New Zealand’s management believed in Martin Guptill’s match-winning ability and stood by him through a nearly two-year period of rocky form. Even they couldn’t have predicted he would vindicate them with a double-century in a World Cup quarter-final

Andrew McGlashan in Wellington21-Mar-20152:15

Crowe: Year of hard work behind Guptill’s knock

Who would rise to the occasion of a World Cup quarter-final? The public expectation was on Brendon McCullum. Martin Crowe thought it could be Kane Williamson. It might even have been a day for Ross Taylor to emerge from his stupor and pepper deep midwicket with his slog sweep. In the end, it was none of them.It was a surprise when McCullum decided to bat. Although he has only had the choice of what to do twice in the tournament he has bowled both times so it was a departure from the perceived preference, especially on the ground where the ball had swung when Tim Southee dismantled England. Then McCullum departed in the fifth over, skying a catch to cover, and scenario was laid: knockout match, needing to set a target, and the talisman was gone.Step forward Martin Guptill. Over 50 overs, three-and-a-half hours of batting, he wrote himself a place in history with the highest score in the World Cup. Chris Gayle, the previous record-holder with his 215 against Zimbabwe early in the tournament, offered his congratulations. “He came up and said ‘congratulations, welcome to the club,” Guptill said. It was also the second highest in all ODIs behind Rohit Sharma’s 264.Dropped on 4, as was Rohit in his record-breaking innings, he produced a magnificently structured innings. His four fifties came off 64, 47, 23 and 18 deliveries. Such is the modern tempo of the one-day game, and the feats at this World Cup, that when he reached his hundred in the 35th over and started to unleash with the Powerplay there were already murmurings of a double hundred. Those are the expectations these days.Still, whatever the theories about heavy bats, small boundaries and poor bowling – and there was certainly a lot of the latter – to sustain such hitting for a long period remains breathtaking. Twice he hammered sixes over 100 metres, the second of them onto the roof which led to a (non-offensive) two-finger signal to Craig McMillan, the batting coach. “He’s had one on the roof and I’ve hit two,” Guptill explained.The noise in the Cake Tin as Guptill approached the landmark was something to behold. There were 30,000 people chanting Guptill’s name. The straight drive which brought the 200 led to a prolonged standing ovation as a nation acclaimed its latest hero. “It was pretty cool,” he said. “I’ve never had anything like that before. For it to be in New Zealand is even better and for it to be a quarter-final.”Guptill had already been the holder of New Zealand’s highest ODI score – the unbeaten 189 he made against England in Southampton in 2013 – but he was not a player revered in this country the same way as the earlier names mentioned or the likes of Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Daniel Vettori. Now, his life will never be the same again.Previously his career has often been viewed as much with frustration as with admiration. It was possible to understand why. The stroke-making ability, so evident in that Southampton innings and now this one in Wellington, was rarely in doubt but sustaining an innings became a problem. Since the 189 until the start of the World Cup he averaged 27.57 with one hundred, although that did include a period either side of ankle surgery. As recently as January, when he collected to first-ball ducks against Sri Lanka, there were calls for him to be replaced by Tom Latham.However, a hallmark of New Zealand’s World Cup planning has been the faith shown in those they believe are key players. Guptill was viewed as the man most capable of providing the punch they wanted at the top of the innings alongside McCullum.A hundred in the warm-up match against Zimbabwe, when most of his team-mates failed, was a timely boost. He looked at ease during the opening innings of the tournament against Sri Lanka, but as to encapsulate the preceding problems he nicked off for 49.That was followed by scores of 17, 22 and 11 against Scotland, England and Australia. The middle one was in the slipstream of McCullum’s own Wellington onslaught against England so there were not many runs left for him to score, but with each of New Zealand’s victories being dissected his four-match tally of 99 runs came under the spotlight.Then he faced Afghanistan and scored 57 against a hard-working attack that gained many plaudits in the tournament. It was not his toughest innings, but they were not freebie runs. He went up another level against Bangladesh with New Zealand’s first hundred of the tournament to marshal a demanding chase. There were also hours and hours in the nets, on the bowling machine with guidance from Crowe who remains a mentor.”It hasn’t just appeared on the day, it’s been a year of work,” Crowe told ESPNcricinfo’s Match Point show. “He worked in the nets changing his technique, getting both feet active, looking to play the ball straighter. We know he’s a straight hitter but it’s the defence he has worked harder on. Between all of those fours and sixes he played a good defensive game. That’s the key to batsmanship; the defensive shots, the running between the wickets, all those things are a little more subtle than the big six hits. They make up a batsman.”He also had some last-minute advice. “He texted yesterday and said try to hit the gaps, it was nice to hear from him,” Guptill said. Gaps were hit, so were stands and the roof.The form was coming; Guptill has always insisted he felt on the edge of something substantial. What occurred, though, was beyond anyone’s comprehension. “I’m still not really sure what’s happened,” he said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet.”That sentiment probably applies to all those who witnessed or heard about it.

Plays of the Day from the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-May-2015The near hokey pokey
Tim Southee and Karun Nair have already combined to turn a probable six into a dismissal this season. Eoin Morgan and Hanuma Vihari did their best to pull off a repeat, but didn’t manage to read each other’s movements well enough. Morgan backpedalled and leapt backwards over the boundary to intercept Manish Pandey’s strike over wide long-on. Though he managed to palm it back infield while airborne, he also deflected it to the left of Vihari, who had run in from deep midwicket. Vihari was at least able to prevent the ball from hitting the ropes again, however, and the pair saved four runs.The dual predetermination
Reverse shots, they say, are largely predetermined, and when Johan Botha shaped to hit a successive reverse off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 18th over, the bowler got him out with what seemed to be a planned move of his own. Expecting Botha to switch his stance again, Bhuvneshwar fired a length ball down the leg side. Having already committed to the shot, Botha tried to shovel the ball away, knowing it would not be called a wide, but only succeeded in deflecting it onto his stumps.The bashful bowler
Brad Hogg had bowled four decent balls to begin his spell, but it would be his woeful fifth delivery that brought a wicket. Shikhar Dhawan ran down the track, and Hogg dragged his googly down a little too much to deliver a half-tracker. Having read the length, and the direction of spin, Dhawan nailed a flat pull shot, only when he looked around, saw that he had put it into Pandey’s lap at square leg. When he glanced back at Hogg, the bowler wore an embarrassed grin, knowing he’d taken a wicket with his worst delivery so far.The race between ball and glove
The best wicketkeepers can collect the ball while their gloves are already en route to the stumps. Robin Uthappa did this so well in the 12th over, it actually proved somewhat counterproductive. Ryan ten Doeschate’s throw from deep midwicket came in close to the stumps, and though batsman Bipul Sharma was caught well short attempting a second run, Uthappa had taken the bails off so quickly, it raised suspicion that he had disturbed the stumps before he was in possession of the ball. The third umpire looked at endless replays of the dismissal, but in the end, Uthappa appears to have played his piece flawlessly. The bail came off split seconds after the ball entered his gloves, and the batsman was deemed out.

Perhaps after eight seasons of the IPL there is sameness, flatness, a sense of fatigue? Maybe the template can be revisited

Gaurav Kalra25-May-2015The IPL final in Kolkata was among the most anti-climatic summit clashes in recent memory. The end was like a punctured balloon that bobbled aimlessly before fizzing out.While it was a fiercely competitive season with several teams bunched together in the race to the knockouts deep into the tournament, there were large tracts that felt insipid. Perhaps after eight seasons there is sameness, flatness, a sense of fatigue?So could this annual (festival), as the host broadcaster calls it, do with a few tweaks? Maybe the template, set in stone for so long, needs revisiting?

Five overseas players

The essence of any sporting competition should be to provide the highest possible playing standard. An extra overseas player in the playing XI has the potential to achieve that. Sunrisers Hyderabad would have been a more potent unit if Trent Boult and Dale Steyn could have opened the bowling together. Delhi Daredevils might have made a greater impact with both Albie Morkel and Angelo Mathews in the XI. If Mumbai Indians had the option to field Alex Hales, who arrived in red-hot form from England’s T20 blast, he may have provided even greater spark to the latter half of the season.There is little purpose in keeping high-impact players on the bench when their presence could raise the quality of play on show. And franchises have a right to seek a better return on investment. It is pointless to have marquee players fit and available, yet forced to warm the bench.It is unlikely that an additional overseas player will force talented Indian youngsters out. The likes of Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal and others would make the cut in all likelihood anyway. Conversely, with competition for places just a little fiercer, it may force those on the fringes to battle harder to keep their spots.It must also be remembered city loyalties have evolved and matured. It was sensible, in fact clever, in 2008 to identify teams with Indian icons- Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai), Rahul Dravid (Bangalore), Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata), Virender Sehwag (Delhi) and Yuvraj Singh (Punjab). Over time though, supporters have embraced overseas players with just as much enthusiasm.Think Dwayne Bravo at Chennai, Sunil Narine at Kolkata, Lasith Malinga & Kieron Pollard at Mumbai. Meanwhile, four of the five original icons have gone on to play and mentor different franchises and the fuss has been minimal. So there is little reason to be overly protective of the “Indian-ness” of the league anymore.Imagine, Barcelona having to choose between Messi, Neymar and Suarez? Are they a better side or worse with all of them playing? Or ask that question another way. Would Barcelona supporters rather have each of them playing or force one of them on the bench so that a local player of not the same quality can be accommodated?Supporters want their teams to have the best chance of winning and a tournament should make every effort, to use a marketing phrase, to enhance its user experience.How about a best of three finals to decide the IPL?•BCCI

Revised knockouts format

Admittedly, the present one is an improvement on the concept of semi-finals. However, in an eight-team league, aren’t four of them making the knockouts one too many? Fifty percent of the participants, one in two, are assured of progress. Can those odds be reduced? Would each game in the league phase have greater context if only three make it through? Let me explain how that would work.Finishing on top of the table would come with an added incentive – an assured spot in the finals. It would almost ensure there is no easing up on the intensity to the very end of the group stage. Finishing in the top two, as is the case right now, isn’t the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.Even a runaway leader will need to be on their toes lest there be a late charge among the chasing pack. It will ensure most games have something extra riding on them.The teams that finish second and third then play a semi-final and the winner meets the top team in a best of three finals – the first at the home of the table-toppers, the next in the second finalist’s backyard and the third (if required) at a neutral venue.This will help sustain the interest among rival supporters. It will take high-profile games to their home venues, which can be built up to to crescendo. While Eden Gardens was packed to capacity for this year’s final, one sensed not having a home team to support dampened the atmosphere to some degree.Both finalists, in this format, will have home advantage for one game each. If they are locked at the end of the first two games, then a neutral venue will provide the stage for the climax. Supporters from both cities will be encouraged to travel to the venue. Television coverage too can ride on the rivalry between players and supporters over a longer period, giving greater play to the storylines.

Bonus points

Additional perks for big wins – by fifty or more runs or seven or more wickets, perhaps – to encourage form teams to press harder. With a place in the finals beckoning the table-topper, grappling for bonus points over the course of the league stage might become an interesting curiosity for supporters to engage with.

Five overs for two bowlers

Other ideas such as allowing two bowlers an extra over each have been suggested earlier and may be worth considering, if only to give attacking bowlers a greater role in the game.

Stats highlights from the opening day of the second Test between England and Australia

Bishen Jeswant16-Jul-20152 Number of Australian batsmen who have scored 1000-plus runs in Ashes Tests after the age of 35 – Don Bradman (1188) and Chris Rogers (1093). Rogers has ten 50-plus scores from 12 Ashes Tests including four centuries.9 Number of consecutive 50-plus scores for Steven Smith in the first innings of a Test match. He converted eight of these nine scores into centuries.97.2 Smith’s batting average in the first innings of a Test match, the second-best for any batsman who has scored at least 1000 runs in the first innings. The only person who averages more is Bradman – 2387 runs in the first innings at an average of 113.66.13 Years since Australia’s second-wicket stand has taken the score past 300. The last two instances of Australia doing this were also against England – in 1997 and 2002.1026 Test runs scored by Smith against England, the most for him against a single country. England are the first team against whom Smith has scored 1000-plus runs. He has scored 930 runs versus India. Click here to see his career summary.259 The unbeaten partnership between Smith and Rogers, the best second-wicket stand for Australia in 38 Tests at Lord’s. The previous record was 231, between Bradman and Bill Woodfull in 1930.16 Total runs scored by Smith in four innings at Lord’s prior to his century in the first innings of this Test. His four scores were 1, 12, 2 and 1.0 Number of 150-plus scores for Rogers in Tests prior to the first innings of this Test. He made 158* in the first innings, with his previous highest Test score being 119 in Sydney in 2014. Four out of Rogers’ five Test hundreds have come against England.

The soundtrack to Michael Clarke’s batting has become increasingly scratchy, his captaincy out of tune with the rest of his team

Daniel Brettig at Trent Bridge07-Aug-2015It has been said that happiness is a memory, not a feeling, something remembered more vividly than it is experienced. Watching Michael Clarke bat at Trent Bridge, in what was surely one of his final Test innings, it was possible to wonder how long it has been since he felt happy about batting, or even cricket.Clarke has always stated he is mediocre of memory. He has been forever hurtling forward, often at a speed that others, whether they be team-mates, opponents or the Australian public, have not appreciated. But as he struggled and scraped and ultimately fell here to the moving ball once more, he must have thought back to when his hands and feet moved in sync, his head was clear and his body limber. It was quite some time ago.Just as this innings was a case of Clarke being worn down, his captaincy has also followed a line of depreciating returns. He started as a leader in the pinkest of form, rolling to hundreds as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Clarke made 12 in his first 30 Tests as captain, starting with a last-day century to secure a draw (remember them?) and a series win over Sri Lanka, and ending with a first-innings standard bearer to effectively seal the 2013-14 Ashes series in Adelaide. There were three double hundreds, and one monumental triple at the SCG against India.Before this match, Clarke said he had been watching plenty of footage of those innings. He was doing so to remind himself that he has often been a chancy starter, gambling on attack to place pressure on the bowlers before he is fully set. The 329 against India was the epitome of this, as Clarke’s early minutes were punctuated by dicey play-and-misses against Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma on a surface where his team had slid to 37 for 3.The difference then was that Clarke would emerge from his flighty start to be assured and confident, putting the bowlers off balance while looking beautifully calibrated himself. Now, however, every ball is a struggle, whether with the bowler, the conditions or the doubts he clearly has about his own mobility, regardless of how many scans or consultancies have told him he is fit and fine.It has been a slow decline, not only in terms of batting but also influence over the team. The seeds of his current malaise were arguably sown on the last Ashes tour, when Mickey Arthur was replaced by Darren Lehmann. From that day, Clarke was no longer a selector, while the dominance of Lehmann’s personality and view of the world compelled the captain to take a back seat to many decisions he was previously across.Michael Clarke returns to the pavilion after falling for 13•Getty ImagesThe change worked for a time, culminating in the successes of 2013-14, but as results became more inconsistent and Clarke less physically capable, his more peripheral role dovetailed with his performances. Clarke remains the captain, but he has long since ceased to be the man in charge. Between April 2011 and June 2013 the Australian side was his team, for better or worse. Now it is not, for better or worse.Among the briefest but most telling interludes of Clarke’s innings was his two-ball union with Steven Smith, the man who will replace him. Smith has been emblematic of Australia in this series – brilliant at Lord’s but skittish, troubled and verging on neurotic elsewhere. His trigger movement across the crease is now hopelessly exaggerated, and he batted in a fury both innings here.The Smith and Clarke relationship has never been poor, but the lack of any sense that the two leaders, present and future, could dig in this day was telling. Rewind four years to the 2011 World Cup quarter-final with India, when Clarke played a dreadful shot to get out at a time when he and his predecessor Ricky Ponting had to form a partnership. In the preceding Ashes series they had competed with one another for poorest aggregate, with Ponting narrowly shading it in the end.This time around, Smith contained himself for one delivery in Clarke’s presence, but not another. His sliced drive nestled into the hands of Ben Stokes, positioned precisely for the stroke Smith played – a depressingly dunderheaded piece of batting. Clarke has seldom generated the sense of warmth that engenders others to play for him. In this moment of gravest need, Smith could think of nothing but attack.That left Clarke to potter around in the company of Adam Voges, another man who has struggled mightily this series. There was a time when Voges was not chosen for Australia’s limited-overs middle order partly because he was deemed too similar a player to Clarke, and now they scratched around with similarly low levels of confidence. For 38 runs they tried to endure, scoring through as many edges as meatier blows, until Clarke could contain himself no longer and essayed a push out at the ball a little less hare-brained than the first innings, but no more distinguished.Clarke has spoken that one of the keys to his batting has been his use of songs in his head to switch off between deliveries. The tunes have varied widely, often being sourced from batting partners in the middle. As he walked off Trent Bridge this day, he looked very much like a man who had forgotten the words to one of his favourite tracks. The Turtles’ has long since slipped off his playlist.

On the day Shane Watson announced his retirement from Test cricket, ESPNcricinfo picks out some of his most memorable performances in whites

Daniel Brettig06-Sep-20154 for 42 v India, Nagpur, 2008Before the 2008 tour of India, Shane Watson had been known primarily for his injuries – and perhaps the ghost of Lumley Castle in Durham on the 2005 Ashes trip. However on a journey that proved largely barren for Ricky Ponting’s declining team, Watson was to show the first genuine glimpses of Test-match promise. His batting was better than his final series figures showed, exemplified by a patient 78 in Mohali when others found the going close to impossible. His bowling was in its quiet way revelatory, proving he had jettisoned the youthful yearning to bowl as fast as possible and replaced it with a strong command of line, length and reverse swing. The second-innings spell in Nagpur might easily have helped Australia to a series-saving win had Ponting persisted with Watson after tea. As it was, he chose to avoid a ban for over rates by using Michael Hussey and Cameron White. Still, the maturing Watson who came to command a place in the Test team had his origins on this tour. Three years later in Galle, his use of the reversing ball would break the back of Sri Lanka’s first innings to set-up one of the most noteworthy Australian victories of the period.51 v England, Leeds, 2009A half-century in an innings victory doesn’t sound like much, but the confidence and power Watson demonstrated after being chosen as an opener in the middle of the 2009 series was striking. He had been brought in to replace Phillip Hughes after two poor Tests at Cardiff and Lord’s, a decision which still rankles with some as being too hasty. Nevertheless, Watson immediately showed a strong degree of confidence around off stump and a scarcely disguised glee in putting away the bad ball. At Headingley he was actually the slower of the two batsmen in Australia’s second-wicket stand as Ponting put together one of his last great innings, but Watson’s contribution was sturdiness personified and set the scene for his most prolific batting phase. A commentating Geoff Boycott summed it up as: “A very commonsense, well-played 50 … he’s played absolutely splendidly.” Of course, Graeme Onions would get Watson lbw before the innings could bloom into anything bigger – another developing trend.126 v India, Mohali, 2010One-hundred and nine innings, four hundreds. It is by these digits that Watson’s career can most aptly be summed up, as he failed overall to overcome the mental and physical hurdles placed in front of Test batsmen wishing to become regular centurions. On that basis, Watson’s finest Test innings was probably this one, the only “bat all day” century he ever made, and by some distance the slowest. There were a few familiar tropes to it: he was dropped by Virender Sehwag in the gully before he had scored, he then got off to a rapid start against a hard ball and an attacking field, before slowing down – notably getting into something of a Mexican stand-off with Pragyan Ojha’s left-arm spin. The innings polarised the dressing room, as Michael Clarke figured Watson could have batted with more urgency and said so in front of the team, and the pair would bicker over the issue across the match. Others were more generous, and it remains a mystery why Watson could not go on to any other innings like this one. He had concentration, stamina and technique in ample supply this time around. He will forever wonder why there were no other such days.5 for 17 v South Africa, Cape Town, 2011For all his expertise with reverse-swinging medium pace, it was in seaming climes that Watson had his most destructive days of all. A pair of five-wicket hauls against Pakistan in England were incisive, but Watson never had the ball on a string quite like he managed against South Africa between lunch and tea on day two of the 2011 Newlands Test. Swinging the ball just enough to beat the bat, he helped usher the tumble of 9 for 47 in 11.1 madcap overs. Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher all fell to his wiles, which included a zippy bouncer for variation. Watson walked off the ground holding the ball exultantly aloft, and the Australians felt they had won the match there and then. What followed was the loss of another 10 wickets for 47 and arguably the most incomprehensible Test match day of them all, placing Watson’s display somewhat in the shade. It was his last big haul in Tests.88 v South Africa, Johannesburg, 2011When asked about Watson, one former England player said that he was one of the best players of the conventionally moving ball he ever saw, but also one of the worst against reverse swing. That much was borne out by his mighty tally of lbw dismissals, generally as a result of the ball bending in to hit that ever-so-prominent front pad. But when the ball was moving around in the air or off the seam in the traditional way, Watson’s ability to cover his off stump yet also avoid edging too often into the slips was up there with the very best. This innings in Johannesburg came mere days after the Cape Town debacle, in a fine opening stand with Hughes. Simon Katich had brought the best out of Watson at the top of the order, and his batting dropped away unmistakably after the selectors chose to jettison the older man. Hughes and Watson could not make their union work, but at the Wanderers they managed to keep out Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel for more than three hours while adding a handsome 174. The degree of difficulty in this partnership was to be shown by the rush of wickets that followed it, but the foothold Watson and Hughes provided Australia’s nervy batsmen allowed them to stay in the game, and a memorable win arrived two days later.83* v England, Melbourne, 2013Through the first half of 2013, Watson was nothing so much as a dissident within the national team. His relationship with Clarke and the coach Mickey Arthur was tenuous at best, while he and Mitchell Johnson became an isolated duo within the squad as they queried the way an otherwise young team was being moulded following the exits of Ponting and Michael Hussey. When both were made an example of in Mohali alongside James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja, Watson made it clear he did not agree, and risked his career by repeating his discontents publicly. As subsequent events unfolded, Watson’s intransigence looked a vital sign that the team was not in a strong state, and ultimately Darren Lehmann was called in to reshape it after a fashion more suited to all. By the time of the last Test of the year, Australia were celebrating the return of the Ashes, and in Melbourne Watson put together his final innings of major significance, a rollicking knock to help Chris Rogers reel in a fourth innings chase that should have been much more challenging than it proved. There was plenty of warmth in the celebrations when Watson and Rogers finished the chase, for both had emerged as contributors from a time nine months before when neither could reasonably have expected to be playing in the match. As an on-field performer Watson was forever enigmatic, but as a team man his sense of humanity was always strong.

Stats highlights from the third ODI between England and Australia in Manchester

Shiva Jayaraman09-Sep-20159 ODIs Australia had won on a trot before the defeat in Manchester. This was only the second loss for Australia in 18 ODIs in 2015, the other handed to them by New Zealand in the group stages of the World Cup.1989 The last time that England won an ODI by a higher margin, batting first against Australia. That 95-run win, incidentally, had come at the same venue. Overall, the 93-run win for England in this match was their fourth-best in terms of margin of runs in ODIs against Australia.1993 The last time that an England No. 3 hit an ODI hundred against Australia at home. James Taylor’s 101 in the third ODI of this series follows Robin Smith’s unbeaten 167 at Edgbaston. Taylor’s was also the first century by an England No. 3 against Australia since Jonathan Trott’s 137 at the SCG in 2011. Overall, including Taylor’s, there have only been seven centuries by England’s No. 3 against Australia in ODIs.79 Runs conceded by Mitchell Starc in this match – the most he has conceded in an ODI. His previous worst had also come against England, at Edgbaston in the Champions Trophy in 2013, when he gave away 75 from his 10 overs.5 Boundaries hit by Taylor in his innings of 101 in this match – the least by any batsman to make an ODI century in England. There have been five instances of batsmen with as few as six boundaries while hitting a ton in England.97.00 Taylor’s batting average in his last four ODIs against Australia. He has scores of 98*, 49, 43 and 101. In his first-three innings against Australia he had scored just nine runs.2004 The last time that at least three of England’s top-four batsmen made fifty-plus scores in an ODI against Australia. Taylor (101), Jason Roy (63) and Eoin Morgan (62) followed up Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss, who had made scores of 81, 86 and 52 respectively. This was only the fifth such occurrence for England against Australia in ODIs.1980 The last and only time before this that England made more runs at home in an ODI against Australia. They tallied 300 for 8 in Manchester, but 35 years earlier England had put up 320 for 8 in a 55-overs-a-side match. The Manchester match was also only the sixth time in 134 innings that England has posted a total of 300 or more in an ODI against Australia.67/6 Australia’s score in overs 26 to 40 in this match after being 110 for 3. Teams chasing in this series have lost their way during this period after doing reasonably well in the first 25 overs. Both teams have lost at least five wickets in this phase in each of the three chases so far. England, who batted second in the previous two matches, had scores of 74 for 5 and 94 for 5 during this period after being 146 for 2 and 136 for 3 respectively, by the end of the 25th over.2009 The last time Australia won chasing in England. This was their fourth defeat in five ODIs while chasing in England. One of them had ended with no result. They last won batting second against the hosts at Trent Bridge in September 2009.

He wasn’t expected to be a main man of South Africa’s bowling attack but Dean Elgar reaped rewards for paying attention to flight and drift on the first day in Mohali

Firdose Moonda in Mohali05-Nov-20152:25

‘We didn’t think wicket would crumble as much’ – Elgar

They said the pitch would turn from day one and they were right. Before lunch, Dean Elgar got a few to jag almost square. Yes, Dean Elgar. They did not say who would turn it.South Africa’s self-confessed ‘pie-chucker’ produced a performance matched in impact only by his century in Galle last July. In his secondary discipline, Elgar proved the value of an added skill and asked questions of conditions, which made day one appear closer to day four.This not Test cricket as South Africa know it: the ball turned substantially from the first session. By the end of the day, puffs of dust smoked out of the surface at every footfall and the match is unlikely to last five days. But it is the kind of Test cricket they were preparing for: “the worst,” as Faf du Plessis put it pre-match. Part of that preparation was having as many slower bowling options as possible without compromising on the length of the batting line-up or the pace pack, although South Africa did go into the match with six instead of their usual seven specialist batsmen to make room for an extra spinner.

Hardest day of Test cricket I’ve had – Elgar

Taking four wickets was an added bonus for Dean Elgar, who now has to get down to doing his primary job of scoring runs. Elgar admitted it’s going to be an uphill battle on a surface that seems tired after just one day of Test cricket.
“Although the outfield is quite fast, It’s difficult to generate pace on the ball when you’re batting. It’s going to be hard graft from here in but we knew that. We’re going to have to knuckle down and sweat it out against them,” Elgar said.
“It wasn’t easy. We sort of expected it to play like that, but we didn’t expect it to crumble as much as what it has already. It was hard graft. It was right up there with the hardest day of test cricket I’ve had.”
Despite the conditions, Elgar has promised as much aggression as he can manage.
“The way forward is always to be positive. Tonight we had to go into our shells and fight. It’s not normally the way we play our cricket.”

That was the reason Elgar formed part of the attack, although he was not expected to be a big part of it. His job was to act as the pause button, to get rid of some overs while the main men thought of their next move. He was not going to be tasked with being a main man himself.Hashim Amla brought Elgar when he switched bowling ends for Kagiso Rabada to ensure there was always some discomfort from one side for the opposition. On debut, Rabada showed the potential to perform in the longest format and hurried the batsmen with pace. Elgar was the exact opposite. He delivered in slow-motion, allowing flight and drift to take the ball to the batsmen, almost at the speed of a carrier pigeon and maybe veering off course along the way too. The waiting and the wondering caused uncertainty. Cheteshwar Pujara played down the wrong line as a result.That dismissal, a fluke perhaps, brought out a caricature celebration from Elgar, complete with chest-bashing. But he saw soon the value of behaving like a serious bowler. He paid attention to the drift and flight and saw that he could draw the batsmen forward and then surprise them with his lack of pace. Ajinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha both went that way to turn Elgar’s throwaway overs into trophies that will hold more pride of place than some his previous scalps.Among Elgar’s Tests scalps are Misbah-ul-Haq and Steven Smith but both were snaffled because of their own slackness. Misbah slogged and edged, Smith bottom-edged a long-hop onto his stumps. The only batsmen Elgar dismissed in fortuitous fashion was Amit Mishra; Rahane and Saha were outskilled, not just by the bowler but South Africa’s tactics too.Amla’s captaincy deserves some of the credit for the squeeze South Africa applied because of the way he rotated the bowlers and manipulated the field. Amla almost always had at least one close catcher to constantly cramp India. The short-leg was mandatory, the short cover was a constant annoyance and the short mid-wicket was there for a mistake from Vernon Philander’s nagging line. It was only fitting that the only close-ish catcher who was called into the action was Elgar himself, who took a good low catch at a cover position that was a little closer than usual to dismiss Virat Kohli.Kohli was one of only three batsmen dismissed from the Pavilion End. The rest, including three of Elgar’s scalps all fell at the City End, where there is substantial rough already.Doubtless Elgar would have been thinking about the batting consequences of that area, even as he was trying to hit it as a bowler. His real job is to open the batting and he would have known that was going to be tough.He seemed to have gotten a close enough look at things to have an idea of how to deal with them, though. For the hour Elgar was at the crease, he batted patiently, not the Faf du Plessis-blockathon patience that South Africa have occasionally been known to employ, but the wait-for-the-ball-until-it-comes-to-you kind of patience that Rahane and Saha had not shown.At first, Elgar seemed to be as anxious as they were. He went forward to R Ashwin, saw a leading edge pop up off one ball and an inside edge off another. Then he remembered to hang back. He could do it against Varun Aaron and continued to stay in his crease most of the time when Ravindra Jadeja was brought on. He did not look comfortable all the time and later called it “the hardest day of Test cricket I’ve had” but he survived. Today, that was enough. Tomorrow it will turn again. That much we know. We don’t yet know for whom.

Kane Williamson could and should break all the New Zealand batting records by the end of his career. He could and should be aiming to be the best batsman in the world. Truth be told, he’s not far off at the moment

Brydon Coverdale in Brisbane07-Nov-2015Thirty years ago, New Zealand’s all-time finest bowler and all-time greatest batsman combined to create history at the Gabba. To win their first Test in Australia the stars had to align, and in Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe, they did. To repeat the feat in 2015 they needed a similar convergence from what Hadlee calls their all-time finest new-ball pair, and the man who will become the country’s greatest batsman.’Williamson’s intent was fantastic’

David Warner, who struck two hundreds in the match, was all praise for New Zealand’s lone centurion of the match Kane Williamson.
“You can’t fault one bit of his technique,” he said after the match. “The way he played out there against three unbelievable quicks was fantastic. The way he got himself in, his intent was fantastic. There was a stat there that for 12 months he hasn’t been caught behind the wickets, which is a phenomenal achievement for a person who bats 3. Credit to him, I think he’s on top of his game at the moment. He’s a definite world-class player.”

Alas, Trent Boult and Tim Southee were unable to channel Hadlee and his 15-wicket match on the first day of this encounter. But Kane Williamson did his bit to emulate Crowe, his 140 the second-highest score by a New Zealander at the Gabba. Had he not started to swing selflessly when running out of partners, he might have overtaken Crowe’s 188. The bowlers helped him with some tail-end runs, but not with first-innings wickets.At the Gabba, he wasn’t just in a different class to his team-mates but a different phylum, perhaps even a different kingdom. . While Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc wreaked havoc on the second afternoon, Williamson was a picture of calm. That continued on the third day as he proved the theory that the Gabba is a venue that provides full value for your shots.Of his 140 runs, 96 came in boundaries. That is a remarkably high tally, but it showed how well Williamson was able to pick the gaps and time the ball. He barely bothered with running. When Joe Burns reached his century late on the third day, 24 of his runs had come in ones; for Williamson it was only 11. He was about as interested in singles as Mike and Bob Bryan.He was incredibly productive behind square on the off side, a region that brought him 11 boundaries as he cut, steered, glided and simply used the pace of Australia’s fast men against them. But his driving down the ground and clipping off the pads through the leg side were just as impressive to watch. Against the rest of New Zealand’s batsmen Australia felt a chance was never far away; against Williamson they felt one would never come.With a tuck through the leg side off Mitchell Johnson, Williamson brought up a century that made him the first New Zealander to have scored Test hundreds against eight nations. Only Zimbabwe remains, and given his talent you’d back him to rectify that at the next opportunity. Crowe only missed out against one team as well – South Africa – but was retired before Bangladesh arrived in Test cricket.Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Williamson is that he has done all of this and is still only 25. He could and should break all the New Zealand batting records by the end of his career. He could and should be aiming to be the best batsman in the world. Truth be told, he’s not far off at the moment. Nobody has scored more combined international runs in the past year than Williamson’s 2801.Too many of Williamson’s team-mates have become slow to get going when a new Test series rolls around. Not Williamson. In New Zealand’s past six Test campaigns, four times he has started with a hundred in his first innings of the series: 113 against India in Auckland, 113 against West Indies in Kingston, 132 against England at Lord’s, and now 140 against Australia at the Gabba.None of his team-mates so much as scored a half-century in the first innings here, and Williamson was forced to do most of his work with the lower order and tail. The first five partnerships in the innings brought 118 runs; the last five managed 199. It has continued a worrying theme for New Zealand over the past two years of their lower order bearing too much of the batting load.At the Gabba 30 years ago Crowe had support – John Reid scored 108. He also had the small matter of Hadlee annihilating Australia in both innings. This time around Boult, Southee and the rest of the New Zealand bowlers could only scrape together four first-innings wickets. Only 14% of New Zealand’s overs in the first innings were maidens; in 1985 it was 27%. “They needed to apply more pressure,” Hadlee said of the 2015 attack.At least Williamson lived up to Hadlee’s high pre-match praise.

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Dec-2015Carlos Brathwaite impressed on debut and went onto make a half-century in his first Test innings•Getty ImagesCarlos Brathwaite’s effort, though, was not spotless. He was helped by a couple of no-ball reprieves from James Pattinson•Getty ImagesJust as West Indies looked set to put together a wicketless first session, Nathan Lyon removed Carlos Brathwaite for 59 at the brink of lunch•Getty ImagesBravo brought up a diligent half-century off 154 balls, after lunch•Getty ImagesBravo, joined by Kemar Roach pushed West Indies past 200 before Pattinson dismissed Roach•Getty ImagesLyon and Pattinson finished with four wickets each as West Indies were eventually bundled out for 271, giving Australia a lead of 280•Getty ImagesJason Holder then struck in the second over for West Indies, after Australia decided not to enforce the follow on•Getty ImagesCarlos Brathwaite soon got his first Test wicket, having David Warner caught at gully to reduce Australia to 2 for 46•Getty ImagesSteven Smith and Usman Khawaja, however, added 77 for the third wicket to stretch the lead past 400 before Khawaja fell for 56•Getty ImagesSmith, though, remained unbeaten on 70, as Australia ended day three at 3 for 179 with a 459-run lead•Getty Images