ESPNcricinfo staff13-Oct-2015Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat but lost Shan Masood early on when a deflected a bouncer on to his stumps•Getty ImagesJames Anderson made the breakthrough, moving level with Wasim Akram on 414 Test wickets•Getty ImagesShoaib Malik helped Pakistan rebuild, though he was given a life when Stuart Broad had him caught off a no-ball•Getty ImagesMohammad Hafeez also had a let-off, when dropped on 7, but otherwise looked in good touch•Getty ImagesHafeez and Malik put on 168 for the second wicket. The former was two runs short of a hundred as tea approached…•AFP…only to fall lbw to Ben Stokes•Getty ImagesYounis Khan was quickly into his stride, going past Javed Miandad to become Pakistan’s leading Test run-scorer•Getty ImagesYounis and Misbah-ul-Haq fell in quick succession but Malik continued to his third Test ton•Getty ImagesEngland’s bowlers had fought hard throughout but another drop – again by Ian Bell off Anderson – in the penultimate over left them frustrated, as Pakistan closed on 286 for 4•Getty Images

Despite the absence of Dale Steyn, the shift to an entirely different bowling combination – two pacers and two frontline spinners – and the unfamiliar conditions, the visiting attack delivered

Firdose Moonda in Nagpur25-Nov-2015South Africa went into the Nagpur Test with half a dozen bowling options, but it turned out they needed only three. Morne Morkel, Kagiso Rabada, and Simon Harmer did the job with spells of reverse-swing, accuracy, and endurance.Despite the absence of the injured Dale Steyn and the shift to an entirely different bowling combination – two pacers and two frontline spinners – South Africa held their own in unfamiliar conditions. That India were tied down and taken out was not entirely surprising. On a surface as cracked as a piece of damaged ceramic, the ball began gripping and turning as early as the ninth over. Batting was always going to be difficult but the way South Africa pegged India back and plucked them out was largely unexpected.Morkel, the supposedly one-dimensional gentle giant who hits the deck hard and aims for the head, bowled a spell of reverse-swing reminiscent of Steyn. Harmer, the offspinner tasked with holding an end, bagged the biggest haul of the day by bowling quicker and getting some bite. Rabada did not have the same success as his seniors but contributed well enough to squeeze the hosts and reaffirmed South Africa’s belief in their strength – the seamers.

South Africa spared another injury

After Morne Morkel’s stellar performance in the second session, Hashim Amla called on the quick for one last effort in a bid to wrap up India’s innings. One ball into it, Morkel left the field in obvious discomfort and Imran Tahir had to complete the over with Dane Piedt coming in as a substitute. Having already lost Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander to injuries earlier in the tour, South Africa would not have wanted things to get any worse. The team management later confirmed that Morkel was only experiencing cramps and will be able to bowl in the second innings.

Their early work, however, showed little of what was to follow. The quicks’ opening spells were probing but lacked real poison. Morkel, in particular, stuck to a shorter length and the batsmen were happy to ignore anything they could. It was the not-so-innocuous Dean Elgar who looked the most threatening when he found turn.Once again, Elgar, who remains a part-time bowler despite his golden arm, was used before Imran Tahir, a move that revealed a worrying truth about South Africa’s premier wicket-taker: they do not trust him to pick up early wickets. Ordinarily, that would not be much of a concern at home, but in India, it asks questions about whether South Africa used him properly.As India have shown, the visitors could probably open the bowling with a spinner and Tahir could have adjusted to the demand with practicing with the new ball. But South Africa did not give themselves that option and with Tahir lacking penetration, the onus was on the rest to compensate.Harmer, who finished with four wickets, was able to do that though India attacked him early on when he experimented with his pace. As M Vijay and Chesteshwar Pujara used their feet and wrists, Harmer realised that giving more time to the batsmen would work against him. He soon pushed it quicker. “I felt that with the pace there was a bit more bite off the wicket and you saw a few balls spit. As a spinner I think that’s what you are looking for,” Harmer said. “When you bowl too slowly, a batsman can adjust and go back easily. Ideally you want the batsmen to commit to a shot and I felt the best way to do that was to bowl a quicker pace.”Harmer had to wait until after lunch for his first wicket. By then Morkel had adjusted his default setting and went full. He was rewarded when he trapped Vijay in front with a pitched-up delivery that struck the opener low on the front pad. Sticking to a fuller length seems to be a difficult thing for Morkel when his every instinct tells him to hold it back.The message to defy that instinct may have been sent across after the chat between Shaun Pollock and JP Duminy on the side of the field during the drinks break. Perhaps, a plan had been set up, as evident from the outfits of some of the South Africa players. The pants of AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessus looked like remains of a McDonald’s meal streaked with ketchup. The pair spent time between deliveries smearing their whites red, looking after the ball. They were gearing up for a Steyn special but without the main ingredient.Morkel, though, took up the lead role and may have even surprised himself with how close a replica he was. He got the ball to move both ways and the more he pitched it up, the more it swung. The sight of Ajinkya Rahana’s off stump cartwheeling would have made Morkel wonder why his name did not start with W.In his second post-lunch spell, Morkel produced one of the finest displays of his career, not only because it came completely independent of another seamer but also because it defied everything about him as a bowler, from physique to mental framework. More tellingly, it made Morkel a leader, probably for the first time.Rabada, who got some movement of his own, also bowled admirably, and toiled in difficult conditions. He was particularly impressive against Wriddhiman Saha, who was beaten regularly in the channel outside off. Rabada would then find the edge but not the wicket.Harmer eventually accounted for Saha, thanks to an athletic effort from JP Duminy at midwicket, to take reward for holding one end. He was used for the entire second session, apart one over from Duminy. Tahir was not needed at all – another sign of South Africa’s reluctance to use him for the purpose they have picked him – but he was given a shot at redemption after tea against lower order. He almost messed it up with a range of low full tosses but got it together enough to bowl R Ashwin with a googly.The legspinner may do well to heed Harmer’s words. “The biggest thing is not trying too hard,” Harmer said. “There were stages today when I did and that’s where I started to leak runs. It’s just about finding a rhythm, a line and length that works and a pace, and then keeping the batsmen thinking the whole time with field placings, with your speed and that kind of thing.”Even as Harmer and Morkel both found that, the situation was all too familiar for South Africa by stumps. The bowlers had done their job but the batsmen had already begun to undo it.

A total of 310 players, including 138 from Pakistan, are open to be drafted from five categories – Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging

Umar Farooq20-Dec-2015What is the PSL draft?It is a selection process in which five PSL teams will pick and recruit their players for the league, which will be held in the UAE in February 2016. Each team will take turns to select players from a pool of 310, spreading across five different categories. Once a team makes a successful pick, it will have the right to sign a player for a period of one season to a maximum of three seasons.Why a draft and why not an auction?The PCB has been keen to steer clear of expensive bidding wars to ensure a level playing ground. The draft process leads to parity and healthy competition besides ensuring financial viability for all stakeholders.How many players are open for the draft?A total of 310 players, including 138 from Pakistan, are open to be drafted with 29 slotted in the Platinum category, 39 in Diamond, 60 in Gold, 123 in Silver, and 59 in Emerging.Who has the first turn and how it goes on further?A ballot held on December 15 had already decided that Islamabad would be entitled to make the first pick, followed by Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Lahore. For the subsequent rounds, the draft has been set in such a manner that each pick carries weight, which culminates in parity.Each team will pick three players each from Platinum, Diamond and Gold categories. Among these nine picks, a team will have to pick a minimum of four Pakistan and four foreign players. While five players will be selected from the Silver category, two will be picked from the Emerging category. The minimum squad will consist of 16 players and can be pushed to 20 with four supplementary players.There can be one overseas player and up to three locals allowed in these supplementary picks. “Local players picked up in the supplementary picks may or may not be called up for duty by their respective teams and their contract shall only be enforced from the day of joining the squad at the venue,” the PCB said.The PCB has planned the draft for two days at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, with the rounds for Platinum, Diamond, and Gold categories taking place on December 21. The rounds for the three remaining categories – Silver, Emerging, and Supplementary will be held the following day, on December 22.Number of roundsThe draft contains 20 rounds and 100 picks in total, including the supplementary 20 picks. The first three rounds have been set for the Platinum category in which 15 picks will be made by five teams who will pick three players each. This will be followed by three rounds each for the Diamond and Gold categories. Then, there will be five rounds held for the Silver category and two for the Emerging category. The Supplementary category will have four rounds.A team will have seven minutes per pick in each round to submit a player’s name for Platinum category; five for Diamond and Gold category, and three for each pick in the Silver, Emerging and Supplementary categories. During the time period, it is up to the franchise to either select the player or trade the pick with another franchise.In case any team fails to submit their pick in time, their turn will expire. This means that the next team will take its turn to submit its pick. But the team whose time had expired can still submit its pick at another point, which will be revealed with the next team’s submission. However, if both teams submit the same player, then the team that did it first will snap up the player. The process will end when it hits the salary cap or maximum number of players per team, including the supplementary picks.A ballot held on December 15 had already decided that Islamabad would be entitled to make the first pick, followed by Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Lahore•PCB/PSLWhat is trading and how will it work?Every team will have the option of initiating two trades for the entire draft process with a total cap of $75,000. For instance, Islamabad, who have been entitled to make the first pick, can trade with any subsequent pickers but within the cap with mutual understanding. The process will take place within a certain time period to add to the formality of signing a trade form.What are the prices of each category?The total salary cap for a squad of 16 is $985,000 and the total cap for a squad of 20 is $1.1 million. The 310 players are divided in five categories according to their value in international cricket. Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging players are classified: $140,000, $70,000, $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 respectively. If the player is not available throughout the league, his salary will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.Who are the icon players?”There are no designated icon or franchise players to ensure franchise owners can pick their own brand ambassadors,” the PCB said. “Five players, including the two Pakistanis, have been given the added role of being brand ambassadors for the PSL and their teams, in lieu of which they will be paid an additional amount aside from match fee. These players include Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Kevin Pietersen, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson.”What is the relegation policy among players?If any player is unpicked from his respective category, he will be transferred into another category he had already agreed upon. Likewise, all Pakistani non-selected players will be automatically relegated to the next category.What are the full names of teams?The names of the teams come from provincial capitals -Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad. Lahore have been named as Lahore , a word derived from the ascetic of the city. Karachi Kings, Peshawar (a Pashto word meaning youth), Islamabad United, and Quetta Gladiators are the full names of the other teams.Who are the head coaches of the all five teams?Every franchise recruited its own coaching staff with the help of PCB within the allocated budget limit. Lahore hired South African Paddy Upton as their head coach while Peshawar roped in former Pakistan coach Mohammad Akram. Dean Jones was signed up by Islamabad, while Moin Khan and Mickey Arthur were brought in to coach Quetta and Karachi respectively.

Stats highlights from the Asia Cup match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Mirpur

Shiva Jayaraman28-Feb-201680 Runs scored by Sabbir Rahman – the fourth highest individual score for Bangladesh in T20Is. Tamim Iqbal’s 88* against West Indies in a T20I in 2012 is the highest. Sabbir faced 54 deliveries, equaling the second most faced by a Bangladesh batsman in a T20I. The knock was also Sabbir’s highest in T20Is, beating his previous highest of 51*, against Pakistan. He hit 13 boundaries (10 fours and three sixes), which is the joint-highest by a Bangladesh batsman in T20Is. Shakib Al Hasan had hit 11 fours and two sixes in his knock of 84 against Pakistan in Pallekele in World T20 2012.54.42 Sabbir’s percentage contribution to the team’s total – the highest in a completed innings for Bangladesh in T20Is. He got out when Bangladesh’s score was 108, at which stage his contribution to the team’s score was 74.07%. This is the highest contribution by a batsman when his wicket has fallen at a team total of 100 or more. The previous highest was Marlon Samuels’ 78 runs in West Indies’ total of 108 in the final of the 2012 World T20.7 Number of times Mustafizur Rahman has returned an economy of 5.0 or less in ten T20 internationals. He has bowled more than 20 balls in all these seven innings. His economy of 5.61 in T20Is is the fourth best among all bowlers who have bowled in ten or more innings.4.33 Mustafizur’s economy from the three overs that he bowled after the 13th – the best by any Bangladesh bowler who has bowled three of the last seven overs in a T20I. Overall, in this Asia Cup, Mustafizur has bowled eight overs after the 13th over and has taken one wicket for 52 runs at an economy of 6.50.0-4 Bangladesh’s record in T20Is against Sri Lanka before this match. Bangladesh’s win was only their fourth against a Full Member other than Zimbabwe, from 32 T20 internationals. Before this win, they had lost three consecutive T20Is. Their previous such win was against Pakistan last year.31.61 Sabbir’s batting average in T20 internationals. Among Bangladesh batsmen, only Anamul Haque – 355 runs at 32.27 – averages higher than him. Sabbir has made 411 runs at a strike rate of 121.23. Since his return to the No. 3 position beginning 2016, he has made 270 runs at an average of 45.00 and a strike rate of 135.00.82 Runs added by the stand between Sabbir and Shakib Al Hassan – the fourth highest when a team has lost three wickets for less than 30 runs. Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen had added an unbroken 112 runs against Pakistan in 2010, which remains the highest such partnership. The stand between Sabbir and Shakib was also the second highest for Bangladesh’s fourth wicket in T20Is.84 for 3 The teams’ score at the end of the 13th over. While Bangladesh scored 63 runs in their final seven overs for the loss of three wickets, Sri Lanka lost their way in the chase, losing five wickets for just 40 runs. The last seven overs produced only two boundaries for Sri Lanka.4 Times Al-Amin Hossain has taken three or more wickets in a T20I. Among Bangladesh bowlers, only Shakib’s five such hauls are more than Hossain’s. Hossain took 3 for 34 in this match.4 Number of innings by Sri Lanka batsmen to face at least 20 balls in a T20I that have beenslower than Angelo Mathews’ 20-ball 12 in this match. The slowest such innings is also by Mathews: a 25-ball 9 against Pakistan in 2012. Mathews faced nine dots and could not manage a single boundary in this match.

Joe Root’s book on the victorious 2015 Ashes series is also a summation of England’s mixed and eventful year in international cricket

Alan Gardner23-Jan-2016It was, of course, too good an opportunity to miss. Joe Root smiles back from the cover, an Ashes winner’s medal jangling next to one for the Player of the Series, the tiny replica urn in one hand and the Waterford Crystal version in the other, a blond sunbeam of victory and virtue. Root, who also rose to No. 1 in the ICC batting rankings during the series, might be a member of the iPad generation but his publishers were confident English cricket’s golden boy could help shift a few hardbacks, too.There are plenty of comparisons to be drawn between Root and the previous prodigy off the rank, Alastair Cook. Root, who recently turned 25, is really too young to produce a substantial autobiography, just as Cook was when was released in 2008, a couple of years after his debut. Cook would have a far more interesting book in him now – though there is little prospect of an imminent post-Pietersen captaincy tell-all; Root, meanwhile, has gone down the “Ashes diary” route, which allows for a fairly contained focus on a surprising and eventful year rather than striving for significance in such a fledgling career.Root’s initial rise is charted in a couple of concise chapters, although perhaps surprisingly there is no mention of the handmade miniature bat placed in his hand at two days old by father Matt. A mythological omission, but there are still useful clues as to the way ahead.Like Cook, the young Root was so small he could barely hit the ball off the square, forcing him to come up with a more dexterous technique in order to manipulate bowlers for runs. When Root’s growth spurt did come, it threw his batting so out of kilter that he felt “trapped in an alien body”; there is an echo of this in his shambling gait and bobbing marionette stance, though he seems to have largely overcome the tendency to fall over and be out lbw.

Root, the man once dubbed “craptain” by his Yorkshire team-mates, is already skipping nimbly along his own path to greatness and might even have inherited Cook’s Test mantle by the time England and Australia next meet

Root’s busy, bustling style was born out of necessity – he was told by England Under-19 coach Mark Robinson that he scored too slowly for one-day cricket – but it has become a calling card, embossed by a sharp increase in his Test match strike rate after being dropped at the end of the 2013-14 Ashes and leading to a central role in England’s limited-overs sides. It is there that his experience diverges from Cook’s, and the section on England at the 2015 World Cup (yes, they were there briefly) is probably the most enlightening part of the book.Cook was, of course, removed from the ODI captaincy weeks before the tournament but England still went in with a strategy shaped under his three and a half years in the job. They duly flopped, sticking to an antediluvian game at a time when ODIs had never been more flooded by runs. Root recalls the 121 he scored against Sri Lanka in the group stage – his highest score in 50-over cricket – as his lowest moment, after England’s seemingly respectable total of 309 for 6 was comfortably eclipsed with nine wickets and several balls to spare. “The containment game, of sitting back after posting a good score, seemed a little outdated,” he writes.England have subsequently hoverboarded their way back to the future in ODIs, with Root a Marty McFly presence in the top order. He is unlikely to ever be a power hitter in the mould of Chris Gayle or Brendon McCullum but a change to holding his hands higher in his stance – prompted by sessions with the more explosive Jos Buttler – has added to his range. That was coupled with a new mentality in the run-soaked series against New Zealand, as England vowed to play “no-fear” cricket instead of the “old safety-first approach we had gained a reputation for”.Hodder and StoughtonThere is clearly a blast furnace of drive and ambition beneath the angelic exterior but Root is also an immensely likeable – and cheeky – member of an England side that seems to have caught the public imagination once again (even if the BBC Sports Personality judges are yet to notice). Sniggering reports of a “phantom sock-snipper” at work during the Ashes are counterbalanced by Root’s fogey-ish observation that he likes to have a cup of tea before batting. Elsewhere, there is an acknowledgement of the importance of friends and family beyond the game, underpinning a healthy desire not to be seen simply as a “cricket robot”.Modern players do still exist in something of a bubble, and there are few tales of Botham-esque excess. On the contrary, Root, having been photographed out on the town in Nottingham, subsequently elects to skip England’s celebrations after clinching the one-day series against New Zealand at Chester-le-Street. Such maturity perhaps reflects the influence of girlfriend Carrie, as well as the fact that Root and Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance are flatmates no more: “During the 2012 season, we were both told in our appraisals that if we had any aspirations of playing for England we should no longer live together.”The rest of the diary is focused, understandably, on “bringing home the Ashes”, a Test-by-Test account that makes for fairly prosaic reading – as well as highlighting the lack of imagination involved in contemporary sledging (sample, Nathan Lyon to Root: “Mate, can you put some deodorant on, you stink!”). Root’s feud with David Warner, dating back to a punch thrown in a bar two summers previously, is settled via some light banter and a jokey photo posted on Twitter – something Cook would never do. But Root, the man once dubbed “craptain” by his Yorkshire team-mates, is already skipping nimbly along his own path to greatness and may even have inherited Cook’s Test mantle by the time England and Australia next meet. There will doubtless be more golden opportunities to come.Bringing Home the Ashes
By Joe Root
Hodder & Stoughton
322 pages, £20

The New Zealand fast bowler’s road to international cricket was paved with obstacles. In overcoming them he developed a taste for performing in challenging conditions

Sidharth Monga06-May-2016″Sometimes I feel like giving up, then I remember I have a lot motherf******* to prove wrong.”On the surface this Instagram post from Mitchell McClenaghan, put up on November 13, 2015, looks like one of many quotes athletes take from the internet and post on social media. With McClenaghan, though, wanting to prove people wrong has shaped his approach to cricket.Look at his archives. His first official match was a first-class game at the age of 21. Take a look at Trent Boult’s. His path to international cricket is the sort most players take these days. Boult represented Northern Districts in Under-17 and U-19 cricket, then New Zealand U-19s and New Zealand Emerging Players, before making his first-class debut at the age of 19 for New Zealand A against India A.McClenaghan wasn’t considered good enough at those ages. But he doesn’t agree with that assessment. “I have been knocked back so many times, missed so many teams, no age-group cricket, released from first-class sides, people not really seeing the value in what I do.”Every time I am knocked back I grit my teeth even harder and basically want to show everyone that they were wrong. That is a motivating factor for me. That I am out there to prove to all the people who doubted me that I have got what it takes to play international cricket. My goal is to be one of the best to have played for New Zealand in the shorter formats of the game.A lot of it is down to his father, Dennis, a tough working-class man who led a tough working-class life. He started out as a 15-year-old in a slaughterhouse and worked in the industry until he was 60.”Worked very, very hard,” McClenaghan says of his dad. “He worked his way up through the meat works and ended up running Auckland Meat Processors. Then he was chairman of New Zealand Beef and Lamb – someone who persevered and worked his arse off and was in a lot of difficult situations and worked with different people. Someone who I learnt a lot off.”

In the World Cup, the day before every match, either McCullum or Hesson would tell him he was not playing. To which he would often joke, “It’s okay, I will win you the next one”

One of the biggest lessons McClenaghan learnt from his father was in cricket, though Dennis didn’t play much.When he was around 18, McClenaghan was struggling to break into the premier side of his club, Howick Pakuranga, in Auckland. His father told him he was not doing anything special. That every bowler in the country could bowl swing or seam at medium pace. If he wanted to stand out, he had to bowl fast, bowl heavy, bowl bouncers, shake things up, become a batsman’s nightmare.”My dad was an incredible man,” McClenaghan says. “He was always about the mental side of things. That was a time when no one in New Zealand was running in really hard and trying to be aggressive and trying to bowl fast. He just said, ‘Why do you want to be a medium-pacer? Just go out there and give it everything.’ That’s his mentality, his aggression. That’s kind of rubbed off on me as well. I learnt a lot from that guy.”McClenaghan made his ODI debut in January 2013 in South Africa, replacing the injured Tim Southee and opening the bowling alongside the other ODI specialist, Kyle Mills. With the workloads of Southee and Boult being managed keeping Tests in mind, with Adam Milne and Matt Henry yet to emerge, with Mills nudging retirement, and with Doug Bracewell frustratingly inconsistent, McClenaghan soon became New Zealand’s No. 1 quick in limited-overs cricket. He opened the bowling in the first 22 matches he played and took 48 wickets at an excellent strike rate of 23, with five four-wicket hauls.At a time when ODI bowling was becoming all about containment, McClenaghan was taking wickets, with the new ball and the old ball, bouncing people out, making batsmen feel uncomfortable at the wicket. He would go on to become joint second fastest to 50 ODI wickets, and is still within a shot of being the fastest to 100. But after taking 48 wickets in one year, McClenaghan has had time to take only 34 in more than two subsequent years.With the 2015 World Cup approaching, and with Brendon McCullum and Mike Hesson championing even more aggressive and attractive cricket, New Zealand looked to swing teams out.”I enjoy being thrown the ball when things aren’t going right. I enjoy trying to change a game for our team, particularly on flat wickets”•Getty ImagesStarting the home season in 2014-15, Southee and Boult began to take the new ball. This was a period when Boult was swinging the ball late, for long, and at speeds consistently higher than 140kph. Henry and Milne came through. The new ball was taken away from McClenaghan, and opportunities dried up for him.McCullum and Hesson believed Southee and Boult could exploit the swing better, so they made the tough decision – the fastest New Zealander to 50 ODI wickets was to play only on flat pitches when there wouldn’t be much swing. If he played in helpful conditions, he would be thrown the ball when batsmen were dominating or when the swing bowlers had bowled out with the new ball.It still hurts McClenaghan that he didn’t play any role in the World Cup. He wanted to do it for his dad, who died while he was away in England playing county cricket in 2014. During his illness, Dennis was desperate to make it through the World Cup to watch his son play the final at the MCG.Sport is nothing without emotions yet decisions have to be made in cold blood. McClenaghan was hurt about missing out but willing. He was brought up to be a team man, he says, but he also realised he needed to be in the team first.”I started with the new ball, but there are guys like Tim and Trent and Matt Henry, who swing the ball prodigiously,” he says. “I only swing it a little bit. It only swings for a couple of overs for me, whereas we have got guys who can swing the ball half a foot and they do it for longer periods of time. It’s not that I don’t have the skill to do it, and I do it domestically and for other teams around the world. It’s just that we have got guys who are better at it.”I had to figure out what my role in the team was going to be and how I could play more games for New Zealand – which I wanted to do more than anything else – and give myself opportunity to win games for New Zealand. I think it was during that period [lead-up to the World Cup] and probably being left out of the World Cup, that I realised I had to bowl in these tough situations.”Luckily for McCullum and Hesson, in McClenaghan they had a man willing and able to bowl in those circumstances. Not to vulnerable batsmen who have just come in. Not when the ball is swinging. Not necessarily attractive.

“That was a time when no one in New Zealand was trying to be aggressive and bowl fast. Dad just said, ‘Why do you want to be a medium- pacer? Just go out there and give it everything'”

McClenaghan is no stranger to having to look for alternative means. When he struggled for work, he tried modelling. He has also been an extra in a TV series. In one modelling contest, he described himself as someone whom the captain throws the ball to and says: either get that guy out or hit him.When he is running out of energy during a long spell, he forces himself to hate the batsman, though he might not know him. He imagines insults or injustices, gets worked up over the most obvious wide call, just to draw on his final reserves. His Twitter handle is Mitch_Savage.McClenaghan is not a pleasant man to face, but what makes it difficult for the batsman is that there are no patterns or rhythms with him. He relies on the heavy ball, using his height and bulk to make it rise higher than it should from that particular length. He uses the angles on the crease, he is not shy of bouncers, which he bowls at different paces and lines. You can’t look at his field and know how he is trying to get the batsman out. He relishes doing all this.”I enjoy being thrown the ball when things aren’t going right,” McClenaghan says. “I enjoy trying to change a game for our team, particularly on flat wickets. I enjoy the challenge of that. I think for me it is a measuring stick if I can come in and bowl on a batting wicket and change the game or win the game for the team.”One such situation arose even before he had been assigned this role. In an ODI in Napier, India were cruising in a chase of 293. Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni had added 94 runs for the fifth wicket in 14 overs without having to take a risk, and India needed just 70 when McClenaghan came back to bowl the 43rd over. New Zealand were now a bowler short because Milne was injured in his eighth over. With nothing working, McClenaghan set a field for a bouncer against India’s best player of short-pitched bowling, Dhoni. Bouncers don’t come better than this: skiddy and headed straight for the badge on the helmet. A cramped Dhoni edged it into the helmet and was caught.”I have been knocked back so many times, missed so many teams, no age-group cricket, released from first-class sides, people not really seeing the value in what I do”•Getty ImagesMcClenaghan then toyed with Ravindra Jadeja before drawing an edge third ball. He had a slip in place for that. In his next over he got Kohli. In the space of eight balls McClenaghan had won New Zealand a game that had been lost.”That time we had Bondy [Shane Bond] as bowling coach,” he says. “The preparation that he puts into every game is amazing. He had plans A, B and C [this one was perhaps C, or even D]. Plan for me was to go short at Dhoni on a pitch that was bouncy. I could have gone for a six. But when you do have a plan, you have got to try to execute it as hard as you can. Everything has got to be done with a 110% energy. After you do that, get rid of that fear. If you don’t believe you are going to get someone like that out, someone who is one of the best finishers in the world, you are probably playing the wrong game.”A lot of this is about waiting. Waiting to get a chance – to play and then to bowl.”You have to be prepared for any situation,” McClenaghan says. “When a team could be none down for 80 and on the front foot, you have to be able to be aggressive, but also try and stem the flow of runs and change the momentum back. Or you can be held off for 20 overs, particularly in one-day cricket, because the guys are taking wickets with the new ball.”It’s a much harder role, in terms of being prepared to bowl. You don’t know exactly when you are going to bowl, you don’t know exactly who you are going to bowl to, in which situation. You have to try to stay calm and not get too anxious about when you are going to bowl and [not] get hyped up too much before you do, because it can be energy-sapping, waiting and wondering when you are going to bowl.”It’s the same with waiting to get a game. During the recent World T20 in India, New Zealand went in with just one quick in the first match and succeeded spectacularly. As they began their warm-ups for their second game, in Dharamsala, it looked much the same. McClenaghan, who wasn’t bowling in the warm-up, went to the toilet, and when he came out he saw his name in the XI on the whiteboard. He went on to be the Man of the Match with a 19th over in which he took two wickets for three runs when Australia needed 22 with five wickets in hand.”You can’t bank on knowing exactly when you are going to play or when you are going to bowl,” McClenaghan says. “I try and make sure I am prepared as well as I can be. In the days leading up, I prepare for every match as if I am playing.”In the World Cup, the day before every match, either McCullum or Hesson would tell him he was not playing. To which he would often joke, “It’s okay, I will win you the next one.”It was never clearer, though, than in Dharamsala that this was a team of 15, not 11. After Shane Watson bowled his first cutter, in the second over of the match, McClenaghan sat with Southee and Boult and figured out he needed to bowl cutters into this pitch.”When you get left out of the team, you have more bearing on the energy of the team than you realise,” McClenaghan says. “If you mope around and act hostile, the team picks up on it. It is worse for the person who is in there in the spot, because they see. They don’t want you to be upset. It can affect their preparation. It’s all about making sure you quickly switch over to team mentality and support the person who is going to play.”McClenaghan goes back to his past to explain why he can handle disappointments better than others. “Probably learnt more about the mental side of the game by not going through the programmes and age group,” he says. “Probably learnt more about myself as an individual and what makes me tick and how to get to the next level. Probably going through those situations where I have been knocked back so many times.”Even, like you say, not playing games in the World Cup, and stuff like that – these are all setbacks. In a game of T20 you can go for 16 runs in an over. A lot of people think it’s the end of the world. I guess the way I see the game is that it’s just another setback. Just another small setback. Next over is a chance of going for four or five and try to change the momentum of the game.”Just another mothef***** proved wrong then.

Zaheer Khan’s astute leadership and Chris Morris’ all-round brilliance stood out, but too many changes to the XI and stumbles at critical junctures cost Delhi Daredevils a playoff spot that was theirs to take

Nikhil Kalro23-May-2016Where they finishedSixth, with 14 points, but behind Mumbai Indians due to a lower net run rate.How they got thereAfter three consecutive years in the bottom two, Daredevils were one win away from making their first playoffs since 2012. However, their youngsters succumbed in a knockout match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, a sub-par batting performance paving the way for their exit.Daredevils’ first match ended in a demoralising loss to Kolkata Knight Riders, bringing back memories of three horrendous seasons. However, under the wily leadership of Zaheer Khan, Daredevils effected a turnaround and strung together five wins in their next six matches. In between, they lost a thriller to Gujarat Lions by one run. But Daredevils could take heart from the emergence of Chris Morris as a batsman for the first time in the tournament as the South African allrounder launched a frenzied attack on his way to the joint-fastest fifty of the season. With a young brigade that was performing consistently and a bowling attack considered one of the best in the tournament, a playoff spot was Daredevils’ to lose.Questionable exclusions and constant alterations to their XI left Daredevils unsettled. They faltered at a critical stage of the tournament, winning only one out of five matches, and were on the brink of elimination. A special knock from Karun Nair, one of their standout young performers, kept them alive with a last-ball win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, before it all went wrong when it mattered the most.HighlightsDaredevils left many wide-eyed when they spent INR 7 crore on Chris Morris at the February auction. Less than a week later, Morris helped South Africa level their ODI series against England with a sensational 38-ball 62 in a chase of 263.Morris also used his big-hitting ability to good effect. Against Lions in Delhi, Daredevils had slumped to 57 for 4 in a chase of 173 when Morris joined JP Duminy. With 115 required off nine overs, Morris put up an uninhibited display of six-hitting, plundering 82 unbeaten runs off 32 balls to take Daredevils to the brink of a win. They fell one run short.DisappointmentsA mammoth 2015-16 Ranji Trophy saw Shreyas Iyer amass 1321 runs at an average of 73.38. Talks of a call-up to the national team grew louder. But come IPL, Iyer’s graph plummeted. After scoring only three runs in his first three outings, Iyer was dropped. In all, he only scored 30 runs in six innings at an average of 5.00.Daredevils raised eyebrows when they splurged INR 8.5 crore on Pawan Negi. He went on to have an underwhelming campaign, picking up a solitary wicket and conceding 9.33 per over. Negi was often sent in ahead of Carlos Brathwaite and Chris Morris to add quick runs, but with 57 runs in six innings at a strike rate of less than 100, the move hardly worked. In the side primarily as a bowler, Negi did not bowl a single ball in three of the eight matches he played. And when he was thrown the ball, he was rarely given his full quota. A total of nine overs in eight matches left many wondering what his role in the Daredevils XI was.Key stats Karun Nair, Sanju Samson and Amit Mishra are the only players to feature in all of Daredevils’ games this season. Daredevils made a total of 35 changes in 14 games this season – an average of 2.5 changes per match. Seven different players received Man-of-the-Match awards for Daredevils this season. No other team had more than five recipients.Best winIn Daredevils’ penultimate match, a must-win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Karun anchored a chase of 159 with a composed 59-ball 83. With six required off two balls, Nair struck back-to-back two boundaries. “The season is all about having young energy around,” Zaheer said at the post-match presentation. “Good things are in store.”Worst defeatThe final match of the group stage, between Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore became a scrap for the last playoff berth, with the loser bowing out of the tournament. Daredevils had banked on their youngsters throughout. But under pressure, in the face of accurate bowling by Royal Challengers, Daredevils’ inexperience came to the fore as they huffed and puffed to 138. Both captains agreed Daredevils were 20 short of the par score.What they need to do next seasonEmbrace consistency. In the process of adopting a horses-for-courses selection policy, Daredevils’ management chopped and changed to their detriment.Zaheer’s astute leadership was one of the standout features of Daredevils’ season. But at 37, and with no on-field involvement in any other form of cricket, Zaheer’s future is uncertain, and Daredevils may have to hunt for a new captain come 2017.

Alastair Cook saw his moment and took it and his brilliant leadership was a vital factor in England’s win in the Edgbaston Test

Mark Nicholas07-Aug-2016On Friday evening, play closed with Alastair Cook unbeaten on 64. England were leading by 17, an unlikely advantage given the balance of play over the first two days. The Edgbaston full-house rose to him, and to Alex Hales who had gone to 50 from the final ball of the day. The captain returned to the dressing-room amidst a flurry of back slaps. He had batted with a hitherto unseen freedom, as if the shackles of responsibility had been thrown to the wind, and thus inspired his men. It was a brilliant example of leadership, which comes in so many forms.He unclipped the armour, towelled himself down and remarked to the team that the game felt like a boxing match. For two days England had taken the punches, now they were giving a few back. It was, he figured, going to be much the same story over the next two days. There have been periods during Cook’s career that his default position would have been to soak up the blows until the opponent wore himself out. Not these days. Confident and proud, he had hammered away – cuts and flicks off his pads, of course, but some magnificent driving of the ball too. The experience of 10,000 runs and more served him well. He saw the moment and took it.By Saturday evening, Cook was even more pleased than his wildest dream might have allowed. Though he fell early in the day himself, the others continued the momentum. Not that it was easy. Pakistan at first bowled impressively in an attacking manner and then, sensing the ball softening and the pitch becoming flatter, Pakistan bowled meanly. Ball after ball was speared wide of off-stump in an attempt to control the tempo of the match. Rather than panic, England changed down the gears, waiting until fatigue betrayed the tourists’ plan. When it did, England cashed in to a man.There was another virtuoso performance from Joe Root, cut short when a hundred beckoned. No man does tempo like Root. He brings movement and range to the game, adapting his method to the requirement of the moment. At the other end, James Vince watched and learnt, the result of which was the best Test innings he has played – a combination of beautiful flow and a previously unidentified steel. For a while, Gary Ballance let the game come to him but, once settled, he added a hint of risk to his otherwise risk averse nature. Johnny Bairstow hit them hard and ran them ragged. Moeen Ali sucked in the Edgbaston air that he so loves and paraded his touch and timing. England were suddenly miles in front and able to declare when they chose. Each one of the chosen batsmen had thrown the punches their captain had asked for.Cook then put the match out of Pakistan’s reach. It is his way. Old-timers reckon you keep the chaser interested, to encourage a hopeful response that leads to mistakes. The moderns reckon you crush all hope and choke the chaser to death.The problem England faced was that the ball would not move. Sami Aslam, at just 20 years of age, worked this out and played each one back down the line from whence it came. It was a masterclass, from an apprentice. He is the Pakistani cricketer of the hour. For the second time in the match, Azhar Ali batted with a nice feel, ensuring his team stayed in motion. Those who get stuck often find to their horror that they are sinking in quicksand.At 79 for 1, all seemed well with the Pakistan resistance. Then Cook came up with the first game-breaker. He convinced Moeen to flight the ball wide of off-stump but to keep trying to spin it hard. This brought his action into sync with his wrist. Suddenly, the ball came out with increased revs and the seam at 45 degrees. Cook himself went to gully, a most unusual position to an off-spinner and, bingo. Azhar drove hard to a ball that drifted away before it dipped just a little as the drive reached the point of impact. It fairly flew from the edge of the bat to the gully, where the captain reacted with haste and effect. He said afterwards that he didn’t know much about it. He failed to mention that you never really do when you field that close; you just let instinct work its magic.

They all rushed to a huddle of unbridled joy, except Cook who stood alone for a moment, slightly crouched, shaking the hands he had made into fists

The second game-breaker was less to do with Cook than the groundsman, whose wicket-ends from previous matches were suitably worn and dusty. The ball that pitched on the dry pitch, also bounced across and around these. After a few overs, Cook thought how handy, this thing might reverse swing. Which it did.Soon after 3 o’clock, Steve Finn was roaring in – you ain’t seen nothing like the mighty Finn. He found a smidgeon of movement away from the bat which was quite enough at that pace and when delivered with such accuracy. Even Misbah succumbed. Then Chris Woakes was called back instead of Moeen and he fired the ball at the stumps and pads with an almost indecent expectation. Confidence is the most wonderful drug. Four big fish fell for a single run.Aslam watched on, doubtless confused by his elders but otherwise untroubled. All match, his judgement of what to play and what to leave alone had been unimpeachable. Tea was delayed to acknowledge the chance of a result within the 20-minute period of extension. Three minutes of that period remained when Sami shouldered arms to a fast ball that trimmed his off bail. There are two types of leave – a good one and a bad one. Ouch, his pain was our pain for this young man’s courage, temperament and technical application deserved to take the game to the wire. He knew, as we knew, there was no saving the game now. The mighty Finn had won the day.James Anderson popped up with another wicket after tea; Stuart Broad too. The last pair delayed the inevitable and so Cook returned to magic Moeen and the man-of the-match (for the two street-smart innings he played) rewarded his captain’s faith with a sharp catch off his own bowling. They all rushed to a huddle of unbridled joy, except Cook who stood alone for a moment, slightly crouched, shaking the hands he had made into fists. The longer he plays, the more animated he becomes. His celebrations are ever so slightly showy now, which tells us he is comfortable in the captain’s skin and ecstatic at the results being achieved.These 1,200 words have included mentions of Cook, Hales, Root, Vince, Ballance, Bairstow, Moeen, Woakes, Broad, Finn, Anderson. It was not planned so, it is simply how the words turned out. There may not have been an England victory that so equally shared the efforts of each player. And there cannot have been many that were fashioned from a first innings deficit of 103.If Cook’s team win at the Oval, they could go to number 1 in the world rankings. The captain has a lot to answer for.

Misbah showed the way on day one, and the whole Pakistan team celebrated with push-ups after their Lord’s win. But is it the best of the lot? Vote for your choice

18-Jul-2016

The hosts’ pace attack, with a combined experience of 31 Tests and 56 wickets, is a candidate for being their weakest ever, yet India cannot simply show up and expect to win

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Antigua20-Jul-20161:55

‘We’re expecting a bit of grass cover’ – Bangar

There are 15 champions in Dwayne Bravo’s . Four are cricketers. None are current members of West Indies’ Test team. Even little brother Darren finds no mention in the song.West Indies have won three ICC tournaments this year. Under-19 World Cup? Champions. Women’s World T20? Champions. Men’s World T20? Champions. But they haven’t won a Test series against anyone other than Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, home or away, since August 2012.West Indies’ most recent Test series ended in January. They lost 2-0, and, but for rain, could have lost 3-0. In that series, Australia ran up totals of 583 for 4 declared in Hobart, 551 for 3 declared and 179 for 3 declared in Melbourne, and 176 for 2 declared in rain-ravaged Sydney. They scored their runs at 4.67 runs per over.Champions, West Indies’ bowlers definitely were not.

Simmons hopes to build on recent gains

Phil Simmons, the West Indies coach, has said the absence of four back-to-back Tests in their calendar in recent times could make it hard for his team against a formidable Indian side.
“Whether they think they are well prepared or not, they are one of the most dangerous sides in the world,” he said. “Their batting line-up alone tells you that they’re dangerous side and that it’s going to be a hard series. We haven’t played four Tests back-to-back in a long time, so that too is going to make it even harder. But we’re going to try to do our best in every Test match.”
Simmons brushed aside talk of “building a team for the future”, insisting the team was focused on the present instead.
“It’s not just about the future. It’s about now and how we play now. Every series is significant. I think it’s a case where we want to continue winning – we won the last Test match we played in the Caribbean against England, and then we had a couple of Test matches against Australia in which we didn’t do well, we went to Australia, so now we want to just try and build on what we’d been trying to do in Australia, the last two Test matches in Australia were not as bad as how we started, so we’re looking to build on that.”

Above the dressing rooms at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua runs a strip of sans-serif capital letters. Sir Andy Roberts End, it says. At the opposite side of the ground, above the press box, is another strip of capital letters. Sir Curtly Ambrose End.Between them, those two took 607 wickets in 145 Tests at a combined average of 22.53, with 33 five-wicket hauls and five ten-wicket match hauls.On Thursday, when West Indies begin a four-Test home series against India, their squad will contain four fast bowlers with a total of 56 wickets in 31 Tests at a combined average of 40.39, and not a single five-wicket haul.West Indies have lost Jerome Taylor to Test retirement, and have ignored Kemar Roach. While both were abject in Australia – they combined for two wickets an average of 252.00, and gave away 5.79 runs per over – no team can easily replace a new-ball pair with 252 wickets and the experience of 83 Tests, even a pair as capricious, frustrating and injury-prone as Taylor and Roach.Fast bowlers win or lose Test matches, and West Indies enter their latest home season with a pace attack that is a candidate for being their weakest ever: Carlos Brathwaite, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder and Miguel Cummins.It isn’t as if West Indies don’t have other issues. They have dropped a wicketkeeper-batsman with 74 Tests behind him, and – Kraigg Brathwaite and Darren Bravo aside – have a top order full of question marks, the biggest among them hanging over the head of Marlon Samuels, who has been on a sensational run of limited-overs form of late, but hasn’t passed 20 once in his last nine Test innings.But it is the bowling that will worry them the most, coming up as it will against the quality of India’s batting line-up and pitches that are likely to be slow and demand long spells of sustained pressure. In recent times, West Indies’ bowlers have not been particularly good at delivering those kinds of spells.”One of the words that we’re going to harp on a lot is how patient we are, because we tend to get bored of bowling [at] one place and doing well and not getting wickets, so we try something [else],” their head coach Phil Simmons said on Tuesday. “So we’re going to harp on this, trying to be patient and do the things that we’re doing well, continuously, so that we get the wickets, and same thing with batting. You bat long and you stick around, you work hard and you’ll get the just reward at the end.”Two days before the first Test, the West Indies team management tried to hammer this point home in the design of their net session. The quick bowlers’ net had an extra stump in it, nailed down on a fifth-stump line a couple of feet behind the wicket. Right through the net session, the only thing the fast bowlers attempted to do was bowl in the channel outside off stump, and the batsmen facing them tried to leave as many balls as they could. The wall of netting behind the batsmen shook violently, again and again and again. Every now and then, the fifth stump went for a spin.The effort was real, and palpable, but translating that sort of discipline into an actual match environment is a challenge of an entirely different magnitude. It will only take one bad session to remind West Indies that they are the eighth-best Test team of the nine that make up the rankings, and that they occupy that lowly spot at a time when there is talk of splitting Test cricket into two tiers.These are not good times for West Indies Test cricket, and the road uphill is steep.For all that, India cannot simply show up and expect to win. They won their last two Test series in the Caribbean, in 2006 and 2011, but only by 1-0 margins, and both those series reinforced their long-held status as a team that has always struggled away from home, seldom asserting their dominance even against weaker opposition. The last Test match they played in these islands, in Dominica, summed it up perfectly: the captains shook hands and agreed to a draw when India needed 86 runs to win, in 15 overs, with seven wickets in hand. India were content with a 1-0 win.”India,” began ESPNcricinfo’s final-day report of the Test match, “will have to wait until 2016 to win more than one Test in a series in the Caribbean – a feat they’ve never achieved.”India’s Test captain Virat Kohli, still fairly new at his job, is an ambitious man. So is their new head coach. They will want a series win, first and foremost, regardless of the margin, but they have surely set their sights a little higher than that.