Faf du Plessis’ deja vu dismissal padding up was the lowlight of a mistake-riddled performance from South Africa

Jarrod Kimber at The Oval31-Jul-20171:52

‘The first rule of batting is to use your bat’ – du Plessis

Faf du Plessis takes the catch two metres inside the boundary. At that moment Ben Stokes is out. But du Plessis loses his balance; it’s like the lusty power of Stokes is too much for him, and pushes him back. He falls over and his head slams into the padded boundary triangle. Stokes is now not out, and the ball is a six.In this age of cricket, where players regularly take catches dancing around the boundary like science-fiction ballerinas, this is especially unfortunate. And because it is Stokes, that also means that the next two balls are bad. Stokes hits both for six, brings up his hundred, and the game that was in the balance for so long suddenly looks like it’s for England. Du Plessis head-butted the rope; Stokes head-butted South Africa.But to focus on this alone would be wrong. South Africa did many things wrong and this was not even the worst thing du Plessis did in the match. That would come later in the afternoon when he left a ball and was out lbw.At the post-match TV chat, after South Africa were beaten on the final afternoon, du Plessis said: “It’s very obvious to me the mistakes that we made.” There were a lot.The conditions were in South Africa’s favour on the first morning. Four seam bowlers, all fairly different, the ball swinging, seaming and Vernon Philander being practically unplayable. But the rest of the attack were not great. It wasn’t that they were terrible, they were just a bit short, a bit wide. England had an opener one bad game from being dropped and a debutant in their top three, but the pressure wasn’t consistently there. It took them 30 overs to finally get it right, and by then they had Alastair Cook and Joe Root set.Once they got it right, they even made Root struggle, but the ball wasn’t new anymore and England made it through to the end of the day at least on equal terms, maybe ahead. Philander’s illness got worse, meaning they would never really have him again in the match. The fifth bowler, Chris Morris, had to step up.Morris came on to bowl the 69th over, and the tenth of the morning on day two. The first nine overs had gone for 27 runs and Morne Morkel had taken the wicket of Cook. This was a critical time in the match.Padded out: Faf du Plessis shoulders arms for the second time in the match•Getty ImagesMorris is not a line-and-length bowler, he’s explosive, and he goes for runs. And perhaps the most obvious thing about him is that he bowls very full. His first ball was full, and Stokes tried to nail it, but couldn’t get it away. The next ball was a full toss, and Stokes hit it through covers. Morris followed it up with two half-volleys that Stokes smacked. There are going to be days when Morris doesn’t work, players like him are risks. In the last Test, he paid off; in this Test, he went off.That over went for 12. His final over went for 17.The over of 17 included a six from Toby Roland-Jones, who is not an allrounder but is pretty far from a tailender. His known batting talent made South Africa’s plan to suddenly put out nine men on the boundary for Stokes all the more bizarre. Stokes had hit no fours in almost 17 overs when Roland-Jones came in, and since that Morris over of 12 he had scored 22 from 52 balls. So you had a batsman that had slowed down, a lower-order guy who could handle the bat, a bowling attack that was chipping away, a pitch still offering help, and nine guys on the boundary. It was bizarre.Stokes was on 68 when Roland Jones joined him. Thirteen overs later he had made 112, England had put on another 74, and the total had gone from par to decent.That meant that South Africa had to start well. Part of that was going to be down to Heino Kuhn.There is little doubt that Kuhn looks like he has the skill to play international cricket. He started his first-class career well, but had a dip for a few seasons that slowed him down. So when he finally got back into the form he had as a young man, he was over 30. This has been a tough series for batsmen; good bowlers and helpful pitches have made it a hard place to make your debut. Add to that du Plessis’ suggestion that “day two, evening session was probably the hardest conditions you will face in Test cricket” and Kuhn couldn’t have had a much tougher time to bat in.

“The mistakes that we made in this Test are very obvious things, so we don’t have to go away scratch our heads about what to do”Faf du Plessis

Dean Elgar had already poked at one he didn’t need to, England hadn’t bowled amazingly, but they were moving the ball and hunting. Kuhn looked composed, there were some cracking off-side shots, he was good in defence, and looked set. That is why it was so disappointing when he tried to flick a straight one across the line.Kuhn is 33; he had replaced Stephen Cook, who is 34. Replacing an older flawed player who has some Test experience with another who is almost the same age and less experienced is the sort of decision that looks like a mistake. Kuhn may be a better player than Cook, he certainly looks more naturally gifted, but Cook’s style (or lack of it) is more about getting in and holding on. Kuhn had to bat through the new ball; he had to negate the movement, he had to fight. Instead he gave it away. It wasn’t just Kuhn who did.”It’s important you fight through it and limit the damage in those sessions, and we didn’t do that,” du Plessis said. South Africa were eight wickets down at stumps.At the start of England’s second innings, Elgar received an edge from Keaton Jennings in the slip cordon. It went fast to him, but burst straight through his hands and down to the boundary. The chances that South Africa, with a crook Philander, were going to rip through England for 150 and give themselves some hope were pretty slim. But this was that moment. Instead, Jennings played the sort of innings no South African from the top order managed first time around. He fought, clawed, and all but had to cut himself out of the shark’s belly with a chainsaw.Had South Africa continued to bowl amazing, keep the pressure on, and wait for England’s fragile batting order to feel the pressure they might have been able to do some damage. But without Philander to pull them back, they bowled well for short times, and at others, they allowed England to get away. Much as they had in the first innings. Eventually they were bowling for a declaration. When that came, they had their last chance to save this game.In the first Test, JP Duminy – Test average of 32 – batted at No. 4. Of course, in a perfect, just and beautiful world, AB de Villiers would be there. But he isn’t.Chris Morris endured a tough Test with the ball•Getty ImagesEven the stars that are left are not shining brightly. Du Plessis averages 35 over the last two years. Even Hashim Amla, who blitzed the most recent IPL, averages only 36 in that time. The only other star in the line-up is Quinton de Kock, who in this series has had to move from No. 7 to No. 4 to fill shortcomings. In his 22 Tests, he has batted in seven of the 11 batting slots. The heart of this team is an incredible bowling attacking that will win them Tests even when their batsmen fail. They also have the battlers Elgar and Temba Bavuma, who are great when it’s tough. But to win consistently, they need class around them.On the fourth afternoon that class was terrible. Amla left a ball off the middle of his bat to slip. De Kock was beaten by his own footwork as much as he was a fast full one from Stokes. And du Plessis, the man who is known around the world as someone who draws Tests that no one thought could be saved, shouldered arms. He didn’t play a shot in the second innings, with his team having lost two wickets in the last two overs, he raised his arms and watched England win the Test.Du Plessis faced eight balls this match, he left four of them, and two of those got him out. That’s not just a mistake, that’s the same mistake twice. And that is what South Africa did; they didn’t just make mistakes, they consistently made the same mistakes.”The mistakes that we made in this Test are very obvious things, so we don’t have to go away scratch our heads about what to do.” That’s how du Plessis put it. Before Old Trafford there will be no head-scratching, and at Old Trafford, hopefully, there will be no head-butting.

Ben Stokes led the reactions on Twitter to England’s first hundred of this Ashes series

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Dec-2017

Awesome @dmalan29 !!#Ashes pic.twitter.com/1ScjBy4Iqq

— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) December 14, 2017

Dawid Malan

— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) December 14, 2017

Absolutely fantastic Day England … What a day for @dmalan29 … Magnificent innings under a huge amount of pressure … Welcome to the Test 100 club … #Ashes

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) December 14, 2017

Take a bow – @dmalan29!
Quite brilliant 100! #Ashes

— KP (@KP24) December 14, 2017

You beauty @dmalan29 !!!! Just when the team needed it! #ashes

— Sarah Taylor (@Sarah_Taylor30) December 14, 2017

Special day for @dmalan29 what a knock!!

— Moeen Ali (@MoeenAli) December 14, 2017

Brilliant century by Dawid Malan … gutsy, first century for Eng of the series and could prove to be most important moment of the test!

— Ebony Rainford-Brent (@ejrainfordbrent) December 14, 2017

Cracking from Malan
Great intent , patience and cover driving skill#FirstEngland100ofSeries #ashes2017

— Damien Fleming (@bowlologist) December 14, 2017

Malan

Malan, in the middle of our team

Malan, batting like you’ve never seen

Malan, makes it good to be alive

Malan, when you see his cover drive#Ashes @TheBarmyArmy

— Matthew Broughton (@Broughts89) December 14, 2017

This one from Malan could count among the more significant Ashes hundreds for England. Of course, how it will be remembered will depend a lot on the outcome of the Test. #Ashes

— Sambit Bal (@sambitbal) December 14, 2017

Superb innings by Malan, stylish and steely. England's 11th century at the Waca; 8th by a left-hander; and the 5th of those 11 that has been the batsman's first 100 in Tests (also Brian Luckhurst, Chris Broad, Jack Richards, Ben Stokes).

— Andy Zaltzman (@ZaltzCricket) December 14, 2017

Last England batsman to score his maiden Test century in #Ashes was Ben Stokes, also at the WACA, in 2013-14. Dawid Malan does it this time.

— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) December 14, 2017

A sub-par bowling attack and an over-reliance on the middle order were some of the factors that led to Tamil Nadu’s early crash in this Ranji Trophy season

Deivarayan Muthu29-Nov-2017From trampling a full-strength Karnataka side to storm into the Ranji Trophy semi-finals and subsequently securing the Vijay Hazare and Deodhar titles last season, Tamil Nadu crashed out of this Ranji season in the league phase a win. ESPNcricinfo looks at what went wrong for Tamil Nadu.Lack of penetration in the bowling attackThe bowling attack’s form – or the lack of it – encapsulated Tamil Nadu’s horror season. Injuries to their first-choice seamers Aswin Crist and T Natarajan, who had combined for 62 wickets in 2016-17, hurt them. The back-ups and spinners lacked penetration.K Vignesh, only in his second season of first-class cricket, showed some spark with 24 wickets in six games, but that did not mask the inadequacies in the attack. Tamil Nadu managed to take all 20 wickets just once in six attempts. In their season opener against Andhra and later against Mumbai, even R Ashwin struggled to make inroads. The other frontline spinners fared worse: Rahil Shah and R Sai Kishore had averages of 54.33 and 86.33 respectively.Constant chopping and changingWith M Vijay, Ashwin, and allrounder Vijay Shankar part of the India squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka, and Dinesh Karthik rehabilitating at the NCA after sustaining a hip strain, Tamil Nadu were forced to field depleted XIs at various junctures. Only four players – captain Abhinav Mukund, vice-captain B Indrajith, allrounder Washington Sundar, and Vignesh – played each of Tamil Nadu’s six matches.In the clash against Odisha in Cuttack, N Jagadeesan – understudy to Karthik – rolled his ankle and R Rohit, drafted in as substitute wicketkeeper, dropped two catches, allowing the hosts to snatch the first-innings advantage.The opening slot was a revolving door, and also affected the team’s balance. They used as many as five openers, including Jagadeesan, B Aparajith, and Washington, in six matches.Letting the opposition off the hookTamil Nadu had their chances but failed to seize the important moments – a trait that defined their previous season. They pinned down Andhra to 64 for 5 in the first innings but allowed the last five wickets to haul the score beyond 300. They ran up 357 for 4 declared at a run rate of just over four against Tripura, but rain and bad light in Chennai halted their push for an outright win.Then, despite piling up 530 for 8 declared against Odisha, they wound up conceding the first-innings lead with 17-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Rajesh Dhuper rallying the tail. The trend continued against Madhya Pradesh and Baroda as well.”We were very inconsistent in terms of performances and we went back to performing below our level,” coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar said. “We couldn’t sustain the good we did. Too often we had the opposition five down and we let them get away from us. At crucial stages, when they were five or six down, we gave away boundaries. Within three or four overs they got 20-25 runs. Those five boundaries or 30 runs make a huge difference when you look at it now”Over-reliance on the middle orderAbhinav’s prolonged lean patch mirrored his team’s winless season: he managed only 247 runs in nine innings at 30.87, leaving the middle and the lower order to clean up the mess. The Baba twins – Indrajith and Aparajith – struck 822 runs between them and Yo Mahesh ground out two centuries lower down the order, but they were left with too much to do. The coup de grace came when the entire batting line-up capsized against the moving ball, against Baroda in Vadodara.

A look at fielding and decision review system metrics as we head into the final stages of IPL 2018

ESPNcricinfo staff14-May-2018RCB’s silver lining in the field
Royal Challengers Bangalore may be having issues with their death-overs bowling, but their fielders have done superbly to try and offset that. They have saved a net total of 36 runs in the field.* Kings XI Punjab, who had identified fielding as a weakness, have conceded a net total of 31 runs.ESPNcricinfo LtdMumbai’s safe hands, Royals’ butter fingers
Rajasthan Royals dropped three catches against Mumbai Indians on Sunday, and took six. This was below their normal catching rate this season – 74% – which is the lowest for any team.ESPNcricinfo LtdDRS calls in review
Kolkata Knight Riders have the worst ratio of unsuccessful reviews this season, with 62.5% of their reviews being unsuccessful. Sunrisers Hyderabad are the most successful by the same metric, with a 50% success rate over a relatively large number of reviews.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

It was an ‘I was there’ sort of day at Trent Bridge. And Melinda Farrell was there

Melinda Farrell at Trent Bridge19-Jun-20181:22

Social Story: England smash their own record

There is a t-shirt you sometimes see gleefully worn by England cricket fans. On the front, a few sparse and lonely numbers interrupt a lengthy series of dots and ‘w’s. Anyone who followed the Ashes in the summer of 2015 doesn’t need an explanation for what the symbols represent: Australia’s first innings in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge. 60 all out. It was utter carnage that day.This time, there was coloured clothing and ball was white; it was the bowlers annihilated rather than the batsmen. This time, the front of the commemorative t-shirt will be crammed with fours and sixes. But the sense of witnessing the complete destruction of an Australian side by England was brutally familiar.Sure, it looked like a good batting pitch. Both captains confirmed as much at the toss. And two years earlier, at the same venue, England had set a world-record total of 444 for 3 against Pakistan. Sure Australia are missing their three best frontline bowlers. And yes, Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow did set a sprightly early pace. But did anyone really see this coming?The Australian attack has pace – Billy Stanlake topped 90mph in his first spell – but there was little movement in the air or off the pitch and Bairstow and Roy punished anything that strayed in line and length. Heck, it wasn’t long before they were dispatching the good balls with comparable disdain.It was probably around the 13-over mark that the thought first really took hold. England had shot to 96 without losing a wicket and a quick scroll through the commentary from two years ago (thanks ESPNcricinfo) reminded that, at the same point in their innings, they had been 78 for 1. Hello.Andrew Tye went for 100 in nine overs•Getty ImagesBut still, a collapse was only a nudged domino away, right? And when Jason Roy was run out as a result of D’Arcy Short’s sharp fielding, surely that would slow things down. Except that just brought Alex Hales to the crease. The same Alex Hales who scored 171 off 122 balls in that insanity against Pakistan. The same Alex Hales who calls Trent Bridge his home ground and who said before this match that he needed a big score to keep his place in the team. Oh, that Alex Hales.Tim Paine stood behind the stumps with stitches in his cut mouth. But it was his bowlers who suffered bloody noses as the sucker punches rained down from Bairstow and Hales with increasing frequency. The frustration inflicted on Australia by shots seemingly designed to torment them was as palpable as the glee voiced by the crowd. There was the top edge from Hales that dropped just over the shortest boundary in the ground. And when an Australian finally took a catch in the deep, it was a fan on the wrong side of the boundary as Bairstow launched the ball over cow corner.The stats pages were now getting almost as severe a workout as Australia’s attack. Rohit’s record innings, could Bairstow top that? No, as it turned out. And, when Jos Buttler’s stay was kept short, any thoughts of the first 500 total evaporated.Only to be reconstituted by Eoin Morgan.The England captain batted like a man possessed. If his head had spun around and green bile spewed from his mouth, he could hardly have given Australia’s bowlers worse nightmares. There were crazed cross-bat shots and lofted drives and wild hoicks, set off by Hales’ more orthodox power at the other end. Such was their profligacy that the crowd started booing when the ball didn’t cross the boundary rope. It ended up doing so 62 times throughout the innings. The burger stand vendors were on the alert for white missiles landing in their patties.By this stage, the highest innings for a men’s ODI was a no-brainer. And Morgan’s 21-ball 50 meant the magical 500 was back on. England had hurtled from 400 to 450 in the space of 18 deliveries. They had 24 left to reach what could never have been imagined in previous eras. But with 41 runs still to collect, Hales and Morgan were gone, their wickets met by the crowd with a kind of petulant groan, like a child whose parents won’t let them eat a fifth chocolate ice cream.The sight of Joe Root coming in so far down the order said it all: in how many teams would Root be dropped down to bat at No.7?And after obliterating their own innings record by 37 runs, it was left to witnesses to joke they had finished 20 runs short.There will be many who bemoan the flat pitch and the lack of contest between bat and ball. But for the England fans present who witnessed England’s ferocity with the bat, it was an afternoon of which they can boast in the future, “I was there”.For it was utter carnage this day. Perhaps, some enterprising t-shirt printer will provide another Trent Bridge memento.

A line-up of the best individual performances this season that went in vain

Gaurav Sundararaman18-May-2018ESPNcricinfo LtdRishabh Pant’s 128 of 63 balls against Sunrisers HyderabadComing in to bat in the fourth over, Pant had to negotiate some tough conditions, facing the best bowling attack in the tournament on a tricky pitch. At the end of ten overs, Daredevils were 52 for 3. He began his onslaught from the 12th over, scoring three boundaries off Rashid Khan. Pant’s first 26 balls yielded just 30 runs while the next 37 balls got him 98 runs. Pant went on to make the highest score by an Indian batsman in T20 cricket, and did it by scoring 70 runs off Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid, from just 24 balls. In all these years, no one has hit them for more in an IPL game. He smashed Bhuvneshwar for 43 off just 11 balls – the most by any batsman against him in a T20 game.However, as the match progressed and the pitch became easier for batting, Sunrisers chased down the target of 187 with seven balls to spare, losing just one wicket. In a match where every other Daredevils batsman struggled, Pant’s innings was worth 43 extra runs according to Smart Stats, ESPNcricinfo’s new metrics for T20 cricket.ESPNcricinfo LtdKL Rahul’s twin 90sKL Rahul has scored 33% of the runs Kings XI Punjab have made, en route to topping this season’s batting charts (as of May 17). In the first half of the tournament, his runs largely came in winning causes but the rest of the batting order has failed to support him in the second half of the season. Against Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI were chasing 159 and against Mumbai, they were chasing 186.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe chases panned out in contrasting manners, with Rahul being the fulcrum both times. Against Royals, Kings XI lost early wickets and were behind the game from the second over while against Mumbai they were in a dominant position until the 17th over and then fell short. The common strand in both the games was Rahul batting almost till the end of the innings with very little support from the other end.ESPNcricinfo LtdKane Williamson’s 81 off 42 balls against Royal Challengers BangaloreSunrisers’ strength has been their bowling, but over the last three games, their bowlers have been below par, conceding huge totals and letting opposition batsmen get away. Their top order, as a result, has had to rise to the occasion. While they did manage to canter to victory against Delhi, they failed to close out another steep chase against RCB. Having lost only three wickets, it was expected that Sunrisers would cross the line. It was the brilliance of Kane Williamson that got them close to what could have been a record IPL chase.Williamson’s eighth fifty of the season came at a phenomenal strike rate of 192.85, his personal best while chasing in T20s (minimum 10 balls faced). However, as the chase approached the final overs, Williamson got little time at the striker’s end, facing just eight balls in the five overs prior to his dismissal, leading to some lost momentum. His innings was proof once again that one does not need the power game to be successful in this format, as he stuck to his strengths: playing the ball as late as possible with deft touches and identifying gaps in the field. Williamson’s consistency has been remarkable this season, but this was one instance where he could not get his team past the line.ESPNcricinfo Ltd MS Dhoni’s 79* from 44 balls against Kings XI Punjab Chasing 198, MS Dhoni arrived at the crease as early as the seventh with three wickets down for 56 runs. The master chaser decided to arrest the flow of wickets and scored 31 runs in his first 25 balls. With the run rate required close to 16 runs an over, Kings XI managed to keep Dhoni off strike in the 16th over. Chennai needed 67 runs from the last four overs, and Dhoni managed to hit just one boundary in the 17th over off Andrew Tye. By doing so, he might have delayed the onslaught by an over, which proved to be the difference in the end.In the next three overs, Dhoni smashed 41 runs from 14 deliveries against Tye and Mohit Sharma. However, it was not enough. Although they lost this game, Dhoni has since timed his hitting to perfection, guiding CSK to an improbable chase against RCB a few days later in Bengaluru.

Umesh Yadav had stuck to a full and straight plan for the first five balls of the final over, until the plan was changed for the last delivery

Varun Shetty in Visakhapatnam25-Oct-20180:56

I was hoping Umesh would bowl to his field – Shai Hope

On a rollercoaster day where both team’s fortunes nearly flipped upside down, many accepted the tie in the second India-West Indies ODI as a suitable result. But that moment at the end of West Indies’ innings itself was made by a stalemate that wasn’t apparent at first. MS Dhoni had made a plan, and Shai Hope was secretly hoping that it would be executed.Umesh Yadav had 13 to defend in the last over, and he began by nailing a yorker to Hope first ball that could only be taken for a single. The batsman had made a hundred, but for nearly three overs, he hadn’t hit a boundary as India persisted with a full-and-straight plan.Umesh kept at this strategy even against Ashley Nurse, even though it resulted in four leg-byes deflected off his back leg. Nurse picked up two from the leg-stump yorker that followed, before reverse-scooping a full toss to third man.With seven needed off two, Hope missed out on yet another full toss on the stumps, managing only to get two to deep midwicket. It was a decent over, with only five coming off the batsmen’s own volition, and West Indies needing five to win off the last ball, or more practically, hitting a six off the final ball.For the last ball, India decided to bring third man in and push point out to deep backward point. A sweeper cover was already out, as was long-off. It was a field set up for the full wide ball, and Kuldeep Yadav said at the post-match press conference that this had been Dhoni’s idea.”I’m too young to know,” Kuldeep said when asked if he knew why a new plan was implemented. “I’ve played only 30 games and Mahi has played 300 games. He’s got more experience than me. It happens. He’s more experienced than us. At that time he thought it and he did it.”The new plan, of course, didn’t quite work out for India who were on the cusp of an impressive comeback win, with Hope carving a full, wide ball to the right of that freshly placed fielder at that deep backward point spot.”I must say that I hoped he would bowl to the field,” Hope said. “I knew a wide yorker was coming. I got enough bat on it to be able to get it to the boundary. I was trying to get more bat on it so it would go for a six and we would win. It didn’t happen on the day. But one positive is we didn’t lose the game.”Previously, Hope had said that he had been struggling to get bat on ball and that the plan at the end of the innings was to pick up twos and find the odd boundary through the big-hitting Nurse. But India had been clinical, conceding only 13 in three overs before the final over.

Neil McKenzie has called for more consistency among Bangladesh’s batsmen after impressive hundreds from Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar

Mohammad Isam26-Oct-2018Soumya Sarkar in full flow, driving on the up, cutting smoothly, crashing spinners over midwicket with a cross-legged follow-through, is a sight to behold. But it is rare, and his 117 against Zimbabwe in the third ODI was his first in international cricket in more than three years.Imrul Kayes finished the series with rare consistency, hammering 144, 90 and 115 to become the second highest run-getter in a three-match ODI series, just 11 runs behind the 360 Babar Azam made against West Indies in 2016. Both Soumya and Imrul have only just returned to the ODI squad, midway through the Asia Cup.Liton Das had two bad games on either side of a sublime 83. He also made 120 against India in the Asia Cup final. It is going to be hard to not consider any of these three batsmen when the selectors pick the next ODI squad, against West Indies in December.Bangladesh batting coach Neil McKenzie said that batsmen like Soumya, Imrul, Liton and Mohammad Mithun have to continue being consistent due to the competition for places once Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal return to the side from injuries.”When you have a lot of competition for places, you have to be consistent,” McKenzie told ESPNcricinfo. “It is no use getting a hundred and then nought, nought, five, seven. If you just look outside the squad and the guys who didn’t get to bat today, just look at how much batting you’ve got. There’s a lot of batting coming through. It is all about competition for places. It would make selection a little bit tricky. You have to select what’s best for the team.”McKenzie said that if more of Bangladesh’s batsmen think like Soumya did in Chittagong, by trusting his own method, style and techniques, they could bat at higher tempo, show more consistency and bat with more confidence.”It is nice to see them get rewards for their hard work,” he said. “A guy like Soumya has so much happening for him. He is a great striker of the ball, he is tall and imposing on the opposition. It is down to some confidence. He got a hundred against Zimbabwe in the warm-up game. He got some runs in the domestic games.”It is all about confidence and trusting your game plans. I think they are allowed to be themselves in this environment. They have to bat like Soumya does. You can’t bat like anyone else. You have to trust your own style.”McKenzie, known among his coaching staff as someone who becomes restless when batsmen play dots, said that Bangladeshi players have a talent for finding gaps as much as possible, and ensuring ones and twos are not missed. It sets them up for big hits – a case in point being the nine sixes they hit in this game.”It is down to game plans: when to hit and when not to hit, and hit spaces. We talk a lot about the skillsets of a Bangladeshi batsman. There’s no use trying to bat like West Indians or South Africans. You have to bat like a Bangladeshi. Use your skills.”Bangladeshi batsmen hit space. They should be agile between wickets. They are very skilled hitters. Hit space and run hard, and the big hits will follow. We have had some big sixes there. Guys were in good positions, and it comes from confidence.”One of the things that McKenzie has stressed upon is using the depth of the crease and not reacting too slowly to certain bowlers. Bangladesh’s struggle against Rashid Khan this year is well documented but in the must-win Asia Cup game in Abu Dhabi, Mahmudullah and Imrul batted sensibly against him, mostly by not moving on to the front foot when the bowler is delivering the ball.”I think it is just positions with the spinners. I think a lot of the time we get into position a little bit too late,” McKenzie said. “We are still moving our front foot when the ball is being released. By being nice and set as the bowler is about to release the ball, it gives you options off the front and back foot.”With a guy like Rashid Khan, who is quick in the air, we played him a little bit too rushed. Getting into an early position that you can transfer your weight forward and back, and a lot of the emphasis, chatting to Steve [Rhodes], is on having opportunities to score off the front and back foot.”Bangladesh have treated Zimbabwe’s spinners with disdain in this ODI series, something that has come from their confidence in dealing with spinners in the Asia Cup. “A lot of our guys today are very happy with good drives through the covers but when it is slightly short you see them jumping back quite far back on to their stumps,” McKenzie said. “Either cutting it square or picking up over midwicket. I think it is just that early position and giving yourself options.”The three batsmen in Bangladesh’s top order have shown in this ODI series that following their own style and sticking to batting plans brings rewards. Anamul Haque failed to cement his place in the ODI opening slot despite being given seven chances this year. Nazmul Hossain Shanto struggled in three Asia Cup matches before Liton, Imrul and Soumya raised the stakes in the space of four ODIs.So who will open with Tamim when he returns to the side? Normally, the answer was a difficult one because no one else would be scoring, a problem that has been as lengthy as Soumya’s drop in form since 2016.It remains a difficult answer, but only because there are now three candidates for two vacant top-order places.

The explosive middle-order batsman talks about India’s preparations for the World T20 and her own form this year

Sruthi Ravindranath27-Oct-20182:32

‘Powar has picked the traits of the players very quickly’ – Veda Krishnamurthy

Better communication of decisions and allowing all members of the team to express their grievances and issues openly have been the standout aspects of Ramesh Powar’s short tenure as head coach of India women, according to senior middle-order batsman Veda Krishnamurthy.”The best part about Ramesh is that he is getting everyone to talk,” Krishnamurthy told ESPNcricinfo. “Communication has improved. He has asked us to speak out more. If there’s anything running in our mind, he wants us to openly have a conversation about it, which wasn’t the case earlier. Players are sitting and discussing what their role should be in the team and what they should actually do. There’s a lot of cricket being spoken. That’s the one thing he’s been stressing on ever since he joined us, he wants everyone to come together and work towards it.”Powar was appointed on an interim basis following internal discord that eventually led to Tushar Arothe’s resignation five months ahead of the Women’s World T20 in the Caribbean. Under Powar, India tasted success across formats on their tour of Sri Lanka last month. Since then, the players have had a rigorous camp in Mumbai and have topped off their preparation for the World T20 by combining as an India A outfit that whitewashed Australia A 3-0 in an unofficial T20I series.It was only in June that the same team underwent a torrid time at the Asia Cup, where they were beaten twice by Bangladesh, including in the final. In the aftermath, reports of rifts between the senior players and the then coach Arothe first surfaced. This eventually led to the BCCI calling off a scheduled fitness and skills camp in Bengaluru. Things have improved for the better since, and Powar, who has had previous coaching experience with Mumbai’s Under-23s, has gone out of his way to foster camaraderie and confidence within the group.”It’s a different atmosphere around him. We’ve been used to a similar kind of coaching for a long time, and for him to come in and change the atmosphere completely, it’s a big deal,” Krishnamurthy said. “I think everyone likes it. There ‘s conversation between the players as well as the coaching staff now. You don’t hold back anything and you’re speaking your mind. That’s the biggest change in the dressing room.”India head coach Ramesh Powar and fielding coach Biju George have a chat•Annesha GhoshThings have not been as upbeat as expected for India since their run to the World Cup final last year, and their inadequacies have been exposed, especially in the shortest format. While they won the T20I series against hosts South Africa earlier this year, they couldn’t qualify for the tri-series final against England and Australia at home. The final nail in Arothe’s tenure were the Asia Cup losses to Bangladesh, which Krishnamurthy put down to “over-planning”.”We planned too many things for the Asia Cup. We should have just stuck to our basics instead,” she said. “There were so many things the management was doing and the players were doing but at the end of the day it taught us all something – that we shouldn’t overdo anything. We knew there was a World T20 coming up and our focus should have turned towards that. But now whatever happened during that phase does not hurt us much as we’ve shifted our focus.”Krishnamurthy’s form in recent times has particularly come under scrutiny. She has made just 177 runs in 11 T20I innings this year, her highest score being a match-winning unbeaten 37 in a chase of 165 against South Africa in February. Following her poor run in the format, she was left out for the last two matches against England and Australia in the tri-series. Her only other significant contribution – an unbeaten 29 off 23 balls – came against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup. In the final against Bangladesh in Kuala Lumpur, she walked in amidst a batting collapse, and was out for 11. The recent failures, however, haven’t deterred Krishnamurthy in her quest to be the X-factor in the middle order.”I think I’m the most suitable person to bat in the position in the team,” she said. “Not everybody can do it and I have been doing it for a really long time. I’ve been a middle-order batsman ever since I started playing. I’m experienced enough to handle that position, it’s very tricky. I’m aware that my wicket is like the final nail in the coffin. In a collapse if I get out, it is like I’m nailing my team’s coffin. It’s a very tricky position to bat in but I like that kind of pressure. I would definitely want to keep that spot unless the team thinks someone else should replace me.”While she has earlier spoken about the mental challenges she faced, especially after a spate of poor performances, Krishnamurthy now seems more confident in her abilities and also seems to have grown more understanding of what the team expects from her. And again, she stressed on how communication within the team has enabled everyone to dovetail their roles and responsibilities.”It’s pretty clear what I have to do for the team and that gives me a lot of confidence,” she said. “I don’t have to break my head anymore over what exactly my role is. It’s important for me to go and get those quick runs and make sure I put the team in a commendable position. It makes life easier for a player when that happens. Since the Sri Lanka series we’ve been very clear with our plans and roles, everyone knows what to do. It all now comes down to how we are going to implement that during the World T20.”

The lack of partnerships at the top and in the middle order hurt the visiting side in the first Test, and they’ll need to change their approach to the turning ball

Mohammad Isam in Chattogram24-Nov-2018Over the course of their first Test against Bangladesh, West Indies had only two stands that went past 50, one in each innings. Shimron Hetmyer and Shane Dowrich put on 92 runs for the sixth wicket in the first dig, while Sunil Ambris and Jomel Warrican added 63 runs for the ninth wicket in the second essay.It highlighted not just the lack of partnerships, but also how the top order hadn’t been able to stick around. After a 64-run defeat inside three days in Chattogram, captain Kraigg Brathwaite said those two factors made the difference.”The key is partnerships, whether the top or middle order. We didn’t get partnerships early, so it cost us. We didn’t put up any good partnership. We lost wickets too quickly. The ball was doing a lot more off the pitch,” he said.The batsmen failed individually, too, with only Hetmyer making more than 20 in both innings. In their second innings, chasing 204 for victory, West Indies crashed to 11 for 4 in the 5.5 overs that were bowled before lunch. Things didn’t get much better from thereon, with the score reading 75 for 8. The Ambris-Warrican stand that followed ensured the margin of defeat would be shortened, with the duo counter-attacking their way out of trouble. Their approach was similar to the methods Hetmyer employed in both innings, hitting 63 off 47 and then 27 off 19. Brathwaite said that Hetmyer sticking to his own style was good, but hinted that a dash of caution was sometimes necessary too.”He bats in that way. He is quite an attacking batsman,” Brathwaite said. “But you have to be good in defence as well. Obviously he can attack quite well. Each batsman have their specific game plan, so that’s his game and he did well.”Being slightly more circumspect could have helped Hetmyer score more perhaps, though he showed during both innings that his style of play did cause the bowling side to go on the defensive. On the other hand, there was Dowrich, who did well in the first innings by adopting a watchful approach, showing that given the right skills or application, either method could yield results. So perhaps for Kieron Powell, Shai Hope, Roston Chase and Brathwaite himself, it was more about a lack of application than anything else.Powell was lbw in the first innings and played a poor shot in the second, stepping out of the crease and trying to smite Shakib Al Hasan. He missed the ball entirely, resulting in an easy stumping for Mushfiqur Rahim.Hope also fell to Shakib, in the first as well as the second innings. He had needlessly jumped out of his crease to meet a delivery on the leg stump, but didn’t get to the pitch of the ball and was bowled. He was more cautious in the second innings, but going forward with bat tucked behind pad, he feathered an outside edge to the keeper.Brathwaite looked uncomfortable against spin in both innings, first falling over while edging Shakib before going back to Taijul Islam’s arm ball in the second innings. Roston Chase fell in the same way, to the same bowler, in the second innings. Perhaps he was hanging back because a front-foot jab against Nayeem Hasan had resulted in a catch to short leg in the first innings.The second Test is in Mirpur, Dhaka from November 30 and the Shere Bangla National Stadium also has a reputation of being a spinners’ den. West Indies have a week to polish their skills for a better show against spin, and the aspect they might want to work on most is their approach, rather than their skills.