For the second time in the Kitply Cup, India’s openers laid the platform for victory with an aggressive partnership

George Binoy in Mirpur12-Jun-2008
Gautam Gambhir’s fifth ODI century was an extension of his recent Twenty form, and set the platform for a massive win © AFP
For the second time in the Kitply Cup, India’s openers laid the platform for victory with an aggressive partnership. Gautam Gambhir took centre stage today and, after an opening stand of 85 in ten overs, went on to score an unbeaten match-winning century.”I always had confidence in him,” Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s one-day captain, said of Gambhir. “We were on an India A tour to Zimbabwe and Kenya. We played together and I’ve always regarded him as a batsman. He’s quite aggressive at times and he gives it his all. Even if he’s got a big score in the last game, he wants to score in the next game. He always gives more than 100%.”Gambhir’s fifth ODI century was an extension of his recent Twenty20 form, especially in the IPL where he was, predictably, one of the leading run-scorers with 534 runs at 41.07 from 14 games. Gambhir is also no stranger to opening the innings in ODI cricket; he has taken guard at the top 29 times out of 49, scoring three hundreds at 35.88.His form has been complemented by his opening partner, Virender Sehwag. His 89 dominated their partnership of 155 against Pakistan on Tuesday and his 59 off 32 balls against Bangladesh got India off to a furious start. Dhoni praised the efforts of his openers and said that their contribution was doubly important because of the conditions in Mirpur.”It [the start] is extremely vital especially in these conditions,” he said. “When the ball gets old it is difficult to score fluently. So it is always great if you have two openers who give you good starts. Today’s wicket was better for batting compared to the last game. So far in the two games, we’ve got the starts we wanted. Hopefully we’ll get it in the final too.”The colour of the pitch, unusually dark because of the black soil used, also makes it difficult for new batsmen in the middle order to sight the ball because it gets discoloured around the 25th over. The pitch also tends to get slower as the ball gets older, hence it is imperative for the openers to score significantly while the ball is new.India made just the one change for this game, bringing in RP Singh for Ishant Sharma, when it was thought they’d use this opportunity to give the bench strength a shot. Dhoni simply felt it was an “appropriate” change.”You look at the team composition and you want to win whether you are playing either Pakistan or Bangladesh,” Dhoni said. “We could have changed a batsman but several batsmen didn’t get a proper opportunity to bat in the first game. So it was a tough call but we are playing many games in the near future so most probably everyone will get a chance.”India’s victory over Bangladesh today has ensured Pakistan’s qualification for the final of the Kitply Cup on June 14.

England regained some pride under new captain Kevin Pietersen at The Oval, but the damage was done in the middle two Tests as the series was wrestled away

Andrew Miller12-Aug-2008

Andrew Strauss – 4For the second season running, Strauss has been left struggling to secure his winter tour place, and despite the eventual ease of his matchwinning half-century at The Oval, the doubts have not been allayed. In his last series against South Africa, in 2004-05, he anchored himself on the back foot, and cut and drove his way to 656 runs in an incredible series-winning performance. Four years on, he’s mustered barely a third of that tally, having time and again threatened to come forward in a show of intent, only to be cramped for room from around the wicket in particular. Missing out on the England captaincy has undoubtedly upset his equilibrium, and if changes to the batting are to be made for India, Strauss is once again a leading candidate for the chop.Alastair Cook – 6(0)“Pretty sixties” have been the single biggest symptom of England’s recent batting woes, and no-one has epitomised that trait more acutely than Cook. Since the sixth of his Test centuries, at Galle in December, Cook has been dismissed between 60 and 67 on five occasions in 10 Tests – three times in this series alone, and ten times in total in his 34-match career. Consecutive scores of 60, 18, 60, 76, 9, 39 and 67 have been the very epitome of insubstantial consistency, and while others have been more culpable, Cook must carry his share of the blame for the collapses that wrecked England’s series prospects.Michael Vaughan – 2His lowest ebb. England’s most successful Test captain deserved a more fitting denouement, but in the end his atrocious form dictated the terms of his departure. Had England somehow turned the Edgbaston Test in their favour, he would have survived until The Oval, but after one match of the KP era, Vaughan already seems like a fond but distant memory. England’s balance seems transformed by the five-bowler option, but a squad place in India is not out of question if he can finish his county season on a high.

Ian Bell – 6His 199 at Lord’s hinted that maturity had finally been reached, but the ease with which South Africa secured their momentum-shifting draw in that match revealed Bell’s innings for what it really was: another flat-track cash-in from a player who has few equals when it comes to turning on the style, but whose substance remains sadly lacking. He was largely anonymous as England slipped to defeat at Headingley and Edgbaston, and his post-Lord’s average of 22.17 spelt out his shortcomings. His promotion to No. 3 will be the making or breaking of him.Kevin Pietersen – 9An imperious performance that lived up to the hype, not only of taking on his former countrymen, but of taking over the England captaincy. As the man himself admitted, “things can only get worse”, but he’s entitled to revel in this honeymoon period. An emotional hundred at Lord’s, a counterpunching 94 at Edgbaston (for which he was unfairly pilloried for his dismissal) and a fantastic platform-laying 100 at The Oval have carried him clear as the leading run-scorer in the series, and quashed all lingering issues about his allegiance. As a leader, his players have responded to his style, and for the moment the future seems bright.Paul Collingwood – 6Axed for Headingley and recalled one match later because of the apparent impact his absence had had on the dressing-room, Collingwood rose above the spuriousness of that particular argument with a career-saving century of unequivocal bravery. His third-day performance could even have saved the series, such was the momentum he provided for England going into the fourth and final day, but it wasn’t to be. Nevertheless, having managed 96 runs in his first 10 first-class innings of the season, he added nearly 200 more in his next two visits to the crease, to re-establish his credentials as one of his country’s doughtiest fighters.Andrew Flintoff – 7His furious onslaught on the second evening at Edgbaston will live long in the memory, but there wasn’t a whole lot else to report from a comeback that was a triumph only insofar as he got through it without further injury alarms. A brutal workload was piled onto his shoulders as the series ebbed away, and his pace and accuracy deserved better rewards than nine wickets at 36.44. Yet, as two five-wicket hauls in 70 Tests would demonstrate, Flintoff has never been a man to rip through the opposition. His batting had its moments, but he’s a long way short of his best in that department.

Tim Ambrose – 3
Over-exposed as a No. 6 batsman, under-productive at No. 8. An international career that began six months ago in Hamilton now looks set for a lengthy hiatus, after a ten-match stint in which Ambrose has been competent without looking outstanding. His batting had shown promise against the lesser lights of New Zealand, but 97 runs in six innings does not bode well for his Ashes prospects next summer. Twice at Edgbaston, he looked set to produce the rearguard that England desperately needed from him, but in the first innings in particular – bowled limply off the inside-edge by Jacques Kallis – he came up short. His keeping hasn’t been a desperate failure, but his body language has betrayed a man whose self-belief is on the wane.Stuart Broad – 6A mixed series finished on a positive note with his career-best figures of 3 for 44 in South Africa’s second innings at The Oval. A hugely promising cricketer, but right now he is not quite a strike bowler and, despite a majestic 76 at Headingley, not quite the batsman whose technique has drawn lofty comparisons to Garry Sobers. Nevertheless, England’s rejigged formation should suit his development perfectly. As England’s fourth seamer and a specialist No. 8, he is effectively the team’s apprentice in both roles – and judging by his progress so far this year, he will continue to learn voraciously.Ryan Sidebottom – 4A disappointment. Never fully fit after an intense year as England’s spearhead, and in hindsight he should never have played in the series decider at Edgbaston. His pace was down from Lord’s onwards, and so too was the late dipping swing that caused New Zealand’s batsmen such nightmares in the early part of the year. Guaranteed a tour place, but will need to shake off the niggles if he is to become, once again, the first name on the team sheet.Monty Panesar – 5Picked up 13 wickets at a relatively healthy average of 31.69, but was disappointingly one-dimensional at the crucial moments of the series. He’ll never develop a doosra, but the absence of an arm-ball is a crime against his vocation – consequently Smith devoured him during his Edgbaston epic, reading him instantly on length, and playing him with the spin off front foot and back alike. His wild appealing is getting beyond a gimmick as well. He’s going to make enemies of the umpires soon, and that’s not something that any spin bowler can afford.

James Anderson – 7Something approaching a breakthrough series. For years Anderson was the spare wheel in England’s pace attack – habitually ignored for months on end, and then overawed when called into the team for one-off appearances in venues as diverse as Johannesburg or Brisbane. Now, however, he’s a big gun in his own right, unfazed by the sight of Flintoff and Harmison on the same team-sheet. His burgeoning mastery of swing was epitomised by the in-out combination that suckered Smith for a duck at The Oval, and he has the confidence to keep Simon Jones at bay as the Ashes approaches. He has also developed a gutsy batting style – still no ducks in a five-year Test career, and a brilliantly brave 34 that gave England hope on the final morning at Headingley.Steve Harmison – 7If Harmison was an Olympic athlete, he might be mentioned in the same breath as Matthew Pinsent or Steve Redgrave. Nobody would care what he’d been up to for the past four years, just so long as he reached his peak in time for the biggest contest of all. And the omens for next summer, dare one say it, are good. Having worked his way through more than 500 county overs for Durham, Harmison’s rhythm has returned, and in his solitary outing of the series, he gave England the cutting edge that had been sorely missing all summer. The challenge now is to sustain that through an arduous winter itinerary. With expectations renewed, that might prove the toughest challenge so far.Darren Pattinson – 3Did he really play in this series? I’m not sure the man himself actually believes it either.

Highlights of the second round of the Ranji Trophy’s Super League and Plate matches

Sidharth Monga14-Nov-2008

The run machine
What does a team need at 100 for 4 after having won the toss? A triple-century from the No. 4 and a double from the No. 6, with a 520-run stand between them, should do. It did, for Saurashtra. The triple came from the latest run machine in Indian domestic cricket – the 20-year-old Cheteshwar Pujara. This was his third such score in less than a month’s time. The first two came against Maharashtra and Mumbai in the CK Nayudu Trophy, both in Rajkot.Only the ground changed this time: the first-choice ground in Rajkot had to host the ODI between India and England, hence the match was played at the Khandheri Cricket Stadium. This time he scored an unbeaten 302 not out against Orissa, at a strike-rate of 71.39, hitting 33 fours and three sixes. “There was this feeling that the first two had come at Under-22 level and things were easy for me,” he said later. “But this is the Ranji Trophy Super League. This is first-class cricket. And besides, this one was vital for the team too.”His partner was the 19-year-old Ravindra Jadeja, who contributed 232 to the partnership, which was the world record for fifth wicket. They beat the Waugh brother’s unbeaten 464-run association against Western Australia. This was also the second-highest partnership in Ranji Trophy, falling 57 short of Vijay Hazare and Gul Mahomed’s 577 for Baroda against Holkar in 1946-47.The Gilly trick, and a friendly fine
Yere Goud, the quintessential Railways player in terms of determination and grit, has found a new way to make his top hand more prominent while he bats. While batting in nets, he has been using a custom-made inner glove, with a half-cut ball inside. “I have been using it for some time now. Basically this year, I want to use my top hand more while manoeuvring the incoming ball, and that’s why I am using it during nets,” Goud told the . “I’ll never use them during a match.”Goud, on his comeback to the Railways side, helped them win three points against his team in the interim – Karnataka. Despite his heroics, Railways stayed strict on the discipline: they fined him Rs 500 because he wore a green helmet, as opposed to the team colour, blue. “I wasn’t too comfortable with it. I continued playing with my older one and hence the fine,” he said. “We have a discipline rule within the team, whoever is found breaking it has to pay the fine. We use the money for our juice and tea. Even team captain Sanjay Bangar was fined the same amount for turning up in the wrong training colours.”The hat-trick
Offbreak bowler Pritam Gandhe is 37, is Vidarbha’s captain, and is two short of reaching 100 first-class matches. Last week he took his second hat-trick, becoming only the third bowler to manage more than one in Ranji Trophy. His first came way back in 1993-94, against Rajasthan. His second helped them to a 135-run win over Services.Services’ Joginder Rao, who played only five first-class matches, took three, including two in the same innings – against Northern Punjab, in 1963-64. Anil Kumble took two.The SOS
Oops Ashish Nehra has done it again. Two matches into his first-class comeback, he strained his right hamstring and bowled only 10.2 overs against Hyderabad. Nehra wouldn’t go to just hospital to get an MRI scan done. He called VVS Laxman, who had reached Mumbai airport on his way back home after an emotionally draining series, for what he thought was the best place to go to. It brought Nehra good news: the scan didn’t show any tear. The Delhi team, though, will wait on his fitness before deciding on their final XI for the home match against Mumbai, starting Sunday.Angry young Irfan
A trivia first: this is the first time for Baroda that Yusuf Pathan has been away on national duty, and the younger brother, Irfan, has played Ranji cricket for them.During Baroda’s home match against Uttar Pradesh, Irfan got into a scuffle with some of the fans, reported. During the match, he went out of the ground to argue with fans who were shouting out his name in the parking area. Some fans had apparently got into an argument with Irfan’s driver near the ground. He rushed out on hearing about the incident, Baroda Cricket association sources said. There was a bright side to it, though: a female admirer caught hold of his collar and asked him to dance with her. But she was immediately separated from him and escorted away, the report said.While on the subject of arguments, the Kolkata-based reported on a dressing-room spat between Ashok Dinda and Shib Shankar Paul, during Bengal’s match against Madhya Pradesh in Gwalior. The spat “threatened to blow out of proportions, but timely intervention by the team management prevented a crisis”. What a shame.The battle
Irfan and Praveen Kumar – the latter rather harshly – were left out of the Indian ODI side last week, and also came face to face when Baroda played UP. Both needed to make a statement, especially Praveen, and they did in style. He took five wickets to bowl Baroda out for 235. Irfan paid back in kind, taking five on the second day. After the first two days, they both had identical figures: 26-7-71-5. The difference though was Praveen’s hitting. He came in to bat at 210 for 7, after UP had lost two quick wickets, and in a jiffy he scored 50 to take UP past Baroda’s total, and get them three vital points.Shane Warne’s boys’ corner
Jadeja had a dream week, getting his highest first-class score and best bowling figures in the same match. He hit 23 fours and two sixes in his 232 not out, his first-class century, and then took 5 for 44 to bowl Orissa out after Saurashtra had asked them to follow on.Swapnil Asnodkar had a second good game in a row, following up his 191 in the first round with 93 in the second, against Jammu & Kashmir. Goa won the match by 110 runs, moving up to the second spot in the Group A of the Plate League.Siddharth Trivedi, though, didn’t have good time, as Gujarat slumped to an innings defeat against Mumbai. He bowled 30 overs for no wickets, and scored 0 not out and 1. In the second innings, Gujarat managed only 44, their second-lowest total in Ranji Trophy.Quotehanger
“The selectors want a complete review of the fitness of the team. We want a detailed report of the team in writing by the physio, once the team returns.”
Anil Jain, one of the Delhi selectors, after Nehra’s injury, and reports that a few other players were carrying injuries. Better late than never, then.

Given the record at the Queen’s Park Oval, Joey Carew’s pronouncement that there will “most definitely” be an outright result in the decisive fifth Digicel Test starting today was simply stating the obvious

Tony Cozier09-Mar-2009Given the record at the Queen’s Park Oval, Joey Carew’s pronouncement that there will “most definitely” be an outright result in the decisive fifth Test starting today was simply stating the obvious.
All is not well on the domestic circuit © Trinidad & Tobago Express
Against the shocking atrocities in Lahore last week that have shaken the game to its core, a little local controversy in a regional match would seem to be of negligible consequence. It is, in fact, very pertinent to the present state of West Indies cricket.It involved the closing stages of the match between Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados at Guaracara Park last week Monday. With the home team going helter-skelter after a victory target of 142, Barbados sent down seven overs in an hour to an unsurprising backdrop of abuse from the few hundred home spectators.When, finally, umpires Bashir Ali and Vincent Weekes determined that the light had deteriorated enough to end the match, T&T were 99 for 3 off the 12 overs they received in an hour and 40 minutes, and their officials and supporters were fuming.It was, charged Forbes Persad, chief executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TCCB), “a deliberate act of time wasting to deprive Trinidad and Tobago” of victory. In a letter published in the press, one Noel Kalicharan was beside himself with rage. He cited Lord Kitchener’s “Tek yuh meat out mih rice” calypso to describe the “low down, cheap and rotten tricks a Bajan would resort to in order to outsmart a Trini”.He even managed to draw a connection between the Lahore deaths and the Guaracara go-slow.”It is one thing for terrorists to assault cricket’s reputation but those who undermine the reputation from within are no less guilty than those with guns and grenades and must suffer appropriate penalties,” he added.It seemed a touch extreme. Persaud put it more calmly. He hoped the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) would “take a strong position” on the matter. All the evidence indicates he was wasting his breath. The Guaracara furore is the latest in a sequence about which nothing has been done by the WICB, the organisation specifically charged with protecting the reputation of West Indies cricket and guarding against indiscipline.Perhaps all were not what they seemed. So it might be in this case. Livy Coppin, the Barbados manager, cited a few extenuating circumstances when I sought his take on the matter – although it is difficult to imagine what circumstances could lead to seven overs in an hour.This, like all the others before it, requires an official investigation by the WICB and, if necessary, the “strong position” Persad is after. Once nothing is done, as it hasn’t been time and again, our cricket, at all levels, will continue to be dragged down by such cynicism.Ironically, Barbados were on the receiving end of the same slothful over rate in their 2003 Carib Beer Cup match against Guyana at Albion. As they went after 72 more for victory off 24 overs with seven wickets standing following a rain break, the Guyanese meandered through 11 overs in an hour and a quarter in an obvious and, as it turned out, successful effort to thwart Barbados.Courtney Browne, then Barbados captain, now paradoxically chairman of their selectors, charged that “the sort of cricket the Guyanese displayed was horrendous”. Nine overs an hour, he said, was “total madness”.Horrendous or not, madness or not, there the matter rested without a peep from the WICB, a tacit endorsement of such tactics. Two years earlier, Dinanath Ramnarine and Merv Dillon, the West Indies eighth-wicket pair, engaged in methods to ensure a draw against South Africa in the Kensington Oval Test I described at the time as “demeaning”. A stronger adjective would have been in order.Ramnarine claimed a strained muscle and removed his pads to receive on-field attention. Dillon called for a change of boots. Critical time and overs were consumed. Umpires Steve Bucknor and Daryl Hair did little to stop the nonsense-just as Ali and Weekes reportedly did little at Guaracara.Ramnarine and Dillon are both Trinidadians, prompting Alloy Lequay, then president of the Trinidad and Tobago Board, to state: “If this took place while they were wearing national colours, I would have ensured that an inquiry be held to get all the facts and not just a public relations exercise”. Lequay was also a WICB director. Of course, no inquiry was held, no action taken.Two years ago, in the final of the Carib Beer Challenge, the showpiece of the regional season, the same combination as Monday-Guarcara, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados-witnessed some of the most petulant behaviour by players in any match in the Caribbean.”Here are the two best teams in the region, role models for our cricket in the future,” Deryck Murray, the TTCB head, WICB director and former West Indies vice-captain, noted. “We need, in the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) to address the issue and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”Of course, the issue was never addressed and, once players know that they won’t be censured for indiscipline or bringing the game into disrepute, it will happen, time and again. And that is one reason for the present state of West Indies cricket.

Cricinfo picks out some of the important stats from the 37-day, 59-match tournament

S Rajesh25-May-2009Three cheers for the bowlers
The one aspect which stood out in IPL 2009 was the greater say that bowlers had in the competition. With the conditions offering something for spinners and fast bowlers, the batsmen didn’t quite enjoy the freedom they did in 2008. Overall, the total runs scored reduced by 1611, while eight more wickets fell. The average runs per wicket fell from 26 to 23.41, while the average runs per over fell to less than 7.50. The average 20-over score in 2008 had been 166; here it fell to 150.

The tough middle overs
Breaking it up further, the middle overs were the biggest difference between the two IPLs. Whereas teams enjoyed a fair amount of freedom with the bat during the middle overs (seventh to 14th overs) last year, this time the run rate came down significantly, from 7.87 to 6.72. In fact, in 2008 teams actually accelerated during the phase (in the first six the average run rate of 7.70), but this time the middle overs were a time to hold back and consolidate.

The spin thing
South Africa isn’t known to be conducive to spin, but in IPL 2009 the slow bowlers had plenty of success, and much more so than in the first edition in India. Last year, spinners were marginally more expensive than fast bowlers; they’d taken fewer wickets, at a higher cost. All that changed this time – spinners were far more economical, conceding almost one run less per over, and they conceded fewer runs per wicket as well. In fact, the five bowlers who bowled more than 25 overs and went at less than a run a ball were all spinners – Muttiah Muralitharan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Murali Kartik and Suresh Raina.

How the teams fared with bat and ball
The next three tables break up teams’ performances with bat and ball into three stages – the first six, the middle eight, and the last six overs.With the sort of openers they had, it’s hardly surprising that Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings were exceptional with the bat in the first six overs, and usually built a big advantage over opposition teams during this period. Both these teams averaged around eight-and-a-half runs per over, at an excellent average as well, which means they had plenty of wickets in hand after the Powerplay. Bangalore, on the other hand, struggled in the first six, which again isn’t a surprise since their opening pair put up the worst numbers out of the eight teams.As a bowling team, though, Kolkata Knight Riders were the poorest of the lot – they took only 13 wickets in the first six overs in the entire tournament, and on seven occasions teams finished the Powerplay against them without losing a wicket. The new-bowling is surely one thing – among many, admittedly – they’ll have to fix before next year.

Chennai were pretty good during the middle overs as well, scoring more than 30 runs per wicket at more than seven per over.

Mumbai and Delhi were the best teams during the last six overs – they scored at more than nine runs per over and restricted their opponents to around eight, thanks to bowlers like Lasith Malinga and Ashish Nehra. Kolkata have done well with the bat too, averaging a superb 9.81 in the last six. Sadly for them, though, they’ve done so poorly in the earlier overs that they’ve left themselves with far too much to do in the last six.

The opening act
Deccan lost their first wicket without a run on the board and yet went on to win the final, but overall, the winning team’s opening partnership did much better than the team that lost, scoring almost twice the number of runs per partnership. Of the 21 fifty-plus opening stands in the IPL, 14 were scored in winning causes.

The curse of the first ball
In IPL 2008, only once did a wicket fall off the first legitimate ball of the innings – Sohail Tanvir trapped Parthiv Patel in front in Jaipur. This year, though, there were 11 first-ball dismissals, with Mumbai, Punjab, Bangalore and Chennai suffering that fate twice.

And in 57 games, there were 38 wickets that fell in the first over, twice as many as last year. Bangalore suffered most often, losing a wicket in the first over eight times – that’s half the matches they played – while Delhi inflicted that misery on their opponents most often, with eight first-over wickets.

Effect of the tactical timeout
Midway through the tournament, it seemed an unusually high number of wickets had fallen in the 11th over of this year’s IPL. Perhaps batting teams were losing their concentration due to the tactical timeout? As it turns out, they adapted to the break pretty well through the second half of the tournament, for overall, the 11th over yielded only 30 wickets, which isn’t much different from the wickets in the overs around it: there were more wickets that fell in the 10th, while the 12th over yielded 26.

More numbers from IPL 200999 – The number of sixes hit by Deccan Chargers, the highest in the tournament. Rajasthan hit the least number – 45. Gilchrist led the individual tally with 29.
14 – The number of sixes conceded by Shane Warne and Praveen Kumar, the most by a bowler. Twenty-eight percent of the sixes conceded by Rajasthan were off Warne’s bowling (14 out of 50).
169 – The number of dot balls by RP Singh, the most by a bowler in the tournament. Murali was next with 144.
19 – Number of no-balls bowled by Delhi, the most by a team. Mumbai and Bangalore bowled only four, the least. RP Singh bowled seven, the highest by a bowler, while Munaf Patel and Amit Mishra sent down six.
68 – Number of wides by Delhi, also the highest. Mumbai bowled 66 while Chennai were the best with only 25. Lasith Malinga bowled 26, the most by a bowler, while Dirk Nannes was next with 23.
30 – Number of matches won by the team chasing. The team batting first won 26. (One match was tied, and two washed out.)
33 – Number of matches won by the team which won the toss. The team losing the toss won 23.
22 – The number of times a batsman from Punjab was run out, the highest for a team. Delhi suffered this fate only six times, but inflicted 22 run-outs on the opposition, the most by a fielding team.
13 – The number of wickets Malinga took in the last six overs, the most by any bowler. His economy rate of 5.80 is also the best among bowlers who bowled at least 50 balls during the slog overs.
162.87 – The strike rate for Dwayne Smith, the highest for a batsman who scored at least 100 runs. Ganguly’s strike rate of 91.17 is the lowest.

The latest duck for Australia’s No. 4 has raised further questions over his future in the team

Alex Brown at The Oval21-Aug-2009Australia will face a multitude of tough and unpalatable questions in the wake of their turgid batting display at The Oval, but none more immediately confronting than the form issues of Michael Hussey. A timid duck has rendered Hussey’s position in the Australian middle order close to untenable, and there must now be grave doubts among Andrew Hilditch’s selection panel as to whether he can be nursed through another series.Certainly, Hussey was not alone in failing against a driven and disciplined England attack at The Oval on Friday, but while others have solid recent records to fall back on, the 34-year-old has no such wiggle room. In what is fast becoming a recurring theme, his dismissal to Stuart Broad for a third ball duck was the product of uncertainty around his off-stump, this time manifesting in a late attempt to play an inswinging delivery that cannoned into his front pad.Australia have lost six Test veterans through natural attrition over the past few years, and Hilditch’s panel could be forgiven for balking at the prospect of forcing another out the door. In a period of major transition, Hussey and Ricky Ponting were viewed as the men around whom selectors could fashion a new-look batting line-up. Two years on, that view has changed markedly.Hussey’s duck at The Oval was his sixth since the beginning of the last Australian summer, and eleventh total of 10-or-below in his past 13 matches. In that time, he has scored 477 runs at 22.71 and continued a century-less streak that now stands at 28 innings. Hussey’s Ashes campaign has charted a similar course, with 155 runs at 22.15 – 115 of which were scored in innings at Lord’s and Edgbaston – rendering him the worst performed of Australia’s top-seven batsmen in England.When the end approaches, great batsmen rarely lose all their faculties at once. Their slides are generally more subtle, insidious affairs, with signs of decline punctuated by the occasional throw-back performance. Such has been the pattern for Hussey over the past 10 months. Each of his four half-centuries have raised hope that the drought had finally broken, only for tension and uncertainty to return, as evidenced by his dismissals shouldering arms at Lord’s and Edgbaston. Consistency has been conspicuously absent; the pressure ever-intensifying.Should Australia lose this match – and a 172-run first innings deficit is giving every reason to believe they will – Ponting’s men will be relegated to fourth-place on the ICC Test ladder. Whether they are deserving of such an exaggerated slide is open for debate, but an inquisition will nevertheless be launched by an Australian public unfamiliar with the concept of a losing cricket team.Australia’s 2005 Ashes defeat proved the catalyst for change, and 2009 may yet follow a similar script. Clarke is undoubtedly equipped to handle a promotion from No. 5 to No. 4 in the batting order, and home Test series against the eighth-ranked West Indians and sixth-ranked Pakistanis might be viewed as an opportune time to blood a younger batsman. Callum Ferguson will emerge as a strong contender, although a David for Michael Hussey swap – similar to the Waugh exchange of 1991 – cannot be discounted.It would, of course, be a great injustice to apportion all blame for Australia’s dramatic collapse at The Oval to Hussey. Any sequence involving a team losing ten wickets for 87 runs suggests a multitude of sins committed by numerous culprits, and Ponting, Clarke and Brad Haddin are among those who would dearly love the opportunity to replay their innings. But whereas they have scored heavily in recent Australian campaigns, Hussey has not. And the patience of the public, if not the selectors, is wearing thin.Like Matthew Hayden four years ago, Hussey has one more innings at The Oval to convince critics, and perhaps himself, that he is the man to lead Australia into the next summer. Hayden’s scratchy century in 2005 kick-started the most prolific 18 months of his career. Can Hussey emulate those feats? All will be revealed this weekend.

A look back at the major developments in India’s Test side over the decade

Sidharth Monga06-Dec-2009A comeback to beat all comebacks, 2000-01
It wouldn’t be unfair to say that the belief, imagination even, of India becoming the best side in the world comes from the home series against Australia, one of the two best contests of the decade. A lot happens during those three Tests that India still benefit from: VVS Laxman becomes a permanent member of the middle order, thus forming the Fab Four; the turnaround brings the team together after the match-fixing exposés; Harbhajan Singh emerges and forges a formidable spin-attack with Anil Kumble; for all practical purposes the Sourav Ganguly-John Wright era, and a new, professional outlook towards fitness and training, begins; and the marauding Australians, the best team by a distance, are beaten.Sehwag opens, 2002
Virender Sehwag smashes 84 off 96 balls at Lord’s in his first Test as opener. India go on to lose the Test, but find their first permanent opener since Navjot Sidhu. Sehwag goes on to redefine the opener’s role in Tests, and is pivotal to many of India’s victories over the decade. Later, along with Gautam Gambhir, he puts an end to the days of makeshift and uncertain Indian opening combinations.Test wins in England, West Indies and Sri Lanka
All the above factors come together and, in the next few years, India post their first win in the West Indies after 26 years, in England after 16 years, and in Sri Lanka after eight. But they go on to lose two of those series and, while the Test victories are important landmarks, they are still only half steps forward. Even in Zimbabwe they squander a 1-0 lead.Gatecrashing Steve Waugh’s farewell party, 2003-04
Four years after a horror tour to Australia, and months after an embarrassing defeat in the 2003 World Cup final, India are an avoided collapse, an enforced follow-on, or a strong bowling performance short of winning a series in Australia, something no team has done since West Indies in 1992-93. The Adelaide win is their first in Australia in 22 years.Winning across the border, 2003-04
Months later India go into a series with the highest possible pressure for players involved, and win emphatically. They achieve first Test win in Pakistan followed by their first series win there, their first away-series victory since 1993 – not counting Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.Triumph amid turmoil, 2004-2006
Wright is gone, Greg Chappell’s honeymoon has ended, and the Chappell-Ganguly spat has become more important than whatever India do on the field. The results aren’t great either: at home they lose to Australia, draw with Pakistan and England, and lose in Pakistan. Series win against Sri Lanka at home, and in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the only consolations. In the West Indies, though, starts another spell of memorable wins, under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. He scores 81 and 68 on a difficult pitch at Sabina Park to fashion India’s first series win outside the subcontinent in 20 years – not counting Zimbabwe.The next step, 2006-2007
India show they are a group of mature individuals who can win despite differences between them. At the Wanderers, Ganguly makes a crucial fifty on his comeback, and Sreesanth swings South Africa out. It is India’s first win in the country, and the first time since 1986 that they have won consecutive Tests outside India, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.India are No. 1 after beating Sri Lanka 2-0 at home•Associated PressA season later, Zaheer Khan puts behind injuries and sporadic form for good, and assumes leadership of the pace attack, spurring India to a win at Trent Bridge, which in turn secures a first series win in England since 1986.Picking up the pieces, 2007-08
India have been embarrassed in the World Cup, Chappell has been sent packing, Dravid has given up captaincy, and Sydneygate has happened. What is more damning is that they have just lost a Test they had no business losing, controversy notwithstanding. But adversity brings them together and, by relying on team performance as opposed to individual genius, they beat Australia in Perth, something that hasn’t been done since the great West Indian fast bowlers retired. Poignantly Irfan Pathan, whose contributions in the series win in Pakistan are easy to forget, is the Man of the Match in a game in which Ishant Sharma announces himself.Resilience
Lord’s 2007, Wanderers 2006-07, Bangalore and Chennai 2008-09, Napier 2008-09, and Ahmedabad 2009-10 are six performances that wouldn’t have been expected from Indian teams of the previous decades. They were careless to fall behind in all those games but they show character to come back and somehow save them, and even win two of them. Five of these match-saving efforts prove pivotal to series wins.No. 1 finally, 2009-10
A decade that is a huge improvement on the previous one culminates in India attaining the No. 1 Test ranking after beating Sri Lanka 2-0, but they know they are No. 1 and still not the best. Being the best involves winning series in South Africa and Australia, and there is time to go before India even travel there.

The pressure will be squarely on Makhaya Ntini during the third day in Durban with questions growing about his future

Andrew McGlashan in Durban27-Dec-2009The pressure will be squarely on Makhaya Ntini during the third day in Durban with questions growing about his future following another below-par display with the ball. His opening three-over spell was dispatched for 25 runs, largely by a rampant Andrew Strauss, and he wasn’t called on again by Graeme Smith before bad light and rain ended play.The debut performance of Friedel de Wet in the first Test, when he took 4 for 55 in the second innings to bowl South Africa to the brink of victory on the final day, has added to the increasing talk about Ntini’s place in the line-up. De Wet was dropped for this match with a fit-again Dale Steyn back in the fold, but his full-length approach would have been ideal in the swinging and seaming conditions on offer, instead of Ntini’s hit-the-deck style.Given his tremendous Test record of 390 wickets at 28.53, Ntini understandably has the backing of Smith and coach Mickey Arthur, but at some stage in the very near future he is going to have to reward that faith with performance. Of course, there is also the blurred line between cricketing and political reasoning which comes with Ntini’s position, and that has the potential to cloud the issue.Ntini managed just two wickets in the opening Test, which marked his 100th appearance amid an emotional atmosphere, and he was unable to claim the final wicket when entrusted with the last over of the match, ahead of de Wet. During his short opening spell on the second afternoon in Durban he was taken for three boundaries in four balls by Strauss, a pull, a drive and a cut, as he struggled to find the correct line. Bowling to left-handers has historically been Ntini’s strength, but the concerns are growing that he has lost the edge needed for Test cricket, although his team-mates don’t believe that.”He wasn’t in the best form of his life today but that’s part of being a sportsman, you don’t always play very well,” said AB de Villiers. “He’ll definitely be back tomorrow the way I know him, hitting the good areas and hopefully picking up some wickets. He’s still fine, he’s a strong individual.”Ntini’s role in this match has taken on increasing importance because Steyn is returning from nearly a month without bowling following his hamstring injury. Jacques Kallis is also still only operating off a shortened run-up following his rib problem, and was comfortably dealt with during a two-over spell. Morne Morkel is currently South Africa’s most dangerous option, closely followed by the unlikely threat of Paul Harris’s left-arm spin.However, none of the home attack escaped the wrath of Arthur after a slipshod opening effort allowed England to race out of the blocks in their first innings. South Africa had wrestled the advantage after Steyn’s 47 from No. 10, which formed a final-wicket stand of 58 with Ntini, but a succession of loose deliveries allowed Strauss to launch England’s reply at five-an-over.”Mickey did come pretty hard and said we aren’t really executing the basics very well,” said de Villiers. “We were a little too short and will certainly try to go fuller tomorrow. I won’t go into details but there were a few harsh words in that short [rain] break.”Our bowlers were very slow to adapt. We bowled a lot better in the final half-an-hour, Morkel is in good form and it’s good to have Dale back, but we were definitely slow to adapt. We were very poor in the first ten overs and the plan tomorrow will be to get the run-rate down.”South Africa’s batsmen haven’t been shy of criticising their bowlers when they feel they have let the side down, with Jacques Kallis offering a similarly stinging view after the second day at Centurion when England eased to 88 for 1. The home side’s response was impressive on that occasion as they secured a useful first-innings lead. Right now, they are expected to produce a similar turnaround.

Now that the IPL is done and dusted, Cricinfo picks its IPL XI, and it’s a Chennai-Mumbai-Bangalore oligopoly

Cricinfo staff26-Apr-20101 Jacques Kallis (Bangalore)Stats: 572 runs, 115.78 strike-rate; 13 wickets, economy-rate 8.35.
Best performance: 89 off 55 balls v Punjab.
Key role: Kallis was consistent and aggressive in the first half of the season. He was unbeaten until his fifth innings and played a crucial role in Bangalore’s four-match winning streak. His ability to bowl the heavy bouncer helped Bangalore target batsmen with short deliveries on the quick Chinnaswamy pitch.2 Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai)Stats: 618 runs, 132.61 strike rate.
Best performance: 89 off 59 balls v Rajasthan.
Key role: Tendulkar’s isn’t the first name on the team sheet only because he doesn’t take strike. His calming consistency while opening the innings helped Mumbai become the first semi-finalist and top the league stage. He did not have to change his approach to score the most runs in the season, and at one stage had a strike-rate of 155.75 after four matches despite not having hit a single six. 3 Suresh Raina (Chennai)Stats: 520 runs, 142.85 strike-rate, 6 wickets, economy-rate 7.46
Best performance: 83 off 52 balls v Mumbai
Key role: In IPLs past, Raina had the luxury of coming in after Matthew Hayden had given Chennai a powerful start. Not this time. Hayden’s miserable form meant Raina had to shoulder much of the burden, and he did. His fielding was among the best in the IPL, he was the Man of the Final, and a strong contender for the Player of the Tournament. 4 Ambati Rayudu (Mumbai)Stats: 356 runs, 144.71 strike-rate
Best performance: 55 off 29 balls v Deccan
Key role: Rayudu was the best of the former ICL players and played a vital role in the middle order. He provided a seamless link between Tendulkar’s strong starts and Pollard’s brutal finishes and could revive the innings when needed as well. Rayudu’s not a wicketkeeper but he performed the role competently in the interests of team balance.5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk) (Chennai)Stats: 287 runs, 136.66 strike-rate
Best performance: 54 off 29 balls v Punjab
Key role: Dhoni was average with the bat until Chennai couldn’t afford it anymore. In a must-win game against Punjab, he pulled off an improbable chase with the most brutal hitting Dharamsala is likely to see. He contributed on a difficult pitch to ease Chennai through the semi-final and kickstarted the acceleration in the final too. No other wicketkeeper came close to surpassing his form, and few captains matched his leadership skills either.6 Robin Uthappa (Bangalore)Stats: 374 runs, strike-rate 171.55
Best performance: 51 off 21 balls v Punjab
Key role: Cries of “” (Hit it, hit it, Uthappa) rang round the Chinnaswamy when Robin Uthappa strode out busily to bat. He was Bangalore’s game-changer, tearing into the bowling attack at pivotal moments, and finished the tournament’s highest six-hitter, with 27.7 Kieron Pollard (Mumbai)Stats: 273 runs, strike-rate 185.71; 15 wickets, economy-rate 7.40
Best performance: 33 off 13 balls and 3 for 17 v Bangalore, first semi-final
Key role: Pollard is a near-perfect Twenty20 cricketer. Mumbai relied on him to boost totals by 30-odd runs in the last two overs of the innings, and Pollard delivered strike rates of 200-plus often. His medium-pace bowling fetched wickets and he covered ground faster than most with his long strides on the boundary line and between the wickets.Doug Bollinger claimed 2 for 15 and took this catch to dismiss Yusuf Pathan in his first game for Chennai.•Indian Premier League8 R Ashwin (Chennai)Stats: 13 wickets, economy-rate 6.10
Best performance: 3 for 17 v Kolkata
Key role: His ability to bowl with discipline with the new ball, during the fielding restrictions, was instrumental in Chennai’s resurgence in the latter half of the league. Ashwin gave his team the perfect start to their defence of 168 in the final – bowling a maiden over to Shikhar Dhawan.9 Anil Kumble (Bangalore)Stats: 17 wickets, economy-rate 6.42
Best performance: 4 for 16 v Deccan, third place playoff
Key role: Kumble bowled himself in tough situations, during the Powerplay and in the last six overs, and exercised control on the run rate, conceding fewer than six an over during these periods. His performance in the third-place match was crucial in Bangalore securing a berth in the Champions League Twenty20.10 Lasith Malinga (Mumbai)Stats: 15 wickets, economy-rate 7.02
Best performance: 2 for 22 v Rajasthan
Key role: Malinga was a death bowler par excellence, unleashing a flurry of accurate yorkers towards the end of an innings. In the Mumbai-Rajasthan match, where over 400 runs were scored, Malinga was the only bowler to concede fewer than six an over.11 Doug BollingerStats: 12 wickets in eight games, economy-rate 6.67
Best performance: 4 for 13 v Deccan, second semi-final
Key role: The turnaround in Chennai’s campaign, which saw them rise from No. 6 and 7 to champions, was largely due to Bollinger – his bluster and his exceptional left-arm seam bowling. Before he joined the side, Chennai didn’t have a new-ball attack worth mentioning, and after he arrived, they needed to win most of their games to reach the semis. In his first match, against Rajasthan, Bollinger took 2 for 15 and caught Yusuf Pathan superbly on the boundary. The revival had begun.

Some of the fielding highs and lows from the game between Chennai and Delhi at the MA Chidambaram stadium

Siddarth Ravindran at the MA Chidambaram Stadium15-Apr-2010
Gautam Gambhir and Amit Mishra drop Matthew Hayden•Indian Premier LeagueMissed calls
Players have often complained that it’s hard to hear calls over the crowd’s cacophony, leading to two fielders going for the same catch, such as M Vijay and Thilan Thushara during the match against Mumbai Indians in Chennai. Today it was Gautam Gambhir and Amit Mishra who both wanted to latch onto a miscue from Matthew Hayden in the first over. Gambhir moved to his left from mid off while Mishra ran across from mid on. Mishra bailed out of the attempt at the last moment, but a distracted Gambhir couldn’t hang on to what was a simple chance, which would have given Hayden his second consecutive duck.The bumbling outfielder
Michael Hussey was gifted a boundary in the eighth over when Mishra casually attempted to pick up the ball with one hand at deep midwicket. He botched what was a regulation stop, but slowed the ball down a bit and made a desperate dash to pull it back but it dribbled over the rope. There was another blunder from him off the penultimate delivery of the innings: he made good ground to nicely position himself under the ball at deep square leg, but managed to spill it and give four runs to S Badrinath.The shot-stopper
Though he was ordinary in the outfield, Mishra was tigerish when it came to fielding off his own bowling. In the 13th over, he flung himself to the left to block a drive from R Ashwin, and raced to wide mid-on two deliveries later to keep the batsmen to a single. There was more: in his next over, Mishra again sprinted to wide mid-on and sent in a slide-rule throw that ran out R Ashwin, who perhaps not expecting a direct hit wasn’t
in top gear.Low blows
There was some sharp catching from Delhi as well. Paul Collingwood grabbed a nick from Albie Morkel at first slip which needed the third umpire to verify that it was held cleanly. Umesh Yadav didn’t do much with the ball, but plucked another low chance at sweeper cover to dismiss the dangerous Suresh Raina in the ninth over.Bailey bails out Jakati
George Bailey looked out of his depth when he got his chance with the bat in this tournament, but he has been Chennai’s regular substitute fielder whenever a foreign player goes off the field. He showed why coach Stephen Fleming sends him on in the eighth over: Shadab Jakati moved from third man towards deep backward point to stop a Gambhir cut shot but could only fumble a few yards from the rope. Bailey who had run to his right from deep point was alert, though, and put in a dive behind Jakati to prevent a boundary and save his team two runs.