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Pakistan have been utterly dominant in World Cup clashes against New Zealand, but their fickle form in recent times raises the prospect of a close contest

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan07-Mar-2011Pakistan dominate World Cup clashes
New Zealand have been one of the most consistent sides in global competitions. While their solitary title came in the 2000 Champions Trophy, they have made the semi-finals of the 1992, 1999 and 2007 World Cups and the finals of the Champions Trophy in 2009. Yet, New Zealand have always struggled to perform against Pakistan in World Cups. Their only World Cup win against Pakistan came in their first ever meeting in 1983. Since then, Pakistan have won all six matches, including a comprehensive nine-wicket win in the 1999 semi-final. The story is a little different when it comes to clashes in the Champions Trophy. New Zealand have won all three of their meetings including the most recent one in the 2009 edition.Pakistan boast the better record in head-to-head matches and have also dominated the matches played in the subcontinent since 2000. However, Pakistan’s recent problems and unpredictability have meant that New Zealand have been the slightly better team in matches played in the last three years, winning five games to Pakistan’s four. After their win in the Champions Trophy game, New Zealand also won the three-match series in Abu Dhabi 2-1. Pakistan, though, can take confidence from their 3-2 win in the ODI series played in New Zealand in 2010.

Clash of two inconsistent sides
Both teams have been among the more inconsistent sides in the last two years. New Zealand, after an excellent show in the Champions Trophy in 2009, lost their way in 2010, going down 4-0 to Bangladesh and 5-0 to India. Pakistan lost 5-0 to Australia in early 2010, but since then, recovered to contest two close series against England and South Africa, which they lost 3-2. The 3-2 series win in New Zealand in early 2011 has been followed by three excellent matches in the World Cup, including the 11-run win over Sri Lanka. New Zealand, on the other hand, have looked inconsistent in the tournament so far. They have had two very comfortable wins over Kenya and Zimbabwe, but suffered a heavy loss to Australia.Both Pakistan and New Zealand have been among the poorer ODI teams over the last three years. While South Africa are on top, with an average difference of 12.1 and run-rate difference of 0.54, Pakistan and New Zealand rank well below with extremely low average and run-rate differences. Pakistan have been the slightly better batting side, but New Zealand have a slightly better bowling average and economy rate.Pakistan’s top six has been more consistent in matches played since 2008. They average nearly 37 with 22 century stands and 69 fifty partnerships. New Zealand’s top order has been less inspiring and average less than 32, which is only higher than Bangladesh’s. Their rate of converting half-century stands into hundreds partnerships is also poor (nearly 1:5) compared to the top teams (less than 1:3).

Comparing the batting
Despite having an ordinary time in away matches in the last year, Ross Taylor has clearly been the best New Zealand batsman since the start of 2008. Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill batted themselves into form in the ten-wicket win over Zimbabwe and that could be an advantage against a far more potent Pakistan bowling attack. Scott Styris, who has been one of the more successful batsmen against Pakistan, had a poor outing against Australia, but his overall record in World Cups is pretty good.Pakistan will be buoyed by the form of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, who were responsible for setting up Pakistan’s match-winning total of 277 against Sri Lanka. The powerful lower-middle order of Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq is extremely dangerous in subcontinent conditions and could be a huge factor in close matches. Afridi, despite becoming a bigger contributor with the ball, has scored two centuries in recent matches, including a stunning 109 off 76 balls in a defeat against Sri Lanka.

Afridi’s bowling the key
Afridi has been in excellent bowling form in the tournament so far, picking up 14 wickets in three games at a stunning average of 5.20. He’ll probably again be the key bowler in Sri Lankan conditions which generally aid spin. Shoaib Akhtar, who destroyed New Zealand in the 1999 semi-final, has been consistent in the matches so far.As usual, New Zealand will rely on the economical and consistent Daniel Vettori to deliver. Kyle Mills, who has been one of New Zealand’s best bowlers in the last few years, missed the first two games of the World Cup. He returned a fine performance of 2 for 29 against Zimbabwe and will be an important bowler against Pakistan.Pakistan’s lower-order firepower
Overall, when compared to most top teams, the performance of Pakistan and New Zealand in the first 15 overs has been poor. However, New Zealand, despite averaging slightly lesser, have a better run-rate difference than Pakistan in this phase of the innings. Pakistan dominate the performance in the middle overs, with a higher average and run-rate difference. In the last ten overs, Pakistan’s high run-rate clearly points to the firepower in their lower middle order. On the bowling front though, there is very little to separate both teams.

Afridi v Vettori
Afridi, in the course of a dream start to the World Cup, picked up his 300th wicket in ODIs, making him only the fourth spinner to reach the mark. Prior to 2004, he had 131 wickets at an average over 39 with just one five-wicket haul. But since then, he has picked up 175 wickets at an average of 30.08 with three four-wicket hauls and four five wicket-hauls.Vettori, who has 281 wickets, has been one of the most economical bowlers in ODIs. Afridi has clearly been the more successful wicket taker in matches played since 2008. Vettori, despite not picking up a lot of wickets, has been more difficult to score off. While Afridi’s record against right-handers is superb, he has struggled to dismiss left-handers, who average more than 61 and score at 5.23 runs per over off his bowling. Vettori, though, has been better than Afridi against left-handers and averages just over 36, while conceding under five runs per over.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kochi Tuskers at Eden Gardens

George Binoy20-Apr-2011The predicton
What’s a good score in a Twenty20 game? Some captains might say 160-170, others will say they don’t know, and Ian Chappell will say one more than what the opposition gets. So Mahela Jayawardene, the Kochi captain, surprised a few people when he pegged a defendable total at Eden Gardens as low as 130-140. He had seen slowness in the pitch and included Muttiah Muralitharan in the XI for that reason. Gautam Gambhir, Mahela’s counterpart, later said Kolkata should have chased the target easily. They had fallen six short. Kochi had made 132.The manipulation
Jayawardene would glide towards leg against the left-arm spinners as they darted the ball into him from round the wicket, making room to cut, sometimes from middle stump. He did so against Shakib Al Hasan, and it looked dangerous. When Shakib darted the next ball in, however, anticipating another move to leg, Jayawardene nimbly moved towards the off, got down on one knee inside the line, and swept to the fine-leg boundary. He toyed with Iqbal Abdulla in the same manner as well.The ripper
Off the final ball of the tenth over of Kolkata’s chase, Murali gave evidence of just why he had been played on this pitch. From round the wicket, he tossed the offbreak into Eoin Morgan. The ball gripped the slow surface, bounced sharply and spun away from the left-hand batsman. Morgan had begun to push at the delivery but then stopped, unsure of what to do, and left his bat hanging outside off. The ball seemed to hit the edge and fly past between the wicketkeeper and short third man. It had deviated that much. The umpire, however, signaled byes.How to, and not to field
During Kochi’s innings, Vinay Kumar flicked Abdulla off his pads towards deep midwicket. Laxmi Ratan Shukla, the substitute, ran to his left but instead of trying to stop the ball with his hands, he slid feet first, as if he were pulling off a studs-up football tackle. The ball bounced into his legs and over the ropes, and Gambhir reacted with a tea-pot pose. While Kochi were fielding, Raiphi Gomez showed how it should be done. Yusuf Pathan had slammed a wide ball from Ramesh Powar towards the cover boundary. Gomez sprinted to his right, as the ball was swerving away from him, and threw himself full length, hands first, and latched on to the ball.

The Affiliates have to work the hardest, for the least amount of money, to keep the game alive in their countries. Their stories are also the most heartwarming

Sharda Ugra01-Aug-2011At the ICC’s annual conference in Hong Kong in June, the skies were always grey and rumours rumbled on. Cold vibes seeped out through closed doors, and plenty of gritted teeth were seen after changes in rules and formats. But one afternoon there came a story that floated up and above past everything – the soaring glass frontage of the W hotel, the driving rain outside over Kowloon, the bickering, the egos and power struggles, past jadedness and cynicism.It came from a patch of land in a suburb called Kicukiro on the outskirts of Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.Seventeen years ago the Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO) was a place of refuge during Rwanda’s 100 days of genocide in 1994. For a few months the ETO, the country’s lone technical college, sheltered thousands, watched over by UN peacekeeping soldiers. Until the day the Belgian peacekeepers pulled out after 10 of their own were killed in Kigali. A militia mob, wielding swords, clubs and machetes, stormed the campus. More than 5000 people gathered in the ETO compound were killed, either on the premises or after being moved to a neighbouring location.Kicukiro joined a long list of places – Jalianwala Bagh, My Lai, Tiananmen Square, Srebrenica – whose names carry the smell of death. Except now, the ETO has been renamed the College of Technology; one part of its killing fields has been cleaned, swept, smoothed and turned into a cricket ground. It is the only one in Rwanda, given to Rwanda Cricket as its headquarters. Play began there in 2002 and in January this year, there was much to celebrate, when Rwanda won its first trophy, the Africa Premier League T20 tournament held in Ghana.Rwanda Cricket has just marked the tenth year and it is one of the ICC’s 59 Affiliate Members, countries on the bottom of cricket’s food chain. Their resources and manpower are limited, their circumstances far from ideal. But like the best stories about cricket everywhere, they stir the heart.The ICC’s Affiliates are diverse and distant nations where cricket is played, pushed and promoted with evangelical enthusiasm. They are all clubbed together well behind the teams the elite of the game consider the “minnows”, who themselves are only worthy of sniggering and debate after their bad days at a World Cup.To the Affiliates, Ireland, Kenya, UAE, Namibia, Scotland, Canada are at dizzy heights in cricket’s hierarchy, with greater powers in the ICC (one vote per nation, as against five Affiliate nations mustering a single vote) and greater access to the ICC’s cash. The Affiliates are far removed from the multi-million dollar ecosystem but understand the worth of every dollar; they know it is the commercial ecosystem that sustains the ICC’s development programmes that reach them.It is worth realising that the smallest teams can be reminders of the game’s simplest beauties, as well as of the beautiful simplicity of what may seem a complicated pursuit.The story about Rwanda came from Dipankar Sengupta, a representative of Africa’s 13 Affiliate nations and the CEO of the Mozambique Cricket Association. Four other such representatives attend the ICC’s annual conferences on behalf of the other zones – Europe, South America, Asia and East Asia-Pacific (EAP).The Affiliates must promote the game in what are cricket’s new territories: usually countries without traditions belonging to a British colonial past. Their representatives must fight the good fight: sell a culturally alien sport that is far from simple to teach, with few coaches, fewer grounds, and participants who need to be kept interested and regularly egged on and rewarded.What matters most are the intent and capabilities of the hands that rest on the tiller. Many are British and South Asian expatriates, while on the Pacific rim, Polynesians, who took to cricket in either neighbouring New Zealand or in Australia, have been drawn to spreading their gospel.East Asia-Pacific Affiliate representative, the Samoan Sebastian Kohlhase, played club cricket in New Zealand and represented Auckland and Northern Districts in the 1960s. His own country plays an open-ended 20-a-side-social sport called Kirikiti, a derivative of the sport missionaries tried to teach the islanders. The formal version was seen as too costly and took too long. Men like Kohlhase are in effect starting over.The Andes mountains provide a backdrop for a cricket match•International Cricket CouncilFor the Affiliates genuinely trying to take cricket across mystified lands, the involvement of the local populations is vital to give cricket breathing space beyond expatriate cliques. Of the 800 players registered in Oman’s national league, says Asia representative Pankaj Khimji, there are 100 ethnic players. Club teams are required to have at least one Omani player in the playing XI (at least three per squad), who must not bat lower than No. 5 in the side. Clubs are required by regulation to go out into the local population to open up the sport and spread it as widely as they can.One hundred years ago British missionaries and soldiers taught the game to various tracts of their Empire. It is why cricket can still be sighted on the island of Corfu, just off Greece. It is how the game began in South Asia. It is the template the ICC is now using to push the mantra of genuine globalisation. It moves beyond merely handing out ODI and Twenty20 status: globalisation in cricket, men like Sengupta and Kolhase will say, is very hard but satisfying work. It begins, they know, with children. And Twenty20, which at the Affiliate level is where everything begins.Kohlhase says playing numbers in Samoa have tripled over the last year; in the EAP region South Korea had their first international victory when they beat Indonesia; the Philippines team reached the final at the East Asia-Pacific Division regional competition. The fastest-growing cricket-playing population in pure numbers in EAP, is Indonesia’s, approximately 186,000, he says. Cricket in Jakarta may sound like fiction, but it is happening.In Samoa the primary schools development project involves boys and girls, and Kohlhase’s mission is to seek out not the top athletes in the 12-14 age group, but those who, he says, “will stick with cricket”. Cricket cannot compete with rugby in Polynesia, he says, but can expand the population of its loyal supporters. Samoans, he says, can watch international cricket on TV, with the government giving the country’s majority farming population free ESPN. His eyes sparkling, Kolhase says, “A Samoan [Ross Taylor] is now captain of New Zealand – we did good development work,” and laughs.The region’s biggest drawback is the absence of turf wickets, a mandatory requirement to move up to Associate status. Cricket in the EAP is played mostly on matting. “We cannot afford turf, it costs more to put a turf pitch than the whole development programme,” Kohlhase says. The EAP’s struggle is: “We can develop, but we can’t sustain.”What keeps the work meaningful, he says, is the camaraderie he sees cricket generate among those who compete.Surely there’s sledging? Indonesians having a go at Filipinos or Samoans at Cook Islanders? Not much, he says, but the ripple effect of television can be felt. Besides, he laughs, “All wicketkeepers sledge, always, everywhere.”

The Affiliates must promote the game in countries without traditions belonging to a British colonial past. Their representatives must fight the good fight: sell a culturally alien sport that is far from simple to teach, with few coaches, fewer grounds, and participants who need to be kept interested and regularly egged on and rewarded

In Africa cricket is being pushed in schools, much like schools in the developing world push education itself. Some of the 13 African Affiliates send cricket officials to government schools to invite Under-13 kids into training. They offer three extras other sports do not: bus fare to the training ground, free medicines in case of illness or injury, and an egg sandwich every day after training. In countries where income is less than US$2 a day, that’s enough for parents to pack kids off to cricket. As they progress. the training programme holds out greater incentives: shoes and t-shirts.Sengupta’s experience with Mozambique has made him a passionate and outspoken advocate for the Affiliates. Africa’s stories are some of the game’s most moving: Sierra Leone’s team in the 2006 World Cricket League African regional competition held in South Africa featured two rebel fighters from its bloody 11-year civil war. South African officials understood the situation, ensured that the boys were issued visas and could travel across borders to play their cricket. They still do and their identities are still secret.Morocco scouts its cricketers from those athletes who fall through the gaps of the country’s elite middle-distance running cadres. Mozambique began its cricket with expats asking for backing from the ministry of education in exchange for supplying equipment and organisation. When the programme began, a number of bats and stumps were turned into firewood before it was decided that the playing equipment had better be left in the school.Eight of the 13 African affiliates have access to cricket on community television, on video, or seen live. When children see big men in yellow, blue, red, green, play the game they play, cheered on by thousands, it widens their eyes and their worlds, and can lift their ambitions.That is why, Sengupta says, he pushed for Mozambique’s U-15s to go to their first international event in Namibia in 2005, even though his colleagues worried about their results. Sengupta believed the experience itself would be the result. Fifteen boys, accompanied by two teachers, pulled on Mozambique’s national colours, and for the first time in their lives travelled by air, lived in swanky hotels and played the game they had just started learning.They won one of 11 matches, but when they returned, Sengupta says, they walked in their neighbourhoods like kings. “We didn’t look back from that day. Those boys are our best advertisements.” The U-15s have grown up into senior cricketers now, and their parents still drop by to invite the Mozambique cricket people to family celebrations and festivals.Central to the Affiliates’ health, apart from the energy and drive of men like Sengupta and Kohlhase is the ICC’s funding. Direct cash grants between $15,000 and $70,000 are available every year. How much is directly dependant on performance and results.Should an Affiliate nation, like Afghanistan did a year ago, enjoy a breakthrough performance, they are given High Performance Programme Status and access to additional funding of between $350,000 and $650,000.The ICC’s development programme also involves central and regional support to Affiliates, helping them conduct tournaments, education courses for coaches and administrators, and support of equipment and facilities.In Europe, while there are charming French and German translations of cricket terms, (Frenchmen who may play the sport call the googly a Bosanquet, and the German for lbw is a very logical “” or “standing in front” and an over is “wechsel” or “change”), the Affiliates’ struggles go beyond vocabulary.In Finland, laughs Affiliates representative Andrew Armitage, cricket is a curiosity. The natives ask: how could it possibly be a sport – “they never sweat”. Over 50% of Finland’s cricketers, says Armitage, are local Finns; the other half belong to the expatriate communities of 18 countries that play in Finland’s 20-club 40-over two-division tournament and an eight-team Twenty20 tournament. The country’s first permanent cricket ground, with grass outfield and artificial turf wicket, has just been set up in Kerava.Brazil women play a Twenty20 against Argentina•International Cricket CouncilThe Affiliates ought to inspire a David Attenborough-style documentary, with the narrator travelling to their outposts, and saying ever so often, “And even here…” slight pause, “there is cricket.”That holds for Brazil, in its own version, the Taco or the Lato or Betes – a street sport that has set of three short stumps marked with a circle around them. The players stand facing each other at a distance of 15 yards. The bowling is underarm, and batsmen must tap their bats as they cross each other. It is believed that the game is a leftover from the English, who built the railway lines or owned mines in Brazil.The Americas Affiliate representative, Matt Featherstone, from the almost antithetical-sounding Cricket Brazil (Associacao Brasileira de Cricket), says the major difficulty in the region is “not a lack of enthusiasm for cricket but rather, staffing”. Finding and training personnel who can teach cricket, and finding those from the local population, as opposed to expatriates, who when they up and leave, “the whole system breaks down in that area”. At the moment there are two native Brazilians who can teach cricket, a man and a woman. The player numbers, though, have risen. As late as 2006, there were only two native Brazilians in the national squad; today it is 11 out of 14. In an international South American women’s affiliate tournament, no player was an expat.”Twenty20 has been great for us – people see what it looks like on television through videos we show them, and they like the razzmatazz, the carnival-style supporters.” The pitches in Brazil are either of coconut matting or artificial astro-turf surfaces. There are two turf wickets in the country. Cricket Brazil aims to fill in the gaps in school sport where children usually have only two options: football or volleyball. Six hundred Brazilian children between the ages of 7 and 14 are being exposed to cricket. Brazil Cricket has even roped in a sponsor, an Indian sugar company called Renuka.The next step, according to Featherstone, is the push for beach cricket to follow on from a social six-a-side event that takes place at the Vina Del Mar in Chile every year. What about international teams coming in for some pre-season training in Peru? After all, Featherstone has just said there’s a turf wicket in Lima and “it doesn’t rain in Peru”. He laughs at the very idea.At the ICC conference, officials from Australia, South Africa, India, England met and talked in tight, closed groups. As appreciative and grateful as he was to the ICC for its support to the Affiliates, Featherstone observed, “They live in one world and we live in another one.”The Affiliates’ world is far from glamorous or lucrative. For anyone involved in cricket, however, it is a place of discovery, humility, and of the pure happiness of possibility.

The two-hour bus trip from Colombo to Galle may not be long enough to accommodate all that Michael Clarke must ponder – particularly the Khawaja v Marsh selection tussle, and his own batting form

Daniel Brettig in Colombo28-Aug-2011As he sat back in the team bus from Colombo to Galle, the Australian captain Michael Clarke had plenty of selection questions to contemplate. The shape of his bowling attack will likely be defined by the state of the pitch for the first Test, but it is a little more difficult to weigh up the merits of his two candidates for No. 6 batsman.On the strength of a strikingly composed 101 retired in the Colombo tour match, Usman Khawaja has made arguably the more convincing case. Though he opened the batting, Khawaja stayed long enough to see the wicket wear and the spinners wheel away, showing he had developed a more convincing method against spin than the one that saw him defeated by Graeme Swann on debut in the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG in January.Yet Shaun Marsh’s hold on the No. 6 berth has appeared much the stronger in the weeks leading up to the match. He was not taken on the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe, where Khawaja failed to make a score of note in four innings, because he was deemed almost an automatic selection for the tour of Sri Lanka. Marsh has also seen far more of the Sri Lankan Test attack than Khawaja, and has the game to dominate an attack, whereas Khawaja is more likely to accumulate with a game best suited for the top four. Should the merit of one silken innings in a tour match overrule earlier conclusions?”I don’t know, I’m not sure. [Khawaja is] another one who grabbed a hold of his opportunity and that’s all you can do,” Clarke said. “Obviously he hasn’t made too many runs leading into this three-day game in the Australia A set-up, in county cricket and the back-end of NSW.”He’s another one who has put his hand up and said `give me a chance’. I also thought SOS [Marsh] did well in that first one-dayer he played, when he made 70 and creamed them. He played the spin really well. We’ve got to have a real good think about the position.”Usman’s opened the batting here and he played his Test at number three for Punter [Ricky Ponting], but in saying that what more can you do? It doesn’t matter where you bat, you get an opportunity and try and make a big score and that’s exactly what he’s done. It’s going to be an interesting couple of days.”Once he has finished thinking that over, Clarke can devote a unit of time to his own batting, which has appeared nicely grooved so far on tour. That groove is a new one, for it is 10 Test matches and more than a year since Clarke last passed three-figures for his country. It is a streak that has coincided with his move from No. 5 to No. 4 in the batting order, a change that is minor in number but major in intent.At No. 5 Clarke was reacting to the agenda set by either his top order colleagues or the opposition’s bowlers. A place further up and he is setting that agenda himself. It is a task he is yet to adapt to.”My preparation’s been good. I’m hitting the ball well,” Clarke said. “It means nothing to be honest going into the first Test apart from getting the confidence in my mind that I know I’m batting well. Starting your innings in these conditions is as hard as anywhere in the world.”Generally batting four I’d imagine I’ll be coming in facing spin early with a couple of bat pads, a slip and things like that so I’ve got to stick to my plan. That’s what I’ve tried to do in the one-dayers and this game here – back the way I’ve been training, back the way I feel I play my best against spin and it’s worked so far. Things could change for the first Test.”I really want my momentum to go on and I’m really keen to make sure I’m building it. I couldn’t ask for better preparation but it doesn’t guarantee you too much unfortunately, I wish it did.”As for the barren run of Tests without a century, Clarke is concerned less with numbers than he is with making sure that his batting has the presence required of an Australian captain. His predecessor Ricky Ponting stood as a most outstanding example of that presence, until the burdens of captaincy dragged his batting down.”I don’t really think too much about that. I know I haven’t really performed as well as I’d like to. I had a poor summer against England,” Clarke said. “I know I need to be leading from the front, put it that way, especially now that I’m captain.”My form hasn’t been as good as I would like in Test cricket. I’ve always said Test cricket is the ultimate to me, the pinnacle, and I want to be at my best. I couldn’t ask for better preparation but now I’ve got to do it when it counts.”The bus trip from Colombo to Galle takes around two hours. It may not be a long enough journey to accommodate all that Clarke must ponder.

ESPNcricinfo presents Plays of the Day from the fourth day of the first Test between Australia and India in Melbourne

Sidharth Monga at the MCG29-Dec-2011The half appeal
When Umesh Yadav hit Michael Hussey’s pad in the 64th over of Australia’s innings, India had Hussey lbw for the second time in the innings. On both occasions it was Yadav bowling. On both occasions India put in only a half appeal. It is unlikely India would have gone for the DRS review on those appeals even if it was available. It could be reading too much into it, but Hussey does seem to have a pretty effective way of dealing with leg-before appeals: he sets off for a leg-bye immediately, and that could distract from an appeal.The leaves
Amid the falling wickets, India would have taken all the runs that came their way. And Tendulkar found an innovative way to score when on two occasions he wound up guiding James Pattinson for fours when actually looking to leave the ball alone. On both occasions he was late in the act of withdrawing the bat. One went through fine leg, one through the gap between slips and gully.The no-ball drama
For a few agonising seconds, Pattinson must have thought this was a desperately unlucky afternoon for him. He had got VVS Laxman caught at square leg, but the umpires asked Laxman to hang on for a bit. They wanted to check the front foot. The crowd booed. The replays were touch and go, but the umpires ruled he had just enough part of the foot behind the line. The roof came off when the finger went up again.The poke
This celebration could have easily gone wrong. When Peter Siddle got R Ashwin caught at forward short leg, he ran into an enthusiastic, and helmeted, Ed Cowan. The peak of the helmet got Siddle in the eye. Siddle, though, charged in for another over before ending his spell, which ruled out any major discomfort.The applause
You can’t blame the MCG crowd for not knowing a big moment when they see one. Tendulkar had just been caught at gully, the Australians were almost done celebrating, and suddenly another fresh round of loud applause went around the MCG. Then you realised they were bidding farewell to Tendulkar, who might not be seen at this ground in whites again. If he does, he will have to be playing the Boxing Day Test in 2014.

The Lancastrian’s three wickets on day one at Galle brought him level with one of the county’s most famous sons

Andrew McGlashan in Galle26-Mar-2012When James Anderson left Sri Lanka in 2007 after England’s previous series here his career was at a crossroads. He had been dropped following the first Test in Kandy after match figures of 2 for 167. A few months later in New Zealand he was recalled in Wellington and starred with a five-wicket haul which led him to say he wanted to be the “attack leader”. Not everyone was convinced it would happen but these days there is no doubting Anderson’s credentials.After that Test match in Kandy five years ago, Anderson’s bowling average stood at 39.20 which is the highest point it has reached. Now, after the first day’s play in Galle, it reads 30.32 which the lowest it has been. The three wickets he took also carried him past 250 Test scalps – the first England bowler to achieve that feat since Ian Botham in 1982 – and if he’d held a return catch off Mahela Jayawardene he would have gone ahead of fellow Lancashire fast bowler Brian Statham in the list of all-time England wicket-takers. To put Anderson and Statham in the same sentence shows how far the former has come in five years.There is currently a Brian Statham end at Old Trafford, although it is the opposite end to where he bowled most of his overs, but with the redevelopment and turning of the square there may yet be space to honour Anderson once his career is over. By then he will have more than 300 wickets and has a good chance of overhauling Botham at the top of tree.”The records are very nice but I think it will be nice when I retire and look back on what I’ve achieved,” Anderson said in typically restrained fashion. “At the moment I’m just looking at getting another two wickets tomorrow and another ten in the second innings.”Anderson’s skills when the ball swings conventionally have rarely been in doubt but over the last 18 months he has developed into an outstanding bowler in all conditions. He is one of the best exponents of reverse swing in the team and he found movement in the first over after lunch on day one to trap Prasanna Jayawardene lbw and move level with Statham.One thing that has not changed much about Anderson is that streak of hot-headedness, something Statham was unlikely to have approved of. There was a hint of that towards the end of the day with England unable to remove Jayawardene and frustrated by the tail. He shared words with the batsmen which didn’t impress Jayawardene and the umpires stepped in before Andrew Strauss asked his bowler to calm down. The heat will have played its part but the real source of his annoyance was probably Monty Panesar who had just fluffed his second catch in two overs to reprieve Jayawardene.”It’s disappointing especially as he focussed on that at the start of the trip. Catches are crucial to getting 20 wickets and two of them weren’t the most difficult of catches,” Anderson said. “Getting them eight down on the first day we’d have taken that, so we have to put it behind us. We’ve got one job do to tomorrow and get two wickets. If we do that I think we’ve done a good job and then we’ll pass it over to the batsman.”England’s bowlers rarely do a bad job these days and, despite Sri Lanka’s fightback, eight wickets on the opening day is good reward. Now it is time for the batsmen to repay the favour.

Steven Finn is content to play the understudy in England’s pace attack – for now

Alan Gardner26-Oct-2012Two simple things mark Steven Finn out as one of the most exciting fast-bowling prospects in the world: height and pace. But while Finn became the youngest Englishman, to reach 50 Test wickets in 2011 (aged 22) and has displayed such controlled hostility in limited-overs cricket this year as to become England’s leading short-form strike weapon, he is well aware that the start of the four-Test series against India could see his back-bending exploits once again limited to reaching down and picking up the drinks.This recognition – and acceptance – tells you something about the man. Finn may be a terrifying prospect on the pitch, with his ability to touch 90mph while trampolining the ball at batsmen from a vantage point of over 6ft 7in, but he is an affable, even sweet-natured, presence off it. One day he may possess a glowering demeanour to match Curtly Ambrose or Allan Donald but for now he fiddles distractedly with the winding mechanism of his watch while talking about his much-discussed dead-ball problem, and offers a playful apology when absently knocking a dictaphone on the table in front of him.Finn even smiles shyly to himself when it is suggested that his recent form must have pushed him close to rivalling James Anderson and Stuart Broad in England’s fast-bowling hierarchy. Despite a troubled 2012 for England in Tests, Broad is the leading wicket-taker in the world this year, with Anderson not far behind, and Finn is quick to affirm his junior status.”I don’t think I’m in that place yet, and I’d love to be,” he says. “I’m working towards being on a par with them but I still see myself as being way behind them in the pecking order. Those two have been exceptional for England and consistent for a long time now, certainly ever since I’ve been around the team.”They are the new-ball pairing and they’ve done exceptionally well. I look up to them and can relate to experiences that they’ve had in their careers. I can learn off them and if one day I was as good as either of them I’d be very happy.”Would he like to lead the attack? “Obviously I fancy that, but it is a question of what my role in the Test team would be now, and I have to be realistic about that. I’m not going to be the opening bowler if I do play, and that means a different role. In the one-day and T20 teams I’ve loved opening. I love doing that and have done it throughout my career at Middlesex, and in the long run I see myself as a new-ball bowler for England, but you have to earn those stripes and I’m still off doing that.”Having returned to the England team with ten wickets in two Tests against South Africa, the particular demands of playing on the subcontinent may cause the ground to shift under Finn’s feet. The inclusion of a second spinner, either Samit Patel or Monty Panesar, or the possibility of England falling back on Tim Bresnan’s doughty lower-order batting and scuffed-ball reverse swing could lead to Finn being squeezed out again, for the fifth time since his 2010 debut in Bangladesh under Alastair Cook, the man now installed as England’s official Test captain.”I’ve been on the end of that chop quite a few times over the last two years and it is just one of those things,” he says. “You desperately want to be out there and you don’t hold any grudges when you’re fighting for a few spots. It is just the way team sport works and you have to accept that you’re not always going to play. If you’re the person to miss out then it is how you deal with that which makes you a better cricketer.”Like a regular week in Westminster, spin might be expected to be the primary battleground during the series, with Graeme Swann going head to head with India’s R Ashwin. Finn is probably just displaying a single-minded focus on his craft, then, as he lists the qualities that the bowlers will bring to England’s quest for a first Test-series win in India since 1984-85.

“England haven’t won in India for 27 years, so as a young team with a new young captain it will be exciting to go there and try to break records and prove people wrong”

“You need a little bit of the X-factor, which we have. We’ve got the best swing bowler in the world in James Anderson, we’ve got one of the best allrounders in the world in Stuart Broad, and we’ve got Tim Bresnan,” Finn says. “We’ve also got others who bring different skills to the party. We’ve got that as a team and a bowling unit, and I think it is going to take all of our collective skill to beat India, and I think we can do it.”Finn does not mention what his own X-factor is but it is not too difficult to work out. A career strike rate of 46.0 in Tests is the best of any of his current team-mates – some way ahead of Anderson (58.6) and Broad (61.6) – and beaten only by the freakish Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn among active bowlers. Although Finn’s wicket-taking in Tests has often been punctuated by waywardness, his impressive displays in ODI and T20I cricket this year have been marked by control as well as penetration.That threat is partly down to adopting a tight, wicket-to-wicket line, which has given rise to one of Finn’s other most notable feature: his capacity to clip the stumps at the non-striker’s end during his delivery stride. With umpires now regularly calling this as a dead ball, Finn has experienced the disappointment of missing out on a wicket – when Graeme Smith edged to slip but survived in the Headingley Test during the summer – and the unexpected bonus of being saved runs by his bad habit.”Obviously it is an issue that needs to be addressed,” he says. “It’s a very minimal thing, not like I wipe the stumps out of the ground. It’s a matter of centimetres, not even that. It’s a very fine, intricate thing. When you run in 30 metres and clip the stump by a couple of millimetres – it’s just about getting a little bit wider. I don’t mean to do it.”Finn puts the problem down to a tendency to slow down and weave slightly on approach to the crease. Ominously, for opponents, he suggests that accelerating more smoothly through the crease may help correct the problem – as well as add on half a yard of pace.Missing out on a wicket through a moment of klutz in the heat of Ahmedabad or Kolkata would bring added frustration, however, and while India have lost the services of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman since England last played them, Virat Kohli now comes with a health warning to bowlers in all forms of the game. Gautam Gambhir, meanwhile, has issued a staunch defence of his opening partnership with Virender Sehwag, and there is also the small matter of Sachin Tendulkar – he of 51 Test hundreds. After last year’s 4-0 Test humbling in England, only partially atoned for by India’s clean sweep in the return ODI series, the local crowds are likely to turn up ready to teach Phil Spector a thing or two about the wall of sound.”The way they targeted us in that one-day series as a revenge series, every billboard you saw around India was ‘Revenge, we are coming to get you’,” Finn recalls. “It wasn’t intimidating for us as a team. It didn’t affect our performance. They just played better cricket than us in that series in conditions they are more familiar with.”The first session of the first game is where you can set the tone for the series, whether it be with bat or ball. It is not the be all and end all, because you have to play exceptional cricket. If you get be on top early that will hold a massive part of who owns those early bragging rights. It will be an interesting series because I think it will go to and fro.”There are collective and individual points for Cook’s England to prove in India, and while a subcontinental slog is not most fast bowlers’ idea of a good time, there is a gimlet glint in Finn’s eye when he considers the challenge ahead. The niceties may not last for long.”I am really excited about getting there and fighting my way into the Test side and becoming an important member of that team. Whether I can do that on this tour, after Christmas or in three years’ time, that is my long-term ambition. We’re also looking forward to trying to break records because England haven’t won there for 27 years, so as a young team with a new young captain it will be exciting to go there and try to break records and prove people wrong. People are writing us off already but write us off at your peril. We have been written off before and we have come back and proved them wrong.”Investec, the specialist bank and asset manager, is the title sponsor of Test Match cricket in England. Visit the Investec Cricket Zone at investec.co.uk/cricket for player analysis, stats, Test match info and games

Mohammad Amir wants to start over on a clean slate and can’t wait to return to international cricket

Umar Farooq25-Nov-2012″If [Marlon] Samuels can make it then there is no reason why I can’t make it,” said Mohammad Amir, 20, and three years away from completing his ban for his involvement in the spot-fixing scandal in 2010.Every day since the ban was imposed has been a “regrettable” one for him. Since returning to Pakistan after serving half of his six-month sentence at the Portland Young Offenders Institution in Dorset, Amir has limited his social life and prefers the company of only close friends and family.It took me nearly a month to get him to agree to this interview because he isn’t keen to go over the details of what happened that day at Lord’s two years ago. No longer obsessed with a troubled past, Amir seems wiser, more mature, and is keenly looking forward to the day he returns to international cricket.”I want to come back with my head held high, with a new spirit and as a role model,” he said. “I accepted everything and pleaded guilty only to give myself peace.”I know there were things that shouldn’t have happened, but I can’t change my past. It is obviously tough staying away from cricket; I am coping with hell at the moment and nobody can understand how difficult it is to live away from cricket. I made a mistake and paid the price for it, but everyone gets a second chance and I want it too.”It’s ironic that Amir’s cricket career started out with friendly bets, when he challenged renowned tennis-ball batsmen from Lahore and Rawalpindi to hit him for a six in one over and win a meal at any big restaurant in Islamabad. He bowled six dot balls.”[The batsman’s] shoelaces came undone when I bowled him a yorker,” Amir said. “Several people, including Sohail Tanvir were there to see it. It was that contest that took me towards Rawalpindi. It took nearly four to five years to be selected in the national team.”Amir said the biggest lesson the scandal has taught him is to be cautious when making friends. “I am cautious about trusting people. Just because a person appears to be nice doesn’t mean he is a good friend. He is obviously not if he pulls you down when he sinks himself.”Amir has joined a gym and intends to start bowling at a ground near his home. “I know my physical condition isn’t rusty at all,” he said when we talk in his posh bungalow at the Defence Housing Authority in Lahore. “I still run with a proper rhythm and bowl within line and length. The basics of bowling will remain the same, so I am not worried at all. I am committed to my return.”While he spends time out of cricket, he watches the game. He even spent time in a TV studio as an analyst during the World Twenty20. “It was a good experience, to be live on TV and talking and analysing cricket,” he said. “Learning the game by playing is a real experience, but analysing the game while watching on TV enhances your ability to read and interpret the game. Things that I might not be able to contemplate while on the field, I was able to understand while I watched it.”

“The number of people who want me to play again is much greater than the people who don’t want me to play. While I was in prison, I received letters and encouragement from well-wishers in Pakistan and England”

His cricket education may be progressing but Amir is mindful of what Justice Cooke, who presided over the spot-fixing trial, said about him being “unsophisticated, uneducated and impressionable”. “I agree that education is very important,” Amir said. “I passed my matriculation and intended to go further, but then I began to concentrate only on my cricket. A lot of people still ask me to continue my studies. It’s not easy at the moment but the idea is in my head.”He prays for patience and persistence and closes his mind to doubt. “My dream, for which I had left my village years back, is still not complete. It paused, so I will start over. One never knows what is in store for the future. We can only plan, and I am taking my comeback to be similar to when I was 13 and used to think about playing for Pakistan. The difference this time is that I have had the international experience. There are people who are making their debuts at 30-plus these days, so I still have plenty of time.”I think to earn a great reputation, one should stick to his goal and shouldn’t be distracted. Everyone is with you during your good times, but we need a good friend more desperately in bad times, when nobody is at your side. There are situations in everyone’s life when one has to decide quickly about what to do. Choose the right way and forget about what will happen next because eventually it won’t be as bad as if you chose the wrong way.”With his newly developed analyst’s eye, Amir said Pakistan are desperately missing a new-ball bowler. He also has a point to make about the way the local media report on the game. “They don’t report facts. If any team is better than Pakistan, they should tell the public the difference and be blunt in saying that our team isn’t good enough or that our chances are bleak. But before every tournament, it is assumed that Pakistan will win it.”People here are emotional about the game. They neglect the basic facts and overestimate every newcomer, imagining him to be the new Wasim [Akram] or Waqar [Younis]. When I was playing, the media started comparing me to Wasim Akram, which is a wrong perception. I would like to be known as Mohammad Amir. He [Akram] was a legendary bowler but I am another name and another bowler. I want to build my name.”Unlike with Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, Amir’s return is eagerly anticipated. “The number of people who want me to play again is much greater than the people who don’t want me to play,” he said. “While I was in prison, I received letters and encouragement from well-wishers in Pakistan and England. It’s my family’s support and the love of the fans that have motivated me to play again; otherwise there was a time when I had nearly decided not to come back to cricket.”

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the third day of the Colombo Test

Andrew Fernando in Colombo27-Nov-2012The fendAngelo Mathews warned his partner not to play the hook shot with three men on the leg-side fence, and then ignored his own advice•AFPTharanga Paranavitana showcased a skill more befitting a rugby back than a Test batsman to earn himself four bonus runs in the second over of the day, as he completed a quick single after dropping the ball into the off side. Jeetan Patel at cover swooped in and felt he had a chance of running Paranavitana out, but his throw to the bowler’s end was wild, and threatened the running batsman instead of the stumps. Paranavitana reached behind him and fended the ball away, much like a rugby fullback would when trying to shake off the last defender, and the ball ricocheted off his gloves and went even further away from the fielder who was already struggling to back up the throw. Paranavitana was not deemed to be handling the ball or obstructing the field as the batsman is allowed to use his hands in self-preservation in that context.The near-miss(es)Angelo Mathews could also have got himself and his partner out with the same shot in the third over of the morning, when he straight drove Trent Boult aerially. Boult at first felt he had a chance to take the catch, but he was too slow to react. If he had got a finger on the ball he might have effected a dismissal as the ball went on to hit the off stump with Paranavitana out of his crease. Even the umpire had a near miss as force of the shot uprooted the stump, which cartwheeled not far from him.The catchMartin Guptill has had a woeful tour of Sri Lanka so far with the bat, but his stunning reflexes and sure hands haven’t left him, which was seen in his stellar catch to dismiss Mathews at second slip. Mathews lunged at a fullish wide delivery from Southee, and the resulting outside edge flew fast and low, but Guptill leaped almost instantly to his right and plucked the ball one-handed. It was a take that would have been impressive at gully or backward point, but to move so far, so quickly at slip almost defied belief.The self-ignored adviceEarly in the day Ross Taylor put three men on the leg-side fence despite the cautious progress of Sri Lanka’s overnight pair, but Mathews spotted the men in the deep and grew wise to the trap. Almost immediately he called out to his partner at the non-striker’s end, urging him not to play the pull. But sure enough, Tim Southee pitched one short next ball, and what should Mathews do but play the pull himself. He had controlled the shot well, but it was “do as I say, not as I do” from Sri Lanka’s probable future captain.The copy catSuraj Randiv has had a mediocre series with the ball, but with Sri Lanka in danger of being dismissed before reaching the follow-on target, he seemingly impersonated the man he was batting with. Thilan Samaraweera had also been an offspinner in domestic cricket, and had turned himself into an obdurate batsman in his career’s second incarnation. Having taken only one wicket in the first innings, Randiv made 34 from 102 deliveries and contributed in the discipline he wasn’t picked for.

Plays of the day from the IPL match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-May-2013The flick
Chennai Super Kings had already had two fruitful overs before Ishant Sharma delivered the fifth. Murali Vijay’s trio of consecutive sixes heralded his side’s charge in earnest and, of the legside strokes, the third was the prettiest. Having savagely pulled Ishant into the stands, then heaved him over midwicket next ball, Vijay relied on timing to carry the third over the ropes. Ishant strayed onto the pads again, though this time slightly fuller, and instead of swinging hard, as he had done previously, Vijay brought his bat down in a languid arc, connecting the ball with his bat’s sweet spot and launching it into the distance with a flick of the wrists.The drop
Suresh Raina had already begun strongly, having put a fifty-run stand alongside Michael Hussey, but in the 12th over, he offered a chance that would turn out to be a crucial moment in the match. Amit Mishra pitched one slightly shorter and, although the length was right for the cut shot that Raina played, the ball was too close to his body. He hit it at shin-height to Karan Sharma at point. Karan got his hands to the ball but couldn’t hold on, and Raina would hit 73 from the next 34 balls, to take the match away from Sunrisers Hyderabad.The red herring

The highest first innings total in five previous matches in Hyderabad this season had been 130 and, after the first over of the match, there was little to suggest this match would end the streak of low-scorers at the venue. Dale Steyn steamed in to deliver Sunrisers’ best over of the innings and his tight, swinging length deliveries did not concede a single run as Michael Hussey failed to beat the infield. That was as good as it got for the hosts in the entire game though, as the bowlers’ discipline deteriorated dramatically, with even Steyn finishing poorly in the final overs.The fielding position
It was difficult to fault MS Dhoni’s captaincy as Super Kings strode towards a playoff berth, but his field placement for Parthiv Patel, as R Ashwin bowled to him inside the Powerplay, was innovative to the point of being experimental. Dhoni essentially doubled down at mid-on, placing two men no more than a couple of metres away from each other there. What was more remarkable was Suresh Raina’s stance, as the straighter of the two fielders. Instead of walking in with the rest of the field, Raina turned side-on looking towards point and crouched slightly, ready to tear after the ball if Patel struck Ashwin down the ground.