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

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

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

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

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

Alan Gardner in Chittagong31-Mar-20142:42

Crowe: Herath immaculate from ball one

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

And the DJ ruined the spectators’ party

Mihir Gosalia29-May-2014Choice of game
Since Mumbai was hosting the eliminator and a qualifier game, I decided to go for both. I am a Mumbai Indians fan, but this time I wanted Chennai Super Kings to win, because they are one of the most consistent teams in the IPL. They are a strong team. They have a powerful batting line-up who chase down any opposition’s score in the game well.Team supported
Though Mumbai managed to somehow qualify for this eliminator and the home crowd was vociferously supporting them, I knew in the back of my mind, even before the match started, that Chennai would win it.Key performer
Suresh Raina was due for a big score in the tournament not having done that well in this year’s tournament so far. The unbroken fourth-wicket partnership of Suresh Raina and David Hussey won the game hands on for CSK. For Mumbai, Lendl Simmons was the key performer. He has been consistent as an opening batsman for them and scored a well-deserved half-century.One thing I’d have changed about the match
I would have changed the DJ, who was not really entertaining the spectators before the start, during the match or even during the mid-innings.Face-off I relished
Corey Anderson had just played one of the best T20 innings, and is the reason why Mumbai made it to the eliminator game. R Ashwin has been one of the consistent bowlers for his team. After a quickfire 20 off 10 balls, Anderson tried to sweep Ashwin, but top-edged him to Ishwar Pandey at deep backward square leg.Wow moment
After the first six hit by Kieron Pollard went flying into the crowd at midwicket, the big screen flashed the message: ” [This time outside the stadium]”. Pollard tried to oblige, hitting a very high aerial shot off Ashish Nehra, but it was held by Mohit Sharma.Shots of the day
Simmons hit two sixes after he got to his half-century. He first hit Ravindra Jadeja for a one in the 15th over, the ball effortlessly clearing long-off, and then Nehra in the 16th over long-on.Hardship factor
Getting to the stadium and exiting it were very easy since it is located just opposite the Churchgate railway station. I reached the stadium early to secure a good seat. The security checks were quick. There were no specific seat numbers allocated. The seating was spacious, and the chairs were comfortable, though you hardly sit and watch while the game is on.Entertainment
Sixes were followed by smoke released from machines installed in various locations around the stadium. Before the match began, someone from the broadcasting team flew what looked like a remote-controlled camera to record the crowd, which waved at it.Before the match began, they showed the live telecast of the first qualifier in Kolkata, so we got to watch that.Overall
8. Chennai were the better team and the deserving winners. The experience of watching the game at the Brabourne Stadium was a refreshing change as compared to the regular experience at the Wankhede Stadium. The crowd atmosphere was good, though it could have been noisier, with more slogans and at least one Mexican wave.

Australia thought victory over Zimbabwe was a sure thing but they were courting trouble by underestimating their opponents

Brydon Coverdale31-Aug-2014In the early hours of a Tuesday morning in 1983, Australia’s prime minister Bob Hawke famously told the country that “any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum”. had just won the America’s Cup. It was one of the nation’s most defining moments of the 1980s, the end of New York Yacht Club’s 132-year hold on the trophy.If that seems a lifetime ago – or more – consider that it was also in 1983 that Zimbabwe last beat Australia in a one-day international. Until today. Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up to work in Australia today will have other reasons. They might not even believe Australia were currently playing a series, such is the dominance of other sports at this time of year.Michael Clarke and his men won’t mind a bit if this loss, and their subsequent plummet from No.1 in the ODI world to No.4, is buried under the weight of AFL and NRL news in the sports pages. But for the players, coaches and selectors it will serve as a timely reminder that you can be too clever for your own good. It is courting trouble to underestimate your opponents. Better to be reminded of that now than in a World Cup.Trevor Hohns, the selector on duty, looked a lonely figure as Australia slid towards defeat, sitting in an empty bank of chairs in front of the change rooms. He quit as Australia’s chairman of selectors in April 2006, after the team had just won a Test series in South Africa 3-0. Now, on his first tour having been reinstated to the selection panel, he has picked a team that lost to Zimbabwe.Australia thought victory over Zimbabwe was a sure thing. They won’t admit that. But there is no other reason to have left Mitchell Johnson out of the side. There are occasions when fast bowlers need a break, but two matches into a one-day series after a long winter’s break is not one of them. They wanted to see other options. Now they’ve seen them, don’t expect Johnson to rest again any time soon.Not that Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh, Ben Cutting and James Faulkner had much to work with on a Harare pitch that held the ball up more than a clay tennis court. Johnson has shown at venues like Adelaide that he can still make batsmen hop on slow surfaces, and Zimbabwe’s batsmen must have breathed easier when they discovered he wasn’t playing. There was nothing there for the rest of the seamers.

This loss will teach Australia some lessons but will ultimately cost them little. For Zimbabwe, it will make heroes of men like Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya, and will boost the team and their fans immeasurably

All the more reason, you would think, to have chosen Steven Smith. That Australia resorted to two gentle overs from Aaron Finch shows how much they missed an extra spinner. Nathan Lyon couldn’t do it all, though he nearly did enough. Just as importantly, Smith is Australia’s best player of spin besides Clarke. This match proved again that spin-heavy attacks on spin-friendly surfaces will always trouble Australia. Always.A Clarke-less Australia on spinning pitches doesn’t bear thinking about, hence the decision to send him home after the Zimbabwe loss to be assessed after re-injuring the hamstring that kept him out of the first two games. Australia’s next engagements, including two Tests, are against Pakistan in the UAE in October. Getting right for that series must be his only focus.No doubt Clarke was extremely disappointed to lead Australia to their first ODI loss to Zimbabwe in 31 years. But by the end of the summer, or the end of the World Cup, or the end of next year’s Ashes tour of England, he will view it with more perspective. It might be the loss that reminds his men, until today the No.1-ranked ODI side and until recently No.1 in Tests, that they are mortal. That’s no bad thing.Maybe he will even recognise that Australia’s loss was good for cricket. In fact it was great for cricket. There are only ten ICC full members and two have been floundering for years. A win like this for Zimbabwe, in front of loyal and passionate home fans, can only strengthen cricket in Zimbabwe, and that in turn can only be a positive for world cricket.To see the looks of joyous disbelief from the fans at the ground in Harare was to witness that greatest of sporting stories, the broken drought. This loss will teach Australia some lessons but, unless Clarke aggravated his hamstring even more by returning to the field late in the game, will ultimately cost them little. For Zimbabwe, it will make heroes of men like Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya, and will boost the team and their fans immeasurably.No doubt they celebrated like it was 1983. Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up to work in Zimbabwe on Monday is a bum.

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

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

Scotland will feel right at home at University Oval, where they will play two matches

Marc Swain-Rogatski04-Nov-2014The southernmost venue for the World Cup in 2015 is Dunedin. It is the home of Otago Volts, and cricket has a rich history in Dunedin: New Zealand’s inaugural first-class fixture was played in the city, between Otago and Canterbury, back to 1864.The venue
Three games are set to be played at University Oval in Logan Park, a seven-minute drive from the Dunedin town centre. Before this new venue for the summer sport, cricket was played at Carisbrook, in south Dunedin. Rightly nicknamed “The House of Pain”, the stadium was a formidable place for touring teams. If the Otago sun was not shining, visitors often found the cooler conditions hard to adjust to. On the field, the home team would ride a wave of electric support, often from booming rallies of students in the terraces. The ground, also the home for Otago rugby, closed its gates for the last time in 2011, with the covered Forsyth Barr Stadium taking rugby duties and University Oval acquiring cricket.The Oval’s games are all day fixtures and, with the February sun beaming down, will be set up nicely for the first outing between New Zealand and Scotland. The Scottish team has two games at the ground and will get good support, with Dunedin having a proud Scottish heritage.Ground page | FixturesGreat matches (Carisbrook)
New Zealand v England, 5th ODI, 2002
Nathan Astle was one of New Zealand’s finest openers. Supporting this is the fact that he has four of the top ten highest ODI scores at Carisbrook. His highest was 122 not out, in a winning effort against England to seal the series 3-2 for New Zealand.New Zealand v India, 27th match, World Cup, March 1992
This 1992 World Cup match saw Sachin Tendulkar hit 84 to steer India to 230. New Zealand chased down the total with three overs to spare, with fifties by Andrew Jones and Mark Greatbatch.Top performers in ODIs
Most runs: Nathan Astle, 422 at 105.50 | Highest score: Nathan Astle 122 not out v England | Most wickets: Richard Hadlee 18 at 10.44 | Best bowling: Richard Hadlee 5 for 38 v PakistanMajor players
Brendon McCullum | Nathan McCullum | Ken Rutherford | Hamish Rutherford | Glenn Turner | Stephen Boock | Bert SutcliffeHome team
Otago have won the first-class Plunket Shield 13 times since its inception in 1906, and have had recent success in the T20 format, making it to the Champions League T20 twice.University Oval has hosted two ODIs and six Tests so far. The pitch was criticised following the 2013 Test against England for not offering enough to provide a result. However, some exciting domestic games – including several with local hero Brendon McCullum wielding his blade in style – indicate possibilities for some exciting encounters in the South.

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

Aakash Chopra07-Dec-20142:05

Why MS Dhoni struggles with the cover drive

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

Against South Africa in a mutli-nation tournament in 2013, is how Shikhar Dhawan revived his ODI career. He will now face the same opposition while trying to revive some form this time

Abhishek Purohit in Melbourne19-Feb-2015The towering stands of the Melbourne Cricket Ground instantly give you a sense of occasion. Even as the South Africa team played football at the start of their training session at the ground, multiple groups of people were being taken through paid guided tours of the MCG. A group was standing on one level, another on the upper tier, then another one still further up, almost vertically in line. In an otherwise empty ground, even a smattering of people on various tiers created an effect strong enough to give a hint of the spectacle a filled MCG will create when India meet South Africa on Sunday.For Shikhar Dhawan, it all started with India versus South Africa in another multi-nation one-day tournament. The opening match of the Champions Trophy in Cardiff in June 2013 was the first time he and Rohit Sharma opened together, and their 127-run partnership began India’s victory march towards the title. Playing his first ODI in two years, and riding the confidence of a spectacular Test debut hundred three months ago, Dhawan cracked 114 off 94 deliveries, his maiden century in the format.Knowing that Dhawan was prone to compulsively attacking the short ball, South Africa tried to bounce him, but the opener charged fast bowlers and swatted boundaries.Dhawan has had his technical issues, which have been brought to the fore during his earlier miserable run on this long tour of Australia. One knock of note in the Test series when the Brisbane match was more or less over as a contest. Dropped for the fourth Test. Failed in the following one-day triangular series too. Got a break for about a week or so before the World Cup warm-up matches. Made 59 against Australia in the first warm-up match, and then, rose to one of the biggest occasions of them all with 73 off 76 against Pakistan in India’s tournament opener in Adelaide four days ago. Involved in a 129-run partnership with Virat Kohli that set up the match for India.As his hundred on Test debut, the Champions Trophy century against South Africa, and the Pakistan knock in Adelaide illustrate, Dhawan is a confidence player. He will probably always have issues with accurate fast bowling just outside off stump as he likes to remain inside the line and carve deliveries through cover and point. He likes to instinctively play on the up without really getting forward or back.Confidence is a strange thing. As MS Dhoni has said often in the past, it can take a matter of feeling a few deliveries nicely on to the bat for the confidence to return. It can also disappear similarly, making the same erstwhile flowing player look scratchy. You can bat all you want in the nets. It may return, it could even get worse. You could start fretting too much about what is going wrong, and tie yourself up further.Players who rely on confidence and touch, such as Dhawan, need to be handled carefully. Sometimes they just need to be taken away from the everydayness of practice and matches, matches and more practice, and be left to sort themselves out in peace. On India’s tour of New Zealand in early 2014, Dhawan was getting starts in the one-dayers but didn’t get the big runs. Dhoni left him out of the fourth ODI in Hamilton. Dhawan returned to make 115 in the first Test in Auckland and 98 in the second in Wellington.”Whenever you get rest, it is good,” Dhawan had said then. “You are getting a break from the match pressure and you can think what you can do better. I was relaxed and I came back.”India had a few days off in the lead-up to the World Cup where they put away the kit bags and unwinded, and Dhoni said that was one of the key reasons they were able to put behind a forgettable tour so far and raise their performance against Pakistan. Probably the best example of someone having benefited from the break was Dhawan. He was made to hop a couple of times by Mohammad Irfan, but he also hooked the fast bowler for a six. He also left and defended outside off reasonably well.On India’s tour of South Africa in late 2013, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel claimed Dhawan once each on strokes he likes to play – the former on the instinctive cover drive, the latter on the pull. MCG on Sunday will be a much bigger occasion than a couple of bilateral ODIs. Dhawan seems to have regained his touch against Pakistan. The confidence man and the big occasion combined the last time these two teams met in a world event.

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

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

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

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

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

George Dobell30-Jan-20151:07

‘Buttler innings was outstanding’ – Taylor

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

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

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