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South Africa received an unexpected hand to give them a shot at saving the Bangalore Test

The Report by Sidharth Monga15-Nov-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Persistent rain kept the pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium under covers on the second day•BCCI

South Africa received an unexpected hand to give them a shot at saving the Bangalore Test. Well it wasn’t entirely unexpected, in that it had been raining in Bangalore leading in to the Test and the cyclonic activity around India’s east coast had promised more rain, but a steady drizzle since morning to wash out the whole of second day’s play was unexpected.That was arguably the first good news for South Africa in the Test series. After they psyched themselves up on a turning surface in Mohali, they lost Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander to injury, and then were bowled out for 214 on the first day after being asked to bat first. The Bangalore pitch was a normal day-one India track, but they managed to lose eight wickets to spin.India, who had knocked off 80 runs on the first evening, were now looking for quick runs to get into lead. They will feel frustrated by the rain, not least because thunderstorms have been predicted for the third and fourth days of the Test too.

Travis Head blitzed the first ton by an Adelaide Strikers batsman to lead his side to a five-wicket win despite needing 51 off the last 18 balls

The Report by Will Macpherson in Adelaide31-Dec-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsTravis Head hammered gave Adelaide Strikers every one of the 56 runs they made in the last three overs•Getty Images

Pantomime season’s arrived in Adelaide. It’s the final day of the year, so let the good times roll. Or the mad times, in this case. A bumper crowd of 46,389 watched on, rabid, riotous and ever so partisan and Strikers batsman Travis Head gave them everything they could want with a blitz so grand that his team romped to a win despite needing 51 off the last three overs. He got every one of those runs himself, and the five more he needed to finish 101 not out off 53 balls.New Year’s eve arrived with a lot of fanfare, including a premature fireworks display, but everything faded into the background and a mighty game of cricket took centre stage. It contained moments of high farce; funky overthrows, dodgy drops, attempted mankads, mystery injuries and plenty of bickering and after all that – as far as the crowd was concerned at least – the good guys prevailed in a thrilling finish with a young hometown hero standing tall.A night of such oddities, surely, was made for Brad Haddin. An injury-enforced reshuffle meant he swapped opener for finisher, coming in at No. 4 and seeing an efficient Sydney Sixers’ innings home, after Michael Lumb and Ed Cowan – making his first appearance of the campaign – got them off to a flyer. But 66 for 0 became 66 for 2 in no time flat.Lumb was his usual mix of legside hoicks, lusty hooks and bunted inside-out drives, and it took a moment of inspiration to remove him. Alex Ross provided it by sprinting 30 yards round the offside fence to dive and intercept an uppish, well-struck drive. A ball later – Adil Rashid’s first – Nic Maddinson was gone too, trapped plumb in front playing a rather odd reverse sweep.Haddin joined Cowan, who ditched his usual orthodoxy with a couple of violent swipes to leg. It was that stroke that brought about his downfall, however, as he was caught at cow corner, and soon enough Rashid – now the competition’s joint highest wicket-taker – had snared Jordan Silk and Ryan Carters too. In a bit to push the scoring rate up, Sixers had lost half their side in the 14th over. They still had 105 on the board though.Former Strikers captain Johan Botha – who was roundly booed and spent the night donning the near permanent scowl of a man wronged – and Haddin saw the innings through, sharing a 71-run stand. Haddin twice slog-swept Rashid for six, and went after Kane Richardson too, while Botha ran hard before finding the boundary four times in the last two overs, including a magnificent slash over point in a fractious final over. The bowler Ben Laughlin and Haddin clashed when the batsman appeared to edge behind but stayed put, and the umpire doubled the home side’s fury by adjudging it a wide.Craig Simmons and Tim Ludeman got the Strikers’ chase off to a brisk start. Simmons belted Jackson Bird’s opening over for three fours, once through point, then either side of square leg. Next over, he sent Ben Dwarshuis high into the stands with a pull. Ludeman was quickly in on the act, taking a pair of boundaries from each of Doug Bollinger and Botha’s opening overs.Simmons fell at the start of the fifth over, skying an attempted slog off Bird. An over later, Mahela Jayawardene was caught behind, and Ludeman soon followed off a top-edge. Brad Hodge wriggled to 17 off 18, including one mighty six, but when the New Year’s fireworks prematurely began, he and Alex Ross fell in quick succession to the impressive Dwarshuis, and the game looked up.Enter Travis Head. He had taken 19 balls to find the fence, but once he biffed both Bird and Botha for sixes, he was a man on the move. Sean Abbott was set to bowl the 18th over, with Strikers still requiring 51 runs and Head 45 off 38. Head sent Abbott for four to long-on, six to deep midwicket, four behind point, then for two enormous legside sixes. Doug Bollinger bowler an impressive 19th over, but Head still managed a monstrous six over extra cover, to go with five other scampered runs. And Abbott, amazingly, was left to bowl the last set with Strikers needing 13 to win.No Adelaide Strikers batsman had ever made a BBL century and Head was 17 short of a maiden T20 ton. The first was a half-volley on leg stump. Six. Slower-ball bouncer. Six. Short again. Slapped. Six. Century. Pandemonium.If 2016 is half as fun as all this, we are in for a treat.

Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the ODI series against England as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury.

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-2016Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the ODI series against England as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury.A call will be taken on Steyn’s availability for the T20s at a later stage, with the aim to have him fit for the Australia T20s in March and the World T20 which follows that.

Kyle Abbott, who suffered a hamstring niggle in the Centurion Test will also miss the first ODI against England with Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada likely to be rested for some of the matches.”They definitely won’t play all five games,” Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach, said. “We will look to bring one or two new fast bowlers in.”That means South Africa are likely to add to their one-day squad, which currently only has Chris Morris as back-up to the bowlers. Wayne Parnell, and Hardus Viljoen, who are playing for the A side in a warm-up match against England on Saturday, could come into contention. Vernon Philander, however, will not.Philander tore ankle ligaments in the warm-ups for the second Test against India in Bangalore in November and has missed seven Tests as a result. He was expected to recover by mid-January but is still “two to three weeks away from competitive cricket”, according to Mohammed Moosajee, South Africa’s team manager . Philander is unlikely to make an international appearance this season.Moosajee is more optimistic about Steyn, even though the exact nature of the shoulder injury, which followed a groin strain, has not been discovered. “All initial scans were clear but when symptoms did not improve, we discovered a reaction in the bone itself,” Moosajee said. ‘This is very rare in fast bowlers as it is usually caused by trauma. We are treating it conservatively because he is a fast bowler and we know we have the World T20 coming up.”Steyn is still receiving treatment in a hyperbaric chamber and is being monitored every two weeks. Moosajee is “confident he will make a full recovery” and that in “six, eight or 10 weeks when he is fit, will be bowling as well as he ever has”. He also emphasised that Steyn’s current niggle is “not career-threatening.”

Pakistan Under-19s notched up their first win of the tri-nation tournament with a convincing 109-run victory against Australia Under-19s in Dubai

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2016
ScorecardPakistan Under-19s notched up their first win of the tri-nation tournament with a convincing 109-run victory against Australia Under-19s in Dubai, as they kept their hopes for a spot in the finals alive. After choosing to bat, Pakistan first posted a total of 311 and then bowled Australia out for 202 in 40.4 overs.Pakistan’s openers – Zeeshan Malik (19) and captain Gauhar Hafeez (36) – put on 63 in 52 balls before both fell in quick succession. Mohammad Umar and Saif Badar both struck fifties, and combined for a 88-run fourth-wicket stand to set up a strong platform. Hasan Khan and Hasan Mohsin provided the acceleration towards the end with brisk cameos, pushing the team over the 300-run mark. Liam Hatcher followed up his five-for in the previous game with four wickets and offspinner Arjun Nair picked up three.Nair got the chase off to a solid start, but wickets fell regularly around him. He compiled a 89-ball 106, an innings that featured 13 fours and three sixes, but no other batsman scored more than 30. Shadab Khan and Arsal Sheikh claimed four wickets apiece to rip through the middle and lower order as Australia were eventually bowled out in the 41st over.

Pakistan crumbled to 83 all out in 17.3 overs – their lowest ever score batting first in T20Is – before Virat Kohli’s 49 led India to an eventually comfortable five-wicket win in Mirpur

The Report by Alagappan Muthu in Mirpur27-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:56

Bazid Khan: Pakistan’s batting a deep-rooted problem

There is a bar for international batsmen and with Pakistan it is never quite certain which way they will push it. There is never a shortage of spectacle when they play and that box was at least ticked in Mirpur. Pakistan crumbled to 83 all out in 17.3 overs – their lowest ever score in T20Is after batting first. There is a bar for international bowlers too and Pakistan have been vaulting over it for years. Mohammad Amir, playing his sixth international limited-overs match in nearly as many years, turned up like he hadn’t missed a beat. He took out Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane for ducks in the first over of the chase, and a low-scoring game that had threatened to be one-sided was given the thrill India-Pakistan cricket is known for. But Virat Kohli’s class and technique prevailed in the end and India held on for a five-wicket win.Rohit, who had stood a class apart on a similarly challenging pitch on Wednesday, was beaten for pace and prodigious inswing before he even had his bearings set. The first ball, a yorker, may well have burned a hole through his boot and crashed into off stump. Amir could not have sounded his warning any clearer or louder but his leg-before appeal was turned down.So he pulled his length back but kept the inswing going. Rohit was rapped on the pads again and this time there was no doubt. Rahane, coming as a late replacement as Shikhar Dhawan rested a niggle, saw a wide down leg before he too could not handle the ball bending back into him at over 140 kph and was trapped in front. Suresh Raina popped a catch to mid-on in Amir’s next over and India were 8 for 3.Kohli persevered amid the carnage, deflecting the memory of an inswinger that nearly had him lbw and an edge that flew over the slip cordon. Both were off Amir’s bowling, but his full quota was all done by the seventh over. After that sensational spell of 4-0-18-3, India gained the breathing room they needed and Kohli’s 49 off 51 balls secured a fifth T20I win in six matches in the lead up to the World T20.As taxing as India’s batsmen had it, it was hard not to think about their bowlers. MS Dhoni had won the toss and handed them first use of a green-tinged pitch. Ashish Nehra began in vintage fashion, moving the ball across the right-hander and getting it to bounce more than expected. A surprised Mohammad Hafeez nicked the fourth ball of the match through to the wicketkeeper.At the other end, Jasprit Bumrah’s natural bustle into the crease had the same effect but he was bringing the ball into the right-handers. Khurram Manzoor’s pads weathered a lot of impact as he came in at No. 3 and played out a maiden over on his T20I debut. Sharjeel Khan was undone by Bumrah’s offcutter in the fourth over and India’s discipline was bearing the sweetest fruit.India’s pacers did most of the damage early on to set up the win•Associated Press

Then it created a spectacular chaos. Shoaib Malik poked a shortish delivery into the covers and took a few steps down, looking for a single. A non-existent one because Kohli had swooped down on the ball with great agility. It made Malik rethink his decision and then change it but it was too late. Manzoor was barely in the frame when the direct hit found the non-striker’s end. To complete the ineptness of that little passage of play from Pakistan, Manzoor had lost his bat in the frantic hurry to turn around and save himself. Seven balls later, Malik chased one outside off from Hardik Pandya and nicked it behind. It was the first of three wickets for a man known more as a batting allrounder.Yuvraj Singh surprisingly came in to bowl the first over of spin, ahead of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. His first ball was angled in at Umar Akmal, who played for turn and was trapped lbw and Pakistan were 35 for 5 in the eighth over.As if to cap a spell of self-destructive batting, there was another silly run-out. Shahid Afridi, whose experience spans nearly 20 years in international cricket, went for an ambitious second run to deep square leg taking on India’s quickest man across the turf and the strongest arm, of Ravindra Jadeja. The pick up was one-handed and the throw was barely a parabola. Like a sniper’s shot, it travelled along a near straight line and ended up a few centimeters away from the stumps and Dhoni made up the distance. Pakistan finished the eighth over at 42 for 6, the lower order just about doubled that. But it just wasn’t enough.

Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain, was farewelled by around 1000 mourners at a funeral service in Auckland that celebrated one of cricket’s greatest talents and fiercest intellects

Daniel Brettig11-Mar-2016Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain, was farewelled by around 1000 mourners at a funeral service in Auckland that celebrated one of cricket’s greatest talents and fiercest intellects.The funeral held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell was broadcast live around New Zealand, and also streamed online. It featured tributes from Crowe’s wife Lorraine Downes, his brother Jeff Crowe, his former international team-mate, Ian Smith, and his school friend David Lyle Morris.In an emotional address, Jeff Crowe remembered the outpouring grief and appreciation for his brother last week in Bangladesh, where he had been serving as an ICC match referee: “It never really dawned on me how deep it all went, what a huge splash he made, what an inspiration he was for so many.”He noted with some awe and puzzlement Crowe’s abilities as a writer. “How did he know how to write a truly clever sentence or paragraph,” he asked. “Then I was reminded by our friend Richard Reid, ‘unlike you Jeff, he actually attended class, and read a book or two’.”Smith recalled being asked in June last year by Crowe to write a eulogy, before witnessing him fight on against cancer to live for another nine months. He spoke of how Crowe first emerged as New Zealand’s leading batsman by battling against ill health, heat and an adverse match situation to save a draw against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1984, and then went on to dominant innings against the West Indies and Australia, dual innings of 188 apiece in 1985.”You know Stockley, that was great indeed,” Crowe had told Smith, his roommate in Brisbane, after Richard Hadlee’s 9 for 52 “but if we don’t capitalise on that, it won’t be the same.” At the 1992 World Cup, Smith said Crowe’s innovations sent cricket’s best brains “into a collective tailspin”. Smith also read a heartfelt message from Allan Border, and summed up by saying that one word epitomised Crowe: “Passion.”Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill, two cricketers Crowe had mentored, delivered video tributes ahead of New Zealand’s looming World Twenty20 campaign in India. Guptill’s words included: “He always saw something in my game, even when I couldn’t.” Taylor spoke of how Crowe’s email had inspired him to make 290 against Australia in Perth last year after a bad match in Brisbane had him questioning his future: “Hogan’s words made me truly believe and have faith again.”His wife Lorraine spoke about Crowe’s final days, about her feelings of grief at his loss, and also about his faith. “Many knew him as a cricketing legend, I knew him only as my soulmate,” she said. “He could be passionate, romantic, and fun. And he could be as cheeky as hell. He was everything I ever dreamed for in a partner.”I recently asked him ‘what is the most important lesson you’ve learned’. He said ‘I have learned many lessons, but the most important of these is to only hold onto the truth, removing all that is untrue and false’. I asked Marty how he wanted to be remembered. He said ‘for being authentic, loving and full of prayer’.”A host of notable cricketing names attended, including a sizeable New Zealand Cricket delegation: the chief executive, David White; the president, Stephen Boock; the board directors Sir Richard Hadlee, Martin Snedden and Geoff Allott, and the selector, Gavin Larsen.Greg Chappell was present as a representative of Cricket Australia, and also as a former foe: he had captained Australia against New Zealand in Crowe’s very first Test match, and his upright technique had been a source of considerable inspiration for Crowe’s own methods.There were many small touches, redolent of Crowe’s eye for detail. The service order was orange, a favourite colour, while his casket was adorned with the image of a butterfly. The funeral began with footage of Crowe’s innings of 142 against England at Lord’s in 1994, his most cherished performance, accompanied by the Pink Floyd instrumental The Great Gig In The Sky.Following the service, current Auckland Grammar students formed a guard of honour, and also delivered a ceremonial Haka. Crowe’s pallbearers included the actor Russell Crowe, and longtime friends Hilton Mexted, David Lyle Morris, Grant Fox, Steve Wilkes and his brother Jeff.

Liam Livingstone arrived at the crease at the end of the first over of the day and spent much of the rest of it – either side of a three-and-a-half hour delay for rain – compiling an unbeaten 108 from 152 balls

Alan Gardner at Taunton02-May-2016
ScorecardLiam Livingstone raises his bat after scoring his maiden hundred•Getty Images

This time last year, Liam Livingstone made headlines around the world after smashing 350 off 138 balls in a club match for Nantwich. At the time, he had not played for Lancashire’s first team and it was only a couple of weeks ago that he was deemed ready for a first-class debut; now he has a maiden first-class hundred to his name and, if it won’t quite make the national news, it will be warmly received back at Old Trafford, as well as in his home county of Cumbria.Batting down at No. 7, Livingstone arrived at the crease at the end of the first over of the day and spent much of the rest of it – either side of a three-and-a-half hour delay for rain – compiling an unbeaten 108 from 152 balls. It was a crisp, invigorating knock that helped pierce the gloom in Taunton, eventually allowing Lancashire to declare their first innings in evening sunlight and have a few overs at Somerset before the close.There might yet come a time when Lancashire supporters greet reports of a substantial middle-order contribution with the response: “Livingstone, I presume?” This was the 22-year-old’s second first-class innings and, having scored 70 on debut against Nottinghamshire a fortnight ago, his average stands at 178.00. He is collecting some big numbers.With a cover drive that practically left scorch marks on the already furrowed Taunton outfield, there looks to be much to recommend Livingstone’s game – albeit this was not the most challenging of surfaces to bat on. As Livingstone approached his milestone, one Somerset supporter in the new Pavilion Stand could be heard bemoaning “This pitch is dead!” in the manner of someone discussing the future prospects of a Norwegian Blue.Lancashire had involved Livingstone in limited-overs cricket – he played every match of their title-winning NatWest T20 Blast campaign last season – and he has expressed a desire to make an impression across all formats this year. He spent the winter playing in Perth, where he worked on his legspin with Australia’s Brad Hogg, though it might be a while before he has to fall back on his second string given current form. There were also sessions with Justin Langer’s former batting mentor, Neil “Noddy” Holder; here it was the Somerset bowlers who were slayed.Livingstone’s other notable episode in 2015 was to be cut by a glass during a bar-room altercation after Lancashire’s Blast quarter-final win over Kent. There was nothing remotely controversial about this innings, aside from a few Pietersen-esque whips to leg as he advanced down the pitch. He went to 97 with a mighty six off Jack Leach, before nudging a couple to reach his hundred in the following over, to loud applause from the visiting balcony.Lancashire must now buckle down to the task of taking 20 wickets if they are to force a result over the next two days. Whether you consider this sort of contest attritional or nutritional, it is going to require some fibre from the bowlers to break the game open after 34 overs were lost to rain.At one point, it looked as if the demands on Somerset’s attack would be even greater, with Jamie Overton gingerly walking off after completing his fourth over of the day. However, the arrival of several heavy showers – which gave Somerset’s new drainage a good test – allowed him time to recover, although his luck did not improve as Kyle Jarvis joined forces with Livingstone during an 80-run stand for the ninth wicket.Despite another demur showing, the surface initially appeared to be a little racier – the Ann Summers in Taunton proclaimed this to be “Spank Holiday Monday”, after all – and Tim Groenewald had Alex Davies caught behind flirting outside off stump in the first over of the morning.Lancashire avoided any further peccadillos in the first hour. After one run had been scored from 32 balls, Livingstone stroked Craig Overton through the covers to bring up the Lancashire 300, though progress remained on the steady side and no further batting points were accrued. Livingstone’s second boundary was less controlled, a thick outside edge flying wide of the slips, while from the other end Groenewald got one delivery to rear sharply at Croft.Both batsmen were content to be watchful and wait for their rewards to come, an approach that looked likely to bear fruit as Chris Rogers again wasted little time in bringing on his spinner. Leach was given no opportunity to settle, however, as his second over was pumped for 17, with Croft and Livingstone taking it in turns to cart him beyond the ropes.Leach was swiftly replaced by Somerset’s back-up left-arm spinner, Roelof van der Merwe, whose flatter, quicker delivery accounted for Croft, caught behind trying to cut six runs short of his century. Lancashire’s captain punched his bat as he walked off, in frustration at missing out, but Livingstone would not make the same mistake.

Graeme Welch has resigned as Derbyshire’s elite performance director just hours before the start of the NatWest T20 Blast match against Leicestershire

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jun-2016Graeme Welch has resigned as Derbyshire’s elite performance director just hours before the start of the NatWest T20 Blast match against Leicestershire.Derbyshire are currently second from bottom in Division Two of the County Championship – the position they finished in 2015 – with two defeats and five draws, the most recent result being a 10-wicket loss to Sussex at Hove. In the early stages of the Blast they have won one and lost one.”I have decided to resign as elite performance director. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at the club and learned so much,” Welch, who was appointed in January 2014, said in a brief statement. “I would particularly like to thank the chairman and board for their support over the last few years and I wish them all the best for the future.”The chairman, Chris Grant, said: “Over the last two and a half years, we have seen a number of players develop under Graeme’s guidance. We have also seen a clear increase in the levels of professionalism and work ethic within the club.”Whilst on-field results have been disappointing, Graeme leaves the club with stronger foundations in place. The board would like to thank Graeme for his contribution and we wish him every success in the future.”The club said elite performance coach John Sadler will take charge of coaching affairs supported by four-day captain Billy Godleman and limited-overs captain Wes Durston.

MS Dhoni unleashed his attacking avatar to thump Axar Patel for back-to-back sixes as Rising Pune Supergiants pipped Kings XI Punjab by four wickets in Visakhapatnam

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu21-May-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:40

Nannes: Dhoni’s batting in last over was bizarre

This wasn’t the deadest of dead rubbers. Two knocked-out teams – Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings XI Punjab – were desperate not to finish at the bottom of the pile. It ultimately boiled down to 12 off the last two balls, with MS Dhoni, the fading star, facing off against Axar Patel, the rising star. Dhoni unleashed his attacking avatar to bring back memories of his heyday; his back-to-back sixes over midwicket delivered Supergiants a sensational four-wicket win in Visakhapatnam.The final over began with Supergiants needing 23. M Vijay’s key men in the end overs – Mohit Sharma and Sandeep Sharma – had bowled out. Axar was in the hot seat. Dhoni may have struggled for timing and power throughout the season, but this wasn’t beyond him.He flatly refused a single after mis-hitting the first ball – a short fizzer – to deep midwicket. The next ball – a wide bouncer down leg side – was well stopped by Wriddhiman Saha. The second legitimate ball was fired too full and Dhoni’s responded with a mighty club over long-on. The next one was darted short and wide outside off as Dhoni slapped it to sweeper cover, where Hashim Amla dived full-length to his left to save a certain boundary. Dhoni, in anticipation of a four, was unmoved and Supergiants missed out on two runs. It was clear he backed himself to finish it off.Axar then sent down a short ball outside off, which Dhoni flat-batted over cover for a one-bounce four to reduce the equation down to 12 off two. The Supergiants captain sealed it with twin sixes and finished with 64 not out off 32 balls. He later said it could have been the “kind of game the team wanted to win to get into the knockouts.”Dhoni had joined Thisara Perera in the 14th over after Supergiants were reduced to 86 for 5 in a chase of 173. Perera was the first to tee off with three boundaries off fast bowler Kyle Abbott in the 16th over. Then, when Sandeep missed his yorker by an inch of two, Dhoni smeared two off-side fours in the 18th over to bring the equation down to 29 off 12 balls.A ball later, Thisara swung wildly only to nick Mohit behind. Dhoni carved the third ball away for four, but Mohit hit back to give away only one run off the next three balls – a cutter and two pinpoint yorkers. As it turned out, Mohit’s variety wasn’t enough as Kings XI were left to rue what could have been, considering how well they started with the ball.The seamers stuck to disciplined lines and lengths and subdued Ajinkya Rahane and Usman Khawaja. Gurkeerat Singh Maan reaped the rewards with his handy offspin when he dismissed Saurabh Tiwary and Khawaja in the 12th over.Gurkeerat’s role wasn’t just to bottle up the runs with the ball. Earlier, he had brought up his maiden IPL half-century, which included three fours and three sixes. His 58-run stand for the third wicket with Vijay helped lay the platform for Kings XI’s eventual total of 172 for 7.While Vijay took his time early on, Amla did the early running with three whipped fours, including two in the first over off Irfan Pathan. Vijay shifted gears when he slammed seamer Deepak Chahar for successive boundaries in the fifth over. Amla brought up Kings XI’s first fifty-plus opening stand in the last seven matches with a lofted cover drive for six.The subsequent introduction of spin, however, applied the brakes on the innings. While R Ashwin claimed 4 for 34, his best IPL figures, Adam Zampa enhanced his growing reputation with 1 for 32. He got the ball to turn, bounce, and dip, even as Vijay completed his fourth half-century in eight games as Kings XI captain.A slog to a straighter one from Ashwin bowled Vijay by the 16th over. Kings XI then plundered 48 off the last four overs, but they were left with the wooden spoon for the second successive season.

Coaxing Zimbabwe’s batsmen out of their comfort zones is foremost in the mind of their batting coach Lance Klusener as he looks to prepare them for their two-Test series against New Zealand

Firdose Moonda11-Jul-2016Coaxing Zimbabwe’s batsmen out of their comfort zones is foremost in the mind of their batting coach Lance Klusener as he looks to prepare them for their two-Test series against New Zealand. Klusener is currently back home in South Africa but will join up with the Zimbabwean squad later this month and hopes to see the senior members of the line-up step up.”It’s about whether they really want to challenge themselves and get better or if they are happy to just bumble along; it’s about coming out of comfort zones,” Klusener told ESPNcricinfo. “They can achieve better if they put themselves out there more. Obviously the more you put yourself out, the more risk there is, so there is also that balance [is needed] but I think they are getting there.”The reluctance to bat aggressively is something former Zimbabwe coach Alan Butcher alluded to in his book in which he recalled an incident with a senior Zimbabwean batsman who described his role as being to “make sure I don’t lose my wicket” rather than to score runs. More recently, the effects of that conservatism have begun to bleed into performance.In last month’s limited-overs series against India, Zimbabwe were bowled out for totals under 200 in all three ODIs and only scored more than 150 once. Vusi Sibanda was the only Zimbabwean batsman to score a half-century in the ODIs. They punched a little harder in the first T20, where they notched up 170 for 6 thanks largely to Elton Chigumbura’s 26-ball 54, but their other scores of 99 for 9 and 135 for 6 could not sustain that momentum.Still, Klusener was heartened to see the improvement as the series progressed. “It was good to see them take the last T20 close,” Klusener said, referring to a three-run defeat which cost Zimbabwe the series. “The one thing with Zimbabwe is that you can always expect a fight. They now that if they fight and they lose, that’s okay.”At the same time he is concerned about a lack of depth that sees the same names crop up as the country’s main performers. “They have a small pool of players and so they have to make the best of what they’ve got. It’s one of their challenges and they want to try and fix it, but whether they can do that from the top down is another story.”One of the ways of grooming more players for higher honours are tours like the ongoing one between South Africa A and Zimbabwe A, in which some of Zimbabwe’s fringe players have an opportunity to prove themselves. Opening batsman Brain Chari made full use of his and scored 98 in his first outing in the series. It’s players that like who Klusener is hoping to work with and teach the no-fear mentality.Klusener has someone to help him in that approach: Makhaya Ntini. Although Ntini has not been confirmed as permanent coach after he was promoted to the interim role for the India series, it is expected Ntini will continue to be in charge for the New Zealand series. Ntini remained in Zimbabwe after the India series and has been working with the players throughout.Klusener believes Ntini is making a difference and it won’t take long for it to show. “Makhaya is energetic and passionate and adds value. He has been very good for Zimbabwe. He trains with the guys. He gets to know them. He doesn’t lack for ideas and between us – we are a team – we have a lot of ideas. It’s just about getting the guys to buy into the ideas we have.”Klusener will be back in Zimbabwe to resume that process towards the ends of July. He will work with the team during the two Tests before heading to the Tamil Nadu Premier League in India, where he is coaching the Lyca Kovai Kings. He expects to be back in Zimbabwe when they play again towards the end of 2016.