Plays of the Day from the India v Sri Lanka Asia Cup clash

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Fatullah28-Feb-2014The Sri Lankan rope trick
Chasing back from mid-on to get under a lofted shot from R Ashwin off Lasith Malinga, Mahela Jayawardene realised he didn’t have a chance to catch it and turned his attention to stopping the boundary as the ball bounced and rolled towards the prism-shaped blocks of advertising that, for the sake of convenience, shall henceforth be known as the rope. Jayawardene slid past the rope, pulling the ball back before it could join him on the other side, but saw that he hadn’t retarded its momentum completely. Diving back over, and lifting his feet off the ground in an exaggerated manner, he pushed the ball back into play, just in time.The collision
In India’s match against Bangladesh, Mohammed Shami and Ambati Rayudu had collided while going for the same catch. Shami had somehow managed to hold on. Now, it was Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan’s turn to converge, running from point and third man respectively to get under a top-edge that Kusal Perera sent steepling over Fatullah. Unlike Shami, neither Rahane nor Dhawan came away with the ball.The swipe and miss
Coming down the pitch to Ravindra Jadeja, Kumar Sangakkara failed to connect with an attempted flick. The ball trickled off his pads and towards the stumps. As he had done to stump Mominul Haque in the match against Bangladesh, Dinesh Karthik swooped down at the ball, picked it up, and swiped at the stumps. This time, he missed his target completely. By the time he knocked down the bails on the second attempt, Sangakkara – as replays showed – was comfortably back in his crease.The full-toss
Dew was clearly bothering the Indian bowlers – in the 46th over the ball had become so damp that the umpires called for a replacement. The seamers were still finding it hard to grip, though, as seen in the number of full-tosses they were bowling at the closing stages. One of these full-tosses, though, nearly won India the match, slicing off Kumar Sangakkara’s bat and into the hands of a diving R Ashwin at short third man. It was waist-high from Mohammed Shami, but the third umpire deemed it had been no higher than that.

Building on the chances he got in the field, Brendon McCullum scored his toughest hundred yet, ensuring India’s substantial lead was wiped off, in spite of some diligent play

Abhishek Purohit in Wellington16-Feb-2014

‘McCullum growing in stature as a Test player’

Brendon McCullum has grown in stature as a Test player, New Zealand batting coach Bob Carter has said. McCullum began the home summer with 113 against West Indies in Dunedin and then hit a game-changing 224 against India in the first Test in Auckland. He has followed that up with an unbeaten 114, rescuing the side from 94 for 5 in their second innings in Wellington.
“He is now using his defence,” Carter said. “Brendon has really shown his defensive game has come forward. And as well as he still likes to attack. I think he is growing in stature as a Test player and I would like to see him play a lot more.”
McCullum also battled pain in his arm and back during his innings, taking treatment on occasion. Carter said McCullum had been consistently putting his body on the line, and he preferred the captain was more cautious on the field.
“You see how he is in the field. I sort of prefer him to just run to the boundary and just knock the ball back but he sets our tone all the time,” he said. “And you have seen him dive – he dived on about seven or eight occasions while he was fielding and sets that example to everybody.
“I think it has been a tough summer all round but the funny side of it is that Brendon had a little bit of a shoulder injury from shining the ball yesterday. He was trying to get it to swing a lot as well trying to get it changed a lot. And then he was joking today that his bottom hand was playing up. I prefer it to be his top hand actually.”

For the second time in as many Tests, India were left applauding a Brendon McCullum century. MS Dhoni walked to the edge of the boundary at the end of the day’s play, waited for McCullum, who was being congratulated by several India players, and clasped his counterpart’s hand. You can talk all you want about strategies and execution and momentum. At times, you just have to admit that you threw everything you had at the opposition, and they still came out on top. In the absence of Ross Taylor, it was McCullum who extended New Zealand’s glorious summer by another day.In Auckland, McCullum was helped by India bowlers, who lost their lines and lengths after having New Zealand at 30 for 3. The only assistance he had in Wellington was the two dropped catches. He got nothing else from India. They tried to force him into playing a rash stroke by bowling restricting lines to leg-side fields. McCullum defended, without giving them a chance. They tried to force him into playing a rash stroke by bowling teasing lines to an open off-side field, especially with the second new ball. McCullum attacked, without giving them a chance.Ravindra Jadeja was at New Zealand all day, doing the job he had failed to do in the first Test. His 26 overs went for 120 in the first innings in Auckland. He conceded 49 runs in 26 overs this time. He choked McCullum and BJ Watling with a leg-side field and a line from over the stumps. Both batsmen defended, and then defended some more. On the rare occasion that Jadeja was too short or too full, they made sure he was taken for boundaries. There was nothing in the pitch for the spinner, and New Zealand ensured they were not going to create anything for him on their own.Jadeja’s run squeeze meant India’s fast bowlers had more reason to come hard, which they did. Zaheer Khan has been largely accurate with his lines in this series, but the intensity had been palpably lacking. He made up for it with an eight-over opening spell that yielded two wickets. He never let McCullum and Watling feel they were in. Over the stumps. Round the stumps. Moving midwicket back, moving square leg in. Seaming it in, seaming it out. It was a terrific display from the bowler. The batsmen needed luck to survive Zaheer today. They needed the ball to beat that outside edge, for there were plenty they were not going to middle. You could argue that McCullum and Watling deserved that luck for the way they denied themselves.Mohammed Shami could have tested New Zealand more had he been more consistent. He is a bowler who will produce an unplayable one every now and then, and he did that today as well. However, he also dropped it short on occasion and when he did, McCullum and Watling were around to take toll.Ishant Sharma had been awkward to handle in the first innings, and he made the ball kick and seam in again. McCullum and Watling were hit on the pads several times. Even after playing 195 balls and batting on 94, McCullum missed and took one on the leg off Ishant. Just when you were pondering over the replay with the ball-tracker, he walloped the next one for six and was raising his bat for another hundred.”Him going from 94 to 100 with a six certainly caught me by surprise,” said Bob Carter, the New Zealand batting coach. “Suddenly I was sitting down thinking about the ball that had just beaten him. All of a sudden he was hitting it for six.”What more could India have done against McCullum? Dhoni had men in catching positions through the day. Slips, gully, short mid-on, short midwicket, short leg. He tried in-and-out fields. He tried reducing and increasing the number of slips. He left third man vacant. He brought point in, he sent him back. He left cover and extra cover vacant with the second new ball. He still kept going with his specialist bowlers, not trying any part-timer.But here was the king of indulgence starving himself, gorging in between, then returning to starve again. Alongside was a sidekick in perpetual hibernation. It was the day McCullum batted nearly six hours, and yet made only 114, despite going almost run a ball from fifty to hundred. It was a day to come out second-best despite giving it all. It was a day to hold a hand out to your opponent and say: “Well played, captain.”

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from Chittagong

Alan Gardner in Chittagong24-Mar-2014The dismissal
Hashim Amla had not looked at his most fluent during an innings that pootled rather than powered along but his dismissal was even more of a curiosity. Corey Anderson trundled in and Amla drove forcefully on the up back down the ground. JP Duminy, at the non-striker’s end, had to take evasive action but he could not get entirely out of the way – the ball struck his bat, knocking it out of his hand, and then looped up to be caught by the alert Anderson.The relevant law is 32.3 (d), that a catch will be legal if “a fielder catches the ball after it has touched an umpire, another fielder or the other batsman”. Andrew Symonds suffered similar misfortune in an ODI against Sri Lanka in 2006, when his shot struck Michael Clarke’s pad and deflected to mid-on.The wide
South Africa would have had a ‘Wanted’ poster with Brendon McCullum’s face and several dollar signs on their dressing room door and Imran Tahir went to some length to pick up the reward. McCullum had only faced three balls when he set off on a quick two-step towards the bowler but Tahir spotted him coming and dragged his legbreak wide of the return crease, way out of reach and with the batsman stranded. The extra run to New Zealand seemed worth it at the time.The umpire killer
Duminy was in electric form as the innings drew to a close and, as well as leaving his mark on the New Zealand bowlers, he very nearly landed one on Aleem Dar as well. Bowling the final over, Tim Southee sent down a low full toss that Duminy returned with the speed of a rubber ball rebounding, at about chest height and right over the top of the wicket at the non-striker’s end. Dar is known to play a bit of table tennis to keep his eyes sharp and he displayed cat-like reflexes to avoid taking a blow to the body – or denying Duminy a boundary.The scoop
Mitchell McClenaghan is one of New Zealand’s quicker bowlers but that didn’t stop Duminy attempting to ramp him over the keeper. In the 12th over, the batsman settled into a crouch, tucked his head down and flicked ineffectually as a length ball sailed over him. Two overs later, he picked his target a little better, spotting a slower ball, readjusting to the line outside off and playing a reverse angle scoop wide of Luke Ronchi and away to the third man boundary.

The hosts are into the Super 10s, but it was with a whimper as they suffered embarrassment at the hands of Hong Kong after an awful display with the bat

Mohammad Isam in Chittagong20-Mar-2014In 1981 when Norway shocked England in a football World Cup qualifier, so excited was the late Norwegian commentator Bjørge Lillelien that he beckoned four British prime ministers, an admiral, a press baron, a boxer and a member of the Royal family in a famous outburst.Hong Kong does not have a famous cricket commentator, nor cricketers. But they have handed Bangladesh an objective lesson in how not to be overconfident after crushing two Associate nations.Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim, like he has done a few times in the past, took a bit of the blame when clearly he was not the only one who played a shocking shot or showed a shocking attitude. Tamim Iqbal did not necessarily have to chop a ball homing in on off stump, neither was Shakib Al Hasan was required to slog one right into deep midwicket’s throat when Bangladesh were batting well on 85 for 3.Anamul Haque had struck three boundaries in a row but got out trying to play another attacking shot off the next ball. But Mushfiqur did not mention him, nor held Tamim or Shakib responsible.”I don’t think they were too attacking,” Mushfiqur said. “Tamim missed the line of the ball while trying to play a defensive shot. Shakib was the only set batsman in that wicket and he had the responsibility to not just keep the batting in shape but put up a competitive score.”So in that sense, he was playing well and nobody was supporting him that well. He played a good shot but it went to the fielder. I could have waited to play my shot for two or three overs. But I never expected the collapse that came after me. I was telling them in the dugout that we need a partnership in the late order. It is really disappointing because there is a way to get out. I think they are trying, but they should do it a little more willingly.”The full impact of the collapse was 7 for 23 in 5.5 overs. Bangladesh crashed from 85 for 3 in the eleventh over to be bowled out for 108 in the 17th. Mushfiqur laid the blame for the defeat on the collapse, but said Nasir Hossain was unlucky to have Al-Amin Hossain as a partner in the last five overs and suggested Farhad Reza will be dropped in the next game.

Concern over Rubel finger injury

Bangladesh pace bowler Rubel Hossain will have an x-ray on his finger which he hurt while trying to catch Irfan Ahmed in the third over of Hong Kong’s innings.

He dropped the catch, and walked of screaming in pain as physio Vibhav Singh accompanied him out of the ground. Mushfiqur Rahim later said that Rubel was not in good shape.

“His finger isn’t good, he can’t hold the ball. He will have an X-ray tomorrow.”

“Nasir hasn’t been performing up to his potential but he didn’t have a batsman at the other end to support him at that stage. He could have batted naturally in the last three or four overs. He was having problem timing the ball so he was unlucky. The full blame is on the top and middle-order.”The team management thought that it would be better to pick the extra seamer in an evening game. Unfortunately he didn’t perform tonight and in the last few matches. Hopefully we will have a different combination in Dhaka where there will be different conditions.”Mushfiqur still had hopes of a turnaround in the Super 10s, to which they qualified quietly in the 14th over of the Hong Kong’s innings.”This is a very bad feeling, whether we make it to the Super 10 or not,” he said. “I could never expect such a poor batting performance from our team. But having said that, anything can happen in T20s, so I would say that we have a chance against all four big teams. If we play to our potential, we can win any day.”That day however wasn’t Thursday. With Lillelien’s spirit hovering somewhere over the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury media centre, moments after little-known Haseeb Amjad took a six off accomplished left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak to win Hong Kong the game, who could almost hear a version of the famous line 33 years ago.”We are the best in the world! We are the best in the world! We have beaten Bangladesh by two wickets in cricket!! It is completely unbelievable! We have beaten Bangladesh! Bangladesh, birthplace of minnows. Akram Khan, Aminul Islam, Minhajul Abedin, Naimur Rahman, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Ashraful, Salma Khatun – we have beaten them all. We have beaten them all.”

West Indies have often started slowly before, but this time their big-hitters weren’t allowed to open out when the innings prospered

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur23-Mar-2014In Twenty20 cricket, West Indies are often known to start slowly with the bat and look to preserve wickets, banking on their big hitters to make up with rapid scoring later in the innings. Against India, their openers began slowly yet again, but this time it might not have been entirely out of choice. India bowled beautifully with the new ball. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, in particular, swung the ball both ways and will wonder how he ended up with no wickets.Against this sort of bowling, the openers struggled to put bat to ball. Bhuvneshwar had Dwayne Smith tied down for 15 deliveries, conceding just one run. Chris Gayle faced three deliveries from the medium-pacer, taking just a single. That is 18 deliveries within the Powerplay that brought West Indies three runs, which included a wide.Having just watched impressive young batsmen like Umar Akmal and Glenn Maxwell enliven the Sunday afternoon, the Mirpur crowd had been waiting to see how Gayle and Smith, established T20 stars, would go about attacking the Indian bowlers. Instead, they got to see a struggle.West Indies’ run rate didn’t go up by all that much even after Bhuvneshwar went out of the attack. It didn’t help them that Gayle was run out just when he was starting to warm up, having hit Mohammed Shami and Amit Mishra for sixes over wide-ish long on.But those two blows were all West Indies could muster, and you sensed that previous successes with a go-slow strategy at the start may have been at the back of the batsmen’s minds. There was no attempt to go after the Indian bowlers, and even Suresh Raina managed to get through two quiet overs.West Indies captain Darren Sammy gave credit to Bhuvneshwar for bowling 16 dot balls in the Powerplay overs. He did say, though, that West Indies would need to play the spinners with much more authority.”I think credit must go to the opening bowler,” Sammy said. “Kumar swung the ball both ways and bowled in good areas. He kept two of the most dangerous batsmen in world cricket quiet. There is no need to panic for us, it is just one wrong.”We have three more games left, and we back ourselves to win them. I think we just didn’t respond well enough to their spinners. We have a strong feeling that we will meet again, and we are looking forward to that.”India wouldn’t have dreamt up a start like this but Suresh Raina did say in the pre-match press conference that West Indies bank more on hitting sixes rather than rotating the strike. This probably is an off-shoot of their usual strategy to start slowly and look for big hits in the later overs. This happened in the 2012 World T20 as well, both in the semi-final against Australia and the final against Sri Lanka.In the semi-final, Gayle exploded after starting slowly in the first 10 overs while in the final, Marlon Samuels played one of the greatest innings in this format to bail them out. On both occasions, one batsman made it big while others contributed with rapid runs in the end overs.That didn’t happen today. They lost too many wickets in the middle overs, so they never got any momentum going. Their start, thanks to Bhuvneshwar, was even slower than it normally would have been.Lendl Simmons and Sunil Narine hit three sixes in the last over while Andre Russell hit one in the 18th over. West Indies’ average RPO in the first six overs is 6.95, but it was exactly 4.00 in this game. They came close to matching their average RPO of the last five overs in this game, but fell short of a competitive total.What all of this showed was wickets in hand usually helps for a final push. Today West Indies neither had wickets, nor the runs at the start.

The actions of Kieron Pollard and Mitchell Starc warranted more than a mere fine

Nagraj Gollapudi07-May-20149:59

‘Pollard, Starc should have been banned’

The IPL has once again missed an opportunity to establish itself as an organisation that advocates transparency and accountability – for cricket that is, and not crass entertainment. On Tuesday night at the Wankhede Stadium, Kieron Pollard and Mitchell Starc taunted each other, mocked each other and threw balls and bats at each other, and carried on baiting each other through the game. Their confrontation in the 17th over of Mumbai Indians’ innings was perhaps the ugliest on-field incident in the IPL since Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth in 2008.There is no point blaming one player – both Starc and Pollard were guilty. They had reacted emotionally and set a dreadful example. So why did the match referee Andy Pycroft punish them so leniently? Pollard got away with a fine of 75% of his match fee (an unknown amount because the salary Mumbai Indians pay him is not known) and Starc was asked to pay 50% of his. Both men dutifully accepted the sanctions for actions the IPL statement said were contrary to the spirit of the gameThe IPL will now treat the matter as closed and the players involved will get on with their lives, leaving behind unanswered questions. On what basis did Pycroft decide that Starc and Pollard’s behavior was not serious enough to warrant a one-match ban or heftier fines at the least? Both men could have caused injury to the other. That it did not happen should be a reason for relief, and not a reason to view their actions with leniency. Did Pycroft make his decisions independently?According to the sections of the code of conduct they were charged under, Pollard and Starc could have been fined up to 100% of their match fee and/or banned for up to two matches. The actual punishments meted out will set a wrong precedent – the bar is set very high now – and will not act as a deterrent for disgraceful behaviour. Will the IPL continue to slap inconsequential monetary penalties on players who earn massive pay cheques?There had been a similar incident between Melbourne Stars captain Shane Warne and Melbourne Renegades batsman Marlon Samuels in the 2012-13 Big Bash League. Warne relentlessly sledged Samuels – even tugged his shirt – and the flashpoint occurred when he flicked the ball at the batsman, hitting Samuels on the arm. Samuels responded by hurling his bat on the field, though not at Warne.Warne was suspended for one match a while after the incident and fined AUD 4500 for breaching four clauses in the tournament’s code of conduct. Samuels was found guilty of two breaches but was lying in hospital after being hit in the face by a Lasith Malinga bouncer.The most telling remark after the Warne-Samuels incident was from Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland, who said the fierce rivalry between players was only good for the game. Administrators know such incidents fuel the spectator interest that drives up the commercial value of their tournaments. So we are left with these words, as far from the spirit of the game as one could imagine.”Players are entertainers, they’re putting on a show, but first and foremost they’re also sportsmen who are competing for big prizes,” Sutherland had said, “And I think whilst we can stand here and say we don’t condone anything that happened last night, this sort of thing is probably something that only inspires a greater rivalry between the Renegades and the Stars and creates greater interest for the Big Bash League.”During the innings break of the game between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, Pycroft’s former Zimbabwean team-mate Alistair Campbell, now an IPL commentator, asked Starc if it was good to be part of such “great theatre and healthy competition.” Starc smiled, and he would have smiled again at having got off so easy.