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From Neeraj Narayanan, India

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013
The 90s were something else•Associated PressI do not know why I don’t like the IPL. Maybe it is the sheer obscene display of money, maybe it is the cheerleaders. Maybe I like to believe that even in 2011, cricket does not come under the purview of entertainment, instead it still should be treated like a gentleman’s game. Just like how I feel sad seeing empty parks and blame it on Facebook. Maybe I am just not ready to accept change.And so, when Set Max’s live telecast of the player auction began, I switched off the box and sat down beside my bookshelf, cross-legged and, might I add, adorable. At the end of my endeavours, a rather disheveled scrap book found its way into my callused palms. A shoddily cut picture of Tendulkar, with a few yellow stains on his cheek formed the cover of the dog eared book titled, ‘Nero – the summer of ‘96’.Nineteen-ninety six was indeed a memorable year. It was the year I evolved into a teenager, and the year I first fell in love. Seated two rows across, I would look at her and wonder if even the Taj Mahal could be so pretty, and if it was necessary that we hug or kiss (blech!) when we got married. It was also the year my voice broke and I croaked like a frog and why we never eventually got married. It was the year when Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid first played for India.The 90s was the decade when cable television tiptoed stealthily into Indian households. The sudden plethora of channels amazed us, and we were shocked to know that news channels were allowed to hire pretty women, a fact that Doordarshan, our national channel, always hid from us. When electricity failed on us, which it did with clockwork regularity, we would run to the neighbourhood shop. You see we did not have Cricinfo then. Once there, we would stand hunched along with fifteen others, with perky ears, submerging as one big family into agony or ecstasy with the lows and the highs of the team’s fortunes.Back then, none of the Indian players had fancy hair styles. All of Azhar’s ‘boys’ as he repeatedly called them at every match conference, were absolute mama’s boys – be it Sachin, Rahul, Kumble or Srinath. It almost seemed like flamboyance was not allowed to be part of that Indian team character. There was no dude at all in the team, no Kohli, no Yuvraj. No one sledged, no one stared, it appeared as if they were standing in a temple, instead of a ground. Even Sourav was a quiet little fellow till he became captain in 2000. Unlike 2010, when we have been tagged No.1 in Test cricket, we were archaic in those days, even medieval, in our play. Our batting rose and fell with Sachin, our fast bowlers ticked and as their favourite daily diet, and our best fielder was a 35-year old man called Robin Singh. It was inexplicable – the team totally refused to dive on the ground, and Anil and Sri became models for a ad every time they had to bend their knees to stop a ball. I would scream at them and call them ‘women’ and my sister would glare at me malevolently.In that entire decade, we never won a Test outside the subcontinent. But isn’t that why we became obsessed with the team. There is a feeling that comes with being part of an underdog, that impassioned aggressive desire to punch and knock out a better opponent, that one can never understand being part of a champion side. It is heady, it is intoxicating. Ask Hayden or Gilchrist if they feel as bad about a loss as a young Bangladesh side would feel about a win. Watch how players react when they beat Roger Federer and you will have an idea. It is only because David beat Goliath, did the story become romantic. And it was the same with India. With our team, we felt crushed a million times, and ecstatic a few other times, but with that grew our loyalty and misplaced patriotism. It was also why we made Sachin into a demi-god.But now, everything has changed. Twenty20, IPL , businessmen, cheerleaders, Mandira Bedis have now become an integral part of modern day cricket lexicon. The Indian team is at its best. Today, Afghanistan have done all but enter the cricket fold, Zimbabwe are all but extinct. England are thrashing Australia in the Ashes, in ways they were themselves slapped around for over a century. There is no Wasim and no Waqar, thank heavens for Steyn. Everything has changed, except maybe Sachin Tendulkar. As always, he remains our hero across all ages, across all time, across all hairstyles. Our one constant.P.S – That scrap book, it had its first page dedicated to a code of conduct. As captain, my first rule did not allow any members of the Sector 55 Noida team to use any expletives while playing. I guess, once upon a time, I was a relatively better person. As I flipped through the pages, an assorted mix of match scores and statistics appeared scribbled in pencil, that most innocent of communication facilitators. My laptop lay across the room, proud and superior.

Plays of the day from the IPL match between Pune Warriors and Kolkata Knight Riders

Devashish Fuloria09-May-2013The short fuse
“You’re calling me a cheat,” grumbled Jacques Kallis to umpire Sudhir Asnani in a rare moment of rage after his appeal for a run out at the non-striker’s end was turned down by the third umpire, Simon Taufel, because of lack of evidence. The ball, according to the bowler, had flicked his boot on its way to the stumps and had caught the non-striker Aaron Finch backing up too far. Two balls later, Kallis hit Finch’s offstump with a cutter and immediately turned back to give Asnani another long stare. He did talk to the umpire at the end of the over to clear the air.A first for the bowler
Bhuvneshwar Kumar had picked up 235 wickets in all forms of cricket before this match, but his 236th was the first of its kind for him. Knight Riders’ openers were cruising along, often charging out, which prompted Finch to ask the wicketkeeper to stand up to the bowler. Bhuvneshwar got one to swing back into Manvinder Bisla, it sneaked through the gap between bat and pad and Mahesh Rawat flicked the bails off as the batsman dragged the foot out, giving the bowler his first wicket through a stumping.The slap
Ryan ten Doeschate played only three matches last season and it didn’t look like this season was going to bring any more luck as the allrounder didn’t find a place in the XI till today. With Knight Riders’ campaign all but over, he finally did get a look in. When he arrived in the middle to bat, the team had squandered a frenetic start to get bogged down, but ten Doeschate provided the release with a ferocious slap shot off an Angelo Mathews delivery in the 17th over that went a long over midwicket and set the tone for the late acceleration.The slap that didn’t go too farParvez Rasool bowled an impressive spell in his debut IPL match but when the allrounder came in to bat, the match was all but over. In the last over bowled by L Balaji, he charged down the pitch, made some room and flat-batted a slower delivery back to the bowler, but Balaji, in his follow through, stuck his right hand out and grabbed the speeding ball out of thin air, leaving Rasool smiling at the absolute absurdity of that catch.

The dearth of international matches means Zimbabwe spend a considerable amount of time practising. But their inexperience shows during matches, when their skills seem to desert them

Liam Brickhill27-Jul-2013The Zimbabwe squad have spent the last ten weeks doing very little else besides getting fit, bowling, batting and catching cricket balls. How many catches must each fielder have held in that time? How many balls must each batsman have hit, or a bowler bowled? Plenty, no doubt. Yet, when it matters, catches are dropped. Batsmen’s shots evaporate. Bowlers over-step at crucial times. Why?There was a point during Friday’s match when it seemed that, despite the costly errors of the morning, Zimbabwe’s batsmen had put the Indian bowlers under pressure and put their in a position from which they should win. At the end of the 20th over, Zimbabwe were 109 for 1. Vusi Sibanda raced to fifty, Dinesh Karthik had just missed a stumping, and, to end the over, Hamilton Masakadza had spanked a rank full toss from Amit Mishra almost clear out of the ground. Game on.In the next over, Zimbabwe lost Sibanda and Brendan Taylor – who they believe is their best batsman – in quick succession. Suddenly, their confidence dissipated. In minutes, they slipped to 133 for 6, and the match was gone.The focal point of pressure in a batting side is the middle order. If numbers 4, 5 and 6 need to do anything well, it’s absorb pressure. With everything at stake, the hosts’ middle order capitulated. When the game was gone, and it didn’t really matter what the rest of the batsmen did, Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya put together a tidy 88-run stand for the seventh wicket – incidentally, the second highest partnership of the entire match.Andy Waller, the Zimbabwe coach, admitted that this defeat was more disappointing than Wednesday’s, given that they had won a crucial toss and found themselves in strong positions more than once in the game. “We were in a good position to beat them and some rash shots cost us,” he said. “It actually showed with the partnership of Prosper and Elton – without any pressure, they got us to the 180, 190 after 40 [overs]. Had we only been two or three down, we probably would’ve been 210, 220 looking at 70 in the last ten. I’d say, after twenty overs, I thought we were going to win the game. Even though we let them get away with a lot more runs, I thought we had a chance but then we made some silly errors.”To put it another way, Zimbabwe choked. Much has been made of the susceptibility of Zimbabwe’s southern neighbours’ to the ‘C’ word, but choking or panicking in pressure situations certainly isn’t the preserve of the South Africans. In his famous essay , author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell dissects the reasons why skilled people might fail in times of stress. Gladwell draws a clear distinction between choking and panicking, writing that the former is a result of thinking too much, while panic is an outcome of thinking too little. The differentiator, it seems is experience. People without experience panic because they don’t know what to do, while people with experience choke because they forget how to do it.Yet what if one is highly trained, as the Zimbabweans are, but lacks the experience of putting that training into effect? Did Zimbabwe choke on Friday, or did they panic?

The catch is that Zimbabwe don’t really have any other options. In the absence of regular international competition, they practice. Because they practice too much and play too little, when they do find some quality opponents they flounder, making further competition more unlikely and leaving them with no option but to train some more.

“One thing we can’t do is put it down to not practising hard,” added Waller. “For ten weeks now, we field every day, we take catches every day, we throw at stumps every day. We do a lot of batting, we do a lot of bowling, and we practice those things. We’re looking for no-balls and that sort of stuff.”But it’s different when you get out to the middle. Those pressure situations: the more we play, the more we’re going to be able to handle those pressures and become mentally stronger. I was saying to the guys, we have to learn from our mistakes. Other teams who are playing all the time, they’re playing games and they can learn from that. We’re not going to get all those games so we’ve got to learn a damn lot quicker than the opposition do.”While Zimbabwe have practised, hard, on every off day during this series, India haven’t really turned up much, apart from at the matches themselves. Their first ‘practice’ involved some light fielding, with plenty of laughs, and a spot of football. The Indians see no value in intensive training of that sort – not on a minor tour such as this one, not at this level, and especially not unless it’s accompanied by actual experience of game situations. They’ll net, sure, but when was the last time you heard about India – or any top side for that matter – focus purely on training for more than two months?The catch is that Zimbabwe don’t really have any other options. In the absence of regular international competition, they practice. Because they practice too much and play too little, when they do find some quality opponents they flounder, making further competition more unlikely and leaving them with no option but to train some more. In the last year, Zimbabwe have played eight ODIs. Since June, India have played 12. It’s not that these teams aren’t on a level playing field. They’re barely playing the same sport.The situation is clearly unfair, but what is left for Zimbabwe? Should they just pack up and forget this whole international cricket lark? What could possibly break them out of this funk? Waller, only two matches old in his national coaching career, is firm in his support for his charges. “I still believe we’ve got the players. I have no doubt we’ve got the players who can get the runs but we’ve got to learn from our mistakes.”That’s undoubtedly true, but in the remainder of this series, and the ones which follow later this year against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the pressure to win and turn things around, will only increase the longer Zimbabwe go without a victory.”The importance of the next two or three months is huge and that’s what we keep discussing,” captain Brendan Taylor said earlier this week. “It’s up to us players to try to contribute to getting the public back in and getting sponsors back in. So it’s a big time for us and a couple of good results against the best side in the world can only do us some good.”It’s not a fair game, and there are no easy answers or solutions for Zimbabwe. All they can do is pick themselves up, dust themselves off and come back for more. They cannot run from pressure situations. They’ve got to learn to embrace them. Somewhere along the way, they’ve got to find some self-belief.

As Australia grafted for wickets, Peter Siddle restated his immense value to the team

Daniel Brettig at Adelaide Oval08-Dec-2013Twenty-four hours after Mitchell Johnson wrought havoc of biblical proportions at Adelaide Oval, 33,754 spectators and 11 Australia cricketers were reminded why such bursts are to be cherished in their rarity. Most Test cricket is far more attritional in nature, gains hard-won through hours of planning, application, agitation and the odd helping of fortune.Johnson’s incisions had cut the game open, but England would not allow their final 10 wickets to be extracted anywhere near as swiftly on what was now a dying pitch. Despite a brief reprise of Johnson’s sudden impact when Alastair Cook hooked his third ball to fine leg, and the most unexpected gift of Ian Bell’s wicket from a Steven Smith full toss, the major themes of the day were hard graft and ill temper.The scant assistance offered by the surface was epitomised by the frustrated glare of Ryan Harris, who so far has only one wicket in the match to show for more than 30 overs of typical vigour. Nathan Lyon has found spin but less of the bounce or rhythm that so aided him in Brisbane. Even Johnson was taken down a notch or two from his earlier heroics, the slightest drop in pace from day three to day four granting England’s batsmen a valuable fraction of extra time to play him – Matt Prior even hooking in front of square in the day’s final over.On both sides, the frustrations of the situation contributed to several ill-tempered conversations. Australia, so close to victory, did not take kindly at all to being held up. England, committed to obstructing their opponents’ progress in whatever ways they could, returned serve. Joe Root, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Johnson all were involved at various times, including at the end of play. So menacing in his silence the day before, Johnson seemed fractionally less dangerous for having to resort to verbals.It was decidedly handy in this atmosphere of war minus the shooting for the captain, Michael Clarke, to call on Peter Siddle for his most significant spells of the series. Across seven consecutive Ashes Tests of wildly fluctuating results, moods and conditions, Siddle has been a constant presence, his performances seldom gaining attention but always maintaining a standard Clarke can rely on. Most of all, Siddle has been the man most likely to dispose of Kevin Pietersen, and by doing so twice in Adelaide he has more than earned his match fee.

On-field temperature rises again

Australia have denied the frayed tempers on display as they sought to close out the second Ashes Test were any more pungent than in any other series, following a series of on-field exchanges that punctuated day four of the Adelaide Test.
Seldom did one of the day’s 90 overs go by without some evidence of niggle between the teams, reaching a pitch towards the end of play when the captain, Michael Clarke, was engaged in discussion about fading light. Peter Siddle, who claimed two of six wickets to fall, was at pains to play down scenes that did nothing to dispel the notion that Australia and England are growing even further apart than usual.
“Pup walked in to have a look at the light and Broady was asking Mitch where to go for dinner tonight,” Siddle said, grinning. “There wasn’t a lot to it, it’s no more than we’ve ever seen in the history of cricket. You can say what you want but, being out there, there wasn’t much said at all. It’s been a long day, a tough day and Mitch was trying to get the job done. That’s all it was.
“I’ve played 48 Tests now and it hasn’t been different, no matter who we’ve played. It’s just part of the game. A long hard day, they’re fighting to try and see where they can end up, we’re fighting hard to get those 10 wickets and it was hard work today, we tried everything, and we need to freshen up tonight, come out tomorrow and get the job done.”

The battles between Siddle and Pietersen served as a microcosm of the way the two days developed. In the first innings Siddle was brought on by Clarke for the specific task of constricting and defeating Pietersen, something he did not have to wait long for. Pietersen’s disregard for field settings has at times brought moments of high class, as his wrists pierce the tiniest gaps between catching men. But this time, as in Brisbane, his pick-up from around off stump found one of the two midwickets Clarke had posted. Like the rest of England’s first innings, it was a wicket sold too cheaply.On day four, however, Pietersen did fight his urge to whip through the leg side. Siddle tried alternating balls wide of the stumps with the odd one angled in, and also varied his approach to the crease to create an angle encouraging the stroke. But Pietersen’s bat continued to come through straight, defensive dead bats leaving the bowler to ponder another option. Pietersen strode to 53, helping himself to three sixes, but was then undone by Siddle’s subtle movement either way, dragging on a ball moving back at him with his bat hung slightly wider in expectation of a mild curve towards the slips.Siddle has now defeated Pietersen five times in the past seven Tests, and on nine occasions overall, a victory for the bowling tradesman over the batting aristocrat. “I love the challenge of bowling against a player of his experience and talent,” Siddle said. “He’s been a star player of Test cricket and I enjoy it. I try to keep patient, bowl in the right areas and been lucky enough, a few chop-ons always help. It was nice to get him today. Pup’s always told us be ready for certain players. He’s got ideas of who we want to bowl to, so at different stages we have. You know you do bowl better at some players and I think it does work.”The wicket of Michael Carberry had been collected earlier, courtesy of a short ball and a fine catch by Lyon in the deep. Siddle’s wicket-taking trailed off towards the end of the previous Ashes series but his value to the team is well understood by everyone in it. “I was disappointed with how I finished off in England but that’s done and dusted, don’t have to worry about that now,” he said. “We’re going well as a team, I’m happy with how I’m bowling.”As a unit we’re bowling strong, and that’s what we’re all about. Mitch has had all the success up to now, but I think it’s been the work from Ryano, myself, Nath, Watto, everyone involved that has built that pressure up, and we’ve got the wickets at his end. That makes it a lot easier for him if we can build the pressure and he can come on in short bursts at them.”The value of the collective is something Siddle has stressed many times before, notably during the 2011-12 summer when many of his best stints at the bowling crease against India went unrewarded, before a starburst of wickets in Adelaide gave him handsome final figures. Walking off the same oval on a day when the Australians had to scrap more thoroughly with England’s batsmen than at any other time of the series so far, they had reason to value Siddle, a man for the hard occasion.

Stats preview to the Boxing Day Ashes Test at the MCG

S Rajesh25-Dec-2013The last 15 Tests at the Melbourne Cricket Ground have all produced decisive results – the last draw here was in 1997, against South Africa. Given this stat, and the clear weather forecast, the series scoreline will probably read 4-0 or 3-1 before the new year dawns. Australia have a 12-3 record during this period, but England are the only side to win more than one Test since 1997 – they beat the hosts in 1998 and then again in 2010. The 2010 drubbing was especially embarrassing for Australia, and they were bowled out for 98 in their first innings and saw England finish the opening day on none for 157, which also turned out to be the margin of the innings victory for England. That was Australia’s first innings defeat at the ground since 1986.The memories of that embarrassment will surely keep Australia hungry and motivated despite having already sealed the series with two matches to go. Also, despite Australia’s imposing overall record here, they’ve been beaten twice in their last five Tests: before England’s comprehensive win in 2010, they’d also lost to South Africa by nine wickets in 2008. (Click here for the results at this ground since 1990.)Despite those two recent defeats, Australia’s stats here since 2000 are still utterly dominant – they’ve averaged more than 40 runs per wicket with the bat, and conceded less than 26 with the ball. Their batsmen have scored 16 centuries in these 13 Tests, while opposition batsmen have scored only five.

The MCG is one of two home venues where Shane Watson has scored a Test century – in fact, it’s the ground where he scored his first century, 120 not out against Pakistan in 2009. For Michael Clarke, though, it hasn’t been such a great batting ground: he scored his first Test century here last year, in his 13th Test innings; in his previous 12 innings here he’d averaged 36.50.The MCG has also been a poor venue for two of England’s top batsmen. Kevin Pietersen has managed 73 runs from three innings, while Ian Bell has scores of 7, 2, and 1 from his three innings here.

Peter Siddle has the least wickets among Australia’s fast bowlers so far in this series, but at the MCG he has been the top star, taking 21 wickets in five Tests at 22.19. The last time the two teams played at this ground, Siddle was the only Australian to emerge with his reputation enhanced, taking 6 for 75 from 33 tireless overs, even as England amassed 513. Mitchell Johnson went for plenty in that match – 2 for 134 from 29 overs – but he achieved his best MCG figures when he last played there, taking 6 for 79 against Sri Lanka in 2012.

In the last eight Tests at the MCG, fast bowlers have done much better than spinners, averaging 27 runs per wicket with five five-fors, two of those by Dale Steyn in one match. Spinners have conceded more than 41 runs per wicket, and two of the three five-fors taken by them during this period were by wristspinners, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble. Nathan Lyon, Australia’s specialist spinner in the current team, has bowled only 30.3 overs in the two Tests he has played here, which indicates how dominant Australia’s fast bowlers have been in these matches.

Teams winning the toss have batted first seven times in the last eight Tests, but have won only four of the seven times when they’ve chosen to bat. In these eight games, teams batting first and fielding first have won four times each, which suggests the toss hasn’t had that much impact on the result of the match.The average runs per wicket is the highest in the second innings, which suggests the second day is the best one for batting at this venue. In the last eight Tests, teams have topped 330 five times in the first innings, but there’ve also been three scores of less than 160. In the second innings, four times in the last eight years teams have topped 400, with England’s 513 in 2010 being the highest. However, the averages have dropped significantly in the third and fourth innings, with the fourth-innings average dropping to 23.

Stats highlights from the fourth day of the Wellington Test between New Zealand and India

Shiva Jayaraman17-Feb-2014

• Brendon McCullum is only 19 runs away from the first triple-hundred in Tests by a New Zealand batsman. His current score of 281 is the second highest by a New Zealand batsman in Tests. Martin Crowe holds the record for the highest Test score for the team – 299 against Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in 1990-91.
• McCullum’s score is the fourth-highest by a batsman in the second innings. Should he score a triple-century, he will be only the second batsman to do so in the second innings. Only Hanif Mohammad has scored a triple-century in the second innings, against West Indies in Bridgetown, way back in 1957-58. There have been only eight other scores of 250 or more in the second innings. Crowe is the only other New Zealand batsman in this list.
• This is McCullum’s third score of 200 or more in Tests and all of them have come against India. He has become only the second New Zealand batsman with three scores of 200 or more. Stephen Fleming is the other, with three scores of 200-plus. McCullum has scored 1203 runs at 70.76 against India from ten Tests.
• McCullum has faced 525 deliveries in his marathon innings. This is now the most deliveries faced in an innings by a batsman in Tests in New Zealand, beating the 524 balls faced by England’s Clive Radley against the hosts at the Eden Park in 1977-78.
• McCullum’s innings has lasted approximately 727 minutes, which is the longest any New Zealand batsman has batted, beating the 704 minutes that Glenn Turner batted for, against West Indies in Bridgetown in 1971-72. This is also the longest a batsman has batted in Tests in New Zealand, beating Shoaib Mohammad’s 720 minute-long vigil at the crease at the same venue in 1988-89. Click here for a list of the longest innings in terms of time by batsmen in Tests.
• McCullum has scored 514 runs already in this series – only the sixth instance of a batsman scoring 500 or more runs in a two-Test series. McCullum’s tally is currently the fourth highest, the highest being Sanath Jayasuriya’s 571 runs, also against India in this series.
• McCullum has now scored the second-highest number of runs by a New Zealand captain in a Test series. He is 32 runs short of breaking John Reid’s record, who scored 546 runs in a five-match series in South Africa in 1961-62. This is also the second instance of a New Zealand captain scoring 500 or more runs in a Test series.
• This is also the fifth-highest runs scored by a captain in a three-Test (or less) series. Graham Gooch holds the record for scoring the most runs in such series – he scored 752 runs, also against India, in this series in 1990-91.
• BJ Watling’s third Test century was only the fourth hundred by a New Zealand No. 7 in the second innings. Watling fell just two runs short of the highest score by a New Zealand No. 7 in the second innings – 126 by Chris Cairns against India in Hamilton in 1998-99. Watling also completed 1000 Test runs during his innings. He now has 1092 runs at 35.22 from 21 Tests.
• Watling’s 124 is the second hundred and the highest score by a New Zealand wicketkeeper in the second innings. McCullum is the only other wicketkeeper for them to hit a hundred in the second innings.
• McCullum and Watling’s partnership of 352 runs is the highest for the sixth wicket in Tests, beating the 351-run partnership between Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene against India in Ahmedabad in 2009.
• This partnership was the fourth highest for any wicket to come in the second innings of a team. The highest partnership also came at the same venue between Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones when they added 467 runs for the third wicket against Sri Lanka in 1991.
• New Zealand’s sixth and seventh wickets have added 477 runs in this innings – this is the highest added by the two wickets in an innings in Tests. The previous highest added by the sixth and seventh wickets in an innings was 414 runs by Australia in this Test way back in 1936-37.
• The total of 474 runs scored by New Zealand’s No. 5 to No. 8 in this innings is the highest in an innings by four batsmen batting at these positions. The previous highest was also against India, when Carl Hooper (136), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (136), Ridley Jacobs (118) and Mervyn Dillon (43) together scored 433 in this Test in 2002.
• In the last Test, New Zealand scored 503 and 105, registering a deficit of 398 runs between their innings – their second-highest such deficit in Tests. They are quite close to overhauling that deficit in the ongoing Test. The current difference between their first innings and second innings scores is 372, which is the second-highest difference between their two innings with a higher second-innings score.
• New Zealand’s lead of 325 runs is already the highest a team batting first has managed after trailing by 200 or more after the first innings. The previous-highest such lead was also by New Zealand, at the same venue, against Sri Lanka in 1990-91, when they led by 323 runs.
• New Zealand’s lead is well past the highest a team has scored in the fourth innings to win a Test at the Basin Reserve – 277 by Pakistan against the hosts in 2003-04. However, India will not be asking for too much should they hope to salvage a draw from this Test. The previous 18 instances of a team batting second taking a lead of 200 or more in the first innings, only to concede a similar lead when the opposition has batted again, have all ended in a draw.

The highs, the lows, the trends, the talking points. The 2014 IPL season summed up

Siddarth Ravindran and Nitin Sundar03-Jun-2014An IPL with no controversy is still an IPL – No slapgate. No expose of rigged auctions. No twitter meltdown involving cabinet ministers and tournament officials. No news of financial irregularities. No talk of conflicts of interest. No enthusiastic sons-in-law. No dodgy no-balls. After the muck-fest that was IPL 2013, the organisers must be relieved to go through an entire season without any scandal.Administrators had promised to do away with cheerleaders as part of a plan to focus more on cricket. They didn’t go that far, but annoyances like in-game chats with players and interviews with the local cinema star (Trisha, Siddharth, etc) were minimised or done away with. The IPL opening ceremony, perhaps due to UAE rules, was a closed-door affair and not a much-trumpeted gala featuring a global pop star like Katy Perry or Pitbull as in previous years.The best teams played the final, which is as good an endorsement for the format as any. Kings XI Punjab were the class of the field in the first half of the season, while Knight Riders shook off a flaky start to peak at the right time. Knight Riders were deserving winners, for finding a way past Kings XI despite their two best players – Sunil Narine and Robin Uthappa – failing in the final.Robin Uthappa’s revival was the most compelling story of the season. He topped the tournament run-charts, despite hitting only 18 sixes. In contrast, Glenn Maxwell and Dwayne Smith, his closest competitors for the Orange Cap, smashed 70 sixes between them. Knight Riders’ brilliant bowling attack made it the best team to be batting for, and Uthappa surely benefitted – his streak of ten successive 40-plus scores included eight games where they were chasing middling targets, which allowed him to play at his pace.Home and away became increasingly irrelevant. The first leg being shifted to the UAE was unavoidable, but Cuttack hosted both a home game for Knight Riders and an away game for them. Two teams – Royals and Super Kings – didn’t play a single game in their traditional home cities.Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and Kevin Pietersen were poor, and it took a toll on their respective teams. Gayle arrived unfit, and was a shadow of his usual self when he got to play. Watson fell apart as a leader, and Brad Hodge had to step up when Corey Anderson was destroying Rajasthan. Pietersen’s mind was at least partly on his off-field battles with the ECB. Overall, a lesson for teams looking to build their teams around a single high-profile buy.Glenn Maxwell’s slump came in a clutch of inconsequential rubbers, while his failures in the play-off against Chennai and in the final didn’t stop Kings XI from running up gigantic scores. However, their approach in the final – promoting George Bailey and Wriddhiman Saha – was perhaps dictated by Maxwell’s form. If he had been among the runs, he may have gone in at 3, and Punjab might have made those 15 extra runs.Kings XI top six – the gold standard of IPL batting•ESPNcricinfo LtdSehwag. Vohra. Saha. Maxwell. Miller. Bailey. Six dashers, no blocker, and all in form. Kings XI’s batting line-up is the gold standard against which all IPL batting sides should be compared.Mumbai’s discards who were strong contenders for a place in the team of the tournament: Yuzvendra Chahal, Glenn Maxwell, Dwayne Smith, Akshar Patel. Did Mumbai muck it up at the auction?MS Dhoni had a peculiar season. He took tight chases deep and struck nerveless sixes in the end to win matches. Yet, in the playoff against Kings XI, he struggled after holding himself back for too long. He had an entire season to find a way to replace Dwayne Bravo, but failed. He made some questionable on-field calls – most notably when he backed David Hussey’s part-time rusty offspin in the final over against RCB. And he was unusually heated in his comments after losing the playoff. Unusual, for a captain who took it all stoically while India were getting repeatedly hammered in away Tests.Dale Steyn’s death bowling came apart four times in the season – against MS Dhoni, AB de Villiers, George Bailey and Yusuf Pathan. Perhaps, fast length balls in the corridor just don’t work against 21st century hitters, that stunning final over against New Zealand in the World T20 not withstanding.Is Sunil Narine the most valuable T20 player in the world? Always called on to bowl tough overs at the death, he was freakishly consistent. It became a cliché that teams playing Knight Riders had only 16 overs to score off. And the knowledge that he was waiting at the end of the innings forced teams to go on all-out attack earlier than they would like. Briefly, during the final over of the tournament, you wondered whether Narine might cost Knight Riders the title as he fumbled against Parvinder Awana, but a scampered single averted that cruel twist.A slew of low-cost spinners were among the performers of the season as well: Akshar (Rs 75 lakh), Chahal (10 lakh) and Pravin Tambe (10 lakh). Others got smaller roles but made an impact: Shivam Sharma (10 lakhs), Karanaveer Singh (10 lakhs) and Shreyas Gopal (10 lakhs).The umpiring was substandard, with games featuring too many glaring errors. The umpire cam was an innovation that resulted in unpleasant pictures when the umpire shook his head to turn down a decision or a player filled up the screen when he was talking to the official. Occasionally it worked, especially for catches around midwicket when viewed from square leg. Relatively old-school Hawk-Eye graphics would have been a better viewer aid.87 off 25 A sense of disappointment lingers over Suresh Raina’s international career, but his IPL performances brook no argument. The most consistent batsman over seven seasons of the tournament, he produced arguably the best innings of all in the playoff against Kings XI. All sorts of records were laid to waste as he showed there was no need to slog even while scoring at a strike rate of 348, highlighted by the shot of the innings – a nonchalant tuck to midwicket for four though the ball from Parvinder Awana was full and angling away.The fielding in the IPL was its usual mix of amateurish incompetence and world-class brilliance. Kieron Pollard and Chris Lynn produced grabs that will linger long in the memory, but a large number of matches also featured comical drops – starting with Lasith Malinga putting down a sitter that changed the opening game of the tournament.Blue v blue was all-too common again•BCCIFeeling blue. Yet again there was a preponderance of teams in the IPL’s favourite colour, perhaps in an attempt to link the franchise with the national team’s kit. When Mumbai Indians took on Royals, it was hard to distinguish the teams. At least the disbanding of Deccan Chargers and Pune Warriors brought down the number of blues from five to three.Pakistan players remained persona non grata. There were Pakistan coaches, Pakistan umpires, Pakistan commentators, and Shoaib Akhtar regaled viewers from the studio but the talents of Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi stay off the IPL stage. Also, with Sri Lanka players ignored this season, England players generally not favoured, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe players a rarity, the overseas cricketers in the IPL came almost entirely from just four countries.Twenty20 has made batting orders more fluid than before, but Royals took that idea to extremes. A profitable opening partnership of Ajinkya Rahane and Karun Nair was shunted to the middle order for one game, Stuart Binny was stubbornly persisted with at around No. 4 or 5 though he was woefully short of runs, and accomplished batsmen like Steven Smith and Brad Hodge were sometimes held back as late as No. 8. It’s toss-up whether those decisions were taken after deep analysis or a spin-the-wheel basis.Short is sweet – The number of games in 2014 was down to 60 – that’s 16 matches fewer than in 2013 and 2012, and it showed. The IPL buzz did not flag this time and the cricket craze built up leading into the playoffs. Traditionally, franchisees have clamoured for more games to be packed into a season, with an eye on the incremental eyeballs and gate revenue. But IPL 2014 proved that less is more.

Plays of the day from the second ODI between Pakistan and Australia in Dubai

Abhishek Purohit10-Oct-2014The celebration
Batsmen usually reserve their celebrations for centuries and not fifties, but it has been a special year for Sarfraz Ahmed. All his five Test scores of fifty-plus have come in 2014. Tonight, he brought up his maiden ODI half-century to follow up on the 34 he made in the first ODI after being promoted from the lower middle order to open in this series. After he ran a couple off Kane Richardson to bring up the landmark, Sarfraz roared, beamed, took off his helmet and soaked in the applause from the crowd and the dressing room, with coach Waqar Younis nodding and clapping in appreciation.The double-jump catch
Captains usually don’t have a slip in the 44th over of an ODI innings but Pakistan’s collapse had allowed George Bailey to attack more. When Shahid Afridi edged a slog off Mitchell Johnson, Steven Smith was in the position as the ball threatened to fly over him. Smith reached it with a jump and hands stretched over his head, only to parry it to his left. Even as the wicketkeeper Brad Haddin pondered whether to go for the rebound, Smith came down from the first jump, leaped again in the direction of the ball, and landed with it safely in his grasp.The run-out
Mohammad Irfan got to face his first delivery in the last over of the Pakistan innings, and poked and missed one from Richardson. Fawad Alam wanted the strike and ran. Irfan realised too late that he too, would have to do the same. Irfan could not pick up any pace, though. The keeper lobbed the ball to Richardson, who was standing halfway between the two ends. Even though he was so far away, Richardson had enough time to trot towards the non-striker’s end and lob the ball onto the stumps. Irfan lumbered in after what seemed like an age.The overrule
In the 22nd over of the chase, Pakistan appealed for caught behind against George Bailey off Zulfiqar Babar, and got the decision in their favour. Bailey reviewed. Replays showed the bat had hit the ground some time after the ball had passed the outside edge. In the absence of Snicko or HotSpot, there was no conclusive evidence on the replay alone that ball had not touched bat. The on-field umpire’s decision stays in such a case but third umpire Richard Illingworth thought otherwise, and it was Bailey who stayed instead.

Plays of the day from the third ODI between Pakistan and New Zealand in Sharjah

Alagappan Muthu14-Dec-2014One more roll
His skill as a batsman across formats has fast-tracked Kane Williamson’s grooming as captain. But the New Zealand selectors might take note that their young prodigy and tosses just don’t get along. He has won only two of them in 10 tries and flashed a wry grin after losing the latest one in Sharjah. Shahid Afridi, the stand-in Pakistan captain, too wore an embarrassed smile as he shared a couple of words punctuated by Williamson rotating an outstretched right palm. “Oh, come on, Shahid. One more roll,” he might have said. Wonder if his mind went back to the coin as Pakistan went on to make their third-highest ODI total.The hated hat-trick
It was only six overs, but Mitchell McClenaghan had bagged two hat-tricks. Of fours. The first sequence began with a poor, wide full toss that Ahmed Shehzad directed through point. The next two attempted bouncers were pulled either side of square leg. Mohammad Hafeez must have been miffed standing at the other end, and cheered himself up with a sublime whip through midwicket off McClenaghan’s next over, enjoyed some fortune with a top-edge over the keeper and drummed the next ball to the long-on boundary.The present
Umar Akmal was playing his 100th ODI, he was also stepping up for the injured Misbah-ul-Haq, and he was walking in with a situation that was tailor-made for him. Pakistan were 300 for 5 with almost five overs left in the bank. He slid his first ball to point with soft hands and set off, eager to give the ballistic Afridi the strike. Only his captain did not like the look of the fielder swooping down on the ball. A shocked Akmal stopped in his tracks and almost accepted his fate as Martin Guptill loaded up for a throw. A direct hit would have had him, but Guptil did not want to take any risks. He began running to the stumps, which forced a desperate Akmal to scamper as well. An underamed throw hit the mark and the batsman had to walk back for a first-ball duck.The wicketkeeper’s warning
New Zealand’s bowlers were being run ragged. Their over-rate was stuck in the 12 per hour mark. But through it all, Luke Ronchi was alert enough to stop an unnecessary no-ball. Akmal had just been run-out and Williamson had forgotten to pull a fifth man inside the circle for the new batsman Sarfraz Ahmed. Corey Anderson was almost set to deliver when the wicketkeeper abandoned his crouch and stretched out his hands to ask the bowler to stop. The same gaffe happened in the 48th over, but this time no one could prevent it.The old-war horse
Younis Khan is auditioning for a spot for the World Cup at 37. He needed to show briskness with the bat, but his pushes and nudges weren’t hitting the gap and he was caught at long-on when he yielded to a slog. But his stocks rose on the field. Guptill thought he had it easy with a push to mid-off in the fifth over, but Younis sprinted to his right, slid for the ball and threw it while he was off balance. But rather like a snorter that beats a batsman, this too was too good to hit the target. He was not left to rue the effort too long though as he found a miscued swipe from Nathan McCullum heading in his direction during the 34th over. He ran hard, thrust both hands up after a leap to his right at cover and held on to quite an acrobatic catch.

Plays of the day from the game between India and South Africa in Melbourne

Firdose Moonda in Melbourne22-Feb-2015 The wake-up call
If the chants of 86,876 people and the sense of expectation in the humid Melbourne air were not enough to have Shikhar Dhawan wide-eyed, Morne Morkel’s chin music would have done it. After three overs of trying to pitch it up, the bowler decided to go for the short ball. It rose sharply to meet Dhawan while he was deciding whether to duck, dive or pull and had to settle for being wrapped on the knuckles. When Morkel presented the same delivery with his next ball, Dhawan pulled with power to deep square leg to prove the he could handle the pressure and the bouncer.The missed chance
Unlike some of his team-mates, Hashim Amla is not known for superhuman efforts in the field but he had the chance to change that when Dhawan, on 53, cut one his way at backward point. The ball was at catchable height but needed Amla to fling himself forward and to his right in a coordinated effort. Though he got there and grabbed the ball, it bobbed out as he fell to the ground. Not quite AB de Villiers yet.The other missed chance
South Africa had an uncharacteristically lazy day in the field but when they had the opportunity to hit the stumps, they did. Twice. India did not. When Amla drove to Ajinkya Rahane at cover, he was quick to swoop in, pick up and release with Amla still a long way out. But the throw missed its mark. Suresh Raina was backing up and close enough to underarm the ball onto the stumps, which would have still seen Amla dismissed, but he missed as well.Beating him at his own game
If there is a batsman that is considered un-run-out-able, it would be AB de Villiers. In fact, he is more likely to be the one effecting run-outs, like he did, but then also found himself caught short of his own ground. De Villiers was pushing for a second run after driving the ball to the sweeper. Mohit Sharma’s throw came in low and accurate so all MS Dhoni had to do was break the stumps. The Indian fielders were convinced they had beaten de Villiers at his own game and replays confirmed they had.