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Stats highlights from the World T20 match between New Zealand and Australia in Dharamsala

Bharath Seervi18-Mar-20163 Number of times New Zealand had defended 150 or less in their last 16 attempts. They have now done it thrice in three consecutive attempts. They defended 145 against Pakistan in Dubai in December 2014 and 127 against India in the first match of this World T20 before defending 143 in this match.0 Wins for New Zealand against Australia in their first four T20Is. Since then, they have defeated Australia twice. They won the Super Over in February 2010 when both teams tied at 214 before the eight-run win in this match. With this victory, New Zealand continue their good run this year by winning six of their seven T20Is and having the best win-loss ratio as well. Also, this is the second time they have started a World T20 campaign with two wins. They had done the same in 2010 as well but couldn’t qualify for the semi-finals.16 Total wickets lost by both teams in their last 14 overs – eight by each of them. In the Powerplays, they lost only one which was for Australia in the sixth over. The combined run rate in the Powerplays was nine per over but in the last 14 overs it came down to six. The 16 wickets lost in the last 14 overs are the joint third-most in a T20I. There were 18 wickets in Bridgetown between Australia and West Indies in 2011-12 and 17 at the Wanderers between India and New Zealand in the 2007 World T20.54.21 Average opening partnership between Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson in T20Is, which is the second-best among all opening pairs with 10 or more stands. They shared 61 runs against Australia on Friday. They have shared partnerships of 50 or more eight times in the 15 innings they opened together. Their partnership run rate of 8.94 is the fourth-best in the list of 24 partners who have opened together 10 or more times. The pair of Loots Bosman and Graeme Smith tops the charts in both those lists. The average opening stand for Guptill and Williamson in 2016 has been a staggering 82.33.73 Sixes for Guptill in T20Is, which is now the joint fourth-most by a batsman in T20Is. He hit four sixes in this match to move from joint-seventh to joint-fourth. Out of four sixes, he had hit three of those in the third over. Before him, only Stephan Myburgh had hit three sixes by the third over of his team’s innings in World T20s. With those sixes, Guptill now also has the most sixes in T20Is in 2016 – 20.84 Runs scored by New Zealand in their last 14 overs of the innings. In the first six overs they had got to 58 runs for no loss, but lost eight wickets in their last 14. They hit six fours and four sixes in the Powerplays and only five fours and a six in their last 14.42 Runs by Australia in their first five overs, without losing any wicket. They lost their first wicket for 44 runs in the sixth over. In the next five overs they lost another three wickets for 15 runs and called troubles in the chase.3 for 17 Mitchell McClenaghan’s figures in this match – his best in his T20I career of 25 matches. This is also the first time he took three wickets in the format. This also earned him his first Man-of-the-Match award in T20Is and, in fact, his entire international career of 73 matches.4 Ish Sodhi’s economy rate in this World T20, in two innings. He conceded 18 runs for three wickets in their first match against India and 14 runs for one wicket against Australia. He has picked at least a wicket in each of his seven T20Is.14 Bowlers used in this match – seven each by the two teams. Only five times have 15 bowlers been used in a T20I match.

Plays of the day from the second semi-final between India and West Indies in Mumbai

Alagappan Muthu31-Mar-20164:08

Chappell: Kohli is a special player

The illegal recourse
It seems unless the ball wises up and takes a restraining order against Virat Kohli, there is no stopping him from scoring runs. So West Indies conspired to go off the straight and narrow, and their plan was quite cunning. Step one, lull Kohli’s defences. A free hit tends to do that. He has defended one of those in the past. Step two, beat him. No big deal for a Dwayne Bravo slower ball, especially the way he makes them dip. Then came the chaos.Kohli went for a suicidal bye, when the wicketkeeper had collected it cleanly. He was more than halfway down the pitch, perhaps not aware where the ball had gone, or that he can still be run-out off a free hit. Denesh Ramdin had a clean view of all three stumps, but his underarm throw missed the off stump by a whisker. Meanwhile, Kohli was only now turning around, recognising the danger he was in, as Bravo ran in, picked the ball up and aimed at the stumps again. This time it skirted, just skirted down leg, and Kohli was still nowhere in the frame.The secret weapon
“It wasn’t a typical Wankhede wicket,” is what Ajinkya Rahane, who has played cricket here since his under-14 days, said. But those short boundaries are not quite so temperamental. They don’t change. Batsmen come here looking to clear them, but India took them on in a very different way. Good balls were dabbed into the gaps in the infield, and before the fielder in the deep could even think about run-outs, the second run was comfortably completed. Midwicket was picked on. They used soft hands, but ensured the wrists led the ball into the real estate past long-on’s right. Ten of India’s twos came there, and it was both outstandingly simple and supremely skillful. Overall, there were 19 of them – the record in T20Is is 21 – and Kohli got more than half of them – 10.The how do you do
“Please, don’t fire, Virat,” Chris Gayle had said when he met the media ahead of the match. Kohli didn’t listen and West Indies were left chasing 193. Not quite the situation they would have preferred to be in when they won the toss. But they still had Gayle, and he had hit an effortless hundred the last time they were in Mumbai. Three dots, a four, and a single to retain strike after the first over. So now, Jasprit Bumrah had to deal with perhaps the greatest batsman in T20 cricket. And he dealt with him in signature style. The yorker came out as a low full toss, but it was laced with inswing, and it dipped on Gayle at the last second. He was looking for a thump down the ground. He missed. Bumrah was looking for the stumps. He hit. It was the first ball Bumrah had bowled to Gayle in international cricket.The golden arm
When it’s your day, it’s your day and nothing established that fact as much as Kohli picking up a wicket with his first ball, which for good measure, was so short, it should have been on a blooper reel. Instead, it would be a wicket, of a well-set Johnson Charles, who was pulverising proper bowlers. The batsman had jumped back in his crease and aimed a baseball-type shot down the ground, except he had mistimed it somehow, and Rohit Sharma, running in from long-off, completed the simplest catch.The golden boy
Eleven days before West Indies’ first match of the World T20, Lendl Simmons was ruled out of the tournament with a back injury. But two days ago, with Andre Fletcher stepping away with a tweaked hamstring, a fully-healed Simmons was flown down to India and tonight he was the difference. Except he shouldn’t have been. He should have been caught in the seventh over when R Ashwin had him dabbing to short third man. Bumrah, the fielder, was celebrating even more exuberantly than he did after dismissing Gayle. But all of that had to be put on hold when the umpires checked and found that it was a no-ball. A feeling of destiny was reinforced when Hardik Pandya committed the same error in the 15th over and Simmons got away with slapping a full toss straight to cover. India had another chance at Simmons, but third time was not the charm either. Ravindra Jadeja was tracking a big hit from deep midwicket, and although he did very well to catch the ball and relay it across to Virat Kohli, he had trod on the rope.

Sanjay Manjrekar analyses the reasons behind India not being able to get the better of West Indies in Jamaica

04-Aug-2016Chase could be consistent middle-order batsmanRoston Chase proved his skills at the highest level with an exceptional all-round performance in the second Test in Jamaica, says Sanjay Manjrekar2:17

Manjrekar: Chase could be consistent middle-order batsman

‘India didn’t seem to have a Plan B’India’s bowlers did not experiment enough on a slow fifth-day track in Kingston to come out tops in the second Test2:10

Manjrekar: India didn’t seem to have a Plan B

‘Holder’s day-three spell could have triggered WI resurgence’West Indies need to fix a few holes before the next Test, but they seem to be in a much better position than they were after the first Test2:17

Manjrekar: Holder’s day-three spell could have triggered WI resurgence

‘India might look to replace Mishra in St Lucia’When the pitch provides no assistance, legspinner Amit Mishra is not as effective, and that could mean is he left out for the next Test2:12

Manjrekar: India might look to replace Mishra in St Lucia

Jonathan Trott will leave the game with a smile on his face and many good memories. From the position he was in not so long ago, that is something to be cherished

George Dobell at Lord's17-Sep-2016By the time Jonathan Trott trudged off the pitch at the end of England’s Caribbean tour in 2015, it seemed his days in the sun were over.What once had come so easily had become torturous. He admits to have a sense of relief when he was dismissed in the second innings of that final Test in Barbados: relief he would never have to put himself through the torment again. When Alastair Cook suggested he review the lbw decision, he apparently replied “Nah, I’m out of here” and walked off to one of the more unusual standing ovations you will witness. Everyone knew his international career was over but, despite scores of 0 and 9 in that last Test, the Barmy Army proved they had longer memories than some sports fans when they rose to applaud him off.The months that followed were not easy. Trott didn’t just struggle to score runs in the 2015 season – he averaged 25.05 in the Championship – he struggled to muster any enthusiasm for the game. Maybe he even started to resent it.For Trott was a boy brought up to bat. He didn’t have a teddy, he had a sawn-down cricket bat. He didn’t go on holiday, he went on tour. So while he never much bothered with education – why did he need qualifications when he was going to score centuries? – he learned to express himself through runs. Want to make his parents happy? Score a century. Want to impress new team-mates? Score a century. Runs made everything all right.But, somewhere along the way, batting become too important to him. It wasn’t just a game: it was his profession; his identity; his means of providing for his family and making them proud. By the time it all came crashing down – unmasked and, in his eyes, humiliated in public in Brisbane – he felt he had nothing left. He has a book coming out in the coming days (I must declare an interest; I helped him write it) which will surprise a few by revealing the depths to which he sunk and how early in his career the demons started to take control. In short, cricket had become agony to him and he really didn’t have anything else to fall back upon.It has taken a long time to recover. But somewhere, maybe through the faith shown in him by Warwickshire, maybe through the hours spent with the psychiatrist Steve Peters, maybe by simply keeping on buggering on (as Winston Churchill memorably put it) he seems to have emerged through the other side of the storm.Oh, yes, the game defeated him in the end. Brisbane and Barbados still happened. Mitchell Johnson was still too good. Nothing will ever change that.But, as he showed at Lord’s, the experience has not destroyed him. It has scarred him, yes. But he has recovered sufficiently not just to re-emerge as a fine player at this level, but to have rediscovered his enjoyment for this great game. Maybe there is a happy ending to his story, after all.

Most people have experienced failure and fear at some time; they can respect a man who has faced his and, if not defeated them, at least not allowed to let them defeat him

There should be. While his international career ended in failure – they nearly always do – there were some great days along the way. There were Ashes wins at home at away. There was the rise to No. 1 in the Test and ODI rankings. There was the highest ODI batting average of any regular England batsman. It would be a shame if all that was overshadowed by the ending. It would be a shame if his second Test in Brisbane was remembered but his first not.It looks, at least, as if he will be able to look back with a sense of proportion and pride. To have paid the club he loves back with a Man-of-the-Match performance in a Lord’s final will ensure he leaves the game – and that departure is not especially imminent – with head held high and good memories outweighing the bad. He finishes as the competition’s second-highest run-scorer (only team-mate and imitator Sam Hain scored more) with three centuries and two half-centuries from seven innings. You didn’t have to be a Warwickshire supporter to celebrate his success.For maybe the first time in his career, Trott is playing the game for fun. He still puts himself under pressure to perform – “as an ex-international player you want to set the standard” he said – but he is not driven by the same desperation to prove himself. He knows there is more to life than cricket now. He knows it’s not everything.For maybe the first time in his career, Jonathan Trott is playing the game for fun•Getty ImagesThere were many heroes in this Warwickshire performance. There was Laurie Evans, who owed his selection over Ireland captain William Porterfield to an impressive display in a fielding training session earlier in the week and took what may have been a match-defining effort to dismiss Jason Roy. There was Oliver Hannon-Dalby, who gained seam movement absent to Surrey’s hugely talented quartet of pace bowlers. There was Chris Wright, who bowled with intelligence and control to tighten the grip on Surrey’s nervous batsmen. There was Tim Ambrose, who shrugged off injury to keep magnificently on a tricky surface and completed a stumping off a leg-side wide as if it was easy. There was Dougie Brown, who remains under pressure, but deserves time to lead this team through a tricky transition; the club will not find a coach who works harder or cares more. And there was Jeetan Patel who, with his quicker pace and greater turn, easily out-bowled Surrey’s two spinners. As Ian Bell said afterwards: “He is the standout spinner in county cricket.”But most of all there was Trott. The limited-overs game may have moved on from the time he took England to the brink of their first global ODI trophy – he still refers to the Champions Trophy final defeat at Edgbaston in 2013 as the biggest disappointment of his career and the moment his decline began – but if you need a man to chase a relatively modest target, there is nobody better. There might never have been anyone better. He was never going to let a chase of 137 bother him.”If there’s one bloke in world cricket who I would want to knock off a small total – or a total where you can pace yourself – it is Jonathan Trott,” Bell said.That is not faint praise. This was a surface – a poor surface for a showpiece final, really – on which nobody else in the match passed 40. Only one man reached 30. Not even Roy scored at such a strike rate. It required a man with a calm head and masterful technique to conquer it. It was a reminder of the high-class player he once was.It was noticeable at the end that the supporters of Surrey, as much as Warwickshire, stood to applaud him. As cricket crowds become more partisan such moments become ever less frequent. But maybe there has been something in Trott’s public struggle – and his public attempts to overcome it – that struck a chord with spectators. That has endeared him to them in a way that runs and records never can. Most people have experienced failure and fear at some time; they can respect a man who has faced his and, if not defeated them, at least not allowed to let them defeat him.It was noticeable, too, that with the game won and the rest of the players leaving the pitch, Trott paused for a while and marked his guard one more time. It was a ritual that once seemed to infuriate, but now appears a more endearing quirk. Trott will leave the game with a smile on his face and many good memories. From the position he was in not so long, that is something to be cherished.

25-Sep-2016Imrul Kayes contributed 37 in an 83-run stand for the second wicket with Tamim•Associated PressMohammad Nabi had Kayes playing on in the 19th over…•Associated Press… but Tamim and Mahmudullah went on to score half-centuries•Associated PressMirwais Ashraf, the medium-pacer, broke the thriving stand when he dismissed Tamim for 80•Associated PressShakib Al Hasan then flickered briefly, making 48 off 40 balls•Associated PressBut Bangladesh lost their last seven wickets for 62 and were dismissed for 265. Dawlat Zadran finished with four wickets•Associated PressMohammad Shahzad biffed 31 off 21 balls to get the chase off to blistering start•Associated PressShahzad was caught behind off Mashrafe Mortaza, before Shakib sent back Shabir Noori, who had played second fiddle in the 46-run opening stand•Associated PressRahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi got the chase back on track with a 144-run third-wicket stand•Associated PressRahmat fell with Afghanistan 76 away from the target, but with Shahidi still around, all hope wasn’t lost•Associated PressShahidi perished 19 balls later, having top-scored with 72. Following his departure, Afghanistan’s chase went off track as the asking rate rose•Associated PressTaskin Ahmed was chiefly responsible for the collapse at the end as he scythed through the lower order to finish with 4 for 59 in eight overs, after defending 13 in the last over. Afghanistan were bowled out for 258 and lost by seven runs•Associated Press

While Virat Kohli said the liberal amount of grass on the Rajkot track was a factor in India’s lack of dominance in the Test, SCA secretary Niranjan Shah called it a pitch fit for five days of Test cricket

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Nov-2016Disagreeing with Indian captain Virat Kohli’s assessment that there was too much grass on the pitch in the first Test in Rajkot, Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) secretary Niranjan Shah has said it was a “perfect” strip.”I was quite surprised to see that much grass on it, to be honest,” Kohli had said after the Test, going on to make his displeasure clear. “Shouldn’t have been the case.” Kohli was responding to a question if the long England batting line-up had prompted him to play five bowlers. Kohli said it was the “surface as well” before talking about the grass.The pitch offered turn beginning late on the third day, but the ball turned from the rough – not from the centre of the pitch, which makes spinners lethal. The Test ended in a draw, with India having to hang in on the final day after England scored 537 in the first innings. This was the first time India had conceded 300 in an innings since the start of the last season, which is when India began to play on tracks that turn from day one. England batsmen scored four centuries, the first by any team against India in India since early 2013.Kohli said the ball did spin, but only in the last hour of each of the last three days. He said the first two days were good for batting while the rest of the time the spinners had to be accurate “to get some purchase”. Kohli said, “Day three onwards it slowed down a little bit, but no demons as such.”Defending the pitch, Shah pointed to the interest generated by the Test, till deep into its final session. “It is a perfect Test wicket,” Shah told ESPNcricinfo. “After a long time you can see a Test match completely for five days. I don’t think the grass on that wicket prevented the ball from turning.”Generally, soil on Indian pitches is loose, and they start to crumble late on day three. Shah, a former first-class cricketer for Saurashtra – where he has served as an administrator for more than three decades – said this pitch did not “crumble” even though conditions remained dry throughout the five afternoons because it was “hard and stable”.India players spoke about the pitch during the Test too. When asked which of the three first-innings centurions took the game away from India, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja had said it was the toss that took the game away from them. This was the first toss India had lost under Virat Kohli in India. Jadeja, who plays for Saurashtra in domestic cricket, said he didn’t expect spinners to be as dominant on the remaining three days as spinners generally are in later stages in first-class matches in Rajkot. “After two days whatever foot marks are there on both ends, the ball can turn from there,” Jadeja had said. “The middle of the wicket, though, has not changed at either end.”A BCCI official agreed with Jadeja about the toss, but said India have grown used to batting first and having their spinners performing well on a wearing pitch. The official pointed out, out of the last seven Test matches before Rajkot, India won all the tosses and went on to win the six matches they batted first in. The one time they decided to field, in Bangalore, the match was eventually washed out. The official said that although it was fair for Kohli to expect home advantage, SCA obviously wanted its debut Test to go the distance. “The wicket was under preparation much, much earlier,” the official said. “It was hard like a stone, and had grass covering.”Moisture and grass on the first day is usually a norm in Test matches. Subsequently the grass wears off with every passing session. However, in Rajkot the grass cover remained even throughout the Test, surprising not just Kohli, but many others. In his pitch report on the second day, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar said the grass on the pitch was greener than on the first morning. “The grass kept on coming back every morning due to overnight rest. The official said, “Though the pitch was mowed, the grass cover still remained in the morning.”A local ground expert said that nothing could have been done to prevent the growth of the grass overnight. The reason, he pointed out, was the nature of the black cotton soil that forms the base of the pitch. “This black cotton soil in Rajkot has an in-built fertile nature,” the expert said. “Rajkot is also close to the coast. There is sea breeze in the morning and evening. So the pitch does not need watering. If it gets the moisture the grass will grow back. Another reason is, when you cover the pitch overnight, the moisture makes the grass grows back once again due to the in-built fertile soil.”The expert said the groundsmen do understand that the home team should be offered a certain advantage, but it was difficult to do so in Rajkot. It is understood that the Indian team management did have an informal word with the SCA officials, just to understand the nature of the pitch. The team officials were told that the grass could not be cut lower than 2mm. “All the needs of the Indian team [historically] are exact,” the expert said. “It is very, very difficult for a groundsman to fulfil those requests. But I think it was a good Test match.”Shah said grass has never affected the spinners here before. He also pointed out another reason for the draw: “You can’t always blame the wicket. India dropped few catches early. Grass on the pitch was not that important for the turning of the ball. That is what I have known in Rajkot.”

The opener returns to the line-up after two hamstring injuries with the expectation that he can jolt New Zealand’s top order into life

Andrew McGlashan28-Feb-2017Kane Williamson could well become recognised as New Zealand’s greatest batsman. Ross Taylor has recently become their leading ODI century-maker. But there is a strong case to be made that Martin Guptill is their most important one-day batsman.It’s not an argument all will agree with, but it would make a good pub or grass-bank discussion.Consider this: in the last two years, since the start of the 2015 World Cup, Guptill is one of only two batsmen to have scored more than 2000 ODI runs. The other is David Warner. Like Warner, Guptill’s runs have come at better than a run-a-ball – albeit by a fraction. In that time, he has also scored the most centuries by a New Zealand batsman: six, to Taylor’s five (Williamson has two).Guptill’s numbers dip a little if you make a cut-off from the start of 2016 – Williamson becomes the leading New Zealand run-scorer, but Guptill’s average is a tick higher and the strike-rate is 98.37.Unlike Williamson and Taylor, Guptill has never cracked Test cricket. His average sits a nudge under 30 and he is once again out of the side with New Zealand opting for Tom Latham, who appears set to be dropped from the one-day side after a string of low scores, and Jeet Raval at the top of the order.However, in white-ball cricket he is supreme. No wonder there is a weight of expectation on his shoulders as he returns for the must-win fourth ODI against South Africa. Injuries to each hamstring have restricted him to two innings – worth the small matter of 112 in the Ford Trophy and 61 against Australia – in the last two months, but he is taking it in his stride.”That is what it is I guess. I’m looking forward to getting back in there,” he said. “It’s exciting, 2-1 down in the series with two games to win. It can’t get much better than that. It does feel like a while since I’ve been with the team, but hopefully I’ll fit straight back in.”Is there a concern the injuries could have burst his bubble? “I’m not going to know until I get out there,” he said. “I’ve had a good couple of nets in that last couple of days, but that’s the nets and I haven’t faced bowlers for a while. Today will be another level of training, so hopefully I can get the rhythm back I had earlier in the summer.”Facing South Africa will bring Guptill up against the opposition he has fared least well against from those he has faced regularly. He averages 22.07 against them with his next-leanest return being 30.80 against India. But there is a silver lining in that South Africa record. His last-but-one innings against them was an unbeaten 103 in Potchefstroom. The attack included Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Imran Tahir so it wasn’t handed on a plate (although he was offered three lives).It was an innings Guptill recalled when looking ahead to the Hamilton match, not because of the milestone but because of the early use of spin by South Africa. Guptill’s memory was a little fuzzy: he said Tahir opened the bowling and Aaron Phangiso was also used early. It was actually the other way round, Phangiso with the new ball and Tahir came on the 11th over. But the point remains valid.The pitch at Seddon Park is expected to take turn, which could mean a recall for left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi and prospect of spin in the first 10 overs. “It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done that,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s about adapting. India have done it plenty of times to us as well.”

There’s an interesting fight going for the wicketkeeper’s slot in the Bangladesh team

Mohammad Isam03-May-2017In the first three months of 2017, Mushfiqur Rahim scored 515 Test runs, which is more than he has made in a calendar year since his debut in 2005. He now looks like an assured batsman on pitches that have extra bounce, spin or both. But that improvement in batting has come at the cost of his wicketkeeping, and two young keepers are snapping at his heels.Nurul Hasan and Liton Das have had limited international exposure but in that time they have shown glimpses of their abilities. Nurul is the better wicketkeeper, while Liton is considered the better batsman, but neither has been able to yet nail down the keeper’s spot in the national team.Nurul was first tried out in T20s, and then nearly a year later given a chance in ODIs. Liton, meanwhile, made his debut in all three formats in 2015, but despite coming to the national side after a purple patch in domestic competitions, he couldn’t do justice to his immense potential. His most recent opportunity came in March this year, when Mushfiqur was asked to play the Tests in Sri Lanka as a specialist batsman. Liton played the Galle Test, scoring 40 runs and taking two catches, but was ruled out of the Colombo match – a historic win for Bangladesh in their 100th Test – due to a rib injury he suffered during net practice.Mushfiqur returned to his post behind the stumps and kept better in that game than he had done for five years. He followed that up with great work in the ODIs and T20Is, forcing the Bangladesh board president, Nazmul Hassan, supposedly the man who takes all the decisions in Bangladesh cricket, to say that Mushfiqur had bounced back superbly.Just like Tamim Iqbal has had to fight off competition from Soumya Sarkar and Imrul Kayes for the opening batsman’s position, Mushfiqur has had to work hard to keep the wicketkeeping slot. Liton and Nurul will just have to wait, but for how long?

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Liton was born and raised in the north-western town of Dinajpur, more than 300km from Dhaka. He was sent to BKSP, the famous sports institute that produced Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur and many other international cricketers. He impressed the scouts and quickly became part of age-group teams, ending in two Under-19 World Cup sides, in 2012 and 2014and , averaging over 50 in those tournaments.In the 2014-15 season, he was the second-highest run scorer in the Dhaka Premier League one-day competition, with 686 runs, and the leading run scorer in the first-class National Cricket League, with 1024 runs at 85.33.Liton Das is known more for his batting than his keeping•AFPLiton impressed as a keeper-batsman, making 44 on debut in the drawn Test against India in 2015, but the selectors decided to drop him after he managed only one international fifty in his first 15 innings. He had to wait more than a year to make his comeback – on the back of a first-class double-hundred – but the rib injury cut that short.While Liton can make spectators gawk at his strokeplay, Nurul, now being considered for the Bangladesh keeping job, is a more debonair late-order batsman. He came to attention while batting 85 minutes to save a four-day game for Bangladesh A in Barbados in 2014. Protecting the No. 11, Robiul Islam, Nurul dealt with bouncers and yorkers from Sheldon Cottrell, Miguel Cummins and Carlos Brathwaite, at one stage even heading a short ball intentionally to take a single and keep the tailender off strike.Born in Khulna, Nurul, inspired by his footballer father, played as a goalkeeper. One day the neighbourhood cricket team needed a wicketkeeper, so they summoned Nurul. Under the watchful eye of Bangladesh international Sheikh Salahuddin, Nurul slowly grew into a dependable presence behind the stumps.He too became a regular in the age-group teams but from an early age was considered a better wicketkeeper than Liton and many others around him.
Nurul’s international appearances consist of nine T20Is, a couple of ODIs and one Test between January 2016 and January 2017. He has not batted higher than No. 7 in any format, and his only innings of note came in the Test – a 98-ball 47 in Christchurch.Those in the Bangladesh management are now placing greater importance on quality keeping, which is an advantage for Nurul.

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Mushfiqur got his first big break when he was picked over Khaled Mashud for the 2007 World Cup, for the value he offered as the better batsman. He repaid the faith the selectors had in his skills by hitting an unbeaten fifty in the famous win over India in Port-of-Spain.Mushfiqur Rahim has struggled with his keeping form recently, but the pressure he’s facing from the younger keepers has forced him to work harder to keep his place in the side•Getty ImagesMashud felt let down by the axe, especially since he had been given a guarantee by the selectors that he would be picked for the World Cup. He played three more Tests after the 2007 World Cup but had lost his form by then, and Mushfiqur naturally took over.Mushfiqur now finds himself in a similar situation, where talented young keepers vie for his position in the side. And there are others waiting in the wings, like Zakir Hasan, who only just graduated out of the U-19 team and is doing well in domestic cricket.But Mashud says that Mushfiqur doesn’t really have to think about the competition and needs only focus on his own work at the highest level.”Mushfiqur is a really consistent cricketer and has been around for a long time,” Mashud said. He can only think about his own performance and not care about what the other wicketkeepers are doing. He is in a big place, and with cricketers like him, it is more about becoming a better international cricketer than thinking about who is knocking on the door. He has raised the standard of wicketkeeping to a higher level, which the next guys have to start at. It is not going to be easy replacing Mushfiqur.”Liton is a fine batsman and [Nurul Hasan] Sohan isn’t too far behind him either; he is also a good wicketkeeper, no doubt. But they have to be consistent, as much as Mushfiq is. I know it is hard, but Mushfiq has maintained a quality that is hard to match.”While Mashud backs Mushfiqur’s glove work, everyone else is impressed by his batting progress. In the last six years he has had only one dip in his batting form as he has transformed himself into a middle-order mainstay. His batting gained a much-needed edge during tours of New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka, where the team looked stable whenever he was in the middle. He handled everything that was thrown at him, even when it landed him in a Wellington hospital with a head injury.The competition behind the stumps will sharpen his focus to develop his all-round skills. Whoever survives or perishes in this battle, Bangladesh cricket will gain big.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq talks about playing alongside Younis Khan: his batting, his practice, his ability to read situations, and more

Misbah-ul-Haq12-May-2017Before I took over the captaincy, whenever Younis and I were together, for Pakistan or anywhere, we used to talk about how, when our time came, what we would do to make things right, what we would do to improve. We were together as newcomers in the Pakistan team for a bit early on and we always knew what things we’d like to change. We talked about, for example, looking after a youngster in the side, to see how he is coping, how he is being treated, how to make him feel more a part of the side, how to look after him, to give him a comfortable environment, how seniors should treat him.We talked about how we would show them how we train, to set a pattern for them. He used to say, when it is our time, we will do things this way, not that way. And then when that time came, in 2010, we tried to go through on those things. We tried to create the environment on and off the field that we spoke about.The captaincy was never an issue between us. It was not something I had ever run after. And I also knew what Younis Khan was like. I knew it didn’t matter that he wasn’t captain because he would still give everything he had for the team. Without any doubt. Whatever help he could give, whatever he could do for players, he would. I’ve always had full support from him. Whenever we have needed an innings from him, whenever we have needed him, he has come good. You have full faith in a guy like that, that he will get us out of trouble.Through all the years that I’ve known him, he has remained, at heart, the same. He was very firm with the principles he based his cricket and life on. Those are unchanged: that he’s always kept his affairs very organised, that he has maintained strict discipline about his career, that he has wanted to come across a certain way on the field, that he will always make newer players comfortable, that he will make greater effort with them. He is still like this. The main pillars and principles on which a man stands, those have always been very, very clear for him.That has been the reason for his success. His disciplines, his routines, on the field, in training, in his personal life – it is what has made him a great batsman. That and his belief – he always believed, in every situation, whatever the circumstances. Can’t make hundreds in the fourth innings? I’ll do it. Can’t chase that much in the fourth innings? I’ll do it. Green pitch? Let me bat on it. That’s where his greatness begins.Then, from what I have seen, the key has been his routines either in practice or matches. He has to go through those every day. He is so structured about everything: he has to play his first 15 balls a certain way, so that is how he will practise it. Then the period to start cashing in, so he will practise that too. He knows his plans inside out – how to face certain bowlers, how many overs are left, what to do in the next ten overs, when the new ball is due, where he should be in terms of personal targets at every stage. It’s like a computer programme. That is why his conversion rate is so high. If your routines are set like that, you end up reducing the pressure.”Can’t chase that much in the fourth innings? I’ll do it. Green pitch? Let me bat on it. That’s where his greatness begins”•AFPHe has played so many great innings in this time. The 171 in Pallekele stands out. It just didn’t look like the score could be chased. We were two down for nothing and he wasn’t scoring. Then he just tweaked his trigger-movement a touch, just for this innings to their medium-pacers, and you saw the result.There’s so many more – the double at The Oval, another in Zimbabwe, when we were in deep trouble. And these were crucial ones, without which we could’ve lost.That is why he was such a great partner for me, as well as such a great partnership batsman generally. He believes in every player’s method and technique. Every player has his own way. To any bowler, I face one way, Younis Khan faces his own way. But he never tried to say to any youngster: you do it this way, you do it that way. He understands that others will tackle a situation differently, so let’s both just do it our own way.And he understood situations beautifully. If he saw one bowler causing problems to his partner, without even saying anything, he would start taking that bowler on, attacking him. When you came in, without him saying so, he would chart out a way to getting runs. So many times his partner would near a milestone and Younis would know instinctively which bowler his partner might be more comfortable against. So he would immediately engineer the situation to benefit the partner – a quick single, a double, whatever it took.We had many big partnerships but one that always stands out for me is one of our first ones, in Kolkata in the 2007-08 series. It was a relatively small partnership (of 49) but there was huge turn and Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble were causing problems. He was playing his own way and I was counterattacking, and though he got out quickly, it was an important one. The 2010 one was one of the best though – the pressure, the scenario of the match. That was the beginning of our contributions.When we would field, he was a great help for the bowlers. In slips he really studied the batsmen, their movements, backlift, bat speed, how the feet were moving, so he would give really good, detailed inputs to the bowlers. In particular, he was great with Yasir Shah and Saeed Ajmal, about their pace and lines.In the dressing room, he didn’t usually talk too much. Neither did he interfere in the broader planning. When he had an idea he would come up, and usually it would not be something that was at odds, or changed the bigger plans. If he knew I was trying something on the field, he would occasionally provide a little bit of his input. That’s how he operates.Read Younis on Misbah here

Despite an erratic display from their seamers, South Africa secured a priceless 130-run lead, thanks largely to their under-rated spinner

Firdose Moonda at Trent Bridge15-Jul-2017South Africa thought it would take two bowlers to make up for Kagiso Rabada’s absence. It almost took too many.After Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander did with the new ball what bowlers of their quality and experience tend to do with the new ball and made it “talk”, South Africa would ordinarily have had Rabada to continue the conversation. Instead, they had Chris Morris, who has only played in two first-class matches apart from the Worcester tour match since making his Test debut in January 2016, and Duanne Olivier, who has played in just five first-class matches since his first cap in January this year. To say the pair were undercooked would not be overstating things.Morris started too short and stayed there with 23 of his 53 deliveries pitched either back of a length or short. By comparison, Morkel bowled only 12 deliveries in the same area out of the 78 he sent down, a lesson that fuller was going to be key on this pitch. Faf du Plessis tried to set fields for the short-ball trap, routinely moving his fine leg in the hope Joe Root would pick him out, but it was not the ideal way to be strategising. And while Morris struggled with length, Olivier battled to find the right line. In the six overs after the opening pair’s initial spells, South Africa conceded 41 runs.A band-aid over of spin took the teams into the lunch break and allowed the frontline quicks to rest up. They needed it because more was demanded of them after the interval. While Philander bowled a four-over post-lunch spell, Morkel was asked for double that to keep the pressure on, at least from one end.The extended spell proved crucial because it was during that period that Morkel removed Root, the biggest threat to South Africa’s chances of taking the lead, but not the only one. England’s middle-order packs a powerful punch and Root’s scoring rate had given them the platform to counterpunch.So du Plessis had a conundrum on his hands. With Morkel needing a break and Philander taking over from his end, he needed to plug a gap on the other side. He could not go back to Morris, whose first three overs cost 20, or keep Olivier, whose wretched time had only continued. On a seamer’s surface, half of South Africa’s pack seemed to be wasting their chances, so it was the spinner who had to do the job.Keshav Maharaj is not a huge turner of the ball – except at Lord’s last week when he managed to get one to land on middle and veer to slip early on – but he is disciplined and consistent. He finds decent areas, does not offer many scoring opportunities, and benefits when batsmen get frustrated. It’s easy to underestimate the impact he can have and that may have been what Ben Stokes did.After 37 minutes at the crease, Stokes had only faced 11 balls and had not scored a run when Maharaj drew him forward with a ball that was placed just outside off. Stokes got an inside-edge that bounced off his pad to de Kock – almost via the grille – to give South Africa an all-important “in”. Though Stokes has not done extensive damage with the bat in this series, South Africa know what he is capable of. Du Plessis had even nicknamed him “the dragon”, for his ability to breathe fire into a performance. Getting rid of him for a duck put South Africa in a position from which they could think about taking control.Within four overs, that thought became reality when Maharaj manufactured his next bit of magic. For all that’s been said about his unspectacular style, in his last over before tea, he found drift and turn and beat Jonny Bairstow’s inside-edge to bowl him and put South Africa well ahead, with room to manoeuvre. They did not need to rely on the 20 minutes between the afternoon and evening sessions for Philander and Morkel to freshen up because Maharaj had done a good enough job to hold up an end so that the quicks could rotate at the other.After tea, however, instead of starting with the obvious choice – Morkel to mop up – du Plessis made a bold move and brought back Morris. Having kept Morris out of the game, the captain deemed it safe to reintroduce him and his reading of the situation was entirely correct. Morris will now remember this innings because he was on a hat-trick at one stage – having dismissed Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad in successive deliveries with full balls (hint, hint) – and not because he was carted around for more than six runs an over at another. His confidence will have been boosted because he repaid du Plessis’ faith in him and contributed to securing a big lead.But the real hero of the second half of the South African bowling performance is Maharaj. Like so many South African spinners, he goes about his business almost unnoticed but he is anything but an afterthought. At his worst, he has simply kept things tight, and has only cost South Africa more than three-and-a-half runs an over twice in his nine Test career. At his best, he keeps the pressure on an opposition and forces them into making mistakes. His 15 wickets in three Tests in New Zealand in March is evidence of that.Unlike his most immediate predecessors – Dane Piedt, Imran Tahir and Simon Harmer – Maharaj is not simply a supporting actor. He is reliable and relentless and, though he and Rabada have very little in common when it comes to their bowling, today Maharaj’s work more than made up for Rabada’s absence.