Far from a towering, inspiring, regal presence, Angelo Mathews just stood and watched as England steamrolled his side once again

Jarrod Kimber at Chester-le-Street28-May-2016At Headingley, Angelo Mathews won the toss and bowled. He walked out on the ground in front of his team, between the flag holders, and there was something regal about him. It stood out. It might have been the memory of the last time, it might have been his posture, or his focus, but he looked like a leader.This is a man who plays his best cricket in big game situations, or when his team needs it the most. A man so proud he went out on a field in a shirt on which he had corrected the spelling of his own name. A man who through the era of Kumar and Mahela, still found ways to steal the show.Mathews has just looked taller than his team-mates, he has stood out from the beginning.

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Mathews’ captaincy on this tour hasn’t been incredible. Nick Knight isn’t rushing to his side to get a lesson on modern cricket tactics like he did with Brendon McCullum. Shane Warne is not using Mathews as a blunt instrument to beat Alastair Cook’s captaincy with. And his captaincy in general isn’t what the cricket hipsters are talking about. While MS Dhoni, McCullum and Michael Clarke’s captaincies have become cricket fetish items, Mathews just does his thing.Fielders are put in places, often not grouped too close together. Bowlers are brought on at fairly appropriate, and yet very predictable times. Five minutes to lunch he says, “hey Rangana, fancy an over?” In the funky captaincy era, it is a Donny Osmond record.Mathews doesn’t try to make things happen, he waits for things to happen. On a good day it makes him look like a calm leader who knows when to pounce. On a bad day it makes him look like a man who refuses to leave his car until the storm passes, oblivious to the fact the road is now a lake.If his batting and captaincy were in the schoolyard together, the batting would mock the captaincy for being boring all lunchtime.When Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow started out their innings at Headingley on day two, Mathews greeted them with two slips. He might as well have delivered them cheese and an appropriate brandy.He took that to a new level when Moeen Ali batted with Steve Finn at Chester-le-Street. Modern captains are well known to like the everyone-on-the-boundary fielding move when a batsman bats with the tail. But that tactic comes with certain rules. The main one being that at the end of the over, balls five and six, you bring the field in so the next over can start with the tailender on strike. If that stupid tactic is to work, you have to execute all of it, not just the first part.Mathews took the only part of the bad tactic that made sense, and threw it away. If that tactic is what makes cricket fans head butt a wall, he set fire to the wall.Sure his fielders had let him down, and he was already daydreaming about how his batsmen were about to let him down. But it was the lack of fight, the lack of vision, and at times, the lack of actual movement that was so shocking.

Mathews is one of the best cricketers Sri Lanka has ever produced but, with England nine down, he reduced himself to the guy who relayed the ball from keeper to bowler

Mathews was at cover for most of it. It isn’t a short cover, it’s in the ring, but he has decided to stop moving at all. For whole overs he takes less than 20 paces. He doesn’t walk in with the bowler, he adopts the catching stance, despite the fact he might be the world’s deepest catching cover. When a ball is dropped at the feet of the batsman, he jogs over, but he manages to make the jog slower than a walk, like he’s on an invisible treadmill.Another ball dribbles out to him with all the ferocity of a basket of kittens, and yet he still manages to fumble – it’s a fielding yawn. Only when the ball is smashed at him do his natural athleticism and cricket senses switch back on and suddenly he is saving a boundary. Had that not occurred, he could have been replaced by a waxwork dummy and the game would have gone the exact same direction.Like a pot plant in a crack den, the Test was still technically alive when England were nearing the end of their innings, but Sri Lanka refused to acknowledge that fact. Mathews had all but stopped moving. The field placements were from 20 minutes earlier. The bowling plans were non-existent. The innings could have gone on for decades to come. People would have visited the ground to see the never-ending sporting spectacle and marvel at its stillness.Luckily England, who were frolicking along towards 500, decided that round-number totals are actually meaningless psychological missteps and, instead of pushing their way to the last few runs, they just put the Sri Lankans out of their misery. When the batting team is too bored to grind you into the dirt or reach their round-number declaration targets, something has gone horribly wrong.When Sri Lanka batted, it kept going wrong. If time was standing still when they bowled, when they batted their batsmen were fast-forwarded into dismissals at breakneck pace. It is usually those times, when Mathews is at his best.

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Mathews doesn’t look sure. He doesn’t look right. His drive is a waft that connected. His forward defence is barely forward and unsuccessful as a defence. Then he pushes again. This time there is an edge, and it was time for him to simply walk off. First he looks at the pitch, as if the answers are there. Then he looks back down the track.There is an unwritten, and not very trustworthy, rule that when a batsmen is given out caught behind, and they didn’t hit it, they review straight away. Those who don’t are hoping technology is in bad form.Mathews didn’t review straight away, he didn’t even review just after that. He reviewed after walking down the wicket and having a chat with the non-striker. He reviewed so late that the third umpire could have given him out purely on hunch and no one would have blamed him.Instead he used the technology, and Mathews used a review. In both situations he made a mistake, but that happens. What is worth was that in both situations he was unsure. He wasn’t leading. He hasn’t led at all. Not with bat, not with his two overs on day one, not in the field.The only time he looks like the Angelo Mathews who won at Headingley last tour was when he sprung into life to take a hanging one-hander at slip. That was muscle memory; when his brain has been needed, he has been asleep.

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A team without its two best-performing bowlers is going to struggle. A team without its two best batsmen is going to struggle. They need their best player, their captain, to do something. Anything. Not stand around waiting for pity declarations, not pathetic wafts, and not half-hearted DRS mistakes.This is a player who can pull victory from defeat, who has held Sri Lanka up for draws. Given them their most honourable defeats. And instead of inspiring, he’s insipid.This is a leaking team, they need leadership, if not through strategy, then from actions, if not actions, then from intent, if not from intent, then from Mathews picking up every single player and putting them on his back and fighting England on his own. He has achieved with athleticism, skill and intelligence some amazing things on the cricket field. This is one of the best cricketers Sri Lanka has ever produced but, for a while here, he reduced himself to the guy who relayed the ball from the keeper to the bowler while England were nine wickets down.He was standing out because he was the only man within 50 metres of the batsmen. There he stood, not regal and tall, but tired and broken.

Much of the talk around the series has focused on pitches, but it is Sri Lanka’s resilient middle order that has consistently thwarted Australia’s plans. It was no different in Colombo

Daniel Brettig13-Aug-2016On the eve of this match, Sri Lanka’s captain Angelo Mathews had a pointed message for those who sought to attribute his side’s series win purely to spinning pitches and Australian unfamiliarity with same. “I’m hearing that the Aussies have not played good cricket, and the wickets were poor – I mean, come on, you’ve got to grow up. We play on the same wicket.”Within minutes of Mathews saying these words, the touring press corps were invited by the Australian team to pay a visit to the centre of the SSC ground in Colombo for a close look at the latest tinder-dry pitch prepared for them. The clear implication was that the surface would once again do plenty for spin, and that it would struggle to last the distance. Another spoiler for the pacemen.But events on day one of the third Test served to underline Mathews’ point rather better than it did that of the touring team. Yes the SSC pitch was extremely dry, and yes it took spin from the very first ball delivered by Nathan Lyon. Yet the conditions were not exactly treacherous, offering little by way of variable bounce, and catered to batsmen prepared to play with application, skill and occasional moments of flair. In Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka had those batsmen.By way of quantifying how well these two played, Australia had arguably their best bowling day of the series. Runs were scored at a far less rapid rate, fields were clever but not over-attacking, and the pre-lunch spell when Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon combined artfully was as threatening as two Australian bowlers have looked together since Josh Hazlewood and Steve O’Keefe on day one at Pallekele. Lyon found a disconcerting pace with useful turn early on, though for the balance of the day his line was perhaps fractionally too straight, allowing plenty of balls to be worked around the corner.”Personally I’ve learned a lot in this series and I’m adapting,” Lyon said. “You can still see my stock off break creating chances but they just weren’t carrying to bat pad. The best way I’d describe it is I’m adapting to learning how to bowl on the subcontinent.”Jon Holland too delivered a performance much improved on his nervous showing in Galle, dropping the ball onto the right length and varying his degree of turn nicely. On the evidence he offered here, Holland deserves a more consistent commission for Victoria over the home summer, and serious consideration for India next year. If a wicket or two was missing from his analysis, it was not through a lack of chances created. Peter Nevill could not accept an edge from Dhananjaya’s groping blade in mid-afternoon, not long after a skier fell tantalisingly short of mid-on running back with the flight. A facile appeal for a return catch via the boot of silly point was laughed off.What will frustrate the Australians is the fact that Sri Lanka have been by far the more resilient of the two batting orders. A morning scoreline of 26 for 5 followed earlier starts of 67 for 5, 86 for 4, 9 for 2 and 98 for 5. Australia’s bowlers have not, all told, done a bad job, but their efforts to snuff out the Sri Lankan batting have been met by stiffening resistance with every innings since the first. Of course it was Kusal Mendis who showed the way with a series-defining hundred in Pallekele, but he has been followed by Mathews, Dhananjaya and Dilruwan Perera. It is a philosophy of Darren Lehmann that a batting line-up need only make enough runs to allow the bowlers room to take 20 wickets. Sri Lanka’s middle-order batsmen have followed it grandly.”I daresay if you look at the whole series that’s a big key in Sri Lanka being 2-0 up in the series,” Lyon said. “The ability for their batsmen to bat in partnerships and for a long period of time. We’ve all spoken about it and our batters have got their own plans to come out in this Test match and hopefully put them into play and bat for long periods. That’s Test match cricket.”Intriguingly, Australia’s selection for the Colombo Test reflected mounting discontent with the touring top order, even though Sri Lanka’s first three batsmen have been, if anything, even less productive. Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja paid a heavy price for their failures in Tests one and two, replaced by a pair of older cricketers in Moises Henriques and Shaun Marsh. These two were ostensibly the spare batsmen on tour, though Henriques is more an allrounder with precious few recent Sheffield Shield runs behind him. The methods he and Marsh offer will fascinate, given the team’s commitment to a more aggressive game has now been faced with a counterpoint from Dhananjaya and Chandimal.Lyon offered a somewhat testy response when asked about the changes. “That’s a selector’s question,” he said. “I’ve got no say in it, all I’ve got to do is support each and every one of those guys in the change room, and I’ll do that until the day I die. SOS and Mo have definitely got my support, but so do Burnsy and Uz. It’s a tough call, but that’s why the selectors get paid the big dollars.”Dropping two seemingly settled members of the Australian top six just two Test matches into a new season was a momentous decision given the need for all antipodean batsmen to learn as much as possible in these conditions. Both Burns and Khawaja may now doubt their chances of going to India in the new year, no matter how many runs they make in Australia during the summer.But the move away from the current top six had as much to do with Sri Lanka’s greater resilience as with Australian troubles with spinning surfaces. Make no mistake, this series has been won by the home team, not by their pitches.

ESPNcricinfo looks at five talking points from the England-Sri Lanka ODI series

Andrew McGlashan in Cardiff02-Jul-2016Finn not so much the attack leaderIt has been a tricky summer so far for Steven Finn. He was told by Trevor Bayliss to channel his frustrations on being withdrawn from the World T20 through injury – when Finn himself felt he was fit to play – into taking wickets. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. After an inconsistent Test series against Sri Lanka, he was talking up being the attack leader in the one-day side. It was a position he assumed last summer, but since last September against Australia he hasn’t played an ODI due to his run of injuries. Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett, David Willey and Chris Jordan have all played ahead of him in this series, their ability to club a long ball – highlighted by Plunkett’s tie-sealing blow at Trent Bridge – giving England enviable batting depth. Finn, who will play for Middlesex in the Championship from Sunday, may now not be certain of his place in the Pakistan Test series once James Anderson and Ben Stokes are available. Those frustrations are likely to bubble up again.Life without StokesStokes gives England sought-after balance to their side, but they adapted well in his absence. The team’s preferred route is to chase a target and their belief is that they can hunt down anything – as was witnessed at The Oval and, in differing circumstances, when they secured a tie at Trent Bridge despite being 82 for 6, chasing 287. So, Eoin Morgan has been content to use a five-man bowling attack; Joe Root is the fill-in option but was lightly used for only three overs in the series. When fit, Stokes will return to the side and that will open up the question of who misses out. Jonny Bairstow has taken the batting role in this series – and has been outstanding in the outfield – but it could be that the philosophy of packing the batting from one to eleven means means that a five-man attack is retained.Rashid No. 1Adil Rashid is now cemented as England’s main one-day spinner if the pecking order in this series is any guide. When the ground dimensions at Bristol and Cardiff have led England to re-balance their attack with an extra quick bowler, it has been Moeen Ali who has made way for Jordan. Rashid has played every game of white-ball cricket since his England comeback against Ireland, in Dublin, last May. He began this series with two frugal displays at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston – 70 runs come off 20 overs – and though Sri Lanka then took the attack to him he did not shrunk from the challenge. His brace of wickets at The Oval played an important part in ensuring Sri Lanka could not immediately kick on after the rain break. There will also have never been a better No. 11 for England.Mendis is a gemKusal Mendis showed glimpses of his quality in the Test series and his adaptability has been on display in the one-dayers. After a slow start to the series he produced two sparkling half-centuries at Bristol and The Oval, the second of them a particularly eye-catching display as England’s bowlers were put under rare pressure, and was settling in nicely in Cardiff before being beaten by Bairstow’s bullet arm. Sri Lanka have wanted to give youth its head at the top order; coach Graham Ford is trying to oversee a rebuilding phase in the batting order and Mendis has a key role to play. That he hasn’t managed to convert into three figures on the tour will be a disappointment and was a factor among all Sri Lanka’s top order in the one-dayers.Whither Sri Lanka spinThe days of throwing Muttiah Muralitharan the ball for a match-defining 10-over spell are long gone, but even post-Murali there was an expectation to face some probing spin when playing Sri Lanka. However, now that Rangana Herath has ended his one-day career, and Sachithra Senanayake has drifted out of the scene having struggled to adapt to a remodelled action, the resources are looking thin. There is hope that legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay, who showed promise at the World T20 but was injured for this tour, could be part of the answer but it is asking a lot of him. In defence of the incumbents the pitches in this series have offered them precious little and a return to home soil may revive confidence. But, still, the numbers are not pretty from this contest. Seekkuge Prasanna finished with 1 for 234 and an economy rate of 6.62 and Suraj Randiv was shelved after one match where he went for 62 off eight overs. That Sri Lanka’s leading spinner in the series was part-timer Danushka Gunathilaka with four wickets says a lot.

Stats highlights from the final Harare T20I, where India defeated Zimbabwe by three runs to clinch the series 2-1

Bharath Seervi22-Jun-20160 Number of lower first-innings totals defended by India in T20Is, than the 138 in this match. The previous lowest was 146 against Bangladesh in the 2016 World T20. India had tied their 2007 World T20 match against Pakistan after scoring 141.43 Number of runs scored by India in the last three overs – 16 runs in the 18th over, 11 in the 19th and 16 in the 20th – as they moved from 95 to 138. In the seven overs prior to that, they had managed just 42. Zimbabwe needed 35 runs in the last three overs to win, but could manage only 31.3 The margin of Zimbabwe’s defeat is their narrowest in T20Is. For India, this was their third-narrowest win by runs.3 Number of consecutive bilateral T20I series won by India this year. Before the 2-1 triumph against Zimbabwe, they they swept Australia 3-0 in Australia, before prevailing 2-1 against Sri Lanka at home. Prior to the hat-trick of triumphs, India hadn’t won any of their previous three T20I series.1 Number of higher scores by an Indian, batting at No. 5 or lower in T20Is than Kedar Jadhav’s 58. Yuvraj Singh had made an unbeaten 77 against Australia when batting at No.5, in Rajkot in 2013-14. He had also made 58 against England in Durban in 2007 World T20. Jadhav’s knock was his maiden half-century, coming in his fourth innings.1 Wednesday’s T20I was the first in which both innings began with a maiden over. Tendai Chatara sent down a maiden when India batted, before Barinder Sran did the same during the chase, although he conceded a leg-bye. This was also the first time a maiden had been bowled in the first over of an Indian innings.3 for 20 Donald Tiripano’s figures in this match are his best in T20Is. Tiripano achieved his maiden three-wicket haul in his eighth match, and his returns are the second-best by a Zimbabwe bowler against India in T20Is.6 Number of wickets taken by Sran in this series is the joint-highest by an Indian who has played two or fewer matches in a bilateral T20I series. He took four wickets in the second game and two more on Wednesday to be adjudged the Player of the Series.19 Number of T20Is played by India this year is the most by a team in a calendar year. Pakistan had played 18 matches in 2010.324 Number of international matches in which MS Dhoni has served as captain, equaling Ricky Ponting’s tally. Dhoni has captained in 60 Tests, 194 ODIs and 70 T20Is.1 Number of Zimbabwe players who have played 50 or more T20Is. Hamilton Masakadza became the first to do so in this match.

India’s limited-overs captain has wanted to bat up ‘for a long time’; when he got the chance in Mohali, he played the big shots unhindered by the pressures of finishing a chase

Arun Venugopal24-Oct-20162:01

No. 4 was ideal position to express myself – Dhoni

In the movie , a teenage Dhoni persuades his coach to let him open the batting in an inter-school limited-overs match. He even convinces one of the regular openers to give up his place, and goes on to score a double-hundred. As India’s limited-overs captain, Dhoni doesn’t have to haggle for his preferred batting slot. Yet, it isn’t as simple as walking up to the coach and seeking a promotion.Considering Dhoni’s approach has always been dictated by the match situation and the team’s requirement, his decision to bat lower is easy to understand. In nine matches, between the 2015 World Cup and the start of this series, where India had batted second, they have mounted successful chases on only four occasions, of which three came against Zimbabwe.The role of a finisher could not be left to the younger batsmen, who are just settling into the side, so Dhoni found himself unable to move higher up the order. And when batting in the final overs, Dhoni admitted after the Mohali ODI, he “is losing his ability to rotate” the strike.So on Sunday evening, he walked in at No. 4, more importantly as early as the ninth over, ahead of Manish Pandey. The crowd took a few seconds to process – and then go delirious over – Dhoni’s promotion. There was nothing knee-jerk about this, and it wasn’t entirely a situation-specific decision either, like at Wankhede Stadium on April 2, 2011. Instead, it became clearer over the course of India’s chase that the decision was geared towards extracting the best out of Dhoni the batsman who, when batting lower down, feels bogged down by consequences in absence of other finishers.”We were having a conversation in the team management about the things we want to do. One of the things was for me to play free cricket,” he said after the match. “The first thing that helps [when batting at No.4] is you are only two down. It was important for me to start with a positive intent. I could have got out, but that is the risk you can afford to take if you are batting at No. 4.”On the surface, Dhoni’s innings was moulded on a familiar template – nurdles, nudges and an overall busy presence – but he also shrugged off the inertia that had built up in recent times. It was a return to the build-before-explode space he likes to operate in.He began with a rasping pull to backward square leg for one and then walked down the crease to disturb Trent Boult’s length. After having decided five deliveries were enough to find his bearings, he gave Tim Southee a furious charge and smacked him over midwicket.”At that slot [No 5 or 6], it becomes very result-oriented. That has actually hampered my batting to a great extent.”•Associated PressNew Zealand looked to attack him with the short ball, but Dhoni did not back down, even if he did not always manage to hit boundaries. He was temporarily bottled up by James Neesham and Mitchell Santner – moving from 10 off 12 balls to 13 off 24 – but once he smashed Neesham’s length ball over mid-off, things were quickly out of New Zealand’s control. The familiar lofts over the bowler’s head – Neesham and Santner were the worst affected – were duly reprised.Batting at No.4, Dhoni said, freed him up to play the big shots right from the start. “It was something that I wanted to do for a long time, but if you are batting at No.5 or No.6, and especially when your top order is batting brilliantly, you don’t get to chance to bat how you want to bat,” he said.”Often, you will get in with the last 10 or 12 overs trying to slog and trying to get as many runs as possible, or the other way round where in the 20th over maybe where you have lost five wickets and you go in to bat looking for a partnership. If it keeps happening for a long time, you don’t fluently rotate the strike. When you know there is just one batsman after you, you have to be close to 90% sure all the time when you are setting out and looking for a big hit.”At that slot it becomes very result-oriented. That has actually hampered my batting to a great extent. Going at No.4, it was important to go and play the big shots. It was the first innings I played and I got runs, but it’s not easy to come out of it so I could have taken a few more innings. So, it’s good I got runs. Personally for me also, I am not looking too much into what needs to be done. I can play the shots over the fielder and I feel that was what was needed in my batting. Today was the first day and I am hoping to continue with this.”The knock-on effect of Dhoni’s promotion was that two of the all-time best limited-overs batsmen spent maximum time at the crease. Dhoni offered his pet example of “converting one-and-a-half runs into two” while batting alongside Virat Kohli.”If I’m successful at No.4, it gives the team a bit of a liberty because I’ll try to score at a decent pace,” he said. “Even today I felt I slowed down a bit but I feel it’s important for me to keep playing the big shots. Also it gives me a chance to bat with Virat. We run between the wickets very well, we can take on the opposition fielders even the best ones. If you get a good partnership in the middle, that is 100-125, it becomes slightly easier for the batsman coming after that.”[Even today] it was a nice wicket but over the time what happened was without much dew it slowed down, so it was not easy to keep rotating the strike. I thought we adjusted very well in the middle overs because we knew there will be overs where we won’t get more than 3-4 runs per over and we knew later on we can always get overs where we can score 8-9 runs and compensate for it.”By stating that his promotion is an opportunity for youngsters to take ownership of the finishing role, Dhoni is allowing them to learn on the job. Given his utility at the top of the order, it is hard to disagree with his logic that it’s a “win-win” for everybody.

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Aug-2016It was down to the other opener, Dhananjaya de Silva, to hold the innings together. By the time he brought up his maiden ODI fifty, the rest of the batsmen had tallied only 19 runs•Associated PressSri Lanka needed someone to lend the innings some substance, especially after Scott Boland dismissed Dinesh Chandimal, who had struck six fifties in eight one-day innings•Associated PressAngelo Mathews, who had come in with the score at 31 for 3, helped turn the tide•Associated PressBut he was struck on the helmet, and later had to retire hurt as a result of a calf injury. He had strung 84 runs with de Silva for the fourth wicket•AFPThen John Hastings bounced de Silva out and Sri Lanka were 121 for 4•Associated PressPart-time spinner Travis Head had Kusal Perera caught tamely at short cover to leave Sri Lanka in deeper trouble at 134 for 6•Associated PressA packed crowd in Dambulla were hoping for a fightback from the home side•Associated PressSachith Pathirana answered the call, to an extent, with a knock of 24 off 39 in the final 10 overs that helped Sri Lanka past 200•AFPMathews hobbled back out at the fall of the eighth wicket and, on one leg, struck a couple of fours to take his side to 212 all out•Associated PressHastings was the stand-out bowler for Australia; he picked up his first five-wicket haul in ODI cricket and finished with 6 for 45•AFPAaron Finch got Australia’s chase off to a blistering start, hitting eight fours and a six in the first 14 balls he faced•AFPHe went on to make his fifty off just 18 balls, equalling the fastest by an Australian•Associated PressHowever, Pathirana took three wickets in the space of five balls to leave Australia at 97 for 3 in the eighth over•Associated PressGeorge Bailey employed sweeps and reverse sweeps to accrue his runs, as he and Head took control of Australia’s chase•Associated PressBailey finished on an unbeaten 90 as Australia cantered to the series win with 19 overs to spare•Associated Press

Picking four fast bowlers meant that Pakistan needed to make the most of the new ball and the morning conditions, but their catching let them down

Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Nov-2016Everything about Sami Aslam was slow. He was slow to pick up the ball off Jeet Raval’s edge, and slow to move to his right. His hands closed like the gates of a warehouse in an action movie – the ball screeching through like the hero on a motorbike. After it had made its triumphant escape, Aslam rose in increments; unsticking each of his limbs from the ground. Slow is not what Pakistan wanted from this innings. It is not what they needed from this Test.When a side picks four fast bowlers, they want the game to go quickly. Not for this particular attack is “staying patient on a fifth stump line” or “tying batsmen down” with diligent lengths. Bowling dry works when a high-quality spinner plays, because on his best days, Yasir Shah can wall batsmen in for hours and hours, until the pitch is sufficiently dry that with a flick of his hair and a snap of fingertips, he can send entire batting orders cascading.But this is not the strategy Pakistan opted for. In their dream sequence for this match, Pakistan won the toss, bowled first, had Mohammad Amir get more nicks than a first-time shaver, had their two honest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Khans shoot balls between bat and pad, then – preferably after a New Zealand batsman provoked Wahab Riaz – had Wahab send them sarcastic flying kisses, his deliveries at their grilles, and pieces of protective equipment into the stumps. The whole thing would be done in 40 overs. A demoralised New Zealand would have no more than 200 on the board.

Watling hopes weather will help

New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watling said the weather forecast for Sunday may assist the hosts in their hunt for five more Pakistan wickets.
“Think it might be bit overcast tomorrow and keep the juice in the wicket,” he said. “I can see it browning off a bit, but there’s random green patches that keep you honest and keep the bowlers in the game. There are two very good batsmen out there. We need to break this partnership and really put their tail under some pressure.”
Watling had arrived with the score on 119 for 5, but forged good partnerships with the tail, to remain not out on 49, when New Zealand were bowled out for 271. Tim Southee hit 29, while Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry also reached double figures.
“We could have been bowled out for 200 or 210,” Watling said. “But the tail chipped in and played positively. The quick runs helped us have a good crack at them tonight as well.”

On Friday, Amir had bowled a first over deserving of the Pakistan fantasy. He was in the New Zealand openers’ heads straight away. He pitched deliveries on lines they had to play at. He shimmied the ball away. He drew four edges with six balls, and nearly grazed off stump with one. Yet Amir came away with only one wicket in the opening over when he should have had at least two. Aslam had been the culprit then as well, trying to trap the ball with wrists instead of palms, and fending it away onto a quivering boot. Raval went on to make New Zealand’s highest score of 55, dropped on 0 and then 40. Amir was quivering himself. Maybe he wondered after a season of dropped catches off his bowling, if the universe would ever forgive him; if it would let him have the hauls his skill deserved.The drops stung because unlike in the UAE, where games pick up speed like a boulder coming down a hill, matches on green-tops come roaring out of the gates. The more quickly attacks can get through the top three, the more chance a middle order can be exposed, and the tail shot out. If the ball still had its gloss when Henry Nicholls (in his ninth Test) or Colin de Grandhomme (in his second) had come to the crease, chances of them lasting more than fifty balls apiece would have been slim. With every over bowled, the seam became a little less pronounced, and the surface grew a little less damp. Where a clinical catching side might have built enough pressure to spark a collapse, Pakistan saw New Zealand’s tail get quick runs. It was only later that they paid for failing to knock over one of the early dominoes.”Yes, they shouldn’t have got 270 on that pitch,” Sohail Khan, the most successful of Pakistan’s seamers, said. “Even though the ball was a bit damp on the first day, which prevented us from using it as well as we could have, we still won the toss. The score they got was a bit on the high side on that pitch.”When Pakistan took guard, New Zealand’s quicks showed the pressure early wickets can impart. Raval held a low chance from Aslam’s bat, and when Azhar Ali was also caught behind, an out-of-sorts Younis Khan was drawn out of the dressing room. By the end of the day 8 for 2 had turned into 76 for 5 – a huge first-innings deficit likely, unless the two overnight batsmen can defy New Zealand on the third morning.”If we get one good partnership, we can take the score very close – Babar Azam and Sarfraz Ahmed are still there,” Sohail said. “When we bowl again, this game is more like an attacking one now, and we could still finish it in a session.”For the second time in as many Tests, Pakistan are faced with a difficult route back into the match. Had they done Amir’s spell justice, they might even have had the game by its collar by now.

This and more from last week at the Women’s Big Bash League

Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins12-Jan-20173:36

Lemon: Sixers only side to lock themselves at the top

Unequal over-rate penalties only get half the pointThis time of the season you tend to look at the top of the ladder, but down the bottom things are getting funky. Two points for a win, one for a no-result, so how do the Melbourne Renegades have four wins and 7.5 points?The Adelaide Strikers have three wins and two washouts for eight points, same as the Sydney Thunder after four wins and a washout. Meaning the Strikers are ahead of and level with two teams that have won more games.The answer lies in low over rates, which in the WBBL costs points. The Renegades lost half a point for one late over against the Perth Scorchers on December 29, then the Sydney Thunder lost a whole point for two overs against the Brisbane Heat on January 2.While half a point may not sound stiff, in this structure it’s as good as being stripped of a whole win. Even with a vastly superior net run rate, the 0.5 penalty will drop a team behind any other with the same points. There is effectively no difference between a one-over penalty and a four-over penalty.And in an even competition like the WBBL, where as many as half-a-dozen teams could end on the same number of points, that apparent slap on the wrist could see a team drop from hosting a final to missing out altogether.The law-and-order enthusiasts among us will say, “Easy, just don’t break the rules.” But the other key point here is the double standard between the two Big Bashes.No points are docked in the men’s competition. Players are fined and captains suspended. Obviously fines aren’t appropriate in the WBBL given its cricketers are paid a relatively paltry sum for their season’s work, so another mechanism was sought. But a points penalty deeply distorts the integrity of the competition for a minor offence, something the men’s BBL is not subject to.This is on top of the fact that men’s games go far longer – bigger run-ups, more runners, and often a Versailles Treaty between captain, bowler, and five fielders between deliveries. As in international cricket, a penalty involving points or runs may be the most effective way to ensure compliance. But as well as Big Bash authorities coming up with a method to enforce their rules, they have to make it consistent between competitions.Sixers plan a million ways to win Depth. It may not be everything in T20 cricket, but it is almost. Those who have cultivated enough ways to win can do it when their biggest guns misfire. This is the story of the Sydney Sixers, now two games clear with seven wins after doing the double over both the Strikers and the Scorchers.Sure enough Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy did what they do best at different stages, especially when laying the base to chase down the Scorchers at the SCG. But more significant was the other fixture when they both failed. It wasn’t the first time Ashleigh Gardner has got the Sixers out of strife, clobbering 40 in 23 balls in a brisk stand of 69 with New Zealand’s Sara McGlashan (36) for what proved a winning score of 136.Gardner moved to fourth on the WBBL runs list, after being named the inaugural Women’s Emerging Player of the Year by the Australian Cricket Media Association.Meanwhile Sarah Aley continued to bowl consistently, and the orthodox spin of Lauren Smith was crucial in both encounters against the Scorchers, nabbing a couple of wickets first time, then wonderful figures of 4 for 13 in their SCG win.This versatility will be tested in the final four group games, with key seamer Marizanne Kapp and allrounder Dane van Niekerk lost to South African international commitments.Alyssa Healy’s performances, along with Ellyse Perry, have sure helped the Sixers along•Getty ImagesI see a Beth Mooney risingAt least that’s what Beth Mooney might have sung about her last 12 months, if indeed she’s any good on the karaoke stick. A stellar first WBBL vaulted the Brisbane Heat wicketkeeper into the national squad for the World T20, but she floated around the order, was slotted below senior teammates with poorer records, and played as an outfielder with Alyssa Healy taking the gloves.This confusion led into a Kia Super League season that started with a duck, then yielded scores of 9, 17, 18, and 56. A sequence progressing in the right order, granted, but not one that flattered an overseas professional. That run continued into this season, starting WBBL with scores of 0, 4 and 6.Then abruptly it clicked. Within six innings she had 67* against the Scorchers, 55 against the Stars, a double of 34 and then 75* against the Thunder, finishing with 78* to post a score well beyond the Hurricanes.All of that has vaulted the Heat’s stopper to second on the run-scorers list, only behind Meg Lanning. Healy will monopolise the Australia women’s gig for some time to come, but Mooney is firmly established as the next in line.When she’s not striking with the bat, Heather Knight chips in with partnership-breaking wickets•Getty ImagesApple Isle gives Hobart a fresh startThe Hobart Hurricanes are an underdog favourite given their lack of Australian representatives, but their season risked grinding to a halt over a winless holiday period.But they bounced back in style on returning home – their 171 against the Thunder was highest score in this year’s tournament. England captain Heather Knight was in front of the queue, slamming 47 in 29 balls. Significant too was the return of Amy Satterthwaite from New Zealand with an unbeaten 32 from 23 balls at the death, and then a couple of wickets.In Hobart, they knew the importance of removing the red-hot Mooney. Julie Hunter won her edge for one, before Bajan wunderkind Hayley Matthews claimed the season’s first five-wicket haul to leave 123 for victory. Keeper Georgia Redmayne knocked that off with ease to end on 64 not out, after being plucked from Sydney club cricket earlier this season.40 down, 15 to goIn the regular season, that is. Western Australia’s picturesque Lilac Hill is where the Strikers and the Stars will visit the Scorchers, while the Heat host the Renegades in Brisbane, the Sixers face the Hurricanes in Sydney, before the Hurricanes host the Thunder in Hobart.At no stage this season have defending champions the Sydney Thunder stitched together two wins on the bounce. They’ll have to now, or they’ll miss the post-season altogether.

His elevation as Test captain is inadvertent, but a successful run could raise Tamim Iqbal’s chances of landing the job permanently

Mohammad Isam in Christchurch19-Jan-2017Over the last eight years, Bangladesh have seen Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim gradually lead the team through a transition period and towards some success. Now for at least one Test, it is time to see what Tamim Iqbal, another pillar of this era, offers as captain.Though his elevation is inadvertent and, in a way, unplanned, it isn’t a bad time to have a first proper look at his captaincy, especially in the context of Bangladesh’s leadership future.There have been constant talks over the last two years about the burden of Mushfiqur’s triple role in the Test side: as captain, wicketkeeper and middle-order mainstay. During the last BCB board meeting in 2016, there were discussions about picking a new Test captain, talks in which Tamim’s name featured prominently.Tamim steps up in Christchurch only because of Mushfiqur’s thumb injury. Mushfiqur’s 159 in the first innings in Wellington and the subsequent 80-minute bouncer barrage he underwent in the second enhanced his reputation as a batsman, but question marks remain over his captaincy.For two years after he took over from Shakib in mid-2011, Mushfiqur enjoyed a fruitful reign, except for the resignation midway through the 2013 tour of Zimbabwe. But much of Bangladesh’s decline in 2014 was attributed to his reactionary leadership, which led to the BCB splitting the captaincy for the first time in September that year.Mushfiqur continued to be the Test captain, though concerns remained, particularly after the Dhaka Test loss against Pakistan in 2015. Rained-out draws against India and South Africa kept him going but when they next played Tests, against England at home in October 2016, doubts returned.When England raced to 100 for no loss at tea, chasing 273 in Dhaka, coach Chandika Hathurusingha apparently asked the senior players during the break to step up. In the final session, during which Bangladesh clinched the game by taking all ten England wickets for just 64, it was Tamim who took a more active role in directing field placements for Shakib and Mehedi Hasan.Hathurusingha, Mushfiqur and Tamim have played that down in subsequent interviews, but as a window into the potential thinking of the team management, the development was hard to miss.Tamim Iqbal has been a key member of Bangladesh’s think tank over the years•BCBTamim was appointed Test deputy during the leadership shake-up in September 2014, in which Shakib was made Mashrafe’s deputy in the limited-overs formats. Currently, Tamim is Bangladesh’s highest run-getter in each of the three formats, and is one of only two batsmen from the country to have a 40-plus average after 45 Tests – the other being Shakib.There will be preferences among fans, but Tamim’s impact and numbers give him a strong claim to being the team’s best batsman. How he will fare as captain is difficult to predict. On Thursday he said that his captaincy will draw from the same well of positivity as his batsmanship.”I am the sort of individual who likes to take challenges,” Tamim said. “My type of captaincy will look fantastic when my plans are working but it can also go the other way. It is very new for me in international cricket, which makes it a learning curve for me. I am an attacking batsman so I will try to be as positive a captain as I can.”When you take over as captain in the middle of a game, you can’t put in your own plans or organise things. When you know that you will captain the next match, it does become easier. I will need support from everyone in the team, and walk in the same path. It will make everyone’s job easier in that way.”With Mushfiqur’s thumb injury likely to keep him out of the one-off Test in India as well, Tamim’s audition for the captaincy will stretch a little longer. A successful run, even in this short period, could improve his chances of landing the job permanently. He has the experience and credentials as a player. Since the 2015 World Cup, he has become more mature on and off the field, coming out of a number of difficult situations with lessons well learned.Now, in Christchurch he has his first chance to express himself as a captain and leader.

This was one of the greatest comebacks in the history of cricket – against the best the world had, in four straight knockout games

Jarrod Kimber at The Oval18-Jun-20172:54

Dravid: Fakhar has potential to dominate white-ball cricket

A Pakistan fielder is hovering above the Oval turf. He’s launched himself towards a ball that has been smashed to backward point. He grabs the ball in one take while still completely horizontal. If this were another team, this would just be modern fielding, but the distance covered, the athleticism, the grace, the execution, it all seems completely foreign when in Pakistan green.Shadab Khan is an 18-year-old in an ICC final fielding in the most prominent place on the ground in a team that started the tournament with balls going through there like they were on a silver platter. And he’s flying.

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Jasprit Bumrah starts the fourth over with a wide down the leg side. But he more than makes up for it next ball when a length ball outside off stump takes the edge of Fakhar Zaman and is caught behind. Zaman is walking off, the man who has changed the Pakistan top order from an old woman pushing a shopping trolley to a rally car flying around bends dangerously. This was justification for India bowling first, ending the new opening partnership that has rattled the last three opponents, and upsetting the way Pakistan win. But then Zaman is stopped, and there is good reason for it. Bumrah has overstepped.Zaman hits a four the second ball after his reprieve, an inside edge past his stumps. He has got seven runs; five of them have come between his hands and the stumps. At the other end, Azhar Ali slaps a straight pull down the ground like it’s what he is known for, like he hasn’t just found the ODI form of his life in the last week.Bumrah bowls another wide, in the match he’ll finish with three no-balls and five wides. The opening partnership that he didn’t break will put on more than a hundred runs.

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Both men are standing at the same end. It is a scene so frequent in Pakistan cricket that it feels like it is part of their game plan. Azhar flicks a ball off his pads, he takes off for a safe single, and for some unknown reason, Zaman doesn’t run. Bumrah gets to the ball in a dive, gets up a bit slowly, and throws the ball back to MS Dhoni, who casually takes the bails off. India missed the first five run-out attempts they made (Azhar should have been out at least twice), so to be sure, the clinical mind of Dhoni takes the bails off, then pauses, before taking the entire stumps out of the ground.Pakistan’s great start is over, and that first real pang of panic has come through. For the next two overs, there are only six runs, as the Indian spinners, who have been struggling to get back on top, build pressure.Zaman doesn’t like dot balls, they sicken him. So he starts hitting the ball everywhere. A six goes deep into the OCS Stand. He leans back on the next one and slashes it wide of point, and then launches one over cover when they change the field. The next ball he runs down the wicket, looks like he is going to fall over, and then plays a Happy Gilmore-style swipe over long-on. He follows up with a beautiful shot through cover, and then an edge through a vacant slip. It’s 33 runs in two overs. The Indian pressure bubble is popped, spat on and mocked.Zaman might not have been in the squad if Sharjeel Khan had been available. If Ahmed Shehzad had made runs, Zaman might not be in the team, and here he is, smashing his third straight attack in his third straight knockout game.Zaman’s innings is full of edges, a collection of pull and hook shots that he either edges, gloves or lets be hit on his helmet, disastrous running between the wickets, and the odd moment of magic with timing that shouldn’t come from the technique that produced it. Despite the luck, the most amazing thing is that belief he has in himself. It might be a guy in his fourth game, but it looks like a guy who has been doing this for ten years and doesn’t fear failure. India v Pakistan, hundreds of millions watching every ball, and he’s like a club cricketer who has raced there from work and wants to have some fun.One hundred and fourteen runs from 106 balls of pure, crazy match-winning fun.

A great yorker gets through Mohammad Hafeez and bounces back onto the stumps. There are other days when something like this would have left Pakistan fans in utter despair; now they are laughing.Some fans did despair when as Pakistan were approaching the death overs, Hafeez – with his career strike rate of not enough – came out to bat. Hafeez is a quality player, but like many allrounders he has struggled because he has rarely been good enough with bat or ball, and therefore he always looks like he underperforms when he’s quite useful. But a death slogger? That’s surely too much. Pakistan have performed miracles just to get this far, in this game, and this tournament, but this, no.A bailout or a bail-in? Mohammad Hafeez helped Pakistan add 91 in the last ten overs•Getty ImagesFirst ball: four. And not just a four, but a four past a long-off who was out there to stop it. Fourth ball: four. Moves across his crease to smartly sweep it fine. Seventh ball: four. This time he smashes the quick out to deep midwicket. Fifteenth ball: four. Oh, come on now. Eighteenth ball: six. Is this a dream, is he going to wake up and be disappointed that it’s still the morning before the match? Twenty-second ball: six. No, enough, what the hell?And then the ball hit the stumps, the bail jumped, the ball bounced back several metres, but the bails didn’t light up, the bails didn’t come off, Hafeez is not out. Pakistan laughs, not at him, with him. Even the bails are supporting Pakistan.Against Bhuvneshwar Kumar, he launches a six straight. No one has hit Bhuvi today, he’s been the one India bowler to star, and now Hafeez, who didn’t look in the right position, who isn’t known for sixes off quicks, is slapping him down the ground to finish the innings.Mohammad Hafeez has made 57 not out from 37 balls. It is unbelievable. Pakistan have made 338. It is unbelievable.

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Mohammad Amir is bowling to Rohit Sharma, and behind him are 338 runs. Rohit could, on the best of days, make 264 of them on his own. The first ball takes the inside edge, crashes into the pad and limps out in front of a tentative-looking Rohit, who thinks about a run before a flying Amir comes to show his masculine power. The next ball Rohit leaves alone as if it’s too dangerous for him to be involved with. Off the third, he is out. Struck straight in front, with a ball pitching somewhere near leg stump.Pakistan go crazy in the middle, and the Indian openers have a mid-pitch chat about whether they should review. They never even get to the review bit, the umpire tells them they took too long. India are so rattled they can’t even decide on a review.This has been Hasan Ali’s tournament. He kept Pakistan in it for two games, before claiming a win in the semi-final as well. But today is Mohammad Amir’s day. You could smell it in the confusion of India. The ball is curving and he is prowling.

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If at first you don’t succeed…Pakistan rue dropping Virat Kohli, but not for long•Getty ImagesZaman is on his hands and knees, face in the turf. He wasn’t involved in the last delivery, but he’s devastated by what happened to it.Amir was working over Virat Kohli; he had already beaten the inside edge, he’d already got a leading edge. Kohli might have been King Kohli last match, but at times in this tournament he’s looked like he did on his disastrous tour of England a few years ago. Like outside off stump is a death trap. So when Amir takes his edge, and a simple catch floats through to slip, it all looks perfect.The ultimate redemption for Amir, taking Kohli the captain, the ODI megastar, the biggest swinging chaser in cricket. And then Azhar drops the catch.Amir is angry, Pakistan are upset and Zaman is distraught. One ball later Zaman is not on the ground, he’s on the shoulders of Amir. This leading edge goes to Shadab, who doesn’t need to fly to stand out, just take the catch. In the space of two balls, Pakistan have shown their entire life story. Amir is redeemed, Pakistan are on top, Kohli is gone.

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When Kedar Jadhav hit the ball straight up in the air for a few seconds – an eternity in Pakistan cricket – the entire ground was silent. A full house, two massive nations at home on TV, radio, apps and websites, all silent as one. And then the catch was taken and it wasn’t quiet again.That was the last partnership between two batsmen. If India had any hope left, it left with Jadhav, but more importantly, if Pakistan had any panic left, it also left with him.

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When Faheem Ashraf was out against Sri Lanka, Pakistan needed 75 runs to win, to stay in the tournament, and they probably shouldn’t have got them. Sri Lanka may have had an undermanned bowling attack, but they were so on top that the last three wickets should have been a formality.At this point in the tournament, Pakistan had a 1-1 record, they had made 445 runs, losing 20 wickets, and scoring at 4.90 runs an over. From that point onwards they made 628 runs for six wickets at over six runs an over. Jekyll, Hyde. Pakistan, Pakistan.But to just start at being seven wickets down against Sri Lanka, or even when they lost to India would be way too simple. They were terrible in ODI cricket for so long that they almost didn’t qualify for this tournament. Pakistan, former World Cup and World T20 winners and No. 1 Test team, put off a bilateral series against Zimbabwe to ensure they could qualify. That wasn’t all; they also lost two players before this series because of a corruption investigation. And then lost another player because he wasn’t fit enough.So the No. 8-ranked team, with three of their squad not here, lost the first game to India by a million runs. They had to face up against the No. 1 team in ODI cricket in a knockout game straight after. They were seven wickets down against the team with the worst record and they practically had their bags packed and were contacting the airline, asking for an aisle seat. They had to play a semi-final against the favourites of the tournament, in the favourites’ home. And then after all that, slaughter, rain, chance and skill, they then had to front up against India in the final.They made South Africa fall apart when it was supposed to be them, they made Sri Lanka panic when it was them who usually panic, they pushed past England the way England pushed past them, and they smashed India out of the game in the exact way India were supposed to smash them.This is one of the greatest comebacks in the history of cricket. It wasn’t a comeback in one game, or against one opponent, it was against the best the world had, in four straight knockout games. They were lucky to get here, luckier to stay, and then once they found their feet, they were as glorious as Pakistan one-day cricket can be.Hey, Pakistan of 1992, look what these boys have done.<p align="center" style="margin-top:20px; margin-bottom:20px;">****

Shadab to Yuvraj Singh. The youngest player to ever play in an ICC final up against the man who had played in more ICC finals than Shadab’s entire nation, and also won more ICC tournaments than them. And he’s facing some kid, a PSL fad with a tricky wrong’un who may fade away from cricket just as quick as he arrived in it.Shadab Khan was sure Yuvraj Singh was lbw, and he was right•Getty ImagesYuvraj has overcome cancer and has been a middle-order player for 17 years in one of the greatest batting line-ups in cricket. Sure, this game was tough, his top order was gone, but if he made it through to the 40th over with a batsman to spare, he could still give this a big shake. At his best Yuvraj doesn’t hit the ball, it bounces off his aura with the timing of a million of Shastri’s tracer bullets. A couple of overs back he started slapping Hafeez around, hitting three boundaries, in what were the first real blows of India back on Pakistan.A day before Shadab turned two, Yuvraj made his debut for India. The first ball is simply turned into the leg side. Yuvraj takes a single. The next ball he faces is on a good length outside off stump. When it lands, a small part of the pitch is dislodged, and Yuvraj flashes at it. But Yuvraj doesn’t see that it’s the wrong’un. This warrior who has been there and seen it all has been done over by this kid’s wrong’uns. The ball ends in the gloves of Sarfraz Ahmed. The hands that, as it turns out, are the safest in cricket right now. In more ways than one.At Edgbaston, Shadab bowled a wrong’un to Yuvraj, who sliced it straight to long-off. It was an absolute sitter. Yuvraj was 8 off 8, India were 205 for 2 after 38.4 overs. Yuvraj hit 45 off his next 24 balls, India made 118 from the next 9.2 overs.This time Shadab follows up the wrong’un with a ripping legbreak. Shadab appeals, but the umpire says no. Yuvraj is forward, front elbow up, bat straight, watching the ball trickle out safely on the offside. It’s a dot ball. But Shadab is not having the disappointment, he’s striding down the wicket pointing, demanding his captain review the decision. No, not again, this is his wicket, his man, he has him, it’s now his time. Sarfraz trusts him, as he has trusted his entire team. How he trusted three debutants, a young squad, a few discarded journeymen and even a teenager to field at point. Sarfraz is right, Shadab is right, Yuvraj is gone.The Pakistan teenage legspinner won his battle against an Indian ODI champion. Because Pakistan were flying today.