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What happens on the fields and in the pavilions will be the most interesting part, with unprecedented numbers of international players to take part, and with the depth of the women’s game newly tested with younger and less experienced players

Geoff Lemon04-Dec-20151:11

There are transferable skills from tennis to cricket – Barty

Even three or four years ago, you would not have imagined a whiz-bang women’s domestic Twenty20 competition would come around so soon. But with increased coverage and eye-catching performances, the sense of momentum in women’s cricket has only grown. Through the close succession of a 50-over World Cup, a World T20 and three Ashes series, we were suddenly at a point where the next step seemed inevitable.To their credit, the England Cricket Board and Cricket Australia each recognised that and acted on it. The Women’s Cricket Super League will launch in England in mid-2016, while the Women’s Big Bash League is about to precede it in Australia.While it is tiresome for cricketing women to always draw comparison with men, the male Big Bash League has laid out a brightly coloured template. Even the most ardent administrators would have been surprised by the BBL’s success with crowds and TV ratings, so the second time around there was no doubt that the women’s competition should follow the same structure.Don’t be fooled by the badging as a “rebel” tournament – the WBBL is official, it’s just confusingly sponsored by a sports retailer that doesn’t like capital letters. Eight city-based teams, twinning the existing men’s teams of Brisbane Heat, Sydney Sixers, Sydney Thunder, Melbourne Renegades, Melbourne Stars, Hobart Hurricanes, Adelaide Strikers and Perth Scorchers. A league competition leading into a knockout finals series, with 59 games over the best part of two months.Only eight of those games will be telecast, with taking tentative steps to augment its broadcast of the men’s competition. It’s a start – a way for the concept to begin proving itself. Cricket Australia for its part is concentrating on the match-day experience, and will hope to use attendance to drive interest and enthusiasm for the women’s game among girls in the crowd, and among cricket lovers in general.That explains idiosyncrasies in the fixture: things like Melbourne Stars and Brisbane Heat playing each other twice on the same day to start the season. Turns out that’s a ploy to make at least one game available to people who might not be able to make the other, and to make the entire day into a carnival affair.Most games are grouped around weekends and have free entry, designed to draw as many spectators as possible. The eight televised games will be double-headers with the corresponding men’s teams, and entry to both comes with the same ticket. Then there’s the geographical reach: aside from the usual international venues there will be visits to the Junction Oval in St Kilda (Melbourne), Kingston Twin Ovals in outer Hobart, Blacktown Oval in Sydney’s west, Aquinas College in Perth, Drummoyne Oval by Sydney’s harbour, and Allan Border Field in Albion.Most Women’s BBL games are grouped around weekends and have free entry, designed to draw as many spectators as possible•Getty ImagesWhat happens on the fields and in the pavilions will be the most interesting part, with unprecedented numbers of international players arriving to take part, and with the depth of the women’s game newly tested with younger and less experienced players getting their chance to supplement the squads.New South Wales is the regional power in the 50-over competition: before losing this year’s final to South Australia the state had won ten in a row. But that group is now split across two Sydney teams, just as Victoria’s players have been in Melbourne. Things are going to even out very quickly.On paper, Brisbane Heat look the most impressive outfit. Jess Jonassen scored that memorable 99 in Australia’s Test match win in Canterbury, but started her career as a spinner and remains a threat. The tall Holly Ferling debuted for Australia aged 17 and remains one of the country’s best young pace prospects.Delissa Kimmince can open with bat and ball, and only missed the Ashes tour through injury, while her replacement was the powerful Grace Harris, who has already hit some of the cleanest sixes in the women’s game. England seamer Kate Cross bowled beautifully during the northern summer, including bags of wickets in the men’s Lancashire League. Round that lot out with former Australian captain and wicketkeeper Jodie Fields, as well as a project player in former tennis international Ashleigh Barty, and there’s a lot to watch.Not that Perth Scorchers don’t have a fearsome list. Nicole Bolton and Elyse Villani are the Australian opening batting partnership in both forms, and while Villani has struggled internationally she has some monster scores at domestic level. England captain Charlotte Edwards has brought not only her leadership but her favourite fast bowler, Katherine Brunt. And while Brunt can hit a long ball down the order, she can’t match West Indies power-hitter Deandra Dottin, who has played some of the memorable innings of recent times.Melbourne Stars have the dual star power of both Lanning sisters, Meg and Anna, as well as Australian legspinner Kristen Beams and England’s brightest batting talent Natalie Sciver. The sport’s most prominent name, Ellyse Perry, has gone to the Sydney Sixers, and while she may not have the required quality around her on that list, she can win games on her own in either discipline.Women’s cricket is often an arm-wrestle, with bowlers remaining in the game throughout and any target a possibility to defend. It’s more about the fine touch and less about slogging out of trouble. So while attention gravitates to the batting, the most skilled units with the ball will likely do best. A pairing like international bowlers Sarah Coyte and Megan Schutt at the Adelaide Strikers might prove decisive.Just as exciting as watching the best players will be seeing which of the newer and younger set can step up. In the next few weeks, we’ll get to know a whole lot more about some of them. That’s what the expanding world of women’s cricket does: makes more space in the sky for stars.

After trying hard to get his captain’s attention, Dushmantha Chameera turned the Test in Sri Lanka’s favour with a weapon not usually associated with Sri Lanka’s bowlers – the bouncer

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Hamilton19-Dec-2015All through the series, Dushmantha Chameera has been trying to get Angelo Mathews’ attention. He seems to know he is not trusted with the new ball yet. But maybe, he feels, he deserves the first-change role. During the early overs in Dunedin, and for much of day two’s first session in Hamilton, Chameera was seen warming up extravagantly in the infield, throwing a windmill arm into Mathews’ field of vision, kicking a scarecrow leg up in his direction. When that failed, he stared his captain down, hoping maybe to catch a stray glance.Even by this team’s standards Chameera is a junior player, so he can’t really demand the ball. What else could he do? Set off a vine of firecrackers at deep point? Hire an old-timey town crier to shout his case?As the quickest bowler on show from either team, Chameera has also had the crowd’s interest. So many would have wondered why he wasn’t being brought on earlier that Chameera could have begun a petition, collected thousands of signatures, then fed it all to a goat, because, frankly, there seemed to be no way Mathews was letting him anywhere near the new ball this series. On Saturday, Rangana Herath bowled an over before Chameera did.Ball finally in hand in the 21st, Chameera leaks 13 runs while he settles his sights. By the second over in his spell, the legs are pumping. The speeds have climbed. Tom Latham, fresh from a ton in Dunedin, sees the leg slip and short gully. He is prepared for the bouncer, yet the ball still comes roaring at him. The fifth delivery would have flattened his grille, had he not ducked beneath it. The next one, into the ribs at 142kph, is fended to that leg gully. The batsman seems a little hapless in that stroke, but people don’t take much notice of the quality of the bowling just yet. It is just another unfulfilled Latham start for now.When Kane Williamson falls, you start to wonder. His hook shot in Chameera’s next over climbs high. It settles in deep square leg’s hands. The openers had put on a relatively relaxed 81, but suddenly, there is life in this Test. Martin Guptill falls at the other end. Then Ross Taylor gets a monster. It might be the ball of the series, lifting sharply from short of a good length, hurrying into his personal space. The best Taylor can do is push at it in front of his nose. The deflection off the glove is snaffled up. Chameera seems like the kind of person who would apologise profusely if he bumped you in a queue, but he is charged up in Hamilton, happily hurling balls at people’s heads. He is taking the Test by the scruff.

‘SL used the short ball well’- Guptill

The Hamilton surface may be drier than it appears, and may become conducive to reverse swing and spin later in the game, Martin Guptill said. Only two of the 19 wickets to fall in this Test have gone to a spin bowler, but Hamilton surfaces have been known to take turn in the past.
“I think the pitch was a little bit drier underneath than what everyone thought,” he said. “Out there batting today there were a few footmarks starting to show up. They’ll come into play in days four and five. Hopefully the boys can rough it up a bit and get Mitchell Santner bowling into those footmarks.
“I noticed on the TV they started to get a bit of reverse swing out there today, and that can come into our hands as well. The new ball is still going to have a bit of bounce in it.”
Guptill said Sri Lanka had used the short ball well, and expected them to do so again in the second innings. All five of Dushmantha Chameera’s wickets came from short balls.
“You look at Sri Lanka and say they spin you out rather than bowl you out, but Chameera bowled very well today,” he said. “I’m sure they will introduce that short-pitched bowling again at some point in the next innings. We will have to be on top our game to counter that and get through it.”

“Kane Williamson’s was the wicket I was happiest with, because I think he’s the best batsman in New Zealand,” Chameera later said. “When we started bowling we realised there was pace and bounce, so we just thought we’d unsettle the batsmen that way and get a wicket. I think we were successful with the bouncer.”All day, no batsman could play him confidently. Brendon McCullum had run at Chameera and carved the ball for six in Dunedin. Here he was turned into a series of upright, evasive spasms. Another bowler would eventually get him out, but Chameera had first bullied him into reticence. McCullum was 7 off 34 balls at one point; 18 from 54 when he got out.Then a long anticlimax. An hour passed after Chameera’s first-seven over spell. The tea break came and went, and still, there was no sign of him. When two hours had gone by, fans around the world became impatient on social media. On the field, Mathews seemed to have forgotten Chameera existed. The bowler went through his attention-seeking warm-up routine again. He stretched, he lunged, he waved his arms. He tried everything for a second time in the day – except maybe take his trousers off and swing them above his head.When Chameera was given the ball again – to bowl the 69th over – the Hamilton crowd was merely piqued. Had the Test match been in Colombo, tears of joy would have broken out, and everybody would have put on party hats. Chameera gave away a few quick runs, of course, but the wickets came just as quickly. Tim Southee top-edged another ball to fine leg. Neil Wagner slapped an off-side snorter to cover.It is a strange thing to ponder. A Sri Lankan tearaway turning an overseas Test? Most words in that sentence seem wrong. And each of his five wickets were from bouncers. Are Sri Lankans even allowed to do that?Someone should tell Chameera that Sri Lankan pacemen have found their feet in New Zealand before. Chaminda Vaas did it in 1995. Lasith Malinga had a breakthrough Test in Napier. Whether Chameera will be remembered as one of Sri Lanka’s greatest – like Vaas – or burn brightly and briefly – like Malinga – may be decided by his fitness over long Test seasons.But maybe it’s too soon to think of any of that. For now, a lot hinges on whether Mathews will ever bloody give the guy the ball.

Five takeaways from Quetta Gladiators’ thrilling last-ball win against Peshawar Zalmi

Nagraj Gollapudi20-Feb-2016If there is one thing the Pakistan Super League (PSL) has provided plentifully, it is low-scoring thrillers. There have been a handful of them, and Friday evening’s sellout crowd at the Dubai Cricket Stadium witnessed another humdinger as Quetta Gladiators became the first team to enter the PSL final. Here are five takeaways from Quetta’s win off the last ball against crowd favourites Peshawar Zalmi.Ball of the tournament
Wow. There is no other way to describe the delivery from Quetta left-armer spinner Mohammad Nawaz that castled Brad Hodge, Twenty20 cricket’s current second-highest run-maker. The ball dipped, broke away, and hit the off stump, leaving you in awe. One of the factors that separates any ordinary delivery from that ball is the quality of the batsman; Hodge is one of the most versatile and intelligent T20 batsman and would have guessed Nawaz’s plan. The previous delivery Nawaz had bowled the arm ball to Mohammad Hafeez, who was stranded in his crease and surprised by the pace. Against Hodge, Nawaz delivered the ball from wide of the crease. The ball then pitched on middle stump as Hodge lunged to defend it. But just as he thought he had the line covered the ball drifted in, dipped and turned away upon pitching. The next instant Hodge watched the ball knock back his off stump.Elliott swings the pendulum
Grant Elliott seems a quiet, thinking man. Last March he brought Dale Steyn to his knees by knocking South Africa out of the World Cup in the last over in memorable game at Eden Park. Today he made use of the slowness of the surface by first bowling the perfect legcutter that deceived Jonny Bairstow who failed to connect while attempting a cut and was bowled. Shahid Yousuf did not last long as he played into the hands of deep midwicket, but the biggest body blow Peshawar suffered when their captain Shahid Afridi meekly surrendered, giving an easy catch to Nawaz at point. From 53 for 3 in 10 overs, at the hands of Elliott Peshawar had plunge to 84 for 6 with five overs to go. Quetta had now got a foot firmly into the victory door.Boom, boom, busted
In the six innings he has batted so far in the tournament Afridi’s aggregate is 49 runs with the highest of 17 not out. The aura is still there, the swagger still intact. But the promise of destroying the opponent, of injecting the Zalmi’s lower order with not just with positive spirit but with robust cameos is where Afridi is missing out.Cheema, the last over specialist
As he lined up to bowl the final over, from which Peshawar required eight runs to win, few of the Pakistani journalists recollected Pakistan and Quetta fast bowler Aizaz Cheema’s last-over heroics in the Asia Cup final four years ago. Cheema proved his mettle once again today as he handled the pressure and negated the heavy dew on the ground that had made the ball wet and difficult to handle. Probably due to that dew, his attempt to bowl a yorker had only resulted in a low full toss which Wahab Riaz had happily lofted for a four. Now Cheema decided he would just pitch it short and let the batsman take the risks as he had pushed the fielders to the edge of the rope. As the ball rushed high towards him, Wahab played it an ungainly fashion and managed just a single. Cheema then banged the net one short again at a high speed. Emerging Peshawar fast bowler Hasan Ali tried to hit hard and out of the ground, but his top edge could barely reach midwicket; Cheema ran over and completed the catch. Next ball, another short delivery, Wahab tried to upper cut but just spooned an easy catch to Ahmed Shehzad. When Mohammad Ashgar failed to get more than a single off the last ball, Cheema was jumping in joy and screaming in delight. It was a high pressure situation, and he had come out unscathed.The real cheerleaders

Unlike the glamorous IPL where cheerleaders dance along the boundary, in the PSL the fans have been the actual cheerleaders. Thousands of fans had already lined up by Friday afternoon to buy the tickets for the first playoff. By the time the match was an hour old, thousands were still waiting outside, frustrated at missing out on the action. Inside the stadium, even after Afridi departed quickly, the crowd did not disperse. They went quiet briefly, but then they revived, chanting the team names and both teams’ anthems to make the on-field drama more compelling. Considering the PSL is being played on foreign soil, it is hard to create the crowd loyalty, a big feature in tournaments like the IPL and Big Bash League. Still, the PSL crowds have turned out in support all teams, a big shot in the arm for the tournament.

Alan Butcher’s memoirs of his time as the country’s coach are full of affection, if also marked by disappointments and frustrations

Firdose Moonda28-May-2016Alan Butcher’s , a sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking account of his three years in charge of the Zimbabwean national team, spares no one, least of all himself.It begins with a confession by Butcher, infected by self-doubt and depression, having just lost the coaching job at Surrey and unsure of his cricketing future. A chance phone call makes him aware of the Zimbabwe job, and his genuine curiosity and dedication to coaching make him take it, though he knows it will be far from easy.Butcher’s first sighting of Zimbabwe in his coaching capacity was on their West Indies tour in 2010, before he had officially signed on. He was frank about the lack of quality. “Neither they nor the West Indies could by any stretch of the imagination be called quality teams,” he writes, but he could also “visualise myself working with them”.Among his first observations was that there were too many messages being sent from the coaching staff to the team on the field, and that the players were not being empowered. It was a shortcoming Butcher battled with throughout his time in charge, and he notes that the players “did not own their team”, and he would come to see that he would not be able to either.The book is mostly a celebration of the thrills of moving to a foreign land and truly becoming part of it. Butcher immersed himself in Zimbabwe, everything from the safaris to the nightlife to the country’s notoriously bad roads. He took road trips to watch domestic matches, stayed in dodgy hotels, and became well acquainted with police speed traps. He writes good-humouredly about the months at two different Harare hotels while his home was being readied for occupancy. In that time Butcher overheard things like government-backed businessmen attempting to seal mining deals with their Chinese counterparts by threatening them with words such as, “You don’t know who you are dealing with.”

Butcher developed connections with his players. He became particularly close to Chris Mpofu, who he called “Son” and who responded by addressing Butcher as “Dad”

And then he heard something similar in his own role. Zimbabwe Cricket’s head of communications warned Butcher early on that the coach would not want men in dark suits following him. Only much later does Butcher understand the powers he must appease.By and large, ZC is a paranoid organisation, afraid of being exposed for its lack of funds. As a result, Butcher’s attempts to hire psychologists or sports medical experts are dead-batted. “This was the modus operandi in pretty much all difficult situations,” Butcher writes. “Rather than coming clean and admitting there was not enough money, which we could all understand, we were made to go through a process which ultimately led nowhere.”There were times when he and other members of the coaching staff dug into their own pockets to assist players with transport money. On one occasion Butcher lets three players stay at his home during a training camp because no other accommodation had been organised for them, only to be told by ZC it was improper and that they had to be sent away.Overall, Butcher developed connections with his players. He became particularly close to Chris Mpofu, who he called “Son” and who responded by addressing Butcher as “Dad”.A standout feature of Butcher’s approach was that he did not judge any of his players, even when it appeared they were disliked by their peers. An example is Prosper Utseya, who was captain when Butcher was appointed and later was involved in a controversy where he alleged he was a victim of racism. Utseya has since been written about as a lackey for ZC management, which Butcher hints at, with understanding, early on.”A black captain appointed by a black administrative hierarchy and distrusted by a mainly white cricket establishment was between a rock and a hard place,” he writes. “It was not unusual for [Utseya] and others to be summoned to the head office and pumped for information on this matter or that.”Despite Utseya’s belief that some coaches like Grant Flower had an agenda against him, and his feelings of being targeted, Butcher praises him as an “an intelligent cricketer, has good tactical awareness, has made the most of his ability and is a very shrewd bowler, as his one-day international record shows”.Pitch PublishingButcher tried to unify the players against an administration that often thwarted their efforts. He did that by, in his own words, “giving them some love”, even if it sometimes was tough love. This included admonishing Ray Price for making fun of Craig Ervine during a session when players were required to give oral feedback and Price took the mickey.The biggest reward for Butcher’s efforts came when Zimbabwe achieved a historic victory on Test comeback, and an ODI series win over Bangladesh, but they could not sustain that momentum. Butcher admits his results on the whole were not good enough, especially away from home. He also seems to know why.A significant reason for Zimbabwe’s underperformance was the players’ lack of self-belief. In the book, Butcher recalls a incident in which Hamilton Masakadza, one of the most senior players, confesses to his batting mantra being “I must not make a mistake”, because “I must set an example” – which Butcher saw as being at odds with Masakadza’s otherwise easy-going nature.Team selection was the other major stumbling block, and Butcher is most critical of it. He details his battles against the convener of selectors then, Givemore Makoni, a man who he would “never get on with in 20 lifetimes of trying”. Their tense relationship came to a head at the World T20 in 2012, where a selection decision altered the course of at least one player’s career.The book tells of the copious amount of beer, wine and spirits Butcher consumed, but there is enough else to know that he was not living in a fool’s paradise. And there is more than enough raw emotion and sincerity.Butcher writes about his family visiting him in Zimbabwe, his father’s death, and his relationships with ordinary Zimbabweans, including a waitress named Suspicious. The title of the book was inspired by something his housekeeper, Simon, said. On seeing Simon’s sleeping quarters, which did not include a bed, Butcher bought him one. Shocked, Simon called him a “good murungu”. A good white man.In Zimbabwe, like in so many African countries, race is still important because of the colonial hangover. Butcher saw the impact that has on everything in the country, including cricket. As a murungu, maybe he also accepted that he could not change that.The Good Murungu: A Cricket Tale of the Unexpected

By Alan Butcher
Pitch Publishing, 2016

287 pages, £12.99

Having been given a long rope, despite a shaky technique, the onus is on Lahiru Thirimanne to step up and convert promise into substance

Damith Samarakoon02-Jun-2016There you are, playing for your club in a 50-over competition, wondering when you might get another opportunity in the big leagues. Suddenly, you get a call to join the tour party in Australia. You arrive disoriented with jet lag. You have a net and you are told you are going to replace the injured Kumar Sangakkara.It’s all a blur as you front up to Jackson Bird for your first ball at the SCG. There are about 30,000 Australians screaming for you to make a mistake. That was how Lahiru Thirimanne returned to Test cricket after having been dropped after seven matches.His disorientation turned to panic as he was hit on the pad first ball, and given out, only to be reprieved on a review. He then went onto to score 91. It was in a dead rubber, on a disastrous Australian tour. Yet in the grander scheme of things it was an important innings. It indicated towards a possible future without Mahela Jayawardene and Sangakkara, both on the final stretch of their careers, that was not full of doom and foreboding.Two innings later, Thirimanne scored his first Test century against Bangladesh. It seemed like the fulfillment of the promise a lot of Sri Lankans had seen in this young player.2013 was a good year for Thirimanne. 2014 hit him like a freight train.In a total of ten innings for the year, he failed to pass 38. His average was barely in double figures. In England, he scored four runs in four innings. In the other six innings, he passed 25 once. These six innings were spread over against South Africa, Pakistan and New Zealand. Undoubtedly they were difficult oppositions but as top order failures go, this was of titanic proportions.Thirimanne could be forgiven if he had thought the axe was about to fall on his career again. It didn’t.Instead, while Thirimanne could not decipher Tests, his ODI career started taking off. He scored two centuries in the 2014 Asia Cup, including one in the final, to guide Sri Lanka to the title. In the 2015 World Cup, he scored 139 not out to help Sri Lanka gun down England’s 309. In both 2014 and 2015, his ODI average was over 40.This resulted in him earning credit in the Test side. The selectors kept picking him but Test success remained elusive. His Test average in 2014 was 13.30 in five matches. His average in 2015 – 23.84 in eight Tests – was no better.Thirimanne seems to find it easier when he is given the context of an ODI and when he needs to frame his innings around the variables of limited overs and bowler quotas. But when he is asked to build an innings, to exercise patience, find a way through a difficult period or bat ugly for runs, he fails to connect the dots.In limited-overs cricket, you can check your technique at the door and still have a career. In Test cricket, against the red ball, Thirimanne’s technique has been inadequate outside his off stump. James Anderson thoroughly exploited the weakness on the 2014 tour across both the ODI and Test formats to dismiss him six times. Dale Steyn did the same in Sri Lanka. The Kiwi quicks also capitalised on Thirimanne’s deficiencies in New Zealand. His high back lift and flirtatious nature outside the off stump has meant he is either too late when the ball moves into him or is ill-prepared to leave it when it moves away from him.If those are the trials and tribulations for most top-order batsmen, then his latest addition to his mode of dismissal can hardly be excused. There are many instances now where Thirimanne gets out softly. Too many in fact. Last week at Headingley he chipped a ball to mid-on. At the Basin Reserve in 2015, he spooned one to mid-off. Back in 2014, he flicked one to mid-wicket at Lord’s. It is a worrying trend. Thirimanne is now developing a reputation as a batsman who briefly looks pretty without much resolve.It is also interesting to look at how his career has been received so far by the media and the fans and to contrast it against how he is viewed within the team environment. Both fans and the media have been heavily critical of Thirimanne’s incosistency and the issues with his technique and his continued selection despite all these problems. The prevailing thought, one with a lot of validity it must be said, has been for him to spend some time away from international cricket and get back to scoring runs at the domestic level to regain his confidence.However, his current and former team-mates, including Sangakkara, have been vocal in their support for him. As a team-mate, of course, this is to be expected, but Sangakkara has been airing his support long into his retirement. Aravinda de Silva has called for “patience” and stated that it is “unfair to criticise” Thirimanne. He views Thirimanne as someone with “huge potential”. Sanath Jayasuriya, the chief selector, believes that Thirimanne is “the future”. Angelo Mathews stated at an event prior to the side’s departure for England that “Thirimanne has the best technique” and that “he is our best batsman”.If you are Thirimanne, there aren’t too many things you can complain about. He has been plucked from obscurity and repeatedly extended an olive branch. His failures have been glossed over for the promise of what is to come. Thirimanne now owes a great debt. The debt of the experience he has been able to accumulate due to continuity in selection. The debt of the support he has received from his colleagues, captain and the upper echelon of Sri Lankan cricket. The debt of being shielded from the mob mentality of those outside the team hierarchy that has sought to have him dropped for nearly two years. There is no better time than the present to start paying some of it back.Want to be featured on Inbox? 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After Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane ground New Zealand into fatigue on a punishingly hot day, the tourists bounced back with late wickets, much to Rahane’s disappointment

Sidharth Monga30-Sep-2016Those who are not cricket fans sometimes like to laugh at the lack of physicality of Test cricket. But bowling itself is an unnatural act. Human bodies are not meant to hurl round objects accurately at 140 kph across 22 yards without straightening the arm. To do it in temperatures north of 30 degrees centigrade and humidity over 70% over six-and-a-half hours, even with all the breaks, is a mammoth task. To do so with consistent accuracy and skill is what makes cricket. To face this wearing all the armour is not easy either, but it is more demanding on the bowlers, which is why batsmen like to absorb all the pressure before taking liberties. Fatigue is inevitable in the human body.Fatigue is what Tom Latham spoke of before the Kolkata Test. Fatigue is what New Zealand coach Mike Hesson spoke of when asked why their spinners provided more loose balls in Kanpur. Fatigue is what Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane played on in rescuing India after they had been reduced to 46 for 3.New Zealand are a wonder of human spirit and strategy. With such low numbers, both in terms of participation and in terms of following, they do a great job of being competitive in cricket. On Friday morning, they were stretched to the limit, losing their best batsman Kane Williamson, and then the toss. The moment they caught their first break of the tour, though, they were all over on it. This pitch had bounce for their bowlers. It had a bit of movement.New Zealand read it right. Again. They brought in a fast bowler who rarely puts a foot wrong but gets to play only when others are injured. Still Matt Henry manages always to be ready. There was also a spinner in the side who last played three years ago and as recently as last week thought he was done as a New Zealand cricketer. Jeetan Patel reached Kolkata a little over 24 hours before the Test. He came back with experience of bowling in county cricket; he had finished as the joint-highest wicket-taker in this year’s county season.Spirit doesn’t beat science, though. Bodies get tired. So when New Zealand had everything going their way, Pujara and Rahane decided to absorb it all. Pujara only went after errors, but went after all of them. There was a time when Pujara had scored 39 of India’s 67 runs, having faced 99 of India’s 192 deliveries. The value of having tired the bowlers now started showing as the loose balls started to appear. Not too many, but they did.Rahane spoke of the need for a solid defensive game. “I think your defence is very important on a turning wicket,” he said. “If you have faith in your defensive game, nobody can get you out. We did that in the first and second sessions, but in the third session we thought this is an opportunity to score runs. The ball had got old and the bowlers were tired, so we thought that if we could increase the run rate there, we could put pressure on them. It’s not necessary to look for boundaries only, but you must have seen that we used our feet to the spinners a lot. So our plan was to disrupt their lines and lengths, because it was easier to play the spinners off the back foot than the front foot.”To cash in on them, Rahane was the perfect man. Not long ago, in the third Test in the West Indies, Rahane had failed to accelerate after getting himself in. He had put himself under pressure, and was dismissed for 35 off 133 balls. India batting coach Sanjay Bangar had said that day that Rahane should have switched gears when he had got himself in. Rahane is not the man to repeat mistakes. And he has gears.Here he effortlessly switched. You didn’t notice them from the shots he played, but every time you looked up at the scoreboard he had moved up a gear. The first 26 balls he faced brought India three runs, the next 30 yielded 14, he scored 18 off the next 24 balls he faced, and by the time he reached his fifty, Rahane had reached a strike rate of 50.Patel’s and Mitchell Santner’s fingers would have tired, the relentless Neil Wagner’s pace came down, Trent Boult bowled only three overs in that middle session, and Henry only two. This was a period when both sides realised that the new ball was going to be the next crucial play. New Zealand wanted to contain runs, India wanted to deny them this containment. Rahane used his wrists and deftness to beat fielders; Pujara did so too but his strike rate didn’t go up as much as Rahane’s did.After the 64th over, in the heat, India finally broke free. Forty runs came in five overs. Pujara scored 19 off 12. This is the time that perhaps Kohli spoke about. Pujara was getting on. The elusive century was within sights, but also he was facing Wagner, who was bowling to a plan that wasn’t quite working. He had gone around the wicket, trying to shape the ball away and was looking to make the batsmen hit to that tight ring on the off side. Finally Pujara made an error, finding short cover on the full. Wagner’s plan had worked, ten overs before the crucial new ball.In the end, Rahane was hard on himself and Pujara. “Pujara and myself will take this blame, because we were set,” Rahane said. “He got out on 87, and I got out on 77. I think it was our responsibility to carry that partnership forward. See batsmen just need one ball to get out, but I think if between the two of us, if one had made a hundred, maybe our position would have been different. I can’t blame anyone else.”New Zealand were back into it, and, with R Ashwin denying them, they finally got their first bit of luck. Ashwin was given out lbw by umpire Rod Tucker with the ball looking likely to slide down. Immediately, though, the same umpire denied them Ravindra Jadeja’s wicket. That set up a tantalising first session on day two. New Zealand will be mindful of what happened in the first innings of Kanpur when India’s tail scored valuable runs, while they lost their last five wickets for seven runs.Rahane believes his side will need at least 70 runs from the last three wickets this time. “We lost two extra wickets here. Five wickets would have been ideal on this kind of two-paced pitch. But Jadeja and Saha are batting, and if we get 75 to 100 runs tomorrow, 325-330 will be a good total for the first innings here.”

Another Lord’s final, Warwickshire’s Championship safety, a potential England recall… Ian Bell has had an illustrious career but believes there is plenty to look forward to

George Dobell15-Sep-2016The first time Ian Bell played in a Lord’s final he had his whole career in front of him. He was only 20 but he had long been tipped for greatness. And, as he caressed an unbeaten 65 – the only half-century of a match in which the players still wore whites – to win Warwickshire the 2002 Benson and Hedges Cup, it became clear to a wide audience that he was a special talent.He had been to the ground before. As an 11-year-old he ran on to the pitch – you could do that in those more innocent days – to celebrate Warwickshire’s 1993 NatWest final victory over Sussex. Asif Din’s game. It was, Bell says now, “the day I knew I wanted to play cricket. Not for England; for Warwickshire.”He has been back to the ground many times. He is on the honours board four times (for Test centuries in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2013) and led Warwickshire to another trophy – both as captain and centurion – when he made 107 as his team defeated Somerset in the 2010 Clydesdale Bank 40. Nobody else in the side passed 30.We’ll leave it for another time to discuss whether he has achieved everything he promised in those early days. But surely all but the most churlish would agree that, after 118 Tests, 22 Test centuries, the Man of the Series award in the 2013 Ashes (as well as playing in four other winning Ashes teams) and 161 ODIs he can look back with pride on an excellent career. And, leaving the stats aside, how many England right-handers have timed the ball as sweetly? Bell has, at times, made batting look beautiful.But while much has changed – “Do you remember when he had ginger hair?” one of his team-mates jokes – his passion for representing Warwickshire has not. Other players might have fallen out of love with the county that gave them their first opportunity, but not Bell. He might well be the best cricketer this club has produced – he is almost certainly its most successful – but he admits he will take a moment on Saturday to look towards the grandstand where he sat with his family and remember how far he has come. It will not be an insignificant moment for him.Ian Bell helped Warwickshire into another Lord’s final with 94 not out against Somerset•Getty ImagesHe feels he has unfinished business, though. Not only does he hanker after an England recall (he would go to Bangladesh if asked), but he is desperate to revive the fortunes of a Warwickshire team that are, by their standards, enduring a pretty grim season.A grim season? They’re in a Lord’s final!True. But they also failed to make the quarter-finals of the NatWest Blast and find themselves neck deep in the Championship relegation battle. For an experienced, well-resourced squad rated the best the club had ever had at the start of the season by their director of cricket, Dougie Brown, that is a bitter disappointment. Bell makes no attempt to hide it.”Getting to Lord’s is a fantastic achievement,” he says. “But we have to take it on its own. It can’t take away the need to improve. We can’t paper over cracks. We need to talk very honestly. We need to sort a few things out.”There are things that, without a shadow of a doubt, we have to address. There have been things going on that you can’t talk about; things that we’re hopefully going to move forward with. Not getting through the group stages in T20 – especially having won five of our first six games; we then won one from six – was disappointing and it is the same in the Championship. At the halfway point, we were in the mix to win it. But we only have ourselves to blame for being in a relegation scrap now.”Such disappointments will bring a review at the end of the season. The mumbles around Edgbaston somewhat harshly blame Brown – it is incredible how a spell as coach can ruin the reputation of a man viewed as a club legend a couple of years ago and it does appear his relationship with some senior players has soured – but Bell is having none of it.”The players are the ones responsible,” he says. “We’re a brilliant side on paper. I haven’t played in a Championship side this year when I would look at the opposition team and think ‘we’re not a better team than them’, but the problem is, you don’t play on paper. We’ve as good, if not a better, batting line-up than anyone in the country. But it’s not quite worked. And I count myself in that.”You cross the line and you have to front up. The one thing we haven’t done this year is win key passages of play. I could make excuses about the weather: I could say we were four times in positions to win and the weather stopped us but I think that would be a cop-out. We haven’t been good enough.”Are we doing the right things? Are we playing the right brand of cricket in four-day cricket? Are we talking the right language? Are we training hard enough and trying to get better? Those are the questions we have to ask ourselves and we have to do it straight away at the end of the season.”

“At the halfway point in the Championship, we were in the mix to win it. But we only have ourselves to blame for being in a relegation scrap now”

Perhaps the biggest disappointment has been Bell’s own form. While he started the season with an innings of 174 at Hampshire, no further centuries followed. For one so gifted, his Championship average of 33.88 with only four scores over 50 is modest.There are some mitigating factors. Warwickshire have played on some pretty tricky batting surfaces in recent times – “a score of 30 would have been good at times in the match against Yorkshire,” Bell says – and there were games, earlier in the season, when rain thwarted them. It also appears that Bell, desperate to revive the fortunes of the team he loves, has been drawn into working on areas of the club – the academy, recruitment, even a membership drive in the early months of the year – that are usually beyond the remit of a captain. He makes no excuses, but you wonder if the demands of leading an increasingly divided dressing room have taken their toll.He has, he says, held meetings with Andrew Strauss “twice in the last three weeks”, as well as James Whitaker and Trevor Bayliss. But he has not scored the runs to persuade England to pick him. He will look out for the squad announcement on Friday more in hope than expectation.So, has it been frustrating to see his England hopes slip away? “It’s more frustrating that we’ve lost a couple of games that we should have won,” he says. “I’ve tried not to think too much about England. I’m averaging mid-30s. I’m trying bloody hard to average 50. But it’s not been the case.”It’s difficult to know why. Out in the middle it feels pretty good. It’s been challenging. You’ve got to look inside yourself.”My batting actually feels in a pretty good place. But, from an individual point of view – if I’m going to play for England again – we haven’t really played on wickets that allow you to go out and get a big hundred.”He has not given up, though. And whatever happens this winter – he is currently scheduled to play for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash – he is not going to give up.Ian Bell last played for England on their tour of the UAE in 2015•Gareth Copley/Getty Images”It won’t dim my desire to play at all,” he says. “At our medicals the other day [centrally contracted players – Bell still is one – have medicals, performance reviews and fitness tests each September] I said, if they don’t take me this winter, I still want to play for England. Whether that’s next summer or the following winter, I will keep going. Unless they tell me the door is closed, I will keep trying to do it for as long as I can. I still want to play.”But I completely admit that I can’t sit here and say I’ve bashed the door down enough to say ‘pick me’. I’d love to have five hundreds and an average of 65 and say pick me, but I can’t.”My desire, my will, my training, everything is all geared up to playing for England. I have been through the highs and lows of wearing that England shirt and I know how hard you have to work. The rewards are massive, but also you have some really tough days.”They’ve been very clear that the door is never shut. If it is not to be this winter, I will be working hard to come back again a better player. If I start the season well again next year I hope to give myself a chance. There’s an Ashes tour in a year and a half. Experience will be valuable there, and if I am playing as well as I can, hopefully I will be on that trip.”When I left Sharjah [on England’s tour of the UAE], it didn’t feel like it would be my last game of cricket. And I didn’t want it to be my last. I didn’t feel in a particularly good place. I was pretty fatigued. But once I came out of that environment, I still believed I had the hunger to play some more.”I know not everyone gets the opportunity to go out in the best way. So I am not sat here in dream world, thinking about being paraded around the SCG. I know there are massive challenges ahead. So if they don’t take me now I am not going to give up. I will keep trying as hard as I can until I get told: ‘We’ve moved on.'”Warwickshire approach the game with some tricky selection decisions to make. William Porterfield, an experienced international opening batsman, is available but may miss out as the club maintain the successful partnership between Jonathan Trott (who has made three centuries and a half-century in the competition this season) and Sam Hain (the highest run-scorer in the competition this season).Equally, while their policy of playing three spinners has served them well on the road to Lord’s, they may decide to alter it in mind of the 10.30am start and what appears to be a well-grassed pitch. While the Lord’s square looks unusually dry, it seems the MCC plan to use the pitch from the final in next week’s Championship match between Middlesex and Yorkshire. Keith Barker, the leading wicket-taker among seamers in Division One, could therefore come into the side in place of Josh Poysden or Ateeq Javid.Either way, Bell is determined to savour the day. He wants to inspire a new generation of players and supporters as he was once inspired by his Warwickshire heroes. Now aged 34 he knows he might not pass this way again. These moments are precious. And so are talents like Bell’s. Catch him while you can.Ian Bell was speaking at the Coventry branch of Selco Builders Warehouse which hosted a special coaching event with pupils from Little Heath Primary School in Coventry. Selco is a leading builders merchant with 44 branches across the UK and are main shirt sponsors to Warwickshire CCC and Birmingham Bears

Pakistan might have been very slow and slightly flawed on day four at the Gabba. But they triumphed over common cricket logic, as they have done so often for so long

Jarrod Kimber at the Gabba18-Dec-2016It was hard out there when Pakistan started their day. Soon everyone told Pakistan they were doing it wrong. It started with them being too slow.Azhar Ali needs no invitation to put the handbrake on, take away the spark plugs and put his car up on blocks. Fifty minutes after the day started, he started scoring runs. Forget ugly runs, Azhar had decided on no runs. He literally had more balls when he was hit on the head, than he looked like scoring off. There were some who thought he needed to score to survive, he disagreed. Others thought he needed to just rotate strike, wrong again.Younis Khan scored slowly as well, but then when he started to score quicker, he scored the wrong way, he scored ugly. That tends to happen when you use the outside of your bat as the main part. Younis edged past the slips, past the gully, past the leg slip, short of the slips, onto his toes, and even when he tried using the other neglected part of his bat, he flicked it in the air. Australia had decided to try the “Misbah plan” to him and bowl very wide of off stump, and it might have worked, and they would have got away with it too, if it wasn’t for those soft hands.When Azhar or Younis did play a big shot, most the time some pesky Australian fielder would pull of an athletic dive and stop it. But finally Younis got one through, a slashing aerial catchable shot through point that raced to the rope, which had the Gabba attendant shouting into his radio, “We’ve got a boundary to fix for the first time in two days.”Just as this grim partnership had managed to soften the ball – they were just about to capitalise on their work – it rained. When they came back out, they had to start again. Younis did with a violent forehand smash, but Azhar fell to a short ball down the leg side.Misbah-ul-Haq came out, it rained again, he came out again, and then resumed the turgid trudge of Pakistan. While Younis’ runs were starting to look prettier, and more Younis-like, Misbah was prodding and poking for 34 balls before he went out. When you lose Misbah’s wicket in general, often all hope is lost. When you are more than 300 runs behind, and Misbah’s wicket is lost, hope isn’t lost: its decayed corpse has been found floating in the river of despair.Younis Khan scored 65 but fell after he mis-hit a reverse sweep to the slips•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesThen Younis, not batting slow nor batting ugly, was in the dark hour, with the new ball around the corner and his leader gone. He was soon out trying to reverse sweep. People screamed so loud at their TV sets that Younis could practically hear them. “Ridiculous, stupid, terrible.”The other two reverse sweeps he tried earlier were all right, because he didn’t get out then. The many times in his career when he has used the reverse sweep as a tactic to stop the bowler using a particular line, or length, or fielding strategy, they were fine too. The times he has used it as a valid scoring shot in his career, as a shot to show that he can’t be tied down, a shot to make sure that the bowler is not in charge, a shot that he has probably played a thousand times – actually, knowing how old he is, maybe a million times – they were all fine. But this one was bad.At first, it was his golden duck that annoyed people. Then it was the pace of this innings that annoyed people. Then it was the style of the innings that annoyed people. And finally, it was the dismissal that annoyed people. Younis Khan, horribly out of form, older than Neil Harvey, struggling to see the pink ball, bats through two rain breaks, survives a tough section, makes 65, and is out trying to be proactive and dictate to Australia, and he annoys people.And if all Azhar and Younis did was play themselves into a bit of form, that would have been pretty good with two Tests to play. But they did something else; their ugly, slow runs made Australia tired. By the time Younis was being abused for his reverse sweep, Azhar and him had taken 74.3 overs out of the innings. Australia had rain breaks, and hadn’t even bowled all those overs today, but they weren’t as sharp as in the first innings.And so, when Sarfraz came in, his slaps and slogs took a bit off the new ball as well. And so, when Pakistan’s now customary, hot-hand rotation of the No. 8 position – to whomever has made runs the innings before – meant an in-form and confident Mohammad Amir came in, Australia were just a little tired, frustrated, and wanting to get the whole thing over with.Amir frustrated them some more, but it was Asad Shafiq who defied them.Australia were to blame for their missed catches, which Asad Shafiq fully took advantage of•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesShafiq was quite slow to get going; it took him 12 balls to get off the mark. He got some ugly runs, an edge that went through fourth slip being a highlight. And he played some attacking shots to Nathan Lyon – one went straight over the head of mid-on. In fact, he took risks all the time; he went up and over point so often that Australia must have thought about a catching deep point. He hooked one for six, not far from fine leg. He drove a massive swinging length ball and was dropped at short cover. And then again at slip, and that too playing a bit of a loose shot when they had just lost the wicket of Amir.Shafiq kept going with his luck. He threw entire kitchen units at balls outside off stump. He swept Nathan Lyon from outside off stump regularly. He took on the short ball. He slashed one for his hundred. That hundred was off 140 balls, despite the fact he came in when Misbah had killed hope, when Younis had thrown the match away, and with his side needing over 300 runs for a victory and some biblical rain intervention for a draw.He took his time, then he was ugly, then he was attacking and then he was magnificent. His innings made you believe in Wahab Riaz with the bat. It made you believe that Pakistan, without a hundred from Misbah, in a day-night Test at the Gabba, despite Younis not making a big-daddy score, and with no adequate warm-up game, could actually chase 490.You want to know why Pakistan got to No. 1 in the world? It’s because despite their flaws – and hell yes, they have flaws – despite their mistakes – and hell yes, they make mistakes – and despite their entire archaic cricket system – and hell yes, their system is unprofessional in many ways – they fight, they are patient and they have talent.Despite the glory of the never-ending session, this probably won’t be a victory, but it was a triumph of Pakistan over common cricket logic, which is what they have been doing for quite a few years. This was the modern Misbah side in all it’s ugly, slow, shambolic and beautiful glory.They did it the hard way, because that’s their way.

With one round of fixtures left in the league stage of the Big Bash League, here’s what the teams need to do to join the Brisbane Heat in the playoffs

Shiva Jayaraman18-Jan-2017The Brisbane Heat confirmed a place in the playoffs by beating the Melbourne Stars at the MCG on Tuesday. The remaining three places are up for grabs among the other six teams that are still in the race. The Adelaide Strikers, who have won only two of their seven matches, can’t get to the minimum of eight points required to qualify. Here is what the teams still in contention need to do to get through to the playoffs.Sydney Thunder: They need to win their last match, against the Strikers, to have any chance of qualifying and in all probability need a big win given their low Net Run Rate of -0.097. With a game on Wednesday, they do not have the benefit of having a target NRR to aim for. If they win and should the Renegades, the Hurricanes and the Sixers lose their respective games, the Thunder will qualify on eight points irrespective of how big or small their margin of victory is. If any one of the aforementioned teams win, a healthy NRR will be mandatory for the Thunder to qualify.Melbourne Renegades: The Renegades need to win their last fixture, against the Heat, to get to the required minimum of eight points. A big win will increase their chances of qualifying on NRR ahead of others. The result of the Thunder-Strikers game will give Renegades a target to at least get ahead of the Thunder on NRR. The Renegades will qualify with eight points if the Thunder, the Hurricanes and the Sixers lose their respective games.Perth Scorchers: Like the Stars, the Scorchers too will confirm a place in the semis if they win their final league match, against the Hurricanes. They could go through even if they lose. If they do lose, the Scorchers will do well to avoid a big loss and keep the other teams’ NRRs at bay.Hobart Hurricanes: Like the other two teams on six points they need to win their final league match in the first place to stand any chance. However, their NRR is the poorest of the three at -0.179. But since the Hurricanes play their game on Saturday, they will have the advantage of having a target NRR to aim for to get ahead of the Renegades, the Thunder and the Scorchers. Even if the Hurricanes do win big, the Renegades are most likely to throw a spanner in the works with their superior NRR of +0.041. For instance, if the Renegades chase down a target of 151 against the Heat in 16 overs, and Thunder a similar target against the Strikers in 13.4 overs, then the Hurricanes would need to chase down 151 in 13 overs to end up above them on NRR (the Scorchers’ NRR will automatically slip below the Hurricanes’ owing to the heavy defeat). Should the Hurricanes get ahead of the three teams on NRR, they will qualify for the semis as the Stars-Sixers match will then become inconsequential for them. The Hurricanes will need just a win if the Thunder, the Renegades and the Sixers lose their respective games. Sydney Sixers: Their poor NRR of -1.062 has minimised their chances of qualifying with their current tally of eight points. They could, however, qualify with eight points by the time their match against the Stars begins on Saturday if the the Renegades, the Thunder and the Hurricanes lose their respective games. If any one of these teams wins then the Sixers will need to beat the Stars to qualify.Melbourne Stars: A win in their final league match against the Sixers will confirm the Stars’ place in the playoffs. Even if they lose their final game, they could still get through owing to their healthy NRR of 0.547. They will anyway have the advantage of knowing the minimum required NRR to qualify as they play the last of the league games.

James Anderson’s six off Kagiso Rabada was just his third in his 123-Test long career. Who else comes close on the most-innings-per-six stakes?

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jul-2017James Anderson, 169 innings, 3 sixesJames Anderson’s batting often invokes his “Burnley Lara” nickname among fans, commentators and team-mates alike. His six off Kagiso Rabada today was just his third in a long career spanning 123 Tests, in his 169th Test innings, and had his new Test captain Joe Root in splits on the Lord’s balcony. It was his first in over five years, and the first-ever instance of him hitting a fast bowler for six in Test cricket. Saeed Ajmal and Paul Harris are the only others to have been carted over the fence by Anderson.VVS Laxman hit just five sixes over the course of his career•Getty ImagesVVS Laxman, 225 innings, 5 sixesSilken touch and sublime timing were Laxman’s greatest assets, but surely, with that ferocious pull, he would have managed more than a handful of sixes in his career? Turns out the number is just five, an average of one every 45 innings. Some of them barely crossed the boundary, including the time Mluleki Nkala stepped on the rope after catching Laxman’s pull on the fence, way back during that memorable 2001 season.Michael Atherton was not the biggest six-hitter going around•Getty ImagesMike Atherton, 212 innings, 4 sixesAnother technically correct batsman with a copybook technique and one of the best cover drives in the game’s history, Atherton was not one to take the aerial route too often, as a six every 53 innings attests to. It is a fact Anderson, his Lancashire compatriot, can keep handy to bandy about, whenever someone ribs him about his batting abilities.Wristy flicks, sublime drives, and a grand total of one six in 299 international innings•Getty ImagesHashan Tillakaratne, 131 innings, 1 sixTillakaratne hit 540 fours over the course of his Test career spanning nearly 16 years, hitting bowlers all around the park with a combination of magnificent driving and hefty wristwork. A sole six is all he has against his name, hit towards the end of his career in 2001, off West Indian legspinner Dinanath Ramnarine.Dour, doughty Boon hit a pair of sixes in a long career•Philip BrownDavid Boon, 190 innings, 2 sixesBoon hit 16 sixes in 14 fewer innings in ODIs, but was a lot more cautious in Tests, as is to be expected. An accumulator who would stick it out and compile innings of importance for Australia, Boon’s restraint and discipline in the game’s longest format is evident from the grand total of two sixes in 107 Tests.