ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the match between Sri Lanka and West Indies

David Hopps in Pallekele29-Sep-2012Taunt of the day 1Gangnam Style, a 2012 song by the Korean rapper PSY, which has turned into a global dance sensation, has been adopted by Chris Gayle when he does something special on the field. That had not escaped the Sri Lankan DJ at Pallakele who gave a quick burst of the track when he was dismissed.Taunt of the day 2Gangnam Style also figured when Jeevan Mendis (should that be Jiving Mendis?) took the wicket of Dwayne Bravo and broke into his own version of the dance. Gayle, sat in the West Indies dressing room with a towel over his shoulders, looked suitably amused.Taunt of the day 3It wasn’t a taunt really, it just felt like one. Darren Sammy bowled a full spell of military medium on a pitch that was dry and taking spin even at the start of the day. His spell completed, he then threw the ball to Gayle with only two runs needed. Gayle managed two uninterested balls before Sri Lanka achieved victory. He walked off to the sound of Gangnam Style, on the loudspeakers once more, but did not feel like dancing.Over of the dayKieron Pollard is one of the most potent hitters in world cricket and with only five overs left, and 90 scored, West Indies needed him to make an immediate impact. Ajantha Mendis bowled an excellent over at him, turning the ball both ways and then pushed the fifth ball through quicker as he came down the track and bowled him off his pads as he yorked himself.Bad comeback of the dayWest Indies rested Fidel Edwards against England so they could field a battery of spinners. He came back against Sri Lanka as planned but to little effect. His first three deliveries with the new ball were crashed to the boundary by Tillakaratne Dilshan. It was just the start that West Indies did not need.

Pakistan had been constantly reminded of the different conditions awaiting them, which is why their quick adjustment during the three one-dayers against Australia had been a huge boost leading into the World Cup

George Binoy in Townsville19-Aug-2012When the Pakistan team arrived at their service apartments in Townsville on Friday afternoon, having made the trip from Brisbane, there were five Indian cricketers sitting in the lobby. Had these been senior teams from the two countries, whose players are familiar with each other, there may have been an exchange of greetings. Not between the Under-19 cricketers. As the Pakistanis stood there in their green blazers, with their suitcases and kit bags, waiting to check in, they merely exchanged glances with the Indians. The quarterfinalists sizing each other up ahead of Monday’s contest at Tony Ireland Stadium.These sides have met before, at the Under-19 Asia Cup this year, in two tense contests. During the league phase of that tournament, Pakistan won a match they could have won more easily, by one run. In the final, India had to settle for a tie after dominating most of the chase. Both games were high-scoring contests in Kuala Lumpur; the conditions in Queensland are not as conducive to run-making.Pakistan came to Australia earlier than most teams, in late July for three one-dayers on the Gold Coast. They won that series against Australia 2-1, a commendable result considering it was their first time here. Their performance in those matches led Australia’s coach Stuart Law to remark that one could see Pakistan had been “playing together for quite a while.”This Pakistan Under-19 squad has been together since January, when they toured South Africa. They then played the Asia Cup and had a camp at the National Cricket Academy before coming to Australia. The captain Babar Azam and coach Sabih Azhar spoke of how the team had been constantly reminded of the different conditions awaiting them, which is why their quick adjustment during the three matches against Australia had been a huge boost for the players.”We are playing as a unit and we have created a friendly team atmosphere,” said Azhar. “Now they have developed the winning habit.”That winning habit has been on display during the warm-up matches of the World Cup and during the group games. Pakistan won everything, beating New Zealand, Afghanistan and Scotland to finish top of Group B.The adjustment, however, hasn’t been easy. After a long flight to Australia, Azam said most of the players slept for ages to rest and recuperate. When they awoke, they found unfamiliarity all around them. For starters, the adaptors for their mobile phones wouldn’t fit into the plug points. They sought out each other and the officials for help and eventually queued up outside an electric supplies shop to buy them.There’s more. The players are staying in service apartments in Australia, not in hotels, so they were told by the team management that they would have to cook their meals and clean up after themselves. “Cooking, I never do at home,” said Azam, speaking for most teenage boys on the subcontinent. “We’ve come here and we had to do it, so it’s been hard. Sometimes we eat out; sometimes we cook here. First five days we went to McDonalds all the time. We are washing clothes in the machine, washing crockery as well.”

After a long flight to Australia, Babar Azam said most of the players slept for ages to rest and recuperate. When they awoke, they found unfamiliarity all around them. For starters, the adaptors for their mobile phones wouldn’t fit into the plug points. They sought out each other and the officials for help and eventually queued up outside an electric supplies shop to buy them. There’s more. The players are staying in service apartments in Australia, not in hotels, so they were told by the team management that they would have to cook their meals and clean up after themselves.

Imam-ul-Haq, a top-order batsman and a nephew of Inzamam-ul-Haq, recounted how they set off fire alarms “three or four times” in their rooms. “The first one was his [Babar’s] fault, he was just cooking an omelette I think,” Imam said. “It was the first day, we were very hungry, Usman [Qadir], Babar and I. Suddenly the fire alarm went off; we thought we’d cause a panic. Usman said, ‘Don’t panic, don’t panic.’ We just held a towel near the fire alarm and opened the window. We were relieved and thought we will never cook food again.”But they have cooked; well, some have while the others have eaten. According to Imam, the fast bowlers Mir Hamza and Saad Ali, and vice-captain Umar Waheed are the chefs in the squad. “We just want to eat and they cook for us. When we visit their rooms, we clean their rooms after eating and we wash their crockery. So we help them,” says Imam. “We really enjoyed it because all of us were in one room and we cooked together. It’s a wonderful experience because we’ve been together for five or six months and we had never had this kind of experience.”How well an individual makes these adjustments affects how comfortable he feels in a foreign country and Imam knows it. “If you’re playing cricket and going out of the country, we have to face these difficulties and responsibilities,” he said. “If we have a problem in cooking, we can’t give that an excuse to our coach.”Their acclimatization issues lasted for about five days and Azam said helping each other get used to how life functions in Australia had helped the team bond. “It’s like family work,” he said. “First five days were very difficult, to adjust to all this and play in the World Cup, but our support staff have really helped us. Now all the players have adjusted very well.”Pakistan have been performing like an extremely well-adjusted team. They beat Afghanistan by 109 runs, Scotland by nine wickets and New Zealand by five wickets. Between Pakistan’s first and second victories, on August 12, India lost to West Indies in Townsville, and from then Azam’s team has been talking about this quarterfinal clash. They did not really doubt they would top their group and therefore play India, who were likely to finish second in theirs.”They are looking forward to it. That gives me confidence,” says Azhar. “They are talking about [Indian] players, talking about strategies.”Both Azhar and Azam believe the exposure their players got during the Asia Cup to the pressures of an India-Pakistan contest will help them handle Monday’s quarterfinal better. “The boys know the Indian players,” said Azam. “If we hadn’t played against India in the Asia Cup and now suddenly had to face them in the quarterfinal, there would have been more pressure. Not so much now.”Monday’s quarterfinal at the Tony Ireland Stadium will be the first time Pakistan are playing in Townsville. Like how they did when they first arrived in Australia, they’ll hope to settle in quickly.

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.

The performance by Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann in Mumbai was one of the greatest slow-bowling double acts in England’s history

David Hopps26-Nov-2012There has arguably never been an England spin bowling partnership like it. Not in a single Test. Not where two England slow bowlers have shared the workload and worked together to pull off a famous victory.Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann, in dismantling India at the Wankhede, and returning joint match figures of 19 for 323, have between them produced the greatest England spin double act of modern times. Perhaps of all time.This was only the fourth occasion that England spinners had combined to take 19 wickets or more wickets in a Test and the first time for 54 years since Jim Laker and Tony Lock teamed up to demolish New Zealand at Headingley.Thanks to Swann, as garrulous as ever, there is even a wonderful quote to mark the occasion when Panesar, with reference to the fact they had bowled in tandem in seven previous Tests without success, told his spin-bowling partner before the match: “Come on brother, let’s do it, let’s win one.”It was Panesar who attracted most acclaim with his match analysis of 11 for 210 but Swann is hardly overshadowed by his own return of 8 for 113. They hunted together as so few England spinners have been able to do in the past. They hunted, too, as a perfect complement to each other: one left arm and one right arm, one intense and the other free spirited.The English spin bowler is a put-upon soul, often forced to operate alone and, in England, in conditions alien to spin bowling: unresponsive pitches, chilly temperatures and captains who are always one ball away from losing faith and inviting another seam bowler on for a spell.It is therefore perhaps appropriate that one of England’s greatest spin bowling displays came from Tony Greig against West Indies in Port of Spain in 1973.It was appropriate because he only switched to offspin out of necessity during the tour because his medium pace was in danger of getting a battering. Greig took 13 wickets in the match and, even though three specialist spinners – Derek Underwood, Jack Birkenshaw and Pat Pocock – added five more, it essentially felt like a single-handed triumph. It was a great England victory, but nobody could fairly sell it as a double act.Talk of England spin combinations and attention rightly switches to Laker and Lock, the Surrey pair who along with Yorkshire’s Johnny Wardle provided the slow-bowling craft during England’s golden age of the 1950s, but it is possible to argue that when you consider the best by a pair of England spinners in tandem even they have been outdone by Swann and Panesar’s exploits in Mumbai.When Laker and Lock took all 20 against Australia in 1956, Laker had 19 of them. If that really counts as a double act, there is no doubt that Laker got all the good lines. When they shared 19 wickets more evenly against New Zealand two years later, they conceded only 108 runs, statistically far superior. But that was during a mismatch of a series. Swann and Panesar won a Test for England in India when the chips were down.The story of English spin bowling is a story of occasional triumph amid years of hardship. Swann, in the past few years, has challenged that perception. He now has a partner alongside him.Enjoy it while it lasts because history suggests it rarely lasts very long. Who knows, it could even be over by Christmas. Were it to prosper enough for England to win the series, it would be remembered as long as cricket survives.

Six great England spin double acts

India v England, Kanpur, 1952Malcolm Hilton drew attention to himself at 19 when playing for Lancashire in 1948 he dismissed Don Bradman twice in a match. But he struggled to justify his overnight fame until he was called up with his Lancashire colleagues Brian Statham and fellow spinners Bob Berry and Roy Tattersall for a 1951/2 tour of India.Kanpur was a dreamlike surface for a young left-arm spinner. Hilton, Tattersall and Jack Robertson, an occasional offbreak bowler for Middlesex, took 19 wickets in the match and Hilton and Tattersall, an offspinner, opened in the second innings while Statham had a rare day of inactivity. England won by eight wickets. A successful Test career beckoned but his control deserted him as the 1950s progressed and after he was chosen as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers Of The Year in 1957, his career faded.England v Australia, Old Trafford, 1956Jim Laker’s Ashes summer in 1956 has passed into cricketing folklore. His offspin was at its peak and he demoralised Australia, with 46 wickets in the series and 19 at Old Trafford, where he took all ten in the second innings with half an hour to spare on a rain-hit final day. Never have pictures of sawdust-laden squares looked so endearing.Few would present this as a double act but Tony Lock, Laker’s spin-bowling ally with Surrey and England, was exhausted enough to feel that it was. Lock bowled 69 overs in the match, a few more balls than Laker, and denied him all 20 by removing Jim Burke, who was as obdurate as they come, in Australia’s first innings. He also caught Burke off Laker second time around. Without Lock, things might have turned out differently.South Africa v England, Cape Town, 1956-57Johnny Wardle was unfortunate that for much of the 1950s. England preferred the more aggressive qualities of Lock alongside Laker, but Laker was quick to remark that Wardle bowled some of the finest spells he had ever seen.In a series where pedestrian batting was never far away, the charms of the Yorkshire spinner, purveyor of both left-arm orthodox and chinamen (the latter frowned upon at his county) were a blessed relief. Wardle dominated in Cape Town with 12 wickets in the match. Laker, though, played a part in history when Russell Endean, fending him off, became the first batsman to be dismissed Handled Ball.England v West Indies, The Oval, 1957Kennington Oval rarely felt more like home for Laker and Lock than in the 1957 Test against West Indies. It was over in three days and West Indies, bundled out for 89 and 86, were grateful to a 21-year-old on his first England tour who made 39 and 42. Even then it was apparent that Garry Sobers was going to become a helluva player.The West Indies had been awarded five-day Tests for the first time but, unlike 1950, they failed to shine. Their spin pairing of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine had little success and by the time of the final Test at The Oval, it was Lock, shirt billowing and bowling his left-arm spin at a fair lick, along with the more elegant Laker who held sway.England v New Zealand, Headingley, 1958England won by an innings and 21 runs in a match where New Zealand could barely get the ball of the square in their second innings, crawling to 129 in 101.2 overs (an excruciating run rate of 1.26).The weather was dreadful in 1958 and so was much of the cricket, as England won four of their five Tests at a canter, three of them by an innings. Lock had an unbelievable season, statistically, with 34 wickets at 7.47 runs each, but others found less pleasure in recollecting what was essentially a mismatch.Sri Lanka v England, Colombo, 1981-82When Keith Fletcher, England’s captain, expressed fears that the pitch for Sri Lanka’s inaugural Test had been excessively watered, , in a memorable misprint, said that Fletcher made his observation when England arrived “for early-morning bets”. These were more innocent times.Sri Lanka’s first innings had been rounded up by Derek Underwood’s brisk slow left-arm but they conceded only a five-run first-innings lead as England lost their last five wickets for 23 on the third morning. Bob Willis lambasted his colleagues as they complained about a succession of dubious umpiring decisions. His exhortations initially had little effect, but Sri Lanka lost their last seven wickets for eight runs, the parsimonious Middlesex offspinner John Emburey taking five in 33 deliveries, and England escaped embarrassment.And one that got away:Pakistan v England, Dhaka, 1961/2Lock and Allen shared 15 wickets, and all manner of bit-part spinners provided support, but England could not force victory in Dhaka. The main reason for that was the presence of Hanif Mohammad, one of the finest defensive batsmen in Test history, who made painstaking hundreds in both innings. Hanif is regarded by some as the originator of the reverse sweep but it is fair to say that in this Test he did not play it very often.

Cheteshwar Pujara on his approach to playing spin, on facing the England fast bowlers, and how his batting continues to evolve at domestic and international level

Interview by Abhishek Purohit10-Jan-2013Cheteshwar Pujara on playing the cut: “When you have time, you can free your arms. I am there at the right time. If you are late, then you can’t play it.”•Associated PressAgainst England, you were quick to use your feet against the spinners. Is that something you carry over from first-class cricket? How much have you worked on it?
I think it is because of all the first-class cricket I have played. I have tried doing it continuously at that level – coming down the wicket. It makes it difficult for the spinners. They try to flight the ball and hit the good-length area. When you step out, it is hard for them to adjust their line and length.There is a difference between charging or jumping out and stepping out. You seem to be in control when you come down the pitch. How do you keep yourself focused at that time?
It is about judging the right length. When you see the release of the ball, you get to know whether it is on a good length. If it is, you can step out and reach there. I try and look at the release of the ball when I am batting against spin.As far as technique against spin is concerned, very few batsmen are able to keep their wrists flexible when they push forward. When you come forward, it does not seem that your wrists are locked. You are able to guide the ball to say, third man. Have you always batted like that?
Yes, this has been my technique since my Under-19 days. It is easier to get singles when you have free wrists, you can play the ball either side of the wicket. I have been working on this in the nets since I was young – just try to see the gap and place the ball there.
During your innings, you always look to get singles. When I had to be successful at the first-class level initially, I knew that you should be able to rotate the strike. As a youngster four-five years ago, that was my plan – to be able to rotate the strike. If you want to do that, you have to be very wristy. (This way) when you don’t want to play shots and be in the defensive mode, you still end up getting the singles.Do flexible wrists also help you play with soft hands? You don’t jab at the ball a lot when you are looking to defend.
My defence is very strong. I would say that is my strength. I have worked on it, I have never quite focused on keeping the hands soft, but my father is very particular about me playing all balls correctly in the nets. So whenever I push at the ball or make some other mistake, he tells me, ‘this is not the way to go about it. You might give a catch to short leg,’ and so on. He believes it is about practising perfectly.You have spoken about the hands and the wrists. What about the body position? Many times, when you are beaten in the flight, you are still able to avoid silly point or short leg.
All that is natural. I have never paid any attention to it. It is again about practising perfectly, then all things come naturally. What I try and do is look at the ball till it hits the bat, so whenever there is a bit of turn or at times the ball goes straight, you can adjust.Does balance at the crease also come naturally to you?
It is because of the experience. The more matches you play, the more you learn about the game.Let’s talk about the cut. You don’t just play the cut, you give it a good old whack, and are in the air at times as you play it. Have you always played it so strongly?
I think it is natural. It is also about playing the shot over a period of time. I believe I have more time when I play off the back foot. That is the reason I can play it strongly. When you have time, you can free your arms. You know you are in the correct position. I am there at the right time. If you are late, then you can’t play it.

A single is important. A boundary is also important. It is about playing on the merit of the ball. If it is a half-volley, you have to hit it for four, no matter what the situation is. Even if the score is 50 for 6, the half-volley is a half-volley.

A lot of experts have spoken about your playing the hook shot. You have this reputation of being a very safe batsman but still you play the hook quite regularly.
It is instinctive. When I see a short ball, I know I can hit it. And when you have an opportunity to score a four, why not take it? I got out playing the hook against New Zealand, and I realised, it is not my strength. I can play the pull properly. So I started leaving balls which were above shoulder height and I was successful doing that in the Ahmedabad and Mumbai Tests against England.So from now on you will try to duck under the short ball?
Yeah, when you are not comfortable playing that shot… I am ready to leave the ball and if it is in my range, I’ll go for it.How has your batting developed against fast bowling? That is not something you must have faced a lot at first-class level.
Playing (James) Anderson and (Steven) Finn was a different experience. Finn played only the Kolkata Test, but he was quick, and accurate. Anderson is one of the best when it comes to reverse swing. Facing them has helped me a lot and given me confidence. Whenever I bat at first-class level, there is difference in the speeds. That is maybe the reason why I was able to hit Ishwar Pandey for five fours (in an over, against Madhya Pradesh).Would you say playing the short ball is your stronger suit compared to playing swing bowling?
I am very good at playing the short ball. Against New Zealand, I wasn’t leaving it. Whenever I got the opportunity, I started playing the pull. After that, I have practised playing the short one a lot. In 2010, when we toured South Africa, I knew the bounce was different compared to Indian wickets. I worked with Gary Kirsten on how to go about playing the short one. Gary helped me a lot.How do you develop your game against quality swing bowling?
If I continue playing at the first-class level, we have decent bowlers there. I don’t need to compare their speed with international bowlers but Indian bowlers are good at swinging the ball. So I don’t need to worry about swing bowling.But isn’t there a difference between someone swinging the ball from off to leg at 122 kph and someone doing it at 140 kph?
There is not a major difference, obviously there is a bit of difference, but that is how it goes. You have to learn to deal with it. Even in the nets, I try and find a ball that swings a bit more so that I can get good practice. It is about finding the right ways. Nobody gets the best bowling in the nets.Somehow, and a bit unfortunately, you have always been compared with Rahul Dravid from your early days. He had this tendency at times to go into a shell while batting. We have hardly seen that happen with you. How important is positivity to you as a batsman?
“For the past couple of years, I have improved a lot in the one-day format and have scored many runs. That has helped a lot.” Pujara averages 56.71 in the List A matches in the last two years.•FotocorpWhenever I go out to bat, what I decide is I have to play on the merit of the ball. If it is there to be hit, I am going to hit it. As far as the comparison is concerned, I don’t want to compare myself with someone who scored so many runs and is a legend of the game. I am just proving myself.Say the score is 20 for 3, or 20 for 4. What are you thinking in that situation? How important is the single to you?
A single is important. A boundary is also important. It is about playing on the merit of the ball. If it is a half-volley, you have to hit it for four, no matter what the situation is. Even if the score is 50 for 6, the half-volley is a half-volley. I know how to hit it, so why not play on the merit of the ball and get the runs if you can. If it is not there to be hit, I am going to defend it, as my defence is strong.Do you remember instances when you got bogged down and were searching where the next run will come from, or have you always been free-flowing?
I have always been free-flowing. If I stay at the crease, I have got enough shots. I have never struggled to score runs. So far I haven’t been in that situation. I always try and learn new shots. If you have the shots, you don’t need to get worried about getting bogged down. In Test cricket, you will always find the gaps.As a limited-overs batsman, when you compare yourself to being a Test batsman, where do you think you can improve? Or are you equally confident in both the formats?
At the moment, I am very confident (in both). For the past couple of years, I have improved a lot in the one-day format and have scored many runs. That has helped a lot. Once you start playing at the international level and get experience and talk to the coach and senior players, they can always guide you as to how to go about this format.I have done it at the domestic level. I believe I can also do it at the international level. It is about waiting for the right time, which will come. I am very confident about that. I don’t need to worry.How different is it playing first-class cricket now that you have faced some of the best Test attacks in the world?
Mentally there is no pressure for sure but at times you are not motivated enough. Even if you fail, you think it is ok, I have scored many hundreds at that level. But it does not go that way. I don’t like to get out. When I failed in two innings against Rajasthan and got out early in the first innings against Madhya Pradesh, something was telling me, this is not the way I play. I want to prove myself and whether it is first-class or whatever level, I should be doing my best for the team. Even against Rajasthan, I was confident but at times you become over-confident when you have faced good bowlers, and when you have average bowlers, you end up playing many shots and get out.You batted for five hours for Saurashtra during your double-century against Madhya Pradesh. It must have taken a lot of strength to hit all these boundaries. After a five-minute break, you were back on the field. Is that love for Saurashtra cricket? How do you keep going?
It is about being honest to the game. I think that is also where fitness comes into play. Since I had injuries on both my knees, I have worked hard on my fitness. That is the reason I could be back soon on the field after scoring a double-hundred. I am very happy that my fitness is shaping up well. It is going to help me play cricket for a long period of time.It is one thing to be fit, but this honesty that you talk about, has that always been you, that you are answerable to the game?
Yes. At times you don’t want to go on the field because you are tired, or you might be fooling around. But that does not happen all the time. I try and be honest most of the time. I would not say that I am 100% honest but I do try and keep myself as honest as possible.

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.

An indisputable assertion from WG Grace kicks off this World Twenty20 special edition of the World Cricket Podcast

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013

Download the podcast here (right-click to save) | iTunesThe music in the podcast is by Kevin MacLeod

Hello, Planet Cricket, and welcome to the Andy Zaltzman’s World Cricket Podcast World Twenty 20 Preview Podcast Cricket World Special. I am Andy Zaltzman, no-time Kent and England opening batsman and non-inventor of the googly and reverse swing. When I was a baby I slept in a cot made of old . I osmosed statistics, and when I cried in the night, my infant wails spelt out Morse Code for Wally Hammond’s batting average.Later in this cricketcast, I will be revealing a statistic that will revolutionise the way international T20 is played. No kidding. This is going to shake cricket to its molten core like a rhinoceros turning up late at the wrong wedding. Things will never be the same again. Cricket might even be blown off its axis so hard that it becomes golf. And not just any golf. Crazy golf. I will also be exclusively revealing who will win the World Twenty20, and why. Amongst the things I will not be doing in this programme are:● Explaining why the ICC remain reluctant to allow a special new T20 Powerplay, in which the batting captain can control the fielding side for two overs.● Reading an epic poem waxing lyrical about the elemental timeless balletic beauty of Johan Botha’s bowling action.● Revealing why the downturn in England’s fortunes this year was down to Andy Flower accidentally sitting on the team’s lucky hamster, Florence, during a team-bonding game of musical chairs at the start of the UAE tour in January. Florence survived but has been cross ever since. A cloning programme is underway at ECB headquarters to ensure a continual supply of Florences for all time.● Explaining how Jacques Kallis’ continuing age-defying quality is down to him relying on a diet of nothing but pasta shaped like cricket bats and drizzled in linseed oil.● Revealing that the paparazzo photographer who took those pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge doing her Sourav Ganguly-at-Lord’s-in-2002 impression was, in fact, Kevin Pietersen. How can he get back in the England team now after this latest breach of trust?So, the cricket world has gathered in Sri Lanka for its biennial quick-fire international quick-fire slug-out. Two quick-fires in that sentence, which explains why the World Twenty20 has considerable appeal, even for those cricket fans, like me, who remain un-entranced by T20’s skittish charms and concerned about the brash grandson of Test cricket deciding to plonk its granddad in a nursing home and forget about it.It’s an intense and unpredictable three-week jamboree of slower balls, yorkers, hoicks, slaps, sploots, and the kind of skied catches that made me fear fielding practice at school more than going to see a sadistic dentist. Which I’m sure my cricket coach dreamed of being. Instead, he focused his efforts on demonstrating to small boys how hard ball plus physics equals “Ouch, that hurt my fingers.”And to kick off the show, looking ahead to the tournament and giving us the kind of insight only a cricketing legend can give, it’s a very special guest, an icon, a celebrity, a former England captain, all the way from beyond the grave, via ESPN’s Ouija-Link phone line to the other side, it’s the late, great WG Grace.AZ: WG, hello.WG: Hello, Andy. Thanks for having me on the show.AZ: The pleasure is all mine.WG: Can we keep this brief? I’ve got to do the Test Match Special podcast with Agnew in five minutes.AZ: Certainly, Doctor. So, WG, you, of course, never had the opportunity to play T20, as you sadly died in 1915, some 88 years before it was launched.WG: Yeah, rub it in, Inspector Insensitive.AZ: Sorry. How do you think you’d have fared as a T20 player?WG: I’d have been bloody amazing, Andy. Sensational. None of the franchises could have afforded me, and I’d have wanted full control of my image rights, but on the pitch I’d have been like Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga rolled into one.AZ: With a bit of Hashim Amla? On the face?WG: Yup. Fair play to the lad, he knows the importance of chin branding. Got to be recognisable. Do you think I’d have got my megabucks deal to advertise Colman’s Mustard without my massive beard?AZ: Of course not. And you have liked to play, say, the IPL?WG: Damn straight, I would. Sign me up. I reckon I could still do a job. I’m in good shape these days. Good news is, I didn’t stay as the fat old WG when I popped my clogs. I reverted to the buff young WG. I’m ripped, absolutely ripped. I could advertise anything. Apart from shaving foam – might be a bit of a stretch.AZ: I was thinking more about whether you’d enjoy the format of the game.WG: More money, less cricket. I’d have loved it. Four overs max? I bowled 125,000 balls in my first-class career. That’s the equivalent of 300 seasons of the IPL. I could have made billions. I could have bought MS Dhoni and made him spend 12 hours a day, crouching in my garden, wicketkeeping.AZ: Let’s move on to this World Twenty20. So, how do you see this tournament going?WG: Well, you’d have to say, looking at it, that the favourites are India. South Africa. Pakistan. West Indies. Sri Lanka. England. And Australia. And New Zealand. I reckon the winner will come from one of the them. Or one of the other teams.AZ: And what do you think the winning team will ultimately have to do?WG: Win the final, probably. And to do that, they’ll need to hit the ball lots, and try to stop the opposition hitting it as much. Those would be my tactics. The fundamentals of the game haven’t really changed since my day. But mostly hit the ball. India managed to win in 2007 with a bowling economy rate of 7.88, that was seventh-best of the Super 8 teams, of course, Andy, but they hit the ball hard and often enough that that didn’t matter. And that was their tactical masterstroke.AZ: Anything else?WG: Andy, the absolutely crucial thing to do if you want to win a World Twenty20, is start badly.AZ: Hit the ground stumbling?WG: That’s right. India had a no-result, a tie and a loss in their first three in 2007. Pakistan lost two of their first three in 2009, their one win being against Associate team Netherlands. We didn’t have the Netherlands in cricket when I was playing. In fact, in my day, the Netherlands was where you wanted to make sure you remembered to put your box when Charlie Kortright was bowling on a dodgy wicket. And England had a loss and a no-result in their two group matches in 2010. So, really, you want to try to time your run-in to the tournament so you are playing dreadfully from day one.AZ: Good point. In 2007, South Africa, perennial peaking-too-early specialists that they are, had four convincing wins to start, flunked one game in six disastrous overs of batting uselessness against India, and that was their goose baked for another tournament. In 2009, they began with five wins on the spin, then lost the semi-final to an Afridi-inspired Pakistan.WG: Yes. And Australia won six in a row in 2010 but lost the final, just as Sri Lanka had done the year before.AZ: You’ve clearly kept abreast of cricket stats whilst you’ve been dead.WG: Yeah, lots of time to kill. Stats are ideal for passing the time until the end of the universe once you’re dead. You wouldn’t want to waste your time on them when you’re alive, mind.AZ: What? What are you saying about what I’ve done with my life?WG: I digress. So, basically, teams that start rubbishly always win. So expect to see all the teams busting any available gut to be completely useless in the first couple of games, safe in the knowledge that hitting form early is a sure-fire route to failure. In that respect, World Twenty20 tournaments are like World Wars and marriages. You want to time your run late and finish with a bang.AZ: What else do you need?WG: Luck. Always helpful. And for your batsmen to collectively average between 26.5 and 27.3. All three tournaments have been won by teams doing that. Other teams have averaged more than that, but none of them has ever won it. So, bat well, but not too well.AZ: Do you think this will influence the way teams play?WG: Yes. They’ll keep an eagle eye on their team tournament average, and as soon as it starts creeping up towards 30, they’ll start deliberately smashing their stumps to pieces when their team tournament average starts creeping up towards 30.AZ: You cannot argue with statistics.WG: Well, you can, but you’ve probably got better things to do with your time, and statistics can be a rather annoying conversationalist when they’re drunk. Anyhow, better go, AZ, I’ve got Aggers on the other line, and I’ve got a date with Florence Nightingale later. Oh yeah. I love a woman in a nurse’s uniform.AZ: WG Grace, thank you for joining us.WG: Thanks for having me, big horse.Time for your questions now, submitted to my Twitter feed. And we will kick off with that stat I mentioned at the start of the broadcast that will revolutionise all T20 World Cups. Strap in, people. The cricket universe is about to change for ever.samg1231: Statistically, are team scores of an even number defended more often than those of an odd number?Good question, samg1231. Arguably, the greatest question ever asked. For too long, we cricket fans have obsessed on the total number of runs a team has scored. But in World Twenty20s, that is irrelevant. Far more important is whether the team batting first scores an odd or even number of runs. Excluding the one no-result and one tie there have been in World T20 games, teams scoring an odd number of runs batting first have won 19 of 43 completed games – 44%. Teams scoring an even number of runs in the first innings of World Twenty20 games have successfully defended in 24 out of 35 games: 69%. So, scientifically, you are better off scoring 56 than 249.But it gets even more intriguing. And by intriguing, I mean irrelevant. But intriguing. Teams losing an even number of wickets batting first – two, four, six, eight or ten – have won just nine of 34: 26%. Teams losing an odd number of wickets batting first, however, have ended up winning a staggering 34 out 44 matches: 77%. Is it better to lose nine wickets than two? Well, no one has ever only lost two wickets in the first innings of a World Twenty20 match, so we just don’t know. But probably. It is certainly true that teams who have been nine down after their innings batting first have won five out of eight (plus that solitary tie). Teams losing just eight wickets have won only one out of eight. When they have ended seven wickets down – ten wins, four losses. But six wickets down: three wins, eight losses. These numbers are blasting conventional cricketing wisdom into the stratosphere. And I’m not done yet.Teams scoring an odd number of runs for an even number of wickets in the first innings of World Twenty20 matches have won four, lost 18. A win percentage of 18. But teams scoring an even number of runs for an odd number of wickets have won a staggering, mathematics-defying 19 out of 23. Win percentage: 83. So, the unarguable mathematicoscientific conclusion: if you score even runs for odd wickets, you are four and a half times more likely to win than if you score odd runs for even wickets. So, batting first in a World Twenty20 match, 32 for 9 is a better score than 309 for 2. That is a stone cold fact.Tactically, this is a game-changer of massive proportions, equivalent to landmark watersheds in other sports, such as when they stopped doing fencing fights to the death, or stopped using a live chicken in badminton and started using a little fake one instead, or having Olympic javelin-throwing as one-against-one from opposite ends of the stadium. Those were the days. That was a real spectator sport.So the last over of the first innings is where these matches will be decided, as the teams frantically jockey for position – the batting teams blocking out to make sure they remain on a score divisible by two, and standing in the middle of the pitch waiting to be run out, or rugby tackling the wicketkeeper and then appealing in the accent of the opposing team to get themselves out obstructing the field, to make sure they even up one, three, five, seven or nine wickets down; whilst the bowling teams will be hurling down wides and no-balls, or kicking balls over the boundary rope, to try to make sure they concede an odd number of runs and give themselves at least a sliver of a chance.It turns out international T20 is not about skill, power, nerve under pressure, or being any good at cricket. It is simply about ending up on a multiple of two runs for a non-multiple of two wickets. Put that into your cybermetric laptops, all you professional performance-analysing cricket wonks out there. Some people might claim this is just a bizarre coincidence thrown up by a relatively small statistical sample of matches. And those people could be right. They are almost certainly right. But not absolutely certainly. And can the teams afford to take the risk that they might be wrong?GMK3000: Will Brian Close get a recall?Unlikely for Close to get a recall, particularly not into an England team that seems to have trouble accommodating abrasive characters, and at the age of 81, even his cat-like reflexes in the field must have dulled over the years. Plus, with the advent of helmets and body armour, the need to have a player who has the technique and temperament to knock the shine off the ball with his ribs and skull has somewhat departed from the game, and the shiny snooker-ball head which could distract a batsman by glinting baldly in the sun at short leg. In his day, though, he could have been a T20 legend, and there are moves afoot to back-date all cricketers’ pay according to how much they would have fetched at an IPL auction had the IPL existed in their day. So Garfield Sobers can be expecting a cheque for $85 million, and Geoff Boycott will be receiving a single rupee in the post next week.Here’s a question – if you could choose any cricketer from your nation’s past to parachute into your current T20 squad, who would it be? I suppose if you are Australian, Bradman would be high up your list. Alan Davidson would probably have been a tidy T20 allrounder too. India – maybe Vinoo Mankad if you wanted a tidy spin option who could chip in with some runs. Graeme Pollock, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, Aravinda de Silva, and Viv Richards would all be contenders for their respective cricketing nations. And for England, well, it would have to be Kevin Pietersen.magicdarts: Can you see any new shots (like the Dil-Scoop) being invented this tournament? The “Morgan Thraggle” might work.Good question, magicdarts. The thraggle is a very good term for the ugly reverse hoick when a batsman stands facing the bowler and flonks it with an ungainly thwack into the off side. Morgan Thraggle, incidentally, the former US Secretary of State for Swearing in the Eisenhower administration.The new shots likely to feature in this tournament include:The Tweet Sweep: a highly technical shot, in which the batsman plays an orthodox sweep shot with one hand on the bat, whilst posting a message on Twitter with his other hand about how well he’s battingThe Kohli Hair Randomiser: India’s star young batsman, who has rapidly elevated himself into one of the world’s most influential cricketers, has no fear of hair-care products. And it is rumoured that, in the Indian training camp, he has been working feverishly on an updated version of the Dil-Scoop. Batting without a helmet, Kohli scoops the ball toward the top of his highly-kempt head, where the carefully gelled peaks will then deflect the ball in unpredictable directions, making setting a field even more difficult. The shot, of course, is fraught with risk, and Kohli has apparently had his high-value face insured for $500 million.The Saloon Bar Door Thwack: To counter the prevalence of slower balls in T20, batsmen will routinely swing their bats forward then back like a saloon bar door that’s just had Clint Eastwood burst through it in a cowboy movie. If the ball is of regular pace, they will thwack it straight down the ground on the forward swing, if it is a slower ball, they will catch it on the slam-shut backward swing, blasting it past a terrified wicketkeeper at high speed.So, I will now reveal, as promised, who will inevitably win this tournament.T20 is notoriously hard to predict when it comes to one-off games… since 2005, the year T20 was birthed messily onto the international scene, in matches between the big eight Test nations that have ended in a positive result, six of those eight teams have a win percentage between 44 and 56; in both Tests and ODIs, only three of the eight teams are close to the 50% break-even point in that 44-56% slot. So, in essence, in T20, anyone can beat anyone.Propping up that T20 table, New Zealand, who have still managed to win 39% of their T20 internationals against the rest of the big eight. West Indies, with the worst record in both Tests and ODIs in that time, have won just 16% of their Tests and 26% of the ODIs. As the betting suggests, all 12 teams in the tournament will probably lose it. Apart from one. Which could be almost anyone.So, instead, we need to look for a pattern from previous tournaments that has nothing to do with cricket, since cricket, it would seem, can offer few clues as to the eventual result. In terms of averages and performances by winning teams, no clear trends emerge, other than not being useless and hitting a streak of form at the right time. But, the odd numbered World Twenty20s, the first and third ones, have been won by teams beginning with vowels, whilst the one even-numbered competition, No. 2, was won by unmistakable consonant-commencer Pakistan. So you can count Australia, England, India, Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe out of this fourth World T20 straight away. Is Z a vowel these days? I’m a bit out of the loop. Well, count Zimbabwe out anyway, probably safe to.Tournaments one and three were won by countries with odd number of letters in, but tournament No. 2 was claimed by eight-letter P-a-k-i-s-t-a-n. So this time, you can also count out 11-lettered South Africa. Furthermore, no team with two words in its name has ever won, so Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies might as well pack their bags and go home now, or, in Sri Lanka’s case, pack their bags and stay at home, but maybe go to a different part of home. And no team has ever won this trophy twice, so it’s goodbye Pakistan. I can therefore now formally reveal that the winner of the 2012 World Twenty20, according to historical precedent, will be Bangladesh. Strap in, folks, there’s going to be the grandmother of all street parties in Chittagong.History has spoken. Admittedly, history has a well-documented habit of speaking utter bilge, and not just about cricket, so just in case, here is my own personal official prediction for the 2012 World Twenty20 – South Africa to beat India in the final, chasing down 153 to win by four wickets with two balls to spare. Is that specific enough? Good. Because it will definitely happen. That has the Zaltzman guarantee. And if it does not happen, then you can download this podcast again for free.That’s all for the preview show. Thanks for your questions, and enjoy the cricket. And above all, enjoy the format of the tournament and wonder for a second or two how exciting the 50-over World Cup could be if it took roughly the same amount of time. Or at least, not more than twice the amount of time.Thanks to my special guest, WG Grace. I’ll be back next week with a mid-tournament update. Until then, may the cricket be with you. And start counting the number of times a commentator says “That was a proper cricket shot” when a short-arm cross-batted thwoick disappears into the stands at deep midwicket.Bye.

It wasn’t a big crowd at the PCA Stadium, but the lucky ones who turned up were treated to beats and a last-ball finish

Anmol Singh17-Apr-2013Choice of game
This game was on top of my must-watch list right from the time the IPL schedule was released. Firstly, it was an early-season game, so both teams were sure to still be in contention. Additionally, Kolkata were the defending champions, and the prospect of my team – Kings XI Punjab – beating them early in the season was too good to resist.Team supported
Kings XI Punjab all the way. Nothing is better than seeing your home team win, that too against top opposition. Punjab came into the game on the back of two successive losses, and another one could have derailed their campaign. This made their victory even more special.Key performer
After having a good opening IPL season which subsequently led to an India cap, Manpreet Gony lost form and was eventually lost in the crowd. He didn’t get too many chances for his new franchise, Punjab, in the lead-up to this game. When it came, it was upto him to seize the opportunity and he did it in style. He resurrected another faltering batting display from Punjab to set up a very competitive total. Punjab’s indifferent batting had silenced the crowd, but he changed that with some decisive hitting. Later, he came back to bowl an outstanding spell which turned the game Punjab’s way. It was fitting that the crowd chanted his name as he bowled the final two overs of his spell.One thing I’d have changed about the match
The game had everything I could have asked for. The weather was excellent, and the match was close. The one thing that wasn’t up to the mark was the crowd – there were a lot of empty seats across all the stands. Even the people who had turned up were quite subdued – there wasn’t a single attempt to get a Mexican wave going.Accessories
A large Kings XI flag, a zoozoo hat, and a couple of ‘6’ and ‘4’ charts was all we carried. We also had a vuvuzela and a blow horn, but they were confiscated by the police at the entrance.Wow moment
Sunil Narine’s hat-trick was easily the big moment of the day. Everybody was on their feet as the hat-trick ball was bowled and it turned out to be an absolute ripper. The crowd later clapped for his achievement even though he was from the away team, which was a nice gesture.Close encounter
Yusuf Pathan and Manpreet Gony were fielding close to our stand. There were shouts from some kids as Yusuf came near us, but he denied them the joy of an acknowledgement.Most memorable shot
There weren’t many sixes in the game but the few that were hit were huge. The last six hit by Kolkata’s Rajat Bhatia was special because it landed just two rows ahead of where we were sitting.Crowd meter
I have been a regular visitor to the PCA Stadium for the last couple of years, and this was the most sparse crowd I’ve seen here. There weren’t long lines for entry to the stadium and the passage was hassle-free, and the atmosphere inside wasn’t up to the mark. Given the team’s poor run, perhaps IPL fever hasn’t yet caught on in the city. The fact that it was a day game on a week day didn’t help matters. As things transpired, though, this was probably the best game I’ve been to. The atmosphere leading up to the final ball was unreal.Entertainment
The one thing I like about the IPL over international cricket is the amount of ‘side entertainment’ you get. The last time I was here, for an India v England match, there weren’t any announcers or music. This time though, the announcer kept the crowd busy with his innovative and catchy lines. The music was also exceptionally good and included some foot-tapping Punjabi numbers which enhanced the overall experience.Twenty20 v ODI
Yesterday, I would have probably said ODI, because it’s a more complete form of the game which adequately puts the abilities of players to test. But after this game I have changed my opinion. Though I have been to quite a few ODIs, I haven’t ever seen a game going this close. T20 is quick, fast, competitive and has great entertainment value. Having said that though, the longer version of the game is far from dead.Star spotting
There were a couple of celebrities watching the game, namely Bollywood stars Preity Zinta, who co-owns Kings XI Punjab, and Juhi Chawla, who has a stake in the KKR team. During the mid-innings break, Preity took a round of the stadium waving to the home crowd which got everyone excited.Overall
On the whole, the game was quite superb. It had all the twists and turns you expect from a T20 game, including the drama of a hat-trick. At one stage it seemed like Punjab weren’t going anywhere, but Gony powered them to a fighting score. Again, Gautam Gambhir and Eoin Morgan seemed to shut out Punjab, but Kolkata’s regular loss of wickets towards the end meant that the Kings picked up an unlikely win.Marks out of 10
I will go with a 9.5 rating for this one. The match experience was perfect, but the fact that the stands weren’t full makes me deduct half a mark.