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Ravi Bopara doesn’t have many fond memories of Sri Lanka but hopes to chance that in the World Cup quarter-final

Sidharth Monga in Colombo24-Mar-2011Ravi Bopara has a special bond with Sri Lanka. When he came here four years ago as England’s next middle-order hope, he struggled so badly he scored 42 runs in five innings, including three consecutive ducks, and went back with “SL” written on the back of his bat to remind himself how tough it was.Earlier that year, playing only his fifth ODI, in the World Cup in West Indies, Bopara and Paul Nixon had nearly pulled off a heist against Sri Lanka. From 133 for 6, they took England to needing four off the last ball, only to be denied by Dilhara Fernando, who pulled out of the delivery first to see what Bopara was going to, and then bowled a delivery that hit the top of off.Bopara talks candidly about those two connections with Sri Lanka. “I was quite young then,” he said two days before he renews his relationship with them, in another World Cup match, a quarter-final this time. “Unfortunately then I didn’t know how to hit a six. We didn’t used to practise it back then – clearing the front leg and hitting over mid-on. So I didn’t know what to do. I just carried on what I was trying to do, which was squirt it behind point and through extra cover and that sort of stuff. If I was to face that ball now, four years later, I would try and hit that ball straight over mid-on’s head.”Bopara gives Fernando credit too. “It was a clever move I think [to pull out of the delivery first time around],” he said. “He knew what I was trying to do. I didn’t change what I was going to do. In fact I should have just pulled away when he ran up the second time. But I didn’t think that far ahead. I was just concentrating on trying to hit the ball for at least three.”Although Bopara can afford to look back at that delivery with relative amusement, the Test tour that followed later that year still rankles. He was so down on himself he didn’t want to let himself forget Sri Lanka. Hence the little note at the back of the bat. “Just ‘SL’ for Sri Lanka,” Bopara said. “Just how tough it was. It’s a horrible place to be when you’ve got such high expectations of yourself, and you don’t quite cut it. It’s a horrible place to be.”I don’t write it any more. I did when I went back just to remind myself of how tough it was then, and the feelings I had during that Test series. I was just breaking into the Test team thinking I had 10 or 12 years of Test cricket ahead. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. When players put a lot of pressure on themselves, sometimes they can buckle, and that’s what I’ve done to myself a couple of times, even during the Ashes. I thought I would have learnt from the Sri Lanka experience, but obviously I didn’t. But I definitely have learnt now. I think a lot comes from expectation, but I’ve found out ways to deal with it as I walk out to bat.”Four years on from those two experiences with Sri Lanka, Bopara was not even an original choice to be at the World Cup. He made it, though, as replacement for the injured Eoin Morgan, and was Man of the Match against South Africa in a low-scoring win that has gone a long way in keeping England alive in this tournament. Right now it is possible that he might be asked to step up and open the innings for England, given how Matt Prior hasn’t been much of a success in that makeshift role so far.Bopara certainly wouldn’t mind the move. “I’d love to open the batting,” he said. “My ambition isn’t to bat five, six or seven for the rest of my career, but let’s just see what happens. I haven’t been told anything, I don’t know if anyone has been told anything, so as far as I know it’s the same.”Bopara had opened on 14 previous occasions for England with a modest average of 29 mirroring that of his career. “I would like to have had a longer run at it,” he said. “I felt the easiest place to open was in India. It’s obviously a bit harder in England because of the new ball up front. That’s something you’ve got to get used to, but the more you open the better you get at it. Some of the best players in the world have spent time at the top of the order, and they’ve got used to it and now the top 10 batters in the world all bat at the top of the order.”There is more happening in the Test side that should excite Bopara. Paul Collingwood’s retirement could open a door for a return, which is Bopara’s ultimate aim. “I want to play Test cricket,” he said. “I don’t just want to play one-day cricket or Twenty20. I enjoy playing Test cricket and playing four days for Essex. Scoring hundreds and taking wickets and that sort of stuff. And that was my ambition as a young boy – to go out and play Test cricket and make a difference for England and be hopefully one of England’s great players.”For now, though, Tests can wait. For now, Bopara is in Sri Lanka, and needs to go back with happier memories.

Plays of the day from the third day of the third Test between England and India at Edgbaston

Andrew Miller at Edgbaston12-Aug-2011Scoreline of the day
The third day at Edgbaston was a statistical smorgasbord, the sort of occasion that appeals to the train-spotter that lurks within every cricket fan. And as with many train-spotters, the desire to rip off the anorak, tie the hair back in a pony-tail and don an ill-fitting black T-shirt to rock out to some dark and foreboding heavy metal is rarely far from the surface. And so it was, when Alastair Cook obligingly carved Ishant Sharma through third man in the 181st over, he brought up the rocktacular scoreline of 666 … for 6! The moment didn’t last long, as Tim Bresnan exorcised the devil’s number with a smack back down the ground. But like that elusive sighting of your favourite diesel engine on the Kings Cross-Leeds mainline, it was fun while it lasted.Biff of the day
Bresnan’s all-round credentials are soaring with every innings of this series. By the time of England’s declaration, he had muscled along to 53 not out from 75 balls, a performance which carried his batting average after nine Tests to a world-class 45.42, to go along with a handy haul of 36 wickets at 24.13. But the highlight of his innings was unquestionably the mow over cow corner that brought up his fifty. It was a full and flat battering to further dent Ishant’s figures, and it also carried England past 700. Not since 1938 had they racked up such riches in a single innings. doesn’t do the effort justice.Inevitability of the day
Twenty-one years ago at Lord’s, the debutant John Morris sat in the dressing-room for hours and hours on end, waiting for Graham Gooch to finish his magnum opus and give him a chance to have his first hit in Test cricket. As things turned out, he had just enough time to strike his first boundary before England declared on 653 for 4. Ravi Bopara wasn’t quite in the same boat, but in his first Test innings for two years, he was on a similar hiding-to-nothing when Eoin Morgan finally left the scene at 605 for 5. In his previous appearance at Edgbaston, in an ODI last year, he bashed 45 not out from 16 balls against Bangladesh, but this time he managed just 7 from 15, before Amit Mishra pinned him lbw.Fail of the day
Edgbaston has spent £32million on revamping its venerable old ground, and the upshot is magnificent, with one of the most imposing stands in the world game, including a press box that dwarves that of any other venue in the country. But during the afternoon session, the new building suffered a teething problem that had unfortunate knock-on effects. A problem with the high-voltage feed caused a power cut in the stand, which in turn led to the floodlights being switched off “as a precaution”. None of that would have mattered had the umpires not decided that play could not continue without them. And so, midway through the session, play ground to a thoroughly unnecessary halt. Mind you, with Cook at the crease, it didn’t exactly make a dent in the day’s glacial progress.Fail of the day Part II
God only knows what Virender Sehwag was thinking. He was on a king pair. India were swamped under a monumental lead. There were 13 overs remaining in the day. What does the world’s most destructive batsman do? Facing his very first ball (the second of the innings), he went swishing wildly at an away-swinging delivery from James Anderson, only to give the simplest of catches to Andrew Strauss at first slip. Anderson went into wild celebrations. So did the English fans. And after travelling 4000 miles to save the day for India, he ended up becoming the living embodiment of that oldest of parallels, the hare and the tortoise.

South Africa perhaps experimented too much during the T20 series against New Zealand and would benefit from some stability as they prepare for the World T20

Firdose Moonda22-Feb-2012Three-quarters of the way through the deciding T20 against New Zealand, South Africa knew that only a collapse of typically South African-esque proportions would be able to stop their opposition from winning. But, for once, the choke was on the other team. Johan Botha and Marchant de Lange bowled a nerves-of-steel over each to the give South Africa the match, the series, the No. 2 spot on the ICC T20 rankings and most importantly, an affirmation that they could exert themselves in pressure situations.”We all probably thought that the game was gone,” Botha admitted. “But the guys fought until the end. I picked up a crucial wicket and kept us in the game and Marchant finished it brilliantly. We were very happy to finish it off and win in a really tight game tonight.”The immediate aftermath will be euphoric and it should be. This victory will not erase the times that South Africa have turned to pillars of salt under pressure but it will reassure them that other teams are capable of the same. It will also give them a major confidence boost about their ability to squeeze, scrap, create tension and turn seemingly lost causes into fighting ones.The longer-term analysis will require more careful dissection. In all three matches, including the one they won, South Africa relied on a handful of performers such as JP Duminy, Richard Levi and Botha to put them into a dominant position. Captain de Villiers has long stressed the importance of a team effort and it’s evident his men want to deliver on that but the unpredictable nature of the format, coupled with the ultra-flexibility of the South African XI has not allowed all of them to do that.In three matches, South Africa used three different batsmen at No. 3. Only one of them, Colin Ingram, was not thrust into the role unexpectedly. Wayne Parnell and Albie Morkel, who did the job in the second and third match respectively, were both experiments that failed. Perhaps more noteworthy, is that both were needless experiments, forced even, because South Africa felt compelled to try something different. Both Parnell and Morkel came in to bat in the third over, with enough time left in the innings for the regular batting line-up to simply continue as usual.

There’s no need to cast the batting order in stone but an outline of how it will operate can only work in the players’ favour. The same can apply to the bowlers, who could benefit from a clearer idea of who will be called on when.

Similarly, in every match South Africa used a different pair to open the bowling. In Wellington, it was Albie Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe. in Hamilton, Johan Botha and Tsotsobe and in Auckland, Robin Peterson and Morne Morkel took the new ball. Albie Morkel did not bowl at all in the second match, Justin Ontong was not given the ball once throughout the series and often the seamers, even when going well, did not bowl their full quota of overs.Twenty-over cricket often presents an opportunity for the spinner to open the bowling and rotating bowlers is a strategy used to not allow batsmen to settle. South Africa’s extreme use of this tactic breeds a sense of uncertainty rather than cunning and the outcomes are sometimes helter-skelter, which even de Villiers has admitted to.Perhaps the new elasticity of their game plans is a response to one of the criticisms levelled at South African teams over the years of being too rigid and having an inability to adapt. So, in response, South Africa went the other way.It started in the one-day series against Sri Lanka, with a musical chairs No. 4 slot. de Villiers, Duminy and Faf du Plessis took turns in the role and each of them performed well in it. The tactic was supposed to be that the best person for the situation would come in when needed.What was never clear was who was considered most suitable to what situation except to say that South Africa would try to keep a left-right combination wherever possible, almost obsessively so. de Villiers is obviously regarded as the key man in an innings so if an anchor is needed, he is expected to lay one down and if quick runs must be scored, he should go out with skates on. The innings pivots around him and with him being South Africa’s best batsman, it should. Du Plessis and Duminy are similar scoring players, with strike rates just over 83 and 84 respectively, occupy the crease in equally busy fashion and are both pacy between the wickets.Exciting as it is not knowing who will walk out next, it leaves the line-up unsettled. There’s no need to cast the batting order in stone but an outline of how it will operate most of the time can only work in the players’ favour. It will allow for clear role identification, which is defined as more than simply being a team player or putting in 100% to win. The same can apply to the bowlers, who also do not need a concrete order of appearance but could benefit from a clearer idea of who will be called on when.South Africa’s fear is that the opposition will then have too much of an indication of what they are doing to do. Right now there are times when it seems even South Africa themselves don’t know that. They have eight more T20s before the World T20 in September. Five of those will be against Zimbabwe, which can only have been organised to allow South Africa more room to experiment and test combinations.It will be important for them realise that the bulk of that has been done. The ingredients have been mixed up as much as possible and now it’s time for them to settle. If the matches against Zimbabwe can be used to achieve that, South Africa will give themselves their best chances at being properly prepared for a major trophy.

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the first ODI at Lord’s

George Dobell at Lord's29-Jun-2012Edge of the day
Ian Bell endured a tough start to his innings. With Lee and McKay nipping the ball off the seam, he and Cook both played and missed a few times early on and, had Cummins at mid-on, hit with his throw, Bell would have been run out for just one. He was also reprieved on three, when he utilised the DRS to show that he had not hit a delivery from McKay. By the time he was out, however, Bell was timing the ball beautifully and looked set for a substantial score. Then, however, he was trapped in front by a good one that nipped back from Brett Lee and adjudged leg before. Had he called for another review, it would have shown that had edged the ball on to his pad. It was an incident that underlined the oft-repeated claim by batsmen over the years that they do not always know when they have nicked one.Milestone of the day
This was the 150th One-Day International in which umpire Aleem Dar has been one of the on-field umpires. He has also officiated in 31 as a TV umpire. The advent of DRS and the improved detail provided by television have increased scrutiny on the performance of umpires and sometimes made their job appear somewhat thankless. But, in Dar’s case, the increased exposure has only served to underline his excellence. Perfection is not a human quality – Dar made at least two errors in this game and was overruled when Shane Watson was shown to have edged James Anderson to Criag Kieswetter – but Dar must still be considered one of the best umpires the game has seen.Blow of the day
Pat Cummins’ figures were far from exceptional, but there were a few moments that hinted at what might be when he returns in the Ashes squad next year. Perhaps the most obvious was an excellent bouncer – decidedly quicker than any other delivery in the over – that struck Ravi Bopara a crushing blow on the side of the helmet as he flinched to try and avoid it. For a 19-year-old who generally appeared to be holding just a little back, it was an encouraging performance.Wicket of the day
There has been talk of late that David Hussey, despite being almost 35, might yet have a future in the Test side. With a first-class record like his – over 12,000 runs and an average of 54.84 – he might well consider himself unfortunate not to have played already. But, on the evidence of this performance, his omission is understandable. He looked tentative against the pace of Steven Finn, in particular, and got himself into a terrible tangle with the delivery that caused his dismissal: a sharp bouncer that Hussey, unsure whether to play or avoid, did a bit of both and a lot of neither and succeeded only in parrying the ball on to his stumps. If he does play in the Ashes, he can expect to face plenty of short-pitched bowling.Mix-up of the day
Matthew Wade and Michael Clarke had clawed Australia back into the game. The pair had added 57 in nine overs, batting with increasing confidence, and were just beginning to make England look a little ratted. Eventually, however, the pressure of the run-rate told. Wade dabbed one from Swann into the leg side only to see Clarke bearing down on him, utterly committed to an optimistic single. It left Wade, still in his crease as Clarke approached, to either leave his captain stranded or sacrifice himself. He chose the latter. The wicket was a nail in the coffin of Australia’s victory hopes.

India may have lost years of slip-fielding experience with Dravid and Laxman’s departure, but younger players promise new energy

Abhishek Purohit in Hyderabad26-Aug-2012No Dravid, no Laxman. Apart from all those runs, ‘who will catch ’em in the slips now’ was the question before this series started. On the evidence of the Hyderabad Test, Virender Sehwag has over the years, and will continue to catch ’em, with the addition of Virat Kohli. And yes, as an inevitable by-product of having two young men replace two not-so-young men, India’s fielding will have more energy, and will play a bigger role in the game.India caught almost everything that came their way, barring a tough chance put down at second slip by Kohli off Martin Guptill’s edge in New Zealand’s second innings. It was a somewhat difficult pitch for close-in men. There was variable bounce; some edges would carry, some would not. It was also a slow wicket; many catches went low. But India’s new group of close-in fielders passed this test.”I thought there were a couple of very good catches that were pulled out,” R Ashwin, five of whose 12 wickets came off close-in catches, said. “As a spinner, you know when catches are being taken, it puts the batsmen under a lot of pressure and it’s definitely something you relish as a spinner. I thought it was a terrific catch by Sehwag to dismiss [James] Franklin. That’s the kind of support you expect. From three wickets, I could push on to five wickets and close out the game today. So it makes a difference.”Sehwag was outstanding at first slip, where he stood in place of Dravid, the man with the most field catches in Test history. Sehwag and Dravid were at opposite ends in their approach to batting; the difference carries over into standing in the slips as well. Dravid was all focus; till the very last moment, Sehwag would appear as if he is standing at fine leg. He would roll his wrists, crack a joke, smile broadly, he would even acknowledge the crowd chanting his name with a back-waving gesture. Just as the ball is about to be delivered though, he will put his hands on his knees and concentrate. And pull off stunners like the one against Franklin, when he dived one-handed to his right to snap up a thin edge which had nearly brushed the keeper’s gloves.Kohli exudes intent even when he walks down for the presentation; so it was to be expected that he would stand in the slips and at backward short leg as if that was what he had wanted to do. All three of his close catches were sharp, low chances. The first two were at backward short leg, a difficult position because of the angle and visibility. Kohli’s reactions were as sharp and quick as the chances. He stands with feet wide apart, arches forward markedly with his back almost horizontal to the ground and remains very still. India have a new asset around the bat. Suresh Raina was the third man in the slip cordon, but he wasn’t tested. We already know his value in the inner ring; hopefully for India, he can carry that value into the slips.Another young man, Cheteshwar Pujara, stood at forward short leg. And dived around to stop the ball from passing him. Pujara got hit by a Kane Williamson pull and had to leave the field. In came another young man, Ajinkya Rahane, and dived around at the same position. He was to get hit as well later, but carried on after treatment.India saved numerous singles and cut down potential threes into twos and twos into ones with energetic chasing and sliding throughout their time on the field. That adds considerably to the pressure on the batting side. With Sehwag set to spend almost all his time on the field in the slips now, and Sachin Tendulkar as effective and enthusiastic as a 39-year old can be, India have only Zaheer Khan and Ashwin as the slow men in this XI. Even more encouraging is the strong possibility that all these young fielders could prove to be as effective wherever they are used; whether on the boundary, in the ring, or close to the bat. The future is here, and it is looking good.

Plays of the Day from the third day of the third Test between Australia and Sri Lanka in Sydney

Daniel Brettig at the SCG05-Jan-2013The boundary
The SCG had been rooting for Michael Hussey to bowl all through the innings, and had their wish granted in the final over of the day•Getty ImagesJackson Bird walked to the crease at the fall of Australia’s ninth wicket without a Test run to his name. He had faced 11 balls in Melbourne and given the general impression that batting was something far more foreign to him than landing the new ball with precision. Here he had the task of shepherding Matthew Wade to his second Test century, while also making a run or two of his own. He punched Rangana Herath for two past cover to make a start, but it was a handsome flick to midwicket for a boundary from Nuwan Pradeep that Bird will remember most fondly. His Test average is now 6.00 and climbing.The celebration
Racing from 70 to 97 in Bird’s company, Wade reached his century with a delectable drive/glide behind point that was so well timed that neither deep fielder roaming the offside fence had any chance of stopping it. The quality of the stroke was matched by the exuberance of the celebration, as Wade galloped out in the direction of the Australian dressing room and leapt while wielding his bat. It recalled his excitement upon making his first Test century, on the other side of the world against West Indies in Dominica. Then as now, he had rescued a faltering innings on a spinning pitch.The declaration
Michael Clarke has shown a knack for choosing to declare before most are expecting him to, and he was to do so again here, picking a moment when Sri Lankan heads were bowed. Two balls after passing three figures, Wade hooked Suranga Lakmal down to fine leg, where a swirling chance went down, much to the mirth of the crowd. Clarke had not closed the innings the moment Wade reached his century, which would have been the more conventional move, but by waiting another couple of balls he showed a knack for making moves psychological as well as tactical.The people power
Sydney’s admiration for Michael Hussey has been clear throughout his match, and after the deflating end to his innings on day two, the SCG crowd was waiting for a moment in which to cheer the popular retiree. Chants for Hussey to bowl began early in Sri Lanka’s innings, and he was to draw a mighty roar from the spectators when he held on to a tricky, floating catch after Thilan Samaraweera slogged bizarrely at Nathan Lyon. Eventually, in the day’s final over, Clarke responded to the wishes of those in attendance by handing him the ball. Dinesh Chandimal was in no mood to be charitable, arrowing the first delivery of the over to the cover boundary. Aleem Dar was caught up in the theatre himself, calling for a replay of a highly optimistic legside stumping shout, and Rangana Herath flicked the last ball of the day for a couple of runs. Not that it mattered to the crowd, who lauded Hussey as though he had taken a hat-trick.

The fast bowlers who form South Africa’s attack are all right-armers, but each poses a different challenge to the batsman

Aakash Chopra11-Feb-2013Even though they must mean something, the ICC rankings have often failed to represent the real footing of a team. England, for instance, are ranked No. 2 in ODIs in spite of not having won a one-day series in India since 1984; India got to No. 1 in Tests having mostly played in subcontinental conditions.But the current No. 1 in Tests, South Africa, are just as dominant on the field as they are on paper. They have an impeccable home record and an enviable away record.Good Test teams can be built around batsmen who will score runs in heaps to give their bowlers a chance, but great ones are built around quality bowlers, because winning a Test match demands taking 20 wickets.The current South African bowling attack ticks all the boxes, except the one that calls for a quality spinner, a factor that might hurt them when they tour the subcontinent next.Their pace attack itself is far from one-dimensional. Each of their four fast bowlers is radically different from the other three, and poses different challenges for the batsman.Dale Steyn
He runs in fast and bowls even faster, but that’s not what worries a top-order batsman facing Steyn. If he was just bowling fast, it would be a lot easier to handle him than it actually is. The likes of Shaun Tait, Tino Best and Nantie Hayward also generated similar speeds but were not half as effective. As a batsman, once you get the hang of the pace, you start moving a little early to get into the right positions before the ball reaches you. You also lower your backlift or start its downswing a little early. It’s not that pace won’t rattle you or won’t get you out every now and then, but it won’t be as lethal as when it is accompanied by swing. A genuinely quick bowler who can also swing the ball prodigiously is rare, and that’s why Steyn is so successful.A little secret about his modus operandi is that he drops his pace by about 10-15% when the ball is new, because, for the most part, a bowler can control the swing with the new ball only when he’s bowling at about 85% of his top speed. If he bowls faster, he will either compromise on swing or lose some control over his line and length. Over the years, Steyn has mastered the art of lowering his pace just a tad to swing batsmen out.But he also knows when to step it up – a trick many bowlers tend to forget in the pursuit of accuracy, or because they are reluctant to push the envelope again. The moment the Kookaburra gets old and stops swinging, Steyn steps up the pace, and he doesn’t hesitate to bowl a barrage of bouncers to push the batsman back before slipping in a full one much quicker.

When facing Philander, the batsman is never sure about which deliveries to play and which to leave, and while the length drags him forward, it’s never full enough to drive

Morne Morkel
When batting against Steyn’s swing, the most common mistake a batsman makes is to play down the wrong line, but with Morkel the tough bit is gauging the length. His towering height and very high arm action make the batsman uncertain of the length Morkel is bowling, because the moment the batsman has to look up – at a slightly higher than normal eye level – he begins to think everything is pitched short.Morkel also generates disconcerting bounce on most surfaces, which compounds the batsman’s problems. Even if the batsman convinces himself to go forward, because of the steep bounce the ball will hit high on the bat, if not the gloves. And if the batsman is rooted to the crease or is deep inside it, the full balls will likely find the outside edge. And Morkel is smart enough to bowl a fair sprinkling of full deliveries.If handling the bounce isn’t tough enough, Morkel also gets lateral movement off the surface. Since he’s a hit-the-deck-hard bowler, he’s always able to extract a bit more off the surface, especially once the ball gets old.Playing Steyn and Morkel in tandem makes a batsman’s job a lot tougher, for the challenges thrown from either end are radically different from each other.Vernon Philander
Given a choice, most batsmen would prefer to play Philander instead of Steyn or Morkel. But looks can be deceptive. Philander’s masterful control over his line (always around the fourth or fifth stump) and length (always bringing the batsman forward) makes him an outstanding bowler. The batsman is never sure about which deliveries to play and which to leave, and while the length drags him forward, it’s never full enough to drive.Philander also has the rare ability to move the ball off the surface, but not by means of conventional offcutters or legcutters. When he bowls, the seam is not scrambled, even after pitching. For a batsman it’s a nightmare, because no matter how much you’ve got the movement covered, the ball still beats the bat, for it just keeps moving.Jacques Kallis’ subtle changes of pace often fool the batsman into making mistakes•AFPJacques Kallis
Kallis, the release bowler for Steyn, Morkel and Philander, is as wily an allrounder as you will ever get. While he has lost a bit of pace, he has got smarter in the bargain. He doesn’t try to routinely bounce batsmen out anymore (to compensate for his relative lack of pace he would have to dig it in a lot shorter), but he hasn’t ruled out the delivery completely either: he knows that even if it’s easier to pick, it still needs some skill to play well. The bouncer also helps make his full-length deliveries more effective. It’s always better if the batsman is a little wary of taking a long stride down the pitch.Kallis has also mastered the art of operating at 75% without becoming ineffective. We generally tend to acknowledge changes of pace only when the difference is stark (a spinner bowling an arm ball or a fast bowler bowling a slower one), but little do we realise that subtle changes of pace by a fast bowler are equally effective, if not more.All these four bowlers belong to the same genre – right-arm fast/medium – but challenge the batsman differently. Steyn troubles with swing and pace; Morkel with bounce and pace; Philander messes with the batsman’s judgement of lines and length, and Kallis, in the guise of a release bowler, gets him to drop his guard before slipping in the 100% ball.South Africa already have a quality batting line-up in Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, Kallis and AB de Villiers. If they find a top-quality spinner, they will be pretty close to being considered one of the best Test teams of all time.

Unless Phillip Hughes turns his tour around in the second innings, the time may have come for a reworking of Australia’s batting order

Brydon Coverdale02-Mar-2013Just as the script for a Michael Clarke innings has become predictable – score big after coming in at three for not much – it is also easy to guess how he will answer certain questions. When asked by the media about team selections, Clarke generally replies that: “We need to pick the 11 players who will give us the best chance of success in these conditions”. And when pressed on a possible move up the batting order from his No. 5 position, Clarke usually says: “I’ll bat wherever the team needs me”.It is becoming increasingly clear that in Indian conditions, Australia need Clarke to come in higher than No. 5. It is also apparent that Phillip Hughes has little chance of contributing to team success in India given his ongoing struggles against the turning ball. Unless Hughes finds a way to overcome his problem in the second innings, Australia’s selectors should consider whether there is a common solution to the two issues: Hughes out, Shane Watson to No.3 and Clarke to No.4.Hughes is a fine batsman who piles up centuries in first-class cricket and he has made improvements to his game since he was dropped from the Test team in late 2011. Unfortunately for Australia’s hopes on this tour, his game against quality spin remains a weakness. On the first day in Hyderabad, Hughes showed some positive signs against the seamers and struck four boundaries on his way to 19. But here is a visual representation of his work against spin in this innings:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . wTwenty-three dot balls and then he fell, caught behind trying to force a cut. The past 30 deliveries of spin that Hughes has faced in this series have brought not a single run but have cost him his wicket three times. A nasty spitting ball got him in the second innings in Chennai, but he could not blame the pitch for his first-innings wicket there, or in Hyderabad. And in the tour match against India A he was dismissed by spin in both innings, for 1 and 19.Clarke says his batsmen need their own individual plans to counter spin in India; it is not clear that Hughes has one. He is watchful but just cannot score. He feels forward tentatively to defend or plays back nervously. Sometimes he gets caught in between. Simply finding a single to rotate the strike becomes an impossible task. When he tries to force the ball through off it seems an edge is inevitable.In his last Test match in Asia before this tour Hughes scored a century, but that was on a pitch at the SSC in Colombo that said “might just be the best road in the country”. There, Hughes was driving with the confidence of Sebastian Vettel; here he has looked more like roadkill. If the selectors are serious about picking the best XI for the conditions, Hughes in this form is not part of it. If the bowling attack can be altered from match to match to suit conditions, why not the batting line-up?Of course, the question is whether the backup batsmen in Australia’s squad would do any better. Usman Khawaja was unbeaten on 30 when the warm-up match against India A in Chennai was declared a draw. When Steven Smith was picked as another reserve batsman, the national selector John Inverarity said it was in part because “he uses his feet really well and plays spin bowling really well”. If the selectors have that faith, then either he or Khawaja is worth a try at No.5.That would also allow Watson to move up closer to the new ball at first drop and Clarke to come in at No. 4. Alastair Cook led England’s successful tour of India late last year by scoring a mountain of runs from the very top of the order. He set the tone. As well as Clarke is playing, it is difficult for him to do the same when he is followed only by the wicketkeeper, allrounders and bowlers. But it is also hard for him to bat any higher in a side that has four openers: Watson, Hughes, Ed Cowan and David Warner.On the first day in Hyderabad, Clarke came to the crease with Australia at 57 for 3. He had support from Matthew Wade during an Australian record fifth-wicket stand in India but that was followed by a lower-order collapse. He fell for 91 hitting across the line and trying for quick runs before he ran out of partners. There is no guarantee that wouldn’t happen if he batted at No.4 as well, but the chances should be a little slimmer.Clarke has now scored 2544 runs as Test captain at an average of 70.66, second only on the average list to Don Bradman among captains who have led their countries in at least 10 Tests. Most of those runs have come at No.5 but there is no reason he should not succeed at No.4 as well. Coming at three down for very few, as he has so often, is akin to a top-order position anyway. And by moving up, he can stabilise things with an extra specialist batsman still to come.Hughes is not the only man struggling in this top order, though Watson, Cowan and Warner have looked more likely to score. And such a change would not necessarily need to extend to the Ashes. Hughes would enjoy facing England’s fast bowlers more than India’s spinners, despite the fact that they found him out in England in 2009. Sidelining him in India does not mean he cannot play a part in conditions more suited to his style. Certainly he could keep the pressure on Cowan as an alternative opener.And of course, there is still another innings of this Test to go. Perhaps Hughes has learnt from his mistakes. Maybe he will redeem himself with a second-innings hundred. If he does, good luck to him. Australia are a better team when Hughes translates his state form to Test cricket. But if his travails against spin continue, for Australia’s sake in this series alone it might be time to reconsider his role in the short term.

Andre Russell shouldn’t have put down West Indies’ fans during a promotional event in Delhi as a part of his IPL obligations

Roger Sawh, West Indies05-May-2013Recently, Delhi Daredevils allrounder Andre Russell was quoted as saying, “People in India treat us like stars. We don’t get that kind of treatment in the Caribbean.”It was a comment made at a ‘promotional event’ for the franchise at which Russell, a Delhi allrounder, judged a beauty pageant with some of his teammates. He was reported to have entertained the audience with a Gangnam-style jig, thus fulfilling one of the many obligations in his gargantuan $450,000 IPL contract.At the time of writing this, Russel has scored 11 runs, and taken no wickets in three games this season. On this season’s performance, it is little wonder that Russell is mindful of the warmth of the reception he is getting in India – he’s probably very aware of the fact that such results on home soil would put him in line for considerable verbal abuse from a Caribbean crowd. It’s also unsurprising that he would play to his audience with dance moves, and proclaim the superiority of his adopted fans to his local ones. Some may argue that he was strictly referring to the treatment he’s been receiving, but words must always be taken in context – in front of a promotional crowd in Delhi in the capacity of a team representative, Russell’s words surely went further than mere treatment. He was, effectively, placing Indian fans on a higher pedestal than Caribbean fans. Jamaica and the West Indies – the teams, the fans, and the exposure that he had long before inking his name to a fat cheque – all take a back seat to his role as a Daredevil. If you haven’t yet noticed, as a West Indian, I’m peeved.One of the dominating fears of the advent of tournaments like the IPL was that player allegiances would be brought into question. Those fears emerged when some players were forced to choose club over country and fulfill contractual obligations over national ones. The driving reality has always been and will always be money, and fans in the Caribbean have taken their lumps and had less-than-full-strength teams represent them from time to time.There has been a growing acceptance among West Indian fans that players are pursuing a living, and that their efforts should be respected – as cricketers, the window for them to make big money is quite small, and their need to secure their futures is one that the whole of the Caribbean region can relate to. Given that thousands of West Indians live in foreign lands in order to have better lives bears testament to the fact that we understand the cricketers’ rationale – play in India, make some money, live happily ever after.While that’s all well and good, there is a missing element that is crucial to the narrative of our cricketers going elsewhere to maximize their profits: ‘Wherever they may roam, there’s no place like home’. Caribbean fans can and will accept that players are doing their jobs abroad, for we know that the grass is often greener on the other side, but at no time should the Caribbean fan be put down. I doubt Russell was seeking to denigrate the Caribbean public by lauding the treatment he has received in India, but intentionally or not, he has promoted himself by deriding his own.The Caribbean cricket-loving public is the heart and soul of West Indies cricket, and we have stuck by our team and our players through the highs and the lows since Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine wore maroon. The Delhi public fetes Russell because he is a Daredevil, and that’s fine – cricket in India is known to be a borderline religion. In the West Indies, we don’t go gaga over our players because it isn’t in our nature and, from our perspective, it just isn’t necessary. Fans support with all their heart, and love West Indies cricket from the cradle to the grave, but the reality in the Caribbean is different – our style is simpler and more laidback, people don’t get thronged in public places, and good results will be praised while bad results will deservedly be criticized. This is our way.Several players have shown outward allegiance to the Caribbean public no matter where they have been, and they ought to be commended for that. On the same note, I am almost certain that the sentiment that comes out of Russell’s statement does not represent his entire view on things, and that his intention was not to malign the West Indian public. However, it needs to be said – the Caribbean public is no one’s foot mat. No player, past, present or future, including Andre Russell (West Indies, Jamaica, and thirdly and least importantly Delhi Daredevils allrounder), should ever be compromised when it comes to West Indian support – just as the fans have always stuck by the players, the players should always stick by the fans.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line

A novelist argues that cricket is more character-revealing than character-building

Patrick Neate09-May-2013I am currently working on a feature film script. A novelist by trade and instinct, I am finding it a testing process; a tricky exercise of discipline and concision. The opening line, for now at least, is: “You can learn everything you need to know about life from the game of cricket: the old man told me that.”The script is an adaptation of one of my own novels, , a gumshoe I once believed would presage a whole new genre of suburban thriller. I even had a name for it: Chiswick Noir. Good, eh? Almost a decade later, my novel remains, so far as I know, its only exemplar.The protagonist of , George Eliot’s masterpiece, the A-to-Z treatment by way of illustration. Dorothea, an idealistic do-gooder, makes an ill-starred marriage to a crusty, deluded intellectual in the mistaken belief that personal and social fulfillment can be found in academic pursuit. After her husband’s death, she eventually marries his young cousin, giving up material security and highfalutin ideals for love and, we are left to hope, some degree of redemption.I haven’t read – create its “beat sheet”, as the movie business likes to call it. The screenplay would undoubtedly identify “carelessness” as our hero’s fatal flaw within the first ten pages, probably illustrated by some anecdote of schoolboy insouciance. Act One would culminate with him striking his first ball in Test cricket to the boundary, before a decline in Gower’s fortunes to the Midpoint (say, the time he was dropped for the Oval Test in Ian Botham’s great summer of 1981). Our hero would then fight his way back to the end of Act Two where he would ascend to the captaincy for… well, let’s make it the “blackwash” series of 1984. He would show renewed mettle in defeat, which would then lead to a grand series win in India, before the glorious summer following culminates in Ashes triumph and a glut of runs for the man himself – the golden boy all grown up. This is the feature film version. I’m not suggesting it’s a particularly good feature film, but it pushes the necessary buttons., on the other hand, would be a very different undertaking. I won’t try to plot it here, but I know that we couldn’t simply signify our protagonist with “carelessness”. In fact, there is no need to plot the novel here since it already exists in the person of Gower himself. And it is a subtle tale that can only be précised to 117 matches, 8231 runs at an average of 44.25 – greatness by anyone’s standards. And that is why Dad took offence to that single careless adjective.All spectators are, of course, guilty of careless description. I have already been so myself, characterising Ian Bell as a flower-arranger. So, by way of contrition, I will use a moment from Bell’s career as one of my examples for the comparison of two sports instead of two narrative media.In 2008, John Terry, Chelsea captain, stepped up to take a penalty in the shoot-out which could win his club the Champions League for the first time. As he struck the ball, he slipped and sent his shot wide. It was a moment of high sporting drama, certainly; if you were a Chelsea fan, some tragedy; if you were one of Terry’s many detractors, an instant of glorious schadenfreude. But I challenge anyone to claim it revealed much meaningful about his character. No doubt in Chelsea-hating pubs across the country, JT was derided as a “bottler”, but does that even approximate to a truth we believe? The fact is he missed a penalty kick he’d have scored nine times out of ten. He slipped. Shit happens.Now, let us look at Ian Bell’s dismissal in the first innings of the first Test against India in Ahmedabad in 2012. India had scored 521 and England were struggling at 69 for 4 when Bell walked to the wicket. Then, he tried to hit the very first delivery he received back over the bowler’s head to the boundary and spooned a simple catch to mid-off. I’m sure commentators used the word “careless”, though I don’t actually remember the invocation of Gower. It was an extraordinary shot, no doubt, but it also seemed more than that – in some way a summation of Bell as cricketer and man. In no particular order, Bell was batting at No. 6, a kind of ongoing reminder of a perceived weakness – we all know (and he knows) that he has the talent and technique to bat at three, but isn’t trusted to do so. We all know his reputation for scoring easy runs – even the game in which he hit his 199 against South Africa in 2008 eventually petered out into a high-scoring draw, while his double-century against India in 2011 was milked from a beaten team at the end of a long summer. The former young maestro was one of three senior pros in the England top six, the go-to men to bat their team out of a crisis. His place in the team was under pressure from the next generation of tyros and he was due to return home after the game for the birth of his first child. Lastly, we all know that cricket is a game in which you have to trust your judgement and, to Bell’s credit, he trusted his. Unfortunately, that judgement was terribly flawed, but would we have preferred him to poke forward nervously and nick to the keeper? Perhaps we would. The incident reminded me of something else I tell would-be novelists: when you’re writing well, you can reveal more about a character in one moment than in 20 pages of exposition.Anyone see Anna Karenina in this picture?•Getty ImagesOf course I recognise that the oppositions I describe between cricket and other sports, and the novel and other narrative media, are false. There are plenty of unremarkable cricket matches and careers, plenty of epic examples from any other sport you can think of; innumerable bad, unsophisticated novels and many great films of considerable complexity. Nonetheless, I would maintain that the observations underlying these false oppositions ring true. There is something about cricket at its best that sets it apart – the space and time that allow for character development, the empathy and identification between player and spectator, the struggles of an individual against the backdrop of an interwoven narrative of a wider war for ascendancy (or, if you will, a “team game”). There is something about the novel form which, at its best, is exactly the same. Or, to put it another way, in the words of Tommy Akhtar, private eye, in the last scene of my film: “The Yanks will never get cricket. They’ll never understand a five-day Test match that ends in a draw. They like victory and defeat. But victory and defeat are generally nursery rhymes, while a draw can be epic.” Cricket, like a novel, like life, often ends in moral stalemate. And it’s all the better for it.If describing Ian Bell as a florist smacks of carelessness, then describing KP as some kind of idiot savant is unfortunate (see the KP Genius Twitter account) so, by way of conclusion, let me rectify that here. After all, the idea for this little essay came about while re-reading Anna Karenina against the backdrop of Pietersen’s recent conflict with his team-mates, his captain, his coach, and the ECB.Pietersen was, I began to consider, rather like poor, doomed Anna. He was regarded as self-serving, his judgement fatally flawed, seemingly hell-bent on alienating himself from his peers. He was characterised as a mercenary, and certainly he had no desire to live in anything but the considerable style to which he was accustomed. But, like Anna, his true tragedy was an ill-starred love: a love that could not be condoned by polite society, but would not be contained by its strictures either. But who did KP love?As I read on, I slowly came to conclude that KP also resembled Count Vronsky; as Leo Tolstoy describes him, “a perfect specimen of Pietermaritzburg’s [sorry, “Petersburg’s’] gilded youth”. Vronsky is a brave soldier raised for derring-do and impressive in the regulated environment of his regiment. But he is a man of limited imagination whose bravery derives not from moral courage but the whims of his own desires. Indeed, when Vronsky resigns his commission, it is not from principle but to pursue the self-gratification of his love for Anna, a love that can never fulfill either of them.And so it dawned on me: KP is neither Anna nor Vronsky, he is both of them – the cricketing manifestation of Tolstoy’s epic of doomed love.Is this a step too far? Certainly. But fun, nonetheless…