The best performances in the Champions League came from teenagers, from established Indian stars, and from forty-somethings

Siddarth Ravindran07-Oct-2013MS Dhoni 63* off 19 v Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Dhoni rampage that included an over Thisara Perera will be desperately trying to forget. At the start, a typically brutal Dhoni hit over long-on was sandwiched by two wides. The over ended with four consecutive sixes – over square leg, over point, over long-on and over third man and ended up costing 34 runs. Perera will be ruing Ishant Sharma’s misfield off the second legitimate ball of the over, which allowed Dhoni to hurry back for the second and regain the strike. Dhoni went on to his half-century in 16 balls, the quickest in the Champions League – and eighth fastest in all T20 – as Chennai Super Kings accelerated past 200 and out of Sunrisers’ reach.Sunil Narine 4 for 9 v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Narine is a dead cert to be a millionaire at next year’s IPL auction. He’s had two outstanding IPL seasons and his mystery hasn’t faded in the CLT20 either. The success over the past two years means his reputation now precedes him, and teams are happy to play out his four overs and target the other bowlers. His teams turn to him at every crucial juncture. Defending 160 against Sunrisers, T&T brought him on in the 5th over to rein in a strong start and he delivered with a first-ball wicket. There was another in a two-over spell in the middle of the innings, before he signed off with wickets off his final two deliveries in the 18th over. The only runs he conceded were nine singles.Sanju Samson 60 off 33 v Mumbai Indians
Once Mumbai ran up a total in excess of 200 in the final, most people thought the game was as good as over. Not 18-year-old Sanju Samson though. Walking in after the first wicket fell in the first over, a fearless array of strokes kept Royals in the chase as the asking-rate of 10 was matched for more than half the innings. It began with an effortless straight hit for six off Harbhajan Singh and he peppered the arc between long-on and midwicket as Royals reached 117 for 1 in the 12th over, but even with heavy-hitters like Shane Watson to follow, they couldn’t complete the victory.Harbhajan Singh 4 for 32 v Rajasthan Royals
Harbhajan Singh may no longer be among India’s first-choice spinners but he reminded the selectors once more of his big-match temperament, in the final. After Samson’s onslaught had helped Royals keep pace, Watson had begun with a monstrous hit for six. Harbhajan removed the dangerman though with a straighter one that Watson top-edged towards wide long-on. Then came the over that completely transformed the game: the well-set Ajinkya Rahane and two big hitters in Stuart Binny and Kevon Cooper were all packed off and for the second time in three years a single Harbhajan over had put the title within Mumbai’s grasp.Neil Broom 117* off 56 v Perth Scorchers
Before the match against Perth Scorchers, Broom’s Twenty20 career stats were middling: 65 matches, average 21.23, strike-rate 112.08. So when Hamish Rutherford (career strike-rate 143.89) and star batsman Brendon McCullum were dismissed cheaply, Perth were a satisfied lot. No way could they have expected what came next. Broom played the T20 innings of his life with nine fours and eight sixes flowing as he ran up 117 off a mere 56 deliveries. Hard to pick a highlight from that smash-a-thon but the three successive sixes in the 19th over to bring up his century and reach the highest score over five seasons of the CLT20 will be up there. No wonder he has such a devoted fan club back home.Pravin Tambe 3 for 10 v Chennai Super Kings
Pravin Tambe’s rise provided one of the most heart-warming cricketing stories in recent years. For a retirement-age cricketer to get his chance to play alongside the all-time greats is a dream, leave alone ending up as the bowler of the tournament. With his skiddy legbreaks and accuracy, Tambe proved difficult for most batsmen. Thoughts that his bowling would fall apart under the pressure of a big match were brushed aside as he turned in 3 for 10 against the mighty Super Kings in the semi-final. It included the prized wicket of Suresh Raina and two other vial cogs, S Badrinath and Dwayne Bravo. He was Man of the Match as Royals pulled off a giant-killing act and marched into the final.

Rob Moody’s obsession with recording matches in Australia and collecting archive footage has led to him becoming a folk hero to cricket lovers across the world

Russell Jackson06-Dec-2013At the start I’ll assume that the reason you are reading this is that you’re a cricket fan and you have an internet connection. Therefore it’s also not a stretch to assume that if you don’t know a man named Rob Moody by his full name, you probably know him by his Youtube moniker, Robelinda2.I couldn’t name every member of the ICC board from memory but I know who Rob Moody is, and among cricket fans that puts me in the majority. Moody is a kind of cricket historian, an archivist, a DIY publisher, a superfan and a superfreak. By any measurement he’s one of the unsung heroes of the game.The Melbourne-based cricket lover draws upon thousands and thousands of hours of lovingly recorded cricket footage to edit and publish Youtube clips of fantastic and forgotten moments of cricket history; thousands of videos with millions of views.Certain reoccurring themes tend to permeate the Moody oeuvre and give a small indication of his likes and dislikes as a connoisseur of the game. His obsession with Inzamam-ul-Haq’s travails has resulted in works like “72 funniest Inzamam Ul Haq LBW’s” and “23 funniest Inzamam run outs”. One of his most-watched clips, 2,096,051 views and counting, is of a viciously rearing David Saker bouncer to the head of South Australia’s Jeff Vaughan on a lively Bellerive wicket. That moment was broadcast on a long forgotten Australian cable channel and didn’t even rate a mention in , which his sister would record.Moody’s cricket video archive has been both helped and hindered by the emergence of decidedly more sophisticated recording technologies than were available when his hobby started. His first digital recorder, purchased in 2004, cost A$4000 (approximately US$3600). It only had a 10GB hard drive, and at that point the cost of blank discs to transfer his recordings to was prohibitively expensive (up to $10 each).”Then the problem came that they were too cheap and they were rubbish, “he says. Fortunately he was in the habit of backing up his digital conversions, as hundreds of the newer, cheaper discs proved to be of such poor quality they didn’t last even a decade. Ironically enough, the VHS tapes he stopped using in early 2004 have proven indestructible and still play at the same quality even 30 years after the initial recording. By contrast he says he throws out 500 DVDs per year that have simply stopped working. “It’s a massive effort to keep everything from just fading away, because the technology is unreliable. Even with hard drives they just die, he laments.”Moody played club cricket as an opening batsman for five years in the ’90s before finger injuries started to endanger his burgeoning career gigging in various bands around Melbourne. Now he teaches guitar.So far his biggest hurdle in maintaining his Youtube channel has not been the stiff arm of authority but moderating long and unwieldy comment threads that veer into bizarre and legally problematic tangents. “Every day there is close to a thousand comments to go through. Heaps of them are abuse and threats,” he says. He’s remarkably calm about this imposition, which he calls “par for the course”.”In that first year it definitely was pretty insane. I actually couldn’t believe the absolute torrent of abuse and pretty crazy threats.” He received abusive messages by email and phone, and to his horror, one unhappy viewer even showed up at his work to issue a threat. “He can’t have been much over 18 and he ended up happy to speak to me. That was kind of weird,” Moody says with remarkably good humour.Contrary to my own impressions, he says the worst of the threats came not from Indian fans of Sachin Tendulkar, who Moody often jokes over and ribs, but his own countrymen. “Initially there were a lot of angry Aussies, believe it or not.”

Moody has footage of virtually every game played in Australia for the last 30 years. They’ve been transferred onto CDs that are stored in around 25 folders in his home. Each folder contains 1000 discs

That the Robelinda2 channel still exists is down to caution, and good luck. Moody says the key to its survival is tending towards older material when making new uploads. He has a precise and nuanced understanding of the various rights holders of more recent footage, and is keenly aware of what he is and isn’t likely to get away with.Youtube’s copyright detection system is automated, so Moody’s reputation amongst fans would count for nothing if he transgressed. The threat of three strikes and the complete termination of his channel remains, and such an eventuality would take with it his entire archive of material. Friends of Moody’s have not been as lucky, and he says thousands of videos that didn’t breach any of the site’s regulations have been lost as collateral damage.”When it goes I’m certainly not going to put it up again, because it would be way too much work to do it all over again,” he says with a shrug of resignation. Moody is pragmatic about the right of cricket boards and broadcasters to enforce copyright regulations and focuses more of his energies on the content he provide to fellow fans.Right now his children are too young to understand their dad’s remarkable hobby, but when he mentions that his wife had “always known” about the obsession, he says it with a hearty laugh, as if it could be construed as a dark secret to some.When asked about his flair for editing compilation videos, it’s surprising to learn that most of them were made long before he converted to digital formats. At a young age he took note of the way Channel Nine’s highlight packages were edited and used his own homespun production techniques to create similar reels for himself. Much of what Moody has uploaded was created not on modern digital editing software, but through a laborious manual process, using two VCRs. It also pays to bear in mind that he never foresaw a time or technology that would allow for the end product to be viewed on any screen other than the one in his own living room.Moody says these self-created highlights packages include every half-century and century televised in Australia in the time he has been recording games. He estimates that he owns every commercially produced VHS cricket video ever released in England and Australia, including obscure subscription-only titles like , which were advertised in cricket magazines in the ’80s and ’90s. The latter cost around $100 per video, an almost laughable sum in hindsight, but many yielded gems he never would have seen otherwise.Moody says some of those titles now sell in online auctions for four-figure sums. For instance, not even Cricket South Africa has copies of a collection of rare videos he has from the South African rebel tours, which remain a lost world of cricket history. He says that copies have sold on eBay for up to $4000, and he has even fielded requests from players who featured in the games to provide them with footage from the tours. Want to see Sylvester Clarke hit Peter Kirsten with a bouncer in 1983-84? Thanks to Moody, you now can.Moody says he throws out 500 DVDs per year that have simply stopped working•Rob MoodyMoody still talks with a boyish enthusiasm of the days when rain delays in Australian internationals saw Channel Nine delve into its archives to show some old gold. He bemoans the current trend in which Nine will “return to normal programming, which of course means an Elvis movie we’ve all seen a million times. I don’t understand how that is normal programming.”Moody’s views on the game are trenchant and often surprising. His decision to record the ever-expanding schedule of T20 games in a lower-quality format than he uses for Tests and one-day cricket is as much a philosophical one as to do with practicalities. He says the newest format is “mildly entertaining when it’s on but there’s obviously a different vibe about it… I certainly don’t dislike it to any great extent but it’s clearly an inferior type of cricket.”Unusually for a Melbournian with such a famous interest in sport, Moody calls himself a “massive footy hater” and takes no interest in any other sport (“and thank god, because I don’t have any time”). His early interest in cricket was kindled by the sight of Australia’s mid-’80s one-day international clashes against West Indies. The passion in his voice is clear when he enters any discussion about West Indies cricket, and he retains a deep knowledge of their golden era.There are few gaps in his collection other than some games from Australia’s 1994 tour of South Africa, but he is always on the look-out for overseas tour footage from before the advent of Australian cable TV in the mid-1990s. He also makes the valid point that between the 1991 and 1999 Indian tours of Australia, the only ways for fans like him to fully appreciate the talents of Sachin Tendulkar was through those early wonder years of Australian cable TV.Moody is philosophically opposed to claiming advertising revenue from his videos, adding that he dislikes watching advertisements on videos uploaded by other users, and so would feel hypocritical putting them on his own. “It just seems really dodgy,” he says. “It would also be extra hassles with legal matters.”With the sheer volume of video footage in his collection, Moody doesn’t have a lot of room for cricket books but says he owns a hundred or so. He narrows his focus on historical tomes and particularly enjoys the work of Christian Ryan, Gideon Haigh (“clearly the best”), Mike Atherton and Mike Coward. He laughs heartily recalling an incident where he sat in a Melbourne cinema watching Max Walker deal admirably with heckling from a series of fellow patrons on account of the former Australian fast bowler’s literary output.One room of Moody’s house dedicated to both music and his cricket DVDs, and – this would be familiar to collectors everywhere – the overflow ends up in “the other room”. Soon enough his children will outgrow their shared bedroom and claim the space.For fans like me, Moody’s videos have filled the gaps on half-remembered events and resulted in remarkable journeys down digital rabbit holes, sometimes for hours on end. They are full of greatness, happiness, badness and madness, and his enthusiasm for the game is infectious. I don’t doubt that his willingness to share his collection has encouraged others to adopt some of his passion and selflessness and upload their own forgotten gems. For that we should all be thankful.Brushing aside the suggestion that he is a kind of folk hero in the world of cricket, Moody says, “It’s just a Youtube channel. It’s one amongst millions. I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people think.”On that point alone, he couldn’t be more wrong.

On an unusually dry Kingsmead surface, South Africa’s attack struggle to cope with their talisman’s longest-ever wicketless streak

Firdose Moonda in Durban26-Dec-20130:00

Match Point: ‘Disappointed to see Steyn bowl slower’

Dale Steyn began his fifth over the way he may have wanted to start his first. He delivered a snarling bouncer that soared towards M Vijay at almost 146 kph. Having already faced 17 balls and made some assessment of conditions, Vijay ducked under it.Dale Steyn has gone wicketless for 67 overs since this celebration of Shikhar Dhawan’s dismissal in the first innings in Johannesburg•AFPIt was as though Steyn had remembered who he was, with that ball. He followed up with another quicker one, pitched up, then one back of a length that jagged back in and hit Vijay on the arm, and then one he could leave alone on bounce. The fifth ball of Steyn’s over preyed on the uncertainty caused by the previous four: with Vijay unsure whether to go forward or back, he was struck on the front pad. Steyn aborted his appeal when he realised it was likely going down leg, but he’d made his threat clear.Why Steyn didn’t start like that is anyone’s guess. His first four overs were ordinary. His pace was down, he overpitched and he conceded 21 runs. Perhaps, like the rest of the South African attack, he was taken aback by the surface he was given. “It’s very dry and a touch on the slow side,” Morne Morkel said. “What surprised me is that after the 13th over, the ball already looked like it was 60 overs old. It’s the type of wicket that’s going to be tough to strike on.”South Africa would have known that much two days ago, when they first laid eyes on the Kingsmead pitch. Once the green mamba of the South African circuit, it has taken on subcontinent characteristics over the last few years. South Africa would not have forgotten this, even though they didn’t play a Test here in 2012. Even so, they might have been stunned by just how different this looked from what they consider home conditions.Steyn should have been the least startled because he has succeeded on decks like this before, Nagpur 2010 a case in point. Then, Steyn’s aggression coupled with the reverse swing he got buoyed South Africa and led them to an innings win. Morkel admitted South Africa had been angling for something similar today. “We were hoping the ball would reverse a little more,” he said. “We need to find a way to get reverse going.”There was some reverse swing but the Steyn factor was nowhere near what it was in Nagpur and it reflected on South Africa as a whole. Like him, they tried hard. Smith had a fine leg and a deep backward square leg waiting for the pull but it never came.Morkel was the most threatening. He set the tone with a maiden when he was brought into the attack in the seventh over. He used the short ball well and found extra lift. After Morkel’s opening, Steyn hit his rhythm.Usually, it’s the other way round and Steyn is the bowler who dictates the mood. Vernon Philander bristled when that suggestion was put to him at the Wanderers – when Steyn went wicketless in the second innings – and said it was up to every member of the attack to play their part, but you need only to think back to The Oval last year to remember the impact a firing Steyn can have.The Kallis Tracker

Jacques Kallis led the South African team onto the field in his final Test match. He was the first man down the Kingsmead steps, jogged through the customary guard of honour that was formed by the children participating in the sponsor-related activities and was then greeted with warm applause.
A little hesitantly, Kallis waved his left arm – sporting a black armband after the death of a family friend – to the crowd. Then, realising they’d want much more, he removed his hat and waved to all parts of the ground. His team-mates followed shortly and Kallis took his place at second slip.
Kallis saw action only after the first hour of play, when he bowled from the Old Fort Road End. His first delivery was a half-volley and went for three, his next was pitched up on the pads and yielded a boundary. The next three balls were on a good length outside off and Kallis did not concede again that over.
He was taken off after three overs but returned for a second spell after lunch. Vijay reached his half-century off Kallis when he slapped behind point. Kallis bowled a tidy second spell, with only ten runs coming from his four overs. His final one was a maiden. With India only one wicket down and little assistance for the seamers, the wait for his final innings continues.

In that match, Steyn made it obvious he was irritated. He hung onto the boundary boards in what seemed like discomfort and was spotted engaged in animated conversation with bowling coach Allan Donald. This time too, Donald was on the sidelines offering advice but Steyn was not as heated up as he can be. He jokingly signed a blow-up doll, did his fielding duties, and slowly cranked it up.After Morkel’s first over, Steyn operated in the right channel for the rest of the day. He delivered 12 more overs at speed, with better lengths, and gave away just 28 runs. An unhelpful surface, confident driving from the Indian batsmen and the impenetrable new wall that is Cheteshwar Pujara meant that the intent did not bring success this time. Not for Steyn and not for anyone else.”We were guilty of maybe attacking a little bit too much. We didn’t get balls in the right areas, we were a touch too straight as we searched for wickets,” Morkel said. It did not help South Africa that, again, their spinner failed to play his part. Robin Peterson offered a first ball that looked like it could have come from Imran Tahir. It was a full toss.He didn’t get much better as the day wore on, leaving South Africa with what may become a more pressing problem in the future. If their spinner cannot take wickets, he should at least be able to dry up an end. Neither Tahir nor Peterson has looked like doing that in this series but Morkel stressed the attack as whole needed to be econimical. “If we are not getting wickets, we have to make sure they are not scoring,” he said.Frustration, South Africa hope, will bring some reward and there will be some crossed fingers hoping the fortunes swing Steyn’s way. He last took a wicket 67 overs ago, in the first innings of the Wanderers Test. It is the longest Steyn has gone without a scalp.

Ashley Giles is seemingly team director-in-waiting and if he is the right man for Alastair Cook then, by default, he is absolutely the right man for English cricket.

Vithushan Ehantharajah in Melbourne31-Jan-2014As news of Flower’s departure from director of cricket and repositioning within the pyramid of English cricket unfolded in the UK, Ashley Giles, his odds-on successor, was half a world away, trying to keep body and soul together as England finally approached the end of their Ashes tour.Since Flower returned to England amid a cloud of rumours and suspicion, Giles’ authority naturally seemed to expand as he fielded questions about topics that were, ultimately, not in his purview.Kevin Pietersen’s future – one of the most pressing – was not so much flat-batted as nudged around the corner, as Giles called him a “million-dollar asset” before scampering through to the other end, unscathed.It is unlikely that Giles’ appointment in all three formats will be confirmed at a hastily-arranged media conference in Melbourne on Saturday morning as England’s coach in all three formats with expectations being that the ECB will give him temporary control while they embark upon a formal interview process.But upon confirmation of how England plan to move ahead, Flower’s successor would take over from a man who has changed the face of English cricket for the better: three Ashes wins, a first Test series win in India since 1984-85 and a first ICC trophy in the 2010 World Twenty20.If anything, now is the best time for a new Test coach to take over, off the back of a 5-0 drubbing which, as much as anything, has shown that Flower has taken this side as far as he can. Nobody can deny now that a major restructuring is necessary. Flower himself spoke about the pain that England will have to endure before things get better.Giles has big shoes to fill, of that there is no question, but watching him operate over the last month, the impression you get is of a composed individual who is more than capable of taking the reins.What has been most striking about Giles on this tour has been the way he has carried himself. Throughout a draining cycle of training, matches, press conferences and air travel, he has maintained a calm demeanour, embracing his role as figurehead of the latter part of this tour.Trips to Perth, Adelaide and Hobart have seen English and Australian players bumping shoulders with the general public in airport terminals no bigger than a school hall. While some turned to the haven of noise-cancelling headphones and i-Trinkets, Giles has relished the opportunity to talk shop with wide-eyed England fans, as well as browse duty free for presents for his children.For all the talk that “Team England” care not for county cricket, Giles’ appreciation of it runs deep. That Ben Stokes has yet to play a part in the Twenty20 series owes much to Giles’ reservations about his poor form with the ball in last year’s FLt20 competition, something that Stokes himself appreciates. The county game seems to matter again.

It is Giles’ effect on Cook that has been the most evident sign of his touch. His batting, particularly at Sydney and Perth, spoke of a rejuvenation that seemed beyond him

If, as many suspected, the role as limited-overs coach was a stepping stone for Giles before he would take complete control of the national set-up, it was treated as anything but. Upon arriving in Australia, he had a clear plan he wanted the players to adhere to.England’s losing run has continued, but for all that it nearly worked. Had James Faulkner woken up on the other side of the bed, England may have left the Gabba at 1-1 in the one-day series, only to fall instead to a remarkable burst of hitting with Autralia’s last pair at the crease.Twice England were able to set targets of 300 or greater, as a batting line up heavy with whitewash-weary Test batsmen summoned the sort of pluck that had been lacking in Tests. There was an irony, though, that as news leaked out that Flower was moving on, England were enduing under Giles their worst display on the limited-overs leg of the tour.Much like Flower at the beginning of his tenure, Giles enjoys a hands-on approach to training and, from the outside, it is clear he appreciates the nuances of player specific habits and preferences. The day before England’s ODI at the WACA, he took a backseat as Ian Bell chastised himself for leaving a ball in slip catching practice that was almost certainly his. Later, he would offer an almost continuous commentary of where Alastair Cook was going wrong, as the skipper tried to perfect a short-arm throwing technique.Indeed, it is Giles’ effect on Cook that has been the most evident sign of his touch. For all the woe that has been etched across Cook’s face, his batting, particularly at Sydney and Perth, spoke of a rejuvenation that seemed beyond him at that juncture.It is also important to look at the turnaround between those matches, when Cook went from doubting his credentials as ODI captain at the end of a series losing defeat at the SCG, to giving himself a vote of confidence before a ball had even been bowled at Perth.Publicly, Giles spoke frankly of getting Cook to reassess the matter at hand and that, to take the team forward, Cook needed to be at the helm. He mentioned that Cook was “very clear” on what needed to change going forward, before washing off the suggestion that he was a contributing factor to Cook’s U-turn.It is hard to believe, however, that he had nothing to do with it. Cook looked like a man on the edge, and Giles, no matter how he downplays it, coaxed him away from the edge.If Giles is the right man for Alastair Cook then, by default, he is absolutely the right man for English cricket.

Plays of the day from the match between Royal Challengers and Daredevils

Devashish Fuloria13-May-2014The hat-trick
Whose return to form has been the most pleasing, asked a poll question on television, and Yuvraj was the popular choice by a large margin, over Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. You could see why. Yuvraj hadn’t just scored runs like the other two, he had been explosive. His first six tonight was off a powerful sweep against Tahir. It landed a few rows back in the stands. He kept getting better and better. The next two deliveries sailed deep into the crowd too – the first one over cover and the second one into the second tier behind long-off.The hat-trick part – II
Shukla had bowled his first three overs for 14 runs and had dismissed Chris Gayle with the ball and Kohli with his fielding. But then he came up against a steaming hot Yuvraj in the last over. He tried to bowl a full and wide line to Yuvraj but was smoked into the stands over cover with imperious drives off consecutive deliveries. When he shortened his length for the third delivery, Yuvraj was ready for the pull and swatted the ball over fine leg, scoring his second hat-trick of sixes.The daze
After taking 27 runs off the first five legal deliveries in the last over of the innings, Yuvraj finally missed the last ball. But no one was ready to leave the field just as yet – Rahul Shukla went to the top of his run-up, Yuvraj readied himself to play the supposed last delivery and the fielders stayed where they were. Belatedly, the umpires realised the innings was over. It was another case of everyone at the ground being in a daze; yesterday, a Mumbai batsman incorrectly took strike after a time-out and no one realised the error till the end of the innings.The throw
Virat Kohli is an excellent runner between the wickets but his wretched run was extended by an excellent throw from the deep. Kohli got an inside edge down to deep backward square leg off Imran Tahir and looked set for a couple, but Rahul Shukla, who had earlier sent Gayle back, charged towards the ball, swooped low and fired a flat throw, without wasting time in getting in an upright position, right on top of the stumps. Kohli, the replays showed, was only a few inches short.The drops
That Chris Gayle cannot run is no secret. That means he has to be hidden in the field, in positions close to the bat. The only job he is needed to do then is to take catches – he is a dependable catcher – and stop the balls hit straight at him. Tonight was not a good night for him at the office though. First he dropped Mayank Agarwal at slip off Yuzvendra Chahal in the eighth over – a regulation chance, then, at point, he juggled a high chance before dropping it, off JP Duminy’s bat in the 17th over. The second one of those could have been a gamechanger, but luckily for Gayle, Duminy could add only six more runs.The turn
Today was not turning out as one of those happy days for legspinner Chahal, the find of the season for Royal Challengers, not at least in his first 17 balls. He had been hit for two fours and three sixes, a catch had been dropped off his bowling and 36 runs had been taken off him. But out of nowhere, he unleashed the ball of the day. Kevin Pietersen stepped out early knowing that Chahal doesn’t turn much. The bowler though spotted the move, slowed it down, got it to drift in and then turn a mile past the swinging bat to end Pietersen’s stay.

Plays of the day from the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad

Abhishek Purohit12-May-2014Finch’s placement
Aaron Finch had already moved to the leg side and lofted Pragyan Ojha for six over extra cover in the left-arm spinner’s first over. Finch continued to make room and Ojha tried to outwit him by bowling full and wide of off stump. Finch was far from the line but he somehow reached out and drilled the ball through the off side. Despite his awkward position, he also managed to pick the small gap at extra cover.Bumrah’s failed tag
In Ojha’s second over, Finch timed one through extra cover again. Jasprit Bumrah ran across from sweeper cover, Corey Anderson did so from long-off. As the fielders converged, Bumrah dived, and parried the ball away. It would have been an ideal team effort if Anderson had picked it up but by the time Bumrah palmed the ball, Anderson had overrun it and was behind his team-mate. The ball rolled into the boundary as both fielders watched helplessly.Tare’s misfield
Mumbai Indians had leaked a few late runs after keeping Sunrisers Hyderabad in check for most of the innings. David Warner pulled the penultimate ball of the last over in the air. It bounced in front of Aditya Tare at deep square leg. It spun a bit as it bounced, but Tare seemed to have it covered, until he let it slip through. His captain Rohit Sharma was so incensed he swore in frustration.Steyn’s rage
Sunrisers did not have a good night with the ball. Even Dale Steyn went for 12 runs in his third over. At the end of the over, he collected the ball as it came in from long-off, and slammed it into the stumps, uprooting the middle one. He collected his cap from the umpire and walked off in a huff.

Having averaged only 30 in England before this tour, Kumar Sangakkara has finally restored his record

Andrew Fidel Fernando at Headingley22-Jun-2014When Kumar Sangakkara arrived at the crease on day three, Liam Plunkett hurled a rocket at his chest. The Headingley pitch had been misbehaving since the second afternoon, and this was one of its naughtiest moments. The game’s fastest bowler was provoking it to mischief.In the first innings, Lahiru Thirimanne had got a similar delivery first-up, and he fended a catch to short leg. Given the abysmal series Thirimanne has had, maybe surviving the same ball does not mean much. But the one Sangakkara got was a brute all the same. The kind that makes kids want to become fast bowlers.Sangakkara deflected that one in front of short leg, but he knew the bowler had had the better of him. He looked down at the spot on the pitch that had caused him grief, then looked away, walking toward square leg, then back again. He shuffled his feet and took guard. The next legitimate ball was wide and full. He stretched out and cracked it through the covers as hard as he has hit any ball in the series.Sri Lanka aim at 225 target

Sri Lanka believe a lead of around 225 could be the basis of a famous win at Headingley, fielding coach Ruwan Kalpage said. The visitors close day three 106 runs ahead, with six second innings wickets in hand.
“The next two wickets are very important for us to get a comfortable lead, of about 225 runs,” Kalpage said. “Anything more than that is a plus for us. We have two great batsmen in the middle and Dinesh Chandimal to follow. In the last three days the game was pretty open, and the next two days will be very interesting.”
The pitch has also begun to take appreciable turn, as witnessed from Moeen Ali’s dismissal of Lahiru Thirimanne, but Sri Lanka also used the medium pace and cutters from Angelo Mathews effectively on the third morning.
“If you’re a medium pace bowler, if you’re not bowling in these conditions, you can’t expect to bowl anywhere in the world. I think the pitch helped him. He bowled really well – a good line and length – so he got the results.
“It’s a bowler friendly pitch compared to Lord’s. Whenever a new bowler starts a spell, there is a chance. It’s a difficult pitch to score on.”

A hush hung over Headingley for a moment, then lifted with a swell of appreciation. The Yorkshire crowd is partisan, urging England on, saving their loudest for the local lads, but they know cricketing excellence when they see it. When Sangakkara was dismissed – perhaps for the last time in England – the ground stood to their feet to clap him off the field. But few will have known Sangakkara’s curious relationship with the cover drive when the clapped that first four. Many will also have been unaware of the batsman’s troubles in England, before this tour.The cover drive has been Sangakkara’s signature stroke for much of his career, because it is almost a marvel of engineering. The step forward is swift and precise. The still head and fast hands, practiced and mechanical. The back knee bends just enough to stabilise him, and the entire movement is set off by a checked flourish forged of control. The ball only ever goes in a slim arc between cover and extra cover. Mahela Jayawardene played a cover drive too on the third day, but his rendition of the stroke is languid and musical; more dependent on his mood, than the ball and the fielders, and capable of going almost anywhere in front of square.In many ways, the cover drive is a microcosm of Sangakkara’s cricket – meticulously refined and supremely efficient – but on previous tours of England, it had sometimes been his undoing. In the 2011 tour, he was out to it in Southampton and at Lord’s lunging at the ball when it had curved away from him. It has frustrated him in other parts of the world too, across all formats.In the last match at Lord’s, England tempted him wide of off stump for a good ten overs, when he arrived in the first innings. But in that innings, Sangakkara was hell-bent on his raid for a hundred. He could not be drawn into the shot until he was past 30, and even then, he applied it economically.The stroke was a risk at Headingley too, particularly against Plunkett, whose extra bounce had done Jayawardene in, when he drove outside off stump in the first innings. But for Sangakkara, the third day was no day for restraint. He was in the middle to move his team’s cause forward, but also to make a mark. In all likelihood, this is his last outing in England.Kumar Sangakkara played cautiously to ensure his side’s lead grew•AFPHe was glad for his error-riddled 79 in the first innings, but when he came off the field, most people would not stop deriding the innings. Sangakkara has been a dream interview for several major English papers since he arrived in the country, but when a radio station spoke to him before the second day, and led with “Wasn’t the best innings you’ve ever played, yesterday, was it?”, Sangakkara was audibly agitated: “That’s the way it sometimes goes in cricket, the important thing is getting the runs.” The reply was uncommonly brief. Over the next few minutes, one of the game’s most eloquent speakers would not offer more than a six-second answer to any of the interviewer’s stream of questions.On Sunday, the first ball from Plunkett elicited the only ugly moment from Sangakkara. From the very next ball, he was intent on reassuming dominance. He scored faster than any Sri Lanka batsman on the day, and sent four balls through the covers during his 55. The cover drive accounted for a higher percentage of his runs in this innings, than in any other this series.He has now scored as many 50-plus scores on the trot as any batsman has ever managed, only, he has a triple ton and a couple of centuries among that string of scores. He has raised his average in England to 41.04, when it had languished at just over 30 before the tour, creating doubt over his greatness. His 342 runs is more than any Sri Lanka batsman has scored in a single series in England.On day three at Headingley, he recovered from Plunkett’s first ball, and his strange first innings. For many in the country, where his record has now recovered too, that cool, calculated cover drive will be the enduring hallmark of the memory of his career.

Neil Burns assesses the Kevin Pietersen saga in the shoes of the man who tried to facilitate his talent in the England dressing room

Neil Burns14-Oct-2014Brilliant teams need an understated leader who watches the process unfold moment-to-moment and nurtures the process whilst simultaneously being able to look ahead into the distance and see the danger to ensure the ship can be steered to calmer waters whenever it is needed.Part of this is challenging the team and its individuals from getting too cosy and thus allowing a level of complacency to enter a team’s consciousness. The slippage can be subtle, but it is so destructive to the winning culture if not attended to day by day. You are effectively the team’s conscience and have to regularly hold up the mirror to show the less appealing elements of the team’s activity and responses.Demanding leader that he is, Andy Flower must have annoyed even his greatest supporters in the team at times. Leading an elite sporting environment is not a role for anyone who wants to win a popularity contest.The sadness for me is in the clarity of the black-and-white thinking KP appears to prefer. Whilst it may help his performance it would appear to hinder his ability to engage fully with people he appears to have little regard for. Being able to co-exist with all types is an important quality to have, especially with the group’s leader, whatever one’s differences.For those who wear their preferences so openly, having a disregard for others can have a detrimental effect on people feeling comfortable around them. When this happens in a team environment, long-term performance suffers.If it is ‘the main man’ (from a performance perspective) then it can intimidate others and thus become a block to an individual feeling central to the team and producing the level of performance which comes with that genuine sense of inclusion. People want to, and need to feel valued.With young players, such personalities can have an inspirational effect on performance if ‘the main man’ rates them. Unfortunately, the polar opposite is also true. That’s where great coaches and great captains step in, and work on the environment to ensure strong personalities do not overpower the team culture and its need for shared ownership.It must be a place where all voices are heard and all feelings respected for a team to grow over time into a high-performing unit, and be a caring family system.Egotistical behaviour and immaturity in many players can make elite sport a difficult environment for coaches. As a head coach, achieving all-round success within a team sport is limited by the quality of thinking held by one’s charges.With a joined up long-term development plan, players can be inculcated with a respectful culture whereby each person supports each other’s growth. This leads to a healthy learning culture that enhances a team’s chances of enjoying sustained success.Is the highly-respected Andy Flower a demanding leader who managed to extract high-level performances from his charges through skilful management of a complex group of people? Or, is Andy Flower the big problem for English cricket and the reason for its downturn as Kevin Pietersen would like people to believe?The data supports the view that the intense, passionate and determined Flower led a group of good cricketers into a world of dedication that enabled them to become very good cricketers over time. The results were aided by the outstanding contributions by some brilliant performers like Kevin, Graeme Swann, Matt Prior, and James Anderson. But could they have done it without him? History suggests not, but we will never know.Maybe the answer to the above questions would have been clearer if Andy Flower had stood down from his role after the Ashes success in 2013? If so, he would have been feted as a truly remarkable coach who transformed an international sporting team from also-rans into the world’s best team over time.Andy is a man whose precision, both in terms of planning and choice of words, created a new level of professionalism for professional cricketers in Zimbabwe (when captain) and with England (as head coach). Apparently, there was no cosying up to star players and no soft-soaping of what success in top sport required in terms of attitude and commitment. But clearly the intensity of the environment became too much for some players the longer his reign continued with England.Andy Flower coached England to the most successful period in their history•Getty ImagesShould he, as the England coach have lightened up more? Or, should the selectors have realised that players reach a stage in their careers when they can no longer commit the same energy to a role that they were prepared to when they were busy establishing themselves in the team?But, the problem is that if there are insufficient players of quality pushing to get into the team, it is a massive risk to de-select any player whose attitude and approach is on the wane, albeit subtly, in favour of an untried newcomer.Thus, what happens, is the coach remains demanding, the players get tired of his/her approach, and resentment builds in a team which they don’t reveal other than to fellow players with a similar axe to grind. Thus, the team culture gets polluted with a silent mutiny about the coach and his/her methods.Performance then suffers, and the coach gets frustrated, sometimes angry and increasingly demanding and the cycle of resentment gets worse and worse, until eventually the whole thing explodes in people’s faces. The coach feels let down because they have continued to give all they can in the best way they knew possible, and the players feel relieved that disaster may bring about a new regime.Then, because of the fall-out, any individual who is believed to have been central to the undermining of the culture then gets the blame, and takes the hit.In 2013, the signs were there that Andy Flower’s team was decaying: specific players falling out with each other; a coterie of senior players forming an unhealthy tight bond that seemed to make life difficult for outsiders; the influential captain (Andrew Strauss) retiring a year beforehand; players urinating on the pitch at The Oval after winning a third successive Ashes series as part of a victory celebration; the indifferent quality of players moving through a revolving door to replace established senior players; egotistical players wanting to receive greater recognition for being greats (in their minds) and publicly talking about team and personal legacies.If he were really smart (and also selfish) Andy Flower would have walked away from English cricket’s top job in September 2013, and protected his record.Andy Flower is a smart guy who is less concerned with image and reputation than he is doing the best job he can for his employer, and serving his family’s needs. In this way he is very similar to Gary Kirsten. They love and respect the game of cricket, and they want to help others experience a similar experience and depth of connection. They are evangelists for their sport.However, there is no doubt in my mind that spending too long a period of time as a performance manager with an international sporting team can have a detrimental effect on one’s humour, perspective and ability to relax. It can become all-consuming for those at the coalface.The more times a person sees the same thing, the less they see. Historical perspectives of individuals can become entrenched views and where the eyes were once fresh, they become tired and stop exploring the detail with a child-like curiosity. Most significantly, the team can get bored of you and your voice.Nurturing effective relationships with star players is vital for a coach in professional sport. Without the support of the senior player group, a coach is dead in the water. But sometimes, over-indulgence of a star can also become a major problem because the rest of the senior player group can feel resentful about such treatment. Perhaps that is their problem, and they need to manage their own jealousies better, but it is a difficult dynamic to manage once it develops in a team. People rarely admit to having it, but it is there.Andy Flower would seem to be the recipient of much of Kevin Pietersen’s ire in his new book, though Matt Prior seems to be reviled for positioning himself as the ultimate team man. I have always believed that unless one is in the space it is impossible to know the exact nature of the relationship between two people but clearly Kevin has had little regard for Andy’s ability as a coach from way back.The role Kevin has played in the England team has been the one of a brilliant individual. His performances have been sensational at times. In fact, without his 158 at The Oval in 2005, England would have lost the match and with it, been unable to regain the Ashes. Who knows how long that sequence would have gone on without the belief of winning them back in 2005?Kevin Pietersen made some serious allegations in his autobiography•Getty ImagesDisappointingly, Kevin seems unable to recognize the role played by Andy Flower (and some others) in the management of the group process that culminated in some exceptional team results being achieved on a consistent basis between 2009 and 2013. By Kevin suggesting his own five-year-old son could have done what Andy accomplished, reveals to me a lack of understanding on Kevin’s part about what goes into facilitating top performance in others. I find it a disrespectful comment too.Trust is a vital element in enjoying successful relationships and maybe his opinions were as a result of losing trust in key people and some of his comments were an emotional release emanating from deep scars. I certainly felt it was unfair to portray him as the bad guy because I have first-hand knowledge of some very good things he has done behind the scenes to support English cricketers.It has been the most horrible 12 months in the ECB’s history. There have been no winners.The reality is elite sport is a messy place. Individuals are driven by a desire for the spotlight, recognition, feeling valued, wanting a sense of belonging and needing some financial and emotional security because it could all end in a split second through loss of form, confidence, or fitness.Insecurity dominates most people but they are too afraid to acknowledge their human frailty in the team context and thus have to wear – to quote Dr Ken Jennings – ‘the mask of competency’, which means the reality of the issues get buried quite deep until a demanding moment brings them to the surface. When it does, they can explode like a boil being lanced and pollute the environment for longer than it takes to clean up the mess.Every team faces the need for renewal. Doing so ahead of bad times is vital if the horrors experienced by the England cricket team last year are to be avoided by others in future.The fascinating aspect of renewal for me is the unknown. How will it play out as consequence of change?When space is created in a system, it can be fascinating to observe who has the desire to fill it. Who, despite having all the credentials to fill it ,decides to remain in their previous role? Some very good players seem unable to, or choose not to, influence the culture of the team in a more dominant manner once their more senior teammates move on.Often it is an ambitious young person who has the chutzpah to seize the moment and make a big impact on the new culture which then inspires other more established members of the group to follow their lead. For example, it was Kevin Pietersen who filled the space in 2005, despite being a debutant.In my experience, sport is not a hierarchy where people shift up one notch in an orderly fashion as a consequence of those at the top of the tree moving on. The coach’s challenge is to create an environment in which people can become exceptional.The skill for every coach is in creating a learning context that people want to be part of because they see the value in their own personal growth as well as being part of others’ development too. Ultimately, when a person/player understands that their life is about being in service to others it all becomes so much easier.Being more loving towards all is what makes the difference in life.

Shakib Al Hasan trained with his team-mates as the BCB directors held their meeting in Mirpur, unaware of the massive punishment he was about to be hit with

Mohammad Isam07-Jul-2014At 2.25 pm on Monday afternoon, Shakib Al Hasan came to the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur and met the BCB president Nazmul Hasan to give a final explanation of his side of the events, after which he went to the dressing room to join his Bangladesh team-mates for training.He was probably oblivious of what would transpire in the BCB conference room during the next couple of hours, as the board members decided to suspend the allrounder for six months, cancel his existing NOCs and not issue any new ones until the end of 2015.Shakib was seen walking with Abdur Razzak from the dressing room to the adjacent National Cricket Academy ground eating a banana and chatting with his team-mates. He then hit the gym, ran a bit and a couple of hours later, stood outside the dressing room again, perhaps waiting for the verdict. When he received the phone call conveying the news, Shakib apparently looked despondent. Later, someone close to him described him as being “devastated” and “numb”.As reporters gathered near one of the entrances to the corridor that led to the dressing room, two guards stood outside to ensure no one went too far. The wait continued, and soon, many Bangladesh players walked out after their training had ended.What next for the Bangladesh allrounder?•AFPThe captain Mushfiqur Rahim exited several minutes later, followed by Mahmudullah, Razzak, Sohag Gazi and the rest. They left the stadium soon after, but Mashrafe Mortaza stayed behind. The BCB’s media manager Rabeed Imam then entered the dressing room, and came out 30 minutes later to tell the remaining journalists that Shakib would not be speaking to them.Later, it emerged that Shakib had wanted to sit in the dressing room on his own. He had turned off his mobile phone, but spoke normally to whoever was near him. The overriding reaction of those who had seen him was that there was shock written all over Shakib’s face.Mortaza came out a bit later, saying Shakib was trying to take the decision in his stride, but it was too soon not to feel bad for him. “This is not the time to talk to him about this,” he said.Finally, Shakib emerged just as the sun had set. The time for was nearing, and he walked out of the premises with Rabeed Imam. He would not speak to the media, but put on a brave face and smiled. He walked to his car, and when a TV reporter asked him to at least say “no comment”, Shakib simply said “Khoda Hafez” (goodbye).The road ahead of Shakib leads into unfamiliar territory. It is unclear whether he will appeal the BCB’s decision, whether he had decided not to speak to the media, or whether the BCB had asked him not to. However, he did send out a series of tweets on Tuesday afternoon, thanking his fans for support and proclaiming his commitment to Bangladesh*.

In this moment of truth, please know from the very bottom of my heart that I am who I am because of your undying love and support

— shakib al hasan (@moina2) July 8, 2014

With so many unanswered questions, only time will tell how strongly the BCB sticks to its decision, and how Shakib recovers from this setback.*The story was updated with Shakib Al Hasan’s tweet from Tuesday

Australia’s best player of spin failed in both innings, as Pakistan’s tweakers made life difficult for Clarke and the rest

Brydon Coverdale in Dubai25-Oct-2014You have to hand it to Michael Clarke, he doesn’t shirk responsibility when things go wrong. In a different era, the Australians used to ask then coach Tim Nielsen to answer the hard questions on days like this. “Tough Day Tim”, the media called him. But often during Clarke’s captaincy he has insisted he front the press when the team has failed, most notably when they were skittled for 47 in Cape Town in 2011. Add day four in Dubai to that list.This was a day on which Pakistan scored 248 runs with what seemed the greatest of ease. At length, Australia claimed two wickets of little consequence as the lead ballooned. Then came the other side of the equation. In the space of 23 balls, Australia lost four wickets for five runs as the spinners Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah bamboozled the batsmen. And most critically, Australia’s best player of spin was one of them.Clarke was on 3 when he prodded forward to Yasir and was adjudged lbw to a ball that straightened. A lengthy chat with his partner Chris Rogers led to a glum-looking Clarke deciding against a review and trudging off. Replays suggested that Clarke had got an inside edge on the ball and would likely have been reprieved had he challenged the decision. That he didn’t said something about Australia’s lack of confidence.”Ah, I’d like to know as well,” Clarke said when asked what had gone through his head. “There’s a number of things. The fact that I wasn’t sure if I hit the ball and I was unsure if it hit my bat before my pad. So I was thinking it was probably pad then bat if I did hit it at all. Chris was unsure as well up the other end.”My mindset is because I’m unsure I didn’t want to waste the referral when I knew the rest of my team-mates were probably going to need them tomorrow. It was certainly a mistake, an error on my part looking back at the replay once I walked off the field. I’m extremely disappointed. I’m disappointed that it was even that close. The ball didn’t really spin much. I should have used my bat.”It continued a disappointing tour for Clarke, who scratched to 2 in the first innings before inside-edging onto pad and up to short leg in the first innings, having made 10 and 5 in the warm-up game in Sharjah. His limited preparation was unavoidable, given the hamstring injury he suffered during the one-day series in Zimbabwe in August, but has left him short of game time in the lead-up to the Test.”My performance in this Test match has been disappointing with the bat. There’s no doubt about it,” Clarke said. “I read somewhere the other day that I’m short of match practice and that probably sums my form up at the moment. In the last Test match I played I scored a big hundred for Australia. But I’m short of time in the middle.”It has been seven months since our last Test match and I’ve only played one one-dayer in between that time. That doesn’t make it easier. But you’re playing at the highest level. You’ve got to find a way to fight your backside off and spend time in the middle and then once you get in the game it gradually gets easier.”The problem for Australia’s batsmen in this Test has been surviving long enough for batting to become easier. Five of Pakistan’s batsmen in the first innings faced more than 100 balls, and two in the second innings. The only men who achieved that feat for Australia in the first innings were the openers David Warner and Chris Rogers, while rapid-fire wickets in the second ended any hope of players building an innings.”I’m not looking to blame anybody else or criticise anybody else,” Clarke said. “I’ve always loved the challenge of facing spin bowling. I’ve been out twice to spin bowling in this Test match. The guys are working hard, they’re doing everything they can. In subcontinental conditions, generally your first innings is your key, you need to go as big as you can.”I know Pakistan had the best of batting conditions, but I think in the second innings they showed again their class, batting on wickets that have a little bit of spin. But it’s not so much the spin, I think it’s the slowness of the wicket. The spin is a little bit inconsistent and I think that’s probably what has caught us out today, guys have played for spin and a lot of us have been out to balls that actually haven’t spun too much.”It has not just been Pakistan’s bowlers who have troubled the Australians in Dubai, though. The efforts of Younis Khan in particular to score two centuries in the game, and Pakistan’s batsmen more generally have frustrated Clarke and his men in the field. Clarke said the Australians had been outplayed in every facet of the game over the first four days, and could learn from the way Younis and his colleagues batted.”We probably haven’t been able to find as much out of the wicket as Pakistan have on one hand,” he said. “On the other hand Pakistan have batted a lot better than us … They’ve got a lot of experience in their Test team, and I think you’ve seen that so far over the four days. Younis has played exceptionally well and generally does in these conditions.”You need to take notice, watch and learn and all of us, for the guys that are out, we need to find a way to be full of confidence and be hitting the ball better than we are come the second Test match. For the guys that are left to help see us fight tomorrow. It’s really important they play their natural game and back themselves. Anything can happen in this game.”Clarke is usually a believer in the Shane Warne “win from anywhere” mantra, but the word “win” did not spill from Clarke’s mouth even once during his 12-minute press conference. Realistically, a draw is the best Australia can hope for with only six wickets in hand, and even that requires a good deal of optimism. This is one place in the world where praying for rain is pointless.”I don’t think Australians give up without a fight and that’ll be our goal tomorrow, to fight our backsides off and you never know,” Clarke said. “Steve Smith is a very good player of spin bowling, Brad Haddin has a lot of experience, Mitchell Marsh looked good in the first innings and Chris Rogers is fighting. So we’ll wait and see.”