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ESPNcricinfo looks back at some famous defeats South Africa have slumped to in global tournaments

Liam Brickhill and Siddhartha Talya25-Mar-2011South Africa’s remarkable defeat in the Mirpur quarter-final was their fourth loss in six World Cup games against New Zealand and the fifth time they have crashed out of the tournament during a knockout stage. ESPNcricinfo looks back at some other famous defeats South Africa have slumped to in global tournaments.1996 World Cup quarter-final v West Indies
South Africa stormed into this game as clear favourites, having won all of their group games in the midst of a 10-match winning streak that stretched back to their home series against England earlier that year. West Indies, on the other hand, had just slumped to a humiliating loss to Kenya’s amateurs in Pune, and were a team in seemingly terminal decline. The pitch was expected to take turn – and it did – but South Africa made what was, in hindsight, a fatal error in omitting Allan Donald and instead playing an extra spinner in Paul Adams. Brian Lara feasted on both Adams and offspinner Pat Symcox, carrying West Indies to 264 with a blistering hundred. South Africa may have fancied Roger Harper’s and Jimmy Adams’ offerings after watching their own spinners get tonked in such emphatic fashion, but they combined to take seven wickets, Harper nipping out three in one over, as South Africa collapsed from 140 for 2 to lose by 19 runs and set a trend that continues, inexplicably, to this day.1999 World Cup semi-final v Australia
On a midsummer’s day at Edgbaston that will live in infamy – for South Africans, at least – South Africa and Australia slugged out a game of remarkable twists and about-turns, culminating in one of the most memorable finales in limited-overs history. Chasing Australia’s 213, South Africa were scuppered by the single-minded intensity of Shane Warne, who took four wickets, before being brought back from the brink of oblivion by a death-or-glory innings from Lance Klusener. When he bludgeoned consecutive off-side boundaries to take the scores level with four balls remaining, the game was South Africa’s to lose … and, incredibly, they did just that. Klusener ran, Donald didn’t, and an ecstatic Australia took South Africa’s place in the final. The tie meant that South Africa, for the third World Cup in a row, failed to reach the final despite looking like the team of the tournament in the early stages.2002 Champions Trophy v India
Perhaps the most remarkable of all of South Africa’s crumbles in major matches. South Africa had won the inaugural version of the Champions Trophy in 1998 – their only ICC title success to date – and were coasting towards a place in the final of the 2002 edition. Having limited India to 261 for 9 in Colombo, South Africa were cruising at 192 for 1 in the 37th over, the result seemed a foregone conclusion. The easy task ahead may have prompted Gibbs to retire hurt after suffering from cramps, convinced as he may have been that the others would take his team home. But they were to let him down, and with 21 required off the final over, Sehwag survived a first-ball slog-swept six from Kallis to grab two wickets and leave the South Africans with that familiar feeling.2003 World Cup v Sri Lanka
The build-up to the 2003 World Cup in South Africa had been massive. Nelson Mandela had featured in the promos, Cape Town hosted a sparkling opening ceremony and this was the country’s biggest sporting spectacle since the Rugby World Cup in 1995. It was to end in utter despair. The much-vaunted national team slipped up to lose against West Indies and New Zealand in the preliminary stage and their fortunes hinged on a do-or-die game against Sri Lanka in Durban.That fatal run•PA PhotosSet a target of 269. Gibbs put them on track with an attacking 77, and even when captain Shaun Pollock was dismissed in the 43rd over to reduce them to 212 for 6 with bad weather swiftly closing in South Africa would have believed they could win. Klusener walked in but made just one in eight balls and as the weather deteriorated, a message was sent to the pair from the dressing room that the score needed to win, according to the Duckworth-Lewis method, had to be 229 at the end of the 45th over with four wickets to spare. What seemed like the decisive blow came off the penultimate ball of that over as Boucher danced out to Muttiah Muralitharan, smashed him over long-on for a flat six, and punched the air in the heavy rain, convinced that South Africa had it covered. The next ball, he gently nudged to midwicket and the umpires called for the covers. Elation was to turn to disbelief in a matter of a few seconds once the realisation dawned upon South Africa that the instructions were wrong. The score of 229 was meant for a tie, not a win. Andrew Hudson, on TV commentary, summed up the feeling. “42 million South Africans are going to bed tonight hoping it was a bad dream”.2007 World Cup semi-final v Australia
Yet again South Africa reached a World Cup knockout, another semi-final, but this time they succumbed to nerves at the gravity of the occasion at the very start of the match rather than during a crunch finale. South Africa’s stage fright took shape in a batting display that fell to pieces in wild swipes and mindless adventure. Australia showed they had well and truly won the pre-match mental battle, and the visibly skittish South Africans were demolished by Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait before Michael Clarke’s unbeaten half-century finished the job to hand South Africa their fourth knockout defeat.2011 World Cup v England
A game of slightly lesser importance but thrilling nevertheless, largely due to another of South Africa’s incredible capitulations. The pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium may have been tricky but not one deserving of a score of 171, which is what England managed. Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith, in their 64-run opening stand, showed exactly that. The rest of the team, however, was adamant on proving otherwise. Carefully built-up starts were squandered and when, from the seemingly impregnable position of 124 for 3, four wickets fell for three runs in five overs the tide turned. There was still a glimmer of hope for South Africa, Dale Steyn’s spirited batting bringing them to within 12 runs of victory with Morne van Wyk. But panic prevailed over determination as van Wyk was snared by Tim Bresnan, and Stuart Broad, in a superb spell, removed Steyn and Morne Morkel in four deliveries to inflict upon South Africa their only defeat, one that kept England’s hopes alive, ahead of the quarter-finals.

Now that the 34-match streak without a World Cup loss is over, Australia can go back to being just another team in the tournament, and their captain Ricky Ponting says they can learn from the loss

Brydon Coverdale at the R Premadasa Stadium19-Mar-2011Not even Muhammad Ali boasted an unbeaten streak this great. It has taken 34 matches, but Australia have finally been defeated in a World Cup game for the first time since 1999. In that time, three titles were won, 15 different opponents were vanquished and 34 players were used to keep the sequence alive.Nobody really expected it to last this long, and now that it has ended, Australia can go back to being just any other team in the tournament. That’s no bad thing. Expectations are lowered, pressure is lifted and any lingering aura that surrounded the team will fade.The captain, Ricky Ponting, never likes to lose but was pleased the streak finished in the group stage rather than the upcoming knockouts. And after a month on the subcontinent with barely a threat from any of their previous opponents, he hopes the loss to Pakistan will help his side as the business end of the tournament approaches.”To be honest, I don’t think the loss will hurt us at all,” Ponting said. “I know for a fact the guys haven’t been thinking about the winning streak at all because it hasn’t been mentioned around our group or our change-rooms or meetings or anything. I think the fact that we’ve played a good Pakistan team and we’ve come up short will get all the guys thinking just exactly what they need to be thinking about and the way they need to play to win World Cup games.”We’ve found ourselves in some tough situations today and we weren’t good enough to get out of them. We have to learn from that, and we have to learn from that quickly, because if we play India in Ahmedabad, then you can guarantee the same situations are going to pop up again, and we’ll have to handle them a whole lot better than we did today [Saturday].”Brett Lee tried his best to pull Australia back, but he needs his team-mates to fire going forward•Getty ImagesPonting was one of only two men playing in the match who was also part of the last World Cup game Australia had lost. That was also a defeat at the hands of Pakistan, whose only remaining player from that 1999 line-up was Abdul Razzaq.Shoaib Akhtar was also part of that side, but was overlooked for this game. As it turned out, Pakistan barely missed him. From the spin of Abdur Rehman, who opened the bowling, to the excellent swing bowling of Umar Gul, to the miserly offbreaks of Mohammad Hafeez, to the nagging seamers of Razzaq, Australia struggled against all of Pakistan’s bowlers.”We weren’t able to rotate the strike anywhere near well enough off [Hafeez],” Ponting said. “He was the one who put the brakes on the most. When you’ve got a guy who’s doing that at one end it does build up pressure, and generally when you build up pressure in one-day cricket is when teams can have batting collapses like we did today.”You’ve got to give them credit for the way they bowled. We’ll certainly learn from the experience today about what you have to do to play spin bowling well and how to rotate the strike a bit better.”Australia lost their last six wickets for 42 runs, and it left their bowlers with little to defend. Brett Lee did his best to drag Australia bag into the contest with two new-ball wickets and a pair in consecutive deliveries in his second spell, but he had little support.That’s one thing Australia will need to rectify before their quarter-final, which will be against India in Ahmedabad, unless West Indies upset India on Sunday. If that is the case, Australia would most likely head to Dhaka to take on West Indies.Wherever they end up, they will be starting afresh after their first loss in 34 games. They’ll settle for a three-match winning streak to end the tournament.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the CLT20 match between Chennai Super Kings and Trinidad & Tobago

Nitin Sundar at the MA Chidambaram Stadium02-Oct-2011The coordinated moans
In the sixth over of the game, Dwayne Bravo aimed a full offcutter at Lendl Simmons’ pads as he backed away. Simmons could not get much bat on it, and only managed to slice it away close to the stumps on the off side. He was thinking of a cheeky single, but realised, to his horror, that the ball had turned in sharply after bouncing and rolled close to his stumps. It missed the target by a few inches, and Simmons sighed in relief even as Bravo and the rest of Chepauk ooh-ed and aah-ed in unison. The crowd repeated the dose, in more choreographed synchrony, when MS Dhoni missed an under-arm throw that would have caught Sherwin Ganga short of the crease.The dive for cover
In Dwayne Bravo’s third over, Adrian Barath was on the move when he tried to guide a ball to third man, but could only bottom-edge it to Dhoni’s right. Dhoni aimed his throw at the striker’s end even as Barath turned back. He had gone so far, though, that he decided to dive into his crease to ensure he would be in. And just as well; Dhoni’s throw was so wild, it would have hit Barath halfway up if he had been on his feet. The throw was also wide, forcing Dwayne Bravo to dive full-length to his right to stop it from running away for overthrows.The don’t-try-this-at-home stroke
Kevon Cooper provided a glimpse of his inventive stroke-play in the game against Mumbai Indians, but today he outdid himself. In the final over of the T&T innings, he walked across his stumps even as he leaned forward, and crouched low to ramp a low full toss from Doug Bollinger over short fine-leg. He could not overcome the laws of gravity, though, and tumbled onto his back even as he watched the ball going to the boundary.The slower ball
Cooper had more unconventional fare in store when he came on to bowl. In the 12th over, he delivered a slower ball that could at best be defined as an offcutter, but technically was a backspinner delivered from the back of the hand. The ball stopped so suddenly and bounced on Dhoni that it hit his bat on the handle and popped up alarmingly into the covers. It landed safely, and Dhoni responded with a befuddled look at the pitch and the bowler.The chopper landing
With the required-rate mounting out of reach, the pressure was on Dwayne Bravo and Dhoni to invent boundaries on a difficult pitch. Bravo responded with two fours off Sherwin Ganga before handing the strike to Dhoni, but the captain wasn’t able to drive home the advantage. He hit the fourth ball of the over straight to cover, and left a ball outside off that was just inside the tramlines. But it was the sixth ball that underlined his struggle: Ganga fired it into the blockhole, Dhoni deftly stepped back and brought the bat down rapidly to generate leverage. He timed the helicopter shot well, and hit it hard into the turf, but Ganga coolly leapt up in his followthrough to haul it down. Dhoni’s most famous weapon had let him down for once, and his listless innings came to an end off the next ball he faced.

Sri Lanka don’t have a great record in tri-series finals in Australia, but the form of their top order could make a vital difference this time

S Rajesh03-Mar-2012In the end, the two teams that deserved to the most made it to the CB Series finals. For a long time during the last league match between Australia and Sri Lanka, India would have harboured chances of sneaking through, but it would have been just that – sneaking through, at the expense of a team that had been more consistent through the tournament.In the first half of the competition, Sri Lanka lost tight matches to Australia and India, and tied one against India, but in the second half they turned it around with convincing victories against both teams. The shock defeat against India in Hobart was a bolt from the blue, but they were good enough to bounce back from that result despite being a couple of bowlers short against Australia at the MCG.The overall stats for the three teams indicate how the tournament has gone for them. Sri Lanka have easily been the best batting side, thanks to the consistency of their top order. Dinesh Chandimal has been a revelation, slotting in at second* on the tournment’s run charts after the league stage with 383 runs at an average of almost 64, while Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews have all played their part. Overall, their top five have a combined average of 42.25 in the CB Series so far, which is their third-highest ever in a series of five or more matches outside Asia. The corresponding averages for the top five are 30.26 for India and 29.27 for Australia.Overall, Sri Lanka have five batsmen averaging more than 35 in the tournament, compared to three each for Australia and India. For a team that has generally relied on Sangakkara and Jayawardene for most of their runs, this is a huge plus. In fact, India’s numbers went up significantly because of that stunning chase in their last match of the tournament in Hobart. Exclude that, and India’s runs per wicket falls to 24.13, at a run rate of 4.83 per over.As a bowling unit, Australia were the best, while India were the poorest in that aspect as well. The Australians took 65 wickets at 25.58 each, and they were also the only side to concede less than five runs per over. Sri Lanka took 64 wickets, but their average touched 30. Both teams have bowlers who have taken more than ten wickets – Lasith Malinga leads the tally with 14, while Daniel Christian has 13 and Clint McKay 10. For India, though, the highest wicket-taker was Vinay Kumar with nine; in all the Indians took only 54 wickets in their eight games, at an average touching 39 and a run rate of 5.50.

The three teams in the CB Series

TeamW/L/TBat aveRun rateBowl aveEcon rateSri Lanka4/3/135.305.2930.105.24Australia4/4/030.525.1825.584.95India3/4/128.015.2638.945.50India had a better start to the tournament compared to Sri Lanka, but as the competition progressed Sri Lanka upped their game and were the more consistent side. The records of these two sides against Australia indicate how much better Sri Lanka played against the hosts. They won three of four matches against Australia, who averaged less than 25 runs per wicket against Sri Lanka with the bat, and conceded 31 per wicket with the ball. Australia also managed to score at just 4.74 runs per over, and conceded almost 5.20.Against India, Australia were dominant. They scored almost 38 runs per wicket at 5.63 runs per over, and allowed the hapless Indian batsmen only 21 runs per wicket. Given a choice, it’s clear whom the Australians would have preferred to face in the finals.

Australia versus Sri Lanka and India

VersusW/LBat aveRun rateBowl aveEcon rateIndia3/ 137.965.6321.224.70Sri Lanka1/ 324.944.7431.005.18Now that they are in the finals, Sri Lanka will have to banish memories from the two previous seasons when they reached this stage of the tri-series in Australia. The most recent instance was in 2005-06, when South Africa were the third side. Sri Lanka won the first of three finals that time, beating Australia by 22 runs in Adelaide. In the second final in Sydney, they had Australia reeling at 10 for 3. From there, though, Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds launched an astonishing counterattack, adding 237 for the fourth wicket at better than a run a ball. Sri Lanka were shell-shocked and capitulated meekly, and in the next match ran into a genius called Adam Gilchrist, who made a target of 267 look anything but challenging.Sri Lanka don’t have a great win-loss record against Australia at the two venues that will host the finals: it’s 0-3 in Brisbane and 1-6 at the Adelaide Oval. Along with Perth, they’re the worst venues for Sri Lanka in Australia. On the other hand, at the MCG and in Sydney, they have a much better 10-15 win-loss record against Australia. However, they can take much comfort from their recent record against Australia in Australia: since February 29, 2008, they’ve won six and lost only two of eight matches. No other team has won more ODIs against Australia in Australia during this period. That should give them confidence before the best-of-three finals.*13:42 GMT, March 3: The article had stated that Dinesh Chandimal was the tournament’s leading run-scorer so far. This has been corrected.

Despite improvements in the game’s administration, cricket has not addressed the problem of not showing enough respect to spectators

George Dobell at Edgbaston10-Jun-2012And they wonder why it is such a struggle to fill grounds for Tests. Despite a multi-million pound investment in floodlights, spectators were forced to endure an hour-long hiatus on the fourth-day at Edgbaston as the umpires took the players from the pitch due to bad light.If the decision to come off was perplexing – England’s batsman had scored 45 runs in the previous 43 deliveries and were proceeding with an ease that underlined the suspicion that there was no problem with the light – the decision to remain off was bewildering. With Edgbaston’s floodlights on and the natural light appearing quite adequate, spectators began to heckle and jeer the umpires.Warwickshire had done pretty well to sell in excess of 53,000 tickets for this Test. After all, the series had been decided and the weather had ruined any realistic prospect of a result in the match.Yet the fourth day crowd of around 5,000 – that is 20,000 under capacity – was bitterly disappointing. The ticket price of £43 was surely one factor – in a city built on manufacturing the recession has bitten hard – but, in the longer term, the years of contempt with which spectators have been treated has also had an effect. Years of seeing play lost because the grass on the edge of the square was damp, the light was questionable or simply because the over-rate has been too slow has created a culture where spectators are reluctant to part with large sums of money in case they are not given full value. Put simply, cricket is not treating the customer with the respect it should.The situation has improved markedly in recent years, but days like this – where play is suspended in decent light and floodlights on – set the game back years.Those who were present on Sunday still enjoyed a wonderfully improbable and entertaining day of cricket. But cricket’s propensity to self harm left a sour taste in the mouth which was an unhelpful as it was unnecessary. Cricket is simply not popular enough that it can afford to treat its customers with so little respect. If a player tweeting his views on a commentator is enough to warrant a fine, what action should be taken against umpires who misjudge the situation quite so spectacularly? To compound the error, the day finished in light so much worse than the period when the players had been in the pavilion that if was laughable.The ICC Match Referee, Roshan Mahanama, was asked for his comments but declined to provide them.

The growth of Graeme Smith as captain can be seen reflected in his team as South Africa finally ended their wait to be crowned No. 1

Firdose Moonda at Lord's20-Aug-2012Not many cricketers can say they have grown to be men as international cricketers. Some of them start as men already, some of them remain boys forever but very few of them make their most important developments as professional sportsmen. Graeme Smith is one of the few who has.Sometimes you can see those phases at play all on the same day. When Matt Prior and Graeme Swann were engineering a classic, Smith’s forehead was frazzled into a frown. He chewed the index finger on his right hand, as he so often does when thinking. He looked older and it was an age gained through the rigours of Test cricket.Less than an hour later, when he took the low catch at first slip to remove Prior that left only fingernails on England’s hold on No. 1, he charged like a young boy. There was victory in his eyes again. He watched as Vernon Philander’s seam movement and Jacques Kallis hands finished England off and he held up that same finger that was being chewed earlier. He mouthed the magic words, “Number one”.”All I keep thinking is that it stuck in my left hand, that one catch, that’s the one moment that I am most conscious of,” Smith said, looking at his hand. “These three fingers managed to hang on to Matt Prior, who was playing unbelievably well.”It was as though a new chapter of Smith’s life had opened in front of the Lord’s pavilion: the life where he will be in charge of the best team in the world. Smith has waited a long time for that – longer than any other captain in world cricket.When Smith took over as captain, the ICC has only just introduced a ranking system and South Africa were placed second. At the time, the early 2000s, no one but Australia could have been first anyway. South Africa stayed second for about 18 months before slipping into obscurity and then getting themselves back up. As far as they got, their ceiling sat at being second best, save for a few months in 2009 when a concoction of some good away form and other results combined to place them fleetingly on top.Smith emerged as something of a prodigy on the tour to England in 2003, his first major assignment. His double-hundred at Lord’s, his slaying of Nasser Hussain and the strength of his youth made South Africa a team that looked as though it could achieve more. As Smith became an adolescent captain, however, the South Africa team followed him into a period of indecision and uncertainty. Those years included series loses on the subcontinent, to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, a series defeat at home to England and more misery at the hands of Australia.They may not have had the players capable of overcoming those situations but they also lacked the will and the drive. Only later, when the party years had ended and adulthood was calling, did the team and Smith start to change. Focus began under Mickey Arthur, under whom there was a push to mould a specific type of cricket side. The assembly line of allrounders was stopped and there was a move to specialists. The batting unit had the fat cut off and took on more muscle on top, meat in the middle. The bowling became a crop of genuine specialists with varied skills.Results were steady and occasionally spectacular, with series wins in England and Australia and a strong record away from home. The team matured and Smith, the man, matured with them. He was more confident and as a result more thoughtful in his decision making. On that second trip to England, Smith scored runs when South Africa needed it but more importantly, he led South Africa the way they needed to be led.Smith took charge of situations that would previously have gone without a shepherd, such as the fourth innings at Lord’s in 2008. He showed players who had been in the squad for longer than him how to do the same and had an impact on younger players so that by the time South Africa went to Australia at the end of the year, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy were in a position to operate the same way.The only reason South Africa could not firm their grasp on greatness then was because they lacked the same thing Smith did – an added element of creativity. They had some cricketing flaws, the uncertainty at No. 6, the lack of a third seamer and the inability to produce quality spinners. Their biggest flaw came from somewhere else, though, the place where a certain strain of mental toughness is found.

“In the last year, Smith has grown almost as much as he did in the eight before, under the guidance of Gary Kirsten’s management team”

In the last year, that has changed. Smith has grown almost as much as he did in the eight before then, under the guidance of a new management team led by Gary Kirsten. From someone who reacted angrily to even the slightest hint of disagreement, such as during India’s visit in 2010, when Smith grew more agitated every time he was asked about the opposition greats, he has become someone who could handle those things more delicately. These days, he considers issues before reacting and even if he is faced criticism, he is able to control his anger.Smith was forced to change in the aftermath of the 2011 World Cup, when he did not return home with the squad but flew to Ireland to propose to his partner, Morgan Deane. A public outcry and calls for his head made him question his own position and he returned to South Africa determined to win back hearts and minds. He did it the way someone who has lived a life through cricket does. Centuries against Australia in both the Tests and ODIs went a long way to giving Smith his public credibility back and he accepted it graciously, not greedily.He and Deane are now married and have a young daughter, who was born mid-series and the good wishes they received were an indication that Smith is one of the most popular sportspeople in the country. It has allowed him to come full circle and to realise the No. 1 dream in England with the support of a nation behind him. He acknowledged the role of the last 12 months in the wider context of what South Africa have achieved now. “It was a tough last year for me but to be the person that put South Africa in the space with so many different cricketing names is something I am definitely proud of,” he said.When England toured South Africa in 2009-10, the series was drawn 1-1. Popular sentiment was that South Africa were in a position to claim a 3-1 series victory, because the two draws came with England nine wickets down and fighting to survive. The word “deserve” was used to describe what South Africa should have done. It was a word that held no merit because as Smith has discovered, such a word can only be used when it is actually true.”We felt we deserved to win the series,” Smith said. “The way it finished was the perfect way for us because we have learned to win when things are tough and to come back when we are not ahead of the game. We had to win tough this time.”There’s a real sense of happiness and excitement now but there’s also calmness that we have achieved where we wanted to go and that we can carry it on. We don’t just have hope that we can carry on, there is belief that we can do it.”

Three Indian specialist spinners taking a combined 0 for 66 in 6.5 overs in Colombo? How did that happen?

Abhishek Purohit in Colombo29-Sep-2012Take a glance at the scorecard, without looking at the venue, for the Super Eights game between India and Australia and you might say it was played anywhere but on the subcontinent.India’s batsmen struggling against pace and bounce, losing all their wickets to Australia’s quicks. India’s three specialist spinners being thrashed by the power duo of Shane Watson and David Warner. Then you notice the venue, the Premadasa Stadium. Three specialist spinners taking a combined 0 for 66 in 6.5 overs in Colombo? How did that happen?Through a mix of Watson and Warner being Watson and Warner, poor Indian bowling made atrocious by rain, and some questionable decisions from MS Dhoni – leaving out Virender Sehwag not being one of them.Given the way Watson and Warner batted, it might not have made much difference had India bowled better or had Dhoni taken better calls. But they would have given themselves a chance, and if it hadn’t worked, there would have been no shame in losing to probably the most destructive pairing currently in limited-overs cricket.Dhoni had watched Pakistan’s and South Africa’s spinners take turns in choking each other’s batsmen on the same pitch earlier during the evening. Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla and Irfan Pathan had dismissed England for 80 on the same ground on Sunday. Dhoni had no choice but to keep Sehwag out. The logic going into the game was overwhelmingly in favour of playing the extra spinner.But Dhoni erred by giving Ashwin as many as three successive overs at the start and holding back Irfan till the 10th over. Before England began to capitulate to spin, it was Irfan who had struck in consecutive overs at the start. If Irfan is in the side, he has to get the new ball, unless someone else who opens the bowling strikes immediately. Irfan becomes easier to hit as the innings progresses, and by the time he came on, Australia had charged to 81 in nine overs. He didn’t help by bowling short of good length at his gentle pace, and was taken for 19 in six balls. That was to be the only over he would get.Dhoni said he wanted early wickets, so had opened with Ashwin and Zaheer Khan. “If you see Zak has been bowling well for us and his record against both the openers has been really good,” Dhoni said. “So we thought of bowling Ashwin from one end and Zaheer from the other end. The Australian openers are the ones who have been scoring most of the runs for them so it was important that we get an early breakthrough. There were close calls but it didn’t go our way but that was one of the main reasons why we decided Zaheer should open from one end and Ashwin from the other.”Ashwin’s opening over, interrupted by the short rain break, included consecutive fours by Warner. It had already been drizzling for some overs towards the end of Australia’s innings. Dhoni spoke later of how the wet ball had rendered his spinners ineffective. Given the evidence of Ashwin’s opening over, Dhoni could have gone for Irfan, but he gave Ashwin a third over, which went for 16 after Watson pulled a couple of long hops for sixes. That India had an issue with the ball was clear when Ashwin was seen wiping it with a towel.Still, Dhoni bowled Harbhajan and Piyush Chawla before Irfan. Chawla started with a long hop and a half-volley and was carted for 14 in his opening over. Harbhajan tried flighting the ball in his second over. By then, Australia were on top. Warner slog-swept Harbhajan for consecutive sixes.And India’s spinners just fell apart. It does not help that, for a legspinner, Chawla has little heart. It did not help that Ashwin’s reaction to being hit was to bowl an overdose of carom balls. Harbhajan is making a comeback after a year outside the side. It seems he is making an extra effort to flight the ball, something the man who replaced him, Ashwin, usually does, and something he has been accused of not doing much.The result was that in a game in which he said he made one of his toughest calls to be able to play five bowlers, Dhoni ended up having his part-timers bowl four overs by the time Australia reached the target in the 15th.

Shane Watson and those around him are finding out that you can’t always get what you want

Daniel Brettig19-Nov-2012Shane Watson wants to play in Adelaide as a batsman. He also wants to be an allrounder, a vice-captain, and a full-time participant in Test matches, ODIs and Twenty20s. He wants to “stay around the group”, only to be rested from duty when he’s played so much cricket that he feels mentally exhausted. Most of all, Watson wants to be fit to play.Michael Clarke wants Watson to be an enforcer in the top three and a smart bowler of critical spells, some of them lengthy. Clarke also wants Watson to prepare himself as fastidiously as Australia’s captain does for Test combat, perhaps even by indulging in week-long boot camps. Watson’s coach Mickey Arthur wants Watson to be a consistent scorer of Test hundreds, declaring earlier this season that he will have failed as a coach if Watson’s ratio of fifties to centuries does not improve significantly.Cricket Australia’s team performance manager Pat Howard and the national selectors want Watson to contribute more to the national side than he takes out, by batting, bowling, fielding and running between the wickets with skill and intelligence. They want him to be more durable, more reliable, less prone to mishap and injury. They want him to be fit and firing for the most important series Australia plays, even if it means keeping him rested from others in between.The marketeers at CA want Watson as a Test match player but also a muscular billboard for T20, particularly its club competitions. They want Watson to take part in the first round of this summer’s BBL between home Test series for the Brisbane Heat. The Sydney Sixers wanted Watson to be available for the entire Champions League, an ambition denied them by CA in an attempt to have him ready for the Test against South Africa.Watson’s management want Watson to be a superstar, commanding top dollar for his appearances for Australia, Brisbane Heat and the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. They want him to be the face of innumerable brands in addition to contracts he already holds with Asics, Gunn and Moore, Brut, Body Science, MJ Bale and Tag Heuer. They also want him to become Australia’s T20 captain.Cricket New South Wales want to hear from Watson more regularly, communicating with their medical and team performance staff whenever he is recovering from injury to know how they can help. They want to see him playing club cricket occasionally, providing his skill and experience at the grassroots level of the game, and affording them another way of feeling that the hours that go into trying to keep Watson fit will not be wasted.Former players want Watson to rouse himself from a pattern of injuries and absences they feel has been caused as much by an age of over-complication and micro-management as by any underlying physical flaws in his body. They want to see him emulating the feats of a proud line of Australian allrounders since the second world war including Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson, Gary Gilmour and even Steve Waugh. They perhaps also want him to ease off the hair gel.Writers and pundits covering the game want to interview Watson regularly, because his frank comments and willingness to speak expansively make for entertaining stories in newspapers, on websites, in radio and television news bulletins and on cricket broadcasts. They want to write less of Watson’s injuries and more of his on-field exploits, less of his brain fades with the bat or between the wickets and more of his capability for brilliant contributions with the ball and the bat, as he memorably showed in Test matches in Melbourne, Leeds, Chandigarh and Galle from 2009 to 2011.Australian cricket fans want Watson to be playing for their team, scoring runs with his customary power or taking wickets with the craftiness he has developed over a decade in and around international cricket. They want him to show the raw power of his batting and bowling at the World T20, the brutality of his hitting in an ODI against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2011. Overseas cricket watchers also want Watson to be playing, for the game is seldom dull when he is involved, even if it means his capacity to change a match inside a session is turned on the teams they follow.You can’t always get what you want.

From Madan, India The end of an era is near

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Madan, India
The end of an era is near. Warne bid adieu after whitewashing England, Kumble walked off in less triumphant fashion and only Murali soldiers on, moving further adrift of his one-time rival spin exponents with every passing tournament. Warne and Murali’s precocious talent was anything but un-noticed and juicy anecdotes of their heroics will be recounted for years to come; here is a small but hopefully significant effort to ensure the third musketeer’s legend does not fade away in a hurry. And Murali fans may please forgive me if I made it sound like he has already retired; it is purely unintentional and I look forward to much more from the wonderful Murali-Mendis combine!Going through the slew of glowing tributes that have been paid to the great man in the last 24 hours or more, one aspect of Kumble-appreciation remains unchanged: harping on his inability to turn the ball big invariably manifests itself, sometimes as criticism, mostly as some kind of dubious strength. It is suggested that his not being able to turn the ball big made him work harder on his accuracy and so on and so forth. All true but that is to miss the point.Kumble’s very style of bowling revolves around NOT turning the ball big; it is not highly relevant whether it was motivated by a relative inability or was by design. I have not played cricket at any serious competitive level but through years of watching the game intently – and also watching the master in action through the years – I have stumbled upon what I think is a good example to demonstrate not only the effectiveness of Kumble’s style but also how incredibly difficult it is to emulate it.Hold the ball seam-up and aim to hit the middle stump off a full length at moderate pace. Two, repeat One. Three, get the ball to bounce a few centimeters closer to the offside than where it pitched previously. Four, now repeat One through to Three with leg-breaks! As hard as turning the ball a long way is, it is even harder to achieve pinpoint precision and near-absolute control over how you want to bowl the ball. This is exactly what Kumble achieved and repeated over 18 years and over long spells, relentlessly building pressure on those at the receiving end.For, while Kumble knew exactly what he wanted to do, the batsman would have no way of reading his mind. He might be able to pick him off the hand and spot the googly before it was bowled, but how would he be able to foresee extremely subtle variations in line, length and pace? Combine this with fastish pace and the ability to generate disconcerting bounce almost at will, seemingly like a fast bowler bending his back and it is easy to see what a hard time batsmen must have had at the crease when facing Kumble.This is why, for all the video-analysis that batsmen must surely have done to deconstruct Kumble and for all the fool-proof theories that were thought up time and again to counter Kumble – the most popular being to play him like a medium-pacer – he was as effective and successful as he had always been right up to the India-Australia series played in Australia earlier this year. And that’s not all. He combined an indefatigable body with a brilliant cricketing brain and used his lethal accuracy to work batsmen into an inextricable position which would seal their doom before long.The flipper would trap them plumb when they launched into an extravagant sweep and a startlingly slow, flighted one would catch them groping from too far back inside the crease. To this fan of chess, Kumble’s bowling was the closest you could get to a marriage of chess and cricket. Ironically, it was his fast-bowling contemporary and towering legend Glenn McGrath who came closest to emulating Kumble’s approach, although in his own inimitable way. This unfortunately feeds the cliche but it is also interesting to note the similarity in the approach of two of the most effective bowlers of their time.Before I conclude my humble tribute, perhaps the greatest testimonial one can offer to Kumble’s achievements is the way the masses, as opposed to the purists, viewed him. The masses did not fail to perceive the ‘lack’ of spectacular turn in his bowling but on the other hand, they, unlike purists, were obsessed with results rather than aesthetics. Therefore, Kumble’s effectiveness was not lost on them, which was largely glossed over by purists until his 24 wicket haul in Australia in 2003-04 forced them to sit up and take notice.Much like the hope of a Sachin special would be expressed when India faced a daunting target, the hope that Kumble would run through the opposition would be expressed when India had to defend a low total on a crumbling wicket. Long before Kumble’s indispensability to the Indian cricket team was recognized by experts as equal to or more than Sachin’s, the Indian cricket-loving public had already understood how crucial he was to the team’s fortunes though they may not have spelt it out in write-ups with copious words.Like the man himself has put it so eloquently, it’s all about wickets at the end of the day and in the wicket-taking sweepstakes, Kumble towers over all but two bowlers in the history of Test cricket.

In which we find out what the England team have been reduced to

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013There was always a likelihood that the potentially fascinating England v South Africa Test series would be overshadowed by events off the pitch. Most assumed those events would have involved Olympian athletes running very fast, champion cyclists pedalling as frantically as a newspaper boy being chased by a rocket-propelled Alsatian, the British sport-watching public suddenly remembering about rowing for a few days, and the tragic reunion of the Spice Girls (the alleged musical act who temporarily escaped from captivity for the closing ceremony before being apprehended, tranquilised and returned to their secret underground vault). And indeed, the Olympics duly enraptured the nation’s sporting attention as they proved to be a magnificent success for Britain, on and off the track/lake/banked-track/ road/sea/pool/court/pitch/range/ pretend-mountain-river/mat/ring/horsiedrome.It would, therefore, have been preferable for the Test matches not to have been also overshadowed by the dispiriting bicker and counter-bicker of Kevin Pietersen’s ongoing battle with 21st-century communications technology, his employers, his team-mates and, above all, himself. It has been a game of squabble tennis that must have had the egg and bacon of the MCC members’ ties frying each other in annoyance, although it does make you wonder how differently Bodyline might have panned out if Don Bradman had had access to Twitter.Pietersen and his errant mobile will be absent from the Lord’s Test, which is, respectively, bad and good news for cricket fans. When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, before excitedly ringing himself up to congratulate himself on his achievement, he cannot possibly have imagined that his well-meaning communications device would one day prove so damaging to English cricket. Hopefully the mysterious “advisors” who have apparently been directing Pietersen will take the opportunity of their man’s absence from the Test to read a book entitled .Somewhere in the midsts of all this, what had formerly been a long-awaited Test series is taking place, in which Pietersen has displayed the full extent of his cricketing talent to haul England back towards the parity that most had predicted before the series began. He had even started to resemble the useful offspinner that South Africa had once hoped he might prove to be.Perhaps the continuing after-grumble of this avoidable dispute will serve to unify the England team and spur them into an improved performance. If it does, they may win at Lord’s. Or they may still lose, or draw. South Africa will be desperate not to fumble a series lead for the fifth time this decade. They have not lost at Lord’s since 1960, and have been bowled out twice in only three of their last 14 Tests against England, but they have lost all four previous final Tests they have played in England since readmission.The home team’s task would have been easier with Pietersen, who, without ever finding a consistency of scoring, which may be impossible with his technique (and, perhaps, temperament), has played major, series-shaping innings four times in the last two years – double-centuries against Australia and India to facilitate England’s first victories of those ultimately triumphant series, an incendiary 151 in Galle to transform a slow match and a disastrous winter, and his recent Headingley masterpiece, which significantly shifted the momentum of the current contest.This is not to suggest that England should have picked him for Lord’s. Without knowing, or caring, about the specifics of this disappointing shebang, it seems that Pietersen has been, to put it charitably, behaviourally erratic. When a team voluntarily leaves out its most dangerous batsman, it is fair to assume they have good cause to do so (unless that team is West Indies, in which case it is fair to assume nothing) (or unless that team is not a cricket team, in which case it is probably a reasonable selectorial call).However, if Pietersen has unquestionably shot himself in the foot, his podiatrist will be removing a selection of different bullets fired from varying angles and from more than one gun. The episode is an embarrassment for the entire England set-up, about as edifying as a food-fight in a famine, and an individual and collective failure in an era that has been predominantly marked by individual and collective successes. Captain Strauss, who has conducted himself with characteristic care and dignity, has exuded the air of a parent trying to remain calmly focused on driving whilst his children are noisily smearing bananas in each other’s faces in the back seat of the car. That those children are in their 20s and 30s must add to his frustration. There will be some interesting chapters in autobiographies over the next few years.It is a hugely important match for England, and only partially because of the battle to retain their position at the top of the world rankings, which is of tangential relevance and dependent on the ICC’s chosen bits of mathematics as much as results. If the team that had such a rampant 2011 was to lose its second series of 2012, whilst in a state of infantile internecine conflict, it would suggest a team in significant decline. Or, at least, a team returning to the level it had occupied before its spectacular peak, but in a worse mood for having scaled the mountain, before inadvertently slipping over whilst plonking its flag on the summit, and sliding on its backside down to base camp before it had taken all the photographs it wanted to.England’s successes were founded on ceaselessly effective team bowling performances, but the squad of bowlers who had recorded such phenomenal statistics and earned fully merited praise from 2010 until this summer are now facing a defining match. Tim Bresnan, who had mixed reliability with insistent probing and regular wickets, has been unpenetrative and expensive against South Africa, and has had only one effective Test out of five this season. Stuart Broad has been inconsistent – 11 for 165 against West Indies at Lord’s at the start of the summer, 8 for 111 from the moment he dismissed AB de Villiers at Headingley, 3 for 311 in the two-and-a-bit Tests in between. Graeme Swann was dropped for the first time in his previously slump-free four-year Test career, after only six wickets in four Tests (Pietersen dismissed more top-order batsmen at Headingley than Swann had in the first four Tests of the summer).James Anderson, England’s most important bowler, who had taken at least two first-innings wickets in 18 consecutive Tests since the start of the 2010-11 Ashes, took only one very expensive one at the Oval, and picked up his second in the Leeds first innings only by dismissing the South African No. 11, Imran Tahir. He was not helped by some sub-shoddy catching, and maintained impressive control, but England need his new-ball penetration restored at Lord’s.Aside from those four core bowlers, Steven Finn has not played consecutive Tests since being dropped after the Perth Test in December 2010, and has dismissed only one top-order batsman in his two Tests this summer, and the injury-ravaged Chris Tremlett took 1 for 82 in his only Championship appearance of the year. It was an attack that showed almost no weakness for 18 months, even in defeat. Now, all of them are struggling for their best. They have all proved themselves previously. They must do so again. Against a batting line-up containing four of the top six batsmen in the current rankings. And a man who has just scored 182 in the preceding Test. Before its own batsmen, featuring two novices against three of the world’s top-seven-ranked seam bowlers, try to convert their wickets into victory. Strauss’ England are facing their greatest challenges, on and off the pitch/press-conference/dressing-room/ internet/mobile.These two teams will not meet again in Tests until the 2015-16 season, by which time they will have played three Tests against each other in almost six years, a scheduling blooper of significant proportions in an era crying out desperately for competitive Test cricket. That this rare and annoyingly brief encounter of sides containing several of the world’s foremost cricketers, who have generally produced closely fought and captivating series, has been scarred by a playground-level spat that has cost the climactic showdown its most compelling protagonist, is a source of considerable regret.Confectionery Stall prediction: South Africa to win.Player to watch: AB de Villiers. A pair of 40s at Leeds suggested that a major contribution could be imminent from a player who can make a cricket ball swoon and ask for his autograph in gratitude for having been hit so purely to the boundary.