Plays of the Day from the fourth day of the second Test between Australia and New Zealand in Hobart

Brydon Coverdale at the Bellerive Oval12-Dec-2011The anti-climax
New Zealand had not won a Test against Australia since March 1993, and they had not enjoyed victory on Australian soil since November 1985. So when the umpire Nigel Llong raised his finger to give Nathan Lyon lbw to Tim Southee, the New Zealand played were understandably elated. But Lyon asked for a review – rather forlornly – and the main questions appeared to be whether there was an inside edge or if the ball was sliding down leg. However, Eagle-Eye surprisingly showed the ball pitching outside leg – when Southee was coming over the wicket – and Lyon was reprieved. For the record, Eagle-Eye is produced by a New Zealand-based company. But in the end, Doug Bracewell rattled Lyon’s stumps and the review was quickly forgotten.The inevitable
Phillip Hughes, caught Guptill bowled Martin. That was how the scorecard had read for each of the first three innings of the series. A joke was doing the rounds that scoresheets were being handed out at Bellerive Oval with those details pre-printed. And it didn’t seem to matter where Guptill was fielding: in Brisbane it was at gully, in the first innings in Hobart it was at second slip. And so it proved again in the second innings as Hughes edged a wonderful Martin delivery that seamed away and was snapped up at second slip by Guptill. “If P Hughes is shaving tomorrow and gets a nick,” the ABC radio commentator Kerry O’Keeffe said, “M Guptill will appear from the medicine cabinet with a band-aid.”The near steal
Perhaps the catch got Guptill a little over-excited. When Usman Khawaja edged behind soon afterwards, the ball was sailing straight towards Ross Taylor at first slip when his view was nearly obscured by Guptill, who hurled himself to his right from second slip. Guptill leapt like a goalkeeper and almost got his hand to the ball, but luckily for New Zealand Taylor was not put off and clutched the take cleanly.The kick of joy
Taylor collected another catch soon afterwards when he snared the opposing captain Michael Clarke, who edged Doug Bracewell to first slip. Taylor’s celebration suited the momentum that was building behind New Zealand at the time: he launched a rugby style kick of the ball as he sensed he had a chance of becoming the first captain to lead New Zealand to a Test victory in Australia since Jeremy Coney.The ovation
Ricky Ponting’s dismissal wasn’t one of which he’ll be proud: a strangely mistimed drive that lobbed up to cover and was easily caught. Ponting walked off the Bellerive Oval to a standing ovation in what could well be his last international appearance at the ground. Unfortunately, there were only a couple of thousand spectators on hand to give Ponting his reception. The crowds had been disappointing for the whole match, and Monday was no exception.

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.

At a time when batsmen the world over broke into a sweat at the thought of the West Indies’ quicks, Graeme Wood relished the challenge

Sidharth Monga23-Jan-2012In the ’80s you brought in Woody to face West Indies. Graeme Wood was a bit of a West Indies specialist in an era when Australian cricket was going through hell, and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse were at their dominant peak. There weren’t many batsmen in that decade who averaged better against West Indies than they did overall. Wood did – 33.65, against 31.83 overall.Clearly Wood didn’t master them; not many could. But he fought valiantly. He relished the challenge. So much so that he can now matter-of-factly say that he didn’t mind Malcolm Marshall. You won’t find many batsmen saying that.Wood didn’t mind Marshall because he was an outswing bowler, and thus brought the ball back into him. And also, being a swing bowler, Marshall didn’t bowl as many bouncers.Only halfway into his career did Wood get himself a helmet, but one without a grille to cover the face. He says he never felt scared of the ball. “If you did, you just wouldn’t survive.”More than a few of Wood’s many comebacks occurred when a West Indies series was around, and because West Indies were a popular team, there series against them were frequent back then. If it wasn’t Tests, it was ODIs, and the idea that an ODI must be a runfest hadn’t quite struck the curators, or the West Indies fast bowlers, then. If it wasn’t an ODI, a fast bowler would pop up in Shield cricket or for one of the counties helping the Australians warm up for the Ashes.To hear from Wood is to believe how difficult it was to face the champion fast bowlers of that age. Especially if all you have seen of them is brief footage in cricket documentaries. Facing four out of Marshall, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Colin Croft in one match, on spicy pitches with variable bounce, was a nightmare.One such pitch in 1988-89, when Marshall was joined by the younger crop of Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Patrick Patterson, ended Wood’s career. Dean Jones and Ian Healy took blows on that dodgy MCG track, and Allan Border – tough as they come – said there was absolutely no pleasure in facing that barrage. Wood fought for 130 minutes for 12 runs. “Twelve singles,” he reminds you.That was the thing about West Indies back then. You didn’t know when a run, or respite, would come – if it ever did. “The great thing about West Indies was that they always had four in the team,” Wood says. “And they tended to bowl 12 overs an hour at that stage. So someone like Malcolm Marshall, who opened the bowling, would bowl 36 deliveries in an hour, have an hour off, have lunch, and then come back after a 100-minute rest and bowl another six overs flat out.”And if you speak to someone like [Sunil] Gavaskar, that was the thing – it was hard to get momentum. Because you just weren’t facing the number of balls. Whereas now, when you are facing 90 overs a day the bowlers get tired. They know they have to bowl those 90 overs.”Once in a while West Indies made it even more interesting. “I remember playing a one-day game in Sydney, and Greg Chappell was captain,” Wood says. “Those days you had to try to get 50 off the fifth bowler. That sometimes was Viv [Richards] or [Larry] Gomes. On that day the team was Roberts, Garner, Croft, Holding, Marshall. I said to Greg, ‘Who is the fifth? Who are we going after?'”Adding to it was the competition within the West Indies unit. “When he [Garner] was given the new ball, he would grow an arm,” Wood says. “When he was bowling first- or second change, I noticed an enormous change between that and when he opened the bowling. He was a lot quicker, and from a left-hander’s perspective, he used to go across you towards slip, and it was hard work. Especially with his height.”Marshall wasn’t far behind. Once, at the WACA, West Indies batted 11 hours, leaving the Australia openers an hour to survive on the second day. Imagine their plight. “Malcolm bowled very, very fast,” Wood says. “I sort of looked back at the keeper and Clive Lloyd, and thought, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ About 50 metres back.”Wood once hooked Roberts. He then found the legend of Roberts’ two bouncers wasn’t a myth at all. It wasn’t even a serious competitive game. Western Australia had beaten West Indies inside three days and arranged a one-day game on the fourth. “I hooked Andy Roberts here at the WACA. It went for four. Didn’t have the helmet on,” he says. “And the next one he bounced me and just got the back, and it brushed past there. That was his second, quicker, bouncer. I didn’t hook anymore in that game.

“I remember playing a one-day game in Sydney, and Greg Chappell was captain. Those days you had to try to get 50 off the fifth bowler. That sometimes was Viv or Gomes. On that day the team was Roberts, Garner, Croft, Holding, Marshall. I said to Greg, ‘Who is the fifth? Who are we going after?'”

“He didn’t say much at all. It was like he was there to do business. He was a champion bowler. Because he had that variation. He definitely had one, two, three bouncers. The third one was very, very quick. He could hit you at will. Crofty didn’t mind hitting blokes either.”Wood, though, didn’t shelve the hook. It was the only way out. In the century he scored at the WACA, against Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh and Patterson, he hooked and pulled well. He says, though, that it didn’t always work.”I thought I was a good hooker,” Wood says. “I got criticised for getting out at times. But also got a lot of runs with it. Just picking your mark. Unfortunately, the Windies developed a strategy that if I hooked them and got a four, they’d put two back. That then made it very, very difficult because you had such quality bowlers bowling. You can’t really hook them. You had to put it in the closet.”If you couldn’t hook well, you got hit. Wood remembers two big blows he took during his career. “I got hit once by Jeff Thomson at Lord’s. He was playing for Middlesex. Just a tour game. I was hit another time by Winston Davis at Headingley, in a World Cup match on a pretty green wicket. I can honestly say I was never intimidated.”You couldn’t plan how to face those bowlers. “It was just about survival for the first few overs,” he says. “Get in and blunt the new ball, and try to make it as easy as you could for the middle order. We didn’t intentionally get out thinking we will take somebody on today. You just say you have got to survive, got to hang in there. If they did bowl a bad ball, you have got to try to dispatch it. Otherwise you weren’t going to score at all.” Try telling that to today’s batsmen.There also was the pressure of knowing that the last four wickets would amount to nothing. “They could really intimidate the lower-order batsmen,” Wood says. “It’s hard enough for the guys at the top of the order. It was real intimidation. That put extra pressure on the guys on top. You knew if you were five or six down, there weren’t too many more runs coming. I think the guys were just shell-shocked in the end. And they were very, very concerned not only for their wicket but for their lives.”Wood never had to conquer that fear, he says. “I think it never arose,” he says. “You have fear of failure, fear of getting out, but never of the ball. Never feared the ball. Just get in behind it. It’s like fielding at short leg without a helmet.”He did get two centuries against West Indies. Both are among his three favourite innings, the third being his hundred in the Centenary Test, at Lord’s in 1980. One of his two against West Indies came in Guyana against a World Series-weakened attack, but it was a chase of 359 after Australia had been 22 for 3. The third was in Perth, after which he flipped the bird to the Channel 9 commentators. That was his penultimate Test. In his next Test he scored 12 singles over 130 minutes.What was it about Wood and West Indies? “Used to get the call-up all the time,” he says. “Probably being brought up in WA. We had got very good district wickets at that time that were quite quick and bouncy. We had a strong district competition. Each grade side tended to have one or two grade players who played first-class cricket. You are playing at the WACA consistently, so you learn to play off the back foot. That held you in good stead. And I enjoyed playing against fast bowling.”Another one was Bruce Laird. He was always called up to play against the Windies because he played well off the back foot. Had a good technique. Those were very tough days, tough cricket, but I enjoyed playing against them because they used to just play their cricket. There was no talk, they let the ball do it. Tough times.”Australia could give it back through Lillee and Thomson. “We had a very good side,” Wood says. “[Len] Pascoe was mad as any fast bowler. We had Greg Chappell, Hughes, Thommo, Lillee. Overall it was tremendous cricket. They were great times.”

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.

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the 4th ODI at Chester-le-Street

Daniel Brettig at Chester-le-Street07-Jul-2012Departure of the day
Australia had already lost Shane Watson to injury when Brett Lee pulled up after the second ball of his third over to grab and stretch his right calf. Seemingly unsure whether or not it was cramp, Lee tried to straighten out the kink before attempting to run in and bowl. He did not make it halfway through his run-up before pulling up again, and a concerned Michael Clarke then ran from slip to encourage Lee to take his leave. The Chester-le-Street crowd offered warm applause, and it is just possible that Lee was leaving an English cricket ground for the last time.Change-up of the day
Sometimes a fuller ball can be used as a surprise tactic, even on a pitch that is crying out for them. Steven Finn succeeded in pushing David Warner back by bowling short of a length in the early overs, often with extravagant movement. There was the odd slightly fuller delivery that Warner played from the crease, before the first ball of Finn’s third over arrived faster and further up than the batsman had computed for. Completely on his heels, Warner was plainly lbw, though it took a review of the umpire’s original decision to confirm it.Surprise of the day
Given the firepower at Alastair Cook’s disposal, it was hardly expected that the day’s most perfect ball was to be delivered by Ravi Bopara. Yet a tacky, seaming surface and slightly damp air afforded Bopara’s mediums the ideal setting, and he would use them to confound George Bailey. Angling the ball in towards middle and off to have Bailey shaping to play to the leg side, Bopara zipped it away off the seam to clip the off bail. Bailey has now been bowled five times in as many innings on tour, though never was he as blameless as here.Introduction of the day
James Pattinson had been straining all tour for a chance to charge in at England’s batsmen, but his first delivery was not one to remember. Full at leg stump and neither swinging nor particularly fast, it was summarily dispatched to the backward square leg boundary by Ian Bell. What’s more it was a no-ball, offering Bell a free-hit. Pattinson evaded punishment for his transgression with a slower ball that the batsman miscued, but the final ball of the over was not dissimilar to the first, and Bell flicked it wide of mid-on for another boundary.

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

While fans anticipated some response to 0-8, the selectors gave it all a farcical turn with strange picks for reserves

Sidharth Monga10-Aug-2012The sight of Kris Srikkanth, the outgoing chairman of selectors, rattling off incoherent sentences and either not respecting or not taking questions around the logic of selections is all too common. On Friday afternoon, he said he was doing so for the last time as his term comes to an end, and for one last time he left a bizarre selection unexplained. Before the meeting, the fans were all interested in seeing how the selectors respond to the eight straight overseas Test defeats and whether they look to late 2013 and 2014 when India tour South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia, but the Indian selectors gave it all a farcical turn with strange picks for the reserves.There were legitimate questions and anticipation in the fan’s mind. Will the selectors deem Virender Sehwag good enough to open on the four away tours come late 2013 (his average on his last four tours to those countries is 24, 28, 10 and 26 respectively) and risk a new opener in those conditions should he fail? Or will they try him in the middle order now that there are going to be vacancies? Is VVS Laxman going to make it to 2014? If not, how long will he be picked? Laxman has had only one really miserable series and merits a place in the side, especially with Rahul Dravid just retired, but will the selectors give out any pointers to the future? Does Zaheer Khan look good to go on till those away tours?And yet, the team sheets rolled out were such that you forgot all those big questions and started to try and get your head around other selections. And no, Yuvraj Singh’s comeback is not the inexplicable one. On surface it might seem like an emotional move, considering he has not proved match fitness yet, but this is also a calculated risk. Before the World Twenty20, there are two T20s against New Zealand, and before that there is the Buchi Babu tournament. So if things don’t go to plan, Yuvraj can be replaced for the big one, but if he is fit there is no need to restate the kind of matchwinner he can be on the big day.It’s the other picks that leave you flummoxed. What, for example, has Piyush Chawla done to earn both a Test and T20 recall? Is there any phantom tournament you have missed and only the selectors have watched? An average of 40 in the last Ranji Trophy, and an average of 26 and economy-rate of 7.35 in the last IPL, didn’t exactly dare the selectors to not pick him. He wasn’t even considered good enough for India A’s last tour.It’s interesting to look at the two spinners who have been pushed out because of Chawla’s return. It seems there is more than cricket to the sudden exclusion of Rahul Sharma from both the Test and T20 side. Last checked his bounce and accuracy had everybody impressed. Now he is nowhere to be seen. If this is disciplinary action for the alleged positive dope test at a party, the BCCI will be better off to say so.And what of Pragyan Ojha then? He can take the ball away from the right-hand batsmen too, he has been more impressive in IPL, he has done well in home Tests, his stats after limited opportunities in limited-overs internationals are not bad (economy rates of 4.46 and 6.28 in ODIs and T20Is), but for some reason in the game of musical chairs being played among the Indian spinners, Ojha is often the man standing up when the music stops.It is true that selection is not based on stats alone, but India have already burnt their fingers with a similar punt on Chawla in the last year’s 50-over World Cup. A much more understandable yet surprising punt is Harbhajan Singh, who brings with him experience, proven combative qualities and decent containment role during the Twenty20 leagues. And while we are at it, if Rahul is indeed being disciplined and if you were told there were only two Test spinners left in India – Chawla and Harbhajan – who’d you rather go with? A similarly understandable gamble is L Balaji, who went for 5.4 an over in the IPL, but Praveen Kumar’s absence continues to confound.The last time Chawla was picked for India, Rohit Sharma was primed for a place in the World Cup squad and had to make way. Rohit doesn’t lose out on his World Cup place this time, but he has been denied the Test bench he warmed with such frustration in Australia, coming desperately close to a debut. Granted he has failed in ODIs in Sri Lanka, but how does it earn him a T20 reward and cost him a Test place? Suresh Raina, on the other hand, has played his role in late middle order in ODIs commendably, but has he done enough since he was dropped from Tests last year to allay the concerns against Raina the Test batsman?Ishant Sharma, who bucked the trend of picking IPL over internationals and underwent ankle surgery, has yet to prove his match fitness but is back in the Test squad. Unlike Yuvraj, Ishant will hardly get any opportunity to do so before the first Test begins on August 23. This is a selection coming from a committee that had vowed to make proven fitness a non-negotiable after the debacle in England last year.And guess who is back as vice-captain of the T20 side? Gautam Gambhir, who lost that slot for unexplained reasons after Australia, has now somehow usurped Virat Kohli, who was the vice-captain until the recently concluded tour of Sri Lanka. The Test side continues to be without one.Srikkanth, though, as the chairman and the public face of the selection committee, doesn’t have the time to throw more light on these selections. “I’m in a rush,” he says. The BCCI could just as well not announce the team, and let people find out on the day of the match.

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.”

A look at why Panesar and Swann have outbowled Ojha and Ashwin in India

Aakash Chopra13-Dec-2012There were times in India when the sight of a spinner running in to the crease was intimidating for the batsman. The close-in fielders hovered, standing by to take the catches that would inevitably be produced. Back then Indian spinners sent out strong signals – that they were as lethal as the Caribbean quick bowlers, and no second fiddles. Invariably India’s spinners were superior to those from other countries, and the land of Bedi, Chandrashekhar and Prasanna kept producing quality spinners, so much so that some of them didn’t even play for India – for these three kept going for years.Today, though, even on wilting, dusty turners, Indian spinners don’t hold the same threat. For the longest time, dishing out a dustbowl guaranteed success, for India’s batsmen would score a mountain of runs and the spinners would bowl the opposition out twice, double quick. But since the retirement of Anil Kumble, things have changed.The signs of the downward spiral have been there for everyone to see. The lowest ebb has been reached in the ongoing series against England – probably the first time in Indian cricket’s history that a visiting team from outside the subcontinent has had the services of better spinners, and the decision to dish out a rank turner has been more likely to backfire on India than guarantee success – as happened in Mumbai.Why is it that Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann are extracting a lot more out of the tracks than their Indian counterparts? (Remember also that they’re bowling against a batting line-up that is known for its proficiency against the turning ball.)Panesar has been the most impressive bowler in the series, operating at a pace ideally suited to the tracks provided thus far. He bowls at least 10kph quicker than is usually recommended for spinners. While that extra pace goes against him on good batting surfaces – because he doesn’t keep the ball in the air long enough to create deception – it’s working absolutely fine on slow Indian pitches. The extra pace in the air doesn’t allow the batsman the luxury of stepping out or of waiting on the back foot. It is this extra pace that made Panesar unplayable at times in Mumbai, because handling a viciously turning ball at high speeds is extremely difficult.If it was only about the pace, then why didn’t India’s spinners crack the code and bowl quicker too? After all, how difficult could it be to increase your pace as a spinner?That’s where the basics are important, for speed can work in your favour only if the ball comes out of the hand properly, with enough revolutions on it. That’s precisely where Panesar has scored over Pragyan Ojha.Panesar’s action is that of a classical left-arm spinner, with the bowling arm very close to the ear, which enables him to not only get the wrist position slightly tilted (about 45 degrees) at the point of release but also to extract more bounce off the surface with the higher point of release.He delivers from the middle of the box, which allows him to bowl a lot straighter. Bowling closer to the stumps makes his arm ball a lot more effective, for it is always pitching and finishing in line with the stumps. Also, his follow-through takes him towards the batsman, which means the body momentum is heading in the direction of the ball; that translates into him getting a fair bit of zip off the surface.In contrast, Ojha releases the ball from the corner of the box, and his bowling arm is further away from the ear than in Panesar’s case. Ojha’s position on the crease creates an acute angle, which might give a false impression of the ball drifting in. It also means he needs a lot of assistance from the pitch to generate spin off the surface to compensate for that angle. His wrist position is slightly more tilted than Panesar’s at the point of release, which negatively affects not just bounce off the surface but also his chances of turning the ball. Finally, there’s no follow-through whatsoever: Ojha stops as soon as he delivers the ball, which indicates that his bowling is a lot about wrist and shoulder instead of being about hips and torso as well.Swann is technically superior to R Ashwin too. His bowling is all about using every limb to impart more revolutions on the ball. Since he plays most of his cricket on unresponsive English pitches, he has learnt the importance of putting revs on the ball every single time, which creates deception in the air by making the ball dip on the batsman, and also produces bite off the surface.

In Test cricket there needs to be a stock ball that one should bowl, ball after ball. You need to create deception in the air by varying the lines and speeds ever so slightly

Swann doesn’t have too many variations; in fact he has got only two deliveries – the one that spins in to the right-hander and the arm ball that goes straight on. Having fewer variations has led him to become more patient, and made him rely on changing the point of release, speed and flight without compromising on length. He has struck a fine balance between being aggressive and being patient.His lines of operation to right-handed batsmen are slightly outside off, challenging the batsman to play against the spin. Against the left-handers, he bowls a lot closer, cramping them for room. Like with Panesar, Swann’s body momentum too takes him towards the batsman.Ashwin, on the other hand, has a lot of tricks in his bag. He can bowl the traditional offspinner, a doosra and a carrom ball at will, and with a reasonable amount of control. His high-arm action gets him bounce off the surface too. But while having so many options works wonders in the shorter formats, where the batsmen can’t line him up, it works against him in Test cricket.Wickets in Test matches are a result of setting up a dismissal, and for that you need to be patient, almost bordering on being boring and predictable. There needs to be a stock ball that one should bowl, ball after ball. You need to create deception in the air by varying the lines and speeds ever so slightly. The longer you keep the batsman occupied with one kind of delivery, the better your chances of the variation catching him off guard. Ashwin, with all the weapons in his armoury, feels obliged to bring them out at regular intervals. This hampers his consistency with line and length, and results in him offering up boundary balls often.Technically, while his wrist and arm position are good, like Ojha he too doesn’t put his body behind the ball as much as he should; he falls towards the left after delivering the ball, instead of taking the momentum towards the batsman.The quality of India’s spinners was one of the reasons the team became a force to reckon with in Test cricket. The remarkable records at home were all courtesy spin. India may have had a pantheon of quality spinners but the current crop does not seem to have been able to master the craft. There are plenty of former players around who were masters of the skill. Time India got these veterans to guide the youngsters on how to spin a web around teams again.

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the second day in Port Elizabeth

Firdose Moonda at St George's Park12-Jan-2013Pain of the day
Again, New Zealand’s bowlers began the day with a bit of oomph, this timethe painful kind. Doug Bracewell was the protagonist again but he wasaiming lower down than yesterday, when he pinged Graeme Smith on the head.His fifth ball of the morning had some extra bounce and nipped back intoFaf du Plessis to hit him on what the ball-by-ball commentary on thesepages described as his “special place.”The agony was immediately evident. Du Plessis crouched down in pain whileBracewell reacted with more toughness than he did with Smith and did noteven offer an apology. A smile crept over Brendon McCullum’s face and onlyafter du Plessis did not return to his feet for a few moments longer thanexpected did Martin Guptill decide to enquire about his health. In thedressing room, Dean Elgar and Jacques Rudolph winced at the replay whileHashim Amla, who was hit by Chris Martin in the same place last March couldonly sympathise from the other side.Contrast of the day
In completely the opposite fashion to the first over of the day, the firstover after lunch was owned by du Plessis. He played five patient oversbefore the break but came out with no more time to wait. He gave JeetanPatel the charge as soon as he was given the strike and launched the ballover long-on to bring up his second Test century and first at home with aflourish. Always one to enjoy the attention, du Plessis saluted the crowdas the band burst into song.Message of the day
When du Plessis was dismissed and the south-easter began blowing a little bit more energetically, South Africa’s declaration seemed imminent. Robin Peterson came out and went down swinging, leaving Elgar on 73. Dale Steyn joined him and after two overs of scratching around, the 12th man came out with a bat that was never handed over and a message. It seemed to say that Elgar would have until tea to get to his century even though he was only on 83 at the time. Elgar responded with a six off the first ball of the over that followed but only managed to add two more singles before the break and was allowed to resume batting after that in the quest for his maiden hundred.Drop of the day
Jacques Kallis very rarely puts down catches and it’s even more scarce thathe puts down such simple ones. Martin Guptill’s horrible series continuedwhen he pushed at Dale Steyn’s fourth ball, with feet rooted to the ground,and got an edge. Kallis only had to collect the ball at knee height and gothands to it but then let it slip out. Steyn only turned and walked away with nothing to say to the most experienced player on the field, Kallispursed his lips in irritation and stood unmoved for a few seconds tocontemplate his mistake. It cost nothing though as Guptill nicked off twoovers later without adding a run.Ball of the day
South Africa’s attack showed no mercy and Rory Kleinveldt took his role asVernon Philander’s replacement seriously. He got swing and seam movementand coaxed the ball into spitting its way through. His nastiest was thedelivery that claimed Dean Brownlie, an unplayable one that straightenedafter pitching off a shortish length. Brownlie tried to jump out of the waybut gloved it to AB de Villiers who took a good catch to deepen NewZealand’s woes.