ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-2015Mark Craig did well to hold on to the catch at second slip•Getty ImagesWarner soaked in the applause from the WACA crowd after making 253, his best in international cricket•Getty ImagesA rather sedate Australia lost quick wickets after Warner’s dismissal, with Steven Smith edging behind for 27•Getty ImagesThe mini-slide didn’t dampen the mood at the ground though, as several fans thronged the stadium on a sunny day in Perth•Getty ImagesMitchell Johnson, who loves having a swing or two, stepped out to Craig and was stumped by BJ Watling•Getty ImagesSmith eventually declared the Australia innings at 559 for 9•Getty ImagesAnd Mitchell Starc pushed the hosts further ahead, trapping Martin Guptill lbw for 1…•Getty Images… but Kane Williams steadied the innings with an unbeaten 70•Getty ImagesWilliamson found good company in Tom Latham before he was out for 36•Getty ImagesRoss Taylor also struck some strong drives as New Zealand closed the day at 140 for 2•Getty Images

Should Zimbabwe Women qualify for the World T20, it will be a sign of how the game has progressed in the country in recent years

Liam Brickhill28-Nov-2015″If Don can do it, I can do it too.” So said Betty Wilson during Australia Women’s tour of England in 1951, when she was told that the ground she was playing at – Headingley – was the one where Don Bradman virtually always made a hundred. She did indeed reach a century that day, in just 75 minutes, hitting the last ball of the day for four to win the match.Wilson, who was never paid for playing, was a consummate professional in an amateur era. Women like her have been knocking on cricket’s glass ceiling for generations. Yet, in an age of million-dollar IPL contracts, World Cups in multiple formats, and a global cricket audience of well over a billion people, Associate and women cricketers enjoy virtually none of the fame and riches of the game’s top echelons, and are largely motivated only by their love of the game.”I just had to do it,” says Zimbabwe allrounder Tasmeen Granger of her choice to pursue a life in cricket. “I fell in love with it.” Like Wilson, Granger is not paid to play and does not have the safety of a professional contract. She is a member of the Zimbabwe women’s squad that has arrived in Thailand looking to qualify for their first ever major event – the World T20 in India in March next year, which will run concurrently with the men’s tournament.Granger is part of a new generation of Zimbabwean women battling to elevate their game to the status of the men’s in the public eye. When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, healthy local cricket structures helped to plot the men’s path towards Test cricket, yet, as Isabelle Duncan – another notable cricketer – explained in her book , there was an “urgent need” to revitalise women’s cricket in the country “after its almost complete decline. The women’s game was in a dire state with very few players, no funding and a weak standard.” Thirty-five years later, things have improved, though there is a long way to go yet.Granger described her start in cricket as an act of rebellion after her parents stopped her from playing rugby. “My parents said: ‘No, it’s a guys’ sport, stop that!’ And then I was like, ‘Okay, fine, you say it’s violent, so I’ll play cricket. I came up in the system in high school, playing with the guys, because there was no girls’ team at Petra High School.”Granger had an example to follow in Bulawayo: Sharne Mayers, two years her senior at Petra, had done the same thing and played for the boys’ side at school. Mayers was named Zimbabwe Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2010, aged 18, and immediately made an impact in the national side. Granger was the same age when she joined Mayers in the senior squad.

“My parents said: ‘No, rugby is a guys’ sport, stop that!’ And then I was like, ‘Okay, fine, you say it’s violent, so I’ll play cricket'”Tasmeen Granger

Virtually every member of Zimbabwe’s squad started out in international cricket as a teenager. Mary-Anne Musonda, who, like Granger, is an offspinner and handy batsman, is already a nine-year veteran of international competition, at 24. Musonda was a 13-year-old hockey prodigy at Kwekwe High when a cricket coach spotted something special in her.”My hockey coach and my cricket coach were friends,” said Musonda. “My cricket coach was passing by and I think he saw me swing the hockey stick or something, and he spoke to my hockey coach. He said, ‘You should try to play cricket’, and I thought, sure why not. When I tried cricket I actually started enjoying it more than all the other sports. I just got into it, and that was it.” Two years later she was part of the national squad at the Africa Region World Cup Qualifying series in Nairobi in 2006 – a groundbreaking tournament for the Zimbabwe women, as it marked their first ever full international competition.Musonda carried drinks for all but one of the games, but she thought, “I’m here, it’s enough. Because with the calibre of players that were there, I knew it was not possible for me to play. Just being there with them was the best. That was pretty brilliant for me. Good exposure, good experience and I really enjoyed it.”Cricket structures available to girls have improved greatly since the likes of Mayers, Granger and Musonda started to play the game, and particularly since the franchise system was adopted nationally in 2009. Many high schools across the country offer girls the chance to play cricket, while every provincial franchise now includes a full women’s team in their programme, and the Under-19 side, which has won the Four Nations tournament in Botswana three years running, regularly joins the national team in camp for exposure and experience.”Before, it was a case of if coaches spotted girls in certain schools, they’d just tell you, ‘We want you here on trial,'” says Granger. “It’s gotten better over the years, but when I started you’d find that if we wanted game time, we’d play with the boys’ development side. That’s how I got into playing club cricket. There’s a club called Emakhandeni, where the likes of John Nyumbu and Brian Chari play. That’s the club I started playing for, and that’s how I got game time. And it helped a lot.”Like the men’s side, Zimbabwe women have also suffered from a paucity of bilateral cricket in the past, being focused almost entirely on tournaments. Yet that is beginning to change, and with increased exposure Zimbabwe are progressing. “Our women’s team has definitely come a long way and since I debuted there’s been big progress,” says Granger. “In 2013 we found ourselves at the global qualifiers in Ireland. We fell three runs short of qualifying for the World Cup in New Zealand. We went to the qualifiers in December last year in Benoni and we won the tournament. Besides South Africa, Zimbabwe is one of the outstanding teams in Africa. We played South Africa at home about a year and a half ago and we got thrashed badly. And now the team went up to South Africa about a month or two ago, and now we’re losing by three runs, two wickets, three wickets, like that. It’s a huge change.”England’s Sarah Taylor is a role model for Mary-Anne Musonda•Getty ImagesThere is greater stability and continuity in the national squad. “There are rookies and kids coming into the system, but the national team is quite stable,” Granger says, “and it’s more or less the same team that’s been playing together for the last two or three years. Now we have camps almost every month, whether it’s a fitness camp or a technical camp, we’re practising a lot more. Management, the likes of Caroline Nyamande, have done so much. You can tell it’s growing.”More games also means that it is more likely that the women’s game could be fully professionalised, though that is still some way off. “We haven’t had an opportunity to be contracted yet, so to decide that you will focus only on cricket without a contract is unrealistic,” says Musonda. “We haven’t developed to that level yet but it is heading in that direction. The more exposure we get, the more game time, then the more realistic it gets for us to be contracted. If you don’t have games then a contract won’t happen.”Without a doubt we need investment. We really need some kind of sponsorship. Most of the time we might be able to go and play games, but then we don’t have funding or equipment. The structures are there, we just need input into those structures. With that, anything is possible. Get all the girls involved at school, get as many games as possible. That would kick-start something positive.”Granger’s career is also beginning to provide examples of the opportunities available to Zimbabwean women in cricket. She became the first Zimbabwean female cricketer to play for an overseas side when she was selected to play in a combined Canadian-American side in the Atlanta Women’s Cricket Tournament – which also includes national teams from the Bahamas and Cayman Islands – for two years in a row in 2014 and 2015, and has also just landed herself a player-coach job with the East Christchurch-Shirley Club in New Zealand. That post will allow Granger, who holds a Level 1 certificate, to further her coaching qualifications, bringing vital experience back to the game in Zimbabwe. Her contract runs from October to March, but she says she will be available for Zimbabwe whenever needed: “I can’t abandon my country, ever. I’m always available for selection, though it will be weird not to train with them.”Granger and Musonda are conscious of the fact that they may be role models to the next generation of women in Zimbabwean cricket, just as players such as former national captain Julia Chibhabha (sister of Zimbabwe batsman Chamu) were to them. “People like Sinikiwe Mpofu and Julia Chibhabha, they stuck it out when things weren’t really working, and it’s because of people like that who decided: ‘Okay, look, we’re not getting the best deal here, but let’s not only think of ourselves. We’re going to retire, sure, but what about the girls coming up behind us?’ They were pioneers, and they did it really well,” says Granger.”Julia Chibhabha has to be the one who sticks out, not only for the way she played cricket but the way she carried herself as a captain and as a senior,” says Musonda. “I really liked playing with her. Internationally, I really look up to [England batsman] Sarah Taylor. She’s a legend.”

“Without a doubt we need investment. We really need some kind of sponsorship. Most of the time we might be able to go and play games, but then we don’t have funding or equipment”Mary-Anne Musonda

There is a slim chance that Musonda could get to play against Taylor, as it is rumoured that Zimbabwe are attempting to engage the England women’s team for a one-off match at home. “It’s a possibility,” says Musonda. “I was talking to my manager Caroline Nyamande and she said there is a chance that we might play England.”Nyamande, who is the national coordinator for women’s cricket, and manager of the national side, is one of the main driving forces of women’s cricket in Zimbabwe, and the team’s trip to Thailand for the qualifiers has been her focus for several months. “Although we have played China and beat them before, we will not take them for granted,” said Nyamande before Zimbabwe’s opening match against China at the Asian Institute of Technology Ground in Bangkok. “We have had good preparations, including touring South Africa, while the icing on the cake was the Bangladesh warm-up games. All players are raring to go and they are quite geared up. We want it so bad.””We’re out to prove a point,” says Granger. “We’re not just a development side. We’re a serious cricket team. Ten teams go to the qualifiers, and only two qualify, so it’s going to be tough. So we’re gunning hard for it. As a team, we want to go to the World T20. Our group has got fire in it. If we can get to the final, we’re going to a World Cup. And the girls do really deserve it because we’ve worked hard for it. We’ve come a long way.”The top two sides from each group will make it to the semi-finals, and the final is on December 5. The two trophy finalists will join defending champions Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies in the main tournament next year.”It would be a start to my biggest dream, just getting to the World T20 and performing there,” says Musonda. “For Zimbabwe. That’s my goal, that’s my dream. Just putting Zimbabwe ladies on the map.”

A wrist injury put the Australian legspinner’s career and life in a tailspin. But now he’s slowly getting back on track

Tom Morris02-Dec-2015Do you remember James Muirhead? The fresh-faced wristspinner who fell off the scene faster than he burst on it two summers ago. Ring a bell?At the start of the 2013-14 Australian season, Muirhead was not deemed good enough to warrant a Big Bash contract. By the end of it, he was Australia’s first-choice wristspinner in limited-overs cricket.Nicknamed “Vegemite” for his rosy red cheeks, Muirhead has had a journey not yet a fraction complete. Already the uncertainties, tribulations and utter frustrations of being a professional cricketer have forced him to question the path that, in relative terms, he has only just begun.I must confess I share a close bond with Jimmy. I’ve kept wicket to him, batted with him many times, and trained alongside him. I’ve watched him grow from a supremely confident 3rd XI legspinner at Shane Warne’s old club, St Kilda, to an international cricketer who tumbled back down the ranks again.One week he was playing 3rd XI club cricket on the Ross Gregory Oval, the next, it seemed, he was dismissing Indian maestro Virat Kohli in a World T20 encounter in Dhaka.He’s only 22, but already his career reflects a game of snakes and ladders.Muirhead played the last of his five international T20s last March and, in the 18 months between then and now, his troubles have brewed internally and materialised externally in disturbing fashion. Watching from just 22 yards away, I’ve had front-row seats and at times it has not been pretty. The troubles first started in October 2014.

“I used to think I’d dominate no matter what. Now I know I have to work really hard to compete”James Muirhead

In February that year, an article was published on ESPNcricinfo, titled “The rapid rise of James Muirhead”. Even the man himself now concedes it would be fair to write a story that is the precise mirror image of the original. “I was at rock bottom earlier this year,” Muirhead said last week.”I went to South Africa with Australia and then to the World T20 in Bangladesh. It was an amazing experience. I sat next to Dale Steyn after a game in the change rooms and couldn’t even speak, I was in such awe.”I came home and played a Shield game against NSW at the SCG. That’s when my wrist that I rely on for spin began to ache.”Towards the end of last season, the zip and bounce that had been his forte deserted him. I’d watch in amazement as he would ask club captain Rob Quiney to remove him from the attack. “I’m struggling, bruz,” he’d say before trudging down to fine leg. Confidence shot, he was a shadow of his former self. This happened Saturday after Saturday and game after game for months.Throughout this period, fellow Victorian legspinner Fawad Ahmed was on his way to claiming a competition-high 48 wickets for the season, making it almost impossible for Muirhead to force his way back into the team – even if he did bowl well at club level.”I didn’t really tell anyone about my wrist until it got really bad. It wasn’t one incident, it just got progressively worse the more I bowled. I couldn’t hear the clicking sound in my hand when I let the ball go, so I knew something was wrong. When I bowl well, my wrist clicks and the ball fizzes out – this stopped happening,” he said.”Having no confidence really got to me and I struggled to get out of bed some mornings. I didn’t want to train and I have no doubt I was depressed. It was very difficult times. Everything just spiralled down.”In a short span of time Muirhead went from turning out for St Kilda’s 3rd XI to dismissing batsmen in the World T20•Associated PressCricket clubs can be ruthless places, especially successful ones like St Kilda Cricket Club. From 2000 to 2006, the Saints won five two-day 1st XI premierships and this win-at-all-costs mantra still exists today. Every individual gets analysed, people talk, nobody is spared critical judgement.Success is expected, both individually and collectively. Hardened professionals like Michael Beer, Graeme Rummans, Peter Handscomb, Quiney and Muirhead train alongside school teachers, carpenters and University students. So when Jimmy was struggling, it was natural that people would wonder why.”I couldn’t get the revolutions on the ball and I began to worry about what people were saying about me,” he said.”I’d never cared before, but for some reason now I did and it consumed me. It was as if everyone from the firsts to fourths were looking at me thinking I was shit. I didn’t want to train and I just wanted to quit.”I started to think I might have to find a job even though I knew I had three years left on my state contract. Mentally, I was in a shocking place and I now know I will never be lower than that again.”There was one summer evening where he refused to bowl in the nets – unheard of for someone of his standing. I later found out it was because he was terribly embarrassed. He was bowling a long hop every second ball and being belted out of the net. He’d go and retrieve the ball, put on a brave face, and the same thing would happen again. It must have been demoralising. There was nothing any of us could say that could make him feel better. Physically he was struggling with his wrist, but mentally, he had plummeted to an entirely new low.

“You can see he’s a real natural legspinner. There’s a lot of sidespin on the ball. He gets really big turn. I think that’s got everyone excited”Cameron White

Surgery was initially delayed in the hope that rest would be the cure. It didn’t, so in June 2015, Muirhead went under the knife. The recovery period was six to eight weeks, but in reality he is only just finding his old self again now.”I was in such a bad way mentally because of my bowling,” he said. “I couldn’t understand why one day I would be dipping and ripping the ball, and then a couple of months later I was in pain and was hardly spinning it. Surgery allowed me to refresh and almost start again in some ways.”But to paint a picture of eternal doom and gloom would be to dismiss the journey of fellow twirler Brad Hogg, or to a lesser extent Chris Rogers and Adam Voges. For cricket is a pursuit that often favours the stubborn over the skilful – a fact Muirhead, who has a Perth Scorchers and Cricket Victoria contract, is acutely aware of, following a harrowing 18 months. Like so many before him, he knows he possesses the raw skills. Yet at the elite level, pure talent is nowhere near enough.In many respects it has been his close bond with talismanic chinaman and eternal optimist Hogg that has allowed the western suburbs-raised Muirhead to gain perspective in times of despair.”I work very closely with Hoggy at the Scorchers now and he’s really kept me going through the bad times,” he said.”It doesn’t matter where he is or what time of the day it is, he answers my calls and he’s been exceptionally influential on my life. I actually spoke to him yesterday. He rang me to speak to me about my goals and to see how I was going. Without him I am not sure where I’d be.”I understand now it is not going to be easy. I used to think I’d dominate no matter what. Now I know I have to work really hard to compete.”The other person who he credits with helping halt his rapid slide is Cricket Victoria psychologist Tony Glynn.Glynn, who worked closely with Victoria’s cricketers after Phil Hughes’ tragic death last year, has been spending an hour per week with Muirhead for the past eight months – something the legspinner would have laughed off had he been offered psychological assistance three years ago.In an Ashes tour game in November 2013, Muirhead took the wickets of Alastair Cook (twice), Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen•Getty Images”I would have said, ‘What are sports psychologists for? You don’t even need them. They are a waste of money’,” he conceded. “Now I realise, having experienced the highs and the bad lows, that they are crucial. Tony helps me develop routines, set goals and gives me another person to talk to.”Roger Federer, Adam Scott, Steve Smith, and all these elite athletes have deeply embedded routines. I never thought about it before, but now when I watched these guys play, I see their routine. I didn’t have one but now I do. It allows me to have a default setting for when I play if things go wrong.”When he’s at his pomp, Muirhead’s greatest asset is the wicked revolutions he imparts on the ball. Facing him in the nets, your audible signals are just as important as the visual cues. His legbreak fizzes through the air, the tiny rope on the seam rotating so viciously it creates enough friction to hear quite unmistakably. Probably the only thing more daunting than facing him is keeping to him on a tired wicket.”I’ve stood at slip in the three T20 games he’s played for Australia and you can just see he’s a real natural legspinner of the ball – there’s a lot of sidespin on the ball,” Cameron White said last year. “He gets really big turn. I think that’s got everyone excited, including the people he plays with.”Muirhead, who has played for three Big Bash franchises, does not see himself as the next Shane Warne, despite the early comparisons. He does not aspire to be Stuart MacGill or Yasir Shah, or anyone else, really. As his club and state team-mates will strongly attest, Jimmy just wants to be Jimmy and turn the ball as sharply as his rehabilitated wrist will allow. Last week he played for Victoria’s Futures League team against the ACT at his home ground, the Junction Oval, in a four-day game. Although his figures were modest (one wicket in the first innings), his control was back. “It was a flat deck and was relatively happy with how they came out,” he said. “I’m getting back to where I want to be.”Muirhead has been forced to wade through thick mud. Dirtied and demonised by the terrors in his own mind, he could have thrown in the towel, but he didn’t. If he makes it back to the apex of the cricketing mountain, he will undoubtedly be better for what he has endured. His list of scalps does not include names like Gayle, Pietersen, Duminy, Gibbs and Kohli for nothing.

A series win in South Africa is a notable achievement, but England are still going to finish the series with some familiar issues to overcome

George Dobell in Centurion24-Jan-2016Whatever happens over the last couple of days of this series – and it will take a bit of a miracle to deny South Africa a consolation victory – it seems England will finish their winter of Test action with just about as many questions to answer as they had at the start.It would be harsh to suggest that England, victors in South Africa for the first time in more than a decade, have failed to make any progress. They have seen Steven Finn cement his position as first-choice third seamer and Ben Stokes develop both as a batsman (he has scored more runs than any other England player in this series) and as a bowler (among England’s bowlers, only Stuart Broad has taken more wickets). And Jonny Bairstow has proven himself as a batsman, if not yet as a Test-quality wicketkeeper.But the holes that existed before exist still. Alex Hales has not convinced as opening position, Nick Compton has not made himself impossible to drop at No. 3, while James Taylor, despite his outstanding fielding at short-leg, has averaged a modest 30 in his four-and-a-half Tests this winter. All three may yet go a long way towards proving themselves in their final innings of this series but, as things stand, Gary Ballance and Ian Bell will feel that, if they start the domestic season well, they have a strong chance of a recall.Perhaps that is harsh on Compton. His batting went a long way to winning the Durban Test and he was pretty much blameless for his first innings lbw here. He may still be England’s best bet as an opening partner for Alastair Cook, though that would leave a question over who should bat at No. 3. Joe Root is one option, but it may be weakening a strength to move him from the No. 4 position where he has dominated.Equally, England started the winter with questions over Jos Buttler as keeper, and end them with questions over Bairstow as keeper. Bairstow has missed seven of the 23 chances he has been offered in the series and, in failing to cling on to his opportunities – a couple of them tough – by the three centurions in this game (Hashim Amla on 5, Quinton de Kock on 80 and Stephen Cook on 47) he could be argued to have cost his side 221 runs. England’s catching will have to improve if they are to progress up the world rankings.Moeen Ali, meanwhile, despite a pleasing innings here – his first Test half-century since the Edgbaston Ashes Test in July, 15 innings ago – has averaged 19 with the bat and 45.47 with the ball over the two series against Pakistan and South Africa. Chris Woakes has one last chance on the fourth morning to prove himself with the ball while Jimmy Anderson, while still all but certain to play against Sri Lanka, would love to prove that he no longer requires help from English-style conditions to prosper. It is not so long ago that he was England best bowler in the UAE.England’s catching has not been of the standard required at Test level•Getty ImagesThere was little wrong with England’s batting here. Of the top seven, only Taylor – trying to hook a ball for eight – and, to a lesser extent, Hales, had cause to regret their choice of shot. The rest of them were out to fine deliveries on an increasingly tricky surface. Maybe one or two of them could have left the balls they edged, but when some balls are shooting and others rearing, batting is far from easy.England’s problem is that they conceded at least 100 more runs than they should have done in South Africa’s first innings. Their bowling in the first two sessions of the match and their failure to accept chances in the field allowed South Africa to establish a lead that is likely to prove decisive. With the variable bounce likely to become more pronounced as the game progresses, a target of 250 in the fourth innings could prove desperately difficult.”It’s going to be tough,” Moeen Ali, who reckoned England could chase 300, admitted after play on day three. “There are a lot of cracks. There is up and down movement and a bit of spin as well. We’re going to have to play extremely well to get anything out of this game.”We’re going to have to bowl them out quickly in the morning and then bat really well.”We dropped a lot of catches. A lot of very important catches. Three guys made hundreds and we dropped all three of them.”The highest fourth-innings total here in a Test is England’s 251 for 8 in January 2000. In reality, though, that was the second innings of the now-notorious match in which both sides forfeited an innings. In a more conventional situation, the highest fourth-innings total is England’s 228 for 9 in 2009, in which they clung on by their fingernails for a draw. The highest total to win in a match where all four innings occurred is South Africa’s 226 for 4 in 1998. History is not on England’s side.The only chink of light from an England perspective is the possibility that South Africa may be reduced to a two-man seam attack. Kyle Abbott was forced off the pitch with a hamstring strain towards the end of England’s innings and may well be unable to bowl in their second. That would leave a heavy burden on Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel but, with the pitch turning and Rabada fast emerging as Dale Steyn’s long-term replacement, England will still face a desperately tough challenge.

Stats highlights from the fourth day in Christchurch, where Williamson completed 4000 Test runs but got out in the 90s yet again

Bharath Seervi23-Feb-20162 Batsmen who have completed 4000 Test runs at a younger age than Kane Williamson’s 25 years and 199 days. Sachin Tendulkar was 24 years, 224 days when he got to that mark in December 1997 and Alastair Cook was 25 years, 79 days in March 2010. The previous youngest batsman for New Zealand was Stephen Fleming at 29 years, 32 days in May 2002.89 Innings required by Williamson to complete 4000 runs in Tests – the least by any New Zealand batsman. Martin Crowe had done it in 93 innings and Ross Taylor in 94. Williamson is the eighth New Zealand player to aggregate 4000 or more Test runs and his average of 49.23 is the best among them.1 Number of times Australia have lost a Test, out of 17 previous instances, when they have chased a fourth-innings target against New Zealand. They have won 13 times and drawn three times. The only defeat was in Hobart in 2011, when they were bowled out for 233 chasing 241. The target of 201 in this Test is the second-highest for Australia in New Zealand. The highest was 210 in Hamilton in 2000 which Australia chased down quite easily scoring at 5.10 runs per over for the loss of four wickets.97 Williamson’s score in this innings – his eighth score in the nineties in international cricket. He has been out six times in 90s in ODIs and twice in Tests. For New Zealand, only Nathan Astle and Fleming have more such dismissals – nine each. This is the fourth time Williamson was dismissed for 97 in international matches. Before this match he was also the last New Zealand batsman to be dismissed in the nineties in Tests – 91 against England in Auckland in 2012-13. This is his sixth such score in international matches since 2015; no other batsman has been dismissed in the nineties more than twice in these 14 months.5/59 Jackson Bird’s figures in New Zealand’s second innings – his best in Tests. Only once had he taken four wickets in an innings in the past – 4 for 41 against Sri Lanka at the SCG in 2013. He picked up only five wickets in his first five innings outside Australia before this five-for. Bird is the 12th Australian bowler to take a five-for in New Zealand.1 Previous instance of New Zealand batsmen sharing a century partnership for the fifth wicket in both innings of a Test. In the 1991 Test against Sri Lanka in Hamilton, Andrew Jones and Shane Thomson had shared partnerships of 113 and 105 for the fifth wicket in the two innings. In this Test, Brendon McCullum and Corey Anderson added 179 runs in the first innings, and Anderson and Williamson had a 102-run stand in the second. The only other such instance against Australia was by England at Lord’s in the 2013 Ashes.66 Matt Henry’s score in the second innings – the second-highest by a New Zealand No. 9 against Australia. Only Adam Parore’s 110 at the WACA in 2001 is higher. Henry shared a 118-run partnership with BJ Watling, which is only the second century stand for the eighth wicket for New Zealand against Australia.22 Catches by fielders in the first three innings of this match – the most in the first three innings of any Test. Out of 30 batsmen dismissed in the first three innings, 26 were caught, but only four by wicketkeepers. The 17 catches by fielders in the first two innings is also a record. The overall record for most catches by fielders in a Test is 27.6 Consecutive innings in which Nathan Lyon picked up at least three wickets before going wicket-less in New Zealand’s second innings. The six innings were over the last three Tests: two against West Indies and one against New Zealand.

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Mar-2016Bangladesh, however, hit back by removing Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan in the space six balls•AFPSuresh Raina then came in and put up a 50-run partnership with Virat Kohli•Associated PressShuvagata Hom dismissed Kohli and Bangladesh began to strangle India’s momentum•AFPAl-Amin Hossain added to India’s woes by sending back Raina and Hardik Pandya off consecutive balls in the 16th over•AFPYuvraj Singh struggled to find timing as he could manage only 3 off 6 balls•IDI/Getty ImagesMS Dhoni could not provide India an explosive finish and scratched around for a 12-ball 13*•IDI/Getty ImagesMustafizur Rahman bowled a tight last over that produced the wicket of Ravindra Jadeja to help his side keep India to 146•AFPTamim Iqbal made a brisk 35 to set Bangladesh on course in the chase•AFPR Ashwin then brought India back with the timely wickets of Mohammad Mithun in his first spell, and Shakib Al Hasan in his second•AFPRavindra Jadeja slipped one past Tamim in the eighth over•AFPMashrafe Mortaza came in at No. 5, but could only manage 6, as the match started to tilt in India’s favour.•AFPBut Bangladesh kept fighting. Soumya Sarkar made a valuable 21 in the end overs as the equation boiled down to 11 needed off the final over•IDI/Getty ImagesIn the last over bowled by Hardik Pandya, Mushfiqur Rahim hit two boundaries off the second and third ball…•AFP… before falling with Bangladesh two runs short of the target•AFPPandya got Mahmudullah off the next ball and Bangladesh required two off the last ball•AFPPandya held his nerve to bowl a short-of-length ball, wide of Shuvagata Hom. Hom missed it, and Dhoni ran Mustafizur out to knock Bangladesh out of the World T20•AFP

From the lack of clarity on AB de Villiers’ batting position, to questionable team selection, their early World T20 exit was a familiar story

Firdose Moonda28-Mar-20163:53

Match Day – SA stars will feel this missed opportunity

If you feel like you’ve read this story before, you probably have. Apologies in advance that, yet again, you have to endure an analysis of a South African failure in their quest for major-tournament glory.This time, they’ve stumbled before the real hurdles and are out of contention with a game to play. For a side that, according to the captain, had “all the bases covered” before the tournament, to have plundered those depths indicates that something went very, very wrong.Although South Africa will endure their fair share of jibes, they actually seemed to do everything right in preparation. They won series in Bangladesh and India, to demonstrate their ability in subcontinental conditions. They beat England convincingly at home to take a psychological advantage into their tournament opener. They played more matches than everyone else, except Pakistan – who also exited in the group phase, which perhaps hints at the dangers of over-preparing. And Faf du Plessis believed this was their strongest squad. It probably was, but there were problems in a few areas.Changing the plan
The debate dominating the build-up was who South Africa would choose to partner AB de Villiers at the top, not whether de Villiers would remain in the opening berth or not, which led many to believe de Villiers would stay there. He was promoted when Quinton de Kock lost form and was dropped for the India series, and then played in that role in the Australia series. Even when de Kock regained his touch and Hashim Amla made a case for his own inclusion with a string of strong scores, du Plessis was adamant that de Villiers’ position was fixed.”I think our strongest team is with AB at the top in India. If the World Cup was in South Africa, the thinking would be different,” du Plessis said at the time. “We decided on AB at the top a while ago, and to change that would be a sign of panic.”De Villiers did not open in any of the three matches and came in as low as No. 5 in the West Indies game, after Rilee Rossouw, who was playing his first game in the tournament.Either South Africa were bluffing all along – although that seems unlikely, because du Plessis also declared himself “not the kind of guy to change plans” – or they realised the richness of their resources with all three of de Kock, Amla and de Villiers in the team and had to find a way to accommodate all of them. They decided to deploy de Kock and Amla in their most natural position as openers and left de Villiers to float, which resulted in them not getting the best out of the most dangerous player they have.David Wiese: too many allrounders spoil the broth?•Getty ImagesNot changing the plan
In India, spin is a primary weapon and should be brought out early. Other teams use their spinners to open the bowling; South Africa insist on keeping Imran Tahir for after the Powerplay. The reasoning has been that Tahir becomes too much of a target when the fielding restrictions are in place, and that he has a tendency to leak runs. But that may be too simplistic an assessment of a player who has come to be among the shrewdest short-format cricketers around. Tahir has contained and attacked in the middle periods of matches for long enough for South Africa to trust him to do it earlier.When he was used in that period, against West Indies, Tahir was effective, leaving South Africa to wonder what could have been had they unleashed him earlier in other matches.Lack of discipline
The signs that the bowlers needed to tighten up were there during the Australia series, when South Africa lost the second match after failing to defend 204. They sent down eight wides and two no-balls then, and du Plessis asked for their basics to be better. In their tournament opener in India, South Africa gave away 26 extras against England – the most by any team in a T20 innings this year – and 20 of those were wides. They were better against Afghanistan and West Indies and conceded seven and ten in each of those games, but in a format where the margins are so small, it was still too many.Too many two-in-ones
After searching for a two-in-one player for almost two years since Jacques Kallis’ limited-overs retirement in 2014, South Africa were so delighted they found two that they insisted on playing Chris Morris and David Wiese together. To better balance a South African XI, there is actually only space for one of them, which would have created room for another batsman, something that was needed in Nagpur, or a front-line seamer. Kyle Abbott would have come in handy throughout the tournament, but he played only two of the first three games.Injuries and other oddities
It seems unfair to pin this on South Africa because it is out of their control, but this factor could have been dealt with better. While there was nothing they could do about the hamstring niggle that kept JP Duminy out of the West Indies game, which was a setback but should not have been a tournament-ending one, they could have handled Dale Steyn’s selection differently.South Africa mysteriously shelved the idea of opening with AB de Villiers, thereby giving their most dangerous player less time at the crease•Getty ImagesSteyn spent two months on the sidelines in a summer in which his only appearances were in two Tests in which he was injured. Steyn made his comeback from what he termed a broken shoulder against Australia and was adequate, without being overly impressive, but given that he was fit, South Africa wanted to take him to the tournament. But then, they only used him in the first match (in which he went wicketless and only bowled half his quota of overs), and then benched him, claiming they had to choose between him and an allrounder.”It was between Dale and David Wiese. Chris Morris is an allrounder. We don’t really compete him with someone else, so it was close today between Dale and David Wiese,” du Plessis explained after the Nagpur match.Wiese is also an allrounder, so the choice should rather have been between him and Morris, and then between Steyn and Kagiso Rabada for the spearhead role. Steyn should have won out on experience. Rabada, for all his excellence, is starting to show signs of overwork and could have sat out.Even if South Africa needed Rabada to fulfil the transformation target, Aaron Phangiso’s selection against West Indies would have taken care of the black-African requirement, and they could have included Farhaan Behardien in Rossouw’s place, which would also have given them another bowling option.Arguing that the transformation agenda has hindered South Africa is a naive assertion, especially this time. In South Africa’s 15-man squad, they have six players of colour, including two black Africans and enough possible combinations to ensure they pick a balanced XI while also meeting their commitment to change.In the end, South Africa tripped over themselves. And yes, you’ve read that before too. Until next time then…

Returning to Test cricket after a long layoff, Mohammed Shami ran up with noticeably shorter strides and dismantled West Indies’ top order with pace and bounce

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Antigua24-Jul-20162:11

Manjrekar: ‘Heartening to see Shami, Umesh vary their lengths’

On Friday evening, Mohammed Shami took his first Test wicket in a year, six months, and 13 days. If any wicket is worth that long a wait, one necessitated by injury, surgery, and 40 days on crutches, this was probably it.The seam was bolt upright as the ball left Shami’s hand, with no hint of wobble, and the impact of seam on turf caused the ball to move away from Rajendra Chandrika. It pitched just short of a good length, not too far from off stump, climbed a few inches more than Chandrika possibly expected, and drew an instinctive jab. Outside edge taken, chance accepted, and West Indies, replying to India’s 566 for 8 declared, were 29 for 1.It was a beautiful delivery, from a bowler fully capable of bowling them, but perhaps few had really expected him to produce that particular kind of delivery.Before this Test, 48.94% of Shami’s Test wickets were either bowled or leg before, and only 31.91% caught behind or in the slip cordon. Those numbers reflected the skills he was primarily known for: pace, a fullish, attacking length, and an ability to reverse the ball. He possessed a sharp bouncer too, but did not necessarily generate steep bounce from a good length or just short of it.He often got wickets for the opposite reason, with balls that skidded on, losing very little pace off the pitch, reaching the batsman quicker than expected, perhaps even a shade lower than expected, and punishing them for camping in the crease.Marlon Samuels knew all about this. Shami, on Test debut, had dismissed him twice with deliveries skidding through from that perfect length, the shortest possible length he could land on while still hitting the stumps. Samuels was caught on the crease both times, bowled for 65 in the first innings and lbw for 4 in the second.On Saturday, two-and-a-half years later, Samuels faced Shami again. He seemed to be reminding himself of those dismissals, and seemed to be a man fighting his muscle memory, a man of sluggish footwork telling himself to press forward. The result of that internal struggle was a sort of crouching shuffle across the crease, and Shami wrong-footed him twice with bouncers. Samuels got under both of them, hunching awkwardly low.Shami’s 16th ball to Samuels landed on the fullish side of a good length, in the corridor. Samuels shuffled across once more, leaning forward, and aimed for a push into the covers. All he managed was a thin edge. It settled snugly in Wriddhiman Saha’s gloves, and Shami had become the joint-quickest Indian fast bowler to 50 Test wickets.Once again there was movement, and once again a bit of extra bounce. The ball had brushed the edge of Samuels’ bat close to its shoulder. In between the Chandrika and Samuels dismissals, Shami had dismissed Darren Bravo with a not dissimilar delivery, though shorter. Three balls after sending back Samuels, he got Jermaine Blackwood to fend another awkwardly lifting ball to gully.Four wickets, all of them the result of extra bounce. This was new, and unexpected. It caused you to watch every step of his action just that little closer. Once you did that, there was one obvious change from the Shami of old.Former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop was pleased with Shami’s alignment at the crease, his feet lined up to point him precisely where he wanted to bowl•Getty ImagesIn his first couple of years of international cricket, Shami had an idiosyncratic run to the crease, a gallop of unusually long strides. A number of experts had suggested this could cause a loss of stability when he reached the crease, and had ascribed this as a reason for his tendency to bowl loose balls. Around the time of the 2015 World Cup, Shami had said he was making an effort to shorten his running strides, and had credited Shoaib Akhtar with giving him the suggestion.Now, making his Test comeback at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Shami was sprinting in with noticeably shorter strides. The question still remained: did this have any connection with the bounce he was generating?Pondering it, Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler, suggested the bounce might have had less to do with shorter running strides than with a possible knock-on effect: a shorter delivery stride. This, he said, would give the bowler a higher point of release, and, as a consequence, the possibility of extra bounce. He took the example of Shannon Gabriel, who had troubled India with steep lift during their first innings.Before he suffered the ankle injury that cut short his 2015-16 Australia tour, Gabriel’s delivery stride, Bishop said, had grown progressively longer without him quite realising it, causing him to lose height at the crease.In the months following his recovery, Gabriel had worked hard to correct this. It wasn’t easy to tell if Shami had also, by design or as a byproduct of his reduced running stride, shortened his delivery stride, but Bishop felt he was achieving good height at release. What also pleased him was Shami’s alignment at the crease, his feet lined up to point him precisely where he wanted to bowl.It told in his line. On a pitch where bounce often seemed to be the fast bowler’s only friend, Ishant Sharma may have been expected to provide the main threat, but while he did achieve steep lift, his line wasn’t as close to off stump as Shami’s. He did not make the batsmen play as often, and did not, as a result, force as many errors.As the rest of West Indies’ top order crumbled around him, Kraigg Brathwaite waged lonely resistance, his method simple and effective. Blessed with excellent judgment of line, he ignored as many deliveries as he could outside off stump, and waited patiently for straighter balls he could work into the leg side. Forty-eight of his 74 runs came in that direction. The cover drive barely made an appearance. Most of his off-side runs came square or behind square, when the bowlers dropped short.In all, Brathwaite left 53 balls. But he didn’t leave with equal ease against all of India’s bowlers. He left 31 of the 67 balls he faced from Ishant, 13 out of 45 from Umesh Yadav, and only 6 out of 31 from Shami. He passed Shami’s fourth-stump examination, but four of his team-mates didn’t.This, in short, was high-class Test bowling: pace, movement, and that new-found bounce, all allied to an excellent length and a line that forced the batsmen to play, or think about playing. A better batting side may have made fewer mistakes, but Shami was still asking the right questions, over and over.

Australia grabbed a vantage point on the opening day of the Pallekele Test through the performances of their bowlers, and the only blips on their day were the dismissals of their openers

Daniel Brettig26-Jul-2016A dominant opening day for Australia at Pallekele ran more or less to the script the tourists were hoping to stick with. Features included an even bowling performance, alert fielding and the foundations of a batting platform set, before rain ended the day ahead of schedule.In rounding Sri Lanka up for a mere 117, they also avoided falling behind in the match as they did against Pakistan in the UAE in 2014. This means Steven Smith’s side are in the position they are most comfortable with – driving the game forward from a position of strength, rather than scrapping and fighting to stay in it. From that vantage point, Australia’s aggression looks dashing and purposeful rather than reckless, and opponents under the cosh tend to stay there.Nevertheless, no day is ever quite perfect, and there was one area in which the Australians will be wanting to tighten up at later stages. This is in the tightness of their opening batsmen, David Warner and Joe Burns, both of whom lost their wickets early on to moments of looseness and/or imprecision. The subsequent partnership between captain Steven Smith and Usman Khawaja represented the most measured batting of the day, and showed what players on both sides should be looking to do on a pitch that has offered just enough help to the bowlers, both pace and spin. The surface made the toss more intriguing than most in this part of the world, and it was here that Australia pulled the first of numerous correct reins.Team selection: It had always seemed likely that Australia would plump for twin spin in this series, but given how rarely such a team has been selected in the recent past – just three times have they used a full-time spin tandem since the last visit to Sri Lanka in 2011 – there may have been temptation to divert from that path. Certainly, Pallekele was always going to be the strip offering most assistance to the faster men, as it momentarily did five years ago for Ryan Harris and Trent Copeland.Sri Lanka’s players were known to be unhappy about starting here rather than Galle’s more obviously spinning track, and the ground staff here had clearly tried to dry out their pitch. But the balance provided by Steve O’Keefe was useful to Smith, while Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc operated in shorter spells. All the while, Mitchell Marsh’s lively fast-medium remained in reserve, the day’s lopsided measure best illustrated by the fact that he was not even required to bowl.Intimidation: Before this match, Smith had spoken of the fact that while Australia were playing in conditions they had often found difficult, they were also playing an opponent short of experience and confidence. This meant it was important to get on the front foot early, demonstrating through performance and body language who was in charge. Sri Lanka’s players had been spared the supposedly “demoralising” sight of the Test Championship mace being presented to Smith in public on match eve, but they could not so readily avoid the Australians in the middle.By way of verbals, Kusal Mendis was nearly goaded into reviewing his lbw, which replays showed to be smashing into middle stump. By way of tactics, the focus upon Angelo Mathews was backed up by a none-too-subtle field setting, leg gully and short leg posted when Mitchell Starc ran in at him. It works too: Mathews very nearly offered an edge first ball, then was tentative enough to prod O’Keefe to slip soon after. At no stage were Sri Lanka made to feel like they belonged in this company.Hazlewood: Perhaps it is his SCG upbringing, perhaps his commendable straightness when in good rhythm, or perhaps his height, but Hazlewood was, by a distance, the most impressive Australian bowler on the day. Where Starc was fast but slightly off-peak, Hazlewood worked away steadily, finding his range and then a probing line and length to challenge all batsmen.Initially, it was seam movement on a slightly tacky surface that worked in his favour, seaming one back to pin Mendis, then shading one away from Kaushal Silva. There was a little more swing for Hazlewood in his second spell, and he saved his best delivery for Dinesh Chandimal, a gateway server that had Sri Lanka’s most accomplished batsman playing with a slightly closed bat face to snick behind to Peter Nevill. A couple of tail-end wickets to complete a five-for would have been well-deserved, but competition among an eager bowling attack meant Hazlewood had to be content with three.Use of the spinners: Nathan Lyon and O’Keefe had both trained with near-new balls in the lead-up to the Test, and Smith elected to hand the ball to the latter as early as the ninth over. Immediately, he found the sort of beguiling variation that has helped him build, by a distance, the most handsome Sheffield Shield record of any contemporary Australian spinner.Some balls skidded on, while others gripped. O’Keefe’s slight build and somewhat round-arm action gives him a similar trajectory to Rangana Herath, and he used this well to defeat a tentative Mathews with a hint of extra turn and bounce. Lyon was held back until the last over before lunch, but he too would use the conditions nicely. Three wickets in seven balls spanning the first and third overs after the interval effectively ended Sri Lanka’s innings, with bounce, turn and natural variation all coming into play. Lyon made his debut in this country five years ago; it is fitting he now sits two wickets away from 200 on visit No. 2.Out-of-kilter openers: For a brief moment, Australia’s march towards control of the Test was held up by the rapid exits of Warner and Burns, in circumstances that both batsmen will not be best pleased about. Bowled by full deliveries, neither paid due care and attention, and the opportunity to bat under relatively little scoreboard pressure was wasted.Warner, of course, is very much short of match practice. Having suffered a broken finger to the same hand that already nurses a problematic, previously injured thumb, he delayed his return to the batting crease as long as possible, eschewing the earlier tour match. He is also reluctant to bat in the fast bowlers’ No. 1 net these days, and it is just possible that Nuwan Pradeep hurried onto him with a near yorker touching 141kph. Warner’s feet were slow to move, and the drag onto the stumps maintained a drought of overseas centuries, dating back to March, 2014.Burns has made no secret that these conditions will stretch him, but he remonstrated visibly with himself after miscalculating Herath’s skid with the new ball. Stretching forward to defend, he played for fractional turn, duly leaving a gap through which the ball hurried through. That dismissal mirrored many suffered by the Australians in the UAE against Pakistan, when Yasir Shah and Zulfiqur Babar created similar doubts, to which the only remedy is supremely close attention to the ball through the air and off the pitch. Khawaja and Smith both had similar moments of inexact judgement, but escaped to bat on tomorrow. Many more runs beckon.

Twitter reactions on the passing of former Australia seamer Max Walker, who died aged 68

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Sep-2016

Personality…Passion. RIP Max Walker. #RIPTangles

— Adam Gilchrist (@gilly381) September 28, 2016

Sad to wake up and hear the passing of baggy green #263 Max Walker. Besides cricket that larger than life smile will always be remembered

— David Warner (@davidwarner31) 28 September 2016

RIP Max Walker. Very sad news #263

— Steve Smith (@stevesmith49) September 28, 2016

So sad to hear of the passing of Max Walker. What a great cricketer, author and story teller. Ripper bloke whose smile lit up a room! #263

— Dean Jones (@ProfDeano) September 27, 2016

Sad to hear of the passing of baggy green player #263 Max Walker! Thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends! RIP!

— Nathan Lyon (@NathLyon421) September 27, 2016

So sad to hear Max Walker #Tangles has died, a wonderful man who gave so much colour to all our lives. #RIPMax #263

— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) September 28, 2016

aca_players's photo https://t.co/uYZojDWDpb. Our thoughts are with Max Walkers family at this time, what a legend .RIP Max.

— Darren Lehmann (@darren_lehmann) September 28, 2016</blockquote

RIP Max Walker. Sad news

— Mitchell Johnson (@MitchJohnson398) September 27, 2016

Very sad news about Max Walker.
Part of the baggy green family

— Brett Lee (@BrettLee_58) September 28, 2016

shattered to hear passing of the great Max Walker.
Larger then life
Aussie Test cricketer #263@melbournefc AFL footballer
1/2#Tangles pic.twitter.com/6wE2zBxmJ9

— Damien Fleming (@bowlologist) September 28, 2016

Shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Max Walker.
Great company, A lovely man. Our thoughts are with his family. #RIP

— Jason Gillespie (@dizzy259) 28 September 2016

A character full of life has departed. Hard to believe we won't "have a good weekend Mr Walker" #ripMaxy. https://t.co/riHQZ8rduD

— Simon O'Donnell (@simon_odonnell) September 28, 2016

An honour to have worked with Max Walker. When very few would listen to my early ambitions, he got it.. Loved him.
RIP matey.

— Mark Webber (@AussieGrit) September 28, 2016

Max Walker the 5th player from the 1977 Centenary Test to die. Hookes, Gilmour, Woolmer and Greig all went before him. RIP one and all

— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 28, 2016

I'm really sad to hear about the death of Max Walker – a proud Tasmanian. They broke the mould when they made Max. He'll be sorely missed. pic.twitter.com/urkm1RTfJH

— Will Hodgman MP (@WillHodgman) September 28, 2016

Vale Max Walker. Champion cricketer, champion bloke. A great Victorian who will be missed.

— Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) September 28, 2016

Max Walker has left the field for the last time. A great tangle-footed bowler, but also for a long time, Australia's most popular writer.

— John Birmingham (@JohnBirmingham) September 28, 2016

Vale Max Walker. An unmistakeable bowling action, presence and voice. A humble servant of the game he loved.

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) September 27, 2016

RIP Tangles #Walker, great bloke to know, always with a smile and greeting, never took own sporting fame too seriously. Star in every sense.

— ron reed (@reedrw) September 28, 2016

The world is has lost a very very good man in Max Walker #RIPTangles

— Shane Crawford (@SCrawf9) September 28, 2016