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The first session of Test cricket in 2013 produced 48 runs and 11 wickets as New Zealand were bundled out for 45 in 19.2 overs. Here are some of the stats highlights from the collapse

S Rajesh02-Jan-2013

• New Zealand’s 45 all out is their third-lowest in their Test history, and the joint 12th-lowest by any team. It’s the lowest Test total since India’s 42 all out at Lord’s in 1974. It is also the lowest ever against South Africa.
• New Zealand’s dismal batting performance lasted 19.2 overs – that is the shortest completed Test innings for New Zealand ever. It came after their captain, Brendon McCullum, had won the toss and chosen to bat. Only once has a team lasted fewer than 116 deliveries in the first innings of a Test after winning the toss and batting: Australia were bundled out in 22.3 five-ball overs against England way back in 1896, which makes this the shortest such innings in 116 years. (It’s also the second-lowest number of balls played in a completed first innings of any Test.) In terms of runs scored, this is the third-lowest by a team winning the toss and batting first: South Africa had been bowled out for 36 against Australia in 1936, while New Zealand were all out for 42 against Australia in 1946.
• Vernon Philander finished with figures of 5 for 7* – only three times has a bowler taken a five-for conceding fewer runs. The last of those was by West Indies’ Jermaine Lawson, who took 6 for 3 against Bangladesh in 2002. The last bowler to take five wickets in his first overs at the start of an innings in Tests was also a West Indian: Fidel Edwards took 5 for 26 in his first five overs against Bangladesh, again, in 2011.
• Ten out of New Zealand’s 11 batsmen didn’t touch double-digits. It’s only the 30th time this has happened in Test cricket, and the sixth time since the beginning of 2001. The only other instance when New Zealand suffered this ignominy was against England in 1955, when they were bundled out for 26, which remains the lowest Test total by any team.
• Dale Steyn completed his 300-wicket haul in his 61st Test, making him the joint third-fastest in terms of Tests to achieve the mark, after Dennis Lillee (56) and Muttiah Muralitharan (58). Richard Hadlee and Malcolm Marshall also reached the mark in their 61st Tests.
• Jacques Kallis became the fourth batsman to reach the 13000-run mark in Tests. He is the second-fastest to the landmark in terms of innings (269) after Sachin Tendulkar, who did so in 266 innings. He also became the fifth player to aggregate 1500-plus runs in Tests against New Zealand. Only Javed Miandad has more fifty-plus scores against New Zealand.
• Alviro Petersen’s century is his fifth in Tests and second against New Zealand. Both his centuries in home Tests have come in Cape Town. Petersen shared century stands with Hashim Amla and Kallis for the second and third wickets. It is only the fifth time overall (second time for South Africa) that there have been century stands for both the second and third wickets in an innings against New Zealand.

*16.36GMT, January 2: The piece had incorrectly said Philander took a wicket in each of his first five overs. This has been removed.

Vernon Philander’s rise since his Test debut has been astonishing. His captain, though, feels an extra yard of pace will improve his old-ball spells

Firdose Moonda at Newlands18-Feb-2013There is a certain look of disbelief that passes over a Captonian’s face if they are told something in their city could improve. Who can blame them? The jewel of Africa seems perfectly polished in every way with a sea as azure as the skies above it and plenty to suit all tastes.The same incredulity was felt by those in the presence of Graeme Smith when he mentioned after the Newlands Test he believes Vernon Philander could get better. Philander was not named Man of the Match despite his nine wickets because Robin Peterson’s 84 was the real difference between the two sides but it would have been a tough decision given Philander’s feat.He claimed his ninth five-wicket haul in just his 15th Test. It was also his fourth at Newlands and took his total tally of Test wickets to 87. His wickets per Test sit at 5.8 (his new-ball partner Dale Steyn’s are at 5.1) and his average remains a staggering 16.81, statistically making him the most dangerous bowler on the international circuit. Of all current cricketers, Philander has the lowest average by some distance. Steyn is next with an average of 22.68.If Philander gets any better, batsmen will stand even less of a chance than they do against South Africa now and Smith warned that is possible he will. “Vernon will be the first to admit that he is still a work in progress,” Smith said. “He would like to see his pace up. His skill factor is at a very high level and his seam action is unmatched. He is like the seam version of Saeed Ajmal. But if he can pick up a little bit of pace, his old ball spells will get better. His new ball spells are already so effective and if he can get the old ones to the same level…”When Philander broke onto the scene in 2007 the main concern was that he as too much of a trundler to cut it. He rarely goes beyond 135 kph although he is a major threat despite that. Philander’s danger is in the subtlety. Like Ajmal, batsmen are unsure what the ball is going to do when it comes out of the hand.Philander’s secret is not prodigious swing as he only moves the ball a few centimetres but because he can do it both ways, it creates uncertainty. Most of his wickets result from edges because batsmen are not sure whether to go forward or back to him and they are often found out on the drive.With the new ball, his seam movement is more pronounced as expected and there were some concerns during this series that South Africa lacked the ability to attack with the old ball. Philander proved that wrong with his second-innings burst that was aided by poor shot selection from the Pakistan middle order. Philander showed he can still make the ball talk later in the match.”We knew an old ball spell could win us the Test match”, Smith said. “When we are able to control the run-rate and then frustrate them, we thought if we could make the old ball work for us, we’d be able to get close to dismissing them and having a chaseable target.”Creating something even where conditions don’t suit is what has always been seen as Philander’s challenge. So far, he has been able to succeed at home, in England, New Zealand and Australia but the subcontinent remains his biggest test. South Africa’s next Test series will be played in such conditions in the United Arab Emirates against Pakistan and it’s there that Philander could claim his 100th scalp, unless he manages 13 wickets at Centurion starting Friday.It also means that Philander will probably not become the fastest to 100 Test wickets because George Lohmann holds the record, having achieved it in 16 matches. SuperSport Park will be Philander’s 16th. He is, however, in line to become the fastest South African to the mark.Had injuries not kept him out of three matches he could have played in, Philander may have had his 100 haul already. Those niggles are another source of concern. Three Tests after making his first appearance, Philander picked up a knee problem that ruled him out of the 2011 Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka. Marchant de Lange replaced him and became the year’s most successful debutant with 7 for 81 but has since had stress fractures that kept him out of action for most of the season.In November 2012 in Australia, Philander woke up with back spasms on the morning of the Adelaide Test and Rory Kleinveldt replaced him at the 11th hour. It allowed Kleinveldt, who opens the bowling with Philander for their franchise, the Cobras, to redeem himself from a poor first outing in Brisbane and to show his own skills. Kleinveldt also stood in for Philander in Port Elizabeth against New Zealand in January when a hamstring injury ruled Philander out.Although Philander has recovered from the hamstring problem, it has been described by the team manager Mohammed Moosajee, who is also a medical doctor, as chronic. Philander will not be managed in the same Jacques Kallis is – where his quota of overs in monitored – but his participation domestically is looked at as one way of keeping a handle on the problem. Given Philander’s value to the national team, it is not a problem anyone will complain about too much.

When one thinks of Australian keepers, one tends to think of Queenslanders, New South Welshmen and Western Australians

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013From Alan & Philip Sutherland, Australia

For those to whom an organised fan tour, offering such delights as golf with players and drinks with coaches, has about as much appeal as facing a fit Shane Bond with little but a miniature signature bat for protection, there are alternatives. There is still the odd place, or two, where traditions appear to mean something. In the modern world this makes them very odd indeed.Take the Adelaide Oval as one such example. Despite some modernisation, this remains a cricket ground – a ground for cricket rather than a stadium for herding cattle into. It comes as no surprise then, that the captain of the resident Sheffield Shield team in Adelaide is none other than one who appears to mirror the traditions of the ground – Graham Manou. Also somewhat of a throwback to a bygone era, Manou is a wicketkeeper’s keeper, one who puts his glovework first.When one thinks of Australian keepers, one tends to think of Queenslanders, New South Welshmen and Western Australians. South Australia, however, has an equally fine tradition behind the stumps. If Jack Blackham, the bearded 19th century Victorian, was known as “The Prince of Keepers” and, as writer Jack Pollard described him, “an original Australian hero”, then Arthur Jarvis, an Adelaide coach-builder of rather taller and more solid proportions was the prince in waiting. Fellow South Australian and Test captain George Giffen wrote of Jarvis, also known as “Affie”, as an outstandingly courageous taker of pace-bowling, standing up to the stumps to the express Ernie “Jonah” Jones and yet maintaining unbroken fingers.Undoubtedly, were it not for Blackham, Jarvis would have played more than 11 Tests. Jarvis did, however, manage to win one, according to former English captain Alf Shaw, largely by his own efforts. This was the third Test of 1884-85 at the SCG, where Jarvis took five catches plus a stumping off the bowling of “The Demon” Fred Spofforth.Better known than the 12-stone Jarvis, was another burly South Australian, Barry Jarman. Even heavier, at 13 stone 7 lbs, Jarman was long in the shadow of Wally Grout. In 191 first-class matches, he completed 560 dismissals, including 129 stumpings. One particular single-handed diving catch off Graham McKenzie in Melbourne in 1962-63 to dismiss England’s Geoff Pullar is long remembered.Trapped between Bert Oldfield and the Second World War was Charlie “Chilla” Walker. Quite possibly the best Adelaide keeper of them all, Walker recorded over three hundred first-class dismissals, an incredible 46% being stumpings. It no doubt helped his cause greatly to have legspinners of the quality of Clarrie Grimmett and Frank Ward in his Shield team. In a match against NSW at Sydney in 1940, Walker completed no less than three catches and six stumpings. Charles Walker died two years later while on active service for the Royal Australian Air Force.Like Walker, Manou has over 300 dismissals and seems destined to be a Test reserve. With just five first-class centuries and an average in the mid-twenties his batting lacks the gusto of Brad Haddin’s. However, Manou’s keeping is undoubtedly world class and if it wasn’t for the unreasonably heightened expectations from keepers with the bat since Adam Gilchrist appeared on the scene, he might well be accepted as the best in the country. Manou has certainly served a long apprenticeship, whereby his glovework has developed a silky smoothness.Another who seems set on doing the same, is his state deputy, Tim Ludeman. A country boy, born in Victoria’s Western District, Ludeman travelled further west for an opportunity at Shield level. Good enough to open the batting in the shorter forms of the game, Ludeman has already racked up quite a number of catches in just a few matches. One hopes that his destiny is not to be stuck behind Tim Paine. As good as Paine is, there should be enough room in the modern schedule for both of them.

There’s one rivalry within the Caribbean nexus that is big and is only getting bigger – Guyana v Trinidad (or Trinidad v Guyana, depending on your allegiances)

Roger Sawh25-Feb-2013One of the most important aspects of international cricket is the fact that countries, as opposed to franchises, go head to head on such a regular basis. As opposed to the Yankees v Red Sox, Celtics v Lakers or Barcelona v Real Madrid, the national representation structure of cricket (notwithstanding the rapidly expanding world of franchise cricket in T20s) lends regular matches and series the feeling of a quasi-war. While outward animosity isn’t that pronounced, there are some rivalries that are so spirited and historically significant that their manifestation in cricket is quite fierce – India and Pakistan are probably the most passionate, Australia and England might be the oldest, and anyone and England (the colonial masters) might be the most historically entrenched. On a slightly smaller scale, there’s one rivalry within the Caribbean nexus that is big and is only getting bigger – Guyana v Trinidad (or Trinidad v Guyana, depending on your allegiances).This rivalry does not have military connections, but is instead spurred on by a shared history and a similar socio-cultural and economic reality. In a nutshell, it’s like two siblings fighting – they’re similar in so many ways, but their differences invoke vehement clashes. On the face of things, Trinidad and Guyana have much alike when compared with the other members of the West Indies – they’re the only two countries to have large Indo-ancestral roots alongside Afro-ancestral ones, which has led to the creation of cultures that appreciate curries as much as calypso. The noticeable presence of Hinduism and Islam existing alongside Christianity, and the theatre of Shah Rukh Khan being as influential as that of Brad Pitt make Trinidadian and Guyanese societies quite analogous.There are, though, small differences in the cultures that act as springboards for perceived difference – Guyanese say ‘chicken curry’ while Trinis say ‘curry chicken’, Trinis like to ‘fete’ while Guyanese like to ‘sport’ (they both mean ‘party’ for the uninitiated) … and so the long but quite unimportant list goes on. Besides linguistic differences, there are obvious claims over who does things better, who has had more success, or even who is the smarter one – as I said, a real sibling rivalry!On the economic front, Trinidad has done quite well for itself thanks mainly to its oil-based economy, while Guyana is still working on finding its economic footing (though aspirations of oil shine bright as a potential way to progress). This ties in to the politics of the two countries, which have had undeniable racial links at one level or another (and have always served as an ugly backdrop to efforts for national unity). Both countries are working their internal differences out, but as young nations, there are definite growing pains.On the cricketing front, Trinidad has birthed the genius Brian Lara while Guyana may claim to have had more ‘big names’ of the West Indies’ past, like Clive Lloyd, Lance Gibbs, and Rohan Kanhai. In today’s West Indies team, Trinidad has provided some of the brightest stars, while Guyana can claim the stalwarts. In general, Trinidadians and Guyanese have played cricket in similar ways also – spin based bowling attacks (think Sonny Ramadhin, Dinanath Ramnarine and Samuel Badree against Lance Gibbs, Mahendra Nagamootoo and Devendra Bishoo) that complement wristy and stylish batsmen (like Larry Gomes, Daren Ganga and Darren Bravo versus Alvin Kallicharran, Carl Hooper and Ramnaresh Sarwan).To take a small slice of recent history, Guyana and Trinidad have yet another commonality – they are the only two countries to have won the West Indies’ domestic T20 tournament since its inception under Allen Stanford. That reality has provided the latest bit of spice in this bilateral bacchannal, which grew to a fever pitch yet again a few nights ago in the round-robin stage of the 2013 tournament in Port of Spain. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, and Guyanese and Trinidadians alike were confident that their teams would win. They both relied heavily on spin, and there was a shared knowledge that they are each other’s biggest test. While Trinidad emerged easy victors, the anticipation of another possible face-off in the tournament final keeps the flames of competition burning bright.The rivalry will continue far beyond 2013, from the cricket field to the kitchen to the DJ booth, and many other places. While the chasm could be so much wider (there are no fundamental religious, racial or historical differences to fuel any hatred), we simply fight because we’re alike. Claims of superiority will continue to be made, evidence will be cited, teasing will be done, and banter will continue, but despite all of this, Trinis and Guyanese will both be right – like siblings, they are both equally special.

Plays of the day from the IPL match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings in Jaipur

Devashish Fuloria12-May-2013The blunders
Chennai Super Kings’ opening stand of 83 began relatively slowly, as the pair took time to get used to the surface. If that was a cue on how to succeed on this pitch, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni ignored it completely. Raina drove his second delivery through the line, in the air, despite there being a long-off in place, and holed out. Dhoni’s dismissal was even more baffling. He got a thick outside edge over point off his first delivery, but ignoring the signs, he tried to repeat the shot only to edge it to Shane Watson, who had just been moved to first slip before the delivery.The high high-five

Jason Holder, the tall West Indies fast bowler, had bowled 11 overs in the IPL before the start of this match, but his wickets column showed nothing. The Jaipur pitch, though, assisted him. He made the batsmen uncomfortable with the bounce he extracted. And the wickets duly arrived. First, it was Ajinkya Rahane who mistimed a lofted drive to mid-on, and then it was James Faulkner, who had given himself room to blast a length delivery, but was left to see the off stump knocked out. Holder ran towards Dwayne Bravo and leapt for a ten-foot high-five. Bravo did well enough to get a hand to it.The failed experiment
A few days back, Rahul Dravid had rejigged the batting order and sent Faulkner at No. 3 at Eden Gardens on a slow pitch. The experiment then had lasted just four balls with Faulkner managing a solitary run. Today, on a spicy pitch that was testing for players like Dravid, Royals pushed Faulkner up the order again. The result was no better. Faulkner was bowled second ball.The fielding
At one stage during Royals’ innings, it appeared the batsmen didn’t really have a way out. Super Kings’ bowlers were bowling with fire and their fielders were not letting anything get away. The energy was visible when Watson had just come in and he chopped one towards point where Ravindra Jadeja dived to his left, caught the ball with one-hand, then threw down the stumps at the striker’s end. Unfortunately for him, Watson’s bat was well inside the line. Jadeja was also at the boundary when Stuart Binny hit a six off R Ashwin that opened the floodgates, but he would have wanted to be as tall as Kieron Pollard to get to that.

With little context, this tri-series could be looked upon as another blow to Test cricket, but for the teams, it provides a chance to grow, build and streamline their ODI outfits

Abhishek Purohit27-Jun-2013Seen from one perspective, this tri-series could be the latest instance of Testicide – the act by which a scheduled Test match or series is aborted (or rescheduled, to an unspecified date) by cash-strapped boards for the big money that a one-day series, preferably involving India, brings in. The WICB and SLC achieved that by scrapping the two Tests they were scheduled under the FTP to play against each other in May; they also managed to convince India to be the third team in a one-day tri-series that starts in Jamaica five days after the Champions Trophy ended in England.But, as MS Dhoni might have put it in one of his interesting metaphors, if a delivery van has been assigned a particular route, there is little the driver, or anybody else, can achieve by fantasising about how good some other route may have been. And this route has one major attraction: The full-strength squad fielded by each country.Barring a couple of injuries, and in West Indies’ case, the need to cull a couple of players for a smaller home-series squad, all three squads are identical to the ones that participated in the Champions Trophy. These are first-choice squads, not some watered-down versions that may have made up the numbers in numerous forgotten one-day series in the past. The boards are quite serious about this series alright.What about the teams? Host captain Dwayne Bravo has had a heartbreaking start to his limited-overs leadership, with West Indies exiting the Champions Trophy following a rain-hit tied match against South Africa. As Bravo said after the game, West Indies are trying to grow and build a stronger one-day team. New Zealand and Zimbabwe were the last two visitors to the Caribbean. Compared to them, the challenge posed by India and Sri Lanka will aid West Indies’ development as a one-day unit. Admittedly, the hosts have made some strides. Having gone more than four years without winning at home against opposition excluding Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, they drew with Australia in March 2012 and then won 4-1 against New Zealand. What Bravo will also want is to grow into his new leadership role. As of now, he is captain in only one format, and taking on two well-drilled ODI outfits can only make him develop further.The road ahead is tough for Angelo Mathews. Not only does he have to evolve as a captain and a player, he also has to make sure Sri Lanka’s reliance on the seniors goes down progressively as the 2015 World Cup approaches. India have successfully achieved that transition in ODIs, so much so that, the window on seniors such as Virender Sehwag seems to be all but closed. Sri Lanka appear to be nowhere close to achieving that. The absence of the injured Tillakaratne Dilshan in this series is a small opportunity, one which Mathews will hope he and Sri Lanka can use to their benefit.The last time India won a world title, they had Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan in the line-up. In just over two years, the nucleus of the one-day side has changed beyond recognition. Who would have thought an opening combination of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma would win the Champions Trophy? The selectors had indicated their focus on the 2015 World Cup by selecting a young side for the Champions Trophy, and have chosen to continue with the same approach for this series. These four or five games, against reasonably tough opposition, aren’t bad for a young unit to build its confidence further.Coming to overall context, this series has none. Of course, it isn’t the first one-day series, bilateral or tri-nation, devoid of it. Nor will it be the last. Some might argue that a bilateral Test series between West Indies and Sri Lanka, in the absence of a Test Championship, would not have provided any more context. But at least in that case, the game would have been spared the latest instance of Testicide.

A relaxed Sachin Tendulkar spoke about the reasons behind his decision to retire and his final day on the cricket field

Nagraj Gollapudi17-Nov-20130:00

‘I’ll remain involved with cricket’ – Sachin Tendulkar

A day after his retirement, Sachin Tendulkar was relaxed in his appearance and his body language•Hindustan TimesAt 6.50am on Sunday morning Sachin Tendulkar woke up in the Indian team hotel and made a cup of tea for himself. On Saturday morning, too, Tendulkar had woken up at the same time and made a cup of tea. The difference was, on Saturday Tendulkar was getting ready to play his final day in international cricket. “When I woke up, I suddenly realised that I don’t need to have a quick shower and get ready for the match,” a relaxed Tendulkar spoke of his first morning as former India player. “I made myself a cup of tea, and enjoyed a nice breakfast with my wife. It was a relaxed morning.”Even as he spent a lot of time responding to people’s wishes on his phone, cricket continued to be on Tendulkar’s mind. “I don’t know why it has not sunk in that I am not going to play more cricket,” he said. “Somewhere or the other I will go and play.” A bond of 30 years is hard to shake off in 30 hours.Tendulkar had once said it was difficult for him to imagine life without cricket. A day after he was given a ceremonious and emotional farewell after India’s Test series win against West Indies in Mumbai on Saturday, Tendulkar was relaxed in his appearance, in his body language, in his words.According to Tendulkar, the decision to retire came as soon as he realised that going for training was becoming “an effort”. Immediately the “question marks” started appearing, an indication from his body it was time to draw the curtains.”You have to appreciate that there were many injuries during the 24 years,” Tendulkar said. “It wasn’t easy to overcome it. At some point in your life, your body gives you the message, ‘Enough. Enough of this physical load.’ The body requires rest. I thought the body is refusing to take that load consistently. If I have to train, it was becoming an effort. Earlier training sessions used to happen by themselves. Nowadays, sometimes I even felt that I should just sit and watch TV. That’s when question marks arise. So when I tried to look for answers to those questions, I found out this was the perfect time to leave the game.”However, the world, at least some of the media, it appeared, already wanted him to start a new life, one that they felt would be appropriate for him. A reporter wondered if Tendulkar could actually keep himself together without cricket. Another enquired if he had plans to open a cricket academy. Yet another asked him if he would push for cricket to be an Olympic sport now that he had been bestowed with the Bharat Ratna, India’s biggest civilian honour. A middle-aged photographer stood up impromptu, and congratulated Tendulkar on the award and wished he be knighted next so people could address him as Sir Sachin Tendulkar.Tendulkar took in all the questions and wishes and desires of the people with equanimity, without ever once dismissing anything. He even cracked some witty remarks, to elicit laughter and applause in equal measure. “I have played cricket for 24 years, it has been only 24 hours since retirement, and I think I should get at least 24 days to relax before deciding these things,” Tendulkar said with a big smile.On Saturday, a few hours after he left the cricket field, the Indian government had announced the Bharat Ratna. Tendulkar dedicated it to his mother Rajni. According to him, for the numerous sacrifices she had made to make sure her son’s career would prosper, he couldn’t repay her enough. Tendulkar went on to extend that same compliment to the “millions of mothers” who had been equally selfless to see their children have a successful future. An instant applause filled up the room in appreciation of that remark.For Tendulkar the most heartfelt moment arrived when his childhood coach Ramakant Achrekar, himself a Dronacharya Award winner, called him up and wished his student for the time in his life, “Well done.” Tendulkar today explained why his coach had waited for 24 years to give him the compliment.”I have reached this level because of Sir, and he and my brother Ajit have been a team – on and off the field,” Tendulkar said in Marathi, his mother tongue. “Off the field, at home. Sir has been the reason I got this far, Sir and other coaches. When I got the Bharat Ratna, Sir called me, and finally said, “Well done.” That gave me immense joy.””I just thanked cricket for everything I got in my life,” Sachin Tendulkar said. “It was as simple as that. Nothing complicated.”•BCCIThere have been many Tendulkar photographic memories over the last two-and-a-half decades. On Saturday, amid all the outpouring of emotions, the most memorable image was that of Tendulkar, all alone, in his whites, walking towards the Wankhede pitch. As the crowd cried “Sachiiiin, Saachin”, Tendulkar observed the 22 yards from close, bowed down, rubbed the red soil with his palm and applied it to his heart and head as a mark of worship and gratitude. Today he revealed those 22 yards were the “temple” where “his life started”, and the stature he had reached in life and cricket was possible only due the cricket pitch.”I knew that never ever in my life I would get to do that in an international match,” Tendulkar said, choking a little. “That is where it all started. Those 22 yards have given me everything in my life. Whatever I have today is because I spent time within those 22 yards. It’s like a temple for me. I just wanted to say a big thank you to cricket. Every time I go to bat, I touch the wicket and take blessings. That’s what I did yesterday. I didn’t say publicly. I just thanked cricket for everything I got in my life. It was as simple as that. Nothing complicated.”What made the moment emotional for Tendulkar was the realisation that it was all over. He didn’t want the world to notice that emotion. “When I went to the wicket, and I stood there, I realised this is the last time I am standing in front of a packed stadium actually as a part of the Indian team,” Tendulkar said. “This would never happen. That was very emotional. I couldn’t control my tears. Knowing that I would never have a cricket bat in my hand playing for India was very, very emotional. There have been wonderful moments, and I could think of all those things. It happened very fast.”You would have noticed, I didn’t want to be rude, but I could not look up when I was shaking hands, including with West Indies players, because I was in tears, and I didn’t want anyone to see my face that way. It’s hard to express what I felt, but in spite of all these things I knew the decision was correct. I know the decision is right.”During his long career Tendulkar remained on top of his game barring the last phase of his career where his form had become streaky. Tendulkar, though, said that the biggest challenge of his career was not form but dealing with career-threatening and uncommon injuries such as the tennis elbow in the mid-2000s. “After the tennis elbow, it took me four-and-a-half months after the surgery,” Tendulkar recalled. “The doctor had told me it would take that much time, but I tried to start earlier, and couldn’t do it. The challenges were immense. At times it felt it was all over, and I won’t be able to lift a bat again.”After the tennis-elbow surgery, I couldn’t even lift Arjun’s plastic bat. When I went to practise for the first time after that surgery, the kids were fielding my powerful hits at 10-15 yards. I felt then that I won’t be able to play anymore. That pressure is entirely different. It was a difficult phase. I want to thank the people who helped me during that time.”On Saturday paying a vote of thanks to the fans during his evocative speech, Tendulkar had said that their chants of “‘Sachiiiiin, Sachin’ would reverberate in my ears till I stop breathing”. Today, as his management brought to an end the media briefing, everyone in the room screamed “Sachiiiiin, Sachin”, suggesting it would reverberate in the people’s hearts too.

Stats highlights from the first day of the first Test between New Zealand and India in Auckland

Shiva Jayaraman06-Feb-2014

• Kane Williamson’s century was his fifth in Tests. He has hit 474 runs across formats at 79.79 from six innings on this India tour, passing 50 every time. In the 2013-14 season, Williamson has scored 522 Test runs at 74.57, including two centuries and four fifties.
• Williamson’s century is the first by a New Zealand No. 3 in more than nine years. The last No.3 to hit a hundred at home was Hamish Marshall, who scored 160 against Sri Lanka at McLean Park in 2005. Click here for a list of hundreds by New Zealand’s No.3 batsmen in home Tests.
• Brendon McCullum’s hundred was his eighth in Tests and his third against India. It was his second hundred and his highest Test score as New Zealand captain, beating the 113 he scored against West Indies in Dunedin in December last year. During his innings, McCullum went past Nathan Astle to become the fourth-highest run scorer for New Zealand in Tests. He has 4827 runs from 142 innings at 36.29. Astle scored 4702 runs at 37.02 in 137 innings.
• The 221-run partnership between Williamson and McCullum was New Zealand’s fifth highest for the fourth wicket in Tests. Their highest also came against India, when Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor added 271 at McLean Park in 2009.
• The McCullum-Williamson stand was also New Zealand’s fourth highest against India in Tests. The 271-run partnership between Ryder and Taylor is their highest.
• New Zealand started badly, and were 30 for 3 with a run rate of 1.74. The partnership between Williamson and McCullum shifted gears. They added 221 runs in 51 overs at a run rate of 4.33 – New Zealand’s fourth-fastest 150-plus partnership in the first innings of a Test (where records exist). Four of the top-seven partnerships in this list/a> are against India.
• This is only the fourth time in Tests that New Zealand’s No. 3 and No. 5 have hit centuries in the same innings. The last time was against Sri Lanka in Napier in 2005, when Marshall and Astle hit hundreds in New Zealand’s first innings.
• New Zealand’s openers continue to be a concern for them. Since the stand of 158 against England in Dunedin last year, when Peter Fulton and Hamish Rutherford opened for the first time in Tests, they have added 514 in 17 innings at an average of 30.23. They have four 50-plus stands but no century partnerships. Both openers have failed to make substantial scores during this period: Hamish Rutherford has 393 runs at 24.56, Peter Fulton has scored 286 runs at 22.00.

An age-related incident may have kept Ankit Bawne out of the 2012 Under-19 World Cup, but he has not let that controversy affect his batting. Instead, he is making his presence felt by the weight of his Ranji Trophy runs for Maharashtra

Karthik Krishnaswamy27-Jan-2014In September 2011, Ankit Bawne was removed from the India Under-19 squad ahead of a quadrangular tournament in Visakhapatnam. He had earlier been named captain of the side. The date of birth in his passport, it was discovered, didn’t match the one in his birth certificate and the BCCI’s records. It didn’t fulfill the cut-off date for the 2012 U-19 World Cup.Bawne protested that the agent who arranged for his passport had messed up the date. The selectors, not wanting to take a risk, left him out. Unmukt Chand took over the captaincy. A year later, Chand led India to the World Cup title with a century in the final.Chand earned lavish praise from Ian Chappell, won an IPL contract and wrote a book. In a TV commercial, he sneaked into the senior India team’s dressing room for a bottle of Pepsi. Confronted by MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, and asked if he thought there was no difference between him, an U-19 player, and them, the seniors, he told them: ” (I can get into your team right now, but you people can never get into mine).”Bawne couldn’t get in either. You wonder if Bawne, watching that ad, thinks to himself, “That could have been me”.”Obviously if he [Chand] is doing all this, then… he made a hundred in the final, the Indian team won the final, so the credit has to go to him,” Bawne says. “Whether I had a chance [to do that] or not, I can’t keep thinking about that.”What was it like, though, when he was left out?”It was obviously a shocking time for me, individually speaking, but it’s okay,” Bawne says. “Basically, my aim is to play for the senior Indian team. U-19 is obviously a good thing. It’s a shortcut, but my dream is to play for the senior Indian team.”At that time, family, coaches, players, everyone supported me a lot. But this is a big stage, if you play well in the Ranji Trophy, you will get the chance. India A opportunities will open up. And it isn’t like if you are the U-19 captain you will automatically move up from there. You have to perform there. That was what was in my mind. The Ranji Trophy is there, and I have to do well there. After that, I’ve been averaging 60-65 in every season.”In his last three first-class seasons, Bawne has averaged 75.85, 60.30, and 77.33. Since his debut in 2007, he has scored 2616 runs in 40 first-class matches at 54.50, with eight hundreds. Chand, as an aside, has 1688 runs in 31 games at 36.69, with four hundreds.Bawne began 2013-14 with an unbeaten 115 against South Zone on his Duleep Trophy debut and has carried that form into the Ranji Trophy, where he’s scored 581 runs for Maharashtra at 64.55. His numbers, though, get a little lost amid those of his team-mates. Kedar Jadhav has scored more than a thousand runs, and Harshad Khadiwale needs 20 more to reach that mark. Even Sangram Atitkar, after his 168 in the semi-final against Bengal, has scored more runs than Bawne.But it was interesting that Surendra Bhave, Maharashtra’s coach, singled out Bawne’s 89 against Bengal as the innings that set the semi-final up for the team, and raved about his defensive technique. “Look at his front-foot stride,” Bhave said after the match. “I can’t see anyone else who has a front-foot stride as big as that against fast bowlers. Middles everything, bat sounds very sweet, and he gives us solidity, real solidity.”From the press box, Bawne’s innings was remarkable for how unremarkable it looked. If you hadn’t seen anyone else bat in that match, you might have thought Bawne batted comfortably against an average attack in pretty good batting conditions, and missed out on a century. That, though, wasn’t the case.On a green pitch at the Holkar stadium, Maharashtra had rolled Bengal over for 114. In reply, their batsmen had looked much more comfortable than Bengal’s, but not uniformly so. Khadiwale and Chirag Khurana survived their share of plays and misses in a 78-run opening stand. Vijay Zol and Rohit Motwani, the left-hand batsmen, got trapped on the shuffle early in their respective innings. Jadhav shuffled down the pitch to the fast bowlers and struck eight fours in scoring 40. He looked good, and could have made a lot more. With that approach, he could have also made a lot less. Even Atitkar, early on, looked uncertain outside the off stump and saw a few edges scream away to the third-man boundary.’I can’t see anyone else who has a front-foot stride as big as that against fast bowlers’ – Surendra Bhave on Ankit Bawne•ESPNcricinfo LtdNone of them, in the early parts of their innings, gave you the feeling you could open a book, read two pages, and confidently look up to see them still at the crease. You could have done that with Bawne.It might have appeared straight out of a manual, but Bawne’s technique doesn’t owe all that much to formal coaching. Growing up, he says, he didn’t have a coach. When he played for Maharashtra’s U-15s, after playing for Aurangabad in the MCA Invitational U-15 league where he made “11 hundreds in 12 innings” and helped them reach the final, he came under Bhave for the first time. Apart from that, he says he watched TV (Rahul Dravid is his favourite batsman) and taught himself how to bat.”I haven’t had any personal coach,” Bawne says. “Whatever I’ve learned is from TV, from watching matches, and from state camps. You get the chance to play with experienced players, I’ve attended a lot of camps at the NCA, matches are coming on TV continuously, so I’ve learned small-small things.”It’s apparent that Bawne learned a lot more than just technique, as he talks you through his innings of 89 against Bengal. When Atitkar walked in to join him, Maharashtra were five down and only 50 ahead. Bawne, by then, had sized up the conditions, and communicated to his partner exactly how he needed to play.”On that wicket, you weren’t going to get out to the bouncer, because the bouncer wasn’t coming through quickly,” Bawne says. “Secondly, if the ball seams in off the wicket, you have to cover the pads so that you don’t get lbw or bowled. Against the [second] new ball, if it swung, you could get caught in the slips, which was how I got out. It was just a question of playing out four-five overs against the new ball, and against the rest just cover your stumps and play the line. Then there was no chance you’ll get out. you are that strong, mentally.”I told Sangram that, and I was telling him continuously, ‘Look, our lead is only 100, and from here, rather than get out and bat again, it was better if we batted just once, and put the opposition under pressure’. We kept playing, the lead went from 100 to 200, then I got out, and after that the wicket eased out so much that batting with a lead of 50 and batting with a lead of 200 were entirely different. If he had come in with a lead of 50, Anupam [Sanklecha, who made 52] couldn’t have played so freely. Those guys wouldn’t have given the ball to the legspinner. After the lead was 200, they would have thought, ‘okay, the lead is now 200’, and gave him the ball, and Anupam batted freely, and the game opened up. They gave us a target of 8. If we had taken a lead of 150, we might have got a target of 200 and anything could have happened.”As it turned out, Bawne fell 11 short of a hundred. It took more than just reading the scorecard to know how big a role he had played in Maharashtra’s win. Something similar happened in the quarter-final against Mumbai as well.That win will most likely go down as one created by the fast bowlers, who bundled Mumbai out for 129 in the second innings, and finished off by Zol and Jadhav, who remained not out on 91 and 120 respectively as Maharashtra raced to their target of 252 with eight wickets in hand.Bawne’s first-innings 84, however, was just as important. He came in with Maharashtra 24 for 3 replying to 402, survived a couple of early chances, and counterattacked alongside Jadhav in a 115-run fourth-wicket partnership.”At that stage, when I went in, there were four slips and a gully, a leg slip,” Bawne says. “So I decided, these guys are attacking us. In this situation, rather than just survive, why not attack them? I don’t play like that normally. But at that time, I did what was necessary for my team. I started a counterattack, and from there, the game opened up. Suddenly 20 for 3 had become 145 for 3.”In that way, what I did in that innings was, I showed how Maharashtra had to play through the rest of that game to win that game. We weren’t going to play like underdogs. We were going to play with aggression.”Still, Bawne “only” made 84. In this Ranji season, he has one century and five half-centuries. Last season, when Maharashtra were in the top rung of the tournament, he scored six fifties before getting that elusive century in his team’s final match of the season. Five of those fifties came in successive innings, some at venues as challenging to batsmen as Lahli and the Roshanara Club in Delhi, but they were still fifties. Batting at No.5, Bawne says, has restricted his chance of getting big hundreds. But he isn’t complaining about it.”If you see that match in Roshanara also, even when I had made fifty I was batting with the last few batsmen,” he says. “The opportunity wasn’t there for me to go make double-hundreds and hundreds. I try to see, in the role I’m given, how best I can help my team succeed.”I don’t mind any number. In Duleep Trophy, I got to bat at three and I scored a century. Last year, last innings, I got to bat at three and got a century then too. Whatever the team’s requirement is, you have to bat according to that.”

India are in top form going into the World T20 final, but the on-field challenges they pose are not the only ones Sri Lanka will have to contend with; they must also shed the mental baggage of many global finals lost

Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Apr-2014As Sri Lanka fans watched Virat Kohli gun down an imposing South Africa total on Friday evening, a familiar shadow of dread crept upon many. A final against an unrelenting India, whose belief and demeanour suggest they are champions already. This has all happened before.After four major finals in seven years, a clot of public superstitions has developed around big games. Among the more amusing is the notion that the country’s president’s attendance brings bad luck. This thought had been cemented in the 2012 World T20 final, when the president’s arrival at the Premadasa coincided roughly with the moment the match turned, swiftly and dramatically, for the opposition.There are other appeals to the supernatural to make sense of Sri Lanka’s spectacularly heartbreaking run. A middle-order batsman, no longer in the side, was believed to be the Jonah on Sri Lanka’s ship for some time. Batting first is an ill-omen, but depending on whom you speak to, chasing can be as well. Some say the curse will not be cast off until Arjuna Ranatunga is welcomed back into the administrative fold.Fortunately for fans, Sri Lanka’s players have not drunk from this irrational whirl of swill. But as they approach another grand occasion, they would be almost inhuman if the garbage compactor of previous failures had not begun to close in, in their minds.It is an odd thing to contend with, because the team’s meltdowns have come so specifically at this stage of the tournament. Sri Lanka’s campaigns have often been forged on mental strength; on valiant innings, desperation in the field and soaring, irresistible spells. Twice already in this tournament, against South Africa and New Zealand, Sri Lanka have reaped victory on fallow ground. In the semi-final, even against the opponent that had set a fire on their hopes in a home final 18 months ago, Sri Lanka were nerveless and professional.”I guess it could be the fact that you’re so afraid of losing the final that it can actually contribute to you doing badly,” Kumar Sangakkara had said, as he reflected on Sri Lanka’s finals downfalls. “When you’re playing in a final it’s not really hope, it’s almost a delivered certainty at times, where you think, ‘This is our game and we are going to win it.’ When you’ve done all of that and you lose, it’s a much worse feeling than going out earlier in the tournament. There’s no comparison between the stages of the tournament. There’s a huge difference between the semi-final and the final. It’s a very tough place to be, not just for players but even for spectators. The fact that you’ve come this far… You’ve won every game so far, so why couldn’t you win the most important game?”In a Sri Lanka cricket utopia, where the board does not contemplate sending a second XI to the tournament 24 hours before they depart due to monetary reasons and the best captain retains the reins until he retires, the team might have had some preparation for this eventuality: a formal exercise, led by a psychology professional, which allowed players to confront and shed their fears, and perhaps break free of the inhibition that has visibly damaged their title-hopes before.But instead, the team is left largely to its own devices – to hope the Asia Cup triumph was enough to snap the noose, to put hearts and minds at peace and in focus. In the past, the team has sought to view each final as “just another match”, but after Thursday night’s victory, the senior players will have given serious thought to making drastic adjustments to that approach. They may now feel frank discussion and collective acceptance of the gravity of the next match, for themselves, their families, their fans and their country, is the surest way to ward off inhibition.”It’s also not something that we like to talk about because I think sometimes we have that fear that if you talk about it, you might jinx it, or if you talk about it being a final you might change your attitude or the way you think,” Sangakkara had said.”At the back of your head you know it’s a final. You know what winning it means. You know what it means for yourself and the team and the people supporting you. One of the most important things that we’ve got to do is work on better, clearer communication, especially before big games – about exactly how we feel, because how we feel has an impact on what we do on the field and how we approach a game.”The one thing we haven’t done is express our fears, or whatever our feelings are, fully, before a final – especially the day before and the two or three days leading up to the final.”Whether those feelings have been laid out in the open before this game is unknown. Sri Lanka players rarely give much away in public, and in any case, it is not ideal to bring the public in on a heartfelt, load-shedding exercise. Perhaps Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene’s departure from the T20 team may spur the flow of raw emotion that might make this discussion effective. Whatever the case, Sri Lanka have far more to overcome than Kohli’s broad blade and Amit Mishra’s drift and spin on Sunday evening.