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The opening day of the first Test was transformed from one of promise to one of disappointment, if not despair, by a flurry of missed catches after tea

Tony Cozier07-May-2009It is a recurring and irritating storyline, and one which the West Indies have done nothing to change. The opening day of the first Test was transformed from one of promise to one of disappointment, if not despair, by a flurry of missed catches after tea. There were six in all, none especially difficult, two downright dollies. They made the difference between an all-out England total of around 220 and their close of play 289.The source of the problem, as it has been through the decade of decline, is the lack of attention paid to fielding and catching practice and the continuing absence of a specialised coach in that critical area.To watch a West Indies fielding session, with its lack of intensity and its slackness, is to understand why their effort is so often undermined by yesterday’s errors. Australia have had Mick Young, an American with a baseball background, as their fielding guru for years. South African have brought in the legendary Jonty Rhodes to sharpen up an already brilliant fielding outfit. Most other Test teams employ professionals in the post.In contrast, the West Indies have spasmodically contracted the highly regarded Englishman Julien Fountain. They have no one here. Fountain was watching from the stands yesterday and it was not difficult to imagine his sentiments.It is obvious that such a coach can only have an impact with the full backing of the captain and the head coach and the cooperation of the players. It also is an ethos that needs to be infused in regional teams from age-group level.Yesterday’s shambles once more had Fidel Edwards at the centre. As he does with increasingly regularity, the fiery fast bowler with the slingshot action bowled with pace, control, swing and spirit to rip out the heart of England’s batting in one irresistible spell.Sent in, they were coasting at 92 for 2 a quarter-hour after lunch when Edwards removed the left-handed Alastair Cook and the dangerous Kevin Pietersen with successive balls and Paul Collingwood a couple of overs later.Cook chopped into his stumps off the inside edge, Pietersen and Collingwood were undone by perfect pitched, late outswingers. Ironically, in view of what was to follow late in the day, both fell to quality catches. Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin’s take at full stretch with the right glove to remove Pietersen was exceptional.With Edwards rested, Jerome Taylor well below his best and, seemingly, below full fitness and Lionel Baker and Sulieman Benn still feeling their way at the highest level, a partnership of 74 developed on a flat pitch between Ravi Bopara and Matt Prior, both with hundreds in their preceding Tests in the series in Caribbean.Recalled right after tea, Edwards immediately struck again, removing Prior and threatening a final demolition only for his fielders, true to form, to betray him as they have so often done. In the Kensington Oval Test in February, six missed catches were so costly they allowed England to amass over 600. Four were off him.Here, the tally was three in the space of four overs. The most critical was Brendan Nash’s midrift muddle at square leg when Bopara was on 76, a relief for a batsman on trial in the pivotal No.3 position. He proceeded to an unbeaten 118 at close.It was Bopara’s second let-off. He was on 40 when the umpire Steve Davis somehow ruled not out on a clear lbw dismissal for Benn. But West Indies could only blame themselves for the day’s remaining mistakes. The left-handed Broad was put down by Benn at gully and captain Chris Gayle at first slip, both off Edwards. By now, the rash had reached pandemic proportions. Broad had a couple more let-offs before one catch finally stuck as he cut Benn to gully. There was also another for Bopara, right after he raised his hundred, Devon Smith at second slip denying the persevering Baker his first wicket.Catches win matches is one of the oldest maxims in the game. The trouble is West Indies don’t seem to appreciate it.

An intriguing contest has built up between India and South Africa, with the intensity found on the field of play rather than in the stands

Dileep Premachandran05-Feb-2010With so few teams in the fray at the highest level, cricket suffers in comparison to other sports when it comes to rivalries. The Ashes, with more than a century of history and tradition, has retained its hallowed status, while other head-to-head contests have ebbed and flowed with the passage of time. For four decades, from the time that Sir Frank Worrell’s side captivated Australia in 1960-61, the tussle for the trophy that came to bear his name was often memorable and fiercely fought. Then, the West Indies went into decline, and the lustre was lost.There was never a shortage of spice when India or Pakistan played England, with those of subcontinental origin spectacularly failing the Tebbitt Test at venues like Headingley and The Oval. There was more than a bit of the coloniser-versus-colonised about those contests, and Indian and Pakistani victories (1986 and 1992, in particular) saw some chips drop off a few shoulders.The unlikeliest rivalry to take shape in recent times though has been that between India and Australia. Long before Monkeygate, Sydney, Steve Bucknor and alleged planes on the tarmac, there had been some needle. Australia’s golden generation of the 1970s never toured India, and the complaints of their predecessors about the hardships of touring are still raised each time there’s a flashpoint.At some point in the 1990s, around the time that the West Indies started to fade, India started figuring out how to play Australia. And while others continued to be swept away by the baggy-green tide, the Indians stood their ground. Apart from one disastrous tour in 1999-2000, ruined by appalling selection as much as anything else, India have fought Australia to a standstill on more than one occasion.There are intriguing facets to these Indo-Australian jousts. One country has produced the finest cricketers and teams, from the days of Spofforth, through Trumper, Armstrong, Bradman and the Chappells, to Ponting. The other has the world’s largest captive audience for the game. India’s fascination with Twenty20 cricket and the lack of passion for the longer version of the game is often overstated. There were capacity crowds for the Ranji Trophy final in Mysore, which suggests that the board needs to think again about where it schedules games in future.But what of India and South Africa? In the early days, there were no cricketing ties, with India playing a prominent role in the justified isolation of apartheid South Africa. After Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison in Paarl in February 1990, it was the Indian board that helped accelerate South African cricket’s return to the international fold. Without the BCCI championing the United Cricket Board’s cause, it’s unlikely that Kepler Wessels’ side would have played, and made such an impact, at the World Cup in 1992.The bilateral series that followed was characterised by some bland safety-first cricket, and decided by the pace and fury of Allan Donald at Port Elizabeth. Wessels’ bat made contact with Kapil Dev’s shin after the controversial “Mankaded” dismissal of Peter Kirsten, but even that incident created nothing like the sort of animosity seen after Sydney.India seldom did themselves justice in the southern cape, and it took a long time for the South African public to think of them as a half-decent side. Even when individuals dazzled, as Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin did in Cape Town (1996), the collective showing was dismal. That, of course, was the tour in which India made 100 and 66 in Durban.Even on Indian soil, the South Africans found ways to be competitive. But for a splendid spell from Javagal Srinath at Motera in the first Test of the ’96-’97 series, Cronje’s side might have walked away with series honours. Gary Kirsten’s resolute batting had set the stage for a mammoth win at the Eden Gardens and the visitors had shown that even without a great spinner in the ranks, their pace bowlers had the nous to adjust and even thrive on slow-and-low pitches.By their next tour, with Donald once again rampant, the pace men had perfected their subcontinent strategy. Having prevailed in a tense contest at the Wankhede in Mumbai – a pitch that was given the wire-brush treatment, no less – they were far too good for India in Bangalore. It should have gone down in the annals as one of South Africa’s greatest triumphs – no team had won in India since Pakistan edged a series by 16 runs in 1987 – but instead it was obscured by the match-fixing scandal that claimed prominent victims on both sides of the divide.The Mike Denness affair cast a pall over India’s subsequent tour of South Africa, though once again the hosts were far too good out on the field. It was only three years ago, on a Wanderers pitch that Mickey Arthur had reckoned would be tailor-made for his quicks, that India’s cricketers finally went some distance towards solving the puzzle. Sreesanth’s pelvic thrusts with bat-in-hand might be the memorable image from that game, but it was his outswing bowling that saw South Africa routed for just 84 in the first innings. It was a series that hung in the balance right up to the final session, when Jacques Kallis’ composure and poise saw the home side home in the shadow of Table Mountain.South Africa will be tested by Indian spin, but keeping the camp harmonious will be as much of a challenge•AFPZaheer Khan’s tussles with Graeme Smith formed a fascinating sub-text to that series, and Smith’s revival in the final three innings played a huge part in his team’s come-from-behind victory. The return series in India was shared, with both sides winning convincingly in contrasting conditions. South Africa bowled India out for 76 on a well-grassed pitch in Ahmedabad, and were then at the receiving end of a spin ambush in Kanpur. But while the matches were hard-fought and the South Africans were none too happy with the Green Park surface, there was an absence of the malice that had taken the sheen off India’s series in Australia.Even three years ago, neither of these sides would have imagined that they would leave Australia in the shade, at least as far as the rankings are concerned. South Africa came back from hopeless positions at both Perth and Melbourne to win the series, but then discovered that climbing to the top was a lot easier than staying there. Australia continued with their tradition of handing out beatings to South Africa in the Cape, and the ordinary run continued against England later in the year.India, in contrast, have built on the confidence engendered by a comprehensive home series win against the Australians. England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been defeated since, and the manner in which they fought back to draw games at Napier and Ahmedabad was indicative of the belief that courses through the ranks. Already without Rahul Dravid, they might be deprived of VVS Laxman’s services as well, but those that take their places are unlikely to freeze in the face of a pace barrage.South Africa will be tested by Indian spin, but keeping the camp harmonious will be as much of a challenge. Makhaya Ntini, the team’s lone black icon, is fading, and it’ll be intriguing to see if politics plays much of a part in team selection over the next fortnight. Transformation certainly has provided benefits, with Hashim Amla, blooded on the tour here in 2004, now established as an integral part of the top order.These two teams spent more than a decade in Australia’s shadow, and it’ll be fascinating to see which of them is best equipped to try and cling to the top branches. Both have a battle-hardened core, and youngsters with huge potential. What neither has yet discovered is the ruthlessness that was the hallmark of the great West Indian and Australian sides. Natural allies less than two decades ago, and still great friends at board level, the players must now focus on a new rivalry. For decades now, the sight of the green Pakistani or Australian cap was enough to fire up those in India blue. Now the endeavour will be to be similarly aroused by a different shade of green.In recent times, clashes with Australia and Pakistan have been marred by distressing levels of jingoism. That’s unlikely to be the case here, with the intensity found on the field of play rather than in the stands. Given that the alternate appears to be monkey noises or chants of “Pakistan hai hai”, it’s perhaps better that way.

Plays of the Day from the first day of the second Test between India and New Zealand in Hyderabad

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Nov-2010Comforting moment of the day
On the flattest of pitches at Motera, Tim McIntosh had made a pair, falling to Zaheer Khan both times. He had faced no other bowler in the match. Today, on a juicier surface in Hyderabad, McIntosh remained strokeless in the opening exchanges against Zaheer and played out two maiden overs. The moment he finally got to face another bowler, though, off the last ball of the sixth over, McIntosh strode forward and drove Sreesanth through covers for four. The confidence had clearly grown, for when he faced his 15th delivery from Zaheer, McIntosh played a square drive through point – his first scoring shot off the bowler.Let-off of the day
Martin Guptill had blown it. Dropped for the disastrous tour of Bangladesh, and not selected to play at Motera, he had got his chance in Hyderabad and he had blown it, by nicking Sreesanth to MS Dhoni. He had nearly walked off the ground and Ross Taylor had almost reached the pitch when word reached him that Sreesanth had over-stepped and the umpire Kumar Dharmasena had checked with the third umpire late. Guptill wore a sheepish smile as he walked past Taylor towards the middle to resume his innings. He would get another lucky break soon after, when Dhoni failed to catch an edge, and he made his luck count.Unexpected shot of the day
New Zealand had seen off the new ball, hit only five fours and were chugging along at fewer than three an over in the first 20. The discussions had switched to whether the threatening clouds would cause a rain interruption when Guptill put the cricket back in focus by taking a neat step down to Harbhajan Singh and lofting him over the long-on boundary. The attack came out of nowhere and its follow-through was full but not lavish. A graceful pick-me-up the session needed.Nuisance of the day
Play being held up by malfunctioning sight-screens is perhaps the most annoying interruption in cricket. How hard can it be to put a well-oiled sight-screen in place? Before the second over began after lunch, the sight-screen at the North End decided to act up. It refused to change from displaying the sponsor advertisement to white, and at one stage it showed one half of two logos. Having failed to fix it, the groundstaff attempted to move it out of the batsman’s view by wheeling it to one side. It refused to budge though. There was little choice but to turn violent and, with a couple of shoves, the groundstaff toppled the stubborn sight-screen onto its back and out of view. It had served little purpose anyway because the region behind it was draped with white sheets.Over-dressed fielder of the day
In the 60th over during the final session, McIntosh went back to a long-hop from Harbhajan and cut hard towards cover-point, where the ball was intercepted by a fielder. Nothing unusual about it, except the fielder was wearing a helmet and shin pads. Gautam Gambhir had been stationed at short leg for new batsman Taylor and didn’t bother shedding the extra gear when he was moved to cover-point for McIntosh. Just as well he didn’t have to chase anything.Revelation of the day
McIntosh is a big batsman, taller than Dhoni, who was crouched behind him for the entire day. And yet he almost never showed any sign of power. McIntosh scored 25 runs in the morning session, 30 in the second and toiled for them. Virender Sehwag had come close to 100 in the first in Ahmedabad. And then McIntosh played an astonishing stroke. Shelving the steers, glances and economical drives that had brought him five fours, he took two steps forward to Pragyan Ojha and lifted him over the midwicket boundary. At first it appeared as though the ball might just clear the in-field – so light was his touch – but it went the distance.Landmark of the day
When McIntosh drove Harbhajan to deep mid-on to reach his century, the first by a New Zealand opener away from home since Stephen Fleming at Trent Bridge in 2004, there was initially little applause. Only when he raised his arms aloft and celebrated the achievement did the spectators realise and give him a cheer. The fault was not theirs, though, because the scoreboard at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium shows only the team’s total and no scores for individual batsmen. McIntosh was obviously counting.

Two books on have created a light industry. The shelves are full of books by and about the imperishable Johnners. We have been taken countless times behind the scenes at , most recently by Peter Baxter. The programme even, for a while, created its own travelling roadshow. But while these two new books are both diverting and highly readable, the former reminds us of the danger of falling into the self-mythologising trap; of believing it is somehow bigger than the game it is there to celebrate.Jonathan Agnew’s book is a curious hybrid: a heartfelt tribute to the author’s friend and mentor,Brian Johnston, but also a ball-by- ball account of Agnew’s own transformation from Leicestershire paceman to frontman. On both subjects it has many interesting things to say. Agnew faithfully recalls BJ’s love of pranks, and verbal mischief (at one point the Pakistan fast bowler Asif Mahood Spoonerishly became “Massive Arsehood”) while noting his reluctance ever to talk about his wartime heroism. When it comes to his own career, Agnew rather poignantly says that he played for England when he probably shouldn’t have and didn’t play when he probably should have.For all its split purpose, I enjoyed Agnew’s book; and it is fascinating to get a glimpse of the occasional tension behind the bubbly bonhomie of dinner erupted in chaos with a fierce row between Fred Trueman and Micky Stewart and when Pat Murphy’s refusal to toast the Queen nearly prompted Johnston’s resignation.Harmony was quickly restored and soon settled down again. But Agnew unwittingly puts his finger on the problem facing it today when he writes: ” rather than the other way round. In an extraordinary passage Agnew attacks UDRS (Umpire Decision Review System) on the grounds that “it kills the commentary stone dead”. I’d have thought it’s more important that on-field errors should be rectified than that commentators should have to suffer momentary inconvenience. As a personal tribute to Johnston, Agnew’s book is admirable; but it also illustrates, with no fewer than 18 pages on the well-documented “leg-over” joke, the danger of , a memo went round saying, “Under no circumstances must the BBC Television Centre be used for the purposes of entertainment”. One or two of the interviews fall flat when read: John Paul Getty Jr simply emerges as a loyal fan and even Agnew’s encounter with Lily Allen, which caused a stir at the time, is not that remarkable on the page. But the bulk of the interviews are richly revealing. Henry Blofeld proves totally at ease with Dennis Skinner who is rightly impassioned about the sale of school cricket fields, Agnew gets Stephen Fry to talk eloquently about the links between cricket and the English language and, best of all, the underrated Simon Mann relishes an abrasive encounter with Piers Morgan who tests to the limit the theory that cricket lovers are invariably nice people; in fact, reading that interview I was reminded of Fry’s wicked definition of “countryside” as “killing Piers Morgan”. But the joy of Baxter’s book is that it communicates a love of cricket and shows why, whatever its flaws, we still need .Thanks Johnners
by Jonathan Agnew
Blue Door (hardback)
244pp, £20

The Best Views from the Boundary
by Compiled by Peter Baxter
Corinthian Books (hardback)
312pp, £14.99

Ireland’s upset of England has turned their match against India into a much-awaited game, and one that could have telling consequences on the Cluster of Calamity that is Group B

Sharda Ugra in Bangalore04-Mar-2011The summer is racing towards Bangalore but temperatures inside the Chinnaswamy Stadium are dropping from the highs of the India v England contest last week. One bunch of stands has been cleared of chairs, the concrete bleachers are back and the capacity of the ground has gone up from 38,000 to 39, 221, with half available for public sale. There are no laathi charges outside the stadium, no crowds thronging the gates and tickets for the match are all sold out.The build-up to India v Ireland would have been quieter had it not been for Wednesday’s upset and the general churning in Group B that has sent this Cluster of Calamity into a state of flux at the start of the third week of the World Cup.Suddenly, India v Ireland on Sunday is a match where the Indians must hit the ground at full stride and the Irish cannot afford to slip for fear of being condemned for having celebrated far too much on the days following their victory over England.Ireland put out allrounder John Mooney and a short burst of Wednesday’s hero Kevin O’Brien for the waiting cameramen and reporters on Friday; the Indians stayed true to the BCCI’s intentions to have their players available in only diet-sized bites, once the day before a match and then an hour after each match is over. At one stage, there was a strong rumour that given the high demand for interviews of Yusuf Pathan’s newly-acquired talking parrots, the two birds would be forced to turn up for the media conference. At the first sign of television cameras, it is reliably learnt, that the parrots just fled, or rather, flew.An Indian net session can often represent a film clip from cuckoo land, but that is being disrespectful to a bunch of the country’s most elite high-performance athletes, who showed off multi-disciplinary skills on Friday. The team arrived at the ground about 90 minutes behind the schedule announced earlier and set themselves up for a long practice session. In a development that will gladden the hearts of their devoted fans and cantankerous punditry, a fielding session under lights was planned. India’s practice began with a 20-minute lockdown in their changing room, and when they did emerge, an hour of football was followed by a group of the players gathering to perform the Usain Bolt pose for the cameras. The Jamaican sprinter calls it his, “To Di World” pose. Given that India’s fielders are not really entitled to send out such messages to anyone, the move may be a psychological ploy to rev up the team’s happiness index and also confuse the Irish: that among their slow-moving rivals on Sunday, champion sprinters lurk dangerously.Fielding is the area where the Indians will have to up their game against a team which can be matched with both bat and ball. No matter how many they make, it is what the Indians will leak in the field that will always hold them back. Dhoni had thrown his hands up after the tie against England when he said, “I don’t think we can improve the fielding very much because we have got quite a few slow fielders in the side … you need to realise your strengths and definitely fielding is not a big part of it.”It is why India must decide whether to pack in a side that can score runs or bring in the extra wicket-taker. The somewhat brittle, though effective, Ashish Nehra is rumoured to be fit again but for him to be in the XI, India must leave out either Piyush Chawla or pack the side with five specialist bowlers and give Yusuf Pathan a chance to spend time with the parrots. If India do play five bowlers, it will be an act of much boldness and a slightly heavier responsibility on its big-ticket batsmen. They have had a week’s break after each of their two matches so far, but now go into three matches in seven games, and no matter what the big tickets do, it is India’s foot soldiers who will be sweating.Runs are, once again, expected to burst forth from the Chinnaswamy Stadium wicket, where the last three international matches have generated an average of 328 runs per innings. In these three games, two teams have successfully chased scores of above 300 with India and England entangled in a tie. All that can be done to generate an extra twirl of turn on the wicket, which is what the Indians must now be slightly desperate for, is to keep the wicket dry by not watering it. Yet how much the wicket can be changed is all a question of degree. Who gets to decide what that degree is, will be known the moment the first innings of Sunday’s match is complete.

West Indies have created opportunities in both of their last two matches, but perhaps the memory of winning against a big team is too hazy for them to remember how to get over the line

Dileep Premachandran at the MA Chidambaram Stadium20-Mar-2011In May 2006, after India had edged a close game in Jamaica at the start of the one-day series, Greg Chappell, then the coach, suggested that West Indies had forgotten how to win. It prompted a furious response, and some West Indies players indicated that it had been the inspiration for a rousing comeback that sealed the series 4-1.Those were hardly glory days for West Indies – the subsequent Test series was lost in Kingston – but continuing poor results have meant that even the players have begun to acknowledge that the winning habit is a hazy memory.The task at Chepauk was not a straightforward run chase, especially with no Chris Gayle at the top of the order. But having done the hard work, with Devon Smith particularly impressive in crafting 81, the match was there to be won. When you are 154 for 2, needing less than a run a ball from the last 20 overs, it takes some pretty inept batting to throw it away.Darren Sammy is now as used to answering the collapse question as he is to losing tosses. “We created another opportunity, but couldn’t capitalise,” he said wearily. “It’s a good thing it didn’t happen in the knockout stage. If it had, we would be going home. It is worrying for us, but I back the calibre of players that we have.”Smith is exempt from criticism, bowled by a beautiful slower delivery from Zaheer Khan, but as India scented an opportunity, West Indies drilled holes instead of plugging leaks. Kieron Pollard, batting with a dislocated finger, went for the glory shot before he’d settled, and Sammy was run out in a comedy of errors involving him, Suresh Raina and Munaf Patel.Those left showed no inclination to take the game to the wire, and Ramnaresh Sarwan’s desperate swipe at Zaheer in the batting Powerplay summed up the collective lack of belief. There have been murmurs about the exclusion of Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the last two games, but it’s optimistic to see a man averaging 23.33 in the tournament, with a strike-rate of 58.82, as the panacea to batting ills.Ravi Rampaul’s five-wicket haul was one of the few positives from the game for West Indies•AFPSpare a thought for Ravi Rampaul. A benchwarmer until fever ruled Kemar Roach out, he produced a magnificent spell of bowling on a pitch that offered little more than some early bounce. Back in June 2009, when West Indies last beat a top-ranking nation [India, in Jamaica], Rampaul had taken 4 for 37. On Sunday, he topped that with 5 for 51.The reverse-swing special to get rid of a well-set Virat Kohli was eye-catching, as was the yorker with which he nailed Yusuf Pathan. It was yet another reminder to the line-and-length school of coaching that bending your back and bowling genuinely quick comes with its own rewards.Afterwards, Sammy admitted that Rampaul’s performance was one of the few things to take away from the defeat. “He has been on the bench, but he’s come in and grabbed his opportunity with both hands. That’s what you want from your team setup.”What you don’t want is to give dangerous batsmen too many reprieves. “We got success early on, and could have had Yuvraj [Singh] too,” Sammy said. “I was the culprit who dropped him both times.”Yuvraj had made just 9 and 13 when those chances went down, and his 122-run partnership with Kohli transformed the game. With Pakistan having played one of their best games of the tournament against Australia, such generosity is likely to be severely punished in Mirpur on Wednesday, when West Indies face them in the first quarter-final.Sammy is well aware of the threat. “Their captain [Shahid Afridi] has been performing, and some of the others have too. Hopefully, they’ll have their bad match against us, and we’ll bring our A game.”It’s been a long time since anyone saw it. But as they head to Bangladesh, the players could do worse than ask Richie Richardson, the manager, to tell them about 1996. Then too, West Indies qualified fourth out of their group and were given next to no chance against a rampant South Africa.A Brian Lara epic followed, and Sammy will hope that a fit-again Chris Gayle or a Darren Bravo can emulate him as a once-great side tries to rediscover the winning feeling.

What India’s bowlers have lacked is the man to drive them onwards, to give their pack direction

Sharda Ugra at Edgbaston11-Aug-2011The instant that captured India’s day at Edgbaston came right at the end. On the first ball of the last over in the technicolour glow of an English summer evening. Having dropped Eoin Morgan off a simple chance at first slip, Rahul Dravid, immovable batsman, unflappable man, tore the blue India cap off his head and flung it to the ground. Flung it like he wanted it to drill a hole in the ground. Flung it like he wanted to dive into that hole after it.It wasn’t a muted gesture of controlled despair or an invisible pang of disappointment. It was pure fury; rage boiling over. It was the second catch Dravid had dropped in the day, it was the third by India and the second time Morgan had been given a life. It was the culmination of what had been a day of pure melee for the Indians: they conceded 372 runs, dropped three simple chances and the first of only three wickets to fall had come off a no-ball that was missed by the umpires, from a spinner who had infuriatingly sent down eight no-balls.Thursday drove India’s men over the edge, made them act out of character. While Dravid’s finale was tempestuous, Sreesanth theatrics dissipated. Savagely pulled by Alastair Cook for a boundary for being short and wide for his first over with a new ball, Sreesanth adopted the game’s pose of baffled enquiry. In Indian dance terminology, you can call it the teapot mudra. Hands on hips, complete annoyance on face. It was untidy, confused and comic, much like India were in the field.England scored at more than four an over on a wicket that was easing and began to show the first signs of turn towards the end of the day; they are 232 runs ahead, have enough wickets in the bag, and for the first time in the series, had their innings set up more than handsomely by their openers. The Indians know it needn’t have been this way but the reason that it is, lies within as much as it does in England’s bowling. There have been two points in this series where India’s bowling has been completely unlike Thursday. In those two phases, they have stood up to full height and looked on the other side of ragged, despite carrying old legs in the field and not many runs to go with.The first was at Lord’s when Ishant Sharma ripped out the heart of England’s middle order on the fourth morning, leaving them at 5 for 67 at lunch. The second came at Trent Bridge, with England at 8 for 124. It is the time when escape hatches need to be slammed shut, air needs to be knocked out of lungs and it is where turnarounds begin. It is what competitive teams do and what No. 1 teams have in their DNA. It is as Harsha Bhogle described it on his Time Out show, cricket’s version of the break-point that champion capitalise on almost instinctively.In being unable to do so not once but twice, India have displayed a fallibility that, regardless of the result of the series or the No.1 ranking, is now their bauble of burden. What the bowlers have lacked at times like these is the man to drive them onwards, to give their pack direction. Not the senior pros or even the captain, but one of their own.There would no doubt have been moments in the day when the bowlers’ minds would have strayed to the man who was not on the field. The talismanic Zaheer Khan was not merely wicket-taker but pack-leader, fire-starter, advisor, and aide. Against West Indies, Zaheer’s second-in-commands, the capable and skilled Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar did more than adequately. Against a team one notch higher though, the demands have been doubly severe and the outcomes half as fruitful.Ishant and Praveen’s labours in England have been wince-inducing: Ishant has bowled 130 overs, Praveen 150 while Sreesanth has played only one Test so far, and bowled 68. Already the India’s main frontline bowlers have bowled more overs than the two leading Indians did in the 2007 series in England. Then Zaheer bowled 136.2 to mark his career-breakthrough 18 wickets and Anil Kumble, second highest wicket-taker along with Anderson at 14, sent down 143.4. RP Singh who just strolled over to Edgbaston with a smile on his face was partner to Zaheer in 2007, bowling 92 overs and taking 12. It is not as if the team of 2007 was bubbling with optimism; they had come off a poor World Cup, were without Virender Sehwag, full stop, and no successor to Greg Chappell as coach. They weren’t expected to win, none of their frontline batsmen scored a century in the three Tests, but at the end, India won the series 1-0. Their seam bowling attack however was a few notches higher in one critical element than the current group: pace.Kumble, who is following the series from his home in Bangalore, can see how tired his former team-mates are by the sheer load but, for all his sympathy, says it is the top-class Test bowler’s lot. “As a bowler, you’ll have to get to a level where bowling 30 overs in a day is routine. You have to get into that mindset. You have to be prepared to have days like India had today, where nothing will go your way, where you won’t get a wicket.” What happens away from the field of play must then kick in and Kumble says the best solution is self-analysis. “Analyse what you did, what could you have done different, see if setting different fields helps. Think about changing something. If you don’t do then you’re just going through the motions.”It is the time, Kumble says when the young player, the new bowler of ambition and desire must push himself further, stretch his ambitions. “At this level, the talent is more or less the same. It is the desire that makes a difference. You have to tell yourself that out of the four bowlers, you want to become the No.1 that the captain turns to. How you want to go up the ranks is up to you.” Don’t look for one person to be your leader and yourself as the support cast, he often told his younger mates. Go and become that leader.It is what Zaheer was able to do in 2007, after a lousy first day at Lord’s. Since that series, he has taken 131 of his 273 wickets. Since the team’s No.1 ranking, Zaheer has played in 11 out of India’s 18 Tests before this England series and taken 53 wickets. He is missed now because in 2007, he pushed himself forward to become the No.1 man. What India’s bowling is without today is a leader. Not the if-only man, the man who could have been, but someone in its ranks who, at the bottom of his heart, with all due respect, actually really wants to push Zaheer Khan off his perch.

The form of Andrew Strauss is starting to cause concern. While the rest of the top seven – with the possible exception of Eoin Morgan – have enjoyed a year of feasts, Strauss is enduring something of a famine

George Dobell in Dubai19-Jan-2012On a day bursting with batting ineptitude from England, it might seem harsh to highlight the failings of just one man. Particularly when that man might have just been the victim of an umpiring error.Andrew Strauss walked off shaking his head in disbelief after he was adjudged caught down the legside off Umar Gul, with the third umpire Steve Davis upholding Billy Bowden’s decision because the Hotspot technology was unsighted.But the form of Strauss is starting to cause concern. While the rest of the top seven – with the possible exception of Eoin Morgan – have enjoyed a year of feasts, Strauss is enduring something of a famine.The figures make grim reading. Since the end of the Ashes, Strauss has passed 50 just once in 12 innings. He hasn’t scored a century for 12 Tests and he has only made one in his last 26. Since the start of the Sri Lanka series in England, he averages just 23.41. That is less than Graeme Swann’s Test batting average. And he bats at No. 9.It would be disingenuous to consider Strauss purely a batsman. He provides far more than runs to the team cause. His calm leadership has been a key component in England’s rise to No. 1 in the Test rankings and he remains a reliable slip catcher. Those things shouldn’t be underestimated. If captaincy is just about tactics and field placements, then Strauss may be considered no better than average; if it is about leadership and uniting a team, then he must be considered very good indeed.Ultimately, however, runs are the currency that counts. Just as the days have gone when any Test side could accommodate a keeper who did not also offer runs, so have the days when a side could find room for a captain like Mike Brearley who compensated for his lack of runs with his astute leadership.Strauss has one big advantage over Brearley: the current England captain has proved that he has the ability to prosper at this level. In a 39-Test career, Brearley never scored a century and finished with an average below 30. Strauss has made 19 Test centuries and averages over 40. He’s only 34, too. There’s no reason to suspect that age is catching up with him.Let’s be clear: Strauss is not about to be dropped. In a different era – an era of panicking selectors and weak management – he may well have been looking over his shoulder. But under this regime? No chance. Not yet, anyway. Strauss will have the fulsome backing of Andy Flower and will be given more time to rediscover his form. That is surely the way things should be, too. Besides, the opening position is perhaps the only batting spot in the side for which there are not copious potential replacements in county cricket. There is no one pushing for Strauss’ place in the side and Alastair Cook is in no hurry to assume the captaincy.There is, perhaps, more danger that Strauss will feel he is not pulling his weight and resign. It will be increasingly difficult to lift a tired team – and there will be moments in the next year when this England team looks distinctly jaded – if he is consumed by worries about his own form. His personal pride, too, will not allow him to feel like a passenger.It’s not the first time Strauss has experienced a lean patch. On the tour to New Zealand in 2008 he was probably within one innings of being dropped. He had gone 15 Tests without a century and looked almost unrecognisable from the pleasing left-hand batsman who had scored a century on debut.On that occasion he responded with a century in Napier that revitalised his career. England will be hoping a similar revival is just around the corner. Otherwise someone is going to have some tough decisions to make.Ultimately, if England keep winning, Strauss’ form is easy to overlook. If they start losing, however, the pressure will begin to build.

Despite being at the top of their game through the league stages, Delhi Dardevils ran out of steam when it mattered the most. They need to reward their consistency with trophies

Sharda Ugra26-May-2012Where they finishedThird place, at the end of everything with two deafening defeats in the playoffs to deal with. Yet, after their 2011 nightmare, their single big benefit from this edition would be a return to being one of the IPL’s more consistent teams. What they would want now with all this consistency are some trophies. At least their consistency in the league phase has rewarded them with a place in the Champions League T20.Key player
Despite the opening presence of Virender Sehwag and David Warner at the top, it was Morne Morkel’s venom that set Daredevils on its way to the playoffs at the start of the IPL. Height, pace, accuracy, the ability to generate awkwardness from batsmen and a calm persona helped Morkel signal the turnaround in Daredevils’ fortunes and saw them sail through the first six weeks. A team of quicks supporting him certainly helped but Morkel led the pack like he was meant to but ask batsmen facing him about the 160 dot balls in the 378 bowled. Umesh Yadav was a good partner and the reasons to keep Morkel out of the XI versus Chennai Super Kings will forever be debated. Team balance, he said. More foreign players in an XI, grumbled others. One way or another, more Morne anyway.Bargain buyFor all the cursing about a lack of spinners, Daredevils would believe that its uncapped left-arm spinner, Shahbaz Nadeem (bought for Rs 30 lakh), at least gives them a tidy option. He had an ordinary run in his last half of his 12-match IPL, taken to the cleaners by Jesse Ryder and Sourav Ganguly but surely that is a 22-year-old’s rite of passage. Of all the slow bowlers tried by Daredevils, it was Nadeem who got more wickets than anyone else and had a better economy rate than Morkel, Yadav and Varun Aaron. A place in the XI heading into the final week of the tournament could have been argued for.Flop buySurely $700,000 is match-winner’s money. It’s what Venugopal Rao cleaned up at the 2011 auction, so to have played only ten matches out of a season’s total of 18 with a return of 122 runs means that some numbers are not acting up. Rao turned up in the middle order, often at No. 3, ahead of Mahela Jayawardene and Ross Taylor on a few occasions, but was unable to return a strike-rate higher than 104. It is the new statistic that batting signings will be judged on in Twenty20 and by that count, Rao needed better numbers than he had this season.HighlightsWithout doubt, David Warner’s decimation of the Deccan Chargers’ hopes in the team’s chase of 187 in Hyderabad. Not because it was a batsman smashing bowlers all around – this was the Chargers minus Dale Steyn, remember – but because Warner brought to bear in splendor, abandon and just crazy hitting, his impact in the shortest form of the game and why his name had travelled far. Just like Warner himself who was playing in only his second IPL 2012 match having stepped off a plane and a Test series in Dominica just a fortnight ago. Often, matches in the IPL go past in a blur; Warner’s 109 not out off 54 balls, with seven sixes, was memorable for its aggression and the fact that he won Daredevils the game by nine wickets, with 20 balls to spare.LowlightNaturally the final-week qualifiers. Daredevils won both tosses and botched it twice. The quicks had given Daredevils much fuel all through the IPL but the omission of spinning options in Roelof van der Merwe or Shahbaz Nadeem to start with cost them on the slow-spinning Pune track against Knight Riders. To keep Ross Taylor back behind Venugopal Rao and 19-year-old left-hander Pawan Negi when the run-rate began to climb, had an explanation in theoretical tactics but on the field it just looked plain illogical. Then in the last-chance saloon versus Super Kings, Morkel, the tournament’s highest wicket-taker, sat out because of Andre Russell’s all-round skills. The result met a logical end: no wonder, the short cut to the final was cut short.VerdictAll the way to the final week, it looked as if Daredevils had got their mojo back or rather got the formula right. Two semi-finals in the first two editions followed by a narrow miss of the knockout through net run-rate in the third shows that they remain one of the more consistent teams of the IPL. Yet the bottom-placed finish in 2011 could be the blip that was needed to get their shape back. It may look like a love for quick bowlers – there are nine on their roster, including two of India’s fastest – or to keep looking for the allrounders perfect for Twenty20 or just the ability to identify batsmen who can do the business. The razzle-dazzle of Virender Sehwag, Kevin Pietersen and Warner was strengthened by the low-on-noise high-on-quality Mahela Jayawardene. It should have surprised no one that they marched through the first six weeks of the IPL with few who could them. This is what they need but all the way to the business end will require a rethink and maybe more trust in their own spinners.

The visitors suffered a number of self-inflicted blows that undid their fine recovery in the second Test and excuses won’t do

George Dobell at Trent Bridge26-May-2012It is the self inflicted injuries that will smart most. We all knew that this West Indies side was not the most talented to tour England. We all knew there would be days when the top-order came unstuck and the bowling looked a little thin. But we also expected a team that worked hard and made the most of their ability.It has not been so at Trent Bridge. While there have been periods of encouragement for West Indies – a feature of their recent Tests – this game may be defined by moments of sloppiness that have turned potential match-winning positions into match-losing positions. It rarely pays to take too much for granted in cricket but England, with eight wickets in hand and a batsman’s dream of a pitch upon which to gorge their hunger for runs, could – and should – have a substantial lead by the end of the third day. West Indies may well have to bat far better in their second innings if they are to avoid defeat.The galling aspect of that scenario is that West Indies could – and should – have been in a much stronger position.On the morning of the second day, they had a chance to establish a match-dominating first innings score. Resuming against a new ball 10 overs old, West Indies’ seventh-wicket pair saw off the opening spell from James Anderson – still irritable despite a night’s rest – and Stuart Broad and could look forward to a perfect day for batting. England’s bowlers were tired, the ball was becoming soft and both batsmen were well set.Instead, however, Darren Sammy fell for a sucker punch. Moments after completing a maiden Test century – a super, counter-attacking innings – he pulled a short ball from Tim Bresnan directly to Kevin Pietersen on the square leg boundary. It was a careless, unworthy end to a fine innings and it precipitated a decline that left West Indies at least 100 short of a par total.It will not do to say “that is the way Sammy plays”. His main role was to support Marlon Samuels. Sammy had to keep his adrenalin in check. Having clawed his side back into the game, he needed to make it count.

The return of Ravi Rampaul greatly strengthened West Indies’ attack. Despite his somewhat portly appearance, he can deliver long spells and the delivery he produced to dismiss Cook was a beauty

Worse was to follow. If the tourists were to have any hope of fighting their way back into the Test, they had to strike early. They almost did, too: twice Kemar Roach found the edge of Alastair Cook’s bat and twice Denesh Ramdin held good catches. But on both occasions it turned out that Roach had over-stepped and Cook was reprieved. While it might, as Oscar Wilde so nearly said, be considered unfortunate to bowl one no-ball, to bowl two in such circumstances must be considered carelessness.Most bowlers deliver the odd no-ball, of course, just as most batsmen play the occasional poor stroke. But Roach has made a habit of over stepping of late. He did so eight times in his 15 overs on the second day here. He did so 18 times at Lord’s. He did so six times in the Lions game at Northamton too. Indeed, he has delivered at least one no-ball in all but two of the 19 Tests in which he has played.Nor is he alone. Fidel Edwards was also guilty of over-stepping four times at Lord’s – Andrew Strauss was dropped at slip off one no-ball – and eight times against the Lions, while even Shane Shillingford, the offspinner, bowled three no-balls against the Lions.It is a statistic that tells of a lack of attention to detail and reflects poorly on the coach, Ottis Gibson. Such problems should have been eradicated in net sessions long ago.There were other self-inflicted blows: several mistakes in the field, some loose bowling from Sammy and Shillingford and, on the first day, the weak batting of the top order. West Indies are better than this and, when they come to reflect on this tour, they may well conclude that they did not make the most of their opportunities.It is a picture that could be expanded to take in other problems within Caribbean cricket. We know that the region continues to produce players of rare flair and talent, but we also know that they fail to make the most of them. Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine could all be available for West Indies in the third Test at Edgbaston if only there was a will from all sides to make it happen. Everything else is a detail.Kemar Roach had a day to forget as he struggled with his run-up•Getty ImagesIt is true that West Indies’ recent record, even with all their “star” players, is modest. But that only underlines the failure of successive WICB and team management regimes to make the most of the resources at their disposal. It is their role to create an environment in which the players perform to the best of their ability. There is little evidence they are doing that. Allen Stanford, before his involvement came to an abrupt end when he was convicted of a multi-billion dollar investment fraud, did something the board have been unable to do: he harnessed the substantial ability that exists within the region and produced a fit, unified team that excelled with bat, ball and in the field.”We didn’t bat as were supposed to this morning,” Sammy admitted afterwards. “The plan was for Marlon and myself to see out the first hour and to get a big score of over 450. We gave our wickets away at the end and Cook was very lucky – or we were unlucky – to twice be caught off the same bowler off no-balls. It’s disappointing. It is something Kemar and Ottis will work upon.”It was not all bad. The return of Ravi Rampaul greatly strengthened West Indies’ attack. Despite his somewhat portly appearance, Rampaul can deliver long spells (his first was 11 overs; two before and nine after lunch) and the delivery he produced to dismiss Cook – edging to the keeper for the third time in an hour at the crease – was a beauty. This may also prove to have been a breakthrough series for Samuels.It would also be a gross injustice not to praise the England performance. It is true that this pitch is so batsmen-friendly that, in years to come, the bowlers of both sides will wake up in a cold sweat having suffered flashbacks, but the batting of Strauss and, in particular, Kevin Pietersen was, at times, outstanding.Strauss produced arguably his best innings since the Brisbane Test of 2010. He outscored Pietersen for the first 100 runs they added and, cutting beautifully, pulling nicely and, crucially, also driving better than for some time, reinforced his return to form.”Sometimes batting feels difficult,” Strauss said. “With a few runs under your belt it’s easier. I’m delighted to be in form and determined to make the most of it. It’s nice to feel back in form and as a captain it’s great to contribute and lead from the front.”It is worth remembering one thing, however. By this time in May 2009, Ravi Bopara had already scored three Test centuries against this opposition in the first five months of the year. By mid-August he had been dropped. There are much tougher tests to come for Strauss and his team.