All posts by h716a5.icu

It was the slowest century by a Bangladesh batsman, but Tamim’s knock was necessary, especially after a harrowing batting show in the Carribean in the Tests

Mohammad Isam23-Jul-2018The nature versus nurture debate has kept scholars and thinkers busy for the last four centuries. While not as vast, the debate has provided the background music of the last 15 years for Bangladesh’s batsmen, many of whom earned fame through their talent but couldn’t quite nurture it.For long, Tamim Iqbal has been one of the nature boys, but for better or worse – and whether he likes it or not – Tamim has slowly moved to the opposite camp. His match-winning 130 in the first ODI against West Indies should, at least for the next 10 months of building towards the World Cup, put this argument to rest. Nurture, which in this case is the effect of external factors after conception, has won.On a slow pitch that had significant cracks, Tamim adjusted and readjusted several times before walking off with an asterisk next to his big score. Batting first, he is one of only three Bangladesh openers to stay unbeaten at the end of an innings, but neither Javed Omar nor Shahriar Nafees contributed to a win. Tamim’s 130 off 160 balls provided the backbone that went missing in the two Tests.Sure, it was the slowest century by a Bangladesh batsman, but he had to be there. If you felt he and Shakib Al Hasan should have pushed along after the 35th over, you are probably right, but when you appreciate how they laid the foundation one brick at a time, especially given how poorly they had played in the past two weeks, you may have to equally tolerate their slow-to-react gear change.Tamim said that throughout their 207-run second-wicket stand, the goal was to last as long as possible in the middle. They were looking for a target around 260, which was bumped up to 279 by Mushfiqur Rahim’s 11-ball 30.”A match-winning innings is always special,” Tamim said. “It wasn’t a wicket to bat on. Myself and Shakib had to work really hard to get to a strong position. It was spinning as well as helping the fast bowlers at least till the 25th over. We just planned to dig in and without thinking about the score, stretch the innings as long as possible. We had a target in our mind and because of Mushfiqur’s cameo, we got 20 runs more.”All three contributors – Tamim, Shakib, and Mushfiqur – interestingly discarded their natural instincts for much of their innings. Tamim and Shakib tried to have wickets in hand in the last 10 overs, and Mushfiqur, at times a slow starter, simply burst off the blocks like a slogger. All three were responding to the situation at hand.As many of their fans and critics know, Bangladesh’s batsmen have traditionally done the opposite. Since the early 1990s and well into 2018 too, there have been flashy batsmen who ultimately don’t amount to much more than nostalgia. Mohammad Ashraful lasted 12 years in international cricket, simply because no one was willing to accept that his method – or madness – didn’t belong to the highest stage. The fact that Ashraful (just the batsman) still has strong backers in the BCB despite holding the lowest average among specialist batsmen who have made 3,000-plus ODI runs, says everything about Bangladesh cricket’s obsession about playing the natural game.Often, a batsman’s errors of judgment in the critical phases of a game are explained by keeping them away from the flaw in his talent. “But look at the bigger picture. He oozes talent,” they say. It is definitely not the bigger picture.Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan punch gloves during their 207-run partnership•CWI

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Initially, Tamim was the poster boy of the natural-game gang. But ever since Jamie Siddons converted him into a run fanatic, he has gradually and painfully shed his marauding style of 2007, and become Bangladesh’s batting mainstay since 2015. While an opener’s dismissal shouldn’t matter too much, Tamim getting out early has always had an adverse effect on the Bangladesh dressing room. When he finally understood his importance in the team, and at the same time that he can leave his natural game from time to time and still become a solid opening batsman, Tamim flourished.He is the team’s leading run-scorer and century-maker in both Tests and ODIs, and is finally counted as among the top openers in world cricket. But the journey hasn’t been easy. After his breakthrough innings in 2007 and a first big season in 2010, Tamim was slowly being figured out by opposition bowlers. The almost daily readjustment was a struggle, especially for an opener of a misfiring batting line-up. Matters became heated when in a press conference in October 2013, he was asked about his “different” batting when he ensured a drawn Test against New Zealand.When he said, “Thank God Sehwag was not born in Bangladesh,” he was complaining about those who questioned him making the adjustment. The question was just one of those inquiries about his change of approach; it wasn’t really questioning his method, but it touched a nerve.Ever since Tamim got out of the funk that lasted till the 2015 World Cup, he has played several innings in which he played solid, proper cricket for long periods, before bursting into his shots later in the innings. Sometimes, he has left it too late, like at The Oval or in Providence on Sunday, but he still fulfils the role of playing through the innings.Seven out of his ten ODI hundreds have brought victory to Bangladesh. The previous occasion was in Dambulla where he played a similar innings, putting together partnerships where he let the other batsmen go after the bowling for long periods. In Test cricket too, his calmer approach has given him big runs in the last three years.Mahmudullah is another example of a batsman who understands how he needs to open up if he has to thrive in the slog overs. The formula of getting out of their comfort zones when the situation demands has basically worked for all four of Bangladesh’s most experienced batsmen. It is not a complicated formula but if you don’t accept it quickly, the math will never solve itself.

Kane Williamson talks captaincy, batting, and how Sunrisers Hyderabad made it to the IPL playoffs

Nagraj Gollapudi25-May-2018Twenty-eight runs needed off 12 balls. Kane Williamson is at the crease, along with Yusuf Pathan, against Delhi Daredevils on May 5 in Hyderabad.  Williamson’s  New Zealand team-mate Trent Boult pitches full outside off, but the length is good enough for Pathan to get the ball high over long-on for a six. Boult pitches accurately next delivery and thinks he has Pathan plumb in front of leg stump. The umpire raises his finger.Williamson furiously urges Yusuf to review. Turns out, the ball pitched a fraction outside leg, giving Yusuf a second chance. He blasts the next ball, a low full toss, wide outside off stump, for a four. Minutes later, Williamson hits the winning boundary with a delicate flick, to help Sunrisers chase down their highest target at their home ground.Ten days later, reminded about the review, Williamson lets out a chuckle. “Yeah, yeah. That was quite high-stakes,” he says. “Yusuf, he thought he was out. I know Trent well, and he obviously wasn’t going to be swinging the ball back. So I thought there might be a chance, so use it and see what happens. Thank goodness, it was just outside the line and he [Yusuf] went on to hit a few more boundaries. It is amazing how fine a line these games can be at times.”That victory was part of a six-match winning streak achieved by Sunrisers, the longest by any team this IPL. It began in Mumbai, where they defended a paltry 118 against the defending champions, and stretched to Delhi, where Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan counterattacked to get to a 188-run target with seven deliveries to spare.Though they lost their last three league matches, Sunrisers were the first to make the playoffs, and for the first time, they finished in the top two on the points table at the end of the league stage. That they were able to reach such heights was in large part due to the captaincy of Williamson, who currently happens to be not just their best batsman but also the most prolific one in the IPL this year.

Balls rangeRunsBalls facedSRBalls per boundaryDot%Dismissals1-10169137123.45.4840.9211-20146122119.78.1332.0221-30164101162.45.0522.8130+206117176.14.8818.87

During the six-match winning run in the middle of the league phase, Sunrisers defended some of the lowest totals by any team this season. A day after winning in Mumbai (who were embarrassingly bowled out for 87 in that 118 game) Sunrisers’ batting failed again – this time in Hyderabad, against Kings XI Punjab – folding for 132, but Sunrisers still won by 13 runs. Then in Jaipur, against Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers set an under-par target of 152, but eventually Ajinkya Rahane, Royals’ captain, had to swallow the bitter pill of an 11-run defeat despite a fine 65 by him. Williamson got a duck in one and fifties in two of those three low-scoring games, including a Man-of-the-Match award in Jaipur.A big factor this season has been the pitches across the venues, Williamson says, which have given bowlers some capital to play with. “As a team, the most impressive part has been adapting to conditions. And that has been very important this year, because the conditions have varied a lot. Previous years, you got some very consistent wickets, but this year they have been very different to one another.”Williamson says the challenge of defending small targets is finding the right balance between attack and defence. “Because on some of these wickets, although they appear to be low targets, they can be very, very challenging to chase. A lot of the times we have defended them because of the nature of the surfaces. Yes, you have opposition getting partnerships, but you continue to apply pressure and things can happen very quickly.”His captaincy has had a part to play. Take the example of the Mumbai match: defending 118 on a Wankhede pitch gathering dew fast, where the ball, hard to grip, slid onto the bat, he deployed an attacking field at all times. A slip was in place for an extended spell, and duly gobbled up Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard. Williamson also did not push the fielders out of the 30-yard circle once the Powerplay was over, tempting the batsmen to play their shots.Simon Helmot, Sunrisers’ assistant coach, talks about the game: “Taking wickets was paramount. [Williamson] had set fields with the bowlers that gave us optimal chance of taking wickets, and that is what we did.”It is not just a matter of being attacking. It is a matter of recognising situations and knowing when the best form of attack is defence. That is the art of captaincy.”Sunrisers have consistently fielded a five-man bowling attack this year, and regardless of the numbers, Williamson has largely stuck to Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma and Shakib Al Hasan. It was important for him, then, to make sure he used his attack optimally, figuring out the match-ups and deploying the right man to exploit any given batsman’s weakness.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn Sunrisers’ home match against Daredevils, Rishabh Pant, currently second on the runs table for the tournament, was threatening to unleash himself as the death overs started. Shakib had bowled three overs and had one left, but Williamson, realising the left-arm spinner would be fodder for the left-handed Pant, brought Rashid on for his final over, and was rewarded with the wicket of Pant. Shakib returned to bowl against a right-hander, Dan Christian, and finished his spell with a tight over, restricting Delhi to a manageable target.***Players and coaches agree this has been the most competitive season of the IPL since the league was launched in 2008. A crucial contributing factor has been the presence of quality leaders: MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), R Ashwin (Kings XI Punjab), Dinesh Karthik (Kolkata Knight Riders), and Williamson. The last of those is unique in that, before this season, he had not clocked as much match time as the rest had. But he has learned fast on the job.Mike Hesson, the New Zealand coach, who has been working as an expert for the IPL’s broadcaster, says Williamson’s most impressive quality has been his calm. “Often you are calm as a batsman when you are in the zone, but even as the captain he has been particularly calm in how he has operated. In a number of pressure situations, whether it be chasing or defending, just his clarity of thought has been really impressive to see. It looks to me like all his players are really clear around their role. They look like they are making good decisions under pressure, which starts with the captain.”Hesson says the IPL success has made Williamson an attacking leader. “More so now than previously. That is a confidence thing. He can be an aggressive captain, and the fact that he has done it and has got some rewards will lead to more confidence and more willingness to back his instincts. That is part of his development as captain.”For his part, Williamson says instinct plays a big role in T20 leadership. “Put your best foot forward and hope that if you play with that positive frame of mind, things will hopefully unfold in your way. We have lost a few games in the tournament but that is the nature of T20 cricket. It is important to go out and play each game positively.”***Even a die-hard Williamson fan wouldn’t have put him top of the list in their fantasy league at the start of the tournament, but like he has done elsewhere before, Williamson has once again busted the myth that to make an impact in T20, you need to out-muscle the bowler. He has eight fifties from 15 innings, the most by any batsman this IPL. In the middle overs, he has averaged 92, scored 460 of his runs, and been dismissed five times. His Smart Strike Rate (one of ESPNcricinfo’s new Smart Stats metrics) in the middle overs has been 177.39, the third best among batsmen who have faced at least 150 balls. His dot-ball percentage in that period middle overs is 24.08%, the lowest among 23 batsmen who faced at least 100 balls.Mike Hesson: “It looks to me like all his players are really clear around their role. They look like they are making good decisions under pressure, which starts with the captain”•AFPLike Virat Kohli and Steven Smith, to name two of his peers, Williamson relies on proper cricket strokes in T20.”I just try and bat as best as I can to the team situation,” he says when asked about keeping up with the scoring rate. “Sometimes wickets have fallen early, so as a group you need to regather, and that might reflect in strike rates. And then from that point the next task is [looking at] where do we want to be as a team and then trying to achieve that as best as we can. And once again, a number of times we have had time to bat on challenging surfaces and we have had to chase down low-ish totals on some tough surfaces.”And if you are chasing a total, it is important to bat for the team rather than perhaps your own stats. You could be batting at a slower strike rate, to make sure we are getting to the right or the best position we can as a team, and sometimes you try and go out and bat a lot faster. It is very much about the team situation and trying to push that in the right direction as best as you can.”Sometimes you will have come out having lost some wickets and you might need to be a little bit more circumspect. And when you get the momentum back, then you try and push things a bit because the guys in the lower middle order are the power hitters, so you are trying to help set up a situation for them to play their roles as well.”Hesson suggests in jest that the only way to stop Williamson is to bring in a “Superman 12th fielder”. As we talk, he sets up a mock field to plug Williamson’s favourite scoring areas but notes that the batsman would just take advantage of the gaps that opened up in the process.As New Zealand coach, he has observed Williamson closely for many years, and seen him grow into a leader and the team’s best batsman, roles he is now performing in the IPL too. “For those that have played with him in the last couple of years, it doesn’t come as a surprise,” he says. Last year Williamson played seven IPL matches, scoring 256 runs at a strike rate of 151.47 and an average of 42.66. Hesson says he was a “squad player” then, but now, with his spot secure, he has taken his batting to another level.Williamson in IPL 2018

— This is by far his best T20 year, with nine scores of 50 or more, surpassing 2016, when he made five such scores.

— He has hit 59 fours and 26 sixes this IPL season.

— His Smart Runs contribution is 21.28, fifth best, behind Rishabh Pant (31.86), KL Rahul (26.98), Jos Buttler (24.95), and AB de Villiers (24.78).

— He is joint second on the list of most Man-of-the-Match awards this season, with two, same as team-mate Shikhar Dhawan, and one behind SRH bowler Rashid Khan.

With security, Hesson points out, comes freedom. “It does come with the confidence in knowing what particular role you are going to be playing. He has been able to play so many different roles [as a batsman] throughout this IPL.  He has played on a lot of different surfaces, some pretty ordinary wickets as well, and got the job done. The fact that he has been able to adapt to the conditions and still take his side home is another step up for his development.”He has actually stretched himself a little bit in terms of strokeplay. When the team is chasing a big target, he has often taken that responsibility all on himself. That innings he played against Bangalore was high-quality. And it was still batsmanship and nothing other than that. I think he would have surprised himself a little bit in terms of what he is capable of.”Why is that? “When you play international cricket, there is a lot of responsibility,” Hesson says. “Sometimes you just want to go out and play with some freedom. There are times when you are chasing big scores where you have to play with freedom – those are times you actually find out about yourself.”Williamson has not gone down the road of being cheeky with his strokes; he has stuck to his strengths and his eagle eyes have found gaps that ordinary batsmen would not see, let alone dare target. He has, however, grown bolder as a batsman. “He has grown more confident taking on the boundary fielders because when he plays for New Zealand his role is not that,” Hesson points out. “But he has just done what the team [Sunrisers] has required, and he has taken on the fielders and has been very efficient at doing that.”Helmot says Williamson was not just influential as a captain during the winning run of six matches – he proved to be a catalyst with the bat too. “Kane was the important backbone to our innings. His ability to adapt to certain conditions was important, but also key was his understanding that a 140-150 total was certainly going to be competitive.”Hesson on how to stop Kane Williamson from scoring: “Bring in a Superman 12th fielder”•IDI/Getty ImagesWilliamson’s appointment as captain was a no-brainer once David Warner was barred from playing in the IPL. As New Zealand’s captain, Williamson has the experience and tactical nous, and he showed in the handful of matches he had played for Sunrisers last year that he could hold his place as a specialist batsman. IPL fans will remember seeing Williamson in the role of Warner’s sounding board over the previous two years, with the two frequently talking near the boundary. Helmot says both men are similar as captains despite being different personalities. “Both are impact batsmen. They are different characters but both are strategically clever.”He believes Williamson’s best captaincy attribute is his understanding and ability to read of the game, and his calmness and ability to keep the squad together. “He is a very positive captain. He very much empowers and encourages his players.”Once he arrived in India, Williamson went about cultivating relationships with his players. Helmot says he noticed Williamson would have different players beside him in the team bus at different times, getting to know his team better and understanding them.Williamson says he has always been his own man. Not that he thinks a captain’s personality affects their decision-making. “Whether you are calm, angry, frustrated, or any other different emotions you can feel, at the same time you are trying to achieve the task as a team, which is trying to play best cricket, and when you do that and you utilise the guys you have in the team as best as you can, then hopefully you give yourself the best chance. That is how I like to do things – be me, and I suppose not try and be anybody else. And that is important for everybody – try and be who you are, play your best cricket and make the best decisions you can.”In 2019, when Warner returns, Sunrisers will have a challenge – whether to hand the captaincy back or stick with Williamson. It is a happy headache for the franchise to have. From being a facilitator in the past to Warner, Williamson has moved on to becoming the quiet enforcer.

Together against Bangladesh, Chatara and Jarvis produced a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate parts

Liam Brickhill04-Nov-2018Many of the best fast-bowling double-acts have been built around variation. Wasim and Waqar, Donald and Pollock, Marshall and Garner, Anderson and Broad – their differences are a vital ingredient in their shared success. So after Tendai Chatara and Kyle Jarvis shared five wickets to dent Bangladesh and secure a first-innings lead on the second day in Sylhet, Zimbabwe bowling coach Douglas Hondo settled on exactly the right word to describe his quicks’ complementary relationship: synergy.”They have got synergy,” Hondo said. “They’ve played a long time together. Chatara takes it away, Jarvis a little bit in, so that’s a good mix.”Though Jarvis is two years older, he and Chatara made their first-class debuts within two weeks of each other in 2009. They bowl at similar speeds, though both men started their careers in tearaway mode and had to re-adjust after major injuries, Jarvis to his back while Chatara broke his leg playing football. Both men have had breaks from the international game: Jarvis when he went to Lancashire for four seasons, and Chatara when he was out for more than six months after his horrific leg injury. But that is where their similarities end.Jarvis was always destined for cricket. Born into a famous cricket-playing family – his father Malcolm played five Tests and 12 ODIs for Zimbabwe as a left-arm medium pacer in the 1990s, and would have taken the first wicket by a Zimbabwean in Tests were it not for a dropped catch – he grew up in Harare’s leafy northern suburbs, hanging out with Mitchell Marsh when he lived in Zimbabwe for a time while his father Geoff was coaching the national side.Chatara was born in Dangamvura, a poor, high-density suburb in Mutare, nestled in Zimbabwe’s eastern highlands. He never attended any of Zimbabwe’s main cricket-playing schools, and turned up at his first Under-17 cricket trial wearing basketball sneakers. Indeed, basketball and athletics were Chatara’s primary sports until he was picked for the national Under-19 side.Their bowling actions speak to their contrasting paths into the game: Jarvis bowls with an orthodox action lacking in frills, while Chatara’s action is one of homespun lopsidedness. But together, against Bangladesh, they produced a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate parts.Before this Test, Hondo worked hard with them to alter their lengths to suit the longer format. Where they had tried to keep batsmen on the back foot in the ODIs, to prepare for this game he placed the bowling target mat on a much fuller length, attacking the stumps. Jarvis, in particular, stuck firmly to this tactic virtually throughout his spells, making the batsmen play a high percentage of deliveries, while Chatara – who had also worked on honing his line to left-handers, offered the temptation of a line outside off stump. On game day, the bowling coach’s instructions were: “Just bowl enough balls in the right area to ask enough questions and don’t give up, don’t let up. Just keep bowling in the right areas. The pitch has enough natural variation, the pitch will do enough.”With Bangladesh stuck in one-day mode, batsmen played at deliveries they might easily have left alone, with Imrul Kayes and Mahmudullah playing on and Nazmul Hossain Shanto nicking a distinctly short-format drive against Chatara. Jarvis, meanwhile, had Liton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim caught behind poking at outswingers, having kept the batsmen tied down with a constricting wicket-to-wicket line.”They had a good series in the ODIs, so we knew that they were going to come and play in that one-day mode, which will present us with a lot of chances in the Tests because the field sets will be quite attacking,” Chatara said. “I think they haven’t really adjusted from ODI cricket to playing Tests, where you leave many balls, whereas in ODIs you’ll be looking for scoring shots.””Early on I was just trying to hit a good area, because there’s so much talk about Bangladesh [pitches] being flat,” he added. “So hitting a good area early on, and making the batsman play as much as possible.”Chatara and Jarvis did just that, but Bangladesh’s top order also obliged them with an overly attacking mindset. The end result of that impatience was that, while there are still three days left in the match, the game moved on very swiftly on day two and it is now Zimbabwe who hold an unlikely ascendancy.”It’s Test cricket, sometimes you have to leave some balls, sometimes you have to hold yourself in,” explained Hondo. “There’s five days of play so you have to play accordingly. If you ask enough questions and they’re obliging, things will happen like that. We’re just trying to complement our batters, who took a lot of time at the wicket. So we have to complement them by bowling in the right areas.”Chatara admitted even he was a little surprised by how easily Bangladesh slipped into the seamers’ traps to put Zimbabwe in a good position. “Considering the fact that we won the toss and batted first, we really wanted to bat deep, to tea today,” Chatara said. “With Bangladesh batting before lunch, it actually felt like we gave them too much time to bat today. So I actually thought they were going to bat well. But the way we bowled, we bowled very well to restrict them to the score they had at the end of the day.”

India’s Test No. 3 on emulating Williamson’s T20 game, and the need to play without trying to prove a point

Nagraj Gollapudi21-Feb-2019
How special is this century?
It is special. This was expected because I have done well whenever I have got the opportunity in white-ball cricket. I am not surprised by this century, but I am sure many people are. I knew this one would come at some stage in my career, and this is the right time. I have been really batting well. Good form in Test cricket can help you bat well in shorter formats. It helps you get into good positions, you pick the ball early so I am really happy. Although it came in a defeat, but it was a close game where Railways needed 12 off the last over and they pulled it off.It has been 12 years since you first played in T20 cricket. Clearly your hunger has been as strong it was back then?
I have not played T20 games consistently. At times the wickets have been tough and matches have been low-scoring. But when you play on a good pitch, you can always express yourself. I was confident today (Thursday). I have worked hard over the last few years on my white-ball cricket, adding a few shots. Honestly, it was a flat pitch, which you expect in this format. But when you score a 100 at an international venue it feels good.You mentioned adding a few shots. Did you play the ramp or any such stroke?
Not really. The prime example I could give you is of Kane Williamson. If you look at his T20 batting – he even got an Orange Cap in the IPL (2018) – most of his shots are cricketing shots. That is what I look up to. I like to make runs similarly. If I have to play unorthodox shots, if need be at some stage, then I will work on it if the format requires that. I am not against that, but my success has been with cricketing shots and I will stick to that as long as I can. But if the field is set in such a manner that I need to play the paddle or scoop, I can do it.What are your favorite scoring areas?
I cannot really tell you. Having said that you can’t have a favourite area. You just have to play according to the field. If the third man is up or if the fine leg or square leg are inside, you have to clear them. You cannot just keep scoring as per your strengths. Sometimes you read the situation, read the bowler and bat accordingly. You have to be really open. That is what I learned from AB de Villiers. He plays all the shots and he scores everywhere around the field. Obviously I cannot replicate what he does, but I am also trying to play into the gaps.How much of your T20 batting is instinctive?
It is very much instinctive. The reason is, you need to be really up for it. Sometimes you have to pre-plan strokes. If you see a ball and if you feel like going for it, you just have to go with the momentum. You have to be fearless. Basically, if you have any fear you just have to remove it and start playing your shots. Sometimes you make an error, which is fine in this format, which is accepted. In Test cricket it is not. That is the difference.You did not play many dot balls. Is it okay to leave or defend some balls in T20s?
Very rarely you look to leave or defend the ball. Not at least on a flat pitch. Most of the times you are looking to score. Dot balls are not something you try and play in this format. The format demands you have to look to score at all times.

“If I have to play unorthodox shots, if need be at some stage, then I will work on it if the format requires that. I am not against that, but my success has been with cricketing shots and I will stick to that as long as I can.”

You came into the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after the record-breaking Australia tour and runs in the Ranji Trophy knockouts. How much did that help?
That helped me a lot. If I am able to pick the ball early, I am seeing the ball well. Even in Test cricket, like in Adelaide where I was batting with the tail and had to accelerate, I had to play strokes like the pull, upper cut or go over the top, I was able to do that. It is very tough to do that in Test cricket. But after that when you play against the white ball, which does not swing much, does not spin much, and also travels further, you have a lot of advantage. You can play through the line. Your confidence level is on the higher side. If you can play some shots against the red ball, then (against the white ball) it is a piece of cake.For a batsman, the strike rate is the most important metric in T20 cricket. Yours was 163.93 against Railways. Is that added pressure on you?
It is not about my strike rate, but it is about how the team’s run rate is. You have to play to the situation. You assess the pitch and if you are batting first, you figure what is a good target you want to set as a team. It does not matter (whether you score) nine or ten runs an over.Does this century prove a point in any way – not to anybody in particular – because there is a perception that develops about players?
I agree (on the perception part) and understand your point, but I never play to prove a point to someone else. This innings gives me a lot of confidence. Things will get better from here. Once you can trust your game, once you work on something and it pays off, then you know this is a method you can follow.You played through the innings. Did you opt to open?
Yes. It gives me enough time, especially in this format, I can score runs with cricketing shots. This is where (in the top order) most of the good players who have played all three formats have batted – Kane Williamson, Virat [Kohli], Mike Hussey. You always need one player who can play cricketing shots, which gives you more results.You played in the IPL for five seasons from 2010-14 with three sides (Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab). However, in the last few years you have entered the IPL auction and gone unsold. Why do you keep putting your name in every year?
I think twice for sure (gone unsold). I put my name in because somewhere down the line I am very confident about playing white ball, whether it is ODI or T20. If I am not picked, I am not picked. But with such results, if I can carry on like this, people will start noticing. Even franchises might take notice. If I am still not picked I will carry on doing things I am doing. I don’t want to change anyone’s perceptions.

He was instrumental in the formation of the PCA, and did much else for cricket and cricketers besides, in a life lived well

George Dobell17-May-2019If the only thing Fred Rumsey had achieved was the formation of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, he could look back on his life with pride and satisfaction.Lots of players can recount tales of the hardships endured – Rumsey slept in the back of his van for a while as a young player – and the wild nights they enjoyed along the way. Rumsey is certainly no exception there; this book contains plenty of both. But not many bother to go back to help the wounded.Perhaps no single episode in the game’s history has achieved more in protecting and enhancing players’ abilities to make a living from the sport than the formation of the PCA. Improved pay and conditions, improved freedom of movement, improved insurance cover and improved representation and advice are just some of the benefits. Most concessions were won in the face of stiff opposition. You could make a pretty decent case to include Rumsey among the most influential figures in the history of the game. Every cricketer who has followed owes him plenty.The inspiration for the union, he reveals in this entertaining and enlightening book, was the poor-quality food served to players at Somerset. During the summer of 1966, when the players realised they were sharing their lunches with “every known caterpillar, fly and bug imaginable”, a boycott was organised. They sent their 12th man to the chip shop rather than congregating “in the indoor cricket shed” as was expected. Almost immediately, the club was embarrassed into improving the situation, and within weeks Rumsey was working on the formation of a more formal organisation. In time others, notably Jack Bannister, stepped in to help. But the early steps of the journey were taken by Rumsey alone.With the game undergoing great changes, the ground was fertile for the seeds of such an organisation. There were, for example, plans to introduce a new competition on Sunday (it was to become the Sunday League), but no plans to pay players more for their involvement. Meanwhile, players had no salary out of season and an income below not just other professional sportsmen but the national average. Combined with the lack of insurance cover – one injury could leave them on the scrap heap – it was leaving players in desperate situations.”I had been told the rate of suicide in cricket was quite high,” Rumsey, who experienced his own moments of something approaching despair, writes, “and I could understand that, as sportsmen grow old twice: the first time when they find they cannot play the game as well as they could and again in the normal run of things.”Given all he has seen and done, Rumsey’s words still demand respect. So when he gently but firmly reminds the current PCA executives – who have been accused by some of falling into line with the ECB rather too readily of late – of their role and responsibilities, it may well pay to listen. “It is now the PCA must be strong,” Rumsey writes, “making sure they fully represent the players’ view in every aspect of the game. After all, that is why they have been elected. I do not believe the game requires major changes; certainly not Fred Karno-style one-day games played in clown suits. If the ECB, who appear to have lost their way, really want to promote the game, get it back on terrestrial television before it is too late.”He comes back to the subject later. “There appears to be a misguided belief among the current organisers of first-class cricket that the greater income they can achieve, the greater the job they have done for the game. Wrong. By selling out to Sky Television in 2006, with their limited coverage in England and Wales, they have certainly obtained more income, but at what cost? According to an ECB survey in 2014, participation in the sport had dropped by 64,000 in that one year and cricket is now hardly mentioned on terrestrial television.” He makes a lot of sense, doesn’t he?But the fact that the formation of the players’ union occupies only one chapter in this book demonstrates Rumsey’s vast and varied experiences in the sport and beyond. A left-arm fast bowler good enough to have played five Tests for England – might he have been the fastest left-arm bowler to have played Test cricket for England since World War Two? – Rumsey was also responsible for the modernisation and commercialism of the sport, the development of public relations at county clubs, and much, much more. The book details his friendship with the anti-apartheid campaigner Donald Woods, his brushes with the South African secret police, his years fund-raising for the Lord’s Taverners, and his relationships with, among others, John Arlott, Eric Morecambe, Colin Milburn and David Gower.Fairfield BooksAnd it’s funny. Warmth, wit and wisdom pour off nearly every page, interspersed with nuggets of insight into the game’s characters and history. Did you know, for example, that as early as 1965, teams were being selected – – by means of a public vote? Or that Rumsey was the first man to sign a limited-overs-only contract? He has clearly been a great innovator, but it is the sense of duty to his fellow man that sticks out. “It seemed to be the thing to do,” is a typical phrase. “Sense of humour, sense of justice” describes him and his book very well.Rumsey is well into his 80s now and recently suffered a period of poor health. But as he reflects on a life well led, he may take comfort from the contribution he has made to the game he loves. There may be someone alive who has done more to improve the plight of their fellow pro, but it’s not immediately obvious who they might be. Rumsey is the epitome of a largely unsung hero.Much the same could be said about Stephen Chalke, the publisher of the book. He retires at the end of this year having run Fairfield Books for more than 20 years. In that period he has lovingly produced 40 high-quality books (he has written 17 of them), that invariably offer insight into not just the game and the characters who have played it, but the society from which they came. In an age where ghosted biographies of 20-year-olds fill the shelves at bookshops, he has provided the antidote: thoughtful, honest accounts that deepen our understanding of the game and the characters who populate it.Cricket has been lucky to have men like Chalke and Rumsey. This book offers the best of both.Sense of Humour, Sense of Justice
Fred Rumsey
Fairfield Books
256 pages, £16

Of the last 20 games played in the tournament, 16 have been won by the team batting first and that trend might well continue in the semi-finals and final

S Rajesh08-Jul-2019India’s seven-wicket win against Sri Lanka at Headingley ended a sequence of seven straight games in this World Cup that had been won by the side batting first. It was the second such sequence of the tournament: between June 20 and June 25, teams batting first had also won seven in a row. All of this means that of the last 20 games played in the tournament, 16 have been won by the team batting first. The exceptions during this period are: Pakistan’s six-wicket win against New Zealand; South Africa’s nine-wicket win against Sri Lanka; Pakistan’s three-wicket win against Afghanistan; and India’s win on Saturday.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the first three weeks of the tournament, when the weather was quite inclement and the pitches fresher, the numbers were very even – 11 wins for the team batting first and 10 for the team chasing in 21 completed matches. But with the pitches wearing and the weather drying out, batting first seems to have given a definite advantage to teams. In fact, in the entire history of World Cup matches, there has only been one other streak of the chasing teams losing more than six in a row in a single edition: in 1983, when the first seven games all went to the team batting first.The stats in England in the four years leading up to the World Cup were quite the opposite. The pitches were generally flat and excellent for batting, and remained so throughout the 100 overs, giving the chasing team the advantage. Between the last two World Cups, chasing teams had a 32-20 win-loss record in ODIs in England. England were dominant either way, but their record in chases – 20 wins, three losses – was much better than when batting first – 14 wins, six losses.In the World Cup though, the pitches have generally been slower and not as good for batting, resulting in the teams batting second struggling to chase down totals. The run rate for teams batting second has dropped from 6.08 in the four-year period before the World Cup, to 5.47 in the World Cup.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn fact, the 2019 World Cup is turning out to be one of the most skewed, in terms of wins for the teams batting first (27-14). Only once in World Cup history have the teams batting first won more often and that was back in 1987, when they had a 19-8 record. The last three World Cups were, in fact, almost even in terms of win-loss records for teams batting first and teams chasing.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the first half of the current World Cup, the wet weather and fresher pitches meant captains were wary about batting first after winning the toss: out of the first 21 completed games, teams chose to bat only four times after winning the toss. In those games, they had a 2-2 win-loss record. Since then, in the last 20 games, they have batted first 15 times and picked up 12 victories. This year’s overall win-loss record for teams winning the toss and batting is the most skewed among all World Cups.

Year Mat Won Lost W/L ratio2019 19 14 5 2.801987 11 7 4 1.751992 16 10 6 1.672003 28 15 11 1.361983 14 8 6 1.332015 25 13 12 1.08The three remaining matches of World Cup 2019 will be played at Old Trafford, Edgbaston and Lord’s, venues where teams batting first have dominated. Overall in the tournament, they have a 11-2 record; in the second half of the tournament, it improves to 9-1, with the only loss being New Zealand’s defeat against Pakistan at Edgbaston.ESPNcricinfo LtdFresh pitches at all three venues will probably give the chasing teams a better chance in the final week, but if the weather stays clear, teams winning the toss will surely want to bat first. Going by these numbers, the teams chasing will have more than just scoreboard pressure in a knockout game working against them.

Our correspondent goes gaga for the hills, the food and the people of the Caribbean, and briefly becomes a Twitter sensation

Aishwarya Kumar04-Sep-2019August 6
Exactly three years ago I got on an airplane from Washington DC to Florida for my first ESPN assignment – covering India’s first official match in the US, against West Indies. I interviewed MS Dhoni, then India’s captain, and later woke up to messages from friends and family excited on my behalf. And here I am today in Guyana, driving through pelting rain and winding alleyways to cover my first international cricket tour.August 7
“I detect several accents. Where are you from?” the cashier at Oasis Café, a coffee shop in Georgetown, asks me. “Oh I am here for the cricket,” I say. “You just missed the Indian captain and his wife – they were super nice,” she says and shows me a picture she snagged with Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma.She talks about Guyanese spices, her Venezuelan father and Guyanese mother, how much she enjoys selling coffee, and meeting people from all over the world. Of course, I have to buy the tiger teeth pepper – the spiciest pepper grown in Guyana – because as American as I feel, I still have to eat eye-wateringly spicy food to feed my Indian soul.August 8
“How are you?” I ask as I get into Clyde Andrews’ taxi. “You know, I am a content man,” he says. “I am always going to say ‘I am happy’ when you ask me that question.”I ride with Clyde every day of my stay in Guyana. Every morning he turns up outside the inn I am staying in without me having to remind him.After the first ODI is rained out, he picks me up from the Providence Stadium and says, “Let me take you around Georgetown. You have to see this place a little!” We see the president’s house, the parliament, the Supreme Court, the seaside, which is calmer than the backwaters of Kerala, and then to get some legendary fried chicken from a food truck.Clyde, 68, was raised in rural Guyana and I in a semi-urban, rather conservative, part of south India, so we talk about how we always wanted to break free, explore the world, question the rules. He tells me he remarried three weeks ago and talks about his sons from his previous marriage.As if on cue, one of those sons appears in the car in front of us. Clyde honks and we wave at his son as we pass. If he is even mildly confused by the tiny Indian woman waving at him, he makes sure to hide it.The next day, I walk out of the inn at 5.20am, rubbing sleep out of my eyes, headed to the airport. The rain is coming down so hard, it’s difficult to see in front of me. Clyde is there, wearing an orange poncho, holding the door open for me. He is ten minutes early.”Thank you for coming,” I say. “If I tell you I am going to be there, I am going to be there,” he says. “My word means everything to me.”Jewellery store owner Sterling in Trinidad•Aishwarya Kumar/ESPNcricinfo LtdAugust 9
Port-of-Spain is mostly built vertically, up into the hills. The lights on the winding at night make it look from afar like fireflies twinkling in a glass bottle. The hotel I stay in is built into the base of a hill. The lobby is on the highest floor, and to get to the rooms, you take the elevators into the hill. “Here you are, at the upside-down hotel,” the taxi driver announces.I make my way to the restaurant. Commentators Ajay Jadeja, Murali Kartik and Ashish Nehra are there, posing for photos with a group of loud and cheery Indian men who have travelled from India, the US and Canada to watch the series.August 10
To get to Queen’s Park Oval from the Hilton Trinidad, you have to walk down a hilly road and make your way around Queen’s Park Savannah, a gorgeous circular park that separates the stadium from the rest of the city. There’s everyday green and then there’s Port-of-Spain green – which feels like every shade of the colour mixed together and splashed across the terrain.All through my trip, I am taken aback by unprompted nice gestures from people. In Trinidad, a woman jogging on the road stops and asks if I’m going to watch the match. When I say yes, she tells me to take an inner road that will lead me directly to one of the gates. “You’ll bypass the crazy crowd outside,” she says.August 11
I get back from the stadium late at night after the game and in the 15 minutes I’m away from my phone to drink some coconut water and eat dinner, I receive an outrageous number of notifications on Twitter.I’ve become a meme.Kohli posted a selfie with Bhuvneshwar Kumar after the second ODI and there I am behind them in the photo, looking into the distance.”That’s Kumars with Virat,” a friend tweets.

Top win and top bowling from this guy . pic.twitter.com/TX5FkhpTCX

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) August 12, 2019

August 12
Maracas Bay is the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been to. Clouds float over the mountains that enclose the beach, coconut trees arc by the water, and the few makeshift eateries add a splash of bright orange and yellow to the natural shades of blue and green.”Wait, you work for ESPN? So you get to travel the world and watch sport live?” Sterling, the owner of Sterlyn Designer Jewelry, asks. He is a ball of energy, wearing a bright shirt and a big hat. “Can I write this over to you and take your place in this world?”I taste shark for the first time when I try Bake and Shark, a Trinidadian staple in which shark meat is batter-fried and served on flatbread with vegetables and sauces to add to it. I choose freshly cut and seasoned ripe mangoes, garlic sauce, tamarind sauce and Chadon Beni sauce (from the cilantro family).While in Trinidad, I also try “doubles”, the famous local street food, fried discs of dough (like Indian pooris) served with curried chickpeas on top.August 14
I’ve come to the point in my journalism career where I have been around enough famous people to not be flustered in their presence. Sir Vivian Richards is not one of them. Growing up, my mother would tell me stories of Richards. So naturally, whenever I see him in the press box, I ignore him.Then I walk into the elevator in my hotel and come face to face with Viv.”Hey, I saw you in the press box today, how are you doing?” he asks.Words fall out of my mouth before I can process them. “My mom is a huge fan. I have heard so many stories about you. I didn’t want to be weird and bug you, so I didn’t approach you. I hope you’re well. It’s so good to see you.”He’s incredibly sweet. “Oh wow, that’s so nice to hear. Hello to your mom and have a good rest of your day.”After the ODI series, I miss the Antigua Test. I have to return to the US to cover the Aurora Games – an all-women’s sporting festival in Albany – talking to Olympic athletes like Lindsay Whalen, Ashley Wagner and Mirai Nagasu.When in Jamaica, you have to try its most famous dish – jerk chicken•Getty ImagesAugust 29
At the Sabina, I want to speak to Jeff Dujon for a story I’m writing on Jamaican Test cricketers. I ask the ground staff how to find him. They point me to the office staff, who point me towards the club. The club manager dials Dujon’s number on his office phone, and before I know it, I’m having a conversation with the man himself. No emails, no appointments.August 30
More random niceties.When I get in the cab this morning, Olando, my driver, hands me a bag. There are four bottles of water inside. “You’re going to have a long day. It’s very hot outside, so I brought water for you.”Ray Ford, a freelancer, introduces himself and compliments me on the Jamaica story. “It’s rare somebody from the outside gets the essence of a story right,” he says.August 31
Three wickets in three balls. Six out of the seven wickets to fall in the day. Twelve Test matches and five five-wicket hauls. Now that I have had time to process what happened, I can’t believe I got to watch Jasprit Bumrah’s hat-trick live. I got to hear the ball rap the pads, see his sheepish smile, feel Kohli’s emotions as he said, “What a bowler, man.” A special, special day.Olando finds a camera phone in his face while he enjoys his coconut fish curry meal•Aishwarya Kumar/ESPNcricinfo LtdSeptember 1
I want to try Jamaican jerk chicken, so Olando and I set out for Pepperwood, tucked into a gap in a parking lot in Kingston. When we pull into the parking spot, I don’t see anything at first. Then I spy a small gate opening into a green pathway and there it is – a huge counter where meat is being prepped, and wooden tables and chairs surrounded by green ivy. The chicken is juicy, smoky and spicy, and the fried green plantains that come on the side are perfect with it.September 2
I step out of the hotel early to buy a bag of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. I had had a cup at the hotel and it was one of the most exquisite things I’d ever tasted – rich, acidic and nutty but not bitter. I’m the first customer at the Wallenford Coffee Company and walk out with a huge jute bag of medium-roasted whole beans.The Test, and the series, end early on day four. I head out for some local seafood. Olando then takes me to historic Devon House, a Caribbean Victorian house built in the 19th century, for some “I Scream,” which is No. 4 in ‘s list of “Top ten places to eat ice cream in the world”. The Devon Stout, a beer-based ice cream, is bitter, sweet and beer-y.September 3
It’s my last day in the Caribbean, so I pack in as much sightseeing as I can. I head to the Bob Marley Museum and then drive up to the village of Port Royal, the harbour located at the end of the Palisadoes. The village, which was founded by the Spanish in 1518, offers guided history tours and some seafood at Hellshire beach. One last incredibly fresh seafood meal before heading back to the US.

Pakistan’s troubles with the ball down under go back a long time, and it was no different in 2019

Osman Samiuddin and S Rajesh03-Dec-2019It used to be simple. It used to be that Pakistan would go to Australia and it was the batting that would lose them the series, mainly because the top order couldn’t cope with the extra bounce and pace.For the first half of this 20-year run of 14 consecutive Test defeats in Australia, this theory held firm. There were regular sub-300 scores, and a phase across the 1999-00 and 2004-05 tours where Pakistan made 155, 179, 72 and 163 in the span of six innings. There was also Sydney in 2010.In reality, what that body of batting work has done is mask the real problem: it’s the bowling, it’s (almost) always been the bowling. Gradually, over the course of the last three tours, that has become crystal clear. Pakistan’s bowling on the 2016-17 trip was their worst performance collectively. This trip cannot rank far behind and, in some ways, it’s felt even worse.Five numbers from Pakistan’s last 20 years in Australia illustrate, and to a degree explain, just how bad Pakistan’s bowlers have been in Australia and how tough they have found it.