Grilled-chicken fiend Ajmal Shahzad is quite the mimic when it comes to other bowlers

Interview by Myles Hodgson04-Jun-2012You have just moved from your native Yorkshire to Lancashire on loan. There were several other counties interested in you, so why did you choose Lancashire?
There were a few reasons. Glen Chapple has been on the top of his game for the last few years and I want to learn as much as I can off him before he decides to call it a day. I wanted to work with Peter Moores as well. I’ve heard rave reviews about him as a coach and hopefully he can help develop my game.Presumably moving to Lancashire meant you also didn’t have to travel far from where you live?
Locality was also important. I didn’t want to be travelling up and down the country or moving about too much. I just wanted to go somewhere and start playing some cricket. I’m on the road a bit now, travelling from Yorkshire, staying in hotels, and the odd night with Ashwell Prince. It’s different but I’m enjoying it and I’ve just got to embrace it.How are you finding all the roadworks on the M62 motorway from Yorkshire to Old Trafford that have reduced the speed to 50mph for many miles?
It’s an absolute nightmare. You’re cruising at around 70mph and then you get miles and miles of 50mph and it takes you ages to get through it. If we’re training, I have to set off from Yorkshire at 6.30am just so I can get there for 8.30am and start training at 9am, but you’ve just got to get on with it. How easy has it been to fit into a new dressing room?
I thought it would be a tricky period for me, trying to fit in with the boys, but it happened seamlessly. I’ve got a few friends here, Saj Mahmood being one of the main ones, and that allowed me to fit straight in. The three days we had rained off down in Sussex [before Shahzad’s debut] allowed me to get to know the rest of the squad.What has the crowd reaction from Lancashire fans been towards you, bearing in mind the great rivalry with Yorkshire?
I got a really good reception from the crowd on my home debut at Old Trafford. My first over went well, so they clapped me in and then I bowled a wide or a no-ball and then a few more wides and they were on my back and gave me abuse! That sort of thing also used to happen at Yorkshire, but I had credit in the bank there and hopefully I can do that here.Fans at your drawn Championship match against Middlesex at Aigburth saw you change your action for part of the final day. Why was that?
I have a natural inswinger, so when the ball reverses, I swing it away. If I want to get a Waqar Younis-type inswinging yorker when it’s reversing, I have to get a bit more slingy in my action, and that’s what I tried on the final day against Middlesex. It was such a placid wicket and they were 150-odd for one, so I thought “anything goes here”, and the boys were happy for me to do it.

“I think I can bowl like Muttiah Muralitharan and I’m getting decent at it now. I keep saying to Glen Chapple that he should let me try it in a game!”

Some people said you looked like Shoaib Akhtar…
The boys were telling me to bowl like Shoaib Akhtar, so that’s what I was trying. It got to the phase of the game where you were allowed to do what you wanted to do and it was good to just go out and enjoy your cricket.What other cricketers can you mimic?
When I was younger I really used to bowl like Shoaib, but I had to stop because it put too much pressure on my back. I watch a lot of cricket on TV, so I must admit I’ve tried bowling like people in the nets. I think I can bowl like Muttiah Muralitharan, and I’m getting decent at it now. I keep saying to Glen Chapple that he should let me try it in a game! Adil Rashid at Yorkshire is brilliant at bowling like Saeed Ajmal in the nets – I used to get him to bowl at me like that so I could practise against it.What are you like at other sports?
I played badminton for Yorkshire from Under-15s to Under-17s, but again, it wasn’t really doing my back much good, so I had to give it up once I took up cricket seriously. I was good at squash and racket sports in general. I’m not really one for going out on the golf course. I tried to get into it but I’d rather put my feet up on a day off. You rarely get days off, and now that I’m on the move it’s even worse.What music do you like?
I like my dance music but I haven’t managed to influence the boys in the Lancashire dressing room at the moment. Steven Croft is the DJ man, so I’m just letting him get on with it, see how he gets on and then I can try and introduce a few of my tunes. What are you like at cooking and what can you cook?
I’m not very domesticated at all. I know this sounds really lame but I’ve just started doing boiled eggs and things like that. I can do potatoes but I’m not really a cook.Anybody who follows you on Twitter will know that you eat at Nando’s a lot. What’s so good about it?
I’m at Nando’s most of the time, which I get a lot of abuse for on Twitter, with people telling me I should branch out to other places. I just love it in there. I can get my grilled chicken with rice or whatever, and it’s healthy too. A lot of cricketers go – I think we should get a loyalty card going because we spend enough money there! When I stay with Ashwell and we talk about what we’re going to eat, he says to me, “I know what you’re thinking”, because he knows I want to go to Nando’s.

Stats highlights from the first 12 days of IPL 2012

S Rajesh and Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan16-Apr-2012One aspect that has stood out in IPL 2012 so far has been the extent to which bowlers have dominated. Of the 18 matches so far, 17 have been 20-over games, and in seven of those matches the team batting first has finished with a score of less than 140. Only once has the team batting first topped 200 (and ironically, Royal Challengers Bangalore couldn’t defend that total, against Chennai Super Kings).The table below compares the stats in the first 12 days of each of the five IPL seasons so far, and it’s clear from the numbers below that the batsmen haven’t been having it all their way. The overall run-rate so far this year is 7.59, which is exactly what the rate was after 12 days of IPL 2009, when the tournament was played in more bowler-friendly conditions in South Africa. Among all the editions played in India, the run-rate so far is clearly the lowest this season: in 2008 and 2010, the rates were more than eight per over, while it 2011 it was 7.98 after 12 days of comeptition. Even the current rate this year is thanks to the last four days, when Royal Challengers and Super Kings both scored more than 200, and Rajasthan Royals fell only five short of the mark.In terms of averages, this year’s 21.41 falls marginally below the 2009 mark of 21.83 at the same stage of the tournament, and well below the averages achieved in the three previous editions which were held in India. Last year, the average was 30.23, with 29 fifties and two hundreds in 19 games; this year, after 18, the fifties and hundreds are about half that number. The 20-over format is meant to be a run-fest with batsmen calling the shots, but this year the bowlers, with their clever variations in pace and length, have made life pretty difficult for batsmen. The pitches in some of the venues – slow and low in Kolkata, green and seamer-friendly in Mohali – have further added to the batting woes.

Another big difference so far this season compared to the last one is the ratio of matches won by the teams batting first. In the early part of last season, batting first was a wretched option – only five of the first 19 matches were won by the team defending a total. (By the end of the tournament last year, the teams batting first had a 32-40 win-loss record.) This year, teams batting first have done much better, winning ten out of 18 matches.However, captains have struggled to make the right call after winning the toss this year: only six out of 18 games have been won by the team which won the toss. In the last three seasons, the team winning the toss had won more matches than they’d lost. This season, many captains have continued to field first after winning the toss, but without much success – out of the 12 times when they’ve fielded first, they’ve won only four games.

When 20-over cricket first started, there was fear regarding the future of the spinner in a format which is built around fours and sixes. As it turned out, spinners have held their own very well, and are increasingly playing a bigger role in matches, especially in conditions which aid slow bowling. The stats for pace and spin over the five seasons indicates that spinners are bowling more overs every season: in the first 16 matches in 2008 they contributed just 22% of the overs; in 2012, that percentage has risen to almost 41%. Their contribution of wickets has increased more modestly, but their bigger contribution has been in keeping the runs in check – their economy rate has been better than that of the fast and medium-fast bowlers in every season.

More numbers from IPL 2012
31 – Murali Vijay’s tally in five innings this season. He has faced 48 balls for his runs, which gives him an average of 6.20 and a strike rate of 64.58. In his two previous IPL seasons Vijay had scored 892 runs in 31 innings at an average of 30.75 and a strike rate of 141.36.25.58 – The average opening partnership in IPL 2012 so far, at a run rate of 7.38 runs per over. Rajasthan Royals have scored the most runs – 192 in five innings – while Kings XI Punjab have struggled the most, scoring 59 partnership runs in four innings.8.87 – The average run-rate between overs 14.1 and 20 in the IPL this season. Rajasthan Royals average 10.38 with the bat in the last six, the highest among all teams. Among the bowling teams, Royal Challengers have conceded 10.87 runs per over, and Deccan Chargers 11.41.6.94 – The combined economy rate for Zaheer Khan, Muttiah Muralitharan and Daniel Vettori in this IPL season. In 47 overs, they’ve taken 16 wickets and conceded 326 runs, for an average of 20.37.11.12 – The combined economy rate for the rest of the Royal Challengers’ bowlers, apart from the three names mentioned above. Together, they’ve taken five wickets in 33 overs conceding 367 runs, at an average of 73.40 runs per wicket.204 – The total runs scored by Owais Shah in five IPL matches for Rajasthan Royals this season. In three previous IPL seasons he had scored only 141 runs in all, and played just seven innings.118 – R Ashwin’s bowling average so far this season. He has taken one wicket in 18.2 overs, at an economy rate of 6.43. In his previous three IPL seasons he had taken 35 wickets at 19.82.20.10 – The combined average for Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni in the tournament so far, at a strike rate of 117. In previous seasons they had a combined average of 37.65, and a combined strike rate of 139.57.

His numbers are phenomenal, and that’s thanks largely to his ability to make a plan and stick to it

Aakash Chopra13-Sep-2012When they first donned the Indian colours, the likes of Ms Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh were self-assured, resilient, fiercely talented and more. Today, though, Virat Kohli seems to have outmoded his predecessors in a manner that has made him the face of Indian cricket’s next generation. He has scored 13 centuries in 90 ODI matches. Those are phenomenal numbers by any yardstick. Look closer, in a comparative framework, and the numbers hit harder. Kumara Sangakkara, for instance, has scored 14 hundreds, 11 of those from No. 3 or higher, in 333 ODIs. Virender Sehwag has scored 15 in 249 matches, and Gautam Gambhir has 11 in 139. These stats, striking as they are, tell us a thing or two about the sort of prospect Kohli is for Indian cricket.If one goes by the exterior – the spiky hair, tattoos, the swagger and arrogance of a confident young man, Kohli epitomises 21st century Indian youth. But the way he bats, especially in the first half of each innings, he seems the antithesis of how young cricketers in India like to bat in this day and age of T20 cricket. These days most young men prefer to go after the bowling right from the beginning, and to keep hitting it till they last. It takes your breath away when it comes off, and looks woeful when it doesn’t, but taking a bit of a risk seems to be the new way of living.Kohli, on the contrary, is old-fashioned when it comes to constructing his innings. Regardless of his personal form, familiarity with the attack and the conditions, he always starts slowly, albeit confidently. At the beginning of an innings, every batsman is slightly edgy and likes to get bat on ball and score a few to get going. This urge to get on with the game is even stronger if you are in good form. It must take immense self-control for Kohli to resist that temptation every time he walks out to bat these days, and to stick to his original plan of biding time.His self-control at the beginning of every innings is the primary reason for his consistency. Exercising this self-control would be a lot easier for someone who doesn’t have as many shots as Kohli does, which makes his self-denial more creditable. His ability to plan meticulously and then diligently follow the plan is the common thread in most of his innings.Conventional wisdom suggests that the bigger the arc one’s bat creates, the more power one generates. The arc starts from the top of the backlift and finishes with the follow-through after playing the shot. The best way to ensure a bigger arc is to allow the top hand to remain in control for as long as possible and extend the arms fully (elbow not bent) after playing the shot. Kohli’s bat-swing, however, is not quite how the coaching manuals say it ought to be. He has a relatively short backlift, and an even shorter follow-through. But he generates phenomenal bat speed by flicking his wrists at the point of contact, which in turn generates immense power. The flip side of such a bat-swing is that he is a bottom-hand-dominated player. Once again, though, by delaying his strokes, he has found a way to be equally fluent through the off side.How Kohli accelerates in ODIs

Overs 1-15: Faced 1728 balls in 68 innings (average of 25 balls per innings) and scored at a run rate of 4.12
Overs 16-30: Faced 1813 balls in 55 innings (average of 33 balls per innings) and scored at run rate of 5.00.
Overs 31-40: Faced 754 balls in 32 innings (average of 23 balls per innings) and scored at 7.01.
Overs 41-50: In the final ten overs (played 17 innings), he has faced 12 balls on average per innings and scored at 9.07.

When I saw Kohli for the first time, I was a little sceptical about his short front-foot stride. To make matters more complicated, that short stride was going far too across. While the short and across front-foot stride allowed him to whip balls pitched on middle through the on side, it also made him slightly susceptible to full-pitched swinging deliveries, or when the ball deviated appreciably off the pitch.During one of our conversations while playing for Delhi, I told him about my observations. He assured me that he had found a way around it, which was by allowing the ball to come to him. I saw merit in his method of dealing with the shortcoming, but I wasn’t fully convinced that it would work at the highest level.By scoring 13 ODI hundreds while batting at No. 3, he has certainly proved that his solution works just fine. It also proves that technique is slightly overrated at times. In fact, Kohli’s method of overcoming his technical deficiency is his biggest strength: playing very late. By allowing the ball to come to him, he is able to find the gaps more often. Playing the ball right under his eyes also ensures that he misses fewer deliveries, and so the perils of the short front-foot stride are taken care of.He may still find it slightly difficult when the ball is pitched up in seaming conditions, but considering the way he has evolved as a batsman, I don’t have any reasons to believe that Kohli won’t find a way around that too.

Unmukt Chand, who is leading India’s U-19 side to the World Cup, is not quite your everyday up-and-coming cricketer

George Binoy09-Aug-2012Unmukt Chand looks your standard 21st century teenage athlete being groomed for a future on the professional treadmill. T-shirt, shorts and fashionable flip flops; strong physique earned in the gym; rakish hair and traces of stubble. Then, while talking about captaining India’s Under-19 team, he says he was never put under any real pressure because there were no “recalcitrant players” in the side. Older people with larger vocabularies might struggle to tell you what “recalcitrant” means; Chand won’t because he has habits that are at odds with those of the stereotypical newbie in India’s IPL and PlayStation generation.Chand is India Under-19’s premier batsman and he’s been given the responsibility of leading their World Cup campaign, which begins on August 11 in Queensland. His generation of cricketers is different from previous ones, and Chand is different among them. He is two seasons old in the Ranji Trophy and has an IPL contract with Delhi Daredevils. His bat is his bedfellow, but so are a couple of books.”I keep a diary with me. I keep a dictionary with me all the time,” he says. “Whenever I come across new words, I write them in the diary, look for their meanings in the dictionary, frame a sentence and try and use them when I talk.”Chand talks of writing a book: wildly ambitious for a teenage cricketer but not so outrageous, perhaps, for a regular diarist. “In the beginning, [diary writing] was very regular, all my daily routines. But now I write about how I feel – good or bad, what I’ve learnt from someone. Something I think is important, I jot it down. Sometimes at 3am I’m writing diaries.”I feel that if you put pen to paper then it is a very strong way of learning. You don’t forget things easily.”The world hasn’t seen Chand bat yet – he didn’t make a splash in the IPL – but he is a proven age-group cricketer, having risen through Delhi’s youth structure. He has led India Under-19 in three tournaments and won two (the Asia Cup was tied). In the first, in Vizag in September 2011, Chand was the second-highest run scorer, making 336 at an average of 67 and strike rate of 106. He began that competition by gunning down Australia’s 163 with Manan Vohra in 12 overs – in a 50-over game.The second tournament was in Townsville, a venue for the upcoming World Cup, and it was the first time any of these boys were playing in Australia. India lost all their league games in unfamiliar conditions but were in the semi-final because of the quadrangular format. Chand’s 94 against England helped put his side in the final, where his 112 against Australia gave India the title. In the Asia Cup a few months later, he scored centuries in the semi-final, against Sri Lanka, and in the final, against Pakistan.Chand says he takes his books along every time, to study while at the cricket. His parents are teachers, and studying has been second nature to him from his time at Delhi Public School in Noida, to Modern School, and now to St Stephen’s College, an institution of high standing in India. When asked if it’s hard to strike a balance between responsibilities as heavy as education and a career in cricket, Chand says it’s not, because he has “grown up like this”.He gives credit to his parents and uncle for where he is today, recounting childhood routines of being ferried from home to the swimming pool to school to the cricket ground and home again. (Chand was also a national-level swimmer in the butterfly stroke when at school.)”I’m really lucky to have very good support from my family,” he says. “My uncle is my idol. He talks to me four-five times a day. We talk about everything – not just cricket, about what’s happening in my life. I keep getting lessons from them. Whenever something good happens, they praise me, but they also caution me that this could have also happened. Thanks to them I’ve been saved from other influences.”Chand first played for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy while in Class 11, and for Daredevils the following year. He recalls with fondness the excitement and anxiety he felt in the lead-up to being named in the Delhi squad. The last two years on the domestic circuit, where he has mixed it with the professionals, have been instructive.

“It’s really important not just to play cricket but to learn about it and learn about yourself… I’ve started knowing about myself, my game, and how I react in certain situations and certain conditions”

“Patience is the most important thing. In Ranji you need to have patience,” he says of the difference between age-group and first-class cricket. “I remember in the first match I was playing, against Gujarat, I was playing well, but then they started bowling outside off stump, wide outside off stump. I left a few balls but then I got a bit impatient, went after a ball and got out. That’s how I learned that you need to be patient. I can say that two years ago I was much more immature than I am today.”When asked whether the IPL is shifting the priorities of cricketers of his generation, Chand’s response is that it is not, for him at least. “You can’t play for India by performing only in IPL. You need to perform in Ranji Trophy,” he says. “It’s important for me as a cricketer to take it really seriously. It’s an important tournament and a cherished one.”The IPL, however, gave Chand an experience that the Ranji Trophy could not – an exposure to the pressure of playing in front of 30,000 spectators and being watched by millions on television. Two days after his Class 12 exams ended, in April 2011, he was told he’d be playing his first IPL match the next day – against Mumbai Indians at the Kotla. “I was very excited, very nervous,” he says. “There was a at home. Everyone made the occasion very special. But when all these things happen, you start thinking this is not a normal game, this is something else.”As I entered the ground, I was totally oblivious. I didn’t know what to do, what was happening. I was really nervous. I could visualise myself being telecast on the TV, my parents watching. So all these things were happening.”His two-ball duck on debut is a blur of emotion. “All these things will come with any newcomer,” Chand says. “It came with me, and it was a good experience. You don’t get to experience these things again and again in life. This year was much better. I was more calm, not nervous.”Chand played only two matches in IPL 2012 and hasn’t had a breakthrough innings yet. However, the experience – of facing the speed of Lasith Malinga and the guile of Shane Warne, of trying to focus in the midst of terrific noise, of having every on-field action scrutinised by cameras – has put the challenges of Under-19 cricket in perspective.”It has helped me stay cool under pressure at times when others were not, because I’ve been in those situations and I’ve been in that pressure,” he says. “I try to give the confidence to as many players as I can, and share as much as I can.”Chand is good friends with his Delhi team-mate Virat Kohli, who is perhaps the perfect example of how success at the Under-19 World Cup can help a fledgling career take flight. Chand says he’s not as aggressive as Kohli, and that he speaks to him about overcoming challenges in the early stages of a career – of the sort that Kohli has successfully overcome to become the master of the chase in one-day cricket.When he was struggling to convert starts into big scores in domestic one-dayers, Chand says Kohli told him to “say to myself that I’m the best and just react to the ball. That was something that really moved me.””After he [Kohli] returned from Bangladesh [the Asia Cup], he came to the dressing room once during a Ranji Trophy match. I asked him a few questions. He told me, ‘I’ve understood my game. It took me three years. I didn’t know what was happening for the first three years. Now I plan my game and play accordingly.’ He’s very encouraging to me. He’s a good buddy.”One of the more recent entries in Chand’s diary is from a meeting with Rahul Dravid, who spoke to the Under-19 team while they were training for the World Cup at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. The message Chand took from the interaction was that cricket is a process of “self-discovery”.”The most important thing for us is to be self-aware,” Chand said of what Dravid told them. “All the big players [Dravid] has seen in his life were aware of themselves, of their personalities, of their games. It’s really important not just to play cricket but to learn about it and learn about yourself. This is how NCA’s helped me really. I’ve started knowing about myself, my game, and how I react in certain situations and certain conditions.”The Under-19 World Cup might not make or break Unmukt Chand’s career but he will be a more self-aware cricketer for the experience; and his interactions with players from 15 other cultures could leave his diary full and dictionary well-thumbed.

Parvinder Awana took a five-for and scored a fifty against Karnataka, and with India losing to England in Kolkata, he was rewarded with a call-up to the Test squad

Kanishkaa Balachandran in Bangalore09-Dec-2012A five-for one day; an attacking half-century the next. Parvinder Awana’s performance in the ongoing Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Karnataka was eye-catching, and well timed. India had just lost the Kolkata Test to England, and the selectors were due to pick the squad for Nagpur and the two Twenty20s. Patience had run out with Zaheer Khan and Awana, the Delhi seamer who has been part of the India A team, was selected in both squads.Awana was approaching his fifty at the Chinnaswamy Stadium when he heard. He had gestured to the dressing room and one of the reserves stepped out with a pair of bats and the good news of his selection. Awana had come out to bat when Delhi were 144 for 7, 48 away from drawing level with Karnataka’s first-innings score. With no specialist batsmen left, he guided his partner Sumit Narwal, and they first inched towards safety before launching towards the target of 192 and past it.After he got news of his selection, Awana stepped up the pace. He hit the ball to the deep midwicket boundary to bring up his maiden first-class fifty. With the deficit wiped out, Awana attacked the bowling until his departure for 74.After a relatively quiet opening day, television news crews arrived at the ground when Awana’s selection was announced. Having played the IPL and felt its spotlight, Awana saw the attention coming. “It is every player’s dream to be selected for the national team and it was mine too,” Awana said. “I’ve got the opportunity at the right time. I’ve had some good performances recently.”The only time he struggled a bit to maintain composure while answering questions was when he was asked whom he would dedicate this selection to. To understand where his emotions were coming from, one would have to trace his background. Awana grew up in a village in the outskirts of Noida, in Delhi’s National Capital Region. His family went through hard times when his father died in 1999 and the responsibility of taking care of the family fell on his mother. It came down to picking a career with the police force or in cricket. Awana chose sport and there was no looking back.”I’d like to thank my mother. My father has passed away,” Awana said. “I was thinking of him today. My mother has helped me a lot.”Early recognition came when he won a fast-bowling talent hunt in 2004, by clocking 138 kph. Awana was eventually picked in the Delhi Ranji side and the 2011-12 season, in which he took 35 first-class wickets, was his most productive. He was rewarded with an IPL stint with Kings XI Punjab, and he impressed with his ability to bowl in the mid-140 kph range.Awana expected to be on the plane to the Caribbean for an A tour after the IPL, but was overlooked by the selectors. He took the disappointment in his stride, saying his early life lessons helped him cope with rejection. However, an injury to RP Singh opened a slot for Awana. He played one game on tour and took three wickets. He was overlooked again for the A tour of New Zealand but was picked for the A team’s match against England at Brabourne Stadium. He went wicketless, but his two five-fors this Ranji season were a timely reminder of his talents.Awana doesn’t rely on raw pace alone. Against Karnataka, on a grassy first-day pitch, he pitched the ball up, swung it and tempted the batsmen to drive. The ball that broke KL Rahul’s defences and sent the off stump for a spin was his best delivery.”I’ve learnt that just pace isn’t enough, that line and length is also important,” he said. “My deliveries cut in naturally. In India, we mostly get flat wickets. So I don’t think about what kind of pitch I get, I concentrate on bowling well through the air. I’ve been playing for Delhi, and I’ve learnt a lot from my seniors, Ashish bhai [Nehra], Ishant [Sharma], Viru bhai [Sehwag]. I’ve also learnt a lot from the IPL.”In Karnataka’s second innings, when Delhi were searching for a breakthrough, Awana was the only bowler who created chances against both batsmen. The wicketkeeper and slips let him down.Did he feel any extra pressure to deliver, now that he’s been picked in the Test squad? “Pressure?” he asks with a smile. “No pressure at all. I’ve been playing for five-six years anyway.”

Ranji Trophy is not all about first-innings point. Here are five of the best matches this year

Sidharth Monga05-Jan-2013
ScorecardFile photo: Zaheer Khan bowled a 13-over unbroken spell to keep Mumbai alive. Ranji Trophy matters, after all•ESPNcricinfo LtdFirst round of the tournament, and what a draw. Batting first, Gujarat took a lead of 105, and possibly batted on for a little too long to save their three points when they declared only after their lead had crossed 400. Having said that, their bowlers reduced Madhya Pradesh to 179 for 6 in 62.4 overs with well over a session to go in Indore. Enter Jalaj Saxena and Anand Rajan. The offspinning allrounder and the quick. Nos 8 and 9. They batted together for 24.3 overs to deny Gujarat. While Saxena scored a fifty, Rajan batted for 96 minutes and 64 balls for just nine runs. MP found a new opener from the match, and Gujarat went away three points short, three points that could have made a vital difference to their progression in the end.
Scorecard
This was only the 14th one-wicket win in the entire history of Ranji Trophy. In cold Lahli, with hardly anyone watching, Haryana and Baroda matched each other blow for blow on a helpful surface. There was a hundred and a five-wicket haul in each of the first innings. Then a collapse each in the second, until Baroda fell to 48 for 6 and 108 for 9 in the chase of 133. It was so important and intense that one of the nine wickets was a mankading.However, Baroda’s Nos 10 and 11 – Utkarsh Patel, who had taken five wickets in the first innings, and Bhargav Bhatt – took their side through with 25 added for the last wicket in 3.5 overs. Players on both the side said this was the closest first-class match they had played. Baroda’s coach, Sanath Kumar, called it “an amazing but harrowing day”. How important was it? Baroda sneaked through by two points in the end, and they were at the disadvantage of not playing in the last round.
ScorecardOnly nine Ranji matches have been won by five runs or fewer. This was decided by seven runs. MP could have easily played safe as they were placed comfortably as the penultimate round of the league stage began, but despite the presence of Zaheer Khan in the opposition they produced a sporting track. Moreover, when Mumbai lost the will to win outright and looked content with three first-innings points, MP kept attacking.Chasing 311 in 78 overs on the last day, MP went after it with such gusto that they became the most popular side of the year. However, they were up against a side that might not be known for attractive cricket but is renowned for ruthlessness and knowing how to win. Zaheer Khan, his fitness dodgy, brought Mumbai back with a 13-over unbroken spell. The best that could have achieved was a draw for Mumbai, but MP still kept going for the win. Now appeared the quintessential Mumbai player, Abhishek Nayar, with three wickets and a run-out. MP’s No. 11 and arguably the best bowler of the year, Ishwar Pandey, brought it close with three sixes, but fell to Nayar to start a Mumbai comeback that is now looking scary, especially with the return of Sachin Tendulkar.MP themselves went on to pay dearly for not making it as difficult as Mumbai. Next week, Mumbai went through with merely a first-innings lead, and MP collapsed on a turner in Rajkot to bow out of the tournament they lit up.
ScorecardIf MP v Mumbai brought the Ranji Trophy to life, this brought people to an absolute standstill for an hour or so. In the final round, Karnataka needed to win outright, and have many other results go their way besides. The other results had almost all gone their way, but Karnataka were struggling to keep their end of the bargain on a flat pitch.They scored 572 for 9 in Pune, bowled Maharashtra out for 99 on a crazy third morning, but ran into obdurate resistance over the next five sessions. Maharashtra not only batted time, but they also scored fast. Towards the final session of the match, they went into lead with wickets, especially that of the centurion Ankit Bawne in hand. Elsewhere they saw Delhi, competitors for a place in the quarters, meet the same fate against Vidarbha, and rallied again.The final session began with a deficit of 40 for Karnataka, and four wickets yet to be taken. The pitch remained flat. Abhimanyu Mithun, though, provided the inspiration with three quick wickets, and an inspired bowling change gave part-timer Amit Verma the fourth. It was still now over. They still had to go out and chase 89 in 13 overs, preferably without losing a wicket. They lost one, which meant now their win would amount to nothing if Delhi won their game, which was going on at the same time.So with a prayer in the heart, they kept chasing, and reached their target with eight balls to spare. About 10 balls before that, news had poured in than Delhi had run out of time. What a finish.
ScorecardIt was not all over yet. There was another group to take care of. In Group C, with Jharkhand winning their match outright, Andhra and Kerala now needed nothing less an outright win to progress. Most of the final day went by without much intent, and when Andhra – leading on the first innings – were bowled out, Kerala were left 209 to chase in 25 overs.Now that is a huge chase in first-class cricket, and accordingly Kerala offered a draw, but Andhra still wanted to take their chance. Quickly, though, it all changed around, and aggressive fields allowed a few runs, and now Kerala began to go after the total. VA Jagadeesh, their highest run-getter this season, and Sanju Samson both scored quick half-centuries as the match headed deep into overtime with light still holding good.However, with 17 runs required off the last over, about 50 minutes after scheduled close, the light had deteriorated enough for the umpires to allow only spinners to bowl. Andhra, who by now had nothing to gain or lose in terms of progression, still had a match to lose, and refused to bowl a slow bowler. The match ended in a draw.

Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja’s improved showing in the second innings was a result of better application, aided by a dirt-lane of a pitch which the Australians found hard to read

Sharda Ugra25-Feb-2013At the tail end of his interaction with the media at the end of the third day, Virat Kohli was asked about whether India would fancy batting a second time on Chepauk’s flaky, wafer-biscuit wicket. “Definitely not,” he said to much laughter around him.Thanks to Moises Henriques and Nathan Lyon, though not in the manner Australia hoped on Sunday, India will definitely have to bat again in this Test. They will go back into their dressing room thanking their captain for a double-century of monumental speed, size and importance which gave them a lead of 192, against Australia. Anything less now appears a trifle.Two Indian spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja, were able to put in a far more commanding performance than they did in the first innings. There would logically be two factors at work here – the nature of the wicket and the inexperience of their opposition. More than assistance, the surface offered active intervention. The Chepauk wicket now resembles those dirt lanes that wind between fields in the Indian countryside. With every passing day, its pristine, clean core has shrunk into a smaller and smaller oval shape. With its turn, bite, zip and bounce of varying predictability, what the Australian batsmen found in the second innings was a surface so alien to them, that it would be like going out to bat on the moon.Jadeja, whose tight line brought him 2 for 68 in 26 overs, shrugged. “I think this wicket is fine for Test cricket,” he told the media in Hindi. “In Indian conditions, this is the kind of wicket there is. You can only win Test matches if you take 20 wickets, don’t you? There’s not much damage on the centre of the wicket for the fast bowlers. Whatever is happening is from their footmarks.”India’s two seam bowlers mostly have had to play fielders and tailenders. In the Australian second innings, Ishant was brought on as late as the 76th over. A joke that went around in ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary that he was merely turning up to use up the overs before the second new ball, turned out to be true. The first three overs with the new ball were sent down by R Ashwin and Jadeja.Jadeja is only into his second Test and he remembers Nagpur where he made his Test debut against England late last year. The pitch was slow and offered little assistance. Chepauk to him, trying to find his feet in the Test team, must be a candy store. With much going on by way of unpredictability, the spinners floated the ball in and found a smooth groove.Jadeja’s line stuck to off and off and middle stump, he tried to prevent himself from slipping down leg against the right-handers and used the familiar repetitiveness of his action to slip in variations using a stump-to-stump line. Harbhajan Singh, who ended the day with 2 for 55 from his 27 overs, found himself on familiar turf, bowling fuller and he said later on television, with more energy. “I wasn’t following through from my action in the first innings, I was bowling and standing, not pushing myself. We bowled well as a unit today.”Apart from individual effort and attention, bowlers snap into efficient collective discipline when the wicket is helpful and the opposition flounders. India were well served all around – Phillip Hughes will have nightmares about the Jadeja biter that shot up into his face and nipped his glove. Michael Clarke fell when one kept low from Ashwin and shot through to hit him on the pad. Matthew Wade tried to sweep a straight ball from Harbhajan after 23 minutes of survival, Peter Siddle did the same against Jadeja.The total either player wanted India to chase on Tuesday did not extend beyond 75. India-Australia Tests in Chennai in recent times have had a habit of being, by and large, dramas of excruciating tension. The 2001 series went down to the final session of the final day. In 2004, Australia came to Chennai 1-0 up in the series. India were set 229 to win and the boundary off the last ball of the fourth day cannot be forgotten. Virender Sehwag, that most sociable of competitors, bashed Glenn McGrath down the ground for four. He tucked his bat under his arm and walked off stone-faced, without a sideways glance at anyone. India needed 210 more to equal the series. Except it rained on day five and washed out play entirely.That is not about to happen because that was October and we are well into February. The worst the weather report says for day five is ‘partly cloudy sky’ with the chance of rain being ‘nil.’

Dinesh Chandimal’s maiden Test hundred was riddled with chances, yet he continued to back himself and motor along – Bangladesh’s batsmen should take note

Mohammad Isam in Galle09-Mar-2013Dinesh Chandimal will have fond memories of achieving his maiden Test hundred, despite the perilous path he took to get there. For the Bangladesh players who watched him make an unbeaten 116, there are lessons to pick up from the young batsman’s undaunted focus, as they seek to reduce the deficit on the third day.The 23-year-old Chandimal offered four catches, all of which were dropped, and survived a close leg-before shout during his 151-ball innings. Yet throughout all this, he didn’t abstain from playing his shots. He hardly looked bothered by the happenings around him, as he hurtled along. Compared to the centuries by Kumar Sangakkara on the first day, and Lahiru Thirimanne, who also got to his first in Tests, Chandimal’s was much riskier, but it spoke of the ease with which he handled self-inflicted blows with confidence.The first three chances came thick and fast from Chandimal. The first he prodded airily at, but the edge wasn’t held by Jahurul Islam at gully. Several minutes later Abul Hasan threw himself belatedly at fine leg, only to drop the offering. The third chance during that spell came another over later when he chipped one towards midwicket, and Jahurul dove forward, but didn’t grasp it fully.But as they dropped catches and felt aggrieved by their lack of traction on proceedings, they should have picked up on Chandimal’s tenacity. Bangladesh batsmen in the past, and present, have had a hard time dealing with the “little things”, as coaches like to call them.These breaks in focus come from a range of incidents. From a slight break in play due to sightscreen adjustments, a loud appeal or some sledging, to more complicated matters like a bowling change, a dropped catch, a run-out, a session break, the impending end to a day, or when the batsman at the other end gets out. The Bangladesh batsmen often have a break in concentration as soon as something out of the ordinary happens.Out of the two wickets that fell on the second day, Anamul Haque’s unnecessary ploy of trying to go inside out against Ajantha Mendis falls into this category. Against a new bowler who has a bagful of tricks, the sensible approach would have been to pick Mendis’ variations, before trying anything against the spin. But as soon as the bowler came on, Anamul began moving around too much in the crease. This resulted in his dismissal after batting so diligently till that point.Against West Indies in 2011, Mushfiqur Rahim threw away a potentially match-saving innings, right after Shakib Al Hasan had got out playing an ugly shot, failing to keep his focus on the job ahead. Raqibul Hasan found it hard to deal with loud appeals by West Indian medium-pacers during the same series, while Shakib once ran all the way to a person who hadn’t moved from in front of the sightscreen. All of these batsmen are exceptionally talented, but they often lack the edge that young batsmen from other countries seem to have. This is almost certainly due to more practice in dealing with such things in their domestic circuit.Chandimal handled it differently this time. He batted to his strengths and backed himself every time. One must also remember that he is the new vice-captain who almost missed this Test match because he was part of the recent contract dispute with the Sri Lanka board. As he moved past the initial anxiety, he took full advantage of width offered by the fast bowlers. He was severe on the spinners too, making sure he got to the pitch of the ball, and taking it on the full, as he drove regularly, occasionally clearing the infield.Chandimal probably gained clarity from the chance that was dropped at midwicket, as he immediately went after Sohag Gazi, the bowler who suffered the last of those drops, taking two boundaries off him with assured footwork. On 31, Elias Sunny had him caught on the crease off his first ball of the morning but it was turned down, and the innings hurtled along. A few runs after he had reached the coveted century, Chandimal hit one straight to long-on where Mahmudullah dropped a sitter. It was that sort of a day for Bangladesh as they struggled to balance a better day for the bowlers with a terrible one from the fielders.After his century on the first day, Sangakkara asked youngsters like Chandimal, new captain Angelo Mathews and Thirimanne to aim for “35 to 40 Test hundreds” by the end of their respective careers. The manner in which Chandimal went about his maiden ton, there will be greater hope towards the realisation of this goal. Hundreds are commended if the batsman offers little, but sometimes when he can withstand a number of distractions and still get there, some praise should also go his way.

A statistical analysis of what went down in Cape Town

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Fact illustrated by the Newlands Test #1: Cricket is a team gameCricket is not as much of a team game as other team games. But it is a team game nevertheless. The Newlands Test proved this in enough spades to open a half-decent DIY store. Pakistan had individual performances that should have laid the foundations for victory. They also had collective frailties than made defeat almost inevitable. They posted the only two centuries of the match, and had the leading wicket-taker. But they still lost, and quite comfortably ‒ becoming just the third side in Test history to lose a Test in which they have had both (a) two or more centurions with the bat, and (b) a ten-wicket haulster with the ball.This they achieved because they also had: (c) three significant batting collapses, (d) both openers out for ducks in the same innings, (e) a combined match analysis of 1 for 181 by their opening bowlers, and (f) Vernon Philander, with his Dickensian name and his 19th-century statistics, on the other team.Thus, Younis and Shafiq’s outstanding twin 111s, and Ajmal’s ten wickets, ultimately came to nothing, and left those three players in elite company in the annals of Test defeats by teams with two tons and a ten-for. Gavaskar, Amarnath and Bedi were similarly let down by their team-mates at the WACA in 1977-78. No prizes for guessing which two scored the hundreds and which one took the ten wickets. Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Woolley all scored centuries at the SCG in 1924-25, but despite their efforts, and Maurice Tate’s heroic 11-wicket bag from 89 eight-ball overs ‒ in today’s squad-rotational game, he would have been rested for about 15 months after that kind of workload ‒ England were soundly walloped. Their problem was that they blended those three centuries with 13 single-figure scores (compared to Australia’s three – similarly, at Newlands last week, the single-figure dismissal tally was South Africa 2 Pakistan 11).India lost that high-scoring Perth game in 1977-78 due to a second-innings collapse after their two centurions were out, and because Bedi was left more unsupported than a county championship match on a wet Wednesday afternoon in April in the immediate aftermath of nuclear Armageddon. Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan could only manage three wickets between in the match, and those were the final three wickets in the first innings.Other than these three games, teams boasting two or more centuries and a ten-wicket haul have won 82 Tests and drawn 6. So it took a fairly determined all-round anti-performance for Pakistan to lose in Cape Town, despite three outstanding individual displays in the country that has in recent years been least hospitable to visiting sides. Ajmal became only the fourth spinner to take ten in a Test in South Africa since the Second World War (only Murali had done so since 1957), whilst Younis and Shafiq, coming together at 33 for 4, became the first visiting pair to compile a double-century stand in South Africa since April 2006.They were also just the third pair to add 200 in South Africa and end up on the losing side. Overall, of the 510 double-century partnerships in Test history, 244 have contributed to a victory, 234 have been in drawn games, and only 32 ‒ just over 6% ‒ have preceded a defeat.Pakistan’s fate in what was a gripping and fluctuating match until their second-innings subsidence was ultimately decided not by the potentially match-winning excellence of Younis and Shafiq’s batting and Ajmal’s wizardrous tweakery, but by the endemic frailty of their batting ‒ 15 Pakistan batsmen were out for less than 20 in this match. At least this was a step forward on the first Test, when 16 of their 20 dismissals were for 18 or less.Losing 15 batsmen for less than 20 does not necessarily mean you will lose a Test. But it does certainly give you a headstart in the race to the losing line. Statistically, teams are nine times more likely to lose than win a Test if they do so (47 wins, 430 losses) (thanks be to Statsguru, fount of all knowledge) (or at least, fount of some extremely useless pieces of knowledge). Fact illustrated by the Newlands Test #2: A Test hundred in South Africa is a good inningsTo illustrate how tough batting in South Africa is for visiting teams, particularly this decade, a fact: of the last 11 centuries scored by away batsmen since 2009-10, only two have been scored by players with fewer than 50 caps – New Zealand’s Dean Brownlie (in his eighth Test), in the second-innings of a Test that had long been a lost cause, and Asad Shafiq ‒ 18 Tests ‒ last week. Younis was in his 81st Test; previously Cook and Bell posted three figures for England in their 50th and 51st Tests respectively in the 2009-10 series; for India the following season, the undeniably experienced Tendulkar centurionated himself in his 175th and 177th matches; in 2011-12, Australia’s only hundred-maker was Clarke (73rd), who was then followed by Sri Lankan veterans Sangakkara (105th) and Samaraweera (70th and 71st). Fact illustrated by the Newlands Test #3: South African lower-order batsmen aren’t quite what they used to beRobin Peterson’s match-turning 84 was the first time a South African batting at 8 or lower has scored 80 in a Test for almost eight years, since Nicky Boje hit 82 against Zimbabwe in March 2005. In the seven years between January 1997, when Lance Klusener slapped a rapid hundred against India batting at 9, and January 2004, when Mark Boucher, batting 8, flayed West Indies with his penultimate Test century, South African lower-order batsmen scored six hundreds, two undefeated 99s, and two more scores in the 80s.

In the face of so much expectation, Joe Root delivered when his side needed him and when his home crowd were so willing him to

David Hopps at Headingley25-May-2013Yorkshire was on its best behaviour for Joe Root. “Put tha’ best bib and ticker on, lad’s mekking his debut.” The crowd was expectant but never over-demanding, the pitch was bountiful and the skies were so sharp and blue that from the top floor of the pavilion you could even see the Emley Moor transmitter on the horizon. Tallest structure in Yorkshire, the locals will tell you. But there is no doubt after the magic of a maiden Test hundred on his first outing on his home ground that Root is standing taller today.It was a chance to make good, and Root had the ability to take it. His celebration upon reaching three figures will stick in the memory, a sort of ungainly jiggle which suggested that, although he hails from Sheffield, the Arctic Monkeys will never have him in mind when they sing I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor. “I lost it a bit, but you only get your first one once,” he said before confirming that it was not actually meant to be a dance move. “I suppose emotions took over and that was the result of it.”His disgust with himself when he got out weakly, chasing the first delivery with the second new ball, had even more to commend it.Kevin Pietersen was one of the first England players to tweet his congratulations, calling him the first England nine-year-old to score a ton. Root grinned at the ribbing and admitted that even at 22 he can still be asked for ID to get served in pubs. He must be the first England batsman to be more afraid of a pub landlord than a Test bowling attack. “I’m not too fussed,” he said. “I can’t help it.”Not since Darren Gough bowled out South Africa 15 years ago has there been such an outpouring of Yorkshire pride at a Headingley Test. Not since Geoffrey Boycott inched towards his 100th first-class hundred here in 1977 has a Yorkshire batsman in a Headingley Test borne so much faith. In both cases, it was as if the outcome was pre-ordained. Boycott was 36, his best days beyond him; Root was 22, many fine days surely still to come, but in the sort of prolific form that could not be ignored. Neither let their supporters down.The most striking thing about Root is that, for all his mild-mannered exterior, when it comes to cricket, he “gets it”. It is not just about his technique, or his range of shots, it is the fact that his mind is so attuned to it. It is rare to see a young player repeatedly make such sensible cricketing decisions.He must have realised as a youngster that he had an aptitude for cricket like discovering that he was gifted in computer code or foreign languages. In Root’s case, natural ability came hand in hand with a fierce desire for improvement. All that obsessive practice is worth it now.He has expanded his runs tally this season to 861 at an average of 123. Just think, some of us imagined after his heroic stonewalling in India and New Zealand, it might inhibit his game so much that he would not be able to play another shot until the end of June. How wrong we were.

Few England players of recent vintage have taken to the Test arena with such a lack of nerves and with so much obvious pleasure.

Boycott, now Yorkshire’s president, was bristling with pride that the county’s line of England batsmen had been affirmed so gloriously. They may be connected by county affiliation, perhaps even cricketing philosophy, but in style they are all very different. With Boycott, you could always sense the intense concentration, the unyielding desire to succeed. When Michael Vaughan, a Root mentor and the last Yorkshire batsman to make a Test hundred at Headingley, against West Indies in 2007, was on song, you were overcome by the elegance.Root is different again. He soothes the onlooker, never over-striving or over-hitting, a boy-man proceeding with immense repose, finessing the ball to areas where logic insisted he should send it. The biggest cheer came for a reverse sweep against the offspin of Kane Williamson. It was not random, it suited the delivery and the moment, but it communicated that he has batting cheek, too.Boycott was full of emphatic, brook-no-argument praise. “Joe Root’s played beautifully, but ever since he was about 15, we at Yorkshire felt we had a good player here and that he had what it takes to be pretty special,” he said.He could have suggested it was never as easy at Headingley in his day – and it would have been justifiable. Keith Boyce’s Test pitches were crabbier affairs, ever eager to betray a batsman in golden touch with a grubber or two, as if to say: “Play that one, let’s see you.” Boycott learned mistrust. Andy Fogarty’s creations are fairer surfaces. There was a bit in it for the bowlers as England lost 3 for 67, but as Root settled in, he was increasingly blessed by kindly batting conditions.Ultimately, though, how he made the Yorkshire crowd sweat. Twice in the 90s, he was spared only after TV replays. On 92, Jonny Bairstow’s firm straight drive deflected into the stumps off the hands of the bowler, Neil Wagner. How galling it would have been for Root to be run out by his Yorkshire team mate, a batsman who stood alongside him for much of the day. But Root’s back foot and bat were firmly entrenched.A run later, Root’s smile did not seem quite so scampish as Brendon McCullum appealed for a leg-side catch off Doug Bracewell and, when turned down, took the issue to a review. The replay showed pad. The crowd cheered, but they wanted it over. Root’s runs had dried, for the first time, and it was Bairstow, the stronger puncher, who looked the stronger, twice driving Wagner imperiously through mid-on as he passed his third England half-century.”I tried to get out twice in the two worst ways,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I was nervous in the 90s, more excited really. I was confident I was not out, but you just never know.”If Root departed angrily, Bairstow left with dejection, a second Yorkshire batsman to fall in successive overs, another victim of the Boult-McCullum combination. Two Yorkshire hundreds in one innings might have been too much to hope for.All that was galling for Yorkshire was that the ground was not at capacity. A crowd of 12,000 left the ground three-quarters full. What Bank Holiday attraction could possibly beat this? The Harewood Medieval banquet, the Swaledale Festival in the Dales or perhaps the Photography Bubble Exhibition in Malton?One thing that can be said confidently about Joe Root, or at least as confidently as anything can ever be predicted about any young cricketer: this does not look like a bubble which is about to burst. Few England players of recent vintage have taken to the Test arena with such a lack of nerves and with so much obvious pleasure about the challenge that lies before them.