All posts by h716a5.icu

The upward curve of the Australian team over the period of Michael Clarke’s captaincy has been by no means an accidental occurrence

Daniel Brettig at Windsor Park27-Apr-2012Played 14, won nine, lost two, drawn three. By these bare numbers Michael Clarke has established himself as a successful Test captain of Australia, ending a long sequence of cricket a little more than a year after he took the job from Ricky Ponting. It was a tired touring team that allowed West Indies to swing their way to within 75 runs of a distant target on the final morning, but the Australians’ unstinting earlier efforts ensured that the Caribbean tour and the elongated “summer” of eight months’ duration ended on a note of victory.In the finish it was the captain himself who did much of the heavy lifting, claiming the second five-wicket haul of his Test career with left-arm spin of the kind that Allan Border once employed with similar success against West Indies. Clarke’s other major tally was a freakish 6 for 9 on a Mumbai pitch that existed in name only, and here he had to work for his wickets on a surface that offered generous turn but not the spiteful bounce or grubbers that fill batsmen with fourth-innings fear. It was fitting that Clarke played such a role in bringing the team home to a 2-0 series success, for the upward curve of the Australian team over the period of his captaincy has been by no means an accidental occurrence.As a batsman, a tactician and occasionally a bowler, Clarke is always keeping the game moving, always looking for opportunities for runs or wickets, always pushing his team towards greater efforts. Clarke’s players have taken on his appetite for meticulous preparation and hard training, preserving their bodies as he must do in order to stay ahead of a troublesome back that has humbugged him numerous times over his career. They are also a more ebullient and enthusiastic group under his leadership, as much because they know their leader is a shrewd one as because he is a cheerful one. Winning helps too.Since he walked out to toss the coin with Sri Lanka’s then captain Tillakaratne Dilshan in September last year, Clarke has taken the team through plenty of peaks and also a few notable troughs. It was those that he pointed to as critical to the building of the team’s character, particularly the way the team found a way to regather itself after the trauma of being razed for 47 by South Africa in Cape Town, squaring the series in Johannesburg within a week. There was also a galling defeat to New Zealand in Hobart as the team settled under a new captain, coach and selection panel.”Cape Town showed us how quickly things can change for the worse and then to be able to pull off a win in Jo’burg – and we’re talking about a very strong Test cricket team in their own backyard – so to be able to level that series was a great learning curve for us,” Clarke said. “And we probably saw a little of that again against New Zealand. There are highs and lows in this game and you’re going to experience both, whether you like it or not individually as a player. And that gave us the opportunity as a team to see that it doesn’t matter what opposition you play against, if you’re not at your best, you’re going to get beaten. And we continue to learn, especially, from those two games, from Cape Town and Hobart.”I’ve been very lucky to have some other great leaders around me, wonderful support staff who have played a part in me having success. And the captain is only as good as his stock. The players have played so well that they’ve made my job so much easier and they’ve put me in a position where it allows me to take a risk, or to declare, or to bowl a certain bowler because I have the confidence of the boys in that change-room. So I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I’ll look forward to having a bit of a break now.”There are still plenty of flaws evident in the team Clarke is leading. The batting is the cause of most doubt, as the opening combination of David Warner and Ed Cowan has not yet reached the level required, Ricky Ponting’s future in the game is a series-by-series proposition and Shane Watson has yet to prove he is capable of scoring centuries at No.3, an essential requirement for any top-class performer in that position. Beneath them, the next group of young batsmen is struggling to attain the heights they had initially promised – Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh among them. This point of weakness will require plenty of considered discussion between Clarke and the selection panel but also Rod Marsh as the designated director of coaching among the states, for South Africa and England in particular are unlikely to be as accommodating in future series as India were during the home summer.However the major strength Clarke has been able to call on across his first year in charge is a battery of pace bowlers that is burgeoning with speed, swing and promise. Older practitioners like Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus have learned new ways to succeed, and younger striplings including Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Pat Cummins have all shown how formidable they can become. Further back are the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Bowlers, it is so often said, win Test matches, and for now Clarke is well stocked with options.He also now has a spin bowler he can rely on in most situations, as Nathan Lyon builds his stamina and savvy on foreign pitches. While Lyon has not dominated every innings, and struggled notably in some, he is establishing the sort of record that very few Australian offspin bowlers have been able to boast of. None have surpassed Ashley Mallett’s 132 from 38 Tests at 29.84, yet with 42 at 27.83 in 13 matches, Lyon is on his way. Most heartening in his growth is how much Clarke and the coach Mickey Arthur have worked to let him develop without being unfairly exposed by batsmen or critics. The lessons of a misspent first four years after Shane Warne’s retirement, with slow bowlers tossed about like boats in Dominica’s impending hurricane season, appear to have been learned.The most significant transition that lies ahead for Clarke and his team is the choice of wicketkeeper for next summer and the Ashes series beyond it. Matthew Wade’s contribution in the Caribbean was meritorious, for how he gleaned lessons from early struggles to capitalise in supreme fashion in Dominica. While his batting at Windsor Park will be the most memorable element of his work, Wade’s keeping has also progressed greatly. Brad Haddin, meanwhile, sits at home with his family, older and wiser and a valued member of the team even though he was forced to leave it behind by difficult personal circumstances. Clarke does not want to lose Haddin, but he does want his team to move forward. His first 12 months in charge provide the strongest possible evidence of that fact.

Build-ups to Ranji Trophy matches can be pretty lukewarm, but thanks to a certain presence Wankhede Stadium has a different story to tell

Siddhartha Talya in Mumbai01-Nov-2012There was plenty of anticipation at the Wankhede Stadium on the eve of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy opener against Railways. As early as 8.15am, a small crowd had gathered outside the main entrance to the ground, hoping for a glimpse of their favourite star, the hometown boy, playing for his domestic side after three years. A vehicle passed through the Polly Umrigar Gate, with a short, stout, fair, chubby man wearing a hat seated on the back, bearing, at least from a distance, a slight resemblance to the most famous face of Indian sport. Unfortunately for the small gathering, who had already given up hope seeing that the vehicle was a Fiat taxi, it was Railways coach Abhay Sharma who paid the fare, stepped out and made his way into the ground.Sachin Tendulkar did come, but didn’t bat or practise at the nets. He was being treated for a stomach bug, but was fully expected to take the field on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy. He didn’t miss too much on the eve of the game: the warm-up on the day was relatively light, the drills not rigorous and Tendulkar’s own preparation had happened in the days before.Ahead of a major series against England, India’s Test stars are returning to their respective domestic sides. If those expectant eyes outside the entrance are anything to go by, the Ranji Trophy has been provided that early fillip it needs in its new avatar.Tendulkar’s three dismissals in almost identical fashion – all bowled – during the home Tests against New Zealand have ignited concerns over technique and the impact his age is having on his batting. But back playing for Mumbai, and gearing up for the England Tests, his training for the road ahead shows a determination to bounce back. “He comes around 8am here, does his own fitness training and then joins the team,” Mumbai coach Sulakshan Kulkarni said. “The way he is playing in the nets, he is very serious. He was batting everyday in the nets, 45 minutes to an hour, non-stop. His feet movement was going very well and I don’t remember any other player, maybe Rahul Dravid, go without a single ball break.”It is an achievement, to play five bowlers at a stretch for one hour – in 20 minutes you get 100 balls. That means around 300 balls in an hour, so you have to concentrate hard in the nets.”There were those who had a chance to share the field with Tendulkar for the first time and bowl at him in the nets while not being part of the immediate squad: guest bowlers, net bowlers, some of whom are not even part of the Mumbai probables or the Under-19 side. One of them, a left-arm spinner, has been getting special attention, and advice, from Tendulkar.However, his team-mates, some of whom have shared the dressing room with him during the IPL if not in first-class cricket, have learned to resist being overawed by his presence. “I remember, around 20 years back, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunil Gavaskar said to youngsters in the dressing room: don’t expect sympathy, don’t give sympathy,” Kulkarni added.Zaheer Khan will also play for Mumbai – who are looking at an attack of three seamers and two specialist spinners – but did not turn up on the eve of the game. It’s not something unusual for Zaheer, who’s known to go easy on the final day of preparation.The return of two senior Test players went beyond boosting the profile of the tournament and giving youngsters an opportunity to rub shoulders with the best. “Not only will they try to get back into their rhythm for the sterner Tests ahead, but it also gives them insight into what is happening at the ground level,” said Sanjay Bangar, the Railways captain. “They can also probably evaluate whether the standards of the Ranji Trophy have gone up or down. This is also a chance for them to look at the talent available.”If they play a couple of more games they will get a wider audience, but even we can’t really complain because they are playing against us and all our boys are wanting to do well against the genius.”The last time Tendulkar played in the opening game of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy campaign was in 1998-99. Times were different then, schedules less cramped, challenges for the tournament to stay relevant for players not as serious as today. The contest against Railways may well be preparation for the England series, but his own approach to this match reinforces the significance of what first-class cricket means to those who wish for success in the toughest format.Starting November 2, watch out for the Ranji Trophy Live blog on match days

Plays of the Day from the first ODI between Australia and Sri Lanka, at the MCG

Brydon Coverdale at the MCG11-Jan-2013Debuts of the day
Three Australians made their ODI debuts in this game: Phillip Hughes, Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja. The last time Australia had so many first-gamers in a one-day international, none of Hughes, Finch and Khawaja had been born. It was January 1986, when Steve Waugh, Dave Gilbert, Bruce Reid and Simon Davis all debuted together against New Zealand, also at the MCG. This time there was the added novelty of the three debutants batting in the top three spots, and they received their ODI caps from three former top-order batsmen. Mark Taylor awarded Finch his cap, Dean Jones presented one to Hughes, and Michael Slater handed one over to Khawaja.Run-out of the day, mark I
One of Australia’s debutants, Hughes, enjoyed the day with a century, but for another, Khawaja, it wasn’t quite so memorable. Khawaja was on 3 when he pushed a ball to midwicket and took off for a single, but he was sent back by his partner Hughes. Khawaja dived at full stretch and appeared to have made his ground but on replay, it became apparent that the throw from Jeevan Mendis had Khawaja in trouble. Khawaja had indeed got his bat past the crease, but it had bounced awkwardly and while half the blade was clearly hovering over safe territory, none of it was grounded.Run-out of the day, mark II
Khawaja’s fielding was one of the areas of his game that Australia’s selectors wanted him to work on when he was dropped from the Test side last summer. He has. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Chandimal had steered Sri Lanka into a position from which they could realistically dream of a successful chase when Dilshan pushed a ball to mid-off and took off for a single. Once upon a time, that might have been safe with Khawaja the fielder, but this time he pounced on the ball and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end to find Dilshan well short.Run-outs of the day, mark III and IV
As if the loss of Dilshan wasn’t bad enough, Sri Lanka gave up two more wickets to run-outs shortly afterwards. From consecutive balls. And both from the fielding of Glenn Maxwell. The first one came when Chandimal pushed the ball to midwicket and sent his partner Angelo Mathews back, and he couldn’t beat Maxwell’s direct hit at the non-striker’s end. Next ball, Chandimal again found Maxwell at midwicket but this time took off for a run. His partner Lahiru Thirimanne had no hope of making his ground at the striker’s end and was out for a diamond duck.Unexpected delivery of the day
37.4 good length ball outside off stump from an unknown shirtless bowler, the pitch displaying some tennis-ball bounce.Throughout the day, the MCG scoreboard repeatedly advised spectators that fines of up to $8500 would be incurred for anyone who ran on to the field. It didn’t stop one pitch invader in the 38th over of the Sri Lankan chase. But what made this man different was that he came prepared. Not only did he make it to the pitch but he brought with him a tennis ball, which he then ran in and bowled, before trying unsuccessfully to make a getaway. For the record, he hit a line and length that Glenn McGrath would have been proud of.

Is it a coincidence that AB de Villiers played his most compelling innings since becoming South Africa’s wicketkeeper in the Test that he had to keep the least?

Firdose Moonda in Perth02-Dec-2012Welcome back, AB de Villiers.Before this weekend, cricket fans the world over were looking for you. Most of them thought they would find the real you the day the wicketkeeping gloves were taken away. You can’t blame them. In nine innings before this one, the most you scored was 47 and the numbers cannot convey how out of character you looked.No one doubted your determination. After chasing a short and wide ball at the Gabba, you put on your patient face and scored 29 in over two hours to play your part in saving the first Test. In Adelaide, your persistence was greater. One of your best friends, Faf du Plessis, said he had never seen you so cautious or enduring. For the 220 balls you faced and more than four hours you spent at the crease, you had 33 runs to show for it. You should have had a lifebuoy as well.Without your presence, du Plessis admitted he may not have been calm or clear-headed. Without your experience, he would have not had guidance and without your gentle coaxing, he may not have been as defensive.You did the right thing when you brought out block after block, so many you could have built the Lego man many times over. But something about it didn’t seem like you. The de Villiers who would race against a ball being flung from a desperate fielders’ arm just because he could win would have been out of place in that situation, but the de Villiers who always tried to create something may not have been.That warm feeling that always followed you to the crease was replaced with the chill of a hospital corridor. Luckily it came with surgical precision too. You were not so much a pleasure to watch in that innings as you were a fascination.We were rapt by your resolve even as we lamented your inhibition. Secretly we thought you didn’t want to stay shackled for much longer. When you tapped a ball to cover and called Hashim Amla through for a single on the first day in Perth, we confirmed it. You ran Amla out, and in the next over pushed at a ball that swerved into you, and were out yourself. Another innings, another low score. We knew the drill, we did not expect the response.You made up for it in emphatic style. All your runs in the series so far add up to less than the 169 you put on today. While Amla and Jacques Kallis had already amassed a lead that looked comfortable, it was up to you to take the cushion and turn it into a couch. You finished with a designer lazyboy.At first you gardened a lot, as though you were marking territory. You defended, you walked down the pitch and tapped. You left one alone. And then out came the pull shot against Mitchell Starc, a gesture of some intent. You faced only six more balls before you brought out the reverse sweep. There was the de Villiers we used to know.That shot came to symbolise your innings. In the absence of a third man, you took advantage. So much so, that you scored three in succession to bring up your hundred. You were obviously in the mood. You slogged and you swept and you ended up with more than what you scored in the explosive knock against Sri Lanka in Cape Town this January. That was a display of vibrancy and colour, and this was too.It was always going to come, wasn’t it? You said so yourself at the SCG before this series began. You had just recovered from chronic back injury, which the team manager said would have sidelined you had it not been for the World Twenty20, and said you felt as though you were only one knock away from people saying that “keeping benefitted your batting”. But that fierce insistence seemed nothing more than brave words before today.This is your first century as South Africa’s permanent wicketkeeper and only fools would suggest it will be your last. You remain one of the country’s most talented, fearless and exciting batsmen, although it is tough to continue being that when you are overburdened. On face value, this innings may suggest that you aren’t. You certainly maintain that.So is it just a coincidence that in the match where you spent the fewest overs in the field as wicketkeeper, you went on to your best score? You may not have noticed, but your workload before batting was significantly less in this match than it has been throughout the series.In Brisbane, you batted first and then spent 138 overs in the field before batting again. In Adelaide it was worse: 107.2 overs upfront before your first knock and another 70 before you batted again. At Headingley in July, you kept for 126.4 overs and then scored 44 and at Lord’s, for 107.3 overs before making 43. Here in Perth, you only spent 53.1 overs in the field, about 15 minutes more than you would in a one-day game.Circumstance and pressures were different in every situation but the time factor cannot be ignored. With less overs to spend bending your back and zoning in on the field, you could bring out one of your best sides with the bat. Imagine if you had even less time to spend behind the stumps?That thought will probably be sidelined because your innings could be the tripod on which a grand South African win is filmed. At the moment, your team-mates are full of praise and your predecessor is too. Mark Boucher was the first to celebrate your milestone, actually. He posted on Twitter that, “Nothing gives me more pleasure … honestly … than @ABdeVilliers17 having a smile on his face! Great player, great team man!!! So happy for him!!”In some of those words lies the crux of the problem. Those who know you know that you will continue to do whatever you are told is best for the team because that is the kind of player you are. When you were made captain of the limited-overs sides, you said you wanted to build a team culture based on sacrifice of individual goals for a collective effort. What this innings makes us ask is whether, so far, you have sacrificed the most.

The method of ranking teams which are level on points through NRR was designed to reward comprehensive wins, but it surely isn’t working at the Champions Trophy

S Rajesh10-Jun-2013Over the last few of days, there have been a couple of close, low-scoring games in the Champions Trophy. Both have been won by the team chasing with plenty of overs to spare, but they’ve been nail-biters because in both instances the winning teams had to rely on their last couple of wickets to do the job. West Indies squeezed past Pakistan’s 170 with 56 balls to spare but only two wickets in hand, while New Zealand were very nearly unsuccessful in their quest for 139 against Sri Lanka, winning only by one wicket even though they had 13.3 overs in hand. The other two results in each of the two groups – India beating South Africa in group B and England trouncing Australia in A – were clearly more convincing wins.However, you wouldn’t know that if you looked at the points table, for New Zealand are on top in group A and West Indies in B. That’s because of the net run rates, which is the method used to break the deadlock if teams are level on points in multi-team tournaments. The NRR takes into account only the run rates of teams, and is calculated as the difference between the batting run rate of a team and the bowling economy rate over the entire tournament. A team which is all out is considered to have faced the full quota overs. However, in non-all-out situations, wickets lost isn’t factored in at all. Thus, New Zealand benefit because the method considers the fact that they won with 81 balls to spare, but ignores the fact that they were nine down when they did so. Hence, their NRR of 1.048 is superior to England’s 0.960. Even their most ardent supporter would admit, though, that England’s win was far more convincing. Group B’s scenario with West Indies and India is exactly the same. This method of ranking teams which are level on points was designed to reward comprehensive wins, but that surely isn’t working here.Limited-overs cricket is clearly a game where teams need to juggle with two sets of resources – overs and wickets in hand. Depletion of either of those resources, with respect to the target before the team, is a sign that the team’s in trouble. Any method which is used to differentiate between teams on equal points should therefore consider both these factors when judging how comprehensive the victory was. The NRR method fails to do that. There have been other debates and arguments on the shortcomings of the NRR, but this is clearly the greatest one.A possible solution here is to use the rain rule to decide the margin. In the case of the New Zealand-Sri Lanka match, the par score for New Zealand when nine down in 36.3 overs is 132. Since they won the match at this stage, they were seven runs ahead of the par score, which thus becomes the margin of victory. Since England’s margin of victory over Australia was 48 runs, they would clearly be the group leaders. However, if New Zealand had won in the same number of overs for the loss of four wickets, then the margin by the D-L method would have been 52 runs.Similarly, the margin of victory for West Indies over Pakistan would have been 20 runs by this method. Since India beat South Africa by 28, they’d have been the group B table-toppers at this stage. The victory margins in games which are won by the team batting first are anyway in terms of runs, so this option allows all match results to be expressed in terms of runs. It can be further argued that these margins should further take into account the target, so that a ten-run margin in a low-scoring game counts for more than the same margin in a high-scoring one.As things stand in this tournament, there could be a scenario – however unlikely it seems at the moment – in which New Zealand and England finish with the same number of points, and are fighting for second place in the group. If New Zealand stay ahead of England on NRR based on their one-wicket victory in Cardiff, it’ll surely be a travesty.

India’s top-order batting has been the biggest success story of the tournament, but on Sunday they’ll be up against an incisive fast-bowling attack

S Rajesh22-Jun-2013Whichever way you look at it, India and England have been the two best teams in the 2013 Champions Trophy. India have won all four of their matches; England have won three and lost one – these two are the only sides in the tournament who’ve won more games than they’ve lost. India’s average of 65.46 runs per wicket is by far the best of all teams in the tournament, while England’s 35 is comfortably the second-best; ditto with the run rates of 5.93 (India) and 5.65 (England). As a bowling unit, India have taken the most wickets in the tournament – 37 – followed by England’s 30. The difference between the run rate and the economy rate is 1.27 for India, the highest, and next-best for England (0.32). It’s only fair that these two teams will compete for the right to be called the champions of the last edition of the Champions Trophy.India’s top-order batting has been the biggest success story of the tournament. Shikhar Dhawan has already amassed 332 runs in four innings – the third-highest by any batsman in any edition of the Champions Trophy – and has scored two out of three centuries in this tournament. India’s batsmen have also accounted for three of the seven century stands in the tournament so far – two by the openers Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, and one by Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik.England’s top three haven’t been as prolific, but they’ve also all been among the runs. Jonathan Trott has scored 209 runs – the third-highest in the tournament – at a strike rate of amost 90, which aren’t bad stats for a batsman who supposedly can’t score his runs quickly, while Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, the openers, have three fifties between them. England’s middle order is in form too, with Joe Root looking impressive almost every time he has come out to bat in scoring 166 in four innings, while Ravi Bopara has been explosive at the finish, scoring 88 runs off only 61 balls in the tournament.The flip side of the smashing form for India’s top three is the fact that the rest of their batsmen have hardly had a bat. Karthik has faced 84 balls in the entire tournament, Ravindra Jadeja 29, MS Dhoni 26, and Suresh Raina 10. India’s top three have accounted for 78% of the bat runs for India; the corresponding percentage for England is 59. It’s fair to say that India’s middle order hasn’t been tested yet, and Sunday could well be an occasion for them to prove their worth.

England and India in Champions Trophy 2013

TeamWon/ lostBat aveRun rateBowl aveEcon rate100s/ 50s100/ 50 p’shipsIndia4/ 065.465.9323.894.662/ 53/ 4England3/ 135.005.6528.405.330/ 62/ 5

England and Indian batsmen in the Champions Trophy

BatsmanInningsRunsAverageStrike rate100s/ 50sShikhar Dhawan4332110.6799.402/ 1Jonathan Trott420969.6789.690/ 2Rohit Sharma416842.0076.710/ 2Joe Root416641.5090.710/ 1Alastair Cook415939.7581.530/ 2Ian Bell414135.2574.210/ 1Virat Kohli413366.5088.660/ 1Ravi Bopara38888.00144.260/ 0

Nos.1-3 for India and England in the Champions Trophy

TeamInningsRunsAverageStrike rate100s/ 50s% of team runs*India1263370.3390.042/ 478.24England1250946.2782.360/ 558.98The bowling comparison
As a bowling unit, there isn’t much to choose between the two sides. England’s bowlers had one poor game, when they completely dominated by Kumar Sangakkara, while India conceded more than 300 against South Africa (though they won that one). India’s bowlers have taken more wickets at a better average and economy rate, thanks largely to their spinners. Led by Jadeja, India’s spin attack has taken 16 wickets at an average of 20.75 and an economy rate of 4.15, figures which even the most optimistic Indian fan wouldn’t have bargained for in June in England.England’s star in the bowling department has been James Anderson. He has taken twice as many wickets as the next-best for England, while his economy rate has been outstanding as well. India’s most consistent seamer has been Bhuvneshwar Kumar: his 32 overs have gone at only 3.68 per over, though Ishant Sharma is the leading wicket-taker with eight. The disappointment for India has been Umesh Yadav, who has leaked plenty of runs after taking a five-for against Australia in one of the warm-up games. Similarly, Tim Bresnan has been the most expensive among the regular bowlers for England, going at almost a run a ball.

Pace and spin bowling stats for India and England in the Champions Trophy

PaceSpinOverallTeamWktsAveEconWktsAveEconWktsAveEconIndia1731.884.941620.754.153326.484.60England2326.525.17636.005.142928.485.16

Indian and England bowlers in the tournament so far

BowlerOversWicketsAverageEcon rateJames Anderson331012.703.84Ravindra Jadeja371013.003.51Ishant Sharma34822.755.35R Ashwin37627.674.48Bhuvneshwar Kumar32619.673.68Stuart Broad31.5535.405.56The Powerplay factor
India’s openers have been so strong that the team hasn’t yet lost a wicket in the mandatory Powerplays, making scores of 66, 53, 45 and 40 – all without loss – at the ten-over mark in their four matches so far. England’s top order has done pretty well too, but it’s their bowling at the start which has stood out: they’ve taken six wickets in the mandatory Powerplay overs, and have conceded only 4.14 runs per over. On Sunday, they’ll be up against the best top order of the tournament, and how that mini-battle turns out could well determine the outcome of the final.In the batting Powerplay, India have the better numbers with both bat and ball. Most teams have lost plenty of wickets during this period, which has impacted their ability to score quickly, but India aren’t one of those sides: they’ve lost only two wickets, and their run rate is the second-best (after New Zealand) among all teams during this period. England, on the other hand, have lost five wickets in 87 balls during the batting Powerplay.

England and India in the mandatory Powerplay, with bat and ball

BattingBowlingTeamRuns/ BallsAverageRun rateRuns/ ballsAverageEcon rateIndia204/ 228-5.36201/ 24040.205.02England164/ 21054.674.68145/ 21024.164.14

England and India in the batting Powerplay, with bat and ball

BattingBowlingTeamRuns/ BallsAverageRun rateRuns/ BallsAverageEcon rateIndia69/ 5534.507.5290/ 10222.505.29England98/ 8719.606.75112/ 10228.006.58England’s strong home record
England’s one advantage, though, is their head-to-head record against India at home in the last nine years. In their last 15 such games – going back to 2004 – they have a 9-4 win-loss record, including three wins in the 2011 bilateral series.India have had a few setbacks against England in their recent encounters, but in the only tournament final played between these two teams in ODIs, India came out on top in a memorable match, when they chased down 326 at Lord’s in 2002. Come Sunday, and England will want to set that record straight.

England v India in ODIs

MatchesInd wonEng wonTie/ NROverall8646352/ 3In England3311181/ 3Since 2004 in England15491/ 1Tournament final1100

It may not matter hugely in Bangalore or Bridgetown, but in England and Australia, in cricket at least, nothing matters more than what is about to begin

George Dobell at Trent Bridge09-Jul-2013It says much about the enduring appeal of the Ashes that, at a time of economic pressures, at a time when Test cricket’s popularity is waning in many parts of the world and at time when neither team can claim to be the best in the world, just about every day of this series will be played in front of full houses and to vast audiences on TV, on the radio and on the internet.Whatever the economic importance of series against India and the ranking importance of series against South Africa, the vast majority of players on both sides will have grown up dreaming of playing in the Ashes. Rightly or wrongly, it is performances in such series that continue to disproportionately define the careers of players and coaches. The UK government reacted to England’s Ashes success in 2005 by bestowing MBEs on the whole team; no other series would have generated such rewards.The ICC rankings were designed to provide context and interest to Test series that were struggling to capture the public imagination. The Ashes doesn’t need such marketing strategies. Like Christmas and the NHS, familiarity may have bred a parasitical side-industry, but it has not bred contempt.Conventional wisdom suggests that Australia, unburdened by expectation, go into the series without pressure. It is nonsense. The sacking of Mickey Arthur and Robbie Deans – the Australia cricket and rugby coaches – within the last few weeks suggests Australia are not so sanguine about sporting failure as some might like to suggest.Darren Lehmann might survive an early failure, but some of the players will not. England supporters, by contrast, were weaned on unrealistic expectations and put to bed by disillusionment. They are familiar in dealing with the sting of disappointment.Besides, England possess significant advantages. While two of their batsmen, Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook, will surely go down in history among the greatest players to have represented England, it is two of the bowlers that provide the real edge.In James Anderson England have a supreme athlete at the peak of his career with an ability to swing, reverse swing and seam the ball allied to a control very few can match. MS Dhoni credited him as “the difference between the teams” in the series in India. If he can prove so valuable on Indian wickets and armed – or disarmed – with an SG or a Kookaburra ball, then he can be devastating in conditions offering him even a little assistance in England and with a Dukes ball.But perhaps more relevant is the presence of Graeme Swann. It is Swann, arguably the best finger spinner either of these nations has produced since Jim Laker, who represents the key difference between these sides. Both teams have talented batsmen; both have dangerous seamers: only England have a champion spinner who has shown, against all opposition and in all conditions, that he is a match-winner at this level.It is generally unwise to try to predict England’s plans. Under Andy Flower they are guarded with a level of security that even Edward Snowden could not unpick. But the evidence has mounted in recent days that they see spin and reverse swing as their key weapons.Looking to the future

Ben Foakes was a noticeable addition to England’s training squad at Trent Bridge. The 20-year-old Essex and England Lions wicketkeeper will remain with England throughout the first Investec Test and act as 12th man.

Identified for some time as an England player of the future – he was picked as the Lions wicketkeeper for their limited-overs tour of Australia before he had played a List A game – Foakes will also have early morning batting sessions with Graham Gooch and wicketkeeping sessions with Bruce French. Foakes is one of four young players – Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Gary Ballance are the others – who has been identified to benefit from specialist attention from Gooch over the coming months.

Foakes’ Essex team-mate, 19-year-old left-arm seamer Reece Topley, also spent time bowling at the England squad while they trained at Loughborough over the weekend as they sought to replicate the left-arm angle of attack anticipated from Mitchell Starc, in particular. Topley has now returned to county duty.

For a start, Swann was rested in the crucial stages of the Champions Trophy despite his willingness to play. England, however, prioritised the Ashes over the final of the global ODI tournament they have never won and refused to take any chances with Swann’s strained calf.It was interesting to note, too, that the pitch at Trent Bridge has, despite unbroken sunshine and no chance to rain, remained under covers in the two days ahead of the Test. In the current hot weather, it is unthinkable that there would be any attempt to keep the pitch green and appears more likely that a surface, already unusually dry, is being preserved to ensure it does not deteriorate too early.While the ball rarely spins on the ground, England are acutely aware of the likelihood that the Australia side will contain five or six left-handed batsmen and at least one left-arm bowler. The combination of footholes, the off-break turning away from the bat and the fact that, on a green pitch, Australia have the bowling weapons to hurt England, is likely to see this series played in conditions more like India than any previous series in England.There is an obvious contrast between the approach of the two camps ahead of the series. Australia, reflecting the new laid back approach that Lehmann has instilled, had an optional net session on Tuesday, while England trained as normal.The sense is that, while Australia’s mood has been lifted by recent events, the England dressing room remains just a little intense; an environment where every action and reaction is noted and analysed. It is professional, certainly, but whether it is relaxing or conducive to fearless cricket is another matter.Not that many in this England team play fearless cricket. With the exception of Pietersen and, to a lesser extent, Swann, England’s strength is consistency. They will attempt, in this series as in so many others, to grind Australia out of the game; to build up pressure until their opposition snaps; to make fewer mistakes.In Jonathan Trott, Cook and Anderson, they have supremely talented attritional cricketers. Lehmann and co. might be the more engaging company in a bar but, just as is the case when picking a surgeon or a pilot, substance often takes precedence over style.The careers of England and Australia players are often bookended by Ashes series and it just might prove that way with Flower. While Flower’s reputation is unquestionable – success in India might yet be remembered as the greatest achievement of the finest coach England have ever had – there seems of late, just a hint of a suspicion that he is tiring of the baggage that accompanies his high-profile position. Perhaps the players, subconsciously at least, are also yearning for a little more freedom and joy.There is only so often any leader can repeat the same wisdom without his words blurring in the ears of his followers and there was an impression that, under Ashley Giles, the limited-overs team appeared more relaxed and less intense. Flower has earned the right to go when he feels the time is due, but nearly everything has an expiry date and Flower may feel, after the Ashes tour of Australia ends in January, that he has reached his.Such issues can wait. There has been much talk of legacy in England cricket over the last few years and, over the next seven or so weeks, the players of both sides have the chance to build their own. It may not matter hugely in Bangalore or Bridgetown, but in England and Australia, in cricket at least, nothing matters more.

With Steve Harmison’s retirement, English cricket has broken its last link with the bowling quartet of 2005

Tim Wigmore12-Oct-2013And then there were none. With Steve Harmison’s retirement, English cricket has broken its last link with the Fab Four of 2005. Andrew Flintoff left the game four years ago; and now none of Harmison, Matthew Hoggard or Simon Jones will ever play first-class cricket again.Their shared departures are a reminder that, as much as anything, the triumph of 2005 was one of timing. The entire pace attack was born within two years of each other and had the happy coincidence of sharing their peak years. If sporting teams are said to work best when there is a right blend of youth and experience, the fortune of England’s 2005 attack – really, the entire outfit save for Ian Bell – was that each player seemed to bring just the right amount of both qualities.It was a quartet of contrasting qualities, lacking only a left-armer. Harmison’s brawn and pace, Flintoff’s relentless back-of-a-length hostility, Jones’ reverse swing. And then there was Hoggard. The least glamorous, by some distance, of the four, but he didn’t mind. He famously once described his job as being to “brush up the debris of the shop floor”.England had bigger bowlers, faster bowlers and scarier bowlers. Hoggard embraced his role as a shaggy-haired shop steward. The image did not do justice to his considerable talents – not only the prodigious new-ball swing and nagging accuracy but also the ability to cut the ball, which allowed him to rise above the limitations of flat surfaces.The image of Hoggard is of the ever-willing supporter, but he could be the leader of the attack too. The 12 wickets he took in England’s win in Johannesburg – especially given the frailties of the rest of that attack – remains arguably the finest Test display by any English bowler in the 21st century. The suspicion has to be that we would remember it much more had it come from another member of the quartet, the perfect outswinger that snared Jacques Kallis first ball especially. Hoggard wouldn’t care.His new-ball partner Harmison, the self-described shy lad from Ashington, took a similar view to the limelight. In a way, Harmison was a victim of his natural gifts. While Hoggard could slip by – just a solid English-style quick, as the popular portrayal had it – Harmison was not so easily ignored. His physique and pace ensured as much; from the moment he broke through with 7 for 12 at Sabina Park and 61 wickets in a 11-Test run in 2004, Harmison attracted media attention of the sort that Hoggard could almost invariably avoid.The white Curtly Ambrose, they started called him. It didn’t seem ridiculous either, watching Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and even Brian Lara floundering against his combination of pace, steepling bounce and surprise yorkers. The paradox was that if Hoggard envied Harmison’s greater natural gifts, Harmison must have been jealous of Hoggard’s relative unobtrusiveness.The relationship of England’s fans to Harmison was often one of exasperation. Why could he be Grievous Bodily Harmison one day and a 6′ 4″ mouse the next? From England’s tour to South Africa in 2004-05 – when he arrived as the world’s top-ranked bowler and left with nine wickets at 73 apiece – Harmison often had to contend with theories that if he wasn’t fulfilling his potential, it was in part because he didn’t want to. Playing for England was all a bit of a chore.Of course the perception was deeply unfair. As England collapsed in the final Test in Lahore in 2005, completing their ignominious post-Ashes hangover, Harmison certainly didn’t shirk. He bowled more overs, and better ones, than any of his team-mates. Few bowling analyses have ever been less fitting than his 43-3-154-1.Simon Jones may outlast the other members of the 2005 bowling attack, albeit only on the T20 circuit•Getty ImagesShivnarine Chanderpaul has cited Harmison as a model of toughness, contrasting today’s young bowlers, who “get a little hit or a niggle and they stay off the field”, with the Harmison who won Durham the Championship with “socks full of blood” and “a broken hand”. But none of this seemed to matter. Because Harmison could be so spectacular – the destruction he wrought in the Caribbean, the carnage of the first morning of the 2005 Ashes, that slower ball to Michael Clarke ­- it followed that when he was not, it was because he wasn’t trying or didn’t care.We now know that his dislike of touring was linked to his battles with depression. There were persistent injuries, too, particularly to his shins. But perhaps the greatest issue of all was of biomechanics. As beautiful as Harmison’s action could look when all was in sync, there was a lot that could go wrong. It was little wonder that, sometimes – think of the start of the 2006-07 Ashes – it did.Unfortunately a lot could go wrong with Jones too. Seldom has a bowler’s run-up been more deceptive: Jones gave the impression of ambling in with little more threat than seen in Sunday afternoon club cricket, but from a brief explosion onto the crease he was able to hit 90mph. The cocktail of jagging reverse swing and zest for high-octane moments made Jones an intoxicating cricketer. The mesmerising spell to Michael Clarke on the final afternoon at Old Trafford – darting the ball both ways and then decimating his off stump – almost evoked Wasim and Waqar.The shame is that, like his father Jeff, Jones’ dalliance with Test cricket was so fleeting. After his horrific injury in Brisbane in 2002, it took him until 2005 to become a truly established member of the side. After two five-fors in three innings, Jones became England’s wizard of reverse swing. The age-old conundrum of the England side had been how to harass good batsmen on flat wickets, especially in Asia. The two supreme reverse swingers, Jones and Flintoff, seemed to offer a compelling answer.Alas, he has spent much of the last eight years as he ended the 2005 Ashes. Only in one of the past seven seasons has he managed more than four first-class wickets; many people would assume that he has already retired. It is testament to Jones’ resilience that he has kept going amid it all. Just last month, Jones dismissed James Taylor in the CB40 final with a delivery that seamed late and kissed the outside edge. Of course, there was a sadness to the ball, a reminder of the shame in such a talent being consigned to 58 Test wickets. But the hope is that with luck – and Jones is certainly overdue some – he will outlast the other members of the quartet, albeit only on the T20 circuit.So now the sight of Jones in pyjamas is all that’s left of the Fab Four. The irony is that it was the least heralded man -­ the new fans cricket discovered in 2005 swiftly forget Hoggard’s name if it had ever registered – who departs with the most Test wickets and the greatest sense of promise fulfilled. We may have hoped for more from the quartet after 2005. But we will always have that, and after 16 years of evisceration by Australia, it was quite a sight.

England’s Ashes whitewash has again invited criticism of county cricket, but what is needed more urgently than revolution is a good dollop of honesty

David Hopps13-Jan-2014England have been whitewashed in an Ashes series, so it was no surprise to hear the old debate rearing its head again at the weekend. Sooner or later somebody pins the blame on county cricket and sure enough it fell to Lord MacLaurin to propose the amalgamation of the smaller counties to best serve the England cricket team.Lord MacLaurin is a retired businessman, a past chairman of Tesco, Vodafone and, as an additional hobby, the ECB. He could barely look at Leicestershire or Northants during his time at the ECB without mentally drawing up some sort of merger plan. Most powerful businessmen are consumed by an acquisition obsession just as most fans have a knee-jerk opposition to change.To complete the debate, all you need then is to find one such idealist from the Shires, somebody who regards 18 first-class counties as a vital part of the fabric of England. It is a Midsomer Murders version of the English professional game, a vague, rose-garden attachment to a simpler age, and it has long held sway on a circuit which both brings pleasure to its devotees and it is ignored by millions.As the businessman affectionately known as The Grocer mounted his soapbox once more – that is a metaphorical raised platform by the way, not an old carton of Persil – he condemned the outdated set up of county cricket and at one stage mentally joined Kent to Sussex, in essence creating a supermarket where once there had been a couple of corner shops.Whatever view you hold, it was all a depressing sideshow as the review into the Ashes debacle is about to play out at Lord’s, and in Australia, under the stewardship of the new MD of English cricket, Paul Downton.The Ashes review will be limited in form and will not be revolutionary. Far from supporting MacLaurin’s contention that an 18-county structure is unfit for purpose, the ECB likes to present them as “18 Centres of Excellence” and, indeed, progress has been made on the development of academies and discovery of new income streams so that county cricket becomes more financially self-sustaining.But in the pessimistic dawn of a failed Ashes challenge, much remains unfit for purpose. If you want a single premise to convey what is wrong with county cricket, it is not particularly that there are too many counties, it is that the catchment these counties draw upon is too small.For example, a quick rifle through the 2013 Cricketers’ Who’s Who confirms that Leicestershire, bottom of the pile in the Championship again last season, draw more players from a couple of public schools with an excellent cricket culture than they do from the city with the highest percentage of Indian immigrants outside south Asia, young people too. How can that possibly still be the case?The absence of cricket in State schools remains a colossal drain on English cricket’s resources, robbing the game of its maxium number of ready-made players and fans. It is alleviated but far from solved by the admirable Chance to Shine charity, but a further dramatic shift of resources to strengthen bonds between state schools and nearby clubs that can provide the facilities they need is long overdue.That would be considerably more effective than tacking Sussex onto Kent and calling it South.But there is another malaise. For all the expressions of faith in an 18-team professional system, the ECB repeatedly encourages England to act in a manner that not only weakens but rubbishes county cricket at the same time.Under this duplicitous arrangement, when England win Team England gets the credit. When England lose, it is not long before blame is pinned at the door of the county game.One of many examples last season of Team England running roughshod over the county cricket structure it clearly does not view as excellent came when Jamie Overton, the most promising young fast bowler around, was withdrawn from Somerset’s relegation fight because sitting around with England’s ODI squad in the series against Australia was regarded as more useful for him, .This same dismissive attitude was seen in the perpetual use last summer of Jonny Bairstow as an England drinks scuttler. At a time when Bairstow is as confused as England over whether he has more talent as a long-form or short-form cricketer, and whether keeping wicket remains a sensible career move, he needed as much cricket as he could get.The outcome of that was Bairstow’s two bad Tests in Melbourne and Sydney and a pile of personal abuse. It is a strange system which crams so much cricket into an English season that the contradictory result is that some players do not play enough.Only an England set-up with such a disregard for the county game could have conceivably selected Chris Tremlett above Graham Onions for the Ashes tour in the belief that by some strange transformative process brought about by an England net or two Tremlett would regain the sort of form that had been conspicuously absent for Surrey. It was a selection based on theory and not on actuality.The ECB champions the county game but then suffocates it with a non-stop international schedule, Lions matches included, even treating its showpiece limited-overs finals with disdain by leaving it until the last minute to decide whether England players will deign to take part. Excellence cannot prosper with such an approach. No wonder there is a perception that standards have faltered again in the past year or two.Neither is there much chance that this summer’s latest revamp of the county game will be promoted with any conviction. The main interest in a deeply conservative reshuffle is that Twenty20 will be played primarily on Friday nights all summer long. But it is asking a lot of 18 county clubs to produce the sort of high-quality entertainment needed to pull in the crowds and widen the fan base when top-grade overseas players will be hard to attract over such a long time span and when England players will be conspicuous by their absence.As Lord MacLaurin took to the airwaves to recommend slashing the counties by a third, it seemed that what English cricket needs above all is a good dollop of honesty.If the 18 counties really are centres of professional excellence, valued by the communities they serve, then the ECB should demand ever more aggressively that they prove it. If revolution is not the answer then make evolution happen faster than ever.Prove the worth of a county by results, by coaching (and no more fiddled figures), by compulsory involvement in school-club links, by growth in membership and attendance figures, by a rise in cricket and non-cricket revenue streams, by website engagement (we will even send the ECB our figures- and they tell a tale or two), by as many sensible ways as can be devised to measure their worth.If and when they prove their worth, it is high time England treated them with respect. If a couple of them are not up the the job, then at least a couple of bankruptcies or mergers will bring some sanity to the fixture list.

Also, most World T20 caps, most Test lbws, low-scoring Test wins, and a quartet of tons in an ODI

Steven Lynch15-Apr-2014How often have both openers been out for a duck in the same innings? asked Kazi Mohammad Firoze Hassan from Bangladesh
This has happened no fewer than 46 times in Tests, most recently for Pakistan – the unfortunate batsmen being Shan Masood and Khurram Manzoor – in the second innings of the second Test against South Africa in Dubai last October. Eight months earlier, in the second innings of the second Test against South Africa in Cape Town, Pakistan’s openers Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed were out for ducks too. The first instance in Tests was back in 1888, when Australia’s Percy McDonnell and Alec Bannerman were both out for 0 in the Ashes Test at Old Trafford. There have been 36 instances of this in one-day internationals (most recently by Chadwick Walton and Johnson Charles for West Indies v New Zealand in Nelson in January 2014) and eight in Twenty20 internationals – including two at the recent World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. Michael Swart and Stephan Myburgh both made ducks as Netherlands crashed to 39 all out against Sri Lanka in Chittagong, then Ahmed Shehzad and Kamran Akmal were out for 0 as Pakistan’s chase started badly against West Indies in Mirpur.Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara played in all Sri Lanka’s matches in every World Twenty20 tournament. Has anyone played more games than them? asked Digby de Silva from Colombo
Sri Lanka have played 31 matches in the World Twenty20 – more than any other country – and you’re right in saying that Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara played in all of them. Next come Kamran Akmal and Shahid Afridi, who have played in all 30 of Pakistan’s games. But there are two other ever-presents for Sri Lanka – Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lasith Malinga. Sri Lanka also lead the way in the World T20’s individual lists: Jayawardene scored 1016 runs, well clear of Chris Gayle (807), Dilshan (764) and Sangakkara (664), while Malinga is the top wicket-taker with 38, ahead of Saeed Ajmal (36), and Ajantha Mendis, Afridi and Umar Gul, who all have 35.Which bowler has taken the greatest percentage of his Test wickets lbw? Is it Graeme Swann? asked Andrew Harte from England
Graeme Swann comes in 12th on this list, with 70 of his 255 Test wickets beings lbws (27.45%). On top is another offspinner, Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal, whose 169 wickets to date include 58 lbws (34.31%). Terry Alderman, the 1980s Australian seamer, had an almost identical percentage – 58 of his 170 Test wickets (34.11%) were out lbw. And only five of them were Graham Gooch.What is the lowest number of runs in a Test that ended in a positive result? asked Ahmed Baruah from India
The fifth Test between Australia and South Africa in Melbourne in 1931-32, which was played on a spiteful rain-affected “sticky dog” pitch, produced a total of only 234 runs. South Africa were bowled out for 36 and 45 – their aggregate of 81 remains a record low for a side’s two innings in any Test – with the 49-year-old unorthodox slow left-armer “Dainty” Ironmonger taking 11 wickets for 24 runs. In between South Africa’s two brief appearances at the crease – in all they batted for only 54.5 overs – Australia struggled to 153, not helped when Don Bradman injured his ankle in a dressing-room accident and was unable to bat. Two other Tests produced fewer than 300 runs: at Lord’s in 1888 Australia (116 and 60) beat England (53 and 62) in a match that featured an Ashes-record low of 291 runs, and in Wellington in 1945-46 Australia (199 for 8 declared) beat New Zealand (42 and 54) by an innings and 103 in a match which featured only 295 runs in all.Have there been any one-day internationals which have seen four or more individual hundreds? asked AK Srivastava from India
Two one-day internationals have featured four individual centuries. The first one was in Lahore in November 1998, when hundreds from Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting helped Australia overhaul an imposing Pakistan total of 315, which included centuries by Ijaz Ahmed and Yousuf Youhana (who later became Mohammad Yousuf). That record was equalled during the run-soaked series between India and Australia in October last year. In the sixth match in Nagpur, Australia scored 350 (Shane Watson 102, George Bailey 156) but were trumped by India, for whom Shikhar Dhawan made 100 and Virat Kohli 115 not out. There have been 22 one-day internationals which included three individual hundreds: click here for the list.Which Test cricketer was nicknamed “Tadpole”? asked Christopher Ellis from England
This was the Trinidadian left-arm chinaman bowler Dave Mohammed, who took 13 wickets in five Tests for West Indies between 2004 and 2006. He also played in seven one-day internationals, and took 233 wickets in all first-class cricket; he’s still around, at 34, and played for the Antigua Hawksbills in the Caribbean Premier League last August. Apparently he acquired his unusual nickname not on account of his size but because, as a child, he liked playing around in water. Sport’s most famous “Tadpole” is probably Jessica Ennis, the British heptathlete who won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, although she was never terribly keen on the name.