A Facebook campaign had called for the Melbourne fans to yell “Niiiice, Garry” after Nathan Lyon’s third ball of the Test. Fittingly, the offspinner took a wicket with it

Brydon Coverdale in Melbourne26-Dec-20160:56

Coverdale: Inconsiderate Lyon foils world record

It’s hard to know what has been the biggest fad of the 2016 festive season: Hatchimals or “Nice, Garry”. The cult of Nathan Lyon began at the Gabba, where large sections of the crowd during the first Test against Pakistan turned him into an object of idolatry, and it only gained in momentum in Melbourne.A Facebook campaign in the lead-up to the Boxing Day Test was encouraging fans to yell “Niiiiice Garry” – Lyon is nicknamed after former AFL footballer Garry Lyon – after his third ball of the Test, mimicking the words of wicketkeeper Matthew Wade.And so, when Lyon was called on by Steven Smith to bowl the 12th over of the Test, cheers went around the MCG as if it was local hero Merv Hughes bowling, not an offspinner who has played for South Australia and New South Wales.As Lyon prepared to deliver his third ball, spectators all around the ground rose to their feet, ready for their communal roar after the delivery. They could hardly have asked for a more perfect response from Lyon, who sent down a fizzing offbreak that clipped Sami Aslam’s edge and was taken at slip by the Australian captain.”Nice Garry” gave way to roars of celebration from the nearly 50,000 fans who had made it into the MCG in the first hour. At the Gabba, Queensland captain Usman Khawaja commented that he had been usurped by Lyon in the eyes of the local fans. Just imagine when Lyon bowls on his home ground in the third Test at the SCG.

England’s impending defeat has increased the scrutiny on Alastair Cook’s role as Test captain. However, a different leader could not have saved the series

George Dobell in Mumbai11-Dec-20163:48

Ganguly: England’s spinners don’t have the quality

A day that started with the game delicately poised ended with it bearing all the competitive elements of a firing squad. Suffice to say, England aren’t the ones with the guns.Barring a miracle, India will have wrapped up this series by the time people in England are bracing themselves for a chilly commute or dark school run. A 3-0 scoreline will mean England have lost four of their last five Tests and five of their last seven. That is a run of form that, in other sports, might have consequences.It is natural at such moments to look at what has gone wrong and demand change. It gives us a sense that we are correcting errors and making progress. It provides the illusion that things might be better next time.A current theme that appears to gathering momentum is the captaincy of Alastair Cook. James Anderson was the latest to be asked about it in the post-play press conference on Sunday – unsurprisingly, he was supportive, though he did admit he had “no idea” if he was going to continue – underlining the sense that it is becoming the thing to blame for this defeat.But that’s simplistic. Cook has never been a great orator or inspired tactician. Like most modern Test captains, he is cautious and like most modern Test captains, he can appear formulaic. Much of the pressure, in fact, has been brought to bear by the words of his own coach, Trevor Bayliss, whose call last week for a more “positive” approach from England’s batsmen was at clear odds with Cook’s more adhesive style.But he has other skills. Most importantly, he leads by example and has, on the whole, absorbed the demands of the job without it ruining his own game. He has captained sides that won in India and South Africa and, only a few months ago – had a result or two gone their way – England would have briefly regained the No. 1 Test team ranking. His record, as player and captain, is stronger than some would like to admit.He also protects Joe Root. While Root might, by nature, be more in tune with Bayliss’s positive message, he has very little captaincy experience and is still at the developmental stage of his career when he is coming to terms with batting at No. 3. The burden on him, as England’s best batsman in all three formats of the game and bearing in mind this team’s silly schedule, is already cumbersome. Adding the captaincy, just as he is about to become a parent, seems unnecessarily onerous. The time for him to take over will come soon enough, but there’s no hurry.Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Alastair Cook lbw again•AFPBesides, replacing Cook with Root as captain would not have made England’s spinners more accurate or more potent. Replacing Cook with Root would not have ensured England took the three important chances they squandered – all three of India’s centurions were given lives; two of them before they had 50 – and replacing Cook with Root would not provide any greater answer to the problem England’s bowlers have with dismissing Virat Kohli. Disconcertingly for England, there have been times this series when India’s seamers – notably Mohammed Shami – have looked more potent than any of England’s.We can argue with Cook’s tactics on day four. But Jake Ball had dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara early on day three and Adil Rashid has been England’s most effective bowler in the series. It was reasonable to turn to them, it just didn’t come off. We can argue that there should have been more flexibility with the batting order, with a case being made to rest Moeen Ali, who had bowled 53 overs, for a little longer before he batted. But there is an equally good case for some consistency in the batting line-up and providing Moeen with some certainty over his position. And we can argue with the selection of the side, but it is naïve to think that the inclusion of either Gareth Batty or Liam Dawson would have made the difference. Not all decisions are right or wrong; many just come off, or don’t.That does not mean we’re not about to have a change in the captaincy. It may well be that Cook, after a long and demanding period in the role, has lost a bit of hunger for it. It may well be that, once he gets back to England and has time to reflect, he decides it is time to move on. And it may well be that Root proves himself a more instinctive leader.But we’re fooling ourselves if we think that replacing Cook would have led to England winning in India.The reality is that England keep missing chances in the field, that they still don’t have, full-time, a spin-bowling, wicketkeeping or fielding coach, and that the county game is structured to prioritise the Ashes and, of late, limited-overs tournaments. If England really want to win in India, they are not going to spend every August playing only white ball cricket – as they will when ECB plans are ratified from 2020 – with the consequent marginalisation of attacking spin bowlers that will follow. The desire to embrace the T20 revolution is not wrong – it might even be essential to the sustenance of the game in the UK – but it does come at a cost.Cook cannot control any of this stuff. He has arrived in India with an inexperienced line-up of batsmen (you could argue that, but for Cook, a certain well-known player with a pretty decent record in Mumbai might still be a member of the squad, but let’s not go there) an ageing pack of senior bowlers, and spinners who have been outclassed by their opposition. India are just better than England. Cook can’t change that. He may not be perfect and his form with the bat – and in the field – is a concern. But he’s not the key problem here.

Mitchell Johnson’s early burst, Jhye Richardson’s middle spell and Michael Klinger’s beligerence helped Perth Scorchers cruise to their third BBL title

Will Macpherson in Perth28-Jan-201712-2-31-6
These, remarkably, are Mitchell Johnson’s combined figures from his last three Big Bash games. After his outrageous performance in the semi-final win over Melbourne Stars, he insisted that he did not have the aura of old. But all the signs here suggested Johnson was wrong. His first ball did Daniel Hughes for pace, and the opener was not off the mark until his fifth. Next over, Nic Maddinson panicked and Michael Lumb edged behind; Sixers were three down. Before the launch of his excellent counterattack, Haddin played Johnson’s third over with plenty of respect, and it cost just once. Again, he had Scorchers off to a flyer. Again, he could barely be hit off the square.Maddinson’s moment of madness
Since being dropped from the Test side, Maddinson has had a forgettable BBL. In seven innings, he has made 75 runs off 68 balls, reaching double figures just thrice and finding increasingly interesting ways to get out, not least when he was bowled by Joe Burns in the semi-final. He managed to combine all of that here. Before he had faced a ball, he was nearly run out, then got solidly in behind one from Johnson. He turned his second ball behind square for one. Or not. He completed the run, then – seemingly the only man keen to get on strike to Johnson – called Lumb through for a second. Jhye Richardson swooped round from fine-leg, and threw sharply to Sam Whiteman who took the bails off. Not even a desperate dive was enough.Scorchers’ selection success
Speaking of Richardson… The 20-year-old right-arm quick has been one of the BBL’s breakout stars, but he faced being overlooked for the final due to the return of Jason Behrendorff, Scorchers’ all-time leading wicket-taker. But Justin Langer and co backed their man, and he had his best game yet. He was brought on to bowl straight after his brilliant run out and found four dots in an over that cost eight, before returning to the attack with Sixers’ fightback in full flow. First, he had danger man Brad Haddin caught at midwicket, a classic Scorchers wicket, with a sharp bouncer, the second in succession. Then off the next over, he struck a double blow, with Moises Henriques also caught at midwicket, and Jordan Silk finding third man. Sixers’ top six were gone, and Richardson ended with figures of 3 for 30.The flying start
Scorchers looked to determined to win the game in the powerplay. Sam Whiteman showed Ben Dwarshius’ first over respect, but laid into Jackson Bird, with three fours and a six to the short leg side boundary. Then Dwarshius was mauled, with a pair of sixes behind square on the leg side. Not even the introduction of Nathan Lyon and Sean Abbott, the competition’s top wicket taker and young player of the year, could stem the flow as Michael Klinger got stuck in. By the end of the powerplay, Scorchers were 61 without loss, Sixers were looking ragged, and Klinger had hit a ball so far it took three minutes to recover. The game was as good as done.The cruise
Whiteman fell stumped to Lyon, but it was too little, too late for Sixers. Out came Ian Bell, oozing class to finish the job alongside an emboldened Klinger, with both hitting heftily down the ground and pulling anything short. As Klinger nailed Johan Botha down the ground for six and instantly leaped for the sky, the most comprehensive BBL win ever was completed and even on a sweltering Perth day, the Scorchers had barely broken sweat.

Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel, who are honoured by the BCCI this week, were so much more than hard-luck stories

V Ramnarayan08-Mar-2017Between Vinoo Mankad and Ravindra Jadeja, India has produced a long line of left-arm spinners who have played Test cricket, but also perhaps an equal number of classy exponents of the craft never to have represented the country.Among the specialist left-arm spinners I have watched or played with and against, the likes of Mumtaz Hussain, Rajinder Singh Hans, Suresh Shastri, B Vijayakrishna, S Vasudevan and Sunil Subramaniam might have fared well internationally had they been selected. Then there were Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar, who with their considerable longevity in domestic cricket and innumerable match-winning exploits were in a different league altogether. They would be certainties in any all-time India XI made up of those who missed out during their playing careers.To begin with, Goel and Shivalkar emerged as talented young bowlers at a time when India had a surfeit of quality spinners at the first-class level. Even before the famous quartet became a part of the team, India often fielded three or four spinners, including allrounders, in the playing XI. Around the time Goel made his first-class debut for Patiala, Subhash Gupte, Ghulam Ahmed, Salim Durani, Vinoo Mankad, Chandu Borde, AG Kripal Singh, VV Kumar and Bapu Nadkarni were doing duty for India. For a long while, both Goel and Shivalkar were even overshadowed in their state and zonal teams by the presence of great Test bowlers of similar specialisation.Between them the two stalwart spinners of contrasting styles but comparable mastery over their art took more than 1300 first-class wickets with miserly economy. Goel yielded just 18.58 runs per wicket and Shivalkar just under 20. Why couldn’t they break into the Indian team despite such sterling figures? Quite simply because the man who kept them out, Bishan Bedi, took 1560 first-class wickets, including his 266 Test victims. He was a class act, widely regarded as the best in the business internationally in his time.Goel gets Gundappa Viswanath in the Duleep Trophy final of 1975•Rajinder GoelIt is often said that Goel and Shivalkar were unlucky to have been born when they were, with the world-class Bedi shutting them out permanently from the Indian dressing room – except once, when Goel got close, warming the reserve bench. There are ardent supporters who dismiss the bad-luck theory with scorn, saying the selectors ought to have played Goel and Shivalkar regardless of the Bedi factor, at least in a stop-gap, horses-for-courses capacity occasionally. Did India not go into Test matches with two offspinners in the playing XI, they argue. Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan both always figured in the Test squad of 14 throughout their careers, if you exclude Prasanna’s largely self-imposed exile between 1962 and 1967, and Venkat’s omission for the 1967-68 tour of Australia and New Zealand.Goel, who debuted in his teens in the late 1950s, was something of a late bloomer, to go by his early performances in the Ranji Trophy. When he moved to Delhi, he and the young Bedi often bowled in tandem, Bedi setting hard-to-match bowling records at first-class level just as he did in Test cricket. Goel was rarely far behind, though, and the two, along with offspinner DS Saxena, ran through most opposition line-ups, especially within the North Zone, which included Services and Railways, both Central Zone teams later.If Bedi’s action was described as poetry in motion, Goel’s bore the economy of movement and precision of a master craftsman at work. He began to express himself uninhibitedly in the 1970s, once he moved from the Delhi Ranji side to Haryana. With 637 Ranji Trophy wickets, and 750 first-class wickets overall, he set a well nigh unattainable goal for any bowler after him. He never led Haryana to the Ranji Trophy title, but did bring them close to the final stages of the tournament on a few occasions.Goel was a menace to opposing batsmen in the Duleep Trophy as well, his 7 for 98 and 5 for 36 in a losing cause against South Zone in the 1975 December final was perhaps his finest display in the tournament. In a match dominated by two century-makers, Brijesh Patel of South Zone and Surinder Amarnath of North, the slow bowlers, captain Venkataraghavan, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar and Prasanna, bowled South to a 37-run victory. Sitting in the stands, I enjoyed the rare opportunity of watching Goel’s metronomic accuracy and ability to extract purchase from the wicket with a slightly roundarm style. He was quicker through the air and a delightful contrast to the flight and guile of his fellow left-armer and captain Bedi, who claimed six wickets in the match. Watching Goel demand the utmost respect from batsman after batsman on that sporting Chepauk pitch led you to wonder how devastating he could have been on drying or soft wickets – perhaps as deadly as Derek Underwood if not more so.Shivalkar played in a big match, against international stars, before he broke into the Bombay side•Nitin MajumdarShivalkar’s was an even more poignant story – if we believe that distinguished cricket careers must receive the ultimate stamp of approval of Test-match appearances – considering his fairy-tale beginning in first-class cricket.He found a place in the Cricket Club of India President’s XI in a match at the Brabourne Stadium in March-April 1962 (when he was barely 22) against an International XI led by Richie Benaud on a world tour. The wicket was a batsman’s paradise, the outfield fast as greased lightning, and the visitors’ batting line-up formidable and world-class. The tourists made 518 batting first, but the CCI XI, whose attack included opening bowlers Rajinder Pal and GS Ramchand, as well as spinners Gupte, Sharad Diwadkar, and Shivalkar, the debutant, withstood the onslaught bravely, especially Gupte (4 for 161) and Shivalkar (5 for 129).In the first innings, Australia’s boy wonder Ian Craig put on 208 for the first wicket with Bob Simpson, and Tom Graveney made 95. Shivalkar took the wickets of Craig, Everton Weekes, Raman Subba Row and Benaud. In the second innings he took 2 for 44, bowling Weekes and getting Graveney caught and bowled.Imagine Shivalkar’s frame of mind as he went home after that match. Wouldn’t he have nursed dreams of playing for India after dismissing so many top-class batsmen? Unfortunately he had to wait for many years to break into the Bombay XI even, thanks to the presence in that side of left-arm allrounder Bapu Nadkarni, who continued to serve India well until as late as 1968, along with fellow left-armer Bedi, who was already on the verge of greatness and firmly entrenched in the India XI by then. Shivalkar toured Australia later in 1962 with a CCI side, with some success.Goel was a senior colleague of mine in the State Bank of India team. I had the privilege of sharing the attack with him and legspinner VV Kumar, another fine bowler, in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup. Those were the only games in which I was able to watch Goel’s bowling from close quarters.There was much to learn from his focus and control. He was gentle in his ways, had a soft corner for the underdog, and took a keen interest in the careers of younger cricketers like me. He was one of few players I knew who could look beyond their own fortunes to empathise with others. Other State Bank colleagues and I, and fellow inmates of a conditioning camp at Chepauk, struck up a warm, comfortable friendship, with Goel , as we all called him. I remember he never pulled rank on us, though he was eminently qualified to do so.Shivalkar with Prasanna, another of the top-flight spinners who could have been said to have kept him out of the India side•AFPSome years later I visited him in the Chepauk dressing room when he was representing Haryana in a Ranji Trophy match. He had already broken VV Kumar’s record for most wickets in the tournament, perhaps even gone past 500 – I don’t quite remember. When I asked him if he would retire at the end of the season, he quickly replied in the affirmative.” youngsters help .” When I warned him to beware of S Venkataraghavan, still fit and rapidly closing in on his tally of Ranji Trophy wickets, a new look of determination came into his face. He quickly changed his mind about retirement, and the rest is history.Like Goel, Shivalkar was probably past his best when I first met him on a cricket field, but he was still a potent force with his deceptive flight and loop. The first occasion was a historic Ranji Trophy quarter-final match between Hyderabad and Bombay during the 1975-76 season. Batting first, Bombay were all out for 222 on the first day and we took a first-innings lead of 60-odd runs. Shivalkar sent down a marathon 50 overs for figures of 2 for 77. It was a slow surface and he had apparently lost some of his sting of yore, but he was still a slippery customer, with beautiful flight that left the batsman constantly guessing whether to go forward or back.Bombay captain Ashok Mankad and debutant Rahul Mankad counterattacked adventurously, and they declared the second innings with just over three hours of play left. We were bundled out for 146 and Bombay went on to achieve yet another Ranji win, beating Bengal and Bihar in their next two matches. Though legspinner Rakesh Tandon was the wrecker-in-chief in the last innings, taking six wickets, it was Shivalkar (4 for 39) who wove a web of controlled deceit around Hyderabad’s timid batsmen.A year later I met Paddy again at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla, when he bowled brilliantly on a good batting strip to claim ten wickets in the match as Bombay beat Rest of India by an innings in the Irani Trophy. He was at his skilful best.Goel bloomed when he moved to the Haryana side in the 1970s•Rajinder GoelI remember some other Ranji Trophy matches memorable for Shivalkar’s exploits, though I did not witness them firsthand. The first was a semi-final at the Brabourne Stadium that Bombay won by a big margin against Mysore. Shivalkar’s figures in the match were 8 for 19 and 5 for 31. Mysore’s famed batting line-up, which included GR Viswanath and Brijesh Patel, folded for 90 and 111. He followed up with ten wickets in the final, in which Bombay beat Bengal by another big margin.In yet another famous final, the very next season, Paddy had the incredible figures of 8 for 16 and 5 for 18, as Tamil Nadu crashed to defeat in two days and one ball, after their spinners, Venkat and VV Kumar, bundled Bombay out for 151 on the opening day on a wicket tailormade for them. The story of this match tends to be retold every time the act of underpreparing wickets backfires on the host team, as in the recent India-Australia Pune Test match.Goel is a tiny man, while Shivalkar is taller, Both are wiry and weighed next to nothing during their playing careers. Goel’s brisk walk to his delivery stride, his streamlined finish facilitated by his boyish frame and excellent use of the crease, tended to produce a tantalising drift towards the leg stump, after which the ball would land just short of the batsman’s reach – and spit fire on helpful surfaces. Shivalkar had a straighter, more leisurely run-up to the wicket, and a classic high-arm action. Quite possibly the best attribute of their cricket was their utter dependability. With them in the side, their captains only had to worry about their supporting bowlers.Both were tireless, with their smooth actions demanding the minimum of effort – or so it seemed. Yet it was their unstinting work in the nets that made their seeming effortlessness in match situations possible.If a comparison must be made between them, it must be to state that there was hardly anything to differentiate them, except the possibility that with his flight and subtle variations, Shivalkar posed a more attractive proposition on good wickets, with Goel perhaps more destructive on crumbling surfaces. Those who know of his parallel career on stage will, of course, tell you that Shivalkar is the better singer of the two.

Did Virat Kohli get his tactics right on the final day in Ranchi? Going by his fast bowlers’ lines and R Ashwin’s late introduction, the Indian captain took a few puzzling calls

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Ranchi20-Mar-20174:32

Manjrekar: Kohli didn’t have a great final day as captain

Ranchi. What a match, eh? Having gone neck-and-neck till the very end of a four-day dogfight on an up-and-down Bengaluru pitch, India and Australia showed they could sustain the same kind of intensity over a longer period and on an entirely different surface.For the neutral fan, Bengaluru and Ranchi were both perfect Test matches. Just different kinds of perfect. Given how closely matched the teams turned out to be, and given the conditions, the draw was probably the ideal result.India, however, may just feel like they let an opportunity slip, given the position they were in at stumps on day four, and then at lunch on day five.There were mitigating factors. Apart from the rough outside the left-handers’ off stump, there was little else about the pitch to suggest it was a fifth day in India. Darren Lehmann had suggested after the fourth day’s play that batting had only been difficult when the ball was new and hard, and Virat Kohli echoed him after day five.”Obviously, the way the wicket is expected to break on days three, four and five, it happened, but I think the hardness of the ball was a very big factor,” Kohli said. “Yesterday evening, when the ball was hard, it was turning a lot, fast. Even this morning it was doing so, but in the second session, it was not so hard, so to generate pace off the wicket becomes difficult for a bowler.”When you get to the fifth day, as it is the pace becomes lesser. After that, we tried with the second new ball, got a couple of wickets, but in the middle session, the hardness of the ball was a factor.”This certainly seemed to be the case. Australia lost four second-innings wickets before the first new ball was 30 overs old, two before the second new ball turned 15, and nothing in between.Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh, moreover, batted as calmly and astutely as any pair has in a match-saving situation in India in recent years. Sometimes, a partnership is just too good.Having said all that, though, there were times during the course of the fifth day when India’s tactics may have made life easier than it could have been for Australia’s batsmen.Kohli started the day with Ravindra Jadeja bowling from the press-box end and Umesh Yadav from the pavilion end. Jadeja was expected to be India’s most potent weapon and to get the most out of the surface by bowling into the rough. Umesh had been sharp and probing in the first innings, taking three wickets to Jadeja’s five. Perhaps Kohli wanted to use Umesh in a short, sharp burst right up.Umesh, instead, bowled a six-over spell and spent most of it bowling a long way outside off stump to Steven Smith. Then, Ishant Sharma replaced him and bowled a seven-over spell. He dismissed Matt Renshaw, and Jadeja took out Smith in between, but before that, he spent a fair amount of time bowling wide outside Smith’s off stump as well.In all, Smith faced 43 balls from the two quicks, and didn’t play a shot off 23 of them. Bowling as wide as Ishant and Umesh did made obvious sense as a defensive tactic for a team that is playing catch-up in a Test match. India, however, were looking to force a win.0:52

‘Condition of ball played a big part’ – Kohli

Kohli did not divulge the thinking behind this tactic in his post-match press conference. “I don’t want to expose the thinking behind it,” he said. “We obviously have our plans; we’ve got one more match to go, I’ll tell you after the last Test, probably, the plan behind it.”Fair enough. We’ll have to try and work it out ourselves.India’s lead at the start of the day’s play was 129. It was sizeable, but Australia still had the chance of wiping it out quickly if one of their batsmen got in and started scoring quickly. Smith had made an unbeaten 178 in the first innings. By getting his quicks to bowl a defensive line to him, Kohli was perhaps trying to ensure India kept Australia’s scoring in check, thereby enabling Jadeja to bowl with an all-out attacking field for longer.If that was the idea, it worked. Even though Australia did not lose a wicket in the first hour of the day, they only scored 25 runs in that time, in 16.4 overs.Kohli could point to the wickets of Renshaw and Smith – within four balls of each other – as further proof that his plans had worked. Neither dismissal, however, was a direct result of his plans.Ishant, bowling from around the wicket to Renshaw and attacking his stumps, had him lbw with a ball that moved in a touch and kept a little low. Smith, a few overs earlier, had toe-ended a ball from Umesh that had also kept low – except it was a fair way outside off stump, just like most of the balls he faced from the fast bowlers. Smith may have been tested a little more, perhaps, had they actually bowled at his stumps the way Ishant did to Renshaw – Smith was, after all, lbw to a shooter in the second innings in Bengaluru.Eventually, Smith was bowled by Jadeja, failing to pad away a delivery that pitched outside his leg stump. It wasn’t all that special a delivery, turning square out of the rough. It was among the fullest balls Jadeja had bowled, and Smith could well have kicked it away had he put in a longer front-foot stride.There was one direct consequence of Kohli using Umesh and Ishant for so long during the first session. R Ashwin only bowled one over before lunch. . It led one mediaperson, at the end of the match, to ask Kohli if Ashwin was carrying some sort of injury.”No, there’s nothing wrong with Ashwin, there are no problems as such,” Kohli said. “You obviously want to choose ends – fast bowlers from the far end were more effective and the spinners were more effective from the commentary end.”Obviously, we have to understand where the game is placed, and what bowlers you want to use. Whenever Jadeja came on to bowl, he picked up a wicket every two-three overs. It was very difficult to change him at that stage because he was bowling in good momentum. So, I think, that was one of the factors.”In the second innings, [Ashwin] bowled quite a few overs, we bowled him from both ends. It was difficult for the bowlers to generate much from the pitch. Jadeja, you can leave him aside in this game, because he really stood apart among all the bowlers. But I think in general the bowlers found it quite difficult to make things happen from the centre of the wicket. The key was to keep trying and that’s what Ashwin does always and put his best efforts in both the innings.”While Virat Kohli did not divulge much about the plan to bowl wide to Steven Smith, it was perhaps his way of ensuring Australia didn’t wipe out the deficit in a hurry•PTI Ashwin ended up bowling 30 overs in Australia’s second innings, the most behind Jadeja, who bowled 44. But he only bowled four overs with the first new ball – all on day four – which was 34 overs old by the time he came back into the attack.Given what he said about the ball doing very little after going soft – during the presentation ceremony, he even suggested that the SG balls that were used for this game had been going soft too soon – it was a little puzzling that he hardly used Ashwin when it was still hard and potentially helpful.”See, as I said, we wanted to choose ends as far as spinners are concerned,” Kohli said, when asked about this. “We wanted to give Jadeja a longer go because he was hitting the rough consistently and the ball has to spin back into the batsmen. If you see right-handers or left-handers, from the rough it was always attacking the batsmen. That’s one factor we used.”And as I said, it depended on who’s bowling from which end, not which bowler has to bowl from where. Sometimes one bowler bowls more in a Test match. A lot of times, Ash has bowled plenty of overs in a game and the others haven’t. You know, roles are always reversed, it’s not such a big factor for us.”This wasn’t the first time in this series that Kohli had under-utilised one of his bowlers or turned to him belatedly. In the first innings in Pune, Umesh only came on when Australia were already 81 for no loss in 27 overs. He ended up with figures of 4 for 32. In the first innings in Bengaluru, Jadeja bowled the fewest overs among India’s specialist bowlers, and ended up with a six-wicket haul.There was no such belated success for Ashwin here, and he looked below his best through most of his spells, perhaps striving too hard for a wicket, and in that effort, not quite going through his action as smoothly as he otherwise would.But Ashwin frequently gets through one or two less-than-spectacular spells before settling on the ideal pace for a particular pitch and discovering his rhythm. As tea approached in Ranchi, there were a couple of signs of this happening: a slow, loopy offbreak drew Marsh forward and beat his outside edge with turn and bounce. Then, Handscomb stepped out to Ashwin, tried to work him with the spin, and didn’t get to the pitch of the ball; a big lbw shout followed.Then, in his first over after tea, Ashwin drew Marsh forward again, this time out of his crease. The ball dipped and spun sharply to beat his outside edge, but spun so much that the wicketkeeper’s hands had to move a long way to his left and the same distance back to try and stump the batsman. Marsh dragged his foot back well in time.Ashwin’s next ball landed in the rough outside Marsh’s off stump – Jadeja’s area. Kohli said he used Jadeja far more than Ashwin because he wanted the ball spinning towards the stumps from the rough rather than away from them. Well, this was Ashwin’s carrom ball, and it turned towards the stumps and bounced enough for Saha to collect in front of his face after Marsh left the ball.This was among the most testing overs any batsman had faced on day five, and it came with nearly a full session left and with Australia still to erase their deficit. It could have led to something. We will never know. As soon as that over ended, Kohli took Ashwin out of the attack.

The best, the worst and everything in between from the past ten days of the IPL’s tenth season

Srinath Sripath25-Apr-2017No T20 for old-school men?
Time to think again, say Kane Williamson and Hashim Amla. Two batsmen whose technical correctness and textbook perfection invoke more than a tinge of nostalgia, set the IPL alight last week, proving once again that there is a place for finesse and elegance in the game’s shortest format. After seeing Williamson’s match-winning 89 and Amla’s masterclass against Lasith Malinga, their captains have been served a reminder not to drop them again anytime soon.Pacemen turn on the heat
Another set of cricketers who have not had too much limelight in the IPL – fast bowlers – took centre stage once again. After Andrew Tye’s knuckleballs did the (hat-)trick in Rajkot, swing, pace and bounce troubled batsmen across venues last week. Bhuvneshwar Kumar turned the game around against Kings XI Punjab with his accuracy and nip, Mitchell McClenaghan dismantled Delhi’s brittle top order and Nathan Coulter-Nile got rid of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in a dream spell on a rainy Kolkata night.T20’s trailblazer scales another peak
Chris Gayle is arguably T20 cricket’s foremost superstar, and among the few greats the format has seen in its short history. Last week, en route to his 38-ball 77, his first significant performance this season, Gayle crossed 10,000 runs in his 285th T20 innings. Some of the numbers he has racked up, such as his 18 hundreds (11 more than anyone else), prove why there is broad daylight between him and the rest of the pack.Rishabh Pant has found the going tough in the last two games•BCCIThe Super Kings roar again
Times certainly have changed for Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni since their halcyon years donning the yellow jersey in the IPL. Both of them have been through shaky periods of late, in their own, different ways. Raina has lost out on his BCCI contract, while Dhoni has faced public criticism from Harsh Goenka, brother of his side’s owner, Sanjiv. Raina and Dhoni made a statement of their own with match-winning knocks for their sides, reminding everyone why they are so feted as T20 stars. Harsh Goenka was reduced to tweeting praise of the former India captain, while Raina’s destructive knocks have been one of his side’s few shining lights so far.A golden duck and a Bombay duck
Rishabh Pant’s knock in Delhi’s opening game, in the aftermath of his father’s death, was one of the major storylines of the first week. Since then, his form with the bat has been patchy at best. Things have gone downhill since his quickfire 16-ball 38 against Kolkata Knight Riders at home. In Daredevils’ last two away games, Pant has failed to get off the mark, first with a slog sweep down long-on’s throat in Hyderabad, then fishing outside off stump to a Jasprit Bumrah jaffa in Mumbai. In the week when India are set to announce their squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy, these are twin setbacks he could have done without.Sachin Tendulkar celebrated his 44th birthday in front of a doting Wankhede crowd•BCCIThe s#&t question
Legspinners have dismissed Glenn Maxwell 11 times in the IPL, of which Amit Mishra accounts for four dismissals. So, after Mishra picked him up once again during Kings XI’s defeat to Delhi, it was not entirely surprising that there was a question in the post-match press conference about his fragility against spin. “That’s a shocking question”, Maxwell retorted, citing his recent six-hitting form against spin, when another reporter pressed him on his apparent knack of getting out to leg-spinners on April 15 for the past three years. This time Maxwell lost it, sliding down the political correctness scale, calling it a “s&#t question”.Tendulkar pierces the gaps… on his birthday cake
It is IPL 10, and also the tenth time Sachin Tendulkar celebrated his birthday during the course of the tournament. Matthew Hayden, who is part of the commentary team, baked him a cricket field-themed cake with a bat and ball as the icing, and interviewed Tendulkar by the Mumbai Indians dugout. Tendulkar, though, refused to cause damage to a cricket bat out of respect, even on a cake. He then cut through the green cricket field portion, quipping about “finding the gaps on the field”.Brendon McCullum’s hat was the difference between an acrobatic catch and an avoidable embarrassment•BCCIThe hat trick that wasn’t
Wearing a floppy hat for a floodlit cricket match is akin to wearing sunglasses in your bedroom. While there is no need for it, it is harmless
most of the time. Not for Brendon McCullum, though, as his acrobatic effort by the boundary to get rid of Chris Gayle, was undone by the brim of his hat grazing the skirtings. It only made him wear the hat more: he turned up to open the batting in the next match without a helmet.Lancashire v Durham, round two
Jos Buttler had smashed Ben Stokes for two sixes when Mumbai Indians met Rising Pune Supergiant earlier this season. This time, though, a night after his father Ged threw him a surprise by landing in India, Stokes foxed his England team-mate with a slower one. Buttler ended up scooping one gently into long-on’s hands, and Stokes was so pumped he went on to bowl a maiden over. Ben Stokes, King in the North, first of his name.Commentary gem of the week
This was long before Royal Challengers had sunk to the IPL’s lowest total. “It’s just a mobile number at the moment,” Ravi Shastri said about the scorecard, while the collapse was on. RCB’s ten batsmen were dismissed for what ended up reading 7018982020. It was a unique occurrence in IPL history, and it strangely came on the same day they had put up the highest T20 score, four years before.

South Africa needed some no-nonsense impetus to their batting and that is exactly what they got from promoting Quinton de Kock to No. 4 in the order

Firdose Moonda at Trent Bridge14-Jul-2017A batting position is a batting position, a pitch is a pitch and scoring runs is, well, scoring runs – at least if you’re Quinton de Kock. Some call it simplicity, others have less complimentary ways of explaining how de Kock does or doesn’t think about the game but no one can deny that his approach works.Not even South Africa. Having stubbornly kept de Kock at No. 7, even with most of the top five struggling, they chose Trent Bridge to try something different. It was a brave choice, all things considered, but it was a choice returning captain Faf du Plessis had to make given the events leading up to it.After dropping JP Duminy, du Plessis chose to bat under cloudy skies, at a venue where England have won six of their last seven matches – including a drubbing of Australia in 2015 – with a batsman short and a line-up that had been bundled out for 119 five days ago. The captain asked a lot of his men and two of the top three answered as carefully as they could (Dean Elgar, unusually, the exception) but du Plessis needed more reassurance than that. So he sent in the person whose answers don’t involve too many words but plenty of action.”I was asked,” he said afterwards. “I’ve always like to bat higher but the team make-up has never really allowed me to. A couple of selection things came up. I just put my hand up.”It didn’t change much in my game plan, obviously knowing that I might need to be a bit tighter coming up against a newer ball. Mentally going into it I was the same. I just kept it simple.”De Kock is a doer, not a planner or an analyser. It would not have bothered him that Heino Kuhn and Hashim Amla were scoring at a little over two-and-a-half runs to the over, that the ball was swinging, that James Anderson had taken his 300th wicket at home and that Stuart Broad was the person chiefly responsible for Australia’s collapse two years ago on a similar surface, in similar conditions. The only thing on his mind would have been to get on with it, so that’s what he did.

Most importantly, de Kock looked like a man who was confident about what he was doing, the exact opposite of Duminy a week ago

He left just two of the first nine balls he faced and defended one. Three others he tried to flick through the leg side, he got forward to two and hooked one. He was not just looking to score from the beginning of his innings but looking to score quickly.The 14th ball de faced scooted past backward point off an outside edge, a drive gone wrong, and the substitute fielder had a fairly long chase on a sluggish outfield. Amla was comfortable with two but de Kock pushed him for a third. The next over, de Kock did that again. Amla looked a little exasperated both times but also a little excited.That de Kock brings out a more youthful side of Amla is evident in shorter formats, where Amla plays with so much freedom that he has recently been criticised for recklessness. But here, with de Kock at the other end, Amla was pleasantly more urgent. The over after de Kock struck back-to-back boundaries on either side of the field, Amla came down the track to launch Liam Dawson down the ground for six, and bring up fifty. It had taken Amla 93 balls to get to the milestone but only 33 after de Kock’s arrival at the crease and, in that time, Amla scored 24 runs.At times in the Amla-de Kock partnership the scoring rate was over five and there was a real sense South Africa were seizing some control. They took on Dawson and Ben Stokes, who was loose in his first two spells, they ran well between the wickets and they rode their luck. Amla was dropped on 56, de Kock inside-edged on 50. On another day, South Africa would have lost them both but this time they survived.By tea, the de Kock experiment could be declared a success. He had overtaken Amla in run terms and looked at home in the middle, he had made du Plessis’ decision look a decent once, with runs coming fairly easy and damage limited. More importantly, de Kock looked like a man who was confident about what he was doing, the exact opposite of how Duminy had looked a week ago.Too confident, perhaps. When de Kock nicked the first ball after the break, one he could have left, he again added himself to list of South Africa batsmen who have got starts but not converted them. That could well be the difference between the two sides at the end of the series and it is an issue South Africa need to address but they don’t need to labour the point with de Kock just yet.Quinton de Kock strolled to a 59-ball fifty as he and Hashim Amla pushed England back•Getty ImagesWith the line-up South Africa have now, they need someone who is not as shackled by expectation or form as the rest to just bat. That someone is de Kock. In his own words a few weeks ago, his is mostly just a “see ball, hit ball” way of doing things. Though that may mean squandering a few opportunities to get really substantial scores, it will give South Africa someone who change the pace of the game in a short period of time.The question will soon become whether de Kock can do that from the No. 4 position in the long term and this Test will be a good case study. He still has to keep wicket and then bat again. Although he is young and fit, a workload that high over a period of time may not be sustainable. South Africa could consider asking Kuhn, a first-class gloveman for a decade, to share some of the burden in this series or they may decide to be flexible about de Kock, especially because he has also been valuable at No. 7.From a seemingly difficult position to score big runs low down in the order, de Kock has accumulated 825 in 18 innings there, averaging 58.92 and scoring all three of his hundreds. And South Africa have the lower-order to support him. For the second time on the tour, Vernon Philander contributed crucial runs and Chris Morris is no mug either. Ask the two of them about their approach to batting and they will give you much more strategic answers than de Kock, particularly Philander, who is hopeful a maiden Test hundred is not far away.Philander accompanied de Kock to the Gunn and Moore factory earlier in the week and had two new bats made, specific to his requirements. De Kock had a look around and concluded, “A bat’s a bat; wood’s wood.” And for him, it does the job.

South Africa had almost the same team that got thrashed by England in the 2014 World T20 semi-final. What has turned them into such an intimidating side?

Jarrod Kimber17-Jul-2017The ball is still rising; it feels like it will always be. It has cleared the fielder, the rope, the electronic fence and the speaker system, and flies at least forty metres over a boundary that has been placed so her so-called fairer sex can clear the rope. If there is a ground that can contain her, it certainly isn’t to be found in the roped-off postage stamps of the women’s games. This six almost ends up out of Grace Road. Lizelle Lee hits a lot of sixes.She hits so many she currently has over 12% of the sixes scored in this World Cup. She’s a better six hitter than Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies. It would be unfair to focus only on her six-hitting power, because she was the reason that South Africa had enough runs to panic against Pakistan, the reason India got crushed, and the reason her team was set up to go past 300 against England. And that’s all fine, nice and wonderful, but she hits the ball like she has a dark prior history with it, and no one else is hitting the ball as far, or anywhere near as often.Lee has gone from an average middle order player with no impact on the game to a genuine threat at the top of the order. Her team has done the same.It was not that long ago that the South African team was a non-entity. They did make the 2014 WT20 semi-final, but in that match they had two players score double figures, and England chased down their total one wicket down with more than three overs to spare. It was their only success since a surprise World Cup semi-final in 2000. As women’s cricket has got better and better, South Africa have struggled.Lee opens the batting with Laura Wolvaardt, who is probably the biggest prodigy in the game. At 16 she walked into the team like a fierce magical heroine from a far-off land. Dane van Niekerk had never even heard of her before she was picked, but after watching her once in the nets, was completely won over. Wolvaardt has so much time to see each delivery that it feels like she could plan a backpacking holiday as Anya Shrubsole was delivering an inswinger. According to van Niekerk, “she’s not 18 when you speak to her, it’s weird. She’s not 18 when she bats.”Then there is van Niekerk, a warhorse captain who passionately supports her team. An allrounder who bowls leggies, her bowling economy in this tournament is 3.26, which would be impressive in any case, but is more so since she also has 15 wickets at 8.3. Yet she has said she still isn’t in rhythm yet and has been lucky with her bowling. Most people don’t get that lucky, or in that kind of rhythm once in a lifetime.Then there are her pace bowlers. According to Van Niekerk, “I came into the World Cup thinking I had the best opening attack in the world”. The only thing that has changed since then is she now thinks her other bowlers have improved enough for her attack to be the best. She has pace in Shabnim Ismail, constant probing from Marizanne Kapp and massive swing from Moseline Daniels. But this is the weird thing about this bowling attack, and really, the entire team: They have all been there for a long time.Dane van Niekerk has inspired South Africa’s charge in the tournament, on and off the field•ICC/GettyComing into this tournament they were ranked sixth in the world. But during the last two years, they have played 33% more ODIs than any other team – double the amount West Indies have played. Of the team that England smashed in the 2014 WT20, nine have already played in this tournament; all nine could even line up in the semi. So it’s almost the same side, just with an added batting prodigy, and somehow they’ve gone from a curiosity – why are South Africa never any good – to a semi-finalist and future contender.So this is a team that has grown up together, is finally getting proper off-field support, plays more than anyone else, and has their line up right. It’s not a surprise that they’ve finally become a decent team. Before the World Cup, the team got together to come up with a slogan for their tournament. This is not new for South African teams; ‘ProteaFire’ is something that has been used for years by the male team. But the women went for something different: always rising.”We always want to get better day by day, and like what happened in the first game against England, you get knocked out, it’s about how you rise,” was how van Niekerk explained the slogan. The phrase came from the CSA publicity team sitting down with the team and asking them about their core values. There is no doubt that good things have come since the team and CSA started working so closely together.Van Niekerk was 10 in 2000 when they made their previous semi-final, and she doesn’t remember it at all. This time they have the chance to make a far bigger impact. It’s more than just winning, they are playing to inspire. They know that there are more girls out there like Wolvaardt, and the more they win, the more chance they have of finding them. Every time Lee smacks a six, Ismail uproots a stump, and South Africa wins, they are building the game for their country. If they beat England, they have more than a chance of winning the tournament, but for them, they also have a chance of winning fans at home.England look reformed in this tournament, and as good as South Africa have been, it was England who kicked them the hardest. But regardless of the result, they will be playing in front of the biggest audience they’ve ever played for. The way they play, it’s going to fun to watch them regardless.They might lose, but like a Lizelle Lee six, they are still rising.

Chamari Atapattu produced an outstanding feat of individual brilliance, only to be outdone by a stunningly focused response from an all-time great opponent

Melinda Farrell at Bristol29-Jun-2017It should have been a match-winning innings.It should have given Sri Lanka the shock victory of the tournament.It should have led to a result to humble the defending world champions as they faced a record World Cup chase.Only it didn’t.But for a few hours the gloomy clouds hanging above Bristol could not dim the brilliance of Chamari Atapattu. They couldn’t even cast a faint shadow.The game was only three balls old when Atapattu came to the crease. Opening the bowling for Australia, Ellyse Perry was doing what Ellyse Perry does; finding enough swing with the new ball and taking an early wicket. In this case it was Nipuni Hansika fooled by the inswing, playing the wrong line and being trapped lbw. Sri Lanka, one wicket down, no runs. Let the carnage begin.Only it didn’t.Atapattu had 60 ODI innings behind her when she took guard. She had scored two ODI centuries before, against Ireland and South Africa. But this was Australia and a fired-up, hungry Perry. The first delivery she faced was a wide, the next defended and the third left. On the final delivery of the first over, Atapattu turned the ball to fine leg for a single. So far, so ordinary.But she was on her way.Early in the third over, Atapattu was at the non-striker’s end when she realised her shoelace had come undone. Rather than remove her gloves she trotted over to Meg Lanning, fielding in the covers, and the Australian captain obligingly knelt down and retied it for her. On the fifth ball of the over Atapattu drove Perry through long-off. It was the first of 28 boundaries, the most runs – 124 – scored in boundaries in the history of women’s ODIs.Her stature seemed to grow in tune with her innings. With each stroke she unfurled a little more, stood an inch taller, expanded to fill the space around her. She was smashing boundaries in all directions. Her wagon wheel was a near perfect starburst, a firework frozen at the moment of explosion.Chamari Atapattu scored a record 69.26% of Sri Lanka’s runs•Getty Images/ICCThe tempo of her innings swelled from a smattering of boundaries interspersed with singles – a general lack of urgency in running between the wickets prevented them from being twos – to a crescendo of furious smiting.She waited until the 37th over to hammer her first six; a massive slog over deep midwicket off the bowling of Kristen Beams. There would be five more – one short of the ODI record – the pick of them a perfectly timed lofted drive straight back over Megan Schutt’s head, as powerful as it was dismissive.When Perry, brought back for the death, tried to bounce her out, Atapattu hooked with control and, most memorably, flat-batted a short ball with venom past the bowler for yet another boundary. The most highly rated attack in women’s cricket was being carted around the ground by a player most fans wouldn’t be able to pick out in a line-up.But Sri Lanka’s wickets were falling almost as frequently as Atapattu was scoring. She stood calm and still in a maelstrom as a procession of batsmen came and went, most of them through their own mistakes. Australia weren’t bowling at their best. The ground fielding was uncharacteristically sloppy, Beth Mooney dropped a regulation catch and many of the return throws left wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy shaking her head at the stumps.But despite this, Sri Lanka’s batters left their stumps exposed, tried to sweep balls that were too full or too wide of off stump and went for big shots when all they needed to do was turn over the strike to their run-scoring machine.Atapattu’s broad shoulders carried Sri Lanka to the 50-over mark and she never flinched. Instead, she scored more than 69 percent of Sri Lanka’s runs, the third-highest ODI innings in history, the second-highest World Cup total and the biggest individual score ever against an Australian side. She had almost single-handedly set Australia a record chase in a World Cup.Atapattu moonlights as an assistant marketing manager in a Sri Lankan bank. She couldn’t have sold her own image any better.There was only one player on the field who was fit to tie her shoelaces.Meg Lanning’s response to Atapattu’s challenge was extraordinary, yet utterly predictable•Getty Images/ICCMeg Lanning came to the crease when Australia’s innings was 12 balls old. On paper, the Sri Lankans were no match for her side but Lanning had just watched Atapattu tear up that piece of parchment, chew it up and spit it out with relish.Lanning defended the first two balls she faced before digging out a full delivery from Udeshika Prabodhani and creaming it past the fumbling point fielder to the boundary.Fielding at point or backward point when Lanning is at the crease is like offering to stick an apple on your head when William Tell is hanging about. She cuts so often and so beautifully she should come with a free set of steak knives. Inoka Ranaweera had two fielders almost holding hands at backward point and it barely mattered. You could have had the entire Sri Lankan team fielding between Lanning and the backward-point boundary and somehow the ball would still get through.Lanning has more arrows in her quiver, of course. The languid drives and powerful pulls were all there on display. She also had more support than Atapattu could hope for. While Lanning is a giant of the game, she stands on the shoulders of team-mates who share the load.So while Lanning galloped along at a run a ball, Nicole Bolton – who was dropped by wicketkeeper Prasadani Weerakkody on four – chimed in with a fine half-century and Perry offered elegant support.The problem with Lanning is that she makes the extraordinary look everyday. She has broken so many records, passed so many milestones that it becomes difficult to find new superlatives for her extravagant talent.So while Atapattu’s hundred had delighted the modest crowd and sent commentators and journalists into raptures of delight, Lanning’s seemed like the most natural thing in the world; as one observer noted, this match had produced both the least and most expected centuries imaginable.It may have been Lanning’s 11th century, her highest ODI tally and the seventh-best World Cup innings. But when she, almost nonchalantly, finished off the record chase with a glorious lofted drive down the ground for six, it seemed like just another day in the office.The post-match interviews centred on Atapattu’s valiant innings, by far the highest total in a losing side in ODIs, and all the talk centred on whether she might have caught the eye of franchises in the WBBL or the Kia Super League. She had given Sri Lanka a shot in the arm, a glimmer of what could be, and some hope for the future.But in the end there really was only one player fit to tie Atapattu’s shoelaces.And she won the match for Australia.

India opener Smriti Mandhana talks about bouncing back from the injury that nearly ruled her out of the World Cup

Snehal Pradhan08-Jul-20171:22

The rise and rise of Smriti Mandhana

The last six months have been quite a journey for you, and now you have your first World Cup century. What was going through your mind when you went out to bat and India lost two early wickets?
When two wickets fell, there weren’t a lot of runs on the board, so we needed a good partnership, and getting out at that moment was not an option. So I restricted my shots a bit. Mithali was guiding me very well, telling me to concentrate on singles, because they had spread the field for me. Initially, for the first two overs, I panicked a bit. By panicked, I mean I thought, “Now I must not get out.” Because we were already under pressure after losing two wickets in a row.Your bat has been making good sounds, and the flow has looked good. Since when has it felt this way?
Since I started batting after getting injured, I’ve had a good feel. The first day, I thought that I won’t even be able to connect, but surprisingly I middled everything. I guess there is a hunger after not batting for many days, that [feeling that] finally I’m getting to bat. I thought I connected well.Can you describe the first day you batted after injury? What was the first shot you played?
It was a front-foot cover drive. I was in Sangli, I had gone there for ten days to give my exams. I thought, “Let’s play at least 15-20 balls and see.” I called Anant [Tambwekar, her coach]. I was doing a session with him after almost a year. He was excited, I also was excited.I started with underarm lobs. The first ball I connected, I felt, “Wow, that feel was really good.” I’m so greedy about batting that I had never missed a single day before. So not batting for three months was a huge thing. More than the injury, I was feeling bad that I can’t bat. After I heard that sound, I slept well that night.

“Earlier I used to put a lot of pressure on myself if I had not scored. I would go into a shell. Now it’s not like that. If I don’t score, I know I’m at least running, doing everything else”

How did your batting progress over the next few months?
The first 20 to 30 days, I was only allowed throwdowns. Out of these, the first five days were underarm, and then slowly overarm throwdowns. I was still not allowed to bat in the nets, which needs quick movements. With throwdowns, you expect the ball, and the movement isn’t that quick.Initially only front-foot batting was allowed for the first few days, since my back foot was the one that was injured. So the first six days I played front-foot shots. Then slowly I started underarm back-foot shots, and it progressed: first underarm back-foot from a short distance, then with a leather ball. Before coming to England, I practised with a plastic ball to train for the conditions.It was like the way we start for little children: hanging ball, stationary, throwdowns. I did throwdowns first because the physios wanted to see how my reaction is. Then after 15 to 20 days, when I settled down with throwdowns, I did hanging ball and stationary.Were you nervous before the team was announced? Were you uncertain if you would make it?
Yes, I was. Firstly because the openers had done really well. One thought in my mind was that the selectors would not want me, because already everything was settled. Secondly because I didn’t have match practice. Four, four and a half months, no match practice. And generally, after an injury, they say that one should start from domestic again, just to, you know, get that confidence back. So I had a doubt in my mind as to whether they will go for me directly for the World Cup. I’m thankful that they had the faith in me, despite not playing for four to five months, and despite the openers doing well, they supported me.There must have been a fitness test before the selection meeting?
Before the selection meeting, NCA sent a mail to the selectors saying I would be fit by the time the camp for the World Cup started. They sent my videos, details of what I was doing, everything. The team was announced quite early [15th May].The day the team was announced, I was not match-fit. Because it was early. But they had sent a mail that I would be fit by so and so date. So that was according to NCA procedure.Is coming back from injury like this a lonely and insecure process?
It is, because first of all you are not able to move. Second thing, no matter how great a player you are, when someone takes your place… I was feeling happy that India is winning, but somewhere it was like, the spot that I have made my own for two years, did I lose it with this injury? So that is somewhere in the mind. Of course I was really happy for them [the openers].Mandhana goes pow during her century against England•Getty ImagesAnd nothing is in your hand. When you are dropped from the team, you know you can go back, work hard, do running, work with dedication, and then you have your chances. This time I wanted to, but still I could not do too much running.Initially when I started running, it was with just two strides. Even if I wanted, even if I heard motivational music, I could not do more than two strides. So it’s really not in your hand. But I accepted the fact that it’s not in my hand. What was in my hand was how I progressed when I got the green signal. So I didn’t think about it that much, which is a good thing. I didn’t sit crying, “Why did this happen?” I had other issues to deal with.I started concentrating more on my diet, which would not have happened if I wasn’t injured. In fitness, I did 40% more than what I used to do before.The biggest lesson was that when you’re out of form, your mindset is to keep thinking about things like “I’ve not scored, I’ve not scored.” And you don’t really concentrate on the fact that you’re actually running around. Earlier I used to put a lot of pressure on myself if I had not scored. I would go into a shell, then I would go in to the next match in that zone. Now it’s not like that. If I don’t score, I know I’m at least running, doing everything else. So I just be grateful and keep playing. The day will come when I score runs again.How did your diet change?
They aren’t significant changes. I’ve not gone gluten-free or anything. But I’ve definitely cut down on [wheat flour], butter, cheese and sugar. I could not do without four spoons of sugar in tea. Now I drink green tea.You’ve spent almost five whole months at the NCA.
Yes, I went home only for my exams. Besides that I was completely at NCA. But I wasn’t homesick, because my mother or father was there, and having relatives in Bangalore really helped.Quite the cricketing family?
For them, my cricket is their cricket. More than me thinking about cricket, they think about it. When I go out to bat, they are more nervous than me. I’m (cool). used to make food for me in the hotel we were in, so I could get a good diet and didn’t have to eat out. I fought with her so much, but she would say, “You have to eat this.” Whatever I am, it is because of them. Their dedication is more than mine.