momentum stalls when he is at the crease.His position as captain has become untenable because his batting doesn’t merit a place in USA’s Twenty20 team for the global qualifier. A new captain should be appointed in order to let Massiah focus on his batting in 50-over cricket, a format where he still has some value, before WCL Division Four next summer.At the post-tournament presentation on Saturday night, USACA President Gladstone Dainty spoke of the potential opportunities that might arise for dozens of regional Associate players if the domestic Twenty20 league, which they are hoping to form in conjunction with New Zealand Cricket, comes to fruition in August 2012. The World Twenty20 Qualifier is to be held in March. USACA rather needs to focus on preparing players for this crucial ICC event, to give them some hope of fulfilling the vast potential they possess.