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Rahul Dravid’s 96-ball 12 was among his slowest innings, and one of the slowest 12s ever scored in Test cricket

S Rajesh12-Aug-2007

Michael Vaughan would have had no problems with Rahul Dravid’s approach on the fourth day at The Oval © Getty Images
At the start of play on the fourth day, India were huge favourites to wrap up a 2-0 series win. They could still get there, but England have given themselves a much better chance of saving the Test – and keeping India from joining them at No.2 spot in the ICC rankings – after an excellent day with both ball and bat.Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook did a superb job of seeing off 20 overs in the evening, but the day was set up by England’s performance in the field, when they allowed India to score at only 3.10 runs per over. Much of that run-rate was due to a rather inexplicable innings from the captain of the team trying to force a win. Rahul Dravid had some justification in starting his innings slowly after India lost three early wickets, but then he got into a rut and forgot his attacking options. By the time he was put out of his misery by Paul Collingwood, Dravid had scored 12 from 96, including a 35-ball passage – from the 18th to the 52nd ball – when he didn’t score a single run. Among innings in which he has faced at least 50 deliveries, this was his third-slowest. All have come against England, with the other two coming within a week of each other, during England’s tour of India in 2001-02.

Dravid’s slowest Test innings (at least 50 balls faced)

Runs Balls Scoring rate Against Venue & year

3 61 4.91 England Bangalore, 2001-02 7 60 11.66 England Ahmedabad, 2001-02 12 96 12.50 England The Oval, 2007 7 55 12.72 South Africa Kanpur, 1996-97 14 109 12.84 Australia Melbourne, 1999-2000 Dravid’s strike rate of 12.50 doesn’t rank anywhere near the slowest all-time innings, though. The table below lists the slowest innings – lasting at least 75 balls – by batsmen in the top seven. The name on top of the list isn’t one you would normally associate with slow scoring – Abdul Razzaq made an unbeaten 4 off 76 balls against Australia at Melbourne in 2004-05. Not very far down the list is another name which you’d think doesn’t belong here – Ian Botham, when he needed 88 balls to score 6 against Australia in 1978-79.

Slowest innings in Tests by batsman in the top 7 (at least 75 balls faced)

Batsman Runs/ Balls Scoring rate Against Venue & year

Abdul Razzaq 4*/ 76 5.26 Australia Melbourne, 2004-05 MAK Pataudi 5/ 84 5.95 England Mumbai, 1972-73 Dennis Amiss 5/ 78 6.41 Australia Edgbaston, 1975 Ian Botham 6/ 88 6.81 Australia Sydney, 1978-79 Geoff Miller 7/ 101 6.93 Australia Melbourne, 1978-79 Dravid’s knock was one of the slowest 12s in Test cricket, though. Only three times has a 12 needed more deliveries: Sri Lanka’s Dulip Liyanage scored one off 101 deliveries against India at Lucknow in 1994, while John Edrich and Mark Taylor both got theirs off 98 deliveries.Even as Dravid was struggling to get the ball off the square, though, his batting partner played quite an exquisite knock. Sourav Ganguly stroked some superb boundaries on the way to a 68-ball 57; only four times has he scored a 50-plus score at a faster pace.

Ganguly’s fastest 50-plus scores in Tests

Runs Balls Scoring rate Against Venue & year

101* 111 90.99 New Zealand Hamilton, 1998-99 66 75 88.00 South Africa Cape Town, 2006-07 53 62 85.48 New Zealand Ahmedabad, 1999-2000 64* 75 85.33 New Zealand Mohali, 1999-2000 57 68 83.82 England The Oval, 2007 England have put themselves in a position to save the Test, but they still have some way to go: only three teams have ever batted more than 110 overs in the fourth innings of a Test at The Oval. India hold the record – they batted for more than 150 overs in that famous Test in 1979. England’s best is 105.1 overs, which wasn’t enough to stop them going down by 158 runs against West Indies in 1973.

Most no. of overs batted in the fourth innings at The Oval

Team 4th inng score Overs Opposition & year Result

India 429 for 8 150.5 England, 1979 Draw South Africa 423 for 7 141 England, 1947 Draw New Zealand 270 all out 110.1 England, 1983 Lost by 189 runs England 255 all out 105.1 West Indies, 1973 Lost by 158 runs England 308 for 4 104.2 South Africa, 1965 Draw

Stats preview to the fourth Test between Australia and India in Adelaide

George Binoy23-Jan-2008It’s not often that a visiting team can draw confidence from a previous performance at an Australian venue, especially in recent years. But with one Test to play and the scoreline 2-1 in Australia’s favour, the series moves to Adelaide for the final Test, a venue where India scored a thrilling win in 2003-04. However, leaving that blip aside, Australia have a formidable record at the Adelaide Oval, winning 12 out of 18 Tests since 1990, and eight out of nine since the draw against South Africa in 1998. Since their defeat against India, Australia have had convincing wins against New Zealand, West Indies and England.

Win-loss record in Adelaide

Team Win Loss Draw

Australia 33 16 16 India 1 5 2 Other teams 15 28 14 Australia since 1990 12 3 3 Matthew Hayden has recovered from a thigh injury and his return will add considerable strength to the batting order. The third Test in Perth was the first that Hayden missed since 1999 and his absence was felt as Chris Rogers and Phil Jaques added only 12 and 21 for the first wicket at the WACA. Moreover, Hayden has a splendid record in Adelaide, where he has scored 722 runs at 55.53. In fact, all of Australia’s top-order batsmen have excellent records in Adelaide: Michael Hussey averages 315 here for he’s been dismissed only once while racking up scores of 133, 30, 91 and 61.Among the Indian batsmen, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, who average 115.33 and 55.25 respectively, have performed well here, but Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have failed. It was Dravid’s 233 and Laxman’s 148 that led India’s revival in 2003 after they were struggling at 84 for 4 in the first innings. Tendulkar, however, has managed only 122 runs from six innings while Ganguly has 117 from four.

Australian batsmen in Adelaide

Batsman Tests Runs Average 100/50

Ricky Ponting 11 1158 57.904/4 Matthew Hayden 8 722 55.532/4 Adam Gilchrist 8 337 30.630/3 Michael Hussey 2 315 3151/2 Michael Clarke 2 152 761/0 Andrew Symonds 1 9 90/0 India’s inexperienced pace attack exceeded expectations in Perth, which means it will be tough to leave out any of Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma or RP Singh to accommodate Harbhajan Singh, who could play a role on an Adelaide pitch that is expected to aid spin. In such a scenario, Wasim Jaffer could make way for Harbhajan with either Irfan Pathan or Rahul Dravid opening the batting. The table below shows the average partnership for each wicket in Adelaide since 1990 and, although Australia have higher figures, the overseas teams haven’t done too badly either. The only significant difference is for the second wicket, where Ricky Ponting, at No. 3, has been a tremendous force for the home side.

Partnership for Australia and other teams in Adelaide since 1990

Wicket Aus avg 100/50 Overseas 100/50

1st wicket 39.35 4/7 43.003/9 2nd wicket 47.35 7/6 20.160/5 3rd wicket 50.45 4/6 40.41 4/7 4th wicket 39.50 3/6 42.054/7 5th wicket 49.64 4/5 35.773/7 6th wicket 51.34 6/6 26.801/6 7th wicket 41.96 3/5 28.09 2/5 Of Australia’s bowlers, Brett Lee is the only one to have played more than one Test in Adelaide and his record isn’t flash: he’s picked up 12 wickets in three Tests at 36.75 apiece.Pathan made his Test debut in Adelaide in 2003 and had a torrid match, finishing with figures of 1 for 160 and an economy rate of 4.70 per over. Anil Kumble has nine wickets from two Tests in Adelaide but has had to labour through 126 overs for them. His average of 42.88 and strike-rate of 84 indicate a success for perseverance rather than brilliance.

Pace v spin in Adelaide since 1990

Type Wickets Average Strike-rate 5WI/10WM

Pace 413 32.89 6715/2 Spin 163 37.69 80.76/1 There’s rain forecast for the first two days in Adelaide and the groundsman has said that the cloud cover could help the fast bowlers. However, batting first would be the way to go, for the average runs per wicket, for both Australian and visiting teams, have dipped steadily as the match progresses.

Average per wicket in Adelaide since 1990

Innings Aus avg Overseas

1st innings 46.47 37.18 2nd innings 41.97 30.04 3rd innings 37.75 22.24 4th innings 28.44 24.77

Like Mohammad Ali, the boxing legend who used to spend hours painstakingly scrawling out his spidery autograph, Glenn McGrath has reproduced his signature deliveries for almost 15 years

Cricinfo staff30-Apr-2008
Like Ol Man River, McGrath just keeps rollin’ along © Getty Images
Yo Mahesh is a stripling in the shade of a giant sequoia, but on Wednesday night he actually conceded one run less than Glenn McGrath from his four overs. For most of the 90 minutes though, he and pretty much every other pace bowler playing in this competition would have beenabsorbing a masterclass in the art of limited-overs bowling. Like his old mate in baggy green, Shane Warne, McGrath has been out of the game for a year, but you wouldn’t have known it if you’ve flown back from Mars and watched him bowl at the Feroz Shah Kotla.Like Mohammad Ali, the boxing legend who used to spend hours painstakingly scrawling out his spidery autograph, McGrath has reproduced his signature deliveries for almost 15 years. Not for him the beguiling variety of a Wasim Akram or the hair-raising pace of Brett Lee. The McGrath method has always been about perfect calibration, of pinpointing the centimetres outside off stump where the batsman is most vulnerable.From the minute he landed the first ball of the innings in the McGrath corridor, the Bangalore Royal Challengers would have known what they were up against. “They had to come out and play shots,” he said later, referring to the security of the 191 runs. Even then though, there was littlefiddling with the tried and tested. Praveen Kumar, a worthwhile experiment at the top of the order, did thump one over cover, but as he has done so many times over the past decade, McGrath had the last word.Ross Taylor, whose explosive strokeplay will surely be missed now that he’s off to join New Zealand’s tour of England, also attempted to disrupt the McGrath rhythm with a powerful shot or two, but then ruefully discovered the dangers of going cross-batted against a man whosereputation was based as much on the ability to extract bounce as it was on the accuracy.Wasim Jaffer was next, with steepling bounce again doing the trick. The speed gun never went past 130 kph, and the obsession with it was put into perspective by McGrath’s uncanny knack of landing the ball in what every bowler now refers to ‘the right areas’.His last act was the finest though. Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid, a combination perfectly equipped to bat through a full day in a Test match, had shown that quality can prevail in any form of the game with a superb 87-run partnership. Though the asking rate was still steep, Bangalore had seven wickets in hand to mount a late charge.Virender Sehwag, whose bowling changes and composure impressed yet again, then played his ace, throwing the ball to McGrath for the 16th over. A slower one and a yorker kept Kallis to one run from the first two balls, and when Dravid then gave himself some room for the big loft, McGrath calmly slipped the ball outside off. “Have a go”, he seemed to say. Dravid did, miscued it, and Sehwag made no mistake running across to mid-off.McGrath wasn’t the only ANZAC hero out there though. Daniel Vettori will play no further part in the tournament, but his farewell spell had Bangalore in a bind. Dravid spoke later of the overs from Vettori and Yo Mahesh that effectively settled the contest, and Sehwag too was gushingin his praise of a man he called one of the greatest T20 bowlers.While Sehwag answered questions in Hindi, a relaxed McGrath sat and grinned, with an “I agree” quip after one Sehwag reply inducing peals of mirth. “I’m a happily married man. I don’t look at girls anymore,” he said with a big grin when asked about the missing cheerleaders. “For an oldbloke, I’ve enjoyed every single minute of it [the IPL].”When asked about his team’s travails, Dravid spoke of the missing X-factor. On Wednesday night, it wasn’t missing, it was on the other side. A familiar face, a nemesis from another time and place. Like Ol Man River, McGrath just keeps rollin’ along.

Chris Gayle played a typically audacious innings, with some stylishly cool big-hitting, to give Kolkata their first win of the IPL season

Karna S21-Apr-2009Watching Chris Gayle bat takes one back to one’s teens, when the school bully would haunt and mesmerize you with his big hitting. At the cricket clinic, they’d teach you to lift your left elbow high and get in line with the ball. “Get your head over the ball and smell the leather,” the coach would say. And, as you struggled with those instructions, out would stride the local Gayle, tall and cool, merrily swinging his bat. And the ball would fly. Then he’d order you to give him the strike and you’d comply meekly.Today was another instalment of the Gayle show. On the fifth ball he survived a simple drop chance, courtesy the butter-fingered Goel, off an intended short-arm pull. Three quiet balls later, he began his sequence. The loose limbs sent the ball crashing over cover point. The next over Irfan Pathan got it straighter; Gayle almost knocked the umpire’s head off. Pathan tried to change his length with a short ball; it was eventually picked up from the square leg boundary. Pathan then went for a length ball. It sailed over long-on, almost sucked in by the delirious fans who, for the first time in the day, really started to get into things. Gayle has that effect.There is a perception, warranted to an extent by his style of play, that there is little technique; it’s almost village cricket. It’s an accusation levelled at most of the big players who keep the game simple. Watch Gayle closely, though, and there’s a delightfully simple technique at work. He has a wide, spread stance, crouches a touch on bent knees to get the centre of gravity down and stays still. Very still. As the bowler, in this case Irfan, finishes his delivery stride and releases the ball, Gayle uncoils into action. His stance means he doesn’t have to move too far forward or back. The problem is when he is not quite to the length or the ball starts seaming around – Gayle does get squared up a lot on tougher pitches. Not today, though.There was a touch of pre-determination from him but again the movement was late. He moved his back foot across, took his front leg outside the line of the ball and got into a position to swing across to the on side. He lifted VS Malik into the midwicket stands and, when the bowlers dug in short, his balance allowed him to cut it over point.Of course, he had his share of luck. Not only did Goel drop him, Sangakkara too failed to hold on to a nick off the leggie Piyush Chawla. A bully’s luck.The match wouldn’t have been complete without Mr Cool showing his signature style on the field. The batsman Goel edged a flash to the left of first slip, where Gayle was stationed. Second slip lunged to his right. The calm Gayle swayed to his left. There was a blur of activity and for that moment the ball was lost from sight. Slowly, Gayle broke into a smile as his team-mates converged on him. That was as much emotion as one gets from Gayle (unless you are Michael Clarke and have rubbed him the wrong way).Later, his captain Brendon McCullum said he knew that as long as Gayle got going, they didn’t have to bother about those two kill-joy gentlemen Duckworth and Lewis. “The only thing we have decided here, in these conditions, is to take the first two overs quietly. You don’t want to lose an early wicket and keep chasing the game. You sort of get an idea about the D/L score but there were no sheets passed around in the dressing room. With Gayle going the way he did …” His voice trailed off. There was no need to say anything else.

Stuart Clark on the question he least likes answering, the nickname he didn’t want, why sledging doesn’t work, and his other job

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi07-Oct-2009You turned 34 a week ago. Have you achieved all that you thought you could achieve?
Yes. I’ve achieved more than I thought I could ever achieve. Nothing beats putting on the baggy green.Are you as disciplined in daily life as you are with your bowling?
I am in certain things and in certain things I’m not. I’m very good with my time, but if I’m not interested in doing something then I find it very hard to do.Has sledging worked for you?
In my experience, no. Sledging is very much overrated. If people sledge me then I know I’m getting under their skins and I take it more as a compliment. Have you ever taken an IQ test?
I’ve never done a test. I don’t think my IQ is really high.What’s the most embarrassing thing that happened to you on a cricket field?
In the Brisbane Test against New Zealand in 2008, I was running for two but I slipped and fell. As I got up I slipped again. I ran down the non-striker’s end and dived into the crease. Then I realised the fielder had yet to pick the ball.Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I still work part-time at a bank.Is there a moment in cricket history which you wish you could re-enact, where you would be the player who turned the game on its head?
When Sarfaraz [Nawaz] got nine wickets in a spell at the MCG in 1979. If I’m able to do that that’ll be great.Have you ever met Sarfraz Nawaz? How did you get the nick?
I’ve never met him. It was given by Mark Waugh when I was young. He thought I bowled in a similar style. I didn’t really like it and I objected to it. And when you object to something it sticks.Who is the Australian batsman you’ve always got out in the nets?
I used to get Steve Waugh quite a few times. It must’ve been a fluke.What’s your favourite Greg Matthews moment?
Last year we were playing Phil Jaques in club cricket. I bowled the first over and Greg bowled the second. Greg got him out first ball and ran straight to square leg, celebrating, and said to the umpire, “Give me 10”. The umpire didn’t know what to do!What is the one question media should be banned from asking you?
Nobody is allowed to ask about Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. They retired years ago. Nobody should ask about the rebuilding process.What’s one thing you do that McGrath couldn’t?
I bat better.

“Sledging is very much overrated. If people sledge me then I know I’m getting under their skins and I take it more as a compliment”

What’s the most important thing a hotel room should have?
Beds. Big beds.Ever had a funny incidents with an umpire?
Once, during a domestic game in Australia when I bowled a bouncer and the umpire signalled a wide. I was like, “Are you kidding?” He just looked at me and asked me to piss off back to my mark. I started laughing and he started laughing. It was funny and calmed everything down.Who is the best character you’ve played cricket with?
Darren Lehmann. He was a fun guy who played the game hard but enjoyed himself as well.Who is your favourite athlete outside cricket?
Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Roger Federer. It is very hard to look past athletes who make the game look so easy. We’re all playing the game, but they were playing a different game.What’s the one thing you should never do in Australia as a tourist?
Never go and try and drink with the locals.Name one of your favourite cricketing moments.
The day Warne got his 700th Test wicket: I remember he bowled Andrew Strauss with a proper, big legbreak that drifted in and spun and he just took off in front of the 90,000 who erupted. The emotions that came out were unbelievable.

Punjab have once again done the Houdini act to stay alive in the competition. Every time Deccan threatened to get away, Punjab came roaring back

Sriram Veera in Johannesburg17-May-2009What a game. There were several heart-stopping moments – Ramesh Powar’s magic ball to Adam Gilchrist; Yuvraj Singh’s ripper to remove Andrew Symonds; Rohit Sharma’s sensational hitting; Irfan Pathan’s composure at the death. But the key moment of the game came after the second ball in the last over.Rohit had just let a wide pass him by and took a mini-stroll towards point. Perhaps he was trying to control the adrenalin. Perhaps he was thinking about that one big match-winning hit. Irfan stood at the top of his run-up. As Rohit returned to the crease, Ryan Harris, the non-striker, started to walk towards him to say something. Rohit waved his hand and Harris returned immediately. The chat never happened. It’s that confidence that allowed Rohit to win the game last night and almost steal it here.He likes to be his own man. He has the skills to go with that attitude but perhaps that chat might have helped him cool down. We’ll never know. With only the tailenders to come, Rohit went for the mighty slog but was cleaned up by the slower one. The cooler man – in this case Irfan – triumphed. Harris shook his head.”I knew he [Rohit] was waiting for the yorker next ball, but I tried a different kind of slower ball,” Irfan said later. It was still not over but it was when RP Singh also went for the ugly swipe.Punjab have once again done the Houdini act to stay alive in the competition. Every time Deccan Chargers threatened to get away, Kings XI Punjab came roaring back. Powar was the first to put his hand up. Besides Shane Warne, Powar in full flight is the spinner who provides the most visual delight in world cricket today. The sheer courage to flight as he does is admirable. The confidence to keep slowing the ball and almost pausing it in the trajectory is a jaw-dropping delight – and you have to love fat men who do well.Kumar Sangakkara had earlier told Cricinfo how much he admires Powar. “As a wicketkeeper I don’t know when the ball is going to come to me and I am not even trying to hit him! Imagine the batsmen’s plight.” As Gilchrist found out today. It was the ball of the IPL from a spinner.Let’s examine the context first. Gilchrist, one of the most destructive batsmen around, was in full flow, and had just carted Irfan around the park. Powar was thrown the ball within the Powerplays. Powar’s strength is the ability to lure, almost tempt the batsman’s ego to commit a mistake. Gilchrist stepped out but the ball never came. He took another step and the bat had already started its downward swing. He couldn’t check it. He had to go the whole hog. And he did. Gone!T Suman, who always seems to be playing in fifth gear – that’s his role – tried to hit Powar first ball. Powar is especially lethal when the batsman is trying to go after him and when he hasn’t played him much. When you are settled and used to his pace, Powar can be easy to put away but Twenty20 doesn’t allow batsmen to take their time. The various ways he deploys to lose pace is fascinating.”Sometimes you don’t tweak the wrist – just let it go. Sometimes you hold the ball in the palm, sometimes you hold it in two fingers rather than three,” Powar had said earlier. It’s a tough art to retain in this modern day of meaty bats where top-edges go for sixes. But he sticks to it like only he can.Then there is Yuvraj. Who would have thought he would take another hat-trick? He didn’t even know it today. He only realised when the big screen flashed it. This effort easily topped the one against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Despite Powar’s efforts, the match was hanging on a knife’s edge with a resolute Symonds intent on staying till the end.Yuvraj tried the armer, the slow not-turning-much left-arm breaks but couldn’t get Symonds go after him. He had attempted the sharply turning left-arm spinner in his previous over, and nearly had his man stumped. Emboldened, he tweaked another in the next over and a stumbling Sangakkara whipped off the bails to remove dismiss a stranded Symonds. Yuvraj was ecstatic.But Rohit was still not thinking about a loss. It took Irfan, with a bit of help from Rohit, to close the lid. “Yes there is lots of money, but I swear to you there is nothing greater than the sheer joy of doing well, a great wicket, a match-turning wicket or an innings. This is what I live for now,” Irfan said earlier this week. When one saw the sheer joy on his face at the end, one had to believe what he said then.

A selection of tributes on Sachin Tendulkar’s double-century

Cricinfo staff24-Feb-2010″Better than Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting, the other two great players of my era. Better than Sir Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border. And I would even say better than Sir Don Bradman himself.”
“Nobody else does deserve to get there. It’s only Sachin who deserves to scale that peak. 200 is a big score in one-day cricket. It’s not easy to get there. It took him 20 long years to get there. He has come a long way. It’s Sachin’s greatness. Records are meant to be broken. I heard somebody [Charles Coventry] equalled my record sometime ago. But I did not know him. It’s great that my friend from Mumbai Sachin broke it. I am very happy for him.”
“He should aim for more. Maybe a Test innings of 450 or an ODI knock of 250. And then he himself wants to win next year’s World Cup. There is a little boy in Tendulkar who wants to keep playing. That spirit keeps him going. It’s absolutely incredible how he keeps going.”
“Come on Sachin my friend get your 200. World record to please! You deserve it… Nervous for my good friend Sachin everything crossed for you mate… Glad I’m not bowling to him today ha ha ha.”
“I thought the way he celebrated when he reached his 200 epitomised the man’s persona. There was no running laps around the field, no aggressive gestures, nothing over-the-top. He did what he always does, raised both his arms, closed his eyes for a moment and quietly acknowledged that it had been done.”
I was very proud to have held the record for a little while but there could be no better man in the history of the game to break through the 200 barrier. Zimbabwe versus Bangladesh … India versus South Africa. Not quite in the same bracket, are they?”
“The unbeaten 200 that Sachin made at Gwalior is a benchmark for others to follow. Now, there will be lot of players who believe that they can also make 200 in an one-day international. We will wait and see.”
that it was a path breaking innings“He has always respected the game and is dedicated to it. But I think this is not enough for him. He is hungry and I am sure he will keep creating new records. He is a dedicated student of the game and is still keen to learn things.”
“I think if you ask Saeed Anwar, he would say he’s happy that Tendulkar broke his record. The reason for his success is that he has a great respect for the game.”
“He has got so much class. His greatest strength is the longevity, to be able to be so successful at a young age and to still be doing the same thing 20 years on. We’re blessed to still have such a great player playing this game.”
“If any person deserved to do better than me it was Tendulkar. I am happy for him, there are no real regrets.”
.”It shows his mental and physical toughness. He’s a player who does not throw away his wicket once he’s set. He always places a huge price on his wicket.”
“Sachin – the greatest ever player ever – without any doubt… I salute Sachin… World’s greatest sportsman. We can see him only rise. (He is an) inspiration to us all. He is the best.”
“What an innings it was. He had come close to achieving it twice. I always felt that Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya are capable of doing that.”
“He is my favourite player. I had said that one day he would go on to break all batting records and now you see him scoring runs and runs.”
“Whatever record is seen to be impossible to achieve, he makes it possible. That’s all I can say. It seems as he’s getting older, he is becoming more and more mature. No wonder Sir Donald Bradman saw himself in the way Sachin bats.”

In all their matches Central Districts have won phases of play and looked very competitive before it went kaput

Sriram Veera in Port Elizabeth18-Sep-2010Jamie How looked shattered at the press conference. He wasn’t sure where his team was making mistakes. In all their matches they have won phases of play and looked very competitive before it went kaput. Suddenly, they go flat. Inexplicably, the bad habits creep in and the opponents walk all over them. It’s a matter of skill of course but it’s not only that. The youngsters freeze when they get a chance to get ahead. They still haven’t experienced victory; they still don’t know what it takes to win. And so, probably, they freeze. “We have to sit down and find out what happens in those moments,” How said later. “They are learning fast – this is a valuable learning platform – and will be better off for the experience.”It’s in those exact moments where Warriors score. It’s in those exact moments where they don’t choke. They used to choke for 18 years. “Whenever the game was in a fifty-fifty situation the boys would give up,” Davey Jacobs, their captain, said the other day. It was before he took over the leadership. Young blood was drafted in – the likes of Colin Ingram, Craig Thyssen, Rusty Theron – and the team’s character began to change. The seniors too pulled their weight and as a result Warriors have become a champion team.Today, it was the seniors who did everything. Before the game, it was expected that Central Districts wouldn’t offer much fight. They were 63 for 1 after six overs. They had gatecrashed the party. Or so it seemed. Jacobs threw the ball to his spinners, Nicky Boje and Johan Botha. Boje struck in his first over, Botha in his second and suddenly the game had changed. Central Districts were at 84 for 3 after12 overs.The two spinners work well in tandem. “Boje is slower through the air, whereas I am quicker and we both strangled them a bit in the middle overs,” Botha said. Only one other team, Chennai Super Kings, has two international spinners playing together in this competition. It’s in the middle-overs that the game changed. Though How tried valiantly in the end, they couldn’t bat Warriors out of the game.The chase was still stiff, but they had another senior in Ashwell Prince who played a neat supporting act to Jacob’s adventurous knock. Prince is not known for his limited-overs hitting. Don’t try telling him or his captain that though. “The South African selectors haven’t given me much chance in limited-overs format and so the perception of the outside world is that I am only a Test player. I am not.”Even as you were listening to Prince, his captain jumps at you. “Let me tell you, in the 50-overs and T20 competitions that we won last year Prince opened and scored 130 and 70 respectively,” Jacobs said. “So I don’t think you can box him as a Test player.” It was Prince who walked up to his coach last year and spoke of his desire to open in the limited-overs. The team management saw merit in that and gave him the option.The seniors have done the job so far in the tournament. “It was the youngsters who started the turnaround for us in the domestic competition,” Jacobs said. “Yes the seniors have done well here and have always done so but it won’t be long before you see the likes of Ingram, Thyssen and the rest start firing.”

Under pressure after a poor batting effort, on a pitch that had eased out but was still lively, Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth missed Zaheer Khan, the leader of the attack

Sidharth Monga at SuperSport Park17-Dec-2010Harbhajan Singh was bullish when asked, at the end of the first day, whether Zaheer Khan’s absence had done India psychological damage already. “We have not bowled a single ball yet, so I can’t say if we have missed Zaheer Khan or not,” he said. “We have got other bowlers. If you see previous games, Ishant Sharma bowled really well in Nagpur. The other guy, Sreesanth, bowled really well. Spinners also bowled really well. So we don’t depend on one particular bowler. And we have bowlers who can adapt to any condition and get us wickets. We are no more a team that depends on one particular batsman or bowler. We believe everyone can perform in given conditions.”On paper, or even on websites, that sounds good. In reality though, under pressure after a poor batting effort, on a pitch that had eased out but was still lively, Ishant and the “other guy” missed the leader of the attack. The man who could show them what lengths to bowl, the man who would stand at mid-on, put an arm around their shoulder, and suggest slight corrections to get them wickets.It could be argued that the Indian medium-pacers didn’t have the pace of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, and were hence ineffective. Sreesanth and Ishant, however, have always relied on movement as opposed to pace. When he won India the Wanderers Test on the previous tour, Sreesanth did it with movement, and not pace.There was movement to be had here too. And both Sreesanth and Ishant had it aplenty in the first spell. Except that Sreesanth kept erring on the shorter side, not bringing Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen forward at all, which is where the edges would come. Loud tuck after loud tuck followed off Sreesanth’s bowling as both the batsmen could stay back and cover the movement, and also leave balls on length. The stares that he gave the batsmen after they defended balls back to him smack off the middle of the bat grated, and also earned him a lot of heat from the crowd who cheered when he misfielded, and had a lot to say to him. One of them seemingly had to be asked to leave too.Ishant looked likelier to get a wicket, especially with the seam movement he obtained at the start. The first ball he bowled beat Smith, but it was pitched outside leg. The second missed the edge slightly outside off. However, despite the movement Ishant failed to make Smith play enough. His lengths created doubt, his lines ruined the effect. The openers chose to leave 17 deliveries from him, and Smith deliberately played inside the line of several others. Ishant didn’t go round the wicket to Smith, nor did he try a bouncer like he meant it. The new ball would set the tone, and there was no doubt as to what kind of music it played.The bouncers arrived when the ball was some 40 overs old, and had some sort of impact on Hashim Amla, but one wonders if that sort of variation would have taken so long coming had Zaheer been there. By then, a selection blunder had also been put on display. Jaidev Unadkat, about as non-violent as the other man from Porbandar who came to South Africa decades ago, clearly is not the fourth-best fast bowler in the country. He didn’t swing the ball, he didn’t have pace, he wasn’t Test-ready. Nor is Umesh Yadav the fifth-best.Rahul Dravid, speaking after the day’s play, admitted Zaheer could have made a difference. “He has obviously got a lot of experience,” Dravid said. “He is someone who has played all over the world, and is the leader of our attack, so obviously you are going to miss him. You can’t help it. These things happen. People get injured. Especially when you fall behind in a game, you need somebody to step up and Zaheer has usually been our go-to man in the last couple of years. He wasn’t there today.”The other guys tried their best. [But] South Africans batted really well, and the wicket eased out really considerably. It’s a learning experience for a lot of our younger bowlers, in terms of their lengths. Maybe we could have bowled a bit fuller, maybe we could have made them drive a bit more.”Abhimanyu Mithun impressed the team management with his strength and spirited bowling on the Sri Lanka tour, where India drew the series on unhelpful tracks in the absence of Zaheer, Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh. He will now be wondering what wrong he has done to not be on this trip. Knowing the Indian selectors’ ways, in all likelihood nobody has told him. To send two rookie fast bowlers on such a big tour, one of whom has played four Ranji Trophy matches and the other who failed to create any impression in two ODI defeats against Zimbabwe, was as big a blunder this selection committee – used to making blunders – has made. There could be an argument worth considering that the selectors have been frustrated by Munaf Patel, but against Mithun there is no case.Two days into India’s tour of reckoning, both their wings have malfunctioned, and they find themselves facing one of their worst defeats in recent times. While they have been at the wrong end of conditions to an extent, neither did the day-one conditions merit 136 for 9 nor did those on day two merit 366 for 2. Test cricket provides a second chance though, a shot at redemption. This team has redeemed itself in the past, but the players know if they are to get out of this one – without the help of weather – it will take the very best of their efforts and huge improvements in all aspects of their game.

Mumbai’s games have been better attended than most in this IPL, thanks to the Tendulkar effect

Tariq Engineer20-May-2011It is an understatement to say Jaipur is hot at the end of April. The heat is like a living thing, determined to scorch the earth of all other living things. Yet there the Sawai Mansingh Stadium was three weeks ago, with its uncovered stands, already half-full at 2.30pm, a good 90 minutes before the scheduled IPL game. By the time the umpires walked out to the middle, the place was packed with fans eager with anticipation.Rajasthan Royals typically draw tremendous home support, but on this day it was clear the fans weren’t there just for them. The opposing team were Mumbai Indians, and the fans had come to see Sachin Tendulkar. They cheered when he came out to warm up, cheered when he came out for the toss, and cheered when he came out to bat. Such was the reception for Tendulkar that during Rajasthan’s next game against Pune Warriors, Shane Warne was moved to say at the toss that it was “nice to be home. They cheer us well here as long as Sachin’s not playing.”The faces in the crowd reflected their dual allegiances, literally. One girl had the Rajasthan logo – the double R – painted on her right cheek. On her left, in the same blue paint, she had “Sachin Tendulkar”. Unfortunately for the fans, Ashok Menaria had Tendulkar stumped for 7 in the fifth over. Having missed out on a chance to cheer their hero at the crease, the fans produced the loudest roar of the game when Tendulkar caught Rahul Dravid. No opportunity to celebrate India’s most cherished cricketer was going to be missed, whatever the situation.It has been a similar story at stadiums around the country. What the 2011 IPL has made clear is that Tendulkar transcends team loyalties, especially now in the twilight of his career, when it’s hard to know if there will be another chance to see him play. The fans want to get a glimpse of him so they can tell their grandchildren: yes, I saw him bat. India’s World Cup triumph has added to his aura, making his career appear complete. It was the final piece in the puzzle, the storybook ending, and what we are seeing now amounts to the standing ovation at the end of play.”People are making an extra effort to be at the ground,” Amrit Mathur, the chief executive of the Delhi Daredevils, told ESPNcricinfo. “It is one more chance to see a legend, to see Tendulkar. Because he is Tendulkar, and if you miss out, you might not see him again.”The numbers back up the existence of a “Tendulkar effect”. Television ratings for Mumbai have been consistently higher, and their games have attracted more viewers, than those of the other franchises. It is the same story at the box office. Ashish Hemrajani, the founder and chief executive of BookMyShow.com, which handles ticket sales for four of the 10 franchises, told ESPNcricinfo that all the Mumbai games have been sold out, barring a few early ones. While other teams’ sales depend in part on the quality of the opposition and the time of the match, Mumbai, he said, has transcended these factors. “The Mumbai games most certainly sell off quicker.”Neetu Bhatia, who heads Kyazoonga.com, which handles tickets for Pune, said they were selling about 70% of the tickets for each game, with one exception – Mumbai. “It was completely sold out. And not just sold out two days prior but sold out three weeks prior.” When it comes to watching Tendulkar, you don’t take chances.

“People are making an extra effort to be at the ground. It is one more chance to see a legend, to see Tendulkar. Because he is Tendulkar, and if you miss out, you might not see him again”Amrit Mathur, Delhi Daredevils CEO

Part of Tendulkar’s universal appeal is his consistent excellence, which resonates with fans of all backgrounds. Keshav Joshi, 29, has been watching cricket since he was six years old. In 1996 he went to each of India’s games in the World Cup. Having grown up in Pune, he supports the Warriors and the Maharashtra state team, who have had a long, albeit unsuccessful, rivalry with Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket (think of Maharashtra as the Manchester City and Mumbai as the Manchester United of Indian cricket). It is safe to say that Joshi is not a Mumbai fan. But like millions of others, he finds it impossible to set aside his admiration for Tendulkar, the India batsman, in favour of IPL team loyalty.”I think SRT’s fan following is based on his exploits for the Indian team, and although he plays for a different IPL team, deep down I want him to do well even against the Warriors, as long as we win,” Joshi said. “The same question could be asked to supporters of the Maharashtra Ranji team. When we play Mumbai, I still want SRT to do well. A lot of it has to do with him showing his mastery irrespective of who he is playing against.”Joshi roots for Tendulkar to score runs against the teams he supports, so he can have “the opportunity of seeing the best batsman on earth play”. He even supported Mumbai in the first three IPLs because of Tendulkar and the team’s geographical proximity to Pune, but switched loyalties once the Warriors were born. His support for Tendulkar, however, remained intact, as it has for others like him. “A lot of my friends, now that PWI is pretty much out, have begun supporting Mumbai again.”It isn’t just the fans who revere Tendulkar either. Mathur, the Delhi chief executive, says it extends to the players who play with and against Tendulkar. “The people in the squads on either side – they consider it a privilege that they are in a game with Tendulkar.” Signs of that were evident during the World Cup. R Ashwin, the India offspinner who plays for Chennai Super Kings, said playing with Tendulkar was a moment he had waited for. After his first World Cup game, Ashwin took a stump out of the ground and got Tendulkar to sign it as a memento.It is an aura that has grown not only with the sheer weight of Tendulkar’s achievements but also because of how he has carried himself as a person. “He is one icon who has conducted himself very well,” Mathur said. “No taint in his conduct or in his behaviour or in a way he has carried himself, not just as a cricketer but as a personality and as a role model. He has reached a stage I think it will be impossible for anyone [else] to reach.”Mumbai has two games left in the league stage and at least two more playoff games. Two of those games will be played in Mumbai, but wherever Tendulkar plays, it will sound and feel like home.