Pakistan’s seamers failed to create opportunities as a unit. Their bowling coach Mohammad Akram reiterated that the bowlers let Sri Lanka off the hook by not maintaining any pressure

Umar Farooq in Dubai09-Jan-2014Saeed Ajmal went wicket-less. Junaid Khan was tidy. Bilawal Bhatti was ineffective. Mohamamd Hafeez was under-bowled and Rahat Ali was unlucky. That was the tale of Pakistan’s bowlers on the second day in Dubai. They managed to take only three wickets, conceded 261 as Sri Lanka walked away with a decent lead of 153 runs and six wickets in hand. Pakistan walked away with few positives in terms of the bowling, on a pitch that is expected to get flatter and test them further.Pakistan stumbled to 165 after losing the toss yesterday – an improvement from their 99 after opting to bat first against South Africa on the same pitch in October. The toss was the difference but bowlers toiled hard on both occasions to mend the mistakes made by the batsmen from day one.The chatter in the press box was mainly about Rahat being ‘unlucky’. He toiled for 26 overs with little success, with several edges dropping in front of the slips and a regulation take that was spilled by the wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed. Ajmal was economical but unsuccessful. Bhatti, playing in his second Test, was the quickest – clocking 147 kmph – but lacked discipline. Coach Dav Whatmore said before the Test that his bowlers had the ability to take 20 wickets to win the contest but today, the bowlers struggled to take half that number to try and restrict the Sri Lankan batsmen.”The pitch played better than yesterday and it was very obvious when they (Sri Lanka) won the toss and bowled first,” Mohammad Akram, Pakistan’s bowling coach, said. “There was a bit of juice in the pitch yesterday. We knew that the pitch will get better (for batting) but still, our bowlers held them well. But yes, they needed to be more disciplined.”There was occasional seam movement but the lengths didn’t work and the bowlers rarely troubled the Sri Lankan batsman. Rahat was in fact lucky when Kumar Sangakkara’s bat was stuck under his boot, only to be trapped in front of the stumps. It was Rahat’s only wicket. Akram said the bowlers didn’t put in enough effort.”When you are bundled out for 165, there is a bit of frustration (among bowlers), and you look to pick up wickets,” Akram said. “That’s the time when you really need to be disciplined. At times we bowled too many loose balls as well but the effort was there as the bowlers still ran in with their heads up.”We lacked disciplined in the bowling. You can’t offer a loose ball early in the day and let the batsman get set. The pitch is far different today to what it was on the first day so had we batted sensibly and survived, it could have been a different scenario for us.”Our bowling attack is still the best in the world. But what we are lacking is the experience and if you add the number of matches the seamers have played it is hardly 17 or 18. Unless these bowlers play, they won’t thrive.”Akram wasn’t worried about Ajmal being off-color, acknowledging that the conditions had challenged him. Ajmal had picked up a six-wicket haul in the Test against South Africa.”Ajmal is our main bowler, but there was a lot of grass on the pitch and hence not much purchase for Ajmal,” Akram said. “The seamers had to do the job. We need not panic and there is no reason to be frustrated if he (Ajmal) isn’t picking wickets. It happens and you can’t judge him on these two matches as he has done a lot in the past.”

With their players struggling to make a sustained impact, the management is struggling to nail down the best combination and have been guilty of making several strange calls during this World T20

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur26-Mar-2014Bangladesh made four changes heading into their opening Super 10 tie with West Indies and none of them clicked, and the painful defeat to West Indies underlined confusion among the management as to what their best XI is.The biggest casualty on Tuesday was Nasir Hossain, who has played across formats continuously since making his debut in August 2011. The stretch is both a tribute to his ability and fitness, but he hasn’t scored an international fifty since last May. The drop in form came into sharp relief when the specialist finisher struggled during run chases in the recent limited-overs series against Sri Lanka.On the surface, it looks the right call. Nasir probably needs a break from cricket, as was reflected in the amount of catches he has dropped this year, especially considering he is one of their best fielders. But if flagging performance was the reason for his ouster, then Mahmudullah’s retention is puzzling, even to casual fans of Bangladesh. He averages just four in T20s and 11 overall in 2014.He was picked as an offspinner, when Bangladesh had already recalled the specialist Sohag Gazi. If Bangladesh wanted to get the better of the opposition’s left-handers, West Indies only had three. Two of whom were No.9 Sunil Narine and No.11 Krishmar Santokie.Mahmudullah did prove useful enough to break the 97-run opening stand by picking up Dwayne Smith. But, he also dropped Darren Sammy twice off consecutive deliveries in the 19th over and was caught behind for one. His batting has been a distinct point of sourness this year, making 12 in three innings. His position at No. 7 means he wouldn’t normally have time to build an innings, but in period under scrutiny he had 12.3, 8.2 and 9.5 overs remaining to make an impact.Having been criticised for defending some of his selections, captain Mushfiqur Rahim finally said that Mahmudullah’s time may be up.”He hasn’t played up to the mark,” Mushfiqur said. “We have tried a new combination today [Tuesday], but we still thought that we can bank on his bowling if not batting. For our next selection, we will keep his performance in mind and if available, we will use a better option in the next game.”But there were two good calls taken too: favouring Ziaur Rahman as the seaming allrounder over Farhad Reza, who had a meltdown against Hong Kong.Ziaur should have been in original World T20 squad announced in February considering Farhad’s troubles at the international level. But at the time, Farhad, had taken 29 wickets in the earlier season’s Dhaka Premier League and averaged 39.71 with the bat. Ziaur had been groomed as a T20 specialist since before the 2012 World T20, but he had taken less wickets in the DPL while also averaging slightly less with the bat than Farhad in first-class cricket.Mushfiqur can be castigated for picking Mahmudullah ahead of Nasir and for underusing Ziaur, but he would be more concerned with Gazi’s ineffectiveness. The offspinner’s last substantial contribution was a thee-wicket haul in the series-clinching second ODI against New Zealand in late October. Since then, he has averaged of 81.11 in all formats, the second-worst for Bangladesh in the period, with only nine wickets.The handling of Shamsur Rahman and Mominul Haque cap the confusion that is dominating Bangladesh’s team management and selection committee. Shamsur’s BPL success brought him to the international T20 team nearly 12 months ago. He climbed into the ODI and Test team thereafter, and a few low scores in the Asia Cup lost his place to Anamul Haque, with Tamim Iqbal returning from injury.Mominul was picked for the West Indies game, a batsman who was benched for the T20s against Sri Lanka last month and all of the warm-up and first round matches of the World T20. Suddenly, he was pushed up at No. 3, a role which seems to be slightly out of his grasp in the shortest format, despite being quite competent in Tests and ODIs.More than changes to personnel, Mushfiqur and coach Shane Jurgensen have to finalise a batting order that reflects belief and positivity, and bring shape to the bowling attack. To the captain’s credit, he has backed himself publicly despite the follies. The hope is that he gets it right next time, then the defending wouldn’t be necessary.

With India’s bowling coming good in the World Twenty20, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have not been tested but they need to sort their techniques and mindsets to match their ODI successes

Abhishek Purohit27-Mar-20148:20

Manjrekar: Worried about India openers’ form

Few gave India a chance going into the Champions Trophy last year. They had chosen a young squad over a few established names, and had a fresh pair of openers. One of them was making a comeback to the one-day side, albeit after a spectacular Test debut. The other had only recently been converted into an opener following several underwhelming years in the middle order.Few would have expected Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma to start the Champions Trophy with partnerships of 127, 101, 58 and 77. It was even more of a surprise than India’s roaring bowling form has been in the World T20 so far. Dhawan and Rohit went on to establish themselves as the first-choice limited-overs opening pair for India. They average nearly fifty in ODIs and have ten fifty-plus stands in 31 innings.In the World T20, the expectations have ratcheted up significantly from the duo. They have become a hit pair in one limited-overs format, and are expected to carry that success into the shorter one as well. The bowling surprise has meant that they have not really been tested so far, and India will be hoping they will deliver when they come up against one, which will surely happen at some stage in the tournament, if not against Bangladesh on Friday.While they may have spent plenty of time together in the middle in ODIs, Rohit and Dhawan had only one opening stand in T20s coming into this world event, worth 12 runs against Australia in October last year in Rajkot. India do not play much international T20 cricket, and the dynamics of opening in ODIs and T20s are vastly different.Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan must fall back on the familiarity of their ODI partnership to tide over their lack of experience as a pair in T20s•BCCIRohit is not a natural opener, and it is well known now that he likes to take his time in ODIs, occasionally at the cost of the flow of an innings. He has opened in T20s before – in the 2009 World T20 – but most of his innings previously in the format have come in the middle order. He made 24 off 21 before falling against Pakistan but once he got in against West Indies, he ensured he remained there until the end, finishing on an unbeaten 62 off 55. He’s largely done what was required of him in those chases, especially against West Indies. As Rohit will know, his real challenge will come when he will not have the leeway of a benign asking-rate, especially if India’s bowlers have an overdue off-day and he is handed a stiff chase.Dhawan has a bigger challenge. Against Pakistan, he charged at Umar Gul and heaved a top-edge off a short ball once more but that is not his challenge. It can be argued he will have no choice but to attack the short ball in this format, and will have to make do with his tendency to get out in doing so. It is spin he has to combat. Mohammad Hafeez had a leg before appeal against Dhawan off the first ball the batsman faced in an unconvincing effort against Pakistan. Against West Indies, he was given leg-before off the third ball against Samuel Badree, although it was a poor decision with the ball appearing to miss leg. Like he did against Badree, Dhawan often gets cramped on the back foot and becomes vulnerable to the incoming or straighter delivery. It is not even a question of blocking away such balls; he is often too late bringing down his bat on them.With tougher tests lying in wait, what Rohit and Dhawan will have to fall back on is the mutual understanding they have developed since June 2013, according to Rohit.”When you have the right combination going around and you’ve batted for a while, together, you understand each other very well,” Rohit said. “These things really matter when you play the short format. All those little things like running between the wickets and taking singles really matter. We’ve had a good understanding and a good run for the last year or so.”The team expects a lot of us because we’re the ones who set the tone for the games. It’s important for us to take on that challenge. It’s very important what you do in the first six overs in this format – whether you bat or bowl. As openers, it’s important we give the team a good start. We know we’ve got a good middle order to capitalize.”That is the difference between the Champions Trophy and the World T20. The team, as well as the fans, now expect “a lot” from Rohit and Dhawan. Those expectations are about coming good on a night when India will dearly need them to.

Having served a one-year ban for failing to report an approach by a bookie, Siddharth Trivedi is back playing competitive cricket

Amol Karhadkar16-Oct-2014He was part of India’s Under-19 World Cup squad in 2002. He has spent more than a decade on the first-class circuit. He has been part of a victorious IPL campaign. Still, when Siddharth Trivedi ran in to bowl in a Saurashtra Cricket Association’s inter-district tournament last week, he felt as if he was on his first-class debut.It was perfectly understandable. Trivedi was playing his first competitive game after serving a one-year suspension for failing to report an approach by a bookie during the IPL corruption scandal in 2013.”I was feeling exactly the same when I made my first-class debut,” Trivedi tells ESPNcricinfo, speaking from Rajkot, where he is playing for Saurashtra in a pre-season warm-up tournament that also features Baroda and his former team Gujarat. “The same nervousness, the same pangs in the stomach. But once I bowled the first couple of balls, I realized that I had finally discovered what I had been missing the most over the last year.”Trivedi’s played his comeback game on October 9, for Rajkot City against Bhavnagar Rural in the SCA Tajawala Trophy inter-district tournament. It was his first competitive match since Rajasthan Royals’ Qualifier against Mumbai Indians during the 2013 IPL season. Neither the fact that he was bowling in front of the Lord’s-like media centre at the SCA stadium in Khandheri nor the fact that he was up against a mediocre side mattered to him. What mattered was that he was out on the park.”Obviously it was difficult,” Trivedi says. “I was rusty since I hadn’t bowled in a competitive match for over a year. No doubt I was under pressure. But once I took the field, I really enjoyed the match. It was something that I had waited for over a year, so once I bowled a couple of deliveries, I decided to just express myself without thinking about my performance. Then I realized that I was so excited to give my best for a team on cricket field rather than worrying about my performance.”Soon after the IPL qualifier, reports surfaced that Trivedi had had a few meetings with suspected bookies along with Ajit Chandila, the Royals offspinner who had been arrested along with teammates Ankeet Chavan and S Sreesanth. Trivedi then co-operated with the Delhi police. The BCCI found him guilty of not reporting an approach and suspended him for a year.Trivedi is reluctant to talk about the controversy, and says he wants to put it behind him. But he opens up about his life away from cricket, and says he found it difficult to come to terms with the fact that he could not bowl at all. He had confined himself to his home in Ahmedabad, but realised that wouldn’t help him recover from the blow.”The more I stayed at home the more I used to get frustrated. So I realized I had to keep myself busy to remain positive,” Trivedi says. “For almost 20 years now, I have been constantly playing cricket matches, whether league matches or first-class cricket or company matches or [in the minor county leagues] in England. Hardly have I stayed home for a month in succession throughout all these years. So it was difficult to come to terms with it. Then I tried to keep my routine going. I didn’t have access to all the facilities in terms of cricket but I ensured that I made use of whatever I had and remained fit.”Trivedi found solace in the gym, and gradually increased the time he spent there, contending that he had a better chance of coming back strongly if he was fit. He also began studying video footage of his bowling performances and analysed how he could improve as a bowler.Asked if he ever thought about giving up the game after his name popped up in the IPL corruption scandal, Trivedi says the thought never entered his mind. He says his recovery was possible only because of the support he received from his friends, family and well-wishers.”They always backed the fact that I was unfortunately involved in it without ever knowing anything about those people,” he says. “That confidence that they have shown me has made me even more determined to go out onto the field yet again and perform even better to justify the faith they have shown in me.”Once his suspension ended and the BCCI working committee allowed him to return to mainstream cricket, Trivedi approached the SCA chief Niranjan Shah, who had signed him as a professional in 2011-12. Shah welcomed him “with open arms”, raising Trivedi’s hopes of returning to first-class cricket.Trivedi says his task is a lot tougher this year, with Saurashtra having roped in Uttar Pradesh seamer Sudeep Tyagi, but he is undeterred. He knows he has a long way to go if he has to play the big domestic tournaments again.”It’s just like starting from scratch,” he says. “I have played three games so far and have spent more than a week training in Rajkot. Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah and coach Shitanshu Kotak, with whom I have played a lot, have been really supportive. I just hope I can continue putting in my best and justify the faith of my well-wishers by returning to top-flight cricket soon.”

As Angelo Mathews and Misbah-ul-Haq look across their battlements in Sri Lanka, they may meet each other’s gaze, and know they are a lot alike

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Aug-2014Sometimes in the cosmic journey, life contrives for kindred souls to cross paths: two people who may be separated geographically, ethnically, economically, even politically, but who are one at the most elemental, human level.As Angelo Mathews and Misbah-ul-Haq look across their battlements in Sri Lanka, they may meet each other’s gaze, and know they are a lot alike.The last time the two met in Tests, they could not have had more disparate days. Defending a 1-0 series lead, Mathews embraced an extreme form of conservatism and his team drowned in it on the final day in Sharjah. With no choice but to launch an unrelenting attack, Misbah kept his side in the match long enough, until after a whirl of bludgeoned drives and reverse-sweeps from way outside leg stump, he hit the winning run to complete a frenetic victory.Pakistan have been dormant in Tests since that day, but Mathews has had a busy six months, in which both he and his leadership have grown up, and grown old – grown a little more like Misbah. Now, when Mathews speaks or acts, he is defined by a sense of unshakeable calm. A lot has happened to him in the recent past, with a series win in England and loss at home against South Africa, but a short time after coming off the field, Mathews was no more delighted at Headingley than he was distraught at the SSC. Misbah is past 40 now. Though at times he still bats like he is 25, there is a timeless stoicism to everything in his every move. His words are delivered in grey baritone.Neither captain is an exemplary tactician, but both are natural leaders in other ways. Misbah’s batting average is almost 28 runs better when he is captain. In 11 Tests at the helm, Mathews has statistically been more than twice as good as he was before. They have each inherited a legacy of instability, with captains coming, going and occasionally coming again in the few years before they each took the helm. But since Misbah has had the reins, Pakistan’s road has been less rocky. Sri Lanka had been energetic and instinctive under Mahela Jayawardene, but since Mathews has helmed them, his iron resolve has seeped into his team’s cricket as well.There is no doubt who is the more talented cricketer. Misbah is routinely secure and imposing when he wishes to be. But in 2014, Mathews has been a complete batsman, on every kind of surface, in any situation. They both make dour beginnings; that first impulse is always “safety first”. But they are also equipped with the skill, and the will to quickly gather pace. For Misbah, the big blows often come suddenly, on the leg side, in the arc between wide long-on and square leg. Mathews, increasingly, just clobbers them where he likes.Neither are ungainly batsmen, but no one could ever mistake them for artists either. They are too sensible to fuss with aesthetics. Both hail from cricket cultures that celebrate flamboyance – more true for Misbah, perhaps, than for Mathews – but they leave the pretty stuff to their team-mates and take the utilitarian road themselves. Misbah is wise enough to know aggression is critical to the cricket some batsmen play, but Mathews is still learning that others cannot absorb pressure as passively as he can. “We threw away our wickets” is a common complaint. Rarely is Mathews among the “we” in that sentence. So many times he has been like the band that plays a sombre tune while the ship sinks in a panic around him. No one knows that feeling better than Misbah.There is also no doubt who has the tougher assignment. Eighteen months into his captaincy, Mathews has seen the entire spectrum of administrative bungling, from two contracts standoffs to seniors’ tussles with the made-men at Maitland Place. But beyond the spectre of match-fixing that Misbah has worked to leave behind, the board he reports to is in so much disarray, SLC seems like a Sunday afternoon book club in comparison. Every person Misbah meets could be PCB chairman in 20 minutes’ time. Or the next Test-match opener.Grim-faced and unflappable, it is also sometimes easy to cast Misbah as a sort of tragic hero. He is all the more likeable because of it. If the young players in Sri Lanka’s middle order continue to show they are poor replacements for the seniors about to bow out of the game, Mathews may well become a tragic hero himself, in years to come. He is perhaps the luckier of the two because if he carries himself with the grace and dignity Misbah manages, he is not likely to be accused of being too square, as Misbah often is.Their teams arrive in Galle, evenly matched and familiar with each other’s talents and points of weakness. Steady, courageous and possessed of a slow-burning charisma, the cricket Mathews and Misbah play over the next few weeks will be intriguing, not just for choices they make, but for the moves they elicit from one another.

The great Australian batsman always did justice to his precociousness and reputation for being adept in all conditions

Ashley Mallett18-Oct-2014With a gleam in his eye and a skip in his step, Neil Harvey pounced on the ball like a cat nailing a mouse.Harvey danced yards down the wicket to get to the pitch of the ball from the slow bowlers, yet he was never out stumped in Test cricket despite having batted against some of the finest spinners of any era. Arguably the best Australian batsman since Don Bradman, Harvey played 79 Tests, hitting 6149 runs at 48.41, with 21 hundreds and a highest score of 205.He scored his first Test century (153) against India in the Melbourne Test of 1947-48. From the outset of the 1948 tour, 19-year-old Harvey absorbed as much information as he could from old campaigners like Arthur Morris, Lindsay Hassett, Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall and Bill Johnston.However, he struggled to come to terms with the slow, seaming English tracks. After four matches he was averaging seven and he felt he needed some wise counsel. Hesitant to approach Bradman, he asked his room-mate, fellow Victorian Sam Loxton if he would talk to the Don.Sam sidled up to his captain and asked, “George [curiously he always called Bradman “George”], what’s young Harvey doing wrong?” Bradman looked Loxton straight in the eye and said matter-of-factly, “Sam, you go and tell your little mate that if he doesn’t hit the ball in the air he can’t get out.”Soon runs started to flow for Harvey; an unbeaten 76 against Lancashire and he was on his way. Then Sid Barnes got injured and Harvey was picked to bat at No. 5 in the Leeds Test. Three quick wickets fell – Morris (6), Hassett (13) and Bradman (33) – before Harvey strode to the crease.”Keith Miller was in at the time and he told me he would take to the bowling,” Harvey said. “First ball from [Jim] Laker, he clubbed straight over my head for six and I thought, ‘How good is this, might not be as tough as I thought.'”In 90 minutes, Harvey and Miller hit 121, the youngster getting more confident, especially against Laker, whose turn worried him early on, and when Miller fell for 58, Harvey was joined by Loxton, who took over the assault. Their partnership of 105 came in a hurricane 95 minutes, with Loxton, who smashed five sixes, falling seven runs short of a century, and Harvey going on to score his first hundred against England.In South Africa in 1949-50 he hit 660 runs in the five Tests at a Bradman-like average of 132, which included an extraordinary unbeaten 151 in Durban. Bowled out for just 75 on a treacherous Kingsmead wicket, Australia were set a target of 336. Harvey was the key. He used his twinkling footwork to hammer Hugh Tayfield and Tufty Mann, ensuring a wonderful comeback victory.

“My first ball was quick and moved late from leg stump to a little outside off and I thought, ‘Hey that’s a beauty!’ Harv moved back and across and hit the ball like a rocket in front of point for four”Alan Davidson

Harvey starred in the first Test match I ever witnessed. My granddad took me along to the second Test of the 1954-55 Ashes hoping I’d see an Australian win. After all, England were defending a shade over 200 runs.And victory might have been achieved but for a man named Frank Tyson. This, after getting battered to the tune of 1 for 160 off 29 overs in Brisbane a few weeks before. “Typhoon” Tyson bowled on this last day with the wind behind him to take 6 for 85 in 18.4 overs of unrelenting hostility. All the while the “pocket dynamo” that was Harvey hooked, pulled, cut and drove in a magnificent display of aggression. One hook for six went away to where we sat in front of the Noble Stand and bounced over the fence and into the visitors’ dressing room. Les Favell’s 16 was the next-best score, and when the ninth wicket fell, Australia needed 78, and in strolled the perennial No. 11, Bill Johnston, carrying his trusty heavily bandaged bat. Harvey met big Bill with a cheery, “Let’s go for them, mate”.Big Bill hung in there while Harvey cut loose and they put on 39 before Johnston tickled one down the leg side and Godfrey Evans did the rest. Australia all out 184, Harvey not out 92, England won by 38 runs.At least there was some light relief during the match. As Jim Burke’s laborious 44 neared its end in the first dig, Yabba, the SCG’s most famous barracker, yelled from the outer: “Hey Burkey, you are so like a statue, I wish I was a pigeon.”Harvey’s batting delighted the likes of Yabba and thousands of fans worldwide. Not only did he conquer all manner of spinners, including Laker, Tony Lock, Sonny Ramadhin and Subhash Gupte, he succeeded against some of the greatest fast bowlers to walk the Test stage; bowlers like England’s Tyson, Statham, Alec Bedser and Fred Trueman, South Africa’s Peter Heine and Neil Adcock; West Indians Wes Hall and Garry Sobers.In the wake of the retirements of Ian Johnson and Miller, the Australian selectors surprisingly chose 22-year-old New South Wales captain Ian Craig to lead the national team ahead of Harvey and Richie Benaud. In 1956-57, ahead of the South African tour later in the year, two Sheffield Shield captains, Harvey (Victoria) and Craig (NSW) met on the field for the toss, which Craig won and asked Victoria to bat.Minutes before the toss, Victorian opening batsman Colin McDonald deflected a ball into his face in the nets and as Craig and Harvey were about to toss, Harvey asked Craig for a gentleman’s agreement to allow a substitute for McDonald. Craig refused, citing the importance of the match.Alan Davidson, the Australia and NSW allrounder, noted a rare angry reaction from Harvey, who came out to bat wearing the look of a man going to war.”Harv smashed us all over the place,” Davidson said. “We started the match at 11am and at 2pm Victoria had already scored 200 and I took the second new ball. My first ball was quick and moved late from leg stump to a little outside off and I thought, ‘Hey that’s a beauty!’ Harv moved back and across and hit the ball like a rocket in front of point for four. In fact, it was hit with such power the ball struck the pickets and rebounded 10 metres back into the playing area. Neil’s 209 was a brilliant knock. I rate Neil the best batsman in any of the Australian teams in which I played.”

****

Harvey was one of six brothers. His father Horace taught them all to play the game and they trained on the cobbled laneway next to the family home in Fitzroy. Neil’s elder brother Merv played one Test for Australia, while Mick and Ray both played for Victoria. And all six Harvey brothers (including Brian and Harold) played for Fitzroy in Victorian district cricket.Neil Harvey was hard to dislodge even on turning tracks in India and was never stumped in his Test career•Getty ImagesMost of the brothers played baseball and Neil was twice named in the All-Australian baseball team. He had a brilliant fast arm and he could field anywhere, from the covers to the slips.Many believe Harvey would have made a fabulous Test captain. He led the side once at Lord’s in 1961 when Benaud withdrew through injury, Harvey’s men won the Test.Harvey was a Test selector for 12 years, and in 1980, while playing in a golf four at Pennant Hills with Ian Chappell, Brian Taber and Graeme Watson, Harvey told Chappelli that it was he who convinced his fellow selectors that the time had come for Bill Lawry to go and Ian Chappell to take over.”Don [Bradman] wasn’t too keen on the idea and he believed that Ian wasn’t the right bloke for the job, but Chappelli became the captain and Don was wrong,” Harvey said.As a youngster, South Africa’s champion batsman Graeme Pollock was inspired by Harvey’s cricket and he remained his hero, proving that even heroes have heroes.The year 2014 has been a sad one for the Harvey family when Harvey lost his beloved wife, Barbara, recently.The “baby” of Don Bradman’s Invincibles turned 86 the other day. Among the well-wishers were fellow 1948 player Arthur Morris, Davidson and Ken Archer. Neil Harvey is greatly admired as a cricketer and a bloke throughout the cricketing firmament.

With two gone early and a brittle middle order to come, Jayawardene played the kind of innings that grabs you by the collar, flings you on a train and sends you packing on an adventure

Andrew Fidel Fernando at the SSC24-Jul-2014A palm-lined beach, a curry swimming in coconut milk, and spiked with red chilli – though this Sri Lanka team enjoy their travel, there is nothing quite like returning to the comforts of home, they said, as they began their first assignment on the island this year.But so far, they have not made the best of being in Sri Lanka. They were undone in the ODIs, on a turner in Colombo, then at windy Hambantota. Then they banked on spin on a dry Galle pitch in the first Test, only for South Africa to exploit the conditions even better, only differently – through reverse-swing. In a must-win match in Colombo, Mahela Jayawardene played one of his last few innings at his beloved home ground. With 140 not out on the first day, he finally exerted the home advantage Sri Lanka had been expected to have since the opposition landed.

‘Spin trio may come in handy’ – Silva

Sri Lanka made the unusual choice of fielding three frontline spinners and only one seam bowler at the SSC, but Kaushal Silva felt the pitch could be conducive to that attack, particularly as the game wears on.
“Even in the last hour it started to spin today, so it’s a good thing to have three spinners here. Even though we have two fingerspinners, Ajantha Mendis is a completely different bowler who has a lot of variety and it’s a good combination that we have. Having a spinner like Ajantha that bowls quickly through the air, might be a good choice here.”
Sri Lanka finished on 305 for 5 at the end of day one, which Silva felt was a position of relative strength, after winning the toss.
“Looking at the pitch, it will look like it will spin more and it will be difficult for us. It’s much better to bat in the first innings when the wicket is new and the ball is coming on to the bat. Even as the day progressed today, the ball was slowing down and it was harder to score runs. In the first two sessions we scored over 100 runs – so that was evidence it was slowing down.”

The SSC is where everything in Jayawardene’s cricket falls into place. The cracks are patched up. The toxins purged. At times over the past few months he has seemed scrambled in ODIs and leaden-footed even in Tests. But at the SSC he is not so much walking on air as he is gliding about as if the air itself is guiding his every move.At this ground, his mind synchronises with every cell in his body. Head still, hands sure, he strokes the ball with languor, and so late. Yet, though Jayawardene is on Sri Lankan time, the ball bursts off his blade like a Cape Canaveral rocket ship, or a Tokyo bullet train. He was lbw to a full, fast one in the first innings at Galle. When Dale Steyn tried pitching the ball full and straight in the seventh over here, it zoomed through midwicket like it had an appointment with the fence.Some Jayawardene hundreds are built brick-by-brick. The late cuts and swivel-pulls are there, but they are the colourful flashes in innings otherwise strung together by grit. His century in Dubai, in January, was one of those. Not here. Not where he is practically Superman. Two wickets had fallen before the sixth over, and another collapse seemed almost inevitable, but like in so many of his best innings, the match situation seemed irrelevant. He had ten runs off his first five balls. Then 38 off 45.There was swing in the morning, and enough carry for Quinton de Kock to take a few at head height, but between the 15th and 25th over, Sri Lanka were hurtling ahead at a run rate of almost seven. South Africa tried bowling full, short and in the channel, but each new ploy seemed an opportunity for the batsman to unfurl a new shot. Morne Morkel tried to bounce him in the 21st over; Jayawardene just leant back and stroked it for four over slip.”From the first ball itself he was more positive and looking for runs,” said Kaushal Silva, who has seen more of Jayawardene than most at the SSC. “That was one thing I didn’t see him doing in Galle. He was determined to get a hundred today, and he was mentally prepared to score runs too. I saw that while batting with him.”There was no hiding loose balls from Jayawardene in this mood, and South Africa’s spinners quickly found no faults in length or line would go unpunished. He watched one full over from Imran Tahir first, but then his trips down the pitch were almost sadistic. Tahir attempted to outdo him in flight, but throughout the day, it seemed as if Jayawardene was on a conveyor belt to the exact spot the ball would pitch. Some were larruped through cover, others lofted straight. Occasionally, instead of looking to free his arms, Jayawardene sought to close the angle down and whipped Tahir through midwicket.He played the faster, flatter Duminy from the crease, getting back outside the leg stump to cut, then slinking to off to push him to through the leg side. In a chanceless 140, Dean Elgar came closest to getting him out. He kept firing it outside Jayawardene’s leg stump when he was in the late 90s, and Jayawardene finally mistimed one on 99, spooning the ball two meters wide of short fine leg.Even late in the day, as cramp and fatigue set in, the runs kept flowing from his blade. Steyn had been beastly with reverse swing at Galle, but in the 68th over, there Jayawardene was, sliding into a back-cut for four, almost treating him like a spinner.Almost a quarter of Jayawardene’s Test runs have come at the SSC. There is no denying it is, as Angelo Mathews put it before this match, a “batsman’s paradise”. But on Wednesday, with two gone early and a brittle middle-order to come, Jayawardene set out to attack. It was the kind of Jayawardene innings that grabs you by the collar, flings you on a train and sends you packing on an adventure. Along the way, his team took the second Test by the scruff of the neck as well.

Geoff Boycott’s latest autobiography is nuanced and rounded, and acknowledges errors, failings and regrets

Les Smith19-Oct-2014Geoffrey Boycott is, by his own admission, a changed man. On the evidence of there are three prime causes of the change: marriage, fatherhood, and a horrible disease.Strictly speaking, is neither entirely a cricket book nor an autobiography. Boycott has already done that, publishing his first memoir in 1987. That was an extended exercise in self-justification, focused entirely on his route into top-flight cricket and the highs and lows once he got there. Now we have a much more rounded and nuanced book, full of self-awareness and a willingness, even eagerness, to acknowledge errors, failings and regrets.The core of the book comes early. The third and fourth of 12 chapters relate Boycott’s discovery in August 2002 that he had cancer, and the gruelling route to recovery. It’s impossible not to be touched by the frankness and detail in these chapters, and by Boycott’s acknowledgement of and gratitude to the people, both professional and personal, who supported him through the process. Yet Boycott the cricketer is still here. Writing of his radiotherapy, he says: “I counted the 35 sessions off like I would my runs when I was batting. I always had a gift when I was batting for knowing my own score.”Boycott, until now, has always been fiercely protective of his privacy, but here he opens up about the impact on his life of marriage to Rachael and becoming, relatively late in life, the father of Emma. Rachael lurks in the background of these chapters, providing loving support while all the professionals go about their life-saving business. As usual in a book like this there is an Acknowledgements page at the end. Only one person is acknowledged. is structured in a way that allows Boycott to discuss matters, both historical and contemporary, that interest or bother him. The first two chapters will be of great interest to the Yorkshire nuts who don’t already know the story of the internecine conflicts within the Ridings during Boycott’s career, including the eight years he captained them, but might be hard work for readers who are not so concerned.These chapters do, though, allow him to reflect at length on Fred Trueman, and the Boycott’s regrets about the many years during which they had no contact as a result of the incredibly complex Yorkshire politics that led to Boycott’s sacking. They were eventually reconciled, but there appears to be little hope for a few other Yorkies, chief among them Richard Hutton.In recent times Boycott has been forthright in the commentary box about “the sledging curse”, to which he devotes an entire chapter. It is no surprise to learn who is to blame for the curse: the Australians. One of Yorkshire’s recent heroes, Darren Lehmann, “probably the best overseas player we ever had”, is taken to task for inciting Australian crowds to have a go at Stuart Broad. “I love Darren,” writes Boycott, before giving him a good telling-off.Two sportsmen of different eras receive chapters of their own. Boycott attributes his support of Manchester United to his admiration as a young man of Denis Law. Fair enough, fantastic footballer. But it’s still difficult to reconcile West Riding roots with a love of a team from over there. East of the Pennines a view south to Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire is more understandable, and Boycott’s chapter “Cloughie my friend” is a great read. If ever a piece of writing gave the lie to the notion that opposites attract, this is it. Here are two driven, talented men who forged a close friendship after being introduced in the pavilion at Scarborough by Brian Close when Clough was still knocking in goals for Sunderland.The last three chapters of concern the England team of the present and the recent past. Sandwiched between Boycott’s thoughts on last winter’s Ashes debacle and the future of the side is a chapter entitled “KP the enigma”. He tells the story of Kevin Pietersen’s England career, and bemoans the irresponsibility of some of his decisions, both on and off the field. The last two sentences of the chapter are the most intriguing though, given the identity of their author: “You can be an individual in a team, but you can’t just be an individual because it is a team game. It is that simple”.The appeal of is not limited to the stuff about cricket. This a complex, driven man, whom we all recognise and admire for his achievements, revealing aspects of his life and survival that have hitherto been kept close to his chest. There is no fancy prose but we all know Geoff Boycott’s voice and, despite assistance with the writing from his colleague Nick Hoult, it can be heard in every sentence.The Corridor of Certainty
By Geoff Boycott
Simon & Schuster
288 pages, £20

A preview of the prospects of Mumbai, Odisha and Bengal ahead of the 2014-15 Ranji season

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2014MumbaiBy Abhishek PurohitMumbai are likely to have spearhead Dhawal Kulkarni available for more than one game, unlike last season•ESPNcricinfo LtdWhere they finished last season
Third in Group A with four wins, one defeat and three draws. Lost outright to Maharashtra in the quarter-final.The Big Picture
Mumbai had taken a 122-run first-innings lead over Maharashtra at Wankhede Stadium before they were shot out for 129 to lose by eight wickets. Mumbai teams are not expected to go down in knockout matches, that too at home against their neighbours. Sulakshan Kulkarni was removed as coach, and Pravin Amre has been brought back.Abhishek Nayar, who led when Zaheer Khan was absent last season, has been demoted to vice-captain. Suryakumar Yadav is Mumbai’s latest captain after Wasim Jaffer declined to lead. With the unavailability of Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma, Mumbai will continue to look to Jaffer for the big scores, along with Aditya Tare and Yadav. Nayar will need to rebound from atrocious performances in 2013-14. There are some new faces such as India Under-19 batsman Shreyas Iyer but the experienced Hiken Shah has been overlooked for the opening game.Zaheer’s return from another injury is still uncertain, but Dhawal Kulkarni, who managed just one game last season, is available. He will be supported by Shardul Thakur and Javed Khan. Vishal Dabholkar, with 39 wickets last season, will handle spinning duties along with Iqbal Abdulla while Nayar can always be relied upon to bowl tireless spells of medium-pace.Player to watch
Four hundreds in 25 first-class games do not do justice to Suryakumar Yadav’s immense talent. Often, he threatens to shred attacks with his range of strokes before throwing it away. He knows the added responsibility of captaincy will require him to control his instincts but has also said he will not alter his game much.Teamspeak
“We have had some of the greatest captains like Ajit Wadekar, Madhav Mantri, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar. The list just goes on. I know our history; stepping into their shoes is a huge ask.” – Mumbai captain Suryakumar YadavOdishaBy Amol Karhadkar
Where they finished last season
Odisha finished sixth in Group A, on the back of a victory and four draws. The outright victory helped them finish above Vidarbha, Haryana and Jharkhand.Big Picture
Ever since the change in title from Orissa to Odisha, the eastern minnows have started to improve their performance. After finishing in the middle of their group in Ranji Trophy last year, Odisha qualified for the Vijay Hazare Trophy knockouts last month.More than rechristening themselves, what has worked for the team is the involvement of two of the biggest cricket icons from the state. Debasis Mohanty and SS Das brought the state on cricketing map with their contributions in international cricket. And the duo has been roped in as head coach and batting coach respectively. The two have started to get the best out of an under-rated lot of players.After proving their mettle as a one-day side, Odisha are keen on improving their stature as a first-class side. The fortunes of the side will largely depend on how Natraj Behera, Govind Podder, Biplab Samantray and Basant Mohanty perform as a group. If the rest of the squad members chip in to aid these four key players, then Odisha will hope to compete in the toughest group of this season.Player to Watch
Biplab Samantray may have been replaced as the captain this season but the allrounder is still the main player for his side. As was evident during the just-concluded Deodhar Trophy, Samantray has established himself as a genuine allrounder in the shorter formats. But he would be keen to improve on his showing with the ball in the Ranji Trophy. His 433 runs with the bat were acceptable but a tally of six wickets from seven games was far from being satisfactory.Teamspeak
“Doing well in the one-dayers has been a morale-booster for the team. It’s important to translate that form into Ranji Trophy,” SS Das, the batting coach, said. “For that to happen, we will have to start well and our first game is against a tough opponent like Maharashtra. If we can do well in the first match, we can hope for turning this season into a memorable one.”Bengal
By Devashish FuloriaWhen he is not injured, Manoj Tiwary is still one of the top batsmen in the country•AFPWhere they finished last season
Semi-finalists. Lost to Maharashtra.Big Picture
One has to strive hard to come up with big names from the Bengal team after Sourav Ganguly’s retirement, but there are enough performers in the squad. Five of them were in the East Zone squad that lifted the Deodhar Trophy this year; two of them have played for India in the recent times, and looked in great nick during the tournament. But the big question will be how much Bengal can extract from them in an extremely tough group.Manoj Tiwary brought his rich form from Vijay Hazare into the Deodhar Trophy, smashing his way to 151 and 75 in two outings, and reminded the selectors that when he is not injured, he is still one of the top batsmen in the country. But it’s not just Tiwary who has been among runs. Shreevats Goswami has been scoring heavily in the one-dayers this season and there will always be the dangerous Laxmi Shukla to spring a surprise or two from the lower order.The bowling will again revolve around Ashok Dinda who, admirably, has only one intensity level and it is pretty high. Along with Veer Pratap Singh, Dinda forms a potent opening combination backed up by Shukla and spinners Iresh Saxena and the experienced Saurasish Lahiri.Player to watch

Sudip Chatterjee, the left-hand batsman, has played just eight first-class matches over three seasons and is yet to make a century in any form. In the Duleep Trophy quarter-final this year, he was run out one short of hundred in the second innings but that innings – his best in first-class cricket – did enough for the Bengal coach to name him as the one to watch out for this season.Teamspeak
“The first challenge will be to qualify for the knockouts as the group is really difficult. There is Karnataka, who are the best side at the moment, but there is Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Baroda, MP etc.”

Stats highlights from the third day of the fourth Test between India and Australia in Sydney

Bishen Jeswant08-Jan-2015Highest Indian run-getters in a series against Australia639 Runs scored by Virat Kohli in this series, the most by an Indian against Australia, at home or away. He went past Rahul Dravid, who had scored 619 runs during the 2003-04 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.4 Hundreds scored by Kohli during this series, making him only the second Indian to score as many in a Test series. Sunil Gavaskar had achieved this feat on two occasions against West Indies in 1971 and 1978-79.7 Centuries scored by captains across the four Tests, the most ever in a single Test series. Michael Clarke had one, Kohli and Steven Smith have three each.1 Time that two batsmen – Kohli and Smith – have made four or more hundreds each in the same Test series. Individually, they are the 19th and 20th batsmen to make four hundreds in a Test series.23 Years since an Indian opener played 250 or more balls in an innings in Australia. KL Rahul, with 262 balls for his 110 in Sydney, emulated Ravi Shastri, who had faced 477 balls for his 206 in Sydney in 1992.3 Hundreds for Kohli in his first three innings as captain, the only player to do so. His counterpart Smith has scored at least one hundred in each of his first three Tests as captain.2.97 India’s run rate during their first innings, the second-slowest of this series by either team. India have scored 342 runs so far from 115 overs. Teams have scored at a run rate in excess of three in 12 of the 13 other innings this series.5 Test hundreds for Kohli in Australia, only Sachin Tendulkar (6) has more. Gavaskar has scored five hundreds as well. Kohli is fifth on the list of overseas batsmen to score the most hundreds in Australia.39 Number of innings since Shane Watson has taken more than one wicket in an innings. He has figures of 2 for 42 in the first innings. The last time he took more than one wicket was in November 2011, when he returned figures of 5 for 17 against South Africa in Cape Town.