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ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the day from the fifth ODI between West Indies and India

Sriram Veera at Sabina Park16-Jun-2011The solidarity of the day
Even as the ball that brought up the winning runs raced to boundary, there was an extraordinary gesture from Marlon Samuels. He ran all the way to deep point boundary where Chris Gayle was watching, and cheering on. Samuels high-fived with Gayle and only then returned to celebrate the win with his team-mates. Considering the heated meeting two days ago which put Gayle’s career in limbo this was a tremendous gesture from Samuels. Fire is raging in Babylon.The needle of the day
Who else can it feature but Anthony Martin. It’s not clear who started the verbal battle but Virat Kohli and Martin were at each other for a while. Once, when Kohli tucked a delivery quietly behind square-leg, Martin puts his hands up – the six symbol – suggesting why Kohli didn’t go for a six. More words exchanged. The umpire spoke to the players and to the captain Darren Sammy. It still continued. When Kohli moved towards him to say something, Martin waved him away. At the end of that over, Sammy had a chat with Kohli, who then wandered off to have a word with Kieron Pollard, who laughed at the end of that conversation.The miss of the day
Kohli had the hundred within his grasp but chose to turn for a disastrous second run after clipping the ball past square-leg. Ramnaresh Sarwan swooped in and fired an accurate throw to Carlton Baugh, whose glovework has been good this series, who did the rest. Kohli slowly trudged off, walked up the stairs and disappeared into the pavilion.The unlikely bouncer of the day
Lendl Simmons is a gentle medium-pacer. Wrong. When Yusuf Pathan slugged him to cow corner Simmons stirred himself into action. The keeper was standing up but Simmons decided to retaliate with a bouncer. He put everything into the release and banged the ball real short. It reared up but flew over the batsman and the keeper for five wides. Baugh retreated from the stumps after that.The near mess-up of the day
When Ramnaresh Sarwan, suffering from cramps, decided to have a runner things were bound to get interesting. When he stabbed a delivery in front of him, Darren Bravo decided to rush across for a single. Simmons, the runner, stayed rooted to his position for a while before he decided to respond. The bowler Vinay Kumar got across and missed the stumps at the other end. Simmons, who had dived into the crease, got up, dusted himself, and showed his displeasure at the call.

ESPNcricinfo looks at the Plays of the Day for the third day between West Indies and India

S Aga16-Nov-2011Shuffle shuffle
Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the key to West Indies avoiding the follow-on, but he had barely got his eye in after the early-morning start when R Ashwin pushed through a straighter one. Chanderpaul shuffled right across his stumps and tried to work it to leg. As soon as he missed, the Indians knew they had their man.The joy of pace
Umesh Yadav has improved with every innings in this series, but it won’t be often that he bowls a delivery as good as that which sent back Marlon Samuels. Pitching on middle, it shaped away to take out off and middle stumps. The speed gun timed it at 143.3 km/h.Six and out
When a spinner gets walloped for a straight six, the natural instinct might be to bowl a flatter one. Pragyan Ojha did nothing of the sort. He tossed one up outside off stump that turned and bounced more than expected. Darren Sammy’s cut went off the top edge into MS Dhoni’s gloves. The perfect riposte.Putting the boot in
When Carlton Baugh smacked one straight back at him, Ojha was a little slow to respond. He couldn’t get his hands to it, but the ball deflected off his boot on to the stumps. Kemar Roach, who had backed up too far, didn’t stand a chance.Unsettled by tea
Adrian Barath had batted superbly for 62 before tea, but four balls after the interval, he went for an expansive drive at an Ishant Sharma delivery that was well outside off stump. The ball flew off the edge, and VVS Laxman took a smart chance to his left. Another batsman undone by a break in play.Shades of the master
They may be battling to save the game, but Darren Bravo isn’t going to withdraw into a shell. When Ojha pitched one well up soon after he had arrived at the crease, a fluid swing and flourish sent the ball soaring over long-on. It was a shot Brian Lara used to play particularly well.

Stats highlights from an incredible ODI as India chased down 321 in just 37 overs

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan28-Feb-2012Virat Kohli’s strike rate of 154.65 is the third-highest for an Indian batsman in a century scored in an ODI chase•Getty ImagesKohli scored his ninth ODI century and his second against Sri Lanka. It is also his sixth century in ODI chases. Kohli’s strike rate of 154.65 is the third-highest for an Indian batsman in an ODI chase (centuries only) after Virender Sehwag and Mohammad Azharuddin.The run-rate during the century stand between Kohli and Suresh Raina (13.56) is the highest ever for India for a 100-plus partnership in ODIs, and the highest against major Test teams. The highest overall is 17.73 during the 136-run stand between Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan against USA in 2004.Gautam Gambhir and Kohli were involved in their fifth century stand in ODI chases. In the second innings (min. 1000 partnership runs), the pair averages the highest (75.33).Lasith Malinga conceded over 90 runs for the first time in his ODI career. His economy rate of 12.52 is the highest in ODIs for a minimum of five overs.India batted second for the eighth time in the series. There have been only four previous occasions when teams have batted second more often in an ODI series. The target of 321 is the second-highest successfully chased target in ODIs in Australia and also the third-highest target chased by India.India become only the second team after Sri Lanka (Headingley 2006) to chase a 300-plus target in under 40 overs. Sri Lanka had scored 324 in 37.3 overs, which makes India’s effort the fastest chase of a 300-plus target. In fact, India’s run-rate of 8.75 is the second-highest for a 250-plus chase in ODIs after South Africa’s chase of 434 in Johannesburg in 2006, when they achieved a rate of 8.78.India hit 33 fours in their innings equalling the highest number of boundaries hit in a team innings in Australia. The number of fours hit in the match (54) is the joint fifth-highest in a game in Australia.Both Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara scored their fourth ODI century against India. Only Sanath Jayasuriya (7), Ricky Ponting (6), Nathan Astle and Salman Butt (5) have scored more ODI centuries against India. Dilshan, who equalled his highest ODI score (against India in Rajkot), also becomes only the second batsman after Jayasuriya to make a 150-plus score on two occasions against India.The 200-run stand between Sangakkara and Dilshan is the fifth double-century stand for the second wicket in ODIs against India. It is also the highest partnership in ODIs in Hobart surpassing the 165-run stand between Nick Knight and Marcus Trescothick in 2003. The double-hundred stand is also the 11th in the history of the Australian tri-series and the second for Sri Lanka in the competition.With both Sangakkara and Dilshan scoring centuries, it is the 15th instance of two batsmen scoring a century in the same team innings against India. For Sri Lanka, this is the 11th instance overall of two batsmen scoring a century in the same innings and the third such occasion since the start of the 2011 World Cup.Sangakkara’s century is his 13th in ODIs and his fourth against India. it is also his second century in Australia after the 128 against India in Adelaide in 2008. His strike rate of 120.68 during his century is his highest for a 100-plus score.Sri Lanka’s 321 is their ninth total of 300 or more against India in ODIs. They have, however, gone on to lose five of the nine matches. It is also the 56th time that India have conceded 300-plus runs, the most for any team.The match aggregate of 641 is the third-highest in an ODI in Australia. The highest is 678 in the game between Australia and New Zealand in Perth in 2006-07. The match run-rate of 7.39 is the highest for a completed ODI in Australia.Edited by Siddarth Ravindran

Rather than just looking to one or two individuals to make the difference, the side is concentrating on attacking as a team, with little emphasis on which individual is grabbing the headlines

Firdose Moonda28-Mar-2012Gary Kirsten is no George W Bush but, with South Africa leaving New Zealand with all three trophies they competed for, Kirsten had the same the look of satisfaction on his face Bush wore when he delivered his “Mission Accomplished” speech. In Kirsten’s first assignment away from home, the team won six matches, drew two and lost one. They dominated everything but the Twenty20 series, in which they squeaked through in the last over, a situation in which South Africa may have faltered in the past.If there is an overriding gain from the tour of New Zealand, it is that South Africa have confronted two key issues that have stumped them previously. They have started to grapple with the complexities of being able to overcome, rather than crumble, when under pressure. The third T20 is one example of that. Fighting to take the first-innings lead after collapsing to 88 for 6 in Hamilton is another. They also combined to form a strong unit rather than a unit that merely appears strong because of the presence of a few strong individuals. Dale Steyn is not the only person Graeme Smith can throw the ball to if he needs a wicket and Jacques Kallis does not have to carry the batting line-up alone.Kirsten identified the second of those positives as a particularly important outcome of the tour. “We have a lot of individuals embracing big moments in games and being able to make plays from that,” he said. Although overreliance on individuals has not been as glaring in the recent past as it was at a time when everything rested on the performances of Allan Donald and Darryl Cullinan, the team effort has never been as comprehensive as it now.Performances come from all corners of the line-up, not just the expected ones. A year ago, few would have picked Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers as the two players out of the top six who would not score a hundred on an away tour. In New Zealand, that’s what happened. Alviro Petersen, Jacques Rudolph and even JP Duminy, who only played one match, notched up big scores, to support the fine efforts of Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis.Duminy’s innings was pleasing for Kirsten because it illustrated the bench-strength of South Africa’s batting. “I was very excited about all the fringe players that came in because they made big contributions,” Kirsten said. “We have players that we can always turn to if there is an injury, and we can get some experience into the fringe players. That’s important going forward so that we can always fall back on these guys, knowing that they can make contributions at international level.”South Africa’s bowling depth received the thumbs-up from bowling coach Allan Donald midway through the home season when he took back his initial concerns about the quality of quicks coming through. Vernon Philander has been around for two seasons and was ready to step up. South Africa have also discovered Marchant de Lange, while Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell have both matured well. Philander’s meteoric rise has turned the South African attack from a fearsome one into a nearly unplayable one. Kirsten labelled their performance in the Test series “standout”.Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Philander, complemented by either Kallis and Imran Tahir, or another quick, give away very little. Philander reaped most of the rewards from the miserliness but Steyn and Morkel did not simply operate in his shadow. They rounded off the attack with exceptional use of the short ball and continued interrogation of the opposition. Steyn kept the fire burning with pace, Morkel with the constant reminder of the danger his bounce poses.Morkel eventually had success in Wellington. Even though Steyn did not record a five-wicket haul in the Tests, he was happy to share in his team-mates’ success, telling reporters that there are only 10 wickets to go around in an innings and he doesn’t mind who takes them. The attack operate as a unit, the bowlers celebrate each other’s wickets, and work together to create wicket-taking opportunities without putting too much emphasis on who claims the eventual scalp. It sounds twee, but Kirsten insists there is a lot of togetherness.”What’s happened is that we are really starting to operate as a batting unit and as a bowling unit. Guys feel like even if they don’t get big wickets on the day, they have made a contribution. There’s a real sense of team-ness.”Kirsten’s man management has contributed to that unity. He allows players freedom, be it to express themselves on the field or to enjoy time off during the tour. In so doing, he has gained their trust and their commitment. “With the amount of cricket that we’ve got coming up, it’s important that we maintain freshness, mental and physical,” he said.Kirsten has been in charge for 10 months and three series, and his ideas are starting to take root. His philosophy is based on process and it seems the South African squad have bought into that. They have accepted the big-picture vision without sacrificing the attention to detail that will ultimately, as Kirsten explains, ensure they win more than they lose.This strategy served them well in New Zealand and has readied them for their next challenge, in July against England. Kirsten is satisfied that South Africa are in a comfortable enough position to embark on that tour with confidence. “We’ve taken the steps that we needed to in terms of being ready to go and confront England. I’m happy with where we are and where we are going.”Edited by Dustin Silgardo

Zimbabwe were once a very tidy fielding side but their efforts in Hambantota left much to be desired

Andrew Fernando in Hambantota19-Sep-2012It has been a cliché among weaker teams that though they could not compete with the heavyweights in the batting or bowling, at least their effort in the field did not lack. Few will expect these sides to fire in direct hits from the edge of the circle on a regular basis, or to make too many stunning stops in the covers or point, but as long as mistakes are omitted the minnows can retain some credibility; at least they competed as equals in one aspect.There was once a time when this was true for Zimbabwe too – in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Occasionally spectacular, but routinely tidy, the team made a name for itself for being committed and disciplined, and this somehow gave weight to the notion that they were a team on the rise. If they were getting one discipline right, perhaps the others would soon follow.But as Zimbabwe showed in the World Twenty20 opener against Sri Lanka, those days are gone, and that good work undone. Brendan Taylor had urged his charges to “give it everything” before taking the field, and although the sins of the bowlers and batsmen against one of the tournament favourites are forgivable, their errors in the field cast aspersions on Zimbabwe’s diligence.Malcolm Waller had the roughest time in the field. Perhaps the first chance that came his way, running back from mid-on to chase down a top-edged pull, was a difficult one, but the catch he grassed at deep midwicket three overs later would have been expected to be held at a club cricket match. Shortly before that, a run-out chance had been missed, though it did require a direct hit.Then there were the myriad misfields to allow the batsmen to steal extra runs. Chris Mpofu loped around from short fine leg to intercept a gentle sweep shot in the ninth over, but let the ball slip through his fingers to allow a single. A few overs later, he did well to get a hand onto a powerful straight drive to kill some of the shot’s momentum, but the job still proved beyond Brian Vitori, who at long-on misfielded the slowing ball, and palmed it out of Prosper Utseya’s grasp and into the boundary rope. At other times, wild throws allowed more sneaky runs and and a shy at the stumps with no chance of running out the batsman, and no one backing up, surrendered four overthrows.”We felt 150-160 on a big outfield would be about par and if we fielded well we would’ve kept Sri Lanka to that much,” Taylor said after the match. “We let ourselves down on the field, leaked too many runs and dropped catches.”In Zimbabwe’s last international tour early in the year, the fielding had at times been even worse. In New Zealand, they dropped chances not even worthy of being called catching practice. In one ODI, four simple catches were spilt inside three overs. At some point, the poor tone in the field must affect the other disciplines too, and against the quality of opposition Zimbabwe faced in Hambantota, the batting and bowling needs all the help it can get.”In the past we have been a very good fielding side, but we are aware of the fact that we have let our standards drop, and that has been an issue for a while,” Taylor said. “It’s certainly something that has been talked about and looked at, and we are working on improving ourselves there and getting back to that level we know we can be.”Zimbabwe now know they must move mountains to avoid a first-round exit. Even if they somehow beat South Africa on Thursday night, their net run-rate following the 82-run first-up loss is likely to be the poorest among the three teams. The Super Eights might be a pipe dream, but Zimbabwe will know that every time they step out to play, their credibility is on trial. A clean performance in the field in their remaining match will reassure fans Zimbabwe deserve their place in the tournament, and might one day make a genuine lunge at the tournament’s second phase.

With sufficient depth, Gary Kirsten believes South Africa are readying for an extended stay at the top of the rankings

Firdose Moonda05-Dec-2012South Africa’s lengthened batting line-up is the driving force behind their ascendance to the world No.1 title and the defence of it, according to coach Gary Kirsten. In their last two series, South Africa played seven frontline batsmen, which Kirsten said gave the team an “X-factor,” other countries do not have.”We can pick a No.7 batter and that has helped us in certain situations. We don’t take that combination lightly. We know how important that is to our Test side in terms of the performances that we all want. There might come a time when we need to look at it another way but for now we have that,” Kirsten said at the team’s arrival in Cape Town.After Mark Boucher was forced to retire with a severe eye injury ahead of the England tour, AB de Villiers was tasked with the responsibility of wicketkeeping. JP Duminy played as the seventh batsman in England and would have done the same in Australia had a ruptured Achilles’ not cut his tour short.Faf du Plessis replaced Duminy and played an important part in South Africa saving the match in Adelaide and winning in Perth to clinch the series. But, both Duminy and du Plessis have masked the under-performance of South Africa’s No. 4. Jacques Rudolph and Dean Elgar have a combined average of 21.5 in that position over the last six Tests.Rather than focus on the one chink in their armour, Kirsten praised the bench strength for being able to make the step up. “What’s important for us is depth. We need to make sure if we have an injury, we have guys who can fill the gap,” he said. “I’m encouraged by the players who have come through over the last year.”Since Kirsten took over as the national coach, South Africa have debuted six players and only Dean Elgar and Imran Tahir did not make significant marks on the international stage. Vernon Philander, Marchant de Lange, Rory Kleinveldt and du Plessis have all impressed in varying degrees. Under Kirsten’s watch, Robin Peterson has made a successful comeback to Test cricket as well.For that, Kirsten is impressed. “If we have Robbie there in place of Imran, that’s a good thing. To have a person who can play if someone is not in form or gets injured. If we have a Rory in place of one of the seamers; that’s also a good thing.”With sufficient depth, Kirsten believes South Africa are readying for an extended stay at the top of the rankings. “It’s something that we’ve set our sights on. It’s been an incredible year and it requires time for the players to reflect on that year. We wanted to become the No.1 team in the world and then to hold that position.”We accomplished two very big targets this year in England and Australia, which is just massive and now we will definitely set our sights on how we can hold that position. It is important to us, this team wants to leave a legacy behind and we are excited by where we are at the moment.”South Africa played nine out of ten Test matches in 2012 away and the home fans have not had the opportunity to see them perform since they rose to the top. Now that the summer has arrived, that will be the chance. Over the course of the next three months, South Africa host New Zealand and Pakistan for five Test matches, three T20s and eight ODIs.While the Tests will be an opportunity to show off their ranking, the limited-overs matches will form part of a building process. The next World T20 is two years away and the fifty over World Cup three. That will give Kirsten the room he needs to translate the achievements of the Test side to a campaign for ICC silverware.”It takes time to transfer the success,” he said. “In the Test side, we’ve got some great players and its not to say we can’t achieve the same level of success in the one-day side but it takes time. We’ve got a really good team culture in the Test side and we’ve certainly tried to do whatever we can in the one-day component to build the same culture but I don’t think it will come around as quickly.”

Stats highlights from day four of the first Test in Brisbane

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan12-Nov-2012 Clarke became only the third batsman after Don Bradman and Ricky Ponting to register three 200-plus scores in a calendar year. Clarke had scored 329* and 210 in the Sydney and Adelaide Tests against India earlier in the year. Clarke’s double-century is only the fifth one scored in Brisbane. Four of the five double-centuries in Brisbane have been scored by Australian batsmen. The last one, however, was scored by Greg Chappell in 1981. Among captains who have scored at least 800 runs in a calendar year, Clarke has the second-highest average (111.11). Don Bradman is on top with an average of 113.88 in 1948. Clarke’s aggregate of 1000 runs in seven Tests is by far the highest in 2012. Hashim Amla is second with 791 runs in eight Tests. Clarke’s century is his fourth in Brisbane and takes him joint-second with Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting on the list of batsmen with the most centuries at the Gabba. Greg Chappell is on top with five centuries. Clarke’s average of 109.37 is second only to Chappell’s 111.77 among batsmen who have scored 500-plus runs in Brisbane. Clarke is now joint-sixth on the list of Australian batsmen with the most 150-plus scores in Tests (7). Bradman is on top with 18 150-plus scores followed by Ricky Ponting (15). Clarke’s 218 is his highest score against South Africa surpassing his previous best of 151 in the first Test in Cape Town last year. The 259-run stand between Ed Cowan and Clarke is the fifth-highest partnership for Australia against South Africa and the third-highest since South Africa’s readmission. The partnership is also seventh on the list of highest fourth-wicket stands for Australia and the sixth-highest in Brisbane. Cowan’s century is his first in Tests. His previous best was 74 against India in Perth in January 2012. Cowan’s hundred is also the first by an Australian opening batsman in Brisbane since Simon Katich’s 131 in 2008. Cowan scored 71 of his 136 runs from backfoot shots hitting nine fours in the process. In contrast, Clarke scored 72 of his 218 runs from backfoot shots. For the first time ever in Australia-South Africa Tests, four centuries were scored in the team first innings (1st and 2nd innings of the match). There have been nine other occasions when there have been three centuries scored in the team first innings. The only wicket South Africa managed in the day was that of Cowan, who was run out. The last two occasions when South Africa had gone without a single wicket in a day’s play came against Sri Lanka (2006 at the SSC) and against Australia (1997 in Johannesburg). It is the fourth time overall and the second time this year (after the Sydney Test against India) that Australia have had two 150-plus stands for the fourth and fifth wickets. The partnership run-rate of 5.17 is the second-highest for Australia in Tests against South Africa since 1992. The highest is 5.46 during the 182-run stand between Hayden and Ponting in Sydney in 2006 (150-plus stands only).

Stats highlights from Australia’s comfortable nine-wicket win in Perth

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan01-Feb-2013 The number of balls remaining after the win (244) is the second-highest for Australia in an ODI and their highest against a Test-playing team. Australia also surpassed Sri Lanka’s record for the most deliveries remaining after a successful chase in an ODI against West Indies. The match lasted a total of 199 deliveries. This is the lowest number of deliveries in a completed match in Australia (matches with results). In matches played among top Test teams (excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe), this match has the second-lowest number of deliveries after the Pakistan-West Indies game in Cape Town in 1993. West Indies’ total of 70 is their third-lowest ODI score and their lowest against Australia. Their lowest total overall is 54 against South Africa in 2004. The total is also West Indies’ second-lowest batting first. There have been only two previous occasions (India in 1981 and South Africa in 1993) when teams have registered lower totals in an ODI in Australia. The highest score in the West Indies innings was 16. This is only the second time for West Indies that none of the batsmen passed 16. The previous such occasions came in Cape Town (2004). It is also the 12th time overall and the first since the World Cup quarter-final against Pakistan in 2011 that a West Indies innings has had four or more ducks. Mitchell Starc’s 5 for 20 is the second-best bowling performance by an Australian bowler against West Indies after Glenn McGrath’s 5 for 14 at Old Trafford in 1999. It is also the second-best bowling display in Perth after Ryan Harris’ 5 for 19 against Pakistan in 2010. Starc’s performance, however, is only eighth on the list of best bowling displays against West Indies. For the first time, three left-arm fast bowlers bowled in an innings for Australia. India was the previous team to field three left-arm fast bowlers (against Sri Lanka in 2008). Glenn Maxwell’s strike rate of 145.71 is his second-best for a fifty-plus score and the sixth-best for an Australian batsman against West Indies (50-plus scores). Maxwell’s strike rate is seventh on the list of top strike rates for fifty-plus scores in Perth. Surprisingly, Michael Holding is fourth and sixth on the list. The number of runs scored in boundaries by Maxwell (48) is the joint fifth-highest by an Australian batsman in the first ten overs of an innings (matches since 2000). Adam Gilchrist is on top with 60 runs against Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2006.

By Keith King, South Korea

Nikita Bastian25-Feb-2013By Keith King, South KoreaNew Zealand is such a small country (many cities have more people than New Zealand’s four million-odd inhabitants) that, in many ways, is insignificant on the world stage. Sport is one avenue through which New Zealand and New Zealanders have asserted themselves on the world stage. For a country its size, New Zealand has done remarkably well in many sporting codes, including rugby and rugby league, netball and softball.For those that would argue (with some justification) that these are mere fringe sports in a global sense, New Zealanders have won both tennis and golf majors, made the semi-finals of the basketball World Championships and made the soccer World Cup finals twice (admittedly, they haven’t won a game yet once they have reached them). At the Summer Olympics, New Zealand has won 86 medals (which surprisingly enough is four times the number India, a country with a much greater population, has managed to win).Arguably, though, the one sport at which New Zealanders are not as competitive as they should be, despite taking it seriously, is cricket. Since New Zealand’s introduction to Test cricket in 1930, the New Zealand team (they weren’t known as the Black Caps until much later) has usually been at the bottom or near the bottom of the heap, the worst team going round. It took 26 years and 45 tests for New Zealand to register their first Test win. Australia wouldn’t even play their neighbours for a 27-year gap between 1946 and 1973, which must be rated as the ultimate cricketing cold shoulder.New Zealand has a win/loss ratio of 0.47, the lowest of all test teams barring Bangladesh and Zimbabwe (India has the next lowest win/loss ratio of 0.77, showing that it has not always been the powerhouse it is now). A brief respite was found with the introduction of Sri Lanka to Test cricket (the whipping boys of the 80s and early 90s) and then a more permanent one with the introduction of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who now seem to be the only teams New Zealand can reliably beat in test matches.New Zealand, of course, has had famous victories, including the one in Hobart over Australia recently, where Doug Bracewell played his second match-winning hand in three Tests. Tests matches are often won on the strength of one innings or one spell, and great players obviously come up with match-turning moments more often than average ones. This led to the observation that New Zealand’s lack of success may be due to the fact that there has been a lack of great players, the type of player that can single-handedly change a match.The Australian team of the early 2000s could claim five or six greats, playing together at the same time. By contrast, only two New Zealanders would push for consideration in an all time World XI. One of them, Clarrie Grimmett, didn’t even play for New Zealand, instead leaving New Zealand as a largely unrecognised and unheralded youngster who eventually made his name in the baggy green of Australia, becoming the first player to take more than 200 Test wickets. It would be a stretch to claim Grimmett, the great Australian leg-spinner, for New Zealand.The other great, of course, is Richard Hadlee, who stands head and shoulders above any of his countrymen. He is a true cricketing great. When Hadlee was at his peak, in the 1980s until his retirement in 1990, New Zealand actually won more games than they lost. He was New Zealand’s greatest match-winner.Hadlee spearheaded a solid bowling line-up, that was described somewhat harshly but with some justification by Graham Gooch thus: it was like facing the “World XI at one end, and Ilford Second XI at the other”. Do any other New Zealanders aside from Hadlee (counting Grimmett as a New Zealander, while true, would be disingenuous in the extreme) qualify as greats?In an attempt to arrive at an answer, first of all, I started with the time honoured equations: a great batsman averages 50.00 or more, a great bowler under 25.00. No batsmen from New Zealand who has played 20 or more matches has averaged more than 50.00. Martin Crowe has the highest average of 45.00, and for a decade (1985-1994), he was considered one of the world’s premier batsmen (he averaged almost 54.00 during this period, the highest for any batsmen who played more than 20 tests in this era).Supporters of Crowe would argue that he was a great batsman and anyone who saw him bat during the 1991-92 World Cup would be likely to agree. Crowe had all the shots (or at least all the shots of that era), possessed a classical technique, was adept off both the front and back foot and was a deep thinker of the game. He was hampered both at the start and at the end of his career – at the start by being rushed into the New Zealand set-up before he was ready (a common occurrence in a country where true talent is so rare) and at the end by a crumbling body that he tried unsuccessfully to push past.Crowe is without doubt New Zealand’s best ever batsmen and as such may be the only New Zealand batsman to be genuinely described as great. There’s been several very good batsmen, like Glenn Turner, Martin Donnelly, Stewie Dempster, Bert Sutcliffe and Stephen Fleming. Turner is probably the next best, averaging 44 in Tests and the owner of 100 first-class centuries. However, a lot of his finest work was done at the first-class level and he missed six years of international cricket at the peak of his powers after clashes with administration (ironically, given his hard-nosed approach to player management during his stints as the coach of the national side).Bert Sutcliffe was a majestic player and played in a weak New Zealand team (he was never on the winning side in 42 Tests) but his average of 40.00 qualifies him only as a New Zealand great, not a great of the game. Fleming was a special player, hindered by a poor ratio of converting 50s into 100s, whose average of 40.00 ultimately meant he underperformed at the Test level. Dempster (15 innings) and Donnelly (12 innings) didn’t play enough Test cricket to be regarded greats, although both had formidable first-class records.On the bowling front, only three New Zealand bowlers average lesser than 25.00, Hadlee being one of them. The other two are potential greats who both had question marks beside their names, due mainly to their longevity.The first is Shane Bond, New Zealand’s best quick bowler since Hadlee, a bowler good enough to have the third-best strike-rate of all bowlers (50 wickets minimum) in Tests – he got a wicket every 38 balls – and, by the same criterion, the fifth-best strike-rate of all time in ODIs. He was on the winning side 10 out of his 18 matches, an astonishing strike-rate for a New Zealand player and a statistic that probably shows his value to the team. Unfortunately, injuries tarnished his legacy and his career probably falls into the category of unfulfilled, rather than great.The other bowler is Jack Cowie, whose career was interrupted by the World War II, a player who only played nine Tests but played them outstandingly well (45 wickets with a strike-rate of 45.00 and an average of just under 22.00). He was praised, at that time, as an outstanding bowler, and in the words of Wisden “had he been an Australian, he might have been termed a wonder of the age”.There are of course allrounders to consider. Allrounders have a special place in New Zealand cricket’s history. Being a cricketing country that shows fight, one more dependent on grit more than ability, New Zealand have often had players who can bat and bowl, reliant on them to do the jobs that other countries would leave to specialists. Apart from Hadlee, three allrounders come to mind: John Reid, Daniel Vettori and Chris Cairns.Reid, who played from the mid-40s to the mid-60s, was a giant of the New Zealand game but his average in both batting and bowling of 33-odd shows someone who was competent at both skills but a true great at neither. Vettori is someone similar; he has shouldered New Zealand’s bowling attack for more than a decade and has done well with the bat. However, one feels that he while he dominates the game in New Zealand, he is not a true great of the international game.Cairns overcame the folk hero legacy of his father and was, for a time, the world’s premier allrounder – one capable of shredding attacks and also capable of bowling wicket-taking balls on a regular basis (his strike-rate was an outstanding 53.00). His talent was so obvious that, at times, it felt like he had underachieved. His stats (batting average 33.00, bowling average 29.00) suggest otherwise and are comparable to Kapil Dev (batting average 31.00, bowling average 29.00) or even Ian Botham (batting average 33.00, bowling average 28.00), and are better than Andrew Flintoff’s (batting average 31.00, bowling average 32.00). Cairns has a valid claim to be one of the game’s great allrounders. What possibly counts against him is a failure to have an outstanding series against Australia, the dominant team of his era, à la Flintoff in the 2005 Ashes.This started as an exercise to try and show that New Zealand has produced more than one great player. Martin Crowe is a probable, Cowie and Bond are both would-have-beens and Cairns is, maybe, under-appreciated. An obvious question would be why has New Zealand only produced one unquestionably great player in 80 years of test cricket?Do all the best athletes in Zealand play rugby, leaving the scraps of the sporting gene pool for cricket? Is it because of the temperamental nature of our climate, the poor pitches that have blighted the first-class game (thankfully, this has improved over the past decade). Is it just representative of our small population base? Is it lower expectations?In New Zealand cricket, the equation for greatness would seem to be a batting average higher than 40.00 and for bowling, an average of 30.00 and below – much less demanding numbers than the standard in other countries. Whatever it is, there’s still the hope that a Williamson, a Taylor or a Bracewell can swell the ranks of genuinely great New Zealand players.

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the fourth day at Headingley

Andrew McGlashan27-May-2013Quarter-century of the dayWith the aid of a fumble by the cover fielder, Alastair Cook moved further clear of England’s other Test century-makers with his 25th hundred. Such are the high standards now expected of Cook, it had been noted that he had not been quite at the top of his game since his previous hundred in Dunedin but he was back to his best in this innings. During the course of his innings he went past 10,000 runs across all international formats with the promise of many more to come.Youthful exuberance of the dayEngland’s second innings prompted much discussion about tactics, but when Joe Root came to the middle he just got on with his job with the same smile he was worn for the whole match. He was quickly into one-day (or Twenty20) mode and showed, again, how he holds no fear at this level. Against Neil Wagner, still maintaining decent pace despite New Zealand’s awful situation, Root calmly reverse swept the quick bowler through the vacant slip cordon for the most cheeky boundary of the match.Brute of the dayPerhaps Steven Finn had just heard about Watford’s failed attempt to reach the Premier League with defeat in the Play-Off final at Wembley because the delivery he produced to remove Dean Brownlie verged on unplayable. There had been signs of some uneven bounce and when Finn banged in a short ball – although not quite a full-on bouncer – it reared towards Brownlie and followed him as he tried to sway out of the line. His instincts took over and he fended at it with his gloves, the ball lobbing up to provide gully with a simple catch. Hostile fast bowling.Working over of the dayWhile Finn makes batsmen uncomfortable with pace and bounce, Graeme Swann does it with guile and deception. He had been all over Martin Guptill in the first innings – for his brief stay – and worked him over again second time around. He began by searching for the same gate that he spun through yesterday, but in the end it was the arm ball (or, as Swann would probably say, the one that didn’t spin) which took Guptill’s edge to slip. It has not been a happy Test return for him.