The Australian legspinner successfully figured out how to counter the Indian big-hitter after he had smashed him around earlier in the series

Alagappan Muthu28-Sep-20171:45

Agarkar: Australia’s bowlers bowled right balls to right batsmen

“I knew that I could hit a six off him anytime I wanted to.”Even for a man in red-hot form, that’s a bold statement to make. But Hardik Pandya said it with his chin in his hands, a shrug of his shoulders and a tilt of the head. Much like one would say, “One plus one? Yeah, that’s two.”It was a good thing that Adam Zampa wasn’t at the press conference. He was overlooked by Australia after being biffed for three successive sixes, relegated to the bench at a time when wristspinners are very noticeably taking over one-day cricket. He didn’t need to hear the man responsible for his fortunes plummeting sit in front of a room full of headline-hungry journalists and parade his dominance.Zampa did, however, need to figure out how to counter Pandya if they were to meet again. So he trained, hitting the nets at every opportunity. He was one of the last players to finish practice when Australia were in Indore, working with spin consultant S Sriram.Regardless of the amount of preparation, though, a spinner bowling to Pandya will know that he cannot err in the slightest. The India allrounder can, and has, hit sixes as soon as he arrives at the crease. That’s what happened on Thursday when he launched the second ball he faced out of the ground. He also doesn’t really need the room that most other batsmen like in order to free their arms. His bottom-handed power can compensate for that. Just the other day, Pandya was helicoptering sixes at the Holkar Stadium, as if he were showing off for MS Dhoni who was practicing alongside him.Zampa would have known he had to face his rival again when Ashton Agar injured his hand in the third ODI. Australia had no other frontline spinner and with the series lost already, there was very little reason to fly a replacement in.The battle began innocuously enough – two runs off five balls. But in the 28th over, Pandya crashed a six over midwicket and the follow-up delivery – aimed at the wide line outside off – sailed over deep cover. Hiding the ball away from the batsman’s reach is how India have kept Glenn Maxwell quiet. But Pandya, by hitting through the line, as opposed to slogging across it or unnecessarily jumping down, posed a greater challenge.Zampa was taken off. The seamers came back and Australia regained some control. But they couldn’t break the partnership. Pandya and Kedar Jadhav had brought the equation down to 117 off 15 overs. Steven Smith turned to his under-fire legspinner again.Zampa took the ball, knowing he was about to make or break the match. His first over back was, if nothing, well thought out and better executed. He mixed the tossed up deliveries with the quicker ones, trying his best to avoid being lined up at a ground with short boundaries. In Chennai, he had not really tried playing with his length like this, going full and often putting it right in the slot.The 36th over cost only two runs. Zampa earned another shot at Pandya – this time with some pressure to work with – which might well have been Australia’s plan all along. They gambled with some of Pat Cummins and Nathan Coulter-Nile’s overs, which helped keep the scoring in check and made the Indians feel like they had to find another source for quick runs.Zampa began the 38th over with a fast and flat delivery angled into middle and leg stump. But he made sure to give it a good rip. He wanted Pandya to go for the slog, and if that happened, he gave himself the best chance of a wicket by making sure the ball would turn.The plan worked and David Warner, taking the catch at long-off, celebrated with as much gusto as he did earlier in the day when he got to a hundred in his 100th ODI.”Zamps is a really good wicket-taker and quite an aggressive bowler,” acting coach David Saker said. “He came in today and bowled some really good balls and good stuff for us. Against Pandya, who is a dangerous hitter, if you get it a little bit wrong, he hits you out of the park. It’s a learning curve for him, and for all of us bowling to him.”Australia passed the test at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, removing India’s power-hitter before the last 10 overs could even begin, and that played no small part in breaking a year-long ODI losing streak away from home.

Over the course of his 124-ball 138 against Tamil Nadu, India’s hottest young batsman took apart the world’s best offspinner with a sumptuous combination of skill and calculation

Arun Venugopal at the Bandra-Kurla Complex27-Oct-2017It was lunch on day three and Tamil Nadu were trailing Mumbai’s first-innings total by 29 runs with only two wickets in hand. While most members of the Tamil Nadu camp might have been plodding through an anxious meal, a group of players and support-staff members headed to a distant corner of the Bandra-Kurla Complex ground for a net.R Ashwin was at the front and centre of the group. His India commitments mean you don’t often see him in a Tamil Nadu jersey – since his international debut in 2010, Ashwin has turned out for his state only 19 times across formats. Before this season, his most recent Ranji Trophy appearance had come in a rain-affected game in 2012. So, for the likes of B Aparajith and Ganga Sridhar Raju, who were going to be Ashwin’s sparring partners in the nets, this was an opportunity to watch their senior partner from close quarters and learn from him.Ashwin, on the other hand, could have used whatever game-time came his way in his build-up to the three-Test series at home against SriLanka followed by a demanding trip to South Africa. There are other factors, too, that would doubtless have been spurring him on. He hasn’tfigured in India’s limited-overs plans recently after being “rotated out” for the series against Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand. His absence has since coincided with the rise of two young wristspinners – Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav – who, according to captain Virat Kohli, have been so good that he has been tempted to play them in every game.Ashwin himself wasn’t going to leave the wrist-spin base uncovered. As he has been doing often, lately, Ashwin invested time and effort in bowling legbreaks. To the left-hand batsman Raju, he even bowled the flipper, often on the shorter side of a good length. When he bowled to Aparajith, a right-hand bat, he went over the wicket and from a run-up of eight or nine steps, tried different lengths and lines. He constantly checked with the batsmen and L Balaji, Tamil Nadu’s bowling coach, if the ball was getting enough drop or if there were too many “freebies.”On Thursday, Ashwin would get a crack at putting his plans into work in the middle. They would be subjected to a severe examination, though, by one Mumbai batsman. Over the afternoon and on the following day, he would second-guess and eventually dismantle Ashwin’s plans. The batsman was Shreyas Iyer.John Michel Hard numbers, stripped of nuance, would tell you that Iyer won the duel with Ashwin, by pinfall and submission. He scored 37 off the 40balls he faced from Ashwin, including three sixes and two fours; on Friday alone, he made 22 off 21. But, the broader story lies in the subtext and the circumstances.At 22, Iyer is currently hot property. For long recognised as one of the country’s best young batsmen, Iyer has backed up the hype with some barnstorming performances in the last few months. It got to a point where the selectors could no longer confine him to to A-teamcricket, and included him for the T20Is against New Zealand next month. Right from his higher-than-usual backlift against fast bowlers on Friday to his nonchalant shrugs, everything about him screams swag.At the other end of the spectrum is Ashwin, nine years Iyer’s senior and with an experience of 209 international games. As India’s mainspinner for a few years now, he’s almost expected to turn up and knock batsmen over, particularly if it’s a domestic fixture. Ashwin had tried bowling around the stumps to Iyer on the third afternoon, but the ploy backfired after Iyer smacked him for two sixes, one of which went out of the park.It wasn’t until after 12 overs on the final day that Ashwin was given the ball for the sequel of their stoush. Iyer was then on 84 and wasracing towards a hundred. There was little of the abrading that is said to be the mark of a fourth-day subcontinental surface; except forthe odd ball, there was very little turn on offer. So Ashwin continued to operate from around the stumps with a 3-6 field, and initially kept Iyer quiet. He did it by landing the ball on middle and leg and turned the ball into the body, and on occasions, outside leg. Every now and then, he would use the carrom ball and also slant one across the stumps.It seemed like a sound strategy at first, as it denied Iyer the hitting width he craved for. Up to that point, Iyer had been brutal on anything remotely outside off stump, either carting it over the bowler’s head or drilling it through the covers. When you combine these factors, it is fair to expect Iyer to lose his rhythm at some point and attempt something rash. Except, that didn’t happen. Iyer knew the field was spread out for him – the Tamil Nadu captain, Abhinav Mukund, later reasoned that Iyer was anyway going for lofted shots, so there was always the possibility of a mistimed hit that would result in a catch – and knocked Ashwin around for singles and twos. Whenever he couldn’t lay bat on ball down the leg side, he was happy to leave. One of those deliveries was even called wide.On only one occasion did Ashwin come close to getting Iyer out. He slid one across the batsman, who slashed hard and edged, the ball flying quickly to the left of slip for four. Soon after, Iyer completed his hundred, and in a repeat of his shot from Thursday, whacked Ashwin over thewide long-on fence. Ashwin appeared a little rattled, and bowled a faster, shorter legbreak the next ball. This time Iyer went back, held his shape, and steered it behind point for another four. He would invariably follow such shots with a single to sweeper cover or deep square leg.Ashwin went back to bowling over the stumps – a touch belatedly, perhaps – but Iyer had messed his plans up by then. Ashwin’s uninterrupted 11-over spell had cost him 50 runs. An extension of the contest, however, was not to be seen as Iyer was run out before lunch. Perhaps that was the only way Tamil Nadu could have got him out.

Chris Read played only 15 Tests for England but the game has lost a little of its grace now that he has entered retirement

Tim Wigmore11-Oct-2017Chris Read laughs. He has just been told that 17 of his 26 first-class centuries came after his last Test match for England, in Sydney at the start of 2007. “I should have just scored a few more earlier, shouldn’t I?”As his career ends, there remains a little lingering frustration, the sort that may never entirely dissipate, about an international stint that encompassed 15 Tests in four spells over eight years yet still predated his peak.Mostly, though, there is contentment about a wonderful two decades at Nottinghamshire. The last of those was spent as captain, including leading the side to the County Championship in 2010, while also being their most dependable batsman and a wicketkeeper of beguiling grace and reliability.This is the deeper point of Read’s retirement – not merely the end of a terrific career, but what it seems to represent: the end of one of the last wicketkeeping artists, a breed for whom keeping behind the stumps was not a mere addendum to the more serious business of scoring runs in front of them, and who embraced diving around on the turf as an expression of themselves.”I always saw myself as a wicketkeeper first and foremost. That’s how I grew up. It was keeping first, and making sure that’s taken care of,” Read reflects. It is the sort of view that, in today’s game, would not pass as very sensible career advice to keeper-batsmen, who know that batting performance is the most obvious metric of their worth.

Read also developed the mindset to withstand the vagaries of the wicketkeeper’s job – they are a breed that, like postmen, pilots or subeditors, are easily ignored until they err

Wicketkeeping in the modern age has become largely a functional pursuit; to see Read was to be reminded of what it can still be elevated to: artistry. It is the supple hands, nimble footwork and unobtrusiveness – because his mistakes were so rare – for which Read will be remembered.Cricket has never been good at quantifying the worth of wicketkeepers, yet Read’s numbers reflect his enduring excellence. There are the records – an astounding 1580 dismissals in professional cricket, the most by a Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper, and over 1000 catches in first-class cricket, a feat no cricketer may ever emulate again.Even more striking are figures collated by the statistician Charles Davis, who has been recording dropped catches and stumpings in Test cricket since 2001. During this period, Read missed only three out of 46 chances – the best record of any keeper in the world; Geraint Jones and Matt Prior both missed around 17% of their chances, almost three times as many as Read’s 6.5%. As a pure gloveman, Read was not merely an English great, he has claims to being an all-time great, no matter his paucity of international cricket.Through it all, Read was endlessly curious about his craft, unstinting in his quest for any tweaks that could bring improvement. If the abiding image of the young Read is of him arriving in first-class cricket in 1998, baby-faced yet essentially a fully formed wicketkeeper, it is also something of a myth.
In the summer of 2001, two years after his Test debut, Read felt like he “didn’t have a settled rhythm or routine”. Out of exasperation, he approached Bruce French, another former Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper and his long-time mentor. Read brought up Ian Healy – “my technical wicketkeeping hero” (the sort of phrase only a wicketkeeper’s wicketkeeper would ever use) – and asked, “Why do the Australian keepers look to catch the ball on the inside; why do they catch the ball the way they do?”Read and French resolved to learn from the best of the Australian technique – essentially to focus more on footwork before catching the ball, and to take more catches on his inside hip, increasing the chances of the ball sticking.”I focused on looking to catch the ball in line with my inside hip, which would give me a better chance of covering more ground from the outside edge. All of a sudden I found that my technique gave me a new rhythm.”And so, for the remainder of his career, Read’s wicketkeeping became “a little bit of a hybrid between the Australian and English method”, varying his footwork depending on how much the ball was wobbling and carrying after passing the stumps. Normally he used his feet extensively, but keeping to New Zealand seamer Andre Adams – “he wobbled the ball more than anyone I’ve ever kept to” – Read would stick to the English method.Through this Read learned that, as a wicketkeeper, “You have to adapt. There’s not just one technique out there.” He learned, too, how to evaluate and improve through the long county season without the benefit of a full-time wicketkeeping coach. “You’re not reliant on someone else to say you’re not doing this right. I was able to understand my game at quite a young age and fine-tune myself.”Read in Cape Town in 2000, on his first England tour. Seven years later, his international career would be over, but he would go on to be a power in domestic cricket for another decade•Getty ImagesBefore matches, Read focused on two aspects: “rhythm and reaction”. Rhythm came through standing back, receiving underarm feeds or hits off the bat, and developing a relationship with the slip cordon; any newcomer would be sought out for a chat on working together in the slips. Meanwhile Read developed his reaction times through a mixture of devices, like catching ramps and boards that would hurl balls at him from close up, and drills, including ones where he was forced to catch one-handed. Players and coaches were pestered to shadow-bat in front of him, to create a distraction resembling those in the game itself. With Wayne Noon, a long-time assistant coach for Notts and a former keeper himself, Read devised new drills whenever he feared “getting stale”.When Paul Franks, a former fast bowler, became assistant coach for 2017, player had to talk coach through what to do: “You almost need to train your coach as well, if he’s not a natural wicketkeeper.”Read also developed the mindset to withstand the job of the wicketkeeper’s – they are a breed that, like postmen, pilots or subeditors, are easily ignored until they err. “You’re always in the spotlight. It’s a bit like a goalkeeper in football, you might make an error first ball of a day, you’ve got another 96 overs to get through. You’ve got to be resilient.

Gilchrist’s emergence may well have cost Read international caps. And yet Gilchrist also galvanised Read into improving his batting, and ultimately becoming a better cricketer.

“Mentally you have to love wicketkeeping. It’s all-consuming – every day you could have a great chance to alter the course of a game. You’re going to have days where you drop catches. It’s how you try and maintain that level mental state, where you’re not getting too excited when you catch a blinder and forget to catch the next ball and you’re not getting too down when you drop a catch because every keeper misses catches and stumpings. It’s how you get over that, how you step up next time.”For all of his mastery behind the stumps, in a sense Read’s reinvention as a batsman was more impressive. In his timing, Read was unlucky: his international debut came four months before Adam Gilchrist played his first Test for Australia. Immediately expectations of what a wicketkeeper could achieve with the bat were changed, irrevocably.In 1998, his first summer in the first-class game, Read averaged 25.06, placing him in the top half of county keepers that year. By the early 2000s, such numbers were scarcely acceptable among keepers in first-class cricket, let alone sufficient to win international elevation. Read seemed like a man out of time, a silent movie actor in the age of talkie films. Certainly England’s coach Duncan Fletcher thought as much.After his final two Tests, in the 2006-07 Ashes whitewash, Read could have resorted to an extended sulk, in despair of his treatment by Fletcher, who is dismissive of him in his autobiography. Read was criticised for his batting method – “As he does not really have a defensive technique he always has to look to smash the ball” – and for his lack of aggression, with his failure to get involved in a slanging match between Paul Collingwood, at slip, and Shane Warne, who was batting for Australia, in that 2007 Sydney Test offered as an example. The implication was that Read lacked fight.No one at Nottinghamshire would agree. In County Championship cricket at Trent Bridge this century, the sight of Read walking out at 100 for 5 – and sometimes much worse – has been the precursor to puckish counterattacking, haring singles, punching drives and scything anything short outside off stump.Over 11 summers since his final Test, Read scored 9536 first-class runs at 44.14, figures that are even more compelling considering that his home ground was Trent Bridge, where batsmen were under persistent attack from the swinging and seaming ball, and that nine of those years were in Division One. Read was not merely an idiosyncratic irritant, in the traditional mould of the keeper-batsman; often he seemed to be Notts’ last and only bulwark against defeat, routinely playing innings that would have been properly celebrated had they been authored by another batsman.In 2012 against Somerset, Read arrived at 20 for 4; he departed with 104 not out, when Notts had been bowled out for 162, and only extras had also exceeded 10. Even this summer, Read continued to make Fletcher’s assertion about a lack of fight seem absurd. A half-century in the Royal London One-Day Cup final alongside a brilliant hundred by Alex Hales ensured Read would be able to lift the trophy as skipper.Master at work: Read stumps Michael Richardson in a 2014 game•Getty ImagesHe was able to secure Championship promotion too, thanks to a very final innings that distilled the essence of Read the batsman. Coming in at 65 for 5 against Sussex, still 500 runs behind when needing a draw to seal promotion, Read lashed anything over-pitched through the covers and reached a breezy century with a hooked six. There was a job to do, and it was not Read’s way to let that fall to others.The effect of Gilchrist on Read was two-pronged. Gilchrist’s emergence may well have cost Read international caps. And yet Gilchrist, combined with Read’s own struggles with the bat for England, also galvanised Read into improving his batting, and ultimately becoming a better cricketer.”I had to improve, I had to get better,” he reflects. “There were some frustrating aspects of my international career, no doubt, but from my point of view I made a concerted effort after playing international cricket to show that the perception that I couldn’t bat was wrong. I had a lot of inner drive to prove to everyone that I was a top batsman, and was able to, or should have been able to, succeed with the bat at Test cricket.”I used to do things like comparing myself to whoever was keeping for England at that point. Am I scoring as many, am I averaging more, can I get my career average up to 40? Little challenges like that.”And so a player who appeared to be the victim of evolution in his sport instead became emblematic of it, and how terrific wicketkeepers could become equally valuable in front of the stumps.”I had to evolve as a batsman, I had to keep up. It was a very sudden shift really, from a nation of very, very good glovemen, where batting was considered a bit of a bonus to a nation of youngsters who’d grown up and had their formative years watching Gilchrist and knowing that’s what everyone wants. If I hadn’t made that change and hadn’t been able to evolve and score the weight of runs that I ended up doing, maybe my career wouldn’t have been half as long.”

There’s still a belief that you choose the batsman first and the keeper second, so a keeper has to be able to bat before they’re even looked at for their glovework. Part of me thinks that’s a lazy way to think

While the shift in wicketkeepers’ priorities is undeniable – “making sure people’s batting games are in order before their catching games” – Read does not despair for the future of English keeping.After “the Gilchrist effect” led teams to jeopardise their keeping standards while attempting to replicate Gilchrist’s run production, now Read glimpses “a happy medium” in wicketkeeping, citing Ben Foakes and John Simpson, of Surrey and Middlesex, as players who do not require their counties to make any compromises over either keeping or batting. Cricket’s burgeoning data revolution could yet lead to a radical reassessment of the worth of the keeper too, especially in T20 – “because every ball is an event, you have the opportunity as a keeper to win the game.”Yet Read still feels the craft is not given all the support that it should have, compared to other positions in cricket, as reflected in the paucity of specialist wicketkeeping coaches; even French is not full-time with England.”Do we take it seriously enough? The support for keepers is now greater than it was. However there’s still a belief that you choose the batsman first and the keeper second, so a keeper has to be able to bat before they’re even looked at for their glovework. Part of me thinks that’s a lazy way to think. If you can be bothered to work on the keeping, why can’t you be bothered to work at the keeper’s batting?”I’d like to see more effort being put into real pure glovemen at a young age – how can you get him to be the batter that he needs to be? It seems to me that they look at it the other way round. They say ‘Crikey, this guy’s a very good batter, but not a very good keeper’ – but not the other way around. That’s kind of frustrating. If you’ve got a good keeper, don’t rule him out because he can’t bat at five. Work with him. See where it goes.”Anyone who enlists Read in his new career as coach, at Uppingham School and potentially as a consultant for professional teams, will find a man who refuses to countenance any compromise in wicketkeeping standards.For all the transformation in his batting, and how Read tried to divide his training time equally between batting and keeping, his perfectionism with the gloves means he still spent more time practising his keeping. “In reality, maybe I spent more time catching balls.”And so it was entirely fitting that, when his team-mates tried to entice him to bowl at Hove last month, in pursuit of a maiden first-class wicket, Read resisted. “You’ll be remembered for when you walk off – the pictures should reflect that,” his coach Peter Moores, a former keeper himself, told him.As he walked off after 50 overs that passed by without conceding a single bye, never mind missing a chance, the very last image of Read as a professional cricketer was just as it should have been: a player of rare grace – with his keeping pads on.

Nepal have been the specialists of heart-stopping finishes in the WCL Division Two and their victory to seal a place in the World Cup Qualifier was a perfect example

Peter Della Penna in Windhoek15-Feb-20182:22

‘Can’t believe we won’

About half an hour after perhaps the most incredible finish anyone at Wanderers Sports Park is likely to witness in person, the first question posed to two of the central characters in the drama was about whether they had ever been a part of anything like it at any level of cricket.”I have been, I have been!” yelped the teenage legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane. “Last time against Namibia, I was batting with Basant Regmi dai. 19 runs required and I was the last guy!”Duh.Heart-stopping finishes have become de rigueur with Nepal this week at the WCL Division Two. They opened the tournament with a one-wicket win over Namibia chasing 139. Then, they needed two runs off the last ball to outlast Kenya. Against Canada, with a spot in the World Cup qualifier on the line, they managed to combine the excitement of both those games.Lamichhane was the last man in again. And Karan KC’s six over extra cover off Cecil Pervez brought the equation to two off the final delivery. The atmosphere in the ground was so extraordinarily surreal that even Salvador Dali would have struggled to portray it on a canvas.After seven days of cricket, the fates of three teams were going to be decided by the very last ball of round-robin play. For even as the Nepal-Canada game reached its climax, at the adjacent ground across the car park, UAE believed they had secured a trip to Zimbabwe with a 17-run win over Namibia and their screams and shouts of jubilation echoed across to Wanderers.UAE had finished with six points – the same as Namibia – but with a better net run-rate. All they had to do now was hope Nepal wouldn’t tie Canada. But then came a wide down the leg side, the equation became one run off one ball and UAE’s place in the Qualifier was simultaneously alive and dead. Like Schrodinger’s cat.Pervez, after taking a moment to compose himself, ran back in. For the first four balls of the over, he was mutant-like, yorkers his superpower. But by the final ball, he was decidedly human, perhaps even wishing for that most popular of superhero traits – the ability to fly – as Karan clipped Nepal’s – and UAE’s – winning run.Pervez sunk to the turf. Lamichhane took a moment away from his celebrations to embrace the Canadian, a man twice his age, and lift him to his feet again.Sandeep Lamichhane consoles Canada medium pacer Cecil Pervez after the final ball•Peter Della Penna”They played good cricket also,” Lamichhane said of Canada. “One team has to qualify. We were just trying to push our cricket to the highest level. I don’t have words to say. It was sad to see them in this condition.”Earlier in the day, Lamichhane was spinning his way through Canada. But, having taken 2 for 7 in five overs, he had to leave the field with a knee injury. After treatment, he struggled to have the same impact, leaking 33 runs in 24 balls as Srimantha Wijeratne chugged toward a century that put Canada in command.Nepal’s chase faltered early on as Pervez took out their captain Paras Khadka and vice-captain Gyanendra Malla in the seventh over. They were 115 for 5 in 34 overs when lightning kept splitting the air and the umpires took the players off the field. Twenty minutes later, however, Canada were back to chipping away at the opposition.The ninth wicket fell with Nepal needing 51 off 47 balls. And Karan went into overdrive.”When he first hit the four straight back to the bowler, Hilly [Dillon Heyliger], I was just scared, like, ‘Oh my God, he’s hitting the ball very hard!'” Lamichhane said. “I was just scared at the non-striker’s end. At the other moment he hit that six, a massive six, maybe around 90-100 metres, I came to know he’s in the mood right now and he’ll finish it off. I had that belief in him and he made it happen.”With the exception of Khadka, the majority of Nepal’s players are short, thin and wiry. Karan is short too, but with a broad chest and powerful arms, he is an imposing sight. That six off Heyliger, which went into the Wanderers car park, was the first sign Nepal had someone with the firepower to pull off the impossible. Nepal needed a further 40 runs in 36 balls with only one wicket in hand.”At that time, I thought only about sixes,” Karan said. “I have to hit six, six, six and six because we have to win the game, because it’s for the Qualifier. I told [Lamichhane], just play your normal game, don’t hit six or four. Just play straight, play six balls and then next over I will play.”Karan KC’s first six over long-off was a harbinger of the furious finish to come•Peter Della PennaWhen the equation dropped to 21 off the last two overs, the pair had a discussion and it was decided Karan – the No. 10 batsman – would farm the strike. A colossal six over long-on was followed by a hair-raising boundary past the wicketkeeper. A single off the last ball kept Karan on strike for the final over. But Pervez turned eight off six into eight off two.”At that time, the bowler bowled good yorkers,” Karan said. “I was a little bit nervous at that time, but I had confidence that I could hit the six, maybe… So I was just thinking about the six, no singles.”Karan took strike for the fifth ball, only this time, he took guard a step deeper in the batting crease, to ensure he had a better chance of getting under Pervez’s yorkers. The improvisation worked as the ball went sailing over the extra cover boundary.Then came the wide which effectively clinched Nepal’s spot in the Qualifier. The batsmen in the middle, however, had no idea they had taken the team through.”We were just enjoying our game,” Lamichhane said. We didn’t get the news that UAE had won the match. We were just trying to win the game for our side. I said to him, ‘Just hit the ball. If it’s in your range, you can clear it, I have the belief.”This will be Nepal’s second straight trip to the World Cup Qualifier. Their first had featured plenty of drama too, replete with a North American side stumbling at the finish.USA went into the final day of the WCL Division Three tournament in 2013 needing only a win to progress. But Bermuda knocked them out in emphatic fashion and Nepal overtook them on net run-rate by chasing a target of 128 in 14.5 overs against Italy.”It’s just amazing, from Bermuda to here,” Khadka said. “This would probably be the best cricket match that I’ve ever been a part of. This doesn’t happen often, but it happened today, happened in our favor.”Back in Kathmandu, fans thronged to the Tribhuvan University Stadium, Nepal’s national ground, gathering outside the gates for an emotional release after yet another heart-stopping finish. Khadka’s Cardiac Kids had kept their supporters on edge all week.”We don’t ever want to make these kinds of enjoyable games for others,” Lamichhane said with a laugh. “We want to finish it off very quickly but this is cricket and anything can happen in cricket.”

The latest snippets from around the English game including the arrival of the world’s biggest cricketer, how Yorkshire got it wrong and a match that Allan Donald could do without

Paul Bolton19-Jun-2018Spare a thought for South Africa batsman Theunis de Bruyn who faces the unenviable task of trying to replace Virat Kohli when Surrey play Somerset at Guildford this week.Advance ticket sales for the match were brisk when it was first announced that Kohli would be making his county debut for Surrey in the County Championship fixture.But Kohli was forced to withdraw from his short-term contract because of a neck injury sustained in the IPL leaving de Bruyn as a late and low-profile replacement.Kohli has played 66 Tests with 21 centuries and a highest score of 243, 208 one day internationals and 57 T20 internationals. De Bruyn has played five Tests – 130 runs and a top score of 48 – and two T20 internationals.So, no pressure there then for the 25-year-old Knights right hander.

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Don’t be surprised if Allan Donald, Kent’s new assistant coach, wanders into the wrong dressing room during the County Championship Division Two top-of-the-table clash against Warwickshire at Tunbridge Wells this week.The former South Africa pace bowler had a long and distinguished career as an overseas player with Warwickshire between 1987 and 2000 and then returned to Edgbaston for two spells on the coaching staff.Having resolved the visa issues which prevented him from joining Kent last season, Donald is a familiar face in unfamiliar surroundings and he admits that facing Warwickshire for the first time as a player – he played six matches for Worcestershire in 2002 – or a coach will be a something he never envisaged.”I have probably taken the John Terry approach: I don’t want to play against Warwickshire,” Donald said. I will try to treat them as just another team but I know that I played for Warwickshire for many years. I have lots of fond memories and they will never go away.”Donald spent Saturday afternoon at the Worcestershire home of Ashley Giles, his former Warwickshire team-mate and now the county’s Sports Director, watching the England v South Africa rugby international on television. No doubt Donald will reciprocate the hospitality when Giles visits Tunbridge Wells this week.Such fraternisation would have been unthinkable on the only occasion Donald played at the Nevill Ground in 1991 when Kent’s coach Daryl Foster banned his players from speaking to the opposition. The Australian’s snarling approach created tension between the teams and led to an ill-tempered contest.

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The world’s biggest cricketer is in England and coming to a county ground near year you (well, if you live in the East Midlands).Rahkeem Cornwall, the corpulent off-spinning, ahem, all-rounder from Antigua, is in the West Indies A tour party who are here for a triangular series against England Lions and India A.Cornwall, who is 6ft 5ins tall and weighs in at a whopping 22 stone, first came to prominence when he biffed a half century for a West Indies Board XI against England in a one day match in St Kitts in February 2017.Cornwall, a dead ringer for Forest Whitaker’s Idi Amin in , will be in action against England Lions at Derby on Saturday. The Lions play India A in the series opener at the same venue on Friday.

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Not many players get a second chance at Yorkshire, but Jonny Tattersall has done just that and it seems to be working out remarkably well.Tattersall’s career-best 89 against Hampshire in the Royal London Cup semi-final passed largely without comment as James Vince’s superbly-crafted 171 ensured a heavy Yorkshire defeat, but it further rewarded his refusal to take no for an answer.Tattersall was first released by Yorkshire in 2015 but rebuilt his career with two winters in Australia plus spells with Lincolnshire and Derbyshire 2nd XI before undertaking what he has described as “a cheeky career switch” and following his father and brother by taking up wicketkeeping.Now with Jonny Bairstow “never here,” in the words of Yorkshire’s coach Andrew Gale and the well-liked Andrew Hodd retiring at the end of the season, Tattersall has a great opportunity to make strides, too, in the red ball format which he regards as his strength.Tattersall follows Azeem Rafiq as a recent example of a player who has caused Yorkshire to have a rethink. Clearly the county’s reputation for never admitting they are wrong is becoming more outdated with every year..

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Essex have given James Foster, their former England wicketkeeper, permission to miss three weeks of the county season to develop his coaching career in the inaugural Canadian Global T20 League.
Foster has been appointed assistant coach of the Vancouver Knights where he will link up with former Essex bowling coach Donovan Miller.The Vancouver squad includes Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Tim Southee and Bermuda left-hander Kamau Leverock, who has been trialling with Nottinghamshire recently.Foster, who spent time coaching in the Bangladesh Premier League during the winter, will be in Canada from June 28 to July 17.

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When is a British-qualified player an overseas player? The answer is when they play Premier League club cricket.Ryan Sidebottom, the former Victoria seamer, plays county cricket for Warwickshire as a domestic-qualified player on a British passport but different registration regulations apply in league cricket. As Sidebottom is not qualified to play international cricket for England he can only play club cricket as an overseas player.This anomaly came to light recently when Sidebottom wanted to play some club cricket to speed his recovery from a side strain but was told that he could only sign for a club that did not already have an overseas player. Barnt Green of the Birmingham & District Premier League were able to accommodate him.

With Bangladesh playing Test cricket more infrequently, the batsman who has been pegged as a long-format specialist must make the most of his limited chances

Mohammad Isam03-Jul-2018Bangladesh’s Test aspirations usually get drowned out by the sights and sounds of ODI progress and T20I relapse. Many forget that it was the granting of Test status that ultimately helped them become a better ODI team, that Full Membership ensured they became serious about grassroots development and fitness among other things.And yet Bangladesh have only played 31 Tests in the last six years. That is less than the 40 they played between 2000 and 2005, or the 35 between 2006 and 2012. All this makes forging a career, while only playing Test cricket, pretty hard work.Like all modern cricketers, Bangladeshis too strive hard to adapt to all formats. It is not that Mominul Haque hasn’t, or doesn’t, try to bat with a higher strike-rate, but he has been tagged as a Test specialist and is now having trouble shrugging that label off.

Your first ten to 15 international games just whizz past before you realise anything. Tamim bhai always says that a Bangladeshi player is really identified after 20 innings

Like any sportsperson, Mominul doesn’t like to wait for his next contest. Yet he has to. He has to keep training knowing that he will have to wait months between matches.After the Test series against Sri Lanka in February this year, Mominul had to bide his time in domestic cricket as many of his team-mates played T20Is against Sri Lanka and later Afghanistan. He trained at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, preparing for July 4, the day of his next big contest: the start of the Bangladesh-West Indies Test series.But this year the wait would have been a little sweeter. Mominul has been in good form, having become the first Bangladeshi to score hundreds in each innings of a Test match, against Sri Lanka , in Chittagong.The 176 he made in the first innings – off only 214 balls, at a strike-rate of 82 – proved he had all the shots. The 105 that followed – off 174 balls – ensured Bangladesh could survive the final day, a task they have never been too good at, and secure a draw.Mominul Haque became the first Bangladesh player to score centuries in each innings of a Test•Associated PressWhile many Test nations would honour such batsmen, those in charge of selection and management of the Bangladesh team don’t seem to quite know what to do. After Mominul’s dismissal in the second innings, Bangladesh still needed to survive 90 more minutes which stand-in captain Mahmudullah and Mosaddek Hossain did quite well. But for the next game, Mosaddek was dropped.”You have to bat in that way for your team,” Mominul told ESPNcricinfo. “The centuries weren’t in my mind. I was trying to save the game for my team. I don’t usually make a lot of noise but I do think about these types of knocks. I saved the Test with the second-innings hundred, which meant I could do something for the team.”A draw from that situation would have been very important for any side. For us, especially, it was vital as we don’t usually save matches from that point [Bangladesh had conceded a lead of 200 runs]. We couldn’t relax as we hadn’t done this regularly in the past. So returning from the jaws of defeat is certainly something special.”His team-mates also understand what he brings, especially in constantly bouncing back from long breaks. When Chandika Hathurusingha dropped him last July, the outrage from cricket fans and unease inside the Bangladesh dressing room spoke volumes of Mominul’s value to the Test side.

“I don’t usually make a lot of noise but I do think about these types of knocks. I saved the Test with the second-innings hundred. A draw from that situation would have been very important for any side. For us, especially, it was vital as we don’t usually save matches from that point.”Mominul on the second of his twin centuries against Sri Lanka in February

He is not the most attractive batsman, and he doesn’t talk a big game, but barring a few Test innings, he has been quite consistent. When you consider the number of Bangladesh cricketers who started off as brightly as Mominul did but burned out quickly, you begin to appreciate his value more.When asked why other cricketers in the country have tapered off so fast, Mominul’s answer was both surprising and instructive.”Your first ten to 15 international games just whizz past before you realise anything. Tamim [Iqbal] always says that a Bangladeshi player is really identified after 20 innings. I agree with him. In the first 10-15 games, the opponents don’t really know what to do with a particular player. But once he becomes a regular in international cricket, he can’t sit on that same fitness and skills but [has to] keep improving. He can’t afford to rest on his laurels.”I think we demand less of ourselves. A player should think of improving all the time, otherwise he will remain in that same level and someone else will take his place. Not to mention, opponents will read him better and take advantage of the knowledge.”Mominul knows this side of international cricket better than most. When he made his breakthrough 181 against New Zealand in Chittagong in 2013, the fast bowlers kept feeding his square cut. When he went to West Indies the following year, his height perhaps prompted the fast bowlers there to only bowl short, which he dealt with quite easily.It took a while before teams realised that pace might not get him, but floaty offspin could. Dilruwan Perera, Moeen Ali and Nathan Lyon have troubled Mominul but once he recognised the problem, he tackled it head on. He asked his mentor Mohammad Salahuddin to give him some time early in the winter of 2017. The pair made subtle changes to the way Mominul defended and attacked offspin. Facing Dilruwan in 2018, Mominul scored 98 runs off 147 balls across four innings – and didn’t get out once to the bowler.”It is entirely about your mentality. You learn different things in each series. Against Australia last year, we focused on playing spin. In South Africa, it was all about pace and bounce. When Sri Lanka arrived, it was all about spin. To avoid being surprised, I try to work on every little aspect. I don’t want to be dumbfounded when I am in the middle.”Against West Indies, Mominul will know that much of the challenge will be to tackle a barrage of bouncers. He has had to rely on the bowling machine back in Dhaka for much of his preparation. He tackled the challenge well during Bangladesh’s last tour to West Indies in 2014, but as he has shown, Mominul is not the kind to rest on his laurels.

Six newcomers from West Indies’ T20I squad to keep an eye on during the series against India. Is that the IPL we hear calling?

Deivarayan Muthu02-Nov-2018West Indies’ squad for the T20I leg of the India tour brims with a talented pool of youngsters, who have already secured T20 – or T10 – deals elsewhere following breakout stints in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) earlier this year. ESPNcricinfo introduces you to the newbies in West Indies’ T20I squad Oshane Thomas in his followthrough•AFPOshane ThomasAfter impressing Chris Gayle with his breakneck speed – he can clock upwards of 150kph – in a practice game, Thomas was called up to the Jamaica Tallawahs squad in CPL 2016. In the next season, Gayle moved to St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, and Thomas harried him with pace and bounce. It was in 2018 that he made a bigger impact in the CPL, with 18 wickets in 10 matches, just four scalps behind the chart-topping Fawad Ahmed.Thomas made his ODI debut against India in Guwahati last month and clocked 147kph, 147kph, 140kph, 149kph, 147kph and 147kph in his first over – the last ball having Shikhar Dhawan drag a short one onto his stumps. Pace is his calling card, but he regularly erred with his lines and lengths in the two ODIs he played. Nevertheless, that pace had Tom Moody gushing on air when he yorked Shai Hope in the CPL. That pace prompted Moody to draft him into Rangpur Riders, the franchise he coaches in the Bangladesh Premier League. Next stop for Thomas: Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL?

Absolute beauty!! Oshane Thomas takes home the #Playoftheday crown for match 20 of #CPL18 pic.twitter.com/S5ihcrvVek

— CPL T20 (@CPL) August 30, 2018

Obed McCoy could have had Virat Kohli as his first international wicket•Associated PressObed McCoyIf Thomas is about searing pace, then St Lucia Stars’ McCoy is about pace variations. His left-arm variety was a silver lining for Stars in an otherwise doomed campaign. McCoy played only seven matches for Stars, but still ended as their joint-highest wicket-taker with nine wickets at an economy rate of 7.80. Earlier, in the Global T20 Canada, he starred for West Indies B in their run to the final, with 11 wickets in seven matches. McCoy’s next assignment after the India tour is a T10 league gig with Northern Warriors.Khary Pierre removed Chadwick Walton early•Randy Brooks – CPL T20 / GettyKhary PierreThe 27-year-old left-arm spin-bowling allrounder, who scooped the Man-of-the-Match award in the CPL 2018 final, is a player in the mould of India’s Ravindra Jadeja. He’s a popgun firing darts with the ball, handy hitter lower down the order, and an excellent fielder. And on helpful pitches, he can turn the ball sharply too. Case in point: he drifted one into Barbados Tridents’ Steven Smith and found ripping turn to have him stumped for a duck at Kensington Oval.With his mentor Sunil Narine and Fawad Ahmed being the frontline spinners at Trinbago Knight Riders, Pierre got only seven matches in the CPL, but still impressed with an economy rate of 5.65. He’s set to join McCoy at Northern Warriors in the T10 league. Is he on KKR’s radar in the IPL as well?Shimron Hetmyer celebrates a half-century•Associated PressShimron HetmyerThose who hadn’t watched Hetmyer’s breathtaking ball-striking in the CPL, sat up and took notice of him when he shellacked a 78-ball 106 in the first ODI against India in Guwahati. He favours the leg side with ferocious slog-sweeps, pulls and mows, but can also be adept at hitting the ball over the off side. Did you see drive over extra-cover that brought up his hundred? He followed it with a 64-ball 94 in a chase in Visakhapatnam, and could well be one of the hottest buys at the IPL auction next month.Sherfane Rutherford and Chadwick Walton soak in the victory•Getty ImagesSherfane RutherfordIn a display of outrageous six-hitting against Trinbago Knight Riders, Rutherford smoked an unbeaten 45 in 13 balls: 6 6 6 1 0 1 1 6 6 2 6 1 4 – this, when Guyana Amazon Warriors needed to run down 155 in 15.3 overs to have a second crack at the CPL final. He and Hetmyer ensured they chased it down in 14.1 overs in a blaze of sixes. Rutherford’s power-hitting fast-tracked him into West Indies’ T20I squad and the Bengal Tigers T10 league side, which is coached by Stephen Fleming, who also coaches Chennai Super Kings at the IPL and Melbourne Stars at the BBL.Fabian Allen celebrates after hauling his team to victory•Randy Brooks – CPL T20 / GettyFabian AllenAllen first grabbed the spotlight when he tore to his left from sweeper cover as a substitute fielder for St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and pulled off a blinding one-handed catch at the edge of the boundary in CPL 2017. It earned him the top spot on ESPN Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays. Then, in his maiden CPL innings in 2018, Allen struck an unbeaten 64 off 34 balls to lead Patriots past Tridents. He was also at it in the Global T20 Canada, making 169 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 181.72. Allen can also bowl left-arm darts, which makes him a valuable two-in-one player, particularly in T20s.

Sarfraz, and as a result his bowlers, couldn’t stick to anything long enough to know whether it would work or not

Osman Samiuddin in Dubai11-Oct-2018If last year’s series loss to Sri Lanka marked the end of a record, this inability to force a win on the final day of a Dubai Test should be seen as the true end of a legacy. Don’t be fooled by the closeness of Australia’s escape. An Australian side, it is worth stressing upon here, without their two best batsmen, and arriving with a record in Asia of 12 losses in their last 15 Tests.Two good balls, two mistakes, might still have consigned them to a 13th, and eight wickets down allowed Sarfraz Ahmed and Asad Shafiq – two seniors in the side now – to get away with talking about the beauty and realness of Test cricket. This is what happens some times. This is why it is a test, why it is a wonderful game, that you get this close after five days and it’s just not close enough. You just have to doff your hat to the other side.It’s a free world, just about, and if that’s what they want to believe they have the right to do so. Sure, Australia played their part and Usman Khawaja was a mountain. But it’s an easy out because it masks the lack of control Sarfraz in particular and as a result Pakistan exerted over this second Australian innings, across the fourth and fifth days. Only when Khawaja fell, just inside the final hour, and brief periods post tea on the fourth day and post lunch on the last day, did Pakistan look like the Pakistan side that, in these conditions and in these circumstances, has come to own the fourth and fifth days of Tests.Pakistan were not perfect in the Misbah era, far from it. They weren’t a world-beating side but a spirited and skillful side. But when it came to the UAE and these kinds of situations, Misbah knew precisely what he was doing and what he wanted.You may not have agreed with his philosophy – broadly speaking, that in the modern age choking, with in-out fields, attacking – but you had to admire how resolutely he clung to it so tightly, like if he let go, some part of him would go away with it.On occasions such as this, he was a master; slowly, gradually tightening things until batsmen couldn’t breathe. He would set out plans with his bowlers but most importantly he knew how long to persevere with one. Not everyone agreed with him, but everyone agreed there was a plan and that it was being implemented until there was another plan. He had a grasp of the game, its situations, what batsmen did and didn’t like and when, the angles that worked on them best. Here, remind yourself.Nobody expects Sarfraz to be Misbah. But it wouldn’t have been a bad thing to absorb some of his traits, not least his commitment to a clearly laid-out plan, especially because a number of the tools at his disposal remain the same. Misbah knew, above all, the truth of UAE Tests: he who is patient eventually and mostly wins.The two teams shake hands after an epic draw•Getty ImagesHere, Sarfraz, and as a result his bowlers, couldn’t stick to anything long enough to know whether it would work or not. There plans but it felt like each time Khawaja reverse swept Yasir Shah – and it happened upwards of 20 times – Sarfraz and Yasir’s lines and angles changed with it. Yasir was not at his best, but on those occasions when he wasn’t landing it right, Misbah would helicopter-parent him through: here’s your plan, do nothing but stick to it for the next six overs. Even in the first innings, now polished by that collapse, it took Pakistan over 40 overs before they found a plan they stuck with at Aaron Finch and Khawaja.This was an exceedingly poor game for Sarfraz. The decision to not bowl Mohammad Abbas until 15 overs into the final day – a sixth of the way through the whole day – was the work of a captain who had lost his feel for a moment. Sarfraz justified it by saying they wanted Wahab Riaz’s reverse and pace against the two left-handers but Wahab was so clearly out of sorts, with little control over reverse, and Abbas was the game’s best bowler.And even if that was the plan, why wait 15 overs to bring the best bowler of the Test on, as the fourth bowler of the day? You can overlook the defensive, in-out fields he went to so early when Australia began, the missed reviews as well (even though that is in danger of becoming a pattern) but this? The plan pre-play had been to start with Abbas and Yasir so if nothing else, the change suggests the captain and think tank are not on the same cricketing wavelength.These are now dangerous times for Sarfraz. His has been a strange captaincy in that there have been moments where he has shown a really sharp feel for the game, where he has been forceful and combative. And then he oscillates to days like this, when he is meek and frustrated – few captains wear the harassment of the job as clearly as he does – and out of sync.Captaincy in all three formats effectively trebles the impact of every result and there’s been a spate of poor ones. Whatever the team may say publicly, this draw is as good as a loss. He’s not scoring runs and if you had to choose one way to not be dismissed, it would be the kind of careless run-out that caused his downfall here. The triple whammy is the continuing missed chances. He missed an early stumping of Khawaja off Yasir in the first innings. Then he had a very public go at the bowler for a tardy bit of fielding a few overs later. There isn’t enough credit in his bank to keep doing that.

Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan credited their coach Phil Simmons for “raising the bar”

Shashank Kishore in Dubai26-Sep-20182:05

What do Afghanistan need to do to reach the next level?

“Afghanistan are doing well. I don’t know why we are only focusing on Pakistan. Afghanistan are also a force to reckon with.”This was Rahul Dravid speaking a few days ago at an event in Delhi, more than 2000 kilometres from Dubai, when asked about the India-Pakistan rivalry. An Afghanistan media outlet picked up the quote and it went viral immediately, even splashing itself on whatsapp timelines of the players who were preparing to play India on Tuesday. The Afghanistan players use social media to keep track of developments back home. So when they received an endorsement from Dravid, it was the ultimate reinforcement of confidence and positivity.As such, they didn’t need any more motivation, even though the game was a dead rubber. They had lost heartbreakingly in the final over to both Pakistan and Bangladesh, so this was another chance to use that experience and get over the line. This time, Rashid Khan, their premier spinner, was held back to bowl the final over, and he defended six to force a tie.MS Dhoni, India’s stand-in captain, may have equated the result to a ‘handicap in golf’ – referring to Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s rest – but for Asghar Afghan, the Afghanistan captain, this was their “best ODI result of 2018″.”I was sure we’ll play in the final. I knew the conditions in Dubai were suitable for us, because the amount of cricket we’ve played here. For us the hard luck was all our matches were in Abu Dhabi,” Afghan said with a sheepish smile, before wondering if he had entered the ‘poor scheduling, why us?’ territory. “If it was on this track, I can tell with confirmation that Afghanistan would’ve been in the final. (This was unfair to us).”Only three nights ago against Pakistan, Afghan watched young Aftab Alam sit on his haunches and sob after failing to defend nine off the final over. While there was momentary disappointment, they returned to train next afternoon, the long drive back to Dubai from Abu Dhabi notwithstanding.As shattering as it may have been to the team, their coach Phil Simmons was gladdened by the fact that they had put behind the loss so quickly. So even before they took the field on Tuesday against India, Simmons had already identified their biggest takeaway: the hunger to win.The Afghanistan team celebrates a wicket•Getty ImagesHe has repeatedly stressed upon his young team the need to move on from their ‘they-will-learn-and-grow-with-exposure’ narrative. He wants them to now start challenging teams across conditions. “The first sign of change in attitude came after our inaugural Test,” Simmons said. “When you saw them come out of the Test looking inward and what they needed to do to improve every game, you knew there were positives even in defeat.”I’m just trying to make sure everything gets to the level of the bigger nations. We want to beat the bigger teams, that’s how we improve. At the end of the day, winning is important to me. These guys are playing Tests, they know that once they cross the rope, every single time they have to perform. That’s something that has to [be] worked on. That’s something we’ve to be consistent with.”A lot has to do with the mindset of the players. Simmons believes they’re now starting to think like winners. Afghan, meanwhile, believes the spin-off effects of having the likes of Rashid, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi playing in different leagues around the world is starting to show.”I think the leagues were very important for our players. Few of our guys have played different leagues and sharing dressing room with experienced international players has helped,” Afghan started in Pashto before expressing his thoughts freely in Urdu. “They’re bringing back those experiences and sharing it in our dressing room. Cricket is the same, it’s just about the psychological thinking – where do I stand? When you play at the elite level and bring back that experience, your level goes up. This change in thinking has reflected positively.”This change in belief and thinking hasn’t come overnight. Life hasn’t been the same since they were nearly shunned out of the World Cup Qualifiers following back-to-back losses to Scotland, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong. Not even their optimistic home fans believed it was possible when they had to not just win every game from there but also hope for several results to go their way for the stars to align. It happened. That confidence has now rubbed off on the players.”For the kind of bowlers we have, the wicket in Abu Dhabi was against us. Even before the Asia Cup I said it in a press conference that this time Afghanistan didn’t come just to play, but also do something. And we did. I’d say we’ve now got the experience, the boys know what to do going ahead. It has been a brilliant tournament for us.”Their Asia Cup campaign was another reminder that Afghanistan were more than just about Rashid, Mujeeb and Nabi. On Tuesday, Mohammad Shahzad, in an entertaining manner typical of him, huffed, puffed, whipped, cut, pulled, hopped and hobbled his way to a century. Here was a man Afghanistan nearly gave up on four years ago because he was unfit, and couldn’t stop binging on his biryani even as the rest of his mates traded rich Afghan food for oats and boiled vegetables.Shahzad has admitted to carrying that hurt, but has channeled it now, churning out runs over the last three years to ensure he is undroppable for the World Cup. If ever there was a statement made to demarcate cricket fitness to yo-yo fitness, this was it. A man fighting his own body, fighting the UAE heat, battling cramps and dehydration to eke out a century that elicited praise and a handshake from his hero, MS Dhoni.Shahzad doesn’t believe much of the talk around his fitness is justified. He admits to enjoying his food and desserts, but insists he can whack the ball longest over deep midwicket. It’s not arrogance but the confidence he derives from reading Rashid and Mujeeb expertly in the nets.Mohammad Shahzad celebrates his century•Associated PressAfghanistan have two fine allrounders in Samiullah Shenwari and Gulbadin Naib, while the top order looks formidable with the presence of Afghan, Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi, all of whom made at least one half-century in the tournament. Simmons believes the batsmen still have some distance to travel before they are on level with their bowling. Afghan acknowledged his coach’s words, and hoped they had taken some strides towards parity.”Definitely, we have improved in our batting,” Afghan said. “Previously this was our weak area and we’re working on it regularly. In the Asia Cup it was okay but when we’re going to a mega event like the World Cup, there is still lots to improve because conditions in Asia and Europe are different. But it has improved if you compare to our previous outings.”The batting improvement was visible, with the team scoring 250 in almost all of their matches. This consistency wasn’t because of one contribution. The lower order has been given equal attention at the batting nets, for the need to ensure they’re able to hold their own whenever needed to bail the team out, like the match-winning unbroken 95-run stand for the eighth wicket between Rashid and Naib in the group stage game against Bangladesh.For this, Afghan credits coach Simmons. “The important thing he has done is he has understood what the team’s level is. Previously we didn’t understand the level we were at. When Phil came in, he had played a lot of games against us (as Ireland coach), so he showed us our level. As a team, we didn’t aim high, but Phil raised the bar. In my opinion, all our performances with Phil have been brilliant and we’ve learnt a lot. We’ve learnt a lot from other coaches too, but we’ve learnt a lot more from Phil.”The tournament statistics will read two straight losses in the Super Four stage and one tie. But you would have to skim past that to get to the heart of Afghanistan’s rise as an ODI team, one that can’t be measured without having watched them fight till the end. They rallied with the confidence of a newly elevated-prince fighting for his territory amid emperors who assumed the territory belonged to them. But as Afghan said, “when you tie with a team like India, it’s like winning.”

Australia’s first innings in Sydney was a microcosm of all the problems they are facing: shot selection, concentration, absorbing pressure, building on starts

Andrew McGlashan05-Jan-20197:33

Martyn: Australia’s soft dismissals just sad, disappointing

Australia’s Test batting is at its lowest ebb.The first innings scorecard in Sydney may not look as bad as some, but the performance was a microcosm of all the problems Australia are facing: shot selection, concentration, absorbing pressure, building on starts. Five of the top six were dismissed between 20 and 79 on a pitch with few demons. They still have no centuries in the series and the top score – Marcus Harris’ 79 today – is Australia’s lowest high (outside of one-off Tests) in a series for 100 years.This dismissals told a story. A repetitive one.

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Khawaja c Pujara b Kuldeep 27Usman Khawaja’s promotion to open was part of the batting reshuffle for this Test which saw Aaron Finch dropped. He was given a life on the second evening when Rishabh Pant dropped an edge off Mohammed Shami. Khawaja progressed smoothly early on the third day as Australia played positively in the morning session before a shot that wouldn’t have looked great in the one-day series which he will be playing in next week. He has faced the most balls by an Australia batsman in the series but has rarely been able to escape the shackles of the India attack.Harris b Jadeja 79It was all looking so good for Marcus Harris as he gave more than a passing impression of David Warner with his punchy drives off front and back foot to bring up a 67-ball half-century. Surely, now, a chance for Australia’s first century of the series? Alas, no, as the most half-hearted shots of the innings led to him dragging the ball on. However, he deserves more than just a pass mark for his first Test series and will emerge as one of the few Australians with credit.S Marsh c Rahane b Jadeja 8Nothing from this series will quell the Shaun Marsh debate. There was a graceful cover drive to get off the mark in this innings before a limp outside edge to slip. As a senior batsman, Australia needed more from Marsh if they were to have a chance of competing. He was allowed to feel a little rough about things after Melbourne, falling to Jasprit Bumrah’s brilliant slower ball and a borderline lbw, but it can only be the selectors’ perceptions at a lack of alternatives that will preserve his place in the team barring a significant second-innings score. Even with scores of 60, 45 and 44 in this series he is averaging 18.10 in his last 10 Tests, dating back to Sydney against England last year.Rishabh Pant looks on as Marcus Harris plays onto his stumps•Getty ImagesLabuschagne c Rahane b Shami 38The shock selection – Marnus Labuschagne is one of Australia’s unlikeliest No.3s – stood up well during a 95-ball stay. Jasprit Bumrah almost trapped him first ball with another terrific yorker, but the ball brushed the boot outside the line of off stump. Labuschagne took a couple of confident boundaries off Kuldeep Yadav and was then involved in a combative duel with Mohammed Shami. There was a cover drive, a clip through midwicket, a guide over gully and a drive through mid-on. In the end, though, Shami won with the aid of some excellent captaincy from Virat Kohli who kept tweaking his leg-side field. It was a promising start, though, and should earn Labuschagne another chance.Head c & b Kuldeep 20Twice caught at third man in Perth. Twice bowled in Melbourne trying to attack the seamers. And now caught and bowled trying to take on the wrist spinner. Two half-centuries on the liveliest pitches in Adelaide and Perth have not been built on in the second half of the series. Travis Head is also in the curious position of having lost his one-day place when it was that form of the game that helped earn him his chance and now he seems intent on playing more aggressively in Tests.Paine b Kuldeep 5Tim Paine is an impressive person in a tough job. The Australian captain has dug in with the bat making five scores between 22 and 41 in the series. Since his return to Test cricket against England in 2017, he is averaging 34.31 – that’s handy for the No. 7 and would be even more so with a performing top order. That, however, looks a long way away.