Manoj Tiwary has had to wait for his chances. But with contributions in two consecutive games, has he done enough to deserve an extended run?

Abhishek Purohit in Pallekele04-Aug-2012Manoj Tiwary and Rohit Sharma seem to demand a joint narrative. Rohit was at the crease when Tiwary walked in to bat on India debut in February 2008. Rohit broke his finger last year in England and Tiwary was flown in as replacement. The Rohit v Tiwary debate has played on and on this series in the media. At almost every press conference, the team management has made it clear who it prefers. Gautam Gambhir has raved about Rohit’s talent and has said that Tiwary should be prepared to grab any opportunity that comes his way. Tiwary did just that today with a busy fifty in only his seventh game in 14 months since his comeback in the West Indies. And yes, on his way to the middle, he passed Rohit, who was on his way back after a miserable run of 5, 0, 0, 4 and 4 in the series.Just put yourself in Tiwary’s shoes for a moment. After making 104* against West Indies in December 2011, he was on the bench for 14 consecutive games in three different countries. In that period, Rohit averaged 14.54 in 11 innings. Gambhir said that getting dropped would dent Rohit’s confidence. Nobody talked about Tiwary’s confidence. It was almost as if he didn’t exist. Tiwary-on-the-bench jokes had become common on Twitter. The man himself gave nothing away. He would carry his kitbag to the ground and dutifully go through practice with a blank expression. Probably the most emotion he showed was when he grinned after effortlessly dribbling the ball past his young peers such as Rohit and Virat Kohli during a game of football.As far as attractiveness of play, or what is known as “looking good”, goes, Tiwary pales before Rohit. Rohit makes even getting beaten look beautiful. Even when he edges a fast bowler in nets, you end up looking at the graceful arc of the bat his attempted drive makes. Tiwary does not have such luxury. Even when he is in control in the middle, he can look tentative.His instinct initially appears to be to go leg side. He walks across to nudge to square leg, he plays that flick extravagantly in the air from outside off through square leg, he chips over midwicket, he paddles fine from the stumps. That last stroke led to his dismissal in the fourth game. He appears to take too many risks too soon, but he is a busy kind of batsman.In the end, Tiwary made more runs on the off side today than on the leg. He stepped out to loft the offspinner Sachithra Senanayake over mid-off for a couple of fours. He drove the legspinner Jeevan Mendis between sweeper cover and long-off. His best stroke was when he charged out to thump the fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep – who had troubled him before with pace and bounce – between extra cover and mid-off. There were two close caught-behind appeals against him but he was on 46 by then, and had already proved his point.Duncan Fletcher, the India coach, said Tiwary had produced the results under pressure. “His temperament has shown that he is up for the big occasion,” Fletcher said. “He’s basically made people stand up and look at him. He is a serious contender for a regular place in the one-day side.”In both games he got this series, Tiwary didn’t let the innings get bogged down despite coming in at 60 for 3 and 87 for 3. Despite knowing that one failure could mean another prolonged spell on the bench. Despite knowing that his seems to be a thankless task; that even success could mean another prolonged spell on the bench. India’s next ODI series is against Pakistan in December. That is too far away. Don’t bet on Tiwary getting consecutive ODIs after this half-century. After all, he had to wait 14 games on the bench after a century.

The growth of Graeme Smith as captain can be seen reflected in his team as South Africa finally ended their wait to be crowned No. 1

Firdose Moonda at Lord's20-Aug-2012Not many cricketers can say they have grown to be men as international cricketers. Some of them start as men already, some of them remain boys forever but very few of them make their most important developments as professional sportsmen. Graeme Smith is one of the few who has.Sometimes you can see those phases at play all on the same day. When Matt Prior and Graeme Swann were engineering a classic, Smith’s forehead was frazzled into a frown. He chewed the index finger on his right hand, as he so often does when thinking. He looked older and it was an age gained through the rigours of Test cricket.Less than an hour later, when he took the low catch at first slip to remove Prior that left only fingernails on England’s hold on No. 1, he charged like a young boy. There was victory in his eyes again. He watched as Vernon Philander’s seam movement and Jacques Kallis hands finished England off and he held up that same finger that was being chewed earlier. He mouthed the magic words, “Number one”.”All I keep thinking is that it stuck in my left hand, that one catch, that’s the one moment that I am most conscious of,” Smith said, looking at his hand. “These three fingers managed to hang on to Matt Prior, who was playing unbelievably well.”It was as though a new chapter of Smith’s life had opened in front of the Lord’s pavilion: the life where he will be in charge of the best team in the world. Smith has waited a long time for that – longer than any other captain in world cricket.When Smith took over as captain, the ICC has only just introduced a ranking system and South Africa were placed second. At the time, the early 2000s, no one but Australia could have been first anyway. South Africa stayed second for about 18 months before slipping into obscurity and then getting themselves back up. As far as they got, their ceiling sat at being second best, save for a few months in 2009 when a concoction of some good away form and other results combined to place them fleetingly on top.Smith emerged as something of a prodigy on the tour to England in 2003, his first major assignment. His double-hundred at Lord’s, his slaying of Nasser Hussain and the strength of his youth made South Africa a team that looked as though it could achieve more. As Smith became an adolescent captain, however, the South Africa team followed him into a period of indecision and uncertainty. Those years included series loses on the subcontinent, to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, a series defeat at home to England and more misery at the hands of Australia.They may not have had the players capable of overcoming those situations but they also lacked the will and the drive. Only later, when the party years had ended and adulthood was calling, did the team and Smith start to change. Focus began under Mickey Arthur, under whom there was a push to mould a specific type of cricket side. The assembly line of allrounders was stopped and there was a move to specialists. The batting unit had the fat cut off and took on more muscle on top, meat in the middle. The bowling became a crop of genuine specialists with varied skills.Results were steady and occasionally spectacular, with series wins in England and Australia and a strong record away from home. The team matured and Smith, the man, matured with them. He was more confident and as a result more thoughtful in his decision making. On that second trip to England, Smith scored runs when South Africa needed it but more importantly, he led South Africa the way they needed to be led.Smith took charge of situations that would previously have gone without a shepherd, such as the fourth innings at Lord’s in 2008. He showed players who had been in the squad for longer than him how to do the same and had an impact on younger players so that by the time South Africa went to Australia at the end of the year, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy were in a position to operate the same way.The only reason South Africa could not firm their grasp on greatness then was because they lacked the same thing Smith did – an added element of creativity. They had some cricketing flaws, the uncertainty at No. 6, the lack of a third seamer and the inability to produce quality spinners. Their biggest flaw came from somewhere else, though, the place where a certain strain of mental toughness is found.

“In the last year, Smith has grown almost as much as he did in the eight before, under the guidance of Gary Kirsten’s management team”

In the last year, that has changed. Smith has grown almost as much as he did in the eight before then, under the guidance of a new management team led by Gary Kirsten. From someone who reacted angrily to even the slightest hint of disagreement, such as during India’s visit in 2010, when Smith grew more agitated every time he was asked about the opposition greats, he has become someone who could handle those things more delicately. These days, he considers issues before reacting and even if he is faced criticism, he is able to control his anger.Smith was forced to change in the aftermath of the 2011 World Cup, when he did not return home with the squad but flew to Ireland to propose to his partner, Morgan Deane. A public outcry and calls for his head made him question his own position and he returned to South Africa determined to win back hearts and minds. He did it the way someone who has lived a life through cricket does. Centuries against Australia in both the Tests and ODIs went a long way to giving Smith his public credibility back and he accepted it graciously, not greedily.He and Deane are now married and have a young daughter, who was born mid-series and the good wishes they received were an indication that Smith is one of the most popular sportspeople in the country. It has allowed him to come full circle and to realise the No. 1 dream in England with the support of a nation behind him. He acknowledged the role of the last 12 months in the wider context of what South Africa have achieved now. “It was a tough last year for me but to be the person that put South Africa in the space with so many different cricketing names is something I am definitely proud of,” he said.When England toured South Africa in 2009-10, the series was drawn 1-1. Popular sentiment was that South Africa were in a position to claim a 3-1 series victory, because the two draws came with England nine wickets down and fighting to survive. The word “deserve” was used to describe what South Africa should have done. It was a word that held no merit because as Smith has discovered, such a word can only be used when it is actually true.”We felt we deserved to win the series,” Smith said. “The way it finished was the perfect way for us because we have learned to win when things are tough and to come back when we are not ahead of the game. We had to win tough this time.”There’s a real sense of happiness and excitement now but there’s also calmness that we have achieved where we wanted to go and that we can carry it on. We don’t just have hope that we can carry on, there is belief that we can do it.”

It is tough to take much from a three-day thrashing that includes being humbled for 45, but Dean Brownlie’s hundred was an innings that could kick-start a career

Firdose Moonda at Newlands04-Jan-2013Five minutes before lunch on the third day New Zealand were close to some sort of redemption. They trailed South Africa by 73 runs and had six wickets in hand. Although they did not have much to come with the bat, the possibility that they could avoid an innings defeat was dawning.They knew a new ball was due. They knew it would be a challenge. They knew they had to see it off. And Dean Brownlie, their best performer of the match by some distance, could not do it.Graeme Smith had specifically placed a deep point to collect his cut and with the extra bounce, Brownlie couldn’t keep his favourite shot down. It opened New Zealand up and then it was only a matter of time and margin, nothing else.Maybe it was better that it happened that way. If Brownlie had kept going, notched up a score in excess of 150, ushered Watling passed a half-century, erased the deficit and helped New Zealand force South Africa to bat again, the defeat (and barring miracles it would still have been defeat) could have been tinged with some kind of sense of achievement.It may have papered over some of New Zealand significant problems. Instead, it’s allowed them to continue feeling the same severe soreness they experienced since the first hour on Wednesday. “It is disappointing to lose a Test match inside three days. It hurts immensely. There are some very disappointed boys in the changeroom and that hasn’t changed,” the captain Brendon McCullum said.There is one thing the captain has done very well on this tour so far and that is look worried. That also hasn’t changed. McCullum is obviously embarrassed by the team’s first innings effort and he should be. But in the overall gloom, Brownlie has given them something to take out of the match.It was not his technique that was overly convincing, it was his temperament. He withstood two dropped catches – a sign that some part of his technique could do with some polishing – a review and a bizarre bail removal. All of those could have rattled his confidence and he did not let them. He just dug in and carried on.He did not have the same immense concentration of Watling, who did not get frustrated by a lack of runs and continued to defend, walk away, come back and defend again. His approach was more positive as he continued to look for ways to move the scoreboard forward. He took on Robin Peterson when the left-arm spinner decided to give the ball some air. He tried to bat as though he did not have any fear and for most of his innings, he had us convinced.Brendon McCullum on Dean Brownlie

“Dean was brilliant. It was a high quality innings that in the circumstance was fantastic for him and hopefully will be the start of a very successful career for him. To come out against the No.1 team in the situation that we were in and play a reasonably counter-attacking innings in trying circumstances was a tremendous effort. We are really pleased for him, especially with it being his first game back after a while outside the team. He is disappointed with the team result but I am sure in time he will be able to reflect on what was a fantastic innings.”

What Brownlie showed, like Kane Williamson in Wellington, but what wasn’t clear on the first morning, is that there is heart in the New Zealand line-up. Importantly Brownlie demonstrated that it beats in players other than the ones people most expected it too. When South Africa toured New Zealand in March, Brownlie’s comeback from a fractured finger was much anticipated. He scored 29, looked tentative and was easy to forget.But there is much hope being invested in him. Locals spoke about him becoming an integral part of the middle order with Williamson and Ross Taylor. In the absence of the latter, he has had to step into his place, accept more responsibility and keep the fiercest attack in world cricket at bay.For more than four and half hours he did that. Had it been to save the match, he would have been hailed a hero. But Vernon Philander reminded why he cannot be, for now. “With the intensity of our bowling attack, we are going to exploit weaknesses. And when he gave his wicket away, it opened up the tail.”Philander is known for telling it like it is and callous as his comment sounds that is how it was. South Africa had the advantage of the new ball and a bowler who can make a pancake bounce but Brownlie threw it away when he shouldn’t have. Less than session later it was over although it could have been far, far worse.New Zealand still lost a Test match inside three days. They were still bowled out for their third-lowest total in their history and they still gave a poorer account of themselves than was expected. Yet, they also had a reason to be relieved after all of that.Brownlie has added some layers to his reputation and will need to kick on. He has also given New Zealand some hope ahead of the next match. “Our second innings will never rid the memory of 45,” McCullum admitted. “That will stay with us forever. But it has shown us that we are capable of absorbing pressure.” Pressure that they will be under again next Friday.

Sunil Narine was met with a definite plan by Bangladesh. Three wickets at 114.33 later, he is having to instruct himself into becoming a bowler who has more dimensions and not just the mystery

Mohammad Isam28-Nov-2012There was nothing mysterious about West Indies offspinner Sunil Narine’s returns of 3 for 343 in the two-Test series against Bangladesh. He was met with a definite plan by the home batsmen, and most of it was based on attack. He was hardly given time to settle down into a rhythm and let his mystery dictate terms during most of his spells in the series.The starts of his spells were given an early setback with a charge and a boundary, or a string of boundaries sent him out of the attack. Three wickets at 114.33 later, Narine is having to instruct himself into becoming a bowler who has more dimensions and not just the mystery.West Indies captain Darren Sammy and coach Ottis Gibson have been staunch in defending Narine but are aware of the challenges that face a bowler who has entered the team as the main spinner with little experience in the longer format. Gibson would like him to be a lot more accurate while at the same time believing that he needs more time in the middle.”The key, whether there is mystery or not, is to be accurate with whatever you deliver,” Gibson told ESPNcricinfo. “Shakib Al Hasan tied us down with accuracy though the ball wasn’t spinning massively. It made batsmen work hard for runs. That is something Sunny [Narine] has to learn and he will over time because he works very hard on his cricket.”The greatest skill you have is accuracy because you have to know how to tie the batsmen down. The mystery will always be there, but you back it up with accuracy. Then you are a weapon.”Bangladesh understood Narine’s inexperience. Their tactic against Narine was born out of the threat he poses with his finger-work. His ability to spin the ball both ways with the same wrist position is part of his mystery. Shakib, his Kolkata Knight Riders teammate, could have picked up his tricks while bowling together in the nets. Shakib definitely had a big say in the mode of attack against Narine.Had they let Narine settle down, Bangladesh would have been in more trouble as they had been already succumbing to West Indies’ pace and their own flamboyance. Narine took three wickets in his fifth spell after Bangladesh had lost six wickets in the first innings of the first Test. He went wicketless in the second innings. Narine also had no success in the second Test, a game in which the West Indies attack dominated Bangladesh. He gave 91 runs off 19 overs in the first innings as Bangladesh took comfort in seeing him come on after the quick bowlers troubled them. The ineffectual performance resulted in Sammy using Narine sparingly in the second innings – nine overs, which went for 48.”The Bangladesh players have gone after him a bit,” Gibson said. “It’s not a massive concern but it is obviously something we keep an eye on. We are not really concerned at this stage.”I think he’s got a unique sort of action. His mystery is with his fingers. He has to continue to believe in that because this is what got him here. The learning for him is how to take Test wickets.”And to learn how to do so, Narine has to go back to his roots and play first-class cricket for Trinidad & Tobago which begins in February next year. “He hasn’t played lot of first-class cricket either, so that’s some place he’d have to go back and play some games, find out what it’s like to take wickets in first-class cricket and the patience you need to play in Test cricket,” Gibson said.Narine is very much like Veerasammy Permaul at this stage of his career, according to Gibson. The left-arm spinner took eight wickets at 31 apiece in the first two Tests of his career. Narine is merely five Tests old. But he has to carry the added tag of being the main spinner, one that has stuck to him because of his reputation as a deadly Twenty20 bowler.”He’s new to international cricket, especially the Test format,” Gibson said. “He’s played a lot more white-ball cricket than he has red-ball. He got picked for his exploits with the white ball. He came into the team as the main spinner. [Veerasammy] Permaul was making his way in the game, so was Sunny. He’s a young kid, only playing his fifth Test match.”Sammy is quite sure Narine will bounce back, as early as the ODI series against Bangladesh. He believes the pressure of scoring runs quickly plays into the hands of Narine, who has more wicket-taking deliveries than the orthodox slow bowlers. “I am not worried about his form going into one-day cricket because I know that’s where he is made his name, in one-day internationals and Twenty20s,” Sammy said. “He’s at his best when there’s scoreboard pressure. I know he is a very good spinner in limited-overs cricket, so hopefully he could improve in the Test arena.”Ajantha Mendis has found it hard to adapt to the longest format, especially building spell after spell with accuracy, and hasn’t figured in a Test since May 2011. Narine could take lessons from Mendis’ career. Bags of wickets in the Twenty20 leagues have brought Narine fame but as Bangladesh have shown and seen, mystery can be conquered in a short time but accuracy has to be mastered.

But I have a confession to make

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Andrew Hughes, United Kingdom

Fans enjoy themselves at the IPL© Associated Press
I haven’t been feeling very English lately. I do my best to conform to expectations. I never cry in public, unless I’m drunk. I don’t complain about poor service in shops, unless I’m drunk. At the first sign of a sunny spring day, I rush out and buy ten pairs of ridiculous three-quarter length shorts. All the same, in recent days, I have the uncomfortable feeling that I am letting my people down.You see, I’ve been watching an awful lot of the IPL, which in English cricket circles is a bit like admitting that you failed all your exams. People look at me with a mixture of horror and pity. “But what about Michael Vaughan,” they say, in an effort to lure me back to the straight and narrow with a nice, decent bit of cricket chat, “Do you think he’ll get back into the England side? And what about Ian Bell?”But I have a confession to make. I don’t care about Michael Vaughan right now. Nor do I have any feelings one way or the other about Ian Bell. At the merest mention of Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad and the rest, I feel a yawn rising deep within me and an overwhelming desire to drink a glass of warm milk and go to bed. It all seems so parochial, so narrow and well, so very very dull. When all the best cricketers in the world are gathered together in one place, why on earth would anyone want to talk about Ryan Sidebottom?It was brought home to me how much the IPL is changing the shape of my cricket brain on Sunday. Whilst waiting for a strategy break to end, I was channel surfing and came across what looked very much like a game of cricket. There were players in coloured clothes. There was a bowler, a batsman and some fielders. Somewhere in the ether, Mike Atherton was talking. But something wasn’t right. It took me a while to figure it out. Then it dawned on me. THERE WAS NOBODY THERE.Meanwhile, out in South Africa, large numbers of people have been turning out to see apparently made-up franchises with no history and no sense of tradition play a disgracefully vulgar version of the great game. And what’s worse, they appeared to be enjoying themselves. There was a lot of music, trumpets, fancy dress, drinking and dancing. Whisper it quietly, particularly if there is an English cricket journalist in the room, but these people were experiencing something almost unheard of in county cricket. They were being entertained.Sadly, the commentary has continued to be more Bangalore than Deccan this week, though Harsha Bhogle did pull a master-stroke during Thursday’s play by asking Neil McKenzie whether he thought Kevin Pietersen was really a South African. Suddenly there was tension in the booth as McKenzie mumbled his way through a few syllables of feigned disinterest, whilst trying to choke back his urge to yell, “Traitor!” at the top of his voice. “If he thinks he’s an Englishman, then he must be,” said the temporarily unemployed opener, through gritted teeth.But Bhogle aside, the broadcasters seem to be doing their best to minimise our viewing pleasure. During the first week, the camera would lazily pan over the jubilant crowd between overs, perhaps lingering on the cheerleaders before returning to the action. In week two, this relaxed scene-setting has been replaced by the scourge of sports coverage the world over: the player interview. A never-ending stream of non-combatants have been miked up and prodded wirelessly to read from the official IPL Cliché Manual, whilst being unsure which camera to look at.And then there’s Jeremy Coney.On Monday he blagged his way into the manual scoreboard.“There are all sorts of things here,” he began, breathlessly, “Numbers and er…”He could have added ‘letters’ but that would have been it really. He cornered the chief scoreboard operator, a serious-looking chap, who seemed slightly bemused that the broadcasters would want to go live from the inside of a score box.“How long have you been working here?” asked Coney, a la Prince Charles“Since 1979,” replied the number king.Coney the Comedian spotted an opening;“You don’t live up here do you?” he asked, with a chuckle.“No, I do not live up here,” deadpanned the interviewee.It turned out that the man watched the cricket through a small peep hole.“I see, and what do you do then?” asked Coney.“I tell this man who operates the scoreboard.”“And what does he do?”“He changes the score.”It was gripping television.And in between episodes of the Jeremy Coney Show, Setanta have redoubled their efforts to give us all a yellow-tinted headache. It isn’t just that their studio guests are awful. It’s the fact that every five minutes we are snatched away from the stadium and dragged kicking and screaming back into Setanta world, not because the man in the shirt and slacks has anything useful to contribute, but simply because, rather like Bangalore, they’ve paid out good money and they’re damn well going to use him.

In which Andy Zaltzman swims about ecstatically in a whirlpool of numbers, wearing a Statsguru-branded bathing suit

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Virender Sehwag has blasted his way into the cricketing history books often enough during his captivating career. He has written entire chapters about fast scoring. He has helped his country to the top of the Test rankings, and to World Cup glory. He has set new benchmarks in the illustrious athletic discipline of most-slowly-trudged singles. Now he has clattered the highest ever one-day international innings, becoming the second (a) human being and (b) stocky Indian wizard to score an ODI double-hundred. Of all great batsmen, he has arguably been the easiest to dismiss, but the hardest to contain. When in form, he makes scoring runs appear easier than any batsman of his, and possibly of any, generation. When out of form, he makes scoring runs appear easier than most batsmen do, but not for as long.His latest assault on the great game’s numerical heritage was aided by a pitch that was not so much batsman-friendly as batsman-amorous, and by Darren Sammy shelling a catch so simple that the only explanation was that he was thoroughly enjoying watching the Delhi Demolisher bat. Sehwag had already scored 170, India were well on course for a trunkily elephantine total, and Sammy knew that his entire batting line-up boasted a total of three ODI hundreds (only one of which had been scored since 2007), and that his No. 4 batsman, Danza Hyatt, had passed 50 only once in any List A one-day match. In the circumstances, where the prospect of victory was almost as far-fetched as the stick that Neil Armstrong’s dog Mildred brought back from the moon, why not treat yourself to a ringside view of a batting genius in full flow? What better time to drop a player as annihilative as Sehwag than when he has already effectively won the match? As Aristotle himself would have said, had he been a cricket fan, “If you are going to be hammered in a cricket match, better to be hammered with a bit of history.”Despite all this, it was another extraordinary innings by one of cricket’s most extraordinary players. In terms of averages, Sehwag has not always been a stellar ODI player. In his first 173 one-dayers, he averaged 31. India won 53% of those matches (excluding ties and no-results). Of the games Sehwag missed in that time, India won 52%. Since June 2008, however, he has averaged 50 in 57 ODIs ‒ India have won 37, and lost 17, a 68% winning percentage in games with a positive result. But in the games Sehwag has missed over this period, India have won 63%. Whether Sehwag is playing or not playing seems to make minimal difference to India’s success.However, over the course of his ODI career, whether Sehwag succeeds or fails has had a major impact on his country’s fortunes. I have been on a stat hunt, readers. Stat hunts can be lonely voyages, during the course of which you may find yourself questioning what you are doing with your life, and wondering whether your parents would think all the years of nurturing care they gave you were worthwhile if they could see you hunched over a computer squinting at Gary Kirsten’s batting average in games South Africa lost away from home during the years 1996 to 2001. Thankfully, I have returned from this particular stat hunt clutching some numerical antlers that I think are worth mounting on the wall; antlers that might interest more people than just myself. Not quite Walter Raleigh returning from the Americas proudly waggling a potato in the air and announcing to Elizabeth I: “I reckon this would be awesome deep fried and slathered in vinegar, ma’am. Awesome.” But still, my wife found the stats mildly interesting, so here goes…Forty-one of Sehwag’s 52 scores of 50 or more (including 14 of his 15 hundreds) have contributed to Indian wins – India have thus won 79% of the matches in which Sehwag has reached 50. They have won 86 of his other 188 ODIs – 46%. So, when Sehwag scores a fifty, India are 72% more likely to win than when he does not.Of the 37 players who have 50 or more half-century-plus scores in ODIs, Sehwag has had the fifth-greatest impact on results with his fifties. Pakistan were 73% more likely to win when Saeed Anwar passed 50; West Indies had 89% more victories when Brian Lara did so; Andy Flower’s half-centuries gave Zimbabwe a 92% greater chance of triumph; and, leading the way – any guesses? no conferring… ‒ New Zealand’s Nathan Astle. The Kiwis won 70% of the 57 ODIs in which the Christchurch Clouter raised his bat to the crowd, but only 31% of the 166 games in which he did not. When Astle reached 50, New Zealand were 124% more likely to win.Key batsmen in weaker teams tend to have a higher “Successful Innings Result Influence” (SIRI) – Arjuna Ranatunga, Chris Gayle, Stephen Fleming and Aravinda de Silva are also in the top ten ‒ and good batsmen in strong teams tend to score lower on this measurement, as they are more likely to have their failures counterbalanced by other team-mates succeeding. Australia have won 84% of the games in which Ricky Ponting has scored 50 or more, but have still won 64% when he has not, so his SIRI score is 31%. MS Dhoni’s is 30%, Adam Gilchrist’s 25%, Javed Miandad’s 16%, Viv Richards’ and Jacques Kallis’ both 13%. Sehwag and Saeed Anwar stand out for being batsmen in good teams whose successful innings have made victory considerably more likely.(I understand that there will be millions, perhaps billions, of people reading this clamouring for a full breakdown of all the players concerned. I have therefore provided a full list at the bottom of this blog.) (Don’t just scroll down and spend the rest of your day memorising it, this blog is not finished yet.)What can be read into all this? Frankly, I am not entirely sure. SIRI is a flawed statistic for a number of reasons. Fifty is a slightly arbitrary dividing line, because an ODI innings of 30 can prove decisive (Michael Bevan, one of the finest ODI batsmen, has the lowest SIRI of anyone in the list, 8.5%, but batted in the middle order and played many crucial 30s and 40s). It does not take into account the frequency of a player’s successful innings, nor the quality of opponents or importance of the match. And due to time constraints and the desire not to further strain the delicate balance in the ménage-a-trois involving me, Mrs Confectionery Stall and Statsguru, I did not take account of non-result matches or games in which the player concerned did not bat. SIRI is not likely to hotfoot it into a player’s career stats on ESPNcricinfo. Or ever be mentioned again after this Confectionery Stall post.Nevertheless, it is I think a statistic that shows how Sehwag is a cricketer who defies conventional statistics. His career is not without its numerical flaws. His Test average is magnificent, his strike rate is otherworldly. But his Test and ODI records in England and South Africa are poor, and his career ODI average is a decent but unexceptional 35. But part of the thrill of watching him bat is that, aside from the simple majesty of his strokeplay and the ceaseless daring of his cricketing soul, an hour of Sehwag will probably decide a match.ExtrasOne consolation for West Indies was that, when Denesh Ramdin and Sunil Narine added 64 for the tenth wicket, they too had achieved something that had never before been accomplished in the history of human endeavour – they had become the first team to post two half-century last-wicket partnerships in a single ODI series. Understandably the Indore crowd seemed a little less excited at this unprecedented milestone in cricketing history, but reports suggest that the celebrations in Kingston, Georgetown and Port-of-Spain are still raging, and look set to last until well beyond Christmas.Kieron Pollard is still struggling to turn his unquestionable ball-striking talents into an ability to consistently score more than 4 in ODIs. He has played 18 ODI innings in 2011, and been out for less than 5 in eight of them. Given that, on occasion, he makes scoring 6 off one ball look as easy as pointing at a fish in an aquarium, this has be considered a statistical disappointment for the big-earning sporadically big-hitter.Here, for all those clamouring for it, is that list of the Successful Innings Result Influence ratings of all players with 50 or more ODI half-century-plus scores. Read into it what you will. Then mulch it up and fertilise your flowerbeds with it.1: NJ Astle (NZ), 124.32: A Flower (Zim), 91.93: BC Lara (ICC/WI), 89.54: Saeed Anwar (Pak), 73.85: V Sehwag (Asia/India), 72.46: A Ranatunga (SL), 70.67: CH Gayle (ICC/WI), 61.98: SP Fleming (NZ), 57.49: MS Atapattu (SL), 56.810: PA de Silva (SL) 55.311: GC Smith (SA), 51.512: SC Ganguly (Asia/India), 51.313: DM Jones (Aus), 50.614: G Kirsten (SA), 46.015: Younis Khan (Pak), 45.816: Yuvraj Singh (India), 44.717: SR Tendulkar (India), 41.918: ST Jayasuriya (SL), 41.619: ME Waugh (Aus), 38.420: R Dravid (Asia/India), 36.521: Mohammad Yousuf (Asia/Pak), 33.322: S Chanderpaul (WI), 31.923: RT Ponting (Aus/ICC), 31.324: MS Dhoni (Asia/India), 30.525: Saleem Malik (Pak), 26.026: AC Gilchrist (Aus), 25.527: Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak), 23.728: HH Gibbs (SA), 22.929: KC Sangakkara (Asia/ICC/SL), 21.530: DL Haynes (WI), 20.531: M Azharuddin (India), 20.232: DPMD Jayawardene (Asia/SL), 20.033: MJ Clarke (Aus), 18.134: Javed Miandad (Pak), 15.935: JH Kallis (SA), 13.436: IVA Richards (WI), 13.137: MG Bevan (Aus), 8.5.Please note that the first name I gave to the stat was the “Half-century Impact on Victory”, before I realised that this could have resulted in describing some of the greats of the modern game as HIV-positive. Which might have led to legal complications.(For a more comprehensive method of measuring players’ impact on cricket matches, please take a look at my friend Jaideep Varma’s Impact Index, an interesting site with some interesting results (if you are a cricket fan) (if you are not a cricket fan, you are unlikely to add it to your favourites) (if you are not a cricket fan, why are you still reading this article?) (even most cricket fans probably canned it around paragraph three).

It will be one of sports great tragedies if it gets to the stage where Tendulkar’s attempted preservation of what he has left, is only acting as detriment to his legacy

Freddie Wilde25-Feb-2013No one knows Sachin Tendulkar better than Sachin Tendulkar. If he thinks he can score international fifties and hundreds again, then he probably can, and right now among what must be a mind-ridden with doubt, there will be some semblance of confidence that he can come good again. If there wasn’t he would’ve retired already. Now, I’m not for a minute going to tell Sachin Tendulkar what to do. He is arguably the greatest cricketer of the modern age and I’m an 18-year-old gap-year student.But what I am going to do is tell you a story, a life story, and a story that relates to Tendulkar and what must be one of the most talked about retirements in the history of sport. When I was seven years old, my Dad returned from England’s tour of India in 2001 with a BAS cricket bat. He’d got the bat from a factory where some of Tendulkar’s bats are made, he’d even asked for Tendulkar’s trademark red, blue and white grip to be applied to the little size four bat, and on the back, in a black ball point pen was Tendulkar’s autograph.For any cricket fan to possess such an item, it would mean the world to them, and to me, even at the age of seven, it did too. About three weeks after being given the bat, I sheepishly asked my Dad if he would be offended if I never used the bat in matches or at practice, as I didn’t want the autograph to ever fade or for the bat to ever get damaged. In not using that bat I was looking to preserve the life of that autograph, my little piece of ‘Sachin’.Fans can actually do the same to players’ careers. Arguably Tendulkar’s last two years have been driven by a reluctance to let his millions of fans down. But this reluctance to not let down, and desire to satisfy the masses, can only last so long. The preservation of something that is dying often only serves to tarnish or ruin – I learnt this bitter lesson a year after receiving my autographed bat… I was now eight and the bat was a year old. Only a year.But one day I discovered the autograph to be fading – even despite my disinclination to use it. In my naive, clumsy, eight-year-old kind of way, I took the radical decision of pulling my black gel pen out of my pencil case and re-drawing over the signature on the back of the bat. To my horror my Dad told me later that day that the autograph was now worthless – completely ruined.I’d tried to preserve my little bit of Sachin by not using the bat, and that had worked. But such things only work for so long, and in seeking to revitalise my precious possession, by taking my own pen to the bat, I’d ruined it. Again, I won’t claim to know more about Tendulkar than Tendulkar himself, and if he thinks he’s got runs left in him, he’s probably got runs left in him. But it will be one of sports great tragedies if it gets to the stage where Tendulkar’s attempted preservation of what he has left, is only acting as detriment to his legacy and impact on the game.

Plays of the day from the fifth day of the Galle Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

Mohammad Isam and Andrew Fidel Fernando12-Mar-2013The poster
Shahadat Hossain had very little to be amused about in the Galle Test but on the fifth day, he found a bit of entertainment. On the southwestern grass bank, two female fans held up a banner that expressed their affection for Shahadat. Every time it came into focus on the big screen, Shahadat could not stop laughing. After the post-match presentation, Shahadat obliged the ladies for a photograph.The catch
Long spells in the field took a toll on both sides’ catching in the Test, and virtually all the half-chances – as well as some straightforward ones – went to ground on the first four days. However, despite having to field through Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan plundering two more centuries on the fifth morning, Jahurul Islam remained alert enough to snatch the sharpest take of the match. Mahmudullah served up a rank half-tracker and though Sangakkara timed his pull well, he hit it close to Jahurul midwicket, who dived quickly to his right and completed the catch centimetres from the turf.The length
Sangakkara’s was not the only wicket Mahmudullah picked up with a short ball. After he had spent two days in the dressing-room wondering what would have happened had he not unnecessarily charged to be stumped for a duck in Bangladesh’s first innings, he kept dropping it short with the ball. Yet, after snapping up Sangakkara, he had another victim to the short ball when Kithuruwan Vithanage chopped on. And in between, the short one claimed Tillakaratne Dilshan, who pulled to deep-square leg fielder, Abul Hasan.The stroke
A reverse sweep is usually one of the last shots most young batsmen will look to play in his debut game, but Kithuruwan Vithanage had no such qualms on this pitch. He had been kept in check after arriving at the crease by a tight line outside off stump and a packed offside field. He eventually had enough, twisting his wrists and bludgeoning his second Test four through the vacant third man area off Elias Sunny.

Plays of the day from the fourth day of the Auckland Test between New Zealand and England

Andrew McGlashan in Auckland25-Mar-2013Drop of the day
It was going to take something extraordinary for England turn this match around and their last vestige of hope went when Peter Fulton, on 31, flicked Stuart Broad low and hard to short midwicket – a plan England had been bowling to – where James Anderson could not hold on to a tough chance. By and large, England have caught well, and sometimes spectacularly in this series, such as Ian Bell’s take a short while later, but this miss appeared to knock them flat.Warning of the day
With the third ball of his seventh over, Steven Finn clipped the stumps in his delivery stride. He was given his one and only warning by Rod Tucker. However, he had done the same in the first innings. So, seemingly, it was back to allowing one transgression per innings before a dead-ball is called. In the one-day series in India, he had one warning for the series. The Laws have been modified to make it a no-ball from October 1, 2013. For the sake of consistency, that date cannot come soon enough.Switch flick of the day
Consolidation had been the theme for New Zealand at the start of the day – understandable at 35 for 3 – although there was much more intent than on the third evening. Suddenly, though, all that changed when Fulton cut loose against Monty Panesar. Up to that point, Panesar’s four overs had been four maidens and he had the wicket of Dean Brownlie. By the end of his fifth over, Fulton had gone 4, 4, 6 and the dam had burst. Panesar’s next five overs cost 52.Landmark of the day
Glenn Turner, Geoff Howarth, Andrew Jones… Peter Fulton. That exclusive list is the New Zealand batsmen to have scored twin hundreds in a Test. When Fulton crunched Broad straight down the ground for his fifth six, it ended a 22-year year gap since Jones had secured his double against Sri Lanka in Hamilton in 1991. For a batsman who had been out of Test cricket for four years and had an average of 20.93 coming into this series, it verged on remarkable.Angle of the day
Neil Wagner has been out-shone in this match by his two pace-bowling team-mates, but he has struck a couple of vital blows. Yesterday, it was Matt Prior and in the second innings today, it was Jonathan Trott. On both occasions, he was bowling from around the wicket and drew the batsmen into loose drive. In Trott’s case, it was an unusually wayward shot, playing well away from his body and edging to the keeper, but it was the clever use of angle from Wagner that helped create the error.

Plays of the day from the IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mohali

Sidharth Monga11-May-2013The symphony
Parvinder Awana and Praveen Kumar won’t quite be sitting next to each other on the team bus. While bowling, each of them repeatedly threw dirty looks and stern words at the other, who would be fielding at third man. In the second over of the match, Awana was upper-cut, but Praveen wasn’t quite balanced at the third-man boundary, and couldn’t achieve the optimum height on his leap. Awana, being the less experienced bowler, could only look in despair.In the next over, Praveen let Awana know exactly what he thought when he thought when the latter was late to start off in chasing the ball. When he came back in the 15th over, Awana saw Praveen getting beaten at the boundary, and once again couldn’t tell the senior partner what he thought of the effort.The umpiring calls
The lbw missed in the first over of the match – when a pad-first shout was deemed to be an inside edge first – was a mistake any umpire can make. However, the best of the lawyers will struggle to defend the two wides that went uncalled in the 15th and 19th overs. One was short and wide down the leg side, the other a full toss that went well past the white guide lines outside off. Another day at work for the IPL’s umpires.The return
Parthiv Patel is a self-respecting young man. He needs no favours. When he is given them, he returns them in kind. In the first innings, Gilchrist dropped a thick edge from Patthiv, off the bowling of Piyush Chawla. Parthiv was 36 then, and went on to score 61. In return, Parthiv reprieved Gilchrist when the latter offered a simpler stumping chance down the leg side. Gilchrist was 25 off 19 then, and could add only one more run to that score.The chip
In the fifth over of the chase, Gilchrist attempted a pull, and it seemed you saw the off bail flying. The ball did keep low, but the piece of wood flying in the vicinity of the stumps was a chip off the toe of the bat.