Our correspondent samples Mumbai’s nightlife, explores Chandigarh on two wheels, and makes canine friends

Firdose Moonda11-Nov-2015October 28
On the road again. Well, almost. There’s a new Indian consul general in town who wants some new and different things from South Africans applying to travel to his country. Among those things is absolute proof of living and working in South Africa, for fear you may never return. All of this is only revealed while waiting anxiously in the visa office the day of the departure flight. Frantic communication ensues, but in the end, crisis averted. All aboard. This will be my third visit to the place my grandparents came from, but I will not be visiting my ancestral home of Porbunder. More’s the pity.October 29
Maximum City. Mumbai. Arrival at 8am reveals exactly what that means. The traffic always takes some getting used to.A trip that would have taken over two hours from the airport to Marine Drive a few years ago now takes only 90 minutes thanks to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link road, a marvel of engineering that goes over the ocean.Hit the ground running by starting work immediately, except that work today is to hurry up and wait. Walk to the Brabourne Stadium, via the Wankhede, to collect accreditation for the South Africa practice match against the Board President’s XI. Am led through a bureaucratic minefield. Go here, find so-and-so, go there, find someone else. Eventually, the entire afternoon later, I find the right person.October 30
The first day of long-form cricket has arrived. And how. The open press box at Brabourne allows me to soak it all in. It’s unusually hot for this time of the year, with temperatures close to 40 degrees, and high humidity, but it’s wonderful. I find a small piece of what I think is my own history – one of the dining halls at the Brabourne is called the Porbunder All Rounder. I can’t wait to tell my dad.The actual cricket meanders, as it would in a warm-up match, and South Africa’s bowlers seem a little soft, but it’s only a taster.The Open Hand Monument in Chandigarh•Firdose Moonda/ESPNcricinfo LtdThat night, three colleagues from our Mumbai office give me a proper taster of the nightlife. We head out on a street-food tour of Colaba, where I
am treated to , rose , potato cutlets with a chickpea curry, and am forced to gulp down after while getting giggled at. We end up at dive bar Gokul, where we bump into more members of the press corps. It’s a good night.October 31
A few more concerns for South Africa after only AB de Villiers manages a decent score.With so little time in Mumbai, I do the touristy thing and head to Café Leopold for a experience.November 1
Mohali-bound for the serious stuff. My only experience of Chandigarh was during the 2011 World Cup, when South Africa played Netherlands. It looks different when hosting a Test match: quieter, cosier, and at this time of year, cooler.There’s not much happening with neither team training, so get some work done and meet up with another colleague, Sidharth Monga, that evening. He introduces me to Uber, which I am embarrassed to admit I had never used before. It is to become one of my best friends over the next week.November 2
Get a first look at Mohali’s much talked about pitch, and on first glance it looks green. Looks can be entirely deceiving. South Africa are the only team training, while the Indians make their way back from Harbhajan Singh’s wedding in Jalandhar. After practice Faf du Plessis says South Africa are expecting “the worst”. He is proved right.November 3
Determined to see a bit more of India than airports, hotels and cricket teams, I have booked a cycle tour of Chandigarh for the morning. As a commuter cyclist back home, I am confident I will be able to cope, and I am not far wrong. Despite an unfamiliar bicycle and unfamiliar routes, I stay on. And I see the city. Among the stops are the Rose Garden (not in bloom at this time of year), the war memorial, the Rock Garden (not open at times when I might have visited), and the Sukhna Lake. Can’t help but feel Chandigarh is quite a strange place because it is planned. What was the plan supposed to achieve? I conclude it must be equality. Every sector has a park, a market, a residential area. It’s a nice idea.At South Africa’s open media session, Dale Steyn offers a completely different perspective about bowling on the subcontinent. He opens up about the secrets of his success here, and the insights are both informative and intriguing.Mohali hearts Kohli•Hindustan Times November 4
There are five puppies in the park close to the PCA Stadium which I decided to use as my running route. They seem about eight weeks old, with bounce and faint barks. They try to jog alongside me but only last a few metres before they are distracted and bound off. I finish my laps and stop to play with them. They enjoy the attention and I enjoy the interaction.I have decided to become a vegetarian for this trip in order to explore different cuisines. Someone has recommended Whistling Duck as place to eat at in Chandigarh. Dinner there does not disappoint.November 5
Ah, that Test match feeling. This is the start of a big summer for South Africa. Eight Test matches are the most they have played back to back in the same season since I started covering cricket, and I am excited about the prospect.Not too many people in Mohali seem to be, though. The crowd is much thinner than I expected on day one, although someone suggested it was a record low. They make up for their size with sound, singing “Happy Birthday” to Virat Kohli even as he fails with the bat. It’s a happier day for Dean Elgar, who proves innocuous no more, and for me when I discover at lunchtime that the food at the PCA is as good as it was during the World Cup. The tandoori ovens are still on the terrace, churning out fresh rotis. A ground after my own heart.November 6

Only three of the five puppies are in the park this morning. I spend most of my run scanning the surrounds for the other two. I don’t want to think about where they might be.The fast-forward action in the Test takes my mind off them, as South Africa are bowled out and more than half the match is over inside two days. But then India strengthen their position and it seems the game is only headed one way.November 7
True to their reputation of being cricket’s best travellers, South Africa fight back. Their bowlers give them a fighting chance of winning the first Test, though they will have to score the highest total of the match to do so. They don’t. The match ends with the crowd sounding like a full house.On my walk back to the hotel, I notice how alive Mohali seems. The roadside cooks are selling everything from sugar-cane juice to snacks. I stop to take pictures and admire the entrepreneurial spirit. Can’t really believe one Test is already over. It still feels like this tour has barely begun.November 8
All five puppies are back in the park again. Relief. I say my goodbyes, wishing I could take them home with me. I’m not sure what Doosra, my cat, would think of that.Fancy a cuppa (or a thousand)?•Firdose Moonda/ESPNcricinfo LtdTime off is a myth in the life of a journalist but I may actually get some. On a whim, I decide to investigate the possibility of a day trip to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple. It’s proving tricky because the rail office at the bus station is closed and private taxis are costly. But I have to try.November 9

Against all odds, manage to get a trip to Amritsar organised with a convenient and cheap taxi by the same people who did the cycle tour. Arrive in the Holy City and am amazed at how busy it is. Diwali is in two days’ time and it seems everyone is shopping. Those who aren’t are praying at the Golden Temple. It is a breathtaking sight. The structure is mirrored in the water beneath it and the colours reflect as rainbows.I am just as awestruck at the community kitchen inside the temple, which is the largest of its kind in the world. Hundreds of volunteers do everything from peeling vegetables to stirring the biggest pots of tea I have ever seen. Two different kinds of in the kitchen – machine-manufactured and handmade – both equally delicious-smelling. Anyone who wants to eat there can, but we head off to the Amritsar Bazaar for a lesson in Punjabi culture.We roam the lanes for hours, smelling spices and tasting delicacies like sweet puffed rice, gnawing on what looks like tree bark but has a honey-like taste, and sipping the best in town, The guide explains how the bazaar is the heartbeat of the city. At this time of year it feels like the lungs, stomach, kidneys and everything else as well. We have tea at a 100-year old tea shop, munch on and admire the Diwali lights. Back in Chandigarh cricket is far from the mind. It’s a topic that will be tackled tomorrow.

A career that was dotted with rejections and a life-threatening accident is back on track courtesy Krishna Das’ own determination and mentorship from Sanath Kumar

Arun Venugopal22-Nov-2015Krishna Das, a medium-pacer from Assam, has 35 wickets from six games this season at an average of 10.97. He is the joint third -highest wicket-taker, the only seamer in the top-five, and the main reason why Assam have done well. He is 25. It is a miracle he is alive.On October 6, 2006, on Lakshmi Pooja day, Krishna and three other friends were returning home after taking in the festivities. Krishna remembers that around 9-9.30 pm a truck, reversing from a gas station, rammed into the Maruti Zen in which they were driving. They were all injured, but Krishna, who was on the left rear seat bore the brunt of the accident.When he regained consciousness two days later, he was swathed in bandages. Krishna had lost a tooth, suffered a bruised nose, a broken left arm and had ten stitches on the tongue. He spent 16 days, including his 16th birthday, in hospital. Three agonising months later, he was back on the cricket field doing what he loved: bowling long spells.How did he manage such a quick turnaround?”I actually felt bad then [after the accident], looking at my family and [Assam coach] Sanath [Kumar] sir,” Krishna tells ESPNcricinfo. “My family and friends were fully supportive, and that motivated me to get better [sooner than expected]. (Sanath is like God to me). He as well as the state association and Abu Nechim helped me out financially then.”Krishna says he didn’t for a moment entertain thoughts that his cricketing career was finished. “My coaches and team-mates were egging me on to get better and resume playing soon,” he says. “My childhood coach Javed Akhtar Khan and Sanath sir would call me every day.”What also helped Krishna was he wasn’t left to wallow in pity. Once he was able to move around, his friends would take him out to watch cricket – inter-district, inter-club, anything. That, according to Krishna, touched him. “I felt that, ‘Yes this has happened, but how long am I going to get bogged down?'” he says. “There were so many friends and people around me who wanted me to come back to normalcy again. It made me more determined to get back on to the field again.”Krishna had a metal plate inserted to straighten his left arm – which he has till day – and gradually began to bowl in the dream of adding to his four caps for Assam. There were, however, other roadblocks that presented themselves. His first coach and mentor Sanath, who had picked up Krishna from the under-15 nets and thrust him into first-class cricket, had moved to Karnataka. This period coincided with Krishna falling off the Assam radar.He found a place in India’s under-19 teams, BCCI’s specialist academies, but was somehow not deemed good enough to play for Assam. In 2010, he was advised to focus on under-19 cricket with the World Cup approaching, and was not picked in the state side. “A selector told me I was part of the under-19 World Cup probables,” Krishna says. “I felt bad that I wasn’t allowed to play in the Ranji Trophy, which helped me gain recognition in the first place. Ultimately I wasn’t a part of the under-19 World Cup squad as well.”Krishna was dealt a bigger blow two years later when he was included neither in the Assam side nor in its under-25 team. “I felt horrible because I wasn’t picked in any side that represented Assam,” he says. At that point, Krishna’s only vocal backer, in Sanath’s absence, was Abu Nechim. Abu is his team-mate, “room-partner” and best friend. Ask Krishna about his role-models, and Waqar Younis or Allan Donald are trumped by Abu and Mark Ingty, a former Assam seamer.”When I started playing cricket, Abu was very promising at the junior level and I have always wanted to emulate him,” Krishna says. “We even made our Ranji Trophy debuts together, and share a great friendship.”Sanath’s comeback has brought him back into the team, where he belongs. He has had a hand in each of Assam’s three outright wins this season, and believes this is the best bowling attack Assam have had. Senior batsman KB Arun Karthik, who is Assam’s highest run-scorer this season, says Krishna’s biggest strength is his ability to bowl tirelessly. “He might not be too pacy, but can bowl 10 to 12 overs in one spell and get the ball to move both into the batsman and away from him,” Arun says.Through the ups and downs, Krishna has also learnt the importance of letting go. It is perhaps what has helped him reconcile with the accident. Krishna was told by his friends that after the accident his upper body lay suspended outside while waist down he was stuck inside the mangled car. The driver had fled the scene and a subsequent legal battle didn’t yield much monetary compensation.”It was a terrible accident, but it had to happen. I don’t want to lament about (this and that happened),” Krishna says. What rankles him, however, is he still can’t remember what exactly happened in the moments leading up to the accident. He says he tries to recollect the sequence every time he drives past the place. “I have to use that route every time I visit Javed sir at his academy, and I go there often,” he says. “The last thing I remember was I had asked my friend to change the song playing in the car’s stereo.”Ask him if he would have been a better bowler if not for the accident. “(maybe),” he replies and pauses. “.”

Plays of the Day from the first Twenty20 between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, in Mirpur

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur13-Nov-2015The bowling smarts
Early in Zimbabwe’s innings, Al-Amin Hossain saw Regis Chakabva head outside the off stump and wind-up, and shortened the length at the batsmen. Chakabva had already committed to the over-the-head scoop so he had no option but to reach for the ball from a crouching position. The shot was hardly timed, giving Mushfiqur Rahim ample time to dive forward and take the catch.The double-bounce that wasn’t
Not since Mohammad Ashraful’s infamous double-bouncing delivery that AB de Villiers top edged back to the bowler has the Bangladesh crowd seen such a ball. Jubair Hossain’s third ball of his T20 career, in the 10th over of the innings, was nearly a double bouncing ball but Malcolm Waller spared him the ignominy. But he didn’t spare him fully after meeting it one bounce, belting the delivery over long-on for his first six.The faulty rope trick
Waller was well into his six-hitting spree when he hammered one towards long-on at the end of the 11th over. Tamim Iqbal moved back a few steps and took the catch but he couldn’t keep his balance and went on to the other side of the boundary. He did try to flick it back before doing so, but wasn’t successful, and it was another six for Waller.The comeback
Mashrafe Mortaza brought back Jubair for his second over in the 16th over, which many felt was a huge risk given how the legspinner’s first over went for 17 runs. Off his second ball, though, he had Luke Jongwe fail at a reverse-sweep and struck him in front of the stumps. The umpire raised the finger but there was no celebration from Jubair. Only relief. And he had some more when he struck again, off the final ball of the over, removing Neville Madziva. From 1-0-17-0 to 2-0-20-2? He’d take it, we think.The self-defence
Tendai Chisoro ran in fast enough from long-off to reach a skier from Tamim Iqbal off Graeme Cremer in the ninth over. The ball was in the air for quite a while but when it fell, Chisoro hadn’t got under the ball and it looked like he was trying to save himself as the ball dropped just in front of him.

The IPL auctions are known for making millionaires. Here’s a look at some buys that left most people surprised

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Feb-2016

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jan-2016Then, two balls later, he removed AB de Villiers for his first pair in Test cricket•Getty ImagesJP Duminy, under pressure at No. 5, helped steady South Africa’s innings•Getty ImagesHashim Amla followed his first-innings ton with a much more grafting, but equally important, innings•AFPHard yards: Ben Stokes bowled a 10-over spell before lunch and accounted for Duminy•Getty ImagesAmla pressed on towards what would have been his second hundred of the match•Getty ImagesHe went to tea on 96, after accumulating with caution•Gallo Images… having added 117 for the fifth wicket with Temba Bavuma•Gallo ImagesBavuma compiled another attractive half-century•Gallo ImagesBut, with rain looming, Amla fell without addition in the first over after the break. The weather then caused a delay before South Africa declared, setting England 382 to win•Gallo ImagesAlex Hales’ series came to an end with a single-figure score, trapped lbw by Kagiso Rabada•Getty ImagesMorne Morkel’s instinctive catch off his own bowling removed Alastair Cook•AFPThat left England 8 for 2 and Nick Compton followed soon, a second wicket for Rabada•Getty ImagesJoe Root battled to the close alongside James Taylor but England still had plenty of work to do•Getty Images

An encounter with 87-year-old Deepak Shodhan, who played three Tests for India in 1952-53, but had the talent and the record to have played many more

Siddharth Raja02-Apr-2016The tall and elegant 87-year-old met me with a broad smile as he gingerly, yet without assistance, descended the small flight of stairs into the drawing room of his family home in Ahmedabad.Thanks to my acquaintance with his niece, Manisha Shodhan Basu, I was visiting her beloved “kaka”, Roshan Harshadlal Shodhan, better known as Deepak Shodhan.”DK is younger to me by 15 days,” he said when I told him I was privileged to be meeting India’s oldest living Test cricketer. DK is Dattajirao Krishnarao Gaekwad, father of the former Test opener and later coach Anshuman. Gaekwad, who played 11 Tests for India, captaining the side in a disastrous series in England in 1959, was born on October 27, 1928, nine days after Shodhan.”You know, apart from DK and me, I’ve counted at least six other old Indian Test cricketers – [CD] Gopinath, [Madhav] Apte, Bapu Nadkarni, Nari Contractor, [Chandu] Borde and Salim [Durani]. There are apparently 11 of us Indian Test players over 80, although I can’t recall the names of the others,” Shodhan said.There are 12 Indian Test cricketers over 80 who are alive today, the others being Chandrakant Patankar, Sadashiv Patil, VV Kumar and Prakash Bhandari.I told Shodhan that India’s oldest living first-class cricketer had passed away in February at the age of 99 – BK Garudachar played for, and later captained, Mysore – and asked him if he had ever known Garudachar or any of the other well-known Mysore cricketers of that era.”Most of my domestic cricket with the South Indian teams was against Madras and their players, so I know them quite well,” Shodhan said. “[Gopalaswamy] Kasturirangan is the one Mysore cricketer I remember and know well. He was selected with me for the first Indian tour of the West Indies in 1953, but he declined the invitation. N Kannayiram from Madras came instead.”Shodhan had already made his Test debut before the tour to West Indies. “I was in the reserves for the series against Pakistan in 1952-53, the historic first Test series between our two newly independent nations. In the final Test match, at Calcutta, I was drafted into the playing XI after our captain Vijay Hazare pulled out unwell. It was Lala Amarnath, who was captaining India in Vijay Hazare’s absence, who asked for me to be brought in – ‘that tall Gujarati boy who had done so well in the trials and other matches’.”

“I was unusual, you know – a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-pacer”

Walking in at 179 for 6, Shodhan made 110 to give India a lead of 140, becoming the first Indian batsman to score a century in the first innings of his first Test.”Two of the earlier batsmen threw their wickets away going for big shots. Denying me a hundred was the reason. But [Dattu] Phadkar was a great guy, unlike many of his Bombay team-mates, and we had a good partnership. For the last wicket, the mild gentleman cricketer from Hyderabad, Ghulam Ahmed, supported me right through to my century. We were lucky to have had Lala as the captain. He was an attacking captain and he always maintained contact with the players, spoke to them. Unlike Vijay Hazare, a great batsman, but not fit for the captaincy – he was too mild, defensive and would not talk to the players.”As his ESPNcricinfo profile notes, after this debut, Shodhan was “immediately hailed as a bright new star on the Indian batting horizon”. So it was baffling that he played only two more Tests.”I loved playing cricket. My first-class career stretched on to 1962, ten years after I played my last Test match.”Winning the Ranji Trophy in 1957-58 was the highlight of my later career. I had moved in 1956 from playing for Gujarat to Baroda. We beat the Services in the final that year. DK was captain, but the man who called all the shots was the Maharaja, Fatehsinghrao Gaekwad, in terms of team selection and batting order. Neither of them, DK or Fatehji, were great players – look at their records – but they ensured they and several other players who would not have otherwise made it to the team on the basis of their performance, were picked – I mean, look at ‘Mama’ [Jayasinghrao] Ghorpade!”Shodhan’s scintillating performance in the Calcutta Test got him picked for the tour of the West Indies. “The sea journey was horrible; it was a small boat, without much ballast, so it kept rolling and tossing, and almost all of us were sick.”I asked Shodhan about his first-class debut, against Kathiawar in 1946-47. “I took four wickets in the first innings, three in the second. The rest were all taken, I think, by [Vinoo] Mankad.Shodhan did not get along with Indian allrounder Vinoo Mankad and did not play any Tests under his captaincy•PA Photos”I was unusual, you know – a left-handed batsmen and a left-arm medium-pacer,” Shodhan said, lifting his left arm over his shoulder and spinning an imaginary ball out with his middle and index fingers.”My brother, Jyotindra, who is a few years senior to me and still alive, was a much better cricketer than me.”At this juncture, Shodhan’s wife of 62 years, Gauri, interjected to say that Jyotindra should have been selected to play for India and that Deepak’s selection was by chance. In fact, Jyotindra scored his maiden first-class century, the first of only two centuries he made in 35 matches, in that game against Kathiawar.The junior Shodhan’s brief Test career coincided with his promotion to captain of Gujarat. “I became the captain in the 1952-53 season, when Nari Contractor made his debut for Gujarat. What a debut that was! Against a strong Baroda team, Nari scored a century in both innings. I was with him playing when he got the second. I scored a century too.”Another match in which Contractor and Shodhan batted together and scored hundreds was against a Commonwealth XI for Indian Universities in 1953-54 in Bangalore. Shodhan remembered the match for CK Nayudu’s administrative skills.”He was no good as an administrator or selector, nor did he have any real good performances on the Test field. Look at his record,” Shodhan said. “Nayudu was the team manager or selector, I can’t remember, and he was there deciding the batting order [in Bangalore]. He would make these on-the-spur decisions, and he asked Nari to open. Nari refused, saying he was a specialist No. 3. So there I was, a lower-order batsman and bowler, asked to open the batting by Nayudu! Nari and I scored centuries in the second innings and we shared a wonderful partnership. I remember Raman Subba Row from that series.”Shodhan was a fine cricketer who had an impeccable, although brief, record in Test matches, and a consistent set of performances against touring teams and in the Ranji Trophy. Why was he discarded so soon and so unceremoniously without being given a fair shot? “Politics,” said Shodhan. And, in his case, it was also due to his run-in with India’s first celebrity cricketer, Mankad.”When I got into the Indian team, he asked me whether I chose to support him or Vijay Hazare. I told him I support India and the team. That ticked him off. After the West Indies tour, our manager, C Ramaswamy, is supposed to have written against me in his report. I have never held anything against him, Mankad or anyone else for not having played more for India.”

With a 157-run partnership for Royal Challengers Bangalore in full flow, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s most potent bowling threat – Mustafizur Rahman – was held back until the carnage was nearly complete

Alagappan Muthu in Bangalore12-Apr-2016Twenty20 cricket creates a bit of a time warp, one that is felt most acutely during one-sided passages of play. One team feels like it takes an eternity for the promised relief. “It’ll all be over in a few hours. Just hang in there.” On this night, that was Sunrisers Hyderabad.The other team experiences everything in fast-forward, and they loathe for it to come to end. “Gee, this is too much fun. Do we have to stop?” That was Royal Challengers Banga… wait, actually it was just two men: Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Sarfaraz shines in late cameo

A 157-run partnership between AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli gave 18-year old Sarfaraz Khan the perfect platform to showcase his skills. His unbeaten 32 came off 10 balls as Royal Challengers ransacked 41 runs off the last two overs. The innings included five fours – two of them scooped over fine leg – and two sixes – one of them reverse scooped over third man.
“The shots and the control that he has over where the ball goes is something I’ve never seen before for someone so young,” RCB allrounder Shane Watson said after the win. “Even among the most experienced guys, the control that he has, where he picks where the bowler’s going to bowl and then the execution shows that he has practiced a hell of a lot.
“All different shot options to all different kind of bowlers. It’s incredible that a young guy can do things like that and that’s just the beginning of what he can do.”

Their 157-run partnership felt like the reunion of old college buddies. Chris Gayle’s wicket was a prank – bowled down leg, one that normally speeds away to the fine leg boundary instead moved in off his thigh pad to hit leg stump – and it was tempting to think Kohli and de Villiers were behind it. The events of the next 87 balls certainly made it seem like they wanted as much time together as possible. Those poor bowlers.With the number of overs and the amount of time they need to spend on the field slashed down like cricket was having a clearance sale, you’d think the pressure on them would reduce too. The problem arises when the batsmen figure out there are 10 of them to handle a measly 20 overs.It is said that you need to relinquish fear to succeed in T20s. But where is the need for such a thing in the first place when you have Kohli, de Villiers, Gayle and Shane Watson?Royal Challengers have four bonafide match-winners in their side and they line up as No. 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each of them can bat 20 overs by themselves, and each of them knows that. So there is absolutely no need to hold back. The slogging can start early on flat pitches, exactly the kind their home ground plies them with. It can wait a bit longer on tough pitches, which they will no doubt encounter as the IPL goes on.Tonight, Kohli and de Villiers decided it was go-time in the ninth over. For every over through the end of the innings – barring the ones that fetched the wickets of those two batsmen, the 16th and 18th – yielded double-digit runs. Royal Challengers’ 227 for 4 may be the eighth highest total in IPL history, but it seemed inevitable and it could have been a lot more because Sunrisers failed to recognise moments capable of turning the game.Mustafizur Rahman was their best bowler. He had only nine deliveries at Kohli, three at de Villiers, in the first 17 overs. The first 12 balls were during the Powerplay, when the partnership that would grow to become the second-highest at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in T20s was in its infancy. By the time he returned to bowl in the 18th, Royal Challengers were 183 for 2. At the end of that over, they were 186 for 4.Those six balls were more proof that this 20-year old Bangladeshi fast bowler revels in a big game situation. It was his IPL debut, but Mustafizur overruled his captain David Warner and brought mid-off up. Out came the cutter, and de Villiers, batting on 82, was duped. He got rid of Shane Watson too and was on a hat-trick. Once again he set his own field.Would things have panned out differently had Mustafizur bowled more – or even all – of his overs earlier? Should Sunrisers have followed Royal Challengers and used their best man to set the game up rather than save him for damage control? The answer to that might never be found, and it might not necessarily be a mistake either.Quieting a long batting line-up which loved the short boundaries at the Chinnsawamy is hard enough with all your resources, but Sunrisers were a specialist bowler short for nearly half the overs after Ashish Nehra walked off the field with a groin injury one ball into the 11th. It is one thing to have the world’s best at your disposal – like Royal Challengers do – and giving them maximum exposure, and quite another to ration your resources even as they run out. Nehra was one of the best quicks in the World T20 and without him Sunrisers had to scramble.Mustafizur Rahman celebrated two wickets in the 18th, though by that point the hosts were firmly in command•BCCI”It really hurt when a bowler goes down. I really had to reassess and when two batsmen are going it’s quite hard to stop here especially,” Warner said. “The disappointing thing for me is that we started well – the first three overs went for 12 – and then a bowler went down and if we look at the last four overs, they got 63 runs and one of those overs went for I think three or four runs.”Ashish Reddy, who Sunrisers have turned to before and had success with, struggled to find the blockhole. His overpitching cost 25 runs in 11 balls. The legspinner Karn Sharma forgot his job description. Very few of his deliveries actually turned, very few were even tossed up. His four overs went for 57 runs.Bhuvneshwar Kumar kept going for the yorker even when Sarfaraz Khan had the perfect counter. A scoop over short fine leg for four followed by a reverse paddle over short third man for six. By now the bowler should have tried something different. If not as he ran in to bowl, then at least when he saw the batsman blatantly getting into position for another scoop shot.Bhuvneshwar did not pull the pace back, he did not slant it wide of Sarfaraz’s reach and he did not shorten his length. Another yorker-turned-full toss arrived and was promptly dispatched. Sunrisers lost by 45 runs, this over gave Royal Challengers 27 of them.”If we look back at it,” Warner said “We probably should have changed the pace a little bit, not bowled the same ball two balls in a row, but that’s my fault as well. I should be speaking to the bowlers a bit more and making sure that they’re thinking about that.”Warner was terrific in the chase; his 58 off 25 balls provided the perfect start but he fell in the ninth over. Royal Challengers would have thought this was it. Their bowling looks a bit thin, and it might need to be masked by their outrageously strong batting line-up. It certainly was tonight, but there was still one last chance for Sunrisers. Eoin Morgan. He may be coming off a poor World T20 as a batsman, but in this Sunrisers XI, he was their best bet after Warner.Morgan came in at No. 6 – below Naman Ojha and Deepak Hooda – and faced only 18 balls for an unbeaten 22.”It was more about keeping Morgs after 10 overs,” Warner explained. “I think the plan was to have Hooda go out there and try and get things going a little bit and we know how well Morgs finishes and for us that was what we needed today. We needed him to finish, as I said, if two batsmen had got going, we could have got very close.”But the words that rang stronger on that issue came from Watson. “Once we got Dave out, we knew we had a better chance to squeeze the Sunrisers team. And especially with Eoin Morgan coming in a little bit later, it meant that their real firepower and their class firepower was left quite late which worked into our hands, obviously.”

Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood weren’t at their best, Australia’s fielders missed three chances, but Mitchell Starc’s five-for had the visitors batting well before stumps on the first day in Galle

Daniel Brettig in Galle04-Aug-2016Australia’s day one effort in Galle was not so good as their opening day in Pallekele, if better than the second innings. Mitchell Starc delivered his best stuff of the series so far, Nathan Lyon disappointed and Josh Hazlewood ended the innings looking a little on the sore side. Dropped catches were an unwelcome sight, but Jon Holland can be expected to be better in the second innings after easing his debut nerves with a wicket. All the while, however, the bowlers were aware it is the batsmen who have more to prove in these conditions.Mitchell StarcAn excellent display to top and tail Sri Lanka’s innings, with a tight spell in between to account for Kusal Mendis. Starc has not been able to generate much of his trademark new- ball swing so far in this series, but in the case of Dimuth Karunaratne that was almost a blessing for Australia. Having twice got him lbw at Pallekele with balls angling into the stumps, this time Starc drifted the first ball of the match into Karunaratne’s pads and was the most delighted man in Galle when the opener flicked it obligingly to Joe Burns at forward square leg. A classical left-armer’s dismissal followed when the angled ball accounted for Kaushal Silva, before Starc worked his way into tackling Mendis’ considerable skill. Operating in tandem with Hazlewood, Starc was able to gain just enough reverse swing to find an edge, denying Mendis a second hundred in as many innings. Starc returned to the attack to clean up the tail and showed evidence his rhythm has improved since the second innings at Pallekele, finding a pair of yorkers to have Australia batting well before stumps.Josh HazlewoodA better day than his figures of 1 for 51 would suggest. After a tidy opening spell, Halewood’s return in the 22nd over signalled a period of sharp reverse swing and the opportunity for the Australians to attack. So sharp was the bend on Halewood’s inswinger that an lbw decision against Mends had to be overturned because the ball was projected to be skimming past leg stump, but he persisted to squeeze out Denesh Chandimal and so deny Sri Lanka a follow-up to their young No. 4’s latest exploit. Hazlewood did go for a few more boundaries than he would have preferred, but this was mainly the result of attacking the stumps in search of wickets rather than anything overly loose. He ended the day looking somewhat preppy, and did not return to partner Starc against the tail.Nathan LyonReturning to the scene of his first Test in 2011, Lyon was unable to repeat his first ball dismissal of Kumar Sangakkara that day, but did offer a fair impression of the delivery with another sharp offbreak to account for Kusal Perera. Later on he spun another fine delivery through Dilruwan Perera for a considered lbw verdict from the umpire Richard Kettleborough, but in between was unable to pose the sort of consistent threat the pitch suggested he might have. Sri Lanka’s batsmen have played Lyon well, calculating their attacks on him in between tight defensive strokes and plenty of sweep shots. Mendis and Angelo Mathews both heaved Lyon over the boundary for sixes, while Sri Laka’s captain also essayed a most impudent reverse sweep to a more than respectable delivery. Darren Lehmann said in the lead-up to this Test that the tourists wanted to see better from Lyon: an economy rate of 4.33 was more generous than the coach would have desired.Mitchell Marsh contributed with the wicket of Angelo Mathews•Associated PressMitchell MarshAnother useful supporting stint, albeit with a few boundary balls early on. There was some talk of Marsh being replaced by his brother for this match, but his lively fast medium will always offer a useful counterpoint and here he was able to contribute with the wicket of Mathews, dabbling at a ball better left alone. His best balls actually followed that wicket, with a one-two punch to Dilruwan Perera that beat the bat then won an lbw verdict from Chris Gaffaney, although the decision was then reversed on review. Marsh was also unlucky to watch Steve Smith drop a chance at slip, something seldom seen from an otherwise excellent fielder.Jon HollandThe prominent cross-breeze in Galle offered lavish drift at times for Holland on debut, and the wicket provided occasionally expansive turn. But it was always going to be a lot to expect Holland, not long off the plane from Australia, to adapt in the manner that Steve O’Keefe had done with he benefit of more than three weeks in India and then Sri Lanka to prepare for the Pallekele Test. That being said, Holland was not disgraced, posing numerous problems amid Sri Lankan attempts to attack him, and denied a first wicket when his offsider Lyon misjudged the flight of a ball sailing high in the direction of midwicket. Holland eventually had his reward when Dhananjaya de Silva missed a full toss, and Australia can expect better from him in the second innings.Fielding and catchingIf Lyon’s misjudgment of Kusal Perera’s loft into the outfield is included, the Australians missed three clear chances for the day, a figure that will not please Smith. He will be even less happy to have been one of the culprits. Nor will Peter Nevill be pleased to have missed a low chance soon afterwards. In themselves, these errors were not overly costly against a Sri Lankan batting line-up that offered more opportunities at regular intervals, but the coach Lehmann will be aware that stronger batting line-ups will be encounters later in the season, not least in India next year. For now the batsmen must do their job, but improvement in the field must also be a team priority.

The themes of redemption and rehabilitation had been a constant companion for Pakistan in the build-up to what proved to be an epic first Test, but it was only in that moment of victory that the true significance of their 75-run win could be understood

Andrew Miller at Lord's 18-Jul-2016Shortly after 6 pm on the fourth afternoon at Lord’s, Mohammad Amir burst through Jake Ball’s defences with a fast and fierce stump-rattler and took off on that trademark spread-eagle celebration. In that moment two of the most significant aspects of Pakistan’s post-2010 story were pulled as one to lower the blinds on arguably the darkest chapter of their sporting history.The themes of redemption and rehabilitation had been a constant companion for Pakistan in the build-up to what proved to be an epic first Test, but it was only in that moment of victory – and its immediate aftermath, as Younis Khan turned from senior pro to drill sergeant to lead his team in a set of five press-ups and a salute to the flag – that the true significance of their 75-run win could be understood.Of course, Amir’s moment of glory will capture the imagination – and doubtless the back pages too – for his joy and passion, and that final victorious release of emotion, harked back to his more innocent teenage life, when he was known simply for his searing genius and not for any nefarious agreements with shady agents and hangers-on.But to hear Misbah-ul-Haq talking, in quietly reverential terms, about the inspiration that he and his team-mates had drawn from their weeks of training with the Pakistan Army in Abbottabad, and how eagerly every member of the team had wanted to emulate the tribute that he himself had made after reaching his hundred on the first day, was an indication of a wider truth about the national team’s importance to their country.Suddenly, it made sense why the likes of Wahab Riaz had been talking of treating Amir like a “little brother”, and how the team’s doubters – most notably Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali, but even, for a time, the captain himself – had come to accept the need for a collective show of unity on a tour so significant that personal differences simply could not be allowed to fester.It is hard to fathom the disconnect that must have existed between Pakistan’s players and their people in the years after the spot-fixing saga, especially given that the team had been living as exiles for most of that decade already – and remain so to this day – driven from their homeland by geo-politics and the sinister creep of terrorism.Cricket, in that grim context, ought to have been on hand to offer light relief to a troubled nation. Instead, the events of Lord’s 2010 offered a betrayal that went beyond the identity of the three guilty players.Here then, in a quirk of fate too juicy to ignore, was an opportunity to apologise to the nation with the most grandiose gesture imaginable. And how staggeringly Misbah and his men have seized the moment.”The one thing that we learnt from [Abbottabad], the army people are not getting much salaries, but for this flag and for the Pakistani nation, they want to sacrifice their lives,” Misbah said. “That’s a big motivation for all of us. Everyone is really putting effort in for that flag and the nation. We are giving 100% to try to win all the games.”The team was really hoping that we would get a chance [to do some press-ups] because I got a chance after scoring a hundred. But after winning this game they got the chance to send this small tribute to all those army men who were working really hard with us there at the boot camp. It’s a good message to send.”For some, such militaristic overtones may have uncomfortable connotations in the current climate, not least in a week that has featured a failed coup in Turkey. And, where Abbottabad is concerned, it is hard to think of that city without thinking of its most famous former inhabitant, Osama bin Laden, and the violent end that he met at the hands of US Navy Seals in May 2011.But it is a message that will resonate back home nonetheless, for the overt show of patriotism on the one hand but also for the clear message that hard work and discipline can overcome all manner of hardships. From the boot camp in Abbottabad, through the focus on skills in Lahore and, finally, to a lengthy acclimatisation period at the Ageas Bowl, every step of Pakistan’s journey to this redemption has been well-documented. However, in the moment of victory, Misbah was finally able to join the dots together.”The first importance was for the team to get fit, because if you are not fit enough you cannot really perform and be competitive,” he said. “Everyone worked really hard throughout that camp, then it comes to skills and then it comes to preparation in similar conditions to where you have to play.”I think the [Pakistan Cricket] board did a really good job in getting us here for ten days’ camp and a couple of [warm-up] games. That gave us a proper chance to acclimatise and it was really good for us that our batsmen got some confidence. If we can get to good scores we can win again here because our bowling attack is really good.”Pakistan’s victory salute was a symbol of overcoming hardships•Getty ImagesThe appointment of Mickey Arthur, in that regard, has so far proven to be a masterstroke. He departed his last tour of England as a figure of fun, sacked on the eve of the 2013 Ashes as the events of “Homeworkgate” caught up with a truculent squad. But where a pernickety insistence on detail proved his downfall back then, now it has provided Misbah’s leadership with a vital show of back-room support.”Whatever we needed before going into a Test match, we did it,” Misbah said. “You could say that was really emphasised by the coach, he influenced the cricket board to do the right preparations and be disciplined, and that is going to help us in the future also.”When it comes to the future, that is something that Pakistan’s cricket team can now embrace with alacrity, and it is at this point that Amir’s personal tale swims so clearly into view. There remains a hard core of dissenters – former players for the most part – who still maintain that he should never have been allowed to darken the game again. Zero tolerance for corruption – be it fixing or doping – is advocated by those who believe that innocence in sport needs to be protected at all costs – forgetting, perhaps, that innocence isn’t necessarily granted to all countries and cultures equally.And for that reason, there was something irresistible about the sight of Amir soaring once again on that final evening – amid the joy of that final wicket, but also with the fizz of one of the overs of a pulsating match, in which he smashed Stuart Broad’s stumps and then briefly appeared to be on a hat-trick, only for DRS to show a splinter of inside-edge on Steven Finn’s lbw.This was Amir reborn – restored, in the game’s closing moments, to the towering magnificence with which he had launched his first tilt at a Lord’s Test six years ago – remember the irresistibility of his six-wicket onslaught in the opening overs of the 2010 Test, before his world caved in?He had taken his time to settle into his comeback, and two dropped catches on the second day had extended his purgatory for a few extra overs. But in the end, Amir seized that second chance, and how Pakistan – as a nation – needs to hear such a powerful message that better times can come again.”That was a special moment for him,” Misbah said. “That could be the start of a new life and I think and hope he will prove to everybody that he can really be a good man now. He’s a good cricketer now, a good human being, and that’s the only way he can go. He is so lucky to get another chance, but it’s a new life for him, a new start.”England, inevitably, will be stung by this defeat, and have already been piqued by the celebrations. Over on Twitter, Tim Bresnan, one of England’s Ashes-winners on the 2010-11 tour of Australia, warned that the press-ups might come back to “bite” Pakistan, just as England’s infamous “Sprinkler” dance riled the Aussies on that trip, and Alastair Cook was clearly struggling not to sound churlish as he reflected on the scenes in England’s moment of defeat.”I didn’t take any offence but certainly, at that emotive time, it’s not pleasant viewing,” he said. “They’re entitled to do what they want and obviously it’s united them and shown us what a challenge we’ve got.”But frankly, such scenes had next to nothing to do with Cook and his men. It was all about Pakistan’s journey back into the light, by whatever means could help them to atone for the sins of their recent past. And, for this redemptive contest at least, it could not have worked to more spectacular effect.

A teenager bats against county and Test pros and lives to tell the tale

Luke Alfred02-Oct-2016In my final year at school I was chosen to open the batting for the Transvaal Under-19 side with a big-hearted kid called Craig Norris from a neighbouring school. We had one mid-week warm-up game against a Transvaal Invitation XI at Morningside before flying down to Stellenbosch for the 1982 Nuffield Week, a tournament for South African high schools.I can’t remember exactly what we thought but I’m sure we assumed that the Invitation XI would be made up of ringers and sundry club unemployables of good standard. We’d negotiate past the fixture with the minimum of fuss and be on that plane down to the Cape in a jiffy.In those days, club cricket in Johannesburg was properly competitive. Several Premier League clubs employed English professionals like Richard Lumb or Ashley Harvey-Walker, sometimes called Ashley Harvey-Wallbanger by the wits of the local scene. Every so often you would encounter a Transvaal player on a soft club weekend, or a Transvaal B player trying to play their way back into form or fitness.Schoolboy cricket was hard-fought but genteel. You played on good wickets in front of gently appreciative fathers and mothers sitting in deck chairs; you wore your blazer to tea, didn’t argue with the umpire, and didn’t appeal unless you had a good chance of getting it right. Mostly they were heavenly days.

When Dilley and Radford came off, Page replaced them. He was slippery, darting it off the seam, thudding a couple into Craig’s midriff and hurting him on the juicy inner part of the thigh. Alvin Kallicharran watched it good-naturedly from the slips

As a younger boy, clutching my precious 12th-birthday bat and standing timidly knock-kneed in my recently scrubbed , I remember listening to Lumb and Harvey-Walker in a daze of wonder. If you were lucky enough, your headmaster might select you to attend one of their precious net sessions on Friday afternoons at Balfour Park. I didn’t learn many cricket lessons at these sessions, spending the afternoons in a funk of thwarted desire. Lumb, I noticed, was kitted out with St Peter equipment, down to batting mitts that shaped over his hands like boxing gloves. Only boys with rich parents could afford St Peter gear. The rest of us had to be content with sanding the edges out of our Gray-Nicolls bat (“sand the grain,” urged my dad), lovingly applying linseed oil in the long months before summer with a (rag) from the kitchen.Sometimes Lumb spoke about Geoff Boycott – or “Geoffrey” – his Yorkshire opening partner. It was usually in tones of mild derision, but he always managed to find space in his tales for a sort of reluctant admiration. Then he laughed and shook his big head of hair and went back to the far less perplexing business of leading the fielding drills.Harvey-Walker was a different proposition. He was clipped, speaking in a language I identified as English but only partially understood. We must have seemed retarded because we never quite understood what he was saying but didn’t have the courage to ask him to repeat himself. Sessions were conducted in a busy miasma of mutual incomprehension as he clucked at us in his Derbyshire accent, and we did the best we could to act on what we thought he’d said. Net sessions didn’t run particularly smoothly.It was only when Hugh Page came into the schoolboys’ dressing room as Craig and I were padding up after we “lost” the toss against the Invitation XI that we began to realise what we were in for. “You might want to wear this,” Page said to me kindly as he passed me his helmet, an outsized maroon number with a protruding visor that stretched all the way to the Zimbabwe border. I had never worn a helmet before. Mostly we just wore our caps. If you came upon anyone really quick in schoolboy cricket, you reeled in your shot-making and waited for him to blow himself out. This helmet was large and ungainly, with fiddly straps. It was like batting inside a hollowed-out watermelon.Richard Lumb bats against Essex at Lord’s, 1980•PA PhotosCraig, who was better than me and had played more regularly at a higher level – he was playing in the Transvaal “Mean Machine” side a year or two later – probably took first ball, but before long I was facing Graham Dilley, then opening the bowling for England.Dilley hammered his front foot down like some storybook Gulliver but also had a back-foot drag, so the two sounds arrived fractionally before his deliveries cannoned into the splice of my much-used old County bat. I hopped about the crease like a scalded rabbit, and didn’t score anything in front of square for the first hour as I flicked and glided and nudged.Neal Radford opened the bowling with Dilley, and when he realised he couldn’t get me to nick off, proceeded to cheerfully bounce me. The forward short leg probably got in on the action but I was too busy trying to survive to listen very carefully. When Dilley and Radford came off, Page replaced them. He was slippery, darting it off the seam, thudding a couple into Craig’s midriff and hurting him on the juicy inner part of the thigh. Alvin Kallicharran watched it good-naturedly from the slips. The wickets would come, his indulgent smile seemed to be saying, it was just a matter of time.After a while their pity hardened. Radford bounced us some more. A Warwickshire professional whose name I’ve forgotten started to get lippy. We couldn’t have been far from a hundred partnership – Alfred 40-odd – when I spooned an inelegant mistimed drive to mid-off. The Warwickshire pro went off, swearing like a sewer.As I walked back to the pavilion, struggling with my helmet, our coach caught my eye. “That wasn’t so bad,” he said breezily, and I could see the relief in his eyes.