South Africa’s easy series win over New Zealand was proof of their strength in depth and a relentless commitment to maintaining focus

Firdose Moonda in Port Elizabeth14-Jan-2013Less than ten minutes after South Africa had completed back-to-back Test wins at home for the first time since beating Bangladesh 2-0 in 2008, they were already thinking of the next challenge. It was not that remarkable that Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who was not part of the Test squad, was bowling on the St George’s Park practice pitch in the immediate aftermath of the victory, but it was surprising that all the members of the coaching staff were with him.Gary Kirsten, Allan Donald and Russell Domingo along with Paddy Upton and fitness man Rob Walter were all out with Tsotsobe. That left perhaps only the logistics officer Riaan Muller in the change-room to welcome back the successful unit. Maybe there is nothing to that, but it perhaps explained a word that became commonplace during South Africa’s quest for the No. 1 ranking: “processes”.Over the last few series, celebrations have become less exuberant because every achievement is being contextualised as being part of something bigger. After their victory in Perth, which clinched successive series wins in Australia, some of the players flew home immediately. Those who stayed behind had a fairly measured time at a local pub. After the Newlands win, they dispersed immediately, and the same will happen after Port Elizabeth.Family time is prioritised, especially for coach Gary Kirsten, whose youngest child is just over a year old. He has transferred that philosophy to the rest of the squad. In doing that, he has also given them perspective, which will be much needed because of the overwhelming fashion in which they dealt with New Zealand.South Africa would always have expected to win this series. They may not, however, have thought victory would come as easily as it did. In both matches, New Zealand followed the same pattern of rolling over and being heavily defeated. South Africa had to change almost nothing. Even when they made a forced change to their starting XI, it virtually had no effect on the final result.

What the captains said

Graeme Smith: “If you play two Tests and win both by an innings, you’ve outplayed the opposition considerably. Every headline talks about complacency but we didn’t do that. We operated as a really good professional outfit. It would have been really easy to idle along in this series but the bowlers bowled at good pace and intensity and batsman have got runs. The bowlers are just relentless and people are backing each other up. It’s nice to know that we are in that space where we want to keep pushing on and doing well. And it was also good to play our own grounds after a long time away.”
Brendon McCullum: “I’ve never been challenged like that consistently from a group of bowlers. They give away no scoring opportunities. South Africa have got a lot better from when we played against them in March. They’ve managed to keep consistent team and game plan. I really think we came up against a team at the absolute top of the cycle of performance. They never let us get into the game.”

For many, that was proof of South Africa’s depth, and even for others, for whom it wasn’t, it did reveal some positives. Fringe players notching up results against a struggling New Zealand may not be an ideal shop window for what lies in South Africa’s cupboard. But it allowed the likes of Rory Kleinveldt and Dean Elgar to settle on the international stage without the pressures that come with playing in a more competitive outing. Even if neither go on to record streams of success, they have been given the best opportunity to do so because of this experience.Blooding talent was one of the aims of this series; applying themselves ruthlessly was another. South Africa managed both. In the past, they have been known to play to the standard of the opposition, even when it required slumping to it, rather than to their own potential. In this series they did not allow that haze of mediocrity to descend, except for a few overs after tea on the second day of the first Test when New Zealand were given some freebies.The brutality was evident most in the bowling. New-ball spells that were accurate and hostile continually asked questions of the New Zealanders’ technique outside the off stump, and revealed that they had not worked out the art of leaving. Dale Steyn found more swing than he had in the last year and with him moving the ball at pace, New Zealand had a dual challenge.Steyn’s return to his best took the spotlight off Morne Morkel, who caused problems of his own by creating pressure. He was the most economical bowler among the seamers, conceding marginally fewer runs than Steyn. Since the last time Morkel played New Zealand in March 2011, where he took the only six wickets to fall in the second innings of the Wellington Test, he has been more consistent and more destructive. Previously Morkel could be erratic, now he is as miserly as he is mean and that will be key to South Africa’s future success.While the bowlers caused frenetic action, the batsmen were able to restore calm immediately afterwards, showing South Africa’s ability to divorce one part of a match from the other. Alviro Petersen was the first to do that, with his serene century after the madness of the first session in Cape Town, and Hashim Amla delivered one of his typically calm knocks in Port Elizabeth.South Africa’s top four did what New Zealand’s could not. They created situations for their middle order to play with freedom rather than rescue them from impending disaster. Presenting the opportunity is different from taking it, and AB de Villiers led in the creativity stakes along with Faf du Plessis, and then Dean Elgar followed suit.When South Africa review the series, they will conclude that everybody had a good run. If this was a final school examination, everyone would have passed and obtained the necessary points to reach the next level, but obviously not every series will be this easy.South Africa host Pakistan in two weeks for three Tests, and then play them in the United Arab Emirates later in the year, before the home series against India and Australia. What they can take into those challenges besides reputation is form and confidence.The win over New Zealand gave South Africa their fifth consecutive series victory. In that period, they have only lost one match (to Sri Lanka in Durban) and won eight. They are dominating, but will only continue to do so if they are able to maintain the same standards they did against New Zealand and the same refusal to slacken.

A few might even go so far as to argue that these games, along with the 13 ODIs England will play next summer are a cheeky, underhand scheme to discredit further the already-maligned 50-over format by boring the English cricket watching public into

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013

Hello again Confectionery Stallers, and welcome back to the blog after a slightly-earlier-and-longer-than-expected holiday. I signed off the last blog in a flurry of post-Ashes statistical frenzy confidently predicting that I would post the Official Confectionery Stall Ashes Review. I can only apologise for not having done so. A number of things cropped up that prevented me doing so.1. My wife discovered me having a candlelit dinner in a French restaurant with Statsguru. I tried to convince her that it was perfectly innocent, that I just wanted to thank Statsguru for all the help it has selflessly given me through the summer, but only time will tell whether she swallowed it. If she had heard me giggling coyly at all of Statsguru’s jokes, I would have been in big trouble.Anyway, on our family holiday, I was not permitted to take even so much as a copy of with me. I tried to argue that if she was allowed to take two children with her, I was entitled to take two boxes of s with me. My wife, being a lawyer, won the argument convincingly. Even my offer to read her the match reports of England’s series in India in 1981-82 to help her get to sleep was rejected.2. An unscheduled cricketing comeback. Having not played for three years, I strapped on what was left of my cricket kit for the first time since I became a father and took the field for the mighty Penshurst Park in a colossal local derby against Chiddingstone in the Kent Village League. Cricket simply does not come any more intense than that.And what a return for Zaltzman, 34, striding to the wicket with eight overs remaining and Penshurst in need of quick runs, like Odysseus returning from his 20-year war-then-gap-decade extravaganza, surviving the easiest documented missed stumping opportunity on 3, spanking a six over long on that flabbergasted me, my wife, my bat, the ball and those of my team-mates who had seen me bat before, then creaming a cut straight to backward point, deciding the purity of the shot merited at least a single, and being run out by between 12 and 14 yards as the non-striking batsman stared in stationary amazement from comfortably and immovably within his crease.Thus I was out for 17 mesmeric runs following a dazzling display of strokeplay all round the wicket that brought to mind a young Frank Woolley in his pomp, that proved what Mark Ramprakash might have achieved if given the chance at The Oval, that demonstrated once and for all that, while form is temporary, class (or, in this case, an absence of class) is permanent. Chiddingstone luckily fluked the match by seven wickets with about six overs to spare.3. I have been unable to sit still for long enough to type more than three words at a time due to the febrile, adrenaline-surging excitement that rampaged through my body whenever I thought about the forthcoming seven-match one-day series.The Ashes were a tasty if uneven appetite-whetting hors d’oeuvre, but now for the real main-course cricket – a Titanic three-week contest to define once and for all which of the two ancient rivals is the greater cricketing nation. There’s probably a trophy for it as well, although no-one is quite sure. And it might affect the ICC rankings too, although no-one knows how they work or what they mean. And there are crucial psychological points to be scored in the build-up to the 2010-11 and 2013 Ashes. And personal cricketing immortality awaits for any player who can send down ten tidy overs or smack a crucial 30 off 20 balls. England against Australia – cricket at its unquenchable greatest.As I write, three matches in, the series has yet to fully explode into the shimmering majesty the world had expected.Some may argue that waiting for this series to erupt is like sitting on top of a small hill in Gloucestershire wearing a heat-proof bodysuit while muttering: “Now for a spot of volcano surfing.” Others may suggest that these seven games represent that crassest example of scheduling in cricketing memory, further proof that those who run the game have no discernible soul. A few might even go so far as to argue that these games, along with the 13 (thirteen) (yes, thirteen) (I’m not joking, thirteen) one-day internationals England will play next summer are a cheeky, underhand scheme to discredit further the already-maligned 50-over format by boring the English cricket watching public into going to watch some crown-green bowling.But for now, let us cast such cynics aside, and luxuriate in the mellifluous rhythmsand majestic drama of England struggling to hit the ball off the square and Australia playing adequately enough to win easily.4. The Ashes defied analysis. On reflection, there was nothing much to it. There was no great masterplan cunningly executed, no merciless exploitation of opposition weakness. Both sides played two good matches, and two bad ones. Australia failed to capitalise on one of their two good ones, but probably would have done but for rain.England showed considerable mental resilience to rebound from their staggering ineptitude at Leeds and play an excellent match at The Oval, but only after showing considerable mental frailty to plumb those depths in the first place and necessitate a subsequent display of mental resilience. Having previously displayed similar frailty at Cardiff and similar resilience at Lord’s.The pattern of the series suggested that if there had been a sixth Test, Australia would have waltzed it. And if there had then been a seventh, England would have trounced their old enemy and regained the Ashes in a blaze of unexpected glory.If both sides had played well simultaneously, we could have seen a great Test. If both sides had played badly simultaneously, we could have seen one of the all-time classics.5. I lost my pen.6. I’ve been working out some stats about how regularly teams score centuries and half-centuries in one-day internationals. And how regularly they concede them. Don’t tell the missus. Please. More on this later, when she’s out of the house. Okay, since you insist, here’s a little taster: since the 2007 series with India, England have amassed three hundreds in 37 games, comfortably the fewest of any major Test nations (and one per 105 innings played by their batsmen − excluding Pietersen, the rest have scored one century, by Strauss, in 288 innings).However, England’s bowlers have only conceded five in that time – only South Africa (a measly one) have conceded fewer. So while England might not know how to play entertaining 50-over cricket themselves, but they also know how to stop their opponents doing so. Which possibly explains why that Gloucestershire volcano remains resolutely dormant.

Hamish Rutherford’s memorable debut takes the mind back to his father’s, and those from other cricketing dynasties in New Zealand

Steven Lynch16-Mar-2013I wrote here a few weeks ago about veterans, and how they seem to be getting younger all the time. And then something happened that made me feel a bit of a veteran myself: the son of someone I knew quite well went out and scored a Test century.We’re not talking Comptons here: I’m not quite old enough to have seen Denis play, although I was lucky enough to meet Nick’s grandfather a few times. I remember feeling inordinately chuffed when, on bumping into him again a few minutes after our initial introduction, I received a genial “Hello, old boy.”No, the relative in question is Hamish Rutherford, who took England apart on his debut in Dunedin a few weeks ago with a superb 171. He professes to be “as blind as a bat” without his contact lenses, but didn’t seem to have too much trouble seeing England’s bowlers in his first Test. Some of his left-handed drives were reminiscent of another son of a Test-playing father, Mark Butcher, who just occasionally touched greatness – Headingley 2001, Brisbane 1998-99 – in the quality of his play straight down the ground. It was something his dad, Alan, never quite matched during a long and successful county career (plus one precious England cap).Hamish Rutherford’s father, Ken, was an early winner of a scholarship from the New Zealand board which sent a promising youngster to Lord’s each year. I was working on the cricket side there at the time, and welcomed him in on his first day in 1984. A couple of years previously the scholarship winner had been Martin Crowe: the contrast between the two was quite striking. Crowe was intense, dedicated to cricket, and anxious to play at every opportunity. He’d been asked to send written reports of what he’d been doing back to New Zealand; he dutifully trotted round to the pavilion every week or so, and asked me to photocopy them and send them off.Rutherford was rather less preoccupied. I don’t recall any written reports at all, although it’s possible the NZ board had stopped asking for them. He was much more laidback, and seemed intent on enjoying life in London. When I later discovered that he liked to bet on the horses, I wasn’t entirely surprised.But both Crowe and Rutherford could play. Crowe remains probably the greatest batsman New Zealand has produced, able to execute the on-drive – possibly the hardest shot of all to get right – as well as anyone I’ve ever seen, apart perhaps from Greg Chappell (actually much of Crowe’s cricket, even his bowling, was Chappell-like). Ken Rutherford was a fine driver too, but more of a square-of-the-wicket player. That’s higher-risk stuff, and partially helps explain why his Test average was 27 while Crowe’s was 45.They both had difficult introductions to Test cricket. Although Crowe was obviously a class act, he was still only 19 when he was named for the home series against Australia in 1981-82, less than six months after that Lord’s stint finished. The Aussie new-ball pair was Jeff Thomson and Terry Alderman, with a rather handy first-change called Dennis Lillee: Crowe predictably struggled, managing scores of 9, 2 0, and 9. A chapter in his autobiography about his debut series was simply entitled “Way too soon”.Rutherford, though, managed to draw an even shorter straw for his first series: he was called up to tour the Caribbean in 1984-85, when the West Indian “mean machine” was at the height of its powers. Rutherford, also 19, was included in the first Test after a century in a warm-up game, and faced a bowling attack of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Joel Garner. Not the gentlest of introductions – especially when he was asked to open.

“That first Test innings I survived for 20 minutes. It seemed a lifetime. I was out off a bat-pad from the bowling of Marshall. I didn’t score a run”Ken Rutherford on batting against a fearsome West Indies

“That first Test innings I survived for 20 minutes,” he later wrote. “It seemed a lifetime. I was out off a bat-pad from the bowling of Marshall. I didn’t score a run.”He didn’t score a run in the second innings either – or face a ball. Rutherford’s pair was sealed after he was run out without facing when John Wright tried a quick single to Roger Harper, the best fielder in the world at the time.Rutherford’s maiden series didn’t improve much: 4 in the second Test, 0 and 2 in the third, and 1 and 5 in the fourth, for a not-so-grand total of 12 runs at an average of 1.71. “The scars from that tour stayed with me for a very long time,” he admitted in his autobiography, an entertaining read entitled A Hell of a Way to Make a Living. In the circumstances, that career average of 27 wasn’t too bad: his next innings was 65 against Australia, and he eventually scored three Test centuries – and a rollicking 317 in a match in the Scarborough Festival at the end of New Zealand’s 1986 tour of England, an innings that included 199 between lunch and tea.Ken Rutherford, like Martin Crowe, went on to captain New Zealand. Both of them should have had longer Test careers: Crowe’s was blighted by injury, latterly a serious knee problem, while Rutherford was dumped after a modest run and went off to South Africa to play for Transvaal.And now Hamish Rutherford has arrived. He does look a good player, although he’s clearly not, as their respective Test debuts might suggest, really 171 times better than his dad. New Zealand Test cricket has a rich history of families: Martin Crowe’s brother Jeff also captained them, Chris Cairns followed his father Lance into the national side and outdid his achievements, and there have been Hadlees and Bracewells galore, among many others. Ken Rutherford’s brother Ian – Hamish’s uncle – himself had a distinguished career with Central Districts and Otago, although he never quite cracked the Test side.One word of warning, though: England’s bowling looked undercooked – or do I mean under-Cooked? – in Dunedin: Hamish Rutherford may never clatter 171 again. Let’s hope, though, that it’s not a reverse of New Zealand’s Redmond saga: Rodney (another left-hander) announced his arrival in Test cricket with 107 and 56 against Pakistan in Auckland in February 1973… and never won another cap, for various reasons, chief among them an inability to adapt from glasses to contact lenses. Rodney’s son, Aaron, made his Test debut in England in 2008, and collected a duck: in his seventh Test, against Australia in Adelaide later that year, he made his top score of 83… and, in accordance with family tradition, hasn’t played again since.

They will find it easier to get the best out of the big Indian contingents in the IPL squads, and form a stronger connect with the crowds

Krish Sripada, India09-May-2013There is a reason why IPL is spelt with an ‘I’. The big stars are roped in, the celebrities make an entry and the cheerleaders try their best to drag our attention away from the action. At its core though, it still is a platform to let local players mingle with the big stars from other countries. India’s international commitments have made it impossible for their top players to participate in the Ranji Trophy. The IPL ensures that local players get to share the dressing room with their idols – cricketers whose posters have adorned their walls in their formative years. An Indian captain for each IPL franchise would have been the icing on the cake. That hasn’t quite transpired, though.Rajasthan Royals, because of their lack of resources, handed the reins to Shane Warne, a tactical genius, an astute student of the game and a charmer. Soon, Kings XI Punjab followed suit, handing Kumar Sangakkara the baton, a move that perhaps adversely impacted Yuvraj Singh’s returns in the IPL.IPL 2013 has an interesting mix. Chennai, Rajasthan, Kolkata and Bangalore went for Indian captains. Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Punjab went for foreign options. The message was loud and clear from the team owners: local players don’t possess the tactical nous and ability of the foreign players. Interestingly, the Indian captains have outperformed their foreign counterparts. Mumbai Indians turned it around midway with Ricky Ponting dropping himself, allowing Rohit Sharma to take over. Coincidentally, the team has responded with three wins in four games. Delhi, Pune and Punjab are languishing on the wrong side of the table. The results perhaps don’t say much about the abilities of the respective captains, but there are a few points worth delving into.One reason why captaincy is an important consideration is the mix of players – four foreigners and seven Indians per XI. Most squads have a huge Indian contingent, so you’d expect communication channels to work far more smoothly with an Indian at the helm. Given the professional grounding that the foreign players already have, they would find it easier to work with an Indian captain compared to local players having to deal with foreign captains. Players will always respond better to a captain who can pronounce their names perfectly, no offence given or taken.All the teams have huge contingents for man management and planning. In such a scenario, the captain’s job doesn’t really imitate the pressure-cooker situation of international cricket. The IPL is a great opportunity to groom leaders, and a wonderful testing ground of their maturity. Bangalore did that by handing Virat Kohli the captaincy, instead of taking the easier option of going with AB de Villiers. Perhaps, a lesson was learnt when Anil Kumble swung their fortunes around after a disastrous start to the 2009 campaign under Kevin Pietersen. Kohli commands the respect of his team on the strength of his batting and fielding. What he lacks in experience, he makes up in flair and passion. De Villiers and Chris Gayle aren’t too far for a quick word either. Surely in years to come, the heir-apparent to Indian captaincy will ruminate upon the lessons learnt in the IPL.Mumbai took a bold step with Rohit at a crucial juncture and it seems to have paid off. Had Ponting been more successful with the bat, we wouldn’t have seen Rohit in this role. Mumbai have got into a winning run under him, and Rohit’s batting has also blossomed.With Shikhar Dhawan back from injury, perhaps the Sunrisers should’ve considered him as a captain. Neither Cameron White nor Kumar Sangakkara has consistently figured in the playing XI. With Angelo Matthews standing down as Pune captain, it might be a good idea to give Yuvraj another run to see if he can rediscover his batting touch. Of all the teams, Delhi is the only one that probably has no choice, Virender Sehwag being reluctant to lead.The IPL is at an interesting point in its evolution. The third auction will initiate a new round of shuffling, with players changing colours and loyalties. What the IPL has lacked so far is the long-term fan loyalty that is seen in football. Chennai and Mumbai have the most loyal fan following – helped by the fact that they retained more players than any of the other franchises in the first reshuffle. Perhaps there’s a message there for the other franchises.An Indian captain will find it easier to get the best out of the Indian contingent, and will also get the crowds going. Additionally, he will definitely fuel fan loyalty. Even if one wants to be a die-hard fan of the Delhi, for example, it is hard to not support RCB led by a Delhi lad when pitted against Jayawardene’s Daredevils.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line

In a line-up filled with batsmen seemingly built for Twenty20 cricket, Michael Hussey has proved the most important cog

Siddarth Ravindran25-May-2013Most of the best Twenty20 batsmen are all about big shots and flamboyance. Chris Gayle’s innings are likely to be remembered for brutal hits onto the roof, MS Dhoni for helicopter shots, Shane Watson for ultra-effective slog sweeps that send the ball sailing over midwicket and AB de Villiers for sheer mind-boggling innovation.This season’s highest run-getter, however, has been Michael Hussey, who manages to combine consistency and efficiency with an almost anonymous brand of batting.Despite 700-plus runs this season, perhaps the batting sequence that will be most recalled and Youtubed will be the three successive reprieves he had from Kieron Pollard at point. Just as in his international career, Hussey continues to collect his runs unobtrusively, with protractor placement and without the flash that marks most game-changing Twenty20 innings.It helps that Chennai Super Kings have the batting firepower that is the envy of the league. Suresh Raina has been the most consistent batsman over six seasons of the IPL and is yet to miss a match. Dhoni is widely acknowledged as one of the best finishers in the game. M Vijay has repeatedly shown his ability to play decisive innings in the playoffs, while Albie Morkel and Dwayne Bravo can hit the ball as long as anyone in the tournament.That stockpile means Hussey isn’t under pressure to come out all-guns blazing, and can take a few overs to assess the conditions. His role has been to provide stability at the top before the power-hitters take over in the second half. The Super Kings’ winning mantra of scoring 60 in the first half of the innings before pillaging more than a 100 in the final ten has been perfected based on Hussey’s all-surface batting.Versatility has long been a hallmark of Hussey’s batting. He effortlessly slotted in the Australia middle order after many years in the domestic circuit as an opener, and adeptly switched gears when called upon as a finisher in limited overs. That flexibility has been in abundant display this IPL season as well.When he has had to set up a target, as in the playoff match against Mumbai Indians, he does the early groundwork before joining in the run spree later on. But when confronted with a big chase, as against Rajasthan Royals, he has turned to a more expansive game, dishing out boundaries from the start.The fluid game has been complemented with a staggering consistency, a rare quality in the Twenty20 format. In nine of his 16 innings this season he has reached 40 at least nine times, and has only three single-digit scores.The sustained run stems from a deep knowledge of his game, and a range of strokes that makes it impossible to stop him from scoring. Plenty of his early boundaries come through punches through point or cover, and when the time comes for the big hits, his trusted shot is the shovel to the leg side, which nets him sixes in the arc from long-on to midwicket. While he relies on the orthodox most times, he can pull out the reverse-sweep when needed or innovate by moving across the stumps and tucking the ball past short fine as he did repeatedly against Lasith Malinga.The barrage of runs has meant that Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s Twenty20 captain and a man who has grown rapidly in stature since his successful stint with Super Kings last year, has been confined to the bench all season even after regaining full fitness.This is only the second time that Hussey has been available for the entire season, with his Australia commitments keeping him away on several occasions. He was around for the 2011 season, when again he was again the highest run-getter for Super Kings and topped off the season with a 159-run stand with Vijay that virtually guaranteed a second straight IPL title. He will seek a similar finish this time as well.

He knows what being humiliated in the Ashes feels likes so James Anderson wants to show no mercy in this series to avenge the whitewash of 2006-07

George Dobell 23-Jul-2013It has come to something when an England player is asked if he feels sympathy for an Australian opponent. But so relentless are the misfortunes afflicting the Australian team that one of the architects of their downfall, James Anderson, was asked just that.On one hand it is understandable. Not only have the current Australian squad suffered poor results, they have seen their leading fast bowler withdraw through injury and the coach with whom they started the tour sacked and instigate legal action against their employer. And, all the time, it has become increasingly obvious they are confronted with a superior opponent. With eight more Tests looming between these teams before mid-January, there is a fear that things could turn ugly.But, unsurprisingly, Anderson was pitiless. A member of the England side humiliated 5-0 in the Ashes series of 2006-07 – one of the lowest ebbs in England’s Test history – Anderson has experienced the downside of a life in professional sport and knows that, if the boot was on the other foot, it would not stop kicking.”I don’t really feel any sympathy, to be honest,” Anderson said. “Our job is to win games of cricket. We want to win the series 5-0 and we will be doing everything we can in each game to win.”Memories like losing 5-0 have helped us since then. It’s not a great place for a team to be, being on the end of one of those defeats, so everything we focus on is trying to win every game and hopefully if we keep doing that we will be in a good position at the end of the series.”The bad news for Australia is that Anderson feels that England are yet to play at their best. Their failure to finish off the Australian tail – 10th-wicket partnerships have currently accounted for nearly 30% of the runs Australia have scored in the series – and some fragility in England’s top order – they were 28 for 3 and 30 for 3 in each innings at Lord’s – should ensure there is no complacency and means several players go into the third Test with plenty to prove.Anderson also insisted that, even if England went 3-0 or even 4-0 up over the next few weeks, he would resent being rested from an Ashes Test.”We are happy with the cricket we are playing,” Anderson said. “But there are improvements we can make. We were 30 for 3 in both innings at Lord’s and we have not been perfect with the ball, either. Those 10th-wicket stands are a pain in the backside really and we want to end them.”At the same time when we have been in tough positions we have been able to get out of them so that is positive and there have been some great individual performances as well. That is put to one side now. We have to concentrate on Old Trafford.”

“Cricket is huge in the north of England and I hate Headingley so it is good to play a Test at Old Trafford.”James Anderson on going back to his home ground

Playing a Test at Old Trafford will be special for Anderson. He has only played three Tests on his home ground and was part of the delegation who lobbied for the club to be given planning permission despite a succession of challenges and is delighted to see Ashes cricket returned to Manchester.”It will be lovely to play at Old Trafford,” Anderson said. “It has been eight years since the ground had an Ashes Test so it is very exciting and I am looking forward to it.”Cricket is huge in the north of England and I hate Headingley so it is good to play a Test at Old Trafford. There is so much history at the ground and it was in need of a lick of paint, so I think it is going to be an amazing atmosphere. It looks fantastic. There was a genuine threat to its future. If they didn’t have the money they couldn’t have afforded to do it up and it was looking a bit aged I guess.”Anderson, who was speaking at a Jaguar promotion day, is not convinced that the gap between the England and Australia teams is as big as some are suggesting. He admits that England have, at times, found it hard to gain breakthroughs with the ball, but they have retained their composure, stuck to their plans and, ultimately, won rewards for their efforts.”We knew it was going to be difficult and we’ve found it hard at times, but we have always managed to stay calm,” he said. “We have put a lot of pressure on them with the ball and that is all we can concentrate on. The rest is out of our hands. We just have to try to maintain the pressure we put them under.”We’ve bowled very well and they have had partnerships in both games, but I think we’ve just stuck to our task really well. We’ve had good plans and executed them really well so far and not really let them get away from us and that is crucial to maintain going forward.”James Anderson was test driving the new Jaguar XFR-S. For more information visit www.jaguar.com

Joe Root is the adorable nephew of English cricket and when he bats it is almost impossible to suppress a smile

Rob Smyth01-Jul-2013Sport is unlike most addictions. If you really care about the outcome of a game, most of the time you spend watching it will be miserable. Even the celebrations of the good times – a wicket, a goal or a try – usually involve an angry yell or a clenched fist. The outcome is often joyous, the process rarely so. Except when you watch Joe Root bat.It is hard to remember the last time it was such sheer fun to watch an English cricketer. Top sportsmen usually engage the spine or the hairs of the back of the neck rather than the jowls, but when Root bats it is almost impossible to suppress a smile. He is the adorable nephew of English cricket.Nothing in sport has quite the same charm as the emergence of a talented young player, yet Root’s impact extends way beyond that. He combines qualities that, if not quite mutually exclusive, are generally hard for most human beings to synchronise. He personifies youth yet is obviously mature beyond his years; he is the head boy who is also a bit of a rascal; he’s a nice person yet clearly not to be messed with; he bats like the whole thing is a wonderful lark, yet is furious when he is dismissed. There is considerable depth to his character. In a recent interview with Root, his under-13 coach Jack Bethel described him as “a bloody brilliant advert for young people”.The fact Root looks so young would be much less noteworthy were it not accompanied by such infectious effervescence and indefinable charisma. It is painfully obvious that Root has got it, as a cricketer and a human being. He captures what it is to be young, talented and having the time of your life. When he celebrates a catch or a wicket, it feels like the whole crowd celebrates a bit more because it’s him. Root’s is a warm, happy story with no catch. He reminds us that the word “sport” used to have a much broader definition.This is not to say Root is naïve or a dreamer. Quite the contrary. He has a quiet steel that evokes Mike Atherton, and his innate toughness is almost more intimidating because of the way he looks. Root’s toughness is part of his startling maturity. His walk to the wicket isn’t exactly in Viv Richards territory but it is striking in its purpose. He bustles to the crease like somebody who has received a formal invitation to make himself at home and who has a secret cure for nervousness.On his Test debut, he sauntered out like he was off on his paper round. “It was just the confidence that he walked out to bat with in his debut Test match in India, two spinners bowling, from each end, we’d just lost a wicket or a couple of wickets,” Kevin Pietersen said last week. “He walked out with a smile on his face, and went, ‘All right lad, you okay, you’re playing well there.’ And I was like, ‘Mate! I’ve played 90-odd Test matches and I don’t walk out like that.’ But it’s brilliant for English cricket, absolutely brilliant.” Pietersen is in agreement with everyone else: there’s something about Joe.

As bubbly as he is, Root is not the owner of a batting bubble; he invariably adjusts his innings to the demands of the team

He has only been an international cricketer for seven months. He has played 26 innings, none in his natural position of opener, instead showing the adaptability of a veteran utility man. It’s not often the case that you shuffle a batting order to ease a young player into the side, yet England are happy for Root to bat anywhere. He has been given an extraordinary level of responsibility – England trusted him to run almost before he could walk – and has justified it at every turn.His selflessness and resourcefulness are also those of an established star. As bubbly as he is, Root is not the owner of a batting bubble; he invariably adjusts his innings to the demands of the team. On his Test debut he had the patience to make 73 from 229 balls with only four fours on a lifeless Nagpur track; in a low-scoring, slow-scoring Test against New Zealand at Lord’s in May he made a match-winning 71 from 120 balls in the second innings; in the following Test, after becoming the first Yorkshire batsman to make his maiden Test century at Headingley, he showed no regard for his average in making 28 from 22 balls to set up a declaration. He often takes greater risks than his senior partners for the good of the team and regularly starts an innings aggressively, particularly in his running between the wickets, to wrest the initiative.If Root’s understanding of the game and awareness are extraordinary, so is his self-assurance. The level of media attention after he was punched by David Warner would have paralysed many 22-year-olds; in his first innings after that incident he made a jaunty 55-ball 68 against Sri Lanka. Root is a three-dimensional batsman, with the game for all formats, yet you would struggle to recall too many of his shots in his burgeoning international career. He has left more expansive talents in his slipstream because there is such obvious substance to his work. His greatest quality at the crease is his decision-making; he hardly ever makes the wrong one. That may seem almost mundane, but excellence is often the unspectacular repetition of simple achievement.All of this is why there are few concerns about Root opening in the Ashes. Ordinarily it would be seen as a huge risk to feed a 22-year-old to the big, bad Australian wolf, but everything Root has done so far suggests there will be no problem. And even if there is, you would expect him to find a way round it. Root’s performances so far bring to mind Alex Ferguson’s assessment of the teenage Paul Scholes: “If he doesn’t make it, we might as well all pack up and go home.” Root is surely going to score thousands of Test runs. But it’s the way he scores them that will provide the greatest pleasure.

How the players involved a dismissal in a match played 123 years ago in Dublin found themselves figuring in the fight for Irish independence

Liam Herringshaw03-Sep-2013″Serious sport,” George Orwell once wrote, “has nothing to do with fair play. It is war minus the shooting.”In cricket history, this has been proved true a few times. However, a remarkable object in the National Museum of Ireland collection shows that, occasionally, Orwell’s claim actually isn’t bold enough: a crafted piece of willow with a .303 calibre bullet lodged in its midriff, known with some affection as The Cricket Bat That Died For Ireland.If symbolic of Anglo-Irish relations at the turn of the 20th century*, the shot bat also helps reveal the strange, sad role that Ireland’s cricketers played in the country’s struggles for self-government.The most extraordinary tale comes from an 1890 match between the national team and the nomadic amateur club I Zingari. To claim that one dismissal could encapsulate the story of Irish independence sounds ridiculous. However, it does, and it happened 123 years ago this week, at Phoenix Park, Dublin, when Prince Christian Victor was caught by Frank Browning off the bowling of George Berkeley.The dismissal itself was fairly unremarkable: a catch at the wicket off a left-arm bowler. The reasons that make it so significant are the three young protagonists and the way their lives entwined again with tragic consequences more than two decades later.The 23-year-old batsman, Prince Christian Victor, was an officer of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, having joined the army after leaving school. He would go on to serve under Lord Kitchener in Sudan and then fight in the Second Boer War in South Africa, where, in Pretoria in 1900, he contracted malaria and died, aged 33.As a consequence, his direct role in the eventual independence of Ireland was minimal, but it was his status that matters to the story. For Prince Christian Victor – or, more properly, Prince Victor Albert Ludwig Ernest Anton Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (his family called him “Christle”) – was the Windsor Castle-born grandson of Queen Victoria, and “a great favourite” of hers.As a royal soldier, he could barely have been more redolent of the British establishment. For good measure, though, he was also the only member of the British Royal Family ever to play first-class cricket, at Scarborough in 1887, three years before the I Zingari match.The bowler – George Fitz-Hardinge Berkeley, an Oxford scholar aged just 20 – wasn’t quite of such high birth, though he also went on to become a British officer in the Boer War. Berkeley was nonetheless an Irishman, a major’s son from Dublin, and became strongly supportive of Home Rule, the move to devolve at least some British parliamentary powers to a government based in Ireland.On the cricket field, Berkeley was a very fine left-arm medium-pacer, taking 131 wickets in 32 first-class games, including 8 for 70 on debut for Oxford University against the Australians in 1890. In the portentous Phoenix Park match later that year, he claimed figures of 11 for 75, yet it was one of only two games he would play for his native country.The pivotal figure in this story, though, is the 22 year-old wicketkeeper, Frank “Chicken” Browning. Quite why he was nicknamed thus is unclear, for if there was one thing he wasn’t, it was cowardly. Born in Dun Laoghaire in 1868, Browning went to Marlborough College and then Dublin University, playing cricket for both institutions. He made his Ireland debut in 1888 against Scotland, and represented his country for the next 21 years.Browning was captain 13 times, including for a 1907 game against the South Africans, a 1908 match versus Yorkshire, and – coming full circle – a clash with Scotland in 1909.A reliable batsman as well as gloveman, Browning made a fine 50 against WG Grace’s South of England XI in June 1890, and 40 and 31 in a famous victory over the South Africans in 1904. He fared less well in the I Zingari game, scoring 19 and 6. However, he did manage to stump Prince Christian Victor in the first innings, when Berkeley took 7 for 20, before combining with Berkeley to claim the Prince’s scalp in the second too. Ireland won by three wickets.At the time of that match, Home Rule in Ireland was the dominant issue of Anglo-Irish politics. In 1886, a first bill had been presented to the House of Commons, which rejected the motion. A second proposal, in 1893, was passed by the Commons but then vetoed by the House of Lords. Nationalists began to suspect that Home Rule would never be forthcoming, while Unionists, particularly in Ulster, feared it was on its way. Tensions were always close to the surface.A view of Sackville Street and the River Liffey in the aftermath of the Easter Rising in Dublin•PA PhotosBoth Browning and Berkeley became barristers, the former in Dublin, the latter in London. Still keen to promote the cause, Berkeley joined the council of the London Committee of Irish Volunteers, with another Irish veteran of the Boer War, Erskine Childers. Together with Nationalist Party leader John Redmond they supported Home Rule, but Berkeley did not believe that physical force should be used to achieve it, nor that Ireland should become a republic.In 1914, with members of Prince Christian Victor’s extended family taking the world to war, matters came to a head.At the outbreak of hostilities, Browning, now president of the Irish Rugby Football Union, helped establish the IRF Corps. Those young enough for active service were sent to Gallipoli, while the older members – including Browning – stayed behind as a Home Guard. Thanks to their age and the fact their guns had the king’s name in Latin emblazoned upon them, the men became known as the Gorgeous Wrecks.If avoiding the unspeakable horrors of the eastern Mediterranean might have seemed a good thing, though, events were soon to bring carnage to the streets of Dublin.Fearful of civil unrest, the British government had banned the importation of weapons into Ireland early in 1914, but more than 20,000 guns were smuggled from Germany into Ulster shortly afterwards to arm the Unionist volunteers. Concerned by this, Berkeley and supporters funded the purchase of 1000 German rifles, which were shipped into Howth, just north of Dublin, to ensure the Irish Volunteers could defend themselves.Regardless of Berkeley’s exact take, the push for independence gathered momentum. In the spring of 1916, having appealed to Germany for direct support, the Irish Volunteer Force united with the Irish Citizen Army, led by James Connolly, to form a republican militia. They planned an Easter insurrection, and the Germans sent a huge shipment of captured Russian arms to assist in its success.The weapons were intercepted by the British Navy on April 21, but despite this, the leadership pressed on with the plans. On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, taking command of various key buildings across central Dublin, Connolly and the republican leadership issued a proclamation of Irish independence. The Easter Rising had begun.That weekend, Browning and the Gorgeous Wrecks had been on a weekend practice drill outside Dublin. On Easter Monday, they paraded their way back to the Beggars Bush barracks close to the Lansdowne Road rugby stadium, oblivious to what had unfolded.Near the Mount Street Bridge across the Grand Canal, republican soldiers – led by James Grace and Lieutenant Michael Malone – were holed up in a series of houses overlooking this strategic junction. They had taken position to guard the area; to prevent any British soldiers entering the heart of the city.As Browning’s men approached, Malone and Grace presumed them to be the British Army and began shooting at them. Having only been on a practice drill, the Gorgeous Wrecks had no loaded weapons. Taken completely by surprise, they could not return fire. In panic, they ran towards the barracks, but many did not make it. By the time the rebels understood the reality of the situation and stopped firing, four of the IRF Corps had been mortally wounded.The road was strewn with bodies, and startled locals dashed out to help. It was too late for Browning, though. He was taken to Beggars Bush and died there two days later, the only first-class cricketer to be killed in the Rising: shot by a German rifle, but far from the Western Front.As if in parallel, while Browning lay dying, the cricket bat was added to the Rising’s victims. On display in the window of JW Elvery & Co, Sackville Street, where the fighting was fiercest, it was hit on the 25th or 26th of April. Ironically, the bullet calibre shows it was fired by the British.The front page of the carries the news of the Easter Rising, April 26, 1916•Getty ImagesSo, more than a quarter of a century after the catch, the wicketkeeper was killed by a gun the bowler bought to help liberate their country from the rule of the batsman’s family. Berkeley was said to be “horrified” by events, but a man who purchased the armaments could hardly absolve himself of all responsibility for how they were used.Across Dublin, the Rising saw 64 rebels, 116 soldiers and 254 civilians killed, but the republicans were vastly outnumbered by the British army, and after six days, the authorities eventually reclaimed control.If the uprising had been shocking to most Dubliners, many of whom disapproved of the tactics, the British response was perhaps more so. With Dublin under military rule, most of the leaders were swiftly executed, inadvertently helping to cement public support for the Irish cause.The 1918 UK elections saw a swathe of republican MPs elected to the British parliament, a second declaration of independence, and a full-blown war. Finally, in 1922, Ireland became a republic.Almost nine decades on, despite many ups and downs, stability has prevailed. The political response to Ireland’s successes at the 2007 World Cup (the photo shows unionist Ian Paisley and republican Martin McGuinness celebrating) showed that cricket can be a power to unite the country rather than divide.As will be apparent on Tuesday, though, having your own sovereignty is one thing, sporting independence quite another. Ireland host England in Dublin with one of their own as opposition captain, and another as a recent acquisition. On the cricket field at least, the march of Irish progress still has some way to go.Whatever happens, though, hopefully there will never be another moment with quite such fateful repercussions as that dismissal at Phoenix Park in August 1890.*Sports scholar Sean Reid argues that, contrary to perception, cricket was not seen as “English” and that it was actually very popular in Ireland in the 19th century. In the 1860s and ’70s, he suggests, only in England and Australia was the game played more widely and to a higher standard.

On the train, under water, while chewing your food or sloganeering, these milestone numbers for the Oval Test won’t let you down

Andy Zaltzman20-Aug-2013This week’s blog features some potential statistical milestones for which to look out in the fifth and final Test at The Oval this week. Use them, either predictively, before they actually occur, or with disconcerting speed as soon as they do, in order to impress and/or intimidate your friends, loved ones, work colleagues, dentist, accountant, origami instructor, jailer, dog, priest, mortal enemy, jury, self, midwife, member of parliament, or hostage. Or simply unfurl them to random passers-by, as and when the opportunity arises.Stat: Ian Bell has scored 500 runs in the first four Tests. This currently puts him ninth on the all-time list of highest England run-scorers in a home Ashes series. He only needs 63 more runs, however, to leap up to third in that table, overtaking Denis Compton’s 1948 tally of 562. Leading the way are Gower (732 in 1985) and Gooch (673 in 1993) – both of which were in six-Test series.Suggested use: Romantic picnic. The mental image of Bell’s mellifluous but steely batting is the perfect accompaniment to a cooling glass of white wine.Back-up stat: Extraordinarily, this is only the second victorious home Ashes in which an English batsman has scored 500 runs – Gower and Gatting both passed the half-thousand mark in 1985. “The Sledgehammer has dispensed his Eternal Justice with a just vengeance this series, wouldn’t you think? Now leave me alone, Mr Salesman, or I will make you watch my Gary Kirsten videos.”Stat: Alastair Cook currently averages 27.25 in this series, despite having scored three half-centuries in eight innings. Of the 1339 times that a batsman has reached 50 three or more times in a series, Cook’s average is currently the fourth lowest ever. If he is out twice and scores 28 runs or fewer, or is out once for less than 4, he will overtake Rizwan-uz-Zaman’s 24.62, currently the lowest series average by a batsman with three half-centuries. The lowest average with four half centuries is Graham Gooch’s 27.6 in the West Indies in 1986 – so if Cook scores, say, 57 and 0, he will snatch that record from his Essex and England predecessor.Suggested use: Marriage guidance counselling. Always best to get these things out in the open and discuss them like adults.Stat: If Joe Root fails to score a half-century in either innings, he will become only the third England batsman to have played an entire home Ashes series, scored a hundred, and failed to pass 50 on any other occasion. Johnny Tyldesley did so in 1902, and Patsy Hendren in 1926, but, due to rain, played only seven and six innings respectively. Root has already played eight innings. History beckons for the young man.Suggested use: Defuse awkward silence on a stalled bus or train.Stat: England’s bowlers have taken six five-wicket hauls in the series so far, the first time they have done so in an Ashes since 1986-87. If one of their bowlers takes five in an innings at The Oval, it will be the first series in which England have managed seven five-fors since the 1934 Ashes – the only time they have done so since the First World War.Suggested use: Letter home. The parameters for what is worth writing home about have changed irreparably since the advent of email and social networking. If you are going to write an old-style physical letter home, you want to make it count.Stat: The early-series deluge of tenth-wicket runs has dried up a little, but the aggregate of 422 is still the third highest ever in a Test series. Nine more runs will see the 2013 Ashes surpass its 1894-95 micro-urn predecessor. The record tally of 458, in the 1924-25 Ashes, is well within reach.Suggested use: Proving sobriety to a nightclub bouncer. In the doorman fraternity, numerically detailed cricket statistics are widely considered to be incompatible with drunkenness.Stat: Both sides’ top orders have struggled. The average partnership for the first three wickets in this series has been 26.0 – the second-lowest in the 51 Ashes series played since 1902. Another poor match would threaten the 1978-79 low-water mark of 25.1. By contrast, England’s average stand for the fourth to tenth wickets has been 37.0 – their fourth highest in Ashes history, and best since 1938.Suggested use: Self-distraction during invasive dental surgery. Contemplating the struggles of top-order batsmen is a proven facial anaesthetic.Stat: As well as Swann’s 23-wicket series haul, Anderson and Broad have taken 17 each in the series. If either of them takes three at The Oval, it will be only the second home Ashes in which two England bowlers have taken 20 wickets – Botham (34) and Willis (29) did so in 1981. If both Anderson and Broad bag three victims in the match, it will be the third Ashes in which three England bowlers have taken 20, after 1907-08 and 1978-79. The only previous home series in which three England bowlers have taken 20 wickets is the 2000 rubber against West Indies, when Gough, Caddick and Cork all did so. Australia have managed three 20-wicket series hauls in England twice – 1993 (Warne, Hughes, May) and 2009 (Siddle, Johnson, Hilfenhaus), as well as at home in 1974-75, 1982-83 and 2006-07, when four bowlers took 20 wickets in the 5-0 thrashing of Flintoff’s England.Suggested use: Best man’s speech. The key with a successful best man’s speech is to surprise the audience. Wedding guests are all too familiar with hackneyed jokes cribbed from the internet, inappropriately lascivious comments about the bride’s mother, and graphic descriptions of the groom’s sexual escapades with a Bolivian trapeze artiste. The last thing they will be expecting to hear is the fact that Siddle, Johnson and Hilfenhaus all took 20 wickets in the 2009 Ashes.Stat: Graeme Swann needs one more wicket to record the most wickets by an England spinner in an Ashes series since Jim Laker’s 46 in 1956. If Swann takes five or more wickets in the match, he will become the highest wicket-taker in a series for England since Ian Botham took 31 in the 1985 Ashes. The highest English tally since then is Angus Fraser’s 27 in the West Indies in 1998.Suggested use: Trying to talk Graeme Swann down from a tree. If you find Mr Swann trapped up a tree, it may be best to coax him down with the promise of further entrenchment in England’s cricketostatistical history.Stat: If Australia lose at The Oval, they will have lost four Tests in a series for the second time this year, having previously done so only twice since the Bodyline series in 1932-33 – in their 4-0 whitewash in South Africa in 1969-70, and in the Packer-denuded Ashes of 1978-79, when England won 5-1.Suggested use: Console a son or daughter who has just had some career-damagingly disappointing exam results. All failure is relative. They will probably not have done as badly as the 2013 Australians, who are now guaranteed to lose more Tests than they win this year – the first year the Baggy Greens have had a losing record in Tests since 1988.Stat: Nine different players have taken wickets for Australia in this series. If one new wicket-taker emerges from the baggy greens’ ranks at The Oval, they will set a new record for most different wicket-takers by an away team in an Ashes series.Suggested use: Counteract the arguments of an evangelical preacher on a street corner.Stat: Anderson and Broad have each claimed a ten-wicket match haul in this series – the first time England have had two ten-fors in a series since Derek Underwood took 11 and 12 at Lord’s and The Oval against the 1969 New Zealanders, and the first time two different bowlers have taken ten in the same series for England since Tony Lock and Trevor Bailey did so in 1957 against West Indies (and the first time in an Ashes series since Barnes and Verity in 1934). If Swann, or Tremlett/Finn, or even the tragically underused Waqar-alike toe-crushing pace machine that is Jonathan Trott, takes ten at the Oval, it will be only the third time that three different players from the same side have returned a ten-wicket haul in a Test series – Laker, Bedser and Tattersall for England against South Africa in 1951; and Reid, McDermott and Whitney for Australia against India in 1991-92.Suggested use: Pillow talk. It will either eternally solidify, or correctly shatter, a nascent relationship.Stat: Australia’s collective batting average this series is 27.45 – currently their second lowest in the 36 series of three or more Tests they have played this millennium, and their lowest in an Ashes since 1981. However, a decent match at The Oval would at least see them overtake the 2010-11 Ashes (collective Australia average: 27.91). If no Australian scores a century at The Oval, it will be the first Ashes since 1977 that Australia have scored fewer than three hundreds in the series. However, if no Australian bags a duck at The Oval, their series tally of five blobs will be their lowest in an Ashes series since 1993.Suggested use: Ouija session with Don Bradman. His Australian pride will be stung by the parlous state of his nation’s batting, and he will start pulling some strings to be allowed special dispensation to come back to life in time for the Brisbane Test in November.Stat: England’s highest partnership in six Tests this summer is the TV-umpire-assisted 153 added by Root and Bell in the second innings at Lord’s. This is their lowest highest partnership of a home summer since 1999, when the best they managed in four Tests against New Zealand was a paltry 99. However, they have managed nine century partnerships this summer, making a total of 127 century stands in the last 12 home seasons (81 Tests), exactly the same number as they had made in the previous 25 home Test summers, from 1977 to 2001 (143 Tests).Suggested use: Print out, then instantly shred.

Plays from the second day of the first Test between India and West Indies in Kolkata

N Hunter07-Nov-2013The gesture
Tino Best can evoke a lot of emotions in various people and is a rare character in cricket. On the second morning, after M Vijay tapped a ball back to him on the charge, Best reacted quickly on his follow through by throwing the ball over the batsman’s head. That may have been Best’s way of welcoming Vijay, but the early morning crowd cautioned the bowler with a collective scream. Smartly, as he walked towards his fielding position in the deep, Best folded both his hands to form a ”. The crowd, impressed with the gesture, applauded him loudly.The salute
Bowling from wide of the crease with a sling-arm action, debutant Sheldon Cottrell pitched a well-directed bouncer at Cheteshwar Pujara. A vigilant Pujara arched his back to cope with the rising bounce and opened the face of his bat in an attempt to steer the ball over the slip cordon. The ball, however, deviated slightly after pitching and moved too close for Pujara’s comfort. The nick went straight to the ecstatic wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin. It took Cottrell a couple of seconds to realise he had his first wicket in Tests, but a big smile lit up his face and he celebrated with a salute towards the West Indies dressing room, a nod to the years he has spent with the Jamaican Defence Force as a soldier.The Tendulkar moment
Thousands of fans had waited in long queues to buy tickets and watch Sachin Tendulkar bat in his penultimate match at the Eden Gardens. The moment arrived when Shane Shillingford had M Vijay stumped and the half-full Eden Gardens rose in unison to give Tendulkar a standing ovation. For the next 40 minutes Tendulkar’s every move and stroke brought the fans immense pleasure. When he was out suddenly, they stood up again to applaud their favourite cricketer and planned to be back in a couple of days’ time to get their money’s worth.The protective force
In the 56th over of the Indian innings, the eccentric Best tried to test Rohit Sharma, subjecting him to a verbal attack. Rohit was unperturbed by the bowler’s sledges but, as Best moved closer to the batsman with every ball of the over, the crowd got behind Rohit and rose protectively to rebuke Best. Sensing that his ploy had failed, Best remained quiet for the rest of the afternoon.The release
As the game neared the final hour of the second day, the Eden Gardens pitch became tricky offering low and uneven bounce. Shillingford utilised the conditions, and Rohit had to squat few times to defend shooter-like deliveries. Finally, on 76, Rohit decided to quell the challenge by charging at the offspinner and he lofted Shillingford over the midwicket fence for the first six of the Indian innings. It was a commanding shot that relieved Rohit’s nerves as he approached a memorable century on debut.