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India won a Test series in New Zealand after 41 years. Cricinfo runs the rule over those who contributed to the memorable achievement overseas

Sidharth Monga08-Apr-2009Gautam Gambhir removed some question marks over his temperament and batting outside the subcontinent•AFP9
Gautam Gambhir
He set up a win in Hamilton, saved a match that looked lost in Napier, and batted New Zealand out in Wellington – the three main jobs an opener is expected to do. Three ticks in three boxes. In the process, Gambhir also removed a few question marks over his temperament and doubts over his batting outside the subcontinent. He loses out on a perfect 10 because he had a century for the taking in Hamilton, and played a loose shot when on 72.8.5
Harbhajan Singh
The revelation of the tour for India. Harbhajan enjoyed being the lead spinner, taking wickets and also tying one end up for the fast bowlers to do their job from the other. Almost everywhere in New Zealand, one end tended to be more helpful to the pacers. Harbhajan bowled unbroken spells of 23 overs and 17 overs into the Wellington wind, and gave nothing away. The leading wicket-taker in Tests, he had the best bowling average and topped the wicket charts in ODIs too.Zaheer Khan
He got early wickets every time. Hostility, precision, and intelligence all worked for him, resulting in 13 wickets in the Tests. Zaheer crossed 100 wickets outside India, at a better average and strike-rate than any Indian bowler. He promised a five-for in Wellington if the batsmen saved the Napier Test, and delivered, securing the series on the second day of the last Test.8
Sachin Tendulkar
Didn’t disappoint the fans – who thought this could be his last trip to New Zealand – at all. Some of his fluent batting rolled back the years, and reminded of the Tendulkar of the old. He continued from where he left off in the Christchurch ODI – 163 retired hurt – with a 160 in the Hamilton Test. Big scores went uncharacteristically missing, but New Zealand did exceptionally well to escape with 49, 64, 62 and 9 in his last four efforts.7.5
VVS Laxman
Laxman missed out in Hamilton, where India had taken complete control by the time he arrived. But in Napier, all of his artistry was on show. He was disappointed to get out on 71 in the first innings, becoming a part of a collapse. But in the second innings, he scored a hundred that was a perfect blend of caution, fluency, and breathtaking strokeplay. Another half-century in the last Test took his tally to 295 runs at 73.75.Rahul Dravid
Completely shrugged off his poor run of form. He was the most consistent Indian batsman with scores of 66, 8 not out, 83, 62, 35 and 60. It was very unlike Dravid to miss out on so many opportunities to score centuries. He played a poor shot once, which resulted in the collapse in Napier, but was the first to take the blame for it. He made up for it with a dogged half-century in the second innings, where an ordinary umpiring decision robbed him of another century.MS Dhoni
What he brings to the side became glaringly obvious in the Napier Test that he missed. His wicketkeeping and batting at No. 7 were badly missed, apart from his captaincy. It’s tough to put a finger on what difference he makes tactically, but there seemed to be a different level of energy to the team when he was the captain.6
Virender Sehwag
Missed out on explosive starts in Hamilton and Wellington and attracted criticism for shot-selection against spinners two evenings in a row in Napier. Nevertheless Sehwag kept the opening bowlers honest as some of the mental disintegration from the ODIs stayed with Test bowlers as well. He put bowlers off their plan on the fresh Wellington pitch.5.5
Ishant Sharma
Didn’t live up to the high expectations leading into the tour. Ishant struggled in the Wellington wind, but was impressive in Hamilton. Eight wickets at 41.75 wasn’t a fair reflection of the pace and discomfort he managed to create. He just wasn’t consistent enpugh.5
Munaf Patel
The tour was representative of Munaf in general. When he got going in Hamilton, he took more wickets than any fast bowler in the match. When he started to go for runs in Napier, a dropped catch notwithstanding, he looked lethargic and disinterested. Munaf was underused in Wellington, but if he bowls like he did in Hamilton, he could solve the problem of the third seam bowler.4.5
Yuvraj Singh
Undid the good work from the Test series against England. Napier was a situation tailormade for him to make a Test name for himself, but couldn’t survive the new ball. Dropped catches in the slips wouldn’t have helped his confidence. Yuvraj will have to start a new Test innings all over again.

A few key numbers involving Delhi Daredevils, Deccan Chargers, and Centurion, the venue for the first semi-final of the IPL

S Rajesh22-May-2009RP Singh is the owner of the purple cap with 20 wickets, but against Delhi he only has one wicket from two games•Associated Press0 – Number of times Deccan have beaten Delhi in four tries over two IPL tournaments.67 – Number of wickets lost by Delhi in the round-robin matches in this IPL, which is the lowest by any team. Deccan have lost 91, which is next only to Bangalore and Rajasthan, who’ve lost 93.2111 – Runs scored by Deccan, which is the most by any team. Delhi are fourth with 1978.8.23 – Deccan’s run-rate in the first six overs. Delhi’s average run-rate in this phase of their innings is 7.94.505 – Runs added by Deccan’s opening pairs, which is the highest of all teams. They average 36.07 per partnership, at 8.94 runs per over. Delhi’s opening stand averages 28.38, at 7.66 runs per over.11 – The number of 50-plus scores for Delhi in the IPL. Deccan have only seven.11.36 – Adam Gilchrist’s runs per over against Delhi. In two matches he has scored 72 from 38 balls.1 – Number of wickets, out of 20, that RP Singh has taken against Delhi. He has been economical, though, conceding 6.57 per over in his seven overs.9.62 – Ashish Nehra’s economy rate against Deccan, which is his worst against any team – in eight overs he has conceded 77 runs and taken three wickets.5.25 – Pradeep Sangwan’s economy rate against Deccan (42 runs in eight overs, for four wickets). Dirk Nannes too has an excellent economy rate of 5.87 (47 runs in eight overs).7 – The number of games, out of 11 in Centurion, won by the team batting second. However, in seven night games, four have been won by the team batting first.159 – The average score of the team batting first in night games in Centurions. In seven matches, four times teams have scored in excess of 160, and twice in excess of 180.43 – Wickets taken by spinners in 11 games in Centurion, at an average of 26.97 and an economy rate of 7.31. Fast bowlers have taken 63 wickets, at 33.17 and 8.09 runs per over.

The ominous question still lingers: is the win a sign that England are going to dominate cricket for the next decade, and what could that mean for the future of other nations?

Alice Dean21-Jun-2009New Zealand coach Gary Stead put it best. His side’s defeat to Englandin Sunday’s ICC World Twenty20 final was, he said, like the amateursplaying the professionals. He only meant it figuratively, insofar as his team were outclassed on the day against a surprisingly clinical England. At last, the homeside’s bowlers and fielders truly rose to the occasion in a way whichthey hadn’t throughout the rest of the tournament.Stead was almost correct in the literal sense too, and therein lies a potential problem. The ECB has invested in English women’s cricket for more than a decade now, but the tree naturally takes a long time to first take root and then bear fruit. Only in the last 18 months have England looked like world-beaters. Now they have the World Twenty20, the World Cup and the Ashes in their pockets, and better investment than ever before.The ominous question goes thus: is this a sign that England women aregoing to dominate cricket for the next decade or more, and if so, whatdoes that mean for the future of other nations?England’s women are, through Chance to Shine coaching contracts, thenearest thing the women’s game gets to professionals; the gulfbetween them and the rest of the teams is in serious danger ofwidening. They have beaten world No. 2 New Zealand seven times in their lastmeetings, while India, the third-best in the world, have been their whipping girls for several years.Only Australia – whose players have a contract-lite version of England’s, but still have to work – have presented anything of a challenge. Players can attend the Academy in Brisbane and have funding through grants, but one wonders what’s going to happen in the next few years when Karen Rolton, Shelley Nitschke and Lisa Sthalekar cart all their weighty experience off with them into the sunset.New Zealand lost captain Haidee Tiffen earlier this year – she wroteon Cricinfo that this was partly down to a lack of funding – whileplayers such as Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine are in eternal danger ofdefecting to their other international sports of basketball (Bates)and hockey (Devine). The players are desperately keen to get morefinancial assistance and, given their record, certainly deserve it.Investment can only make the powerhouses stronger.England, partly due to the funding, have a well-gelled team who canconcentrate as much as they like on cricket. They have a young teambut one which is already very experienced and Charlotte Edwards – whois the same age as Tiffen – intends to be around for many years yet.And even though they have hardly played perfect cricket in eithertournaments this year, it’s still been more than enough to reignsupreme.So the future is certainly an issue. But at the same time, thepresent is very much worth celebrating. England’s women already beattheir men to an ICC trophy when they took the World Cup in March, thefirst tournament under ICC regulations. They promptly did the double on Sunday andare flying the flag in style.The investment from the ECB continues to pay dividends and Edwards waskeen to note that the World Twenty20 success shows the 50-over tournament “was nofluke”. The victory is also a win for women’s sport in England. While theimpact on the press may not be long-lasting in terms of a general liftin column inches, the fact that writers and editors witnessed theplay at Trent Bridge, The Oval and Lord’s for the first time might lead them to look more kindly on the women’s game in the future.The double-header staging of the tournament has been an unmitigatedsuccess. While there were no upsets in any of the games, thecricket was exciting and there were some superb performances, such as the West Indiesbatsman Deandra Dottin’s fastest international Twenty20 fifty againstAustralia in Taunton, and New Zealand captain Aimee Watkins’ 89 not outin Nottingham against India. The most memorable game will long standout as Australia versus England at The Oval where Claire Taylor, the player of the tournament, stroked her side home in thrilling circumstances.The ICC took a gamble on embracing the women’s game, or perhaps itwould be more accurate to say a calculated risk, the women havingalready been on the same stage as the men in domestic andinternational games. And the decision paid off handsomely.Women’s cricket has arrived on the world stage, and nobody tried toboo them off. Rather, they applauded a surprisingly entertaining newact which represented good value for money, and has the chance toshine again in the future.With the format to be repeated next year in the Caribbean, the ICC canboth breathe a sigh of relief at the successful staging this timearound, but also give itself a pat on the back.The ECB, too, should be applauded for setting the example – and nowit is hoped other countries can catch up with their view to a golden future.

To those in his native Trinidad, who always regarded Adrian Barath’s advance into the West Indies Test team as a matter of when, rather than if, the opener’s delightful debut hundred would not have been surprising

Tony Cozier29-Nov-2009To those in his native Trinidad — Brian Lara most prominent among them — who always regarded Adrian Barath’s advance into the West Indies Test team as a matter of when, rather than if, the opener’s delightful debut hundred in Brisbane on Saturday would not have been surprising.Bryan Davis, the one-time Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies opener, and currently the cricket manager at the famous Queen’s Park Cricket Club in Port of Spain, tells the story of this tiny boy brought to the indoor nets by his father and friends who proceeded to pepper him to such an extent that he feared for his safety.Barath senior assured him that his son, even smaller than he is now at 19, could handle himself. It didn’t take long for Davis to agree. That 11-year-old’s progress since has been measured and true to expectations.At 16, he was into the Trinidad and Tobago first-class team and scoring hundreds in successive matches, against the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands in his first year.Last season, there was 192 against the Leewards and 132 for West Indies A against the touring England party, who had James Anderson, Steve Harmison, Ryan Sidebottom and Graeme Swann in their bowling arsenal.It might have been enough to gain him selection for the home and away Test series that followed but he had to wait for Bangladesh in the Caribbean, and wait some more again when, like the others chosen, he lost he chance of an earlier and less demanding initiation because of the West Indies Players Association’s (WIPA’s) contracts dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).He came to wider international attention during Trinidad and Tobago’s stirring showing in the Champions League Twenty20 in India in October when, in his second match, he thumped four sixes in 63 off 41 balls off the Eagles, the South African team.The next step in the progression was the Test hundred, although it was a bit much to expect it on debut at an age even younger than the 20-year-old George Headley’s second-innings 176 against England at the Kensington Oval in 1930, a Test hundred and, at that, in a land down under where they are scarce for visiting batsmen.Fair enough but what would have strengthened Lara’s comparison with a young Sachin Tendulkar, publicly, boldly and honestly expressed when he took Barath to England to expose him to the culture of the game at Lord’s and other famous cricket venues in 2007, were the circumstances in which his Brisbane feat was fashioned.Even by recent West Indian standards, they could not have been more dire. The team had lived up to all the denigration heaped on it by the Australian media since its arrival.The captain, Chris Gayle, had jetted back to Jamaica to be with his ill mother and no one quite knew when he would be back, if at all. He did return, only to wrongly predict the toss of the coin, giving Australia the advantage of batting first. By then, it was known that Ramnaresh Sarwan, the key No.3 batsman with a double-hundred, three singles and an average of 76.2 in his seven Tests for the year, was enduring back spasms and would not be in the playing XI.By the time the first day was half through, Jerome Taylor, the only fast bowler with genuine Test experience and depended on to spearhead the attack, had done something to his hip that would restrict him to nine overs. It placed more responsibility on the untested rest and, dutifully as they tried, their efforts were blunted by determined Australian batting and typically faulty West Indies catching.When Ricky Ponting thankfully declared the innings at 480 for 8 just before tea on a second day of blazing 30 degrees heat, it left Barath and his teammates to initially aim for a total of 280 to avoid the follow-on.Four wickets in the space of three-quarters of an hour in the second session, Barath’s among them, rendered it mission impossible. Dogged resistance for more than four hours from Travis Dowlin, a 32-year-old journeyman provided with a belated, utterly unexpected chance at the highest level through the withdrawal four months earlier of disgruntled others, and a little flurry from the lower order couldn’t stave off the inevitable.Barath found himself returning to start the second innings in his first Test with the beleaguered Gayle after lunch yesterday, a deficit of 252 to be cleared to make the opposition bat again. A revival seemed to depend on Gayle and the reliable Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a pair of contrasting left-handers with 204 Tests, 14,000 runs and 31 hundreds between them.Instead, Gayle, whose general method is shot-a-ball, offered none at all and was soon lbw for the second time. Chanderpaul, for most of the past two years an immovable object, paddled a catch high off the bat to the fielder alongside the square-leg umpire. The No.10 would be out later to a similar shot but it was excusable for Kemar Roach. For Chanderpaul, it was completely out of character.Dowlin was sandwiched between them so that, by the end of the 17th over, the mismatch predicted by the Australian press was confirmed.At his age, Barath might well have been frozen into inactivity or else become careless and extravagant by the turn of events. Brendan Nash fell into the former category, Dwayne Bravo and Jerome Taylor, who hooked medium-paced long-hops precisely into long-leg’s lap, into the latter.

What would have strengthened Brian Lara’s comparison with a young Sachin Tendulkar, publicly, boldly and honestly expressed when he took Barath to England to expose him to the culture of the game at Lord’s and other famous cricket venues in 2007, were the circumstances in which his Brisbane feat was fashioned.

In contrast, Barath stoutly defended the good balls on a pitch behaving itself in spite of its mosaic of cracks and indulged his offside penchant whenever a boundary presented itself. The balance was clear in the 19 fours he stroked and the 102 balls of his 138 faced that he blocked.The innings was a gem and acknowledged as such by wise observers in the television commentary box, all of whom know the euphoria of a Test hundred, by his teammates in the West Indies, including those who managed to overcome their individual shame to rise in applause, and the 12,000 or so spectators who saw Barath off to a clearly heartfelt ovation.As was mentioned more than once, it was a performance that should be an inspiration to other young cricketers in the Caribbean.In this match, the bowling of Roach, 21, and in his third Test, caught the attention. Denesh Ramdin’s wicketkeeping and aggressive batting moved Ian Healy, a kindred spirit, into a prophecy that the vice-captain, still only 24, will be among the best in the game by the time he is through.Others wait in the wings, not least another Darren Bravo, the 20-year-old left-handed batsman, and the Nevisian Kieron Powell, another left-hander, aged 19. There is, however, a warning light for those responsible for such matters.The last West Indian to score a hundred on his debut Test was Dwayne Smith, against South Africa in Cape Town four years ago and every bit as spectacular as Barath’s. Significantly, he is now a Twenty20 gem for Sussex but no longer in the West Indies team.Given his background and the organisation of the game in Trinidad and Tobago that now produces batsmen as Barbados and Guyana once did, it is unlikely that Barath will suffer the same fate. But the WICB need to ensure that the structures are in place to harness the best of all the budding Baraths. Perhaps it could consult its affiliates in Port of Spain and Couva for guidance.

Even specialised net sessions haven’t been able to rid the home team’s bowlers of the overstepping problem

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Nov-2010A usually rare occurrence is becoming increasingly frequent when India are fielding: opposition batsmen getting dismissed and then being called back after the bowler is found to have over-stepped. Martin Guptill was the most recent beneficiary after he nicked Sreesanth to MS Dhoni and the umpire Kumar Dharmasena, after speaking with the third umpire, called no-ball. The Indians were frustrated and their bowling coach Eric Simons said as much after play.”It’s strange, Sreesanth bowled 90-odd balls today out of which four were no-balls and one was a wicket. And that’s very frustrating,” Simons said. “It’s very frustrating that they introduce this new system and in two Test matches we lose two wickets. It’s something we’re aware of and working on constantly.”This method of consultation, between the on-field umpire and the one watching replays, about whether the bowler had over-stepped or not is a recent development and India have been on the wrong end of reversed decisions three times.In Mohali, during Australia’s second innings, Michael Clarke was leaving after flicking Ishant Sharma to midwicket but Billy Bowden asked him to wait and confirmed with the third umpire that the bowler had over-stepped. In Bangalore, Tim Paine edged a slash off Sreesanth to Dhoni and was halfway off the field when he was called back by Ian Gould. Count the no-ball from Ishant in the first innings at Mohali, which was spotted by the on-field official, that Ricky Ponting nicked down legside to Dhoni and that’s four batsmen let-off in as many Tests.What hasn’t been clear, though, is the process of consultation between the umpires. Does the on-field umpire take the initiative to check with the third umpire because he isn’t certain? If so, why would Dharmasena allow Guptill to walk past the boundary if he was unsure about the legality of the delivery? Or does the third umpire spot the no-ball on replays and contact his colleague in the middle? And if so, does he watch for a missed no-ball on every dismissal to ensure consistency? Guptill didn’t know who referred it to whom, but Simons said it was the on-field umpire who contacts the third umpire when in doubt, adding that it was “bizarre” India had been caught by the system twice.There’s a simple way to avoid being found out, though. Stop bowling so many no-balls. India have bowled 140 in 11 Tests in 2010: Ishant 56, Amit Mishra 35, Sreesanth 28, Pragyan Ojha 13, Zaheer Khan 5 and Virender Sehwag 3. Ishant’s and Sreesanth’s numbers are inexcusable, and for spinners – Mishra in particular – to have bowled so many is appalling. Achieving a solution, according to Simons, isn’t as simple as it seems.”The no-balls are a very strange problem. Everyone says move your mark back six inches and it should be fine, but it doesn’t work like that,” Simons said. “It’s a really slow process. It literally comes down to re-programming a bowler’s mindset in the nets.”When India practise, Simons said there was someone watching every ball for a no-ball. There were net sessions during which bowlers worked only on their landing and these were separate from ones in which they honed their lines and lengths. Simons is aware of the gravity of the problem and stressed the issue was being monitored “very carefully.””My job as coach is to create a habit where you are right behind the line,” he said. “The no-ball affects the mindset and if you are confident about where your foot is, you bowl better.”Ishant’s rhythm went haywire during the Mohali Test, in which he over-stepped 15 times, and he hasn’t played since because Sreesanth took his opportunity with impressive performances, barring the no-balls. Simons said Ishant was improving and was considered for selection in Hyderabad before India decided to field an unchanged XI.”Ishant had a real problem with no-balls and I think we’re getting to a point where he’s solving it,” Simons said. “I was very disappointed with that Australia Test because he was bowling so well going into it. There were a few problems with no-balls in the nets but we didn’t expect it to be as big a problem when the Test match started. He’s bowling really well in the nets and I’m pleased with where he’s at.”New Zealand ended the day on 258 for 4 and Simons said they were “probably just ahead” and that India would have liked about six wickets. Had Guptill not been let off on 5, though, the day could have played out extremely differently for he went on to score 80 more. There was another moment off another Sreesanth no-ball when Tim McIntosh, batting on 35, missed a pull. The ball went off his pad towards the vicinity of the stumps and McIntosh swivelled around to check whether he needed to kick it to safety. He didn’t and, for Sreesanth and India, it was perhaps just as well.

Plays of the Day on day three of the Wellington Test between New Zealand and Pakistan

Andrew Fernando17-Jan-2011Nude sprint of the day
Perhaps it is because five-day cricket is a relatively sedate pursuit or because Tests attract a more refined breed of spectator, but streaking is a rare occurrence in the longest form of the game. A young Wellingtonian, though, proved that even cricket’s proudest incarnation wasn’t above being besoiled by the naked human form with a somewhat commendable streaking effort just after lunch. Sidestepping the guard at fine leg, the poorly covered intruder sprinted onto the field, donning nought but a cape and wielding a plastic sword. He circumvented the pitch as he ran towards the opposite end of the ground, shaking his sword at the security personnel who were closing in. He ran into trouble at long-on though, as he was cornered by three guards who tackled him to the ground, forcibly covered his genitals and escorted him out of sight.Shot of the day
Misbah-ul-haq played a number of attractive strokes throughout the day, but perhaps the best of the lot was his gorgeous cover drive off the first ball of the evening session. Tim Southee pitched full and wide, and Misbah went down on one knee to caress it languidly through the infield for four.Miser of the day
In a match where spinners have been resigned to bowling into the wind, Vettori produced the meanest spell from the scoreboard end, just before tea. He began with five consecutive maidens to Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, bowling an immaculate line to his packed off-side field, before the batsmen managed to break free with a spate of ones and twos. By the break his eight-over spell had cost 12 runs.Howler of the day
Given the number of umpiring howlers so far, the Test at the Basin Reserve has been a painful exercise in proving just how much Test cricket needs the UDRS. Seven bad umpiring decisions had been made by stumps at day three and perhaps the cruelest of them was Younis Khan’s dismissal on the stroke of tea. Younis came forward to a Vettori arm ball and failed to get bat on ball. The ball struck his pad and popped up to Jesse Ryder at short-leg, and almost before Younis had had time to look up, he had been given out. Pakistan, who had cruised for most of the day towards a handy first-innings lead, lost their remaining six wickets for 90 runs.Lacklustre appeal of the day
Reece Young may have been impressive with the bat and tidy with the gloves, but his appealing behind the stumps may not be at the level required for an international wicketkeeper. He failed to join in with his teammates after Umar Taufeeq had edged one behind yesterday and his half-hearted effort when Tim Southee demanded Adnan Akmal’s wicket after tea was a dead giveaway that the batsman had not touched it. Perhaps the New Zealand coaching staff could get him onto videos of Kumar Sangakkara or Kamran Akmal to show him what he should be doing.

A look at how Canada, one of the Associates in Group A, fared in the 2011 World Cup

Sriram Veera22-Mar-2011World Cup performanceAshish Bagai and John Davison, who announced his retirement at the end of the tournament, celebrate Canada’s victory over Kenya•Getty ImagesCanada viewed this World Cup as a major turning point in their cricketing journey. Self reliance appeared to be a mirage until this tournament, but according to board president Ranjit Sahni, sponsors are beginning to show up at their door. Plans are afoot to launch a five-team competition along the lines of the IPL in Canada, with the involvement of foreign players. They are striving to go beyond the handouts they get from the ICC and script their own destiny. Much depended on their young team stringing together a few good performances in this tournament and they have done that.They gave a real scare to England in the warm-up game but were pinned down near the line by Stuart Broad. Realistically, their goal was to beat Kenya, the other Associate team in their group, and maybe also beat Zimbabwe. They achieved a five-wicket win over Kenya but were thumped by Zimbabwe. Where they really sparkled, albeit in phases, was against some of the Full Members. Apart from that warm-up encounter against England, they bowled out Pakistan for 184 and reached 104 for 3 before collapsing for 138. Against Australia, they raced to 82 for 1 in just 11 overs, courtesy of a dazzling knock from Hiral Patel, and reached 150 for 2 in the 29th over before the inevitable collapse.HighsA win is priceless and so the defeat of Kenya stands out. To make the Australian captain lose his rag – a frustrated Ricky Ponting threw down the ball in anger, ostensibly due to a team-mate, but Canada’s blitz would have contributed to his overall sombre mood – was another mini-highlight. But the two performances against Pakistan and England will be treasured. They came close to beating both and if not for Broad and the wily Shahid Afridi, they might even have done it.LowsIt has to be their performance against Zimbabwe. Getting crushed by Sri Lanka is one thing but being thumped by Zimbabwe would have saddened them. Zimbabwe waltzed to 298 before Canada were shot out for 123.StrengthsThe youth provided hope, a couple of experienced players impressed, and the management seems keen on developing the game. Hiral Patel hit a 45-ball 54 that included a mind-blowing back-foot six over covers to a 158.5kph thunderbolt from Shaun Tait. Ashish Bagai was fabulous behind the stumps and very purposeful, and calm, in front of it with the bat. Balaji Rao treated your senses with his legspin when he dared to flight the ball. The seamer Harvir Baidwan picked up 13 wickets at 23.61 and Jimmy Hansra made over 200 runs with the bat.WeaknessesThe inability to maintain their hold for long. Whenever they had the game, if not in their grasp, at least on an even keel, they collapsed. The cause can’t be simply a lack of skill. It reflects a mental weakness as well, probably stemming from the lack of exposure to such competitive games. There was enough evidence there, though, that suggested that this team can improve with more games.ProspectsManagement visions can be dangerously illusionary. They talk of pumping in money, improving infrastructure, spreading the game to the grassroots but this, as we know, is not an easy task. What Canada seem to possess, though, is the desire and the will to do something. The first thing they plan to do is extend year-long contracts to players. They have formed a close alliance with the West Indies cricket board and are involved in exchange programs; they have already featured in the Caribbean domestic Twenty20. Bigger things are being planned in terms of a jazzy local competition in Canada and they are even thinking about setting up a winter base in India. A cricket village offshore where the boys can spend time improving their game and play the local teams is being planned. A scholarship program is being planned for young kids interested in the game which they hope will act as feeder system for the national team in due course.Ashish Bagai, the captain, said the game can get corporate and government support only if the locals get involved in the game. So far, it’s the expat community that is interested in the game. This will be the most arduous task for the administrators to pull off. Cricket Canada plan to produce and broadcast cricket from around the world, including the local game, on broadband internet in the country. Only time will tell whether that translates into viewership and kick starts interest in the Canadian kids. If they can learn from the mistakes made by Kenya and remain professional, Canada can only grow from here.

The last time 230 was chased at the Premadasa was six-and-a-half years ago. It was fitting then that on the big day the home side lost the toss, and put in a supreme performance to comfortably chase and win

Sidharth Monga at the Premadasa26-Mar-2011Today the R Premadasa Stadium became only the fourth ground to have hosted 100 ODIs. Yet it is a much-maligned venue, and not without reason either. It was actually a surprise that they kept playing ODIs under lights here, with the side batting first at an obvious and a significant advantage, what with the evening moisture and the ordinary floodlights deciding most of the games between evenly matched sides at the toss. The last time 230 was chased here was six-and-a-half years ago, a statistic that speaks for itself.However, for the year and a half running into the World Cup, they stopped playing here. As they renovated the stands, they also tried to figure out what they could do to address that imbalance. They realised that because the ground is in a low-lying area, the moisture comes up in the evenings and assists seam movement. So they raised the square by three-and-a-half feet, and also installed new, improved floodlights. Hosting a World Cup is a matter of prestige, and nobody would have wanted two unfair knockout matches in Sri Lanka.It was natural that the statistics were thrown around in the lead-up to the match. “Toss crucial,” ran the headlines around the world. Meanwhile Sri Lankan players told anybody who would listen that things had changed, a glimpse of which was shown in how they had looked comfortable chasing 278 against Pakistan before losing their way. It was fitting then that on the big day the home side lost the toss, and put in a supreme performance to not only chase and win, but chase and win comfortably at that.Of course they didn’t win because batting second was easy. Batting was still a bit difficult; 230 was still a good target on a low and slow pitch, in a high-pressure World Cup knockout game. And they didn’t win because they just batted well; their bowling was superb for the conditions, never mind the three dropped catches. More importantly, for all of England’s tenacity – and they were tenacious even today for 70 overs – Sri Lanka had enough class to fall back upon and pull the opposition back. Don’t forget that Muttiah Muralitharan was one of the most expensive bowlers on either side, and yet – except during the partnership between Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan – Sri Lanka never really looked in trouble.Shrewdly they opened the bowling with Tillakaratne Dilshan, knowing England would be circumspect with their third different opening combination of the tournament. Dilshan, a smart cricketer, gave the openers little pace to work with, and by the time he was taken off, England had the uninviting prospect of facing 30 overs of specialist spin out of the 42 remaining. England played Muralitharan well, getting to the pitch of the balls and dabbing, paddling, reverse-paddling him for ones and twos. Then came a period when the game seemed to be running out of Sri Lanka’s butter fingers. Three catches went down, a chance to challenge a not-out lbw call was missed, and England looked good to get even 260, which would have seriously challenged Sri Lanka, evening or no evening.England called for the batting Powerplay at 182 for 3 after 42 overs, with set batsmen in the middle who had added 87 in 15 overs. Kumar Sangakkara called for Lasith Malinga. Malinga needed one loosener before firing in three yorkers followed by a slower ball that accounted for Morgan. The fielders woke up again, with Dilshan and Chamara Silva not allowing twos in the outfield and Malinga and Ajantha Mendis not allowing boundaries. Andrew Strauss admitted later that they were not allowed to play well by “a very good side”.Putting Dilshan and Upul Tharanga together at the top of the order has been Sri Lanka’s biggest ODI investment over the last two years. Dilshan had been a middle-order batsman, and to persist with Tharanga, the team management has had to fight undue outside pressures to bring Sanath Jayasuriya back. Both were bold moves, and both have paid off: in 32 attempts the two have added 2023 at an average of 65.25, incidentally surpassing tonight the Jayasuriya-Tharanga combine to become the third-most prolific opening combination for Sri Lanka.It was evident why they work so well together. When Dilshan struggled for timing in the first half hour, it was Tharanga who took the initiative and cut Tim Bresnan and lofted Graeme Swann. There was a clear understanding that Dilshan could throw things away if the runs didn’t come fast enough, and that’s where Tharanga came in. Once Dilshan got in, he took charge of the scoring, and in synchronicity they moved towards their centuries.The freedom with which they batted proved two things. The Sri Lankan bowlers were much higher in quality, and the conditions weren’t as tough as it seemed when England batted. There was the aggressive intent that is necessary to score runs on these pitches, something neither England’s technique nor their loss of wickets allowed them to do.Not long into the Sri Lankan innings, the stands turned into a party. The steel bands blared in every stand, the people danced, exaggerated defensive shots from Dilshan ensured there were enough runs left for Tharanga to get to his century too. Amid all that, a ground was possibly sent on redemption path too.

Australia’s new bowling coach, Craig McDermott, has been drumming it into his students that they need to get the ball up there and swinging. The results are now starting to show

Daniel Brettig08-Nov-2011Isolated to its most fundamental point, cricket could be described as the duel between a bowler tempting a batsman to drive and a batsman trying to ignore that temptation. Save for Bodyline and a few West Indian bouncer wars, this battle has endured across more than 2000 Test matches, often entrancing spectators as much as it has consumed the combatants.Last summer in Australia, Craig McDermott noticed that the struggle seemed at times to have been won by the England batsmen before it began. Time after time, England’s top order were not sufficiently tempted to drive by Australia’s fast men, and time after time Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and others settled in happily for the long innings that were crucial to keeping the Ashes in the visitors’ possession. Wicketkeeper, slips and stumps, all likely to be involved at the start of an innings, were often little more in it than the crowds were. With the exception of the Perth Test, Australia’s bowlers were not posing the questions that the new ball should invite.The failing was made even plainer during England’s time in the field, when their bowlers zipped the ball about from the foundation of a relentless line. In Adelaide, Jimmy Anderson had at best 20 minutes of early swing and seam to exploit before the pitch turned totally placid. He duly accounted for Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, pushing firmly at full deliveries, and tilted the match inside its first half-hour.When McDermott took over from Troy Cooley as Australia’s bowling coach, it was with a simple but clear policy for change. The pace bowlers had been dropping far too short, particularly early on, robbing themselves of new-ball swing and narrowing the avenues for wickets.Unlike Cooley, a modest seam bowler with Tasmania before his coaching career blossomed, McDermott had his own record and method to call on, having harnessed speed and swing to harvest 291 Test wickets in one of Australian cricket’s more under-sung careers. His early meetings with Australia’s bowlers, at a Brisbane training camp and then in Sri Lanka, emphasised the virtues of a fuller length.”My emphasis has been, and was when I got this job, to have the fittest attack in the world and also have the bowlers, by being the fittest attack in the world, being able to execute for the longest, at that fuller length – therefore we will win Test matches.”We showed that in Sri Lanka, and I’m sure that if we do that in South Africa with the attack that we have, we will swing the ball, and we’ll take a lot of wickets.”In addition to pressing his case in words, McDermott did it with statistics and footage. Tellingly, he requested a change to the team’s video analysis parameters, pushing the “good” and “full” lengths on CA’s bowling graphics closer to the bat by about a metre to further encourage deliveries that could swing and catch the edge of a probing bat.This met with some initial scepticism from bowlers raised on the back-of-a-length, fourth-stump mentality favoured famously by McDermott’s former pace partner Glenn McGrath, and a host of coaches and bowlers who followed him. Some states, Queensland and more recently Victoria, have excelled at bowling “dry” – a shorter length that gives up the possibility of swing in favour of bounce, preying on an impetuosity that may be found in Australian domestic batsmen but can be far harder to locate among Test cricket’s best exponents. For Australia, the results of one of McGrath’s few unsuccessful series, when New Zealand’s batsmen shouldered arms repeatedly in 2001, had become something like the norm. On his arrival in Sri Lanka, Ryan Harris was taken aback by what McDermott told him.

“I found it really hard to believe that we were not bowling full enough. [McDermott] showed us footage of fuller bowling and where we had been bowling. You can notice the difference”Ryan Harris on the new length directive

“The length we were brought up to bowl on, for me especially, was probably half a metre too short and you’d see the pitch maps on the TV that show your short, good and full lengths,” Harris said. “We go by them and all the coding that’s done on the games these days are done on those lengths. I got to Sri Lanka and spoke to him about that and I found it really hard to believe that we were not bowling full enough. He showed us footage of fuller bowling and where we had been bowling. You can notice the difference, and that’s something we’ve worked really hard on and talked a lot about before Sri Lanka.”Balance and personnel were other significant considerations. In earlier years Stuart Clark had been a vital component of the Australian team, bowling tight yet full enough to move the ball in the air, and in Sri Lanka the tourists had Trent Copeland to call on for a similar service. Shane Watson’s presence was also useful, as he had found his first genuine success as an international bowler by pitching the ball up and learning to swing it, either by conventional means in England or reverse in the subcontinent. Combined with the speed of Mitchell Johnson and the fledgling spin of Nathan Lyon, Australia’s ensemble in Sri Lanka provided a wide selection of attributes. Bolstered by McDermott’s direction, they did far better than anyone might have expected.”I was very happy with the way our pace bowlers and all our bowlers stuck to their plans,” McDermott said. “Certainly in the first Test match it was a very spin-friendly wicket, our quicks stuck to a good, fuller length, which has been important to us over the last three or four months, on the back of the way we bowled in the Ashes last year. Nathan Lyon bowled very well in his first Test on a very spin-friendly wicket.”Out in the field, the likes of Harris and Copeland were enthused by the results to be derived from a fuller length and a tight line. Harris was particularly effective, moving the ball both ways at a length that meant a very late adjustment indeed for any batsman to survive. Having taken 11 wickets at 14.54 in the first two Test before a hamstring strain ruled him out of the third, Harris went home intent on bowling fuller in all conditions. As if to ram home the point, he plucked 9 for 83 against Tasmania at the Gabba before flying to Cape Town.”After doing it and seeing how much difference it can make, how much more the bowler comes into the game, it is going to be very, very beneficial,” Harris said. “I found it quite tough, to be honest, to be able to come in and try to bowl fuller, but it was something [McDermott] harped on every time we bowled in Sri Lanka, and eventually we got it right. There was no coincidence that the results went our way and we bowled as well as we did.”Harris is not the only Australian bowler benefiting from a full philosophy. Mitchell Marsh returned from a stint in the national ODI team to swing through 13 batsmen in the space of two matches against Queensland at the WACA ground.Ryan Harris reaped the benefits of a fuller length against Tasmania, against whom he took nine wickets before the South Africa tour•Getty ImagesPeter Siddle started the Sri Lanka tour bowling too short and fell behind Copeland by doing so. By the time the third Test came around he had reconfigured, and he has now taken 16 wickets since, at low cost, in a variety of fixtures for his country and state. Mitchell Johnson, swinging the ball in the manner of his pomp, has claimed 20 victims in five matches since he finished up in Sri Lanka.For a former swing bowler and fellow coach like Damien Fleming, the sight of curling deliveries and driving batsmen has been a tonic. “Each specialist coach is going to want to put their stamp on things, and Billy wants them to bowl fuller and to bowl a little more at training as well,” Fleming said. “Someone like Peter Siddle can really benefit from that. Pete’s pace is very good, his bouncer’s good, his heart’s good, but there’s been a feeling that he hasn’t done a lot with the new ball. He’s trying a wider grip to get a stable seam position. It doesn’t swing for a long while in Australia, with the Kookaburra, so I don’t think you want to be bowling too far outside off stump. You should be attacking off stump on a full length, forcing the batsman to drive and trying to get those nicks behind.”It’s the culture within the team as well. If you’ve got a swing bowler, you’ve got to say to him ‘Even if you leak runs early, we really want you to get the ball up so they drive it’, so if he gets driven a couple of times in the first over, it’s not panic stations. If they’re good enough to play a couple of cover drives, then you give the batsman a tick.”A lot of us [former bowlers] in hindsight would say we should’ve bowled fuller. We were hitting the splice of the bat okay, but conditions were dictating that we should get it up and swing the ball a bit more – that’s the beauty of a specialist coach, to be able to say, in a game, ‘Boys, we need to be bowling it fuller’ and not wait for the review after the match.”In the days before the Cape Town Test, Australia’s bowling was questioned by the South Africa A coach, Vincent Barnes. He queried its quality and its fitness, suggesting the hosts’ batsmen would not have much trouble at all. “We should go one-nil up in Cape Town,” he said. While it remains true that Clarke lacks a bowling attack with the record of some of its predecessors, confidence is growing. This has been greatly aided by McDermott’s reversion to a simple philosophy, one that has worked for bowlers since Test cricket began: tempt a batsman to drive and reap the rewards. After a few years of shying away, the battle has been rejoined.

From the highs of leading a team to the Ranji title and another to promotion, Amol Muzumdar finds himself no longer being the leading scorer in Ranji and having to prove himself before he can play first-class cricket again. Not that he’s complaining

Tariq Engineer24-Dec-2011Challenges. Amol Muzumdar uses the word a lot. He likes challenges. They motivate him, get his competitive juices flowing. He has been feeding off them all his career.From dreaming of playing for India, to scoring runs despite the disappointment of not being selected; from leading Mumbai to their most unlikely Ranji Trophy title, in 2007, to leading Assam into the Elite League, he has been at his best when tested. His latest challenge, though, he didn’t see coming. For the first time since 1992, Muzumdar is not playing Ranji Trophy cricket. Instead, the tournament’s all-time leading run scorer is plying his trade on the maidans of Mumbai among school cricketers and weekend enthusiasts.On this particular evening he is sitting by the tennis courts at the Khar Gymkhana, in a suburb of Mumbai, watching his five-year old daughter, Devina, hit a ball against the wall. He takes her bright pink Hannah Montana bag out from behind him and puts it on the table. She will need it when she goes swimming later. Meanwhile in Guwahati, Assam, the team he captained for two years after leaving Mumbai in 2009, was losing to Maharashtra. And in Rajkot, his former Mumbai team-mates were battling to a draw with Saurashtra.How did he get here?It began with an ending. Assam narrowly missed out on retaining their Elite status in 2010, being relegated on the last day of their last game. Muzumdar had led them into the Elite league the year before, the first time Assam had been promoted, and felt he had done his job. The time had come to return to Mumbai. He had missed the dressing room, the players, the buzz that came with chasing trophies. He still had the desire to succeed, the hunger to make runs.He applied to play for his hometown team again, confident he would make it through the selection process. He was told there was now a mandatory one-year cooling-off period. “If I had played, this would have been my 19th year in first-class cricket,” Muzumdar says. “I didn’t know about this rule. But there is a rule and the rule has to be followed.”Four years after leading Mumbai to the Ranji title, Muzumdar was faced with proving himself all over again by playing club cricket. The runs he had made through his career didn’t matter. Being a former Mumbai captain didn’t matter. The many rescue acts he had directed for Mumbai over the years didn’t matter. He could have walked away and played for another team. Wasim Jaffer, the Mumbai captain, took Muzumdar’s record for the most runs in the Ranji Trophy two days ago. If he had been playing, Jaffer might not have caught up.On the other hand, having accomplished practically everything there is to accomplish in domestic cricket, Muzumdar could even have retired and hopped on the television bandwagon – which he has explored with stints on Neo Cricket. (He happened to be commentating on the game in which Jaffer broke his record).But he wasn’t ready to give up. At a time when the virtues of youth are touted from every rooftop, Muzumdar, all of 37 (though he looks 10 years younger), believes he still has a lot to contribute. “I am fit, I have got the motivation, and I really want to give something back.” Besides, even batting in club cricket is still batting. And Muzumdar loves nothing more than batting. “It is an addiction,” he says. “You can’t just let it go.”Off the field, his family helped him cope with the changes. When he questioned, back in 2002, whether he wanted to keep playing, his wife helped him realise that he still loved the game; that there was more to life and cricket than playing at the top level. When it came time to discuss playing club cricket with her and his parents, their answers were the same: the fire still burns, so make the most of it while you can.”You have to move on and find something else to motivate you,” Muzumdar says. “My family has made me realise that you have to focus on the present, on what you have and do the best you can. Whatever comes, accept, and move ahead.”That attitude is why he chose to go to Holland earlier this year to be coach-cum-player with Quick the Hague in the Dutch top-tier Topklasse competition. The offer came as a surprise. Muzumdar was looking for a club contract in England, where he has played for the last 16 years, when he got a call asking if he would be interested in going to Holland. Not knowing much about cricket in the Netherlands, Muzumdar looked Quick up and thought it sounded interesting (former Zimbabwe batsmen David Houghton and Grant Flower have played for the club). He discussed it with his wife and in the first week of April the family found themselves on a plane.He expected to have an easy time of things but was in for a bit of a shock. The day after he arrived, he was handed a sheet that told him exactly what he would be doing, hour by hour, for the next three months. He was the coach for the Under-12, U-18 and senior sides, and played for the last of those as well. He led the U-18s to the championship for the first time in 60 years.Muzumdar says his time in Holland rejuvenated him. “It really got me going and I think it has helped me to focus more.” He enjoyed himself so much he has signed up for another go-around in 2012.After returning to India to discover he was not eligible to play for Mumbai, he strapped on his pads to lead Reliance Energy in the Times Shield on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and turned out for the National Cricket Club on Saturdays and Sundays in the Police Shield. On Fridays he would head over to Khar Gymkhana for a net session. “For one and a half months, I was the busiest cricketer in India,” he says with a smile.There were adjustments to be made, of course. For one, he wasn’t travelling. Even Devina noticed that. Muzumdar says that after he hadn’t gone anywhere for about two weeks, she asked him what he was doing at home. “I told her, ‘Enjoy it while it lasts. It won’t be for long.'”

At a time when the virtues of youth are touted from every rooftop, Muzumdar, all of 37, believes he still has a lot to contribute. He loves nothing more than batting. “It is an addiction,” he says. “You can’t just let it go”

Other changes have been more subtle. Playing for Mumbai meant not needing to worry about anything but the cricket. It was a set pattern of practice, rest and playing in games. Playing for National Cricket Club meant sometimes dropping Devina off at school on his way to a match. Once the game started, though, all the differences evaporated. “When you go in to bat and take the leg-stump guard, that is the time you switch on and it all falls into place.”Muzumdar led Reliance Energy to the quarter-finals of the Times Shield, scoring a century and two fifties in four games. He made another hundred and two fifties from five games as National Cricket Club made the finals. Playing on these pitches forced him to work on his technique, Muzumdar says, after he had grown used to the good batting wickets that predominate in Indian first-class cricket. “You get a wicket which will turn on the second and third days viciously. You have to cope with it.”Muzumdar misses the atmosphere of first-class cricket, but he has no regrets about his decision. He has “loved every moment of the last two months. It [maidan cricket] is the very essence of Mumbai cricket.” The expression on his face echoes his words. He does look happy; just glad to be back.Rajesh Powar, who captained National, says it is rare that someone of Muzumdar’s stature chooses to play club cricket and that they would not have made the final without him. “He could not play the final and we lost badly,” Powar says. “From that you can tell how important he was for us.”Muzumdar, he says, was not only very motivated on the field, he was also clearly enjoying himself. “He has the same attitude in Ranji and in Police Shield. He never seemed like he was taking it easy. He was just as motivated and focused. He tells us always to just enjoy cricket. It was a big plus point [to have him].”It is the opportunity to compete for a place in his beloved Mumbai side again that kept Muzumdar going this year. He has stayed in touch with many of his former team-mates. They called him when he broke the record for most Ranji runs, in 2009. He called them when they won the title. He would love nothing more than to be back in that dressing room.The most important thing he learned playing for Assam was patience and that is helping him bide his time now. But he plans to keep playing, even if he doesn’t make the cut for Mumbai next year.”I personally feel that everything has its own time. This is what I believe. For me, this is not the time where I need to get into something other than cricket.”