It may have lasted only 15 balls, but their electric contest was the treat of the match

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur27-Feb-20161:11

‘Amir is world-class’ – Waqar

At the end of the ninth over, bowled by Wahab Riaz, Virat Kohli was taking a break with Yuvraj Singh. The 12th man had come in with drinks. Kohli raised his helmet so that his face was revealed for the first time since he was fielding in the previous innings. And for the first time since he had weathered the four-over Mohammad Amir storm.Usually expressive, Kohli wore a deadpan look despite taking 15 runs off the just-concluded Riaz over. The facial expression said more about the excruciating focus with which he took on Amir. He didn’t look like focusing on the conversation between the India reserve and Yuvraj. He had been concentration personified at that moment when he was bailing India out of a tight spot at 8 for 3.During that testing period, his face was helmeted so it was hard to tell what he was going through. When he took it off for a minute or two, it showed the residual effect of facing up to a big spell head on.Before Kohli thwarted Amir and Pakistan, both Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane had known what Amir would do too. But before they could bring their bat down, Amir had scythed through their defenses. Rohit had survived an appeal off the first ball of the India innings before he was beaten for pace and movement again on the next delivery. Rahane was done in the same way, missing a ball that zoomed out of Amir’s wrist and darted back in at the last bend.Amir nearly had Suresh Raina first ball too but took the left-hander’s wicket in his next over. Raina gave a simple catch to mid-on after being all at sea, Amir almost doing him a favour.All Kohli had to do was be wary of the delivery that came back in and the one that jumped on him. But in the circumstances of India losing three wickets in the first 22 balls and the well grassed pitch keeping the batsmen guessing, Kohli was electric at bringing his bat down to Amir bringing the ball in, and alert to getting his bat out of the way whenever it zipped across him.At the end of the game when players from both sides lined up to shake hands, the two had one hand on each shoulder and exchanged laughs. At the presentation ceremony, Man-of-the-Match Kohli revealed that he had congratulated Amir on the spell during the match itself. Though he top-scored with 49 chasing a target of 84, Kohli may have also won the award because he outlasted Amir.It may have lasted just 15 balls, but the electric contest was the treat of the match, particularly after Pakistan were bowled out in just 17.3 overs, for their lowest T20I total batting first and third lowest overall.Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said that another 30 or 40 runs would have made it into a tighter affair. He said that there was a plan for at least one batsman to stick around but the runouts of Khurram Manzoor and Shahid Afridi didn’t help their cause.”There weren’t many runs on the board,” Waqar said. “We fought well with our bowling but there weren’t enough runs. I think we were 30-40 runs short. The way we bowled, it would have been a better game had we got around 120-125 runs on the board at least.”Look when you lose six wickets in the first seven overs, who to blame? You can blame everyone. We tried. It is not that we didn’t try. We had the plans of someone staying out there but I think also credit should be given to them. Couple of runouts, that didn’t help. Nehra has been bowling pretty nicely in this tournament.”Waqar said that Amir is getting better by the day in his comeback trail, and praised the way he swung the ball at high pace, once touching 150 kph.”Look he is bowling well,” Waqar said. “When someone is bowling well, he is always an inspiration for the younger fast bowlers. The way he swung the ball, the pace, the length, it was outstanding.”He is definitely world class as Virat Kohli also said. He is coming back and coming stronger and stronger. He is getting better and better. He is going to be an asset for Pakistan in the next few years.”Pakistan’s immediate worry would be their batsmen, and unless someone can stand up and take on the game like Kohli did, or their own Amir did, a short but sensational spell will always be buried under a batting collapse.

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Apr-2016Warner, however, did not cash in and chipped a catch for 13 in the fourth over•BCCIHis opening partner, Shikhar Dhawan, had fallen to Morkel for 6 in the previous over•BCCIKolkata Knight Riders’ seamers built on the early strikes, and reduced Hyderabad to 50 for 4 by the tenth over•BCCIEoin Morgan, however, revived the innings with his first T20 half-century since August 2015•BCCIWicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha contributed 37 in a 67-run partnership with Morgan•BCCIThe stand ended when Ojha mis-hit one to long-on, Andre Russell…•BCCI… and Chawla combing at the edge of the boundary for a spectacular catch•BCCIThe pair then set off on a celebratory run to toast their athleticism•BCCIMorgan eventually fell for a fighting 51 as the hosts posted 142•BCCIComing off a fifty against Mumbai Indians, Gambhir extended his good form•BCCIRobin Uthappa soon settled down and added 92 for the first wicket with his captain…•BCCI…but Uthappa was trapped lbw for 38 and Russell was floored by an inch-perfect yorker from Mustafizur Rahman•BCCIGambhir, though, went to make his 28th IPL half-century, the most by any player in the tournament’s history. He stayed unbeaten on 90 to see his team home•BCCI

After being handed another England recall, Steven Finn is reaching the stage where achievement needs to outstrip potential

George Dobell at Edgbaston02-Aug-2016When Jonathan Trott was starting his career at Warwickshire, he used to tell journalists there was no point in trying to talk to him after he had scored a century.”When I’m batting well,” was the gist of it, “there’s nothing in my head at all. I’m not thinking, I’m just batting. It’s when I’m not scoring runs you should come and talk to me. That’s when thoughts worm their way into my head.”Perhaps Steven Finn could empathise with such sentiments? When Finn started his career, bowling was a gloriously uncomplicated business. Good enough to make his county debut while his school friends were taking their GCSEs, he used his height and strength to hurl the ball at batsmen with unusual hostility. Half-a-dozen years later, relying mainly on natural attributes and conviction uncompromised by thoughts working their way into his head, he became the youngest man to claim 50 Test wickets for England.Somewhere along the way, though, life became more complicated. Maybe it was the attempt to re-model his run-up, maybe it was a complication of trying to avoid running into the stumps, maybe it was an attempt to improve an economy rate that saw him fall behind the likes of Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan in the pecking order in England’s four-man attack, but somewhere along the way, Finn’s natural skills became diluted.He was still a decent bowler. But that pace and hostility that made him special had largely gone and, as much as he tried to reinvent himself as a typical English-style seamer, that was never his unique selling point. There are dozens of decent fast-medium seamers in county cricket; there are very few tall fast bowlers capable of offering what Finn once had. Between July 2013 and July 2015, he didn’t play a Test.It looked, for a while, as if he had made a breakthrough. He bowled brilliantly, and with impressive pace, in his comeback Test at Edgbaston last year – claiming eight wickets in the match, including a haul of 6 for 79 in Australia’s second innings, and being timed as quicker than Mitchell Johnson – demonstrating not just the welcome return to hostility but an new-found ability to swing the ball.It wasn’t quite a false dawn – he bowled terrifically without much fortune in South Africa – but it wasn’t his new normal. It was more like a spike in an endlessly undulating display. Finn doesn’t know where the pace comes from any more than Bob Dylan knew where the songs came from. When it goes missing, his response it to work harder and think more. It’s not a bad attitude, but then Finn has never been criticised for a bad attitude. Maybe, like Mark Ramprakash before him, he wants it all a little too much, and the more he pushed for the absent pace, the more tense he became and the more his rhythm deserted him.Certainly, when he is thrown the ball by Alastair Cook sometime this week, he will be urged not to dwell on thoughts about his technique. Instead he will be told to relax, enjoy himself and charge in. England have three other steady seamers who can swing the ball. They don’t need another one. They need a fast bowler. A big, strong, fast bowler who can find life on docile surfaces and hurry batsmen when conditions are offering other bowlers nothing.”I’ll tell him not to worry too much about it,” Cook said. “He sometimes can worry too much. He cares deeply about playing for England and doesn’t want to let anyone down.”It is hard to explain sometimes why he can bowl quicker than the other days. It’s not for lack of effort, but it doesn’t seem to come out quite as well. He is a rhythm bowler.”Steven Finn has endured a frustrating time with England•Getty ImagesThere have been, Cook believes, some physical reasons for Finn’s underwhelming displays in recent times. As well as a knee injury picked up when falling in his delivery stride, he also had a damaged toenail that has now been treated. As a result, he goes into this game without any of the nagging impediments that might have otherwise preyed on his mind. He impressed in the nets on Tuesday – a display that probably tipped selection in his favour over Jake Ball – and bowled with decent pace in Middlesex’s two most recent limited-overs games.”He bowled quickly in the nets,” Cook said. “And quickly for Middlesex against Essex. On his day, he bowls spells which are incredible to be standing at first slip for, as he did against Australia here. He’s a huge talent.”Sometimes when you’re dropped it’s a bit of a moment for you as a player. He obviously missed out on the last Test and that will have hurt him. When telling him he wasn’t playing, you saw that disappointment and hunger almost straight away. And telling him he was playing today, you saw that glint in his eye.”It took a sleepless night before the team management opted for Finn over Ball – “at 2am today I was wide awake thinking about it,” Cook said – but there is some logic in the decision. Not only does Finn have good memories of Edgbaston, a not insignificant factor for a man whose fortunes seem to be strongly influenced by his frame of mind, but he also offers, at his best, something a bit different to England’s other bowlers. As Cook put it: “We’ve gone for a guy with a proven Test record who has a knack of picking up wickets.”Ball is unfortunate, though. He looks a skilful, reliable bowler who, with a bit of fitness work – it was noticeable that his speeds dropped by the spell at Lord’s – could have a long-term role in this side. In the end, his similarities to Stuart Broad and James Anderson may have counted against him.Realistically, though, he and Finn may well be competing for a spot in the touring squads to Bangladesh and India. With Mark Wood also likely to be in the mix, competition for places is tough, though there is a strong case for resting Anderson, in particular, for Bangladesh. Suffice it to say, Finn needs the Edgbaston Test to go well. Aged 27, he is getting to the stage where talk of his potential has to be replaced by talk of his achievements to sustain his career. It’s not quite now or never, but he is heading in that direction.The same might be said for James Vince. He has only had seven Test innings but it is getting to the stage where he needs a performance if he is to retain a place for The Oval Test. The impression remains that, if Ian Bell had been able to score a little more heavily in county cricket this season (he has just one Championship century to his name), he may be back already. This pitch promises, despite recent rain, to be good. Vince needs to take advantage.

Working on initial movements and having a slightly more open stance have helped Ashwin rediscover his batting mojo

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Antigua23-Jul-20162:03

‘Batting ahead of Saha a boost to my confidence’ – Ashwin

It was the easiest of takes, or perhaps not quite. A regulation edge and Shane Dowrich moved a step to his right, following the path of the ball. But just as it approached his gloves at waist height, it seemed to swerve towards the leg side, just a fraction. Dowrich should have probably still taken it, but he grabbed at the ball, hastily, unprettily, where other wicketkeepers’ hands may have moved with feline stealth. In an instant the chance was gone.The bowler, Shannon Gabriel, may have wanted to burst into tears. For the fifth time in eight balls, he had caused R Ashwin to miss or edge him. Bowling on a good length, or just short of it, he had beaten the outside edge once, the inside edge once, and had kissed the outside edge thrice. Twice the ball had died before reaching the slip cordon. This time it had carried at catchable height.

‘Batting in the top seven a long-term goal’

R Ashwin, who scored his third Test hundred during the Antigua Test against West Indies, has revealed that he learned he would be batting at number six on the first morning of the match.
“I’ve always wanted to bat in the top seven for the Indian team, which is a long-time goal that I have to try to strive to get better at,” he said at the end of the day’s play. “I need to thank Anil [Kumble] and Virat [Kohli] for having the confidence in me to be pushed at number six. There have been times in the past when I’ve played really well, and haven’t really got the promotion.
“This really says a whole lot of things about me. Virat called me in the morning and said “you’ll be batting at six, ahead of [Wriddhiman] Saha,” which is a big boost to my batting confidence. I had worked on it over the past one month in Chennai with my coach and I’m very, very happy with the way it’s come out.”
Ashwin came into the Test with a batting strike-rate of 59.42. Here, coming in at 236 for 4 late on the first evening, the situation required him to show a more patient side of his game.
“I’ve never left so many balls,” he said. “Ajinkya [Rahane] told before the Test match about batting 200 balls, my aim was to bat 150 balls and try and see where I get.
“In between, I played an over from [Shannon] Gabriel which was a bit loose, and Virat came up to me and said that is what you need to avoid in Test cricket to be more successful. I really thought I left really well and knew where my off stump was. It was about batting time more than runs for me this time.”

Ashwin was batting on 43. He had faced 87 balls, but only ten from Gabriel.Gabriel’s first spell of the match, on the opening day, was four overs long. He bowled 14 balls to M Vijay, whom he eventually dismissed with a snorter of a short ball, four to Cheteshwar Pujara, and six to Shikhar Dhawan.In those six balls, he caused Dhawan all kinds of discomfort. Or, more accurately, one kind of discomfort, the kind caused by fast, steeply rising balls at the body. Jumping a foot off the ground, Dhawan looked to fend one of them away into the leg side, and popped a leading edge in the opposite direction. It hung tantalisingly for a frozen instant, and fell to the ground well short of backward point. Then, a similar ball, and a similar response, went uppishly into the leg side, but into a vacant area behind the wicket rather than towards the helmeted short leg fielder.That was the only real uncomfortable period in Dhawan’s 147-ball innings. He made 84.It wasn’t as if Dhawan didn’t work hard for his runs. West Indies’ other bowlers – particularly Carlos Brathwaite, with his metronomic sixth-stump line – tested his patience. But they didn’t test his technique. Dhawan was battling his own instincts rather than the bowlers’ skills.And so it was with Ashwin, batting at No. 6 – and anywhere above No. 7 – for the first time in his career. He had scored two hundreds before this, and six half-centuries, all those innings showing off a batsman’s mentality, an innate sense of timing, and a wide range of shots. It got prompted observers to wonder if he could bat in the top six one day.Now, in his 33rd Test match, he got that chance. The batsman’s mentality was in evidence when he came in late on the first day, at 236 for 4, as he knuckled down to see India through to stumps alongside his captain.Shortly before his troubles against Gabriel, he had played a shot that would have made any top-order batsman proud, including Virat Kohli at the other end. A blameless, back-of-a-length delivery from Jason Holder, on off stump, and he simply stood tall and punched it back past him to the straight boundary. Forget not running, Kohli didn’t even look back to see the ball scudding to the rope.It was a stroke of hand, eye, and timing. Ashwin has great hands, a great eye, and exquisite timing.But we knew this already. What we didn’t know, what was being tested here, for the first time, was whether he could be a regular No. 6 in Test matches like this one, when India felt the need to play five genuine bowlers.No. 6s are the bridge between the top and lower orders, and need to be versatile. Sometimes they will need to play their shots and build towards a declaration. At other times, they may need to stem a top-order collapse. More often, they come in with their teams off to reasonable first-day starts, when they have reached promising if not entirely secure positions – as Ashwin did late on the opening day.At times like these, they often need to face the second new ball. West Indies had the option of taking it on the first evening, when Ashwin was batting on 17 off 38 balls. Jason Holder, their captain, opted not to take it, preferring instead to wait till the second morning, when Gabriel, his only real attacking threat, would be fresher.By the time Gabriel came on, new ball in hand, Ashwin had moved to 22 off 72 balls. Four runs in 34 balls – quiet, professional, end-of-day’s-play batting. One test passed, but not the toughest test, and not a new one for Ashwin.The first act of Gabriel v Ashwin was a short ball, but not of the venomous, throat-high kind that dismissed Vijay. Instead, it sat up for Ashwin to pull for four.Then came those two overs of good-length bowling, with a bit of inswing here and a bit of away-seam there. Ashwin’s hand and eye weren’t quite enough to counter Gabriel now. His feet were moving across the crease, half-a-beat late, so he was often on the move while playing the ball. His front foot wasn’t striding out towards the pitch of the slightly fuller ball, and his back foot wasn’t stepping back and across against the slightly shorter ball. His hands kept getting drawn to the ball and away from his body.Ashwin thanked the captain and coach for handing him an opportunity in the top six for the first time•Getty ImagesAshwin knows his technique isn’t perfect. He has been working on it, and probably knows more work needs to go into it. “First things first,” he said at the end of the day’s play, “[batting coach] Sanjay Bangar worked really closely with my stance for the last 12 months. It has been a challenge. I used to be extra side-on and I had to open myself a little bit. That change is very effective. I’ve not driven straight down the ground for a very long time. [So] that is a pretty evident one. The other things like my initial movement and other things had to be sorted. It was a process for like 10-12 months, and on the way I did lose a few innings as a batsman as well.”The straight back-foot punch off Holder, and another drive tracing the same path a few overs later, off the same bowler, this time off the front-foot, were evidence enough that opening up his stance had allowed Ashwin to play more shots down the ground. But the change also made him a little more vulnerable to Gabriel’s movement in the corridor. Often, even when he defended with the middle of his bat, his shoulders were in a completely open position.Contrary to traditional coaching manuals, being perfectly side-on isn’t ideal, since it can restrict a batsman from accessing the on-side and the V as effectively as possible, but being as open as Ashwin was against Gabriel can be hazardous, when the line is outside off stump. There is a middle ground, and it isn’t easy to achieve. Ashwin, who spoke of trying to “be as solid as possible” in trying to give India the option of using him more regularly at six, is probably striving very hard to do so.He hadn’t quite achieved it on Friday. There were two plays-and-misses against Gabriel, and three edges, of which one carried. Dowrich dropped it. After five more balls to Ashwin, Gabriel’s spell was over.Control percentage, measured by ESPNcricinfo’s data-gathering team, is a simple measure. After every ball, the scorer simply checks a box: was the batsman was “in control” or “not in control”? India’s batsmen, across their first innings, achieved a control percentage of 87, a number that suggested conditions were good to bat on, and the bowling not particularly threatening.But they weren’t so comfortable against Gabriel. Ashwin achieved a 73% control rate against him, Dhawan 73%, and Vijay 71%. Even Kohli, who achieved a minimum of 88% against everyone else, only managed 80% against Gabriel.It was hard evidence of a truth that was plain to see. It was Gabriel or nothing for West Indies. As soon as his spells ended, the game changed. It either became attritional, when the other bowlers got through the odd spell of sustained discipline, or extremely one-sided, with nothing preventing the batsmen from milking runs. Ashwin coped easily with both those reduced challenges, and every now and again unfurled one of those strokes that makes you sigh in aesthetic contentment.He had batted for 236 balls when Devendra Bishoo sent down a flat, shortish legbreak on leg stump. With a mild-mannered twirl of his wrists, Ashwin sent the ball running away between midwicket and deep backward square leg, too fast for either of them to stop it. With that one stroke, India reached 500, and Ashwin his third Test century.All three centuries had come against West Indies. The first was in Mumbai, in 2011, when he had walked in with India 331 for 6 in response to 590. The second was in Kolkata two years later, with India 156 for 6 replying to 234. Both were match-turning efforts. This one had come against a weaker attack, in a more promising situation.A batsman cannot control opposition and situation; he can only tick the boxes he is required to tick on a given day. On this day, Ashwin ticked most, though not quite all of them.

With Sri Lanka set to begin their 250th Test in Galle, we look back at ten of their most gripping matches

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Aug-2016v Australia, 1989, Hobart
Sri Lanka were at their weakest in the ’80s. Test status had only been achieved in 1982, and some teams were reluctant to tour Sri Lanka for a mix of cricketing and political reasons. But though Muttiah Muralitharan’s Australian travails were still six years away, the seeds of a one-sided rivalry were sown in Hobart.Having put Australia in to bat, Rumesh Ratnayake extracted bounce and movement from a fresh surface to help dismiss Australia for 224 before stumps on the first day. Roshan Mahanama and Aravinda de Silva’s 128-run stand took Sri Lanka to 216.Australia’s superior quality then asserted itself. They made 513 for 5 declared. Left with five sessions to bat out, Sri Lanka made a dogged effort to save the Test, but were unable to resist Greg Cambpell and Merv Hughes, eventually losing by 173 runs.This Test was one of many Sri Lanka-Australia matches to be played in tense circumstances. Afterwards captain Arjuna Ranatunga said the game had been reduced “to the level of a street fight” particularly by Australian sledging. There were also several instances of physical contact between players, during one of which Rumesh Ratnayake had been supposedly called a “black c***”. In later years, Ranatunga said his particular aggression towards Australia had been shaped by this Test.v Australia, 1992, SSC, Colombo
This one is still remembered as one of Sri Lanka’s greatest heartbreaks. Several of those who played the Test have said it would have been remembered as one of the best ever had it been widely televised.Hosting a Test team for the first time in five years, Sri Lanka swung Australia out for 256 before Asanka Gurusinha and Ranatunga hit hundreds. On debut, wicketkeeper-batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana then struck the sparkling 132 off 158 balls that he spent the rest of his Test career trying to match. Trailing by 291, Australia cobbled together a score of 471, with David Boon, Jones, Mark Waugh and Greg Matthews all hitting fifties, while each of the other seven batsmen got to double figures.At 127 for 2, Sri Lanka were sailing to the target of 181 when they lost five quick wickets to Craig McDermott and Matthews. Hopes were not extinguished at 150 for 7, but then a young Australian legspinner who had been carted for 122 for 0 in the first innings made his mark. Shane Warne took the three final wickets and put what had been a modest career till then on a fresh heading.Hashan Tillakaratne celebrates his hundred in Centurion in 2002•Getty Images”It was like someone had died,” said Kaluwitharana of the mood in the Sri Lanka dressing room. “Out of 15 sessions, we dominated fourteen and a half but lost the match in half a session. The rooms at the SSC are separated by a flimsy wall. We heard them yelling their victory song, and each time they yelled and shouted, it was like I was being stabbed with a knife in the chest over and over again. I cried.”v England, 1998, The Oval
England thrust their arm out for a genial handshake, handing a one-Test tour to ODI world champions Sri Lanka, when the tourists were leaning in for a kiss on both cheeks. They felt they deserved better and set about proving it.Strangely, Ranatunga invited England to bat on what appeared a very dry surface, but though both teams were surprised by this, Sri Lanka had the quality to overcome. England made 445, but Sanath Jayasuriya’s 213 off 278 balls, and de Silva’s 152, set the visitors up with a lead of 146 on the fourth day.The rest was all Murali. On what was now a dustbowl, his wicked offbreak was at its most elemental. Some England batsmen tried to play him from the crease. Others ran out to him. But almost all succumbed, giving him innings figures of 9 for 65 and 16 wickets in the match.v South Africa, 2000, Kandy
Another of those poorly remembered Tests, but one that eventually came to a supremely gripping conclusion.Having been resoundingly beaten in the first Test, in Galle, South Africa began poorly at Asigiriya. They were 34 for 5 before Lance Klusener’s 118 lifted them to 253. Sri Lanka then appeared to be in total control at 286 for 5 before a collapse set in motion by Shaun Pollock saw them establish a lead of only 55.In the third innings Jacques Kallis battled out a 208-ball 87 on a surface . The Ranatunga-Kaluwitharana ninth-wicket stand then benefited from those age-old Pakistan fielding staples, the missed run-out and the dropped catch, and took the team to victory, which was cause enough for captain Jayasuriya to turn one of Pakistan’s most fabled rallying cries against the home team. “As long as Ranatunga was there, we were convinced we could win,” he said. “He played a gem of an innings, like an injured tiger.”Andrew Flintoff looks on in despair as Nuwan Kulasekara gets a half-century at Lord’s, 2006•Getty Imagesv South Africa, 2002, Centurion
Sri Lanka’s 323, which featured Hashan Tillakaratne’s signature slow-burn hundred against South Africa’s five-man seam attack, was eclipsed by a 132-run seventh-wicket stand between Pollock and Mark Boucher that took South Africa to 448.Sri Lanka seemed headed for another big defeat at 60 for 2 in reply, before batting’s most prolific pair set about an early rendition of their work. This time, it was Kumar Sangakkara who was free and flowing, hitting 15 fours in his 89, while Mahela Jayawardene held firm at the other end. Towards the end of the fourth day they twice declined offers of bad light. With rain in the air and lightning in the skies, they put on 119. The final day began with an awful lbw decision against Jayawardene, and upon his departure, the rest of the innings unravelled. Having been 180 for 3, Sri Lanka wound up 245 all out, with a mere 121 to defend.Their seamers managed to reduce South Africa to 44 for 5. But between Boucher and Neil McKenzie the pressure was defused and South Africa won by three wickets.v England, 2006, Lord’s
For a team not famed for its fighting draws, Sri Lanka produced an epic of the escapology genre in 2006. England hit 551 for 5 declared – Kevin Pietersen and Marcus Trescothick making hundreds.Then, with Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff running at them, came Sri Lanka’s collapse. Four of the top seven made ducks, and only Jayawardene crossed fifty, as Sri Lanka ended up 359 runs behind at the end of the first innings. England’s first mistake, perhaps, was to ask Sri Lanka to follow on after their bowlers had delivered 55 overs. There remained more than seven sessions to play. Their next six mistakes were dropped catches – dourly capitalised on by Sri Lanka’s batsmen.It was new captain Jayawardene who provided the tower in Sri Lanka’s great wall, batting six hours for 119, while Sangakkara, Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan, Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara and nightwatchman Farveez Maharoof provided half-centuries. All told, Sri Lanka’s resistance stretched to 199 overs, which took roughly 14 hours to bowl.Mahela Jayawardene’s 123 in a chase of 352 against South Africa at the P Sara Oval was one of his finest Test innings•AFPv South Africa, 2006, P Sara Oval
This was perhaps the most enthralling of Sri Lanka’s 249 Tests, and had a finish to fray adamantine nerves.Lining up on either side were excellent attacks. South Africa had Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and a young Dale Steyn in their XI, with Nicky Boje providing the spin. There were Vaas and Murali for Sri Lanka, of course, but also Lasith Malinga, along with Maharoof. The batting stocks were strong too – Jayawardene, Sangakkara and Jayasuriya against Herschelle Gibbs and youngsters AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla – but South Africa will have felt the absence of Graeme Smith, and particularly Jacques Kallis.Having been batted into the ground by Jayawardene and Sangakkara in the previous match (the one with the 624-run stand), then spun into oblivion by Murali, South Africa began this Test by attacking their tormentors with blade and ball. They were successful to a point. Ashwell Prince and de Villiers put on a fifth-wicket partnership that yielded 161 and rescued the team from 70 for 4. South Africa made 361 and then dismissed Jayawardene and Sangakkara cheaply.Lower-middle-order runs for Sri Lanka narrowed the deficit to 40, before Gibbs, and later Boucher, set to work, though on a now-gripping surface they were more wary of Murali, who took seven wickets. With more than five sessions to play, a target of 352 was set.The chase was set off at pace by Jayasuriya, whose 73 off 74 balls featured nine fours and three sixes, but three Boje wickets soon ratcheted up the tension, and had Sri Lanka at 201 for 5. Though he played that rearguard innings at Lord’s, and made the highest score ever by a right-hander the previous week, it is his 123 in this match that was perhaps Jayawardene’s finest innings – perhaps the greatest ever by a Sri Lankan. He defused Boje better than his team-mates, and sizing up the pitch to omit the riskier of his strokes, became the first centurion in the match.By lunch on the fifth day Sri Lanka were 19 from victory with four wickets still in hand, but peril awaited them on the other side of the break. Jayawardene fell to Boje, then Vaas, and Murali fell quickly to Hall. It was left to Maharoof to take the single that tied the game, and the No. 11, Malinga, to scamper the run that completed Sri Lanka’s highest successful chase.Captain Angelo Mathews took matters into his own hands at Headingley in 2014•PA Photosv England, 2014, Headingley
The previous match, at Lord’s, had ended in a pulsating draw, when Sri Lanka’s No. 11, Nuwan Pradeep, overturned an lbw decision on the penultimate ball, then had an outside edge fall short of the slips to end the match. At Headingley, drama took hold on day one and did not let up until the fevered conclusion.Stuart Broad’s second Test hat-trick lit up the tail end of a first day. Thanks to a hundred from opener Sam Robson, England passed Sri Lanka’s 257 only two wickets down, but then seamers Shaminda Eranga and Angelo Mathews set in motion a collapse that limited England’s lead to 108.With the pitch still offering plenty to seam bowlers, Sri Lanka battled to 268 for 4. But when Jayawardene, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhammika Prasad all fell in quick succession on the fourth morning, captain Mathews threw his bat to the ground in disgust, a sufficient score now seeming beyond them.Perhaps that moment of frustration was the catalyst Mathews needed, because having batted sanely until then, he suddenly began laying waste to the England attack. He ran at the quicks and clattered them over midwicket, crashed Moeen Ali’s offspin behind point, and before long, while Rangana Herath progressed merrily himself, Sri Lanka had looted 149 runs in 36.2 overs. They set England 350 for victory, and then Prasad ripped out the top four in a single spell, before Herath dismissed the nightwatchman to leave England 57 for 5 overnight.The next morning, Sri Lanka’s fielders made a verbal dartboard out of Joe Root, who had sniped at them through the tour, but Moeen resisted valiantly at the other end. The next three wickets took an age to come. Through the final hour, No. 11 James Anderson kept Moeen dour company, as Mathews made bowling changes almost every over, like a man searching through all his pockets for lost cash. It came down to the penultimate ball. Eranga sent it at Anderson’s head, and the resultant edge was pulled down by Herath, sparking jubilation for Sri Lanka, and tears for Anderson.v India, 2015, Galle
On a tacky-but-turning first day surface, Sri Lanka had allowed themselves to be dismissed for 183. A vaunted India top order then asserted itself upon the match – Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli hitting hundreds in the response to establish a lead of 192.When Sri Lanka lost three wickets for five runs in the third innings, the Test seemed destined to be done by the end of the third day. Sangakkara and Mathews resisted for a little, but the wickets kept falling. When Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne came to the crease, five wickets remained, and parity was still 97 runs off.Early in that partnership both batsmen were wrongly given not out, and then the day descended into mayhem. Chandimal began slog-sweeping first, then driving, cutting, pulling and reverse-slapping. India continued to be disciplined with the ball, and Kohli continued to keep the infield tight, but Chandimal kept marauding, and after 100 balls had a hundred. The boundaries flowed even after Thirimanne had been dismissed and Jehan Mubarak had come to the crease. Chandimal remained not out on 162 and Sri Lanka set India a target of 176. The next day, Herath scythed through India’s batting and sealed the unlikely win.

India opener hopes to make the most of Anil Kumble’s presence and feels his wealth of experience and knowledge of handling pressure situations would come in handy for the batting unit too

Deivarayan Muthu in Bangalore30-Jun-20161:24

M Vijay seeks consistency ahead of WI tour

Former India wicketkeeper Kiran More, who was present at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore on the second day of India’s training camp on Thursday, had called Anil Kumble the Muhammad Ali of cricket, after the legspinner ended his 18-year Test career in November 2008. Kumble was the ultimate fighter, as exemplified during his uninterrupted 14-over spell, which included the wicket of Brian Lara, with a broken jaw in Antigua in 2002. In his final Test, against Australia, Kumble probed away, despite an injury to his left hand.Throughout his career, Kumble was always at the batsmen, his face mirroring a cocktail of focus and intensity. He brought the same focus and intensity as an administrator, and it was intact during his first net session as India’s head coach.Kumble was among the first to step onto the ground, ahead of training, and ensured the nets were in good shape after rain had forced the players indoors on Wednesday. Kumble stood at the centre and supervised the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra to Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma. Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreyas Gopal, and Karun Nair, who are not part of the squad for the Caribbean tour, also rolled their arms over, but there was a prominent absentee – R Ashwin. The offspinner, who regards Kumble as his idol, missed practice on Thursday because of personal reasons. He is set to the join the preparatory camp on Friday, according to the BCCI.Virat Kohli faced throwdowns from Sanjay Bangar, the batting coach, and Raghavendra, the team’s throwdown specialist, before easing into drives against the spinners. He took regular trips down the pitch and drilled the ball straight. Ishant Sharma, sporting a samurai bun, then arrived and tested the batsmen in the channel outside off. When the seamer had issues with his landing area, Kumble himself applied sawdust and evened things up.The clock ticked to 10.45 am, and Kumble unzipped his winter jacket. He windmilled his arms as Cheteshwar Pujara took guard. He jogged and floated seam-ups, which Pujara blunted with a straight bat. Next up to face the coach was M Vijay. The opener was given a quick leg-stump ball, which he whipped firmly. Kumble couldn’t hide his excitement and exclaimed: “shot”.Kumble largely bowled seam-ups, for about 45 minutes, and Vijay couldn’t hide his awe for the former India captain though they haven’t spent enough time with each other, at the press conference. Vijay was handed his Test debut in the fourth Test against Australia in Nagpur, a few days after Kumble had retired.”He’s [Kumble’s] been an unbelievable cricketer for the Indian team,” Vijay said. “We are really looking forward to sharing some quality time with him… I couldn’t spend a lot of time with him then. But I’ve been a great fan of him as a youngster, who isn’t?! It is a great opportunity for us to talk to him about cricket, his thought processes and learn from that and move forward. I think it is going to be a great time for us.”When asked about Kumble’s impact, Vijay said it was “too soon” and pulled off a classic leave outside off. Vijay, though, believed that the head coach’s vast experience as a player would serve the young side well.”Over a period of time, it’s going to be good for us, because he has 900 [956] international wickets under his belt,” Vijay said. “It’s going to be great for us to know what kind of things we can expect in a high-pressure game. It’s going to be good for us as a batting unit, as well. It’s going to be a great 12 months for us. That much I can guarantee as a team.”Kumble worked more closely with the spinners in the afternoon session, having lengthy chats with Jadeja, Nadeem and Jayant. Even when one of the younger net bowlers strayed down the leg side, Kumble gesticulated to keep it tight and straight.If Kumble can inject his focus and intensity into the young side, India have a chance to be the best in all three formats, as he had said in his first press conference as the head coach.

Ashwin’s legbreaks, Binny’s horror over and a Dwayne Bravo special also feature in the Plays of the Day from the first T20I between India and West Indies in Florida

Sidharth Monga27-Aug-2016The overStuart Binny is not a regular starter in his IPL side. He wasn’t a part of India’s World T20 squad. Such is the nature of bilateral T20 internationals that sides tend not to make too many changes to their squads. India’s main T20 allrounders are in Australia so India didn’t bother with them, and kept Binny in the squad. We don’t know if Shikhar Dhawan was injured or unwell but it is unlikely India would have dropped him for a sixth bowler, Binny.If they did, though, the folly was brutally exposed by Evin Lewis, who threatened to break the record for most runs in a T20I over, with a wide to boost the five sixes he hit off the first five balls of Binny’s first and only over. This was the 11th over of the innings, West Indies were already 132 for 1 and this was no time or place for length-ball dobblers. Two length balls, a full toss and a short ball all disappeared, but the shot of the day was played off the slower short ball off the third legal ball of the over. This was slow, short and wide, Lewis had to go back and manufacture all his own power. He gave it an almighty whack, over cover-point, and sent it all the way over the man stationed there. Calypso hitters of yore were duly evoked.The legbreaksJohnson Charles likes to hit into the leg side. R Ashwin turns the ball in. The boundaries are small. Charles is already 38 off 16 when Ashwin is asked to bowl, inside the Powerplay. It’s a deck stacked against the bowler. Ashwin, though, tries the legbreak to at least make him hit against the turn. Charles watches one, takes a single, and when he comes back on strike it doesn’t matter which way the ball is turning. He just winds up big and swings hard to send two consecutive legbreaks for sixes, against the turn, over long-on and midwicket.The survivorWe don’t know how possessive Richard Levi is of his record for the fastest Twenty20 international hundred, in 45 balls. If he is, though, he would have had a hard time watching this match. Charles threatened to beat his record with plenty of balls to spare careening to 79 off 32 balls. Levi had some respite when Charles tried to ramp a full ball from Mohammed Shami, missed it and was bowled.The respite was momentary, though, as Lewis, 46 off 24 at the time, got on a roll and raced away to 82 off 32. Squeaky-bum time again for the record-holder, but a tight over from Ashwin when Lewis was in his 90s saved the record, by three balls.If these things indeed matter to Levi, he was in for more than just a squeaky bum. When KL Rahul effortlessly hoicked Andre Russell over midwicket for a six in the 17th over, he reached 94 off 43 balls, and looked capable of hitting a six off any ball he wanted to. Fortunately for Levi, though, Rahul had to deal with two absolute brutes next two balls. First Dwayne Bravo nearly broke his toe and nearly took his wicket with an unplayable yorker, and then Russell came back strongly with a surprise bouncer to leave Rahul at 94 off 45 balls.The non-callLewis is 90 off 40, needs 10 off the next five balls to equal Levi’s record. Ashwin is the bowler. He has famously pronounced that the T20 game is so loaded against the bowlers that a slow, short and wide ball is perhaps the best ball a spinner can bowl. So he tries his hand at the “best” ball. It is only a good ball if it is within the tram lines, though. This one isn’t. Lewis moves a little across to watch out for the swirling delivery that Ashwin bowls in Tests, but this one goes straight on and is a genuine limited-overs wide. The umpire, though, is put off by the batsman’s movement, and lets Ashwin off. Despite a six later in the over, this ball arguably costs Lewis the fastest T20I hundred.The catchWhen 276 runs come in the first 23 overs of the game, you know chances for the bowlers are few and far between. It is imperative that every half chance is converted. One such came West Indies’ way as Ajinkya Rahane ramped Andre Russell’s short ball, minutes after being sconed, to the left of third man. Against any other team you would have arguably marked four the moment the ball flew off the bat, but lurking at third man here was Dwayne Bravo. He ran to his left, cut the angle, then timed his flight of a dive perfectly and pouched the catch low in his left hand. AWOL: “champiyann dance”.

In September 2010, as part of ESPNcricinfo’s All-time XI series, a jury had selected an All-time India Test XI. Six years later, would you make some changes?

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2016The nominees for India’s all-time Test XI have been put in the following categories: openers, middle order, wicketkeeper and bowlers. In each of these categories, the following ten players would make it to a Readers’ All-time India XI based on voting: Openers (top 2), Middle order (top 3), Wicketkeeper (top 1), Bowlers (top 4). The 11th spot in the All-time XI would go to the player with the highest votes outside the above picks among either the category of middle order or bowlers..

The openers

The middle order

The wicketkeeper

The bowlers

.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

England’s unrelenting fielding threatened to undo the good work India had done in the first two sessions, until R Ashwin calmly defied the visitors with an innings that showcased his growth as a batsman

Alagappan Muthu in Mohali27-Nov-20162:54

Ganguly: Pujara will be disappointed with his shot

India had done remarkably well through the first two sessions of the second day in Mohali. Their makeshift opener provided a fine start to the innings and when he was dismissed, their captain took control. Virat Kohli often talks about “intent” in the terms that even while defending, you should appear dominant. Both he and the team’s other in-form batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara, exemplified that after lunch against the threat of reverse swing.England had men on the drive. Their quicks bowled impeccable lines and the legspinner Adil Rashid held his discipline as well. All of that meant India could get only 31 runs in 16 overs between the 26th and 42nd. Kohli’s patience was tested with many deliveries loitering in the corridor outside the off stump and he did well as a batsman watching them all carefully and letting them go repeatedly.Yet so relentless was the bowling that the leading edge was found. In the 37th over, Ben Stokes had the Indian captain reaching away from his body, the bat face turned a touch too early, and the ball flew uppishly into a gap between two cover fielders.Pujara, at the other end, has little problem lasting through a spell like this. While batting, at least. The post-day press conference was a different story. “The lines they were bowling, I felt, was a little negative,” he said. “But I still feel the way we batted, the way we showed character, we were leaving the balls outside the off stump and building a partnership which was very crucial for the team.”Nevertheless, maintaining their plans for so long – well over an hour – began taking its toll on the visitors. Jonny Bairstow dropped a difficult catch, diving low to his left in the 45th over, and Rashid and Gareth Batty dished out treats labeled “hit me”. The batsman who was reprieved, Pujara, recorded his third fifty-plus score of the series.India went to tea at 148 for 2; trailing by 135 runs. Then, they lost three wickets for eight runs in 10 minutes.Nothing quite established the value of good fielding as the final session.Second ball in, Pujara hammered a filthy long hop in the air towards deep midwicket. Chris Woakes raced in off the boundary, dived forward and grabbed the ball in both hands inches before it hit the turf. To follow that, Jos Buttler dived to his right to intercept a front-foot slice from Kohli and then broke the stumps down at the non-striker’s end while throwing on his knees and the debutant Karun Nair was run out. To get power and accuracy from such an awkward position was remarkable. Equally so was England’s discipline. They had kept Kohli scoreless for 10 successive balls, making him desperate enough to call and then send his partner back. Kohli faced another period like this and was eventually dismissed by Stokes for 62 with a substantial 19 overs left to stumps.Associated PressNothing quite established how good R Ashwin is as a batsman as the events that followed.There is a line Rajinikanth, his favourite actor, says while portraying an old man in response to the villain asking how he was still stylish despite his age. “” [I was born with it, and it ain’t goin nowhere]. Ashwin is similar with bat in hand. The on-drive he hit off James Anderson, on the up against the new ball, then holding the pose, was as good as any punchline in any movie. It was the substance that he lacked, until this year.In the leaves and the blocks, the calm in the face of England building momentum, the way he led Ravindra Jadeja in what could be a match-defining partnership of 67 in 19.3 overs, and patted him on the back for a job well done, were the signs of Ashwin’s development. He is no longer part of the lower order. He doesn’t need a proper batsman at the other end to tell him what to do. He has become one of those himself, scoring more runs than Misbah-ul-Haq, Faf du Plessis and Ross Taylor this year off relatively the same number of matches.The 57 not out Ashwin made in Mohali was his third fifty of the series. All of them, not to mention a handy 32 in the second innings to save the Rajkot Test, were made under pressure. He should know pressure; he creates a suffocating amount of it when he bowls and maybe as a result knows just what to do to avoid it when he bats. There was a big point of concern, though. Ashwin had to hobble between the wickets for most of his innings.”I haven’t spoken to Ash after he came out,” Pujara said. “But when he was bowling there wasn’t anything wrong. Probably he might have caught some niggle when he was batting. I’m yet to speak to him.”Nothing quite established how much fun Test cricket can be as the work of these two teams.England were on top, with a lead of 79 when Kohli was dismissed. Their lead at stumps was a mere 12 thanks to Ashwin’s steel and Jadeja’s restraint – the latter withstood Anderson’s reverse swing, he didn’t mind being 8 off 34 and looked perfectly fine handling the second new ball.”I would say that we have an advantage because both our allrounders are playing,” Pujara said. “So tomorrow, the first session will be very crucial for us. Our game plan would be simple — we would be looking to take a lead of 75-100 runs. If they continue to bat, you never know. Both of them can bat. We saw in the last game that Jayant Yadav can also bat. Our lower-order has been contributing in all the Test matches. We expect them to continue tomorrow as well.”

Pakistan’s nine wickets in Hamilton was the fifth time a team has lost eight wickets or more in a session to lose a Test in 2016

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Nov-2016New Zealand v India, Indore
Target: 475
The collapse in a session: From 38-1 to 153 all out•BCCIEngland v Bangladesh, Mirpur
Target: 273
The collapse in a session: From 100-0 to 164 all out
•Getty ImagesAustralia v South Africa, Hobart
To avoid an innings defeat: 241
The collapse in a session: From 121-2 to 161 all out•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesPakistan v New Zealand, Hamilton
Target: 369
The collapse in a session: From 158-1 to 230 all out•Getty Images