New Zealand are eyeing their first Test win of the year after their top-order began well on a grassy pitch and Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum sealed that advantage by registering long awaited centuries

Andrew McGlashan in Dunedin03-Dec-2013

Taylor benefits from Crowe’s advice

A pre-match chat with his mentor, Martin Crowe, helped Ross Taylor score his first Test hundred in a year after he was reminded to “enjoy the battle.”
“I had a chat to him last night and he told me a few things which was good. He was just telling me to relax and get out there and enjoy the battle. There’s different times during the innings where you need to do that and it was a nice timely reminder.”
Taylor was able to enjoy the moment of his hundred alongside Brendon McCullum who had brought up his own cathartic ton a few moments earlier. They have often been seen as rivals within their own team, especially since the controversial change of captains, but New Zealand are undoubtedly stronger with them as a united force.
“It’s been well documented that Brendon’s been under the pump and it’s nice for him to score a hundred after he has been in a lean patch and nice for him to do it in front of family and friends.
“There’s always going to be that comparison with us until he retires or I retire,” he added. “But we can’t control that. We just have to do our best every time. We’re not going to score runs every time, but if we do our best shot then hopefully that’s enough.”

New Zealand could barely have dreamt of a better start to their home season. Despite losing the toss, one where they too would have inserted the opposition, they hurtled along at four runs an over with their captain and former captain laying markers for the summer ahead with much-needed hundreds. Already they are in a position from which they should not lose and can push to register their first Test victory of the year.West Indies were a gentle opposition in the opening forays, with the honourable exception of the wholehearted Tino Best whose early afternoon spell was the most impressive of the day. Their slow start was hardly unexpected, and though they pulled themselves together briefly either side of lunch – largely through Best and Shane Shillingford – New Zealand had been given a head start that they did not relinquish. Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum consolidated in forceful fashion during the evening session, which brought 173 runs in 35 overs.It was a day that ticked many boxes for New Zealand, from the start given by Hamish Rutherford and Peter Fulton (reminiscent of their 158-run stand against England in March) and then the way Taylor and McCullum ensured they did not waste that platform when the pair joined forces at 185 for 3 – a score from which New Zealand’s innings could still have fallen away.They were fed some rubbish as Darren Sammy, not for the first time in recent weeks, spread his field with little impact. Only Shillingford, in a commendable effort given the cloud over his action, gave him a semblance of control, although McCullum profited against him later, and New Zealand’s batsmen knew they could just play the offspinner out and feed off the poor deliveries that regularly came their way.The hundreds for Taylor and McCullum had been long awaited and were vital for different reasons. Taylor hadn’t reached three figures since losing the captaincy last year, his batting having become studded with racy fifties that did not do justice to his talent or provide the ballast the middle order needed. His previous hundred was in Colombo, which was both New Zealand’s most recent Test victory and the last match for Taylor as captain, although the die had been cast before that win.McCullum, meanwhile, had waited three years to score his seventh Test hundred. He had recently spoken about the “dark thoughts” he experienced after returning early from the Bangladesh tour with a flare-up of his chronic back condition after a period where his runs dried up. Last week he played a club game in Dunedin for local side Albion where, by all reports, he looked horribly scratchy and troubled by his back. He was bowled by a New Zealand Under-19 seamer; the difference between that attack and today’s may not be as vast as you would envisage.Even two days out from this Test, during New Zealand’s first practice day, McCullum had a horrid net session according to Taylor, who offered his captain some words of advice.”The way Brendon was batting on Sunday, I think he was trying very hard in the nets and sometimes when you really want to do well you over-train and he was doing that,” Taylor said. “His balance was all over the place. Obviously there were a couple of words from other people and I just said keep your balance. That was the only thing I was going through and his balance was beautiful. He played the strokes that he’s famous for and he was back to the Brendon of old.”McCullum is a batsman who lives on his instincts and if there were any doubts when he walked in, they did not show. This was also an opportunity gift-wrapped for him: a solid position forged by the top order, a soft ball, a shallow bowling attack and a fast outfield. He regularly played in similar fashion against England earlier this year, but either fell in the team push for quick runs or was left with the lower order for company.There was the occasional flex of the back, as there will be for the rest of his career – Taylor said his captain was “cooked” at the end of the day – but he was moving well enough to deposit Shillingford twice down the ground for six and pull Shannon Gabriel over midwicket for another. There was also the sight of two reverse sweeps, the second of which took him into the 90s.Taylor, as so often, was fierce on the cut and strong on the drive. He also had injury concerns leading into the series – a knee problem picked up during training after being rested from the Sri Lanka one-day tour – but for him, long considered the classiest batsman of this New Zealand generation and labelled as one of the country’s best ever, it is about producing the volume of runs his talent demands. He will make far tougher hundreds than this one, although he admitted having to battle out of one-day mode for his first 20-30 runs, during which he gloved one over the slips from Best.”My first initial reaction was to hit the ball,” he said. “Obviously Test cricket, that’s not what it’s about. I was working through my head the right tempo to play and just slow myself down. I was battling and trying to hit every ball for four. It was nice to come through the other end and felt pretty good.”There will have been few positive emotions in the West Indies camp. They wasted a chance in helpful morning conditions although Taylor believed the pitch would develop into the usual comfortable batting surface seen here for Tests. New Zealand’s cricket is not consistent enough for anyone to get too giddy, but already this match has the feeling of another lost cause for West Indies.

Thousands of youngsters pitch up in London to find a groove but not many are like Sam Robson, who aims to play Test cricket for England

Alan Gardner31-Jan-2014It is a cold, gunmetal grey day in Loughborough, a market town that trades in future England cricketers among its substantial student stock. Flooded fields in the surrounding countryside are an indicator of how much rain has fallen recently and paths of wet tarmac crisscross the university campus on the way to the ECB’s National Performance Centre. The warmth inside is welcome, the heating turned up as far as it will go, in an attempt to replicate conditions for playing and training in Sri Lanka, where the Lions have now arrived on tour.”It’s certainly a world away,” says Sam Robson, considering the change from where he was previously billeted, in Australia with the England Performance Programme and then for Christmas with his family – though he could just as well be referring to the forthcoming challenge in the subcontinent, where a crop of greenhorns more used to green pitches will attempt to puff their England credentials in sapping heat and humidity. The cooling breeze of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, where Robson grew up, will seem a distant memory.The thought does not seem to perturb him, however. It is the job of the modern professional cricketer to travel the world from assignment to assignment and there is no job in the world that Robson ever wanted more. It explains the easy shrug of the shoulders at having again left behind family and friends, not to mention the southern sun; as well as his apparent enthusiasm for resuming indoor net sessions in England in January. And it explains why another of his talents may yet go unfulfilled.In one of the other trouser legs of time, instead of practising his cover drive, Robson would perhaps be working on some different strokes. Keen on pencil sketching, he was accepted to study arts at Sydney University – “but cricket panned out the way it did and I deferred, then deferred the next year and by the time you keep deferring, your spot’s gone, so here I am, sitting here now, without a degree.”Now those fine motor skills are more often employed in nudging a cricket ball into gaps in the field, although they are still useful for entertaining team-mates when the opposition have found a way to exile him to the dressing room. “I should do more than I do,” he says, “my mother keeps on to me telling me I should keep doing it.” Fortunately the sporting ability he simultaneously nurtured has thus far served him well.”I think I would have enjoyed university, from what I hear from my mates who tell me about their adventures, I think I would have had a fair bit of fun. [Now] they’re in the real world, they’ve got proper jobs and everything is mapped out for them. It’s a bit different as a professional cricketer but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m aware of how lucky I am.”

A cricketer who bats for love not money (he has only played four T20s), for whom Tests are “the pinnacle”, Robson is also a young man who would rather be outdoors, throwing or hitting a ball, than staring at a screen

As much as it is possible to make your own luck, Robson has. At the age of 18, fresh out of Marcellin College, a Catholic high school in Randwick, he came to London, essentially in search of a hit. From a legspinner who batted down the order when playing for Australia Under-19s, Robson converted himself into a gutsy, acquisitive opener for Middlesex. Last season, during which he qualified to play for England, Robson finished as the third-highest run-scorer in Division One of the County Championship.Martin McCague, the Australian-raised seamer, was called “the rat who joined a sinking ship” when capped by England in 1993. After their Ashes , you might say the current England team have already been sunk, and it is not a stretch to imagine Robson opening the batting alongside Alastair Cook in the first Test of the summer at his home ground, Lord’s.Robson has a studied forward defence when it comes to such possibilities, just as he flicks away persistent questions about nationality. “If I ever become good enough, I want to play for England,” he says, one subject eliding into the other. What he doesn’t suppress is the sense of cricket – and the desire to play good cricket – as an obsession, something that should be worked at assiduously. In the steady accretion of experience and aptitude, the Lions tour is just another incremental step.”Since I started to take the game really seriously, when I was 15, 16, 17 – my whole thing has just been to try and improve and get better and see where that takes me,” he says. “I don’t know where I’m going to end up. I’ll keep working hard. I’d love to play Test cricket, there’s no doubt about it, but what’s worked for me the last few years, and helped me slowly develop and improve is just the fact that I’ve tried to keep getting better each day.”As England have previously discovered to their advantage, there is no zealot like a convert. Robson says he enjoys working with Mark Ramprakash, Middlesex’s batting coach and a man for whom practice and perfect never quite married up at international level, but he seems able to modulate his own intensity. In some respects, Robson is like thousands of other young Australians who pitch up in London and find a comfortable groove. His passion for his vocation is matched by his “love” for the city he now calls home, and having a life outside of cricket is, he says, “good for your game, good for you as a person”.Such a balanced outlook is indicative of Robson’s priorities. A cricketer who bats for love not money (he has only played four T20s), for whom Tests are “the pinnacle”, he is also a young man who would rather be outdoors, throwing or hitting a ball, than staring at a screen – unusually, for his generation, Robson is not on Twitter, seeing it as just “another thing to check”. In a digital world, he seems charmingly analogue.With English cricket in a rare state of flux, Robson’s qualities may become increasingly attractive but his focus remains on the next assignment: Sri Lanka and then the County Championship with Middlesex, continuing this pilgrim’s progress. “Whether anything comes from it or not, that’s life. I’ve just got to do as well as I can.”

The abrupt discarding of England’s highest international run-scorer appears to have been the result of catastrophic mismanagement. The ECB owes us all an explanation

George Dobell05-Feb-20140:00

‘The ECB has to be more accountable’

It is no coincidence that Kevin Pietersen’s international career has run concurrent with England’s greatest period of success for at least 50 years.When England won their first Ashes series in almost two decades, Pietersen’s century sealed the triumph. When England won their first global limited-overs trophy, Pietersen was Man of the Tournament. When England went to No. 1 in the Test rankings with a 4-0 defeat over India, Pietersen led the way with a batting average of 106.60. And when England came from behind to win in India, Pietersen played the series-turning innings in Mumbai. He has been at the forefront of almost every success England have enjoyed in the last decade.Even amid the rubble of the recent thrashing in Australia, Pietersen led the way. On the pitch, he was England’s leading run-scorer; off it, he could be seen helping other players in the nets.James Anderson and Stuart Broad both adopted Pietersen’s batting stance having worked with him, while Pietersen was also conspicuous in his encouragement of young players such as Gary Ballance and Ben Stokes. There is no suggestion that he stinted in his fitness or technical preparation. He looked, most of the time, like the model senior professional.Kevin Pietersen offered advice to James Anderson, among others, on England’s tour of Australia•Getty ImagesSo what has changed? What has changed since Ashley Giles, one of those who supposedly gave his support to the decision to cut Pietersen adrift, rated him a “million-dollar asset” on January 15; since Andy Flower praised his “determination” and labelled him a “great player” on December 10; or since Graeme Swann rated his attitude as “great” on January 27. Indeed, as recently as Christmas Day, Alastair Cook said Pietersen “has a huge part to play in the future” and praised the “excellent” way his squad had “stuck together in the dressing room”.Whispers suggest there were a couple of incidents, including a heated row with Cook in Sydney, in the last days of the tour. But, if Pietersen was so disruptive, why was he not disciplined at the time? If Cook and Pietersen had such a fierce row are they not both responsible and is Cook really the man to make a dispassionate decision? If, in a team meeting, Pietersen was asked for his views at the end of a chastening series, can he be penalised for stating them? And why is the ECB unable to tell us the reason for this drastic course of action?The manner of the announcement – with Pietersen appearing to go quietly – suggests a deal has been done. But it is not just Pietersen who must be placated here.England supporters deserve answers. It is unacceptably arrogant to dismiss their legitimate interest with an evasive media statement. It is unacceptable to discard England’s highest international run-scorer without explaining exactly why the management believe the team will be stronger without him. It is absurd to claim that, with two global events in the next 12 months and one within weeks, that this is the time to start a long-term rebuilding operation. And it is disingenuous to claim, via off-the-record briefings, that all the senior players were canvassed and gave negative views on Pietersen. Several, at least, claim to be as confused by this episode as Pietersen seems to be. The ECB has to be more transparent and accountable.The finality of this announcement will also hinder the next team director. Any credible applicant for that job will want to assemble their own team, appoint their own captain and make their own judgements on players. Yet the ECB has decided, without justifying its decision, to commit to a captain who, despite his many positive qualities, has only once averaged even 28 in five series against Australia, and a team without the man who might well be rated, upon reflection, as England’s best batsman in half a century.England’s new management team may feel that this is a strong decision. But truly strong leaders accept alternatives, diversity and imperfection. Strong leaders are flexible and embrace difference. Strong leaders understand that genius very often comes at a cost, but a cost that is worth paying.

By allowing the situation to reach this conclusion and in taking such a drastic decision, this is a catastrophic failure of management. England are not embracing change, they are embracing mediocrity

If you can’t manage, you shouldn’t be in management. By allowing the situation to reach this conclusion and in taking such a drastic decision, this is a catastrophic failure of management. England are not embracing change, they are embracing mediocrity.It is also a mistake to think this matter is closed. Until the ECB explains exactly how this happened, the questions will remain. Furthermore, England now face the potential prospect of finding new players to bat at No. 2 No. 3 and No. 4 in their Test team and will know that, every time they fail or Pietersen flourishes in whichever domestic league he finds himself at that time, the same questions will be asked: why not pick him? Cook has taken on a burden that will become wearisome very soon.Pietersen is not perfect. He can seem brash, he can seem arrogant, he can seem self-interested and the manner of his dismissals can be infuriating. But if you accept a player who can hit good bowlers out of the attack – it was his assault against a ferociously quick Shaun Tait that won England the final of the World Twenty20 in 2010, to name one of dozens of examples – then you accept that he will, at times, fall to catches at long-on or long leg. If you ask your players to play fearless cricket but then hammer them for failing, you will create the culture of fear and inhibition that choked England throughout their tour of Australia.There are parallels here with the end of David Gower’s international career. Just as England’s last genius batsman was pushed into early retirement by the Gradgrinds of the world, so Pietersen is being pushed away by those who should feel gratitude for his contribution. Had county cricket not lured Pietersen to the UK, the careers of Giles Clarke, Andrew Strauss, Andy Flower and Cook would all be much altered.England cricket is the poorer for the absence of players such as Gower and Pietersen. It will be less colourful, less entertaining and less competitive. But in England the greater sin is to be seen to give your wicket away with a loose stroke rather than leaving a straight delivery and allowing it to hit your stumps. Failure is accepted so long as it is not accompanied by flair. Genius is doubted and distrusted and, in England, you are forgiven for turning your back and going on a rebel tour – Gooch, Gatting, Graveney et al – but not for rocking the boat. In England, success has been a brief interlude in a general drama of failure.This England environment, in recent times, has a record of ruining players. A confused Steven Finn has regressed, an over-used Swann has retired, an exhausted Jonathan Trott has taken time out and the loss of form of the likes of Cook and Joe Root suggests that the schedule is part of an unsustainable business plan that risks ruining the greatest assets of all: the players.It is increasingly hard to avoid the conclusion that it is the institution at fault, not the individuals. Change may well be required, but it is right at the top that it should start.

Plenty of action in Kotla’s first game of the season

Amit Gupta04-May-2014Choice of game
This was Delhi Daredevils’ first home game this season. Delhi had only two wins in five games. I was expecting Kevin Pietersen to be back in full flow, but that didn’t happen.Key performer
Nobody really expected Karun Nair to play such a composed innings for Rajasthan Royals. He had low scores in the UAE leg of the tournament and there was chatter in the stands about Nair being preferred over Delhi boy Unmukt Chand, who played for Daredevils last season. But Nair played a composed innings and showed that Rajasthan have the knack of bringing out the best in their new talent. He could just be their trump card this season.One thing I’d have changed about the match
I would have wished for JP Duminy to play faster. He slowed down the momentum in the middle overs and could not really accelerate in the end.Wow moment
Pietersen was run out by Sanju Samson in seventh over and even though Rajasthan were confident in their appeal, the umpire, Sanjay Hazare, did not refer it to the third umpire, leading Shane Watson to argue heatedly over his decision. It was more heated in the stands, with abuses being hurled at the umpire.Quinton de Kock, fielding near the boundary where I was sitting in the ground-floor stand, did a bhangra step to a Punjabi song playing over the speakers during an over break. It kept the crowd dancing throughout the over.Shot of the day
Kedar Jadhav hit Kane Richardson for a six over his head off the penultimate ball of Delhi’s innings. It was hit so cleanly that the moment the ball left the bat there was no doubt as to where it was headed.Overall
It was a fantastic experience for my wife and I. We arrived two hours early for the match but didn’t feel bored for one moment. Live music, some hot food and quality cricket made our day. We hope to come again to Kotla, sooner than later.

Plays of the Day from the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in Dubai

Abhishek Purohit19-Apr-2014The drops
Royal Challengers Bangalore couldn’t seem to catch anything at the start. Third ball of the game, Michael Hussey scooped a drive straight to Yuzvendra Chahal at backward point off Mitchell Starc, and the fielder put it down. Second ball of the second over, Aditya Tare drove weakly at an Albie Morkel outswinger. The outside edge went straight to slip this time, where Nic Maddinson failed to hold on.The triple tag
Fielders regularly speed after balls in pairs now, one of them slides, stops and lobs up the ball to the other to make the throw. Here, three Royal Challengers man were after a Tare mis-hit over cover. Chahal reached the ball, and relayed it to the man closest to him. The fielder slipped but help was at hand, as another relay found the palms of a third man, who threw the ball towards the wicketkeeper. There might have been a run-out after all this teamwork, had Parthiv Patel not removed the bails without collecting the ball.The strikes
Chahal continued to make up for dropping Hussey, on the field and with his legspin. He first had Rohit Sharma mishit a googly to long-off. The legspinner continued to toss the ball up, and the reward was the big wicket of Kieron Pollard, who slammed a full delivery for long-on to take a leaping catch.The delivery
This was vintage Zaheer Khan. He’d already dismissed Virat Kohli and welcomed Yuvraj Singh with an away-going lifter that he thought had been edged, but Tare could not gather the high take behind the stumps. Zaheer did it all by himself next ball. It was fast, just outside off, and nipped in after pitching to strike a surprised Yuvraj plumb in front.

Stats highlights after the end of the fifth day’s play between Sri Lanka and England at Headingley

Bishen Jeswant24-Jun-2014 Sri Lanka, with this win, have now won seven Test matches outside the subcontinent, excluding Tests in Zimbabwe. The margin of victory in this Test – 100 runs – is the narrowest in terms of runs for Sri Lanka in these countries. They have won five Tests by larger margins and another by 10 wickets. Three of these seven wins have come in England, two in New Zealand and one each in South Africa and West Indies. These seven wins have come in 57 Tests, which makes their win percentage 12.3%. India and Pakistan, the other subcontinental giants, have win percentages of 12.4% (22 wins in 177 Tests) and 21.4% (31 wins in 145 Tests) respectively in these conditions. The overall records of India and Sri Lanka, in terms of win percentages, are now quite similar. Sri Lanka’s performance in this series was largely due to Kumar Sangakkara, who scored 342 runs over the two Tests, and became the first Sri Lankan batsman to score 300-plus Test runs during a tour of England. This is not for a lack of opportunity, because Sri Lanka’s last three tours to England have included three Tests. Sangakkara also overtook Saurav Ganguly to score the most runs by an overseas batsman in a two-match series (or who played only two matches in a longer series) in England. Mahela Jayawardene contributed 174 runs as well, including a couple of half-centuries. Jayawardene and Sangakkara have now scored exactly 11493 runs each and are joint sixth on the all-time list of highest run-scorers in Tests. During the second Test, Sangakkara overtook Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who was previously seventh on the list. It is also worth noting that Alistair Cook moved past Geoffrey Boycott to go fifth on the list of leading run scorers in Tests for England. Jayawardene was the only Sri Lanka captain to have scored a hundred in an away Test victory, in a country other than Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Angelo Mathews has now become the second man to have achieved this feat and also the first Sri Lanka captain to have scored a hundred and taken more than one wicket in a Test win, whether at home or away. Sangakkara came into this series on the back of three consecutive 50-plus scores against Bangladesh. That sequence has now been extended to seven consecutive scores. Sangakkara’s batting average of 90.50 since the start of 2013, is the highest for any batsman in this period. He has scored 1448 runs in 17 innings during this phase, which is second only to David Warner who has scored 1484 runs, but in 32 innings. Rangana Herath has bowled 263.3 overs in Tests starting this year, the most by any bowler. Shaminda Eranga has bowled the second-highest number of overs, 217.5. No other player has bowled more than 160 overs in Test cricket in 2014. This is partly due to the fact that Sri Lanka have played six Tests in 2014, while no other team has played more than four. This in itself is noteworthy, because Sri Lanka have played only 56 Tests in the period from 2007 to 2013. Only Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Pakistan (who have had hardly any home Tests in that period) have played fewer Tests in that period. Jayawardene took two catches in this match and thus went past Ricky Ponting on the all-time list of outfield players who have taken the most catches in Test cricket. Jayawardene has now taken 197 catches in Test cricket, going past Ponting who had taken 196. Jayawardene is all set to join an elite two-man list of fielders who have taken more than 200 catches in Test cricket, namely Rahul Dravid (210) and Jacques Kallis (200). Jayawardene bowled six overs in the fourth innings of this Test. This is the most number of overs that Jayawardene has bowled in a Test outside the subcontinent. He had bowled six overs in an innings on one previous occasion as well, against New Zealand at Wellington in April 2005. Since 22 August 2009, Jayawardene had bowled only one over in Test cricket. Dhammika Prasad’s five wicket haul was the 31st by a Sri Lanka pace bowler in away Tests. This is only the second instance of a Sri Lanka seamer taking five wickets in an innings in England, the fourth instance of taking a five-wicket haul in the fourth innings of an away Test.

Plays of the day from the game between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders

Rachna Shetty11-May-2014The start
Playing a match when the temperature is hovering around 40 degrees is never easy, but despite the heat Jacques Kallis had a few problems warming up. Coming on to bowl the first over, he offered a gift to Virender Sehwag – a full, slightly wide ball that was duly flayed over cover’s head. Searching for swing, he overcompensated down the leg side and Sehwag took another three fours. The 17-run over turned out to be the second most expensive opening one this season.The effort
He did not have his best day with the ball but Kallis was as good as ever in the field. In the 13th over, fielding on the fine-leg boundary, Kallis sprinted to stop a sweep by David Miller, and in one move, executed a sliding save and tossed the ball to Umesh Yadav.In luck
With three 40-plus scores behind him, Robin Uthappa once again looked in imperious form, smacking Sandeep Sharma for three fours and Mitchell Johnson for 18 runs in successive overs. When spin was introduced in the form of Akshar Patel’s slow left-arm, Uthappa played a reverse-sweep straight to point. Two balls later, he tried another reverse sweep. The ball ballooned off his glove and helmet and fell just out of reach of a diving Wriddhiman Saha.Chawla’s rewind
In the last match between the two sides in the UAE, Piyush Chawla finished with figures of 3 for 19 in four overs, accounting for the wickets of Virender Sehwag, David Miller and George Bailey. He finished with the same figures in this game, too. Virender Sehwag was bowled by the legspinner for a second time, and he dented the Kings XI innings with the wicket of Glenn Maxwell. His third scalp was Rishi Dhawan. Incidentally, Sehwag was the top-scorer in Abu Dhabi, too, where Kings XI recorded their lowest total batting first in the IPL this year.The regulation miss
Bailey is not usually sloppy in the field but he had a forgettable moment during the Knight Riders chase. In the 17th over, with Knight Riders needing 15 off 21, a well-set Gautam Gambhir top edged a pull and it came straight to Bailey at midwicket. The Kings XI captain got his hands under the ball, which promptly popped out and landed on the grass. Bailey, who normally has a smile ready for most occasions on a cricket field, wore a slightly sheepish one this time.

The first two Investec Tests were even, but India were swept aside in the last three so thoroughly that the overall series stats look pretty lopsided

S Rajesh19-Aug-2014This five-Test series was played in two parts. In the first, which lasted two Tests, England and India were evenly matched: neither side had much of an advantage at Trent Bride, while India took the Lord’s Test by 95 runs. That was the end of the competitive part of the series, as England swept the next three matches by huge margins, with the margin in the final Test at The Oval – an innings and 244 runs – being the third-heaviest defeat ever for India.The stats illustrate the closeness between the teams in the first two Tests, and the gulf thereafter. After Trent Bridge and Lord’s, India averaged about three-and-a-half runs more per wicket with the bat, while their bowlers took wickets at a slightly better rate (one every 70.1 balls, compared to 75.6 for England). But when the home team took control, India weren’t even competitive: in the last three Tests, their average dropped to a miserable 17.71 – less than a third of England’s, while their bowlers took only 30 wickets (excluding run-outs), compared to 56 by England’s bowlers.Overall in the series England had 19 fifty-plus scores (five hundreds and 14 fifties) to India’s 17 (two hundreds and 15 fifties). While that looks close enough, it hides the fact that England batted only once in each of the last two Tests. Overall in the series, England’s batsmen played 68 innings, which means they passed 50, on average, once every 3.58 innings; India’s batsmen, on the other hand, played 110 innings in the series, which means they passed 50 once every 6.47 innings. The ratio between these two numbers – which is roughly also the ratio between the batting averages – illustrates the gulf between the two teams over the series.Compared to the numbers for the two teams in the 2011 series, the gulf in 2014 is slightly lesser, but only because of the first two Tests. In the last three, the difference was clearly more than in the four Tests in 2011.

The overall series stats for England and India

TeamRuns per wktInngs batted100s/ 50sWkts taken*Bowl SR**England44.41685/ 149453.0India25.731102/ 155977.8

England and India, in the first two and last three Tests

Runs per wktInngs batted100s/ 50sWkts taken*Bowl SR**England – 1st and 2nd Tests34.60332/ 53875.6India – 1st and 2nd Tests38.07442/ 102970.1England – last 3 Tests54.23353/ 95637.8India – last 3 Tests17.71660/ 53085.2

England v India in the four-Test series in 2011

TeamRuns per wktInngs batted100s/ 50sWkts taken*Bowling SR**England59.76567/ 117948.1India25.55883/ 94695.5
The batting numbersEngland’s dominant batting positions were clearly Nos. 3 and 5, where Gary Ballance and Joe Root pummelled India’s bowlers and scored 41% of the total runs off the bat made by England. Both topped 500 runs in the series, only the 11th time two England batsmen have scored 500-plus in a series. The last time it happened was also against India, when Kevin Pietersen (533) and Ian Bell (504) made merry in the four-Test home series in 2011. Ballance became the first England No. 3 batsman to score 500-plus in a series since David Gower’s aggregate of 710 in the six-Test Ashes series of 1985. Root’s 518, meanwhile, is the second-highest aggregate ever for an England No. 5 in a Test series, next only to Bell’s 562 in last year’s home Ashes. The third-highest for an England No. 5 in a series is 492, by Stanley Jackson in 1905.India’s top order, on the other hand, struggled throughout. M Vijay was an exception over the first two Tests, but even he fell away later, scoring only 85 in his last six innings. Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir combined to score 147 in ten innings. Virat Kohli’s average of 13.40 is the third-lowest for an India top-four batsman in a Test series (with a cut-off of eight innings), while Cheteshwar Pujara’s average of 22.20 is the lowest for an India No. 3 batsman in a series in England (cut-off of five innings). Ajinkya Rahane shone at Lord’s and Southampton, but scored only 29 in his last four innings.

Batting averages for England and India, position-wise

EnglandIndiaPositionRunsAverage100s/ 50sRunsAverage100s/ 50sOpeners46335.610/ 454927.451/ 2No. 350371.852/ 222222.200/ 1No. 429742.421/ 113413.400/ 0No. 545490.802/ 229933.221/ 2No. 618831.330/ 132732.700/ 3No. 721543.000/ 214916.550/ 1No. 810020.000/ 130834.220/ 2No. 910125.250/ 024727.440/ 3No. 106722.330/ 0505.550/ 0No. 1111222.400/ 18621.500/ 1The partnership numbersThe average partnership, and the number of century stands, for each wicket for England and India: England had a higher average for every wicket•Sajan Nair / ESPNcricinfo LtdEngland had eight century stands in the series, including three for the second wicket alone. Ballance was involved in four of the eight century stands, and Root in three, including the series-topping stand of 198 with James Anderson at Trent Bridge. India had just two century partnerships in the entire series, one of which was for the tenth wicket.Overall in the series, England had 61 partnerships, of which there were eight century stands – an average of a hundred stand every 7.6 innings; India had two century stands out of 100 partnerships, an average of one every 50 innings. Balance and Cook were the leading pair of the series, with 414 partnership runs in five innings, while India’s best combination was Vijay and Pujara, with 325 runs in seven partnerships.The bowling numbersAgain, in the first two Tests there was little to choose between the seam bowlers of the two teams, but in the last three England’s pace attack – led by Anderson and Stuart Broad – averaged 18.83 runs per wicket, compared to India’s 58.20. Moeen Ali was ordinary with the bat, but his spin was far more effective than Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin’s.Anderson’s 25 wickets was his best haul for a series, while it’s the second successive time an England fast bowler has taken 25 wickets in a home series against India: in 2011 Broad took 25 at an average of 13.84. In the last two home series against India, Anderson and Broad have remarkably similar combined stats: Anderson has 46 wickets in nine Tests at 22.93, while Broad has 44 wickets at 17.79.

Pace and spin for England and India in the series

EnglandIndiaWicketsAverageStrike rateWicketsAverageStrike ratePace – 1st 2 Tests3036.7678.32530.8458.0Spin – 1st 2 Tests742.2872.8453.00145.7Pace – last 3 Tests4318.8341.42058.2091.2Spin – last 3 Tests1313.7625.61040.5073.4The head-to-head battlesThe story of the series was the manner in which Anderson and Broad dominated India’s batsmen, and that’s reflected in the numbers below. All the Indian top-order batsmen struggled against at least one of these two bowlers. The Anderson-Kohli battle – a highly one-sided one – was prominently talked about throughout the series, and the numbers illustrate Anderson’s dominance: he averaged 4.75 runs per wicket against Kohli, and dismissed him four times. Anderson needed to work much harder to dismiss Vijay, but towards the end of the series, especially, he dominated Vijay too, setting him up superbly with a combination of outswingers and inswingers. Either Anderson or Broad dismissed each of India’s top-six batsmen at least three times in the series: Anderson took care of Kohli, Vijay and Dhawan, while Broad handled Pujara, Rahane and Dhoni.The control factor, which measures the percentage of deliveries a batsman middled or left alone against each bowler, presents some interesting numbers too. Dhawan was dismissed three times by Anderson and never by Broad in the series, but against Broad Dhawan achieved a control factor of only 69.2%, compared to 87.2 against Anderson. That indicates Dhawan was generally more uncomfortable against Broad, even though Anderson dismissed him more often.Overall too, Anderson and Broad were extremely effective against India’s top-order batsmen. Nineteen of Anderson’s 25 wickets were of India’s top seven batsmen (including MS Dhoni), and he averaged 19.52 against them; Broad averaged slightly more but he caused more problems for the batsmen, who achieved a control percentage of only 77.5 against him, compared to 82.4 against Anderson.

Eng bowlers v Ind batsmen

BowlerBatsmanRunsBallsDismissalsAverageRuns/ overControl %James AndersonVirat Kohli195044.752.2878.0James AndersonMurali Vijay106337426.501.8883.6James AndersonShikhar Dhawan3278310.662.4687.2Stuart BroadMS Dhoni49132316.332.2271.2Stuart BroadCheteshwar Pujara206936.661.7371.0Stuart BroadAjinkya Rahane41139313.661.7681.3James AndersonMS Dhoni96187248.003.0874.9Stuart BroadMurali Vijay88266188.001.9885.3James AndersonAjinkya Rahane61125161.002.9284.8Stuart BroadShikhar Dhawan51650-4.7069.2

Anderson, Broad and Moeen against India’s top order*

BowlerRunsBallsDismissalsAverageRuns/ overControl %James Anderson3719531919.522.3382.4Stuart Broad2867851322.002.1877.5Moeen Ali257412928.553.7486.4In the head-to-heads between England batsmen and Indian bowlers, there were a few battles where the Indians came out on top, but in most of them the batsmen dominated. Bhuvneshwar Kumar had good stats against Ian Bell and Sam Robson, while Ishant Sharma dominated Bell too, but most of the other averages were overwhelmingly in favour of the batsmen. Root averaged more than 100 against Ishant, and 83 against Bhuvneshwar; Ballance averaged 105 against Bhuvneshwar, and 61 against Ishant.However, the control numbers are interesting again. Against Bhuvneshwar, the control numbers were pretty high for England’s batsmen, but against Ishant they dipped to the early 70s. He did finish with 14 wickets at 27.21 in the series, but with some luck Ishant could have finished with even more impressive numbers in the series.

Ind bowlers v Eng batsmen

BowlerBatsmanRunsBallsDismissalsAverageRuns/ overControl %Bhuvneshwar KumarIan Bell46106315.332.6085.8Ishant SharmaIan Bell194036.332.8570.0Bhuvneshwar KumarSam Robson60168320.002.1483.9Varun AaronAlastair Cook2954214.503.2270.4Ishant SharmaJoe Root1121671112.004.0270.6Bhuvneshwar KumarGary Ballance1051981105.003.1886.9Bhuvneshwar KumarJoe Root83143183.003.4888.8Bhuvneshwar KumarAlastair Cook67156167.002.5789.7Varun AaronJoe Root651080-3.6184.2Ishant SharmaGary Ballance61126161.002.9078.6

Afghanistan’s former coach may have quit cricket to pursue religion, but he remains with the side in spirit

Tim Wigmore22-Aug-2014Taj Malik will not be in Australia and New Zealand when Afghanistan play their first World Cup next year. But Afghanistan might not have gotten that far without Malik.The story of Afghanistan’s first, glorious attempt to qualify for the World Cup – the transformation from a side praying for rain to spare them from playing Jersey to one defeating Ireland in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in 12 months – was immortalised in the documentary . Taj Malik was the film’s hero. Temperamental, bombastic and with insatiable enthusiasm and self-belief after spending 16 years as a refugee, he had no time for realists who thought that his dreams of Afghanistan reaching the World Cup were incredible.It is a remarkable tale – and there is no better guide than Malik. “I started playing cricket in 1987, when England was touring Pakistan during Mike Gatting’s captaincy. We used a tennis ball,” he says. “When we were refugees in Pakistan, we got interested in watching international matches.”And then we started playing with a tennis ball and then slowly got more interested and established a refugee team in the Kacha Gari camp and then started our dream to have an Afghanistan team.” This refugee side, which Malik named the Afghan Cricket Club, served as a platform for future Afghan stars, including Karim Sadiq (Taj’s brother) and Nawroz Mangal, a former Afghanistan captain.During his time as a refugee in the Kacha Gari camp, Malik turned the Afghan Cricket Club, through sheer force of will, into a formidable side. Afghanistan’s cricketers can hardly claim to have been lucky, but it was fortunate that their years in Peshawar coincided with the game flourishing in that part of Pakistan;.Test players including Umar Gul and former offspinner Arshad Khan are recent products of the system. When the Afghan Cricket Club was invited to play against clubs in Peshawar, it was a formidable education for the side.When he finally returned to Afghanistan, Malik vied with Allah Dad Noori for control of the nascent Afghanistan cricket team. While Malik was in Pakistan, Noori had formed the Afghanistan Cricket Federation (which later became the Afghanistan Cricket Board) in 1995 with the Taliban’s approval. Eventually, they hit upon a compromise: Noori assumed the presidency of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation while Malik became the general secretary and national coach.In 2001, the ICC awarded Afghanistan Affiliate membership. Afghanistan’s first official fixtures came when they were invited to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Trophy in 2004, a tournament featuring 15 teams. Afghanistan finished sixth, and were soon to embark upon their remarkable cricketing surge.Malik credits much of their success to the experience of playing in Pakistan. “We started to beat the strong Peshawar clubs,” he says. “The ACC teams were very easy for us so that’s why in 2008 I was pretty confident, if you watch .”That is – uncharacteristically for Malik – an understatement. He used to boast that Afghanistan would score 400 runs in their 50 overs, and threatened to throw himself into the Atlantic if Afghanistan failed to progress to Division Four of the World Cricket League.Thankfully he did not have to stick to his word: Afghanistan beat Jersey by two wickets in the Division Five final. “All the matches were very interesting, especially because the conditions were against us,” Malik says.But the tournament’s aftermath was less kind to him. Some players felt Malik was putting too much pressure on them. His default reaction to any collapse was to chain-smoke. After a disappointing performance in the ACC Trophy in 2008, he was relieved of his post as coach.It still rankles. “Up to Jersey, there was no government involvement in cricket, and there was no support from any department,” he says. “When cricket became more popular all people got interested, all the nation got interested, and the government removed me from my post.”They told me, ‘Now we are going to the big stage and you are a low-level coach.’ But I’d done the most difficult job to help the team play with a hard ball, and I gathered the team and motivated them.”Malik was replaced by Kabir Khan, a former Pakistan Test cricketer. And though he could be considered a foreign coach, Kabir could not be called a carpetbagger. Like many in the Afghanistan side, Kabir was born in Peshawar. His father was Afghan. Kabir will lead Afghanistan in the World Cup: he resigned in 2010 citing interference from the cricket board during a tour to Scotland, but returned in 2012 after receiving assurances that he would be able to get on with his job in peace.Malik credits his team’s experiences in Pakistan with helping them aspire to a higher level•Afghanistan Cricket FederationUnder Kabir, Afghanistan progressed to the final stages of the 2011 World Cup qualifiers in South Africa, in 2009. They just missed out on qualification. As their World Cup dreams ended, Malik was at home, listening on a crackly radio stream.But soon he would return, as assistant coach to Kabir. “I give thanks to Allah that again I show my performance and we qualified for the World T20 held in the West Indies,” Malik says. His his return didn’t last long, though.”There is no justice,” Malik says. He says that the problem was one that many cricketers could relate to – greedy administrators.”We had a conference and we decided that the prize money should go to the players because everybody had economic problems,” he says. “When we went to the cricket board administrators and the chairman, they refused. They said this money should go for other things.” The board eventually relented but Malik was not made aware of it by the players. “I resigned and then the cricket board changed and then they hired me as the Afghanistan A coach.”He left that position two and a half years ago and since then Malik has focused on Islam; he is now in Tableegh, a religious movement.”I worked for seven-eight years with these players when we had no facilities, no money,” he says. “Now some of the senior players want to come and talk with me. I’m not the kind of person to have bad behaviour with them.” The current captain, Mohammad Nabi, recently described Malik as “a great man”, saying “I meet him from time to time when I go back to Afghanistan. We don’t talk about cricket.”Malik is pleased with the quality of life now enjoyed by Nabi and his side. “I’m happy that they’re playing on a good level, they have good salaries, they don’t have economic problems. They have cars.”But he doubts the ability of women’s cricket to gain acceptance in Afghanistan. “It’s very difficult in the country because Afghanistan is a Muslim country and Islam does not allow women and girls to participate, especially in Afghanistan,” he says. “They cannot move without Islamic rules – to walk from home. So how can they play?”Although he has moved on from cricket, Malik has lost none of his bluster. The words rattle out of his mouth like machine-gun fire. While he remains a staunch supporter of the side, he believes that professionalism has come at a price: the essence of Afghanistan cricket has been lost.”Afghanistan has a distinct playing style. A lot of the national coaches working with the team tried to change their playing style,” he laments. “Like in Pakistan and India, there is a lot of spin bowling and defensive batting to rotate the strike, getting ones and twos. This was not our style. Our style was just like the style which West Indies have. We have big hitters and score a lot of runs hitting sixes and fours. In this style we won so many games from 2002 to 2009 everywhere in the world.”One such occasion was against the UAE in the ACC T20 tournament in 2009. “In the last two balls, ten runs were needed and we all felt like we had lost the game. Our last pair was at the crease, Shapoor Zadran and Hamid Hassan, and the UAE captain was bowling full tosses. I shouted at Hamid Hassan to not go down the track, stay at the crease and hit it far. He hit the first ball for four and the last for six and we won and that match was telecast live in Afghanistan. That was my favourite match in Afghanistan’s history.”Malik thinks that a bit more of that spirit would make Afghanistan ever more successful today. “If I was there, I’m sure, with the help of Allah, we would be the No. 5 or No. 6 team in the world today.” As Afghanistan’s rise continues, Taj Malik does not deserve for his role to be forgotten. And if he has anything to do with it, there is no chance it will be.

Plays of the day from the fifth ODI between Pakistan and New Zealand in Abu Dhabi

Abhishek Purohit19-Dec-2014Substitute Bond
Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori had already gone back home. James Neesham and Corey Anderson were ruled out with groin injuries. New Zealand were down to 11 men fit and available for the final ODI. A couple of UAE national team players had to be drafted in as two of the substitutes. The third sub on the team sheet was bowling coach Shane Bond. Bond had company, as South Africa bowling coach Allan Donald had also been kept on the substitute list in the Centurion Test against West Indies with his side hit by a string of injuries.Accurate Irfan
New Zealand were on the charge in the slog overs but Mohammad Irfan wasn’t willing to play along. He started the 49th with a couple of yorkers to Tom Latham. Latham tried coming down the track but the next ball was a sharp bouncer that he could only duck. Three successive dot balls. Top-class death bowling.Jamshed’s non-review
Nasir Jamshed was done in by Matt Henry’s pace fifth ball of the chase and rapped on the pad. He was given leg-before but there was enough doubt about the decision for him to have a long discussion with the non-striker Ahmed Shehzad. Even as the two batsmen conferred, the time available for Pakistan to review elapsed, and Jamshed had to trudge back, only for replays to show the ball pitching well outside leg stump.Shehzad’s shocker
Shehzad had led Pakistan’s recovery from 38 for 3 and guided the score past 100 in the company of Haris Sohail. Matt Henry had been brought back and bowled a half-tracker to Shehzad, batting on 54. Shehzad could not quite make up his mind whether to slog or pull and ended up lobbing it tamely to midwicket. He let out an anguished cry as soon as he hit the stroke, but the damage had been done.