Plays from the second ODI between India and Australia in Brisbane

Melinda Farrell15-Jan-2016The TrendsetterThere was widespread mirth at George Bailey’s choice of a wide-brimmed canary hat in the first ODI. The man himself referred to it, with tongue in cheek reverence in the post-match press conference, as the Coloured Floppy. While it may never reach the status of the Baggy Green, the Coloured Floppy is catching on. Bailey’s teammates, Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch ditched their caps in favour of the sun-smart option. While the likes of Greg Chappell, Mark Waugh, Michael Bevan and Terry Alderman also wore wide-brimmed hats, the great Richie Richardson was brave enough to bat in one and, therefore, remains the undisputed Floppy king.The Run Out: Part 1Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli provided the backbone for India’s innings in the first ODI in Perth and they hardly played a false shot as they looked to be heading for another big partnership. But, just as they appeared to be in full control, Kohli pulled to fine leg. However, a hint of hesitation in his push for a second run proved costly. Kane Richardson fired the ball straight into the gloves of Matthew Wade and Kohli’s sprawling dive left him a foot short of the crease.The DRS square upIn game one, India’s spurning of the DRS cost them the valuable wicket of George Bailey. This time around it saved them the valuable scalp of Rohit. Joel Paris served up a fine delivery that shaped away outside off stump and drew a faint edge from a prodding Rohit. A confident appeal from the entire Australian team was turned down and subsequent replays revealed a sharp spike on Snicko. Rohit was on 89 and went on to make 124. Paris was denied his second international wicket.The Run Out: Part 2From the moment of his let off, Rohit – in magnificent form – looked certain to carry his bat and pass 150 in back-to-back matches. In the end he was undone by his own eagerness and a touch of bad luck. Rohit was at the non-striker’s end when Ajinkya Rahane drove straight back to the bowler, James Faulkner, who just managed to get a touch on the ball. It shaved the stumps and Rohit, backing up, was left stranded with a wonderful innings cut short.The Dropsies Shaun Marsh was living dangerously. The opener, on 19, didn’t quite get hold of a Jadeja ball and sent a lofted drive straight to Ishant Sharma at long-on. Running in, Ishant attempted to take the catch at midriff height with fingers pointed down only to spill a relatively simple chance. The groans of the crowd were repeated in the following over when Rahane, fielding in the slips, couldn’t snaffle a far more difficult chance. Marsh, on 22 this time, flashing hard and edging R Ashwin over Rahane’s head.The SurvivorMarsh, showing cat-like survival skills, lived on through two more incredibly difficult chances. One off a beautiful flat pull shot that was heading to the rope before a flying Barinder Sran somehow got hands to the ball. Then another put down in the slips, this time a diving Manish Pandey unable to grasp an outside edge off Ishant Sharma.

Stats highlights from the washed-out Bangalore Test between India and South Africa

Bharath Seervi18-Nov-201581 Number of overs played in this Test, the second-shortest in India in terms of overs bowled. The only Test in India where fewer than 81 overs were bowled was the Chennai Test in 1995-96 between India and New Zealand, which had 71.1 overs bowled; in that Test, the second, third and fifth days were washed out. Overall, this is the 11th shortest Test in terms of balls bowled.0 Shorter Tests before the one in Bangalore in terms of balls bowled where more than one innings was completed. In this Test, two innings were played with 81 overs overall – 59 overs by South Africa in the first innings and 22 by India in the second, making it the shortest match with two or more innings. The previous shortest was also in India – the Delhi Test of 1986-87 between India and Australia where 101.4 overs were bowled in two innings.2005 The last time three or more days were lost in a Test due to rain before this, in Chennai against Sri Lanka ; MS Dhoni made his debut in that match. There was no play on the first three days of that Test.0 Tests in India before this in which there was no play on three or more days; this Test had four days without play. There have been three Tests in India when there was no play on three days – Delhi in 1986-87, Chennai in 1995-96 and Chennai in 2005-06. Overall, this is the sixth Test were four or more days of play was lost. The last such Test before this was in Dhaka between Bangladesh and South Africa earlier this year.7 Number of consecutive home Tests India won before this drawn Test, the second longest streak of home Test wins for India after their 10 consecutive wins from December 1988 to November 1994.10 Number of days lost due to rain in South Africa’s last four Tests this year out of 20 possible days of play. Two days were lost in the Chittagong Test, four days in the Dhaka Test, and four days in this Test. Also, their last Test in Mohali ended in three days.

Plays of the day from the World T20 qualifier between Bangladesh and Oman in Dharamsala

Mohammad Isam13-Mar-2016The grimaced celebrationTamim Iqbal pierced the off-side field to find the boundary, which got him to 101 off 60 balls. He threw off his helmet and started celebrating, jumping high in the air. Upon landing, though, he held his right hamstring and grimaced. He had, in the ninth over, clutched the same area after completing a tight single. He proceeded with his celebrations undeterred, gesturing towards coach Chandika Hathurusingha, who flashed a smile. But the dressing room looked concerned as he walked back and hugged Shakib Al Hasan.The denialWhen Khawar Ali bowled Sabbir Rahman around his legs in the 16th over, the batsman kept shaking his head. He had turned around and seen the light on the leg bail come on as it fell off, with the wicketkeeper Sultan Ahmed quite far behind, but still did not seem convinced. The square leg umpire quickly went upstairs and replays suggested that the ball had indeed glanced the leg stump. You may have seen batsmen shaking their heads after being annoyed with their shot selection, but rarely does one do it after the bail has been dislodged.The tiradeWhen play resumed after a 45-minute interval in Oman’s innings, Adnan Ilyas tapped a Mashrafe Mortaza delivery towards point and ran off, only to be sent back. Soumya Sarkar missed the throw. Adnan stood there, turned and gave Jatinder Singh an angry look and perhaps a word or two. Two balls later, the same thing happened, except that Soumya hit the stumps to find Adnan a few feet short. This time, Adnan swung his bat in anger and gave Jatinder a piece of his mind. Oman have not been shy to show their emotions on the field. Against Ireland too, Sultan had similarly lambasted Amir Ali for not responding to a call for a single.The misguided heaveKhawar found a six despite having a hard time timing most of the balls he faced. In the third over, he went after Taskin Ahmed’s short ball by attempting a heave over long-off. However, the impact and momentum took the ball towards the point boundary for a six, much like how Glenn Maxwell has done a few times recently. There have been plenty of mistimed sixes in T20s but with this one, the bat went one way and the edge took the ball to an acute angle, still going beyond the rope where the groundsman dropped the catch.

Plus: the father and son who carried their bats, and the most stumpings in internationals

Steven Lynch02-Feb-2016AB de Villiers bagged a pair in the final Test against England – but South Africa still won. How many times has a captain got a pair but won anyway? asked Edward Howard from England

Against England in Centurion, AB de Villiers became only the 21st man to bag a pair in a Test match in which he was captain, the second from South Africa after Louis Tancred against England at The Oval in 1912. There have been four instances by Australia and West Indies captains, three by Pakistan, two by England, New Zealand and India, and one by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Of those, de Villiers was only the fourth to end up on the winning side, after Joe Darling (Australia v England in Sheffield in 1902), Nasser Hussain (England v West Indies at The Oval in 2000) and Marvan Atapattu (Sri Lanka v Pakistan in Faisalabad in 2004-05).Who scored two Test centuries, completing both of them with the No. 11 at the other end? asked Marcus Porter from England

This cool-headed batsman was Peter Willey, who made two hundreds in his 26 Tests for England between 1976 and 1986. Both centuries came against West Indies, the champion team of the time. The first came at The Oval in 1980: Willey had only 24 when last man Bob Willis joined him at the crease at 92 for 9, but they more than doubled the score in adding 117 – and Ian Botham delayed his declaration until Willey reached 100, from 203 balls in nearly four hours. Eight months later, in the first Test ever played in Antigua, Willey had 69 when No. 11 Graham Dilley came in. Dilley made only 2, but survived for more than an hour, in which time Willey moved to 102 not out, his highest Test score.Does Mahendra Singh Dhoni now hold the record for the most stumpings in international cricket? asked Melissa Gomes from Denmark

When MS Dhoni stumped James Faulkner in the second T20 against Australia in Melbourne last week, it was his 140th such dismissal in all internationals (38 in Tests, 89 in ODIs and 13 in T20Is). That put him one in front of Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara: Dhoni had equalled the old record with his 139th stumping, Glenn Maxwell, earlier in that same innings in Melbourne. Another Sri Lankan, Romesh Kaluwitharana, is the only other wicketkeeper with more than 100 international stumpings – he made 101. Moin Khan is next with 93, while Adam Gilchrist had 92.Mudassar Nazar followed his father in carrying his bat for a century in a Test for Pakistan•PA PhotosThere are only two instances of a team total exceeding 1000 runs in a first-class match. Is it true that Don Bradman figured in both those innings? asked Alex Nweke from Zimbabwe

The two four-figure totals in first-class cricket were both amassed by Victoria in the 1920s: they made 1059 against Tasmania in Melbourne in 1922-23, then trumped that with 1107 against New South Wales at the MCG in 1926-27.
Don Bradman didn’t actually play in either match – he didn’t make his debut for New South Wales until 1927-28 – but one man did: Bill Ponsford made 429 for Victoria in the first game, the record first-class score at the time, and added 352 in the second one. The prolific Ponsford improved his record to 437 against Queensland in Melbourne in 1927-28. That stood as the highest first-class score for two seasons, until Bradman punished the long-suffering Queenslanders for 452 not out for NSW in Sydney in 1929-30.Is Ashish Nehra the oldest Indian player to figure in a T20 international? asked Sunit Kumar from the UAE

Ashish Nehra was 36 years 267 days old when he played against Australia in Sydney last weekend – which makes him the second-oldest Indian to appear in a T20I. Nehra will have to keep going for another couple of years to take the record, which is currently held by Rahul Dravid. He was 38 years 232 days old when he made his one and only appearance in a T20I – having already announced his retirement from the format – against England at Old Trafford in 2011. Dravid is only 16th on the overall list, which is headed by the UAE’s 43-year-old captain Mohammad Tauqir, against Netherlands in Edinburgh in 2015.Is there any case of a father and son carrying their bat in Tests? asked David Ferrier from Norway

There’s only one instance of this. Playing in what was only Pakistan’s second official Test match, against India in Lucknow in 1952-53, Nazar Mohammad scored an undefeated 124 of the total of 331, to set up a decisive lead: Pakistan, who had lost the first Test badly, went on to the victory that levelled their inaugural series. Just over 30 years later, his son Mudassar Nazar carried his bat for 152 in Pakistan’s innings of 323 against India in Lahore in 1982-83.Send in your questions using our feedback form.

A local IPL team and a local hero are generating much excitement as the IPL makes its way to Rajkot

Arun Venugopal in Rajkot13-Apr-2016The Saurashtra Cricket Association stadium, also known as the Khandheri Cricket Stadium, is approximately 15 kilometres outside Rajkot. Radio cabs don’t ply here, it is a territory marked “out of city limits”. Once you hit the Jamnagar-Rajkot highway to get to the stadium, it feels like a different place. The narrow streets and lazy traffic are replaced by an endless blur of barren land that sprawls out on one side. On the highway, a signpost points to a diversion that can take you to Porbandar, the birthplace of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Further down, to the right, stands a stately yet sober structure with a sign that says: “Saurashtra Cricket Stadium – Eco Friendly Stadium.”There is graffiti of the Gujarat Lions’ ‘roaring lion’ insignia as you enter the stadium premises, and, inside, a razzle-dazzle of colours. The turquoise seats, freshened with a coat of paint, are contrasted by the bright yellow and orange of the Lions signage that runs horizontally, separating one tier from another. Then there is the famous media capsule modelled on the one at Lord’s and the small canopies over the stands which resemble those at the Adelaide Oval. The security personnel, like in many smaller centres, are far less officious; it is easier to take in the contemporary charms of the ground without being shooed away.Niranjan Shah, veteran administrator and SCA president, is a busy man. One moment he is having a word with curator Dhiraj Parsana and the next, he is chatting with Lions captain Suresh Raina. Shah is confident that he and his colleagues have got the arrangements down pat. He says the stadium can hold 28,000-29,000 people, and most tickets have been sold out. “There is a lot of enthusiasm here given that people have never experienced IPL at stadiums before,” Shah tells ESPNcricinfo. “People from in and around Saurashtra – from places like Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Junagadh – are expected to come in large numbers. IPL is a big hype. It has never happened here – such entertainment, cheerleaders, music – so I think people have something new.”Red, gold and green: The bright banners inside the stadium add to its atmosphere.•ESPNcricinfo LtdThe black soil-rich pitch that will be used for the game is bald near the edges but has a thick mat of green running along the centre. It is, however, a given that the grass will be shaved off on the morning of the game. With the open spaces between the stands facilitating abundant breeze, the swing bowlers might be in play, at least for a short period. An SCA administrator jokes that there is no need of a pitch report at this venue. ” [It’s a no brainer that this is a 200-220 surface].”Although the stadium has hosted two ODIs and a T20 international – the most recent was the one-dayer against South Africa in October last year – Shah feels the IPL is a different beast altogether. “This is different because there are five matches. I think after the first match we will settle down,” he says.”And, whatever be our shortcomings, we will rectify. [Our biggest challenge is to] conduct all five matches successfully and come out as the best stadium and get Rs 50 lakh [the prize money awarded for the best venue in the IPL],” he adds with a laugh.While there might not be a conspicuous buzz in the city, there are enough reminders of the tournament having made its way here, with billboards at some of the bigger junctions in the city and, understandably, an attempt to play up the Ravindra Jadeja factor. Jadeja, after all, hails from this part of the state and plays domestic cricket for Saurashtra. Inside the stadium there is a tall cut-out of Jadeja that screams: “Rockstar.”Raina believes the match will be memorable for the entire team, not just Jadeja. “It’s (a special occasion) for everyone. Gujarat never had an IPL team in the first eight years. We are looking forward to play for Gujarat,” he says. “Jadeja must be excited to play in front of a lot of crowd, also, after a few days, he is getting married.”The DJs at the stadium have so far had their dry runs with , by Major Lazer and DJ Snake*, and Dwayne Bravo’s , but Raina and bowling coach Heath Streak gave them a hint about what the team might like listening to. “We listen to a lot of Gujarati songs in the dressing room these days,” Raina says with a smile before Streak joined in: “[we listen to] [the team anthem which means “it’s our game”].*GMT 0900 The article had earlier referred to Taylor Swift as the artiste behind . The error has been corrected.

Plays of the day from the game between Kings XI Punjab and Gujarat Lions in Mohali

Nikhil Kalro11-Apr-2016The two-card trickDwayne Bravo, one of the canniest T20 bowlers on the planet, executed the bouncer-yorker combination to perfection to dismiss one of the most destructive batsmen around. Glenn Maxwell had consciously set himself up for Bravo’s dipping slower balls, but the West Indian used all his experience to fox him. Bravo banged in a sharp bouncer in the 12th over, followed by a quick and accurate yorker, both of which caught Maxwell off guard. Looking to make room, Maxwell failed to keep the second one out.The dipping noveltyBravo is responsible for cricket’s newest innovation – the slow, dipping full toss. The difficult of playing it probably stems from how hard it is to decipher the release. David Miller, who promoted himself to No. 3 for the first time in the IPL, figured that out the hard way. Miller saw the ball dipping and played across the line. The next thing he saw were his disturbed stumps and Bravo running around in celebration.The Stoinis barrierAustralia allrounder Marcus Stoinis, making his IPL debut, was forced into tip-and-run cricket after quick wickets had pegged Kings XI Punjab in the middle overs. In the 15th over, he pushed one back towards the bowler James Faulkner, who collected the ball and fired a throw at the batsman’s end, spotting Stoinis out of his crease. Diving back home Stoinis stretched out his bat which came in the way of the ball. It seemed intentional, but Faulkner only made a half-hearted appeal for obstructing the field and Stoinis survived.The swing deceptionBrendon McCullum was playing his first match since his international retirement in February. In what was also Gujarat Lions’ first match, he was intent on carrying on where he left off after his record-breaking Test century in Christchurch. With McCullum’s dancing pyrotechnics known to all, wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha came up to the stumps to the medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma. That did not stop McCullum, who shimmied down to the second ball he faced, and Sandeep pulled his length back and swung the ball away to beat his bat. With McCullum stranded a long way down the pitch, Saha completed the formalitiesJohnson’s improv modeIf cricketing skills don’t work, improvise. Mitchell Johnson silenced many critics, who have questioned football as a mode of preparation. In the 15th over of the chase, Dinesh Karthik tapped a ball back down the pitch, called for a single, and got a positive response from his partner Ravindra Jadeja. Considering Jadeja’s sprightly feet, the only way he was going to be found short was if Johnson used his. That he did, and Kings XI had a small moment of celebration in an otherwise chastening five-wicket loss.

After being handed another England recall, Steven Finn is reaching the stage where achievement needs to outstrip potential

George Dobell at Edgbaston02-Aug-2016When Jonathan Trott was starting his career at Warwickshire, he used to tell journalists there was no point in trying to talk to him after he had scored a century.”When I’m batting well,” was the gist of it, “there’s nothing in my head at all. I’m not thinking, I’m just batting. It’s when I’m not scoring runs you should come and talk to me. That’s when thoughts worm their way into my head.”Perhaps Steven Finn could empathise with such sentiments? When Finn started his career, bowling was a gloriously uncomplicated business. Good enough to make his county debut while his school friends were taking their GCSEs, he used his height and strength to hurl the ball at batsmen with unusual hostility. Half-a-dozen years later, relying mainly on natural attributes and conviction uncompromised by thoughts working their way into his head, he became the youngest man to claim 50 Test wickets for England.Somewhere along the way, though, life became more complicated. Maybe it was the attempt to re-model his run-up, maybe it was a complication of trying to avoid running into the stumps, maybe it was an attempt to improve an economy rate that saw him fall behind the likes of Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan in the pecking order in England’s four-man attack, but somewhere along the way, Finn’s natural skills became diluted.He was still a decent bowler. But that pace and hostility that made him special had largely gone and, as much as he tried to reinvent himself as a typical English-style seamer, that was never his unique selling point. There are dozens of decent fast-medium seamers in county cricket; there are very few tall fast bowlers capable of offering what Finn once had. Between July 2013 and July 2015, he didn’t play a Test.It looked, for a while, as if he had made a breakthrough. He bowled brilliantly, and with impressive pace, in his comeback Test at Edgbaston last year – claiming eight wickets in the match, including a haul of 6 for 79 in Australia’s second innings, and being timed as quicker than Mitchell Johnson – demonstrating not just the welcome return to hostility but an new-found ability to swing the ball.It wasn’t quite a false dawn – he bowled terrifically without much fortune in South Africa – but it wasn’t his new normal. It was more like a spike in an endlessly undulating display. Finn doesn’t know where the pace comes from any more than Bob Dylan knew where the songs came from. When it goes missing, his response it to work harder and think more. It’s not a bad attitude, but then Finn has never been criticised for a bad attitude. Maybe, like Mark Ramprakash before him, he wants it all a little too much, and the more he pushed for the absent pace, the more tense he became and the more his rhythm deserted him.Certainly, when he is thrown the ball by Alastair Cook sometime this week, he will be urged not to dwell on thoughts about his technique. Instead he will be told to relax, enjoy himself and charge in. England have three other steady seamers who can swing the ball. They don’t need another one. They need a fast bowler. A big, strong, fast bowler who can find life on docile surfaces and hurry batsmen when conditions are offering other bowlers nothing.”I’ll tell him not to worry too much about it,” Cook said. “He sometimes can worry too much. He cares deeply about playing for England and doesn’t want to let anyone down.”It is hard to explain sometimes why he can bowl quicker than the other days. It’s not for lack of effort, but it doesn’t seem to come out quite as well. He is a rhythm bowler.”Steven Finn has endured a frustrating time with England•Getty ImagesThere have been, Cook believes, some physical reasons for Finn’s underwhelming displays in recent times. As well as a knee injury picked up when falling in his delivery stride, he also had a damaged toenail that has now been treated. As a result, he goes into this game without any of the nagging impediments that might have otherwise preyed on his mind. He impressed in the nets on Tuesday – a display that probably tipped selection in his favour over Jake Ball – and bowled with decent pace in Middlesex’s two most recent limited-overs games.”He bowled quickly in the nets,” Cook said. “And quickly for Middlesex against Essex. On his day, he bowls spells which are incredible to be standing at first slip for, as he did against Australia here. He’s a huge talent.”Sometimes when you’re dropped it’s a bit of a moment for you as a player. He obviously missed out on the last Test and that will have hurt him. When telling him he wasn’t playing, you saw that disappointment and hunger almost straight away. And telling him he was playing today, you saw that glint in his eye.”It took a sleepless night before the team management opted for Finn over Ball – “at 2am today I was wide awake thinking about it,” Cook said – but there is some logic in the decision. Not only does Finn have good memories of Edgbaston, a not insignificant factor for a man whose fortunes seem to be strongly influenced by his frame of mind, but he also offers, at his best, something a bit different to England’s other bowlers. As Cook put it: “We’ve gone for a guy with a proven Test record who has a knack of picking up wickets.”Ball is unfortunate, though. He looks a skilful, reliable bowler who, with a bit of fitness work – it was noticeable that his speeds dropped by the spell at Lord’s – could have a long-term role in this side. In the end, his similarities to Stuart Broad and James Anderson may have counted against him.Realistically, though, he and Finn may well be competing for a spot in the touring squads to Bangladesh and India. With Mark Wood also likely to be in the mix, competition for places is tough, though there is a strong case for resting Anderson, in particular, for Bangladesh. Suffice it to say, Finn needs the Edgbaston Test to go well. Aged 27, he is getting to the stage where talk of his potential has to be replaced by talk of his achievements to sustain his career. It’s not quite now or never, but he is heading in that direction.The same might be said for James Vince. He has only had seven Test innings but it is getting to the stage where he needs a performance if he is to retain a place for The Oval Test. The impression remains that, if Ian Bell had been able to score a little more heavily in county cricket this season (he has just one Championship century to his name), he may be back already. This pitch promises, despite recent rain, to be good. Vince needs to take advantage.

Usman Khawaja believes greater diversity in Australian cricket will develop in time.

Firdose Moonda in Perth31-Oct-2016The C-word – chokers – used to be South African cricket’s least favourite topic of discussion but these days it’s the T-word as well. The two T-words. Transformation. Targets.Even before they were officially re-introduced in September, those words sparked serious interrogation over whether sport has the responsibility to make amends for the social costs of South Africa’s segregated past, whether enough opportunity was afforded to all and why the national team had such a vastly different demographic make-up to the actual nation.But South Africa are not alone in debating diversity. Australia, a country with a culture that seems built on winning at all costs, is also tackling the issue and for Usman Khawaja, they still have a way to go.”Australia is an extremely multicultural place, especially where I grew up in western Sydney,” Khawaja said. “I’d love to see players from all different backgrounds come and represent Australia and I think you will see more and more of that.”Khawaja is what South Africans would call the only “player of colour” in the current Australia squad and remembers a time when he felt like the only one on the circuit. “When I first started playing first-class cricket, I am pretty positive I was the only coloured person in the whole system and now you see it a lot more,” he said.He expects that increased immigration will change that, albeit not immediately. “Australia is still a fairly young nation in terms of multi-culturalism and immigration, particularly towards people from Africa and the subcontinent coming over. It’s still first or second generation,” he said. “I expect that to happen but it will need a little bit of time.”I have no doubt there will be some new faces coming into the team in the next 10 or 15 years but they will obviously have to earn their stripes. We already see it through young development players and players coming through first-class cricket.”The brothers Ashton and Wes Agar, Gurinder Sandhu, Fawad Ahmed, Arjun Nair and Clive Rose are a few examples but so far none of them have broken through to quite the same degree as Khawaja. That may make him a flagbearer of sorts but he does not see it as giving him the same responsibility as that carried by someone like Makhaya Ntini, South Africa’s first black African player or Temba Bavuma, the first black African batsman to play Test cricket. Both those men are regarded as role models for the majority population group, who have long played cricket but have often been denied access to circumstances that could encourage them to excel.”I have never seen it that way,” Khawaja said. “There is a little bit more emphasis on trying to get people from different backgrounds involved in cricket and to make it a national sport. I think you can aid that process but you can’t artificially manufacture it.”Ultimately, that has been the biggest question around South Africa’s transformation policy: whether merit would be sacrificed to support change, whether that would be justified, and even whether the suggestion of that was insulting to those whom the policy would benefit. The answers remain unclear to everyone, including Khawaja, although he has made an effort to delve deeper into it.”I talked to a couple of the South African players, I talked to Hashim about it and he has explained to me from a South African point of view,” Khawaja said. “I can totally understand both sides of the spectrum. It’s a complicated issue.”It’s one of those things where you would love to see South Africans come through to Test cricket and just pick the best team and not have to worry about any of the external factors and hopefully in a few years time, that will be the case. But it’s also a very young nation in terms of where it has been and where it is now in terms of Apartheid so you have to take that into consideration.”South Africa themselves are starting not to separate the need for transformation with the desire for success. After they blanked Australia 5-0 in the ODIs, Faf du Plessis told fans they can calm down about the so-called quotas because South Africa have proved they can win with a transformed team.In that series, South Africa met their targets but bigger challenges await. South Africa have yet to play a Test under the new policy and have yet to go a whole summer with it in place. The real results can only be measured once they do. Until then, they may take some comfort from knowing other places are grappling with similar ideas and the goal of inclusion is not theirs alone.

Tauseef Ahmed, Dera Ismail Khan, Raees Mohammad, Abdul Aziz Durani, a playboy prince and others feature in this affectionate backstory of Pakistan cricket

Kamran Abbasi21-Aug-2016As a schoolboy, one of my favourite books was a collection of cricket stories. The tales were entirely fictional, of heroic last stands and match-winning bowlers specialising in donkey drops. The stories were as much about unusual people in exceptional circumstances as they were about the sport. Cricket lends itself readily to backstory and biography., a follow-up to Peter Oborne’s excellent , promises to paint a mesmerising picture of the fascinating events and individuals that have shaped the enigmatic cricket of Pakistan. It promises the backstory and the biography of Pakistan cricket in the words of the protagonists and through the eyes of their contemporaries.The stories are varied and generally brief, perfect for sporadic attention. Prince Aslam, heir to the princely state of Manavadar in pre-Partition India, opens proceedings. He was a playboy cricketer who left a match once he had taken enough wickets to enjoy a party or attend to a girlfriend. He died lonely and sad.We hear the story of Master Aziz, who was separated from his 12-year-old son during Partition. While his son, Salim Durani, went on to play for India, Aziz mentored dozens of talented Pakistani cricketers, some of whom became greats.These, then, are as much tales of Partition and politics, of joy and loss, of the making and breaking of society and individuals, as they are of cricket and cricketers. In this sense, the political passions of the authors, Oborne and Richard Heller, shine through. What is cricket except a manifestation of the political and social evolution of a country?And these observations benefit from the view of outsiders, less entangled in the day-to-day machinations of navigating a life and a living in Pakistan. The authors share a love of their subject and a passion for detail. Forgotten lives and events matter to their besotted eyes.Here we find gems that matter. For instance, the story of Raees Mohammad, the fifth of the marvellous Mohammad brothers, four of whom played Test cricket for Pakistan. Hanif, the most famous of the brothers, died last week. Imagine family games of cricket in the Mohammads’ garden or on their verandah. Raees is called up too but misses out in what history will judge to be a heartbreaking injustice.What about Dera Ismail Khan, a name that will be familiar to anoraks? Dera played one first-class match and were beaten by Railways by a world-record innings and 851 runs. How did this happen? Was it, as the described, a case of Pakistan’s cricket board allowing “teams with no first-class status to compete in first-class tournaments”?Simon and SchusterThen there’s Tauseef Ahmed, impressive offspinner and potential Lionel Richie impersonator. Tauseef blagged a role as a net bowler for Pakistan’s preparations for their first Test against Australia in 1980. Javed Miandad put him up in Zaheer Abbas’ hotel room, and when Zaheer rang the room to pick up his messages he was shocked to hear Tauseef’s voice. Once Tauseef explained what had happened, Zaheer told him to stay.Following the net session, Tauseef returned to his club but received a call from a friend, a cinema owner from Bradford. “He told me I was in the Test team. I didn’t believe him, but he told me to go home and check. I found a crowd there and thought maybe there was something in it.” Tauseef was indeed selected; the offspinner in the squad, Ilyas Khan, had been dropped. Only in Pakistan.We learn more about the cricketing lives of Billy Ibadulla, Duncan Sharpe, and Aftab Baloch. Perhaps most importantly of all, we discover the story behind the introduction of women’s cricket to Pakistan, and the ignored tales of the survivors of the terrorist attack on Sri Lanka’s cricketers in Lahore.There is much to marvel at and revel in but you need to work hard to find it amid material that didn’t make the final edit of . Some of the biographies of Pakistan’s cricketers are well known and what’s new only forms a minor part of the story. Some chapters indulge the authors and their subjects.So enter with care. offers detail that you may not be seeking, about events that you might not care about. But for anybody with a love of cricket and cricketers’ lives, of how cricket and society intertwine, of Pakistan and its idiosyncrasies and injustices, this is a volume you might have dreamt about as a child.White on Green: A Portrait of Pakistan Cricket
By Richard Heller and Peter Oborne
Simon and Schuster UK
320 pages, £20

Plays of the day from the fourth ODI between India and New Zealand in Ranchi. Also featuring Amit Mishra’s troubles in the field

Deivarayan Muthu26-Oct-2016Dhoni runs Taylor out – without looking
The day before the Ranchi ODI, MS Dhoni left Ross Taylor and Tom Latham gawking by driving past the New Zealand team bus in his hummer, with sunglasses on. On Wednesday, Dhoni left Taylor smiling wryly after running him out with a cunning back-hand flick, with sunglasses on. Taylor had just heaved a length ball to the left of Dhawal Kulkarni at fine leg. The fielder swiftly collected the ball and threw it at chest height to Dhoni, who nonchalantly deflected it back onto the leg stump – as he often does – his back facing the crease. Cue in massive cheers from Dhoni’s home crowd.

Watch the Mahi magic on loop #INDvNZ https://t.co/btMoJF0xC3

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 26, 2016

The Mishra drop I
Amit Mishra is the second-oldest member in India’s squad, behind Dhoni, and probably the least athletic of the lot. Mishra’s issues in the field were put in the spotlight in the seventh over. Martin Guptill, who was in the mood to hit out, had looked to shovel an Umesh Yadav slower ball straight down the ground. The lack of pace meant Guptill dragged it in the air to the left of mid-on. Mishra lumbered in, dived, but the ball merely grazed his left hand and bobbled onto the ground. Not a straightforward chance by any measure, but Mishra could have had a go had he reacted quicker.The Mishra drop II
The day would get worse for Mishra in the field. After dropping Guptill on 29, Mishra botched a much simpler catch at long-off when Guptill was on 62. Seeing a short, wide delivery, Guptill belted it down the ground. It could have been a regulation catch for Mishra had he stayed on the edge of the long-off boundary. Instead, he ran in. Realising he had misjudged the ball, he did not leap as he stretched his hands upwards to intercept the ball. It wasn’t enough. The ball went over his head and then plonked behind him for a one-bounce four. Scott Styris, who was on TV commentary at the time, quipped: “Guptill picked out the right fielder.” Guptill went on to make 72.Latham shows them how it’s done
Latham plucked two sharp catches, which highlighted the gulf between the two teams in the field, towards the end of the chase. When Manish Pandey unleashed a fierce bottom-handed shovel against a Tim Southee slower ball in the air in the 33rd over, Latham timed his jump to perfection and took with catch with both his hands over his head at mid-on. Mitchell Santner, who was at midwicket, also leapt in his position in a neat synchronised routine. Three overs later, Latham ran to his left from wide long-off to track down a loft from Hardik Pandya with precision.