The injury is probably not serious, but there is no update yet about his return

Nagraj Gollapudi05-Apr-2024Kuldeep Yadav has picked up a groin niggle, which had ruled him out of Delhi Capitals’s previous two matches in IPL 2024. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Kuldeep has been advised rest as a precautionary move, but there is no confirmation yet on when he will be ready to play again.The injury is probably not serious, considering Kuldeep has been travelling with the Capitals squad and is currently in Mumbai where they play their next match – against Mumbai Indians on April 7.Kuldeep played Capital’s opening two matches this season – both away games, against Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals – and picked up three wickets. But he missed their next games in Visakhapatnam, their second home venue: against Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders. While the Capitals won against CSK, they sorely missed Kuldeep in their 106-run defeat against KKR, after which their head coach Ricky Ponting said he was “almost embarrassed”.The Indian selectors will be monitoring Kuldeep’s progress closely, given he is a frontrunner to take one of the spin slots in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup, which starts on June 1 in the West Indies and the USA.Kuldeep entered the IPL after a successful five-match Test series against England, where he bowled more than one match-turning spell. Kuldeep played from the second Test onwards and finished with 19 wickets, including a five-for in the final Test in Dharamsala, where he was named the Player of the Match.After Sunday’s game, Capitals’ next match is against Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow on April 12.

Chloe Kelly has tried to explain her iconic penalty technique, with the Lionesses hero looking to land back-to-back European Championship titles.

• Scored extra-time winner in Euro 2022 final
• Helped to keep defence of that title on track
• Unsure how unique penalty routine formed

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  The Arsenal forward became a national hero in 2022 when netting a dramatic extra-time goal for England in their Euros final clash with arch-rivals Germany. A historic continental crown was captured by Sarina Wiegman’s side.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  They have overcome plenty of challenges at Euro 2025 to keep their defence of that title alive. Kelly, in a role as super-sub, has been a talismanic presence once again. She calmly converted her spot-kick during a chaotic quarter-final shootout with Sweden.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  Kelly then saw an effort from 12 yards saved against Italy in the semi-finals, but kept her composure to fire in the rebound. The 27-year-old has become famed for the unique routine that she works through before connecting with a penalty.

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• WHAT KELLY SAID

  Speaking to , Kelly said when asked about rolling the ball several times on the spot before allowing it to settle and why she does that: "I don’t know, to be honest. The coaches actually asked me that the other day. I don’t know where it came from but it’s what works for me and it’s my routine so I just stick with it."

  Pressed further on the hop and knee rise that leads her into a penalty strike, Kelly said when asked where that comes from: "I don’t know, I’ll be honest."

Cricinfo looks back at ten of Tendulkar’s best three-figure knocks

Cricinfo staff10-Dec-2005

119 not out v England, Old Trafford, 1990
England pile up 519 on a benign pitch and India reply with 432. England stretch the lead to 407, and though the pitch is still good and the bowling (Malcolm, Fraser, Lewis, Hemmings) not terribly menacing, India find themselves in deep water at 127 for 5 with only one recognised batsman left. And he’s only 17 years old. Tendulkar battles for nearly four hours, grimly but never dourly, and ends the day with 119. India lose only one more wicket, ending up with 343. With one more session, they might even have won.148 v Australia, Sydney, 1991-91
It is Shane Warne’s debut and Sachin Tendulkar, abetted by Ravi Shastri (206), give him a harsh welcome to international cricket. After Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar grab three wickets apiece to restrict Australia to 313, Tendulkar joins Shastri at the score on 201 and both plunder runs off Warne. A 197-run partnership ends when Shastri becomes Warne’s first Test wicket but Tendulkar carries on to steer India to a vital 150-run lead as he remains unbeaten on 148, his first Test century in Australia. However despite Shastri’s four-wicket haul, Australia hang on for a draw.114 v Australia, Perth, 1991-92
The fastest pitch in Australia has been reserved for the last Test. India have been beaten already, only humiliation awaits. Batting first, Australia score 346. Tendulkar enters at a relatively comfortable 100 for 3, but watches the next five wickets go down for 59. Sachin is the next man out … at 240. He has scored 118 of the 140 runs added while he was at the crease, and made them in such an awe-inspiring manner that commentators are asking themselves when they last saw an innings as good.122 v England, Edgbaston 1996
India, opting to bat first, collapse to 214 before England ride on the
Man-of-the-Match Nasser Hussain’s fine 128 to gain a 99-run lead. On a third day’s wicket offering uneven bounce India look set to crumble without a fight. No other batsman reaches even 20 as Tendulkar stands firm displaying superior technique, moving either back or forward with decisive footwork to make 122 off 177 balls.169 v South Africa, Cape Town, 1996-97
Batting first, South Africa make a matchwinning 529. Playing only for honour, India find themselves groveling before Donald, Pollock, McMillan and Klusener. Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin get together at 58 for 5, and start spanking the bowling as if they were playing a club game in the park. They add 222 for the sixth wicket in less than two sessions, and Tendulkar has 26 boundaries in his score of 169. Even Donald says that he felt like clapping.155 not out v Australia, MA Chidambaram Stadium, 1997-98
Seventy-one runs in arrears, India start the second innings and despite Navjot Singh Sidhu’s 64 find themselves only 44 in front when Sachin Tendulkar joins Rahul Dravid. The duo has to contend with Shane Warne bowling from round the wicket and into the rough. Tendulkar, who has practiced against Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and a few other bowlers on artificially created rough patch before this series, decides to take apart Shane Warne. In a breathtaking assault, with the match hanging in balance, he deploys his unique slog sweeps against the spin to steer India past Australia and snatch a matchwinning 347-run lead.

136 v Pakistan, Chennai, 1998-99
Few Indian batting performances have been as heroic, or as tragic. Chasing 264 in the fourth innings of a low-scoring match, India experience a familiar top-order collapse and are sinking fast at 82 for 5. Tendulkar finds an able ally in Nayan Mongia, and rebuilds the innings in a painstaking, un-Tendulkarlike manner. After helping add 136 for the sixth wicket, Mongia departs to an ungainly pull, and Sachin’s back is also giving way. Tendulkar shifts up a gear or two and starts dealing only in boundaries. But one error of judgment and it’s all over. Saqlain Mushtaq defeats his intended lofted on-drive with a magical ball that drifts the other way, catches the outer part of Tendulkar’s bat and balloons up to mid-off. The tail disgrace themselves and India fall short by a gut-wrenching 13 runs.155 v South Africa, Bloemfontein, 2001-02
On the first day on an overseas series, India’s plight is a familiar one – four down for 68, with all the wickets going just the way the South Africans expected – to rising balls. Tendulkar has a debutant for company, with another to follow. He takes 17 balls to score his first run, but 101 come off the next 97 deliveries. It isn’t the prettiest of Tendulkar’s Test tons, but it is one of the most savage, characterised by pulls and vicious upper-cuts. The South Africans have a plan for India, and Tendulkar makes a mockery of it. By the time Tendulkar’s innings ended, India are reasonably well-placed, though they go on to lose the Test.176 v West Indies, Kolkata, 2002-03
Trailing by 139 runs after the first innings, India are struggling to stay in the game at 87 for 4 when Tendulkar decides to stamp his class on the match. The full array of his strokeplay was on display as Tendulkar feasts on the West Indian attack with some gorgeous cover-drives and straight-drives. He finishes with 176 of the finest runs – including 26 fours peppered to all parts of Eden Garden – as India end up saving the match quite comfortably.

241 not out v Australia, Sydney 2004
Tendulkar returns to form with a double-century, playing an innings which is quite distinct from any of his earlier efforts. After being caught driving outside off stump several times prior to this Test, here in a monk-like fashion, he abstains from any loose driving and collects his runs mainly on the on side. With Laxman in sublime form at the other end, Tendulkar chooses to hang on his back foot and slowly works his way to his then highest Test score. It doesn’t give India victory, though, as Steve Waugh, playing his last Test, hangs on to enable Australia draw the game.

With marriage right round the corner along with his second tour to Bangladesh Karthik has decided he will focus on the right things at the right time

Anand Vasu23-Apr-2007

Still shy of his 22nd birthday, Karthik has played 25 internationals and is young when he can be and mature when he must © Cricinfo Magazine
When he talks about cricket, its challenges and how it has pushed him as a person, Dinesh Karthik sounds like a weather-beaten old pro. Minutes later, when Nikita, his fianceé who he will marry on May 2, shows up to take him shopping, he grins like an idiot on a first date. Still shy of his 22nd birthday, and yet with 44 first-class matches and 25 internationals under his belt he’s young when he can be, and mature when he must.Already, in his brief career, he’s had a variety of roles to play. From a keeper who could bat a bit, to someone who made a gutsy and selfless 93 in a Test-win against Pakistan, to being a middle-order batsman and cover fielder in one-dayers, to finally opening the batting in Test matches, Karthik has had to wear many different hats.Having just led Tamil Nadu to triumph in the inaugural domestic Twenty20 championships, Karthik is constantly looking at what he can take out of the game. “If you look at your game in Twenty20 cricket you’ll realise that you can play some shots that you did not think were there in your armoury. It’s important to find out what those shots are by playing them,” he told Cricinfo. “It’s happened to me a couple of times that I’ve been surprised by a shot that I’ve played. It’s given me a lot of confidence and that’s the way to approach it. Another thing is that you’re still looking to score runs. So in some ways it’s like a 50-over game as well. The last 10 overs are the same in terms of fields set and what you need to do whether it’s a Twenty20 game or a 50-over game.”But equally, he realises that while some things need to be done differently, there’s plenty that’s common to different forms of cricket. “At the end of the day when you go in to bat there are some things you should look to do the same way, whether it is Twenty20 or opening the batting in Tests. You still have to look to play the ball correctly, not have too many things on your mind when you’re batting,” he said. “In Twenty20 the accent is on improvising, in Tests it is on getting your routines right. Overall the basics of preparation for all forms remain the same, and only then do you give yourself a chance to perform consistently.” I haven’t opened the batting consistently, but I honestly feel I have the technique to do it. I’ve not looked at it as a long-term thing. I’ve been asked to do the job for this series and I’m going to look at it like that The one thing that has always stood out about Karthik is his confidence and that sometimes borders on cockiness, whether it is how he approaches batting or his energetic swagger and the way he carries himself off the field. Ask him about opening the batting in Tests in the forthcoming series against Bangladesh and it’s no different. “I haven’t opened the batting consistently, but I honestly feel I have the technique to do it,” he says. “I’ve not looked at it as a long-term thing. I’ve been asked to do the job for this series and I’m going to look at it like that. It’s going to be an experience for sure and a different challenge.”Yet, while he wants to take it one series at a time, Karthik certainly views the tour of Bangladesh as a chance to cement his place in the side, perhaps because he failed to do so earlier in his career, when he got the chances, scoring only 25 and 11 batting at No.7 in Tests in India’s last tour of Bangladesh, and then being dismissed for 1 and 1 at the same position in Zimbabwe. “As a youngster Bangladesh is an ideal opportunity for me to cement my place in the team by showing that I have the maturity to play at that level,” he says. “That can be done with a couple of good knocks. The rest is not in my hands, but I always believe there’s somebody up there who will guide me.”One thing that has come to Karthik perhaps too early is the suggestion that he might be leadership material at the highest level. It’s one thing doing the job for Tamil Nadu in Twenty20 cricket, standing-in for S Badrinath who was ill, but at the moment Karthik is barely even a regular in the team at the national level. He didn’t even get a game in India’s disappointing World Cup campaign.

Karthik began as a keeper who could bat a bit, moved on to score 93 in a Test-win against Pakistan, became a middle-order batsman and cover fielder in ODIs and has now even opened the batting in Tests © AFP
But Karthik does have some interesting thoughts about captaincy. “It’s true that I am young but at the end of the day I have played some cricket at the international level so when I lead Tamil Nadu the boys look up to me, and look to me to perform,” he says. “It’s important that I stand by the boys and live up to the trust and faith they have in me. That can only be done by leading from the front and that means getting runs and keeping well. It also means getting the boys to do what you want them to do and make sure that they like you as captain.”The Mushtaq Ali Trophy for the Twenty20 Championship was in the bag, and Nikita was waiting. With a wedding in Chennai and a preparatory camp in Kolkata just around the corner there was a lot on Kathik’s mind. “There is a lot happening at the moment, there are too many things in my head,” he said, breaking into a grin. “But I just need to focus on the right thing at the right time.”

Three years after being banned for attempting to bribe two national selectors, Abhijit Kale is sadder but wiser – and an example of the problems in the pressure-cooker world of Indian cricket

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan22-Jun-2007

In March 1988 he was chosen, along with Sachin Tendulkar, as the most promising junior cricketer in Bombay; in March 1992 he cracked 153 against the New Zealand Under-19 tourists, overshadowing a young Rahul Dravid; in December 1993 he rattled off 132 on first-class debut against Baroda; in November 2001 he made 122 against the touring English at Jaipur; in April 2003 he played his first and only ODI against Bangladesh at Dhaka; and in November 2003 he was accused of offering two national selectors a bribe for a place in the Indian side.Not many had heard of Abhijit Kale before November 2003, far fewer have heard of him since. On November 20, 2003, though, he was front-page material, when Kiran More and Pranab Roy, two former cricketers turned national selectors, accused Kale of offering Rs 10 lakhs (approximately US$21,900 ) for a place in the Indian side. A BCCI enquiry was instituted and Kale tendered a letter of apology to the BCCI in which he admitted that he tried to “influence the selectors” while insisting that he had never tried to bribe them. In June 2004 he was banned from the game, allowed to return only the following January.Since his return to first-class cricket, Kale has slipped into further oblivion. He’s changed his team and gone right across the country, leaving Maharashtra for Tripura, in the part of India that lies east of Bangladesh. He has struggled for runs. He’s a changed person too – “sadder, without as much humour, but more sensible” – and is trying his best to “start enjoying the game once again”. One of India’s most promising junior cricketers and one of the most consistent first-class batsmen is trying to figure out where it all went wrong.”It all happened in too much of a hurry,” he told Cricinfo, “and initially I didn’t have time to stop and think. Suddenly I realised that I’ve been banned for a whole season of four-day games. I was broken.”Being banned for most of the 2004-05 season had a traumatic effect. “I was mentally gone – I put on weight, I didn’t have the motivation to practice, I was totally blank. I used to go to work at Bharat Petroleum but it made things worse. I was so obsessed with the game that taking it away from me had a drastic effect.”There’s not an ounce of anger in Kale’s voice; instead it’s sober and indicates the process of introspection. It helps because the conversation turns into a discussion where he refers to his “big mistake” and “serving punishment”. He mentions “destiny” and admits he can’t blame anyone but himself and “circumstances”. He isn’t too comfortable recounting the details but is remarkably candid while analysing the possible motive.”When I look back now I have a clearer understanding. All my life I have been desperate about being selected in teams. Starting from Under-16, I always felt I was not rewarded for scoring big. I remember making 153 for India U-19 early on, yet I was never picked for Mumbai. For three seasons I was in the Mumbai reserves. I scored heavily in all the local matches, yet there was no recognition. At one point my only aim was to play one Ranji match.

“All this made me excessively focussed towards cricket. Every time I didn’t get picked I would go back and work harder, think more, be more desperate to make it. It used to eat into me almost. Looking back I regret that obsession – I shouldn’t have taken all this so seriously, I should have enjoyed my cricket more.”Kale doesn’t want to make excuses; yet he wishes there was some help at hand. “Maybe a team psychologist could have helped, someone to tell me not to take cricket so seriously, someone who could help me deal with disappointments. Anyway I have served my punishment and look forward to 2-3 years of cricket ahead of me. My only wish now is to enjoy my cricket, something which I never did enough of.”And perhaps get among the runs again. Since his return to first-class cricket he’s managed just two 35-plus scores in 17 first-class innings. “I made a mistake by leaving Maharashtra – they dropped me and I took an impulsive decision to shift states,” he says of his move to Tripura before last season. “It was a communication gap – they didn’t exactly tell me the reasons. Also, there were too many things going on in my head then – I hadn’t yet recovered from that incident. I am trying to move back to Maharashtra; I can’t think of playing for any other state now.”The Tripura experiment was a complete disaster. “It’s the first time in 14 seasons that I’ve failed in first-class cricket and I just want to put it behind me. Somehow nothing clicked.”Several years later, Abhijit Kale will be the answer to a quiz question. It won’t be about a teenage prodigy who dominated bowlers in the Bombay leagues, neither will it involve a ruthlessly consistent domestic cricketer. Kale knows that he will always be associated with that incident. Importantly he’s accepted that and is now trying to move on.

How a stepped-on sandwich sparked a permanent adoration for D’Oliveira

Steven Lynch28-Dec-2006I imagine that for most cricket lovers the favourite player is the one who catches the eye at an early age, when the game is just taking hold. Later on you can relish the thought of going to watch Brian Lara, or Shane Warne, or Andrew Flintoff, but you can never quite recapture the breathless excitement of the moment you got hooked.
I had noticed cricket on the television, watched some of it, asked my parents what was going on. But things changed when I was nine, in the summer of 1966. England were struggling against West Indies. They were messing about with selection. They chose three captains (bettered only by 1988, when they had four). But one of the new caps was a bit different: Basil Lewis D’Oliveira.”Dolly” was a romantic figure – tall, dark and handsome, but with an air of mystery. This stemmed from his past: I knew he had come over from South Africa because he wasn’t allowed to play there. My mother tried to explain why not, but it didn’t sink in. But what I did notice was probably my first technical observation (apart from wondering why Jim Parks used to crouch down to keep wicket with his arms outside his pads, unlike all the other keepers I’d seen): D’Oliveira had almost no back-lift.I was a martyr to tonsillitis at the time, which I suspect got worse when Tests were on, so I was able to follow D’Oliveira’s first series closely. He scored 27 at Lord’s before suffering a freakish run-out. But the shot that cemented Dolly’s place in the pantheon came in the fourth Test, when he smashed Wes Hall – the fastest bowler in the world at the time – straight back over his head for six.Much later I learned about the pressure D’Oliveira must have felt, representing millions of coloured South Africans. He had a few secrets. Unbeknown to the selectors, he could hardly throw the ball in the field after having smashed his arm in a car accident the previous winter. And then there was his age.Ah, yes, his age. When I found out about that, Dolly went up even higher in my youthful estimation. When he joined Worcestershire, he said he was born in 1934, which meant the England selectors thought he was a reasonably youthful 31 when they called him up. It was some time before he owned up. He had felt, probably rightly, that England would not have blooded someone approaching 35. Even that is not quite the end of the story. In his autobiography D’Oliveira wrote: “I can assure you I’m a little older than my birth certificate states… If you told me I was nearer 40 than 35 when I first played for England, I wouldn’t sue you for slander.” I always thought the Playfair Cricket Annual went a little too far in 1979, though, when it gave his year of birth as 1031.Dolly remained a fixture in the Test team for six years, until he was 41 (or 38, or 46, or possibly 941). For all that time he was the only player I really wanted to succeed. I was rewarded in 1970 when he made the first century I ever saw live (105 for Worcestershire against Surrey at the Oval, since you ask).Two years before that, he made another mark in cricket history by becoming the first Test player to speak to me. Nestled on the grass behind the boundary boards at the Oval on my first day of Test cricket in 1968 – sadly, a couple of days after D’Oliveira’s famous 158 at the ground – I was at first delighted, then rather alarmed, as Dolly lumbered towards me, chasing a ball to the boundary. He just failed to stop it, overran the ball, and carried on into the crowd, his boot spiking a neat hole in one of my lunchtime sandwiches as he did so. “Sorry, son,” he said as he returned to the field, leaving me even more in awe than before. I kept the evidence for ages, until my Mum threw away the star exhibit of my burgeoning cricket museum, saying it was turning green.Batting like D’Oliveira was never very likely, so for a while I tried to bowl like him: both arms swooping upwards just before delivery, then a rhythmical, circular sweep of the bowling arm. When he did it, it kept the runs down and broke partnerships at vital moments of Ashes series. My efforts were rather less spectacular, but they lasted longer than later attempts to bowl like Jeff Thomson.If things had been different, Dolly might have been pulverising bowlers for South Africa in the 1950s rather than doing wonders for England in the sixties. I began to have some idea of the hurdles he overcame just to play club cricket in England, never mind county or Test cricket. Throughout he seems to have remained the smiling, modest bloke who apologised when he stepped on my sandwiches. I do know now that off the field he liked a drink, sometimes got a bit loud, and that he didn’t cover himself with glory on his first tour with England, to the West Indies in 1968.But I don’t care. D’Oliveira’s place in history is secure: he was the man who, inadvertently, made the sporting world at large aware of what was wrong with apartheid. And he cemented one small boy’s love of cricket.

How a stepped-on sandwich sparked a permanent adoration for D’Oliveira

Steven Lynch28-Dec-2006I imagine that for most cricket lovers the favourite player is the one who catches the eye at an early age, when the game is just taking hold. Later on you can relish the thought of going to watch Brian Lara, or Shane Warne, or Andrew Flintoff, but you can never quite recapture the breathless excitement of the moment you got hooked.
I had noticed cricket on the television, watched some of it, asked my parents what was going on. But things changed when I was nine, in the summer of 1966. England were struggling against West Indies. They were messing about with selection. They chose three captains (bettered only by 1988, when they had four). But one of the new caps was a bit different: Basil Lewis D’Oliveira.”Dolly” was a romantic figure – tall, dark and handsome, but with an air of mystery. This stemmed from his past: I knew he had come over from South Africa because he wasn’t allowed to play there. My mother tried to explain why not, but it didn’t sink in. But what I did notice was probably my first technical observation (apart from wondering why Jim Parks used to crouch down to keep wicket with his arms outside his pads, unlike all the other keepers I’d seen): D’Oliveira had almost no back-lift.I was a martyr to tonsillitis at the time, which I suspect got worse when Tests were on, so I was able to follow D’Oliveira’s first series closely. He scored 27 at Lord’s before suffering a freakish run-out. But the shot that cemented Dolly’s place in the pantheon came in the fourth Test, when he smashed Wes Hall – the fastest bowler in the world at the time – straight back over his head for six.Much later I learned about the pressure D’Oliveira must have felt, representing millions of coloured South Africans. He had a few secrets. Unbeknown to the selectors, he could hardly throw the ball in the field after having smashed his arm in a car accident the previous winter. And then there was his age.Ah, yes, his age. When I found out about that, Dolly went up even higher in my youthful estimation. When he joined Worcestershire, he said he was born in 1934, which meant the England selectors thought he was a reasonably youthful 31 when they called him up. It was some time before he owned up. He had felt, probably rightly, that England would not have blooded someone approaching 35. Even that is not quite the end of the story. In his autobiography D’Oliveira wrote: “I can assure you I’m a little older than my birth certificate states… If you told me I was nearer 40 than 35 when I first played for England, I wouldn’t sue you for slander.” I always thought the Playfair Cricket Annual went a little too far in 1979, though, when it gave his year of birth as 1031.Dolly remained a fixture in the Test team for six years, until he was 41 (or 38, or 46, or possibly 941). For all that time he was the only player I really wanted to succeed. I was rewarded in 1970 when he made the first century I ever saw live (105 for Worcestershire against Surrey at the Oval, since you ask).Two years before that, he made another mark in cricket history by becoming the first Test player to speak to me. Nestled on the grass behind the boundary boards at the Oval on my first day of Test cricket in 1968 – sadly, a couple of days after D’Oliveira’s famous 158 at the ground – I was at first delighted, then rather alarmed, as Dolly lumbered towards me, chasing a ball to the boundary. He just failed to stop it, overran the ball, and carried on into the crowd, his boot spiking a neat hole in one of my lunchtime sandwiches as he did so. “Sorry, son,” he said as he returned to the field, leaving me even more in awe than before. I kept the evidence for ages, until my Mum threw away the star exhibit of my burgeoning cricket museum, saying it was turning green.Batting like D’Oliveira was never very likely, so for a while I tried to bowl like him: both arms swooping upwards just before delivery, then a rhythmical, circular sweep of the bowling arm. When he did it, it kept the runs down and broke partnerships at vital moments of Ashes series. My efforts were rather less spectacular, but they lasted longer than later attempts to bowl like Jeff Thomson.If things had been different, Dolly might have been pulverising bowlers for South Africa in the 1950s rather than doing wonders for England in the sixties. I began to have some idea of the hurdles he overcame just to play club cricket in England, never mind county or Test cricket. Throughout he seems to have remained the smiling, modest bloke who apologised when he stepped on my sandwiches. I do know now that off the field he liked a drink, sometimes got a bit loud, and that he didn’t cover himself with glory on his first tour with England, to the West Indies in 1968.But I don’t care. D’Oliveira’s place in history is secure: he was the man who, inadvertently, made the sporting world at large aware of what was wrong with apartheid. And he cemented one small boy’s love of cricket.

Stats highlights from the final day’s play between India and Pakistan in Kolkata

Cricinfo staff04-Dec-2007

Younis Khan has been prolific in the fourth innings of a Test in 2007 © AFP
During his knock of 46, Sourav Ganguly became the seventh Indian batsman to score 6000 runs in Test cricket. Ganguly has 6016 runs from 98 Tests, at an average of 41.48, the lowest among the Indian batsmen with over 6000 runs. The match aggregate of 1470 runs is the second-highest in Tests at Eden Gardens, and the third-highest in India-Pakistan Tests. With the wicket of Salman Butt, Anil Kumble completed 50 wickets against Pakistan in home Tests. Kumble has also taken 50 Test wickets in India against Australia and England. Dennis Lillee, Fred Trueman, Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne are the other bowlers to have 50 home wickets against at least three opposition teams, with Murali having taken it against four. Younis Khan’s unbeaten 107 was his 15th Test century and his fifth against India. Younis continues his remarkable run against India, with an average of over 90 against them. Younis scored his third consecutive hundred in the fourth innings of a Test. He averages 61.09 in the fourth innings of a Test, with three hundreds and a fifty in four final innings of Tests this year. Younis’ three hundreds in the fourth innings is also the best for a Pakistan batsman in Tests. Ijaz Ahmed and Javed Miandad have scored two. Younis’ hundred was also the sixth in the match, the first time that six centuries have been scored in a Test at Eden Gardens. The previous best was five, scored in India-South Africa Test in 1996-97 and the India-West Indies match in 2002-03. Mohammad Yousuf and Younis completed 3000 runs while batting together in Tests during their unbroken 136-run stand that ensured the match finished in a draw. The duo are five runs behind the best Pakistan pair in Tests: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf had scored 3013 runs in 57 innings. In 39 innings, Younis and Yousuf have 3008 runs at an average of 81.29. They fare better against India, averaging 185.71, with six century stands in nine innings.

South Africa flirted with catastrophe in Tests, and lost the plot on the biggest stage in the limited-overs game

Telford Vice06-Jan-2008

A ship’s captain feels the need to rearrange the deck chairs even as his stricken vessel plummets into churning water; a man realises that the only way he is going to survive being pinned under a boulder is to hack off his trapped arm with a hunting knife. Impending catastrophe does different things to different people. South Africa’s problems in 2007 weren’t quite in the same league, but at times they must have sparked that brand of dread in certain quarters.For a start, the year was bookended by home Test defeats to India and West Indies. That put South Africa in danger of losing series to sides that had never won a Test in the country before. Pakistan followed India to the Republic, and again Graeme Smith’s team faced the ignominy of a home series loss. What with South Africa having lost rubbers at home to Australia and England in the two previous summers, the prospect of defeat against sides that had rarely challenged for series honours in the past rang loud alarms.South Africa managed to pull out of the nose-dive in time to earn 2-1 victories over their Asian opposition, but we don’t yet know how well they will recover from crashing to a loss in the first Test against West Indies. they managed to equalise against West Indies after a crushing loss in the first Test. But they could still lose the series.However, even the disappointment of a series defeat to the West Indians would
pale in comparison to the gloom that spread through the nation after the World
Cup in the Caribbean. Other countries’ supporters might have been satisfied with their teams bowing out at the semi-final stage, but not South Africa’s. Especially not after they threw away a winning position in their pool match against Australia and then somehow lurched to an infamous loss to Bangladesh in the Super Eights.Another beating by Australia in the semi-finals was almost assured, but few would have predicted the hiding that the South Africans endured. They spiralled to 27 for 5 on their way to a dismal total of 149 in which Shaun Tait and Glenn McGrath proved unplayable and claimed seven wickets between them. Australia cantered to victory by seven wickets and with 19.3 overs to spare.Emotionally bruised, Smith’s team returned home to face the repercussions of a leaked report by their fitness trainer that there was a culture of drinking in the squad. A second bombshell was the revelation that the team was riven by cliques, and that Smith himself was at the centre of the malaise.In August, Norman Arendse was elected president of Cricket South Africa, and in
some areas of the game the sharp intake of breath was almost palpable. Arendse, a senior counsel with a streetfighter’s instincts, is firmly rooted in the more progressive sector of cricket administration. “With the help of some hard life lessons I think I’m very well equipped for the challenges that cricket will bring,” Arendse said shortly after his election. “I hate exclusivity, I hate unfairness, I hate all those things that I wouldn’t
want to happen to me.”Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher would surely agree with the latter sentiment. Kallis was left out of South Africa’s squad for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 tournament, and when Boucher voiced his disapproval of that decision, he was docked 60 per cent of any match fees he would earn in the event. Kallis was originally told he was being rested. This after he had had three months of doing nothing much else besides play golf. Gradually it emerged that he was thought too slow a batsman for the Twenty20 format. Quite why he wasn’t given this reason first up remains a mystery.South Africa sailed through the tournament unbeaten, until their last group match, when they went down to India. The fact that they couldn’t muster the measly 126 runs in that match that would have put them in the semi-finals at New Zealand’s expense only added to the theory that they don’t know how to win when it matters. That longstanding idea was turned on its head on South Africa’s tour to Pakistan, though.Kallis returned to the team in triumph with centuries in both innings of the first Test, which South Africa won by 160 runs, and another in the drawn second Test. A thrilling one-day series reached the fifth and final match locked at 2-2.Herschelle Gibbs’ 54 and Kallis’ 86 bolstered South Africa’s total of 233 for 9, and Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel shared eight wickets to complete a 14-run win.An almost anti-climactic home series against New Zealand followed, in which
Shane Bond didn’t get out of the first Test in one piece and Dale Steyn sent
Craig Cumming home in several pieces on his way to taking 20 wickets in two
Tests. South Africa cruised to convincing victories in both matches.

New man on the block
Dale Steyn was rushed into Test cricket and he faltered. He returned a meaner,
keener bowler, and his 20 wickets against New Zealand were just reward.Fading star
Time was when Makhaya Ntini was bulletproof. That time has passed, and he now
appears increasingly as mortal as the rest of us. But at 30, there are several
good years left in that superbly conditioned body. Perhaps the real fading star
is Shaun Pollock, who found himself being eased out of the Test team in 2007.High point
Winning on the subcontinent is never simple, and South Africa will savour for
a long time yet their twin triumphs in Pakistan.Low point
The look in the eyes of a 23-year-old Durban student who had sold most of his
earthly possessions to finance his trip to the World Cup, as he surveyed the
damage wrought by Australia in the semi-final.What 2008 holds
Forget the home and away series against Bangladesh, the year brims with other,
far weightier challenges, in the shape of tours to India, England and Australia.

A graphical analysis of Virender Sehwag’s unbeaten 309

28-Mar-2008

More than half of Sehwag’s runs came on the off side, perhaps an indication that the South African bowlers generally stuck to a line around the off stump. They did stray in their length though – 83 of Sehwag’s 185 runs on the off side came behind square.

Sehwag was at ease against all the bowlers, with only Morne Morkel and Paul Harris conceding less than a run-a-ball against him. He was particularly harsh on Makhaya Ntini and Jacques Kallis. He scored exactly an 100 against the left-arm spin of Paul Harris, against whom he pulled off quite a few reverse-sweeps.

Sehwag dominated India’s batting, outscoring his partners by a 2:1 ratio in the two double-century stands. Opening with Jaffer, Sehwag made 134 out of 213, while Jaffer managed 73. Rahul Dravid and Sehwag were surely in different gears; Dravid could only score 65 off 181 deliveries while Sehwag plundered 175 off 140. The only measure in which Dravid matched Sehwag was in terms of dot balls – Dravid didn’t score off 145 deliveries, the same for Sehwag was 152. Jaffer wasn’t far behind, with 127 dot balls.

Sehwag’s strike-rate, shown here in 25-run slots, had ups and downs. His first hundred came off 116 deliveries, and his innings took off after the 125-run mark, and he rushed from 175 to 200 in just eight balls, a strike-rate of over 300. He motored at a strike-rate of 150 from 200 to 250, and even at the end, after a full day in the Chennai heat, he managed nearly a run a ball.