Brian Lara’s sublime form and the cricket world’s response following the tsunami

30-Dec-2005

S Rajesh

Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell are talking, but we may not have heard the end of the saga © Getty Images

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When Brian Lara walked out to bat in the first innings at Adelaide, he was hardly at the top of his game – his six Test innings that season in Australia had fetched a meagre 143 runs. With Lara, though, the journey from poor to sublime is often made in the course of a couple of hours. Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill were taken to the cleaners and early on the second day he tapped Glenn McGrath to long leg to go past Allan Border’s record and become Test cricket’s highest run-getter. The crowd rose to a man to applaud another outstanding feat from an outstanding batsman, and just for that moment, all was well with West Indian cricket.Worst
The Sourav Ganguly-Greg Chappell spat brought in the open all that is wrong in Indian cricket: an email which was strictly confidential and addressed to the board president was conveniently leaked, and from there started a trial by the media, which got more and more ugly and threatened to divide the Indian team down the middle. Ironically, in the midst of so much going wrong off the field, the Indian team managed to string together some emphatic wins on it and climb the rungs of both the Test and the ODI rankings, but with Ganguly still vying for a place in the Test squad, the last word may not have been heard on this controversy.

Charlie Austin

Ricky Ponting smashed a brilliant century in the Asian tsunami appeal match at the MCG © Getty Images

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World cricket’s response to the Asian tsunami was as swift as it was heart-warming. Galvanised by FICA, the world’s player’s association and supported by the ICC, the first World Cricket Tsunami Appeal match was played in Melbourne within just 15 days of the disaster, raising a total of £5.7m for emergency relief. Old rivalries were forgotten and new friendships were forged. When Muttiah Muralitharan, an aid-crusader back home Sri Lanka where he narrowly escaped the giant waves, was cheered to the crease by the same bellicose MCG crowds that have cruelly taunted him in the past you knew you were watching something special.Worst
Great international sides are built on solid foundations – strong first-class systems, youth academies, fast bowling programmes, modern infrastructure, physiotherapy, sports medicine and biomechanical expertise. Back in April, though, Sri Lanka’s players could only dream of such support systems as they prepared for their tour to New Zealand. Internal bickering within the cricket board, between a sacked elected committee and an incoming government-appointed interim committee, reached such farcical depths that practice balls could not even be organised for the national team’s net sessions.

There are plenty of deadly-serious Ashes publications on the market but a more light-hearted guide to the summer is JB’s Cricket Companion

Brydon Coverdale20-Dec-2006JB’s Cricket Companion by John Boxsell $7

There are plenty of deadly-serious Ashes publications on the market but a more light-hearted guide to the summer is . The second edition, released in November, features background stories, ground details and player profiles for the Ashes and the triangular one-day series featuring Australia, England and New Zealand.The tongue-in-cheek tone is first set by Australia’s foreign minister Alexander Downer, who penned the introduction. “Modern Australia, as I am sure you are aware, was founded when England needed to find a place to transport its most undesirable elements,” Downer writes. “With another English cricket tour about to land on Australia’s shores, it is pertinent to note that little seems to have changed.”The $7 price-tag, desktop-publishing feel and occasional typos make it not the most professional guide – the player profiles refers to Monty Panesar as “Penesar” – but after such an impolite introduction it is patently not trying to be. A picky reader might insist that Brad Hodge’s bowling is clearly offspin and not right-arm medium, but in general the profiles are useful snippets for the armchair cricket-watcher, with some fun descriptions. Daniel Vettori, the book claims, “can assess a batsman’s weakness quicker than a Danny Morrison innings”.Its ground and city descriptions include some of the most essential information for travellers following the cricket – beer sizes in each state. A 285ml beer in Sydney and Perth, for example, is a “middy”, but in Melbourne and Hobart it is a “pot” and in Adelaide a “schooner”. You won’t learn that from the ABC Ashes magazine. Just don’t expect to be the most impartial publication in your Ashes collection.

India’s opening pair hasn’t put together a century stand in the last five series in England

S Rajesh17-Jul-2007

Wasim Jaffer was in dismal form in the tour games, managing 39 runs in four innings © AFP

Not for the first time, an Indian squad travelling to England boasts of an impeccable middle-order. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman – even if they aren’t in top form – still constitute a fearful combination. Not for the first time, though, they’ll be preceded by an opening combination that hardly inspires confidence. On the last five tours of England, India have almost always given away the early initiative, both with the bat and ball. The table below shows how wide the gulf has been between the two teams at the start of an innings.In 1982, India had the considerable presence of Sunil Gavaskar at the top of the order, but partnering him was debutant Ghulam Parker, whose initiation to Test cricket turned out to be unmemorable. Ravi Shastri, Dilip Vengsarkar and Suru Nayak all tried their hand at opening, but the outcome was a highest stand of 21 in five innings, and an average stand of less than ten. England’s pair of Geoff Cook and Chris Tavare did much better, notching up two partnerships of more than 95.The presence of the unorthodox Krishnamachari Srikkanth eased matters in 1986, when he and Gavaskar went past 50 three times, and ended up with a respectable average of 37.50, but on their last three tours, the Indian openers have had little to cheer about, even as their England counterparts have relished India’s new-ball attack.

Series-wise opening stands for India and England in last 5 series in England

Year	Ind ave stand	100s/ 50s	Eng ave stand	100s/ 50s	Difference
1982	9.80	0/ 0	46.00	1/ 1	-36.20
1986	37.50	0/ 3	24.83	0/ 1	12.67
1990	23.60	0/ 1	108.66	3/ 0	-85.06
1996	14.40	0/ 0	55.20	1/ 1	-40.80
2002	17.00	0/ 1	65.83	1/ 3	-48.83

Graham Gooch and Michael Atherton plundered runs at will against an insipid Indian attack in 1990, and while Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar made it a memorable summer for batting aficionados, India’s openers, Shastri and Navjot Sidhu, struggled to put a partnership together. It got even worse in 1996, when India tried several options – Vikram Rathour, Ajay Jadeja, Sanjay Manjrekar and Nayan Mongia – but none of them inspired any confidence. England, on the other hand, had Atherton and Alec Stewart to get them past the new-ball threat posed by Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad. It wasn’t different in 2002 either, when Dravid was invariably walking in to bat after the first wicket had fallen early.In the last 25 years, Shastri (twice) and Virender Sehwag have been the only openers to score hundreds in England. On the other hand, Gooch, with four centuries, Michael Vaughan (three) and Atherton (two) are among several England openers who have had success against the Indians. Of the 14 Indians who opened during this period, only three – Shastri, Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar – average more than 30, while eight average less than 15.

Overall stats for Indian and England openers in last five series in England

	Innings	Runs	Average	100s/ 50s
Indian openers	54	1357	25.12	3/ 5
England openers	58	3035	56.20	9/ 15

In fact, the best days for Indian openers in England were during the 1930s and 40s, when Vijay Merchant and Mushtaq Ali teamed up at the top of the order. They averaged 83.42 per partnership, with two century stands and three half-century ones in seven innings. Since then, the only pair which came close to matching them was Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan, who averaged 64.71 for the opening wicket in the 1979 series, with two century stands. The 213 they added in the fourth Test at The Oval during that memorable run-chase remains the last hundred partnership by an Indian opening pair in England. It will take a brave man to bet against that record standing for a few more years.

Will Luke reviews Andrew Strauss’s autobiography

Will Luke30-Sep-2006

Coming into Play by Andrew Strauss (Hodder & Stoughton, 304pp) £11.39
The prospect of yet another autobiography at the fag-end of the season is not cause for much celebration. Expectations are further dampened given the author has spent a mere 28 months in Test cricket. Nevertheless, his column in the has always been a cut above the usual dross – and I approached Andrew Strauss’s with reasonable optimism.Nicknamed Lord Brockett, Strauss’s diffidence and privileged background is extensively compared to that of (most of) his team-mates. Frequent mention of the “jazz hats” (he and his team-mate, and later best-man, Ben Hutton) become a little weary. We get the picture, Andrew. An image develops of a man who – in spite of an upbringing geared to provide a golden, well-trodden path to the City – was unsure of his direction.Cricket, we learn, wasn’t a prominent feature of his future. In spite of the outstanding facilities afforded to public schoolboys, cricket was a bit-part to the “conveyer belt” of school, A-Levels, economics degrees and, ultimately, a city job. It’s what his parents expected and wanted, and there is no shortage of barbed comments about the “sheltered” existence a public schoolboy leads. After visiting a Middlesex team-mate’s flat on a council estate, his obvious pleasure in meeting someone from a different social and educational background was revelatory – for him, and us. Cricket levelled him.Before long, he moves onto the crux of the story: playing for England. Curiosity, or jealously, stir our interest in the luxuries afforded to international sportsmen (mobile phones, cars, preferential treatment at airports and…blazers), but it’s nothing we’ve not heard before. Likewise the nerves, tension and excitement he experienced are all superfluous and quickly forgotten. Fluently written, and clearly from the heart, the book is sadly let down by the minutiae. A near ball-by-ball account of his first few innings for England might make for a tear-jerking Jackanory session for his grandchildren, but it’s tedious for the rest of us. A Middlesex supporter since birth, I celebrated like a buffoon when he scored his maiden hundred on debut against New Zealand in 2004. Even for me, though, the recount was too meticulous.Thankfully, he was an important cog in England’s Ashes victory and he devotes nearly a third of the book to the toppling of Australia. In a revealing conversation with Stephen Fleming (with whom Strauss formed a solid friendship under Fleming’s Middlesex captaincy in 2001) Strauss’s depression (and, we presume, England’s too) following the defeat at Lord’s is put into perspective by Fleming’s straight-talking. Onto Edgbaston, and again Strauss depicts the trauma fondly and expressively – yet we learn nothing new. There have been half a dozen books dedicated to the Ashes, if not the Edgbaston Test alone, and Strauss’s take on it doesn’t offer anything substantially distinct or remarkably interesting.Sadly, that remains the theme of the book. Although it is undeniably well written, something crucial is missing: the second-half of his career. In no sense is this a criticism of the author, nor Angus Fraser whose advice he sought – more a complaint at the trend of premature autobiographies, particularly among sportsmen. Strauss is a fine batsman and clearly possesses an eloquent cricket brain. However, he still has several good years ahead of him. His final story, whenever that will be, ought to be a broader and wiser account…and I’ll buy it, but only then.

South Africa’s bowling attack has previously been criticised for its medium-paced sameness, but Dale Steyn has changed that around completely. By Ken Borland

Ken Borland20-Nov-2007

Dale Steyn has given the South African attack two key elements that they lacked – genuine pace and swing © AFP

South Africa’s bowling attack has previously been criticised for its medium-paced sameness, but when the captain, Graeme Smith, looked around for someone to take wickets during their emphatic series win over New Zealand, he didn’t need to even consider Makhaya Ntini or Andre Nel, or whether maybe it was time for the spinner, Paul Harris, to have a go, or even wish for the presence of his leading wicket-taker, Shaun Pollock.Of the 37 New Zealand wickets to fall in the 2-0 hammering, 20 were captured by Dale Steyn alone. Smith has made no effort to disguise what Steyn means for the team. “Dale has bowled superbly well. He’s bowled with pace, good control, he’s got swing and he’s been able to strike at different times for us,” Smith said after the 24-year-old had taken career-best figures of 6 for 49 to destroy New Zealand on the third afternoon of the second Test.South Africa went into the series with high hopes that Steyn and Harris would continue the impressive form they had shown during the series win in Pakistan in October. But such was Steyn’s incredible success that there was precious little for Harris to do – he bowled just nine overs in the series.Prior to this season Steyn was not considered a first-choice player in the team, but he is now in the top ten of the ICC’s Test bowling rankings and firmly ensconced as Ntini’s new-ball partner. It is the veteran Pollock whose place in the pecking order is now unclear, given that he has not played in South Africa’s last four Tests and that there are other pace bowlers such as Morne Morkel, Charl Langeveldt, Friedel de Wet, Monde Zondeki and Lonwabo Tsotsobe knocking on the door as well.Smith’s view is that South Africa’s three most hostile bowlers should make up the attack along with Harris and allrounder Jacques Kallis. “I thought the attack was superb. They bowled very well,” he said. “We’ve got three bowlers of over 140kph and they’re going to be a handful whenever there are cracks or movement in the pitch. We’re able to create chances throughout the innings and that means the batsmen are always under pressure.”When Steyn first appeared on the international stage – against England in 2004-05 – his return of eight wickets in three Tests at an average of 52 was disappointing. But fast bowlers are also required to learn their trade, and he had played just seven first-class matches when he made his international debut.Steyn went into this season with 41 first-class matches under his belt, including spells with Essex in 2005 and Warwickshire this year. With that experience has come maturity and greater control, and a more thoughtful approach to tactics that accounts for his sudden surge to prominence.

South Africa’s success will have serious ramifications for Pollock’s future in Test cricket. He may have 416 wickets in 107 Tests but his accuracy does not seem to have a place in South Africa’s new, direct modus operandi

Steyn has always been considered an out-and-out strike bowler and Smith has been happy to set attacking fields and concede a few runs if it means wickets are being taken. And the fact that Steyn combines two elements long needed in the South African pace attack – genuine, blistering pace and swing – means he is likely to be their key bowler in Test cricket for some time to come.South Africa’s success in Pakistan and against New Zealand will have serious ramifications, though, for Pollock’s future in Test cricket. He may have 416 wickets in 107 Tests, but Pollock’s accuracy and frustrating-the-batsmen-into-mistakes line of attack does not seem to have a place in South Africa’s new, direct modus operandi.Ntini, despite a quiet start to the summer and an element of one-dimensionality, still poses plenty of questions with his extra bounce and angle of delivery, especially to left-handers, while the in-your-face aggression of Nel is straight from the captain’s own guidebook on how to play cricket.The services of Harris were hardly required, but South Africa, under a new selection convenor, Joubert Strydom, seem to have made a commitment to playing the spinner in all matches, and he will certainly be called on more against stronger batting sides than New Zealand, and later in the summer when the pitches are less biased towards the fast bowlers.While South Africa’s attack was rampant in polishing off New Zealand in just 183.4 overs in the series, a note of caution should perhaps be issued. The New Zealand top order is notoriously fickle, and they were handicapped by not having played Test cricket for nearly a year. Also, South African coach Mickey Arthur was not exactly thrilled with the two pitches they played on – both of them featured inconsistent bounce and offered seam movement throughout. Surfaces like these can make bowlers forget how to do their job on good batting wickets.But for now all is bright and cheerful in terms of South Africa’s bowling, much like Steyn’s persona off the field. Hailing from the mining town of Phalaborwa, about 500km north-east of Johannesburg and bordering the Kruger National Park, his approach exudes a simplicity that probably has much to do with living in the bushveld. He is all smiles off the field – and these days he has plenty of reason for it.

Stats highlights from the first day of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and India

S Rajesh and HR Gopalakrishna26-Dec-2007

Matthew Hayden has scored 19 of his 25 centuries at home © Getty Images
Anil Kumble brought India back into the contest after a poor first session, and his five-wicket haul was the second time in successive Boxing Day Tests that a spinner took five on the first day. Last year Shane Warne destroyed England, taking 5 for 39 to bundle them out for 159. These are the only two instances in the last 70 years of spinners taking five-fors on the first day of a Melbourne Test. Much has been said about Kumble’s reliance on a wearing pitch for his success, but he has now taken ten five-wicket hauls in the first innings of a Test. His first-innings average is 32.92, which isn’t a lot more than his career average of 28.56. This was also Kumble’s tenth five-for against Australia. Only Richard Hadlee (14), Sydney Barnes (12) and Tom Richardson (11) have more five-wicket hauls against them. When Kumble had Phil Jaques stumped, it was his 21st such dismissal, which is a record by an Indian bowler. Subhash Gupte held the earlier record with 20. Matthew Hayden’s 124 is his sixth century in nine Tests at the MCG, and his third in successive games. He averages 78.84 at this ground, well above his career average of 53.04. The innings also confirmed his penchant for the Indian bowling attack. In 12 Tests against them, Hayden averages 65.14, with four centuries – the most by any Australian batsman against India – and six half-centuries. Hayden has scored 19 Test hundreds in Australia, which is a record for any batsman at home. Don Bradman and Ricky Ponting have 18 each, while Brian Lara has 17. Hayden averages 62.01 at home; overseas, the number drops to 43.57. Rahul Dravid’s two catches in the Australian innings takes his Test tally to 159, which puts him fourth in the all-time list, after Mark Waugh (181), Brian Lara (164) and Stephen Fleming (161).

Dileep Premachandran on the contributions of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis to Sri Lanka’s innings and 239-run mauling of India in the first Test

Dileep Premachandran in Colombo26-Jul-2008

	The deadly duo: Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan shared 19 wickets between them © AFP

When England were eviscerated in the Ashes series of 1974-75, it gave rise to the following refrain: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if Lillee doesn’t get you, Thommo must”. After the events of the past two days at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Sri Lanka’s cricket followers could be forgiven for adapting that chant, with the names Murali and Mendis replacing those of the Australian pace legends.This wasn’t a defeat, it was annihilation, the utter humiliation of a batting side that came into this match boasting of 106 Test hundreds. It’s not as though India haven’t lost heavily in recent times, but seldom have they been so embarrassed by slow bowlers. Whether it was Nagpur in 2004, where Jason Gillespie took 9 for 80, or Karachi in 2006, when the now-disgraced Mohammad Asif seamed his way through the line-up, India’s biggest reverses have tended to be against pace.Here, Sri Lanka played with perhaps the slowest new-ball combination of the modern era. Both Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekara usually clock between 120 and 125 kph, and it was no surprise that they bowled only 30 overs between them. They did little more than take the shine off the ball, the task entrusted to Abid Ali and Eknath Solkar back in the days when India used to boast of the finest spinners in the game.Those days are long gone. Anil Kumble bowled himself into the ground against Pakistan and Australia, and the law of diminishing returns appears to have caught up with him. Since Perth, he has just five wickets in four Tests. As for Harbhajan Singh, he was the worst bowler on view in Australia, and apart from a seven-wicket haul on a grossly under-prepared pitch in Kanpur, he has done next to nothing in recent times to influence the result of a match. “We just weren’t good enough,” said Kumble at the end of it all, though he also pointed out the poor catching that allowed Sri Lanka to post such a formidable total.In comparison, backed up by attacking fields from Mahela Jayawardene and superb catching, Murali and Mendis sowed seeds of doubt with every ball they bowled. They varied flight and pace beautifully, and attacked even when coming round the wicket. Apart from Sachin Tendulkar, who played Mendis with a degree of conviction, and VVS Laxman to a lesser extent, most of the batsmen were clueless against the so-called carrom ball. One version zips away from the batsman like a leg-cutter, while the slower, loopier one is the legspinner’s googly.

	Often in the past, teams have managed to survive in Sri Lanka by playing out Murali and scoring freely at the other end. That get-out-of-jail card is now gone, with Mendis such an impressive foil for the master

Just as crucial as the variations was the impressive control he showed on debut. Mystery spinners of the past like John Gleeson weren’t known for their accuracy, but Mendis’s ability to make the batsman play every ball makes him a vastly different proposition. No batsman managed to come close to hitting him out of the attack, and with so much energy concentrated on how to demystify him, Murali had a field day at the other end. Often in the past, teams have managed to survive in Sri Lanka by playing out Murali and scoring freely at the other end. That get-out-of-jail card is now gone, with Mendis such an impressive foil for the master.It’s easy to be critical of the Indian batsmen but the reality is that any line-up would have been under intolerable pressure chasing 600. Murali said as much at the post-match press conference, and it also didn’t help that India’s frontline batsmen hadn’t played any serious cricket since South Africa left the country three months ago. With India fielding a new-look one-day side and the IPL being nothing more than hit-and-giggle cricket, the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly just didn’t appear to be Test-match ready. In the first innings, there were a rash of impetuous strokes, and the diffident footwork and heaves across the line were frankly embarrassing coming from those with such distinguished records.It had been nearly five years since India had to follow on in a Test match. On that occasion, when Mohali hosted one of the most boring games in history, two splendid innings from Laxman gave India an escape route against New Zealand. There was no such reprise here, with Mendis conjuring up magnificent deliveries in both innings to breach Laxman’s defences. A man of few words (in Sinhala), he admitted later though that the wicket of Dravid, bowled by the carrom ball in the first innings, had given him greatest pleasure.To put things into historical perspective, it’s been more than two decades since India were defeated by two spinners bowling so effectively in tandem. On that occasion, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed made use of advice from Bishan Singh Bedi to thwart an Indian victory bid led by the redoubtable Sunil Gavaskar. The two picked up nine wickets apiece as Pakistan won the match, and series, by 16 runs.Only three duos – O’Reilly (11 wickets) and Grimmett (8) at Trent Bridge in 1934, Lock (11) and Laker (8) in Headingley in 1958 and Prasanna (11) and Chandrasekhar (8) in Auckland in 1976 – have wreaked such havoc in the Test arena. But the more apt comparison in this case may be with Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin, who combined for 18 wickets as West Indies routed England at Lord’s in 1950.Both men had played just two first-class games before embarking on that tour, but their vastly different styles brooked no answers. Like Murali, Valentine could turn the ball viciously, while Ramadhin was similar to Mendis in that he could spin the ball both ways with little or no change in action. Their efforts were immortalised in the calypso ‘Cricket, Lovely Cricket’ [“With those two little pals of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine”] and it’ll be no surprise if the tune-happy Sri Lankans come up with something similar. It certainly won’t be music to Indian ears.

Stats preview of the third Test between South Africa and Australia in Cape Town

Siddhartha Talya18-Mar-2009South Africa’s first series defeat in over two years – they had last lost a Test series in Sri Lanka in July 2006 – is a massive setback for the hosts and despite their excellent record since 2000 in Cape Town, Australia will start as favourites, not just on form alone, but also for the fact that they’ll be playing at their most preferred venue in South Africa. Newlands has hosted ten Tests between the teams, of which Australia have won nine, and on grounds where they’ve played a minimum of ten Tests, the visitors have their best win-loss ratio here. Moreover, they are the only side to have beaten South Africa in Newlands since 2000.

Record at Newlands

TeamTestsWonLostW-L RatioSouth Africa (overall)4316190.84Australia (overall)10919South Africa (since 2000)12824Australia (since 2000)220-South Africa’s batsmen have largely impressive records at Newlands, but in the two losses to Australia since 2000, there is a significant blip in their averages. (Click here for individual records of South African batsmen at Newlands.) Jacques Kallis tops the list with 1346 runs at 64.09 at the ground, but averages 34.50 against Australia at the venue since 2000. Neil McKenzie, dropped for the third Test, is one batsman to have done well in both categories, averaging 59 in his only Test against Australia and 52.66 in five Tests at the venue. Ashwell Prince, who replaces the injured Graeme Smith, has a century and two fifties to his name at Newlands and averages 62 but in two Tests against Australia here, he has priced his wicket at just 18.50. (Click here for the records of South African batsmen against Australia at Newlands.)

South Africa’s batsmen at Newlands

BatsmanRuns and Average in Newlands (overall)Runs and Average in Newlands (v Australia)Jacques Kallis1346 at 64.0973 at 34.50Ashwell Prince434 at 6274 at 18.50Mark Boucher600 at 46.1581 at 20.25Hashim Amla331 at 36.77-AB de Villiers220 at 20-Ricky Ponting is one of only two Australians in the current squad to have played a Test at Newlands, scoring an unbeaten century in 2002, and following that up with 74 in the first innings in 2006. Michael Hussey had a less prolific time, scoring 6 and 14 not out in his two innings. The rest of the batsmen haven’t played here, but inexperience has meant little in this series with the likes of Phillip Hughes and Marcus North proving their worth.Makhaya Ntini is South Africa’s highest wicket-taker at Newlands with 51 in 12 Tests but Dale Steyn has proved more lethal, taking 20 wickets in four Tests at 20.95. Paul Harris’s left-arm spin has earned him eight wickets here including a four-wicket haul in the five-wicket win against India in 2007.Like in most South African venues, the pitch in Newlands has proved far more conducive to pace. Fast bowlers have taken 267 wickets at 31.68 since 2000, while spinners have managed 84 at 41.91 with just one five-wicket haul – Shane Warne bagged six wickets in a marathon 70-over spell in 2002.

Pace and Spin at Newlands since 2000

Bowling typeOversRunsWicketsAverageStrike Rate5w/10wPace2662.4846026731.6859.86/0Spin1127.535218441.9180.51/0In the last 12 Tests at Newlands, the side winning the toss has opted to bat on ten occasions, and lost seven of these Tests. Conditions at Newlands have been most favourable for batting in the second and the fourth innings, though the toss trend at the venue has ironically followed the opposite path.

Runs-per-wicket in each innings at Newlands since 2000

FirstSecondThirdFourth33.4838.0526.8144.45

A day after he was dropped from the Test squad, Rohit Sharma underwent a personal journey back to redemption

Sriram Veera in Hyderabad02-Oct-2008

	Rohit Sharma admitted he benefited from not being picked in India’s Test squad for Sri Lanka, and his second first-class century indicated that © AFP

A day after he was dropped from the Test squad, Rohit Sharma underwent a personal journey back to redemption. Last night he had a surprise visitor in his hotel. Kris Srikkanth, the chairman of selectors who replaced him with S Badrinath, dropped in for a chat. Srikkanth was himself in attendance today to watch what he termed as a “brilliant innings”.Rohit’s ejection from the squad was not without reason, though. While no one doubted his talent, a question mark remained over his temperament for the longer version of the game. Sometimes the stats don’t lie: Rohit lasted 294 balls in the entire 2007-08 Ranji season. His knocks had a sad familiarity to them. A gorgeous cover drive, a punch through the off side before a “lazy dismissal” left you gawking in awe at the talent and sighing at its atrophy.So it was with a touch of apprehension that one saw his innings against the Australians unfold. A cautious start, an even more uncharacteristically patient settling-in period – his favourite cover drive took 46 balls – offered hope. Soon, he was in his element. Stuart Clark was hit for two consecutive boundaries before Rohit effortlessly lofted the third ball for six over long-on to raise his fifty. Ricky Ponting then introduced Brett Lee into the attack, and those watching went on the alert for that error in concentration.What would it be? A weak cover drive where he doesn’t lean forward fully into the shot, or the urge to punch on the up? Surprisingly, neither. He picked only four runs – two singles and a couple – off the next 22 deliveries. The non-selection seemed to have had the desired effect.Then it happened. Lee sent one full and just outside off stump and Rohit had a waft. Luckily, for him, the inside edge took the ball well to the left of the diving wicketkeeper. Next ball, Lee slipped in a slower one and Rohit checked his drive, rolling his wrists desperately in an effort to keep it down but the ball had escaped his intent and flew to the off side. Lee lunged but couldn’t hold on. Lee had another eight deliveries at Rohit but the moment had passed. Rohit had broken out of jail.Rohit later spoke about how his inclusion in the Test squad against Sri Lanka influenced him. “I spent lots of time with Gary Kirsten who helped me tighten up my technique, which I think is very important to succeed in Test cricket,” he said. He would spend the lunch and tea breaks during the Tests putting into practice what he learnt from his coach.The repair work started after the Ranji debacle. Praveen Amre, who coached Rohit with Mumbai and here with the Board President’s XI, remembers him sweating it out in the nets with a two-inch blade bat. “His bodyweight was behind and he wouldn’t lean into the shots completely. And more importantly, a player of his class needs to spend 200 balls in the middle. If that happens, more often than not, he would get a big one.”Another man – rather, a boy, a teenager from Delhi – rode on the momentum laid by Rohit to script his own show. If Rohit had undergone a one-year probation period, fellow centurion Virat Kohli had a successful internship with the national side in the Sri Lanka ODI series.However, Zaheer Khan had put him on notice in an enthralling contest in the Irani Cup. Zaheer exposed him by slanting back-of-a-length deliveries and generally raised hell and quite a few lbw shouts before the umpire finally raised his finger. Like Rohit, Kohli too started off slowly, picking singles and defending against the seamers before offspinner Jason Krejza offered a helping hand with one that was slipping down leg side. Kohli simple tickled it to the fine-leg boundary.Two balls later, Krejza flighted across another lollypop, which was sucked by the crowd behind the long-on boundary. From there Kohli simply went on from strength to strength, hitting nine boundaries against the spinners. Ponting went back to his talisman Lee to help him out. Kohli fisted him on the up through the off side to bring up his hundred in style but Lee responded, with a little bit of help from the umpire, with a toe-crusher to terminate Kohli’s stay.At the end of the day, Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen couldn’t quite remember Kohli’s name but without doubt, Rohit and “the other boy” would have given him a restless night.

He’s gone from young fast bowler to injury casualty to allrounder. Now Ian Butler’s back to the big time, and he’s still got time on his side

Jamie Alter10-Sep-2009″Touch wood, I’ve had none so far.” That was Ian Butler in February 2002, on the eve of his international debut, at the Jade Stadium, hardly 24 hours after he’d met his new team-mates and got his first training session under his belt. The 20-year-old fast bowler had been rushed from obscurity into the limelight and had never suffered any significant injuries in his domestic career..”Everything that could have gone wrong with my back did go wrong. I think injuries make you realise cricket isn’t everything.” This is Ian Butler in September 2009, after a series of injuries that have taken him from tyro fast bowler to broken-down cricketer to rehabilitated allrounder. Now 27 and back from the wilderness, he’s just glad to be playing international cricket again.Sitting in the lobby of a Colombo five-star hotel, a lean Butler looks around at his surroundings and says he’s amazed that he’s sitting here. This is his third trip to Sri Lanka, and though it’s not always been smooth sailing, he’s not complaining.”There are tough times like now, when you’re in Sri Lanka and cooped up and playing in the heat, when you can think negatively about it, but you get paid to play the game you love. I’m stoked I’m back here.”Rewind to the fateful day in 2004 when he suffered a serious back injury, after a one-day international against Australia in Melbourne. It was serious: a career-threatening bulging disc in his lower back. Butler was told his career was over.”The back surgeons weren’t complimentary about my chances. Not everyone gets it right with their diagnosis.” With surgery not an option, Butler was reduced to relying on medical advances in an attempt to revive his international career. He thought of taking painkilling injections in order to play for Northern Districts, but his coaching staff told him that was not a wise idea. The risk was too great.Forced to spend long hours assessing himself and his career, Butler began to chart out a career beyond cricket – as a physical trainer. “I finished doing my personal training at AUT [Auckland University of Technology]. I like talking to people and helping people. It’s something I enjoy as well, being in the gym. That was my back-up plan at the time, but I never gave up complete sight of cricket. Even if I didn’t get back to this level I’d have done a pretty good job at first class level.”He played domestic one-dayers and four dayers while “drugged up” but scans revealed it was too dangerous. He continued waiting for a medical marvel, even if it meant struggling to complete daily routines, like getting out of bed.Butler then cut down on speed and attempted to reinvent himself as a batsman. He was picked as a batsman in a Twenty20 tournament in New Zealand. “I played as a batter for a couple of years [for ND] but I didn’t really enjoy it because I always wanted to bowl,” he says. “I started bowling again. When I was at ND, James [Marshall] asked if I wanted to do a little bit of death bowling off a short run-up. I did that and then had a couple seasons of league cricket to get back into it.”But at the start of a new season, Butler found himself restored in mind and body following a move from ND to Otago and plenty of advice from the coaching staff. “The new environment was a change. I played really well the whole season and really enjoyed it.”Then he made a comeback, after five years, for the ODIs against India in February this year. Was he surprised?”I was playing as well as anyone,” he says. “You can only look at the other guys who are being picked and you know you’re doing a pretty good job and you’re close. If you dominate for as long as you can, they have to pick you.”

“Being injured makes you a better cricketer. It makes you realise other things to life and how lucky you are to play cricket. You have that appreciation of what else there is in life”

A year ago it would have been next to impossible to imagine Shane Bond, Daryl Tuffey, Jacob Oram and Butler operating in tandem for New Zealand. But here they are, bowling like in the old days. That, Butler thinks, is a tribute to their focus on getting back to what they do best. “It’s awesome for us and shows the hard work the guys have put in to get back. People would have never said those guys would be back. People always get criticism when you don’t do well, but cricket’s a game where you’re going to fail every now and again. It’s how you react to that… not worry about the knockers that put you down.”Being back together with other fast bowlers who’ve had their share of injuries is an experience that Butler says is both pleasing and humbling. “Myself, Daryl, Jake and Bondy, we were talking about it yesterday. It’s the first game we’ve played together since 2002 in the West Indies as a unit,” he says. “We all know each other really well off the park. While we were all out injured we kept each other going because we’ve all been injured at some stage.”It’s good when you’re really tight as a bowling unit. You’re not afraid to give honest criticism. If someone’s not doing something, you can say it because you’re mates. Daryl and myself [the two have known each other since the Counties-Manukau squad at age 17] probably talk most days even outside of cricket. As a unit we’re very tight. Being injured makes you a better cricketer, I think. It makes you realise other things to life and how lucky you are to play cricket. You have that appreciation of what else there is in life. That you are actually lucky to do it.”When Butler made his international debut, against England, he was picked mainly because of his pace. New Zealand were trying to cover for an injury to Bond. In 2009 Butler’s pace has dipped but the accuracy has improved. “I’ve had time to figure out what works for my body now,” he says. “I know what to do off the park to keep myself going. I don’t bowl the same pace, so that helps.””I think you always look back and see what you can improve on. In one-day cricket batsmen and wickets are so good, if you’re not accurate you’ll go a long way,” he says. “That’s what disappointed my about yesterday [the 97-run loss to Sri Lanka]. I had a big job to play in the Powerplay and four or five bad balls cost me. Instead of having 2 for 43, it blows out to 55. You have to be so accurate at this level.”Even before his international career Butler, by way of a British passport, could have gone the Andy Caddick way. In the summer of 2001, while playing a one-off game for the Sussex 2nd XI, he was offered a five-year contract with the county that would have put him in the English cricket system. He refused because all he wanted to do was play for New Zealand.”It’s something that comes up frequently. Counties realise if they sign you, you’ll be able to play the whole year and not be taken away,” he says. “I got asked last year to do it and the year before, but when you’ve worked so hard to get back to this level at 27…. I’ve got a lot of time left so it’s not something I want to do just yet.”Butler doesn’t think he’ll be being playing a Test anytime soon, given the strain and the amount of competition around, but the hope lingers. It will be a lot of tough work. “You have to be able to bowl 20 overs and another 20 the next day. That’s tough for anyone, never mind someone who gets stiff the next day,” he says.The last two years have helped, though. “I’ve learnt how to manage it. In the past I didn’t do a lot of bowling between games; now I can do a little bit. The body has improved dramatically.”