All posts by h716a5.icu

Also, lowest “missing scores”, a hundredth ODI on one’s birthday, and West Indians with 20,000 international runs

Steven Lynch12-Nov-2013I noticed that the lowest score Sachin Tendulkar never made in a one-day international is 56. The corresponding number in Tests is 30. Does any other batsman go higher than this in Tests or ODIs? asked Vineet Malani from India
Two people have a higher “missing score” in one-day internationals than Sachin Tendulkar’s, which is indeed 56. Inzamam-ul-Haq did make every score up to and including 56, but never finished on 57. But well clear is Ricky Ponting, who made every score from 0 to 70, but never ended up with a 71. Jacques Kallis has also made every score up to but not including 56. In Tests, rather surprisingly perhaps, there are eight players above Tendulkar on the list. Out in front is Andrew Strauss, who made every score from 0 to 40, but never 41. Then come Desmond Haynes (lowest missing score 37), Graham Gooch and Steve Waugh (35), David Boon and Godfrey Evans (33), and Alistair Campbell and Colin Cowdrey (31). Tendulkar and Mark Boucher both never ended up with a score of 30. (Many thanks to ESPNcricinfo’s database guru Travis Basevi for his help with this, and some of today’s other answers.)Rohit Sharma played his first Test after more than 100 one-day internationals. Was this a record? asked Seena John from the United Arab Emirates
Before his successful Test debut in Kolkata last week Rohit Sharma had played 108 one-day internationals, which is indeed a record. The previous mark was 98, by another Indian, Suresh Raina – who also marked his long-awaited Test debut (in Colombo in July 2010) with a century. Andrew Symonds played 94 ODIs before making his Test debut for Australia, and Adam Gilchrist 76. The new leader on this particular list is Kieron Pollard, who has played 85 ODIs so far without appearing in a Test. That excludes five Kenyans – Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo (both 134 ODIs), Collins Obuya (102), Kennedy Otieno (90) and Jimmy Kamande (86) – who have obviously never played Test cricket.Who has dismissed the most different batsmen in a Test series? asked Mike Allen from Australia
Top of this list is Terry Alderman, who dismissed 23 different batsmen during the 1989 Ashes series in England. He’s three clear of another Australian, Ted McDonald, who removed 20 different Englishmen in the 1921 Ashes. England used a record 30 different players in 1921, and 29 in 1989, which obviously helped Alderman and McDonald to their respective hauls. More significant, really, is dismissing every opponent you come up against in a series – after all it’s not up to the bowler how many players the other side chooses. And I don’t think many people would guess the identity of the leading “hundred percenter”, who faced 16 different players in one Test series and dismissed them all at least once. It’s Ravichandran Ashwin, who removed all 16 Australians he played against in India’s four-match home series earlier this year. Subhash Gupte (India v New Zealand in 1955-56), Johnny Wardle (England v South Africa 1956-57) and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (India v England 1972-73) all came up against 15 different batsmen in a series and dismissed them all.Gurdeep Singh, who is only 15, opened the batting for Kenya in a one-day international last month. Is he the youngest ODI player of all? asked George Harbinson from Kenya
It’s difficult to be entirely sure about this. The left-hand opener Gurdeep Singh was, if the details supplied to ESPNcricinfo by Cricket Kenya are correct, only 15 years 258 days old when he made his full one-day international debut against Afghanistan in Sharjah last month. The only younger player on the list is Hasan Raza, at 14 years 233 days for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in Quetta in October 1996. But serious doubts were raised, not least by the Pakistan Cricket Board, about Raza’s age – and I think it is generally accepted that he is at least a year older, possibly a little more, than his published date of birth suggests. For the full list, click here.Brad Haddin played his 100th one-day international on his birthday. Is this unique? asked Abbas Khambati from India
Brad Haddin’s 100th one-day international came against India in Ranchi on October 23, which was his 36th birthday. The only other man to do this was Inzamam-ul-Haq, who made 53 not out against England during the 1995-96 World Cup in Karachi, on what was his 26th birthday. Carl Hooper played his 200th one-day international on his 35th birthday in December 2001 – and scored 72 against Sri Lanka in Kandy.Shivnarine Chanderpaul went past 20,000 runs in international cricket at Kolkata. Is he the first West Indian player to reach this milestone? asked Richard Webb from Britain
During the Kolkata Test Shivnarine Chanderpaul became the tenth batsman to complete 20,000 runs in all international cricket – but the second from West Indies after Brian Lara, who ended up with 22,358. Top of the list, of course, is Sachin Tendulkar with 34,283 in Tests, one-day and Twenty20 internationals (as of today’s date). After him come Ricky Ponting (27,483), Jacques Kallis (25,304), Rahul Dravid (24,208), Kumar Sangakkara (23,541), Mahela Jayawardene (23,493), Lara, Sanath Jayasuriya (21,032), Inzamam-ul-Haq (20,580) and Chanderpaul.

In their win against Pakistan, Sri Lanka truly knew the boundaries of their ability and rarely sought to exceed them

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Dubai12-Jan-2014″I know that I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing,” goes a common misappropriation of a Socratic quote. It was originally intended to reveal something of the nature of knowledge itself, but has lately been used to advance the thought that awareness of personal limitation is wisdom.The world of sport often charges in the opposite direction to this sentiment. Self-belief is deemed a pre-requisite for any elite sportsman – the ability to achieve in the face of great odds, and to overcome where many have tried and foundered. The idea that nothing is impossible is propagated even beyond athletic pursuit. Such notions may have their uses in cricket, but in Sri Lanka’s second away-victory in almost five years, they have truly known the boundaries of their ability, and rarely sought to exceed them.Asking the opposition to bat first, particularly in Asia, is sometimes construed as weakness. Many perceived greentops often have little in them for fast bowlers beyond the first session, and countless touring captains have unwittingly surrendered prime batting days to the opposition.Angelo Mathews’ preference to field first had of course been vindicated when Pakistan had been dismantled for 165, but not only had it been an unprecedented choice at this venue, Mathews had watched on for hours as Pakistan’s experienced batsmen blunted his quick men’s movement in Abu Dhabi. Shaminda Eranga and Suranga Lakmal had undoubtedly bowled well in the first Test, but there had been little in their Test history to suggest they were capable of skittling Pakistan as they did, much less that Nuwan Pradeep would be the key man to sparking the opposition’s collapse. His team’s feeble first-innings returns in the previous game, and the consequent hankering for safety-first were the more likely forces to driving Mathew’s decision. Perhaps somewhat to his own surprise, Sri Lanka’s own first innings could hardly have begun at a more advantageous time – just as the pitch had begun to slow and flatten.”Apart from the first day, this was a regular Dubai wicket,” Mathews said. “The spinners weren’t able to be that successful on this wicket, because it was very helpful for the fast bowlers on the first day. After that it became a bit slow, but still good for the batsmen, as usual.”Sri Lanka’s longest innings was more evidence of self-awareness coming good. Mahela Jayawardene sizes up situations better than any Sri Lanka player, and though that usually means he reads conditions well, on this occasion, he also knew the limitations an injury would impose on his own game. The favoured cover-drive and well-loved sweep were largely shelved, and even when Pakistan’s bowlers strung together admirable spells, Jayawardene and Kaushal Silva did not venture a counterattack.Control defined the bowling too, as Pakistan kept Sri Lanka in the field for 137.3 overs in the second innings. No wickets fell for almost two sessions on day three, but on a pitch that did not favour Rangana Herath’s spin, Sri Lanka did not devise tricks for Misbah-ul-Haq or Younis Khan, they simply waited. At times it seemed Sri Lanka lacked flair and imagination, persisting with an in-out field that did not challenge batsmen, but as the fast bowlers had already made giant leaps in the series, Mathews may understandably have been wary of asking too much. In the end, the visitors waited Younis and Misbah out – both fell to balls that gleaned unexpected venom from the surface.”The toss was a bit crucial but I thought you need to bowl in the right areas to get them out,” Mathews said. “The bowlers did exactly that. I thought they were brilliant in the first innings as well as the second innings. Given the conditions, they had to put it on the right spot, which they did.”As the threat of rain loomed in their run chase, Sri Lanka veered towards conservatism again, small though their target was. In 16 overs before lunch, only 35 runs had been gathered. Such steady progress might have appeared foolish if the rains had actually come, but instead, Sri Lanka secured the last of their many moral victories in the match – their first century-stand for the first wicket since June 2011.”We actually thought it might rain as well, but thankfully it didn’t rain,” Mathews said. “Sarfraz Ahmed was batting well and we wanted to stop him scoring runs, and to bowl to the new batsman. We couldn’t let them off the hook by giving them too many runs. We had to be a bit cautious about the runs as well.”Six of Sri Lanka’s XI have fewer than 17 Tests’ experience, so perhaps Mathews will tread with caution in the near future as well. As Mathews exulted at the close, the inexperienced cricketers had all shown Test-match fortitude. Few would have imagined Sri Lanka could have an unassailable lead in the series without a big haul for Herath or a hundred for Kumar Sangakkara.In the past, Sri Lanka’s most prosperous periods have also featured their most attacking cricket, and while one win is not enough to prove that they are suddenly better suited to the reverse, they have shown that ambition need not breed every success.

Bangladesh picked a lone specialist seamer for the first time in a Test, but their choice of Al-Amin Hossain over the more experienced Robiul was puzzling. The focus seemed more on containing runs

Mohammad Isam04-Feb-2014Seam will play a role – Chandimal

Dinesh Chandimal suggested Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers would have a vital role to play on the slow, low surface in Chittagong. Bangladesh chose only one frontline seam option for the match, but Al-Amin Hossain had the best economy rate of bowlers who delivered more than five overs on the first day.
“As a player, I feel that it’s hard to get runs off the seamers,” Chandimal said. “So we’re looking forward to doing the basics with the ball. It’s similar conditions to Galle, so we have these kinds of pitches back home.”
Chandimal and Angelo Mathews had been dismissed late in the day, and putting his own form down to the fluctuations international cricketers must endure, he suggested Sri Lanka aimed to bat out most of day two.
“Bit disappointed because I played a rash shot and Mathews also got out. But still we have Kithuruwan [Vithanage] and Dilruwan [Perera], so they are going to get more runs tomorrow. It’s difficult to bat in these conditions, but we’ll hope for 200 runs – that might be a good total.”

On many occasions, the short-term in a five-day game is given more priority. Presented with a situation where his bowling attack hemorrhaged 730 runs in the Mirpur Test, the Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim cut down on attacking options in the Chittagong game, thereby underselling his team’s ability.Even on the opening day, it was apparent that wickets were going to be hard to come by. Al-Amin Hossain was the only pace bowler in the attack, the first time Bangladesh were playing a Test match with a single front-line seamer. Spinners Abdur Razzak and Mahmudullah were included in place of Robiul Islam and Rubel Hossain to keep the runs down, probably string together dot balls and hope the batsmen make mistakes.It was strange to see Robiul serve drinks on a ground where he has taken 16 wickets at an average of 20.87. He was the Player of the Series in Zimbabwe three Tests ago and in the Mirpur Test before this he had created enough opportunities to remain an automatic choice.By only including Al-Amin, Mushfiqur has confused the status quo among the pace bowlers. Here is an understudy, without the full physical and technical build-up, being asked to bowl long spells and do a holding job, when he should have had the support of another hardworking pace bowler at the other end.The explanation, through Mahmudullah’s press conference, was that the lack of swing or bounce in the Chittagong wicket encouraged that decision. But Al-Amin, to his credit, did what was expected of him. He made few attempts to drag Kumar Sangakkara out of his driving area, but swerved some deliveries away from the left-handers. He had the openers on a leash by varying his length quite regularly.Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to understand why Robiul wasn’t picked as the team’s leading seamer when his record and form says enough. But a less experienced, more vulnerable pace bowler was chosen ahead of him, because the team management wanted Al-Amin’s control rather than Robiul’s wicket-taking ability.When Razzak walked off with a strained left hamstring after just four overs, Mushfiqur was a bowler short against the might of Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. They duly put on a sizable stand of 178. Mahmudullah, as expected, was insipid. He bowled short to Sangakkara and got punished, but later accounted for Jayawardene against the run of play. To be fair to a middle-order batsman who bowls spin, it is quite harsh to expect him to do a specialist spinner’s job despite taking 12 wickets in his last game, a first-class Bangladesh Cricket League match.He said the new ball spun more than the older one, but he didn’t hold an opinion on the pitch just yet.”It is a little tough to make predictions about this wicket,” Mahmudullah said. “We have to see what happens tomorrow. We hope that there will be spin. This morning it spun for a while with the new ball while it didn’t during the middle period and then later with the new ball. We have to work hard tomorrow so we have to start well. If we can take two early wickets, we can capitalise on that.”On the second day, Bangladesh will depend on Shakib Al Hasan’s dipping flight and ability to extract turn. Sohag Gazi too will have to bowl a less flat trajectory.Mahmudullah said it was the team’s tactic to bowl to cut out runs. “It is not defensive, just a different tactic. They are good players of spin, so it becomes necessary to contain the runs. Then you wait for them to make a mistake.”There were times when we did miss the length. Sometimes when the ball doesn’t turn, spinners get frustrated. We did bowl a few bad balls but when we regrouped, the discussion was to contain the runs. We came back well at the end of the day,” he said.Sri Lanka’s vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal said they too were surprised that Bangladesh picked only one seamer. But unlike Angelo Mathews, Mushfiqur doesn’t boast of fast bowlers topping the speed guns and moving the ball in barren conditions, or spinners who can regularly break partnerships. There could be an attempt to keep Robiul’s axing within the same mindset but it was far too defensive to drop your best fast bowler.

England have never lost to Scotland but Peter Moores could think of more straightforward first assignments as he prepares to head north with the independence argument in full swing

Jon Coates02-May-2014England’s misadventure against the Netherlands is still fresh in the memory, but they have never lost a match to Scotland. There again, they have only deigned to play Scotland three times, and only once has there been a result.Scotland have been active as a cricket team for 149 years, but only as a recognised international team since 2006. When you consider that the Union came into being nearly 400 years ago, it is farcical that the two neighbours took so long to get together on a cricket field. But here we are, bound for Aberdeen.It was one of international cricket’s support acts, the Netherlands, whose victory in Chittagong finally banished Ashley Giles’ hopes of getting the England coach’s job. Now the Scots are a potential pitfall for the man preferred to Giles, Peter Moores, as he embarks upon his second term in charge.There is certainly enough anti-English sentiment around at the moment to spice up the contest. As the Scots squabble over whether or not to end a political pact that was signed in 1707 and declare independence, there is for the first time an expectation across the border that their team might just have enough ammunition to outgun the Sassenach forces.Such an upset would be cheered especially loudly by the champions of Scottish independence, so it is the last thing they will want to hear about in Westminster. From small shifts in self-belief, mood swings can take place. Why, to stretch the point, Moores might just have the future of the Union in his hands.According to the polls, the Yes vote is currently creeping on the No vote, which was previously thought to be protected by impenetrable walls. England look as vulnerable as they have for a long time, while Scotland have the new-found confidence of World Cup qualifiers.This is their first game since the ICC World Cup qualifying tournament in New Zealand, where they lost only one game and pulled off many victories with an unfamiliar swagger. Suddenly they are no longer dreaming of the win that would make them national heroes but purposefully plotting it.From an England perspective, at least the Mannofield ground does not carry bad memories. It has only been an ODI venue since 2008 and Scotland have yet to make it a fortress. Unless the scalp of England is taken it will remain most famous for being the last place Bradman batted on British soil – he made a century there in September 1948 at the end of the “Invincibles” tour.Aberdeen is not a nationalist heartland, either. North Sea oil has made the city and surrounding county a cosmopolitan and increasingly wealthy part of Scotland, all of which has helped cricket to flourish. Scotland’s current shirt sponsor is the Parkmead Group, an oil and gas exploratory firm run by Tom Cross, father of Scotland’s hard-hitting wicket-keeper batsman Matthew.Both teams have new coaches, albeit one, in Moores, who has been in this position before. “You don’t take games like this lightly because if you do, you get stung,” Moores said on the eve of the first Scotland-England ODI in 2008, when he was England’s coach and Kevin Pietersen the captain. That was one Union which failed to stand the test of time.Moores could probably think of better ways to begin his second coming than the danger of a defeat in Aberdeen of all places. As for Craig Wright, his Scotland adversary, he could not imagine a better statement ahead of next year’s World Cup than Scotland’s first ODI win over a full ICC member other than Bangladesh.Wright, a former captain and seam bowler, is only in caretaker charge until Grant Bradburn, currently coach of New Zealand A, takes over in early July, with Wright as his assistant. But he has never failed to impress cricket people in the shires and his career prospects would be buttressed by a famous win at Mannofield.But what is all this loose talk of a revival for Scottish cricket? Haven’t they been banished from the county one-day circuit after becoming so weak they no longer even enjoyed the occasional win? Didn’t they fail to reach the 16-team World Twenty20 finals, unlike Nepal, the UAE and Hong Kong? Haven’t they been left lagging behind by the Irish?Weren’t they mocked on the Emerald Isle for writing to every county professional, including William Porterfield and Paul Stirling, to ask if they could trace any Scottish blood in their ancestry and did they fancy a crack at playing at the next World Cup?All of those things are true, but Scotland turned a corner at the qualifiers in New Zealand, they now have a six-match World Cup campaign to work towards and there is much about the team to like, and to respect.Because they are young and largely homegrown, fans no longer have to sheepishly acknowledge that their only decent players are Dougie Brown, Gavin Hamilton and southern-hemisphere sorts who found a girl in Arbroath or Motherwell and settled down.They are energetic and ambitious, fortified by three or four of the players who answered Cricket Scotland’s infamous correspondence, and they have uncovered individuals like Calum MacLeod and Preston Mommsen who not only know how to play but also how to win.Ireland would probably never have beaten England had some of their players not accelerated their development within the English system, and the Dutch have benefited from county links of their own.Scotland have given seven or eight domestic players enough money to dedicate themselves to full-time training in Edinburgh, but players such as Yorkshire left-armer Iain Wardlaw, Sussex batsman Matt Machan and Rob Taylor of Northants have also made key contributions.Four months ago, though, before the renaissance, they returned from the World Twenty20 Qualifier having lost four of their games and finished seventh. Despite the introduction of Wright and Paul Collingwood to the coaching ticket, they had been so mentally weak that Collingwood admitted when he looked back over the winter: “There were moments when, I’ll be honest, I thought ‘these guys can’t take the heat’.”He challenged the players to prove him wrong, and within weeks of that Scotland interview he was coaching England in his guise as a temporary fielding coach and coming to terms with the reality that their players could not cope with pressure terribly well either.England have not struggled to stifle the Scots in their previous meetings, but it feels like there is far more riding on the result this time, and the hosts are in rude health.MacLeod, who reinvented himself as a free-flowing opener after his action was judged illegal at Warwickshire, is on a short-term trial at Durham. Machan is rated highly by Sussex and the Scotland captain, Kyle Coetzer of Northants, was born and bred in Aberdeen and averages 82 in ODIs on his home ground.One thing that probably won’t give the Scots an advantage is the Mannofield wicket. In ten ODIs on the ground the average run rate is 4.73 and there have been seven centuries, two of them by New Zealanders who christened the track in style with 402 for 2 against Ireland in 2008.Most Scottish cricketers have benefited at some point from an association with England. Few, if any, will be supporting the Yes vote when they enter the polling booths in September. But they will realise they have a chance to make cricket history next week, leaving the more significant political battle to others.

Samiullah Beigh and Parvez Rasool are confident that the Jammu & Kashmir players can compete in the Ranji Trophy if the board arranges training facilities

Nagraj Gollapudi & Amol Karhadkar20-Sep-2014On Thursday Samiullah Beigh, Jammu & Kashmir’s senior-most and best fast bowler, went to the suburb of Nishat, about eight kilometres outside Srinagar, to attend his friend Tariq’s funeral. Though it’s unclear how he died, it has been suggested that Tariq, volunteering to rescue victims caught in floods that ravaged the north Indian state, might have been electrocuted while clinging to high-tension power cables, a survival tactic thousands were using as water levels rose dangerously.On September 7, the river Jhelum, the lifeline of J&K, breached its embankment and submerged not only remote districts of the state but also Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, half of which continues to lie under water.Cricket, then, is the last thing on anyone’s mind. Beigh last played cricket on September 1. Heavy rains washed out the Ranji Trophy trial matches, scheduled to start on September 3. The ongoing Downtown Champions League, a local T20 tournament, also had to be abandoned. Three days later, the flood waters entered Srinagar. Beigh was at a relative’s place in Buchpora, a town on an elevated level on the outskirts of Srinagar. But in Allochi Bagh, in the commercial heart of the capital, Beigh’s family was not so lucky. Jhelum was raging and houses were fast filling with water. Phone and power supply had been cut. “The last thing I heard from my sister was the ground floor of our three-storey house was under water. That was on the afternoon of September 7. For half the following week I did not hear from them,” Beigh recollects.Beigh’s tale is similar to that of J&K captain Parvez Rasool, who was stranded along with his family, trying to stay afloat above the fast-rising flood waters in his house in Bijbehara in Anantnag district, about 50 kilometres from Srinagar. Rasool had seen cars floating in the water from the third floor of his house but had taken the risk to extract his kit from the boot of his car in the nick of time.”The last 15 days have been the most difficult days of my life,” Rasool says over the phone, explaining it’s still difficult to get a phone signal in Bijbebara. “Every year or alternate year, floods cause some damage, but this year, it was worse than I could have ever imagined. All the vehicles in my neighbourhood were washed away. At least 125 houses have been badly damaged. Even houses constructed on elevated structures above flood levels were virtually submerged this year.”Back in Srinagar, Beigh used makeshift rafts to join the relief squads. On the way he was heartened to meet fellow Ranji team-mates Obaid Haroon, Zahoor Sofi, Sajad Sofi and Abid Nabi. “I was delighted to see Nabi alive, because, according to reports, Pampore, where he comes from, was one of the most severely affected,” Beigh says. “No one among us can even think playing cricket because we are yet to recover from the shock and the loss due to the floods.”Beigh says most of the state’s cricketers depend on the game for their livelihood, so the current situation is going to affect them badly. But he doesn’t know whom to approach for help.The Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association offices are housed in Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium, which is reported to be still under 15 feet of water. The players usually train at the stadium because the facilities are better than any in Jammu.ML Nehru, the JKCA secretary, believes it is highly unlikely any cricket will be possible in Srinagar this year since winter will set in two months and the grounds will soon be covered by snow. “We still cannot really say that the situation is under control. There are plenty of boys who we have been struggling to get in touch with, across age groups. The natural calamity was so severe that all the grounds in Srinagar are still submerged. Though the situation in Jammu is slightly better, all the wickets are severely affected, so we are not really sure when will things get back on track.”According to Nehru, the selection trials’ matches for various age groups will need to be moved to the Science College ground in Jammu. But Beigh is uncertain about the inadequate facilities at college ground. “The problem is there are no facilities in Jammu. There are no practice pitches. There is only one turf wicket, which is in the central square and needs to be utilised for the four home Ranji matches, so it needs to be preserved.”Rasool is anxious to get on with his cricket as he is likely to feature in the Duleep Trophy starting in October. If the Jammu ground is unfit, he may consider moving to Delhi and practise on his own.Both Beigh and Rasool hope the BCCI will step in and help the players.”If the BCCI could help us train at NCA, or some good facility outside J&K, that could be a solution,” says Beigh. “In a month the domestic season will start. In November the domestic ODIs will start followed by the Ranji season in December.”The BCCI is “very cooperative”, Nehru says, without elaborating on any plan of action. “They have assured as that they will extend all sorts of help we will require.”Nehru says without help the JKCA’s hands are tied. “The Under-16 tournament starts early in October and I doubt if we can participate in it. I doubt if we can conduct the selection trials of the kids and it is not advisable for the kids to travel at the moment. We will explain the situation to the board and take a final call.”Beigh is confident of bouncing back if help is offered to J&K’s cricketers. “Provided we get the best facilities during our preparation in October,” we can put up a good show. Without that I am not sure we can even participate in Ranji Trophy.”Rasool is equally confident. “Till the floods, we were playing trial matches, were training hard, but now cricket has taken a backseat. If it’s difficult to restore the facilities even in Jammu, it would be better if our training camp is moved out of the state.”

Bangladesh have made consistently good starts, with bat and ball, during the ODI series against Zimbabwe. The team will hope this unusual state of affairs persists through to next year’s World Cup

Mohammad Isam27-Nov-2014Bangladesh aren’t used to dominating a series the way they have done against Zimbabwe. Consequently, players have found themselves in unfamiliar situations. So unfamiliar that Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s ODI captain, reckoned their batting wobble in the second ODI in Chittagong – they went from 158 for 0 to 204 for 6 – came about because their middle-order batsmen were unused to walking in after such a big opening stand.”They don’t normally come out to bat in such a good situation, so maybe they got confused.”To a team with Bangladesh’s limited success, good starts with bat and ball are quite rare. With Tamim Iqbal and Anamul Haque putting on 100-plus opening stands in successive matches, and Mashrafe himself picking up early wickets in all three ODIs so far, it’s understandable Bangladesh have been as puzzled as they have been pleased.Obviously, though, Bangladesh would love such starts on a more regular basis. Six of their ten 100-plus opening stands have helped them win games while they have won 25 out of the 47 matches when their openers have put on 50 or more.It’s also important to note the paths Tamim and Anamul have traced over the last 12 months. Tamim had a wretched 2014 until he scored some runs in the Test series against West Indies. Before that, there was widespread talk of dropping him and Mushfiqur Rahim had to defend his position a number of times. Even after the Dhaka Test, when he made 0 and 5, he was severely criticised. He decided to stop speaking to the media and only broke his silence after scoring 109 in Chittagong, which was preceded by another century in the Khulna Test.Tamim has made 5, 76 and 40 in the three ODIs so far and his batting has been quite different to what we have been used to seeing. There have been moments when he has gone on the attack but he has not stayed in that mood for too long. His strike-rate has been in the 70s and 60s in the last two games, and has preferred to accumulate rather than dazzle.Anamul is Bangladesh’s top ODI run-scorer this year, and sits just above Mushfiqur. He has been unable to hold down a Test place, but is a regular in the ODI and T20 teams, and has repaid the selectors’ faith with regular runs at the top of the order.Anamul scores his runs in a different way in ODIs, and not just differently from Tamim. He also likes to accumulate steadily, and waits for boundary balls rather than picking up a lot of singles. He scores a smaller percentage of his runs in singles than many of Bangladesh’s past or current opening batsmen but he makes it up with patience for the long innings. All three of his ODI hundreds have come off more than 130 deliveries and his 95 against Zimbabwe in the third ODI took him 120 balls.With the ball in hand, Mashrafe has been tight, and has regularly given the team quick wickets. In the first ODI, he changed his pace frequently, bowling plenty of slower balls, slightly quicker than slow off-cutters. He dismissed Brendan Taylor thanks to a Mushfiqur screamer and had Elton Chigumbura hitting straight to cover. Mashrafe complained of not finding proper body balance during the first game but in the second ODI, he bowled quicker and picked up three wickets, beating Vusi Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza with pace and length and surprising Sikandar Raza with bounce and a bit of movement off the pitch, getting him to pop one to cover off the leading edge.Mashrafe’s spell of 7-2-24-2 in the third ODI was probably his best of the series. Time and again he troubled Taylor with his tight line, always on the stumps. He was lucky to get Masakadza’s wicket, the umpire ruling him caught behind when the ball came off his thigh pad, but his wicket of Vusi Sibanda came thanks to the consistent build-up of pressure that forced the batsman into a false shot.Bangladesh would love these contributions to become more frequent. Mashrafe’s fitness remains a key, leading up to the World Cup. He has had a regular spell in the side after a long time, and has bowled well against India, West Indies and now Zimbabwe. He is likely to remain the ODI captain as well, and gives an already charged-up cricketer – who missed the 2011 World Cup – enough ammunition to give it his all.With the bat, Bangladesh won’t mind the pace at which Tamim and Anamul score their runs, considering that they have a packed middle-order to accelerate later on. For now, what they will want from their openers is to keep giving them good starts. There is no alternative to starting well, not for Bangladesh at least.

The New Zealand captain ensured the Wellington crowd were entertained by swing bowling and fielding of a rare standard, and then he sated their desire for aggressive shots too

George Binoy in Wellington20-Feb-20151:57

Trott: The situation suited McCullum

An international cricket ground is a large space. Thousands of cars could be parked on one. Put 11 sprightly men on it, marshalled by an attacking captain with a battery of accurate bowlers to call upon though, the gaps on it can shrink drastically. On Friday against New Zealand, despite the sunshine and crisp air in Wellington, England’s batsmen would have found the Regional Stadium as claustrophobic as a windowless solitary confinement cell.It shrunk when Brendon McCullum batted as well – to the size of a backyard – as he blazed a trail of sixes and fours to complete the demolition of England inside 46 overs. His 77 off 25 balls in the chase – McCullum broke his own record for the fastest World Cup fifty – was the perfect celebration of the way New Zealand had performed to dismiss England for 123, because it ensured the strong and appreciative crowd had seen everything. They had been entertained by swing bowling and fielding of a rare standard, and now they had their fill of aggressive shots. They wouldn’t have complained that all of it was from New Zealand.McCullum was buzzing with adrenaline when he went in to bat, because he had been both fulcrum and spearhead of a bowling and fielding display that was an outlier to the performances of more human teams. On the eve of this match, he had spoken of a blueprint his team followed and it probably has one word on every page – attack, in bold and large print. His team could borrow the country’s tourism department’s catchphrase to trademark the way they played – 100% Pure New Zealand.McCullum was everywhere: sprinting to his right from mid-off and diving to cut off shots before they entered the unmanned expanses beyond the 30-yard circle, flying from short cover and midwicket with arm flung out behind him to pull down balls that had already passed his body, racing from mid-off towards long-on to chase down a well-timed drive just inside the boundary, and even running full-tilt after shots he had no hope stopping.His team-mates followed his example perfectly. Adam Milne ran hard towards third man and dived to save a four, and then pulled off running and full-length diving catch at long-on to dismiss Eoin Morgan – feats that few fast bowlers would have been capable of. Daniel Vettori hurried to get behind a stinging throw from his captain to prevent overthrows. Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill and Corey Anderson threw themselves around at gully and slips. And at one point there were four fielders rushing to back up a throw to Luke Ronchi, and not because his wicketkeeping is dodgy.New Zealand’s astuteness in the field combined with remarkable ground speed made for an incredible spectacle, and each one was met with a roar from the full house.Tim Southee on New Zealand’s fielding – ‘It is an attitude thing that’s led by Brendon himself, the way he throws himself around in the field’•Getty ImagesAnd then there was the captaincy. Whenever a fast bowler was operating McCullum employed his catchers. Sometimes there were four slips in the cordon, sometimes there were two. But there was always at least one. A gully was a near-permanent fixture and men prowled at short cover and midwicket. The swinging ball and unrelenting accuracy from New Zealand’s bowlers kept McCullum’s field in play throughout, and when England met their bitter end, more people were catching than not.That end was hastened when McCullum decided to try and wipe England out as soon as Morgan was dismissed in the 25th over, with his team on 104 for 4. He brought back Tim Southee, and it was a decision that culminated in New Zealand’s premier bowler breaking the national record for the best ODI figures.”Got the [Morgan] wicket, and Brendon thought it was a chance to attack and put the foot down,” Southee said, after finishing with 7 for 33. “It’s one of those moves – he makes the play, it comes off, and it couldn’t have been a better move.”Southee added that New Zealand’s approach began with their captain. “We’ve seen over the last … however long Brendon has been in charge, he’s an aggressive captain and the way he plays his cricket is aggressive,” he said. “As bowlers that gives you the confidence to go out knowing the captain is right in behind you with setting these attacking fields.”Our fielding, it’s an attitude. We’ve prided ourselves on being one of the best fielding sides in the world for a number of years now. It is an attitude thing that’s led by Brendon himself, the way he throws himself around in the field. And if he’s doing that then it sets the standard for the rest of the team to follow.”At no stage of their innings did England have an inch of breathing room and Morgan, looking rather shell-shocked, gave New Zealand their due. “Probably the best bowling display we’ve come across since we’ve been down this side of the world, which says a lot considering we played against Australia,” he said. “But today we couldn’t cope with it.”If New Zealand are able to rev themselves up to such a gear against Australia a week from now in Auckland, the tournament favourites will have challenges to cope with it too.

When R Ashwin was actually onto something, however briefly, the other end mattered. If only India can sort out the other end, all the runs that Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have been scoring might amount to something

Sidharth Monga at the SCG09-Jan-20154:50

Agarkar: The best Ashwin has looked overseas

On a day that he became the third-fastest Test player to the double of 100 wickets and 1000 runs, R Ashwin was left an unsatisfied man. He came in at the early fall of Virat Kohli, put his head down to bat for close to three hours to take India to what seemed like safety, then he threatened with the new ball, but saw his colleagues release all the pressure and leave the visitors with a tough task on a pitch that could pose challenges on the final day.This was Ashwin’s slowest innings of 30 or more, which ate into the time for Australia to force a result, only India gave away 251 runs in 40 overs, easily the worst run-rate the team has conceded in all the Tests that he has played. Ashwin was pleased with his own effort with the bat and saw some promise when one spun sharply to get David Warner in the second over of Australia’s innings. But India lost it after that.On a pitch that has been slow, where the ball is turning as much as it did for Ashwin, there is no way a side should be conceding more than six an over over 40 overs and India will now have to bat longer than they might prefer to save this Test, although they have the ability to threaten like in Adelaide.”We definitely leaked a lot more runs than we would have liked to have,” Ashwin said. “They played a few good shots, we started off pretty poorly with the new ball as well. Definitely the game could have been different. The way we applied pressure, the way the ball was spinning, the way it was coming out for me, it could have been a lot different. Having said that, it is still pretty decently poised. They definitely have an ace up, but we will have to see how it goes. We batted pretty well in Adelaide. When I batted there weren’t many devils in the wicket. I definitely found it a little hard to score. It’s a new-ball wicket.”Even though Ashwin asked questions with the new ball, there was no pressure from the other end. With no swing or seam, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s gentle pace was easy to hit, and Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav were their usual profligate selves. Yadav, going for 45 that included 10 boundaries, even registered the worst economy rate ever for a bowler who has bowled a minimum of three overs in an innings. In his last over, he showed total lack of application by bowling short when the field had been set to protect the off-side boundary down the ground.The pressure Ashwin built being released so regularly did not please him too much. “When what you have been working on, and what efforts you have put in, when it pays off in numbers, it feels heartening,” he said. “Yes genuinely I thought this could be a chance where I could create something for the team. Ideally, I would have liked a little bit more control from the other side. It would have been nice. But they also took us on. I mean you have to give credit to them. They batted very positively.”They took us on. A few shots were played. We started pretty poorly with the new ball. We have to admit it. When we picked up wickets, we kept on leaking 15-16 runs from the other end. That wasn’t helping the cause. That’s gone now. You have to look forward. We put ourselves in a decent situation this Test after batting well, but we will have to see how it goes. Even in Adelaide it was similar. We will see how they take this up.”Ashwin’s seemingly mild annoyance at the support cast now that the pitch was doing tricks for him was at odds with his reaction towards them throughout the series. In Melbourne, when only he and Ishant Sharma had maintained any sort of pressure, Ashwin had said, “It’s too far-fetched for me to think along those lines. I can only think what best I can offer the team. At the end of the day you can’t point a finger at anybody else that he went wrong. It is a team game.”When asked in Brisbane what difference it made for him bowling alongside two genuinely quick bowlers, Ashwin had said: “As far as I was concerned, I had my focus very sharp. It really didn’t matter what was happening at the other end. Not from the point of view of the team’s cause. From my perspective, whatever happened at the other end I would have forgotten and gone about my job. Having faced the music ourselves, it is a pleasure actually to see the opposition also face similar kind of music.”When Ashwin was actually onto something, however briefly, the other end mattered. If only India can sort out the other end, all the runs that Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have been scoring might amount to something.

With three wins and another giant scalp in the bag, it was Ireland’s best World Cup outing yet, but the team will still be hurting not to have pushed on and reached the quarter-finals

Daniel Brettig16-Mar-20157:49

#politeenquiries: Swan Song

How their tournament panned out
Net run rate tipped Ireland out of the quarter-finals behind West Indies, a team they had already beaten. They won three matches, improving on the two in 2011, and were in contention for the knockouts right up until the end of the final match of the pool phase, placing them ahead of England, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, UAE and Scotland. When Ireland’s feisty captain William Porterfield was asked whether the ICC’s plans to shrink the World Cup to 10 teams was justified by their elimination, he could have been forgiven for saying “We were in it longer than England, weren’t we?”That being said, Ireland will look back on the 2015 event with disappointment. A confident victory over the West Indies seemed to indicate they were ready to push on to the quarter-finals, but vast margins of defeats against India and South Africa ultimately cost them the precious net run-rate mileage that allowed the Caribbean team to squeeze in ahead of them. These results exposed the limitations of the team, namely the strength of their bowling attack, but in doing so also shed light upon the rather inequitable ways in which these limitations have been caused to exist and allowed to compound.There will also be some regret about the way several members of Ireland’s team have been unable to go on from the promising signs they showed in 2011. The likes of Kevin O’Brien, George Dockrell and Paul Stirling are all significant talents, but their displays in Australia represented a downturn on what had been suggested they could offer four years before. This will grate with all of them.The high point
It was an achievement in itself that Ireland saw off West Indies so comfortably in their opening match, but the high point was arguably the feeling in the hours and days that followed that Ireland would be well worth their place in the quarter-finals should they make it that far. It was a progression from the good natured but ever so patronising “plucky Ireland” headlines that surrounded the team in 2007 and 2011. This would be reflected in the way South Africa and India spared no effort in ensuring they beat the Irish, reflecting that with greater respect comes greater expectation.and the low
Near identical middle-order collapses against India and Pakistan after batting first left Ireland’s bowlers without enough runs to pressure their subcontinental opposition and contributed to the inferior net run-rate that eventually helped West Indies progress. Ireland’s penchant for chasing – except when presented with a task as gargantuan as that set by South Africa – seemed to affect them in each match, as a fog of indecision and aimlessness descended on batsmen often far more decisive when knowing what their target will be. Usually, Ireland give themselves the best chance of being competitive, but that could not be said of the days against India or Pakistan.Top of the class
Irrespective of what happens to the format in 2019, Ed Joyce was probably playing his final World Cup, and went out with a string of stylish innings that pleased aesthetes as well as Irish supporters. His 84 against West Indies and 112 versus Zimbabwe were displays that will be well remembered by the spectators present, while also serving as a template for the kind of batting Ireland will wish to foster in future generations. Watching on television, another left-hander, Eoin Morgan, may well have pondered if he can eventually choose to finish off in Ireland after playing for England. Through the class of his stroke-play, Joyce made it look an alluring prospect.What we learnt about Ireland
If allowed to progress and grow at a reasonable rate, not hemmed in by the two-speed economy of Full Members and Associates, Ireland can be expected to learn from 2015 and go on to contend for progression to deeper phases of the tournament in 2019. But if left to whither on the vine, as it happened to some degree anyway between 2011 and 2015 via a gross shortage of bilateral fixtures against the world’s top tier, Ireland will continue to lose talented players to England. Add Boyd Rankin and Eoin Morgan to Ireland’s 2015 XI and they are not just quarter-finalists, but possible entrants in the semis as well.What they learnt from the World Cup
However they can, Ireland must find a way to develop an extra edge to their pace attack – the height and speed lost with Rankin has not been replaced. Porterfield has noted that it is impossible to simply summon such resources from nowhere, and this tournament saw a future investment in the form of selection for Peter Chase and Craig Young. Each need to be handled carefully to extract their best, and some were surprised to see Young not selected for any of the six matches. It is in adding another few yards of pace that Ireland will make their next step on the field, even as the political machinations go on in the board rooms to ensure they have the best chance of doing so.

Soumya Sarkar’s run-out and his exquisite shots among plays of the day from the first ODI between Bangladesh and India

Mohammad Isam and Alagappan Muthu18-Jun-2015The collision
In the 25th over of the chase, MS Dhoni came into contact with the bowler Mustafizur Rahman while running between the wickets. It was not the first time in the game that the Bangladesh debutant had got in the way of an Indian batsman. Rohit had to run around the bowler as well earlier in the innings. Dhoni, however, held his line and thudded his left arm into Mustafizur who then had to leave the field for a bit. In this case, the bigger person did not fall harder.The three-peat
When Soumya Sarkar was going great, the last thing one would have expected to see was a run-out. But that’s what exactly happened in the 14th over when he and Tamim Iqbal had a fatal miscommunication. Tamim dug out the yorker but his tumble over was taken as a start for a run by Soumya who went ahead too far. Suresh Raina’s direct hit ended his promising innings. This was the third time the two were involved in a run-out, with Sarkar falling victim each time.The mimic
A free-flowing left-hand batsman. A dibbly-dobbly right-arm seamer. Launched his cricket career with a century at Eden Gardens playing for Bangladesh U-17s. That’s Soumya Sarkar’s Sourav Ganguly connection. His batting in Mirpur teased other comparisons as well. He stood tall to a back of length delivery, with the bat hoisted over his shoulder. Then it came down like the gentlest of hammers. The front-foot pull a la Yuvraj Singh, merging timing and power. When he got a proper short ball, Sarkar stayed beside it, waited until it passed him and opened the face to propel the ball to the third-man boundary and reach his fifty, off 38 balls. A Virender Sehwag shot helping him maintain a Virender Sehwag pace.Double duty
India’s quicks were leaking again. With R Ashwin and Suresh Raina bowing well, MS Dhoni felt taking pace off the ball was the best option. So he tossed the ball to Virat Kohli and packed the leg side. Two overs for 12 didn’t quite bring out the squeeze India wanted. Kohli was taken off, but he wasn’t found at any of his usual fielding posts. He was behind the stumps with Dhoni’s gloves and no pads. Like in Johannesburg when the India captain fancied a bowl late on the fourth day. This time though Dhoni was simply visiting the dressing room for an over. To add to the strangeness of that short period of play, a relatively assured Shakib Al Hasan found a way to get caught off a short ball.The set-up?
It pays to be a good sweeper. Very little can frustrate a spinner as much for you are getting runs and throwing him off his length as well. Sabbir Rahman enhances that strategy with his power. Ravindra Jadeja complicates it by bowling quick and flat. Cue a good contest. The batsman missed his first attempt and the off stump was left standing by the smallest margin. The second one, as a result of the ball being wider and tossed up a tad more, skimmed away to the midwicket boundary. By now Jadeja’s begun glaring at Sabbir. The angry full, fast delivery came, slipped through that trusty sweep and toppled the off stump.The premature decision
Umpire Rod Tucker raised his finger as soon as Mashrafe Mortaza turned to appeal, once Shikhar Dhawan, on 15, edged the ball to the wicketkeeper in the tenth over. The trouble was, Mushfiqur Rahim dropped a second successive catch in as many overs. After he had dropped a regulation chance of the same batsman off Rubel Hossain, Mushfiqur leapt to his right but could not hold on to the edge.There was confusion as Tucker had presumptuously given Dhawan out without seeing if Mushfiqur took the catch cleanly or not. Just as Mushfiqur went to his right and landed on the ground, the ball popped out of his gloves, but Tucker had not waited until then. Nasir Hossain then tried to run the batsman out who had walked out of his crease, on his way to the dressing room, but play was dead by then. Bangladesh had missed Dhawan twice in two overs.