It was down to what mindset the two batting line-ups came out with on a treacherous Mirpur pitch and the difference in the two approaches was evident

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur08-Feb-2018It is still quite early to gauge how much difference Kusal Mendis’ 68 will make in the Dhaka Test but on the first day, his adventurous approach already made a telling impact in Sri Lanka’s innings. It was that kind of a pitch where a really good ball was going to get you so Mendis probably thought it was best to collect some runs before that one delivery came. His tactics to work the wrists over the ball and drive through and across the line, although with some risk, on a treacherous pitch were much better than Bangladesh’s overly watchful approach in the last 22 overs of the day, which left them on 56 for 4 after Sri Lanka’s total of 222.There wasn’t the mystery element in the pitch to assist the spinners which both sides spoke about before the match. So it was down to what mindset the two batting line-ups came out with. By being positive like Tamim Iqbal against England and Australia in Mirpur in 2016 and 2017, Mendis got the most out of his potential on a tough pitch.Thilan Samaraweera, Sri Lanka’s batting coach, said that such was Mendis’ confidence, it looked like he was playing on a different surface altogether.”The biggest thing [in our innings] is Kusal Mendis’s 68,” Samaraweera said. “The runs came very quickly. It was a massive part of our batting because on this pitch it is not easy to score fast, but he batted on a different track in the morning. We have to give credit to the tailenders and Roshen Silva too for batting well. But had there not been soft dismissals, we would have been happy to score 250-260.”Like in Chittagong, Mendis didn’t let Dimuth Karunaratne’s early loss get the better of him. By the 10th over, Mendis had raced to 36 off 35 balls with seven fours before Mustafizur Rahman slowed him down with a short burst of dot balls. Mendis reached fifty with a slog-swept six over midwicket, which was his eighth boundary through the arc between backward square-leg and midwicket.Mendis hardly let go of any short balls and often whipped his wrists over the ball to negate the spin. It took a brilliant delivery from Abdur Razzak to remove him, when the ball hung on the middle-stump line and went past his outside edge to take down the off stump.Cut to the Bangladesh first innings, and it was evident that being too watchful on this pitch had plenty of pitfalls. The home batsmen didn’t need to copy Mendis but there was reward for a positive approach, which even Liton Das portrayed in his short stay. A bit of carelessness also didn’t help them.Tamim Iqbal’s dismissal said as much about Bangladesh’s mindset. He was half forward and although he connects a lot of deliveries with that type of footwork against pace, he drove too early at Suranga Lakmal, resulting in a return catch. Then with his side already looking in trouble in the final 90 minutes, Mominul Haque was careless enough to be run-out, especially after showing so much restraint in the two innings in Chittagong.Mushfiqur Rahim kept leaving Lakmal’s deliveries too close to the off stump. A firmer mindset may have helped him but he left one too many, and paid the price by seeing his off stump knocked over by shouldering arms. Imrul Kayes would be kicking himself too for not lasting until the end of the day, getting out to a full delivery from Dilruwan Perera, who had been troubling him throughout his 55-ball stay.Liton Das, however, offered some hope for the hosts by showing the common sense to drive the drivable balls, cut the short balls and deal with the good deliveries sensibly. A bit of confidence from his 94 in the Chittagong Test, and seeing the other batsmen fall to poor shots may have helped Liton understand what not to do as Bangladesh now bank on him to get anywhere near Sri Lanka’s score.

And has anyone else scored a T20 hundred from No. 7 like Andre Russell did?

Steven Lynch21-Aug-2018I wondered about what you might call the “non-honours board” at Lord’s – how many batsmen have, like Murali Vijay, bagged a pair in a Test there? asked Derek Butcher from England
The unfortunate M Vijay in 2018 became the 28th man to be out for a duck in both innings in a Test at Lord’s (Kuldeep Yadav later became the 29th). The only other openers to have suffered this fate are Australia’s Alick Bannerman (1888), Clifford Roach of West Indies (1933), South Africa’s Jackie McGlew (1955), John Wright of New Zealand (1986) and Pakistan’s Saleem Elahi (2001).There are some distinguished English names on the non-honour roll, including John Murray (1967), Alan Knott (1973), Ian Botham (1981), Mark Ramprakash (1995), Matt Prior (2013), Ben Stokes (2014) and Stuart Broad (2018).Vijay was only the sixth Indian opener to bag a pair in a Test, following Pankaj Roy (1952), Farokh Engineer (1974-75), Wasim Jaffer (2006-07), Virender Sehwag (2011) and Shikhar Dhawan (2015-16). Jaffer’s pair, against Bangladesh in Chittagong, was the only other time before Lord’s that India had lost their first wicket at 0 in both innings of a Test.Has anyone else taken 100 Test wickets at a single ground, as Jimmy Anderson has at Lord’s? asked Mick Harrison from England
Jimmy Anderson’s 100th Test wicket at Lord’s – which completed M Vijay’s pair mentioned above – made him only the second bowler to take 100 at one venue. But Anderson has quite a way to go if he’s to top the table: Muttiah Muralitharan took no fewer than 166 wickets in 24 Tests at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. Murali also took 117 in Kandy, and 111 in Galle.Someone who may join them soon is Rangana Herath, who has so far claimed 99 wickets in Galle, the venue for the first Test between Sri Lanka and England in November. Herath also has 84 wickets at the SSC, but is unlikely to reach three figures there unless he reconsiders his retirement plans.Stuart Broad now has 83 Test wickets at Lord’s, while Dale Steyn has taken 67 in Cape Town.Ian Botham was dismissed for a pair in the 1981 Ashes Test at Lord’s•PA Photos/Getty ImagesAndre Russell scored a Twenty20 century from No. 7 the other day. Has anyone else managed this? asked Russ Kendrick from Jamaica
The West Indian allrounder Andre Russell smashed an unbeaten 121 from 49 balls as the Jamaica Tallawahs beat the Trinbago Knight Riders in their Caribbean Premier League match in Port-of-Spain. Russell entered in the seventh over, with the Tallawahs floundering at 41 for 5 in pursuit of 224, but put on 161 with Kennar Lewis, before winning the match with his 13th six. Just for good measure, Russell had earlier taken a hat-trick in the last over of the Knight Riders’ innings.Russell’s hundred was the first by a No. 7 in senior T20 cricket: the previous-highest was Mohammad Nabi’s 89 for Afghanistan against Ireland in Greater Noida in India in March 2017, which remains the international record. No one has made a higher score at No. 6, either, where the record is Dan Christian’s 113 not out for Nottinghamshire in Northampton last month.What was the shortest Test match – in terms of balls bowled – that produced a result? asked Ravi Kumar from India
The shortest Test match that produced a positive result lasted only 109.2 overs – 656 balls. It was played in Melbourne in 1931-32, on a pitch that was almost impossible to bat on after rain (the pitches were not covered in those days). South Africa were shot out for 36 and 45 – slow left-armer Bert Ironmonger, who was 49, took 11 for 24 in the match – and in between Australia managed to score 153. Don Bradman, who might have added a few more, was unable to bat after injuring himself in the dressing room.Another match on a rain-affected pitch in the 1930s – West Indies v England in Bridgetown in 1934-35 – lasted only 112 overs, or 672 balls. For the full list, click here (this also includes drawn matches).In terms of time, there have now been 21 Test matches that were completed inside two days. The most recent of these was Afghanistan’s unsuccessful debut, against India in Bengaluru in June. For that list, click here.Paul Stirling and Aaron Finch both hit hundreds in a recent T20 Blast match. Was this a first for a Twenty20 game? asked Daniel Surkes from England
Those hundreds in the recent London derby at The Oval was actually the 18th time there had been two tons in the same senior T20 match. Two of those involved batsmen from the same side: Stirling’s Ireland team-mate Kevin O’Brien and Hamish Marshall both scored hundreds for Gloucestershire against Middlesex in Uxbridge in 2011, while Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers repeated the feat for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Gujarat Lions in the IPL in Bengaluru in 2016.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

India’s first day of training at the Ageas Bowl seemed to suggest this could happen

Nagraj Gollapudi in Southampton27-Aug-20182:42

ESPN Shorts: Kohli the tinkerer

For the first time in his captaincy Virat Kohli is likely to retain the same XI for consecutive matches. The Nottingham Test last week was his 38th as captain; he is yet to go into a Test without making at least one change. Form, fitness and his own gut instincts about players were some of the factors that contributed to Kohli’s tinkering, but after the victory at Trent Bridge, which came about due to a collective effort from the team, India may opt to stick with the winning unit.The first hints of such a possibility were evident during India’s first training session in Southampton, three days before the Test. The batting order was the same as that at Trent Bridge with Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul entering the nets first, followed by Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli. Ajinkya Rahane was then paired with Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya padded up next. R Ashwin, the other allrounder, who struggled with a hip injury through most of the Nottingham Test, also batted, though he did not bowl.India were meant to start their training from Tuesday, but the team think tank added another day of preparation. All 18 players, including new additions Hanuma Vihari and Prithvi Shaw, reported for the training, which lasted for close to three hours on an overcast, cool and breezy day.The overhead conditions and a hard and lively pitch put a spring in the step of the fast-bowling group as they forced edges repeatedly. But it didn’t cause most of the batsmen to frown, since they were playing with soft hands. Head coach Ravi Shastri singled out the young trio of Pant, Vihari and Shaw, offering them guidance on their stance, the distance between their feet, and their trigger movements.Shastri, no doubt, would have been impressed by the back-foot play of Shaw, the youngest member of the squad at 18. Shaw, who led India to victory in the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, showed a good understanding of length as he handled Jasprit Bumrah, India’s best bowler at Trent Bridge, confidently. However, the probability of either Shaw or Vihari, who replaced M Vijay and Kuldeep Yadav in the squad, making a Test debut this week remains remote.Kohli and Shastri would like the other batsmen to take forward the good work they did in the third Test and make it big at the Ageas Bowl which has been among the higher-scoring venues in English first-class cricket this season. The average runs-per-wicket figure at the Ageas Bowl this season is 34.10, the highest among all Test venues in England. The seamers have done the bulk of the bowling, taking 122 wickets at an average of 30.97 in half-a-dozen matches, while the spinners have taken 23 wickets at 33.86.

An India side billed as one of England’s toughest challenges of recent times is facing the prospect of being 2-0 down

Andrew Miller at Lord's11-Aug-2018Up until the moment that Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes came together in the afternoon session, to batter India out of the Test and potentially the series, it had looked like being another day in which England’s batsmen would end up doing just enough.When Woakes replaced Jos Buttler at 131 for 5 in the 32nd over, England were on course for just enough runs to keep their team in the ascendancy, having held onto just enough slip catches to keep their hard-toiling bowlers from throttling them.There was probably going to be just enough play on what promises to be a dank and miserable Sunday to cement their dominance. And if, come Monday, England found themselves 2-0 up with three Tests to come, there would just about be enough cricket left in the series for India to claw their way back into contention.As a recipe for long-term success, it left rather a lot to be desired. As a means to retain the drama in what is threatening to turn into a deeply flawed series, England’s lingering air of flakiness was looking like the best leveller available. On the evidence of these past few days at Lord’s, their opponents seemed to have left their competitive spirit on the red-eye rattler from Birmingham to Marylebone.But then Bairstow and Woakes starting climbing into their day’s work – showing, surely not for the last time in the Trevor Bayliss era, that the depth of England’s batting options can often be a pretty decent proxy for the quality of some of those options. The ball lost its hardness, India’s under-stocked seam department ran out of puff, and R Ashwin was left to graze in the outfield until there was no control left to exert – by which stage Kuldeep Yadav (the wrong Yadav in the circumstances) had provided a shadow of his menace from the one-dayers, when the onus had been on England to attack his variations rather than sit and wait for the bad ball.And thus, in the space of two hours either side of tea, the contest slipped as quickly down the gurgler for India as those second-afternoon floodplains on Lord’s super-absorbent outfield.”There wasn’t a huge amount of turn there, so when the spinners were on we felt we’d done our job,” said Woakes, England’s centurion and Lord of Lord’s, who became only the fifth player in history to etch himself a place on all three of the dressing-room honours boards. “I wasn’t looking too much at the scoreboard in terms of what lead we needed. But the ball got a little bit softer, and it made it a little bit easier.”Hardik Pandya celebrates Ollie Pope’s dismissal•Getty ImagesThat is not to say, however, that England were simply gifted the upper hand (or any balance of power that remained to be claimed after their first-innings bowling efforts). In the first instance, the momentum was seized by Bairstow, who produced a pocket battleship of an innings, studded with the sort of piercing drives through the covers with which he has kickstarted so many ODI onslaughts in recent times.He arrived to a scene of familiar false dawns from England’s top order – three scores between 11 and 28, which soon became four when Joe Root was pinned on the shin for 19 by a Mohammed Shami nipbacker that kept a touch low. For the Alpha and Omega of England’s batting, Alastair Cook and Ollie Pope, scores of 21 and 28 in their 158th and first Tests respectively said as much or as little about their respective games as you’d care to read into them – Cook looked composed until, once again, he attracted the sort of jaffa that his former self would surely have survived, while Pope’s wristy intent telegraphed both raw and powerful talent, as well as the inevitable naivety that a man who had never previously come to the crease in the first ten overs of a first-class fixture was bound to display.But that was the context of the contest when, in the 39th over, Bairstow nudged Ashwin’s first delivery of the match off his hip and become the first player in either team to reach 30. And when, two overs later, he dumped Ashwin back over his head for a one-bounce four, he surpassed Hardik Pandya’s 31, in the second innings at Edgbaston, which remains the highest score in the series by any Indian batsman who is not Virat Kohli.These are not the parameters by which you are usually judged when squaring up to the world’s No.1 Test team. Thereafter, England capitalised on a baffling combination of Indian team selection and tactical deployment, to power themselves in a position from which their opponents have no realistic hope of salvation other than the elements – and given the aforementioned resilience of that outfield, the prospect of more cloud cover on Sunday and Monday is actually likelier to contribute to their downfall.”If there is a little bit of rain around tomorrow, that might play into our hands,” Woakes said. “A bit overcast, bit of moisture around, we hope it might move around like it did [on Friday]. I’m sure it won’t quite do that – but with a significant lead, whenever we do come to bowl, we hope we can put the Indian batsmen under pressure.”When, at the start of the summer, word filtered out that Kohli was sizing up a month at Surrey, with the likes of Ishant Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara already bedding into county stints of their own, it seemed a given that India would provide the sternest test yet of England’s four-year unbeaten record in home Test series – a record that has been threatened by more than a few less vaunted opponents in recent years. The anticipated challenge came to pass in fleetingly glorious fashion at Edgbaston, but it’s gone the same way as the heatwave in these past few days.

After just one full season of domestic cricket, the 20-year-old left-arm quick is part of India’s Asia Cup squad, having imbibed some lessons from Zaheer Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar along the way

Shashank Kishore01-Sep-20185:24

Agarkar: It was time for India to move on from Raina

These are the questions on everyone’s mind, now that Khaleel Ahmed has made India’s squad for the Asia Cup: How quick is he? Can he swing it back into the right-handers? Can he bowl the heavy ball? What does his action look like?First, some background. Khaleel has only played one full season of domestic cricket – and only two first-class matches. But he has shown enough promise to win a place in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s squad in IPL 2018 and get fast-tracked into the India A squads for a tour of England in June-July and the recently concluded A team quadrangular series. In his last nine outings for India A, he hasn’t gone wicketless even once, and has picked up 15 wickets.Khaleel’s strength lies in extracting bounce even on docile surfaces – which could come in handy in the Asia Cup in Dubai and Abu Dhabi – and he’s got pace too. He grew up playing tennis-ball cricket in Tonk, a Rajasthan town known for its muskmelons. On muddy surfaces where batsmen kept swinging, he learned early that the only way to beat them was by being quick through the air. Now he’s trying to blend that pace and bounce with with swing to become the complete fast bowler.When he first came through at the 2016 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, he relied mostly on his angle across the right-hander. Over the last two seasons, he’s worked closely on swinging the ball back in. This process began during a stint with Delhi Daredevils (2016 and 2017), when he didn’t get to play in the IPL, but got to rub shoulders with Zaheer Khan, who was captaining the franchise at the time. Zaheer would try and get Khaleel to think for himself, ask him to set his own fields and bowl to them. Khaleel says this experience improved him significantly as a bowler.”Being under Zaheer coincided with my improvement as a cricketer,” Khaleel told ESPNcricinfo during the quadrangular series last week. “I used to just look to bowl fast, didn’t think much about the technicalities, but Zaheer worked on my non-bowling arm and wrist position. The seam position used to be wobbly, because there was some problem with my grip and alignment with my thumb. Now I can swing the ball back into the right-handers.”Khaleel Ahmed and Pawan Suyal bond with each other•Delhi DaredevilsKhaleel only picked up two wickets in his two Ranji Trophy games in 2017-18, at an average of 90.00, but did rather better in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, picking up 17 wickets at 15.52, while conceding just 6.76 per over. Rajasthan finished the T20 tournament as runners-up. In the final against Delhi, Khaleel dismissed Rishabh Pant and half-centurion Unmukt Chand to finish with figures of 4-0-23-2.In the 2018 IPL auction, Sunrisers entered a serious bidding war with Kings XI Punjab and Daredevils before eventually picking Khaleel up for INR 3 crores. It’s another matter that Sunrisers looked at him as a back-up option, since they had a strong Indian pace battery in Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul and Basil Thampi. He only got one game for the franchise, in which he ran into the rampaging Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine and ended up with figures of 0 for 38 in three overs.At the time of his signing, Khaleel hadn’t even played List A cricket, but he went into the IPL on the back of a productive Vijay Hazare Trophy, in which he picked up 10 wickets at at 23.40 in six 50-over matches, while returning an economy rate of 4.77. These performances earned him a place in the season-ending Deodhar Trophy.In the final, he bowled a hostile spell in tandem with Umesh Yadav to rip through Karnataka’s top order. He took three of the top five to help his side beat the domestic 50-over champions. “Performing in those matches gave me a lot of confidence,” Khaleel said. “Before that, at the Under-19 level itself, Rahul Dravid sir kept talking to us about how we have to be ready for the step up and the kind of adjustments we must make. So that transition was a little smooth, because we were prepared mentally.”While playing opportunities for Sunrisers were scarce, he spent as much time as possible with Bhuvneshwar, often accompanying him for breakfast or to watch moves in rest days. All along, he tried to pick his brains. “With Bhuvneshwar Kumar at Sunrisers, I learnt about death bowling,” Khaleel said. “How he trains in the nets, how he practices bowling yorkers and does target practice. He is a very simple person, and is always ready to offer advice.”With him, chats have been around consistency. My strength is bounce because of height, but if I can swing the ball, then it adds variety. So even when I didn’t get chances, I wasn’t frustrated because I tried to learn in whatever little time we had between matches.”Khaleel’s rise has been swift, helped by the fact that there aren’t too many left-arm quicks in Indian cricket at the moment. While this could put pressure on some, Khaleel is relaxed. “I consider it as a good thing, because it could get me noticed, so isn’t it a good thing?”He may or may not get game time for India, but he is at least guaranteed another learning stint with Bhuvneshwar, this time in blue and not in orange.

After going wicketless in the first two sessions on a flat pitch in inhospitable weather conditions, the bowlers hit back to make inroads into Pakistan’s line-up

Daniel Brettig in Dubai07-Oct-2018″Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth.” Mike Tyson’s succinct summary of boxing came easily to mind as Australia toiled on the flattest of Dubai pitches, after losing the toss and being sentenced to a day or two’s hard labour against a Pakistan side well versed in batting time on slow, low surfaces.In fact, it cannot have been far from the thoughts of the new coach Justin Langer, a renowned pugilist who once sparred with the former world champion Vic Darchinyan in the Sydney gym of Jeff Fenech. The shock of a Pakistan opening stand lasting all of 63 overs and 205 runs resembled that of a near-knockout punch in round one of a bout, but Langer had to be heartened by the way his team persevered, refusing to yield and even landing a blow or two of their own in a final session of enormous effort.”Inside the boxing ring it’s the same as when you’re playing Test cricket–nowhere to hide,” Langer had said at the time he met Darchinyan. “You’ve got to face a lot of your own fears. If you punch someone properly it’s like hitting the ball in the middle of the cricket bat–it’s a really nice feeling.”

Emotional addresses to debutants

Australia’s three debutants, Aaron Finch, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, were each handed their baggy green cap by a more senior member of the same exclusive club, with the South Australian captain welcomed by an emotional address from his former Redbacks team-mate Nathan Lyon.
Allan Border presented Finch’s cap and Mike Hussey did the honours for Labuschagne, but it was Lyon’s words, as the spin bowler fought back tears, that left the most striking impression. “I was there for your SACA debut, cap No. 609, I’ve looked at you as my little brother that I never had,” Lyon said in a huddle of the Australian squad, support staff and multiple family members. “This cap means more than just a game of cricket. It impacts your family, it impacts your friends, and it makes me extremely proud to hand you No. 454.”
While Border spoke about Finch’s opportunity arriving after years in which it seemed this might never occur, Hussey’s words to Labuschagne could have applied equally to all three batsmen. “It is a great honour to wear this baggy green cap, but with a great honour comes great responsibility,” Hussey said. “And I guess what’s most important for you is to just focus on that next ball, play that next ball as best as you possibly can.
“And the second piece of advice I have for you is how you view pressure. I can assure you you’ll be under enormous pressure pretty much every day of your Test cricket career, but some succumb to the pressure, and some see it as a privilege. And pressure is a privilege because it gives you the opportunity to do something really special. So good luck, I hope you enjoy your journey with the Australian team, and I’ll certainly be the first and the loudest to cheer when you score your first Test hundred.”

Fearful or not, no-one imagined the first Test match for Tim Paine’s team since the Newlands ball-tampering scandal would be a simple task, particularly given the trouncing of a far stronger team in these parts four years ago. There have been oodles of meetings, plans and what Mitchell Starc termed “really, really constructive conversations” about how Australia would tackle this assignment, focusing as much on how the bowlers would work in concert in adverse conditions as how the batsmen would deal with spin and reverse swing.Equally, Cricket Australia as a whole and the men’s national team, in particular, have been subject to dual reviews of their culture and behaviour, the better to ensure that the events leading to the banned trio of Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft watching this match on television at home are never repeated. All those high-minded intentions and aims are undoubtedly harder to think about when the thermometer reads 39 degrees Celsius in the shade and Imam-ul-Haq has just clouted the last ball before tea into the all but empty stands at Dubai International Stadium.The way Australia started certainly suggested a team finding their way. Paine posted only two slips in acknowledgement of the conditions, and the early overs from Starc and Peter Siddle were serviceable rather than fire-breathing. Nathan Lyon similarly dropped onto a length without being able to draw too much in the way of false strokes, and at the other end Jon Holland experienced some struggles with finding the right rhythm in the face of batsmen seeking to attack him, a sight familiar to those who watched him bowling, albeit with far inferior preparation, in Sri Lanka two years ago.Scarcely a ball beat the bat as Mohammad Hafeez provided a masterclass in how to sculpt a bowler-blunting top-order century. His only misstep along the way had been a skier to long off from Holland’s bowling, whereupon the vice-captain Mitchell Marsh tried to leap for an AFL-style mark rather than a catch and saw the chance slip through his fingers – in fairness, the Grand Final at the MCG was only a week ago. Otherwise, glimmers of a wicket were as rare as Dubai raindrops.The first signs a change was going to come did actually appear in the overs before tea, as Starc began to gain sharp reverse swing, and created what should also have been a chance. Leaning forward, Hafeez edged one tailing away from around the wicket, but Paine had dispensed with all slip fielders and could only dive helplessly as the ball sailed into the position Aaron Finch would somewhat belatedly occupy in the following over.Getty ImagesNevertheless, that over was a source of possibility for the Australians when the final session began, and it was Siddle who led the way with a spell of grinding discipline and sometimes fiendish curve. After Lyon had managed to coax an edge from Imam that slapped straight into Paine’s gloves, Hafeez’s stay was ended by an inswinger that swerved into his pads and, on the DRS ball-tracker, the outside of the leg stump after Richard Kettleborough raised his finger.Siddle’s spell was ultimately worth 5-4-4-1, with a single boundary being the only scoring shot off the bat, as the tourists began to climb back into the contest after surrendering what in the boxing ring would have been a lengthy points deficit after a few rounds. The high level of fitness insisted upon by Langer, and the acclimatisation provided by two weeks in the UAE, were proving their worth.”We were still positive, still up and about,” Siddle said of the tea break. “We knew that they’d batted well, the wicket hadn’t offered a lot, there wasn’t a lot of movement as such yet, so we knew we had to keep grinding and we got close to that reverse swing early on, but it probably took a bit longer being a day-one wicket, it’s always a lot harder. As we saw this evening once that ball started reversing, yes it was a little bit soft, but we saw some inroads, the boys stuck together and we had some really good partnerships to be able to maintain that through the whole session.”It’s always a tough challenge going over to the different Asian conditions and digging in with the heat but the boys handled it really well – today was one of the cooler days we’ve had since we’ve been here, so that was quite refreshing actually walking out this morning and a little less humidity, so that was nice for the boys. But it’s going to be about how we back up tomorrow, we’ve got the new ball ready to go whenever we want to take that, so we’ll have some discussions whether we want to stick with this one for a little bit or take it straight away. But it was well toiled by us and you look at it at tea time, it could’ve been a lot worse.”Others rallied to join in the fight in the final hour, as Holland crept closer to his best and Starc summoned a swift final spell, despite the obvious discomfort of cramp. Siddle, a longtime team-mate of Holland for Victoria, observed the left-arm spinner’s day with plenty of empathy. “I’ve played a lot with him over the years and watched him bowl,” he said. “He wasn’t far off bowling his best, but it did look like they were a lot more aggressive against him and sitting on Nath a little bit.”Once we saw later in the day there it was starting to grip a bit more, a little bit of spin and bounce, he started to trouble them. That showed with the wicket he got, a couple of close calls along the way, it isn’t going to be as easy to do that in the rest of this match. The way he dug in, you have to, but sometimes it can be hard and you lose your way, but he kept going and to get that breakthrough at the end was a great reward for us.”At final drinks, Pakistan had added a mere 25 runs to their tea-time tally, and by the close it was still only 56, at the cost of three wickets. The Australians were tired and sore but far from despondent, knowing they had fallen behind on the day but won the session that looked at first glance to be the hardest proposition of all three. In doing so, they walked much of the talk of the past two weeks – and indeed the past seven months since Newlands – a team that toils hard and can win admiration as well as cricket matches.”Everyone around that last session bowled superbly. Building pressure, bowling in partnerships, things we’ve spoken a lot about in the lead-up, that last session summed up what we’ve been working on,” Siddle said. “To only go for 50 runs at the back end of a day when a team is none down at tea, I think that’s a tremendous effort from the whole group to be able to restrict them to that, but get wickets along the way it showed the hard work’s paying off.”After his 2006 meeting with Langer, Darchinyan had expressed surprise at how well the batsman had boxed. “I was quite surprised,” Darchinyan said. “He can hold a punch. I did not go very hard because he is not boxer, but he is fit, I can see. He’s not scared, coming forward. Not punching hard, but he’s good.” There will, undoubtedly, be harder punches thrown in this series, but Australia have already risen once from the canvas.

Dinesh Chandimal looks back at his 18 stop-start months in charge

Interview by Andrew Fidel Fernando15-Dec-2018You took over the captaincy when the team was in a rough state. What were those first few months like?
It was a big challenge. We had Zimbabwe first up, and we had to get through that with a win. After that there were some tough tours. What I’ve talked about is how to be a team player, and what we individually had to do to benefit the team. You can’t do those things by yourself. You need support. And I got that support from everyone.Almost 18 months in, is there anything that has surprised you about the job?
I didn’t notice anything especially different. I’ve captained teams since the under-17 level, in my school, club, development and Sri Lanka A teams. So that experience really helps. I was T20 captain for a while too. So I learned a lot through those experiences.What’s different about the captaincy at the top level?
On the pressure side of things, it’s a lot different. Sometimes it feels like everyone in the world is watching how the Sri Lanka team is doing.Do you think you have grown as a captain since getting the job?
I think there has been a lot of growth. I got the captaincy at a very challenging time. We’ve been able to progress a little in Tests since then. When I took the captaincy itself, I said, I can’t turn things around all of a sudden. Give me a little time. My ultimate goal is to take us to No. 1. We’ve had our opportunities to make progress in that direction, but because we didn’t have the ability at the time, we’ve probably had a few setbacks. But we were No. 8 when I took the captaincy, and now we’ve moved to No. 6. I do think that’s a good achievement, given the challenges we have had recently.What moments have you really enjoyed in your captaincy?
Winning that second match against Pakistan in Dubai – when that last catch was taken, there was a spilling over of joy. That’s the best feeling I’ve had in my captaincy.AFP/Getty ImagesYou must have regrets as well.
There are, and they would be those Tests in India – in Kolkata and Delhi. I really feel as if we could have won one of those games. But those things are in the past. If we had won one of those games, it would have been a big achievement. We haven’t won a Test in India yet. We’ve also not won in Australia. I have that aim in my heart, to go to these two countries and win a match.You’ve missed six Tests in all since taking over the captaincy, for various reasons. How tough has it been to watch the team play without you?
I think I’ve missed at least one match in all the last three series. I had an injury in one series, and a suspension in another. I couldn’t be with the team, and that does have an impact, because everyone’s captaincy style is different. You can’t be with the team and go through the same experiences as them and not have that unity. The best thing I can do is to make sure I am clear of injury by maintaining my fitness. I really made that a focus over the last few weeks.Do you feel you’ve not been able to roll out your vision with this team because you’ve missed so many games?
Well, Suranga’s been the stand-in captain, and generally we are on the same page on what the team should be doing, so that’s made it a lot easier. When I can’t play, the two of us have talked and he goes in that direction. The main thing is my not having been able to be with the team.How disappointing was the 3-0 against England, just as the team seemed to be building up some Test form?
It was very tough. I wasn’t able to play the second and third Test, and as I watched those games at home, I really thought we had chances to win both of those matches. With some of the dismissals we didn’t have a lot of luck. When we seemed to be doing well, something would happen that turned the game their way.What are your realistic expectations from the three big southern-hemisphere tours in front of you now?
They are three big challenges, given the conditions we will face. What we’re thinking about with the team that we have is: “How do we compete?” If we can get to a stage where we are consistently competing, those opportunities to push for victory will come as well. That’s our plan, and if we can execute that, there will be chances to win matches.AFP/Getty ImagesYou’ve got a few promising young fast bowlers in your team now, which is not something a lot of Sri Lanka captains have been able to say. What has been your approach to managing them?
Just to give them the benefit of my experience, and the confidence to do well. The good thing about the young bowlers is that they ask a lot of questions. That’s a big plus point. “How do we react to the kinds of conditions we will face here?” has been something they’ve asked a lot. If they can do well in these three series, they can take some steps up on their personal journeys.There can be a high turnover rate in the Sri Lanka captaincy, sometimes by the captain’s own choice. Are you in it for the long haul?
I don’t have a timeframe for it. That’s a selection-committee decision. All I’m doing is try to give my best to it while I’m here, and also to groom a new generation of young leaders within the team.Some captains have faced pressures from administration in the job. How have it been for you?
Pressure is something we have to deal with, not just as a captain but as a player as well. But one thing I will say is that once a tour starts, I really restrict the time I spend on my phone. I control how much time I spend reading news or going on social media. Until the tour ends I try to block out as much of that as possible. There are times when there are unavoidable complications. But you have to learn to deal with that.Since you’ve been in New Zealand, the new chief selector Ashantha de Mel has criticised your captaincy a little bit. What was your response to that?
Has he said something like that? I honestly don’t know. If he’s said something like that, he should tell me. The chairman of selectors hasn’t said anything to me.What’s your relationship with coach Chandika Hathurusingha like?
The captain and coach should pull in the same direction. We have to make those short- and long-term plans together, and decide together what the team needs. We all know how good a coach Hathurusingha is. What we can do is get the best out of him. There are ups and downs in personal life and in your career as well. Just because you’re down, you don’t have to stay that way. We’re hoping we can turn it around in New Zealand.Who are the key players for you over the next couple of weeks?
Everyone has a big role to play, but we know how good Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis are. They are guys who can change a match at any time. There are others who have put in a lot of effort over the last few weeks in preparation as well, and anyone could play an important role.

There might never be a World Cup appearance for the veteran Irish paceman, but he’s having the time of his life as a Test cricketer

Sidharth Monga in Dehradun15-Mar-2019It happened over a game of touch rugby. Ireland were in Dubai in 2015, preparing for the upcoming World Cup. They began this particular training session with a quick game of touch rugby when Tim Murtagh went over on his right foot. He heard something right away. He tried to, but couldn’t place any weight on his foot. He didn’t need X-rays to tell him that his dream of representing Ireland in a World Cup was over. The scan’s results were mere details: he had broken the metatarsal on his right foot.”Definitely that’s my biggest regret in my career, getting injured just before that tournament,” Murtagh said. “Such a big tournament, boys had a great time and got some good results there. It was pretty devastating.”The doctors put a screw in, and put him back on the park, but soon enough the ICC dealt him the double blow by reducing the 2019 World Cup to ten teams; even West Indies had to go through qualification. Murtagh is closing in on 38; he knows there isn’t a World Cup left for him.

We are going to have to scrap in the morning and pick up as many early wickets as we can and try and restrict them to as few as we can in the first innings because 170 in the first innings in not idealTIM MURTAGH

Murtagh is your typical county pro, who turns up and bowls his steady and accurate medium pace day in, day out. He is unassuming. He says you haven’t seen his batting if, after his unbeaten half-century on the first afternoon kept Ireland alive in their second-ever Test, against Afghanistan in Dehradun, you are wondering why he is at No. 11.In a way, Murtagh is the quintessential nine-to-five pro, but he does so because he loves the sport and because he doesn’t want the nine-to-five job outside cricket. That’s what has kept him going. If you keep going, sometimes the sport can make up for the injustices.”It was devastating to miss the World Cup but if you had said to me I would get the chance to play a few Test matches then I would have bitten your hand off,” Murtagh said. “When I first started to play for Ireland, it didn’t look possible at all. So that first one was a dream and then to play another here, then to have one at Lord’s against England in July, is beyond my wildest expectation really.”Murtagh has now bowled the first ball in Test cricket for Ireland, he has hit their first six, but has most importantly scored a fifty from No. 11 and taken part in a last-wicket partnership that is among the top-five contributions to a team’s total in terms of percentage. It was an absolutely crucial innings that came at a time when, once again, Ireland would have started feeling that the knives were being sharpened. As was the case with their first innings in Malahide against Pakistan in their maiden Test where they were bowled out for 130 in their first innings.Tim Murtagh bowled Ireland’s first ball in Test cricket•PA PhotosMalahaide, though, was difficult conditions against a top-quality seam attack. Here they had won the toss on a pitch not likely to be fun in the last innings. They had gotten off to a good start with Paul Stirling even fancying some driving on the up against the new ball. They raced away to 37 in 5.1 overs, and then Afghanistan corrected themselves. They bowled tighter lines, strung together 20 dots, and then Stirling had a poke at a wide ball to begin a glut of wickets.Within an hour, they had gone from the possibility of taking decisive advantage on the first morning to having their No. 11 padded up before lunch. There were some soft shots possibly after the start they had been given. This was, as they later realised, the only time batting was going to be difficult in the first innings. Get through to lunch two or three down, and you could bat the opposition out. The pitch was a little damp, which gave the spinners some bite. Still it can be okay to get out to a deadly accurate wrong’un from Rashid Khan first ball but not a full toss two balls later.All sorts of records were under threat at one point, including the lowest total in India, and this not on a raging bunsen or in crazy seaming conditions where India scored 76 against South Africa in Ahmedabad. Murtagh joined George Dockrell at 85 for 9, having not scored a run this year. He felt good about it today, though, and dug in. The turn was now slow, giving them time to adjust. Still it took discipline not typical of a No. 11 to hang in for as long as he did. Murtagh picked the right balls to hit, giving Ireland their first two sixes in Test cricket.That the advantage had been given away was apparent from how it turned even more slowly when Afghanistan came out to bat. Ireland know they need to put a squeeze on to restrict Afghanistan’s lead in the first innings, to make them bat last on a pitch that is bound to make chasing difficult.”We would have been hoping to get 250-plus on that pitch,” Murtagh said. “Knowing that it has had a lot of cricket during the course of the T20s and ODI series, knowing that we weren’t going to bat last, it was definitely an advantage. We have given that back to them a little bit there. We are going to have to scrap now. We are going to have to scrap in the morning and pick up as many early wickets as we can and try and restrict them to as few as we can in the first innings because 170 in the first innings in not ideal.”We have got to dig deep and sort of relive that spirit in Malahide where we came back well in the second innings and scored a good score there. When it is our turn to bat again, I think it is obviously going to be tricky but we are going to have to dig deep and show that same spirit.”There is no choice but to reprise that kind of revival because chances for these teams come sparingly. Murtagh himself knows he is in the final stages of his career, but he is enjoying this time more than “any stage of my career”. There is no World Cup in sight, but there is still at least a Test and a half to make the most of. That half is still theirs to revive.

It seemed impossible, but Carlos Brathwaite so nearly pulled it off. From both sides the skills on show were incredible

Sidharth Monga at Old Trafford23-Jun-2019The things we remember.Carlos Brathwaite lives with the burden of three words spoken more than three years ago. “Remember the name,” screamed – justifiably – Ian Bishop into the microphone as Brathwaite hit Ben Stokes for four straight sixes in the final over of the World T20 final in Kolkata to win a lost title.Three years later, at Old Trafford, Brathwaite is facing Matt Henry, whose World Cup so far reads: 42.2 overs, two maidens, 211 runs and eight wickets. That is an economy of just under five and an average of 26.38. Tonight has been an off night for him. He has gone for 51 in his eight.Brathwaite – 74 off 70 – has a No. 11 for company. There is 33 required off the last three overs. Brathwaite gets a top edge for two, but then unleashes mayhem. Three straight sixes. Three morale-crushing, soul-destroying sixes for the bowlers. Henry is trying to execute a plan. A short-of-a-length ball has flown over long-on. A wide yorker – slightly off the mark – has flown over point. By the next one Henry is a wreck and offers a full toss.ALSO READ: Jimmy Neesham interview – ‘Once you realise you’ll survive without the game, you’ll enjoy it for what it is’Stokes is reminded of that night three years ago by his mentions, but Brathwaite is not reminded of it. He is thinking of his struggling team, his coach – who is remembered as the captain who led them to a series defeat against Bangladesh and now needs this win as coach, his own fledgling career. Since that Kolkata final, he has played 158 innings in official cricket – all first-class, List A and T20 cricket – and has reached fifty only five times. There is no innings in the last three years to remember him by.

First it was Virat now it’s @TridentSportsX is clogging up my mentions,I wonder why???that was a unbelievable innings Carlos thought it was going to be a repeat of 2016 in Kolkata…how good was that game by the way

— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) June 22, 2019