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The legspinner knew he would not get the South Africa call-up easily given the quality of his competition, but he kept working hard and has got to where he wants to be

Firdose Moonda04-Jun-2015The modern cricketer has the technological benefits of being broadcast in High Definition, being officiated by the DRS system, and in legspinner Eddie Leie’s case, being coached on YouTube.”I’m serious. I learnt my googly through watching clips of Danish Kaneria bowling and my flipper from a combination of Shane Warne, Anil Kumble and Kaneria,” Leie, the new face in South Africa’s T20 squad for the upcoming tour to Bangladesh, says. “I would watch the videos a few times to see how they did it and go to the nets and try to do the same thing. That was how I learnt.”It’s not that Leie didn’t have coaches, it’s that he had the time.He made his first-class debut in 2005, played his second game two years later and his third three years after that in 2010. Before that, he had been part of age-group provincial sides in Potchefstroom in the North West Province, where he schooled. In between, he completed his degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, played for their cricket club, trained in their nets, and only after that did he properly break into the Gauteng provincial side.”The Gauteng side always had good spinners. When I first started they had Ahmed Nawab and then Dale Deeb. I always knew that as a spinner, I would have to wait,” Leie said. “It’s like in soccer when you have a goalkeeper and he does well, you don’t just change him.”Incidentally, Leie was also a goalkeeper so he understood the queuing system well and he needed to. Even after a breakthrough 2012-13 season for Gauteng, in which he took 56 first-class wickets at 22.85, he could not crack the franchise team, Lions. Imran Tahir and Aaron Phangiso were ahead of him and Leie’s only chances came when both were on international duty.

“Sometimes, after nets, I go to do some work in the middle and then Geoff comes with me. I am a hard worker, I want to give 120%, so it’s nice to have a coach who does the same”Eddie Leie on Lions’ coach Geoffrey Toyana

Instead of wishing them away, Leie chose to learn from them – so much so that former convener of selectors Andrew Hudson, whose panel picked him for the T20 squad, said Leie was “a lot like Imran”. Both are legspinners which makes both naturally attacking, and Hudson is hopeful Leie will continue to model his game on Tahir, who has also become a successful in holding up an end – Tahir’s ODI economy rate is 4.35, even lower than Phangiso’s 4.55.Leie has learnt from both, particularly Phangiso, about not leaking runs. “Phangi played a big role in the evolution of my one-day career. He helped me with which lines and lengths to bowl,” he says. “South African pitches are not that conducive to spin bowling, so you have to innovate. At the Wanderers you get some bounce and if there is grass the ball will turn a bit, but a lot of the time it’s about being crafty.”Mastering that craftiness takes more than mimicking a YouTube video; it also needs nurturing from an expert, and Leie got that from Lions’ coach. Geoffrey Toyana has overseen the rise of Quinton de Kock, Chris Morris, Temba Bavuma and Phangiso, and his success rate as a coach comes down to his people skills.”Geoff has made a big difference to all of us because of the way he backs us and lets us be ourselves,” Leie explains. “And he is selfless – if we want to stay after training to do more, he stays with us. Sometimes, after nets, I go to do some work in the middle and then Geoff comes with me. I am a hard worker, I want to give 120%, so it’s nice to have a coach who does the same.”All that effort has finally resulted in the recognition every player dreams of: an international call-up. With the World T20 just nine months away, it would seem Leie is being lined up for bigger things even though he does not want to think that far ahead, or even as far as whether he will get a game in Bangladesh.”Whether I play or don’t play, the call-up is enough. This will do my confidence a world of good,” Leie says. “Imran must be the guy who goes to the World T20. There is a queue and I am willing to wait.””[Aaron Phangiso] played a big role in the evolution of my one-day career. He helped me with which lines and lengths to bowl”•AFPIn the meanwhile, Leie has a few other things going on. Even before going to Bangladesh, he has an overseas assignment. He will play for the St Lucia Zouks in the Caribbean Premier League after being handpicked by Darren Sammy, who got Leie to put his name in the player draft after playing against him in South Africa’s T20 competition earlier this year. Even though Leie was on the losing side, Sammy was impressed with his returns of 2 for 17.”I bumped into him at Nandos after the game and he came to me and said that I had bowled well and I should consider playing in the CPL,” Leie says. “So I did.” Leie did not play for Lions in the Champions League T20, neither has he played in the IPL, so the CPL will be his first experience of the glitzy, glamorous side of cricket.He expects the Bangladesh tour, which will be sandwiched between his two stints in St Lucia, to be demanding work. “Playing Bangladesh in Bangladesh is not going to be easy. They are going to give it everything and we’ve seen how well they’ve been doing recently – at the World Cup and against Pakistan.”Leie has already started strategising about how he will approach the opposition if given the chance. “Cricket is my life so you have to think about these things, and I can tell you Shakib Al Hasan is the man I would target,” he says.So has he watched any YouTube clips of Shakib batting to try and spot a weakness? You can probably guess the answer to that.

Also: bowling and batting before lunch, four lefty openers, and Pakistan-born Ashes players

Steven Lynch11-Aug-2015Has anyone other than Jim Laker bettered Stuart Broad’s bowling figures in the Ashes? asked Melanie Hodgson from England

The England offspinner Jim Laker famously took 19 for 90 in the match – 9 for 37 and 10 for 53 – for England against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956. But the only other figures statistically better than Stuart Broad’s 8 for 15 in Nottingham the other day were even longer ago: in Melbourne in 1920-21, the Australian legspinner Arthur Mailey took 9 for 121 in England’s second innings. Broad’s remarkable performance was the 20th eight-for in Ashes cricket – England’s first since Bob Willis’ 8 for 43 in that famous match at Headingley in 1981 – but the other 19 all cost more. For the full list of the best Ashes bowling figures, click here.How often has the team that bowled first batted before lunch on the first day of a Test? asked David Charlton from England

England’s achievement in bowling Australia out before lunch on the first day in Nottingham, and having a bat themselves, has happened only three times previously in Test matches. At Lord’s in 1896, England bowled Australia out for 53, and started their own first innings before lunch. Wisden reported that “the Australians failed in a fashion that has seldom been seen on a dry, true pitch, being all got rid of in an hour and a quarter. The bowlers did wonders, but lack of nerve on the part of the Australians must have been largely answerable for such an astounding collapse”. The two more recent instances were both inflicted by South Africa. In Ahmedabad in 2007-08 they shot India out for 76 in 20 overs, Dale Steyn taking 5 for 23; then in Cape Town in 2012-13 South Africa mowed New Zealand down in 19.2 overs for 45, Vernon Philander grabbing 5 for 7 (and Steyn 2 for 18).Ian Bell was out for 1 at Nottingham, for the sixth time this year. Has anyone been out more often for 1? asked Paul Carlton from Australia

No one has been out more often this year for 1 in Tests, if that’s what you mean: after Bell’s six, next in 2015 is actually his team-mate Joe Root, with three dismissals for a single. Overall, Bell has now been out for 1 on 12 occasions in his Test career. Another current England player, James Anderson, leads the way here with 14, ahead of Harbhajan Singh on 13. Both Glenn McGrath and Javagal Srinath were also out a dozen times for 1. Bell is now the leading specialist batsman on this list, having eclipsed Sachin Tendulkar, one of four men with 11 (the others are Curtly Ambrose, Rod Marsh and Courtney Walsh).Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer made up one pair of left-handed openers in the Ashes in 2005 and 2006-07•Getty ImagesFawad Ahmed is in the Australian squad for this Ashes series, but hasn’t played a match yet. Is Usman Khawaja the only Pakistani-born cricketer to play in the Ashes? asked Danish Syed from Pakistan

Usman Khawaja, who was born in Islamabad, has played four Tests against England so far: he made his debut in Sydney in 2010-11, and also appeared in three matches in the 2013 series in England. The only other Pakistan-born player to feature in the Ashes is another Usman – the Rawalpindi-born Usman Afzaal, who made his debut for England at Edgbaston in 2001, and played in two further matches in that series, which constituted his entire Test career. Owais Shah was also born in Pakistan (in Karachi): he appeared in six Tests for England, but none of them were against Australia.The four openers in the current Ashes series are all left-handers. When was the last time that this happened in the Ashes, or all Test cricket? asked Savo Ceprnich from South Africa

All four openers being left-handers had never happened in any Ashes series until 2005 – but it’s happened quite a bit since then. Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer opened in all five Tests in 2005, and Hayden, Langer, Strauss and Alastair Cook throughout the 2006-07 series. Cook, Strauss, Phillip Hughes and Simon Katich opened in the first two Tests of the 2009 Ashes (whereupon Hughes was dropped), while Cook, Michael Carberry, Chris Rogers and David Warner opened in all five Tests of 2013-14. So the 2015 series (Rogers, Warner, Cook and Adam Lyth) has really only continued that left-handed trend. It also happened in the Bangladesh-South Africa Tests that took place during this Ashes series. In all there have been 79 Tests now that featured four left-handed openers (some of them thanks to changes of batting order in the second innings), all but one of them since 1996. The only one before that was in Mumbai in 1961-62, when Peter Richardson opened with Geoff Pullar in England’s first innings, and Bob Barber in the second; Nari Contractor opened (with the right-handed ML Jaisimha) for India. The first one to feature just four left-handed openers was the third Test between Australia (Hayden and Langer) and Pakistan (Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar) in Sharjah in 2002-03.There were three centuries in the second ODI between Zimbabwe and New Zealand, but only 471 runs overall. Was this a record? asked Saurav Jain from India

That’s a good spot: there were three centuries – by Sikandar Raza, Martin Guptill and Tom Latham – but only 471 runs in that match in Harare on August 4. And no other one-day international containing three hundreds has had so few runs: the previous mark was 501 by Australia (250 for 3) and India (251 for 3) in Jaipur in 1986-87. Geoff Marsh (104) and David Boon (111) put on 212 for Australia’s first wicket in that game – an ODI record at the time – but they were trumped by Kris Srikkanth’s 102.

In May, James Anderson became the first England bowler to take 400 Test wickets but a side injury which forced him to miss the final two Ashes Tests raised questions as to how much longer he would play. At 33, he still feels he has plenty left in the tank

Andrew McGlashan in Dubai29-Oct-2015James Anderson has a lower Test bowling average in the UAE than any other country he has played in. For a fast bowler, that is quite some badge of honour.It is not a skewed sample size either. He has now played five Tests in the region, the same number he has clocked up in South Africa and New Zealand and only two fewer than India and West Indies.In those five outings, Anderson has collected 16 wickets at 23.93, his seven wickets at 19.14 so far in the two matches of this tour nudging his average below his figure playing in West Indies where his returns come at 24.92.In terms of visiting pacemen in the UAE he has the fourth lowest average after Glenn McGrath (7.40), Andy Bichel (13.25) and Vernon Philander (23.00). The figures of McGrath and Bichel are helped by having been involved in the 2002 Test in Sharjah when Pakistan were bowled out for 59 and 53 in Sharjah.Spoils have not come that easily for Anderson on this tour – and he can only dream of a scenario where Pakistan are skittled in such fashion in the final Test – but he takes extra satisfaction from earning success on pitches which test a fast bowler’s skill and endurance to the limit.”It is a real test of your skills and it is quite good fun,” he said. “If you have a good day out here you feel you get more out of it personally. There is more reward.”Anderson, with 67 overs, has also bowled more in this series than any other England quick (Wahab Riaz is top overall with 83 overs) but the workload has been very evenly shared between him, Stuart Broad (56), Mark Wood (62.5) and Ben Stokes (58.1). After some initial worries when they first arrived and the temperature was in the mid-40s, Anderson said that conditions have not proved too demanding.”The first couple of days we were worried about how we were going to get through because the heat was quite severe but as the series has gone on the temperature has dropped and we have got used to it as well. We have been bowling three, four, five over spells which doesn’t actually take too much out of you.”Anderson has operated in a variety of guises through the two matches – both of which have seen England bowl first after Alastair Cook lost the toss – from a traditional new-ball bowler for the few overs where the ball might swing, to searching for reverse later on and also bringing out a repertoire of slower balls.”In these conditions you’ve got to try and get something out of it as a seamer, you try all sorts of things,” he said. “We’ve had the keeper up at different stages, you bowl offcutters and things like that. The ball that got Misbah the other day was a genuine offspinner, you just try it.Anderson’s economy for the series is a parsimonious 2.00 while Stokes at 3.00 is England’s most expensive seamer as Pakistan have sought to play out the pacemen and target the spinners – Moeen Ali has conceded 4.34 an over and Adil Rashid 4.27 – which has left Anderson wishing the batsmen would play more shots against him.”It has been frustrating as well because you need people to go after you on these wickets to get the chances, so that is why we’ve set certain fields and tried to be aggressive with our plans,” he said.The four-man pace attack is likely to be retained for Sharjah, where England need to win to level the series, which would be a move away from the pre-series thoughts they had on playing three spinners. It would also be significant because Mark Wood will have played three consecutive Tests where the initial suggestion was his body may only allow him two.England may have to consider relieving him of ODI or T20 duty later in the tour – with an eye on the South Africa Test series which starts on Boxing Day – but he produced his most impressive Test performance in Dubai where he collected five wickets in the match and, especially in the first innings, troubled Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq with short deliveries.”He has done brilliantly. Him and Ben Stokes, their bowling has improved out of sight on this trip,” Anderson said. “The first week we were here, the first warm-up game I remember both of them saying it was pretty boring. They both want to take wickets, they want to steam in and rough people up but you can’t just do that out here.”The way Mark bowled in that first innings [in Dubai] going away from his natural game… I thought he was outstanding and he’s getting to grips with bowling different balls, cutters and little subtle variations which again will improve his game no end.”Not that Anderson has any plans on permanently passing England’s fast-bowling baton onto the younger models anytime soon. In May, Anderson became the first England bowler to take 400 Test wickets but a side injury which forced him to miss the final two Ashes Tests raised a question as to how much longer he would play. At 33, he still feels he has plenty left in the tank.”You’re making me feel really old … as if I’m coming to the end! But why can’t I play for another five years? I’m loving it at the minute, loving bowling, loving playing, enjoying taking wickets and the challenges we’ve got ahead. I’m going to keep going till my body can’t take any more.”James Anderson is speaking on behalf of Waitrose, Official Sponsor of the England Cricket Team. For exclusive player content visit waitrose.com/cricket

Shardul Thakur produced an efficient bowling display but quickly found the difference between domestic cricket and the highest level while bowling to some of the world’s best batsmen

Firdose Moonda in Mumbai31-Oct-2015After taking four South African wickets, two in the space of five overs this morning, Shardul Thakur can be forgiven for thinking he had a Midas touch. He had Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla to his name, and wanted to add AB de Villiers to the list.The first ball he bowled to de Villiers was what Thakur thought was “a good ball.” It was in the corridor outside off stump that Thakur had been peppering and on a teasing length which he thought was not short enough for de Villiers to cut. So he was pretty surprised to see de Villiers back away slightly, get under him and square cut him for four. But he was willing to accept that the batsmen may have superior skills.”I thought it was a good ball and that he had played a very good shot,” Thakur said, although he wanted to confirm that at the drinks break when he had the chance to speak to de Villiers. “I went and asked him why he hit that ball for four because I thought it was a good ball.” The response sent Thakur crashing back down to earth. “AB said, ‘For me, it wasn’t a good ball.”If morale could be deflated quicker, it would have to be a popped balloon.Thakur did not take any more wickets as de Villiers stamped his authority on a day that was slipping away from the South Africans, as the pitch flattened and the spinners came more into play. But 24-year-old Thakur did enough to earn a place at the post-day press conference where the local reporters were talking up his chances of earning a call-up to the national side soon.He can’t afford to think that far. He is not part of the Test squad that features Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav, and has to return to Ranji Trophy action where he is “hopeful of picking up wickets,” armed with some new knowledge. Thakur has learnt what it takes to take on the big boys, and concluded that only that was on his mind.”When you play against quality batsmen, you can’t afford to lose your momentum or focus. You have to keep your concentration the same all day,” he said. “In Ranji Trophy matches you can sometimes take it easy but against these guys you have to put all your energy in every ball. So that’s what I am trying to do.”Even the ball that Thakur thought so highly of which de Villiers dismissed with such disdain, had all his effort behind it and it allowed him to assess how he matches up to the best. “This match was very big for me because I could analyse myself and see: where do I stand?,” he said. “It lets me see – given a chance to play against these guys, how would I perform in the future. I got to look at myself and where can I improve.”Now that he knows, Thakur is hoping conditions during the rest of the domestic season will help prove he is ready for the step up. “It depends on the pitches but until there is a rank turner, I don’t find anything to stop me from taking wickets.”

On November 27 last year, Phillip Hughes died in hospital after being struck by a bouncer during a Sheffield Shield game two days before. It was a tragedy that changed cricket forever

Daniel Brettig in Adelaide27-Nov-2015Perched in the top left corner of the venerable Adelaide Oval scoreboard on Friday was a small addition to its 104-year old visage. “Remembering 408″ was a minimalist message, but a suitable signifier of the mark left by Phillip Hughes a year ago. Like the scoreboard itself, Hughes’ memory will always endure, and the addition of those words will leave the board, like the game, forever changed.A broad array of emotions has been evident among all the players gathering in Adelaide this week. As was the case on the awful days and weeks after Hughes’ death, not everyone is in exactly the same place. Some have kept Hughes at the front of their minds every day since, and as a result will not feel too different. But others, who tried to push the events of last November to the backs of their minds, must wrestle with the presence of many reminders.The contrast was summed up by Steve O’Keefe and Peter Siddle, two men with plenty of vivid memories of Hughes, but differing approaches to his memory. For O’Keefe, who was among those players at the SCG on the day Hughes was felled, this week was another in which he would be reminded of how events so jolted him, but also how he ultimately resolved to carry on with the game.”I think the game has changed for me forever,” O’Keefe said. “It lost a bit of its context in regards to what it meant to me. Your perspective changes I think. You play a game that’s meant to be fun, meant to be in a great contest, and in the blink of a ball it completely changes on you.”It’s not what it was but that’s how fragile life is and the game is changed, but it made me reassess why I play the game. And I play it because I love it and it’s the same reason why Phil played it and the same reason my team-mates play it, because we love that competition and what we do.”Siddle reflected the other position, of having to deal with images and memories previously put to one side. “We’ve sort of distanced ourselves a little bit, haven’t thought too much about it,” he said. “We’re just worrying about the cricket side of things, getting back here after a few days at home.”It’s always nice to spend a bit of time with the boys and get comfy in the new environment but get into the cricket side of things. Start training, start our preparations and get into the cricket stuff. But I think as the day comes closer it’ll probably dawn on us a little bit more then but at this stage it’s been good. It’s been at the back of our minds, which is a nice thing.”David Warner has tried to forge a path between these two poles. “Our preparation has been like any other Test match that we play,” he said. “There were a lot of emotions this time last year. That’s one thing in the back of a lot of our minds. But end of the day we have to come out here and play a game that we love. It’s about crossing that line, putting out cricket caps on and thinking about the job ahead.”We always know our mate is looking down on us and we’ll always do our best for him every time we walk out on the field. As we have done so in the last 12 months. So I don’t think it’s going to change anything this game. We’ve said from the first Test last year when we played here, he’s with us every day.”Hughes’ death took a toll on many across Australian cricket. But it has helped somewhat that last year’s Test ended in a cathartic victory, not least for Nathan Lyon who took seven wickets on the final afternoon. “Definitely, no doubt that helped,” he said. “That game is pretty special for a lot of reasons obviously, but I look back at that game with a lot of pride and a lot of memories I try to look back on and re-live. It’s one of those games that’s going to stick with me for the rest of my life and it’s pretty special. I look back at it a fair bit.”It is in many ways fitting that this week is being shared by New Zealand. A year ago they were on the other side of the world, playing a Test match against Pakistan in Dubai, when news of Hughes’ death reverberated around the globe. Ross Taylor remembered the impact of those events, and also how he sought a way to do something about it, contacting Sean Abbott to tell him he was in their thoughts.”It definitely touched our team, and touched the world,” Taylor told ESPNcricinfo. “Just thinking about it now it feels like it didn’t happen that long ago, there were a lot of emotions. I’d played against him and never had the chance to play with him, but the effects that has on us as people will be until the end of our careers I think. It was an emotional time.A mark of remembrance on the Adelaide Oval scoreboard•Getty Images”I sent a message to Trent [Woodhill] and a few of the Australian players. I said to Trent, ‘Mate I feel like I want to do something,’ and he said ‘send him a message,’ so Trent sent me his number, I didn’t expect to have a reply back from him, but got one back straight away.”I’ve never met the bloke, and we had discussions two and fro a few messages. It’s a sad story about Hughesy, but it’s amazing how Sean’s out there playing and giving it 100% after what he had to go through over the last little while.”In this can be found the more redemptive elements of the past 12 months. Cricket has become a little less combative, a little more friendly, and certainly more safety conscious. “I think everyone around the world, that feeling was echoed and I think the positive to take out of it was how strong the cricket community is, how everyone bonded together,” O’Keefe said. “That’s the thing that I want to remember out of that.”Guys from every team, from every state, all around the country and the world. I remember seeing the Indians present at the funeral and to me it’s just a game but it’s more than that. Cricket is a big family and as much as you like to compete on the field, we know it’s a game we just enjoy and love and I try to look at it as positively as possible. As much as it does get emotional and I just hope in my lifetime I never have to see anything like that again and we can remember Phillip Hughes for what he was, a great bloke and even better player.”Ironically, Taylor has been the subject of a debate over the Australian team’s behaviour after they did not shake his hand after his dismissal for a mammoth 290 in Perth last week. But he noted that the teams have shared drinks after each of the first two Tests in this series, and that all now played the game in a spirit influenced by Hughes.”Anytime you play against Australia you know they’re going to play hard, aggressive cricket, and if they didn’t I think something would be wrong,” Taylor said. “Off the field the teams get along really well and we’ve caught up after both Test matches. It’s good to know a few of them – with IPL you get to play with a few of them, but there’s a lot I haven’t played with either, so it’s good to know them.”It’s something in cricket that’s been lost, and Brendon [McCullum’s] got to take a lot of credit for that, he’s been big on that right from when he started. I’m not saying it should be friendly cricket, because I don’t think that’s the way it should be, but camaraderie off the paddock is good and I hope it continues. Life’s too short to take it off the field.”At the other end of Adelaide Oval to the scoreboard, the new Riverbank Stand was the place chosen for the South Australian Cricket Association memorial to Hughes, with flowers and tributes mounting up affectingly over the course of last summer. A year on, the memorial has gone, but something else has emerged in its place that will draw knowing nods from those who knew Hughes – a new coffee shop.”He’d just catch your eye and say, ‘Latte?'” Usman Khawaja recalled in . “He was always up for it. I don’t know how much coffee he drank, but it was a lot.”

Will it be the most sixes or the fastest hundred? Cast your vote

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Feb-2016

Stats highlights from New Zealand’s big victory against Bangladesh in Kolkata

Bharath Seervi26-Mar-201670 Bangladesh’s total – their lowest in T20Is. The previous lowest was also against New Zealand, when they were all out for 78 in Hamilton in February 2010. Bangladesh’s score is also the lowest for any team against New Zealand in T20Is.6 Consecutive wins for New Zealand in T20Is. They had won the last two matches against Pakistan before the four wins in this tournament. This is New Zealand’s longest winning streak in T20Is. Their previous longest was five wins in a row between October 2011 and February 2012. Click here for the most consecutive wins in T20Is.3 Number of times New Zealand had defended a score less than 150 in their first 16 attempts. But since December 2014, they have won all four times defending a score of less than 150 – three of those instances have been in this tournament.2 Instances of a team dismissing the oppositions for less than 80 runs twice in a single series or tournament. New Zealand had dismissed India for 79 in their first game of this tournament before getting Bangladesh for 70 in this game. Similarly, in the last World T20, Sri Lanka had dismissed Netherlands for 39 and New Zealand for 60.2 Five-wicket hauls by Bangladesh bowlers in T20Is. Mustafizur Rahman’s 5 for 22 is the second such haul for Bangladesh after Elias Sunny took 5 for 13 against Ireland in Belfast in 2012. The previous four best figures for Bangladesh in the World T20 were all by Shakib Al Hasan.3 Five-wicket hauls taken by bowlers against New Zealand, the most against any team in T20Is. Before Mustafizur, Umar Gul had taken 5 for 6 at the Oval in the 2009 World T20 and Rangana Herath had snared 5 for 3 in Chittagong during the 2014 World T20.4 Number of five-wicket hauls which have come in losing cause in T20Is. Mustafizur’s 5 for 22 is the second-best bowling figures on a losing occasion for a team.22 Wickets for Mustafizur within one year of his T20I career. He made his T20I debut on April 24 last year and has played 13 matches in these 11 months. Only Saeed Ajmal (26 wickets) and Ajantha Mendis (25) had taken more wickets in the first year of their T20I career (first 365 days). Dirk Nannes had also picked up 22 wickets in his first one year of T20Is.10 Batsmen who were out bowled in this match, the most in a T20I. There were six players bowled in New Zealand’s innings and four in Bangladesh’s. The six batsmen bowled in New Zealand’s innings is also the joint-most in a singleT20I innings.1 Number of times New Zealand had got seven wickets for 50 or fewer runs in a T20I before this World T20. But in this tournament, they have wrecked their opponents to such extents twice: India lost their seventh wicket with the score at 53 in Nagpur, and Bangladesh lost their seventh wicket for 48 in this match.22.30 Average opening stand for New Zealand in the last ten T20Is, including this match, where Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson did not open for them. In the last ten matches where those two opened, New Zealand average 75.11 with eight stands of 50 or more.9 Wickets for Mitchell Santner in this World T20, second-most for New Zealand in a series or tournament. Only Daniel Vettori’s 11 wickets in the 2007 World T20 is higher than Santner’s tally. Ish Sodhi also has eight wickets in this tournament.

Angelo Mathews talks about the challenges of leading an inexperienced team, and the possibility of giving up the T20 captaincy

Tim Wigmore23-Jun-2016In the space of 23 months at Headingley, Sri Lanka went from series winners to a rabble bundled out twice in the equivalent of under a day’s play. For Angelo Mathews, the journey was from a “personal triumph”, as termed the Test series win in 2014, to a figure decried as lethargic and inert.”The [2016] England Test tour was pretty poor from our side. We didn’t do well,” Mathews says. “But we kept improving day by day.”He isn’t happy about one aspect of the team’s performance, though. “There’s a lot to improve in our fielding. It is still not up to the mark,” he says. No one who witnessed Sri Lanka’s shoddy catching in England would disagree. Nor is the problem new. “The way our guys are fielding, they are carrying excess weight and we are in shambles,” Jerome Jayaratne said last September, during his stint as interim head coach.”It’s not about quantity – we do a lot of fielding practice,” Mathews says. “It’s just the nerves sometimes that the boys have, but hopefully we can all get over it. We’ve made a few mistakes on the field in the last couple of matches.”Mathews’ captaincy came under scrutiny too. On occasion – most strikingly while Moeen Ali and Steven Finn were adding 72 for the ninth wicket at Chester-le-Street – his leadership appeared devoid of energy or imagination. His strategy seemed to be to ensure Finn was facing the first ball of the next over, yet Moeen was able to take singles far too easily off the fifth or sixth ball of each over.

“If I think there is a suitable captain and a better captain than me, I’ll talk to the selectors and step down”On his future as T20 captain

The sense of a captain who lets matters drift, sleepwalking from a good position to one of peril, was familiar. Sri Lanka began 2015 by allowing New Zealand to recover from 159 for 5 to 524 for 5 declared in Wellington. At home against Pakistan later that year, Sri Lanka allowed a score of 96 for 5 to become 417 all out in Galle; Pakistan then chased 377 in Pallekele to seal the series. At Headingley, they allowed England to recover from 83 for 5 to 298, and at Lord’s England got to 416 from 84 for 4.Yet Mathews rejects the label that he is a conservative captain. “You try to be cautious sometimes, but I think losing a game by trying to win one is key. I always go for a win and don’t mind losing a few on the way to a win,” he says.”I’m still learning as captain. I’ve done the job for three years but every day you learn. You learn through your mistakes. It’s not an easy road, it’s tough, but as long as I enjoy my captaincy, I’ll try and be positive and go for wins. You’ve got to try and embrace the pressure and not think too much about it. You go out there and enjoy yourself and everything else will look after itself.”However, one cannot dispute the fact that Mathews’ batting has been transformed for the better since he took on the responsibility of captaincy. In Test cricket he averages 57.48 as captain from 52 innings, compared to 39.71 from 50 innings before he was captain. He has scored six of his seven centuries after taking over as captain. He also averages five runs more with the bat as captain in ODIs, and his bowling average is lower in both Tests and ODIs when he is leading the side.”After I got the captaincy I’ve done pretty well with the bat,” he says. “I try not to put myself under a lot of pressure. I just try to go out there, be positive and enjoy the game. When you’re captaining, you’re not just the captain, you’re a player as well. So when you’re batting, you’re a batsman, when you’re bowling, you’re a bowler. I try to stick to that and on the field try and concentrate on my performances.””We have a good bunch of players who are willing to go out there and fight it out”•AFPAs captain, Mathews has witnessed transformation in the Sri Lanka side. He was handed the job three years ago when Mahela Jayawardene resigned, wanting to give Mathews the chance to grow into the role while he and Kumar Sangakkara were still around. Now with both retired, Mathews leads a team attempting to forge a new identity.”The guys have to take responsibility. We don’t have the senior players now but we have a good bunch of players who are willing to go out there and fight it out, so it’s pretty pleasing,” Mathews says. “We’ve got so many players who are helping each other out. They’re throwing in a lot of ideas as well. We’ve got a lot of younger guys but they’re not afraid of throwing their thoughts in, which is very positive from our point of view.” He cites Dinesh Chandimal, who at 26 has already been vice-captain for three years, as a particular source of support.Chandimal might soon succeed Mathews as T20 captain. When Lasith Malinga resigned just before the World T20, Mathews was appointed to replace him. He became captain in all three formats: an onerous, indeed unsustainable, burden in today’s age. Mathews hinted as much when he said, “I was not mentally prepared to take up captaincy in the tournament”, just before the World T20.And he suggests that he might not be T20 captain for much longer. “If I think there is a suitable captain and a better captain than me, I’ll talk to the selectors and step down. If somebody comes through the ranks and is doing really well and is up for the challenge, well, I’ll obviously give it to him.”

“We’ve got so many players who are helping each other out. They’re throwing in a lot of ideas as well”

A little like Nasser Hussain’s and Duncan Fletcher’s alliance for England, coach Graham Ford and Mathews aim to put the days of selection issues behind and empower a young generation to lead the side forward. Mathews’ admiration for Ford is palpable. “He’s put a lot of thoughts on the table and we discuss combinations and strategies all the time. He’s been a wonderful coach throughout.”For all the concern about Sri Lanka’s recent underwhelming form, Mathews senses a tough new team in the making. “You try and share your experiences with the younger guys so that they can take it on and move forward when we retire. It’s all about passing it on to the younger generation,” he says. “We see lots of guys taking responsibility, now that we don’t have the big guns,” citing Kusal Perera and Dasun Shanaka.”We are trying not to chop and change too much. We are trying to pick a set of players and keep them for as long as possible. There will be changes here and there but you try to stick to one combination and give them a good run.”Mathews is convinced that experience and selectorial faith will ensure more moments like Headingley 2014, and fewer like Headingley 2016.

Plays of the day from the third ODI between Zimbabwe and India in Harare

Karthik Krishnaswamy15-Jun-2016 ball, keepingStanding up to the stumps, MS Dhoni isn’t just a conjuror of quicksilver stumpings and unorthodox, football-style stops. He’s also a fount of wisdom for his young spinners, his nasally drawled instructions available to the wider public thanks to the magic of the stump mic. On Wednesday, the world came to know that ‘Bapu’ isn’t just Ravindra Jadeja’s nickname, and that he shares it with that other left-arm-spinning allrounder from Gujarat, Axar Patel.” [That is a bad ball, Bapu],” Dhoni called out, when Vusi Sibanda whipped a leg-stumpish delivery to midwicket in Axar’s sixth over.Axar’s next ball was far from . It drifted in, and turned sharply to take Sibanda’s edge as he pressed forward to defend. It barely lost pace after taking the edge, and Dhoni’s hands were just a touch slow behind the wicket, for once. The ball hit the edge of his glove and ran away in the direction of third man.The capitulationIn the second ODI, Zimbabwe had been bowled out for 126, having been 106 for 3 at one point. Now, in the third ODI, Zimbabwe were in a similar position: 104 for 3 in the 33rd over. Surely they wouldn’t collapse again?Jasprit Bumrah ran in, and for what seemed the thousandth time in his spell, got the ball to nip back sharply from just back of a length. Timycen Maruma’s bat came down at an angle, and just a touch late, as he looked to defend from the crease, and before he knew it the ball had cannoned off his inside edge and into the stumps. Bumrah’s next ball straightened from the corridor: Elton Chigumbura nicked it, and he was out for his second successive golden duck. That was the end of Bumrah’s over.Now Malcolm Waller dabbed Axar to the left of cover point, and set off. It seemed a safe enough single, given KL Rahul had to run around the ball to be able to throw with his right arm. Richmond Mutumbami, however, didn’t think so, and didn’t move from the non-striker’s end. Waller was three-fourths of the way down the pitch when he turned. He had no chance of making it back.Axar’s next ball was his most dangerous delivery. The arm ball headed towards middle stump. Graeme Cremer came forward to defend, and played for turn. The ball hit his pad, Axar barely had to appeal, and Zimbabwe had lost four wickets in four balls.Kulkarni channels Cruyff“If you want to play quicker you can start running faster,” Johan Cruyff, the former Netherlands football international, once said, “but it’s the ball that decides the speed of the game.” Football for him was about vision and technique rather than lung-busting athleticism.Dhawal Kulkarni may or may not be a fan of Cruyff’s footballing philosophies, but he certainly put this one to brilliant use in the 43rd over of Zimbabwe’s innings. Donald Tiripano bunted the ball a short distance into the off side, and Neville Madziva sprang out of the crease at the other end. Tiripano hesitated before responding to his partner’s call. Kulkarni didn’t run full-tilt to the ball – he merely jogged towards it. He didn’t try to kick it at the stumps at the batsman’s end – he knew Madziva would make his crease in time. Instead, he picked it up, turned around, took careful aim, and fired a rocket throw that hit the base of the stumps at the bowler’s end, with Tiripano a foot short of safety. Talk about letting the ball do the work.Madziva’s towel trickOff-stump line, perfect length, the merest hint of away movement to take the edge. The first ball of Madziva’s second over could have been an absolute beauty, had it been recorded in the scorecard. But when Madziva leaped into his delivery stride, his towel had fallen out of his waistband, and the sight distracted Rahul enough for him to back away, direct the umpire’s attention to the errant piece of cloth, and only offer a shot as a formality. Ian Gould signalled dead ball, and Madziva had to start his over all over again.

There was a time when teams hid their least athletic fielders by the rope. Today, that part of the field witnesses circus-level acrobatics, for which players train in earnest

Crispin Andrews20-Aug-2016In a Test in Christchurch in January 1992, Derek Pringle chased a ball out towards the boundary rope, lumbering as fast as his ample 6ft 4in frame would allow. The rope loomed as the 33-year-old Pringle finally caught up with the ball and stuck out a cursory boot as the ball completed its inevitable journey over the boundary. “That’s a bit of a feeble effort,” one of the New Zealand commentators said.Fourteen years later, at one point in a one-day international on the same ground, West Indian batsman Dwayne Smith smashed New Zealand spinner Jeetan Patel into the crowd. Nathan Astle, 5ft 10in and 34 years old, was fielding on the boundary. As the ball dropped, it looked as if it would just about make it over Astle and the rope. Then Astle did something that back then was considered to be amazing.He jumped vertically, and while in the air, only a few centimetres from the boundary, he stretched out his right hand behind him, took the catch one-handed and then landed just inside the rope. Steadying himself for a split second, Astle then sprang off towards Patel and his team-mates to celebrate the wicket.During post-match interviews, New Zealand coach John Bracewell said that Astle’s catch probably secured the win. He called the catch “sublime in judgement and skill”.Ten years on, modern boundary fielding makes Astle’s effort look rather ordinary. The rise of T20 has seen many more batsmen trying to hit many more sixes on much smaller grounds.Back in the day, boundary fielders were usually either bowlers having a rest between overs or spells, or the less mobile members of the side, or both.
If the ball went straight to one of these players, they’d usually stop it. If not, at least there was someone out there to get the ball back from the crowd. Today every run counts and teams send their best fielders out to the boundary, not just to save runs but also to take wickets.

“Straight down the ground, the ball comes in more of an arc. The players then have to read the length of the ball, get into an early position on the boundary rope, then adjust to wherever the ball is going to land”Rich Pyrah, Yorkshire coach

Over the past few years, the likes of Trent Boult, Kieron Pollard, Eoin Morgan, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers have all taken the kind of spectacular boundary-line catches that are increasingly common in the game.In 2014, in a T20I in Dominica, West Indies had 126 for 3 in 17 overs and were in need of quick runs to set New Zealand a decent target. Corey Anderson sent down a high-bouncing half-tracker to Pollard, who got into a bit of a tangle while pulling it, but that massive bat of his still sent the ball out towards the midwicket boundary. Boult was out there a few metres in from the rope. He took a few steps backwards and flung out his right hand, his weaker hand, and caught the ball over his shoulder.Great catch, but it didn’t finish there. Boult realised that his momentum was taking him over the boundary rope. In a flash he threw the ball up in the air, stumbled over the rope, but rather than falling flat on his face, Boult sprang back over the rope, back onto the field, dived to his left and caught the ball two-handed before either he or the ball had touched the ground. Cue standing ovations, roars from the crowd, on-field celebrations, and a barrage of superlatives from the commentary box.Pollard himself has taken a few boundary-line screamers. Playing for Mumbai Indians in the 2014 IPL, he did to Rajasthan Royals’ Kevon Cooper what Boult did to him, except, Pollard threw the ball a bit too far infield and so had to complete the catch with a full-length forward dive.Former Surrey and England allrounder Adam Hollioake, who played the first two years of domestic T20 in England before he retired, believes that boundary fielding standards have improved in recent years out of necessity.Soumya Sarkar leans over to the boundary rope to complete a catch•AFP”If someone did anything like that back when T20 started, it would be seen as a one-in-a-million effort,” Hollioake says. “Now cricketers take catches like this as a matter of course because that’s what the modern game demands.”Former West Indies captain Jimmy Adams, who played in the 1990s and has coached Kent since 2012, says that there’s a practical reason why boundary catching has improved in recent years. “When we played, the boundary rope was tight against the wall or the fence. There was no room to do this sort of thing. Now the rope is four or five yards in.”As a result, fielders no longer give up on the ball when they are near the boundary. “Thirty-five years ago, someone like Derek Randall used to throw himself around a lot, but he was considered unusually athletic,” says Julien Fountain, a specialist fielding coach who has worked with Pakistan, West Indies and England. “Now you see cricketers all over the world throwing themselves around.”To the casual observer, these catches might look like an instinctive blur of arms and legs, something only a super-fit fielder might try. However, like any other cricketing skill, they can be performed by a cricketer who has the right combination of technique, natural ability and fitness.Look at any of the slow-motion replays and you’ll see the same thing. The catcher tracks the ball from the bat, through the air, towards him and then into his hand. As soon as the catch is safely taken, or parried up, he looks to the ground, checks to see whether he’s on or off the field, then steadies himself and moves into the position needed to complete the catch. All this within a second or two.

“In 1989, when I started playing, if you missed one, it was ‘well tried.’ By the end of my career in 2007, if you didn’t dive properly with the right technique, people were having a go at you”Adam Hollioake

“That’s the same skills you need to field in the slips, at backward point, anywhere on the field,” Fountain says. “Combine those with ground fielding and catching skills and you have the ideal fielder for modern-day cricket.”During a 2014 T20 Blast game between Yorkshire and Lancashire, Lancashire batsman Tom Smith skied a shot straight back over the bowler’s head. Adam Lyth, rushing to his left from long-off, leapt into the air and clawed the ball back from over the boundary edge before it landed. His team-mate Aaron Finch, who had run across from long-on, then took a simple catch. A few weeks later, the two combined again against Leicestershire.Yorkshire players have been doubling up around the boundary rope for a while now. Their coach Rich Pyrah confirmed that his players practise boundary catching regularly in twos. One fielder stands at long-off, the other at long-on or at deep square and deep midwicket. Pyrah, standing as close as he can to the stumps out in the middle, hits the ball hard with two hands into the gap between the two fielders. Depending on where the ball ends up, players have to decide whether to catch the ball by themselves or with their team-mate.During these practice sessions, Pyrah is keen to replicate the speed of the ball from the bat that a player would get in a match. “The trajectory is different if you’re fielding deep-backward square than if you’re at long-on and long-off. It comes harder and flatter and faster. Straight down the ground, the ball comes in more of an arc. The players then have to read the length of the ball, get into an early position on the boundary rope, then adjust to wherever the ball is going to land.”Fountain says that to take boundary catches, players will need to track the ball, reposition themselves, and if necessary, reposition again after first contact with the ball. Fountain helps his players practise this by having the ball bounce off an object, maybe a handheld boxing pad, which creates a deviation off the object to a secondary fielder. Or by hitting the ball over a player’s shoulder, who then has to adapt on the move.These days teams routinely practise catching technique at the boundary•AFPYorkshire also practise safe landings indoors during the close season. Coaches set up crash mats and throw a ball over the player’s head. “A player has to be brave and land on the full length of their back, so it takes the impact,” says Pyrah.Pyrah adds that players used to struggle with these catches because they wanted to land with their hands on the ground to cushion their fall. The trouble is, when a player’s hands are free and facing upwards, he can use them to throw the ball up. He won’t have time if his hands are facing downwards, ready to brace to take his weight. Pyrah thinks that a player needs to feel secure that if he loses balance during one of these manoeuvres and falls but lands properly, he will be okay.Fountain is not a fan of using big crash mats during practice. He thinks there should be an element of realism in the training. “A player will think differently and use their body differently if they know there’s a mat under them,” he says. “On a hard surface, like a field, a player will have to brace themselves, and they need to get used to that during practice.”Boundary fielders need to make decisions quickly – whether to catch, parry upwards, involve someone else, which requires communication; or whether to just block the ball from going for six. And they won’t know exactly what to do until the ball is almost upon them. Pyrah gets the Yorkshire players to practise these catches under pressure. “We’ll shout to them, distract them however we can.”It’s not all planning, though. There’s still a level of instinctive brilliance to the sort of catches that Lyth and Finch, Boult, Pollard and Maxwell have been taking.Adams explains that his Kent team practises a lot of high stuff in and around the rope area. “Then, when the opportunity arises, there are players who have it in them to do special stuff,” he says.

“A player will think differently and use their body differently if they know there’s a mat under them. On a hard surface, like a field, a player will have to brace themselves, and they need to get used to that during practice”Julien Fountain, fielding coach

Adams has no doubt that outfielding standards have definitely improved from when he played in the 1990s. “You’ve always had Jonty Rhodes, Ricky Ponting and Herschelle Gibbs, a few as good as that, but now most players are top fielders.”Back then, international teams felt they could carry the likes of Inzamam-ul-Haq, Devon Malcolm and Phil Tufnell in the field as long as the player was scoring runs or taking wickets. “In 1989 when I started playing, people hardly even dived,” says Hollioake. “If you missed one, it was ‘Well tried.’ By the end of my career, in 2007, if you didn’t dive properly with the right technique, people were having a go at you.”Fountain doesn’t think that players today are necessarily more skilled or athletic than their predecessors. It’s just that higher fielding standards are now expected, and this drives players towards ever greater things. “Whatever is the standard of the day is where people aspire to be.”Pyrah agrees that players train harder today. “Players will throw themselves around in the field and not worry about the consequences. It’s no surprise they can do things we couldn’t in the past.”However spectacular some of today’s fielding might look, though, not everything about fielding has improved during the modern era, particularly in Test cricket. It has been a while since there has been an international wicketkeeper as good as Alan Knott or Ian Healy. Earlier this year, former Australia captain Ian Chappell complained about the decline of slip catching standardsDuring the Edgbaston Test this summer, when Mohammed Hafeez dropped Joe Root off Rahat Ali, it was the ninth time a Pakistan player had shelled a catch in the series. England had also dropped nine by that time. That’s 18 dropped catches in just three Tests.Inzamam and Cowdrey might not have been able to run out to the boundary rope, let alone dive once they got there, but they could safely catch the ball in the slips. And let’s not forget that in a Test match, it’s behind the stumps, not on the boundary, that you’re most likely to get the likes of Root, De Villiers and Kohli out.