An inspired fightback against South Africa has revived a campaign that has been an emotional roller-coaster thus far

Andrew Miller06-Mar-2011The logic of England’s World Cup campaign veers once again towards the ludicrous. Four agonisingly enthralling fixtures have resulted in a victory that deserved to be a defeat, a tie that should have been a victory, a defeat that no-one could believe was not a victory, and now a victory that was snatched from the jaws of defeat. The tombola of emotions that their campaign has inspired has been responsible for roughly 70% of the interest in the whole of the 2011 World Cup. But this time, surely, they’ve done enough to end the immediate uncertainty, and guarantee their progression through to the last eight.It has been, however, a devastatingly close-run thing, every bit as marginal as the eight runs out of 2256 that have enabled them to cling onto their positive Net Run Rate. But regardless of all that, for a short time on Sunday afternoon, while India were still working on their run-chase in Bangalore, England sat healthily at the top of the Group B table, looking at last like the big-cheese team they were always meant to be in this competition.”This puts us back on track in the World Cup and it couldn’t come a day too soon,” said England’s relieved captain, Andrew Strauss. “It was a cliffhanger of a game, we’re certainly keeping people interested at the moment, but we’re delighted with the win and we have high hopes of achieving a great thing. We still need to learn some lessons, but we got away with a win and a win is all you need to kick-start things and get it going.”All the same, had South Africa’s tail managed to cobble together six more singles from the 14 deliveries left at their disposal, England would have slunk to a lowly and precarious fourth in Group B, with their forthcoming trip to Chittagong infused with the peculiar dread that has paralysed them in each of their games against supposedly lesser teams. But in a contest that reverted to a Test-match scenario from the moment Graeme Swann ripped a beauty past Graeme Smith’s edge to confirm the treachery in the wicket, a long-suppressed knowhow flooded back into England’s game.Stuart Broad and James Anderson’s recovery from personal lows to deliver a match-winning performance has boosted England’s campaign•Getty ImagesSuddenly an attack that had been flogged at seven runs an over in the opening fortnight made a run every other ball look like riches. Giving absolutely nothing away had been the secret of their glory in the Ashes, when the leaky Steven Finn was shelved after Perth to be replaced by Tim Bresnan, and that same policy proved impeccable in another fraught and thrilling scenario. Strauss, whose tactics have erred in previous games in this campaign, played a limited hand to perfection, trusting his second-string spinners, Michael Yardy and Kevin Pietersen, to hold the fort at a time when the occasional loose ball would not be ruinous, before reverting to his gun bowlers and demanding they aim barrel-straight.When pressed on the state of the wicket, Strauss admitted it had broken up too much to be ideal for a one-day international, but there’s little doubt he was happier in these surroundings than had been the case back in Bangalore, on a belter of a pitch that may have allowed him to touch personal perfection during his 158 against India, but which blunted the bowlers that had previously turned England into one-day challengers. In the past decade, England have won only 50% of the 18 ODIs in which they have posted 300 or more, a statistic that underlines their unfamiliarity with such high-scoring jousts.A dogfight is much more befitting this outfit. England are on their chinstraps as their never-ending winter moves into its sixth month, but there may yet be a method to their current madness. Adrenaline is one of many substances on WADA’s listed of banned stimulants, but there’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t create your own. By living on the edge, England are alive in the competition full-stop. And a month that had threatened to be as mundane as was the case back in 1996 (when England sleepwalked to the quarter-finals only to be rudely awoken by Sanath Jayasuriya and Sri Lanka) has been as overloaded with action thrillers as Tim Bresnan’s DVD collection.

Adrenaline is one of many substances on WADA’s listed of banned stimulants, but there’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t create your own. By living on the edge, England are alive in the competition full-stop.

It’s stretching credibility to pretend it’s all part of a cunning plan, but just as Pakistan have long been renowned for their ability to peak precisely when no-one expects it, so England are now firmly in that bracket – and no opponent in their right minds would wish to encounter either in the knockouts. Not so long ago, England’s one-day cricket was universally condemned for being dull and one-dimensional, but when James Anderson (9.5-0-91-1) and Stuart Broad (9-0-73-0) can bounce back from personal nadirs to record combined figures of 12.4-0-31-6, such labels can safely be consigned to World Cup history.England will know that improvements can and must be made. Paul Collingwood’s form made his omission unavoidable, but on this evidence, Yardy might not keep him out forever, given that he lacks the strength to find the boundary on good decks and the versatility to work the singles on tough ones, as his 3 from 17 balls showed today. More worryingly, his left-arm spin is proving far too leaky on all surfaces – it’s no good conceding six runs an over as standard in ODIs, even if 4-0-24-1 is an exceptional spell in a Twenty20 spell. Despite the vital wicket of South Africa’s anchor tailender, Robin Peterson, he came as close to losing England the game as Swann, Broad and Anderson ultimately took them to winning it.But overall, England’s balance was vastly improved for this fixture, and beyond, thanks in no small part to the arrival of Ravi Bopara, whose Man-of-the-Match-winning 60 provided a classy foil for England’s Mr Consistent, Jonathan Trott, whose 52 from 94 balls was arguably his best innings of the tournament to date. The two came together at an invidious 15 for 3, with the onus on survival every bit as much as advancement. This was Test-match cricket, one-day style, and it was just what England needed to remind themselves how good they can be when their minds are forced to remain wholly and solely on the job.

Ray Illingworth looks back on leading England to a hard-fought Ashes win in 1970-71, and dealing with Aussie crowds and umpires

Interview by Richard Gibson18-Dec-2010″All I ever said to the lads was: ‘Have a pint or two if you feel like it but just make sure you’ve had enough sleep and are fit for play in the morning'”•Getty ImagesHow big an achievement was winning the Ashes in Australia in 1970-71?
People don’t realise how hard it is to win in Australia. A lot of sides have beaten Australia at home but not a lot beat them over there. I am talking about full sides, not without the Packer players and the South African situation. When Mike Brearley went back to Australia against a full side they lost 3-0. I think in living memory there has only been Douglas Jardine, apart from me, who has won the Ashes out there. People have defended them, like Len Hutton did in 1954-55, but not won them back and I am quite proud of that. They were pretty long tours as well, you know. Four and a half months, including New Zealand afterwards, is a really hard slog. So when it all comes to a climax in the last match, as it did in Australia, it’s a wonderful feeling. We didn’t take any inviting for a drink that night, I must say.You were 1-0 up with one Test to play. Australia were chasing 223 to win the final match. That last day must have been special…
They only wanted around 100 with five wickets left on that final day of the series. With Greg Chappell and Rodney Marsh in, it only needed one of them to get a quick 30 or 40 and the game was gone. But we won it quite comfortably in the finish. I don’t think I ever had another feeling like that.Would you say you were a tight unit as a touring group?
It was a really good set of blokes. I never had any problems at all that way. All I ever said to the lads was: “Have a pint or two if you feel like it but just make sure you’ve had enough sleep and are fit for play in the morning.” They were all responsible people, and when I see the trick cyclists and psychologists and everything they’ve got these days, I always feel that, if they are all required, you’ve picked the wrong people in the first place. John Snow would have sent them round the twist, wouldn’t he? We were a good side and we all got on well together. That was the secret. We tended to switch room-mates so you didn’t get too cliquey. Swapping about every couple of matches ensured we got the northerners and southerners mixing together. All I ever had to say to them was, “Come on, lads, here we go again, so let’s go.” No more than that.The only time I spoke to them any differently was in the dressing room during the first of the Sydney Tests. At tea on the fourth day I felt the game was there for winning, so I went into the back room and said to them: “I can’t quite put my finger on what is missing, I can’t say that no one is trying because that isn’t the case, but there is a difference between trying and giving that little bit more. I would like you to all imagine you are playing in a one-day Lord’s final. Imagine they need eight runs to win and the last over is being bowled.” We went back out and in 40 minutes the game was as good as over.That 1970-71 series has a reputation as one of the most heated in history. Is that fair?
It was never like that between the actual teams. The teams always got on all right. We had a system whereby, if we had been in the field, then as soon as we were back in the dressing room, the Aussies would come in and have a drink with us and vice versa. I can remember once in Sydney the dressing-room attendant coming in to complain: “Aren’t you buggers going? I want to shut up shop. I’ve got a home to go to even if you haven’t.”But there was a lot of hostility, wasn’t there? How much of it was down to the umpire Lou Rowan?

“When I see the trick cyclists and psychologists and everything they’ve got these days, I always feel that, if they are all required, you’ve picked the wrong people in the first place”

Without doubt he was the main culprit. It was the only time I ever felt that an umpire wasn’t being
completely honest. The fact that we didn’t get a single lbw in six matches proves the point. Lou Rowan was a very officious sort of character. It was a really silly thing that he did. He got it completely wrong. The game could have got out of hand. For example, we played the first Test in Brisbane and there was one young kid sat with his legs dangling over the wooden boundary fence. Rowan stopped the game and walked 70 yards to tell the lad to get his legs the other side. Yet this was the same guy who told me the ground was fit to continue when 30 or 40 bottles had been thrown on the field. It didn’t just happen once, it happened a couple of times. I called the players to the middle and we sat down while they cleared the bottles and cans off. We agreed to start again and then it all began again and that is when I took them off. People forget that I stayed on the field the first time. Rowan was making it appear as if it was nothing, but the bloke who moved the sightscreen was hit on the back of the head by a bottle and was taken to hospital. That could have been Snowy or another of our players. I told them to make an announcement over the loudspeaker that when the ground was cleared, we would go back. “If it starts again we shall come off again,” I said. “If we have to forfeit the game, we have to forfeit the game. But there is a principle at stake here.” Rowan laid it down that we would have to forfeit unless we went back but I was adamant that we would only go back when it was ready for us to go back.The inaugural ODI occurred during that tour…
Yes. We had a rained-off Test at Melbourne and we could have started halfway through the fourth day. But the feeling was that there was no point in beginning a Test with a day and a bit to go. So we cancelled that day and arranged a one-dayer for the day after. It was all arranged overnight and we got 45,000 people there. A Test match was then added to the series, which we weren’t happy about because it meant we played five Tests in six weeks in the hot part of the summer. The other grumble for us was that the Aussies were promised a full match-fee and we weren’t promised anything, so that nearly caused a strike. You can imagine that David Clark, the tour manager, went out with a flea in his ear. He had just spoken with Don Bradman, Sir Cyril Hawker [president of MCC] and Gubby Allen, who were out there watching. They went ahead and did it without speaking to me as captain. When I was told, I warned them that if someone got injured, there would be no one to call up from England. I also warned them that unless we got something for our trouble, they would have a strike on their hands, so they rang Donald Carr and he agreed we should get something. We finished up with 25 quid for the extra match. That’s great, isn’t it? Even the Aussies were on £200-£250 as a fee. Our amount was a pittance.How much did the adrenaline of the Ashes help your team?
The crowd are very much on your backs out there. Some of it is quite funny, you know. Certain things like, “I wish you was a statue and I was a bloody pigeon.” If you laugh with them, it can help. The old Sydney hill was very much about taking it rather than getting the pin. If you did, they would just give you more stick. Have some fun, give them a wave and you’d have no trouble.Snow had a wonderful series. How crucial is a genuine fast bowler in any England team’s bid to win an Ashes in Australia?
Wonderful was the right word. My biggest disappointment was Alan Ward breaking down more or less before we had played, because he was quick and got bounce. Unfortunately we never had the advantage of having him. I used to talk to John Edrich and Geoff Boycott quite a bit about things and I asked them: “Where do we go from here? Because we have got to get somebody.” John told me to go for this young lad [Bob Willis], 6ft 6in, sharp and able to bowl it in the right areas. I remember asking him: “Are you sure, John?” And the reply was: “I don’t think he will let you down.” So I went on John’s say-so.Do you see similarities between Willis and Steven Finn?
Very much so. Funnily enough, the first time I saw Finn bowl on TV I turned to the wife and told her he should go to Australia because he could do what Bob did for us.”I think in living memory there has only been Douglas Jardine, apart from me, who has won the Ashes out there… I’m quite proud of that”•Getty ImagesShort balls can cause problems in Australia as John Snow proved.
When he famously hit Terry Jenner, that wasn’t even a bouncer. If he had stood straight up it would have hit him on the chest. What he did was get you playing back to a length and under your armpit and then he made it change direction off the seam, so he would get people turned around, knocking it into the slips. That was his great strength. That was why there was such an argument when he hit Jenner. I was at short leg and picked him up, and as he was helped off, Lou Rowan marched over to Snowy and warned him for bowling a bouncer. I told him that even if he considered it a bouncer – which I didn’t – he had only bowled one. He went over to Tom Brooks, the other umpire, who wouldn’t support him on it. But what worried me most was Snowy – because of his temperament and the fact I knew he was upset by the whole bloody thing – who was mouthing off: “That’s not a bouncer”. I feared he was going to start letting fly, so I tried to calm him down. The next ball was inevitably a bouncer and was followed by Snow’s confirmation: “That’s a bloody bouncer.”Geoff Boycott was incredible for you on that tour, wasn’t he?
He will tell you that he played better on that tour than at any time in his life. He played magnificently. It was a shame he couldn’t play in that last Test. Not that he would have scored many on that pitch. It had been covered for two days, we had non-stop rain and it went all over the place. If I had won the toss, we would’ve bowled them out for 50. In fact, I was on the verge of declaring at around 170 for 7 or 8 on the first day, for the simple reason that I knew we had to get some wickets that night. I knew with sun on the pitch the next morning it would change, and just as I had my head in my hands, thinking about whether to do it or not, we were all out. We got the two openers out that night for less than 20 and it made all the difference in the match. If they had been there the next morning, it was a different game.Was one of the sweetest things about 1970-71 the sense of overcoming the odds?
Absolutely. I still have a piece at home, written by Richie Benaud. He said something about Ray Illingworth going home victorious when nearly all the breaks have gone against him, what with injuries, the itinerary, one thing or another.

All Pakistan’s bowlers played their role, the fielding was as good as it has been in a long time, and two young batsmen played maturely; yet by the next game, their win against Australia could mean nothing

Osman Samiuddin at the R Premadasa Stadium19-Mar-2011What a strange kind of win this is for Pakistan. It is an impressive one; there should be no mistaking that. The first team to beat Australia in a World Cup in 35 games and 12 years was always going to have to play a big game to do it. To top the group, with just one loss, is something very few would have predicted before the tournament began.And to draw, potentially, the weakest of the qualifiers from Group B – that is just a numerical reality in this most-open tournament, not a comment on whichever side it eventually is – means Pakistan could have asked for nothing more. Yet, as much as the win should mean, it might mean nothing at all by the next game. It is that kind of an in between triumph.From the evidence of six games, from the evidence of this win, there is enough to suggest that Shahid Afridi’s pre-tournament target of a semi-final spot is eminently achievable. It was the tournament began as well, but deeds are achieved on the field, not on paper.Pakistan’s bowling won them this game. It is what always wins them games and what always makes them a contender. It is why they don’t go the way of West Indies or New Zealand, because they always have an attack that can do a job; bowl sides out in Tests, defend targets in ODIs.Umar Gul again led the way and he is increasingly becoming a pivotal figure in the campaign. Waqar Younis’ presence as coach is no coincidence, as it wasn’t when Gul went through an earlier phase of success in 2006, with Waqar as bowling coach at the time. “He’s improving day by day,” Waqar said, with a hint of pride. “He’s found his right length and he’s not only bowling straight but with some pace. He’s attacking areas where it’s hard to hit, so he’s getting better and better, which is great for the team.”There was no let-up behind him. Abdur Rehman used defence smartly as attack; Wahab Riaz recovered after an iffy start and even Abdul Razzaq clocked in. Mohammad Hafeez’s batting has hit a dip again, but his bowling has assumed greater importance and his spell at the Premadasa was the one that really took the life out of Australia’s innings.It would have been nothing without a fielding display about as sharp as any Pakistan has put together under Afridi and Waqar. Hafeez was operating a kind of Sri Lanka-like choke, darting them in but turning them also, forcing batsmen to play to short midwicket – a crucial position in any strangle – who would swoop in, stop the single and throw back to Hafeez for it to be repeated all over again, on loop.Runs and boundaries were given up only grudgingly. There were direct hits, a run-out and generally the impression that stealing singles within the circle or doubles out to big boundaries was a risk. “It’s going to get better,” Waqar said. “It makes a difference when you are playing against a bigger team and we still need to improve. But definitely today was a much better performance. We took our catches and we stopped boundaries. We did our job so we must give credit to the fielding.”The batting has more promise than before, though it remains prone to jitters. The surface wasn’t the easiest and Australia’s quicks will test most sides, but Pakistan will take particular delight in their two youngest batsmen taking them home. It is the blend in their batting through the middle that is their strength. There is experience in Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq and freshness in Asad Shafiq and Umar Akmal. Younis and Misbah set up the Sri Lanka win, Shafiq and Umar this one.Umar’s hand was worthy of the Man-of-the-Match award, for he counterpunched just when Pakistan could have been knocked out, and he finished the game. But Shafiq’s 46, like the unbeaten 78 against Zimbabwe last week, caught the eye for its quiet sense and method, always full of intent but not averse to caution.Waqar didn’t hold back in his praise. “He’s becoming more and more mature every day, not only this series but even if you go back to the New Zealand series where he played some really good knocks. He’s very steady, not a big hitter, he manoeuvres the ball here and there, picks up the odd boundary. At No. 3, he’s done a superb job in the last match [against Zimbabwe] and he’s done a job today [Saturday] as well.”It is a big win, “a real achievement,” concluded Waqar. But every win from now will, unavoidably, be bigger. They will enjoy it now, Waqar said, before waiting on the permutations of who they play. They will also have to “forget it.” It’s not often Pakistan have been able to say that of a win against Australia recently, which tells, if you think about it, its own story of what this team has done and could yet do.

This series will be the first serious challenge for two ambitious young men in a hurry to grow

Sriram Veera in Kingston19-Jun-2011Seventeen years ago, Devendra Bishoo’s father, Mohanlal, died with a wish. Five years ago, Virat Kohli’s father, Prem, died with a dream. They wanted their sons to play cricket for the country. Those sons, now young men, are at a cusp, peering down paths their fathers had laid out for them.”I remembered the times I used to get home from school and would spend a lot of time bowling at my father,” Bishoo says. “He was a great help to me and I am happy I have made him proud, even though he is not here to see me.”Kohli’s story is poignant. He was not out at stumps for Delhi in a Ranji Trophy game when his father died during the night. He turned up to bat next morning, rescued his team from trouble with an innings of 90, shook his head at a replay that confirmed he shouldn’t have been given out and left for the crematorium.The stories of Kohli and Bishoo had differences for a while. Kohli went astray for two years, especially after the Under-19 World Cup victory, but he shook himself out of a bad phase and found his path once again. Bishoo was already there.Both of them have a confidence that is striking. Kohli could have learned to swagger before he learned to walk. Bishoo has a calmness and strength about him. They are considered important parts of their country’s cricketing future, and they are aware of it. This series is both a test and an opportunity.Kohli doesn’t appear to be a great batsman at first glance. He looks to be a good one. It’s his demeanour that sets him apart from most men his age and others too. That cocky, teenage confidence has matured into the confidence of an assured, aware batsman. Kohli’s game is simple and his improvement is that he has tried to make it simpler. He quickly glides towards the line of the ball and nudges it into gaps. He uses his signature swat-flick to send length deliveries in line with his stumps to the square-leg boundary. He drives on the up and can pull, but rarely hooks.The short ball will be his test, especially on the fast and bouncy surface at Sabina Park. Kohli has had no problem against it in international cricket but, in a domestic game a couple of years ago, Zaheer Khan had unsettled him with short balls delivered from a left-armer’s angle. He has worked on that aspect of the game in his development as a batsman. During Saturday’s net session, Kohli faced tennis balls served at him from a short distance by Duncan Fletcher. The balls would rear up and fly of Kohli’s hands or body. The coach then had a word with his ward and soon Kohli was swaying and bobbing out of the way.Bishoo looks a good legspinner. He wants to be a great one. It will be fascinating to see how he gets there. He turns the legbreak, has a topspinner and his flipper is a work in progress. He hasn’t reached a stage where he can drop the ball where he desires. He pitches it short or slips it wide every once in a while. His brain is buzzing all the time, though. During the 2011 World Cup, Bishoo adjusted to the slower surfaces and did two things: he slowed his pace further but would suddenly slip in quicker deliveries. He was learning on the go, and he was learning quickly. The best thing about Bishoo is his stock ball. He gets the legbreak to spin with some bounce.Bishoo will be tested this series. Bowling to VVS Laxman and co is one of the harder exams to pass. Another challenge is that Indian batsmen tackle spin in vastly different, accomplished ways. He cannot have just one plan to set up a batsman. Laxman has supple wrists, Rahul Dravid uses the crease the best, often pressing right back to tailor his length, MS Dhoni rarely moves his front foot across, Kohli drives on the front foot and Suresh Raina skips out.”I want to be a great bowler for West Indies,” Bishoo had said. Kohli, too, said he has a burning desire to prove himself as a Test batsman. Fletcher called him “the future of Indian cricket”. This series, which begins in Jamaica on Monday, will be the first serious challenge for two ambitious young men in a hurry to grow.

What were once considered the weak links of the Indian team have turned out to be its toughest cookies. And with no crumbling

Sharda Ugra at the PCA Stadium31-Mar-2011The World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan was billed as the match of the big statement. It was believed it would be dominated by an epic performance from a handful of cricketers who would make game-altering, life-changing contributions over 100 overs. It would be a grand declaration of skill that befitted a contest watched by heads of state and government meeting at a cricket ground to talk about peace because a match had suddenly broken out in the neighbourhood.Nothing of the sort. India’s 29-run win over Pakistan was steadily carved out amid the heat and noise of Mohali not by its aristocracy but its plebs: the bit-part men who live in the halfway house between belonging and dispensability in the XI. Who can be picked and dropped at a fluctuating rate that is faster than the stock exchange.The big occasion in Mohali today didn’t quite find the alpha males. India’s World Cup MVP was sent back home within a minute of arrival, by a swinging full-toss, and Sachin Tendulkar scratched out an 85 that was quite the opposite of one his many routine, treasured, “chanceless” innings.It wasn’t a night made by India’s batsmen or even the improved Yuvraj Singh, now virtually considered the team’s fifth bowler, in his new allrounder avatar, or even Zaheer Khan on a hot streak as a partnership breaker. The men who did the thorough rigorous housekeeping when 260 had to be defended were the ones who have not been certainties in an Indian starting line-up through the tournament.Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel will never make crowds go wild. What they did against Pakistan all through their multiple spells of right hand-left hand art, was to ensure that the oxygen levels during the chase began to slowly drop.It was Munaf who struck the earlier of the two, varying his pace – bowling some cutters and some that to the naked eye, never mind the speed gun reading of 140kph, looked quicker. He of the wild hair, big smile, relaxed manner and the most dangerous of variations, cracked open the Pakistani middle order. Munaf abhors width but he understands depth and significance. The wicket of Abdul Razzaq, who played securely for everything except the ball that was bowled to him, was to be the sign that India had switched on the exit sign for their neighbours.Nehra was a man mercilessly pilloried for conceding 16 to South Africa in a final over during a group game in Nagpur. South Africa are heading home and Nehra is still around, pickpocket run-up, mournful game face and ability now to use his left-armer’s approach to find invisible protractor angles to right-hand batsmen. He was brought into the game because, MS Dhoni confessed, the Indians had read the wicket incorrectly. Their choice of bowler to step in turned out to be right, though, and Nehra knew what had to be done, and particularly how, in Mohali where the ball begins swinging for about an hour and a half in the second session. He bowled in four spells on Wednesday unrewarded until his last two overs, when he cleaned up the tail, 7-0-22-0 turning into 10-0-33-2.Pros like Nehra and Patel can run rings around batsmen unsure of themselves, like the Pakistanis were on Wednesday, and trip them up on those very rings. Dhoni said that while India’s bowlers were far from express, their stock in trade was their deception and their ability to change length, line and speed depending on the conditions.

India’s win was steadily carved out amid the heat and noise of Mohali not by its aristocracy but its plebs: the bit-part men who live in the halfway house between belonging and dispensability in the XI

It could go unnoticed and he is definitely a bit-part player, but in the afternoon, Suresh Raina’s innings of 36 became India’s last push up the incline, after an early burst from the openers was turned into a long, dry passage in the middle. He came in at an awkward time, in the 37th over, and lost his senior partner, Dhoni, inside the next half hour. Stretching before Raina were more than eight overs with the tail for company and a final Powerplay to be taken. The batsman known best for his flamboyant shot-making went about his innings with faith in his partners, and surety and confidence in what he was doing. It was as if Raina had not stopped batting since the quarter-final in Ahmedabad.Dhoni said Raina’s had been an innings of measured calculation, particularly as he was batting alongside the tail. “It was important to rotate strike, and with their best bowlers bowling at that point, he had to make sure he had to bat the full number of overs and to see if he could capitalise on the Powerplay.” India’s track record in this World Cup’s batting Powerplays had usually been centered around a collapse but against Pakistan, led by Raina it ended up being 43 for 1. Dhoni said that it was one of India’s better Powerplay performances in the World Cup: “Even though there weren’t two specialist batsmen we got a fair amount of runs and that really made a difference for us”.Raina’s was an assured performance, not quite as dramatic as against Australia but as weighty. He decided the tone at which India would end their innings. With Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, Raina put up 51 for the seventh and eighth wickets. Take it away or halve it and Pakistan would have been able to stumble into the unexpected.One member of India’s star cast, though, did make an impact whose ripple effect started early in the afternoon and has ended up at the door of the World Cup final. Virender Sehwag’s half- hour burst of 38 gave India its kickstart, first dismantling Pakistan’s leading bowler and then maximising every scoring opportunity put before him. The difference between the two teams in the 15 overs was based on Sehwag’s innings. It may have looked like a typical casual dash, but what was important in this innings was not the casualness but the dash.Going into Mumbai, India have taken one step closer to the World Cup. If they played expansively and boldly in Ahmedabad, in Mohali they took what would be small, secure steps that could go virtually unheralded but did the business.In the last week, over their two knockout games, where teams usually unravel, India have looked more and more sure of how they are going to get to their destination. They have won and lost tosses, they have chased and they have defended, and always they have known how to seize control. They are now the emphatic favourites to win the title, Mohali emphasising the chasm that now exists between India and Pakistan on the field. The rivalry is a heart-thumping business for the fans, but in the middle it is evident which team is accepted and recognised as better than the other.In the dressing room India were watched by Mike Horn, adventurer extraordinaire, who has been speaking to the side about his experiences circumnavigating the Arctic Circle and going around the world without motorised transport. His presence has taken the ranks of the team’s support staff to 12. In Mohali on Wednesday, though, it was the on-field support crew who proved they can soak up pressure like industrial-sized sponges. What were once considered the weak links of the Indian team have turned out to be its toughest cookies. And with no crumbling.

Tim Albone’s acclaimed documentary told the tale of how a war-torn country became an inspiration for all aspiring cricket nations. Now you can read about it

Sahil Dutta25-Jun-2011There are some stories so compelling they need no embellishment. The story of Afghanistan’s cricket team is one of these. Amid hardship unimaginable to most cricket-playing countries, Afghanistan discovered a love for the sport and, in the wreckage of conflict, founded a team that rose five divisions in two years to make a fairytale appearance at the 2010 World Twenty20 in West Indies.It’s a remarkable tale and Tim Albone recounts it in this stirring book. Albone was a foreign correspondent based in the country with the Times and Sunday Times, and grew weary of retelling the stories of violence and victims that were the staples for newsreaders around the world. Instead, he decided to make a documentary – which aired to much acclaim last year – following the team as they made their mark on the world game. His purpose, he writes, was “to show the beauty, the madness, the humour, the resilience, the enterprise, the humanity and the people.”The book’s greatest quality is that he achieves just that, and in doing so reveals much about the sport that gets written out of the sanitised highest level. The book centres on Taj Malik, the overbearing, obsessive and frighteningly driven Afghani refugee who makes it his life mission not just to bring cricket to his country but to take the side he builds to the World Cup.Malik – whose brothers Hasti and Karim play in the Afghanistan team – ended up coaching the side through its first outings before being cast aside, when the team needed more professional guidance, for the former Pakistan player Kabir Khan. Yet it is Malik’s audacity that pulsates through the team and through the book. Without him and his dream none of it would have been possible.In this context the ICC’s decision to block Associate and Affiliate nations from the next World Cup becomes all the more frustrating. As they ponder a U-turn, the decision-makers would do well to read Albone’s book. The galvanising force of a World Cup possibility – however remote – was powerful enough to bind factions and overcome unthinkable burdens in Afghanistan. Malik’s messianic fervour ended up creating the most uplifting cricketing story in decades. His mission was founded on the dream of a World Cup, and for the ICC to remove it is as self-defeating as it is cruel.Yet, as we’re taken on a tour beyond the Test world, starting with Division Five in Jersey to a rung higher in Tanzania and then to Argentina, it shows just how well parts of the game are run. Unlike at the highest level, where the ICC is an impotent forum for competing national boards, it has genuine power to organise the sport competently in countries where cricket is less familiar. There remains administrative bungling – like the promotion of the USA to the World Twenty20 qualifiers in another attempt at jump-starting a “market” in the country – but Afghanistan’s rise shows that the ICC is capable of serving cricket’s best interests.Throughout, though, it is the human story that remains most enthralling and, often, amusing. The journey from Kabul to Jersey, via Dubai, describes the Afghanistan players, rarely short of bravado, crippled by shyness when confronted by the unfamiliar sight of bikini-clad women sunbathing by the hotel swimming pool. In Jersey, the familiar complaints of Anglo-Saxon cricketers in Asia gets reversed as, rather than long for Baked Beans, the team wistfully recall the naan and lamb of home.

The book shows how different ethnic and tribal groups are absorbed into a common Afghan identity when playing cricket. In one part of the book Albone describes how Afghan journalists had to devise an entirely new vocabulary in Pashtu to cover the World Cup qualifiers for the new Afghani audiences

Albone’s dressing-room position privileges him to the coarser realities of team sport. The rivalry between players, the frantic worries of Malik as coach, nepotism and tension of life back home make for a volatile mix. On one of their first tours – to Malaysia for the Asia Cup – an almighty pitch-side row explodes, where Hasti punches the assistant tour manager for bad-mouthing his brother, the coach. Karim sees what’s happening and runs from the pitch, where he is keeping wicket, to join in the fisticuffs. If that all seems a touch amateur, let’s not forget the Test nations have had their share of dressing-room squabbles too.Similarly, the inexorable tension between achieving the team’s objectives and winning individual plaudits is revealed with an explicitness anodyne top-level sides would never allow in public. In showing the whole human story, with all its egos and nastiness, Albone resists the temptation to patronise. It would be easy to view Afghanistan’s story as “pure” cricket, untainted by the commercialism and sordid temptations that have undermined Test teams in recent times. But in charting the origins of Malik’s team, the book demonstrates how gambling, winner-takes-all fixtures and, indeed, administrative corruption, were part of the development of the game there. Just as it was to the sport in England.Yet, what shimmers beyond the individuals, the money and the records is the collective mission. Much like it was for West Indies in the 1970s and 80s, the desire to remake a nation’s identity is an irresistible force running through the team. As Albone writes: “The players know Afghanistan has a reputation centred on war, drugs and violence, but they want to play their part in changing minds. They want to show the world that Afghans are civilised, can play by the rules, can integrate and can compete.”They do more than that. For all sport’s irrelevance when set against war and poverty, it does play a role, however fleetingly, in making a new nation. The book shows how different ethnic and tribal groups are absorbed into a common Afghan identity when playing cricket. The thousands of new fans spread across the country suddenly belong to a new community that is not defined by the old orders. In one part of the book Albone describes how Afghan journalists had to devise an entirely new vocabulary in Pashtu to cover the World Cup qualifiers for the new Afghani audiences.If there is a criticism, it is that Albone’s perspective is perhaps too restricted. He discusses how other teams and their supporters are suspicious of the brash Afghanistan players and their on-field antics, but it would have been interesting to hear their views directly. Also, in his attempt to straddle the divide between those who would read the book for cricket and others who would read it for the Afghanistan story, Albone occasionally oversimplifies on both counts. But these are minor gripes in a book that is overwhelmingly uplifting, engaging and an essential for any cricket lover.Out of the Ashes: The extraordinary rise and rise of the Afghanistan cricket team
Tim Albone; foreword by Mike Atherton
Virgin Books, 304pp, £11.99

Ricky Ponting was under immense pressure on the fourth day in Johannesburg. His response was a sight to behold

Brydon Coverdale at the Wanderers20-Nov-2011Steve Waugh used his 156th Test to buy himself another year of cricket with an Ashes century that still lives on in the minds of Australian fans. Allan Border bowed out of the game in his 156th match in the baggy green, in South Africa. Is Ricky Ponting to follow Waugh or Border? With one day remaining of his 156th Test, he was poised halfway between the two fates.As Ponting walked off the Wanderers on the fourth afternoon, the light was dimming on the ground, reminiscent of when Waugh crunched Richard Dawson through extra cover for four to reach a career-saving hundred. Back in Australia, where it was 2am in the eastern states, fans could see a glimmer of hope. Before this day, it seemed unlikely they would see Ponting’s faded cap, the rolled-up sleeves and steely stare again in a Test match at home.He finished unbeaten on 54, his first Test half-century since the opening match of last year’s Ashes. Should he go on to score a match-winning hundred, it would be a monumental effort, considering he has not reached triple-figures in a Test in nearly two years, and that no team has chased such a big total – 310 – to win a Wanderers Test. By stumps, Australia were 168 from their goal.If he gets Australia home and then chooses to retire, it could hardly be more of a fairytale ending. But Ponting is unlikely to feel disposed to walk away from the game if he thinks he has more to offer. And while the selectors would like to blood young batsmen during the series against New Zealand, which starts at the Gabba on December 1, the matter is now clouded due to the injuries to Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh.Marsh is at home with a back injury and is considered by his state coach Mickey Arthur “a long shot” to play in Western Australia’s Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales this week. And Watson, who strained his hamstring during this Test, has conceded that he is no certainty to be fit for the Brisbane Test.Should they both miss selection, Usman Khawaja would hold his place and David Warner would have a strong chance of making his debut. The selectors may decide that including another new batsman might be tipping the balance too far in the regeneration direction. That, combined with Ponting’s classy half-century in Johannesburg, could be his career lifeline.When he walked to the crease, the pressure could hardly have been greater. Ponting’s last two Test innings read 0, 0. Another zero and he’d have produced the Australian emergency phone number. And John Inverarity’s finger would be poised on the dial.The score was 19 for 2. Ponting jogged out to intense boos from the South African fans, played a few practice drives and made his way to the pitch. He patted down the surface, stretched his hamstrings and took his time getting ready. There was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to indicate he felt any more burden than normal.After a quick chat with Khawaja, his partner and one of his prospective long-term replacements, he took guard, counted the fielders, and took strike. Vernon Philander ran in. Ponting was ready. Would this be the first ball of the rest of his life? No. He left it alone, extravagantly and expertly, and Australian fans breathed a collective sigh of relief.Ponting was off the mark from his tenth ball, a push through cover off Dale Steyn. Some classic Ponting strokes followed, a muscular pull for four off Morne Morkel, a back-foot drive to the boundary against Steyn. A straight-driven four, back past the stumps off Steyn, was especially encouraging.There were challenges. Morkel whizzed one past the edge of the bat, a pearl that bounced and seamed away. Ponting responded next ball with a judicious leave. When he brought up his half-century, he raised the bat. It was understated. He knew that for all his wonderful innings over the years, he had been given leniency lately. Making runs is his job.Meanwhile, the man at the other end showed Australia’s top order will be in good hands whenever Ponting leaves. Khawaja walked to the crease in the first over of the innings, after Watson shouldered arms and lost his off stump. The momentum was all with South Africa. Khawaja responded with two majestic drives for four, through cover and mid-on, from his first three deliveries.In his first three Tests, Khawaja had made starts and shown promise. This innings was a step in the right direction. He helped ease the pressure on Ponting with his own fine strokeplay, and moved to his first Test half-century from his 95th delivery. Khawaja fell late in the afternoon for 65, failing to pick Imran Tahir’s googly, but his was a classy, confidence-boosting innings.Khawaja’s fourth Test has been encouraging. Now all that remains to be seen is how Ponting’s 156th will be remembered.

A collection of essays and photographs that brings new perspectives to bear on the country’s cricket

Chole Saltau20-Nov-2011A few words of advice about Chris Ryan’s beautiful book: don’t cuddle up to it or try to read it on a crowded train. Instead, pick it up off the coffee table and dive in and out. Pick a favourite writer or an intriguing subject and lose yourself. Allow yourself to wonder, as Gideon Haigh does in his mind-bending essay on the “sliding doors” moments in Australian cricket, what might have happened, or not happened, if a coin had fallen the other way here or a catch been held there. Argue about the five greatest Australian cricketers, decided by a “once-a-lifetime poll” of the nation’s Test players. Hell, argue about the top 41. Linger over the photographs, lavishly displayed as if in an art gallery. But don’t think of this merely as a coffee- table book; it is much more than that.The title – , Ryan is every bit as attentive to detail as he is as a writer, and just as evocative. The photographs are accompanied by beautiful inscriptions that give them the effect of self-contained vignettes. A shot of Phillip Hughes playing a homespun cut faces one of Damien Martyn, still and classical, and the contrast tells its own story. “Just when the textbook was getting boringly dog-eared,” the Hughes caption says, “Phil Hughes introduced – here on debut in Johannesburg – his Leaning Tower of Pisa-like stance and his chuck-the-sink at it cutting technique.”There are famous photographs, but just as often recognisable cricketers are depicted in less obvious settings. Neil Harvey, for instance, is pictured in the cobbled Fitzroy laneway where he played cricket with his brothers. Almost always, the players’ faces and expressions are visible. “You can’t see people’s faces when they are wearing helmets,” writes Ryan in the preface. “Some say these are trivial points. But they’re everything. Give me worry, and faces: give me Trott sneering, Gregory chirping, Macartney puffing, Redpath wincing, Toohey bleeding, Hughes imping, Lehmann melting.” And he does.The Five Greatest Australian Cricketers are celebrated from enjoyable new angles – Ian Chappell’s colourful but clear-eyed assessment of Keith Miller, the cricketer and the man, is a particular treat. “Hall of fame footballer, ahem, hall of fame drinker, hall of fame shagger maybe,” Miller said when Chappell rang to congratulate him for his induction into the Australian cricket hall of fame, “but not cricketer.”

As an editor Ryan is every bit as attentive to detail as he is as a writer, and just as evocative

Malcolm Knox, Mike Brearley, Tony Wilson and Greg Baum complete the countdown, and the writing is as compelling as the cricketers they describe. Just as interesting are the selection criteria applied by the 121 Test players, spanning eight decades, who answered Ryan’s call. “Who’d dare leave out Don Bradman?” Ryan wrote. A handful did. One, conscious of the elephant on his ballot paper, felt obliged to explain. “While he was the best bat of his time,” wrote big Queensland left-armer Tony Dell, “footage of opposition leads me to believe he would not have fared well in the Chappell era. Stories point to him being a selfish, divisive person who fought advancement. To me that does not constitute greatness.”Many players picked personal heroes, and some went for cricketers they’d never seen. Jo Angel and Ian Healy chose Victor Trumper, “dead ninety-six years [with] an un-blockbuster-like 39.04 batting average”. “For months, envelopes were ripped open in the romantic – silly, really – anticipation that Trumper might somehow sneak into the top five,” wrote Ryan. “Then, for months after that, another far-fetched possibility dangled: might Shane Warne pip Bradman as the greatest of them all?”The above chapter provides the most fodder for water-cooler debate, but others are just as relevant. At a time when the iconic baggy-green cap can no longer be relied upon to inspire the devotion of fans and players, Sean Gorman addresses the game’s failure to engage indigenous Australia. As the world adjusts to India’s political and financial muscle, Rahul Bhattacharya brilliantly, damningly traces the recalibrated relationship between two countries that once ennobled each other through epic battles. “It is a superculture in descent versus a superculture in ascent,” he writes, and the results are not pretty.Many a detour can be taken while meandering through this story of a cricket country; each is rewarding in its own way and needn’t be taken in a particular order. Few of its destinations can be found along pathways or in strategic plans, and that is the beauty of it.Australia: Story of a Cricket Country
edited by Christian Ryan
Hardie Grant Books
A$89.95

ESPNcricinfo presents Plays of the Day for the first final of the CB Series between Australia and Sri Lanka, in Brisbane

Sidharth Monga at the Gabba04-Mar-2012The bouncer
When Lasith Malinga generates bounce from the height he bowls at, he can be extra difficult to negotiate. Matthew Wade learned that in the third over of the Australia innings today, when one nearly exploded straight at his throat. Wade did manage to get out of the delivery’s way, but he had to be lightning quick in doing so and almost lost his footing.The slower ball
This one went wrong. Malinga can sometimes overuse the slower ball. When he did so three times in a row in the fifth over, Wade picked the third one early, a length ball, and smote it well over wide long-on, no questions asked.The catch
The finale was spectacular but it could be argued that it was set up by his own misjudgement. Wade had hit Nuwan Kulasekara well towards long-on, where Rangana Herath had time to set himself up for a comfortable catch. However, perhaps unsure of the position of the rope, Herath stayed a bit in, and was nearly duped. Except for his successful last-second lunge behind his body, to pluck the ball one-handed. He could scarcely believe what he had pulled off himself.The drop
Chanaka Welegedara has spent the whole tournament bowling in the nets and warming the bench. Today, when Michael Hussey arrived to bat he tested how alert Welegedara was. Hussey got under a length ball, and shovelled it over long-off, into the players’ viewing area. Welegedara got into position early, but dropped a sitter. His hands stung too.The shot
The ninth ball Hussey faced today was pitched on a length, and he got on one knee and swept it many a row behind midwicket. That was all very fine, except that the bowler was the quick man Dhammika Prasad, who operates at close to 140kph. This wasn’t even a slower ball. Five years ago, dentists in the locality would have been tempted to not go home until the game was over. Nowadays, this is the done thing.The awareness
After the first ball of the 22nd over of the chase, Kumar Sangakkara was seen arguing with umpire Asad Rauf. Moments later Rauf raised his right arm to signal a no-ball. The facts of the matter: it was a Powerplay over, Australia had only five fielders inside the circle, Sangakkara knew it, and he brought it to the umpire’s notice. It is possible Sangakkara quietly let the striker know too, and Lahiru Thirimanne had a wild swing at the delivery. That would be real clever thinking.Edited by Nikita Bastian

Virat Kohli doesn’t keep his emotions to himself – it is a dangerous route and leaves him open to many judging eyes

Sidharth Monga in Adelaide19-Jan-2012Virat Kohli doesn’t keep his emotions to himself. He abuses – directed at nobody in particular – when he scores a century or takes a match-turning catch or even when he misfields. He flips the bird to fans that abuse his mother and his sister. He rages, and suppresses a lump in the throat, when he is asked if he feels the pressure of keeping his place in the side.It is a dangerous route. It leaves you open to many judging eyes. Go to any message board that has discussed Kohli’s incident with the fans at the SCG, and all you see is people saying Kohli should be the last person complaining about abuse because he is seen speaking the choicest of Hindi profanities on the field. No allowance is made for the fact that Kohli abuses neither the fans nor the opposition, neither his team-mates nor the umpire. It is just a release of the pressure building up – granted it doesn’t look pretty, and he will surely realise it when his children watch highlights of daddy’s first international hundred, or hopefully before that – but it is somehow supposed to deserve direct abuse from the crowd.The fact is, we hate us these cocky little punks. We wait for the smallest possible slump from the likes of Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen, so that we can pass overall judgements. On their IQ, their appearance, their romances, their smoking, their drinking. If we don’t spare Warne and Pietersen, who is this Kohli, we think – this 23-year-old from Delhi who wears tattoos and studied stubbles, who has been in more advertisements than Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman put together, who top-edges bouncers and is yet to score a Test century?I have scored eight ODI centuries, he says. Most of them, I have scored in tall chases. Often I come to bat at No. 3. I am a World Cup winner. I reached 1000 ODI runs faster than any other Indian. I scored more ODI runs last year than anybody else … Ravi Shastri says he is a better batsman than Dravid and Sourav Ganguly were at his age. He has done squat in Tests, the real format, we say. I need time, Kohli says.”I don’t know why people were after me even after the first game [in Melbourne],” Kohli said in Perth. “I had scored two fifties before that in the match against West Indies [in Mumbai], and suddenly I was on the verge of being dropped after one match.”Scoring eight hundreds in one-day internationals can’t be a fluke. It’s international cricket as well. I don’t know why people have been questioning my technique or temperament so much. I have been playing at No. 3 in one-dayers, and I have not gone in to bat in very good situations in all of the 70 matches I have played. All of this is a learning curve for me. I am playing on difficult wickets, in Australia.”Again, nothing is held back. There is emotion in this quote. There is anger, there is slight sense of entitlement, there is a reiteration that after all he is just a 23-year-old still coming to terms with international cricket, that he is unsure of himself like most 23-year-olds are. After his Test debut, in the West Indies, he told ESPNcricinfo that he was overawed by Test cricket, that he thought it was “a huge, huge change”. A huge, huge change it has been. Almost to the tune of the one who went to the finest school all right, but was never taught how to live out on the street.Kohli, though, has stuck it out through this emotional tour. On one of the first days of the tour, fans of Indian origin heckled him in the nets, “We have taken five days off, make sure they don’t go waste.” Then the MCG Test was almost a sleepwalk. And it is true his was the first head asked for. Sydney was a horror show too, not just with the crowd.The captain, though, didn’t want to kill his confidence, and persisted with him. If the fear of being dropped bore such rage in Kohli, one can only imagine what not being considered good enough for a team that has lost seven away Tests in a row must be doing to Rohit Sharma. That story is for another time, though. Some of those keeping the youngsters out had to fight harder and longer to break in.In Perth, though, Kohli top-scored in both India’s innings. You could see he had been getting better every day. You could see him punching his bat in frustration, when, stranded on 75, he saw the tail disintegrate at the other end, in a matter of one over. This was his chance to show he belonged, to be the first Indian to score a century on this trip, but it wasn’t to be. You were left wondering how he would have emoted had he got there.Not that that would have mattered to the result. Cricket, though, allows you to follow these little personal journeys too. And it has left us wondering what Adelaide will bring for him, how this emotional rollercoaster will end.