All posts by h716a5.icu

From staving off relegation last season to finishing among the top eight sides this time, Odisha have flourished despite several hurdles. Can they sustain the surge?

Akshay Gopalakrishnan27-Dec-2016Odisha’s exit in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Gujarat marked the end of what has been a bittersweet 2016-17 season. The end was as harrowing as it was heartbreaking; they were outplayed over five days in Jaipur. Their bowlers had to spend over two days on the field, watching Gujarat pile on 641, their highest total in the tournament’s history, in their second innings and contend with an unbeaten triple century from opener Samit Gohel.Yet, it was largely a season of improvement. The Gujarat match was their first appearance in a knockout fixture since they played Punjab in the quarter-final of the 2001-02 season in Mohali. That side had stalwarts – SS Das, Rashmi Ranjan Parida, Sanjay Raul, Pravanjan Mullick and Debasis Mohanty among others. Three of those – Das, Parida and Mohanty have been associated as coaches since their retirement.The intermediary period made for one of the most intriguing cases in the Ranji Trophy. Since losing the Plate Final in 2006-07, Odisha hadn’t threatened to qualify for the knockouts. And yet, they found a way to remain on the periphery of the top-tier teams throughout.In 2015-16, they escaped relegation with an eighth-place finish in Group A. They had a solitary win after eight matches, lost three and conceded the first-innings lead in three of their four drawn games. This year, they didn’t have a single defeat until their final group fixture, against Jharkhand.As a side that prides itself on its seam attack, their new-ball combination of Basant Mohanty and Suryakant Pradhan were their biggest weapons. But they were often let down by the batting, and did not have the cushion of big runs. Odisha’s average first-innings score in 2015-16 was 233; this year, it was 250, the difference of 17 indicating marginal improvement at best. But Odisha could take heart from the number of people that put their hands up.The performances were reward for affording the players complete individual freedom. “We tried to go away from the way we usually play. In saying that, I don’t mean anybody’s game changed, but we tried not to curb our natural instincts,” Govinda Poddar, the captain, told ESPNcricinfo. “Too often, we see that the pressure of playing at the Ranji level changes the way a player plays naturally. We have tried to let players express themselves.”In 2015-16, Poddar did the heavy lifting with 555 runs that included three centuries, while Natraj Behera and Anurag Sarangi played supporting acts. This year, their batting unit discovered greater harmony. Each of their top six batsmen hit a century, three of them in one innings against Rajasthan after being made to follow-on. Four of the top-six scored in excess of 400 runs. And yet, quite ironically, it was their batting that ended up being chiefly responsible for their defeat against Jharkhand, and their subsequent ouster.Four of Odisha’s top six made in excess of 400 runs this season•PTI Odisha’s preparation coming into the tournament was lackluster. They missed out on the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai – one of two invitational tournaments they play every year, the other being the KSCA Invitational – due to the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association advancing the tournament to accommodate the Tamil Nadu Premier League. To compensate for that, they went to Pune to play in the Nabholkar Trophy, only for rain to upset their plans. That meant most of the practice the players got were from league matches, corporate tournaments and their inter-districts league.That aside, they were also hampered by off-field issues, the age-fudging that led to one-year bans on several junior cricketers being the foremost. Shubham Nayak, the 18-year old offspinner, who was in contention for national berth for the Under-19 World Cup this year, and 17-year old wicketkeeper-batsman Rajesh Dhuper, were among promising players to miss out as a result.Despite that, they found young heroes – none bigger than Subhranshu Senapati and Sandeep Pattnaik, both in their teens. Senapati lent solidity to the middle order with his 438 runs, while Pattnaik finished marginally better, with 454 runs opening the innings. Those performances helped take some of the load off the seniors.Biplab Samantray was able to hit back from a horrendous 2015-16, with 517 runs – the most for Odisha – alongside 12 wickets. Given his position in the order – No. 6 – Samantray’s form was integral as he was the glue between the middle and the lower order. “I was fortunate to have a good bunch of youngsters and senior players, who gelled well right from the start when we went to Bangalore for the KSCA Invitational tournament,” Poddar said. “The youngsters came with their own perspective and ideas, so all the eleven that played were involved. We were getting good, positive information.”Poddar nearly didn’t take up the captaincy because of the association’s history of knee-jerk reactions to on-field performances. He needed time to mull over the decision, and it needed assurance from Mohanty, the head coach, that he would he given the space he needed as captain.Once he took over, Poddar brought in changes. He tried to get rid of the copious chopping and changing, and gruesome systems like team meetings to carry out a post-mortem of every single defeat. “Previously, after one poor session, the atmosphere within the dressing room used to become so bad,” he said. “When a player performs poorly, there is no point in pointing it out to him 10 times; nobody knows that he has made a mistake better than the player himself.”We tried to keep away from these things. Before the session, each person is handed out a task and they try to execute it. But once they are back in their rooms, we make sure to give them their space. Now, I see that if we have made a mistake, we don’t repeat it the next day.”Poddar also had to deal with the absence of some key personnel. Natraj Behera, their second-highest scorer last year, had to pull out due to personal problems, and Sarangi was dropped after a string of poor performances. That Odisha still did not give in to the temptation to sign up professionals reinforced the faith they had in their own talent.”We still believe in our boys. We have the talent, though it has not subsequently shown through in performances,” Das, their academy director, said. “I don’t think signing professionals will majorly help, unless he is also coaching. He has to contribute both ways, and I think we haven’t found that sort of a player.”The end result obscured what they had achieved in the weeks prior to the twin defeats. They began by conceding first-innings points to Vidarbha but quickly offset that by earning a hard-fought outright win against Saurashtra in their second match. But it was their performance at a critical stage against tough opponents that stood out.Odisha took a 163-run lead after being 140 for 6 against Karnataka in Delhi. Moreover, they even bowled themselves to a position from where they could push for an outright win. But Karnataka were rescued by lower-order contributions. If that wasn’t impressive enough, they routed Maharashtra by an innings inside two days in Wayanad. It instilled the belief that something special could be in store. And the end result was they qualified ahead of a powerhouse like Delhi.Despite tripping up at a critical juncture, a young team has impressed with its ability to deal with hardships and shown that it can hang around with the big boys. As Poddar pointed out, the key would now be in ensuring that the players are made to feel secure by providing them with a healthy environment where they can be nurtured. So long as that happens, it shouldn’t be too surprising if the promise shown in 2016-17 does not end up being a flash in the pan.

Rovman Powell talks about dealing with great expectations, his Test ambitions, and wanting to give back to his mother

Interview by Colin Benjamin01-Mar-2017″Rovman Powell is a Jr Andre Russell.”That was what Kolkata Knight Riders’ Twitter handle quoted the franchise’s CEO, Venky Mysore, saying during the 2017 IPL auction. Mysore is no stranger to Caribbean cricket talent, with KKR having a sister franchise, Trinbago Knight Riders, in the CPL.Such sentiments about the exciting young Jamaican were regularly expressed during the 2016 CPL, which Jamaica Tallawahs won. In the Caribbean Super50, Powell couldn’t have timed his eye-catching all-round performances any better – they came in the semi-final and final, just before the IPL auction.You made your domestic debut in 2015, but it was during the 2016 Super50, when you were playing for the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), that people started taking notice of you, particularly the Jamaica Tallawahs franchise.
Yes, I started playing in Jamaica for a club in St Catherine Parish, and for the last two years I have been a University of West Indies (Mona Campus in Jamaica) scholarship athlete. After that tournament I wasn’t expecting much. But a month before the 2016 CPL draft, representatives from the Tallawahs said they had heard about me and I eventually got picked by them.

“Right now I would say my bowling is still a work in progress”

Tallawahs coach Paul Nixon told ESPNcricinfo last year that your biggest driving factor currently in cricket is to use the sport as a means to help your mother, who has been the main parent in your life. Can you elaborate on that?
Absolutely, that’s the case. I grew up in a small town in St Catherine, where my mother worked hard to support me. Certainly I see cricket as means where I can express my god-given talents and bring my mother and family out of poverty.During CPL and at the IPL draft when you were picked, the talk was that you are the next Andre Russell. At this stage of your career, are you intimidated by that comparison or do you embrace it? Also, what is your relationship with Andre like?
I fully embrace the comparison, to be honest. If knowledgeable people in the game believe I have the ability to match up with what Andre has done, considering he is already a world-beater, all I can do is keep improving my game to be at that level. Andre and I are very close and he’s certainly a mentor to me. On tour with West Indies recently, he regularly sent encouraging messages and game tips.Ignoring all the controversies, how did you find the atmosphere in the West Indies camp during the recent tours to the UAE and Zimbabwe?
As a young player, experiencing what it’s like to be around the senior West Indies team was an eye-opener. We have a lot of talented youngsters and if we can grow together, I believe we all have great futures ahead of us for the West Indies team.Powell takes a catch during the triangular series in Zimbabwe, his only taste of international cricket so far•AFPWould it help yourself and other young players in the team to have experienced players around?
I’m not too worried about whether the team is made up of seniors or youngsters or what composition. All I can do, if the selectors pick me again, is continue improving and translating my domestic form onto the international stage.Tell us about your semi-final performance versus defending champions Trinidad & Tobago, where you produced both your best batting and your best bowling performance so far in domestic cricket.
In that game our openers and Blackwood gave us a brilliant start. I just went out there with about 15 overs to go and just decided to express myself, since it was clear the pitch was excellent for batting.Did you think the Trinidad & Tobago bowlers bowled to your strengths?
Probably a combination of both. You look at world cricket these days and we, the Caribbean, probably lead the world in this, which is why we are T20 world champions – it’s very difficult for bowlers in the shorter formats to restrict power-hitters. That is type of player, as a batsman, I’m trying to be.

“So far, I’ve been selected in the limited-overs formats, so I hope to use it as a stepping stone to eventually playing Tests”

Having taken your first career five-wicket haul, do you feel going forward at international level that your bowling is a reliable fourth- or fifth-choice option?
Right now I would say my bowling is still a work in progress. I’ve been regularly working with Jamaica coach Robert Samuels to improve all aspects of my bowling.In the final, it seemed for a while – especially during your partnerships with Jerome Taylor and captain Nikita Miller – that you were potentially about to play a great one-man rescue innings, similar to what Marcus Stoinis also almost did for Australia versus New Zealand last month.
Honestly I felt confident at the time. Always thought that if those guys were able to stay with me for a little bit more, I could have played an innings to help Jamaica win. But that is cricket, and winning the final wasn’t meant for us.A big aim for West Indies in one-day cricket for the remainder of 2017 is to qualify automatically for the 2019 World Cup by the September 30 cutoff date. What are your personal goals for 2017?
I’m a lover of cricket and certainly always wanted to play Test cricket for West Indies growing up. So far, I’ve been selected in the limited-overs formats, so I hope to use it as a stepping stone to eventually playing Tests and, of course, help the team achieve the World cup qualification objective.

And other surprising facts about David Miller, revealed by the man himself

Interview by Shashank Kishore07-May-2017Where were you when you first heard that you were picked to play in the IPL?
I’d just come back from a four-day game and was setting up a new house I’d bought near the harbour in Durban when I got a call from my manager saying I’ve been picked. I couldn’t quite believe it. After a while, I got a call from Colonel Arvinder Singh, who was then the CEO of Kings XI Punjab. It was the first time I was talking to an Indian from India, so I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. But it didn’t sink in till I got to India. It was quite an epic moment.How did you react when you heard about the money you were being signed up for?
I opened the calculator and did a US-dollar-to-rand conversion. Couldn’t believe it! It was a big thing for me.From where did your “Killer Miller” tag originate?
It started when I played against Royal Challengers Bangalore and scored 101, in 2013. While I was busy batting, the big screen showed some guys in the crowd with a placard saying: “Killer Miller”. It came from there and has stuck with me since.What has been your best IPL knock?
That one against Royal Challengers in Mohali, without doubt. I’ve played some enjoyable knocks over the years, but that one defined me and changed a lot for me. I haven’t looked back since.One line of Hindi or Punjabi you’ve picked up over the years?
“Aap bahut sundar ho.” [You’re very beautiful]

I was about 40 minutes late for my first professional game. I arrived 25 minutes before the first ball was bowled. I was 18, it was meant to be my debut!

Who has been the biggest influence in your cricket career?
My father. He never gets involved in cricketing situations because he didn’t play at the same level, but I’m thankful for what he has given me. He’s taught me all the attributes I needed as a professional.What’s the craziest thing you have done on the cricket field?
I was about 40 minutes late for my first professional game. I arrived 25 minutes before the first ball was bowled. I was 18, it was meant to be my debut!What’s the worst sledge ever directed at you?
I don’t know, can’t remember.What’s the worst sledge you have ever used?
That’s more in Tests, where you’ve time to tick off someone. I haven’t played any!If you were to choose a buddy for an African safari, who would you ring first?
Kyle Abbott.Tell us one thing about you that your fans will be surprised to learn.
My left foot is bigger than my right foot.Favourite Indian dish? Er, next question, please•ICCWhat’s the one thing you’d grab and run if your house was on fire?
My cell phone.Give us one word each that comes to your mind when you hear these names.
Jacques Kallis? Genius. Dale Steyn? Fire. AB de Villiers? Explosive. Virender Sehwag? Freedom.Is there a question you wish you weren’t asked often by journalists at the IPL?
“What’s your favourite Indian dish?”Tell us about a dressing-room incident that leaves you in splits.
Marcus Stoinis has come onto this dog-jaw trick with a few of the guys. There’s a whole story behind it. He catches guys with his dog jaw and they feel in his jaw and they fall for it. He’s done it to a few guys and that really is funny.What’s your first memory of being a spectator?
It was a local game in South Africa. I was about ten. Jonty Rhodes, Shaun Pollock, Dale Benkenstein were all there. I wanted to meet Jonty at any cost. After the game, I managed to catch his eye. He came over to me, spent a couple of minutes. That’s something I’ll never forget.Do you have a travel tip for those wanting to travel in India?
Hand sanitiser! At times, with the weather and with so many people, it could get a little sticky.

Shahid Afridi’s maiden T20 century has arrived, more than two decades after his stunning first coming into cricket’s big time

Jarrod Kimber at Derby22-Aug-2017Shahid Afridi is coming out to open the batting, and it’s a beautiful day. Quite why he’s got his pads on already, I don’t know. So far this season, he has been overlooked when he should have been asked to bat, he was dropped (or at best rotated out) for another fixture, and all season long, he has only made 50 runs off 52 balls. That’s less than a run a ball. Afridi doesn’t do less than a run a ball in a nightmare.And here he is out in the middle, like a tickle-me-Elmo come to life, ready to face Wayne Madsen. Madsen has been a first-over banker for Derbyshire, his cunning little offspinners, frugal and occasionally wicket-taking. His last five first overs have gone at 5.2 runs per over and have yielded two wickets.This is a data-centric, modern T20 pinch-hitting hunch at Hampshire. If they start with Madsen, we’ll send out our golden Furby, Afridi. Gary Wilson doesn’t blink as Derbyshire’s captain; he backs his man Madsen. Afridi is straight at him, smacking the first ball to midwicket with saliva dripping from his mouth. Next ball he gets inside the line and swings into a sweep, before a mow through long-off and another slog over mid-off. Sixteen runs from the over. For Madsen, this is hardcore.Shahid Afridi hits out during his maiden T20 hundred•Getty ImagesBut the quick is at the other end, Hardus Viljoen. Once upon a time, Afridi wouldn’t have worried, but Viljoen is bowling at over 92 miles an hour. This looks dangerous. Afridi doesn’t even get on strike. Instead he faces Ben Cotton, Madsen’s replacement. Madsen is darker than a mood ring gone black, and like mood rings, we won’t see him again.Afridi spends another Viljoen over trying to make sure he doesn’t face much of it, then faces Cotton again. He slaps one over long-on for six, and then follows that up by landing one on the media centre roof. No diggity.Viljoen stays on for one last over; you know why. Afridi, much like the aliens in , had to be stopped, even if you had to fly your fast bowler into the belly of the beast. Afridi doesn’t care now; this is the last Powerplay over, he just swings. He mishits and should be caught, he isn’t. He mishits and should be caught, he isn’t. And then he mis-hits and should be caught, but he isn’t. He takes ten runs in lucky mis-hits. I don’t know how he’s getting away with it; it’s like some sort of CIA conspiracy that can only be unravelled by a smoking guy. But it’s too much fun to care.The Powerplay is over, Hampshire have 71 runs, Afridi is 45 off 18. This is when T20 matches slow down, but this is Afridi, this will keep going or come to a glorious end. Put out your ramblers, Derby, let’s get rambling.Matt Henry comes on, he decides to bowl short to Afridi, but who cares, he just swings, a top-edge flies over his head and into the crowd. Henry pitches up and Afridi hits him over cover for six. Matt, what’s your favourite scary movie?Afridi is now stealing the strike; this was Derby’s big day but it’s his now. He is bigger than Britpop. Imran Tahir comes on; these two have been playing cricket against one other since the last century. Afridi puts him into the Derby Pentagon, Tahir looks about as cool as a girl with a Rachel-cut wearing a scrunchie. But then Afridi clumps one straight to mid-on. Madsen is waiting, he can unbreak his heart. The ball bounces in front of him for a second before hitting the turf.Afridi is still coming down the wicket to have those really intense mid-over chats. What on earth does he discuss? “Some say the end is near. Some say we’ll see armageddon soon”, or “I’m gonna try smack every ball for six, please get me back on strike”. At one point, the bails are whipped off by the keeper, Afridi runs off to retrieve them, he just wants to hit the ball. There is a three dot-ball pause from Afridi, like the slow bit in a grunge song, before he smashes one onto a car windscreen from, who cares, just some bowler.Viljoen comes back on, but he unleashes a beamer and it’s heading for the head of Afridi. For a second, Afridi does that thing where he’s too excited to look in one direction, before holding his hand up at Viljoen, and then walking up to him and having a hug. It’s like the scene where they start slapping each other before kissing in . Except, next ball, Afridi is violently smacking a freehit four.And then, as if it was meant to be, against the guy who knew him back in 1996 when he set the world alight in Kenya, Imran Tahir is bowling to Afridi and gets hit for six, and then is cut away for a four. It’s his hundred, after 2.4 billion T20 games, his first. Five balls slower than that magic day in Kenya 7627 days ago. All night, it’s been like this retro flashback, and Afridi even poses like it’s the old days. As he stands there, adoring his own work, wanting the world to adore him, you can’t help but ask, could you be any more Shahid Afridi?Oh, the beautiful people, the beautiful people, it’s all relative to the size of your steeple. Hey you, what do ya see? Something beautiful or something free? You magnificent creature of madness. You bizarre wonderboy. It doesn’t matter that you are out while not looking at a short ball that you are trying to slog away, in fact, that makes it better. Forget the data, the form, the everything, just swing, you beautiful freak. Everything is right in the world, I have travelled back in time to the golden days of Shahid Afridi, the man who will not age.Shahid, there is nothing left to say, I love you. You, you complete me.

With Mosaddek Hossain and Sabbir Rahman likely to retain their spots after impressing in Sri Lanka, the selectors have some difficult decisions to make before naming the 14-player squad for the Test series against Australia

Mohammad Isam17-Aug-2017Bangladesh’s selectors are unlikely to make too many changes for the first Test against Australia later this month. The Bangladesh XI that won their last Test, against Sri Lanka in Colombo in March, will be given a longer rope for their contribution so Mahmudullah, whose breathtaking innings against New Zealand helped Bangladesh reach the Champions Trophy semi-finals for the first time, could continue to find himself left out.The 14-man squad that has been finalised by the selection committee will be submitted to BCB president Nazmul Hassan for approval, and will be announced on August 19.ESPNcricinfo understands that Mosaddek Hossain and Sabbir Rahman, who impressed with their batting under pressure in Colombo, will be retained in the middle-order while Taijul Islam, who missed the first Test in Galle before coming in for the Colombo Test, will also be included in the spin attack.From the side that played in Galle in the first Test against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh had made four changes for the Colombo Test. Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah and Taskin Ahmed were dropped while Liton Das missed out due to a rib injury. They were replaced by Imrul Kayes, Sabbir, Mosaddek and Taijul.Imrul didn’t make too much of an impact after replacing Mominul at No 3. He was Tamim Iqbal’s regular opening partner until suffering an injury in Wellington in January; Soumya Sarkar, who took his place, is likely to keep his place, having averaged more than Imrul as a Test opener since last October.With the selectors also looking at a spin-heavy bowling attack on the slow Mirpur pitch, at least two pace bowlers who were in the 16-man Test squad in Sri Lanka could be axed. Taskin, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Rubel Hossain, Subashis Roy and Shafiul Islam are battling for one pace bowling spot, with Mustafizur Rahman the selectors’ first choice.Liton could also be kept in the squad having played only the Galle Test although Mushfiqur Rahim satisfied the high-ups with his glovework in the Colombo Test after being told to give it up ahead of the Sri Lanka Test series.Mahmudullah, meanwhile, is a difficult case for the selectors because of his improved ODI form, but he was dropped from the Colombo Test due to poor form, and was even told to head home and miss what was Bangladesh’s 100th Test. BCB chief Hassan intervened to keep him in the squad.Mominul, a Test regular until he was dropped for the Colombo Test, could perhaps remain in the squad but has strong competition from Nasir Hossain for the extra batting spot in the squad.Among the spinners who have participated in the training camp since July 10, left-arm spiner Sunzamul Islam is slightly ahead of Tanbir Hayder and Saqlain Sajib in the pecking order. Sunzamul was part of Bangladesh’s ODI plans having done well in domestic first-class competitions.

Over the course of 13 balls delivered from his favourite Wynberg End, Vernon Philander set Virat Kohli up and sent him back with the most artful of knockout blows

Sidharth Monga in Cape Town08-Jan-2018Vernon Philander’s pitch map to Virat Kohli in the second innings of the Cape Town Test is a thing of a beauty. Philander bowled 13 balls to Kohli over two spells; all of them pitched outside off, not one was full enough to drive or short enough to cut. Nothing fuller than 6m from the stumps, nothing shorter than 8m. That’s not where the beauty ends. Philander’s stock line to Kohli is not the usual fourth- or fifth-stump line usually bowled to batsmen. With Kohli, you shift the line wider because he is extremely good at the drive, and tends to play further away from his body than most batsmen. Eleven of those 13 deliveries are bowled a set of stumps wide of off stumps but not any wider.Kohli is left frustrated. There is no length for Kohli to drive, the line is not close enough for him to take a risk, and with every ball he is moving across his stumps to try to get close to the ball. To the fifth ball of the 20th over, Kohli finally manages to move across enough to cover the line and push the ball for a single. Now the plan is reaching its final stages.Philander comes back for the next over, the third he is bowling from the Kelvin Grove End, with the endgame on his mind. This is his home. He likes the Wynberg End. He is given the Wynberg End most of the time. This is not most of the time. Dale Steyn has injured himself. There are only three quicks left in South Africa’s attack. There is no allrounder to bowl change-up overs as Philander recovers for a new spell from the Wynberg End. South Africa can’t afford to wait here after being bowled out for 130 and setting India 208. This match has been a big gamble: an unnaturally quick and seaming Newlands pitch, four fast bowlers, batting after winning the toss. This is a match South Africa just can’t lose.1:13

‘I wanted to make a difference in this game’ – Philander

So Philander comes back for a new over. He bowls well outside off, Kohli moves across and pushes to cover. Wide outside off again, and Kohli moves across again, and then defends. Wide again, and this time he leaves. With the fourth ball, Philander goes the closest he has to Kohli all afternoon: it’s 6.5m on length, and the fourth stump on line. It seams back in, beating Kohli’s inside edge to trap him plumb in front.”I think it was two-and-a-half overs of away-swingers, and then the one back into him,” Philander says. “It was definitely a plan to keep him quiet, and also to drag him across to make sure that when you do bowl the other one, he’s on the other side of the off-stump.”Virat is an aggressive player, and the key thing is to keep him quiet and to make sure you set him up for the other one. Initially it was for me to keep him quiet, and I always knew I had the one coming back.”Philander is fired up now. South Africa too. They let R Ashwin have it. “Not quite a bowler, not quite a batsman, this guy Vern,” they shout. There is definite previous then between Philander and India from 2015-16, when South Africa toured India and lost 3-0. Philander has a reputation. People question his record in conditions where the ball doesn’t seam. David Warner has questioned his intent to play in difficult conditions. Graeme Smith has questioned his fitness and work ethic.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I like people to be constructive and open and honest with us as players,” Philander says. “There are two ways of taking it: you can take it personally and fade away, or you can take it on board and make a play. I took it a bit personally up front, you are all obviously human, but you try to get over it as quickly as possible, get better, do some work behind the scenes and come back stronger.”All this doesn’t matter now. There is a Test to be won, and he has the conditions and the home crowd behind him. He keeps coming back over after over. He bowls the most overs for a South African in this Test. He walks back to applause at the end of every over. His final one is not meant to be. Faf du Plessis wants to bowl Morne Morkel. Philander tells him he has just got warm, and needs another. Du Plessis tells him to do so with the wicketkeeper up because R Ashwin has been taking stance outside the crease.Philander swallows his ego and calls Quinton de Kock up to the stumps. He gets the edge first ball. Then two more wickets. The match is over but this is a day on which Big Vern could have bowled forever.

As he surpasses some of the game’s most exalted figures and plonks himself in the pantheon, this chubby, ancient guy can still embarrass your batsmen

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Feb-2018How long can he keep going? No, really. Rangana Herath is 40 in five weeks. By that age, Wasim Akram – the man he has just passed to become the most-successful left armer – had been retired for three years. Daniel Vettori, next-best on that list, is in fact 10 months younger than Herath and had anyway been a tied-together collection of limbs towards the end of his career.Herath has been complaining of bad knees since the Triassic. Every series he sours his face as he dwells on ailments. Yet, on he rolls – the hair a little greyer, but the wickets still as bountiful – like he has been looting other left-arm spinners for parts.It has been suggested that he is defying age, but can we really accept that? Tillakaratne Dilshan defied age – his fielding as electric at 40 as it was 10 years prior. Kumar Sangakkara defied age, revolutionising his own limited-overs game, collecting fandangled new shots until the date of his retirement. Herath, meanwhile, has waddled around the field for eight years, forever appearing as if he is being weighed down very, very heavily by mortality. His game, actually, has devolved a little. He had been the modern-day inventor of the carrom ball in the nineties, but now, that is a delivery he deploys less and less.To watch Herath in this latest phase of his career is to behold a player who rather than waging battle against father time, has embraced him, and maybe cut a deal. He is an infrequent netter; almost never will he turn up for training before the day of the game. On the field, he has honed his skill for staying hidden, rarely called upon to make a long chase into the outfield or attempt a diving stop. At the start of each of his overs, he turns up at the bowling crease like he has just popped out of the earth. The moment his cap is retrieved, the field swallows him up again.None of this is to say he is unfit, because as one Sri Lanka trainer pointed out, Herath is in fact the fittest player in the side in one sense: he is almost always available to do his job. Of Sri Lanka’s 35 Tests since 2015, he has played all but three. Often he is workhorse as well as spearhead, keeping batsmen in check through long, difficult spells while teammates sometimes release the pressure at the other end. When he reaps a big harvest, such as his 6 for 43 on the fifth day at Abu Dhabi last year, you almost forget that he had ploughed that soil for 40 overs in the first innings. His is a triumph of longevity. No sane person will contend he is a better bowler than Wasim was, but though Herath is short on genius, of collapses sparked and matches won, he has plenty of.”As a left-arm spinner or as a left-arm bowler, taking 415 Test wickets, passing Wasim Akram… of course, to be honest it is kind of a big achievement,” Herath said after the Mirpur Test. He has clearly tasted too much success in his career to feign modesty now. Outshone, if only slightly, by a 24-year-old debutant on Saturday, Herath’s enduring presence in the side has value beyond the wickets he himself takes.”In this team we have a mix of juniors and seniors, as well as in-between players,” Herath said. “So I have an opportunity to pass on my experience, and that is what I do.”To predict when Herath will retire has become a futile exercise. On these very pages, it was suggested that he would step down – surely – in 2016. Having proven selectors, oppositions and even teammates wrong through the course of his career, we were among the lower-profile casualties. Suggesting that Herath is past his best is now one of cricket’s most recurrent stupidities, so many times has he flaunted another match-winning spell in naysaying faces. In this most-recent four-wicket haul, one batsman was lavishly outsmarted the very delivery after he had hit Herath for six, and another’s thoughts were so scrambled that his decision to come down the pitch was made almost after the ball had already passed him.Is he a capital-g Great? Maybe. I don’t know. Does it matter? The point is, here is a bowler who was always a little out of shape. Now he is also old. And yet, as he surpasses some of the game’s most exalted figures and plonks himself in the pantheon, this chubby, ancient guy can still embarrass your batsmen.

Wednesday’s training session suggested India might be looking at a few changes at The Oval

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval05-Sep-2018The Southampton Test was the first time Virat Kohli went in with an unchanged team for successive Tests in his tenure as captain. Will Kohli make that three Tests in a row at The Oval? India’s training session on Wednesday morning, two days before the final Test, hinted at the kind of combination they might be looking at.PA ImagesIs Hanuma Vihari in line for a Test debut?Vihari, a right-hand batsman who plays in the middle order, was one of two new faces that the selectors picked for the last two Tests. If Prithvi Shaw was a like-for-like replacement for M Vijay, Vihari came in at the expense of the wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav, but was more of a cover for Kohli, who had suffered a bad back at Lord’s.On match day minus two, Vihari batted in the group comprising Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. Vihari, who has the best first-class average among active cricketers, plays with an upright stance and has a compact defence. Batting coach Sanjay Bangar suggested one change to him at the nets; he felt Vihari was leaning too far forward in his follow-through after playing his strokes. Otherwise he came out unscathed, presenting a straight bat and showing good balance and footwork. If he were to make his debut, he will become India’s 292nd Test player.Does this mean India are thinking of an extra batsman?If Vihari does play, at whose expense would he come into the team? If India stick to the same top order, then it is likely to be allrounder Hardik Pandya, who was ineffective in Southampton, making way. Pandya did bowl on Wednesday, but only batted towards the end of the batting session, after the lower order had had their hit. If India drop Pandya, it will be the first time he will have missed a Test on his three overseas tours so far.Kohli has trusted in a five-man bowling attack outside of India with Pandya as one of the seamers. But as this series has showed, Pandya isn’t as effective when the pitch and overhead conditions don’t offer too much help for the quicks. He then becomes a batting allrounder, and so far he hasn’t really shown enough consistency with the bat to merit batting in the top six regularly. If India drop Pandya, they will be going in with six batsmen, a keeper, and just four bowlers.Getty ImagesAre India retaining the same top order?Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara were the first group of batsmen to pad up this morning. There have been murmurs about Shaw replacing one of the two openers, but he entered the nets after all the specialist batsmen were done, and batted alongside Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja. We are likely to get a clearer picture on Thursday, but as of now India seem likely to retain their top three despite the lean form of the openers.Pujara has been impressive in the last two Tests, but the opening pair of Dhawan and Rahul have looked vulnerable. Neither of the two has managed a half-century in this series, and while their England counterparts have struggled too, the inability of India’s openers to survive the new ball has hurt India.Jadeja to replace R Ashwin?Ashwin had been disappointing in Southampton, failing to match Moeen Ali and land the ball consistently in the footmarks. Doubts surfaced over whether Ashwin had fully recovered from the hip injury he picked during the third Test at Trent Bridge. On Wednesday India coach Ravi Shastri said Ashwin was fit, but had not managed to utilise the rough as well as Moeen did.During India’s training session, Ashwin’s workload was limited to jogging around The Oval with the strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu and then doing some light stretches. Otherwise Ashwin stood by the side of the nets, flicking the Dukes ball in his hand, but he did not bowl. Jadeja bowled and batted for significant lengths of time, which suggests he might just play his first Test of the series.

Also: what would South Africa’s Duckworth-Lewis target have been in the 1992 World Cup semi-final?

Steven Lynch16-Oct-2018The Marsh brothers both made ducks in the second innings in Dubai. Was this a first? asked Chris Mitchell from Australia
The double zeroes of the Marshes in the first Test against Pakistan in Dubai last week was actually the eighth occasion on which a pair of brothers was dismissed for nought in the same Test innings.The first instance was in the first Test ever played in England, at The Oval in 1880, when EM and GF Grace both bagged ducks in the second innings against Australia. Their rather more famous brother, WG, sealed victory with 9 not out, after making 152 (the first Test century ever scored in England) in the first innings.Since then, this family misfortune has befallen Hanif and Wazir Mohammad (for Pakistan against England at The Oval in 1954), Dayle and Richard Hadlee (New Zealand v England at Trent Bridge in 1973), Jeff and Martin Crowe (NZ v England at The Oval in 1983), Andy and Grant Flower (Zimbabwe v Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 1993-94), Bryan and Paul Strang (Zimbabwe v South Africa in Harare in 1995-96), and Mark and Steve Waugh (Australia v Pakistan in Colombo in 2002-03).The smallest contribution by a pair of brothers in a completed Test (four innings) is two runs, by Amar Singh (0 and 1) and Ladha Ramji (1 and 0) for India against England in Mumbai in 1933-34.Which South African Test player had a son who was a leading Aussie Rules footballer? asked Kenneth McLaren from Australia
This unusual combination was provided by the Lawrence family. Godfrey “Goofy” Lawrence was a lanky seamer from Rhodesia who played five Tests for South Africa, all in the same home series against New Zealand in 1961-62. He had a successful time, taking 28 wickets at 18.28, including 8 for 53 in the second match, in Johannesburg. Unusually, Lawrence took wickets with what turned out to be the last two balls he ever bowled in Tests, a distinction I think he shares only with Gerry Hazlitt of Australia in 1912.John Reid, New Zealand’s captain in that 1961-62 series, said: “Lawrence’s tremendous height enables him to make balls lift from the pitch as they move with the swing… [He] is a true, old-time swinger of the ball… Perhaps his most deceptive ball is the one that comes back late in towards the off stump.”South Africa didn’t play very often back then, and by the time of their next series – in Australia in 1963-64 – Lawrence was out of favour. But his son did make it to Australia. Stephen Lawrence, born in South Africa in 1969, played nearly 150 Australian Rules football matches as a ruckman for Hawthorn between 1988 and 1998, winning the Grand Final with them in 1991.What would the target have been in the 1992 World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa if the Duckworth-Lewis system had been in use then? asked John Ross from Australia
That match ended in controversy when a brief rain shower removed two overs towards the end of South Africa’s innings in Sydney – they were 231 for 6 at the time, chasing 253. The competition rules for rain-shortened matches in that World Cup meant the least productive overs from the first side’s innings were discounted. England had bowled two maidens, one of which included a leg-bye, so South Africa’s target was reduced by just one run, becoming an impossible 21 off one ball (there was additional confusion because the scoreboard originally showed a target of 22 off seven balls, later amended to 22 – and then 21 – off one).As for what the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculation might have been, there’s an important consideration which is often overlooked: South Africa bowled their overs very slowly, and only managed 45 in the time available. These days they’d have to complete the overs and be heavily fined, but in 1992 the first innings just stopped. In a match in the 1990s where a team scored 252 in 45 overs, having started out expecting to receive 50, I think South Africa’s DL target would have been increased to 275 (this would vary in later editions of the system; the figures are revised, usually upwards, in line with scoring trends). The subsequent loss of two overs would have reduced that to 265 – so actually they would have been even further adrift. In truth, of course, they’d have known about the higher target and would presumably have batted differently.I asked Professor Steven Stern, who now administers the DLS system after the retirements of D and L, to confirm my figures, which he kindly did. He concluded: “As you rightly note South Africa were never actually chasing 275 and thus their scoring effort was not geared to achieve it. As such, it is more realistic to simply analyse the actual situation South Africa were facing: 253 from 45 overs. In this case, the new target would have been five from one ball (or a four to tie).”There’s more on the match in this Rewind column from 2011.By the Duckworth-Lewis calculation, South Africa would have been looking at a target of five runs from one ball•Getty ImagesI noticed that the record for the lowest total in women’s Twenty20 internationals is now apparently held by Mexico. How long have they had official status? asked Keith Barton from England
Mexico were bowled out for 18 by Brazil in Bogota, Colombia on August 24. Their total undercut the 25 scored only the previous day by Mozambique against Namibia, a continent away in Gaborone, Botswana.The reason for these unfamiliar countries suddenly cropping up on the record lists is a recent ICC ruling that gave all T20 matches between the women’s teams of Member countries full international status. One result of this is that in the table of the smallest totals in women’s T20Is, 20 of the 21 lowest have been set since June this year. The exception was Bangladesh’s 44 against Pakistan in Bangkok in November 2016.This ICC ruling will apply to men’s matches too from next year, so look out for some more unfamiliar names on this type of list.Australia had six lbw dismissals in the fourth innings of their recent Test against Pakistan. Was this the record? asked Anash Chishty from Saudi Arabia
Australia lost eight wickets in the final innings of the recent exciting draw in Dubai, but six of them fell to leg-before decisions. This was actually the 24th instance of six lbws in a Test innings, and the seventh in the fourth innings of a match.There have been two Test innings that contained seven lbws: by Zimbabwe against England in Chester-le-Street in 2003, and by New Zealand against Australia in Christchurch in 2004-05.The most lbws in a Test match is 20 – half the wickets to fall – in the opening encounter between West Indies and Pakistan in Providence in Guyana in May 2011.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Alastair Cook’s numbers were massive, whichever way you looked at them – but he meant more to England than just runs scored

S Rajesh11-Sep-2018The fifth-highest run-getter in Tests and seventh in terms of matches played; sixth in terms of balls faced; the top run-scorer among left-hand batsmen and the only batsman to score 10,000-plus Test runs as an opener; 40% more than the next name on the list for England. Alastair Cook wasn’t the most elegant or attractive batsman in Test history, but when measured by the metrics that matter the most in Test cricket – runs scored and time batted – he did an extremely good job.ESPNcricinfo LtdBatting timeCook is the only batsman to feature twice in the top ten list of batsmen who have played the longest innings, in terms of minutes, in Test history. His 836-minute effort against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi is in third place, while his 773-minute innings against India at Edgbaston is tenth.Among the 36 batsmen who have faced 7500-plus deliveries since Cook’s debut, only eight have a strike rate which is lower than Cook’s 46.95. Cook’s strike rate was very similar to Cheteshwar Pujara’s (46.90), but there was never any debate over Cook’s batting tempo in Tests.Cook was dismissed 275 times in the 26,562 deliveries he faced, which works out to a dismissal every 97 balls. He didn’t quite reach the gold standard of 100 balls per dismissal (with a 7500-ball cut-off, there were 10 batsmen who achieved it in the period since Cook’s debut), but among England batsmen, he was the leader on that attribute, though Joe Root and Kevin Pietersen had higher averages. Among the 19 England batsmen who faced at least 7500 deliveries in Tests since 1980, only two – Michael Atherton and Graham Thorpe – faced more balls per dismissal.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn terms of balls faced, Cook is the leader by far in these last 12 years: since his Test debut, the next highest is Hashim Amla’s 17,806, which means Cook has faced a ridiculous 49% more deliveries than the next highest, in the period since his debut. To some extent, that is also a reflection of England’s schedule (they top with 162 Tests since March 2006, followed by Australia’s 135), but it also shows Cook’s fitness – he played 161 of those Tests – and his immense appetite to bat on endlessly.Not surprisingly, Cook is also among the top leavers of the ball over the last 12 years. Among batsmen who faced at least 10,000 balls since the time Cook made his debut, only four batsmen have left alone a higher percentage of deliveries than he has.ESPNcricinfo Ltd The partnerships manAs is the case with batsmen who play the anchor, Cook’s contribution to the team wasn’t only in the runs he scored, but in the runs that were scored by his more flamboyant batting partners, who were secure in the knowledge that the other end was rock solid.While Cook was at the crease and scoring his 12,472 runs, the batsmen at the other end scored 13,327 runs. Given that England scored 88,245 runs off the bat in the 161 matches that Cook played, it is clear that 29% of England’s runs off the bat were made when Cook was at the crease. That is very nearly as many as the runs scored when Root was at the crease, and higher than the corresponding percentages for Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell (in the period since Cook’s debut).

Highest % of team runs while at the crease for Eng (Min 5000 runs, since Cook’s debut)

Batsman Batsman Runs Non-striker runs All batsmen runs %ageJoe Root 6279 5688 40591 29.5Alastair Cook 12472 13327 88245 29.2Kevin Pietersen 7507 6035 52618 25.7Ian Bell 6946 7189 59084 23.9Andrew Strauss 5277 4979 43304 23.7Overall, Cook was involved in 651 partnerships, which is fourth in the all-time list, after Shivnarine Chanderpaul (770), Rahul Dravid (738) and Sachin Tendulkar (675). The 77 century stands he was involved in is fourth-highest as well: only Dravid (88), Tendulkar (86) and Ricky Ponting (85) have been involved in more century stands over a Test career.ESPNcricinfo LtdA giant in AsiaTwo-thousand-seven-hundred-and-ten. That is the number of Test runs Cook scored in Asia. The next highest, among non-Asian batsmen, is Jacques Kallis’ 2058, which means Cook’s tally is nearly 32% more than the next best. In ten series in Asia, he averaged more than 50 five times, and had at least one such series in each of India, Sri Lanka, UAE and Bangladesh.Overall, he averaged 53.13 from 28 Tests in Asia, but as impressive as the runs he scored was the time he batted in these conditions. He averaged 119 balls per dismissal, which is fourth among batsmen – Asian and non-Asian – who have batted at least 40 innings in Asia in the last 20 years.ESPNcricinfo LtdCook had the advantage of opening the batting, which is often the best position to bat in Asia, but even so, he had to play plenty of spin in his 28 Tests here: 64% of the total deliveries he faced were from spinners. Cook handled that challenge admirably, averaging 50.67 against them. Among non-Asian batsmen with 500-plus runs against spin since Cook’s debut, only three batsmen have a higher average.

Top averages v spin for non-Asian batsmen in Asia (Since Mar 2006, min 500 runs)

Batsman Inns Runs Dismissals Average S Chanderpaul 21 718 12 59.83JH Kallis 22 772 13 59.38MEK Hussey 19 691 12 57.58AN Cook 48 1723 34 50.67HM Amla 40 1177 24 49.04The golden yearsThough he finished in style with a half-century and a hundred in his last Test, the last few years weren’t that great for Cook. Despite scoring 218 runs in his last two innings, he still averaged only 28.66 from 10 Tests in 2018. In 2017, he averaged 47.31 from 20 innings, but 54% of his runs came from two innings – 244 not out and 243; his median score for the year was only 15.Though his numbers fell away in his last year, Cook didn’t have a prolonged poor run like some of the other batsmen have had. In his last three years – from 2016 onwards – Cook averaged 40.07 from 38 Tests; from the start of 2013, he averaged 40.87 from 74 matches, which again isn’t that much below his career average. The difference in the later years, though, was the dip in his overseas numbers.Cook’s best years were undoubtedly the period between 2009 and 2012: in these four years, he scored 16 hundreds in 51 Tests, averaged 55.28, and his aggregate of 4423 was the best among all batsmen. Even more impressive than his overall numbers during this period were his away stats: in 25 Tests, he scored 10 hundreds and averaged an incredible 68.12. This was the phase when he had two epic tours, scoring 766 runs from seven innings in Australia, and 562 from eight innings in India. At home during this period, his average was a relatively ordinary 43.07.

Cook, home and away since Jan 2009

Period Home-Tests Ave 100s Away-Tests Ave 100sJan 2009 to Dec 2012 26 43.07 6 25 68.12 10Jan 2013 onwards 42 43.88 5 32 37.20 5From 2013, his home numbers didn’t change much at all: he averaged 43.88. However, his away average dropped to a far more modest 37.20.The Ashes numbersAnd finally, there is the most important statistic for an Australian or England player: his performances in the biggest series of all. Cook played 22% of his Test innings against Australia, and scored 20% of his runs against them, which suggests that he didn’t significantly deviate from his mean performances against other teams, when playing Australia.While the overall stats are reasonable – he averaged 40.20 against them from 35 Tests – what will disappoint Cook is the fact that those numbers are propped up largely by one series. On the 2010-11 tour, he amassed 766 runs in seven innings – that’s 31% of his total runs coming in 11% of his total innings. The 2017-18 series was similarly lopsided: he scored an unbeaten 244 in Melbourne, but managed only 132 runs in eight other innings. Add the 244 to his 766, and it turns out that he scored 1010 runs in eight innings, and 1483 in the remaining 56, including four series when he averaged between 24 and 28.ESPNcricinfo LtdOverall, Cook is one of 12 England batsmen to score 2000-plus runs in Ashes Tests; in terms of averages, he is only 10th among the 12. That is somewhat similar to his overall career numbers, where he is one of 13 batsmen with 10,000-plus runs, but has the lowest average in that group. In Cook’s case, though, the batting average doesn’t do full justice in explaining just what he has meant to English cricket for more than 12 years.