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A look at the top statistics after David Warner raced to a century before lunch on the first day at the SCG

Bharath Seervi03-Jan-20175 Batsmen to score centuries before lunch on the first day of a Test. David Warner became the latest to join Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney, Don Bradman and Majid Khan to achieve this feat. The last such instance was more than 40 years ago when Majid did it against New Zealand in Karachi in October 1976. The first three were all before World War II.1 Instance of an individual scoring 100 or more runs in the first session on any day of a Test in Australia. Warner is the first to do so. The previous highest was 98 by Clive Lloyd at the WACA in the first session of the third day in 1975-76. The previous highest by an Australia player at home was 95 by Adam Voges against West Indies in Hobart in the first session on second day in the last season.78 Balls in which Warner completed the century – the fastest by any player at the SCG. The previous record was off 82 balls set by himself in the last New Year Test against West Indies. This is Warner’s second-quickest Test century after his 69-ball effort against India at the WACA in 2011-12. Overall, this is the fourth-fastest century among Australia batsmen.

Fastest Test centuries for Australia (top-five)

Batsman	Balls	Against	Venue	Year
Adam Gilchrist	57	England	Perth	2006
Jack Gregory	67	South Africa	Johannesburg	1921
David Warner	69	India	Perth	2012
David Warner	78	Pakistan	Sydney	2017
David Warner	82	West Indies	Sydney	2016

1 Quicker centuries against Pakistan by any batsman compared to Warner’s 78-ball effort. Brian Lara had scored one off 77 balls in Multan in 2006-07. Brendon McCullum also scored in 78 balls in Sharjah in 2014-15.2 Australia openers younger than Matt Renshaw, who is 20 years, 281 days, to score a Test century – Archie Jackson at 19 years, 149 days and Phillip Hughes 20 years, 96 days. Overall, Renshaw is the seventh-youngest centurion for Australia. Among openers overall, he is the fourth-youngest to score 150 or more in an innings.3 Higher scores by Australia openers at SCG than Renshaw who is unbeaten on 167 at end of the day. The highest is Sid Barnes’ 234 in Ashes 1946-47. Among all openers, Renshaw’s score is the tenth-highest at the SCG.18 Test centuries for Warner – the most by any player since his debut in December 2011. However, he has converted only three of those hundreds into scores of 150 or more.240 Previous highest aggregate by Australia openers in an innings at the SCG, against England in 1987-88. Warner and Renshaw have already added a combined 280 runs. This is also only the third instance of both home openers scoring centuries in the same innings at the SCG and the first since Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden did so against South Africa in the 2002 New Year Test.3 Consecutive centuries by Warner in New Year Tests. He had also made 101 against India in 2015 and 122 not out against West Indies in 2016. He is only the fourth player after Wally Hammond (four), David Boon and VVS Laxman (three each) to score centuries in three consecutive Tests at the SCG. Warner now has three centuries each in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.150.33 Australia’s average opening stand in the first innings of last three SCG Tests. Chris Rogers and Warner added 200 runs against India in 2015, Warner and Joe Burns shared 100 against West Indies in 2016 and now Renshaw and Warner added 151 runs in this innings. Before these three Tests, they had only one century stand in 21 innings in 11 Tests.

Trent Boult has shown, without doubt, that there are other ways of silencing batsmen than launching streams of invective towards them

Danyal Rasool06-Jul-2015When Mitchell Johnson fell so far down the pecking order that even James Pattinson was selected ahead of him, he stepped away to change a few things. He began to get fiercer and meaner. He bowled as many bouncers as he was possibly allowed to, and then a few more. He followed through far down the batsman’s end. He grew a handlebar moustache.And he blew England away. Jonathan Trott was gone after the first Test of the 2013-14 Ashes series. Graeme Swann went into retirement two Tests later. Kevin Pietersen was made to walk the plank by the end of the series. England lost players almost as rapidly as they lost Tests. It was Mitchell Johnson’s whitewash – Man of the Series by a distance. The terrifying fast bowler was back on top of the world after a few years of, ahem, bowling to the left and right.Meanwhile, Trent Boult was playing the guitar to Engelbert Humperdinck’s music for a roomful of school kids in Rotorua, a small city on New Zealand’s North Island. (Take a peek on YouTube; the clip is endearingly sweet.) He was listening to the Eagles and attending Mark Knopfler concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. There is a rumour going, which he recently confirmed in an interview with the , that he decided to play rugby instead of football one season. One look at the rugby boys warming up, however, saw Boult pack up his rugby gear and wander right back to the football field.If he hadn’t been such a central figure in New Zealand’s cricketing exploits recently, nothing said here would tell you that Boult, like Johnson, is also a fast bowler. A better one, in fact, than the bellicose Australian, if one goes by the ICC Test rankings [third and fifth respectively]. This is because being surly and intimidating is deemed to be as necessary to fast-bowling success as the ability to whiz a bouncer past a batsman’s nostrils. Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thompson or Shoaib Akhtar wouldn’t be caught dead attending soft rock concerts, let alone being proficient at playing poignant songs on a guitar. (Brett Lee is an exception here, of course.)Boult is demonstrating, probably unintentionally, the superfluity of the antics that build up that churlish image. If you think he’s soft, try fending him off for a spell with the new ball, in either form of cricket. He can find movement in a ball otherwise as reluctant to swing as Paul Collingwood with a Test match to save. His bouncers won’t be complemented by an exaggerated follow-through. His wickets won’t be celebrated with eye-popping, vein-busting rage, à la Dale Steyn. The only time he might invade your personal space would be to shake your hand on an innings well played. This is a fast bowler, the third best in the world. It bears repeating.Originally considered a specialist exponent of red-ball cricket, Boult has swiftly risen to become New Zealand’s leading ODI bowler, armed with an innocuous smile that belies his hunger and ambition. He bowled twice as many maidens as the second-most prolific in that department at the recently concluded World Cup, a run-fest by any standards. Yet, he did not concede a single run in a staggering 14 of the 75 overs he bowled. This means more than 18% of his overs were maidens. Excellent as it would have been a few decades ago, this is simply superhuman in this era. For me, it is by far the most impressive statistic of the World Cup, better even than AB de Villiers’ superlative 162 off 66 balls against the West Indies. De Villiers was swimming with the current, albeit much faster than his contemporaries; Boult was thrashing against it in a tsunami going the other way. He has shown, without doubt, that there are other ways of silencing batsmen than launching streams of invective towards them, or threatening them with a ‘broken fu**en arm’.Last year, Shane Warne, not immune to courting controversy, or cheap publicity for that matter, called Mitchell Starc “soft”, saying he needed to be a bit “harder”. Boult would make Starc look like an All Black, but there is a wider point here. Starc is now the best ODI bowler in the world, in spite of, and not because of that unfair criticism.Who can imagine what Boult would be like, or what profession he would have, if he had been born in Australia? If he wasn’t playing cricket, it would have been Australia’s loss. The reason we don’t get too many likeable fast bowlers is they often get the likeability knocked out of them at a young age. There are surely thousands of fast bowlers around the world that we do not see, forever to remain anonymous, because they were forced to cultivate an image they were not comfortable projecting, and which was in any case outrageously irrelevant to their talent. This pseudo-macho fast bowling culture is worthy of paying very close attention to. Boult’s success may well nurture many more smiling assassins around the world. They, like Boult, might not spit and snarl, but the new ball in their hand certainly does.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

Tributes flooded in for Madhav Mantri after the the former India wicketkeeper died aged 92 in Mumbai after a heart attack

Amol Karhadkar and Nagraj Gollapudi23-May-2014Madhav Mantri was India’s manager during Sachin Tendulkar’s first tour of England in 1990•ACC LtdAjit WadekarTerming Madhav Mantri’s death a “personal loss”, former India captain Ajit Wadekar said that he might never have played for India but for Mantri. “During the selection committee meeting for India’s Test series against West Indies (in 1966), it was Mantri who proposed my name when the last batsman’s slot was being discussed,” Wadekar recalled. “But neither the selectors nor the captain, Tiger Pataudi, were convinced. It was he who continued to fight for me and since there was no consensus, the selectors broke for lunch.”During the lunch break, he took Pataudi aside and convinced him, saying I was a consistent performer for Mumbai for almost a decade and deserved a chance. Immediately after the resumption of the meeting, Pataudi told the selectors ‘I would like to go for Ajit Wadekar’. Only because he (Mantri) persisted could I play for India.”Wadekar was among the opposition during Mantri’s final first-class game, a social initiative to promote small savings scheme. Earning Mantri’s praise was a precious achievement for a budding Mumbai cricketer. “I was fortunate to get complimented by him all along my career, despite being from Shivaji Park,” Wadekar said. “Even though he was a loyal Dadar Union cricketer all his life, he never held himself back from praising a quality cricketer.”Sachin TendulkarTendulkar gave solemn tribute to Mantri ahead of Mumbai Indians’ clash with Delhi Daredevils at Wankhede stadium. “It’s a huge loss to cricketing world,” Tendulkar said. “I can literally count on my fingers the people who are as passionate about cricket as Mantri sir was. We will miss you, sir.” Mantri was India’s manager during Tendulkar’s first tour of England in 1990.Bapu NadkarniBapu Nadkarni, the former India left-arm spinner, said Mantri was a major influence on his cricketing career. “All the cricketing rituals that have been performed on me were by Madhav Mantri and Polly Umrigar. I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to play with both of them,” Nadkarni said.”Mantri was a self-disciplined person, both on and off the field. And he didn’t like his disciplined life to be disturbed at all. During the playing days, he had set a few rules for the whole team to parade with him at a particular time. And no one could dare not to say no to him, or skip the parade even for a single day.”Mantri often said self-discipline was a secret for his health. He was so fit that even at 92, he climbed almost 30 steps to the Wankhede Stadium dressing room to congratulate Maharashtra minutes after their victory over Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal in January.Sandeep PatilMantri was noted for leading an austere lifestyle. Yet his old school habits did not deter youngsters looking up to him. One among those admirers was Sandeep Patil, former Mumbai and India batsman and currently the chairman of national selection committee. “Nana (uncle) as we all called him is no more,” Patil said. “It was just recently I was sitting next to him watching the Mumbai-Maharashtra Ranji Trophy match, listening to his great old stories with pleasure. His second name was discipline. He was like a jackfruit, hard and rough to look at from outside but very soft and sweet from inside. He was like one institution.”Madhav ApteMadhav Apte, a close contemporary, cannot forget his first encounter with Mantri in 1945. “I played against him for the first time in a Purshottam Shield match where I was playing for Jolly Cricket Club. I was 13 years old, an aspiring legspinner and he hammered me and shattered my confidence. He never forgot to remind me of decades later,” Apte, a former Mumbai captain who played seven Tests for India, said.The Mantri and Apte’s association traced back to their days in Elphinstone College. Mantri was also Apte’s coach at the college. In 1951-52, Mantri shared century-stand for the opening stand with Apte against Holkar to lead Mumbai to a massive 531-run victory. “Discipline was part of his nature, somewhat eccentric I would say. But he was a shrewd judge of the game. He was very good captain: tight field placements, smart changes of bowling. He was a keen and passionate follower of the game,” Apte said.Surendra Bhave”It was a memorable moment for all of us,” Surendra Bhave, the Maharashtra coach, said about the victory over Mumbai earlier this year. “For him to come all the way to the dressing room and congratulate us was a big boost for each member of the unit. He told the boys, ‘You have beaten your arch-rivals, now don’t stop till you win the final’. Though the team fell just one step short, everyone in the room will remember Mantri’s zest and his words of advice all our lives.”

It was a decision he took seven years ago that brought Faf du Plessis the heroic status he enjoys in South Africa today

Firdose Moonda30-Nov-2012Faf du Plessis was 21 when Nottinghamshire offered him a Kolpak deal with a conditional clause that said he would have to qualify for England if he accepted. He refused. Seven years later he understands the significance of turning down that offer.By the time tea was taken on the last day of the Adelaide Test in 2012, du Plessis had been batting for almost six hours. His head was swirling with the Australians’ sledging, he was cramping, and his back ached. “I asked the physiotherapist for some pain tablets and AB de Villiers came to me and said, ‘Keep fighting because you don’t understand how much this means for the people back home. If you get through this, your career will be changed.’ That made me make sure I didn’t give it away.”For the rest of the day he battled through more of the same. When he finished, Graeme Smith thanked him for giving the country a chance at a second successive series win in Australia. “Faf played a massive part in bringing us to Perth level in the series,” Smith said. To be held up as a country’s hero left du Plessis “happy and so humbled”. And now he wants more of it.That it may not have turned out this way only makes it sweeter. Before county cricket threatened to take him away from South African cricket, rugby did. “My dad was a professional rugby player. He played centre for Northern Transvaal in the 1980s with Naas Botha [former Springbok flyhalf], and I always felt that my dad preferred me playing rugby to cricket.”In primary school I played rugby at the time before shoulder pads, and I used to like kicking and running with the ball. But I wasn’t a massive fan of tackling and my dad drilled tackling into me. I got my first pair of shoulder pads in standard six and I just started to love tackling, and the fear of breaking bones went away. But I was always better at cricket.”When I was 16, I decided I wanted to play cricket and not rugby, but I still played a bit of rugby in my final school year. I broke my wrist that season and I missed two months of cricket season and I told myself that was exactly why I shouldn’t have been playing rugby.”His parents pushed him to pursue his studies. Du Plessis’ best friend, de Villiers, also a budding cricketer, had registered for a degree in sports science, so du Plessis grudgingly agreed to do the same. “I thought I would tag along and I went to the university, but that day there was a queue, so I just decided I didn’t want to do it,” du Plessis said. “Three months later, AB also stopped studying because he said it was a waste of time. We both wanted to play cricket full time.”As they progressed through the cricket levels, de Villiers always remained ahead of du Plessis. He got a contract at Northerns and a fast-track into the national team, while du Plessis had to find a way to make a living playing club cricket overseas.”I started at Liverpool Cricket Club and then moved to the Nottingham league. Greg Smith, who also played for the Titans, played for the main Notts side, and he managed to arrange a second-team game for me. I scored 200 in my first game for them.”In the next three games I got three hundreds in a row and that’s when Kolpak came up. Notts offered me a three-year contract but they wanted me to qualify for England. For every Kolpak player they paid penalties, and so I had a serious decision to make. I was 21 and I was playing a little bit here and there but not permanently for the Titans. Notts were offering eight or ten times more than I was earning at home.”In his heart, he wanted to stay home. “I just had this burning desire inside me to play for South Africa and I was too young to just give it up. As a job, you want to make as much money as possible. But I thought I wouldn’t do it at the time, it didn’t feel right. Richard Pybus said to me that I would be stupid to go.” So du Plessis didn’t go.Although a strong performer for the Titans in the shorter format, he wasn’t close to national selection when another county came knocking. “I got an opportunity for Lancashire. They offered me a better deal, because they said we don’t want you to qualify [for England]. They just offered me a contract and I thought it would be the perfect thing for me at the time, because then I would play six months professional cricket in England, six months in South Africa, and I did that for two years, during which I gained a lot of experience.”

“I remember asking AB to keep me positive, because we were playing so defensively it’s easy to creep into your shell and get a bit lazy. I asked him to talk to me every second or third ball”

By 2010, when Kolpak rules changed, du Plessis was a Titans heavyweight and in the selectors’ eye. He had played in A sides and made his South Africa debut less than a year later, in an ODI series against India. His advice to young South African cricketers is to do what he did: to go play overseas for personal development.”Go there and play. You are on your own, away from family and friends. You have to deal with life on your own. You’re not living in your parents’ house. I learned everything there: ironing, washing and buying groceries and cooking food.”In fact, he became a keen cook. “I got into Jamie Oliver quite a bit. I don’t like Greek food but I cook everything else. I’m quite a healthy eater and so I cook stuff along those lines and I do a lot of experimenting on different vegetable and meat dishes.”Du Plessis is the designated cook when his friends meet up, and has promised to give de Villiers some kitchen tips, “especially now that he is engaged”. For du Plessis too, marriage is not far away. “As a guy, you always breathe a little heavier when someone says you are going to get married, but I can now say that it’s around the corner,” he said.His girlfriend, Imari Visser, has now quit her job as a marketing manager to travel the world with him. “The plan is for her to do some more studying and do her honours, and when the day comes that she needs to work again or when I stop travelling as much, then she can just get straight back into it,” du Plessis said.Visser travelled to Australia but booked a trip to Melbourne to visit her brother during the Adelaide Test, so she missed the innings that announced du Plessis to the cricketing world.After a solid 78 in the first innings, few expected more from du Plessis. When he walked out for the second innings, South Africa were staring at defeat. But his best friend was at the other end.”Four sessions felt like a really long time so we said, ‘Let’s try and get to drinks.’ And then when we got there, we said, ‘Let’s get to the end of play.’ If you break it down to an hour, it helps.” They had to dig even deeper on day five and du Plessis relied on de Villiers’ experience to keep going. “I remember asking AB to keep me positive, because we were playing so defensively it’s easy to creep into your shell and get a bit lazy. I asked him to talk to me every second or third ball.”Twice du Plessis was given out. Both times he reviewed the decisions; both times he made the right call. “It’s quite nerve-wracking waiting for the decision but I was confident that I wasn’t out,” he said.Batting got easier as the day went on, although du Plessis struggled a bit with the balls that spun after landing in the rough. “If someone like Shane Warne was playing, it would have been impossible, because there was a big rough.”With 70 minutes to go to save the Test, and only the tail for company, du Plessis had to not only manage the discomfort of his cramp but also keep most of the strike. “Mentally I was in such a place where everything inside me didn’t want to give it away. I said to the guys coming in, if they want to bowl short to you, just take it. If they hit you in the neck or the face, it doesn’t matter. We should just make it really tough for them to get us out.” Along with Morne Morkel, du Plessis ensured South Africa didn’t concede a series lead.Du Plessis hopes the good times will keep coming. “I’ve played enough cricket now to know that when you are riding the wave with runs you’ve got to make sure you get as much as possible. That’s my biggest driving factor now. I want to score as much as I can, and if it lasts me another two games or two years that’s something the best batsmen in the world do. They keep scoring big runs. And to try to do that for South Africa is even a bigger motivation.”

God-fearer and man-baiter – this book shows both sides of Matthew Hayden, a man who mostly chose to behave whichever way suited him

Peter English23-Oct-2010″Was I a hypocrite?” Matthew Hayden has asked himself this question in retirement. “Maybe. But I am what I am: a man of contradictions. There’s the real me, and then there’s the person many people think I am.”The paradox has been well known throughout Hayden’s career, particularly for supporters of teams other than Australia. A Catholic with a gentle demeanour off the field, Hayden buried his head in a pillow whenever he left on tour, breaking down at leaving his family. At the crease or from slips he was a brutal sledger, the loudest mouth in a collection of verbal experts.He reconciled the God-fearer with the man-baiter by believing his faith was a personal affirmation, while ruffling the opposition was his role in the team. “Just as a good actor completely gives himself to a part, I went all the way,” he writes, defending his behaviour by pointing to his clean on-field record. “I might not always have been proud of my actions, and I wasn’t popular for them, but I recognised the importance of that part of my role, which helped my team become one of the most dominant of all time.”This all comes in the introduction of Standing My Ground, an autobiography that would be more appropriately titled Blowing in the Wind. Hayden deserves praise for not dodging the issues of sledging and intimidatory behaviour that helped define him globally, if not locally. In reality, Hayden chose to behave whichever way suited him.He didn’t get to know Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar on a personal level because “I couldn’t afford to fraternise with them”. But he did enjoy beers and good times with Andrew Flintoff, who wrote the book’s foreword. Demystifying and befriending England’s most devastating bowler during the 2005 Ashes was a clever, calculating move. Flintoff said their relationship changed the pair’s dynamic, bringing a “respectful edge to the proceedings” in the middle.There’s a whole chapter on sledging but Hayden rarely goes into detail about what he said. His retorts are usually short and inoffensive like “We’ll see”, although he admits at times to muttering a few more expletives. Writing them down verbatim would probably be too embarrassing.The funniest line comes from the Dutch wicketkeeper Jeroen Smits at the 2003 and 2007 World Cups. “We haven’t flown halfway around the world to watch you,” he told Hayden. “Get a single and get Gilly on strike because you are crap.”Hayden does outline how he started a three-over countdown of the number of balls he thought Shoaib Akhtar could deliver on a 50°C day in Sharjah in 2002. As Shoaib left the field after the predicted 18 deliveries, Hayden raised his arms like he was calling for new gloves. It was cover to allow him to shout “a massive send-off” to the bowler. Shoaib came back later in the first innings to hit Hayden, who was on his way to a century, on the helmet. “Our joust reached a new level of hostility,” Hayden writes.Yet for a guy who dished it out, he was precious at times when it came back. He went over to Andy Caddick at drinks on the opening day of the 2002-03 Ashes to say hello (politely and seriously, he insists). Caddick blew up and responded with some grumpy abuse, which an angry Hayden channelled into twin centuries.But the biggest back-flip came when the sledger turned whistle-blower and reported an elderly woman for delivering “one of the fiercest tirades I’ve ever copped” as he walked back to the SCG dressing room. After he’d cooled down he spoke to her, got her membership number and told her the behaviour was unacceptable. “It’s so disappointing at a ground I love and respect,” he said without irony. For Hayden there were different rules for each side of the boundary.The lady said she suffered from Tourette’s syndrome, causing her to swear indiscriminately. It was an excuse Hayden never tried. He didn’t need to. Despite his role and reputation, he was never reported because “I just covered my tracks well”.

Hayden often comes across as loathsome and a theme of international opponents is them hating him until getting to know him. Away from the sledging and arrogance he is likeable: flawed, hard-working, sensitive and generous. He was as much a contradiction as he was a hypocrite

Off the field he had fiery arguments with Rod Marsh, who called him “weak” in 1994-95, and Geoff Boycott. While commentating during the 2009 Ashes, Boycott said Hayden and Shane Warne would not have succeeded on uncovered pitches. Hayden felt it was a reasonable assessment of himself but not of Warne, and launched a strong defence, leading to Boycott walking out. What wasn’t mentioned was Hayden’s line that Boycott’s batting “emptied grounds”.Surprisingly, Hayden genuinely comes across as being very cuddly in parts of his life, and is often moved to tears when thinking about his family’s support. The compartmentalising helped make him such a success. Those who supported him at Queensland in the 1990s, when he dominated at domestic level and stuttered during his handful of Test appearances, appreciate the toughness that drove him to the verge of greatness. It turned out that the runs couldn’t come without the impenetrable veneer.Hayden still remembers the sound of Curtly Ambrose hitting his off stump at the MCG in 1996-97 when he shouldered arms. The flashback still makes me shudder, so desperate was I to see him succeed. He writes of people mowing the lawn when he batted for Queensland, because they knew he’d still be in when they were finished. When he played his first seven Tests over six years they did the same thing, because they were too nervous to watch him bat.”I felt like I was walking a tightrope every innings,” he said of his early Australia appearances. “I was full of doubts about the present and the future.” It’s hard to believe that he transformed from being insecure in his 20s to almost indestructible in his 30s. Learning to embrace the pressure, rather than fighting it, slowly changed him, and by the time he went to India in 2001 he was finally established at Test level.Robert Craddock was the ghost writer and he has edited Hayden’s monologues crisply and added the type of descriptive analogies that sparkle in his copy in the Courier-Mail. Bob Simpson is described as having a fascinating mind: “At times it seemed to work like a steel trap; at others like a flapping tent.” In the time between Kepler Wessels’ playing days and his coaching of Chennai in the IPL, “scoring rates had gone from Driving Miss Daisy pace to Formula One”.The light touches ease some of the heavier going. However, there are major exchanges and events, particularly the downfall of his mate Andrew Symonds, that are seriously short of detail. That’s strange for a man with as many words as Hayden. But he has opened up a lot more than his contemporaries, showing his warts. It is not hagiography.Hayden often comes across as loathsome and a theme of international opponents is them hating him until getting to know him. Away from the sledging and arrogance he is likeable: flawed, hardworking, sensitive and generous. He was as much a contradiction as he was a hypocrite.Standing My Ground
by Matthew Hayden
Penguin Australia
416pp, A$49.95

You would normally expect India to romp home against Zimbabwe no matter where the match was being played but history would prove you wrong

George Binoy12-Sep-2005

Rahul Dravid has the best record in Zimbabwe among the current Indian batsmen © Getty Images
India are playing a Test series in Zimbabwe after a gap of four years. And a lot has come to pass during this time. India have scaled never-climbed-before heights during the Ganguly-Wright era and are looking to purge memories of a forgettable season so far in 2005 as they are set to play their first Test series with Greg Chappell as coach.Zimbabwe have plumbed abysmal fantastic depths with controversies of all kinds plaguing their cricket and depriving them of some of their star players. Andy Flower, who averages 94.83 against India, and Henry Olonga were banned after they protested against the Mugabe government. Grant Flower, Guy Whittal, Ray Price and Sean Ervine, among others, fell out with the Zimbabwe cricket board after a dispute over the selection process. Murray Goodwin and Neil Johnson have sought their future in Australia and South Africa respectively.You would normally expect India to romp home against Zimbabwe no matter where the match was being played but history would prove you wrong. India have not won a Test series in Zimbabwe, having drawn the 2001 series at one a piece. Zimbabwe have the better record against India at home, having won two of the four Tests that have been played. India have won just one Test and drew another after conceding a 149-run first innings lead.

India in Zimbabwe

Year Match result Venue

1992 Match drawn Harare 1998 Zimbabwe won by 61 runs Harare 2001 India won by 8 wickets Bulawayo 2001 Zimbabwe won by 4 wickets HarareOf the Indian batsmen on this tour, only Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman have played a Test in Zimbabwe before. Dravid, true to his consistent performances in all countries, has an impressive record whereas Ganguly and Laxman will be hoping to improve on their poor performances in Zimbabwe.

Indian batsmen in Zimbabwe

Batsman Innings Runs/Avg 50s/100s

Dravid 5 300/75 1/1 Laxman 4 101/25.25 0/0 Ganguly 5 97/19.40 0/0

Zimbabwe will hope that Heath Streak will draw on his experience to produce the desired results © Getty Images
Apart from Ajit Agarkar, who keeps making brief returns to the team, the other Indian bowlers have fared pretty well in the few matches that they have played in Zimbabwe. Ashish Nehra, India’s best bowler on the 2001 tour with 11 wickets at 19.72 a piece in two Tests, had to be sent home after the Videocon Cup because of a back injury.

Indian bowlers in Zimbabwe

Bowler Matches Wickets Average

Harbhajan 3 13 26.07 Kumble 2 10 22.30 Zaheer 1 4 24.50 Agarkar 2 3 61.33Most of the Zimbabwean players will be playing a Test series against India for the first time. Heath Streak, Zimbabwe’s workhorse-like spearhead, has an impressive record at home against India with 15 wickets in three Tests at an average of 19.26. India will look to win the series comprehensively but will do well not to take their opponents lightly. Zimbabwe have a lot to prove and a win against India will help silence the growing voices that are calling for their suspension from Test cricket.

Scrivens, Grewcock, Villiers in the runs as habitual stragglers get off to flying start

ECB Reporters Network22-Apr-2023

Abtaha Maqsood claimed five wickets to seal Sunrisers’ first win•Getty Images

Sunrisers 288 for 7 (Villiers 70, Grewcock 69, Scrivens 67) beat Southern Vipers 162 (Bouchier 57, Maqsood 5-30) by 126 runsSunrisers finally won a Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy match at the 21st time of asking as they thrashed two-time winners Southern Vipers by 126 runs.Grace Scrivens, Jodie Grewcock and Mady Villiers all scored half-centuries as Sunrisers totted up 288 at the Ageas Bowl.And despite Maia Bouchier getting off to a flier with 57 off 48 balls, Vipers’ star-studded side folded to Abtaha Maqsood’s five for 30 to get bowled out for 162.Sunrisers had suggested they would be a stronger proposition after a 100 percent record from their five pre-season run-outs, and now have a second victory as a region – following a single Charlotte Edwards Cup success in 2021.Nineteen-year-old Scrivens laid the foundations for the historic victory with a stunning 67.Scrivens will play for England at some point, the question is when? She was the third top run-scorer in last season’s Trophy before setting the Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup on fire with 293 runs in seven innings, with her captaincy helping England to the final.It was no surprise that six of the eight regional captains picked her as the most exciting young player in the competition, with four predicting her to be the PCA’s Domestic Women’s MVP.Any extra expectation on her was shrugged off as she punished England fast bowler Lauren Bell with five boundaries inside the first five overs to start with a bang. Any width was nailed to the boundaries with supreme power.Sunrisers had chosen to bat first and lost Lissy Macleod to a clumsy piece of running, but Scrivens and fellow teenager Grewcock set the foundations for a decent score on a pitch perfect for batting.Northamptonshire-reared Grewcock rotated the strike, while Scrivens cruised to a 64-ball half-century – brought up with a luscious cover drive. The duo added 93 before Scrivens was stumped by the quick hands of Vipers debutant Rhianna Southby.Grewcock took a more active part with Villiers – who was dropped twice early on but motored through the gears. Grewcock reached her maiden professional fifty in 94, balls while Villiers quickly followed in 44 – an innings with included an outrageous six over cover.Their stand of 117 allowed the last ten overs to be used as a thrashing, with 86 runs coming and five wickets coming. Eva Gray clubbed 25 in 14 balls to headline the late-innings fireworks.Linsey Smith picked up three for 59, and whilst Georgia Adams was wicketless, she only conceded 34 in her 10 overs.Ella McCaughan fell swinging Kate Coppack to deep square leg in the fifth over and Georgia Elwiss was scratchy before picking out mid-on.But Bouchier was dominant in her strokeplay to give Vipers some control. She had scored 41 of a 58-run stand with Elwiss, with shots off her legs a real joy.Her fifty came in 39 balls, only to york herself when attempting to advance to Maqsood. Danni Wyatt and Adams fell in quick succession to leave Vipers 111 for five – with three wickets falling for just five runs.Villiers, capped 17 times by England, then bowled Charlie Dean and Linsey Smith in the same over – she ended with three for 52.Maqsood picked up her fourth when Mary Taylor’s leading edge chipped to Coppack before completing her five-for and the victory by bowling Alice Monaghan.

MatériaMais Notícias

A Neo Química Arena será palco do primeiro duelo eliminatório do Corinthians na temporada, quando o clube alvinegro recebe o Ituano pelas quartas de final do Paulistão. O Timão busca alargar o bom retrospecto em jogos mata-mata na Arena.

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+ Giuliano vai renovar com o Timão? Veja 40 nomes do futebol brasileiro em último ano de contrato

Desde que a casa corintiana foi inaugurada, em 2014, o Corinthians já disputou 56 jogos eliminatórios em Itaquera, somando 30 vitórias, 16 empates e 10 derrotas entre partidas de ida, volta e jogos únicos no formato mata-mata, com aproveitamento de 63%

+ Veja as movimentações do mercado da bola no LANCE!

Dessas 56 partidas, 10 foram em jogo único, e o clube carrega 70% de aproveitamento neste tipo de duelo na Arena. Sete vezes o Timão avançou de fase, e três vezes a equipe foi eliminada em casa, com cinco vitórias, quatro empates e uma derrota.

Nesta temporada, o Corinthians ainda não perdeu como mandante e ostenta aproveitamento acima de 80% em Itaquera, com cinco triunfos e um empate.

+ Veja como ficou a tabela e simule o mata-mata do Campeonato Paulista

TABU CONTRA O ITUANO

Além do ótimo retrospecto em casa, o Timão defende um tabu de 16 anos contra o Ituano. A única vitória do Galo de Itu contra o Alvinegro foi em 2007, por 2 a 1, ainda no Pacaembu.

As equipes já se enfrentaram três vezes em Itaquera, com duas vitórias corintianas e um empate.

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Jay Stansfield says it is a "privilege" to work with Tom Brady at Birmingham, with the NFL icon “very accessible” to Blues players.

• American football GOAT owns minority stake
• Stars in new Amazon Prime Video documentary
• Winning mentality brought to St Andrew's

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• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Seven-time Super Bowl winner Brady acquired a minority stake at St Andrew’s in 2023. His first season associated with Birmingham resulted in relegation out of the Championship being suffered – with questions being asked of the decision to appoint Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney as manager.

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  DID YOU KNOW?

  The Blues bounced back by landing the League One title in record-breaking style last term, collecting 111 points, with the £15 million ($20m) transfer fee invested in prolific striker Stansfield delivering an immediate return as he registered 23 goals.

• THE GOSSIP

  Stansfield has gone on to become a European U21 Championship winner with England. He has acquired a taste for success, much like ex-New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Brady, with important lessons being taken from a stakeholder that is well versed in the art of winning.

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  WHAT STANSFIELD SAID

  Stansfield told the of appearing in the new Amazon Prime Video documentary ‘Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues’: “People have an opinion of what you're like from what they see on the pitch and this gives them a chance to see things off the pitch and in training. It will be good for people to watch.

  “It's a privilege to have a name as big as Tom Brady so close to the club. You can contact him whenever you want. If you need motivation, he's always there. He and (chairman) Tom Wagner are very accessible.

  “Tom Brady is very clear. We have our methods and he helps implement them, telling us what a team needs to be successful. As long as we are doing those things right, the football will take care of itself.”

The Gold Coast will host finals because of next week’s Brisbane Test, but the home side remain confident

AAP18-Jan-2024With a chance to host a BBL final on the line, Brisbane Heat captain Nathan McSweeney has backed his allrounders to fire with the bat if required in the qualifying final against Sydney Sixers.The qualifier will be played on the Gold Coast on Friday night and the Heat will not having batting big guns Colin Munro or Sam Billings, who have joined their T20 sides in the UAE. The winners of the sold-out qualifier will host the final on Wednesday.Heat won the 2012 final against Perth at the WACA, their only title, but have never hosted a final.Related

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Bowlers Paul Walter, Matt Kuhnemann and Xavier Bartlett made the BBL team of the tournament. However, none of the Heat batters made the side, and Munro is the only Heat batter in the top 20 run-scorers for the season.That fact does not faze McSweeney. Walter and Bartlett are both handy with the bat, and allrounder Michael Neser recently made a match-winning 64 not out against the Scorchers.”All year everyone has contributed with the bat. We weren’t relying on Munro, Billings, Marnus [Labuschagne] and Usman [Khawaja] the whole time,” McSweeney said.”Neser played an unbelievable innings that won us the game the other night, and Xavier has done it before. Paul Walter has made runs. The confidence is that no matter who we have out there, we can get the job done.”Max Bryant and Jimmy Peirson came in last game and they have had great performances at Big Bash level already. There is no reason they can’t do the same tomorrow.”An unknown quantity is the drop-in pitch and how it will play, with the Gabba being prepared for the second Test against West Indies. Heat have a poor record against the Sixers, with five wins and 13 losses.”A lot of us played last year when we beat them at the SCG on their home track, and that is still in our memories,” McSweeney said. “To have a home [decider] would be awesome. Hopefully we can put a good performance out there and host that final next Wednesday.”The wicket will be slightly tricky as a batting group, but we have a sell-out in front of a Queensland home crowd.”The 24-year-old is regarded as one of Australia’s brightest batting prospects and is ready for the responsibility of being skipper in the absence of Khawaja and Munro.”As a kid I was always captain of the junior teams coming through, and when you are not captain you are thinking like a captain,” McSweeney said. “I have plenty to learn and I have tried to be a sponge learning off Colin Munro, Jimmy Peirson last year and Usman Khawaja. Hopefully I can do a good job and contribute to a win.”