Mahela Jayawardene, who reached the 10,000-run landmark in ODIs, may not have the best stats but his class and quality have been evident in big matches

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan18-Nov-2011Since the 1996 World Cup triumph, Sri Lanka have been one of the most consistent ODI teams reaching one World Cup semi-final and two more finals. They owe much of their success in the format to an array of outstanding fast-scoring batsmen starting with Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya. In the last decade, Sri Lanka’s batting stats have been dominated by the classy Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Jayawardene, who today became the second Sri Lanka batsman after Jayasuriya and the ninth overall to cross 10,000 runs in ODIs, is also Sri Lanka’s highest run-getter in Tests. After making his debut in 1998, Jayawardene has played much of his career in the middle order. Although he has continued to average in the mid thirties, a recent resurgence in form in the last two years has seen his average rise to around 45 since the beginning of 2010.A comparison of the six Sri Lanka batsmen to cross 7000 runs is an interesting exercise. Jayasuriya and de Silva were extremely attacking players who came to the fore in the 1996 World Cup. Both of them scored their runs at a fast clip with Jayasuriya in particular boasting a strike rate in excess of 90. Marvan Atapattu, who opened the innings with Jayasuriya for much of his career, was the ideal foil to the aggressive left-hander. Atapattu, who has the second-highest average among the players in the 7000-run group, had a low strike rate of just over 67. Jayawardene and Sangakkara, who have been the core batsmen in the Sri Lankan line-up for the last six years, also have averages in a similar range with the former having a slightly higher strike rate.

Jayawardene averages nearly 57 in the last two World Cups, but this masks the horror shows in the 1999 and 2003 tournaments. In those two World Cups, Jayawardene scored just 123 runs in 11 innings and hit rock bottom in the 2003 World Cup when he managed just 21 runs in seven innings. However, in the 2007 World Cup, he demonstrated excellent consistency and scored a brilliant match-winning century in the semi-final against New Zealand. In the 2011 tournament that was played in the subcontinent, Jayawardene produced a masterly display in the final against India but Sri Lanka were unable to defend a competitive score. Overall, in global tournaments, Jayawardene averages higher than he has in bilateral series. In the Australian tri series, he has been below par scoring just one century in 36 matches at an average under 34. On a whole though, his performances in tournament semi-finals and finals have generally been good with an average of 39.19 with two centuries and eight half-centuries.

Jayawardene, predominantly a middle-order batsman, has opened the innings ten times performing particularly well. As an opener, he has scored more than 600 runs at an average of 61.80 with three centuries. His strike rate of 93.49 is also well above his career mark of 77.68. In the early part of his career, he played in the lower middle order (No. 5-8) and struggled with his average hovering around the 25 mark. However, Jayawardene has proved to be most prolific at No.4. He has batted 178 times at No.4 scoring nearly 60% of his career runs at an average of 35.88 with seven centuries and 41 fifties.

Like most Sri Lanka batsmen, Jayawardene has found the going tough in matches played outside home. While he averages just 31.80 in ODIs in Australia, his struggles have been exemplified in South Africa and New Zealand where he has averaged 21.52 and 17.45 respectively. He has done well in India and Sri Lanka scoring seven of his 15 centuries in the two countries. Surprisingly, Jayawardene has found the going tough in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe too averaging just 31.40 and 18.08. However, he has tasted success in matches in England where he averages 43.80 with three centuries.

Although Jayawardene is one of only nine batsmen to amass 10,000 runs in ODIs, his average is not on par with most others in the group. Sachin Tendulkar, who is far ahead of all batsmen in terms of runs and centuries, has an even distribution of centuries and a comparable average home and away. Ricky Ponting, the second-highest run-getter, has an excellent average of 44.13 in away games. Inzamam-ul-Haq’s home and away numbers indicate a very large disparity. While he averages 56.80 at home, he has managed only 36.86 in away matches. His centuries-to-fifties ratio is also very low (10:83) as compared to most others in the group. Jayawardene, in contrast to the others, averages just over 35 in home matches and 32.64 in away matches. His strike rate at No.4 (76.34) is marginally better than the overall strike rate for that position in ODIs since 2000 (75.41).*

Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have not played Test cricket for a combined total of 85 months between them, requiring both sides to make mental adjustments to cope with the demands of the game’s longest format

Firdose Moonda in Harare06-Aug-2011After three days of absorbing Test cricket, it’s difficult to believe that these teams have, between them, not played this format for 85 months. Assisted by a pitch that has been good for batting but not torturous for the bowlers, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have tussled through nine competitive sessions, leaving the cynics with little to complain about.The transition may have looked seamless but just like a duck coasting along a lake, there is a lot more going on under the surface to ensure the bird stays afloat. So far, neither side has had to resort to frantic paddling, which may yet come, but they have paid careful attention to making small adjustments, most of them in the mind.”Our batsmen worked really hard to discover the mindset required to bat for long periods,” Zimbabwe coach Alan Butcher told ESPNcricinfo. “They’ve played a lot of four-day cricket but it’s not the same pressure or intensity.”Zimbabwe’s top four showed remarkable maturity in their first innings, playing watchfully and unhurriedly despite it being their first Test innings in almost six years. Although they were assisted by inconsistent Bangladesh bowling, their judgement of when to leave and when to play stood out as one of the features of their innings.However, their late collapse in the first innings raised questions about their resilience and ability to negotiate pockets of pressure that the bowlers created even though the bulk of their wickets fell because of poor shot selection, with Tinotenda Mawoyo, Vusi Sibanda and Brendan Taylor all chasing wide deliveries “In Test cricket, you have to make the opposition bowl you out, and we haven’t done that,” Butcher said.He thinks the amount of one-day cricket Zimbabwe have played at international level may have had some impact on the way the batsmen approach certain situations. “You take more chances in one-day cricket and there’s the opportunity to play more shots because you are required to score at a higher rate,” he said. “Sometimes we have had poor shot selection because of that in this Test.”If Zimbabwe were disappointed by the way they gave wickets away, Bangladesh will be furious, because they are guilty of it to a much greater degree. Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim’s needless pulls saw them caught on the legside while Mohammad Ashraful and Shakib Al Hasan played nothing shots to balls they could have dealt with differently. Stuart Law said both were unhappy with the way they got out but wouldn’t dwell too much on why they opted for those strokes, instead acknowledging that their contributions were vital to a batting line-up that has had to adjust on two fronts for this match.”The big thing for us is that we are playing in a different part of the world that we don’t play in that often and that requires a different technique,” he said. “With a bit more grass on the wicket, batsmen need to have sharp footwork and some of our left-handers haven’t had that.”Bangladesh had little time to familiarise themselves with conditions, arriving in the country the day before a practice match, which they lost. They played at the Academy in Harare on a tricky pitch which Law said “went up and down and everywhere” and that would only have served to put doubts in their minds about the track they would have to play the Test on.Bangladesh, as a unit, have been known to get demoralised quickly and have been seen as mentally weak by other sides. On tour, the short ball has been a major factor in their submission to other teams.Law believes they are making leaps in overcoming those stereotypical weaknesses. “There has definitely been a mental adjustment,” he said. “We are better prepared to play the short ball. In the past, I think people prepared as though they were going to play on the subcontinent and it’s nice to have a net where you are middling the ball, but you also have to get out of your comfort zone and face a few bouncers. It won’t happen overnight, but some of our batsman played the short ball well. Someone like Ash [Ashraful] showed it today, he showed great application and a lot of patience.”

“I think people prepared as though they were going to play on the subcontinent and it’s nice to have a net where you are middling the ball, but you also have to get out of your comfort zone and face a few bouncers”

Ashraful looked well set for a century and will be mad at himself for giving his wicket away when he was well set. Law was not one to lambast him though. “We have to give the kid a break, he played a poor shot, but others also did,” Law said. “Without his 73, we would have been in trouble but now we are in this contest, we are not dead and buried.”Law also identified Bangladesh captain Shakib as one of the players who “adjusts better to different conditions, because he has a “simple game.” With a captain who can see the bigger picture instead of getting himself and his team into a flap when a small thing goes wrong, Law thinks Bangladesh are gearing up for a more competitive period in international cricket, especially with Shakib having been part of the leaning process that came with their previous defeats. “If you lose games of cricket and you don’t learn from it, there is something wrong, but this team has learnt and they know that we have to stand up and fight, if we are backed into a corner that’s what we must do. The guys are already talking about chasing 280 or 300.”Bangladesh aren’t the only ones talking about going for the kill. Zimbabwe also have plans for a target they think they will be able to defend and it is somewhere in the same region. Winning their comeback Test would put them firmly on the road to recovery and will ensure they would exceed expectations, especially in terms of this format, for now. “There wouldn’t have been many people who would have thought that I could sit here being disappointed about some aspects in what has been a good performance so far,” Butcher said. “They didn’t expect us to make the transition so fast,” he said. “But now that that we’ve done that, we’ve got greedy and we want to do more.”

Bangladesh cricket had reason to rejoice for their biggest worry, the batting, was their strength on the day

Mohammad Isam17-Mar-2012After Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah were mobbed by team-mates and staff on their way to the dressing room after completing the five-wicket win over India, there was a small discussion about a lap of honour as they neared the viewing area. Somebody within the huddle, made entirely of the playing XI, thought it was not necessary and they all headed indoors.The result was finally sinking in as the players went out for the presentation ceremony. Shafiul Islam was walking gingerly with his right arm in a sling but enjoying the moment as much as the rest. Everyone was smiling. Mashrafe Mortaza was gesturing at his family in the grandstand, a beaming Jahurul Islam was speaking to an elderly journalist, Tamim Iqbal was urging a close friend to come and hug him, while Nasir Hossain was quipping that since he hadn’t danced in a long time, this was a good time to shake a leg.Bangladesh cricket had reason to rejoice for their biggest worry, the batting, was their strength on the day. Tamim and Jahurul added 113 runs for the second wicket, a solid foundation for a stiff target. Even after they fell in the space five overs, there was Nasir to support Shakib, and later Mushfiqur. They played innings that changed the game and won it for Bangladesh.”It was the team’s win. Four or five players have to perform for us to win and that’s exactly what happened,” Shakib said after the game. “We have to increase the number of contributors from one or two to four or five regularly. If we can improve these small things, we can get much better in the days to come.”We have to win games regularly and not occasionally. Then everyone will rate us properly. If we don’t win, we are not counted. If we can win big games, our playing quality will improve.”Mushfiqur credited his bowlers for performing during a crucial phase in the first innings, when they did not let India get away to an insurmountable total. “If Raj [Abdur Razzak] and Mashrafe didn’t bowl so well at that stage and conceded another 20 runs, we were gone. But hats off to them,” Mushfiqur said. “It might not sound too big for others but it was important for us. 300 to 320 would have been difficult to chase for us.”Despite the bowlers keeping calm at the death, especially with MS Dhoni posing a threat, the real test was going to be the batting. But Tamim fired for the second game in a row, Jahurul found peace at the crease, while Nasir got another opportunity to win a game for his country. Before Nasir holed out with the game almost won, Shakib and Mushfiqur had found hitting easy because of his presence at the other end.Sachin Tendulkar also had some kind words for Bangladesh’s young cricketers. “I feel it is a good team, an underrated team,” Tendulkar said. “People still talk of Bangladesh as if they don’t know how to play cricket. They have a good side; even against Pakistan the match got close. So that is proof of them being a better side.”They’ve played international cricket for quite some time now; not that they just started. They’ve got some good players. I felt Shakib changed the momentum.”

The hosts failed to keep the pressure on South Africa after claiming an early wicket and that’s something they’ll look to rectify on the second day

Firdose Moonda at Basin Reserve23-Mar-2012Just as a pile of bricks stacked up on the side of the road will not materialise into a house, wickets will not fall simply because conditions suit bowlers. New Zealand’s attack found that out the hard way, after their captain put South Africa in expecting better results.The new-ball pair extracted decent movement before giving way to an array of loose deliveries, forcing Ross Taylor to bring on Daniel Vettori in the 14th over. It was only after tea interval that New Zealand applied more aggressive lines and lengths, which brought them the wicket of Hashim Amla and something to pin their hopes on ahead of the second morning.All three matches in this series have prompted the captain who won the toss to take to the field first. In Dunedin, it was overcast skies that did it, in Hamilton, green tinges on the pitch and in Wellington a combination of the two. Wellington has been the only venue where the bowling side has not returned satisfied, despite conditions being as favourable for bowlers if not more.If there is one thing New Zealand’s attack could have learned from Vernon Philander, it’s that bowlers cannot go wrong by attacking the off-stump channel. When there is a hint of swing as well, you can only go right. Chris Martin got it right when he squared Graeme Smith up with a delivery that seamed away in the third over and just missed the leading edge. Doug Bracewell did the same with away movement to Alviro Petersen that had the opener uncertain as it almost took the outside edge.Instead of persisting with that approach, they soon veered onto all sorts of others, particularly after making an early breakthrough and seeing Smith depart cheaply. They were too full and too short but perhaps most concerning, too straight to an off-side heavy field which allowed Hashim Amla to play with the finesse he enjoys and Petersen to settle after early nerves.Vettori’s damage control was needed far earlier than Taylor would have planned. Still, he continued to employ positive captaincy and brought on Martin again once Vettori had pulled things back a touch but his only success was hitting Amla in the nether regions. Amla bubbled under throughout the series and looked in good nick without pushing on as far as he often does. This time, it seemed New Zealand would let him. They gave him the freedom of the Basin Reserve, with too many balls that could be caressed to the boundary.”We missed our lengths early on so it was just a matter of more consistency with the ball and our body language could have been bit better,” Doug Bracewell admitted. “More aggression was called for, in our lines and lengths and just being harder on ourselves. We were little bit loose early on and they got away.”Without saying it explicitly, Bracewell hinted New Zealand thought the pitch and conditions would do some of the work for them. They were also a little taken aback when they found it had less in it than they bargained for. “We thought it would move around little more,” he said. “There’s not a lot movement sideways but there’s enough if you bend your back and get bit out of it.”At tea, that’s exactly what they were told to do. Damien Wright meted out harsh words this time. “He said [we] need be harder on ourselves. He said it wasn’t really good enough in that first session. [John] Wrighty also had a few words about body language and staying in the fight.” New Zealand lost their way after the early wicket and John Wright’s advice to keep themselves in the game may well have related to that.Gillespie returned with more pace and a better plan, to hold the length back and entice Amla into the pull. It took just five deliveries for it to work. Both he and Bracewell applied the same strategy to Duminy, for whom Taylor kept a deep square leg. “Duminy hasn’t played much cricket for couple weeks and may still be in one-day mode. He is the sort of player who comes at you hard. We thought if get a couple up him he might go for it,” Bracewell said.New Zealand’s seamers ended the day with “seven good overs,” Bracewell said. They forced a little more from the South African batsmen, making them take a few more risks than they had to earlier. Just as Duminy began to get comfortable, bad light took the players off the field and will gave New Zealand time to consider how they will sustain their attack, instead of allowing pressure to be released again.Russell Domingo, South Africa’s assistant coach said his camp was encouraged by the bounce in the track but New Zealand will still have to work hard to extract it. With the string northerly set to make its way into Wellington on the second day, they will have an additional challenge to deal with as well.

But how about a little more imagination when composing team anthems?

Nikhil Jha08-May-2012Choice of game
It was blockbuster night at Kotla, with the top two teams facing off. I have been lucky enough to watch all but two of Delhi’s home matches, a consistent run matching Virender Sehwag’s streak of half-centuries. But with Kevin Pietersen, the man behind Delhi’s resurrection, gone, I had a sneaky feeling Kolkata would win.Team supported
This IPL has been strange, in the sense that I have found it very difficult to associate myself with a team. The geographical proximity v favourite-players conundrum is a tough one to crack. That said, the Daredevils have not got their due in the past editions of the IPL and I would like them to go all the way this season.Key performer
Jacques Kallis has been surprisingly subdued this IPL, and it was time he came to the fore. The Daredevils were off to a great start, with their explosive openers, David Warner and Sehwag, racing away to a 40-run partnership inside four overs. Enter Kallis, who removed both in his first two overs. The Daredevils never really recovered from that jolt.Kallis also batted calmly at Gautam Gambhir’s dismissal and prevented the middle-order collapse that the Kolkata Knight Riders have been so prone to over the seasons.One thing you’d have changed about the day
I would have sent a chartered flight to get KP back to Kotla for the match. But if I could have had changed something on the field, I would have loved for Sehwag to carry his form and score his sixth successive half-century in a row.Face-off I relished
I really wanted to witness Lee v Sehwag, but Warner played (and missed) most of his early spell, leaving Sehwag with just one ball to negotiate.Narine, the spin sensation, against the Daredevils batsmen was another face-off I enjoyed watching. They just could not score off him, which re-affirmed his tag of the mystery bowler.Wow moment
I may be a bit biased here, but Varun Aaron, my hometown lad, features in the moment of the match for me. Brought into the attack to break the Knight Riders’ ominous opening partnership, he celebrated almost immediately as Gambhir skied one to Umesh Yadav… only to be dropped. Aaron took matters into his own hands then, bowling Gambhir off the next ball.It did not have a big impact on the result, but I was really happy for Aaron who bowled an economical spell and could have had another wicket had Irfan Pathan not dropped a simple catch that reprieved his brother, Yusuf.Shot of the day
Brendon McCullum, who wears the #42 jersey, had the answer to life, the universe and winning last night for the Knight Riders. In the 15th over, by Morne Morkel, McCullum displayed the disdain that is so characteristic of his batting. Morkel dug one short, and McCullum, anticipating it, clobbered a powerful pull to the square-leg boundary.Close encounter
For the entire Daredevils innings, Brett Lee fielded below the 1st tier stand where we were sitting. He is one of the most popular cricketers, and that showed in the way crowd were shouting and cheering for him. He acknowledged intermittently with a smile and a wave.Crowd meter
The big match and an 8pm start brought in a lot of supporters to the ground. The vocal support, however, wasn’t as loud as in the past few matches. The only time the stadium came alive was when Umesh Yadav was on a hat-trick. A lot of Knight Riders’ fans were also present, sporting confident smiles that grew into grins as the match drew to a close.Entertainment
The music was the same old stuff, except that the local band that performed in the earlier matches seemed to be absent.One a side note, on the day Rabindranath Tagore, one of the greatest poets, was born, it was appalling to hear the official song of the Knight Riders, who also belong to his city. Tagore fans will cringe at the mention of him and the IPL in the same sentence, but the point I am trying to make is that the city of creativity should come with something better than: “We’re hot, we’re cool, we’re Kolkata, we rule”.Twenty20 v ODIs
In our generation that feeds on products providing instant gratification, Twenty20s score over ODIs.Star-spotting
It was a Knight Riders match so I think a lot of spectators had come to spot stars. The king of Bollywood, Shak Rukh Khan, was in the house, and he did not make any effort to hide the fact. He paraded near the boundary ropes, waving at the screaming fans, and at times the match seemed like a backdrop for this frenzy. My view of the game was repeatedly blocked when the others rushed to the front every time Shah Rukh was visible to our stand.Overall
The Daredevils’ start had ignited hopes of it being another high-scoring encounter, but the batting faltered in the middle overs and changed the course of the match. The Knight Riders’ batting was as solid as usual, and local boy Gambhir gave his hometown fans little to cheer as he set about scripting a comfortable chase. The quality of cricket was top-notch, if we discount a couple of dropped catches by the Daredevils.Marks on 10
8. It was an easy victory for the Knight Riders. A closer match would have fetched more points.

A hit so hard, the batsmen just kept running – a true story from the Aboriginal tour of England in 1868

Ashley Mallett12-Aug-2012Sporting long hair and a slinging action, Twopenny was the Lasith Malinga of the 1868 Australian cricket team. But that year it had been just four since the lawmakers allowed a bowler to operate with his bowling arm at a height above the shoulder.Twopenny was a fast round-armer but his greatest claim to fame on the 1868 England tour was with the bat not the ball. It wasn’t the number of runs he hit, for that was a lightweight 589, at an average of 8.29. He was a terrific hitter, but the kind of lower-order batsman who hit across the line – much like, I suppose, the way Doug Walters a hundred years later tried to hit medium-pacer Norm Graham into orbit against Kent in Canterbury in August 1968: with a round-house agricultural swipe that was described the next day in the newspaper as a “wild village-yahoo” slog.Twopenny’s fame came from his exploits with the bat in the match against Sheffield at Bramall Lane over August 10 and 11, when he achieved a feat that eluded WG Grace, Don Bradman, Ricky Ponting or Sachin Tendulkar. In his score of 22, Twopenny hit a ball so high and so far that he completed nine runs before the ball was returned to the wicket. That is, an all-run (no overthrows to swell the tally) nine.A keen witness was present to record the event for posterity in the form of the cricket correspondent for the :

“Twopenny made the sensational hit of the match, accomplishing a feat that has no parallel on Bramall Lane, and we should say on no other ground, and Mr Foster, who was well up, did not offer for some time to go for the ball, and when started it was at a slow pace, the result being that nine was run for the hit amidst vociferous cheering.”

Poor Mr Foster. Short of being built like a 104-year-old elephant with lumbago, he must have been very slow in his fielding efforts indeed. Little did he know how the enthusiastic Aboriginals struggled in their judgement of a run, and that in the 47 matches they suffered 60 run-outs in all.The Aboriginal players were given sobriquets because their pastoral landlords back in Australia could not pronounce their tribal names. This is the popular theory, although there is a condescending tone to some of the nicknames. In any case, cricket scorers were relieved that instead of Murrumgunarrimin, the player was called Twopenny; Brimbunyah was Redcap; Unaarrimin was Johnny Mullagh; Pripumuarraman was Charley Dumas.Twopenny played 46 of the possible 47 matches, but team captain Charles Lawrence was reluctant to bowl him for any decent spells until late in the tour. When he did bowl, Twopenny collected 35 wickets at 6.9, off just 704 balls – a strike rate of a wicket every 20.11 balls. Against East Hampshire, he proved a sensation, with match figures of 15 for 16 (9 for 9 and 6 for 7). Lawrence’s reluctance to bowl Twopenny early on the tour was due to his fear that his fast bowler might be called for throwing. His fear was unfounded – Twopenny’s action had never been queried in Australia – and when he did get to bowl in England, critics marvelled at his skill and applauded his performances.All the Aboriginal players were expert in throwing a boomerang or spear or both, or wielding a stock whip. Dumas was the team’s star boomerang man. He brought 15 of his best boomerangs with him to England and blew the crowd away at The Oval with his throwing: he made a boomerang soar the entire length of the ground, past the famous gas holders and back to a position where the ancient aeronautical marvel gyrated “obediently” for its master and landed gently between his feet.A few years ago Twopenny’s boomerang turned up at an auction house. There was some doubt about its authenticity but on the back were autographs of some county players who played against the 1868 Aboriginal tourists.Mosquito was an expert at the stock whip; Dick a Dick was the veritable Artful Dodger of the group, due to his amazing ability to dodge cricket balls hurled at him from ten paces; Johnny Cuzens, whose action was catapult-like in the Jeff Thomson mould, could run like the wind; and Redcap nailed a squirrel scampering up a tree at Mote Park with the deadly accuracy of Viv Richards throwing down the wicket in the field.Twopenny (standing, first from right) was a fast bowler but marked his presence on the tour of England with his lower-order hittingThe 1868 Australian team won 14, lost 14 and drew 19 of their matches in England in 1868. This was Australia’s first international sporting tour of England, and the team delighted crowds with their cricket, athletic prowess and throwing of spears and boomerangs.Mullagh excelled with bat and ball, hitting 1698 runs at 23.65 and taking 245 wickets at 10. At the other end of the scale was Sundown, a specialist batsman who played only two matches and scored one run. It was the only run Sundown ever scored in any match, either in Australia or in England. He must have been the original hero of the legend: “In the first innings he made one and in the second he was not quite so successful.”Back in Australia, Twopenny played one first-class match for New South Wales against Victoria in the summer of 1869-70. He was the first man of Aboriginal descent to play top cricket, but his one game produced just eight runs in two completed innings and figures of 0 for 56 off 30 fruitless overs.However, his all-run nine on the 1868 tour is a batting record that will stand forever.

Dropped catches, missed run-outs and cheap dismissals – England are currently only No. 1 at hurting themselves

George Dobell at West End28-Aug-2012Like a sprinter running with an anvil in their pocket, England made life unnecessarily hard for themselves in the second ODI against South Africa.As if winning was not hard enough against a team that are now rated No. 1 in all three formats of the game – the first time any side as achieved such dominance – England made it considerably harder with a display so full of self-inflicted injuries that all scissors and sharp objects should be removed from the dressing room immediately.If England learn one thing from the summer of 2012, it will surely be that they cannot be so generous towards Hashim Amla. For all his elegance, class and range of strokes, Amla has been helped by some remarkably profligate cricket from England throughout this tour. He was, after all, dropped during the Oval Test before he had reached 50 on his way to a match-winning triple-century, and at Lord’s before he had made 10 on his way to a match-winning century. He is too good to be allowed to bat twice every innings.Here Amla might have been run out for 1 had Samit Patel picked up and thrown cleanly. He might have been given out lbw for 37 had England utilised the DRS. He might have been caught on 42 – a simple chance – and on 92 – a far more difficult one – had Craig Kieswetter performed better with the gloves. Give Amla four or five lives and he will thrash any side.With Matt Prior and Jonny Bairstow pressing hard for his position, Kieswetter could ill-afford such a poor performance. It extended beyond his catching, too, as England also squandered an opportunity to utilise the DRS. Reviews showed that Amla would have given out had England called for a review from a delivery from Samit Patel that pitched in-line and would have hit the stumps. When they did utilise their one review, against JP Duminy, the ball had pitched well outside leg stump. It has to be Kieswetter’s judgement, as much as the bowler’s or the captain’s, at fault in such situations. He is the one man in the perfect position to make an informed decision and, in this game at least, he failed to do so.Perhaps England’s biggest self-inflicted injury came in their selection of the squad. England’s best player, in the form of his life, was absent. Not just absent, but absent making 163 runs on a pitch on which none of his Surrey team-mates could pass 34. Kevin Pietersen may be belligerent, egocentric and infuriating, but he is England’s best player in all formats and they could have done with him in Southampton.Pietersen has apologised for his transgressions, he has made himself available and he would, on merit, walk into the England side. The ECB, through their intransigence and unforgiving attitude, are in danger of damaging the English game just as much as the player. England may console themselves with the thought that current team is united and will stick together. But so do lemmings and sheep. Unity is not, in all circumstances, such an overwhelmingly positive characteristic.There were other opportunities. Had Alastair Cook’s throw been better, Dean Elgar might have been run out on 12. Had James Anderson’s throw been better, Amla might have been run out on 62 and had Kieswetter not behaved like a man with an allergy to cricket balls, AB de Villiers might have been caught off Tim Bresnan for 1. But England’s fielding, so impressive won they won the Ashes and the World Twenty20, has become consistently fallible of late. Worryingly, they appear to have few answers as to why that might be.”It’s so frustrating,” Cook, England’s ODI captain, said afterwards. “You watch us practise – we practise incredibly hard – and no chances go down. Nothing has changed in the last two years in terms of what we do in our fielding practises but, in the last month-and-a-half we’ve started to drop very good players. And very good players punish us. If you want to compete with the best, you can’t do that and Amla has made us pay again.”

“It’s more frustrating when you set high standards and you don’t come anywhere near that. We didn’t play very well”England captain Alastair Cook

Cook was admirably frank in his assessment of his side’s performance. He accepted that they had underperformed in all areas and, though he admitted the batsmen had been forced to chase a total some way above par on a slow, low pitch offering substantial assistance to spin bowlers, he picked out the batsmen for fault after some “soft dismissals”. Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan, who both slapped long-hops to fielders, and Kieswetter, who played horribly across the turning ball in a manner that bodes ill for his chances on the subcontinent, were particularly culpable.”You can blame the soft dismissals with the bat, and we were sloppy in the field,” Cook said. “We bowled well for some of it and for some of it we didn’t. So you can say all of those things. It’s almost more frustrating when you set high standards and you don’t come anywhere near that. It was not one of our best days. We didn’t play very well. If you’re going to chase 280, someone in the top four or five needs to get a hundred. Twenties and forties aren’t going to win you the game.”Losing against a side as good as South Africa is no disgrace. Until this match, England had won their last ten completed ODIs and were top of the ICC rankings. That run of success was bound to came to halt at some stage and most dispassionate observers always accepted that their No. 1 ODI status flattered them a little. England are also only 1-0 down in the series with three games to play.”This result doesn’t change anything,” Cook said. “It’s frustrating. It’s annoying as a captain and all the players will be hurting. But you don’t throw everything out of the window because of one bad performance. It was a surprise when we got the No. 1 status and today just shows how much work we still have to do.”Cook knows, however, that this game featured a catalogue of errors – with the bat, with the ball but most of all in the field – that will undermine any opportunity to gain a foothold in this series. England’s biggest challenge is to cut out the self-inflicted injuries that have become worryingly ubiquitous of late.

Rob Quiney initially made his name for Victoria as a short-form striker. Now, he has evolved into a Test No. 3

Brydon Coverdale05-Nov-2012Nearly four years ago, Rob Quiney learnt just how fleeting some opportunities can be. At 26, he was called into Australia’s Twenty20 squad for a one-off match against New Zealand when Michael Clarke was injured. Quiney didn’t make the starting line-up and quickly faded back into domestic cricket, having come tantalisingly close to representing his country. Few people would have predicted back then that his first match for Australia would be in the baggy green.Like many young batsmen who emerged in state cricket in the early days of Twenty20, Quiney made his name in the shortest format. His call-up for Australia came after he blasted 91 from 56 balls in the 2008-09 Big Bash final. Within a few months he had an IPL contract with the Rajasthan Royals. A T20 deal with Auckland followed in 2010. In the longer format his record remained modest, but as a tall man with a powerful front-foot repertoire he was seemingly made for Twenty20.Now, he is preparing to walk out at No.3 for Australia in a Test match at the Gabba, where he will face Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander, the world’s best red-ball pace attack. It is no place for a T20 slogger. But over the past two seasons, Quiney has shown that he is much more than that. In 2010-11, he compiled 724 Sheffield Shield runs at 42.58, second only to Mark Cosgrove, and last summer, he topped the Shield run tally with 938 at 49.36.”My last two years have been my most consistent,” Quiney said in Brisbane on Monday, barely an hour after learning he would make his Test debut this week. “I knew there might have been a little window of 12 or 18 months where I could try to get my foot in. I’ve needed to continue to make runs. I’ve never given up. If anything [my desire] has probably grown stronger because beforehand I may not have believed that I could make it to this level.”For a time, Quiney wasn’t even convinced he belonged in Victoria’s Sheffield Shield line-up. When he was emerging, the state had an impressive batting roster that featured Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Cameron White and Andrew McDonald. His first century – incidentally, scored on an early-season Gabba pitch – didn’t arrive until his 15th first-class match. By the time he had played 30 first-class games he had managed only two hundreds.”It’s been a slow-burn and an education,” Quiney’s state coach Greg Shipperd told ESPNcricinfo of Quiney’s progression. “If you come in through the shorter forms of the game it does take a while to click, to manage the way you go about your business in four-day cricket. You need some technique and you need the ability to apply your technique and make good decisions for longer periods of time. For somebody who hits the ball so freely and so very well, it’s been a work in progress.”I think it was about establishing a technique to deal with the new ball and making that as pure as he can. Right now, he’s at the best technically that I’ve seen him. He’s very organised and with the last two years under his belt, he’s quite confident he can balance that defensive and attacking side of his personality and his game.”Back-foot play was something he worked on. You need to be able to play a back-foot defensive stroke on bouncy wickets. What that does is it also opens it up for you to be an even more free-scoring player because you bring into play the cut shot, the pull shot, the work off the hip – they’re all shots that he’s now quite adept and comfortable at playing. He was a very powerful front-foot player but once he’s added the ability to go back and change the length of the bowler and give himself more time.”The more rounded 2012 version of Quiney was on display at the SCG on Friday, when he handled Steyn and Philander with impressive poise. To watch Quiney in the longer format these days, it is clear that he has become a mature batsman, comfortable with his game, and that he knows he belongs there. A lack of self-belief might have been an issue early in his career, but the quiet confidence Quiney has developed was one of the factors that attracted the selectors.

‘You can’t blood a youngster against a team like South Africa. We want a guy who is very confident in his ability, a guy who knows his game backwards, and a guy that has got a little bit of experience. That gave Rob the nod.’Mickey Arthur on Rob Quiney

“I wouldn’t want to disrespect any nation, but against a nation like South Africa right now, and we’d probably do the same against England and India, you want an experienced head to come in,” Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur said. “It’s not a case of blooding a youngster. You can’t blood a youngster against a team like South Africa. We want a guy who is very confident in his ability, a guy who knows his game backwards, and a guy that has got a little bit of experience. That gave Rob the nod.”Then there’s also Quiney’s Gabba form. Two of his seven first-class centuries have come at the venue, where he averages 42.10. In one-day cricket, his record there is even more impressive – one hundred and two fifties out of four innings. It’s no coincidence that the Gabba is a ground where the fast bowlers do the bulk of the work.”He’s never been a player who has baulked from the speed contest,” Shipperd said. “If anything, the challenge for him has been to learn what his plan is to spin. He’s made some great strides with that over the last couple of seasons. Improvement has followed him on the back of some really strong focus and hard work.”All of which has led him to the point where he will become Australia’s 429th Test cricketer on Friday. And as unlikely as it seemed four years ago, a man who will own a baggy green but not a T20 international cap.

A century for Lahiru Thirimanne in Adelaide was the latest evidence of a welcome regeneration in Sri Lanka’s batting

Daniel Brettig14-Jan-2013Some images stick more readily in the mind than others. Among this summer’s most indelible sights have been an exhausted and exasperated Peter Siddle on his haunches in Adelaide, Ricky Ponting bowing graciously to the WACA ground at the end of his Test career, and Michael Hussey barely able to contain his glee when carried from the SCG by Siddle and Mitchell Johnson at the conclusion of his.To these may now be added an embrace by two young Sri Lankan cricketers upon the completion of the visitors’ eight-wicket hiding of Australia at Adelaide Oval. Lahiru Thirimanne and Kushal Perera completed the task with panache and professionalism, but their spontaneous outburst of joy upon reaching the target demonstrated how much it meant to take their team to a first win of the tour.Thirimanne had the additional pleasure of reaching a century with the winning boundary, and his fluency on a pitch no batsman found easy to negotiate was the latest episode in the most promising subplot of Sri Lanka’s visit down under.As Australia shuffle their players strenuously while looking ahead to future assignments, it is arguable that the stronger signs of regeneration are evident on the opposing side. Quietly, but notably, Sri Lanka’s batting is showing evidence of new and genuine growth, of the kind that has eluded the nation’s cricket team for a generation.At the start of the tour, familiar concerns were raised about the fragility of the talent beneath Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. They were raised in pitch at the moment Sangakkara’s hand was shattered by Johnson at the MCG. But following the contributions of a trio of young batsmen over the Sydney Test and so far in the ODI series, those voices of doubt are losing their edge.None of Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne are entirely new faces. All had played for their country before this tour, with varying degrees of success. In Chandimal’s case it has been a source of curiosity for some time why he had not yet been granted a more permanent place in the Test team; his composure at the crease and with the gloves when replacing the injured Sangakkara in Sydney certainly indicated a sate of readiness. Karunaratne is the more recent addition to the national squad, and he emerged from the Test series having learned plenty of lessons, putting them into practice with a refined 85 at the SCG.In terms of international exposure, Thirimanne is somewhere in between the other two, having made his Test debut in England in 2011 and his ODI bow the year before. In and out of the national team ever since, he only joined this tour as a reinforcement after the string of injuries suffered during an ignominious defeat in Melbourne. Nonetheless, the Australians had reason to respect Thirimanne even before his flight landed in Sydney ahead of the third Test.His first encounter with them had been in a tour match when Michael Clarke’s team visited Sri Lanka before the 2011-12 summer, and a doughty second innings century at P Sara Oval demonstrated a neat technique and collected temperament that appeared likely to serve him well in the future. A Test match appearance later on the same tour was less notable, but even then Thirimanne showed a capacity to stick to the crease, seeing off 79 deliveries before Siddle pierced his defence on the 80th.Runs at home are a great thing for any batsman, but to make them overseas in unfamiliar climes is to suggest that there is enough vitality and resourcefulness within to succeed anywhere. Thirimanne knew this when he shrugged off jetlag while walking to the centre of the SCG, and against an Australian pace attack hungry for a rapid conclusion to the series his 91 ensured the tourists would stay afloat for far longer than they had managed in Melbourne. A source of frustration to Thirimanne for its conclusion before a century was reached, that innings was to be doubly unfulfilling when Australia ultimately pressed on to inflict a five-wicket defeat.

Thirmanne’s strokeplay is considered rather than limited, for he is able to manoeuvre the ball to most parts of the ground, and at times can unfurl a drive to please those who have watched plenty of similar shots by his seniors

All that was in Thirimanne’s mind when he set about chasing a paltry target in Adelaide. He walked to the wicket at the fall of Upul Tharanga – who increasingly carries the haunted air of a talent unfulfilled – in the first over of the pursuit, but aided by a composed Tillakaratne Dilshan set about closing in on the required runs. Thirmanne’s strokeplay is considered rather than limited, for he is able to manoeuvre the ball to most parts of the ground, and at times can unfurl a drive to please those who have watched plenty of similar shots by his seniors. Most importantly he seems to have found the ability to adjust his batting to the circumstances, and now possesses most gears on the continuum from stonewall to sprint.Dilshan’s departure, 34 runs short, moved Jayawardene to send in Perera, who quickly showed his own shotmaking talent with a six swung to square leg and a coruscating drive to the cover fence from a nonplussed Xavier Doherty. But he reined himself in from there to allow Thirimanne a chance to make the century that eluded him in Sydney. “Sydney Test, after the match I thought I could have got a century,” Thirmanne said afterwards. “So that was in my mind when I was 90, so I tried to keep my head still and play along the ground. After that Kushal helped me a lot to score the hundred.”Having levelled the series, Perera and Thirimanne savoured the victory with real feeling, for it had been as hard earned as it was deserved. The Sri Lankan win in Adelaide may prove to be a key moment on this tour. Moreover, this tour may prove a turning point in Sri Lankan batting. In Thirimanne, Chandimal and Karunaratne, there is plenty of reason to hope.

Stats highlights from day one of the second Australia v South Africa Test in Adelaide

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan22-Nov-2012

• Australia’s score of 482 is the second-highest number of runs scored on the first day of a Test match – the highest is 494, also by Australia against South Africa, way back in 1910 at the SCG. The most runs scored by one team in a day’s play is 509, by Sri Lanka against Bangladesh in 2002 – those runs, though, were scored on the second day of the Test. The record number of runs scored in a single day’s play is 588, on the second day of a Test between England and India in 1936 – England scored 398 of those runs, while India contributed 190. This is the second time that Australia have scored more than 400 on the first day’s play in Adelaide. The previous time they achieved the feat was against India in 2003-04, when India went on to win by four wickets.
• Michael Clarke became the only player to make four 200-plus scores in a single calendar year. He had previously shared the record with Don Bradman and Ricky Ponting. Among batsmen with 1000-plus runs in home Tests in a calendar year, Clarke has the highest average (359). Only Ashwell Prince and Bradman have a higher average in a single year in home Tests. Clarke, who has another two Tests to play this year, has an average of 140.55, which is the second-highest for a single year (1000-plus runs in a year) behind Garry Sobers’ average of 144.66.
• Clarke’s century is his 21st in 85 Tests. He is now eighth on the list of Australian batsmen with the most Test hundreds. Clarke’s average of 66.48 is the second-highest for an Australian batsman in home Tests (min 3000 runs). Clarke’s double-century is also his fourth as a captain – only Brian Lara (five double-centuries) has more 200-plus scores as captain.
• Clarke became the third player after Bradman and Wally Hammond to register two double-century scores in a series twice. Bradman is the only batsman to make three such scores in a series.
• Clarke’s strike rate of 92.18 during his knock is his highest for a 100-plus score. His top two knocks in terms of strike rate have come against South Africa.
• David Warner’s century is his third in 11 Tests. His previous centuries came against New Zealand (Hobart) and India (Perth). Warner is the third Australian batsman after Adam Gilchrist and Mitchell Johnson to score a century against South Africa at a strike rate greater than 100 (Tests since South Africa’s readmission).
• Michael Hussey, who came into the series with just one century against South Africa, scored his second century in two Tests. It is also his 18th century overall and his second in Adelaide after the 133 against West Indies in 2005.
• The number of sixes hit so far in the innings (9) is joint-third on the list of innings with the most sixes for Australia. In Johannesburg in 2002, Australia hit 11 sixes in their innings win.
• The 272-run stand between Clarke and Hussey is the highest fifth-wicket stand in Adelaide. It is also the seventh-highest fifth-wicket stand for Australia overall. For the 19th time overall, and the third time this year, Australia had century partnerships for the fourth and fifth wickets. The previous two efforts came against India (Sydney) and South Africa (Brisbane).
• The combined run-rate for the fourth and fifth-wicket partnerships (5.78) is the highest in Tests since 1990 surpassing the previous best of 5.22 for England against West Indies in 2004 (min aggregate 200 runs).
• Imran Tahir went for 159 runs off his 21 overs. His economy rate (7.57) is the highest ever for a bowler in a Test innings (min 20 overs bowled). The number of runs conceded by Tahir (159) is the second-highest in an innings for a South Africa bowler against Australia (since 1991).