28-Aug-2016Johnson Charles blazed away at the other end and biffed a six and two fours off the next three balls of the over•BCCICharles was going strong until Mishra got him to hole out to long-on. He had scored 43 off 25 balls•BCCILendl Simmons was done in by R Ashwin, who fired a full delivery down leg to have him stumped with a wide•BCCIJasprit Bumrah and Ashwin combined to pick up the next three wickets to reduce West Indies to 98 for 6 in 13 overs•BCCIMishra added the scalps of Dwayne Bravo and Carlos Brathwaite to finish with 3 for 24. West Indies were eventually bowled out for 143 with two balls remaining in the innings•BCCIIndia reached 15 for no loss after two overs of the chase, before rain forced the players off the field, and eventually led to play being abandoned•BCCI

Ashwin’s legbreaks, Binny’s horror over and a Dwayne Bravo special also feature in the Plays of the Day from the first T20I between India and West Indies in Florida

Sidharth Monga27-Aug-2016The overStuart Binny is not a regular starter in his IPL side. He wasn’t a part of India’s World T20 squad. Such is the nature of bilateral T20 internationals that sides tend not to make too many changes to their squads. India’s main T20 allrounders are in Australia so India didn’t bother with them, and kept Binny in the squad. We don’t know if Shikhar Dhawan was injured or unwell but it is unlikely India would have dropped him for a sixth bowler, Binny.If they did, though, the folly was brutally exposed by Evin Lewis, who threatened to break the record for most runs in a T20I over, with a wide to boost the five sixes he hit off the first five balls of Binny’s first and only over. This was the 11th over of the innings, West Indies were already 132 for 1 and this was no time or place for length-ball dobblers. Two length balls, a full toss and a short ball all disappeared, but the shot of the day was played off the slower short ball off the third legal ball of the over. This was slow, short and wide, Lewis had to go back and manufacture all his own power. He gave it an almighty whack, over cover-point, and sent it all the way over the man stationed there. Calypso hitters of yore were duly evoked.The legbreaksJohnson Charles likes to hit into the leg side. R Ashwin turns the ball in. The boundaries are small. Charles is already 38 off 16 when Ashwin is asked to bowl, inside the Powerplay. It’s a deck stacked against the bowler. Ashwin, though, tries the legbreak to at least make him hit against the turn. Charles watches one, takes a single, and when he comes back on strike it doesn’t matter which way the ball is turning. He just winds up big and swings hard to send two consecutive legbreaks for sixes, against the turn, over long-on and midwicket.The survivorWe don’t know how possessive Richard Levi is of his record for the fastest Twenty20 international hundred, in 45 balls. If he is, though, he would have had a hard time watching this match. Charles threatened to beat his record with plenty of balls to spare careening to 79 off 32 balls. Levi had some respite when Charles tried to ramp a full ball from Mohammed Shami, missed it and was bowled.The respite was momentary, though, as Lewis, 46 off 24 at the time, got on a roll and raced away to 82 off 32. Squeaky-bum time again for the record-holder, but a tight over from Ashwin when Lewis was in his 90s saved the record, by three balls.If these things indeed matter to Levi, he was in for more than just a squeaky bum. When KL Rahul effortlessly hoicked Andre Russell over midwicket for a six in the 17th over, he reached 94 off 43 balls, and looked capable of hitting a six off any ball he wanted to. Fortunately for Levi, though, Rahul had to deal with two absolute brutes next two balls. First Dwayne Bravo nearly broke his toe and nearly took his wicket with an unplayable yorker, and then Russell came back strongly with a surprise bouncer to leave Rahul at 94 off 45 balls.The non-callLewis is 90 off 40, needs 10 off the next five balls to equal Levi’s record. Ashwin is the bowler. He has famously pronounced that the T20 game is so loaded against the bowlers that a slow, short and wide ball is perhaps the best ball a spinner can bowl. So he tries his hand at the “best” ball. It is only a good ball if it is within the tram lines, though. This one isn’t. Lewis moves a little across to watch out for the swirling delivery that Ashwin bowls in Tests, but this one goes straight on and is a genuine limited-overs wide. The umpire, though, is put off by the batsman’s movement, and lets Ashwin off. Despite a six later in the over, this ball arguably costs Lewis the fastest T20I hundred.The catchWhen 276 runs come in the first 23 overs of the game, you know chances for the bowlers are few and far between. It is imperative that every half chance is converted. One such came West Indies’ way as Ajinkya Rahane ramped Andre Russell’s short ball, minutes after being sconed, to the left of third man. Against any other team you would have arguably marked four the moment the ball flew off the bat, but lurking at third man here was Dwayne Bravo. He ran to his left, cut the angle, then timed his flight of a dive perfectly and pouched the catch low in his left hand. AWOL: “champiyann dance”.

How has Kedar Jadhav gone from being an extremely irregular bowler to becoming a consistent partnership-breaker in international cricket?

Arun Venugopal28-Oct-2016India picked Kedar Jadhav for the ODI series against New Zealand on the strength of his recent batting numbers. In the Quadrangular A-team one-day series in Australia, he scored 254 runs at 63.50, finishing as the tournament’s fourth-highest run-getter. But his first big act against New Zealand would be with the ball.MS Dhoni’s decision to throw the ball to Jadhav in Dharamsala wasn’t surprising in itself; he had spent a long time bowling offspin in the nets under coach Anil Kumble’s supervision on the eve of the game. It was his immediate success that made heads turn. In the first over he bowled, Jadhav nearly had James Neesham lbw, but Bruce Oxenford turned down a strong shout.Jadhav, though, had the last word on it, getting both Neesham and Mitchell Santner out in his next over. In Delhi, he broke a 120-run stand by trapping Tom Latham in front, and took his best ODI figures, 3 for 29, in Mohali. Before the start of the series, Jadhav had one List A wicket; now he has seven.Jadhav’s success with the ball has surprised many, not least because they had no clue he could bowl. Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun, who works with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the same capacity, has never seen Jadhav bowl. “He was only a keeper for RCB so he never bowled in the nets,” Arun says. “He only used to work on his keeping. Maybe occasionally he would have bowled for fun on one or two occasions, but never seriously.”Jadhav says it was Dhoni and Kumble’s idea to groom him as a part-time bowler. The decision, it is believed, was born out of necessity; Dhoni wanted someone to replicate Suresh Raina’s role – a middle-order batsman who could sneak in a handful of overs. Raina’s failure to recover from an illness has givenJadhav an extended run, and he has now made it that much more difficult for Raina to come back into the side.While India’s batsmen have played Jadhav comfortably in the nets, New Zealand have struggled to decode him. Different theories have been offered as to why this has been the case. Arun feels it’s the low point of his release, a consequence of his short stature, that has proved deceptive; Jadhav himself has credited his success to his round-arm action and variations in pace.The questions, though, remain: how long is the honeymoon going to last? Is Jadhav a fluke or a sustainable solution to India’s middle-overs bowling problems? The former Maharashtra coach Surendra Bhave, who has worked with Jadhav since his under-19 days, says the 31-year-old is a multifaceted cricketer.”He is an allrounder in the true sense, because without too much of an experience in keeping wickets in first-class cricket, he did exceptionally well in IPL as a keeper,” Bhave says. “With people who have multiple skills, at times you feel that their success has been flukey, but you can’t call it a fluke because he has bowled well in all the four ODIs so far. So obviously he has got some skillsets that were observed by the captain.”During his time as Maharashtra coach, Bhave says he used Jadhav as a partnership-breaker in List A and T20 matches, and says his willpower stood out in pressure situations. “It’s fantastic for Kedar to have delivered because even a proper bowler gets nervous bowling his first over,” Bhave says. “That says a lot about his temperament and mental strength. He has got this gift of making subtle speed changes in his bowling and he does that consciously.”Bhave, however, says Jadhav’s true test will come when he is required to prove himself with the bat. In the three innings Jadhav has batted in so far in the series, he has scored 10*, 41 and 0. “He has done well as a bowler, but we don’t know whether it will last for few more games or he actually becomes an allrounder,” Bhave says. “We [Jadhav and I] have spoken twice or thrice [during the series] and Jadhav himself knows that he has to make a big score because this is a very strong outfit.”Whenever he gets an opportunity, he has to nail it; he has to make a big score. His batting in India A and List A cricket has got him there, and he has actually been batting very well.”Arun says Kohli has been a big influence on Jadhav, especially when it comes to fitness. “Jadhav is a really hardworking cricketer, puts in a lot of effort at the gym and does a lot of work on his batting,” Arun says. “He would work alongside Virat in the gym. I guess that’s where he would have started improving.”Bhave says Jadhav has never looked out of depth at the international level. “If you look at his List A cricket and India A cricket, his record in white-ball cricket has been impeccable,” he says. “He has been averaging around 50 in List A cricket and his consistent performances for India A tell us he’s pretty happy in the position he is in. At no point in time Kedar suffers from the feeling of inadequacy at the international level, and that’s his strength.”When you are a non-regular bowler, to bowl well in all the four matches is in itself a good achievement. That has an effect on his batting – when he is batting he is extremely at ease and he is extremely confident. Even when you saw him in under-19 cricket, you saw that this boy was exceptional.”

With Imrul Kayes and Shakib Al Hasan together, Bangladesh were surging to victory in Dhaka. Then it all went wrong. Here’s how the collapse unfolded

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Oct-201641.3 Ball to Shakib Al Hasan, OUT, he’s gone! The short ball makes the breakthrough. Shakib pulls, can’t keep it down – or beat the fielder – and is taken low down at midwicket41.4 Ball to Mosaddek Hossain, OUT, dragged on! Two in two for Ball. He is pumped. Complete silence in the stadium. Short of a length, nips back, takes the bottom edge into the stumps42.5 Rashid to Mashrafe Mortaza, OUT, and another! He’s nicked a short ball…it was there to smash, really, but he was looking to be careful and guide it to third man and instead just got a thin edge to Buttler44.1 Rashid to Imrul Kayes, 1 wide, OUT, stumped off a wide! Sharp work from Buttler and this is going wrong for Bangladesh. Rashid speared it wide, not sure whether it was entirely to plan, Imrul came down the pitch and was nowhere near reaching it. Buttler hand plenty of time to drag the ball back to complete the dismissal45.2 Ball to Mosharraf Hossain, OUT, it’s all happening! He nearly spoons a catch to mid-off, it falls short then Rashid pulls off the direct hit and they go upstairs. He’s miles out!47.5 Ball to Taskin Ahmed, OUT, it’s five to win the match! Another cutter, fingers rolled over the ball, it was fuller this time, Taskin heaving to the leg side again and he gets a top edge which is well held by Buttler diving forward

South Africa’s preferred green pitch almost backfired on them on day one at Newlands. A typically determined Dean Elgar made sure it didn’t

Firdose Moonda at Newlands02-Jan-20172:47

‘Every Test hundred is up there’ – Elgar

With old body parts, animal and human, Victor Frankenstein created life from death. With new grass, green and growing, Evan Flint, the Newlands groundsman, on the home team’s instructions, made life from dirt. Luckily Flint’s creation did not turn out to be as monstrous as Frankenstein’s but South Africa had Dean Elgar to thank for that, for there were moments when it looked as though it would.A moment in the first over, when Suranga Lakmal teased Stephen Cook with away movement three times before being rewarded with an uncertain push that took the edge and carried to the keeper. A moment in the third, when a Lakmal delivery held its line and then nipped off the seam, missing Hashim Amla’s bat and offstump but only just. A moment in the sixth over when Nuwan Pradeep’s pace beat Amla’s drive and the ball lifted enough to not graze offstump on its way through. But it was two moments three overs before lunch that would have had South Africa most worried.Sri Lanka’s 19-year-old newbie, Lahiru Kumara, bowled the ball of the day to remove Hashim Amla and then Sri Lanka’s second-choice keeper, 21-year-old Kusal Mendis, took the catch of the day to remove JP Duminy. Suddenly, the pitch did not seem to serve South African interests so well.

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Dean Elgar is a self-confessed irritant of oppositions, which requires more than technique; he has the personality to play on a pitch like this. It was a pitch that demanded a bit of a fight and a lot of focus.He was up against a Sri Lankan attack which, encouraged by early movement, showed more intent than they did in the second innings in Port Elizabeth and got better results than even in the first. For a while. They tried things: short balls, spin from both ends, a packed leg-side field. And they got some reward. Temba Bavuma was out pulling and Faf du Plessis gave it away after a let-off. But Elgar was not going to do the same.There were enough balls on the pads to feed his leg-side strength – 80 of his 129 runs came in that area – and enough gaps on the offside to ensure he was never bogged down. There was also enough of an incentive for Elgar to will himself on.He scored 45 and 52 in the first Test, where he shared two century stands with Stephen Cook. Elgar looked good enough to convert both of those scores into something bigger but poor shot selection let him down. He would have known more was expected of him. More caution. More concentration. More runs.Until he nicked off late in the day to the second new ball, Elgar played a chanceless innings and put South Africa in what they will consider a strong position despite being six down. More than that, he seemed to shut the door on the monster and proved his captain right.

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Pre-match. Faf du Plessis talked up his team’s willingness to play on green tops. He said there were “not scared” of early movement and hinted that there are some teams who were.Not only was du Plessis acknowledging an open secret but he went further than that and admitted that South Africa are ordering pitches like one would food off a menu. They like theirs green and as juicy as possible. Given the drought that has gripped the country for more than a year – its so dry that South Africa’s assistant coach Adrian Birrell admitted if it does not rain by this evening he will have to seriously consider getting rid of the cattle on his farm because they will die of thirst – only the former can be organised.Lahiru Kumara struck twice in his third over to remove Hashim Amla and JP Duminy•AFPThere will continue to be conversations about the extent to which teams should be allowed to tailor conditions to suit their strengths. South Africa will point to India and the spinner-friendly surfaces they were presented with last summer. South Africa’s detractors will point to these two pitches, and say payback was meted out to the wrong opposition. The evidence is that these surfaces are offering a fair contest between bat and ball albeit without the turn, which is what most groundsman say they aim for.Flint is not known for leaving this much grass on his pitch, not even when South Africa bowled Australia out for 47. That match happened in November, an unusually early time of year to play Test cricket in Cape Town, and the surface was considered underprepared. There was just enough movement on offer for Vernon Philander to have his way.Imagine if he had been let loose on this deck first up. It may have unleashed a real monster and Sri Lanka may just be pleased they didn’t have to put up with that.

Pakistan’s most defeats in a Test year, Starc collects an MCG record, and other stats highlights from the fifth day of the second Test between Australia and Pakistan in Melbourne

Bharath Seervi30-Dec-20165 Instances of a team scoring over 400 batting first, and losing by an innings. Three of those have come in this month, with England losing twice, at Wankhede and Chepauk, and now Pakistan at MCG. Before this, there were only two such defeats in Test history, for England in 1930 and Sri Lanka in 2011.5 Number of consecutive Tests lost by Pakistan – one against West Indies, two to New Zealand and now two to Australia. This is their joint-longest losing streak ever. They had lost five in 1999-00 as well when a 3-0 whitewash in Australia was followed by two losses to Sri Lanka at home.2 Occasions of a team losing by an innings after declaring any of their innings. Australia, under Michael Clarke, lost after declaring on 237 for 9 in Hyderabad in 2012-13, and now, Pakistan after declaring on 443 for 9. Overall, this is the 21st instance of a team losing after declaring their first innings. Four of those have been at the MCG. apart from Adelaide (2), no other venue has had more than one instance. The previous such instance at the MCG also involved Pakistan when they lost after declaring on 574 for 8 in 1972-73.1 Out of the 43 double-centuries scored by Pakistan batsmen, Azhar Ali’s is the first one to have ended in defeat. The previous highest score in a defeat for Pakistan was Mohammad Hafeez’s 197 against New Zealand in Sharjah in 2014-15. Overall, this is the 17th double-century to have come in a losing cause, and only the fourth by an opener. However, only one other double-century has come in an innings defeat, by Len Hutton against West Indies at The Oval in 1950.7 Tests lost by Pakistan this year – their most in any calendar year. They won four of their first six Tests, but ended up losing the next five. Their previous most was six defeats, in 1995 and 2010.Australia put up a record team total at the MCG•ESPNcricinfo Ltd8 for 624 declared The highest total at the MCG in Test cricket. Australia beat their own record of 604 runs that was scored in the 1936-37 Ashes. This is also Australia’s highest total against Pakistan surpassing the 617 in Faisalabad in 1979-80.5.64 Australia’s run rate in the first session on fifth day of this Test; they made 159 runs in 28.1 overs. Steven Smith added 65 to his overnight tally in only 78 balls, while Starc smashed 84 off 91 balls.369* Runs scored by Smith in his last three innings at the MCG without being dismissed. He scored 134* and 70* in last year’s Boxing Day Test against West Indies and has followed it with 165* in this Test. Smith averages 127.60 in five matches at the MCG, the second highest by any player with five or more innings, behind Don Bradman’s 128.53.154 Runs added by Smith and Mitchell Starc – the third highest for the seventh wicket at the MCG. Greg Matthews and Graham Yallop had added 185 against Pakistan in 1983-84, which is the highest. This was Australia’s second 150-plus stand of the innings and both came at run rate of more than five – David Warner and Usman Khawaja had shared 198 at 5.55 per over and Smith and Starc at 5.37.7 Sixes hit by Starc in his 91-ball 84 – the most in an individual innings at the MCG. He bettered Andrew Symonds’ six sixes against South Africa in 2005 Boxing Day Test. This was Starc’s eight fifty of his Test career. For Australia only Mitchell Johnson (12) and Shane Warne (11) have made more fifty-plus scores batting at No. 8 or lower. 14 sixes have been hit in the first two innings of this Test, already the joint most in any MCG Test.60.63 Smith’s average in Tests after his 165 not out – the highest in his career so far. This is the second time his average has passed 60, at the end of a match. The first was in his 41st Test in Christchurch earlier in this year after he made 138 and 53 not out. His average is now the fifth highest among all batsmen who made 2000-plus runs.207 Runs conceded by Yasir Shah from his 41 overs – the second most by any bowler in an innings in Australia. His economy rate of 5.04 is the worst by any bowler to have bowled 25 or more overs at the MCG.

The second-innings century, which steadily shut India out of the Pune Test, underlined the clarity and flexibility of Steven Smith’s plans and his assessment of the conditions and the opposition

Sidharth Monga in Pune 25-Feb-2017″But can he do it on a cold, wet Tuesday night in Stoke?”The beauty of this line lies in the many forms it took. The exact words of the question football pundit Andy Gray asked of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi are near impossible to trace – because of the countless caricatures it spawned – but on the surface it seemed to be a put-down of all football outside the English Premier League. Scratch the surface, and you might see a semblance of reason to it. That conditions – symbolised by chilly, rainy Stoke – are after all important, especially when playing against a team that plays exceptionally well at home.Because this statement involved Messi – arguably the greatest of all time – the fans thought of Gray more as a pirate than pundit: one-eyed. Thus began its mockery, using the quote in any context to mock-question anything. The IPL auction, for example, pays out the most ridiculous amounts of money, but can it pay its hotel bill on a cold day in Stoke?Cricket has its own versions because conditions are way more significant in this sport than football. If you were to mock it, you could bring up IPL and a searing hot May night in Anytown, India. On more serious notes, May in Durham is often brought up when someone is scoring runs elsewhere. The WACA Ground pitch of the old was a test you had to ace before being rated. Of late, though, the geography is changing. For two years now, it has been time to ask of anyone scoring tons of Test runs, “But can he do it on a warm day against R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in India?”Coming into the Pune Test, India, the No. 1 side in the world, had last lost a Test at home in December 2012, a full 20 matches ago. Their recent unbeaten streak at home and away stretched to 19 Tests. They had the two top bowlers in the ICC rankings, one of whom is the fastest to 250 wickets and is a good bet to keep that record at 300 too. New Zealand, England and Bangladesh had been dominated already. Australia were given no chance despite boasting a batsman who averaged more than 60. The only question everybody asked after Steven Smith’s recent centuries was, “But can he do it on a turning track in India?”As a batting unit, Australia came with a reputation of being excellent dominators on flat tracks but prone to collapses on ones that called for application. Those collapses had become this all-consuming, almighty force that swept everything in their wake. They collapsed even from positions of strength, losing in Kandy and Perth to name two, so some memories would have come back when they lost two wickets in seven overs in the second innings.They needed someone to make sure they didn’t give India a window by getting bowled out for 150. “But could Smith do it on a Bunsen against Ashwin and Jadeja?”What followed was a workshop in batting on extreme pitches in particular and spin in general. The plans were in place before he walked out to bat. A little background is in order. Smith is an obsessive yet flexible batsman. The obsession shows in how after he was given out lbw to South Africa left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj when halfway down the wicket, he stepped out only once in the 100 balls of spin he faced in that home series. He swept only once; the sweep is not his favourite shot.”I did advance once at the start of the summer and got out lbw,” Smith said on arrival in Mumbai. “So I decided to stay back in my crease a little bit. You can do that in Australia with the wickets, they’re pretty consistent with their turn and bounce. I have different game plans where I play, and how I play spin. That’s going to change from playing at the WACA to the first Test in Pune. I’m pretty clear with the way I play.”While one could point to the dropped catches he benefited from, they take nothing away from the application and methodology Smith showed at the crease•AFPHere Smith knew he would have to sweep, he knew he would have to come down the track to score runs. He knew he couldn’t afford to play a forward-defensive. Spinners say you have got to bowl fuller on these pitches because you want the batsmen to defend off the front foot. You don’t want to let them go back because then the ball turns past the edge.Smith went back at the slightest opportunity he got. Jadeja kept turning the ball past his outside edge, creating excitement in the field, but Smith was nonplussed. He often smiled, almost mocking Jadeja’s inability to either pitch it up or control the amount of turn.Smith also kept playing the line of the ball to guard against the ball that doesn’t turn. A day before this Test, he admitted it was near impossible to pick the ball that comes out as an offbreak but doesn’t turn after pitching. He also said against such bowling you have to eliminate one half of the bat. He practised what he preached. He batted in a way where he was not going to be beaten on the inside edge. If you get the outside edge, hard luck, but do not at any cost let the straighter ball sneak past the inside edge to get you lbw. When the ball turned, he didn’t follow it with his hands.Smith hardly lunged forward in defence, unlike the India batsmen who tried to meet the ball on the half-volley only in defence, leaving themselves open to edges because of the extreme nature of the pitch. This was great percentage batting. He knew with the ball turning so much he could hardly be given out lbw, which gave him the confidence of staying back when he defended. He left the crease or moved forward only when he intended to get runs.Outside loose balls, a significant proportion of Smith’s runs came through sweeps and advances down the wicket. In the second innings he played 14 orthodox and three reverse sweeps for 16 runs. He left the crease on a whopping 25 occasions for 21 runs even though he had lost his wicket in the first innings when charging at Ashwin. He knew this was a kind of pitch where while you have to trust your defence, you also have to do unto the bowlers before they do unto you.There will be those who will point to Smith’s luck with dropped catches, but even if he had been caught on 23, Smith had shown that his method worked on this pitch. He had shown it did in the first innings, too. Returns of 27 and 23 would have been perfectly acceptable on this pitch, but Smith cashed in on the drop and went on to score more runs than India’s first-innings score in the most challenging of conditions.Just let the facts sink in: this is a second-innings hundred on a rank turner in India against the two best bowlers in the world. Kevin Pietersen scored a hundred in Mumbai in 2012-13 that should rival this, but it was on a better pitch than this. And that innings was all genius; this was about method, about application, about hard work. The runs were immaterial; Smith had shown everybody the way to bat on this pitch. And now he can score all the hundreds he wants outside India without being asked, “But can he do it on a warm day in India?”

Mitchell Santner talks about his role in the side, his role model, and the adjustments spinners must make in different conditions

Interview by Mohammad Isam29-Jan-2017Do you have to show patience as a spinner in New Zealand?
I think so. In New Zealand it doesn’t really spin as much as it does in the subcontinent. Later in a Test match, on day four or five, I get to bowl on some footmarks, but generally it doesn’t really spin off the straight. I guess my role depends on the situation of the game. It might just be a holding role, to try to let the big boys go at the other end.But you thrive in subcontinent conditions?
As a spinner, you want the ball to spin. On those types of wickets, it is always fun to go and bowl. It is not easy, though, to play in India, where the ball does spin but they are very good players of spin. You have to work very hard for your wickets. Coming from New Zealand, where it doesn’t spin, you have to change your line and length when it is spinning. But every time I get to go there, it is pretty cool.What adjustments do you make when bowling in New Zealand?
Here, it doesn’t turn as much. You try to get a bit of bounce, so you try to bowl with more overspin to get the ball to bounce. Over in places like Bangladesh, you might try to get some side spin out of the wickets. You have to change your seam position, depending on where you are bowling.

“I only started bowling spin when I was 15, and that was from watching Vettori. He has been a role model of mine”

How important is your batting to the team?
Since I do not bowl as many overs as I would overseas, it is good to be able to contribute with the bat as well. No. 6 is where I want to bat, so the more runs I can get, the more opportunities at No. 6 – that is what I am looking for.Was the first game of the 2016 World T20 your best moment?
It is up there. To go to India, where I hadn’t played much before, to come up against India in the first game was pretty nerve-wracking. I think as a bowling group we bowled very well together. Ish Sodhi and Nathan McCullum did very well in that game.We’ve heard that your hero was Daniel Vettori
I only started bowling spin when I was 15, and that was from watching Vettori. He has been a role model of mine, growing up. If I can take half as many wickets as he did, I would be pretty happy.”No. 6 is where I want to bat, so the more runs I can get, the more opportunities at No. 6 – that is what I am looking for”•Getty ImagesAre you looking for a role similar to his within the team?
He had that all-round role, which is something I want – to be able to contribute with bat and ball. So he is perfect as a role model. I think he scored six hundreds batting down at No. 8. It is something I want to strive for, and also take wickets as well.Tell us a bit about your cricket as a young boy.
I started playing cricket when I was five or six. I bowled medium pace. I was really short []. I didn’t get much bounce out of the wicket, so I guess spin looked a bit easier. I did not grow to full height till I was 17 or 18. I am happy that I switched to spin.What are your targets as an international cricketer?
I want to play all three formats consistently for New Zealand. Play a role for the team with both bat and ball. Being a genuine allrounder in all three formats is my goal. I have to keep striving for that.Test cricket is the pinnacle, but then I do like bowling with the white ball. It is a different challenge. I am happy if I can play all three formats for a few more years.What role does spin play in T20?
Depending on the surface or the situation of the game, spinners do have a role in T20s. The change of pace can be upsetting for the batsmen, but you still have to bowl in good areas and execute. Bad balls from spinners go out of the park, just like bad balls from seamers. Spinners have thrived in shorter formats; batsmen are adapting but there is still a place for it.

Tom Moody, the Sunrisers Hyderabad coach, looks ahead to the new season, and the challenge of working with players coming off long international tours

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi04-Apr-2017It must start again all over again – the campaign.
Absolutely. Last year was a wonderful experience. It will be a treasured moment for everyone at Sunrisers. But certainly the page is turned. We need to reinvigorate and challenge ourselves. We again have another opportunity.Do you look to repeat the things that worked last season?
You need to constantly evolve as a coach, as a player and as a team. The same things don’t tend to work day in day out, particularly in a fast-moving game like T20. The style of cricket, the brand you play, the game plan you have in place will naturally change with the personnel changes in the squad every year.You said you were busy with player meetings earlier today. How important are these meetings?
That is one thing that hasn’t changed. Over the years in the IPL, it is important to catch up with players one on one. I do that with my assistant coach. It is important to understand exactly where the players are with their game, what are the things they are concentrating on, the areas they are looking to develop and improve, how we can help them in those areas. The other thing is role clarity – to give them a clear understanding of why we were keen to get them at the auction, why we selected them, and where I see them fitting into our plans for the season.So it is a relationship you need to nurture at all times?
The coach-player relationship is not one that starts at the beginning of the IPL and finishes the day the tournament ends. It is a relationship that is carried out throughout the year. I keep in touch with the players whether they are playing domestic or international cricket. It can even be a congratulatory message or just a simple “Hi, how are you getting on?” That is a very important part of building a positive and open team environment.

“Afghanistan have always bowled Rashid at the heat of the moment. That, to me, showed he is a player who not only has skill but also the character”

What is it like when you have senior players, some of whom are the core group of the franchise, just coming out of a long and hard-fought series, like your captain David Warner, who didn’t make a lot of runs during the India tour?
It is interesting you mention his name. I have only just been in communication with him ten minutes ago on WhatsApp. Since he was going to Australia very briefly, I was just joining the dots with him to make sure both of us were on the same page. It boils down to the communication. I am in regular contact with Davey, whether that is for supporting his quest to perform for Australia or regarding our plans for the IPL this year.I understand there are certain players that are going to be coming into the tournament a little bit more mentally and physically fatigued than others, more so your international stars. But in saying that they also accept the responsibility they have taken in being part of the IPL and being senior figures in franchises. They would be expected to step up come the first game on April 5.It is a reasonably easy exercise. Whether it be Kane Williamson or Warner or Bhuvneshwar Kumar, if you have the regular communication then it is an easy position to come in and have a conversation with them. To make sure you have a clear understanding of where they are physically and mentally, to tell them that we have empathy and understanding of where they are, and we will try to be as flexible as possible. These players have huge commitment all year around, and they also have their own personal commitment with family. So understanding of these things is important. If that is seen by the players, you tend to generally get a positive response, because they appreciate you understanding them as a person and not just as a cricketer.Let us revisit the last season. Could you go back to how you felt when you achieved the title one fine Sunday evening?
It was one of those moments all the hard work, all that energy and all that commitment you make – you get this feeling of huge satisfaction and reward. It was just an overwhelming, euphoric feeling.”For us, Yuvraj is that No. 4 batsman who goes out and plays with freedom and continues to be a dynamic and destructive player he is known to be”•BCCIIf you look at numbers purely, Sunrisers’ campaign was guided by just two batsmen, your openers. That was incredible, right?
There was no question that there were some remarkable individual performances that led the campaign to be a successful one last year. The real cornerstone to our success was firstly our captain, David Warner, and his extraordinary season, and secondly, his partnership with Shikhar Dhawan. Both shared the best opening combination of the tournament. You can look at any numbers, but if you have got your top order firing, you go a long way towards building a strong total that one can defend or chase down.We also had situations where, because of that dominance of the top two, there were limited opportunities for others to shine. That was purely because the number of balls consumed by our top order really took the shine away from our middle order. Having said that, we had a number of cameos from our middle order that were significant in us winning games. Probably one of the most significant was Ben Cutting in the final.So you are saying the middle order did not get much time to flourish?
I am just saying that was a possible reason. This year may be very different – though I hope not – where our Nos. 3, 4 and 5 are going to have to make far more considerable contributions.Dhawan has been out of the Test squad. Do you reckon the good season he had last IPL might motivate him to fight for his place?
Shikhar has struck some tidy form. He had a good hundred and a half-century just recently [in the Deodhar Trophy]. The IPL is a truly big stage to perform, whether you are an international or domestic player, because people recognise it is an extremely competitive and tough tournament. If you are scoring runs or taking wickets, it is worth noting. I am sure Shikhar has that burning hunger and desire to find himself back in the Indian squad. Another big season in the IPL would put his name in front of the selectors.Another big-name Indian player is Yuvraj Singh. You spoke about role clarity. What is his role in the team?
The fortunate thing to have Yuvraj is, he has got a huge amount of experience. Yuvraj totally understands what his role is and how he fits into the team and how important he is to the team. For us he is that No. 4 batsman who goes out and plays with freedom and continues to be the dynamic and destructive player he is known to be.

“We set out to target both international and local spinners while also trying to cover our bases in the fast bowling department, with Mustafizur only available for four or five games”

Ashish Nehra, Mustafizur Rahman and Barinder Sran are part of your fast bowling bench. Was it more intuition, or did you do some number-crunching to pick left-arm bowlers last year?
A bit of both. We were very aware of the numbers behind left-arm fast bowlers and the benefit of having them. We recognised that having the experience of Nehra was very important to our attack. He did not play as much as he or we would have liked to due to injury last year, but just his presence was a key, considering we had a young bowling group. He will again play an important role this year.You managed to pull it off with a dominant pace attack. Do you think that proved to be the right strategy?
That was more coincidence than design. In the early part of the tournament we felt that we were not getting the impact with our slower bowlers. We felt the likes of Moises Henriques and others needed to fill that void in the middle overs, and they do it cleverly with changes of pace. Like most teams, we did not rely on spinners [who bowled a total of 50.2 overs for six wickets].What fine-tuning has been necessary after last year’s victory?
We felt we needed to have a rethink around our strategy with spin bowling. We also realised Mustafizur was not going to be available for the whole tournament [because of international commitments]. We set out to target both international and local spinners while also trying to cover our bases in the fast bowling department, with Mustafizur only available for four or five games.One big surprise was Sunrisers picking two Afghanistan spinners – Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. It surely was not a spur-of-the-moment decision to pick the pair.
Very far from spur of the moment. It was a very, very thought-out strategy. Both were very worthy of playing in the IPL. Rashid has shown over a long period of time that he has something that is quite unique. He has the ability to deceive batsmen at whatever level – both right- and left-handed – and whatever format of the game with his legspin. We have huge confidence of him fitting into our squad easily. I am not going to call him an X-factor. To me he is just a clever spinner. He spins the ball both ways and quite often batsmen are unsure which way it is going.”The real cornerstone to our success was firstly our captain David Warner and his extraordinary season, and secondly, his partnership with Shikhar Dhawan”•BCCIThe other thing that appealed to me about Rashid is that Afghanistan have always bowled him at the heat of the moment. He is not bowling the easy overs in the middle of the innings. He is given the responsibility to bowl under pressure every single time. It is part of their strategy. Because he is skilful and he has obviously got the temperament, he bowls under pressure and he does it well. That, to me, showed he is a player who not only has skill but also character.I have been an admirer of Mohammad Nabi for a couple of years. He has been a bit of an unsung hero in the rise of Afghanistan cricket. He has been successful when he has played in other T20 leagues. He was an important option to have in our squad because we really did not have an international allrounder that could bowl spin. He is also a player who has been around for a long period of time, understands the game, has got maturity. I generally feel that players of that caliber, who have got experience and maturity, are assets to any team.What will be the challenge for Sunrisers this season?
To me, it is not so much asking us as reigning champions defending our title. That is not what it is about. It is about us looking to improve on what we did last year. There are certain areas we feel that we can improve, and if we focus on just those small aspects of our game as a team, we hope that the results will reflect that and we will be playing finals cricket again. Ultimately every team wants to climb into the top four. That is the first milestone every franchise wants to achieve. For us to do that, we need to be focusing on how we need to continue to improve.

Sri Lanka’s lackadaisical fielding, a strange sense of calm around a superstar and an umpiring decision among the talking points in the first ODI

Mohammad Isam25-Mar-2017A collision that could’ve hurt real badSri Lanka had a number of boundary line errors. Not running hard enough, diving over the ball and letting it go through the legs figured prominently among those. It started with a collision that could have turned dangerous. In the fourth over, Lakshan Sandakan and Sachith Pathirana pursued a Tamim Iqbal clip through square leg. While they couldn’t stop the boundary, they clattered into each other. Somehow, they managed to save themselves serious injury. Sandakan was lucky that in the ensuing roll out from the collision, Pathirana didn’t end up stamping down his spikes on his fingers.The catchIf the Sandakan-Pathirana collision showed Sri Lanka’s fielding in a comic light, Upul Tharanga’s catch at cover somewhat restored the balance from the critics’ prism. The effort – a low catch diving fully forward – not just temporarily lifted the side but also prevent Bangladesh from chancing runs anywhere near him for a while.Monk ShakibOver the last six months, Shakib Al Hasan has often been criticised for his ultra-aggressive approach in dicey periods in Tests, the second evening of the Colombo Test where he survived two chances only to return the next day and completely shut out risk to make a century being a prime example. Here too, he showed similar restraint after Bangladesh lost two wickets in the space of five deliveries. He struck his first boundary only off the 37th delivery he faced. Did the change in mindset hamper Bangladesh? If at all, it only gave them the edge as he accelerated superbly in the end overs.Moments of frustration Whether Upul Tharanga’s heal was behind the crease or not, in the fourth over, turned out to be the most talked-about decision in the game. Ultimately the third umpire S Ravi decided after looking at multiple replays from every possible angle that Tharanga was not out even though visual evidence suggested otherwise. Bangladesh had every reason to be frustrated, but not more than those in the Sri Lankan change rooms when their captain played daft shot to get out. His lame pull off Taskin Ahmed in the 11th over floated to Mashrafe Mortaza at mid-on. Being three down for not much in a steep chase meant the heat was well and truly on.