Johan Botha has no regrets about leaving his home country and is enjoying the chance to play more first-class cricket as captain of South Australia

Firdose Moonda21-Nov-2012The most notable proof of how much it meant for Johan Botha to have played international cricket is his son. Austin’s name is a combination of the place Botha made his Test debut, Australia, and the country where he played his first one-day game – India. Realistically Botha has little chance of playing for South Africa again, but he will always have those two firsts.To clarify: Botha has not retired from international cricket, neither has he fallen out with the South African administration. He made a choice to move on before he was moved on, and as a result it is unlikely he will be able to win back his spot.Botha’s sidelining was clearly signposted, even though for a while it looked like he was on the up. He was named T20 captain in August 2010, when Graeme Smith stepped down as leader in the shortest format. Smith also declared his intention to give up the one-day leadership after the 2011 World Cup and Botha was touted as his successor.Less than a year later, Botha was done out of both roles. AB de Villiers was appointed to lead in both limited-overs formats and Botha could see the end. He was left out of January’s one-day series against Sri Lanka and competition for his place was fierce. More often than not, he lost out to Robin Peterson.”Losing the captaincy played a role in being left out of the side more often,” Botha said. “You want a guy who is captain to be a regular in the team, and I thought that if AB is captain and I am not, they might start thinking that way: that I don’t have to be in the team all the time.”I didn’t have any problem with that. AB is a great player and he’s always in the line-up. That’s what the team wanted and that’s great. I had seven years with South Africa and if it never comes up again, I’ll still be happy. I played five Tests, almost 80 ODIs and 40 T20s, so it’s not like I have to go back there one day. If this is it then this is it.”Botha is comfortable talking about international cricket in the past tense. He identified being chosen as captain for the first time as among his proudest moments, along with winning back-to-back one-day series against Australia in 2008-09. He can even pick out his best game. “Beating India at the World Cup last year in Nagpur was a special effort.”

“It was a great opportunity to lead a team who wants to improve. And I didn’t want to look back years later and think that it was something I should have done”

He also doesn’t hesitate to mention his one regret. “I would have liked to have played one Test in South Africa.” As he watches South Africa’s changing approach to spin and the emphasis that has been placed on Imran Tahir’s role in the Adelaide Test, he may wonder if it could have been him instead.When he asked Cricket South Africa to release him from his national contract, Botha did not want to spend any more time wondering. He walked out of the door in search of a place where he could play cricket regularly. “I didn’t want to just travel with the team and just sit around,” he said.The few weeks he spent playing for the Adelaide Strikers last summer and his relationship with coach Darren Berry through the Rajasthan Royals gave him a ready-made option. South Australia were interested in signing him long-term and he thought it would be an ideal fit for his lifestyle.”I wanted to have more time with my family,” he said. “It was a great opportunity to lead a team who wants to improve. And I didn’t want to look back years later and think that it was something I should have done.” September’s World Twenty20 was pegged as his last appearance for South Africa and he was only used sparsely in the lead-up to that. Now his new life has truly begun.One of Botha’s main reasons for moving had nothing to do with international cricket at all. He simply wanted the chance to play more first-class cricket. Given the international schedule, Botha played only one match for his home franchise, the Warriors, in the 2010-11 season and none the next summer. “I still want to give first-class cricket a good two or three years. I really enjoy four-day batting and I didn’t want to give it up.”That is an unusual take on the game from a modern-day player. Many of them are attracted to the big money and short time-frame of 20-over competitions. In some ways, so is Botha; he was one of the best-paid South Africans at the IPL, where the Rajasthan Royals forked over $950,000 for him before the tournament’s fourth edition, and he will return to them in 2013.He has also played in the Big Bash League, and said he would consider an English team for another T20 competition during the southern hemisphere off-season. But some of the glamour has worn thin for Botha, and the desire to play in an environment dedicated to more serious cricket, especially from a batting perspective, has grown.”I still want to give first-class cricket a good two or three years. I really enjoy four-day batting and I didn’t want to give it up.”•Getty ImagesApart from a stint where he moved to No. 3 for the Royals, Botha was never really taken seriously as a batsman and he is keen to change that view. Being part of a team’s full domestic season will afford him that opportunity, especially as he hopes to move higher up the order.”There are no preconceived ideas about me here,” he said. “Being a spin bowler, in South Africa I was always No. 8, and someone who could bat a bit. Certain things are a bit different here.”One of those has been the focus on the first-class game in Australia. Around the world, long-form domestic cricket is poorly attended, and its importance as the primary source of future Test cricketers has been almost forgotten. In Australia, Botha has seen the opposite.”There is a big focus on Shield cricket,” he said. “The Big Bash is not the main focus. Even though it will take up some time over December and January and it’s there, it’s not the thing that gets the most attention from players. I feel the guys really want to play Shield cricket and win games there. And when they are not playing Shield cricket, they play grade cricket. I never did that in South Africa. It’s really good.”South Australia have had a tough few years in the competition and one of their reasons for contracting Botha was in the hope he could change their fortunes. They began the season with an innings defeat to Tasmania but after a draw with Queensland, they managed to beat George Bailey’s side in Hobart to record a rare victory – the state’s first in two years. Botha said he has found playing here a “challenge,” at times but can see progress being made. “The guys have responded well so far and we are after more Shield wins,” he said.While the cricket has gone well, the adjustments for his family have not been as smooth. Botha’s wife, Monica, has had to be almost completely self-sufficient in taking care of two-year-old Austin, especially when Botha travels to play in other states. After three and a half weeks in Adelaide at the start of the season, Botha spent time away in Perth and is currently in Melbourne.”We’re in a really great place on the western side, towards the beach,” Botha said. “But yes, it can get a bit tough. There are no helpers and there are no grannies. The biggest thing when I am not at home, is for Monica to do everything alone. I got what I wanted in terms of being able to play cricket and be with my family, but when I go away, it’s harder for her.”How well his family eventually settles in will determine whether Botha extends his contract to a third year, as the current option allows, or even further. For now, they still regard South Africa as home. “We had a house built in Port Elizabeth, which was completed in December,” Botha said. “That’s our house. Here, we are just renting.”They will return at the end of the summer when Monica is due to give birth to a girl in March. Given their time in South Australia, Adelaide may be a fitting name. “I think we’ll have to go for a straightforward name this time,” Botha said. “It definitely can’t be something like Sydney, even though that’s where I played my first Test.”

From Keyur Shah, India It seems strange that nobody else has observed this before me.

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Keyur Shah, India
It seems strange that nobody else has observed this before me.Six of India’s current Test side are on the verge of achieving a record which has previously been achieved by very few cricketers in their career. Should Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly, Sehwag and Kumble play in New Zealand when India visits and manage to win a Test there, they shall have personally won a test in all 9 current Test playing countries.To put emphasis on how significant an achievement this will be, let me disclose that only two players (to the best of my knowledge) have won in all 9 Test playing countries: Inzamam-ul-haq and Waqar Younis. Ricky Ponting hasn’t won in Pakistan, but won against them in Sharjah and may be considered, but most other players of the current Australian world-conquering side have missed out in two out of Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.Now even if we consider those past players who have won in all Test playing nations in their time (with a minimum of 6 test playing nations ie after India and New Zealand were granted Test status), only those players of the great West Indies of 70’s and 80’s who won in Australia, SA, England, India and New Zealand, and retired before Sri Lanka was granted Test status make the cut (because Sri Lanka was granted Test status in 1981 and West Indies is yet to win in Sri Lanka).Hence, this will be a great achievement indeed and i will be hoping that these 6 players manage to win a test in NZ and leave a legacy of winning tests in all countries and conditions for the coming generations of cricket fans to follow.

This statistical analysis of England and South Africa’s bowling attacks is helped along by some good bacteria

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013The second Test in the Olympics-buried series between Team GB and South Africa begins at Headingley on Thursday with Seb Coe and his men desperately needing a gold medal to haul themselves back into contention following a disastrous opening routine at The Oval. I’m confused. I think I have been watching too much sport, but not enough cricket. Too much sport and too much cricket is a combination I am familiar with. A combination for which I have spent most of my conscious life training assiduously.I will be incapacitated for some of what promises to be a fascinating Test match by temporary afflictions, such as attending some badminton and wondering what the rules of sabre-toothed fencing are. I am not expecting canoe sprint to usurp cricket as the sport closest to my heart – cricket signed a long-term lease in 1981 and I believe, without access to all the paperwork, that it may even own the freehold ‒ but there will not have been many home Test matches in the last 30 years from which I have been more distracted.It promises to be a fascinating match. But then, The Oval promised to be a gripping, evenly matched thriller, and turned into one of the hardest thrashing administered in this country since the days of 19th-century education and headmasters possessing a dangerous cocktail of strong moral convictions, innate sadism, and a plentiful supply of easily wieldable sticks.England have generally bounced back well from their rare struggles of recent years, and proved many critics wrong at many junctures. (In fact, their success in doing so could have been their undoing at The Oval. Most modern sportsmen seem to thrive in the quest to “prove critics wrong”, whatever those critics have said, and whether or not those words had been wilfully misinterpreted. England’s stellar form had, until last winter, left them almost devoid of critics – and thus struggling for motivation.)But the form lines of their high-class bowling attack may been causing significant concern. The bowling unit, as it loves to be called, has been almost uniformly excellent for two years. However:● In his last two Tests against South Africa, James Anderson has taken 1 for 227. In between those two games, from early 2010 until this July, he never took fewer than two wickets in a Test, and never fewer than three in a home Test. He had taken at least two first-innings wickets in 18 consecutive Test matches, dating back to the Lord’s Test against Pakistan in 2010.● Stuart Broad took his first 13 wickets of the Test summer at an average of 14. Since the last of those – his second wicket in the first innings at Trent Bridge, against West Indies ‒ he has taken one more wicket for 238 runs.● Tim Bresnan took 8 for 141 in that Test, and, when he dismissed Samuels at Edgbaston, he had followed that up with 3 for 46. Since then, in the rest of that Tino-Best-inspired frenzy and at The Oval, he has taken 1 for 205.● Graeme Swann has taken 19 wickets at 50 in his last eight home Tests (nine of those wickets came in one match, at last summer’s Oval Test against India). He has taken 6 for 433 this summer. He bowled excellently in South Africa in 2009-10 (21 wickets at 31 – the first time in more than 30 years that an England spinner had taken 20 or more in an away series). There have been few major blips in Swann’s four outstanding years as a Test bowler, but he is in the middle of one now, and England need him to de-blip himself as soon as possible.Set against those numerical anti-treats:● Dale Steyn, in his last three Tests against England, has taken 20 wickets at 21 apiece, he now averages 16 in Tests which South Africa have won (compared with 35 in defeats and 40 in drawn games). His seven-wicket match haul was the joint highest by an overseas pace bowler at The Oval since Michael Kasprowicz took eight in the 1997 Test.● Morne Morkel, in his last three Tests against England, has taken 18 wickets at 18 apiece. He still runs to the wicket as if he is trying to return a pot of yoghurt to the fridge before his housemates realise they are one yoghurt short of their world-record yoghurt balancing event, but those are some tidy figures to be indelibly writing on your pillow case every morning to help yourself visualising.● Vernon Philander had match figures of 2 for 108 off 46 overs at The Oval. It was the first time, in his eighth Test, that he has taken fewer than five wickets in the match, and sent his Test bowling average ballooning to a frankly dismal 15.66. It was, however, his most economical match (and his second innings was the first time a seamer has bowled 15 or more overs against England and conceded less than 1.6 per over since Zaheer Khan in Chennai in December 2008). It was also, irrelevantly, his seventh Test in succession in which he has conceded between 100 and 120 runs.● Imran Tahir took three wickets in the second innings. He has never taken more than three in an innings, but has taken at least one in 13 of the 15 Test innings in which he has bowled. When he dismissed Strauss and Prior in thesecond innings, was only the second time in eight Tests that he had dismissed two top-seven batsmen in the same innings.And one slightly less flattering figure about a man who is inking himself into the Technical Perfection Hall of Fame:● Jacques Kallis ‒ the human coaching manual volumes 1 to 25 ‒ claimed the match-turning wickets of Pietersen late on day one and Bell early on day two. However, he has taken 20 wickets at 52 in his last 23 Tests dating back to 2009. In those matches, he has averaged 76 with the bat, hitting 13 centuries, and taken 38 catches. The Oval was only the second time in his last 13 Tests that he has taken more than one wicket in a Test innings. Still a tidy cricketer.OFFICIAL CONFECTIONERY STALL PREDICTIONWeighing all this up, I still don’t know what will happen in this series, but if England can win at Headingley ‒ and still without the unavailable Hammond, Hutton, Trueman, Grace, and Zaltzman ‒ it might even make it within eight pages of the back cover of one or two of the newspapers. Confectionery Stall Prediction: another South African win. In some sports. Possibly involving cricket.

Not for the first time in recent Tests, Australia received a hammering from a ruthless, risk-free innings

Brydon Coverdale16-Mar-2013As he walked off the field at the end of his first day of batting in Test cricket, Shikhar Dhawan gave his impressive moustache a twirl. It’s the kind of facial hair you expect to see on a movie villain and in the minds of Australia’s bowlers, that’s exactly what Dhawan was today. Every spectator at the Punjab Cricket Association Ground, Indian or not, was enthralled by Dhawan’s scene-stealing performance. But for Australia’s players, it was a horror film from which they could not escape.Dhawan’s innings was exquisite. It wasn’t just the record of being the fastest century ever by a player on Test debut. It was the way he scored his runs. His placement was impeccable. If there was a gap, he found it. Thirty-three boundaries attest to his precision. There were wonderful back-foot drives of which Ricky Ponting would have been proud, drives through cover, cuts, glances, all class. He reached a hundred from 85 balls but did it without hitting in the air.He was breathtaking, but Australia have been here before, and a little too recently for comfort. Hashim Amla destroyed them at the WACA in December with a similarly sublime innings, ruthless yet risk-free. Amla’s hundred came from 87 balls and he destroyed them through the leg side, even if they bowled outside off. Here, Dhawan’s strength was the off side and while it is possible that in form like this he was simply untouchable, the Australians could have asked more questions of his leg-side play.After India finished the day at 283 for 0 and Dhawan went to stumps on 185 from 168 balls, Mitchell Starc was asked what the Australians could have done differently. He noted that Dhawan was so strong through the off side that even an off-stump line was probably granting him too much width. But then where do you bowl? It’s a very fine line finding the right line to a batsman like Dhawan, but testing him more on middle and leg might have been wise.Consider this: of the 185 runs that Dhawan scored, only 27 of them came through leg against the seamers or Nathan Lyon – that is, excluding when the ball was spinning in to him. When Xavier Doherty and Steven Smith were on, Dhawan was happy to pull or work the ball to leg, but much less so against anyone else. A consistent leg-stump line might have been defensive, but in the form Dhawan was in it was worth a try with a few catching men on that side.

So far in this series, the Australian attack has been less successful than any Australian bowling unit ever to visit India.

It may not have worked. But good attacks find ways to create chances even if the conditions don’t suit or a batsman threatens to have a day out. The only chance Australia created on the third day of this match was a Mankad from the first ball of the innings, and it was accidental. Amla in Perth, MS Dhoni in Chennai, Dhawan in Mohali – the list of batsmen who have created horror days in the field for Michael Clarke’s Australians in the past few months is growing a little too quickly for comfort.It hasn’t helped that Australia’s spinners have been ineffective. And when it has come to choosing the slow bowlers, there have been more flip-fops at the Australian selection table than there are in a Havaianas factory. In Chennai, Australia chose only Nathan Lyon and he was mauled by Dhoni. In Hyderabad they used Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell, who went wicketless on the only day that mattered. Here, they have employed Lyon and Doherty and it was all the same story.Australia’s spinners don’t have the guile and variation required to succeed in India, or at least they haven’t been allowed to display it. An enormous part of the problem is of course that India’s batsmen are so adept at playing spin. It’s as if their first steps as toddlers must have been down the wicket. Dhawan and M Vijay were no different in this innings, confidently advancing to Lyon and Doherty and dispatching them with breathtaking ease.Lyon went at 4.6 an over, Doherty cost 5.7 an over and three tripe-filled overs from Steven Smith leaked eight an over. Perhaps they will improve on the fourth day, but the damage has been done. Australia had to win this Test to have any chance of retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and a first-innings of 408 at least gave them something to bowl at. So far, the bowlers haven’t been up to it.Of course, the selectors didn’t help themselves by banning James Pattinson, their best bowler of the series, over the so-called homework task. It was a decision made for long-term gain, but they are now experiencing the inevitable short-term pain. Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson might not regret their lapse, if it means avoiding a hiding. But this is far from the first day of the tour that has provided headaches for Clarke in the field.So far in this series, the Australian attack has been less successful than any Australian bowling unit ever to visit India. As things stood at stumps on day three, their collective strike-rate was 102.81 for the series. That equates to a wicket every 17 overs. Keep that up and they’ll be in the field for 170 overs per innings.It might improve if they can find some traction on day four, but for now it is an atrocious record. By comparison, the struggling team led by Ricky Ponting in 2008 toiled for 87.57 balls per wicket. The victorious side under Adam Gilchrist in 2004 broke through every 50.26 deliveries. Wickets win matches. Wicketless days usually lead to defeats.Perhaps their only blessing is that the washed-out first day has left them with a decent chance of salvaging a draw. The series is gone, but from here a draw would be a positive step. Surely things can only improve after the horror movie they witnessed on day three in Mohali. Can’t they?

Gary Kirsten may not have had the longest of tenures but he took South Africa to the top and, of particular pride to him, helped several rookies take their first steps in international cricket

Firdose Moonda10-May-2013Gary Kirsten sent a message to every South African player he currently coaches when he decided not to renew his contract. He wanted to let them know, personally, he would no longer be around.It was a typical Kirsten way of doing things – intimate, caring and sensitive. Every one of them responded. Never one to disclose too much, Kirsten would only say the replies were “incredible.” Most of the men who sent them would likely use the same word to describe Kirsten and the influence he had during his time in charge, which they will likely agree was too short. Just two years. That’s all the time Kirsten was able to give to South Africa. He changed them substantially in the first of those.Kirsten’s anniversary on August 1, 2012 was followed 19 days later by what will be remembered as his biggest achievement. South Africa beat England at Lord’s to claim the Test mace. It confirmed that taken the step from nearly men and champions by accident – which Graeme Smith said they felt like after their first short stint at No.1 in 2009 – to rightful owners of the label “best in the world.” They proved they could win in various conditions, against a range of opponents and in trying circumstances: all the ingredients required at the beginning of the road to greatness.But did they actually ascend those heights during Kirsten’s time? Or did they simply get the best foundation possible to one day be counted among legends? The evidence, and Kirsten himself, would suggest the latter.In numbers terms, Kirsten’s 12 wins, five draws and two losses from the 19 Tests he was in charge for make him the most successful coach in the longest format the country has ever had. It’s a small sample size though, especially when compared to Mickey Arthur’s tenure of 45 Tests, Bob Woolmer’s of 44 and Graham Ford’s of 33, so it may be going too far to say the team would have continued as strongly.The evidence that they were a cut above the rest came in the things the figures couldn’t prove – the maturity, the nuances and the caring Kirsten brought, especially in the Test side. He convinced them life was not about cricket and cricket alone. He asked them to think outside of the sport and in so doing, fostered them getting better at the sport as a whole.Last year showcased that spectacularly. South Africa’s 2012 was travel heavy as they competed in New Zealand, England and Australia. They won all three Test series they played and emerged out of them far more human than ever before. Kirsten said it felt as though they had become a “family.”He led the way when he decided to run a marathon as an extra-curricular activity in Auckland. He encouraged the rest to use the time between Test matches to explore areas like the Waikato Caves and Lake Taupo.Before the series against England, he took them on gruelling obstacle-course of a trip to Switzerland where explorer Mike Horn oversaw their trips up mountain passes. The squad agreed that it was the most strenuous physical activity they had to do but that it showed them what was possible if pushed to the extreme.That excursion helped them deal with the horrific eye-injury that ended Mark Boucher’s career and contributed significantly to their success in beating England. Sprinkled with trips to the Olympic Games and dress-up parties, they also dominated to emerge a deserving No.1 side.Confirmation of that came when they travelled to Australia three months later and defended their title even though they took a week’s break on the Gold Coast. Kirsten proved a winning team is not one that spends all its time in the nets but one that has players who can be held accountable for their actions and can take responsibility for when they want to do things.It helped that he introduced these concepts at a time when several senior members of the squad were going through major life changes. Graeme Smith was recently married and had just become a father, Jacques Kallis accepted the end may not be far away and allowed his personality to come through more and AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla were learning how to deal with leadership.Kirsten provided them with some of the tools to embrace these events without panicking. “One of my primary activities was to facilitate in growing people,” he said. “We created a culture that allowed players to thrive.”Of particular importance to him was the way rookies stepped up and played important parts in South Africa’s success. From Vernon Philander to Faf du Plessis, the new caps all looked ready to play international cricket not only because they had done well domestically but because they felt welcomed by the national side.Tributes

Chris Nenzani
I would like to thank him for his tremendous contribution to the well-being of the Proteas over the past two years. It is obvious to all of us the standard of excellence that he has brought to our national team and it will be wonderful if he can complete his tenure by bringing home the ICC Champions Trophy next month.
Mohammed Moosajee
Although the decision is painful and disappointing, it reflects the authenticity of the man. Gary, you have brought a sense of calmness and consistency that focuses specifically on growing others. Your vision has always been for the team culture to be independent of any one person. We hope you will not be lost to the Proteas and South African cricket.
Mark Boucher, former South Africa wicketkeeper and batsman
Protea crickets loss today with Garys decision,but a life lesson in itself..always put family first! take a bow Gaz! Thanks for all ur work!
Explorer Mike Horn
Personal growth stops if you stay in the same surroundings. @Gary_Kirsten you have taken experience but left behind a chapter of history!

Kirsten listed as one of his highlights “the comments that a lot of the young players have made about how comfortable they feel in the environment and how they feel straight away they can make significant performances.”It was that which told him he had achieved the aims he wanted in his two years. “I am not in coaching for performance even though I am measured by that. I want to help people be the best they can be. While I am measured by whether the team do well or not, to me that is not as relevant as the influence I can have over individuals in the team.”That’s why Kirsten’s one-day and T20 record does not affect the way he views his time with the team. They were in transition in both formats with a new captain in de Villiers and uncertainty, especially in the batting department. They failed to find consistency in the fifty-over game and crashed out of the 2012 World Twenty20 without making the semi-finals.After that tournament, the first signs came that Kirsten was feeling the strain. He relinquished the role as T20 coach, and handed it over to his assistant Russell Domingo, who is also his likely successor. In the travel that followed, to Australia, he made a whistle-stop tour back home to South Africa, even though he had to cross many time zones to spend just two nights with his children.What was suspected at the very beginning when Kirsten took the job was confirmed – he was reluctant to travel and reluctant to spend significant chunks of time away from home. With three young children, one of whom was born during his first series in charge, that was to be expected.In the end, Kirsten picked them over his other charges and it is a decision many will respect. “I won’t miss the time away from my family but I will miss is the environment and the players,” he said. “We really are moving positively in the right direction in all issues that exist within our cricket. I leave a happy man.” But he will be happier if South Africa can build on the start he gave them.

Stats highlights from the first day’s action at The Oval

S Rajesh21-Aug-2013 Shane Watson’s 176 is his third Test century, and easily the highest – his previous-best was 126 against India in Mohali in 2010. Since that Test match and before today, Watson had gone past 50 ten times in 46 innings, without once going on to a century: his highest during this period had been 95. The century by Watson was the first by an Australian No.3 batsman in nearly two years: the previous hundred was Shaun Marsh’s 141 against Sri Lanka at Pallekele in September 2011. In 48 innings since then and before this match, Australia’s No.3 batsmen had averaged 23.17, with a highest of 87. They were the only team whose No.3 hadn’t scored a hundred during this period. The last time an Australian No.3 batsman scored 150 or more in an overseas Test was at Cardiff in 2009, when Ricky Ponting made 150. In all there have been 20 instances of Australian No.3s scoring 150 or more overseas, of which Ponting and Don Bradman have contributed five each. Among those 20 instances is Jason Gillespie’s unbeaten 201 against Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2006. In just this one innings, Watson scored 34% of the total runs he had scored in 17 previous Test innings in England: in those 17 tries, Watson had managed 520 runs at an average of 30.58, with a highest of 68. The on-side was clearly Watson’s preferred scoring area in this innings: 115 of his 176 runs came in that region, and 91 of those in the arc between midwicket and the sightscreen. Fifteen of his 25 fours came on the on-side. The bowler who suffered the most at his hands was debutant left-arm spinner Simon Kerrigan, who leaked 35 runs off 25 balls to Watson, and overall went for 53 in eight overs. Stuart Broad has been Michael Clarke’s nemesis in this series, but this time Clarke fell to James Anderson, another bowler who has had plenty of success against him in the past. Anderson dismissed Clarke for the eighth time, sneaking past Broad, Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn, who have each dismissed him seven times. Broad still has the slightly better average against Clarke, though: his seven dismissals have cost him 163 runs (average 23.28). Anderson averages 27.50 runs per dismissal against Clarke. The 145-run stand between Watson and Steven Smith is the sixth century stand for Australia in this series, and the third-highest. Watson also added 107 for the second wicket with Chris Rogers, which makes this the first instance of two century stands in the same innings for Australia in this series. England have also had six century partnerships in this series.

Plays of the day from the fifth ODI between Pakistan and South Africa in Sharjah

Firdose Moonda11-Nov-2013(Un)lucky number three
A first inside-edge may leave a batsmen feeling nervous. Like when Quinton de Kock tried to cut Mohammad Irfan and almost played the ball onto his own stumps. A second, even more so, but still de Kock survived, and also collected a four for good measure. By the time the third comes, the fielding side can consider themselves unlucky. After two French cuts, de Kock had a third, off Sohail Tanvir. All of them, miraculously, missed the stumps.Rapid AB
AB de Villiers was on 97 going into the last over but Wayne Parnell was facing the first ball. After his partner hit a boundary off the first ball, de Villiers was anxious to get on strike. When Parnell beat the point fielder with his next shot, de Villiers called him through for three runs. De Villiers had to race against the throw to make his ground, but had his skates on as he fell mid-stride. He dived in vain at the striker’s end, with bat at full stretch to ensure he was well in his crease by the time Umar Akmal took the bails off. Having survived, de Villiers brought up three figures off the next ball.Flying AB
De Villiers had already led the batting effort but he was ready to do his part in the field as well. When a Lonwabo Tsotsobe delivery leaped up to take the shoulder of Mohammad Hafeez’s bat, the ball ballooned over second slip where de Villiers was stationed. He moved backwards, stuck his hand out and put in a jump to try and pluck the ball from the sky. For all his dedication, de Villiers could only get his fingers to it, but the ball spilled out when his arm struck the ground again, and Hafeez got away.The unlikely cricket enthusiast
Dead rubbers between two teams who will meet again in a return tour (two Twenty20s followed by three ODIs) that starts later this month are not exactly the biggest crowd-pullers and the numbers in the stadium were evidence of that. But there was someone who was interested in the action. A caramel-coloured pigeon was on the field for large periods of the Pakistan innings, and had to be shooed off on numerous occasions. He hung around at the boundary rope and was distracting some of the fielders to the point where Ahmed Shehzad had to wave him away in energetic fashion. Later, one of the members of the academy was spotted cradling the pigeon as the match drew to a close.Misbah unplugged
Tired of along, Misbah-ul-Haq played the shot of the match off just his seventh ball. Tsotsobe bowled it full, outside off, Misbah got underneath it, cleared the front foot, and lofted it over mid-off. The ball traveled high and far, crashing into the stand near the commentary box before bouncing back into the field. Even Misbah has an aggressive side.Irfan is bounced
The game was meandering to a foregone conclusion when a bit of spicy fast bowling from Parnell made people sit up and take notice. Irfan, at 7 ft 1in, would be the last person you would expect to be bounced out, his lackluster skills with the bat notwithstanding. But Parnell tested the middle of the pitch and made the ball rise towards Irfan’s head. The tail-ender fended it away as best he could, but the ball skied in the air and Hashim Amla back-pedalled from first slip to collect a safe catch. The wicket had no bearing on the eventual result, but was another example of the strange things that can happen on a cricket field.

The Ireland captain’s tour diary during the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE

William Porterfield15-Nov-2013The UAE is a great place to come. I had a pretty successful month here at the start of the season, but unfortunately I didn’t score too many runs after that in a Warwickshire jersey. You’re guaranteed sunshine, which helps. The pitches are pretty batsman friendly. The two pitches we played on in the two warm-up games were quality pitches once again and hopefully that continues throughout the tournament.I’m pretty pleased with the form I was in for Ireland this year. Capping it off with a hundred against England was pleasing from a personal point of view. Obviously it would have been a lot more special if we had won that game. It’s difficult when you get 100 and lose. I did it in Kenya a few years ago too. It’s hard any game you lose. I’d rather do like we did in Bangalore, get a first-baller and knock off 327. From a personal point of view it’s nice to lead from the front and score runs at the top of the order and practice what I preach as captain, but being on the losing side takes a bit of the gloss off it.It’s been a good two warm-up games for us and we’ve put in good practice. In the game against Holland, the lengths we bowled were pretty good and the bowlers all got a decent run. Restricting them to 139 on a pitch that was probably a 155-160 wicket was pretty good and to knock the runs off as comfortably as we did was great to see.I don’t think we performed as well against Papua New Guinea. It was just the wake-up call we need. We’re going to be playing against a few teams that we don’t have a lot of information on. We play teams like Canada, Namibia and UAE quite a bit so we know a bit on those players, but we’re going to come up cold against a few teams we don’t have any information on and they had a few lads who can strike the ball pretty cleanly. That’s something that we’re going to have to adjust to and adapt to quicker. It’s good that we saw that against Papua New Guinea, who I don’t think are here just to make up numbers. I think they can beat teams. They’ve got a few very good players in their side. They outbowled and outbatted us.If anyone thought the ‘lesser teams’ on paper, that we can just turn up and beat them, we realised against Papua New Guinea that’s not going to happen. If anyone had any doubts, it’s not going to be easy. We’ve got be right on the ball. In the last qualifier, we lost the first game against Namibia then built up some good momentum before we came up against Italy. We didn’t know anything about their players except Gareth Berg and Michael Di Venuto. They only got 100 against us but we only knocked it off with two wickets to spare. That was the wake-up call we needed back then and we’ve had it against Papua New Guinea now. I’m grateful it was a warm-up and not an in competition game.Hopefully we’ll look back at the end of the tournament and say those two warm-up games did us a world of good. We played against a strong Dutch side and beat them playing our style of cricket, and turned up the next day and if anyone thought the game was going to be a walkover it wasn’t the case. We have to play to our potential every game we go out there.Off the field, we’ve got two teams within the squad that we play in different competitions. We have gym sessions where we split into teams. There’s a bit of fun side and a bit of competitive side. With the rugby I think we may have to hire a full-time ref to come on tour with us because that causes the most flashpoints. I’ve been on a few tours in the past where a few lads have stood toe-to-toe before a game. It just shows the competitive edge we have and the competitive bunch we are. I like when we play rugby and it gets competitive. We have to police it ourselves and make sure it doesn’t step over the edge, but it’s a great way to keep the competitive edge going building up to a game and the tournament.

Plays of the day from the second T20I between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Chittagong

Mohammad Isam in Chittagong14-Feb-2014The wrong impression
Lasith Malinga dropped Shamsur Rahman off the third ball of the match to a difficult chance over his head at short fine-leg. Tillakaratne Dilshan had bowled a poor delivery which the opener swept, but he could only manage a leading edge. Malinga got a hand to the ball, but was ultimately very cross with himself for dropping it. Still, no one would have known that Sri Lanka would make up for that failed chance with three superb catches.The 20 steps
Nuwan Kulasekara was at mid-on when Shakib Al Hasan picked up Sachitra Senanayake over his head. As the ball sailed high, Kulasekara kept running with his eye on the ball. Sixteen steps into his run, he reached the ball with outstretched arms, and as he caught the ball, he tumbled over, and luckily for him, the ball didn’t pop out. His dive stopped near the rope, making the catch so much better than the three taken in the first Twenty20. Kulasekara would also add the Sabbir Rahman catch, a diving effort from deep cover, to his repertoire of the day.The opposite side
Anamul Haque was given a dose of his own medicine when Kusal Perera caught him at the deep-midwicket boundary. The catch was just as spectacular as Anamul’s had been in the first match. Kusal ran to his right, flung himself and caught the ball mid-air, a foot inside the rope. Anamul, in the previous game, had taken the catch right at the boundary, balancing himself very close to the rope.The uncanny repeat
When Dilshan opened the bowling for Sri Lanka, he was the third spinner to do so against Bangladesh. The last man was Prosper Utseya who had taken the wicket of Shamsur Rahman off the fourth ball of the first over, caught at deep midwicket. This time, Shamsur tried a similar shot, slapping the ball straight towards mid wicket, off the fifth ball of the over.The throwback
Injuries have ravaged Mashrafe Mortaza in the past, but he did not show much signs of wariness on Friday, picking up two wickets in the tenth over. He first removed Angelo Perera to what was a shot to forget and once Angelo Mathews was caught behind by Anamul Haque, Mashrafe duly took off, sticking his tongue out as he went on a celebratory run.

With an unpredictable run-up and an urgent, hustling style, Maharashtra seamer Samad Fallah has scripted a tale of resilience and passion for cricket

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Indore19-Jan-2014In the middle of his second over on Saturday morning, Samad Fallah came to a halt halfway through his run-up. Most fast bowlers, in that situation, would have turned around, walked back to the top of their mark, and started again. Fallah simply resumed running from where he had stopped.Over the course of the 16 overs he delivered in dismissing seven Bengal batsmen at the Holkar Stadium, Fallah’s run-up was a wild and unpredictable thing, seemingly without a fixed starting point.”When I start, I do mark my run-up,” Fallah says. “But as my bowling goes on, sometimes I try to surprise them, don’t let the batsman get ready, make my run-up short. But run-up is not in my brain. I can run from anywhere and I can bowl. With my run-up I’ve played lots. I’ve run zig-zag also. To take wickets in first-class cricket I’ve done so many things.”A lot of bowlers nowadays use a measuring tape to mark out their run-ups. For them, achieving rhythm is a matter of scientific precision. If rhythm is an ingredient in Samad Fallah’s bowling, it is probably the rhythm of free jazz. His run-up, which begins with a two-second shuffle on the spot, barely contributes any momentum to his action, which is all shoulder and whirring arm, culminating in a Rafael Nadal grunt.The grunts grew louder with each ball – and were frequently followed by desperate appeals for lbw – over the course of Fallah’s first spell on Saturday, which spanned ten overs. “The first spell is 10 or nine always,” he says. “Eight is minimum.” When he came back for his second spell, he replaced Harshad Khadiwale, who had taken an unexpected wicket in a three-over spell of gentle medium pace.Khadiwale might only be an occasional bowler, but his textbook run-up and delivery stride spoke of his rigorous schooling in the game. He has played for Maharashtra’s Under-14, U-15, U-17, U-19 and U-22 teams.Fallah’s action is as much a product of his upbringing as Khadiwale’s is. He’s never played age-group cricket for Maharashtra. In his early 20s, he gave up cricket for two years, apart from the odd tennis-ball match, and worked behind the counter of the Irani cafe established by his grandfather, and run by his father, in Pune.Fallah kept taking wickets in tennis-ball cricket, though, and found himself a place in the Poona Club team. Big wicket hauls in the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s invitational league – “73 wickets in nine games,” he says, “which is a record still” – earned him a call-up to the Maharashtra team at the start of the 2007-08 season. At that point, his father didn’t even know he was playing serious cricket. Fallah called him from Chennai, where Maharashtra – he wasn’t in the playing XI yet – were playing Tamil Nadu.”I called him, and I said I got selected for Ranji Trophy, and he said, ‘No no, you can’t be selected’,” Fallah says. “I had to call from a landline number, and then he realised, okay, he’s in Chennai.”A painting of Fallah in his bowling action, with a selection of his first-class statistics, now adorns a wall in his father’s cafe. “It was not me who asked for it,” Fallah says. “My dad actually wanted to surprise me, so suddenly I saw a picture that was not looking like me at all.”The left-arm seamer on Cafe Alpha’s wall doesn’t have the shoulder-length hair, the soul-patch, or the studded earlobes. It might well be a painting of Irfan Pathan. The stats, moreover, need an update. The wall says 134 wickets in 34 first-class matches; Fallah now has 198 in 50.

“When I start, I do mark my run-up,” Fallah says. “But as my bowling goes on, sometimes I try to surprise them, don’t let the batsman get ready, make my run-up short. But run-up is not in my brain. I can run from anywhere and I can bowl. With my run-up I’ve played lots. I’ve run zig-zag also. To take wickets in first-class cricket I’ve done so many things.”

In his debut season, Fallah took 20 wickets, at an average of 23.90. Since then, he hasn’t gone a single first-class season without crossing 25 wickets. He reached that mark for 2013-14, during the course of his seven-for on Saturday.At the start of the season, when he took just two wickets in Maharashtra’s first three matches, that number seemed a distant prospect. Left out of the game against Andhra, Fallah came roaring back. In his last five matches – he only bowled 9.4 overs in one of them, a spin-dominated game in Assam – he’s taken 26 wickets.”After [the first] three games I was not feeling good, then I was not picked for the next game,” Fallah says. “I was supposed to be rested for the other game also, but I got a chance because somehow the selectors felt that one game was enough for me to get back. If I would have dragged myself that time, I would have been worse, because I was not in good shape also in my mind. I was doubting myself.”What my bowling is all about is believing. I kept on believing in my instincts and the things that I do, bowling around, over [the wicket] … to enjoy myself. Basically I enjoy my bowling, which I was not doing in the first phase. After one break I realised, okay, now I can’t stay out of the game also. So I came back against Kashmir and I took four and that’s how I got back. So it was good actually, what happened. Sometimes you need that kick, that ‘okay, I’m not doing that good.’ And you see your players, your team, wanting you. Everyone was calling me, the team, coaches, selectors, saying they need you. The team wanted me. Me being a character also, they need me somewhere.”Fallah says he is a talkative, needling presence in the dressing room and on the field. “Normally I talk too much,” he says. “I express too much.”It shows in his bowling too, in his urgent, hustling style, always at the batsman, probing away from different angles. It shows in his frantic appealing. He might yet cop a fine for the amount of lung-power he expended against Bengal. But, you suspect, he’ll accept it with a grin and carry on appealing as raucously as ever.A couple more successful appeals will take him to 200 wickets. It might also bring about a long-overdue update to the stats on Cafe Alpha’s wall. “The first hundred took only 21 matches,” he says, alert as always to his own statistics. “I’ve played almost 30 matches after that, so I guess I’m slowing down.”