All posts by h716a5.icu

Plays from the first ODI between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Hambantota

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Nov-2013The scoop shot junkie
On a day when Tillakaratne Dilshan appeared to be short of fluency, he seemed addicted to trying one of the most difficult shots in the game – even if it is one of his own devisement. Dilshan scooped one over his shoulder as early as the seventh over, and when Corey Anderson came on to bowl during the batting Powerplay, he appeared intent on playing no other stroke. He sent Anderson’s second ball of the 38th over above the keeper, then tried it again next ball, but missed. He played the scoop again successfully on the penultimate ball, but eventually, Anderson got wise. The last ball of the over was slightly slower and Dilshan was early into the shot, sending it straight up for the advancing wicketkeeper to pouch.The adaptive advance
Angelo Mathews says he loves to play the hook and pull and, although he got himself into an awful position for the shot in the 36th over, a good eye and quick hands ensured he executed it superbly. Having already hit a four in the over, Mathews ran down the track to Mitchell McClenaghan who dug the ball in very short, maybe having seen Mathews charging. The wise thing at this point would perhaps have been to duck but Mathews, with his Plan A foiled, was still keen to be aggressive. Judging the length quickly, Mathews hooked the ball, which was above head height when it reached him, and he connected so well the ball pierced the gap on the leg-side boundary, well in front of square.The sense of déjà vu
Almost a year ago, against the same team, Dimuth Karunaratne had been lbw for a duck on Test debut, to a ball that pitched around off stump and swung back into him. Though he hit a torrent of List A and first-class runs in the past three months, he suffered almost exactly the same fate in his first ODI in two years. Kyle Mills pitched the first ball of the innings on middle stump, angled across the left-hander, and got it to straighten off the seam. Karunaratne could not get his feet moving and was struck in front of the stumps on the crease, leaving the umpire with an easy decision.The yorker
Lasith Malinga has an excellent record against New Zealand, having terrorised many of the visitors’ batsmen before. Chasing a tall total, newbie Anton Devcich became Malinga’s latest victim, falling prey to his trademark yorker in the first over. Malinga had swung a couple of deliveries onto the batsman’s legs, and bowled a wide down the leg side, but on the penultimate ball of the over, he got the ball to move in towards the batsman from outside the off stump. Devcich misjudged both the line and the length of the ball, and it continued unimpeded to strike the base of middle and off stump.

Plays of the day from the first T20 between Australia and England in Hobart

Andrew McGlashan29-Jan-2014Omission of the day
There are sound reasons for keeping faith with players that have served you well but when it means leaving out one of your in-form stars, it has to be questioned. Ben Stokes was a rare shining light during the Ashes and recent one-dayers but he was nowhere to be seen when England’s XI was named on Wednesday evening. Instead, they went with two players – Jade Dernbach and Danny Briggs – who have played no cricket of late.No-ball of the day
When Cameron White hoicked at a full toss from Luke Wright, the umpire was already calling no-ball for height by the time it was caught at short fine leg. Then, however, the game ground to a halt as queries were made about the call and eventually the third umpire was called in. It was a borderline call, and the TV official took his time before sticking with his on-field colleague. After all that, however, it barely mattered because White was out to the next ball he faced.Nerveless start of the day
Chris Lynn is one of the players to benefit from Australia having a number of first-choice names unavailable. When he came in during the 16th over he did not have much opportunity to make a mark, and there was no time to worry about playing himself in. Maybe that helped, because facing just his fourth ball in international cricket he slotted Tim Bresnan straight down the ground for six.Over of the day
Moises Henriques’ Twenty20 series has been cut short by a call to South Africa but he still had time to make an impression during an opening over that seriously dented England’s chase. First he bowled Wright, who under-edged a slower ball as he aimed leg side, then trapped Alex Hales lbw when the opener shuffled across the crease. Unless there are injuries in South Africa, it could well be the last bowl he has in the middle for a few weeks.

Andy Flower was an exceptional coach and leader but his grip on the team had become too tight – England need refreshing

George Dobell31-Jan-2014If ever confirmation was required that an age has ended in English cricket, it comes with the news that Andy Flower has resigned as England’s team director.Flower has been an exceptional leader of the England team. Appointed with the side in disarray at the start of 2009 – his predecessor, Peter Moores, and the captain, Kevin Pietersen, had just been sacked and, in his first game as stand-in coach, England were bowled out for just 51 – he oversaw victory in three successive Ashes series, home and away Test series over India, a first global limited-overs trophy and periods at the top of the rankings in all three formats. By England standards, it has perhaps never been so good.But, just like politics, nearly all sporting careers end in failure. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t end. Flower is now discovering that, like Duncan Fletcher, cricket coaches have a shelf life. After a while, one voice and one message doesn’t just reinforce, it limits and confines.Flower was a breath of fresh air for England cricket. His prowess as a player, when he was once rated the best Test batsman in the world, and his track record as a man – his black armband demonstration in Zimbabwe marked him out as an individual of courage and honour – ensured he had the complete respect of his charges. It had not been the case for Moores.And, in those first couple of years, Flower’s attributes took England to new heights in their relatively modest history. Building on foundations set by Moores – it was, after all, Moores that backed Graeme Swann, James Anderson and Matt Prior – Flower embraced modern technology, greater emphasis on fitness, planning and an excuse-free culture that dragged England into the modern age. He demanded England improved. He stuck with players he rated and he instilled a hard, patient style of cricket that demanded much of his charges but fitted a relatively fresh team hungry for success.But somewhere along the way, all those qualities that made him so ideal for that period in English cricket have become part of the problem. His determination became dogged. His loyalty became stubborn. The respect in which he was held veered towards fear. His tactics exhausted a four-man attack and batsmen relying more on concentration than flair. His intensity, his attention to detail and his demanding personality started to inhibit England.

Some members of the England set-up started to express concerns about the team environment long before the end of the Ashes tour, even as England were beating Australia 3-0 at home

It left them weary, tense, joyless and burdened with fear and pressure. The attention to detail that saw England produce an 80-page cookbook – fine in its own right – also saw them stop playing football or touch rugby in warm-up. There was too much science and not enough fun.This news should not come as a surprise. Some members of the England set-up started to express concerns about the team environment long before the end of the Ashes tour. Indeed, some raised concerns even as England were winning the Ashes 3-0 at home.History will remember Flower fondly, but England need refreshing. They need to rediscover their joy in playing the game. They need a change. Flower was the perfect man a few years ago but, given too much power and surrounded by several coaches who did little to lift the mood – Graham Gooch was the man who pushed David Gower out of international cricket, remember – the England environment simply stopped bringing the best out of players.Instead it left several new faces – the likes of Simon Kerrigan and Boyd Rankin – obviously overawed and others – Jonathan Trott and even Alastair Cook – burned out.Ashley Giles will be the overwhelming favourite to replace Flower, though advertising the appointment openly could do no harm. Giles might, in many ways, be seen as Flower-lite: he has a softer touch, a more flexible approach and presides over a less intense dressing room. It may be relevant that Giles also retains a close, respectful relationship with Kevin Pietersen, whose faith in Flower appeared to have diminished.Whether England need evolution or revolution is debatable, but Giles has, to date, been obliged to steer with a back-seat driver in Flower reluctant to release his grasp on the wheel. Whether this episode has repercussions for Cook and Pietersen remains to be seen, but there are those within the ECB who remain unimpressed with Pietersen, in particular.It seems safe to conclude that Paul Downton will not shy away from tough situations. This episode marks a bold start to his period as managing director of England cricket. He was not officially meant to take office until February 1 but he has already ignored the (premature) assurances of David Collier, his chief executive, that Flower would oversee England into 2015 and shaken up a regime with a fine long-term track record but unavoidable signs of decline. They are the qualities that rendered Downton a success in the City of London and bode well for England’s future.Flower should leave the post with his head held high and with a nation grateful for his outstanding contribution. But that does not mean this is the wrong decision.

After removing Sri Lanka for 119 it all looked set for New Zealand to book a semi-final place, but things were a little different in Chittagong’s final match of the tournament

Alan Gardner in Chittagong31-Mar-20142:42

Crowe: Herath immaculate from ball one

When Brendon McCullum skipped towards Rangana Herath and aimed a scything blow down the ground, it carried the intent of a team’s star player embossing his mark on the game. What followed certainly set the tone. Unfortunately for New Zealand, it was Herath who turned out to be the match-winner.Herath had already executed a run-out off his own bowling when McCullum arrived at the crease. New Zealand’s captain defended a couple before Herath’s fifth delivery went on with the arm to strike the pad, resulting in an excited lbw appeal. The next was tossed up and this time it dipped, gripped and slipped past McCullum’s outside edge, leaving him short of his ground. New Zealand had been struck a blow they would not recover from.In Herath’s following over, still having not conceded a run, three consecutive deliveries thudded into Ross Taylor’s pad, the last of which no umpire could deny. With a short leg and a slip in place, his next ball insinuated its way through a befuddled Jimmy Neesham and New Zealand were four down, pinned likes flies on a windshield by the dawning realisation that this was the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury pitch, Jim, but not as we know it.Brendon McCullum charged and missed at Rangana Herath: New Zealand never recovered•Getty ImagesTwo tracks have been in rotation in Chittagong, with four matchdays apiece. The pace and bounce had encouraged McCullum to suggest New Zealand, South Africa and England would prefer the conditions, particularly in the evening when dew helped the ball zip on. Sri Lanka were spectacularly burned by England and Alex Hales on Thursday but, after two weeks of competition, the ground suddenly shifted under New Zealand’s feet. Their misfortune, perhaps, was to face a must-win game on a worn pitch against the only subcontinental side in the group.McCullum certainly felt a little blindsided, though he stressed that the better team on the night had won. Winning the toss and then bowling out Sri Lanka for 119 seemed to have given New Zealand a brightly lit path to the semi-finals but the ball held up a lot more than previously, while the absence of dew meant Sri Lanka’s spinners were not handicapped in the same way they were against England.”The wicket was completely different,” McCullum said. “We anticipated it to skid on as it has done right throughout every game that has been played here and every team that has won the toss has wanted to chase at night. We expected that to happen but it was really dry, almost a little bit underprepared, the way it played towards the end, and we didn’t adapt our games quick enough.”There were some soft dismissals, poor options, myself included and we couldn’t find the balance between being aggressive enough to get us a start chasing a small total, and conserving wickets and trying to stem the flow of their momentum. In the end the team that won and qualified for the semi-finals is a far better team than us.”The groundstaff had been using a spray to try and reduce the effect of dew but this appeared to be the first evening match on which it had any affect. “We found out midway through the game that the outfield was sprayed for anti-dew, which obviously hasn’t been done throughout the rest of the tournament, so that was a bit of a surprise as well,” McCullum said.”I think as long as the conditions are consistent throughout, so the teams can get a strategy and an understanding – it’s disappointing to see them change so much in one game but we should have been better than that as well. Certainly no sour grapes from our point of view, we certainly should have chased down 120 and only getting halfway is nowhere near good enough.”With Herath barking out time like an army drill instructor, McCullum’s side were whirled into oblivion, bowled out for the lowest total by a Full Member side in T20 internationals, despite Kane Williamson making 42 – more than two thirds of their runs. Williamson was New Zealand’s leading batsman at the tournament, as more explosive team-mates such as Martin Guptill, Corey Anderson – who did not bat against Sri Lanka after dislocating his finger – and to a lesser extent McCullum failed to fire.”Batting at No.3 and the role that I’ve played for us for a period of time, we rely on me to make contributions and running down the wicket and getting stumped for nought trying to create some intensity in that first six overs was not ideal,” McCullum said. “At two down, I still thought we were going to chase 120 but I’m disappointed not to make a contribution and to get out like that as well. I still thought we should have chased it… at least got a lot closer.”Defeat revived memories of New Zealand’s recent troubles in Bangladesh, where they were whitewashed in ODIs for the second time late last year. They were not among the World T20 favourites, nor were they the side a majority of the crowd came to cheer on. The dreaded presence of the Mexican wave rippling around the stands suggested how easy Sri Lanka had made look what should have been a difficult game.Having stumbled short of the winning post against South Africa earlier in the group, when they only need seven off the final over with five wickets in hand, McCullum acknowledged that improvements would be required if New Zealand are to produce the desired challenge on home soil at the 2015 World Cup.”I said right at the outset that we were going to have to play well, right from the start of the tournament. We’re not good enough to only play at 80%. There’s been some things that irked me throughout the tournament and I’ll be addressing those later. But I thought our cricket smarts weren’t there, when you’re playing on these surfaces that are foreign to what we’re used to and the nature of T20, you’ve got to be very smart and decisive with your decision-making as well.”You can’t afford to be lacking in cricket intelligence. That’s what I think we lacked in this tournament and hence we coughed up some opportunities to win games that we should have. Something is going to have to change at some stage, otherwise we’ll keep turning up a tournaments, winning a couple, losing a couple and never claiming any silver. That’s not what we play for and something’s going to have to change if New Zealand’s going to start winning major tournaments.”

Plays of the day from the second ODI between India and West Indies

Karthik Krishnaswamy11-Oct-2014Street-smart, over-smartMS Dhoni surprisingly did put a foot wrong during his half-century•BCCIThe final minutes of India’s innings were full of strike-rotating shenanigans, as MS Dhoni, batting with the lower order, sought to face the bowling for the majority of the last few deliveries. Fielding at long-on at the start of the 49th over, Kieron Pollard looked to test Dhoni’s resolve to remain on strike. Bhuvneshwar Kumar hit the ball straight towards Pollard, and the batsmen ran the single that was on offer. Having picked the ball up, though, Pollard didn’t throw it to the bowler, and chose instead to roll it away a few yards and entice the batsmen to run a second. It seemed as if he was punting on getting one of the two run out if they chose to take the bait, with the consolation that Dhoni would get off strike if the dismissal didn’t materialise. The batsmen hesitated for a couple of seconds, and then decided they would take the second. Pollard threw to the bowler, but Bhuvneshwar was home and dry well in time.The non-crossoverFacing the last ball of the 49th over, Bhuvneshwar miscued Dwayne Bravo high in the air, and scurried down the pitch by force of habit. Dhoni, at the non-striker’s end, had backed up a few steps out of his crease. As the ball fell towards Pollard’s cupped hands at long-on, Dhoni realised he would lose the strike for the start of the final over if he crossed over mid-pitch with Bhuvneshwar, and ran backwards, towards his crease, stopping Bhuvneshwar with his hand held aloft like a traffic policeman.The slipHaving thus kept the strike, Dhoni swung the first ball of the final over hard through midwicket. Long-on had a good distance to cover to his right, and two runs were on the cards. Just as he was turning at the non-striker’s end to go back for the second, however, Dhoni slipped and fell, and had to send Mohammed Shami, who had run three-quarters of the way down the pitch, all the way back to the keeper’s end. To add another disorienting element to the drama, the throw came in hard and flat, missed the bowler, and nearly struck the fallen Dhoni on his head.Kohli’s missileIn the tenth over of the West Indies innings, Dwayne Smith played a checked drive off Mohammed Shami towards Virat Kohli at mid-on, and did so with soft enough hands to run a quick single. Kohli attacked the ball, swooped down on it, and let rip a powerful low throw that missed the stumps at the bowler’s end. Fortunately for India, it also missed – narrowly – Amit Mishra, who had sprinted in from short cover to try and back up, and Shami, who was lying sprawled on the pitch, having dived to try and stop Smith’s shot.

If he shows the discipline he did in England, resisting the temptation to drive full deliveries outside off, he could get a maiden Test hundred in Australia

Aakash Chopra07-Dec-20142:05

Why MS Dhoni struggles with the cover drive

If you see the full ball outside off being used by fast bowlers to exploit a batsman’s inability to deal with it, it’s fair to assume that batsman’s Test career will be short-lived.Whenever MS Dhoni walks out to bat in a Test match, especially outside the subcontinent, that’s the plan most teams employ: pitch it full, keep it outside off, and lure him into playing an expansive drive. This modus operandi yielded results until this summer, when India toured England.Dhoni got out a couple of times caught in the slip cordon in England, but it was no longer the overriding theme of his stay in the middle. England’s bowlers, as expected, tried bowling full outside off at first but had to resort to other tactics when they realised Dhoni was no longer taking the bait. He moved around a lot to get way outside off, charged at the bowler often, and, most importantly, left a lot of balls alone.In a post-match press conference Dhoni made a pertinent point about succeeding in England: if you know where your off stump is, you can always build your game around it. Even with his limitations Dhoni was undoubtedly one of India’s best batsmen against the moving ball on that tour of England, and that was courtesy his knowledge of where his off stump was.All through his career, Dhoni has been adept at playing most shots in the book; in fact, a few more than the ones mentioned in the book. But the cover drive has failed to feature in this list. The cover region isn’t an area he favours for scoring against fast bowlers, even in the subcontinent and in his favoured shorter formats.Dhoni often plays a walking drive, though the fundamentals of batting dictate that unless you have a strong base at the time of impact, you are not likely to get the desired results in terms of power and control. Some experts have pointed out that because his bottom hand takes over, it doesn’t allow him to get close enough to the ball.Yes, he’s a predominantly bottom-handed player and that’s why he drags the cover drives through extra cover and mid-off. But the interpretation that the bottom hand doesn’t allow his front foot to reach to the pitch of the ball is far from the truth.By leaving alone fuller balls, Dhoni forced the bowlers to bowl a more preferred length•Getty ImagesLogically, the wrists and hands are the smallest muscle group involved in batting, and it’s not convincing to suggest that the smallest muscle group doesn’t allow the bigger limbs to move. On the contrary, it’s the lack of movement of the bigger limbs that results in the smaller muscles reacting in an undesired manner.Due to Dhoni’s not-long-enough front-foot stride, his bottom hand takes over the shot even before impact. The short front-foot stride results in the weight being transferred on to the front foot a bit too early. Only the leg that’s not carrying the weight of the body can move backwards or forward. If the front foot is already loaded, it will not move far.While Dhoni’s short front-foot stride makes him susceptible to the fuller delivery, it allows him to be a strong back-foot player – a key reason for his success in England. Once he decided to not fall into the trap of playing cover drives, the bowlers had to shorten their lengths and test him with bouncers, thus playing to his strengths. His method of dealing with the short-pitched stuff might not qualify as elegant but it is highly effective.A lot of people mistake Dhoni’s batting to be “natural flair”. But the Test tour to England highlighted the fact that there was more than that to his game. Driving a moving ball is tough, but so is resisting the temptation to do so. Obviously, it’s a little easier to survive with Dhoni’s method when you bat at No. 6 or No. 7 as the team’s keeper. This sort of approach might not work for an opener.If Dhoni continues to show the same discipline and courage in his batting in Australia that he did in England, the wait for a Test century outside the subcontinent might end by January.

Those suggesting this England team are soft have confused overt displays of aggression with inner strength

George Dobell04-Feb-2015Is England’s inner dog a chihuahua?It was not just the crushing margin of defeat at the hands of Australia in the final of the tri-series that sparked the debate, but the performance of players and coaches at media conferences throughout the tournament.To see Jos Buttler talking about his match-defining partnership with James Taylor after the victory over India in Perth was to see a passable impression of Hugh Grant playing, well, Hugh Grant: impossibly modest, softly spoken, genuinely bashful, somewhat bumbling and deeply uncomfortable in the spotlight. It was really quite charming.But is charm a valuable quality in modern, professional sport? Is there room for it?Conventional wisdom would have us believe that there is not. Conventional wisdom would have us believe that modern cricketers have to bristle with aggression; that they must have the snake eyes of Clint Eastwood, the vocabulary of a Tourette’s sufferer and the body language of a boxer at a weigh-in.But conventional wisdom is often wrong. The problem is in equating verbal aggression with mental fortitude, snarling with determination.They are not the same thing. As the examples of Hashim Amla, Roger Federer or Rahul Dravid show us, it is quite possible to have the steel without the snarl.Would Don Bradman have scored more runs had he belittled his opponents in the field? Would he have been any more out if Eric Hollies had called him a four-letter word after bowling him with googly? Would Joel Garner’s yorker have been any more devastating had he told the batsman to prepare for broken f****** toes?Since James Anderson reined in his behaviour following Jadeja-gate, his performances have, if anything, improved. Far from needing the extra spur provided by verbal duels with batsman, the evidence would suggest he is a better bowler when he simply concentrates on his craft and leaves the ball to do the talking.Indeed, you wonder if those most likely to swagger and sledge are actually the soft ones. The ones who feel the need to overcompensate for their insecurity by overtly demonstrating their toughness. It’s the difference between bravado and bravery.The example of Buttler is interesting. It is probably too early to make conclusions about his career but, to date, it seems he thrives under pressure. He has not always been successful but, with his high-risk style and the role England have asked him to play, a high degree of failure is probably inevitable. But throughout his career, at domestic and international level, he has often produced his best when challenged.His 61-ball century against Sri Lanka at Lord’s came with his side under pressure (they lost), while his partnership with Taylor came after England had slumped to 66 for 5. He might well have scored a century on Test debut, too, had he been more motivated by personal milestones than the team’s progress. He has grit and determination; he just channels it towards his cricket and knows that empty rhetoric in press conferences achieves nothing. You might even say his bite is worse than his bark.

This England team might remind us that cricket can be hard, beautiful and entertaining all at the same time and that you should be able to watch it with your grandparents or grandchildren without concern

Some used to say that Ian Bell lacked the toughness to prosper in international cricket. They used to point at his record and suggest many of the runs had come when conditions were at their easiest. And there was, for a time, a grain of truth in such claims.Not any more. Bell silenced most critics with his Ashes-winning exploits in the summer of 2013 and recently became the most prolific run-scorer in England’s ODI history. He has not changed his character to do this; he has not abused opponents or argued with umpires. He has simply worked hard and concentrated on his own skills. He reminds us that all sorts of characters can flourish in cricket. You don’t have to fabricate an abrasive personality if it is not there.It is a similar story with several other members of this new-look England side. The likes of Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali and Gary Ballance are all coaches’ dreams: low-maintenance, hard-working young cricketers who are as unlikely to get involved in a stand-off on the pitch as they are to appear in reality TV shows. They are naturally modest players who want to let their cricket do the talking.Does this mean they – and the likes of Taylor, Alex Hales and Steven Finn – will shy away from the fray when the battle is at its most intense?There is no evidence to support that theory. The way Moeen and Ballance have taken to international cricket – both scored centuries in their second Tests and have gone on to back-up such first impressions – suggests they thrive in the environment, while Hales remains England’s only T20 century-maker. Taylor flourished as captain of Nottinghamshire last season and has scored four half-centuries in nine innings since breaking back into the ODI side. He might be a future England captain.Yes, some of them will probably not make the grade. And yes, Woakes did appear to make some poor choices during his last over, which cost 24, of the final in Perth. But failure can be due to technique and skill as much as temperament. To claim players are “soft” – as Shane Warne did recently of Mitchell Starc – is very often simplistic. You can be quietly ruthless just as you can be loudly inane.Woakes’ temperament is the quality most often praised by his coaches. Rather than blaming his temperament, there is more evidence to suggest he does not currently have a full set of white-ball skills: his lack of a yorker has been an issue for some time. His performances during the Test series against India and in earlier ODI matches on this tour suggest he has an excellent temperament. Quiet, yes. Soft, no.The England team are invariably disliked around the world. Some reasons are pretty good – the way they bleated about Mankading but excused time-wasting, for example – and some are less so, such as historical injustices relating to the empire and imperialism.But this new bunch might just change that a little. They might just remind us that you can play hard without threatening to break arms, that you can win without gloating and lose without blaming the umpires, the pitch, the toss or the presence of Jupiter in the house of Orion. They might remind us that cricket can be hard and beautiful and entertaining all at the same time and that you should be able to watch it with your grandparents or grandchildren without concern. They might remind us that nice guys can come first and that those who say different are just looking to excuse their own poor behaviour.This England team may well not be good enough to win the World Cup; they are hard enough.

Thanks to James Taylor and Jos Buttler, and a place in the tri-nations final against Australia in Perth, England feel like World Cup contenders again

George Dobell30-Jan-20151:07

‘Buttler innings was outstanding’ – Taylor

It’s the hope that hurts.Every four years, with very little evidence to justify it, England supporters – be it in football or cricket – allow themselves just a glimmer of hope going into a the World Cup. They convince themselves that, if the team plays to potential, if the late call-ups work, if they have a bit of luck and the stars collide and the moon aligns, this time it will be different.And then it turns out to be grimly familiar. The hope looks like hubris and we kick ourselves for falling into the trap yet again.And yet… and yet.You can feel the sap rising in this England team by the day. You can see the emergence of a settled XI, you can see a balanced attack and a batting line-up containing enough resilience and fire-power to cope in most circumstances. Most of all, you can see just a little belief seeping back into a team that had been beaten like a snare drum in recent times.While nobody is tipping them as favourites, they look dangerous outsiders in a World Cup in which few would have given them any hope a couple of months ago.Taylor deems battling innings his best for England

James Taylor celebrated England’s demonstration of “character” after they defeated India to secure their place in the final of the tri-series tournament against Australia.
Taylor, who won the man-of-the-match award for his innings of 82, helped England defy a tough pitch and a top-order batting collapse with what he rated his best innings for England. His partnership of 125 with Jos Buttler proved decisive.
“I’m delighted to score runs in a pressure situation,” he said. “It’s what I pride myself on: finishing games and winning games. The way I played wasn’t my best, but considering the situation it was. I was struggling. But I managed to get through that and just knock the ball around. Jos took the pressure off me. He played his natural game and struck the ball as well as anybody.
“That’s what I do: it’s not the prettiest, but it is effective. I wasn’t playing my best cricket, but I did a job. The pitch was tough work and, when you’re 60 for 5, it’s not easy. We decided to run them ragged, as the boundaries were hard to come by. We didn’t play our best cricket. But we showed character to win in the end.”
The final of the tri-series – against Australia on Sunday – will be played on the same cracked wicket. Against an attack that may well include Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc, that could present quite a challenge.
“They’ve got some great bowlers who are in great nick, but we’re all looking forward to the challenge,” Taylor said. ” It would make a massive statement if we could win it.”

On the face of it, such claims might seem absurd. Before the victory against India in Brisbane, England had won just three of their last 14 completed ODIs. Their two recent wins have come on the sort of bouncy wickets on which India have often looked uncomfortable and Australia, the opponents in the final of this tournament on Sunday and on the opening day of the World Cup, offer a far tougher proposition.Neither was this a wholly convincing performance. England slipped to 66 for 5 in the early part of their run chase and their bowlers tarnished an otherwise impressive display by dropping short and conceding 35 to India’s tenth-wicket pair.Ravi Bopara provided no defence to those who say he is keeping a specialist batsman out of the side – he is an allrounder with one wicket in his last 11 ODIs and no score of 30 in his last seven – and Stuart Broad is still striving to return to full speed after his knee operation.And, despite the excellence of their partnership, both James Taylor and Jos Buttler will know they should have seen their side home. There will be days where their failure to do so costs their side the match.But there are unmistakable signs of improvement. Chris Woakes, again the quickest member of the England attack, is a much-improved limited-overs bowler who is growing with the extra responsibility the management have given him; Moeen Ali is justifying his selection as a spinner even before his batting is taken into consideration; and, with the likes of Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan producing encouraging innings in recent days, there is a sense of a puzzle that is finally, after much agonising, falling into place.Bell’s return has even improved England’s fielding – it is hard to imagine Alastair Cook taking the outstanding slip catch Bell claimed to dismiss Stuart Binny – and England’s bowlers, after conceding 71 wides in seven ODIs against Sri Lanka, have tightened up to that extent that they have not conceded more than three in any match in this tri-series.And while the England of old would have allowed the pressure to overwhelm them – this is a side that before Brisbane had been bowled out in 10 of their last 13 ODI innings – here they found a pair to bend the game to their will. Taylor and Buttler, aged 25 and 24 respectively, can go on to win many games for their country.In Taylor England have a beautifully ugly batsman. That is, a batsman who relishes the fight to such an extent that, even on difficult pitches like this, even when he is struggling for fluency, relishes the battle. In a line-up not lacking style – is there a more aesthetically pleasing opening partnership than Bell and Moeen at the World Cup? – he adds the substance.Such is Taylor’s unorthodoxy that, when things go wrong, they will look particularly ugly. So he will fall leg before playing across the line, as he did to Mitchell Starc in Sydney, or seem to struggle outside off stump, as he did in the early stages of his innings here.But it is foolish to dismiss him – as some have – on that basis. A man averaging in excess of 52 in List A cricket is a man who has conquered in all scenarios and all surfaces. It is a man who has the ability to survive while pushing on. A man who has found his own way to overcome. There will be many more days when those shots off his legs drive bowlers to distraction and force them into giving him width outside off stump.Most of all, he offers composure. As a teenager at Leicestershire, he became the key man in a struggling batting line-up. And, as a young captain of Nottinghamshire, he has shown himself comfortable with responsibility.He can play the role of calm builder – as he did here – or he can thrash bowlers off their game with surprising power and a wide range of unorthodox shots. His pulls and slog-sweeps will be a feature of his ODI career.County cricket has many critics, but Taylor learned the skills that won this game in that environment. He learned to cope with two-paced pitches, low run-chases and building pressure. He learned to pinch singles and rotate the strike. He learned to back himself, whatever the situation. With four half-centuries in his eight ODI innings since his recall, he has gone a long way to filling the hole left by the absence of Jonathan Trott.While Taylor might not have Trott’s defensive game outside off stump, he also has a couple of weapons that Trott did not. He only struck four boundaries, but his paddle sweep and running between the wickets relieved the pressure just as India appeared to be taking a grip.His job was made far easier by the contribution of Buttler. England’s keeper had been, until now, one of the few men not to have performed in this series. It had been seven ODI innings since he reached 30 and, while he was in no danger of being dropped, he perhaps required a match-turning contribution like this to go into the World Cup with his confidence high.This was a reminder that he possesses outrageous talent. On a pitch on which no other batsman looked fluent, he struck seven sweet fours – as many as the rest of the England batsmen combined – and played a late cut and reverse sweep of unusual quality. It meant Taylor could knock the ball into gaps and was not forced into undue risk. It was mature, intelligent limited-overs cricket.The sense remains that this World Cup will come just a bit early for an England side in a rebuilding phase. But they’re heading in the right direction.

The release of the various BCCI sub-committees, announced on Monday, five weeks after the BCCI’s much-delayed AGM, pointed to a change of order

Amol Karhadkar07-Apr-2015Soon after the Supreme Court order in January made it clear that N Srinivasan would virtually be ruled out of contesting the BCCI election, a couple of BCCI veterans had confided in private, “the moment you don’t hold a post in BCCI, you find it very difficult to control the Board affairs from the outside”. The release of the various BCCI sub-committees,  announced on Monday, five weeks after the BCCI’s much-delayed AGM, appeared to indicate that Srinivasan’s era at the BCCI was all but over.Of the five committees that are extremely important in the BCCI administration, only one is headed by an official considered a part of the Srinivasan’s group of loyalists. G Gangaraju of the Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association heads the tour, programme and fixture committee, merely a ceremonial appointment on account of him being a BCCI vice-president. Besides, Gangaraju is a member of parliament from the ruling BJP party currently in power in India, and also shares political allegiances with Anurag Thakur, the new BCCI secretary, who also belongs to the same party.The other major sub-committees are headed either by officials known to be in Srinivasan’s opposition – like Jyotiraditya Scindia (Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association) and Chetan Desai (Goa Cricket Association) – or those who fall somewhere in between the two camps – Rajiv Shukla and MP Pandove. Scindia and Desai head the finance and marketing committee, Shukla has returned as the IPL governing council chairman and Pandove has been reappointed as the National Cricket Academy Board chairman.Loss of power steering

# In 2004-05, Jagmohan Dalmiya did run the BCCI for a year without holding a post through his choice of Ranbir Singh Mahendra as president. After that brief period, but many of Dalmiya’s loyal associates switched allegiance and brought in Sharad Pawar, who had lost to Mahendra in a bitterly-fought election in 2004, as the president.
# Sharad Pawar had to relinquish BCCI presidency in 2008 after his move to the ICC. The reigns were handed over to Shashank Manohar, a staunch Pawar loyalist. Manohar and then secretary N Srinivasan did not however, allow Pawar to be involved in any way in the BCCI’s activities.
Cut to 2015 and the same story seems to be repeating itself in Srinivasan’s case.

While Srinivasan loyalists still point to the fact that “almost half of the 25 BCCI sub-committees” were headed by the Srinivasan camp representatives, they also know that most of these were ceremonial posts.Two of the key Srinivasan aides, Sanjay Patel and Ranjib Biswal who held the secretary and IPL chairman’s post till the elections, do not feature in a single committee.Patel’s omission has a logical explanation: he had been expelled from his home unit of Baroda Cricket Association and the BCCI’s many sub-committee berths are allocated on the basis of the member units themselves. Biswal, it is popularly believed, has suffered due to his loyalty with Srinivasan.The appointment of the likes of Scindia, Desai and Ajay Shirke, chief of data management committee and an IPL governing council member, implied that Srinivasan had little say in the final composition of committees. Shirke’s dramatic return after he had quit in objection to Srinivasan’s handling of the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal was an indication of the turning tide.A Dalmiya aide confirmed that the BCCI president and secretary finalised the committees after consulting all the factions. The sub-committee list also signified that Dalmiya and Thakur, in an attempt to give an impression that the BCCI had regained its original “democracy”, have managed to keep virtually every member unit happy.The is indicated by an increase in numbers in some of the already overloaded committees. The marketing committee, for instance had 26 members for 2013-14. In the new list, it has 29 members. Similarly, the IPL governing council, which had 10 members besides four BCCI office-bearers, has expanded to 12 members plus the four BCCI officials.

The highlights of the week gone by in IPL 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff11-May-2015The best innings
There were two hundreds scored in the space of five days, both by Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen. First Chris Gayle ransacked Kings XI Punjab for 12 sixes on his way to 117 off 57 deliveries at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. AB de Villiers went ahead against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium, making his highest T20 score of 133, off 59 balls. De Villiers’ style was slightly different to Gayle’s – he hit 19 fours.
The best ball
It pitched on a length around leg stump, then cut away to hit the off stump. David Warner’s reaction said it all. He had wanted to push towards midwicket but was opened up completely. That it was bowled at a searing pace by Umesh Yadav left the batsman with no time to adjust.



The goof-up
When it comes to handling post-match presentations, Ravi Shastri is a pro. So it was strange to see him forget handing out the Man-of-the-Match award in the Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians match. The broadcast moved back to the studio after Shastri’s customary, “That’s all from the presentation area”. Shastri, however, returned to complete his duties.The commentary pearl
“That was a quicker slow ball.” -Sunil Gavaskar on air.The drop
Virat Kohli was on 6 at Wankhede Stadium when Harbhajan Singh put down a sitter at slip. Kohli went on to make an unbeaten 82. He also put on 215 – the highest partnership ever in the IPL – with de Villiers.The best catch
When Shane Watson lofted Ravindra Jadeja towards the sightscreen in Chennai, he would have not expected Dwayne Bravo to come in between. Even Bravo, moving to his left from long-on, would not have expected to prevent the ball from sailing for six. But he jumped up a couple of feet anyway, stuck his right hand out and came down with the ball. He then ran towards long-off, eyes on the crowd, and pulled off his favourite celebration moves.AB de Villiers cut Mumbai Indians to ribbons during his unbeaten 133•PTI The heartbreak
Mitchell McClenaghan, steaming in on a hot day in Mumbai, was left seething. A pull by Kohli off the second ball went through Lasith Malinga at long leg for four. Two balls later, McClenaghan drew Chris Gayle’s top edge but saw his captain, Rohit Sharma, fluff the steepler. When Harbhajan dropped a sitter at slip off the next ball, McClenaghan swore and let out a cry of anguish.The unexpected hero
With 34 needed off the last 17 balls against Chennai Super Kings, Rohit Sharma signalled for Hardik Pandya to come in to bat instead of the big-hitting Harbhajan Singh. Pandya, who had been omnipresent in the field that day, carted three sixes in four balls in the penultimate over, effectively killing the chase. Not many would have heard his name before. But not anymore.




The moment of fortune
M Vijay has given away several starts this IPL but this one will probably rankle the most. Vijay was dropped as many as three times by Kolkata Knight Riders, but still made only 28. Gautam Gambhir put down a difficult chance at short extra cover, after which Brad Hogg and Umesh Yadav put down simple ones at square leg and short fine leg.The number
138 – the margin of victory for Royal Challengers Bangalore over Kings XI Punjab at Chinnaswamy Stadium. It was Royal Challengers’ biggest win in terms of runs and the second biggest ever in the IPL.Tweet of the week

Has anyone ever seen AB and superman in the same room? Didn't think so.

— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) May 10, 2015