Plays of the day from the third T20I between India and Zimbabwe in Harare

Nikhil Kalro22-Jun-2016Eyes on the bailWith India limping through the middle overs of their innings, MS Dhoni took it on himself to push the scoring rate. In the quest for a boundary, he shimmied down to a full delivery from Donald Tiripano in the 17th over, but the lack of pace and slight inward movement to deceived the batsman, deflected off the inside edge and rattled the stumps. The bails went flying, one of which found a way through Dhoni’s helmet and strike him near his right eye.The costly errorWith India’s innings faltering, a length delivery from Chamu Chibhabha in the 10th over seemed too good to pass up on. Kedar Jadhav went for a flat-batted scythe but picked out extra cover. Zimbabwe’s plans were about to bear fruit, India’s hopes were about to take a hit and Hamilton Masakadza was set to take a good catch. He stayed low, reverse cupped his hands… but the ball burst through them. Jadhav got the reprieve, and made it count with a match-winning half-century.Sran loses it, but finds it in timeBarinder Sran was given the final over of India’s tour with the series on the line. Zimbabwe had somehow scrambled to 118 for 5, and required 21 to complete their first series win of two or more T20 matches.His first ball, from around the wicket to Timycen Maruma, was on a length. Slogged over midwicket for six. He switched to over the wicket, and pushed one so wide outside off that it just clipped the edge of the pitch. Wide. He followed that with a misdirected yorker, a high full toss that was slapped over cover for four. Zimbabwe needed nine off five, and Sran was starting to feel the pressure.How did he respond? Five wide yorkers, executed close to perfection, that helped India to a 2-1 series win.Slippery startFast bowler Tendai Chatara, returning to Zimbabwe’s XI, uses his pace variations – legcutters, offcutters and his natural pace – in the early 120 kph range – to flummox batsmen. And he dished them out early on Wednesday. KL Rahul was set up to smash the second ball of the match over midwicket, but the only thing that went flying was his own bat. A legcutter had kept low and Rahul, who was too early into his shot, could not get anything on it.

The likes of England and New Zealand have them already, and West Indies need to consider them seriously if they are not to be deprived of their best players

Tim Wigmore13-Oct-2016West Indies have always been vulnerable to their players earning more by representing someone else. Garry Sobers almost played in English league cricket in 1963 instead of for West Indies. Two rebel tours took place to apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, exploiting the financial insecurity of fringe players. So those who harrumph that today’s Caribbean stars lack the pride of their forebears in representing the region miss the point. West Indies will not return to having their stars available for every game through appeals to romance.Incentives matter. It is not in the financial interests of West Indies’ T20 stars to devote themselves to the national side. While that remains the case, the dispiriting cycle will continue: at full-strength in the World T20, West Indies will remain formidable, but the rest of the time they will be deprived of most of their best players, with predictable results.The heady talk in April of a resurgent West Indies, after the men and women had triumphed in the World T20 and the Under-19s had won the World Cup, already seems like an age ago. There are a few more trophies on the mantlepiece, but nothing has changed. The internecine squabbling between the players and board continues. Phil Simmons, the most popular coach with the players for many years and the man who oversaw the men’s World T20 triumph, has been sacked. Some stars from that tournament are now absent friends; others are only glimpsed in a West Indies shirt when they are underprepared.Dwayne Bravo arrived in the UAE the day before the first T20I against Pakistan, highlighting how West Indies are emasculated by the absence of contracts for their white-ball specialists: the only WICB contracts are for those who play Test cricket too. All the while, other countries are successfully grappling with the notion of white-ball specialists. England have just introduced lucrative new white-ball contracts, which could allow leading limited-overs players to earn more than Test players. Could West Indies’ limited-overs cricket be reinvigorated by doing the same, and creating six to eight contracts for white-ball specialists?It is much easier for the ECB to award bumper central contracts than for the WICB to do so because the ECB has so much more cash: the result of more lucrative commercial deals. A lack of cash is the reason why, in order to fund the creation of 90 professional contracts in the domestic game, the WICB had to reduce the amount that the top international players earned, and phase out the seniority principle in international payments, under which senior players received higher match fees than less experienced ones did.What West Indies players are paid

US$1735 per T20I

$2300 per ODI

$5750 per Test match

Plus $1000 image rights per day if selected in a game

Three contract tiers: Category A, $140,000; Category B, $120,000; Category C $100,000

The WICB has made some effort to compromise with leading limited-overs players. Outside pre-existing arrangements, the WICB has created a window for the IPL in the cricket calendar. “That is a big chunk of the prime cricket months in the Caribbean. It is also lost revenue for WICB not scheduling cricket in that window,” says Richard Pybus, West Indies’ director of cricket. “Having done that, we wanted players committing to play in West Indies domestic cricket, to give value to fans and sponsors and bring depth to the competitions. So they would have been able to play in the IPL and CPL, then give a commitment to West Indies cricket, international and local. This hasn’t been the case.” The WICB has ruled that ODI selection is predicated on playing in the Nagico50, the regional 50-over competition, but as that clashes with the Big Bash, the ruling has left a coterie of players unavailable for ODI cricket.So while the WICB is far from blameless, to some extent it is also simply a victim of wider financial imbalances in international cricket. And yet even New Zealand, a board with similar financial realities, finds a way to accommodate white-ball-only contracts.An insider believes that US$100,000-150,000 a year would persuade West Indies players to sign up to limited-overs contracts that allow them to play the entirety of the IPL and CPL but otherwise gave the WICB first refusal over their services, and the right to manage the players’ workloads. With such security, players would be less inclined to play in every possible T20 competition.In Florida in August, the WICB held discussions with limited-overs specialists on how to work together; among the options proposed by the players’ representatives was including white-ball contracts and relaxing the requirements to play in the Nagico50. As yet nothing has materialised from the conversations, though the WICB is understood to be considering introducing some form of limited-overs contracts.

An insider believes that US$100,000-150,000 a year would persuade West Indies players to sign up to limited-overs contracts that allow them to play the entirety of the IPL and CPL but otherwise gave the WICB first refusal over their services

There would be significant advantages if they did so. While the cash needed for white-ball contracts – probably close to $1 million a year, depending on the number of contracts – is not insignificant, it could be seen as an investment. If West Indies are able to tie down their limited-overs stars, they would become a much more attractive proposition to broadcasters, sponsors and opponents alike.In March, Bravo suggested that West Indies could dominate T20I cricket just as they had dominated Tests in the 1980s. While the West Indies of the 1980s generated cash by being invited to tour the wealthiest nations – they toured Australia six times that decade, including four times in Test series – so the side of the 2010s could become huge draws in limited-overs cricket, leaving West Indies better off financially and in cricket terms. Few want to watch the T20 world champions play as meekly as in the two whitewashes by Pakistan in the UAE.Of course, a new system could create new problems. The WICB’s current contracts show an organisation that puts Test cricket above the other two formats. If that changed, then West Indies’ limited-overs sides might be strengthened – but at the expense of a further decline in their Test team.”One of the West Indies’ challenges is to keep their best players playing Test cricket,” says Tony Irish, the executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations. “Lucrative white-ball contacts may bring some of their current ‘free agent’ players back to playing ODIs and T20Is but it may well also encourage future West Indies players to make that choice over Test cricket.” Irish believes new contracts need to be more lucrative across the board to keep players playing all three formats – emphasising how West Indies are hampered under the ICC’s revenue distribution model. However much it is maligned, the WICB faces a series of unenviable choices.The beating at the hands of Pakistan has left West Indies in a precarious position in regards to the World Cup•Getty ImagesBut the current impasse between the itinerant T20 stars and the WICB is debilitating and, without substantial reform, shows no signs of improving. “My feeling at the moment is that things could get worse before they get better,” says Eddie Tolchard, managing director of Insignia Sports International, which represents, among others, Samuel Badree, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy. “There are financial considerations, of course, but in any form of employer-employee relationship, there is a duty of mutual trust and confidence.”For players to enter into any form of retainer with the WICB, it wouldn’t be purely down to the financials. The relationship would need to be better. Goals aligned. Continuity and confidence installed, with everyone knowing where they stand and what exactly they are agreeing to commit to each year, and importantly, a thriving and positive environment for the youngsters to be exposed to created.”If that does not happen, the current batch of T20 globetrotters will be trendsetters in the Caribbean, and young players might use West Indies as little more than a vehicle to attract T20 scouts. Already the lack of availability of West Indies’ best players has cost them a place in the Champions Trophy, and the $250,000 participation fee that comes with it. Now, having slipped back to ninth in the ODI rankings after their drubbing by Pakistan, West Indies are at risk of not merely having to play the World Cup Qualifiers, but doing so shorn of their best limited-overs players, jeopardising their chances of reaching the World Cup itself, and thus potentially losing out on the $1 million given to each qualifier.A new contract system would be no panacea. But increasing the incentives for leading players to represent West Indies would give the team a chance of ending the blame game, and fielding something resembling their best side in the two limited-overs formats. Without substantial reform, the fear is that West Indies’ performances in bilateral limited-overs cricket will get even worse.

Many Indian fans in the USA had not imagined they would watch India play a series in the country. Now that it is happening, they are eager to take in as much of the action as they can

Aishwarya Kumar in Florida27-Aug-2016’Fine Indian cuisine’ read a catering van parked outside the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida on Friday. The American flag was pitched right behind the van. It was the perfect scene – India officially touring the USA for the first time, with the venue set to host two T20Is between India and West Indies on August 27 and 28. And wherever the cricket goes, the fans seem to follow, be it Chennai or Florida.The match will not start until 10 am local time on Saturday, but that hasn’t stopped fans from arriving at the ground to cheer for their team. Indian cricket fans poured in to catch their team’s practice session on the eve of the match, hoping to get autographs from Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Chris Gayle. “Dwayne Bravo,” yelled one such fan, on seeing Bravo walk back after practice. The West Indies allrounder waved back to loud cheers. On a walk around the stadium, you could hear catch phrases in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and English. It almost felt like the tournament was being played in India.Fans flew in from across the country – Chicago, Louisiana, Washington DC, and Los Angeles – directly to the stadium, keen to catch the action. For most, this is a first chance to watch an international cricket match in person. Indian students in the USA especially were seen boarding flights in Washington DC, eager to get to Lauderhill. The Indians and Indian-Americans gathered at the Reagan National Airport said the series felt “surreal” because when they left India, they never imagined they would watch an international series in person in the country, let alone one featuring India.Cricket is more than just a sport for these Indian immigrants and second-generation Indian-Americans. It is their “mother sport,” said Mike Singh, an Indian immigrant from California. It brings them together, it makes them who they are.Krish Patel, a 10-year-old second-generation Indian-American, grew up watching and worshipping players like Kohli and Dhoni. To be able to talk to them and get their autographs felt surreal, he said. Krish and his father, Mayank, are part of the Bolingbrook Cricket League in Illinois.”This is a big deal for Krish. For him to see legends and future legends that he grew up watching is a big deal,” Mayank said.For the millions of Indian immigrants in the USA, this is also something of a family reunion. Flags were waved, samosas passed around and new Bollywood dance moves exchanged. It is home away from home.Fans were on the lookout for tickets as soon as they heard the BCCI was looking to host the series in the USA. Some even skipped work on the first day of sales to grab a few tickets. Sankar Renganathan, an IT engineer from Alabama, joked that he was the reason the server crashed.”We had to call the phone number on the website to get the tickets,” added his friends.What do the supporters hope to accomplish out of their weekend in Florida?”We want to see a tough game. But we want India to win,” said Udayakumar Karnam, also an IT engineer from Alabama, who flew down with his friends.Some want to see India win, but for others it’s a chance to be part of history, a part of India’s first official series in the USA. That, said Mayank Patel, has made all the travelling worth it.There were West Indies fans at the stadium too, cheering for their during a practice session on Friday, with banter about who would be the best batsman and bowler from the team.James Johnson, an immigrant from Trinidad & Tobago who was in Florida for the Caribbean Premier League, said that to be able to watch West Indies play in the US in person was everything he wanted.”Of course I want West Indies to win, but if not, I am here to watch good cricket like everybody else,” Johnson said.

The newest member of the England squad takes after his father, Ray Jennings, a man he got used to calling coach, not dad, early

Luke Alfred05-Dec-20162:27

Can’t remember when I last called him dad – Keaton Jennings

There’s a history of illustrious father-and-son combinations in South African cricket reaching back decades. The latest turn, however, between Ray Jennings and his son Keaton, comes with a twist. Having been called up by England as cover for their last two Tests in India, Keaton will inevitably play cricket not for the country of his birth.It adds a layer of feeling to the story that Ray never played officially for South Africa, turning out 14 times for his country during the years of isolation.Although these two facts are only distantly related, they might be more important than they at first appear.Despite coaching the national side and being the Under-19 coach for many years, Ray has always stood at an angle to administrative aristocracy. His relationship with hierarchies and politicians has never been entirely comfortable, partly because his cricket was hardened in Transvaal’s “Mean Machine” foundry and partly because he’s a man of his time. Coaching by consensus is alien to him. He doesn’t tweet and doesn’t do Netflix. Until recently he unwound by riding his beloved Harley-Davidson. Now he walks the dogs and punishes golf balls.When Keaton was five years old, Ray had him in the nets at Dainfern, the luxury walled golf estate in northern Johannesburg where he and his older brother, Dylan, grew up. Both brothers were naturally right-handers, but given the placement of hands on the bat handle, Ray insisted they become lefties.He insisted, furthermore, that they had to call him “coach” rather than Dad, a habit that for Keaton persists up until this day. “I refused to buy Keaton keeping gloves when he was about that age,” says Ray, talking from his holiday home in Mauritius. “I just didn’t need three keepers in the family. When Dylan was about 13, he started telling me how to keep and how to react. We started to knock heads. With Keaton, I was always encouraging him to bowl a bit more.”Ray Jennings’ playing and coaching style are distinctly old school•Getty ImagesNot only was Keaton prepared to call his father “Coach”, he was prepared to knuckle down in Dainfern’s almost startlingly opulent confines, becoming a model individual from a young age. At 16 he spent a month with Andrew Hall at Northants, Hall having played for coach-cum-dad at Easterns and in the national side. Keaton came back and told his parents that there was nothing more he wanted to do than to play professional cricket.Halfway through his first year out of school at King Edward VII in Johannesburg, Keaton captained a South Africa U-19 side to England. When his team-matesreturned home, he bolted to the Durham Academy. “There were some communication issues and a bit of a blockage here in South Africa, so we made our decision early,” says Ray. “It wasn’t easy, but in those years you had some serious talent up ahead. We always felt that Keaton might stand a better chance in what is a very good English system.”Lawrence Mahatlane, who took over from Ray as the national U-19 coach and coached Keaton for a year at Pirates, a Jo’burg club, agrees with his predecessor’s assessment.”Keaton was one of the hardest-working young cricketers I’ve ever come across,” Mahatlane says. “He played a major part for us in that season, where we came second behind a strong Old Edwardians side in the Premier League here in Johannesburg. Looking back on it, there was some serious talent up ahead. Jean Symes, Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Temba Bavuma were playing for the Strikers, not the Lions, and you had batsmen like Neil McKenzie and Zander de Bruyn still playing for the Lions. There were only so many places up for grabs.”Jennings captained South Africa Under-19 before committing to a career in England•Getty ImagesWhile Dylan played no representative cricket after 2003-04, Keaton was prepared to grind it out. He knuckled down at the academy and played for the Durham 2nd XI. In 2012 he was chosen by Durham to play in a tour game against Australia, but the fact that he’d captained South Africa U-19 got in the way. He was summoned to Lord’s. “They sorted that out and it was then that he pledged his future to England,” says Ray.One of England’s opponents at home next summer are South Africa. If the unthinkable comes to pass, Keaton might play against Stephen Cook, who was ten years ahead of him at the illustrious King Edward VII school. Cook and his dad, Jimmy, are the most recent example of a father and son turning out for their country, but there are many more for South Africa, ranging from Peter and Shaun Pollock, to Kevin and Neil McKenzie, and the late Hylton (who didn’t play for South Africa but did turn out for a Rest of the World XI v Australia) and HD Ackerman.Watching Stephen’s busy mannerisms, it is impossible not to see his dad, particularly as he runs between wickets and twists his pad so it protects his knee more squarely. Parallels between Keaton and Ray Jennings will be more difficult to spot, more opaque. The gutsiness will be there, however, and the neatness and the penchant for hard work. Wicketkeeping gloves, though, will be absent, that link in the generational chain having been broken.

Throughout the series Ravindra Jadeja has played a crucial role in offering control when the pitches have often been at their best for batting

Sidharth Monga in Chennai16-Dec-20162:06

Chopra: Cook’s plan of playing outside off not working

He stifles you with his accuracy, turns balls sharply past edges, beats the inside edges with straighter ones, gets them to kick at left-hand batsmen, takes their edges with balls that don’t turn, but there is one mode of dismissal that Ravindra Jadeja is not often given credit for: caught on the drive.Quite expectedly, 46 of Jadeja’s 104 wickets are either bowled or lbw. Three of the six stumpings off his bowling have come through sharp turn. Add 32 of the 52 catches that are either inside, outside or top edges caught by the wicketkeeper, slips, short legs or silly points, and you are left with 23 caught wickets that are not typical Jadeja wickets. Many of these 23 are slogs or inexplicable shots from tailenders.Right-hand batsmen generally tend to keep their pads away from him, and don’t mind driving him, unlike say R Ashwin or even a legspinner. On pitches that are not turning, and early on in Tests, it is considered easy to line him up and play him like a seam bowler. Ashwin, for example, is not that easy to drive because he gets the ball to dip and drift. Jadeja is considered dangerous when the ball is turning from the centre of the pitch. In this series, though, on two occasions, on day-one pitches, Jadeja has displayed he can get batsmen out caught at short cover.On the surface, caught at short cover looks like an innocuous dismissal, but it involves getting the ball to dip out of the batsman’s reach. In Mohali, Jos Buttler had been part of a 69-run partnership on a good opening-day pitch when he chipped one to short cover. He had left the crease to play a drive, but failed to dispatch this Jadeja delivery. On day one in Chennai, with England in a much better position, and Jonny Bairstow one short of a half-century, Jadeja again created the gap between the bat and the pitch of the ball.Jadeja will continue to be a spinner who relies on not giving batsmen time to recover, but as his career has grown he has become more adept at changing his pace and trajectory. In this series he has got the batsmen to drive him more. When he had Ben Stokes stumped in Mohali, he didn’t do it with turn, but with drift. The movement outside the crease then was brought about by the pressure he had built through tight bowling. Here, too, Bairstow had scored five runs in the last 19 balls before he felt he could drive when he saw the ball in the air.Before he removed Bairstow, Jadeja had extended his domination of the England captain Alastair Cook, taking the opener’s wicket for the fifth time in this series. Apart from an uncharacteristic stumping in Mumbai, each of the other four wickets have involved persistence and subtlety. Cook has looked to get across to cover Jadeja’s quick turn, but Jadeja has kept drawing him wider millimetre by millimetre before bowling slightly straighter: it can’t be too much turn because then the ball can’t both impact within the stumps and also go on to hit them.In Chennai, the natural variation came into play, with Cook playing for the turn. There was no giveaway this was going straight, and the edge was taken at slip. Again, though, Cook was not to the pitch of the ball, which is why the natural variation came into play. The Buttler and Bairstow dismissals, and the Cook ones through the series, demand a lot of persistence and patience, and are less reliant on the pitch.At the least they depend on maximising the effect of the assistance from the pitch, which happens if you beat the batsmen in the air. That Jadeja is doing so is a facet of his game he didn’t need to show on the more helpful pitches. He has always maintained that he just focuses on being accurate and bowling fast when the pitch is doing the job for him. In this series the pitches haven’t done that much for the spinners, and also India have been asked to bowl first on four occasions. Jadeja might average 31.10 this series, but he has responded well to his first real extended test from the conditions.Jadeja has taken 12 of England’s 34 wickets in the first innings of a match. Only nine of Ashwin’s 27 wickets this series have come in the first innings of the match. Statistically he is a slow starter into a match, with numbers saying he takes 14 overs on an average to claim his first wicket. When he does get into the groove, though, he can run through sides. Until such a time arrives, though, it is Jadeja who has provided Virat Kohli the control he needs, with not just his accuracy but also subtlety.

Our countdown to the tenth IPL takes a look at the ten most economical bowlers in the tournament’s history

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Mar-20171. Sunil Narine – 66 matches, 85 wickets at 6.17 per overA mystery spinner who was barely known when Knight Riders bought him in 2012, Narine’s impact was instant, going on to win the Man-of-the-Series award in his first season in the IPL. The true value of Narine’s overs are evident when you consider that teams have scored at 8.02 runs per over in the time he’s been around, and the astonishing fact that 97 of his overs have come between overs 16 and 20.2. R Ashwin – 111 matches, 100 wickets at 6.55 per overAshwin sprang onto the scene in the third edition of the IPL, with match-winning spells en route to Super Kings maiden title, which earned him a spot in the Indian side for the 2011 World Cup. Over the years, he has gone on to become his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s go-to weapon, be it with the new ball or in the death overs. In 2015, he finished an entire IPL season going at less than a run-a-ball, a rare achievement in the tournament’s history.3. Anil Kumble – 42 matches, 45 wickets at 6.57 per overAfter their disastrous start in 2008, The current India coach took over as Royal Challengers captain mid-way through the 2009 season and led from the front to take them to the final, with 21 wickets at just 5.86 runs per over, including a magical 5 for 5 spell on a difficult Cape Town track against Rajasthan Royals. Kumble went on to have yet another impressive season in 2010, before hanging up his boots before the 2011 auction.4. Glenn McGrath– 14 matches, 14 wickets at 6.61 per overA year after retiring from international cricket after winning his third World Cup title, and in the middle of his wife’s terminal illness, McGrath had one of the best seasons for a fast bowler in IPL history, picking up 12 wickets, including a match-winning 4 for 29 against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Despite being his side’s most economical bowler in the first season, McGrath was on the bench for much of the next season, before retiring from all competitive cricket.Lasith Malinga’s slinging toe-crushers have been invaluable to Mumbai Indians over the years•BCCI5. Lasith Malinga – 98 matches, 143 wickets at 6.67 per overThe IPL’s highest wicket-taker has also been among its most economical over nine seasons. Malinga’s wickets and tight bowling in the death overs have taken Mumbai Indians to two IPL titles, apart from two Champions League T20 trophies. His importance to the Mumbai side is exemplified by the fact that he remains one of the IPL’s few single-franchise players, alongside team-mates Harbhajan Singh and Keiron Pollard, retained by Mumbai every time so far.6. Muttiah Muralitharan – 66 matches, 63 wickets at 6.67 per overMuralitharan was purchased for a relatively cheap $600,000 in the inaugural auction, and never failed to live up to his reputation through his first three seasons for Chennai Super Kings, putting in crucial performances en route to their 2010 IPL title. His miserly bowling performances were a feature of his subsequent seasons with Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Royal Challengers Bangalore, before he retired in 2014.7. Dale Steyn– 90 matches, 92 wickets at 6.72 per overWhile Steyn’s performances have dipped of late, forcing him to warm the bench last season, his overall economy rate of 6.72 is only testament to his value in his first six seasons. In 2013, his performances led Sunrisers to the playoffs in their maiden season, with 19 wickets at a sub-six economy rate, a rare feat for a fast bowler in the IPL.8. Roelof van der Merwe – 21 matches, 21 wickets at 6.74 per overVan der Merwe’s is perhaps the most surprising name on this list, considering he never found a place in the starting XI regularly for both his franchises. While his batting never took off, his left-arm orthodox kept things tight at one end. It is to his credit that, despite bowling most of his overs on South African wickets in the 2009 season, he has managed an economy rate below 7.Daniel Vettori’s spells led RCB to one of their most successful IPL seasons in 2011•AFP9. Daniel Vettori – 34 matches, 28 wickets at 6.78 per overVettori’s IPL career did not get off to the best of starts, often being forced to sit out at Delhi Daredevils. However, he came into his own for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011, picking up 12 wickets at 6.01 per over, captaining them to the final. He continues to be involved with the franchise as their coach, after retiring following a relatively average 2012 season.10. Mustafizur Rahman– 16 matches, 17 wickets at 6.90 per overAfter just one season, where he was often chosen ahead of the likes of Dale Steyn and Trent Boult, Mustafizur finds himself among the 10 most economical bowlers in IPL history. He was named the tournament’s Emerging Player of the Season, as his bowling performances led Sunrisers to their first IPL title.

Australia knew that the pitch for the first Test would spin, and it spun. Instead of bracing for the challenge, however, they ended up losing most of their wickets in a manner that had little to do with the track

Jarrod Kimber in Pune 23-Feb-20174:22

Ask Sanjay: Renshaw batted like a seasoned domestic Indian batsman

Australian cricketers have been travelling to India for over 80 years now, the last 60 of those for Tests. They also come here for ODIs, world tournaments and Indian leagues. They send under-age and A-teams here, they develop and work on their game here, and hire local coaches to prepare for it all. They know exactly what Indian cricket will be like before they get here. This isn’t their first time.But when they get here, you hear it straightaway. Murmurs, eyebrows are raised, eyes are rolled, heads are tilted, elbows are nudged. Have you seen the pitch? Well, you should, go check it out. It looks like a day-eight pitch now, it’s overcooked; it’s drier than a papadum, it’s gonna rag, explode, combust and devour.And then the spinner comes on, second over, Virat Kohli in peak trolling mode. That’s it; this is all over, we’re naked and alone in this fiery spinning pit of hell, and nothing can save us. Except, David Warner and Matt Renshaw bat well. Warner waits for bad balls like an England opening batsman of the 1960s. Renshaw refuses to try and score on one entire half of the field. The pitch is spinning every bit as much as they always thought it would, but they are handling it, building a platform, playing quality cricket.But then Warner falls. He could have had a straighter bat and, had he wanted to, could have left the ball entirely or committed more to the attacking or even the defending stroke. Warner was playing Umesh Yadav, a bowler who Kohli had almost forgotten was on the ground, when he was well-set, and he had done all the hard work, so the fact the pitch didn’t contribute was just a savage, elaborate practical joke.And then Shaun Marsh is out – that damn pitch, satan’s sub-continental spawn, is quiet again as Marsh has just not quite perfected his sweep shot and is a bit unlucky.But what about Peter Handscomb? After the spinning savagery, the ripping, ragging revolutions, he gets a straight skidding one that traps him straight in front. Yes, it is finally here, the weaponised pitch of doom. Handscomb might have been back, and Jadeja might be the sort of bowler most likely to skip one through, but this is it.And that almost makes sense as to why Steven Smith – having come down the track so many times and having played no real shots in anger or otherwise – comes down the pitch the over after Handscomb is out, done in by the pitch and its effect on his sidekick.But if Smith’s wicket has nothing to do with the pitch, then surely Mitch Marsh’s does. The man who is in the team to bowl a few overs and make people angrier that Usman Khawaja is not. Marsh walks to the middle like this pitch has dismissed him seven times already. Instead of seeing the odd clump of dust fly up from the surface, Marsh sees a million venomous robot spiders jumping up. And that perhaps is why he is so easily claimed by the flat, straight, skiddy one from Jadeja.Mitchell Starc hauled Australia from 205 for 9 to 256 for 9, playing India’s spinners confidently•AFPAnd then there is Matthew Wade, a man who was picked for this tour based on the empirical evidence of his pluck, determination and spit-in-your-eye style of playing. His innings looks like it was only that long because the bowlers were arguing among themselves about who would take his wicket. He falls to pace – the pace that strikes him straight in front as his head falls over – which at least gives him a different view of the pitch that played no part in his downfall.But Renshaw, who had been batting as well as anyone after returning from the bowels of the stadium, is taken by a spinner. He falls to good bowling and no real pitch viciousness. It would be hard to say Renshaw had played a poor innings, just as hard as it seems to be for him to score through the off side. Or convince people he should be allowed a toilet break.And we cannot forget the last two wickets of the day, which, despite the devilish nature of the pitch, also fall to pace bowling. Or that after they fall, it is Mitchell Starc – with a Test batting average of 25, who bats behind Mitchell Marsh and Wade – who treats the Indian bowlers like something he found on his shoe, despite the dust and despite India being more on top then than any time on the day.What he does find on his shoe are bits of the Pune pitch. Which, after all of the chagrin, is good enough for an unbroken tenth-wicket partnership of 51. Good enough for Starc to smash Jadeja out of the park, to score quickly off Jayant, and to handle Ashwin. Good enough to give Australia a far less embarrassing total than the one they clearly deserve.And so Australia are left with a score of 256 runs with one wicket remaining at the end of the day. They can, and probably will, cast a sneering eye over the pitch. But they can’t use it as an excuse for most, or nearly all, of their wickets. Those who hear even the slightest complaint or whisper that this pitch is why they underperformed will do a collective eye-roll, eyebrow lift and shoulder nudge.Australia’s batsmen knew the pitch was going to spin, and it spun. There could have been comfort in that predictability; instead, there was horror and dread. When the dust settled on the Pune pitch at stumps, the constant fear and loathing seemed a bit silly. Australia were in trouble, and the pitch couldn’t be blamed. This isn’t the first time.

Talk of Kolpak signings and whether Lancashire can avoid another relegation battle hover over Glen Chapple’s first season as head coach

Paul Edwards01-Apr-2017Lancashire’s media days have changed. Time was when they used to consist of a team photo, the players’ mugshots, a few interviews and a hotpot. On Friday morning, though, the Old Trafford outfield was bedecked with three sets of chairs for the team, their placement dependent on the sponsors being promoted; and Steven Croft’s players dutifully sported Lancashire’s three kits, white for the Championship, red for the T20 Blast and a curious shade of green for the Royal London Cup.It all took a while, especially given the spreadsheet of sponsors to be accommodated and the team’s need to scoot back to the dressing room and don another strip. Each clothes change seemed to require a fresh application of hair gel and sweet-smelling unguents. The whole thing had the air of a fashion parade. “And here we have Liam, and Liam is wearing a daring guacamole number by Kukri of Preston…”Before long, probably to the relief of everyone, substance replaced style – well, talk about substance anyway – and discussion of what has been an eventful winter at Emirates Old Trafford. Ashley Giles has gone back to Warwickshire, Tom Smith has retired and Alviro Petersen has been released. The club have signed Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dane Vilas and Ryan McLaren. Inevitably, Glen Chapple, the new head coach, had to field questions about recruiting the 42-year-old Chanderpaul and what this said about the county’s wish to develop its own players and give chances to them.”When you’re making signings, you’ve got one eye on what you think your squad needs but you’ve also got one eye on opportunities,” he said. “I didn’t set out thinking I was going to sign Shiv but when I found out how well he was playing and how keen he was to play, it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. He will add another dimension to our squad and he will be a great help to our batters.””We know Shiv,” Chapple added, referring to Chanderpaul’s previous spell with Lancashire in 2010. “He loves playing cricket and he lives to bat. The modern day game needs people who know how to bat in a four-day match. I think Has [Haseeb Hameed] will speak to him a lot about batting. Has already has that mentality but I’m sure they’ll have loads of conversations.”Maintaining a balance in Lancashire’s squad is clearly important to Chapple. The loss of Petersen – who has been banned for two years for breaching Cricket South Africa’s anti-corruption code – left a large gap in the top-order batting, one best filled by an experienced cricketer. However, he also understands and shares the deep desire of the county’s supporters that the club should bring on its own.”Long term the priority is to have as many homegrown players in the squad as possible and if you watch this season, we’ll always have seven of those who will be homegrown and not signed from other counties,” he said. “In our defence we are still producing first-class cricketers and over time we’d like that number to be more, but our supporters want us to achieve success as well. They want us to win trophies. They don’t want periods when we say we’re developing.

“With one team fewer in the division there is less scope for any poor performances. If you’re not competing at the top, you’ll be looking over your shoulder”Glen Chapple

“It is a balance but our priority is on producing players from within and for me that means the north-west. We are careful to sign the right players who want to perform for the club and are hungry to achieve more. They’re not just coming because they can. I’ve not heard people spoken of more highly than Dane Vilas and Ryan McLaren in the reports I received about them. That’s a really good sign for us.”Nevertheless, for all that he has a great deal of coaching skill and acquired more during his two years working under Giles, Chapple has had to adjust to leading Lancashire’s coaching team and helping to establish an atmosphere, perhaps a more relaxed one than his predecessor’s, in which the players can perform at their best. He does not demur at the suggestion that he is putting his own stamp on things.”There were a few things that changed given a slightly different approach,” he said. “You might share some values but when it’s up to you, you make slightly different decisions. I work closely with Mark Chilton [his assistant], Chris Benbow [the analyst] and the rest of the management staff to do what I think is right. I want the players to be themselves in training and to have the freedom to express how they want to play their cricket. It’s a career that needs to be enjoyed but you need to enjoy getting better. I want us to be a tough team to play against.”My previous role was all-encompassing but it was more as an aid to the captain and head coach whereas now ultimately some decisions rest with me. The captain will have the final say on who he takes onto the field. I and the coaches just want to help the players achieve success. I don’t think you have to become a different person as a head coach but it’s nearly ten years since I’ve been simply a player, so I’m probably distanced a bit in that respect. I’ve enjoyed the job so far and I can’t wait to get into the competitive stuff.”That competitive stuff begins at Essex next Friday and some attention will be taken by the duel between Alastair Cook and James Anderson. “Alastair’s good friends with Jimmy but he’ll be wishing Jimmy wasn’t the bowler he was facing first up,” observes Chapple, who is fully aware how intense the cricket will be in a division in which two of the eight teams will be relegated in September.”The teams that were a bit weaker last season have strengthened, the one team that came up, Essex, have strengthened quite a lot and with one team fewer in the division there is less scope for any poor performances,” he said. “If you’re not competing at the top, you’ll be looking over your shoulder.”So Chapple is understandably loath to set his team the target of winning a trophy in 2017.”I’d rather judge the season on how we play our cricket,” he said. “If we play really good cricket and finish mid-table, then great. I’d much rather we won the division but until it kicks off you don’t know how difficult that is going to be. Last season was the strangest I’ve seen. We were 20 points clear after four games and then suddenly everyone started winning and we couldn’t find a result. The key thing for me is that you can’t have a game off, you have to be right at it this year. Whenever we’ve been successful in the past, it’s the players who have set their own targets and we have to find a day this week to talk about that. I’m pretty sure what we’ll hear.”

ESPNcricinfo previews Gloucestershire’s prospects for the 2017 season

David Hopps29-Mar-2017Last season:

In: Phil Mustard (Durham)
Out: Tom Hampton (released), Hamish Marshall
Overseas: Michael Klinger, Cameron Bancroft, Andrew Tye (T20) (all Aus).2016 in a nutshell
Gloucestershire looked unstoppable in the group stages of the NatWest Blast only to lose their best chance of a trophy by falling to Durham in a home quarter-final in Bristol on a night when Mark Wood’s fast bowling was at his most explosive. Their Royal London Cup standards were disappointing, especially after winning the trophy the previous year, and they finished sixth in Division Two of the Championship, despite the satisfaction of beating the eventual winners Essex at Cheltenham, a campaign in which they suffered most markedly for the lack of an influential allrounder. Chris Dent was the mainstay of the batting in the Championship and Benny Howell’s sleight of hand made him a stand-out bowler in the Blast.2017 prospects
Gloucestershire’s head coach Richard Dawson makes no bones about the fact that the absence of the prolific Michael Klinger, who will play only limited-overs formats this season, and Hamish Marshall, who retired from county cricket at the end of last season, will put the club’s Championship batting under immense strain. Australian Cameron Bancroft, a short-term replacement for Klinger last season, will hope for better things as he returns for the whole season and Phil Mustard, signed from Durham as a wicketkeeper-batsman, has a big challenge ahead of him. Twenty20 again seems to be their strongest suit.In charge
Dawson made an immediate impact at Gloucestershire as they won the Royal London Cup in his first year and followed up with a strong performance in T20, but third time of asking could be his biggest test. Australian Ian Harvey is his assistant. Klinger, finally selected by Australia this winter at 36 when he played three T20Is – and successfully too – leads in both one-day formats. The toughest challenge faces wicketkeeper-batsman Gareth Roderick who oversees the four-day side. It would ease the weight on his shoulders if Mustard held down a Championship spot.Key player
Mustard was a crowd-pleaser during his time at Durham, a dishevelled and somewhat untamed force with bat and gloves, and there was much sorrow in the northeast when he was moved on. Whether “The Colonel” can win such approval in Bristol remains to be seen. When he left Durham in July, he had not played in the Championship for the county for more than a year, and had not played well in four-day cricket for even longer. He put that right at the end of 2016 to win a contract at Gloucestershire, but expect his greatest impact to come in the limited-overs formats where his appetite remains strong.Bright young thing
Matt Taylor, a powerful left-arm quick, has spent time this winter with England’s Pace Programme in South Africa. Taylor, younger brother of Jack, who is also on the books, had an excellent NatWest T20 Blast campaign in 2016, even managing a collector’s item by bowling a maiden at Chris Gayle. Not many can claim to have done that. One of several seam bowlers who Gloucestershire need to progress once more.ESPNcricinfo verdict
Gloucestershire make the best of their resources under Dawson, and as long as Klinger’s potency remains they will also be dangerous in Twenty20, but it is hard to make much of a case in the Championship unless their young seamers hit the jackpot all at once.Bet365 odds: Specsavers Championship, Div 2: 12-1; NatWest Blast: 16-1; Royal London Cup: 20-1

An account of the time the Pakistan captain spent out of the team on account of being considered too old

Hassan Cheema13-May-2017″How is it possible that somebody like Misbah, who will go down as one of Pakistan’s best batsmen, starts playing Test cricket when he’s 34? That’s the age at which batsmen in Australia retire!”There’s a trope now in Imran Khan interviews (there’s one “exclusive” interview every month, it seems like) where they end with the interviewer talking about something on a “lighter note” – invariably cricket, and so invariably Imran turns to his greatest bugbear: the state of domestic cricket in the country. For all that one could disagree with Imran’s political viewpoints, he was pretty much a prophet as far as concerns over domestic cricket are concerned. Even if he didn’t play any domestic first-class matches after 1981, he did realise, and was vociferous about, the faults in the domestic game. In the three decades since, domestic cricket in Pakistan has only declined further, to the point that the era when Imran preferred to play in England and Australia instead of at home is now considered a golden era of domestic cricket.The failure of the domestic game to identify Misbah in due time is representative of how the first-class circuit fails to provide a pipeline to the national team. With quantity superseding quality, it becomes difficult to ascertain what is easy and what is worthy in terms of performance. And yet at the same time Misbah’s career also represents how a failure to understand or appreciate the domestic game leads to a state where high achievers never get their just dues.The truth lies somewhere in the middle – Misbah’s career is a summation of Imran’s warnings, and yet a rejection of those who believed Imran’s words without ever considering the nuances they contained. Not the career that everyone is familiar with, but all that came before: when Misbah was a domestic dominator, the captain of the A team, forgotten on the international stage, and content to waste away his peak in front of empty stands.

****

“This was around 2000,” Misbah said to me in an interview recently. “I had already played a season or two of first-class, and I had decided that I was going to go all in. I played that season like it was my last. And that approach turned out to be right.”In the summer before the 2000-01 domestic season, he had decided that he wanted to be more than just the guy who was known for hitting big against spin. Time was already running out for a player who had taken a unique path to the domestic game in a country where, if you didn’t make your international debut by your mid-20s, international cricket was never going to be a possibility for you. Here was a man who had made his first-class debut at the age of 24! He had his MBA, but what was the point of that in a young man’s sport?The season before, in 1999-00, he had finished with 803 runs at an average of 38. Atop the scoring charts that year was another man fighting against the norms – Younis Khan had scored 1102 runs at an average in excess of 100. Younis’ form would allow him to finish the season with a Test debut, and a hundred to boot. Here was proof that domestic numbers still mattered. So Misbah was going to buckle down.

“I would pray after Namaz, after Tahajjud, that God give him everything he had wished for. All I prayed for was for him to get back in the team”Uzma Khan, Misbah’s wife

The 2000-01 season was the start of one of the finest statistical runs in modern Pakistani domestic history. Misbah led the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy batting charts with 947 runs at 63, and averaged 50 in List A. And yet, as he is open to admit, that didn’t mean he was a particularly good batsman at the time.By the end of that season, he made his Pakistan debut, thrown into the deep end, sent in at No. 3 in the second innings in Auckland. He failed to score enough runs there, but what he gained became the basis for all that was to come.”I had never even thought about it, that I would reach this stage, that I will share the dressing room with such greats,” Misbah said in an interview to the in 2015. “There were so many greats at the time, Inzamam, Wasim, Waqar, Saqlain, Mushtaq, Moin and Mohammad Yousuf. They were such big stars, and they kept their distance from the juniors. But even observing them from so close was good fortune for guys like me. The professionalism they had, the spirit they had for the game was exemplary. Guys like Wasim or Waqar went into the field thinking, ” [We have to blow them away, we have to beat them]. That conviction they had was what I carried from there on in. Whether it was a domestic game or a club game, I learnt from them that when you play, you leave everything out on the field.”Their professionalism wasn’t the only thing that Misbah would gain from his international debut.”At that time, unless you had played international cricket, you didn’t know what you looked like when you played. So the season after my debut Test I totally changed the way I batted. I changed my technique. Before that I had no idea how your feet were supposed to move, how your balance shifts.”That summer, I spent three months in the NCA, played for the Pakistan A team, and completely changed the way I play. The likes of Mudassar Nazar, Ali Zia and Julien Fountain really helped me get my foundations right in batting and fielding. It was only after I debuted in international cricket that I found out what cricket really is. Before that, all I knew was how to score runs, and nothing else.”The result of all this was another extraordinary domestic season in 2001-02: 846 runs at 94, finishing as the second highest scorer in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. The following season he was back at the top of the charts, with 963 runs at 107. No one else even went past 650 runs. At that stage he had a three-year Quaid-e-Azam record of 2756 runs at 83.5. But the numbers don’t reveal the work he put in.Saeed Ajmal, friend and foe for the best part of 20 years, describes how Misbah changed during those three seasons.”One thing he always had is, he never gives up, he always finds a solution to whatever problem he has,” Ajmal says. “And his commitment, even right now, is unquestionable. How many other cricketers would use the time between captaining a PSL team and captaining the national team to try getting their region promoted back to first-class cricket? He plays every game with that commitment, and he has done so since 2001. Before that he used to score hundreds but would take 350 balls to make them!”No higher than the A team: Misbah celebrates a hundred for Pakistan A in the Top End Series in Darwin, 2006•Getty ImagesThis is no exaggeration. In November 1999, Misbah scored 129 off 451 balls against Ajmal’s Faisalabad in his attempt to save a four-day game.”When Faisalabad used to play Sargodha, we knew he was the marriage.”Finances were never a problem for us,” says Uzma. “At the start he would give me Rs 10,000 to run the house and that used to be enough for us back then. And he got me a car so that I could travel to university, where I was doing my Masters, so I always had freedom too. But I did keep hearing – though not from his friends and family – that he was never picked for the national team after our marriage, and it was my kismet that was bringing him down.”In some subcontinental cultures, there is this idea that a bride brings her luck to her new home. “So I would blame myself for it,” she says. “I would pray after Namaz, after Tahajjud, that God give him everything he had wished for. All I prayed for was for him to get back in the team.”And so Misbah ploughed on, becoming a casualty of the best middle order Pakistan have ever had. Three greats were complemented by either an allrounder or a young star – Misbah was neither of those things.”I think after myself and Younis bhai, this thinking is starting to change. We are finally focusing on form and fitness and not on someone’s date of birth”•Getty ImagesHere he was, a man with an MBA degree, with friends who were now bureaucrats or climbing up the corporate ladder, who was earning just enough to get by.”I never thought I was missing out on something by not going to the corporate world,” Misbah says. “They were doing jobs, I was doing something I love. Money was never a priority for me. That’s why while so many other cricketers used to go to play league cricket in England, I rarely did. I would rather be in Pakistan, play four or five club matches a week, still have time for training and nets, and have great weather than be somewhere where you have one match a week, and that might be rained off.”When I did go to play in England, it was so depressing. You would sit indoors all day, and when it was time to play, it would rain. How could I possibly improve there? All I wanted to do was play cricket, get better, and that’s it. So I would play every club match, regional match, department match, whatever it was.”In 2006, with Inzamam banned from the Champions Trophy due to the Oval fiasco, Younis was appointed captain for the tournament. He fought for the selection of Misbah, and was instead given Faisal. Unable to get the team he wanted, Younis did what Younis does – he refused to compromise, and resigned. It was obvious that Misbah’s time was running out.A poor Patron’s Trophy followed, to end 2006, and it seemed as if Misbah was on the decline. Thus, as he did in 2000, he decided he was going to go all in again.”At the start of 2007 he asked me to just give him six months or so,” says Uzma. “He told me he didn’t want to go to any functions or weddings or birthdays. Just wanted to focus on his cricket.”He had bought me a Sony video camera for our anniversary the previous year. He would take that camera to nets every day, record his batting, then come home and just go through that day’s video during the night. That’s all he did every night.”In the subsequent Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Misbah finished as the third highest scorer with 577 runs at 64.11.”At that same time he had put in our savings to buy a car from someone, and that guy ran off with the money. That year Misbah was playing in England, and I couldn’t go and meet him because we just had Rs 17,000 in our account, and I didn’t know what to do. Thankfully he had to come back earlier than scheduled from England. Because he had been selected for the 2007 World T20 camp.”The rest, as they say, is history.