Having stared elimination in the face earlier in the tournament, Chennai found their most menacing roar at the most opportune time

Cricinfo staff26-Apr-2010It was hard not to watch this match and think of another that took place a generation ago, the final of a tournament that may one day come to be regarded as the pinnacle of limited-overs cricket. Even the circumstances were similar. One team had dominated the group stages, while the other had been lucky to survive. But when it came to the games that mattered the lucky survivors were just clinical. Just as Imran Khan’s Cornered Tigers improved as the World Cup went on in 1992, so did MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings. And just as England fell short at the MCG, the Mumbai Indians found themselves unable to raise their game when they most needed to.Some will argue that the best team didn’t win, and Dhoni candidly admitted that Chennai “could have played much better”. But while the league table doesn’t lie, neither does the evidence of the last week, when Dhoni’s monstrous hitting kept them alive in Dharamsala before both Deccan Chargers and Mumbai were swept aside.The catalyst for Pakistan cricket’s finest hour was Wasim Akram. Doug Bollinger isn’t in that class as a left-arm pacer, but there’s little doubt that it was his arrival as a late replacement for injured stars that transformed Chennai’s season. “Our domestic pace bowlers didn’t bowl very well,” said Dhoni. Bollinger did, especially in tandem with the outstanding R Ashwin. “He has done the job of a seamer for us,” said Dhoni. “He’s an effective bowler and he has that carrom ball to confuse batsmen.”Dhoni cited a motivational speech from team owner N Srinivasan as one of the significant moments of the campaign, and expressed satisfaction in the performance of the team’s domestic contingent. Suresh Raina crowned a hugely impressive season with a match-winning hand of 57, and will be one of the key players as India look to regain the Twenty20 World Cup that they won in 2007.”Raina takes the opponent on,” said Dhoni. “But lately, he has learnt to finish off games. He doesn’t just make 30s or 40s. He respects the bowlers when he needs to. It’s a great format for a young player to get noticed in, but we shouldn’t get carried away. It’s a good platform for youngsters because they’re put under pressure and you can see how they react.”Having fallen short at the final hurdle in 2008 and at the penultimate one a year later, Dhoni called this a triumph for the way the team had prepared. “We only get a week or 10 days before the tournament starts, so it’s important that you gel well as a team. We’ve also been very unlucky with injuries.”In the final, Chennai made their own luck, taking the crucial catches that Mumbai fluffed and exerting relentless pressure with their slow bowlers. Their spin-heavy attack was clearly a big factor in Kieron Pollard being held back till the very end, and Dhoni admitted that the circumstances had forced him to choose the XI that he did. “It may not sound the right combination, but it worked for us,” he said. “When you can only pick four foreign players, it’s tricky. You need your domestic players to do well.”M Vijay, Raina and Ashwin all passed that test, as did Shadab Jakati, who dismissed Sachin Tendulkar and Saurabh Tiwary in the same over to leave Pollard with an impossible task. “When you lead India in a World Cup, you’re playing with 15 of India’s best cricketers,” said Dhoni when asked to contrast the IPL experience with the international one. “Here, you don’t necessarily pick the best XI or even the best balanced one. But it worked for us.”Having stared elimination in the face earlier in the tournament, Dhoni’s boys, like Imran’s charges, found their most menacing roar at the most opportune time. And Mumbai, like Gooch and England 18 years ago, simply had no answer.

Even as those around him struggled, Hutton batted on as if on the flattest pitch in the world

David Frith21-Jun-2010Len Hutton’s immortality was assured when as a 22-year-old he batted for over 13 hours at The Oval in 1938 to make 364 for England against Australia. It was still the individual Ashes record over 70 years later, and remained the world Test record as well until Garry Sobers inched past it against Pakistan in Jamaica in 1958.Had the Second World War not frozen big-time cricket late in 1939, Hutton seemed certain to edge ahead of Don Bradman, Wally Hammond and George Headley as the world’s undisputed premier batsman. As it was, and despite a serious fracture of his left forearm during commando training, he was soon to be regarded as the finest contemporary batsman when Test cricket restarted seven years later.Hutton seldom dominated in quite the same fashion as some of the other master batsmen, having chosen to build his game on an exquisite defensive technique. His strokeplay had a rare delicacy about it. He could accelerate given the need and the opportunity, but it so happened that during his years of maturity he found himself bearing the heaviest weight of England’s batting needs, a responsibility reflected in his often solemn countenance. Still, there was an apparent touch of genius about his batsmanship: as Yorkshire batsman Doug Padgett put it, “While one man would be struggling, Len would be batting away at the other end as though it was the flattest pitch in the world.”As a boy in Yorkshire, Hutton had displayed remarkable patience and determination in informal cricket and then as a county colt. While still a teenager, he found himself opening for his county with the legendary Herbert Sutcliffe. His 21st birthday was handsomely marked by an opening partnership of 315 with Sutcliffe against Leicestershire at Hull, and soon afterwards he made his England debut (0 and 1 against New Zealand at Lord’s, preceding 100 in the following Test). A year later he made another round 100 on Ashes debut, and 11 weeks afterwards came that colossal 364 in 797 minutes on a featherbed pitch against the usually penetrative spinners Bill O’Reilly and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith. Two fine centuries against West Indies in 1939 seemed to have cemented his place as the world’s premier batsman. Then the curtain fell.The slightly built and handicapped Hutton who re-emerged in 1946 was for a time overshadowed by the glamour and high scoring of Denis Compton. But his opening partnerships for England with Lancastrian Cyril Washbrook – not least their record 359 at Ellis Park, Johannesburg – underpinned Hutton’s status through years of rich output from his educated bat. He was to have many a success against the ferocity of Australia’s fast men Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, and the demanding spin of West Indies’ Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine.For Yorkshire he was prolific summer after summer, never more so than in the month of June in 1949, when he made a record 1294 runs – notwithstanding three consecutive ducks. Then in August he passed 1000 runs again, timely performances in his benefit year, which returned him £9713 (not far short of half a million in today’s terms). In 1951, Hutton became the 13th batsman to score 100 first-class centuries, registering the feat at The Oval, where so many of his landmark performances were staged, and in the following summer he was appointed as the first professional to captain England in modern times. “When I’d put the phone down,” he later said, “I wondered what I’d let myself in for.”His appointment did not meet with universal approval. There was entrenched belief in some quarters that professionals were too dour and unadventurous by nature. Hutton, though, had deep resources of cricket intelligence, and his uncompromising attitude was an early pointer to the new age of unrelenting Test cricket. The most obvious indication of this was his commitment to fast bowling during the 1954-55 tour, when he orchestrated a leisurely over rate to save his fast men from early exhaustion, meanwhile frustrating the Australian batsmen. For so long he had been forced to weather the ferocity of rib-cracking fast men while having no heavy artillery with which to respond.Leonard Hutton was born in Fulneck, a Moravian community near Pudsey, Yorkshire, on June 23, 1916, and the wise old allrounder George Hirst nurtured him as a county colt. His advance was swift, though he weathered lean times after a promising 196 at Worcester. Having watched Don Bradman’s 334 in the “local” Headingley ground in 1930 when he was a schoolboy, it delighted him to have the great Australian shake his hand as soon as he had taken that record from him in that famous Oval Test eight years later.With war looming, Hutton stroked 196 off the West Indies attack at Lord’s in 1939, his partnership with Compton – 248 in 140 minutes – leaving onlookers something to treasure through the dark years. And afterwards, despite the physical handicap, Hutton made a lot of runs in Australia in 1946-47, with centuries in all the major cities, and a shining cameo of 37 in the first of the two Sydney Tests, which had older spectators comparing his thrilling strokeplay with Victor Trumper’s long ago. The abrupt finale – he fell onto his stumps – was administered by the rumbustious Miller, against whom he was always more wary than against the smooth and lethal Lindwall. But in the later Sydney Test, Hutton reached 122 before retiring with tonsillitis.As England struggled through those post-war seasons, Hutton’s careworn face became a symbol. He was even dropped for one Test during the 1948 Ashes series, returning with good runs in the next, and a poignant 30 at The Oval when Lindwall rolled England over for 52. On the second of his three Australian tours Hutton continued to lead the batting, averaging 88 and carrying his bat in Adelaide for 156 (having achieved this feat also a few months earlier at The Oval with 202 not out against West Indies). He often seemed to be the head and spine of England’s batting.Perhaps his most heroic achievement was to steer England to a shared rubber in the Caribbean in 1953-54. West Indies won the first two Tests, but Hutton’s 169 in Georgetown set up an England victory, and after a draw in Trinidad he followed up Trevor Bailey’s 7 for 34 in Kingston with a stupendous 205 to give England command of the match, securing an eventual 2-2 result. He was now in his 38th year, and this was the first double-century by an England captain in a Test match overseas. Yet it had not been a happy tour. Political and social upsets ensured that there were few regrets all round at its ending.This successful fightback had came in the wake of a home series against Australia that retains even greater resonance, for the Ashes were regained in 1953, all of 19 years since England had last held them. They had an effective pool of spinners at long last in Wardle, Laker, Lock and Tattersall, and a penetrative group of developing fast bowlers, headed by Fred Trueman. Four tense draws, with the captain in reassuring form, especially in his 145 at Lord’s, were followed by a historic victory at The Oval, with Hutton wearing the old England cap in which he had ground his way to that 364.Though he built his game on defensive technique, Hutton could accelerate when required•Getty ImagesEngland grew even stronger, and could afford to leave Trueman and Laker behind when they sailed to Australia for the 1954-55 series. Hutton by now was past his peak as a batsman, but he orchestrated a thrilling triumph based largely on the efforts of new young men, Peter May and Colin Cowdrey, Frank Tyson and Brian Statham. The captain began woefully by giving Australia first use of a good Brisbane pitch (601 for 8 declared), but England’s strength asserted itself in the remaining matches, although the captain himself contributed only one decent score, 80 in Adelaide, where the Ashes were retained. He rarely bowled his legbreaks now, but gave himself a bowl in Sydney in the final (drawn) Test and hit Benaud’s stumps with what turned out to be his final ball in Test cricket. His two Tests on the way home were his last: in New Zealand, against whom his Test career had started almost 18 years earlier. He made 53 in Auckland, batting at five, in his final Test innings.Although wirily built, Hutton was handicapped later in his career by back pain and fatigue. He withdrew from the 1955 Tests against South Africa, Peter May taking over the leadership, and yet at the age of 40 he was still able to stroke 194 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, whose bowlers included the brilliant Bruce Dooland and the mean Arthur Jepson. Then, early in 1956, Hutton announced his retirement. Soon he became only the second professional cricketer – after Jack Hobbs – to be knighted.For some years his shrewd views appeared in a newspaper column, and there were books by him and about him. He had the pleasure of seeing his son Richard capped five times by England, and he himself served briefly later as a Test selector. It was a slightly heavier and more relaxed man who sat in the press box, his gaze sometimes surely overprinted with memories of those many rewarding summer days.Sir Len died in hospital near his Kingston, Surrey home on September 6, 1990, at the age of 74.

A stats review of the Champions League Twenty20 2010

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan27-Sep-2010Superior with bat and ballThe difference between the batting run rate and bowling economy rate for Chennai is the highest among all teams and comfortably ahead of the next best team. The difference between their batting average and bowling average is an extraordinary 24.58, which is streets ahead of the Warriors, whom they beat in the final. None of the other teams have a run-rate difference of more than one, and only South Australia possess an average difference above ten. The overall stats of the top teams is summarised below.

Overall stats of the top six teams

TeamMatchesRun-rateEconomy rateDifferenceBatting averageBowling averageDifferenceChennai68.236.461.7738.213.6224.58Warriors67.867.180.6827.1724.192.98Lions48.798.160.6333.0526.526.53Bangalore58.067.470.5924.3426.06-1.72Victoria47.757.430.3223.5821.881.7South Australia58.688.370.3132.7322.4210.31The best spinnersR Ashwin and Muttiah Muralitharan produced excellent bowling displays in the final to restrict Warriors to a below-par total. In fact, the Chennai spinners were by far the best in the tournament, averaging just over six in the Powerplay overs and stifling most teams in the middle overs. Of the total 54 wickets picked up by Chennai’s bowlers, the spinners contributed 31 at an impressive average of just over 11.

Teams with highest contribution from spinners

TeamInningsWicketsEconomy rateAverageWickets (middle overs)Economy rate(middle overs)Average(middle overs)Chennai6316.1711.25125.8817.16Warriors6116.6225.9086.8030.62South Australia586.0921.6668.1233.83Wayamba498.9635.8765.3818.83Raising their game when it mattersWhen they were close to elimination in the IPL 2010, Chennai won six out of their last eight games. That was a longer tournament which allowed them to get away with a slow start. Here, there was little leeway, and they got into their stride straightaway, losing only a single match, and that too in the Super Over. They triumphed in a must-win match against Warriors before comfortably winning in the semi-final and final. They had a stunning record in the Champions League when they batted first, but a slightly more even record in the IPL.

Chennai’s performance in IPL 2010 and Champions League 2010

TournamentPlayed WonLostIPL 2010 overall1697IPL 2010(1st half)835IPL 2010(2nd half)862IPL 2010(batting first)853Champions League overall651Champions League(batting first)541Sharing the run-scoring burdenTwo of the top four run-getters of the tournament were from Chennai, and this proved to be a huge factor in the final result. Suresh Raina played a superb hand in the rain curtailed semi-final against Bangalore, while Murali Vijay, the highest run scorer of the tournament, was highly consistent and played important knocks in the semi-final and final. Davy Jacobs of Warriors and South Australia’s Michael Klinger were in fine form too, but Chennai had had greater depth, and more firepower.

Top run-getters in the tournament

BatsmanTeamInningsRunsRun-rateAverageMurali VijayChennai62947.3549.00Davy JacobsWarriors62868.7157.20Michael KlingerSouth Australia52267.6656.50Suresh RainaChennai620310.0640.60Callum FergusonSouth Australia52009.0950.00Dominant bowlersChennai dominate the bowling department completely, with three of their bowlers among the top four wicket-takers in the tournament. Ashwin and Muralitharan turned the finals completely after a great start for the Warriors while Doug Bollinger was also among the wickets throughout. Shaun Tait’s lethal pace was a major factor in South Australia’s success, but he had an ordinary game in the semi-final resulting in their exit. Johan Botha and Rusty Theron were also consistent all tournament but they just didn’t have enough runs to play with it in the final.

Top wicket takers in the tournament

BowlerTeamInningsWicketsEconomy rateAverageR AshwinChennai6136.5111.69Muttiah MuralitharanChennai6125.6911.00Doug BollingerChennai697.0317.33Daniel ChristianSouth Australia598.2317.22Shaun TaitSouth Australia487.7515.50Overall, the 2010 Champions League produced far more runs and boundaries than the 2009 edition, which was slightly surprising considering the fact that the previous hosts had been India, where pitches normally favour batsmen. The 2009 edition had lower average scores and poor batting performances by the IPL teams, but two out of four semi-finalists this time were from the IPL. The number of fours and sixes also went up in the 2010 tournament, clearly suggesting a better batting performance.

Overall stats for two seasons of Champions League

SeasonRunsRun-rate4s6sWicketsAverage200963697.2557818028622.26201069597.9560422227725.12Both Chennai and New South Wales, the 2009 champions, lost just one game on their way to the title. While Chennai lost to Victoria in a Super Over, New South Wales lost a close game to Trinidad after a blitz by Kieron Pollard. Chennai were the better batting side, with a higher average and scoring rate. The stats for the bowling department, though, were even. Chennai’s bowling average was marginally better but New South Wale’s economy rate, which was below six, was better than that of Chennai.

Chennai v New South Wales

TeamInningsRuns scoredRun-rateBatting averageWicketsEconomy rateBowling averageChennai69558.2338.20546.5913.62New South Wales68847.9027.62495.9113.79

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the day of the second day of the Centurion Test between South Africa and India

Firdose Moonda at SuperSport Park18-Dec-2010The start
Ignominy is following Sreesanth around the current tour to South Africa. After starting yesterday with a wide, enduring jeers from the crowd when he misfielded and allegedly being verbally abused by a spectator, he must have thought things couldn’t get worse. They did, but only slightly. He started the day with a no-ball, overstepping at least a foot. It set the tone for a wicket-less day in the scorching heat for the break-dancer.The attempted denial
With AB de Villiers making mincemeat out of the Indian bowling and racing to his century, MS Dhoni’s attempts to plug the runs made sense. What was unusual was when he opted to insert the stopper. de Villiers was on 99 and even though Dhoni has been gracious to batsmen in the past and let them take a single to mid-off or mid-on, he wasn’t as generous to de Villiers. The entire field was brought in to stop the one. de Villiers ignored the threat, slog-swept Raina over long-on and brought up the fastest century by a South African in Test cricket.The party pooper
Jacques Kallis’ 200 was being celebrated in such vociferous fashion that umpire Ian Gould had to intervene to silence the crowd. After the man himself saluted the heavens, the dressing room and the crowd there was still a lot of whooping going on and the “Life is Life” song by Opus that Kallis has made his theme tune played almost to completion. Jaidev Unadkat was ready to bowl his next delivery but no-one else was interested. Gould had to intervene, and looked as though he was signalling a wide ball. Instead, he was asking for silence so the cricket could continue.McLaren’s new job
Tea time is work time for the South African twelfth man. Yesterday he had to entertain the ladies at the ‘Maiden’s Bowled Over” function and today he was one of the judges for Super Fan competition. McLaren joined commentator Jeremy Fredericks and a member of the sponsorship team from Castle Lager to decide who the two best-dressed supporters of the day were. The pair have each won a trip to India to watch South Africa at the World Cup.The openers with a few lives
India’s openers are both back in the hut after day three but could have been there a lot sooner if the South African fielders had held on to three chances. Virender Sehwag was put down by Hashim Amla at cover off Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s bowling when he was on 34. It was a tough chance, coming off the meat of the bat, as Sehwag attempted a lofted drive. Amla dived to his right but only got a fingertip to it. The second drop was one that really should have been taken. Gautam Gambhir, on 43, fed a drive off Dale Steyn to Alviro Petersen at point. He juggled the ball a bit and put it down. Petersen then missed a far more difficult chance off Gambhir on 63, and both openers also survived run-out chances.

The tied match was just what the World Cup needed, but the exciting finish cannot gloss over what was an embarrassing performance by India in the field

Sambit Bal at the Chinnaswamy Stadium27-Feb-2011First things first. The fans and the organisers must give thanks to India and England for conspiring to produce an extraordinary finish that has ignited the World Cup after ten days of relative torpor. Six hundred and seventy six runs, 18 wickets and a heart-stopping tie ensure that the match will linger in the memory of anyone present. But in the cold light of cricket logic, the reverse of what is normally said of a tie will apply to this match: the tie was a fair result because neither team deserved to win.The outcome would have left both teams with both relief and regret. India would be relieved because they found their way back into a match which seemed hopelessly lost, and then did not concede more than a single off the last ball after the first five of the final over had gone for 12. But how did they let England amble to a match-winning position in the first place, after scoring 338? And how did they manage to concede 28 to the tailenders in the last two overs after knocking over four wickets for 25 runs in the batting Powerplay?England would be mightily relieved after the Powerplay choke had left them with 42 to get off 24 balls with all their specialist batsmen gone, and they would take overall satisfaction from constructing such an epic chase. But just how did they manage to botch it from 278 for 2 with 61 needed off 54 balls?The match featured some splendid performances, and in many ways those mirrored each other. There were polished and controlled hundreds from Sachin Tendulkar, the game’s enduring icon, and Andrew Strauss, who has found his batting mojo in this form of the game in the second half of his career; there was outstanding bowling from Tim Bresnan, which was responsible for keeping India down to 338, if such a thing can be said, and there were three skillful and cunning overs from Zaheer Khan that brought India back into the game. There were strong support acts from the No. 4 batsmen – Yuvraj Singh and Ian Bell – and both were dismissed at crucial junctures which led to the innings dipping into decline.But the enduring image of the match would be the last-over six from Ajmal Shehzad, hit so cleanly and with such majesty that it might have come from the middle of Tendulkar’s bat. For that, and for mounting such an improbable chase with such aplomb for the large part of the innings, England would take more from the match than their fancied rivals. India were expected to bat big; England, despite botching up the chase, surpassed expectations.Their one-day team was annihilated when they toured India the last time. Their progress since then was never doubted, and with this, they have served notice: while the bowling worries remain, with the bat, they can chase.India have known even before a ball had been bowled in this World Cup that whatever success they were to achieve they had to do it off their bat. But on Sunday night, they were served the starkest possible reminder that whatever they can do with bat can be easily lost on the field. The track at the Chinnaswamy Stadium was, according to Strauss, unbelievably flat and MS Dhoni said it got even better during the second innings. Still, the frightening aspect from the Indian point of view was not merely that England almost chased their total down, but how easily they did it till the 43rd over.The format of this World Cup has been designed to insure them against the embarrassment of an early exit, but for the most part, their performance in defending a total never chased even on the flattest and deadest Indian pitches – the highest successful run chase on Indian soil is 325 by India against West Indies in 2002 – was an epic embarrassment in its own right: it has swiftly shorn them of their aura, and the tag of the favourites.Every time they bat first, this question will haunt their batsmen: just how much is safe enough? Nine days ago, it was only the margin of victory that muted the questions about their ability with ball after Bangladesh had taken 280 runs off them in the World Cup opener, but so lacking in energy and spirit were they on the field on Sunday that a win for them would have been a travesty.It was only after the 43rd over, when Zaheer produced two wickets in two balls, that the Indian fielding acquired a sense of urgency and charge. Suddenly the fielders in the ring attacked the ball, a couple of diving stops were made, and outfielders sprang to life. Till then infielders had hung back and allowed the batsmen to stroll singles (England scored 134 of them compared to India’s 107) and fielders in the deep acted as perfect escort services to the fence. Their outcricket made India’s meagre bowling resources look even thinner.In their first warm-up match, their bowlers had defended 213 against Australia on the same square. But the ball spat and turned then. The curator had since been nudged to flatten it out, and on the belter that was laid out, the first part went to script for India. But the second provided glimpses of what lies ahead. Apart from Zaheer in those Powerplay overs, no bowler ever came close to being able to apply pressure; Harbhajan Singh was the most economical, but he was picked off with ease and conceded 10 runs in the crucial 46th over, and while Piyush Chawla had two wickets, he conceded the maximum boundaries: five fours and three sixes. The lack of skill from the bowlers was merely exacerbated by apologetic fielding.Dhoni sounded nearly resigned to the ineptitude in the field. “We could have defended this total if we had a better fielding side,” he said, “but we have to make do with what we have got.” But if this is the best they can put up, their batsmen would have to bat out of their skin for the rest of the tournament. Never has a team so light in bowling and so heavy on its feet won a World Cup.But from a broader perspective, this was the match the World Cup needed. However flawed, it was highly entertaining: it had twists and turns; big hitting and lots of wickets; drama and suspense; and the rarest of results. The stadium was a spectacle, and the crowd, however partisan, went back with a match to remember. Dhaka gave the tournament a passionate start, Bangalore has brought it alive.

Yusuf Pathan has turned himself from a bludgeoner into a world-class game-breaker, one who can make the opposition wish they had taken up a different sport

Tariq Engineer29-Jan-2011It’s easy to find Yusuf Pathan’s house in Vadodara. All you have to do is tell the nearest taxi or rickshaw driver to take you there. No address required, just his name is enough. Along the way the driver is also likely to let you know that Yusuf is the kind of player who can take any bowling attack apart, anywhere in the world – an assertion that those who have watched Yusuf’s last few innings would be hard-pressed to deny.I met Yusuf at his family home a couple days before he was due to leave for South Africa. He was dressed in a dark green and sat on a wooden swing in a small rectangular garden running alongside the driveway. He exuded a quiet confidence, and for a big man with a violent game, was very soft-spoken. He grew up playing cricket with his half-brother Irfan. The two boys would play in the mosque where their father is an , taking turns bowling and batting, but people complained they made too much noise. So they moved to the street, playing with a tennis ball, before they joined the Baroda Sports Club and found themselves under the tutelage of Mehendi Sheikh and Bashir Sheikh.From there they quickly moved on to age-group cricket and continued up the ladder to first-class cricket. Along the way they received plenty of encouragement from senior players such as Jacob Martin and Connor Williams. “They would keep telling us to keep practising hard, keep putting in the effort and that one day you will play for India,” Yusuf said. “So we kept working and now we are playing for India.”Bashir died in 2002, and to this day Mehendi remains one of the few people that Yusuf will listen to about cricket. Snehal Parekh, the secretary of the Baroda Cricket Association, says Yusuf is the kind of player who has his own inner circle and does not take kindly to anyone outside that trusted group giving him advice. “You can’t guide them,” he says. “You can’t tell them much. They have they have their own friends and one or two mentors.”Pinal Shah, Baroda’s 23-year-old captain, agrees with that assessment, saying, “Yusuf is very aggressive in his approach to the game and not only in his batting. He can lift the team with his performance. But you have to handle him well; he needs a lot of independence. But I can still go and tell him, ‘Yusuf , so-and-so needs to be done’.”One person with whom Yusuf does talk cricket all the time is Irfan. The brothers share a close bond and are constantly encouraging each other. “It is beneficial to both of us to share our thoughts on the game,” Yusuf said. He says Irfan always told him he would do well in South Africa and Australia “because the bounce is good and the ball comes on to the bat well. So there I can play my strokes”.He certainly did that in the recent ODI series against South Africa, making a match-winning 59 in third game before uncorking a vicious hundred in Centurion that almost stole the game and series from South Africa.”I never have any doubts,” Yusuf said that day in the garden. “I know what I can do. The team also knows that if I am still at the wicket, then I can win the game.”It is why he also dismisses those who question his ability to handle the short ball. Prior to the tour there were reservations about his ability to handle such deliveries on hard pitches outside the subcontinent, especially since he prefers to commit to the front foot to take advantage of anything pitched up. For the time being at least, Yusuf has answered those questions.His approach in South Africa was simple: wait for anything that was in his zone and then club it to the boundary. He was hit on the body twice in Cape Town and once in Centurion, but he didn’t let it bother him. Like a heavyweight boxer who doesn’t need a jab because he has a devastating knockout punch, he waited for his opening. It proved to be a singularly effective strategy, as poor Lonwabo Tsotsobe can testify. In that Centurion game Yusuf hit him for two fours and two sixes in the same over, including one that was effectively a flick off his toes, yet the ball sailed over the long-on boundary. It was a sign that he is beginning to make the most of his strengths, which reflects his growing maturity as a cricketer.”With experience, he is getting better,” Irfan said. “He is learning what to do and what not to do. He knows that even if he waits for two balls, the third ball will give him a chance to hit it. That is how he practises as well. He goes in the nets and makes sure to be aggressive.” That aggression is Yusuf’s hallmark, and the reason his aura will always be greater than his numbers. He may get out cheaply but he can also grab the game by the scruff of its neck and leave the opposition wishing they had taken up a different sport.”He knows his game very well,” Irfan said. “So even if he gets out playing a shot, he will continue to play his shots in the next game. Some batsmen play defensive shots and get out, but that doesn’t mean they don’t play defensive shots in the next game. If he [Yusuf] thinks he can hit the ball, he will hit the ball. And more often than not he is successful.”

“I never have any doubts. I know what I can do. The team also knows that if I am still at the wicket, then I can win the game”

While Yusuf can make decimating an attack look easy, what people don’t see is how hard he works on his craft. He often spends hours practising at the Baroda Sports Club. After Baroda had eliminated Railways in the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy on the basis of a first-innings lead, Yusuf stayed on the field and asked the groundsmen to put the nets up on the same pitch. “He was taking batting practice for an hour,” Parekh said. “He is very focused.”Parekh, who is the only man to have made a first-class hundred on debut for Baroda, said three years ago the association decided Yusuf was ready for more responsibility and made him the vice-captain of the side. “What I told him was, ‘You should be ready for the match as if you were the captain, as Jacob Martin (then Baroda captain), could get injured and leave the ground and you have to be ready. Be involved in the game.'”He believes the leadership role has spurred Yusuf to mature and show a willingness to take responsibility for his team’s performance; a willingness that is reflected in Yusuf’s own comments about the season. “There was a need this year in the Baroda team because Irfan was not playing. As a senior player I needed to take more initiative. Everyone was watching. It is good that we have success and have gotten good results.”Another influence on Yusuf’s development has been Shane Warne, under whom he played for three years with the Rajasthan Royals. “He told me always when I am batting to play my shots,” Yusuf said. “He would say, ‘If you feel like the first ball is one you should hit, even if you get out on the first ball, if you feel you should play your shots from the first ball, play them. Don’t worry about getting out.'”His epic 37-ball hundred against the Mumbai Indians in their opening game of the 2010 IPL is the direct result of that philosophy – an innings that Warne called the best he had ever seen. “That innings told me that we can win from anywhere,” Yusuf said. “We lost that match, but the way I played – 100 from 37 balls – made it a contest. And I have played these kinds of knocks before. From positions of no hope, I have won matches.”Unfortunately I was run out. Otherwise we would have won that match. I guess the lesson is, when I have made a hundred and I’m batting well, I shouldn’t leave the crease.”The IPL turned out to be the perfect showcase for Yusuf’s talents and, in his opinion, hastened his rise to the international ranks. “The way I performed in the IPL, I got a good platform. Because I was playing well in Ranji Trophy before that also, so probably it would have taken me longer to get here. The IPL gave me a name. It gave me a new identity.” That identity was rewarded many times over when the Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for US$2.1 million in the 2011 player auction earlier this year.Success in the IPL, however, has not dimmed or muddled his ambitions one iota. Yusuf wants to play for India in all three forms of the game. “Everyone who plays cricket, their goals are to play the highest standard of cricket and all formats of cricket. Obviously those are my goals also. I want to play everything.”He says he is comfortable batting in whatever position in the order the team needs him to bat in, because “I have come to understand that whatever position I play, from there I can carry the innings or the team. I have won many matches that way.” It might sound arrogant to say, but for Yusuf it is merely a self-evident truth.Not that it has always been smooth sailing for him. He made his ODI debut in 2008, but lost his place in the side in late 2009 after some mediocre performances. Here too his innate self-belief stood him in good stead and helped him keep things in perspective. “These things happen. Sometimes people are dropped. Sometimes people are in the team. Sometimes you do well. Sometimes you don’t do so well. These things go on happening in a cricketer’s life, so you can’t think something is wrong. You just have to keep putting in the effort and things will take care of themselves.”Yusuf’s other advantage is his offspin. He has been working hard on his bowling, and this Ranji season took as many wickets, 24, as India offspinner R Ashwin did in the same number of matches, but with a significantly better average and strike rate: 17.75 and 37.70 to Ashwin’s 24.20 and 54.50. If Yusuf can continue to develop his bowling to the point where he is a genuine wicket-taking allrounder, he will be that much more valuable to the team, especially in the shorter versions of the game.Pathan’s offspin gives him an added advantage•AFPHe is eager to play in the World Cup, saying he “will go mad if we win”. He considers playing at home a big advantage and does not think the expectations of the fans will put added pressure on the team. “How can there be pressure when you are playing in front of your own people, who give you so much support?”I tell him what the rickshaw driver told me on the way over and for a moment he loosens up and lets out a big laugh. “Bring the driver in here. I’d like to meet him”. He is careful not to take his fans for granted.After the interview is over Yusuf heads for , but stops to take pictures with two teenage boys who had been waiting outside his house.Off the field, he likes to keep a low profile. The high life is not for him. He prefers to stay at home and spend time with his family and friends (“I like family time”). He is also grateful for all the support he has received from the people around him. “My father, my mother, my friends, everyone supported us. It can’t happen without family support. Nobody has ever said not to do this.”The way he is going, nobody ever will.

More South African delights in part two: Cape Town accents, meeting Big Dog and Big Rhino, mangoes for breakfast and more

Sidharth Monga13-Jan-2011December 27
Durban roads. Go up and down like rollercoasters. The farther from the seaside, the steeper the climbs. So steep towards Overport that sometimes the far side is not visible. A bit similar to the Test series currently on.Zaheer Khan returns to the Indian team and takes only five deliveries to say hello to old friend Graeme Smith. Edged and taken. India make a stunning comeback into the series, bowling South Africa out for 131.December 28
Always nice to meet a journalist who has 116 Test wickets from 28 Tests, at an average of 24. A journalist who fathered the highest wicket-taker of his country, and is brother to arguably the best batsman from there. Peter Pollock was a trained journalist when he played cricket. “We had to work. We lived real lives.”Wanted to do what Richie Benaud used to: write on Tests he played in. Apartheid cut that dream short, but he managed to do so during World XI games. Is concerned about how much importance is given to what cricketers say. “In the final analysis, the media will have a lot to answer for. Because the media makes heroes, and then gives heroes platforms beyond what they deserve. And then it becomes ‘So and so said this’, ‘So and so said that’, but he is just another human being with an opinion.” Is also worried about modern athletes who come straight out of school into big-time sport, and never really see real life.VVS Laxman scores 96 on a pitch where the next-best scores are 39 and his own 38. Fifty-two of the 96 come with the tail. Part of his explanation for such good batting with the lower order: “I share a good rapport with each and every one of them.” Laxman and his ways. Can make anything look simple.December 29
Seaside in Durban. Jetty-like things to take people deepish into the sea, about 500 metres. Get right to the edge of one. Like being on a ship. In the water, the surf’s up. Must feel good to get into the waves. Live with them. Conquer them.A bit like hours earlier for India’s Test team. One of India’s greatest Test wins. In conditions similar to 14 years ago, when they scored 100 and 66. Lived with waves. Conquered them.December 30
Rain. Watch from balcony. Can actually see the heat come off the tar road as vapour. Stand there barefoot. Feels warm, like an oven cooling down.Mangoes for breakfast. In December. Joys of touring life.Eighties Hindi music on car radio. “I am a Disco Dancer”. The composer of the song, Bappi Lahiri, a genius before his time (long explanation, but the theory can’t be faulted), belongs spiritually to the northern province of Gauteng, which translates to Land of Gold.December 31
Cape Town. Windy. Never seen any place windier. Not even Wellington. Open the window in eighth-floor hotel room, from where Table Mountain is visible. Nothing in the room stays still. It’s like an earthquake.Go to Cape Town’s waterfront. Fireworks to welcome 2011. Huge crowd to watch it. Random man walks by, saying, “I see nothing.” Truer words never spoken.January 1
Realise why India had their first training camp on tour in Cape Town. Such beauty needs getting acclimatised to. Can’t just turn up and handle it.Top of Table Mountain. Huge. Big enough to feel like you’re walking on a plain. Big enough to make one lose way back. Wonder what happens to people who are left behind at night. Thankfully not as windy as Wellington today.Lie on a rock and admire the bluest possible sky. Clouds all left behind. And no, it’s not sea underneath, it’s clouds. Spot Newlands from high. Will be looking at the mountain from Newlands for the next five days.January 2
Train to Newlands from town. Pass stations such as Observatory, Mowbray, Salt City, Rosebank and Rondebosch along the way. Best way to beat Cape Town traffic. Trains here not as frequent as the local ones in Mumbai but not as crowded either. Graffiti inside and outside each coach. Not sure who or what Emek is, but it is the most popular word among those who enter trains with spray paint.Overcast day. Can’t see Table Mountain at all. Hashim Amla, under a “sugar rush”, scores a counterattacking fifty. Is asked about a verbal exchange with Sreesanth during the innings. Says, “There was no exchange. I never said a word.” Can’t sledge such people much.January 3
Hello Cheapskates. Massive advertisement outside hotel. Simple system: shame bad debtors by posting messages about them. Their mission is to give people “the right to express and stand up for themselves against those who owe them money, for whatever reason”. Must be effective indeed, for no one will want to be featured here. Service seems popular among schools, who list defaults in fee payments, from as little as 50 rands to as high as 10,000. Good to know, in a way. High time somebody defrauded schools. Dylan, Floyd, Lennon would approve.January 4
Cape Town is the most cosmopolitan of South African cities. Can find Malay, black, white, Indian, cape-coloured people in same street. Throw in tourists too. Also, Capetonians are proud owners of one of the world’s unsung singsong accents. Completely different from those of Trinidadians or L Sivaramakrishnan. More refined, subtler, in that it becomes obvious only after you’ve been three or four days in Cape Town.And infinitely more enjoyable than Dale Steyn bowling great swinging balls of fire one after the other. If you’re padded up, that is. Everyone else thoroughly enjoys the best day of cricket in recent memory: Steyn and Sachin Tendulkar at their best over 11 overs of great skill from the bowler and pressure-absorption by the batsman. Both come out with reputations enhanced. Jim Laker might want to revisit his idea of paradise.Ntini: the great entertainer•AFPJanuary 5
Shooting outside Newlands even as the Test is on. Luke Fairweather, a prominent local cricket official, is killed.Inside, Jacques Kallis, writhing in pain from an earlier blow to the ribcage, collapsing twice on a hot day, scores a century to shoot down India’s hopes of a series win in South Africa. The physio describes the pain to Mark Boucher as “somebody cutting their own rib”. India’s pain is deeper, longer-lasting.January 6
Brian McMillan. Misses his friend “Muscles” Raju, who in turn used to call him Rhino. Then along came Sachin Tendulkar, and McMillan became Big Rhino and Tendulkar Little Rhino. Remembers sledging Tendulkar to no avail. “You chirp him, he smiles and then looks away. That’s all he does. What are you going to do? What can I do if I sledge you and you smile and look away?” Is amazed when told another friend, Salil Ankola, has been to television soaps and back. “I have got to meet him.”On the field, Gautam Gambhir reacts somewhat similarly to sledging from all comers, spending four-and-a-half hours for 64 runs as India save the match and draw the series. Fair result, many will say.January 7
Cape Town airport. South African team are on the same economy airline, which goes by the name of Mango. Morne Morkel stopped at security check. Carrying scissors in his toilet bag. Lady at security counter doesn’t allow them through. Morkel threatens to chop her hair off with them. The scissors stay back in Cape Town.January 8
Durban. Feels like coming home. Know the roads, the weather patterns, the three quintessential Durban sounds: sea, rain and wind rustling through the trees. All three are heard almost every day, but it’s when all are absent that it gets difficult to be in Durban. In silence, with the sun out, the city gets hot, very hot.January 9
Makhaya Ntini says goodbye. As Jeff Finlin wrote, it’s been a freight train comin’. Always been around the bend. All 47,000 at the stadium stand as one. Remember a washed-out game in Chennai in 2005. Apart from the famous Chepauk dog, Manju, only Ntini ventured out onto the field that day. And did a for the crowd. Retirement a big loss to spectators around the world.January 10
Run into Imran Tahir. Cricket traveller, if ever there was one. Born in Pakistan, married to a South African, plays both here and in England. Recently completed his qualification as South African resident. Immediately picked in the ODI squad, and was fit into the World Cup probables. Loves living here, “but in Lahore, you can roam around whole night, eat whenever, , at any time of the night.” Spoken like a true Punjabi. Actually cities do go to sleep early here.

Two players who were taken along to make up the numbers on South Africa’s first tour after readmission look back, 20 years on

Firdose Moonda15-Jul-2011Hussein Manack and Faiek Davids are not two names that are immediately associated with South Africa’s readmission into international cricket. But 20 years ago, when the country’s cricketers made their historic trip to India, Manack and Davids were part of the touring party. Together with Hansie Cronje and Derek Crookes, they went as non-playing, development members of the squad, but unlike Cronje and Crookes, they did not go on to have international careers.The three-match series against India came barely a month after South Africa was readmitted as a Full Member of the ICC, and less than a year after unity, when the white South African Cricket Union (SACU) merged with the non-white South African Cricket Board (SACB) to form the United Cricket Board (UCB). Manack and Davids played under SACB but neither imagined he would be part of the first international sporting event the country participated in since isolation, especially since there were no plans for a cricket tour.Even the 1992 World Cup was initially thought to be soon to reintroduce South Africa to the world stage. It was only when Pakistan pulled out of a scheduled visit to India that the door opened for South Africa to step in, and they were given just a week to get there. In those few days, a private plane was secured, hotels were booked and a squad was selected – a squad of 14 white players. That’s when it occurred to administrators that something didn’t quite fit.”The President of the BCCI, Madhavrao Scindia, phoned me to say that since we sending an all-white team, questions would be asked, so we decided to take four development players,” Ali Bacher, then managing director of the UCB, said. Two of those players would be of colour, although identifying them would prove tricky.Despite being prominent players in the SACB set-up, Manack and Davids were little known outside of non-white playing circles. With unity, came opportunities for them and others to be recognized, and players of colour were included in some of the early camps to find future international players.”Faiek and I were invited to attend a single-wicket tournament in the Free State. Some of the country’s top allrounders were there – Adrian Kuiper, Peter Kirsten, Hansie Cronje, Clive Rice, Anton Ferreira,” Manack said. “After I had hit Clive Rice for a few sixes, I remember somebody saying to Ricey as we walked off, that Transvaal had found a future star.”Their names, like those of Yaseen Begg, a wicketkeeper, Yacoob Omar, an allrounder and Baboo Ebrahim, a left-arm spinner, were mentioned as players from the SACB leagues who may have futures in cricket. Cricketers of that sort were plentiful but unknown, whereas white cricketers had played county cricket and against the rebel sides, and thus ended up being selected for the ’91 squad ahead of the Beggs and Ebrahims.Peter van der Merwe, the convenor of selectors at the time, said that they went on the season’s provincial records when picking that first squad. “We had so little time, we just went on previous performances and put a side together,” he said. The SACB players did not come into consideration, as their matches were not even given first-class status at that stage, and their records, although some of them had been well kept, were not as easily accessible as the SACU players’ information.It was up to Rushdie Magiet, formerly a selector with SACB who was also a selector for the UCB, to have a major say in who the two players of colour who would make up the development contingent would be. “I knew the quality of Hussein and Faeek and I thought it would be a wonderful experience for them,” he said.Neither Manack nor Davids – who did not even own a passport when he was picked – expected the call up, and both had to wrestle with the idea of going because of the political message behind their inclusion. “It felt like being selected was an afterthought, because the side had been announced already,” Manack said. “At the back of our minds we thought that this may be window dressing. But I spoke to my dad and people close to me and decided to go after considering the options. I could either stay here [in South Africa] and play in a Benson and Hedges night game against Border or go to India and be part of the first international tour after isolation.”Davids also had people close to him who said that he shouldn’t be going. Although he understood their concerns, the opportunity to be a part of history was too good to pass up. “I didn’t think that in my lifetime I would go on a tour with the national team to India, and in the end I believe I made the right decision.”Both boarded the plane, which was the first South African aircraft to fly over India, unsure of what lay ahead but excited to be involved. “We were well accepted but I did get the feeling that the other guys weren’t sure what questions to ask us,” Davids said of the reception. “There were never going to be any intense discussions.” Manack felt a similar isolation. “The guys were friendly but there were times when it felt like being an outsider looking in, and that we were taken along just to give the whole thing legitimacy.”The pair, along with Cronje and Crookes, took part in training sessions and travelled with the team but watched the three ODIs from the sidelines. They understood that part of the reason for their inclusion was because they were identified as players for the future, not the present.They enjoyed soaking in the atmosphere that only India could provide. “India was cricket crazy,” Manack said. “Players like Tendulkar and [Sanjay] Manjrekar were worshipped. There was no place you could go without being mobbed by fans looking to shake your hand or get an autograph.”The week was magical, a unique experience for the two; but there was no fairytale ending. The journey the pair made did not pave a clear path for them to make the leap onto the international scene. Although the trip was, in Bacher’s words, “a small start” to embracing transformation, it did not quite prove to be the catalyst for wholesale change.Manack and Davids were both disappointed by what happened, and what didn’t, on their return home. Although the trip was a breakthrough for South Africa and both said their families and friends, even the dissidents, “watched the matches closely”, the situation on the ground did not change as quickly as they would have liked, not just for them, but for people from the communities they came from.”We [players of colour] were treated as if they didn’t know how to play the game,” Manack said. “There were plenty cases around the country, of experienced first-class cricketers being batted out of position and not being given a bowl.” Davids found that players of colour got the “feeling that you needed to prove yourself over and over again”.Those issues had ripple effects, which Manack said led to some cricketers of colour simply walking away. “Out of pure frustration and embarrassment, some black cricketers gave up the game.” That led to a lack of players at provincial level, so the other selectors were unable to pick any for the national team. “It made it difficult for us because the guys weren’t coming through at the level below international cricket,” Magiet said. “For me, the problem was that lower down people had difficulty recognising the merit of the black player.”Manack and Davids were two who were recognised in some way, and went on to play more than 50 first-class matches each. They never made the leap to international cricket but have remained involved in the game. Manack is a board member at Gauteng, the union that operates out of the Wanderers, and Davids is the assistant coach of the Cobras franchise in Cape Town.Both believe that in the 20 years since they were part of South Africa’s readmission, things have changed for the better and will continue to do so. “I actually wish I had been born now so I could have the chances players have now,’ Davids said, while Manack had a message for the mindsets. “I would like to see people of my generation who still can’t bring themselves to support South Africa to start doing so because it is our country, and unless we take ownership of our national sides we will not be able to have a say or make a difference.”

Plays of the Day from the second World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan in Mohali

Osman Samiuddin and Sharda Ugra at the PCA Stadium30-Mar-2011The Moment of Truth
The DRS may actually work. Well, only the Indians were not yet fully convinced. Until, the ICC hopes, today. In Saeed Ajmal’s second over, he had Sachin Tendulkar plumb – and the umpire thought so – or what looked like plumb first shot as well as in the replay. Tendulkar, though, was far from convinced. He walked over to his partner Gautam Gambhir and after a brief discussion asked for a review. The dead surety of Tendulkar’s refusal, everyone thought, could only be due to an inside edge. Not quite. But Tendulkar asking for the review seemed almost prescient: the replay predictive path showed the ball going over and well past the leg stump.The Epidemic
After being quoted as saying that he would not allow Tendulkar to score his 100th international century, Shahid Afridi and friends then did their best to guide him in that direction. It took an epidemic of clangers to make Tendulkar’s 85 happen. Three times off Afridi’s bowling Tendulkar was dropped – by Misbah-ul-Haq at midwicket (on 27), Younis Khan at extra cover (on 45) and Kamran Akmal (70) failing to hang on to a thin, quick snick. A fourth chance with Tendulkar on 81 was spilt off Mohammed Hafeez’s bowling. Finally, Afridi decided to show his underlings how catches needed to be seized. Given that the ball had come straight at him and he’d actually hung on, Boom Boom was allowed to do a bit of celebrating. But before everyone was able to forget about the dropped catches, Kamran let an edge from Dhoni get past him.The assault
Umar Gul against Virender Sehwag was always going to be one of mini-battles of the game: one of the tournament’s leading fast bowlers against the leading slayer of Pakistani fast bowling. Sehwag ended it as early as the third over of the innings, Gul’s second. The first two balls were too straight and full, duly dispatched to the leg-side boundary. Fields were changed, slips came out but to no avail: Sehwag casually picked off three more boundaries in a 21-run over and Gul never recovered.The Shoaibi
It was always going to be a tough call in such a big game: Wahab Riaz or Shoaib Akhtar? Pakistan opted for the former and it paid off spectacularly as Riaz ended with a maiden five-wicket haul. The pick of the wickets was the dipping, swerving full toss to dismiss Yuvraj Singh first ball, a delivery, in fact, Shoaib himself would’ve been proud of. It led to a pumped-up airplane celebration, made famous by … none other than Shoaib of course.The shot
Pakistan were well set at 70 for 1, Mohammad Hafeez was better set on 43. He’d hit some fine drives, cut well, pulled authoritatively once. It looked one of the match’s prettier knocks. Munaf Patel then pitched one well outside off, on a length, and Hafeez decided the best option was not to leave it, or drive it, but to try and somehow paddle it over his left shoulder. Instead it took an edge to be safely pouched by MS Dhoni. It was Hafeez moment, the one which occurs in almost every innings he plays, and the template on which his ODI career is based (his average is just over 23).

England’s 4-0 whitewash was arguably the most complete series victory in England’s Test history. Every player from 1 to 11 made a contribution to the cause, as did the two who did not last the course, as India were outbatted, outbowled and outfielded in a

Andrew Miller24-Aug-2011Andrew Strauss – 6
As one of the two key men behind the machine, Andrew Strauss is exempt from overt criticism at present. He and Andy Flower have just overseen their 20th Test victory since May 2009, and of those, 12 have been won by an innings. A leadership style devoid of ego has been instrumental in creating a team that more or less runs itself, although as the only member of the regular top seven who failed to score a hundred, he’s bound to wish he’d made a greater personal contribution. At the age of 34, it’s an awkward time for a loss of form, but with five months between Tests, he has plenty time to reassess his game.Alastair Cook – 7
What an extraordinary series. A total of 20 runs in his first four innings, 34 in his sixth and last. And the small matter of 294 to complete the set at Edgbaston. No single player better epitomises the current mindset of this England team. Cook possesses the confidence to shrug off that early run of low scores, the discipline to make his starts count, the fitness – mental and physical – to bat without blinking for sessions and days on end, and a trusty, if unconventional, technique that fits him like an old pair of slippers. His shining example, instilled in him by his Essex mentor, Graham Gooch, has driven England’s batting line-up to new heights.Jonathan Trott – 6
His series was truncated by a shoulder injury sustained at Nottingham, but Trott did not leave without making his mark. On the first day at Lord’s, under grim skies and in helpful swinging conditions, his determined resistance guarded England against collapse, and set the stage for Kevin Pietersen to flog England into the driving seat with his second-day 202 not out. Of the 13.3 overs that Zaheer Khan delivered in the series, Trott faced 25 deliveries in a useful 70 – not without alarm, but with enough assurance to carry the day for his team.Ian Bell- 9
An exquisite coming of age from a batsman whose ever-classical strokeplay has now, after a lengthy engagement, been officially wedded to a steely, run-hungry temperament. He’d been threatening a performance of this magnitude for some time, not least during in the Ashes where he was too low down the order to get a proper say at No. 6, but Trott’s misfortune gave him a chance at No. 3 that he was too well focussed to squander. His 159 at Trent Bridge was exceptional, if a touch overshadowed by his dozy tea-time antics, but his career-best 235 at The Oval was truly graceful, timely and chanceless. His time is now.Kevin Pietersen – 9
Never has KP scored as many as 533 runs in a single series, and rarely has he looked quite so embedded in a team performance. After all the fretting about his wayward form, which included a run of two complete home seasons without a century, he’s now racked up three of his top four Test scores in the space of eight months. Another man who has taken Gooch’s “daddy hundreds” ethos to heart, he’s cut out his tendency to squander a start with a rash piece of improvisation, and has saved his most damning stamps of class, such as his switch hit off Amit Mishra at The Oval, for moments when such strokes are truly justified. He’s been seeking acceptance all throughout his career, but he’s never looked quite this at home in any England team.Eoin Morgan – 7
Morgan isn’t used to being considered the dull one in England’s middle order, but with Trott mostly absent and Bell and Pietersen reigning supreme, the heartbeat of England’s one-day team took a peculiarly peripheral role in the five-day line-up. Much like Allan Lamb at Lord’s in 1990, his century at Edgbaston was entirely overshadowed by the Essex-based feat of endurance going on at the other end, while at The Oval he missed out, Bopara-style, when he nicked off for 1 after suffering from pad-rash during a massive 350-run stand for the third wicket.Ravi Bopara – 5
On a hiding to nothing at Edgbaston, when he came to the crease at a staggering 596 for 4, Bopara promptly missed a straight one to be adjudged lbw for 7. In a similar scenario at The Oval, he at least resolved to stick some runs on the board, and was looking pretty solid on 44 not out when the rain closed in to hasten England’s declaration. The jury’s still out, not least because he simply doesn’t look as comfortable as any of his colleagues. But with Trott sure to return in the winter, he has no option but to bide his time.Matt Prior – 9
Now one of England’s most pivotal big-game players, Prior produced his most crucial moments at the sharp end of the series. At Lord’s he turned a good start into an excellent one with a first-inning 71, then hauled England out of an Ishant Sharma-induced nose-dive with an outstanding 103 not out. At Nottingham he was powerless as England collapsed to 88 for 6 on the first morning, but swiftly atoned for that rare failure with a bruising 73 from 60 balls after tea on the decisive third day. In between whiles, he pocketed 16 catches and a stumping with scarcely a blemish of note. Comparisons with Adam Gilchrist are becoming less sacrilegious by the day.Stuart Broad – 9
To think most pundits had been calling for his head before the series. In fairness, those pundits were right. The Broad who topped the averages with 25 wickets at 13.84, and stroked 182 runs at 60.66, was not the same purveyor of long-hops and faux-aggression who had struggled to buy a wicket against Sri Lanka in the first half of the summer. After being reminded of his priorities, he at last returned to the threatening full length that had proven so decisive against Australia in 2009, and reserved his ugly bouncer for moments when it was a true surprise. The manner in which he seized the day at Trent Bridge was incredible, first with a fantastic counter-attacking 64, and then with the English highlight of the summer, a series-turning hat-trick that shattered India’s hopes of drawing level at 1-1.Tim Bresnan – 9
Not since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has there been a super-sub quite this invaluable. Bresnan would not have made the team but for Chris Tremlett’s back spasm, but instead produced critical intercessions in each of the three Tests he played. He’s not a lot to look at, big and burly with no apparent subtlety, but he is genuinely brisk, unyieldingly accurate, brimful of stamina, and can swing the ball later than anyone bar James Anderson. What is more, he’s closer even than Broad to being a genuine allrounder, as his critical 90 at Nottingham attests. If England play five bowlers in their winter tour of the subcontinent, he might suddenly leap from last name on the team-sheet to first.James Anderson – 9
He’s the leader of the attack, the role to which he’s always aspired, and just as in the Ashes, Anderson provided guaranteed menace, come rain or shine. In particular, he exerted a hold over Sachin Tendulkar that extended way beyond his tally of two dismissals in the opening two Tests. His unwavering length, movement both ways and rampant hostility ensured India’s vaunted batting line-up was never allowed to settle, as demonstrated by the fact that he struck in his first over of an innings on three out of eight occasions. Provided the example that India’s own seamers lacked once Zaheer had limped out of contention.Graeme Swann – 7
Lesser spinners would have been feeling pretty paranoid by the time the final Test came around. On a trio of seamer’s decks at Lord’s, Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, he was limited to four wickets at 80.25 and was at times played with contemptuous ease by Rahul Dravid. But then, when the moment came and a surface that suited him was presented, Swann revelled in regaining the centre stage, scalping three early wickets in the first innings and six decisive ones in the second, for an excellent match haul of 9 for 208. His frustration was evident at times but his patience never snapped.Chris Tremlett – 7
If you’re a seamer, it’s not wise to blink in this England team, let alone get injured. Tremlett started the series as the flavour of the month after dissecting Sri Lanka on a spicy deck at the Rose Bowl. In his only outing of the series he bagged four key wickets in two innings, including MS Dhoni with the second new ball on both occasions. All of a sudden, he’s back on the bench, and he might yet stay there given the subcontinent is unlikely to play to his towering strengths. But what a presence to have waiting in the wings.