All posts by h716a5.icu

Partying lifestyle or a healthy one? Cricketers struggle with this dilemma in our Twitter round-up

Alex Bowden03-Sep-2016Mercifully this kind of thing…

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Appears to have finally come to an end.No longer do we have to endure Kevin Pietersen’s “party” lifestyle. Hurray!Now we have to endure his wholesome lifestyle.

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Whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it to a greater extent than you are. That’s probably what we’re meant to conclude from all of this.Just wait until he discovers lounging around watching TV. The sofa will cave under his relentless presence. The empty pizza boxes will tower above him…He hasn’t even been banging on about coffee. We’ve had to head to the Test Match Special commentary box for our obligatory coffee tweet.

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When not working on TMS, James Taylor has been having an even more productive time than KP.

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He has been providing valuable information too actually. A lesson for all wannabe birds/aeroplanes: lemons make a perfectly serviceable alternative to wings… apparently.

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We may have misunderstood that.Taylor’s former team-mate Graeme Swann has been putting his time to good use too. And he’s got even greater ambitions for the future.

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If he was eating one meal a day, drinking juice and training like a mofo, he wouldn’t even need to grow that much.Hashim Amla has been asking the difficult questions.

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Some questions are best left unasked. “They” don’t want you to know the answer to that, Hashim. They don’t want anyone to know the truth about wet outfield roping…Umar Akmal’s Twitter feed remains pretty much as you’d expect. Coming soon to a town near you: one man and his ever-present photographer.

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There’s an outside chance he took this one himself.

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Don’t give us the #brightsunnyday excuse, Umar. We know you wear sunglasses every day of your life, indoors and outdoors, rain or shine. We know this because we’ve seen the photographic evidence.When it comes to selfies, everyone else at least limits themselves to transport. What is it with cricketers? As soon as they’re in motion, they have this irresistible urge to photograph themselves.

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Odisha have qualified for the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy for the first time since 2001-02, but life was anything but comfortable for them for the last ten days or so

Arun Venugopal10-Dec-2016When Delhi were battling for a win against Saurashtra in Baroda to stay alive in the knockout race, some 1500 km away an anxious Odisha side was keeping close tabs on the match. With Odisha only one point ahead of Delhi’s 21, the latter’s victory would leave Odisha needing to win outright against Jharkhand in their last league game beginning on December 15.However, unlike his team-mates, Odisha captain Govinda Poddar wasn’t sweating over the outcome. He was attending a family function in his hometown Rourkela, and had decided to take his mind off the game. His team-mates, though, wouldn’t let him be.”I wasn’t following the scores because I didn’t want to be nervous about something I couldn’t control. But, every once in a while, someone or the other would ring me up to tell me the score,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I would tell them: ‘, please put the phone down. Tell me at the end if they have lost or not.'”Not long after, Saurashtra snuffed out Delhi’s chances by four runs after last man Navdeep Saini was adjudged lbw. As a result, Odisha were into the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy for the first time since 2001-02. This time, Poddar didn’t mind the phone calls.”I have two phones and both started ringing at the same time. Our wicketkeeper Saurabh Rawat, and Ranjit Singh, the opening batsman, were the first guys to call,” he said. “When I picked up the phones, I heard their excited voices: ‘, we have qualified, congrats.’ Then, I called our coach Debasis Mohanty and we congratulated each other.”Allrounder Biplab Samantray was one of the players who bombarded Poddar with score updates. He was at his home in Cuttack, discussing the match online with his team-mates. “We were all sharing updates on our team’s Whatsapp group, and whenever my internet slowed down, I would anxiously ask the others what the score was,” he said.”It’s been 15 years since we have qualified for the knockouts, so obviously there is bound to be excitement. It was a dream of mine, personally, to play in the quarter-finals. We have been doing well this season and God has given us another chance to prove ourselves. We had our team’s practice session this afternoon and everyone was excited about performing in a big match. Such things don’t come easily.”Odisha leave for Thiruvananthapuram on Monday for what would now effectively be a practice match against Jharkhand ahead of the quarter-finals scheduled to begin on December 24. Had Delhi won, the trip would have been a lot more tense, especially with what Odisha have gone through in the last week or so. They were grounded in Dindigul for a week after their last league fixture against Jharkhand was a non-starter following the death of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Poddar called the “hotel arrest” a new experience that transcended cricket.”From December 2 to 8, we were in Dindigul,” he said. “We went for practice only on the first two days, and a few hours before she passed away on December 5, there were rumours about her passing away. Our local manager feared there could be acts of violence and said we had to return to the hotel, which was about 35 km away from the ground [in Natham]. After we reached the hotel, we couldn’t step out until December 8.”It was frustrating, but it was a new experience in the sense we got to know a lot of new things. The passing away of a leader of such stature is sad news, and we could see what it meant to the people there.”There was some anxiety over Odisha’s travel plans, and for a brief period, they didn’t know the fate of their match against Jharkhand. “There was a bit of apprehension over whether we could get out of town or not, and what would happen to the match,” he said.”So there was a lot of chaos, but all the boys got together and reassured one another that we couldn’t afford to worry about the game. Whenever it took place, we had to be ready – there was nothing more we could do. For those five-six days, all we did was wake up, gather in somebody’s room and order room-service. That we have bonded well all season has helped.”After the team eventually got back to Odisha, they have had well-deserved downtime. Poddar hoped Odisha, rejuvenated by the break, would go further in the tournament. “I was very desperate because some of our players have been performing well over the last few years, but still they are not getting to play at a certain level,” he said. “To come into the limelight, you need to play quarter-finals and semi-finals. Your matches are broadcast live and people know there is a team that is trying hard to come up the ladder.”For now, though, Odisha have earned the right to celebrate their biggest achievement in a while. “We haven’t planned a party yet, Samantray said, “but we will have something for sure before we start for Trivandrum.”

Plays of the day from the first one-day international between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Port Elizabeth

Andrew McGlashan28-Jan-2017The handy startIt doesn’t feel as though Wayne Parnell is secure of his place in the South Africa team and the frustrations that appear on his face are of a man who thinks the same. This, therefore, is a crucial one-day series for him to ensure the selectors don’t start to question his place for the Champions Trophy. He made the ideal start when he clattered his first delivery into the pads of Niroshan Dickwella, who had played well in the T20 series, to win an lbw decision.The rarityRichard Kettleborough, the English umpire, is widely regarded as one of the finest on the international circuit and it’s not often that he has a decision overturned by the DRS. But it happened in Sri Lanka’s innings when he gave Kusal Mendis lbw to Imran Tahir only for replays to show it had taken the edge. The howling gale blowing across the ground made life tricky for a lot of people, including the umpires who needed to listen for the nicks. The next time Mendis reviewed, though, normal service was resumed as Kettleborough’s decision was upheld.The set-upWatching a legspinner work over a batsman is one of the joys of the game (unless you are the said batsman). Tahir did a wonderful job on Dinesh Chandimal. A straighter delivery was followed by a legbreak, then he sent down a googly which pitched around middle and spun to take the pad. The next ball, the final one of the over, was another wrong ‘un, but this time tossed much wider outside off. He lured Chandimal forward, pushing away from his body, and ball gripped to spin between bat and pad.The wrong buttonWhen things are going badly for a batting side there’s a decent chance a run out will crop up. And, on cue, Sri Lanka conjured one when Dhananjaya de Silva and Asela Gunaratne messed up between the wickets and Gunaratne was well short. Everyone knew he was out, but for a moment ‘not out’ flashed up on the big screen. No, the third umpire hadn’t been watching a different replay, the wrong button had just been pushed.Bonus runsWhen you are defending 181 you can’t afford to hand free runs to the opposition. Hashim Amla was facing Lakshan Sandakan when a delivery slipped down the leg side, through Chandimal’s gloves and clanged into the helmet behind him. Five more to the total – not that South Africa needed much help – and the over ended up costing 14.

The former India opener analyses different methods batsmen adopt while negotiating the short ball on Indian surfaces where inconsistency in bounce is a big factor

Aakash Chopra26-Mar-2017There are a couple of common threads between Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, the three Australian fast bowlers who have featured in this series. They have consistently bowled in the high 140s and have used the bouncers quite liberally. They haven’t used them to just push the Indian batsmen on the back foot but employed it as a wicket-taking option.In fact, four of Cummin’s five wickets in the series are off bouncers. While he claimed KL Rahul with another bouncer on Sunday, the Indian batsmen, largely, showed impeccable and different defensive techniques to negotiate short balls.Playing the bouncer on slow and low Indian pitches is tough. Inconsistency in bounce tends to hamper a batsman’s response. The plan of negotiating a bouncer is rarely on instinct. Generally, most batsmen have a well thought out strategy based on the surface.Pitches with less bounce generally eliminate thoughts of ducking under. On faster and bouncier pitches where riding the bounce is fraught with danger, ducking becomes the most viable option. Since Indian pitches aren’t trustworthy with regards to pace and bounce, batsmen must keep a couple of options open for bouncers.M Vijay’s preferred mode of operation against the short ball has been to drop his wrists•Associated PressDucking underCheteshwar Pujara was hit on the helmet on a number of occasions by Chris Woakes in Rajkot. He’s made a slight technical shift to his stance and trigger movement since. The stance is narrow with a shorter and straighter front-foot trigger that has allowed him to keep his eyes on the ball.He has also come up with a robust plan to duck under most bouncers. His dismissal while trying to ride the bounce off Mitchell Starc in Pune seems to have shelved this particular plan for the remainder of the series. Though he stays beside the ball often, his defensive plan against the rising short ball isn’t to sway away but to duck under.It’s important to pick the right length while planning this. The ball must be really short; your eye should be on the ball even as you’re going down while dropping the wrists simultaneously to ensure the ball doesn’t find the toe-end of the bat. In overseas conditions, once you’ve picked the length, you can get away with tucking your chin into your neck, but in India, you must keep an eye on the ball because of the bounce factor.Once you’ve committed to this plan, you must brace yourself for a couple of blows. That shouldn’t deter batsmen from being up to this repeatedly. Pujara’s judgment of length and the commitment to the plan has been exemplary. It’s his low stance makes this plan a more viable option.Swaying awayM Vijay and Rahul’s defensive option against bouncers is to sway away than to duck under. Both have a fairly upright stance and a slight trigger movement. Since both are fairly balanced and side-on, they prefer either to stay inside or get outside the line while letting the ball go.The lack of bounce on Indian pitches would make it almost impossible to stand tall and sway away. That is perhaps why both would collapse their knees a little, drop their wrists and keep their eyes on the ball. The common thread between ducking and swaying is an early commitment to the response, for the moment you drop the wrists, there’s no other option available except leaving or taking the body blow. In this method, it’s imperative to stay as side-on as possible, for that provides the ball with a smaller target to hit.Riding the bounceThe last defensive option against a rising delivery should be to get on top of the bounce by standing as tall as possible, which includes getting on the toes. Pujara has used this ploy to deliveries that he didn’t find short enough to duck and has managed fairly well. Against such deliveries, going back and across is a great option, for that brings the body slightly outside the line of the ball, which in turn allows you to guide it down to fine leg. Keeping a soft bottom hand is a must to ensure that the ball goes down on impact and not in the air for the waiting short-leg fielder. It also reduces the impact of the ball hitting the gloves a fair bit.This method also challenges the age-old belief of cricket being a side-on game, for that can lead you to trouble. Rahul has been comfortable in letting the ball go but has been in trouble whenever he has attempted to ride the bounce. His extreme side-on position is to blame. If you were to freeze the frame at the point of impact, you would find his front leg being in front of the back leg, which doesn’t allow the body to open up. He tries to watch the ball with both his eyes, but the locked lower body makes it tougher for him to have complete control on the shot. For this very reason, Australia had fielders stationed at short leg and leg slip for Rahul and not for any other Indian batsmen.Ajinkya Rahane’s has consistently gotten into a tangle against the short ball in recent times•BCCILack of clarity and confidence in the defensive gameIn this home season, Ajinkya Rahane has been troubled by the short-pitched deliveries. He’s left them alone, tried riding the bounce, played the upper cut and even the hook. But none have looked convincing. Unlike most batsmen, it seems he doesn’t have a set plan to counter the bouncers. That is perhaps stemming from a slight dip in confidence in his defensive game at the moment, for he hardly looked in trouble in South Africa, England, New Zealand or Australia.In Indore against New Zealand and here against Australia, his plan has been to bat from deep inside the crease. While the plan has worked, it isn’t a tactic that could work for the long term.The moment you transfer the weight onto the back foot, you cannot play the defensive shot. To ride the bounce too, the transfer of weight (on to the back foot) must happen just before the ball arrives. If the weight is already on the back foot, you can’t get on your toes. On the contrary, the chances of the back knee collapsing are higher.To leave the bouncer (ducking or swaying), the weight must always be on the front foot, for that allows your body to tilt forward to make it easier to bend. If you tried to kneel with the weight on the back foot, you’ll end up in an awkward position with the front shoulder pointing skywards. That’s why Rahane is forced to attack every short ball coming his way and it’s a known fact that you can’t hit your way out of a bouncer trap.

The part-timers low-slung spinners have accounted for some big names

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Oct-2017

Nathan Lyon became only the second non-Asian, after Ian Botham, to take 13 wickets in a Test in Asia

Gaurav Sundararaman07-Sep-2017Record-breaking LyonNathan Lyon was on a roll in the two-Test series in Bangladesh. His Chittagong match-haul of 13 for 154 was his second ten-for, and also his best figures in Tests. In fact, he became only the third off-spinner from Australia and the first in over 110 years to take two ten-wicket hauls. The 22 wickets he has taken in this series against Bangladesh is the joint second-highest in any two-match series, next only to Rangana Herath’s 23-wicket haul against Pakistan in 2014.ESPNcricinfo LtdSolving the Asia puzzleLyon’s first three Asian tours – to Sri Lanka, India and UAE between 2011 and 2014 – were nightmarish. He averaged 49.11, and took a wicket once every 14 overs. The series against Pakistan in the UAE was especially poor, when he managed only three wickets from 660 deliveries.However, he has learnt from those experiences and come back strongly on his next three tours. In nine Tests in Asia since 2015, Lyon has picked up 57 wickets, averaging one every eight overs. Among all the bowlers who have bowled in Asia in this period, Lyon has the second-best strike-rate, ahead of subcontinent-specialists Yasir Shah, Ravindra Jadeja and Shakib Al Hasan. He has also taken five five-wicket hauls and now has the second most five-fors for Australia in Asia, behind Shane Warne.ESPNcricinfo Ltd Left is right Like most offspinners, Lyon is at his best against left-hand batsmen, and this Bangladesh line-up gave him plenty of opportunity to be at his best. Against a top-order that included five left-handers, Lyon was lethal: of the 22 wickets he took in the series, 15 were of left-handers, whom he dismissed at an average of 10.46. The right-handers, however, made him work much harder; he averaged 22.57 against them. He took a wicket every 29 balls against the left-handers compared to one every 53 balls against right-hand batsmen. Imrul Kayes was dismissed three times in 39 balls, scoring just four runs, while Shakib Al Hasan scored 37 from 89, and was out thrice as well.Of those 15 dismissals of left-handers, 13 were from around the stumps, at an average of 11.30. When bowling to right-handers, he took seven wickets from over the stumps, at an average of 17.42, demonstrating an ability to bowl effectively from both sides of the stumps.

Lyon v right and left-handers in the Bangladesh series

Batsman type Wkts Ave SRRight-hand batsmen 15 10.46 29.0Left-hand batsmen 7 22.57 52.6Over his entire career, he averages 34.75 against right-handers and 25.50 against the left, but in Asia the difference is even starker. On his first three tours, Lyon averaged over 35 runs and took a wicket every 10 overs against the left-handers. Having bowled a lot in these conditions, Lyon’s record has made a stark improvement.

Lyon in Asia from 2011-14

Batting Style Wkts Ave SRRight-hand batsman 22 51.54 79.5Left-hand batsman 4 35.75 61.0

Lyon in Asia from 2015-17

Batting Style Wkts Ave SRRight-hand batsman 33 29.66 60.0Left-hand batsman 24 13.62 30.9The second-innings challengeOn pitches that usually tend to wear pretty rapidly, Lyon had been strangely ineffective in the second innings in Asia before this series. His second-innings average in Asia, prior to this series, was 49.47, compared to 32.43 in the first.However with his two consecutive five-fors in the second innings against Bangladesh, Lyon has improved on those numbers too. In this series, Lyon took 12 second-innings wickets at 11.83, compared to 10 in the first innings at 17.30.Lyon is only 29 and his experience in Asian conditions would only help him further these extraordinary numbers. In Lyon, perhaps, Australia have found a worthy successor to Warne.

A PCB spokesman insisted fewer games for Pakistan over the next FTP cycle indicate that Pakistan is focusing on quality over quantity

Osman Samiuddin14-Dec-2017Pakistan’s international commitments in the next Future Tours Programme (FTP) will focus on quality, not quantity, according to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).The new FTP for the period between May 2019 and May 2023 is close to what will be its final state, after members ironed out details at a scheduling workshop in Singapore earlier this month.On the surface, the PCB seems to have come out of it badly. In total, they have 104 international matches inked in over four years (28 Tests, 38 ODIs and 38 T20Is). That is the lowest of all countries bar Ireland (102), Afghanistan (88) and Zimbabwe (88). For a board that was placed as the fourth-most valuable in the Big Three revamp of the game in 2014, that is an especially poor haul. Compare that to their current FTP, from May 2014 to May 2019 in which – if it plays out as is currently scheduled – they will end up playing 183 international matches.The board can cite mitigating circumstances. They are the only country that has no matches scheduled against India, the side with the busiest schedule in the next FTP (159 matches). The PCB has initiated a dispute resolution process with the BCCI that – if it rules in their favour on a bilateral agreement signed in 2014 – they hope could add 19 more games to that calendar. That, however, is not really in their control nor, ultimately, is it likely to be in that of an independent dispute resolution committee of a sports governing body. Any resolution will come from higher political forces.But board officials have also been eager to highlight that this haul represents an adherence to the guiding principle behind these FTP negotiations – that it is about quality of contest, rather than quantity.”This is a quality against quantity thing,” one board official said. “At one point in the schedule, we tour Zimbabwe for a limited number of games. We could’ve scheduled more as we have a month left after it, but deliberately we haven’t – we don’t want to increase our quantity against lesser sides and drop our value.”That value would be to a broadcaster; the PCB will begin negotiations for a new broadcast contract in 2019 with fewer games than the last cycle to show and most likely nothing against India. The board feels it can still do well out of that, able to boast of home commitments against what it has ranked as high-value opponents: South Africa, Australia and England.A glance at the FTP would back that up, though only to a degree. Of their 13 home Tests, for example, seven are against high-value opponents and the rest against mid-value ones, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Six of their 15 away Tests are against Australia and England.The ODIs are a slightly different equation, given the mixing of the current FTP with the new one, and the introduction of two-year league within the calendar (rather than spanning it, as the Test league does). In that league, three of Pakistan’s eight opponents would be low-value ones: Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Netherlands (though a rivalry with Afghanistan has plenty of potential).A team like the West Indies, which plays 62 ODIs in all, has as many as 29 matches against Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Nine of Bangladesh’s 35 Tests are against non-league opponents (Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan).”All that talk of context, that uninteresting, non-competitive matches should be reduced – we have kept that guiding principle with us,” the official said.Another factor is the impending expansion of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Next season, the league will include a new, sixth franchise and will last just over a month. From 2020, the PCB hope to have eight franchises and have thus carved out a six-week window in their home season for it. That has meant lesser space for international matches, especially Tests. Given the growing contribution of the league to the board’s financial health, that is a no-brainer.The board sees gaps in the schedule as an advantage, allowing them some flexibility in being able to schedule more commitments should they be needed. That would, they acknowledge, be difficult against sides such as Australia and England, but perhaps not so against teams such as New Zealand or South Africa.But those gaps are reflective of the biggest hole in their calendar – that of India. How those smaller gaps are filled – and, in fact, the final nature of the PCB’s FTP – will depend almost entirely on the result of the dispute claim against India.

The Test readiness of England’s rookies is perhaps secondary to the sense of purpose that their inclusions project

Andrew Miller at Lord's08-Aug-20181:47

Pope gets the nod for England, but who’ll miss out?

The kids are alright, you know. For the fourth time in 2018 alone, and for the fifth time since the selection of Haseeb Hameed on the last tour of India in November 2016, England have plumped for youth over experience, excitement over stability, the bold approach over the same old narrative with interchangeably seasoned campaigners.At the age of 20 years and 219 days, Surrey’s Ollie Pope will bat at No.4 for England in the Lord’s Test – a position that effectively leaves him man-marking one of the game’s all-time great batsmen in India’s captain, Virat Kohli, the scorer of 200 formidable runs in last week’s Edgbaston Test.With just 15 first-class matches under his belt, Pope slots into England’s Test history as their third-youngest specialist batsman behind Denis Compton (19 years and 83 days) and Hameed (19 years and 269 days), and does so in the wake of his Surrey team-mate and fellow 20-year old, Sam Curran, being named as Man of the Match for a precocious allround display in the first Test.Throw into the mix the bloodings of Mason Crane (20 years and 320 days) at Sydney in January, and Dom Bess (20 years and 306 days) for the Pakistan Tests in May and June, and is clear that the only thing being fast-tracked more quickly than young English talent is a sense of revolution from the new national selector, Ed Smith, who whiled away his time during England’s nets session by patrolling the Nursery Ground outfield with phone glued to ear and with shades and rolled-up shirtsleeves transmitting a stockbroker’s air of urgency.What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything and nothing, in the opinion of England’s captain, Joe Root (who was himself a grizzled 22-year-old when he made his own Test bow at Nagpur in 2012-13). Before this sudden baby boom, England had chosen just 19 under-21s in their first 140 years of Test history – most recently Steven Finn as a last-minute replacement on the tour of Bangladesh in 2010. But with the team’s current Test record perhaps as erratic as it has been in a generation, there is arguably a perverse prudence to such an abrupt change of strategy.”If you’re old enough, you’re good enough,” Root said. “A lot of the selections of late have been quite bold, we’re not shy of being a little bit brave and doing things slightly differently. It’s worked out for us so far.””I think when you give exciting young talents responsibility, they tend to surprise you,” he added. “We’ve seen that so far. The challenge for them moving forward is to try and sustain that and not put too much pressure on themselves and too much expectation on them to deliver on a really consistent basis.”Ollie Pope and Sam Curran warm up ahead of training•Getty ImagesThe issue of youth and renewal is one that cuts to the core of everything in English cricket at present. The question of whether the likes of Pope and Curran are truly ready for the step-up in class is perhaps secondary to the sense of purpose that their inclusions project.Much as was the case with Adil Rashid’s recall at Edgbaston (and maybe, if you want to extrapolate even further, the ongoing mayhem that is The Hundred), the noses that get put out of joint by the ECB’s sudden predilection for thinking outside the box are less important than those outside the game’s usual confines who get wind of this disruption to the status quo, and poke their noses in for a first sniff of the action.Certainly Root was at pains to make it clear that the door is not closed to county performers who earn their recognition through the more traditional formula of runs and wickets over time. But, tellingly, he also seemed less interested in immediate dividends, even with a series as important as a five-Test rubber against India on the line. The long game is what really matters as England attempt to reboot their red-ball fortunes.”I think we’ve got to be really realistic that these guys are exciting young players and they will do some very good stuff,” said Root. “It might not all happen straight away and we have to be a little bit patient with that.” Join us for the ride, in other words, and invest in these guy’s stories. Whatever transpires, it is unlikely to be dull.Even India’s captain seemed rather engaged by Pope’s tale. “We want to try and knock him over as early as possible, but on a larger front, I am happy for him,” Kohli said. “As a cricketer I understand how important it is. I will tell him to enjoy the occasion, and not get too many runs!”The prospect of Pope having his credentials scrutinised by the best batsman in the world may be daunting, but it is not as if England’s rookies are being thrown into the fray without a serious support network behind them. In Alastair Cook, James Anderson and Stuart Broad – not to mention Root himself, whose 6000 Test runs are still only the start of what he could achieve – this team’s senior pros are among the most senior ever to have played the game.”We’ve got some very good experienced players around them so they can learn and mould their games at the highest level,” said Root. “For young guys coming in, that’s exciting for this team, and for people around it, seeing a young man in Sam performing how he did last week with a real bright future, it’s exciting for English cricket. That should fill a lot of other lads around the country with a huge amount of confidence.”And if the beauty of Test cricket lies in its narrative, then what could be more beautiful than these kids-turned-veterans, looking back in 15 years’ time on the priceless nuggets of wisdom that they received first-hand in their earliest outings? It may be wildly out of kilter with everything that English cricket has preached about Test cricket in the course of its first 990-odd engagements. But since the turn of the year, there’s been a turning of the page. And are you not entertained already?

This is the first time since the victorious New Zealand tour of 1968 that India have three wins outside the subcontinent in a calendar year

Bharath Seervi10-Dec-20186 – Tests won by India in Australia. This win is only their third in the country in the last 35 years. Their previous two came in Perth (January 2008) and Adelaide (December 2003). The first three wins had come on successive tours of 1977-78 (two) and 1980-81. India are the only team win in Adelaide twice since 2000.India registered their sixth Test win in Australia•ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 – This is the first time India have won the first Test of an Australia tour. On 11 previous occasions, they either escaped with a draw (2) or stumbled to a loss (9). India winning opening Tests on overseas tours is a rarity. They’ve done it once in England (Lord’s 1986), once in South Africa (Jo’burg 2006), thrice in New Zealand and twice in West Indies (both this decade).0 – No Australian side has successfully chased 200-plus targets at Adelaide in the last 100 years. They have lost seven and drawn eight Tests in 15 tries. In fact, no team has managed to chase down 200-plus targets against India in last 10 years. The last time this was achieved was when South Africa did so in Cape Town in 2006-07. Since then, India have won 23 and drawn 11 of 34 such Tests.2 – Twice in the last three seasons, Australia have begun their home summer with a defeat. That’s India in 2018-19 and South Africa in 2016-17. Prior to these three seasons, the last time they started a home summer with a loss was 30 years ago, to West Indies.31 – India’s margin of victory, their third-narrowest in terms of runs. Adelaide follows the 13-run win over Australia in Mumbai in 2004-05 and 28-run win over England at Eden Gardens in 1972-73. For Australia, this is their second-closest defeat at home since 2000.3 – Wins for India after losing their first four wickets for less than 50 runs while batting first. This was the first time they have done it away from home. The other two wins were against West Indies in Chennai in 1974-75 and Australia in Mumbai in 2004-05.1 – Virat Kohli became the first Indian – and Asian – captain to win at least one Test in South Africa, England and Australia. He and his team achieved all these victories in 2018 – at Wanderers, Trent Bridge and Adelaide Oval. The only other year when India had won three Tests in a year outside subcontinent was in 1968, when they won all three Tests in New Zealand.11 – Catches taken by Rishabh Pant in the Test – the joint-most by a wicketkeeper. He equalled Jack Russell and AB de Villiers and overtook Wriddhiman Saha, who took 10 at Cape Town earlier this year.35 – Catches in this Test, a world record. It bettered the the 34 set in Cape Town earlier this year between Australia and South Africa. All 20 wickets in the second innings of both sides were caught.

Our handy explainer will get you fully up to speed with the latest T20 competition on the circuit

Liam Brickhill18-Oct-2018After more than 18 months of to-ing and fro-ing, CSA is less than a month away from hosting its own city-based T20 cricket tournament: the Mzansi Super League. It has been a lengthy and complicated process, but with a complete revamping of formatting and commercial partnerships CSA has settled on a homegrown structure typified by its exclusive broadcast partnership with South Africa’s public broadcaster, SABC. The packed T20 league calendar is about to get a brand new addition.Mzansi Super League? What’s with the name?
“Mzansi” is an isiXhosa word that translates literally to “south”, but in colloquial slang usage refers to the country of South Africa, denoting something uniquely hip and homegrown. The local spin on the league has been central to CSA’s re-strategising after the failed first launch last year, but that hasn’t extended to the teams, who have all been given more generic names: Jozi Stars, Tshwane Spartans, Durban Heat, Cape Town Blitz, Paarl Rocks and Nelson Mandela Bay Giants.Durban, Cape Town, Tshwane … are these all city-based teams?
Yes, moving away from the old provincial franchise model, CSA has settled on host cities and grounds for all of the teams. Jozi Stars will be based at Wanderers (Jozi is another South Africanism, a shortened form of Johannesburg), Cape Town Blitz at Newlands, Tshwane Spartans at SuperSport Park in Centurion, Durban Heat at Kingsmead, Paarl Rocks at Boland Park and Nelson Mandela Bay Giants at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth.So we have a league, home grounds and teams: when will the tournament finally begin?
The first game of the MSL will be played on November 16, between Cape Town Blitz and Tshwane Spartans, and the final exactly a month later on December 16. There will be 32 games in all, with each team playing the others home and away.Wait, it starts on November 16… Aren’t the Proteas still going to be in Australia at that time?
Yes they are: South Africa’s limited-overs tour of Australia ends with a one-off T20I on November 17, so they won’t be around for the opening weekend. But each team has been assigned a marquee Protea (or, in one case, ex-Protea) player pre-tournament and all of the nationally contracted players will be available once the team gets back from Australia. AB de Villiers will play for Tshwane Spartans, Imran Tahir for Nelson Mandela Bay Giants, Quinton de Kock for Cape Town Blitz, Hashim Amla for Durban Heat, Faf du Plessis for Paarl Rocks and Kagiso Rabada for Jozi Stars.Chris Gayle allows himself a grin•BCCIWho else is involved? Can we expect the usual T20 franchise suspects?
A lot of them, yes, though there are no players from New Zealand, India or Bangladesh at the MSL. But Chris Gayle and Dan Christian have signed on for Jozi Stars, Rashid Khan for Durban Heat, Dwayne Bravo for Paarl Rocks and Eoin Morgan for Tshwane Spartans. In all, 342 players applied to be part of the draft, vying for 96 spots. There was no IPL-style bidding on players – they all had reserve prices and the franchise heads had all been given a limited budget they had to work within: R325,000 (approx. USD22,500) each. The final draft was completed earlier this week.A month of Chris Gayle thrashing bowlers around South Africa and Rashid Khan dissecting batting line-ups? That sounds like fun!
It does, but not so fast: virtually all of the MSL’s international marquee players are going to miss a big chunk of the tournament because they’ve also signed on to play in the Abu Dhabi T10 League. Morgan, Gayle, Bravo, Rashid, Jason Roy and Asif Ali are all playing in Abu Dhabi, and there have even been reports that the T10 League attempted to block CSA’s recruitment of some players. The T10 League runs from November 23 to December 2, so there’s a chance that all of the players mentioned above will only be around for the opening weekend, and then the last two weeks of the MSL.And who will fill in while they’re away?
South African national and provincial players, mainly. Several teams also made their draft picks with availability in mind and ensured they had like-for-like players to fill the gaps in the teamsheet when the big stars are away. For example, Durban Heat knew they were going to lose Rashid for much of the tournament, so they also enlisted Brandon Mavuta, the young Zimbabwe legspinner who can give it a bash down the order. But more than three quarters of the players involved in the draft were South African, and that has been reflected in the squads.Okay. So where can we watch the MSL?
If you can’t make it to a stadium, the games will all be televised on SABC thanks to CSA’s exclusive broadcast deal with them. If you are outside South Africa, SABC is also included in the DStv bouquet that covers Sub-Saharan Africa (DStv is a direct broadcast satellite service that includes hundreds of channels). CSA have also announced Global Sports Commerce (GSC) as their international commercial and broadcast partner. GSC have various partnerships with global and Indian brands and will work with CSA as its exclusive international commercial partner across television, digital and event sponsorship as CSA seeks to monetise TV rights and branding – so you should be able to watch the MSL on telly overseas.How is this different from all the other T20 leagues out there?
Put simply, it’s not. But it does mark a major milestone in the development of cricket in South Africa. They are latecomers to the T20 league party, but they seem to be pulling this off at the second attempt and that means that cricket will reach a broad South African audience in a way it never quite has before. SABC claims daily viewership figures of 28 million on their TV channels, as well as a 72% stake in the radio airwaves in South Africa, and the MSL could break new ground in terms of the South African cricket-watching public. Twenty years ago, the audience for cricket was largely middle class and almost exclusively white. Plenty has changed since then, but if the MSL can survive and prosper, the future looks even more inclusive and diverse.