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On three of their last four tours, they have lost the first Tests, all rain-affected games. The weather in Melbourne doesn’t promise anything different

Sidharth Monga at the MCG25-Dec-2011The MCG, along with Eden Gardens the biggest cricketing theatre in the world, is not a place for those who get confused easily. The ground is a maze of similar-looking receptions, escalators, elevators, glass doors that open on their own and have a mind of their own, parking lots and stands. To go to the nets you have to go two floors underground, walk a lot to your right (or even longer left if you are really confused), and then climb back up. Groundsmen who have been working here for years still lose their way. If you leave trail marks here, the ground is so regulated they will have been removed by the time you start looking for your way back 10 minutes later.However, it’s inside the stadium, on the turf, that you need clearest of heads. Harsha Bhogle, commentator and writer, talks of the experience of walking next to the pitch and looking up at the Great Southern Stand. You feel like an ant, he says, when you imagine the ground full. A full house is expected: according to estimates, as many as 80,000 are likely to turn up on Boxing Day. Eighty-thousand voices instructing you; 80,000 pairs of eyes judging every move of yours. For the Indian players, despite the Indian population here, this is the closest thing to being at the receiving end of the Eden Gardens phenomenon, where many a side has frozen in front of similarly huge crowds.This is also the first Test of the series, and if they were given a choice India would happily start every series with the second Test. On three of their last four tours, they have lost the first Tests. The exception was in the West Indies. And the three losses came in rain-affected matches. There are spells of rain around here, interspersed with brilliant sunshine. Boxing Day is likely to receive rain too, although not enough to overly disrupt play.These slow starts put pressure on the resilience that has been the hallmark of this team. On two of those three occasions, India have managed to come back. It reached a point where people started taking first-Test losses as par for the course. On the third occasion, though, England kept coming at them hour after hour, and rearranged all the good figures painstakingly garnered over the last three years. India had an overseas record of 4-2 under MS Dhoni before England. Now it doesn’t make for flattering reading. Slow starts are an affliction every Indian player acknowledges.Dhoni says the best way is to prepare as well as you can, clear your mind, and trust your instincts when you walk out. “We have to make sure we start off well, but again no pressure,” Dhoni said before the Test. “We will again try to keep it as simple as possible because we all know we have taken care of the preparation, which is the most important thing. And once you turn up on the field you want to play according to what your instinct says.”It seems they have got the preparation part right this time. Five days of organised cricket, and various others of nets. During their lead-up, Zaheer Khan has turned up looking lean and fit, Ishant Sharma has come back from an injury scare, and the batsmen have all got decent time in the middle and in the nets. In fact, Dhoni says if this doesn’t prepare them, it is unlikely a month will.On Christmas Day, when the rest of Melbourne seemed to be in a happy blissful slumber, across the serene Yarra Park, down two floors and then back up, the Indians looked to put finishing touches on before the big day. Sachin Tendulkar went to the indoor nets and batted for hours with the bowling machine even as people talked about the 100th hundred. Rahul Dravid, having arrived even as Australia finished their light session in the indoor nets, batted for longer than usual in the nets, both against throwdowns and the bowlers.Today was also the day when the bowlers got to face bouncers. Zaheer, who usually doesn’t come to the nets on the eve of the match, showed up, but only to bat. He asked Trevor Penney, the fielding coach, to throw down bouncers at him. Dravid instructed Penney to bowl three bouncers and then the full one. Ishant got some too. Quick, short, at the throat. Dhoni often mentions the runs the tail has fetched over the last two years.Outside, the MCG remained silent, except for the hollering from those of the players who played a game of football before starting the cricket training. They wouldn’t have visualised a packed house while playing football. It is impossible not to look up and get awed or inspired by the coliseum. Two hours later, three in case of Dravid, they walked out one by one, thanking the net bowlers – Pakistan-born Worcestershire player Imran Arif who spends English winters playing club cricket in Victoria among them – thanking the coaches, content they had studied all they could before the exam.The rain arrived as soon as they finished. All went away for their Christmas lunches. The MCG became eerily quiet. Thunderstorms followed for the rest of the evening. Melbourne had welcomed India with glorious days with sunsets as late as 9pm. But the clouds opened up, reminiscent of eves of their first Tests in Sri Lanka and South Africa. Rain and India’s first Tests are not good bedfellows; if they are to get rid of the first-Test ghost, they’ll have to do it the hard way.

Petersen has dealt with pressure before and come out on top; the challenge this time was of a slightly different order

Firdose Moonda at Basin Reserve25-Mar-2012Before the start of the Hamilton Test, Alviro Petersen was asked what it was like to bat between the superstars. With names and reputations like Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers in the same line-up as him, Petersen was essentially being asked if he sometimes got lost in a galaxy of greats. He was asked the question again after his 156 in Wellington, the highest score by a South African batsman on this tour. His answer was the same again.”I don’t know,” Petersen said, with a knowing look on his face, one that suggested he knew exactly how it felt to bat as well as any of those big names. “I am just focussed on my cricket. But, I don’t want to be Jacques Kallis, I don’t want to be Graeme Smith. I am Alviro Petersen.”Who exactly that is, we aren’t sure. We probably won’t know for many more Tests as Petersen establishes himself in the side. What we can say with confidence, is that Petersen is promising enough to be more than a speck of moondust in the atmosphere.Petersen is playing in his 13th Test match and has already scored three hundreds. All of them came at a time when he has had to make a point. The first one was on debut, the second on his comeback after being dropped more because of the prolific form of Jacques Rudolph than any over-riding concern about his own ability and the third here, amid calls for whether he should open the batting despite his last big knock having come just three Tests ago.Why Petersen faced pressure for his place from some quarters in this match remains a mystery. Although his century in the New Year’s Test was overshadowed by Kallis’ all-round efforts which included a double-hundred, it has not been completely erased from memory, especially not the memory of the selectors. He only managed 66 runs from his previous four innings in New Zealand but did not look inept by any means. At worst, he was uncomfortable in previous innings, was guilty of trying to play across the line too often, was lbw twice and adopted an approach that was perhaps too attacking.He was certainly due a knock but it was not a do-or-die situation. The main source of anxiety for Petersen came from Petersen himself, who admitted that he was concerned about how he had played in the previous two matches. “I was under pressure coming into this game because of the standards I set for myself,” he said. “I hadn’t really scored a lot of runs in this series so it was important that I once I got in that I try and score big.”The crucial part was getting in. He looked a little shaky against the away movement but had the luxury of giving himself time to settle in because Amla was playing the role of the aggressor at the other end. He did have one edge go third slip’s way in the early stages of his innings but was lucky to find no-one manning the area. When Amla got out, he had JP Duminy to push on. In that period, he offered another chance that went to Martin Guptill’s right at second slip. Petersen was on 68 then and got away with it again. Then, he capitalised.A hallmark of his play on the second afternoon was his execution of the pull, which came off perfectly almost every time. He said the bounce off the surface was something he enjoyed because it reminded him a little of home. “I grew up playing at the Wanderers so I think I am just used to a bouncier wicket,” he said. “Facing the likes of Marchant [de Lange] in the nets, especially when he tries to take all our heads off, does make things easier as well.”He went to bed on Saturday night on 96 and returned to turn that into 100 by the second over on Sunday morning. With the sun out, the pitch flattened, the pulls from day two became the drives of day three as Petersen rolled them out in conditions which suited. “Today, the wicket played really nicely,” he said. He looked well set to turn his hundred into a double but a lapse in concentration allowed New Zealand to break through and dismiss him the way they have twice before, trapping him lbw.Petersen’s annoyance at having made the same mistake was obvious. He accepted the umpire’s verdict without asking for a review but went back to tap the pitch in a frustration that he lapsed back into a technical flaw he had tried to eliminate. Prior to this match, Petersen studied some footage of himself from previous games to see whether the mistake had crept in recently. “I had a look at some videos, especially of Newlands Test and just worked on a few things,” he said. “I think in this game it came through quite nicely.”This innings has given Petersen a healthy dose of confidence ahead of South Africa’s next tour – to England in July. His challenge will be to avoid waiting for a situation where he to score runs to convince people he is worthy of star status but to keep piling them on regularly. “Every cricketer wants to be consistent and I am no different. It’s just that, I enjoy pressure,” he said. “I have to find a way of trying to put that pressure on every innings and almost play like it’s my last game every time.”

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the fourth day of the third Test in Dominica

Daniel Brettig in Roseau26-Apr-2012Drought-breaker of the day
When Ben Hilfenhaus popped a close-in catch to Kraigg Brathwaite, Shane Shillingford became the first West Indies spin bowler to claim 10 wickets in a match since Lance Gibbs against England at Old Trafford in 1966. The haul of 10 for 219 was a just reward for Shillingford’s persistence, albeit in conditions ideally suited to his art. Since being recalled for the second Test in Trinidad, Shillingford has bowled with consistency, skill and patience, foxing plenty of batsmen with his top spinner though dismissing far more with his offbreak. As a sponsor’s ambassador, Gibbs has been watching it all unfold from the stands.Snare of the day
Commonly posted at short leg, Ed Cowan’s fall-back position is often at square leg, alongside the umpire. He was posted there for Ben Hilfenhaus at the start of the West Indies second innings, and when Adrian Barath flicked a full length ball to the legside with plenty of timing, Cowan swooped to grasp a low, diving catch. It was a particularly good take given that Cowan has been nursing a sore wrist since the second day, when he was struck flush by a screeching stroke when fielding close-in. Barath certainly could not believe his fate, as he waited momentarily at the crease before trudging off.Referral of the day
Brathwaite had made three consecutive ducks entering this innings, but was making a decent start at Windsor Park before Michael Clarke introduced himself to the attack. Though Clarke gained some turn, it was a delivery that whirred through straight that undid Brathwaite, beating his rushed attempt to pull and striking him just in front of off stump. The Australians all went up and so did the umpire Tony Hill, leaving Brathwaite to call for a referral. In keeping with the West Indies’ ill-fortune across the series, replays had the ball striking him in line with the stumps, while Hawk-Eye indicated the ball would have grazed the top of the bails. There was some dismay evident in the hosts’ viewing area as Brathwaite returned to the pavilion.Direct hit of the day
As a partnership developed between Darren Bravo and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, David Warner’s leg spin was brought on in an effort to buy a wicket. Cowan was brought into short leg, though he had spoken on the third evening about the trepidation he felt at times given Warner’s occasional lapses in line and length. Sure enough, Warner served up a delivery to Bravo that was short enough to be on its way back down by the time it reached the batsman, who pulled convulsively and struck Cowan a percussive blow to the helmet. Cowan reeled away momentarily before gathering his composure, but he quickly retreated to deeper on the legside for the next delivery. Bravo offered some apologies for hitting him, but it was Warner who shall owe his opening partner a drink of some description.

Compared to other international batsmen, New Zealand’s struggle to make their starts count

Andrew Alderson13-Sep-2012A seeming lack of concentration while batting has been glaringly obvious from New Zealand’s losses in their last three series, against South Africa, West Indies and India. New Zealand’s batsmen have no problem getting starts – their scorecards teem with them – but the ability to progress to half-centuries and centuries, the benchmark for any competitive Test total, has been lacking.In seven Tests in those last three series, New Zealand have lost five and drawn the remaining two. They have had 12 completed innings, two of those over 300. Their batsmen scored two centuries and 12 half-centuries (a conversion rate of 14%). Compare that with their opposition, who scored ten centuries and 17 fifties – a conversion rate of 37%. Perhaps the most striking statistic is the New Zealand batsmen’s 42 individual scores between 20 and 49. There is a serious blockage in their run-scoring pipe.There are various theories about why that is happening. Perhaps it is the exponential growth of T20 cricket and the desire for instant run-scoring gratification; perhaps it is a lack of first-class bowling venom at home which makes international teams harder to face; perhaps a more in-depth psychological analysis is required as to why wickets are given away cheaply at Test level.Glenn Turner, the former New Zealand captain, believes the problem lies at the simpler end of the scale. As the only New Zealand batsman to have scored a century of first-class centuries (103), he is qualified to comment on matters of converting starts to big scores. He also scored them on some of New Zealand’s most illustrious cricketing occasions, like when they beat Australia for the first time, in 1974.”One problem could be our senior players feel all they have to do is be better than other New Zealanders. They’re comfortable with selection rather than being the best they can be,” Turner says. “It’s easy to say things like, ‘We don’t have the same numbers to compete’, but as a player you’ve still got to believe you can get more out of yourself. Wickets tend to not be treasured enough.”When I played I used a negative to get a positive response. I’d think of how bad it felt to get a low score so I needed to cash in now. That’s what drove me.

“You can talk to psychologists, look at the positives and talk things out of your system, but I think we have enough talkfests as it is. It should be a case of shut up and get the job done. Players have to work out what motivates them most. It’s not something you can dictate or teach. Are they doing it for the cap or, if you like, ‘king and country’? Are they doing it for family, for team-mates or for self-fulfilment? They just need to do whatever it takes to stimulate them.”The modern-day Test approach can assume gladiatorial proportions with macho posturing and verbal jousting used to expose weaknesses. Turner believes such on-field attitudes can be counter-productive.”My approach was that I never played against anybody. I always played against myself. I didn’t like getting into that competitive mindset of wanting to stuff your opponent. Also, as time went on and I played 400-plus first-class matches, I regularly asked, ‘Why am I doing this?’ Just to keep in a healthy frame of mind than anything.”You could be playing against 15,000 to 20,000 people in a [English] Sunday League match and then two men and a dog in the first-class match on Monday. That could be quite a come-down, but that’s when you ask yourself, ‘Am I man or mouse?’, ‘Does it matter to me or not?’ I was always motivated by the fact that if I went back to the pavilion after getting out cheaply and had to take my pads off, I’d be really annoyed. Sometimes I think players might need to remind themselves of the frustrations of failure. That’s how consistency develops.”In the early part of his 33-Test career, top-order batsman Mathew Sinclair was an example of a player capable of turning starts into big scores. Each of his three centuries (made in his first 12 Tests) was a score of 150 or more. Sinclair is one of five Test batsmen to score a double-century on debut, and with his 214 coming against West Indies in the Boxing Day Test of 1999, he was once the answer to the trivia question: “Who had the highest Test average at the end of the 20th century?”Sinclair says expectation is at the core of New Zealand’s recent disappointments. “When I think back to my debut, there was no fear of failure. I was in control of my game and it was just me versus the bowler. I worked better in that simple state than trying to concentrate on the peripherals. However, self-belief was still important. There was a deep desire to prove I belonged. You saw it in Tim Southee during that Bangalore Test [on his way to 7 for 64]. He had good rhythm and a clear mind.”It is quite hard at that level, dealing with failure. You need to feel like you have the support of your team-mates, but cricket remains an individualistic game based around a team. The fear of failure or losing can quickly enter your head. It’s hard when you don’t get instant gratification, and I think that is one reason cricket is moving towards shorter forms in New Zealand. There is less to lose and young players are aware of that. Consequently there is less emphasis on first-class cricket.”As Sinclair prepares for another season with Central Districts, he says a mental shift is required in the first-class game. “There is a magical perception around getting to three figures. I try to put that out of my mind and think about batting to infinity. Everyone wants a hundred but you can get so focused on it that you get stalled. It’s just a figure.”All batsmen have their way of building an innings, but I think you’ve got to avoid looking at an outcome. Often [like in the second innings in Bangalore when seven New Zealand batsmen were dismissed between 22 and 41] all the hard work is done. Those sorts of scores are part of the problem.”When you compare the fifty-to-century conversion rates of New Zealand’s current batsmen with the team’s former batsmen and today’s top international players, a pattern emerges.

Centuries are paramount, even if, as Sinclair says, they are used as a mental barrier.At 49%, Martin Crowe’s conversion rate is world-class in any era, topping even those of Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis. Hence, the halcyon days of New Zealand’s Test success were during Crowe’s pomp from the mid-80s to the early ’90s. He was backed by the often underrated John Reid, who had the extraordinary Test conversion rate of 75% (six hundreds, two fifties, average of 46.28), which, albeit on a smaller scale, is better than Don Bradman’s 69% (29 hundreds, 13 fifties). There were also Geoff Howarth (six hundreds, 11 fifties, CR 35%), John Wright (12 hundreds, 23 fifties, CR 34%) and later Andrew Jones (seven hundreds, 11 fifties, CR 39%) to bolster Crowe’s era.Jesse Ryder (33%) is the best converter amongst current New Zealanders, but given his self-imposed stand-down and no contract with New Zealand Cricket, it remains uncertain whether he will re-employ those skills.Significantly, among the current best international converters, five of the top six Test nations are represented (Pakistan being the exception). None of the players involved has a conversion rate less than 43%. There is a chasm between New Zealand and international conversion rates.However, there does not seem to be a significant difference in conversion rates between the various domestic competitions. In the past five years New Zealand’s rates have swung between 21% (1.2 centuries per match in 2010-11) and 37% (2.48 centuries per match in 2008-09). Last year it was 28% (1.67 centuries per match). In comparison, South Africa, now the best Test team in the world, had a conversion rate of 29% (1.83 centuries per match) in the SuperSport series, India converted at 33% (1.93 per match) in the Ranji Trophy, and Australians turned fifties into tons 27% of the time in the Sheffield Shield (1.48 per match).

South Africa have still not lost a Test away from home since February 2010 but Graeme Smith knows his side have been well below their best in Australia

Firdose Moonda at Adelaide Oval26-Nov-2012There is supposed to be some awkwardness in celebrating a draw, even a hard-scrapped one. Think Australia at Old Trafford in the Ashes in 2005, England in South Africa twice in 2009-10 and New Zealand against South Africa in Wellington earlier this year. When events deny the obvious team a win they deserve, the other side’s relief and joy can be tinged with some embarrassment.Now consider draws that are as good as South Africa’s epic in Adelaide. After conceding a run-rate of more than five to the over in the first innings, they batted at a rate of barely one an over to save the match.It means that South Africa have still not lost a Test match away from home since February 2010. They still have a chance to beat Australia in Australia for a second time and even if all they manage is a draw they will still be the No.1 ranked Test team in the world. They are joyful and relieved but if Graeme Smith’s hard expression could talk, a touch embarrassed too.”We haven’t played very well,” he said grimly. If you eliminate the almighty deep-digging at the end, it is informative to see the captain has a firm grip on the overall state of the performance. South Africa were loose with the ball on the first day and wasteful with the bat in parts of their first innings. Their team balance is skewed as they continue to carry an underperforming Jacques Rudolph and continually find themselves a bowler short.Smith seems to understand that getting out of danger, even in such heroic fashion, should not allow those cracks to be papered over. All it does is fulfil the team management’s desire that the side fights hard and proves that South Africa can play the way the ranking suggests they should.In Jacques Kallis alone, South Africa showed enough character to fill a film studio. Knowing he would have to bat for the better part of two sessions, Kallis put his hamstring injury aside for the sake of the team and Faf du Plessis, the debutant who would lean on him.Greats of the game are remembered for things like this. Statistics and individual milestones are what people can look up and marvel at, but the memory of a wincing, limping but straight-faced Kallis doing what he can for his country is something no number can ever convey.Dale Steyn’s duck certainly cannot tell how valuable the 36 minutes he spent protecting Morne Morkel and Imran Tahir were. Perhaps AB de Villiers’ 33 off 220 balls is accurate in revealing how laboured his innings was but it also hints at the patience he had to show. As far as heart goes, what South Africa lacked in Brisbane, they found only on the final day in Adelaide when bloody-mindedness took over.Mickey Arthur said after the Gabba Test that he does not believe in momentum and didn’t think Australia would take any massive advantage into Adelaide. By implication, he probably also doesn’t think South Africa will have the upper hand going into the Perth Test.Smith agreed with that and qualified what this resistance had done was give his team on a clean slate. “Both teams will be battered and bruised. We left a lot out there but we are level pegging going to Perth. We have five days left to create something special and that is what we were fighting for. We haven’t been at our best, but we haven’t been beaten.”If it stays that way, South Africa will be able to go home with the Test mace still in hand and may look back on Adelaide as a draw to be cherished.

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013

Sit down. I have some stats that may or may not be relevant to the Oval Test.• Australia are averaging 13 runs per wicket more than England – 46 to 33 – meaning that, statistically, they have dominated this series more than they did the series of 1990-91, 1994-95 1997 or 1998-99 which they won comfortably without having to sully their baggy green hands with an important final Test, and more even than in the famous 4-1 Lillee-and-Thomson-ignited drubbing of 1974-75. Nevertheless, thanks to Monty Panesar’s unbreachable bat, they have failed to translate this obvious superiority into champagne-spraying exultation.As an incidental substatistic, at the equivalent stage of the 2005 series, Australia and England both averaged 30.87 runs per wicket – though, when an extra decimal place is thrown into the equation, England had a clear advantage of 3 thousandths of a run per wicket over. Good, close series, that one, with hindsight.• If England do win (and assuming they do not hand Australia a 1938-style innings-and-500 drubbing), they will become only the 2nd team since 1902 to win an Ashes series despite averaging less than their opponents − in 1981, England won 3-1 despite averaging fractionally lower than Australia (26.38 to 26.52). Botham’s aura evidently made a 0.15 runs-per-wicket difference then – can Flintoff’s overcome a 13-runs-per-wicket deficit this time?• If England drop Graham Onions for Flintoff, they will attempt to take 20 wickets with five bowlers who, in the last two Ashes series, have taken 65 wickets at an average of 50.12, with a strike rate of a scalp every 83 balls. If they continue on this form, they will need 277 overs to bowl Australia out twice for a combined total of 1002 runs (excluding leg-byes and byes).England will therefore have to score 1003 in around 170 overs to win. The best tactic on winning the toss would be to insert Australia, bowl them out for 501 by mid-afternoon on day two, then smash a quick run-a-ball 1003 for 9 declared by just after lunch on day four, and bowl Australia out for 501 again to win with the last ball of the match. The only potential flaw in this plan is that the 11 batsmen who would have to do this have, over the same time span, averaged 30, and scored at three per over. Still, stranger things have happened. Albeit, not in cricket. Or reality.• It increasingly seems that when England pick Steve Harmison, they essentially pick a myth. Either side of his annus mirabilis – from October 2003 to September 2004, when he took 70 wickets in 12 tests at an average of 19.8, against Bangladesh, West Indies and New Zealand – he has harvested just three wickets per Test at a Malcolmian, Prabhakaretic, sub-Pringlesque average of 37.5.If you then remove four further ‘Tests’ against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, that average creeps above 40, into the realms where Madal Lals, Ashley Gileses and Guy Whittals roam. If you then get a bit cheeky and whip out his 11 for 76 on a bouncily helpful wicket at Old Trafford against Pakistan, England are now relying on a bowler who for the vast majority of his career against top-class opposition on non-trampolining pitches averages 43 – slightly worse than the career averages of fast-bowling legends such as Champaka Ramanayake, Nixon McLean, Pramodya Wickramasinghe and Nathan Astle. Most players’ careers can be statistically picked apart in some way, but these are ugly numbers in anyone’s notebook, particularly if that person is using their notebook to plot a series-clinching Test win against Australia.There you go. You can’t argue with facts. Particularly when the facts are arguing with themselves.

Though the final scoreline followed the familiar script, the pitch and the performers during the first day in Mohali were distinctly different from the rest of the series

Sharda Ugra15-Mar-2013On Friday, Mohali belonged to a parallel universe. The PCA Stadium looked like what it always does, the eventual scoreline at stumps was like what has been in the series so far, but in between the first ball and the last, much was turned on its head. In appearance itself, the pitch best known to Punjab and India’s cricketers, had transmogrified into an alien grasslessness. In keeping with it, the performances of the teams also witnessed significant alterations.Mohali’s reputation as a utopia for seamers has rightly been diminishing, but this season Punjab have won four out of four home Ranji Trophy matches outright. Ten of 14 first-class innings played in Mohali this season have not gone beyond 260. What Australia’s batsmen found though was a welcome personality switch. On the best batting wicket of the tour, they chose to approach the innings as if this were not their fifth innings in India, but their first. With caution, with circumspection, without open declarations of ‘positivity.’ It may have produced the best opening stand of their tour so far – 139 – the day ended for Australia at 273 for 7. Day 1 in Chennai remains their best day of the tour, but even there, 380 was to be inadequate.Like they have been all series, India’s spinners were in play, but the leader of the pack on Friday was unforeseen. It wasn’t the tall, sun-glassed, haughty offspinner with his corkscrew yo-watch-my-revs action. It wasn’t the chubby-faced left-arm spinner who finally got a game, but had few chances to make some of his famous finger-waggling appeals. The main man was India’s third-change spinner instead, curly mop over green sunglasses to the offspinner’s red and Twenty20 reputation in sudden shape-shift, on a wicket not meant to serve his brand of bowling.More followed. The single Australian middle order man to get past fifty was the last man in to the XI due to the benching of four others. The guy behind the benching, Australia’s captain and best batsman, only lasted one ball. His intent morphed into braggadocio and his quicksilver feet were found stuck in quicksand. Surely not of the kind he and his management had drawn a line in, a few days ago.The final sign of the altered reality came when India’s reedy strike bowler took two wickets in three balls in the 94th over of the day. He was bowling with a ball that was so tattered and worn that ten minutes later the umpires were forced to change it.All around the baffling unpredictability, the script of the 2013 India v Australia series stayed the way India would want it. There will be much delight in how the day panned out because India’s bowlers were able to make the most of a wicket that bore little resemblance to the beasts offered up in Chennai and Hyderbad. That they were able to cut through Australia’s batting line-up – two wickets at a time – is all the evidence they need of its fragility.R Ashwin pulled out a full repertoire of conventional offspin, with the rare carrom-ball and variations of pace and Pragyan Ojha took some time to find a line that could ask questions. India’s go-to bowler, however, ended up being the man who was the last in the attack. Ravindra Jadeja was brought on a little under half an hour before lunch and bowled a ten-over spell on either side of the break. His ability to nag and probe, asking the batsmen to make the play had an effect that was not instant but produced impact that was to reverberate through the rest of the day.In the morning, there was little turn and few moments of variable bounce. But in Jadeja’s tenth over, plenty happened. One shot through at ankle height for Cowan and two balls later, Warner stepped out, but had the delivery jump up a little and nibble at bat and pad to offer a juicy lob in front of him. Dhoni came racing from behind the batsman to take the catch. Off the very next ball, Michael Clarke, at No. 3 for the second time in his career, fell back on his template against spinners – Operation Domination. He stepped out to Jadeja bowling one at 90kph, watched the ball turn past his bat and reach Dhoni before he could blink.Jadeja didn’t get his hat-trick but he had set Australia onto a nervous wobble that turned into the dismissal of Phillip Hughes 12 runs and 69 balls later. India were able to press forward, despite Steven Smith’s handsome unbeaten effort, with Ashwin and Ojha picking up a wicket each. Ishant made the most of being able to reverse the old worn-out ball, bowling two batsmen in his 18th over of the day.India’s bowling today was soaked in sweat and toil, rather than being dependent on the pitch and batsmen’s ineptitude. The Mohali pitch is said to contain a higher degree of clay content. It binds together particularly well, helps keep the grass alive and in theory, is meant to assist seam movement. When left to dry, it doesn’t crumble into powder like red-soil pitches. When it comes apart, it does like Australia’s batting has this series. In clumps.

The reality is that in the current environment access to players, especially marquee players like Tendulkar, is becoming increasingly limited

Gaurav Kalra25-Feb-2013In all my years of having known and worked with Harsha Bhogle, I haven’t really disagreed much with him on much. But I do have a bone to pick with him over one line from his piece from this morning (albeit a small bone): “Meanwhile there has been a flood of Tendulkar interviews – more, I suspect, because there was the offer of a trip to Germany for the interviewers rather than any major issues that needed airing”.Since I was among the three interviewers on the trip, its only fair I set the record straight. I can only speak for myself here but I really don’t have any fascination for a two-day trip to Germany. Having travelled the world both professionally and personally, the allure of going half-way across the planet to a small German town (believe me, Herzogenaurach is not the Swiss Alps!) is hardly an attraction.So why did I go on this sponsored trip by Adidas? The reality is that in the current environment access to players, especially marquee players like Tendulkar, is becoming increasingly limited. Any working cricket journalist will confirm that convincing players to do interviews is extremely hard these days. So when we were made an offer to do this interview in Germany, I felt there was editorial merit in doing so. Had they said this interview was available in their office here in Delhi, I would have done it there! So the “offer of a trip” wasn’t a temptation in the least!I also respectfully disagree with Harsha that there weren’t “any major issues that needed airing” with Tendulkar. In the course of my 20-minute interview (that was the time allotted to me by the minders) I went over what I consider valid issues around Tendulkar. His reasons for not travelling to Sri Lanka, his view on his ODI playing future, his take on whether Test cricket is facing a crisis in India, how important he considers the upcoming season especially with England and Australia arriving, his thoughts on the pressure of the Tendulkar second name on his cricket-crazy son etc.According to me there were all relevant issues and had I been offered more time, I would have attempted to delve deeper into these issues and asked more. This anyway is a matter of opinion about what is relevant and what isn’t. How Tendulkar chose to answer the questions of course is his prerogative, and as Harsha knows Tendulkar can be extremely reserved while speaking publicly. I did the best I could to get him to reflect on ‘major issues’ and some of what he has said in the interview has been reported widely, including on this website. If I am not mistaken, it was the top story for a few hours too.Apologies for this long comment on just one line in a column that deals with an entirely different subject, but I am only doing so to clear my position. I was surprised to read the column as it assumed that the reason for the interview was the ‘offer of a trip to Germany’. That is simply not true.Finally, Sachin agreed to do three interviews in Germany- with Sai Mahapatra of ESPN, with me for CNN-IBN and with Pradeep Magazine for Hindustan Times- in the current media environment, given the number of publications and TV channels around, Harsha would agree that doesn’t qualify as a ‘flood’!Look forward to disagreeing with Harsha again soon!

This was the series where Sri Lanka finally shook off the Muralitharan-era and, with a young captain showing signs of potential, took a stride into the future

Andrew Fidel Fernando at the Presmadasa19-Mar-2013At the end of Sri Lanka’s debut Test, “The baby,” David Frith wrote, “had been delivered without complications.” Sri Lanka have now won 66 Tests since that day, but on this tour, they are being reborn.A flood of new personnel are either in, or on the cusp of the team, a pair of young batsmen have taken up the leadership, and the Murali-era, during which Sri Lanka reaped so much of their success, is a distant memory. Like in 1982, the new Sri Lanka have survived their first assignment without complications, but only just.Since he assumed the captaincy, things have not worked out for Angelo Mathews as well as he would have hoped. A major contract dispute first threatened to derail the series a week before it began, and saw the players vilified by some. Then his side failed to secure an expected victory at their favourite venue in the first Test, when instruction from the team to prepare a good batting track produced, in Mathews own words, “absolutely a road”. And at the Premadasa, Sri Lanka were made to fight hard for most of the first three days, before Bangladesh’s efforts subsided dramatically on the fourth.Mathews seems the kind of cricketer whose game is well insulated from outside pressure, but after the match was won, he admitted he had felt the heat after Galle. It may have been the seasoned hands, in Rangana Herath and Kumar Sangakkara, who did the most to deliver this win, but he and his young side have survived their baptism, and that, at least, will be a source of some relief.”We were under pressure before the match,” Mathews said. “We had to win this game and we knew that we could do it. The talent the guys have and also the professionalism the team shows is unbelievable. We have the potential. We just had to put our act together and try and do it on the field. We wanted to win the series 2-0. We couldn’t do that but I thought we played some really good cricket in this Test and won.”As a captain, Mathews also emerged from the Tests with his reputation largely unscathed, though there were puzzling moves on his part. Suranga Lakmal was given the new ball in the first innings, when Shaminda Eranga would have been the more obvious threat to the batsmen. Then when Lakmal had bowled his first two overs for just one run, Mathews took him out of the attack and brought himself on. Lakmal rarely bowled as well as that for the remainder of the Test. Mathews trend of replacing bowlers who were getting into their work, worsened from vexing to frustrating by the end of the Test.

Mathews’ field placings were largely impressive, occasionally even inspired

But his field placings were largely impressive, occasionally even inspired. Mid-on and mid-off stayed inside the circle through most of Herath’s overs, and in each innings an advancing batsman had his outside edge beaten, and caught out of his crease. Having observed Sri Lanka’s most gifted tactician, Mahela Jayawardene, at work over the last year, Mathews also seems to have a good grip on the art of in-out fields while the spinners are in operation. The bowlers had their fair-share of input too, and were more vocal about what they wanted than they might have been if Jayawardene was still leading, but there was enough of Mathews’ authority on the final product, while he was careful not to overreach before he proved himself an astute strategist to his teammates.Sri Lanka do not have any Test cricket until October, when they play Zimbabwe away, but Mathews was aware of the major challenges the Test side faced in the long-term. Save for Herath, Sri Lanka’s attack veers from mediocre to toothless, and the three frontline pace bowlers and Mathews took only six wickets between them in the match, with Tillakaratne Dilshan required to bowl 25 overs in the second innings. The catching woes that plagued the side in Australia have not been corrected either.”As a bowling unit we didn’t perform well, and we have room for improvement,” Mathews said. “The catching is very important in all three formats as well, and we need to show improvement there.”As a team we can improve because after the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan, it has been Rangana Herath who has figured largely in all our victories with many wickets. He cannot perform alone but can be successful because of the pressure created at the other end.”When the next Tests eventually roll around, Mathews may not have the support of the seniors who carried the team through this series. Dilshan is almost certain not to tour, and Sangakkara and Jayawardene may opt out, or be rested, as they have been on previous tours of Zimbabwe. The first series may be safe, but given the paucity of his attack, and the inexperience in his batting order, Mathews and Sri Lanka have a challenging road ahead, if they are to fulfil their ambitions of becoming one of the top three Test sides.

Sri Lanka’s selectors must decide whether the burden of captaincy and high expectations are hampering Dinesh Chandimal’s growth as a batsman

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Aug-2013When Dinesh Chandimal was named Sri Lanka’s Twenty20 captain in February, chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya justified his decision with these words: “We thought that it would be too much for Angelo Mathews, to give him the Twenty20 captaincy as well. We wanted to allow him to concentrate on the Tests and ODIs.” At the time, the irony in his statement eluded many. After Sri Lanka’s 2-1 home loss to South Africa, it has become clearer. In relieving Mathews of the Twenty20 reins, the selectors have overburdened another young talent, whose value to Sri Lanka lies primarily in the other formats.Chandimal has long been spoken of as Sri Lanka’s next great batting hope. An ODI hundred at Lord’s in 2011 announced his potential on the big stage and this was underscored by the two fifties in his Test debut in Durban. He has since made encouraging enough gains in Test cricket to satisfy a steep set of expectations.Yet it is the Twenty20 side he leads. Power has never been integral to his game, nor has finding the boundary at rapid rate. In 16 international T20 innings, he averages 13.18 and has a strike rate below 100. Unlike in ODI cricket, he can hardly claim he does not bat in positions that suit him. Half of his innings have been at no. 3 and a fourth of them at 4. Yet his average does not climb above 15 in either position.Both he and Lahiru Thirimanne have recently spoken of the immense challenges they face in their attempts to establish themselves in the game. They are tasked with producing their best domestic form at a much more demanding level and, in ODIs, have routinely gone to work in high-pressure situations to which they are unaccustomed. Chandimal’s stroke range remains limited, and though his technique is more polished than when he first appeared, the best bowlers will still feel encouraged by its enduring raw aesthetic and they will think they are capable of locating its flaws. Given that Chandimal has not crossed 50 in 15 limited-overs innings, perhaps some bowlers already have.There is a logic to the selectors’ thinking, that is sound, perhaps even commendable. In his brief stints at the helm, Chandimal has proved himself creative and attuned to the game’s heartbeat. His team-mates also seem to relish playing for him, feeding off the boyish enthusiasm with which he approaches all aspects of cricket. The school record for most outright wins in a season still belongs to the Ananda College side that Chandimal led at 18.But the task ahead for him is a monumental one. He averages 58.30 in Tests, and if he is to provide any confidence that Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan will not be missed, he cannot allow that figure to drop significantly. Chandimal was asked to take the gloves in Sri Lanka’s most recent Test series, and might eventually inherit them in ODIs as well, when Sangakkara hangs his up.His fine one-day returns in Australia, England and South Africa marked him out as a special talent early on in his career, but his inability to make big runs in the subcontinent, has yet to be rectified. His technique against spin on turning tracks can hardly have had a more thorough inspection than Sri Lanka’s first-class competition, but in ODIs, slow bowlers have succeeded in denying him early runs, and felling him when he seeks to attack. Chandimal has said he far prefers faster foreign tracks to the slow, dry ones at home, but as he plays most of his cricket in Asia, that is not an outlook he can allow to go unchecked at length.Sri Lanka have also now begun to set sights on the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh next March. Having so far retained the top ranking they have had since the last global event, they will feel they are among the leading contenders to win the trophy, in conditions they should like.But they will not be doing justice to their chances if they do not embark on that campaign with their best XI men. Chandimal, and to some extent Thirimanne, occupy places that befit more natural strikers of the ball. The provincial tournament that is about to begin may provide apt replacements and give an indication of players’ form, but if Sri Lanka are to arrive in Bangladesh with their best possible combination, the selectors must act quickly. Sri Lanka have only three Twenty20 internationals confirmed for the seven months before the tournament.The side’s senior batsmen carried them through the home series against South Africa, as they have done for some years now. All three are yet to taste major tournament glory, and now may only have two more opportunities remaining to them before the years begin to weary their game. The selectors’ quest for regeneration is meritorious, but if they seek to develop young talent only in the formats that suit each individual, for now, both the team and its youngsters stand to reap better benefits.