They won the game. They found some form. If you’re judging England on the scoreboard, it was above par, but still well below par

Jarrod Kimber in Christchurch23-Feb-20152:04

Trott: England need to utilise Powerplays better

Six men walked the streets of Christchurch on Sunday morning. They walked through the Cricket World Cup Zone. Past the cricket memories exhibition. Beyond the Le French Cricket field. And then right past a sign that said, “Go the BLACKCAPS, Smash ’em for 6.”They looked athletic, dressed in nice Sunday bar casual attire, and wore their caps low. They had that I’m-not-going-to-work-today facial hair. They walked in a tight pack, through wrecked buildings and fenced-off zones. They could have been any six mates looking for a Sunday feed.These were six mates looking for a feed, and they were also six mates who’d been smashed for six, or seven, by New Zealand just a few days before. More than a third of the squad, who, within a week of the tournament, were below Bangladesh, Scotland and Afghanistan on the points table.One look at any of the six faces and you knew that. It was as if England’s net run rate of -3.952 was etched on their faces.Exactly 24 hours later the team is batting against Scotland. A team that has a few decent bowlers, a spin bowler slower than an ECB explanation and a bunch of medium-pacers they try to squish into ten overs. Moeen Ali is stylish, even as he almost finds cover, he makes batting look easy and pretty. Ian Bell is less style and more struggling graft, he was lucky to survive an lbw. When Scotland aren’t bowling wides he plays and misses regularly. Against the slow, steady and really slow bowling of Majid Haq, he scores at less than a run every two balls.At one stage, as Bell faces Haq, there are four dot balls. Time actually stands still. The game of ODI cricket has an out-of-body experience and watches itself in a coma.Would Dhawan, Rohit, Warner, Finch, McCullum and Guptill have been so comatose?But, England did score. They scored well. Well enough. While carrying Bell, Moeen manages to keep England’s scoring rate at 5.73 after 30 overs. They are 172. They have 20 overs and ten wickets and five overs of Powerplay to come.They have blown off the cobwebs, now is the time to take the shackles off as well. They didn’t. Their run rate went from 5.7 to 6.Bell’s wicket brings Gary Ballance in. There are times when his batting seems to have been prepared by Southern African cricket scientists to work in all conditions. But there would be almost no situations when you want Ballance to come in after the 30th over of an ODI. England refused to change their order. Their batting order has seemingly been passed to them by supernatural beings. They’d rather face persecution here on earth, than change it and offend their guardians.Bell’s wicket begat Ballance. Moeen’s wicket Joe Root. Ballance’s wicket begat Eoin Morgan, Root’s begat James Taylor. It was written.In Eoin Morgan’s first 21 balls, he made 11 runs, that was when he was missed at deep midwicket by Freddie Coleman•Getty ImagesWhen Moeen was out, he had made 128 out of their first 200 runs. He was batting like most of the other batsmen fantasise about. When he went out, England had a mini-collapse. It wasn’t a Tim Southee-like experience, but it was a misstep. That can happen. The Scottish bowling was disciplined and made you hit it. And Matthew Cross pulled off a stumping so good that wicketkeeping purists lost their collective continence.It was the bit afterwards that was a worry. With no pace, gentle reverse swing and a spinner whose only weapon was float, Morgan and Taylor really struggled. This is England’s third game of the tournament. A tournament they don’t look like winning, and may not qualify for the second round of. It may be too harsh to even rate them poorly for making over 300, when 13 of their last 19 innings they hadn’t even completed.But they still limped, rather than strutted to 300. They can say it was a par score, they can say they got some form back, they can be happy with Moeen’s batting, but they can’t be honestly happy with their last 20 overs. They can’t be happy that Moeen scored 42% of their total runs but went out in the 35th over.In Morgan’s first 21 balls, he made 11 runs, that was when he was missed at deep midwicket by Freddie Coleman. Taylor made 17, from 26 balls, as Jos Buttler watched on waiting for his number in the queue to be called.Buttler’s first ball was a boundary. It looked like the ball had been waiting for him to come out. It was the last ball of the 45th over. Buttler and Morgan put on 45 in 23 balls. Buttler was out just before the last over.England’s last over had them starting at a score of 299. Josh Davey started with a wide. Morgan hit the second ball straight up and was caught. Chris Woakes did the same. Stuart Broad walked across his stumps on the hat-trick ball and took a leg bye. Steven Finn flicked a ball out to the midwicket sweeper. Broad missed the next one. Broad missed the one after that. Finn stole a bye.In the last over of an innings, with their captain set and now in form and two allrounders yet to come in, England got a wide, took a bye and leg bye, and their number ten made a single. That was the sum total of their output against an Associate nation.In their last 20 overs, England failed to score six runs in an over 10 times. They lost eight wickets. They kept their batting order. And moved their run rate up from 5.7 to 6.They won the game. They found some form. If you’re judging them on the recent England scoreboard, it was above par, but still well below par. But the cobwebs and shackles are still on. And today they looked self-imposed.

Picket fencing. Old wooden benches. Grass banks. It could easily be the Basin Reserve in Wellington… but it’s not

Abhishek Purohit20-Feb-2015Picket fencing. A gravel walking path around the picket fencing. Old wooden benches. Grass banks. A busy road skirting the edge of the ground. Could easily be the Basin Reserve in Wellington. It is the Junction Oval, or the St Kilda Cricket Ground, in Melbourne. Known more as the ground where Shane Warne played club cricket, and also made his first-class debut, the Junction Oval resembles the Basin Reserve in another aspect. In its heritage grandstands.The building and taking down of stands at grounds tells a story in itself. The old grandstand at the Basin Reserve was built in 1925. Spectators are no longer allowed inside it due to it being considered a potential hazard in the earthquake-prone region. The Vance Stand, which came up in the 1980s, is used instead. A few years later, the disused luncheon area in the old grandstand was turned into the New Zealand Cricket Musuem, which welcomes visitors to this day.Junction Oval used to have as many as four stands, says Stephen Wain, who has been around at the ground for years and serves as administration manager for St Kilda Cricket Club. Two of them still stand, and a third, smaller, newer pavilion has come up at the straight boundary.The Blackie-Ironmonger stand reminds you right away of the Basin grandstand. Named after the “most durable and talented spin bowling combination” in Victoria cricket, both of who represented Australia, the stand came up in 1945. High, pillared, corrugated iron roof. Long benches. Red-brick sides. It transports you back in time, and unlike the one at the Basin, is still used. It may not have a national museum, but it does house a collection of the club’s memorabilia, as well as the team changing rooms. It also contains a small enclosure for media personnel, though the view is from deep square leg.The benches will disappear soon to be replaced by seats, says Wain, for as historic as they are, they are not comfortable to sit on. Some leather cushions were helpfully placed on a few for the moment.The Kevin Murray grandstand, named after the great Australian rules footballer, was shut down after being deemed a fire hazard. The vintage staircases, two pairs of which still take you up Blackie-Ironmonger, were removed from the Kevin Murray stand. It still has the wooden floorboards intact, says Wain.Two stands were pulled down years ago. One was wooden, and used to be quite popular with fans. But there were a series of fires in the region in the late 1980s, and the authorities were not willing to take any chances. You can never be too careful with smokers in a wooden structure. One cigarette is all it takes, says Wain. “Poof”, and the entire thing could have come down.The fourth stand had something called concrete cancer, explains Wain, saying that chunks of material were falling off. One of them landed on the top of the club president’s car. That sealed the stand’s fate. A mound full of grass takes its place now.There is also a giant scoreboard next to the new pavilion. “When it is 35 degrees outside, it feels like 55 degrees inside,” says Wain. And when it is cold outside, it is freezing inside. Happens when you are sitting inside a hollow steel structure. The scoreboard was brought to the ground from a racecourse.The ground’s facilities failed to meet first-class standards in recent years, and there was a plea from Warne to the state government to help in upgrading the venue. A newly elected administration promised funds, and Wain says part of the proposed facelift includes a three-storey multi-purpose building in place of the smallest, youngest pavilion. That will be another story then. Blackie-Ironmonger will stay on though. Reminding visitors of the Basin.

Plays of the day from the group B match between UAE and Zimbabwe played in Nelson

Brydon Coverdale in Nelson19-Feb-2015Drop of the day
After Elton Chigumbura sent UAE in to bat, he wanted early wickets to justify his decision. Duly Tendai Chatara drew an edge behind from Andri Berenger in the second over of the match, only to see the wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor spill a reasonably straightforward chance. The ricochet off the gloves also allowed Berenger off the mark. He went on to score 22.No-ball of the day
In Chatara’s next over he again picked up an edge behind off Berenger, this time taken by Taylor behind the stumps. But alarm bells began to ring when umpire Johan Cloete asked Berenger to hold on while he checked on a no-ball. Replays confirmed that Chatara had overstepped by a fraction and Berenger was given another let-off.Blow of the day
UAE might not be renowned as having express fast bowlers, but there were still some concerns for the Zimbabwe batsmen during the early overs of their chase. Amjad Javed banged in a bouncer that rose higher than Sikandar Raza expected; he tried to hook and was struck flush on the front of the helmet. Befitting the name of their country, the UAE players were united in their appeal for caught-behind, but umpire Cloete ruled correctly that there was no bat before helmet.Unexpected wicket of the day
Regis Chakabva had laboured for 35 from 62 balls when he fell in unfortunate fashion, playing back to the offspin of Mohammad Tauqir, working the ball off his pads to leg, and then slipping over and disturbing his stumps with his left foot. It was the eighth time a batsman had been out hit wicket in a World Cup match. The last was also a Zimbabwean: Vusi Sibanda against Ireland in Kingston in 2007.Record of the day
At 43 years and 32 days, Tauqir became the oldest captain in World Cup history. The previous record holder was Steve Lubbers of the Netherlands, who was 42 years and 347 days when he last led his side in the 1996 World Cup. Three men have led their teams in non-World Cup ODIs while older than Tauqir: England’s Norman Gifford, Hong Kong’s Rahul Sharma, and Tauqir’s UAE team-mate Khurram Khan.

Among the many glittering innings in the 2015 World Cup, five stood out

Karthik Krishnaswamy30-Mar-2015Samiullah Shenwari
96 v Scotland, DunedinIt was a wildly seesawing day for Afghanistan. They let Scotland get away from 144 for 8 to 210. In reply, they slipped from 85 for 2 to 97 for 7. Samiullah Shenwari, who had come in at 46 for 2, could well have been back in the hut too. On 20, Majid Haq had dropped him in the slips.Eventually, it was Haq’s bowling that Shenwari would target as Afghanistan neared their target, but that was a while away. There was rebuilding to do, and Shenwari would do it patiently. He added 35 in 68 balls with Dawlat Zadran, and brought up his half-century shortly after that partnership ended. It had taken him 113 balls to get there, but Scotland were nervous. Shenwari wasn’t celebrating. He had bigger things on his mind. At the other end, Hamid Hassan was simply looking to stay put, and doing a great job of it.Shenwari’s moment arrived in the 47th over, which began with 38 required from 24 balls. Bang, bang, bang. Haq’s offspin disappeared for three sixes in three balls, all over cow corner. Next ball, with four to get for his century, Shenwari went for another big hit and picked out deep midwicket. Distraught, he remained slumped just beyond the boundary rope, head in his hands, but Hassan and Shapoor Zadran ensured his efforts wouldn’t go unrewarded, calmly picking off the 19 runs Afghanistan needed for their first ever World Cup win.Brendan Taylor
138 v India, AucklandIndia had won their first five matches in the group stage, all by convincing margins, and when Brendan Taylor walked in at 13 for 2, which soon became 33 for 3, another easy win seemed imminent. Taylor, who had just announced he would be signing a three-year Kolpak deal with Nottinghamshire, was playing his final game for Zimbabwe.Taylor was in sparkling form, and in his previous match had made a brilliant 91-ball 121 against Ireland, which had brought Zimbabwe to within six runs of chasing down 332. Now, against a better attack, he played with the same sense of authority and showed the same disdain for the spinners, whom he swept and reverse-swept whenever he felt like.Taylor and Sean Williams batted with freedom, putting on 93 and ensuring Zimbabwe barely took any time wallowing over the loss of those early wickets. Taylor only grew more aggressive after the partnership ended, and hit his first six in the 34th over, launching R Ashwin over cow corner.Two more sixes came off a Mohammed Shami over in the Powerplay, the first a ramp over third man that made him the first Zimbabwean to make back-to-back World Cup hundreds. Then Taylor took Jadeja to the cleaners – 4, 4, 6, 4, 6. At 232 for 4 in 41 overs, Zimbabwe seemed set for a monster total, but Taylor’s dismissal in the next over precipitated a collapse that ended at 287 all out. It wasn’t enough to win Zimbabwe the game, but it stretched India’s batting more than it had ever been till that point in the tournament.Martin Guptill
237* v West Indies, WellingtonBefore the World Cup, Martin Guptill’s place at the top of the order seemed under threat. He had averaged under 28 in his last 28 matches, during which time pretty much every other New Zealand batsman had looked in the form of their lives. Yet the selectors kept faith in him, and in New Zealand’s final group-stage game he repaid them with an important hundred in a tricky chase against Bangladesh.But he wasn’t done yet. Far from it. Grassed on 4 by Marlon Samuels at the start of the quarter-final against West Indies, Guptill cashed in like no man had done before in an ODI innings. By the third over, Guptill had struck three fours, all of them driven down the ground with the straightest of bats.Over the 50 overs of New Zealand’s innings, West Indies kept seeing that straight bat over and over again. They kept giving him balls to drive, and he kept hitting them to the boundary. Sometimes he closed his bat face a little and drove through the on side. Sometimes he extended his follow-through and landed the ball in the stands. Once he even hit the roof.The century came up in the 35th over. Plenty of time still left. How far could Guptill go? He would go farther than any New Zealand batsman before him. Guptill went from 100 to 150 in 23 balls, and from 150 to 200 in 18 balls, the landmark coming up with another straight drive for four, off Andre Russell. Four batsmen had made double-centuries before Guptill, and Chris Gayle had done it in the same tournament, but this was a World Cup quarter-final. This was something else.Grant Elliott’s six sparked off wild celebrations at the Eden Park•Getty ImagesGrant Elliott
84* v SA, AucklandThis was New Zealand’s seventh World Cup semi-final. So far they had lost six out of six. Brendon McCullum had raised hopes of ending that run by giving New Zealand the blazing start they needed in a revised chase of 298 in 43 overs. Now, at 128 for 3, they needed a cool head in the middle of a deafening, jam-packed Eden Park.The selectors had reckoned Grant Elliott was that man, when they recalled him a month before the World Cup, at 35, after two years out of the New Zealand side. Now their judgment was on test, in a World Cup semi-final, against the country of Elliott’s birth.First ball he faced, Elliott calmly lap-swept Imran Tahir for four. No nerves. New Zealand lost the set Ross Taylor, but Elliott and Corey Anderson kept in touch with the required rate. Anderson made the muscular hits, while Elliott relied on placement, opening his bat face to steer Vernon Philander through cover point, shuffling across to whip Morne Morkel over the short boundary at square leg, stepping inside the line to lift Tahir over extra cover to bring up his fifty.New Zealand enjoyed a couple of slices of luck, including a dropped catch off Elliott in the penultimate over when two fielders collided, but lost Anderson and Luke Ronchi as the match reached its denouement. Twelve to get from one over. Daniel Vettori squeezed a yorker to the backward point boundary, the batsmen stole a couple of byes, and it came down to five from two balls. Dale Steyn sent down a length ball, in the slot, and Elliott swung it away over long-on. Eden Park erupted. New Zealand were in a World Cup final.Steven Smith
105 v India, SydneyThe big players usually seize the big moments in World Cups, and while several batsmen put their hand up for Australia at various stages, it was Steven Smith, their No. 3, who gave them their backbone with a run of five successive 50-plus scores, including one in each knockout game.In the semi-final, Smith walked in after the early dismissal of David Warner. He had tormented them over the summer, but over the course of the World Cup India’s bowling attack had grown in rhythm and confidence, and had bowled out all seven of their opponents so far. Maybe things would be different this time.They were, in a way, but they weren’t. India weren’t bowling particularly badly, and at one end were making Aaron Finch scratch and scrabble for his runs. Smith, though, was batting on a different planet. Umesh Yadav kept banging it in short, but he had the field for it, and still Smith pulled him away for three fours in an over.Smith motored along, bringing up 50 in 53 balls and collecting runs with great ease, using his feet to the spinners, walking across the stumps to the quicks, working the ball wherever he pleased.Australia took the batting Powerplay early, in the 33rd over, and Smith immediately switched gears, clipping, swiping and pulling Mohammed Shami for two fours and a six in one over to reach his hundred. Australia were well on their way to a match-winning total. In terms of impact, this innings was up there with Ricky Ponting’s in Johannesburg in the 2003 final.

Older and wiser, Ryan Harris looks back at his career, the injuries he overcame along the way, and the art of swinging it

Interview by Daniel Brettig17-Mar-2015Some of the most fascinating passages in your new book are about the earlier days, before the success arrived. When you went back and looked over those early days, what lessons did you take away?
Certainly how much I’ve matured, how much harder I’ve trained and how much better I’ve looked after myself as I’ve gotten older. How I’ve dealt with injury as well. Some of the injuries I’ve had, people in the medical profession have questioned whether I’d be done, so there’s determination as well. The way I bowl, years ago I didn’t expect to play Test cricket for Australia. So to see where I’ve come from, it’s a good achievement, to show the amount I’ve had to work to get there. I’ve surprised myself, in a way.What would Ryan Harris of 2015 say to Ryan Harris of say 2003?
Apply yourself a bit more, and believe in yourself. Train harder. Once I had that stronger belief, that’s when I started playing well and belonged at first-class level. Just to apply myself a bit more would have been better. You always wish you can go back and change things, but in the end I don’t regret it, it’s part of growing up.You evolved a lot as a bowler in South Australia. You started to learn about yourself and started to flourish before you left there, but was there anything about SA or Adelaide that meant it took a little longer for that to happen?
Not really. Something just clicked in my bowling action, I started bowling a bit quicker, started taking wickets. I got to the stage where I was on the verge again and almost lost my contract, two and a half years before I left. I had a good pre-season and did my knee in the first grade game and then had a longer time out of the game than I should have had. Then I sat down with Wayne Phillips, who was SA coach at the time, and he said, “Look mate, you’ve got to decide what you want to do”, so I came back, trained hard again and got back to bowl at good pace and started taking lots of wickets. Once I got through that injury I bowled as well as I ever had and things started to run for me, so that was probably the belief starting to show. That’s probably when it turned around.Something Graham Manou told me about the 2009 Ashes tour was how different it was being in the Australian side versus South Australia in terms of the attitude to defeat. It was “How did we lose that, we can’t be losing games” rather than “Oh well, we’re not good enough again.”
I don’t know what it was with the South Australian team because at the time I was around the team we had a good side. But it was just finding ways to win games. We didn’t know how to do it. In Queensland it struck me when I moved here how much fighting spirit they had. We won games from where we shouldn’t have – the Queensland boys just had that determination never to give up. That was similar to what I found with the Australian side and the mentality they had. Whereas SA, we just didn’t seem to believe we could do it in certain positions in games. With the side we had – Lehmann, Blewett, Gillespie, David Fitzgerald, Ben Johnson, Brad Young, Paul Rofe, we had a really good side, but just not enough to win things. In the whole eight years, I think we finished fourth once, very close to the Shield final but never got there. And years later they still haven’t.

“I know when I left South Australia, Ian McLachlan said it wasn’t a big loss, I only took 37 wickets. Whether or not they were happy to see me go, who cares. History shows it was probably a mistake for them”

Around the time you moved to Queensland there was this whisper campaign along the lines of: we need to move Ryan because we need to change the culture. It looks an outlandish claim now.
The culture at the time wasn’t too bad. We were starting to win and I was starting to take wickets. I never really knew about that. I know when I left, Ian McLachlan [then SACA president] said it wasn’t a big loss, I only took 37 wickets. Whether or not they were happy to see me go, who cares. History shows it was probably a mistake for them, like it has been every time they seem to establish a team and get good players, then let them go because of some sort of dispute – like Michael Klinger or Mark Cosgrove. At the time I felt there was an issue with Northern Districts players because they let me go, they let Graham go, they let Darren go, and they let Cossie go. But it was just coincidental.You dealt with Darren Lehmann at Northern Districts, South Australia, Queensland and then Australia. You’ve had him in your professional and personal life over a long period. What have you seen change or grow in him?
To be honest, he hasn’t changed. He’s still the same sort of guy as coach that he was as captain. He’s honest and to the point, he’ll tell you if you’re doing something wrong, tell you if you’re doing something right. The Northern Districts boys used to love him going out there and making sure he’d have a beer afterwards. He’d buy them a carton and sit in the rooms. He just loves cricket and he’ll talk about the game forever.On the personal side he’s been a mentor of mine for a long time. I spoke to him about leaving SA. He was probably the second person I told after my dad. I rang him to get his opinion. He got me over to the IPL, and I had him up here with the Bulls, and he’s been great for me and my cricket. In times when I have slackened off, he’s usually been around to kick me in the butt to get me on track.You say he hasn’t changed, but he clearly picked up a few things about coaching along the way?
He’s a great man manager as well as a great coach. But he was like that when he was playing, he’d do the same thing with the young blokes then – he gave you confidence to go out and play the way you wanted to play. If you make a mistake that’s okay, but just don’t make it again. If you keep making it over and over again, that’s when he gets shitty.One thing you shared was that you’ve both dealt with loss. You lost your mum, he lost his mum, and also David Hookes. And you spent a fair amount of time with each other in both cases.
When my mum passed away, he was the first to call in to see me. He was captain at the time and he was fantastic about it. “Go away and take as much time as you want, if you want to play cricket next week, play, if you don’t, you don’t. You do what you’ve got to do.” He was always there ringing me, a good shoulder to lean on, and as a mentor and close mate he was great through that time. Even now with anniversaries, he seems to remember when it happened. I’m a bit sketchy on when his anniversary is but he always seems to remember my mum, there’s always a message. He’s fantastic in that way.With bowling coach Allister de Winter in the nets: “The wrist snap was just a part of my action that started to click”•Getty ImagesOne thing about your career is, it spans a lot of changes to the domestic structure. You arrived when there were a lot of older players around, then a big group left the game in a short space of time, before the Futures League caused a few more to go. How do you look at the Shield now versus when you began?
The Futures League was a mistake from the start. You had a lot of contracted players who were sitting around, not allowed to play 2nd XI cricket like they used to do, and missing out. So guys were thinking, “Well, I can’t rely on grade cricket each week” because guys performing in grade cricket weren’t getting picked in 2nd XI because of the age restrictions, so they’re like, “What’s the point, I might as well go get a full-time job.” These guys were on 40 to 60k, which is okay money, but if you’ve got a trade, you could be earning twice that money, I think that’s why we lost a lot of guys. My theory on that a long time ago was that if the young players were good enough and earning a pot, they’d play anyway, but the competition went down because of that. It took probably three years too long to realise that.The times I as growing up playing 2nd XI cricket, I was playing games against teams then that could have been second 1st teams now, playing as additional states – they were that good. I don’t think there’s enough of that these days. It’s funny because after the big u-turn they did, the Australian Cricketers Association and Cricket Australia now are trying to get more older players back in the game.You and Mitchell Johnson are now the 30-something fast bowlers with a lot of younger guys around you. How have you found Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood and others to deal with? Can you sense the generation gap?
I’ve spent a lot of time with them and they love the game and love talking about it. They ask for advice and love learning, so that part of it is covered. None of them are “I know what I’m doing, I know the game.” They respect the game for what it is and where they’re at. They’re always trying to learn, trying to bowl six balls in the right spot rather than four and all that sort of stuff. It’s important to get young guys talking about the game and they do that a lot, which is great.A lot of people have marvelled at your strong wrist, how it snaps over and sends the ball down with perfect backspin and seam position. How did that develop?
I’ve got nothing for you there, that just happened. I didn’t even know when that started, whether it started in Adelaide or up in Brisbane. I remember watching replays at some stage and seeing that wrist snap back, and to me it feels like it’s straight up and down. I don’t feel it go back. That was just a part of my action that started to click. It started happening and I got my wrist behind the ball. I always swung it. When I was younger and a bit slower, I could always swing it both ways.How did you pick up reverse swing? Even now it can be elusive for Australia.
I used to love bowling in Adelaide because of that. There’s different theories on it. You try to keep the ball as dry as possible. I’ve learned a little bit being in the Aussie side. We might let the ball go completely, not touch it up or anything like that, which I’d never done before, and once one side goes really bad, you start working on the other side and that works as well. All in all, it’s keeping one side smooth and trying to rough the other one up. Everyone does it these days – throw it into the ground or into the wicket when the keeper runs back. If that doesn’t work, you can go the old-fashioned theory, and that’s load it up one side, wet one side and make it heavier.

“I never thought I’d play Test cricket. If anything I thought I’d play one-day cricket or T20s, but to be able to do that at Test level and sit now where I am, it’s a good feeling”

Have you spoken much over your career to bowlers from other countries about how they did it?
No, because they keep their secrets! Usually in Australia you go for reverse when the ball is a bit softer. But if you can get it going while the ball’s hard, it’s a lot more effective and a lot harder to play, because you get that bounce and zip off the wicket, which doesn’t happen very often. It’s only really happened once in my career in the Shield final in Hobart in the second innings. The ball started reversing after about five overs. It hit the right side enough times and reversed. We had Tasmania 5 for 15, so it’s tough to play.Looking over your Australia career, what do you cherish most? Perhaps apart from your debut.
Winning the Ashes was pretty good, then going to South Africa and winning again was a big few months for us. We played good cricket here, but we spoke about the biggest challenge being to play cricket away from home and winning, and we did that against the best side in the world at the time. That period there was pretty special, but the debut as well. I never thought I’d play Test cricket. If anything I thought I’d play one-day cricket or T20s, but to be able to do that at Test level and sit now where I am, it’s a good feeling.It is a year on from the summer of 2013-14. Does that distance allow you to look on it and work out why it operated so perfectly?
The change of personnel helped. When Darren took over it was a bit of a weight off a few guys’ shoulders and they started to enjoy playing cricket again. Before that they didn’t seem to be doing that, and the way Darren’s handled the team, and also Michael, they’ve done really well. They’ve got us playing positive and entertaining cricket. We were close in England, we knew we were growing close as a team, so if we could come back to our backyard in our conditions, we had a big chance. We hit them pretty hard and they weren’t expecting that at all.In your time in the Australian side the only time you’ve been dropped was from the one-day team in early 2012. Can you remember that, and was it an issue of, like you said, enjoyment or being over-anxious abut your spot?
Exactly that: I tried too hard. I had been injured and out of the one-day team and then wanted so badly to get back in, I tried to bowl too fast and got pumped all over the place. I remember playing India and being quite anxious on the ground, and that was a big lesson to me. I was worrying about my spot, and I never worried about that before. It was how I got to where I did, just bowling and taking wickets. I tried so hard to get back into the team then, I tried so hard I got myself out of it as well.I never ever worried about it before, I just played and let the ball do the talking. For once I tried too hard and I knew I’d mucked it up.Looking ahead, you’ve got a pretty detailed plan to make sure you’re ready to go in the West Indies?
I’m basically doing a pre-season. The opportunity is there to do what I did leading into England in 2013, that was identified as the way to do it. It was a very similar time frame, and every time I bowl now, I’m using up balls that I won’t be able to bowl again, so the decision was made that I wouldn’t play Shield cricket to play another Ashes series for Australia. It’s disappointing not being able to play, but the thought of going to England again one more time and having a crack at the Ashes was something I couldn’t argue with.Cooking with Michael Clarke at a fan event: “Darren and Michael have got us playing positive and entertaining cricket”•Getty ImagesI know the lead-up I had to 2013 was spot-on and when they sat down and said, “We’re going to do what we did last time”, I couldn’t argue because it got me through nine Tests. I didn’t have a very good build-up into the India series after knee surgery, I wasn’t fit enough. At first it was disappointing because a World Cup was there potentially, but I can’t argue with it.A lot of talk has been devoted to the ball that bowled Alastair Cook in the second innings in Perth last summer. Can you think of any other balls to get wickets that stick in your mind?
The one in Cape Town last year to get AB de Villiers in the second innings was a decent ball with the second new ball. Then there was one in Galle in 2011 to get Mahela Jayawardene when he was on a hundred on the last day. I worked bloody hard to get that. That Cook one was a fast bowler’s dream, what you try to do every ball. When it comes off, you look like a genius. The seam was up and it hit the seam and almost swung again afterwards. It was just a freakish ball and I’m trying to do that every time. Keep that seam up. is out now on Hardie Grant Books

Once a five-Test series during the heyday of the Australia-West Indies rivalry, the last two Tests for the Frank Worrell Trophy only lasted six and a half days, further highlighting the growing disparity between cricket’s haves and have nots

Daniel Brettig in Kingston14-Jun-2015Jarring as it was to hear him stumble over his words at the presentation, maybe Brendon Julian was onto something. This did not feel like a contest for the Frank Worrell Trophy, lasting as it did for six and a half days and taking in a pair of fearful hidings dished out by one of cricket’s haves to its most widely mourned have not.Signs of the Caribbean’s retreat from Test cricket were everywhere these past two weeks, from the grand old ground Sabina Park being completely devoid of life a mere two days before the match began, to the stumps for the series not even having a fresh logo. They had been prepared for the preceding series, and instead of being emblazoned with the name Australia, England’s lettering was crossed out with a marker pen.The Australians performed well in conditions unfamiliar to them, but everywhere were taken aback by how utterly alien the experience was when compared to the tightly-wound corporate machines that run cricket matches down under – and will do again when they arrive in England. The series winner’s novelty cheque for the series was US $2000, the kind of figure numerous members of the touring team would no doubt have spent on watches.Of course all these disparities off the field were little more stark than that revealed in the middle, where Australia’s rich supply of cricketing resources utterly overwhelmed a West Indian team that could call on only a quartet of plucky individual performances across the two matches. Devendra Bishoo and Marlon Samuels both contributed in the first Test but were absent from the second, leaving far too much for Jerome Taylor and Jason Holder to do, for all their obvious effort and skill.A look down the Australian series aggregates demonstrates their domination in ways not seen perhaps since the drubbing inflicted upon Pakistan in the UAE as far back as 2002. Not a single Australian full-time bowler claimed their wickets at a rate more expensive than 20 runs apiece. For the Man of the Series Josh Hazlewood (12 wickets at 8.83) and his NSW offsider Mitchell Starc (10 at 16.00) it was tantamount to a turkey shoot. One can only wonder at what a fully-fit Ryan Harris might have achieved against such porous opposition.If the batting statistics make for slightly less lopsided reading, there is still the fact that in Steven Smith and Adam Voges, Australia possessed the only two centurions for the series. Their respective averages of 141.50 and 167.00 were near enough to 100 runs ahead of Holder, the only West Indian to make his runs at better than 50. And while the likes of David Warner, Shane Watson and Michael Clarke could not go beyond starts, none had a shocking series of the kind produced by Darren Bravo. Vaunted beforehand as the man to step up in Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s stead, he was totally outwitted and outfought by Australia’s formidable attack, finishing with 49 runs in four innings.The duel between the captains was telling, too. Clarke is now an old hand at this game, but it was still striking to see his nimble work when lined up against some of the leaden decision-making produced by Denesh Ramdin, who seemed always to find a way to spurn an opportunity. Many bemoaned Kemar Roach’s no-ball allowing Clarke to evade a dismissal early on day one, but under Ramdin the West Indians proceeded to drop their bundles in frustration for the next hour even though the ball continued to swerve. Taylor may never know why he got only six overs that morning, when his figures read 6-6-0-2.Opportunities lost tell a story of fragile confidence, but it is disturbing to think that the West Indies could fall in such a heap only weeks after they had registered a stirring victory over England. That result suggested the new coach Phil Simmons had his team on the right path, though it now looks as though it said more for how much England had allowed themselves to slide despite resources every bit as rich as Australia’s. Certainly Alastair Cook’s men will observe the scorecards from the Caribbean with some trepidation as yet another Ashes series creeps closer.But the underlying truth of this series, both on the field and in the stands, is that the West Indies need all the help they can get if they are to return to a position of competitiveness as a Test match nation. The local caravan has moved on to the Caribbean Premier League, which will be played to packed houses and healthy television audiences over the next month, while the region’s most talented senior players are IPL-tied and deeply cynical about the WICB. Simmons’ efforts to mediate may grow more urgent as a result of this drubbing.All at Cricket Australia are increasingly twitchy about the fact that next summer’s showpiece Boxing Day and New Year’s Test matches are due to be played against the West Indies. It will be a most painful return to the scene of past glories for support staff such as Simmons, Richie Richardson and Curtly Ambrose, and more pointedly an event where history and nostalgia will be expected to draw crowds to grounds and television sets when the cricket itself now looks incapable of doing so.Clarke struck a note of some yearning for earlier days when he was asked about the state of the West Indies team and cricket in the region. “I’ve always loved playing against West Indies. My favourite player is Brian Lara, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the West Indies,” he said of a place where he made his first international tour in 2003. “They’ve certainly got some fight in them, they’ve certainly got talent. I just think they need to be patient. Phil Simmons is a lovely guy and fantastic coach, so I’ve got a lot of confidence West Indies will continue to get better. I’m all for growing the game all around the world, so I hope cricket in any format can continue to improve.”Notably, the next ICC annual conference is due to be held in Barbados later this month. While the BCCI continue to quibble over the money lost when the West Indies squad pulled out of an India tour last year, it is beholden upon all the decision-makers assembling at the home of Sir Frank Worrell himself to work on ways to heal the fractures that have helped West Indies decline to this point. The region’s best players need better incentives to play in the maroon cap, and its islands deserve better administration to regrow and develop future generations.None of those administrators were present in Jamaica, but even from their offices, boardrooms, homes and airport lounges around the world they will be able to see what happened here. The game deserves better than lopsided days like this one, when the Caribbean legacy is mangled more badly even than Worrell’s name had been.

ESPNcricinfo staff09-May-2015Manan Vohra and M Vijay added 45 together after Kings XI Punjab opted to bat•BCCIThey were helped by some woeful fielding from Kolkata Knight Riders though, with as many as six catches being dropped•BCCIGlenn Maxwell finally rose to the occasion following an underwhelming season, his 22-ball 43 featuring the batsman’s signature swats and reverse-sweeps•BCCIKings XI were well set at 143 for 2 when Sunil Narine turned the screws on their innings. He first took a smart return catch to dismiss Manan Vohra…•BCCIAnd then bowled Wriddhiman Saha with a quicker delivery•BCCINarine finished with a season-best 4 for 19, but a number of late blows from David Miller lifted the visitors to 183 for 5•BCCIKnight Riders began the chase brightly, but lost some momentum with Robin Uthappa’s wicket, and later found themselves trapped by a spin web to fall to 83 for 4•BCCIBut Andre Russell, has he has often done before, turned the game around, bludgeoning five fours and four sixes•BCCIHis 53-run partnership with Yusuf Pathan came off just 25 balls and swung the advantage the hosts’ way•BCCIYusuf fell for 29, but Russell blitzed the joint fastest fifty of the season, off just 19 balls•BCCIHowever, his dismissal – caught behind off Axar Patel – injected more late drama into the game•BCCI

Stats highlights from India’s 62-run win in the second ODI against Zimbabwe

S Rajesh12-Jul-2015112 The partnership between Ajinkya Rahane and M Vijay, India’s best for the first wicket against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe, and their second-highest in all ODIs in Zimbabwe. Their best in Zimbabwe is 133, by Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, against West Indies in Harare in 2001.9 Fifty-plus scores for Rahane when opening the batting in ODIs. In 36 innings when he has opened the batting he averages 34.08; in 20 innings when he has batted in the middle order he averages 26.15, with only three fifty-plus scores.33 Vijay’s highest score in 14 previous ODI innings. This is the second time he has been involved in a century stand in ODIs: against New Zealand in Vadodara in 2010, he had put together 115 for the first wicket with Gautam Gambhir.140 Singles in the Indian innings today, compared to 94 in the first match of the series. In this game, India struck only 16 fours and played 123 dot balls, compared to 24 fours and 161 dot balls in the first game.4 Wickets for Neville Madziva, his best haul in 24 List A games. His previous best was also in an ODI – 3 for 60 against Bangladesh in Mirpur last year.44.42 Chamu Chibhabha’s average in eight ODI innings in 2015, with three fifties including a highest of 99.4 for 33 Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s figures, only the second time he has taken four in an ODI. His best figures are 4 for 8, against Sri Lanka in Port-of-Spain in 2013.62 The margin of victory, India’s third-largest against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe.

Statistical highlights from day two of the second Test between Sri Lanka and West Indies at the P Sara Oval

Shiva Jayaraman23-Oct-20152006 The last time before today when Sri Lanka took the first-innings lead after making 200 or fewer while batting first in Tests. They had bowled out Pakistan for 176 in the first innings at the SSC, after they themselves were dismissed for 185. Overall this is only the fourth such instance for Sri Lanka in Tests. This is also the seventh time that West Indies have conceded a first-innings lead after bowling out their opposition for 200 or less. The previous such instance for West Indies had also come in 2006, against India in Jamaica, when they had bowled out the visitors to 200 and then got bowled out for just 103.4/34 Dhammika Prasad’s returns in West Indies’ first innings – his second-best bowling figures in an innings in Tests. This is the third four-wicket haul he has taken in his last three Tests at the P Sara Oval. He had taken 4 for 43 against India and 4 for 92 against Pakistan in the previous two Tests. Prasad has 23 wickets at the P Sara – the most he has at any venue – at an average of 21.78.55 Partnership runs between Kaushal Silva and Kusal Mendis for Sri Lanka’s second wicket, the highest of the match and only the first fifty-plus stand. As many as five partnerships of between 30 and 39 runs have come in this Test of which 16 have gone into double-digits, but the second-wicket stand in Sri Lanka’s second innings was the first to reach 50 runs.2001 The last time before this Test when two openers of a team got at least one golden duck in each innings. Kaushal Silva and Dimuth Karunaratne were dismissed for a duck off the first ball they faced in the first and second innings of this Test. Incidentally, the previous instance too had happened in a match between the same teams, but on that occasion it had been the two West Indies openers – Daren Ganga and Chris Gayle – who had got out off the first ball. This was only the sixth such instance and the second for Sri Lanka: both their openers had got out without scoring on the first ball they had faced in the first innings of the Kandy Test against South Africa in 2000.8 Total runs added by the opening stands in three innings in this Test. Only seven other Tests have had eight or fewer runs scored for the opening stands from three or more innings. The previous such instance came in the Cape Town Test between South Africa and New Zealand in 2012. However, there is one more innings left to be played in the ongoing Test.13 Runs Marlon Samuels scored in West Indies’ first innings. Samuels has now failed to score more than 15 runs in his last 12 Test innings against Sri Lanka. His 16 innings against them have produced just 151 runs at an average of 10.06. Only two other batsmen have averaged lower against an opposition from 15 or more innings batting in the top-order (No. 1 to No. 7). Ken Rutherford averaged 6.78 from 15 innings against West Indies and Charlie Turner averaged 9.85 against England from 15 innings.222 Runs scored from 90 overs that were bowled in the second day of this Test, the fifth-lowest on any day at P Sara Oval in Tests since 2000. This is also the second-lowest total on the second day of any Test since 2000 at this venue. Only 191 runs were scored in the second day of the Test between the hosts and England in 2012.0 Boundaries by Kaushal Silva in his 90-ball unbeaten innings of 31. He has batted out 66 dots and has taken 17 singles and seven twos. This is only the second time in his last 11 innings that he has managed more than 30 runs.

Stats highlights from the fifth ODI at Old Trafford, where Australia knocked England over in short order

S Rajesh13-Sep-20158 The number of bilateral ODI series Australia have won in England, out of 15. They won the previous series, in 2013, by a 2-1 margin. In fact, in the last five Ashes series in England which have also included a bilateral ODI series – in 1997, 2005, 2009, 2013, and 2013 – the same team hasn’t managed to win both the Tests and the ODIs. In 1997, England won the ODIs but Australia took the Test series, while in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015, Australia won the ODIs but lost the Tests. (In 2001, there was a triangular series, also involving Pakistan, which Australia won.)154 Balls remaining when Australia won the game – it’s their third-largest win against England, in terms of balls remaining. Only seven times have England lost an ODI with more balls to spare.0 Number of times England have been bowled out for fewer than 138 after winning the toss and batting first in a home ODI. Their previous lowest total in such a game was 176, also against Australia, at The Oval in 2001. Overall, England’s total is their sixth-lowest in ODIs when they’ve won the toss and chosen to bat. Their lowest in such matches is 88, against Sri Lanka in Dambulla.33 Overs that England’s innings lasted, which is their fourth-lowest in any ODI when they’ve batted first. One of those instances also includes a shortened, 24-over game, against New Zealand in 2008, when they were bowled out in the last ball of their 24th. This is England’s poorest such effort against Australia (when batting first) – their previous lowest was 34.3 overs in Adelaide in 2007.2003 The last time England were seven down for 85 or fewer runs in an ODI against Australia. The last time it happened was in the first final of the VB Series in January 2003, when England were 79 for 7, and were eventually bowled out for 117. They lost by ten wickets. Overall, there have been only four instances when England have been seven down for fewer than 85 in an ODI against Australia.1 Number of times England’s top four batsmen have contributed fewer than 21 runs – which was their aggregate here – in an ODI against Australia: they made a combined total of 14 runs at Lord’s in 2005. Overall, England’s top four have scored fewer than 21 in an ODI (when they have all batted) only five times in their ODI history.6 Instances of an Australian bowler taking three or more wickets against England at an economy rate better than 2.1 runs per over, which was John Hastings’ economy in this match. This was only the third such instance since 2000, after Andy Bichel’s 7 for 20 off ten overs in the 2003 World Cup, and Doug Bollinger’s 3 for 20 at Old Trafford in 2010.13 Wickets for Mitchell Marsh in eight ODIs against England, at an average of 19.76; his two best ODI bowling performances have both come against England – in the 2015 World Cup opener, he took 5 for 33 against them, while he took 4 for 27 here. Against other teams, he has six wickets in 15 ODIs, at an average of 53.50.7.18 The run rate during the 109-run stand between Aaron Finch and George Bailey, the sixth-best for a third-wicket century stand for Australia.1909 The last time two left-arm fast bowlers opened the bowling for England in any international game. This has only happened four times in England’s cricket history.