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Stats highlights from the first one-day international between India and Pakistan in Guwahati

S Rajesh and HR Gopalakrishna05-Nov-2007

He may not have played for England since his encouraging display against India last summer, but he’s ready to stake his claim again

Interview by Will Luke08-May-2008

You were ignored for the Sri Lanka tour and left New Zealand early with a side strain. How frustrated are you that Stuart Broad, for example, can make such an immediate impact in your absence?
Well, it doesn’t piss me off. Broady bowled really well in the ODIs. Obviously it’s frustrating not to get picked, especially after I’d bowled really well against India. I felt unlucky not to go on the Sri Lanka tour or the original [squad for the] New Zealand tour, but that just makes you more hungry to prove them wrong. I’ve worked hard since getting back from New Zealand: it’s just a matter of trying to get some good overs in domestic cricket, lots of wickets and force my way in.How do you remain motivated when you keep getting injured?
I got a taste of Test cricket last year and that’s where I want to be. I really enjoyed my time in the side in both forms of the game, but probably more in Tests, and I didn’t do myself too much harm. Hopefully I can find the form I showed last summer, get some good performances under my belt. But in terms of motivation, even playing for Hampshire gets me going: I love playing for them and still get nervous going out to play. I still get butterflies – that’s motivation enough. All I want to do is play cricket. That is my motivation.How do you respond to the detractors who question your passion for the game?
Yes, well, those people don’t know me. Or at least they don’t know me very well. Cricket has been my life and has always been my motivation – there’s never been anything else I wanted to do. Sometimes it might look like I’m not trying or that I might not care, but I do, deep inside. I guess it’s the way I carry myself, maybe the way I’m perceived from the outside. But the way I feel on the inside is that I’m trying my hardest. It might not show, but that’s just the way I look. I’m laidback, I guess, but I always try my hardest.Your former captain, Shane Warne, spoke of his wish to find a more aggressive Chris Tremlett. Have you found him yet?
I think I have definitely got more aggressive over the years, certainly. The quicker I’ve got over the years – I’ve gained a bit of
extra pace – which makes you more aggressive when you know you’ve got that in the bank when you need it. But it’s a balance. I find that if I’m over-aggressive, then I can’t concentrate, so it’s about trying to find a balance between being aggressive and being myself, and not trying to be someone you’re not. People have said I should be aggressive, but if I went out there and acted like a lunatic, I don’t think people would believe it was me and they’d probably laugh at me, or not take me seriously. I think I’ve got a good enough presence these days. It’s about making people aware of your presence, making
them realise that you’re there and not going to back down to the batsman at the other end.

Didn’t it hurt that your captain should have made such a public declaration?
It didn’t nark me, no. It’s just Warne’s way of getting the best out of people I think. When I first started playing with him in 2003 I was very shy and still a young bowler in the county scene. I hadn’t played for England and he saw potential in me. I was naturally quite shy and laidback and he wanted to get the best out of me. Having a more aggressive approach is probably what you need, especially in Tests. There’s nowhere to hide. If you’re hit for four, you’ve got to find something else – you can’t back down and you need to give off the impression that you’re in a fight. You’ve got to fight as a bowler in the good times and the bad.I think it’s the way you go about your cricket, the way you think about your bowling, which matters; trying to be more in a contest with the batsman and trying to hate the batsman more. When I first started playing, I didn’t really think like that. I just wanted to bowl well. But now my thinking is more “Right. I want to get this guy out. What’s he doing?” It’s me versus him – almost a personal battle, instead of running up and bowling willy nilly. It’s about ensuring I don’t back down and that he knows he’s in a battle.Are Geoff Miller and the selectors in regular communication with you?
No. I’ve not spoken to anyone (in the England management) since I’ve got back. I’ve just been back with Hampshire, and I guess the England physio keeps an eye on me, fitness-wise. But I’ve not heard from the selectors so I guess it’s just down to me. That’s the way it is. If you’re not a centrally contracted player, that’s the way you get treated. That’s always been the case as long as I’ve been involved – not had too much communication with people when I’ve been out of the set-up. Maybe that’s a bit wrong, I don’t know. Hopefully when the selectors come down – it’s still early season – I can find out what I need to do to get back in the England team.How is Hampshire life post Warne?
It’s pretty good. It wasn’t a huge shock that he didn’t come back – we weren’t really expecting him to, so we were prepared for the post-Warnie era. It’s a good thing for us as we need to move on. We’ve had that stage of learning from Warnie who has been absolutely brilliant, but there’s always going to be a time when he has to retire and move on. We just need to keep doing what we were doing, but so far the atmosphere’s been great and everyone’s really keen to get going. It was pretty relaxed with Warnie around, as it is now, apart from the odd occasion … obviously Warnie’s fairly passionate and wants to win, and he made us fight all the time. But we’re quite relaxed, while trying to be aggressive at the same time.

Perhaps it was just that the shock of it was too much, but Shoaib Malik’s press conference after Pakistan’s heaviest defeat (in terms of runs) was surprisingly – and happily – free of rancour

Osman Samiuddin in Lahore24-Jan-2009

Perhaps it was just that the shock of it was too much, but Shoaib Malik’s press conference after Pakistan’s heaviest defeat (in terms of runs) was surprisingly – and happily – free of rancour.There was no screaming and shouting of accusations – not questions – generally associated with such losses, no ultra-defensive responses from an ultra-sensitive captain. About the only concern from it was how unperturbed Malik seemed by Pakistan’s loss, eager to wash it off as just a bad day at the office.A bad day might mean you turn up to the office late, get told off by the boss and spend the rest of it in an unproductive sulk. An equivalent for what Pakistan produced today would be not turning up at all, then calling up the boss, telling him he’s an incompetent idiot and expecting to turn up the next day, job still safe.Malik’s men were an unthinking mess today, the day it mattered most. Even in the only period – the first 15 overs of their fielding – when things, fortune apart, seemed to go their way, they were wasteful. Salman Butt let a chance from Tillakaratne Dilshan go through him at point when he was on 1; it has happened often enough to make a nonsense of Malik’s equally unthinking defense of it.Today, and many times previous, he has repeated that anyone can drop catches and that everybody does it. The points he misses, or chooses to ignore, is, one, others doing it doesn’t make it right that you continue to do so. Two, Pakistan still miss more than most.From there on, the day got worse. The middle overs of Sri Lanka’s batting were bereft of threat as Malik, Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal neither stopped runs nor took wickets. It has been a recent pattern, and though Afridi generally provides a handy run-controlling option, he rarely looks like unlocking a strong middle order.”Whenever a batsman is settled in and gets a good start, the bowling automatically becomes defensive in that period,” Malik said. “To get someone out then is difficult if the start is a decent one and the aim is to bowl as many dot-balls as possible in that time.”A re-jig in Pakistan’s batting order as they began their chase didn’t help the situation. Younis Khan opened instead of Salman Butt, apparently because Butt had been off the field for the last two overs of Sri Lanka’s innings. Thus, he couldn’t come out to bat until that time had passed and it wasn’t revealed whether he had to so urgently go off the field as to disrupt team planning or whether they just had not thought about it.In any case the chase was not going to be an easy one, given the target and the conditions. The first overs of both innings were crucial; Mahela Jayawardene praised his openers for fighting that period out before opening up. Malik was left to rue his top-order not surviving it, crashing to 30 for 6. “The first ten overs were difficult given the conditions, but they were crucial,” he said. “The lights were on and the ball was swinging and seaming around. The overcast weather didn’t help either.”The end result was Pakistan again producing an inconsistency against a strong team that boggles the rational mind. Not to worry, Malik assured everyone. They are on the job, though the nuts and bolts of the plan were absent. “Overall, I think consistency is a problem with Pakistan, but we are working on it. Any team can collapse on a given day. You can’t decide about players and teams on just one match. Every day is a new day and we will work to improve in all three areas.”Eighteen months into his captaincy, a similar mantra to explain each loss,
perhaps it’s time Malik got started.

No fireworks from Smith and Gibbs but an enjoyable game nonetheless, at freezing St George’s Park

Barry de Klerk03-May-2009Team supported
Rajasthan Royals. Last year, because of Graeme Smith and also their underdog
status; this year also because of the way Shane Warne leads the team.Key performer
Yusuf Pathan. He bowled and fielded well. Then when he came in to bat he used the platform established for him and left his successors with an easy target.One thing I’d have changed about the match
Batting form for Smith. A mute switch for the stadium announcer. Oops, two things.Key face-off
The indirect one between Smith and Gibbs. Today it was a case of may-the-least-hopeless-man-win, but maybe Smith will regain his form for in time for the Twenty20 World Cup.Star-spotting
How could anybody at a cricket field be a bigger star than Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist or Graeme Smith? Of course the perennial star at St George’s is the band, today resplendent in blue turbans.Wow moment

Venugopal Rao dropping Shane Warne in between two sixes.Cheerleader factor
The Royals’ cheerleaders turned up in three different colour schemes. The yellow Royals cheerleaders did once seem to dance for the Deccans, while the skimpy blue Royals cheerleaders were so far away I could barely photograph them even with a telephoto lens.Crowd meter
Just over 12,000 people, less than for the previous two matches. Season-ticket seats and related seats, presumably bought for tax reasons, stayed empty. Crowd alive, but not humming like last week. Old stand, where the band is, still the place to be for the buzz.Local hero
Neither Smith nor Gibbs did well, neither got a lot of response, unlike JP Duminy the other day, who got the whole “” from the old stand. “?” “” is “thing”, often also used for a person. “” is much more complicated to translate. When used for food it means “tasty” or “delicious”. Once, on tour in the West Indies, Gibbs got a Man-of-the-Match award after a spectacular innings, and Desmond Haynes in handing the award to him
said “Herschelle, that was a lekker innings.” “Lekker” is one of those words that makes Afrikaans such a lekker languageEntertainment
We had an winner called Heinz Winkler performing during the breaks. He was slightly less dismal than some of the other entertainers at previous games.Banner of the Day
“I escaped from prison to be here”Marks out of 10
9. Great match, including pressure and panic, but a subdued crowd. Last week’s crowd would have combined very nicely with this week’s game. Bloody cold on the Duckpond Stand. I left on a high. Great fun.

A combination of bold captaincy and intelligent bowling won Deccan the game against Chennai

Kanishkaa Balachandran at the MA Chidambaram Stadium15-Mar-2010One delivery summed up Deccan Chargers’ terrific bowling performance. Pragyan Ojha had just been dumped over long-off for six by Justin Kemp. Two balls later, the left-arm spinner had his man. Ojha wasn’t afraid to flight it again, slower this time. Kemp sashayed down the track, attempting another tee-off, but was deceived by the change of pace and the length, which wasn’t right to loft or drive. The ball turned, beat the edge and landed safely in Adam Gilchrist’s gloves for an easy stumping, a classic orthodox left-arm spinner’s trap.A combination of bold captaincy and intelligent bowling won Deccan the game. Andrew Symonds and Herschelle Gibbs gave them 190 to defend but Chennai boasted a formidable batting line-up. When Deccan began their defence, two experienced hands, one retired the other on the verge of it, combined to deal body blows to Chennai’s chase.Chaminda Vaas has proved a surprise package despite his experience in international cricket. He had underperformed in seven games during the first two IPL seasons. Not in this one though. A double-wicket maiden in the opening over against Kolkata Knight Riders was followed by figures of 3 for 21 tonight, including the wicket of the dangerous Matthew Hayden. Whether his future with Sri Lanka undergoes similar revival remains to be seen, but Vaas is enjoying this game as much as his captain, the retired Gilchrist, whose intensity and involvement helped Deccan earn their first points.Gilchrist’s captaincy was different today: he used unconventional fields, made bold bowling changes, and gesticulated urgently to keep his fielders alert. The performances of Chennai offspinners, R Ashwin and Muttiah Muralitharan, convinced Gilchrist that spin was the way to go and he deployed it as early as possible. His decision to give T Suman the 18th over against Kolkata – where he leaked 16 runs – was one of the factors that had cost Deccan the match, but Gilchrist wasn’t afraid to experiment again. He tossed the ball to the part-timer Rohit Sharma and not the specialist Ojha in the second over. Hayden biffed the first three deliveries straight to fielders and the fifth for six, but Rohit would have settled for four dot balls.Gilchrist made four bowling changes in the first nine overs and didn’t allow Chennai’s batsmen to settle, forcing them to review their plans. His field placements during the Powerplay trumped those of Dhoni’s. Realising the futility of a slip, Gilchrist used a short cover instead to plug the off side. As batsmen tried to jab the ball past the infield, the fielder was agile enough to slide and save runs.His tactics were backed up by Vaas, who made hitting through the line difficult and took three important wickets. A frustrated M Vijay was beaten by movement and lost leg stump after a failed charge. Suresh Raina gifted his wicket with a rash shot but the crucial blow was Hayden’s dismissal.Gilchrist’s field placing was significant. Standing up to the stumps to prevent Hayden from striding down the track, he pushed first slip deep. The next ball from Vaas was full outside the off stump, and Hayden attempted something different – paddle scooping into RP Singh’s hands at short fine leg. The packed off side field had made Hayden look for gaps on the leg and his execution failed him. Vaas then sent down five successive dot balls and completed his second wicket maiden of the tournament.Following Hayden’s exit for 17, an impatient S Badrinath made room against Ojha and picked out the fielder at deep extra cover, an effective position for a batsman trying to loft a left-arm spinner with the turn. Gilchrist’s tactics were spot on and Deccan had already snatched four wickets within the first six overs.Four overs later, Kemp too was on his way. Deccan had let Kolkata off the hook, after they had them in strife at 31 for 4, and ensured they didn’t repeat mistake tonight. They also exposed a chink in the Chennai batting. The backup for Hayden and Raina – should they fail – isn’t as stable as it looks on paper. And Dhoni can only do so much on his own.

Barry Richards hardly got any opportunities to show his talent on the international stage, but he still managed to prove how great a batsman he was

S Rajesh07-Nov-2010The biggest compliment to Barry Richards, in the context of the Legends of Cricket series, is the fact that he finds a place in this elite list despite having played a mere four Test matches. In those four Tests – all in a home series against Australia – Richards gave more than a glimpse of just what international world cricket was missing, but his reputation as one of the very best batsmen to ever play the game was built mostly on his exploits in first-class matches – where he played mainly for Hampshire, Natal and South Australia – and, of course, in Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Richards finished with a first-class tally of 28,358 runs, 80 centuries and an average of 54.74, but even these numbers don’t do full justice to the sort of batsman he was. Here’s a sample of some of his first-class achievements:

• Between 1968 and 1976, when Richards played in the English county championship for Hampshire, his average in the competition was in the top 20 in each season. During this period he scored 15,607 first-class runs for the county at an average of 50.51.
• Three times he carried his bat through a completed innings in first-class cricket, including an instance for Hampshire against Nottinghamshire in 1974, when he scored an unbeaten 225 out of a team total of only 344.
• His highest first-class score of 356 came in 1970-71 for South Australia against Western Australia, a team whose bowling attack included Dennis Lillee, Graham McKenzie and Tony Lock. Of the 356, 325 came in one day, off a mere 322 balls, as Richards slammed 44 fours and a six. Only five players had scored more than 325 in a day in first-class cricket anywhere in the world, and Richards became the third batsman to score 300 in a day in Australian first-class history.
• Nine times he scored a century before lunch; five of those were made on the first day of the match.
• During his time with Natal, he scored four centuries in a season four times.

And then, of course, there were Richards’ classy performances in World Series Cricket. His knocks in first-class cricket had made him a much sought-after name, and the deal was clinched when he went to Perth to play league cricket for Midland-Guildford in the 1976-77 season. As he confirmed later, money wasn’t the main reason he signed on the dotted line: “The money was only incidental to a last opportunity to play in the company of world-class cricketers again.”In the first of the three Supertests he played that season for WSC World XI, in Sydney, Richards got starts in both innings but couldn’t convert them into huge scores, scoring 57 and 48. Then came a truly magnificent display in the second match, which justified all the hype. Opening the innings with his Hampshire team-mate Gordon Greenidge, Richards scored a wonderful 207, adding 234 for the opening wicket before Greenidge was forced to retire hurt. That brought the other great Richards, Viv, to the wicket, and for the next few hours the Australian bowlers didn’t know what hit them. Viv was generally a more destructive batsman, but on this day Barry outshone him, scoring 93 in the next 90 minutes, even as Viv made only 41. When Barry finally fell, the scoreboard read 369 for 1 in 60 eight-ball overs.In the next Supertest, Barry made a half-century in the first innings but fell for a duck in the second as WSC World XI, chasing 272 for victory, fell 41 runs short. He finished the three matches with an aggregate of 388 runs in five innings, second only to Viv’s 502. (Click here for more details.)In the next season there was another Richards special, this time in the final of the World Series Supertests: in a tense, low-scoring game, where neither team had scored more than 219, WSC World XI needed to score 224 in the fourth innings. Richards stamped his presence on the chase with an outstanding unbeaten 101; the next-highest score from one of his team-mates in either innings was 44. At 84 for 4 the Australians had a slight edge, but Richards took on Dennis Lillee and Gary Gilmour and ultimately led his team to a five-wicket win.Overall Barry Richards played only five Supertests, but he clearly left his mark – in eight innings he scored two hundreds and two fifties and averaged almost 80, which was easily the highest. Since he wasn’t from Australia or West Indies he didn’t play as many matches as the others, but that’s hardly his fault.

However, in the one-dayers, called the International Cup ODIs, Richards wasn’t as successful, averaging less than 24 and scoring only two half-centuries in 19 innings. As the table below shows, though, most of the other top players didn’t do much better either.

And then, of course, there was the small matter of his Test record. Richards got only seven innings to prove his class in Test cricket, but he did a pretty good job of utilising those chances. His opponents in all those four Tests were Australia, who came into the series having won their two previous ones, against West Indies at home and India in India. In South Africa, though, they were no match for the home team, and Richards did his bit to vanquish the visitors. Against a bowling attack that included Garth McKenzie, Alan Connolly and John Gleeson, Richards scored 508 runs at an average of 72.57. Only Graeme Pollock made more runs – he topped the averages with 517 runs at 73.85.Richards scored only 29 in his first Test innings, in Cape Town, but that was to be his lowest score, as he went from strength to strength in his next three matches. His best innings of the series came in the next Test, in Durban, when he scored an outstanding 140 off a mere 164 balls, completely dominating the Australians. Just how unstoppable he was is apparent from the fact that out of a lunchtime score of 126 for 2 on the first day, Richards’ contribution was an unbeaten 94. Six more runs would have made him the fourth batsman at the time, and the fifth overall, to score a century before lunch on the first day of a Test. After lunch the South African fans were treated to some of the best strokeplay seen in the country: Richards and Pollock creamed 103 runs in the hour after the break, before Richards fell for 140. Pollock went on to score 274, and the Australians were crushed by an innings and 129 runs.In the next Test, Richards scored 65 and 35, before finishing off the series with knocks of 81 and 126; South Africa swept both Tests by more than 300 runs. That series could have kickstarted a phenomenal Test career. Unfortunately for cricket, South Africa’s isolation meant Richards joined a select band of players to have scored a century in their last Test match.Bibliography
, Geoff Armstrong

India’s bowling unit overcame the absence of Zaheer Khan to achieve what had been expected of the hosts at the start of the series

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Nov-2010Saturday was a grey day in the New Zealand dressing room with news
filtering through of the mishap at the Pike River coal mine on the South
Island, and some decidedly average batting on a none-too-spiteful pitch
only worsened the mood by the close of play. Until Jesse Ryder and Brendon
McCullum, battling physical limitations as much as the bowling or the
conditions, stitched together a 42-run stand, it was all India, cutting a
swathe through the line-up as they had been expected to before the series
started.It was ironic that this capitulation came in circumstances where New
Zealand should have most fancied their chances. They had won the toss, at
a venue where the team batting first has won both previous matches
emphatically, and had to contend with an attack deprived of Zaheer Khan,
India’s best bowler by a street and then some.In the talisman’s absence though, Sreesanth stepped up to show glimpses of
the potential that was on view at the Wanderers four years ago when he
sent South Africa tumbling to 84 all out. One of his better spells in
recent times was at Kanpur a year ago, when he wrecked Sri Lanka with the
old ball and reverse swing. Here, he was back to doing what he had done so
well for two Tests in South Africa, landing the new ball on a good length
while getting beautiful shape through the air.The seam was bolt upright and Martin Guptill had little chance with one
that squared him up completely, while Tim McIntosh was horribly late in
bringing the bat down after Sreesanth got one to deviate a smidgen off the
straight. At the other end, Ishant Sharma was erratic, but his height and
extra pace hurried the batsmen in a way they hadn’t been in the previous two
Tests.There was opening-day joy for the spinners too, even though the surface
was no 1990s-style dustbowl. “It was a bit slow, but doing something for
the spinners,” said Pragyan Ojha after the day’s play. Kane Williamson
went to a half-hearted bunt, but the ball that got Gareth Hopkins was a
beauty, turning across him to take the edge.With Harbhajan Singh piling on the runs in the absence of wickets, much of
the focus after India’s failure to win the first two Tests has been on
Ojha’s role as the auxiliary spinner. MS Dhoni keeps stressing how he’s
the one to keep things quiet and Ojha, a strike bowler when with
Hyderabad, insisted that he has no qualms about the role that he has to
play.”When you’re playing for the country and the team needs you to do
something, that’s what you should do,” he said. “When the wicket’s
turning, you have to attack. When it’s in the batsmen’s favour, I feel
that if we give loose runs, it’s us that have to make them later.”I know I have to bowl very straight, but I don’t bowl negatively. Yes,
I’m trying to contain the runs but I’m still attacking the stumps.”If India missed a trick, it was when Ryder and McCullum were batting
together. There weren’t enough well-directed bouncers to force McCullum
into urgent evasive action and the spinners, too, didn’t often draw either
man out of the crease to stretch already aching muscles. It took a
wonderful catch from Suresh Raina to end the impasse, and with rain in the
air, that could be a priceless breakthrough in the context of the game.
Even on one leg, Ryder looked a class apart.

India have lost four of their last five first Tests in overseas series against the top teams, which suggests it’s becoming an unwanted habit for the side

S Rajesh20-Dec-2010The curse of the first Test has struck again for India in an overseas game. The innings defeat in Centurion means India must now win at least one of the next two matches to return home without a series defeat. Of course, if their aim is more humble – to retain their No.1 ranking – then all they need to do is draw one of those games, but a team which has so many stalwarts will surely have greater aspirations. The Centurion defeat, though, has just made the task harder for the visitors, and it opens up, yet again, India’s tendency to begin poorly on tours.It’s been a recurring theme of several of India’s overseas campaigns – lose the first Test, and then try and make up the damage through the remainder of the series. In their last five tours to one of the top eight countries (including the current tour), India have lost the series opener four times – against Sri Lanka in 2008 and 2010, and against Australia in 2007. The only glorious exception was the tour to New Zealand, where India won the first Test, and then went on to draw the next two to win the series. They’d won the first Test on their previous tour to South Africa as well, in 2006-07, but on that tour India slipped in the next two matches, losing both of them and the series.Since the beginning of 2000, India have played 16 overseas series (excluding the ones in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh). They’ve lost the first Test eight times and won only thrice. There was a period between 2003 and 2007 when India seemed to have rid themselves of this bad habit, not losing the first game for six series in a row (in Australia, twice in Pakistan, in West Indies, England and South Africa), but over the last three years the habit has crept in again.As the table below indicates, India’s results tend to go up after the first Test – they’ve won less than 19% of the first games, but in subsequent matches they’ve won ten out of 35 – a percentage of almost 29. Similarly, the loss percentage comes down from 50 in first Tests to 34 in subsequent games.On the seven previous occasions when India have lost the first Test of an away series since 2000, only twice have they come back to level the series – in England in 2002 and in Sri Lanka earlier this year.

After the match, MS Dhoni seemed to indicate that India tend to start a series poorly even at home, but recent numbers don’t bear that out. In 18 home series since 2000 (excluding a couple against Zimbabwe), India have lost the first match only four times, of which two were before 2002. They’ve won five and drawn nine.India’s batting failure in the first innings ultimately cost them the Test, so here’s a look at how India’s top order has fared in first Tests overseas since 2000 (in countries excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe). Virender Sehwag failed in the first innings in Centurion, but his overall first-Test average is splendid – 59.42, with four centuries in 12 Tests, including two in excess of 250. Sachin Tendulkar is equally impressive, with a first-Test average of almost 58, and four centuries, in Bloemfontein, Multan, Hamilton and Centurion.The others, though, have clearly underperformed. Rahul Dravid averages ten below his overall average in these countries during this period, but his recent starts to series have been even more dismal: in the last four years he averages only 21.69 in first Tests, with one half-century in 14 innings. Gautam Gambhir averages less than 40 in the first Tests but more than 70 thereafter, while the situation is somewhat similar for VVS Laxman: an average of 37.86 in the first Tests, which goes up to 56.30 in the second, and 50.57 in the third. Going by these numbers, South Africa should be prepared to be out in the field for much longer in the next couple of matches.

The most impressive aspect of South Africa’s performances on the way to the quarter-finals has been the way they have tried different tactics in all their matches, and almost all have paid off

Firdose Moonda in Mirpur24-Mar-2011Three matches stand between South African cricket and history. Not just any three matches: three knockout matches. It’s reached that stage of the tournament that South Africa has never summited before. As much as they don’t want to be reminded of it, they have always looked capable of going all the way; now more so than ever, because of the new attitude and sharpness of focus that they’ve come into this tournament with.South Africa were unusually experimental in choosing their XV, including 11 World Cup debutants, three frontline spinners and leaving out experienced finishers like Mark Boucher and Albie Morkel. Their squad was not picked based on reputation, but rather they were the 15 players that the selection committee thought would best suit conditions in the subcontinent: people who could bowl and bat against spin; combinations that would exude subtlety and not brute force; and those who were being rewarded for seasons of good form. It was a clear break away from the norm.Everyone, they said, was on an equal footing; this wouldn’t be an effort by 11 playing members and four water boys, but a collective mission in which everybody would be integral. The players wouldn’t go on this journey alone; the coaching staff and the support staff, which includes the psychologist who was with the Springbok rugby team when they became World Champions in 2007, would be with them every step of the way. All of them arrived wearing green wristbands with, among other things, the abbreviation RAFT – resilience, adaptability, faith, trust – as a way to remind themselves of what they were coming out to achieve.This is the kind of softer thinking that wasn’t there before, although they were able to retain the element that made it seem as though they were preparing to go to war and there was more at stake to this than a trophy. Even when you add pride and take into account the long wait South Africa have had for this, there was something bordering on gimmicky about the build-up.It may have been driven and borrowed from what happened during the football World Cup in South Africa nine months ago. Then, an initiative called Football Friday encouraged people to wear the national team jersey on Fridays, which got switched to a cricket initiative in the World Cup period. Some of the football marketing bordered on jingoistic and the marketers this time threatened to go mad again. Luckily, the team did not.Their actions on the field have reflected a seriousness, dedication and commitment that have created a real reason to believe that this tournament will be different. Every match has had its standout moment or period of brilliance for South Africa; in each contest they’ve had a plan that’s worked.There was the masterstroke of opening the bowling with Johan Botha against West Indies’ left-handed opening pair. He removed Chris Gayle with his third ball. There was the way they built an innings of 351 for 5 against Netherlands after a slow start, with JP Duminy’s 40 off 15 balls propelling them at the end. In the third game, they exploited the weakness of Kevin Pietersen by using left-armer Robin Peterson to open the bowling, and he was able to bag not just one but three early wickets. The rest of that match didn’t go according to plan and the batting collapsed on a difficult pitch, exposing what then looked like a fragile middle order.Come game four, against India, that was rectified. The bowling attack had to do a powerful reining in job when the Indian batsmen got off to a flier, but then it was up to the batting to chase down a big total. AB de Villiers’ half-century was the core and then Faf du Plessis, Botha and Peterson finished it off. By that stage, South Africa looked to have played the perfect game, seeing off pressure and winning when it mattered, but they didn’t take the foot off the brake.Against Ireland, the middle order had to perform again and then Morne Morkel’s exemplary use of extra bounce sealed the match. Bangladesh saw the strength of the reserves come through, with Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s opening spell showing that five weeks on the sidelines had only had an enhancing effect on his bowling.Throughout the group stage, South Africa’s performances have been the result of careful planning and intelligent execution. They’ve shown more flexibility than South African teams have ever displayed in the past. They have not been scared to innovate, to try different strategies and to take risks. More importantly, they have also been able to improvise when it’s been needed most, because the ride to the top of the group has had its moments of stickiness.When they lost early wickets against West Indies, de Villiers and Hashim Amla’s level heads carried the chase; when they were off to a slow start against the Dutch, they left the burst for the right moment; the loss to England, on a tricky surface and in a pressure situation was turned into a positive, one the team say they have learned from and will know how to deal with when the situation comes around again; they treated Ireland and Bangladesh as a strong team should treat a lesser one; and now they find themselves three matches away from greatness.Smith has said they won’t change their attitudes; they’ll keep playing their process-driven form of cricket and they know the results will come. They may need to change something tactically; they may need to think on their feet and adjust their game plans, as in the space of 100 overs the game will change. They may need to change with it, but from what South Africa have shown, they will.

With his pace and bounce, Marchant de Lange made a massive impression in the most important match of his career so far

Firdose Moonda02-Nov-2011After dismissing both Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson for ducks off consecutive deliveries, 21-year-old Marchant de Lange faced the biggest moment of his 14-match first-class career. A hat-trick against Australia in a tour match would not have elevated him to immediate Test-player status, but it would have made a strong statement about his credentials. Peter Siddle took guard, de Lange walked to his mark, thought about what he wanted to do and ran in.Unexpectedly, he banged in a wayward bouncer that was called wide.There was a giggle, on the field and later, off it, when de Lange was asked what he was thinking. “I was in two minds,” he said grinning. “Some of the guys got into my head. It wasn’t the ideal ball to bowl.”It didn’t matter, because even without a magical three wickets in three balls, de Lange made a massive impression in the most important match of his career so far. His five-wicket haul, included three wickets in five balls and four in the space of three overs, and the pace and bounce he achieved suggested a bowler of genuine promise.On a pitch that has offered assistance to the bowlers throughout the match, de Lange was presented with a perfect surface to show off his skills. At 1.9 metres tall, his height gives him an immediate advantage and on a pitch where bounce was on offer for bowlers who can exploit it, he was in his element. “The game-plan was to bowl back of a length and I hit the deck hard.”Like many top-class South African quicks, such as Allan Donald and Dale Steyn, de Lange does not come from one of the traditional cricketing schools. The agricultural town of Tzaneen in the Limpopo province, not far from Steyn’s hometown of Phalaborwa, is where de Lange was brought up and schooled.He played a range of sports at school, including javelin-throwing, which has been responsible for his unusually short run up. “I used to really enjoy my athletics and I also played a bit of hockey,” he said. Cricket was also part of his education at Hoerskool Ben Vorster but he missed out on playing at under-19 level for the province because of a stress fracture to his ankle.He was spotted by Northerns Provincial Union scouts and moved the 420 kilometres down the road to Centurion after the guidance of former Titans coach Chris van Noordwyk, who played a key role in assimilating de Lange with the franchise. After a handful of matches for the amateur Easterns side, he was picked for the national academy this winter and Lange made his SuperSport Series debut in September against the Knights and, again, immediately caught the eye.He took five wickets in the fixture and earned the praise of two, important figures in South African cricket, former opening batsmen Boeta Dippenaar and former national coach, Corrie van Zyl. Dippenaar was playing for the Knights in that game and said his team-mate, Reeza Hendricks, who faced both de Lange and Morne Morkel in that match, “was convinced that Marchant bowled quite a bit faster than Morne.” De Lange called Dippenaar’s words of encouragement, “an excellent compliment.”van Zyl, who is now a selector, also had praise for de Lange after the first game. “He his good lengths and gets the ball to rise up from a length” he said. “I liked it that he was at batsmen all the time because of the bounce.”de Lange was included in the South Africa A side to face Australia as part of a plan to find and develop fast bowlers. “We have identified a few bowlers and we wanted to give Marchant this opportunity to see what he could do,” van Zyl said. ‘I’m glad to see he has taken it.”His display today has also eased concerns that South Africa’s fast-bowling supply cupboard is running dry, something that was being talked about recently. “A couple of months ago people were asking what we would do if one of Steyn or Morkel got injured,” van Zyl said. “Now we can see that we have solutions.”