The game was decided in two five-over phases in each innings

Firdose Moonda in Nagpur12-Mar-2011It could be a moment that decides a match, sometimes a collection of moments, whether they follow in sequence or not. This time, it was two five-over long phases that made the difference – the two batting Powerplays that undid India and redid South Africa and in the end conspired to produce the result.The batting Powerplay has proved a puzzle for most teams, not knowing whether to take it when the going is good and they have a chance at acceleration or when they are being bogged down and need to find a way out. South Africa used it in a situation similar to the latter, when they needed to wrestle the match away. It was at the start of the 37th over of their chase and the difference between runs required and balls remaining was 40, and the required rate was almost nine runs to the over.To allow the chase to get further away from them would have left too much ground to be made up later on. Even though India had just run Jacques Kallis out and the pendulum and swung back in their favour, South Africa decided it was time to tussle for the advantage. It required careful calculation but they judged it well, after analysing their own batting and the bowling options that India had left at their disposal.The middle order after JP Duminy is relatively untested, with Faf du Plessis, Morne van Wyk, Johan Botha and Robin Peterson only playing a role in the disastrous chase in Chennai last Sunday. de Villiers and Duminy were the last experienced pair and Graeme Smith decided they would be best placed to take advantage of the fact that Zaheer Khan was almost bowled out . “We had discussed it tactically and we knew that Zaheer had been their best bowler in the Powerplays. After he bowled his two in the middle, we thought it was a good time to take it and it worked out well,” Smith said.Zaheer was used for two of the Powerplay overs but South Africa still managed to score 52 runs for the loss of just de Villiers in that period. They brought the required rate down to eight by the end of the 41st over. It was a combination of luck, with de Villiers inside-edging for four in the first over, and aggressive intent, with Duminy, new at the crease, but aware of what he needed to do and able to pick the lines and lengths fluently.When the Poweplay ended, Duminy had to escort the lower middle order through to the end. He ended up perishing in the cause but du Plessis and Botha were able to handle it on their own. It’s likely they wouldn’t have been able to if it wasn’t for the work done in the Powerplay. It’s also unlikely that the chase would have been on if it wasn’t for damage South Africa’s bowlers did during the India’s batting Powerplay.India were cruising on 253 for 1, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir were both comfortable and starting to build a mountain for South Africa to climb. In anticipation of that Everest, India were determined to get to the summit as quickly as possible and decided to use the Powerplay as their cable car to the top. “Often in Powerplays, you look to get a par-plus score,” MS Dhoni said. He explained that India were hoping to add some bonus runs in that period, especially because they had wickets in hand, and it ended up having the opposite effect. “You look for those extra 25-30 runs and then you end up 40 runs short.”India’s desperation in the Powerplay was evident, with Gambhir’s urgency to return for a second run off the second ball Dale Steyn bowled; it would have had Tendulkar run out if there was a direct hit. He managed back-to-back boundaries off Morne Morkel but when Tendulkar attempted the same, he was dismissed. Steyn used the slower ball well and Kallis the full ball – each time they asked a question of the India batsmen, the answer was one of them holing out. Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh gave their wickets away and in total India’s Powerplay resulted in a score of 30 for 4.That was all part of their grander collapse, 29 for 9, with five of those wickets going Steyn’s way. The domino effect started with what happened in the Powerplay and instead of India aiming to regroup after that, they persisted in their pursuit of glory and crashed. “The Powerplay was the turning point,” Dhoni admitted.What may get overlooked is why India wanted to lash out in the Powerplay the way they did. They had been frustrated from after the first drinks break, because of a special spell by recalled offspinner Botha. With the score on 137 for 1 after 16 overs, the situation could so easily have got out of hand and the bushfire India had started could have burnt the entire forest down.It was time for Botha, the senior spinner, the man who has been credited with being able to steer a cricket match in the direction he wants it to go, and he got into the driver’s seat immediately. He should have had a wicket in his first over when Virender Sehwag was dropped by van Wyk. In the 15-over period where he bowled with Peterson, du Plessis, Steyn and Kallis at the other end, 66 runs were conceded.It was a deliberate effort by Smith to create the situation where Botha could do that. “I didn’t want to expose the two frontline spinners in the Powerplay because I wanted him [Botha] to control the middle overs. He bowled well in that period for us when we were getting taken to the cleaners.” Botha did not feature in the Powerplays, but his performance around them was enough to script what would happen in that five-over phase where South Africa won the game.

Everything’s quick, but everyone’s chilled out – what’s not to like?

Sidharth Monga19-Nov-2010My abiding memory of Chittang (that’s what the locals call it) is from the basement restaurant of the “budget hotel” that I was staying in, the Tower Inn. It was the year 2007, and Bangladesh were basking in what had been a fairly successful World Cup campaign in the West Indies. Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, 18 and 20 then, had left their posh team hotel and come to the basement of mine, to host a dinner for friends. Tamim says he likes the food there.It was a group of about 10, loud, enjoying the meal, looking no different from a bunch of young college – or even school – students, enjoying a meal out of their pocket money. Soon, out of nowhere, came cameras of Indian news channels. It was great television for them. They shot the food, they spoke to the players, they spoke to the friends. I noticed then that Shakib, two years the older, was embarrassed by it all, while Tamim seemed cool with it. Sure of himself, quietly confident, unflustered – much like his cricket, much like his beloved home, Chittagong.Unlike Dhaka, Chittagong likes to move fast, talk fast, in a dialect quite different from the Bengali spoken in Dhaka (Chittang, you see), but still maintains the coastal laidback air. Auto-rickshaw drivers operate as if in a video game. Strangers walk by you in Agrabad area, whispering in your ear, “Dollar, dollar”, offering to buy or sell foreign exchange. Go to the seaside, though, and there isn’t much to be bothered by.The two Bengali symbols, the (umbrella) and the (place for idle chatter), I saw aplenty. It’s easy to become part of the , as I realised during long a chat about nothing in particular with a senior local journalist, who would try to speak Hindi to make me feel included. That was 15 minutes after I arrived in the city.Chittagong is a city with a fair share of foreigners, Indians, Pakistanis, who didn’t quite respect the two partitions. There are “Hindu” restaurants. Tamim’s parents are from Patna, Akram Khan’s from Uttar Pradesh.

The press box here is ideal too: covered overhead, providing shelter from the sun, but open in front, not denying you the sounds of cricket: the nicks, the clean connections, the celebrations

I remember Chittagong as a beautiful city, Chittagong Hills on one side, and the Bay of Bengal on the other. And because I was there during a rainy spell, it all looked greener than usual. I remember often listening to two songs by State of Bengal, a British DJ of Bangladeshi origin: “Chittagong Chill” and “Flight IC 408”. They are fusion sounds – more electronic than Asian, but Asian enough to be a part of a compilation album called . I wondered if State of Bengal had Chittagong on his mind when he did, or named it, “Chittagong Chill”. Not least because it was a week of incessant rains, making the place, well, chilly, in May. “Flight IC 408” stayed with me for longer: it has clearly been an inspiration for an AR Rahman song and also been used as montage music by an Indian music channel. I recently searched the Air India website to find out that Flight IC 408 flies between Patna and Delhi, as opposed to the captain’s announcement in the song, which says they are ready to fly to Kolkata.Chittagong is a proud city, well known for the uprising against the British Raj and its resilience against the strong Pakistani forces in 1971. The cricket stadium used to honour one of the martyrs of the 1971 war, Bir Shrestho Ruhul Amin, before it was renamed the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. I prefer this ground to Mirpur’s modern specimen, with its air-conditioned press box and commendable drainage system. This place is more intimate, gets you involved more, even though its proximity to the sea doesn’t quite help the drainage. The press box here is ideal too: covered overhead, providing shelter from the sun, but open in front, not denying you the sounds of cricket: the nicks, the clean connections, the celebrations. I don’t think I will forget how Mashrafe Mortaza bowled Wasim Jaffer with an inswinger (“because they always expect outswingers from me”) first ball of the Test, and went on a mad football-style run to celebrate.The locals, though, don’t seem to like the stadium that much. For starters there is very little shade for the crowds. At least there wasn’t much when I was there: they could have done renovations with the World Cup in mind. And they also seem to love the MA Aziz Stadium more, which is right in the middle of town and is the venue of Bangladesh’s first Test win.The clincher for me, though, is the view from the top tier of the new stadium. Not too far is the Bay of Bengal. The sea is often calm – at least it stayed so during my stay of more than a week, even when it rained almost every day. The sort of calm Jason Gillespie displayed during his double-century in the Test before. A “sleeping beauty emerging from mists and water”, Huen Tsang called Chittagong.

Before he picked cricket as a career, Jeff Thomson’s heart belonged to another sport – one he still keeps in touch with

Interview by Jason Dasey29-May-2011Thomson: an attacking midfielder before he turned into an assaulting bowler•Getty ImagesGrowing up as a teenager in Sydney, how much were you into soccer?
I was into football basically since I could walk. We were on the outskirts of Sydney in those days, in Bankstown. It was a very strong football area. There were a lot of good sportsmen out there. A fair few of the players who went into the Australian side would come from those areas.What kind of player were you?
I was a No. 6. I could kick with either foot. One thing I could do was throw in for miles, and I could run all day. I was a guy who tackled hard, and I could also play as a striker. I would hang back a little bit behind the centre forward as an attacking midfielder. I just liked chasing the ball around.There’s a story about you getting your hands on the jerseys of Manchester United when they toured Australia in 1968. How did that come about?
A bit of luck that was. I just came across them. The club I played for, the Melita Eagles, was in the Sydney league. It bought the jerseys from them. Somehow or other, they ended up at my place. The whole lot of them! It was just luck.How did you end up choosing between cricket and football?
It was quite funny because honestly, I love football more than cricket. We used to train and play football every day of the week. We’d either be in the backyard or down at the park with all my mates. These were all good players. We’d play together all the time. I don’t know why I chose cricket. I guess I was on the up-and-up and cricket started to kick in. It was quite funny: I was getting more money to play football than I was for cricket. Cricket I had to pay for! Even then, playing for Australia, I only got A$200. I was getting A$400 at Melita Eagles for wins in football.You ended up getting a life ban from football in New South Wales.
It was a bit unlucky. This referee jumped at my hand. []. He just hit my hand with his face.Out of your Australian team-mates, who else was into soccer? How about your former fast-bowling partner, Dennis Lillee?
No, he was an unco [uncoordinated]. He never played anything like that. None of the guys, probably, in the team back then [liked soccer]. They were generally Australian Rules players, the guys from interstate. The guys I grew up with, like Rale Rasic [former Socceroos coach] and Ray Richards [ex-Socceroo], they are all mates of mine. They’re a bit older than me. Where were you when Australia qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, ending an absence of 32 years from the tournament?
I can’t remember where I was. I was away from Australia at the time. But, yes, it was fantastic, really good. The thing that really annoyed me was how we got dudded against Italy. I reckon if we got through that game, we might have won the whole bloody Cup. And I think that they didn’t want us to do that. The big boys didn’t want Australia to win it. You count some famous ex-footballers from the UK as your best friends. How did that happen?
I go to the UK a lot. I used to stay at this health farm called Champneys. These guys used to stay there as well. They’re all mad golfers, so we hooked up together. People like [the late] Georgie Best and guys who played for England. George Best was at a health farm?
He was! He was drying out. No one else was drinking, bar us. George Best, Vinnie Jones, Mick Harford, Andy King, there’s a whole list of them that goes on and on. We all play golf together every year. Which football teams around the world do you support?
Obviously at home in the A League, I support the Brisbane Roar and all the Queensland teams. In England I’m sort of general. I used to like Arsenal when blokes like Charlie George played. But I’m not so much a huge Arsenal fan now. They do have a lot of skilled players, but they need some tough men in there to make it a bit easier for their fancy players. Teams like Liverpool I’ve always enjoyed. I’m not a big Man United fan but you’ve got to take your hat off to them because every year, in and out, they’re always up there, no matter what. Even if they lose good players, they’re always there or thereabouts. Comparing Jeff Thomson, the teenage soccer lover, to Jeff Thomson, the 60-year-old cricket legend – how have you changed?
I don’t think I’ve changed. I just call a spade a spade. I’m always a bit outspoken. But I believe you should always stand up for what you think. Not enough people do that these days. I’m still the same. I’ll have a beer with anybody, as you would know. I just enjoy life because it’s not that long you’re here. When you start getting older, you realise that you haven’t got long left; I better get out there and enjoy myself.

We asked our staff to pick their best World Cup XI and unsurprisingly, players from India and Sri Lanka dominated the list

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Apr-2011Sachin Tendulkar 482 runs at 53.55
There were murmurs wondering whether he should quit the game after India’s nightmarish campaign in 2007, but Tendulkar erased memories of that disaster with a World Cup victory before his adoring home fans. His innings were filled with sumptuous strokes, and centuries in key matches of the league phase. A delightful half-century set up the chase against Australia in the quarters, before an uncharacteristically scratchy 85 made him Man of the Match in the semi-final against Pakistan. Even the 18 in the final had a signature straight drive and some lovely carves through cover.Tillakaratne Dilshan 500 runs at 62.50, eight wickets at 15.75
The highest run-getter in the tournament was his usual explosive presence at the top of the Sri Lankan batting order, and his offspin plugged the scoring at the start of the innings. It will be hard for him to top the all-round effort against Zimbabwe – 144 with the bat, and 4 for 4 with the ball. There was also the century in the quarter-finals that swept England aside, and a controlled 73 in the semi-final against New Zealand.Kumar Sangakkara 465 runs at 93
Sri Lanka’s charismatic captain had a great time with the bat, besides being his usual reliable self behind the stumps. Coming in at No. 3, he was on hand to steady the innings in the rare event of the tournament’s most prolific opening pair, Dilshan and Upul Tharanga, failing. His consistency through the tournament is highlighted by the lowest score he was dismissed for in the World Cup – 48, and that too after stabilising the innings in the final.Jonathan Trott 422 runs at 60.28
For someone who was widely considered unsuited to the demands of limited-overs cricket, Trott has done all he can to silence the critics. He became the quickest to 1000 runs in the one-day format, his average remains a stratospheric 55.65 after 25 matches and there were five half-centuries and a 47 in the World Cup. His batting form remained one of the few certainties in England’s thrill-a-minute campaign, in which the team’s performances veered from amateurish to brilliant.AB de Villiers 353 runs at 88.25
Though injuries sidelined him from a few matches, de Villiers showed his class in the World Cup. He began the tournament with a couple of centuries – a flawless one against West Indies after the loss of two early wickets, and a powerful one against Netherlands. On a tricky track against New Zealand in the quarter-finals, he was batting like a dream, caressing boundaries while the rest flailed about, before a suicidal attempt for a single ended his innings, after which South Africa crumbled.Yuvraj Singh 362 runs at 90.50, 15 wickets at 25.13
A few months ago, Yuvraj was talking about how 2010 was his worst year in international cricket, and was struggling to keep his place in the national team. Now he has a Man-of-the-Series award in the one-day World Cup, to go with his decisive performance in the 2007 World Twenty20 triumph. It was a transformation which coach Gary Kirsten called “as good a turnaround I have seen in world sport”. Not only did Yuvraj re-discover his touch with the bat, his left-arm spin proved so effective that he was frequently called on to bowl a full 10 overs. He walked off with a record-equalling four Man-of-the-Match awards.Shahid Afridi 21 wickets at 12.85
The crowds may love Afridi’s manic batting, but it was with his legspin that he was devastating in the World Cup. There were five-fors against two Associate nations, though his best performance in the league phase came against Sri Lanka when his variations confounded four top-order batsmen to hand Pakistan victory. The other high-voltage performance was in the quarterfinals, when his four wickets helped shoot out West Indies for 112. Besides the tournament-high 21 wickets, he also pulled off the difficult task of keeping the Pakistan team united.Zaheer Khan: New ball, old ball, I’ll wobble them all•AFPGraeme Swann 12 wickets at 25.75
Like England, Swann had an eventful World Cup. A listless performance with the ball against India was redeemed with a calm nine-ball 15 to earn a tie. His three-wicket burst seemed to have killed Ireland’s chances before a bludgeoning Kevin O’Brien made it a day to forget for England. His crafty bowling set up the prospect of victory against South Africa when all seemed lost, but he couldn’t pull it off again when Bangladesh were conjuring a lower-order fightback. The magic was back against West Indies as his late strikes set up a tense victory to keep England alive in the competition.Dale Steyn 12 wickets at 16
He’s been undisputedly the best fast bowler in Tests for several years now, but there remained questions whether he could hit similar heights in limited-overs. At the World Cup, Steyn showed he can. He repeatedly showcased his mastery over the weapons necessary for success in the death overs of the one-day game – the yorker, the slower ball and the bouncer – and mostly relied on his accurate legcutters with the new ball. There’s been no drop in pace as well, making him one of the most complete quick bowlers in operation. His headlining performance was against India, a five-for sparking a collapse from 267 for 1 to 296 all out.Zaheer Khan 21 wickets at 18.76
The pace may no longer be there, but Zaheer has more than adequately replaced that with plenty of guile. India’s best bowler with the new ball and the old one was called on whenever the team was in trouble, and he invariably responded. There were no five-fors, but he provided breakthroughs in every match to finish top of the wicket charts with Afridi. The league match against England showed how much the team needed him: as Andrew Strauss and Co were marching towards the target of 339, his burst of reverse-swing produced three wickets to turn a seemingly hopeless match a contest.Lasith Malinga 13 wickets at 20.76
The injuries are piling up for the man with cricket’s most unorthodox action, and he doesn’t expect to play in the next World Cup though he’s still only 27. That didn’t stop him from making a massive impact for the second World Cup in a row. Kenya’s batsmen were bamboozled by his inswinging toe-crushers as he nabbed 6 for 38 including a hat-trick. There were big performances in the big games too – three strikes in the semi-final against New Zealand, and two crowd-silencing early blows against India in the final.

Former players and writers take up the cudgels for and against the issue surrounding Ian Bell’s reprieve at Trent Bridge

01-Aug-2011″It was very naive of me to assume the ball was dead. I didn’t hear the umpire call ‘over’. To walk off for tea was stupid. I have learned a lot of lessons.”
“Bell would be having tea now.”
“I think if there were more captains like Dhoni you could get back to the days of the phrase, ‘It’s just not cricket.’ He’s set an example for the other captains.”
“If it was me I’d have run him out and let him think long and hard about remaining in his crease until the ball is dead while sitting on the balcony watching others score the runs he should have.”
“Dhoni did a great job by recalling Bell to bat after tea. According to law, Bell was rightly given out but he never intended to take the fourth run. It shows a great spirit from the Indian team.”
“On behalf of the ECB I wish to express the England and Wales Cricket Board’s grateful thanks to the BCCI and the India team.”
“All I can say is, thankfully it was the Indian players who had to make the call not the BCCI!”
“There are times when it’s your inner call that tells you what is right. I really appreciate Dhoni’s decision to call Bell back.”
“Ian Bell was being very casual, almost careless, walking off before a definitive call from umpire for boundary or tea and deserved to be out.”
“The big issue about ‘the run out that wasn’t’ hasn’t been mentioned yet. I had already started a cheese sandwich, so it was definitely tea.”
“There is no black and white here. We all feel warm and fuzzy, but Ian Bell has learned a good lesson – don’t be dozy.”
“It wouldn’t have been nice if it happened to one of our batsmen, and when you see it on TV, probably the right thing was done.”
“As a captain I think I would have appealed just as Dhoni did – he had every right to appeal. But I also think I would have been talked around at tea time for the good of the game. “
“Dhoni transformed from dastardly villain to sporting hero in seconds. Hurrah for him and for Test cricket. What human activity comes close?”
“It’s a strong statement to captains around the world to play a certain way. If spirit of cricket existed you wouldn’t have half the appeals.”

ESPNcricinfo take a look at the career of former Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield, who has become the first English cricketer to be convicted of match-fixing

David Hopps12-Jan-2012Mervyn Westfield has his place in cricket history. It was not how he might have imagined it when he first caught the attention at the Bunbury Festival, a prestigious schoolboy tournament, in 2003. Then he would have dreamed, like many alongside him, of a chance to play for England. Now he will never achieve fame, only infamy.Back in 2003 at the Bunbury Festival at Shrewsbury School, Westfield’s teammates included Adil Rashid, who was later to lead the long-awaited influx into Yorkshire cricket of players of Asian origin, and Rory Hamilton-Brown, who was entrusted with the captaincy of Surrey strikingly early in his career and has taken up the job in combative fashion.Westfield never achieved such heights. By the time he was released by Essex at the end of the 2010 season, he was already caught up in spot-fixing allegations. But Essex’s official line that he had been released “for cricketing reasons” did possess some logic. He returned to his roots and played for Wanstead in the Essex League. He was their player of the year in 2010.He made his Essex debut, aged just 17, in 2005 and represented England U19. But, by the time his career came to an ignominious end five seasons later, he had played only seven first-class and eight List A matches. He had taken just 11 first-class wickets at 37.81. Four of those came in a career-best display against Somerset at the Southend festival when he helped to bowl Essex to a convincing victory but he was inconsistent and plagued by injury. His last first-class appearance featured a token run-out against Cambridge UCCE in June 2009. He was 21-years-old.The match that destroyed his reputation was symptomatic of his career. By the time Durham and Essex met in the Pro40 in September 2009, neither county retained an active interest in the competition and the first hints of autumn had already reached county cricket’s most northerly outpost. It was the sort of a dead match to whet the appetite of the fixers and, for Westfield, the temptation proved irresistible.Westfield took his £6000 in return for deliberately bowling badly in his first over. He continued to bowl badly thereafter, conceding 60 runs from seven overs, bowling four wides and two no-balls. One Essex teammate confided to ESPNcricinfo that there was immediate unease in the dressing room about the validity of his spell.But it was not as much Westfield’s corruption as his naivety that brought about his downfall. Incredibly, he told a team-mate, Tony Palladino, about his winnings and Palladino, courageously pushing aside loyalty to a teammate for the greater good, followed anti-corruption guidelines issued by the England and Wales Cricket Board to all cricketers in England and reported the matter to the Essex management.When Essex police began to investigate few had faith that they would show much interest in what many at the time regarded as a cricket-related matter. But Westfield and his Essex teammate, the Pakistan leg-spinner, Danish Kaneria, were arrested the following May. Charges were dropped against Kaneria at the end of that season. Westfield, now aged 23, was left to face a criminal trial.His moral failure, and the successful prosecution that followed, might just be the moment when English cricket underlined its determination to fight back against the corruption brought about by illegal gambling. From Essex, there remains not a word. Sentence has yet to be passed, which may partly explain it, but as the long as the silence persists, Essex’s cricket followers will not be entirely confident that the county has a coherent policy in place to avoid a repeat in the future.

For half a day’s play, there was lots of action. Pity India didn’t out up a fight

Scott Hazebroek16-Jan-2012Choice of game
With the WACA only hosting (on average) one Test a year, I wasn’t going to miss a minute of the action. With India four wickets down and still needing another 120 runs to make Australia bat again, my prediction was Australia to close out the match before tea.Team supported
Australia.Key performers
Virat Kohli kept Australia out in the sun and provided some resistance, but Ben Hilfenhaus was great for Australia. He claimed three wickets in his second over after lunch, and cleaned up the tail who could have stuck around and made Australia bat again.One thing I’d have changed about the day
I would have changed the security post-match; it was too strict and over-the-top. Many people were waiting for signatures from the Australian players. However, after over half an hour later, they hadn’t come out. The security men rather forcefully said something like, “Action is over, out you go everyone”. However, I’d heard that the players came out later after previous Tests. There was also a ridiculous amount of security around a team bus on the way out.Enhanced viewing
Despite it being unlikely that the match would last the day, I came with lots of supplies. The seats are rather hard and uncomfortable, so a towel eased the pain. I also brought my iPad, radio and signature bat. On the food and drink side, I had a box of crackers, a Vegemite roll, a sports drink, some grapes and a fruit bar.Filling the blanks
During the one break, lunch, I headed down to the front row and watched the “In2Cricket” junior matches. One six was caught one-handed by a man in the crowd. The food outlets were busy and bar packed.Wow moment
Michael Clarke took a fantastic catch at first slip to dismiss Zaheer Khan and put Hilfenhaus on a hat-trick. Zaheer fended a bouncer above Clarke’s head. Brad Haddin dived across to try to catch it but Clarke kept his cool, jumped full stretch, and took it in both hands.Close encounter
I was sitting in the Lillee-Marsh stand, and I could see Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc signing autographs for many youngsters at fine leg. They were cheered when they obliged the children’s requests.Shot of the day
Kohli hit Hilfenhaus for a beautiful four through the covers. It was too little too late though, as R Vinay Kumar was at the other end.Crowd meter
The crowd was reasonable for a potential final day, and not much of a contest expected from India. However, there were still Indian fans in the crowd. The crowd got most excited when Hilfenhaus was on a hat-trick. He was clapped in and there was a loud groan when Ishant Sharma played and missed. Although the majority of the fans were Australians, there were polite claps whenever Kohli or Dravid hit a boundary.Entertainment
During the lunch break, the junior cricketers played and entertained us. There was an interview with an “In2Cricket” official, but apart from that, the entertainment was limited.Fancy-dress index
There were about six or eight men dressed up as umpires under the Inverarity Stand. I’m not sure, but I suspect that they were the same men who dressed up as Richie Benaud during the first day, as there wasn’t a sign of Richie anywhere. Whenever the umpires made a signal, these men would copy them. They were really good lookalikes!Tests v limited-overs
I definitely prefer Tests. Tests are what they are called: tests of all players’ bodies, minds and skills. During ODIs and Twenty20s, you have one go at batting, or a limited spell of bowling. In Tests, you can redeem yourself in the second innings. And, as David Warner proved, you can incorporate limited-overs into Tests to make them more exciting.Some people may find it hard to sit through seven hours in the blistering heat, with uncomfortable seats, and possibly boring play. Compare this to Twenty20, with short sessions and exciting performances… well, you can see why many people prefer to stay at home to watch Tests. But during Tests, anything can happen, and there are myriad records to set or break.Banner of the day
An Indian fan had a banner that said, “I’ve got the moves like Sachin”. The Indian fans seemed to like making banners, but there were very few Aussie signs.Stat of the day
The Australian bowlers took the same amount of wickets each in each innings: Hilfenhaus took four, Peter Siddle three, Mitchell Starc two, and Ryan Harris one wicket in each innings. Is this the first time such combination of wickets has happened twice, with the same bowlers claiming same amount of wickets? Who knows.Overall
There wasn’t much of a fight from India; at least, at 130-odd for four, they should have made Australia bat again. But one thing that was good was the umpiring: they were pretty much unnoticed, which is generally a good thing. The atmosphere was a bit expectant. The Aussie fans wanted a win and quickly!Marks out of 10
I’ll be generous and give it 6 for the Aussie win and Hilfenhaus’ over. But it wasn’t even half a day’s play and the Indians didn’t make a huge contest.

Bowler? Bowler who can bat? Allrounder? Bowler who can’t bowl his quota?

Sidharth Monga13-Jul-2012Irfan Pathan is back. Again. Not in Terminator sort of way. Not least because he didn’t promise he’d be back when he left. He never does.Nor is this a Rambo-like sequel. This is the continuation of the old story featuring that same unanswered question: who exactly is Irfan Pathan? To be precise, what exactly is Irfan Pathan?Irfan began as a delightful swing bowler. Then he became an occasional pinch-hitter who batted more than he slogged, with genuine potential for being an allrounder. Then as his bowling deserted him, he eked out appearances because of his batting. Then he was dropped, forgot his batting, and came back as a bowler who batted better than the designated allrounder in the same side but wasn’t allowed to bat higher than No. 9. Consequently he is a specialist bowler who has bowled his quota in only three of the last ten ODIs he has played in.One of those uncompleted quotas – nine overs for 61 runs against Bangladesh, which contributed to an India loss – seemed to have put him aside for a while, but in a can’t-live-with-or-without-you manner, India have called Irfan back again to replace an injured specialist bowler. There is no rule set in stone to suggest that a replacement should be strictly like for like, which could suggest picking him ahead of Praveen Kumar might be a belated admission that the original squad for Sri Lanka was an allrounder short. However, don’t hold your breath: Irfan is not considered an allrounder. That much was clear in Australia, his first proper test on his last comeback.MS Dhoni, his captain, said as much when he bemoaned the absence of a “seaming allrounder” even before that ODI series began. That statement needs to be seen in the context of Ravindra Jadeja, the preferred allrounder, struggling to bowl well on seamer-friendly pitches and being clearly out of his depth as a batsman at No. 7. So stubborn was Dhoni that even when Irfan was eventually picked, thanks to injuries to others, he was sent in at No. 9, behind R Ashwin. Sure enough, at No. 9, Irfan hit a six crucial to India coming out with a tie.When Dhoni sat out a game because of an over-rate ban, stand-in captain Virender Sehwag promoted Irfan to No. 7, where he scored an attractive 47 off 34, only for Dhoni to return and demote him to No. 9 again. It was clear that despite the conditions being in Irfan’s favour, India were not going to use him as an allrounder, for whatever the term is worth in the Indian ODI squad context. Even when they left Jadeja out in an Asia Cup game, Yusuf Pathan was his direct replacement, and Irfan had to rely on his bowling alone.What perhaps goes unsaid here is that Dhoni doesn’t want to play with any fewer than four fielders who can dive around and help him control the game. That was the reason he kept out one of the big three. And with the openers and himself ruled out, Dhoni is left with just three if Irfan is played at No. 7 with more specialist bowlers to follow. Jadeja can dive around; Irfan is strictly a safe fielder. It appears that four extraordinary fielders is a non-negotiable: when Jadeja has played himself out of the team, India are happy with a batsman who can bowl part-time spin but, more importantly, allows Dhoni to control the game through his fielding. It doesn’t help that since Kapil Dev India have produced only one fast bowler who is also a better-than-safe fielder, Ajit Agarkar.Irfan was to keep his place in the side on his bowling alone. He is simply not back to being a good enough bowler to do so, especially in the subcontinent. The captain’s lack of trust in Irfan’s bowling shows in how he repeatedly fails to bowl his ten overs, despite there being two new balls, which should counter his ineffectiveness with the old ball to some extent. Sooner or later he was bound to lose his place, and it happened in Bangladesh. With India hardly playing any cricket outside the subcontinent in the near future, his goose seemed to have been cooked.Not quite. When R Vinay Kumar was ruled out with a hamstring injury, India went to Irfan, and not Praveen Kumar, a better specialist bowler by all accounts. Which brings us back to the possibility that the selectors might have picked Irfan to address the absence of an allrounder, once again a term to be taken with a pinch of salt in the Indian context.Now that he has been picked – for whatever reasons – it will be interesting to see how India use him. If they play him as a specialist bowler, they might not have the luxury of not bowling him out, what with part-time spinners already under pressure to share their quota of ten overs. If he is played at No. 7, Dhoni will have to make do with just three fielders capable of charging and diving around the field. There is also the possibility of his not getting a game. Yet another series, then, in the life of the unanswered question: what exactly is Irfan Pathan?

Kraigg Brathwaite provided Australia with a reminder of how much steel West Indies have added since Darren Sammy and Ottis Gibson took charge of the side

Daniel Brettig at Kensington Oval07-Apr-2012Robert Samuels does not occupy a place of much glory in the long and undulating tale of West Indies cricket. The elder brother of Marlon, he played the last of six Tests in 1997, his contribution to the team as an opening batsman defined by the following nondescript digits: 372 runs at 37.20, one century. However Samuels accomplished one thing in that final Test, against Australia at the WACA Ground on a spiteful strip, patchworked by cracks. In an innings of 76 that lingered 332 minutes and 228 balls, he irritated the hosts and their champion bowlers Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne like very little before or since.Fifteen years later, on the first day of the series between Darren Sammy’s West Indians and Michael Clarke’s Australians in Bridgetown, another stodgy Caribbean opening batsman scraped and scrapped while his opponents vented their exasperation. Kraigg Brathwaite is playing his seventh Test, and none of the previous six have suggested he is anything other than a man battling above his station. Upon losing the toss and bowling first at Kensington Oval, Australia’s bowlers would have reckoned Brathwaite a possible avenue to their first wicket, certainly moreso than the more visibly talented Adrian Barath, who had announced himself with a coruscating debut century against Australia in Brisbane in 2009.Yet Brathwaite did not allow himself to be intimidated by the stature of the team he opposed, the bowlers who had humbled India or the slips cordon that included batsmen the calibre of Clarke, Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson. From the first ball he faced, Brathwaite shuffled sturdily into line, playing the majority of deliveries from the crease and leaving most directed wide of the stumps. He deflected singles here and there, and flicked a wayward offering from Ryan Harris to the fine-leg rope. If the tourists made a mistake in their new-ball tack it was to not bowl full enough, allowing Brathwaite’s crease-bound approach to work for instead of against him. But there was no gap to be found between bat and pad, and no throaty lbw appeals against a batsman who made sure to get his blade down swiftly to cover whatever movement could be found.Aiding the cause was an assured appearance by Kirk Edwards, the new vice-captain. Taking up a stance once used to good effect by Peter Willey against West Indies, he was as abstemious early on as Brathwaite, before unfurling his greater array of strokes with time. He attacked Nathan Lyon’s spin adeptly, and also played the odd handsome drive. Once he had departed, Darren Bravo showed welcome signs that his touch was returning, his elegance and poise at a level far in advance of anything Brathwaite could produce. But still he remained, poking, prodding and persevering.Brathwaite did offer his pursuers a few chances. On 10 he pushed a Peter Siddle delivery that held up off the pitch, and the bowler failed to gather an awkward chance in his follow through. Thirty-four runs later and Shane Watson procured an edge to one ball that Brathwaite chose not to leave, and Ponting’s right hand stretched too far to accept the catch, leaving his wrist to make a doomed interception. At 48 Brathwaite appeared to snick David Warner’s leg break to Michael Clarke at slip, but questions about whether a clear chance had been put down were silenced by the umpire Ian Gould’s signal of byes. Two balls later Brathwaite raised his half-century, and acknowledged the applause of a crowd that had enjoyed his application – if not always his execution.Australia’s fielders were not quite so enthusiastic in their acclaim, finding themselves in a position loathed by cricketers so long as the game has been played: confronted by a batsman of limited range but tremendous concentration, they have nothing to do but be patient. The dropped chances betrayed wavering focus, and only served to make Brathwaite’s stay all the more infuriating. Patience was a quality Clarke’s men did not require too often during a summer’s waltz past India at home, nor something they necessarily expected to have to employ against a team they have pummeled more often than not over the past 20 years. That state of affairs developed largely because few West Indian batsmen of similar limitations were inclined towards the sort of defiance offered by Samuels at the WACA, when he caused Australian tempers to fray, then tear.So pronounced was the irritation at Samuels that Australia’s diplomatic captain Mark Taylor was at the limits of his conciliatory powers to prevent Warne and McGrath from doing considerably worse than unload on Samuels with a constant stream of verbal barbs. Most of those revolved around the use of the term “loser” with various fruity adjectives thrown in. In their fury that someone as limited in strokeplay as Samuels had managed to survive for so long in enervating Perth heat, Warne and McGrath lost sight of the fact that they had few runs to defend, and that Brian Lara was at the other end. He and Samuels added 208 before they were done, and set the visitors on course to a face-saving victory at the end of an unhappy tour.Brathwaite is unlikely to have faced the same intensity of abuse that Samuels received, given that the game’s standards of on-field conduct are more closely monitored now than ever, by Cricket Australia as much as the ICC. And the Bridgetown pitch was about as friendly as Perth’s had been spiteful. But the pressures of the occasion, the first day of the series at the ground graced by so many luminaries of the region, made his contribution decidedly comparable. By the time he finally left the scene, touching Siddle behind for Matthew Wade’s first Test catch, Brathwaite had held up the visitors for 273 minutes and 199 balls, smoothing a path for those who followed.In doing so he provided Australia with a reminder of how much steel West Indies have added since Sammy and Ottis Gibson formed their present captain/coach axis, and his team-mates with an example of exactly what can be achieved with a doughty attitude. How the Caribbean team’s troubled progress over the past 15 years might have been different if more had offered the application of Samuels and Brathwaite is open to debate. How much its position in this match would have been weakened without Brathwaite’s stern occupation is not.

Dwayne Smith’s first-ball six on Saturday helped erase bad memories of the previous time two Full Members played in Lauderhill, and may spur on the creation of many more moments like it across the USA

Peter Della Penna in Lauderhill01-Jul-2012In a single moment at the start of the USA’s second attempt to host international Twenty20 cricket between two Full Members, a rich blend of sounds and emotions could be witnessed across the ground that summed up everything the occasion was about.There was the sweet crack of bat on ball, heard emanating from the middle, courtesy Dwayne Smith. The West Indies opener had generated an effortless flourish of the bat to send the first delivery of the match from offspinner Nathan McCullum over the long-off rope for six, the ball smoothly sailing away like one of the many yachts in the harbour of nearby Fort Lauderdale.There was a delightful roar let loose by the thousands of West Indies fans in attendance. They had forked over their hard-earned cash for tickets and packed into the Central Broward Regional Park to be entertained by their heroes. Smith, Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard paid them back time and again over the course of the day with six after glorious six until eventually 12 had been struck in a record-setting performance by West Indies – the total of 209 for 2 is their best in Twenty20 internationals.There were a few gulps from New Zealand’s fielders. After winning the toss, New Zealand elected to give West Indies first strike. With a flat track and short boundaries, it became apparent that they might be fetching the ball from over the rope early and often.There was a also possibly a sigh of relief let out by the West Indies Cricket Board, who took a decent-sized gamble by agreeing to stage games in Florida. It would have been very easy for any Full Member to cast away any ambition to hold major international cricket in Lauderhill after the all-round debacle of the pair of matches between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in 2010. Instead, local officials persevered to right some of the wrongs from that experience. Smith’s first-ball six was a harbinger for the stream of runs that became a deluge, helping make Saturday’s match a success.There was the “ka-ching” of cash registers passing through the minds of New Zealand Cricket and USA Cricket Association administrators. Even though NZC’s representative side was in the early stages of receiving a heavy shellacking, the suits probably wouldn’t have minded being on the wrong end of Saturday’s result if high scores are what will convince investors to buy into the proposed Twenty20 league set up by Cricket Holdings America (CHA) – the joint entity formed by NZC and USACA to develop a professional Twenty20 competition in the USA. CHA board member Neil Maxwell is in Lauderhill this weekend and there’s no doubt his job just became a little bit easier in persuading people to jump on board.There was the wide smile on the face of Samuel Plummer. Smith’s first-ball six was an “I told you so” response to anyone who doubted this pitch would have runs in it for batsmen this weekend. Plummer is the groundsman who was brought in here two years ago to breathe life into a dead track. Plummer spoke and carried himself with a quiet confidence all week. His prediction of either team scoring in the neighborhood of 170 might have sounded quite optimistic to some. In the end, it was quite conservative.

Saturday was a step in the right direction for those whose mission it is to make cricket a viable business not only in Florida, but in the USA

Outside the stadium and halfway around the world, there was the nod of approval from the ICC. Cricket’s governing body has been looking, for a long time, to carve out a market for the game in the USA. Images from Saturday’s game of fans waving the flags of Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana, with the threads of the stars and stripes in the background, will probably soon be making their way very into PowerPoint presentations and promotional videos produced in Dubai.When weighed up against the matches in Lauderhill from two years ago, this was a day with plenty of positives. However, there were still a few teething problems on display that need sorting out.The outfield was somewhat treacherous in certain areas. Around and near the square, the surface was unforgiving to those making a crash landing after attempting to leap, dive or jump in an effort to field the ball. By contrast, the last few yards inside the rope were too soft and boundary riders ran the risk of getting stuck mid-slide. By the end of the day the outfield claimed three victims in Jacob Oram, Ross Taylor and Pollard, and normally aggressive pursuits of the ball by others soon turned tentative.Entry to the stadium was also an issue. About one-third of fans who eventually made it into the ground missed the first few overs because of an inadequate number of entrance lanes leading into the stadium, which meant it took some fans an hour or more just to be able to park their cars.The stadium also wasn’t designed with media facilities in mind. In addition to the makeshift television set-up that had to be whipped up so that these matches could be broadcast to a worldwide audience, there weren’t enough power outlets available at the start of the match for all the print journalists in attendance to plug in their computers and do their work. Considering the fact that only about a dozen or so reporters were in attendance to cover the game, and not all of them could be easily accommodated, that’s a bit shocking. Officials are lucky there weren’t 40 or 50 journalists at the ground.On the whole though, the atmosphere that the stadium provided for fans was superb. Saturday was a step in the right direction for those whose mission it is to make cricket a viable business not only in Florida, but in the USA. Smith’s first-ball six was a moment that may not only have set the tone for the rest of the weekend, but may spur on the creation of many more moments like it across America.