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Shiv Sunder Das recalls being excited about playing against Test players on his debut as a 17-year-old

Shiv Sunder Das08-Dec-2016Madhya Pradesh v Orissa, Pre-quarterfinal, Indore, 1993-94Making my Ranji Trophy debut was a dream come true because as a child, I always wanted to start with first-class cricket. I had just finished playing Under-19 cricket and had had a good season. I scored a double-hundred, two centuries and an 80. On the basis of those performances, I was selected for the Ranji Trophy that year.I had previously captained the U-17 Indian team that went to England and had also represented India at the U-19 level. That year was massive for me because I was batting really well. The selectors told me that they were keeping a close eye on me and asked me to continue doing well. Luckily, that year, I got the chance.I was training with the school team when I got the news. Amiya Ray, who was my senior, congratulated me, saying I had been selected. I was very excited as I was hoping I would get through that year in Ranji Trophy. Ranjib Biswal was the captain at the time and he gave me the cap. It was a great feeling. Both Ranjib and Amiya were from my club and I had been training with them for a long time.More than nervous, I’d say I was excited. My captain said it’s a bit different from U-19 but asked me not to change anything and just enjoy the four days, so I just trusted my technique and ability. I had the confidence because I knew even if I failed, the management was going to back me.When I walked out to bat, there were three slips, a gully and a short leg. I don’t think they sledged me, but when you are making your debut at 17 or 18, there will obviously be a lot of noise around. It was just a matter of taking that out of your mind and focusing on the ball; I had been through a similar phase in the U-19s as well. So I had to focus really well for the first 10-15 balls. Once you get through that phase, you know what to expect from the bowlers and how the wicket is behaving. The outfield was barren and really quick, so I knew once I timed the ball, it would race away to the boundary. All I had to worry about was spending time at the wicket.I remember Narendra Hirwani was playing for Madhya Pradesh and I was excited to play against a Test player. They had an experienced attack that had been doing well all season. At the Ranji level, bowlers hit consistent lines and good areas, so it was a matter of playing them out.I was batting well before I got out in the first innings. It was a short ball, outside off-stump, and I tried to play a backfoot drive to a spinner. The ball spun a bit and I edged to the slips. It was not a ball to get out to. I was disappointed not to get runs because the pitch was really good. A couple of seniors came up to me and said there is nothing to worry about.But, luckily, I did really well in the second innings. The key was to get a good start again and break down the innings into installments of 10 runs. I remember batting with Sushil Kumar, who was a very jolly guy. He was cracking jokes and calmed me down a lot. After crossing 15-20 runs, I knew if I stayed around for two-three more hours, given that it was quite humid and hot, the bowlers weren’t going to bowl long spells.When I scored my 98th run, they brought the field up. There was a forward short leg, a backward short leg and a silly point. The ball I got out to was well outside off stump. I offered my pad, but it came back in before brushing the flap and lobbed onto my stump. I was shattered to have missed out on the century. But I told myself that I had at least got to bat these many number of overs and had played well.I could not make the next match (quarterfinal against Maharashtra) as I had to appear for my exams. Those days, the Ranji Trophy was a big deal for us and getting into the side and competing against the best players in India was a big deal. And I was lucky to have had the great senior players of our side around — Ranjib, Amiya, Prasant Mohapatra – when it happened. To get an opportunity that early in my career helped me a lot.

While legspinners have been slightly more expensive than other bowler types, they have better averages and strike rates

S Rajesh18-Apr-201739 Wickets taken by legspinners this season, the most they have taken after 20 matches across all IPLs. It is also more than the tally for all other types of spinners put together: offspin, left-arm orthodox, and left-arm wristspin have combined to take 37 wickets. While legspinners have been slightly more expensive than other bowler types, they have better averages and strike rates. Legspinners have also bowled more overs than any other spinner type; they have sent down more than twice as many deliveries as offspinners.10.45 The bowling average for legspinners in the Powerplays – they have taken 11 wickets in the first six overs, bowling 18 overs at an economy rate of 6.39 runs per over, and less than 10 balls per wicket. The other spinners have together taken five wickets in Powerplays, at average of 53.2, an economy rate of 7.6, and a strike rate of 42 balls per wicket. Among legspinners, Rashid Khan leads with four Powerplay wickets in five overs, while Samuel Badree has three – during the course of a hat-trick against Mumbai Indians – in four overs, and Imran Tahir and Piyush Chawla two each in three overs.Legspin has led the way in the Powerplay overs this season•ESPNcricinfo Ltd9 The sum of all Powerplay wickets that legspinners had taken after 19 games in the previous nine IPL seasons. They have exceeded that tally in just this one season.1 Only one IPL game out of the first 19 hasn’t seen a single over of legspin – between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Lions in Mumbai.0 Wickets for offspinners in the Powerplays this season, the first time they have been wicketless in Powerplays after 19 games. In fact, their wickets tally in Powerplays has gradually been reducing since 2013 – they had four after 19 games in 2012, 2013 and 2014, two in 2015, and one in 2016. Harbhajan Singh has flown the flag for offspinners with some splendid bowling in the first six, going for just 20 across five overs, but he hasn’t picked up a wicket yet, while Sunil Narine has gone for 47 in seven wicketless overs.8.50 The economy rate for seamers in the Powerplays this season – they have taken 34 wickets at 43.79. Thanks to the legspinners, the overall numbers for spinners is much better in the first six overs – 16 wickets at an average of 23.75, and an economy rate of 7.16.

Teams batting first have scored at nearly ten an over in the third of their innings•ESPNcricinfo Ltd9.84 The average run rate in the third over, for teams batting first in the IPL. Teams have scored 187 runs off 114 balls in the third over, and lost only one wicket. Only three overs have fetched teams a higher run rate this season than the third – the 20th, the 19th, and the 17th. Last year, the third over produced a run rate of 6.55 for teams batting first, the lowest among all seasons; 16 wickets fell in the third over. Only two overs – the first and the second – had lower run rates than the third in 2016; from a rank of 18th in terms of run rates last season, the third over has jumped up to No. 3 this year. The eighth over has produced the lowest run rate this season – 8.52.7 Instances of bowlers conceding more than 10 runs in the third over, in the first innings of IPL games this season. The bowlers who have suffered are Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav (17 runs each), Ashok Dinda (16), Jasprit Bumrah (15), Bipul Sharma (12) and Mohit Sharma (11). In three of the top four cases – Milne, Southee and Dinda – the bowlers bowled economical first overs, but couldn’t repeat the act in their next over.8.36 The Powerplay run rate this season, the best among all IPL seasons; teams batting first have averaged 7.89, and teams chasing 8.83. Among the last five seasons, the next-highest, at a similar stage of previous tournaments, was 7.94 in 2016 (after 20 games). In fact, over the last five years, teams have been steadily increasing their scoring rates in the first six – from 6.75 in 2013 to 6.77 2014, to 7.14 in 2015, and 7.94 last year (after 19/20 games of the season). Teams have gone much harder this year during the Powerplay overs, and then taken a bit of a breather between overs seven and 12.The Powerplay run rate has been on a high this season•ESPNcricinfo Ltd11.2 Overs seems to be the actual halfway mark of the innings for the team batting first this IPL; they have, on average, doubled their score from this stage. The average score after 11.2 for the teams batting first is 85, and they have managed another 85 in the last 8.4 overs. It isn’t much different from last year’s numbers, when teams scored 83 in the first 11.2 overs, and 81 in the last 8.4.

Vinod Rai, the chairman of Indian cricket’s interim committee of administrators, evaluates the first 100 days of their tenure, and talks about working with the BCCI

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi11-May-2017You walked in as a nightwatchman and have survived 100 days.
Why do you say survived? I came in as a nightwatchman largely because I did not see a place for the COA over a long tenure. We have a very limited mandate. That mandate is the reforms the Supreme Court has asked us to implement.Could you tell us about the roles you identified for each of the members?
Vikram [Limaye, CEO and MD of IDFC Bank] is very good at finance-related issues. He is very good at comparing the various revenue and governance models that have recently been debated by the ICC board. Diana [Edulji, former India women’s captain] brings in a huge amount of experience from the players’ perspective. I find a lot of players gravitating towards her and giving her their inputs. No one knows the state associations as well as Ram [Guha, historian] does. Tell him any state association and he will rattle off statistics etc. The Supreme Court has brought together a bunch of very cohesive people with diverse experiences. As far as I am concerned, probably I can handle people better.Given your experience as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), what has this experience with the BCCI been like?

The BCCI has not really been a challenge. I was the CAG for only close to six years, but we have been trained to handle people and issues that are far more diverse and divergent in a large number of ways. But as the CAG, you call the shots. As a COA member, you don’t. Whatever you say can be contested by the BCCI office-bearers or state associations. So I don’t really have any power. I have to keep running back to the court. We have to work with the BCCI office-bearers because there is no way we can be effective if we don’t work with them.Has it been more or less complicated than dealing with taxation issues and governmental scams at a national level? Is there a common quality that has worked for you in both roles?

I understand people and where they come from. The BCCI is an institution. Any institution is an aggregation of people. You have to break it down to the people who run that institution. Handling the employees of the BCCI is not a problem, but the office-bearers bring to the table the strength of the institutions they represent. The constituencies of these office-bearers are very different. Basically you need to understand where they coming from and then try and analyse how they are looking at a particular issue.Has work on fulfilling your mandate started?
It has now. May 6 was the first time that the dialogue with the state associations started directly. We spent the larger part of February and March engaged in issues such as helping the IPL take off. Also, immediately upon taking charge, we had to deal with the ICC quarterly meetings in February. Then we were tied up with the residual issues from those meetings. The role of the COA and the office-bearers was also not clear. Only later in March, the court clarified, and since then we have been working together with the three office-bearers.In our meeting with the state associations we explained the entire reform process. I am fairly confident that, going forward, if I have two more dialogues with them, we would be able to narrow down the issues where they have differences of opinion with the Lodha Committee recommendations.Why did you feel that carrying out discussions with the state associations was important?
I wanted to brief them before the special general meeting (SGM), that if they were going to vote, they better know what they were going to vote for. I sincerely believed they did not know what they were voting for and that turned out to be true because of what the states said.Secondly, it was the first time I was meeting the state associations. So that was my opening gambit, to say to them, “Look, we need to be in conversation with each other.” They are all positively oriented, thinking people. The only thing is their thinking and their perspective was exceedingly narrow. They just did not know that there was an ICC governance model and a finance model. And the finance model, as far as we are concerned, is crumbs.I told them if the BCCI members had decided to withdraw from the ICC on the basis of the differences on the governance model, the COA will back them. But not on the finance model. You cannot put Indian cricket to risk.

“Some of these people think: ‘I know it much better and I am a visionary. What do the others know?'”

Most state associations were happy to talk with the COA, but they felt that the conversations should have happened earlier. They seem, in fact, more keen on individual interactions?
Yes, I am aware. One of the state associations was slightly combative, saying: why the COA did not brief them earlier? I informed them that when the BCCI decided on a date for the SGM in April, Rahul Johri [the BCCI CEO] had informed the office-bearers that I was travelling and [asked] whether the date could be rescheduled. The office-bearers’ prompt response was they could not and that I could join via video conference.Nonetheless we had already sent an 11-page letter to the ICC explaining the BCCI’s preliminary observations about the draft ICC constitution and finance model. About eight and half pages were dedicated to the new governance model. Rahul and his legal team had drafted that letter, but I made quite a few changes. We [bureaucrats] are good at writing letters and are file-pushers.Is it true that you have told the state associations to list the Lodha recommendations they believe are impractical and that you will then go jointly to the court and present those difficulties?
Each one of them [state associations] has a viewpoint and all of them have filed cases against the recommendations. I told them one fine day the court might wake up and throw every objection out and just say, “You don’t want to convene the AGM? Okay, [the new] constitution is adopted. Full stop.” Then they are stuck.I told them when they still had the time, why don’t they think, and then the COA will tell the court that out of the, say, 20 recommendations, 18 are adopted. The court might just accede or may not, but at least you will give the court the impression that by and large you have accepted the recommendations.Which are the recommendations that a majority of state associations are against?
Most are up against the one state, one vote; having three instead of five national selectors; and having an age cap of 70 for administrators.The tenure terms seem to be another point of disagreement. Office-bearers across the country feel a three-year term, then a cooling off period of three years, and a maximum of three terms allows neither the individual nor the organisation to benefit.
That is clearly not going to change. Ninety per cent are happy with it. They thought the tenure would be limited to just nine years, but it is nine years separately at the state [level] and nine at the BCCI.In a column in the Week magazine, you wrote: “Somewhere in the management of the game, the office-bearers appeared to have lost sight of the interest of cricket and began to pursue their own interpretation of what cricket should be.” What is their interpretation, according to you?
Unfortunately what happens is, if you are in an institution for very long, your thinking morphs into institutional thinking. If I had been at the CAG for ten to 15 years, I would have thought Vinod Rai is CAG and CAG is Vinod Rai. So, in some ways, the Lodha Committee was very right: any institution needs to move on. Fresh blood, fresh thinking must come.”We want to provide a structure to the BCCI. Issues likes what should be the accounting norms, what should be the powers of the BCCI president, secretary, treasurer. Where does the CEO fit in, and the apex council”•PTI You called the office-bearers’ “patriotism” to the game “unparalleled”. They opposed this reform till the Supreme Court ordered it, and even now their concern for the game compels them to fight on. Do you still remain optimistic?
Of course the COA is optimistic. We will get them [state associations] around. Recently we saw opposing forces within the BCCI coming together, asking to issue a notice to the ICC, saying BCCI’s will must prevail otherwise India will withdraw. That is what I called “patriotism”, as it comes from the vested interests of individuals.When the COA took over, it was told the one-off Test against Bangladesh and the series against Australia would not be allowed to take place. Why? Because if they [state associations] are not in a position, there will be no cricket. Some state associations said they will not give their venues for the IPL since they own the grounds. We had to overcome that.How did you?
There were different ways. We told them IPL gives them livelihood. Cricket in India is not a passion, it is a religion. How can you say IPL will not be played? The COA spoke to them individually.Would it be fair to say on the basis of your direct dealings with the BCCI, that it was or is made up of a leadership that did not take the opinions or the doubts of the wider organisation into consideration when taking critical decisions following the Lodha Committee report?
Yes, it happens because I [the office-bearer/administrator] have been in the job long enough to believe that what I think is good for the institution and so I don’t have to take others’ opinions at all. Some of these people think: “I know it much better and I am a visionary. What do the others know?”As a counter, what does the COA know?
I subscribe to that viewpoint: what does the COA know? The only thing the COA has done is a 360-degree evaluation of all viewpoints. We have independent thought process. With the diverse experience that we bring to bear, the COA is far more capable of objectively evaluating the interests of cricket in India than these people who have been in the job for a long time.On the ICC negotiations, the COA stand has been very clear: stop confronting, start talking. You feel India cannot all the time be selfish about its share of the ICC revenues proportionate to what it brings to the table. But why should the BCCI not be protective of what it believes it has a right on? It has to be 100% protective of what it believes is its right. I would not like to give an inch on it. There was a time when Cricket Australia and the ECB controlled cricket. Time came when the ICC headquarters moved out of London to Dubai. Time came when the BCCI was in a position to twist arms and get the 2014 model [the Big Three] in place. But within a year of the model being signed by everybody, there were murmurs and opposition came about.So you are not always in a position where you can ram things through. If you are in such a position, you can do it, but you can only do it very short-term.Take the ICC’s new finance model, wherein the BCCI has only been allotted US$293m. It has come about because of an attempt by the ICC to make the distribution of revenue more equitable. In the discussions that the COA had with eight member countries, we had worked out a model where the other countries would not be worse off and yet India would have gotten much of the share due to it. Unfortunately in our recent negotiations, we seemed to have been chasing the mirage of $570m. We need to be realistic. A collaborative effort will take us far. Confrontation will be short-lived.

“Why should the BCCI not be protective of what it believes it has a right on? It has to be 100% protective of what it believes is its right. I would not like to give an inch on it”

In the February 2016 SGM, the BCCI gave its president Shashank Manohar [the right] to negotiate and come back with a 25% reduction [from the BCCI’s share of the ICC’s revenues]. With experienced people like Manohar, Sharad Pawar, Anurag Thakur, Ajay Shirke sitting in that SGM, they took a decision to negotiate. They did not say the BCCI is above everybody else and we must have our preeminent position. On the contrary, in April [2017], the BCCI gave Amitabh Choudhary [board secretary] a mandate saying negotiate only for $570 million or nothing. This obviously was a very flawed strategy.Does the objective that Manohar has in mind sync with you?
Not really. Ours is a very narrow objective: we are concerned solely with the interest of the BCCI. He is looking at a macro picture, where it needs to be an equitable distribution among all boards. The BCCI is looking at the picture where, rather being one of the ten, we are now one of the 17 members at the ICC board.Clearly, you have busted the myth that the COA and ICC are on the same page.
That 11-page letter sent in March says it all. Secondly, the fact that we negotiated with eight Full Member countries and got them on to our side before the ICC board voted last month. My question to some of the critics is: why did the BCCI not revoke the Members’ Participation Agreement last February, when the position was exactly the same?Do you reckon this approach of yours to engage with the BCCI office-bearers is working?
I am convinced it is working. We will build consensus on all these issues going forward. Where do you go from here?
It is still a long haul, but that ends in October. I am very realistic, because I don’t see a place for the COA in the BCCI in the long term. We want to provide a structure to the BCCI. It does not have one right now. It is run by individual styles. It is personality-oriented. We will put a structure in place and ensure that there are systems that will make this structure work.Issues like, what should be the accounting norms, what should be the powers of the BCCI president, secretary, treasurer. Where does the CEO fit in, because the BCCI constitution does not have any place for a CEO. And finally the apex council – where it fits in. That is a rough outline of the structure I am talking about.There have been instances when the entire finance department of a state government went on strike and yet the budget was presented on schedule. No one is indispensable. Tomorrow when we finish our job, the BCCI will continue to run smoothly.A dozen former India players, including Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar have supported the view that India should participate in the Champions Trophy. Isn’t the players’ support a key aspect of reforms?
Recently I met Tendulkar when I was launching a book based on him. I took the opportunity to tell him: “My call upon on you is that you are an icon, a legend and Indian cricket has ridden on your shoulders for such a long time. People like you, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev must come forward and not only mentor players but also speak up for the cause of cricket.” I asked him if he really believed that India should not participate in the Champions Trophy, to which he said we should. I told him then to please speak up and say what a terrible loss it would be for cricket in India if we did not participate.You remain optimistic then?
Of course, I do. I am very optimistic. I feel fresh thinking needs to be introduced at the BCCI. This fresh thinking would be devoid of baggage.

Australia’s first-ever defeat to Bangladesh has drawn a fevered response down under, one that may reveal more about the post-pay war climate than the actual merits or otherwise of the team’s performance

Daniel Brettig31-Aug-20174:20

Chappell: Loss confirms Aus dependence on Warner, Smith

“I suppose I can gain some consolation from the fact my name will be permanently in the record books.” With these words Malcolm Nash made sense of being on the receiving end of Garry Sobers smiting him for six sixes in an over at Swansea in 1968, the first time the feat had ever been achieved.

Australia’s first Test defeats

• England in Melbourne, 1877

• South Africa in Adelaide, 1911

• West Indies in Sydney, 1931

• Pakistan in Karachi, 1956

• India in Kanpur, 1959

• New Zealand in Christchurch, 1974

• Sri Lanka in Kandy, 1999

• Bangladesh in Mirpur, 2017

At the moment Josh Hazlewood fell lbw on day four in Mirpur, Australia’s Test team begrudgingly assumed their own place in history as the first baggy green XI to lose to Bangladesh in the game’s longest form. The result added to similar drought-breakers over England and Sri Lanka in the past 12 months, all evidence that Bangladesh are most definitely a team on the rise, particularly at home.But most of the Antipodean reaction to Australia’s 20-run loss, which can be traced back to a series of poor decisions by the batsmen on the first evening and second morning that left Steven Smith’s men 33 for 4, has verged on the hysterical. A team that battled doggedly to limit the Bangladesh lead, then gained a chance to pull off the chase via one of David Warner’s very finest Test innings, has been hammered with the same venom that a free-swinging Sobers saved for Nash’s slow left-armers.”A pack of overpaid prima donnas” screams the in reference to the recent pay war. “Dhaka disaster a new low” harrumphs , while also comparing the divergent pay packets of the two teams. Across the News Corp/Fairfax divide at , Australia’s competitive showing in India earlier in the year is termed a “false dawn”. Undoubtedly there were moments of the match that reflected poorly on the team – Usman Khawaja can scarcely have had a worse match in his life, calling into question the decision to recall him for Bangladesh when he had been deemed unsuitable for similar conditions in India.Likewise Matthew Wade’s credit balance with the selectors must be close to maxed out, after a difficult match for anyone to keep wicket was not augmented by meaningful runs at a time when they were desperately needed. There is much, too, for Smith to consider after facing a concerted angle of attack from around the stumps that reaped his wicket in the first innings, then severely restricted his usually free-scoring ways in the second. Certainly there is some disquiet within the Australian camp about how some of the team responded – or failed to respond – to the pressure they were placed under.Ashton Agar and Nathan Lyon stood up for Australia in Mirpur•Getty ImagesNevertheless, the attacks on the team have lacked perspective, and at the same time revealed two fault-lines in sore need of address. The first is that the residual damage from the pay war still lingers in the minds of Australian cricket followers. Cricket Australia’s decision to publicly criticise its players and seek to stop them from sharing a fixed percentage of the game’s revenue opened up an avenue for criticism that was never going to be neatly sealed off with the announcement that an MoU agreement had been struck.All of the game draws on the financial returns gained by a well-regarded and high performing Australian team. The tarnishing of the players’ image by accusations of greed are bound to go on for quite some time, with the ultimate consequence of reducing the amount of money flowing into Australian cricket. Winning Test matches helps, of course, but it was haughty in the extreme to expect a young team to simply turn up and prevail in Mirpur without even a single warm-up match to speak of – rain having nixed the only scheduled practice fixture.That’s where the other fault-line comes into view. The place of this tour and the format in which it was to be played remained in some doubt for much of the year, even without the uncertainty created by the pay war. Plenty of members of CA’s team performance wing would have preferred the two Tests to be commuted to a series of ODIs, as had been the case in 2011, to better suit a physical and technical build-up to the Ashes. That this change did not take place appeared to have as much with doing everything possible to ensure Bangladesh voted with the majority – rather than with India – to change the ICC constitution at the governing body’s annual conference, as it did with fulfilling obligations to a nation that clearly merits more matches than it has been granted.Largely due to financial concerns over the profitability of such series, Australia have for many years played excessively against “bankers” like England, India and South Africa while minimising commitments against other nations. At the time of his retirement in 2015, Michael Clarke had played 115 Tests, with no fewer than 57 against England and India, and a measly two against Bangladesh. If the governing body does not deem an opponent worthy of regular cricket contact, then it is a bit much to expect that nation’s supporters to view that team with any more respect. Hence the fevered reaction to a defeat that made much more sense than a lot of the headlines would make it seem.Will Australia turn to the all-round skills of Hilton Cartwright in Chittagong?•Robert Cianflone/Getty ImagesWith the benefit of a few days to clear their minds, Australia’s players, coaches and selectors should be able to glean a few less fevered observations. One that the team improved notably over the course of the match, with Nathan Lyon a fair barometer, and ultimately ran Bangladesh far closer than the first innings gave them a right to – a marked contrast to three abject defeats against Sri Lanka by the same time last year. Two, several of the most promising displays came from the team’s most youthful members, not least Pat Cummins and Ashton Agar. And three, Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb have both shown more than enough aptitude to make runs in Asian climes, and need only find ways to concentrate for longer periods to make their methods truly count with hundreds.That brings the tourists to their next assignment in Chittagong, where they have been curiously reinforced by Steve O’Keefe despite the fact he is still under suspension from New South Wales for behaving offensively towards a female Australian cricketer – seemingly an inversion of CA’s much-touted “One Team” philosophy. The lessons of Mirpur should mean a rejigged XI, possibly including Hilton Cartwright’s all-round skills to allow for the inclusion of a third spin bowler, and a batting approach that follows the best of Warner’s second innings rather than the worst of Khawaja’s first.A share in the series is now the best Australia can hope for, ahead of a home Ashes series full of unknowns. Victory in Chittagong would reap a fair result for a young team still finding its way in Asia. Defeat, though, would warrant the Sobers treatment.

Statistical highlights of Sri Lanka’s third-innings collapse in Dubai against Pakistan

Bharath Seervi09-Oct-2017The Sri Lanka batsmen put in contrasting performances in both innings in their first ever day-night Test in Dubai. After putting up 482 runs in 159.2 overs in the first innings, they were bundled for just 96 in 26 overs in the second innings. This was only the sixth instance in Tests when a team was bowled out for under 100 after posting a 400-plus total in their first innings. Sri Lanka were involved in the previous instance as well, with scores of 400 and 82 against England in Cardiff in 2011. No other team has done this after 2000.The difference in Sri Lanka’s totals was 386 runs, which is their highest ever difference in totals of two innings in a Test. Their previous highest was 383 against Australia in Colombo (SSC) in 1992. It was also the first instance of any team having a difference of over 350 runs in their totals in a Test against Pakistan. Sri Lanka had a lead of 220 in the first innings. Their second-innings total of 96 is the lowest for any team after gaining a first-innings lead of over 100 runs. The previous lowest was South Africa’s 99 against Australia in Durban in 1950 after having a lead of 236.ESPNcricinfo LtdSri Lanka’s second innings lasted just 26 overs. Only three times have they had a shorter innings when they have been bowled out. The longest Sri Lanka went without losing a wicket in the second innings was six overs, for the second wicket. They had only three partnerships in double-digit figures and the highest was 35, for the eighth wicket between Kusal Mendis and Rangana Herath. In the first innings, they had five fifty-plus stands for their first six wickets.

Three of Sri Lanka’s four shortest Test innings have come this decade. No other team has been bowled out within 30 overs in this decade more than twice. They were bowled out in 24.2 overs at the MCG in 2012 and 24.4 overs in Cardiff in 2011. Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan have been bowled out twice within 30 overs in this decade.Despite their collapse, Sri Lanka set Pakistan 317 to level the series. The highest successful chase in the UAE is 302 by Pakistan against Sri Lanka in Sharjah in 2013-14, while the highest in Dubai is only 137. If Sri Lanka win the Dubai Test, they would become the only side in the last 100 years to win a Test after being bowled out for less than 100 in the third innings. Overall, there have been three such instances, the last of which was in 1902.

Having been so forthright about insisting they play hard but fair, Australia have now been shown up as disingenuous, and have horns on their heads where South Africa have halos

Firdose Moonda in Cape Town24-Mar-20183:30

Voges: Australia’s reputation comes in question now

South Africa will be satisfied. Not just with their position on the field – they are 294 runs ahead of Australia with AB de Villiers undefeated on 51 – but with their standing off it. They are back on the moral high ground.Australia have admitted to ball-tampering, the same offence Faf du Plessis was found guilty of when South Africa toured Australia in late 2016, the same offence some sections of the press used to label du Plessis a cheat. Now the shoe is on the other foot.By the time Cameron Bancroft and Steven Smith were ready to front up, South Africa had already left the ground. Their parting comments on day three came from the innocence of Aiden Markram, who described the whirlwind of events in this series as both “crazy” and “cool”.He may not have felt the same way had the reverse swing become more rampant and Australia’s attack got more wickets. For now, it appears that Bancroft’s actions of using sticky yellow tape to try and secure rough granules of sand to try and scuff up the ball did not have much effect. The umpires did not see a need to change the ball. While some South Africa batsmen survived, others thrived to stretch the lead towards 300.It’s crazy that Australia resorted to such a tactic. Crazier because they have been so forthright about insisting they play hard but fair and have now been shown up as disingenuous. Australia do play hard but in this case they were also willing to play unfair and all that will do is make South Africa feel that their chances of beating Australia in a home series for the first time since readmission have never been higher.Australia were panicking as South Africa’s lead grew. They knew that if this match was lost, the series could not be won and they wanted victory at all costs. That much has been obvious since they arrived in South Africa.Australia have tried everything from ambush marketing tactics to have the stump microphones turned down, presumably so they can hurl abuse at South Africa’s players, to admitting they would try to provoke Kagiso Rabada, who was on the cusp of being suspended, into committing another offense. However, they have not been entirely successful. The stump mics are still up and the verbals are still being heard. Rabada has had his ban overturned and though he is playing in the Newlands Test, he is one demerit point away from a ban. But still, South Africa are in control in the third Test, leaving Australia with no choice but to resort to unsavoury tactics that have left horns on their heads and halos over South Africa’s.Remember that it was David Warner who had accused de Villiers of using the wicketkeeping gloves to tamper with the ball when Australia were in South Africa four years ago and was fined 15% of his match fee as a result. Later in the series, Faf du Plessis, who picked up the ball while batting to pass it back to the fielders, said the Australian fielders reacted like a “pack of wild dogs”. And Dale Steyn and Michael Clarke were involved in an incident which Steyn said six months later he had not forgiven Clarke for.Though it was never put on the record, the general understanding is that Clarke had called Steyn a cheat. Then, in 2016, the “Mintgate” saga happened and there has been a build-up of pressure between the two teams in the past few series. Something had to give and from the beginning it has seemed that thing would be Australia.Sympathy was with South Africa from the start, when CCTV footage showed Warner needing to be physically restrained from attacking Quinton de Kock in the stairwell in Durban. But since then, Australia have been victims of a campaign directed at their players’ partners, and Warner’s wife Candice in particular, by sections of the South African crowd. Darren Lehmann has, his own transgressions aside, called the shaming of partners “disgraceful,” and put the ball in South Africa’s court to take action against those who seek to cause trouble in the game. That should still happen but the trouble, in another form, is now Australia.Instead of gloat, South Africa will do well to remember that they have not always been innocent, especially when it comes to ball-tampering. They have three convictions in the last five years – du Plessis when he rubbed the ball on his zipper in the UAE in 2013 and then again in 2016 and Vernon Philander for picking the seam in Sri Lanka in 2014 – but they are winning this fight. To continue winning, they have to stay on the right side of the line and watch as Australia have crossed it.

An India side billed as one of England’s toughest challenges of recent times is facing the prospect of being 2-0 down

Andrew Miller at Lord's11-Aug-2018Up until the moment that Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes came together in the afternoon session, to batter India out of the Test and potentially the series, it had looked like being another day in which England’s batsmen would end up doing just enough.When Woakes replaced Jos Buttler at 131 for 5 in the 32nd over, England were on course for just enough runs to keep their team in the ascendancy, having held onto just enough slip catches to keep their hard-toiling bowlers from throttling them.There was probably going to be just enough play on what promises to be a dank and miserable Sunday to cement their dominance. And if, come Monday, England found themselves 2-0 up with three Tests to come, there would just about be enough cricket left in the series for India to claw their way back into contention.As a recipe for long-term success, it left rather a lot to be desired. As a means to retain the drama in what is threatening to turn into a deeply flawed series, England’s lingering air of flakiness was looking like the best leveller available. On the evidence of these past few days at Lord’s, their opponents seemed to have left their competitive spirit on the red-eye rattler from Birmingham to Marylebone.But then Bairstow and Woakes starting climbing into their day’s work – showing, surely not for the last time in the Trevor Bayliss era, that the depth of England’s batting options can often be a pretty decent proxy for the quality of some of those options. The ball lost its hardness, India’s under-stocked seam department ran out of puff, and R Ashwin was left to graze in the outfield until there was no control left to exert – by which stage Kuldeep Yadav (the wrong Yadav in the circumstances) had provided a shadow of his menace from the one-dayers, when the onus had been on England to attack his variations rather than sit and wait for the bad ball.And thus, in the space of two hours either side of tea, the contest slipped as quickly down the gurgler for India as those second-afternoon floodplains on Lord’s super-absorbent outfield.”There wasn’t a huge amount of turn there, so when the spinners were on we felt we’d done our job,” said Woakes, England’s centurion and Lord of Lord’s, who became only the fifth player in history to etch himself a place on all three of the dressing-room honours boards. “I wasn’t looking too much at the scoreboard in terms of what lead we needed. But the ball got a little bit softer, and it made it a little bit easier.”Hardik Pandya celebrates Ollie Pope’s dismissal•Getty ImagesThat is not to say, however, that England were simply gifted the upper hand (or any balance of power that remained to be claimed after their first-innings bowling efforts). In the first instance, the momentum was seized by Bairstow, who produced a pocket battleship of an innings, studded with the sort of piercing drives through the covers with which he has kickstarted so many ODI onslaughts in recent times.He arrived to a scene of familiar false dawns from England’s top order – three scores between 11 and 28, which soon became four when Joe Root was pinned on the shin for 19 by a Mohammed Shami nipbacker that kept a touch low. For the Alpha and Omega of England’s batting, Alastair Cook and Ollie Pope, scores of 21 and 28 in their 158th and first Tests respectively said as much or as little about their respective games as you’d care to read into them – Cook looked composed until, once again, he attracted the sort of jaffa that his former self would surely have survived, while Pope’s wristy intent telegraphed both raw and powerful talent, as well as the inevitable naivety that a man who had never previously come to the crease in the first ten overs of a first-class fixture was bound to display.But that was the context of the contest when, in the 39th over, Bairstow nudged Ashwin’s first delivery of the match off his hip and become the first player in either team to reach 30. And when, two overs later, he dumped Ashwin back over his head for a one-bounce four, he surpassed Hardik Pandya’s 31, in the second innings at Edgbaston, which remains the highest score in the series by any Indian batsman who is not Virat Kohli.These are not the parameters by which you are usually judged when squaring up to the world’s No.1 Test team. Thereafter, England capitalised on a baffling combination of Indian team selection and tactical deployment, to power themselves in a position from which their opponents have no realistic hope of salvation other than the elements – and given the aforementioned resilience of that outfield, the prospect of more cloud cover on Sunday and Monday is actually likelier to contribute to their downfall.”If there is a little bit of rain around tomorrow, that might play into our hands,” Woakes said. “A bit overcast, bit of moisture around, we hope it might move around like it did [on Friday]. I’m sure it won’t quite do that – but with a significant lead, whenever we do come to bowl, we hope we can put the Indian batsmen under pressure.”When, at the start of the summer, word filtered out that Kohli was sizing up a month at Surrey, with the likes of Ishant Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara already bedding into county stints of their own, it seemed a given that India would provide the sternest test yet of England’s four-year unbeaten record in home Test series – a record that has been threatened by more than a few less vaunted opponents in recent years. The anticipated challenge came to pass in fleetingly glorious fashion at Edgbaston, but it’s gone the same way as the heatwave in these past few days.

Set alongside the performances of David Willey and Moeen Ali, this was a highly encouraging fightback from England

George Dobell at Lord's14-Jul-20181:01

Bopara: Moeen, Rashid built pressure on India

A year to the day until the World Cup final will be played on this very ground, England gained a morale-boosting victory that ensured they will end this series as the No. 1 rated side in ODI cricket.But this was a performance that holds significance well beyond such rankings or even the result. It showed that England had learned lessons quickly and how they could, on their day, defeat this daunting-looking India side who arguably set the bar in this format of the game. It was, from an England perspective, a hugely encouraging day.Perhaps the most pleasing aspect was the manner in which Joe Root played. It wasn’t so much he demonstrated a return to form – it was only six ODI innings since his last half-century and nine since his last century, after all – but that he showed his value playing in exactly the same way he has played throughout the rest of his career.So instead of trying to blast his way to success, or attempting to innovate with strokes outside his normal repertoire, he simply played the game situation. He rotated the strike, he deflected and nudged and he ran hard. Only 7.75 percent of his strokes brought a boundary – a lower percentage than any of his last nine ODI hundreds – but, with nobody else passing 53, he showed the value of including a batsman who could rebuild an innings and retain their composure.Of significance, perhaps, for the Test series and beyond, was that he seemed to read Kuldeep Yadav. Before this match, Kuldeep had dismissed him with two of the three deliveries he had bowled to him in international cricket but here Root hit him for four boundaries including a couple of sweetly-timed cover drives and a late cut from the quicker ball. There will, no doubt, be surfaces that offer Kuldeep more but Root – and England – will take great confidence from this.”Ultimately you have got to trust your game and your technique,” Root said afterwards. “You have got to make sure that you stay strong and trust the stuff you have been doing well for such a long period of time. It was about spending some time out there and trusting the way I play spin. I haven’t faced much of his type of bowling but having a few overs under my belt gave me quite a lot of confidence.”It is faintly absurd that Root’s selection was any sort of discussion point anyway. He averages in excess of 50 in ODI cricket and, in this innings, drew level with Marcus Trescothick as the scorer of most ODI centuries for England. Both now have 12, but Root averages 13 more and has a slightly higher strike-rate. His place, in this format at least, shouldn’t be in much doubt.It was a good day for Eoin Morgan, too. Not only did he score a half-century, but his decision to bat first upon winning the toss – which seemed oddly negative at the time, hinting at a fear of India’s spinners – was fully vindicated.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt wasn’t so much that the pitch turned as the day wore on – though there was some assistance – as much as it slowed and rendered timing the ball increasingly difficult. Understanding this – the benefit, perhaps, of playing on his home ground – Morgan didn’t introduce his spinners until the 19th over; the latest they have been introduced in ODIs since the Champions Trophy. India managed just one boundary between the 15th and 34th overs and, in the last half-hour, Lord’s witnessed the unusual occurrence of a crowd barracking MS Dhoni for slow scoring.There were other encouraging performances for England. David Willey followed his maiden ODI half-century – a 30-ball effort that provided vital impetus to England’s innings – with a decent new-ball spell that showed he could maintain a semblance of control even without any swing. Jos Buttler, meanwhile, clung on to a couple of outstanding catches behind the stumps, Liam Plunkett ended with four wickets as reward for his well-controlled cutters, Adil Rashid with two for his well-controlled leg-spin and Moeen Ali didn’t concede a boundary for his first eight overs and claimed the memorable wicket of Virat Kohli. For the spinners to claim 3 for 80 in 20 overs against India was outstanding but, really, wherever you looked, England players were enjoying a fine day.There are, as ever, caveats. It is almost unthinkable that Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah – both of whom are currently absent due to injury – would have conceded so many runs at the death (England scored 94 from the final 10 overs, largely through Willey) and, had India conceded perhaps 25 fewer, there would have been far less pressure on them in their run chase.The toss, too, probably proved to be disproportionately important.But there was a lesson here. And that was, for all their batting firepower, India can be put under pressure if the score is challenging enough. They remain, no doubt, the team to beat in this format of the game. But England will take confidence and knowledge from this victory. The series decider – at Headingley on Tuesday – could be a cracker.

Cricket in Meghalaya faces a multitude of hurdles. but hope for the future is embodied in the motley crew that makes up the state’s first-ever Ranji Trophy squad

Saurabh Somani20-Nov-2018If a Meghalaya player has a particularly bad outing during this Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season, you might find him teetering nervously on the edge of a cliff, about to jump off. No, literally, you might.This will not be a “leave this world behind” leap, though. It’ll be a bungee jump. Sponsored by captain Jason Lamare. Because Lamare runs an adventure-sports business in Shillong, and bungee jumping is next on the expansion agenda. And when asked if he’d let any players do it, he laughs and tells ESPNcricinfo, “Definitely. It will be a punishment – if you don’t bowl well or bat well, you’re going to jump!”This propensity to laugh is infectious and heart-warming, and it runs across the team. It’s in evidence during their training sessions, when they are on the field, when they are attending an official dinner, or when they are engaging in an impromptu game of foot-volleyball because Cyclone Gaja has stopped play in Puducherry, the venue of Meghalaya’s second Ranji Trophy match.Before the Vijay Hazare Trophy that marked Meghalaya’s entry into senior-level cricket, the team bonded by trekking up Shillong Peak in the rain. During the tournament, whose Plate Group was played across three cities in Gujarat, they watched “all the movies that released that month together” – according to Puneet Bisht, the senior-most professional.The north-east has for long been looked at as football country in cricket-crazy India. It might have stayed that way had the Lodha Committee recommendations not mandated the BCCI to include all of its states in the cricket fold. Nearly all of the cricket in Meghalaya is concentrated in the capital city of Shillong, which has a grand total of ground. But in this cricketing outpost, there might still be hope for a cricketing future.There’s the captain himself, who at 35 is one of the oldest members in the team. He played for Assam before the Meghalaya Cricket Association was formed, and this, he thought, had ended his cricket career prematurely. So did his cousin Mark Ingty, who is 42. Ingty made his first-class debut in January 2002, when fellow fast bowlers Lakhan Singh and Dippu Sangma were in kindergarten. Fun fact: the combined ages of Lakhan and Dippu fall short of Ingty’s.The BCCI has provided support staff for the team, which is a boon because it’s brought them an experienced hand as head coach, in Sanath Kumar. Like each of the other eight new teams, Meghalaya have signed up professionals too, the trio of Bisht, Yogesh Nagar and Gurinder Singh bringing skill, nous and years of experience on the domestic treadmill with them.But while necessary when the team is in its toddler phase, the professional coaches and players are peripheral to the cricketing story of the team. Sure, it’s the professionals who have done the heavy lifting for Meghalaya so far – as they have for every team in the Plate Group. But for those teams right now, the journey is far more significant than the results.Fast bowlers Chengkam Sangma (left) and Dippu Sangma travelled hundreds of kilometres to make it to the Meghalaya team•Saurabh Somani/ESPNcricinfoDippu and Chengkam Sangma’s journey to the senior team was an arduous trek, literally. Chengkam stays in Tura, home to the Garo indigenous group. It’s 323 kilometres of mountainous terrain from Shillong. For Dippu, Tura is the closest “big town” – he lives a further 100-plus kilometres away, in Baghmara.”There’s not much scope for jobs,” Chengkam says, and Dippu nods his assent. An advertisement in local papers for trials for the state team brought them together. There was one initial round of trial in Tura. Both attended, both were selected to go further, and they arrived in Shillong. Both did well once again, and found themselves part of the state team.Chengkam is one of seven siblings, Dippu counts himself among six. Both grew up on tennis-ball cricket, and neither had bowled with a leather ball until three years ago. “I found it heavy,” Dippu says of his first experience with a proper cricket ball. “I couldn’t control the swing also, and while batting, I couldn’t play the swinging ball well.”Chengkam had a similar experience, and neither had access to any coaching that would guide them. They’re now bowling at one level below international cricket, having made an unimaginable journey not just in miles but in learning the game too.”Our village is a bit backward, so there isn’t any big business. I would have done some small business if it wasn’t for cricket,” Chengkam says. His family wasn’t supportive of his foray into the game until recently. Now that he’s representing the state, they’ve relented. Other players might see dollar signs when the IPL comes calling, or in glitzy ad shoots once they make it as international cricketers. Here, the earnings as a journeyman domestic cricketer are gold dust, and a more lucrative career option than any other available.”I was studying before this, I just did my graduation. My college is not very good,” Dippu offers with disarming honesty. “If it wasn’t for cricket, I would have looked for a job, maybe in the police.”They speak Hindi with a lilting twang, but despite an obvious communication gap, there is little difficulty in making themselves understood, especially when they are asked if cricket was the best option for them. “Yes,” comes one emphatic answer. “Definitely,” comes the other.Wanlambok Nongkhlaw will go back to being a traffic policeman after the cricket season•Wanlambok NongkhlawIf any of the Meghalaya team were to break traffic rules while zipping around Shillong, they might cop a fine from Wanlambok Nongkhlaw, a traffic policeman who also happens to be the only left-arm seamer in the Ranji squad.Nongkhlaw was stationed in Shillong, and was active in the local leagues for the Meghalaya Police (MLP) team. Four MLP players were called for trials, and only Nongkhlaw made it to the state team. Once the season is done, though, Nongkhlaw will return to his job – though he might perhaps let a minor infraction or two pass if he spots a team-mate riding down the street without a helmet. “A little bit you can let go,” he says, eyes twinkling.”I have not turned from a policemen to a cricketer, I’ve turned from a cricketer into a policeman,” Nongkhlaw says. “I’ve been playing cricket since childhood, and then in 2008 I got a job with the police and I was posted with the traffic police.”There are signs that a cricketing culture could take root in Meghalaya, but plenty of work remains to be done.”The first challenge is getting enough players,” coach Sanath says. “The other thing is enough place to practice. All cricket used to take place in just one ground in Shillong. Now suddenly you have the men’s team, Under-23, Under-19, women’s team, women’s age-group teams… and with just three or four pitches, everybody has to practice. They are used to unexpected rains too. So for their weather, they definitely need a very good indoor practice facility, which they don’t have yet.”Funding is an aspect Sanath stresses on. It’s needed to build more practice facilities, to send the team for matches outside the state to accelerate their learning, and to maintain and spread the game in Meghalaya.”I feel people in the north-east love sports,” Sanath says. “And they are naturally very agile and athletic. It’s just that they haven’t been given an opportunity to get into the game yet.”Lamare concurs. “We have kids who play and we have youth interested. There is a cricket academy which has 300 students now. It might take a few years, but it is going to pick up,” he says. “Once the youth in all the north-eastern states realise there is potential in cricket, there is a career. You don’t have to work now, you can actually play cricket and earn – so interest will develop.”Meghalaya captain Jason Lamare is leading them on the field, but his first love is adventure sports•Saurabh Somani/ESPNcricinfoDespite that, Lamare almost didn’t want to come back to cricket, preferring to mess about with scuba diving, ziplining, rock climbing and the like. Father Peter, a coach at the Shillong Academy, and Ingty – who has missed the first two rounds through injury – brought him around. “My dad and Mark Ingty convinced me to play,” Lamare says. “His (Ingty’s) mother and my father are brother and sister, so we’ve literally grown up playing cricket. We are very close. He’s feeling really lousy he’s not here. We miss him.”Adventure sports is, in a way, Lamare’s first love. His company, Pioneer Adventure Tours, has been in operation from 2012 and has had visits fro Shikhar Dhawan, Unmukt Chand and the actor Kalki Koechlin, among others.When Meghalaya became an Affiliate member of the BCCI in 2008, Lamare could not play for Assam any more. And at 25, he couldn’t play for Meghalaya either, since they didn’t have a senior team.”That winter I went to Goa to become a certified scuba-diving instructor,” he says. “I worked there for two seasons till 2011. Then in 2012 I started my adventure business. Adventure has always been a part of me, so that move was always going to happen. It just happened a bit earlier because my cricket career halted in 2008. I thought that since my business is stable now, I can keep it aside for two months. January 2 is the last game, and on 4th it’s back to work!”Standing around on a cricket field for 90 overs must be dull for Lamare after that. “Definitely,” he laughs. “When things don’t go your way in the game, though, you think, ‘Man I wish I was back home diving or cliff-jumping or something.'”Meghalaya are one of the few north-east teams for whom “home” games are actually at home – and not in a borrowed stadium in a different state. For Lamare, one thing is certain as soon as they have a stretch of games at home. “As soon as we’re in Shillong, the team is immediately going,” he says. Going, that is, for adventure sports with him.When they do go, whether they’re ziplining or rappelling or camping by the riverside – it will merely be an extension of life as they’ve known it these past few months. It’s been an adventure.

South Africa saw as many as six chances go begging as Pakistan made it through the first hour of day two intact at the Wanderers

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jan-201911.5 – Philander to Imam-ul-Haq, no run, missed stumping chance down leg side. Length ball swings down leg. Imam’s back leg is up as he looks to flick this and he’s walked out too after losing balance. But QDK can’t gather15.4 – Philander to Mohammad Abbas, no run, dropped at gully! One of two gullies. Bavuma puts down a simple catch. Didn’t have to move too much. Full outswinger just outside off. Looks to drive and it’s shin height for Bavuma. Hard hands from him16.1 – Steyn to Imam-ul-Haq, no run, dropped! Oh dear, South Africa. Are they in too close? Short of a length in the corridor. Defended again for the one that comes in. Steyn takes it away off the seam. The perfect set-up. Flying to Elgar’s left at second slip, hip height. De Bruyn jumps across from third and it kisses his thumb on the way to Elgar who grabs it and can’t hold on takes his eyes off it after the distraction and cops it on the chest18.5 – Steyn to Mohammad Abbas, no run, dropped! Steyn holds his shoulder and walks back. Full outswinger, just outside off. Abbas pokes at it. It’s flying to Amla at first slip. QDK dives one-handed to his right and grasses it23.2 – Rabada to Imam-ul-Haq, no run, dropped! And a run-out missed! What is happening here! Length ball in the corridor, defends inside the line, gets an outside edge that’s dipping to QDK’s left. He goes one-handed again with a big dive and can’t hold on. It’s parried behind the cordon and Imam is ball watching as Abbas takes off for the run. Literally, back turned to his partner, Imam. Abbas has to run back. Rabada picks up the throw that is a shy at the striker’s end and chucks it at the other end. Misses. Abbas wasn’t close to being in24.2 – Olivier to Mohammad Abbas, OUT, edged and somebody finally catches the ball. De Bruyn grabs it to his right at third slip and ends nightwatchman Abbas’ little vigil. On a good length, angling in, and straightening away. Olivier tempts Abbas into wafting at it and nicking off
Mohammad Abbas c de Bruyn b Olivier 11 (51b 2×4 0x6) SR: 21.56