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We asked you to pick out the greatest Test you had ever seen (or one you wished you had), and the responses ranged from the predictable to the not-so

Cricinfo staff16-Aug-2005

The bowler’s Holding, the stumps are flying © Getty Images
Viv and Mikey make Greig grovel
Roger Enock on
Memorable for many quite different reasons, this was the summer of the great drought, Viv Richards’ first tour to the UK and the beginning of the new-look West Indies side – Greenidge, Holding, and Lloyd as captain. Tony Greig had said before the series that England were going to make them grovel, and how wrong he was. This match had everything, and more. West Indies batted first and scored a mountain of runs, with Richards imperious, Bradmanesque, in scoring 291, making it 892 runs in four Tests that summer. Four consecutive century partnerships. England’s Dennis Amiss was making his comeback with an entirely new technique of playing fast bowling – moving back and across the stumps as the ball was being bowled. It worked, as he too scored a double hundred. England’s 440 was not enough to save the follow-on but West Indies decided to bat again and Greenidge and Fredericks massacred the bowling for two hours, putting on 182 for no wicket. It was during this partnership that Greig got onto his hands and knees and grovelled in front of the West Indian spectators, who went wild, this being back in the day when The Oval was really a home game for them. The match was heading for a draw until Michael “Whispering Death” Holding produced probably the best fast-bowling perfomance of all time to skittle England out on the fifth day and take eight wickets – 14 in all during the Test, and all but two bowled or lbw. All this on a flat track with sheer speed the key. There were pitch invasions, and non-stop sunshine.Botham rocks Headingley
Mark Halliwell on As a 15-year-old at the time, I remember being at school, but lessons were secondary. I was sat at the back of each lesson, wearing a surreptitious earpiece, following the match, rather than bothering with maths, science and French. On the final day, we had a games lesson, but instead of being marched out to our school’s decrepit cricket nets to try manfully to impersonate Botham, Gower, Hughes and Border, we were marched into the school hall and watched the match on TV. The games master later admitted that he wanted to watch the game rather than watch our pathetic cricketing attempts, and we actually stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, not bothering that the bell went and we should have been in a geography lesson learning about rocks.Watching Bob Willis destroy the Aussies for 111 to win the game by 18 runs was mindblowing. We were cheering so loud that the crowd in that hall in a Cheltenham comprehensive school grew and grew. By the end, the head and half the staff were there with us. It was amazing, and that memory has stayed with me. Watching the Tests at Edgbaston and Old Trafford recently has made me wonder if those scenes were repeated in more school halls. I hope so, as Headingley ’81 cemented my love of cricket, and I hope that Ashes 2005 is doing the same for more children aged 15 and below.Genius thwarts Australian might
Romel Ollivierre on

Irresistable force meets immovable object © Getty Images
In order to understand fully the greatness of this Bridgetown drama one must first understand the disastrous condition of West Indies Cricket at the time. The boys had just returned from a nasty 5-0 licking in South Africa and just did not seem to be able to put up a challenge against your local primary school under-15s, leave alone mighty Austraila. The Caribbean people wanted Brian Lara’s head, but because there really was no one else to take the mantle, the selectors reappointed him captain. The entire team was on “two-Test probation”. The first went as expected as the West Indies were bowled out for a record low of 51, but the genius of Lara emerged in the second Test as his 213 ensured an amazing 10-wicket win in Jamaica. Nothing prepared the cricketing world for the drama to follow.The third test was one of the greatest battles the cricketing world has ever seen. Amazing performances abounded, with heroic knights fighting for the supremacy of their kingdom. Steve Waugh’s brave 199 was ably supported by Ricky Ponting’s 104. Then Sherwin Campbell’s 105 still left the Windies 161 behind at the end of the first innings. It was Ambrose and Walsh who gave us a semblance of a chance bowling the Aussies out for 146, leaving an improbable 308 to win. Enter Lara. The man whom everyone wanted out of cricket a few weeks earlier mastered the mighty Shane Warne, a nasty McGrath and an unplayable Gillespie. I remember the drama when he was hit on the head by a nasty McGrath bouncer – the two icons had to be separated by the umpires – and the sound of the next ball as it crashed into the midwicket boundary. When Lara truck the winning four to the cover fence to carry him to 153, he was proclaimed by Tony Cozier as the “Prodigal son turned Messiah”. The last 63 runs came with Ambrose and Walsh at the wicket.The birth of the juggernaut
Tony Ogden on The previous Test at Brisbane had seen the debut of Adam Gilchrist, replacing Ian Healy in front of Healy’s home crowd. His whirlwind innings of 81 off 88 balls was over before anyone even had a chance to think about a century on debut; the one-off innings of a one-day slogger, some thought. Now in Hobart, the Australians were in trouble. Halfway through the second day, they were cruising at 1 for 190 in reply to Pakistan’s 222, when an inspired spell from Saqlain Mushtaq saw the last nine wickets fall for 56. Pakistan’s second innings declaration put the heat right on the Aussies; 369 to win in a day and a half. At the time, it would have been the third-highest fourth-innings score to win a Test match. At 5 for 126 an hour after tea on the fourth day, it wasn’t looking too promising. Justin Langer greeted Gilchrist with a philosophical, “You never know what can happen”. At stumps, Gilchrist had scored 45 of the 62 added that evening. The next day, the pair completed a 238-run partnership to win the game. Gilchrist, 149 not out, went from 50 to his first Test century in 38 balls. Langer scored 127 – as always, the understudy, but underrated. The expectations at the start of the final day had been minimal; as the partnership continued to not just resist, but to take on an attack of Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib, and Saqlain, radios and TVs across the country became the focus of rapt attention. A very special talent had arrived, and a player of great character had helped him get there. Although Australia’s sixteen-match winning streak had begun two Tests before, in Zimbabwe, this was the one that really kick-started the feeling of invincibility. After winning from here, they could win from anywhere. A juggernaut was born.A Tendulkar epic and Saqlain’s doosra
Kamran Hasan on

Saqlain acknowledges the triumph in his distinctive way © Getty Images
Saqlain Mushtaq’s wizardry with the ball enabled Pakistan to win what could possibly be described as one of the greatest Test matches in the subcontinent’s own version of the Ashes. Indian cricket supporters will forever wince in pain at the memory of Tendulkar stepping out to Saqlain and holing out to Wasim Akram in the second innings with just 17 runs required for victory. It all began with Pakistan scoring a modest 238 in the first innings. India replied with 254. Shahid Afridi scored his maiden century as Pakistan scored 286 in their second dig, setting India a target of 271 for victory. With wickets falling like ninepins all around him, Tendulkar played one of his greatest innings, defying both the probing pace and the spin of the Pakistani bowlers. He eventually succumbed to back pain and the wiles of Saqlain in his prime, with India at the doorstep of a monumental victory. The legend of the ‘doosra’ was born.We welcome you to pick your own greatest Test and send us a paragraph on it. The best written entries will win either of these DVDS: India v Aus 2001, Edgbaston 2005 or Botham’s Ashes, 1981.

India’s 123-run victory at Johannesburg was their first ever in South Africa. Cricinfo looks at some of the stats highlights of this historic victory

George Binoy18-Dec-2006

Sreesanth pitched it up and swung the ball, and South Africa’s batsmen had no answers © AFP
With their triumph at Johannesburg, India have now won matches in all Test-playing nations. This was India’s 27th overseas win. India’s win was largely the result of some outstanding swing bowling, which the South African batsmen failed to handle. The contrast between the bowling efforts of the two sides comes out quite starkly in these numbers: from the 140 full-length deliveries that the South Africans bowled, India scored 164 runs and lost just one wicket – that’s a scoring rate of 7.02 per over. When the Indian bowlers pitched it full, though, they were lethal – the South Africans only managed 136 from 209 such deliveries and lost eight wickets. South Africa’s misplaced confidence in the short stuff comes out clearly in the manner in which they bowled to Sourav Ganguly – 28 of the 139 deliveries that Ganguly faced in this match were short of a length, but, far from being fazed, he creamed 25 runs off them. Equally impressively, Ganguly was in control of 27 of those 28 short balls.

The length that South Africa bowled to Ganguly

Length Balls Runs Runs per over

Full length 20 23 6.90 Good length 91 28 1.84 Short 28 25 5.36 The 123-run defeat is the second-largest in terms of runs inflicted onSouth Africa at home since their readmission to international cricket in 1991-92.The highest is New Zealand’s 137-run victory also at Johannesburg in 1994. South Africa have now lost six Tests at the Wanderers since 1991-92. Theywon only seven and drawn five at this venue. It is by far their least successful home ground. South Africa’s 278 in their second innings is their highest total in the final innings of a Test at the Wanderers. The previous highest was 247 in a losing cause against England in 2005. This defeat was only South Africa’s sixth in home Tests to teams other than Australiasince their readmission in 1991-92. During this time they have won 37 and drawn 18out of 61. (Click here for their home record against all teams since their readmission into international cricket.)

Zimbabwe cricket in 2007 featured some consolation wins and a new coach. At the board, though, the usual politicking reigned.

Steven Price29-Dec-2007

Zimbabwe kill themselves a giant at the World Twenty20 © Getty Images
There was no doubt that 2007 was a much better year for Zimbabwe cricket, but then again, the only way was up. On the field there were moments of joy, none more so than the amazing win over a complacent Australia in the ICC World Twenty20, but behind the scenes there was still too much politics, too much infighting and too little investment in the future.The overall stats make poor reading. Of 14 ODIs in 2007, two were won. Bangladesh were well beaten in Harare in February, and although Zimbabwe lost the series 1-3, the margins in two of their three losses were close. The second success came against West Indies in November, again in a series defeat.Aside from their excursions to the World Cup and the ICC World Twenty20, Zimbabwe didn’t manage to play overseas, but they failed to make the most of home advantage either. Sandwiched in in August was a politically-advantageous but uncompetitive three-match drubbing by South Africa.The World Cup was a predictable letdown. Zimbabwe opened against Ireland, on paper their only real chance of victory, and managed to spectacularly blow a winning position when they needed 19 off six overs with five wickets in hand. That tie eventually allowed Ireland through to the Super Eights, while Zimbabwe slumped to heavy defeats against West Indies and Pakistan, and elimination.One important result was the jettisoning of the ultra-cautious Kevin Curran as coach in the autumn and his replacement with Robin Brown. Curran too often seemed preoccupied with avoiding heavy defeats than ever pushing for victory, and rumours were rife that many players did not see eye-to-eye with him. In Brown they found someone who allowed them to play their natural game, and the upturn in results and more confident performances was almost immediate.Some old faces returned during the year, the most high-profile being Tatenda Taibu, the one genuinely class act in the current side, who put behind him disagreements with the board and resumed where he had left off. Another rebel, Ray Price, also eased back late on.At home, at least the Logan Cup, the major domestic tournament, took place – it was embarrassingly shelved in 2006 – and Kenya even sent a development side to compete. The quality of the cricket was too often mediocre and some of the grounds were simply not up to par. The national club competitions also rumbled on, but standards were roundly lambasted and many sides were little more than school XIs.At the ICC conference in June, Zimbabwe opted to extend their sojourn from Test cricket. The reality was that they had little choice. Unable to compete at one-day level, the much discussed ethos of Test cricket would have been trashed by their readmission. That get-together in London was overshadowed by leaked comments from Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, in which he savaged the Zimbabwe board’s accounts. While the pro-Zimbabwe block on the ICC executive ensured that those details were airbrushed over, an independent forensic audit of the books was ordered. The result of that is still not known.New man on the block
Only in Zimbabwe can a 21-year-old be almost a veteran, but Brendan Taylor has been in and out of the side for four years. That he has talent is unquestioned, but too often his own indiscipline has let him down, and his form was not helped by having to stand in as wicketkeeper during Taibu’s absence. In May 2007 he stuck two fingers up at the board’s order not to play abroad and headed for Europe. It was hardly his first brush with authority. But in August he sauntered back, and weeks later played a breathtakingly mature innings to help beat Australia. Ricky Ponting said that he wished Australia’s top three had batted like Taylor. If he can control himself off the field, then he could go far. It’s a big if.

Chingoka slipped from his position of power this year, and may be on his way out © AFP
Fading star
Peter Chingoka, international cricket’s senior administrator, has used his friends within the ICC to survive some intense flak in recent years, but his time appears to be running out. Serious questions over his role in accounts described by Speed as “deliberately falsified” rumble on, and there is a growing suspicion that he has gone from being a real asset to Zimbabwe within the ICC to a growing liability. On the personal front it’s been a bad year for him as he was barred from entering the UK in October because of his political affiliations with the Mugabe regime. With some of his family based in the UK, it was widely thought that was where he would settle when his tenure within ZC ended.High point
The scenes of delirium in Cape Town when Zimbabwe bloodied the noses of the Australians in their opening match in the World Twenty20 in September will live in the memory for a long time. And it was no fluke. Australia paid for an almost cockily laidback approach to the new competition, and Zimbabwe outplayed them in every department. Only in the final overs, as Ricky Ponting grew increasingly flustered, did Australia look like hauling Zimbabwe in, but Taylor kept his head and Zimbabwe scored the 12 they needed off the last over with a ball to spare. One swallow doesn’t make a summer but it sure makes you feel better about the world.Low point
Zimbabwe Cricket. While most countries rely on their boards to foster the game, ZC often seems to be at war with its stakeholders and players. Despite having banished anyone critical of him, Chingoka remains under almost constant sniper fire, and the accounts affair could be the chink in his armour. The low of the year came when ZC banned anyone other than hand-picked appointees from attending the AGM, lest they pose any difficult questions. That meant that several life presidents and vice-presidents were unceremoniously stripped of their offices just because the honour entitled them to attend the AGM. That almost all of them were former colleagues of Chingoka mattered not a jot.What does 2008 hold?
A tough call. Performances have certainly improved under Brown and there is a solid core of players who are learning all the time in one-day cricket. It is unlikely they will win a series, but if they can be more competitive and nick the odd win here and there, then that will rightly be seen as progress. They are as far away from regaining Test status as they have ever been, and it would be a huge mistake to expose them to five-day matches, as they simply lack the bowling skills or the batting technique to cope. Off the field, Chingoka and his unloved sidekick Ozias Bvute may well finally depart, but it is possible that those replacing them will be even more unbending. Worryingly, the year ended with rumblings about hardliners seeking to play the race card once more. In Zimbabwe, however, cricket is dependent on what happens in the country itself, and so 2008 promises to be another very hard year.

Alastair Cook’s autobiography offers little that’s new or interesting

Freddie Auld12-Oct-2008
It would be far too easy to compare Alastair Cook’s new autobiography with his batting: determined and dependable, with the odd thrill. But sadly, it isn’t even that. For determined, read drab; for dependable, “dreary”; and as for the odd thrill, er, Cook had a game of darts with Freddie and Harmy on the eve of his Test debut. And that’s about as good as it gets.Most Cooky fans, of whom I am one myself, will be disappointed with his first, shamefully premature effort. The blurb promises a “fascinating insight” into one of the most “exciting and brightest players to burst on to the cricketing scene in recent years”. So I was hoping for juicy anecdotes about the Essex dressing room, the latter years of Duncan Fletcher’s reign, the disastrous Ashes campaign, the jelly bean files, and Michael Vaughan’s retirement. But no.Once you get past Cook’s early years – where he attended St Paul’s Cathedral School as a promising chorister – the book is mostly a combination of condensed match reports of Tests and ODIs mixed with Cook’s run-of-the-mill views on walking, sledging, captaincy, and the advent of Twenty20.Cook points to the influence of Graham Gooch and Andy Flower in his early years at Essex, and how a season of club cricket in Perth helped him develop. After deciding not to go to university, against the advice of the Essex authorities, he looks back with pride on his 214 against the touring Australians at Chelmsford, which, as he says, “made my name”. Then comes his unexpected call up to the full squad in India from the A tour in the Caribbean, a journey he shared with Jimmy Anderson, who he is now best mates with. Before Cook knew it, he was walking out to open the batting in Nagpur, and in his own words, “Strauss said ‘good luck’ in his posh accent, and away we went.”His champagne moment, following his 60 in the first innings with a remarkable debut hundred, was an ecstasy he says he has not experienced before or since. When he was sweating on 99, Kevin Pietersen had a sweepstake on how many balls Cook would take the reach his landmark, but disappointingly Cook can’t remember how many it actually took, or who won the cash.In the endless match reports that follow, he speaks of his surprising friendship with the northerners in the England team: Anderson, Paul Collingwood and Steve Harmison. He also reveals his superstition about odd numbers: hence why he has an even number on his shirt, and why he only has the volume of his radio on 8 or 10. The chapter on the Ashes is disappointingly bland, with the usual stuff of how the Aussies rip you to bits on the pitch but are great value off it. And the jelly-bean mystery remains unresolved, as Cook strongly denies any part in the bizarre saga that left Zaheer Khan hot under the helmet.Cook does reveal that the ECB asked him to have a chinwag with Mike Brearley, which suggests that he may have inherited the FEC (future England captain) tag from Pietersen, but again he doesn’t elaborate on what was said. After Vaughan stood down, Cook admitted the England captaincy was too early for him. It is certainly too early to start writing books about yourself.Perhaps I expected too much, but there wasn’t much in this I didn’t already know, and what I did discover wasn’t particularly interesting. However, even though Cook’s isn’t exactly riveting, here’s hoping that Cook waits until his story is complete before his next effort.Starting Out: My Story So Far
by Alastair Cook
Hodder and Stoughton £19.99

The story of Shivakant Shukla, who batted for821 minutes to take Uttar Pradesh through to the final of the Ranji Trophy, embodies Uttar Pradesh cricket

Sidharth Monga in Nagpur07-Jan-2009
Just what UP needed: Shivakant Shukla’s heroics promises a move away from the reliance on a few players © Cricinfo Ltd
The story of Shivakant Shukla, who batted for 821 minutes to take Uttar Pradesh through to the final of the Ranji Trophy, embodies their cricket.As a raw, talented 17-year-old, he went with the India Under-19 team to the Asian Under-19s in Pakistan in 2003-04. Many of his team-mates went on to play for senior side – Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa and VRV Singh – and almost all others have developed enough to at least be permanent members of their state sides.However, until this match, Shukla was seen as a passenger in the UP team, part of it only because there was no other opener who could have done better than his average of 25 in five seasons of first-class cricket. “I was doubting if I would be picked even in the 15 [man squad] this season,” Shukla admits. “When I would see all of them [team-mates] doing so well, I didn’t feel good for myself. But somewhere I also used to think if they can do it, so can I.”His innings in this game, under extreme pressure, with all the big players dismissed, spanning over three different days, tackling three new balls, facing a spirited and resurgent L Balaji, and taking the team through unbeaten, clearly shows an average of 25 is not the accurate depiction of his talent. So what had been going wrong until now?”I don’t even know how I scored these 178,” Shukla says. “And I don’t know how and why I have been failing. My funda is simple: when I go to the ground I give my 100%, and whatever the outcome be I accept happily.” There is not much else a youngster can do when there is nobody to guide him, to tell him if his footwork is wrong, if his head position is not right, if something is going wrong psychologically.Staying in the famed UP hostels, many like Shukla learn their cricket on their own, playing with each other: the passion and desire, and not the technique, matters. Mahela Jayawardene recently spoke of how one needs to fight his own battles, and kill his own demons. But that can hold for an established Test player who has seen a lot of highs, and is going through the lows, and not for a inexperienced player struggling in domestic cricket. In UP cricket if you lose your way, you find it back yourself. “I had lost my way, this has been an experience for me,” Shukla says. “This experience will stay with me, not only in cricket terms but in life.”Yes, there was support for Shukla, in that he was being picked for the team. Beyond that there was little. Just like this team keeps on winning without any outside support. They have the name UP to play under, but the rest they do by themselves. There is no computer analysis, there is one trainer-cum-analyst and there are no grounds owned by the UPCA. Yet somehow they find a way, like Shukla did over the last three days.After close to 14 hours of batting Shukla, chuffed with his effort, is not tired. “I can bat four more days,” he says. “No seriously. The little bit of tiredness that I had is gone, because we won.”Two matches ago, he cut a sad forlorn figure in Bangalore. UP had won the toss, put Karnataka in on absolute flat track hoping to get early wickets [they needed to win to be on the safe side]. Both the Karnataka openers offered catches to gully, where Shukla fumbled. He spent the next two days on the field, in the deep, watching his team-mates struggle. And when his turn came, he played a loose stroke and got out for 1.”That was the low point. I was nervous throughout. Fielding for the next two days was very difficult. I was focusing too hard, thinking I had to convert even a half-chance to redeem myself. My captain and coach helped me that time. They said, ‘Don’t worry, just give your 100%. There is always a next match.'”UP have made giant strides in the last four years, winning the Ranji Trophy once and twice making it to the final. There have been many satisfying victories along the way – a win over Mumbai in Mumbai, their maiden Ranji Trophy win in 2005-06, the comebacks after poor starts to seasons, but this one will be one of their most satisfactory matches. In that it is a change for a side that has earned a reputation of relying too heavily on the big star players: Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina with the bat, and Praveen Kumar with the ball.”This is a big win,” Shukla says. “We have depended on consistent performers – Kaif, Raina and Tanmay [Srivastava who has done well this season]. So when we were three down, it seemed we would go down easily, and the biggest satisfaction is that two fringe players won the match.” He feels he might have turned a corner today. If he can turn that corner, UP cricket could too.

Australia’s key bowler in this Ashes is a “no-hoper” turned show stealer who now knows “300 times more” about his craft than he did scant months ago

Alex Brown26-Jul-2009Reports of a painful injury to Australia’s leading wicket-taker could have expected the back-page treatment in past Ashes campaigns; particularly if the bowler in question was a spinner and his ailment a finger dislocation. But Nathan Hauritz’s career has seldom been one for the headlines.Yes, Nathan Hauritz. The player who has taken nine wickets in the series – four more than the combined haul of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar – without creating so much as a ripple. The man whose courage in returning to the field barely an hour after his spinning finger was contorted at right angles has attracted only scant mention. The only Australian bowler, along with Ben Hilfenhaus, considered a certainty for Edgbaston.Had any of the aforementioned scenarios concerned, say, Shane Warne, tales of success and derring-do would presumably have dominated television bulletins, newspaper columns and a good chunk of cyberspace. As it stands, Hauritz will head to Birmingham only slightly less anonymous than he was in the period leading in to Cardiff, but with an importance to the team growing by the match.The final month of the Ashes series promises to be a painful affair for Australia’s frontline spinner. The finger dislocated by a thunderous Andrew Strauss drive on the first morning at Lord’s is still causing him discomfort, particularly early in his spells. But, cognisant of his place in Ricky Ponting’s plans, Hauritz is not entertaining notions of a break or a back-seat role. His lot is to grip it and grit it.”The finger was extremely painful at first,” Hauritz told Cricinfo. “I was pretty concerned for a while that I wouldn’t be able to grip or spin the ball. But I had a few things to numb the pain, and then getting two wickets pretty quickly after I came back on to bowl helped me forget about it a bit.”It probably needs four weeks’ rest to be fully right, but that’s obviously not going to happen in this series. It’s pretty painful for the first few overs of a day, and it will probably be like that for a while until I’m warmed up. I’m not all that concerned, though. I can still grip the ball okay. It’s just going to be a case of plenty of ice when I can and sucking it up.”A nominee for cricket’s equivalent of the Purple Heart he may be, but Hauritz isn’t expecting his deeds to win over England’s fans and media anytime soon. Upon arrival in the UK, the 27-year-old found himself thrust into an unusual position – headlines – but with the ‘s “No-Hoper Hauritz” setting the tone, it was notoriety he could have lived without.”I read a fair bit of what was being said about me early on in the tour, and I obviously heard a bit in the crowd,” he noted with self-deprecating resignation, not bitterness. “It just got to a point where I was sick of seeing bad stuff, so I stopped reading after the game in Hove and just focused on what it was I had to do. I had copped an absolute hiding to that point, and because I hadn’t bowled all that well, a lot of it was probably the truth. But I didn’t need to read that. I knew that that wasn’t my best game, but on the whole I was bowling okay and just had to get used to the conditions.”And the fans? “At Lord’s you seem to get more respect from the crowd, but in Cardiff I got slagged off a fair bit,” he continued. “That said, probably the funniest one I’ve got so far was when I was going out to bat at Lord’s [in the second innings] and one of the old MCC members leaned over and said, ‘I’ll see you soon, youngster.’ I was out five balls later and as I walked back he just said, ‘I told you so.'”That Hauritz can laugh in the face of failure says much for the quiet confidence he now possesses. It was not always thus. Barely two years ago, with his first-class career in freefall at Queensland, a desperate and despondent Hauritz opted to leave home and head south to the spin-friendly climes of Sydney. He did so with no state offer on the table – indeed, NSW had just completed a successful swoop for the West Australian, Beau Casson, and were not in search of another slow bowler – but a humility and willingness to allow some of the best spinning minds in the country to recalibrate him.Success came slowly. Ranked behind the centrally contracted Casson, Hauritz first found his mark in the Blues’ one-day side and later the NSW second XI. Infrequent first-class appearances followed, gradually increasing as Casson’s confidence and form tapered.”When I made the decision to move down to NSW, there was no Australia for me, I guess,” he recalled. “I was in a rut and at a stage where the opportunities weren’t coming for Queensland, but deep down I still felt I was good enough to play for Australia. So I came down to NSW, really wanting to learn about spin. Just working with guys like Greg Matthews, Murray Bennett and David Freedman helped me learn what it was to be a spinner. Being used as an attacking option for NSW really opened my eyes and changed my mind to what spin bowling could be. It was fantastic to have that backing, and not just be brought into the attack for a few overs here and there around the 65th over of a match.”Then came the most stunning development of all. Despite modest state form, Hauritz was called into the Australian squad for the Adelaide Test against New Zealand after Jason Krejza, the nation’s senior spinner at that point, rolled his ankle at training. While surprised at the recall, Hauritz was also quietly confident that, both mentally and mechanically, he was a bowler far improved from the one who had sparkled and faded at Wankhede Stadium four years prior.

“When I was going out to bat at Lord’s, one of the old MCC members leaned over and said, ‘I’ll see you soon, youngster.’ I was out five balls later and as I walked back he just said, ‘I told you so’ “

“The last time I played for Australia, I was definitely overawed when someone came at me and tried to whack me around,” he said. “I didn’t really know how to respond. Now I see a situation like that as a challenge, and I have plans and experience to draw on. I was extremely lucky that the Australian selectors were really keen to play a finger-spinner back then.”Really, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know my action, I didn’t know what to do under pressure. I am still learning – especially about how to bowl to individual batsmen and which field setting to use. But I know 300 times more now than I did then.”Benched for all three Tests of Australia’s triumphant tour of South Africa, Hauritz arrived in England unsure as to what his Ashes objectives should be. A few Tests? A wickets target? Or something altogether loftier? Answers were elusive as the Australian brains trust sought to strike the right balance for its youthful attack.There is no such mystery now. Rounding the bend for Birmingham, Hauritz finds himself in the decidedly Warne-esque position of leading the series wicket-takers’ list, along with Hilfenhaus, and in a position to chart a course ahead. He has done so without the prodigious turn, prolific bursts and all-round melodrama of his spin-bowling predecessor, but with stealth and consistency, insidiously working his way through the England batting line-up. More, he hopes, is to come.”A lot of people on the scene have criticised me for being too defensive, but it’s pleasing to know that things might be changing,” he said. “My first wicket, Kevin Pietersen, was really satisfying. I had copped an absolute hiding in the press over here, everyone saying I was no good, and to get a batsman like him on a wicket not doing a lot was fantastic. I enjoyed the Matt Prior one too, just with the spin and bounce.”I feel I am much more consistent these days. I guess I always had the belief that I was good enough to play at the top level, but it was a matter of finding that consistency and learning how to bowl that same ball over and over. I wasn’t patient or consistent enough before I came to NSW. Now I really do back myself when I have the ball in my hand.”

Ricky Ponting and his mates were right after all: they do perform best when it matters most, and they did come back from being a match behind with two to play

Peter English at Headingley09-Aug-2009The Australian way is starting to win again and the team’s internal prophecies are coming true. Ricky Ponting and his mates were right after all: they do perform best when it matters most, and they did come back from being a match behind with two to play. For two-and-a-half days they looked like the best side in the world again, but the innings-and-80-run victory in Leeds had as much to do with what Australia did as what England didn’t.These are not two wonderful teams clawing at each other, but outfits whose performances blow between below and above average. Whoever slips first loses and at Headingley that was England. Despite Australia’s swift success, the most damaging result of the series, it is still impossible to retain absolute faith that they will do it again at The Oval on August 20. This young-and-old collection does not yet have winning as an ingrained habit. If they did they would not have slipped so far after their mountain climbing in South Africa earlier in the year.While they don’t carry the heroes or status of previous Australian sides, they cling to the same expectations when it comes to results and playing styles. They only need to draw in south London to win the Ashes but will only consider victory. Australian cricketers don’t like being stuck in the middle ground and stalemates, except for the one at Edgbaston, feel more like defeats.By maintaining their attacking values in the fourth Test they were able to negate England’s month-long advantage and will now start as a team that feels on top rather than behind. These are intriguing shifts for players still trying to get to know life in the upper realms.What is not in doubt is this squad is tougher than over the first half of the series. In Leeds Brad Haddin kept wicket with a broken finger, the bowlers’ aggression was real, not manufactured, and once the batsmen were set they didn’t exit to casual shots. They were collectively in-tune and on form.”I’ve been ultra proud of the way we’ve responded in a big game,” Ponting said. “I said before the game that there’s been a real feeling of excitement around our group. I just felt a really good performance was around the corner and I think we’ve shown that over the last couple of days.”Mitchell Johnson is no longer a weak link, finishing the game off with 5 for 69 in the second innings, the bowlers were complementary instead of a catastrophe and the middle order, where Michael Clarke and Marcus North stood, has kept the side safe for two matches. This makes Australia a team rather than an awkward composition and they have traded places with England, whose sudden mis-match of personalities suffer without their alpha males.For two innings Johnson operated like a leader again, a performance which was a relief to everyone but the England batsmen who thought he was fast and over-rated. Ian Bell’s life now revolves around not only evading Johnson’s short balls, but also getting his pad out of the road from his inswingers. The return of the occasional curve signals Johnson’s comeback.”Having him in that sort of form and having that confidence under his belt going into the Test at 1-1 are really good signs for us,” Ponting said. “He’s worked exceptionally hard with Troy [Cooley, the bowling coach]. Any minute he’s got outside of actually being out on the field bowling, he’s been working on his action or little things he can do to make himself better. It’s great to see when guys have got that attitude that things can turn around pretty quickly.” It didn’t feel like a fast recovery at the time, but it appears complete.Still, this series has swung with every match so neither the teams nor the individuals can look at anything as a long-term trend. What has changed is the Australians have started to do what they said they would. “We did everything we talked about in the team meetings,” Ponting said. Losing sides become weighed down in discussions, but the tourists were able to turn on the action.In the opening session they grabbed control on the way to dismissing England for 102 and were not interrupted until the final day when Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann cut the final margin to an innings and 80 runs. While it was incredibly entertaining and good fun, the free-hitting did nothing but delay Australia’s party.”I feel that the last couple of days have been the best that we’ve played for the series and it’s given us a blueprint for what we need to do for the next Test,” Ponting said. If Australia replicate this performance at The Oval then a 2-1 series victory is theirs, but backing up is not guaranteed for a regenerating side, especially one that has more than a week to consider the consequences.They have five days before their next tour match, a two-day affair in Kent at the weekend, and start with two days off in Leeds before travelling south. Unless Brett Lee takes five wickets or a bowler breaks down, the warm-up will have no influence on the line-up at The Oval. The conditions will determine whether they go with the same four-man pace attack or three quicks and a spinner in their most important match.Although Australia have developed instant feelings of security, in this series moods can change as quickly as the time taken to set off a fire alarm. For those who have watched Australia since the mid-1990s it’s unusual feeling uncertain about an outfit that has just been so comprehensive. These are different times and this is a team which is developing faith in each other and their supporters.At Headingley England were rubbish and Australia were great, just like old times. This topsy-turvy campaign has been absorbing and intense, but both teams have enough frailties that they can’t guarantee victory at The Oval.

The Lahore attacks overshadowed every other crisis the country’s cricket had ever been through, but the World Twenty20 win and two teenagers eased the pain a touch

Osman Samiuddin07-Jan-2010This wasn’t a year so much as a lifetime. The polite thing to do is be grateful that 2009 has ended so we can start afresh, with new hope for a new year and decade. But given that every year of Pakistan cricket since 2005 has been considerably worse than the last, perhaps it is sensible to hope that 2009 hasn’t ended.The least traumatic fact was that Pakistan had four different captains, three in Tests alone. In a way there was even something soothingly retro about that; it used to be done in the 90s, when Pakistan were still up to something. But any dark humour the year provided, any joy or reason to smile, was overshadowed by the overwhelming darkness of March 3 and the terror attacks on the Sri Lankan team.The security lapse was shocking enough, more so as Sri Lanka had stepped in to tour when nobody else was willing to; at once it allowed all those boards who had not wanted to come to Pakistan to breathe a sigh of relief and nod knowingly. But the PCB’s reaction in absolving itself of any blame and instead attacking some of those caught in the attack – even in the history of this wretched board, nothing has been as shameful, not the match-fixing crisis, or any cock-up. Obviously none were sacked. Some got promoted.Thus after an entire decade of threatening to do so, finally international cricket came to an end in Pakistan. Unsurprisingly the 2011 World Cup was lost and the board quibbled about it, losing what few friends it had in the process. The real fallout will emerge in coming years; cancelled tours by India, the lost World Cup and no tours at home till, optimistically, 2011, has left an already hard-up administration near financial ruin. How will they work the years ahead? Where will they play? What comes of TV rights? Even more difficult times lie in wait.On the upside, at least Pakistan played some Test cricket, and given what happened in 2008, that is something to smile about. Shame, though, that they played much of it as if unused to the format. They had their moments in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and even in Australia. You could even argue that they should have won the series in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, but their madcap moments far outnumbered the good. Usually it came from the batting, which felt much like the subjects of many doom-mongering reports about the country that predict imminent collapse; except, of course, the batting actually did so, and regularly. They didn’t win a single ODI series through the year either.Amid all this there were, of course, those crazy days of summer, when for a little while something other than bombs, load-shedding, wars in the country and politicians occupied the mind. Pakistan’s World Twenty20 triumph was so well-timed it felt unreal, and it was done, in essence, in the best Pakistani way. There was a stirring run in the Champions Trophy soon after as well, but once that was over, Pakistan began to do what it does best: To put a twist to what has become popular imagery, Pakistan began to negotiate with itself, holding a gun to its own head. And the negotiations didn’t go too well.Those months were a brief headrush of respite from another long, sad and quite tragic year.New kid(s) on the block
Umar Akmal and Mohammad Aamer were two reasons why nobody will ever give up on Pakistan cricket. The two debuted in 2009, months apart, and have since impressed around the world. Akmal is potentially the country’s next big batting star, technically sound, mentally refreshing and fearless. Aamer is 17 in body, much older in mind, quick and spiky and set to prolong Pakistan’s pace lineage. Both have slipped effortlessly into all three formats, and importantly both have worked their way through Pakistan’s system. On them much rests.Mohammad Aamer is Pakistan’s brightest new pace hope•Getty ImagesFading star
Shoaib Malik began the year as Pakistan’s captain in all three formats. He ended it 12th man in the Boxing Day Test, a peripheral figure in the touring squad. Much of the year was spent discussing his role in intrigues and politicking and not so much about his playing.High point
The World Twenty20 win was among the most uplifting bits of news for the whole country through this year or the last. It came at just the right time, when impending international isolation was threatening to condemn Pakistan to a fate worse than death: cricketing anonymity. Nobody will ever forget Umar Gul’s spell, Younis Khan’s fun, Aamer’s first over in the final, or Abdul Razzaq’s wickets. Shahid Afridi was all over it, though, with that catch, the fifties, the wickets and the kiss to Jacques Kallis.What 2010 holds
A busy year lies ahead, with an Australian tour to be completed and a defence of the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean. The summer brings with it a key moment in Pakistan’s history: they will play six Tests in England, two of them against Australia, as “hosts”. A home has to be found and how the summer goes will be crucial in determining a location. More than anything else though, nobody would mind a little bit of sanity.

Mark Boucher’s 55 in the second innings at Newlands was like a lifeboat for his career. He proved he still has the ability to play under pressure that has made him such an important player for South Africa over the years

Firdose Moonda at Newlands05-Jan-2011In August this year, Mark Boucher revealed his hurt about being dropped from the South African one-day team. Many thought he saw the snub as something frivolous, like misplacing a five Rand coin in a pair of jeans with deep pockets. He didn’t. He said he felt as though he had “been fired from his job” and that he would do everything in his power to show that he is good enough to get that job back.As yet, he hasn’t been able to reclaim the position and things almost became even worse when he began flirting with losing his other job, in the Test side. He had scored just 17 runs in three innings in the current series against India and when Boucher came out to bat on Wednesday, there were murmurs around Newlands that it could well be his last Test innings. So began an almighty fight, to prove the detractors wrong, to get South Africa into a comfortable position in the match and to save his own career.The tussle was about as pretty to watch as it is to observe a bulldozer mechanically going about tearing a monstrous building to shreds. That was the size of the doubt that Boucher had to break down. Although it was large and looming, it wasn’t all unfair. Before this match, in the previous six Tests he played, Boucher had averaged 20.00, well below his career average of 30.70. Some of the criticism levelled against him was unwarranted because, just a season ago, against England, Boucher’s three half-centuries earned him the joint man-of-the-series award. Unfortunately, people don’t seem to remember that and care more that his last Test century against a team other than Bangladesh came against West Indies more than seven years ago.The hundreds don’t, and shouldn’t, matter much to Boucher, who comes in to bat after one of the strongest top six in world cricket. It’s when the dry patches start grouping to form a desert and the hoarse cries of people calling for his head get louder, that the anxiety develops. Recently, he has been in fairly barren territory. But, he has shown immense bouncebackability throughout his career and he has had the luxury of time in which to do that.This may have been the first occasion when it might have seemed like time was running out. With the next Test series scheduled for nine months away, Boucher must have felt an internal ticking to the beat of now or never. He came out with South Africa 130 for 6, and had he fallen early and opened the window to the tail, it would have swung the series heavily in India’s favour.Instead, he starred in a partnership that may end up being the one that wins the series. Boucher’s 55 may look like a side-show in comparison to Kallis’ undefeated 109, and it was. The real showstopper wasn’t either of their innings but the century-stand the two great friends put on because it may prove to be South Africa’s saviour. Boucher was geared up for a big task before he even reached the crease. “I came out with an aggressive mindset,” Boucher said. The intent was there but the action took seven balls to kick in as he coped with being beaten once and then spent some time defending.The early stages were the most difficult for Boucher, not because of the conditions, but because of the hostile atmosphere he walked into. “When you get to the crease and the pressure is on and there is a lot of chirping around, it can be quite difficult.” Given Boucher’s usually bullish personality, one would expect that he was the type to soak up the tension and use it as fuel to endure. Boucher admitted that isn’t always the case. “I don’t think there is anyone who loves to bat under pressure. I think there are certain people who handle it better.”He absorbed the anxiety well and after three boundaries upfront settled into a rhythm with Kallis, which not only quietened the field but calmed the batsmen’s nerves. “We managed to turn the strike around a lot, especially against Harbhajan [Singh] who was bowling well and that made things easier for both of us.”Boucher’s elation and relief came only after tea, when he brought up his half-century. At that point the match was edging further in South Africa’s favour, with the lead at 223. Boucher’s career had found a lifeboat. He was being hailed as the one who overcame the rough seas and found calmer water for the South African second innings to stay afloat in. Kallis was the brave captain of the ship, battling through pain; Boucher was the rower with the oar in hand, every pierce of the water guiding them closer to the shore. He ground out runs on a difficult batting track as though he knew it was the only thing that would redeem him.This is the innings that will be remembered when the squad is picked to face Australia later in the year. It’s the character that Boucher showed that will probably see him secure a spot for that series and not that fact that there are doubts over AB de Villiers’ ability to don the wicket-keeping gloves for prolonged periods or that there is no clear successor being groomed for Boucher. It means that he has wrestled back not just his place but the right to call it his place.

Through the World Cup, South Africa have shied away from questions about nerves and how it tends to affect them more than most teams; but come the quarter-finals, the pressure got to them, and that is a truth they must tackle head on

Firdose Moonda at the Shere Bangla Stadium25-Mar-2011Choke. It’s the only word that matters. After a campaign filled with renewed hope, experiments that worked, personnel changes, a new-age psychological plan and five clinical wins in the group stage, when it mattered most, nothing had changed. South Africa choked.It’s harsh and it’s unforgiving but it’s what South African cricket will have to deal with after their classic collapse against New Zealand. The crumble happened with the bat, when 108 for 2 became 172 all out. In the space of 24 balls, Jacques Kallis fell to a superb catch, JP Duminy played what may go down as the worst shot of the tournament and AB de Villiers was run out. The core of the line-up was brutally snatched out of the chase and the rest couldn’t patch up the glaring hole they left behind.What happened physically doesn’t matter so much, though, because the real failing was in the mind. What possessed Duminy to attempt what was supposed to be a cut shot, but instead became horribly disfigured and allowed the ball to crash into his stumps? What possessed Faf du Plessis to call for a single when he had hit the ball to short midwicket, and could see a fielder swooping in? And why did he end up a third of the way down the pitch when de Villiers had not moved? Why couldn’t the likes of Johan Botha and Robin Peterson get it together after the wobble and guide the team through the 100 runs they still needed?Pat Symcox told ESPNcricinfo that the answer lies not in batting, bowling and fielding, but in the fourth aspect of cricket: in the mind. And at crucial times, it seems that it’s the opposition who have the upperhand in that department, despite all the changes South Africa have made. The signs that South Africa are not mentally strong enough to summit a challenge like the knockouts – where they have still not won a single World Cup match in six tournaments – had never completely left.A few weeks before arriving in the subcontinent, they lost the second of five one-dayers against India, at the Wanderers, from a winning position. Again, it was a batting collapse that caused the defeat, with South Africa losing 7 for 69 in chase of 191, and it exposed their fragile middle order. After that match, Graeme Smith arrived at the post-match press conference looking only a little less gutted than he did on Friday. Not one of the journalists there dared ask him the ‘choking question’ and he looked in no mood to answer it. It was left hanging in the air, and it was something that Smith and the squad were able to escape dealing with.South Africa lost the next match in that series as well, but came from 2-1 down to win the series 3-2, and all talk of being mentally weak was shelved. They arrived in the subcontinent two weeks after their series triumph, and were greeted by a squadron of journalists who only wanted to know one thing: how will they shed the chokers’ tag? It’s the kind of question that buzzes about from press conference to press conference like a mosquito; it bites in all the most uncomfortable places and it’s just damn irritating. But it’s the one that will keep getting asked until South Africa win a major ICC trophy, and even then it will be asked in a different form.From those early days of South Africa’s World Cup campaign, it was evident that question would be their bug bear. Some of the team members, like Duminy and Botha, took it in their stride and answered that they thought it was unfair they were labelled with that tag because this was a squad of fresh faces. Others didn’t handle it as well. Sometimes the word choker didn’t even have to be used at all; simple questions about dealing with pressure or mental conditioning would get their backs up. Their reactions said that all was not well when it came to even talking about, never mind dealing with, pressure.Smith was the fieriest. He lost it in Delhi, asking a journalist who persisted in asking him how the team dealt with nerves, “So you’ve been out there in the middle, have you?” He was snappy and abrupt, and he shut many of the questioners up. After the first win against West Indies, the questions died down and after the thumping of Netherlands, they had almost disappeared.When South Africa did the mini-choke against England, they returned. Smith was a different man that day. He arrived sombre and almost docile. He still got riled up when he was asked questions he didn’t like, but his answers were less biting and more thoughtful. Something seemed to have clicked, and Smith and the team were gentler, and seemed less affected by tense situations during the games against India, Ireland and Bangladesh. They didn’t even go into their quarter-final clash with New Zealand as smug as they may have, considering they topped their group and drew relatively modest opposition for the first knockout match.Some said the choke was over and done with against England. Others, who steered clear of the word, said the England match had taught South Africa how to deal with that sort of pressure, and that if they encountered it again, they would know what to do. In truth, they did not encounter it again until this match. India challenged them, but they were always in control. Ireland had them against the ropes but South Africa were always just a few jabs away from a dominant position. New Zealand presented a different challenge.They got their breakthroughs out of nowhere, surprising South Africa by dismissing Kallis and then de Villiers. The run-out that ended de Villiers’ innings is probably what changed the game, because the body language of the New Zealand fielders changed after it. They strutted around as though they had purpose, while South Africa’s batsmen were walking with their shoulders drooped and their heads bowed.Some of the New Zealand players even had an altercation with du Plessis, perhaps trying to mess with his psyche by telling him he had run out his senior partner. They wanted to dig deeper into the batting line-up. Daniel Vettori, New Zealand’s captain, said after the game: “There was a sense of belief that if we could get in to the South African middle order we would have a chance.”The England match had shown the middle order up as soft, and just as it had started hardening, New Zealand melted it. The pressure New Zealand applied was different to what any other team had, because New Zealand knew they could only win by taking 10 wickets, and so had to snuff out the middle order. New Zealand didn’t back off, as India had in Nagpur; their fielding was sharp, the bowling was strangling and it was apparent they were going to hold on to their advantage with all it took. That’s the kind of pressure South Africa caved under.What will be important is that they accept the reality of it, that they see it for what it was – a faltering when things became too difficult – and not sugarcoat it as anything else. If South Africa are able to confront the mental aspect of the game head on, and not hide behind gimmicks, there’s every chance the wounds can heal fast. The danger will arise if they don’t, and if they allow the chokers’ tag to be hung around their necks, while silently trying to shrug it off and publicly pretending it’s not there. Then, it will become a noose again.