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For all the predictions of damage from Australia’s four fast men there was not much blazing fire

Peter English at the WACA16-Jan-2008

The general rule in Perth is if the ball hits on the knee roll it can’t be out. In the morning nobody would have believed a dismissal would have come this way © AFP
For all the predictions of damage from Australia’s four fast men there was not much blazing fire. Each of the quartet, which was steered superbly by Brett Lee, was sharp, but the expected explosiveness was missing after an energetic opening from both teams. A hot day sapped the early promise from the surface and rumours of Perth’s bounce returning have been exaggerated, at least on the side of the square that hasn’t been relaid.In December Shaun Tait was almost unplayable during a Twenty20 international on one of the springy pitches, but in his third Test he was unable to create the same level of fear. India’s batsmen were the most relieved while many of the rest, including the home bowlers, felt slightly deceived.The last time Australia tried a combination of four fast men was against India 15 years ago and the match was won in five days. In the lead-up to this game there was speculation it would be a short one, but the home team will have to sweat to achieve the world record of 17 wins in a row.Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson opened, with the back-up coming from Tait and Stuart Clark, and while teeth were shown, the edges were soon blunted. Lee and Tait posted speeds above 150 kph in the first session, but they dropped to the low 140s in an afternoon of intense heat. A Tait bouncer barely reached Gilchrist on the full and a Sachin Tendulkar edge off Lee fell short of second slip. India’s batsmen, particularly Tendulkar, were even able to re-think their shots, which is something that was not possible in Perth’s prime.Rather than having the luxury of unleashing his bowlers and watching them feed the cordon, Ricky Ponting had to be thoughtful. The slips stayed deep, but fielders were regularly rearranged in the infield and on the boundary, just as they were in the first two Tests.A couple of wickets came with bowling changes, Lee swapping ends to pick up Wasim Jaffer and Mitchell Johnson returning to capture Sourav Ganguly with a slice to Michael Hussey, who took a fine diving catch. Dismissals that were meant for extreme speed came with cageyness instead.At times it looked like the captain had too many riches and was not sure how to spend them. Andrew Symonds bowled five overs of medium pace in the second session after Tait had waited until shortly before lunch to be employed. Tait, who came in for Brad Hogg, was unsurprisingly erratic and more was expected when he had an aging ball, but he went without reward in 13 overs in three spells. Limited-overs games have provided most of his recent workload and he will need some time to run himself in.Johnson was more effective than in Sydney and had two important wickets to show for the effort put in between Tests. Stronger in his delivery stride, he forced the batsmen to play more around off stump, picking up Virender Sehwag with an edge behind before removing Ganguly. An inswinging yorker was too fierce for Rahul Dravid, who was lucky to sustain only a sore foot and not an lbw dismissal.Rather than having the luxury of unleashing his bowlers and watching them feed the cordon, Ricky Ponting had to be thoughtfulHowever, Lee was the most impressive and once he swapped ends after an expensive opening he operated like a well-tuned thoroughbred. Batsmen were forced to worry about nicking, Tendulkar missed a brilliant legcutter and the slips were always on alert. Jaffer pushed at Lee and gave Adam Gilchrist a simple catch and there were numerous challenges for India.Dravid survived another drop in the series – Michael Clarke was the offender at first slip when the batsman was 11 – but Lee recovered and collected 3 for 64, a haul enhanced by the wicket of VVS Laxman with the second new ball. He powered towards the crease through 19 overs and Tendulkar’s wicket came in his 15th, although the batsman was the unfortunate one this time. The ball was heading well over the stumps and might not have been in line with off. Asad Rauf upheld the lbw appeal.The general rule in Perth is if the ball hits on the knee roll it can’t be out. In the morning nobody would have believed a dismissal would have come this way, but the lack of spring in the pitch made it a possibility. While the surface may have tricked Rauf, it also flattened the bounce of Australia’s fast-bowling posse.

After four years on the fringes, Neil McKenzie is older, wiser, and back where he belongs. “I try and grab every occasion as my last,” he says

Nagraj Gollapudi09-Apr-2008

Subcontinent specialist: McKenzie averages 109 in his four Tests in Asia this year © Getty Images
“Good to see my little man running around”, Neil McKenzie says, his face lighting up. We are sitting in the lobby of the South African team hotel on Ashram Road, Ahmedabad’s main traffic artery, but the buzz from the street outside isn’t bothering McKenzie any. His mind is back home, his thoughts on his baby son who has started taking his first steps.”I’m learning now to video Skype with my family, along with Ashwell [Prince], who has a young son too, and Robin Peterson, who has a young daughter. It’s nice for us to catch up with our families”, McKenzie says. “Having a kid definitely puts a different perspective on life.”Fitting, perhaps, for even as McKenzie junior goes about learning to stand on his feet, his father is taking steps of his own – towards securing and strengthening his berth in the South Africa side, which he regained earlier this year, four years after he lost it.In his third game back, McKenzie piled up a career-best 226 in Chittagong, and then carried that form to India, narrowly missing out on back-to-back centuries in Chennai in the first Test. Having missed the landmark by six agonising runs in the first innings, McKenzie mastered both the heat and the spin of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to make 155 in the second innings.”I lost about four kilograms in the first innings, and a little bit more in the 155,” he says. “It was really hot and humid at Chepauk.” He knows his fourth century in Tests couldn’t have come at a better moment. “Scoring a hundred against India against two highly regarded spinners and doing that in the subcontinent – I see that as a milestone.Asked about what lies ahead, he says, “I don’t think I’m in a position to focus on future series. I’m just trying to enjoy each tour and each game. Every Test I play now I see as an extra achievement. It’s something I really looking forward to [in terms of] trying to get the best out of the game and hopefully putting my team in a winning position.”The wilderness years
McKenzie won the prestigious South African Cricketer of the Year award in 2001 for his consistent mastery of bowlers in both international and domestic cricket. Expectations rose and for a while he lived up to them. In the needle series against Australia, first away and then at home, McKenzie was among South Africa’s top three run-getters, averaging about 37 over the six Tests as his side were routed thoroughly. A few lukewarm series followed, before the axe fell after the tour to New Zealand in 2004.There was a new convenor of selectors and a new coach and the two found no room for him in the side. McKenzie swallowed the pill but it almost choked him. “You stop enjoying your game,” he explains. “Upfront you try and prove to everybody that you should be there. It took a couple of months and the off season for me to get back. I have enough family and friends to support me. I’m Neil McKenzie the person before the cricketer. I don’t need cricket to make me a good guy “Quite a few people tried to explain. In South Africa there are things out of your control but you’ve just got to try and get out of it.” For McKenzie that amounted to throwing himself into domestic cricket. “I started to focus on what I was doing and by concentrating on winning things for the Lions [his franchise].”That helped him find equilibrium in a difficult time when South African cricket was going through a phase of transition, as influential administrators adopted a policy of change aimed at achieving transformation.The time on the fringe was instructive for McKenzie. “I didn’t cash in on big innings when I was given the chances in the South African set-up. So I realised I needed to rectify it in terms of getting big hundreds.”Did he ever fear he would end up a forgotten man? “No,” he says, cutting me short as I begin my next question. “I have enough family and friends to support me. I don’t need cricket to be Neil McKenzie. I’m Neil McKenzie the person before the cricketer. I don’t need cricket to make me a good guy. My support structure is my wife, my kids, my dad, my mum, my brother, my sister and my friends – all these guys have played a huge role in my career.”It was that support structure that kept him from taking the easy way out. As the country’s various selection panels were forced to adopt the quota system, the numbers of players opting to leave increased. Many of McKenzie’s peers took the lucrative Kolpak route out.McKenzie himself was tempted when offers came his way. “I did toy with the idea but I always gave myself a certain time-frame. When people back their abilities, they give themselves a timeframe. I didn’t want to run off at 29 or 30 and just play cricket there. I wanted to give myself the best opportunity and my rough cutoff was 33 or 34,” he says.”I could’ve easily run away citing the political situation about quotas and transformation – whatever.” He decided to stay and fight instead. “I just decided to focus my energy on the Lions, and focus my desire and hunger to play for South Africa again.”McKenzie admits he is never going to reveal his exact thoughts on the quota system. “I have got my own opinion which is mine”, he says. But he does know what he needs to do to rise above the hurdles in his path. “If I want to be an international cricketer, I’m fighting for a certain amount of spots in the team. And if I live up to where I want to be, I certainly should be in the top seven in the structure.”The road home
After 38 Tests out of the side, McKenzie got the comeback call. He says now that he wasn’t surprised that it came. He knew the present captain and coach, Graeme Smith and Mickey Arthur, had been trying to push his envelope through the selectors’ door from the time of the home series against Pakistan early last year. Ranged against them was the defiance of certain administrators, which held things up.

With Graeme Smith after the record opening partnership in Bangladesh. ‘I knew they were trying to get me back in the set-up’ © Getty Images
“I was on holiday with some mates in St Francis where we’d rented a house during the New Year’s Eve period. I get a call saying they needed me for the New Year’s Test against the West Indies. I knew they were trying to get me back in the set-up but it was a surprise as far as the timing went. In any case, it was good to be back”, McKenzie says with a smile.The stumbling blocks were far from all being cleared, though. Norman Arendse, Cricket South Africa’s president, allegedly wanted to replace McKenzie with the struggling Herschelle Gibbs for the tour to Bangladesh. Arthur on the other hand was equally determined not to let go of McKenzie, who observers thought needed to be given more opportunities ahead of Gibbs, who had had a poor run at the top of the order.Despite having been predominantly a middle-order batsman, McKenzie didn’t care much that he had to open. Not that he had had too good a time of opening in his first three Tests, when he played partner, largely unsuccessfully, to Gary Kirsten. Ironically, it was Gibbs who McKenzie replaced back even then.”I averaged 9 [as opener] or something like that. I still wouldn’t take those experiences back because I was happy – I had to adapt to different wickets. That’s why I’m a better traveller now. I’m learning fast to adapt and that is part of my game plan now”, he says.These days he is much more adept at dealing with situations as they arise, both on the field and off it. “I’m back playing Test cricket and I see myself a lot stronger,” he says. “I’m not taking international cricket for granted. As soon as you do that, you’re in trouble. I’m loving each experience.”Everything has changed for McKenzie. He has attained a better perspective on life. “When you play cricket you lead a sheltered lifestyle, but now I’m married with kids. Now I try and grab every occasion as my last, so I deal with pressure a lot better. I’m a better traveller. I just see more positives in situations now than when I was younger.”

Just to prove it’s not all about money Stuart Broad, who turned down the possibility of an IPL contract to concentrate on his Test career, did more than anyone to ensure that the visitors kept in touch with West Indies

Andrew McGlashan in Jamaica07-Feb-2009
Stuart Broad: line, length, and wickets © Getty Images
On a day when another group of cricketers were made very rich, with Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff topping the pile, this Test produced a day that was far removed from the manic world of Twenty20. Yet even though 90 overs produced only 192 runs, the fascinating and fluctuating battle that developed was gripping.Pietersen and Flintoff were England’s big earners in the IPL, but Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah also pocketed the tidy sum of US$275,000 each. Only Flintoff from those four, however, is a frontline bowler, aptly summing up a day when England’s attack had to exert huge energy for hard-earned rewards. Nothing was going to come as easy on this pitch as a Twenty20 pay-day.Just to prove it’s not all about money Stuart Broad, who turned down the possibility of an IPL contract to concentrate on his Test career, did more than anyone to ensure that the visitors kept in touch with West Indies. Broad has always come across as a mature player and his decision to step back from the IPL was made for very sensible reasoning.”I’m still firm on my decision. I’m still only 22 and there’s plenty of time for that sort of stuff,” he said. “I made the decision based on personal factors of having played a lot of cricket in the last 18 months and I felt like I needed a break. No amount of money could change that. We have a three-week break and then the chance of playing in the Ashes.”Those same level-headed qualities helped him overcome a below-par second-day performance to collect three important wickets. Two strikes in three balls boosted his confidence, then his day got even better when he collected the normally immoveable Shivnarine Chanderpaul for a modest 20.”It was pleasing to get a couple of wickets at that stage. Gayle and Sarwan applied themselves really well and made us go to them,” he said. “It proved difficult to get them out, but luckily we went bang, bang just before lunch. All through the day the boys bowled fantastically on what is a very slow, flat wicket.”This is an important tour for Broad. He has been talked up as a Test bowler since he made his debut in the stifling heat of Colombo in 2007-08, where he was also faced with one of the most soul-destroying pitches for a paceman. But he pounded in for 36 overs and although he took just a single wicket he earned plenty of brownie points.However, potential can only support a player for so long. This is his 11th Test and before he began bowling he had 26 wickets at 45.23. Andrew Strauss has sent out a rallying call to his quick bowlers to take the pressure off Andrew Flintoff, and Broad needs to play his part.If Broad is looking for inspiration for Caribbean success he might immediately turn towards a team-mate. Five years ago Steve Harmison arrived with a career record of 41 wickets from 12 matches (and that had been boosted by nine in his previous Test against Bangladesh), but promptly destroyed West Indies with 7 for 12 at this venue and collected 23 scalps in the series. A few months later he was world No. 1.However, the pitch on that tour had more pace and carry, something that Broad was quick to notice. “I remember watching at home when Harmy got 7 for 12 and thinking I’d love to bowl on that one day,” he said with a wry smile. “Then my time comes and it’s three-bouncing to the keeper.”Instead of looking at Harmison for his inspiration, however, Broad could do a lot worse than look at Angus Fraser, who had an outstanding record in this region in the course of three productive tours. In 1989-90 he took 5 for 28 in the famous Sabina Park victory, then five years later took 8 for 75 in Barbados. Then, in 1997-98, he claimed 8 for 53 in what turned into a painful loss in Trinidad as Carl Hooper and David Williams defied the odds in an improbable run-chase. A few days later, however, he bounced back with a match haul of nine as England squared the series at the same venue.The secret to Fraser’s success, as it was throughout his career, was a nagging line and length, which was perfectly suited to Caribbean pitches around the time they were starting to keep low. It was a similar strategy that brought Broad his victims, as he had Gayle dragging on and both Xavier Marshall and Chanderpaul pinned lbw.”It’s a shame the pitches are so slow, but you have to deal with that as bowlers and it’s a way of testing your skills,” Broad said. “You have to bowl your cutters, slower balls and try and deceive the batsmen out rather than using your pace.”It’s a result pitch and has a history of deteriorating. We are certainly thinking very positively in the changing rooms that we have a chance in this fixture.” If England are to win it will require more of the same from Broad, but he won’t shirk from the hard work. The rewards may be less glamorous than IPL riches, but he knows they are more meaningful.

Stats analysis of Anil Kumble’s career

S Rajesh and Mathew Varghese02-Nov-2008
Anil Kumble took 288 wickets in the 43 Test wins that he was a part of, at a fantastic average of 18.75 © Getty Images
Eighteen years, 132 Test matches, 40,850 deliveries, 619 wickets. Those are incredible numbers, and they belong to India’s greatest match-winner. Anil Kumble finishes his career as the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests, and easily the highest among all Indians.His last year in Test cricket wasn’t the greatest (28 wickets at an average of 51.07), but it also meant he ended his career with stats which are remarkably similar to India’s greatest fast bowler and allrounder, Kapil Dev. Kumble had 185 more wickets though he played only one more Test than Kapil, but the difference in average was a miniscule 0.005, which, when rounded off to two decimal places, means Kumble and Kapil finished with exactly the same bowling average. Kapil’s strike-rate is better by just two balls, while Kumble has more five and ten-wicket hauls, largely because he bowled more overs per Test than Kapil did.

Test bowling record for Kumble and Kapil

Bowler Matches Overs Wickets Average Strike-rate 5WI 10WM

Anil Kumble 132 6808.2 619 29.65 65.9358 Kapil Dev 131 4623.2434 29.65 63.9232

Kumble’s record by match result

Result Matches Wickets Average Strike-rate

Won 43 288 18.75 44.4 Lost 33 124 41.35 83.1 Drawn 56 207 37.81 85.6 Where Kumble stands head and shoulders above the other Indian bowlers is in his contribution to team wins. He took 288 wickets in the 43 Tests India won – an average of 6.70 wickets per Test. The average was a remarkable 18.75, at a strike rate of 44.4 deliveries per wicket. Harbhajan Singh, who is next in line in terms of wickets, only has 153. Kumble’s average in wins is only marginally bettered by Kapil Dev, Bishan Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna among Indian bowlers with at least 50 wickets in wins.

Leading Indian wicket-takers in wins

Player Matches Wickets Average Strike-rate

Anil Kumble 43 288 18.75 44.4 Harbhajan Singh 28 153 20.30 48.5 Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 14 98 19.27 45.4 Bishan Bedi 17 97 17.65 54.0 Kapil Dev 24 90 18.30 45.2 Kumble’s value to the Indian team can be gleaned from the percentage of team wickets he took. In the 132 Tests he played, Kumble took almost 31% of India’s wickets; at home it rose to 35.07%, but even overseas his share of wickets was as high as Kapil’s.Kumble’s share of wickets in team wins was an outstanding 34.37%, which means he took a touch more than one in every three wickets. For Kapil, the percentage of wickets in India’s wins was only 19.31, largely due to the fact that 20 of the 24 wins that he was part of came at home, when spinners did much of the bowling.

Kumble’s contribution in India’s wickets in matches he played

Record Wickets Average

India overall 2015 33.94 Kumble’s share 619 (30.72%) 29.65 India at home 998 30.26 Kumble’s share 350 (35.07%) 24.88 India overseas 1017 37.56 Kumble’s share 269 (26.45%) 35.85 In victories 838 22.29 Kumble’s share 288 (34.37%) 18.75

Kapil’s contribution in India’s wickets in matches he played

Record Wickets Average

India overall 1730 35.49 Kapil’s share 434 (25.09%) 29.65 India at home 931 30.40 Kapil’s share 219 (23.52%) 26.49 India overseas 799 41.42 Kapil’s share 215 (26.91%) 32.85 In victories 466 19.80 Kapil’s share 90 (19.31%) 18.30 Critics have often pointed at Kumble’s away record as a proof that he wasn’t a complete bowler, and while that criticism is partly justified, there were several factors that led to Kumble’s poor overseas numbers: the Indian batting often came undone when India played in conditions favouring seam and swing, and with few runs to play with, Kumble’s role was often limited to that of damage control, where he bowled with defensive fields and looked to stem the runs. When the batsmen started performing more consistently abroad, Kumble’s numbers improved significantly too.

Kumble home and away

Venue Matches Wickets Average Strike rate

Home 63 350 24.88 59.4 Away 69 269 35.85 74.5 The shift happened from the England tour of 2002, when Rahul Dravid started his golden run at No. 3, producing several match-winning efforts overseas. With Sachin Tendulkar scoring consistently, and VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly contributing as well, Kumble had enough runs to play with. It helped that during this period he added more variety to his bowling, bringing in the slower legbreak and the googly, and the difference in stats thereafter was significant.

Kumble’s record before and after England tour in 2002

Matches before Wickets Average Matches after</th

Wickets Average

Home 36 210 21.30 2714030.26 Away 34 109 40.40 3516032.75 In Australia 3 5 90.00 7 44 31.79 In England 4 8 63.00 6 28 35.25 In South Africa 9 31 35.32 3 14 24.71 In West Indies 7 22 34.094 23 28.60 In terms of numbers, Kumble’s record is poorer than Muralitharan’s and Warne’s, but to an Indian team struggling to find penetrative bowlers, his presence was immense. And he does have one milestone that neither of his two spin contemporaries could achieve – a Test century, which he managed at The Oval last year.That knock also fetched him his ninth Man-of-the-Match award in Tests. A tenth followed in Delhi later that year against Pakistan, and while he couldn’t achieve a hat-trick of awards at the Feroz Shah Kotla – he had won the prize there in 2005 as well – it was utterly fitting that he bowled his last ball at a ground which has been kinder to him than any other – 58 wickets wickets at 16.79, including that one performance by which India’s greatest match-winner will always be remembered.

Virender Sehwag, a man many believed would get to 200 before the master did, relives the innings of a lifetime

As told to Nagraj Gollapudi25-Feb-2010I am the superstitious kind: I never praise a shot because I fear the moment I do so, the batsman gets out. Till Sachin was on 190 in Gwalior, I was rooted in my seat in the dressing room. But when he got to 190, I couldn’t contain myself. I came out and started cheering every stroke till he got to 200.When he got to 180, I knew he was going to get it, but when he was in the 190s I was concerned. If I was in his place, I would have tried to finish it quickly, because the longer I take, the greater the possibility of me getting out. I would try to wrap it up in three or four balls.Also, he was looking really tired: he had been clutching his right side and showing signs of cramping. So when I stepped out of my seat, I was just saying, “Finish it, finish it.”But Sachin is never in a hurry. He is a different kind of batsman – one who can rotate the strike with ease and understands there is no need to take any chances. Whenever I have been on the brink of landmarks (Melbourne in 2003, Multan 2004) he has instructed me to do this and do that. But those are things only he can do.You might say, this is 200 – a figure no batsman in the history of the game has crossed – but then we are talking about Tendulkar. He looked calm and confident even when he was at the non-striker’s end in those final moments. I knew he just needed one ball, and I also knew he would get the opportunity.He had started the innings in a confident mood. As soon as he hit his first boundary, off the third ball of the second over, he walked up to me and said the pitch was full of runs and we only needed to time the ball. He told me not to think of boundaries or going after the bowler. He was right: throughout he picked the gaps and played the ball as he saw it. He was not thinking too much and that helped.Ten years down the line if I am asked to pick a shot or two from his innings I would love to pick many. But the ones that were special to me were the cover drives off the back foot past extra cover, and the punch, once again on the back foot, past point, off Wayne Parnell. Another incredible shot was the straight six over Roelof van der Merwe’s head. The left-arm spinner is a difficult one to get away, but Sachin was able to make the room and the energy to hit it clean over the sight screen.It is not an easy summit for a batsman to conquer because he needs to possess a variety of attributes. In the past I mentioned on four or five occasions that Sachin had the capability to score a double-hundred in ODIs. I was confident only he could achieve such a feat only because of his experience and the kind of form he is in at the moment.

“I have seen him over the last decade and he is still improving with every match. I think he is in better form now than he was in 1998”

Importantly, he had the hunger and the patience to last for the entire 50 overs. You need to bat out the entire innings to score a double. And it is not so easy because it is not just about hitting boundaries; it is also rotating the strike. I knew if he had 150 balls, he could do it, and he did it in 147 deliveries.I do not want to dwell here on my own batting, but in the past certain people have said I could have scored 200 in one-day cricket, because of my performances in Tests, where I have got near to a hundred before lunch. But I have had the tendency to take too many risks once I reach the 120 or 130-run mark in ODIs. That is difference between me and Sachin.We have had chats about him scoring 200. He thought it was difficult, but I told him only he could do it. Last year in New Zealand, when he retired on 163 I told him he had missed the opportunity, but he said ” [It will eventually happen if I am destined to do it].” He said the same when he got 175 against Australia last year. On Wednesday he said ” [I got what was destined]”.Back in 1998 everyone felt Sachin was in prime form. I was not in the Indian team then. But I have seen him over the last decade and he is still improving with every match, he is practising more than anybody else in the nets, working hard on his fitness. I think he is in better form now than he was in 1998.

India’s bowling unit overcame the absence of Zaheer Khan to achieve what had been expected of the hosts at the start of the series

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Nov-2010Saturday was a grey day in the New Zealand dressing room with newsfiltering through of the mishap at the Pike River coal mine on the SouthIsland, and some decidedly average batting on a none-too-spiteful pitchonly worsened the mood by the close of play. Until Jesse Ryder and BrendonMcCullum, battling physical limitations as much as the bowling or theconditions, stitched together a 42-run stand, it was all India, cutting aswathe through the line-up as they had been expected to before the seriesstarted.It was ironic that this capitulation came in circumstances where NewZealand should have most fancied their chances. They had won the toss, ata venue where the team batting first has won both previous matchesemphatically, and had to contend with an attack deprived of Zaheer Khan,India’s best bowler by a street and then some.In the talisman’s absence though, Sreesanth stepped up to show glimpses ofthe potential that was on view at the Wanderers four years ago when hesent South Africa tumbling to 84 all out. One of his better spells inrecent times was at Kanpur a year ago, when he wrecked Sri Lanka with theold ball and reverse swing. Here, he was back to doing what he had done sowell for two Tests in South Africa, landing the new ball on a good lengthwhile getting beautiful shape through the air.The seam was bolt upright and Martin Guptill had little chance with onethat squared him up completely, while Tim McIntosh was horribly late inbringing the bat down after Sreesanth got one to deviate a smidgen off thestraight. At the other end, Ishant Sharma was erratic, but his height andextra pace hurried the batsmen in a way they hadn’t been in the previous twoTests.There was opening-day joy for the spinners too, even though the surfacewas no 1990s-style dustbowl. “It was a bit slow, but doing something forthe spinners,” said Pragyan Ojha after the day’s play. Kane Williamsonwent to a half-hearted bunt, but the ball that got Gareth Hopkins was abeauty, turning across him to take the edge.With Harbhajan Singh piling on the runs in the absence of wickets, much ofthe focus after India’s failure to win the first two Tests has been onOjha’s role as the auxiliary spinner. MS Dhoni keeps stressing how he’sthe one to keep things quiet and Ojha, a strike bowler when withHyderabad, insisted that he has no qualms about the role that he has toplay.”When you’re playing for the country and the team needs you to dosomething, that’s what you should do,” he said. “When the wicket’sturning, you have to attack. When it’s in the batsmen’s favour, I feelthat if we give loose runs, it’s us that have to make them later.”I know I have to bowl very straight, but I don’t bowl negatively. Yes,I’m trying to contain the runs but I’m still attacking the stumps.”If India missed a trick, it was when Ryder and McCullum were battingtogether. There weren’t enough well-directed bouncers to force McCulluminto urgent evasive action and the spinners, too, didn’t often draw eitherman out of the crease to stretch already aching muscles. It took awonderful catch from Suresh Raina to end the impasse, and with rain in theair, that could be a priceless breakthrough in the context of the game.Even on one leg, Ryder looked a class apart.

Bangladesh celebrated their victory against Ireland as though they’d won more than one cricket match, but the significance went beyond a single result

Sidharth Monga in Mirpur25-Feb-2011Press conferences in today’s media-trained sport don’t usually give much of an insight into the players’ mindset. There’s generally too much of ‘the right areas’ and ‘playing the ball on its merits’. For the last two weeks or so, Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh’s young captain, tactically not one of the best going around but a brave man for his age, has been trying to cover himself in a veil of dispassion. All his press conferences in the build-up to the World Cup – its first match, its first match’s aftermath, its second match – have been all about disciplines and basics and the like.After they finally won one game, however, Shakib, and his two team-mates, Tamim Iqbal and Shafiul Islam, lifted that veil. Minutes after they had gone on a victory lap – yes, after having beaten Ireland – the three came to address the media. Shakib being the captain, Tamim inexplicably being Man of the Match, and Shafiul because Tamim and Shakib thought he should have been Man of the Match.Shakib’s answers today went past two lines for the first time in the last two weeks. Tamim, like a back-bencher in a class, hid behind an energy-drink bottle and kept making fun of whatever he was making fun of. Whenever one person answered a question, the other two would be busy whispering jokes to each other. The national cricketers were back to being kids again; they aren’t too much older in reality, either. Many jokes were cracked in Bangla in those 20 minutes. This press conference, the victory lap, said a lot about the release they felt.”It wasn’t really a victory lap,” Shakib said. “Just showed our feelings. They [the people] have supported us throughout the two matches. Even the time we come for practice, people are on the streets. They just wait for us and wish us good luck. I thought it was our responsibility to show some respect to them as well.”More than respect and feelings, Bangladesh now knew they could show people their faces. That will be a big relief for a group that can’t be the best team to support: they give up chases once Tamim gets out, and they often bat first without plan or brains. Yet they have had this unimaginably crazy support for the last two weeks.And then there has been pressure of having made unpopular and stern, but well-meaning, decisions. It’s no secret that the team management has put its foot down in leaving Mashrafe Mortaza out of the side for the World Cup, because of his fitness problems, against the wishes of those in the board who like to use the popular sentiment. Then they dropped Mohammad Ashraful, again the galleries’ hero who disappoints much too often, for the first game. These are not decisions typical of Bangladesh cricket. The other day Shakib was asked in a press conference, “It seems you don’t like seniors. Why?”All that, combined with the beyond-saturation coverage of the World Cup on TV and in newspapers, plays on players’ minds. When you have a game like Bangladesh had against India – don’t be fooled by the 283 runs they scored, not for one ball did they look like they were competing – you perhaps start thinking of repercussions too. Repercussions, should you not do well, happen in the subcontinent at the end of every World Cup.A lot was pent up coming into this game against Ireland. The kids had looked old and rugged against India. They badly needed to express themselves, there had been too much of right areas, the Bangladeshi cricketers needed to let themselves go. Out came a trigger-happy batting side. All they managed was mindless cricket. It reminded you of what Dav Whatmore said of their cricket when he left them four years ago.”The lack of basic knowledge is a bit staggering really,” Whatmore had said then. “When these young cricketers were growing up in youth cricket, they weren’t told about the basics of cricket.” They were at it again. When they knew 250 would be a daunting total on this slow and low track, they kept getting out to adventurous shots, worst of them being sweeps from well outside off, against the turn of a left-arm spinner. Whether it was pressure or lack of cricketing sense, this was the crazy Bangladesh we know: one-fifths individual brilliance, four-fifths collective implosion.In their defence, though, they came out a brave side. That’s their strength. When they have team-mates by their side, when they can let their army of spinners apply a choke hold to the opposition, when most importantly they have 25,000 behind them in the stadium, and many more thousands waiting outside.They dived, they caught, they bowled stump to stump. They celebrated every Ireland wicket – batsmen with little experience of playing on low and slow tracks – as if they had just claimed Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. Ashraful, who by his own standards managed a stunningly poor shot to get out for 1, reacted as if he had scored a goal in a World Cup final when he dismissed Andrew White, who didn’t look at home against spin bowling of any kind.It might have put neutrals off, but Bangladesh needed to let it out. Defeat to Ireland would have crushed them. The tension was getting released with every step they took towards a first win. It culminated in that victory lap – not really a victory lap, Shakib will point out. Now that they have bitten this bullet, they should not be so muddled in their heads in the coming games, but if their batsmen are as suicidal as they were today, they will find teams who are not as obliging as Ireland were.

Brad Haddin is Australia’s leading run scorer in the World Cup, and is confident that he is doing his job

Brydon Coverdale in Ahmedabad23-Mar-2011Before Australia’s first World Cup match, Ricky Ponting spoke of how important it was for Brad Haddin to turn his encouraging starts into match-winning hundreds. A 30 or a 50 from a top-order player, Ponting said, rarely wins a game for his team.And Haddin, unlike his opening partner Shane Watson, hasn’t made an ODI century since last March. But nor has he failed very often. Since the start of the Australian summer, Haddin has opened in 15 one-day internationals, and only twice has he scored less than 20.Marcus North’s Test manhattan showed little but skyscrapers and tiny sheds; Haddin’s one-day graph is full of mid-range apartment buildings. The captain might want more tall towers, but Haddin is Australia’s leading run scorer in the World Cup, and is confident that he is doing his job.”I’m a bit different [in my thinking],” Haddin told ESPNcricinfo this week. “I think the main thing is to get the team off to a good start. Statistically, Shane and I are nearly averaging 50 with our partnerships. The important thing for me is to make sure you’re setting a good platform so everyone can build on that throughout the whole game. From a personal point of view, everyone wants to score more hundreds and get the personal result, but the main thing is to be consistently setting the team up for a good platform to launch from at the end.”And in that regard, the Haddin-Watson combination is working reasonably well. Their average opening partnership is 49.50, and of all the pairs that have opened for Australia on at least 20 occasions, only the brief Adam Gilchrist-Simon Katich liaison averaged more.Even so, Haddin could stand to score his runs a shade quicker. Against Pakistan, he took 80 deliveries to make his 42, and the spin-heavy Zimbabwe attack kept him to 29 off 66. A more fluent Haddin was seen in the win over New Zealand, when he raced to 55, and once he eventually found his rhythm against Kenya, he finished with 84 at better than a run a ball.”A couple of times here, I’ve started a bit slower because I haven’t really seen the bowlers before,” Haddin said. “When we played against a team like New Zealand, you know a bit more about the bowlers, and the way they’re going to play. You just judge the situation on whatever gets thrown your way, and what the wicket is going to do, whether it’s going to be a 300 wicket or a 260 wicket, things like that.”A feature of Haddin’s game during this World Cup has been the way he backs away to give himself room to hit over the off side against the fast bowlers. When it works, it looks brilliant, but when he misses, it looks ugly and manufactured.”I haven’t been doing that quite as much in the last couple of games,” he said. “It’s something that you just work on with different conditions. The important thing in these tournaments is to play with freedom. We’ve been here a long time now and we are able to play with freedom. If we play that way and at our best, there’s no one that can beat us.”That may be true if Haddin and Watson bat like they did against Canada, when they mauled the attack and put on 183 at better than a run a ball. Handling a team like India on Thursday, or Pakistan if they reach the semi-finals, is a much sterner challenge, although at his best Watson can destroy any attack.Haddin has had a front-row seat for some of Watson’s finest innings, including the unbeaten 161 he managed against England at the MCG in January. Despite his own talents and experience, Haddin is effectively the junior partner, and he knows that sometimes his role is simply to give Watson the strike.”If you bat together for any period of extended time, you start to understand each other’s game,” Haddin said. “I think Watto and I complement each other. There are days when Shane is on, and you’ve just got to make sure you feed him the ball. If he takes a bit longer, then it’s your day to maybe take a few more risks because you know how destructive he can be, the longer he bats.”The Haddin-Watson combination has been Australia’s preferred opening partnership over the past two years. For a year before that, Watson and Shaun Marsh were forming a strong alliance as Australia tried to work out who would open at the 2011 World Cup.In 2007, the decision was much more straightforward. Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden headed an imposing Australian batting order that never lost more than six wickets in a match throughout the entire tournament, and nearly half the time posted 300-plus totals.Haddin spent two months in that World Cup squad as the backup for Gilchrist. Like Mitchell Johnson, he didn’t get a game, but learnt a lot about success.”That was a wonderful experience, to be part of a whole World Cup campaign,” he said. “We did have a tremendous run and an outstanding team. From a player’s point of view who wasn’t playing, you can’t get a better education than watching the way the team prepared, watching the momentum they created through the tournament. It makes you hungry to be a part of it.”Four years later, Haddin is a key part of it. And if Australia are to make it four World Cup triumphs in a row, they’ll need a few more of his good starts.

Doug Bracewell’s Test performances have been much better than his first-class ones so far. And his tough and disciplined upbringing should help him stay at the highest level

Andrew Alderson17-Dec-2011There is nothing accidental about Douglas Andrew John Bracewell’s rise to prominence in New Zealand cricket. The son of former Test player, now coach, Brendon, the 21-year-old has been immersed in the game since he could lift a bat and roll his arm over. He has three uncles – John, Mark, and his namesake Doug – who played the game at the first-class level, and a cousin, Michael, doing the same. Yet recent evidence suggests Doug is capable of standing on the shoulders of such giants, notably his 9 for 60 in Hobart to help New Zealand win their first Test against Australia in more than 18 years – even if the farcical public mobile-phone voting system failed to award him Man of the Match.Most of the world may not have seen Bracewell brewing as a future New Zealand cricketer. It seems an age since he made his first-class debut for Central Districts in 2008. He has probably been fortunate to be selected, given he isn’t centrally contracted and his first-class bowling record – 46 wickets at an average of 40.65 in 18 matches – in no way compares to the 16 wickets at 19.25 he has amassed in three Tests, which includes two of his three first-class five-wicket hauls.However, Bracewell is a case of New Zealand coach John Wright applying intuition and reaping the benefits of selecting an instinctive competitor over rivals who stack up better statistically.Bracewell grew up having to be physically and mentally tough to survive. His father ran the original Bracewell academy at Te Puna, just out of the Bay of Plenty city of Tauranga (he now runs a similar concept in Napier). Boys aged 10 to 13 would come in over the summer to train. Former Test cricketer Chris Kuggeleijn used to help Brendon with the camp.”It was pretty hard-case,” Kuggeleijn senior reflects. “They’d run 2km or so up to what was known as ‘Get Hard Park’, near the Te Puna rugby grounds. They’d run up hills, sprint and do shuttle runs from the 22-metre mark [on the rugby fields] to the goal line. I think the camp motto was loosely along the lines of: ‘Drop him off a kid, he’ll come back a man’.”It was an environment where you fended for yourself. You slept in bunks, and we always had a barbecue at night with meat, spuds and maybe the odd vegetable. However, you got no milk with your cereal in the morning if you’d bowled too much down leg side the previous day. There was plenty of fun too, like when Brendon would bring out a speed-ball radar for competitions.”

“What you see is what you get with Doug. He does not overcomplicate matters. He bowls a good length, a heavy ball, and keeps things simple. It’s no surprise seeing him succeed”Bracewell’s Central Districts’ coach Alan Hunt

It was not the most politically correct of camps. “It was about instilling discipline,” Kuggeleijn says. “We’d have rugby on the lawn after the cricketing day was done, and I remember Doug and Scott getting into a minor scrap. They had a choice: no ‘Test cricket’ the next day or take a light whack on the arse with a plastic stump in front of everyone. It was nothing drastic. Both dads – me and Brendon – gave each of them a paddle and we all got on with it. I don’t think it did anyone any harm.”Kuggeleijn remembers Bracewell as one of the bigger kids in his year, who “ruled the roost” – which probably came back to haunt him at the private Rathkeale College, where, New Zealand’s reported, he was expelled for attacking sleeping boarders in a dormitory in June 2007. The matter was referred to Youth Aid by the Masterton police but not taken to court.However, Central Districts coach Alan Hunt says Bracewell has been excellent to mentor. “What you see is what you get with Doug. He does not overcomplicate matters. He bowls a good length, a heavy ball, and keeps things simple. It’s no surprise seeing him succeed.”He enjoys life like any young man, but he’s not silly. Doug’s got the Bracewell hardness but he doesn’t say much on the field. He doesn’t get too emotional and he’s not much of a sledger. He just bowls. Doug’s quite worldly-wise and mature. His dad’s been an influence as a firm taskmaster. It’s almost made him 21 going on 31.”New Zealand allrounder Jacob Oram has played with Bracewell at Central Districts since the young bowler’s domestic debut, and led him on the odd occasion. He reiterates the “uncomplicated” theme.”He goes about his business and doesn’t talk or complain a lot; just head down, bum up. You can give him an old or a new ball, tell him to bowl anything from a yorker to a bouncer and he does it.”Hunt accepts he won’t have Bracewell available for the rest of the summer other than in the HRV Cup Twenty20 competition, starting December 18. However, he’s disappointed Bracewell doesn’t have a central contract with NZC. It means Central Districts picks up his salary tab.”I felt he should have been contracted to NZC straight away. It would have allowed us to contract another player. In the past they would have put him on an elevated contract, like Jamie How and James Franklin last summer, but that is not an option with the current budgetary constraints.”Oram says Bracewell is among those rare players who has a better record in Tests than at the first-class level. “I think it comes from having more opportunities to bowl and bat in a Black Caps environment, where he can immerse himself in cricket. He has good instincts and we’ll see more out of him. He’s a bigger talent with the bat than we’ve seen, although there was a glimpse against Australia A, when he made 73 not out off 79 balls. He can play off both feet. He’s suited to No. 8 or No. 9 at the moment, but could eventually sneak into No. 7 as a genuine allrounder.”

The decision to make Matthew Wade Australia’s first-choice wicketkeeper in the shorter formats could have ramifications for Brad Haddin’s Test career as well

Brydon Coverdale20-Feb-2012As John Inverarity answered questions about Australia’s one-day squad selections on Monday, two things became clear. One was that Ricky Ponting has played his last one-day international, but that his Test future remains in his own hands. The second was that Brad Haddin faces a serious challenge to play for Australia again in any format.Two wicketkeepers will be chosen for the one-day and Test tour of the West Indies in March and April. The selectors have confirmed that those two men will be Haddin and Matthew Wade, barring unforeseen circumstances. They have also declared that Wade will be the first-choice gloveman in T20 and one-day international cricket from now on.They have not made a similarly categorical statement about the Test position. And that’s where Haddin’s future becomes clouded. The limited-overs games in the Caribbean come before the Tests. Wade has a wonderful chance to impress in seven matches before the five-day contests begin. It is possible he will debut in the first Test in Barbados.In the meantime, Haddin has no choice but to find form for New South Wales in their final two Sheffield Shield matches of the season. Even that is not without its complications, as the promising young gloveman Peter Nevill will push Haddin for a place in the state side. After that, he’ll have nothing but a three-day tour match in the West Indies in which to argue his case.If the Test side was picked today, it would hard to leave Wade out. He is in form in all formats. He hasn’t had the chance to play a first-class match since early December, but in his five first-class outings this summer he has averaged 61.50. In his initial ODIs he has batted with maturity, he has been agile behind the stumps and his enthusiasm and energy has been unmistakable.Meanwhile, Haddin has just made a pair in a Sheffield Shield match in Perth, and had an indifferent Test series against India with both bat and gloves. He dropped catches and made no runs of consequence. He appeared uncertain and listless. There didn’t seem to be any real drive. It was easy to overlook in a series dominated by Australia, but it is hard to imagine he offered more than Wade would have.And so, the selectors wanted to see what Wade could offer in the tri-series that followed. They have been impressed with what they have seen. Initially, there was confusion over whether Haddin had been rested or dropped. In announcing the squad for this week’s matches, Inverarity tried to clarify the selection process at the start of the Commonwealth Bank Series.”When we sat down to select the side, which was the 29th or 30th of January, the exact situation is this: we had selected Matthew Wade to be the keeper in the T20 side,” Inverarity said. “We were keen to further develop Matthew Wade and have a look at him. We identified him as the second wicketkeeper in Australia. The NSP has stated constantly that it wants to develop more depth.”We want to know that we’ve got more than one keeper of international standard and blooded, ready for the fray in Test match cricket whenever is required. That’s what we wanted to do with Matthew Wade. The NSP was also aware that Brad had a fluctuation of form, both with the bat and the gloves but had finished well with the gloves [against India], and it would have done him good to have a break.”All of that [was] common sense, and we also decided then that Brad would remain in contention and that we’d give Matthew the first three games and probably the five games, and then we would reconsider … When I said he was rested, that was probably incomplete. I made an error. I should have said what I just said then. To say that he was dropped wasn’t quite correct, it was exactly as I said.”To sum up, at first the selectors put Haddin aside and wanted to see what other talent was out there. Now that Wade has impressed them, Haddin has been dropped. It was the right move for a one-day side looking to the future. It was also the best choice based on form alone. Whether that happens in the Test side as well remains to be seen, but Wade is clearly a man with talent and poise. He would not be out of place in the baggy green.Inverarity hopes the presence of both Wade and Haddin the same touring squad will stir the competitive juices in the two men. Perhaps it will be the spark Haddin needs to snap out of his slump. If he doesn’t, Wade is ready to grab his opportunity. As Inverarity said, the selectors want more than one keeper ready for Test cricket.As they showed by axing Ponting from the ODI squad after a 375-game career, Inverarity’s panel can make the difficult decisions. In contrast, dropping a wicketkeeper who has played 43 Tests wouldn’t be that tough a call. It’s up to Haddin to make their decision that little bit harder.