England’s performance bore no resemblance to the fatigued 10-wicket loss in the World Cup quarter-final three months ago

Andrew McGlashan at The Oval28-Jun-2011The thunderstorm which held up play for three hours at The Oval wouldn’t have looked out of place in Colombo, but England’s performance bore no resemblance to the fatigued 10-wicket loss in the World Cup quarter-final three months ago. It was vibrant, energetic, confident and aggressive. Yet this isn’t actually a new era of one-day cricket for England because there are a few too many familiar faces on show for that to be true.Even though only five of this side played in Colombo in March, there haven’t been wholesale changes by the selectors. James Anderson, reigniting his one-day career with 4 for 18 which were his best figures since November 2009 against South Africa, and Jade Dernbach were both in the squad, while Stuart Broad and Kevin Pietersen would have played except for injury. Really, the only significant changes have been at the top of the order with Craig Kieswetter back and Alastair Cook as the new captain along with Samit Patel’s recall. He was tellingly pushed aside by Tim Bresnan who had been back in squad for a single day.Adding further weight to the theory that, rather than this being a new-look team, it’s more the older version with a bit of touching-up was the performance of Anderson. It’s a well-known story that, moments after England secured the Ashes in Sydney back in January, he curled up in the dressing room and fell into a deep sleep. Despite a three-week break at home he was never the same during the rest of the winter and cut a forlorn figure in the closing days of the World Cup. Although his Test place was never in danger there was talk that it may have brought down the curtain on his one-day career.He couldn’t have asked for a better haul of wickets as he removed Sri Lanka’s senior trio, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. They were ideal conditions for Anderson with a heavy atmosphere conducive to swing but he made them count. “For two days it was lovely sunshine, then today it rained again,” Dilshan said wryly. “It was helpful for the bowlers.””It was a frustrating winter in the one-day form for the team and me personally,” Anderson admitted. “I felt like I didn’t perform to the standards I set myself. I was very disappointed and just glad to keep my place in the squad and get a place in the XI. Happily the wickets came for me but I thought we bowled brilliantly as a unit. Whatever it was during the winter I put it behind me at start of the season with Lancashire and then in the Test series. I’ve worked really hard, there are a lot of improvements I have to make on my one-day game and I’ve started on those things.”Anderson, though, didn’t quite get everything he wished for. “He fully deserves his four wickets and was begging me for one more over to get his fifth,” Cook said. “It was an outstanding performance up front but especially from Jimmy. To get their dangermen out early got us well ahead of the game.”Cook’s satisfaction will come from the victory rather than his personal achievement. All that can be said about his 5 off three balls was that strike-rate wasn’t an issue. Being caught down the leg side – even though bowlers will disagree – was unlucky. “That’s the game, I shouldn’t have edged it so fine,” he said.However, Cook will be very keen for this series not to be dominated by whether he makes runs or not, and for that to be the case he needs England to win. “It doesn’t get much better than that, to win by such a big margin in a shorter game like that was a fantastic effort from the lads,” he said. “But let’s not get too carried with how the team did or how I did. It’s just a good start. We’ve got to keep our feet on the floor.”There was a hint of irony that at 32-overs per side the contest was actually closer to the Twenty20 version that England made such a hash of on Saturday (there were even six Powerplay overs left) than the full one-day international they were due to play. When play resumed at 5pm after the thunderstorms England were left with 25 overs to build a total and the way they did it was far more encouraging than what was on display in Bristol.A pitch with more pace enabled Kieswetter to hit through the line, Pietersen was sparky before pulling a long hop to midwicket and Eoin Morgan added the gloss as he so often does. Then, just as it appeared another England one-day innings would fizzle out, the fit-again Bresnan hit 23 off 14 balls as 210 turned into 230.In his second coming as an international cricketer Kieswetter has promised a tighter technique and more selectiveness, but without losing any of the natural flair that attracted the selectors. An innings of 61 off 56 balls suggests he has found a good balance.”He can hit the ball really hard and showed it here, that’s why he’s in the side and it’s great for him to get back to scoring runs straight away,” Cook said. “He’s worked really hard, let’s not get carried away with one innings but good things come when you put the hours in. That’s why you do it.”That praise of Kieswetter was the second time Cook mentioned not getting carried away. He isn’t the first England one-day captain to start, or resume, the job with victory. Paul Collingwood did it in 2007, Kevin Pietersen in 2008 and Andrew Strauss in 2009. None of those reigns ended happily. Cook knows he will have his fair share of tough days in the job and far tougher questions to answer.

Plays of the Day from the third day of the first Test between India and West Indies at Sabina Park

Sriram Veera at Sabina Park23-Jun-2011The conversation of the day
Rahul Dravid was on 95. Fifteen years ago, to the date, he was out on the same score on debut. Amit Mishra, who had given him admirable support, suddenly went for a big slog against Ravi Rampaul and failed to connect. Dravid rushed down the track for a chat. A couple of overs later, Dravid, on 97, went for a hook and the ball climbed over the blade. This time Mishra came down the track for a chat. Wonder what he said.Frenetic action of the day
Ishant Sharma troubled Adrian Barath in the first innings with the bounce he extracted from short of a length. Barath decided to counterattack in the second innings. He pulled a bouncer over long-leg, square drove over gully and top-edged a hook over the fine-leg boundary.Adrenaline rush of the day
Barath had just edged a delivery from Praveen Kumar through the unmanned third slip region. A ball later, MS Dhoni moved a man in there. Surely, Barath was not going to fall for it? Wrong. He did. He chased a slightly wider delivery and flashed it to third slip where Suresh Raina held a good catch.Deja-vu feeling of the day
Praveen was warned thrice for running on the danger area and couldn’t bowl any more in the first innings. “It’s good that it happened in the first innings of my first Test,” Praveen said at the end of the second day. He did it again on the third day. Again, it was the same umpire Ian Gould who caught his transgression and gave him the first warning. Two strikes to go.

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.

At some point in the next three days, England will be confirmed as the best Test side in the world, but the race for the mace is already as good as over

Andrew Miller at Edgbaston11-Aug-2011The sunsets aren’t the same, and the temperatures were several notches lower, but the sense of imperious inevitability was plain for all to see. On the second day at Edgbaston, England turned in their most dominant display since their Ashes-crushing performance at Sydney back in January.A crowd that turned up in grim and foreboding drizzle watched as the clouds dispersed to leave a glorious day for batting, and by the close, their hymns of praise were soused with that Antipodean sense of absolutism. At some point in the next three days, England will be confirmed as the best Test side in the world, but the race for the mace is already as good as over.Soaking up the adulation, then as now, was the staggeringly indomitable Alastair Cook, a batsman whose concentration levels have been replenished after the briefest hiatus in the first two Tests. He totalled 20 runs at Lord’s and Trent Bridge, his certainty outside off stump scuppered by Praveen Kumar’s sometimes remarkable late movement. At the fifth attempt, however, he extended his extraordinary run of form to seven hundreds in 18 innings, with his overnight total of 182 now his highest on English soil.”It’s been frustrating not getting through that new ball, but when you do, you have to make it count because that makes you forget the low scores,” said Cook, whose tally of 19 Test hundreds now places him on a plateau preserved only for the greats of the game. If that seems a premature accolade to dispatch in his direction, then consider the fact that he does not turn 27 until Christmas Day. Only Sachin Tendulkar, with 22 hundreds, had more to his name at the same age. And he’s not done too badly for himself in the interim.As a point of comparison, Graham Gooch, Cook’s great mentor, played into his 40s for an England tally of 20 (“It’ll be a shame if I match him,” was Cook’s take on that), while the legendary Wally Hammond is the national record-holder with 22. While many people may protest that conditions have changed in the interim and batting in 2010s is nothing like as tough as it was back in the day, both men are sure to be overhauled in the coming months and years by a batsman whose taste for “daddy” hundreds is growing with every knock.A “daddy” hundred, in Gooch’s inimitable definition, is a score in excess of 150, and there was a period in Cook’s early career when his precocious returns were offset by an inability to kick on to anything approaching such heights. The highest of his first seven hundreds was a meagre 127 against Pakistan in 2006, and that three-figured profligacy brought to mind Mark Waugh or Allan Lamb, rather than the arch-accumulation of a man such as Gooch, who converted eight of his 20 tons, including a grand-daddy 333 against India in 1990.”We talk about trying to make daddy hundreds, and my last few ones have all been quite big ones,” Cook said. “I think it’s important I’ve managed to do that, but I’ll try not to get carried away, because we’ve got to keep working hard. You see the team’s work ethic with Goochie coming on board [as batting coach], our results have gone through the roof, but as I proved in first two games, it’s easy to not score runs.”Alastair Cook ended the day unbeaten on 182, his highest Test score in England•Getty ImagesCook’s own returns began to change when he took advantage of a Bridgetown featherbed to make 139 not out in February 2009. Since that date he’s turned six of his subsequent 11 centuries into scores of 148 or more, and by the close of the second day at Edgbaston, his average century score stood at a venerable 184.50 – a particularly impressive notch for an opening batsman.Not for the first time this year, Cook’s efforts over-shadowed those of his captain and opening partner, Andrew Strauss, who made all the running in the critical early stages of the innings, particularly on that awkward first evening when he outscored Cook 2 to 1. However, with his first home century for two years in his sights, he lost his concentration – and leg stump – while lining up a sweep against Amit Mishra.”We said when we got past the 100 that it was about time we did something,” said Cook, after four consecutive failures from England’s prolific opening pairing, who have now amassed more than 4000 runs in 96 stands. But right at this moment, and irrespective of the captaincy, there’s no question which of the two is the key influence on the team . Since his career-redefining 110 against Pakistan at The Oval last summer, Cook has top-scored in 11 of their 19 stands, and has never yet been dismissed for less than 55. Strauss, by contrast, hasn’t passed 52 on the eight occasions when he’s outlasted his partner.That suggests that Cook has perfected the art of cashing in when the going is good to firm. Watching him harvest his scores is, as Graeme Swann memorably quipped, one of the world’s great cures for insomnia, but on his watch it is only ever the opposition fans and players who drift out of consciousness. As the raucous atmosphere inside Edgbaston gleefully confirmed, there’s nothing dull about one of England’s own taking a team as illustrious as India to the cleaners, and the longer and deeper he dragged his own performance, the more the cracks appeared in an increasingly fragile opposition.By the final session, it was just like watching the Ashes – the Ashes in the mid-1990s that is, with England displaying a ruthlessness that no side has matched since the Aussies were in their pomp. The desire to build, and build, and build, was a two-pronged strategy that Cook eagerly acknowledged, and the sight in the final over of Rahul Dravid dropping his second catch of the day, and flinging his cap to the turf in frustration, confirmed how effectively England had baked their opponents.”Yes, we knew that if we put a lot of miles in their legs again, as we have been doing in the last two Test matches, it gives our bowlers time to rest up and takes a toll on their bowlers,” he said. “We have an ethos of trying to improve every time we play. Obviously the Ashes was fantastic and we want to keep hitting those standards, but we’re not satisfied with what we’ve done and never will be. This team wants to stay together for a long time, and do something very special.”It’s impossible to see any get-out for India. The pitch is beginning to show signs of dusting up, which will give Graeme Swann his first and best opportunity to make a major contribution to this series, but long before he gets involved, there’s a host of runs for England to put on the board, and three eager seamers who ought to have had the best part of two days’ rest and recuperation.Not since the 1985 Ashes has an England team enjoyed such unchecked dominance in a marquee home series, and even in that heady summer they allowed Allan Border to extend Australia’s dominance at Lord’s. Before that, the only comparable occasion in which pre-series expectation was matched by such a thorough home performance came in 1957, when Peter May’s world-beaters crushed a West Indies side that had shocked them 3-1 seven years previously. For the first time since that heady decade, England can truly boast that they are the best Test nation in the world.

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.

ESPNcricinfo looks back at the players who helped Pakistan to a famous whitewash over England with the spin bowlers and a fine captain to the fore

George Dobell07-Feb-2012Mohammad Hafeez 7/10
Technically correct, patient and disciplined, Hafeez dealt calmly with a testing England seam attack – they dismissed him only once in the series – but was troubled more by Monty Panesar’s left-arm spin. He made a polished 88 in the first Test to give his side a strong platform and weighed in with useful contributions in a low-scoring game at Abu Dhabi. He also claimed five wickets – all of them left-handers – at an average of just 16 with his miserly offspin. England could barely hit him off the square and he conceded fewer than two runs an over.Taufeeq Umar 3
A series of diminishing returns. Looked disciplined and solid in making 58 in his first innings of the series, but was subsequently unsettled by James Anderson’s inswinger and drawn into a series of unwise pokes outside the off stump. He only made only 29 runs in his next five innings.Azhar Ali 8.5
A breakthrough series for a 26-year-old who could go on to be Pakistan’s Test captain. Certainly Azhar demonstrated a temperament that might have been tailor-made for Test cricket. He also showed a tight technique and a welcome aptitude to shine under pressure. The highlight was his marathon effort in Dubai, but he also produced a match-turning innings of 68 in Abu Dhabi. No-one on either side batted for longer or came within ten of his series average of 50.2.Younis Khan 7.5
He may only have contributed one innings of substance to the series, but what an innings it was. Dripping with quality and class, Younis’ century in Dubai changed the course of a game that Pakistan – bowled out for 99 in their first innings – might easily have lost. He looked in decent touch for the rest of the series, but never went on to register a significant score.Misbah-ul-Haq 8.5
How can we evaluate Misbah’s influence on the team? It clearly extends far beyond making runs; important as they often were. Misbah sets the tone for Pakistan, on and off the pitch, coaxing the best from his team and ensuring calm professionalism pervades whether winning or losing. It would be easy to characterise him purely as a dour, obdurate batsman – and there were certainly periods during his vital half-century in the first Test where those qualities stuck out – but he also showed his selfless, intelligent side with his calculated attacking at Abu Dhabi that brought him four sixes. He may have to watch one weakness with the bat, however, as England soon worked out that, for all his discipline outside off stump, he is a likely lbw victim. He fell that way in all five innings. Despite all the team’s success, some still dislike Misbah. They accuse him of being boring. Maybe, though, after everything that has happened in Pakistan cricket over the last few years, a little bit of boredom is not such a bad thing?Asad Shafiq 6.5
Played a large part in the victory in Abu Dhabi – in a low-scoring game his contribution of 101 runs in total was highly significant – and top-scored with 45 in the first innings rout in Dubai. He showed with his dismissal in the first innings in Abu Dhabi – heaving across the line due to a lapse in concentration – that he is not the finished article, but he displayed enough talent to suggest he should have a long future at this level.Adnan Akmal 6.5
An accomplished keeper who, but for one out of character mistake on the last day of the series, kept neatly to spin and seam alike. He still has some work to do on his batting – he contributed only one meaningful innings as a batsman and may be a place or two high at No. 7 – but this is a man who could represent Pakistan for much of the next decade.Saeed Ajmal was the leading bowler during the series•Getty ImagesAbdur Rehman 8.5
A vastly underrated cricketer. Rehman may not have much mystery, but he has excellent control and a wonderful ability to change his pace quite extravagantly without any obvious change in his action. He finished the series with 19 wickets at 16.73, including his first two five-wicket hauls in Tests. Ajmal ended with more wickets, but how many came partially as a result of the pressure built by Rehman who simply hardly bowled a poor ball? It is hard to think of a better spin partnership in contemporary world cricket. His problems with the bat – and he struggled horribly against Graeme Swann – will be over-looked if he continues to bowl like this.Saeed Ajmal 9
Masterful. With 24 wickets at 14.7 apiece, Ajmal tortured the England batsmen. As if his doosra was not enough – and it was more than enough for Ian Bell, who fell to it four times – he also displayed superb control and a host of other, subtle variations. Sometimes it was the ball that spun that caused England problems; sometimes it was the ball that went straight on. His 7 for 55 in the first Test set the tone for the series and unsettled several England batsmen. He may even have ruined a couple of illustrious careers.Umar Gul 8
An unsung hero in a side built around spin, Gul still enjoyed an excellent series. Wholehearted, strong and fit, Gul gave his side an edge with his committed seam bowling and at times troubled the England batsmen as much with his pace as his consistent line and length. Fully deserved his last day burst of four wickets.Aizaz Cheema 4
In years to come, the identity of the second seamer in the famous victory in the third Test might make a searching quiz question. With just one wicket in his two Tests, it could seem that Cheema was almost an irrelevance. He actually bowled pretty well without much fortune and supported Gul and the spinners better than the figures suggests. He beat the England openers frequently.Junaid Khan 2
On the face of things, Junaid had a shocker: he made a pair in his only Test and dropped an easy catch. He actually bowled very well in his limited opportunities – he beat Trott on several occasions -and, on more helpful pitches, will surely enjoy better games. His fielding does have to improve, though.

Last year he made his India debut at Old Trafford. Today Ajinkya Rahane is hoping to catch the selectors’ attention once again. But setbacks don’t worry him, they spur him on

Nagraj Gollapudi01-Apr-2012The dark navy blue Indian blazer hangs on a stand by the bed. We are in Ajinkya Rahane’s room at the team hotel in Chennai on the day the Indian Test squad leaves for Australia, last December. Rahane, who had made his international debut only a few months ago in England, is happy that things are falling into place for him. He admits the prospect of playing in Australia – the pinnacle for every international cricketer – will keep him awake on the long flight to Melbourne.The previous afternoon Rahane had been beaten by the low bounce and the skiddy pace of Kemar Roach at Chepauk off the second ball of the fifth ODI against West Indies. It was the second duck of his short career, but being in the Indian dressing room had taught Rahane to remain positive.One of the most prolific batsmen on the domestic circuit, Rahane had been waiting for a call from the selectors. In only his second first-class season, in 2008-09, he made 1089 runs in the Ranji Trophy. The next year he was again one of the highest run-scorers, with 809 runs in Mumbai’s successful defence of their title. He hit hundreds against the Australians in the tour match in Chandigarh in 2010, and followed that a week later with 191 in the second innings in the Irani Trophy.In the summer of 2010, touring England with India A, Rahane made two centuries, but Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja got their India caps ahead of him. He grew desperate, waiting in the wings. But being in the company of domestic stalwarts and former India players Wasim Jaffer and Praveen Amre (the Mumbai coach), helped him realise the importance of patience.”The four years I played domestic cricket I got the experience of working hard, and I also know how much more I need to work,” Rahane says. “The dream has always been there to play for the Test team. I don’t mind waiting for my chances, no matter how much I have to wait. Till then I will need to do my job and get the runs. That is definitely in my hands.”Mentally he was ready for the step up, which finally arrived after he returned from the Emerging Players tournament in Australia, where he had hit two centuries in the three first-class matches. It was mid-August when, one afternoon, while at home chatting with his mother, Rahane received a call from the office of the BCCI president. He was told he was flying to England as a replacement for Virender Sehwag, who was unfit.The reality of it hit home only when people started phoning him. “I saw tears of happiness on my mom’s face,” Rahane recalls.”I come from a middle-class family. They reduced expenses on other household stuff to help me with my cricket. So they had to give up on a lot to bring me to this stage. They obviously are the pillars of my strength.”When the dream of wearing the India cap was close to becoming a reality, Rahane said he was nervous, even though he knew the conditions he would be up against in England because of the trip in 2010. “I was a little nervous when I was told I would be playing the Twenty20 in Manchester,” he says. But he found support from the senior players, including Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, and his Mumbai team-mate Rohit Sharma.”When I walked in at Old Trafford the crowd’s noise did make me a little nervous. But I had walked in with the mindset that the full house was trying to support me. That eased me into the situation gradually.”Duncan Fletcher, the India coach, told him he belonged at the international level. “When someone like him [Fletcher] said such encouraging things, I started feeling better.”That day Rahane walked out to open with Dravid, one of his heroes. Incidentally both men were making their Twenty20 international debuts in the match. Rahane finished as the top scorer for India, with 61 in a narrow defeat.What did he learn on the tour? “The big difference was, I understood going forward I would need to work much harder. Because before my debut I was unknown but now the teams would study me more. So I would need to think a step ahead of the opposition and plan how I would tackle them.”Following his debut, Rahane played against England again at home, and he rates his 91 in Mohali as his best knock, a performance that earned him the Man-of-the-Match award. “I was nervous before that match because in the previous two matches I had got out early. In Mohali, Dhoni called me and told me not to think too much. He asked me to express myself freely, just the way I did in England. So I went in with the idea of following my instincts.”

“I was thinking I could have been picked, but I would not let the non-selection affect me. I told myself I should only focus on playing domestic matches and perform in the important matches and come back into the reckoning. I took it as a challenge”Rahane on being overlooked for the CB Series

The quality of bowling and the mindset of international players, Rahane says, is the difference between the highest level and domestic cricket. A good example of that came in England, where, against quality fast bowlers like Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Steve Finn, he was constantly on the hop, tackling searing pace and bounce. “At that level if you can stay mentally strong and tough, it will be beneficial. Also, if you can handle every situation calmly, it matters a lot.”Rahane kept those lessons in mind when he landed in Australia. But things did not turn out the way he would have liked them to. In the two practice matches ahead of the Test series, in three innings, Rahane managed only 18 runs. “I was disappointed and was sitting in a corner in Canberra. The coach and some of the senior players came to me and said it was a matter of making adjustments. That and a matter of one good innings would help me get on the track.”As the Indian team got a hammering over the next two months, Rahane and the rest of the reserves awaited their turn. For Rahane there wasn’t one. He channelled his frustration by coming out early for training sessions or staying back late after them to hit balls along with Rohit.Rahane has a safety-first approach to life, a contrast to the vulnerability apparent in someone like Rohit, who is clearly the more talented. While Rohit likes driving cars and motorbikes, Rahane prefers sitting in his room and reading books on meditation. “That was one way I kept myself calm in Australia and retained my focus.”Senior players talked to Rahane about the difference in the bounce, even if the bowlers pitched lengths similar to those in India. “The biggest thing I learned is how to get used to the conditions in Australia. The shots to play on those wickets and the right kind of approach and how soon to get adjusted to those conditions – those were the things I tried learning in the two months I was there.”He was disappointed that he was not retained in the CB Series squad. “I was thinking I could have been picked, but I would not let it affect me. I told myself I should only focus on playing domestic matches and perform in the important matches and come back into the reckoning. I took it as a challenge.”According to Jaffer, Rahane needs to create more opportunities for himself to stay in the fray for a Test spot. “He needs to stay focused and grab his opportunity whenever he gets a chance,” Jaffer says. He believes it will be “very important” that Rahane performs in the IPL and on A tours to keep his name on top of the list.After Australia, Rahane has played as many matches as he could, including for his company, Indian Oil Corporation, and even local club matches in Mumbai. Though scratchy in the early stages of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he scored a vital half-century against Karnataka in the semi-final to help Mumbai make the final. He followed that with a match-winning century for West Zone in the Deodhar Trophy final.”I said, fine, I did not get opportunities on the Australian tour but I got to learn quite a few things. I learned to have a fighting attitude and retain my self-belief.” Virtues that are important for a player with an Indian blazer in his wardrobe.

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.”