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The series average of 41.18 is the highest among the 25 series that these two teams have played in. A review of the statistical highs and lows in the series

S Rajesh04-Dec-2012In two of the three Tests of this series, Australia had the upper hand: they had the better of the drawn game at the Gabba, and then were only denied by some stubborn second-innings batting by South Africa in Adelaide. The crucial difference in the series, though, was how the two teams reacted when things were going for them, and when they weren’t. South Africa battled relentlessly when they were down, and rammed home the advantage when they were leading. Australia couldn’t do either. The series result was a reflection of that: South Africa 1, Australia 0. That series result also means South Africa have further strengthened their grip on the top spot – there’s now six points between them and the second-ranked England. Even if England win the remaining two Tests in India, that difference will only narrow down to four.The overall stats for the series reflects the way it went for both teams. Australia had a higher batting average, a better scoring rate, and took more wickets than South Africa. They may feel that a 1-1 scoreline would have been a truer indicator of the relative strengths of the two teams, but when Faf du Plessis showed remarkable resilience on debut and was supported by almost every South African batsman, Australia’s bowlers couldn’t find a way. And when Australia needed to show similar resistance in the second innings in Perth, they collapsed in less than 85 overs.Overall, this series wasn’t a typical one that these two teams usually play. The overall average for the series was 41.18 runs per wicket, which is the highest in the 25 series that these two teams have played. The last time they played, in 2011-12 in South Africa, the average was 26.77, which is the second-lowest. The 12 hundreds scored in the series is also a record for these two teams in a three-Test series.

Though Australia had a higher overall batting average than South Africa, the visitors’ top order did better than the home team’s. Australia’s top-order numbers were pulled down by the poor series that Ricky Ponting had: he scored 32 runs in five innings, his second-worst series average, next only to his average of 3.40 in India in 2001.On the other hand, Michael Clarke was outstanding, scoring 576 runs in five innings. It’s the highest by a batsman in a three-Test series between these two teams. Ironically, the second-highest is 515 in the 2005-06 series in Australia. The other Australian batsman who stood out for his consistency in the series was Michael Hussey: in five innings, he topped 50 three times, and averaged 59.(Click here for Australia’s batting and bowling averages in the series.)Most of the South African top-order batsmen contributed usefully in at least one innings of the series, with six of them aggregating 200 or more runs. Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis both scored more than 300, while du Plessis fell only seven short despite playing only two Tests. While no batsman touched the heights of Clarke, there were no Ponting-like failures either, though Jacques Rudolph’s 74 runs in four innings was disappointing. (Click here for South Africa’s batting and bowling averages in the series.)

In terms of partnerships, the biggest difference in the numbers for the two teams was the average stands for the second and third wickets: they were the backbone for South Africa, and a liability for Australia. Amla’s outstanding form, coupled with useful contributions from Smith, Kallis, Peterson and AB de Villiers, meant South Africa’s top three wickets always contributed significant runs; Australia, on the other hand, mostly relied on the middle order bailing them out after the first three wickets had fallen cheaply. Adding up the average partnerships of the top three wickets, South Africa’s score at the fall of the third wicket was 169; Australia’s was 64.Australia’s strength, though, was their fourth and fifth-wicket partnerships. They added huge runs and put their innings back on track after early setbacks. The lower orders for both teams made vital contributions as well, though in South Africa’s case the value was more in terms of time spent at the crease than runs scored.

This series was also billed as the battle between the pace attacks of the two teams, but neither returned with outstanding figures. Australia used as many as six specialist fast bowlers in three Tests, but those who played more than a Test all averaged more than 35. For South Africa, Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn were the stars, with Steyn redeeming himself in Perth after two ordinary performances.Australia’s top wicket-taker in the series was Nathan Nyon with 12. Though his average was a relatively high 40.50, he gave the captain plenty of control in the field, going at only 2.73 runs per over. South Africa’s spinners, on the other hand, went at more than a run a ball over the entire series. Robin Peterson’s impressive six-wicket haul in Perth – only the ninth haul of six or more by a spinner in a Perth Test – was spoiled somewhat by Mitchell Starc’s late assault, but Imran Tahir had a terrible game in Adelaide, conceding 260 in 37 wicketless overs, the most runs ever conceded by a bowler in a wicketless Test performance.

Batsman v bowler analysisIn this three-Test series, there were two batsmen who scored more than 100 runs against a bowler: Clarke dominated Morkel, scoring 154 off 164 balls, and getting dismissed only once, while de Villiers scored 101 off Lyon. Clarke also scored 91 off 125 for two dismissals against Steyn, which means his average against South Africa’s two best bowlers of the series was 81.67.On the other hand, though Hussey had a superb series overall, he struggled against these two bowlers, scoring 111 and getting dismissed five times – an average of 22.20.The only bowler to dismiss a batsman more than three times in the series was Lyon: he nailed Rudolph four times in 100 balls, conceding only 28 runs. Lyon was thus singlehandedly responsible for ruining Rudolph’s series: against all other bowlers, Rudolph scored 46 runs off 103 balls, without being dismissed once.

Plays of the Day for the match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in Chennai

Abhishek Purohit06-Apr-2013The gamesmanship chronicles
MS Dhoni went after Kieron Pollard in the 18th over of the chase, crashing a six and a four off the first two deliveries. Pollard ran in a third time in the over, but did not send down the ball. Dhoni saw that, and when Pollard ran in a fourth time and actually bowled, the batsman backed away to leg, shouldering arms. Pollard broke into a wide grin at Dhoni’s riposte and after a few seconds of a grim expression, the batsman afforded himself a smile as well, and then proceeded to remove his pads and redo his shoelaces, making Pollard wait and wait.The compatriot clash
Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, Trinidadians both, went up against each other, not for the first time, and sparks flew. Pollard pushed a yorker back to Bravo, who picked it up, threatened to throw it at the batsman, and also had lots of words for his compatriot. Not to be outdone, Pollard pointed his bat at Bravo, asking him to go back and bowl. When Pollard tried and missed a scoop, there was another charged-up exchange. Pollard was the clear winner in the contest that mattered, though, taking 22 off the 11 deliveries he faced from Bravo.The reaction
Sachin Tendulkar got a golden duck when he was trapped leg-before by Dirk Nannes. As rare as that occurrence is, what followed was rarer. Even as umpire Vineet Kulkarni raised his finger, Tendulkar screamed in disbelief and anger. He walked away shaking his head, pausing to exchange a few words with his opening partner Ricky Ponting which suggested he was not impressed at all with Kulkarni’s call. Replays showed the decision was nowhere close to being a shocker, the ball pitching just on leg stump and straightening to hit the batsman in front of leg.The maiden strike
Ankit Rajpoot had an impressive domestic season for Uttar Pradesh, but he would have never come up against a batsman of the stature of Ricky Ponting before. First ball of his second over in the IPL, Ponting gave the fast bowler the charge but missed. Second ball, Rajpoot dug in a sharp bouncer. Ponting being Ponting, he immediately went for the pull, and an edge settled into slip’s hands. Rajpoot couldn’t have hoped for a better maiden wicket in the IPL.The tailender’s response

It was the last over of the Mumbai Indians’ innings and Pollard desperately wanted the strike after hitting one to long-off. He charged back for what would have been a tight second, but Harbhajan Singh had already settled for the single. An upset Pollard pointed to himself, letting Harbhajan clearly know who should have had the strike. Probably that revved Harbhajan up. He gave the next ball an almighty swing, sending it soaring high in the air and beyond the deep midwicket boundary.

Matt Prior’s unbeaten hundred in Auckland put the seal on a magnificent series for him, with bat and gloves, and has rightly given him a strong claim to being the best in the world at his role.

Andrew McGlashan in Auckland26-Mar-2013Ed Smith, the former Kent and England batsman who is featured on this website, has written a book called . We don’t know if Matt Prior has read it, but he would now certainly be able to add a few thoughts about the concept.His outstanding, match-saving hundred in Auckland owed much to a massive stroke of fortune when the ball, ricocheting down off his glove as he fended off a bouncer, lobbed towards the base of the stumps, striking them with reasonable force, and yet the bails remained firmly in place.The significance of the bails staying on did not immediately register with the England camp. “It was a little bit too far out,” Alastair Cook said. “But you do need a little bit of luck in those situations, and I suppose we did get a bit.”He was on 28 at the time and England were 207 for 6, still facing a huge task to salvage a draw in the match and the series, but 43 overs later Prior raised his arms in triumph after defending the final ball of the match from Trent Boult. It put the seal on a magnificent series for him, with bat and gloves, and has rightly given him a strong claim to being the best in the world at his role.The unmovable bails were not his only heart-in-mouth moments, either. Two pulls, a shot he kept on playing even when runs were not the issue, just evaded fielders at mid-on and midwicket, and there were at least two inside edges that scooted past the stumps. At one stage, he gave Tim Southee, a bowler as luckless as Prior was lucky, a pat on the shoulder and pair shared a wry smile. This, though, was cut-throat Test cricket.Brendon McCullum, an outstanding ambassador for his team throughout the series, was gracious amid his heartbreak: “There were twists and turns and half chances, little things you look back on and think ‘if only’, but I guess that all added to the drama. Take nothing away from the way Matt played, I thought it was an incredible innings played under severe pressure. He stood up and showed why he’s the player he is.”If ever a cricketer deserved some things to go his way, it is Prior. It had previously been mentioned on the tour how selfless he is when he skipped his way to 82 in Wellington and departed looking for quick runs. That was not a one-off. He is the absolute team man and the embodiment of fighting spirit, although he isn’t alone in this England team in that regard, as the final day showed. Ian Bell ended a disappointing series with a 271-ball, six-hour stay that brought back memories of his Cape Town heroics in 2010 and Stuart Broad defied his declining batting form to support Prior until the dying moments.When Prior came to speak after the third day’s play, with England a long away adrift in the match after a poor first innings, he was almost emotional in his defiance and determination that the team would be able to “fight” their way out of it. “We do it the hard way,” he said, but the final moments in Auckland were taking it to extremes even for him.With less than four overs to go Broad, whose 77-ball 6 was his second-best Test innings after the 169 against Pakistan, at Lord’s, because it went so against the grain and James Anderson edged to slip off Kane Williamson in the space of three balls. When Anderson fell, Prior turned at the non-striker’s end and took a deep breath, then practised a few more defensive shots. Walking out was Monty Panesar and, for at least one ball, as Williamson ended his over, Prior was helpless. All this work could have come to nothing just then. It almost did, but Panesar survived by the skin of his teeth.

This innings was the perfect example of staying true to your natural instincts and it highlighted, once again, what an outstanding batsman Prior is in his own right.

With three overs left, Prior tried to engineer the strike and with some help from Panesar – including a desperate dive from about halfway down the pitch that will probably already be on YouTube – Prior managed to face 14 of the last 19 deliveries.”He’s batted so well this winter, and got quite a few fifties, so it’s great for him to get a hundred,” Cook said. “It’s amazing. You think he’s batting out for a draw, and he still scores at strike rates quicker than I can when I’m batting normally. He just has this way of finding scoring shots and it was a great knock under a huge amount of pressure. He’s had a fantastic winter.”This innings was the perfect example of staying true to your natural instincts and it highlighted, once again, what an outstanding batsman Prior is in his own right. After a series where England’s four-man bowling attack has struggled for potency over lengthy periods, Prior’s form will continue to spark the debate over whether it is now time for Andy Flower to bite the bullet and put faith in him as the No. 6, which would allow England another bowling allrounder at No.7.There are valid arguments both ways: Australia rarely moved Adam Gilchrist from No. 7, but it is also important a team makes the best use of the players they have available. The likelihood is that Prior will stay where he is, more often than not producing just the innings England need at just the right time. Perhaps, though, he might not want to push his luck so much next time.

India have searched everywhere for a world-class seaming allrounder. Perhaps it’s time to focus on spinners who can bat

Kaushik Bhattacharya20-Aug-2013Kapil Dev is arguably the most magical player India ever produced – even ahead of Sachin Tendulkar and Gavaskar – partly because it was always so unlikely that a country like India would produce a fast-bowling allrounder. Gideon Haigh explains this quite eloquently here. In some ways though Kapil is also the worst thing that could have happened to modern Indian cricket, kicking off as it did an eternal hunt for a seaming allrounder that’s gone on for about 20 years and counting. Whenever India begins to do badly it feels like the solution to all problems would be to find a new Kapil. The list of players who have been branded ‘the next Kapil’ on the basis of promise is endless.First there were the 1983 World Cup men, Madan Lal and Roger Binny, who despite their stellar efforts in that tournament and ample opportunities in Tests (39 and 27 caps respectively) never quite cut it as international allrounders. Then came Manoj Prabhakar who with his banana swing and doughty opening batting was more effective than the earlier two, until Sanath Jayasuriya and the match-fixing controversy brought an end to his hopes. After a brief lull came the man whose credentials for the label bordered on the inexplicable. Ajit Agarkar’s first-class record when he got picked for India in April 1998 had nothing to suggest that he was anything more than a quick bowler. Yet, the flashes of incredibly good cricket he managed to produce amidst longer patches of incredibly bad cricket, meant he was branded something he could never really be. And finally, there was Irfan Pathan who came closest of all to fulfilling the role. Debuting in the match that featured Agarkar’s best moment, Irfan came close to being a left-handed clone of Kapil. Prodigious swing at a decent clip allied with a smooth batting technique and big-hitting ability meant that he was quickly anointed India’s new hope till injuries and a dip in form stymied his career.Such has been India’s obsession with finding a seaming allrounder that you’d believe their spinners never learn to bat. The truth though is that they never got the right sort of backing or assistance. Ravi Shastri was not as gifted as Kapil but would have ended up with much better figures if he had not been forced to play the role of stock bowler and “crisis-batsmen-anywhere-in-the-order” through much of his career. Anil Kumble scored three hundreds and three fifties in his first three Ranji seasons and was good enough to score a Test match ton abroad aged 37. But, barring injuries to other players, he batted as high as No. 7 only eight times in 173 Test innings. Harbhajan Singh was always capable with the bat as his back-to-back Test hundreds in testing circumstances prove, but he got the chance to bat at No. 7 only twice in 101 Tests. Sunil Joshi and Ashish Kapoor had promise but never the confidence of the selectors or their captains.So it’s ironic that now, the two men pinned down as the next all-round hopes for India are also their first-choice spinners across formats. Ravindra Jadeja has had a lot to live up to ever since Shane Warne christened him a rockstar, and R Ashwin also rose to fame through the IPL despite having a solid first-class record. A quick look at their first class records shows that they both have solid credentials, and so far at the international level they have demonstrated enough all-round ability. Jadeja in particular has come on in leaps and bounds, and has just made it to the top spot in the ODI bowling rankings. However, it’s in Test cricket that they should demonstrate whether they are the Real McCoy or not. As Harsha Bhogle summarises here a lower middle order that reads Jadeja, Dhoni and Ashwin at 6, 7, and 8 could be central to India’s Test success. Given that Jadeja averages over 50 in first-class cricket, he should surely be batting ahead of Dhoni and allowing the captain to play his natural game at No. 7. In that light, Jadeja’s absence in the India A side touring South Africa is a missed opportunity. Playing Jadeja in place of Ajinkya Rahane, who is a misfit at No. 6, would have given him a chance to at least get a taste for the role. Ashwin already has the highest batting average among India bowlers with atleast 50 Test wickets. The next year or two will tell us whether these two can go on to bigger things and it’ll be an interesting journey to follow. If they succeed, it might just put an end to the search for the next Kapil Dev.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line

Plays of the Day for the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Trinidad & Tobago in Mohali

Kanishkaa Balachandran24-Sep-2013The impetuous shot
The first match of the evening had given enough indications that the Mohali pitch was more favourable to the seam bowlers. The batsmen would have to respect the conditions first, gauge the bounce and movement before attacking. Lendl Simmons was having none of it. Taking strike against Dale Steyn, Simmons waltzed down the track to the first ball of the match, looking to smash it and feathered an edge to the wicketkeeper. Against the best fast bowler in the world, it wasn’t the smartest thing to do first up.The fumble
Sunrisers Hyderabad weren’t at their sharpest in the field, committing more than a few schoolboy errors. Thisara Perera bowled one short and wide outside off, asking to be hit. Darren Bravo duly obliged and slapped it over cover. Hanuma Vihari charged towards it at sweeper cover but didn’t time his approach properly. He ended up over-running the ball and it spun and rolled to the rope.The obstruction
With Bravo striking the ball with such ferocity, nobody in the field could afford to nod off. When Darren Sammy came into the attack, he made the mistake of bowling too full and Bravo wasn’t going to miss out. He smashed it straight back but the non-striker Jason Mohammed wasn’t quick enough to move out of the way. The ball thudded into his ribs and he saved a few runs for Sunrisers. They were struggling to control Bravo so any obstruction, however unusual, was welcome.The soft dismissal
The early wicket T&T would have been desperate for was Shikhar Dhawan’s. The in-form opener was in good touch in the qualifiers and, chasing 161 on a seaming pitch, he needed to stick around to give Sunrisers some stability. He moved to 23 but appeared fitful against the legspin of Samuel Badree. A slogged six over deep midwicket spelt ominous signs for T&T but their anxiety over Dhawan didn’t last long. Navin Stewart bowled a slower ball and Dhawan, looking to turn it to the on side, popped the simplest of catches to the bowler. Stewart did a celebratory jig and his team-mates couldn’t believe they had got rid of Dhawan so cheaply.

South Africa were not awful on the opening day, but from a position where they had Australia in significant trouble the attack could not ram home the advantage and back Graeme Smith’s decision to bowl

Firdose Moonda at Centurion Park12-Feb-20140:00

Cullinan: Bowlers did not back captain’s decision

At the start of the third over after tea, Morne Morkel presented Steven Smith with the equivalent of ice-cream to a child: a short, wide delivery. There was no third man. Smith gave himself a bit of room, flicked his wrists and ramped the ball to the vacant area. He looked a man in complete control of what he was doing; Morkel, Graeme Smith and South Africa, the opposite.There was nothing they could to about that shot. They did not have a man stationed there, the ball invited it the stroke, the batsman trusted himself to play and it was well-placed. For much of the rest of the afternoon that is what South Africa dealt with from Smith and Shaun Marsh. The pair played meticulously crafted innings on a pitch that became easier to bat on against an attack that did not appear to have as many plan b’s as they said they would.The evidence was there earlier. Before lunch, South Africa used all five frontline bowlers including the specialist spinner. Dale Steyn had bowled four overs, changed ends and bowled some more and there was an instance in which this website’s Jarrod Kimber swears a field was set for a Morne Morkel’s off-side and leg-side plan at the same time.Despite that, they used the short ball well and it earned them two of the three wickets they took in that session and the key one they took afterwards of Michael Clarke. After reducing the opposition to 98 for 4, South Africa had done their bit to justify both Smith’s decision to bowl first, despite his slight uncertainty, and his signal to show intent.Dale Steyn made an impact on the opening day of the Test, but he was hampered by the effects of a stomach bug•Getty ImagesSmith is the captain who has bowled first the most in Test history after winning the toss – 19 times – although he has captained in many more matches than the other skippers. He has taken to doing it more since November 2011 than he did before then, which is the time Gary Kirsten took over and South Africa’s attack began to build the reputation they currently have.Since then, Smith has fielded first five times of the 13 tosses he has won, compared with 11 times in 46 correct coin calls earlier. That’s 14% more of the time and with the bowlers’ recent records, who can blame him? On six of the last seven occasions Smith has won the toss and put his opposition in, South Africa have won the match. That includes two instances at Centurion Park.South Africa bowled India out for 136 in 2010, on a day when rain meant they could only get 38.1 overs in. They bowled Sri Lanka for 180 a year later. They won both matches by an innings.The difference is that this time their opposition was neither India nor Sri Lanka and although Australia’s batsmen had given the impression South African pitches worry them, there was minimal sideways movement to bother them. They also lasted long enough to take advantage of the easier conditions that came as the strip baked in the Highveld heat.That was when Marsh, who was a master at leaving early on, and Steven Smith’s patience paid off. They were able to build something because South Africa could not tear it down.Robin Peterson did not help. He was warned he would be targeted and he did not seem to be doing anything to guard against that. He lacked control and battled to find a proper line. Vernon Philander did not help. His usually miserly fourth stump line and teasing length gave way to a few too wide and a few too short. Ryan McLaren did not help. He offered consistency but nothing special. But what hurt South Africa most was probably Steyn’s illness. Although he bowled more overs than anyone else, he could not reach maximum speed.The sole remaining option was JP Duminy and he was only brought on half an hour after tea in the 63rd over. He stayed on until the second new ball, a 10-over spell in which he posed little threat because he tossed it up generously. That meant the spinners between them conceded 68 runs in 20 overs, without taking a wicket, easily South Africa’s biggest liability on the day.By the time the new ball was available, Steyn and Morkel were interested only in seeing the day out. The eight overs cost 34 runs, with Australia scoring at a quicker rate than they had all day. Fair to say South Africa had had enough by then but that does not mean they will not have refuelled come the morning.Without repeating often stated facts as many times as a Katy Perry song on commercial radio, it is worth reminding you that South Africa’s attack cannot be written off. Two examples are enough to jog the memory: The Oval 2012 and the Wanderers 2013.In the former England went from an overnight score on day one of 267 for 3, with Alastair Cook on an unbeaten century and found themselves 385 all out the next day before South Africa piled on the 637 for 2 and won by an innings. In the latter, India ended the first day on 255 for 5 and lost their remaining batsmen for 35 runs to finish 280 all out, before South Africa pulled off a draw.Steyn made the breakthrough in the first instance and Morkel cleaned up while Morkel struck early in Johannesburg to allow Philander to rip through the tail. Do not be surprised if the trio concoct something similar this time.

Mominul Haque’s exclusion from the second ODI seemed to suggest he had paid the price for the poor form of some of his senior team-mates

Mohammad Isam18-Jun-2014Mominul Haque’s exclusion from the second ODI was a reflection of how the Bangladesh team management and selection committee have functioned this year. By all means, this was a sacrifice more than a drop as he had to pay the price for some of his senior teammates’ lack of form. It is a reflection on poor selectoral choices for several months now without rational explanations, and a clear signal that the selectors are keeping a good distance from making tough though logical choices.Speaking about Mominul and only adding to the conclusion about a lack of logical thinking among the management and selectors, Mushfiqur Rahim said the decision to drop the batsman was not due to his form but, much like everything else that happened during his side’s 58 all out, he didn’t get into a deeper explanation.”We didn’t drop Mominul because he is doing badly,” Mushfiqur said. “He has struggled in ODIs unlike how he has started in his Test career. Hopefully he will come back. We thought of making a change in his place, as he is not a No 6, 7 or 8.”Mominul made just 5 in the last game and during his 27-minute stay, much like Anamul Haque and Tamim Iqbal, he didn’t look too comfortable. He had also struggled for runs in the West Indies for Bangladesh A in the two four-day matches, but so did other batsmen such as Nasir Hossain, who played in the XI on Tuesday.Mominul’s recent ODI numbers, though, have been pretty good. He has scored three fifties in eight ODIs this year, and two of them came in his last four innings. He looked like one of very few batsmen in the team to be in some sort of form throughout the Sri Lanka series as well as the Asia Cup.One can go out on a limb to say that in the light of Mominul being the most consistent of the Bangladeshi batsmen this year, it would have been perfectly understandable if he had retained his place for the second ODI. In contrast, going by form, it wouldn’t have required too much of an explanation had the team management decided to omit Tamim or Nasir rather than Mominul. This despite the fact that Tamim is a senior player and Nasir is having his first bad patch in international cricket. Neither of their particular situations changes the fact that Mominul has been a settled and consistent No. 3 in Tests and ODIs.It must be stated though that Momimul’s replacement, the debutant Mithun Ali, played his role to an extent, top-scoring with 26 and looking in decent touch. He has been picked on the back of a fruitful domestic season but the key question is did Bangladesh actually need a new No 3 for this game? A similar decision was made last year in Zimbabwe, where Mominul was suddenly propped up to No 3 for the first two games, scored slowly in those games, and was dropped for the third ODI. The instance in Zimbabwe or what happened in Mirpur before the second ODI against India on Tuesday aren’t isolated incidents.From the start of 2014, Mahmudullah has been persisted with despite poor form, and when he was dropped, Mushfiqur was furious and even went public with his frustration with the selection committee. Shamsur Rahman and Arafat Sunny have found themselves in and out of the team while Farhad Reza was kept in the World T20 side for doing slightly better than Ziaur, who was in form at the time.Ziaur was brought back into the T20 side as a late replacement although he had been out of training for a few weeks leading up to his call-up. Then there was the decision to drop Rubel Hossain although he had been the highest wicket-taker in the team. Sunny was the second highest wicket-taker.The decision by the management and selectors to drop Mominul will send a confusing message all around – icon-clad certainty among the biggest names and insecurity among younger players for fear of being jettisoned on the basis of one failure.Dropping Mominul is only one example. While the team management made one good decision in including Taskin Ahmed, the question remains as to whether it would not have been a sounder decision to have played him in the first ODI as well. Persisting with Ziaur Rahman led to a situation in which he bowled just one over each in the two matches even though the second ODI was played on a seaming pitch. With the bat, he was just as ineffectual, scoring just 2 in the first ODI and holing out for a duck after attempting an ill-advised slog in the second ODI.Such selection patterns are not complex issues. The worry here seems to be more about maintaining the status quo rather than being realistic. Aggressive openers and finishers are given more leeway than batsmen offering solidity. If some within the management or selection panel find it hard to take the tough decisions, it makes the team environment that much more ridden by egg-shells.

The first detailed assessment of Pankaj Roy, Bengal’s first great cricketer, is a significant, if flawed, effort

Suresh Menon26-Apr-2014Years ago, when the late Ambar Roy was a national selector, we played cricket in the verandah of a friend’s house in Chennai. The back of a door served as the stumps. Few could last against the spinning rubber ball, which did all sorts of tricks on the cement floor. Ambar’s defensive technique was a revelation as he was beaten only rarely and played the ball dead. I was in my 20s and it left a lasting impression.At the end of the session, Ambar brushed aside all congratulations with a simple: “That’s nothing, you should have seen Pankajda play. He wouldn’t even have been beaten.”Pankaj Roy was Ambar’s uncle, and one of the most important Indian opening batsmen of the pre-Gavaskar era. Sadly, his career had already been reduced to three events: the then world-record opening partnership of 413 with Vinoo Mankad, the series of ducks on the 1952 tour of England against Fred Trueman, and a decade later two stunning centuries in the same match for Bengal against Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, with fast bowler Roy Gilchrist in the opposition.Till the arrival of Sourav Ganguly, cricketers from Bengal were seen as also-rans in the national scheme of things. Roy himself played 43 Tests and finished with an average of 32.56, the figures skewed by his unusually high number of zeroes, 14. Five of those came in that one series in England in 1952.Roy made a century in India’s first Test win, and had two scores of 150, including one while opening the batting against West Indies in Jamaica. He made his debut in the first great Indian opener Vijay Merchant’s last Test.Gautam Bhattacharya delineates the development of Roy’s game through extensive interviews with those who knew him, played with him, and also many who felt that Roy was given a raw deal by the selectors. He deserves credit for bringing to life a fascinating player, who might just have chosen soccer ahead of cricket, and who later served as a national selector himself. Bengal-players-get-a-raw-deal is a recurring theme.In , Ramachandra Guha wrote, “The few international successes enjoyed by Bengal players were quickly transferred from history into myth.” Here, Bhattacharya goes in the opposite direction, transferring the Roy myth into history, finding reasons for failure. As a first book-length assessment of a Bengal player who made his first-class debut in the 1940s, it is a significant effort.And yet, some of Bhattacharya’s work has been undone by poor editing and a cavalier attitude towards statistics and facts. It was said of Porbander (and not Vizianagram) that he had more Rolls Royces than runs in England; Ajit Wadekar was not the oldest cricketer to debut for India (it was left-arm spinner Rustomji Jamshedji); Polly Umrigar did not make a “pair of centuries” in India’s first Test win (in fact, India won by an innings); Farokh Engineer was on 94 (and not 96) at lunch on the first day of the Chepauk Test against West Indies; in the 1958-59 series against West Indies, India had four captains, not five. Such irritants disrupt the flow.Better editing will make for much tighter, less self-indulgent, future editions of a book that needed to be written but deserved more care.Pankaj: Bengal’s Forgotten Cricket Legend
Gautam Bhattacharya
Supernova Publishers
300 pg. Rs 395

Plays of the day from the third ODI between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Dambulla

Karthik Krishnaswamy30-Aug-2014The run-out
Misbah-ul-Haq and Fawad Alam were just about giving the innings a semblance of shape when a piece of poor judgment landed Pakistan right back among the croutons. Misbah pushed the ball to the right of Tillakaratne Dilshan and immediately set off. It was on Dilshan’s natural side, and the ball bounced at a perfect height for him to pick up and throw without crouching too low. The direct hit caught Misbah well short at the bowler’s end, and it was the third run-out for Pakistan’s captain in his last seven ODI innings.Six and out
Umar Akmal had only faced seven balls when Thisara Perera ran in to start the 19th over. First ball was on a good length, on off stump, and Akmal dumped it over the long-on boundary with a clean, pure swing of his arms. It was the kind of shot that makes you wonder why he isn’t one of the undisputed stars of world cricket. Next ball, Akmal answered that question himself. It was a short, rising ball outside off, and he was in no position to play the pull. Pull he did, anyway, and the top-edge looped into the hands of Lasith Malinga, who took a fine tumbling catch after making good ground to his right from mid-on. It was nearly identical to Thisara’s dismissal of Akmal in the first ODI.The snorter
Sohaib Maqsood has looked in glorious form right through this series, and he gave evidence of the extra fraction of a second he seems to have with an extra-cover drive off Thisara that simply purred to the boundary. The ball before that, though, Thisara had tested the batsman with unexpected pace and bounce from just short of a length, forcing Maqsood to duck at the last moment. In his next over Thisara bowled a better delivery, and this time Maqsood tried to move across to the off side, out of the line, and lift his hands out of the way. He wasn’t quick enough, though, and the ball kissed his glove through to the wicketkeeper.Saved by a frame
The incident may have caused a lot more debate in a less one-sided game. In the third over of Sri Lanka’s chase, Upul Tharanga inside-edged the ball into his pad and set off for a single. Responding to his call, Dilshan had to stretch to beat the sprawling Fawad Alam’s underarm flick to the striker’s end. Replays of the direct hit suggested Dilshan may have been a couple of millimeters short when the bail came off. But the dust that the bottom of his bat dragged up off the pitch obscured the picture somewhat, and this, in all probability, led to the third umpire ruling him not out.

ESPNcricinfo writers look back at their favourite moments in English cricket in 2014

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Dec-20141. Jos Buttler’s whirlwind hundred
As the Kevin Pietersen dispute hung over an English Spring, the Lord’s crowd watching an ODI against Sri Lanka needed something to lift their spirits – especially after Sri Lanka posted 300+. Jos Buttler responded to a near-impossible task with England’s fastest ODI hundred and victory was still possible when he was run out in the final over. Truly, a glorious failure – David Hopps.Jos Buttler’s ODI century at Lord’s was not enough to win the game,
but it was more than enough to offer hope of a new, exciting future
for England – George Dobell.
2. Back from the AshesThe restatement that Joe Root had the attributes of a top-quality international batsman, comfortable across all formats. The odds were always in his favour, but he showed you don’t have to be broken by an Ashes whitewash – Andrew McGlashan.
3. Destruction of IndiaDay One of the Oval Test against India – after a summer of troubles, England were back to their dominating best in home conditions, rifling out the hapless tourists and building a strong reply by the close – Alex Winter.
4. Anderson’s tearful last standJames Anderson’s tears after losing the Headingley Test. His dismissal from the penultimate ball gave Sri Lanka their first series win in England – and followed another final-over finish at Lord’s. Anderson summed up the emotions only Test cricket can evoke – Alan Gardner.
5. Lord’s farewell is a BreeseGareth Breese, in his farewell match for Durham, at the Royal London Cup Final: taking a few wickets, scoring the winning runs and then Marco Tardelli-ing it around the Lord’s outfield before embracing his kids. A touching moment that showed this game is not all about brash politicking – Vithushan Ehantharajah.
6. Tartan resurgenceScotland have been overtaken by Ireland on and off the pitch in the last decade but 2014 hinted at a Tartan resurgence. Scotland exhibited a new-found self-belief to reach the World Cup with seven straight wins. They will soon have a new home ground, too, with plans afoot to make Stirling the country’s cricketing base – Tim Wigmore.