For a variety of reasons – not least that West Indies played very well – his debut as skipper ended in defeat

George Dobell12-Jul-2020It will surprise nobody that Ben Stokes was bowling at the end. With a miracle required and his bowling colleagues spent, Stokes was the man who took the responsibility. It was a similar story in Leeds and Colombo and Cape Town.This time it didn’t work out. For a variety of reasons – not least that West Indies played very well – his captaincy debut ended in defeat.Because of that it’s likely that Stokes’ brief reign as England’s Test captain may not be remembered favourably. People will look at the major decisions he made before the start of the game – notably the omission of Stuart Broad and resolving to bat first – and conclude he was simply incorrect.But the truth isn’t that simple. There was actually much to admire in Stokes’ captaincy. It wasn’t just that he top-scored for England in the first innings and the match or that he took most wickets for them in the first innings. It was that he was prepared to take brave decisions, he was prepared to lead from the front and he clearly had the unstinting support of his team. Judging purely by results is simplistic; Stokes looked a very good captain.ALSO READ: Blackwood, Gabriel heroes as Windies seal famous victoryFirstly that decision at the toss. It is true the pitch – which was effectively only used for four days – probably didn’t deteriorate as much as England hoped it would. And it is true England ended up bowling in the nicest weather of the game.But it is also true the bounce became more variable. And it is true there was ever more assistance for the spin of Dom Bess. Perhaps, had England managed another 50 or so runs across their two innings – and they really should have done – it is a decision that would have been fully vindicated. It certainly wasn’t an unreasonable decision.Stokes insisted he had “no regrets” about leaving out Broad, too. And that’s fair. For while Broad may well have been a useful addition to the attack in West Indies’ first innings, there is every chance he would have looked pretty impotent in their second. He has, remember, claimed only one five-wicket haul in his last 28 home Tests; it would be a mistake to believe he has suddenly become a destroyer again. Besides, the bowling really wasn’t England’s issue in this game.But there was an interesting caveat attached to Stokes’ ‘no regrets’ phrase that hinted at impressive depths of empathy with his teammates.”I stand by my decision because if I didn’t, what message would that send to the guys I did pick?” Stokes said. And he’s right: if he were to talk about how much his team missed Broad, it would only lead to Mark Wood and Jofra Archer feeling they were being blamed for the defeat. Archer, in particular, bowled very well in the second innings. Wood bowled better than his figures suggest. Their selections weren’t necessarily wrong; they just didn’t fully work out.The episode revealed aspects of Stokes’ character we don’t always get to see, too. So impressive were his communication skills, he even won praise from Broad for the manner in which his omission was handled.”He has been exceptional,” Broad wrote in his Mail on Sunday column. “He knocked on my hotel room door at 9pm on Thursday and asked for a chat. He said: ‘This is nothing about cricket. I just wanted to know how you’re feeling.’ That was a classy touch and the sort of thing that leads teams forward. If there were any doubts from the outside on how he would deal with being a captain, how he has conducted himself with me should dispel them.”

“I’ve got a good relationship with Jofra. He trusts me a lot and that goes beyond the field. I just asked him to leave nothing out there for me and run through a brick wall. And he did it.”Ben Stokes

It’s instructive to look at the way Stokes handled Archer, too. There have been times in Archer’s brief international career when he has both been over bowled – the Mount Maunganui Test being the nadir of that – and looked a bit unsure what his role was at specific times. Here, after bowling an excellent opening spell which featured a full, probing length and enough lateral movement to trouble all the batsmen, he returned with an older ball to deliver a wonderfully hostile spell.Again, it didn’t work out. But it was a riveting passage of cricket and a reminder that, while he might not be the finished article yet, Archer really could develop into a complete fast bowler.Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes celebrate the dismissal of Roston Chase•AFP via Getty ImagesBut the more pertinent point is, Archer knew exactly what was expected of him at all times and, with the clarity in mind, gave his captain everything he had.”I’ve got a good relationship with Jofra,” Stokes said afterwards. “I think he trusts me a lot and that goes beyond the field. I just asked him to leave nothing out there for me and run through a brick wall. And he did it.”To have someone like that who can go in and out of different scenarios of how you want him to bowl is great. He’s skilful with the new ball and we’ve seen what he can do with the old one: crank it up.”The point is, these decisions about selection and what to do at the toss aren’t necessarily right or wrong. They can be made to look that way by subsequent events but they are generally based on sound logic. It wasn’t the decision to bat first or the decision to leave out Broad that cost England.In the end, it was the smaller details that made the difference. Twice England saw wickets overruled after it transpired their bowlers (Archer and Stokes respectively) had over-stepped. Within a few minutes on the final afternoon, several opportunities to dismiss Blackwood were squandered, notably when Jos Buttler dropped him down the leg side off Stokes on 20. He might also have been caught on 8 and both run-out and caught on 29. Had any of those chances been taken, Stokes’ decision at the toss might have been seen to be inspired.Ben Stokes is left to rue some missed chances by his fielders•AFP via Getty ImagesCrucially, Stokes was also was let down by his team’s batting. In both innings, England batsmen were guilty of soft dismissals that precipitated collapses (4-39 in the first innings; 5-30 in the second). Very few Tests are won by teams which elect to bat first and post only 204 in their first innings. The decision to persist with Joe Denly (who is averaging 24.14 this year) and Buttler (who is averaging 21.38 in 11 Tests in the last year) is hurting England.”We’ll look back, particularly as a batting unit, and understand that when we get into positions, like we did in the first and second innings, we need to be really ruthless,” Stokes said. “We have to understand that when we are on top, we cannot give it back to the opposition. If we had another 60 or 80 runs to play with on the final day, it would have been a different game. We had opportunities to do that in both innings.”Most of all, though, England came up against a side who played very well. At different times in the match, Jason Holder, Shannon Gabriel and Alzarri Joseph bowled beautiful spells. And, at various times, Kraigg Brathwaite, Roston Chase and Shane Dowrich put a price on their wicket that England’s batsmen would do well to emulate. In Holder they have an impressive leader of their own. His side have won four of the last six Tests between the sides. This isn’t an aberration.In the grand scheme of things, the bigger issue is that this Test took place. And, with the eyes of the cricket-loving world upon it, we were treated to a slow-burning classic that provided a reminder of the sport’s enduring charms. Whether you were supporting England, West Indies or just pleased to see cricket back on your TV, that is something to celebrate. We could have an enthralling series on our hands.

Highlights of India’s pace spearhead from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, in which he has taken 11 wickets in three Tests

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jan-2021Joe Burns, lbw, Adelaide, 1st innings
Bumrah started the Test series bowling a little too short but made an immediate adjustment and went fuller and straight in his second spell. He got one right up, almost yorker length, to Joe Burns and trapped him in front of middle. The ball tailed in a little and was bowled at 141.3kph, enough to beat Burns’ attempted leg-side flick and leave Australia in trouble at 29 for 2.Joe Burns, c Rishabh Pant, MCG, 1st innings
After Australia won the toss and chose to bat in the second Test, it was important for India to get early wickets. Bumrah provided one with a delivery that was angled in at Burns and then held its line to take the edge. Bumrah chose to go with a line just outside off to Burns early, but the angle, delivered from wide and coming back into the right-hander, forced the batsman to play at most balls.Travis Head, c Ajinkya Rahane, MCG, 1st innings
Head had got himself in and helped take Australia past 100 with just three wickets down. His partnership with Marnus Labuschagne was looking ominous for India when Rahane brought Bumrah back for a third spell. What made this dismissal impressive was the set up. Bumrah bowled three sharp short balls to Head from around the wicket, pushing him onto the back foot. Then came one slightly fuller and outside off. Head was stuck on the back foot and pushed at it tentatively, getting a thick edge that carried to gully.Steven Smith, bowled, MCG, 2nd innings
Bumrah had attacked Smith’s stumps often through the series and at a crucial juncture at Melbourbe went back to the tactic. Smith exposes his leg stump when he walks across but is rarely actually bowled around the legs. This delivery from Bumrah, though, was quick, at 140.2kph, and on the perfect length. It beat Smith’s attempted leg glance and just clipped the bail. Australia were already under pressure after conceding a big first-innings lead and losing their best batsman just when he was looking good put them in a difficult spot.Pat Cummins, c Mayank Agarwal, MCG, 2nd innings
India had reached a dominant position in the Boxing Day Test after reducing Australia to 99 for 6 in the second innings, but Cameron Green and Pat Cummins put up some resistance with a 57-run partnership. Bumrah ended it on the fourth morning with a brute of a bouncer that hit Cummins on the glove as he looked to fend, went on to hit the helmet and looped up to second slip.Cameron Green, lbw, SCG, 1st innings
Australia were in a dominant position on the second day at the SCG before Ravindra Jadeja took two wickets to leave them 232 for 4. Then, Bumrah got his hands on the new ball and pursued the line that had been so productive for him, attacking the stumps. He got India right back into the game with two quick strikes. One seamed back off a length at Cameron Green and hit him in front of off to send him back for a duck.Tim Paine, bowled, SCG, 1st innings
Four overs later, Bumrah clean bowled Tim Paine through the gate. This one swung back a bit in the air and was pitched full. It seemed to beat Paine for pace too and went between bat and pad to hit off stump.

Mohammad Salahuddin and Nazmul Abedeen Fahim are the men the likes of Shakib Al Hasan turn to repeatedly when they need advice

Mohammad Isam30-Oct-2020It wasn’t a huge surprise that Shakib Al Hasan chose Bangladesh Krira Shikka Protishtan (BKSP) as the setting for his return to training last month. At the time Bangladesh were still scheduled to tour Sri Lanka and it looked certain that Shakib, who is coming back from a one-year suspension for failing to report a corrupt approach, would be available for the second Test, so he needed to bring his fitness and skills up to speed.BKSP, Shakib’s alma mater, is where he learned to play the game. There is no better place in Bangladesh than this renowned government-run sports institute for an all-round fitness and training experience for elite athletes. It has facilities for 17 sporting disciplines, including cricket, football, athletics and swimming, and also competent sports science and physiotherapy departments. It wasn’t just the facilities that Shakib needed, though.At a time when he needed to reacquaint himself with cricket, he needed Mohammad Salahuddin and Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, his lifelong mentors and two of the most admired coaches in Bangladesh, by his side.Fahim, who is now BKSP’s cricket advisor, was one of the pioneering coaches at the institution. Salahuddin, who went to school and college at BKSP, was the chief cricket coach there from 2000 to 2005. After a stint as Bangladesh’s assistant coach under Jamie Siddons, he became the first local coach to win two BPL titles. Currently he is the head coach of the Dhaka Premier League side Gazi Group Cricketers.ALSO READ: ‘Our boy is coming home’ – Bangladesh eager to welcome back ‘champion’ Shakib Al HasanThe two men have had a lasting influence on a generation of Bangladeshi cricketers who broke the mould to become top-level performers, among them Mushfiqur Rahim, Mominul Haque, Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das.Salahuddin became something of an overnight sensation after he took a diploma in sports coaching from the Sports Authority of India and then, while being chief coach at BKSP, led the unheralded Victoria Sporting Club to consecutive Dhaka Premier League titles in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. He also took Araf Apparels to the Corporate League title in 2004.”Daulat [former Bangladesh cricketer Daulat Uz Zaman] had passed away midway through the season. They appointed me quickly and then we went on to win the title,” Salahuddin says about his appointment as Victoria coach. “It gave me a bit more say in matters of team building and XI selection in the next season. These three titles were my big breakthrough. My confidence changed and I had acceptability. It opened many doors for me.”Among those doors was the one into the national team set-up. Salahuddin impressed Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s head coach at the time, with his fielding drills when the team was training at BKSP, and in 2005 he became the team’s fielding coach.When Siddons took over from Whatmore in 2007, it was a delicate time for Bangladesh, who were under constant pressure to win at home and abroad, and to also prepare their mostly raw players for the highest stage. Siddons saw how the young players communicated with Salahuddin and their respect for him.Champaka Ramanayake, Jamie Siddons and Mohammad Salahuddin (from left) chat during a practice session•Getty Images”Salahuddin was one of the guys I looked up to,” Siddons says. “He had such a great relationship with all the players – they all have great respect for him because of their association with BKSP. He was really close friends with Shakib, Tamim [Iqbal] and Mushfiq. He is also one of the better coaches that I saw in Bangladesh, if not the best one.”Most foreign coaches who have worked in Bangladesh have noted the players’ high regard for Salahuddin and often brought him in to work with them at training camps. When Gary Kirsten made a high-profile audit of Bangladesh cricket couple of years ago, Salahuddin was one of the people he called for a one-on-one meeting.Salahuddin quickly stepped into the role of Siddons’ assistant and helped the likes of Shakib, Iqbal and Rahim grasp the coach’s batting philosophy, which among other things required batsmen to have a high backlift and to produce runs consistently.”He was the go-between for myself and the players,” Siddons says. “He got the best out of them and was a real driving force behind the team’s improvement.”Notably, Salahuddin helped Abdur Razzak overcome a suspension for an illegal bowling action within four months, and also helped him become a better spinner.”When he was first reported [four years previously], Razzak didn’t really fix his action, which is why he was reported a second time,” Salahuddin says. “Everyone had given up on him, and many believed he would never play again. He was told that if he failed the action test a second time, he would have to pay for the next test. But Jamie supported him and gave me time to work with him.”Razzak’s desire and the support from everyone helped him come back. Normally a bowler struggles to find the same level of performance with a new action. Razzak bowled better after he was allowed back into international cricket a second time. I tried to build an action where questions cannot be cast against it again. He had better understanding of spin, and developed in many ways, including his flight.”

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Shakib’s association with Salahuddin has run long and their relationship goes deep. He was Salahuddin’s student at BKSP, and shortly after he emerged into the age-group structure, he played under Salahuddin for Victoria. When he broke through into the Bangladesh team in 2006, Salahuddin was on the coaching staff.Shakib has always called upon either Salahuddin or Fahim for advice whenever he has felt low on confidence. He flew back to Dhaka from the 2018 IPL for a couple of batting sessions with Salahuddin when he found himself in a form slump. Last year he summoned Salahuddin to India when he wasn’t getting matches for the Sunsrisers Hyderabad. Later Shakib said it was this particular period of hard work that prepared him for the 2019 World Cup – in which he became the first player in the history of the tournament to score 600-plus runs and take 11 wickets in a single edition.Abdur Razzak was suspended in 2008 for a suspect bowling action, which Salahuddin helped him correct in four months•Associated Press”As a student, Shakib was unrivalled in his understanding of the game,” Salahuddin says. “I never had to mention anything twice to him. He has developed an understanding of his limitations, which many don’t comprehend about themselves. You will never see Shakib backing down from a challenge.”I can spot anything different with Shakib’s bowling action, which allows me to just nudge him in a certain direction. We don’t talk a lot about technique. It’s more about confidence and comfort. It has a lot to do with his mentality. At a personal level, we share a lot. We can say that we are friends, but it is also a little like a father-son relationship. We have leaned on each other when taking big decisions in our lives.”He speaks about a conversation they had shortly after it had been announced Shakib was the No. 1 ODI allrounder in the ICC’s rankings, in 2009. “That day he stood next to me in the stadium and asked if I had anything to say to him. We had this way of conversing which was actually like banter. I said to him, ‘What should I tell you? The day you become the No. 1 Test allrounder, I will have something to say.’ It was banter, but I also wanted to give him a bigger goal. I think a player must dream big.”Salahuddin was unceremoniously removed from his assistant coach’s role in November 2009 by the BCB, no reason given, and reassigned to the National Cricket Academy. He quit the academy role a couple of years later to go work at a university in Malaysia, but whenever he came home for a holiday during that period, the likes of Shakib, Iqbal, Haque and Nasir Hossain would seek him out for sessions.When he returned permanently, Salahuddin found himself in demand among domestic teams, eventually winning the BPL in 2015 with Comilla Victorians – a feat he repeated in 2019. In between those two wins, the BCB very nearly hired him as a batting consultant ahead of the home series against Australia in 2017, before backing out.

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Salahuddin looks up to Fahim as his lifelong mentor, philosopher and guide.”We have known each other for three decades,” Salahuddin says. “I owe him a lot for what I have become today. He brought me into coaching and gave me my first part-time job in BKSP. His one or two sentences have had major influences in my life. Even now, if I feel demotivated I call sir and it fixes everything.”Fahim is the Bobby Robson to Salahuddin’s Pep Guardiola, and takes pride in mentoring Salahuddin.”We may have similarities in our coaching philosophies, in the way we communicate with players,” Fahim says. “[As a BKSP student] he saw [Sarwar] Imran [BKSP head coach in the 1990s] and me from up close, and I sometimes see some traits of our personalities in him. I know that he respects me a lot.Shahriar Nafees (right) credits his second coming as a batsman to Fahim’s guidance•Mohammad Isam”I think Salahuddin has become a coaching brand in Bangladesh. He is one of our best coaches, which is why the best players and organisers come to him. He has proved his quality.”Fahim himself has had a tremendous influence in Bangladesh cricket. He was one of the first coaches to join BKSP in the late 1980s, a time when coaching wasn’t remotely glamorous. Born and raised in Dhaka, he is the son of a respected banker. Fahim played in the Dhaka league in the 1970s and 1980s before taking up a managerial post in a tea garden in Sylhet.”When I left my job as a tea-estate manager in 1988, I was contemplating going abroad,” he says. “One day Imran invited me to see the newly built BKSP campus and asked if I would be interested in working there.”I started to enjoy the work, and after I stood first [in class] during my [Sports Authority of India] diploma in Patiala in 1989-90, I believed I could do a full-time job in BKSP. I had an offer from Patiala, but I believed that since I was going to take up a passion as a job, I better do it in my motherland.”It was an unusual choice at the time for a person from my family and educational background. Coaching as a job didn’t have social acceptance. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I think I took the right decision.”On my first evening there, I was pleasantly surprised seeing how nicely the likes of [Naimur Rahman] Durjoy and others, who were 14- or 15-year-olds, were batting in the nets. The whole atmosphere of the place with the well-organised sessions and kids dressed properly, which was new in Bangladesh, really struck me.”In the wake of Bangladesh’s seminal win in the 1997 ICC Trophy, BKSP found itself enjoying the government’s backing, and in the forefront of the development of a generation of talented young cricketers.Fahim left the BKSP in 2005 after a 17-year association to become Bangladesh’s Under-19 coach for the 2006 and 2008 World Cups. When he was moved into an administrative role in the BCB’s game-development department, he took charge of building a pathway that ensured cricketers from small towns and villages found their way through the age-group system. That pathway was instrumental in helping Bangladesh build their 2020 Under-19 World Cup-winning team.Fahim, like Salahuddin, has continued to keep working with Bangladesh’s top cricketers at an individual level, informally. He too goes back a long way with Shakib, having overseen his development at BKSP and in age-group teams. Although Fahim hasn’t directly coached Shakib since the 2006 Under-19 World Cup, Shakib has turned to him time and again, including during the 2015 Bangladesh-India Test in Fatullah, when he video-called Fahim to fix something in his bowling action.”I give him my suggestions, which could be about cricket or his personal life,” says Fahim. “He doesn’t need technical knowledge all the time. At times he needs a bit of mental support. Maybe there are things that he can’t view from close range. It is not always that he asks, but there are times when I go ahead and tell him.”Shakib Al Hasan at a training session. “We can say that we are friends, but it is also a little like a father-son relationship,” Salahuddin says of their relationship•Getty ImagesShahriar Nafees, who has had a second coming as a batsman in the last five years of domestic cricket, praises Fahim’s guidance highly. “He has been my batting coach since 2015. He is the most knowledgeable among coaches in Bangladesh. He is the best ever batting coach I have come across, and I have worked with many coaches. Fahim sir picks things up very quickly.”His delivery of knowledge is succinct. One or two words. Initially I used to wonder what these one or two words meant, but when I followed what he said, I saw it fixed everything,” he says.Nafees tells the story of how he scored 342 runs across two innings in a first-class match, which remains a record in Bangladesh cricket. Fahim asked Nafees to think differently on the last day of that four-day game against Chittagong, in which he had already made 168 in the first innings.”They were eight wickets down going into the last day, and the match was headed for a draw. He asked me what my plan would be for the second innings. I told him that since the game was going to be drawn, I would just bat normally, get 60 or 70 not out, because there may be 75 overs left in the day after they were bowled out.”Sir told me that my plan should be to take the team to a position from which we wouldn’t lose the game. Once you have ensured that, then bat according to the situation. He said that I shouldn’t think about my individual score.”Nafees went on to make an unbeaten 174 at a strike rate of 83.25, much to his surprise. “I called sir after the game, and he told me that I should never go into an innings with a predetermined mindset of making seventies or eighties. You should never limit yourself, he said. I thought it was an amazing piece of coaching.”He always tells me to get the enjoyment of batting. I think this is why I became hungrier and hungrier, despite not being in the national team,” Nafees says.

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Fahim and Salahuddin have spent tireless hours not only giving Bangladesh’s best batsmen throwdowns but shaping their minds to make them world-beaters.Siddons believes Salahuddin is the man for the Bangladesh head coach’s job. “He has everything that it takes. He has communication skills, his ability to coach the skills of the game is probably as good as anyone in Bangladesh. He also has a really good record as a coach in the BPL,” he says.Time has far from run out for Salahuddin and Fahim. If Shakib’s call for help last month is evidence, Salahuddin is in the prime of his coaching years. If the BCB is to make the best use of these two minds, they are just a phone call away.

The India batter opens up about the harrowing time when Covid struck her family

As told to Annesha Ghosh02-Jun-2021The reason I’m doing this interview is because a lot of people still don’t know how best to respond to Covid. I just want them to educate themselves, so they don’t go by things written on the internet. People should consult medical professionals and do so before it’s late. In a crisis like mine, they should be able to take the right steps at the right time.It remains a mystery as to how my family got infected or how, despite all of them and even some of my friends in Bangalore having tested positive, I returned negative tests all through. You can say it was pure luck that I didn’t contract the virus. Or it could have been down to the fact that I’m used to washing my hands frequently. I really don’t know.Mental strength is important. My oldest sister, Vatsala, had panic attacks before she passed away from Covid. My mom might also have panicked, because the night before she died of the virus, in my home town, Kadur, about 230km north-west of Bangalore, she learned that everybody else in the family had tested positive, including the kids. I don’t know, but maybe that affected her.My heart goes out to people who are suffering. I’ve heard stories of entire families being wiped out because of the virus. Thinking of that, I just tell my other sister, Sudha, and my dad to be grateful that the rest of the family has recovered.We’re all trying to come to terms with the tragedy, trying to accept the reality right now, and reminding ourselves that whatever has happened is behind us now. I feel that in a way my mom was among the lucky ones because she had her family with her when she passed away. It hasn’t been like that for many people who have died of Covid.My mom and sister were a huge part of my life, and they will always remain so. Everything I am is because of them. My mother used to tell me, “You are the daughter of the nation first and you’re my daughter later.” I really don’t think there’s anything I could ever do for the two of them to express my gratitude towards them. Whether I scored a hundred or got out first ball, it didn’t matter to them – I was their favourite cricketer. I’ve always been a pampered baby in the house regardless of my age.

“A lot of people playing cricket currently know what mental health is, but it is also important to accept that if the system is not doing anything to offer you mental-health assistance, you must find support for yourself”

My sister Vatsala was 14 years older than me and was as much my mother as my mom was. She was the one who took care of me from the time I was a baby. At times people used to get confused as to whether she was my mother or my sister.As a kid, I would never let go of her. When she got married and had to go to her husband’s house, I sat in a corner and cried my eyes out. My brother-in-law brought her back home the next morning and said to her, “You please stay at home with your sister and come to your in-laws only when you want to.” That was the kind of relationship I shared with her.She was my No. 1 fan. She watched most of my games. She used to be there at the ground, bringing me and my friends biryani in big boxes. I don’t know how it’s going to be when I get back on the field knowing she’s no longer around.A day or two before my mom died, we were a bit concerned about my sister because she had had a fever for about six days straight. She was in home isolation in Kadur and had initially tested negative, but when we took her to the hospital and did a CT scan, it was learnt that she had developed Covid pneumonia. When she returned a positive test, I moved from my home in Bangalore, where I live with my brother and his family, to a hotel because our entire family, including me, had assembled in Kadur a few days earlier for Vatsala’s birthday and the Ugadi festival.Upon testing in Bangalore, I tested negative but my brother’s wife and their daughters, who had all returned to the city with me from Kadur, tested positive. We were worried about what to do if any of them needed hospitalisation because at the time getting a hospital bed in Bangalore was very difficult. So we thought of getting my brother and his family down to Kadur. They did go to Kadur eventually, the night before my mom passed away.When her oxygen level started dropping, they moved Vatsala from Kadur to a hospital in Chikmagalur so she could have a proper non-invasive ventilator. About 80% of her lungs were damaged. The doctor said she needed to respond to the medicines and only then could they say what was going on. Eventually she did respond and was doing well for about four or five days. She had a bit of a cough but she seemed to be recovering and was fine the night before she passed away. She had been moved out of intensive care to a general ward a few days earlier. I remember speaking to her the previous evening. She was speaking properly, though she hadn’t been feeling like eating much. But over the next 24 hours, her oxygen level started dropping and she had a relapse. There seemed to have been a panic attack, and things started going downhill. It’s difficult to say exactly what happened.After my mom died, my brother just shut down. It affected him mentally. He, too, had to be hospitalised in Chikmagalur because of Covid, while his wife, Shruthi, was put in hospital in Kadur. My father’s CT scan for Covid was bad as well, and he too was in hospital. My brother’s daughters, meanwhile, were in Bangalore with their maternal grandmother. I was the only one who didn’t contract the virus, so I was sitting in Bangalore in the hotel, trying to coordinate everything. I had to arrange for essential supplies to send them while also trying to speak to doctors, look for beds in hospitals, and do whatever else was required.Krishnamurthy with her mother, Cheluvamba Devi•Veda KrishnamurthyAll we knew about Covid before this was, if you get it, you can stay at home, do your isolation and take precautions – that will be fine. But what happened in my family happened because of not having enough knowledge of how to respond quickly. I think we lost two or three days in the beginning when they were isolating in the house. What if we had put my sister in the hospital a day or two before we eventually did? We were just going by what we knew.That was when I started telling people what dealing with Covid needs. You shouldn’t leave it till it’s too late. The number of calls I made during those 20 days – I was constantly on the phone, trying to coordinate things, keep all the family members updated and keep their morale up. That effort used to consume a lot of my energy; to put up a front that I was okay was difficult. And I realised that a lot of people out there had been suffering in similar ways.I felt that accessing medical care was easier for my family than it was for most people, in Bangalore or elsewhere, because it was in Kadur, which is a small town where everyone knows each other. My dad called up the doctor directly and beds were arranged for both my sisters and my mother.Going through my Twitter feed at the time, I felt a lot of people were struggling with something as basic as getting a doctor to instruct them on what they should be doing – whether that was isolating at home or something else. When I started retweeting people’s calls for help, I had little knowledge of the impact it might have. I amplified those tweets simply because I knew what it felt like to be in that situation.Even when my mom was critical, I carried on with the retweets because I felt it was what I should be doing because of my social-media reach. I remember one of my friends telling me, “You should be putting your energy into looking after your own family and stop doing what you’re doing on social media.” And I was like, why should I stop doing something that could help someone else? I’m glad the platform could be used to help so many people in need.It was also around that time that I started educating my friends and their families, who were affected, on ways to get medicine, the rules to follow to obtain beds, and what to do when your oxygen saturation drops to a critical level. Nine members of my family had been infected in different ways, so I started sharing my experiences with people to try to help them make better judgements. My reasoning was that if I spoke to, say, 20 people, and among them if just one person took lessons from my experience, that was a positive.

“My mother used to tell me, ‘You are the daughter of the nation first and you’re my daughter later.’ Whether I scored a hundred or got out the first ball, it didn’t matter to them – I was their favourite cricketer”

I also learnt that one’s privileges are useful when it’s just you going through the trouble and the rest of the world is fine, but in a crisis like this, because supplies are low and demand is high, everybody will do anything to get what they need. I did tweet asking for an injection for my sister. She didn’t need it eventually; the doctor only wanted to use it as a last resort. Even though I got to a point where I would have been able to procure the injection, I did not do so because obtaining one for my sister at that point would have meant denying somebody else that immediate life-saving option. I’m thankful to all the people who retweeted that request I put out on Twitter – Harman [Harmanpreet Kaur], Smriti [Mandhana], Mithali [Raj], Mona [Meshram], Reema [Malhotra], and a lot of other cricketers.Though we now have to live our lives without my mom and sister, they will always be part of us. I think it’s a responsibility for all of us in the family to make each other happy, because if one of us starts feeling depressed, the others will too. It is something I did even in the time between my mom passing and my sister struggling for her life. I was the only one who was talking to my sister as she started recovering because the rest of my family were too tired to communicate.I’m a big believer in what destiny holds for you, but I really hoped that my sister would come back home. When she didn’t, I was completely destroyed. All of us were broken to pieces. And I still had to put up a brave face for the rest of the family. What I had to do in those testing couple of weeks was learn to tune myself out of my grief. But it keeps coming back to haunt you.I’m just trying to keep myself occupied doing whatever I can. Ever since I’ve come to Kadur, I’ve tried to make sure that Dad is not by himself, that he’s occupied with card games or watching movies, and things like that. My sister’s son has recovered from Covid. He is 21, studying engineering. He lost his father when he was seven months old; now his mother is gone. It’s difficult to know what he’s thinking, because, like me, he keeps things to himself.As a nation, let alone in cricket or sport, we are still a long way from normalising talking about mental health. Going by my own experience, if I had to, say, approach my mom or my older sister, and suggest that we should consult a professional about how we were feeling mentally after going through our struggles with Covid, if they had lived, I’m not sure they would have been up for it. I wouldn’t call it a mistake on their part – it’s just how we are conditioned as a society.A lot of people who are playing cricket currently know what mental health is, but it is also important to accept that if the system is not doing anything to offer you mental-health assistance, you can and must find the support for yourself if you can afford it. I’ve had mental-health issues and I’ve sought support to resolve them myself.I have been mostly off my phone in regards to speaking with people about how I have been holding up. I’ve tried to limit my responses to just emojis because it’s easier that way rather than talking about it. When something like this happens in your life, it’s nice to know that a lot of people care for you, but on the other hand, the reality hits you even harder as you are trying to come to terms with the tragedy. It’s difficult.I’m not upset with people who didn’t call me or message me. I thank everyone who checked on me. I did get a call from the BCCI secretary, which I didn’t expect, to be honest. He asked about me, my family. He said when he is in Bangalore, he will visit me. It was nice of him to call me.

England should let Moeen know they value him after flashes of his best in Chennai

George Dobell15-Feb-2021Like a band reforming for a comeback tour, Moeen Ali has reminded us of most of his greatest hits during this game.There’s been the dip and drift of his bowling at its best. There’s been the wicket of one of the best batsmen in the world. There’s even been a brief reprise of that timing with the bat which lit up this ground so often the last time England were here, when he scored 190 runs in the match.But there were also the full tosses. And the long-hops. And the cheap dismissal that had you shaking your head and wondering about the gap between his potential and performance with the bat at this level.To some extent, this is Moeen. He’s going to delight, infuriate, surprise and confound you almost every time you watch him. He’s probably never going to be the most consistent cricketer. On the good days that feels like part of his charm. On the not so good, it is maddening.But he’s 33 now and there’s not much evidence he’s going to reinvent himself. Maybe, just as we seem happy to accept that the aggression of Rishabh Pant and Ben Stokes will sometimes lead to their downfall, we have to accept that Moeen’s apparent insouciance – the quality that enables him to look, at his best, wonderfully relaxed in the fury of the moment – is part of the package? As Frank Sinatra put it: Why try to change me now?Moeen has taken eight wickets in this Test. But for a couple of missed chances, he would have had a five-for in both innings. He has now taken 189 Test wickets. While his average (36.10) is high – the highest among England bowlers with a minimum of 150 Test wickets, in fact – his strike rate (59.80) is better than any of the spinners above him in his country’s all-time wicket-taking list. That list consists of Derek Underwood, Graeme Swann and Jim Laker, all generally accepted as greats of the English game.Moeen Ali will delight, infuriate, surprise and confound you almost every time you watch him•BCCIYes, the game has changed, and comparisons with strike rates – or indeed, averages – across eras can be misleading. But Moeen’s record as a bowler does deserve a bit more respect than he is sometimes given. While he would love to have the consistency and control of that trio, each one of them would be proud of his drift and dip. His best deliveries really are very good. The problem is the bad ones occur a bit too often.”They’re amazing deliveries,” Jeetan Patel, England’s spin-bowling consultant, said of Moeen’s classical offbreaks. “They shape away from the right-hander’s bat, they dip, they hit the wicket hard and spin big. He’s taken eight wickets and he should probably have had nine or 10. I don’t know what more people would want.”It’s his first game back. He missed two weeks of intense training. Does that prepare you to play Test cricket in India? Maybe yes, maybe no. His rewards show that he’s close enough, that he’s good enough and he will certainly be better for this hit out.”And the full tosses? “When you’re striving to hit the footmarks with lots of spin on the ball, there’s going to be variation of length,” Patel said. “It’s understandable. They [England’s spinners] have bowled a lot of overs, too. It takes its toll.”The encouraging thing about this display from Moeen is that he looked better the longer it went on. And that’s hardly surprising as he came into the game without a first-class game since September 2019 and without any warm-up cricket on the tour. He’s recently suffered a bout of Covid-19, too, and ripped a finger which had become soft from its lack of bowling on the seam of the SG ball when he returned to training. Expecting him to hit a perfect line and length was simply unreasonable. In normal circumstances, you might expect him to go from strength to strength in the rest of the series. Really, it’s every bit of two years since he gained this level of drift and dip.The less encouraging thing about this display is that it might represent an ending rather than a beginning. As things stand – and there is a possibility of a change of plan – Moeen is still expected to return to England in the next few days. While he is expected to return to India for the limited-overs section of the tour, this period could be his only chance to spend some time at home in several months.Related

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If Moeen does go home, it will leave England’s rotation plans looking a little clumsy. They will, you would think, be obliged to recall Dom Bess for the third Test having just knocked his confidence by dropping him for this game. And for all Bess’ qualities – really, it’s not unreasonable to expect him to score more runs than Moeen these days – he is liable to offer several of Moeen’s less welcome characteristics without the accompanying brilliance.Might there be a middle path? Part of Moeen’s understandable desire for a break is the possibility of going to the IPL (which follows fast on the heels of this tour and prohibits time at home) once the limited-overs section of the England tour is concluded. But, having been released by RCB, there is no guarantee he will be picked up in Thursday’s auction. Notwithstanding the difficulties in gaining flights and serving quarantine periods, it might make sense to wait until his fate in that auction is known to decide when he requires a break.Moeen can’t be blamed for preferring to take his break during the Test section of the tour. There is a T20 World Cup to be played in India later this year, after all, and he wants to be part of it. And, much as it may grate with some, it’s also probably fair to conclude that the majority of Moeen’s future career may be spent in the T20 game. If England wanted him to prioritise differently, they should probably have given him a full central contract.Indeed, it is entirely possible this will be Moeen’s final Test. You would think England would play just one spinner throughout the rest of 2021 – they will play seven home Tests and an Ashes series in Australia – and there is every indication the selectors see Moeen as their third-choice option.You can understand why England dropped Moeen after the first Test of the 2019 Ashes. He looked a chastened, disappointed figure at the time. A man who had lost his confidence and fallen out of love with the game a bit. He looked as if he needed a break.England celebrate after Moeen Ali bowls Virat Kohli on the first day•BCCIWhat is harder to understand is England’s subsequent treatment of him. For at the time that decision was made, Moeen was the top Test wicket-taker in the world in the previous 12 months. As such, you would think he would be nurtured and encouraged and made to feel valued. Instead, he lost the red-ball element of his central contract around two months after he was dropped and, with a touch of disillusionment settling in, started to grow away from the longest format and one or two of those involved in selection. Like nearly every cricketer – every person, probably – he will perform better when he feels valued.”I suppose the one thing that Mo wanted – well, needed – out of red-ball cricket was a bit of love from the game,” Patel said. “I think he’s got that [now]. Hopefully he will score some runs and really fall in love with red-ball cricket again.”There will be those who dismiss this performance as it came on a track offering assistance to spinners. And it’s true, there has been an unusual amount of turn available. But it was also a surface on which India’s No. 8 has scored almost as many runs as England managed in the first innings and a surface upon which the hosts are much more accustomed. While it’s absolutely fair to acknowledge England’s spinners bowled too many release deliveries, it must also be acknowledged that England’s batsmen were bowled out for 134 in their first innings. It would be perverse to pin this result on the performance of two spinners who have claimed 14 wickets between them.Besides, when Moeen is at his best, many of his best attributes are shown before the ball hits the pitch. His drift can lure batsmen out of his position; his dip can result in misjudgements of length. If 10 wicket-taking chances – and the fact that he has bowled 61 overs in the match, having not played a game for months – is not deemed good enough, don’t we have to reflect on our expectations?So, yes, a greatest hits comeback tour. But if it’s not to be a farewell tour, too, England’s management probably need to let him know how much they value him. Moeen is not perfect, of course, but at his best, he’s the best England have.

He spent 381 minutes at the crease for his unbeaten 37

Sampath Bandarupalli08-Jul-20211 – First-class innings of 200-plus balls since 2008 coming at a strike rate lower than Hashim Amla’s 13.30 during his unbeaten 37 off 278 balls against Hampshire on Wednesday. Amla himself was responsible for a better effort in this period when he scored 25 off 244 balls, striking at a mere 10.24 against India in 2015.ESPNcricinfo Ltd19.24 – Amla’s strike rate against Hampshire, the second-lowest by any player in a first-class match after facing 300-plus balls, in the last 15 years. Naeem Islam jnr struck at 19.20 against Rajshahi Division in the National Cricket League 2015 match, where he aggregated 63 runs from 328 balls. Amla was Surrey’s top contributor in the first innings as well, scoring 29 off 65 balls.1.16 – Run rate of Surrey’s second innings against Hampshire, scoring 122 for 8 in 104.5 overs. This is now the second-lowest run rate in a first-class team innings of 100-plus overs since 2000. South Africa’s 0.99 against India in 2015 stands on top as they scored 143 in 143.1 overs during an unsuccessful attempt to save a Test match in Delhi.0.72 – Run rate of the fourth-wicket partnership between Amla and Ryan Patel, the fourth-slowest partnership of 25-plus overs in first-class cricket since 2010. Amla and Patel added 21 runs in 28.5 overs, during which Amla scored only two runs. Amla’s partnership with AB de Villiers against India in 2015 stands third in this list as they scored at 0.64 during their stand of 27 from 42.1 overs.ESPNcricinfo Ltd63 – Balls Amla took to score his first run on the fourth day. He got off the mark on the fourth ball (and the last) he faced on the third day, and his second run had not come until the 67th ball of his innings. Amla had three streaks of 35 and more consecutive dot balls on Wednesday.0.40 – Economy rate of Keith Barker during his figures of 22-17-9-3 in Surrey’s second innings, the most economical bowling effort in a first-class innings since 2000 (minimum 20 overs). Amla alone scored seven runs off 84 balls he faced from Barker who had conceded only two runs in 48 balls he bowled to the rest of the Surrey batters.

Devon Conway’s seamless elevation brought the first half-century of the final

Andrew Miller20-Jun-20213:04

Manjrekar: Conway tailor-made for Test cricket

It took until 6pm on the third day at Southampton for the first fifty of the World Test Championship final to be posted, and not entirely surprisingly – even in a contest featuring a handful of the most iconic batters of the decade – it came from a player whose first appearance at this level came less than three weeks ago.Some people spend most of their lives searching for their one true purpose. It speaks volumes for Devon Conway’s character and self-belief, not to mention his intense skill as a batter, that he can come through a decade of itinerance in lower-league cricket – both in his native South Africa and, since, 2017 in Wellington – and discover that the one place where he truly feels at home is in a New Zealand Test team that has never been bettered in the country’s history.His dismissal in the day’s final moments took the shine off New Zealand’s quietly dominant display, but in no way did it diminish the magnificence that had preceded it. Conway’s 54 was his third fifty-plus score in as many Test first innings, following his 200 on debut against England at Lord’s and a series-settling 80 in the second Test at Edgbaston, and though time is ticking by in a match that cannot quite catch a break, it guided his side through a fiendishly tough examination to maintain their ascendancy in a fascinatingly smouldering contest.Conway’s 70-run stand with Tom Latham was New Zealand’s second fifty-run opening stand in three first innings on this Test tour – which, as an indication both of their levels of application but also of the innate trickery of English conditions, is already one more than England themselves have managed at home in the past three seasons. The pair had to ride their luck, not least against Mohammed Shami, whose current Test average in England is a travesty at 47.95, but they made it too with their diligent defence and a refusal to be hustled.

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The current run-rate for this Test match, 2.25 an over, is the lowest in England since the turn of the Millennium, but such has been the challenge from two outstanding attacks, at no stage has that felt like anything other than a defiantly smart approach. Latham and Conway ground along at an even more sedate pace, barely a click above two by the time they were parted, and a long way removed from that now-anomalous opening gambit from India.”They were superb,” Kyle Jamieson, New Zealand’s star with the ball, said. “From my short time in this team, it was some of the best batting that I’d seen. The ball was going to move around, we knew that, and the conditions were probably going to be in the bowlers’ favour. They’re two pretty world-class openers in my opinion, and the way they built a partnership, and got us to where we are, was pretty special.”Devon Conway has barely put a foot wrong at the start of his Test career•Getty ImagesBatter error got the better of both men in the end – with Conway again falling to that flamboyant leg-side flick that had proven so productive on debut – but these have been conditions in which mistakes are inevitable, as India’s top-scorer, Ajinkya Rahane, proved in the tipping point of their innings, as he took on Neil Wagner’s short ball, and joined the cast of hundreds who’ve previously succumbed to his Route One methods.The main man in New Zealand’s attack, however, was another over-achieving rookie – of a few more months’ standing than Conway, maybe, but every bit as much of a ready-made competitor. Jamieson’s outstanding figures of 5 for 31 in 22 overs included the day’s most unplayable moment, as he found his fullest length yet to India’s captain, Virat Kohli, and jagged a perfect nipbacker into his front pad to dispatch him without addition to his overnight 44.Jamieson has now claimed a remarkable 44 wickets in eight Tests since February 2020, including five five-wicket hauls – and on this evidence, he could yet have a shot at pushing for 50 before this game is done – a mark that only Vernon Philander, in seven Tests, has reached more quickly in the modern era.Jamieson’s extraordinary physical attributes, allied to a metronomically precise action that ensures each and every delivery is unleashed from a cloud-snagging 2m 30cm altitude, are the most fundamental reason for his success, of course. And yet, for both him and Conway to arrive so fully formed on the international stage – and with such vital points of difference too, even for a side rammed with all-time New Zealand greats – is a tribute too to an extraordinary and ego-less dressing-room, one that has been living its best life for the best part of a decade already.Related

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“The team culture and the environment that has been created over a long period of time certainly is one of the strengths of this team,” Jamieson said. “You’ve got some world-class guys around, which allows you to settle into your role, and it’s been an absolute pleasure coming into this group and just being able learn off these guys, and ride the coat-tails of them a little bit, in terms of the pressure they build and the runs they score.”Such have been the standards on display in the ICC’s optimistically (but not inaccurately) billed “Ultimate Test”, that the players on both teams have even set about demystifying two of the more entangled arts of the game. If ever you’ve wondered whether there was a significant difference between swing through the air and seam movement off the pitch, then the impact of the latter in this contest leaves little room for doubt.Coming in from the clouds: Kyle Jamieson is pumped after picking up a wicket•ICC via Getty”The ball certainly swung a fair amount, and probably at times almost too much,” Jamieson said “So for me personally today, and a little bit yesterday, I tried to more wobble the ball than swing it, and just engage guys for longer periods. Instead of guys playing and missing, they tend to grab the edge a little bit more.”In terms of the match situation, another grim forecast for Monday – day four of a possible six – leaves little margin if New Zealand are to drive home their advantage. But Jamieson isn’t feeling rushed by circumstance just yet.”Where we’re sitting now would be pretty comfortable,” he said. “If you said to us at the start of the game, we can get them for low 200s and then to be 100 for 2, we’d be pretty happy.”

Their attack, promising on paper, proved to have neither much bark nor bite against the Indian top five

Firdose Moonda26-Dec-20211:21

What went wrong for South Africa’s bowlers?

It’s flat. The pitch and the bowling.South Africa’s Test summer began lethargically as their attack, promising on paper, proved to have neither much bark nor bite against the Indian top five.Maybe it’s not entirely unexpected.This is South Africa’s least experienced pace pack in terms of Test wickets in a home Test against India since 1997. Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Wiaan Mulder and debutant Marco Jansen had 259 Test wickets between them before this Test started, and 213 of them belonged to Rabada. Compare that to the 976 Test wickets South Africa’s quicks had under their belts in the first Test of the last series they played against India at home, in 2018, and it’s not difficult to see why there was a vast difference in performance.There was also, of course, a vast difference in personnel and conditions. Three years ago, South Africa fielded an XI that included Rabada, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and it was the first and only time they played together. More’s the pity it wasn’t at the Wanderers although that Newlands surface had a decent amount of grass on it, and with rain in the air, the ball moved around. This pitch is not as sporting.”The wicket did less than we thought it was going to do,” Lungi Ngidi said. “I expected a bit more swing.”Instead, it was slow upfront and South Africa were unable to find the right lengths for most of the first session. They sent down a combination of too wide, too straight and too full and did not make the Indian openers play enough. Collectively, they produced only 22 false strokes in 28 overs in the morning session, and 60 in the entire day, which is not even one an over.Which brings us to the first question we need to ask about their approach on the first day:Why didn’t South Africa pick Duanne Olivier?Not only is Olivier the leading wicket-taker in the domestic first-class competition this season but he has bowled more overs in red-ball cricket in the last six months than anyone else in the squad, and a heck of a lot more than Rabada or Ngidi, who had delivered none before today. Although Olivier left South Africa on a Kolpak deal with a reputation for being able to bowl short but not offer too much else, he has returned with a different skill set and has proved his ability to pitch it up on Highveld surfaces. Olivier now plays his cricket at the Wanderers, where he has taken 24 of the 28 wickets he has in the four-day competition, and where he has shown himself to be a match-winner for the table-topping Lions.South Africa know he possesses all these qualities. Dean Elgar said as much earlier in the week and so did bowling coach Charl Langeveldt. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo ahead of this series, Langeveldt said, “He has changed. He used to be an enforcer, now he has more controlled aggression so he can do both roles: where he can hold the run rate, keep it down, and take wickets. With the new ball, he gives us the option where he can take it away from the right-hand batter and then he has got the change-up, the wobbler.”2:31

Did South Africa make the right choice in Marco Jansen over Duanne Olivier?

Sounds good but not good enough for the series opener. Instead, South Africa opted to give 2.06 metre-tall left-arm quick Jansen a debut, banking on his variation to give them an advantage. It was a gamble, considering Jansen’s lack of experience (19 first-class caps), India’s recent history which shows a distinct lack of struggle against left-arm fast bowlers, and the sense of occasion, especially as it was just four years ago that a teenage Jansen was starstruck and taking selfies with the Indian players in the nets. Then, Jansen beat Kohi three times in a row; today, he managed it twice in between some shorter deliveries and several aimed at the pads. While there is no doubting that Jansen is talented and could go on to play many matches for South Africa, he was too inconsistent to properly threaten the batters, and so, the reason for his selection, especially against the backdrop of Olivier’s availability, must be looked at.Cricket South Africa confirmed that Olivier is fully fit and there are no niggles that kept him sidelined. Ngidi didn’t know why Olivier was overlooked. “It was probably a senior call,” Ngidi said. “Even myself, having not played cricket in a while, I didn’t know if I could get the nod but we pick the team that we think is best going to give us the result.”Selection convener Victor Mpitsang was asked for the reason Olivier was not included but responded only to extend festive greetings and did not offer any further explanation. That can only leave us to wonder if Olivier had to be benched because he was not able to source a Test cap after framing his when he took a Kolpak deal in 2018. (Disclaimer: that’s not really what we think).Jansen’s inability to create sustained periods of pressure left it up to the rest of the attack to attempt to both control and attack and in trying to do both, they succeeded in neither. Though South Africa were much improved after lunch, and bowled more on a good length or just short of it and made India’s batters play more, it took a moment of sheer luck to drag them back into the game. How HawkEye saw that the Ngidi delivery that slid in from middle stump and beat Mayank Agarwal’s inside edge was clipping leg stump is anyone’s guess but it gave South Africa a breakthrough.They had clearly planned for what came next. Elgar placed Keegan Petersen at backward short leg, further back than usual, for Cheteshwar Pujara, who lunged forward to defend and inside-edged onto his pad to give Petersen the catch. And that’s where our next question must be asked: Why couldn’t South Africa capitalise on that passage of play? The answer may lie in how they chose to (not) use their spearhead, Rabada.Did Dean Elgar get his bowling changes right on the first day?•AFP/Getty ImagesAfter Ngidi’s double-strike, Jansen was brought on at the other end to bowl to Kohli and was then replaced by Keshav Maharaj, while Mulder took over from Ngidi. At a time when South Africa should have been searching for wickets, they did not call on Rabada. At that stage, he had delivered 13 overs, six in his opening spell and seven in a later spell, broken into five and two by the lunch interval. Although his post-lunch work finished four overs before Ngidi’s wickets, it may have been prudent to bring him back for a quick burst.Rabada only returned after tea, where he found some late swing and peppered KL Rahul with short balls in his most impressive but also most expensive spell. He overstepped four times in those four overs, which cost 20 runs and was not used again until the second new ball when he changed ends and delivered a further three overs. In total, Rabada delivered 20 overs, more than any of the other seamers but South Africa may want to consider if they used him in the most effective way.They can ask the same questions about almost every aspect of their performance on the opening day of their international season, from selections to strategy, and will realise if they don’t come up with some answers soon, it could be a very long, tough summer.Already, this match could get long. Ngidi remains hopeful South Africa can dismiss India for “anything under 350,” but acknowledged they all need to bowl a bit more like Rabada to tie India up.”It is a good deck if you bat properly. The fuller balls don’t do as much. You’ve really got to be accurate with your lengths. KG showed us that with good discipline, the game goes nowhere,” Ngidi said. And with where South Africa are now, nowhere could be good enough.