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From being the only Indian with two centuries to his name in the IPL, M Vijay Mark 2013 proved to be sober, sedate and watchful during the Australia Tests

Sharda Ugra27-Mar-2013M Vijay is trendy enough – the tattoos, the haircut, the tude – to totally get India’s phrase du jour. “I’ve got your back, bro.” This pledge of brotherly guard-duty has begun to mystifyingly float around conversations these days. Vijay though lived it during the 2013 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. For most of the series, he did have India’s back.Vijay’s performance caused astonishment, not because he scored big runs, but of his batting persona. Built like a middle-weight boxer, he has the ability to charge and launch ego-boosting and morale-busting shots down the ground. But against Australia, Vijay kept his inner butterfly and bee under wraps. He was studious, methodical anchorman, content to leave the razzle-dazzle to his partners. In doing so, Vijay () scored more runs than anyone else in the series, 430 runs at 61.42 from seven innings and was the only batsman to clock up two centuries.His involvement in two major partnerships – one with Cheteshwar Pujara in Hyderabad and with Shikhar Dhawan in Mohali – is proof that Vijay’s batting has found a new and, India will hope, more enduring, sustainable tempo.Vijay’s 16-Test career has been interrupted by five years and nine series. The four Tests against Australia are the longest stretch he’s had and has come through, not as the attacking but flaky opener everyone knew, but as a more complete and all-round batsman. His maturity in the middle was reflected by his shift to a lower gear when the situation demanded.In Hyderabad, it was the more measured Cheteshwar Pujara who went on the attack, with Vijay playing wing-man (in aeronautic, not social metaphor). In Mohali, Shikhar Dhawan made a debut that will remain in the history books for a while. Vijay said at the time that he made the decision to play support cast fairly quickly.”When somebody is batting so well and the run rate is so high, I just wanted to hang in and play my game as per whatever I am comfortable with… there was no need for me to go for any shots, so I just wanted to play a little bit tighter and let him (Dhawan) play his natural game.”It is, says his first Ranji Trophy coach and former India batsman W V Raman, a simple conclusion to arrive at but hard to do. “Vijay’s always had talent, but the one ability that people don’t take into account is his mental strength. That is why he can shift his approach, like he did in Hyderabad, solidly and calmly. He’s a tough guy.”Sober, sedate and watchful. This, from the only Indian with two centuries to his name in the IPL. The Test version of Vijay should evaporate when he turns out in the canary yellow of the Chennai Super Kings next week. The last six weeks, though, have marked the biggest stride he has taken in his India career, five years after making his Test debut in Nagpur. Abhinav Mukund, Vijay’s opening partner in Tamil Nadu says, the performances against Australia have given Vijay “a proper spot” in the Indian team for the first time.Vijay is now India’s first-choice opener for India going to South Africa. Not a bad place to be in during a first-class season in which he averaged 17.25 in his eight Ranji innings (and, it must be said, 45.6 in his season total of 13 first-class innings before the Australia series). At the start of this season, though, Vijay had decided to target, Raman says, the Tests against Australia into his comeback series.Until now, Vijay’s cricketing career has progressed in fits, starts and flares. His pure talent and timing helped him play catch-up at the start, taking to cricket with seriousness when he was 17. Vijay came through from Vivekananda College and was quickly absorbed into the highly-competitive Chennai corporate leagues. Ten years ago, he signed on for Chemplast, a chemicals, shipping engineering and metals conglomerate and currently BCCI Corporate Trophy champs.Former India wicketkeeper Bharath Reddy, who has been in charge of the Chemplast team, was very impressed by Vijay’s batting against Australia. “He has always been a talented and very hard-working cricketer – but this series has shown us how he has matured.”Success in IPL 2010 had led to “active aggression” becoming “part of Vijay’s system without him realising it,” says WV Raman•AFPAll season, Reddy says, Vijay would call him two days in advance to get his practice organised at Chemplast’s home ground at the IIT Chennai. Once a week was two-three hours of centre-wicket practice and the rest of the days of the week, three to fours with the bowling machine or at nets with Chemplast coach G. Jayakumar.During the series against Australia, Vijay has spoken at length how his two failures in Chennai – 10 and 6 – had “hit him hard” and he had come into the second Test in Hyderabad knowing that he would have to stay at the crease. “I was preparing to fight it out there as long as possible and maybe if a good ball comes, then it is fine. I just wanted to stay and not give my wicket away.” He had spoken to Raman after Chennai and assured him, “Mentally, I’m alright, don’t worry about it.”Success in the 2010 season of the IPL had led to, Raman believes, “active aggression” becoming “part of his system without him realising it.” It became “exasperating” to watch Vijay’s wicket fall due to early attempt to “dominate bowling.” As 2012-13 began, the two men talked of the importance of “passive aggression,” being able to mentally get on top the opposition by staying at the wicket, scoring at a controlled pace and batting time.Long innings are not new to Vijay, who, along with Abhinav put up a humungous 462-run opening stand for Tamil Nadu versus Maharashtra in 2008-09. Abhinav calls them “polar opposites” but says at one stage the 400-plus partnership became “like a blur, a dream.” The two opened briefly for India as well in 2011 and Abhinav says he admires, “the way Vijay can adapt to all the three formats – and his square drive!” In the last few years he has noticed that Vijay, “has definitely worked on his game and a lot of it has to do with preparation.”They have, he says, their own ways of preparing: “I stick to working on specifics and Vijay loves to bat for a really long time in the nets, he says it gives him a good feeling. He can bat and bat and bat.” It is what Vijay did against Australia: just under eight hours for his 167 in Hyderabad, almost seven hours for 153 in Mohali and over three hours for his first innings 57 in Delhi.Reddy says Vijay had come into the Chemplast set-up as a backfoot player, who had grown up on the matting wickets of college cricket, but had strengthened his front-foot game and made the most of the IPL and the T20 format to produce a range of woah-generating shots. The IPL, Reddy said, “had given Vijay the confidence of dealing with overseas bowlers, even if in short bursts and taking on big-name players. That always helps.”Raman says Vijay Mark 2013 is much the same batsman who broke through into first-class cricket but he would like him to take a bigger stride forward rather than a small IPL-driven step, to get straight down the line and close to the ball rather than hit it on the bounce to clear infield.At the back of Vijay’s corkscrewing career, there has remained a constant subtext. He signed with Chemplast at a time N Srinivasan, owner of Chemplast’s bitter rivals India Cements, was rising through the BCCI hierarchy. As Srinivasan’s power grew, several of Vijay’s teammates were made offers to switch to India Cements and did so. Not Vijay. Reddy believes Vijay had fierce drive and ambition. “He always wanted to be better than them. I’m sure he was pressurised too, but my feeling is that he believed he would be more important here, with us. Other boys couldn’t get what Vijay knew he would get here, whether it was centre-wicket practice, or any other assistance.”India’s new-and-improved Test opener is obviously a man with a mind and a game all his own.

James Faulkner will be Australia’s 17th player in this Ashes – the equal most for them away from home – and it comes as no surprise that so much uncertainty surrounds selection

Brydon Coverdale20-Aug-2013Darren Lehmann and Rod Marsh have said not a word in public about their reasons for choosing James Faulkner for the final Ashes Test. But despite their silence, their message is loud and clear. This is a team that needs to harden up. Is it any wonder, really? Soft cricket no more has a place in the world of Marsh and Lehmann than soft drinks. They played with an edge so hard that Hot Spot could have detected it through three layers of silicone tape.It was left to the captain Michael Clarke, who is no longer a selector, to explain the choice on Tuesday. Notably, Clarke used the word “tough” or “toughness” at least three times to describe Faulkner and the qualities he would bring to the side. Even more telling was his final, one-word answer. When asked if this toughness had been missing from the team on this tour, Clarke said, with apparent reluctance: “Maybe”.There are times when “maybe” means no, sometimes it means “I don’t know”. Here it meant yes, for otherwise no captain would miss a chance to defend the character of his players. Australia’s capitulation on the fourth afternoon at Chester-le-Street was an example of such fragility, of throwing wickets and a game away. It was not the only one on this tour, but that crazy day has cost Usman Khawaja his place.Khawaja’s dismissal in what should have been a gettable chase was tame, just a prod at Graeme Swann, who straightened the ball and struck Khawaja on the pad in front of the stumps. He has now been dropped three times from the Test team, always having shown hints of his promise but failing to display any more. Khawaja’s talent has never been in question but his intensity – and intent – has been a constant question-mark.Faulkner has effectively replaced Khawaja in the side, though not in the same position. It was revealing that when he was picked in the squad, Faulkner was described by national selector John Inverarity as “a very competitive cricketer who gets things done”. The logical extension of Inverarity’s statement was that there were other players who lack the same spirit, who despite their ability, don’t get things done.By gambling on Faulkner at The Oval, the selectors have backed tenacity over talent. That is not to say that Faulkner lacks skill – far from it, in fact, for he has collected 111 Sheffield Shield wickets in the past three seasons and scored 444 runs last summer. But his bowling alone would not force him above Ryan Harris or Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc or Jackson Bird. Neither would his batting earn him a place on its own.But his “overall package”, as Clarke described it, is appealing. Of course, the same has been said of others in recent times. Glenn Maxwell and Moises Henriques both played on this year’s disastrous tour of India and neither would have made it for their batting or bowling alone. Both batted at No.7 in that series, behind a wicketkeeper at No.6. So did Mitchell Johnson against Sri Lanka at the SCG in January. None have lasted in the role.Really, it should be no great surprise that Australia have ended up imbalanced again, for in five of their nine Tests so far this year they have batted the gloveman, either Matthew Wade or Brad Haddin, at No.6. It is not the result of needing more bowlers, but of having so few batsmen who have stood up. Clarke said this week that he was not one for statistics, but he knew no Australia batsman had made a Test double-hundred away from home since Jason Gillespie.Forget double-hundreds, centuries would be enough. This year, only Clarke, Chris Rogers and Wade have scored Test tons for Australia. If the batsmen keep failing, the selectors feel they might as well pick an allrounder. They have shown it again and again. And again. Still, it was surprising that Faulkner was preferred over Matthew Wade, whose two Test centuries have come in winning causes. And Wade, like Faulkner, is tough.”I bring a bit of aggression and a competitive streak,” Faulkner said on Tuesday. “That’s how I play my cricket and that’s how I enjoy playing the game, get in the contest and soak it up a bit, get involved.”It is not surprising that Faulkner has that approach, for otherwise he could not have survived when playing against grown men as a young teenager in Launceston club cricket. He made his first-class debut at 18 and was immersed in Tasmania’s cricket culture, generally considered the best in Australia over the past few years. Faulkner has been Tasmania’s player of the year for the past three seasons and has been a key performer in three straight Shield finals.In 2010-11 he scored 71 and took four wickets in Tasmania’s win over New South Wales, in 2011-12 he collected five wickets in a tight loss to Queensland, and in 2012-13 he scored 46 and 89 against a Queensland attack led by a fired-up Ryan Harris, and also picked up four wickets of his own in the victory. In two of his three Ryobi Cup final appearances he has completed four-wicket hauls. He is, the selectors hope, the kind of man who stands up when it matters.Of course, it is easier to stand up when you’re not worried about anyone cutting you down. Faulkner’s inclusion and the consequent reshuffle of the batting order – Shane Watson will bat at first drop – means that not since the first two Tests of the tour of India have Australia sent in the same top six in the same order for two consecutive Tests. The selectors do not know their best XI or what order to bat them.Australia used 16 players in the series in India this year; that they will use 17 in this Ashes series – an equal Australian record for any away tour – is an indictment on the performance of the players, but also on the lack of trust in them shown by the selectors. The only other time Australia have used so many in an away series was in 1983-84 in the West Indies, when they lost 3-0.Here, Faulkner was not considered in the best team at the start of this series, for Watson was the allrounder and Phillip Hughes, Ed Cowan and Khawaja were all options to fill out the top six. Effectively, the selectors seem now to believe none of those men, nor Wade, are good enough. For a team in desperate need of runs, it is a worryingly desperate situation.Choosing your men and sticking with them has its merits. So does playing hard cricket. And if Faulkner succeeds, it may just open up a whole new criteria for John Inverarity’s panel to judge players by for the home Ashes.

Plays of the day from the second Twenty20 between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Dubai

Andrew Fidel Fernando13-Dec-2013The fruitless round trip
Kusal Perera’s belligerent innings might have never materialised had Pakistan’s fielding been just a tad sharper in the first over, when Perera ran almost all the way to the other crease before being sent back. He had hit the fifth ball of the over in between cover and point and had taken off immediately for the single, but Tillakaratne Dilshan remained stationary, and did not call off the run either. Perera was about three metres from the bowling crease when he realised Dilshan would not attempt the run, and by this time, the fielder had also collected the ball. Hesitating slightly, the fielder threw the ball wide of keeper Umar Akmal, and Kusal’s desperate dive was enough to get him back in the crease before the bails came off.The rush of blood
Sharjeel Khan was by far the best among Pakistan’s top-order batsmen, but having reached his maiden international fifty with a pair of beautifully struck sixes off Seekkuge Prasanna, the batsman may have let the moment excite him a little too much. He had been walloping the ball around the field by staying in his crease and generating power from a stable base but, as soon as he reached the milestone, Sharjeel walked well across the stumps on to the off side, perhaps to throw the bowler off his line. The ploy worked terribly, though. Prasanna served up a harmless full toss on leg stump that, had he retained his normal stance, Sharjeel would probably have slapped through square leg. Instead, he couldn’t get his bat anywhere close to the ball and was bowled around his legs.The frustrated captain
Things began going poorly very early in the match for Mohammad Hafeez, but his mood was not helped by moments of complacency in the field, particularly off Hafeez’s own bowling. Kusal Perera pushed a ball towards midwicket in the ninth over, and though Umar Amin and Sharjeel Khan closed in on it quickly, both men managed to misfield the ball, and conceded an extra run. Hafeez was understandably irate, gesticulating animatedly and yelling expletives in the fielders’ direction, but when Perera played the same stroke in Hafeez’s next over, the same two fielders failed to collect cleanly again, prompting a second round of even more frustrated abuse from the captain.The agile recovery
The universe has not allowed Kumar Sangakkara to do much wrong in recent months, and though he contrived to make a mess of a high ball off Shahid Afridi’s top-edge in the 14th over, he recovered spectacularly to complete the catch. Sangakkara had called for the ball early, after Afridi miscued a slog off Thisara Perera, and the wicketkeeper began running back towards short third man, as he tailed the ball. As the ball began to descend though, Sangakkara realised he had misjudged its arc and had overrun it. In the final split seconds, though, he threw himself back, arm outstretched like an Olympic diver, and managed to pouch the ball with one glove.

Without a mandate to rule, Angelo Mathews is having to work extremely hard to prove his worth as captain. He played an important innings to save his side from disaster on day one in Abu Dhabi

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Abu Dhabi31-Dec-2013Sri Lanka’s leadership is in a strange state. This XI features the country’s best-ever tactical captain and a cricketer who is perhaps the most respected current player in the world. While either Mahela Jayawardene or Kumar Sangakkara could helm virtually any other Test side, a 26-year-old holds the reins for Sri Lanka.In Abu Dhabi, Angelo Mathews’s produced the sort of lone hand the two senior men have customarily provided. The batting had slid as it so often does in overseas Tests, and full of gall but tempered by good sense, Mathews diverted Sri Lanka’s course toward respectability.It was a reminder of what made him such a star three years ago, because in the ten months since he has been captain, it has been easy to forget his virtues as a cricketer. Sri Lanka have had decent results under Mathews but have rarely strayed from formula, and had been light on the verve that was at the core of their identity under Jayawardene.Mathews has also seemed increasingly insouciant. The same composure in adversity that saw him anointed as a future leader has also dented his reputation as a captain. His poise, uncluttered mind, and dispassionate stare serve him well when he’s running down a tall score, but when he fails it seems as if he’s not trying, too aloof, doesn’t care. Sometimes you want your captain to smash his bat on his pads when he gets out. Sometimes you want him to yell at the fielder who let a ball slip through.And so, as Mathews rarely lets emotion bubble over, the discourse on him takes a turn towards moralism. His skill, temperament and cricketing sense are sideshows to the major questions: is he committed enough? Does he deserve the honour of his office? After all, his path to the helm has not been hard-won. He is from a top Colombo school; he was marked out for leadership almost as soon as he secured a place in the side, and he inherited the reins almost by default two years later.It doesn’t help Mathews that some alumni of 1996 publicly propagate the notion that the new breed of Sri Lankan cricketer lacks the passion that defined the world champions. Both former players and fans must perhaps realise that the same forces that propelled the amateurs may no longer be relevant to Sri Lanka, 18 years on.It also doesn’t help that Mathews has not improved substantially since his first 12 months in the team. There are few new shots in his repertoire, the inertia in his innings persists and while an average of around 40 is acceptable for a No. 6, he has not cracked the art of Test match concentration. Eleven times he has crossed 50, but only once has he forged ahead to triple figures. Even that century had been approached at a crawl, in service of personal catharsis and arguably at the expense of the team’s cause.

As Jayawardene and Sangakkara look towards retirement, Mathews has ahead of him the hardest task of any Sri Lanka captain since Arjuna Ranatunga

But as top order debris burned around him in Abu Dhabi, Mathews fought fire with aggression. Against a sharp attack running strong, tasting blood, it was hardly an advisable manoeuvre, because every time he pulled or drove, he risked an embarrassing exit. But as inaction either side of lunch had marked Sri Lanka’s road to collapse, perhaps Mathews reasoned that the opposite was the way out. His success hit home the major truth about Sri Lanka’s first innings: there was little in the pitch or from the opposition that demanded such feeble returns; the batsmen had surrendered all on their own.The tail arrived towards the end of the second session and Mathews then struck the perfect note between courage and caution. Pakistan stopped attacking Mathews when he hit a spate of imperious square boundaries, but though the infield opened up for him, he declined the easy runs to keep the man at the other end safe. Any proper batsman should have done the same, but in a 60-run ninth-wicket stand with Shaminda Eranga, Mathews seemed a more responsible leader than he perhaps ever has. There was no doubting how much he cared.It is the sort of innings that will undoubtedly be required of him regularly in the years to come. In this match six Sri Lanka cricketers have played fewer than 15 Tests. Only the supremely gifted can avoid brittleness at the start of their careers, and there is no batsman in the Sri Lanka side that possesses the talent of a Cheteshwar Pujara.As Jayawardene and Sangakkara look towards retirement, Mathews has ahead of him the hardest task of any Sri Lanka captain since Arjuna Ranatunga. Beyond the batting, Sri Lanka’s pace attack is doughty at best and more often toothless. Rangana Herath might stay two more years but no spinner has yet earned the right to call himself a successor. A time approaches where Mathews, still in his twenties, will probably be the most experienced cricketer in the team.Mathews has so far avoided raising the ire of his bosses, but in the future, he would do well to avoid decisions that put his side at a marked disadvantage. A bleak first day in Abu Dhabi might have been avoided if Sri Lanka had insisted on at least one practice game in the Gulf – a startling oversight, given they had not played Tests since March.Mathews perished charging an Ajmal doosra, nine short of a second hundred. It is strangely fitting that he did not reach the milestone, because in this, his best innings, every moment had been about his team.

The pitch in Antigua, which will be used for the third time, is doing the spectator few favours but all the players can do is take their chance. Ravi Bopara did that two days ago, winning a game he may not have done in the past

George Dobell in Antigua04-Mar-20140:00

Young guns need to step up for WI and England

Ravi Bopara has not been needed much with the ball so far on surfaces where spin has dominated•Getty ImagesCricket’s governing bodies are a curious bunch. Try to take a soft drink into a game in many places and you can be refused entry; wear a branded top in some places and you face the prospect of being accused of ambush marketing. During the 2007 World Cup, a fellow had his lunch taken from him because the baguette he carried was deemed to be a weapon.But when it comes to the really important thing – the product that is the game of cricket – they, at best, do nothing.Dull pitches represent a greater threat to the future of the game than drugs, spot-fixing, ambush marketing or websites seeking to celebrate and propagate cricket. Dull pitches will result in dull matches that risk losing the interest of spectators and failing to attract the next generation of supporters. And that was, of course, the original point of limited-overs cricket.So it should come as a disappointment to learn that West Indies and England will contest the deciding ODI of their series in Antigua on the same begrudging surface that hosted the first two games. The same surface that yielded just nine fours in West Indies’ innings in the second ODI. The same surface where part-time spinners have proved so effective in stifling the scoring. The same surface where where strokeplay and pace are punished and where patience and accumulation are rewarded. Where anti-cricket thrives. ODI cricket was not meant to be this way.It is no coincidence and should be no surprise that attendances have declined in the Caribbean since such pitches became the norm. This ground has only been filled once. And that was when Kenny Rogers took his love to town.There is, in this case at least, some mitigation. The conditions here are expected to be similar to those in Bangladesh where, in a couple of weeks, these two sides will be starting their World T20 campaign. But it is a shame that spectators have been asked to sit through – and pay for – a training session in desultory cricket.That is not to say that both this sides are not desperate to win. They are like two old heavyweights slugging it out on the undercard; battling not so much for glory as to sustain an ebbing career. They craze confidence and momentum after chastening months and, quite rightly, see each other as opposition ripe for the taking. This has not been a high-quality series.But both sides could be strengthened for this game. Marlon Samuels is not 100% but will be considered for selection by West Indies in the place of the horribly out of sorts Kirk Edwards, while Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan have now trained for three days in succession and are close to a return. Luke Wright looks most vulnerable. In a series typified by weak batting, all three would be welcome.One man who can already take some confidence from this series is Ravi Bopara. His match-winning partnership with Stuart Broad in the second game might not, in the grand scheme of things, be remembered as one of the great innings – he scored 38 in 59 balls, after all – but in the context of his England career, it might prove quietly significant.Must give Narine more runs – Dwayne Bravo

Dwyane Bravo has appealed to his batsmen to give Sunil Narine a chance to win games for West Indies. In Narine, West Indies believe they have the best spin bowler in the world, but the team’s top-order batting has sometimes asked too much of him.

“Narine is a bowler that most teams struggle to play,” Bravo said. “Not only England. Even India and Sri Lanka. They all struggle.

“He’s a handful, and we’re happy to have him in our squad. But at the same time, we can’t leave it all up to him. It’s a total team effort.

“If we don’t have enough runs, then Narine is no value. We need to have runs on the board to give him the opportunity to deliver for us. We definitely need to bat better. If we can put a better total on the board, we can make a better game of it.

“England bowling spin at the start of our innings caught us by surprise. We were not able to counter-act it, or come up with a gameplan against it.

“We know England are going to do it again. So our batters need to give themselves the opportunity to be themselves, be flamboyant, play fearless and put England under some pressure. We have very good lower-order batting, but it’s the start that has given us the problem.”

As things stand, the defining moment of Bopara’s career is the Champions Trophy final. With England on course for victory – they required 20 to win from 14 balls – Bopara, the last experienced batsman, pulled a long-hop from Ishant Sharma to square-leg. England lost by five runs and their long wait for that first global ODI trophy remains. It is a memory that might bother the whole team for the rest of their lives.It is an uncomfortably accurate summation of Bopara’s career, too, which has to date promised rather more than it has delivered. And certainly the memory of it bothers Bopara.”We came so close in the Champions Trophy,” he said. “We had a chance to win a global competition. That would have been amazing for the team. For all of us, really. Not winning was heartbreaking. It’s right up there with the worst disappointment I’ve had.”When you’re out there, you don’t think back. You don’t think ‘this is what happened in the Champions Trophy’. You just play the situation. You play the ball. But every now and then I’ll be sitting watching TV and I’ll think about the Champions Trophy final and think ‘maybe I could have done this or that’.”He appears to have learned from the experience.”When we needed three to win the other day, Darren Sammy came on as the top bowlers had bowled out,” Bopara said. “He bowled me a short ball and I took the single and got up the other end, looked at square leg and thought ‘You know what, I could easily have hit that straight at him.’ If I’d just pulled it, it would have felt nice coming straight out of the middle of the bat, you think, alright that’s going for four, but it goes straight to the bloke. That could easily have happened again.Such episodes bode well for England. If Bopara, who says he has “never been more hungry” to return to Test cricket, can find the composure to complement his talent, he could yet win many games for England. Perhaps in all formats.”I feel stronger and tougher,” he said. “I don’t question myself as much as I used to. I went through that that period when things weren’t right with my life and I took my eye off the ball. I had a lot of time to think about what I want to do and why I’m here and why I started playing cricket. I realised that the most important thing in my life apart from my family is cricket. Finishing my career saying I’ve played 13 Tests and 100 ODIs; that doesn’t satisfy me.”Winning this ODI series may not satisfy these teams, either. But it will provide something of a foundation stone at the start of a long rebuilding process.

The IPL has derived its star value from players who tug at the fans’ heartstrings. Yet on the biggest day of the season, it was five unfancied boys who demanded the spotlight and eclipsed everyone else

Alagappan Muthu02-Jun-2014″We want six, We want six, We want six.” It is a chant the M Chinnaswamy Stadium is fond of. Kings XI Punjab were loaded with some of T20s most wanted, but the man enabling the Bangalore crowd’s rapture was the most unusual of suspects. Wriddhiman Saha performed his regular mandate – easing a rocking ship – and went on to collect the highest score in a T20 tournament final. Yet his 115 off 55 could not script victory.Four of Manish Pandey’s boundaries came right after a wicket fell. All of them – a four off Mitchell Johnson and three sixes off Karanveer Singh – were defiant reminders for Kings XI to stay vigilant. The target he faced was the most demanded by a T20 final. He was the first Indian to three-figures in the IPL, yet since that breakthrough innings in 2009, his stocks had dipped. On Sunday, there was little of the scratchiness that usually disturbed his flow and he was able to translate intent into runs, 94 of the match-winning variety.His greatest threat were two little-known spinners. Akshar Patel has squeezed and hoodwinked some of the most hard-hitting batsmen with nothing more than unyielding discipline. In Bangalore, with Knight Riders comfortably chugging along at 10 to the over, Akshar’s figures read 4-0-21-0. Karanveer had played only one T20 before being thrust into the IPL cauldron, but the reason for his fast-tracking was understandable as he lulled the batsmen with his flight and drift. He claimed all his four wickets that way. Hardly the performances you’d expect to end up second-best.Manan Vohra would feel similarly aggrieved. Kings XI’s choice to retain him had seemed decidedly left field and further questions were brandished when he was benched for a majority of the campaign. Yet since breaking into the XI, he has left no one in doubt about his value. A steely innings of 67 was another example of his ability.The IPL has derived its star value from players who tug at the fans’ heartstrings. The Chris Gayles, the Virat Kohlis, the Virender Sehwags and the Lasith Malingas and other bankable, familiar performers are responsible for much of the tournament’s allure. Yet on the biggest day of the season, it was five unfancied boys who demanded the spotlight and eclipsed everyone else. For an event that paraded its USP was enabling fledgling players to savour the big stage, the 2014 final was their best advertisement.”Ballsy” was how the Kings XI captain George Bailey described Manish Pandey’s innings•BCCISaha and Vohra, arguably, had to face the more difficult set of bowlers, who had already gained a firm hold over the game. Defusing Narine when he had the comfort of a scoreline that read 58 for 2 after 10 overs requires a specific mixture of skill, clarity and some luck. The pitch was gripping and Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al Hasan ripped past the outside edge on multiple occasions. Both batsmen were basically surviving until they decided to shelve their doubts.Saha chose to do that against Knight Riders’ wiliest bowler and Vohra targeted their quickest. The ease and frequency with which they dictated terms in the latter 10 overs, which cost 141 runs, almost tempted one to wonder why they hadn’t come out swinging earlier. Knight Riders had been content to let them run their course and it did seem one of them would give sooner or later. Yet the events that transpired only added sheen to their efforts.Saha clobbered Narine for two fours and a six in the 14th over. His confidence seeped into his footwork and his bat face arced down at all the appropriate angles, especially when he drove between cover and mid-off. Hacks through midwicket and square leg were less pretty, but adeptly placed nonetheless. He had been 21 off 19 in the 11th over. By the end of his innings he laid claim to the IPL’s only century in the final, at a strike rate of 209.Vohra was remarkably sedate at the start. Perhaps it was the glare of a big occasion that persuaded him from the mad dash he has been known for this season. Yet when Morkel chose to ignore a natural weapon – his bounce – and go full, Vohra was alert enough to pounce. A flick over midwicket screamed to the boundary and a one-handed scythe over point travelled the distance. A shot that signaled something that united all five players – none of them were going to back down.”Ballsy” was how the Kings XI captain George Bailey described Pandey’s innings. Knight Riders had lost Robin Uthappa, their trump card, early. Gautam Gambhir has not been at his best throughout the tournament. But in Pandey’s company all he had to do was find a way to get to the other end. Pandey is fond of pressing forward, even against the express pace of Mitchell Johnson. He is also partial to the midwicket region and he was unfailingly brutal on pulling anything outside his half to that boundary – 34 of his runs came in that region, including four fours and two sixes. He could have been probed outside his off stump a little more, but only Akshar managed to do that.It wasn’t just Pandey who was having difficulty manoeuvring Akshar. Nearly every batsman found himself stalling. Knight Riders were 87 for 2 when Akshar was introduced and he began conceding only two runs. But at the other end, Parvinder Awana got smashed for 18 in the very next over. Yet Akshar toiled away. Only three runs came off the next over and he came within inches of dismissing Pandey. But his colleagues were far more generous. Another 18-run over replete with a half-tracker and a full toss, this time from L Balaji. In his final over, Akshar had to lend menace to an equation that was 21 runs in 18 balls. He conceded only six.With the seamers becoming cannon fodder, Bailey’s only option was to use Akshar to tie the noose and enable Karanveer to bait the opposition to stick their necks out. The downside of that plan was the legspinner conceded more than one-fourth of the target. But in the process a gung-ho Yusuf Pathan met his end, Ryan ten Doeschate fared no better and even Pandey holed out thinking he had been gifted a half-volley. Three strikes that dared Kings XI supporters to regain their voice. One more and who knew how tense things would’ve been.All five players fed off their belief. They would not let an equation get the better of them. They would not yield just because they were up against international-quality players. However, only one of them went home with the winner’s medal.”I just give myself a lot of chances,” Pandey said after he was adjudged Man of the Match, “I’m very optimistic all the time and I love to play [in] the crunch game. It’s really fun and I’ve always done well, so I’m very happy. We got 10 in the first over and I though if we just kept playing like that we would get 200 in the 20 overs. That was my very simple gameplan.”Bailey was out for 1, Maxwell for a duck. Narine and Morkel were thumped for 40 and 46 respectively. So don’t believe Pandey. Those five only made it look simple.

What are India likely to do to rectify their batting horrors? Frown, and let it pass

Andy Zaltzman20-Aug-2014I have been living a strange, almost cricketless existence at the Edinburgh Festival. Perhaps not quite as cricketless as the Indian batting line-up, but disturbingly cricketless nonetheless. As a result, I have seen very little of the supposed Test matches, in which England have emerged from their prolonged funk, and India have achieved the remarkable feat of not only playing even worse than they did in 2011, but also, in the end, doing so by an impressively comfortable margin.After the riveting, undulating classic at Lord’s, the final three Tests were horrifically one-sided, with England exerting total domination, based on the first-session brilliance of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, in the face of opposition resistance as sturdy and steadfast as a jam sandwich trying to stop an elephant stampede.It has all been eerily reminiscent of the famous 19th-century boxing match, in which Erwin “Fists Of Destiny” Wopplethwaite took on Punchin’ Percy Pendelbury. Pendelbury knocked Wopplethwaite down in the second round, and looked well set to finish off his dazed, staggering opponent. Instead, Wopplethwaite got to his feet, dusted himself down, and started landing jab after jab on Pendelbury’s notoriously suspect chin, before knocking him out with an impressive flurry of technically proficient upper cuts. Whilst Pendelbury repeatedly clobbered himself on the head with a heavy-based cast-iron frying pan, and shot himself in both feet with a crossbow.It may prove to be a learning experience for India’s batsmen. However, not all disastrous failures produce wisdom and improvement. As the old saying goes, “Having your leg bitten off by a crocodile does not necessarily make you better at swimming across crocodile-infested rivers, nor more confident whilst attempting to do so”.Faced with high-class swing bowling in helpful conditions, India responded with some of the most miserable batting ever seen on the international stage. Their techniques and confidences were successively demolished, as England’s had been in Australia. India clearly have a talented generation of batsmen. I am sure they want to succeed in Test cricket. But they do not to succeed in Test cricket, as previous generations did, in order to make a good living from the game. It may prove to be a crucial difference.Teams accused of spinelessness in a cataclysmic defeat may well be manifesting an overwhelming individual and collective collapse in confidence and technique, rather than an absence of will. I am sure it is visually hard to tell the difference. It is, after all, impossible to try really hard when you are sitting in the pavilion wondering why your bat does not seem to work any more. How can you demonstrate your determination and resistance when you look more likely to discover the secrets of the origins of the universe than the whereabouts of your own off stump?What will India’s players do to rectify their recurring failures? Forsake the IPL in favour of a couple of full seasons of county cricket? Persuade their board not to lumber them with tour schedules that offer no worthwhile preparation, and no subsequent chance to rehabilitate their broken games? Frown, shake their heads and hope for the best? A bit of extra catching practice? Option C looks the most likely outcome.Objectively, this was one of the most disappointing series to take place in England in recent years. This was partly because it had promised so much more and produced that ceaselessly dramatic game at Lord’s, before ending with three processional hammerings, in the last two of which the outcome was essentially fixed within the first session; and partly because if England, India and Australia are going to carve up Test cricket and shape its future, they need to be able to travel to each other’s countries and play something resembling Test cricket.Since England’s win in India late in 2012, four long series between the self-proclaimed Big Three have produced an aggregate score of 15-1 to the home teams, with three draws. And the “1” – India’s win at Lord’s – proved to be the biggest false dawn since Alphonse The First Ever Zebra killed a lion by making it choke to death on his own mane, before announcing: “Well, I don’t think we are going to have anything to worry about from that particular species.”

From Australia’s lead spinner and No. 8, Steven Smith has steadily risen up the batting ranks to become one of the central figures in their line-up, and arguably their most comfortable player of spin

Brydon Coverdale in Abu Dhabi29-Oct-2014There are not many people in Australian cricket who benefited from the homework saga in India last year. Steven Smith, though, is one. When Australia’s 17-man squad for that tour was named, Smith seemed the 17th-most likely to play any role. Usman Khawaja was first back-up batsman and was set to be included for the Mohali Test. Then Khawaja forgot to do his homework, Smith took his place, and he has never looked back.In fact, Smith is the only person to have played all 16 of Australia’s Tests since that moment. Only David Warner has scored more runs and hundreds for Australia since then, than Smith’s 1179 runs at 43.66 and four centuries. Who would have thought that when Smith made his Test debut against Pakistan four years ago as a legspinner and fidgety No. 8 slogger he would next meet them as arguably Australia’s most in-form batsman?In the conditions Australia are currently faced with against Pakistan in the UAE, Smith’s deft footwork and thoughtful approach to handling spinners makes him one of the most important members of the side. Where some of his team-mates cling to the crease like a toddler does the side of the pool when learning to swim, Smith wades out into the danger zone without the slightest apprehension.It looks so natural, and to some degree it is. There was no master coach who instilled the magical footwork in Smith, nor a mentor who explained how to tame the turning ball. Smith is what he is because he devoured cricket as a child and teenager, watched whatever matches were on television, regardless of who was playing. And it all seeped in to a brain that seemed wired for cricket, not for school.”No one has really taught me to play spin,” Smith told ESPNcricinfo. “I just watched a lot of cricket. You get out and you find different ways to improve. Everyone is different in the way they approach it. Some sweep, some run down the wicket, some get deep and play off the back foot. I like to do a bit of each if the moment suits.”I think it’s about trying to dictate the bowler’s terms. A lot of the best spinners in the world, if you just let them settle and get into their spell and do their bit, they’re tough to get a hold of and they’ve always got a little something over you. For me it’s about trying to attack them and get them off their lengths and the way they’re trying to get me out, and trying to get a lot of runs at the same time.”It all sounds so straightforward. There must be a certain bravery to it, to dancing down the pitch at a spinner from your first ball at the crease, as Smith did in both innings in Dubai. He insists not, that, in fact, that is the safe option. Stay back and the spinner can dictate; venture out and you’re the one in control.Perhaps he finds it easier because he knows how they feel. If that is the case, though, it must be subconscious, for despite his first incarnation as a Test bowler he has never really considered himself one. His call-up against Pakistan in 2010 was not the first time Andrew Hilditch’s selection panel had foisted a batsman on Ricky Ponting as lead spinner; Cameron White was used in the same way two years earlier.”I’ve never really seen myself as a spinner as such,” Smith said. “I’ve always seen myself as more of a batsman. I’m open to admit I wasn’t ready to play Test cricket at that point in time. To play as a spinner was very interesting to me. I wasn’t even the first spinner in our New South Wales side at the time. It’s an experience that I’ll never forget, but I’ve always seen myself as more of a batsman.”I learnt a lot about it and what I needed to do to improve and be successful at this level. I went away and scored some runs and changed some things technically and mentally, and I think it’s made me a much better player, and when I got that opportunity to play again I guess I’ve taken it.”

Where some of his team-mates cling to the crease like a toddler does the side of the pool when learning to swim, Smith wades out into the danger zone without the slightest apprehension

That he has. Of course, Smith still gets used occasionally by Michael Clarke when he’s struggling to break a partnership. Throw the ball to the part-time leggie and see what happens: a long hop, a full toss, a perfect legbreak – an over from Smith might contain them all, and any one of them could be the wicket-taker as the batsman’s eyes light up. In Dubai, he had Misbah-ul-Haq caught at deep mid-on.It is not surprising that you get as much variety in Smith’s overs as in a party pack of Smith’s chips. Legspin is arguably the toughest art in cricket, and for the past few years Smith has barely been keeping up his practice. But now that his batting has reached a point at which he is satisfied, Australian fans can expect to see more and more of Smith at the bowling crease.”I put it on the back foot for a little bit,” Smith said of his bowling. “I’ve started up again now that I’m at a position where my batting is where I want it to be. I wanted to focus on that for a couple of years and make sure I got that right. Now that I’ve got that, I have started bowling a lot more in the nets. I’ve been bowling every session that we’ve had at training, and trying to work on a bit of consistency.”It didn’t quite work out in the first game. It was probably four long hops an over, or fullies. Got the wicket though. It’s about getting a bit of match practice in. You can bowl as much as you want in the nets, but when you get out in the middle it’s completely different. If I’m able to get back and play some games for New South Wales or grade cricket, it would be nice to get a good spell of bowling in and keep working on my consistency.”The consistency is certainly there with his batting. And not just with his run-scoring. What is hard for observers to reconcile to is Smith’s proven concentration as a Test batsman with his incessant fidgeting between deliveries. It’s like a series of tics, and Smith believes there is something to the theory that he does it more when nervous. He does it a lot even when not.Asked if he is conscious of precisely what he taps in what order, Smith looks a little confused. Then he puts himself in the mindset of being at the crease and tries to run through his routine. Helmet, left pad, box, right pad. Or is it helmet, glove, left pad? Or helmet, thigh pad, box? Smith doesn’t really know, but he does know he has always been twitchy.”I think I’ve basically got an order now where I kind of know what I do, but I don’t, if you know what I mean,” Smith said. “I know I’ve got both pads, touch my box, make sure everything’s there. Then pads. I’ve always fidgeted. I always used to touch my helmet as well. I remember in Under-19s the boys counted me for an over and I touched my helmet 800 times or something like that.”That number sounds implausible, but he insists it really was that many. Perhaps the boys were winding him up. Those were the days when Smith was trying to make good on his decision to quit school and focus on the sport that had played such a dominant role in his life from childhood. He would go to the park after school every day with his father, Peter, who would bowl him balls in the nets.”He used to work from home, so I’d come home from school and go straight to the nets, half hour or hour and have a good hit,” Smith said. “I used to watch any cricket game that was on the telly and try and go out and bat like a certain player or bowl like a certain player. I had my moments of trying to bat like Mark Waugh. I couldn’t quite do the feet close together kind of thing that he did, or the swing that he had, but you learn a lot from watching players on TV.”It wasn’t just Waugh who Smith fancied; on his bedroom wall was a picture of Brian Lara. Neither of those idols ever had to contend with being considered a Test No. 8 as Smith did during his debut series. Now settled at No. 5 in Australia’s side, there even seems the possibility that he will at some stage be promoted to No. 3, a position that has caused Australia headaches since Ricky Ponting went past his peak.For the time being, the Australians are taking it easy with Smith and allowing him to develop at his own pace. Still, he is viewed as a candidate – perhaps the leading one – for the Australian captaincy whenever Michael Clarke retires. Smith has done the job admirably for New South Wales but is not being groomed in the same way Clarke was under Ponting; when Clarke and vice-captain Brad Haddin were both off the field during the recent tour match in Sharjah, Chris Rogers was in charge.”I’ve really enjoyed my opportunities that I’ve had to captain New South Wales and the [Sydney] Sixers,” Smith said. “It was nice to win a couple of those tournaments as well. The toughest part of the job is managing all the players around you. The on-field stuff, setting fields, changing bowlers, that’s the easy part. It’s making sure all your players are on the same page.”On that front, Smith must be a captain’s dream; no Warner-like controversies for him. He is just a cricket nut who works things out for himself. And, to his great benefit, does his homework.

Despite the horror start to their World Cup, England have to believe that they can still go all the way – starting against Scotland on Monday

George Dobell21-Feb-2015A few weeks into his second spell as England coach, after a Test series loss to Sri Lanka and defeat in the Lord’s Test to India, Peter Moores was asked if the team had hit rock bottom.”Who knows what rock bottom is,” he replied. “But I’m pretty sure it’s not losing a cricket match.”It is that sense of perspective that England will need in the next few weeks. After the mother of all defeats in Wellington – never have England been beaten with more deliveries remaining in ODI cricket – there might be a temptation to wallow or punish or seek excuses. But none of that will do England any good. Not in the short-term, anyway.As far-fetched as it seems right now, England have to believe they can still win this World Cup. They have to regroup and rebuild shattered confidence so they go into the match against Scotland on Monday in the best possible frame of mind to perform at their best.So, over the next 24 hours, Moores and Paul Farbrace and co will have to lift the spirits of their crushed squad and ascertain who is up for the fight and who looks scarred by recent experiences. He will try to remind them of some of the good things they have achieved on this trip – beating the current world champions in successive games and scoring 300 against Australia – and learn from some of the mistakes.

“Everybody can sing in the shower but not everybody can sing on the stage. You have got to be able to get it out of yourself to become a top-flight player”England coach, Peter Moores

“I don’t think we’re looking for excuses,” he said as the squad arrived in Christchurch. “I don’t think anybody is looking for comfort. A defeat like that is not an easy one to shake off and it shouldn’t be. You would be disappointed if it was. Days like that should live with you for a while.”We have to accept that Wellington and the MCG weren’t good enough. You can spin it how you like, but that wasn’t an acceptable batting performance.”My overriding feeling was that it was a disappointment for the people who came to watch because it wasn’t an acceptable performance. The players’ preparation for the game was good but we didn’t play in the style we wanted to play. We have got address that and come back with something.”Our preparation in the tri-series was great. We beat India twice, we scored 300 against Australia. Now, as coaches, we have to work with them and to find a way of being able to produce a good enough performance to gain some momentum. We have to get some momentum into our team.”Nobody is coming in on a big white charger to change it. The group is here – both coaches and players – and my role in that is to try and make sure that we galvanise everybody to play the best cricket we can.”Is Moores the man for that job? In his first spell as England coach, he gained a reputation for being intense. He was described, by his critics at least, as the man who, instead of alleviating pressure at times of hardship, added to it. Most memorably, he was described as “the woodpecker” in Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography: always nagging, never relaxing.There has been little sign of that character in the first few months of his second stint. He has seemed calm and consistent. Until the eve of the World Cup, anyway.The changes that England made for the first game of this tournament – dropping Ravi Bopara, bringing in Gary Ballance for his first game in almost six months, moving James Taylor and taking the new ball from Chris Woakes – may yet be remembered as the moment the squad were destabilised. Much of the preparation and improvement made in Sri Lanka and in the tri-series was squandered. Many of the plans and formulas disturbed. The confidence in the dressing room compromised.Take the example of Ballance. Few would dispute that he has the class to flourish in international cricket but, promoted to the side having not even made the tour of Sri Lanka a few months earlier, he looked short of game time and out of form. Now his long-term confidence could be diluted as England consider dropping him for the Scotland game. It is back to the days of Graeme Hick et al: pick, drop, pick, repeat.Gary Ballance or Alex Hales? England could shuffle things again for the Scotland match•Getty ImagesEqually Bopara, who could now be recalled, will have lost some confidence. He will know that, if he does win a recall, he will be under immediate pressure to perform at risk of being dropped for, perhaps, a final time. It is not how the best teams manage their players.There are also some mixed messages being passed to the team. If England really want to play the aggressive cricket they claim, why did they select Ballance and not Alex Hales?Hales, impressive in the nets and the only England player to register a T20 international century, could well replace Ballance in the top three for the Scotland game, while Chris Jordan is bowling with good rhythm and could improve the fielding and batting by replacing Steven Finn, whose two overs cost 49 on Friday.”We’re looking for a style of play that we’re starting to show at times,” Moores said. “We have shown we can get 300.”Everybody can sing in the shower but not everybody can sing on the stage. You have got to be able to get it out of yourself and that’s one of the things a player has to get over to become a top-flight player.”We have seen England players in the past who have managed to do that and we will see players in this team who will get over that line. They haven’t quite done it as a collective for the last two games. Some individuals have done better than others.”We have to accept that some of our players are emerging. The way we played, nobody in that dressing room – coach or player – would be happy with. We have got to be judged by what we come back with. We can talk all we like but we have got to start playing better cricket.”The vultures are gathering, though. Both Moores and Paul Downton, England’s managing director, have endured underwhelming first years in position. While they might be able to withstand an early exit from the World Cup, history suggests that the Ashes series that follows could define their careers.

Saad Nasim’s unbeaten 77 in only his second ODI was the sole bright spot for a Pakistan line-up that was unsure against spin and failed to rotate the strike effectively

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur19-Apr-2015In only his second day in ODI cricket, Saad Nasim played an innings his team needed. Pit his unbeaten 77 against the six batsmen above him in the Pakistan line-up, five of whom are more experienced than him, and it becomes easier to see why.Pakistan’s top and middle-order stumble very nearly turned into a freefall at 77 for 5 in the 22nd over before Nasim helped them regain some ground with two sizable partnerships. While the unbroken 85-run seventh-wicket stand was dominated by Wahab Riaz, the 77-run sixth-wicket stand with Haris Sohail was where Nasim turned a corner.He started off with a boundary off a poor Shakib Al Hasan delivery before both he and Sohail went into a shell, batting out 10.3 overs without a boundary. The pair tried to feel their way into the innings. Sohail is slightly more experienced at this level than Nasim but he hardly looked in touch. While Sohail struggled to find anything more than a single on most occasions, Nasim broke the boundary drought and got the Pakistan innings back on its feet.He opened up in Mashrafe’s first over in his second spell and struck the innings’ first six, over bowler Arafat Sunny’s head. He struck two more fours in the batting Powerplay and just one in the last ten overs, but by then it was Riaz who was doing much of the hitting.There is a bit of brazenness about Nasim’s batting; he doesn’t look to care too much about how he looks while batting. There were deliveries when he looked ungainly on the front foot. He would force a ball to long-on for a single, and not care much about how it had gone that far. Perhaps this attitude could help through his career, and something that many of his colleagues could do with during this series.Sohail batted 61 deliveries for his 44 but was at the crease for 30 overs. To get strike only for one-third of the time spent at the crease means that the batsmen at the other end hardly rotated the strike. They played out a lot more dot balls compared to the first game, which was more due to the control shown by the Bangladesh spinners in the middle overs.Sohail and Nasim got together at a time when the spinners were in control of the game. Shakib was bowling with two slips and a short leg in place. He took the wicket of Azhar Ali after the Pakistan captain had gone through eight overs without any boundary and generally staying more conservative against spin. He had scored 10 off 19 deliveries from Nasir Hossain and Sunny before he fell to his first ball from Shakib, trying to reverse-sweep.What was more frustrating perhaps was the way Mohammad Hafeez and Fawad Alam approached spin. Both fell for ducks off six balls each and paid the price for hanging back the moment they saw spin. Hafeez got out the first time he faced Sunny, missing an arm-ball after having hardly looked to play the ball towards the on side with any solidity. Fawad missed one from Nasir that came in with the arm.Shakib placed a short leg and brought an additional slip for Mohammad Rizwan, who had made 67 on debut last game. Rizwan lasted 22 balls before missing another ball that moved in slightly from an off-stump line. He was adjudged leg-before, but Rizwan didn’t call for a review. Pakistan ultimately never used their only review of the innings. It was how their batting has been during the first two games: unsure and struggling.