From Sam Barnett, United Kingdom

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013
The more the merrier: Why does Australian cricket stick to six state teams when 18 are clearly better•Getty ImagesIn light of England’s recent and consistent success over Australia it is only all too evident that Australian cricket has some serious structural deficiencies. Fear not Australians, for these issues can be amended with a simple overhaul of Australian domestic structure that can be digested in three easy steps.1. Australian cricket is too efficient. Six states? Why not eighteen? This way players who aren’t going to be good enough for international cricket can still make a living, averaging somewhere around 30 with the bat and 40 with the ball, all the while being able to complain that they play too much cricket. Indeed, without such charity these “honest” fellows would have to get a real job. Furthermore, a double-figure amount of domestic sides allows for an effective drain for all that lovely windfall of cash generated by the international side. This, in turn, can be used to build a series of quaint 15-20,000 seater stadiums, none quite big enough to satiate public demand for international cricket but all too big for domestic cricket itself. This has a number of wholly positive effects. Firstly, it allows for a rise in ticket prices that keeps English cricket where it rightfully belongs: in the hands of the upper-middle class. Secondly, it enables county games to have an adequate number of empty seats: not so many (as in Australia) as to be upsetting to those partaking, but no so few (as in New Zealand) as to make a player question whether he is actually a professional sportsman at all.2. South Africans. It seems your system’s not producing sufficient players, no? Never fear, South African private schools are here! A guaranteed source of unflinching, unquestioning talent and one in which their development has been completely paid for by CSA and privileged parents. One wouldn’t even have to worry for a lack of patriotism, a few seasons at a county and you have yourself a fully fledged Englishman; it can be assumed that such a process could easily be adapted to any want-away South Africans who find themselves ashore Bondi Beach. While it’s unlikely that the pesky issue of a spinner who can turn milk will be solved, this recent spate of collapses – particularly the current vacuum of runs at places three and four – can be solved instantaneously with a couple of conspicuous accents. Gosh, you really have wasted time trying to fix problems with, wait for it, Australians!3. Sky money. The Holy Grail for all cricket boards. Forget that our current crop of players, the most successful in generations, were raised in an era of unprecedented free-for-air coverage; no, the cricket XIs of the future will have been raised by ECB Certificate Level 1 coaches and sporadic coaching days with free oversized t-shirts. Besides, youngsters won’t have to sit down and learn from their heroes on TV, they’ll be to busy playing with their community’s free NPower Kwik Cricket set. Even better, this system enables the successful isolation of cricket to the upper-middle class, just in case those pesky peasants thought they might be able to watch live cricket at home if not the stadiums – the cheek! Along with an epidemic of minimally trained coaches, Sky money is extremely useful for giving jobs to the boys. Dean Jones looking a bit lonesome? Just make up a job, that’s how we keep Gatt’s fridge full – all one needs do is feed the press some guff about “Managing Cricket Partnerships”. Just think the amount of revenue you are wasting by trying to make cricket “accessible”!So, those who “Come from a land down under, where the women glow and the men plunder” (or so I’m reliably told), I hope you have to come realise just where you are going wrong. Simply adopt these aforementioned reforms and Australian cricket will be well on the way for excellent long-term growth, just like it is on these green and pleasant lands.

Meet Mohit Sharma, one of the biggest surprises in the first half of this IPL

Nagraj Gollapudi04-May-2013Who has taken the most wickets in Powerplays during this IPL? A 24-year-old right-arm medium-pacer from Faridabad who plays for Haryana on the domestic circuit. His 11 victims include Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Yuvraj Singh, Brendon McCullum and Cameron White: all defeated by nagging accuracy.Mohit Sharma is unlikely to have been your top guess.”I feel really good if you look at the names. They are big players all of them,” Mohit said, a day after his three wickets helped Super Kings defeat Pune Warriors in Pune. “But when I charged in with the ball in hand, I never had in my mind who was in front of me.”It was his second three-wicket haul in the IPL. His first came against Delhi Daredevils at Feroz Shah Kotla, where he bowled a tight three-over spell, giving away just 10 runs. Two days after the Pune match, he played another influential hand, taking two wickets in the home encounter against Kings XI Punjab.He may be relatively unknown outside cricketing circles in north India but Mohit was one of the most consistent bowlers in this year’s Ranji Trophy, finishing the season as the fifth-highest wicket-taker. His 37 wickets came in just eight matches – his team, Haryana, semi-finalists in 2012, failed to make the knockouts this time.As news of his promise spread, talent-hungry franchises knocked on the door of Anirudh Chaudhary, the secretary of the Haryana Cricket Association. It is understood that three teams were keen to sign Mohit before Super Kings won the day.Sharma was one of five uncapped Indian domestic players Super Kings picked after a one-day bowling camp in Chennai in January. He was one of four fast bowlers – apart from Karnataka’s Ronit More, and Uttar Pradesh’s Imtiaz Ahmed and Ankit Rajpoot – shortlisted by Super Kings’ bowling coach, Andy Bichel.”Halfway into the Ranji season, I was told that there were chances that Super Kings might be interested,” Mohit said. “I was attending the fast-bowling camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore when I got a call from them.”About 5ft 11in tall, he has a smooth delivery stride and relies on the outswinger for his stock ball. He says Bichel, the former Australia fast bowler, has played an influential role, building his confidence from the outset. The biggest correction Bichel made – which is still a work in progress – was to Mohit’s body balance after he landed in his delivery stride; his body would be in an awkward position before he entered his follow-through.After Mohit’s match-winning spell against Warriors, his captain, MS Dhoni, spoke of how he was putting to use skills he had learned playing in Delhi’s competitive environment. A good example has been Mohit’s strategy against left-handers like David Warner and Yuvraj Singh on low and slow pitches like the ones at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi and Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune.”Since both the pitches keep slightly low, my plan was to pitch the ball as close to the body of the batsman as possible,” he said. Warner played on, attempting a pull against the short ball, and Yuvraj was caught behind off a cut.Though he’s a newcomer, Mohit said he was under no pressure when he sat in the Super Kings dressing room for the first time. “No doubt I was excited, but I was only observing to begin with,” he said.Dhoni’s message to Mohit, at all times, has been clear: “The captain has always told me to keep things simple. The best method is to stick to a good line and not offer width, and bowl as many dot balls as possible, which would make things difficult for the batsman.”

“The biggest thing is: your attitude on the field is visible to everyone. So how you maintain your composure and perform in any situation is what matters”

Mohit hopes to use the lessons from the IPL to his benefit in domestic cricket.
“The biggest thing is: your attitude on the field is visible to everyone. So how you maintain your composure and perform in any situation is what matters. Even off the field, I have learned that these big players are just normal and treat me as an equal. That is a very good feeling.”His grounded nature comes from the grooming he received at the Haryana Cricket Association. He is not the first Haryana medium-pacer to play in the IPL – Joginder Sharma played for Super Kings, and Harshal Patel was one of the architects of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s impressive 2011-12 season.What sets Mohit apart from his team-mates is his consistency, both in domestic cricket as well as in the IPL. For this, one must credit Haryana physiotherapist Amit Tyagi, who oversaw his fitness throughout the domestic season. Aware of Mohit’s stress-related issues with his shins, due to heavy workload, he managed the injury and recommended that Mohit be benched immediately after the Ranji season.The advice was taken, and Mohit travelled with the team for various tournaments but did not play any matches. The rest and constant monitoring by Tyagi were the two big factors that allowed him to report fit for the IPL.Ashwini Kumar, Haryana’s coach, believes that the two off-season camps in the cooler climes of Nainital have helped bowlers like Mohit a lot. He says Mohit’s strength has been his big heart, his ability to bowl according to match situations, and his ability to not get affected by what is happening around him – factors that have helped fast-track him into a strike bowler in a short period of time.Mohit played just three matches in his debut Ranji season in 2011-12, when Haryana entered the semi-finals. They followed that up with a terrible start to the season just finished – losing their first three home matches to Vidarbha, Orissa and Baroda, largely because of batting failures – but Mohit, who picked up 19 wickets in these matches, did his bit to force the opposition to work for their wins.”We were 55 and 66 all out in the first two matches and despite that Mohit made sure the opponents would not have an easy run to victory,” Kumar said. In Haryana’s fourth match against Delhi, again at home, Mohit claimed six wickets to help his team to an 83-run win.Mohit said his roles at Haryana and Super Kings, both in terms of motivation and responsibility, are similar. Bowling with the new ball has helped spare him the pressure in the IPL of coming on when teams have got going.He is not someone who experiments too much even when things are not going in his favour. “I try and stay within my limits,” he said. “The more you think about something, the more you will pile pressure. Do your job, listen to people, do your homework.”

Having come so close to a major upset against England at home, Brendon McCullum has the ability to galvanise New Zealand once again

Nagraj Gollapudi15-May-2013Unlike his counterpart, the prim and proper Alastair Cook, Brendon McCullum looks out of place as the New Zealand captain. Bleary-eyed, sporting light stubble and with a demeanour that suggests he’d rather be under the duvet than training at Lord’s on a cold Wednesday afternoon, McCullum is not the archetypal leader. Yet England should fear him.McCullum is a gambler and a horse-owner, who knows when to use his instincts. McCullum showed these qualities in the series against England at home, which finished 0-0, by being aggressive with the bat when there was a wobble in the middle order and in his captaincy by attacking the opposition to push them on the back foot straight away from the first ball of that series in March.Two months later, McCullum is aware of the dangers England pose at home. He knows the relative inexperience of his squad – only three players have played in England in the past – makes New Zealand vulnerable. He understands his batsmen will have to get used to the relentless swing in overcast conditions. By the same token the New Zealand fast bowlers cannot afford to get carried away with the swing and will need to exert the same level of accuracy and control displayed in March. And then there is the challenge of making sure his players do not overwhelmed by the distraction that is Lord’s.Even in his short stint as leader, McCullum has shown he is not a reactive captain. On the eve of the two-Test series, he sounded an alert to his troops: display the same level of determination as they did against England at home.”If you look at the rankings we punched above our weight,” McCullum said of the home series against England. “If we look at where we want to get as a team, that’s the standard we have to operate at. The signs we showed during the home series are signs that we want to display more regularly as a group. It is a huge series for us to regain the consistency which we played with back home and also show fighting characteristics and innovation which, as a team, we showed at times. We will have to replicate all that now in foreign conditions against a team that is confident playing at home.”In that home series McCullum was easily New Zealand’s best batsmen across all three formats – he was the leading run-scorer in the Tests and ODIs and second in the T20s. From 2000, he has been New Zealand’s highest scorer in England: in six Tests he has made 412 runs but his average is just 34.33.

Stephen Fleming was never shy of placing an unorthodox fielder or taking chances as long as he believed in them. McCullum is of a similar ilk.

“Obviously it would be nice to make the honours board,” McCullum said. “But it’s about making a meaningful contribution whichever way that comes, to be able to give your team the greatest chance of success. If we are in a decent position, my role is to try to play reasonably aggressively and advance the game for us. And if we are not in a rosy position, then it is just matter of calling on the experience – that’s more important than getting on the honours board.”The “whichever way” mindset is something McCullum has never been embarrassed about. What matters for him is to play to win and he is not shy about his intentions. Expanding on his batting style, McCullum agrees he’s instinctive but that does not mean he doesn’t think it through. “I would hope they’re educated gambles,” he said. “Just because you don’t run past the principal’s office doesn’t mean you’re not doing your homework. While it may appear at times I am just following my instincts there are elements of study and preparations which have gone into those shots as well.”Although he has played 75 Tests compared to Cook’s 90, McCullum is one of the most experienced players on both sides. The Test captaincy might have come late in his career, but McCullum, now 31, could be the best man to lead New Zealand if for no other reason than he is one of the best man managers.Stephen Fleming was the last New Zealand captain to win a series in England, back in 1999. As a leader, McCullum is still learning the ropes, but he has Fleming as one of his closest advisors. As a captain Fleming was never shy of placing an unorthodox fielder or taking chances as long as he believed in them. Fleming also had a knack for targeting opposition players, having one-on-one sessions with his bowlers. McCullum is of a similar ilk.Asked to describe his approach to his brand of captaincy, McCullum let out a sigh to begin with. “It varies, it is still early days,” he said. “You try and judge the mood of where your team is at and what you’re trying to achieve in each situation. As a group we know that we are going to struggle to go toe to toe with big boys of world cricket playing their style for long periods so we need to skin it differently. We saw back home against England, some of our tactics and some of our game plans were very much designed around that with my style of play and captaincy.”As much as New Zealand would aspire to climb up from their No. 8 Test ranking, McCullum will be equally determined to establish his captaincy. And according to him, his big challenge will be to get New Zealand back in the contest when they are behind in the game, unlike when they were calling the shots against England back home.

His explosive, 16-ball innings against New Zealand may have been brief but the signs are that Jos Buttler will have a long and successful international career

George Dobell06-Jun-2013It has been almost 40 years since Sir Ian Botham announced himself as a cricketer of rare character and skill. Confronted with an all-but-hopeless situation in a 1974 televised Benson & Hedges Cup quarter-final between Somerset and Hampshire, the 18-year-old Botham reacted to a crushing blow to the mouth courtesy of a fearsome bouncer from Andy Roberts by phlegmatically spitting out some teeth and turning the game on its head with an outrageous display of calculated aggression that was to become delightfully familiar over the next decade or two. A star had been born.Only time will tell if the third ODI between England and New Zealand proves a similar launch pad for Jos Buttler. It would be asking a bit much to expect a career to rival Botham’s, but Buttler’s dramatic contribution at Trent Bridge did confirm him as a batsman of special talent.Ahh, but it was only 16 balls, some will say. And it is true that Buttler will have to contribute more often if he is to be considered a viable international player. But the power of his strokeplay, the audacity of his shot selection, the calmness of the execution and the range of his options did illustrate a talent that, in England at least, is precious and rare. It is precisely because he can change a 600-ball game in only 16 balls that renders him so special. The thought of Buttler, Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan in England’s middle-order is mouth-watering.The Somerset link between Botham and Buttler may be more than mere coincidence. Born and educated in Taunton into a close-knit cricketing family, Buttler is steeped in the culture of Somerset cricket. Even his birth linked him to the club: born by an emergency Caesarean section, Buttler’s mother was driven past the county ground by police escort on the way to the hospital.He grew up watching the side, playing on the outfield and then representing the youth teams. He cites his role model as Steve Waugh, who played for Somerset before Buttler was born, but he will also have seen such big-hitting heroes as Graham Rose, Ian Blackwell and Marcus Trescothick. It doesn’t take a genius to spot the influence.Like Sachin Tendulkar, Buttler started off as a fast bowler. Drafted in to the Cheddar Under-15 side in an emergency when he was just seven or eight, the opposition batsmen laughed when he was brought on to bowl. But the smiles had disappeared a couple of balls later when Buttler took his first wicket, caught by his older brother, James.It was a familiar pattern for the young Buttler. Achievement came easily. He played rugby in the schools final at Twickenham, he won the 100 metres at school and, underlining the fact that sometimes life just isn’t fair, he gained As in all his GCSEs. He was and is a young man with options.

Speedy service

• Buttler’s innings against New Zealand had the second-highest strike rate of any ODI innings of 15 balls or more

• He has the highest strike rate in T20 internationals of any England batsman to have faced more than 40 balls

But his future was always going to be about cricket. Nurtured at Kings College Taunton by Dennis Breakwell, a member of the glorious Somerset teams that also boasted Botham, Viv Richards and Joel Garner, Buttler broke into the senior county side at 19 and was soon creating a stir not just for his runs, but the manner in which he made them and the circumstances in which they were made.Somerset have always had talented cricketers. All too often, though, they have lacked the hard edge required to thrive in the heat of battle at its most intense. It may well be no coincidence that they have finished as runners-up so often in recent years. More often than can be ignored, they seem to wilt under the spotlight.But not Botham. And not Buttler. Buttler forced his way into the England reckoning with an innings of 55 from 23 balls against Nottinghamshire in the 2010 semi-final of the Friends Provident t20. Still only 19 years old, he thrashed two key members of England’s World T20 winning side, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom, into the stands and earned his side a place in the final. Broad, soon to be appointed as England’s T20 captain, cited the innings when selecting the national side.He followed it with a contribution of 86 from 72 balls the 2011 Clydesdale Bank 40 final – an innings made while his colleagues floundered – and, despite some difficulties in his first England outings in the UAE, he hinted at what was to come with an innings of 54 from 30 balls, his maiden international half-century, against New Zealand in a T20 in Hamilton in February.First impressions can be deceptive. Buttler is modest and softly spoken with just the hint of a lisp. If you hadn’t seen him in action, you might conclude he would go the way of so many of his Somerset predecessors – Mark Lathwell, et al – and struggle in the sometimes brutal world of international sport.That would be a mistake. Like Joe Root, another 22-year-old taking his first steps in international cricket, Buttler’s boyish exterior conceals an inner steel. His good manners hide a confidence and a drive that may be more obvious in the likes of Tiger Woods or Pietersen but are no less real for all that. You do not play strokes such as the reverse-scoop off Kyle Mills just from talent: you play them because you have worked on them for many hours, you have confidence in your technique and your ability and you have the courage to try and fail. You only play shots like that if you have the temperament of a champion. If you could invest in young men, you would put your shirt on Buttler and Root.It won’t always work out. Buttler is a developing cricketer with bat and gloves and, as a missed stumping on Wednesday showed, the rough edges are still visible. It is highly relevant that he came in with only a few overs remaining on Wednesday and his side in desperate need of quick runs. He had “licence” to rampage.Jos Buttler was 19 when he made his first significant contribution for Somerset•Getty Images”I haven’t quite performed as I’d have wanted in the one-dayers so it was great to put in a performance like that,” he said. “I’m confident in my own ability and it was great to come in and show that. I had a licence to go out and express myself at the end of the innings.”England’s captain, Alastair Cook, was another impressed onlooker. “It’s not going to happen every single time,” he said. “We know that. But it’s great to have the talent, potential and firepower to do that. We’ve seen him do it a number of times for Somerset and we’re going to see him do it a lot more for England. It’s a special talent and a talent he’s worked very hard on. It’s great credit to him because it’s a skill that needs to be practised.”Buttler’s contribution in the third ODI will probably make him wealthy. England players, due to their limited availability as much as anything, will rarely be top of the shopping list for IPL owners but Buttler has a skill that will have earned him a hefty price tag. Whether Somerset allow him time off to attend the IPL remains to be seen – they will take some convincing – but he is unlikely to want for suitors. The conundrum of who should keep wicket at Somerset – Craig Kieswetter remains first choice in their Championship side – may prove relevant in due course, too.Buttler’s contribution on Wednesday was all the more remarkable for the context. Going into the series, he could have been forgiven for having his mind on other matters. His baby nephew, Edward, lay in intensive care in a Somerset hospital having just undergone open heart surgery recently to correct a congenital defect, Tetralogy of Fallot, that could have been an immediate threat to his life. Watching Edward fight for his life would have been an agony that many would have found impossible to bear.Fortunately, due to the skill of his surgeons, it seems Edward is now assured a happy, healthy childhood. He was able to spend part of Wednesday in his mum’s arms watching his uncle’s innings on television in the hospital. Ignoring the fact that the relative of another patient, not knowing to whom he was speaking, started a conversation with the line “Don’t you wish they picked Matt Prior to keep wicket for England in all formats?” it was a wonderfully happy day for the entire family.No young life and no sportsman’s career come with guarantees. But it now seems safe to assume that young Edward will spend a fair portion of his early years watching his uncle winning cricket matches for Somerset and England.

Rajasthan Royals, despite controversy and a poor away record, had their best season in five years

Devashish Fuloria25-May-2013Where they finished
Third. When the tournament started, Rajasthan Royals were the outsiders, a team that relished the role of the underdog and was regarded as arguably the best of the second-tier sides; never too far from making it to the playoffs, but never considered a serious enough challenger to the big four. Led by an inspirational Rahul Dravid, who said the Champions League later in the year may be the last time he’ll play for them, the team proved that the whole was more than the sum of its parts by humbling one side after the other on a juicy pitch in Jaipur, but found the going tough away from home on pitches that were either too slow or too flat.They played their last three matches under tremendous pressure post the spot-fixing allegations and came close to sneaking into the finals during a tight finish against Mumbai Indians. It was Royals’ first top-four finish since winning the title in 2008.What went right
Royals made the most – winning eight out of eight – of helpful conditions in Jaipur which were suited to their bowling attack replete with medium-pacers, and where their technically sound top-order batsmen were able to take their time while Shane Watson bludgeoned his way through. But more than anything, they played as a team, with most turning up with more than one useful contribution during the tournament.Royals preferred chasing and did it well, with nine of their 11 wins coming in that fashion. Ajinkya Rahane was the rock in the batting, Dravid took the role of the floater, young Sanju Samson delighted all with his attractive strokeplay, and Stuart Binny capped off a solid domestic season with some aggressive match-winning hands in the IPL. The balance in their batting was apparent in the numbers – three of Royals’ batsmen scored more than 400 runs in the tournament with Mumbai Indians the only other team to do so.Royals’ bowling lacked express pace, but they swung the ball and mixed up the pace to return with rich hauls. James Faulkner picked up a couple of wickets whenever the team needed one, and he received solid support from Watson, Kevon Cooper and Siddharth Trivedi.What went wrong
As a team, Royals were effective but not feared and more often than not, they slipped while playing away from home, with only two wins during league stages. The lack of a quality spinner in their ranks hurt them when they played on more benign pitches where their medium-pacers lacked potency.The other issue was their batting: Apart from Watson and Binny, others failed to find the extra gear when the situation demanded more runs. Most surprising was the pace at which Rahane scored his runs. Last year, he maintained a high strike-rate throughout the season, but this year, his 488 runs came at a strike-rate of 106.55.The rug was pulled under Royals’ feet the moment the news about the spot-fixing allegations on three of their players surfaced. It was just before the playoffs and took the gloss away from a relatively successful season.Best player
Shane Watson continues to be at the heart of Royals’ campaign. He was there in the first season and he is still here after six seasons, bullying bowling attacks and picking crucial wickets. He started the season with four relatively quiet matches, but found his groove in his batting once he also started to bowl. It was in his fifth match – in Chennai – that he opened up, smashing a 61-ball 101 and followed it up with an unbeaten 98. But his best innings came in Jaipur, against Chennai Super Kings, when he tore the bowling apart in a blinding 34-ball assault that won Royals the match with ease after their batting had been left in tatters by the Super Kings seamers. After taking a few months break from bowling, Watson returned to bowl more than 40 overs and picked up 13 wickets.Poor performer
Shaun Tait should have ideally found the conditions in Jaipur to his liking, but his tendency to spray the ball meant he watched most of the season from the sidelines. In the three chances that he got, he bowled 10 overs and was expensive giving away 98 runs.Surprise package
Bought for $400,000 in the 2013 auction, James Faulkner proved to be an excellent return on investment. Thought to be a handy lower-order batsman, he was pushed up the order a few times with poor results. However, he made it more than up with his bowling, picking up 28 wickets in the season – the joint highest in any season along with Lasith Malinga’s haul in 2011. He also picked up two five-wicket hauls – the only bowler to do so in the IPL.Recommended for retention
Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane

England’s batsmen did not appear to know whether to stick or twist on the opening day, but should have followed the lead of their captain

George Dobell at Chester-le-Street09-Aug-2013After the apocalypse, when the first few survivors emerge from their bunkers and caves, it seems safe to assume they will find only two types of creature unscathed: a certain type of hardy insect and, marking his guard and waiting for his next ball, Alastair Cook.There is more than something of the dung beetle about Cook. There are times when he makes his job appear hideously unattractive, when he appears unequal to the struggle, when his batting is so grindingly unattractive that you want to hide your children’s eyes from it. He is as much cockroach Cook as captain Cook.But Cook has always been more interested in substance than style. And despite the fact that he was clearly not at his best on the first day of this Test, he provided an example to his team-mates in determination and persistence.Cook’s innings was torturous. He batted as if his feet were set in concrete and as if the bat handle were laced with barbwire. He never looked comfortable and barely timed anything sweetly.But he survived. He survived for almost four hours. He fought and he concentrated and he refused to give it away. He saw the shine off the ball and the energy out of the bowlers. He put so great a price on his wicket that it took an excellent delivery, a peach of a ball that pitched outside off and nipped back, to finally prise him out.The point that Cook understands better than any of his team-mates is that there is no hurry. There are times in Test cricket when it is necessary to score quickly and seize the initiative. But generally, particularly as an opening batsman, the priority is survival and accumulation. The runs follow. They may come slowly, but they come a lot less slowly than they will if you’re back in the dressing room ruing your dismissal.There is no need to try to steal the initiative with aggressive batting. It can be gained with more certainty and more security by stealth. It can be gained by refusing to give the opposition a chance and by gradually wearing them down and batting them out of the game. It doesn’t have to be gained the Kevin Pietersen way. Draws, at least draws where the weather has not intervened, have become almost an anachronism in Test cricket in England and Cook understands that the game still allows the time to build an innings over a day or more.

Our position is our fault – Trott

Jonathan Trott admitted England had been the architects of their own downfall after losing nine wickets of the opening day of the fourth Investec Ashes Test at Chester-le-Street. Choosing to bat on a slow but blameless surface, England subsided from a position of 107 for 1 to end to the day on 238 for 9.

“We’re disappointed as we got ourselves into a good position and then got ourselves into a bad position,” Trott said. “As a group, we’re disappointed that we’ve ended the day probably behind.

“Generally in cricket you get yourself out. It can be due to good pressure from the opposition and you end up playing a shot to a ball you shouldn’t. It’s not too often you get unplayable deliveries.Generally the fault is on yourself as a batsman and I think we could all say that today. It was a little bit uncharacteristic of us as a side. We put a lot of value on our wicket, so when that doesn’t happen, there a few disappointed guys.

“250 is an average score at Durham. We could say we’re at par, but clearly we’re not. We didn’t have the best of days towards the end.”

Trott defended England’s slow scoring rate, but accepted they had not played the offspin of Nathan Lyon very well. He did insist, however, that England could still win the game.

“You look at his figures and say we didn’t play him the best,” Trott said. “My dismissal started it. We’re disappointed because we were getting out in soft ways. The ball wasn’t really turning a huge amount, so the guys are disappointed and keen to put it right.

“You don’t have to go out there and score like a one-day game. You hang in there and wait for your time. You earn the right to score runs in Test cricket.

“But we have a similar score to the one we made at Trent Bridge. We ended up winning that game, so hopefully we can do the same here.”

But while Cook made Australia work for his wicket, some of his colleagues gave theirs away as if contributing to a charity. While much of the day was characterised by grim defiance, several of the batsmen – Cook apart – fell to aggressive strokes or playing at deliveries they would have been better leaving alone. To lose four wickets on the first day of a Test to a finger spinner on a pitch offering little or no turn speaks volumes for the self inflicted nature of England’s problems.There was little balance to their approach. Jonny Bairstow, surely desperately in need of a strong second innings performance to retain his place, went scoreless for over an hour at one stage then he squandered that resistance by falling to an unnecessary sweep. While Jonathan Trott batted beautifully to help England to a promising platform of 107 for 1, the flick he attempted across the line that resulted in his dismissal was unnecessary.The same word – unnecessary – may be used to describe Pietersen’s stroke, pushing at a non-turning off-break angled across him and edging to the keeper, or, perhaps the nadir of the innings, Ian Bell’s decision to skip down the wicket four balls after tea in an attempt to hit over the top and lofting a catch to mid off. Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad fell to strokes so gormless that it is tempting to try to sell them a time share. It was all so unnecessary.England’s problem was not that they blocked too much for too long; it was they did not do it for long enough. They seemed so uncomfortable with the policy of defence, so full of the need to assert themselves, that they perished in an unnecessary attempt to break the shackles. They should have had the mental strength to know that ending the day on 160 for 1 was quite adequate.There is an irony here. Earlier this summer, Nick Compton was dropped, in part, due to a perceived inability to score with the requisite impetus. Despite having registered two centuries in his previous five Tests, England replaced him with men who were deemed more positive. Even in the two games prior to his dropping, Compton seemed uncomfortable with his natural game, like a man forced to drive too fast in dangerous conditions. He did not play his natural game.This sent out a message to England’s other batsmen. It told them, possibly subconsciously, that they had to be more assertive. That they had to push on. That their run-rate mattered. It was, in retrospect, a significant error on the part of the England management.The problem actually stems back further than that. Since they reached the No. 1 Test ranking, England have lacked the patience to build formidable Test totals. Whether that is due to sated hunger or whether other sides have worked out methods to bowl to them is debatable.Certainly England’s struggles here owed much to the pressure built by Australia’s bowlers. While the seamers did not use the new ball quite as well as they might have done – Cook and Joe Root were barely forced to play – the ability to ‘bowl dry’ and to build pressure on England was executed brilliantly by a very well disinclined attack.But England had done the hard work. They had seen off the new ball, the bowlers at their freshest and the pitch at its most lively. They had built the foundations. All of which just goes to make their largely self-inflicted collapse all the more galling.

India had chased a similar target in tougher circumstances in Hobart, but in Jamaica they batted as though they didn’t remember that achievement

Aakash Chopra03-Jul-2013Asking a team to chase 349 in an ODI is like asking Usain Bolt to run as fast as he would for a 100-metre sprint, but over a distance of ten kilometres. Bolt would be expected to start strongly, get into a rhythm and then keep sprinting until the very last lap. India’s task against Sri Lanka at Sabina Park was as impossible as that hypothetical race. They had pulled off something similar before, though.Once India conceded 348 on a pitch that behaved radically different from the sluggish ones in the first two matches in Kingston, it brought to mind memories of another chase against Sri Lanka, in Hobart.At Bellerive Oval, India had been on the brink of elimination from the tri-series and needed to chase 321 inside 38 overs. They were aggressive from the outset, continuing the onslaught even after losing a few wickets, and attacked until the target was achieved in the timeframe that had seemed improbable. While conditions in Jamaica and Hobart were quite different, the method of that chase could have served as a reference point for this one.In Hobart, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar disregarded the slight lateral movement in the air and off the pitch to wrest the initiative. They played innovative shots to unsettle the Sri Lankan bowlers and also to announce India’s intent to fight. In Jamaica, however, the Indian batsmen sleepwalked through the mandatory Powerplay.India had been 97 for 2 after ten overs in Hobart; they were 28 for 1 on Tuesday. During that time, the asking rate of seven per over had jumped to eight. The lack of runs during the fielding restrictions could have been easier to understand had India lost wickets while attempting big shots, but the fact that they didn’t show an intention to get a move on was baffling.The blistering start in Hobart had allowed India the room to consolidate once the field restrictions were lifted. Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir scored at around a run a ball for the next twenty overs, but the initial blitz kept them at pace with the asking rate. The urgency, even when the big hits weren’t as frequent, had been palpable.Such urgency from two well-set batsmen – Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay – was nowhere to be seen at Sabina Park. Either they were too bullish about their ability to score 15 an over later on, or they didn’t realise the hole they were digging might be too deep for the others to escape from. Once they, and Kohli, were dismissed, it was over. India had lost the match within the first 20 overs of the chase. The fact that the slow scoring didn’t prompt a change in the batting order, or the taking of the batting Powerplay before the 36th over, indicated a lack of fight.The only batsman who showed urgency and the right intent, Suresh Raina, came in after the result was a foregone conclusion. The absence of MS Dhoni in the lower order should have dictated a more aggressive approach at the top, but it did not.While two chases cannot be identical, India could have tried to follow the example they had set 18 months ago. Hobart was a perfect chase of a 300-plus total in a reduced number of overs; Jamaica was a perfect example of how it must not be done.The most striking feature of the Indian team that won the Champions Trophy a couple of weeks ago was the fearless approach to batting. In the first two matches of this Caribbean tri-series, that approach has been discarded.It is possible that this Indian team is slightly jaded too, for winning a major trophy can be physically and mentally exhausting. These players have played non-stop cricket for the last three months and that must take its toll at some stage. An excessive amount of cricket could mean that victories lose their sweetness and losses their sting. Hopefully, that is not the case yet for this young Indian team, otherwise there will be more of the same in Trinidad.

With Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has become the most experienced Test cricketer in the world, and West Indies will need his knowledge and ability to save the first Test

Andrew McGlashan in Dunedin05-Dec-2013Shivnarine Chanderpaul has taken on one of the many records Sachin Tendulkar has left behind in retirement: he is now the longest-serving, active Test cricketer.His debut came on March 17, 1994 against England, in his homeland Guyana, as part of a West Indies side that were still top of the tree. The batting including Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Richie Richardson and Desmond Haynes; the bowling was usually Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Kenny and Winston Benjamin.Times are very different now. There was a familiarity with the score when he strode in at University Oval – 70 for 3 is about average, these days, for Chanderpaul’s arrival at the crease. He just goes about his business as he has done for nearly 20 years.With a pull off Neil Wagner, he became the seventh Test batsman, and second West Indian after Lara, to pass 11,000 runs. There was a handshake with Denesh Ramdin and a gentle raise of the bat to the dressing room, before he returned to the crease (side on, of course) to resume trying to haul West Indies out of another hole.”His record speaks for himself. He’s a world-class player and has been for a number of years,” Tim Southee said. “Obviously he has a different stance and technique to what you’re used to. It’s not a traditional technique and set-up and it takes a little bit to adjust to. Hopefully we can grab him tomorrow some stage. We know you’ve got to fight hard for his wicket, he doesn’t give it away, and it’s going to take something special to get him out.”Thankfully, from West Indies’ point of view, Chanderpaul was not the only one to show some gumption. In the second innings, Kirk Edwards bounced back from his first-innings duck with a determined half-century and Darren Bravo, who had played nicely first time around before a loose drive on 40, glided to the close on an unbeaten 72.Chanderpaul is a man of few words, but the younger West Indies batsmen believe they can benefit by just watching. “For the short time I’ve played, he’s a professional guy. He just comes out and does his stuff every day,” Edwards said. “For a young guy, he’s more someone you have to watch and learn. He doesn’t talk much. But just watching him do his stuff is something you can learn from. His consistency is great. We as young players have to learn.”Still, though, if West Indies have any chance of putting pressure on New Zealand over the next two days it will come down to one man, and that’s Shiv.

Stats highlights of the first day’s play between South Africa and India at the Wanderers

Shiva Jayaraman18-Dec-2013 Virat Kohli’s 119 is his fifth hundred in Tests and his highest score. Two of these tons have come in away matches. He hit a hundred in his last away Test too – against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in 2012. Kohli has hit six centuries in international cricket this year, equalling AB de Villiers and Shikhar Dhawan for the most by any batsman in 2013. Indian batsmen don’t often score centuries in the first innings of a tough tour outside the subcontinent. Kohli is the first batsman since Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag – both hit centuries in Bloemfontein in 2001- to make a hundred in the first game of a tour outside the subcontinent excluding Zimbabwe, when India have batted first. There have been only three such hundreds – Dilip Sardesai’s 212 against West Indies in 1971, Polly Umrigar’s 130 against West Indies in 1953, and Vijay Manjrekar’s 133 against England at Headingley in 1952. Tendulkar, Sehwag and Sanjay Manjrekar are the other three Indian batsmen – before Kohli – to have made their centuries by the end of the first day’s play. Kohli is also the eighth India batsman to hit a Test ton in South Africa. There have been 12 hundreds by Indian batsmen in South Africa, including five from Tendulkar. Kohli is the first player from the subcontinent to hit a hundred at the Wanderers since Azhar Mahmood struck 136 in 1998. In fact, of the 22 overseas batsmen who have scored centuries at this venue, only four are from the subcontinent. Kohli’s century was the first by an Indian batting at No.4 in 49 innings since Tendulkar’s 146 in Cape Town in 2011. The last batsman other than Tendulkar to score a Test hundred at No. 4 for India was Sourav Ganguly, who hit 239 against Pakistan in Bangalore in 2007. India’s opening pair managed to add just 17 runs in the innings, keeping in tune with their ordinary record in recent away matches. In 25 innings away from home since 2011, India’s openers have added only 399 runs for the first wicket at an average of 15.96. The only fifty-plus opening partnership for India during this period came at Lord’s in July 2011 when Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund added 63 runs in the first innings. At home, India’s openers have done better during this period – adding 1403 at 58.45 from 24 innings, with three century partnerships and eight fifty stands. The 89-run partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli is India’s second highest for the third wicket in South Africa. Gautam Gambhir and Tendulkar added 176 for the third wicket in Cape Town in 2011. The first Test is MS Dhoni’s 50th as captain. He has now captained India in the most Tests, passing Sourav Ganguly’s 49. Dhoni is the 14th captain to lead his country in 50 or more Tests, drawing level with Viv Richards, Andrew Strauss and Mark Taylor.

Sri Lanka’s selectors have persisted with Lahiru Thirimanne, and in his 62nd ODI, he underlined his top-order potential again, under the pressure of a chase in a final

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Mirpur08-Mar-2014When he looks back on his match-winning 101 in the Asia Cup final, the highlights reel in Lahiru Thirimanne’s head is unlikely to include the single that took him to 39. The shot Thirimanne played, moreover, was that banal middle-overs staple: the push, with the spin, for a single. That particular single, though, was significant. It nudged Thirimanne’s batting average from 29.9761904761905 to 30.An ODI average of 30 isn’t a massive deal, you might think, but it’s probably the equivalent of a Test average of 40. In most cases, the difference between averaging 29 and 30 in ODIs – and between 39 and 40 in Tests – is usually the difference between feeling like you still need to prove yourself and feeling secure about your place in the side.It’s slightly different for Sri Lankans, though. Throughout their history as a cricket team, their batsmen have been slow starters in ODIs. It took Sanath Jayasuriya till his 235th match for his average to stabilise itself above 30 – that is, for it to never dip below that mark again.It took 102 matches for Kumar Sangakkara, 149 for Mahela Jayawardene, 111 for Aravinda de Silva, 155 for Tillakaratne Dilshan and 86 for Arjuna Ranatunga. The quickest of Sri Lanka’s top seven ODI run-getters to achieve a stable 30-plus average was Marvan Atapattu, who got there in his 23rd match. He, of course, began his Test career with five ducks in his first six innings.Sri Lanka’s selectors have always given their talented batsmen a long run in the side, believing they have the game and the temperament to eventually come good. Time and again, they’ve been proved right. Sri Lanka’s current set of selectors, chaired by Jayasuriya, have given Thirimanne that sort of run in the side. The Asia Cup final was his 62nd ODI. It was the perfect stage to play what could prove a career-defining innings.Two things worked in Thirimanne’s favour during the first half of his innings. Early on, Pakistan’s attentions were mostly fixed on Kusal Perera, who was worrying them no end with his Jayasuriya-esque flicks and jabs, powered by an iron bottom-hand grip. This took some pressure off Thirimanne, and allowed him to remain inconspicuous and play at his own pace.Saeed Ajmal then came on, bowled a maiden to Kusal, and struck twice in his second over to dismiss Kusal and Sangakkara. His next over, to Mahela Jayawardene, was another maiden. When Misbah-ul-Haq took Ajmal out of the attack, he had bowled four overs, out of which Thirimanne had only faced two balls. The first of those had squirted off his inside-edge for four. Even during the opening game of the tournament, in which Thirimanne had scored a century, Ajmal had been the only Pakistan bowler to trouble him.None of this, of course, is to knock Thirimanne’s achievement. Sri Lanka were under tremendous pressure when they lost their second wicket. They still needed more than 200 to win, and their momentum had stalled to a considerable extent.Thirimanne began the process of regaining Sri Lanka’s momentum in Mohammad Talha’s first over. Talha started with a deep backward square leg and a square-ish fine leg. Third ball of the over, Thirimanne bisected them with his pull. Two balls later, when Talha drifted too straight, he sent fine leg running the other way, once again in vain, with a deft flick off his hips.Those two shots showcased Thirimanne’s timing and placement as well as his ability to keep his head about him under pressure and look for scoring opportunities. He has shown those qualities right through the Asia Cup, and given credence to the comparisons that are often drawn between him and Sangakkara. It helps that they share a tall stance and a cover drive on one knee with a full flourish.

All three of Thirimanne’s ODI hundreds have come when he’s batted in the top three; in those positions, he averages 49.08 in 14 innings. At No. 4 or lower, he averages 22.80 in 33 innings. Like Sangakkara, whose blossoming coincided with a move up the order – he had spent a lot of the early part of his career at No. 6 or 7 – Thirimanne will probably bat up the order in the long term

In this innings, on a slow pitch and against a group of fast bowlers who didn’t pitch it up all that often, Thirimanne didn’t get to play the cover drive that much. Instead, he exploited the V behind the wicket, and picked up a couple of boundaries with open-faced steers past the wicketkeeper that brought Ranatunga to mind.After he had moved into the 70s, Thirimanne picked up a cheeky boundary off Umar Gul with one of these late dabs. Next ball, he blocked solidly, back to the bowler. Gul raised his arm, as bowlers often do, as if to throw the ball at the stumps. Thirimanne said something. Gul, moving closer to the batsman, responded with an observation of his own. Thirimanne, like Ranatunga and Sangakkara, didn’t seem to mind a bit of chat.None of this affected Thirimanne’s batting. He flowed on, smoothly, content to stay within the confines imposed by the pitch and the lengths Pakistan bowled. It took until he had moved to 81 for someone to give him a wide half-volley, and he pounced on it gleefully.The next 15 runs took a while coming, as Jayawardene took centre-stage for a while before he and Ashan Priyanjan fell in quick succession. Thirimanne didn’t have too much of the strike in all that while. He had been on 85 off 85 balls at the end of the 33rd over. At the start of the 44th, he was on 99 off 105. When he finally flicked Junaid Khan to reach 100, he leaped and punched the air twice, once with helmet on, once with helmet off.Thirimanne’s century was his third in ODIs. All three of them have come when he’s batted in the top three; in those positions, he averages 49.08 in 14 innings. At No. 4 or lower, he averages 22.80 in 33 innings.Like Sangakkara, whose blossoming coincided with a move up the order – he had spent a lot of the early part of his career at No. 6 or 7 – Thirimanne will probably bat up the order in the long term. In the short term, though, with Dilshan set to return from injury, he gives Sri Lanka a bit of a headache. It isn’t one they’ll mind too much.