An anthology and a celebration of great players – both from the stable – allow us to experience a soothing sense of constancy

Alan Gardner29-Dec-2013At this time of year, we tend to look back. Newspapers will create “best of 2013” lists, while regular Joes might concern themselves more with where it all went wrong. The statistics in question – pints, pounds, personal shortcomings – will be addressed in the New Year, though such resolutions may fall quickly under the revolutions of time’s wheel. This will all take place in distracted fashion, recorded in Facebook status updates, and hazy declarations down the local hostelry. Almost without exception, it is a good thing that isn’t taking notes.For 150 years, cricket has had an assiduous biographer. The game’s changes have been manifold – fatter bats and slimmer, more muscular participants; technology and its discontents; the rise of India as its global centre – but so much remains familiar. To flick through the pages of is to experience a soothing sense of constancy. Cricket has always been in foment, bogged down in picayune disputes, and assailed by match-fixers; there have always been great players and fantastic feats to chronicle; and there will always be unusual occurrences.Does reading an anthology of an almanack make one a confirmed anorak? Probably. But then disciples of the “Little Wonder” – the nickname of John Wisden, who first compiled his eponymous tome in 1864 – have always worn such labels comfortably. At the same time, provides perfect introductory material for the neophyte. Many who pick up their annual yellow brick will only read a fraction of the content but the editors, John Stern and Marcus Williams, have taken a hammer to 133,491 pages worth of cricketing history (largely as viewed through English eyes) to sift the dust for diamonds.Beginning with a choice selection of Notes by the Editor – in which complaints about England selection, county finances, and the problem of throwing echo down the century, from Sydney Pardon (almost always from Sydney Pardon) to the modern day – the anthology devotes sections to players, records, obituaries and oddities, as well as the counties, which takes up the most space and reflects the centrality of the English summer to ‘s method. The features section, though mostly just excerpts, shows the depths beneath its surface of scorecards and statistics. In the 1948 edition, to take one example, the Essex bowler Charles Kortright – considered one of the fastest to have played the game – noted: “There is no magic in fast bowling; but, on the contrary, much hard work, coupled with intelligent methods, is the key to success.” Mitchell Johnson would doubtless agree.The editor’s job of further illuminating cricket’s brightest stars has long provided an anchor for the almanack in public consciousness. Since 1889 – when Charles Pardon (Sydney’s brother) chose “Six Great Bowlers of the Year” – has anointed the game’s superstars; strictly only once, according to the rules, though with a couple of exceptions. For the full, 570-strong list, you should look beyond the anthology, however, to the glossier charms of . Edited by Simon Wilde, cricket correspondent of the , and also released to coincide with the 150th anniversary, this would probably be termed a coffee-table book – in the sense that it is about the same size as a coffee table.Like itself, gets away with being a little unwieldy. As Wilde explains, the initial purpose of the award, based upon performance in the preceding English season, was to provide “medallion portraits” of the players, photographs rather than the colourful written sketches we expect today, with the player whose picture occupied the middle of the page considered to have the grandest stature. The book lives up to this original aim and the carefully produced images that go back to the 19th century – particularly those of impassive young (and not so young) men in flannels and moustaches – are fascinating.Initial winners were often only accompanied by a few words of description and Wilde, too, skips nimbly through these corridors of fame. Eventually the format became standardised at the familiar “Five Cricketers of the Year” but it was subject to editorial whim in the early years: in 1896, WG Grace bestrode cricket’s narrow world by himself; in 1901 the awards went to “Mr RE Foster and Four Yorkshiremen”; in 1921 and 1926, the page was given over to photographs of Pelham Warner and Jack Hobbs respectively, both former winners. Such curiosities – including the story of Harry Calder, a “Schoolboy Bowler of the Year” during World War I, who never played first-class cricket and only discovered about his award at the age of 94 – provide the special interest in an otherwise straightforward study of greatness.These two collections, lovingly compiled and slickly produced, may be the publishing equivalent of flaying a tiring attack with an old ball. But, given the season, in this year of amplified worship, it seems okay to overindulge.The Essential Wisden: An Anthology of 150 years of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack
Edited by John Stern and Marcus Williams
Bloomsbury
1104 pages, £50
Wisden Cricketers of the Year: A Celebration of Cricket’s Greatest Players
Edited by Simon Wilde
408 pages, £40

ESPNcricinfo presents plays of the day from the first Asia Cup match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Fatullah25-Feb-2014Lakmal v Akmal
Suranga Lakmal had been convinced he’d had Misbah-ul-Haq caught behind, third ball of Pakistan’s 35th over. The umpire had been unmoved. Last ball of that over, Umar Akmal defended back to Lakmal, who threw the ball angrily at the stumps. A presumably pleasant exchange ensued.When Lakmal came back into the attack, Akmal spanked him for two fours and a baseball-style six over deep midwicket. Possibly sensing a rash shot, Angelo Mathews kept Lakmal on, and Akmal obliged, edging a wild, on-the-up slash to the keeper.The straight ball
On a pitch that offered the spinners barely any purchase, the ball that was meant to turn but did not became a particularly dangerous weapon. A legbreak that wasn’t, from Shahid Afridi, cramped Mahela Jayawardene for room and bowled him off the inside edge. During Pakistan’s innings, debutant left-arm spinner Chaturanga de Silva sneaked a probably unintentional arm-ball through the gap between Ahmed Shehzad’s bat and front pad.The long-hop
After dismissing Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez in successive overs, Sri Lanka were putting the brakes on Pakistan. Sohaib Maqsood had put on 38 runs in 59 balls with Misbah-ul-Haq when Sachitra Senanayake bowled the worst ball of the innings, the match and probably his career. Looking to pummel the long-hop as far as he could, Maqsood picked out the only fielder in front of square on the leg-side boundary.The cover drive
Thirimanne is often seen as Kumar Sangakkara’s long-term replacement at No. 3, and there is a certain resemblance in some of the strokes he plays, particularly the cover drive. Thirimanne’s first three boundaries were drives through cover, and appropriately enough, the same stroke, a single off Umar Gul, took him to his second ODI hundred.

The possible departure of Paul Farbrace will cause fresh tumult for Sri Lanka, just two weeks after their World T20 win sparked scenes of jubilation

Andrew Fidel Fernando20-Apr-2014For almost 18 years, there was hardly a better time to be a Sri Lanka cricket fan than the past two weeks. The WT20 party hurtled seamlessly into the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in one uninterrupted sequence of exploding firecrackers, and the nation drew deep from the taste and noise of success. But two weeks is all you get. As the head coach contemplates jumping ship, euphoria has begun to dissolve with the onset of monsoon rains, leaving behind hardier features of the Sri Lanka fan’s existence: frustration and uncertainty.The full story behind Paul Farbrace’s potential departure is not yet clear but, while he had been well-regarded within the team, unconfirmed tales of discontent with SLC have already begun to emerge. Before taking the job, Farbrace had spoken of an “affinity” for Sri Lanka and its players since his time as the team’s assistant coach from 2007 to 2009, and perhaps he will have known that to thrive in Sri Lanka, an affinity for chaos is also required. Chaos is what he got when Sri Lanka set out to the World T20 with central contracts unsigned, only to win the tournament, before senior players publically slammed board officials minutes after the team had landed.That Farbrace will have been offered a bigger salary by the ECB is almost certain, and even if SLC was not crippled by debt, it could hardly hope to match the England board’s financial might. Sri Lanka’s cricketers play unpaid for months because they feel it is their duty but a foreigner is not bound by such virtue. SLC has also confirmed Farbrace is on a six-month probationary period, which may mean Farbrace can walk out of his contract with few repercussions, though SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said on Sunday that the exact legal consequences have not yet been worked out.If Farbrace is appointed England’s assistant coach, Sri Lanka will be in considerable strife. They are weeks from undertaking their biggest overseas tour of the year, and fewer than 12 months out from a World Cup they have built methodically for since 2012. A recent history of ODI success in Australia and their general global tournament form has the team believing they can win back-to-back ICC titles, but to make a dramatic change to the coaching staff at this stage may be counter-productive. That said, so often in Sri Lankan cricket, the team triumphs not only in spite of upheaval, but seemingly because of it.

There might be a karmic symmetry to Farbrace quitting on short notice, after having made no efforts to communicate with the board – in January 2012, Geoff Marsh was dumped by Sri Lanka, also after having little over three months in the role

“Upheaval motivates the players,” Kumar Sangakkara recently said of the World T20 win. “It’s a really strange position to be in, because I actually don’t know what would happen if everything is hunky-dory and we have nothing fight about or argue about.”Among the most dispiriting aspects of Farbrace going to England is that Sri Lanka would yield significant strategic ground to an opponent they are desperate to defeat. Sri Lanka might have hoped Farbrace would provide intimate knowledge of England players he has coached in the past, as well as of the Headingley surface on which they will play the second Test, but that steel-capped boot would have switched feet. Farbrace knows exactly what quicks Suranga Lakmal and Shaminda Eranga can do. He knows which weaknesses Dimuth Karunaratne is working on, and the scoring areas Lahiru Thirimanne likes.Sri Lanka’s coach is expected to be in Colombo on Monday and, if he has not yet made up his mind, the board will have one final crack at convincing him to stay. They had similar negotiations with Graham Ford last year, who was unmoved by the board’s pleas, after he chose not to renew his contract following a two-year stint. Ford cited family reasons for his departure, before taking a job with Surrey, but had spoken glowingly of the group of players he “had the pleasure” to work with. Whatever Farbrace’s reasons for considering the England job, the players themselves are likely to have only enhanced his brief experience with Sri Lanka.As many on social media noted, there might be a karmic symmetry to Farbrace quitting on short notice, after having made no efforts to communicate with the board. In January 2012, Geoff Marsh was dumped by Sri Lanka, also after having little over three months in the role. He said at the time: “I only had one meeting with the board, and that was the goodbye one.”SLC has already paid, literally, and metaphorically for that sacking, having recently had to cough up an undisclosed sum for suddenly terminating his employment. The reputation the board earned with that decision, in addition to its limited funds, had made the hunt for a new coach more arduous in the wake of Ford’s departure.If Farbrace goes, they will begin the process of searching for the team’s seventh head coach (including two interim appointments) in four years. Perhaps having won the World T20 will make the next search easier. Perhaps SLC’s reputation has been so irreparably damaged internationally, the board will have to appoint a head coach from within the country – a move it decided against in December. Perhaps the uncontracted players will ignore the tumult as usual, or maybe it is the episode that snaps even their fortitude. Wild turbulence has shaken Sri Lankan cricket for some years now. It is little short of a miracle the entire machine has not crashed.

R Ashwin believes the “guts” shown by the Indian spinners to flight the ball and overcome the fear of being hit in T20s has been the major factor for India’s success

Abhishek Purohit in Mirpur03-Apr-2014A legspinner tossing the ball high, giving it a rip with his wrist to lure the batsman out before getting it to dip, grip, turn and earning a stumping. An offspinner tossing the ball high, giving it a tweak with his fingers to draw the batsman forward, getting it to drift, grip, turn and earning an outside edge to slip. These are not dismissals you normally associate with Twenty20 cricket. But these are just two instances of what Amit Mishra and R Ashwin have been able to achieve in this World T20.Both spinners have had principal roles to play in each of India’s four successive victories in the group stage. On three of those occasions, they have not had the weight of runs backing them, as India relied on their preferred strategy of chasing. All three of those matches – against Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh – were ‘live’ ones, with qualification for the knockouts dependent on their results. Mishra was the Man of the Match against Pakistan and West Indies; Ashwin got the award against Bangladesh.Two subcontinent sides supposedly accustomed to playing spin, and a third which has backed itself to hit the big shots under pressure, and have done so in crunch matches against Pakistan and Australia. None of them managed even 140 against the Indians.The conditions have been spinner-friendly in Bangladesh, particularly so in Dhaka. MS Dhoni has said it has been one of the main reasons why the Indian slow bowlers have done so well. Ravindra Jadeja hasn’t been among them, though. It is not really his style to lure batsmen with flight and guile.But no matter how much the conditions support you, it takes tremendous heart for a spinner to bowl slow when the temptation is to fire it in quick. To overcome the ever-present fear of getting hit in T20 and toss the ball up. For one spinner to do it in a single T20 is itself remarkable. For two in the same XI to do it over the course of a world tournament with so much control is incredible. Ashwin, and particularly Mishra’s, biggest achievement this World T20 has been to consistently beat this fear, and do so without the security of a big total to defend every time it mattered.This absence of fear, or presence of “guts”, over four matches is what South Africa will be up against. It was a term Ashwin used several times ahead of India’s semi-final clash. “In terms of variation of pace, you need a lot of guts,” Ashwin said. “If you’re at the top of your game, you can land the ball exactly where you want it to land.But apart from that, to actually slow the ball down when the batsman’s going after you is a key component of this particular game, for which you need quite a lot of guts. And if you’ve gone for a six, it requires even more guts to come back the next ball. Those are the key components of a winning game, as far as I’m concerned.”It tells you a lot about a spinner’s state of mind when he says the ball is behaving as he wills it. “In the last two or three months, I feel that I’m probably at the top of my bowling game,” Ashwin said. “When I reach that phase, I pretty much don’t practice at all. That’s a phase I’m in right now. The ball is landing exactly where I want.”South Africa will have to counter Mishra and Ashwin on a helpful and unfamiliar surface – they have been playing in Chittagong so far – and that too in a knockout. Bowlers have not had to contend with heavy dew turning the ball into soap in Dhaka, like it did so often in Chittagong.South Africa have probably the most nerveless innovator among current limited-overs batsmen in AB de Villiers, and they will need to keep calm when it comes to taking on spin. South Africa also have the Super 10 stage’s leading wicket-taker in Imran Tahir, who’s managed 11 wickets in less helpful conditions with his mix of quick sliders and googlies.He’s had a well-publicised visit from Shane Warne in the Mirpur nets. Will he stick to what has worked for him in Chittagong, or will he use more flight and turn like the Indians have? Whatever method he uses, Ashwin said it would again come down to the same word – guts.”When it comes to international cricket, there’s a very small margin between the quality of spinners. Everybody’s bound to have a certain amount of quality in them. It’s all about the mental make-up of the spinner and the amount of guts he has in that particular scenario,” Ashwin said. “It’ll be handling pressure that makes the difference, because Imran Tahir has been in top form. And I expect (Aaron) Phangiso to play. When that happens, you’re pretty much evened out on the amount of spinners both teams will play. It comes down to how well your spinners handle it.”Apart from pressure, the spinners might also have to deal with a wet outfield, as rain is expected around the time of the match on Friday. The last time rain came down in an India game in a World T20, against Australia in 2012 in Colombo, it contributed to their exit from the tournament, as their three spinners found it difficult to grip the ball. Even Mishra and Ashwin, for all their heart, could struggle if it rains again.

Nothing about Sam Robon’s batting against seam bowling even hints at coming from Australia at all. His pointy back elbow makes him look like an accountant from Somerset

Jarrod Kimber at Headingley21-Jun-2014Sam Robson struggles outside off stump. That is the general consensus. The cricket elite, twitterers and taxi drivers have spoken. Cricket gospel is written and evangelized by them.But don’t all batsmen since the beginning of overarm bowling have a problem just outside off stump in the corridor of uncertainty? Or whatever people call it now. Then there is the length, which is rarely described much more than just back of a length. It is the magic spot that Test bowlers from around the world hit.You cannot drive it. You cannot pull it. You cannot cut it. It is just close and uncomfortable, like Hessian underwear, or that creepy bloke from the pub._____The ball is left outside off stump with the assurance of a man who knows spiritually where his off stump is at all times. In his sleep, or during an attack by giant moody birds. His straight bat comes down so safely that an edge would seem like a rude shock. Runs do not flow, they often barely trickle. But every ball faced takes up more time. Bowlers tire as the ball loses colour, shape and hardness.That is how Nick Compton plays. Today Compton used none of those skills out on a cricket ground, but was instead on a bus to Nottingham taking photos of people playing cards and a selfie of himself in sunglasses.It was Sam Robson who used them._____Robson leaves the ball well. His bat is straight. He covers the off stump. He rocks onto his front foot. Yet, in his first Test he went out twice to fairly standard deliveries. The first time was after just a few balls. It seemed like Sri Lanka had either done their homework on Robson, or just bowled fractionally outside off stump as you would with the new ball to practically any human being.The second innings at Lord’s was longer. But Sri Lanka refused to leave his awkward spot alone. If they went straight, he clipped it on the leg side and scored easily. Outside off stump he scored once. An edge past slips. There was no push to point’s left hand, or dabs short of cover, no forcing, or opening the face, he just went nowhere.Eventually he ran into Shaminda Eranga, who bowled the best spell of the Test and tortured Robson outside off stump. It was the two outswingers and one straight ball combination that had Robson dragging a ball back onto his stumps. Enough was seen. You did not need to be the Sri Lankan video analyst to suggest he had a broken technique._____It is hard to clean bowl Sam Robson. Early in his innings he protects his off stump like a grumpy old man with a shotgun protecting his youngest daughter’s virginity. A middle-stump guard quickly becomes more of an off stump with an early trigger shuffle. It gives him more balls at his strength on his pads than most batsmen would get.For all the talk about his weaknesses, he does have scoring zones. He can cut, in county cricket they talk of pull shots and overpitching will result in him driving. But it is that awkward line on that awkward length that people talked about the most. His biggest problem with this zone is not a weakness, but dryness.Robson does not score when the ball is there. Virtually at all. He does not hit boundaries to put pressure on the bowler. As a top order churner, he does not have to. But he also does not find singles. He cannot get off strike. He is just a slow moving target protecting his weak spot.His first 50 balls today in this area had Robson scoring four runs from the seamers. Against Eranga in that time, it was one run off his first 30 balls there. That is five overs of a bowler bowling in the exact zone of trouble without the batsman getting off strike more than once.Now exchange the name of Eranga for Steyn, Harris or Boult. Would anyone want to give them 30 balls at you without getting off strike? Would many be able to? In first-class cricket you can sit on a bowler for a while. In Test cricket, the bowlers will sit on you.Analysts the world over will mine every single aspect of Robson’s strong willed, disciplined, nuggety, patient hundred today. He might have made 127, but his metadata score will be far higher. The video packages will show ball after ball of him not getting off strike. Plans will be hatched, attacks will be prepared and pitch maps will be emailed.Robson will patiently try to outlive them. That is his most impressive trait. Patience. It could be used against him, but he certainly will not run out of it anytime soon. You can only imagine the stick he received as a young guy playing the patience game in Sydney grade cricket while hummer driving bankers from Paddington and bearded brickies from Blacktown abused him for never playing a shot.Nothing about his batting against seam bowling even hints at coming from Australia at all. His pointy back elbow makes him look like an accountant from Somerset. His fidgeting with his front pad is straight out of Millfield School. And the squat bounce at the crease is often seen at places that sound like Thurrock, Frieth and Whitestaunton. Until he moves out of the crease against spin, his batting is as English as Gooch’s back lift, Grace’s belly or Atherton being caught down the leg side._____The ball was full and wide, Robson chased it and drove it efficiently and inelegantly into the covers. He ran hard, and easily made his second run, and then looked for a third. Having scored his 100th run, he did not throw the bat up, abandon a potential run, take his helmet off, kiss any logos, jump or even show any acknowledgement to the crowd. He looked for a third.Sam Robson may make a lot of Test runs, but he will have to work harder and longer than most to make them. He will always be looking for a third.

The results of India’s general elections could shape the next BCCI leadership, with several politicians on the sidelines of the current regime said to be on the frontline for the post of president

Amol Karhadkar27-May-2014The swearing in of India’s new union cabinet on Monday is likely to have ripple effects on the BCCI.With Arun Jaitley, a former president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association but still a political player in the BCCI, being appointed finance and defence minister in the new government, his new job has left him little time for BCCI matters.As a result, Amit Shah, a close aide of India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, could enter the BCCI in an active capacity during the board’s annual general meeting in September. Shah, who has been the vice-president of the Gujarat Cricket Association – of which Modi is president – for more than five years, could replace Mumbai’s Ravi Savant as the vice-president from the west zone. While Shah’s son Jayesh, it is said, appears to control the GCA affairs, Shah may emerge as the link between the BCCI and central government during the Board’s AGM in September.Should N Srinivasan, currently sidelined as BCCI president, be found guilty in a Supreme Court-appointed inquiry looking into the IPL corruption scandal of 2013, then more politicians currently on the outside of the current regime are likely to stake their claim for the post of president.The candidates being mentioned are Rajiv Shukla, a BCCI vice-president, joint secretary Anurag Thakur and Sharad Pawar, the former BCCI and ICC chief. Shukla and Thakur, who belong to different political parties, have not expressed opinions on Srinivasan’s attempt to stay in office despite severe criticism from the Supreme Court. Pawar, however, has become a vocal critic of the BCCI and, as the Mumbai Cricket Association chief, is expected to take an active role in the lead-up to the AGM.These possibilities were created by the BCCI decision to amend its constitution in September 2012, which created a loophole to go past the conventional rotational system of nominating presidents. At the time, it was widely understood the rule had been changed to ensure that Jaitley, a lawyer turned politician in charge of the DDCA since 1999, could take over the presidency of the BCCI in 2014 even though he did not belong to East Zone, who were due to nominate the next head.Four months ahead of the AGM, though, it is understood Jaitley will not make a pitch for the top job. There is a strong possibility that his decision to stay away has as much to do with a disinclination in leading an organisation that has been on the wrong side of public opinion and the judiciary since the IPL corruption scandal broke in May 2013, as with his new-found responsibilities.A Jaitley confidante in the DDCA said he did not want the central government to be dragged into controversies surrounding the BCCI. In September 2013, Jaitley had decided to step down from his position as BCCI vice-president to focus on the general elections, and was replaced with his DDCA aide Sneh Bansal. That was followed by Jaitley choosing not to contest for the post of DDCA president, making way for Bansal to head the body. Though Jaitley remains a member of the DDCA executive committee, he hasn’t participated in any BCCI meetings since the 2013 AGM.Jaitley distancing himself from the BCCI and Shah getting closer could make for a fascinating four months in the run up to the BCCI election. With all the office-bearers’ terms being extended to three years as per the amended constitution, the main question is whether the ruling faction in the BCCI will face any open opposition.At the moment, the only hurdle against Srinivasan controlling the board by proxy is the on-going investigation by Justice Mukul Mudgal into 13 individuals, including Srinivasan, for their alleged role in corrupt and unethical practices. Several BCCI members are confident that if the Mudgal committee exonerates Srinivasan, he could appoint one of his lieutenants as proxy BCCI president.In such a case, the three prime candidates would be vice-president Shivlal Yadav, who was appointed by the Supreme Court as the chief of all BCCI affairs except IPL after Srinivasan was sidelined, secretary Sanjay Patel and treasurer Anirudh Choudhary.According to the rules, it is the East Zone’s turn to nominate the BCCI president. However, after the 2012 amendment, a non-East Zone member could be nominated for president if his name is proposed and seconded by members from the East Zone. This means if the ruling faction has five of the six East Zone members on its side, the possibility of an election is eroded automatically.The Mudgal commission held its first meeting on May 25 and told the Supreme Court it would require four months to finish investigations. Should Srinivasan be found guilty, there is a strong possibility the tide may turn against the man who has occupied the three most important positions in the BCCI – treasurer, secretary and president – since 2005.Irrespective of who becomes president, Brijesh Patel, the secretary of Karnataka State Cricket Association, could be the prime contender for the post of the BCCI secretary. The former India batsman, whose group replaced the one headed by former India captain Anil Kumble at the helm of KSCA in December 2013, has already been bargaining hard with the ruling faction. Not only were Patel and KSCA vice-president Ashok Anand given managerial duties for the World Twenty20 and the Asia Cup, respectively, the IPL final was recently moved from Mumbai to Bangalore.

A stats preview to the final of the Champions League T20 2014

Bishen Jeswant03-Oct-201429 Overs of pace bowled by Kolkata Knight Riders in this Champions League T20. Knight Riders’ spinners, in contrast, have bowled 70 overs. They are well on course to beating the previous record for fewest overs of pace bowled by a CLT20 finalist – 43.3 by Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011.2 Teams in this CLT20 whose opening pairs have failed to post a single 50-plus score, i.e. Chennai Super Kings and Dolphins. The Super Kings openers only average 20.75, which is exactly half of what they averaged in the 2014 Indian Premier League (41.50) while scoring 664 runs together, including one hundred and five fifty partnerships.53 Balls delivered by Sunil Narine during this CLT20 against which the batsman was not in control of his shot, the most for any bowler (excluding the Qualifiers). This is 44% of all balls delivered by Narine. No other bowler has bowled even 40 balls against which the batsman was not in control. Narine’s economy rate when the batsman is ‘not in control’ is 1.81. For context, Ashish Nehra, who bowled 39 such deliveries and is next best, concedes 3.07 runs per over even when the batsman is not in control of his shot. Knight Riders will certainly miss him.171 Runs scored by Robin Uthappa in this tournament. He is Knight Riders’ top run-getter, and, If he scores 33 in the final, will go past Barbados Tridents’ Jonathan Carter, the highest run-scorer in the tournament (excluding the Qualifiers), with 203 runs. Uthappa, who was the top scorer in the 2014 IPL with 660 runs, could potentially finish on top of both run charts.31 The most wickets taken by spinners from one team in a single edition of the CLT20. Super Kings’ spinners did this during the 2010 edition of the tournament. The 27 wickets taken by Knight Riders’ spinners in this edition is the next best total. Knight Riders may find it hard to go past Super Kings’ record without the services of Narine in the final. There is no other instance of spinners from one team taking 20 or more wickets in a single edition of the CLT20.1 Teams that have remained unbeaten through an entire edition of the CLT20. Sydney Sixers did this in 2012. Knight Riders are yet to lose in this edition, and could become the second team to achieve the feat if they beat the Super Kings in the final, or even if the final is washed out, for that matter.54 Dot-balls that Knight Riders have bowled in the last five overs, during this CLT20. Excluding the Qualifiers, no other team has been able to bowl even 40 dot balls at this stage of the innings. The fact that Super Kings, on the other hand, have scored at a run rate of 12.15 in the last five – better than any other team in the tournament – should make for a good contest. Knight Riders’ 92 dot balls in the Powerplay overs is next only to Hobart Hurricanes, who have bowled 114.19.8 Overall strike of bowlers in this edition of the CLT20. This is the best for any edition of this tournament. There have already been seven instances in this tournament of bowlers taking four or more wickets in an innings. No other edition has seen as many four-fors.14 Knight Riders’ winning streak coming into the final. This is the second-longest winning streak by any team in T20 history. The record is held by Sialkot Stallions, who won 25 consecutive T20s from February 2006 to October 2010.

The signs are that Stuart Binny has a very strong chance of making a Test debut at Trent Bridge which would signal a significant change in mindset by India overseas

Sidharth Monga at Trent Bridge08-Jul-2014People have by now stopped asking MS Dhoni the question. This team has always been dismissive of the idea when outside Asia. Five bowlers without having the luxury of a genuine allrounder means Dhoni has to bat at No. 6. Outside Asia it is a risk India have not been willing to take. Dhoni has never batted at No. 6 outside Asia, which sums up their reluctance to adventure even though they have consistently struggled to take 20 wickets when the ball is not turning or reverse-swinging.To be fair to India and Dhoni, though, it is not something they have not thought of. Dhoni is known to have agonised over the lack of even a half-decent allrounder before he left for the South Africa tour. He is known to have conveyed to Irfan Pathan that he is desperate to have him fit for England, but Irfan could not get any first-class cricket under his belt. They have not advertised it, but there have been signs that Dhoni has been preparing for this tour in advance, a change in his leadership style.Over in South Africa and New Zealand, India got themselves into winning situations twice, but ran out of gas. The quicks were bowling spells longer than they would have liked to, overs after the 40th and before the second new ball would become soft, and the fast bowlers would not be at their most intense when the new ball would be claimed. The team management made a special request for Karnataka allrounder Stuart Binny for the England tour, and Binny furthered his credentials with a six-for in an ODI in Bangladesh.And now that people have stopped asking India about the possibility of a fifth bowler or a half-allrounder to shore up the bowling, India seem to have shed the conservatism. Binny is highly likely to make his Test debut on Wednesday. Even if he does not and India change their minds at the last moment, it is credit to India’s pleasantly surprising boldness that they have systematically tried to explore the option.Binny had spells of decent lengths in the warm-up game in Derby and batted ahead of Rohit Sharma, scoring 81 not out. Over in Nottingham he has been getting more attention from the team management than Rohit and R Ashwin while getting a few overs in before going in to bat at No. 8.The feedback from the batsmen in the nets has been that Binny has been bowling well. The pitch here has grass, but it is straw-coloured. The new drainage system means there is not much moisture retained underneath the surface. The team feels confident enough to go in with just five specialist batsmen and Dhoni at No. 6. Dhoni would not say it in as many words, but there were enough indications in his press conference that Binny was good for a debut.Asked if he was confident of batting at No. 6 outside Asia, Dhoni said: “Well I have to be. That’s a crucial phase of the game where you can turn matches.”If India go ahead and play Binny, this will be a welcome move. Sometimes you have to change your methods when the results are refusing to change. Johannesburg and Wellington would have hurt India in the gut. Such glorious opportunities of overseas wins, but they did not have enough left to barge through the door once they had unlocked it. The message to India would have been that they need to get out of their comfort zone if they are to win away Tests.A lot of India’s solidness in Test cricket has been based on their batting, but most of their famous wins outside Asia since 2000 have been sealed by bowlers in low-scoring matches. They have not had that quality – at least not over two innings – since 2011.It is not that Binny would have got you the wickets of Faf du Plessis and Brendon McCullum when Zaheer Khan could not. Binny is not that good a bowler. He is a steady medium-pacer who becomes effective when conditions are favourable, a bit like his father Roger. When India won at Headingley in 1986, Roger took five wickets in the first innings, and Chandrakant Pandit, playing as a specialist batsman, batted at No. 6. That side, though, had the luxury of Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri. This one doesn’t.Binny is not a big threat as a bowler, but it is his presence with 10 steady overs in the middle that is bound to help the other bowlers. Just telling the bowlers there is someone to bowl those dirty overs when they are recovering in time to take the new ball can make a huge difference. He is of course not the ideal choice. He would not make a Test side as a batsman or a bowler alone. He is neither a top-six batsman nor a frontline bowler. Sometimes you just have to go for the next-best.”Rather than coming to press conferences and talking about not having a pace bowling all-rounder, it’s better to try and utilise what we have,” Dhoni said. “Stuart is someone who can bowl a bit and at the same time bat as well. If we can give him enough chances and groom him, then he can be someone who can do that job for us over the next six-eight months. He won’t be as good as someone like Jacques Kallis but he can be someone who can bowl that 10 overs and bat a bit, so he has got the talent.”Binny is in the right place and at the right time. India are in the mood to take the risk, and he is fit, willing, eager, and has the potential to surprise. Didn’t we ridicule them when Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher set about to turn Ravindra Jadeja into a Test player?This move could of course bomb. As can any really. What is important here, though, is that India are willing to sacrifice the safety net of a No. 6 batsman in pursuance of a Test win, that Dhoni is ready to step up and take the extra responsibility of batting at No. 6, and that for once they have been planning for a tour well in advance. Under Dhoni India have never started a tour outside Asia with such intent. They might develop cold feet overnight, they might fail at this, and if it works it is not likely to make a huge tangible impact. However, it is better than losing the same old way over and over again.

If he shows the discipline he did in England, resisting the temptation to drive full deliveries outside off, he could get a maiden Test hundred in Australia

Aakash Chopra07-Dec-20142:05

Why MS Dhoni struggles with the cover drive

If you see the full ball outside off being used by fast bowlers to exploit a batsman’s inability to deal with it, it’s fair to assume that batsman’s Test career will be short-lived.Whenever MS Dhoni walks out to bat in a Test match, especially outside the subcontinent, that’s the plan most teams employ: pitch it full, keep it outside off, and lure him into playing an expansive drive. This modus operandi yielded results until this summer, when India toured England.Dhoni got out a couple of times caught in the slip cordon in England, but it was no longer the overriding theme of his stay in the middle. England’s bowlers, as expected, tried bowling full outside off at first but had to resort to other tactics when they realised Dhoni was no longer taking the bait. He moved around a lot to get way outside off, charged at the bowler often, and, most importantly, left a lot of balls alone.In a post-match press conference Dhoni made a pertinent point about succeeding in England: if you know where your off stump is, you can always build your game around it. Even with his limitations Dhoni was undoubtedly one of India’s best batsmen against the moving ball on that tour of England, and that was courtesy his knowledge of where his off stump was.All through his career, Dhoni has been adept at playing most shots in the book; in fact, a few more than the ones mentioned in the book. But the cover drive has failed to feature in this list. The cover region isn’t an area he favours for scoring against fast bowlers, even in the subcontinent and in his favoured shorter formats.Dhoni often plays a walking drive, though the fundamentals of batting dictate that unless you have a strong base at the time of impact, you are not likely to get the desired results in terms of power and control. Some experts have pointed out that because his bottom hand takes over, it doesn’t allow him to get close enough to the ball.Yes, he’s a predominantly bottom-handed player and that’s why he drags the cover drives through extra cover and mid-off. But the interpretation that the bottom hand doesn’t allow his front foot to reach to the pitch of the ball is far from the truth.By leaving alone fuller balls, Dhoni forced the bowlers to bowl a more preferred length•Getty ImagesLogically, the wrists and hands are the smallest muscle group involved in batting, and it’s not convincing to suggest that the smallest muscle group doesn’t allow the bigger limbs to move. On the contrary, it’s the lack of movement of the bigger limbs that results in the smaller muscles reacting in an undesired manner.Due to Dhoni’s not-long-enough front-foot stride, his bottom hand takes over the shot even before impact. The short front-foot stride results in the weight being transferred on to the front foot a bit too early. Only the leg that’s not carrying the weight of the body can move backwards or forward. If the front foot is already loaded, it will not move far.While Dhoni’s short front-foot stride makes him susceptible to the fuller delivery, it allows him to be a strong back-foot player – a key reason for his success in England. Once he decided to not fall into the trap of playing cover drives, the bowlers had to shorten their lengths and test him with bouncers, thus playing to his strengths. His method of dealing with the short-pitched stuff might not qualify as elegant but it is highly effective.A lot of people mistake Dhoni’s batting to be “natural flair”. But the Test tour to England highlighted the fact that there was more than that to his game. Driving a moving ball is tough, but so is resisting the temptation to do so. Obviously, it’s a little easier to survive with Dhoni’s method when you bat at No. 6 or No. 7 as the team’s keeper. This sort of approach might not work for an opener.If Dhoni continues to show the same discipline and courage in his batting in Australia that he did in England, the wait for a Test century outside the subcontinent might end by January.

01-Mar-2015Angelo Mathews applied the brakes on the innings when he dismissed Moeen Ali for 15 in the 10th over•Associated PressThree overs later, Gary Ballance popped a return catch to Tillakaratne Dilshan and England were 71 for 2•Associated PressBell tried to break the shackles, but chopped Suranga Lakmal back on to the stumps for 49•Getty ImagesJoe Root, though, rebuilt the innings, before picking away the big hits•AFPHe added 98 for the fifth wicket with an equally busy partner in James Taylor•Getty ImagesJoe Root, who was dropped by Mahela Jayawardene on 2, went on to become the youngest England centurion in World Cups•Getty ImagesEngland were dealt a double blow when Root and Taylor departed in successive overs, but Jos Buttler took the total 309•AFPSri Lanka’s chase had a solid platform with Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lahiru Thirimanne putting on a 100-run opening partnership•Getty ImagesDilshan lobbed Moeen Ali to short midwicket in the 19th over, but it hardly slowed Sri Lanka’s charge•Getty ImagesThirimanne, who was reprieved by Root on 3, brought up his fourth century•AFPSangakkara sped to his own ton off 70 balls – his fastest – bettering his 73-ball effort against Bangladesh in his previous ODI•Getty ImagesThey reeled off 212 in 28. 2 overs as Sri Lanka recorded their second 300-plus chase in World Cups•Getty ImagesWith three losses from four games, England have plenty to ponder.•Getty Images