All posts by h716a5.icu

Stats highlights from the fifth ODI between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Dunedin

Bishen Jeswant23-Jan-2015170 Luke Ronchi’s score was the highest by a batsman at No. 7 or lower in ODIs. The previous best was MS Dhoni’s 139 not out, for Asia XI against Africa XI in 2007. Ronchi also made the fourth best score for New Zealand in ODIs.2 Number of wicketkeepers with higher scores than Ronchi in ODIs – MS Dhoni (183) in 2005 and Adam Gilchrist (172) in 2004.3 Number of previous instances of two batsmen scoring centuries in the same innings when batting at No. 5 or below, before Ronchi and Grant Elliott in this game. The last time it happened was when Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan scored hundreds for England against Ireland in 2013.360 New Zealand’s total was their highest in ODIs against a top-eight team. New Zealand have made five bigger scores in ODIs, three against Zimbabwe and one each against Ireland and Canada.267 The partnership between Elliott and Ronchi for New Zealand’s sixth wicket, their highest for any wicket against a top-eight team. It was also the highest stand against a top-eight team for the third wicket or below, as well as a world record for the sixth wicket.35 Elliott’s age, making him the second oldest New Zealand batsman to score an ODI hundred after Bev Congdon, who was 37 when he scored one against England in Wellington in 1975.11 Number of hundreds in ODI chases by Tillakaratne Dilshan, the most by a Sri Lankan and the third most by any batsman. Dilshan scored 116 in this game, his 11th hundred in a chase, going past Sanath Jayasuriya (10) and equaling Chris Gayle (11). The only batsmen who have more hundreds are Virat Kohli (14) and Sachin Tendulkar (17).3 Number of times Nuwan Kulasekara has taken a wicket with the first ball of an ODI. He had Martin Guptill caught behind with the first ball of this match. Guptill is only the second New Zealand batsman to be dismissed off the first ball of an ODI since 2001. The other batsman was Mathew Sinclair, against India, in Sri Lanka in 2001.172 Ronchi’s strike rate during his innings of 170 off 99 balls, the second highest for a 150-plus score. Only Shane Watson has a better strike for a 150-plus score, when he scored 185* off 96 balls, at a strike rate of 193 against Bangladesh in 2011.

A top-heavy line-up means that whenever Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner fail to get going, the team is often forced to rely on their bowlers to defend below-par totals

Arun Venugopal17-Apr-2015In their maiden IPL season in 2013, Sunrisers Hyderabad found a way to win games by flaunting their bowling strength in made-to-order conditions at home. Their formula was simple: score at least in the region of 130, and choke the opponents on Hyderabad’s slow and low surface, or bowl first and restrict them to around 130, and chase them down slowly but surely. Sunrisers have won 11 out of 16 games when they have made sub-140 scores. No other team has managed more than five such wins.This formula didn’t work as effectively last year owing to a combination of factors. With the first half of the tournament being played in the UAE, some of the home advantage was negated. Also, the Hyderabad wicket produced more runs than it had the previous season. Consequently, they dropped two rungs from their fourth-place finish in 2013.The lone constant among the variables has been Sunrisers’ lightness in the batting department. At 7.49, their run-rate is the lowest among all the teams since 2013. In the 34 matches Sunrisers have played in the period, they have managed only 10 scores in excess of 160. Every other team has done better than them, with Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings topping the list with 20 160-plus scores each.A longstanding problem for Sunrisers is they have never had much batting ammo. Like in the seasons past, their scoring is overly dependent on two or three players with no failsafe in place. Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner, former and present captains of the side, represent the top-heaviness, and are faced with the uneasy paradox of providing a forceful start and yet not risk losing their wickets early in the absence of firepower in the middle order. Their dismissals are invariably followed by sluggish meandering with little end-game explosion.Even accounting for the slowness of the wicket against Rajasthan Royals on Thursday, their early exits effectively stamped out any ambitions of a sizeable total. This was in stark contrast to their successful pursuit of 167 to gun down Royal Challengers Bangalore, where both Warner and Dhawan dictated play to the opposition.It isn’t as if Sunrisers haven’t looked to solve the problem. Their auction strategy was a step in that direction, as they snapped up Kevin Pietersen, Kane Williamson, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara. Unfortunately for them, Pietersen pulled out of the IPL and Bopara, while being a revelation with his seam-bowling, doesn’t launch enough late-order strikes with the bat.Williamson’s is an intriguing case with the management playing him as low as No.6 against Super Kings, pushing him up to three against Royal Challengers and then playing Morgan ahead of him against Rajasthan. Morgan, coming off a disastrous World Cup, took time to bed down on Thursday, and just when he seemed to have gained sufficient confidence to tee off, he perished to Pravin Tambe.What would haunt Sunrisers more is the inability of their domestic batsmen to consistently make big contributions. Hanuma Vihari has been tried in the past without much success. Naman Ojha, while capable of the big hits, has merely flickered while the likes of Ashish Reddy don’t offer sustainable solutions. Only KL Rahul, who has had a memorable run of late in red-ball cricket, displayed his adaptability with an unbeaten 28-ball 44 against Royal Challengers.Sunrisers need Rahul to provide more insurance at the top as much as they need Bopara to crank up his hitting at the back end. More importantly, perhaps, they need to sort out the Morgan-Williamson jigsaw and put in place a settled combination.There has been a lot of chatter on Trent Boult being preferred to Dale Steyn, but Sunrisers have their bowling sorted. It’s the long-suffering batting flank that is crying out for attention. The tournament has just begun, and for Warner & Co., now is as good a time as any to carry out repairs.

Ireland’s new coach John Bracewell was an active presence in north Dublin but the weather prevented him from learning too much

Ger Siggins at Malahide08-May-2015While there is some dispute about how many different Inuit words for snow there are, the Irish certainly have a wide range of descriptions for rain. A “soft day” is one where the rain descends gently and warms the face – but it wasn’t a soft day at Malahide.Gallons were dumped on to the Village ground as a well-signalled Atlantic storm blew into north Dublin. It put paid to the second visit of England to Cricket Ireland’s impressive pop-up stadium after just 18 overs, ruining one of the governing body’s rare chances to secure a payday and the team’s opportunity to play a leading side in an ODI.Ireland complained long and hard at the recent World Cup that they needed more opportunities to play against Full Members. “Only nine games in four years” was the mantra; now 50% of their 2015 home ODI programme has been washed out.The financial hit will have to be taken, again, by the 9000 spectators who bought tickets, although only around half turned up having checked the weather forecast and Cricket Ireland has offered complimentary tickets to future events. Three years ago Australia came to Belfast and the innings ended after 10.4 overs, four balls after the refunds limit had passed. Before play here, a Cricket Ireland official joked that William Porterfield planned to open with two spinners to ensure he got the overs in.It was a disappointing end for all concerned: the quintet of Englishmen making their international debuts; the Irishmen who were hoping to impress their new coach; and the English coach desperately hoping to claim a win, any win.John Bracewell has been a large presence here all week, making himself known to all involved in the Irish game while allowing stand-in coach Pete Johnston the room to prepare his side. Ireland has had a New Zealand coach before, Ken Rutherford holding the reins for 18 months in the early 2000s. His reign was largely forgettable, an ill-prepared amateur side failing to qualify from the ICC Trophy in Canada in 2001. Rutherford got off on the wrong foot, spending part of his first game in charge watching an All Blacks rugby test on TV rather than studying his new charges in the field.Whether or not Bracewell was tempted by the televised Auckland Blues Super 15 game, he was a keen observer of the action at Malahide from the first ball. He stood alone to the left of the sightscreen and took in everything as his team struggled with the early movement on offer to England’s bowlers. In the play possible he will have learnt very little – Ed Joyce is a cool head in a crisis, and Paul Stirling’s running between the wickets needs work, but he will have known that anyway.The expectations on Bracewell are high, with the goal of Ireland ending the 2017 season on the brink of Test cricket the top of the list. World Cup qualifying points would be useful too, although the system that holds out hope for Afghanistan and Ireland to automatically reach the 2019 World Cup is weighted to ensure that does not happen.England, being hosts, have no fears of missing out on that tournament of course, but they know they need to greatly improve their 50-over cricket. They will regret not getting a chance to properly blood the five debutants, although Mark Wood and David Willey each got their first wicket under their belt in their fourth over of ODI cricket.Ireland have now played 17 home ODIs against Full Members since the 2007 World Cup but only five have passed off without any visit from the rain. More than 500 overs were lost in those, with 12 games either abandoned or reduced.A despondent club official sighed as he watched the work of months be washed away, and shrugged as he struggled to work out what more could be done to ensure play. “I suppose we could build a big umbrella,” he grinned.

There are cricketing careers, and then there is that of Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor, who has seen more of the best and worst of cricket than men twice his age

Mike Jakeman08-Jun-2015At the age of 18, Brendan Taylor made his international debut for Zimbabwe. He joined a red-raw team, hit by the withdrawal of 13 of its established white players in a political protest against selection policies and facilities. In his third appearance, Zimbabwe were bowled out for 35, which remains the worst score in ODI history. Just before his 19th birthday Taylor won his first international match, in his 18th game. While still a teenager, he played in a Zimbabwe team that was bowled out twice in a single day by New Zealand. The defeat was so embarrassing that soon after, the national board suspended the team from five-day cricket. Nevertheless, aged 21, he played in the first World Twenty20 and hit 60 from 45 to defeat Australia. He spent his early and mid-20s schlepping around Holland, New Zealand and Bangladesh, looking for club cricket. Often, he made limited-overs cameos for Zimbabwe, but pay and conditions were a lottery.He was 25 when, in 2011, Zimbabwe resumed playing Test cricket. He captained the side on their return, scoring 71 and 105* in a big win over Bangladesh. Later that year, he broke the record for the most runs scored in a three-match ODI series, with 310 against New Zealand. He was named as 12th man in the ICC’s team of the 2015 World Cup, after scoring 433 runs in six innings. At the tournament he announced he was swapping intermittent international cricket for Zimbabwe for the stability of a three-year deal with Nottinghamshire, and moved to England. He is still some months shy of turning 30.While few players have had their careers so dictated by forces beyond their control, fewer still have emerged with their love of the game unbroken. When looking out at the rain drenching the grass of Trent Bridge on a horrible day in early May, Taylor is warm and open, but also fidgety. His fingernails are bitten down, he picks and pulls at his training top. Paradoxically, given how often we hear of the intensity of the calendar wrecking players and the flux of his career so far, the motivation behind Taylor’s move to England is to play more, not less, cricket.”Zimbabwe needs to be playing more cricket”

“The team is still finding its way. There is still a good core of players. Again, if you are playing two Test matches a year and hardly any four-day cricket, you are always going to struggle. In simple terms, Zimbabwe needs to be playing more cricket. And if you look at our schedule from now up until 2019, we have 45 one-dayers. That’s crazy.
You can see why Associate teams are really closing the gap on Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, and even beating West Indies. The ICC is doing great things with Associate teams and it’s no surprise that they are progressing. I think that is good for world cricket and it is a wake-up call for Zimbabwe. I think the best thing that they have ever done is get Alistair Campbell involved as managing director. He is working very closely with our chairman, Wilson Manase. Dav Whatmore is obviously a highly recognised coach and has done really well with a lot of teams and the players are really enjoying working with him. Under that team, I can only see good things for cricket in Zimbabwe, it holds together.”

“I started getting mentally stale in Zimbabwe. I didn’t dislike anyone; I just felt everything was moving very slowly. A couple of years back a few counties expressed some interest, but I was very dedicated to cricket for Zimbabwe. I still am, but I felt that I would better myself as a player by joining Notts. Cricket is about trying to maximise yourself as a player and be as good as you possibly can be. I’ve been saying for a number of years now that Zimbabwe has not been playing enough cricket.” County cricket is already providing a contrast; Taylor was several games into his Notts career before he had time to buy a phone and open a bank account.Taylor’s emphasis on maximising his ability is apt, as his career has been built on self-reliance. As a talented teenager he trained with a Zimbabwe national team that featured senior players such as Heath Streak, Murray Goodwin and the Flowers – Grant and Andy. He hoped for the chance to learn and flourish under their tutelage. Instead, in 2004, the country’s leading white players went on strike, in protest at the Zimbabwe Cricket Union’s attempt to introduce a racial quota to team selection. Taylor was called up and faced a difficult decision: either to take to the field as the sole white man in the team, or strike and risk sabotaging his international career before it had even begun.He spoke to his father, and the pair agreed he would play. “I wasn’t involved with them [the striking players], so I didn’t understand where they were coming from. I was young and I wanted to play for Zimbabwe. There wasn’t any tension between races or colours [in the dressing room]. I was there to play cricket regardless of whether the team had 11 whites or 11 blacks.””I started getting mentally stale in Zimbabwe. I didn’t dislike anyone; I just felt everything was moving very slowly”•Associated PressNevertheless, it was clear to Taylor that the board wished to promote cricket as a black sport; selection “wasn’t a level playing field”. This fact is confirmed by Alan Butcher, who coached the team from 2010-13 and who, even years later, remembers a group that forever “felt they were one game away from being dropped”. Perhaps they were; there were persistent rumours of corruption.In addition to questionable selections, the young team lacked the discipline to succeed at international level, and Taylor said he supported the board’s decision to withdraw the team from Test cricket in 2006. “For me and many others it was very difficult. We found ourselves in situations as batsmen where we might get to 50 against Australia or India, but would then find a way to get out. We never had a senior batsman to bat with or a senior bowler to bowl with, so basically it was sink or swim.”Without the bedrock of the five-day game to anchor tours around, securing fixtures became more and more difficult. “We would start playing cricket, find some momentum, and then we stop playing for three or four months and go back to the nets again. It was an uphill battle, especially when you see the other teams around the world churning out 30-40 ODIs a year, 10-15 Test matches and 10-15 T20s. We were probably playing a tenth of that.”

“It [team meeting] lasted about 20 minutes and I saw 15 pairs of eyes staring into the floor. They weren’t engaged, they weren’t expected to have an opinion”Former Zimbabwe coach Alan Butcher during a tour of the West Indies

The pivotal year for Taylor was 2007. Under the leadership of Robert Mugabe, the government’s economic management deteriorated further. Its printing of money generated hyperinflation and a collapse in the value of the local currency. Zimbabwe Cricket, which hitherto had paid players in US dollars, could no longer afford to do so, and switched to paying in worthless Zimbabwean notes. The livelihoods of the players – like those of everyone else – disappeared almost overnight. Against the board’s wishes, Taylor took the major step of leaving the country in search of games. He wound up playing club cricket for Utrecht, in Holland. The money was nothing special, but the conditions were new and the games were regular. And at the end of that year, he scored that rapid 60 as Zimbabwe chased down 139 to beat Australia at the World Twenty20. For the first time, his name was noted outside of his home country.Nevertheless, there was no quick fix. When Butcher arrived as coach three years later, he found a team down on its luck and out of confidence. He went to a team meeting during a tour of the Caribbean and was not impressed. “It lasted about 20 minutes and I saw 15 pairs of eyes staring into the floor,” Butcher said. “They weren’t engaged, they weren’t expected to have an opinion. They were just talked at for 20 minutes by the coaches.” Nor was Taylor flourishing. “He didn’t cover himself in glory on our first trip, as he missed a training session after a night out. He was undisciplined, not a very good professional.”During the player boycott of 2004, newbie Brendan Taylor was the sole white player in the XI but there was no race tension in the dressing room•Getty ImagesYet the new regime soon had an effect. Taylor credits Butcher with creating the best conditions that the team had experienced, and he began to make some runs. Games were arranged against Australia A and South Africa A, and in 2011, Zimbabwe played its first Test match in six years. Despite the board’s preference for a black captain, Butcher gave the role to Taylor, and he responded with two big innings. From there, Zimbabwe went straight into games against Pakistan and New Zealand. More time on the field brought rapid improvements to a rusty team.But then the fixtures dried up again. Several proposed tours were cancelled, the board’s finances deteriorated and there were few viable games in the Future Tours Programme. As Taylor recalls, “Other teams would know 12 or 18 months in advance who they were playing. We were trying to find cricket and were trying to find teams that had a two-week window and could fit in three ODIs very quickly. So you would go off to play a bit of club cricket and then, boom, there would be a new schedule. There was a lot of flying in and out and trying to be in multiple places at once.”After two matches against a full-strength New Zealand team, Zimbabwe didn’t play another Test for over a year. Indeed, in the four years since they returned to Test cricket, Zimbabwe have managed just 14 matches. By contrast (and this is probably not ideal either), England are playing 14 between April 2015 and January 2016. Of the team’s decline, Butcher says simply and sadly, “Everything we gained in 2011 was thrown away because we just didn’t play any cricket.”Zimbabwe Cricket roused itself again prior to the 2015 World Cup, appointing former captain Alistair Campbell as managing director and Australian Dav Whatmore as coach. But, in a familiar refrain, it was all done too late and in too much of a hurry. Whatmore had four weeks to prepare his new charges. Taylor, who captained Zimbabwe at the tournament, described the preparation as “poor”, and was unable to keep the frustration from his voice.”I think we were excellent in every game we played – for 80% of the time. For the other 20%, we were horrific. We had good teams, like South Africa, at 80 for 4 [83] after 20 overs, but they ended up getting 340. We batted well early on, but we tended to lose wickets in groups or at crucial times. Those little passages of play saw them take the game away from us.”The team won one match and failed to qualify from its group. For Taylor, it was a bruising experience. “That extra fielder in the ring has made it hard for teams and captains to control the opposition’s momentum.” But there was the personal highlight of scoring a century against India in what was his final match for Zimbabwe. He smiles at the memory. I ask him what it feels like to score a century at the World Cup. He refuses to crack, saying, “It was very rewarding, but because of the results, very disappointing at the same time.” I believe him. He is not being falsely modest. He ended the World Cup a weary captain, struggling against a set of all-too-familiar problems.So far, Notts appears to have been a much-needed tonic. He scored three hundreds in his first four matches, despite his professed rustiness against the red ball. I ask Taylor what he wanted to achieve for the rest of his career. “Just team success”, he replies. This did not feel like a line out of the media manager’s handbook. After all, as Taylor explains, “I won a handful of games with Zimbabwe over 11 years. We beat some really good sides, but the number of victories was minimal.”The career that he has willed into existence has contained several personal highlights, but few that had the whole dressing room jumping. He has three seasons in the Midlands to change that, before he assesses his options again. Given the battles he has already won, it would be unwise to bet against him. magazine. Click here to see what all the fuss is about

Behind the stumps in the former Australia captain’s Ashes XI: the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman of all time?

Ricky Ponting12-Jul-20151:46

Adam Gilchrist

“The thing that struck me most about Gilly was that he did not care much about batting and wanted to be the best wicketkeeper in the world. His batting was something that just came along with the keeping”

StatsBatting
OVERALL: Matches 96 Innings 137 Runs 5570 Average 47.60 100s/50s 17/26
ASHES: Matches 20 Innings 28 Runs 1083 Average 45.12 100s/50s 3/6Keeping
OVERALL: Innings 191 Catches 379 Stumpings 37
ASHES: Innings 40 Catches 89 Stumpings 7Best performance102 not out in Perth, 2006
In the Perth Ashes of 2006-07, Adam Gilchrist played perhaps the most brutal innings of his Test career, smashing a hundred off 57 balls – of which 40 were used in scoring his first 50. A Monty Panesar over read: 0 2 6 6 4 6. Gilchrist walked in after tea on day three. Australia’s lead was already 394 and he took it to 556 in no time, scoring 102 in an unbroken 162-run stand with Michael Clarke. He hit 12 fours and four sixes in his innings, with 40 of his runs coming in 17 balls against Panesar. Australia were able to declare on day three itself, and went on to regain the Ashes having taken a 3-0 lead in the series.TriviaAdam Gilchrist had a strike-rate of 92.01 in Ashes Tests – the best by far for any batsman with 1000 runs or more.

The match in pics from the fourth ODI between England and Australia at Headingley

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Sep-2015David Willey claimed each of the first three wickets to fall•Getty ImagesGlenn Maxwell counterattacked impressively for Australia•Getty Images… but on 85 he misjudged a sweep to be bowled behind his legs•Getty ImagesMoeen Ali took 2 for 40 in a tidy ten-over spell•Getty ImagesGeorge Bailey’s 75 set Australia up for a late-innings surge•Getty Images… but Liam Plunkett struck twice in three balls to dent their ambitions•Getty ImagesHowever, John Hastings responded with 34 not out from 26 balls …•Getty Images… while Matthew Wade finished on 50 from 26, as Australia took 65 from their last five overs•Getty ImagesIn reply, Pat Cummins beat Alex Hales for pace in his first over•Getty Images..but James Taylor’s 41 from 42 balls restored England’s momentum•Getty ImagesEoin Morgan’s run-a-ball 92 carried England into position to strike•Getty ImagesAustralia kept chipping away, with Ben Stokes falling for 41•Getty ImagesJonny Bairstow was quick on his feet in a 27-ball 31•Getty ImagesGlenn Maxwell capped a brilliant allround display with two outstanding catches•Getty Images

John Mooney, who has retired from international cricket, was an indefatigable and inspirational competitor

Tim Wigmore11-Dec-2015″I don’t care if we never win another f****n match in our lives as long as we beat these bastards!”John Mooney was next man in and padded up when he uttered these words to Cricket Ireland’s media manager Barry Chambers in Bangalore in 2011. No Irishman wanted to defeat England more.With 55 runs left, Alex Cusack was run out, and out strode Mooney at No. 8. “I couldn’t wait to get out to bat. I was nearly out in the middle before Cusack had got off the wicket,” he said.England normally liked to consider themselves above sledging a side like Ireland. Not this time. “They were really riled up. You could tell that they knew they were in big trouble.”In the middle, one thought kept returning to Mooney: “‘Jeez, I wish it was the last over,’ I kept on saying to myself. ‘Bring it down to the end.'”Finally England had found a way to halt Kevin O’Brien. They had come to an uneasy truce, limiting him to a single every ball. Their plan was simple: keep O’Brien off strike, and allow Ireland’s tail to self-destruct.Mooney was not about to. Several times England amassed consecutive dot balls. Each time Mooney remained calm and provided the ultimate retort, carving two boundaries through third man, thrashing another through the covers, giving himself room to launch through point and then clearing his front leg to smite James Anderson through midwicket.O’Brien was run out in the penultimate over, but the final over dawned with Mooney still there, just as he had intended. Ireland needed three to secure the most memorable win in their cricket history. It took him one ball, serenely clipping James Anderson to the midwicket boundary. “Best f*****g day ever!” Mooney exclaimed to his team-mates, fully audible on the TV feed. For Irish cricket, indeed it was.Mooney had surprised England, who did not imagine that Ireland’s No. 8 would be so clinical when history beckoned. He had already spent his whole career surprising Ireland. They had once imagined that people like him – men of working-class stock from Fingal, who played Gaelic football for Man O’War – did not play cricket.”The English thing was a big stigma over in Ireland, especially where I was from. I’m from a real GAA [Gaelic Athletic Association] background. Cricket would have been frowned upon,” he later said. “I didn’t tell anybody that I played cricket. If I was meeting someone for the first time when I was younger, I’d never tell them that I played cricket.”

“The biggest thing that broke down the idea of cricket being an English sport was the Irish people witnessing an Irish team beat England at what they call their own sport”

How fortunate Ireland were that he did. When he made his debut in 2001, Ireland were an all-amateur team; a few months earlier they had enlisted a journalist reporting on their games to act as a substitute fielder as they vainly attempted to qualify for the 2003 World Cup. Now when Mooney retires, Ireland are a fully professional team who have beaten Test nations in three consecutive World Cups.This journey, with Mooney at its core, was about more than merely winning cricket matches. It was also about more than showing the world that Ireland could play cricket. It was about showing Ireland that cricket was a sport for all.”We are changing public opinion on cricket within the country,” Mooney has said. “The biggest thing that broke down the idea of cricket being an English sport was the Irish people witnessing an Irish team beat England at what they call their own sport.”No one ever called Mooney a West Brit, the derogatory name used to denigrate Anglophiles in the Republic of Ireland. Staunchly Republican, Mooney and his brother held up a match against Italy in Belfast in 2002 for an hour until the Union Jack flag was taken down. When Margaret Thatcher died, he tweeted that he hoped it was “slow and painful”. It was impulsive and stupid, and no proper reflection on the man. “Cricket doesn’t create problems, it helps to solve them,” he later said. “Hopefully it will continue to break down the barriers between North and South, and continue to integrate young Catholics and young Protestants together.”Cricket Ireland was always keen to thrust him into public promotion campaigns, knowing that he was a cricketer who defied stereotypes of those who played the sport. They knew, too, that Mooney was an easy cricketer to relate to on the pitch.To see Mooney on the cricket field was to see a man hurling everything of himself at the opposition. With bat in hand he was a skilful and clean striker of the ball, excelling in finishing games off from No. 8. When he was bowling, batsmen did not merely confront a fast-medium bowler with abundant cutters and slower balls. They confronted the full force of his personality: his snarling, his beard, his tattoos, and, in the World Cup this year, his green sweatbands too. They also confronted his sense of personal injustice at Ireland’s treatment by the ICC. In July the ICC warned him that he would be charged with violating the code of conduct if he followed through on plans to wear a black armband commemorating the death of Associate cricket.Mooney hit the winning runs in Ireland’s most unforgettable victory ever, over England in the 2011 World Cup•Getty ImagesMooney was a brave cricketer, and not merely in being able to withstand physical pain or relishing pressure moments on the field, although he had those qualities too.Throughout his career, he battled mental health problems. He later attributed his struggles with depression and alcohol to repressed pain from seeing his father drop dead in front of him at the age of 11.On a tour of the Caribbean in February 2014, it all got too much for Mooney. He was left feeling so depressed that he was unable to leave his bed. It was a mercy when he returned home early to be reunited with his wife and family.In September 2014, he gave an interview to Irish radio in which he revealed the extent of his struggles with mental health, and that he had even contemplated suicide. It was gutsy, it was brave, and it was Mooney.The very next day, he strode out in Malahide to bat in an ODI in Scotland. Elevated to No. 6 in the absence of Ireland’s county players, Mooney played like a man liberated by having his inner turmoil out in the open. Silky late cuts were mixed with raw power down the ground. He was one blow away from a maiden ODI century when a rasping cut located the hands of point; a few yards either side and he would have had a hundred. There was no fairy tale, but it didn’t matter: to be excelling in an Ireland shirt once again was triumph enough.A few months later, Mooney’s family – “about 26” nephews, nieces, aunts and uncles – descended on Nelson for Ireland’s World Cup match against West Indies. As William Porterfield led Ireland onto the field, John’s older brother Paul, who had played in the 2007 World Cup, embraced him.Just like in Bangalore, Mooney would score the winning runs as Ireland chased down over 300 against a Test nation. Only this time, no one was surprised. That was the greatest testament to Mooney of all.

Both captains couldn’t have predicted how much a contentious DRS decision could affect the entire flow of a day’s play and, possibly, the course of the Test

Melinda Farrell in Adelaide28-Nov-2015In the lead up to this pink puzzle of a Test, both captains were asked about strategies they could employ to take advantage of the varying conditions as day turned into night and floodlights replaced sunshine.Brendon McCullum mused about over-rates and controlling the tempo, while Steven Smith who acknowledged the pink ball’s behaviour would vary, was less forthcoming on whether or not tactics would stray too far from those favoured in red ball cricket.But neither captain would have predicted how much a contentious DRS decision could affect the entire flow of a day’s play and, possibly, the course of this match.The Test was progressing at a rapid rate when third umpire Nigel Llong gave Nathan Lyon a controversial reprieve.Up to that point New Zealand’s bowlers had done an admirable job of suffocating Australia, as their seamers bowled tightly and patiently through the afternoon – when conditions were favourable for batting. The impact of McCullum’s tactic of spin from both ends was immediate as Mark Craig accounted for Smith and Peter Siddle in his second over, while Mitchell Santner bowled Josh Hazlewood soon after.Australia had slumped to 8 for 116 from 5 for 109 when Lyon joined Peter Nevill at the crease. With uncertainty surrounding the fitness of Mitchell Starc, New Zealand must have been confident of coming in to bat with a decent amount of sunlight remaining when Santner’s delivery appeared to graze Lyon’s bat.After Llong’s decision, in the second over after tea, Australia added 106 runs and, of equal – if not greater – importance, ate up valuable hours of sunlight. Nevill and Lyon, who swept with the freedom of a condemned man given a last-gasp pardon, dismantled the attack, and once Lyon was removed, a hobbling Starc was even more devastating.”That was the first time we knew Starc was going to come in, when Nevill stayed out there,” said Ross Taylor. “We always thought we would try to hang in there and we were only a couple of wickets away. The new ball does a lot under lights if we were able to a bit longer in that middle session it might have made things a bit easier.”Taylor denied that New Zealand had dropped their heads, but it was evident their rattled attack fell flat and were perhaps guilty of not searching for wickets in their eagerness to avoid facing the new ball under lights. “We have got limited knowledge of the pink ball but we know it’s going to do a bit more under lights and there’s a bit of a glow around it,” said Taylor. “It’s a little harder to see at the start of your innings. Everyone knows it’s going to do a little bit, how much, no one really knows.”The timing for the start of New Zealand’s second innings could hardly have been worse and, as for Australia the previous night, the final session was a test of survival skills.”We haven’t really seen an older ball at that time of night,” said Taylor, who managed 32 before being trapped lbw by Hazlewood. “If you have a 60-70 over ball, it won’t do as much. When it got to 60 overs, when we bowled, it didn’t do a lot. Anything upto 40-45 overs there’s still quite a good shine on the ball and the bowling team has a pretty good chance of getting wickets. Survival is a big thing but you’ve also got to score some runs too.”Timing and light are likely to be just as crucial on day three, and New Zealand will be clock-watching as they attempt to build a defendable lead, whatever that may be.”[There’s] definitely no figure, but whatever we end up with we’ve got to get wickets,” Taylor said. “Getting that new ball as close to twilight as possible. If we can keep our bowlers from not bowling as many overs tomorrow we give ourselves the best chance. Regardless of what happens we’ve got a couple of fighters out there and Hazlewood has to come back and bowl a few overs, hopefully he’s not as potent. No team’s been able to get to that second new ball.”As with so many factors in this experimental Test, while some pieces of the puzzle are falling in to place, the full picture has yet to emerge.

Plays of the day from the World T20 match between India and New Zealand in Nagpur

Alagappan Muthu15-Mar-2016T20 cricket takes an interviewIt’s the first ball of the Super 10s. Martin Guptill takes guard against R Ashwin and gets off the mark with a straight six that is as brutal as it is pristine. Consider that the top button undone. Guptill takes guard against Ashwin again. It is only the second ball of the match but the action heats up. The offbreak is held back, Guptill goes for the slog sweep, misses it and is adjudged lbw. That’s the tie being loosened. Finally, out walks Colin Munro, and introduces himself on World T20 debut with an outrageous switch hit for six. That’s putting your feet up on the boss’s table. Essentially, the Twenty20 version of taking an interview, and acing it.The backhandThe Nagpur pitch was slow, spin-friendly and even lent extra menace to India’s part-time spinners. Suresh Raina was happy to be the beneficiary – he finished with 1 for 16; it should really have been 2 for 16. In the 12th over, after Corey Anderson dabbed one back down the pitch, Raina sprung to his left, took hold of the ball in one hand, rolled over so he had a clear line of sight to the stumps, and the backhanded flick did the rest. Virat Kohli ran into the huddle with his finger up, third umpire Marais Erasmus agreed, and Ross Taylor, a key player who has a history of unlocking big hits later on, was run out for only 10.The yorker machineMS Dhoni called Jasprit Bumrah irreplaceable because Jasprit Bumrah gave MS Dhoni peace of mind. “I know who is bowling at the death for me. That’s a big relief,” the India captain said before the tournament. So when the 16th over came, who was the ball thrown to? Bumrah. And what did he do? String five yorkers in a row and one of them left Anderson’s stumps an utter mess. New Zealand could only scrounge two runs off those six balls.The medicine shoved backMitchell Santner does not turn the ball. He was picked as the third spinner in the squad, and the XI today, and a lot of that may have hinged on his excellent composure as a batsman. Try telling that to Rohit Sharma though. The India batsman drifted down the pitch, looking perfectly poised for a flick through midwicket, but Santner shortened his length and yet derived massive turn and bounce. The outside edge was comfortably beaten and Rohit was so far outside his crease that the wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi had time to recover from a fumble to stump him.

Plays of the day from the match between Rising Pune Supergiants and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Visakhapatnam

Karthik Krishnaswamy10-May-2016Of nicks and close shavesIn the fourth over of the match, RP Singh got a full ball to shape away from David Warner as he tried to carve it through covers. Both bowler and the wicketkeeper MS Dhoni went up instantly, and excitedly, in what was more a pre-emptive celebration than a caught-behind appeal. Virender Sharma pondered for half a second and then raised his finger. Warner walked off shaking his head, and replays weren’t conclusive on whether he had edged the ball or not. There was a sound, but a fraction after the ball had passed bat.In the fifth over of the Rising Pune Supergiants innings, George Bailey stepped out of his crease to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who bowled a back-of-a-length delivery in response. It swung away and bounced a touch more than Bailey expected, opening him up and prompting lengthy, hoarse, agonising appeals from Bhuvneshwar and Naman Ojha, the wicketkeeper. Virender pondered again, and stayed unmoved. This time, replays showed a clear nick, as did Ultra Edge – which, for some reason, the broadcaster had not summoned up after the Warner dismissal.The fumbleBailey was still at the crease, batting on 30, at the start of the 11th over. When he came on strike, he steered Barinder Sran towards backward point and set off from his crease. Yuvraj Singh made a sprawling stop, and got on his feet quickly to fire a throw at the bowler’s end. Bailey was well short when Sran bent to collect the ball, close to the top of the stumps, but the bowler fumbled, and the twice-lucky Bailey scrambled home.The Gateway of VisakhapatnamIn the over immediately after that run-out chance, R Ashwin went on the back foot to cut a shortish ball from Moises Henriques. It was a slower ball, however, and it died on Ashwin as it approached his flashing blade, and took his bottom edge. It bounced through for what should have been a simple stop by the wicketkeeper, but Ojha, failing to sink down in time, allowed it to roll away between his legs for a four.Redemption, parts one and twoOjha’s wicketkeeping isn’t exactly easy on the eye. He doesn’t crouch particularly low as the bowlers run in, is often slow in getting down to low chances, and tends to take the ball chest-on, with his gloves in front of his body, rather than use the Ian-Healy-approved method of taking the ball by his side, allowing it a bit more ‘give’. Nonetheless he has shown that he is capable of eye-catching athleticism.When Ashwin tickled Sran off his legs in the 14th over, he must have expected an easy boundary. The wicketkeeper had a lot of work to do and short fine leg had no chance. Ojha swooped to his left, and the palm of his gloves was pointing towards the ground as he dived, with the ball dying quickly on him. He caught the ball a couple of inches off the turf, and turned his wrist smartly to make sure he landed on the back of his glove.Supergiants needed six to win and four to tie off the last ball of the innings when Adam Zampa walked in. He slashed at a full, wide ball from Ashish Nehra, and got a thick edge that flew quickly, low to Ojha’s right. Once again, he threw himself horizontally, and ended up sprawled on the turf, with the ball lodged in his outstretched glove and a big smile on his face.