All posts by n8rngtd.top

The batsmen have been asked to score extra runs and their best way to do so is to think of overs 30 and 40, when there are only four men on the boundary, as one big Powerplay

Sidharth Monga17-Jan-20165:04

Agarkar: India bowlers not learning quickly enough

Around the time it became certain Australia were going to seal the series in Melbourne, a brilliantly funny tweet was retweeted 67 times. It showed a very young Rohit Sharma on a motorbike, Virat Kohli was riding pillion and the caption said: ” [Brother, we can’t do anymore, let’s go back to India.]” All it needed was a sidecar with Ajinkya Rahane.India have been on this treadmill of putting on 300 and failing to defend it, and every time the captain and the critics have asked the batsmen for more runs. In the absence of Mohammed Shami, their best ODI quick over the last two years, and with their throwing arms exposed ruthlessly by the Australian batsmen and their large outfields, India’s helplessness has never been more obvious than when MS Dhoni asked for 30 more runs from the batsmen instead of improvement from his bowlers.On a slower and drier MCG pitch the batsmen gave them 295, and India made a fist of it, but their fielding and bowling let them down at crucial moments again.The scrutiny, however, was on the dot balls Rohit Sharma faced, when he has been the one batsman making up for slow starts like a fiend. The big hitting of Ajinkya Rahane was dissected and the absence of Suresh Raina was rued. Everybody has sort of given up on the bowlers.And India’s batsmen are like the elder ones among quarrelling brothers and they are being told, ” [Son, you are the elder one, you please understand.]” You are among the best in the world, so please score 20 more. The question is, where do the batsmen get them from? It is extra pressure, Dhoni has made that clear, but it is not impossible.The onus is on India’s batsmen to score extra, and there is a way to do so between overs 30 and 40•Getty ImagesLet’s examine the options. Rahane came in to bat with the score at 134 for 2 in the 27th over. Eleven months ago, at the same venue, Rahane walked in at 136 for 2 in the 28th over against a far more threatening South African attack in the World Cup. He batted till the 46th over, struck 79 off 60 and fell with India’s score at 278. In this match he got out in the 45th over, having made 50 off 55, with India at just 243. Back then India reached 307 despite a stutter in the end; here they were kept to 295 despite a powerful kick from Dhoni’s nine-ball 23.The big difference was the Powerplay. It was still a thing at the World Cup and India took 44 runs from five overs heading into the final 10.But since the Powerplay has been abolished from ODI cricket, India have struggled to stay abreast with other teams. Dhoni had himself brought up the issue when, despite Rohit Sharma’s 150, India failed to chase 304 in Kanpur. In that game, India scored just 20 runs between the 35th and 40th overs, when batting Powerplay would have normally been on.With the change in rules, the last 10 overs, especially batting first, are not as critical as they used to be. Five fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle and teams can’t bank on getting 120 runs every time. Batsmen now need to look at overs 30 to 40 to accelerate.This is the time when there is one less boundary rider to worry about. It is some time in these overs that India need to create a Powerplay in their head. If a wicket falls, they should send a hitter in because, as Dhoni said, there is no need for one in the last 10 overs. Especially on these vast Australian outfields, where 80 runs can be scored by just knocking the ball around and the odd boundary, which is precisely what Dhoni can do.So when India’s captain asked for extra runs, you would have expected the batsmen to look for them between overs 30 and 40. In Melbourne, only 60 runs were added in these overs. In Brisbane and in Perth, an identical 67.India have been playing the first block of each game perfectly, especially with a shaky lower-middle order to follow. Their scores of 149 for 1, 166 for 2 and 147 for 2 at the end of 30 overs are testament to their quick scoring without losing wickets and under the pressure of knowing there isn’t much to follow. If, at some point before the 40th over, they can manufacture a Powerplay in their minds, possibly pick on a particular bowler, they may be able to get those extra 20 runs before going into the final overs.Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh did just that a couple of days ago and Australia went from 93 to 135 in three overs. It is not how India batsmen – more traditional and correct, who like to eliminate risk by following a method – like to bat, but their bowling and their fielding demand those extra runs be scored.

Some are lucky enough to choose the timing of their own retirement; others are pushed before they feel their time has come. Charlotte Edwards made it crystal clear that she can be classed in the latter category

Raf Nicholson11-May-20162:02

Connor praises ‘selfless decision’ from Edwards

The very fact that Charlotte Edwards’ announcement of her retirement from international cricket was made at Lord’s, in front of a roomful of journalists, was testament to the transformation of women’s cricket in the decade since she was appointed to lead her team.No previous captain of England Women had ever given a press conference to announce their decision to step away from the game. Even when Edwards’ predecessor Clare Connor retired due to injury after the 2005 Ashes series, there was no big fuss, no back page splash. Frankly, 10 years ago the press simply would not have been interested in who the captain of England Women was.That they are now – that this was a big enough story to be broken on Twitter the night before – is largely thanks to the efforts of Edwards. The awarding of professional contracts to England Women in May 2014 came in the wake of two back-to-back Ashes series’ victories, with her at the helm.Yet ironically, ultimately, it was the media scrutiny which would inevitably accompany the new professional era which was to be Edwards’ downfall.Her dethroning really began over a month ago in Delhi, after a shocking defeat to Australia in the World Twenty20 semi-final which her team had looked on course to win. Afterwards, she sat alongside new coach Mark Robinson, stony-faced, as he warned that his players needed to “get fitter”.It did not take a genius to work out where his comments were targeted. Only a few weeks later, the frosty atmosphere between the two was apparent for all to see when Robinson turned up to watch the Sussex-Kent Women’s County Championship fixture and, huddled into the small pavilion at Eastbourne during a three-hour rain delay, captain and coach conspicuously failed to acknowledge each other.Edwards has long said that she wanted to carry on playing until after the 2017 World Cup, to be hosted in England. Offered the chance to consider her position as captain after defeat in the women’s Ashes last summer, she declined to go. But that was before the appointment of a new coach who, it now seems clear, wants to stamp his own mark on the team, without the forceful influence of Edwards at his side.

No one has done more for women’s cricket in the whole of its history than Charlotte Edwards. She has fought to trample down barriers and break new ground for her whole career; almost her whole life

Some are lucky enough to choose the timing of their own retirement; others are pushed before they feel their time has come. Edwards made it crystal clear in her press conference that she can be classed in the latter category. “I was more than happy to step down as captain, but there was a real hunger to continue playing,” she said. “I’m really happy with where my game is at.” The choice, she stressed, was made by Robinson. “[He] spoke to me honestly that he saw the next series as an important series for him to develop players and take the team in a new direction…there isn’t a place for me in the team.”It is a sad end to what has been a largely triumphant career, in which Edwards has overseen the biggest transformation in the sport’s history. In 1996, the year of her England Test debut, she paid not just for her England blazer, but a hefty bill for accommodation during the three-Test series. Two years later, working as an assistant for the local bat company who were also her main sponsor, she began the grueling schedule which would see her finish work at 5pm, go to meet her coach David Capel (later assistant coach to the England squad), train and net for several hours and be back home at 10pm. It was a work ethic driven by love of the game. “I just wanted to play cricket,” she said later.Nearly 20 years after she played her first match for England, these kind of scenarios have not just disappeared but seem totally alien to the current crop of England players. Slowly, the professionalisation of the game has seeped in: Chance to Shine Coaching Ambassador contracts were introduced by the ECB in 2008; tour fees and match fees followed in 2011. And then came the crown jewel – the awarding of professional contracts for Edwards and her squad in May 2014. Winning two World Cups and the Ashes in the space of eight months in 2009 did nothing to harm their cause. Along the way Edwards has always led from the front, remaining England’s premier batsman for almost the whole of her career.Success, though, has been the ficklest of mistresses in the two years since professional contracts were introduced. First came the loss to India in the one-off Test at Wormsley, England defeated comprehensively by a side who had not even played the format for six years. A tour of New Zealand in early 2015, in which England lost two of the three Championship ODIs and just scraped a series victory, followed. Edwards’ side then endured an embarrassing Ashes series, awash with batting collapses, in which her captaincy came under fire, contrasted unfavourably with the fresh, innovative approach of her opposite number Meg Lanning. Defeat in the WWT20 semi-final was only the most recent example of failure.Moments of joy became harder to find for Charlotte Edwards and tougher to earn•ICC/GettyThat Edwards was England’s leading run-scorer in that tournament, during which Robinson apparently decided he no longer required her services, seems rather odd. But maybe this is missing the point. In the new professional era, perhaps it is as simple as this: it is the captain who is ultimately responsible for her team’s performance out in the middle.And while professionalism has brought with it the press coverage which women’s cricket has for so long craved, it has also – quite rightly – brought unprecedented scrutiny. Why has increased investment from the ECB not borne fruit on the pitch? Why do England seem to be stagnating when other teams are moving forward? Why are new players not pushing their way through into the side?For the first time in her captaincy, Edwards has had to look out onto a sea of hostile faces at press conferences and explain why her team has so vastly underperformed. It has not been easy. When I interviewed her for a piece on leadership six weeks after the women’s Ashes defeat last summer, she admitted as much. “We’ve gone under the radar for eight years of my captaincy. You can have a blip and no one even talks about it, no one mentions it. And you could sort the problems out without having that media spotlight on you, but now you can’t. The players are under the microscope now.”No one has done more for women’s cricket in the whole of its history than Charlotte Edwards. She has fought to trample down barriers and break new ground for her whole career; almost her whole life. From the age of 12, when she became the captain of Huntingdonshire Boys’, and silenced the jeering from the sidelines with her unrivalled batting talent. To age 16 when she became the then youngest player to represent England. To the countless hours that she has spent in schools, coaching and talking to young girls who now – thanks to her – see cricket as something which they can do just as well as their brothers. They will never face the same taunts she did.When asked about her proudest moment, it is no surprise that, tears in her eyes, she said: “Just being a role model for young girls. I didn’t have a female role model growing up, a cricketer, so to think I’ve done that is really special to me.”Similarly, no one was happier or prouder when professionalism announced itself in the women’s game than Edwards. Why? Because, as Connor put it today: “Professionalisation helps to normalise cricket for girls. It gives aspiration, and it gives players like Edwards a platform to inspire.” The ushering in of the professional era has been the culmination of everything Edwards has spent her career working towards.Even so, professionalism has proved for her personally to be a mixed blessing. The premature end to her incredible career is simply the final manifestation of the fact that Edwards is being judged by different standards now – the ones that she has striven all her career to be judged by. Whoever succeeds her – a decision Robinson has yet to make – would do well to remember that.

Meet the Zimbabwe batsman who got religion, shed weight, and made his Test debut last week

Firdose Moonda05-Aug-2016Prince Masvaure did not enjoy fitness tests until about a week ago. By his own admission, the batting allrounder is carrying a few extra kilograms, and he was dropped by the Mashonaland franchise for that exact reason – but this time he had reason to run a little faster by the time the stopwatch started.”I saw Hamilton Masakadza in the car park when I got to the ground,” Masvaure said. “He came up to me and said, ‘Congratulations on making the Test side.’ I asked, ‘Oh really, did I?’ Because I didn’t get a call or anything. And he said, ‘Yes, you made it, it was announced this afternoon.’ I couldn’t believe that after so many years of hard work, it was actually happening.”Masvaure’s cricket journey began with baseball. He was the junior school vice-captain and slugger, capable of hitting the ball a long way. When the fifth-grade team cricket team found themselves a player short, they asked him to fill in. “From there, I just fell in love with the game,” he remembered.And he was good at it too. He earned a scholarship to Churchill Boys High, the same institution that schooled Tatenda Taibu, Hamilton Masakadza, Douglas Hondo and Prosper Utseya. He played cricket in the summer and rugby in the winter. He was a batting allrounder, and alternated between centre and fly half, and was also a “lot smaller than I am now”.In 2003 he made the Zimbabwe Under-16 side and toured Namibia. “That was my first time on a plane,” he said. “I just realised, if I keep on working hard, I can go somewhere.”The next year Masvaure was selected for Zimbabwe’s U-19 side, the youngest player alongside Gary Ballance. He represented the team in four successive years, including at two junior World Cups: at the 2006 tournament he played just one match and did not bat, but in 2008 he was the captain. It was not a great outing for either Masvaure, who scored 39 runs at 6.50, or the team, which lost all six matches, but it gave them an idea of how tough international cricket was going to be.

“Everyone in my family is quite big. If I tell them I am running, you never know what they will think”

Masvaure came up against a New Zealand side captained by Kane Williamson in the opening match. While Williamson would go on to rise through the ranks, Masvaure battled his way (and his weight) to get ahead.In the first season of Zimbabwe’s franchise system, the 2009-10 summer, Masvaure was contracted to Mashonaland. He was not among their outstanding performers but he held down a regular place. Then, “I got dropped because of my fitness.”That forced him to move to Masvingo, where he played for Southern Rocks but struggled. In his first season there, he averaged 10.66 and considered giving up cricket altogether. “I didn’t have a good season, and at the same time, things with Zimbabwe Cricket were going up and down. Maybe I didn’t do myself any favours since I couldn’t get selected in teams because of my fitness. I thought I was pushing hard but people told me the same thing: that I could play well but I needed to improve on my fitness. So eventually I thought of trying something else instead, like maybe pursuing my education.”Instead of the books, Masvaure eventually turned to farming and tried to grow Zimbabwe’s largest cash crop, tobacco. “It was extremely hard, because with farming you need to be there 24/7,” he said. “And I also found that with doing other things, I was not putting as much time into cricket. I needed to do something that could actually make me earn a living. It was difficult to balance the two.”Eventually several senior players convinced Masvaure that he had what it took to make it and persuaded him to make another move, to the Kwe-Kwe based Mid-West Rhinos. It paid off.In the 2014-15 season, Masvaure finished sixth on the Logan Cup batting charts, with 472 runs at 33.71, which included five fifties. He did not manage to follow that up with a strong 2015-16, but word had spread that he had promise. With Zimbabwe struggling for depth, especially in the batting department, after the retirement of Brendan Taylor, Masvaure was included in Zimbabwe’s A side to play South Africa A last month.For the first time since his U-19 days, he would face international bowlers like Vernon Philander. To ready himself for the challenge, Masvaure turned to religion.”I still feel I need to lose more weight and that there is more work to be done”•Zimbabwe Cricket”I am someone who believes in Jesus Christ. Just reading the Bible and knowing about God’s work gave me so much faith and belief in myself,” he said. “I told myself that if this is what happened, if Jesus did this and that, why can I not do the same thing? I told myself, I need to back myself, I need to believe I can do it before I go out there. The main thing that happened is that I believed I will make it before I even started playing the games.”Getting players into the right mindset has been a problem for Zimbabwe, but Masvaure has showed what can happen when they are. He scored an unbeaten 88 in the first game and 146 in the second, against an attack that included Test bowlers Philander and Dane Piedt and promising quicks Andile Phehlukwayo, Sisanda Magala and Duanne Olivier.”Those guys are world-class bowlers. I respect them a lot but what I told myself is that these guys are there to get me out and I am there to score runs, so if I try to play the names, it’s going to be hard. I tried to brush that off my mind and I said, let me just play the ball as it is. And then I scored against them,” Masvaure said.Ten days after that, he was told he would have the opportunity to repeat the feat at the highest level, against New Zealand. Masvaure found out he would receive his Test cap the night before the first match, and admitted he was overawed. “I tried to tell myself I am all right but I kept on breathing heavily. I had a lot of nerves. To be honest, I was scared,” he said. “But when we went out there and I received the cap, I was so emotional. And then when they sang the national anthem, I felt I was all right, I was ready for it, I was ready to give it a go.”He had to be, because by the time he was called on, to bat in an unfamiliar position, No. 7, with the score at 72 for 5, Zimbabwe were in a precarious position. Before Masvaure had faced a ball, they lost three more wickets at the same score. He would have been forgiven if he had perished without adding to the total, but he remembered what had served him so well against South Africa A and tried to repeat it.”It felt a bit different because when I went out there, I had to face spin first, whereas I am used to facing seam. I just had to adjust and get on with it,” he said. “I was very disappointed as well, because I know the guys were very good cricketers and what we displayed out there wasn’t the way I have seen most of the guys play. It felt like this is not how we should be playing our cricket. We are better than that. I was disappointed. Everyone was getting out to the same delivery. That frustrated me a little bit.”

“With farming you need to be there 24/7. And I also found that with doing other things, I was not putting as much time into cricket”

Masvaure saw off Neil Wagner’s short-ball spell and posted an 85-run stand with No. 10 batsman Donald Tiripano, to save his side some blushes.”Zimbabwe cricket is in a state where people are saying cricket is dead,” Masvaure says. “My goal is to try and see if I can perform consistently so that people can recognise that there is still something in Zimbabwe cricket, to bring back the hope we used to have, that we can put up a good fight and try to win, not just to compete. It’s something that really hurts me when you get to hear some of the comments people pass on from other countries. It’s something that really touches me.”He knows he needs to work on his fitness as much as on his batting. With Makhaya Ntini calling the shots as coach, Masvaure has taken up running, although he is still a little unsure how he will sustain that when he gets home. “Maybe it’s because of my family. Everyone in my family is quite big. If I tell them I am running, you never know what they will think,” he laughed.”I have lost a bit of weight, that’s what people say, but if I look at it, I feel the same. I still feel I need to lose more weight and that there is more work to be done. I am working hard on it. I feel I shouldn’t look the way I do.” But he knows he should keep playing cricket the way he does.

Plays of the day from Australia’s bonus-point win over West Indies at Providence

Daniel Brettig05-Jun-2016The Starc re-startAustralia’s bowling attack had lacked the threat of high pace since December last year, when Mitchell Johnson’s retirement was swiftly followed by Mitchell Starc having to undergo foot surgery. Upon completing his rehab, Starc was back in Guyana, and he showed the difference his pace could make. In the very first over, Andre Fletcher was scrambling to get some bat on a full toss that swung back late, before throwing his hands at a ball skating across him and slicing a catch to backward point. Starc’s rhythm and direction were not quite at 2015 World Cup levels, but he had lost none of his speed.The weight of numbersFrom the start of his spell, Nathan Lyon gained just the right amount of turn to threaten the stumps from around the wicket. However, he had a hard time extracting a raised finger from umpire Gregory Brathwaite, who turned down four lbw appeals, of which at least two were shown by ball tracking to be solidly striking the stumps. In his younger days, Lyon might have grown frustrated but, on Sunday, he remained patient and improved his rhythm until Brathwaite upheld a fifth appeal, this time against Marlon Samuels. Glenn Maxwell was able to win Brathwaite’s favour a little sooner, having Denesh Ramdin lbw from the same angle.The hustleChasing a modest total, Australia’s openers approached the innings with business-like intent. David Warner sat back in the crease to shovel Sunil Narine’s second ball of the innings to the midwicket boundary, and his running between the wickets was all energy and hustle, pushing the West Indies fielders by repeatedly looking for a second run. The Providence Stadium crowd was roused into an expectant cheer several times by the sound of the bails being broken, but Warner was always one step ahead.The offbreakBefore the tournament, Maxwell asserted the fact that he needed to be taking wickets as well as scoring runs to maintain his place in the Australian line-up. Over the recent months his batting returns had dried up, an uncharacteristically quiet IPL followed by his omission from the Test squad for Sri Lanka. Still ensconced at No. 5 in the ODI batting order, his second ball of the night was a Narine offbreak that dipped nicely and turned savagely. Good a delivery as it was, Maxwell’s vague push at the line – without any regard for the spin clearly on offer – made it nigh on unplayable.

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2016Mennie didn’t have to wait longer for his second as captain Faf du Plessis fell for 11•AFPRilee Rossouw started South Africa’s surge with a run-a-ball fifty, his eighth in ODIs•AFPJP Duminy returned to form and contributed 73 in a record 178-run, fourth-wicket stand•Associated PressAfter Duminy carved Mennie to backward point, Rossouw went on to strike 122, his third ODI century•Associated PressSouth Africa’s middle and lower order made handy contributions to lift the hosts to 327 for 8•Associated PressDavid Warner got Australia’s chase off to a flying start with a brisk fifty•Associated PressImran Tahir, though, struck with two wickets in three balls to reduce the visitors to 72 for 2•Associated PressAndile Phehulwayo had George Bailey bowled, but Warner kept the asking rate in check with regular boundaries•AFPWarner registered the highest score by an Australian against South Africa but was run-out for 173, with 40 still required off 19 balls•Associated PressSouth Africa had to wait for the third umpire to confirm their 5-0 whitewash of Australia. “We were just too good for them,” captain du Plessis said at the post-match presentation•AFP

Stats highlights from the final day in Perth, where South Africa completed a thumping win

Bharath Seervi07-Nov-201618 Number of consecutive home Tests without a defeat for Australia, before this match. Their last loss was also against South Africa at the WACA, in 2012-13. In the 18 Tests since then, they had won 14 and four were drawn.1988 When Australia last loss the first Test of the home season. That defeat was against West Indies at the Gabba. Since then, they had won 21 and drawn six in their season starters.2 Instances of Australia losing the first Test of any home series in the past 25 years. Incidentally, both have been against South Africa and at WACA. They lost defending 414 in 2008-09 and by 177 runs in this match. In 42 other home series since 1990, they won the first match on 32 occasions.3 Consecutive wins for South Africa at the WACA – joint second-most for them at any away venue. Only in Harare have they had more wins in succession (four). They also had three consecutive wins at Lord’s and in Port of Spain.3 Tests won by South Africa at the WACA – the most by any visiting team in Australia at a particular venue since 1990. In this period, England have won two each in Adelaide, at the MCG and the SCG, and West Indies have also won two in Perth. South Africa’s three wins have all been convincing: they successfully chased 414 in 2008-09 and won by 309 runs in 2012-13, before this 177-run victory.6 South Africa bowlers to take a five-wicket haul in the fourth innings against Australia. Kagiso Rabada’s 5 for 92 is the sixth such instance. The last to do so for South Africa in Australia was Fanie de Villiers at the SCG in 1993-94.17.20 Rabada’s average in the three Tests wins he has featured in. He has taken 25 wickets in these three Tests. In his other six Tests – three lost and three drawn – he has taken only 11 wickets at an average of 40.81.

There is a plan for Martin Guptill to challenge for a Test middle-order berth in the future, but he is priceless to New Zealand’s one-day side, and that should remain his priority

Andrew McGlashan02-Mar-2017New Zealand was talking about cricket on Thursday morning. There has been significant interest in the contests against South Africa, but there was a hint of the 2015 World Cup vibe in the aftermath of Martin Guptill’s unbeaten 180 in Hamilton.It was a shame the innings did not have a bigger crowd to witness it than 2264 – a result, largely, of the reasonably late change of venue when the game was moved from Napier – but Guptill was a main topic of breakfast TV and radio while there was a bigger-than-average media huddle to speak to coach Mike Hesson in Auckland.”As good as it gets,” Hesson said. “It’s hard to beat quarter-final 200 [against West Indies], but that came close. He hit the ball well at training, but I don’t think anyone expected that. His composure in the chase showed he was never satisfied.”Guptill is a cricketer of contrasts. A one-day record to stand up against anyone – and above many – but Test numbers that, despite the occasional sparkle, are nondescript. That should not matter a jot. It is perfectly natural for Guptill to want the chance to improve his long-form numbers, but he changes the dynamic of New Zealand’s one-day top order so much that it should remain the priority.If he is part of a New Zealand side that wins the Champions Trophy this year, or the World Cup in 2019, that will be his legacy. Not whether he can lift his Test average from 29 to 32. Against the white ball, there is no one in New Zealand who can replicate what Guptill provides. It certainly looks like Kings XI Punjab have picked up a bargain for the IPL.He was dropped from the Test side at the beginning of the home summer and won’t be making a swift return. Hesson is not a man to suddenly make a u-turn and confirmed he would not feature against South Africa.His latest run, from being recalled against England in 2015, was 16 matches in which he averaged 28.93. That came after a stellar World Cup – further evidence that success in one format does not mean success in another. There was the occasional highlight, such as his 156 against Sri Lanka, but only five other half-centuries in 30 innings, although one of those did come in his last Test against India at Indore.If there is a future for Guptill in Test cricket, it will be in the middle order with New Zealand having hatched a plan with Auckland for him to bat in that position when he returns to Plunket Shield action. He averages 43.37 from nine innings in positions four to six, mostly in 2010, though that is padded considerably by 245 runs in one match against Bangladesh.”Martin and I have certainly talked about Test cricket a lot and he certainly gave batting at the top of the order a fairly good crack,” Hesson said. “But the middle order is something we are keen to explore at the first-class level first. Martin and Auckland Cricket are certainly receptive to that, which is great. At the moment, it’s a difficult spot to find. Our Test team has won four on the bounce and the middle order is performing well, but certainly something we’ll look to explore.”While Guptill’s most recent spell in the Test side was ultimately unconvincing, Hesson said that a greater experience had helped him deal with the fluctuating fortunes of the game, as evidenced by the fact that while his Test form oscillated, the two years from the start of the 2015 World Cup have seen him become the second-most prolific one-day batsman behind David Warner, who he is quickly catching.”Cricket does that, you have more failures than success, and as a young player, you have to cope with that,” Hesson said. “Martin’s confident in his game and has reached a level of maturity where he’s consistent and perhaps doesn’t ride the highs and lows younger players do. He’s comfortable in his skin and batting well.”Batting well is an understatement, and Guptill can stand among the finest limited-overs batsmen of all-time. New Zealand will hope starting at Eden Park on Saturday he gets the country talking again.

Kim Barnett, Derbyshire’s new director of cricket, has big ambitions for the county, and he wants to create an environment where players take more responsibility

David Hopps13-Apr-2017To understand how Kim Barnett is once again centre stage at Derbyshire, determined to shake them from another long period of struggle, it is probably best to start with the story of his heart attack. It came six years ago during a troubled period that had the messy break-up of his second marriage at its heart. It was hard to imagine then that one day he would once again be the most influential cricketing figure in the county.”I didn’t make it public,” he said. “I had a heart attack one night and went into hospital and a bloke came in and said, ‘I can sort this out if you want; sign this form.’ I was on the operating table in no time, he removed whatever he needed to remove, and the next morning I felt great.”If Barnett was a bit sketchy on the exact procedure, it is apparent that his tenacity was left in place. Immediately after his release from hospital, flouting doctors’ orders to take it easy for three months, he turned out for Bignall End in the North Staffordshire League. It was a nice day, he fancied a bat and he didn’t want to let anybody down.”I didn’t tell them. They knew nothing about it. The captain asked me if I fancied a bowl and I thought to myself, ‘I’d better not today.’ I had a bat and got about 20. Nothing alarming happened, so I thought ‘well it’s got to get better from here’.”Barnett is Derbyshire cricketing royalty, a status once granted in the pages of the , which knows better than most. He captained them for 13 seasons, first taking up the job as a 22-year-old. In the most glorious phase in their history, he scored most runs, made most centuries, and played in three of only five trophy successes since they first joined the County Championship in 1895.

“I was asked to do a report on Derbyshire’s underperformance. Once the board read it, it was decided somebody had to have total authority to put this right. And here I am”Barnett on how he was made Derbyshire’s director of cricket

Royalty or not, his abdication was not a happy one. Amid talk of rifts, he left for Gloucestershire in 1999, where his strategic talent in limited-overs cricket later led John Bracewell, who also coached New Zealand, to remember him as a walking Duckworth-Lewis machine even before the rain tables had been invented, a man skilled in plotting a course to victory in infinite detail. When Barnett retired, Derbyshire’s committee refused the request of the captain, Dominic Cork, for him to return. Typical, wrote one of the county’s keenest observers, of a county forever lost in “black passions and scarlet enmities”.Barnett coached in schools, and in Staffordshire, and delivered cars to clients for a luxury car company until he drove one off the road on an icy night.The heart attack, and all that came with it, seemed likely to encourage him into early retirement. But shortly afterwards, Barnett was enticed by Derbyshire’s chairman, Chris Grant, to rebuild links with the club. Before too long, he was offered the presidency and says that the woman who would go on to become his third wife, Sue, a retired police officer, persuaded him it would be an interesting way to pass the time.Barnett, though, is not designed for a ceremonial role. Derbyshire did not win a single Championship match in 2016 and flopped in both limited-overs tournaments. When he was invited to write a report on the club’s affairs, he was not found wanting. Last September, as part of the restructuring, he was made Derbyshire’s director of cricket, a job that has come 15 years too late.”We had been playing what people perceived to be poorly, but we have been through that many times,” he said. “Certainly in the ’70s, before I started, the record wasn’t great and people were getting a bit fretful. So I was asked to do a report on it. I thought, ‘Okay, 10 to 15 pages.’ It ended up about 70. Once the board read it, it was decided somebody had to have total authority to put this right. And here I am.””If they want to call me director of cricket and give it a big title, that’s fine, but now the restructuring is done, I just coordinate”•Derbyshire CCCThe outcome of the Barnett report was the scrapping of Derbyshire’s “elite performance” coaching structure, which invested heavily in the skills and authority of coaches. Its instigator, Graeme Welch, had resigned mid-season, and it was not long before Barnett dismantled his vision, adamant that money should be rerouted to the playing budget and more control and responsibility should be put back in the hands of the players.”The danger with an elite coaching model is that people take more credit than they should,” Barnett said. “Eventually people think, ‘People are not playing well, my job is at risk, so I have to go and shout at them’, and eventually the players think, ‘It’s not our plan, I am not in charge of my own career.'”That reverses everything I believe in – that you support players, you give them information, you get them to the point where they are doing something with it and ultimately it is up to them. How do you want to play? What help do we give you?”If they want to call me director of cricket and give it a big title, that’s fine, but now the restructuring is done, I just co-ordinate. I’m doing managing and strategy and turning up where I want. If they tell me something is a shambles I will sort it out but I won’t be telling them what to do.”Instead of a bank of full-time coaches, specialist freelance coaches – John Emburey for spin bowling, Jack Russell for wicketkeeping and Graham Gooch for batting – will supplement a smaller coaching staff from time to time. In their absence, senior players will be expected to pass on their knowledge.

Barnett was adamant that money should be rerouted to the playing budget and more control and responsibility should be put back in the hands of the players

There is an imaginative approach in T20, too, where John Wright, coach of Mumbai Indians and a former Derbyshire player, is one of only two specialist T20 coaches in the NatWest Blast.”John has a great record with Mumbai Indians. He is a hard competitor, the perfect guy. We are rubbish at T20, one of only two counties who have never been to Finals Day. I said, ‘Can you come and teach us, and teach our coaches, how to play it?'”Even as the youngest captain in Derbyshire’s history, Barnett was not to be trifled with: almost from the outset, he had strong opinions on how the game should be played. He insists the impetus for his return comes from identifying in Derbyshire’s captain, Billy Godleman, something of “the Barnett of old”.Since becoming the second youngest cricketer ever to play for Middlesex, at 17, Godleman’s career has not quite kicked on. A stormy phase at Essex was followed by a bit of a backwater move to Derbyshire; he was awarded the captaincy in 2016 and a desperately poor season ensued. Barnett wants to free up an unfulfilled talent.”I wouldn’t have taken the job without knowing Billy’s potential because I thought, ‘This guy is tough.’ And we have some decent guys in the 2nd XI who just need someone to lead them. When I was playing, I was a far more aggressive person. Now I want to be a bit more tranquil and I want to do something for somebody else, rather than wresting away, wanting to prove myself for my own career.”Barnett sees something of his younger self in Derbyshire’s captain, Billy Godleman•Getty ImagesDerbyshire’s history has been one of adversity. Barnett still remembers being taken aback at the reaction of Bob Taylor, Derbyshire’s England wicketkeeper, when they beat Yorkshire for the first time in 26 years at Abbeydale Park in 1983 and Geoffrey Boycott carried his bat.”Bob got the champagne out afterwards. I thought that was a bit over the top, and he said he had never beaten Yorkshire and he planned to celebrate it. That’s the difference between a Derbyshire history and a Yorkshire history. We have patches where we are bottom or nearly bottom and then a batch of people come along and we have a better patch.”I suppose the biggest concern for the smaller counties like Derbyshire is that first-class cricket is ultimately going to be taken away.”Throughout Derbyshire’s history, they have mostly been sustained by the quality of their seam bowlers, such as Les Jackson, a stalwart of the 1950s who took more wickets for the county than any other bowler. He played cricket in the summer and worked just as hard in the mines in the winter; so tied was he to this most demanding of industries that in later years he worked as a chauffeur for the National Coal Board.Harold Rhodes’ England prospects as the ’60s dawned were wrecked by a throwing controversy. A decade or so later, Alan Ward was briefly the fastest thing around. “Bring Back Ward!” the once demanded during times of England struggle, only to change the headline in its southern editions to “Bring Back Snow!”While Barnett chatted enthusiastically about the season ahead on the edge of the Derby outfield – no longer the windswept wasteland upon which he cut his captaincy teeth – he received a call from Mike Hendrick, a miserly back-of-a-length seamer who could boast a Test average lower than the likes of Harold Larwood, John Snow or Ian Botham but who rarely gained the credit for it. Hendrick is back as cricket advisory director and sounds like just the man to help Barnett keep the board in place.

“That’s the difference between a Derbyshire history and a Yorkshire history. We have patches where we are bottom or nearly bottom and then a batch of people come along and we have a better patch”

Then there was Devon Malcolm, who, though his fielding and batting could be comically myopic, produced one of Test cricket’s great spells of fast bowling when he took 9 for 57 at The Oval against the 1994 South Africans, enraged by a bouncer that had struck him on the helmet while batting. Cork, too, whose opinions will be put to good use once T20 comes around.Barnett stayed true to this tradition as captain, emphasising the need to rotate a squad of fast bowlers, and unapologetically seeking to win home matches on green pitches. The toss regulations introduced last season, where the visiting team can bowl first by choice, make such a tactic a non-starter. So Barnett’s Derbyshire, for virtually the only time in their history, will put the onus on winning matches with legspin. There are three of them – Sri Lankan Jeevan Mendis for the first phase of the season, Imran Tahir once his IPL duties are over, and the local tyro Matt Critchley, back from a close season in Australia and eager to learn as much as he can.”In my days we would just make the pitches green and like meadows, throw the ball to the likes of Michael Holding and Ole Mortensen and see who came out on top. You can’t do that now, so how are we going to win these four-day matches? Spin’s a good option.”I am shocking myself to wonder about playing two legspinners in the same side at Derby. It can’t be right, can it? I must be dreaming. But I think Imran will bring Critch on, who is a superbly talented lad.”We have to try and dry the pitch out somehow. The groundsman is looking forward to the challenge. You just want to win cricket matches. Last year we lost six fair and square, and of the draws, we had half-a-dozen opportunities and we weren’t good enough to take them.”Near the end of last season, the chairman said to me, ‘We need to get some loan signings in to stop us being bottom.’ I said, ‘Bottom or second bottom, it doesn’t matter – it still has the word bottom in it.’ I am not saying we are going to go from bottom to top this season but I think we can be in the top four.”

An explanation of the basic principles behind how targets and par scores in rain-affected games are decided

S Rajesh08-Jun-20175:16

All you need to know about the DLS method

How does DLS work?

The DLS (Duckworth-Lewis-Stern) method works on the principle that a batting team has two resources in hand when starting an ODI innings: 300 balls, and ten wickets. As the innings progresses, these resources keep depleting, and eventually reaches zero when a team either plays out all 300 deliveries, or loses all 10 wickets.When, due to any reason, the batting team loses overs, they are denied the opportunity to make full use of their resources. Targets are hence revised in a way that is proportional to the amount of resources available to each team.The rate at which these resources deplete isn’t uniform across the overs, but varies depending on the scoring patterns of ODIs (calculated from studying matches over several years). At any point, the resources lost due to an interruption depends on:

• number of overs lost
• stage of an innings when the overs are lost
• wickets in hand at the time of the interruption

Losing overs in the later stages of an innings will usually impact a team more than losing the same number of overs earlier in an innings, as those overs are more productive, and teams have less opportunity to recalibrate their targets than if overs are lost early in the innings. A team which is already six down after 20 overs will have lesser to lose from a 10-over interruption, than a team which is, say, only two down at that stage. That is because in the first case, the team has already lost a huge chunk of their batting resources by the dismissals of six top-order batsmen. A team which is only two down can better capitalize on the last 30 overs than a team which is six down.

Do wickets lost after the interruption impact the chasing team’s target?

No, they don’t. According to DLS, a team exhausts its entire resources either when it is bowled out, or when it plays the full quota of overs. So, a score of 300 all out in 48 overs is the same as a score of 300 for 6 in 50 overs (in a 50-over game). What matters, though, is the number of wickets lost at the time of the interruption: the fewer the wickets lost, the greater is the opportunity cost of the overs lost for the batting team. A team which is only three down after 40 overs is likely to score more than a team which is eight down, and that is reflected in the targets that DLS sets.

Why does the target for the team batting second sometimes reduce after an interruption in the first innings, even though both teams have the same number of overs?

Sometimes, when the team batting first has lost several early wickets, a reduction of overs is beneficial to them. For instance, if a team is 80 for 6 after 20, they will benefit from a reduced game. If 20 overs are lost and they finish on 140, DLS will readjust the 30-over target for the chasing team to 121. That is because the team batting first had already lost a huge chunk of their batting resources before the interruption, and would probably have been bowled out well before 50 overs anyway. The chasing team, however, have been denied the opportunity to bat up to 50 overs to chase a relatively low score. To redress that balance, their target is reduced to 121.Another example: in the second game of the 2017 Champions Trophy, for instance, Australia’s 46-over target stayed at 292 (New Zealand made 291) after a four-over loss when New Zealand were 67 for 1 in 9.3. Had they been 67 for 4 and then finished with the same total, Australia’s target would have come down to 284.Hence, if the batting team senses that rain is imminent, the smart thing to do would be to keep wickets in hand, to ensure they maximize the benefits of DLS.

What is the difference between par score and target score?

Par score is the total that a chasing team should have reached – when they are ‘X’ wickets down – at the time of an interruption; target is the revised score that a team is required to get after an interruption. In a nutshell, par scores are calculated an interruption, while targets are calculated an interruption. The target is one fixed number, while the par score changes according to the number of wickets lost.For instance, the Champions Trophy match between Australia and Bangladesh match which was recently washed out, the par scores for Australia after 20 overs were 41 for 0, 48 for 1, 58 for 2, 69 for 3, 84 for 4 and so on. If the interruption had happened at 20 overs and no further play was possible, Australia would have been declared winners for exceeding the par score corresponding to the number of wickets they had lost. If they hadn’t, Bangaldesh would have won.If it had rained during the innings break, leaving Australia with only 20 overs to bat, then their revised target, with all ten wickets in hand, would have been 109 in 20 overs.

How do net run rate calculations change in matches where DLS comes in?

In matches affected by DLS, the score for the team batting first is taken as the par score at the time of the interruption (if no further play is possible), or as one run less than the target (in case a revised target is set). Thus, in the case of the Australia-Bangladesh match, if Australia were one down at the time of the interruption at 20 overs, then Bangladesh’s score for the purposes of NRR calculation would be 48. If Australia had been set a target of 109 in 20, then Bangladesh’s score would be taken as 108 in 20.The logic behind this is simple: the NRR of the winning team should always be greater than zero, and higher than the losing team in that game. Else, there could be situations where the winning team could be ahead of the par score, but have a run rate lower than the end-of-innings rate of the team which batted first. For instance, Australia, at 50 for 1 after 20, would have been ahead of par, but their run rate of 2.5 would have been below Bangladesh’s innings run rate of 3.66. That wouldn’t make cricketing sense. Adjusting the score of the team batting first ensures that the team which wins the game always has a positive NRR for that match.

Quinton de Kock and Vernon Philander visit a Gunn & Moore factory in Nottingham to find out just how their bats are made

Firdose Moonda13-Jul-2017Quinton de Kock suspected there was “a lot of hard work” that went into making the bats he uses. On Wednesday, he found out exactly how much.The trees are grown by a merchant in Essex, their trunks hand-split with a beedle and axe into clefts and then left out in a yard for up to three months to dry. Then, they are dehumidified so the moisture levels reduce from 60% to 14%. From there, the willow is sawn into blades, pressed with two different machines and finished by shaping, sanding, polishing, adding a handle and knocking it in.When that bat is delivered to de Kock, he sees it for exactly what it is. “A bat’s a bat, wood’s wood; it doesn’t really matter. For me, it’s like that,” de Kock says during a visit to the Gunn & Moore factory in Nottingham. “I’m not really one to be bothered about it. I take the bats that I have. If I need to fix it to my personal comfort I will do that. Otherwise, I am not picky at all. I take the bat that’s been given to me and that’s what it is.”Having started his career with the reputation of being a reckless and rebellious wunderkind – an image earned more because of the kinds of shots he plays than his demeanour – de Kock is serious about saving his sponsors from over-expenditure. “When I started playing professionally, I didn’t used to look after my bats as much,” he says. “I went through eight or ten a year but I am slowly getting better. Last year I used six or seven and I am on my third this year. I try to keep it to as few as I can.”

“A bat’s a bat, wood’s wood; it doesn’t really matter. For me, its like that”Quinton de Kock

So has de Kock become an environmentalist, an advocate of sustainable living, or is he just superstitious? “I have a theory that if I look after my sponsor, they will look after me. With pads, I try and use one set of pads through as many years as I can, even though I know they always want me to use the new shapes and colours. I try and do what I can to look after the bats, especially.”If his bat suffers a small chip, de Kock mends it himself, otherwise he sends it to the factory for repair, preferring them to fix it rather than replace it. He also does some of his own maintenance work. “The only thing I believe in is oil. I believe that makes the bat better,” he says. “I am not worried about grains or different kinds of wood – wood’s wood. I think the oil makes it last longer and just makes it better.”

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Vernon Philander takes an almost entirely different approach to his bats. “It’s a bit like picking up a golf glove – there is something you really like about it and then that’s the one you want,” he says. “You’ve got to have something you are comfortable with, that will be suitable to your game.”In a 45-minute window, Philander had two new bats made. Generally, he likes to have different bats for different conditions. “For the subcontinent, I like bats with a lower sweet spot because the balls don’t bounce as much. In South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia, which are more or less the same, I have a higher sweet spot.”Before you snigger at Philander’s fussiness, consider that he bats at No. 8 at has six Test fifties to his name, including two at Lord’s. Before making his first international appearance in 2007, he was considered a genuine allrounder and the runs he has scored for South Africa have saved their blushes on several occasions. He has many more in his sights too. “My batting was always something that I’ve taken great pride in, and maybe sometimes I’ve neglected it a little bit. Hopefully that first hundred is around the corner.”

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On the corner of Trent Lane and Little Tennis Road sits the only large-scale bat-making factory in the UK – Gunn & Moore. It is a 60-person operation, where one man, Kevin Stimpson, has worked for 43 years. Stimpson’s job is that of finisher and he takes immense pride in putting the final touches on the bats used by the likes of Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan and an unnamed Indian batsman who wanted a quarter of an ounce removed from his bat with sandpaper.

“It’s a bit like picking up a golf glove – there is something you really like about [a bat] and then that’s the one you want”Vernon Philander

Older than him are the two presses. One was acquired by William Gunn in 1885 as his first investment and the second has been working since 1947. They are the machines that make the magic happen. In the five or so millimetres of willow that are compacted, the bats get their power and spring. Gunn & Moore have tried to get students from a local university to design one machine that can do the work of both presses, as together they are becoming fairly labour-intensive, but they were unable to figure out exactly how much pressure these venerable pieces of equipment apply. Instead, these presses are maintained and parts replaced regularly so they can keep going.Sustainability is going to become a hot topic in cricket, especially as awareness grows. It takes 20 years for a willow tree to grow to the extent that it can be used to make bats, though it can be done in 15. English willow is the preferred choice for them because the Kashmir willow is denser. “It’s therefore heavier and, because it has two growing seasons, it has a wide grain and a narrow grain, so it’s inconsistent,” Peter Wright, the MD of Gunn & Moore explains. “They have to press quite hard to make sure the wider bit is pressed enough. The dense wood becomes even denser.” And most batsmen prefer lighter, narrower grains that have as much power.That’s why the art of bat-making will continue on as big a scale as possible in England. To make sure they have artisans who can keep the factory going, Gunn & Moore have interns working with their more experienced people in the hope that there will be a transfer of skills. De Kock and Philander will be two of the many bat users pleased with that.