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Wriddhiman Saha has slowly started settling into the India Test line-up, showing fight with the bat and sharp keeping skills

Sidharth Monga in Delhi30-Nov-2015MS Dhoni was many things. He was an awkward batsman, a resigned Test captain, a reluctant diver towards first slip, but he was also a joy to watch when he kept wicket to spinners. It will take another freak of nature to start collecting sharply turning deliveries without any give, a reverse follow-through if you will. The one second he saved when managing to complete a take without taking his gloves back to absorb the impact put him miles ahead of any wicketkeeper of spin-bowling.To add to the pure joy of Dhoni’s keeping was his running commentary that could be heard through the stump mic – his wisecracks, his big-brotherly admonishments. Once when Ravindra Jadeja* was not flighting the ball, Dhoni said, “I have not called Pujara to gully to clap and encourage you. He is there to take a catch.” Equally legendary was “Sree, there is no girlfriend there” to Sreesanth who had wandered away from his fielding position. To Jadeja he would often say “can bowl from here, too” when he needed a change of an angle. Dhoni’s readings of a batsman’s mind when facing spin used to be immaculate.When Dhoni announced his retirement from Tests, in a shock email from the BCCI minutes after he had finished a post-match press conference, we knew these were what we would miss the most about Dhoni. The no-give takes and the mouth. And there was going to be no point trying to emulate him. Those hands and the mind that worked that mouth were unique.To the team, though, when playing in Asia – where India were likely to play close to 20 Tests in a row – his batting, which enabled them to play five bowlers, was equally, if not more, important. The first time Dhoni moved to No. 6 in a home Test, though, was not part of a plan. It was enforced upon him by short-sighted selection. The squad given to Dhoni included only six batsmen. When one of them – VVS Laxman – fell ill, Rohit Sharma was hastily called up. When Rohit injured himself in the warm-ups before the toss, Wriddhiman Saha, reputed to be the best pure keeper in the country, had to play as a specialist batsman. He scored 0 and 36 as India lost by an innings and six runs. Thus began a journey of a player who looked dead set to be a nearly man.Saha’s next Test came two years later, and the next more than two-and-a-half years later. Both because of Dhoni’s absence: due to a suspension and then injury. Both in Adelaide. In that second Adelaide Test, in December last year, he came in to bat in the final innings with under 100 required, five wickets in hand and Virat Kohli still unbeaten. We don’t know what the plan was, but it seemed that Saha – an IPL centurion now – was to go for quick runs while Kohli would try to stay till the end. After getting in for the first six balls, he hit Nathan Lyon for a six and a four. All of a sudden India needed just 65 with five wickets in hand for an incredible Test win.Adrenalin must have flown. He was running away with the Test against the best bowler on offer. Another six and the target would be under 60. Twelve per remaining wicket. How tempting to go for it after you have already done so twice. Saha did so. Bowled. Dhoni was back for the next Test. Who knew when the next Test would be?The next Test came soon enough with Dhoni’s retirement, and in his sixth and seventh matches – both in Sri Lanka – Saha scored crucial fifties to now, finally at the age of 30, start cementing a place in the Test side. A spot many felt he was born for, but was unfortunate in having been born in the same era as Dhoni. In the photo with the trophy from that series, though, you won’t see Saha. Instead you will spot a beaming Naman Ojha, who had to be brought mid-series to replace the injured Saha and had responded with a sprightly 35. Had Saha again found a way to be only nearly there? For you never knew with this side, what with its preference for quick runs.Saha got his chance for Mohali. In fact he was the only wicketkeeper named in the squad. He didn’t make Mohali. On the eve of the Test as the rest of the squad went into the nets, Saha sat with a doctor, getting his blood pressure examined. A pill came out. It was popped. Saha went back into the change room. The spring wasn’t quite there in his step. A Bengali journalist asked him what the matter was. Saha didn’t say much. The journalist asked, “Jor [fever]?” Saha said, “Jor type.”That no replacement was called up was a good sign. Then Saha took field. For those who believe in signs, something extremely significant happened when India bowled the first time round. India had scored only 201. South Africa had started shakily on the first evening, but now Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar had added 76. We were reaching a stage where another half an hour of Amla could have meant South Africa getting into a comfortable position. Amla was trusting his defence. He was managing to stay back to counter the unexpected movement or inconsistent bounce off the pitch.Then Amla jumped out of the crease to try to get to the pitch of R Ashwin’s delivery, but the ball dipped on him and bounced alarmingly. Saha rose but the gloves failed to follow the ball. For that brief moment – it is funny how much can happen in a little moment – you thought how Dhoni would have managed, but the ball hit Saha’s chest and fell on the stumps. That ball could have gone anywhere, Amla could have scored more or had a partnership with de Villiers, but he was stumped. All the years of mixed fortune had evaporated in that one moment, well before South Africa had been psychologically damaged for good.Two Tests later Saha was back in Nagpur, back where it had nearly begun, against the same opposition. This time, though, he did what only three batsmen managed on an extremely difficult surface: bat out 100 balls. Towards the end of the Test he rose beautifully with a turning ball down the leg side to take a deflection off the glove. Umpire Ian Gould, a wicketkeeper himself, was impressed too, perhaps the closest we can get to the fabled reaction of “wonderful” from the square-leg umpire to a leg-side stumping from Jack Blackham. In 123 overs of keeping on that surface Saha conceded just five byes. Dane Vilas let 23 go through.Saha is not going to run away with games with the bat like Dhoni did, but he has shown he is going to fight just as much with the bat in hand. He cannot even dream of being as entertaining near the stump mic as Dhoni was. In fact, all he can be heard saying is “lubhly, lubhly”. He is not as flashy with the stumpings either. But now that Saha seems to have settled in the team, there is still a joy to how he reacts to sharply turning deliveries, puffs of dusts and moving batsmen notwithstanding. The nearly man is finally embedded.
*Bowler’s name corrected from Pragyan Ojha to Ravindra Jadeja

The Wanderers has a history of producing result-orientated Test cricket and for England there is the tantalising prospect of being able to secure a series victory

Andrew McGlashan10-Jan-2016After their short break following the second Test in Cape Town, England’s players will return to the day job on Monday as they begin preparations for the third Test at the Wanderers with the chance at a second series victory in South Africa since readmission.They will need to spend the three days ahead of the series resumption adjusting to the new challenges posed by cricket on the Highveld, where the thinner atmosphere allows the ball to travel further and faster, while also pushing the physical endurance of the players – especially the bowlers – in the middle.England, who arrived on Sunday, landed into a region in the midst of a drought. Temperatures had soared to record highs on Friday in Johannesburg (38 degrees) and Pretoria (42.5 degrees). After the bowlers’ toil in Newlands – although from England’s point of view some of that was self-inflicted with fielding errors – they will hope that the hot weather does not mean the Wanderers surface loses the characteristics which make it a result-orientated venue.Although perhaps of limited value, the evidence of the two first-class matches played at the ground in the Sunfoil Series this season – both within the last month – suggests that an even contest between bat and ball should still be on offer. Both games have been victories for the side batting first, the highest team total in eight innings has been 316 for 8 and seamers have taken 61 of the 72 wickets to fall.The Wanderers has not staged a Test for more than two years, when India were the visitors, and although it was a draw it was an epic contest where South Africa finished on 450 for 7 having been set 458. Results are the norm at the ground; before that 2013 match the previous drawn encounter against New Zealand in 2000 with three days ruined by rain. The last draw without significant weather intervention was in 1997.England’s Test matches at the Wanderers have produced some famous moments: Michael Atherton’s unbeaten 185 in 1995 when he and Jack Russell achieved one of the game’s great escapes, being 2 for 4 inside three overs in 1999 against a rampant Allan Donald and in 2005 when Matthew Hoggard and Marcus Trescothick combined to earn England one of their finest overseas victories.The most recent meeting between the teams in Johannesburg was a slightly more prosaic affair as South Africa surged to an innings-and-74-run series-levelling victory in 2010. England arrived following the Christmas-New Year period where, like this time, they had achieved victory in Durban and drawn in Cape Town, although the Newlands encounter on that occasion was an emotionally-fraught nine-wicket down survival.Having also saved the first Test of that 2009-10 series by the skin of their teeth at Centurion, England looked drained during the final encounter and could not cope with Dale Steyn – who is battling to be fit for this Test – and Morne Morkel on the opening day. The pair shared eight wickets in the first innings and 14 across the match as only Paul Collingwood with a second-innings 71 passed fifty. If the series is 1-1 after the Wanderers this time it will set up a terrific conclusion at Centurion, but England will not want to take it that far.

He took only one, but what a wicket to take

Brydon Coverdale17-Feb-2016″He’ll be the answer to a trivia question one day.” You’ve probably heard that phrase in cricket a few times. Usually it would a boring, irrelevant question whose answer nobody would know or care to know. Take it from somebody who takes their quizzing seriously: trivial does not equal trivia. But with the man standing in front of me, it is different. He the answer to a trivia question, and quite an interesting one at that.When Richard Hadlee took 9 for 52 against Australia at the Gabba in 1985, who took the other wicket?It was not Martin Snedden or Ewen Chatfield, the other pace bowlers who played in that match. It was not the offspinner John Bracewell; he came into the team only later in the series, on the turning SCG pitch. It was not one of the part-timers, Martin Crowe or Jeremy Coney. No, the answer to this trivia question, and probably the least recognisable face at the 30-year reunion of that team at the Basin Reserve over the past week, is Vaughan Brown.If you haven’t heard of Brown, that is no surprise. He was an offspinning allrounder who made his debut in that famous victory in Brisbane. He also played the second Test, in Sydney, but those were the only two Tests of his career. And the wicket that denied Hadlee his ten-for was Brown’s only Test wicket. And, just to add another fascinating element to the story, the man who took the catch that gave Brown this wicket was Hadlee himself.”He could have opened his mouth and caught it,” Brown says. “The media would have rubbished him [if he’d dropped it] because it was such an easy catch.”Maybe, maybe not. You can find the match highlights on YouTube, and when you get to the part where Geoff Lawson goes for a mighty slog off Brown, you will note that Hadlee takes the catch only after running back from midwicket, with the flight of the ball. To be truthful, he made a somewhat challenging catch look much easier than it was. In doing so, Hadlee left Australia at 9 for 179, and ended his own run of eight wickets in the innings.He came back to take the last, though, when Bob Holland could only push a catch to short leg. And the man who was under the helmet to take the chance and give Hadlee his ninth wicket for the innings? Vaughan Brown. The same man whose one and only Test wicket prevented Hadlee from having a shot at the greatest figures in Test history, which to this day remain Jim Laker’s 10 for 53 against Australia in 1956.”It wasn’t until later on that I realised,” Brown says. “I didn’t know there was a world record at stake for him.”But Brown, now 56, is quick to point out that he could have actually ended Hadlee’s streak of wickets even earlier, when John Wright put down a chance. “People don’t realise that Wrighty dropped a catch off me a couple of overs beforehand,” Brown says. “But I have to give Mr Lawson his dues, because everyone knows that John Wright can’t catch a ball on the boundary.”At the Basin Reserve during the New Zealand-Australia Test over the past week, most members of the team that achieved that historic series win over Australia on that tour 30 years ago were present for their first proper reunion. There were a few absentees – the ill Martin Crowe, the ICC match referee Jeff Crowe, and the Wellington coach Bruce Edgar – but most of the players were there.”I was just the baby of the team who used to clean their shoes and just do my job, and a hell of a nervous one at that,” Brown says. “It was great to be part of, in hindsight – such a memorable thing. It hasn’t happened since. I think everyone thought this current team might’ve done it before Christmas, and that didn’t happen.”Brown was an allrounder rather than an out-and-out bowler – he batted at No. 7 in that Brisbane Test, ahead of Hadlee – but 190 first-class wickets at 28.97 tell of his bowling ability. But he holds up his right hand to show one of the problems he faced: his fingers are distinctly stubby, not the typical long digits you expect on the hand of a spinner.”Look at these fingers: these are not spinning fingers,” Brown says. “We went down to Adelaide pre-Test and Ashley Mallett was there. Ashley was a well-known, fantastic bowler, the guys said, ‘Go and have a session with him.’ Ashley was trying to get me to bowl a straight ball, which is literally bowling against the seam.

“I was petrified. When I bowled, my hands were sweating. It was humid, admittedly, but I was so nervous it wasn’t funny”Vaughan Brown

“Ashley has got big fingers. I said, ‘I’ve got a problem, mine are half the length of yours, so I can’t do it.’ I used to flight the ball a lot more. I had a lot of competition with Braces, who had massive fingers and would just rip it. I relied a lot more on flight than him.”Hence the wicket-taking delivery to Lawson was tossed up somewhat, and Australia’s No. 8 was beaten in flight.”I was petrified,” Brown says. “When I bowled, my hands were sweating. It was humid, admittedly, but I was so nervous it wasn’t funny. Fortunately the guys encouraged me and supported me.”[Lawson] was nervous and the other batsmen were nervous as well, because we had them on the back foot, so it creates opportunities. You’ve got to seize them. Carpe diem – seize the day.”Of course, Hadlee has often been asked about his part in the dismissal, and the one that got away because of the catch that didn’t. On that same YouTube video that features the match highlights, there is an interview between Richie Benaud and Hadlee, in which the fast bowler is asked about the catch.”People have often said to me, ‘Why didn’t you drop it?'” Hadlee says in that clip. “I said, ‘The game of cricket is not like that. You take every chance that you can.’ It was significant for Vaughan Brown, of course, because that was his first ever Test wicket.”First and only. Just 430 short of Hadlee’s tally. Whereas Hadlee only strengthened his status as a great of the game, Brown slipped off the international cricket radar and back to a regular working life in sales and marketing with Air New Zealand. But he remembers with great fondness his part in the Gabba Test, and in a series that remains arguably the high point of New Zealand’s cricket history.”You’ve got to be honest about it, the Australian team wasn’t strong,” he says. “They had challenges. We had a pretty good all-round team, if you look at what everyone has achieved. To get that win, and then the second Test in Sydney – we knew it was turning and they brought Braces across. It’s just like prey with wildlife, when there’s a weakness there, you go for it, and we knew Australia were at that level.”I remember we got a dozen bottles of wine from the minister of tourism, and [New Zealand businessman] Sir Ron Brierley sent another dozen… The boys were certainly enjoying it, because a lot of them had been playing cricket for a long, long time, and this was a very special time for them.”And for Brown. After the series there was the typical camaraderie between the Australians and New Zealanders, and some swapping of equipment. In a suitcase at home, Brown still has Holland’s baggy green cap and jersey. Thirty years on, he is happy with the part he played in a slice of New Zealand cricket history, even if Hadlee occasionally gives him a light-hearted ribbing about taking wicket.And, of course, he remains the answer to a trivia question: “I’m still on a card game and on bottle tops – ‘Who was that other person?'”

David Warner’s brazenness upfront has allowed Shikhar Dhawan opportunities to discreetly put together pieces of his batting, and the results are starting to show

Arun Venugopal in Visakhapatnam08-May-2016Shikhar Dhawan’s last five innings prior to Sunday – 53*, 45, 56*, 11, 47 – lend themselves to more than one narrative. While the bleeding obvious would be consistency and the weight of his contributions – three of those came in winning causes – the more compelling story is how he has played the role of a marathoner for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Of the five innings listed above, he has been dismissed before the 14th over just once. All this after he managed only 16 runs in his first three innings.Dhawan admits he has been empowered to play the way he has because of David Warner’s presence. Warner’s brazenness in the Powerplay has allowed Dhawan to discreetly put together pieces of his batting. The fire and ice routine has been particularly effective in chasing down totals – Warner would go for broke and swiftly prune the target, while Dhawan’s holding act helped close out games.Dhawan’s knock against Mumbai Indians was in the same mould, but the difference lay in how he had to set the game up rather than having a target to chase down. Warner bossed the bowling as usual in an 85-run opening stand in 9.5 overs. Dhawan, then on 34 off 26 balls, was steady without being imposing, with most of his runs coming via dabs and steers to third man. In between, there were a few ill-timed pull shots too.Sunrisers managed only eight runs off 13 balls following Warner’s dismissal. They also lost Kane Williamson cheaply. The pressure was on Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh to ensure Sunrisers didn’t waste a strong start. Dhawan endured another two-over lull which yielded just nine runs. But he looked confident of making up for the slowdown.The take-off point, according to him, was after the second strategic time-out when Sunrisers were 102 for 2 in 14 overs. Yuvraj was the first to switch to attack with a brace of boundaries off Kieron Pollard, who conceded 14 runs in the over. Dhawan continued to feed Yuvraj the strike, and he played a big hand in another 14-run over, off Mitchell McClenaghan.”It was crucial for us to build a partnership. That’s why we took a bit of time and made the game a bit slow for a few overs,” Dhawan said after Sunrisers’ 85-run win. “After the second break [timeout] we started targeting all the bowlers because only five-six overs were left and we wanted to achieve a good target. Once Yuvi [Yuvraj] paaji was also set we knew we had to change the gears. Yuvi played amazingly well, especially the way he was striking the ball after coming back from an injury.”Dhawan took off in the 17th over with a stunning combination of the cunning and power to rattle Jasprit Bumrah. He backed away and then extended his arms to carve the first ball over third man for four. The second ball, a yorker, didn’t fetch him runs, but Dhawan sold Bumrah the dummy the next delivery. Seeing Dhawan had given himself room, Bumrah bowled the off-cutter around off stump, but Dhawan tweaked his plan at the last moment to shuffle across and scoop the ball over fine leg. A demoralised Bumrah then sent down a leg-stump full toss which was flicked for four behind square.A broader range of leg-side strokes has been a refreshing aspect of Dhawan’s batting over the last year, and 47 off his 82 runs – a majority of those behind square – against Mumbai came on the on side. He said strokes like the shuffle-and-scoop helped him throw bowlers off gear. “[I] know I am good at playing those shots, and when a bowler has a good slower one or when he is bowling two-three kind of deliveries I try to disturb bowler’s line by doing that stuff.”Dhawan’s dot-ball percentage stood at 29, but the rapid burst at the end helped him achieve his fastest knock yet in IPL 2016. “When we decided to change our gears I had spent enough time so I was comfortable and knew what the ball was going to do,” Dhawan said. “Before that because we were losing wickets we couldn’t take big chances. I was playing according to the situation [but staying] patient for those particular moments came handy, and once when we attacked the opposition it went our way.”

He was the youngest man ever to score a Sheffield Shield century, but Kurtis Patterson took a few years to prove he was no one-hit wonder

Brydon Coverdale29-Jul-2016November, 2011. An 18-year-old from New South Wales makes a stunning debut and is Man of the Match, but doesn’t play another first-class game for two years. No, this story is not about Pat Cummins, although the description fits. This is about Kurtis Patterson. A week after Cummins bagged six-for in the baggy green in Johannesburg, Patterson plundered 157 in the baggy blue at the SCG.Neither man was seen again in first-class cricket until 2013 – Cummins due to the gamut of injuries that befall young fast men, and Patterson due at first to being squeezed out of the New South Wales XI, and then suffering injuries of his own. But now Patterson – nicknamed “KP”, of course – has made the progress that always seemed likely, and is about to make his debut for Australia A.His selection for this winter’s campaign, which begins with a four-day game against South Africa A in Brisbane this weekend, came after a summer in which Patterson scored 737 Sheffield Shield runs at 52.64, putting him sixth on the competition tally. It was a year of significant gains for Patterson, now 23, who enjoyed the responsibility of batting at No.3 for New South Wales.There were centuries against Western Australia in Perth and against Tasmania in Hobart, and there were very few games in which Patterson did not make a contribution. Importantly, he has now established himself in the New South Wales side, something that seemed inevitable back in 2011 when he became the youngest batsman to score a hundred in Sheffield Shield history.”Looking back at that hundred, I think there were two very big lbw shouts in my first 10 balls which, on another day, could very well have been given out, and my career is probably a totally different story,” Patterson told ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve always put that in perspective and known that there was an element of luck involved in that.”I was left out of the following game because we had a couple of guys coming back from Aussie duties. Then unfortunately over that Christmas break I was playing Under-19s for New South Wales and ended up tearing a quad. One thing led to another and that year I kept re-injuring myself. It was quite a frustrating time after that. But there were lessons learnt for sure, particularly around my body and first-class cricket.”The following season was my first contracted season and that was a big learning curve, going from being essentially just a club cricketer to being a professional cricketer. It’s a very different thing training five days a week as opposed to one or two. It was a big learning curve.”The difficulty in making that transition perhaps contributed to Patterson sitting out of the New South Wales XI until November 2013, when he finally reappeared against England in a tour game, and then in a handful of Shield matches. It had been a long couple of years but Patterson was back – and still only 20 years old.”I didn’t want to be known as a one-hit player or anything like that,” Patterson said. “But at the back of my mind I always had confidence in my own ability and I felt, as a couple of seasons went past, that I was improving and it was just about having that same mentality as I did before my debut, making sure that if an opportunity came up I was ready for it.”Patterson believes his game has improved since that debut hundred, particularly his ability to bat patiently and know where his off stump is. He has also gained perspective off the field, and is studying a business degree. Playing alongside his childhood idol Michael Hussey at the Sydney Thunder in the past couple of summers has certainly helped.”It was a great thing for me, having him at the Thunder the last two seasons,” Patterson said. “It’s just his general outlook on the game, and also the bigger picture than the game. His success didn’t interrupt anything happening outside for him, and I thought that was great. For such a good player to be such a good guy, such a caring guy who was happy to help out youngsters – that was one great trait I saw in him.”One lesson I did learn in my first year as a professional cricketer is that whilst it’s exciting and we do live a great life and have a great living, it’s also important for me to have a focus outside of cricket. It can be quite a tough game when you’re not playing well, that’s for sure.”

Although rain took the sting out of what was shaping up to be a sensational day of Test cricket, for 59 minutes South Africa remembered what it felt like to have their best bowlers in business

Firdose Moonda in Durban20-Aug-2016It took just 59 minutes for South African to realise what they missed for eight Tests last summer. Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander.It took just four balls for South Africa to remember what Steyn could do. Pitch it up. Nip it back. Make Martin Guptill look like he was new to Test cricket.It took four more for Philander to do the same. Tempt outside the off stump. Move the ball off the seam. Draw a false stroke.It should have taken only six more for Philander to be rewarded. He had Tom Latham driving, got a thick outside edge but Dean Elgar spilled the chance at second slip.As much as Steyn impressed on his comeback – and he did – Philander wasn’t far behind. There were shades of Newlands in 2011 and there was even Cape-style winter conditions to match.

Steyn keen to play on – Langeveldt

Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling coach, rubbished rumours of Dale Steyn considering retirement from the international game.
“Dale is fully fit and he keen to play Test cricket. You are always excited after a long break to come and bowl when it’s going away. He is enjoying his cricket, he is enjoying his bowling, that’s always important,” Langeveldt said.
Steyn bowled six overs at Kingsmead on his comeback to the South African team and picked up two wickets. Langeveldt expected he would only improve as the match continued.
“His first spell is never his quickest. He tries to be controlled with the new ball so he bowled a lot within himself. You will see in his second and third and third spell, he will get quicker.”
With conditions set to remain tricky for batsmen on Sunday and South Africa’s returning pacemen pumped up, Langeveldt believed South Africa’s 263 could prove a handy first-innings score. “The outfield is not like a Highveld outfield. The ball stops so you can add 40 or 50 runs in boundaries when thinking about our total.”

Overcast skies and dampness in the air meant what should have been the best batting conditions on day two turned into the best bowling conditions. South Africa’s attack, unlike their batsmen on day one, seized the advantage.As he had promised, Steyn did not start at 200 kph. He didn’t even start at 140. He kept his pace in the mid-130s and managed to prey on Guptill’s uncertainty, which remains despite the form he found in Zimbabwe.At Kingsmead, Guptill had a handle on which balls to play and leave outside the off stump but struggled against the ones that moved back in. He was rapped on the pads in the first over and survived a marginal call, then again in the ninth, when he did not.Steyn has now dismissed Guptill five times in Tests – the same number as Pragyan Ojha and more than anyone else. Philander has dismissed him three times. If Guptill keeps falling to new-ball bowlers, it may reopen the debate over his ability as an opener in seaming conditions.Guptill’s wicket was not celebrated with as much gusto as the one before: Latham’s. It was Steyn’s first Test wicket in 2016 and it was a classic: late swing, too close to leave, a thick outside edge, caught at slip. The man was back and he was gaining on Shaun Pollock for the title of South Africa’s leading wicket-taker.Philander’s focus was elsewhere. For him, it is about getting back the form that saw him because the fastest South African to 100 Test wickets and silencing critics who believe his best is behind him. There were signs of his former glory, particularly as the lunch break approached. Philander beat Ross Taylor twice with deliveries that darted away from him like a pickpocket, silently sinister, nifty and nimble. Philander has not moved the ball off the seam as much as that since his career began.South Africa had seen New Zealand swing the ball on the first day and it would have been easy for them to become wayward looking for the same. “When they started bowling we said.. ooof…” Langeveldt said. He didn’t need to explain that “ooof” was a shorter way of saying, “Imagine what we can do on this.”Steyn and Philander produced the finest period of play by South Africa’s Test side all year. Although rain took the sting out of what was shaping up to be a sensational day of Test cricket, for 59 minutes South Africa remembered what it felt like to have their best bowlers back in business.

With a recently relaid outfield and a forecast for rain for the first Test, could the management have done more to be better prepared to host a Test match?

Firdose Moonda in Durban22-Aug-2016Kingsmead has come under intense scrutiny after eight of nine sessions in South Africa’s ongoing Test against New Zealand were lost over three days, making the chance of a result, other than a draw, implausible. No play took place on days three and four, despite there being no rain since early on the third morning because soft patches on the recently relaid outfield were deemed unsafe for play.Both days saw a similar sequence of events: inspections at mid-day and 2pm and an abandonment by 2:20pm. The groundstaff were instructed not to use any artificial means of drying the outfield and no one was allowed on the surface at any time on both days. To an observer, it would seem little effort was being made to make conditions suitable for play.

Unseasonal rain to blame – CSA

CSA, who oversaw the relaying of the outfields at both Kingsmead and SuperSport Park, blamed the unseasonal rain for the inability of the Kingsmead outfield to recover adequately but provided an assurance the second Test will not be similarly affected.
“Following our first experience during August last year and the feedback received from both teams, we have relaid the outfield to make it more suitable for Test match cricket.
“However, the unseasonal rain at this time of year had impacted our preparations of the newly laid outfield. The flood conditions more than a month ago had affected the de-compacting process. SuperSport Park, on the other hand, was relaid by “overseeding” it with a winter grass and the results have been impressive,” CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat said.
“It is most unfortunate and certainly beyond our control that the heavy unseasonal rains in Durban had impacted our plans. We are sympathetic to the efforts of all the ground staff who have tried their level best to ensure match readiness despite the adverse weather conditions leading into this Test match.”

On Sunday morning – the third day of the Test – after the ground had taken 65mm of rain, the super-sopper was made to stop operating for fear it would do further damage to the soft patches. The umpires chose to leave the drying process to natural elements. Bright sunshine on Sunday and heavy winds of up to 70kph, albeit under overcast skies on Monday, were considered sufficient to firm up the patches. Conditions improved with each inspection, but not enough for play to take place.Several other methods were also unused. The outfield was not roped or mopped and dryers or blowers were not used because the outfield was soft underfoot, not wet. Even using sawdust any earlier would prevent the natural elements from hardening the patches.The Durban outfield has not historically been a problem but the recent scarifying process, a result of last year’s complaints by both the South African and New Zealand sides during the limited-overs series, left it under-prepared for this fixture. Work at Kingsmead began mid-June and was completed by the beginning of July, leaving just seven weeks for it to settle, during which Durban was also hit by unseasonal rain.Flash flooding was reported throughout July and rain was also forecast for the second day of the match. Considering these factors, Kingsmead could have made efforts to procure more covers than the ones they currently have which protect the square. Buying enough covers for the entire outfield would cost an estimated R400,000 (US$30,000), an amount franchises struggle to raise, but covers could have been borrowed from clubs in the area.The fall-out from this match means that Kingsmead will continue to struggle to maintain its reputation as one of South Africa’s premier grounds. Poor crowd attendances saw the Boxing Day Test moved in 2014 and again this year to St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. Numbers during the ongoing match would not have done boosted that perception. An average of 2500 people were in attendance on days one and two, with numbers dwindling for the rest of the match. Sundays’s crowd seemed promising, with some fans even walking through the gates when play was called off. They were allowed to use their tickets for Monday and Tuesday but only a few school children were at the ground in the morning and by the time play was called off, there was not a supporter in sight.The players were also among the lesser spotted at the ground. The ACSU regulations stipulate that once they arrive at the ground they cannot leave until play is called off. For that reason, South Africa did not arrive at the ground on Sunday, but New Zealand turned up later in the day for a net session. Both teams were at the ground on Monday. Like the groundstaff, they were not allowed on the outfield. Faf du Plessis and Russell Domingo wandered over briefly before being instructed off.The match referee Andy Pycroft declined to comment on the state of the ground but will rate the outfield at the end of the match, at which time the ICC may issue a statement. Until then, Durban remains on tenterhooks as it fights for its place among the country’s elite venues.

Australia and Pakistan have both slipped from the top Test spot this year. Now both teams are coming after series losses and will have lots to do under lights at the Gabba

Brydon Coverdale in Brisbane14-Dec-2016Against South Africa in Adelaide, Australia made five changes and named three debutants in one of the most comprehensive overhauls of the national side since World Series Cricket. They won, but a dead rubber only, and now face the expectation of winning a series against Pakistan. But Steven Smith’s men have much schooling ahead of them in international cricket, with many lessons to learn. And if Mickey Arthur has taught the Pakistanis anything, they will punish Australia if they haven’t done their homework. So, here are six subjects that Australia’s new-look squad might (or might not) benefit from studying.Ancient historyOne of the most enduring records in Australian cricket is the team’s unbeaten run at the Brisbane Cricket Ground – nicknamed the Gabbatoir for their slaying of opposition dreams at the venue. Last time Australia lost a Gabba Test was in 1988. Smith wasn’t even born then, and nor were half of his team. Not to mention this will be the first Gabba Test played with a pink ball under lights, and the first Gabba Test full-stop for up to five of Australia’s XI. And so, like most students, Australia’s cricketers will view this ancient history as irrelevant. We might as well be discussing who won the Punic Wars.”We’ve got a great record here and hopefully we can keep that up, but it’s a little bit different this year – the pink ball compared to the red ball,” Smith said. “I’m not really paying much attention to that, it’s about going out here and making sure we’ve got our processes right and we’re playing good cricket. And if we’re doing that then hopefully the result will take care of itself.”Modern historyAustralia and Pakistan have both been ranked No.1 in Tests this year, but have fallen to No.3 and 4 respectively after losing campaigns. Australia lost away to Sri Lanka and at home to South Africa, and Pakistan lost on the green seaming pitches in New Zealand. It is also worth noting that only four in Australia’s side – Smith, David Warner, Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc – have played Tests against Pakistan. By comparison, 10 of Pakistan’s squad have played Australia. One of those is fast bowler Mohammad Amir, who skittled Australia for 88 at Headingley in 2010. That Test marked the beginning of an era in which Australia’s batsmen often suffered humiliating collapses against swing – an era that remains ongoing. Under lights with the pink ball, Amir could be a serious threat.”I remember watching out in Australia in 2010 he bowled with really good pace,” said Smith, the only current Australia player to have faced Amir in Tests. “I think he was hitting 145-150 and in England he slowed it down and got his wrists right and swung the ball, so it’s great to have those sort of gears and those skills. No doubt he could potentially be a handful if it’s swinging around. Guys are just going to have to identify those difficult periods and adapt and show some resilience and things will get easier from there.”GeographyIn 2014, Australia learnt a lesson about deserts. On the dry pitches of the UAE, Pakistan’s batsmen handled Australia’s fast men with ease, and their spinners with contempt. Pakistan’s slow bowlers were dominant, including legspinner Yasir Shah. On debut in that series, he claimed 12 wickets at 17.25 across the two Tests, more wickets than all of Australia’s spinners combined. But in Australia, where the pitches will offer far more bounce and pace, Smith hopes that the threat of Yasir will be diminished.”I guess the Gabba, you’ll get a bit of extra bounce as a spin bowler,” Smith said. “I guess that can play in your favour, and can also play against you. Your length has to be spot on. Generally there isn’t too much turn – it’s more bounce, so length is crucial. And if you’re slightly off your length, you can really cash in down the wicket and square of the wicket as well. So he’s going to have to be pretty accurate.”Steven Smith is the only current Australia player to have faced Mohammad Amir in Tests•Getty ImagesPhysical educationAustralia’s new-look side boasts some fine fielders – Peter Handscomb pulled off a super catch at gully in Adelaide – but some aspects of working together require improvement. Australia will, for example, hope that wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and first slip Matt Renshaw have no further disagreements over who should go for a catch. Still, Australia will likely have the edge over Pakistan in the catching department. Pakistan’s batsmen might also find themselves up against some bouncer barrages as Australia’s fast men try to exploit the pace and bounce in the pitches, although the likes of Wahab Riaz are more than capable of returning the favour.”We’ve watched a little bit of the New Zealand series, just recently, and I think traditionally sub-continent sides that come over to Australia don’t handle the pace and bounce, or aren’t as comfortable with the pace and bounce of our wickets,” Smith said. “You need to try and find ways to exploit that as much as possible and at times I’m sure we’re going to see some short-pitched bowling to mess with their feet and be possible ways to get them out as well. We watched New Zealand pretty closely and they obviously did a good job, so hopefully our bowlers can replicate that.”MathsCalculations are always important for a captain, whether setting targets or juggling bowling spells. But in day-night Test cricket an extra dimension is added, with the knowledge that batting can become harder as the floodlights kick in. In Adelaide, Faf du Plessis even declared South Africa’s first innings before the close of the first day, such was his desire to test Australia under the lights.”I think if you look at all the pink-ball stats that have come out, most wickets have been lost in that final session so I guess it adds another dimension to the game,” Smith said. “Captains have to be switched on and possibly figure out different times to have a crack. If we get the opportunity and it might be about going out and trying to score a little bit quicker to get 10 overs with the new ball under lights, because we’ve seen it can do quite a lot. It throws some different strategies into the game.”ScienceThis is where the lessons get complicated. At about 5pm on match eve, the Australians gathered around the 22-yard strip in the middle of the Gabba and tried to work out how it would perform. At Adelaide Oval, the curator had left six millimetres of grass on the surface to help protect the pink ball; at the Gabba, only two millimetres will be left on. Perhaps only in cricket do agriculture and sport combine to hold the attention of so many. The Gabba curator, Kevin Mitchell jnr, believes the pitch will perform like a typical Gabba Test surface. Whatever the case, Australia’s uncertainty was such that Smith was unable to confirm whether spinner Nathan Lyon would play.

The greater power and depth of batting units has made chasing a distinct advantage in T20s. And that makes the toss ever more significant

Tim Wigmore27-Jan-2017When Perth Scorchers meet Sydney Sixers in the final of this year’s Big Bash League, it is a safe assumption that, unless the wicket looks unusually bowler-friendly, both teams will want to chase. That has been the trend all summer long in the BBL. Twenty-seven of the 34 teams that have won the toss have opted to bowl. The seven who have decided to bat have all regretted it: they have lost every time.Ian Chappell’s aphorism – when you win the toss, you bat first nine times out of ten; the tenth time you think about it and bat first anyway – has been inverted. Yet it held true in Australian T20 cricket for many years. In the first season of the BBL, in 2011-12, just three times out of 31 did teams who won the toss opt to chase, a similar figure to the pre-BBL days in Australia. But ever since, chasing has becoming increasingly popular. Just over half of all teams opted to chase in the previous two BBL seasons; 79% have done so this year.The penchant for chasing in Australia is a manifestation of a much larger trend. Until the end of 2013, 59% of teams chose to bat first, according to a database from cricket statistician Ric Finlay. Yet in recent years there has been a distinct shift towards chasing: from 2014 until the end of 2016, just 39% of teams who won the toss opted to bat first in matches. Chasing teams get a small but significant advantage: in the 2014-16 period, they won 5% more matches than those batting first.

Batting second has become increasingly favourable as conditions have become more batsman-friendly. “When aren’t they set up for batsmen? Small boundaries, flat tracks… yeah, it’s just how it is nowadays,” Tymal Mills lamented before the England-India T20I series.Average scores in T20 cricket have nudged up in recent years – from 152 in the 2011-13 period to 159 in 2014-16, according to Finlay – making it harder for teams batting first to gauge what a match-winning total is.

That has been Eoin Morgan’s experience for Sydney Thunder this BBL, and indeed, around the world. “The level of skills batsmen have shown, the improvement dealing with levels of risk and finding boundaries means batting units or teams in general are quite comfortable knowing what their target is. The unease of posting a score, or knowing what a good score is, is becoming more and more difficult,” he said. “Probably over the last three years, having a look at previous results or scores at the ground hasn’t been as reliable as in the past. That’s made it difficult.”So as batting has improved, precedent at a ground no longer provides a useful guide to what is a match-winning score. There is no real method, other than gut, for determining what is, say, a 175 ground and what is a 190 one. Teams batting first are at risk of undershooting, as when India made 192 for 2 in the World T20 semi-final, with Ajinkya Rahane performing his role – only, it turned out, it was a superfluous role – to perfection in making 40 from 35 balls. Increasingly they are also at risk of doing the opposite, and being so used to aiming for 200 that they fail to recognise when 150 is a match-winning score, and misjudge their plans.Teams also now have greater batting depth. Bowlers increasingly recognise how they can make themselves more useful – and more likely to win lucrative contracts – by adding lower-order six-hitting to their games. Ben Hilfenhaus, who spent most of his professional career batting at No. 10 or 11, recently blitzed 32 not out to win a BBL match that appeared lost.Sunil Narine, in action for Melbourne Renegades. As bowlers have sought to develop their big-hitting skills, batting line-ups have run deeper•Getty Images”Bowlers can’t afford not to bat in modern T20. They need to be able to slog a few,” says Alex Wakely, the captain of Northamptonshire, the reigning T20 champions in England. “We prefer chasing because we bat so deep.” Such depth allows teams to calibrate their run chases more effectively, and the greater proficiency of lower-order players can also liberate a side’s top-order batsmen to attack more at the start of a chase.Batting second also makes it easier for a side’s bowlers. “The opportunity to bowl first also means you can usually stick to your bowling plans,” says Charlie Burke, director of cricket for Cricket Hong Kong. For instance, having a spin bowler bowl two early overs and then return in the 14th and 16th overs, or ensuring that the final over is entrusted to a particularly skilful bowler. But when a side is bowling second, their plans have to adapt depending on the circumstances of the match – there is no sense in leaving the final over to the best bowler if the match looks to be on its way to being lost. When bowling second, bowlers are more likely to be forced to bowl at a time that does not ideally suit them.There are some exceptions to this new bat-first preference. In the recent Desert T20, the T20 competition for Associates, ten out of 15 teams who won the toss opted to bat first – though nine of the 15 games were still won by the chasing team. Associates are less inclined to chase because teams tend to have less depth in hitting all the way down the order, believes Burke, though that could change as emerging nations gain experience.And when wickets occasionally revert to favouring bowlers, it becomes much trickier to chase. During last year’s World T20, the ground at Nagpur notably offered more assistance to bowlers than other venues; six of the nine matches there were won by the team batting first. But on the batting-friendly pitches that are increasingly the norm, batting second is a boon. So far in this year’s Big Bash League, 61.8% of matches (21 out of 34) have been won by the side batting second.

“Probably over the last three years, having a look at previous results or scores at the ground hasn’t been as reliable as in the past. That’s made it difficult to set a target”Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain

There are areas in which bowlers can fight back, which might yet make captains more inclined to bat first after winning the toss. Innovators like the Bangladesh left-arm fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman, who has an astounding variety of deliveries, and Yasir Jan, an ambidextrous fast bowler from Pakistan, could shift the balance of T20s a little more in favour of bowlers. And a recent tweak to the laws of the game restricting the size of bats, which will be in force from October, could also make a modest difference.Yet it seems more likely that the preference for batting second will increase further. “Teams are so heavily packed with power all the way through a batting line-up that chasing will become the norm,” Wakely believes; pitches in T20 cricket are also likely to continue to improve. Since the start of 2016, chasing teams have won 11% more T20s than those batting first, suggesting the advantage is becoming greater. Should the proportion of matches won by the side batting second continue to increase, that would make the toss ever more important in T20.The shortest format thrives on unpredictability; too much onus on the toss, as in this year’s BBL, risks stripping T20 of a little of its excitement. If the trend in favour of batting second indeed continues, perhaps cricket’s authorities could even become amenable to radical suggestions – for instance, sealed bids, with captains bidding a certain number of runs for the right to bat or bowl first – to reduce the importance of the toss. In the meantime, rarely in the history of T20 has winning the toss, and the right to bat second, been as coveted as it will be when Adam Voges and Moises Henriques walk out with the coin in Perth on Saturday.

Returning to the scene of his record-breaking 311 not out, Hashim Amla had some advice for England’s under-fire batsmen

Firdose Moonda25-Jul-2017If England want some advice on how to approach an innings, they can get it from Hashim Amla. South Africa’s No. 3 spends, on average, 127 minutes at the crease every time he bats (only 15 men in history have more staying power), in a career in which he has spent 380 hours and 34 minutes in the middle. More than 13 of those were occupied batting at The Oval in 2012, when he reached the highest Test score by a South African, and Amla got there by knowing how to balance attack and defence.”Test cricket has an element of grind in it,” Amla said, back at the scene of his 311 not out, ahead of the third Test this time around. “But you can’t be attacking all the time and you can’t grind all the time: it’s finding the right balance.”Amla has first-hand experience of the search for that equilibrium. As his career has progressed, scoring rates in the longest format have quickened and Amla has had to adapt accordingly. He has gone from strike rates below 40 when he first began to almost touching 70 in the series against New Zealand last August and has evolved from purely an anchor to an accelerator, admitting team dynamics dictate which approach he takes.”It takes many years as a team to find the right balance,” he said. “Over the last 10 years I’ve played, we have gone through phases where we haven’t found the balance and then we’ve found it and been successful as a batting unit. Then you lose it and then you find it. It happens. You go through ups and downs as a batting unit.”Since the retirements of Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen, South Africa have struggled to settle on an opening pair and the constant search has caused a structural weakness. Often, they are one down early, leaving it to Amla to do a repair job which typically involves being tentative. But last summer, starting with the Australia series, Amla switched gears and seemed in a hurry in almost every innings. He was unusually rash in his shot selection and went through a slump, especially by his standards.As Amla’s temperament came into focus, it was thought that the influence of shorter formats was affecting his batting but it may actually have been the make-up of the XI. Amla’s lean patch came at a time when South Africa were without AB de Villiers and when inconsistency crept into the line-up, so the responsibility on Amla would have been greater. With that at the back of his mind, his haste was understandable but at Trent Bridge, where South Africa levelled the series against a profligate England, glimpses of the Amla of old peeped out.He showed more patience than in some of his recent stays at the crease and it is probably not a coincidence that the change came after South Africa made a major change to the line-up. Not only did they drop the underperforming JP Duminy but they installed the most in-form batsmen of the last year, Quinton de Kock, in his place at No.4. That seemed to bring the best out of Amla.In the first innings, he shared in a 113-run third-wicket stand with de Kock which changed the tempo of a South Africa innings that started slowly in tough batting conditions. Though de Kock did not come off in the second innings, having him higher up appeared to help Amla find his rhythm. “When Quinton de Kock comes to the crease for us, he plays really freely and gets the scoreboard ticking,” Amla. “That’s what we love and we have no qualms if he nicks off playing an attacking shot because more often than not he comes off and is successful.”Hashim Amla conquered England’s bowlers in 2012•Getty ImagesEngland have players of a similar style in Joe Root and Ben Stokes, who accumulate runs quickly, but in the second Test they lacked staying power, prompting a barrage of criticism from former players. Amla’s advice is not to read too much into it. After all, South Africa were bundled out for 119 at Lord’s and also suffered an embarrassing margin of defeat. “You can’t look too much into it. We lost the first Test and the same questions you are posing to me you probably posed to Alastair Cook – sorry to Joe Root,” Amla said, reminding himself who the England captain actually was.Those questions are about the ability of batting line-ups to build innings, rather than blast their way to a total, and Amla has already proved he has some answers. Especially at The Oval, where he became his country’s only triple-centurion. His unbeaten 311 spanned 790 minutes – the sixth longest in Test history – and he did not change his gloves once in that time. It was an innings that spoke as much to South Africa’s resilience as to his own resoluteness and it ultimately set South Africa up for a series win.That day, Amla’s attitude was simple. “I remember just trying to bat as long as I can and thankfully I did,” he said.So how much will that innings be in Amla’s mind when he walks out to bat in this match? “I think we passed that five years ago,” he said. “A lot of cricket has happened in between. I don’t think there will be any thoughts of that. I find that with things that happened in the past, generally, if you linger on it too long it becomes more of a distraction.”But he habours some hope he can do it again. “I’ve got the same name, I’ve trained as tough as I can train so for me it’s about continuing that.”