Titans have signed Herschelle Gibbs for their semi-final against Warriors on Wednesday

Firdose Moonda02-Apr-2013Herschelle Gibbs last played alongside AB de Villiers more than three years ago. Since then de Villiers has been elevated to South Africa’s one-day captaincy, he is their wicketkeeper and the No. 3 and joint No. 1 batsman in the Test and ODI rankings.Gibbs, on the other hand, went freelance and played for teams ranging from Khulna Royal Bengals in the Bangladesh Premier League to Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash, and annoyed the establishment with his tell-all biography. In it Gibbs claimed de Villiers was part of a clique of players that controlled the national team. However, he will have to bury the hatchet when he wears the light blue Titans kit and goes in to bat for the team de Villiers has played for his whole life, against Warriors in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge semi-final.The bad boy of South African cricket is coming back, in the least expected way. Always a Cape Town boy, Gibbs has gone cross-country to play in Centurion. Titans shelled out an undisclosed amount of big money to secure his services – even though it could amount to only one game.They are hoping for an explosive performance to ensure they qualify for the lucrative Champions League T20. For that to happen, Titans must win their knockout match against Warriors in East London to reach Sunday’s domestic T20 final. Both teams in that fixture, Lions having already secured their spot, will be granted automatic entry into the CL T20 main draw by virtue of South Africa’s shareholder status.Should Titans get there, it is unlikely Gibbs will play for them in the Champions League. Perth Scorchers are already confirmed participants, having finished runners-up of the Big Bash, and will probably have first rights to him. But that does not matter right now.The immediate goal is to win the play-off and, despite having internationals Morne Morkel, de Villiers and Farhaan Behardien available, Titans felt they needed some extra oomph.If there were any concerns about Gibbs and de Villiers getting along, some of them were eased when Gibbs ran into the South African squad in their hotel in Perth late last year. He was there preparing for the Big Bash, and South Africa had just won the series against Australia. Gibbs remembered having a brief chat with some of them and indicated a lot of the issues had been cleared.”Professional sportsmen get paid to play,” Jacques Faul, chief executive of the Titans, told ESPNcricinfo. “We want them all to be happy and to be a team but at the end of the day we select a group of skilled players and we need the professionalism to match that skill.” Matthew Maynard, who first encountered Gibbs at Glamorgan, believes the opener has enough of both to make a big impact.Maynard was courting Gibbs from the beginning of the season but a hamstring injury interrupted their negotiations. When Scott Styris became unavailable for Titans for the crucial rounds, Maynard tried Gibbs again and, having healed fully, he agreed to join them.Gibbs has not played competitively since January and he has never played in the Titans set-up but Maynard is not worried about that. He sees Gibbs as highly adaptable because of the amount of moving around he has done in T20 leagues around the world.”Everything Herschelle does is 100 miles per hour. He moves like a 20-year old, not a man who is in his late thirties,” Maynard said. “He reminds me a lot of Viv Richards in that sense. The impact he can have on the dressing room is a factor as well because he’s an incredibly positive person.”Even his patchy performance for the Scorchers is not something that perturbs Maynard. “His form doesn’t concern me at all. When you are a player like Herschelle, you’ve probably hit 70,000 balls in your career. He won’t have much to think about – just a see it and hit it philosophy, and sometimes a break can work very well.”It’s tough to expect him to come in and strike an 85 off 50 balls. If he did do that, it would be very nice, but I signed him because of his energy in the field, his impact on the dressing room and his ability with the bat. It’s a lot more than just runs, it’s more about the character. And he has a lot of character.”His spark has been missing from South African fields for 13 months, when Gibbs last appeared in a domestic match. New talent is being unearthed at domestic level, which made it difficult for Cobras to hang on to Gibbs.The heady days and nights of his fearless knocks have faded to the back of the cricket consciousness here but Titans hope they can bring it back, even if it’s just for one night. “It’s sad that he doesn’t play anymore,” Faul said. “He is a real talent, especially in T20 leagues.”East London will witness that on Wednesday and maybe Gibbs will appear at the Wanderers again if he takes Titans to the final.

A first XI of Chris Martin career highlights

Andrew Alderson04-Jul-20131 First wicket: Gary Kirsten
Martin had a tough debut as a 26-year-old against a powerful South Africa in Bloemfontein, in November 2000. South Africa eased to 97 for 1 with Kirsten and Jacques Kallis in control. Then Nathan Astle pouched a catch for the scorebook entry “Kirsten c Astle b Martin 31”. Not the worst first wicket.2 Man of the Match to beat South Africa, Auckland, 2004
Martin took 11 for 180 – the ninth-best match figures by a New Zealander and the best against South Africa. Underlining its significance: six of the eight spots above him were occupied by Sir Richard Hadlee and Daniel Vettori.Having Martin bound in off a long run and swing the ball away from the trio of left-handers in the South African top six proved a great strategy. This led to New Zealand’s first Test win at home in 13 attempts against South Africa, despite a 177-run opening partnership to start the match between Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs.3 Stunning an Indian crowd into silence
In the first Test of the 2010 series, in Ahmedabad, Martin dulled the decibel-levels by reducing the hosts to 15 for 5 within the first 11 overs of their second innings after they started with a 28-run lead.Martin had 4 for 10 from 5.1 overs, yet New Zealand could not fully capitalise despite the dismissals of Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. The match was drawn when Harbhajan Singh made a ton. Martin finished with 5 for 63.4 Smacking 12 not out against Bangladesh
Martin strode to the wicket amid the usual cheers in Dunedin in January 2008 and promptly blasted two boundaries. Well, sort of. He eased the first down the ground after leaning into an over-pitched delivery outside off. The second he nursed over the leg stump with an inside edge to beat an outstretched wicketkeeper. The crowd went ballistic. It was the only time Martin passed double figures.5 Passing Chris Cairns’ 218 wicket mark
This took Martin to third on New Zealand’s Test wicket-taking list, behind Hadlee and Vettori. Appropriately the victim was Graeme Smith, the player Martin dismissed the most in Tests (eight times). He tempted Smith to drive by pitching the ball up outside off. Smith spooned to cover.6 Getting to a century in his 60th TestSuch is cricket’s obsession with statistical minutiae, the prospect ofMartin reaching 100 Test runs was a talking point ahead of the first Test against Pakistan in Hamilton in January 2011. Sure enough, after three balls in the first innings he had them. He struck a full toss through the covers (the field was closely packed) and ran the three runs required. Cue: a standing ovation. Martin finished unbeaten on 7.7 The Learn-to-Bat-Like-Chris Martin video
Having the grace to film this spoof with Pulp Sport underlined Martin’sself-deprecating humour. It showed a montage of his dreadful dismissals and included techniques to emulate his “strokemaking”, like switching hands on the grip and tying a batsman’s shoelaces together to assist footwork. The video finishes with him getting bowled followed by a straight-faced Martin saying: “It’s out now.” Not every New Zealand cricketer would be willing to poke fun at themselves to that extent.8 Dismissing Jacques Rudolph
Martin listed this as his favourite wicket. Rudolph had scored 247 runs without being dismissed across two Tests but had no answer to his eighth ball in the South African second innings at the Basin Reserve in 2004. Martin enticed the left-hander to play down the wrong line. The ball moved away slightly and took out Rudolph¹s off stump.9 Taking 6 for 54 to help beat Sri Lanka in 2005
Martin named this one of his best team contributions. His six first-innings wickets came from the Sri Lankan top seven batsmen and helped dismiss them for 211 in Wellington. New Zealand declared at 522 for 9 and routed the visitors for 273 in the second innings to win by an innings and 38 runs.10 Beating England by 189 runs to win the first Test in Hamilton, 2008
Martin rated this as his favourite Test. New Zealand dismissed England for 110 in 55 overs on the final day. He took 3 for 33 in the second innings, but more importantly, the New Zealand attack bowled in useful partnerships and the fielders backed them up.11 The 200th wicket
It took until the 118th over of the Zimbabwe first innings in the Bulawayo Test to shake off 199 wickets. A short-of-a-length ball saw Kyle Jarvis cut too close to his body and Ross Taylor pouched the catch. An unassuming Martin grin completed proceedings.

Plays of the day from the final Group B match between India and Pakistan

George Dobell and Nagraj Gollapudi at Edgbaston15-Jun-2013Review of the day
Might this prove to be the moment that India accepted DRS? At first glance the decision to review the delivery from Ishant Sharma looked optimistic in the extreme. It was a leg-side ball that appeared to have brushed the pad of Asad Shafiq on its way to MS Dhoni. But the review was soon revealed to be something close to an inspiration as replays showed a thin edge and Pakistan’s top-scorer was dismissed. Not only did the incident illustrate the benefits of DRS, but it underlined India’s growing comfort with the system.Surprise of the day
Everything about Mohammad Irfan is extraordinary: his 7ft 1in height, his massive feet, his enormous hands. So when he hit a couple of strokes powerfully, it should not have come as a surprise. But with his ungainly frame, it was surprising to see Irfan hit the ball with good timing. Importantly Irfan was playing with a tall, straight left elbow and along the ground and late. So when Umesh Yadav pitched a yorker-length delivery, Irfan rapidly brought his bat down to rifle a straight drive, which caught the bowler unawares. Yadav attempted to tuck his back heel to field the ball, but by then the ball had hit the stumps and rebounded to him so swiftly, giving him enough time to run back and uproot the stump to run out Irfan.Deflection of the day
In some ways, Kamran Akmal is one of luckiest people alive but, up against the force of nature that is MS Dhoni’s bristling, muscular thigh, Akmal was no match. Akmal had played a limp drive that seemed to flop out of his hands almost by accident. It took the inside edge and flew away in what should have been a safe way. Instead that impressive thigh bounced it into the air, straight to Virat Kohli at leg slip. It was like Dhoni put the man there just so he could thigh it at him. Is there nothing this man can’t do?Soft hands of the day
For an opening batsman, facing Irfan is not an easy task especially since he can generate threatening bounce allied with swing. Rohit Sharma had handled Morne Morkel cleverly in the tournament opener in Cardiff by leaving the ball as often as possible and he applied the same technique against Irfan. Rohit was aware of Irfan going for his ribs and in his second over, the Pakistan quick pitched a delivery on the leg stump that then climbed towards Rohit’s face. Irfan had placed a backward short leg and was working to a plan but Rohit, who hit fifties in India’s first two matches, went up on his toes and flicked the ball effortlessly with soft hands for an easy single.Throw of the day
The days when the standard of Indian fielding lagged behind the rest of the world are gone. Exemplifying the huge improvement in the current squad was Kohli’s throw to run out Junaid Khan. Kohli’s direct hit, collecting the ball and throwing on the run, left Junaid short of his ground and underlined the good work of India fielding coach, Trevor Penney, and the improvements India have made since they opted for some younger players.

Keith Bradshaw battled cancer throughout 2013, but has happily declared himself fit for the Adelaide Ashes Test and cricket’s many challenges beyond

Daniel Brettig04-Dec-2013As he oversees the first Test at the new Adelaide Oval, Keith Bradshaw will keep in mind a pending appointment of an altogether different nature. At the conclusion of his match duties as chief executive of the South Australian Cricket Association, Bradshaw is scheduled to check back in for a final round of chemotherapy, the last step in his successful scotching of myeloma for a second time.He will do so with full knowledge that eventually this incurable cancer will return again. But not, he hopes, before he can further pursue his knack for innovative, intelligent and sparky cricket administration. Bradshaw is highly regarded in England for his stewardship of Lord’s as chief executive of the MCC, and has earned a similarly lofty reputation with the SACA.He kept going to work throughout his treatment earlier this year, securing Adelaide’s Test match against India next summer before the chemo robbed him of his formerly thick black hair. Sitting in his office, temporarily located in the Adelaide suburb of Wayville while the redevelopment is completed, the first signs of Bradshaw’s renewal are happily evident.”It’s really about keeping a positive attitude, especially when you’re going through the treatment with chemotherapy and steroids and thalidomide and all the other drugs that are thrown at you,” he said. “I just felt you could go home every day and sleep all day and hide away from the world, but the day you do that, you’ll do it every day rather than getting up and going to work. So I pushed myself.”I enjoy the challenge and the stimulation of work, but I think it’s good to live as normal a life as possible. People react in different ways, of course, but I’ve been very blessed in how my body has coped through all this. It was pretty devastating earlier this year to get the news that the myeloma had returned. I underwent a period of chemotherapy and steroids and the like, then had another stem cell transplant. Fortunately I had some frozen still in the UK, so they were shipped out.”I did my time in the isolation ward again and I was very lucky to come through it. I’ll have some more chemo after the Test as a precautionary measure. It’s undetectable at the moment but myeloma is a treatable but not curable cancer. It’ll come back, and the reality is one day it’ll come back stronger than the last time.”The first time Bradshaw fought off myeloma was during his five years at the MCC, a posting he embraced with all the understandable vigour of a former Australian state cricketer granted the keys to Lord’s. His time in the hallowed corridors was punctuated by innovation and occasional hints of revolution, as he took an active role not only in the installation of lights at the home of cricket but also in a significant reappraisal of the English game.He was part of the ECB board that hastened Duncan Fletcher’s exit as coach of the national team, and he also engaged in several battles to bring a full-fledged T20 club competition to England. There were numerous differences of opinion with Giles Clarke, notably over the ECB chairman’s preference for courting Allen Stanford over Lalit Modi. Nonetheless, the pair will greet each other warmly in Adelaide this week.”I wouldn’t change anything. I did what I felt was the best for the MCC and for cricket generally,” Bradshaw said. “Whilst my vision that I shared with a number of others didn’t necessarily come to fruition on all occasions, I certainly respect that people have different views – T20 was one of those. It was a time of my life I really enjoyed, it was only family reasons for coming back, but it was a real privilege to have held that position for five years.

“Scheduling is a huge issue and a huge challenge for the game. That really drives the whole of the game in terms of revenues and how that can then flow into game development and other areas”

“Giles and I had great respect for each other… we didn’t see eye to eye on everything, but certainly left on good terms and with a great deal of respect for the job he’s done.”While Bradshaw’s firm belief in a club/franchise model for T20 competition attracted the most attention, one of his proudest achievements in England was securing a change from the counter-productive bidding model for international fixtures. Two years of considerable agitating for change eventually drew the creation of a system that is less likely to send counties teetering towards bankruptcy in their efforts to outstrip rivals for Test matches.”For the allocation of Test matches in Australia there is a model and we know if there are five Tests they will be shared around the mainland, and if there’s a sixth, it goes to Tasmania,” he said. “But in England we found ourselves in that bidding war for a period of time, which I worked very hard with a group of the chief executives to change. It is now more of a qualitative approach, rather than whoever bids the most gets the Test matches.”I had a very strong view that it wasn’t the best model for the game in England, because effectively by bidding against each other the individual grounds’ cost price for hosting any international match went up. If your costs go up, your ticket prices go up, if your ticket prices go up, your crowds go down, if your crowds go down, your broadcasting revenue goes down, and you end up in this spiral heading down rather than up. That was my main concern about that bidding war. So I was pretty happy after about two years’ worth of lobbying we managed to change that system.”By 2011 it was time Bradshaw to return home. His father’s ailing health at home in Tasmania played a major part in the decision, which led to the role as chief executive of South Australia, one of the few cricket associations able to rival the MCC for prestige and conservatism. He has enjoyed bringing Adelaide Oval’s multi-purpose plans to fruition, and accepts that if the new drop-in pitch does not stand up to scrutiny, the vast scale of the new stands will not be adequate compensation. Despite the ground’s management by the Orwellian-sounding Stadium Management Authority, Bradshaw confesses to hating the word stadium.The return to Australia coincided with a period of introspection about the game in this country, leaving Bradshaw uniquely placed to assess Cricket Australia’s efforts to unify the vision of the states and the central office in Jolimont. He believes the CA chief executive, James Sutherland, deserves credit for a new governance structure, financial modelling and better lines of communication, but concedes the issue of scheduling remains a major concern.”Scheduling is a huge issue and a huge challenge for the game, not just in Australia but all around the world, in terms of the balance between the three formats,” he said. “It’s hugely complex but I can’t think of anything as important as getting that scheduling right. That really drives the whole of the game in terms of revenues and how that can then flow into game development and other areas.”There’s a great deal of effort going into it, I don’t think we’ve cracked it yet, and I think that’s where we all as administrators have a role to play and to recognise all the competing demands, but not be making decisions purely on a financial basis. It needs to consider financials, it needs to consider the players, but it also needs to consider our consumers. I don’t think we’ve achieved the optimal balance yet.”Scheduling receded instantly in importance when Bradshaw was again diagnosed with myeloma, this time after it had eaten away at his hip and pelvis. Facing cancer a second time, he was at once worried and fortified by the memories of his previous brush with appointments, clinics, drugs and medical forecasts. He is grateful both to the SACA for their understanding but also to the wider cricket public, who contributed generously to a provident fund set up in his name.”When you start the treatment again it’s deja vu, I remember that feeling now,” he said. “Like anyone I’d hoped my remission would be a lot longer, and had hoped it would be 10-20 years before it came back, but it came back in under five. You just need to deal with that. People were incredibly supportive, the SACA’s been incredibly supportive and friends and family – you just draw on that support.”The important thing is to stay positive, because once you drop your bundle I think people do around you as well, and the negativity becomes infectious. I always try to stay positive but I’ve had amazing support. There are other people that are so much worse off. I’m in remission again, I’m leading a pretty much normal life and I feel very blessed that I can do that.”Bradshaw’s first affiliation with Adelaide Oval was as a promising young Tasmanian batsman in the late 1980s. He stood in the field as David Hookes and Wayne Phillips put on 462 in March 1987, ruing the friendly batting turf he is now responsible for. Twenty-six years later, he quips that a new hip and a reconstructed pelvis have him ready to play in the Ashes. “Not sure I could quite bowl 20 overs upwind,” he said, “but I’ll give it a crack…”

Those looking for a quick verdict on Zaheer Khan’s comeback will have to wait

Sidharth Monga in Shimoga02-Oct-2013Those looking for a quick verdict on Zaheer Khan’s comeback will have to wait. On his first day of first-class cricket since he injured himself playing in the Ranji Trophy around the last New Year, Zaheer was neither exceptional nor awful. He didn’t create a bundle of opportunities, but he didn’t concede free runs either, except for the seven no-balls, as clear a sign as any of a bowler just coming back to competitive cricket. He bowled four spells of 5-2-6-0 (at the start of the match), 5-0-22-1 (either side of lunch), 2-0-15-0 (looking for reverse with a 60-over-old ball), and 4-3-1-0 (with the old ball after the 80th over).The big danger sign – his holding on to his groin, which had become a common sight on Indian Test fields – was absent. The pace looked similar to when he left, slower than colleague Mohammed Shami’s. Some old positive signs were there, but not for long enough.With the first ball he bowled, Zaheer squared Kraigg Brathwaite up. He beat the West Indies A opener outside off later in the over, but the first spell didn’t contain any other menace. Brathwaite became tighter in defence, kept leaving outside off, and once had to wait for a short ball to arrive and cut it in front of point for four. The slowness off the pitch wasn’t doing Zaheer any favours.In the first spell, Zaheer didn’t bowl much to Kieran Powell, a left-hand opener, Zaheer’s favoured prey. He had Powell on strike for the first time in the fifth over, and let him off with an easy single. The next time Zaheer saw him, he was in his own fifth over, and was driven on the up and then tucked away off the hip. There was no indication of the ball moving away from the batsman.Just before lunch, Zaheer came back with West Indies only one down. He continued after the break, and got Narsingh Deonarine with one that seemed to have moved sharply into him. Finally, the left-hand batsman taken. However, this one was not a typical Zaheer set-up with one coming in after a few going away. This was a reckless shot across the line by the batsman. He was taken off immediately.The next time you saw Zaheer was just after the 60th over, which is when he has turned many a lukewarm start to a Test interesting. This time he bowled only two overs, and didn’t seem to get any reverse.The day was now building up to the second new ball, Zaheer came on to bowl after the 80th over, but didn’t ask for the new ball. This spell had the only signs of the old Zaheer. There seemed a semblance of setting the batsman up. The effort increased. He bowled bouncer after bouncer to wicketkeeper-batsman Chadwick Walton, but none of them so short or so high that the batsman could leave them easily.You could see Zaheer was onto something. That old sense of anticipation that accompanied Zaheer with the old ball returned. After a few bouncers, he slipped one length, and beat Walton outside off. Walton was caught on the back foot. After a spell that gave nothing away, but promised a bit, he was taken off with only one over to be bowled from his end.It is hard to know if Zaheer was satisfied with the day’s work: one wicket in 16 overs, seven no-balls, but still going under three an over. Sometimes, for a bowler coming out of injury, going through a day’s bowling without much discomfort is in itself a big win. And Zaheer famously starts coming into his own when coming back from a break only after he has bowled about 100 overs.There was clear re-affirmation, though, that the road back to the India Test team is a long one.

Mahesh Rawat has graduated into the mainstay of the Railways batting. Arindam Ghosh is benefiting from his shift from Bengal. The pair kept Railways in the hunt with their third century stand this season

Rachna Shetty in Kolkata09-Jan-2014The most dramatic over of the second day of the Bengal-Railways quarter-final happened four overs after lunch, the 22nd over of the Railways innings. Ashok Dinda charged in and got Karn Sharma to nibble at a ball outside off, which was duly collected by Wriddhiman Saha. From 38 for 2 at lunch, Railways slipped to 42 for 5. Out stepped Railways’ wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat, who promptly dispatched the next six balls he faced – over two overs, all off Dinda – for fours.The first was a stroke down the leg side followed by a drive through the cover region. Another four on the leg side and three near-identical shots that pierced the off-side field with the power and timing that can only come from a batsman who has scored at least a fifty in all but one of the nine games he has played this season.Over the last two seasons, especially, Rawat has graduated into the mainstay of the Railways batting. In 2012-13, he finished 501 runs from eight games and in this season, has already scored 792 runs with three hundreds, including the ton against Bengal today.Abhay Sharma, the Railways coach, says the runs reflect Rawat’s ability and experience to read a situation in the game. “He plays according to the situation. He is a senior player and he is getting runs at crucial stages,” Sharma said. “He understands the role assigned to him and he adapts to that. He is a very good performer.”Rawat shifted to Railways in 2006-07 and has since played 48 matches, scoring more than 2500 runs at an average of over 45. Before that, he played three seasons between 2003-04 and 2006-07 for Haryana, which also had Ajay Ratra in the side. Rawat played 19 games for Haryana, scoring 868 at 31 before the shift to Railways.Joginder Sharma, the Haryana pacer and Rawat’s former team-mate, remembers the latter as a hard-working player. “He was a good batsman and wicketkeeper and worked hard on his game,” Joginder said. “It’s good to see him doing well in these seasons.”Like Rawat, another player to join Railways and make a big impact is Arindam Ghosh, the elegant right-handed batsman, who until last season played for Bengal. Lack of opportunities -he didn’t play any Ranji games for Bengal last season, and was picked twice in 2011-12 – forced Arindam to switch to Railways and since then, the batsman has hit rich form. In nine games for Railways so far, Ghosh has scored 680 runs at 75.55 with two hundreds, including 208 against Baroda to set up an innings win and three fifties. The runs, however, have also come with a lot of pre-season work, as Sharma reveals.”Arindam played in the inter-railway tournament and he performed well. We spoke to him, after that he had trial games and he performed well there also,” Sharma said. “We were looking for a middle-order player and we worked on him, on his technique and his temperament prior to the tournament (Ranji Trophy) and the good thing was that he accepted it and he applied those things and he is implementing it on the 22 yards. We made some changes to his technique, and that is working for him and the side.”The pair notched up their third century stand this season, staging a near improbable rescue act, but Sharma feels there is still a long way to go. Railways ended the second day trailing by 84 with five wickets in hand.”Both of them batted brilliantly, Arindam and Mahesh,” Sharma said. “It’s a matter of partnerships, not the number of boundaries. They applied themselves well. We don’t know if the six boundaries have an impact on us or the bowling side. It is immaterial because you have to play a long and controlled innings. They have applied themselves until now, but the match is still open.”

Plays of the Day from the fifth ODI between New Zealand and India, in Wellington

Abhishek Purohit in Wellington31-Jan-2014The stumbled run
Brendon McCullum stretched so much forward to Ravindra Jadeja in the 43rd over that he lost balance. He tried to recover even as he hauled himself up to take the single, but stumbled again. The sequence repeated itself till half the run had been completed, by which time McCullum finally managed to regain composure and start running. Rohit Sharma had all the time in the world to steady himself from cover, but his throw was way off target.The shot I
Jesse Ryder was in ridiculous touch in the series, although that won’t reflect with scores of 18, 20, 20, 19 and 17. But it did in the outrageous strokes he played. New Zealand had managed ten runs by the sixth over when out of nowhere, Ryder bent his back knee, and swung a Bhuvneshwar Kumar length ball high over midwicket for six.The shot II
Kane Williamson’s touch only kept improving through his innings, if that is possible for a man who’s made five successive fifties. Fourth ball of the batting Powerplay, he stepped out to Mohammed Shami and lifted it solidly with a high followthrough, timing it so well that the ball soared over deep extra-cover.The drop I
In the tenth over, Martin Guptill pulled Bhuvneshwar straight to mid-on. Varun Aaron appeared to dive initially, then realised there was no need to. He tried steadying himself on one knee but it was too late by then, and he could not hold on. Aaron had to begin bowling from the next over, and as he made his way to the pitch, a disappointed MS Dhoni strode right past him, head down, making no attempt to say anything to his bowler at the start of his spell.The drop II
Dhoni swung Mitchell McClenaghan to mid-on in the 38th over of the chase. The ball was dying a bit on Brendon McCullum, who leaned forward and got both hands to it, only to put it down. Dhoni flat-batted the next ball past McCullum, who tried to make up somewhat for the drop with a spirited dash. The ball had almost touched the boundary when McCullum flung himself at it. He covered quite a distance, and pulled it back in the nick of time to save one run.

The allotment of venues for IPL matches is predominantly a political game between the BCCI and its associations; the recent shuffle of the playoffs’ hosts suggests as much

Amol Karhadkar12-May-2014On Sunday night, Kolkata Knight Riders played an “away” game against Kings XI Punjab in Cuttack. On Wednesday, they will return to the venue for a “home” game. It’s just one of those quirks of scheduling that seems to fit right in with the IPL’s nomadic format.Elections, court cases, international politics have all affected the allotment of venues in the tournament, which of late has become a tool for political manoeuvring within the BCCI – most evident in the recent changes to the venues of the IPL playoffs, including the final.The announcement of the India leg of the original IPL schedule hinted that the venues had been finalised with an eye on the BCCI’s September elections. Recent changes, including Saturday’s announcement of the moving of the playoff matches and the final, have only firmed up that belief, given that several politically significant state bodies have been showered with multiple IPL games.For a state body, hosting an IPL match is as financially rewarding as it is prestigious. Each member unit earns approximately Rs 2 crore from the BCCI for staging an IPL game. Add to that the variable sums that are charged for letting out practice facilities to the home teams, and the state bodies’ desperation to host IPL matches is understandable.The original IPL schedule had ensured that two of current BCCI president-in-exile N Srinivasan’s most trusted lieutenants from the east zone – Orissa and Jharkhand bosses Ranjib Biswal and Amitabh Choudhary – had been awarded IPL games completely out of turn. Ranchi and Chennai are located in the east and south of the country. Similarly far apart are Chandigarh and Cuttack. Still, Ranchi – home town of Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni – was originally awarded two Super Kings home games, and then got two more when the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association conveyed its inability to host any games this season.Cuttack’s Barabati Stadium, meanwhile, was awarded two of Kings XI Punjab’s home matches, and got one more when Kolkata Knight Riders’ home game on May 14 had to be moved from Eden Gardens – thus making it perhaps the first ground to act as an adopted “home” to two teams in the same season.Why are Biswal and Choudhary, and their home grounds, significant? Both are supporters from the east zone of the ruling faction led by Srinivasan, and hold top positions in the BCCI. While Biswal is the IPL chairman, Choudhary heads the powerful BCCI marketing committee.The key, though, is that it is the east zone’s turn this year to nominate a BCCI president for three years from October 2014. The BCCI constitution allows the candidate to be from outside the east zone if he is nominated by an east zone member and seconded by another.And so matches and venues are used as carrots and sticks. If Cuttack and Ranchi benefited from their proximity to the centre of power, venues under BCCI officials critical of Srinivasan and his tenure were left out in the cold.Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha had informed the BCCI that there would be no problem in playing IPL matches at their respective venues anytime after the end of the general elections in their territories. However, the BCCI turned a blind eye to Ajay Shirke, the Maharashtra Cricket Association president, who had resigned as BCCI treasurer protesting the handling of the IPL corruption scandal. Also Jyotiraditya Scindia, the MPCA head, who was the first to question Srinivasan after the corruption scandal broke last year. And Shashank Manohar from Vidarbha, who has perhaps been next only to Lalit Modi as a vocal detractor of Srinivasan.The case of Mumbai, which lost the final to Bangalore, is more complex. In the original schedule, the IPL had followed the set norm of allotting the last two games, including the final, to the home ground of the defending champion. Saturday’s announcement of the change offered no explanation, and there has been none provided since. The truth will probably be hard to explain. The main factor has been the prevailing acrimony between the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) and the BCCI hierarchy.Sharad Pawar’s return as the MCA chief last October has made the ruling regime in the BCCI wary of the MCA. To add to that, ever since Pawar’s return, Ravi Savant, the MCA and BCCI vice-president, has time and again questioned the BCCI’s decisions in public. Pawar’s criticism of the suspension of the Rajasthan Cricket Association on May 6 is being considered the key reason that led to the change of the venue for the final.Mumbai’s loss has been Bangalore’s gain. But Bangalore hasn’t benefited only due to its ostensibly luxurious hospitality boxes. Five months ago, the power centres in the Karnataka State Cricket Association experienced a shift, from Anil Kumble’s group to Brijesh Patel’s. Since then, the BCCI top brass has been doling out all sorts of favours to the new KSCA regime. The team managers for India’s last two overseas assignments – the Asia Cup and the World T20 – were both KSCA representatives, and the allotment of the final is being seen as yet another step by the BCCI top brass, still led by the sidelined N Srinivasan, to keep a key south zone member happy.Similarly, allotting an IPL playoff game each to the Cricket Club of India’s Brabourne Stadium and Eden Gardens are seen as measures to keep two more voting members on the right side ahead of the September elections.Awarding IPL games to units close to the president isn’t new. The DY Patil Sports Stadium, a private ground in Navi Mumbai, hosted two IPL finals, thanks to its owners’ close links to Modi, the IPL chairman at the time, and Pawar, who was the BCCI president when the IPL was launched. Similarly, when Deccan Chargers had to play their home games away from Hyderabad in 2010, Nagpur – the home city of then BCCI president Shashank Manohar – was one of the three home venues for the franchise.Similarly, Kochi Tuskers Kerala played two of their home games in Indore, the cricketing base of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, in their only season. Sanjay Jagdale, currently the most influential figure in MP cricket, was then the BCCI joint-secretary and soon took over as secretary. Before this season, Dharamsala, the home of BCCI joint-secretary Anurag Thakur, was the favoured adopted home of Kings XI Punjab.

India have done well against South Africa in T20Is and might improve their record further given their form and the favourable conditions at Mirpur

Shiva Jayaraman03-Apr-2014The two teams have progressed to the semi-finals in contrasting fashion. India have waltzed in there after winning all their matches comfortably. They are the only unbeaten team in the league stages. Their narrowest win came against West Indies – by seven wickets with two balls to spare. Even in that game India had progressed to a stage when they needed just 23 runs from 32 balls with eight wickets in hand.South Africa have had to sweat it out. After ending up with a defeat from a winning position against Sri Lanka – they fell short by five runs chasing 165, after having scored 110 for 3 at the end of the 14th over – South Africa had to work hard for their wins in the remaining games. They snatched a win from New Zealand in the last over: Dale Steyn managed to defend what were the lowest runs to have been defended in T20Is in the last over – seven. This had only been done twice before – South Africa themselves had done it against the same opposition at Eden Park in 2012 and two days later Ireland did this in a match against Kenya. Ireland contrived to lose from a winning position against them. Their win against England, though hard earned, wasn’t as hard as the three-run margin suggests.India’s bowlers did a fine job of restricting the opposition in the league matches: the highest total that was scored against them in these three matches was 138, by Bangladesh. India batted second in three of their four games and the targets have obviously not tested their batsmen – evident from the fact that they have one of the lowest strike rates in the tournament and have lost the fewest wickets. India’s batsmen (click here for their tournament stats) have averaged 35.4 and scored five fifty-plus scores – both the highest among teams in the league stage. South Africa’s batsmen (click here for their tournament stats) have scored the most runs by any team in the main league stage and have the best strike rate as well. They have scored heavily in the last-five overs: their scoring rate of 10.6 being second only to West Indies’ 11.3.

South Africa’s bowlers – much like their batsmen – have had to work hard. With South Africa bowling second in three of their matches, their bowlers have got the worse of the conditions under the lights at Chittagong, which has been the more difficult venue for bowlers with dew being a factor on occasions. Despite this, their bowlers have managed 30 wickets in the league stage – the second highest by any team in the tournament. They have also leaked runs though: their economy of 8.26 is one of the worst among teams. South Africa’s area of concern has been their bowling in the Powerplay overs – they have taken only four wickets in these overs and have conceded runs at 8.91 runs an over. Their economy in these overs in the worst among the ten teams in the league stage and a run and a fraction more than the next worst.India’s bowling in this tournament, helped by the spin-friendly conditions at Mirpur, has come up trumps. Their economy of 6.17 in this World T20 has been the best among teams. While their spinners have lead from the front, their medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has bowled extremely well too. He has played an important role in restricting the opposition batsmen. His economy of 4.33 in this tournament is the best among bowlers who have bowled at least five overs. India have been the best bowling unit in the Powerplays too, with an economy of 4.5 in these overs. Bhuvneshwar has bowled ten overs in the Powerplays conceding just 34 runs – among bowlers who have bowled a minimum of five overs in the Powerplays, no bowler has done better.

Chittagong has been the venue where spinners – Sri Lanka’s on both occasions – have completely annihilated their opposition in a couple of games. However, given the slow and dry conditions at Mirpur, spinners have been trusted to bowl more here compared with Chittagong. In ten league matches at Mirpur, spinners have bowled 205 overs -an average of 10.2 overs per innings – to 95 overs at Chittagong.

India and South Africa are playing each other in the knockout stages of a major (involving five or more teams) limited-overs tournament after more than ten years. The last time these two teams played each other in such a game was in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy in 2002. There have been three such encounters between the teams with India coming out on top on all occasions. In T20Is though, this will be their first match in the knockout stage. Both the teams have made it to the semi-finals of the World T20s once before. While India went on to win the tournament in 2007, South Africa lost to the eventual champions, Pakistan, in 2009. Overall in T20Is, India have played South Africa in seven T20Is and have won five of them – the most they have against any team.

Mohammad Ashraful was thrust into the harsh glare of international cricket at a young age and given a long rope. There were several thrilling innings, but his career was dogged by inconsistency and ended in corruption

Mohammad Isam18-Jun-2014In Matara in 2013, some Bangladesh players had gathered on the viewing balcony as Mohammad Ashraful neared a century. As he played loose shots against an offspinner, a team-mate cried out, asking Ashraful to be cautious.”.”Mahmudullah’s warning was curious, and not meant to be heard by those in the gallery below. He wanted Ashraful to be careful, get to a century that would confirm his place in the Galle Test, and complete a comeback after a two-year absence.The words rang true, especially after the events that unfolded two months later, when Ashraful told the ACSU’s investigation officers that he had been involved in match-fixing in the 2013 BPL. A year later, after the investigation had run its course, Ashraful’s was banned for eight years, bringing to an end a career full of unfulfilled potential.Mahmudullah’s warning had sounded stern at the time, but he is not the sort to act haughty with a senior team-mate for the sake of it. He had also addressed Ashraful as , the Bangla word for ‘master.’ They were probably the words that described most accurately what everyone felt about Ashraful, and what they wanted him to do.Mahmudullah wasn’t telling just any batsman to be careful that day in Matara. He was telling a cricketer who had played for more than two-thirds of the time since Bangladesh began their Test journey. He was telling the man who, for seven years from 2001, was the sole hope of a ship that had wobbled the moment it left the dock.Most Bangladesh fans had not seen Ashraful become the youngest centurion in the world, but for the next eight years, the country held its breath when he batted. His mistakes were scrutinised by a growing group of critics, but when he hooked and pulled top fast bowlers, the natural response was to be awestruck. There was beauty to his off-side play too; his three types of cuts – each with its own bat speed and angle – the straight drive, the softly placed and the blasted cover drive. There were also scoops and dinks.Ashraful was the first Bangladesh batsman their opponents planned for. He made batting look easy, as those around him struggled. He meant so much to Bangladesh because he was the beacon of hope in the only sport they were good at.He did not give a damn either. Ashraful would throw away a superb start and the media would moan for a few days, but the public would remember how he had attacked the fast bowler. The boy who bullied bullies was adored. Ashraful could take on the world, but he did only occasionally.The first of those occasions was in 2004, by when Bangladesh’s Test status had been questioned many times and they needed a substantial performance. Ashraful made 158 against India, an innings many have said kept Bangladesh afloat in international cricket In June 2005, Ashraful dismantled Ricky Ponting’s Australia – one of the greatest teams across sport – with a century in an ODI. It still is perhaps the biggest upset in cricket.Mahmudullah’s warning, however, also had its root in Ashraful’s indiscretions: the wafts that offered catches, the ill-timed blasts, the glides he could not get past the keeper or the cordon, the cute nudges that looked ugly once they failed him, and the starts he wasted so frequently.Ashraful failed as Bangladesh captain, and failed as a batsman during that time too. A while later he lost the leadership and the dressing room. It took only one cute shot in a Twenty20 game against Ireland in 2009 to erode much of the remaining belief in Ashraful. The extra rope he had always been given began to run out, and soon he was an outsider.Ashraful did not contribute much to the Test wins he played in. He was a better ODI batsman, and all three of his hundreds in the format led to Bangladesh victories. Ashraful was the master who needed to be attentive, but he chose the other path. To explain the complexity that surrounds him, one has to look into his ample talent and how he frittered it away a chunk at a time.Then, like in US congressional hearings, several key figures in Bangladesh cricket would have to explain their influence on Ashraful, a flawed cricketer and now blemished man. The list includes captains and coaches, a former board president, BCB directors, family members, friends and a mentor.Ashraful would not be spared this imaginary hearing either. He must explain how this has come to pass – a fitful international career that was ended by corruption when it could have been ended prematurely by flawed strokeplay.Bangladesh’s most gifted sportsman has now been thrown out of the ring. He is deemed not honest enough to play the game for at least five years. Despite their on-field hardships since 1986, this has to be the lowest point in Bangladesh cricket. There is so much shame in cheating.Despite how terribly it ended, Ashraful’s career began in the same way that many subcontinent cricket stories did in the 1990s. A scrawny boy walks several miles from his house for cricket practice. One day his timing and the time he has to hit the ball catches the coach’s eye, and he rapidly rises in a system that badly needs a star. He is thrust on to the biggest stage too soon, but a fairytale start masks the fundamental chinks in the make-up of the young man. And because of his talent, and the lack of it around him, he has to behave beyond his years.Bangladesh also needed a poster boy at the time, and Ashraful was given a lot of rope. He often tested patience but repaid faith when his team was struggling. His most famous scoring sequence was the two days in the UK, where he sank Australia and toyed with England for 64 minutes the next day.Ashraful might not have heard Mahmudullah, but he batted dutifully, made it to the Test team to score 190 in Galle, his career-best score. Later that afternoon in Matara, Ashraful said how taking a boat into the Indian Ocean had become a matter of pride for him, after he saw how comfortable Sohag Gazi and Rubel Hossain were in rough water.”It just looked odd that I was standing in the beach,” he said, followed by a loud giggle. Ashraful laughs wholeheartedly and he sometimes laughs at his own joke. Like he did fleetingly when he told the media of his involvement in match-fixing.Ashraful’s eyes were watery that day in Matara, an allergic condition that often bothered him during his playing career. His eyes were watery, and red, in the darkened garage of his home in Banasree too.It was hard to read Ashraful as he contemplated a comeback in Sri Lanka. It was hard to read Ashraful as he laughed in that hot garage and confessed his wrongdoing. When a reporter asked him to speak off the record, he said, “Speaking off camera got me into trouble in the first place,” and laughed loudly again. The sentence hung in the air as he took the elevator to his apartment, surrounded by three friends.