A stats lowdown on Trent Bridge, a ground where England have won each of the three times that Michael Vaughan has led the team

Mathew Varghese26-Jul-2007After “getting out of jail” – as Rahul Dravid put it – at Lord’s, a venue at which they have always struggled, India will be relieved that the second Test is in Nottingham. They have played three Tests at Trent Bridge, and while they lost in 1959, they drew their two recent encounters, in 1996 and 2002.India’s batsmen didn’t live up to reputation in the first Test, and the Big Three – Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid and Sourav Ganguly – will be under pressure to perform in the second. All three batsmen have good records at Trent Bridge, with a century apiece.

India’s Big Three at Trent Bridge

Player Matches Innings Runs Average Highest score

Sachin Tendulkar 2 4 377 94.25177 Sourav Ganguly 2 4 351 87.75136 Rahul Dravid 2 4 220 55.00115 Ganguly and Tendulkar scored hundreds in the 1996 Test, during their 255-run partnership, the highest for India in England. They have scored more runs at Trent Bridge than any of the current English batsmen, who have all had an unusually quiet time at this venue.

England’s current batting line-up at Trent Bridge

Player Matches Innings Runs Average Highest score

Michael Vaughan 4 7 332 47.42197 Andrew Strauss 3 6 126 21.0055 Kevin Pietersen 2 4 115 28.7545 Paul Collingwood 1 2 57 28.5048 Alastair Cook 1 2 29 14.5029 Ian Bell 1 2 6 3.003 However, given India’s bowling record, the England batsmen could get an opportunity to boost those numbers for the previous two Tests between the two teams in Nottingham were high-scoring contests.

Average runs per wicket at Trent Bridge

Record Matches Runs Average runs per wicket

Overall 53 51840 32.64 Since 1995 11 12259 33.22 England v India 3 1513 40.89 England v India since 1995 2 1181 62.15 Although India’s batsmen have done well at Trent Bridge, their English counterparts have done better: in 2002, they amassed 617, the third-highest total at Trent Bridge. Harbhajan Singh conceded 175 runs, the most in an innings at this venue.England have won three of their last four Tests in Nottingham. Their only defeat was against Sri Lanka in 2006, when Muttiah Muralitharan took 8 for 70 in the fourth innings, the best bowling figures in an innings at Trent Bridge.England, though, have won all three Tests under Michael Vaughan’s captaincy at Trent Bridge. Mike Brearley is the only other captain to have a 100% win record at the venue.

England’s win-loss record at Trent Bridge

Span Matches Won Lost Drawn

1899-2006 52 16 15 21 2000 onwards 7 3 2 2 Michael Vaughan as captain (2003-2005) 3 3 0 0 The team batting first at Trent Bridge doesn’t have any distinct advantage, having won 17 and lost 14 Tests. However, in the five matches since January 2002, the team batting first has won thrice and lost once, with one Test ending in a draw. The team winning the toss has chosen to bat in each of the six most recent Tests.Overall, the side winning the toss has won 20 and only lost 11 Tests. Since 2000, the toss hasn’t mattered much, the team that has won it has won three and lost two out of seven Tests.Although England’s bowling line-up is inexperienced, Monty Panesar and James Anderson have performed well in the only Test they have played at Trent Bridge. Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan are the only two Indian bowlers to have played at the venue.

Bowlers at Trent Bridge

Player Matches Runs conceded Wickets Average

James Anderson 1 119 7 17.00 Monty Panesar 1 81 5 16.20 Anil Kumble 1 98 1 98.00 Zaheer Khan 1 110 3 36.66 Unlike at most grounds in England, spinners have an excellent record here – since 2000, they have taken 53 wickets at an average of 23. The overcast conditions and the threat of rain, however, could deny Panesar and Kumble the kind of success that other spinners – most notably Shane Warne and Muralitharan – have had here in the past.

Pace v Spin at Trent Bridge since 2000 Bowling style Wickets Average

Pace 183 31.91 Spin 53 23.07

Praveen Kumar exhibited some deadly swing bowling at the Wankhede Stadium, prompting Manoj Prabhakar to label him a magician

Sriram Veera in Mumbai18-Jan-2008

	Labelled a magician by Manoj Prabhakar, Praveen Kumar has his eyes set on the ODI series in Australia © Cricinfo Ltd

“He is a magician”. When Manoj Prabhakar, a wonderful practitioner of the
art of swing bowling, says that about someone, the
recipient must possess some talent. That’s exactly what Praveen Kumar exhibited at the Wankhede Stadium in the Ranji Trophy final.The lanky bowler comes from a family of wrestlers and it shows when he
has a bat in his hand – it’s easier to hit a six than a four, he once said
in an interview – but with a ball, especially a shiny one, he uses more brain than brawn. As Aakash Chopra duly realised, trapped in front with the late curling inswinger on 102.”His biggest strength is that he bowls these inswingers from
close to the stumps,” an impressed Chopra said. “Most of the others bowl
that from wide of the crease and it’s easier for a batsman to play that angle. But when someone does that from close, the swing starts late and the angle
is difficult to play.”Without taking anything away from Chopra’s fine knock, the fact that he faced
only nine Praveen deliveries in his opening spell on the
second day and lasted only two today is a tribute to the bowler.Hustling in from a medium-pacer’s run-up, Praveen moves close to the stumps and keeps
his wrist cocked up till late. A whipping motion at the point of release allows him to move the ball both ways, with much work coming from the wrist.Ashish Zaidi, Uttar Pradesh’s bowling coach, has been working with
Praveen to develop his outswinger. “He has a natural inswinger and
we have both worked hard on his wrist position to get the other one,” Zaidi said. “He has
become much more dangerous now.”Prabhakar shot a note of warning though: “He has to increase his pace a
bit and not lose his swing obviously. Then he can trouble international
batsmen.”I faced such a problem in my early days. I used to swing it more
but the batsmen had the time to play me. So I worked on increasing the pace
and it paid off. Kumar has to do it. I am not talking about express pace
or sacrificing it for swing but a little more – that combination of
pace and swing hurts the batsman.”Zaidi concurred and said Praveen had increased his pace since last
season. “[In the last three years] he has started to think the batsmen out. He always had
the ability to swing into the batsmen and has begun to move it the other way now but the
most important thing is that he has matured and has started to
work out the batsman.”

	Hustling in from a medium-pacer’s run-up, Kumar moves close to the stumps and keeps his wrist cocked up till late. A whipping motion at the point of release allows him to move the ball both ways, with much work coming from the wrist

The left-handed Shikar Dhawan was set up nicely with two away swingers
before he curled one back in to clean him up. Gautam Gambhir’s ego was
played on – a lone man in the covers on the off side saw Gambhir play an
expansive drive off his second ball – and Chopra was done in by the
second successive inswinger.Asked whether he thinks this performance will push his case for selection
for the one-day series in Australia, Kumar’s retort was swift: “What case? I have been
performing consistently over the season. I just want the team to win and
hopefully everything will go all right.”The answers are spat out in a
way as if he doesn’t really care what you think of him. But there is no
apparent malice.On Thursday, while batting, he sent the first delivery he faced – a good length ball –
soaring over long-on, was dropped off an attempted pull and repeated that
shot to get out. “Lag gaya to jayega hi (if I hit it, it will
travel),” the wrestler from the akhada in Meerut said with a shrug of
a shoulder.It says a lot about his character. Zaidi calls him a mastmaula (free spirit).
“He can come across as abrasive at times but he just speaks his mind,
doesn’t put up an act or bother about any one. Someone you would like
on your side.”

This collection of the best writing benefits from Swanton’s wisdom but suffers from too many reporters and not enough writers

Matthew Engel27-Jan-2008The Daily Telegraph Book of Cricket Edited by Nick Hoult
(Aurum, 411pp) £18.99

Forgive me if I start on a personal note, but there are only two subjects on which I can claim, incontrovertibly, to be the world’s leading expert. One is the Laws of Reverse Cricket, a game I invented myself. The other is Producing a Newspaper Anthology of Cricket at Precisely the Wrong Moment. I will happily share the secrets of reverse cricket with Nick Hoult if he’s interested. I fear he may soon learn about the second subject himself.

Twenty years ago I edited . I’m rather proud of it actually. Unfortunately, it came out in the very week a new national paper, , launched in 1986. was an instant success and no one wanted to know about . This phase didn’t last long, but long enough to sink my book.The problem is less acute, but more chronic. All newspapers are in trouble these days as they try to map a course in a webby world they don’t understand, and the is thrashing around more than most. Its sports section now looks a shadow of its confident old self, and its cricket has suffered badly.It seems to me the paper lost its cricketing soul (and its USP) the day Christopher Martin-Jenkins defected to in 1999, not because his successors are inferior journalists but because he took with him the old commitment to full coverage. Without him there to chivvy the desk-wallahs, routine county reports were whittled down to meaninglessness, and substantial numbers of cricket-minded readers walked away.The became the paper of choice for the cricketing village partly because it had EW Swanton, but more significantly because it had depth. Behind him in the line-up were some very good and very wise cricket reporters. But that’s not quite the same as having cricket writers. And in any case, they weren’t allowed to write.Into the 1980s the man at a county match would be forced to file the middle portion of his report at tea with just a “top and tail” at the end. That ensured they would write a bland, factual report. Just the facts, ma’am, that was the way. It was pretty hard to read such a piece with pleasure. It is even harder to anthologise.So Hoult has had an uphill task, and one senses he hasn’t always relished it. The was founded in 1855, and he gallops through the first two-thirds of the paper’s history (just 95 of the 411 pages) like a horseman through blasted countryside. With some reason. In the 1930s, for instance, the had self-conscious phrasemaking from the minor poet Thomas Moult and the broadcaster Howard Marshall, plus tosh about Bodyline from Percy Fender; the at the time had Neville Cardus and CLR James.The became the paper of choice for the cricketing village partly because it had EW Swanton, but more significantly because it had depth. Behind him in the line-up were some very good and very wise cricket reporters. But that’s not quite the same as having cricket writersAfter the war, Swanton comes to the rescue, just as he rescued the paper’s cricket. And in 1961 came the less hidebound , which at once offered less stuffy coverage. So there are lots of diamonds in here. Swanton veers deliciously between the antediluvian (on the abolition of amateurs in 1962: “the change strikes me as not only unnecessary but deplorable”) and the near- Bolshevist (1957: “There have been suggestions, I see, that there is something indecorous in this West Indian enthusiasm. Personally I find it enlivening”).There is another fascinating but more prescient piece from 1962, by Ron Roberts, who died terribly young, on cricket’s race problem.There is much else to enjoy: Lewis on the aluminium bat, Parky on Barnsley, CMJ on Arlott, Nicholas on Gower, Martin Johnson being lugubrious … The Michael Hendersons included are, alas, not choleric enough. (Traditional readers may be pleased to know that all ghosted columnists were barred, so no Boycott.) My favourite phrase in the book remains Swantonian: “None could call Lord Constantine a modest man.”Personally, I would have junked the chronological ordering to get in a better balance of light and shade. And Aurum, a zestful and imaginative publishing house, didn’t shine on the design front this time. The book seems awfully grey, like the old itself. Perhaps this was a misguided attempt at authenticity.

Tony Cozier on the recent performances of West Indies’ young fast bowlers, Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor

Tony Cozier24-May-2008

	Fidel Edwards bowls on his way to figures of 5 for 104 © Getty Images

It is five years now since the selectors identified Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor as two young men with the potential to develop into a combination in the grand tradition of West Indies fast bowling.It was clearly premature, even blasphemous, to whisper the names of Hall and Griffith, Roberts and Holding, Ambrose and Walsh in the same breath but West Indies cricket was desperate for a fillip and these two looked the business. But there are undeniable signs that their promise is coming to fruition.It has been increasingly evident over the past couple of series and, once more, in Edwards’ outstanding performance against Australia’s high class batting over the first one-and-a-half days at Sabina Park.As it has been since they first appeared together, the problem was that Taylor had to watch it from the team room, caring for a stiff back. The pertinent fact is that they have only ever completed five Tests together. When they can find more consistent fitness, they can become the pair West Indies crave.Taylor was a day short of his 19th birthday and in his first season of regional first-class cricket when he was chosen for his debut Test, against Sri Lanka in St Lucia.
Although slim and lacking the physical dimensions generally associated with those who ply the trade, his silky approach, high action and ability to hustle batsmen immediately caught the attention.Edwards had even fewer statistical credentials to recommend him when he followed in the next Test at Sabina Park a few days later. He was just 21 and he made a solitary appearance for Barbados a year earlier. He was no bigger than Taylor and delivered with an exaggerated round-arm action but he had pace and swung the ball.One session in the nets prior to the Australian Test earlier in the season was enough to convince Brian Lara that he was one for the future. It was the captain’s influence that reportedly brought him into the team.The two had contrasting introductions. Taylor couldn’t take a wicket in his first Test. Edwards had five in his first innings. All the same, the promise has always been clear. With experience, it has finally begun to come to fruition.The two figured prominently in the two significant victories in the previous five Tests, influencing the dismissal of strong South African and Sri Lankan batting line-ups for under 300 in both innings.Throughout the long Australian innings here, Edwards has again demonstrated the control, the aggression, the swerve and the common sense that earned him five wickets, and, with a little luck, would have earned him more. No Australian batsman, not even the peerless captain Ricky Ponting on the first day, dominated him. He was a handful for most.It was his sixth fifth-wicket haul return in his 31 Tests. Brett Lee, Australia’s fiery spearhead, has had eight in 65 Tests. It is a revealing comparison

The instigation of two divisions in the County Championship has been a blessing of sorts. In terms of maintaining interest until the very end

Ivo Tennant29-Sep-2008
The County Championship still means a lot to the players and supporters – just ask Durham © Getty Images
The instigation of two divisions in the County Championship has been a blessing of sorts. In terms of maintaining interest until the very end of the season, the last day, no less, for the second year in succession, this has been, unquestionably, a success.The postponement of the Champions Trophy was a godsend as well. The public and the media have been able to give all their attention to what remains, even in this era of Twenty20 cricket, the prime domestic tournament. As captain of Kent, Rob Key will have had his head in his hands on numerous occasions this summer owing to their failure to win a one-day trophy, but to observe him on the pavilion balcony at Canterbury when he realised that his county would be relegated to the second division for the first time was to witness a shattered man.Durham’s triumph, of course, was good for the game as well as for the north east. Another championship pennant fluttering over Trent Bridge would not have been so well received. The possibility, too, that Somerset would become champions meant that interest was maintained in the north, the midlands and the south of England until the very last morning, and, at any rate at Canterbury and Hove, the weather was glorious. Continuing the season into October does not seem such a bad idea after all.The blend of overseas players and cricketers nurtured in the north east, as illustrated by Callum Thorp, from Australia, and Stephen Harmison, from Ashington, who between them bowled Durham to victory over Kent, was telling. True, they have been bolstered by ringers, but then so have Somerset, and Nottinghamshire’s poaching of Stuart Broad from Leicestershire cannot be for the good of the game. If the ECB can rid domestic cricket in England of the majority of Kolpak cricketers, as appears could be the case under forthcoming EU law, the Championship might be considered as worthy a competition as it was until the 1990s.The weather has been appalling this summer, but at least the upshot of that has been a tight bunching of counties in first division so that the final placings were not resolved until the last sessions of the season. But for injury and his eventual retirement, Mushtaq Ahmed would probably have spun Sussex to a 12th trophy for Chris Adams in his 11 years as captain, which are celebrated by Bruce Talbot and Paul Weaver in ‘Flight of the Martlets: the golden age of Sussex cricket’ (Breedon Books, £16.99).How the title was wonApril 23-26 – Drew with SurreyMay 7-9 – Lost to Lancashire by 232 runsMay 14-16 – Beat Yorkshire by 295 runsMay 30-June1 – Beat Sussex by seven wicketsJune 6-9 – Lost to Hampshire by four runsJune 29-July 1- Beat Yorkshire by eight wicketsJuly 11-14 – Drew with SomersetJuly 16-19 – Beat Surrey by 10 wicketsJuly 30-August 2 – Drew with NottinghamshireAugust 6-8 – Beat Kent by 43 runsAugust 12-15 – Match Abandoned against NottinghamshireAugust 27-29 – Lost to Hampshire by two wicketsSeptember 3-6 – Drew against LancashireSeptember 9-12 – Drew against SomersetSeptember 17-20 – Drew against SussexSeptember 24-27 – Beat Kent by an innings and 71 runsThe downside of two divisions is not only that the wealth of the clubs with Test match grounds has become overweening – not least in terms of Ashley Giles trying to scoop up players from other counties for Warwickshire – but that young players are not always given an opportunity by coaches who prefer the prospect of greater immediate consistency from seasoned cricketers from overseas.An abundance of Kolpak cricketers has prevented, for instance, Arul Suppiah and Neil Edwards playing regularly for Somerset and Neil Dexter and Sam Northeast for Kent. Vic Marks, the chairman of the cricket committee at Taunton, admitted on this summer that his club is fielding a Kolpak too many, but the likelihood is that nothing will change except through the laws of the land.Young, impressionable supporters will not be able to empathise with their counties if these field too many Afrikaners. In days gone by, the likes of Clive Lloyd and Malcolm Marshall could be identified with Lancashire and Hampshire because they remained a part of them for so long, and quite obviously not merely for the money. Nowadays, it is nigh-impossible to recall who has played for which county simply because overseas players come and go in a matter of weeks.The acquisition of Shoaib Akhtar, or Shoaib Actor as the Australians call him, at a reported £5000 a match, was a ridiculous decision and just about summed up Surrey’s season. A couple of months ago the great Alan Knott was conversing from his home in Cyprus, where he lives for a fair part of the year. When told that Somerset were playing Kent, his old county, and that Justin Langer was batting, he did not know which side the Australian opener was representing. If the best players and the cricket journalists are confused, heaven help the public.So have two divisions worked and can this year’s championship be viewed as a success? Overall, the answer has to be in the affirmative. Unlike football, the richest clubs are not necessarily the most successful. The fact that Surrey did not win a match all season despite having Mark Ramprakash in their side underlines that. The dreadful days of joke bowling and contrived finishes to three day matches are largely a thing of the past and when the likes of Langer state the standard is better at present than domestic cricket in Australia, that really does say something.In Giles Clarke, the ECB has a chairman who wishes to protect the smaller counties and who saw off, rapidly and effectively, the Keith Bradshaw/David Stewart plan for a revamp of English cricket that surfaced in July. After Durham’s success, the only three counties not to have been crowned champions are Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire, who both remain in the second division, Somerset, who lost their way at the end of the season, but will have another decent opportunity in 2009. Perhaps the sculpturing of Gimblett’s Hill for cider drinkers and all will not have been in vain.

Cricinfo’s senior editors on the best passages of cricket they watched in 2008

05-Jan-2009

Hold on to this one, he’s a goodie: his team-mates swarm Mendis in the Asia Cup final © AFP

Osman Samiuddin

Mendis in the Asia Cup final
This was the beauty of it, of cricket and cricketers in the subcontinent. A
young guy, very much his own guy, little heard of, coming out on a big stage
and torpedoing a giant. Even if Ajantha Mendis never bowled another
ball or got another wicket, his six-for would stand as tribute, a most
beautiful tribute in fact, to the art and joy of this region’s cricket. It
doesn’t matter if it is a fleeting thing – often that enhances it – for in
that moment, or prolonged moment, you are sucked in and taken along on a
ride where nothing makes sense but everything makes you smile and makes the
hair on your body stand up. Cricket becomes an experience, a very visceral
experience, and not a sport, to be sensed, even touched, but above all to be
felt.These bouts are difficult to explain. The National Stadium in Karachi had
been a graveyard for the bowlers. Three
hundred was the new 240. Two seventy-four was thus a gettable thing, and with Virender
Sehwag in flow and India 76 for 1 in the 10th over, it threatened to be a
miniscule total. Mendis – rested in the group game against India – came on,
Sehwag charged a straight, wide one, missed, and was stumped. Yuvraj Singh,
Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma also missed straight balls; they expected
something to happen with that strange grip and yet nothing really did.
Suddenly India were all out for 173. These things happen in such a sudden
burst of flair.There was about the whole spell, a very Pakistani air – something a Waqar
or Wasim could do, but more pertinently something a guy like Mohammad Zahid
from Gaggu Mandi, who only his parents had heard of, could do. Stuart Broad
took a superb five-fer against South Africa last summer but it was all so pristine, so
sanitised: straight-up swing; nice, coached upright action; edges to slip;
boy who has worked his way through a structure.This was nothing like it, because it induced in India a very visible panic
and in everyone else the purest thrill, from a guy nobody knew much about.
Fielders suddenly become more alert, batsmen more incompetent, balls turning
who knows which way, and that is the joy of cricket surely, at its absolute
base level: in a team game, one man changing the mood of a match, of
entire countries, in a trice, just like that, as you or I might turn on a
switch. Indeed, the best was that until the very end, nobody could say for
sure that someone like Mahendra Singh Dhoni – an equal of Mendis in unorthodoxy – wouldn’t do what Mendis had just done and switch it all back. Ajantha Mendis, long
may he live and bowl; the glory of this region’s cricket, long may it flourish.

Peter English

Session one at the WACA, Australia v South Africa
Opening sessions that justify the pre-series hype are rare and when
Australia are involved they usually occur only in Ashes contests. South
Africa provided the perfect gatecrash in the first Test at the WACA with a
brilliant 30 minutes that involved three wickets and showed Australia were
finally in a serious contest at home. Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini had been
talked about as major weapons and they provided the early bullets. Getting
through Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey can sometimes takes
days, but the opening pair managed it in less than six overs.An out-of-form Hayden was uncertain outside off stump and edged to Ntini,
who followed next ball by having a driving Ponting caught superbly by AB de
Villiers in the cordon. Hussey avoided the hat-trick but was quickly lined
up by Steyn’s angle and de Villiers was sharp again. It was the sort of
spell that excited neutrals, shocked Australian fans and gave South Africans
hope.It also did something that few teams manage Down Under, by getting the home
players to doubt themselves. To achieve all that in half an hour was an
incredible feat. While it set up the series, it did not gain South Africa
immediate control, with the advantage swinging from side to side throughout
the three sessions – and the entire game. The opening day couldn’t match the
start of the Ashes in 2005, but it was so addictive.

Flintoff wonders just what he needs to do after a plumb lbw against Kallis has been turned down © Getty Images

Andrew Miller

Flintoff to Kallis at Edgbaston
A spell so good, it deserved to win a Test match. That it did not was
ultimately down to the skill of Graeme Smith, whose incredible 154 not out
in the second innings secured an improbable run-chase, but when Andrew
Flintoff tore into Jacques Kallis to turn the Edgbaston Test match on its
head, it was the moment a great competitor announced his rehabilitation at
Test level. Until his intervention, England had been drifting out of
contention. Their first-innings 231 had been all but matched and six South
African wickets were still standing. Then Flintoff upped the ante. Two
brutal bouncers and a pair of perfect yorkers, the second of which struck
Kallis plumb in front of middle, revived memories of Flintoff’s inspired
over to Ricky Ponting on the same ground in 2005, except it took another
four deliveries to get the desired result. Another wicked bouncer and a
perfect outswinging yorker ripped Kallis from the crease, to scenes of wild
adulation.The over had a twin impact. Firstly, it was indisputable proof of Flintoff’s
enduring class at international level – at the age of 30, and after four
ankle operations, seeing was believing, and for the packed Birmingham crowd
that day, belief had rarely felt so good. Secondly, it reminded England that
all the line-and-length merchants in the world cannot make up for the raw
threat of a genuine 90mph speedster. For the next Test at The Oval, Kevin
Pietersen’s first in charge, Steve Harmison was recalled to the fold, and
the improvement in the team was plain for all to see.

Dileep Premachandran

Yuvraj v England’s spinners in Chennai
As VVS Laxman trudges back, some fans clutch their heads in despair.
Yuvraj Singh strides to the middle a minute later, but on a final-day
pitch taking dramatic turn, he’s not the figure you want to see. Sachin Tendulkar
has made sedate progress to 32, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious
that he will have to seize the initiative if the effervescent Graeme Swann
and the less bubbly Monty Panesar are to be kept at bay.Tendulkar starts Panesar’s next over with a typically precise paddle
sweep. As it streaks past Matt Prior and the helmet for four, the crowd
finds its voice again. After a nervous Yuvraj sees off another over from
Swann, Tendulkar targets Monty once more. This time, a short ball is
dismissed to the rope at square leg. He seems to be warming into his role
as Yuvraj’s guardian.But does the younger man need such cotton wool? Having been flummoxed by a
Swann delivery that turns right across his bat and into Prior’s gloves,
Yuvraj decides to trust the attacking instincts that have served him so
well in coloured clothes. A lovely back-foot push through the covers gives
Swann reason to think, and when the next ball lands on leg stump, it’s
swept with awesome power for four more.

Ishant Sharma draws first blood in what turned out to be the rivalry of the year © Getty Images

When Monty resumes, Yuvraj is out of his crease and lofting with
confidence down to long-on. Pietersen swiftly calls off his spin twins and
brings back Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff. The tide has turned, the Red Sea parted
by a man who allegedly can’t play spin.

Sambit Bal

Ishant v Ponting in Perth
It isn’t coincidence that four out of five in this collection of memories of the best cricket we watched last year – are about triumphs by bowlers. It¹s
a reflection of our times. What’s rare is precious. When the standard
wicket-taking method is boring the batsman out with run-denying lines and
smart fields, which often include a deep point, out-and-out wicket-taking
performances are the ones to hold on to.After a bit of juggling I settled on Ishant Sharma’s dismantling of Ricky
Ponting over Ajantha Mendis’ dumbfounding of Rahul Dravid in Colombo – if only because the first was a spectacle that lasted an hour. Already in the same Test we had seen a thrilling duel between the game’s two premier players, Sachin Tendulkar and Brett Lee, but this was between a rookie and a master, and the master ended up looking like a rookie.In the first over he bowled to him on the fourth day, Ishant could have had
Ponting twice – one went away missing the outside edge by a fraction, and
another jagged back and hit in front – but that he didn’t only prolonged the
drama. Ishant charged in over and over, hurrying Ponting with pace, getting him
to fend with bounce, beating him with movement. Every over probably seemed
like an eternity for Ponting, who couldn’t even get off strike. The
reward finally came in the eighth, which came about as a last-second
change of mind prompted by Virender Sehwag, who had seen Ishant bowl long
spells as his captain for the Delhi team. The ball pitched on off stump and rose
while leaving Ponting, who could only edge it to Rahul Dravid at slip. That
was Ishant’s only wicket in the innings, but it was the one that mattered.

The one-sided day has left Australia with little chance of levellingthe series in the next two days

Brydon Coverdale at the MCG28-Dec-2008
Why wasn’t Simon Katich given a chance to bowl? © AFP (file photo)
Last Sunday Australia were shocked by South Africa chasing down 414and exactly a week later they have again been humbled by the team thatis challenging for the No. 1 ranking. Australia entered the daywanting three quick wickets to give their batsmen a healthy lead tobuild on; the openers did not take guard until ten minutes beforestumps.”Definitely one of our most disappointing days for a long time in Testcricket,” the vice-captain Michael Clarke said. “Obviously turning upthis morning I think we had a 196-run lead and now we’re 60 behind, soa very disappointing day. It’s another example of how fast things canchange in Test cricket.”JP Duminy was brilliant in compiling 166 while batting mostly with thelast three lower-order men and the final three partnerships were worth275. But Australia contributed to their problems by fieldingpoorly and Dale Steyn went on to finish with 76 having given threeopportunities.Ricky Ponting put down a simple chance at second slip when Steyn had32 and Nathan Hauritz grassed an opportunity off his own bowling withSteyn on 57. In between, Steyn skied one to mid-on where MichaelHussey’s sunglasses failed to live up to their job; he completely lostthe ball in the sun and it landed two metres away.There were also problems with the attack after Brett Lee failed totake the field due to a foot injury. The three specialists – MitchellJohnson, Peter Siddle and Hauritz – needed part-time backup and Clarkeand Michael Hussey provided the bulk of the assistance while onlookerswondered why Simon Katich was not handed the ball.”I actually asked Simon at some stage late in the day if he was okayto bowl,” Clarke said. “He said he hadn’t been bowling in the netsbecause his shoulder was a little bit sore. But in saying that I thinkif he had have been asked to bowl I think he would have done that.”Andrew Symonds entered the game carrying a knee injury that meant hewas unable to bowl his medium-pacers but it appeared his offspin wasalso out of the question until he was given a chance in the 125th overof the innings. Alex Kountouris, the team physio, said Symonds couldhave bowled spin at any stage.”He’s a little bit restricted in what he can do but he can bowl hisoffspinners and bat comfortably and he says he feels reasonablycomfortable running,” Kountouris said. “We’ll reassess him at the endof the game. He’s not in a lot of pain, no. I think he’s a bithesitant because he got quite sore in the last game but he’sreasonably good compared to where he was last game.”The one-sided day has left Australia with little chance of levellingthe series in the next two days. However, South Africa have repeatedlyshown in Perth and Melbourne that the state of a game can rapidlychange and Clarke wants Australia to take heart from that on thefourth day.”We’ve got a big day tomorrow,” Clarke said. “We’re going to have tocome out and bat really well and then we’ll wait and see what happens.I still believe if we bat well tomorrow we can get ourselves into aposition to win this Test match.”

Why the PCB’s move to press charges against the ICC for the loss of the World Cup is misguided

Osman Samiuddin11-May-2009The emotion behind the PCB’s decision to send a legal notice to the ICC over the 2011 World Cup decision is understandable. The board, the whole country, feels isolated, victimised and targeted. Two major tournaments have been taken away from them, countries have not toured them in better times and are now unlikely to tour for some time. Those the board once thought were friends within the Asian bloc have, in their minds, not helped them. Instead, they have pushed them further to the margins.The process to exclude Pakistan, it also emerges, was not without considerable flaw. Any such decision is usually to be taken by the commercial arm of the ICC, the IDI board. That was not the case here. The subject was not on the agenda at the April meeting, and the PCB was seemingly caught unaware. Not as unaware and unprepared as it should have been, however: the ICC had, in February, asked the 2011 World Cup co-hosts to think of alternative venues should the situation worsen. After the Lahore attack, when everything changed, the PCB should not just have been thinking about such advice, it should’ve been acting on it.The Lahore attack, and its implications, were on the agenda of the meet. One implication was clearly the World Cup and Pakistan’s place in it: would it not have made sense to have a plan at the ready to present? A proposal for Abu Dhabi and Dubai to “host” Pakistan’s matches was said by PCB officials to be on the cards – after the decision was taken. Apparently such a proposal wasn’t tabled at all, perhaps because board officials balked at the possible expense involved in any such move.Still, ostensibly, Pakistan feels humiliated, short-changed. A bullish, emotional response is inevitable, especially if there is a valid sense that legally a decision can be challenged. Some face also needs to be saved domestically. The problem, however, is just that: that the response is an emotional one, not one driven by cold-hearted logic.Had it been, perhaps the board might have realised that even if the decision is referred to the rightful organ, which somehow finds that Pakistan should remain a host, no country can be forced to play here. Amazingly, the board still doesn’t seem to have grasped the gravity of what happened in Lahore and how things have since changed. An international cricket team was targeted by terrorists, who eventually got away. No amount of legalese will convince cricketers to visit after that. They were unwilling before the attacks, as the Champions Trophy decision attests. How can their resolve to not tour Pakistan not have been strengthened now that the government and the board have failed to provide the kind of security that was needed – even if nobody really knows what kind of security measures will suffice against such barbarism? That is the bottomline.Better it might be for the board to just move on; better than a legal notice might be a demand for a review; better it might be to try and repair a faltering relationship with the ICC and its members; better it might be for the PCB to remember the mantra of world politics, that there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interestsAnd if the Middle East as a surrogate host is an option, then the PCB has not yet made it official. Thus, a legal battle appears futile. Potentially, for a cash-strapped board, it will hurt, for lawyers come as cheap as Hollywood stars.There is also an unsavoury sense – emanating from the core of those behind this move – that Pakistan will push for the entire subcontinent to also lose out. If Pakistan is not reinstated for 2011, the board seems to be saying, then the subcontinent should host the 2015 World Cup and not this one. The PCB’s statement, trying to bring in the troubles in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, confirms it.It comes across as a tasteless, anticipatory schadenfraude, taking pleasure from the potential misfortunes of others in the hope of lessening your own gloom. Whatever the situation in these countries, no team has yet been attacked there and that makes all the difference. And how easy will it be to convince those very countries whose hosting rights you are trying to derail for 2011, to cooperate with you for 2015? Do these lines even have to be written to spell this out?In the longer and broader term, logic says such a stance is disastrous, for confrontation will alienate Pakistan further. As it is, the present PCB administration is not about to write the sequel to . Their reputation within and with the ICC – it is reliably learnt – is as low as it has ever been.Better it might be for the board to just move on; better than a legal notice might be a demand for a review, having tried to garner some support or have some firm alternative in place; better it might be to try and repair a faltering relationship with the ICC and members; better it might be for the PCB to remember the mantra of world politics, that there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests; finally, better it might be to use – and not squander – some of the genuine sympathy out there for Pakistan’s plight more constructively.

It was a strange kind of start, but Tendulkar’s thoughtfulness made it an intriguing, and possibly tone-setting, one

Victor Brown18-Apr-2009For gnarled, one-year veterans of the Indian Premier League there will be always be Brendon and Bangalore. The bar was set so high by last year’s curtain-raiser, when Brendon McCullum lit up the night sky with a pulsating 158 not out, that whatever happened today was destined to feel like an anti-climax. Sure enough, Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 59 from 49 balls was a model of good sense. Despite the impression given by some of its officials, the IPL can’t have everything.Tendulkar, though, knew what he was doing. MS Dhoni had asked the Mumbai Indians to bat in conditions that must have made tournament organisers wince after they backed South Africa as hosts ahead of England partly because of the weather. Drizzle was in the air and the outfield looked lush. The only thing persuading Andrew Flintoff that he hadn’t just rocked up at Derby or Northampton was the sight of Table Mountain, although even that was shrouded in party-pooping cloud.The result was that Tendulkar and his opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya actually had to play themselves in, a concept that struggled to catch on in India in 2008. The first boundary did not come until the 10th ball – that was only a leg-side tuck for four – and it took until the third over, when Tendulkar lofted Manpreet Gony over extra cover, that the first shot was played in anger. Look out for the role of the seaming new ball as this tournament progresses.”At the start of the day the wicket was damp,” Tendulkar said. “In the first six or seven overs it was not easy to get the ball away. Later, when it dried up a bit, there were more shot options.” Asked whether he intended to bat through the innings on a regular basis, he replied: “If we disclose all our strategies, they won’t be a secret any more.”As wickets kept falling at the other end, Tendulkar’s secret may have been that he just kept on going. It wasn’t always easy. A quadruped of indeterminate pedigree made its way onto the field after 6.1 overs and wouldn’t leave for 11 minutes, thus eating into crucial advertising time and, as security guards missed a succession of rugby tackles. Then, the man in charge of the musical system held up play for a further two minutes, obliviously banging his drums while the players waited and waited. Finally came the time-out.But Tendulkar was not to be distracted and found a more gung-ho ally in Abhishek Nayar. In fact it was Nayar alone who briefly stirred the ghosts of McCullum past, mowing three sixes in four balls off Flintoff and making a mockery of the IPL’s market economy in the process. While Flintoff fetched $1.55m, Nayar was originally signed for just $40,000 – a figure that was upped to $100,000 this year. Take pro-rata calculations into account, and one Flintoff in effect equals 10 Nayars.Tendulkar needs no such formula to work out his worth. He gave himself room to ease Thilan Thushara over extra cover, then moved to a half-century by Jacob Oram for four over long-off. Another boundary in Flintoff’s final over provided a final flourish. Last year, McCullum hit 13 sixes all by himself. Today, Mumbai had to make do with Nayar’s brief flurry.Yet Tendulkar’s calmness had quietly built the kind of total – 165 for 7 – that commentators had decreed in advance would be a match-winner. And so it proved. Matthew Hayden enjoyed himself for a while to hit 44 from 35 balls, and Flintoff contributed a muscular but flawed 24 off 23, but not even Dhoni’s notoriously broad blade could keep up with a mounting asking rate. “We were let down by our bowlers,” Dhoni said afterwards. “We didn’t bowl as we planned.”Tougher conditions for batsmen here in South Africa could place a greater onus on tried and tested techniques. To the relief of the purists, the sloggers might not have everything their own way. It was a strange kind of start, but Tendulkar’s thoughtfulness made it an intriguing, and possibly tone-setting, one.

Cricinfo looks into the crisis among the West Indies players which have led to a second-string team taking on Bangladesh in the first Test at St Vincent

Cricinfo staff09-Jul-2009
What are the origins of the issue?
Where as most countries found a balance, in the Caribbean nothing changed until West Indies Players Association (WIPA), originally a relatively informal players association, emerged as a more powerful and confrontational body under the leadership of Dinanath Ramnarine. An intelligent and educated former Test player, he felt he had been poorly treated by the establishment and was prepared to tackle an unprepared board head-on, often outmanoeuvring it with ease. The real trouble started when the WICB signed a new sponsorship deal with Digicel in July 2007. The players felt they did not get their fair share, and allied to a growing distrust of the board and egged on by the increasing profile of WIPA, they started on a series of divisive and moral-sapping disputes which rumble on to this day. The present stand-off is mainly over annual retainer contracts, which the West Indies players have been reluctant to sign since October 2008. WIPA has claimed that the players have played four tournaments in a row this year without the contracts while the WICB says the demands of the players are unjust.What are the repercussions?
The immediate effects have been a loss of sponsors, manifested in the fact last season there were no sponsors for domestic tournaments after Carib Beer decided not to renew its contract and replacements were not available.Who is to blame?
Both sides have been less than straightforward in their dealings with each other and traded charges with the other leading to several years of disinformation and mistrust. WIPA has alleged the WICB of reportedly failing to honour a number of assurances given, acting slowly, and allegedly trying to create divisions among the team. The players have been far too prone to withdraw their labour and go on strike, and also to make Digicel, as chief sponsor, the enemy and not the board. The players’ position is not helped by their actions coming against the backdrop of a string of poor on-field performances.What is the likely outcome?
In the short term, there is a strong probability of both parties patching up and the senior players returning to play during some point of the Bangladesh series. But that doesn’t achieve anything like we have seen in the past. The WICB is riddled with self-interest and has been led by a succession of flawed presidents. It needs a very strong leadership to dramatically overhaul its deep-rooted structure and to be prepared to tackle a number of serious problems. If that doesn’t happen, in the long term, it stands in danger of becoming an unattractive sponsorship proposition once Digicel’s contract ends in 2013. Furthermore, the dispute can only weaken the profile of West Indies cricket both locally and internationally.