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Looking back at the wit and bowling of Max Walker

Ashley Mallett29-Sep-2016In my mind’s eye I see him. Boldly he approaches, arms and legs flailing, his body jerking madly to and fro like a human pinball machine. Then the strength through the crease and his trademark “right arm over left ear hole” delivery. They called him Tanglefloot, Tangles or Tang. No ordinary bloke commands three nicknames.Time stood still when I heard the sad news of Max Walker’s passing. Some people seem bulletproof, invincible.Tangles, who had successful Test cricket and VFL football careers, then a lengthy spell on television, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell, Bill Lawry and Tony Grieg, was a man who reinvented himself through his career.He was born in West Hobart, Tasmania on September 12, 1948. At Hobart High School he opened the batting, once hitting a century for Tasmania Colts.I played in Tangles’ debut big game, the second Test against Pakistan at the MCG in December 1972. Despite his gangly action, he was strong at delivery, and his powerful hand whipped down the right side of the ball to deliver legcutters that tended to move in towards the right-hander and then cut away to telling effect.He had to bowl a good deal on that placid MCG pitch. Pakistan amassed 574 for 8 before mercifully declaring. After 24 overs Tangles had to settle for a modest return of 2 for 112. He bowled beautifully in the second innings, taking 3 for 39 off 14 overs. In the wake of their three run-outs and Walker’s haul, Pakistan fell for exactly 200 – a 92-run loss. Next day the local paper ran the banner heading across the top of its back page: “PANIKSTAN.”In the next match, the third in the series, Pakistan needed 159 for a victory. Max bowled with the hostility of a fast bowler and the guile of a class spinner to destroy the visitors, taking 6 for 15 off 16 overs, and the game went to the Australians.A great tour of West Indies followed, where he took 26 wickets at 20.During the first Test of that series, at Sabina Park in Kingston, Lawrence Rowe was giving the Australians a pasting. At one point he hooked Dennis Lillee high to fine leg, where Max ran in in his ungainly way, arms and legs all over the place, until he got to the stage where he had to dive in the general direction of where he thought the ball might land. Thereupon he brought off a near-impossible catch, rolled over gleefully, jumped to his feet and held the ball aloft to the rum-soaked section of the crowd he had been entertaining all morning. His great moment was shattered when Ian Chappell yelled, “Tangles, throw the ball back. It’s a no-ball – they’ve already run three.”I was also in the side the day Tangles took a career-best 8 for 143 for Australia, against England at the MCG in 1974-75. Two incidents stand out. One memory is of how he brilliantly caught and bowled England captain Mike Denness. And the other is of him bursting out laughing when the pop singer Shirley Bassey came into the Australian dressing room, sat down with the players and joyfully announced, “Glad to see you chaps are winning.” There was silence before the famous singer’s confidant whispered, “Ma’am, I don’t think we are in the England dressing room.”We won that Ashes series 4-1. The MCG Test was the one that got away.Tangles played a big part in the next series, against West Indies again, helping Australia beat Clive Lloyd’s men 5-1, though he only played in three of the five Tests.He turned out for Australia in 34 Tests in all, and perhaps his finest period on the big stage was as back-up to Lillee and Jeff Thomson during the 1974-75 summer.Tangles had a “Roman” nose, big moustache and infectious smile. He was always telling stories, and was known to embellish them in such a way that the most mundane tale suddenly developed a life of its own. Even the Queen couldn’t help but grin when she met Max on the field during the afternoon interval on the penultimate day of the 1977 Centenary Test match at Tangles’ beloved MCG. As he shook hands with Her Majesty, he replied to her general enquiry as to how he was feeling in the heat and with England piling up the runs: “Geez, ma’am, I’m bloody hot!” The Queen was introduced to the side in alphabetical order, and she had already faced a delivery from Dennis Lillee further back in the line, who had produced an autograph book when Greg Chappell introduced him. “Not now,” the Queen smiled graciously.In 1975, Tangles accompanied Ross Edwards and yours truly to a dinner at John Arlott’s Southampton home. Arlott battled to get a word in. Max had arrived with an avalanche of stories and he intended to deliver them – all of them. The great English raconteur did manage to wax lyrical about the virtues of SF Barnes, but the only time there was silence was when a small woman tripped into the room, said nothing, sat at the end of the table and lit up a corncob pipe. That was the only occasion I ever saw Tangles lost for words.After cricket, he worked tirelessly on radio and television. He was ever on the lookout to create and earn. Opportunities were there for the taking. Once, he offered advice about getting on the public speaking circuit: “Rowd, don’t wait for the phone to ring. It never will. Be proactive.” Be it bowling, writing or speaking, he made things happen. He had a winning formula.

Up on high, Tangles will bowl to Trumper and Bradman, talk architecture with Christopher Wren, and no doubt catch up with fellow TV commentators Benaud and Grieg

He wrote over a dozen books, including and . Collectively they sold in excess of a million copies. Tangles self-published and promoted them personally, loading up his car with copies of his latest title and taking off to all parts of Australia, including little country towns, selling his books in the wake of brilliant after-dinner talks.He did a number of memorable ads, including one for Aerogard, an insect repellent. In the ad, his co-star, a little boy, asked: “What annoys you most as a bowler?””Batsmen… and flies,” Max answered.At the end of the ad the little boy uttered a line that pretty much became part of folklore in the 1980s: “‘Aveagoodweekend, Mr Walker.”Max made many televisions ads, often in league with the legendary Doug Walters. In one, they sat drinking cans of Tooheys low-strength beer in the middle of a lake. The idea was, the boat would capsize. Doug thought trick photography was the way to go, and when he mentioned that to the film crew, Tangles winked. Next thing, Doug was floundering about in the icy water, with Tangles roaring his delight. After a thorough drenching, Walters was looking for more than a “Tooheys or two”.Back in 1985 I asked Sir Donald Bradman if he would launch a book for me at the SCG. Sir Donald wasn’t available, but he later said: “I think you have made a good choice in having Max Walker launch your book on Victor Trumper. He is a real humorist and presents a happy medium between the conservatives and the Chappells.”Up on high, Tangles will bowl to Trumper and Bradman, talk architecture with Christopher Wren, and no doubt catch up with fellow TV commentators Benaud and Grieg.God love him. We are going to miss him.

Faced with the injury to Dean Elgar on the eve of the second Test, South Africa responded in positive fashion to finish day one in a position of control

Firdose Moonda in Centurion27-Aug-2016The language of modern sport lies in buzzwords and the one this week was adaptation. Neither South Africa, nor New Zealand, nor anyone else for that matter, knew what to expect from SuperSport Park in winter, but it turned out that was not what the hosts required adjusting to. Rather, they had to contend with two other quandaries: the loss of a certain starter in Dean Elgar and the shaky form of someone who has flirted with being dropped in JP Duminy. They dealt with both sans major drama to finish day one in control.Remember that South Africa are a team that prefers to play to plan. The most common criticism leveled at them is that they are unable to adjust to spontaneous challenges. On the eve of the Test, after the fielding drills were complete, Elgar was walking off the park when he wobbled on the boundary rope and sustained a grade three tear to his ankle. After all the concerns about player safety on the Kingsmead outfield, it turned out a pristine surface could be just as dangerous and contribute even more to derailing team strategy.Although his career is only 26 Tests old, Elgar is the senior opening partner and one of the most experienced members of the line-up. More importantly, South Africa did not have a reserve opener in their ranks which would have caused some consternation when choosing a replacement.They had three options: Stiaan van Zyl, who had opened in eights Test before and failed, Temba Bavuma, who opened in one and showed promise, and Quinton de Kock, who had never opened in Tests and had not done the job in South African domestic cricket since February 2014. The South Africa we know would have picked experience over an experiment and gone with either van Zyl or Bavuma. The South Africa we saw opted for de Kock.In numbers terms, the decision made sense because while van Zyl averaged 15.60 as an opener, and Bavuma scored 22 and 34 when he was given the chance, de Kock has opened 16 times in first-class cricket and averages 37.25 in the position. Perhaps the only reason he has not been seriously debated as an opener before is because his role with the gloves militates against it. Imagine if he had to keep for two days and then immediately go out to bat, or bat through the innings and then keep. That theory may not be tested in this match and it is likely the debate will continue after de Kock provided 82 reasons he could be considered for a longer-term role.De Kock survived a tense first hour in which New Zealand’s seamers probed his defences and Tim Southee almost broke through. The ball of the morning moved off the seam and snuck past the offstump and – as was the case for New Zealand for most of the day – was close but not close enough.The tug-of-war between de Kock’s attempts to assert himself and New Zealand’s to justify their captain’s decision to bowl first provided the most engaging cricket on New Zealand’s African safari so far. De Kock creamed Doug Bracewell through the covers; later in the over, Bracewell drew a top edge and, in the next over, drew him forward and beat the bat. De Kock whipped Bracewell off the pads and, off the next ball, Bracewell found an inside edge which BJ Watling could not hold on to. With even the outside edges off de Kock’s bat seemingly timed well enough to reach the boundary, it became clear he was winning the battle.For South Africa, to have someone with de Kock’s lively temperament at the other end along the more conservative Stephen Cook did wonders for the opening stand. Cook did not need to rush into run-scoring, which he may not have been able to do anyway because he rarely looked entirely comfortable at the crease. Instead, he built slowly.Through grit, grind and some good fortune, the pair put on the first century-stand for a South Africa top two since Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen in December 2013, and that set South Africa up. Even when things did not come easily – and the end of day score may suggest they did – they had the security of that stand to build on.New Zealand will feel hard done by after what can be considered a decent day’s work scuppered by luck playing hide and seek with them. When it wasn’t denying Bracewell, who found several edges none of which went to hand, it was duping the umpires. Twice, Ian Gould turned down appeals for lbw – against Stephen Cook off Neil Wagner and against Duminy off Trent Boult- and twice, Kane Williamson did not review. In both instances, a review would have overturned the not-out decision. On the two occasions Gould raised his finger, to dismiss Hashim Amla off Boult and Duminy off Bracewell, the decisions were overturned on review.Duminy was the biggest beneficiary. Promoted to No. 4 for the second Test in succession, he has also had to adjust but mostly to the pressure over his place. The last time Duminy scored fifty was more than two years ago, against Zimbabwe in August 2014 – 10 completed innings ago. That could have become 11 when he edged the first ball he faced, but, fortunately for him, it went wide of second slip, to the boundary.During Duminy’s dry spell, there would be flickers of form that were snubbed out by poor shot selection and he threatened the same today. After rolling his wrists to send a short ball over long leg and leaning into drives, he pulled out a premeditated lap scoop which, if he made contact with, may have ended his career. He wore it instead and batted on. Duminy still has a long way to go to convince the critics there is significant life left in him as a Test cricketer but he had to start somewhere.So did South Africa. For all their concerns about a series becoming a one-off shootout and the uncertainty over the surface, they could not have had a better day in their bid to begin their climb back up the rankings.

Stats highlights from the first day’s play in the Mumbai Test

Bharath Seervi08-Dec-20168 Number of England openers to score a century on debut after Keaton Jennings made a hundred on the first day of the Mumbai Test. Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook are the only other England openers to achieve this in the last 50 years. Overall, Jennings is the 19th England batsman to make a century on debut.2009 The previous time an England batsman scored a century on debut – Jonathan Trott against Australia at The Oval. Jennings is the ninth England player to make a debut century away from home and the third in India.239 Test wickets for R Ashwin. He went past Javagal Srinath’s tally of 236 to become the seventh highest wicket-taker for India. Moeen Ali was his 237th scalp.107 Previous highest score by a opener on debut against India – Gordon Greenidge in Bangalore in 1974-75. Jennings made 112. Cook (104*) and Alviro Petersen (100) were the only other openers to score a century on debut against India.51 Wickets taken by Ashwin on the first day of Tests – the third most by any bowler since Ashwin made his debut in 2011. The two bowlers ahead of him are both fast bowlers: Stuart Broad (65) and James Anderson (61). The next best among spinners is Nathan Lyon (42).22 Wickets for Ashwin at the Wankhede Stadium in four Tests – the second most for him at any venue. Only at Kotla (23) has he picked up more wickets than at Wankhede, but in three Tests. In his previous Test against England at the Wankhede in 2012-13, Ashwin took 2 for 145 in the first innings.6 Batsmen to score centuries on Test debut in India since 2006 – the most in any country. Of the six four are overseas – Cook, Petersen, Kane Williamson and Jennings. The average of debutants in India is the best among all nations since 2006. Jennings is the fifth batsman to score a century on debut against India since 2010, again the most against any opposition.6 Number of batsmen to score 2000 or more Test runs against India. Cook became the sixth to get there when he reached 19 in the first innings of this Test . Cook is the first England batsman to score 2000 against India; next highest is 1725 by Graham Gooch.

42 Innings taken by Cook to complete 2000 against India – the second most among the six batsmen have 2000 runs. Only Ricky Ponting, who has the most runs against India, took more innings than Cook – 45. Javed Miandad had reached the milestone in just 35 innings, the quickest.

Stats highlights from the fourth ODI between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Cape Town

Bharath Seervi07-Feb-2017185 Faf du Plessis’ score, the second-highest by a South African in ODIs. He fell three runs short of the record; Gary Kirsten’s 188 not out against UAE in 1996 World Cup. This was du Plessis’ career-best score eclipsing the unbeaten 133 against India in Mumbai in 2015. Only Rohit Sharma has made more – 264 – in an ODI innings against Sri Lanka.3 Du Plessis’ position on the list of the highest scores made by non-openers in ODIs. Charles Coventry is at the top with an undefeated 194 against Bangladesh in 2009 and Sir Viv Richards is second with an unbeaten 189 against England in 1984. The previous best by a South African non-opener was Herschelle Gibbs’ 175 against Australia while chasing 435 in Johannesburg.72 Runs scored by South Africa in the last five overs, the fourth-largest tally for a team playing against Sri Lanka since 2001. India’s 79 at Eden Gardens, in which Rohit smashed 264, is the highest. South Africa went from 295 to 367 in these five overs.367 South Africa’s total – the best total at Newlands. They held the previous record as well – 354 against both Kenya (2001) and England (2009). This is only the fifth 300-plus total at the venue and third in successive matches. South Africa made 327 against Australia in October last year.339 South Africa’s previous highest total against Sri Lanka, in Hambantota in 2014. This was their 23rd 350-plus score in all ODIs, which brought them level with India at No. 1.369 Du Plessis’ aggregate, his highest in a bilateral series, going past the 323 he made against India in 2015-16. Hashim Amla’s 413, against West Indies in 2014-15, is the highest by a South African in a bilateral ODI series. Du Plessis has a game left to break the record.694 Aggregate of runs in this match – the fourth-highest in an ODI in South Africa. Sri Lanka’s 327 is the highest total in a chase in South Africa that resulted in defeat. They collapsed from 307 for 4 to 327 for 10. They were ahead of South Africa’s score till the 45th over, but could add only 10 runs after the 45th over, whereas the hosts smashed 72 in that period.139 Runs added by Sri Lanka openers for the first wicket. This was their first century opening stand of this South Africa tour in 13 innings. Also, this was their first such stand in 25 ODIs against a full-member team, as the last was against Pakistan in 2015. Niroshan Dickwella and Upul Tharanga raced to 100 runs in first 10 overs, which is Sri Lanka’s second-highest total at that point of an ODI since 2001.2014 Last time a Sri Lanka captain scored a century in ODIs, before Tharanga getting one in this match. Angleo Mathews had made unbeaten 139 against India in Ranchi in November 2014. This was only the fifth century for a Sri Lanka captain in the last 10 years. Also, Tharanga’s first century in ODIs since he made unbeaten 174 in 2013.10.42 Lahiru Kumara’s economy rate having leaked 73 runs in seven overs. It is the third-worst by a Sri Lankan delivering five or more overs. Lasith Malinga’s 12.52, against India in 2012, where he gave 96 runs in 7.4 overs is the worst. Sachith Pathirana was the only bowler to have economy of less than six for the visitors.

ESPNcricinfo previews Gloucestershire’s prospects for the 2017 season

David Hopps29-Mar-2017Last season:

In: Phil Mustard (Durham)
Out: Tom Hampton (released), Hamish Marshall
Overseas: Michael Klinger, Cameron Bancroft, Andrew Tye (T20) (all Aus).2016 in a nutshell
Gloucestershire looked unstoppable in the group stages of the NatWest Blast only to lose their best chance of a trophy by falling to Durham in a home quarter-final in Bristol on a night when Mark Wood’s fast bowling was at his most explosive. Their Royal London Cup standards were disappointing, especially after winning the trophy the previous year, and they finished sixth in Division Two of the Championship, despite the satisfaction of beating the eventual winners Essex at Cheltenham, a campaign in which they suffered most markedly for the lack of an influential allrounder. Chris Dent was the mainstay of the batting in the Championship and Benny Howell’s sleight of hand made him a stand-out bowler in the Blast.2017 prospects
Gloucestershire’s head coach Richard Dawson makes no bones about the fact that the absence of the prolific Michael Klinger, who will play only limited-overs formats this season, and Hamish Marshall, who retired from county cricket at the end of last season, will put the club’s Championship batting under immense strain. Australian Cameron Bancroft, a short-term replacement for Klinger last season, will hope for better things as he returns for the whole season and Phil Mustard, signed from Durham as a wicketkeeper-batsman, has a big challenge ahead of him. Twenty20 again seems to be their strongest suit.In charge
Dawson made an immediate impact at Gloucestershire as they won the Royal London Cup in his first year and followed up with a strong performance in T20, but third time of asking could be his biggest test. Australian Ian Harvey is his assistant. Klinger, finally selected by Australia this winter at 36 when he played three T20Is – and successfully too – leads in both one-day formats. The toughest challenge faces wicketkeeper-batsman Gareth Roderick who oversees the four-day side. It would ease the weight on his shoulders if Mustard held down a Championship spot.Key player
Mustard was a crowd-pleaser during his time at Durham, a dishevelled and somewhat untamed force with bat and gloves, and there was much sorrow in the northeast when he was moved on. Whether “The Colonel” can win such approval in Bristol remains to be seen. When he left Durham in July, he had not played in the Championship for the county for more than a year, and had not played well in four-day cricket for even longer. He put that right at the end of 2016 to win a contract at Gloucestershire, but expect his greatest impact to come in the limited-overs formats where his appetite remains strong.Bright young thing
Matt Taylor, a powerful left-arm quick, has spent time this winter with England’s Pace Programme in South Africa. Taylor, younger brother of Jack, who is also on the books, had an excellent NatWest T20 Blast campaign in 2016, even managing a collector’s item by bowling a maiden at Chris Gayle. Not many can claim to have done that. One of several seam bowlers who Gloucestershire need to progress once more.ESPNcricinfo verdict
Gloucestershire make the best of their resources under Dawson, and as long as Klinger’s potency remains they will also be dangerous in Twenty20, but it is hard to make much of a case in the Championship unless their young seamers hit the jackpot all at once.Bet365 odds: Specsavers Championship, Div 2: 12-1; NatWest Blast: 16-1; Royal London Cup: 20-1

Cheteshwar Pujara will earn less this year than many Twenty20 specialists

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Apr-2017

No other batsman has come close to the rate at which Rohit Sharma has cleared the boundary over the last four years. On Sunday, his stand-and-deliver style helped him dominate Australia

Alagappan Muthu in Indore24-Sep-2017The batsman charged out of his crease, making room to free the arms on a ground where one of the boundaries looks 50m long. The bowler spotted the danger and adjusted, bowling back of a length and at the body. Rohit Sharma still hit it for a six so big it went out of the ground.A measure of how stunning that shot was came from the crowd. They didn’t bellow – as they usually do when India are batting. They went “whoaa” and simply lost their voice for a while.Rohit didn’t even bat an eyelid. He accepted a punch from his batting partner and returned to the crease. The sequence of events after that is fun to watch. He stands on leg stump, indulges in a small trigger movement, his front foot inching forward straight down the line, and then a moment’s stillness. It is in that time that he decides whether or not to become the monster who has hit 113 sixes in 79 innings since January 2013. No one has even come close to the rate at which he has cleared the boundary in this spell of four years.The fact that Rohit leads the world’s elite in this aspect of batting might seem unsurprising. But in his first five years as an ODI player he hit only 23 sixes in 81 innings. This isn’t a case of simple self improvement. It is the equivalent of Clark Kent slipping into a phone booth and the entire Justice League coming out.Looking at Rohit now, it seems bizarre that he could ever have struggled to loft the ball the required distance. He has a near-perfect technique to pull it off. There is that front-foot press, but he never lets it go across towards off stump. That would leave him with less room, which would then mean he can’t have a free swing of the bat. That swing is Rohit’s greatest asset. It is where he gets his timing, and it is his timing that he relies on to hit sixes.AB de Villiers, over several coaching videos on a website called , spoke of how he imagines he is in a box while batting so that he doesn’t let his hands wander away from his body. He does that to ensure he keeps the ball down. The opposite applies to six-hitting. You need leverage. And Rohit can repeatedly get all that he will ever need making very little effort, as he showed during his 71 off 62 balls on Sunday.Admittedly, Australia could have done better to stop the carnage. With the bat swing being key to Rohit’s success, they could have messed with it by bowling more slower balls. In fact, during the change of innings, century-maker Aaron Finch pointedly mentioned how when the Indian bowlers changed their pace, he found it hard to get to them away. A batsman who relies on hand-eye coordination, ball-sense and timing needs to keep his shape, and a well-executed slower ball will make sure he can’t.There are other times, too, that Rohit’s stand-and-deliver style has landed him in trouble – when he has to tackle pitches that offer sideways movement, for example. A good length ball outside off is just right to lift, but if it should swing in any direction the stumps or the outside edge come into play. This is why he still hasn’t cracked India’s Test XI. But it is difficult to argue with the method in limited-overs cricket. Simply look at the numbers. Rohit is fifth on India’s list of most prolific six-hitters – 136 in 160 innings. Five clear of his nearest rival, and bonafide legend, Virender Sehwag, who, and here’s the kicker, needed 235 innings to reach 131 sixes.

The 25-year old has been able to stifle batsmen even as dangerous as MS Dhoni, at a time when fingerspin is starting to lose ground in one-day cricket

Vishal Dikshit in Rajkot03-Nov-2017While wristspinners have drawn all the attention in the recent past, a quiet figure from New Zealand has made his name as a creative fingerspinner, especially on Indian soil. He has collected wickets, he has been stingy and he has contained one of the biggest names in the history of ODI cricket.When one thinks of Mitchell Santner’s best performances with the white ball, the most obvious one to come to mind would be his match-winning 4 for 11 against India in Nagpur at the World T20 last year. He doesn’t often collect a bagful of wickets, which is why memory can give away for his second-best performance in the country.He is a left-arm spinner, isn’t a big turner of the ball and doesn’t give it too much flight either. Nevertheless, his forte has been his ability to stem the flow of runs when he is introduced towards the end or just after the first Powerplay, and in the middle overs. Santner himself says he does not try to bowl any “miracle” balls.”As a fingerspinner, you obviously don’t turn it as much as a wristspinner. So our main threat is control,” he had said in Mumbai before the ODI series against India began. “If we can control one end, tie up one end and hope for a big shot and get a wicket that way…obviously depending on the surface. If it’s spinning, it’s obviously an asset.”Rewind to October 2016 and a sluggish surface in Delhi. India are 139 for 5 chasing 243, their hopes resting on the shoulders of MS Dhoni, who is batting at No. 5. Santner is brought back for a second spell in the 26th over but gives up 24 runs in his two overs – six off Dhoni’s bat, 18 off Kedar Jadhav’s. The required rate mellows a bit from 5.84 to 5.45 and Williamson is forced to take his spinner off.As soon as New Zealand dismiss Jadhav, however, they turn to Santner again. He sticks to tight lines while bowling at Dhoni from wide of the crease, with a fairly packed off-side field. Dhoni, on 26 off 37 until then, struggles against a spinner at home. He tries to score by going back in the crease, then by coming on the front foot. He attempts to pierce the gap by cutting or by lunging forward to work the ball past midwicket. Nothing works.Mitchell Santner celebrates a wicket•IDI/Getty ImagesSantner bowls 13 of his next 18 deliveries to Dhoni and concedes only seven runs in all. The pressure mounts and Dhoni falls soon after for a 65-ball 39. Santner ends with figures of 10-0-49-1 and India lose by six runs.Six days later, India are chasing 260 in Ranchi, another slow track. They have a slightly better start this time and Williamson brings Santner on as soon as the first Powerplay ends. Santner knows the pitch is to his liking and he slows down some of the deliveries, makes the ball turn, and pulls off a spell of 4-0-16-0 against Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.Dhoni promotes himself to No. 4 this time but struggles to get going again. In the first over of Santner’s second spell, he delivers five consecutive dot balls to Dhoni. In his next, he tosses one up, darting a couple in, extracts some turn and stymies Dhoni again. Five balls, three runs.The pressure builds again and Rahane and Dhoni fall in alternate overs. The wickets go to Jimmy Neesham but Santner’s figures read 6-0-20-0 and eventually 10-0-38-1 as India fall short by 19 runs.After the match, Dhoni called the middle-order slide a repeat of the Delhi loss because “the bowlers tend to bowl in the right areas so it becomes a bit difficult to freely rotate [the strike]”. This is one of the best middle-order batsmen India have produced and Santner has had the unenvious job of bowling to him in almost every match between these two teams. His record against Dhoni is envious, though.

Santner has bowled a total of 95 balls to Dhoni in ODIs, 58 of those dots. He has conceded only only 54 runs, including two fours and two sixes; that’s a boundary after every 24 balls. Among bowlers who have sent down at least 10 overs to Dhoni in ODIs, he has struggled the most against Devendra Bishoo (42 off 81 balls) and then Santner.While he has learnt a lot from Daniel Vettori on how to tie up batsmen and “wait for them to make a mistake”, Santner also researches India’s bowlers to do well in subcontinent conditions. “Especially on wickets that do a little bit [for the spinners], I watch a lot of Axar Patel and [Ravindra] Jadeja, they just try to bowl very consistent and very good areas and then try and spin it and then wait for batsmen to play a big shot and get out or run past one.”On this tour, Santner was preferred over Ish Sodhi for the three ODIs and he showed why. He took only four wickets, but his economy rate of 4.56 was better than anyone’s in the series. He bowled 33 dot balls in his 10 overs in Mumbai, 30 more in Pune, and another 24 in the high-scoring match in Kanpur, by far the most economical New Zealand bowler on the day with a minimum of two overs bowled.Even in T20s, it is his ability to contain that enables Sodhi to bowl more aggressive lines and lengths. Among bowlers with minimum 10 wickets in T20Is in India, Santner has the best dot-ball percentage of 51.13, followed by R Ashwin (45.45%) and Yuzvendra Chahal (43.26%). His only weakness there lies in the fact that after he sends down those dots, he also tends to give away boundaries. But he has managed to keep his economy rate under 6.50 in the format in India.Even so, his economy rate in the shortest format in India is under 6.5, and if he can put a check on batsmen going for big hits in Rajkot, he may well be able to show up Axar and Jadeja on their home turf.

At the Wynberg Boys’ High School ground in Cape Town, a lot of the greenery has basmen’s names on it

Luke Alfred21-Mar-2018Viewers around the world will be familiar with the magnificent sweep of the Newlands backdrop, referred to as Table Mountain’s “back table” in Cape Town. No more than perhaps five kilometres away from Newlands is an even better example of the natural beauty in which the city’s cricket grounds are set: the Jacques Kallis Oval, located in the sprawling grounds of Wynberg Boys High School (WBHS), Kallis’ former school.Shaped on the site of an old forest and close to the headwaters of a spring, the 1st team oval at WBHS came into use in the 1990-91 season, according to those at the school. The ground is not only closer to the mountain than Newlands, it is sunken into a bowl surrounded by greenery and carefully placed benches, lending it an unusual intimacy.Monkey-puzzle trees stand on a raised bank on one side of the oval, while a line of wind-bent poplars collapses over the pickets directly opposite. Discard schoolboy cricketers’ propensity for mind-bending collapses, misjudged runs and general eccentricity, and a more perfect cricket scene would be impossible to find.Without realising it, spectators who walk slowly around the ground tend to whisper or talk in hushed tones. The chatter inside the pavilion is often muted. It is muttered approvingly by the local cognoscenti that if you can clear one of the old, slightly stunted oaks at cow corner, you can hit a long ball.In 1994, inspired by the tradition at Hilton College in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, WBHS’ headmaster Keith Richardson decided to honour achievements on the recently excavated field by planting trees around it. Those who scored hundreds on the ground were entitled to a tree, as were bowlers who achieved seven-wicket hauls.Richard Levi has 12 trees in his name, while Dominic Telo, a former Cobras player and probably the most naturally gifted cricketer ever produced by the school, has 13. Kallis has only three, all planted retrospectively after he matriculated in 1993. “Jacques wasn’t that physically big at school – he probably took five or six 1st XI games to score his first two in front of square,” jokes Eric Lefson, a former master and first team coach. “His father, Henry, used to watch from the side and sometimes shout instructions.”One of 12: a plaque on a stump next to one of Richard Levi’s trees•Luke AlfredLefson says that only a handful of trees were planted through the nineties, but as the decade approached the turn of the century, so cricket achievements at the school exploded. There are now an estimated 60 trees planted all around, all adding to the oval’s greenery and charm.Of the benches, one of them down in a corner of the field commemorates the double-hundred Kallis finally scored against India – his 201 not out in Centurion in December 2010. Kallis said memorably at the time that the landmark, which he took 242 Test innings to achieve, was less significant than the door it opened – free access to billionaire Johann Rupert’s prestigious Leopard Creek Golf Course. “I’m almost more excited about the golf membership than I am about the double-hundred,” he joked.For all the worth of tradition, the school has encountered a recent problem. Normally a singular achievement would be marked with a fresh tree. Underneath the tree would be a small copper plaque, giving details of the feat. So, for example, we see that Levi scored 148 not out against Punt on 25 November 2004. Similarly, Telo – the first player at WBHS to make ten schoolboy centuries, before finishing with 13 – scored 103 not out against Australia’s Barker College on 4 January 2000.In recent years, many of the plaques have disappeared, leading to the scratching of heads. “We think the plaques have been stolen by guys who sell them to scrap-metal merchants,” says Oscar Nauhaus, the recently appointed 1st X1 coach. “With the money they get for the copper in the plaques, they buy drugs – mainly tik [known as crystal meth elsewhere in the world] which is a real problem down here in the Western Cape.”With the separation of plaque from tree comes confusion about which tree stands for what feat. Both Nauhaus and Lefson believe that there is a master plan in the school museum somewhere. The school is hopeful that before the summer is out, achievements will be reconciled with trees. “Yes, I’ve got two maps, so I’ll be able to sort that out,” says Richardson. “Within the next couple of months we’ll have all the plaques back.”The tradition of planting trees for major cricket achievements at South African schools is itself disputed, and it is therefore difficult to say exactly when and where it began. In his autobiography, co-written with the journalist Lungani Zama, Mike Procter says that Highbury Preparatory School in KwaZulu-Natal had the tradition before he arrived at primary school in the early 1950s, which suggests that Hilton College – Procter’s high school – might have borrowed the tradition from them.The eponymous bench at the Jacques Kallis Oval•Donna HerrOne of Procter’s favourite memories from Highbury was an outsized partnership he shared with Malcolm Glennie against a Transvaal Schools team before he went off to Hilton. “We put on 316 for the opening wicket, with Malcolm notching 100, while I chipped in with 210 not out,” says Procter in his autobiography, . “Highbury had a tradition of planting trees every time you scored a century, and I had a few by the time I was done. That 210 was my fourth century of the season, and I followed it up with a fifth ton the following Saturday.”It is difficult to get a handle on when Hilton’s first tree was planted,but Ant Lovell, a retired master from the school, thinks it was for Derek Crookes, who went on to play 32 ODIs for South Africa. “No tree was planted before 1988 – I have established that,” says Lovell. “I’ve asked around – all I can assume is the custom was discontinued here after the late 1990s.”There is an interesting counter-narrative to all of this. Lefson points out that WBHS’ all-time leading wicket-taker with 312 first-team wickets was Dylan Matthews, a boy who captained the 1st X1 in 2015 and left the school later that year. Despite his prodigious wicket-taking abilities, Matthews, who is studying at the University of the North West in Potchefstroom, and made his franchise debut for Lions against Cobras in Paarl last month, never took seven in an innings. As a result, he actually qualifies for inclusion on the school honours board but not for a tree.A similar story is told about Kagiso Rabada, who only grabbed three- and four-wicket hauls while at St Stithians College in Johannesburg – and so left school with a qualification but no tree. In the Under-19 World Cup semi-final against Australia in 2014, however, Rabada took 6 for 25, an analysis he argued was retrospectively worthy of a tree being planted in his name. In a state of high anxiety – and forgetting the time difference – Rabada phoned his former cricket master, Wim Jansen, from the UAE in the middle of the South African night. He had just bowled South Africa into the final of the Under-19 World Cup against Pakistan and believed (with some justification) he had a claim on a tree. Jansen was slightly taken aback, but promised to see what he could do, given that, strictly speaking, the school only honours hundreds and five-fors achieved at their 1st team ground. In Rabada’s case, however, they made a notable exception.Rabada, the treeless boy, has since bulked up, planted deep roots in the international game and spread his long arms. Tree thoughts are presumably some way away.

A look at fielding and decision review system metrics as we head into the final stages of IPL 2018

ESPNcricinfo staff14-May-2018RCB’s silver lining in the field
Royal Challengers Bangalore may be having issues with their death-overs bowling, but their fielders have done superbly to try and offset that. They have saved a net total of 36 runs in the field.* Kings XI Punjab, who had identified fielding as a weakness, have conceded a net total of 31 runs.ESPNcricinfo LtdMumbai’s safe hands, Royals’ butter fingers
Rajasthan Royals dropped three catches against Mumbai Indians on Sunday, and took six. This was below their normal catching rate this season – 74% – which is the lowest for any team.ESPNcricinfo LtdDRS calls in review
Kolkata Knight Riders have the worst ratio of unsuccessful reviews this season, with 62.5% of their reviews being unsuccessful. Sunrisers Hyderabad are the most successful by the same metric, with a 50% success rate over a relatively large number of reviews.ESPNcricinfo Ltd