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An update has emerged on Rangers and Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s pursuit of a goalkeeper to bring to Ibrox in the summer transfer window… 

What’s the talk?

According to Glasgow Times, Rangers have identified a player to potentially replace Allan McGregor for the 2022/23 campaign.

The report claims that the Gers want to bring in Bosnian shot-stopper Vladan Kovacevic, with the current Light Blues number one ‘certain’ to retire with his contract expiring this summer. 

Polish outfit Rakow are said to be willing to cash in on Kovacevic in the coming months, and it is stated that Champions League football may be a draw for the goalkeeper.

Gio van Bronckhorst needs him badly

Van Bronckhorst will be delighted with this news, as he badly needs a new number one heading into next season.

If McGregor decides to hang up the gloves, that would leave 35-year-old Jon McLaughlin as the only senior option in that position next term. The ex-Burton Albion man only played eight times in the Premiership and once in the Europa League and seems best suited to playing a backup role.

Promoting a 35-year-old to being the number one would be short-term thinking and would suggest that the club are not building a squad to develop over time. This is why bringing in a younger goalkeeper to come in and compete with McLaughlin is crucial for Rangers.

Kovacevic (24) fits into this mould, and his statistics in the 2021/22 season suggest that he would be an excellent addition to Van Bronckhorst’s team. The Bosnian recently won the award for being the best goalkeeper in the Ekstraklasa as he enjoyed a fine campaign in Poland.

In the Polish top flight, the 6ft 3 colossus kept 11 clean sheets in 27 matches and averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.93 as he made just one error leading to goal. He proved that he can deliver impressive performances on a consistent basis and was rewarded for his efforts by being named as the best in his position in his domestic league.

At the age of 24, he is a full 16 years younger than McGregor and can be the Rangers number one for many years to come if he moves to Glasgow and is able to adapt to Scottish football. This means that signing him could result in Van Bronckhorst not having to worry about the number one position for several years, which is why this is a much-needed prospective signing for the club.

AND in other news, Rangers can finally replace Defoe in deal for lethal 29 G/A gem who “never gives up”…

Liverpool have received a timely injury boost, ahead of Tuesday’s crunch Premier League clash with Aston Villa.

What’s the word?

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp revealed that forward Roberto Firmino could be in contention to feature at Villa Park, having trained ahead of the meeting with Steven Gerrard’s side.

Asked about the fitness of the Brazilian, the former Borussia Dortmund manager revealed that “he’s getting closer and closer” to making a return, while he went on to add that: “It’s a challenge [to pick a team] but the medical dept makes it easier sometimes. We will see but it’s challenging and that’s it. Bobby Firmino has trained so it is a decision for tomorrow.”

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The 30-year-old has been absent since picking up a foot injury during the FA Cup semi-final victory over Manchester City at Wembley back in April, although made a welcome return to training last week to bolster his chances of featuring in the run-in.

Supporters will be buzzing

The Anfield outfit will seemingly be thankful to see the former Hoffenheim man back in action should he be passed fit to play, with the Merseysiders needing to utilise their vast resources as they continue their push for an unprecedented quadruple.

With a Carabao Cup triumph already in the bag – and with a place in the Champions League and FA Cup final’s now secure – the club’s present concern is to keep pace in the race for the Premier League title, having lost ground at the weekend following the frustrating 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

While securing a point against Antonio Conte’s talented side may not appear a major setback, the relentless nature of their title rivals, Manchester City, has meant that any dropped point is now treated as a catastrophe.

With just three games left of the season to play in the top-flight, the Reds are currently three points behind the reigning champions and with City holding a marginally superior goal difference, meaning the battle for the league crown is no longer in their own hands.

They will need to get back to winning ways in midweek, although meet a familiar face in club legend Gerrard, with the Englishman admitting that he will pushing for a win for his Villa side, despite the potential ramifications it could have on his former club.

In truth, the destination of the title could rest in the hands of the Midlands outfit, with the club also set to face Pep Guardiola’s men on the final day of the campaign.

As far as Tuesday’s game is concerned, however, having Firmino in tow will help bolster Liverpool’s hopes of victory, with the £34.2m-rated man having netted 11 goals and provided four assists in all competitions so far this season.

Although the £180k-per-week man – who has just a year remaining on his existing deal – may no longer be a guaranteed starter in the side, he offers undoubted quality and experience in reserve, having notably netted vital goals against the likes of Arsenal and Benfica prior to his recent injury lay off.

He also offers a typically hardworking focal point in attack, ranking in the top 1% for tackles and blocks made among players in his position across Europe’s top five leagues, as well as in the top 3% for pressures made.

Teammate Andy Robertson previously insisted that the striker acts “as the first line of defence” such is his intense work ethic, with that boundless energy likely to be required in what will undoubtedly be a hard-fought tussle at Villa Park.

IN other news: Liverpool could finally replace Wijnaldum by signing £23.4m-rated “elite presser”…

Here’s a look at the records that tumbled during the second T20I between Afghanistan and Ireland in Dehradun

Hemant Brar and Bharath Seervi23-Feb-2019278 – The highest-ever total in all T20s. The previous record was 263 for 3 amassed by Australia against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in 2016.162* – Hazratullah’s score, the second-highest individual innings in T20Is. He fell ten short of Aaron Finch’s record of 172, achieved against Zimbabwe in Harare last year. Finch and Zazai are the only two players to score in excess of 150 in T20Is. Apart from his 172, Finch had scored 156 against England in Southampton in 2013.

Congratulations @zazai_3! Amazing innings!!

— Aaron Finch (@AaronFinch5) February 23, 2019

16 – Sixes hit by Hazratullah during his innings, the most by a batsman in a T20I innings. He went past Finch’s tally of 14 hits over the boundary, during his knock of 156.236 – Runs added by Hazratullah and Usman Ghani (73 off 48) for the first wicket, the most for any wicket in T20s. The previous record was 229 between Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the 2016 IPL.472- Runs scored in this match, which is the third-highest in a T20I. India and West Indies hold the record when they made 489 in Lauderhill in 2016.6.25- Rashid Khan’s economy rate, the best among all bowlers in the match. He picked four wickets and now has 24 wickets against Ireland in nine matches, the most by a bowler against an opposition in T20Is. He picks a wicket every eight balls against Ireland.91- Paul Stirling’s score – the highest by an Ireland batsman in T20Is. However, his innings came in a losing cause in a big chase. He has six of the top 10 scores for Ireland in T20Is, though Ireland’s highest T20 score against any international opposition is William Porterfield’s 127* against USA at the 2013 T20 World Cup Qualifier in the UAE.126- Stirling and Kevin O’Brien’s opening stand in the chase, the highest for any wicket in T20Is for Ireland. It breaks a record the same duo set just eight days earlier against Scotland in Oman at the T20I Quadrangular.

Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone has confounded the sceptics and naysayers to emerge as an exciting middle-order batting option for the national team

David Hopps14-Mar-2017″I was brought up in the north so I don’t really care what people say about me.” As Liam Livingstone sheltered from the heat in Colombo and reflected on a successful debut tour with England Lions, his note of defiance encapsulated a career that is now demanding reassessment.Only good things were said about Livingstone in Sri Lanka. He made two hundreds in a match in Dambulla against Sri Lanka A, doubling his first-class tally achieved in his introductory championship summer for Lancashire, and he might have had a third century in little more than a week had he not been afflicted by cramp during a one-day match against the same opposition at the same venue.By the end of a Lions tour, there is often a Man Most Likely To. In Sri Lanka, Livingstone became that man.Andy Flower, the England Lions coach, had recently observed that Livingstone hit the ball as hard as anybody he had ever seen. From Flower, whose official pronouncements often seem to come from the other side of a firewall, it was praise indeed. Livingstone’s work to quicken his footwork against spin bowling was also commended.

“If you are soft in the north, you don’t really last very long. If I was in any way soft or weak, then I might have believed that I might never play first-class cricket”

Within the England set-up, anticipation abounds. It is easy to imagine him slipping into an England one-day middle order before too long, perhaps even against Ireland in May. A late dash into the Champions Trophy squad this summer might be too ambitious – such is the strength of the batting at England’s disposal – but his shot-making is bold and his offspin, a recent development initially encouraged by Sri Lanka A’s procession of left-handers, has been instantly serviceable. His progress this season will be eagerly monitored.But accolades have not always come so easily. Growing up, dreaming of one day making the grade at Lancashire, Livingstone became inured to hearing that he was “just a slogger”. He makes no secret of the fact that he would quite like to bump into one particular Under-13 coach in the north of England who was particularly disparaging about his chances. Even now, doubts may still linger about the adaptability of his attacking style.”I’ve always been a person who doesn’t really care what people think,” Livingstone said. “If you are soft in the north, you don’t really last very long. If I was in any way soft or weak, then I might have believed that, because I am a bit of a whacker in one-day cricket, I might never play first-class cricket.”The coach who fervently believed from the outset was John Stanworth, who was a director of Lancashire’s academy until he lost his job in a coaching reshuffle in 2015, and who is now head coach of the England Women’s senior academy. When Livingstone made his two hundreds in a match against Sri Lanka A, matching an achievement only previously managed by Kevin Pietersen, Stanworth was the first person to WhatsApp him to say well done.The hot, humid conditions in Sri Lanka took their toll on Livingstone during the Lions tour•ECB”The one person who always said I would be good enough was Stanny,” Livingstone said. “He told me I hit the ball cleanly, as cleanly as he had ever seen a young kid hit a cricket ball. He was the one who had brought everyone through the academy at Lancashire, and for him to say that to me gave me the confidence that I was going to be all right. He was my one big supporter for my three years at the academy.”Livingstone is a physical cricketer, and on his first Lions tour, it is unsurprising that his Dambulla exertions took their toll. Fatigue caught up with him a few days later when he dominated another Lions innings, this time making 94 in the second one-day fixture. Increasingly stricken by cramp soon after passing 50, he was eventually last out, caught at deep midwicket, falling short of a third hundred by a few metres. His leaden attempts to return to the field to bowl in the Sri Lanka A innings lasted a single, painful over, as his body rebelled. Sri Lanka’s cloying climate had claimed another victim.”I asked the physio if there was anything I could have done, eating-wise, to avoid it,” he recollected. “I had tried to prepare. I had taken salts on. I had taken fluids on. My calves were probably just cooked from the week I had had. It was just something that happened.”I was getting a rub from the physio between innings, trying to flush out the cramp, and even lying on the physio bed I was getting cramps in my whole body, everywhere including my back. It was just physical exhaustion. When I walked back onto the field, I felt I was going to be all right. Then I tried to bowl a ball. The first ball, I felt it in both legs.

Andy Flower, the England Lions coach, observed that Livingstone hit the ball as hard as anybody he had ever seen. From Flower, it had been praise indeed

“Everything on this tour has been a learning experience for me. It is not just the heat and the humidity, the concentration takes it out of you as well. And you are very rarely able to jog a one these days. You can try and save as much energy as you can, but you always have to put fielders under pressure.”Two Lancashire players moulded by Stanworth – two players, too, of very different approaches, one unyielding in defence, one committed to attack – have this winter challenged the perception that English cricket draws from too narrow a base.Haseeb Hameed received much attention when he made his England debut against India in his father’s home state of Gujarat in November, becoming, at 19, the fifth-youngest England Test cricketer.Livingstone’s pathway, in its own way, has been just as challenging. He grew up in Barrow, an unpretentious industrial town on the Cumbrian coast, at the end, the locals like to say, of the longest cul de sac in England. Chetwynde School, a free school, like many of those in the state sector, had no cricketing pedigree. The staff arranged an occasional game in the summer, partly for Livingstone’s benefit, reacting to the talent and enthusiasm they had found in their midst.By the end of last summer, Livingstone was topping Lancashire’s Championship averages•Getty ImagesBarrow Cricket Club was only 30 yards from his home, and as he grew up, it became his favourite haunt. He was the kid who would forever be hanging around, waiting and hoping.”People these days would rather be inside playing on PlayStations – I think the whole of sport is suffering from that,” he said. “But when I was a kid, the last thing I would want was to be inside. I would be getting dragged in by my mum every night. Whenever there was training on, I would be there. Whenever there was a game on, I would be hoping that somebody wouldn’t turn up so I could fit in.”Barrow CC is home for me. As a kid, growing up on a slow, low wicket at Barrow was better for me than playing on really top club wickets because you learn you don’t score runs easily. Then as you go up the levels, the wickets get better.”So many people can take different routes into an England Lions team, and when that happens you kind of share different qualities in a team. I wouldn’t change anything.”His formative years were also striking for a brief, and entirely unproductive, university career. Many sportspeople in the past have abandoned their studies when a professional career beckons, but Livingstone was faster than most. Not a single lecture attended. The memory brought a philosophical expelling of breath.

“When I was a kid, the last thing I would want was to be inside. I would be getting dragged in by my mum every night. Whenever there was training on, I would be there”

“I never wanted to go to uni anyway. I just wanted to get closer to Lancs. I think it was a sports management degree. I went to my induction and I lived in my student halls for three months. Then I got signed on a scholarship by Lancs and that was that. I imagine there aren’t many people who have gone to uni and not gone to a single lecture. That’s the way it goes, isn’t it? Luckily I did well at the academy or I don’t know what I would have done.”In 2015, he made an impact in T20 and was part of Lancashire’s trophy-winning side in the NatWest Blast, although he made a duck in the final. Lancashire were pressing for the Division Two championship that year, so the advent of a big-hitting batsman in the academy brought no first-class baptism.But he made a List A debut against Kent at Canterbury in August of that year and made 91 from 88 balls, which convinced him that he could make the grade in all formats. He was soon pressing Ashley Giles, then Lancashire’s director of cricket, to be given his chance.Ashley Giles gave Livingstone a chance in the first-class team, and the young batsman grabbed it•Clint Hughes/Getty Images”I had a chat with Gilo at the start of last season and he said, ‘We don’t know whether you have the technique for first-class cricket but I am going to take a punt on you.’ With a person like me, it was probably the right approach. I wanted to prove them wrong.”I said I just wanted to play my own way and I thought that would stand me in good stead. He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ After the last warm-up game he said I was going to bat 7. It suited me to ease my way in. I batted with the tail a lot and it took away my own pressure because you get involved in the game scenario. It is also acceptable to be positive as a batter when you are batting with the tail. I moved up the order later in the season and it didn’t go as well, but I know I have the capabilities of batting up the order.”The summer ended with Livingstone topping Lancashire’s Championship averages, enough for England Lions to come calling. To those two Championship hundreds have now been added two more in Dambulla, but Giles has departed to Warwickshire, there is a new head coach in Glen Chapple and he will be awaiting proof that Livingstone can also prosper in Lancashire’s Championship middle order in an English spring.This might be an age when T20 riches increasingly abound, but Livingstone dismisses suggestions that this is where his career might naturally head. “A lot of people say that I am a very one-day player, and all the talk is about T20,” he said. “Stuff like that annoys me because in my first year in first-class cricket I have done all right and then I have come away and done well in Sri Lanka. I have always believed I am good enough to play first-class cricket.”The heat of Sri Lanka is now behind him. In the chill of an English April, few players will be watched with more interest.

He faced South Africa’s first ball in international cricket on readmission and their first ball in a home Test soon after. Unfortunately, it didn’t go much further

Sidharth Monga04-Nov-2015Perhaps nobody has faced two more historic balls in international cricket than Jimmy Cook. This naturalised opening batsman broke almost every domestic record when playing for Transvaal, and also scored 28 first-class centuries in three summers for Somerset. He played against rebel sides in the 1980s, but Cook’s career was almost over by the time South Africa gave up apartheid, which allowed its sporting teams back on the international stage.Cook was 38 when this happened. Just in time to play the first ball of South Africa’s international cricket since readmission and also the first international delivery bowled in South Africa since the end of apartheid. Thirty years of isolation for the nation, close to 20 years of waiting for a premier batsman, and international cricket was coming back to South Africa. What heady times they must have been.A day after this Mohali Test it will be exactly 24 years since South Africa played their first international match in their rebirth. The relations between the two cricket boards have soured a little now, but it was India who welcomed South Africa back at the time. Their first international was in India, and the first Test they played was against India. Cook remembers the 1991 visit vividly.”We basically were told, ‘Look, you guys are going to India’, the team got picked, and boom, within a week we were gone. It was amazing,” says Cook. “It happened so fast. It was like, ‘Okay, here’s the team that is going.’ We left on Wednesday and the game was, like, Sunday. I actually don’t recall us practising before we left. We hastily went to get the South African kit, and we had to do this and that.

“We basically were told, ‘Look, you guys are going to India’, the team got picked, and boom, within a week we were gone. It was amazing”

“The flight over, we were all excited getting there. The bus ride from the airport to the hotel will stay in my mind forever. The throngs of people, the screaming and the cheers. And Kepler Wessels sleeping in the corner. And all of us like [eyebrows raised], ‘Check this guy out. He’s seen all of this before.’ Fast asleep in the bus. Amazing. Special memories.”Time slowed down once they lost the toss and were asked to bat first at Eden Gardens. “I walked out with Andrew Hudson,” Cook says. “That time I will never forget. My first international match. Andrew and I sat in the change room and I said to him, ‘If you don’t mind, I want to face the first ball.’ I always took the first ball. I liked to get in there and get started. He said to me, ‘Yeah, yeah. That’s fine. I haven’t got a problem with that.'”And as we walked out – we must have been halfway out to the middle – I looked at him, and he was shaking like a leaf. And I said to him, ‘Are you okay?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ I said, ‘Do you want to face and get it done with?’ He said, ‘No, no, no. You face.’ And I thought, ‘Shit, this guy has got no chance.’What became of Hudson then? “He got nought.”Just as well that Cook didn’t expose Hudson to Kapil Dev first ball. This is how he recollects it: “Kapil Dev ran in to bowl, and I thought this was fine, and the crowd’s going to settle down. But as he got closer, they kept getting louder and louder. And I was used to a bit of buzz in the crowd, but as the bowler charged in, everybody sat quiet. This was a ‘Wooooooooooaahhhhhh…’ And the time he let the ball go, I was like, ‘Jeeeez… I have played the first ball.'”I think I managed to get a single off the third or fourth ball. Andrew was out in that first over. Third ball he faced, he was out lbw or caught behind. He was a nervous wreck. I will never forget to this day, walking out with him. He was shaking.”Hudson is still often reminded of the game by Cook. “[When I met him recently] I said to him, ‘Do you remember?’ He said, ‘Shit, I never felt like that [before or since].’Chewing the fat with Warne on Australia’s 2002 tour of South Africa•Getty Images”I was lucky. At least I had played the rebel tour, and I got into playing for South Africa. He was… phew.”After that short trip to India, during which they were amazed at how good a 16-year-old – Sachin Tendulkar – could be, Cook had reason to give up hope that he would play any more international cricket. He was not taken to the World Cup because he was not all that fit and fielding was important. When he wasn’t picked for the one-off Test in the West Indies the following year, Cook feared that could be it. That his dream of playing Test cricket, which he had nurtured for close to 20 years, might not come to fruition.He remembers being bitter about not being picked for the tours of Australia and the West Indies. “I should have gone to Barbados,” he says. “I don’t say it in a big-headed way. They were starting to bring in younger guys, and I appreciate that. I never minded if a guy said, ‘Look, we are not taking you on the tour because we have a younger guy. We want to blood him.’ I would have had no problem with that.”They went to Sri Lanka, and I went on the tour. Then, about two or three weeks later, the guys were going to Australia. I didn’t get many chances in Sri Lanka, but I helped a lot of young guys with their games, in terms of coaching. I was 40 at the time. So I had a lot of coaching inside me. They all said, ‘Thank you very much.'”The day after we got back, Dr [Ali] Bacher called me and said, ‘I have got lots of reports from the guys. Thank you for everything you did. The guys said you were absolutely fantastic on the tour, and I know you didn’t play that much. Go out and get some runs between now and the tour to Australia, and you will go to Australia as well.’ I said, ‘No problem, doc.’ First game here at the Wanderers, 105. Missed the tour to Australia.”Cook was more miffed at the reasons given to him. “They said the Australian wickets wouldn’t suit me,” he says. “That they were fast and bouncy. I have played on fast and bouncy wickets all my life. Don’t give me that excuse. Say I am too old or you want to try a young guy, but don’t tell me the pitches won’t suit me. They would have been right down my alley.

“They said the Australian wickets wouldn’t suit me, that they were fast and bouncy. I have played on fast and bouncy wickets all my life. Don’t give me that excuse”

“World Cup, I was surprised, from an experience point of view. That [West Indies] tour, I never understand. Even though I was 40 at the time, and I understand if it was a young player going. They should have said that.”Cook continued playing first-class cricket, and he tried coaching Transvaal at the same time but gave up because it proved too much to handle.”Missing the World Cup was probably my most disappointing thing in cricket,” he says. “I was so determined, and I went out and broke the record in one or two of the competitions and got picked for the home series. I wanted to tell them, ‘This is not age, boy. This is about you wanting to go and try some youngsters.’ To be fair, Jonty Rhodes and Hansie Cronje and the guys came through and played [well]. Maybe they were justified, but I was disappointed.”It was Kapil again when South Africa lost the toss in Durban on November 13, 1992 and were asked to go face the first ball of international cricket in the country in 30 years. So Cook walked out again with Hudson for another historic event, and decided to face the first ball once again. Tendulkar had by now become an even bigger phenomenon, having made centuries in Sydney and Perth. He fielded at second slip as Kapil ran in, this time in front of a lukewarm crowd – fewer than 30,000 came in to watch over the course of the Test, according to .This time the memories weren’t pleasant for Cook. “I don’t think that was ever out, but I got out first ball of the Test match. It was caught second slip. Caught Tendulkar. He didn’t know, to be fair. I am not saying he cheated me. That would be unfair. But he went forward, and I was convinced that it had bounced this far in front of him. So I stood there.”Steve Bucknor was at the bowler’s end, and he didn’t know. He walked forward and said, ‘Gentlemen, I don’t know.’ So he looked at the guy at square leg, who was a South African umpire [Cyril Mitchley]. And he said it’s out. And I thought, ‘How can you say from there that it carried?’ Anyway, I walked off. In the change room, everyone to the man was like, ‘Jeez, we cannot believe that. That ball clearly bounced.'”The cruelty of that is heightened when you consider that this was the first match with a third umpire. Until recently that meant that the call on any doubtful catch would always go in favour of the batsman. “That was the first match with the third umpire. Otherwise I would have had to ask them, ‘Did you catch it?'” says Cook. “But because you had replays, I stood there and said, ‘Let the replay show me, because I was convinced that I was not out.’ On a normal day if there was no TV I would have turned to Tendulkar and asked, ‘Did you catch it?’ And he might have said, ‘I’m not sure’ or ‘I definitely did.’ The other guys might have said it was 100% out, and I would have walked off. That’s the way I played the game.”You wait 20 years, you put every sinew of the body into trying to play Test cricket, and then first ball you are gone. Only now Cook can shrug and say, “Ah. That’s life.”

In a batting order containing four or five relatively inexperienced cricketers, it is not obvious who in the dressing room can revitalise England

George Dobell at Trent Bridge11-Jul-2014If you were the sort of driver who kept colliding with bollards, the sort of sailor who kept hitting rocks and the sort of pilot who kept crash landing, you might conclude, eventually, that you are not very good at driving, sailing or flying.A similar conclusion might be sinking into the seasick sailors of English cricket. Beaten like a snare drum, by Australia, Sri Lanka and Netherlands among others, the England team would be better served acknowledging their failings than hiding behind poor fortune. Only fools and losers continually bemoan luck as the cause of their failings.Yes, at least one England player was the victim of an umpiring error. But so was at least one India player. And Murali Vijay looked in better form than Matt Prior. And yes, a ball change at the end of the 54th over did appear to precipitate England’s collapse, though a mildly reverse-swinging ball at this pace should hardly have caused this level of bother.Instead, England should reflect that, if they play across straight deliveries (Alastair Cook), if they poke at wide deliveries (Ian Bell), if they lose balance at the crease (Gary Ballance), if they play back when they should be forward (Sam Robson), they are not the victims of bad luck. They are guilty of poor batting.This is hardly the first batting collapse they have experienced in recent times. Indeed, the 6 for 68 they suffered here on a slow pitch and against a modest attack, compares well against the 5 for 18 they suffered in the previous Test at Headingley, the 5 for 23 and 4 for 8 they suffered in Sydney, the 6 for 53 and 5 for 6 they suffered in Melbourne, the 6 for 24 in Adelaide, the 8 for 54 and 7 for 49 in Brisbane or the 6 for 37 here last year. If something keeps happening it is not an aberration; it is a problem.They might also reflect on what sort of surfaces they like. Because, in recent times, they have struggled on pitches offering spin, struggled on pitches offering bounce, struggled on pitches where the balls skids, struggled on pitches where the balls swings and struggled on pitches like this where the ball does very little of anything. Until Test cricket is played on ice, they are going to have to learn to manage a bit better on at least some of those surfaces.Root delighted with England’s late response

Joe Root celebrated England’s fightback despite another batting collapse on the third day of the Investec Test at Trent Bridge. England lost 6 for 68, stumbling to 202 for 7 and facing the possibility of being forced to follow-on despite benign batting conditions.
But a stand of 78 for the eighth-wicket between Root, who closed unbeaten on 78, and Stuart Broad, who made 47, and an unbroken stand of 54 for the tenth-wicket between Root and James Anderson, who is unbeaten on 23, at least kept England’s head above water. They resume on day four, 105 runs behind with one wicket remaining in their first innings.
“We had to fight and the way we responded after tea was fantastic,” Root said. “It was obviously a key point in the game, and we knew our backs were against the wall.
“I thought Broady came out and put a lot of pressure back on India. It was a phenomenal knock to come out and play that bravely. Then Jimmy, towards the end, was sensational and took a lot of the pressure off me.”
But Root admitted that England’s batting had been disappointing. In particular, he accepted they had struggled once the umpires changed the ball at the end of the 54th over and the new one offered more reverse swing.
“I think that ball change obviously played a big part in the game,” Root said. “And we didn’t quite respond to it well enough. We’re going to have to make sure we do recognise those periods, and front up a bit sooner.
“I thought when we did realise it and did regroup we were brilliant. So I hope that’s something we can learn from and get better at.
“You’ve got to give a bit of credit to India. The way they bowled in that middle session was very good and put a lot of pressure on us. But the promising thing is that we came out after tea and put that pressure straight back on to them.”

The sight of James Anderson reverse-sweeping boundaries and Stuart Broad driving on the up through the covers just underlined how poorly England’s middle-order played. There is nothing to fear in this slow, low surface and, decently though India bowled in the circumstances, little to fear against an attack that, by the standards of Test cricket, remains modest. Batting at this level will rarely be this comfortable and this England side contains a record nine men with Test centuries to their name.One of England’s enduring problems is that the majority of their players do just enough to justify their continued selection. But “just enough” does not win Tests and England require more from Bell and Co if they are to end their current malaise. Nobody doubts Bell’s ability and his place is, quite rightly, secure. But, five Test innings into the new era, he is averaging 32.40 and struggling to provide the leadership and inspiration his side requires.It may be that leadership and inspiration are the key missing ingredients in this England side. For as this malaise continues – and, barring a miracle, they will have extended their winless run to nine Tests by Sunday night – so the belief is draining from this England team. With Anderson and Broad seemingly resigned to endless spells on dead wickets, Cook and Prior currently struggling to lead from example and a batting order containing four or five relatively inexperienced cricketers, it is not obvious who in the dressing room can lead the revival.English cricket is bursting with men who never offend, or shock or rock the boat. Men who have paid their dues and do not disrupt the dressing rooms or committee rooms to which they serve. Men who will disappear without leaving much of a trace.But sometimes you need characters who ruffle and question and offend. Sometimes you need characters who have the arrogance and aggression to change what appears an inevitable course. Sometimes you need the sort of player a mild-mannered former England captain might describe as “an absolute c***”.There may be knock-on effects to England’s shortened innings. By forcing Anderson and Co into the field once again so soon after their draining first innings efforts, they sustain a vicious circle that could compromise England’s efforts throughout the series. Still jaded by their first innings efforts, they are likely to be less effective – the harsh might say less effective – the second time around. And with only three days between Tests, they may still be feeling the effects by the time the match at Lord’s starts.It was the same story in Australia. Though England fairly often claimed the first four or five wickets relatively cheaply, Australia invariably recovered through Brad Haddin as Anderson and Broad tired. Until the batsmen support the bowlers better, it will continue to happen.In normal circumstances, England should still be able to hang on for a draw. The pitch will hardly deteriorate; it will just become ever more funereal in pace. And, had it not been for the Indian tenth-wicket stand, England would already have a lead. Even more pertinently, MS Dhoni may have a tricky decision to make regarding a declaration.But normal circumstances no longer apply. England’s batting collapses have occurred too often to retain even a hint of complacency.

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013The Ashes scoots rapidly towards its denouement, with the fourth Test beginning today just under a month after the first. Both sides may be wondering whether they will ever again bowl the other out twice without serious meteorological assistance. And both may think that it is in their interests to club together and purchase a cloud machine.England may be pondering whether or not they will still be allowed a bus parade and some New Year’s honours if the crowd keeps booing Ricky Ponting. Or if they grind out a 1-0 series win.Ponting himself may be contemplating the inevitable consequences of becoming the second Australian captain after Billy Murdoch to lose two Ashes series in England – i.e. playing for England, which is what Murdoch found himself doing 18 months after his 1890 Ashes failure. An intriguing prospect, particularly with the next Ashes in Australia 18 months away, should Ponting prove able to displace Ravi Bopara from the England line-up.The prospects for Headingley have been extensively discussed by far worthier keyboards than mine, so instead of wrongly guessing what might happen over the next five days, I present the first batch of nominations for the Confectionery Stall 2009 Ashes Mid-Series Awards.CONFECTIONERY STALL MAN-OF-THE-FIRST-60%-OF-THE-SERIESJimmy AndersonThe new Botham. Anderson has the priceless ability to take wickets with good balls and, more importantly, bad ones. He plucks stunning catches out of the air like an unusually athletic seal snaffling a particularly rapid herring. And he is a flamboyant batsman willing and able to clatter good-length balls to the cover boundary. All he needs is the occasional cigar, a slightly less honed tummy, and some ducks, and the similarity will be complete. Please, England, just don’t spoil him by making him captain.Monty PanesarPanesar is, or at least should be, a live candidate for the Man-of-the-Series gong. His 7 not out was the most influential single performance of the rubber to date, just sneaking ahead of Mitchell Johnson’s opening spell at Lord’s.Paul Collingwood, Anderson and Graeme Swann all contributed to the rearguard, but they could have been expected to perform as they did on a friendly wicket. For Panesar to play out 40 minutes in any circumstances, with barely a droplet of alarm, could not have been predicted. If cricket is now more about momentum than cricket, Panesar has been the key player thus far.Rudi KoertzenHarshly criticised for his some of his less certifiably correct decisions, Koertzen has valid excuses for most if not all of his so-called mistakes. When he apparently gave Michael Clarke out in the first innings at Edgbaston, he was in reality merely joining in with a Mexican wave.When allegedly giving Ian Bell not out LBW to Johnson when it appeared that the batsman’s L was about as B his W as is physically possible, it was because Koertzen had spotted that the scalding Birmingham sun had melted the varnish on the bails, welding them together in an unbreakable union. Had Johnson’s surprise perfect inswinger managed to avoid Ian Bell’s shuffling limb, it would have knocked middle stump out, but left the bails in place. As Hawkeye failed to show.(It should also be noted that, when England desperately needed Koertzen to keep giving people out on the grounds that they were nearly out, he started getting some close decisions right. He received minimal credit for this – such is the lot of the Umpire.)(And what a set-up by Johnson – an entire two Tests of near unbroken garbage just to maximise the surprise of that one ball to Bell.)DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE SERIESSimon KatichFans of the New South Wales nurdler would have been hoping and expecting to see a series of Gary Kirsten-like crabby accumulation, and would have been delighted with his century in Cardiff. Since then, however, he has concocted an array of recklessly macho and carelessly loose shots for which he would have been roundly slammed if he had been a player with a reputation for recklessness or carelessness.Phil HughesOne of the most intriguing questions to emerge from the series so far is: how many Test runs will Phillip Hughes score in his career? He currently has 472. The answer could be anywhere between 15,000 at the higher end, and 471 at the lower. Many factors will decide this, including whether or not Test cricket dies on the vine, whether Hughes volunteers for a manned mission to Mars, whether he stops hitting short balls into the hands of fielders, and which performance was more indicative of his future achievements – this Ashes, or the series in South Africa, when Hughes scored more runs against a better attack in tougher conditions.Mitchell JohnsonBut he’s brewing something. I can feel it. (But then I could also feel Geraint Jones developing into a top-6 specialist Test batsman. We are both still waiting.)The PitchesThis has been an interesting and often exciting series despite the surfaces, which, to the untrained eye (e.g., either of my two eyes), have been almost indistinguishable from each other, and provided a stupidly tough examination for the bowlers, but a relatively facile quiz for the batsmen.There have been two circumstances in which the bowlers have dominated – (1) when the ball has swung; and (2) when the batsmen have taken collective leave of their senses. The tension and rarity of a close Ashes series has camouflaged the drab nature of the pitches. If this is the future of Test cricket, however, it will need more than pink balls to keep people interested.More nominations to follow tomorrow. Please make your own nominations too. Each of the winners will receive a commemorative Confectionery Stall bag of dried apricots, personally signed (on receipt of a stamped, addressed envelope).HEADINGLEY PREDICTIONAustralia are still vulnerable to swing. They have dealt with it with the practiced expertise of a crocodile delivering a baby. England have been little better. Whoever gets the better of the clouds could win. The weather forecast is quite good. It could be a draw. England may miss Flintoff – medical science has kept him going in the series. Forty years ago, he would have been humanely put down by now.I think Australia’s bowlers might click in this match, especially if they pick four front-line quickies. The Confectionery Stall insulates itself from disappointment with pessimistic predictions – Australia to win in four days. (I have a ticket for the fifth day.)England, however, would be happy with a draw to leave Australia having to win at the Oval − Australia have never won a decisive final Ashes Test without Don Bradman in the team.FACT OF THE DAYIf England can pull off a shock first-day win (which no team has managed to do in first-class cricket since 1960), they will become the first England team to win the Ashes inside a month since 1890. Australia have pulled of this remarkable feat of Speed Urn Acquisition three times this decade.To achieve this, England’s best tactic would be to insert Australia, bowl them out for 70-odd, cut loose for 25 overs, declare on 180-3, then skittle the Aussies again for 80 to win by an innings. This is, admittedly, a high-risk gambit. But history beckons with a brightly glowing finger.

Oh to be in Colombo, smelling the flowers, watching the birds soar past the Premadasa and hanging out at the Blue Leopard (or is that the Blue Elephant?)

Sharda Ugra18-Nov-2010To cricket audiences, India’s heaving grounds are like rock concert venues in size, scale, volume and headbanging enthusiasm. Colombo will always be South Asian cricket’s lounge bar, with live, non-stop .A city with four Test venues in under a 4km radius, three still staging international matches, could actually stage a World Cup on its own. If the ICC had its way, sweeping smaller nations aside like they were jacket fluff, maybe that’s what World Cup 2035 will actually look like: six nations, one city. Colombo won’t stage that in protest. It’s just not that uncharitable.It stretches along the ocean like a beachside layabout who always finds the shade and catches the breeze, even though all around temperatures climb. Colombo’s is a sticky heat. The sun sears right into the eyeballs, the glare off the sea so strong it could crack sunglasses. Why, some hotels think nothing of crimson chicken curry at the breakfast buffet, with only string hoppers on the side as a measure of panic-attack prevention.Yet, in itself, little daunts Colombo and its cricket. My first visit to Colombo took place at a time when no one wanted to go. Or least a particular type of cricketer didn’t. In 1996, you expected the West Bank on an island, with checkpoints and soldiers behind the gossamer security of sandbags. And so it was. Three weeks before the 1996 World Cup, Colombo had suffered the worst bombing of the Lankan civil war, so what else could it have been? A normal working day in the business district turned into a death zone when Tamil Tigers armed with RPGs and automatic rifles and a truck carrying 440 pounds of explosives killed more than 90 people.The Aussies and West Indians refused to tour, the Lankans were distraught. An India-Pakistan team turned up to play a “friendly” match to show support, Zimbabwe were game anyway, and so Colombo had to be visited.Three weeks after the bombing, the glass panes of its Lighthouse Clock Tower, 130 years old, were still broken and blackened but its clock showed the right time. The Central Bank and hotels in the “Fort” area were bruised but people were striding through metal detectors, traffic was wheeling and vendors had their stuff spread out in corridors of colonial import. Morning walkers would turn up at the Galle Face Green before the sun went into high beam. They strode along the stone wall shoring up the coast, inspected another part of the ravaged business district being patched up inch by inch, and then tightened their chins, turned around and walked home.Headlines were everywhere, dispatches wrote themselves.araliyas.When the city catches a visitor’s attention away from its bad news, Colombo can make it all go away. Like Mahela coming in to bat when the scoreboard is dreadful.It is a city made for cricket. It has languor, vitality and makes room for all types. The fussy mod-con lovers will find spiffy environments, something trendy to take home and a few cool nightclubs. Journalists just want info (and beer). Whispers abounded in the press box about the Blue Leopard (or was it the Blue Elephant?) nightclub where so-and-so was spotted playing the swain at 2am., the cry rises, at which point Murali turns some flailing batsman’s defence into custard and cricket pulls back eyes, heart and mind.Moving towards the SSC is about smelling the flowers, enjoying long auto rides through crescents, past lakes and in neighbourhoods whose simple single-digit pin codes actually contain an aristocratic order. Colombo 7 is the highest form of address and then the rest work their way down and up to numbers that don’t really matter.The Premadasa is closer to Colombo’s more muscular parts. Crows would think nothing of flying from its rooftop or light towers to the harbour, factories, fishery offices and the old Welikada prison. A day-nighter there can be an audio-visual experience. Sometimes during an innings break the final of the day rings free across a blood-red sunset sky that fills with birds purposefully heading home, disdainful of the crowds beneath them. The toughness of most Premadasa run-chases melts into an immaterial fact. It’s a kind of magic. Freddie would have burst into song.Graham Thorpe goes native in Sri Lanka•Tom Shaw/Getty ImagesLike Sri Lankan cricket, Colombo lies between old boy and new age. The most celebrated cricketers in the city move around unhindered (and feel sorry that no Indian counterpart can do so in his own hometown), and yet the same fans know how to make themselves heard deafeningly, constantly. Sri Lanka have produced the most cultured of batsmen and the most unorthodox of bowlers. Among the most beatific-looking of its captains was also its most unrelenting.In 2002, India, the team all about its tomorrows, came to Colombo and the ICC Champions Trophy in the ODI form of their lives. The NatWest Trophy had been snatched away from Nasser Hussain’s disbelieving stare, a final had been won without a world-class choke. So what if India were sponsored, as Mikey Holding said with a chortle on TV, by a desert. (Sahara, geddit?)They came with the most peculiar of combinations: Sachin Tendulkar at 4, Rahul Dravid keeping wicket, Javagal Srinath hauled over from England by his captain, told to cease all argument as his tickets were waiting at a check-in counter. They came with this opener who took to Colombo like Percy Abeyasekara did to showboating. No one had chased more than 246 at the Premadasa, and when England docked 270, this fellow creamed it with over 10 overs to spare. His captain’s first words to the press were an order: “Everybody, clap for Veeru”.Play would usually finish at around 10pm and the bar at the Taj Samudra was packed every night. Viv Richards could be found, surrounded by the worshipful and the voluptuous. Or Andrew Caddick, nursing a glum drink on a barstool next to Rudi Koertzen, almost unrecognisable in civvies and kindly leaving Caddick alone. It was the first ICC event with its security rules of photos outside dressing rooms and who knew what.The Indians would pile in, shake hands, and hang around, all of ’em. They had a special corner but stayed within greeting distance. Some stood around the dance floor, some went up to talk to other cricket folk. Some folk sat cross-legged on a high ledge near the windows, guzzling what could only be lime sodas. Some would win brownie points with cricket reporters by patiently chatting to visiting editors. Neither was slurring heard nor did fistfights break out. There was loud laughter, music, dance, cigarette smoke and ice clinking in glasses. And rumours about the Blue Elephant. The players would begin leaving after midnight but the gossip didn’t stop till hours after.Only Colombo could bring it all together and keep it jumping – this old-fashioned informality in a modern professional game.

A disappointing World Cup has just got worse. Just when it seemed a World Cup semi- final couldn’t get any lower than the first one, it did

Sambit Bal in St Lucia25-Apr-2007A disappointing World Cup has just got worse. Just when it seemed a World Cup semi-final couldn’t get any lower than the first one, it did. Sri Lanka’s win over New Zealand contained a sublime first half and at lunch the prospect remained of an exciting finish. Today, the game was over as a contest in the first ten overs.The difference between Australia and the rest in this tournament has been even broader than Matthew Hayden’s bat, but they didn’t need to bring out their best today. South Africa beat themselves thoroughly. All the talk about calming the mind and playing with confidence and patience came to a sorry pass in the morning when they batted like wrecks.A positive mindset has been the hallmark of South Africa’s one-day game, but, faced with an opponent superior to them in skill and mind, their batting descended to mindless adventure. They seemed over-wrought and over-anxious, and fell to a succession of poor strokes. Their premier batsmen set the tone.Graeme Smith’s one-day batting is based on bludgeoning. Predominantly an onside player, Smith has, in recent times, acquired the ability to free his arms and hit over the top on the offside. He did so successfully and repeatedly in the second half of his innings against England. But after choosing to bat on a pitch unknown to them, he decided to give Nathan Bracken the charge in the third over. He had faced only four balls.But no dismissal was more symptomatic of a plan gone awry than that of Jacques Kallis. Even though he had been South Africa’s most prolific batsman, the pace of his batting had invited more than a few questions. When these teams met earlier in the tournament, Kallis’ 63-ball 48 was deemed to have terminally halted South Africa’s victory charge. And before this match, Ricky Ponting had launched his own psychological warfare by letting the world know that Kallis was the man Australia wanted to get to the crease early.Kallis did come in early, but obviously he had decided this was the day to change a reputation. The first seven balls fetched merely a single, but off he went with the eighth, stepping out and wide of the stumps to carve, of all people, Glenn McGrath between cover and point. Ditto the next ball. The difference: the ball was full, Kallis missed, and it hit off. “Their top order batted exactly the way we wanted them to,” Ponting said after the match.

McGrath bowled as well as he always does, but the wickets were earned easily. Ashwell Prince, the other batsman expected to hang around in a crisis, played the daftest of strokes, slashing a wide one to make the score 27 for 4, and when Mark Boucher hung his bat out next ball, the match was up for South Africa. The innings ended fittingly when Charl Langeveldt swung wildly at a full delivery. Six overs remained, and at other end stood Justin Kemp, South Africa’s highest scorer, on 49.Of the Australian bowlers, Shaun Tait, who was drafted in as the strike bowler in Brett Lee’s absence, was the most impressive. He has been Australia’s most expensive bowler among the specialists, but with 23 wickets, he is their most successful behind McGrath, who has a World Cup record of 25. Tait bowled with pace and curved the ball into the right handers. One such ball squeezed between leg stump and the pads of Herschelle Gibbs, one of the two South African batsmen to play with any measure of poise.It was South Africa’s lowest one-day score in a World Cup and, inevitably, the “choking” question came up post-match. Smith was expecting it. “I wouldn’t say we choked,” he said. To him, choking meant blowing a winning situation. But what about freezing on the big stage?Once again, South Africa were not able to play their best game in a big match. Their top order combusted and eight of their batsmen got themselves out. It was a massive under-performance that added to the emptiness of the World Cup. Their reputation will persist.

And other stories from a famous final over – as called by ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary

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69.1, Asitha Fernando to Williamson, 1 run
Williamson slips at the non-striker’s end, so it won’t be two! Was a full ball that was swiped across along the ground69.2, Asitha Fernando to [Matt] Henry, 1 run
Low, wide full toss. Henry throws a horizontal bat. Gets it to long-off. Fielders call. But they’ll take only oneThree wickets left, SL win very unlikely now but not impossible. KW on strike. Will he get twos?69.3, Asitha Fernando to Williamson, 1 run, OUT
Big dive from Henry but is he run out? Throw came in from deep midwicket close to the bowler, bails are whipped off but the bowler’s hand is blocking the view from the leg-side replay. How does it look from the front? Clean. It was a very full ball that was flicked to deep midwicket.
Matt Henry run out (Rajitha/AM Fernando) 4 (3b 0x4 0x6 9m) SR: 133.33The birthday boy is in despite the injury! Can he run quick though? Five needed off three.69.4, Asitha Fernando to Williamson, FOUR runs
Slashed, is it in the gap? Yesss! How did he get it there? All fielders were in the deep. It was a full, wide ball that was hit through point. Scores tied!One result out, India should be through to the WTC final. But KW should get the headlines.69.5, Asitha Fernando to Williamson, no run
Bouncer. Is it wide? Not given! Floodlights go on all of a sudden. That looked like it went over head-height. A bit of replay from the NZ-Eng Test but NZ still have two wickets in hand.69.6, Asitha Fernando to Williamson, 1 bye
Pull beaten, keeper throws to the bowler’s end. Direct hit at the non-striker’s end! Sent upstairs. Kane Williamson slides his bat in after throwing his body down and HE IS IN! Last ball was a bouncer, this was too. Should it have been a no-ball or is that just my dad too excited? It’s a Test, the third bouncer would have been the no-ball. In the end, it doesn’t matter because Williamson made it! Sri Lanka’s fielders are dejected. Williamson was on his knees as he saw the replay and got a big hug from Wagner7.44pm: Steady the ship, fly the plane, roll the cart. Is there anything KW can’t do?! Word of appreciation for Sri Lanka’s performance too, they fought valiantly and stayed in the game till the last over. But it was a case of fortune favouring Williamson and [Daryl] Mitchell’s skill and bravery. Sri Lanka used just four bowlers. The spinner, [Prabath] Jayasuriya, got wickets but went for runs. The wides given when he went down leg could create many a discussion. [Niroshan] Dickwella dropping Williamson too. [Asitha] Fernando’s brilliance needs acknowledging. But it’s all Williamson, dude’s beyond us mortals’ comprehensions.