AB de Villiers and Angelo Mathews. One captaining a must-win game of cricket, the other captaining a past awash with disappointments. For AB de Villiers, the disappointment was banished

Jarrod Kimber18-Mar-2015AB de Villiers’ face. It was different than Angelo Mathews’ face. Mathews had the face of a man hoping he won the toss. De Villiers had the face of a man hoping he wouldn’t lose it.Two captains: one captaining a must-win game of cricket, the other captaining a past awash with disappointments.Then de Villiers’ face got worse, much worse. The Sri Lankan crowd cheered. There weren’t many of them in, but they knew what this meant. Everyone knew what this meant. Sri Lanka would bat first; South Africa would chase. All of South Africa’s past flashed up on de Villiers’ face. The coin was against him. History was against him. His own emotions seemed against him.It even looked like David Boon leant in to sledge him.This was a knockout game. This was knockout game.Kusal Perera opening the batting, with an average of 22, would be a good sign for many sides. For South Africa, it might have brought back thoughts of 361 days ago in the World T20 where Perera opened the batting and made 61. South Africa lost.This time Kusal Perera was different. More 22 than 61. He left one ball. Pushed the next to point. Then missed a swipe. Missed second slip with an edge. Missed the ball. Edged safely again. Tried to run himself out. Play and miss. Swipe and miss. There is a point when you nearly get a batsman this many times that you think a malevolent spirit is orchestrating your downfall.Then Kusal’s edge is found, again. It is flying beautifully straight into first slip’s hand. Instead Quinton de Kock dives. He clutches. The ball bounces. It could go anywhere. Instead it hangs in mid air. And de Kock pulls off a hell of a catch for a man called mentally shot earlier in the week. Luck, and skill.Soon it is 4 for 2. Dale Steyn is so excited his body almost explodes into pure light.Or, maybe it just explodes. The elation is gone and there is concern on the faces of Steyn and de Villiers. A wide ball seems to set it off. Steyn is trying to reach a sore spot that looks like it could, or would, stop him bowling. He finishes the over, and continues to touch this mystery spot. On the boundary, the physio and Allan Donald come around to see how it is. Steyn and the physio touch it 12 times in 8 balls. That’s a worrying pain strike rate.Steyn does not bowl the next over.Instead, he bowls two overs later. And it is fine. So fine, it’s a maiden.In the ninth over there are two shots by Lahiru Thirimanne. Both through point and cover point. Both in the air. Both miss hands. If any country could catch these, it is South Africa. This is the region of Colin Bland. Jonty Rhodes. AB de Villiers. The second one goes over de Villiers, close enough that he could smell it. De Villiers, one of the nicest men in cricket, swears at the sky. Swears at his luck. Swears.Kumar and Mahela are in. The Sri Lankan dream team. Mahela is hit in front by a Tahir wrong ‘un he simply did not pick. Not out. Tahir is certain. De Kock is pretty sure. They review. They want to end this pairing. They are desperate. It is only 22 overs into the innings. That is a long time to not have a review. Replays show he was struck outside the line of off stump. What chances Mahela will not pick another wrong ‘un?

Before Kumar has even left, it rains on the SCG. Rain. South Africa. Knockout game. No. No. Come on

Tahir’s next ball is a short wrong ‘un. Mahela hits it twice. The second hit is the one that does Mahela: it ends with short midwicket. The first hit would have been safe. Maybe. Just maybe.Mahela is replaced by Angelo. Angelo and Kumar. Two dogged men. Two men who can bat for 20 overs and make bad starts into distant memories. Two men who bat for close to ten overs at a slow pace, because they have to, and because they can.Then Mathews walks down to smite JP Duminy, South Africa’s weakest bowler. He sees a gap between mid-on and midwicket. And he cracks the ball towards it. It would have reached the boundary – if it ever got past South African hands, du Plessis’ hands. Eight balls and three more wickets later the match is won. Isn’t it?It’s only Kumar left. Only. Kumar.The first ball of the 36th over has Kumar swiping. He has been nudging, leaving, blocking and occupying space until this point. That Kumar is no more. The swivel-hipped gunslinger is back.’Singles, I don’t want your stinking singles’, as he leaves one on the table to third man. Next ball, he corrects, so there is no need for a single, just four. The next ball he is down the wicket and finds a gap for two. Then another four. The next ball is timed so well, the off-side sweeper nearly didn’t see it, but Kumar hit it straight at him: it’s ball six, it’s time to reload for the other end.It’s just one over, with eight wickets down, and virtually no runs on the board. But it’s Kumar.Next over he starts by trying to send Morne Morkel into outer space. The follow-up ball, sort and wide, is perhaps one of the worst Morne balls of the night. It is also the greatest Morne ball of the night. It is the ball that Kumar finds third man with.Before Kumar has even left, it rains on the SCG. Rain. South Africa. Knockout game. No. No. Come on.”Don’t worry, folks, it’s just a sun shower,” says the announcer. Who is this guy, does he know who he is watching, does he know what he is saying? Social media talks of 22 off one ball. Rain map websites in Australia are watched by a whole country from Africa. When the rain does stop, the covers stay on. Even the groundsmen are trolling South Africa.There is no plucky tenth-wicket partnership. There is no first-over wicket. There is no sign of collapse. South Africa just coast to the ICC-enforced mid-innings rest stop. Even when the mighty Hashim Amla is out, right on the rest stop, there is no panic. There is no uneasiness. There are no worried faces.For the finale, de Kock smashes a ball through cover, the last ball of only the 18th over. As it races away he breaks into a quick step. It looks like he is about to run like a mad man to the changeroom. Then he slows, walks purposefully and gives a tiny fist pump.After all that, this was just a quarter-final. It wasn’t a monster. It wasn’t a demon. It wasn’t an invisible crushing force. No one averted an apocalypse. They just won a game. Not the final game. But game.AB de Villiers’ face at the next press opportunity is different. He is smirking before the question has even been asked. He breaks into a full smile before the question is finished. It is the face of winning a quarterfinal. face.

A two-day tour match in St. Kitts is England’s first stop in a five-month stretch of cricket that could decide the futures of Alastair Cook and Peter Moores

George Dobell in St. Kitts06-Apr-2015Like the M1 and Donatella Versace, it seems the England side is in a constant state of reconstruction.Less than two years since they won an Ashes series 3-0 and reached the final of a global ODI tournament, England’s captain and coach are – again – fighting for their futures.But amid the debris of England’s World Cup campaign – “campain” might be a better description – it could be forgotten that the team have actually won their last three Tests. That they have, in Gary Ballance, Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler the foundations of a decent batting line-up for years to come and that James Anderson, for all his problems with the white ball, bowled as well as ever with the red one towards the end of last summer.The morale of English cricket as a whole may be low, but the Test side is, by some distance, in better health than the limited-overs teams.The fate of the current England team management – certainly this captain and coach – will be decided over the next five months. In that time, they will play Test series against West Indies, New Zealand and Australia. Victory in two of the three could probably be considered a decent return, though the Ashes remains – probably incorrectly – the barometer by which much in English cricket is judged.To reach the Ashes, though, England’s management need good results in the Caribbean. With Colin Graves, the incoming chairman of the ECB, having already – and rather unhelpfully – suggested that West Indies offer “mediocre” opposition and that defeat will provoke “some enquiries”, Peter Moores, in particular, will know that failure here will leave his position most precarious.It is true that West Indies are not the fearsome proposition they once were. And it is true that they will be weakened by the absence of some players on IPL duty. But they still produce players with huge amounts of natural talent – not least fast bowlers – and they did win the last series at home against England (in early 2009) 1-0. Under Phil Simmons, their new coach who did such a tremendous job with limited resources in Ireland – they are at the start of a rebuilding job themselves, but it is foolishness to underestimate them.This first of two two-day warm-up matches in St Kitts from Monday will – subject to agreement between both team managers – be a 12-a-side encounter. While England would, in an ideal world, like to ensure everyone is match-ready for the Test series, they are also aware that they have little time to prepare for their first Test since August. The 12 named here will, therefore, provide a strong hint of the likely Test side. It is possible that the second two-day match, starting on Wednesday, will feature England players on both sides.The pitch for the warm-up games is expected to be slow, but the Test track in Antigua is said to be quicker than it has been previously – though that is not saying much – and offer less assistance to spin than was widely anticipated. For that reason, England will probably play only one spinner – and judging by Adil Rashid’s performance in the nets, that spinner will be James Tredwell – with Moeen Ali expected to join up with the squad ahead of the second Test in Grenada.England may well send a few of this squad home before the end of the tour. If it becomes clear that there is little prospect of them taking any part, they will be sent back to county cricket and considered for the ODI in Ireland on May 8. While James Taylor is currently the most likely captain for that match, the likes of Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad could all be considered if not required in the Caribbean. James Vince – who impressed on the Lions tour – is another possibility.Broad will probably start the series, but can no longer be viewed as an automatic selection in any England side. While he still shows flashes of the great fast bowler he might have become, his diminished pace has compromised his effectiveness and he no longer has any pretensions as a batsman. Mark Wood, bowling with good pace and swinging the ball, has been most impressive in training here and was the stand-out seamer on the Lions trip, but Liam Plunkett looked especially hostile and unusually swift. Chris Jordan, too, offers swing and some pace. Broad is currently looking over his shoulder at all of them.If Trott plays here – and the fact that he opened with Alastair Cook in middle practice indicates he may well – it seems safe to assume he will make his 50th Test appearance in Antigua. While he owes his recall, in the main, to the weight of runs he has scored in county cricket since his recovery, his long-standing relationship with Cook may also have been a factor.Last summer Cook found, just as Eoin Morgan did at the World Cup, that he could not always rely on his senior players – Anderson and Broad, in particular – when they were most required. With Matt Prior and Graeme Swann gone, Cook will be looking to Trott and Ian Bell to provide experience and stability on and off the pitch. Adam Lyth, an exceptional catcher and attractive batsman, might be in for a frustrating few weeks.Most of Cook’s problems will melt away if he scores runs. There are many ways to lead and Cook showed, in helping England to victory in India in 2012, that his methods – by example and by taking responsibility for his side’s run-scoring – could work just fine.If he scores heavily here – and he has half-centuries in three of his last four Test innings but no century since May 2013 – all the talk about Kevin Pietersen and all the unfavourable comparisons with Michael Clarke and Brendon McCullum will abate.If he doesn’t, England could yet go into the Ashes with a new captain and coach.

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Apr-2015The side-story of the day was James Anderson’s pursuit of the England Test wickets record. He drew level by having Marlon Samuels caught in the gully•Getty ImagesJoe Root was then given the ball and slid one into the pads of Shivnarine Chanderpaul for a huge lbw appeal…•Getty Images…which was given out to spark another Root celebration of much running. It was a big wicket for England and their third of the morning session•Getty ImagesAfter lunch West Indies frustrated England for a while, before Jermaine Blackwood played a loose stroke to give Chris Jordan his second wicket of the match•Getty ImagesBut Denesh Ramdin and Jason Holder got together to move West Indies into calmer waters•Getty ImagesThe pair added a century stand for the seventh wicket as England began to wonder where their next wicket was coming from•Associated PressBut James Anderson returned to not only become England’s leading Test wicket-taker but to reignite the tourists’ hopes•Getty Images

A heaving home crowd and suffocating pressure exerted through MS Dhoni’s captaincy were an all too familiar sight for a hometown boy in visitor’s clothing

Arun Venugopal in Chennai26-Apr-20154:27

O’Brien: Everything went right for CSK

To watch Chennai Super Kings go about their business is to watch a group of fearless acrobats. Or a bunch of polished, eagle-eyed accountants. Or probably both. To watch it through the eyes of M Vijay is to capture the images seen by an insider. Vijay and two of his colleagues – captain George Bailey and Wriddhiman Saha – have been Super Kings in the past. They know how things work here.Vijay, fielding at long on, is at the receiving end of some affection from the crowd. He is the local boy after all. In the 16th over, MS Dhoni pushes the ball towards him and turns around for the second, daring Vijay to run him out.Vijay can’t prevent Dhoni. Neither can he stop the crowd’s roar from going a higher gear, much louder than the cheers they had reserved for him. Vijay watches Dhoni take on Mitchell Johnson the next ball. The latter homes in on the ball quickly enough, but his wide throw isn’t gathered and Dhoni steals another double.Vijay has already seen Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith tear into Kings XI Punjab’s bowling. He has seen Johnson drop McCullum and Raina. Now he sees Dhoni and Raina, and later Ravindra Jadeja run his team ragged. But he hasn’t seen it all just yet.Walking out to bat, Vijay is greeted cheerfully by Super Kings’ designated goodwill ambassador Raina. Given their all-consuming intensity on the field, however, Vijay might have well felt like a gangster, who has shifted to the rival camp, locked in a one-on-many combat with his old mates. Dhoni, meanwhile, is trigger-happy with his field placements. He shuffles his men at least thrice in the first over.First, he banishes Raina from the second slip and puts him at covers. Then he has two men populating the short third-man region. By the time the sixth ball is bowled, Virender Sehwag has chipped one straight to mid off.Ashish Nehra comes on at the other end. Vijay drives him through covers for four. Nehra turns to the slower ball soon after. Vijay, misreading it, plays an uppish drive. Safe. Raina & Co. are running to Nehra and clapping away loudly. Nehra has a devilish grin, Vijay a sheepish one.Vijay manages to cream a four and a six the next over, but the tap will soon run dry. In the sixth over, Nehra strikes Shaun Marsh on the pads, and appeals. Nay, roars for lbw. The crowd roars with him. Given. Eleven men in yellow wrap one another in clumsily coordinated hugs.Jadeja comes on and has Bailey edging behind. Dhoni leaps in delight. Jadeja has already sprinted away, with his equally delirious team-mates in pursuit. Vijay can only watch.Meanwhile, Ashwin has pulled off a brilliant save in the slips, falling heavily to his left. Dhoni bangs his gloves in appreciation. Raina runs in from cover to slap Ashwin’s back. There is searing energy everywhere, the frightening pack-like mentality Vijay is all too familiar with.Faf du Plessis is hurling himself on the field when he is not manically chasing a boundary-bound ball. Even Nehra is putting in the dives. It feels like the entire team has hovered around the batsmen, making them gasp for breath, and seek an escape route.Vijay can only watch. In awe. In helplessness. There is the familiar offbeat field-placement that Dhoni has patented. In comes Raina at leg slip. Jadeja fires the ball on leg stump and David Miller clips it. Raina swoops down in an instant and grabs the ball just before it kisses the floor. More clumsy hugs. More high-decibel cheering in the crowd.Vijay has been watching too many of these celebrations. He decides to counterattack, and charges Ashwin. He strikes the ball to deep mid-wicket. But there lies in wait Super Kings’ crowd-pleaser Dwayne Bravo. He holds on to the catch, and jives to the crowd’s soundtrack. Vijay, who has pulled off a few jigs himself – on one occasion even dropping the ball while doing so – isn’t even watching; he is walking back to the dugout.Thereafter Kings XI embrace slow death, their opponents revelling in their cohesive assault. They even afford themselves some fun in the last few overs, with Ashwin and McCullum humouring the star-struck crowd. Before long, there is more hugging and backslapping in the Super Kings camp. And there is the one sight that unfailingly makes their fans go berserk: that of Dhoni calmly picking up his stump souvenir and walking away without a care in the world.

The Lord’s Test was many things. Among them, it was useful for educating the next generation in the delights of Test cricket

Andy Zaltzman26-May-2015″Daddy,” said my six-year-old son as day three of the Lord’s Test drew to a close with Alastair Cook and Ian Bell negotiating the New Zealand attack with a mixture of skill, defiance and luck. “It doesn’t look like much fun, batting for England.””Daddy,” said my eight-year-old daughter as day four rampaged through its evening session. “Stokes is my favourite cricketer in the world.””Yes, please,” said my son and my daughter, when I asked – as neutrally as I could possibly manage – whether they would like to go to Lord’s on Monday as well. My heart almost exploded with parental pride. I did not care if they were humouring me, or if they had been briefed and/or bribed by Mrs Z; the fact that my children expressed an active urge to go to watch Test cricket was the unquestioned high-water mark of my parenting career, and is likely to remain so, even if they go on to become Nobel Prize-winning physicists, or run a Michelin-starred kebab van, or discover an explanation for the selection of Darren Pattinson for the 2008 Headingley Test.”Yyyyeeeeessssss,” squawked both son and daughter as the Mound Stand erupted to Moeen Ali’s brilliant/flukey match-clinching catch at the raucous conclusion of day five.As introductions to the wonders of Test match cricket go, this was about as good as I could have hoped for. I had taken my children to Test matches a couple of times before, but not since they have been of an age to take much active interest in what was going on. They both were present for the morning session as England incompetently attempted to avert defeat against South Africa on the fifth day at The Oval in 2012, but wisely paid little attention. I had also taken my daughter, then aged four months, to Lord’s for an evening session in 2007. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was batting for West Indies. Baby Zaltzman instantly started crying. She clearly had an eye for classical technique even then. “Actually, little one, if you look at how he hits the ball once he has moved out of his stance, it’s not that bad aesthetically.” “Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh. Waaaahh. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”This, then, was their first “proper Test match”. Should I explain that things will not always be like this? On my first day of watching Test cricket live (albeit after several years of watching a medically inadvisable quantity of it on television), I saw Derek Pringle and Nick Cook grind it out for a couple of hours each as England tried to avert a humiliating 5-0 demolition against the 1989 Australians, and secure instead a humiliating 4-0 demolition. There were moments of David Gower, and a jaunty half-century by Gladstone Small, but still – two hours of Pringle and two hours of Cook plonked a rhino of strokelessness on the stodgy end of that seesaw of entertainment.This Lord’s Test was full of the gradual shifts of Test match narrative as well as sudden jolts of momentum-changing drama, and was played out at a pace that combined old-school classic patience with 21st-century power-flamboyance. It was adorned by sumptuous batting, coloured by individual subplots, and finished with a riveting team bowling display of skill, craft and determination.It was another Lord’s classic to set alongside last year’s Indian victory, a tautly fluctuating masterpiece with a denouement of almost melodramatic English incompetence, and the 2012 defeat to South Africa, when Steven Finn bowled like a champion in the making, Hashim Amla hauled his team towards supremacy, Vernon Philander nibbled England to pieces, and Matt Prior, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann almost blitzed England to victory from beyond the precipice of defeat. This one had the added bonus, from an England perspective, of resulting in (a) victory, (b) a 25,000-strong fifth-day crowd going noisily berserk, and (c) further evidence of a new, charismatic team emerging from the wreckage and rancour of recent defeats. And hopefully, it will have infected two more Zaltzmans with the incurable lifelong benevolent virus of Test cricket. It had not looked much fun batting for England at the close of day three. By the end of day five, Lord’s was about as fun as it has even been for England in the past 130-odd years.The Kiwis played some brilliant cricket in this match, but had the roles been reversed and England lost from the positions in which the New Zealanders established themselves, the commentary boxes, newspapers, Twittersphere and anonymous fury pits of online message boards would have been ablaze with condemnation. Positivity is laudable, and Brendon McCullum’s team is great to watch, but his tailenders hurled their wickets away in the first innings when England’s bowlers were knackered, Tim Southee and Mark Craig lacked the reliability to sustain pressure with the ball, and their captain gave his bowlers insufficient protection at times when relative consolidation might have been a more productive strategy.England, despite bottling the chance to set a new world record for leg-byes in New Zealand’s first innings, bowled pretty well for a side that was tonked for 500 quickly, recovered from a potentially catastrophic early slump in both innings, and generally took major steps forward. Of course, they have taken several major steps backwards on numerous occasions of late, and may do so again. Consistency has seldom been at the top of their list of attributes in the Test game over recent years. But the components of a team that could regularly challenge the best seem to be coming together – an imposing and potentially devastating middle order, pace and hostility in the seam attack, with the ability to maintain wicket-threatening pressure, and an opener who may once again be able to grind down opponents to leave a platform for the stroke-players later on. Or perhaps they will go to Leeds and go to pieces like they did last year against Sri Lanka. Or like they did in Barbados at the start of this month.”Curse these hideously unstable modern stumps”•Getty ImagesAs with most great Test matches (and, indeed, most not particularly great Test matches), this game positively belched out statistics. Often some of the stats are linked by quirky but irrelevant coincidence. Amongst which were the following:● Moeen Ali was only the sixth England player batting eight or lower to pass 40 in both innings of a Test; only Stuart Broad (v India, Nottingham 2011) and Alan Knott (v Australia, Oval 1972) had done so since Hedley Verity scored 45 and 40 in the Bodyline-erupting Adelaide Test of 1932-33 – when England coincidentally won after losing their fourth wicket with the score at 30 on the first morning, just as they did at Lord’s yesterday.● Since then, England have only once won a Test from a worse four-down score when batting first in a Test – they were 18 for 4, also in Adelaide, in the 1978-79 Ashes, before eventually winning by 205, helped by a career-best 97 by Bob Taylor (who coincidentally scored 101 in the match, batting at eight, just as Moeen Ali did at Lord’s).● Coincidentally, the preceding Test in 1978-79, at the SCG, was the last time England won after batting first in a Test and conceding a lead of more than 100. (The last time they won after overhauling any first-innings deficit of more than 100 was when they beat New Zealand from 179 runs down at Old Trafford in 2008.)● Coincidentally Bob Taylor, who kept wicket in both of the previous stats, also donned the gloves as an emergency substitute when 45 years old in the 1986 Lord’s Test against New Zealand, which coincidentally was the previous occasion on which both coincidental openers were out for nought in a Lord’s Test innings (John Wright and Bruce Edgar then, Martin Guptill and Tom Latham this time).● The most recent occasion on which England dismissed both openers for ducks was in another Test against New Zealand, in Auckland in 1991-92, when Wright and Blair Hartland blobbed out together in the second innings – a match that, coincidentally and by coincidence, was also the last time England won after batting first and losing their first four wickets for fewer than 35 runs.

The scoreline is set to be 3-2. The Oval will not be a close result. In another world, what might have been different?

Jarrod Kimber21-Aug-2015Peter Siddle’s existenceNo matter how much he bowls in this last Test, Peter Siddle will bowl less overs than people make banana jokes about him, and that is a crime against comedy and cricket. Siddle is a perpetual champing-at-the-bit cricketer, but watching Josh Hazlewood struggle with lines, must have made him eat the bit, swallow it, find a new bit, and place that on a tight fourth-stump line that zipped away off the seam. Could Siddle at Edgbaston have made a difference with what Shane Warne has called (in a brutal Vic on Vic attack) medium pace? Yes, maybe. But Australia trusted pace and youth, and the old grey mare (a fit-looking 30-year-old who had bowled well in the warm-ups, played in four Ashes, has 69 wickets against England at 29 and 192 career Test wickets) was left in the paddock.Trent Bridge tossingHad Australia won the toss at Trent Bridge, they probably would have bowled. Joe Root is averaging over 60. No one else in the top seven is averaging over 35. Moeen Ali and Mark Wood come next on the list. Wood has the second best batting average for England in a winning Ashes team. His imaginary horse is probably fourth. What would have this batting line-up, with two openers seemingly allergic to forming a partnership, an experimental No.3 and a middle order of attackers have done that fateful morning? Root might have made 150, and England might have made 200.Scoreboard pressureEngland have walked into bat twice this series with Australia having put big totals on the board. Both times they have never flirted, or even looked in the general direction, or even pretended that the score was something they could be attracted to. Scoreboard pressure is real, y’all. When you walk out to bat after the opposition have made roughly 500 (506) less than 560, batting, and life, is better. Here Australia made 481, England have batted much the same way Wile E. Coyote chased the road runner. Imagine (and it will be hard) that at either Edgbaston or Trent Bridge England had any total of even casual size to look at, let alone, something giant like 250,on a still helpful pitch. Now, imagine Stuart Broad’s jazz hands guesting on the last season of Glee.Not being rubbishHow many Ashes Tests would these two teams need to play in order for both teams to play well at the same time? Is it even possible that for a whole Test England could pitch the ball up, and Australian batsmen make informed batting decisions? Could the Australia bowlers maintain their line and lengths while England bat well? Would there ever be a time when we have a Test without a calamitous batting collapse? Would it be a tie if, by some miracle, both teams mustered the ability to not play horribly for a whole Test, or would a black hole just appear at gully and swallow Adam Lyth?Haddin dropIn an alternate universe where Shane Warne makes informed insightful, nuanced, concise unbiased cricket comments and Mike Atherton has a Pamela Anderson mural in his bedroom, Peter Nevill plays at Cardiff. Even in the real universe, Brad Haddin’s form was poor enough for him not to come on this tour (West Indies included), and his form was certainly poor enough for him to not play at Cardiff. Even with Haddin’s famous grit and stunning team bonding personality, Nevill’s hands might just have been in the right place, at the right time, to catch Root. Then that ball might have hit his softer, nimbler fingers, just right, and then, well, England, without Root, could have fallen right over. Maybe that is just the overly romantic view, much like the picking of Haddin in the first place was overly romantic.

The Mirpur rain has denied Dane Vilas an opportunity to make his case in the Test side, and he will now be in direct competition with Quinton de Kock in the A team to fight for the gloves

Firdose Moonda02-Aug-2015When Dane Piedt made his Test debut, South Africa played and won their first Test in Zimbabwe in more than a decade, and he took eight wickets. When Stiaan van Zyl made his Test debut, South Africa beat West Indies by an innings and 220 runs in four days and he scored a hundred. When Dane Vilas made his Test debut, South Africa were caught in a cyclone in Dhaka, at least three days were washed out, and the series was doomed to a draw.Of the recent Test debutants from the Cape, it is unfortunate that Vilas drew the short straw. While the others got debuts to remember, his has been one that will easily be forgotten.”I was really, really excited to get that cap and get on the field and then a little bit disappointed as well with all the rain around,” Vilas said after the third successive day in Mirpur was washed out, taking the total number of washed out days in the series to five. The rain would have increased the frustration levels of all the players, especially Vilas, many times more than that.The weather has thrown a wet blanket over his hopes of showing what he is capable of, in what is his only opportunity to push for a place in the Test side ahead of South Africa’s high-profile series against England and India.There have only been 88.1 overs bowled in the game and Vilas has been in the field for all of them; he has taken two catches standing up to the spinners and also conceded five byes. So at the very least, he has been noticed.His first grab was test of reflexes; Momimul Haque waited late to play a JP Duminy delivery that had a hint of extra bounce and Vilas reacted quickly to take the resulting edge. The second catch was more straightforward, when Mushfiqur Rahim came forward to defend a Dean Elgar delivery that turned sharply and took the edge. Vilas is known to be a competent, confident gloveman in the domestic set-up and he transferred that to international level. He was often heard on the stump microphone urging on bowlers, even the senior members of the pace pack.What Vilas did not get to do, though, was show why he has earned a first-class average of 41.00. With the amount of time lost in the game, he probably won’t be able to even if play is possible on the final day. That will concern him because Vilas will know that ultimately, his batting ability was why he replaced Quinton de Kock in this Test. De Kock is struggling for runs, not catches. If anything, de Kock has improved as a keeper in the last year. If Vilas does not get the chance to out-score de Kock, Vilas could find himself ousted and he knows it.”Quinton is a fantastic player. I have no doubt he will be knocking on the door” – Dane Vilas•AFP”Quinton is a fantastic player. He has done brilliantly. I have no doubt he will be knocking on the door, scoring runs again and putting pressure on everyone,” Vilas said.If there was no cricket between now and the India series, Vilas would not have to worry about de Kock scoring runs again and finding form. However, even though South Africa’s domestic season only kicks off in October, when the national team travel to India, they are sending an A side as an advance party. The limited-overs tri-series, which also includes Australia A, starts this week and will be followed by two unofficial Tests. Both Vilas and de Kock are part of that squad, and the pressure is on to prove themselves.It may be difficult to fit both into the same XI, so they may get a game each or one of them may be sent back home to play in the limited-overs series against New Zealand if AB de Villiers does not keep wickets for those matches. De Villiers did not play in the Bangladesh Tests after requesting time off for paternity leave, but will be back for the India and England series, and could keep wickets if the selectors want to keep Temba Bavuma – who batted in de Villiers’ spot at No.5 and scored the only South African half-century during the Chittagong Test – in the side. That would leave no room for either de Kock or Vilas.Bavuma will also be on the A tour to make a case for himself and remind both de Kock and Vilas that they not only face pressure from each other, but from other batsmen too. For now, Vilas sees that as a positive because it will keep him on his toes and his eyes on the prize of playing for South Africa.”Competition is healthy and it shows the strength of our domestic cricket,” Vilas said. “Everyone wants to get into this team with the stars that we’ve got – Dale Steyn, Hashim Amla, those guys. Everyone wants to represent the country.” But only one wicketkeeper can.

With the focus on India’s team combinations, Sanjay Manjrekar mulls the balance of the side’s lower order and the resources in their seam-bowling attack

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2015India will be mulling the ideal combination for the first Test against South Africa in Mohali starting on Thursday. In case they stick to a five-bowler strategy, the role of India’s lower order with the bat assumes even greater importance. The make-up of the attack itself will also be crucial, especially with Virat Kohli having shown a preference for bowlers with extra pace in his stint as captain so far. Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar reflects on those aspects ahead of the series opener.Turners could give India batting depth
Lower-order depth has been an issue for India but Sanjay Manjrekar feels that turning tracks could help solve that problem to an extent for the side in this series. With Wriddhiman Saha coming in at No. 6, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Amit Mishra could slot into No. 7, 8 and 9 – lending some depth to the batting while fitting in with India’s five-bowler plan.2:20

Tracks could help balance India’s batting order

Time to utilise resources available
Seam-bowling has been a chronic problem for India, particularly with respect to consistency, and Manjrekar feels the time has come for the team management to take more responsibility in utilizing the resources that are available to the side.3:18

Manjrekar: Ishant at the peak of his career

Stats highlights from first day of the third Test between Pakistan and England in Sharjah.

Shiva Jayaraman01-Nov-2015424 Wickets James Anderson now has in Tests; he went past Shaun Pollock’s tally of 421 wickets when he dismissed Younis Khan. Anderson is now the fifth-highest wicket-taker among pacers and the eighth highest among all bowlers.16.65 Anderson’s bowling average in Tests against Pakistan. He has taken 43 wickets from ten Tests against them. Among bowlers with at least 40 wickets against Pakistan, no other bowler averages better. Among fast bowlers since 2000, only one other – Chaminda Vaas against West Indies (55 wickets at 16.60) – have taken 40 or more wickets at a better average.8 Number of maidens bowled by Stuart Broad in his first ten overs. He bowled eight consecutive maidens – a streak that started with his second over and ended only in his tenth off which he conceded just a single. In Tests since 2002, this was only the eighth time that a bowler had bowled eight maidens in his first-ten overs in a Test innings. The last such instance also came in the UAE, when Rahat Ali bowled eight maidens at New Zealand batsmen in the Abu Dhabi Test last year. Broad ended the day with figures of 2 for 13 from 13 overs.40 Wickets by Ian Botham against Pakistan in Tests, which was the previous highest for an England bowler against them. James Anderson now leads this list with 43 wickets. Botham had played 14 Tests and had averaged 31.77 runs apiece. Anderson has taken 43 wickets against them at 16.65.3 Number of four-wicket hauls (or better) Anderson had taken from 16 Tests in Asia before his 4 for 17 in this innings. His last such haul had come against India in Nagpur in 2012-13 when he had returned figures of 4 for 81. His only five-for in Asia had come against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2011-12. Anderson’s effort in this innings was his best in six Tests in the UAE and his first four-for here.1 Number of instances when a Pakistan captain has made more fifty-plus scores than Misbha-ul-Haq’s four in this series. Inzamam-ul-Haq had made five such scores – two hundreds and three fifties – also against England in 2005-06. Misbah himself has made four such scores in a three-match series against Sri Lanka in 2013-14. He has made 314 runs at an average of 62.80 including a hundred and three fifties in this series. Including his 71 in this innings, Misbah has now made 35 fifty-plus scores as captain. Only five other captains have made more such scores than Misbah.23.80 Average runs scored per dismissal on the first day; Pakistan scored 234 of them and lost all their wickets. This is the second-worst average on day one of Tests in Sharjah. As many as 14 wickets were lost and only 250 runs made for an average of 17.85 per dismissal on the first day of the Test between Pakistan and Australia in 2002-03, which is the worst.5 Number of scoring shots Misbah played off England’s fast bowlers in his innings. He faced 68 deliveries from them and scored only nine runs at a strike rate of 13.23. Off spinners though, Misbah was far more adventurous, scoring 62 runs off the 92 deliveries he faced from them, including six fours and two sixes.

6/30 Combined figures of Anderson and Broad in this innings; they bowled 28.1 overs between them, 15 of which were maidens, and conceded runs at an economy of 1.06. The other England bowlers bowled 57 overs and conceded 198 runs at an economy of 3.47 and took four wickets.

25 Number of times including this innings Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq have begun their partnership in Tests with Pakistan three down for fewer than 100 runs. Misbah walked in to bat with Pakistan on 88 for 3 in this innings. No other pair has had more such stands. This was the first time in the last six such innings that the pair has failed add at least 50 runs: their last five stands in such situations had produced 141, 93, 66, 51 and 58. Overall, such stands between Misbah and Younis have produced 1410 runs at an average of 61.30 including six hundred and five fifty stands.

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jan-2016Usman Ghani’s tough stay was ended when he was bowled in the seventh over for 5•Chris WhiteoakGraeme Cremer provided the breakthrough with a skiddy delivery but Zimbabwe did not have much to smile about thereafter•Chris WhiteoakShahzad blitzed the bowling from the other end, and frequently cleared the boundary to bring up his ton•Chris WhiteoakHis 67-ball 118 was the highest individual score from an Associate nation and the fourth overall. Afghanistan compiled a mammoth 215•Chris WhiteoakZimbabwe were never really in the hunt for a series-levelling win after losing early wickets•Chris WhiteoakThey had quickly slumped to 34 for 5 in the sixth over, and the match was virtually decided•Chris WhiteoakHamilton Masakadza provided resistance with a confident 63, but it was a task too far as Zimbabwe folded for 134•Chris WhiteoakAfghanistan completed a 81-run win and also took the series 2-0, their second T20 series win against Zimbabwe in under three months•Chris Whiteoak