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.

On the night, Chennai were the better team by a margin rather greater than eight wickets

Telford Vice in Johannesburg26-Sep-2010″The sheep are so thin this year,” goes a joke among Eastern Cape farmers, “we can fax them to the abattoir.” The jibe, like the farmers themselves, is a hardy perennial. It has to be. Without a robust sense of humour, nothing survives, much less prospers, in the Eastern Cape.A province that bulges like a bicep along South Africa’s wind-whipped south-eastern coast, beyond which lay the skeletons of so many stricken ships, is no place for the soft of heart, mind, body or soul.Any team representing it faces critics as prosaic as they are stoic. So there will be no tears in the wake of the Warriors’ implosion in the Champions League Twenty20 final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Besides, they’ll tell each other unblinkingly down on the farm, this was no accident. On the night, the Chennai Super Kings were the better team by a margin rather greater than eight wickets. More like the 300 kilometres that separates Port Elizabeth from East London.To Chennai, undeniably, goes the accolade of the best franchise Twenty20 team in the world. Whoever said this format of the game doesn’t deliver worthy champions? Fact is, Chennai have spent the Champions League gliding to victory after victory as effortlessly as Fred and Ginger. Not for them the sweaty scramble of the close-run thing. They lost just once, to Victoria. That is if ending up on the wrong end of so dubious a yardstick as a one-over eliminator can rightfully be called losing.Chennai’s closest scrape with authentic defeat came at the hands of the same Warriors in their Port Elizabeth backyard. R Ashwin and Muttiah Muralitharan got them out of that jam, and they won by 10 runs.The Wanderers pitch is an entirely different animal to the one that spends its lazy days stretched out in the sun at St George’s Park. However, quality bowlers remain just that, whatever the surface, and Ashwin and Muralitharan were again key to Chennai’s success on Sunday.The sting of the match was drawn as early as the sixth over, when Davy Jacobs lurched into a reverse sweep off Ashwin, got it badly wrong, and was trapped smack in front having scored 32 of his 34 runs in furiously hit fours. Jacobs has carried the Warriors on his spare frame these past two weeks. He maintained a defiant, bristling presence, and was never shy to show the guts required to chase glory. But on Sunday, he needed to score twice as many runs as he did to give his men a fighting chance. That is unfair to him given that cricket is played by teams and not individuals, a point Jacobs has made himself when he has read between the lines of questions asking indirectly whether he is bigger than the side he leads.In the Warriors’ sumptuous win in their semi-final against the hitherto unbeaten South Australia Redbacks, that most certainly was not the case. Against Chennai just 24 hours later, it most certainly was. Ashwin, L Balaji and Muralitharan tied the Warriors down for 25 balls after Jacobs’ dismissal. The 26th brought a dodgy boundary as Colin Ingram’s thick edge off Muralitharan squirted to the ropes. But Murali laughed his wild laugh last, dismissing Mark Boucher and Justin Kreusch in the space of five deliveries to reduce the Warriors to 82 for five. Game, as they say in the comics, over.Chennai’s run chase was not unlike the last stage of the Tour de France, a ceremonial chore conducted on the Champs-Elysees during which no one challenges the man who has, in the eyes of his opponents, already won the race. So it was as Chennai whittled away at their small target, of which M Vijay and Michael Hussey scored all but 26 in a deeply blue-collar stand. Whoever said Twenty20 cricket couldn’t be boring?The fact that Jacobs tossed the new ball to Makhaya Ntini, who went for 22 runs in two bilious overs in the semi-final, seemed in itself an acceptance of an impending thrashing. You might say the Warriors went like lambs to the slaughter.

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.

At one of the world’s great fast-bowling venues, Chris Tremlett turned in a performance that declared he belongs

Andrew Miller at the WACA16-Dec-2010The first thing that needs to be said about Chris Tremlett is that he is huge. He’s not just willowy tall like Steven Finn, or freakishly out-of-proportion like Pakistan’s seven-foot seamer, Mohammad Irfan. He is properly stacked in a rugby lock-forward sense, and even when he has not been playing during this Ashes tour, he has been the most instantly recognisable cricketer in England’s squad. On the outfield at the Gabba, or in the nets at Adelaide, or wandering around the foyer of Perth’s Hyatt hotel, he has stood out from the crowd simply because he has towered above it.Who better, then, to have lurking on the bench as the ultimate “impact” player? In hindsight the question seems ridiculously rhetorical. Last week, Tremlett was described by the Victoria opener Michael Hill as delivering the ball from above the roof of the MCG, no less, and with all the pre-Test chatter centring around the quickest WACA wicket for the best part of a decade, it would have been an extraordinary indictment of his apparently flaky temperament had he not been given this chance to run amok.Under previous regimes, England might well have hedged their bets and gone for the dependable Tim Bresnan, the sort of nuts-and-bolts cricketer who could have covered for the absence of Stuart Broad with a bit of Yorkshire grit and a handy second string as a batsman. But that is not the way that the current management operate. No England touring team in living memory has successfully channelled so much confidence into so many varied areas of its squad without, as yet, allowing it to spill over into arrogance. Tremlett was trusted because he was the best candidate for the vacancy, and today he repaid that faith superbly.”It was a big step in my career to hit my straps straightaway and contribute to an important game, so I’m very happy,” said Tremlett. “There was a bit of a green tinge at the start of the day, and we made the most with the new ball, picking up those early wickets. When I woke up this morning I was very nervous, but when I got into my stride and got my wicket I felt at ease and tried to enjoy the experience. I think it’s been shown that the wicket has bounce, I felt I hit the right areas on this wicket, and that I was the man to pick.”Officially, Tremlett’s selection as Stuart Broad’s replacement was confirmed at England’s final nets session on Wednesday afternoon. To all intents and purposes, however, he has been inked in for this fixture for months. As long ago as July, in a pub in Nottingham during England’s Test series against Pakistan, the England bowling coach David Saker spent an evening outlining his vision for this Ashes campaign. He had yet to see Tremlett bowl in the flesh for his new county Surrey, but his ear had been to the ground ever since the start of the season, and he was liking the vibes coming through. It didn’t matter to him one jot what previous coaches and pundits had to say. He was simply adamant that Tremlett had to be on that plane.Mind you, he’s not the first England coach to regard Tremlett as a mighty prospect. In the epic summer of 2005, Duncan Fletcher watched Tremlett bounce a hat-trick delivery off Mohammad Ashraful’s bails on his ODI debut against Bangladesh, and was so sure of his potential that he kept him in the dressing-room as England’s 12th man for the first four Tests against Australia. But when push came to shove with the injury to Simon Jones, he baulked at the notion of pitching him in at the deep end, and opted instead to recall the teak-tough Paul Collingwood.Then in 2007, Fletcher’s successor Peter Moores marked his first summer in charge by calling up Tremlett for a debut Test series against India, and he performed with some panache to claim 13 wickets at less than 30, including three scalps in seven overs in a losing cause at Trent Bridge. But aside from an isolated one-day outing against New Zealand the following summer, that appeared to be the end of the opportunities. Too many niggles and too little ambition seemed to have fatally undermined his prospects.A move from Hampshire was the catalyst for change. His father, Tim, was a former stalwart of the county who moved up the ladder to become Director of Cricket, and everything had simply been too cosy for his son, even when Shane Warne came in as their high-profile captain. “I tried everything to get Tremlett to be more aggressive,” said Warne.”I was nice to him and supported him. I tried to be nasty by batting him at No 11 to make him angry. But he was just a bit soft. He was a great fella but he needed to toughen up, because his body language was awful. If he has learned his lesson he could be the No. 1 bowler in the world. He is that good.”With Chris Adams welcoming him into the Surrey dressing-room with the promise that the mocking nickname of “Goober” would no longer be tolerated, Tremlett bounced back from a dismal 2009 season to claim 48 wickets at 20.18 for his new club. “When I went to Surrey I went with a fresh head,” he said. “People can say what they want about my temperament – that I’m a gentle giant or whatever – but it all comes from within. If you want something bad enough, you work out what to do and try hard enough to get it. I think I figured that out over the years.”It wasn’t too hard a decision,” he added. “I wanted to get away from the comforts at Hampshire and all the same people, and the thing I wanted to do was to move away from all that, to a new county, a new pitch, a new place, and straightaway I felt very welcome at Surrey.
I’ve grown up a bit. I’m more experienced as a cricketer, I know my game more, and I’m just a better bowler than I was three years ago.”At the WACA on Thursday there was not a trace of dodgy body language.
Charged with the second over of the match from the Prindiville End, and fuelled by the extra responsibility of Andrew Strauss’s apparent gamble at the toss, Tremlett purred to the crease with an exquisitely uncomplicated action, and left Phil Hughes ruing the accuracy of his own pre-series assessment, that it’s not the short ball that gets a batsman out, but the follow-up. A whistling bouncer, and a bail-trimming length ball, and Australia’s innings was off to another dreadful start.Inevitably it will be the follow-up performance that determines whether Tremlett has turned a corner in his career, but there’s enough circumstantial evidence to suggest he’s ripe for a regular berth at the age of 29. Crucially, he bowls within himself these days, letting his height and natural rhythm do the donkey work to take the strain off his previously fallible body, and though he went wicketless on a dead deck at Melbourne last week, he still conceded a mere 57 runs from 24 overs – a performance that reassured the management that he would not be a liability if the conditions were not in his favour.In the end Broad was missed by the England attack, but only because the 21-year-old Steven Finn looked tired after a draining first half of the series, and had the circumstances been different, he might well have rested for this game. Tremlett on the other hand looked the real deal, and the three-card trick that did for the rookie Steven Smith – drawn forward, pushed back, lured forward again to find the splice – was the work of a bowler with a brain as well as brawn.
The days of ‘Goober’ cannot be written off just yet, but at one of the world’s great fast-bowling venues, Tremlett turned in a performance that declared he belongs.

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.

ESPNcricinfo looks back at some famous defeats South Africa have slumped to in global tournaments

Liam Brickhill and Siddhartha Talya25-Mar-2011South Africa’s remarkable defeat in the Mirpur quarter-final was their fourth loss in six World Cup games against New Zealand and the fifth time they have crashed out of the tournament during a knockout stage. ESPNcricinfo looks back at some other famous defeats South Africa have slumped to in global tournaments.1996 World Cup quarter-final v West Indies
South Africa stormed into this game as clear favourites, having won all of their group games in the midst of a 10-match winning streak that stretched back to their home series against England earlier that year. West Indies, on the other hand, had just slumped to a humiliating loss to Kenya’s amateurs in Pune, and were a team in seemingly terminal decline. The pitch was expected to take turn – and it did – but South Africa made what was, in hindsight, a fatal error in omitting Allan Donald and instead playing an extra spinner in Paul Adams. Brian Lara feasted on both Adams and offspinner Pat Symcox, carrying West Indies to 264 with a blistering hundred. South Africa may have fancied Roger Harper’s and Jimmy Adams’ offerings after watching their own spinners get tonked in such emphatic fashion, but they combined to take seven wickets, Harper nipping out three in one over, as South Africa collapsed from 140 for 2 to lose by 19 runs and set a trend that continues, inexplicably, to this day.1999 World Cup semi-final v Australia
On a midsummer’s day at Edgbaston that will live in infamy – for South Africans, at least – South Africa and Australia slugged out a game of remarkable twists and about-turns, culminating in one of the most memorable finales in limited-overs history. Chasing Australia’s 213, South Africa were scuppered by the single-minded intensity of Shane Warne, who took four wickets, before being brought back from the brink of oblivion by a death-or-glory innings from Lance Klusener. When he bludgeoned consecutive off-side boundaries to take the scores level with four balls remaining, the game was South Africa’s to lose … and, incredibly, they did just that. Klusener ran, Donald didn’t, and an ecstatic Australia took South Africa’s place in the final. The tie meant that South Africa, for the third World Cup in a row, failed to reach the final despite looking like the team of the tournament in the early stages.2002 Champions Trophy v India
Perhaps the most remarkable of all of South Africa’s crumbles in major matches. South Africa had won the inaugural version of the Champions Trophy in 1998 – their only ICC title success to date – and were coasting towards a place in the final of the 2002 edition. Having limited India to 261 for 9 in Colombo, South Africa were cruising at 192 for 1 in the 37th over, the result seemed a foregone conclusion. The easy task ahead may have prompted Gibbs to retire hurt after suffering from cramps, convinced as he may have been that the others would take his team home. But they were to let him down, and with 21 required off the final over, Sehwag survived a first-ball slog-swept six from Kallis to grab two wickets and leave the South Africans with that familiar feeling.2003 World Cup v Sri Lanka
The build-up to the 2003 World Cup in South Africa had been massive. Nelson Mandela had featured in the promos, Cape Town hosted a sparkling opening ceremony and this was the country’s biggest sporting spectacle since the Rugby World Cup in 1995. It was to end in utter despair. The much-vaunted national team slipped up to lose against West Indies and New Zealand in the preliminary stage and their fortunes hinged on a do-or-die game against Sri Lanka in Durban.That fatal run•PA PhotosSet a target of 269. Gibbs put them on track with an attacking 77, and even when captain Shaun Pollock was dismissed in the 43rd over to reduce them to 212 for 6 with bad weather swiftly closing in South Africa would have believed they could win. Klusener walked in but made just one in eight balls and as the weather deteriorated, a message was sent to the pair from the dressing room that the score needed to win, according to the Duckworth-Lewis method, had to be 229 at the end of the 45th over with four wickets to spare. What seemed like the decisive blow came off the penultimate ball of that over as Boucher danced out to Muttiah Muralitharan, smashed him over long-on for a flat six, and punched the air in the heavy rain, convinced that South Africa had it covered. The next ball, he gently nudged to midwicket and the umpires called for the covers. Elation was to turn to disbelief in a matter of a few seconds once the realisation dawned upon South Africa that the instructions were wrong. The score of 229 was meant for a tie, not a win. Andrew Hudson, on TV commentary, summed up the feeling. “42 million South Africans are going to bed tonight hoping it was a bad dream”.2007 World Cup semi-final v Australia
Yet again South Africa reached a World Cup knockout, another semi-final, but this time they succumbed to nerves at the gravity of the occasion at the very start of the match rather than during a crunch finale. South Africa’s stage fright took shape in a batting display that fell to pieces in wild swipes and mindless adventure. Australia showed they had well and truly won the pre-match mental battle, and the visibly skittish South Africans were demolished by Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait before Michael Clarke’s unbeaten half-century finished the job to hand South Africa their fourth knockout defeat.2011 World Cup v England
A game of slightly lesser importance but thrilling nevertheless, largely due to another of South Africa’s incredible capitulations. The pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium may have been tricky but not one deserving of a score of 171, which is what England managed. Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith, in their 64-run opening stand, showed exactly that. The rest of the team, however, was adamant on proving otherwise. Carefully built-up starts were squandered and when, from the seemingly impregnable position of 124 for 3, four wickets fell for three runs in five overs the tide turned. There was still a glimmer of hope for South Africa, Dale Steyn’s spirited batting bringing them to within 12 runs of victory with Morne van Wyk. But panic prevailed over determination as van Wyk was snared by Tim Bresnan, and Stuart Broad, in a superb spell, removed Steyn and Morne Morkel in four deliveries to inflict upon South Africa their only defeat, one that kept England’s hopes alive, ahead of the quarter-finals.

Fast bowling has been Sri Lanka’s weak suit historically, but they need to step it up over the next four weeks in England

S Rajesh24-May-2011Sri Lanka have never won a series of at least two Tests in England, Australia or South Africa, but over the next four weeks they’ll get an opportunity to start rectifying that statistic when they take on England over three Test matches. The hosts obviously start favourites after their fantastic Ashes campaign in 2010-11, but Sri Lanka have sounded a warning by winning both their warm-up games, including a superb come-from-behind victory against England Lions last week. One of the most encouraging aspects of that win was the performance of the fast bowlers – Dilhara Fernando, Thisara Perera and Nuwan Pradeep took 15 out of 18 Lions wickets, returning combined figures of 15 for 388. They, and the other fast bowlers who play, will have to maintain those kind of figures if Sri Lanka are to win the series, especially given that this is the first half of the summer in England, when conditions are most likely to favour fast bowlers and not offer so much assistance to spin, traditionally Sri Lanka’s favourite suit.Pace could also play a bigger role in Sri Lanka’s campaign this time because they can no longer fall back on the wizardry of Muttiah Muralitharan. In his absence, the spin mantle will be borne by Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath and Suraj Ranjiv, but it’s quite likely that the series result could hinge on how well Sri Lanka’s inexperienced fast bowlers fare: among their frontline fast bowlers, only two – Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof – have played Tests outside the subcontinent, and their numbers aren’t flattering: together they’ve played 18 Tests, and taken 29 wickets at an average of 62.38 runs per wicket.In fact, the lack of incisiveness in the bowling, especially among the fast men, has been one of Sri Lanka’s biggest drawbacks on overseas tours. The bowlers’ inability to take wickets and restrict opposition totals has put their own batsmen under tremendous pressure almost every time they come out to bat. Sri Lanka’s overall bowling average in England since 2000 is more than 45, while their fast bowlers have conceded more than 63 per wicket – both are easily the worst among all teams except Zimbabwe. With Lasith Malinga not around either to help their cause, Sri Lanka’s bowlers could be severely tested over the next month.

Usually conditions in South Africa, England and Australia are more favourable for fast bowlers, but Sri Lanka’s numbers don’t suggest so. In all three countries, their pace bowlers concede more than 47 runs per wicket, while in most other countries they average in the 20s or 30s. What has also hurt their cause is the sheer lack of opportunities to play Tests in these countries: in the last 11 years, Sri Lanka have played only 15 Tests in Australia, England and South Africa.

The lack of matches has also hurt the batsmen, for it gives them little opportunity to acclimatise to conditions which are completely different from what they face at home. Looking at the stats of all teams in England since 2000, Sri Lanka slot in somewhere in the middle with an average of 28.10, while compared to their own record in other countries, their stats in England are fairly ordinary.Among the batsmen in the current squad, Mahela Jayawardene is the only batsman to score a century – he has scored one in each Lord’s Tests on the last two tours, and averages more than 45 in six Tests. In fact, his four innings at Lord’s reads 107, 14*, 61 and 119. However, Kumar Sangakkara has been a huge disappointment, with a highest of 66 in 12 innings, and an average of 30.54, which is almost 27 fewer than his overall career average.

The good news for Sri Lanka, though, is that they have won Tests in England, unlike in Australia and South Africa, where they haven’t won any. They won the one-off Test in 1998 on the back of outstanding performances from Sanath Jayasuriya and Muralitharan. On their most recent tour, they lost at Edgbaston, but fought back superbly to level the series at Trent Bridge, with Muralitharan again winning the Man-of-the-Match award for an 11-wicket haul. Both their wins in England have thus been engineered by Murali; in his absence, it remains to be seen who will take on the mantle of strike bowler.

England will be full of confidence coming into this series: their last series was a magnificent triumph in Australia, and they also have an outstanding home record in the last decade. Since 2000, they’ve lost only three home series out of 22 – once each to Australia (2001), India (2007) and South Africa (2009). During this period, their win-loss ratio at home has been 2.68 (43 wins, 16 defeats), which is third only to Australia and India.England’s batsmen were in fine form in the Ashes, and they’ll want to continue that run. Among those in England’s current squad, only three have played a home Test against Sri Lanka: Kevin Pietersen has enjoyed himself, with two hundreds in three matches, but Andrew Strauss only managed a highest of 55 in five innings.

England’s partnerships for the top five wickets, though, have almost all been productive, and that’s helped them stay on top in most home Tests against Sri Lanka since 2000. The average stands for the top three wickets are all more than 60, with the average for the first wicket being 72.55, which again illustrates Sri Lanka’s lack of fast-bowling firepower. On the other hand, Sri Lanka’s average first-wicket stand is 23.25, with a highest of 59, which is significantly lower than England’s average partnership.

Shane Watson still has much to learn about leadership and Test match batting, but he’s made it his priority, and his tutelage under Warne and Dravid in the IPL will only help

Daniel Brettig05-May-2011Shane Watson is gleaning as much as he can from Shane Warne and Rahul Dravid in the IPL while reconciling himself to the fact the Australian side he is about to drive is not capable of matching their feats. In Warne and Dravid, Watson could not have two better mentors for the tasks ahead, as he and Australia’s new captain, Michael Clarke, embark upon the task of rejuvenating a team that slid to a horrendous Ashes defeat and an early World Cup exit.Not only the most valuable player in the Australian team, Watson is also Clarke’s vice-captain, the winner of the past two Allan Border medals, and the only member of the current side to be considered a natural choice in any contemporary World XI. For all this he remains in a state of development, both as a leader and as a Test opener, where his penchant for handy half-centuries must be built upon if he and his team are to make significant strides over the next 12 months.Little more than two years ago it would have been deemed optimistic in the extreme – if not a little daft – to mention Watson as a Test-captaincy contender. Now he is next in line after Clarke, a position of far greater resonance when the new captain’s decidedly slim past year of Test batting enters the equation.Amid the hustle of the IPL, Watson is seeking to grasp Warne’s tenets of leadership and Dravid’s Test batting, while angling for a little more batting time in the Rajasthan Royals spinners’ net ahead of the August tour of Sri Lanka. Warne’s place as a friend and teacher to Watson and Clarke is significant, and it is arguable that he might have greater influence on the direction of the Australian teams of 2011 and beyond than he did on the team in which he played a vital but rigidly defined role in his later years as a Test player.”Warney’s influence on me, throughout the last three or four years, since I’ve been able to spend a lot more time playing with him, has been very significant on my game, the way I bowl, and reading the game more,” Watson said.”Seeing the things that Warney does, his tactical thinking, really seeing that at work, continues to open my eyes. There’s no doubt his relationship with Michael Clarke has shaped the way Michael does captain, and the tactics he picks as well. I think it’s a brilliant thing because there’s no doubt in my mind that Warney is one of the best minds that’s ever played the game.”The fields he sets and the bowlers he picks – it’s pretty amazing to see the decisions he makes, and the fields that he sets come off nine out of 10 times.”Watson said he hadn’t faced Warne in the nets a lot but was hopeful they could get some time in together over the next few weeks as a lead-in to the Sri Lanka tour.Warne’s tactical spark has begun to fire Watson’s mind, as he trains himself to look beyond the issues of batting, bowling and body that defined his Australian role until quite recently. Looking back to his younger self, perhaps the one that celebrated so unwholesomely at dismissing Chris Gayle in a Test match in Perth in December 2009, Watson can see how much he has grown as a leader.

“The fields he sets and the bowlers he picks, it’s pretty amazing to see the decisions he makes. And the fields that he sets come off nine out of 10 times”Watson is impressed with Warne’s tactical strengths

“Yeah much differently, definitely, because now I know there might be a chance at some stage that I might have to be the person to make the decisions on the field, so my eyes are much more open to what’s being done,” Watson said. “Even over the last six months I’ve tried to open my eyes up to that aspect of the game as well. I’ve definitely got my views and certain ways of thinking tactically, and also [about] the roles of people within the team, so it’s one point of my development that’s really come on. Now to be able to be so close to Warney and see how he goes about it as one of the best in the world, I’m very lucky.”Luck, in the form of the IPL auction, has also played a part in bringing Watson and Dravid together. While they will more than likely spar against one another when India tours Australia later in the year, for now Watson is sitting at the feet of Dravid, among cricket’s most supreme exponents of run accumulation.”That’s the continual fight for every batsman, trying to clear your mind as quickly as possible,” Watson said. “I have been very excited about actually playing with Rahul, from watching him from afar over the last 10 years or more he’s been playing Test cricket, and especially seeing how dominant he has been over his career. So I’m very lucky to talk to him about the ways he’s able to clear his mind and concentrate for long periods of time. That’s the beauty of the IPL, as well: to be able to mix with different people and be able to dive into their mind and be able to find different ways that might work for me.”Finding what works is the great challenge confronting Watson, Clarke and the rest of the Cricket Australia hierarchy, ahead of Test series against Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand, India and West Indies. In Bangladesh, Watson and Clarke were inseparable, whether it was striding out to practice, talking shop while carrying armfuls of batting gear, or chatting purposefully in the team hotel late on the eve of a match.Watson described the week in Dhaka as a chance to articulate a “collective vision” for the future, before Clarke travelled home to discuss things further with team management and the Cricket Australia board. What emerges from these discussions will be better known once the list of centrally contracted players is released, but for now Watson said it was important to define the team by what it can do rather than by what its predecessors did.”My opinion is always that whatever the strengths of your team are, that’s what you’ve got to stick to. We can’t try to emulate what the Australian team did five or six years ago with the amazing talent they had. We’ve got to stick to our strengths and what we have in our team, to be able to try to develop a really good game plan around that. That’s what the next two or three months are going to be, to find and know what the team’s going to be and develop our cricket around our strengths and weaknesses in that team.”There’s no doubt the Australian public do expect us to play the way teams did five or six years ago and how aggressive they were, and all that really came down to how amazingly talented the whole group was. The people playing back then were some of the greats who have ever played the game, and that’s something we’re going to be trying to develop as individuals and as a team.”

Mark Higgs made it to the fringes of the Australian team a decade ago, before fading away. Now he’s understanding more about what went wrong as he guides Nathan Lyon to the big league

Daniel Brettig27-Aug-2011Nathan Lyon stands a far greater chance of making his name as an international cricketer because his mentor Mark Higgs was unable to do so.Among those who have guided Lyon on his road less travelled, from Young in country New South Wales to the Australian team, Higgs’ influence has been the most seminal. Yet in the process of moulding Lyon’s looping offbreaks, Higgs has learned almost as much about himself as his pupil has about bowling. He has resolved the muddle of thoughts, doubts and pressures that beset him as his own playing career faded into obscurity from a starting point remarkably similar to Lyon’s.Eleven years before Lyon became a somewhat left-field choice to bowl spin for Australia on their current tour of Sri Lanka, Higgs was an even more lateral selection to replace the injured Shane Warne at the ICC Trophy in Nairobi. At that point Higgs was far from a fixture in the New South Wales side, but the Australian captain Steve Waugh saw something in his hard-spun left-arm orthodox and impudent batting, and he was thrust into the national squad.”I was [picked out of the blue], same age or a bit younger than Lyonsy, but it was a great experience for me, and it was tough for me as well because at that stage we had a strong side and there were good players around everywhere,” Higgs told ESPNcricinfo. “You don’t realise how close you are when you’re actually playing first-class cricket.”I had good performances that year in the one-day competition, and it still came out of the blue. I learned a lot playing in NSW with a lot of the idols, but then to be among the full Australian team was a great experience.”The Australians were eliminated in the first round by India, courtesy a teenager called Yuvraj Singh, and Higgs was never chosen again. Often cited as a wasted talent who could be more prolific at the bar than in the middle, Higgs carved out a moderate career with the Blues and later South Australia, but gradually lost interest in the game and all its attendant pressures.”One thing I struggled with was the runs side of things,” Higgs said. “I couldn’t score the runs I wanted to. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do that, and cricket is a statistics game. If you average 35, you’re not holding your spot in the team.”I knew that and was working hard to try to change my game enough to get to a place where I could score runs consistently, but to be honest I wasn’t able to do it as well as I would’ve liked. I learned more when I got away from the game, but the pressure I put on myself to do well was undoing my talent I guess.”All the guys train pretty hard; it’s whether they train enough on the mental side of the game. The great players all talk about it being 90% mental, and to be able to learn that sort of stuff is more important than having a great cover drive or a great stock ball.”Cut more or less adrift from cricket in Australia, Higgs moved to England and was only called back in 2006 at the behest of a former Canberra Comets team-mate, who reckoned Higgs’ talents, and misadventures, would be useful in aiding the development of a younger generation.It was in the middle of this return that Higgs had his first glimpse of Lyon, then a quietly spoken teenager from country NSW with plenty of ability and the desire to learn more, who soon graduated from the ACT Under-19s team into the senior side, which takes part in the Futures League second XI competition. Together with Higgs, Lyon developed his philosophy on spin, moving beyond the natural tendency to bowl darts at the first hint of attack.”He came in pretty raw, but had natural loop with the ball and had good fingers and was able to turn the ball. That was the thing that was really noticeable – he was able to turn the ball, and he was happy to bowl and ask plenty of questions,” Higgs said. “We had a couple of spinners before that who moved on, and Lyonsy got thrown into the deep end a bit with us.”His ideas about bowling to good players were okay, but I thought they could use improvement and we tried to get his fields right and also get him a game-plan that went to those fields, so he was able to hold good players first of all and then get them out as well.”The ideas of lines of attack, and where we want to get players out and where we want to stop them from scoring, was really important.

“I’d like to see him get an opportunity at some stage. Hopefully he will do well. I think he will – he’s got a great personality for it”Higgs looks forward to seeing his protégé Lyon get a game during the Sri Lanka series

“I think when Lyonsy first came to us his idea when guys were attacking was to get it into the wicket and try to stop them on the crease, which we know on Australian wickets is like facing a medium-pacer. Once they get used to that, it’s even harder to stop them because it opens up more of the field. So the idea was to get them to hit where we want them to hit, and to get them to play on our terms. That was the early work we did, and also to get his action right.”Believing they had a talent on their books in need of wider exposure, ACT Cricket took Lyon down to Adelaide Oval last winter in the hope of securing him a start with South Australia. Surprisingly, SA’s high performance director, Jamie Cox, and the then coach, Mark Sorell, were not overly impressed by Lyon, and baulked at the suggestion of a state contract. Instead, a compromise was reached whereby Lyon would be transferred onto the SACA ground staff but would still play for the ACT.”We said, ‘We’ll take him on again’, and luckily enough he was able to come back and play for us last year and then he came away with us during the Baby Bash [Under 23 Twenty20 competition],” Higgs said.”That was when Chuck [Darren] Berry saw him bowl and he was lucky enough in the match we played against SA to get the chance to bowl to some left-handers. He held them really nicely and used some flight in that match,and Darren took him on from there.”From this point Lyon’s tale is more widely known. He and Higgs still converse regularly, and most recently have dealt with the question of how to handle the mass of additional media interest Lyon’s national selection has stirred. Higgs is optimistic about Lyon’s prospects in Sri Lanka, provided his coaches and the captain, Michael Clarke, handle him correctly.”It’s hard to say if you’re ready until you get in there and have a go,” Higgs said. “Every hurdle that’s been set in front of him he’s been able to get over and get over it well, so I can’t see why he wouldn’t do it again. He’s still got a lot to learn, I’d say that.”I’d like to see him get an opportunity at some stage. If he’s ready now, he’s ready now. If they need him on a turning wicket I think he can be effective. We’ve seen a lot of guys get picked for Australia on a few opportunities and Nathan’s now another one of those, and hopefully he will do well. I think he will – he’s got a great personality for it.”For Higgs, the sight of Lyon bowling for Australia would make his own journey seem worthwhile. He has learned as much about cricket being captain and coach of the ACT as he ever did as a precocious young allrounder, and is now at peace.Lyon’s success would make Higgs’ own unfulfilled journey seem worthwhile•Associated Press”I think the big thing I teach the lads growing up is that I didn’t succeed as much as I would like to and here’s some of the reasons why,” Higgs said. “I wasn’t able to control my emotions, I took a lot of baggage home when I went home from games, and it put me down a bit.”Also from not playing so well as a player and showing glimpses that I could do it but to not succeed the way I wanted to… looking back now, it was the pressure I put on myself to succeed, and the statistics show I wasn’t good enough. I had a great time in the game, I’m still having a great time coaching, but I think I learned a lot more from not being successful as well, and that’s helped me for my future life.”Higgs’ knowledge of spin bowling, too, has only grown with experience. He now thinks himself a better bowler than he was when playing, as instructive a detail about the slow-burning art of spin bowling as any technical advice can possibly be.”I’ve learned more about spin bowling in the last three or four years than when I was playing, just by talking to people and being around spin bowlers more often,” Higgs said. “My own bowling is better now than it was when I was playing, purely because I’ve learned more from talking to a lot of people about it, and spending time [with] people about different ways of getting people out.”When you’re a captain and a coach, you’re analysing how they go about the game, but you’re also looking at ideas for how they can do things better, and the learning curve of that has been great for me. If you spoke to most spinners, I think you learn more post 27-28. You very rarely have players who come onto the scene young and are very successful straight away.”I think they need time to learn how people will play them – different players around the world play spin so differently from the way we play. It’s great Lyonsy is in the system so young, but I think he needs the time to learn the craft and learn what it takes to be successful at all levels.”

Charles Coventry is out of the national side, but is keen to break back into the big league by scoring big for his franchise

Firdose Moonda30-Aug-2011It was mid-afternoon in the nets in Bulawayo and the Zimbabwe players were starting to train. In the middle of the field, the local franchise, Matabeleland, had gathered. The players had to undergo fitness tests before they would be allowed to sign on for the new season.While their national counterparts milled around for a few minutes, the franchise players sweated through their bleep tests. Most of them did not have a moment to look elsewhere. But, one of them did. He threw the national team the slightest of glances, the kind that screamed, “I wish I was there”.”Obviously you get a bit jealous sitting on the sidelines,” Charles Coventry told ESPNcricinfo. “But, it’s a part of your career, sometimes you’re in the team, sometimes you’re out and you just have to keep working towards becoming a regular.”To those who will associate Coventry with 194* forever, it will probably come as a surprise that the spectacled, tousle-haired batsman was not training in the national camp. For seven months since August 2009, until Sachin Tendulkar’s 200 in February 2010, Coventry held the joint world-record for the highest individual score in ODIs with Saeed Anwar.One innings can’t build a career, but in that innings that came out of nowhere, Coventry showed glimpses of greatness. Before that effort, he had only scored 301 runs in 14 ODIs, and his marathon effort somewhat eroded the criticism he had to cop for not having the discipline to build an innings over a long period of time.To disappear, almost into nowhere, after that was just as unexpected. Not many would be able to live up to a score like that, but fewer people would live it down like Coventry has. Since then, he played in 22 matches, crossed the half-century mark just once and was out in single-figures six times. “I think I put myself under a bit too much pressure,” he said. “I lost a bit of the enjoyment for the game.”With him failing to steady up the middle order, and perhaps with memories of the 194 in mind, Zimbabwe’s selectors thought of a new role for Coventry as they went to the 2011 World Cup. “I had a bit of a tough World Cup, being pushed to open the batting and now I find myself on the sidelines.”Scores of 14, 4 and 0 in his three World Cup outings were clear evidence of a failed experiment and a build-up of frustration for Coventry. “I think they tried to give me a chance at the top because I started getting into some bad form in the middle order,” he said. “I was usually the guy who had to make sure I was there to finish things off but at the time [during the World Cup], my role was more to come in upfront and play a few shots and that didn’t work very well. When that failed I had to get back on the sidelines.”He has now decided that the yo-yo has to stop and that he will concentrate on the middle-order spot from now on. “I’ve done well batting lower down the order so I’ve just got to keep getting runs at the franchise level and hopefully I can get back in the national side,” he said. Last season, Coventry was not able to impress at that level. His seven List A games fetched only 90 runs but he did manage 272 in the same number of first-class matches.Coventry acknowledged that those numbers do not do him any favours, but said his previous performances mean he can’t be written off. “I’ve played for the national side before and it’s not like I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said. It’s doing it more consistently, and now at the level below the national side, he needs to get right.The plan has already been mapped out and it sounds like a fairly simple one. “I’ve just got to work hard, make sure my fitness levels are up there and start scoring some runs at franchise level,” Coventry said. The realities of that plan are little more serious, because it will involve more than becoming a run machine. “I’m trying to enjoy myself and trying not to put myself under too much pressure when I fail, and understand that I’ve got another innings to put that right.”That kind of determination and persistence is echoed throughout the Zimbabwe national team, with players from Hamilton Masakadza and Vusi Sibanda to Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya showing what can be achieved through hard grit and grind. By the time the four of them, and the rest of the squad had completed their session, Coventry had left the ground, but if he was there and had stolen a stare at them then, he may have seen the level of commitment he will have to show to break back in to this Zimbabwean side.