All posts by n8rngtd.top

Plays of the day from the second match of the tri-nation series between Sri Lanka and West Indies

Nikhil Kalro16-Nov-2016Brathwaite’s shoddy techniqueOn an overcast morning, Kraigg Brathwaite weathered a testing opening spell from Sri Lanka’s seamers. All his hardwork came undone with sloppy technique, not against the new balls but while running. He patted a length delivery to mid-on, judged a run well and immediately set off. However, instead of sliding the bat in, he plonked it in the turf on the adjacent pitch. The bat jarred and bounced back up. Nuwan Kulasekara ran in, picked the ball with his right hand and threw the stumps down at the bowler’s end. Brathwaite’s feet and bat were in the air, ending an innings that showed promise.Juggle, catch, juggle, dropRovman Powell’s debut ODI innings was laden with boundaries on the leg side, a result of a strong bottom hand. In the 44th over, he failed to get underneath one such bottom-handed flick off Suranga Lakmal. The ball skewed off the inside half of the bat and carried to deep midwicket’s right. The fielder, Shehan Jayasuriya, moved nimbly and looked set to take a comfortable catch at chest height. The ball, however, bounced out off his palm and lobbed back up. Panicking, Jayasuriya grabbed at a simple parry and juggled it up again. Still panicking, he grasped at it, but the ball had had enough of Jayasuriya and dropped by his feet.Kulasekara’s two plus twoNot many fast bowlers are stationed at midwicket. Kulasekara was and he showed why. In the 47th over, Jason Holder nudged a ball to short midwicket and set off for one. He was slow to start, but picked up pace as Kulasekara swooped in on the ball. He picked up cleanly, turned quickly and released the ball all in one swift motion to hit the base of the stumps at the bowler’s end. Even a tall Holder was more than a foot short. Kulasekara took two wickets with the ball and in the field.Harare’s helpWest Indies defended 227 on the back of some accurate bowling, but were also abetted along the way by a Harare surface that got gradually harder to score on. Ashley Nurse, in the 22nd over of the chase, pitched an innocuous-looking offbreak on leg stump. But the ball spun and bounced on Upul Tharanga, who had shaped to flick, and bobbled up off the leading edge, and Nurse claimed a simple return catch.Carlos Brathwaite, too, realised success lay in using the conditions. He repeatedly used offcutters, banging them in the middle of the pitch. Jayasuriya, batting on 31 in the 41st over, was too early into a nudge and a leading edge was snaffled up at midwicket.

A look back at the week leading up to the knockouts at the Women’s Big Bash League

Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins24-Jan-20172:52

How the semi-finals line-up looks

Eight teams divided into four pairs across four cities, each pair playing twice. Such was the equation for the last weekend of the regular Women’s BBL season, with each pair’s potential results having their own ramifications for who would play finals. And the finalists were…Brisbane HeatBrisbane had a simple equation: beat the bottom-placed Adelaide Strikers twice, vault from fifth into third or fourth. The first came easy, keeper and opener Beth Mooney making her third unbeaten score in the seventies in her last six games, and piling on a century opening stand with Kirby Short as Brisbane chased 140 with one wicket down. Mooney’s 469 runs for the season leave her well clear in second behind only Meg Lanning.The second game involved far more squirming. Brisbane were held to 127 by Amanda Wellington’s scarcely credible 2 for 8 from her full allotment, not to mention Megan Schutt’s 2 for 19. Adelaide were well set to knock that off with two overs to go. English import Tammy Beaumont had come good after a wretched season, notching fast fifties in both games, but was run out eight balls short.Tegan McPharlin, the other half of a 49-run partnership, was bowled with three needed from two balls. Sarah Coyte got two off the last. Tie.Semi-miraculously, it was Deandra Dottin bowling that over after having apparently ended her season with a horrible collision in late December. She conceded five runs and got McPharlin, then bowled the Super Over as well with two wickets and a run out to concede four. Then she came out to bat in Brisbane’s reply, but only had to watch on as Mooney delivered the coup de grace. Oh, and Dottin had made 51 from 41 in the regular innings while the next best score was 19. Can you guess who won player of the match?Hobart HurricanesBrisbane’s narrow escape would have been quickly reported by support staff down in Hobart, where the Hurricanes were halfway through a run chase against the Stars. Had Brisbane slipped up, the former two teams could have shared their matches one each and both kept their finals spots. As it was, their game was now a knockout.It could already have been decided but for a scarcely believable finish in the first of their games. Hobart’s Heather Knight (45 off 31) and Amy Satterthwaite (39 off 29) crunched 115 runs from 14 overs in a rain-reduced innings, a rate of better than eight per over. More rain reduced that to 98 required from 12 overs in the Stars’ reply.Emma Inglis crashed 51 from 31 at the top, but four others around her were out for single figures. With 12 needed from the last four balls, Satterthwaite took a wicket and effected a run-out. Game over, surely? But the renewed Jess Cameron smashed a straight six next ball, and under that final-ball pressure, the spinner Satterthwaite inexplicably overstepped the front line. No ball, and hit for four – a result that for a second would have had Cameron in despair, but soon realising she now need one run from a free hit. Duly delivered.That sort of ending should have knocked out Hobart’s stuffing completely, but the Hurricanes are bounce-backers. The next day Meg Lanning creamed 81 from 55 balls, an innings deserving a team total well above 135, but the next best score was Cameron’s 16. It was almost enough, some fine work from legspinner Kristen Beams (3 from 11) ensuring that Hobart needed 20 from the last two overs, where they lost a couple of wickets, then needed 12 from the last. But Corinne Hall was up to the task, finding the winning boundary with a ball to spare. The Canes were fourth. For the second year running, Lanning became the only player in the competition to score over 500 runs, but still saw her team eliminated.Ecstasy and despair: such were the emotions broadly on display leading up to finals week at the WBBL•Getty ImagesPerth ScorchersIt was simple for Perth too. Win one game against the struggling Sydney Thunder to guarantee a finals spot, win both games to guarantee top two. They were sitting comfortably after Elyse Villani and Nicole Bolton put on a 97-run opening stand within 13 overs, Sydney futilely using eight bowlers in conceding 149, but then Perth watched in horror as a one-woman army nearly chased it down.Having seen the captain Alex Blackwell and the dangerous Naomi Stalenberg fall in the 13th over, Indian star Harmanpreet Kaur ground her teeth in frustration and decided to do it herself. On 7 from 14 balls at the time, she ransacked six sixes in the remaining seven overs to finish 64 not out from 37, one hit short of the win.Had her Thunder team-mates been better at giving her the strike, who knows? Harmanpreet faced three balls in the 14th over, two in the 15th, three in the 16th, and one in the 18th.The Electric Limes got some consolation in the last game, keeping Perth to 131 with an even bowling effort despite Bolton’s 53 from 43, and then chasing it down thanks to typically dashing sign-off from Stafanie Taylor of 62 off 54. The unlikely figure of Villani nabbed three wickets in five balls in the 18th over, but by then the race was largely run, Harmanpreet not out at the end to avert any alarms.The loss didn’t end up costing Perth, who retained their top-two spot thanks to the Stars and Hurricanes splitting the difference, and will benefit with a WACA final as part of a double-header with their male BBL club-mates. As with their own men’s counterparts, the Sydney Thunder end their reign as defending champions, wondering where it all went wrong.Sydney SixersSimilar to Perth, one win for the Sixers would guarantee them a top two finish, and that’s what they managed. Not, however, without slipping up first time against Melbourne Renegades, who have shown admirable fight this season despite being inconsistent enough to let some opportunities slip away.It was a hell of a chase that got Red Melbourne the win, Pink Sydney piling up 148 thanks to another fast Ash Gardner fifty and Sarah McGlashan’s usual support act with 45. But Rachel Priest and Sophie Molineux ransacked 42 from the first five overs in reply, Kris Britt’s 31 kept it going through the middle, and at the end it was Maitlan Brown. The ACT teenage quick had already been the pick of the bowlers, with 1 for 21 in a big score, but suddenly turned it on with the bat to smash 30 from 15 balls and take the win with an over and change to spare.More concerning for the pink side though was captain Ellyse Perry’s hamstring injury sustained while batting, which kept her out of the bowling attack, then the next game, and will see her miss at least the semi-final. Alyssa Healy took the imaginary armband, and responded well in the final fixture, crashing 84 from 56 balls. This time 158 was beyond the Renegades, who ended their overs nine down and 36 short. They have plenty to look forward to next year; the Sixers have plenty to think about over the next couple of days.

After finishing bottom in 2017, will Royal Challengers Bangalore look to completely revamp their squad?

ESPNcricinfo staff21-May-2017The first time the IPL teams went into a reshuffle, in 2011, Royal Challengers Bangalore retained just Virat Kohli, but ahead of the 2014 season, they retained three players – Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers. Ahead of next season, will Gayle and de Villiers make the cut? Swipe right for the players you think it’s worth keeping and left for those you think are not.

All you need to know about what is set to be one of the most watched women’s cricket matches of all time

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jul-2017What’s the big deal about this final?This World Cup final, between England and India, will probably be the most watched women’s cricket game ever. More than 50 million people around the globe have already tuned in to watch this tournament, which is an 80% increase from 2013, and in India, the world’s largest consumer of cricket, there has been a 47% hike in audience participation.This World Cup has already had two sellout crowds, and the final is set to join that list, with more than 26,500 people expected at the ground. Since the hosts, England, and the most popular side, India, have made the finals, interest in women’s cricket has hit a peak.So what is the Women’s World Cup?It is a 50-over tournament that is considered the centrepiece of the women’s cricket calendar. An interesting piece of trivia is that it has actually been around since before the men’s World Cup. The first edition was in 1973, this is the 11th, it began on June 24 with eight teams, and now has come down to two.When and where is this final being played?Sunday, 23 July, at 10:30 local time (9:30 GMT, 15:00 Indian Standard Time) at Lord’s cricket ground, known as the home of cricket, in London.Who are the favourites to win?England have been one of the strongest sides throughout women’s cricket history and are currently second, behind Australia, in the International Cricket Council’s team rankings. They have won the World Cup three times, and since they are also playing in home conditions, are considered favourites. There are vulnerabilities though, which were apparent in the semi-final when South Africa instigated a middle-order collapse that forced the match into the final-over.India began the tournament ranked fourth but have beaten all the sides ranked above them on the way to the final, including Australia, the six-time champions. India have never won the Women’s World Cup, and this is only their second final.Harmanpreet Kaur’s 171* had a nation on its feet•Getty ImagesWhy are Indians particularly excited about this final?For the first time, all of India’s games at a Women’s World Cup have been televised or streamed live on the Internet. The team also had creditable victories over England and New Zealand in the group stages, but it was in the semi-finals that they grabbed headlines. Harmanpreet Kaur played what is already being described by some as the best innings in the history of women’s cricket, smashing 171 not out off 115 balls. This is also the last World Cup for two of India’s greatest cricketers, Jhulan Goswami, who has the record for most ODI wickets, and Mithali Raj, who in this tournament became the highest ODI run-getter.Who are the players to watch out for?India’s Harmanpreet Kaur, one of the most destructive hitters in the game, a reputation solidified by her heroics in the semi-final.England’s Natalie Sciver, whose “Nat-meg” – a flick shot played between the legs to yorker-length deliveries – has had world cricket sit up and take notice. With 318 runs and 7 wickets so far, she is among the prime contenders for the Player of the Tournament award.So if this final is so big, the women’s game must have come a long way in the past decade, right?Absolutely. This is the first Women’s World Cup in which every team has featured centrally contracted professionals. Both England and Australia now have franchise-based Twenty20 leagues, which give the players more opportunities to earn a living. The number of runs per game is going up, with batsmen capable of hitting big sixes, which is always a draw. Fielding standards have also improved immensely, with direct hits and spectacular catches a common feature. Also, while Australia, England and New Zealand have traditionally dominated the women’s game, South Africa and India proved themselves capable of matching those teams in this tournament, which could signal the dawn of a more competitive era.

Over-experimentation in the middle overs undid the early damage inflicted by the pacers, says Australia captain

Daniel Brettig18-Sep-20172:39

‘Two new balls made chase tougher’ – Smith

Depth is a concept that Australia can expect to wrestle with during the Ashes, in the sense that England’s batting order has it and Steven Smith’s side, for the time being, does not. In Chennai, Smith’s ODI team got an early taste of what that can look like, albeit in circumstances that allowed some room for benefit of the doubt.With the new ball, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Pat Cummins started exceptionally well, bowling fast, on the ideal length and with enough movement to prompt errors from India’s top four. Marcus Stoinis then followed up by “bashing the wicket” and coaxing out a couple victims of his own to cross-bat shots.However those early gains gave way to more indifferent bowling through the middle of the innings, as India showcased the depth – that word again – they have added to their batting order in limited overs matches through the regeneration of MS Dhoni and the allround ability of Hardik Pandya. Dropped catches helped too, but India still had to capitalise, something Dhoni and Pandya did in grand style, the former savaging the recalled James Faulkner, after the latter had swung freely at Adam Zampa’s flat, full wrist spin.”I think we probably we went away from our plans a little bit,” Smith said. “We were hitting such a good length and certainly persisted with that for a while with the good bouncers we were bowling. We were trying too many things, too many slower balls, just not hitting that good hard length we were hit early on.”The message to Zampa as well was to bring his length back a bit. He was bowling very full and Hardik looked like hitting everyone of those for a six. As soon as he got his length back a bit and made him go across the ball, he got him out. He just bowled a fraction full and paid the price.”Depth in batting tests a bowling unit in this manner. Second and third spells are required, wickets must be coaxed from old balls as well as new, concentration and discipline must be maintained for longer periods than an initial burst. Granted plenty of overs in which to right the ship, Dhoni and Pandya proved capable of playing a longer game than Australia’s bowlers. It was an episode that could not help but be noticed by England, particularly its lower middle order trio of Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali.”That partnership changed the game,” Smith said. “They put on 120-odd and took them from 87 to 206. In the end that proved to be a match-winning partnership. Unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalise on the start we had. We started very well with the new ball. That’s a positive for us. One thing we have been working on.”Over the last 18 months, we haven’t started well with the new ball, we haven’t been able to draw things back. I thought we bowled to the conditions and bowled to the right areas.”When rain arrived between innings, reducing Australia’s allotment of overs to 21 and their target to 164, the time afforded to Dhoni and Pandya was sheared away from the touring middle order. This was doubly unfortunate, as the same inclement weather that reduced the overs also helped create an ideal environment for India’s seamers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Pandya himself. By the time the early overs had seen a tit-for-tat loss of Australian top order wickets not dissimilar to India’s, there was very little room for the middle order to manoeuvre in.”It was never going to be easy chasing 160 with two new balls. It was sort of a good new ball wicket to bowl with,” Smith said. “We could have perhaps played a little bit differently and try to take a little bit more time upfront. It’s always hard in 20 overs to judge that. We weren’t good enough. Batting for 20 overs is difficult when you are losing wickets. Trying to go hard, it didn’t work out as we would have liked. Hopefully we would turn things around in a couple of days in Kolkata.”I think 160 with one new ball would have made things a lot easier. When you have two new balls from both ends, as you saw the whole game, we took three wickets with the new ball and they found it quite hard. It was the same for us. When you are playing 20 overs, you don’t have a great deal of time to make things up. You need eight an over basically from ball one. It was difficult in that aspect. Perhaps we could have been a little bit more defensive at the start, keep wickets in hand and harder later.”Stacked as it is with allrounders, Australia’s limited overs batting order is deeper than the Test match equivalent. They will hope that next time around the weather will not intervene at an awkward juncture. but at the same time, Smith will know that success for his teams this summer will relate very much to whether they can persist for longer periods than in Chennai – India now, and England in coming months, both have the depth to test Australian endurance.

ESPNcricinfo picks four talking points of the 2017-18 Bangladesh Premier League, all issues which will need more attention from the organisers.

Mohammad Isam13-Dec-2017ESPNcricinfo picks four talking points of the 2017-18 Bangladesh Premier League, all issues which will need more attention from the organisers.BCBThe need for better pitches
Some of the best T20 cricketers in the world performed exceedingly well in this season of the BPL but they did so on unfriendly pitches, and the clamour among players, coaches and team owners rose during the business-end of the tournament in Mirpur.
Even in Sylhet and Chittagong, however, the pitches were not always conducive to big-hitting. In the latter stages, Brendon McCullum, Tamim Iqbal and Mashrafe Mortaza publicly criticised the pitches, with Tamim drawing the wrath of the Bangladesh Cricket Board for his comments. Rather than punishing players, the BCB should take a look at its maintenance work of the Shere Bangla National Stadium’s outfield and pitches. The ground had been rated poor by the ICC match referee after the Test between Bangladesh and Australia.The need to be stricter when applying rules and regulations
Through the seasons, BPL seems to have had trouble applying rules. This year, they did not impose a pre-tournament regulation that a match would be decided by Super Over during the playoffs in case the allotted overs were not played due to rain. Ultimately, they added a reserve day to the playing conditions towards the end of the tournament, when they could have done so before it started. This lax attitude is not new.
In 2012, the league officials switched semifinalists from Chittagong Kings to Barisal Burners on the night before the game. In 2013, Duronto Rajshahi almost fielded a team without foreign players following a pay dispute with owners. In 2015, a match between Sylhet Superstars and Chittagong Vikings was delayed after Sylhet named a different XI at the toss, and then fielded Ravi Bopara and Josh Cobb, when their NOCs arrived after the toss. Last year, the BPL governing council changed the tournament schedule after much dispute.Even at the start of this year, stricter application of the over-rate fines may have made the league a smoother event. Captains took their time while umpires had to change balls plenty of times in the night games. Once a few captains were fined by strict match referees, the pace picked up.Raton Gomes/BCBThe need for greater local presence
The regulation of five overseas players in an XI was not the most popular one this season. It has been implemented in 2012 and 2013 but no one thought the idea would come back in 2017. When it did, the regulation showed that most owners lacked trust in local batsmen, particularly uncapped players and those with few international caps.
Despite that, low-profile players like Mohammad Mithun, Jahurul Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Zakir Hasan, Afif Hossain and Ariful Haque showed that local talent can come good when given the right opportunities. They created a case for going back to the cap of four overseas players in an XI next season.Make it a better package
The BCB now has to take a look at how the BPL is being broadcast. For the first time in the tournament’s history, it wasn’t telecast in India, cricket’s biggest market. The picture quality fluctuated for most viewers in Bangladesh, even as presenters and commentators criticized this. As a package, the BPL pales in comparison to Indian Premier League, the Pakistan Super League and the Caribbean Premier League, something the BCB should address quickly.

Supporters from around the world have joined the local community in London to soak in the festivities

Peter Della Penna at Lord's29-Jul-20182:02

Playing at Lord’s always dreamlike for Nepal – Lamichhane

– The Everly BrothersNepal players and fans have not had the easiest journey to ODI status. Putting aside the arduous climb from World Cricket League (WCL) Division Five that began on home soil in 2010, the country’s cricket administration has been dogged by governance issues. Heading into WCL Division Two in February, they were under suspension, and the little preparation that was funded by the ICC took place in the UAE. It was unlike every other team who got to prepare in South Africa for the like-to-like conditions expected in Namibia.What followed was one of the most miraculous seven-day stretches in any ICC tournament: four wins, three coming off the last ball, via the last-wicket pair, or both in the case of their last-day round-robin stage triumph over Canada courtesy a 51-run partnership between No. 10 Karan KC and No. 11 Sandeep Lamichhane.A dramatic turn of events at the end of group play at the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe subsequently left the door ajar for a shot at ODI status. They squeezed through the opening, thanks to a win over Papua New Guinea and Netherlands’ victory over Nepal in the loser’s bracket semi-finals. So forgive Nepal’s players for thinking that they have arrived in London still in fantasyland for a T20 tri-series involving Netherlands and an MCC host side.”I think it’s been a dream,” said Nepal vice-captain Gyanendra Malla. “Coming from where we play and then coming to Lord’s, the home of cricket, everyone knows how important it is.”That trance-like euphoria is not reserved exclusively for the players, though. More than 5000 screaming Nepalese fans came to Lord’s on a Tuesday morning in 2016 to see their heroes make their debut at the hallowed venue. Considering that this return visit will be in the T20 format and on a Sunday afternoon, the crowd size may be double if not more, and the energy levels cranked up in commensurate fashion at St. John’s Wood.Deshna Bhattarai (center) and her husband Utsal Sigdel (second from right) made the trek from America to see Nepal at Lord’s•Peter Della Penna”It’s a dream come true to be here,” said Deshna Bhattarai, a 26-year old originally from Nepal but now working as a real-estate agent on the east coast of the United States. “I cannot express it in words.”Bhattarai and her husband, 28-year-old Utsal Sigdel, flew into London on Thursday from their home in Baltimore, Maryland. Like many Nepal fans, Sigdel traveled to the 2014 World T20 in Bangladesh to support his countrymen.But how many Nepal fans can say they traveled to Bermuda in 2013 for ICC WCL Division Three, where Sigdel stormed the pitch at the National Stadium in Hamilton to furiously wave the Nepal flag after USA succumbed to Bermuda on the final day of round-robin play? Having been at Somerset Cricket Club hours earlier to see Nepal take just 14 overs to sprint past Italy’s 129, Sigdel hopped on to a taxi and traveled across the island, to Hamilton, to witness the result that allowed Nepal to overtake USA on net run rate for a spot in the World Cup Qualifier.Yet for all of Sigdel’s passion for the Red Sun and Moon, his Facebook profile pic is a typical selfie with his wife Bhattarai. This is where Bhattarai puts him to shame in her unyielding devotion to Nepal cricket. Her Facebook profile pic is a selfie with Nepal captain Paras Khadka. It makes perfect sense when you find out that she moonlights as an admin for the Nepali Cricket Fan Club on Facebook, the largest fan group on the site with more than 333,000 members. While Sigdel is busy having a friendly chat with this ESPNcricinfo correspondent about his globetrotting life following Nepal’s fortunes, his wife is busy with far more important work: doing a Facebook live-stream of Nepal’s training session on the Nursery Ground at Lord’s.”We married because of cricket,” Bhattarai says. “He loves cricket. I love cricket. We thought, ‘Let’s get married!'”They are not the only ones from out of town for this occasion. A friend from Charlotte, North Carolina, Sachin Parajuli, has also flown across the Atlantic for the historic occasion. A fellow fan-turned-friend, Santosh Gaihre, who they came across at the 2015 World T20 Qualifier in Ireland, has traveled from Portrush in the Emerald Isle to meet them. They’re all staying with a Nepalese Londoner named Binodbikash Simkhada, who will be doing a radio broadcast in Nepalese. It will streamed around the world to satisfy the ravenous Nepal faithful.”We are all cricket loonies,” says Simkhada, who casually mentions he is waiting for four more fans-cum-friends to arrive and sleep in his home tonight after a nine-hour drive from Aberdeen, Scotland. “It goes until one o’clock in the morning, we are talking about cricket.”Bhattarai and Sigdel have taken time off work not just for Lord’s but also for the rest of the following week as they travel onward to Amsterdam to take in Nepal’s maiden ODIs, against Netherlands. It leaves Sigdel just two more days of annual leave from work. But like the rabid Nepal fan that he himself is, he’s already got a plan mapped out for using them.”We are just waiting for the sixth of September,” Sigdel says of the final day of the Asia Cup Qualifier in Malaysia where Nepal will take on Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, Malaysia and Oman for the right to advance to the main draw in the UAE. “If we qualify for the Asia Cup, we are going to Dubai to watch them play India and Pakistan.”Nepal fans are well known for their over-the-top commitment to their national side. What’s arguably more impressive, though, is their commitment to their fellow fans as demonstrated by Simkhada’s no-questions-asked offer to host virtual strangers whose shared bond is cheering on the national team. In a similar sense to Afghanistan, many fans show up without knowing anything about cricket because the team’s success is a cultural point of pride. According to Simkhada, several fan groups make charity a point of emphasis, which is why coach buses from towns like Reading, Farnborough, Kimberley and Aldershot have been paid in order to make it possible for elderly ex-Gurkha soldiers to be driven to Lord’s on Sunday morning.”The community here has rallied,” Simkhada says. “It’s not easy because a big chunk of the Nepali population is elderly population. The tickets are paid for by the community leaders. It’s a cultural event. We can wear the jersey and support the flag.”It’s a big thing for the community as well, this is the biggest sporting event held in the UK for any sport for Nepalese people. Last time it was MCC, people came to see Lord’s rather than the game. But this time, people will come to see the match because it’s a T20 international.”Last year, Lord’s stewards were helpless as Afghanistan fans broke decorum by waving their national flag with unbridled delight during the country’s Lord’s debut against the MCC. Considering how the MCC relaxed dress-code standards earlier this week in light of a British heat wave, few will be surprised if stewards look the other way once more so Nepal’s fanatics can show what dreaming day and night about the Red Sun and Moon is all about.

Appointed prior to the Australia series in 2017, Sunil Joshi has been trying to get Mehidy Hasan and company not to worry when they get hit and instead keep looking for wickets

Shashank Kishore in Dubai27-Sep-2018November 13, 2000, Dhaka. Sunil Joshi walks in with India’s middle order wobbling after Bangladesh have made 400 in the first innings of their inaugural Test. India are still 164 behind and have only four wickets left. Joshi is greeted by a chirping Akram Khan at first slip. That it’s coming from a debutant amuses him, but he keeps his composure and makes a career-best 92 to give India a 29-run lead. Joshi then picks up three wickets in the second innings to go with his five-for in the first and is named Man of the Match. India win by nine wickets.Seventeen years later, Bangladesh arrive in Hyderabad to play another historic Test match. The BCB are searching for a spin consultant and ask Anil Kumble, then the India coach, for options. Joshi’s name figures in their shortlist, and Akram Khan, one of his victims in that inaugural Test, eventually facilitates the signing of a formal contract.On Friday, at the Asia Cup final, both Akram and Joshi will be in the same camp, plotting against not just India’s batsmen, but also helping Bangladesh tackle Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravindra Jadeja.It will be an emotional moment for Joshi – his one-year contract is up for renewal, so there is a possibility that this could be his final game with the boys he’s developed a rapport with. The BCB has given him “positive feedback”, and while talks have been ongoing, a decision is still awaited.As Joshi looks back at his one year in charge of Bangladesh, he picks out the marked improvement in the mindset of the spinners as the biggest gain. There’s special praise for Mehidy Hasan, an offspinner who is among the “more complete bowlers of his kind” along with India’s R Ashwin.Joshi saw the 20-year old Mehidy on the first day of his job, prior to the Australia series at home, and told him: ‘you will win us the series.’ Bangladesh didn’t quite do that, but still managed to record their first-ever Test win against Australia, with Mehidy picking up five wickets in Mirpur.Mehidy had nervously watched David Warner and Steven Smith whack balls at training. Two days ahead of the first Test, Joshi indulged in a bit of mind games with Australia by announcing openly: ‘We’re focusing on the one ball that troubled Australia in India.’ Mehidy, Shakib Al Hasan and Taijul Islam, the spin trio for the first Test, wouldn’t reveal much. This seemed to irk Australia, who only few months ago, had tumbled against Ashwin and Jadeja in India. Whether the tactic played a part or not, we wouldn’t know, but Australia lost 19 wickets to the Bangladesh trio.Ahead of the series, Joshi sat his boys down and spent hours analysing their strengths and weaknesses. “It helped me understand their mindset,” he says. “I could see while there was natural ability, there was also some apprehension. You could see Mehidy had all the tools to succeed. Natural drift is his biggest strength. But what I only did as coach was give him options: ‘for this batsman, we can do this. These are his weak areas, this is what you can look to try and do.’CWI Media/Randy Brooks”Once I engaged him with various ideas, it got him thinking, and he would work on these at training. This built confidence, and over the past year, Mehidy has matured beyond his years. Yes, he still has a lot of work to do. He is working on a carom ball, for example. So understanding his own game is what I have tried to facilitate by engaging him and working with him, rather than change much with his basics.”His mindset presently is ‘I’m not worried if I’m hit. I want to attack and get wickets.’ It’s taken a while to get him to think this way, and because they’re all exposed to so much T20 early, they subconsciously think, ‘oh, let me try and restrict.’ Mehidy is different now, he knows whether it’s a 60-metre six or a 90-metre six, he has to come back and try and get him to do that again next ball.”Then there’s Taijul, the left-arm spinner, who isn’t part of the Asia Cup, but Joshi makes sure to keep in touch through the High Performance coaches back in Dhaka. Ensuring constant and open dialogue with players appears to be an important part of his coaching method.”One of the things I try and stress on is the need to have different templates for different batsmen,” Joshi says. “The way you bowl to a top order bat and the way you bowl to a tailender can’t be the same. For starters, we ensure they bowl a certain number of deliveries at the nets, some of it is allotted towards trying our variations. So I’m in touch with the coaches there and see if these routines are adhered to, and then devise bowling plans.”Taijul, for example, worked on his lengths in West Indies. His action is such that he doesn’t generate bounce, so then you need to make the batsman play forward. He was pretty successful during our ODI series win in West Indies. They need cushioning because of the exposure to T20. Being hit shouldn’t get them thinking if they’ve bowled badly and if they’ll be dropped as a result. It’s these chats I’ve had with them, sharing my own experiences of success and failure that I look back on fondly over the last year. They’ve all warmed up to it and have acknowledged it.”

The biggest acknowledgment of your work is when the players take the liberty to not just agree with what you say but also question you and challenge you at times.Sunil Joshi

One of Joshi’s biggest challenges has been to look for a wristspinner, given how much they are in focus these days. The nature of his commitment – he’s in Dhaka five days prior to the start of the series – hasn’t allowed him the opportunity to handpick too many players, but he’s genuinely excited by Mohammad Rishad, who is part of the High Performance set-up, and is in line to play for Bangladesh at the Under-19 Asia Cup later this month. “He and Mehidy will rule spin here for years to come,” Joshi says. “They have to be handled well. But from whatever I’ve seen of him, he looks really promising.”For the moment, Joshi is satisfied at having fulfilled a commitment with all honestly. While the BCB still decides on a contract extension, he isn’t anxious about what his immediate future holds. Coaching is where his passion lies; he’s been with Jammu & Kashmir, Hyderabad and Assam in India’s domestic circuit, apart from stints with Oman during the 2016 Asia Cup and World T20. Before the Bangladesh job, he was the spin coach for the Under-19s at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, and was also in the running for the head coach of the India women’s team.”Coaching was always a natural transition, and being part of a national set-up has also broadened my vision. The biggest acknowledgment of your work is when the players take the liberty to not just agree with what you say but also question you and challenge you at times. This I’ve had in plenty with all our bowlers – whether it’s Shakib, Taijul or Mehidy.”

As the last active Test cricketer from the 1990s bids farewell, here is a look at what his first ten team-mates have been up to

Hemant Brar05-Nov-2018Sanath JayasuriyaRetired from international cricket in 2011, Jayasuriya was named Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors in 2013. After serving for two years, he resigned from the post only to make a comeback a year later. During his first stint, Sri Lanka won a World T20 and a Test series in England, but the second one didn’t fetch the desired results, and after a series of losses, the Jayasuriya-led committee resigned in September 2017.Since his playing days, he has been active in politics as well, and was a member of parliament from his hometown Matara from 2010 to 2015. He also served as the Deputy Minister of Postal Services and later, as the Deputy Minister of Local Government & Rural Development.Last month, Jayasuriya was charged with two counts of breaching the ICC’s anti-corruption code; the alleged incidents occurring during his second stint as the chairman.Marvan AtapattuAtapattu’s retirement in 2007, following an outburst against the selectors, wasn’t a surprise; there had been reports he would be captaining Delhi Jets in the Indian Cricket League. He went on to lead them to the third place in the inaugural 2007 edition. After a couple of seasons with the ICL, Atapattu moved to coaching. He started with a short stint as Canada’s batting coach in 2009, followed by a full-time coaching role with Singapore next year.After the 2011 World Cup, he was appointed Sri Lanka’s batting coach, and two years later, was promoted to the role of assistant coach. In 2014, he replaced Paul Farbrace as the head coach and continued in that role until September 2015.In 2016, Atapattu had a ten-day stint as Zimbabwe’s batting consultant, and in November last year, he was named mentor of the Karnataka Premier League team Belagavi Panthers.Russel ArnoldLike Atapattu, Arnold too joined the ICL after his retirement in 2007. He played for the Chennai Superstars and ICL World XI before the league became defunct. After that, he tried his hand in radio commentary and, also wrote for ESPNcricinfo for a short while.Since then he has been active in TV commentary and on Twitter alike. Earlier this year, he was appointed as tournament director for the Lankan Premier League which eventually was postponed due to the dissolution of the cricket board. Arnold, fittingly, announced this via a tweet.Aravinda de SilvaJust a month after his retirement in March 2003, de Silva was appointed a national selector. In 2005, he took the role of Sri Lanka Cricket’s vice-president.De Silva also acted as a consultant for Sri Lanka Under-19 before the 2008 World Cup. During the same time, he was named the chairman of SLC’s cricket committee. Two years later, he took over as chairman of selectors and held the position till the end of 2011 World Cup only to return before the 2016 World T20.Thirteen months later, he resigned from the post to focus on his business interests. In October last year, he was appointed to a five-member committee to rehabilitate cricket in Sri Lanka.PTI Mahela JayawardeneSince his retirement in 2015, Jayawardene has dabbled as a consultant for England’s national side on a couple of occasions, apart from participating in various T20 leagues around the world as a mentor-cum-player. In 2017, he was appointed the head coach of Mumbai Indians in the IPL and Khulna Titans in the BPL.Jayawardene was also part of the five-member committee responsible for the rehabilitation of Sri Lanka cricket. Apart from this, he also runs a restaurant, called Ministry of Crab, along with his long-time team-mate Kumar Sangakkara and chef Dharshan Munidasa.Arjuna RanatungaAfter his cricketing career, Ranatunga moved to politics and soon found success. He has been a member of parliament since 2001 and has held various cabinet portfolios. He has most recently been the Minister of Petroleum Resources Development. Last month, he was involved in a shooting which led to his arrest and a subsequent bail.Apart from politics, Ranatunga has also been involved with Sri Lanka Cricket from time to time. In 2005, he shortly headed a high-profile committee which included seven former captains. In 2008, he was appointed the head of Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim board before being sacked at the end of the year. In 2016, he lost the elections for SLC’s vice-presidency.Romesh KaluwitharanaThe former wicketkeeper-batsman coached Sri Lanka’s domestic side Colts Cricket Club while conducting a career as an insurance executive after hanging his boots in 2004.In 2006, Kaluwitharana went to China as part of the Asian Cricket Council’s committee to evaluate cricket’s potential there. He also had a short stint as Malaysia’s interim coach in 2008.After that, he turned a hotelier and started Kalu’s Hideaway, a boutique hotel at Udawalawe in southern Sri Lanka. He returned to cricket in 2015, this time as the Sri Lanka A coach. He was part of Jayasuriya’s second selection committee and is currently a coach within the SLC structure.AFPChaminda VaasVaas has been actively involved in coaching ever since he stopped playing. It started with the role of assistant bowling coach for New Zealand when they visited Sri Lanka in 2012. From 2013 to 2015, he served as Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling coach before taking a role with Ireland, as their bowling consultant for the 2016 World T20. The same year, he was hired again by Sri Lanka, this time with a broader role of identifying and developing the fast-bowling talent in the country, a role he assumes till date.Vaas also served as a stop-gap arrangement when Sri Lanka’s bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake resigned last year.Nuwan ZoysaLike his new-ball partner Vaas, Zoysa too worked as a coach after his cricketing days. He started with Sri Lanka’s domestic side Nondescripts Cricket Club and was assistant coach of Sri Lanka Premier League franchise Nagenahira Nagas. In 2012, he joined the Goa Ranji team for a short stint as a coaching consultant.He was also the bowling coach of Sri Lanka women’s team at the 2016 World T20. Zoysa, the incumbent bowling coach of the Sri Lanka A team, was sent on a “compulsory leave” last month after being charged for breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.Muttiah MuralitharanAfter playing in T20 leagues for a while post-retirement, Muralitharan, in 2014, signed with Bengal as a spin-bowling consultant. In 2014 only Australia roped him as a coaching consultant ahead of their Test series against Pakistan in the UAE. Australia once again sought his services when they toured Sri Lanka in 2016.Currently, he is with the IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad as their bowling coach and mentor, a role he occupies since 2015. However, his main job at the moment is running an aluminium can manufacturing plant.

He is the only batsman dragging his team forward. He is facing a superb attack. History isn’t with him. And yet Virat Kohli always looked like he was having the time of his life in Perth

Sidharth Monga in Perth16-Dec-2018He stands alone at the non-striker’s end. He looks at the big screen for a replay of the dismissal. He then looks back. Don’t know at what. After the replay, he turns his head to the field, staring blankly in middle distance. Stands motionless. Legs crossed. One hand on his waist. The other on the top of the bat handle. You can’t say where he is looking. You can’t say what he is thinking. He stays like that for what seems like a minute. Maybe more. Not even batting an eyelid.Not far away, Australia are celebrating and having a drink. He finally sees Rishabh Pant, the new batsman, walk past the huddle, and steps out of his meditative state to join his partner. He had a partner now. Did he? Back to two against 11. Was it?***These is such a deja vu to this. Virat Kohli is batting on a hundred after India have lost the toss in an away Test. Centurion, Birmingham, and now in Perth Stadium. The story is going to be the same. In Centurion, 279 of India’s 307 runs come when Kohli was at the wicket. They fall behind by 28, a decisive deficit. In Birmingham, 220 of the 274 come with him at the wicket. India fall behind by 13. They lose.Here, in Perth, on a difficult pitch, having seen Australia get to 326 thanks to some ordinary selection and some ordinary bowling in patches, Kohli watched Australia claim their complimentary vouchers, the openers, either side of lunch. He has a customised plan – yet another one – to tackle. He has a personal nemesis in Pat Cummins, off whom he has never hit a boundary in Test cricket but has been dismissed twice. His side is playing only three reliable batsmen but four No. 11s.Virat Kohli wasn’t happy after being given out•Getty ImagesThe new plan first. Starting Adelaide, Australia have looked to bowl straight at Kohli, deny him that cover drive, make him keep defending without giving on-side runs, and then throw in the odd sucker ball. It worked in Adelaide.Josh Hazlewood tries to execute this pre-decided plan. He bowls straight, full but not a half-volley, but Kohli leans into it, plays a check drive on the up, and places it between mid-on and the bowler. Then Hazlewood bowls two half-volleys in the next over. Both go for fours.That’s the thing with plans for Kohli. You have to be really precise or he punishes you. The area you are aiming for is so small and that only leads to errors. Errors beget errors. And before you know it, Kohli is up and running. He is 18 off 10 already. Australia have to change their plan. Go back to bowling good balls in the channel outside off, and risk the cover drive.

Kohli is in his own trance. He is hit on the arm more than once, hurts his hand while diving, is hit in the ribs, on the unpadded area above the knee but he seems to be enjoying it.

Cummins bowls some mean ones too. This is personal, like it was with James Anderson in England. Kohli doesn’t want to get out at the best of times, but he is particularly determined to not do so against Cummins.In Cummins’ six-over spell, he takes just three runs off 28 deliveries, absolutely hell-bent on not taking any risk outside off. This is a batsman humble enough to accept a bowler is bowling well and assured enough to know his game can see him through this period. There’s only five attacking shots in that spell, but there too he has not gone out of his way to miss a fielder. Only four times is he not in control. Against the most threatening bowler in the opposition, during his freshest spell, he is not in control only one in seven balls – 14% against the 20% overall rate in the match.4:41

Laxman: ‘We are all running out of superlatives to describe Kohli’

This is high-quality defensive batting from either end, but India’s scoring is at a standstill. The worst they can do now is allow Nathan Lyon to hold one end up so the three quicks can take turns from the other. Kohli finally finds the cover drive, against Lyon’s attacking line outside off, on a pitch with treacherous bounce. His wrists keep the ball down, the gap is found, and he has hit his first boundary in 67 balls.Cummins comes back for a spell post tea, beats his outside edge right away and draws two bat-pad opportunities with no short leg to lap it up because, well, Kohli has forced them to change their plan of attack. When Pujara gets out, India have hit only six boundaries in 38.2 overs, four of them in one spurt. Ajinkya Rahane is about to launch a counterattack. From ultra-attacking to ultra-defensive to ultra-attacking again, this Indian innings doesn’t have a definitive rhythm. Kohli, though, is in his own trance. He is hit on the arm more than once, hurts his hand while diving, is hit in the ribs, on the uncovered area above the knee, but he seems to be enjoying it.

History is against him. His sides’ collective batting form is against him. A high-quality bowling attack is against him. It can be easy to tire of all this and play a soft shot.

Kohli and Rahane end the day with hope for India; hope that if they can push on, they can put an inexperienced Australian batting line-up under extreme pressure. And then Rahane gets out in the first over of the third morning. And suddenly it dawns again. India were into bonus-runs category once again. Hanuma Vihari is an unknown, Pant, as of now, unable to score risk-free runs, and the tail after that. Almost every over, the physio is coming out to treat Kohli. Painkillers are popped.Kohli continues to enjoy being in the middle. He is trying desperately to change the familiar story. Watchful against good balls, cover-driving every time he gets a chance, running as hard as he can, trying to drag the others with him now. History is against him. His sides’ collective batting form is against him. A high-quality bowling attack is against him. It can be easy to tire of all this and play a soft shot. Go into a shell. Give up bothering about the rest of it lest it eats away at your batting too.***Sachin Tendulkar trudges off after being dismissed for 116•Jack Atley/Getty ImagesThere’s a famous photo of Sachin Tendulkar, accepting the applause from a Melbourne crowd in 1999-2000, but the frame has only Tendulkar and a flock of seagulls in it. The photographer saw it as a metaphor for Tendulkar in a lone battle against a dominating side. It is a little like Kohli standing alone, waiting for a new partner in Centurion, Birmingham, Perth. Exhausted from carrying the side, Tendulkar gave up captaincy soon after that series. Kohli somehow has bottomless reserves, and a much better bowling unit than Tendulkar.Once again, 243 of India’s 283 runs have come with him at the wicket. Once again, India seem headed towards a familiar defeat after having given up a 43-run first-innings lead. It can be easy to go into a shell, to not be bothered, but he comes out charged up in the next innings in the field. He is living every ball once again. He is shouting, appealing, sledging, jumping up and down, getting the crowd excited, telling the opposition captain he can’t afford to mess up this time. There is no air of the condemned around him. He is looking forward to the challenge once again. That is what makes Kohli.