The path back to the India side from injury has had a series of obstacles along the way, but Mohammed Shami is trying to navigate through them in time for the start of the World T20

Arun Venugopal in Kolkata10-Mar-2016The setting wasn’t as low-key as Mohammed Shami might have probably imagined. This was a warm-up game and yet there were at least 25,000 people at the Eden Gardens. There were several thousand more claps, whistles and screams until palms and throats gave in.This is also his home ground, a city where he made a memorable Test debut in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series. But there wasn’t anything about Shami on Thursday that betrayed nerves although some amount of nervous excitement would have only seemed reasonable.A spell of 4-0-30-2 against a batting line-up featuring Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Marlon Samuels is impressive in itself but its worth is multiplied when you place it against the backdrop of what he has gone through.Shami has over the last few weeks strived to go from 80-85% fit to being fully ready. It is learnt that he bowled to the India Women’s team at the NCA nets in Bangalore to assist in their preparations for the Women’s World T20, apart from playing matches with other men’s teams where specific situations – like bowling at the death, defending a particular total or opening the attack – would be recreated.But Shami would be the first person to insist on telling false dawns apart from real ones, especially after what has happened to him over the last two months. After all, the new year had begun well for Shami. He was nearly as thrilled about flaunting his suit as being on the flight to Australia with the rest of his mates. You couldn’t grudge his just deserts. This was a man who had, after a promising beginning, spent close to a year in pain, uncertainty and the sheer frustration of his knee coming in the way of playing at the highest level.But this new silver lining would soon be gobbled up by gloomy grey clouds as Shami’s return to India was advanced by an injury to the hamstring. It’s hard to surmise what he must have felt. Roughly as excruciating would be the analogy of a man being robbed soon after earning his wages.While on one hand Shami’s inner demons must have been multiplying, the team management too would have had a tough call to make. He wasn’t a part of the Asia Cup squad as well after being deemed to have not recovered sufficiently. But that Shami was picked for the World T20 was as much a leap of faith as an educated gamble; MS Dhoni & co. him. Period.Dhoni has never been shy about his admiration for Shami’s ability to provide thrust with the new ball and finish well at the death. Bouncers, made-to-order yorkers, Shami has always delivered what his captain wanted. His return to action has only added to the considerable gains that India have made recently.

“He just wanted to go out on the park and play. He has really worked hard all this while; coming back from a knee injury is not easy for anyone, not just a bowler.”Rohit Sharma on Mohammed Shami’s return at Eden Gardens

After India had set West Indies 186 to win in Thursday’s World T20 warm-up, he went about rolling out his bouncers and yorkers, not always achieving the desired results but nevertheless persistent in his attempts. For instance, the short-pitched stuff didn’t quite work on this flat, easy-paced surface as Gayle demonstrated with a pull, one of his two boundaries off Shami.After gong for nine runs in his first over, he began his second with a short ball outside off to Marlon Samuels and got away with a single. The next delivery was quick and had Johnson Charles stuck on his crease. Shami had closed in on his sweet spot. His third ball wasn’t exactly a yorker but was fast and full. Charles’ attempt to back away and carve him over cover only resulted in a caught behind. Shami, however, erred with his last two deliveries, going too full and too short on either occasion, and Samuels cashed in with two fours.By the time Shami returned in the 16th over West Indies had lost eight batsmen and were down for the count. He stuck to a length that was slightly shorter of a full length and attacked the stumps. One such delivery had Ashley Nurse charging out of the crease and scooping the ball to deep point.Shami finished with 2-0-11-1 in his second spell. There was no sign of restricted movement or controlled operation. His run-up was easy and the momentum generated by the smoothly-swinging non-bowling arm contributed to his rhythm. Rohit Sharma paid tribute to Shami’s performance, and said he managed to do what he intended to.”He just wanted to go out on the park and play. For a bowler to not play for so long it’s never easy,” Rohit said after the match. “So he just wanted to go out and feel the conditions and feel the atmosphere, and feel [the joy of] wearing the India jersey again. He has really worked hard all this while; coming back from a knee injury is not easy for anyone, not just a bowler. But he really worked hard and looking at [the fact that] he is playing his first game he did pretty well.”He bowled bouncers, yorkers, slower ones, that’s what we expect from him. The last game he played for India, till then he did pretty well for us. He was one of the main bowlers for us and expectations will be there from him, no doubt about it.”Dhoni has recently pointed to the happy dilemma he would face should Shami be fit, with Jasprit Bumrah sealing the other paceman’s slot. Shami would then have to compete with Ashish Nehra for the second seamer’s position and there is a possibility he might not find himself in the playing XI straightaway.But for now he is unlikely to entertain such worries and would rather focus on dialing up the momentum in India’s last warm-up match against South Africa in Mumbai on Saturday. Shami sure knows a thing or two about the value of taking baby steps.

For a while, Aaron Finch performed his task surreptitiously, picking off runs almost unnoticed. But when the time came to finish the job, he delivered.

Arun Venugopal in Mumbai16-Apr-2016Middling total. Dew-soaked ball. Minor bowling and fielding lapses. But, this was a pugnacious Mumbai Indians side shoulder-charging through the obstacles. This was a night they were desperate to make their own and lose the ‘slow-starters’ tag. They crawled their way to 88 for 6 in 16 overs but then ransacked 55 runs in the last four overs. They removed Brendon McCullum early in a chase of 144, refused to panic in the wake of a strong second-wicket partnership and dismissed Dinesh Karthik and Dwayne Bravo in consecutive overs. Mumbai weren’t going to back down.But for every inch they advanced they found themselves behind by a foot, yanked by an unseen force. This was an invisible enemy sniping at them even as they were taking down the troops on the ground. It wasn’t until the 18th over that the enemy shed his covert status. Crash. The helmet was flung to the floor in distress. Scream. An SOS was sent to the medical stuff. Aaron Finch had finally surfaced with an agonised wince when Mumbai Indians thought they had him contained. He had tapped Jasprit Bumrah’s slower ball over his head and hared back for a second run. As he stretched out to make his ground, a cramp seared through his hamstring.This was a hamstring with a catalogue of misfortune. It was only three months ago that he suffered a moderate grade injury during the limited-overs series against India. More haunting were the images from last year when he was helped off the field after tearing his hamstring. He was then turning out for the very team he was engaging in combat at Wankhede on this night.Finch had so far gone about his job surreptiously by virtue of a three-fold strategy – hold, accumulate and apply timely force. Thirty-three of his 67 unbeaten runs came via singles and twos, but he ensured that a boundary was achieved when required. In the third over, there was another ferocious straight drive that killed any semblance of swing in Tim Southee’s full offering.Finch had slipped under the radar by playing within himself. His scores at different points were: 18 off 19 balls, 34 off 32 and 47 off 44. In each of his partnerships, he appeared to be the more dormant partner. Sample his 53-run alliance with captain Suresh Raina where it seemed like Raina was doing all the scoring. But Finch had contributed 22 against Raina’s 27 without attracting any attention to himself. He didn’t mind lying low either when Krunal Pandya was in the middle of a tight spell, sending down fast, accurate left-arm darts – he played out 12 balls off Krunal for seven runs.However, Finch’s cover was now blown with his cramped hamstring. There were no more vantage points to perch upon and train the L42 Enfield, no thicket or bush to hid behind. Gujarat Lions required 13 off 12 balls, and Finch had to be the man on the ground driving the final stages of the operation. Two balls later, James Faulkner, the last recognised batsman, was out nicking behind a short delivery from Mitchell McClenaghan. Finch talked the next batsman, Praveen Kumar, through the plan, but PK being PK backed away and fend-glided the ball to Parthiv Patel, who plucked a fine reflex catch. Gujarat were seven down, and Finch hobbled his way through two singles along with Dhawal Kulkarni, and kept strike in the last over.The chants of “Bumrah, Bumrah” were deafening as Gujarat needed 11 runs to win. Finch, though, was unmoved, whipping an intended yorker first up to deep mid-wicket and somehow summoning enough strength to complete a double. It was followed by a single and Kulkarni then thrashed a full delivery over extra cover for four.Two balls and three runs later Finch looked around the nervously arranged field and smiled. There was nothing surreptitious about his methods now as a rasping pull secured the battle. The helmet was off and the bat was waved with a martial air. With three consecutive fifties and as many man-of-the-match awards, the painful cramp was now a distant second behind ecstasy.While Kulkarni called it one of the best innings he had seen, McClenaghan conceded that their efforts at bottling up Finch were ultimately futile. “I think we did some great scanning work [on Finch] with Bondy [Shane Bond], Ricky [Ponting] and Rohit [Sharma] in the last couple of days,” he said. “I think there’s credit to how we shut down his scoring zones predominantly. It’s just a shame that we couldn’t get him out. He played a very mature knock and showed the class of player that he is. [He was] exceptional getting the team across the line.”

Sixteen opening partners in the IPL for Parthiv Patel. Can you get all 16 right in this quiz using the clues?

ESPNcricinfo staff01-May-2016And then there was the 17th: Unmukt Chand is also one who’s been part of a partnership for the first wicket with Parthiv Patel, but he came on to bat after one of Parthiv’s partners (not giving out an answer) retired hurt.

Joining the county that had finished bottom of Division Two for three successive seasons was always going to be a gamble but Neil Dexter’s confidence in the future has been rewarded

Jon Culley30-Jun-2016Neil Dexter’s decision to leave a county that finished runners-up in Division One last season to join the one that had finished bottom of Division Two for three seasons in a row might have seemed somewhat perverse looking from the outside.At 31, he could not afford to make the wrong choice, but he says he felt confident from the outset and after half a season in his new surroundings nothing has happened to make him question his wisdom. His contribution already includes two centuries, the second against Gloucestershire this week.Leicestershire’s tight grip on the wooden spoon did not loosen despite the euphoria last June of ending their extraordinary 37-match winless streak in four-day cricket, but they have metamorphosed this season into potential promotion contenders – 15 points off the top with a game in hand and a bedraggled season still to take shape.”It was a hard decision to leave Middlesex,” Dexter admitted. “Things were always good at Middlesex. I enjoyed my time there working with good people.”But I wanted to bat higher up the order than I had been doing with Middlesex and when I sat down with Wasim Khan and Andrew McDonald to discuss coming here they were very clear in their plans and about what they wanted to achieve.”It is a club with clear direction and I was confident that it was going to be a good move. And so far I’ve enjoyed every minute of it here.”Khan and McDonald sold their vision, too, to Essex’s Mark Pettini and Lancashire’s Paul Horton as they moved to add quality, experience and a vital winning mentality to the squad. All three have had a positive impact on the dressing room environment.”We are quite a tight knit bunch already,” Dexter said. “In terms of where we are heading and what we are trying to achieve over the next few years we are already on the right lines.”If anything we have got to where we are as a team and a club a bit quicker than I thought.”There are times when things are tough. The T20 has tested us a team but it shows how strong we are the way the team is bouncing back in the four-day stuff on the back of disappointment.”In cricketing terms, then, it has been a good move. Where Middlesex felt they could make no guarantees of a regular first-team place – even though managing director of cricket Angus Fraser was willing to talk about a new contract – Leicestershire see him as just the right fit.For Dexter, moreover, there has been an unexpected bonus in moving out of the hustle and bustle of live in London. It has reminded how much he appreciates a less frenetic way of life.”I won’t lie, I struggled at times with living in London,” he said. “I think it is a hard place, so busy from the moment you walk out of your front door and until you get out of it again you don’t realise how tough a place it is to live.”Maybe it is the way I’ve been brought up. And I started in Kent, too, where the atmosphere is a bit more relaxed.”I’ve got a young family now and having a bit more of a relaxed life and a bit more family time, time when you can get away and it actually feels like you are away from cricket – it’s really good.”What’s more, he says, Grace Road feels like a proper home ground, something that Lord’s, for all its history and its status as the ‘home of cricket’, can never really be for a Middlesex player.At Grace Road, unlike Lord’s, Dexter feels he has a permanent home•PA Photos”Don’t get me wrong, I loved my time at Middlesex and to play at Lord’s every other week is a privilege I will never forget,” he said. “But Lord’s never really felt like home. When you don’t own your own ground, you can’t ever really call it home.”Here, when you leave the ground you can leave stuff in the dressing room but at Lord’s, although the Middlesex players have lockers, you had to appreciate that the dressing rooms had to be cleaned, maybe for a charity match or something involving other teams and you couldn’t just leave your gear behind.”Inevitably, too, because the area around Lord’s isn’t the cheapest, the players live some distance away, so if you needed something at short notice you couldn’t just nip back to the ground to get it.”And you didn’t know from one day to the next where you were going to be training. Lord’s and MCC have worked really hard over the last few years to try to get the players more time in the Lord’s nets so we didn’t have to go elsewhere but it was always going to happen that you sometimes had to.”You have to accept that, though, and there are many advantages. The people at Lord’s and the Middlesex members were great to me. I left on very good terms, I still follow them closely and I wish them well.”They remember him with affection, too, as the captain of the side that won promotion as Division Two champions in 2011, which is something on his CV, along with more than 6000 runs and over 100 wickets in his first-class career, that commands respect at Grace Road, where he is only too willing to share the benefits of his experience.”People ask me about coaching and I’m not sure,” he said. “I feel I have more to contribute as a player first. But I like working one-to-one with the younger guys, just chatting to them. I love being able to pass on some experience and knowledge and it would be great if I can help them move on to the next level because they are the future of the club.”Leicestershire remain third, with the top two, Essex and Kent, about to meet at Chelmsford. Does he think their recovery can be so pronounced that in a season in which only the winners of Division Two go up they have a serious chance of promotion?”When I was at captain at Middlesex I was never one to make predictions,” he said. “You can look too far ahead sometimes. You can talk but you’ve got to back it up with actions.”All we can do is play good cricket and there are a lot of games to come. I wouldn’t like to say we can’t get promotion but I’m not going to say we will.”What is good is that as well as the matches we have won, we have been competitive most of the time and in the rain-affected games we have won a lot of sessions.”It is what happens now that counts, at the business end of the season. If you can go on a winning streak at the right time you can be away.”

As the tri-series moves on from Guyana and St Kitts to its final destination of Barbados, ESPNcricinfo looks at five things we have learnt from the series so far

Brydon Coverdale and Firdose Moonda17-Jun-2016South Africa’s attack is changing
It was only last year that Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir almost bowled South Africa into a World Cup final. What a difference a year makes. Steyn is in playing T20 cricket for Glamorgan, Philander is on his way back from a long injury lay-off and Morkel, though part of the ODI squad, has yet to be called on in the series. Even Kyle Abbott has been used only twice. Instead, the attack has based itself around Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Aaron Phangiso and the dangerous Tahir. And their results have been encouraging. The times, for South Africa’s bowling unit, are a-changing.Adam Zampa has poise to burn
He started this year aged 23 and with no international caps to his name, but Adam Zampa has quickly shown that not only does he have the skills for international cricket, but also the poise. Bowling legspin in limited-overs cricket can be fraught, for the margin of error is so slim. But Zampa has belied his youthful looks to bring a mature outlook to the side, and is Australia’s leading wicket taker in the series with nine victims at 19.33. It follows on from similarly encouraging displays in ODIs against New Zealand in February and the World T20 in India in March. Zampa has variety, intelligence and confidence – the next step is for him to gain more traction in first-class cricket, and show he is not just a short-form player.West Indies need more from their top order
Since last year’s World Cup, West Indies have done without Chris Gayle in the ODI format and have stuck with Johnson Charles and Andre Fletcher as their opening pair. Their first few stands against Sri Lanka in November were worth just 2, 1 and 4, but their numbers have lifted in this series and their last two partnerships have been worth 74 and 69. It is an encouraging rise. All the same, West Indies still need more from their top order. The No.3, Darren Bravo, is averaging 24.75 this series. Fletcher is averaging 15.75. The team’s top four partnerships are averaging 31.68 this series, compared to Australia’s 37.56 and South Africa’s 48.50. It is hard to win a series with numbers like that.Anyone can beat anyone
World champions Australia entered this series ranked No.1 in the world, South Africa No.3 and West Indies No.8. And yet the teams find themselves, after the Guyana and St Kitts legs of the tournament, locked on two wins and two losses each, only a couple of bonus points separating them. Everyone has beaten everyone once. In Guyana, West Indies beat South Africa, South Africa beat Australia and Australia beat West Indies. In St Kitts, West Indies beat Australia, Australia beat South Africa and South Africa beat West Indies. For the viewer it is the best-case scenario, a genuine contest. Now what will happen in Barbados?South Africa’s percentages matter
This series is South Africa’s first since the country’s sports minister, Fikile Mbalula, banned four national sporting federations, including cricket, from bidding for or hosting international tournaments as a punishment for their slow rate of transformation. Mbalula made it public that the target the federations had agreed to meet in an MOU signed with the sports ministry was 60%. Cricket was not falling too far short, having achieved 55%, but needed to include one more player of colour to meet the minister’s criteria. That meant fielding seven players of colour in an XI and in this series, they have stuck to that on average. South Africa took the field with six players of colour in their first match against West Indies but made up for that with a record eight players of colour in their second game against Australia. They have included seven players of colour in their other two matches. Sticking to this number should ensure the ban is overturned when the transformation numbers are reviewed next year which means if a World T20 is played in 2018, and there is talk South Africa would be the preferred host, they can stage the event. It has been interesting to note the impact this strategy has had on team balance. It has given South Africa’s attack variety and dynamism but has kept their batting line-up a little too short, with the tail emerging from No.7 in some cases.

The shortest format should be the environment in which the fastest men can thrive

Freddie Wilde19-Jun-2016Are fast bowlers getting slower? It often feels like they are. Admittedly, fast bowling of the past is arguably mythologised more than anything else in cricket and pitches now are more benign than they were a quarter of a century ago, not to mention that batting techniques and protective equipment have improved radically, but even accounting for this, it is hard to shake off the feeling that today’s bowlers just don’t seem as quick as those who came before them.But even if the pace of fast bowling is not getting slower and is in fact staying fairly constant, the really fascinating thing is it is certainly not getting any faster, when really it could, and should, be doing so.Significant developments in sports science in recent years have redefined the limits of the human body. At the highest level of sport every aspect of an athlete’s body, lifestyle, diet and psychology are analysed and fine-tuned. This information revolution has pushed many sports into unchartered territory, with new records set astoundingly regularly.Fast bowling, however, appears to have been left behind in this pursuit. The volume of cricket now played is most culpable. Bowling actions, training programmes and fitness plans are defined not so much in the name of speed, or even efficiency, but longevity and fitness instead. Since the retirements of Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar, only Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait can lay claim to being part of cricket’s speed elite. This is incongruous with an age in which sports science is pushing contemporary athletes to the brink of human capabilities.There is, however, hope yet that a resurgence in fast bowling is not only possible but a natural and inevitable stage in cricket’s continuing evolution. As the T20 format matures it is becoming clear that the framework of the game lends itself to the production of fast bowlers the likes of which cricket has never seen before. The relatively limited physical demands of bowling in a T20 – a maximum of 24 deliveries – coupled with increased opportunities and enormous financial rewards of the format at domestic level mean we could be on the cusp of a fast-bowling revolution.The enforced decision of England’s Tymal Mills, plagued by a serious back injury, to focus his attention solely on T20 is portentous. Unable to bowl more than a handful of overs a week, 15 years ago Mills’ career would have been ended by such an injury – now he could end up earning more money bowling four overs a match in T20 leagues around the world than he could have in a decade of toil in first-class cricket.At just 23, Mills is possibly the youngest professional player to commit to T20 specialisation but his situation is far from the last stop in this evolutionary process. A generation of players who intend to only play cricket’s shortest format have most likely already been born and the possibilities of this, especially for fast bowlers, are tantalising.If a portly Shoaib, whilst balancing the demands of white- and red-ball cricket, could break the 100mph barrier then imagine just for a moment what a bowler for T20 cricket could achieve. A bowler whose entire career from age-group cricket onwards is focused on bowling 24 balls a match at searing speed.Raw pace is an asset in any form of cricket but in T20, where the balance of the game is most skewed in favour of the batsman, it is at its most valuable. The size of bats and boundaries and the strength and power of batsmen are rendered irrelevant by speed.”Seriously fast bowlers will always have a place because the reaction time of the batsman is negligible,” explains fast bowling coach Ian Pont. “Defences get ripped apart, techniques get shredded and it doesn’t matter how brave you are or how good you are, 100 miles an hour tests every fibre in your body as a batsman.”T20 has reversed the psychology of the player with the ball being the one to be feared. Now, gym-monsters with enormous bats are the most intimidating individuals on the pitch. The T20 format offers genuinely fast, specialist bowlers the opportunity to turn back the clock and become the fear again; the consequences of that could be game-changing.

From following the WBBL buzz from the sidelines to getting to be a part of the action, Harmanpreet Kaur, much like women’s cricket in India, has come a long way

Shashank Kishore31-Jul-2016Harmanpreet Kaur, a self-confessed social media addict, remembers being hooked to Cricket Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League page to follow all the updates of the initial stages of the inaugural season. A month later, in January 2016, she experienced the buzz from close quarters, when she toured with the Indian team for a limited-overs series.Later this year, she will get an opportunity to play in the tournament, after signing with WBBL champions Sydney Thunder for the upcoming season. The path-breaking deal makes her the first Indian cricketer, male or female, to feature in Australia’s Big Bash League.”We knew it would be big, but didn’t realise the WBBL would be such a huge hit until we got there earlier this year,” Harmanpreet told ESPNcricinfo. “Whichever venue we visited, there was a lot of talk about the tournament. That internally motivated a lot of us, and it got us thinking, ‘Right, if we do well like Australia have on the global stage, there is a possibility of an IPL-style league for women.’ In many ways, the atmosphere and the sporting culture of Australia fired us up. Our T20 series win also boosted the morale of the entire team.”Harmanpreet remembers watching the final of the inaugural WBBL from her hotel room in Adelaide, a couple of days ahead of India’s T20I series against the then Women’s World T20 champions Australia. At the team’s training session the following day, she was overwhelmed when her compatriots remarked that she was good enough to be playing in the tournament.Two days later, on Australia Day and India’s Republic Day, Harmanpreet proved why she was one of the most-improved players in the women’s circuit when her unbeaten 31-ball 46 scripted India Women’s highest chase in a T20I. Immediately after the knock, she received congratulatory messages from a number of franchises.”That was when it dawned upon us that these performances were being noticed, because when I started, women’s cricket was mainly about England, Australia and New Zealand,” she said. “On that tour, the vibe was different. Generally, foreign tours mean a quiet arrival, followed by training and matches. But this time during our tour, there was a real buzz. Television channels were seeking reactions; fans were at the ground in big numbers. We were being recognised. I think our series win there contributed towards a lot of our names being put forward on the franchise shortlists.”Harmanpreet received offers from two other franchises, including Sydney Sixers, runners-up in the inaugural season, but said money wasn’t the deciding factor. “Opportunities were what I was looking for,” she said. “With just two overseas slots for foreign players, I was looking at sides where you have a chance to make XIs on a regular basis. With Thunder having just one overseas player, I thought that’s where I could get maximum game time.”Also, Stafanie Taylor, who will be my colleague there, is someone who I hugely admire. We started our careers around the same time, and being a fellow professional, I’ve followed her a lot of late. The manner in which she has carried West Indies single-handedly has been inspirational. Both of us are allrounders, so I’m looking forward to learning from her. The prospect of playing with Australia’s best is also exciting.”Harmanpreet, who admires Australia’s aggressive style of play, picked out fitness over skill as one of the major differences between India and the other top nations. Being in a professional structure, she said, would offer an opportunity to study how different professionals go about their work.”As a team, we haven’t played for four months since the World T20, so a lot of us are using this as an opportunity to work on our fitness,” she said. “What we noticed at the tournament was, skill-wise, we are at par with the top sides. Things like running between the wickets, close-in catching, power-hitting is something we are working on.”Currently training in Pune under her personal coach, Harshal Pathak, Harmanpreet’s routine ranges from yoga and strength-training, to endurance activities such as rope walks and a cross-fit routine, apart from her four-hour net sessions. Being part of an all-women ad campaign aimed at promoting women empowerment in India, Harmanpreet says, gave her a new perspective on how much women’s cricket has grown in India.”It has grown leaps and bounds, but we aren’t able to sustain momentum,” she said. “We did well in Australia, and the momentum was carried into the World T20. There was expectation on us for the first time. Now, it’s been four months since we played. So, once again, we are back to building up to another event. Better scheduling will address that, but with the World Cup coming up next year, hopefully that will be addressed. Hopefully, a few others also playing in the WBBL will give us that much more exposure and make us a better team.”

Stats highlights from the fourth day in Kanpur where India inched closer to victory against New Zealand as R Ashwin became the second-fastest bowler to reach 200 Test wickets

Bharath Seervi25-Sep-20161 Bowlers who reached 200 Test wickets in fewer matches than R Ashwin, who achieved it in his 37th Test. Clarrie Grimmett, the fastest, got there in 36 Tests. The previous quickest India bowler to achieve this was Harbhajan Singh in 46 Tests. Ashwin was also the fastest from India to reach the milestones of 50, 100 and 150 wickets.51.4 Ashwin’s strike rate, the best among all 19 spinners who have taken 200 or more Test wickets. The next best is Stuart MacGill who struck every 54 balls.21.03 Ashwin’s average in Tests in India, easily the best among the ten bowlers who have taken 100-plus wickets. Bishen Singh Bedi comes next with an average of 23.99.2 India players who have achieved the double of making a score of 50 or more and taking a five-wicket haul in the same Test against New Zealand. Before Ravindra Jadeja in this Test, who picked 5 for 73 in the first innings and then made an unbeaten 50 in the second innings, Javagal Srinath had done this in Auckland in 1999.1 Number of higher targets set by India against New Zealand, than the 434 in this match. They had set a target of 617 in Wellington in 2009 and New Zealand had managed to draw that with two wickets remaining.5.40 Run rate of the partnership between Rohit Sharma and Jadeja – second-highest for a century stand for India against New Zealand for any wicket (where ball-by-ball details are known). The pair added 50 runs in 56 balls and completed 100 runs in 111 balls before India declared.10 Wickets taken by the New Zealand spinners in this Test – third-most for them against India. Their spinners had taken 19 wickets in Nagpur in 1969 and 12 wickets in Ahmedabad in 2010.593 First-class runs accumulated by Cheteshwar Pujara this month, in just five innings. Before making 62 and 78 in this match, he had scored 166, 31 and 256* for India Blue in the Duleep Trophy.7 Innings without a fifty for Rohit before his unbeaten 68 in the second innings of this Test. He had scored only 111 runs in those innings at average of 15.85. His last fifty came against Sri Lanka in Colombo last year.6 Number of scores between 50 and 80 by the top three batsmen in this Test – joint-most in any Test. There were six such scores in Brisbane Ashes Test in 1962-63 and between India and Australia in Chennai in 1997-98.

If you got on top of an overseas pro on the field, he’d do everything to intimidate you after that. Not Fanie de Villiers

Haydn Morgan17-Sep-2016I went up against Fanie de Villiers when he played for Torquay in the Devon league in 1992. Fanie was over here trying to get fit so he could press his claim for a place in the South African team. He’d missed out on the 1992 World Cup through injury. I was a 19-year-old opening batsman at Barton Cricket Club with aspirations of playing professional cricket.Luckily the wicket at Barton was very slow. The first ball Fanie bowled to me was a loosener. First ball of the innings, half-volley, and I punched it down the ground for four. The guy I opened the batting with said to me, “For Christ’s sake, don’t wind him up.”Later in that innings Fanie tried a short ball. It didn’t get up but was on me quick. I clipped it and it went for two past square leg. That was an invitation to him to try a bit more of that because I hadn’t played it that well.But on the slow, low wicket, the short balls sat up quite nicely after that and I managed to pull a few away to the boundary.Fanie was an absolute gentleman. Unlike a lot of overseas pros I played against in league cricket, he said very little. If you hit him for four, he didn’t stand there and stare or swear at you. He’d just go back to his mark and try something else to get you out.In my experience, with some other overseas bowlers, if you did get on top of them, they’d revert to using their reputations to make a big deal of things. Rather than worry about what you had done, and any affront it might have caused him, Fanie would just focus on what he might have done wrong the previous ball to give you an opportunity to score and look to put that right the next time. A very professional attitude.

Fanie was an absolute gentleman. Unlike a lot of overseas pros I played against in league cricket, he said very little. If you hit him for four, he didn’t stand there and stare or swear

He was easily the best seam bowler I faced in the Devon league. What stood out was his accuracy. With most club bowlers, you know if you keep the good ones out, the bad ball is just around the corner. With Fanie, there were few of those.He also had that wholehearted competitiveness. Always came off the long run and always seemed to be bowling at 100%, whereas other overseas bowlers I’ve come across would take it easy from time to time.But he never stepped over that line. He respected the opposition, which doesn’t always happen when pros come into league cricket.Later in my career, when I played a bit of professional cricket, I came across quicker bowlers than Fanie. He was quick enough, but also had a range of skills, could move the ball, swing and seam it, which was different to what we’d seen before.To play against someone like that was a good testing ground for me. To go up against that kind of bowler was fantastic – very exciting, stimulating, and exactly what I needed.

England’s seven Tests in Bangladesh and India were marked by frequent collapses: some by the top order, some by the lower order and some by the entire order

Andrew McGlashan20-Dec-2016Chittagong: 62 for 5England’s seven-Test marathon began in Bangladesh’s port city and they only just managed to stay afloat. They had a narrow lead heading into their second innings which was almost squandered. Shakib Al Hasan, who had formed a twin new-ball spin attack with teenager Mehedi Hasan, claimed three including the key wicket of Joe Root. In the end, Ben Stokes’ superb 85 gave them just enough to defend but it was a warning sign of what was to come.Dhaka: 69 for 5 and 10 for 64Those warning signs that flashed in Chittagong, blared at full volume a few days later in Dhaka. In the first innings England lost the top half of their innings for 69 – after Bangladesh themselves had lost 9 for 49 – before the lower order managed to haul them to a small lead. But there was no escape second time around as they lost all ten wickets for 64 in 22.2 gruesome overs after Alastair Cook and Ben Duckett had opened with an aggressive stand of 100 in 23 overs. It all changed first ball after tea on the third evening when Mehedi speared one through Duckett. It turned into a magical afternoon for Mehedi as he secured match figures of 12 for 159 – the best by a Bangladesh bowler in Tests. It was a shock England would never really recover from.So near, yet so far: Alastair Cook was given out to the last ball of the fourth day in Vizag•AFPVisakhapatnam: 80 for 5 and 10 for 83After brief respite in Rajkot, where they pushed India hard, the worst fears about England in India started to come to fruition. In the face of India’s 455 the match was basically lost in the final session of the second day. Mohammad Shami’s pearler to Cook began the first slide, but the run out of Haseeb Hameed and Root’s carve into the deep were self-inflicted. Faced with five sessions to secure a draw, England opted for the blockathon approach as Cook and Hameed added 75 in 50 overs before a grubber trapped Hameed lbw. Then, with what became the final ball of the fourth day, Cook was lbw to Ravindra Jadeja which meant the last morning began with the vulnerable Duckett in the middle rather than their captain. Despite having eight wickets in hand there was an air of inevitably and the match ended shortly after lunch: all 10 wickets had gone in 47 overs.Mohali: 107 for 6Despite an underwhelming first innings, England were still in the contest when they removed Virat Kohli to leave India 204 for 6. But the last four wickets added 213 and England went into bat again starring at a deficit of 134 instead of somewhere near parity. Still, it was not entirely beyond the realms of possibility that India could be left with a testing chase but that notion disappeared as they fell to 78 for 4 on the third evening – the batting order having been reshuffled due to Hameed’s broken finger. They slipped further on the fourth day before a modicum of pride of restored through Hameed’s gritty defiance, but the damage – in every sense – had long since been done. And it wasn’t just spin that did them on this occasion, Shami producing a rapid new-ball burst to break the belated resistance.Chris Woakes was bowled by R Ashwin during England’s collapse in Mumbai•AFPMumbai: 6 for 15Rarely had a total of 400 been made to look so inadequate (well, at least until England outdid themselves a week later in Chennai) as Kohli made a career-best 235 alongside M Vijay’s century and Jayant Yadav’s stylish maiden hundred – India’s first by a No. 9. As in Vizag, England were eyeing parity with India 307 for 6 only for them to return to the crease 231 runs behind. They played their shots, in a forlorn hope to set India some sort of final-day target, but from the moment Stokes fell shortly before the close on the fourth day the lower order was zapped for just 15 runs as R Ashwin claimed an astonishing 6 for 7 in 37 balls.Chennai: 10 for 104 including 6 for 15Was there time for one final collapse? There sure was. At lunch on the final day in Chennai it appeared England had managed to restore a small sense of order after being pummelled for 759 by India’s batsmen. Cook and Keaton Jennings had reached the first break on 97 without loss with two sessions left to leave having shown some fight. Yet, in the end, India won with time to spare. Cook fell to his nemesis, Jadeja, for a sixth time in the series then a raft of soft shots from Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Stokes led to a swift unravelling. It was fitting that the final two wickets of the series fell in the space of four deliveries. Now all that was left was for England to collapse into the plane seats for the journey home.