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Pop duo Duckworth Lewis talk about their new album and why the England team needs more characters

Interview by Alan Gardner01-Jul-2013 Sticky Wickets, Walsh (left) and Hannon: timed their second album to a nicety•Jim DysonYou’re back with another album. Did you think there was more to be sung about cricket?
Neil: Apparently we did. I think the way we write about cricket, it’s kind of limitless. Because we don’t necessarily write about cricket per se, it’s just the jumping-off point. So we kind of take these quite small ideas and elaborate upon them in various strange tangents.Thomas: I think it’s the fact that it’s endless in its stories and in its history. Something like football or snooker, you get fun anecdotes. But with cricket you have entire books and volumes about certain stories and incidents that happened.Neil: And its phraseology and terms – it’s got so many cool words attached to it: nudging, nurdling, line and length, mystery man – all the names of the songs on our new album!The commentators help us an awful lot. We took the inspiration for “Boom Boom Afridi” entirely from David Lloyd; he has fantastic nicknames for everybody and then we managed to get him to do his little bit on the actual song.You’ve got a few famous names featuring this time around. Did they approach you or did you have to ask?
Thomas: Oh, they were keen but we had to ask them because they’re very busy people. Someone like Stephen Fry is never not working and never not being asked. It was very exciting for us but there was no way we thought we’d get him.”Neil: It was quite scary, because I’m such a fan. He read it through once, it was brilliant, but I had the temerity to say, “Would you mind reading it again, slower?” He said, “Of course, not a problem.” But then he had to rush off.Thomas: Daniel Radcliffe did talk a lot. He was far more relaxed…Neil: I would almost class Daniel Radcliffe as verbose, he loves to chat.”Radcliffe is on the track “Third Man”, which references the fielding position, as well as the Orson Welles film of the same name.
Neil: That’s correct, Harry Lime and so on. We have written various songs where it’s kind of about the ability to daydream while cricket it happening. But they’re always good dreams and it’s perfectly reasonable. And this was actually daydreaming while playing the game.Thomas: You’d probably put a lesser fielder – Monty Panesar, say – down at third man, because the ball wouldn’t be going down there a lot. So we thought, you know, you spend an hour down there, not really involved in the game, why not get involved in a spy movie.Neil: Or just fantasise about murdering all the other people on the pitch, really…Do either of you get the chance to play much? Have you stood at third man, daydreaming the game away?Neil: That’s the only fielding position I’m ever put in actually. I sometimes turn out for the Cavaliers, who are a bunch of actors in Dublin, and I’m very, very bad.

“I identified that the natural length would be about 20 years between both albums but because it rains a lot in Ireland we were faced with using the Duckworth-Lewis method and it became four years “Thomas Walsh

I think my batting is slightly preferable to my bowling but they’re both terrible. I sometimes take wickets when I’m bowling just because I’ve finally managed to get the ball to the other end of the crease, roughly in the right direction.Was there much demand for a second album?
Neil: From the people we know who loved it, yeah, they were saying, “When are you going to make another one?” We always said, “Are you crazy?” And it turned out that we were crazy.Thomas: I identified that the natural length would be about 20 years between both albums but because it rains a lot in Ireland we were faced with using the Duckworth-Lewis method and it became four years.So you’re not going to be releasing one every time the Ashes are played in England?
Neil: We’re not planning anything – we do not plan. People don’t believe us when we say it is kind of an accident [the albums] have appeared at the Ashes. Basically we did the first one, it accidentally came out at just the right time, and then we both went off to do albums of our own, and by the time we’ve come back to make another one, it was four years later. A happy accident.Do you know if any of the England players are fans? Graeme Swann is known as a bit of a musician.
Neil: Yeah, he’s a fan, which is very nice. I don’t know about any of the others. We’re doing Swanny and Anderson’s podcast, so that will be fun. I can’t wait to meet Jimmy Anderson.Did you try and get any of them to appear on the album?
Thomas: It would be a lot more difficult than the people we did get.Neil: In the entertainment world it’s not too hard and people are always ready and willing. With sports people they’re always hither and thither in the world, it’s very hard to pin them down. This has been the celebrity fest, this album, maybe if we do another it will be the cricketer fest. But really, we do not have plans for another one, just like we did not have plans for this one.You seem to have reinvented the cricket song genre but there have been one or two previous attempts. Do you have any favourites?
Neil: I’m not sure I can pinpoint one that was really, really great…Thomas: People would say something like “Dreadlock Holiday”, because it mentions cricket, or “Soul Limbo” by Booker T and the MGs – but they weren’t cricket songs.Neil: The 10CC one is definitely a good piece of West Indian music. “Soul Limbo” was used as the BBC cricket theme all those years – well, it’s a magnificent piece of music but Booker T was none the wiser. There are some lovely old calypso tunes from the fifties when West Indies started beating England.Thomas: And Roy Harper did “When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease.”Neil: I think we’ve doubled the output.What are your favourites on the new album?
Thomas: I think “Judd’s Paradox”, because of the way it came together, and it sounds so strong. It’s quite beautiful in parts.Still swinging

Forget T20, this is cricketainment. Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh, two Irishmen with an affinity for the English summer game and an ear for a jaunty tune, have returned with the Duckworth Lewis Method’s second album, after a four-year break – during which time, it is probably fair to say, the world in general has been largely oblivious to the relative absence of cricket pop.
Sometimes the most delightful gifts are the unexpected ones. Their eponymous debut offering oozed into the consciousness during the 2009 Ashes, delivering beguiling classics off a short run-up, and nimbly picks up the same thread. Divine Comedy frontman Hannon, and Walsh, of Pugwash, insist that the release ten days before the start of the 2013 Ashes is purely coincidental but few would begrudge them the association. Their mellifluous melodies seem destined to infuse a hotly anticipated cricketing summer.
Duckworth (Walsh) and Lewis (Hannon) may be friends of the Two Chucks but this time around they are joined by a few actual celebrities. “If you’re gonna flash, flash hard,” avers David Lloyd on “Boom Boom Afridi”, a paean to the mercurial Pakistan allrounder, while Henry Blofeld’s unmistakable tones adorn “It’s Just Not Cricket”. Elsewhere, the presence of the actor, writer and comedian Stephen Fry and Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) provides further evidence of the game’s enduring pull in entertainment circles.
Billed as a “cricket fantasia”, there is plenty for both fans of the game and lovers of music to pick through. The songs are intricately layered, with playful lyrics and catchy hooks straight off the middle of the bat. The steampunk bombast of “Boom Boom Afridi” gives way to subtler ruminations on the lot of the umpire, and the spoken-word poetry of “Judd’s Paradox”. You might think “Chin Music” would go heavy on the drums but instead it floats along like a Victorian fairground instrumental. “Line and Length”, meanwhile, transports you back to the ’80s (though sadly without any references to Eddie Hemmings), sounding like a cross between Huey Lewis and the News and Yello.
In following up their original cricket-themed concept album, there might have been a danger that the Duckworth Lewis Method’s unique charms would lose some of their shine. However, such is the strength of their songwriting that the conceit still seems to have plenty of life in it. The ball may be a little older but DLM are still swinging.

Neil: I basically paraphrased a conversation in the film , about the spy ring at Cambridge. This exact metaphor was brought up in that and I thought that was kind of cool and I wrote the lyrics around that.Thomas: Most of the stuff came together from very disparate positions but it sounds so cohesive.Neil: You know what my favourite is – “Line and Length”, just because I’ve always wanted to do a song like that, an ’80s bish-bash, crazy, funky samples. I love all of that and I got a chance to really go for it.You’re both Irish but you support England. Does that create any conflict, especially as Ireland continue to make impressive progress at international level?
Neil: I think we’d say we follow England. They’re very follow-able, their games are always on the telly, and you get to know all the players so intimately. I’ve kind of been willing them to win for years because they were so bad for so long.Thomas: The old patriotism kicks in, obviously, but I’m a big England fan, I have been for a long time, so it doesn’t really change.It’s good when you have a team of some characters as well, because that’s what I remember about England, having a lot of different characters. Sometimes the England side looks like a boyband, really, it’s a bit worrying. If you think of Tim Bresnan, I’d rather he was in the team than not, because you don’t quite know what you’re going to get. He’s one of those players that could get you a five-for or whatever – players like that are essential, as well as the ones you can rely on.Mike Gatting probably gets a lot of ribbing, for pointing at the umpire, and when the ball hit him in the nose, and of course the Shane Warne ball – but he was a great cricketer, a really solid player. I think he was a character as well, and sometimes you need them.Perhaps Australia have more characters in their side now, after David Warner’s recent scrapes and the appointment of Darren Lehmann as coach?
Thomas: I think it’s brilliant, in a way, because they’re not good enough to beat England on paper, I don’t think, but they could get inside their heads. I remember Steve Collins, the Irish boxer, psyching out Chris Eubank, and that was a sure case of someone using their mind over their talent. So I think the Australians could start trying to get at England. That’s the only chance they have.What are your predictions for the Ashes then?
Neil: Thomas’ is 3-1 to England, with one draw, and mine is 3-0.What about over the back-to-back series? Ian Botham is predicting 10-0.
Thomas: Is he!Neil: I think we’ll hold fire on the return…Thomas: I’ll go two-all Down Under.Neil: They’ve never had an easy series Down Under, regardless of the sides, so it would seem likely that it would be tight. I’ll go 2-2 as well.Cricket has gone through a lot of changes in the last decade – do you think it will still move people to write songs in 20 years time?
Neil: It’s impossible to know how these things will inspire creativity in the future. I think there will always be books written about cricket, because it’s that kind of a sport, it has such depth. Songs I don’t know…Thomas: I think it will continue to inspire.Your first album contained a song called “The Age of Revolution”, about some of those changes in cricket. What do you think about the rise of T20?
Neil: Thomas likes it a lot more than I do. I find it slightly like eating a bar of chocolate compared to a three-course meal.Thomas: It sounds like it’s been to the detriment of the Test game but I love Test match cricket above anything else. But I do love to sit down and watch a T20 because, let’s face it, you do like to sit down now and again and eat a chocolate bar. I just do it all: three-course meal, chocolate, Quavers.Neil: That’s the answer to the question, “Can they all exist?” Of course they can, because all of those foodstuffs exist.

ESPNcricinfo profiles the four teams at Friends Life t20 Finals Day

Alex Winter16-Aug-2013HampshireA fine white ball team who completed the 40-over, 20-over double last season. They are on course to repeat the feat in 2013 and are capable of creating a period of dominance that Gloucestershire enjoyed at the turn of the century.In Twenty20, Hampshire have all the elements covered: top-order trailblazers, middle-order accumulators, power hitters, new-ball bowlers, crafty spinners and very effective death bowlers. Crucially too, they have got the job done before; an underestimated factor that has let the likes of Lancashire and Nottinghamshire down in the past. This is their fourth Finals Day in succession.Hampshire have a settled side who know their roles and it will take a very special performance to stop them. A fitting send off for retiring captain Dimitri Mascarenhas is a fair bet.Star Man
Michael Carberry is a big, mean hitting machine and pummelled Lancashire in the quarter-final with his first T20 century. His 496 runs in this year’s competition have many calling for him to selected for England. Mascarenhas has denied his side are depending on Carberry but it will be interesting to see how Hampshire react should he fail.How they reached Finals Day
Hampshire were untouchable in the group stage, save for a wild aberration against Kent at the Ageas Bowl – their first T20 defeat in 17 matches – but were given the shock of their lives as Lancashire dared to chase down 202 in the quarter-finals.

SurreyAh Surrey, remember them? They won the inaugural T20 competition in 2003 and appeared at the first four Finals Days but have been AWOL ever since. Surrey, and their large chequebook, have always been feared on paper but none of their signings in the past six years, Nayan Doshi, Pedro Collins, Andrew Symonds and Yasir Arafat among them, have been able to help them out of the group stage. Even the 2011 side that won the Clydesdale Bank 40 failed to crack T20. And this year, Surrey’s success was in spite of Ricky Ponting. He made one-half century and only 38 runs in another four innings.They’re back at Finals Day but have struggled for runs. Their strength lies in a bowling attack featuring the slower-ball maestro Jade Dernbach and canny old-heads Azhar Mahood and Jon Lewis. But the absence of offspinner and captain Gareth Batty, banned following his altercation with Peter Trego in the quarter-final, will hurt them.Star Man
Jade Dernbach was laughed out of the England side after becoming the most expensive bowler in ODI history against New Zealand earlier this season but he has gathered himself and is bowling supremely well in county cricket. Genuine pace matched to a variety of outrageous change-ups make him the next-best thing to Lasith Malinga on the market. 16 wickets and an economy rate of under six is a big reason why Surrey have defended scores so well.How they reached Finals Day
With Hampshire in the group, the rest of the Southern teams were competing for second place. Surrey comfortably achieved the runners-up spot with only three defeats – two of them to Hampshire – and their record would have been good enough to win the Midlands/Wales/West Group. They overcame a dangerous Somerset in the quarter-final largely by keeping Craig Kieswetter’s impact to a manageable level.

NorthamptonshireEveryone was just as surprised when they reached Finals Day in 2009 – their only previous appearance – but entering this year with three wins from their previous 26 T20s, their success is as unexpected as Joe Johnson winning the world snooker title in 1986. Northants got themselves going early in their campaign with victories over less fancied Gloucestershire and Warwickshire and, like Johnson’s campaign burgeoning with confidence after an epic victory over Terry Girffiths, so Northants walked a foot taller by beating Somerset at Wantage Road. It was their first win over Somerset in T20s for five years and set them on their way to topping the group.Azharullah has been quite a surprise package•Getty ImagesThe club has been turned around in the past 18 months with a new coach, captain and chief executive. They are an unlikely bunch but very unified and confident. They have also received good value from their overseas player, Cameron White.Star Man
Their best performer has come not from overseas but down the M1. Azharullah was plucked out of league cricket in Yorkshire and, 24 wickets later, Northants are striving to secure his signature for next season. Azharullah has good pace, a smart change-up and a mean Yorker – attributes that could see him fulfil his ambition of a county career having moved to Britain from Pakistan. His number of dismissals bowled, 10 – the most of any bowler in the competition – demonstrates his modus operandi.How they reached Finals Day
Northants quickly established themselves as the front-runners in the group and never relented. The crunch game came in the penultimate match in Cardiff but Glamorgan were hammered and a home quarter-final secured. They received a favourable draw against Durham but White’s hitting would have been too good for many sides.

EssexThat Essex find themselves at Finals Day is a rather confusing situation to come to terms with. They were bowled out for 20 in the Championship, 74 in the Flt20, booed off by their home crowd, publicly criticised by their coach, and yet find themselves two matches away from a first piece of silverware since 2008. It can only be admired how they have advertised themselves as a laughing stock and still found enough performances to qualify. Maybe it was all part of the plan.Essex have already bettered their showing from their last Final Day appearance, 2010, by not shipping in a mercenary for the event. The decision to fly in Dwayne Bravo that year chalked up another point in the laughing stock column. Bravo was run-out after just eight balls and his four overs conceded 46. They would be hard-pressed to wave in a better replacement for Shaun Tait anyway. His 16 wickets at 15.73 and economy rate of 6.73 have been excellent value for money; and his quarter-final hat-trick.Star Man
You have always got a chance when Ryan ten Doeschate is at the wicket. He can single-handedly win matches but had sold himself short with 193 runs in the group stage. But, like Essex generally, chose his moment to perform. Trent Bridge is perhaps the third-toughest ground to visit for a T20; ten Doeschate drank in the occasion and slammed 82 in 44 balls.How they reached Final Day
Beginning with two wins and two defeats, Essex were struck with bipolar disorder but a fine win at The Oval was the second of three wins on the spin that secured a best third-place spot despite losing the final two matches, including a revenge mission by Surrey in a thumping at Chelmsford. They defied the second-worst quarter-final draw in some style thanks to ten Doeschate and Tait.

Stats highlights from an incredible one-day international in Bangalore

S Rajesh02-Nov-2013 Rohit Sharma’s 209, off 158 balls with 12 fours and 16 sixes, is the slowest of the three double-centuries in one-day internationals. Virender Sehwag’s 219 came off 149 balls (strike rate 146.97), while Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 200 was off 147 (136.05). Rohit’s strike rate was 132.27. There were 16 sixes in Rohit’s innings, which is the most by a batsman in an ODI innings. The previous record was 15 by Shane Watson during his unbeaten 185 against Bangladesh in Mirpur. Sixteen is also six more than the combined sixes that Sehwag and Tendulkar struck in their double-hundreds: Sehwag struck seven sixes in his 219, and Tendulkar just three in his unbeaten 200. Rohit’s first 50 took him all of 71 balls. During that period, he played out 39 dot balls, took 24 singles, hit three fours and one six. In complete contrast, his last 59 came from a mere 18 balls: it included seven sixes and three fours, and he played out only four dot balls. Rohit brought up his 150 with only 27 balls left in the innings; at that point, it would’ve been unthinkable to imagine that he’d get a double. Yet, he faced two-thirds of the remaining balls from that stage (MS Dhoni scored 32 from 9 balls), and ended up on 209.

RunsBallsDots1s/2s/3s4s6sFirst 50713924/4/031Second 50432213/2/015Third 502697/2/053151 onwards1843/1/037Total (209)1587447/9/01216 Among those who bowled more than five balls to Rohit, the only bowler who ended with respectable stats was Watson: he conceded only three runs off ten balls, though he bowled during a stage when Rohit hadn’t cut loose. Overall, Rohit scored at 6.90 runs per over against Australia’s seamers, but he was unstoppable against spin, scoring 79 off 45 balls, a rate of 10.53 to the over.

BowlerBallsRunsRun rateDots4s/ 6sXavier Doherty345710.05112/ 5Clint McKay284810.28112/ 5James Faulkner42466.57234/ 2Nathan Coulter-Nile28326.85144/ 1Glenn Maxwell112212.0040/ 3Shane Watson1031.8070/ 0Aaron Finch511.2040/ 0 Rohit’s series tally of 491 is the highest by a batsman in a bilateral series. The next-best has also happened in this series: George Bailey’s 478. The 167-run partnership between Rohit and MS Dhoni came at a run rate of 10.65 runs per over, the third-highest among all 150-plus partnerships in ODIs. The second-highest came in this series as well, when Rohit and Virat Kohli added 186 at a run rate of 10.73 in Jaipur. India’s total of 383 is the 63rd instance of a team scoring 350 or more in an ODI, of which India have contributed 19. Three of those have been in this series itself – before this innings they had also scored 362 for 1 in Jaipur, and 351 for 4 in Nagpur. The next-highest number of such scores is 13, by South Africa, while Australia have 11. Nineteen of the 63 such scores have also happened in ODIs in India, which is again easily the highest; the next-best is 12 in South Africa, and then six in the West Indies. In the last six overs, India scored 115 runs, with the following over-wise break-up: 15, 16, 26, 20, 17, 21. It’s the most runs scored in the last six overs of an ODI between two Test-playing sides in the last ten years. The only two instances of more runs were when New Zealand scored 122 against USA at The Oval in the 2004 Champions Trophy, and South Africa scoring 118 against Netherlands at Amstelveen in May 2013. India struck 19 sixes in their innings, the highest by any team. There had been four previous instances of 18. The total number of sixes in the match, 38, is also a record. Australia looked out of the match when they were 211 for 8, but the 115-run ninth wicket stand between James Faulkner and Clint McKay was an incredible fightback. That’s the highest ninth-wicket stand for Australia in ODIs, and the fourth-best among all teams. The match aggregate of 709 is the fifth-highest in an ODI. Of the six instances when more than 700 have been scored in a match, three happened in this series. There were nine scores of 300 or more in this series, easily the highest number in a bilateral series. The five 350-plus scores is also a record in a bilateral series – the previous-best was two. Glenn Maxwell’s half-century came off just 18 balls, the second-fastest in ODI history and the joint-quickest by an Australian. It equalled Simon O’Donnell’s effort against Sri Lanka in Sharjah in 1990. Faulkner’s 116 is the third-highest score by a No. 7 batsman in ODIs, and the best for an Australian. Only MS Dhoni and Shaun Pollock have scored more at that position, and both those scores were made within a span of five days, in the Afro-Asia Cup in 2007. Clint McKay went for 89 in his ten overs, the second-highest number of runs conceded by an Australian bowler: Mick Lewis had disappeared for 113 in Johannesburg ODI in 2006. Nathan Coulter-Nile’s 80 runs is in joint tenth place. Vinay Kumar went for 102 in his nine overs, which is only the fifth instance of a bowler conceding more more than 100 in an ODI. The previous-highest by an Indian was 88, by Zaheer Khan against Sri Lanka in Rajkot in 2009.

One of the most important issues New Zealand need to sort before the fourth ODI is their ability to shut the opposition out after getting to a strong position

Abhishek Purohit in Auckland26-Jan-2014Not many would have bet on New Zealand beating India in three successive matches. The ODI in Auckland showed one of the reasons why. Few top sides would have allowed the opposition to come within one shot of winning from 184 for 6 in a chase of 315. New Zealand had a golden chance to finish the series in Auckland but blew it spectacularly. And for all their recent resurgence and Brendon McCullum’s confident vibes at press conferences, it is this failure to deliver the knockout blow that they have to weed out.New Zealand almost gave the impression that they were pleased at having tied the Auckland match, when it actually had been theirs to lose for a considerable period. McCullum even said they had done reasonably with the ball and on the field, when they had actually allowed what had been a long tail in the first two games to all but run away with the match.”I think we are obviously proud of the way we are playing at the moment and the characteristics that we are showing in some of the cricket we are playing is very good,” McCullum said. “They are the expectations we have of ourselves. We don’t always live up to them. We are starting to see a team that is growing in confidence.”We executed our blueprint pretty well for a majority of it. We lost our way for a little bit. In the field and with the ball we were okay, so from that point of view, I hope it sends the message that New Zealand is starting to get there as a one-day team and can really compete against big nations. We just need to keep backing it up and do it consistently.”Kane Williamson felt New Zealand had been “calm” in tough situations against quality players.”When you play a world-class side like that, you know what they are capable of. You can sometimes let go and they will get away from you at times,” Williamson said. “You get a wicket and you pull it back and for some reason, you can be quite calm in that situation. And I think we were and I think we have been in the last few games.”It’s an important lesson to take forward into the next two games because I think in tougher times, you have world-class players that can take the game away from you but if they get dismissed, whether they score a hundred or not, you have every chance of winning the game. The likes of Virat and Dhoni are extremely dangerous players but if you can get them out, especially chasing, you can defend anything.”New Zealand sent back both Kohli in the 15th over and Dhoni by the 36th over in Auckland. Yet, had Ravindra Jadeja managed to connect the last ball better, New Zealand would have failed in their defence of a substantial score. This is not to run down what has been a performance way above expectations against the world champions. New Zealand did manage to hold out a stiff counter from India in both Napier and Hamilton.But as Jadeja and R Ashwin went after them in Auckland, they cracked.Their fielding, something they pride themselves on, reprieved both batsmen with dropped chances. There was a missed stumping as well. They had relaxed their guard after the huge wicket of Dhoni, and you could sense some panic among the ranks. Boundary balls, wides, the occasional misfields. The wheels had come apart but, fortuitously for them, Corey Anderson just about got away with a very poor final over.Which is why the fourth match at Seddon Park becomes even more crucial for New Zealand. India have sensed the hosts can be vulnerable even when they are on top.”Hamilton will again be a huge game for us,” McCullum said. “It’s a good test for us. We are playing against the best and we have been confronted with some pressure situations and we are learning a lot about ourselves which is good. It should hold us in good stead in 12 months’ time.”McCullum would want New Zealand to apply those learnings as well, for such a meltdown could prove far costlier in the World Cup next year.

South Africa last played a Test series in Sri Lanka in 2006. What Hashim Amla should remember from then is that they remained in good spirits despite the heavy losses on the field and the civil war raging around them

Firdose Moonda02-Jul-2014The last time South Africa played a Test match in Sri Lanka was the year bird flu flapped its way across East Asia, Italy won the World Cup and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had the first of their three biological children. But perhaps more tellingly, the civil war was still raging in Sri Lanka in 2006. There would be cricket but it was on a collision course with real life. The South African team would have to concern themselves with both those things.Naturally, the first was their main focus initially. It had to be considering the state of the South African team that traveled to Sri Lanka. About eight weeks before the team was due to leave, CSA announced Jacques Kallis was unlikely to be able to go with them because he would be recovering from surgery to repair tendinitis in his elbow. Shortly after that, South Africa learnt Shaun Pollock would not be able to play in the first Test because he had to remain home for the birth of his second child.That was bad enough but it would get worse. About two-and-half weeks before the flight to Colombo, Graeme Smith tore ligaments in his ankle while running and was ruled out as well. Ashwell Prince was asked to stand in as captain, a significant appointment in a country with a racially-divided past because he was the first South African of colour to lead the team.Sounds familiar? Of course it does.South Africa are without Kallis and Smith this time as well but their absence is permanent. They are also under a captain of colour again and he is permanent too.Hashim Amla may not have time to consider the long-term implications of accepting the role he was once so reluctant to take up because his immediate task is more pressing. Sri Lanka is the place where South Africa last lost a Test series away from home when Prince’s depleted side was defeated.What Amla, who was part of that team, should remember from then is that they remained in good spirits despite the heavy losses and the incident in which Dean Jones called him a “terrorist” on air during a commentary stint.”The mood was pretty festive. We had a good few youngsters in the squad who had a proper introduction to the rigours of subcontinental cricket there; guys like Hashim, Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers who are so integral to our current squad,” Gordon Templeton, the media officer on that tour, told ESPNcricinfo. “And then we also had a good mix of experience- Mark Boucher, Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel – so we didn’t feel like we had no one senior.”While South Africa were completely outplayed in the first Test, after the massive 624-run partnership between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene condemned them to an innings-and-153-run loss, Templeton prefers to remember the next match where Dale Steyn claimed his first five-for away from home.”He was so young, just in his eighth match and he was very nervous,” Templeton said. “After he took those wickets, he had to address the media, one of the first times he was in front of a foreign press contingent. It was a good learning experience.”Gaining knowledge was one of the main themes of that tour. South Africa were confined to Colombo because of the ongoing violence in Sri Lanka, specifically in the north, and one of the first things they had to come to terms with was visiting a country at war. “From the moment we arrived, we could see there was a heightened security presence. We had military and police around us all the way from the airport to the hotel, much more than normal,” Templeton said.The three ODIs against Sri Lanka mark the start of South Africa’s planning for the 2015 World Cup and will see the return of Jacques Kallis to No. 3 in the batting line-up, which South Africa will build around him•AFPBecause the squad could not explore the other regions of the country, they had to make do with excursions close to the capital. Far from feeling cabin-feverish, Templeton remembers the interest in discovering local culture soared. “We went to one of the Ceylon Tea Plantations, which was quite interesting especially because a lot of us drank that tea,” Templeton said. “And then we also went to the Singer factory where a lot of South African seamstresses from Cape Town had found work. We were intrigued by the connection between the two countries.”The curiosity extended to the Liberty Plaza shopping centre, where the players spent “a fair amount of their down time,” according to Templeton, eating in the restaurants or buying trinkets. They would probably have been there on August 14, when the first match of a tri-series which also included India was washed out but then-coach Mickey Arthur wanted to have an indoor training session.”Mickey felt the bowlers needed to get a good workout and he wanted a proper practice so we went ahead with that instead of taking extra time off,” Templeton said. While they were training a bomb went off at the shopping centre, killing seven. The team found out when they got back to their hotel.”It came as a complete surprise to us because we felt safe in Colombo,” Goolam Rajah, the team manager at the time, said. “Nowhere that we had been in the city had we come across anyone who told us we shouldn’t be there or that it was dangerous. After the bomb went off we wondered if we’d been living in a fool’s paradise.”Team management met with security officials to decide what South Africa’s next move would be while Rajah fielded calls from families back home. “My wife heard about it on the radio and she was frantic. She was able to get through to me to find out we were okay but she was still worried,” Rajah said. “There were definitely concerns.”South Africa decided the best option was to leave and abandoned the tour. They had four more ODIs left to play, which were important for their build up to the Champions Trophy in India later that year. “We were disappointed that we couldn’t play those games and we didn’t want to leave a tour unfinished,” Rajah said.Arthur called the aborted tour a “disaster” and CSA organised fixtures against Zimbabwe to ensure there was game time ahead of the Champions Trophy. South Africa lost in the semi-finals to a rampant West Indies and the tournament was filed as another ‘what if’ in the long line of questions over performances in major competitions.This time South Africa are again using Sri Lanka as the springboard to begin preparations for an important global event. The three ODIs mark the start of their planning for the 2015 World Cup and will see the return of Kallis to No. 3 in the batting line-up, which South Africa will build around him. Their attack contains significant variation with the inclusion of left-armer Beuran Hendricks and Vernon Philander.Once they’ve tinkered with combinations in that format, they will move on to the Tests where only a series win will see them reclaim the No. 1 ranking they fought so long to gain. The fraction of a point that separates them from Australia cannot be closed with a positive result over Zimbabwe so if they do not gain it in Sri Lanka, they will have to wait until the home series against West Indies in December-January to begin searching for it again.Those are two big tasks which will put cricket firmly at the forefront of South Africa’s thoughts when their tour of the island begins. They’ve been back for the World T20 in 2012 and a limited-overs rubber last year but this will be different and again, they will be confronted with all the signs of real life, from their own rebuilding to that of the country they are visiting.Last year, Amla was struck by how the country had recovered from the 2004 tsunami. He said it left him feeling “humbled.” For a team in a time of transition, that is not the worst sentiment to have as they embark on a new era.

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from Chittagong

Alan Gardner in Chittagong27-Mar-2014The landmark
Ahsan Malik had never taken five wickets in a match and the last time he faced South Africa he was hit for 81 in ten overs. He ended this match with the ninth-best T20 international bowling figures ever and the best by an Associate against a Full Member. He first struck to remove Hashim Amla, who looked a bit miffed to be given caught behind, then had Albie Morkel slogging high but not so handsome. Returning at the death, Malik cashed in on South Africa’s laissez-faire approach, claiming Dale Steyn and Beuran Hendricks as the lower order threw the bat, then rounded off his bag of five of five by bowling David Miller.The over
Hashim Amla has faced some impertinent questions about his position in South Africa’s T20 side but when he became the second wicket to fall he had scored 43 out of 45. More than half of those runs came off one over, Michael Swart’s second. Swart opened the bowling, taking the wicket of Quinton de Kock with his fifth ball. His eighth went for six and ninth, tenth, 11th and 12th all went for boundaries in a burst of elegant fury from Amla. Three were rubber-wristed drives over the ring, the first an enormous six that sailed serenely over long-off, plus a whippy pull behind square and a thick edge through slip, as 23 came off the over.The straight drive
Facing the wicket-to-wicket medium pace of Mudassar Bukhari, AB de Villiers leaned into a crisp punch down the ground. So tight was Bukhari’s line and such fidelity was there in de Villiers’ reply that the ball flew straight back into the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Normally that would be the end of its progress but de Villiers’ shot barged a way through and had to be cut off by mid-off as the batsmen picked up a single.The XII, or XIII?
Briefly, there were 13 South Africans on the pitch. Stephan Myburgh and Wesley Barresi were born in South Africa and played first-class cricket there, though both have been part of Netherlands’ set-up for a few years now, and they spent a couple of overs together making their countrymen sweat. Whether Imran Tahir, born in Lahore, quite counts in that figure is open to debate.The catch and release
When Myburgh, intent on plunder, top-edged a pull out towards deep midwicket, it provided a chance for de Villiers on the boundary. He made his ground and took the catch comfortably enough but, with his momentum taking him back towards the rope, had to toss the ball away. Milliseconds later his foot landed on the boundary marker and, although he couldn’t pull off any further acrobatics to complete the dismissal, his reflexes saved a certain six.

Zimbabwe’s hero of the moment was as improbable as the South African scoreline. Almost always economical but hardly ever incisive, Prosper Utseya’s career economy rate has always hovered around four, even as his average inflated towards fifty

Liam Brickhill in Harare29-Aug-2014Two men have now taken one-day international hat-tricks for Zimbabwe but the circumstances of their achievements and the players themselves couldn’t be more different. Eddo Brandes and Prosper Utseya will forever sit next to each other in the record books, but that’s where the similarities end. Utseya has no memory of Brandes’ glory days and this match was not screened live in Australia.Brandes, born in Port Shepstone and built like a Mashona bull, swung the ball at pace at the end of a thundering run-up. Famously, he got past Nick Knight, John Crawley and Nasser Hussain with successive deliveries to send a packed, almost entirely white-skinned, Harare Sports Club crowd into beer-soaked ecstasy back in 1997. It was an “I was there” moment for Zimbabwean cricket fans, and I really was there, seated at what used to be called ‘Muppet’s corner’ with my old man, screaming my cracking teenage voice hoarse. I’ve still got the limited edition ‘Zimbabwe Murder England’ T-shirt that he bought me at the Sports Club shop after that series.Utseya, on the other hand, floats the ball down from a three-step shuffle and simply cannot impose himself on batsmen as Brandes did, being blessed with a portly frame that barely rises over five feet tall. Sadly, far fewer people will be able to brag about having witnessed his achievement as the mid-morning crowd at the Harare Sports Club today numbered in the hundreds. That changed very quickly over lunch, as word got out about the unlikely scenario unfolding.Zimbabwe’s hero of the moment was as improbable as the South African scoreline. Almost always abstemious but hardly ever incisive, Utseya’s career economy rate has always hovered around four – and often below – even as his average inflated towards fifty. He’d been an early starter in cricket, making his first-class debut at 15, as an opening batsman, having been awarded a cricketing scholarship to Churchill High School.’Disappointed we didn’t win’ – Utseya

“I have mixed feelings. I’m happy that I managed to get the wickets and put my team in a strong position. Obviously disappointed that we didn’t win the game. Spin is one of our strengths, especially playing at home. We tend to prepare wickets that are slow and that turn. So we’ll always try to play to our strengths when we’re playing at home.
“I just realised it was one of the key moments during the game, so I decided to go a little more on the attacking side because I could see that I was getting more assistance from the wicket and it was always going to be difficult for the guy coming in to bat. At the time I was bowling a lot slower because I knew that I was on top and I had, I think, four guys around the bat. So if, for example, you get someone out lbw he might have thought you were bowling it quicker but when the next guy comes in you bowl it slower. It also comes with experience: the more you play, the more you learn to vary your pace to your advantage, especially if you’re on top.
“I just try and enjoy my cricket. Every time you go out there and play for your country, if you’re enjoying it you tend to play better. With freedom.”

Three-and-a-half years later he was bowling to the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara, having been thrust into the national side in the midst of the so-called ‘rebel’ crisis when Zimbabwe were shorn of a generation of experienced cricketers. There followed a sustained period of tumult and scandal, and a lengthy list of defeats – from which Zimbabwe is yet to fully emerge.Utseya became Zimbabwe’s captain in 2006 and lead them on many of their darkest days, taking the team to the World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007, where their most notable achievements were tying a match against Ireland and helping Inzamam-ul-Haq to a farewell victory in his final ODI. Throughout, he trundled through over upon over of modest offspin, earning himself two nicknames in the team dressing room: ‘Rowdy’, because he barely says a word, and ‘Mr Dots’, because he bowls lots of them (Utseya has bowled 65 maidens in ODIs).He has precious little flair with the bat, but allowed himself the luxury of an adventurous signature shot: a bent-kneed paddle against seam and spin that gestures towards the Dilscoop without becoming too cute. He managed one such stroke today before feathering one from Ryan McLaren, and as Zimbabwe slipped towards a 61-run defeat, the relevance of Utseya’s career-best effort with the ball deflated.Yet it remains a worthy achievement. Zimbabwe’s recent travails have lacked the ruthlessness and self belief necessary to claw the team back from a precarious position. Their situation today appeared perilous as Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock put on a 142-run opening stand while batting on cruise control. And then Utseya spun his magic.His first spell had given no hint as to what was to follow, the batsmen milking runs through the gaps before de Kock signalled his intent with a slog-sweep to deep midwicket. His second was of an entirely different complexion, and brought a bounty of five wickets in 36 deliveries including, of course, three in three.The conditions surely helped him, but that’s not too shabby for a man with a career average of 46.45. Utseya also overcame a bout of chickenpox just before the one-day series against South Africa began, and has had the spectre of his being reported for a suspect bowling action during the third ODI in Bulawayo hanging over him. Assuming he gets his visa in time, he will be on a flight to Cardiff on September 17, to be tested two days later. His arm ball and faster delivery have been deemed to be the problem. He needed neither today, letting the ball hover higher – and slower – in the breeze with each dismissal as he manoeuvred his team into what could have been a winning position.Unfortunately, there was to be no fairytale ending to Utseya’s day and ill health meant my father was not here to see his triple strike, or his unabashed joy when umpire Ian Gould gave David Miller out, the humble offspinner tumbling backwards onto the pitch and wriggling his arms and legs in the air like an upturned dung beetle. No matter, I’ll tell him all about it. I have to: I was there.

Five questions for Sri Lanka before the ODI series against India

Andrew Fidel Fernando31-Oct-2014The opening conundrum
While Tillakaratne Dilshan has been slapping and scooping his way through opposition attacks since 2009, Sri Lanka have rifled through opening batsmen at the other end. Lahiru Thirimanne and Dimuth Karunaratne have had their dash, Mahela Jayawardene has sometimes stepped in to replace misfiring batsmen mid-tour, Kusal Perera began with promise but is yet to deliver consistently, and Upul Tharanga has been in and out of the side. The only surprise so far is that chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya has not reinstalled himself atop the innings. This tour though, sees Sri Lanka seek a definitive answer to the question of who deserves to partner Dilshan during the World Cup. Tharanga, coming in on a cloud of form from the A side, will probably have the first choice to impress, but if he fails in the first few outings, Kusal will be in the wings, awaiting his turn.Death bowling
Normally in possession of the best death bowler in the world, Sri Lanka are rarely troubled in this department, but surgery on Lasith Malinga’s ankle has put his World Cup plans on ice, and as Malinga himself suggested, Sri Lanka would be wise to blood a replacement. Thankfully, one thing a tour of India is good for is providing a stern test of whether bowlers can keep the runs down and maintain accuracy through considerable duress. Dhammika Prasad appears the most likely candidate to assume Malinga’s position at the back of an innings, but Sri Lanka have taken along Lahiru Gamage, who delivers sharp medium pace.Spin bowling
Sachithra Senanayake had played a key role in Sri Lanka’s limited-overs successes in 2014, and with his career now under a cloud of uncertainty, Sri Lanka require a canny, accurate slow-bowling replacement, who can also penetrate during the middle overs. Suraj Randiv, who is on this tour, may be the answer. He does not have Senanayake’s mystery, but he is reliable, achieves the kind of bounce that might make him a threat in the Antipodes, and has a better ODI record than Senanayake to boot. Left-arm orthodox allrounder Chaturanga de Silva may also have a chance to impress, but if Rangana Herath is viewed as the premier left-arm spinner in the World Cup squad, de Silva may have his opportunities limited.Fielding
Once by a distance the best fielding side in South Asia, Sri Lanka’s catching, in particular, has deteriorated significantly in 2014, with chances regularly shelled across formats, and avoidable boundaries conceded. The fielding had got so bad, the board advertised for a new fielding coach and trainer as part of a coaching overhaul, prompting the existing coach Ruwan Kalpage to take up a position with Bangladesh. Mathews has repeatedly marked fielding as an area of concern, and unless Sri Lanka take steps to arrest their slide, in this series, they may be punished in matches against the better-drilled teams in the months to come.Lower middle-order
Sri Lanka’s age-old ODI bane. Since even before Russel Arnold’s retirement Sri Lanka have combed through the domestic system, trialling everyone from Chamara Kapugedara to Dinesh Chandimal at Nos. 5 and 6, only to find they are approaching another World Cup with the “soft underbelly” in their batting order intact. Mathews’ increasing skill at finishing the innings has eased Sri Lanka’s woes in the area somewhat, but they are yet to nail down a firm candidate. Ashan Priyanjan has dazzled in a few innings, and may be the first batsman Sri Lanka try out in that position, in this series, but there is a chance Niroshan Dickwella may be taking guard in his first ODI, if Priyanjan does not fire in the first few games.

His amazing bat speed helps make up for a minor technical quirk

Aakash Chopra25-Feb-2015It was an exhibition match in England against amateur cricketers. As expected, the pitch wasn’t the best, and the bowler didn’t have too much pace either. The thing about these matches is that as a batsman you have to do most of the work: find the gaps in a field that is well spread out from the start, generate pace off the bat, because there won’t be much on offer, and avoid getting carried away.The batsman hit a slightly short ball off the back foot behind point for a four. The bat came down at unbelievable speed to generate pace, the supple wrists opened the face of the bat at the last minute, and the ball sped to the fence. That was the first time I saw Hashim Amla bat, and I was fortunate to have the best seat in the house, about 20 yards away, at the non-striker’s end.I had not seen anyone with such bat speed. Amla was different and it showed.
 In India we talk a lot about Virat Kohli’s enviable record in ODIs but Amla’s numbers are even better. He took 13 fewer innings than Vivian Richards (and Kohli) to get to 5000 runs, and he scores a century every 5.5 innings, which is better than anyone who has played the limited-overs game. Add to that the fact that he opens the batting, while playing most of his cricket on seamer-friendly South African pitches, where even the best players average about ten runs per innings fewer than their career average. Not to mention his phenomenal Test numbers.Amla is indeed one of the modern greats. 
Like most South African batsmen he has a back and across movement followed by a step forward as a trigger movement to set himself up before the ball is bowled. You tend to do this if you practise a lot against the bowling machine while growing up. But playing against the bowling machine also makes you tend to keep your bat in the air while standing in your stance (like Jacques Kallis did), and mostly the bat comes down from the first-slip region (once again, like Kallis).Amla is different in this regard, for his bat comes down from the third- or fourth-slip region, if not from gully. 
To ensure that the bat comes down straight, Amla makes a loop at the top of his backlift, because regardless of where the bat starts its inward trajectory from, it must come down through the first-slip direction to present the full face while playing. Since Amla launches the bat in through gully, it needs to travel a greater distance, which means he needs to do one of two things to ensure that he isn’t late on the ball: one, initiate the downswing a little earlier, or two, bring the bat through quicker than other batsmen do.Initiating the downswing early could make the timing go off completely, and so Amla chooses the second option – of making the downswing quicker – and that momentum results in generating extraordinary bat speed. But if he has to hit through the leg side, he abandons the loop at the top of the backlift, and that allows him to present the full face of the bat while playing through midwicket too. Kohli, Amla and Steve Smith are the three current batsmen who have this ability.Amla’s other strength is that after the set-up, his stability at the crease allows him to play drives on the rise. The extra pace of international fast bowlers doesn’t allow openers the luxury of a long front-foot stride, and so balance and transference of weight become critical while driving off the front foot. Amla is pretty sound in these areas, and his driving on both sides of the pitch is simply exceptional.However, no one is perfect and there are weaknesses and chinks in any armour, which can be exploited if you have the tools as a bowler. The flip side of Amla’s bat starting from gully is that at times the loop at the top isn’t made properly, which leads to the bat coming down at an angle, and that creates an opening for the balls that dart back in after pitching. Amla has been out bowled or lbw in over 30% of his dismissals against pace. Like all top-class batsmen it’s not movement in the air that bothers him but movement off the pitch. Tinashe Panyangara went through Amla’s defence in South Africa’s opening game of the World Cup. It is a pointer for other bowlers to the sort of delivery that is worth trying early on if there’s some movement off the surface on offer.

Stats highlights from the fifth day’s play in North Sound, where West Indies held on for a draw against England

Shiva Jayaraman18-Apr-2015384 Wickets James Anderson now has in Tests – the most by an England bowler. Anderson went past Ian Botham when he had Ramdin caught in the slips in West Indies’ second innings. Botham had held the record of being the highest-wicket taker in Tests for England since 1985, when he went past Bob Willis’ 325 Test wickets. Anderson – who has played 100 Tests to Botham’s 102 – is now tenth in the list of highest wicket-taking fast bowlers in Tests.3 Number of batsmen batting at No. 8 or lower to hit a fourth-innings hundred in Tests before Jason Holder in this match. The last was Matt Prior, who hit an unbeaten 110 against New Zealand at No. 8 in the Auckland Test in 2013. The other two are Daniel Vettori and Ajit Agarkar.8 Number of hundreds by lower order (No. 8 or lower) West Indies batsmen including Holder’s in this match. The last one was also against England: Darren Sammy made 106 at Trent Bridge in 2012.1930 The last time West Indies batted more than the 129.4 overs they played in the fourth innings of this match to draw or win a Test. West Indies had played 164.3 overs in a timeless Test against the same opposition in Jamaica, where George Headley had hit the first fourth-innings double-hundred in Tests. The last time West Indies batted more than 100 overs in the fourth innings to save a Test was also against England in Antigua, in 2009. Set a target of 503, they batted 128 overs at St. John’s.2 Number of times a West Indies lower-order batsman had top-scored in a Test innings with a century before Holder in this match. The last such instances came against New Zealand in 2008, when Jerome Taylor hit 106 in West Indies’ first innings in Dunedin. The other instance was in 1961 when Gerry Alexander hit 108 against Australia at the SCG.52 Holder’s highest score in first-class games before this Test, against New Zealand in the Bridgetown Test in June last year. Holder had scored two fifties from 26 first-class games before this Test.2008 Last time a West Indies captain hit a fifty-plus score in the fourth innings to help draw a Test before Denesh Ramdin in this match. Ramnaresh Sarwan had hit 128 against Australia at the same venue. This was Ramdin’s second fifty as captain in nine Tests. The other one had come earlier this year in Cape Town.2012 The last time England won an away Test, against India in Kolkata. Since then, England have played ten Tests – losing five – all of which were in the Ashes in Australia – and drawing five.