Throughout the series Ricky Ponting has spoken proudly and defiantly about only one team playing aggressively and wanting to win at all times. That didn’t happen on Saturday when Australia, who must win to level the series, batted in the most subdued styl

Ali Cook08-Nov-2008
Simon Katich maintained a popular view on tour that only one team was playing for victory. The difference is India will be happy with a stalemate, which will give them the series and regain the Border Gavaskar Trophy © Getty Images
Throughout the series Ricky Ponting has spoken proudly and defiantly about only one team playing aggressively and wanting to win at all times. That didn’t happen on Saturday when Australia, who must win to level the series, batted in the most subdued style. Ponting’s team is behind 1-0 in the series, and the display almost felt like surrender.India bowled incredibly defensively, especially in the morning, but during the first two sessions the visiting batsmen did not look for ways to break free. Forty-two runs came before lunch, when the off-side was usually crowded with eight men, but as the fields relaxed after the break and the bowlers moved their line towards the stumps only another 49 were added. It’s about half the rate they usually aim for.Only when Cameron White lifted the tempo after tea did Australia escape becoming an entrant on the top ten list for the fewest runs scored in a day’s play. When the innings ended at 355, leaving India one over to bat before stumps, Australia had collected 166 in 85.4 overs. It must have been like this in the 1950s with England.Yet the performance came from a team that batted like it was a Twenty20 on the fourth day in Mohali, and had breezed to 189 in 49 overs on the second afternoon in Nagpur. The side that knows only how to play aggressively.Naturally, the slow progress wasn’t Australia’s fault. It was because India posted an 8-1 field and the bowlers directed their line well outside the off stump. It wasn’t fun to watch, but it was what India needed to do.Simon Katich, who was dismissed for 102 in the morning, was so upset by a question after play about why Australia was so defensive that he challenged the knowledge of the interrogator. “You’re kidding, aren’t you,” Katich snapped. “We were defensive with an 8-1 field?”Both teams were. Nothing was done to try and force changes in the field or the bowling once a couple of edges had headed towards the slips. Balls were left and left in a way that would have earned the batsmen taunts about Geoff Boycott or Chris Tavare from Australian crowds.Katich added 10 runs in 69 balls on Saturday while Michael Hussey collected 45 in 121. Hussey performed capably and confidently during his 90, employing the method that has made him, and the situation was under control while he was there. Usually someone more attacking is at the other end and the batsmen feed off each other. On the third day things were slower than a crawl.”Huss and I were pretty content to try and wade it out and reap the rewards later on, but it didn’t happen due to both of us getting out,” Katich said. “When that doesn’t come off, it doesn’t look great.” As the wickets started to fall – they lost 4 for 37 when Katich departed – Australia did not have enough support in their platform to fulfill their aim of matching India’s 441.The amusing thing about the batting suffocation was Australia have been trying to bore India’s batsmen out throughout the series by using cluttered fields with short and deep men. Indian players have called that defensive – something the attacking visitors reject – but the tourists have been unable to restrict the runs with any method.With India’s settings and immaculate discipline, they showed their opponents how to do it. With each hour the visitors’ task to save the series became tougher as the walls and fielders closed in. In India’s case, winning means drawing.”It’s a good strategy if you can execute it,” Katich said. “If you don’t get it right you can pay the price. They executed it well, that’s the bottom line.”Katich maintained a popular view on tour that only one team was playing for victory. The difference is India will be happy with a stalemate, which will give them the series and regain the Border Gavaskar Trophy.”They know they don’t have to win the Test match,” Katich said. “Judging by the scoring rate today we’d have to keep them to around 300 on the last day. We’ll have to bowl well tomorrow and take our chances.”The last time Australia needed to win the final Test to save the series was during the draw at The Oval in 2005. Strange decisions were made in that game too, especially when a bad light offering was accepted during the first innings.At the moment of most importance, they were unable to lift or find another answer. The current outfit looks confused and unrecognisable from Australia’s previous team. Even supporters with just a little knowledge of the game knew they had been tricked into being defensive.

The strokeplay was majestic and the approach worlds removed from the hesitancy that coloured Sachin Tendulkar’s innings at times over the past couple of years

Cricinfo staff29-Oct-2008

At times you could have fooled yourself into thinking that it was the irrepressible teenager of Perth 1992 vintage batting, and not the 35-year-old veteran who was supposed to be on his last legs. The strokeplay was majestic and the approach worlds removed from the hesitancy that coloured Sachin Tendulkar’s innings at times over the past couple of years.The situation when he walked in was hardly that in which to unleash a fusillade of shots. At 27 for 2, he might even have been reminded of the bad old days, when the batting rode on his shoulders, especially away from home at venues like the MCG and Edgbaston. These days though, the line-up around him is far more robust and the freedom he batted with today was that of a man determined to enjoy a final flourish in the game that he has
illuminated for so long. Even when India were under siege in the first session, there was safety in the thought that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Man of the Match in Mohali a week ago, was pencilled in at No.7.Brett Lee had already been taken off by the time Tendulkar emerged to raucous cheers, but Mitchell Johnson was bowling just as quick in his place. One bouncer whizzed past his helmet at 151 km/hr but if that was meant to intimidate, it had little effect. A couple of balls later, he was on tiptoe and striking the ball through point, much as he had done at the WACA all those years ago.Johnson tried to tempt him into the sort of airy drive that Rahul Dravid had perished to, but the bait was never nibbled. For 20 balls, Tendulkar was in watchful mode, intent on seeing off the challenge of Australia’s premier fast bowlers. Only when Johnson started to err on the short side did he start to open up, first tucking one off the hips past square leg and then lashing one through the fielder at point.Lee was the culprit on that occasion, and Ricky Ponting turned to him a quarter of an hour before lunch. It was a crucial passage of play. Had Australia picked up a wicket then with the run-rate still well below three, the game might have turned. Instead, Lee was greeted with the most sumptuous of cover-drives. Lee continued to bowl quick and full, but Tendulkar either guided the ball into the off side, or played it straight back. There was no hint that the eyesight or reflexes have faded, no sign of a batsman on the wane.The contest within a contest continued right after lunch, with Lee charging in as he had to dismiss Virender Sehwag earlier in the morning. Earlier this year, in the CB Series in Australia, Tendulkar had decided to use Lee’s pace to bunt the ball over the slip cordon. It was a stroke he unfurled to telling effect in Bloemfontein in 2001, but this was Lee, the quickest bowler in the world, in the quintessential Test match battle of our times, Australia against India.Such labels clearly meant nothing to him because the third ball after lunch nearly went over third man for six. Once again, he had rocked back, arched his spine like a gymnast and twirled the wrists to devastating effect. The score was still modest, 71 for 2, but a massive statement had been made. The unerringly accurate Stuart Clark was then thumped behind point for four more, before Lee responded the way fast bowlers do. The straight, quick bouncer would have parted Tendulkar’s hair if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet, but all he did was drop the wrists and sway out of harm’s way.

His riposte was far more damaging, a whiplash square of the wicket that got to the ball boys before anyone in the off side cordon had even moved a couple of feet. When Lee subsequently searched for the yorker, Tendulkar drove in classical fashion to the man at midwicket. More than Lee’s raw pace, it was Clark’s accuracy that troubled him most, with one superb leg-cutter almost kissing the outside edge on its way to Brad Haddin.There were still moments to drive the bowler to distraction though. There was little wrong with the delivery that Clark bowled to him when he was on 46, but Tendulkar merely waited on it as though it were a loopy leg break and then cut it fine for four. Soon after, the field changed to 7-2, but rather than be tempted into the shot across the line, he chose the path of discretion.Cameron White was initially viewed with similar suspicion, but once a gorgeous on-drive off Clark had loosened the shackles, Ponting’s first punt at spin was made to look foolish. When White tossed one up fairly wide, he pounced to drive it past extra-cover, and the pick-up over midwicket that followed was a damning verdict on the paucity of the slow-bowling resources in Australian cricket’s post-Warne era.After Johnson and Watson tied him down for a while, it all ended with a false stroke, but by then the momentum had shifted inexorably in India’s favour, with Gautam Gambhir trading circumspection for aggression. Tendulkar has scored nine hundreds against Australia, and as a result half-centuries don’t really linger too long in the memory. This little gem though should have a special place in the collection, right up alongside the one in Adelaide , when he launched into Glenn McGrath after the previous evening’s monastic denial, and the minor masterpiece in Mumbai , when he and Laxman batted sublimely on a minefield to transform a match that had been within Australia’s grasp. Even for the masters, centuries aren’t everything.

It’s up to Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra to prove that they can at least partially fill the breach left by Anil Kumble’s retirement

Dileep Premachandran17-Dec-2008
From the common sight of three specialist spinners in the XI at home a decade ago, India might be forced to opt for a lone tweaker in the post-Kumble era © AFP
How much do India miss Anil Kumble? At the risk of inviting irate reactions from the old romantics, more than they’ve ever missed any other bowler. In home conditions, Kumble was in a class of his own. Bishan Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Erapalli Prasanna don’t even come close, and Harbhajan Singh must reinvent himself drastically if he’s to have anything like the same impact in the second half of his career.So much has been written about Monty Panesar’s travails in India that the performances of Harbhajan and Amit Mishra in Chennai have slipped under the radar. Michael Atherton pointed them out in a typically astute column in the , and it’s worth remembering just how comfortably Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood played Harbhajan from deep inside the crease. It’s far too early to make an assessment of Mishra’s qualities, but Harbhajan is bound to come under the scanner now that he’s the senior spin bowler in the side.To analyse his career, it’s necessary to break it into two significant portions. Having made his debut in 1998, he only established himself in the side after the 32-wicket heroics against Steve Waugh’s team in 2001. Kumble was recuperating from shoulder surgery at the time, but from that point on, it was Harbhajan that was the frontline spinner until he faced finger surgery of his own after the Gabba Test of 2003.Kumble, who got his chance in the next game in Adelaide, didn’t waste it, and Harbhajan was once again back to support-spinner status when he returned against Australia in October 2004. Though he enjoyed a fine series with 21 wickets, it was Kumble who grabbed the headlines, especially on the opening day in Chennai where he took 7 for 48.Before that finger injury in 2003, Harbhajan’s home record was superior even to Kumble, though it’s not necessarily fair to compare 18 Tests with 63. Over the 63 games he played in India, Kumble took a staggering 350 wickets at 24.88 and a strike-rate of 59.4. Of the golden oldies, Bedi had the best average [23.99, albeit at a strike-rate of 75.8], while Chandrasekhar had the best strike-rate [64.6]. Kumble’s own figures were inflated during the course of a wretched final year, when a succession of injuries restricted him to just seven wickets at considerable cost from four Tests.Prior to his injury, Harbhajan had taken 96 wickets at 23.33 from 18 Tests. The strike-rate [56.2] too was in the Kumble category. Since returning though, he hasn’t been anything like as effective. The 23 Tests since October 2004 have seen him take 114 wickets at 29.78, and a strike-rate of 64.5. The only ten-wicket hauls were against Australia [2004, in a match India lost heavily in Bangalore] and Sri Lanka [Ahmedabad 2005]. Too often, the five-wicket hauls have been meaningless ones, with teams throwing the bat around after raising huge totals.So, what has changed? The pitches, undoubtedly. The rank turners that Kumble had so much success on in the mid-1990s are largely a thing of the past, and when they do make an appearance [Mumbai 2004 and Kanpur 2008], visiting teams invariably run off crying to the ICC. But blaming the pitches alone would be a cop-out, a failure to admit that Indian spin is in crisis.Murali Kartik is highly rated on the county circuit, but that opinion doesn’t seem to be shared by India’s selectors, despite 22 wickets at 25.77 in his six home TestsAtherton summed up Harbhajan’s predicament perfectly in his column. “I am not entirely sure that Harbhajan is the bowler he used to be, now that an overextended use of the doosra – the ball that spins to the off – has affected his ability to drift and spin his stock ball, the offspinner,” he wrote. It’s something other commentators have been saying for years, and was best illustrated in Sri Lanka a few months ago, when Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan made India’s spinners look second-rate.Both Harbhajan and Mishra will undoubtedly play in Mohali. Just two months ago, they took 12 wickets between them as Australia were routed. It’s worth pointing out though that whenever Mahendra Singh Dhoni wants to keep the runs down or take a crucial wicket, it’s the pace bowlers and reverse-swing that he turns to. Even in Chennai, it was mainly Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan that reduced England to a fourth-day crawl, with Ishant summoning a superb spell to dismiss Andrew Flintoff.So, what are India’s options when it comes to spin? Not very many. Piyush Chawla did nothing in his two Tests, and Pragyan Ojha is just as unproven. Murali Kartik is highly rated on the county circuit, but that opinion doesn’t seem to be shared by India’s selectors, despite 22 wickets at 25.77 in his six home Tests.With quite a few pace options waiting in the wings – Munaf Patel and a fit-again Sreesanth would definitely add value to the side – it’s not unthinkable India will soon go the Australian way. For the best part of 15 years, they played mainly three fast bowlers alongside Shane Warne. Sadly for India, there’s no Warne on the horizon, and it’s up to Harbhajan and Mishra to prove that they can at least partially fill the breach left by Kumble’s retirement.

The ICC’s panel of experts picked the best XI from the players in the Women’s World Twenty20. Here’s the XI and what they did in the tournament

Cricinfo staff22-Jun-20091 Shelley Nitschke (Australia)
Shelley Nitschke was Australia’s star in the tournament, finishing as their highest run-scorer and wicket-taker. Her prolific scoring ensured she ended fifth overall on the run-scorer’s charts. If her highest of 56 off 38 balls against West Indies in the group stages was one of authority, she followed it up with a superb display with the ball, picking up 4 for 21 in the next match against South Africa.2 Charlotte Edwards (England)
Fresh off the success of the ODI World Cup, Charlotte Edwards masterminded another success on home soil, leading England to the World Twenty20 crown. She was on song during the group stages, blowing away India with a quickfire fifty before her all-round display against Pakistan made sure England finished top of Pool B.3 Claire Taylor (England)
At 33, if there were any doubts about adjusting to the shortest format, the player of the series from the ODI World Cup put them to rest soon. Second on the run charts, a run behind Aimee Watkins’ 200, her average of 199.00 meant she once again walked away with the honours. She was in prime form scoring two unbeaten fifties – the one against Australia in the semi-final was of significant note – and it was only fitting that she hit the winning runs, a boundary, in the final.4 Aimee Watkins (New Zealand)
She had the additional burden of the captaincy to bear after Haydee Tiffin’s retirement, but the leading lady for New Zealand hardly put a foot wrong. Unfortunately, like her predecessor, she had to be content with being second-best. With the leading run-getter in the tournament in their ranks – 200 at 66.66 – New Zealand could have done without a blip from her when it mattered the most, in the final.5 Sarah Taylor (England)
Sarah Taylor impressed with her safe wicketkeeping, along with her steady batting through the tournament. She was the third-highest scorer in the England team with 119 runs, playing as an opening batsman. With one fifty against India, she was instrumental in giving her team good starts at the top of the order.Captain Fantastic: Aimee Watkins•Getty Images6 Suzie Bates (New Zealand)
Suzie Bates finished the fourth-highest run-getter of the tournament, showing consistency as the opening batsman for New Zealand. With scores of 41 not-out, 60 and 24 in successive league matches, she was the mainstay of her team’s batting line-up. She was also handy with the ball, bowling medium-pacers and chipping in with two wickets.7 Lucy Doolan (New Zealand)
An allrounder who can play the big shots, Lucy Doolan was an integral part of the New Zealand team which reached the final. Doolan kept things tight with her off-breaks, picking up a total of four wickets. Her effort against West Indies in the group match stood out, as she followed up a 38-ball 41 with a three-wicket haul.8 Rumeli Dhar (India)
Rumeli Dhar is another allrounder who had a fruitful World Twenty20, scalping six wickets at an impressive economy rate of 4.78 runs per over. However, she had an ordinary time with the bat, scoring just nine runs in four innings. In the match against Pakistan, Dhar blew away the Pakistan top order to set up a comfortable Indian victory.Sian Ruck was clearly the find of the tournament•Getty Images9 Holly Colvin (England)
Holly Colvin, the left-arm spinner, was one of England’s most consistent performers in the competition, bagging nine wickets at 11.77 at an excellent economy rate of 5.30. She was the tournament’s highest wicket-taker, and played a crucial role in helping her team inflict heavy defeats on India and Pakistan in the league stages, taking three wickets against each of them and easing England’s passage to semis.10 Sian Ruck (New Zealand)
Sian Ruck proved a revelation with her left-arm seam bowling, confounding batsmen with her ability to swing the ball both ways and working up some decent pace. She was New Zealand’s star player with the ball, taking seven wickets at 12.28 at a miserly rate of 4.78 per over. Her 3 for 12 in New Zealand’s first game set up a convincing win over Australia, and her 2 for 18 in the semi-final knocked India out. After excelling in her first stint in international cricket, she remains a great prospect for her team in the years to come.11 Laura Marsh (England)
Laura Marsh took at least a wicket in each of the five games she played, and was extremely economical. She wasn’t taken for above six-an-over in a single game and played an important role in boosting England’s bowling line-up. She finished with six wickets at 11.33 at a rate of 3.40-an-over, including an incredible spell against Sri Lanka where she conceded just seven runs in her allotted four overs. In fact, she’s one of the most economical bowlers in the women’s circuit, conceding just 4.23-an-over. She gave away just 12 in the semi-final against Australia, who still posted a competitive 163 which Claire Taylor and Beth Morgan helped overhaul.12th man: Eshani Kaushalya (Sri Lanka)
Sri Lanka’s only claim to fame in the competition was a win against fellow minnows Pakistan but not much could be asked of a team previously unexposed to the Twenty20 format. But Eshani Kaushalya was their best player, finishing as the second-highest wicket-taker with eight wickets at a stunning average of 6.87. She took 3 for 16 against Pakistan to keep them down to a chaseable score and then came up with an even better effort in the next game against England, taking 4 for 18, though the tournament favourites managed an imposing score. She was the only seamer to take four wickets in an innings in a competition where spinners performed better.

Sixty years ago he was a prodigy who served notice to the world – before he went missing and later turned up as a brave old man against the West Indies firing squad

Alan Hill04-Aug-2009All those who watched the ferocious gladiator in his magnificent opening season testify to his thrilling command as a batsman. Brian Close’s power and supremacy at the crease provided onlookers with an early demonstration of the adventurous approach that always governed his cricket.Raymond Illingworth, a close friend and later an astute ally in Yorkshire’s championship years in the 1960s, remembers the confidence of the imperious young giant. “At 18, Brian was the finest straight driver I’d ever seen. He used to pepper the rugby stand at Headingley – and that’s a big hit.”One example of Close’s striking powers came in the match against Derbyshire at Park Avenue, Bradford. Close was in opposition to the fast bowling trio of Gladwin, Jackson and Copson, all of them England players. Illingworth recalls the entry of Close and the subsequent barrage of strokes, which produced near-delirium in the spectators. Copson conceded 45 runs in five overs. As Illingworth recalls, one of Close’s two sixes rose mightily to land on the roof of the stand. The correspondent enthused: “Close gave the Derbyshire attack a Jessop-like hammering, using his long arms to hit out with terrific swings.”Trevor Bailey has watched, played and written about cricket for over 80 years. He was present when Peter Smith, his Essex colleague, was subjected to another tremendous barrage of shots. Close was unbeaten on 88, with a hundred at his beckoning, when Yorkshire declared. “It was a magnificent performance,” says Bailey. “We were all astonished by his big hitting at Headingley.” Bailey still believes that Close was the best young player of his time and was unrivalled until Sachin Tendulkar displayed his own uncommon artistry.The gods smiled on Close in the momentous summer of 1949. He became the youngest player, aged 18 years and 149 days, to represent England in a Test match. He made his debut against New Zealand at Old Trafford. Other distinctions followed. He was the youngest Yorkshireman to gain his county cap, which followed national recognition, and the youngest allrounder to achieve the double, and he was the only player ever to reach this milestone in his first season.Sporting prodigies carry the burden of high expectations. Close in his cricketing infancy was praised as a wondrous talent. There were some among the Yorkshire elders who urged more sober consideration. Jim Kilburn, the historian and cricket correspondent, offered a typically measured response. “Close has the grace and balance of a natural player of games. Nobody would wish to withhold congratulations and hopes for a famous future.” Kilburn’s next words might have been a premonition; they certainly reflected the anxiety felt by other admiring bystanders. “Hero worship and success make for a heavy wine and it would be a cricketing tragedy if unbalanced enthusiasm were to lead a young player into a mood of complacence.”The buoyancy of the rough-hewn Yorkshire boy was crushed on an ill-starred tour of Australia in 1950-51. The failure to nurture an immature youth would deprive England of an allrounder who could have vied with the greatest in the game. Close became a lonely and disconsolate boy on the tour and was derided as a misfit by his captain, Freddie Brown. Brown was an amateur martinet of the old school. He had, in fact, overridden the objections of the Yorkshire committee to include Close in the touring party. That was the worst thing that could have happened to Brian,” says another Yorkshire veteran, Ted Lester. “The promotion was too sudden; he would otherwise have been in the England team for the next 20 years.”

“The promotion was too sudden; he would otherwise have been in the England team for the next 20 years”Ted Lester, Yorkshire veteran

The late Ronnie Burnet tells a revealing story of the impact of the demoralising experience in Australia, which had, he recalled, almost resulted in Close’s giving up the game. In one long conversation Burnet had tried to dispel the clouds of depression. “You’re wasting your breath,” said Brian, “I’m finished.”Close did linger on the brink of despair for some time afterwards, but he eventually emerged from his dejection to embark on an exhilarating new phase as Yorkshire captain in the early 1960s. He was then 32 and found assurance and peace of mind in a coveted leading role. Bill Bowes, another Yorkshire elder, was among those astonished at the impact of Close as captain. “Brian’s field placings were as intelligent and antagonistic as any seen in the county for 25 years,” says Bowes.Yorkshire won four championships and two Gillette Cups in an invincible decade. Close was now the hard man of cricket folklore. His courage as a batsman was notably displayed against the ravenous West Indies pacemen in 1963, and even more remarkably at the age of 45 when he was recalled by England for the last time against other marauders from the Caribbean in 1976.His swansong as a cricketer produced new tributes when he moved to captain Somerset. At Taunton he nurtured the talents of a player who was cast in a similar coinage to his youthful self. Close rescued Ian Botham from the clutches of disapproving coaches on the Lord’s groundstaff to help propel him to legendary status.Sir Ian today says: “Closey was a great leader and a remarkable man. We will always be indebted to him. He was the man who put us on the road and transformed a happy-go-lucky band, as Somerset was regarded, into the winning machine we became.”

The night before he scored the century that revitalised his West Indian team, Dwayne Bravo lay in his hotel bed watching boxing

Alex Brown at Adelaide Oval04-Dec-2009The night before he scored the century that revitalised both his West Indian team and the Frank Worrell Trophy series, Dwayne Bravo lay in his hotel bed watching boxing on the television. The combat, the valour, the bloody-minded determination struck a chord with Bravo, the Trinidadian allrounder, and he later relayed to team-mates a quote from one of the duelling pugilists: “Destiny is in my hands.”It was a motto that resonated throughout Bravo’s innings on Friday, and one that stands as a beacon for his side to follow in this series and beyond. The dispiriting Brisbane defeat still weighing heavily upon them, West Indies might well have been expected to capitulate when Adrian Barath, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan fell inside the first session, only for Bravo and Shivnarine Chanderpaul to combine for a century stand that was as much sweet science as precise batsmanship.Whereas Chanderpaul, fighting out of the crouch, was content to counter-punch on a bouncier-than-usual Adelaide Oval wicket, Bravo advanced. Risks were taken and luck was ridden, but when Bravo raised both his half-century and century with hard-driven boundaries down the ground, the Adelaide patrons offered generous ovations to a born entertainer and a battle-forged fighter.It may have surprised them to learn that this was Bravo’s first Test century since Hobart in 2005; the result of a long battle with an Achilles injury, wavering application at the crease and the distractions caused by the Twenty20 game. The current series is Bravo’s first in whites since Australia’s tour of the Caribbean 18 months ago, and his match-turning efforts have provided the region with hope that the once flashy youth is maturing into a responsible veteran capable of inspiring a new generation.”I was very confident coming here to play in Australia,” Bravo said. “I think they’re the best team in the world and I’m the type of person who loves challenges. After being out of the game for so long I took this tour to make sure I got my Test career back on track. I have a lot of starts at times and tend to give it away. I’m just happy that I got a start in this game and carried on. It’s long overdue and I’m happy to get another hundred behind my name and looking forward to the innings ahead of me.”

“For so long, Bravo has been the embodiment of all that is right, wrong and worrisome about West Indian cricket”

For so long, Bravo has been the embodiment of all that is right, wrong and worrisome about West Indian cricket. Here is a man blessed with athletic gifts the envy of his peers; an allrounder with the hubris and flair to snap Caribbean cricket out of its decade-long malaise. It was this Bravo who defied Australia in its own backyard with a century of pure power and panache, lifting his side to a competitive first-innings total in the process.But there has been another side. Fairly or not, Bravo has been portrayed as one of the poster children for the Twenty20 game. That perception wasn’t helped when Bravo did not represent West Indies during their ill-fated Test tour of England earlier this year, yet was deemed fit enough to represent the Mumbai Indians in the concurrent IPL. Club over country debates raged, as they had the previous year when he made an 11th-hour arrival for the Test series against Australia in a Mukesh Ambani-sponsored private jet.A tentative peace has taken hold between players and the board of late, and perhaps with it will come a more dedicated commitment to international cricket. Certainly, Bravo gave every indication after play that he remained committed to both the region and the five-day format in an oration every bit as refreshing as his innings.”Test cricket to me is the ultimate,” he said. “I think all players have to make a name for themselves through Test cricket. It’s the only way you can become one of the best players in the world and be recognised by the best players in the world. Once you’ve dominated at Test level then you become a world-class player. I really love playing Test cricket. I think it is the ultimate.”I’m very happy to be back in the team playing Test cricket again. After that first Test I was very disappointed for us as a team. We regrouped after that first Test and identified where we went wrong as a team. We knew coming into this Test that we would play better and make a better showing of ourselves.”So far, so good.

Saving the game is going to be a mental battle as well as a technical one for England’s nine remaining wickets

Andrew McGlashan at Centurion19-Dec-2009As England left Centurion on Saturday evening they will have taken a glance skywards and seen the mother of all thunderstorms brewing. In the back of their minds is the thought that maybe nature can help them escape the opening Test with a draw, but in these parts the weather is so unpredictable that England can’t rely on any favours – and nor should they.They have been hanging on by their fingertips in this match, but now their grip on any chance of victory has been wrenched free. From the moment Andrew Strauss’s decision to bowl first backfired they would probably have settled for a draw. Now they will welcome that result with open arms, by whatever means it comes, and the chance to head to Durban all-square.However, the captain can have no further influence on the match after he fell to a superb delivery from Morne Morkel in the second over of England’s uncomfortable six-over stint. All Strauss can do is sit, watch and ponder. If his team-mates can’t bail the side out and save the game, he is going to have some explaining to do. Hindsight is an evil thing, but putting South Africa in has looked a dodgy decision for at least four days.”Andrew Strauss is a quality player and getting him out early on certainly knocks the team back,” Hashim Amla said. “We were hoping for one wicket and fortunately we got Strauss out.”There is a memory, though, that England can cling to during their battle for survival. Five months ago they pulled off a miraculous escape at Cardiff in the opening Ashes Test as the final-wicket pair of Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar survived 69 balls. They began the final day in a similar position – 20 for 2 – and looked dead and buried before tea.Anderson struck with the new ball, but wasn’t best pleased about it•Getty Images”It’s going to be a big day for us – very similar to Cardiff in the Ashes,” Anderson said. “We pulled through that and we saw what happened after that. That’s the sort of momentum we can get to put us in a good position for the rest of the series, if we get through tomorrow, win or draw.”The manner in which South Africa built their lead may have lulled England into a false of security about batting out time to save the game, but the shooter from Anderson that removed Amla will have set alarm bells ringing. The ball doesn’t have to roll along the deck all the time; the simple knowledge that it might happen is enough to put doubt in the batsman’s mind. Saving the game is going to be a mental battle as well as a technical one for the nine remaining wickets.”You’ve got to put the wicket out of your mind, don’t think about what could happen with the balls that go underground,” Anderson said. “We’re going to have to be reasonably positive when we bat and hope we can manage to get through.”Whatever gains England have made during this match they have come when playing catch-up. Graeme Swann’s first-innings five wickets were a manful effort, but only served to keep South Africa’s total from going out of sight. And while Swann starred again with the bat, shifting the momentum with his thrilling 81-ball 85, South Africa still emerged with a valuable lead.When the home side slipped to 46 for 4 in the 22nd over, England had their best opportunity to turn the tables but again they couldn’t take the final stride into a commanding position. The bowlers tired in the heat and the pitch grew more unresponsive as the ball became older and older.”We came out reasonably fired-up, and at four-down we thought ‘we’re in with a sniff here’,” Anderson said. “But they really dug in and played well and saw off the seamers’ first couple of spells. Then obviously when you come back for the third or fourth spell you don’t have the same energy.”Having watched conditions become easier for batting during the day, Anderson knows the opening exchanges in the morning will be crucial. Of equal importance is the fact that South Africa will be able to call on a second new ball with about an hour remaining, should they need it.”It’s going to be a really difficult first hour for us,” Anderson said. “That harder ball does do some unusual things, but nothing of the sort happened with the old ball. If we can get through that first hour, we obviously have a good chance of batting the whole day.”

South Australia’s win over Mumbai Indians was so full of errors, it provided endless amusement to the kids watching

Sriram Veera in Durban14-Sep-2010There are days when you hope little boys and girls aren’t watching the game. You feel that if they see the poor show that the professional players have put up, the kids won’t fall in love with the sport. This wasn’t one of those days, though. You hoped that the kids watched tonight because there was an element of fun, albeit of a different kind.Yes, the game was low-quality; the fielding was appalling and the bowling at the pressure points was terrible. Yes, the highlights packages will feature boundaries from full tosses, dropped catches and catches off full tosses. But it was actually funny to watch. The kids would have loved it. Like how it’s funny to watch slap-stick. To watch grown-up men tumble, fumble and mess-up has been a fun pastime since time immemorial. It was that kind of a funny night in Durban. Admission: 40 rand for the grass banks and 100 for the grandstand. And it was Paisa-vasool (value for money) as they say in India.The end would have had the kids, as this internet generation would say, (rolling on the floor laughing). For an older generation, it was like watching Sunday-park cricket. The equation read 41 from 18 when Dwayne Bravo was thrown the ball. His captain Sachin Tendulkar would later say that he thought his team had things under control then. Mumbai lost control like alcoholics tempted with free drinks.Bravo’s first delivery was almost a full toss and was smashed back so hard that it nearly decapitated him. The crowd laughed. He went on to bowl three more full-tosses in the next five deliveries. There was some dew. Tendulkar didn’t want it to sound as an excuse but stated in the voice of a man under oath who has to put facts on record: “There was some dew. The bowlers were finding it difficult to hold the ball.”Only Malinga had the pace and the confidence to try bowling couple of bouncers in that scenario. When the yorker’s aren’t coming because the ball is wet, you try to hold the ball cross-seam or try to hit the deck. Malinga did that. The rest probably feared that the short stuff at their pace could disappear. Wonder why they didn’t try any slower ones. They continued to try bowling yorkers; they kept serving full tosses. Whack. Boom. Biff. Blast.Tendulkar called upon Zaheer Khan to bowl the penultimate over. The equation was 25 from 12. Tendulkar still thought his team was under control. Zaheer was coming off a long injury lay-off; he has been recently sweating it out at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, India. And the effort showed in his spell with the new ball: The ball bounced, seamed and dangerously flirted with the outside edge. The NCA stint had prepared him for that. What it couldn’t provide him with was match practice; real match situations where you can test yourself. Today, he slipped. It can happen. He bowled four full tosses in that over to reduce the equation to 11 from 6. And it was fitting that the winning runs came from a full toss from Harbhajan Singh. The game deserved nothing else. It had to be a full toss. And it was.The most fun though came from the fielding. There was a contest running in the pressbox about how many catches were dropped. ‘Four? That Harbhajan one was a missed chance right? Ok five. What about the one Ambati Rayudu clanged? But hey, he is not a regular keeper. So? Ok, Six. Happy? May be we missed something. Let’s ask Tendulkar.'”It was the fielding that let us down,” Tendulkar said. “Some balls came harder than you thought it would, some swung away from you – like mine did- and you had to adjust. We didn’t today.”When all the mayhem was unfolding on the field, it wasn’t readily apparent whether Tendulkar was upset, whether he was sad or whether he was angry with all this full tosses and catches.
As a captain, how did he deal with this entire low-quality cricket? “You tend to get upset. Nobody wants to lose. There are days when you try your best but nothing works out. This was one of those days. Every day, you can’t bowl four brilliant overs or score a brilliant fifty. Sometimes, lapses do happen. It was just one of those days.”It was. But what morbid fun was had.

After all the bargaining and shopping you can do, escape to the peace of Dhaka’s famous golf course

Shakib Al Hasan06-Nov-2010Experience Gulshan and Uttara
These areas of Dhaka are never short of activity. There are many trendy restaurants, fast-food joints and cafes here that you just have to try. For great kebabs and masala dishes, I recommend Dhaba on Banani Road 11. If you are looking for authentic Bangladeshi cuisine, stop over at Kasturi. There are so many choices in Gulshan and Uttara, I suggest you just walk around and try whichever eatery you feel like.Gulshan is not just about multi-national food, it is also a shopping hotspot. Although you’ll see many international brands, a must-visit is Aarong, a chain store that will turn you into a Bangladeshi no matter where you come from. Apart from handicrafts, they have the best designer kurtas (we call it Punjabi in Bangladesh).My favourite restaurant in the city is Mainland China in Uttara.If you are in the mood to party, head to the Radisson Waterfront or the Dhaka Regency.Play at the Kurmitola golf course
I didn’t know such an amazing facility existed in the mad rush, traffic jams and noise of Dhaka till I went there with Jamie [Siddons] and my team-mates one day. Even if you are not a Tiger Woods wannabe, it’s worth going there for the scenery and the atmosphere. This is the course where Bangladesh’s first pro-golfer, Siddikur Rahman, once worked as a caddy before he shot to fame by winning an Asian PGA title.Stroll around the Dhaka university campus
I love the university campus because it welcomes everyone. If you don’t know what to do in Dhaka, just go there and mingle with the youngsters. Become a student for a day. The university’s must-see places are the Curzon Hall, a grand British-era faculty complex, and the Shaheed Minar, a monument for the martyrs of the 1952 Language Movement.Shop in Bangabazar
Bangabazar is the most famous shopping centre in Dhaka. Every rickshaw-wallah and cabbie knows where it is. Don’t be disappointed by its tiny outlets and narrow alleyways because the place is a goldmine if you are shopping for clothes. You name it, Bangabazar has it, at unbelievably low prices. Bargain hard.Visit the Bashundhara Shopping Mall
Don’t leave Dhaka without buying DVDs from Bashundhara Shopping Mall. It is a fun mall, with movies theatres, food courts and an amusement hall.

Bangladesh’s performance in Mirpur seemed to follow the script of a Shakespeare tragedy, with unfulfilled ambition, revenge and eventually the fall of would-be heroes

Firdose Moonda in Mirpur19-Mar-2011Shakespeare would have been proud of this tragedy. There was unfulfilled ambition, revenge, inner turmoil and death, not of anyone, but of a dream.At the end, the Bangladesh vision lay lifeless on the Shere Bangla field. The supporters had abandoned them, some leaving when the early dents were made in the batting line-up and the rest jumping ship near the end. The play wasn’t worth watching anymore and they didn’t care what happened to the hero Shakib Al Hasan. He was the protagonist and we all know what happens to them in Shakespeare’s scripts.When the curtain opened, the scene that rolled out had the makings of a horror show. The Bangladesh fast bowlers were feeding Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith some juicy deliveries. Full tosses, balls pitched on leg stump, short and wide stuff, and there was no stopping the opening pair. Bangladesh allowed Smith, who had been in scratchy form in the tournament, to plant some roots and settle. They gave Amla the stage to continue growing his stature as one of the batsmen of the tournament, and Bangladesh’s woes may have grown even more had they been allowed to continue.There was a twist in the plot, though. Abdur Razzak, Naeem Islam, Mahmudullah and Shakib did what they did to South Africa in the 2007 World Cup in Guyana – tied them up. Although they were not running the same kind of strangling circles as they did on that day, they still managed to pull the run-rate back enough for 250 to look like a reasonable amount of runs to restrict South Africa to.Of course, the South Africa batsmen were part of the play too and they had some acting to do themselves. Jacques Kallis brought up his half-century almost unnoticed, and Faf du Plessis was able to craft his character for the third time in this World Cup. du Plessis has been able to show the maturity that many from his domestic franchise knew he had all along, against India, Ireland and again today. South Africa’s middle order, still relatively untested, may need a few more of these situations before they start to be considered as threatening as the bowling attack, but du Plessis will be central to that.The Bangladesh bowlers would have never seen him before and it showed. They bowled to him as South Africa bowled to Mohammad Ashraful in Guyana in that World Cup – as though he was too unknown a quantity for them to have done much homework on. They batted in the same fashion against Lonwabo Tsotsobe, although they had seen him on during South Africa’s A tour early last year.What really happened is that Bangladesh hadn’t rehearsed their lines properly, hadn’t put enough research into the South Africa players; maybe because they didn’t expect them to field the side that they ended up fielding. Once Tsotsobe had set them back significantly, the lines that they were struggling to remember were gone.There was no recovery. The fans seemed to know that before anyone else and that may have been why they started pouring out. Shakib tried to prompt a comeback, that gentle reminder of how things should be, and he had four beautiful boundaries, but his performance alone would never be enough. Smith has said that South Africa were on no revenge mission; but the way they unleashed the pain on Bangladesh told a different story. It meant that there was no room for any of the ambition Bangladesh had harboured to peep through.This game alone may not have been the vehicle to fulfill Bangladesh’s dream but because of the results of the past few weeks – the loss to West Indies and then the West Indies loss to England – everything eventually hung on beating South Africa. Maybe the end wasn’t too painful because beating the team that has looked strongest in this tournament would be a tough ask. It may have made the final act easier to swallow.Shakib was too traumatised to be able to think about the way forward, but Smith had a suggestion, although it is not positive. He thinks there that there is still a long way to go before the script can be revised. “The challenge will be to create consistency,” he said. ‘”They need to start learning to win.” It may be as difficult as learning their lines but they’ve got four years to practise.