All posts by h716a5.icu

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Apr-2015Suresh Raina was next to follow as he was undone by a Nathan Coulter-Nile delivery, leaving Chennai Super Kings 38 for 2 after four overs•BCCIDwayne Smith and Faf du Plessis steadied things as they put on 33 for the third wicket•BCCIImran Tahir and Coulter-Nile put the brakes on Super Kings’ scoring rate•BCCIDu Plessis looked good for his 32 and it took a sharp outfield catch by Shreyas Iyer to get rid of the South African•BCCIRavindra Jadeja struck one four and a six for his 18-ball 17 only to be stumped off an Amit Mishra delivery leaving Chennai at 119 for 5 after 16•BCCISuper Kings added a further 31 runs, thanks mainly to MS Dhoni’s 27-ball 30, to finish on 150 for 7•BCCIAshish Nehra started off strongly and picked up three wickets inside five overs to unsettle Daredevils’ chase•PTI The third wicket was that of Shreyas Iyer, who went to a spectacular catch from Faf du Plessis•BCCIDaredevils found it difficult to get runs in the middle overs as R Ashwin tied them down•BCCIYuvraj Singh found it difficult to face short-pitched deliveries and handed an easy catch to Ishwar Pandey, leaving Daredevils at 99 for 5•BCCIAlbie Morkel carried on strong at one end despite losing partners and brought up his fifty off 43 balls•BCCICoulter-Nile was undone by a straight delivery from Ashwin, leaving Daredevils at 124 for 7 after 18 overs•BCCIRaina pulled off a brilliant save at deep point to prevent a boundary, which eventually turned out to be the difference between the two teams•BCCIMorkel took it down to the last ball but could manage only a four when six were needed•BCCI

We asked readers what their favourite catch in the IPL was

20-May-2015Sanjay N M
Matthew Hayden’s catch in the 2010 final was a game-changer, not only because it was the crucial wicket of Kieron Pollard, but also due to the odd fielding position that MS Dhoni had set. Chennai Super Kings went on to claim their first title, and followed it up with another in the 2011 edition. The catch that established CSK as the best IPL team ever.Bidwan Baruah
I believe Kieron Pollard’s stunning catch against Rajasthan Royals to dismiss Kevon Cooper in IPL 2014 was the best of all. It had agility, flexibility,presence of mind and above all a touch of magic!David Hussey’s catch to dismiss Paul Collingwood in 2010 comes very close, but I rank this higher because Pollard took two unbelievable catches within this single catch; each of them was very, very tough, while Hussey’s was a combination of juggling and presence of mind.Rijul Shah
The best catch to me is of David Hussey’s to dismiss Paul Collingwood in Delhi Daredevils’ match against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2010. To pull off a blinder at the boundary ropes, at the third attempt. Special Effort. Special.Koushik Ganapathi
There are many. But to point out one, it has to be the combined effort from Ajinkya Rahane and Johan Botha in the fifth edition of the IPL. Chasing 171, Pune Warriors were reeling at 112 for 8 with three overs to go. The ball goes in the air. Johan Botha at long-off takes the catch and loses his balance and is about to go over the boundary rope. But what makes it spectacular is that he relays the ball to Ajinkya Rahane, who is running in from long-on.A similar effort was pulled off in the 2015 edition by another Royals duo, Tim Southee and Karun Nair. The Botha-Rahane stunner has to be rated better, since Botha had to throw the ball quite a distance with minimum time to react.It also implies the essence of the game is teamwork in every aspect and it’s not just the skill that is needed at the highest level.Swapnil
No doubt the best catch was from Chris Lynn to dismiss AB de Villiers in the 2014 IPL edition, with RCB needing six from three balls. AB hits the ball and it seemed like it would go all the way but Lynn pulled off a stunner at deep midwicket as if defying the laws of physics and this ultimately helped Knight Riders win the match by two runs.

I always imagined Clarke would score over 10,000 Test runs. Over 30 Test centuries. Alas, it is not to be

Brad Hinds09-Aug-2015Michael Clarke has retired.This is a difficult thing for me to process. I knew it was coming, one way or the other. Years ago, I guessed he would play until he was 34. His chronic back condition made it clear he was never going to be another Ponting, Hussey, or Haddin. Playing until the age of 37 was always out of the question. But I suppose it’s the circumstances of his retirement – the disappointing fall from grace as a batsman – that has crushed me the most. Clarke deserves a better exit than this.At the same time, I feel a sense of relief. He was once indomitable but his decline as a batsman has been marked and swift. I no longer have to feel the intense anxiety when he takes guard, the intense anticipation when he nears a century or the intense disappointment when he is dismissed cheaply.I’m extremely passionate about cricket. I’ve been particularly passionate about individual cricketers. I realise cricket is a team sport, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s in our nature to highlight and glorify individual performances and achievements. I remember the first innings I watched. watched. It was the third Test of the 2006-07 Ashes in Perth. Adam Gilchrist walked out to bat on a pair. He went on to score the second-fastest hundred in Tests – a moment of individual greatness. The man at the other end, who got 135, was Clarke.Ever since, I’ve found myself gravitating toward individual players. Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey and Clarke. I have perhaps fallen into the trap of building them up as something more than human. The end result is almost always disappointment. Only Hussey ended his career on a high.Clarke has never been the most popular cricket personality in Australia. I haven’t always been his biggest fan. I had little faith in Clarke’s ability to lead Australia, let alone pick up the pieces of a battered and broken team following a shambolic series defeat against England at the end of 2010 – a defeat more devastating and humiliating than even this current series. Clarke had always shown exceptional ability in isolated circumstances – his magnificent 151 against India on debut, his 166 against Pakistan in 2010, and his 168 against New Zealand immediately following his public break-up with Lara Bingle.Yet, anomalously, he consistently failed to score runs when they were needed the most. In the first four matches of the 2009 Ashes, Clarke was Australia’s best batsman, scoring 445 runs at an average of 89 including two centuries. With the series level heading into the fifth and final match, Clarke was dismissed for 3 in the first innings and for a duck in the second, after Ricky Ponting was run out on 66. Australia went on to lose the match and, consequently, the urn.The trend continued in the 2010-11 Ashes where he managed a score just one fifty. Clarke had always been touted as being Ponting’s successor but his match-saving performances seemed far and few between. He walked out to bat on his home ground in Sydney substituting as captain for an injured Ponting and was booed by both England and Australian supporters. By then, Australia had well and truly lost the Ashes. They had been humiliated by England at home. It was an occasion which marked the passing of an Australia which could otherwise dominate every stage and every opposition.His potential for leadership was never in doubt. He had always demonstrated an aggressive, proactive, and lateral brand of cricket, but these qualities rarely came through when matches were on the precipice. He took over the Test captaincy full-time in 2011 against a sizeable amount of negative press and national vitriol. It spoke volumes of the state of Australian cricket at the time that Clarke, despite his bad form, was the only viable long-term candidate against a backdrop of youthful and inexperienced players.Then something changed.He led Australia to a series victory against Sri Lanka in September 2011, scoring 112 in Australia’s second innings of the final match. He followed this up with an astonishing performance against South Africa in Cape Town. While all but three players failed to make scores of ten or more, and Australia were all out for 284, Clarke raced to 151 on as difficult a pitch to bat on as there is. He scored another century – 139 – later that year against New Zealand. It was clear that Clarke’s temperament had shifted and that his talent had evolved. He was, like many great Australians before him, making substantial scores consistently and aggressively regardless of opposition or location.With his 329 not out, Clarke entered a higher realm altogether•Getty ImagesThis was, however, simply a sign of something much greater.Clarke transformed in his first innings of 2012 by scoring 329 not out against India and joining an elite pantheon of batting giants. It was a paradigm shift on a previously unthinkable scale which changed his stature both as a cricketer and as a character. It was a serene and flawless innings – one of, if not the, finest batting performance I have watched to date. Cricket commentator Mark Nicholas described the SCG as being Clarke’s “kingdom for the day”. The boos from just a year earlier had been erased from memory.I remember talking about how this was merely the beginning for Clarke. He had well and truly eclipsed himself in every conceivable way. That kind of triumph over mind and body marks you in profoundly significant ways. He nearly doubled his previous highest score – a comparably mortal 168. Before this, he had made four scores of 150 or more without ever passing 170. With that triple-century, Clarke entered a higher realm altogether. It couldn’t be overstated how important it was for him to break through and completely shatter the various constraints he had perhaps unconsciously imposed on himself.I knew that score would change him and it did. Over the course of 2012, Clarke scored a further four centuries. Three of them were doubles: 210, 259 not out and 230. He became the highest run-scorer for an Australian in a calendar year and he became the first man ever to score four scores of 200 or more in Tests in a calendar year, eclipsing the great Sir Donald Bradman. For almost 11 months, he boasted a 100% conversion rate from centuries to double-centuries. He twice out-scored Ponting’s highest score. I’ve not yet seen anyone in greater touch with the bat.Sadly, he was never able to even remotely replicate those heights again. In hindsight, it was like he knew the end of his career would come sooner than he would like and responded by scoring several years’ worth of runs in just one.Since early 2014, Clarke’s prowess has diminished considerably. His last truly great moment as a batsman came in March last year. Against the might of South Africa’s Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn, he sustained a fractured shoulder in pursuit of a remarkable 161 not out, leading Australia to a series win over the world’s No. 1 team. It is rightly considered one of the greatest innings by a captain in recent times.Since then, he has never been able to truly regain his touch.It’s not difficult to identify why. The hostile barrage of bowling he faced against South Africa, a series of hamstring injuries in a short space of time, and the tragic death of Phillip Hughes late last year rocked Clarke as an individual. His precision, his keen eye, his dancing footwork, and even his conviction disappeared.His last innings of note was against India last summer. He battled through another bout of debilitating back pain, scoring an emotional 128 against the dying of the light in tribute of his “little brother”. It must have taken an incredible amount of sheer willpower to do what Clarke did that day. The courage and leadership he demonstrated throughout that period was commendable and deeply moving.Despite his abysmal form, he cannot be singularly blamed for Australia’s failings in England these past few weeks. He cannot be blamed for the team’s collective failure to deal with the moving ball and the deficient batting techniques of individual players.Perhaps Clarke’s defining characteristic is that he is a fighter. Things have rarely come easy for him. He has always had to fight for them; he has endured a degenerative back issue, been dropped from the side, criticised by analysts, ridiculed by the media, and shunned by the public. This is part of what I find so endearing about him.I always imagined Clarke would score over 10,000 Test runs. Over 30 Test centuries. Alas, it is not to be. Yet another cruel reminder that the careers of great sportsman rarely end as romantically as we would like them to.Clarke is the last vestige of Ponting’s once-in-a-lifetime squad and with his retirement my enthusiasm for the game has diminished sharply.So long, Pup. Enjoy your retirement.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Oct-2015They got an early breakthrough, getting Shikhar Dhawan run-out in the fourth over with the score on 22•Associated PressBut could not stop Rohit Sharma at the other end. He farmed the strike in the Powerplay to take India towards 50•AFPVirat Kohli also joined in with a consecutive six and four off Chris Morris in the eighth over to take the run rate over eight•AFPRohit and Kohli were particularly harsh on Imran Tahir. They hammered three sixes together off him in the 12th over, taking India past 100•AFPAnd Rohit continued to hog the limelight. After cruising to his fifty, he took only 23 balls to race from 50 to 100•AFPBut South Africa fought back briefly after the opener’s century. Kyle Abbott dismissed Kohli and Rohit in the same over as India were held to 199 for 5•AFPAB de Villiers got South Africa off to a flying start, racing to 51 off just 32 deliveries•AFPHe and Hashim Amla added 77 for the opening wicket inside eight overs•AFPIt took an accurate throw from Mohit Sharma to provide the breakthrough, as Amla was run out for 36•AFPR Ashwin spun the advantage India’s way when he foxed de Villiers out of his crease and had him bowled•AFPS Aravind, on his international debut, soon secured the crucial wicket of Faf du Plessis, leaving South Africa needing 105 from 57 balls•AFPJP Duminy, though, counterattacked with a wave of sixes, making his way to 68 off 34 balls, including 18 off an over from Axar Patel•AFPHe found an able ally in Farhaan Behardien, as the pair’s 105-run stand stunned India to defeat•AFPDuminy also became South Africa’s leading run-scorer in T20 cricket, and ensured that his team chased down a total of 200 or more for only the second time in this format•AFP

There are no experienced spinners to replace the ageing spinner, but the country’s spin-bowling academy is busy identifying younger alternatives

Sharda Ugra12-Oct-2015If there was ever an opposition against whom Sri Lanka could consider a set of try-outs, West Indies would be it. In the light of Tharindu Kaushal’s current entanglements over his action, Sri Lanka will certainly need to test the spin options that will be available to them in a post-Rangana Herath world.The team’s strength at home in the era after Murali has revolved around Herath. In 20 Murali-less home Tests, Herath cleaned out 136 wickets, Sri Lanka winning eight and drawing five. Herath, Sri Lanka’s most successful spinner after Mr 800 is currently held together by crepe bandages and hope, his creaking knees and the rest of a generously proportioned 37-year-old body testing his ability to play through pain. The next two Sri Lankan front-line spinners after him have played eight (Dilruwan Perera) and six Tests (Kaushal); the latter has now been given a rap on his doosra fingers by the ICC.The home Test series against West Indies will test Sri Lanka’s spin programme after an era of more than plenty – more like an excellent tuck-in. The man in charge of training a new generation of Sri Lankan spinners, national spin bowling coach Piyal Wijetunge, works the balancing act between finding new, unorthodox talent and then keeping them on the straight and narrow when they are lured by the rewards of short-form cricket. Offspinner Kaushal came into the programme at the age of 12 and rose through the system to play his first Test in 2014 against New Zealand.

“When Murali was playing, we never wanted another spinner. Then Murali went. We thought it was the end of Sri Lankan spin, but then fortunately we had Rangana”Piyal Wijetunge

The load of Sri Lanka’s attack against West Indies will once again rest on Herath. The country is aware that their last mystery-spin offering, Ajantha Mendis, is still recovering from injury and the yips. The bowlers now coming through SLC’s spin programme are, sooner rather than later, going to be thrown in at the deep end.The Sri Lankans have been here before. “When Murali was playing, we never wanted another spinner. Then Murali went. We thought it was the end of Sri Lankan spin, but then fortunately we had Rangana, who single-handedly started winning games for us,” Wijetunge said during the recent Test series against India, who, alongside their lead spinner R Ashwin, aged 29, themselves picked two spinners aged 32 and 35.”We’re not far from India,” Wijetunge laughed when talking about seeking the next young prodigious match-winning talent. Herath is at the tail end of his career and Sri Lanka don’t have an experienced enough left-arm spinner to replace him. Wijetunge did, however, sound optimistic about the next generation he has watched grow during his last seven seasons as national spin coach. “Our young spinners might be able to do the job for us because they are highly skilled and have the potential,” he said of a trio – legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay, who played two T20s against Pakistan this year, and Herath’s two possible successors, left-armers Amila Aponso and Sahan Nanayakkare.Sri Lanka’s spin-bowling academy works through its national training centre, housed at the Khettarama Stadium, and features four groups of spinners – under the ages of 13, 15, 19 and 23, along with a fifth, elite, group. There are currently 67 in the ranks – 10-15 per age group – at a time when, Wijetunge says, “most of the kids want to be fast bowlers, the kids want to bowl fast and nobody wants to be a spinner. When Murali was playing, he was a hero and every kid wanted to be a spinner.”Sri Lanka embraces bowlers with unorthodox actions, like Akila Dananjaya•AFPThe SLC coaches try to keep the pool of available spin talent deep by reaching into the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association competition, the first feeder line for their academy. Scouts follow players at school events, call the most promising in for match trials, and then gather them at a central location. Since 2007, talent-search programmes have been held twice a year, in February and August, when scouts head out to watch local games. The U-13 level was introduced during the early years of Wijetunge’s tenure: the players train at the centre once a week, and residential camps of longer duration are held twice a year.The best spinners, Wijetunge says, still come from the main cities – Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Kurunegala. A former left-arm spinner himself, he smiles the smile of every slow bowler who has a good diss at bigger, quicker men. He expresses it quietly in words: “Spin bowling is an art. You need to have rhythm and you need to have a brain.”What the scouts look out for, he adds, are long fingers and the ability to turn the ball. When it comes to raw spinners, the ability, dexterity at turning the ball, to send it whirring, revving through the air or off the ground, is innate. Like timing is with batsmen. Much can be trained, but the talent of spinning the ball? “Boys are born with that talent. Between 15 and 19, they learn the skills.”Sri Lanka are proud of the spinners they produce – unconventional, unorthodox, controversial even. At their best, always attacking, devastating match-winners. “We always go for the unorthodox actions. If they spin the ball, they can be trained to be good spinners.”The blurred boundary between unorthodox and illegal will crop up every time a bowler gets hauled up by the ICC, as happened most recently with Kaushal. It is a situation that has caused much heartburn within the SLC over the last few years. “We had these problems earlier,” Wijetunge says. “In 2010 two of our spinners were called at the junior World Cup.”In 2014, Sachithra Senanayake was reported for a suspect action and banned from bowling•University of Western AustraliaThere were two more cases in 2012 and another bowler called in 2014. “This was a severe problem for us, we just wanted to eradicate it, it became a nuisance, it gave us a bad name,” he says. A protocol was laid out, empowering umpires to call bowlers with suspect actions and stop them from bowling during a game. Wijetunge says that in 2014, 65 spinners with suspect actions between the U-13 and U-19 age groups were called by umpires. “They were summoned to the national training centre. We assessed them, screened them and gave them remedial programmes.” Some bowlers were successful after the remedial action, “some are still struggling, and the remaining have given up spin bowling altogether”.Like Muralitharan, Wijetunge too grew up in Kandy, also coached by Sunil Fernando, whose prime lessons to his spin trainees were “concentration, hard work” and the dead cert that “if you want to be a good spinner, there are no shortcuts”. Already spin-friendly, pitches all over Sri Lanka tend to wear down over a season into rank turners, giving average spinners bucketfuls of wickets and the selectors a headache as to how to separate quality from quantity. It is why curators at the national training centre are told to produce good batting wickets, to test the trainee spinner’s mind and his skills. It gives Wijetunge and his coaches the best chance to convert possible shortcuts into the long haul.Along with regular training, there rests in the Sri Lankan academy a tool to strengthen spinners’ fingers, so that they can give the ball more revs or give the middle finger the force with which to flick the carrom ball out of the hand. In Wijetunge’s playing days, building finger strength was about doing endless push-ups off the fingers rather than the palms. These days fingers work out using a simple device: a stick with a spring at one end, which has a cricket ball fixed to it. The ball is meant to be turned, using the fingers, in the direction other than the one the torque of the spring imparts it. It was devised at the Khettarama training centre and is in full use, but wait till multinational sports goods manufacturers get hold of “The Twister”.The upcoming season for Sri Lanka promises to be a twister by itself. Sri Lankan ingenuity and innovation, particularly the kind emerging from its spin bowling factory, will be in demand. If an aspirant successor is found, the old masters and their country will be pleased.

Stats highlights from the Vijay Hazare Trophy final between Gujarat and Delhi, in Bangalore

Bharath Seervi29-Dec-20150 Vijay Hazare Trophy titles for Gujarat, before this season. They beat Delhi by 139 runs in the final at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore to get their maiden title. They were the runners-up in 2010-11, losing in the finals to Jharkhand by 159 runs in Indore. Tamil Nadu have won the most Vijay Hazare titles: four. Mumbai and Karnataka have two. Here is the list of Vijay Hazare Trophy winners.2 Finals played by Delhi in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, including this one. Their first was in 2012-13, when they beat Assam in Visakhapatnam by 75 runs to get their maiden Vijay Hazare title.139 Margin of victory for Gujarat in this final – the third-highest in a Vijay Hazare Trophy final. Jharkhand’s 159-run win over Gujarat in Indore in 2011-12 and Karnataka’s 156-run win against Punjab in Ahmedabad in 2014-15 top this list.0 Centuries by Parthiv Patel in 148 innings in List-A cricket before scoring 105 in this match. His highest before this was 95 in an ODI against England in Chester-le-Street in 2011. He had hit 27 half-centuries before his century in today’s match, and had the most List-A runs by an Indian batsman without a century. Now Pankaj Dharmani, who has 3212 runs list-A runs without a hundred, moves up to the first position on the list. Overall, Wasim Akram’s 6993 runs are the most by a batsman in List-A cricket without making a hundred.0 Runs Parthiv had scored the last time Gujarat played in a Vijay Hazare final, in 2010-11. On that occasion too he had kept wicket and opened and led Gujarat. His team had lost that final by 159 runs.21 Wickets by Gujarat’s Jasprit Bumrah – the most by any bowler this Vijay Hazare season. He beat his team-mate Axar Patel to the top of this list with a maiden List-A five-wicket haul in the final. Axar, who had 19 wickets before the final, went wicket-less from this five overs.0 Bowlers to take five-fors in a Vijay Hazare Trophy final before Bumrah. The previous best was Shahbaz Nadeem’s 4 for 6 for Jharkhand against Gujarat in 2010-11 final.111.84 Pawan Negi’s strike rate in this tournament – 170 runs in 152 balls for Delhi, in five innings. His strike rate is the highest among all players who aggregated over 150 runs in the season. His scores in this season batting at No. 7 and No. 8 read: 47* (57 balls), 0 (4), 28* (28), 38* (16) and 57 (47). His average of 85.00 was the fifth-highest among batsmen with 150-plus runs in the season.149 Runs added for the third wicket between captain Parthiv and Rujul Bhatt in the final – the highest for Gujarat this season. This was the third century stand for Gujarat this season and their captain was involved in all three: the other two were 120 runs with Rujul Bhatt against Railways in Alur on December 13 and 106 runs with Priyank Panchal against Jharkhand in Alur on December 11.

Mohammad Amir has the skills he needs – notably his inswinger – and the nous to use it in the most effective way possible. In Twenty20 cricket, all it takes is a few balls to change the match

Alagappan Muthu26-Feb-2016Mohammad Amir has only ever bowled 107 balls against Indian batsmen in international cricket. It is likely he will up that number by 24 on Saturday in Mirpur, as much as it is likely that he will finally get to land his first delivery on an Indian ground three weeks from now at the World T20.Since his ban for spot-fixing in 2010, Pakistan and India have played only one bilateral series against each other. One-off meetings in multi-team tournaments rally the number of matches up to 12 over a period of nearly six years. That’s almost as surprising as the fact that Amir, still only 23, is the second-youngest member of the Pakistan squad in the Asia Cup. He was the youngest when he debuted as a 17-year old in 2009. His talent was apparent and the romance was compelling. A teenaged left-arm fast bowler who generated prodigious swing with pin-point accuracy. It would have been one surprise too many if Amir’s idol had not been Wasim Akram.Several eventful years later, Amir had laid himself bare in an interview. He spoke of losing hope and his family helping him find it; of his growth as a person and the expectations he has for the future. It was then a casual reference that slipped out – the desire to become a legend. Amir’s story certainly makes people sit up and notice. So that’s a start.Some see him as the young lad whose front foot strayed on captain’s orders five years ago at Lord’s. Others believe, at 18, he was old enough to know better. The Southwark Crown Court did and sent him to juvenile prison. Now we bring another faction of people that Amir’s career timeline has created. Those who believe he has done the time for his crime.The PCB falls into his category as it fast-tracked his return to international cricket. There were some wrinkles to handle before Amir got back into the Pakistan fold, but a picture taken in New Zealand, where he is bursting from laughter looking at Pakistan’s one-day captain Azhar Ali, who hadn’t been his greatest fan a few weeks prior, hints that all is well now. All of this puts a permanent spotlight on Amir. And now he is going to play an India-Pakistan match.Amir was first in line at the fast-bowling nets in Fatullah. Khurram Manzoor was at the other end. After the luxury of a few warm-up deliveries, a trap was set in motion. Amir slid a few across the right-hander, dragging Manzoor’s feet in front of the stumps. Then came an indipper, which the surprised batsman just about fended away. Azhar Mahmood, a temporary consultant with the team, was watching from the umpire’s position. Waqar Younis was a few paces to the right.Amir kept running in, even as the next lot of Pakistan seamers began practice. Mohammad Hafeez was on strike now and the left-arm quick tempted him into driving away from the body. The ball pinged off the inside edge and crashed into the stumps.None of this is to say he’s going to be the only threat India will face on Saturday on a Mirpur track that has been partial to the fast bowlers at least during the Powerplays. Both Manzoor and Hafeez in that very training session cut and pulled him with ease. This is Amir’s second tour back with the Pakistan team; and he didn’t particularly trouble the New Zealand batsman on his first. He took a PSL hat-trick earlier this month, but he must be anxious to now play India; the lengthy training session hints as much. Last month, Amir’s coach Waqar had said he was “not at his best, but getting there.”The point simply is that Amir still has the skills he needs – notably the left-arm fast bowler’s inswinger – and the nous to use it in the most effective way possible. In Twenty20 cricket, all it takes is a few balls to change the match.India have not had much first-hand information about Amir. Shikhar Dhawan has never faced him. Yuvraj Singh has never faced him. In fact, from this squad, Harbhajan Singh has the most experience playing Amir – 11 balls. And he won’t likely play tomorrow. Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni have faced five each, Virat Kohli six, Rohit Sharma seven.India’s top order has world-class batsmen in the prime of their careers. The threat of a slightly unknown entity does not deter them. “I have played Amir before,” Rohit remembers, “but I am preparing for all of them. It’s not about one individual. We have to be well prepared. We are up for the challenge and we will see what they have for us in store. I won’t focus on one bowler. They have a good bowling attack, so we will take all of them seriously.”Not to mention India can turn around and say players like Dhawan, Yuvraj and Hardik Pandya not having faced Amir is an ace up their sleeve. All of it makes for a delightful story.So when Amir runs in to bowl on Saturday, remember that he has dismissed Kumar Sangakkara twice in a Test. When Kohli takes guard, remember that he has the best average (minimum 500 runs) and the least dot-ball percentage (minimum 500 balls) in T20Is. And remember this is India-Pakistan cricket.

Plays of the day from Kanpur’s first T20 clash, involving Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders

Nikhil Kalro19-May-2016Fortune reversalIn Kolkata Knight Riders’ previous game, Gautam Gambhir dropped a straightforward catch at point to reprieve Virat Kohli. Three days later, Gambhir’s luck seemed to have turned for the better. Late on the pull, he could only miscue a Dhawal Kulkarni short ball to mid-on, where Praveen Kumar made a royal mess. Praveen backtracked after misjudging the catch, then stretched his arms over his head but could only get his fingertips on the ball as he tumbled over.In the next over, Gambhir wafted at a Praveen Kumar offcutter but could only steer to a wide slip. Dwayne Smith dived acrobatically to his left but could not hold on to a tough chance.Gambhir’s communication troubles. Again.Gambhir was run-out in the previous game, after a mix-up with Manish Pandey. On Thursday, miscommunication with Robin Uthappa resulted in another run-out. Uthappa flicked a half-volley stylishly towards midwicket where Shadab Jakati hurled himself to his left to stop the boundary. Uthappa slipped mid-pitch while Gambhir was stranded next to him. For a split second, both batsman were motionless before Gambhir carried on with the run towards the striker’s end. He clearly didn’t account for Jakati’s pyrotechnics.Jakati quickly sussed out the opportunity, picked up the ball and fired an accurate throw that knocked the stumps down at the striker’s end. Gambhir was typically miffed as he trudged off.A send-offDwayne Bravo v Jason Holder. Round one. Holder attempted a heave off a full delivery. A thick outside edge flew to the third man boundary for four. Round two. Bravo missed his length. The slower delivery was in Holder’s arc, and it was smeared into the stands over midwicket for six.Round three. Holder miscued a length ball towards mid-off, where Finch clutched the catch to his chest. Bravo spontaneously broke out into his jig in front of Holder. A few seconds later, Holder wore a wry smile on his face and shoved Bravo out of his way as he walked off. All in good humor though.The nasty collisionIn the 10th over of Lions’ chase, Suresh Raina clipped a Sunil Narine delivery to fine leg. Raina and Aaron Finch ran along parallel paths for the first two runs, before suddenly criss-crossing on the third run. Raina veered towards his right to avoid Finch’s bulky figure. Finch, too, saw Raina careening in his direction and swerved to his left. They collided into each other, with Finch surprisingly thrown back by the momentum. In between, Uthappa cleanly collected Ankit Rajpoot’s throw to whip the bails off and send Finch back.

Stats highlights from the one-off T20I in Southampton which was also won by the hosts and Sri Lanka end the tour win-less

Bharath Seervi05-Jul-20160 Number of matches won by Sri Lanka on this tour of England. They lost the three-match Test series by 2-0, lost the five-match ODI series 3-0 before losing the one-off T20I. The last instance of a visiting side not winning any match against England in a season, containing series of at least two formats, was West Indies in 2012. Incidentally, Sri Lanka had won all the three series against England on their last tour, in 2014.73* Jos Buttler’s score in this match – his highest in T20Is as well as the highest in his overall T20 career. He beat his previous best T20I score of 67 which came against West Indies in Bridgetown in 2013-14 and his previous best T20 score of 72 not out which was for Somerset against Gloucestershire in Taunton in 2011. His unbeaten knock of 73 is the second-highest for England against Sri Lanka. Alex Hales made 116 not out in Chittagong in the 2014 World T20.0 Number of higher targets successfully chased by England losing two or fewer wickets, than the target of 141 in this T20I. They had chased down 140 without losing any wickets against New Zealand in Wellington in 2012-13. This was only their fourth win by eight or more wickets in T20Is.3/27 Liam Dawson’s figures in this match – the best for an England spinner on T20I debut. The previous highest was Chris Schofield’s 2 for 15 against Zimbabwe in Cape Town in 2007 World T20. Dawson’s figures are overall the fifth-best by an England bowler on T20I debut.61 – Runs scored by Sri Lanka in their last ten overs of the innings losing seven wickets after being 79 for 3 at the end of the tenth over. England scored only 66 in their first ten and then made 78 runs in the next 7.3 overs to chase down the target comfortably. For Sri Lanka, there were six overs in the first ten where they scored eight or more runs compared to just two such overs in the last ten.114* Runs added by Eoin Morgan and Buttler for the third-wicket, which is the second-highest partnership for England in T20Is against Sri Lanka. The highest of 152 was also for the third-wicket involving Morgan and Hales in Chittagong in the 2014 World T20.0 Number of England players who had scored 50 or more in their first innings as an opener in T20Is, before Buttler. This was the first time Buttler had opened in his 49-match T20I career and he made 73 not out. The previous highest by an England player in his first innings as an opener was 46 by James Vince against Pakistan in Sharjah in 2015-16. The highest by any player in his maiden innings as an opener is 96 by Damien Martyn against South Africa at the Gabba in 2005-06 – the only time he opened in his four-match T20I career. This was only the second time Buttler opened in his entire T20 career of 140 innings. The first time he opened was for Somerset against Jamaica in Bridgetown in the 2011 Caribbean T20 where he was out without scoring.5 – Number of instances of a team’s top five all scoring more than 10 runs but none of them going past 30 in a T20I innings. In this match, Sri Lanka’s top five all went onto double figures but the highest was 26 by Danushka Gunathilaka. This was the first such instance for Sri Lanka. The last such instance for any team was for West Indies against Ireland in Kingston in 2013-14.18.85 Kusal Perera’s average on this England tour – 132 runs in seven innings. His highest score on this tour was 43 and he was out three times for single digits. He, though, made 32 and 135 in two ODI innings against Ireland in Dublin between the Test and ODI series against England.72 Number of T20Is missed by Farveez Maharoof for Sri Lanka, before appearing in this match. His last T20I, before this, was in October 2008. Only Liam Plunkett (74 matches) has missed more consecutive T20Is for a team. Among Sri Lanka players, the next highest is 37 T20Is missed by Dilhara Fernando who made a comeback in February earlier this year after having not played a T20I since November 2011.

The BCCI’s decision of filing a review petition against the Supreme Court ruling could either be seen as a desparate gamble or an astute strategy. Either way, we are some way from hearing the last of this case

Sidharth Monga09-Aug-2016There is a certain irony about BCCI reviewing a decision. But like in the case of the Decision Review System that it opposes, filing a review petition against the reforms recommended by the Lodha Committee, and mandated by the Supreme Court, this can be seen as a desperate late review to waste minutes while trying to save a Test in dying light. Or perhaps there is a bigger gambit.On the face of it, a review petition is the only legal recourse available to the BCCI. However, for it to have a chance to succeed, its legal team will have to persuade the same set of judges – in this case the Chief Justice of India TS Thakur and a judge he nominates because his partner in this case, Ibrahim Kalifullah, has retired – of an apparent error in their judgment. And if they choose to admit the petition, it will be heard in private.

What is a review petition?
A review petition is the recourse available to aggrieved parties to appeal against binding Supreme Court judgements based on an apparent error. In this case, Markandey Katju has argued on behalf of the BCCI that the Supreme Court has exceeded its judicial powers and assumed legislative powers in restructuring the BCCI.
Who is Markandey Katju?
Katju is a former Supreme Court judge and an outspoken critic of the Indian judiciary. He has previously been in disagreement with Justice RM Lodha.
Who will hear the petition?
It usually goes back to the same judges who hear it in private before giving it a public hearing if there is merit to it. In this case, though, Justice Imbrahim Kalifullah has retired so Justice TS Thakur will be joined by a replacement.
Who will choose Kalifullah’s replacement?
Thakur, by the virtue of being the Chief Justice of India.
By when can the petition be filed?
Within a month of the signed judgement being issued to the parties.
Does Katju’s argument have merit?
Legal experts say that while the court might be assuming legislative powers, this is hardly without precedent. The most popular such high-profile case was when the Supreme Court laid down the guidelines for sexual harassment cases when no such law existed in India.
What if the review petition is not accepted?
In extreme cases the Supreme Court may consider a curative petition, which is not a constitutional right but a mechanism introduced by the Supreme Court to guard against gross miscarriage of justice. It can be filed by persons who are not party to proceedings or who haven’t been heard.

The BCCI, it is said, has been emboldened by the legal advice it has received from former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju, who, in an extraordinary offensive, has called the Supreme Court’s decision “unconstitutional and illegal”. He has accused the Supreme Court of setting a bad precedent by assuming legislative powers in this case, or practising in “judicial activism” as it is known in legal circles.Legal experts, however, point out this is not the first time the judiciary has ventured into drafting legislation, more popularly with the drafting of Visakha, a set of guidelines in cases of sexual harassment in India because at that time there was no such law in India.As matters stand, the BCCI is poised to take Katju’s advice and miss the August 9 meeting with the Lodha Committee. That, and hiring Katju is being seen in legal circles as tantamount to waving the red rag to the judiciary for there is history between him and Justice RM Lodha. Katju has been in recent times an outspoken critic of the Indian judiciary. After taking over the chairmanship of the press council, he had public issues with Lodha, who recommended a two-year cooling-off period for retired judges before they took up government assignments.If this is a delaying tactic – Kalifullah has already retired, and Thakur is due to depart in January 2017 – legal experts believe there is far too much time left to delay through this final review. This review petition will have to be filed by August 18 or thereabouts, and the BCCI will still have to kill another five months if they are hoping for a change of heart from the new chief justice after Thakur.Justics JS Khehar is in line to succeed Thakur and he was ‪part of the two-man bench before whom the BCCI had challenged the decision of the Bombay High Court‬ about the fact that due legal processes had not been followed in investigating the IPL 2013 corruption case.However, seen from another angle, it can be argued that there is little to lose from taking the matter further for the current BCCI dispensation because a majority of them stand to lose positions either immediately or after the current term is over if two major recommendations – taking out administrators who are over 70 and those who have already served nine years – come in to effect. They may as well give it every desperate shot.Yet there is another school of thought that gives the BCCI more credit than just gambling desperately. The board, with a member of parliament from the ruling party (the BJP) as its head and the union finance minister widely believed to be its godfather, enjoys loyalties in the parliament that cuts across party lines, which is believed to be the BCCI’s trump card.It is believed that powers higher than the BCCI office bearers are calling the shots now; in fact some BCCI members have anonymously questioned the wisdom of pitting a former Supreme Court judge against the Chief Justice of India. However, there is possibility of cold logic and an elaborate game plan behind this. Filing the review petition, even if it is not likely to be entertained as Katju has himself written in his blog, is to follow the formalities and also buy time. In Katju they have a man who will publicly say what they want to say but with the authority of a former Supreme Court judge. Also, during the process there will be unnamed BCCI sources telling the media how the legal tussle is hurting the organisation of cricket matches in order to gain more sympathy.While all this serves as a distraction, the parliament could move to clear the long-pending Sports Bill which was originally brought in as a means to rein in errant sports federations, offer regulations regarding age (60) and tenure of officials much like the Lodha regulations. The Sports Bill was being held up due to political opposition for the last four years, but the Lodha report may give it life again, even if in a slightly diluted form, reducing age and tenure limitationsand making it an overarching piece of legislation which the BCCI can adhere to and extricate themselves out of the Lodha report’s far tougher regulations.On paper, political will should be easy to garner because the BCCI has members across political parties, but if this is the BCCI plan, it will not be as rosy as it sounds. For starters it might have to agree to fall under the Right to Information Act (RTI), an integral part of the Sports Bill that the BCCI has avoided. Moreover, legal experts believe that while the parliament can pass a bill that overrules the Supreme Court judgement, there has to be a sound legal foundation for it; the only purpose of the bill cannot be to counter a recent Supreme Court judgement.If this is indeed the plan, the BCCI will have to execute it to perfection to get over all possible objections and public outrage against it, but even if such a bill does get cleared to counter the Lodha Committee, all it will take is a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) from any Indian citizen to take the matter back to the judiciary. Either way it is safe to say that we are some way from hearing the last of this case.