All posts by n8rngtd.top

With one of the great T20 spells, Rangana Herath ensured Sri Lanka’s hopes for that elusive World T20 title would not wither just yet

Andrew Fidel Fernando31-Mar-2014Mystery has ruled spin bowling in the Twenty20 age. Short-format slow bowlers are no longer measured by how far they can spin the ball, but in how many directions. As the Sunil Narines and Saeed Ajmals of the world leave batsmen groping open-mouthed in their wake, the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin wonder if they are not being too square. Orthodoxy still works, but this new stuff is dynamite.To label Rangana Herath a throwback to cricket’s black-and-white days would be glib. He was, after all, the modern progenitor of the carrom ball, even if his prototype version of the delivery would never compete with the sleek new models. There is, of course, a charming devotion to tradition in Herath’s method; he is a zealous disciple of flight, a long-time servant of dip and spin. But to say there is more to Herath than meets the eye would not just be an ironic comment on his figure. The enigma of his success is as emphatic as the unknowns that shroud any doosra or flipper.As Herath slammed the opposition top order into the turf in Chittagong, New Zealand’s batsmen committed to more wrong lines than a drunk at a karaoke bar. The pitch took more turn than it had all tournament, but it was hardly spitting square. Slow bowlers would almost certainly have had more value for their revs up north in Mirpur, yet, there New Zealand’s batsmen were, feeling for the ball, prodding like they could not pick the man who only spun it in one direction all night.After the match, Herath was telling television presenters there was nothing more to his haul than “bowled the ball in the right place”. It is the reply he always gives, but 217 Test wickets in, does anybody still believe it? Five wickets for three runs are not figures befitting a bowler who simply put the ball on a length. Positive batsmen, drenched in form, do not stall and scatter at the sight of such uninspiring diligence.So what gives? In Tests, Herath’s prey is lured gently. He bowls one from out wide, another in front of the stumps, flighting the first, darting the second, adding threads as he goes, before the batsman is strung up, suddenly, dead in the web. He cannot build an insidious narrative in four T20 overs, but in Chittagong, he had condensed that mode of attack, and therein found the means to make fools of New Zealand’s two most experienced batsmen.He flighted one up to Brendon McCullum’s off stump to show him the appreciable turn first, then angled a slower one on the pads. McCullum dared not hit against the spin so early, especially if Herath had ripped it in. Another flighted, turning ball on off stump, then a dart – the first one – on the pads. The ensuing appeal was correctly turned down, but having delivered four dot balls now, Herath knew McCullum’s next move long before the batsman made it. He floated one up wide of the stumps, as McCullum charged out. The ball dived and turned to beat the blade.As batsmen trudge off, they know Rangana Herath is good, but few understand exactly why or how•Getty ImagesRoss Taylor, arguably the better player of spin, was outmanoeuvred even more forcefully. From the first two balls, Herath determined Taylor could not pick which one would turn and which would slide on, so he alternated between them, raising two appeals in the first four balls, before nailing him with the fifth. Herath was a step ahead as he beat both batsmen, first in the mind, then off the surface. That he is accurate and artful is plain, but as batsmen trudge off, they know he is good, but few understand exactly why or how. New Zealand’s top order have known the feeling before.”In the past Rangana had dismissed their top order batsmen,” Lasith Malinga said after the match. “Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor struggle against him. I had hoped to get him into the attack as soon as possible. He was successful and my decision was too.”Malinga may simply have been committing to the ruse with that statement, for although he is the captain on the team sheet, he was not the man who set Herath’s fields. Mahela Jayawardene had Sri Lanka’s reins, and no matter who walks out for the toss on Thursday, they would be wise not to relieve him of them.So often the flagbearers for fight in global events, New Zealand encountered a man whose fire consumed their own in Chittagong. Sri Lanka had made each of the last five semi finals in global events, and with one of the great T20 spells, Herath ensured hope for that elusive title would not wither just yet.

Plus, Hillary-Norgay’s previously undocumented Everest cricketing duel

Andy Zaltzman17-Sep-2014The Confectionery Stall will be taking a sabbatical until December, whilst I am touring with my stand-up show (details at satiristforhire.com). England will also enjoy a couple of months off the cricketing treadmill. It is very rare these days that England play no cricket at all during a two-month stretch. The last time it happened was from November 2013 to January 2014, a period that unfortunately coincided with the Ashes.England’s hiatus will be followed by a bumper 2015 (and early 2016) which will feature 17 Tests in 10 months, bookended by a 50-over World Cup and a World T20. Amongst all this, there is a liberal sprinkling of assorted unforgettable ODIs and T20Is, plus a week-long team-bonding marathon playing the 1980s computer game on an old Commodore 64, a Broadway run of the new cricket musical , starring all centrally contracted players as themselves, a stint on the UN Security Council, and a series of 24 one-off triangular cricket-baseball-tennis hybrid matches against the New York Yankees and the women’s world No. 5 and former Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, which will be played entirely via Skype.There are also plans for England to play a simultaneous Test match and five-game ODI series on adjoining pitches, against themselves, whilst the ECB is rumoured to be on the verge of announcing the installation of a new month – provisionally entitled Cooktember – to take place between January and February 2016, which will be used for rest, practice, promotional activities, welding Stuart Broad back together, reinstalling and re-sacking Kevin Pietersen in what will become a formal biennial ritual, and a supplementary bonus Ashes.No doubt, every single game in that period will be equally as special and memorable as the next, to both players and spectators alike, and no doubt the executives may well be giggling into their balance sheets. The golden goose, however, must be looking at its schedule, muttering to itself: “You want me to lay eggs? Ouch. Well, you’re the boss. Could you fetch me some Vaseline, please. I think I will need it.”Perhaps in time, 2014 will be seen to have laid the foundations for a new era of success after the seismic upheavals of the winter. It was a curious international summer, with two classic Test matches, at Headingley and Lord’s, both of which resulted in English defeats, one dull Test with a thrilling finale (the first against Sri Lanka), one dull Test without a thrilling finale (the first against India), and three absolute humiliations of MS Dhoni’s sappingly inept team, whose theoretically brilliant batting line-up explored every possible avenue of incompetence in a depressing masterclass of underachievement.From an English perspective, it began with fascinating failures and ended with rather uninteresting successes. All in all, it was a strangely unsatisfying summer, but one that held out promise of a genuine English resurgence. If Anderson and Broad stay fit. And Australia pick Pankaj Singh.

By the time Alastair Cook and Alex Salmond toss the coin at the Hagley Oval in five months’ time, Hadrian’s Wall may well have been completely rebuilt, and the Queen could be floating over the British Isles in a hot air balloon, desperately appealing for calm through the royal megaphone

England remained largely flaccid in ODIs, but given that they have not played a 50-over game with both Anderson and Broad in the team since the Champions Trophy final in June 2013, and only belatedly realised that it might be useful to have a few more players who can hit boundaries, their World Cup prospects cannot be completely written off. The World Cup, in its current format, is essentially a three-game shoot-out. In any shoot-out, of course, it helps to have arms and ammunition. England have generally focused too much on the bulletproof jackets. But if they take some reasonable selectorial risks, and hit form in the right week at the end of March, they have a chance. As indeed do the other seven regular quarter-finalists. Who mostly have more of a chance.I bid you farewell, then, at least until England’s ODI tour of Sri Lanka, scheduled to help them prepare for the dustbowl conditions they will no doubt encounter in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 23 February, when they will be involved in what may be one of the most politically incendiary World Cup fixtures ever played. Depending on the result of Thursday’s Independence Referendum in Scotland. By the time Alastair Cook and Alex Salmond toss the coin at the Hagley Oval in five months’ time, Hadrian’s Wall may well have been completely rebuilt, and the Queen could be floating over the British Isles in a hot air balloon, desperately appealing for calm through the royal megaphone.A Scottish victory in that game is about the only concession that David Cameron has not offered the Scots in his desperate attempts to stop the UK falling to pieces. Whatever else happens to England in their insanely overfull 2015, they simply must win that match. We must remain Great Britain’s undisputed No. 1 cricketing nation, or we will truly have nothing left.* With all due respect to the Champions Trophy, the most significant match taking place in the next few weeks is, without question, the charity game atop Mount Kilimanjaro, the celebrity 5895-metre-high Tanzanian retired volcano. The altitudinous showdown was organised by David Harper, who is raising money for cancer research, Tusk, and the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation, and features, amongst others, Makhaya Ntini, Heather Knight, Ashley Giles and Clare Connor. It is set to claim the record for the highest-ever game of competitive cricket.Whilst I applaud the charitable fund-raising efforts and the mountaineering valour of those involved – full details and a link to the donations page are here – I have my doubts that this will, in fact, be the highest altitude at which competitive cricket has been played. It simply beggars belief that Edmund Hillary – a New Zealander, after all – did not challenge Tenzing Norgay to a game of cricket when they became the first people ever to teach Mount Everest who was boss, back in 1953.Recent expeditions would almost certainly have discovered a bowler’s marker near the summit, had they bothered to look for it, whilst satellite imagery could probably reveal what look like three stump holes right on the peak of the world’s tallest mountain, if you look at it from the right angle. Furthermore, there is incontrovertible photographic evidence of the tea interval.Admittedly, it is unlikely that the game lasted very long, or offered much in the way of entertainment for the neutral. Norgay would have struggled with his run-up when charging up the slope from the South Col End, and Hillary would probably have been surprised by the pace of the ball through the thin air at 8848 metres above sea level, come down late on it, and edged it through the understandably vacant slip cordon.As the ball scuttled away across Everest’s notoriously slopey outfield, which makes Lord’s look like a paragon of flatness, the two men would probably have decided to call it an honourable draw, before heading back to base camp in their sponsored caps for the post-match press conference.Good luck to David and the teams. My prediction: a negative draw. No one is going to want to traipse all the way to the top of Africa’s highest mountain and lose. You can follow their progress on the website, and via Twitter at @kilimadness.

Australia’s performances on slow pitches are consistent. And the more they struggle, the more teams will prepare slow surfaces to greet them

Brydon Coverdale in Dubai24-Oct-2014To Chennai, Hyderabad, Mohali, Delhi, Nottingham, Lord’s, Chester-le-Street and Port Elizabeth can now be added Dubai. Not yet in terms of Australia’s losing venues over the past 18 months, for they will hold out hope of preventing defeat over the next two days. But all were pitches that lacked the pace and bounce Australia are used to in their home conditions. And all were pitches on which Australia’s batsmen struggled.”It’s hard to get in,” they like to say of such surfaces. They have proved it’s easy to get out. In many cases, to get yourself out. In England last year, new coach Darren Lehmann had plenty of cause for disappointment but was particularly irate after the loss in Durham. Set 299 to win, Australia started with a 109-run opening stand from David Warner and Chris Rogers. They were bowled out for 224.”Blokes are missing straight ones. That doesn’t help,” Lehmann said after that loss. A penny for his thoughts on the two wickets Zulfiqar Babar claimed in Dubai, when Michael Clarke inside edged an arm ball to short leg and Mitchell Marsh was lbw to a straight one. For all the talk of raging turners in the UAE, that is not what has greeted Australia. Here we have witnessed a slow pitch with a little rough and a lot of batsmen making bad choices.Mitchell Marsh was lbw to a straight one after Pakistan reviewed the umpire’s not-out decision•Getty ImagesThat is not to devalue Pakistan’s bowling. They assessed what would work against Australia and made it happen. The finger spinners, Babar and Mohammad Hafeez, worked on accuracy and kept the runs down. Yasir Shah’s legspin provided more scoring opportunities but also sharper turn. Warner aside, Australia were made to look poor against an attack whose four specialists entered the match with a combined eight Tests of experience.Again Australia had a strong opening partnership, this time of 128. But Warner and Rogers were their two top-scorers. If reaching 20 can be considered a start, four more men made starts after the openers but none passed 40. Australia lost 10 for 190 on the third day, six of those wickets to spin, but the pitch was not deteriorating, nor the ball zipping around corners. It was just sluggish, the ball did not come on.In such circumstances, either Warneresque attack or extreme patience is required. Rogers faced 103 dot balls on his crawling route to 38. He is a man designed for endurance, but also for scoring against the fast bowlers. When he tried to force the pace with a cut, he played on to Rahat Ali. For him, 130 deliveries of “getting in” were still not enough; 230 may not have been either.Alex Doolan got so bogged down that he tried for a run where a run barely existed. Clarke and Marsh were done by straight balls from Babar; Steve O’Keefe might have wished he could bowl to them instead of the Pakistan batsmen.Steven Smith showed his class against spin with a whip through midwicket against the turn of Yasir for four, but then lost his head cutting a long hop to point. Yasir pitched it short and wide and there was a touch extra bounce, but it was as if the ball was so unexpectedly mediocre that Smith’s normal thought process ceased to function. In short, it was Steven Smith getting out to a Steven Smith ball.The delivery that finally removed Warner turned out of the rough and struck middle stump, but Warner admonished himself for not defending it as he had similar balls. Instead he tried to open the face and get the score moving after the hour-long lunch break.”I tried to be too cute and look for a run and played all around it,” Warner said after play. “Credit to him, he got me out, but I was looking to score and I made a half-tracker look like a good ball.”It was better than a half-tracker, but nor was it unplayable. And that was the story of Australia throughout the innings. On a slow pitch, the dots compiled and they tried to force the issue, or in a couple of cases tricked themselves into thinking the ball would turn from the middle of the pitch. In Warner’s opinion, the rough is too wide to be a major threat.”There’s a bit of turn there but it is turn that is outside the [danger] areas,” he said. “The bowlers are going to have to pitch it out wide and it will be easy to sweep as a batsman rather than being defensive … I think it [the pitch] has been the same as day one, very consistent.”What is also consistent is Australia’s performances on such pitches. And the more they struggle, the more teams will prepare slow surfaces to greet them. Already it is happening outside Asia, as the Ashes in England last year demonstrated. There is another Ashes tour there next year. But first, they must find a way to get through this series unscathed.Perhaps more liberal use of the sweep, as Warner suggested and Pakistan demonstrated on the first two days, might help tick the scoreboard over in the second innings and keep players from getting mired down. That and not missing straight ones. Otherwise Australia’s list of recent losing venues will have another entry.

Plays of the day from the fifth ODI between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Dunedin

Andrew Fidel Fernando23-Jan-2015The loosener dismissal
Martin Guptill has had a frustrating two weeks, with his only good innings of the series so far having been cut short by rain, and it only worsened as he collected a golden duck off a poor delivery in Dunedin. Nuwan Kulasekara floated one up at around 125kph about 40cm wide outside off stump, and though Guptill was perhaps correct in aiming an expansive drive through the covers, his execution was poor. He did not get close enough to the ball and ended up giving a thick edge to the wicketkeeper.The tackle
Nathan McCullum is adept at fielding balls off his own bowling, but when he couldn’t quite get to the on-drive that Tillakaratne Dilshan hit in the 12th over, he took the non-striker out instead, preventing a run. McCullum had his eyes on the ball, but found Lahiru Thirimanne in his way as he pursued it. Midway through his dive, McCullum’s arms and shoulder came into contact with Thirimanne’s knees, and both players ended up on the ground in a tangle.The triple appeal
Sri Lanka have been keen to see the back of Brendon McCullum throughout the tour, and they were so desperate in Dunedin that they appealed for two separate dismissals off the same ball, then attempted to get him out a third way. Kulasekara jagged a short-of-a-length ball into McCullum in the second over to strike the top of his pads. The first round of appeals went up as soon as the ball made impact, but a second appeal was also launched when Kumar Sangakkara caught the ball on the full, in the hope McCullum’s bat had made contact. Neither appeal was successful though, and Sangakkara also attempted to run McCullum out, hitting the stumps with an underarm throw. The batsman had reclaimed his ground though.The header
Lahiru Thirimanne put a lot of pressure on himself in his captaincy debut, bowling seven overs as well as opening the innings. He performed adequately in those roles but did not fare well as a fielding captain, failing to defend the boundaries towards the end of the innings, and shelled two catches to boot. The worse of these came in the final over, when he chased a Luke Ronchi mis-hit over his shoulder, running from point. Thirimanne got to the dropping ball easily enough, but it bounced out of his hands, bounced twice off his head, fell on to his thigh, and then hit the turf.

Where other Indian batsmen had stomped their authority in the World Cup, Rohit Sharma’s scores appeared to nodding off. At the MCG on Thursday, he stepped up as the leader and backbone of India’s batting

Sharda Ugra at the MCG19-Mar-2015A few months ago, on a very popular comedy show on Indian TV, it was revealed that like trained infantrymen, Rohit Sharma could fall asleep at any time, anywhere. On the team bus on the shortest of journeys, in airport lounges with planes to catch and it was believed, if required, on a flat, concrete of a road in the height of an Indian summer.Many dark jokes can come from that little factoid about Rohit – about him being asleep at the wheel, dropping off at the time when his cricketing gifts were being called upon to move quicker. Why, at this World Cup, itself, as the other Indian batsmen had taken charge and stomped authority, Rohit had been nodding off – his scores had read 15, 0, 57*, 7, 64 and 16. At the MCG on Thursday night, in the quarter-final of the World Cup, Rohit turned up alert, awake and switched on.India are through to the semi-finals of the World Cup on the back of an innings that was played at a pace which for the better part was less Albert Park F1 and more Go-kart track. But the key was that it was played through to the 47th over, with a familiar, exhilarating, breathless acceleration that knocked the wind out of the Bangladesh bowlers. Rohit was the leader and the backbone of the Indian innings and on a pitch with variable pace, that made timing the ball difficult, he was able to stop the clock.His seventh ODI century, his second at the same ground in the year, was in many ways a prototype. Since 2005, Rohit is one of five batsmen – apart from Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sachin Tendulkar – with 5 scores of 130 or more in ODIs. In World Cup knockouts, his 137 is fourth highest after Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Viv Richards in terms of innings totals. It is heady stuff, but let’s not forget the no-ball. Or rather , when on 90, he holed out a waist-level full toss to a rushing midwicket fielder off the admirable Rubel Hossain. The no-ball call will probably be argued all the way through to the next World Cup and beyond, and in that regard Bangladesh were greviously unlucky. India were 196 for 3 in the 40th over and it is what Rohit was able to do after that reprieve, that gave India the total they required to put the match out of Bangladesh’s reach.Watching Rohit Sharma bat is a constant battle between the appreciation of beauty and the recognition of utility.•AFPOff the next 25 balls he faced, Rohit scored 47, and in partnership with Suresh Raina, ensured that India could jet away from 205 at the end of the 40th over to 302 at the end of innings. His strike went from a low of 60 between 51 and 70, to 180 before he was out. In his ODI centuries so far, he has scored at a strike rate of 94.6 with a boundary every 10 balls before reaching 100. Once past his century, the strike is ratcheted up to 207.33 with a boundary every three balls. Once past his century against Bangladesh, Rohit went after Rubel, taking 16 in the bowler’s penultimate over.One of those scoring shots was a six so straight, that it contained its own geometry lessons about the shortest distance between two points – the ball and where it ended up. There comes the Rohit conundrum. Watching him bat is a constant battle between the appreciation of beauty and the recognition of utility. In between his nudging and working the runs on either side of the wicket, he can produce shots that, for a few minutes, render the game situation immaterial. Even in the World Cup quarter-finals.After reaching his 50 off 70 balls – with four fours and a six – with a single, Rohit flicked the first ball of the next over from Taskin Ahmed to midwicket, as if he were brushing down a bit of lint off his dinner jacket. As his century drew close, the crowd was chanting his name and when he crossed it, he leapt into the air and punched it, doubling over in a contortion of joy, relief and release. Until today, the biggest event in the world had been mingy pickings for a batsman blessed with an abundance of ability.His captain believes that promoting Rohit to opener has made the difference. MS Dhoni said: “We felt he was a bit of waste of talent if he was batting at No. 6 for us because more often than not he was not getting enough chances to bat, and our top order was quite fixed. We couldn’t really make him play or give him enough opportunities. He began opening for India and that was the time we decided we’ll try to make him an opener, and he accepted that. He did open for us in the World T20 [in 2009], and from that point, we thought it will be good to have him as an opener because he cuts and pulls well, and he’s a natural stroke-player, again, which to some extent helps if you have somebody in the top order.”His first few innings as an ODI opener, in early 2011 on the tour of South Africa, were not fruitful, after which he was not picked in the World Cup squad. They say that the disappointment of having been left out of the 2011 World Cup squad has changed his approach to the game and made him more disciplined about his training and fitness. It took him exactly two years to return to the position of opener, after which he has averaged 53 scoring 5 centuries and 13 fifties at a strike rate of 86.9.In many ways, Rohit is his own man in the team, quiet and not given to demonstration unless he knocks off a big score or plays a key role in a big game. He does not belong to the larger, more influential core group of Dhoni, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin with Raina, Ravindra Jadeja in close accompaniment, but neither is he on the fringes. It may have much to do with the jagged edges of his performances so far, or a personality so laid back it could be what was said of David Gower: recumbent.It was his ODI debut in Australia in 2008 that earned him the notice of hardboiled pros, with Ian Chappell marking him down as a successor to Sachin Tendulkar as India’s No. 4 Test batsman. His travels since then have been long and wayward, and progress has been slow. Maybe like a high quality wine that takes a while to mature, 2015 will finally be Rohit Sharma’s good year.

Plays of the Day from the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab

Arun Venugopal06-May-2015The drop-IWhen Chris Gayle is dismantling your bowling, you want to hold on to the first opportunity he offers. In the third over, bowled by Sandeep Sharma, Gayle mistimed an aerial strike, and George Bailey turned around and hared towards the ball from mid-off. But just as he neared the ball, it swerved away and Bailey’s dive wasn’t good enough. As if to rub it in, the ball trickled over the rope. A frustrated Bailey could only slam his palm into the ground.The drop- IIAxar Patel nearly had Gayle off his first delivery after he swung it towards Manan Vohra at deep square leg. But Vohra, moving to his left, clanged what was a sitter. The cameras didn’t zoom in on Bailey, but if they had they might have recorded a grimace in place of his usually pleasant smile. Surely you can’t drop Gayle twice when he is going like this?The spidercam rebateAnureet Singh’s bowling figures received an unexpected boost in the fifth over. After Gayle dispatched a short delivery over midwicket for six, Kings XI Punjab’s fielders gathered around the umpires and appeared to discuss something. The umpires then checked if the ball had struck the spidercam cables on its flight, and as it had, they signalled dead ball. Anureet made use of the second chance to bowl a yorker which Gayle could only squirt for one. Small mercy.The nod to RonaldoA Gayle century is invariably followed by a flashy celebration and it was no different this time around. He dropped his bat, leapt up and extended his arms with a roar to boot. Gayle later said he was a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo and hence wanted to celebrate like him.

Australia’s unassuming batting coach Michael di Venuto has the responsibility for rousing into form a batsman of far greater accomplishment than his own

Daniel Brettig in Derby26-Jul-2015Coaching can throw up numerous intriguing and bizarre dynamics, not least when a journeyman player and now mentor finds himself trying to solve the problems of a man acknowledged as one of his country’s great performers. It is not always easy. As the longtime Western Australia coach Daryl Foster once observed, his path to coaching the national team was forever blocked by that old rejoinder, “How many Tests did you play?”For Michael Di Venuto, Australia’s batting coach, the unvarnished surrounds of Derbyshire County Cricket Club are something like an English home, its minor key setting also similar to that of his Tasmanian homeland. For Australia’s captain Michael Clarke, such venues are footnotes, minor junctures in a career of bold, broad brushstrokes on the game’s biggest and brightest stages. Had he been scoring runs, it is highly doubtful Clarke would even have played.Yet in the week between Lord’s and Edgbaston, it is the unassuming Di Venuto who has primary responsibility for rousing into form a batsman of far greater accomplishment than his own. Clarke’s career numbers stand for favourable comparison to just about anyone in the game; Di Venuto’s handful of ODI matches reaped him 241 runs and a pair of half centuries. When discussing Clarke, there is a sense of enormous respect from mentor for pupil.”We’d like him to spend some more time in the middle obviously,” Di Venuto said of Clarke. “He’s had a couple of good starts in the Test matches, a caught and bowled to Moeen Ali up in Cardiff and a 32 not out in the second innings at Lord’s – I know circumstances were we were setting up a declaration. He would like some more time in the middle, there’s no doubt about that. He’s meticulous in his preparation, he’s playing well in the nets, he’s preparing well, he just needs a bit of luck. I’m sure a big score is not too far away.”We talk regularly like with all the batsmen. He’s pretty set in his ways what he wants to do, he knows how to go about it and how to get himself back to scoring runs. You can’t do that in the nets, you’ve got to do that out in the middle and at the moment, it’s not quite happening for him out in the middle. As happens every now and then as batsmen, you go through little patches where things don’t quite click. But he’s not too far away.”Di Venuto’s blend of simple advice, plenty of balls whirred down with the “dog thrower” and positive reinforcement has worked in numerous instances since he was chosen for the job by the team performance manager Pat Howard and former coach Mickey Arthur during the summer of 2012-13. Most notably, his reassurance of Steven Smith that he was “not out of form, just out of runs” early the following summer has reaped untold riches since, as the vice-captain chose to persist with an essentially sound method rather than tinkering.Nevertheless, the troubles confronting Clarke are of vaster dimensions than the brief blip in Smith’s progress 18 months ago. He has not made a century in any form of the game since he ignored back and hamstring problems to score a statuesque hundred against India in Adelaide last December. Moreover, Clarke’s once dancing feet have become worryingly leaden, leaving him a simple target for England’s bowlers thus far.

“Most teams these days and most batters know how people are trying to get them out. There’s no secrets running around, their plans are pretty stuck in place, so we work around that and try to combat that.”Michael di Venuto on dealing with the strategies of opposition bowlers

The tactic of setting a short leg and even leg gully, then probing outside off stump as Clarke hangs back in anticipation of bouncers has worked all too easily in recent times. At Cardiff, Clarke’s bat wafted without anything like due care and attention, while at Lord’s his pull shot at Mark Wood was the reactive last resort of a batsman entirely unable to get the bowlers operating on his terms.”Most teams these days and most batters know how people are trying to get them out,” Di Venuto said. “There’s no secrets running around, their plans are pretty stuck in place, so we work around that and try to combat that. As we do when we bowl, we want to try to push people back and then nick them off with the fuller ball. That’s a basic plan the majority of people in world cricket use.”True as Di Venuto’s words are, they serve mainly to make Clarke’s predicament look still worse. How can a player of such accomplishment fail to find a way around such tactics unless his technique and mentality are less than optimal? There is no evidence of physical infirmity, as hamstring surgery has freed up Clarke’s legs while the physio Alex Kountouris has not needed to work anywhere near as much on the captain’s back as at other times.”I thought he looked pretty good in the World Cup final for his 70-odd not out, no difference,” Di Venuto said. “And he looked pretty good when he couldn’t move when he scored a hundred when his back was no good against India. He’s moving around, he seems unrestricted and he hasn’t had a problem since, so I certainly don’t think that’s any reason why he hasn’t been able to get a big score of late.”One man who has helped Clarke at times down the years is Ricky Ponting. Despite their difficult relationship as captain and deputy, Ponting was often seen to be watching Clarke in the nets and assisting him in sorting out the kinks of a batting method that required freedom of movement and clarity of thought to continue counterpunching the world’s bowlers.Ponting, of course, was that rare cricketer to possess a superior batting record to Clarke’s own. For most of the time since Ponting retired, Clarke has relied on his own reserves of batting insight and muscle memory to keep his game in gear, though it is notable that he played at his very peak during his first two years as captain, when Ponting was still alongside him as a senior player and source of occasional advice.Clarke’s second innings at Derby was nothing special, and included a dropped catch. But he at least made a start, and by day’s end his feet were certainly better positioned than they had been for most of his halting first-innings stay at Lord’s. How much help Di Venuto provided only Clarke knows, but the captain would do well to listen to the advice of the batting coach over the next few days. Even if he would be well within his rights to stump up with the question that had once haunted Foster.

England have overstepped the mark throughout 2015, taking six wickets which have been overturned because of no balls uncovered by the tv umpire. ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball service has logged them all

Andrew McGlashan13-Oct-2015Ben Stokes v Jermaine Blackwood, Antigua53.3 Stokes to Blackwood, short and wide but steered to slip, Blackwood has given it away… or not, because Stokes has overstepped! The reprieve is swift, Stokes walks briskly back to his mark.Mark Wood v Martin Guptill, Lord’s12.5 Wood to Guptill, straighter line, it bounces a little and takes the outside edge to first slip! Wood has his first Test wicket…oh no he doesn’t! Wood has surely overstepped, what a calamity. It’s so close but I don’t think he’s got anything behind the line here. Yep, no-ball called and Wood is robbed of a first wicket through his own fault, what a shame for him because it was a lovely delivery, angled in and straightening just enough to take the edgeMark Wood v Chris Rogers, Trent Bridge22.3 Wood to Rogers, Root takes a sharp, low catch. Oh wait, the umpires check for a possible no-ball. No part of the heel behind the crease. Wood pays the penalty for indiscipline. Short and rears up outside off to catch Rogers in a tangle. He fends and pops it to third slip, where Root flings to his left and pulls off a one-hander of his own. But it amounts to nothing as umpire Dar signals a no-ballSteven Finn v Peter Nevill, Trent Bridge47.4 Finn to Nevill, Finn claims the outside edge, his 100th Test wicket…That is a huge no-ball. He is well over the line. Good length and outside off, Nevill hangs his bat out like my mother does washing in the line and edges it to Cook, who takes it around chest height at first slipSteven Finn v Steven Smith, The Oval93.1 Finn to Smith Finn has overstepped, again. Big, big, no-ball. 4-5 inches over the line. He has to wait for his 100th Test wicket. This was slung short and miles wide outside off, Smith slashes, has a big whoosh at it and nicks it behind to the keeper, who moves to his right to pouch it. Finn is absolutely gutted. He has only himself to blame, though. It happened in the previous Test at Trent Bridge tooStuart Broad v Shoaib Malik, Abu Dhabi35.2 Broad to Shoaib Malik, width, and driven hard, into gully’s midriff! But no, it’s a no-ball! He bowled a massive one earlier in the day, which went uncalled, and England now pay the price. Oh dear …

Stats highlights from the SSC where 15 wickets fell on the third day of the third Test between Sri Lanka and India

Shiva Jayaraman30-Aug-20152001 Last time an India fast bowler before Ishant Sharma took a five-for in Tests in Sri Lanka. Venkatesh Prasad had returns of 5 for 72 in the second innings of the Kandy Test in 2001. Ishant’s 5 for 54 are the best bowling figures by an India pacer in Sri Lanka and only the fourth five-wicket haul by an Indian in Sri Lanka4 Five-wicket hauls by Ishant in 12 Tests since 2014; in 53 Tests before 2014, Ishant had taken only three five-fors. Since 2014, he has taken 48 wickets at an average of 30.95 and a strike rate of 53.0. He had taken 149 wickets at 38.81 before that and had a strike rate of 69.7.154 Runs conceded by India to Sri Lanka’s last five wickets after they had reduced the hosts to 47 for 5 in their first innings. Including this innings, the last five times India have had their opposition 5 wickets down for less than 100 runs, they have allowed more than 100 runs for the last-five wickets each time – 586 and 108 v New Zealand in Wellington, and 272 and 123 versus Sri Lanka in the Galle Test.15 Wickets that fell on the third day of this Test – equal the third highest in a day’s play at the SSC. In a Test between the hosts and England in 2001, 22 wickets fell on the third day, which are the most in a day at this venue. In the last Test as well at this venue, 15 wickets fell on the fourth day’s play.3 Number of India batsmen to carry their bat before Cheteshwar Pujara in India’s first innings. The first India batsmen to do it was Sunil Gavaskar against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 1983. Virender Sehwag did it against Sri Lanka, in Galle in 2008. The last one to do it was Rahul Dravid at the Oval in 2011. Click here for a list of batsmen who have carried their bat in Tests. Pujara followed up his first innings effort with a duck in the second innings thus becoming only the fourth batsmen to carry the bat in one innings and get out for a duck in the other innings of a Test. Bill Woodfull of Australia was the first, in the first Ashes Test in 1928-29. Geoff Boycott remained unbeaten on 99 in the second innings after getting a duck in the first in Perth in 1979-80. The last such instance was Saeed Anwar’s 0 and 188 in the Kolkata Test in 1999.6.36 Average runs scored by opening partnerships in this series – the second lowest in a series with ten or more innings. Sri Lanka and India’s first wickets have totally made just 70 runs from 11 innings with a highest stand of 15 between Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva in the first innings in Galle.6 Number of times Pujara has batted on to make at least 135 runs out of his seven Test centuries, including his unbeaten 145 in India’s first innings. The only time he didn’t do that was against West Indies in Mumbai in 2013 when he got out for 113.8 Number of single-digit scores by Sri Lanka’s openers out of ten innings in this series. The three openers played by Sri Lanka so far have together scored 120 runs at an average 12 and a highest of 51 by Kaushal Silva in the second innings at P Sara Oval.1970 The last time three different openers made centuries in a series for any team before Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Pujara for India in this series. John Edrich, Geoff Boycott and Brian Luckhurst had made hundreds as openers for England in the 1970-71 Ashes. Including the latest instance by India, this has happened only five times.5 Number of Sri Lanka wicketkeepers to hit a fifty-plus score on debut before Kusal Perera in this Test. Including Perera Sri Lanka’s last-three wicketkeepers have made at least a fifty on debut. Niroshan Dickwella and Dinesh Chandimal – Sri Lanka’s previous two wicketkeepers – had also made fifty-plus scores on debut.49 Runs by Rangana Herath in Sri Lanka’s first innings – the highest by a Sri Lanka No. 9 batsman at the SSC. The previous highest was Upul Chandana’s 40 against South Africa in 2004. Herath fell one run short of what would have been only the fourth fifty by a No. 9 on this ground. Amit Mishra had made 59 – the highest by a No. 9 at this venue – in India’s first innings in this Test.108 Runs by No. 9 batsmen in this Test – the second highest in Tests between Sri Lanka and India with two more innings possible in the match. Ajit Agarkar and Malinga Bandara had together scored 113 runs in the Ahmedabad Test in 2005, the highest by No. 9 batsmen in Tests between the two teams.

The series against India has gone and there are some interesting scenarios for South Africa as to how they use the final match in Delhi ahead of their home season

Firdose Moonda30-Nov-20151:46

Moonda: Delhi is all about fitness of SA bowlers

For the next ten days, South Africa will have to realign their expectations. The nine-year unbeaten run away from home is over. They will be hurting because of that – it was a hugely proud record in an era when teams struggle manfully outside of their own shores – but once refreshed from the disappointments of Nagpur they may also see it as an opportunity.Hashim Amla will not want a 3-0 scoreline on his CV, but Delhi is a chance for them to play with freedom and not be overly worried about the final outcome. If they want, they can also stop pretending they are happy with the pitches.Their first taste of being unshackled came at the Pench Tiger Reserve, 80 kilometres outside Nagpur, where they tracked down a tiger who even posed for pictures. The photographer in chief was Dale Steyn, who remains on the tour despite missing two-and-a-half Tests with injury, and whose participation, or lack thereof, in Delhi could be one of South Africa’s key considerations.

Awesome Tiger safari this morning. Dead eye Dale spotted Mr Tiger hiding in the bush, he kindly decided to take a stroll in front of us for 15min after, such a beautiful beast! #biggerthanhelooks #tiger

A video posted by DALE STEYN (@dalesteyn) on Nov 28, 2015 at 2:19am PST

On the face of it, there is no reason to risk Steyn. In fact, the talk throughout the week was that only if South Africa won in Nagpur and Delhi was a decider would they go to every effort to ensure Steyn was ready for a final showdown. But now that Delhi is a dead-rubber, Steyn does not need to be hurried back, except that what looms for the South Africa could make it a tricky decision for the selectors.Less than three weeks after South Africa return home from India, they will begin a four-Test series against England, for which they need Steyn fit and firing. If he is able to play the Delhi Test, they may want to give him overs in the legs as a warm-up for the home matches, especially as the man himself has admitted he performs better once he has bowled competitively, although there is a round of Sunfoil matches before the Boxing Day Test that Steyn could conceivably play in.If there is any doubt about Steyn’s availability he will be given the extra days off because South Africa will not want to deplete their resources even more. They are already in danger of being without Vernon Philander, who is recovering from torn ankle ligaments, for the early part of England series. That will also mean South Africa pondering giving their reserve seamers – Kyle Abbott and Marchant de Lange – a run in Delhi and resting Kagiso Rabada, who has played every match on tour and may be required to do the same against England.They may also want to give their reserve batsman, Temba Bavuma, time in the middle after what has been a month of carrying drinks. Although there is no obvious spot for Bavuma in the line-up, Stiaan van Zyl’s misfiring may have run its course and Bavuma could be asked to prove his versatility as a result. But if they want to be fair to Bavuma and open a spot in the middle for him, they will have to ask AB de Villiers to keep and drop Dane Vilas, who could be facing the end of the road anyway.Vilas’ body language says it all. He went from looking up keenly at big-screen replays of the byes he conceded to see how he could better his technique, to bowing his head in disappointment every time an image of him committing a blunder came up. He is unlucky in that he was given a difficult job to do in a difficult place to do it – claim the Test wicketkeeper’s spot on the subcontinent – but luck can sometimes determine who makes it and who doesn’t.For now, South Africa have resisted the temptation to recall Quinton de Kock but it is unlikely they will able to do that for much longer. As harsh as it would be to take the gloves away from Vilas mid-series, it may be the only way of gauging whether someone like Bavuma or even the extra spinner, Dane Piedt, merit a more permanent place in the line-up.This kind of experimental talk is usually unheard of in Test cricket. Even when there is seemingly nothing to play for, teams like to put their strongest XI forward. But South Africa have been unable to do that throughout the series as injuries have interfered with their equilibrium. They have been off balance for all three matches and it would be brave of them to deliberately leave themselves that way to prepare for what is ahead. Still they can do it without fearing the consequences because the challenge of this series has proved a step too far. The next challenge, though, is just around the corner.