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Rahul Dravid, Ian Chappell, and Harsha Bhogle discuss what could be in store during India v Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2013
The series is missing several senior cricketers, who played in the last India-Australia series in 2011-12. (1.34 – 3.43)
Rahul Dravid: Some of the people who have been integral to India-Australia series over the last decade and a half will be missing, on both sides. It’ll be different from that point of view. An India-Australia series will still be high profile. It’ll probably be a series that will throw up new faces, and both sides will hope they’ll be faces that will go on to play and sustain a rivalry for the next decade or so.Ian Chappell: One of Australia’s big problems at the moment is that they are not producing good batsmen. Most of our debutants of late have been in their late 20s, even 30s. So that’s a major problem for Australia. There might be one or two players who might make a name for themselves but I would be much happier if there were some good young batsmen coming through or, in fact, some good young batsmen on this tour.Are Australia looking very unsettled on this trip to India? (3.44 – 5.38)IC: I don’t think there is any doubt that they are unsettled. But there is a lot of malarkey spoken about Shane Watson [not bowling]. Watson is an opening batsman as far as I am concerned, even when he is fully fit. I won’t be using him much as a bowler. I’d be using him as a change bowler. He’s there to score runs at the top of the order, as far as I am concerned. There is absolutely no doubt about where he should bat. He should open. If David Warner is fit, then Warner and Watson are the opening combination. But yes, Australia are very unsettled.I’m sick to death of hearing how the guys are training the house down, how they’ve never looked better in the nets. I’ve never held much store over what happens in the nets. You never get any runs, you never get any wickets in the nets. Make them out in the middle and that means something.A bigger opportunity for India if Australia are weaker than England… (5.40 – 7.27)
RD: Australia are less experienced than England in the batting department and especially in the spin-bowling department. Australia have some quality fast bowlers. They have come here with bowlers who can make an impact if the conditions suit them. I can’t see that happening. I can’t see India preparing tracks that will help the Australian fast bowlers. England came here with a couple of really good spinners, guys who had played over 40 Tests, over 200 wickets each, had played in these conditions before, had success in India before. As soon as India prepared turning tracks, England were able to capitalise and their spinners outbowled India.I am not sure Australia will have that kind of quality and experience to be able to do that, unless they can unearth a brilliant cricketer from the ones we have seen. People like Nathan Lyon and Xavier Doherty, we’ve seen them before. There’s a new left-arm spinner they’re talking about [Ashton Agar], who has played a couple of games. Unless he shows us something unique, Australia might struggle to get India in trouble even on turning tracks in these conditions.Should Australia play three seamers and one spinner? How big a problem is the absence of a quality spinner? (7.28 – 9.59)
IC: They are going to have to pick their best bowlers and that’ll be three quickies and one spinner. They’ll probably start with Siddle and Starc. They might go with Henriques and then use a batsman who can bowl a bit, like Maxwell. They might go that way, but it won’t surprise me if they go with three quicks and just the one frontline spinner, and then they’ll have Maxwell in reserve as a second spinner.What went on in the warm-up games told us everything. The fact that Agar, who went there to get some experience, bowl to the team in the nets… that they kept him on – you had the feeling that if Agar had got four or five wickets in that second warm-up match, they probably would have played him in the Test match. You talked about uncertainty before. That, to me, is the definition of uncertainty.Shane Watson: opener first, change bowler second•ESPNcricinfo LtdThey seem a bit concerned about Lyon. The big concern has been that he had a couple of opportunities to bowl Australia to victory in the fourth innings; he couldn’t do it in Adelaide against South Africa and he then struggled in Sydney against the Sri Lankans, and that has got them a little bit worried. So I am not sure how they’re going to go. I think Lyon is a decent bowler but he seems to go for quantity of deliveries rather than quality in those situations – when it’s the fourth innings and the feeling is that he’s got to bowl Australia to victory. He seems to rush everything, and that to me seems to have created a few problems for him. He just needs to settle things down a little bit.Are the Indian spinners good enough? How many should they play? (10.00 – 11.32)
RD: I generally like to play a balanced side. If you’ve got two good spinners and they can’t do the job on a turning track, I don’t know how much the third or the fourth guy is going to do. But India, having picked Jadeja now as a floating allrounder, I think they might play three spinners, but I do hope they play two quicks as well. Reverse swing can be a factor in India. I just like the balance of it – Jadeja batting at No. 7, Dhoni at 6, Ashwin at 8 – they can maybe afford to play three spinners and two fast bowlers. I’d like to see that balance. Going with four spinners and one fast bowler, I’m not a big fan of that. If the track is a square turner, two guys should do the job for you. You are better off having an extra batsman on a track like that.The return of Harbhajan Singh – should he play in the XI, and is his inclusion an indicator that there aren’t too many other options? (11.33 – 12.49)RD: Ashwin and Ojha didn’t bowl particularly well against England, though I think Ojha was India’s best spinner against England. As we know, there isn’t a lot of spin-bowling talent in India in domestic cricket. If you look around, there hasn’t been any young spinner who has stood up and said, “Look, pick me, I’m the next guy and I can deliver for you.” In some ways, they have been forced to go back to Harbhajan. It’s nice for them to have someone of Harbhajan’s experience and quality in the wings, who they can call on to play in the series. He does well against Australia. He has particularly bowled well against them in India. That must have weighed in his favour. Having picked him, I would think they would play him now in the XI, and I guess they should.Where should Michael Clarke bat? (12.50 – 14.48)
IC: No. 4. The best batsman in your side must bat no lower than No. 4. I don’t necessarily agree with the business about your best batsman bats at No. 3. Certainly in Australia that’s a bit of a hangover from Bradman.I always worked on the basis that I’d much rather come in at one for not very many than two for not very many. But I’d certainly rather come in at 2 for not very many than three for not very many. Australia have got out of trouble, even against India, a lot of times after being 3 for 30 or 3 for 40. Clarke, Ponting, it was on that occasion, and Hussey got them out of trouble. Maybe you can get away with it when you’ve got Ponting at 4 and Hussey at 6. But no way in the wide world should Clarke bat at 5 in this side. Even more reason for it because I am sure India will hit Australia with a lot of spin and Clarke is far and away the best player of spin in the Australian side. So you don’t want to come in for not very many with the Indian spinners well and truly on top.How unsettled are India? (15.59 – 17.15)
RD: India didn’t bat particularly well against England as well. There are a few young, inexperienced players. They are talented, and they are good players. Pujara and Kohli have shown they can play. There is a little bit of inexperience. There is that No. 6 position, whether it’s Rahane or Jadeja that will play. Even in the bowling department: who partners Ishant, who himself has been in and out of the side due to injury? Is it Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Ashok Dinda? For a large part of the decade, the Indian side almost picked itself except for one or two players.Is this Sehwag’s last chance? (17.16 – 19.25)

“Having Gambhir sitting out is going to put pressure on the Indian selectors. He scored a hundred in the side game… That’s going to put some pressure on Sehwag as well”Rahul Dravid

RD: He still averages 50 in Test match cricket. That’s something to note. He’s been having a tough time of late, [but] he scored a hundred against England in Ahmedabad and it is the only Test match India won. There is something to be said for someone who can play the way he does and give him a bit of leeway. But after this, India play three Test series away from home, and Viru hasn’t done particularly well away from home in the last four or five series he’s played. From that point of view, the selectors will want him to score a few runs, at least at home, so that when he goes to South Africa, he has some runs behind him.Having Gambhir sitting out is going to put pressure on the Indian selectors as well. He is someone who has gone out and scored a hundred in the side game against Australia. No doubt he is going to score runs in domestic cricket. That’s going to put some pressure on Sehwag as well; an experienced batsman sitting out, if he slips up, the selectors have to look back at Gambhir. But India would like him to do well. He is the kind of player who can turn a series in a session at times. So I think they’ll persist with him as long as they can.What about Tendulkar, who has scored a couple of centuries in the domestic season? (19.26 – 22.01)
RD: Tendulkar at 45, maybe with a stump will score a hundred in domestic cricket, he is that good. I’m not knocking domestic cricket in India, but if he puts his mind to it, he’ll score runs in domestic cricket in India. There was never going to be a doubt in that. He needs runs as well, early on in the series. There are young batsmen coming through, and if India keep losing consistently, and the senior players don’t keep scoring runs, the selectors could be tempted to think, “Look, let’s blood some young kids in, we’re losing in any case.”IC: In Australia, I think it had a huge effect, everyone worrying about whether or not he’ll score his 100th hundred. To me, it consumed the team. I thought it was a huge problem there. If people are going to keep on “Will he or won’t he retire? Will he keep his place or won’t he keep his place?” – particularly in a place like India, where the individual stars mean a hell of a lot more than in Australia… Australia has a history of moving very good senior players on when the selectors think it is time to make that move. That doesn’t happen in India, so I think it’s very much a distraction that India can do without.How big a challenge is this for Michael Clarke and MS Dhoni? (22.02 – 25.40)
IC: Clarke is a very good captain, and he is one of the few advantages I see Australia having. I thought Dhoni started out as a very good Test match captain. What I’ve seen of him, of late, particularly in that series in England and in Australia, I thought at times he was just going through the motions as a captain, and I felt it was the time for him to move on. Maybe retain the one-day captaincy, but I thought he’d run his race as a Test captain. If he starts going through the motions and putting fielders back and takes the pressure off the Australian batsmen, then he will pay for it. Clarke is a very good captain, and if he gets the opportunity to put some pressure on India and if his bowlers back him up, that could be one of Australia’s only advantages – Clarke’s captaincy.RD: You need to produce results, as a player and as a captain as well. In the last three high-profile series, India has lost. This is the fourth one and India will expect Dhoni and the team to start producing results. I’ve said earlier that he is the right man to lead India at this point, because I’m not really sure India have got an alternative in the short term. But if India keep losing, he could become weary himself, and that could be a problem as well for India. In India, with the kind of attack he has, Dhoni is a better captain because of the kind of bowlers he has and the conditions he plays in. In Australia and England, where India just didn’t have the bowling attack to put any pressure, it becomes very difficult for a captain to create any sort of pressure.I think that is a challenge Clarke may face in this series. The only time Australia won here in 2004 was when Shane Warne backed up the fast bowlers by being able to bottle up one end and not giving too many runs, and keeping the pressure on. But when Australia came subsequently, they always had good fast bowlers, but whether it was Nathan Hauritz, Jason Krejza, whoever came in always leaked runs at the other end. That put a lot of pressure on whoever was the Australian captain then to keep bringing his fast bowlers back on, and at some stage they are going to get tired.That’s going to be Clarke’s biggest challenge: how is he going to stem the run flow when his spinners are bowling? If he can find a way to do that, then his fast bowlers become effective. But if he doesn’t, the longer the series goes on – and it’s a long series in these conditions, it’s going to get hotter and hotter in India – Australia might just start wilting.Will Harbhajan be able to have the same hold over Australia that he had in the past?•ESPNcricinfo LtdWho would you pick as a favourite? (25.41 – 26.57)
IC: India have got to start favourites. If it was a normal Indian side with dominant spinners, I’d say they would win in a canter. But I don’t think they’ve got spinners of that ilk at the moment, and that gives Australia a chance. But I have to say, India have to start favourites in this series.RD: I would agree. It’ll be interesting to see the kind of wickets that are produced, especially in Hyderabad and Mohali, two venues that may give the Australian fast bowlers a chance to get some reverse swing going early. If they can get into the middle order and get a couple of their senior batsmen out early at the start of the series, India could be distracted by a lot of things. But India, I think, would still start favourites.Numbers Game (27.02 – 31.16)
Of the last five series Australia have played in India, in how many of those have the spinners averaged more than 50 runs a wicket?

A chronological list of the slide of Australia since the summer of 2012 till the four players were axed in the middle of the Indian tour

Daniel Brettig12-Mar-2013Michal Clarke has had all sorts of reasons to look towards the heavens during his captaincy•BCCIJune and July 2012: Australia’s ODI tour of England takes place minus Michael Hussey, who is absent on personal leave. In his absence an increasingly sullen team winds its way through a soggy tour in which the hosts dominate, rain frequently ruins training and Brett Lee and Shane Watson succumb to injuries. Following the loss of the series in Durham, Mickey Arthur rages against a team he declares has been too “submissive”, while there are concerns expressed elsewhere about the squad wandering somewhat aimlessly through a tour where knowledge can be gained for the Ashes in 2013. It is the last tour before Michael Clarke and Arthur push the issue of team culture, and their views of where it is deficient, at a pre-season camp in the Northern Territory.September 2012: During the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka there are concerns about the fitness and general behaviour of some players on tour, following on from ODI and T20 engagements in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. At least one player is pulled up early in the tour for being considered overweight. Australia have mixed results, defeating Pakistan in the ODIs but losing the T20s, and reaching the semi-finals of the world tournament. Watson is rested from the Pakistan series but excels in Sri Lanka, gaining plenty of publicity for his hitting in the shortest format. Meanwhile, Clarke captains New South Wales at home and puts himself through a rigorous boot camp to be ready for the Tests.December 2012: Following a creditable but ultimately fruitless effort against South Africa, the Test team responds by outlasting Sri Lanka in Hobart, then routing them in Melbourne. Securing the series means the home summer’s major summits have been attempted or peaked before the halfway point, leaving nearly two months of relatively minor matches before the India Tests. A happy team is shocked by Hussey’s revelation that he will retire at the end of the SCG Test, while Shane Watson complicates matters by stating that for now at least he is through with bowling after another calf injury. In an instant they have lost the allround qualities that had balanced some of Watson’s less palatable tendencies, while also being shorn of Hussey, their most senior and reliable batsman, and their greatest exemplar of how to be a model professional but also a very personable, affable and helpful character around the team. Arthur intones the remaining members of the group must lift by “60%” now that both Hussey and Ricky Ponting have gone.January 3-7 2013: For the dead third Test at the SCG, now a farewell occasion for Hussey, the selectors show muddled thinking that will in turn have an effect on the team. Glenn Maxwell and Usman Khawaja join the squad, ostensibly to gain experience ahead of Hussey’s imminent departure and the forthcoming India tour, but neither play. Instead, Mitchell Starc is recalled in place of Watson, and an unbalanced side is loaded with fast bowling on a spinning pitch. Clarke is thus compelled to bowl first upon winning the toss. A scrappy, sloppy victory ensues, characterised by patchy bowling, poor running between the wickets, and wasted starts with the bat save for a Matthew Wade century. This innings is counterbalanced somewhat by an indifferent keeping display.Rest of January 2013: During the Test, the selectors choose their ODI squad for the first of two fairly low-key series, the first against Sri Lanka, the second West Indies. Clarke rests his tender hamstring, sensibly enough, but David Warner and Wade are also out. Howard later admits this wholesale approach would not be taken again. Phillip Hughes, Steve Smith and Khawaja, all to tour India, are given limited-overs exposure, but with little rhyme or reason. The latter pair was slated for one match apiece irrespective of results. Hughes quickly makes himself at home in coloured clothing, but thus lacks greater time to prepare for his first Test series in India. Minus Clarke, Warner and Hussey, the ODI team makes a mixed start against Sri Lanka, and the return of the first two coinciding with a dire day out against Nuwan Kulasekara at the Gabba. Arthur takes a break during this time. A series loss averted thanks mainly to rain in Sydney before it is fortuitously levelled in Hobart. Xavier Doherty bowls the one substantial spell deemed enough to take him to India.Early to mid-February 2013: Matches against the West Indies are even more nondescript, as thoughts turn to the subcontinent. Watson returns to the limited-overs team as an opening batsman, and publicly covets Ed Cowan’s Test spot. The squad of 17, brimful of options that suggest a lack of certainty about Clarke’s best team, leaves in stages for India. This is out of deference to the commercial imperative of keeping some “names” in Australia for the ODIs. Test players like Cowan and Nathan Lyon fly earliest, though not before Lyon works with Ashley Mallett in Adelaide at the insistence of Arthur and the national selector John Inverarity. The sessions do not go badly, but Lyon departs feeling a little unsure of his place in the team, even as he is set to take over from Hussey as singer of the team song and upholder of its lore. Cricket Australia appoint Michael Di Venuto as batting coach, though he has never played international matches in India.Late February 2013: Ashton Agar, a young spinner of great promise but little experience, is briefly elevated from developmental intern to contender for the first Test following a handy spell in the opening warm-up match before the whole squad is present. His inclusion alongside Lyon and Doherty in the second warm-up reflects uncertainty about the team’s spin stocks, and ultimately only Lyon is chosen for the Chennai Test despite a bone dry, clay-court pitch that spins and stays low from the start. Australia are defeated, Clarke, James Pattinson and Moises Henriques the only players to emerge with major credit, though Lyon shows signs that his best will be good enough.March 2013: The team selected for Hyderabad is a reaction to the Chennai result, though it is Lyon and Starc who are dropped for Maxwell and Doherty. After the first day, when Clarke is left to declare at a manifestly inadequate 9 for 237, there is a view within the team that given the state of the pitch, they have enough runs. The match is lost by an innings and plenty. Following the defeat and some scheduled time off, Arthur instructs his players to send him three points of improvement for themselves and the team by Saturday night. The failure of Watson, Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Khawaja to get back in time results in their suspension from the third Test. Arthur, Clarke and the team manager Gavin Dovey having concluded that members of the squad have been coasting for far too long.

Plays of the day from the fourth day of the Galle Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

Mohammad Isam and Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Mar-2013The shot
Walking in to bat at 550 for 6, Sohag Gazi had the license to play his shots and get Bangladesh as close to Sri Lanka’s score as possible. As they neared the 570-mark, Gazi played an upper cut off Nuwan Kusasekara that bounced once before thudding into the third-man boundary hoardings. He leaned back, let the ball get slightly past his right shoulder before flicking the bat in an upward direction. The slips raised their arms in hope as the ball sped away. With that boundary, it was the first time Bangladesh had taken the lead against Sri Lanka in 13 Tests.The foreshadow
Mohammad Ashraful had looked like a batsman who didn’t have nerves on the third day, but with the impending milestone of becoming the first double-centurion of the country just 11 runs away, it was always going to be hard to follow up on a near-perfect act. As if on cue, Ashraful began the day with a daft shot, trying to reverse-sweep the first ball, which was bowled by Tillakaratne Dilshan from around the wicket. The leg slip caught the ball that went past the bat’s edge and probably hit the thigh-pad. Four overs later, Ashraful got out for 190, via another uneasy shot, against Rangana Herath.The dolly drop
Sri Lanka, like Bangladesh, allowed the long, tortuous spells in the field to affect their catching, but the worst drop in the Test was a return chance that Sri Lanka’s best fielder Tillakaratne Dilshan would have expected to catch comatose. Elias Sunny had just arrived at the crease and gently stroked a length ball back to Dilshan at thigh height. Dilshan set himself, but closed his fingers too early, and let the ball fall on the pitch. Thankfully for the bowler and Sri Lanka, he had Sunny caught behind next over.The debutant’s moment
Most Test debutants might recall their first Test as a great moment in their career, but Kithuruwan Vithanage is likely to have fewer fond memories of his first international outing, given his only involvement so far was to spend two full days in the scorching Galle sun. He is still at great risk of not getting a bat in the Test, but at least he will be on the scoreboard, after holding on to a ball at short leg that was deemed to have brushed Sohag Gazi’s bat, in his 177th over in the field. The reprieve
Given Kumar Sangakkara’s three last scores against Bangladesh at home read 200*, 222* and 142, the visitors would have been keen to see his back early on a flat pitch, but after also shelling a chance off him in the first innings, Bangladesh did similarly in the second. Gazi got one to bite more than Sangakkara expected in the 13th over, and though the feather edge caused no major deviation to the ball’s trajectory, Mushfiqur Rahim shelled the chance, having kept tidily throughout the Test. By stumps, Sangakkara had added 36 chanceless runs to his score, and was on the verge of a half-century.

Titans have signed Herschelle Gibbs for their semi-final against Warriors on Wednesday

Firdose Moonda02-Apr-2013Herschelle Gibbs last played alongside AB de Villiers more than three years ago. Since then de Villiers has been elevated to South Africa’s one-day captaincy, he is their wicketkeeper and the No. 3 and joint No. 1 batsman in the Test and ODI rankings.Gibbs, on the other hand, went freelance and played for teams ranging from Khulna Royal Bengals in the Bangladesh Premier League to Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash, and annoyed the establishment with his tell-all biography. In it Gibbs claimed de Villiers was part of a clique of players that controlled the national team. However, he will have to bury the hatchet when he wears the light blue Titans kit and goes in to bat for the team de Villiers has played for his whole life, against Warriors in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge semi-final.The bad boy of South African cricket is coming back, in the least expected way. Always a Cape Town boy, Gibbs has gone cross-country to play in Centurion. Titans shelled out an undisclosed amount of big money to secure his services – even though it could amount to only one game.They are hoping for an explosive performance to ensure they qualify for the lucrative Champions League T20. For that to happen, Titans must win their knockout match against Warriors in East London to reach Sunday’s domestic T20 final. Both teams in that fixture, Lions having already secured their spot, will be granted automatic entry into the CL T20 main draw by virtue of South Africa’s shareholder status.Should Titans get there, it is unlikely Gibbs will play for them in the Champions League. Perth Scorchers are already confirmed participants, having finished runners-up of the Big Bash, and will probably have first rights to him. But that does not matter right now.The immediate goal is to win the play-off and, despite having internationals Morne Morkel, de Villiers and Farhaan Behardien available, Titans felt they needed some extra oomph.If there were any concerns about Gibbs and de Villiers getting along, some of them were eased when Gibbs ran into the South African squad in their hotel in Perth late last year. He was there preparing for the Big Bash, and South Africa had just won the series against Australia. Gibbs remembered having a brief chat with some of them and indicated a lot of the issues had been cleared.”Professional sportsmen get paid to play,” Jacques Faul, chief executive of the Titans, told ESPNcricinfo. “We want them all to be happy and to be a team but at the end of the day we select a group of skilled players and we need the professionalism to match that skill.” Matthew Maynard, who first encountered Gibbs at Glamorgan, believes the opener has enough of both to make a big impact.Maynard was courting Gibbs from the beginning of the season but a hamstring injury interrupted their negotiations. When Scott Styris became unavailable for Titans for the crucial rounds, Maynard tried Gibbs again and, having healed fully, he agreed to join them.Gibbs has not played competitively since January and he has never played in the Titans set-up but Maynard is not worried about that. He sees Gibbs as highly adaptable because of the amount of moving around he has done in T20 leagues around the world.”Everything Herschelle does is 100 miles per hour. He moves like a 20-year old, not a man who is in his late thirties,” Maynard said. “He reminds me a lot of Viv Richards in that sense. The impact he can have on the dressing room is a factor as well because he’s an incredibly positive person.”Even his patchy performance for the Scorchers is not something that perturbs Maynard. “His form doesn’t concern me at all. When you are a player like Herschelle, you’ve probably hit 70,000 balls in your career. He won’t have much to think about – just a see it and hit it philosophy, and sometimes a break can work very well.”It’s tough to expect him to come in and strike an 85 off 50 balls. If he did do that, it would be very nice, but I signed him because of his energy in the field, his impact on the dressing room and his ability with the bat. It’s a lot more than just runs, it’s more about the character. And he has a lot of character.”His spark has been missing from South African fields for 13 months, when Gibbs last appeared in a domestic match. New talent is being unearthed at domestic level, which made it difficult for Cobras to hang on to Gibbs.The heady days and nights of his fearless knocks have faded to the back of the cricket consciousness here but Titans hope they can bring it back, even if it’s just for one night. “It’s sad that he doesn’t play anymore,” Faul said. “He is a real talent, especially in T20 leagues.”East London will witness that on Wednesday and maybe Gibbs will appear at the Wanderers again if he takes Titans to the final.

Plays of the Day from the fourth day of the Harare Test

Firdose Moonda in Harare05-Sep-2013Missed chance of the day Zimbabwe’s impressive showing so far in this Test was partly the result of commitment to back their intent. They bowled good lines, they did not play reckless shots and they took almost all of the chances that came their way. Almost, because there was one which could have been match-changing. After Tendai Chatara struck in the first over of he morning, Zimbabwe had the opportunity to ensure the lead did not grow too much when Younis Khan tried to cut off the gentle bowling of Hamilton Masakadza. The ball went straight to Tino Mawoyo at first slip who could not get down in time to take the catch. Younis was on 83 at the time and went to make Zimbabwe pay for a rare lapse. Even costlier missed chance of the day And then things got worse for Zimbabwe when Younis gave them a second bite at the cherry. He was on 117 when he slashed to gully and Malcolm Waller, who has pulled off some outstanding stops from that position, had to reach up for it. He got hold of the ball but only just and it soon popped out of his hands and trickled away.Fine-tuning of the day While Zimbabwe’s batsmen were out in the field waiting to see what total Pakistan would set them, one of their own was practicing, but not for the next innings. Brendan Taylor, who had to sit out this match for the birth of his son, was in the nets with Grant Flower during the afternoon session. Baby Mason, who is just three days old was nowhere to be seen but his older brother had accompanied Taylor to the ground and busied himself with playing on the grass embankment while Taylor got his practice done.Carefulness of the day Zimbabwe toiled hard without much success for a lengthy period and their success eventually came through a Pakistan error. Younis, who was guilty of running so far down the pitch he could not prevent the ball from rolling onto his stumps in the first innings, was actually responsible for a run-out this time.After he had completed a run with Adnan Akmal, who had driven the ball to cover, Younis was guilty of ball-watching while Adnan called for a second. By the time Younis sent him back, Adnan had too far to go. Zimbabwe’s fielders knew he was too far down the pitch for them to do anything silly. They lobbed the ball gently, from Sikandar Raza at cover to the bowler, Shingi Masakadza who under-armed to Tinashe Panyangara who was backing up. Nobody went for a glory strike, it was all carefully done to ensure the stumps were hit and Akmal had to go.Displeasure of the day It’s no fun being beaten at your game as Saeed Ajmal found out when he was given out lbw to his opposite number, Prosper Utseya. Ajmal was on the back foot as he tried to defend and was hit in front of middle stump. The ball stayed low as it turned and had he been able to put his own dismissal aside, Ajmal would have seen that as encouragement for later on but in the moment he was so disappointed with not being able to show off his batting skills. Ajmal stood at the crease for a few moments in disbelief before walking off shaking his head.Declaration plea of the day When Pakistan’s lead swelled past 280, the debate about how much time they would give themselves to bowl Zimbabwe began. With an hour left in the day’s play and the target seemingly too large for Zimbabwe, it seemed sensible for Pakistan to get on as soon as possible and Adnan Akmal seemed to think so. He took what looked like a brand new ball and held it above coach Dav Whatmore’s head with an expression on his face that seemed to suggest he’d like to use it soon. Whatmore was watching the ninth-wicket stand grow and did not notice the cheeky wicket-keeper for a few seconds but when he did, and realised the moment had been captured on camera, he managed a broad grin.

Sachin Tendulkar’s Test stats reflect consistency over a staggeringly long period, with the highlight being his numbers outside the subcontinent

S Rajesh18-Nov-2013Fifteen thousand nine hundred and twenty-one. That’s the new benchmark for longevity, consistency and durability that all Test batsmen will be measured against, for that’s the final tally of Test runs that Sachin Tendulkar has finished with, in a 24-year journey that has combined flair and natural talent with relentless hard work and single-minded focus. Without either attribute he wouldn’t have been able to succeed as much, and as consistently, as he did over an incredibly long period of time.Apart from the sheer length of his career, what stands out is his consistency, both over different phases of his career, and in different conditions against different opposition. Against no team did he average less than 42 – the lowest averages were against Pakistan (42.28) and South Africa (42.46).Even more impressively, he averaged at least 40 in every country he played in, unlike some of the other top batsmen who’ve had problems in at least one country. (Brian Lara averaged less than 40 in New Zealand and India, Jacques Kallis in England and Sri Lanka, Ricky Ponting in India, Inzamam-ul-Haq in Australia and South Africa, and Rahul Dravid in South Africa and Sri Lanka.) Tendulkar’s lowest average, quite surprisingly, was in Zimbabwe – 40 in seven innings; it was also the only country where he didn’t score a Test century. (Click here for Tendulkar’s career summary as a Test batsman.)What also stood out was how well he did outside the subcontinent: he averaged more than 50 in Australia and England, 49.52 in New Zealand, and 46.44 in South Africa, countries where subcontinent batsmen have often struggled.Tendulkar’s consistency also shines through when his career is split into blocks of 50 Tests. The lowest he averaged in one of those four blocks was 46.91, between Tests 101 and 150, a period during which he was also beset by tennis-elbow problems. Apart from that spell, his least productive period was the last couple of years, when his average dropped to 27.52 from 15 Tests, with no hundreds in 24 innings. At the end of 2011, Tendulkar averaged 56, but because of that lean spell, he finished at 53.78 (which is still outstanding by any standards). (Click here for his cumulative career average in Tests.)

Tendulkar’s Test career, in blocks of 50 Tests

PeriodRunsAverage100s/ 50sFirst 50 TestsNov 1989-Mar 1997343849.8211/ 1651-100 TestsMar 1997-Sep 2002496765.3519/ 18101-150 TestsOct 2002-Aug 2008347246.919/ 15151-200 TestsAug 2008-Nov 2013404452.5112/ 19CareerNov 1989-Nov 201315,92153.7851/ 68His best phaseIn 1992, Tendulkar scored three hundreds, and all of them were masterpieces – 148 not out in Sydney, 114 in Perth, and 111 in Johannesburg. He was ready for bigger things, but he still finished with a calendar-year average of 41.90, because in the remaining eight innings that year he totalled 46 runs – his scores in those innings read 6,17,5,0,11,1,6,0 – clearly, he needed to become more consistent.Being a quick learner, Tendulkar grasped that lesson fast, and over the next ten-year period he was the most prolific batsman in world cricket. That was also the time when most opposition teams had a couple of world-class fast bowlers in their ranks: the overall batting average in those ten years was 29.59; in the next 11-year period it went up to 32.67.For Tendulkar, though, that period between 1993 and 2002 was when he was head and shoulders above all other batsmen in world cricket. He averaged 62.30 from 85 Tests; the next-best, Steve Waugh, averaged 55.07. His masterpieces during that period included 122 at Edgbaston in 1996, 169 in Cape Town the following year, 113 in Wellington in 1998, 136 against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999, 116 against Australia in Melbourne later that year, and 155 in Bloemfontein in 2001. That India ended up losing all six of those matches was a reflection of the rest of the batsmen, and the Indian bowling attack, that Tendulkar had to play with and carry along. Not all his hundreds were in defeats, though: he also scored nine in wins during that period, most famously conquering Shane Warne when scoring an unbeaten 155 in the second innings in Chennai in 1998.

Highest averages in Tests between Jan 1993 and Dec 2002 (Qual: 3000 runs)

BatsmanTestsRunsAverage100s/ 50sSachin Tendulkar85772662.3027/ 31Steve Waugh109776555.0725/ 33Rahul Dravid69561453.4614/ 28Matthew Hayden37307953.0812/ 10Andy Flower60463052.0212/ 25Jacques Kallis65445550.6211/ 25Brian Lara86732850.5318/ 34Inzamam-ul-Haq80605650.4617/ 31Ricky Ponting63424648.8014/ 17Mohammad Yousuf42309948.4210/ 16Pace and bounce? No problemWhat stood out, and differentiated him from other Indian batsmen during that period, was the way he performed outside the subcontinent. The period from his debut to the end of 2001 was one where he had to shoulder the bulk of the run-scoring burden on tours; the golden period for Dravid was to start from 2002. The difference between him and the other batsmen was especially glaring in Australia and South Africa, because Dravid and Sourav Ganguly did score runs in England and New Zealand. Between 1991 and 2001, Tendulkar scored six centuries in 17 Tests in Australia and South Africa; all the other Indian batsmen put together managed only eight. In fact, of the first 21 Tests Tendulkar played, only one was at home, while 16 were outside the subcontinent (including one in Zimbabwe). Tendulkar had little experience of these conditions, but he coped quite well.The table below shows how badly the other Indian batsmen struggled in those conditions between 1991 and 2001. Mohammad Azharuddin scored only 472 runs in 21 innings despite getting two hundreds – 14 times in those 21 innings he was dismissed for 15 or fewer; Sanjay Manjrekar’s highest in 16 innings on those tours was 46; Dilip Vengsarkar totalled 158 from 9 innings, while VVS Laxman scored 244 from 11, excluding that memorable 167 in Sydney. Amid such batting failures, Tendulkar was a shining exception: in four of those five series, he averaged more than 40. Overall in those 17 Tests, he scored 19% of the total runs that were scored by all the Indian batsmen.

Indian batsmen in Australia and South Africa, between 1991 and 2001

BatsmanTestsRunsAverage100s/ 50sSachin Tendulkar17128244.206/ 3Mohammad Azharuddin1247222.472/ 1Rahul Dravid847231.461/ 2Sourav Ganguly846931.260/ 3VVS Laxman741141.101/ 1Kapil Dev936726.211/ 1Ravi Shastri635935.901/ 0Manoj Prabhakar933624.000/ 3Sanjay Manjrekar931322.350/ 0Pravin Amre416933.801/ 0Dilip Vengsarkar515817.550/ 2The table below lists his percentage contribution to the total bat runs (excluding extras) that the team scored. It’s clear that from 2002 his burden was considerably reduced. During Tendulkar’s revival between 2009 and 2011 the percentage contribution went up to 16.87%, but in the last two years (15 Tests) it dropped to 8.75%.

Tendulkar’s contribution to the team

PeriodTendulkar’s runsTeam runsPercentageTill Dec 19921085912211.89Jan 1993 to Dec 2001633432,04819.76Jan ’93 to Dec ’01, in Aus, SA, NZ, Eng, WI1783836821.31Jan 2002 onwards850259,86314.20Overall15,921101,03315.76The rock at No.4Of the 329 innings Tendulkar played in his Test career, 275 were at the No. 4 position. For the first 22 innings of his Test career Tendulkar batted at No. 6 or 7, but the change happened after his unbeaten 148 against Australia in Sydney in 1992. In the second innings of the next Test, in Adelaide, Tendulkar moved up to No. 4 – above Vengsarkar and Azharuddin – as India looked to chase a stiff fourth-innings target of 372. He scored only 17 in that innings (Azharuddin scored a century as India lost by 38 runs), but the next game was in Perth, and Tendulkar’s stunning 114 – in only his second innings at No.4 – settled matters. From the time he first batted at No. 4, only 29 times did he deviate from that position, mostly because of a nightwatchman coming in at No. 3 or 4.At No. 4, he finished with 13,492 runs, 4574 more than the next-highest. Kallis and Greg Chappell have better averages, but it’s unlikely any batsman will touch his aggregate at that position.

Highest run-getters at No.4 in Tests

BatsmanInningsRunsAverage100s/ 50sSachin Tendulkar27513,49254.4044/ 58Jacques Kallis168891861.9334/ 36Mahela Jayawardene177865652.4628/ 30Brian Lara148753551.2524/ 31Javed Miandad140692554.1019/ 31Mark Waugh170666242.4316/ 39Kevin Pietersen130619949.5919/ 25Gundappa Viswanath124508143.0512/ 31Inzamam-ul-Haq98486752.9015/ 21Martin Crowe106484149.3916/ 16Aravinda de Silva113454344.1015/ 16Greg Chappell86431659.1215/ 19The table below lists Tendulkar’s stats at No. 4 sorted by the team scores at which he came in to bat. Like you’d expect of any batsman, he was more prolific when the top three batsmen had given the team a good start: when he came in with the score reading 100 or more for the loss of two wickets, Tendulkar averaged 70.49, and scored 21 centuries from 97 such innings.When he came in to bat very early – before India had scored 20 – Tendulkar’s average dropped to 40.53. However, some of his most memorable innings came in such situations: when he scored 122 at Edgbaston against England in 1996, he came in at 17 for 2, and scored 122 out of a team total of 219. (The second-highest score in the innings was 18.) His 136 against Pakistan in Chennai came from an entry score of 6 for 2, while the Boxing Day 116 started from 11 for 2.But it’s also true that he was dismissed cheaply fairly often when he came in early: of the 37 times he came in at No. 4 before the total had reached 20, 15 times he was dismissed for single-digit scores.However, his average went up to almost 51 when he came with the score between 20 and 49. Two of his double-centuries – 248 not out against Bangladesh and 214 against Australia – came from these entry scores, as did the 155 in Bloemfontein (2001) and the 146 in Cape Town (2011).

Tendulkar at No. 4 by point-of-entry scores

ScoreInningsRunsAverage100s/ 50sLess than 2037145940.535/ 521 to 4968336450.979/ 1550-7542140940.264/ 876-9931140950.325/ 8100-14950264061.399/ 9150 and above47321180.2812/ 13At his best against the bestOne of the most impressive aspects of Tendulkar’s career is his record against the best team of his generation. Towards the last few years of his career Australia were clearly not the best team around, but for nearly two decades they set the standard, and Tendulkar was pretty impressive against them in almost every series. In 39 Tests against them Tendulkar averaged 55, with 11 centuries in 74 innings. This, despite averaging only 34.21 in his last 15 innings against them. In Australia, he averaged 53.20 from 20 Tests, with six centuries. Only Jack Hobbs, who made 12 hundreds from 41 matches, has scored more centuries against Australia than Tendulkar.Between 1990 and 2008, no batsman who played at least 20 innings against them averaged more than Tendulkar’s 56.08. In 30 innings in Australia during this period, Tendulkar averaged 58.53. With a 12 innings cut-off, only Virender Sehwag (59.50) averaged more. In 35 innings that Lara played in Australia over the same period, he averaged 41.97.

Highest batting averages v Aus between 1990 and 2008 (Qual: 20 inngs)

BatsmanInningsRunsAverage100s/ 50sSachin Tendulkar55274856.0810/ 11VVS Laxman44220455.106/ 10Kevin Pietersen2096353.502/ 6Virender Sehwag30148351.133/ 7Brian Lara58285651.009/ 11Ijaz Ahmed2091350.725/ 1Richie Richardson24108449.274/ 4Shivnarine Chanderpaul29121048.404/ 7Michael Vaughan2095947.954/ 1Graham Thorpe31123545.743/ 8The fourth-innings chinkThe one aspect of his Test batting which was underwhelming was his performances in the fourth innings. He still holds the record for most runs in this aspect as well, but this one is unlikely to remain with him for too long: his aggregate of 1625 is only 50 more than the second-best, and 92 more than the best among active players (Graeme Smith’s 1533). Tendulkar scored only 10.2% of his total runs in the fourth innings, compared to 17% for Smith.Tendulkar’s fourth-innings average of 36.93 is disappointing too: among the 21 other batsmen who’ve scored 1000-plus fourth-innings runs, 18 have a better average. One of them who doesn’t, though, is Brian Lara: his 1440 runs in the last innings came at an average of 35.12. And then there’s also the curious case of Steve Waugh, who scored only 613 fourth-innings runs at an average of 25.54.More Tendulkar stats His career span of 24 years and a day is the fifth-longest in Test history. Tendulkar’s first-class tally of 50,192 ranks 16th in the all-time list. Tendulkar is the third non-England player – after Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards – to enter the 50,000-first-class-runs club. Six times Tendulkar scored 1000 or more Test runs in a calendar year, the most by any batsman. Tendulkar scored 1000 or more Test runs against seven different opposition teams. Dravid is the only other batsman to achieve this feat. Tendulkar is the youngest among Indian batsman to score a Test century (and the third-youngest overall). Had he scored a century in his last Test innings, he would have been the oldest Indian Test centurion as well. With Dravid, Tendulkar put together 6920 partnership runs, the most by any pair. The 20 century stands between them is also a record. In his entire Test career, Tendulkar was involved in 86 century stands, with 26 different partners. Only Dravid has more century partnerships in Tests. Tendulkar was dismissed in the nineties ten times in Tests, the most for any batsman. Six players won more Man-of-the-Match awards than Tendulkar. His 14, though, is the best by an Indian; Dravid’s next on 11.

Stats highlights from the Bangladesh v Pakistan Asia Cup match in Mirpur

Shiva Jayaraman04-Mar-2014 This was Pakistan’s highest successful run chase in ODIs, beating their previous-highest chase of 322 runs against India in Mohali in 2007. This is the first time Pakistan have successfully chased a target of 300 or more against a team other than India. Pakistan had chased such targets successfully only four times in ODIs before this. Shahid Afridi muscled Pakistan to a win, yet again, with an 25-ball 59. His fifty in this innings came off just 18 deliveries – the second-fastest in ODIs. This is the third time Afridi has scored an ODI fifty in 18 deliveries. Sanath Jayasuirya holds the record for hitting the fastest ODI fifty – he took 17 deliveries to hit a fifty against Pakistan in 1996. Afridi was declared the Man of the Match for his performance – his 32nd such award in ODIs. He has equalled Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis at No. 3 in the list of players to have won the most such awards in ODIs. He is four clear of the next Pakistan player in the list – Saeed Anwar, who won 28 Man-of-the-Match awards in his career. Bangladesh’s score of 326 was their highest in ODIs and only the sixth time they scored 300-plus in an ODI. Their previous highest was 320, against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in 2009. Afridi scored his runs at a strike of 236 – the seventh-fastest fifty-plus score in a chase. The fastest fifty-plus innings in a chase also belongs to Afridi. He hit an unbeaten 18-ball 55 against Netherlands in Colombo in 2002. 232 runs were scored in the last ten overs of this match (both innings combined) – that’s the highest such aggregate in an ODI since 2000. The previous highest was the 229 runs scored in the famous ODI between South Africa and Australia in Johannesburg in 2006. All the top four Bangladesh batsmen got fifty-plus scores in this match. This is the first such instance for Bangladesh in ODIs. Overall, there have been only 12 such instances in ODIs.Anamul Haque hit his second ODI century in this match and only the 13th by a Bangladesh opener. The last Bangladesh opener to hit an ODI hundred was Tamim Iqbal, who hit 112 against Sri Lanka in Hambantota last year. Shakib Al Hasan took 16 balls to hit 44 runs to finish Bangladesh’s innings on a high. His strike rate in this innings equalled the fastest innings of 20 or more runs by a Bangladesh batsman. Mashrafe Mortaza also had a similar score batting against Kenya in an ODI in 2006. The 150-run partnership between Imrul Kayes and Haque was Bangladesh’s first century opening stand in 32 innings against Pakistan. Their previous highest against Pakistan was an 88 run-stand between Javed Omar and Mehrab Hossain in Dhaka in 2002. This partnership was Bangladesh’s second-highest opening partnership in ODIs and only their second partnership of 150 or more for the first wicket. Mehrab Hossain and Shahriar Hossain added 170 runs against Zimbabwe in Dhaka in 1999, which is the highest opening partnership for them. Including this one, Bangladesh have had only eight 150-plus partnerships in ODIs. Pakistan opener Ahmed Shehzad’s century in this match was his fifth in ODIs and the first by a Pakistan batsman against Bangladesh in a chase. Shehzad has scored 223 runs in this Asia Cup at 55.75, already his second-highest aggregate in any series. Abdur Rahman had an extraordinary spell of bowling in this match, however brief. His first-three balls in the match were no-balled for being full tosses above the waist after which he was stopped from bowling further in the match. His three deliveries resulted in eight runs and his bowling figures for the match read 0-0-8-0. There have been three other such instances of a bowler showing up on the scorecard as having conceded runs without bowling a ball. The last such instance was when Bangladesh hit their winning runs off a no-ball from Kenya’s Colins Obuya, who was bowling his first ball in the match. In addition to Bangladesh’s openers, both the Pakistan openers also scored fifty-plus, making this only the tenth instance in ODIs when all four opening batsmen have hit fifty or more in a match. The last such instance was the India-Australia match in Jaipur last year. In all, eight fifty-plus scores were hit in this match, only the third time that these many were hit in an ODI. The last time this happened was in last year’s Jaipur ODI between India and Australia. Excluding Rahman, Misbah-ul-Haq bowled seven bowlers in this match and four of them went for 60-plus runs. This is only the third time ever that four of Pakistan’s bowlers went for 60 or more in an innings. The last such instance came against South Africa in Centurion in 2007. Bangladesh crossed 200 runs in this match for the fall of just one wicket. This was only the second such instance for them. The only other time Bangladesh have scored 200 runs before the fall of their second wicket in an ODI was against Zimbabwe in Dhaka in 1999. Saeed Ajmal went for 61 runs off his ten overs – his most expensive spell bowling in ODIs in the subcontinent. Remarkably though, Ajmal’s first six overs had gone only for nine runs. He had bowled three of those overs in the batting Powerplay, taking the wicket of Mominul Haque and giving away just five runs. In the death overs though, fortunes changed for Ajmal – he was hit for 52 runs off his remaining four overs, including nine boundaries.

Saeed Ajmal’s spells

dot-balls4s6sRunsBallsEconWktsSpell 113004181.30Spell 2 (Powerplay)14005181.51Spell 3 (last-ten)481522413.01

There were other negatives with the ball and in the field but ultimately 26 runs in nine balls from Jade Dernbach swept England’s World T20 hopes away into the Bay of Bengal

Alan Gardner in Chittagong29-Mar-2014England are not out of the World T20 yet. Although that is only because the formality of one last commitment against Netherlands awaits. They lost one rain-affected match, another in superficially close circumstances and in between pulled off their greatest T20 chase. Few expected them to do much better, after the winter they have had.But there will be regrets about how this game slithered away from them, as another wayward performance with the ball and in the field pushed the batting too far into the red. England had won the toss and, in light of the ever-present dew, seemingly half the battle. Instead, South Africa became the first team to defend a total in the late slot during Chittagong’s second-round matches.It began with Jos Buttler missing a simple stumping but ended most emphatically with the sight of Jade Dernbach, a glass cage of emotion at the best of times, being taken apart by AB de Villiers on his way to the fastest T20 fifty by a South African. As de Villiers unfurled his full range, including an eye-popping reverse sweep off Chris Jordan and a trampoline scoop over deep square leg against Tim Bresnan’s attempted yorker, 55 runs cascaded from the last three overs and swept England’s hopes away into the Bay of Bengal.The mitigation for Dernbach usually goes as follows: he bowls in the Powerplays and at the end, he is bound to get some tap. Unfortunately, he no longer seems able to stop the tap running, with England constantly having to deal with an overflowing bath. This was worse than his 0 for 49 in Sydney in January, although the wet ball, which resulted in one chest-high beamer, clearly caused problems. Too much variation is usually the issue but here Dernbach was consistent, monotonously finding the wrong length.De Villiers sometimes seems to bat like he is a savant, for whom normal limitations such as the pitch or the opponent don’t seem to apply. This time, both were to his liking. Dernbach’s third over, the 18th of South Africa’s innings, did not take much transcending but he could perhaps console himself with the thought that de Villiers has spiked better bowlers – namely Dale Steyn, during an IPL mini-epic for Royal Challengers Bangalore two years ago – and will doubtless do so again.Two fours, two sixes, two wides, a two, a single and a no-ball was the pared-back, stripped-down, acoustic version, minus the screeching feedback. Nine balls, 26 runs – a number that comfortably encompassed England’s margin of defeat. The anti-Jade brigade was in full voice, with even the coach of Hong Kong (an Australian, it has to be said) chipping in. “Has Dernbach got an IPL gig? #deserves” tweeted Charlie Burke.”It was an important over, with the short boundary,” de Villiers said. “We hadn’t had a lot of big overs, I felt it was time. The bounce of the ball was in my side, unfortunately for him his execution wasn’t spot on. He’s a really good bowler but with the wet ball and the short boundary, it was my night.”As ever with a Dernbach calamity cameo, there was a dropped catch, though Buttler did his best to atone for earlier errors with a full-length dive after David Miller had gloved a pull behind. For all that Dernbach does not seemed to have learned a great deal from his three years as an England player, there is a touching honesty about his performances and his pain; the doleful look in his eyes can be genuinely affecting. Dernbach wears his heart on his sleeve, somewhere among all the tattoos.Sentimentality aside, though, an economy rate of 8.71 – joint worst of bowlers who have sent down 300 deliveries or more in T20 – is likely to be his epitaph. We may not see England’s third-highest wicket-taker in the format in a solar red shirt again.This match was not a highly buffed spectacle of uber cricket, de Villiers aside. Dernbach and Buttler had the messiest copybooks but there were plenty of other examples. Moeen Ali dropped de Villiers on to the rope for four; Wayne Parnell started with a leg-side wide and then fell over in his follow-through (although he more than made amends); the umpire Rod Tucker even denied South Africa the wicket of Alex Hales by overzealously no-balling Albie Morkel.Perhaps this is what you get when you play cricket with a bar of soap in a sauna where the lights keep going out and the floor is in a state of permanently being mopped.There may have been a lot of Kentucky Fried Cricket on offer but only de Villiers was in possession of the special recipe. The crowd had had their fill and the last knockings of England’s run chase, completed some four hours after the game had begun, were overseen by plenty of empty seats. Hales had briefly threatened to rain down mayhem again but by the time Ravi Bopara was taking aim at the stands in a by-now-familiar exercise in futility, few were left to worry about getting hit.”At the end of the day, T20 is an entertainment business,” Stuart Broad said afterwards. It brought to mind a line spoken by Russell Crowe in as he stands in the middle of a bloodied arena: “Are you not entertained?”

South Africa have played 12 away series since 2007 and haven’t lost a single one. Their last away series defeat, in 2006, was against Sri Lanka

Bishen Jeswant15-Jul-201421
Number of years since South Africa have won a Test series in Sri Lanka. They had achieved it on their first tour there in 1993, when the hosts were beaten 1-0. In their three subsequent tours, they only managed to win one Test, losing two series and drawing one.53.34
Bowling average of South African spinners in Sri Lanka, the only country in which they average over 50. Their economy rate of 3.36 in Sri Lanka is also their worst in any country. In the rest of Asia, South Africa’s spinners average 32.83 at an economy rate of 2.96 and a strike rate of 66.4.0
Number of Tests South Africa have won in Sri Lanka after the 2000 series. They have lost three and drawn one. Sri Lanka are the only nation in which South Africa have not won a single Test during this period. During the same years, South Africa have an 8-5 win-loss record in the rest of Asia (4-5 excluding Bangladesh).10
Number of hundreds scored by Mahela Jayawardene at the SSC – the most by a batsman at a single venue. Don Bradman and Jacques Kallis, with nine hundreds each at the MCG and Newlands, are next on this list. Jayawardene has 2698 runs at the SCC and 2284 runs in Galle (the two Test venues for this series), the top two aggregates in the list of most Test runs scored by a batsman at a venue.27.90
The mean batting average of South Africa’s batsmen in Sri Lanka post their readmission. Sri Lanka is the only country where South African batsmen average less than 30. They have only six centuries in 10 matches here.2-4
South Africa’s win-loss record in Sri Lanka, the only country apart from Australia and England where South Africa have a negative win-loss record. South have done significantly better in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where they have win-loss records that read 5-5, 2-1 and 4-0 respectively.4 Number of home series Sri Lanka have lost since 2000, and only one since 2006. Sri Lanka have played 26 home series since 2000 and only lost to England, Pakistan and Australia (twice). Of the remaining 22 series, Sri Lanka won 17 and drew five. South Africa have lost five of the 25 home series during this period.8
Number of teams South Africa have beaten in an away series at least once in the period from 2000 to 2014. Sri Lanka is the only country South Africa have not beaten in an away Test series. South Africa’s 2-0 loss to Sri Lanka in July 2006 was their last away defeat.7
Number of years since Upul Tharanga’s last Test, in December 2007 against England in Galle. Only two Sri Lankans have had longer intervals between Tests – Malinga Bandara and Dulip Liyanage. Liyanage played his penultimate Test in January 1994, but had to wait till August 2001 to play his last game. In Bandara’s case, after playing his first Test in May 1998, he had to wait till December 2005 to play his second.

By saying he he can still make the Gabba Test despite being ruled out of the warm-up game in Adelaide, Michael Clarke is effectively daring the Australia selectors to rule him out

Daniel Brettig24-Nov-2014Michael Clarke is playing a dangerous game. By declaring publicly that he is still in the running for the Gabba Test mere hours after he was scrubbed from a warm-up match the Australian selectors had stated as the only way he can prove his fitness, Clarke was effectively daring Rod Marsh, the chairman of selectors, to rule him out.There is no doubt that Clarke genuinely believes he can get himself fit for Brisbane. But equally there was no equivocation from either Marsh or his fellow selector Mark Waugh on Monday about the path Clarke must take to do so.He must show he can play cricket over multiple days – via the tour match against the Indians in Adelaide from Friday – to be considered. There was no hint of other options for Clarke in what either Marsh or Waugh said.First, Marsh on why he had to play in Adelaide: “I think that’s really important, because with his recent history we can’t have him breaking down in the first innings of a Test match … I think we all realise that.”Next, Waugh, on why a single day’s grade cricket would not be sufficient: “Ideally it would have been great if he played in the Shield match, but the timeframe just didn’t allow that with his injury. So we went for the next best thing and we feel he needs a couple days of cricket to prove his fitness – it’s a five-day game Test match cricket, so we felt that was the best way for him to prove his fitness in a two-day game.”As if to remove any remaining doubt, Waugh was asked if Clarke would play the grade game if he was ruled out of the Adelaide tour match: “I wouldn’t have thought so. No, I don’t think so.”So an open and shut case it would seem? Not so according to Clarke, who revealed the team physio Alex Kountouris had declared him unavailable for the Adelaide match but then stressed he could still prove his fitness by playing in a grade match on Saturday – the same fixture now under Cricket NSW investigation for the contrivances of day one that had Western Suburbs giving up first innings points in order to ensure Clarke could bat for them this Saturday.”My goal is to try and get myself fit to play whatever game’s available,” Clarke said. “The next game that I am available for, if I can be fit, is grade cricket on Saturday. So ideally if I can tick all the boxes along the way and play on Saturday, get through that. Hopefully I can make myself available then it is completely up to the selectors to work out what to do.”Clarke is desperate to play in Brisbane, and desperate not to hand over the Test captaincy, even if it is only temporarily to his vice-captain and longtime offsider for state and country, Brad Haddin. His desire to avoid too much time off the field has been proven and re-proven over the past two months.He returned too early from a hamstring strain in Zimbabwe, which turned into a tear when batting against the hosts. When his team was in danger of losing, Clarke made a snap decision to return to the field to try to conjure a win, even choosing to bowl himself despite the hamstring problem. He then carried the ailment through the UAE before injuring it a third time in Perth.There is something natural and logical about all this – no international athlete wants to miss matches, particularly not one as driven and focused as Clarke. His ability to shrug off a degenerative back complaint and only ever miss one Test match through injury in a career now into its second decade is a notable achievement.But the current episode, which has grown ever more dramatic and bizarre since its beginning in Zimbabwe, also demonstrates a dangerous tendency that comes to afflict many sportsmen in the latter days of their careers. Right now Clarke seems unable to see the wider picture, focusing utterly on the Gabba to the exclusion of all else.Similar scenarios have arisen in previous years. In 2001, Steve Waugh was lionised for breaking many a fitness rule to play in the dead fifth Ashes Test at the Oval with a torn calf. He made a hundred on one leg, but carried the injury home, beginning the decline that would ultimately see him dropped from the ODI captaincy in 2002 and retired by 2004.In 2009, Brett Lee insisted repeatedly that he was fit for the latter Tests of that year’s Ashes tour following a side strain. But having done so before – in India in 2008 and Melbourne against South Africa later that year – and been found wanting, Lee’s impassioned pleas were ignored by the selectors, and he retired from Test cricket soon after.Cricket Australia first raised the wider issue through the straight-talking voice of the team performance manager Pat Howard, who was quick to speak of World Cups and Ashes when summing up Clarke’s likely recovery time.”We are putting the World Cup and Ashes right up there and if he’s right for the Indian Test series so be it,” Howard had said. “I have talked about the priorities and what they are. Sometimes you have got to take a little bit of a long-term and a medium-term picture. If we do this well, we can get extra years out of Michael who is a world-class player, rather than thinking in days and tournaments.”Initially, Marsh and the coach Darren Lehmann were both unwilling to echo Howard’s sentiment, instead speaking positively about progress reports on Clarke’s hamstring and refusing to rule him out of Brisbane. But time has marched on, and goals have been set.Kountouris, who knows Clarke’s body and mind best of all, does not believe he can play in Adelaide. Marsh and Waugh, for their part, don’t believe they can choose Clarke if he does not make that deadline, because otherwise they have no hard evidence on which to trust the captain’s hamstring, as distinct from his word.Now Clarke, who has always insisted on “listening to the experts,” must acknowledge the expertise of the selectors as well as the team’s medical staff. To do otherwise would not merely be dangerous, but also quite foolish.