All posts by n8rngtd.top

West Indies shouldn’t get carried away after their huge victory over Bangladesh but there were promising signs as they hunt a quarter-final spot

Sidharth Monga in Dhaka04-Mar-2011They didn’t say it before the game, but it hurt West Indies that Bangladesh were ranked higher than them. After the game was over, where the hosts had been humbled for 58, Darren Sammy admitted that the ranking brought out an aggressive edge to their performance.”We knew we had a point to prove, with Bangladesh ranked higher than us in the rankings,” he said. “We were playing them at home, and we came out and gave it everything. It worked. It was a perfect display of how to go out there and bowl on a flat wicket.”It wasn’t difficult to beat a team bent on self-combustion, but the way West Indies did it, never letting their foot off the drowning opposition’s throat, was impressive. They were not content with taking early wickets and then chasing 200, they wanted to make a bigger statement. They used only three bowlers, all three of whom were in wicket-taking form today, and they gave themselves the best chance of taking wickets by having an adequate number of men in catching positions.For all the criticism Sammy has come in for in the lead-up to this game, he bowled, and more importantly, led the side perfectly. West Indies have a thin bowling line-up in the absence of Dwayne Bravo, which means they are playing only one genuine wicket-taking seam bowler. Given all that, it is a huge risk to open the bowling with Sulieman Benn, for if he has an off day there is a serious dearth of bowlers who can make the new ball count.Kemar Roach was one of just three bowlers West Indies need to do the job in Dhaka•Getty ImagesSammy put his hand up. Not only did he put his hand up, he did so immediately after Benn went for nine in his first over. He realised pretty soon that Bangladesh were trying to expose the weak resources by attacking Benn. And then Sammy produced three wickets. They were not magic deliveries, but they hardly ever are with Sammy. Before the match he said he felt he was one good performance away from coming to form, and it is tough to argue against a sharp catch, three wickets and the man’s diving all over the place to stop runs.Sammy, though, said he knew this was just one good performance, and wouldn’t mean much if it is not replicated. “I had belief in myself,” he said. “As a leader, you want good performances. I have been practising well, I knew a good performance was just around the corner. Now I need to be consistent. I really needed this performance, the team needed this performance, the people back home in the Caribbean needed that performance.”Another example of how charged up the team was is how Chris Gayle ignored illness and turned up for the game. “It shows how committed he [Gayle] is to the World Cup cause,” Sammy said. “To the West Indies cricket. He wasn’t feeling too well yesterday and today morning, but he opted to play. Before he went out, he gave us a pep talk, telling us to not underestimate Bangladesh. He is the kind of player the guys respond to. It was very good of him to step up and let the guys know that we have a job to do out there. He has been an inspiration for us, and we went out there every confidently and got the job done.”West Indies can’t afford to get carried away, though. They have beaten Netherlands and Bangladesh, teams the West Indies of past would overcome in their sleep. The big games are yet to come. Sammy agrees. “I would not say that,” Sammy said when he was asked if they have suddenly become contenders for the title. “We know what we came here to do, we need to focus on each game, and only that game. So we have Ireland next, we are focusing on Ireland. Not the quarter-finals, not India, not England. Just Ireland. We are taking it step by step.”

Bangladesh’s performance in Mirpur seemed to follow the script of a Shakespeare tragedy, with unfulfilled ambition, revenge and eventually the fall of would-be heroes

Firdose Moonda in Mirpur19-Mar-2011Shakespeare would have been proud of this tragedy. There was unfulfilled ambition, revenge, inner turmoil and death, not of anyone, but of a dream.At the end, the Bangladesh vision lay lifeless on the Shere Bangla field. The supporters had abandoned them, some leaving when the early dents were made in the batting line-up and the rest jumping ship near the end. The play wasn’t worth watching anymore and they didn’t care what happened to the hero Shakib Al Hasan. He was the protagonist and we all know what happens to them in Shakespeare’s scripts.When the curtain opened, the scene that rolled out had the makings of a horror show. The Bangladesh fast bowlers were feeding Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith some juicy deliveries. Full tosses, balls pitched on leg stump, short and wide stuff, and there was no stopping the opening pair. Bangladesh allowed Smith, who had been in scratchy form in the tournament, to plant some roots and settle. They gave Amla the stage to continue growing his stature as one of the batsmen of the tournament, and Bangladesh’s woes may have grown even more had they been allowed to continue.There was a twist in the plot, though. Abdur Razzak, Naeem Islam, Mahmudullah and Shakib did what they did to South Africa in the 2007 World Cup in Guyana – tied them up. Although they were not running the same kind of strangling circles as they did on that day, they still managed to pull the run-rate back enough for 250 to look like a reasonable amount of runs to restrict South Africa to.Of course, the South Africa batsmen were part of the play too and they had some acting to do themselves. Jacques Kallis brought up his half-century almost unnoticed, and Faf du Plessis was able to craft his character for the third time in this World Cup. du Plessis has been able to show the maturity that many from his domestic franchise knew he had all along, against India, Ireland and again today. South Africa’s middle order, still relatively untested, may need a few more of these situations before they start to be considered as threatening as the bowling attack, but du Plessis will be central to that.The Bangladesh bowlers would have never seen him before and it showed. They bowled to him as South Africa bowled to Mohammad Ashraful in Guyana in that World Cup – as though he was too unknown a quantity for them to have done much homework on. They batted in the same fashion against Lonwabo Tsotsobe, although they had seen him on during South Africa’s A tour early last year.What really happened is that Bangladesh hadn’t rehearsed their lines properly, hadn’t put enough research into the South Africa players; maybe because they didn’t expect them to field the side that they ended up fielding. Once Tsotsobe had set them back significantly, the lines that they were struggling to remember were gone.There was no recovery. The fans seemed to know that before anyone else and that may have been why they started pouring out. Shakib tried to prompt a comeback, that gentle reminder of how things should be, and he had four beautiful boundaries, but his performance alone would never be enough. Smith has said that South Africa were on no revenge mission; but the way they unleashed the pain on Bangladesh told a different story. It meant that there was no room for any of the ambition Bangladesh had harboured to peep through.This game alone may not have been the vehicle to fulfill Bangladesh’s dream but because of the results of the past few weeks – the loss to West Indies and then the West Indies loss to England – everything eventually hung on beating South Africa. Maybe the end wasn’t too painful because beating the team that has looked strongest in this tournament would be a tough ask. It may have made the final act easier to swallow.Shakib was too traumatised to be able to think about the way forward, but Smith had a suggestion, although it is not positive. He thinks there that there is still a long way to go before the script can be revised. “The challenge will be to create consistency,” he said. ‘”They need to start learning to win.” It may be as difficult as learning their lines but they’ve got four years to practise.

Twenty numbers from the IPL so far

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan09-May-2011Chris Gayle: 26 sixes in just five innings in IPL 2011•AFP*56 – The number of boundary runs per innings that Gayle has scored in IPL 2011. Shaun Marsh is second (33.6) and Sehwag is third (31.2). (minimum qualification: 150 runs scored in boundaries)66 – The most runs scored in the first three overs of an innings in the IPL, by Bangalore against Kochi. Punjab are second, with 52 runs in their first three overs against Rajasthan.5 – The number of centuries scored in IPL 2011, with 23 matches to go. In comparison, six centuries were scored in IPL 2008 and four in IPL 2010. Only two centuries were scored in IPL 2009.275 – Gayle’s strike-rate in his innings of 44 against Kochi, the highest for an innings of over 40 in IPL 2011 and the fourth-highest overall. Kieron Pollard’s strike-rate of 346.15 in his 45 off 13 balls in IPL 2010 is the highest for a 40-plus score.26 – The most sixes by a batsman in IPL 2011. Gayle holds the record, and is followed by Sehwag (18) and Paul Valthaty (14). Sanath Jayasuriya holds the record for the most sixes in a single IPL season with 31 in 14 innings. Gayle’s 26 sixes in IPL 2011 have come in just five innings.4 – The number of bowlers who have conceded ten runs or fewer in a four-over spell in IPL 2011 so far. Rahul Sharma picked up 2 for 7 in his four overs and is the only spinner – the others are Brett Lee, Sreesanth and Lasith Malinga. Lee is the only bowler to achieve the feat twice across the four seasons.41 – The number of deliveries remaining after Bangalore’s nine-wicket win over Kochi, and Pune’s seven-wicket win over Punjab – it’s the most after a 100-plus target has been chased in IPL 2011. The record in all IPL matches is 48, when Deccan chased Mumbai’s score of 154 in 2008 with eight overs to spare.16.6 – The number of extras per match in IPL 2011, the lowest among all seasons. The highest was in 2008 – 19.4.4.66 – The difference in Bangalore’s run-rate in the first six overs this year after Gayle’s entry (10.20) and before (5.54). Their average has also gone up from 13.30 to 102.00.28 – The most catches taken by a fielder, by Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma. Jacques Kallis is next, with 23 catches. Sehwag has taken the most catches in IPL 2011 (9) followed by S Anirudha and Kallis (8).37 – The most runs scored in an over across all seasons of the IPL, by Bangalore against Kochi on May 8, 2011. Kolkata are second, with 33 runs off one over against Punjab in 2010.29.92 – The runs per wicket in Bangalore, the highest among all venues. Hyderabad and Mohali are next, with an average of 28.43 and 27.48 runs per wicket.1.27 – The win-loss ratio of chasing teams in IPL 2011, the second-highest across all seasons. The ratio is highest for IPL 2008 (1.63) and lowest for IPL 2010 (0.90).32.60 – The average balls per innings faced by Marsh, the highest among all batsmen who have faced at least 750 balls across the four seasons of the IPL. Tendulkar is next, with a corresponding figure of 28.2.54.70 – Michael Hussey’s average in the IPL (all seasons), which is the highest among batsmen with at least 500 runs. Marsh is next, with an average of 52.20.7 – The number of bowlers with 50 or more wickets in the IPL. RP Singh leads the list with 58 wickets in 53 innings. Lasith Malinga is second, with 57 wickets in 36 innings.50 – The number of fifty-plus scores for Chennai, the highest among all teams. Delhi are next with 46 fifty-plus scores.94– The number of runs in fours and sixes scored by Gayle for Bangalore against Punjab. This is the highest runs in boundaries in an innings in IPL 2011 followed by Valthaty and Sehwag (88). The record is 118, by Brendon McCullum, for Kolkata versus Bangalore in IPL 2008.6– The number of players to score over 400 runs and pick up 25 or more wickets in the IPL. Among these players, Kallis has scored the most runs (1473) while Irfan Pathan has the most wickets (54).14– The most fifty-plus stands for a team in IPL 2011. Chennai hold the record, while Mumbai are next with 11. Across all seasons, Chennai are by far on top with 62 fifty-plus stands, followed by Rajasthan with 48.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the fourth day of the second Test between South Africa and Australia, at the Wanderers

Brydon Coverdale and Firdose Moonda at the Wanderers20-Nov-2011Cultural connection of the day

Sociological experts have been watching the contest between the two team’s foreign-born players with interest. Imran Tahir and Usman Khawaja are the first Pakistan-born players to represent South Africa and Australia respectively, and they created a small piece of their own history when Tahir was bowling to Khawaja. When Tahir had Khawaja caught at slip, the tale had come full circle. Khawaja misread the googly and was rooted to the crease as he pushed forward to end an innings of patience and poise. Tahir brought the encounter to a close with a customary over-the-top celebration. Shot of the day
Dale Steyn is no bunny with the bat and his 76 against Australia in Melbourne was an example of that. With South Africa leading by 236 and only three second innings-wickets left standing, Steyn strode to the crease. He edged the first ball he faced for four but settled in to form a handy 48-run eighth-wicket stand with Vernon Philander. When both Philander and Morkel were dismissed off consecutive deliveries with the lead still under 300, Steyn took it upon himself to push South Africa along. In the second over after lunch, he teed off against Peter Siddle, slamming six over long-on. It was a good length delivery and Steyn got under it perfectly.Leave of the day
There are well judged leaves, risky leaves and then, there’s Shane Watson’s leave. What the batsman was thinking when he chose to shoulder arms against Vernon Philander only he will know. Perhaps, after seeing the first ball move away sharply, Watson anticipated that the second would do the same. It didn’t. Philander got a length ball to straighten on Watson, who had taken a stride forward and expected to see the delivery sail through to the keeper. It removed the bails, sending Watson on his way without scoring and rubber-stamping Philander’s role as South Africa’s new opening bowler.Delay of the day
Billy Bowden doesn’t mind being the centre of attention and all eyes were certainly on him when Australia appealed for a caught-behind off the first ball after lunch. Pat Cummins was convinced his bouncer had touched the gloves of Philander. Bowden remained unmoved. Cummins was so enthusiastic that he ran all the way to the slips cordon while appealing. It looked like he might have been at risk of a fine for excessive appealing, until Bowden eventually raised his finger, long after most spectators had stopped looking in his direction. Perhaps he was giving Philander a chance to walk. Whatever the case, the right decision was made.Missed opportunity of the day
Cummins is already Australia’s second-youngest Test player of all time, and he nearly became the youngest man ever to take a Test hat-trick. He got rid of Philander, yorked Morne Morkel next ball and was hoping to finish off the innings with Imran Tahir’s wicket. Michael Clarke gave Cummins five slips and the bowler sent down a pretty well-directed yorker, but Tahir was up to the challenge and kept it out.Gesture of the day
As Cummins walked off the field to the applause of his team-mates and the crowd, after taking 6 for 79, he was approached by one of the all-time greats of fast bowling. Allan Donald is South Africa’s bowling coach and was on the field preparing for some fielding practice. Despite his affiliation, he came up and shook the hand of Cummins and patted him on the back. Cummins was nine when Donald bowed out of international cricket, but he remembered seeing him at work. “I do remember a couple of games growing up,” Cummins said. “Actually there was some footage we watched the other day – I think he bowled about six bumpers in a row at one of the batsman and he didn’t look like too much fun to face. It was very nice of him, he just said ‘congratulations’ and we kept on walking, but it was a nice moment.”

We look back at the highs and lows from the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League

Mohammad Isam01-Mar-2012The Shakib impact
On a day when everything went wrong for Bangladesh cricket (with the semi-final mix-up), Shakib Al Hasan’s game rose above everything and reinforced his status as the country’s sporting icon. The valiant innings, facing a big chase, was more than just the unbeaten 86 he scored off 41 balls; it made sure cricket reared its head rather than the other big C (controversy).In fact the Khulna Royal Bengals’ BPL campaign was a reflection of how their icon player thinks: no fuss, just cricket. Shakib’s influence was prominent on a team that didn’t have many big stars, unlike the others.It is also hardly a surprise that Shakib’s authority on the field was exactly how he likes it. He was the man in charge and gave the owners every reason to cheer about. He bowled crucial spells, captained with a lot of gusto and scored runs whenever a finishing flourish was required.Left-arm spinners carry the flag
At the start of the tournament, there was concern among the franchises, the media and even the public about whether the Bangladesh spinners and batsmen would be able to handle the pressure. A majority of the batsmen didn’t, but the other lot stood up to the challenge and showed Bangladesh has more quality left-arm spinners than imagined.Seven out of the fifteen bowlers who have taken 10 or more wickets in the tournament are left-arm spinners, born and raised in Bangladesh. Dhaka Gladiators’ Elias Sunny topped the list (equal with Mohammad Sami, who also took the tournament’s only five-for) with 17 wickets but what was more striking was the manner in which he outbowled Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal in the semi-final.Sunny and the other capped left-armers apart, the likes of Arafat Sunny and Saqlain Sajib, and to some extent Nazmul Islam and Monir Hossain, were surprisingly disciplined. They kept the sixes to a limit.Muttiah Muralitharan wants Bangladesh to promote other types of bowlers, but with so much emphasis and faith in left-arm spinners, diversifying may take a while.Gayle leaves his mark
Several batsmen went past his tally and scored at a quicker pace within days of his departure, but none could beat Chris Gayle’s 26 sixes or batting average of 96.0. Nor could they score two hundreds or top the 116 he made against Dhaka.His records give him a super-human aura in the BPL (double the batting average than the next best, having played half the number of matches).The value of Gayle for the BPL, and the Barisal Burners, cannot be measured in money. Apart from being one of the few bright spots in the tournament, his sheer entertainment value means he will remain the marquee name that the BPL will use to attract more Twenty20 superstars for the next edition; and all for $551,000 per season.The favourite imports
From Wasim Akram bowling a fateful no-ball that trickled to the boundary in a famous Abahani-Mohammedan incident, to a 13-year-old Imran Nazir playing taped tennis-ball cricket in Kalabagan (a neighbourhood in Dhaka), Pakistan cricketers have been part of Bangladesh’s domestic cricket ever since the leagues allocated a foreign quota.In the Dhaka Premier League, 80-85 per cent of that quota is filled by Pakistan cricketers, mostly batsmen who can also bowl 10 overs of spin.So it was hardly a surprise that the franchises packed them in their squads and the players responded with all seriousness, especially with the IPL door shut for long. Some, like Ahmed Shehzad, Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal wanted the selectors at home to take notice ahead of the Asia Cup. Shehzad was playing for Victoria Sporting Club alongside Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal while being picked for the Barisal franchise. Jamshed (Old DOHS) and Akmal (Brothers Union) were also in Bangladesh at the time of the players’ auction.Senior pros like Azhar Mahmood (now a British citizen), Imran Nazir and Mohammad Sami simply turned back the clock; Sami picked up the only hat-trick of the competition while Nazir and Mahmood played a vital role in the Gladiators becoming champions.Threat of corruption
Sunday evening was when the BPL started to go into a chaos. Sajid Khan’s arrest from the grandstand of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium not only opened a can of worms but it put the future of the tournament in jeopardy. The Pakistani national was arrested for suspected involvement in fixing in the BPL. With Mashrafe Bin Mortaza reporting an approach from a fellow cricketer regarding potential spot-fixing, the BPL, too, is not free from the threat of corruption.Proper investigations would bring closure, sweeping the matter under the carpet would affect the future of the competition.Mother of all mix-ups
As if the arrest wasn’t enough, the BPL scored a second self-goal the next evening. In a bid to put the record straight, BPL chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain went to the press box to clarify the semi-final situation. By proclaiming that Chittagong Kings are through, he automatically cancelled out the previous evening’s announcement (by Channel 9) of the Barisal Burners’ qualification to the semi-finals.What happened next can only be described as messy. The Barisal ownership protested the decision and in the middle of the night, with some members of the media present, the BPL technical committee overruled its chairman’s words. After the Barisal-Rajshahi semi-final, Mike Proctor, the BPL match-referee and technical committee member, offered a full explanation but didn’t make just as much sense.The question remained: if there’s no head-to-head for three teams, why did the technical committee take Dhaka, Chittagong and Barisal into account in the first place?Crowd trouble
The last two days, especially the evenings, had the Mirpur venue packed to capacity.
But what happened to the famed Dhaka crowd or the full-house that is guaranteed in Chittagong? For most of tournament, the stadiums were only half-full. After the Dhakaites snubbed the first half of the tournament, it was expected that a change of venue could do the trick but even in Chittagong, the crowd only turned up on the weekly holiday and when the Kings played.The next edition could see Sylhet hosting a few games but the general consensus of keeping fewer matches in Dhaka and Chittagong isn’t likely to be entertained, given the logistical trouble in housing so many cricketers and television crews.The virus
It was like an epidemic that remained till the end of the tournament. In the final itself, six chances were missed including two in two balls by Mohammad Mithun at deep square leg. One of the commentators theorised that it was tough to spot skiers in Mirpur, though how so many great catches were taken in the past at the same venue remains another futile point to ponder.The best explanation could be fatigue. Each team had to play a minimum of ten games in less than three weeks so training went out of the window. An hour before each game, there were some fielding drills but that was about it.All six teams employed experienced fielding coaches, but one isn’t sure they’d like to be named.Edited by Siddhartha Talya

Pakistan undoubtedly have the stronger bowling attack, but their tendency to self-destruct on the batting front provides Sri Lanka with a distinct advantage

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan21-Jun-2012Pakistan came into the ODI series with an excellent record in Sri Lanka and the added advantage of a 4-1 series win in their previous clash with Sri Lanka. Despite a strong start in the first ODI in Pallekele, they slipped back into familiar territory – that of the batting collapse. In the fourth ODI, they were on course for a comfortable win until they shockingly lost six wickets for just ten runs. In the final ODI, their bowling leaked runs in the final overs and handed the game to Sri Lanka, who looked down and out at one stage. Pakistan are not strangers to batting failures. Twice, in the first two Tests on their previous tour of Sri Lanka, Pakistan squandered excellent chances by getting bowled out cheaply. In their recent series against England, Pakistan batted poorly but came out on top primarily because of their outstanding spin attack. Although Sri Lanka’s bowling is less potent compared to Pakistan’s, the visitors’ tendency to fold under pressure gives Sri Lanka the edge.Sri Lanka themselves have been beset with bowling problems since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan. Muralitharan’s remarkable bowling more often than not ensured comfortable wins for Sri Lanka in home Tests. Between 2000 and Muralitharan’s retirement in 2010, Sri Lanka lost only four home series. However, since his retirement after the win in the first Test of the series against India in Galle, Sri Lanka have struggled to force victories. They lost 1-0 to Australia and drew 1-1 against India and England. Between 2007 and the Galle Test (Muralitharan’s retirement) in 2010, Sri Lanka won eight Tests and lost just one. Since then, they have managed just one win and have gone on to lose three Tests. However, their overall home record since 2007 is still far better (nine wins and four losses) than their away performance. In the same period, they have won two and lost nine away Tests. One of the two wins, however, came in the Boxing Day Test in Durban when Rangana Herath inspired a 208-run win by picking up nine wickets. Their overall win-loss ratio (home and away) of 0.84 since 2007 is well behind the corresponding numbers of the top Test teams.

On their 2010 tour of England, Pakistan were thrashed 3-1 and were bowled out for sub-100 scores on three different occasions. After the controversial tour, they have had an excellent run of form. Pakistan have played their home matches in the UAE and are yet to lose a single Test there. They drew 0-0 against South Africa in a high-scoring series and followed it up by beating Sri Lanka 1-0. However, the best was yet to come. They humbled the No. 1 ranked England team 3-0, as Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman tormented the England batsmen with their variety. In their two away series after the disastrous 2010 England tour, Pakistan beat New Zealand and drew 1-1 in the West Indies. Although Pakistan lost on their previous visit to Sri Lanka, they will be confident following their impressive display in the last series between the two teams in the UAE (Pakistan won 1-0). Interestingly, Pakistan are one of the two teams to register multiple series wins in Sri Lanka since 2000 (the other being Australia).

The problems faced by both teams become very clear when one considers their batting and bowling stats in Tests since 2010. Pakistan have a much lower batting average (27.96) in the team first innings (1st and 2nd innings of matches) than Sri Lanka (35.17). However, their bowling average in the first innings (29.56) is way better than Sri Lanka’s corresponding figure of 45.02. Hence, the average difference (difference between the batting and bowling averages) is superior for Pakistan. The difference in bowling performance in the first innings illustrates the gulf in quality of the pace-bowling attacks of the two teams. As the match goes on, however, Sri Lanka become a bigger threat because of their spin options, but the presence of Ajmal and Rehman has ensured that Pakistan have a better bowling average even in the second innings. On the batting front, Sri Lanka are still slightly ahead of Pakistan (average 31.98 and 28.40 respectively) in the second gig. The average difference for Pakistan across the two team innings (-1.22) is considerably superior to that of Sri Lanka (-7.98).

Sri Lanka have proved to be a very difficult team to beat in home Tests for years, primarily because their batsmen have dominated visiting attacks. Both Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have been at their best on the placid tracks, which provide very little assistance to pace bowlers. Although the batting order has shown vulnerability in recent Tests, the experienced middle order is still a formidable force in home games. In Tests since 2010, Sangakkara has averaged close to 54 with seven centuries. Jayawardene had an ordinary run against Pakistan and South Africa but regained form with a classy century in Sri Lanka’s win in the first Test against England in Galle. Jayawardene is one of only three batsmen to score 2000-plus runs at a venue and is the only player to do so at two different venues (Galle and SSC).Tillakaratne Dilshan has struggled for runs with his solitary hundred coming the rain-affected Lord’s Test last year. Thilan Samaraweera, however, has been Sri Lanka’s stand-out batsman in the last two years. He was the top run-getter for them in the series in South Africa and has scored two centuries in his last eight innings. While Sangakkara has equally good numbers against pace and spin, Jayawardene has found the going much tougher against the fast bowlers. Samaraweera too, has an average of 44.53 against fast bowlers but a much higher average (143.25) and balls-per-dismissal value (299.75) against spinners.Misbah-ul-Haq’s absence in the first Test deprives Pakistan of an extremely consistent middle-order batsman. Since 2010, Misbah has scored 1176 runs at 58.80 with a century and 12 fifties. However, Younis Khan and Azhar Ali have also been in top form in the same period. Azhar, who averages 43.17 since the beginning of 2010, was also in excellent form in the recently concluded ODI series. Younis, who holds the record for the most centuries by a Pakistan batsman against Sri Lanka, has been far more comfortable against spinners (average of 93.85 and balls-per-dismissal value of 178). Taufeeq Umar made an impressive return to Tests and scored a double-century in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi. His form, however, plummeted against England, as he managed only one half-century in the series (average of 17.40).

In the 3-0 series win against England, Ajmal and Rehman shared 43 of the 60 wickets. Ajmal, in particular, confounded the England batsmen with his variations and most of them were all at sea against his doosra.
Herath was instrumental in the wins in Durban and Galle (against England), picking up nine and 12 wickets in the two matches respectively. While both Rehman and Herath average over 30 in the first innings of matches, Ajmal has been outstanding with 35 wickets at an average of just 24.48. Both Rehman and Ajmal have significantly better averages than Herath in the second innings of matches played since 2010. In the third innings, Herath’s average improves to 25.53 and is marginally better than that of Rehman’s corresponding number. Rehman has the best fourth-innings average (15.58) among the three spinners followed by Herath, who has an average of 19.21. While all three bowlers have been extremely effective against right-handers, Ajmal is the only bowler to have an sub-30 average against left-handers (25.75). Overall, Ajmal has picked up the most wickets (89) and has the best average (23.55).

Galle has been a result-oriented venue for quite a few years now. Five of the six matches played since 2009 at the venue have produced a result, with Sri Lanka winning four of them (one loss to Australia). Both the SSC and Pallekele, the venues scheduled to host the second and third Tests, have a much higher draw percentage. While there has been only one result in four Tests at the SSC, both matches in Pallekele have been drawn. Galle has also been an excellent venue for pace bowlers – they have picked up 90 wickets at 33.32. Spinners too have done very well, picking up 99 wickets at 32.51. At the other two venues, which have both been high scoring, spinners have a high average (40.77). Pace bowlers, meanwhile, have struggled even more with 64 wickets at 50.76.

The county season comes to a close with a pretty exciting match

Ali Merali16-Sep-2012Team supported

As a Middlesex fan I am used to being a neutral on Finals Day. Warwickshire seemed the better team on paper with England stars such as Ian Bell and all-round talent including Chris Woakes. However, Hampshire have a knack of winning closely fought finals against all odds and they were the team I decided to support.Face-off I relished
Woakes has been an instrumental part of Warwickshire’s success this season and his duel with Hampshire skipper Jimmy Adams always looked as if it could be potentially pivotal. Adams got the better of the early proceedings by flicking Woakes for a six on the leg side before getting a streaky single with a leading edge two balls later. It was Woakes who had the last laugh however. Returning 15 overs later, he bowled Adams for 66.Close encounter
I was sitting in the lower part of the Grand Stand therefore Warwickshire’s substitute fielder, Paul Best, who was fielding at square leg was right in front of me. In the 31st over Sean Ervine slogged one towards him, however, despite an acrobatic effort he couldn’t quite get a hand on it. The crowd jeered him and his embarrassment increased after it was given a four, suggesting it would have gone straight to him had he not moved forwards. In the second innings, Kabir Ali pleased the crowd by obliging with a wave and received a round of applause.Crowd meter
Having recently attended the Twenty20 Finals Day, I expected the atmosphere to be much more subdued since the venue was Lord’s and the format slightly longer, and I was not surprised. But while at first the crowd was quiet it soon picked up, and by the end everyone was captivated, cheering every delivery regardless of the result.Mad moment
With Warwickshire needing just one of the last ball it easy to understand that there was huge pressure on the bowler, Ali. However, his move to put fine leg on the boundary seemed illogical at best. Adams was furious at this and a compromise was soon met in which fine leg was halfway out of the inner circle, clearly giving a single. I don’t think team manager Giles White would have been too impressed had Neil Carter managed to take an easy single there of the last ball to win his side the game.One thing I’d have changed
This game can be described as the most exciting CB 40 final ever, however, it was sad to see both sides without their key players. Hampshire seemed different without the talismanic Dimitri Mascerenhas and missed left-arm spinner Danny Briggs who was already in Sri Lanka with the England World Twenty20 squad. Likewise, Warwickshire opener William Porterfield has already travelled with Ireland and Jonathan Trott was absent due to injury. It’s a shame that the final could not have been scheduled at another time so Hampshire could have fielded a better bowling attack.Marks out of 10
10. While there were periods of the game when the crowd was subdued and the cricket offered little excitement this was easily compensated for by the nail-biting finish. The weather was good unlike most of the season.

Pat Cummins was the Sixers’ finisher but their impressive starts with ball and bat were just as important

Firdose Moonda in Centurion26-Oct-2012You know you are witnessing a good cricket match when the advantage veers to and fro with the unpredictability of a runaway train and then a moment of magic happens. Like when Pat Cummins cleared long-on to put Sydney within sniffing distance of the final.Or when Cummins grounded his bat before a direct hit came in. Or when he took the bye that put Sydney into the final and dumped the Titans out. This match was full of moments like those.Cummins featured in many of them, as he cost his team runs with the ball but earned them back with the bat. While excitement see-sawed with almost every move he was involved in, Cummins showed little sense of being affected, especially after struggling with ball in hand.”If he was [upset after his bowling], he didn’t show it,” Corey Richards said, adding that he had full confidence that Cummins would be able to handle the final few deliveries. After all, he had done as much in a Test match in this country less than a year ago. “For such a young guy, he is very cool under pressure. Some people are cooler than others when the game is on the line and when you do it more than once, it’s not a fluke.”Cummins was one of the players Sydney were thought to have to protect during this tournament, as injuries have already studded his fledgling career. While he is under a monitoring program, Man of the Match Steve O’Keefe mentioned Cummins’ maturity as an indicator of how he can manage himself.”It is remarkable. Sometimes when you are talking to him, you forget that you are chatting to a 19-year old,” O’Keefe said. “He is growing into a young man and he is such a talent, that it’s important that we let him be comfortable in his own skin and let his cricket look after itself.”While Cummins will be lauded as the late star, Sydney may prefer to praise the players who featured in the first parts of both innings because that’s where the contest was decided. After restricting the Titans to 32 runs from their first five overs, they blasted 54 runs in the first quarter of their own innings.The Titans were made to come back both times and Martin van Jaarsveld, their captain, felt that the second was a bridge too far for them. “I thought we were down and out with the bat,” he said. “But [Henry] Davids played a good anchor role and I have been talking [David] Wiese up from the first press conference so was glad he proved me right.”The emotions are running high because we got ourselves out of a deep hole to get over 160 but then to go out and go and bowl, we were just nowhere.”Although the Titans took the match to the last ball, van Jaarsveld maintained that the early damage was irreparable in the end. “They got off to a flier and that cost us the game,” he said.It marked the end of the road for a local side who looked the team to beat after their first two matches. They overcame Perth and Auckland by posting big scores and giving their bowlers the freedom to be attacking.They then considered themselves unlucky to come up against Kolkata on a day when everything just worked for the IPL side and they lost further momentum when their match against Delhi was washed out. Their countrymen in the Lions franchise – Sydney’s opponents in the final – have had to claw their way to wins in this competition, but the Titans were unable to do the same tonight. Sydney, on the other hand, could.Rather than giving them issues to mull over, O’Keefe said the tight victory proved to the side that they are capable of almost anything. “I can’t say it in normal language but everyone was nervous and you could see it because we had a few uncharacteristic run outs,” he said. “But we know we are playing our best cricket, we are tough to beat. We got there on our knees but good sides can do that. Good sides can win when they are not playing their best cricket.”

As they did against England earlier this year, Sri Lanka failed to hold onto a series lead at home as New Zealand’s pace bowlers delivered victory in Colombo to reignite debate about the home side’s frailties

Andrew Fernando30-Nov-2012Even before Mahela Jayawardene admitted Sri Lanka were the less happy side with a 1-1 result in the Test series their dismay was obvious, and perhaps justified, given the context. The last time New Zealand visited, the hosts recorded two crushing wins. They had Muttiah Muralitharan in their ranks then, but this New Zealand side arrived had arrived in Sri Lanka with a significantly poorer reputation. Sri Lanka’s comfortable victory in the ODI series only frayed their opponents’ esteem further, and a rapid loss for the visitors in Galle saw them plummet to rock bottom.Perhaps there was some complacency in the Sri Lanka performance at the P Sara, but the primary reason for their failure in the second Test had already appeared in the first. In Galle, Sri Lanka seemed destined for a first innings deficit at 50 for 5, before Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews added 156 together to lift Sri Lanka out of distress.Dimuth Karunaratne can be forgiven for a first innings duck on debut that almost seems a rite of passage now for Sri Lankan openers, but Tharanga Paranavitana’s technique against the moving ball had seemingly not improved since being dropped from the side, largely for that reason. Kumar Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera also failed to show the judgement necessary to survive quality new-ball bowling, though to be fair to Samaraweera, he was set up beautifully by Tim Southee, who trapped him with one that jagged in after having bowled several overs of outswing.At the P Sara Oval, on the same pitch that Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers had managed only 2 for 165, the top order folded again, sinking to 12 for 3 in less than six overs. This time there was no vicious swing to blame, though New Zealand’s bowlers certainly achieved as much movement as the conditions allowed and did so at sharp pace and with discipline.Tillakaratne Dilshan was undone by a straight ball – perhaps one that surprised him with its speed – Sangakkara failed to control Southee’s bounce, though even he will wonder why he was hooking so early in his innings, and Jayawardene fell having misjudged a Trent Boult delivery that moved away from him. The second innings was even worse for Sri Lanka’s top four, who again failed to counter the moving ball and were reduced to 46 for 4 as their side sought a series-saving draw.Sri Lanka’s batsmen have never been comfortable against pace, movement and bounce, and on the last occasion in which they had encountered high quality fast bowling in Tests, they capitulated similarly. Save for that famous victory on a dry Durban surface, an innings loss and another defeat as close to an innings loss as it is possible to get, were their returns from a tour of South Africa. Even at home, Sri Lanka played James Anderson poorly in March, when England levelled their series at the P Sara, as New Zealand did.It is becoming a weakness Sri Lanka must urgently address as international pitches at home become more seamer friendly with each series and they can no longer rely solely on their considerable skill against spin to win Tests at home. Even during the World Twenty20, teams expressed their surprise at the amount of movement available at Pallekele, while Hambantota is even more helpful, though that venue has not seen a Test match yet. At the P Sara, the bounce which made New Zealand’s batsmen more comfortable added to Sri Lanka’s woes. It is a worrying sign as Sri Lanka prepare to depart to Australia for a full tour which includes their first Boxing Day Test in 17 years.To add to the concerns Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers also emerged from the series looking lacklustre, despite a creditable first-up performance in Galle. Chanaka Welegedara, the left-armer, is still coming back from a shoulder injury. His absence was felt at the P Sara where the seam attack was woefully short on penetration and at times could not even hold down an end while Rangana Herath attacked from the other. A return of 12 wickets between Nuwan Kulasekara and Shaminda Eranga, in which New Zealand’s new-ball pair plundered 21 scalps, illustrates how far they have to go to become a good all-round Test bowling unit.Herath and Mathews were two major positives for the hosts, but meaningful contributions from elsewhere in the side were limited to a single innings or a lone spell. New Zealand was an opponent Sri Lanka could have boosted their confidence against with the sterner challenges ahead, but instead they have finished on a deflating note with only two of their players truly in form.

Oops

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Oops. From an England perspective, that Test match was, at best, a blooper. A joyous occasion for a resurgent West Indies, and thus for world cricket as a whole, but, for England, a 24-carat debacle; a pure, unadulterated fiasco sandwich with lashings of farce. Even the most riotously optimistic England supporter would struggle to find more than the most lukewarm of positives to snuggle up to on these cold winter nights. And as an England fan, it is hard for me to find much humour in a situation so cricketingly bleak, especially when the rest of the cricket world is already laughing its head off.Two days after the event, English cricket is still stumbling around in a state of catatonic shock, this fresh embarrassment heaped upon its recent upheaval, which possibly explains coach Andy Flower’s almost outlandish suggestion that it is now “best to stay calm and not to have knee-jerk reactions on selection”.While I accept that it may be necessary after such a humiliation to allow sufficient time for the investigating authorities to bag and label all the evidence, I would argue that neither staying calm nor artificially fixing the selectorial knee in a rigid brace is now a sensible course of action. The selectors’ response to England’s prolonged stagnation over the last two years suggests that the knee in question is monumentally arthritic in any case – any sign that it retains some capacity at least for bending, if not full jerking, would now be welcome. If Owais Shah does not play in the second Test, he would be fully justified in rifling through Ian Bell’s bag to see if Edgy from Edgbaston possesses incriminating photographs of the selectors dressed up like Douglas Jardine and the Nawab of Pataudi at a Bodyline-themed orgy.I have detailed England’s batsmen’s diminishing returns in previous pieces. In the illusory name of loyalty, England have accepted and indulged adequacy for too long from too many, and their obstinate refusal to contemplate shuffling their batting pack from time to time has left them in the avoidably idiotic position of having a swathe of players in career slumps but no-one with more than fleeting Test experience to replace them.Bell and Cook have both shown sufficient qualities to suggest that they will be good Test players for some time, but surely both would benefit from a spell ironing out the technical and mental quirks of their games away from the pressure of international cricket, to relearn the art of building an innings in less demanding surroundings (Bell’s 199 at Lord’s against South Africa immediately followed a double century for Warwickshire). The Australian teams of recent vintage suggest that many if not most batsmen peak in their late 20s and early-to-mid 30s. For England to obsessively retain their younger players may even be to their long-term detriment.AFP

Without nostalgically longing for a return to the breakneck selectorial speed-dating of the 1980s (when attending a Test match had the added frisson that most of the spectators could entertain realistic hopes of playing in the following game), being dropped should not be a cataclysmic event. Ideally, England should reach a situation where they effectively have a squad of 16 or 17 players who can make up the match XI according to form and fitness, rather than according to from whom the ECB feels it needs to its their central contract’s money’s worth.The two most disturbing aspects of England’s performance were the familiarity of the failings – the visual and statistical evidence is clearly of a team which is not only failing to learn its lessons, but is skiving school altogether – and the increasingly disturbing dependence on Pietersen.The Hampshire Hammer is the only batsman scoring hundreds regularly (9 in his last 23 Tests, plus two 90s; by comparison, Strauss has 4 centuries in his last 26 matches, Cook 1 in 20, Bell 2 in 22, Collingwood 2 in 18, and Flintoff 1 in 35). He is also currently the only frontline batsman who is both willing and able to attack to the opposition (even Flintoff is striking less than 50 per 100 balls since his return last summer). England urgently need at least one more aggressor – too often a couple of wickets leads to a near-total scoreboard paralysis.Pietersen’s wicket is therefore now worth too much to both England and their opponents. If Alfred Hitchcock were directing the television coverage of England’s Tests, whenever Pietersen is out in a tight situation, he would cut straight to close-up shots of the widening eyes of the rest of the team, accompanied by three dramatic, discordant violin chords. (One also assumes that Hitchcock would put an end to the irritatingly excessive use of the zoom whilst the ball is in flight between bowler and batsman.)Nevertheless, from a broader cricketing perspective, this was an inspirational match in many ways, with Benn providing their best slow bowling since Gibbs, and Taylor their best spell of fast bowling since the retirements of Walsh and Ambrose ended the forty-year lineage of great Caribbean pacemen. As new dawns go, this promises to be far less false than any of recent vintage.England, however, are a team with serious, long-standing problems. So, for my second Ashes prediction, I now confidently revise my previous 2-2 forecast to a disgruntling 3-1 Australian win. The Aussies may be declining, but they can be confident that England are getting worse faster.