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Stats preview to the first Test between Australia and Pakistan in Melbourne

S Rajesh24-Dec-2009Pakistan haven’t yet won a Test series in Australia, and have lost the last six in a row, but they’ll feel they have a reasonable chance of arresting that sequence in the three-Test series that gets underway in Melbourne on Boxing Day. Australia have blanked Pakistan 3-0 in their last two series in Australia – their last nine Tests here have all produced results – but Australia have been less dominant of late, and the venues for the matches – Sydney and Hobart are the other two – are expected to suit Pakistan.It’s been 14 years since Pakistan won a Test in Australia – they haven’t won since Sydney in 1995 – but even that was in a dead rubber after Australia had won the first two matches and sealed the series. The last time Pakistan triumphed when a series was still alive was way back in 1979, in Melbourne, in a match made famous for Sarfraz Nawaz’s haul of 9 for 86 in the second innings. During the three-year period between 1979 and 1981 Pakistan won twice at the MCG, but since then they’ve lost two out of three. (Click here for the full list.)

As you’d expect of a team which has been utterly dominant through most of the last two decades, Australia have a superb record at this ground. They’ve won eight out of nine Tests in the 2000s, with their only defeat coming in their most recent outing, against South Africa in the Boxing Day Test last year. Since 1990, Australia have a win-loss ratio of five, which is next only to Brisbane among their five regular Test venues. The other aspect that stands out is the number of decisive results this ground has produced – the last 11 Tests have all had a winner, and the last draw came way back in 1997.

Among the Australian batsmen in the current squad who’ve played more than a Test here, Ricky Ponting has by far the best record, while Michael Hussey has struggled. In 22 innings Ponting has eight innings of 50 or more, including 101 and 99 in his most recent Test here, against South Africa. Hussey, on the other hand, has one 50-plus score in four Tests, and it came in his very first innings here, against South Africa in 2005. Since then, his six innings read 31, 6, 2, 36, 0, 2.

Among the Pakistan players in the current squad, only Mohammad Yousuf has played more than three Tests in Australia. His average in 12 innings is a modest 33, but it includes a majestic 111 at the MCG the last time he played here, in 2004, a match in which he also led the side. Salman Butt impressed on that tour, scoring 225 runs including a hundred and a 70, but Kamran Akmal, who was in such splendid form with the bat in New Zealand, has some catching up to do – in six innings he has managed only 77 runs.Both bowling attacks are fairly inexperienced and haven’t bowled much in Melbourne, but recent stats show that both fast bowlers and spinners have enjoyed the conditions here. Fast bowlers have a better average and strike rate, but spinners have had success too. The two five-fors by spinners belong to legspinners Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill, which suggests conditions might suit Danish Kaneria too.

The team batting first has won four out of nine Tests since 2000, but the captain winning the toss has batted first seven times out of nine. The average runs per wicket in each innings indicates there is little to choose between batting first and putting in the opposition. Whatever the captain opts for, there’s a high likelihood of a result at the end of five days.

Thursday’s World Cup game between South Africa and West Indies will be the first international game at the Feroz Shah Kotla after the India-Sri Lanka ODI was abandoned in December 2009

Sharda Ugra in Delhi23-Feb-2011When West Indies meets South Africa at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Thursday, it won’t merely be Graeme Smith and Darren Sammy’s men who will be tested. The Feroz Shah Kotla itself is on trial. The first World Cup match between two non-hosting frontline teams is Kotla’s first international match after the India-Sri Lanka ODI was abandoned on December 29, 2009.For a cricket ground that nestles close to the oldest medieval parts of India’s extremely status-conscious capital, Thursday will about more than just cricket. It will be about Kotla saving face; restoring not merely pride, but that very Delhi essential, appearance.At the moment though, all is looking good. For the last six years since the Kotla’s makeover, usually every inch of the frontage of the large, unnamed North Stand at its Delhi Gate end is usually festooned with advertising hoardings whose intentions are not merely to sell products, but also to hurt the human eye. On the eve of its first World Cup game, though, all the stands actually appear almost dignified, covered by the ICC’s uniform signage, making the architect’s unspoilt image, somewhat visible.Yet tomorrow, neither signage nor stands will matter. They are but the window dressing to what will actually count: what happens on its wicket. The Kotla track has spent a good portion of its life being a , the Indian cricketing colloquialism for a flat track, before it morphed into a pit viper as 2009 drew to an end. Abandoned and deemed dangerous by international cricket, the team in charge of the Kotla wicket will spend Wednesday night hoping that they have shape-shifted the serpent into a batting-friendly lamb.West Indian Dwayne Bravo left all that in the hands of the ICC saying that had the ground had not been fit to stage an ODI, the governing body wouldn’t have approved it. South Africa captain Graeme Smith was a bit more cautious, calling the wicket an “unknown factor” before Thursday’s game. There is a good chance that the anxious officials of the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) think of it in the same manner.The last game staged at the Kotla was four months ago, when Delhi hosted two Ranji Trophy matches against Bengal and Gujarat in November to test out the wicket laid out after the December 2009 disaster. Scores at the Kotla from that November read: 473, 459, 92 for 3 followed by 71, 437 and 289. The World Cup match will be played not on the “abandoned” patch of land but on the same wicket that staged the Delhi v Bengal game.After the match with Gujarat, Delhi moved all its home games to its other ground at the Roshanara Club, which is what they turn to when “outrights” (victories that carry five points) are needed. The Kotla is the ground where the home team turns up to give its batsmen enough time in the middle. The DDCA officials maintain that once the ICC’s pitch advisor Andy Atkinson had approved the wicket and asked them to give it some ‘rest’ to let the grass grow, they decided to put it into its winter hibernation.Nothing would make the DDCA’s officials happier than if the Kotla awakes on Thursday with the back in its soul with plenty of runs for the taking. The DDCA’s much-maligned officials want their fortress to stand up for their reputations and not become the cricket World Cup’s second disaster zone, following Eden Gardens. Which is probably why there were two policemen wielding rifles found standing around the pitch all day as organisers practiced their pre- and post-match ceremonies and tried out the sound system. (A marvellously powerful rendition of left the South African journalists working in the press box undecided over what was to be shown more respect – their anthem or their deadline.)The unmistakeable figure of Atkinson wandered over to the pitch at regular intervals and even made for a great photo op as he sat on one of Kotla’s light rollers. Match referee Jeff Crowe began his perambulation of the ground as everyone fussed over the wicket: men with guns, Atkinson, ICC officials testing the firmness of its mid-section, groundsmen. Maybe the Kotla will surprise us all tomorrow – neither nor pit viper, but just the ideal venue for an entertaining 100 overs.

Five ways Australia lost the World Cup

Brydon Coverdale25-Mar-2011Spin – bowling it and facing it
On the subcontinent, spin was always going to be a key factor. Australia did not select Nathan Hauritz due to a shoulder injury, nor Xavier Doherty due to a back problem, and the lack of a quality limited-overs slow bowler cost them. Jason Krejza can spin the ball sharply, but he doesn’t have the variety of the best spinners in world cricket. He was easily milked for runs and managed only five wickets at 55.60 in his seven appearances. Steven Smith wasn’t any better, and was dropped for the quarter-final. Equally, the Australian batsmen struggled to score freely against the impressive spinners from India, Pakistan and even Zimbabwe. They hardly used their feet and allowed the bowlers to dictate terms.Not enough wickets from pace bowlers

There’s a common road sign in India that reads “speed thrills but kills”. It’s a sentiment that could be applied to Australia’s attack. Given that spin was Australia’s weakness, their three-pronged pace group of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson needed to rip through opposition line-ups. None of them bowled terribly, and each man shone at times. But Australia needed more than that; given their propensity to leak runs, the trio had to be completely dominant. The only teams they dismissed were Zimbabwe, New Zealand and Canada.Misfiring middle order
Of course, the fast men didn’t always have enough runs on the board to defend. Cameron White was the major culprit in the middle order. He was out of form right throughout the tournament – in fact, throughout Australia’s home summer as well. He batted six times in the World Cup for scores of 22, 22 not out, 2, 4 not out, 8 and 12. Ricky Ponting’s unwavering defence of White didn’t help; dropping him for David Hussey might have improved their chances. Until the quarter-final, Ponting himself struggled for runs as well, and Michael Clarke was the middle-order man who impressed the most.A platform, but nothing more
It might seem harsh to criticise Brad Haddin and Shane Watson, who were Australia’s two leading run scorers in the tournament. But neither of them made a century, and in the matches that mattered, against Pakistan and India, their opening stands were worth 12 and 40. It wasn’t enough. A big start goes a long way to setting up a winning total, and the only times they really achieved that were against the minnows Canada, and in a low-pressure chase against New Zealand.Losing to Pakistan

Yes, losing to India was the knockout blow, but had Australia found a way to beat Pakistan they would not have ended up facing India in Ahmedabad in a knockout quarter-final. Instead, they would have played a much more winnable match against West Indies in Dhaka. And given that Pakistan had beaten Australia only once in their past 10 encounters leading in to the final group match, it was a costly slip for Ponting’s men.

England struggled against the spinners and their final total proved too small for Sri Lanka’s record-breaking opening pair

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan26-Mar-2011England’s biggest chance to win was if they could pile up a big total and apply pressure on an untested and shaky Sri Lankan middle order. While the toss did go in England’s favour, nothing much after went according to plan. The spin-heavy attack of Sri Lanka stifled the scoring in the initial overs so much so that England just managed to reach their fifty in the 16th over. The partnership between Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan for the fourth wicket was in sharp contrast to the batting in the rest of the innings. Trott was assured throughout while Morgan took a few risks to provide some impetus to an otherwise slow-paced innings. However, Morgan’s fall just before the batting Powerplay proved crucial. Only 23 runs were scored in the five overs of the Powerplay for the loss of two wickets. An unfit Muttiah Muralitharan proved slightly more expensive than usual, but picked up two crucial wickets including that of Trott. Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath were outstanding conceding just 81 runs in their 20 overs.Sri Lanka nullified any hopes that England may have harboured with a fantastic opening stand. The opening pair which had put on 282 against Zimbabwe was superb again against the new ball. Tharanga set the tone early by stepping down the track to Swann and hitting him for the first six of the game. Dilshan, who looked out of sorts early, soon found his touch and increased the tempo. While it took 28 overs for England to reach the 100-run mark, Sri Lanka achieved the same in just 19 overs. England stuttered through the batting Powerplay losing three wickets and passed 200 only in the 47th over. Sri Lanka, on the other hand passed 200 in just the 36th over. The 230-run target which was supposed to be competitive was hopelessly inadequate on a day where the Sri Lankan openers were in top form against a ragged England attack. The fact that Sri Lanka scored more boundaries in their first 20 overs than England did in their entire innings is a clear indicator of how England struggled to come to grips with the spin attack and the conditions. Overall, Sri Lanka hit 22 fours and three sixes whereas England managed just 12 fours in their innings.

More stats from the gameSri Lanka’s score of 231 for 0 is the highest target chased successfully without the loss of a single wicket in a World Cup match surpassing the 221 by West Indies against Pakistan in the 1992 World Cup.Dilshan and Tharanga put on their second 200-plus stand of their tournament. No other batting pair has shared more than one 200-plus partnership in the same World Cup tournament.Both opening batsmen scored centuries during the ten-wicket win. It is the 2nd time in World Cups and 23rd time in ODIs that both openers have scored centuries in the innings.The ten-wicket win is the 2nd in a knockout game in World Cups following Pakistan’s win over West Indies in Mirpur. The win is also Sri Lanka’s second ten-wicket win in World Cups and fifth overall in ODIs.Trott, in the course of his 86, became the highest run-getter in the World Cup. He now has 422 runs in seven matches at an average of 60.28.Only on two occasions have England scored fewer fours in an innings score of over 200 in ODIs since 2000. The lowest is ten fours against Australia in Sydney in January 2011.Tharanga, with his sixth 200-plus stand, moved level second with Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly on the list of players to be involved in the most 200-plus stands in ODIs. Ricky Ponting is on top with seven 200-plus stands in ODIs.

Sunil Narine’s subtle variations proved too much for Chennai Super Kings

Nitin Sundar at the MA Chidambaram Stadium03-Oct-2011After coming unstuck in the dying moments twice in two games, Trinidad & Tobago produced a bowling performance of almost indescribable variety to keep their Champions League campaign afloat. Leading the gang of spinning assortments today was Sunil Narine, modestly classified as a purveyor of right-arm offbreaks by ESPNcricinfo. Anyone who saw Narine operate against Chennai Super Kings would consider that an outrageous understatement.For a mystery spinner, Narine’s bowling action is daringly open. He holds the ball high over his head in his right hand as he gets into delivery stride, giving the batsman a good view of his grip. The deception begins right there: there’s little in his grip to suggest what he is doing with the ball. His finger positioning variations are so subtle, and his release so quick, that the TV commentators could only guess what he was up to, even after watching slow-motion replays. The home batsmen fared much worse, on a pitch so dead that it began to haunt them.Under the conditions, T&T’s score of 123 was competitive, and Narine sensed his kill straight away. M Vijay’s propensity to swing across the line compulsively made him easy prey, and Narine needed only three flat offbreaks on the stumps to get past him.Suresh Raina then succumbed to a more evolved three-card trick. The first one was the sliding offbreak, which Raina played inside the line of. In his next over, Narine produced his mystery delivery – a cross between the Mendis-Ashwin carom ball and the orthodox legbreak. Delivered with a loose wrist, the ball was released with a corkscrew twist of two fingers that made it grip, turn into the left-hander and bounce disconcertingly. Raina lunged forward and drove loosely to get an inside edge. He was had the next ball, playing early to a tossed up delivery outside off, clearly concerned that he hadn’t picked which way it was going to turn.Narine then squared up S Badrinath with the legbreak, and nearly had him lbw with an offbreak before training his guns on MS Dhoni. The man who tamed Muttiah Muralitharan with consummate authority in the World Cup final was reduced to meek pokes and dabs from the crease. Dhoni stabbed unconvincingly at a couple of the mystery legbreaks, before scooping a full delivery right back to Narine and end his agonising stay. Narine finished with figures of 4-0-8-3 – his victims being CSK’s three best Indian batsmen – exceptional work, even on a sluggish track.Sunil Narine (right) removed Chennai Super Kings’ three best Indian players•AFP”I call it [the variation] the knuckle ball,” Narine revealed later. “In Trinidad we play wind-ball [tennis ball] cricket, and you look to spin that ball. I decided to do it in practice one day and it wasn’t working out that well. But I kept practising and it came out as a good ball.”Narine’s nonchalant explanation was par for the course, since unconventional variations are a way of life in this T&T attack. Samuel Badree once again rolled out four overs of unhittable googlies and straighter ones to finish with an economy rate of 3.50; Kevon Cooper backed up his batting heroics with a series of offcutters and backspinners that kept catching Dhoni and co by surprise; Ravi Rampaul had an ordinary day, but made the most important incision when he got Mike Hussey edging, and Sherwin Ganga managed to keep the in-form Dwayne Bravo quiet enough.Hussey said the variable bounce on the track undid CSK’s chase, and revealed that Narine’s action remained indecipherable. “A few of our batsmen found it difficult to read which way he was turning the ball,” Hussey said. “Sometimes it is difficult if you haven’t seen much of a bowler before, especially in T20 where you need to keep the run-rate going.”If we play against him more we’ll get used to his action and which way he’s turning the ball a lot more. Much like Ajantha Mendis when he first came on, he was very difficult to read. But then after a while, batsmen start to read him a bit better.”Given the factory line of spinning talent T&T has produced in recent years, though, Hussey and his mates might be faced with a new set of mystery-men the next time they run into them.

Kim Hughes never completed reading the statement he’d prepared for the press during his emotional resignation in 1984. The person who did recalls that most poignant day

Sidharth Monga26-Dec-2011It is the most poignant cricket press conference of all time. It’s November 26, 1984, and Kim Hughes has finally given in. At the Gabba, after Australia have lost to West Indies for the fifth straight time, Hughes has finally decided it isn’t worth it anymore. During the regular post-match press conference, Hughes reaches out for a piece of paper in his pocket, and starts reading out from it.”The constant speculation, criticism and innuendo by former players and section of the media over the past four-five years have finally taken their toll. It is in the interest of the team…” Hughes then pauses. He is choking. He licks his upper lip. He holds back emotion.From the background a voice says, “I think the spelling is right. In the interest of the team…” As if to remind Hughes where he has stopped. Hughes gulps and then says, “It’s in the interest of the team and Australian cricket.” He chokes again. He decides he can’t have more of it. And tells that voice, “You read it.” Bob Merriman, then the manager of the Australian team, finishes the statement.It was the saddest day, and one of the longest, in nearly the 50 years Merriman has spent in cricket. It began early in the morning when Hughes asked him to join him at breakfast before the fourth day’s play. Hughes had already batted in the second innings, and still needing 135 to avoid an innings defeat, the last five wickets weren’t expected to take the match much further. At 8am the two, “very friendly” captain and manager met.”He told me that morning that he wanted to give it away,” Merriman remembers. “And then he asked me to get hold of Greg Chappell, which I did, because Greg was a selector and a very close friend. We were in Brisbane fortunately, where Greg lived. I got Greg in, we met at the ground, and it just flowed from there.”Except it didn’t quite flow. Hughes, Merriman and Chappell were the only three who knew, and David Boon and Wayne Philips got into a partnership out there. Every minute was uncomfortable. “It wasn’t good. It was not good at all,” Merriman says of that wait, although he hadn’t been taken by surprise by Hughes’ decision. “I could see that he was not happy with what was occurring with his own form,” he says. “He wasn’t happy that his own batting was falling down. The team wasn’t performing well. We were getting well and truly beaten by West Indies. They were a great side and he had had 10 matches on the trot against them, which was very difficult, and he had a reflection on the tour of England in ’81, and the World Cup ’83. They hadn’t been very successful for him. I think it all just built up.”What had also built up was that two of his team-mates, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee, never respected him as captain. “He was one hell of a follower,” Marsh said of Hughes, his captain. Marsh was the vice-captain when former captain Chappell retired, but the job went to Hughes. Hughes’ two riled-up Western Australian team-mates thought he was a softie, and made life difficult for him.Hughes wrote the entire statement, all in his handwriting. “I put one word in it,” Merriman says. “I was asking him to make it shorter. I had the feeling it was too long. He wrote it. It was all in his handwriting. In a part of it he said he didn’t have the support from journalists. I put in the word ‘some’ in there. He had great support from Peter McFarline, he had great support from Michael Coward. He had support from the guy in Adelaide, whose name escapes me. He put a general statement that the journalists he had no support from. I put the word ‘some’ in there. That’s the only change I made.”Merriman never expected it would turn out the way it did. When he did finish the statement, the room of journalists, who were moments ago trying to follow Hughes with their microphones, went quiet. “Stunned. Quiet. Just hush.” It was an interesting moment. You can feel the journalists would have been stunned beyond imagination, especially when the man, the Australian cricket captain, broke down in front of them, but not even a single question? “Oh Michael Coward asked one. I forget the question, but he did ask.”The immediate concern for Merriman was to look after Hughes. “We had a few moments in the dressing room,” he says. “Maybe half an hour. To their credit, Graeme Wood in particular, and Terry Alderman, both Western Australians, looked after Kim really, really well. Graeme Wood and Terry took Kim out and tried to settle things down before they flew home the next day. They flew home together.”Hughes played only two more Tests, scoring three ducks and a couple. Immediately after he was dropped, Australia won a Test, in Sydney, finally stopping the West Indies juggernaut, which had been rolling for 11 straight Tests. He remains one of the most fascinating stories of Australian cricket. Merriman went on to become one of the more important administrators. He played part in convincing a young Allan Border to not give up captaincy after he had lost to Jeremy Coney’s New Zealand. He also became Cricket Australia’s chairman in 2001.Hughes’ hand-written statement, that piece of paper, is still with Merriman. Where does he keep it? “I am not going to tell you.”

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the final in Port-of-Spain where rain prevented an exciting conclusion

Daniel Brettig in Port-of-Spain19-Apr-2012Record of the dayWhen Kemar Roach sent Ben Hilfenhaus’ off stump cartwheeling – the second time he had plucked that very same stump in the match, having also removed it when belonging to Shane Watson – he became the first West Indies fast bowler to take 10 wickets in a Test since Corey Collymore against Pakistan at Sabina Park in 2005. Against Australia the drought had stretched as far back as the one-run Adelaide Oval Test of 1993, when Curtly Ambrose rounded up 10 to help the visitors to the narrowest win in the history of the five-day game. No wonder Roach celebrated wildly when the wicket fell, and also led his team-mates off at the end of the innings.Declaration of the dayFrom the moment Michael Hussey cracked Narsingh Deonarine’s first ball after lunch for six over wide long off, it was clear that Michael Clarke’s Australia would try to make something of the match, even though the rain threatened. Having taken the lead to 214 for the loss of eight wickets, Clarke called his men in, as he had done in the first innings at Kensington Oval. Given the scoring rate across the match and the strong likelihood of rain, Clarke’s call was as shrewd as it was bold, but his desire to keep the game moving at all costs remained clear.Promotion of the dayHaving been set a challenge by Clarke, Darren Sammy responded grandly in the 11 overs that were possible before the long threatened rain blanketed the ground. First, he promoted Kieran Powell to open with Adrian Barath instead of the more conservative Kraigg Brathwaite. Powell stroked his first ball through the covers for four, and after his dismissal the next man in was no-one other than Sammy himself, seeking to drag the West Indies into the contest with rapid runs. He had perished by this method in the first innings, but in the second he brought the match to life with a series of brave blows, reaching 30 from 26 balls before light and rain intervened. On a pitch that has been the epitome of slow and low, his innings was the only of the match to return a strike rate of better than 100.

Israr Ali, Pakistan’s oldest living Test cricketer, had a short and frustrating career, but one in which he made an Australian batsman his bunny

Umar Farooq05-Aug-2012When 91-year-old Aslam Khokar died last January, Israr Ali became Pakistan’s oldest surviving Test cricketer. At 85, Israr lives a humble life, away from cricket, in his hometown, Okara, southwest of Lahore.Israr played in Pakistan’s first Test, 60 years ago, against India. But unlike his famous team-mates from that tour, Hanif Mohammad, Fazal Mahmood and Imtiaz Ahmed, Israr is a forgotten man today.A misunderstanding with his captain Abdul Kardar, then the most powerful man in Pakistan cricket, is what Israr believes kept his Test career to four matches. A left-arm fast-medium bowler, he was picked as a bowling allrounder for the 1952 India tour, but played mostly as a batsman, confused and frustrated by lack of clarity about his role.Israr scored a half-century in the first tour game, against North Zone in Amritsar, and was sent out at No. 3 in the first Test in Delhi. Dismissed for 1 and 9 by Vinoo Mankad, he was dropped for the next match, in Lucknow – where he became Pakistan’s first substitute fielder to effect a dismissal, catching Gul Ahmed off the bowling of Amir Elahi.”It was Kardar who fought to get me in the side [for the India tour],” Israr told ESPNcricinfo. “He believed my being a left-armer could be lethal, and that my reasonable batting ability could be an advantage. But surprisingly, he didn’t ask me to bowl and that was frustrating.”In the third Test, in Mumbai, he was relegated to the tail of the batting and bowling orders, getting only three overs in an innings that lasted 112.”Kardar was a dominating captain at the time and I paid the price for the occasional argument with him and also some misunderstanding,” Israr remembers.He was rubbed up the wrong way by Kardar once summoning him in a disrespectful manner at the Gymkhana ground in Lahore. The two might have come to blows had other players not stepped in. Kardar was also under the mistaken impression that Israr was against his captaincy and had complained to the chairman of the board about Kardar. Israr puts this down to Kardar being misled by people with vested interests.All that is water under the bridge now. “Life has been very simple so far and I am satisfied with it,” Israr says, “but fighting with Kardar was my biggest regret. He was truly the best man in the history of Pakistan cricket. I went to him in Karachi to talk about my attitude and we resolved all the issues but it was too late.”Israr was 32 when he was recalled to the side for two Tests against Australia, in 1959-60. He took six wickets but failed with the bat. He remembers the games for his complete domination of Australia’s opening batsman Les Favell. Israr dismissed him in all four innings without the assistance of fielders.”A remarkable day in my career was when I bowled Favell in Dacca [the first Test] and a crowd of 50,000 spectators was on its toes, cheering for the dismissal. For a while I was stunned.” He bowled Favell in the second innings in Lahore for 4, in the process breaking a stump that was then signed by the Pakistan president Ayub Khan and Israr, and handed over to the Lahore museum – from where it disappeared years later.With that Test, Israr’s international career ended, and not long after that he had to retire from first-class cricket too, when he was injured in an accident: a bus collided with his car, killing three of his friends who were in it. Israr escaped with a broken arm, but vanished from the cricket scene for a decade and a half, before returning to work in administration for a few years.A young Israr•PCB/Maqsood AhmedToday he spends his days waking at sunrise and being driven to his farm, where he supervises the cultivation of wheat, rice and occasionally corn. He has three sons none of whom played cricket competitively. “I took them to the cricket ground but it was a hopeless attempt. Maybe they didn’t want to work hard or were lacking interest. So I was the only one in my family who played cricket at the top level.”Israr was the president of Multan Region from 1981 to 1982, and a member of Pakistan’s selection committee in 1983 and 1984, before he decided to move away from the game. In 1997 he was a beneficiary of the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series played in Sharjah. “I parted from cricket after 1987, maybe because I was losing the passion, and decided to stay back in Okara,” he says.Like many former cricketers, Israr isn’t happy with the how the game has evolved in the country. “The quality of cricket began to drop after the ’80s, and administration got more politicised. It has been going down since then. Pakistan cricket has been on top for decades but things don’t look good now. I feel cricket is reduced only to bigger cities like Karachi and Lahore. It’s very sad to see the talent around the outskirts of the cities being ignored.Inevitably, he thinks things were better in his time. “In our era we didn’t have to go to any coach to learn,” he says. “We just observed and applied it until we got perfect,”In his first over in first-class cricket, he could have done with some coaching guidance, though. Playing for Southern Punjab against Northern India in Patiala, he was warned by the umpire twice for stepping on the danger area in his follow-through. “I remember it because I was asked to bowl over the wicket and I struggled for a while with my follow-through and I ended up in the middle of the pitch. But I recovered well.”For Israr, the period between his playing days in the 1950s and the 1980s was “the best era”. “We didn’t have any inspiring figures in cricket to follow but we were passionate about the game and wanted to play it. There was a real competitive environment around us at school, in the nets, everywhere we played. We were out there to prove a point.”

Plays of the Day for the Champions League semi-final between Titans and Sydney Sixers in Centurion

Firdose Moonda in Centurion26-Oct-2012Sigh of the day A match that refused to pick a side finally seemed to choose one when Pat Cummins sliced a ball high in the air, in the direction of mid-off. Farhaan Behardien readied himself to take the catch and had time to get under it but found himself needing to dive forward to grab it low down. He ended up grassing it, to the collective groan of the crowd and, presumably, a sigh of relief in the Sydney Sixers dugout.Fightback of the day At 91 for 5 after 16 overs, it did not look as though the Titans were going to post a competitive total, but David Wiese thought otherwise. He started the four-over blitz with a six over square-leg but it will be the way he ended that will be remembered. An inside-out shot over long-off gave Wiese the opportunity to display his power and with it gave the Titans more than a fighting chance.Throw of the day The Titans didn’t have much going for them early on but Michael Lumb gave them something to smile about nonetheless. When Henry Davids pushed the ball to him at point, all Lumb had to do was the simple pick-up-and-throw. He got the first part right but when he tried to throw, the ball rolled out of the back of his fingers and fell over his shoulder. Lumb spent a millisecond trying to figure out what had happened before returning the ball, blushingly.Fielding of the day Steven Smith has established himself as one of the best boundary fielders in the competition but there was something he could not get right. When Wiese sent a low full toss back over Mitchell Starc’s head, Smith ran around from long-on to cut it off. He initially managed to scoop it back infield but his second move, to keep it there, saw him tumble into the advertising boards while the ball just about breached the boundary.Almost splash of the dayAfter the ball landed in the spectators’ splash pool on the opening day of the tournament, the organisers put up a net to prevent it heading back there. A net too has its limits, and the Sixers’ opener Lumb exposed them. His only six of the night was a fierce shot over the on side, and the pool. The ball bounced onto the deck before bobbling down, inches away from the paddle pool below and then made its way onto the field. With the latest antics, one wonders whether the authorities will demand closing the pool during play as they had done before.Roar of the day Roelof van der Merwe is nicknamed Bulldog for his tenacity but he also has a powerful bark. When Brad Haddin was caught at deep midwicket and the Titans sensed a small opening, van der Merwe let his voicebox loose. He stretched out both arms and howled at the night sky, like only someone called Bulldog can.

Stats highlights from an incredible England victory, their second in successive Tests at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai

S Rajesh26-Nov-2012

• England’s ten-wicket win is their second successive Test win at the Wankhede Stadium: in 2006 they won by 212 runs, in what was Rahul Dravid’s 100th Test, while this result spoiled Virender Sehwag’s 100th. In seven Tests at the Wankhede, England have won and lost three each.
• For India, this was only their second home defeat in a Test match since October 2008, during which period they’ve played 23, and won 14. Their only other defeat during this period was to South Africa, by an innings and six runs, in Nagpur in 2010.
• Monty Panesar’s match haul of 11 for 210 is the ninth instance of an overseas spinner taking ten or wickets in a Test in India, and the second by an England spinner, after Hedley Verity’s 11 for 153 in 1934. Had Aleem Dar not erred in giving Pragyan Ojha not out, Panesar would have finished with the best bowling figures by an overseas spinner in India.
• Panesar’s haul is the fifth ten-wicket haul by any bowler at the Wankhede Stadium. The only Indian in that list is L Sivaramakrishnan. He is also the eighth England bowler to take a ten-for in India, but the first since Neil Foster’s 11 for 163 in Chennai in 1985.
• With Graeme Swann taking 8 for 113, this was only the fourth occasion that England’s spinners had taken 19 or more wickets in a Test, and the second such instance in India. The last time it happened was in 1958 against New Zealand at Headingley, when Jim Laker and Tony Lock took 19 for 109.
• India’s second-innings total of 142 is their third-lowest in the second innings of a home Test since 2000. All three of those totals, and five of the seven lowest, have come at the Wankhede Stadium. The lowest during this period was also against England at the same ground, when India were bundled out for 100 in 2006.
• In India’s second innings, the six batsmen from No.2 to No.7 (Virender Sehwag to MS Dhoni) scored a total of 44 runs, with none of the batsmen reaching double figures. It’s the lowest total by these six batsmen since 2000, and the first time during this period that none of them touched double digits.