All posts by h716a5.icu

A journey through Australia’s against-the-odds Test series victory in South Africa

30-Jul-2009

India’s North East has yet to fully embrace cricket, but the region is set to gain a fillip through the Twenty20 format

Siddarth Ravindran09-Jan-2010Over the past decade, many of India’s stars have emerged from the cricketing hinterland – MS Dhoni from Ranchi, Sreesanth from Kochi, Suresh Raina from Ghaziabad, to name a few – but there is still no national player from the North East. Cricket in the area received a fillip last month when three states, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, played in their first BCCI-recognised Under-19 tournament, a 50-over event in Raipur.In September 2007, the trio took their first fledgling steps towards joining their neighbours, Assam and Tripura, in the Ranji Trophy when their associations were granted affiliate status by the Indian board. Since then they have participated in a North East Twenty20 Cup in Shillong ten months ago, but perhaps the spotlight was brightest on the region when Nagaland’s Hokaito Zhimomi was picked to train with the Kolkata Knight Riders last year (though he hasn’t yet played an IPL match). Zhimomi, a left-arm fast bowler who also has a reputation as a hitter, was part of the Bengal U-19s team five years ago and has been a part of the Kolkata club circuit since.One of the problems that Nagaland shares with Arunachal is the lack of a proper cricket stadium. Cricket is still in its infancy in both states; the games popularity and infrastructure still needs to be built up and only a rudimentary league is currently in place. Arunachal’s inability to find a venue to conduct a local tournament shows how far the state has to progress.”We could not hold it in November and December because we were busy preparing for the BCCI tournament in Raipur,”Tado Kohli, secretary of the Arunachal Cricket Association, says. “We wanted to play in January but grounds are not available because of Republic Day, but we will definitely hold it in February.”Meghalaya, on the other hand, has a more robust cricketing scene with a long history, an established local league and a turf-wicket ground. The game has been played in Shillong since pre-Independence times. “The British played here, the Army, the defence personnel, we had eight to nine players from Shillong playing for Assam then (and till 1972, when Meghalaya was hived off as a separate state from Assam),” says Naba Bhattacharjee, secretary of the Meghalaya Cricket Association (MCA). “We have 42 teams playing in the A division and another 30 teams. Cricket is not new to Shillong but definitely, the local tribals are not very adept because they were more keen on football.”The simplest way to popularise cricket in the region is through the game’s shortest format, Twenty20. Recognising this, the MCA held a week-long North East Twenty20 tournament last February, involving seven states from the region. The event, which carried prize money of Rs 3 lakhs (US$ 6500) was won by Assam. “We have made a beginning, next year we will be holding it in March, it will be a Meghalaya Open Invitational Twenty20,” says Bhattacharjee, who wants to make the tournament an annual affair .When asked about the sort of assistance needed from the BCCI, he says: “First we have to help ourselves then others will help us. The Indian board has given all three states financial assistance as part of its new area development project, besides providing equipment such as a mechanised roller to Meghalaya and more basic supplies like bats and balls to Arunachal.”Stanley Saldanha, a Ranji batsman in the 1970s who is now the BCCI’s manager of game development, was in Raipur during last weeks Associates and Affiliates tournament. “Some of the states have a long way to go, they are just beginning,” Saldanha says. “We have just finished U-16 and U-19 tournaments, which are going to be regular features. We will also have coaching camps and look at the proper way to promote the game in these areas.”Other problems like the lack of qualified umpires are also being tackled. SK Bansal, a former international umpire who stood in six Tests and 30 one-dayers, visited Meghalaya along with Saldanha in May. “I just taught them the basics, what is this cricket, what are the laws,” Bansal says. “Umpiring classes take a minimum of three days and the BCCI is interested in holding them, mostly we will have them next year.”Looking ahead, Kohli says Arunachal will produce Ranji-quality players in four or five years if the Indian board continues to hold tournaments frequently. Bhattacharjee has loftier targets in mind. In three years, Meghalaya should be playing in the Ranji Trophy.However, his state’s ambitions are likely to be tempered by BCCI rules, which require at least a ten-year period after affiliation before allowing integration into the first-class structure. “For five years continuously they [affiliates] have to play board tournaments, and reach a certain standard to become associates,” Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI chief administrative officer, says. “Then another five years to become full members [which makes them eligible to play Ranjis].”The three states also have to avoid the pitfalls of the two north-eastern states which are full members. Tripura has become a byword for demonstrating the gulf between the strongest and weakest domestic teams while Assam, despite being part of the Ranjis for 60 years, still needs to be bailed out by experienced outstation players (like Amol Muzumdar and Sairaj Bahutule this season), for whom the states cricket team is an old-age home before the end of their playing days.For inspiration, though, the new boys of Indian cricket have to look no further than the north-easts No. 1 football club Shillong Lajong. In their first season in top-flight Indian football, Lajong have stunned heavyweights like Dempo FC and Churchill Brothers to blaze into the finals of the prestigious Federation Cup before falling to giants East Bengal on penalties.

The left-arm spinner has achieved much in his first year in the Ireland side, and the World Cup is a chance to take that big leap forward

Brydon Coverdale01-Mar-2011George Dockrell is used to passing important tests. When Australia came to Dublin last June for a one-off one-day international, the then 17-year-old gave up the chance to face Ricky Ponting and his men because he was sitting for a high-school biology exam.”I got a B in that, so it was worth it in the end,” Dockrell says.He’ll be looking for an A-grade in his next major assignment, and instead of answering questions about living organisms, this one is a practical examination. Can he get inside the minds of England’s batsmen at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday?In his first year in the Ireland side, Dockrell has already shown so much promise that Somerset have signed him to a two-year deal. And as Eoin Morgan has proved, a foot in the door at the county level can be the first step towards Test cricket for an Irishman. Of course, Dockrell dreams of playing Test cricket for Ireland, but he knows that unless his home country makes rapid progress to becoming a full member of the ICC, England is the only option.Every chance he gets to bowl to the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss is another important learning curve for Dockrell, a spindly left-arm spinner who at 18 already looks a natural in the limited-overs formats. His first-class journey has only just begun, but his Somerset coach Andy Hurry has been impressed with Dockrell’s maturity beyond his years.”He’s got real potential to fulfill that goal of Test cricket,” Hurry says. “At the moment his strength is definitely one-day cricket, where the batsmen tend to be quite attacking, which helps his game. But he’s also very, very resourceful in his understanding of his cricket. He’s thoughtful in his slight variations of pace, slight variations in flight, and that is something that he’s worked out himself. He keeps trying to work the batsman out.”He certainly got inside the heads of a few batsmen in the Caribbean last year when he found himself bowling in the World Twenty20. By the time he had delivered ten balls in the tournament he had two wickets.Dockrell’s skiddy style suited the pitches in the West Indies, and he finished with 3 for 16 against the hosts and 0 for 19 against England. Ten months on, Dockrell still swims in the green Ireland jersey, although he has bulked up a fraction. And now he knows he can match it with quality opposition.”I was a 17-year-old then and I wasn’t sure how I was going to go, playing against Test nations, playing against England and all those teams,” Dockrell says. “That really gave me the confidence that I could put in those performances.”Not long afterwards, Somerset came calling. Hurry says they immediately liked what they saw.”We invited him down to have a look at him and he really impressed us for a number of reasons,” Hurry says. “The first one really is how intelligent he was, not only as a human being, academically, but also from a cricketing perspective. He’s really switched on, very aware of what his strengths are in his bowling. One of the key things that encouraged us to sign him was not only his huge potential, but most importantly his character.”He has vision and drive and motivation to be the best he possibly could, his mental strength and also his ability to learn quickly in other aspects of his game like his batting and fielding, and also his work ethic down in the gym. He’s very strong-willed and knows exactly what’s required for him to be successful and to get to the next level in county cricket and then hopefully one day to Test cricket.”It has taken a strong will for Dockrell to juggle cricket with his studies. That won’t change any time soon, with his Ireland and Somerset duties unlikely to stop him from hitting the books again next year.”I’m looking at maybe going to college next year, I’ll potentially have a place in science at Trinity College in Dublin,” Dockrell says. “You can only play cricket for so long, so I’d like to mix the two of them [cricket and study].”There’s something very Daniel Vettori-like about Dockrell. Both began in the junior ranks as fast bowlers. Both switched disciplines and burst on to the international scene as teenage left-arm orthodox spinners. Both have natural cricket brains and a bent for science, although the game got in the way of Vettori’s plans to study pharmaceutical sciences at university.And like Vettori, Dockrell is showing a few of his older team-mates how it’s done. Ireland’s World Cup began with a loss to Bangladesh, although Dockrell played his part to perfection, collecting 2 for 23 from his ten overs, and he will be a key man in their campaign to make the quarter-finals.That task continues on Wednesday, when he’ll be cheered on by his father Derek, who will be in the crowd in Bangalore. George’s mother is a college lecturer and Derek is an architect, and the man responsible for instilling a love of cricket in his son many years ago.George was also a keen hockey player, but cricket won the battle. He hung up his stick around the age of 14, perhaps no coincidence that it was also around the time of Ireland’s 2007 World Cup heroics.He would come home from school and try to get time off his homework to watch the games, the St Patrick’s Day win over Pakistan still embedded in his mind to this day. And if Dockrell has his way over the next couple of weeks, he’ll help create some vivid memories for the next batch of young Irish stars.

The home side turned in a near perfect assertion of superiority – a bruising performance with the ball and supremacy with the bat

Firdose Moonda at SuperSport Park20-Dec-2010In three seasons, against three classy sides, this is the first time South Africa have won the opening match of a Test series at home. Two seasons ago, they were massacred by Australia at the Wanderers. Last year they drew against England who were nine wickets down in the second innings at Centurion. South Africa needed to make a statement of intent in their opening match against a highly-rated Indian side this time around.Intent is an understatement for what they ended up doing. It was as though they announced their dominance on the loudspeaker system at SuperSport Park. It was a near perfect assertion of superiority – a bruising performance with the ball and supremacy with the bat. Although the performance was clinical, it wasn’t cold and there was plenty of passion about the way South Africa went about their business.They had every right to, because of the number of record-breaking individual performances that were on display. Morne Morkel took career-best figures in the first innings, AB de Villiers scored the fastest hundred by a South African in Test history and Jacques Kallis reached his maiden double-ton, all occasions to invoke delight from the camp.Of the three landmarks, it was the third that meant the most to the team as a whole. They’d been in Nagpur earlier this year when Kallis made 173 and through the years many of them have seen his attempts to reach the landmark that many great batsmen already had. AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Smith already had a 200 to their names and perhaps understood Kallis’ desire better. Smith said as Kallis got close to the double, the dressing-room were engrossed in the contest within a contest that eventually saw Kallis break his hoodoo.”The change-room was very emotional,” Smith said. “Especially after lunch those last 15 runs, our palms were sweating. It was as though all of us scored 200 that day with him. We were pretty drained when we got out onto the field.”In the end, it wasn’t that Kallis got 200, but that it only took him 270 balls to get there that was important in the context of the game. Kallis paced his innings well with first 100 runs coming in the least number of balls he has ever faced to get to a Test hundred. Although he started in measured fashion on the fourth morning, de Villiers kept the scoring-rate high as he reached a century in just 75 balls. The presence of de Villiers took the pressure off Kallis and ensured that he could get to his milestone and South Africa would have enough time to bowl India out.de Villiers was vital because with him at the crease, South Africa scored and over five an over. Their entire innings was paced at 4.65 runs to the over, knocking the stuffing out of the Indian bowlers. There was some concern that South Africa would not declare in time to bowl India out, especially since they were unable to take 20 wickets in their recently completed two-Test series against Pakistan.Kallis said that that concern was only external, because the team always believed in their bowling attack. “We realised that we’d gotten the ball in the right areas [in the UAE] and we did everything we could to take 20 wickets. If we could so those same things here in South Africa we would have our bases covered,” he said. Steyn and Morkel used this Test to reaffirm their status as the world’s most fearsome Test new-ball bowlers but the other bowlers also impressed with their discipline.Paul Harris, the much under-rated spinner, was impressive in the manner in which he played his containing role, especially when Tendulkar and Dhoni were on the rampage. He was the only bowler to concede less than three runs an over and the two wickets he got, Virender Sehwag and Harbahjan Singh, were important ones. Harris is considered to be on the brink of losing his place every time he takes the field, but the administrators have given him a vote of confidence by not bringing Johan Botha back into the side.Botha was part of the original 15-man squad which was named for the series and released to play for his franchise, the Warriors, during this Test. The other released members, JP Duminy and Wayne Parnell, were both brought back into the fold following good performances in the SuperSport Series over the weekend. Botha was not as successful as the other two, who scored 200 not out and took 3/72 respectively, but Andrew Hudson said the selectors wanted to keep the squad together.Lonwabo Tsotsobe has a few more jitters. With Ryan McLaren already in the squad, there is a direct replacement for him. Now Parnell has been added. He brings the same left-arm variation as Tsotsobe which could make for an interesting competition between the two.The smaller selection issues will pale in comparison to the bigger picture for South Africa, which is to claim a series win against a respected team. Smith has spent the past few years building a side that can resemble the Australia that humiliated his men in the past. They beat England and Australia away and he says they have achieved “outstandingly” so far. Beating India will go a long way to further their reputation as a team that’s coming increasingly close to being labelled the world’s current best Test side.

The two opening batsmen have more in common than just their placid demeanours and astronomical strike rates

Aakash Chopra17-May-2011A poll on a social-networking site recently declared Chris Gayle a far more destructive batsman than Virender Sehwag. When Gayle arrived in the Royal Challengers Bangalore camp last month, their two-year purple patch in the IPL had been crushed and the team were preparing for a premature exit. When Sehwag joined a depleted Delhi Daredevils, little did he know that he would have to single-handedly steer his team through his time in this IPL.But while Gayle’s first-game heroics battered the Kolkata Knight Riders, Sehwag’s ferocious intent couldn’t do much to change Delhi’s kismet. Unlike Gayle, who had Virat Kohli and AB de Villers to back his explosive style, Sehwag didn’t have a strong batting line-up supporting him. Delhi won each time Sehwag clicked but it didn’t happen often enough.Though Gayle and Sehwag are both big-hitters, match-winners, and brutal on all bowling attacks, you wouldn’t quite think their batting styles are comparable. Let’s give it a shot, though.Footwork
Most batsmen have a trigger movement before the bowler delivers the ball. It could be a slight shuffle across, a small press or something else that helps you get moving before the ball is delivered, which in turn helps you get into position quickly. But both Gayle and Sehwag stay completely still till as late as possible before a delivery.The quicker the bowler, the more crucial these movements, for you don’t want to be late for the ball. But these movements can also give away a batsman’s preferences in terms of strokes and scoring areas. For instance, if he goes back and across, chances are he’s looking for a full ball and transferring his weight on to the back leg. The only movement from that position will be a forward press. Likewise, if he plants his foot in front, he prefers short-pitched deliveries.But these apply only to lesser mortals; great batsmen can do without. Both Gayle and Sehwag move only when the ball leaves the hand of the bowler, and hence give nothing away. In fact, even when they do move, their movements are restricted to the minimum.The lack of foot movement may have its pitfalls but their quick hands make up. When you can’t reach the delivery with your feet, the chances of missing it increase, but both these batsmen have mastered the art of throwing their arms at the ball. And the minimal movement ensures they rarely find themselves in awkward positions that might lead to their playing off-position shots.Sharp eyes
Gayle’s and Sehwag’s batting seems to be based on the simple technique of see ball, hit ball. This approach can only be effective if you do the first part right. While most good players pick the line and length quickly, what separates these two from the rest is their ability to pick slower balls and other variations with ease. Love Ablish, the Kings XI Punjab medium-pacer, changes his pace and disguises his deliveries well, but he couldn’t fox Gayle who delayed his downswing a fraction to send the ball over the ropes.Ashish Nehra once told me that there are only two batsmen in the Indian team, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, who, when countering sudden changes in pace, don’t turn their aggressive stroke into a defensive prod. Instead they wait a fraction longer and at times even convert a defensive prod into a lofted drive. Most batsmen would be too early on the shot while facing a well-disguised slower one, but not these two.

What makes Gayle and Sehwag even more dangerous is that they don’t need to go down the track or generate momentum to send a spinner for six

Hitting from the crease
What makes Gayle and Sehwag even more dangerous is that they don’t need to go down the track or generate bbody momentum to send a spinner for six. While Gayle prefers to give the fast bowlers the charge every now and then, like Sehwag he stays put in the crease when facing spinners. Both trust the downswing in their back-lifts to generate enough power, and it rarely ever fails them.Astute brains
Since their batting looks simple and uncomplicated, most people discount the tactical shrewdness of these two. If the ball moves prodigiously at the start, they are happy to bide time. Even in Twenty20 games, like they did against Punjab and Deccan Chargers respectively, where they allowed the early swing to fade away before exploding.Gayle and Sehwag always target certain bowlers in the opposition and play strokes that may look ambitious but are percentage shots. They also trick bowlers by wildly heaving at and missing deliveries intentionally. Once, in a domestic game on a poor surface, Sehwag stepped down the track and played a rather ambitious shot, only to miss the ball by a mile. It looked suicidal but he had a plan in mind. He charged the bowler because he wanted to force him to shorten his length, which he did the following ball, to be dispatched to the fence. Gayle does the same against many quick bowlers only to sit deep inside the crease on the following ball. There are astute cricket brains working behind those rather calm facades.Both Gayle and Sehwag may have two Test triple-centuries to their names, but their recent performances in Twenty20 have been just as pleasurable to watch. Unless, of course, you are the hapless prey in their sights.

Shakin Al Hasan’s removal of captain has raised questions about the precedent it sets while Mushfiqur Rahim is seen as the only candidate to replace him

Mohammad Isam06-Sep-2011The Bangladesh Cricket Board’s decision on Monday to sack captain Shakib Al Hasan and vice-captain Tamim Iqbal wasn’t the most unexpected, but the unprecedented haste of the dismissals has prompted some observers to question the reasons for the decision.Among some board directors, there is a feeling that BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal’s hand had been forced into making the decision on the urging of a faction that did not want Shakib and Tamim to continue leading the team. There is also some concern that the sacking sets a dangerous precedent as not all the directors were consulted before the decision was taken and future captains could be undermined if they think they don’t have the support of the full board.What is clear is that with Shakib and Tamim having run out of the several “get out of jail” cards provided by the board, a new captain will lead Bangladesh against West Indies next month and it is also obvious who that would most likely be, given Mohammad Ashraful’s uncertain presence in the side and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s injuries: Mushfiqur Rahim.More than his leadership experience and his maturity, it is Mushfiqur’s assured place in the side that is his biggest advantage. Apart from Tamim and Shakib, Mushfiqur is the only other player who is guaranteed to be in the playing XI, although the names of Mahmudullah Riyad and Shahriar Nafees are also in the mix.If the 23-year-old Mushfiqur is made captain, he won’t be the first wicketkeeper to lead the side. Khaled Mashud was Bangladesh’s second Test captain and though he was the least successful, his leadership is still regarded highly, especially in the National Cricket League, where he shaped Rajshahi into the country’s top first-class side.It was in the Rajshahi side where Mashud first saw Mushfiqur seven years ago, a fresh face from the Bangladesh Institute of Sports, and Mashud believes Mushfiqur won’t have a problem earning the respect of the rest of the team.”I think everyone already respects Mushfiqur for the work that he puts in. He is a very disciplined person and I like that in a player,” Mahsud said. “Before a match, you’ll see how beautifully he’s set up in the dressing room. That says a lot about Mushfiqur and I’m sure he is respected within the team.”But the former national captain wants a strong setup around whomever is the new captain. “If the people around the team can handle the players properly, give them adequate mental support, it frees up the captain’s duty. Then he will only lead the team on the field and make sure he represents the country in the right manner.”I think Shakib has a huge role to play here. If he gives the necessary support, the new captain, if it is Mushfiqur, will feel more solid ground under his feet with the best player in the team with him. If he doesn’t get a supportive management, he will be busy putting his house in order. In that case, who will stand up as the country’s cricket captain?”Mashud, who has experienced life as a quality wicketkeeper, dependable middle-order batsman and captain, doesn’t think leading the team will be difficult for Mushfiqur. “I don’t think it is a difficult job. I say this under the condition that the new captain gets people within the team management who are good at man-management. Dav Whatmore used to do it very well.”Even if it someone else as captain, he mustn’t be bothered about the trouble that has already happened. He has to lead from the front and garner respect from all around. I would like to suggest that the board doesn’t name a vice-captain so soon. Frankly, Shakib, Tamim and Mushfiqur are the automatic choices and the rest, for reasons aplenty, are not.”So maybe they may have someone like Riyad or Nafees in touch with the management when holding meetings so that one of them can take over if Mushfiqur is injured but not in any official capacity, at least not now.”The absence of solid management was at the heart of Bangladesh’s woes over the past year, including the disappointing World Cup campaign. A better set-up can can only be put in place by the BCB, but they have shown less professionalism than the players and this week’s decision sets another harmful example. If they don’t get it right in the future, the captaincy could become a poisoned chalice that no one in the dressing-room would want to hold.

Sure, the wickets in Australia are faster and bouncier than back home; all the more reason to pitch it up

Aakash Chopra26-Dec-2011While batting is undoubtedly India’s strength, it is not possible to make an impression without having the arsenal to take 20 wickets in a Test match. After all, winning a Test match is more about dismissing the opposition twice than scoring more runs than them. India’s batting will blossom only if their bowlers manage to restrict the Australian batting line-up to a manageable total, for batting after fielding for two days in the field is a herculean task. India’s bowling unit isn’t all that experienced and will have to punch above its weight to tilt the balance in their team’s favour.Pitch it fuller
When a young fast bowler lands in Australia, fantasies of bouncing batsmen out begin to play in his mind. Nothing pleases a fast bowler more than the sight of a batsman hopping and ducking for cover, but not many young fast bowlers realise that the idea of bouncing the top order out is a fallacy in international cricket. Most batsmen at this level are adept at handling the short-pitched stuff, and in fact they secretly hope that bowlers waste their energy, and the shine on the ball, by bowling bouncers. Whatever doesn’t get a batsman out doesn’t hurt him. It’s important for the likes of Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ishant Sharma to take a leaf out of Zaheer Khan’s book of line-and-length bowling in Test cricket. The new Kookaburra swings appreciably in the air and it’s important to keep the ball in the air for longer by pitching it fuller.Make the batsman play
The wicketkeeper collecting the ball with his fingers consistently pointing upwards is a wonderful sight for a bowler. The bounce and carry on Australian pitches encourage the bowler to run in a little harder and bowl a little quicker. Most bowlers from the subcontinent are not used to getting rewarded in such a quantifiable manner, and often get carried away. It’s important for the younger Indian bowlers to remember that however nice it feels to see the ball carry through to the wicketkeeper at a good height, it’s all about dismissing the batsman. I can tell you that an opener hates to be made to play at most deliveries, and is more susceptible to making errors when he is forced to play. It’s important to make the new ball count, for the failure to take wickets with the it can often result in the team spending long hours in the field.Hit the deck hard when the ball gets old
While the new Kookaburra swings appreciably, it ceases to swing when the seam and shine disappear. A bowler who wreaks havoc with the new ball becomes easy pickings with the old one. Once it stops swinging in the air, you have to extract movement off the surface, and for that you must hit the deck hard. The good thing is that the hard Australian surfaces are very responsive, but the tough part is that it calls for more effort from the bowler. India’s bowlers may have to bowl shorter spells but they must put everything behind the ball in those four or five overs. In Australia it’s all about quality, not quantity.Flight it
Australian surfaces with their pace and bounce may be ideal for fast bowlers, but the bounce can be a spinner’s ally too. While a spinner must always have the mindset of a fast bowler, he should refrain from bowling it quicker in the air. The easiest way to play a spinner is from the crease, which is possible when the bowler bowls quicker and the batsman doesn’t need to use his feet to smother the spin. If Ashwin and Ojha are prepared to flight the ball, they’re sure to get some assistance from the surface. The bounce ensures that edges carry comfortably to the close-in fielders, so batsmen have to be extra careful while playing defensive shots. Most Australian grounds have long boundaries and that should further encourage the Indian spinners to toss the ball up a bit. Most Australian batsmen prefer to attack spinners, but not many of them use their feet all that well, so the slower India’s bowlers bowl, the better their chances of creating opportunities.

Mohammad Hafeez, the Pakistan vice-captain, didn’t rule out the possibility of playing three seamers on a Pallekele pitch that is expected to have more bounce and seam movement

Kanishkaa Balachandran in Pallekele07-Jul-2012Watching Junaid Khan toil singlehandedly at the SSC made one wonder what could have been if the weather didn’t have its say or if Junaid had support at the other end. The third and final Test in Pallekele has put Pakistan, currently 1-0 down in the series, in a must-win situation to preserve Misbah-ul-Haq’s unblemished record as captain.Pakistan are yet to lose a series since Misbah took over against South Africa in 2010-11 in the UAE, and the only glitch came in the West Indies last year, where they lost the first Test at Providence. Pakistan had just one chance to restore their pride, which they did successfully at St Kitts to draw the series. They find themselves in a similar make-or-break scenario here, and as they strategise, one area worth serious consideration is the composition of their bowling attack.Junaid, despite his inexperience at Test level, got the ball to talk on an unhelpful pitch at the SSC. With the old ball reversing, the right-handers found it tough to pick him from the round the wicket line, with the likes of Mahela Jayawardene caught in two minds whether to play or to leave. Junaid was unlucky not to get Thilan Samaraweera, but nevertheless set up his dismissal by creating doubts in the batsman’s mind before he could get off the mark. Getting both Jayawardene and Samaraweera for ducks at the SSC is an achievement for any visiting team, but for Pakistan to leave a deeper dent, they needed to attack in pairs for sustained periods.Pakistan had lost the experienced Umar Gul before the game to an ankle injury, thereby increasing the burden on Aizaz Cheema and Junaid. Cheema, who bowled 26 wicketless overs in the match, posed questions with his pace and occasional lift, but couldn’t sustain that pressure long enough to fetch wickets. Going by that showing, Cheema would be lucky to keep his place at Pallekele, should a fit Gul return. However, the pitch could give Cheema a lifeline, as it opens the topic of whether Pakistan should play three seamers. There’s also Mohammad Sami in the mix.Both Jayawardene and vice-captain Angelo Mathews expect the pitch to have more bounce and seam movement. Jayawardene skipped the practice session on the eve of the game to rest after a hectic day in Colombo at the Sri Lanka Premier League player draft, but Mathews had a chance to look at the green-top pitch. Both teams were undecided on their playing XIs, more so Pakistan, because they didn’t have a chance to look at the pitch before their scheduled afternoon training session. The covers were on after a heavy shower, and Mohammad Hafeez, the Pakistan vice-captain, didn’t rule out the possibility of playing three seamers. Naturally, he couldn’t make any firm statements until he inspected the pitch.”We will look into every possibility before making the right decision even if it means having to play three fast bowlers”, Hafeez said.Should Pakistan do so, it will be a deviation from Misbah’s tried and tested policy of playing two specialist seamers and three spinners, including Hafeez. The forced exits of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir in 2010 has changed the complexion of Pakistan’s Test attack, moving from pace to spin. Since Misbah took over as captain in November 2010, Pakistan have fielded more than two seamers on just four occasions. Not surprisingly, two of those Tests were in New Zealand. The last time they played three seamers was in the Abu Dhabi Test against Sri Lanka in October 2011, an attack comprising Junaid, Cheema and Gul. Since then, the spin trio of Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman and Hafeez has served them well, especially in the UAE. The Pallekele pitch, though, has forced them to rethink.The question is, if they bring in an extra seamer, who will make way? Ajmal was off colour at the SSC, conceding a century in the first innings. Despite that, he remains an indispensable component. Misbah would know too well not to repeat the mistake of dropping him, especially after the horrors of the fifth one-dayer. Rehman bowled with control, picking up five wickets in the match and was comfortably their best spinner. Bringing in a seamer would mean they would have to bite the bullet and leave out a spinner, or a specialist batsman. The latter is a gamble, as a sporting pitch increases the demands on the batsmen.This brings the question of the missing component – the seam-bowling allrounder. Sri Lanka have two – Mathews and Thisara Perera, but Pakistan have none at their disposal. Abdul Razzaq has fallen off the selectors’ radar and Azhar Mahmood isn’t in Pakistan’s plans anymore because of his British citizenship and age, even though he has expressed his desire to play for Pakistan again. Hammad Azam had been talked about as a batting allrounder with potential, but he’s still too raw at the international level to nail down a spot. More opportunities, at least in limited-overs, will help in his development and a possible graduation to the Test side.Whatever the combination, Pakistan can recall the St Kitts Test for inspiration in what has been their toughest overseas trip in nearly two years. “We lost the first Test but were also unlucky and what we are looking for now is the best result to have some happiness in the camp before we go home,” Hafeez said.

If any two of Australia’s squad could be said to have offered the least to the team’s progress in the Caribbean, it was Ed Cowan and Ricky Ponting. Until the third day in Dominica

Daniel Brettig at Windsor Park25-Apr-2012One by one, day by day, all of Australia’s cricketers have contributed something of value to this series. Batsmen and bowlers, tyros and senior pros, whether in form or out of it, every chosen player has offered at least one performance of worth.The individual efforts of Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Hussey, Nathan Lyon and Matthew Wade have shone brightest, but they have had supporting interludes from the rest. David Warner has provided runs and as notably, wickets. The captain Michael Clarke has led the team artfully and caught soundly while also contributing several handy scores. Even the likes of James Pattinson contributed critical runs in Trinidad, while Michael Beer bowled tidily at Queen’s Park Oval. His replacement Mitchell Starc made pesky lower order runs then claimed the enormously valuable wicket of Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The sturdy, if not storming, performance of the whole has been sufficiently fuelled by the sum of its bit-part players.If any two members of the touring party could be said to have offered the least to the team’s progress in the Caribbean, it was Ed Cowan and Ricky Ponting. But on the third day in Dominica, it was their turn to put a partnership together, and in doing so stretch the match beyond West Indies’ last, despairing efforts to drag it back into home hands. There was little that was thrilling or even memorable about the way that Cowan and Ponting built Australia’s second innings lead at Windsor Park. Yet it was significant that their efforts meant that all members of the touring party will now be entitled to return home with the thought that they had contributed meaningfully to the team’s success, in a series that has proved to be more keenly fought than many impartial observers had expected.Cowan began his day by providing something less tangible than runs, in the form of an address to the Australian team about Anzac Day, as they huddled near the boundary to commemorate those their nation has lost in war. As befits a diarist, columnist and avid reader, Cowan’s words were well chosen and thoughtful, underlining the literate contribution he is making to the culture of the team’s dressing room. He delivered them while nursing a tender wrist, struck while he fielded at short leg during West Indies’ first innings. Cowan has also made himself decidedly useful at short leg, following an assortment of specialists in the position including David Boon, Justin Langer and in more recent years Simon Katich – five catches for the series have Cowan second only to keeper Wade.Of course moving orations and smart catches do not make an opening batsman. Cowan’s struggles for major scores in this series have left the question open as to whether or not he will make it in Test cricket via the avenue by which he must perform, as a top-order batsman blunting the new ball and going on to hefty totals. In Trinidad he admitted to struggles in adapting his Australia-centric game to the slower, lower surfaces of the West Indies, and in the first innings at Windsor Park a lapse in judgement had him lbw to Ravi Rampaul for a disconsolate single. A sore wrist had Cowan icing up in his hotel room at the end of the second day, knowing a substantial score was needed to shore up his place, but more importantly ensure Australia would build a lead to shut the hosts out of the Test.In his search for these runs he would be soon accompanied by Ponting, after Warner and Shane Watson were both out cheaply. Ponting has looked in better touch during this series than Cowan, but through a conspiracy of poor luck, poor pitches and some fine bowling by Kemar Roach he had only once previously passed 23 – 41 in the second innings in Port-of-Spain. Together they battled away against a West Indian bowling attack that refused to flag under a hot sun, though the fielders seemed a little less capable of stopping everything that skimmed in their vicinity, several boundaries beating dives less sprightly than they had been earlier in the series.They had plenty of good fortune. Cowan might have been run out immediately before lunch after haring down the pitch in search of a non-existent run after Watson pushed a delivery to midwicket, and grope outside off stump numerous times as Shane Shillingford gained appreciable turn. Ponting was a skerrick of inside edge away from falling lbw to another Shillingford offbreak, and later pushed Narsingh Deonarine’s first ball firmly to short leg, who could not clasp a most testing chance. Critically these moments did not affect the focus of the batsmen, who continued on their blue-collar task of building the lead until it had advanced to 278.Both Cowan and Ponting would fall by the close, the former cutting at Deonarine and offering a sharp catch to Darren Sammy at slip, the latter leaving his bat above water when ducking Roach’s bouncer and offering a periscope catch. Their scores, 55 and 57, will doubtless feel like opportunities missed, and will be unlikely to change the minds of those who think that either Ponting is ripe for retirement or that Cowan’s station is as a trophy-winning opening batsman for his state rather than his country.But in forming a stand on a surface that is growing ever more challenging, on a day that called for grafting over galloping, Cowan and Ponting added important runs to an ensemble effort that has blocked the West Indies at every turn. In assessing how the Australian batsmen in particular have fared in the Caribbean, it is worth noting that of the top seven only Ponting, with 146, has failed to reach 150 runs for the series. Among the hosts, only the endlessly adhesive Chanderpaul has passed that mark. While West Indies have shown much improved purpose under Darren Sammy and Ottis Gibson, they are still a long way behind the collective will of the visitors. The sense of team that is growing in the Australian dressing room will only be bolstered by the fact that all have now added vitally in the Caribbean.

Australia have been repeatedly tested in the World Cup only to come out unscathed and, according to their coach, are a side constantly improving

George Binoy in Townsville25-Aug-2012On August 8, in the tranquil suburb of Wynnum on the shore of Moreton Bay in Brisbane, Australia Under-19s were playing a World Cup warm-up match against Scotland. They had been beaten by West Indies on the Sunshine Coast the previous day, and had lost a three-match series to Pakistan on the Gold Coast a week earlier. Stuart Law, the Australia coach, said Pakistan had looked like a well-knit outfit that had been playing together for a while. At the time, he’d been in charge of Australia for a little over a month, and they had decided on their captain only two or three weeks before the tournament. Some of their competitors had had better lead-ups.On the morning of the eve of the World Cup final, it was Australia’s William Bosisto waking up bright and early to go to the top of Castle Hill for the captain’s photo call with his Indian counterpart Unmukt Chand. Australia won the right to compete on August 26 with as clinical a performance as can be expected from teenagers who are still discovering their own games. They won all their group games, and got past Bangladesh and South Africa, who were among the strongest teams here, in the knockouts.”Our boys have improved with each game, we have got better, we’re very tight as a unit,” Law said when asked about the changes in the players and team between the start and now. “I think that [helps] in a final as well, if you’re very tight. We’re getting better – this is one tournament, if we went into another one in a month’s time, we’d even be more improved. So the more cricket you play at this age, the better it is.”They’ve become a bit more attuned to what professional cricket demands of them. There have been guys who have stood up, and to see players perform under extreme pressure is a pleasing aspect. I think having the national talent manager [Greg Chappell] here; it has been great exposure for these young kids to be performing under that pressure, in front of such a highly influential person. Hopefully they go away from this and understand that the hard work hasn’t been completed. It has only just begun for them.”And Australia did face pressure on the road to the final. Against England, they were 30 for 3 chasing 144 with tall quicks charging in on a fast and bouncy pitch at Tony Ireland Stadium. In the quarter-final, Bangladesh had made a solid start to their innings, and then Australia were 33 for 4 in pursuit of 172. Against South Africa in the semi-final, Australia were 3 for 2 chasing 192. They found people to steer them out of all of those situations.For runs, they have relied on their opener Cameron Bancroft and No. 3 Kurtis Patterson, and on Bosisto to shore up a wobble and take the team through to the target. At least one of them has delivered a decisive performance in every game. There are a couple of concerns – opener Jimmy Peirson and No. 4 Meyrick Buchanan have aggregated 89 runs in nine innings – but Australia have persisted with them and are likely to do so for one more game. At this age and in these conditions, Law said a couple of blips in the top order were common across teams.”We’re not the only team that has been struggling with our top order,” he said. “The wickets, up here particularly, have been pretty bowler-friendly with the new ball. So yeah, it’s a concern but not just ours, but everybody’s.”

“There’s going to be a lot more people watching than in any other game I’ve played in my life, whether that makes it the biggest game in my career … Yeah it probably does. But in terms of preparation I don’t think anything changes.”Australia captain William Bosisto

Australia’s bowling group is up there with the best in the tournament. Their three main quicks – Joel Paris, Mark Steketee and Gurinder Sandhu – have conceded fewer than four runs an over, and newcomer Alex Gregory, who was a late inclusion in the squad, has gone for less than three. All four of them have been among the wickets and they’ve built tremendous pressure on batsmen, which has helped offspinner Ashton Turner attack rather than defend and take 10 wickets at an economy of 3.90.”I think we bowled very well as a group, it hasn’t been one guy getting five wickets every time. Everyone’s been chipping in and picking up wickets at crucial times,” Law said. “The seamers, they’re starting to learn from and listen to one of the great Australian bowlers, Craig McDermott. He has taught them well, taught them how to swing the ball, put the swinging ball in the right areas and reap the rewards. What has been pleasing is that the spin of Ashton Turner has come to the fore as well, he’s our leading wicket-taker in the competition.”Before the knockouts, after Australia had won their group, Law had said he wanted his team to improve in little areas. He mentioned they hadn’t run out a batsman yet, and bowled too many wides. In the quarter-final, Bancroft threw down the stumps to run out Litton Das and break Bangladesh’s half-century opening partnership, and in the semi-final against South Africa, Turner ran out Murray Coetzee, who had just celebrated his 50, with another direct hit.”Those run-outs that we affected in the last two games, they came at the right time as well,” Law said. “We really needed a wicket so … Very pleased with the way we’ve played as a whole, [it would] just be nice to put it all together on the final day.”The wides are still an issue for Australia – there were 36 in the two knockouts – but Law said that was another issue most teams were struggling with and that largesse wasn’t hurting Australia yet. He said they would work towards not giving India that advantage in the final.On the surface, Australia does not appear to have a significant chink that is not shared by India. They’ll be telling themselves that all they need to do is stay cool, which is no mean feat against opponents who are well-seasoned when it comes to the pressures of a final.”I was thinking about that the other day,” Bosisto said, when asked if this was the biggest game of his life. “There’s going to be a lot more people watching than in any other game I’ve played in my life, whether that makes it the biggest game in my career … Yeah it probably does. But in terms of preparation I don’t think anything changes; as everyone says it’s just another game of cricket and we’ve just got to go out and execute our processes and do what we can.”There’s usually another ICC photo call with the World Cup on the day after the final. Only one captain will be invited, though, and Bosisto’s hoping it’s his hands that are on that trophy.