South Africa can proudly lay claim to having India’s number throughout the Motera Test

Jamie Alter in Ahmedabad05-Apr-2008

“This was the perfect Test match for us,” Graeme Smith said after the crushing win in Ahmedabad. “We dominated from the start.” Once South Africa grabbed the jugular, they never let go. It was startling in its routine, impressive in its results.Smith needed no second invitations to declare on an overnight 494 for 7 when he showed up at the Motera and saw a bit of cloud cover over a slightly damp pitch. That gave South Africa a huge platform from where to seal a 1-0 series lead and the manner in which they proceeded to do it was most clinical. Their energies were high all day, the bowlers never wavered from their plan, and the fielding was first-rate. South Africa never forgot the basics, contrary to India.Unlike on the manic first morning when sheer pace rattled a trigger-happy line-up, today was about mini-battles and outfoxing the batsmen. Virender Sehwag set about like a runaway caboose, hitting two sixes in Dale Steyn’s first over – perhaps for the first time in Test history – but did little to inspire hopes of a great escape. Makhaya Ntini saw that Sehwag was keen to pull the short stuff, and bowled a full one to take him out, lbw. Tick one to the brain-trust.That method set the tone for the rest. Steyn really turned it on against Wasim Jaffer, hitting lovely lengths and getting the ball to lift. Smith could’ve easily called back Steyn after Morne Morkel had just removed Rahul Dravid, but he gambled on Jacques Kallis and it worked like a charm. After being shaken up by Steyn, Jaffer was drawn into an overconfident drive against Kallis’ gentle medium-pace.Morkel’s dismissal of Dravid was also excellently schemed: pepper him with short deliveries while Ntini invited drives with a fuller length. Notice the sequence of deliveries before the wicket: short and kicking, fuller to draw him forward, back of a length, short on the body and then the quickest of all, banged in short for Dravid to edge to second slip.VVS Laxman dazzled with three early boundaries that almost took the breath away – a smooth off-drive, a caress off the back foot, and a soft-handed straight drive past the stumps – but stunning shots do not always a battle make, and he eventually fell to Morkel. Having just seen an edge fall short of second slip with a full delivery, Morkel pitched full and wide again to draw a fatal nick.Even when Sourav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni delayed the inevitable
with a 110-run fifth-wicket partnership, South Africa didn’t wilt. The fielding remained athletic, the pacers ran in hard, and the lone spinner, Paul Harris, didn’t retreat after being thumped. Ganguly got an unlucky decision but Dhoni was also set up well: Ntini and Steyn pushed him further and further back, before Ntini slipped in a full one. Dhoni took the bait and fell hook, line and sinker for a near replica of his first-innings dismissal.Ntini’s performance in the subcontinent had been below-par compared to his career numbers, and with all the attention focused on Steyn he remained almost a phantom in Chennai. But today he followed up three huge wickets on day one with three more, netting Sehwag, Dhoni, and Sreesanth. He ran through short spell and long, irrespective of which end he was bowling from, and his captain was all praise. “It was a transition that Ntini needed to make as the leader of the pack, and he’s led by example. It was hard work for the bowlers today on a heavy outfield but he stuck to it. I’m proud of him.”

South Africa were also supreme in their ground fielding. AB de Villiers was excellent wherever he went, pulling off superb stop-and-flicks from short cover and even closer, but it was in the covers that he was sublime, like a ravenous hound after a hare. Even Hashim Amla, whose calm exterior and flowing beard betray a sage, saved plenty of runs with excellent dives up-close. The slip catching was top-draw, none better than Kallis’ blinder of a catch towards the end of the day, taken in front of his face as he fell backwards. It was in such examples that South Africa were leagues ahead of India.The visitors backed their instinct and it paid off superbly. “This is a very balanced side. We’ve had some tough tours of the subcontinent but we’re better for it. For the first time I have a bowling line-up that can do well out here and I’m most comfortable with this side,” was Smith’s assessment of his unit after the win.South Africa’s quest for a win began with a frenzied opening morning’s play and ended in the dying stages of an extended third day, and bar today’s second session, they can proudly lay claim to having India’s number the whole time. India were beaten in three days by an innings and 90 runs, the first at home since South Africa toured in 2000. This looks the best South African touring side and Smith has a lot to be proud of going to Kanpur.

He’s done the hard yards and bided his time; his chance may finally have arrived

Brydon Coverdale26-Feb-2009

When Australian cricket fans talk about the twelfth man it’s a fair
bet they’re referring to the comedian Billy Birmingham. Or maybe Andy
Bichel, who carried the drinks a record 19 times in Tests. Over the
past couple of years they might have been speaking of Ben Hilfenhaus,
who has been slowly chipping away at Bichel’s mark. Four times
Hilfenhaus has been called into Australia’s Test squad without getting
a game.The day before the Wanderers Test, Hilfenhaus was nervously waiting to
find out if it would be five from five. He was in the 12 and the
humid, cloudy conditions would suit his swing bowling but the whole
situation was frustratingly familiar. A round of golf – Hilfenhaus has
a useful handicap of seven – with the touring selector David Boon and
the coach Tim Nielsen didn’t shed any light on matters.”I’m really just looking forward to getting the first Test out of the
way and going from there,” Hilfenhaus said, hoping that moment would
come in Johannesburg. “Getting your baggy green is every kid’s dream.
I’d be really excited just to get that and hopefully if I do I’ll just
try and do everything I can to represent it well.”Since he first made it into a Test squad in November 2007 there have
been setbacks, notably back stress fractures that stopped him from
embarking on his first Test tour when Australia set off for the West
Indies last year. There have been disappointments as other fast men
such as Doug Bollinger and Peter Siddle overtook him in the pecking
order. Hilfenhaus didn’t complain. He’s not that sort of bloke.He worked as a labourer for a bricklayer when he first moved to Hobart
and then took on a different type of back-breaking toil when he sent
down 509 Sheffield Shield overs two years ago – nearly 200 more than
any other state fast bowler. It was a tally that led to concerns over
his workload and the worries only increased when his injury arrived
the following year to end his Caribbean dream.”In a way it was [frustrating],” Hilfenhaus said. “It’s very
disappointing when you get selected and you find out that you’re
injured. At the end of the season I actually didn’t feel that bad but
general check-up scans revealed otherwise. I probably see myself more
as a bloke who bowls a lot of overs. That’s a role that I enjoy.”Clearly Hilfenhaus knows a thing or two about hard work. He impressed
the coaches during his stay at the Centre of Excellence for being
prepared to tackle any problem head-on. When critics began to question
his ability to take wickets when the ball failed to swing away, he
went off and worked on some new tricks.”If you’ve only got one tool in your bag, you get a bit predictable,”
he said. “I’ve definitely worked on a few different things to counter
for that and hopefully have an answer when blokes start getting on
top. As well as the outswing I’m trying to develop one that goes in a
little bit or straightens. Just to keep them guessing a little bit.
There’s a couple of different slower balls that I’m working on.”

But for Hilfenhaus the outswinger is still king. The conditions in
Hobart usually help him bend the ball in the air and the humidity and
cloud cover in South Africa will do the same. Then of course there is
the Ashes tour later this year. A swing bowler who can hurl the ball
down with genuine speed could be a major weapon in England. If all
goes to plan, 2009 could be the making of Ben Hilfenhaus.If that turns out to be the case, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
The son of a plumber from Ulverstone in country Tasmania, he calls his
father, Hans, “the old man” and would like it if he could be in South
Africa should a debut arise but thinks it’s a bit far to travel.
There’s not a hint of cockiness in Hilfenhaus, who speaks openly but
succinctly, with only the faintest trace of a rural Aussie drawl.”I still see myself as pretty laidback,” he said. “I don’t like to
over-analyse anything. Just enjoy my cricket and when I’m not playing
cricket I enjoy playing golf and spending time with my girlfriend.”That he has a girlfriend no doubt disappoints the women who snapped up
this year’s Men of Cricket calendar. Hilfenhaus, who wouldn’t look out
of place taking over from Hugh Jackman as the drover in the film
, features as Mr September and shows off a set of
muscles that would rival anyone in the Australian set-up.His mother, Lynette, was so happy with the charity production that she
gave the calendar pride of place in the family kitchen. It might have
to be moved aside if a photo of Ben in a baggy green becomes
available.

South Africa’s batsmen struggled through one of the more ferocious spells of the summer as Peter Siddle finished the day with 3 for 24 from 13 overs

Brydon Coverdale at the MCG27-Dec-2008
Peter Siddle: “Today I wanted to get out there and show them I could bowl quick and bowl tight lines and work hard” © AFP (file photo)
Peter Siddle’s nickname is Vicious and judging by his post-tea spell at the MCG it’s an appropriate description. The moniker didn’t come from his attitude but from the great Australian tradition of nicknames evolving unpredictably – Siddle, Sid, Sid Vicious, Vicious. None of that mattered to South Africa’s batsmen, who struggled through one of the more ferocious spells of the summer as he finished the day with 3 for 24 from 13 overs.A week ago Siddle looked as likely to revitalise Australia’s series as the battling Dale Steyn did to recapture his best form. Both men came good in Melbourne and Siddle can draw inspiration from Steyn, who also took a few games to hit his straps at the start of his Test career.Siddle was poor in Perth, where he alternated between bowling too short and too full, and he was lucky to keep his place in the side. Ben Hilfenhaus came into the squad and it was not until 24 hours before the match that the selectors decided to give Siddle anotherchance. They hoped he would be boosted by playing his first international at his home ground the MCG, where the drop-in pitch suits his style of hitting the wicket hard.”There were a lot of players that could have missed out [after the WACA loss],” Siddle said. “You always doubt when you’re the new kid on the block and I’d [had] a disappointing effort out there in Perth so I didn’t know it was going to happen. I found out Christmas morning and it was a good thrill, a good Chrissy present.”Playing at home did lift him, as did the faith shown by Ricky Ponting in entrusting Siddle with the second over. Immediately the energy and belief that were lacking at the WACA were evident. His first ball was 145kph, he rattled Neil McKenzie with a short one and took his off stump with the fifth ball of the over. A spontaneous roar erupted forthe local man, who was desperate to perform in front of friends and family.His first spell of 1 for 11 from six overs was impressive, especially while Brett Lee struggled at the other end. The show really started when Siddle returned after tea. Again he struck in the first over of his spell, enticing Graeme Smith to drive a wide ball that was edged behind. Smith had 62 and the jubilant leaping and wide smiles from Siddle’s team-mates proved how important the breakthrough was.With every ball that beat the bat or cramped the batsman the noise from the crowd increased, as did Siddle’s confidence. Advertising hoardings were drummed as he ran in, as if he was on a hat-trick every delivery. A day that had threatened to meander had become irresistible viewing.”The crowd was good,” he said. “It always gives you a bit of confidence when they’re cheering you on and you get that wicket early on. It was an amazing feeling just hearing them cheer, it was excellent.”Siddle continually nudged the 150kph mark – while Lee headed southinto the low 140s – hit a good length and attacked the stumps. Theywere traits that were missing from his game in Perth, as was a tightpartner at the other end – here Nathan Hauritz leaked less than anewly fixed tap.”I was a bit disappointed [in Perth], I probably didn’t bowl asaggressive as I would have liked and with not as much pace,” Siddlesaid. “Today I wanted to get out there and show them I could bowlquick and bowl tight lines and work hard.”He tended too short later in the spell but his work was done. Heproved to Ponting that in an attack where Lee continued to struggle -his lines were wrong and he bled 68 runs from 13 overs – Johnson isnot the only man who can be turned to for an impact spell. It’s auseful thing for a captain to have.Over the past year Graeme Smith has had that with Steyn. UnlikeSiddle, who is in his third Test and is still learning, Steyn cameinto this series weighed down by the reputation of being the leadingwicket-taker in Tests in 2008. It is not a bad burden to carry but itaffected Steyn in Perth, where, like Siddle, he battled to find theright length.
Like Peter Siddle, Dale Steyn made the batsmen play at his deliveries © AFP
At the MCG Steyn resembled the man who has terrorised batsmen theworld over in the past 12 months. The strongest winds at the PerthTest in a couple of decades had affected his power there but here hewas energetic and constantly thinking.Against the left-handers Simon Katich and Michael Hussey, on the firstday, he had come around the wicket and picked them off by using theangle. He did the same to Johnson today, darting a quick ball in thatwas edged onto the stumps. Against the right-handers he found someoutswing and added Lee and Hauritz to his tally before lunch to finishwith 5 for 87.Most importantly he made the batsmen play, as did Siddle. Energy andaccuracy are hard to beat as key fast-bowling traits. Siddle needsonly to look to Steyn, who also has swing in his armoury, to discoverwhat a young fast man can achieve in a short space of time.

Nathan Hauritz became the sixth specialist spinner Australia have used in Tests this year and his chaotic first day at work highlighted how unpredictable life is for his type in this country

Brydon Coverdale at the Adelaide Oval28-Nov-2008

Nathan Hauritz became the sixth specialist spinner Australia have used in Tests this year and his chaotic first day at work highlighted how unpredictable life is for his type in this country. The nation’s leading slow bowlers don’t know where they stand within the haphazard selection policy, so it’s no wonder they serve up a pot-luck selection as well.Two days ago Hauritz was in Sydney, preparing to be 12th man for New South Wales for a second consecutive Sheffield Shield game. He finished his first day of Test cricket since 2004 with a fortunate pair of wickets and plenty of conceded runs and, to add to the drama, a sprained left ankle that kept him off the field for most of the final session but is unlikely to stop him bowling on the second day.Hauritz had played eight first-class matches in the past three years and it should not have been an enormous surprise that he struggled to find his rhythm. His initial over went for 17 as Aaron Redmond slog-swept a pair of sixes and it was a flashback to Jason Krejza’s first Test over in Nagpur. But Redmond is no Virender Sehwag and Hauritz is no Krejza. The former New South Wales team-mates are very different offspinners – the self-confident Krejza is a natural attacker who rips the ball viciously and tosses it up; the more conservative Hauritz feels safer with a flatter trajectory and a liking for arm-balls.Krejza’s aggression earned him 12 wickets on debut but a similar ankle injury has stopped him taking his place in Adelaide. The more defensive approach of Hauritz makes it tougher to collect huge hauls. After the high of his one Test in Mumbai four years ago, Hauritz experienced a first-class trough and inadvertently turned himself into a tight one-day specialist. It is a habit that is changing, but slowly.He grabbed two wickets on his return to Tests, although Jesse Ryder’s misplaced pull to midwicket was more batsman error than threatening bowling. As the day wore on, Hauritz gave the ball a little more air and a well-flighted delivery lured Redmond into holing out to deep midwicket. He also nearly had Peter Fulton, who played for the spin – Hauritz found very little turn all day – and edged to slip, where Matthew Hayden spilled a gettable chance.Gradually, Hauritz had started to feel more relaxed. But it’s hard to disguise the tension when you know that a demotion might be only a few days away. It’s a feeling that over the past few months has been familiar to Cameron White and Beau Casson, who were tried and discarded despite being the only slow bowlers with current Cricket Australia contracts. Hauritz said being called into the Test team when he was the No. 2 spinner at New South Wales behind the struggling Casson was unexpected.”It only takes a couple of wickets here and there to turn it around. He is a confidence player,” Hauritz said of his good friend Casson. “He has shown how good a bowler he is last year and in the West Indies.”Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey, who had Cricket Australia deals two seasons ago, are playing grade cricket in Adelaide on the weekend as they have both slipped out of South Australia’s starting line-up. Bryce McGain, the Victoria legspinner, is also in Adelaide to watch the Test. McGain knows that but for a shoulder problem sustained in India, he could have been the slow man Ricky Ponting turned to against New Zealand instead of Hauritz.Injuries have played a part in the high attrition rate among spinners but the selectors’ tendency for quantity over quality has been just as much a factor. Their process is like that of a novice photographer – try enough angles and you’re bound to come up with one that works. Digital cameras have made poor photos easily disposable and Australian spinners are becoming just as expendable.”It was a strange chain of events, being 12th man last week and then being picked in this,” Hauritz said after finishing the day with 2 for 63. “It definitely took me a little while to work out what was all going on.”Team balance and a need to improve over-rates – one reason Hauritz bowled 16 overs on the first day of a Test – have prompted Ponting to call on the selectors to pick a slow bowler for 95% of Tests. The problem is the leading wicket-takers among spinners in the Sheffield Shield this year are the batting allrounders Marcus North and Aaron O’Brien.Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania regularly employ a quality seam attack backed by part-time spinners. It means the Australian selectors have been looking beyond the players making regular state appearances and that turns the selection process into a lucky dip. But rather than being worried about the disparity between state and national spin trends, Hauritz is simply happy opportunities are being presented.”You’ve got guys like Brad Hodge who’s scored 100,000 first-class runs but because our side is so strong he can’t make it,” Hauritz said. “But just for the fact that we’ve lost a guy who’s taken 700 Test wickets [Shane Warne] and Magilla [Stuart MacGill], we’re getting more opportunities as young spinners and we’re only going to develop as we get older.”However, Hauritz made the point that as a new man in the team he found it “pretty nerve-racking to start off”. If Australia cannot settle on a spinner and the revolving door stays in place, every Test they might have a man who takes a while to settle his nerves. Spinners thrive on being unpredictable and hard to read but it’s not something they need from their selectors.

Some have found the spotlight, some have found extensions to their career, the lesser known South African players talk about their IPL experience

Firdose Moonda20-May-2009It appears as though South Africa and the IPL have exchanged eternity rings. South Africa, the knight in rainbow-coloured armour, galloped to the tournament’s rescue when it searched for a new home. While not everyone in the country has embraced the IPL with loving arms, South Africa has presented some of its best cricketing crowds to the tournament.The IPL, in return, has gifted its temporary home with a brand of cricket it would never otherwise have had played on its soil, resurrected veterans such as Matthew Hayden, and provided the Twenty20 specialists such as Albie Morkel with a platform to perform. But the tournament’s greatest gift has been the birth of new stars such as Dirk Nannes and Shadab Jakati. More so the South Africans who were little known outside their country.One of those offspring has been 24-year old Roelof van der Merwe. The sturdily built left-arm spinner made his mark during South Africa’s ODI series against Australia in April. He played in four matches and took eight wickets at an average of 18.62. That, and his superb domestic form, earned him a place with the Royal Challengers Bangalore.van der Merwe has had two dream seasons for his domestic franchise, Titans. In 2007-08 he was the third-highest wicket-taker in the domestic Twenty20s, with 13 wickets at an average of 13.92, and received the Player-of-the-Year award. He also took away the Domestic Championship (45-over competition) Player-of-the-Year and Newcomer-of-the-Year awards.He followed that up with 30 wickets, at an average of 13.96, 14 more wickets than any other bowler in the 45-over competition in 2008-09. He has also been selected for South Africa’s World Twenty20 squad. van der Merwe regards his stint with the IPL as the best preparation for that tournament. “Being in a side with a lot of South Africans has meant we have a similar work ethic to the national side, so that’s going to be handy ahead of the World Twenty20,” he says.While he credits his dogged domestic determination for launching his career, he admits that the IPL will thrust him further into the spotlight. “Given the size of the spectacle, and the money involved, if you’re not already on the map, it will certainly put you there. And if you are on the map and do well, I can see it being a big advantage.”Dillon du Preez, who also plays with Bangalore, is hoping the event will bestow on him some of the benefits van der Merwe has experienced. du Preez originally played for the Eagles, but signed as a Kolpak player for Leicestershire in March last year and played a season in England. This year it all went bust.”I haven’t been able to secure a work permit for this season, so I won’t be going back,” he says. “At the same time, I still desperately want to play for South Africa, but given the calibre of players in the set-up it seems almost impossible.”He isn’t rolling over and playing dead just yet, and bared his eagle talons in his debut IPL match, taking two wickets in two balls of his first over, including that of Sachin Tendulkar. He also claimed JP Duminy in that match. Even though his future hangs by a filament, he doesn’t want to rely on the IPL to relaunch his career, and is trying to enjoy it as an isolated experience. “I am really enjoying being in the same change room as guys like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid – and even Kevin Pietersen,” he says. “The only complaint I have is that I have probably had enough of Indian food for a while. I went for a steak the other night and it was beautiful.”

“Given the size of the spectacle, and the money involved, if you’re not already on the map, it will certainly put you there. And if you are on the map and do well, I can see it being a big advantage”Roelof van der Merwe

Over in the Kolkata Knight Riders side, Morne van Wyk views the event as an extension, and possibly a resurrection, of his career. “There are two things I would still really like to do in my cricketing career: play Twenty20 and ODI cricket for South Africa, and I would like to have a county stint,” van Wyk says. “But whether the IPL will pave the way for that, I can’t say, although I hope it will.”van Wyk, an Eagles opening batsman and wicketkeeper, is a seasoned campaigner and was the highest run-scorer in this year’s domestic competition, with 269 runs at an average of 38.42. Unlike some of the other South African players, who have been grateful the tournament has allowed them to spend time at home, van Wyk says he is looking forward to spending six weeks in India next year. “I was contracted on the day of the auction, long before it was announced that the tournament was coming to South Africa, and I was gearing up to play in India,” he says. “I was really looking forward to crowds of 70,000 or 80,000, the kind we never see at home.”van Wyk seems to see the half full glass in every situation and speaks of Kolkata Knight Riders’ failure without too much disappointment. “We all came into this tournament with high hopes and let our imaginations run wild about how well the team would do,” he says. “To be honest, it’s felt like being in a boxing match most of the time: we work hard and we’re up and ready to go, and then we keep getting knocked down. But it hasn’t been terrible. The real make-up of people is tested when disaster hits, and we have had no bust-ups, which is a credit to the calibre of players and management we have.”While he does hope the tournament will provide a much needed career injection, he is also blissfully soaking up the Bollywood-ness of being part of the most glamorous franchise. “I didn’t know anything about Shah Rukh Khan before this, and when I met him I thought he would be like any other celebrity. It’s been a real eye-opener to meet a man who is powerful yet so humble. He really did take the time to speak to all the players, not just a small chat, but really spent time getting to know us all. He calls himself our big brother, and he really is.”While most of the South African players in the IPL view the tournament by what they can take out of it, some are looking at things a little differently. Charl Langeveldt, also with Kolkata, says, “This is not about what value I am getting from them, but what value they are getting from me. I’ve brought lots of local knowledge and bowling experience to the side.” It has puzzled most that Langeveldt, who was the local Pro20 competition’s highest wicket-taker, with 16 wickets at an average of 13.31, has not played, particularly given the success of another local swing bowler, Yusuf Abdulla. That doesn’t seem to bother Langeveldt much, who shrugged off being left out of the starting XI and said, “The balance of the side is not quite right, which is the reason I will not play.”Morne van Wyk has had his fill of superstars, both cricket and Bollywood•AFPOne who is not laughing off being a paid spectator is Tyron Henderson. With the most wickets in Twenty20’s short history to date, a total of 75 at an average of 21.41, it’s similarly mind-boggling that he is sidelined. “I was initially bought because with the tournament in India they thought I could do a job with the ball, given the conditions,” Henderson says. “But now with Smith and Warne already occupying two of the four positions for internationals, there’s only two left, and unfortunately I’ve been the one who has had to sit out.”Even though he has been forced to warm the dugout, Henderson’s record in the game speaks for itself. In the 2008 Twenty20 Cup he scored 281 runs at 40.14 and took 21 wickets at 16.61 for Middlesex. He thinks this format of the game has given his career new legs, and allowed him to keep playing when he might otherwise have retired. “I’ll be playing in three different competitions: from here, I’m going to Middlesex, then I’ll come back home to play for the Titans in the Pro20 domestic competition and then back to the IPL. So, in a way this has allowed me to become a specialist Twenty20 player and given me a longer career.”Henderson has been serenaded by the IPL because it has given him the opportunity to eke out that extra bit of cricket, while most of the other South Africans’ love affair with the tournament has been sealed because it has allowed them to live some of their dreams. du Preez summed it up perfectly: “It’s really been something wow.”

England are now guaranteed their slot in the Super Eights, thanks to a net run-rate that will keep them afloat whatever the result of Tuesday’s clash between Netherlands and Pakistan

Andrew Miller at The Oval07-Jun-2009Crisis, what crisis? The hosts’ tournament is up and running, and in quite some style too. England’s crushing victory over Pakistan at The Oval hasn’t quite expunged the embarrassment of their defeat against Netherlands on Friday, but it has turned the tables in the most literal sense. Having faced an early exit on account of their opening-day defeat, England are now guaranteed their slot in the Super Eights, thanks to a net run-rate that will keep them afloat whatever the result of Tuesday’s clash between Netherlands and Pakistan.”It was exactly what we needed,” said a relieved captain, Paul Collingwood. “I think we showed a lot of character. Friday night was a massive blow for us, and we were under a lot of pressure to put in a good performance. But we showed how much we wanted it, and put them under pressure from ball one. A lot of people put their hands up and all 11 men can be very proud of themselves.”Credit goes where credit is due, and England’s response to adversity was unequivocal. In a frank admission of their tactical shortcomings at Lord’s, they made three notable team changes, with Kevin Pietersen and Dimitri Mascarenhas adding some much-needed oomph to the middle-order, and Graeme Swann providing seniority and confidence to the bowling attack.Collingwood admitted that it was only after witnessing the success of Johan Botha and Majid Haq during South Africa’s afternoon clash with Scotland on the same strip that England decided to include the second spinner. Adil Rashid came in in place of Ryan Sidebottom, but in a team performance as effective as Friday’s had been abject, every move that England made proved to be a winning one.”It was do or die, and we delivered,” said Collingwood. “We got it 100% right. I’m still convinced that Friday night was just meant to happen, because it’s not easy to identify the reasons for it, but what we did what we had to do today, and though we’re not going to get too carried away with ourselves, we’ve proved to ourselves how good we can be.”Now, however, the note of caution. In front of a frenzied crowd that sensed the needs of the hour and lauded their team’s efforts to the roof-tops, it would have been genuinely easy to get carried away by England’s supremacy. And yet, as well as they played, they were up against a Pakistan team that, in the shoulder-shrugging estimation of their captain, Younis Khan, gave away 20-25 runs in shoddy fielding alone. If England were off the boil on Friday, Pakistan were off the Kelvin scale tonight. And peculiarly, their captain didn’t seem to care.”It won’t be a disaster even if we exit before the Super Eights,” said Younis. “It would be sad if we don’t make it, but I have never attached too much importance to Twenty20 cricket, as it is fun cricket. I mean it is more for entertainment, even if it is international cricket. It is all for the crowd. Twenty20 is all about fun. Everybody expects players to come out and entertain.”If that seemed a remarkably sanguine response to failure, it could be argued that Younis was merely preparing his players for an almighty fall on Tuesday. Pakistan have to beat Netherlands by at least 25 runs, and that will be no easy task. When asked which was the best team he had faced so far in the competition, Collingwood chuckled loudly and struggled for the diplomatic answer. The delay in responding told us everything we needed to know.Younis’s attitude might also be taken as a self-righteous response to the hype of the IPL, from which Pakistan’s players were of course barred this year due to their country’s deteriorating relationship with India. Whatever the reasons for going against the global trend of taking Twenty20 deadly seriously, England would do well to take heed of Pakistan’s irreverence. By an accident of scheduling, they have still to come up against a major cricketing nation that actually cares about their performance this summer.As West Indies demonstrated in their trouncing of Australia on Saturday, giving a monkey’s is an important ingredient for success in international cricket. And strangely enough, that’s what England gave tonight as well. Out of their humiliation came a powerful motivation, but against South Africa later this week, they’ll need more than just a righteous fury to progress against the first clinical opponents they’ll have faced all year.

Tendulkar the cricketer seemingly emerged fully formed when he first picked up a bat. So too perhaps did Tendulkar the luminary

Rahul Bhattacharya14-Nov-2009Sachin Tendulkar comes to the ground in headphones. He might make a racket in the privacy of the bus, who knows, but when he steps out he is behind headphones. Waiting to bat he is behind his helmet. The arena is swinging already to the chant, “Sachin, Sachin”, the first long and pleading, the second urgent and demanding, but Tendulkar is oblivious, behind his helmet.At the fall of the second wicket, that familiar traitorous roar goes round the stadium, at which point Tendulkar walks his slow walk out, golden in the sun, bat tucked under the elbow. The gloves he will only begin to wear when he approaches the infield, to busy himself against distraction from the opposition. Before Tendulkar has even taken guard, you know that his quest is equilibrium.As he bats his effort is compared in real time with earlier ones. Tendulkar provides his own context. The conditions, the bowling attack, his tempo, his very vibe, is assessed against an innings played before. If the strokes are flowing, spectators feel something beyond pleasure. They feel something like gratitude. The silence that greets his dismissal is about the loudest sound in sport. With Tendulkar the discussion is not how he got out, but why. Susceptible to left-arm spin? To the inswinger? To the big occasion? The issue is not about whether it was good or not, but where does it ? A Tendulkar innings is never over when it is over. It is simply a basis for negotiation. He might be behind headphones or helmet, but outside people are talking, shouting, fighting, conceding, bargaining, waiting. He is a national habit.But Tendulkar goes on. This is his achievement, to live the life of Tendulkar. To occupy the space where fame and accomplishment intersect, akin to the concentrated spot under a magnifying glass trained in the sun, and remain unburnt.”Sachin is God” is the popular analogy. Yet god may smile as disease, fire, flood and Sreesanth visit the earth, and expect no fall in stock. For Tendulkar the margin for error is rather less. The late Naren Tamhane was merely setting out the expectation for a career when he remarked as selector, “Gentlemen, Tendulkar never fails.” The question was whether to pick the boy to face Imran, Wasim, Waqar and Qadir in Pakistan. Tendulkar was then 16.Sixteen and so ready that precocity is too mild a word. He made refinements, of course, but the marvel of Tendulkar is that he was a finished thing almost as soon as began playing.The of Bombay are dotted with tots six or seven years old turning out for their coaching classes. But till the age of 11, Tendulkar had not played with a cricket ball. It had been tennis- or rubber-ball games at Sahitya Sahwas, the writers’ co-operative housing society where he grew up, the youngest of four cricket-mad siblings by a distance. The circumstances were helpful. In his colony friends he had playmates, and from his siblings, Ajit in particular, one above Sachin but older by 11 years, he had mentorship.It was Ajit who took him to Ramakant Achrekar, and the venerable coach inquired if the boy was accustomed to playing with a “season ball” as it is known in India. The answer did not matter. Once he had a look at him, Achrekar slotted him at No. 4, a position he would occupy almost unbroken through his first-class career. In his first two matches under Achrekar Sir, he made zero and zero.Memory obscures telling details in the dizzying rise thereafter. Everybody remembers the 326 not out in the 664-run gig with Kambli. Few remember the 346 not out in the following game, the trophy final. Everyone knows the centuries on debut in the Ranji Trophy and Irani Trophy at 15 and 16. Few know that he got them in the face of a collapse in the first instance and virtually out of partners in the second. Everyone knows his nose was bloodied by Waqar Younis in that first Test series, upon which he waved away assistance. Few remember that he struck the next ball for four.This was Tendulkar five years after he’d first handled a cricket ball.Genius, they say, is infinite patience. But it is first of all an intuitive grasp of something beyond the scope of will – or, for that matter, skill. In sportspersons it is a freakishness of the motor senses, even a kind of ESP.

The wonder is that in the years between he has done nothing to sully his innocence, nothing to deaden the impish joy, nothing to disrupt the infinite patience or damage the immaculate equilibrium through the riot of his life and career

Tendulkar’s genius can be glimpsed without him actually holding a bat. Not Garry Sobers’ equal with the ball, he is nevertheless possessed of a similar versatility. He swings it both ways, a talent that eludes several specialists. He not only rips big legbreaks but also lands his googlies right, a task beyond some wrist spinners. Naturally he also bowls offspin, usually to left-handers and sometimes during a spell of wrist spin. In the field he mans the slips as capably as he does deep third man, and does both in a single one-dayer. Playing table tennis he is ambidextrous. By all accounts he is a brilliant, if hair-raising, driver. He is a champion Snake player on the cellphone, according to Harbhajan Singh, whom he also taught a spin variation.His batting is of a sophistication that defies generalisation. He can be destroyer or preserver. Observers have tried to graph these phases into a career progression. But it is ultimately a futile quest for Tendulkar’s calibrations are too minute and too many to obey compartmentalisation. Given conditions, given his fitness, his state of mind, he might put away a certain shot altogether, and one thinks it is a part of his game that has died, till he pulls it out again when the time is right, sometimes years afterwards. Let alone a career, in the space of a single session he can, according to the state of the rough or the wind or the rhythm of a particular bowler, go from predatorial to dead bat or vice versa.Nothing frustrates Indians as much as quiet periods from Tendulkar, and indeed often they are self-defeating. But outsiders have no access to his thoughts. However eccentric, they are based on a heightened cricket logic rather than mood. Moods are irrelevant to Tendulkar. Brian Lara or Mohammad Azharuddin might be stirred into artistic rage. Tendulkar is a servant of the game. He does not play out of indignation nor for indulgence. His aim is not domination but runs. It is the nature of his genius.The genius still doesn’t explain the cricket world’s enchantment with Tendulkar. Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis are arguably not lesser cricketers than he, but have nothing like his following or presence. Among contemporaries only Shane Warne could draw an entire stadium’s energy towards himself, but then Warne worked elaborately towards this end. Tendulkar on the pitch is as uncalculated as Warne was deliberate. Warne worked the moments before each delivery like an emcee at a title fight. Tendulkar goes through a series of ungainly nods and crotch adjustments. Batting, his movements are neither flamboyant nor languid; they are contained, efficient. Utility is his concern. Having hit the crispest shot between the fielders he can still be found scurrying down the wicket, just in case.Likewise, outside the pitch nothing he does calls up attention. In this he is not unusual for the times. It has been, proved by exceptions of course, the era of the undemonstrative champion. Ali, Connors, McEnroe, Maradona have given way to Sampras, Woods, Zidane, Federer, who must contend with the madness of modern media and sanitisation of corporate obligation.Maybe Tendulkar the superstar, like Tendulkar the cricketer, was formed at inception. Then, as now, he is darling. He wears the big McEnroe-inspired curls of his youth in a short crop, but still possesses the cherub’s smile and twinkle. Perhaps uniquely, he is granted not the sportstar’s indulgence of perma-adolescence but that of perma-childhood. A man-child on the field: maybe it is the dichotomy that is winning. The wonder is that in the years between he has done nothing to sully his innocence, nothing to deaden the impish joy, nothing to disrupt the infinite patience or damage the immaculate equilibrium through the riot of his life and career.

India scaled the peaks in the few Tests they played, but it wasn’t all sunny in limited-overs cricket

Sidharth Monga31-Dec-2009This year the space-time India inhabited was anything but the year 2009. Their batsmen challenged norms, redefined audacity, and went at a pace that wouldn’t be out of place in 2019. Their fielding – and for the major part their bowling – slipped into an era gone by: in the limited-overs game, they would have been put to shame by some sides from 1999. In a period of three weeks India beat their record for highest Test score in a day, then beat it again, conceded more runs in a day than they had ever before, and a higher total in India than ever before. In ODIs they led the way both in scoring 300-plus totals (10 times) and conceding them (nine times).What India sowed in 2008, they reaped in 2009, becoming the No. 1 side in ODIs for a brief while, and ending the year as the No. 1 Test side, despite having played only six Tests. Three of those were away matches against seventh-ranked New Zealand, and the others were home games against Sri Lanka, who had never previously won in India. In a frenzied year of extremes – unbelievable batting performances, first win in New Zealand in 40 years, fielding bordering on the ridiculous, first-round exits from two world events, and then the eventual rise to top of Test rankings – they found time to show character and save two Tests from losing positions.In a crunched calendar they also found time to provide some comic relief through the leaked sex dossier and the parading of team unity in a press conference. Around those two trivial events lurked a serious doubt regarding the techniques of the new batting stars and the sudden bare look that the fast-bowling cupboard wore.The first ones to panic after the bouncers exposed some of the younger batsmen at the World Twenty20 were the selectors. Back came Rahul Dravid, out went the youngsters. The Champions Trophy on bouncy pitches in South Africa negotiated, out went Dravid and back came the youngsters. The message sent to both parties could not have been worse: Dravid was left with reason to be feel slighted; the Rohit Sharmas and the Suresh Rainas were effectively told that they could not be trusted.The next ones to panic were the BCCI, who summarily sacked without reason and without notice Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach, and Robin Singh, the fielding coach, a day before Diwali. Towards the end of the year, when the bowlers were struggling to defend 414 in an ODI and the fielders were dropping catches like hot bricks, Prasad and Robin would have spared themselves a smile. As the last match of the year, the Delhi ODI, proved, the board still had more sacking to do.If the youngsters were still finding their feet, it was reassuring how Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid and VVS Laxman – part of the infamous voluntary-retirement scheme last year – looked good to last beyond 2011, the year of the devil, the year of the World Cup. Twice Tendulkar, now 20 years old in international cricket, threatened to score a double-century in an ODI; Dravid finally got rid of his temporary habit of fluffing good starts; and although Laxman scored just one century, not many can find fault with an average of 67.28.The positives of 2009, though, can best be summed up by the contributions of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni. Sehwag represented ambition, creativity and disrespect for decorum. His two ODI centuries in fewer than 70 balls, his 284 runs in one Test day, his admission that he felt sorry for the bowlers he dismantled, the way he played around with the definition of a bad ball, were pure joy.Gambhir: five Tests, four hundreds•Getty ImagesGambhir embodied ruthlessness and toughness, batting in the Dravid mould, drawing the Napier Test by playing out of his skin, overseeing the Ahmedabad draw, scoring four centuries in nine Test innings, and twice getting 150 in the ODIs.Dhoni, safe, inconspicuous and still an unbeaten captain in Tests, was the rock around which the ODI team flourished. He let the flashier batsmen play their natural games, yet finished as the world’s joint-highest run-getter for the year and reinforced his reputation as the best ODI batsman in the world.The year, which ended as it began, with ODI series wins against Sri Lanka, seemed too long. When India were failing in the limited-overs formats, their impressive showing in New Zealand was forgotten. When their last Test of the year took them to No. 1, the BCCI started to try and squeeze more Tests into the programme, to defend the ranking. Suddenly it was as if the World Twenty20, the Champions Trophy, the loss to a second-string Australia, hadn’t happened. Yes, there was no time in 2009 to pause and reflect. Yes, we don’t know which year India actually inhabited.High point
Getting to No. 1 was reward for hard work over the decade, not just this year. It had been a long journey towards the top, which started perhaps from the time India won the Kolkata Test of 2001. There were many obstacles they had to clear along the way: start fighting outside the subcontinent, find suitable openers, find genuine fast bowlers, finish games, salvage draws from impossible situations. It took them 10 years to get there, and obviously it was going to be a special moment when they finally did, through their win in the Brabourne Test, marked by a Sehwag special.Low point
Since Dhoni has become captain, India have enjoyed a proud record in bilateral series. They were not hot in the world events, though. They hardly put up a defence of their World Twenty20 crown, and fizzled out of the Champions Trophy without a fight. Is it the knockout atmosphere that is getting to them? They will want to prove otherwise.What 2010 holds
Thankfully there seems to be an acknowledgment that being No. 1 in ICC rankings and being the best are not synonymous. To become the best, India need to beat South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka away. That journey will start towards the end of 2010, with India travelling to South Africa. Apart from that, the board will have to find time to arrange more Test matches for an aspiring side: six is not nearly enough.Limited-overs cricket will keep putting pressure on the bowlers and fielders. They will get a go at the World Twenty20 again, before the road to the 2011 World Cup begins.

Sri Lanka persisted with their strategy of boring Virender Sehwag into a mistake but, at the P Sara Oval, he found a way to overcome the boredom, and still score freely

Sidharth Monga at the P Sara Oval04-Aug-2010Virender Sehwag is bored of Kumar Sangakkara’s tactics. And boredom seems to be the only way Sri Lanka can get Sehwag out. That has been the case since Kanpur last year. They bored him in Galle, and Sehwag obliged by chasing a short and wide delivery. They bored him at the SSC, he resisted and resisted, and then got out to the first sight of a new spinner. It was hardly surprising then that as early as the eighth over at the P Sara Oval we had a square third man, a deep point, and a sweeper-cover, and Chanaka Welegedara bowling short and wide outside off.It is an obvious plan, but because it is Sehwag, it makes for fascinating viewing. Defensive tactics, run-less periods, eat at his soul. It is as if the basic purpose of his cricket is being defeated. He goes out of his way then. He says he will keep playing the same shot too. Except he doesn’t play it for he is no fool. Still he needs to keep scoring runs. He needs to find a way. Find a way he did today.First, though, he showed Sangakkara and Welegedara that they were wasting their time. He left the ball in a dismissive manner. The bat didn’t even go up. The feet didn’t try to cover the off stump. There was no “just in case”. He knew what was going on. But that was not enough, runs needed to be scored. This is a man who has scored 4478 of his first 7000 Test runs in boundaries.By the time Sri Lanka resorted to bowling wide outside off with deep off-side fields, Sehwag had already scored 21 off 21, including four boundaries off Welegedara. The “plan” now was well and truly on. The first ball Sehwag left alone, the second he pulled deliberately through midwicket. Sri Lanka saw impatience, and continued with the same attack. Sehwag opened the face, played the next ball all along the ground. Single. 29 off 27.The first ball of the next over from Welegedara was left alone disdainfully. The next ball Sehwag hit fiercely. Down the ground, between mid-off and extra cover. I can still hit fours, he seemed to say. And then he left alone five more deliveries in that over, one of them a wide.He left alone the first ball of the next over. He shaped to cut the next, but left that too. And then he moved across the stumps, got in line, and pulled it to square-leg. Four more. Two balls later he hit a forehand between the bowler and mid-off. 46 off 41. If SSC was bad for Sri Lanka, this was worse. At SSC Sehwag just waited for them to bowl at his stumps. Here, not only was he telling Sri Lanka he won’t be getting out wide outside off, he was telling them he would score boundaries too.There were two big differences between Galle and here. In Galle the shot that got him out had every chance of landing in the deep fielder’s lap even if Sehwag had connected as opposed to toe-ending it. Here his shots were intended for vacant areas.The bigger and more important difference was what runs meant here. In Galle, or in SSC for that matter, quick runs wouldn’t have won India the match. Taking risks then was a no-win situation. Here, with a more manageable 425 on the board, quick runs hurt Sri Lanka. Galle and SSC were up Sri Lanka’s alley, this was up Sehwag’s.On a day that Sehwag became the second-quickest man to 7000 runs – in terms of innings and joint-fastest in terms of Tests played – other than that defensive-attacking strategy, there wasn’t much to bother him. Lasith Malinga he kept out well. No undue risks, no undue caution. The only other threat to Sehwag would have been the first sighting of spinners. He can’t control himself against those creatures. Ajantha Mendis’ first delivery he safely glided behind square leg. Suraj Randiv’s first he swept away for four. Some things never change.Sehwag will start the third day on 97, and Sri Lanka should throw spinners at him right away. SSC was not the first time he missed a milestone looking to hit a spinner for six. He might go for it again. He might not. Either way it will make for more fascinating viewing.

Plays of the day from game four of the Asia Cup, between India and Pakistan

Siddarth Ravindran in Dambulla19-Jun-2010Some familiar refrains
There aren’t too many Indian or Pakistani expats in central Sri Lanka, and
the agricultural town of Dambulla doesn’t have the drawing power to pull
in too many tourists, which meant the stadium was only half-full even for
Saturday’s much-anticipated contest. Still, a smattering of Hindi could be
heard in the stands and there were plenty of Indian flags about. The
chants of ‘India, India’ and , which are crowd
favourites during matches in India, were frequently shouted and a Sri
Lankan band even belted out a boisterous rendition of a popular
Tamil song from 2002.The Gambhir and Akmal debating society
It had been a mostly good-tempered match, without much of the animosity of old, till the last ball of the 34th over during the chase. That was when Kamran Akmal pleaded insistently for a catch off Gautam Gambhir’s bat, an appeal which was rightly turned down. Soon, the pair were
exchanging words and MS Dhoni had to drag Gambhir away. The drinks break followed, and there was another round of getting in each others’ faces before the umpires broke off the tussle.Shot of the day
A no-contest this – Harbhajan Singh’s heave over midwicket to clinch the
nailbiter off the penultimate delivery. It was the end of a mixed innings
from Harbhajan; two crucial sixes but six dot balls towards the end with
no deliveries to waste. A few moments earlier, a crestfallen Suresh Raina
had walked off the field, run out by inches, and he was the first one out
to hug an enthusiastically celebrating Harbhajan.Afridi starts in a jiffy
One of the biggest cheers during the Pakistan innings was for the entry of
their captain Shahid Afridi. The fans with the ‘Boom, boom’ posters didn’t
have to wait long to see their hero doing what they had come to see. The
fourth ball he faced was lashed down the ground for four, and the next was
pummelled to the sightscreen to bring up the first six of the match.No slip-ups in the cordon
There was a general improvement in India’s fielding, no where more so than
in the slips. First, Virender Sehwag plucked a sharp one-handed catch to
his right to end Imran Farhat’s struggle. But that was outdone by a blinder
from Virat Kohli at first slip – newcomer Umar Amin chopped Harbhajan
Singh towards first slip, where Kohli threw himself to his left and
latched onto to another one-handed catch.Running wild
India’s smart fielding accounted for two other wickets as well. Salman
Butt was marching towards yet another century against one of his favourite
opponents, when he punched the ball towards mid-off. He set off for a single
but the bowler, Ravindra Jadeja, dived to his right to field and threw the ball to the keeper to end Butt’s stay at 74. Later, a rare Indian direct hit got rid of Mohammad Aamer.The wicketkeeper delivers
Kamran Akmal had already shown his value as batsman with a hard-hitting half-century. His wicketkeeping skills were under the scanner yet again, though, when he fluffed an outside edge from Rohit Sharma off Shoaib Akhtar. He redeemed himself in the final over when he was on target with an underarm throw that caught Suresh Raina short when the batsman was trying to nick a bye.