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Greg Blewett on the squads for Australia and West Indies for the first Test in Jamaica

Greg Blewett22-May-2008

There are some changes for the Australians with Matthew Hayden out for the Test, and there is also some talk he might be out of the series. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens there, but Simon Katich will come in for Hayden, which I don’t think will be a massive change. Simon has been in sensational form for New South Wales in the last 12 months or so scoring 1506 runs.He deserves his chance; he’s played quite a few Tests and one-dayers and is an experienced player. Having been around him over the past few days, [I can tell] he’s been pretty relaxed and confident in his own game. I can see Simon fitting in nicely in the Australian team. He warmed up pretty nicely with 97 and 37 not out in the practice match. He’s in good nick and took six wickets too, so he might even come into the equation for the first Test with the ball. I’m looking for good things from Katich in the not-too-distant future.Brad Hodge, surprisingly, gets his chance. He’s been a travelling nomad, travelling all over the shop for the last few months. He was playing county cricket when he got the call to play some IPL [matches]; he only played a couple of matches and was drafted into the West Indies, probably thinking he’d not play a Test. Then all of a sudden this opportunity comes up. He will probably bat at five, Andrew Symonds at six and Brad Haddin, on debut, at seven.So it’s still a fairly solid batting order for the Australians. Australia have been blessed with those two players [Hodge and Katich] coming in because they are fairly experienced and it’s not as if they are guys who have played half a dozen first-class games and been thrown into Test cricket – they’ve been there, done that.Ricky Ponting will be under a little bit of pressure going into the first Test. He’s been uncharacteristically out of form, coming from India where he didn’t do very well in the IPL, and that came after a disappointing summer in Australia [against India]. The nerves will certainly be there for him walking out to bat in the first innings.I went out to the main practice session in Kingston and he looked in really good form. I bowled to him and watched the decent bowlers bowl to him – he was moving beautifully. He was not falling across the stumps like he can do when he is struggling. He batted for a long time and had a few throw-downs and he seemed pretty happy.Chris Gayle is out of the side, which is a big loss, not so much for his batting, but his leadership. He has captained the side to two Test wins in only four games. His leadership will be the biggest loss.Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are two key players for them. Their bowling is pretty reasonable and they’ve got some good quick bowlers, Daren Powell is pretty good on his day and Fidel Edwards is fiery – he’s their main strike bowler. I’m interested to see the new left-arm spinner [Sulieman Benn] from Barbados who is 6ft 7in. So I’m interested in seeing how he goes.They’ve got a bit to work with but if they are going to have some success against the best team in the world, it has to be in this Test. Australia haven’t played a Test for a long time so they might be a bit rusty. They are also missing Hayden and Michael Clarke. That just about gives West Indies a bit of an edge. If they are ever going to beat Australia it’s going to be in this Test.I don’t know whether Australia will win 3-0. One of the Tests might be rain affected, so I think 2-0. I don’t see West Indies beating Australia, but if they do, it’s going to be the first Test. Australia probably aren’t in tip-top form coming off a big layoff. I’m not sure about the pitch either. From all reports it might play a few tricks later in the Test. If the West Indies are going to have a chance, it’s going to be in this Test.

England’s women are on the verge of the biggest moment of their careers

Will Luke20-Mar-2009England’s cricketers are in a World Cup final. The leading bowler in the tournament is 22 years old and English, with 14 wickets at the disgracefully meagre 9.35. England can also lay claim to the World Cup’s top run-scorer, who averages a smidgen over 75 with an urgent strike-rate nudging 92. What riches. These are not hallucinogenic dreams of a frustrated nation; these are cold, hard fact. England’s women are on the verge of the biggest moment of their careers.Sixteen long years have passed since England last reached a World Cup final, but the team themselves are taking success in their stride. This has been a golden period for England’s women, who retained the Ashes last year before walloping South Africa and India. Until their defeat to Australia on Friday (a dead rubber, as it happens) they had won 17 games on the trot, an achievement that the men can only dream of emulating in any form of cricket, least of all in one-dayers. For their phlegmatic captain, Charlotte Edwards, the success they have enjoyed so far is a result of two key factors: talent and hard work.”We always realised this was our opportunity to do well this time round, but we were realistic,” Edwards told Cricinfo. “We knew we’d be up against some tough opposition – being India, Australia and New Zealand – but having done well against them over the last 12-18 months we were confident we could do well.”As we all know, in a World Cup you have to play good cricket pretty much every game, and we’ve been lucky enough to do that so far apart from yesterday’s minor blip. We were confident coming in but obviously can’t take anything for granted and we haven’t. We’ve taken every game as seriously as we could and wanted to win every single match.”Yesterday’s “minor blip” may have ended their impressive winning streak, but it was not without its silver lining. Claire Taylor, the evergreen right-hander, fell one short of notching yet another fifty to add further weight to her status as the world’s top-ranked batter. At 33, Taylor is the sage of the team and complements the youthful pride of the side’s younger members.England’s bowling attack is in similarly rude health. Isa Guha is the top-ranked bowler in the world, while Laura Marsh is the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. This is the sort of balance that sets apart the good teams from the excellent, and England – with an injection of young, fearless players – are undoubtedly worthy World Cup finalists.”We have really, really good youngsters who are performing on the international stage and we have experienced people in Claire and myself, who are helping them through,” Edwards said. “The real strength is, these youngsters have no fear of anyone, and I think that’s a fantastic place to be in. They’ve had success from when they started playing, so all they know is that they’re winning. Me and Claire had to take the hard route to the top! It’s probably made us the people we are and the players we are.”Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of England’s performance in this World Cup is their frankly un-English determination to strive for perfection. Second-best will not do for Edwards. “I don’t believe we’ve played our best cricket yet,” she insisted. “We’ve been really tough on the girls. Every time we think we’re not playing as well as we should, they come back with a really good performance. I’m sure the girls are going to react to [losing to Australia] in a positive way and come back like they have in recent times.”We’ve not played our best, which is exciting for us as a team, and the coaching staff I believe. I’m sure we can deliver on the big stage on Sunday; we’ve had a magnificent 18 months of cricket and it would be a great way to top it off on Sunday.”The England women are now just one win away from claiming the most presitgious trophy in their sport, and none of this has come by chance. Edwards, their passionate and determined leader, has been instrumental in improving the players’ games to ready them for the grand challenge of a World Cup.”Two years ago I realised the girls had to be tougher. International cricket is tough. We had a quadrangular series in 2007 and we performed really badly out there, and if you’d have said back then that [now] we’d be in a World Cup final, I’d have said there would have been no chance,” she said. “We came back from there, had to have a hard look at ourselves; we weren’t tough enough and weren’t playing good enough cricket. We’ve been so lucky to have Mark Lane take over the team, and Jack Birkenshaw too, and they’ve instilled a lot of belief in the team. We’ve got tougher as a group and we’re playing better cricket. Key performers are performing, and ultimately we enjoy playing cricket with one another, and I think that’s definitely shown in our results.”Sunday’s final, against New Zealand, is perhaps more special for Edwards than for England’s younger personnel. To qualify for her first World Cup final after four attempts is a dream come true. “Since I was a 12- or 13-year-old, when I watched them [England] lift it in 1993, it was always a dream of mine to win the World Cup. So I think it’s definitely the pinnacle of women’s cricket and something I’m desperate to get my hands on.”Bigger, even, than the Ashes? Well, yes. England’s women received a ticker-tape parade in 2005 along with the men for beating Australia, but as Edwards is quick to point out, Test matches are fewer and farther between in the women’s game. One-day cricket may still bewilder the men but the fairer sex are far more adept. “The World Cup is the pinnacle for us. We don’t play as much Test cricket as the guys; obviously the Ashes is important, it’s against Australia and the tradition of it all. But for me, it’s the World Cup which really matters.”England’s last 18 months have dripped with success and encouragement for the future, but to hold the title of world champions will be the biggest boost to a sport that remains in the shadow of men’s cricket. It is nothing less than Edwards, and her predecessors, deserve.

Bangladesh’s new captain retains the exuberant spirit that marked him as a talent to watch, and he wants his team-mates to play the same way

Utpal Shuvro09-Jul-2009Every cricketer’s dream is to lead his country, and even if you didn’t seek Mashrafe Mortaza’s reaction you could almost predict it – it is a dream come true. But what sets Mortaza apart is, he never had ambitions of being captain, he says. This may just be a carefully constructed persona to ensure he stands out. Or it may just be the truth – because the notion of him as captain is so unbelievable. In any case, Mortaza repeats his stand: “Believe me, I never ever harboured ambitions of being captain. I like playing under someone else.”There are two ways of seeing this. One, that the honour bestowed on Mortaza by the Bangladesh Cricket Board after removing Mohammad Ashraful has proved to be a crown of thorns. The more positive explanation goes thus: Mortaza doesn’t see the captaincy as a do-or-die situation and isn’t weighed down by pressure, but instead cherishes the respect and recognition attached to the job. When the responsibility has been entrusted to me, why don’t I try and make an impact seems to be his attitude.It is this attitude – a stubbornness, if you will – that helps one understand Mortaza better. Hailing from the small district town of Narail, he exploded like a meteor on to the Bangladesh cricket scene when he caught the attention of a coach, resulting in his induction at the Under-17 level. A few days later, he was steaming in during a Test match, and he looked every bit Bangladesh’s best fast bowler – a spot that had practically not existed in the previous eight years.However, the bigger challenge lay elsewhere. There have been times in his career when the meteor looked to be a falling star. The past four years have been largely injury-free but the earlier part of his career has coexisted with fitness issues, beginning with a dodgy back and problems with his knees. In fact, both his knees have been operated on four times, with the landing foot going under the knife thrice. It’s a wonder, then, how Mortaza continues to be bowling fast. Perhaps it’s his inherent stubbornness that helped him fight the battle against injury. If so, it’s a quality that will help him when he captains the team.Will that be enough, though? Cricket and captaincy at the international level is a whole new ball game and Mortaza’s stubbornness, his refusal to quit when others have done so, may not be enough. Where will Bangladesh’s players get the strength from? Theirs is a weak domestic set-up; opportunities and facilities are scarce. When they are thrust into the trying conditions of international cricket, you have to feel for them.Ultimately, the captain is only as good as the team. The coach, Jamie Siddons, points out that captaining Bangladesh is the toughest task in international cricket. Mortaza will have no go-to bowler who will guarantee a wicket when handed the ball, nor a batsman on whom he can depend to bat out a session.

Cricket and captaincy at the international level is a whole new ball game and Mortaza’s stubbornness, his refusal to quit when others have done so, may not be enough

The assignment has become even tougher in recent times. The hopes and expectations of achieving the impossible have also gone up. The joke went that there was no easier task than captaining Australia and Bangladesh, for albeit polar opposite reasons: While the Australian captain knew that his team would always win, his Bangladeshi counterpart had no expectations to fulfill.The expectations first surfaced in December 2004, when Bangladesh defeated India; the tag of “giant-killers” in ODIs has stayed on ever since. Even as Bangladesh lost 47 matches on the trot, their fans revelled in the sheer joy of international cricket. Repeated failure, though, has now resulted in impatience.Ask Mohammad Ashraful, whose two-year stint at the top was tumultuous. Under his captaincy not only did Bangladesh defeat New Zealand and Sri Lanka in one-dayers, they played two closely fought Test series against those opponents. It seems a trifle unforgiving, then, that Ashraful was shown the door after one Twenty20 defeat to Ireland.The BCB’s stated reasoning was that it wanted Ashraful to concentrate on his batting without the pressures of leading the side. The youngest Test centurion on debut, Ashraful is perhaps associated with inconsistency, and it’s easy to apply that to the captaincy as well. Mortaza remains a huge fan of Ashraful’s batting. “He is the biggest match-winner for Bangladesh. When Ashraful is on song, Bangladesh are a different team,” he says. Whether cricket watchers will warm up to a changed Ashraful under Mortaza remains to be seen.Whether cricket watchers will warm up to a changed Ashraful under Mortaza remains to be seen•Bangladesh Cricket BoardMortaza, though he has matured, has retained his simplicity and a childish streak – neither hidden too far deep. Star power and fame don’t interest him; instead, like a hyperactive teenager, he usually seems hellbent on spending his vast reserves of energy.His impishness came through a few days before the West Indies tour, when he was visiting Narail. Covered in debdaru [a tall, bushy tree] leaves, his face dirty, he and his group of friends were wild with excitement as they went around the town one afternoon.Will captaincy change the carefree spirit? Mortaza doesn’t think so. He wants his colleagues to enjoy the game with the teenage spirit and exuberance he embodies. He has just the one wish, which he clarified at his first team meeting as captain: that everyone, whether they have the ability or not, give 100% on the field. He has promised that he will never let down a player who ensures his best performance always.Mortaza may not have dreamt of being captain, but the significance is not alien to him. He understands that the fans, with little success to boast of, have also made them their carrier of dreams. They celebrate every success, though they mostly have cause to shed tears at defeat. As in the rest of the subcontinent, cricket in Bangladesh is not just a sport but something bigger, a way of life perhaps.It’s a point Mortaza acknowledges. “It’s actually the national flag we are holding in our hands,” he says. He may not feel it yet but his load is the heaviest of the lot.

The BCCI’s amnesty to 79 ICL players might weaken the league but it is unlikely to change the face of domestic cricket in India

Sriram Veera02-Jun-2009The BCCI’s amnesty to 79 ICL players might weaken the league but it is unlikely to change the face of domestic cricket in India. It does offer an opportunity to a few individuals like Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Ambati Rayudu to resurrect their careers and help a couple of teams like Bengal and perhaps Hyderabad improve their standings in the Ranji Trophy. Some of the state associations told Cricinfo they would welcome the ICL players but the ground reality is not going to be smooth.As one coach put it: “Reinstating these players is going to be a sensitive issue and it will come down to strong personalities at the association level. What about the players who didn’t leave for the ICL and stayed faithful to the associations? There might be some rancour if one or two are dropped. It’s going to come down to an ad-hoc decision at the individual association level. The various club secretaries could have problems if their players are ditched for someone from the ICL.”

Good performances will obviously make it an easier decision, but there are not enough games and tournaments to prove oneself. A state official said, “These players have only played Twenty20 and that too sporadically. How do we know whether they are good enough to play a longer version or not?” Not all states have a good competitive league or club structure programme and selection is not going to be easy.Though not every cricketer will get reinstated to his Ranji team, the move out of the ICL will open up other avenues for them. They can put up their names as “professionals” and offer to play for weaker sides like Tripura or Assam. Also, they can now play in the leagues in England without any harassment from the boards.Some of the state associations, especially those who were hit hard by the ICL exodus, are looking forward to the return of the players. “These are our boys. The good thing is that the birds have returned to the nest,” said MV Sridhar, secretary of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. “Obviously they should perform well in the league cricket to be eligible for playing in Ranji Trophy.”Likewise, the Bengal association was happy with the return of Jhunjhunwala, Rohan Gavaskar and Deep Dasgupta. Rayudu, for his part, is looking forward to playing domestic cricket and the IPL. “I am not looking too far ahead, just want to concentrate on domestic cricket and push for the IPL,” he said.Some, like Dinesh Mongia, have admitted that the ICL has not been great for their career. “I took a step to play some cricket which didn’t go really well with my career,” he said. “I think that has passed now and I will have to take it in my stride and hopefully things will improve now. Mentally it was very tough because I was playing active cricket, and after I joined the ICL there wasn’t much cricket. As a cricketer I went there for more cricket but I ended with no cricket actually. That was the toughest part.”

Pakistan must overcome the fear of playing in Australia by displaying more aggression if they wish to meet with any success in the series

Osman Samiuddin at the MCG27-Dec-2009Timidity will kill you on the cricket fields of Australia. Pakistan teams
in recent years have not taken heed of this basic tenet when coming out to
play against Australia, and the hammerings they’ve experienced have generally been preceded by submission to fear. If this side is going to learn the lesson, it has started off slowly.It is easy to be meek tourists here. Stadiums, like the MCG, are not
playing fields as much as they are vast, lonely chambers of interrogation.
The sheer size can eat you up. The crowds are huge and loud and
the more you let them get to you, the more they bring it to you.There used to be days, of course, when the Australian side really brought it
all to bear upon tourists like some brutal theatre; the noise, the crowd,
the glares and chatter from players, forever pecking away at you like some
wild-eyed malevolent woodpecker. Those days are gone but Pakistan have
still been playing their ghosts in this Test; ghosts of men such as
Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and their intimidating ways. There are no demons in the pitch or in the bowling. Australia’s batting is
solid, but not murderous anymore. And yet Pakistan has played them like it was 1999, not 2009.The initial selection told it. Abdur Rauf is a sum of many commendable things but
he is not, as is Umar Gul, an attacking fast bowler. Gul may be in an uncertain patch in his career right now, but can anyone deny that he is,
in essence, a wicket-taking bowler? They would’ve played with two spinners
had Danish Kaneria not been injured, but a case could even be built for
going in with five bowlers. It further weakens an already dodgy batting
order but then Pakistan are not, and have never been, India. They win
Tests with their bowling not their batting. Pakistan’s was an honest
effort with the ball, but when did honesty ever win anything?They then began their innings in the afternoon so meekly it was difficult
to know they were there. Solidity is often the order of the day as far
as Pakistan’s opening is concerned, but not sluggishness; surviving 13
overs of the new ball as an opening pair is an achievement for Pakistan,
but going at two-an-over negates that, especially if wickets are never
stable. So unwilling were Pakistan’s top three to dictate terms that it
took them 32 overs to find the first boundary, a passage of extraordinary
conservatism in this day and age. Their coach Intikhab Alam didn’t think
it was, arguing that stability was needed, this being Test cricket. It is, but not from 1969.It is precisely why Umar Akmal is so refreshing; he is not timid, in fact,
he may be even a little too cocky, though time will better judge that. But
he has intent and clarity and in these days when the meek no longer
inherit the earth, that can take you places.Australia have made a national habit out of it. India have been successful
this decade because of it; they’ve had men like Virender Sehwag,
Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh, men who do not take backward
steps and who make themselves known by coming at you. The Pakistan
sides that have been successful in Australia have had such men – Javed
Miandad, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Mushtaq Mohammad and Wasim Akram.There is natural aggression in this Pakistan side, but it stands strangely
doused and latent. Young men like Mohammad Aamer and Akmal junior have it;
even in Mohammad Asif’s wily ways there is a streak. But there are too
many who look restrained and submissive and that cannot be the successful
way. Perhaps it is the natural calm of the leader and though that is
sometimes necessary with Pakistan, it can also be lethargic and reactive.
The aggression somehow needs to be harnessed and a snarl needs to come out
soon, for otherwise the Test and series will be gone before they know it.Already, the maximum they can hope for here is a draw. And that will be a
kind of victory in itself, given they have lost nine on the trot against
Australia. But that cannot be the extent of their ambition, not in this
land. Somehow they have to open up, they have to chance it and really let
themselves go.

Plays of the day for the opening day of the first Test between Sri Lanka and India in Galle

Sidharth Monga in Galle18-Jul-2010One man’s last cap, another man’s first
Before the start of the match, Muttiah Muralitharan, playing a Test for one last time, was duly felicitated. School bands played marching tunes as the players and support staff from both teams came out to join Murali for a group photograph. A specially minted coin and other mementos were presented, Sachin Tendulkar hugged Murali (the last time in a while that we will see the highest run-getter and the highest wicket-taker in the world play together). Soon, without much fanfare, Abhimanyu Mithun ran in for his first act in Test cricket.Choices have repercussions
There has been much talk about India’s resistance to the Umpires’ Decision Review System (UDRS) in this series. Not a long way into the first session of the series, they would have regretted their choice when Abhimanyu Mithun trapped Tillakaratne Dilshan on the pads, adjacent with the leg stump. All that was missing was Daryl Harper’s approval. Surely this is not the last we will hear of UDRS? Not sure if India would have made the same choice had they known Harper would be one of the officials.Captain knows best
When Mithun bowled a good first spell in Test cricket, 4-1-6-0, an eyebrow or two was raised when MS Dhoni removed him to introduce Harbhajan Singh. A profligate Ishant Sharma had conceded 26 in four overs until then. That, though, just proved to be a change of ends for Mithun. And with the first ball from the Fort End, Mithun got Dilshan’s wicket.Getting the field you want to bowl to
Pragyan Ojha, who began his Test with a gentle long hop, was soon reduced to bowling to a 7-2 leg-side field. It must not have sat well with the left-arm spinner’s self-respect, for without wasting time he bowled short and wide, was cut away for four, and immediately got a more respectable 6-3 leg-side field.A mid summer afternoon’s dream
Your side is being battered by home batsmen in the heat and humidity. You bring on a part-time offspinner, give him a defensive field with three men deep on the on side. He bowls a long hop to the batting side’No. 3, who has completed a fluent century. The No. 3 pulls ferociously, but somehow, by some act of fate, the ball lands straight into deep midwicket’s lap. And lo, Kumar Sangakkara is gone. Dreams do come true.

For the third time in his career but the second time in eight months, Kevin Pietersen translated a solid start into an explosive double-century finish, as if his recent lean times had taught him the value of seizing the moment

Andrew Miller at Lord's22-Jul-2011It was on this ground three years ago that Kevin Pietersen’s career reached a plateau of contentment. Against South Africa in 2008, he stroked a century in his first Test appearance against his former countrymen, and declared immediately afterwards that he’d never felt “so loved”. Today his emotions were ever so slightly different. There was plenty love, he said, from his grateful colleagues in the dressing room as he basked in the brilliance of his 202 not out, but one sensed that his over-riding emotion was relief.Relief, in the first instance, that India’s belated acceptance of Hotspot technology allowed him to escape the humiliation of becoming MS Dhoni’s first Test wicket. Relief, also, that Rahul Dravid’s scooped catch at leg slip on 49 was turned down by the TV umpire. But relief, ultimately, that in the course of a 326-ball stay that comprised three distinct tiers of confidence and aggression, he was able to crush the last of the many hoodoos that have laid his career low in recent times.For the first time since that summer of love three years ago, Pietersen has recorded a century on home soil. It’s not, in his own singular mind, an especially big deal, for he had threatened to do just that throughout a series of burgeoning form against Sri Lanka. All the same, the manner in which he broke through was typical of the man and his talents. For the third time in his career but the second time in eight months, Pietersen translated a solid start into an explosive double-century finish, as if his recent lean times had taught him the value of seizing the moment.”It’s something to be proud of, definitely,” Pietersen said. “There’s been some fairly complimentary thing being said to me in the dressing room. I’ve never had to work harder. With the conditions I batted in yesterday, and having to face MS Dhoni for half an hour as well, I reckon it’s right up there with the hundreds I’ve scored. They bowled really well in swinging conditions and the pitch was seaming as well. I was missing balls by a couple of inches on occasions… it was real hard graft.”Pride and relief were the overwhelming emotions for Kevin Pietersen on making his first home ton in three years, and going on to convert it into a double•Getty ImagesThe real graft was done, unquestionably, on the first afternoon of the game, prior to Zaheer Khan’s hamstring strain, when a thick and transformative cloud cover had forced England to wade through their day’s work at barely two-and-a-half runs an over. Pietersen himself made 22 from 73 balls in that time, an unwaveringly diligent spell at the crease that had more in common with Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott, the two men who have superseded him as the bankers in England’s batting line-up.No-one in their right mind would wish Pietersen to take on board too many of the accumulative traits that those two have been displaying in the last 18 months – last month Graeme Swann jokingly referred to England’s top three as the ultimate cure for insomnia, and added that it was only KP and Ian Bell who were actually worth the spectators’ entrance fee. Nevertheless, since Pietersen’s last hundred on home soil at The Oval in 2008, eight of his team-mates have racked up 18 hundreds between them, including four apiece for Trott and Cook.There’s a lesson to be learnt from their current levels of accumulation, especially as that was the one great criticism of KP during the days when he scored runs for fun. He made ten centuries in his first 30 Tests, yet managed just one in excess of 158, against West Indies at Headingley in 2007 – a return which hinted at a tendency to play one loose stroke too many when he had opposition bowlers at his mercy. “Make it a daddy,” has been Cook’s mantra throughout his career, as learnt from England’s most prolific batsman of all, Graham Gooch. When you get in, go on. And today, as in Adelaide, Pietersen did.The true glory of Pietersen’s innings did not appear until much later in the piece, however. The thrill of his acceleration was something to behold, as he spent 134 balls over his first fifty runs, 82 over his second, 75 over the third, and a blistering 25 in powering along to his double, which he sealed in a throwback fashion by blazing Suresh Raina for 4, 6, 2 and 4 off consecutive deliveries. In the first phase of his career, that was his method for dealing with all the nervous nineties – and sometimes, perhaps most fatefully at Sabina Park in 2009, he would succumb trying.Maybe this willingness to postpone the extravagance is the mark of a new maturity. At the start of the year, Pietersen spoke effusively of his desire to push on to 10,000 Test runs, and cement the legend that his early successes had always suggested he could become. During today’s grandstand finale, he powered past 6000 Test runs, and by the time of England’s declaration, he had nosed his career average up to 49.83.And what is more, he did so while obeying team orders, as Andrew Strauss’s improbably aggressive declaration quickly confirmed. “I went off for a toilet break at drinks and I said to Strauss if you want to pull us off now, then pull us off now,” he said. “We had quite a few runs, so it wasn’t about double-hundred for me. It was about the team being in a good position going forward in this Test match.”They certainly are in a good position, with Pietersen’s timely input ensuring they have now gone seven consecutive innings without being dismissed for less than 450. And once again, his eye for the grand occasion is in full evidence. Just as his innings defined England’s victory platform in the crucial first win of the Ashes, so he now has laid claim to the first round of Test cricket’s current world heavyweight bout. His backpage-catching strongman pose on reaching 200 was the biggest extravagance of his day – that, and an aborted switch hit off Harbhajan Singh, when the beleaguered offspinner spotted him flipping in his stance with his 150 already on the board.”You go through good, you go through bad, but if you’re being true to yourself, you do your hard work and do the business,” Pietersen said. “If you do the hard work that I do you have to be rewarded.”

West Indies’ bowlers put up a fight in Kingston, but the batsmen are doing an injustice to the team’s glorious past

Sriram Veera at Sabina Park 23-Jun-2011As Shivnarine Chanderpaul lobbed a tame catch to cover, a man named Carlton Christian slumped in his chair in the press box at Sabina Park and buried his face in his palms. Christian is a service provider, an attendant, in the press box. He is tall, well built, and looks like a guy you wouldn’t want to run into down one of Kingston’s dark alleys. He looks flattened now. His eyes are red; he gets up slowly, walks to the restroom and slams the door shut. When he emerges I ask him whether he is okay. “It’s painful man. Sometimes I get very angry. Sometimes I get very disappointed. Can’t they play even one day of good Test cricket?”Surely, after 15 years of watching their team slump from one low to another, West Indian fans would have become comfortably numb, if not downright cynical. Some of them have. Christian, though, isn’t one of them, and he isn’t alone. “They fought a bit. And so I thought …,” he trails off, revealing how his hopes were raised and then quickly punctured.West Indies did fight in the Test, but only in patches and most often, if not always, the resistance came from the bowlers, with both ball and bat. This pitch wasn’t easy to bat on of course and even for India just two specialist batsmen played well but this has been the story of West Indies cricket for a while now.The best phase for West Indies at Sabina Park came when Fidel Edwards rattled the debutant Virat Kohli with a series of sharp bouncers on the second evening. It was stirring to watch. The ball flew towards the head and ribcage of Kohli, who jumped clumsily and was hit on the forearm once. Kohli’s senior partner, Rahul Dravid, walked across to have a word, the fielders moved in, the crowd found their lungs, the transistor crackled in their ears, and there was the buzz of a battle in the air.It was Edwards again, along with Rampaul and Bishoo, who delayed India’s victory on the fourth day, playing gutsy knocks to frustrate the bowlers. Those phases of play were a window into West Indies’ glorious cricketing past.The present, though, cruelly intervened at other moments, reminding everyone of how dire the state of West Indies’ batting is these days. The calypso has turned into a dirge. Ramnaresh Sarwan is batting from memory, while Darren Bravo is prone to forgetting the basics at times. Adrian Barath is yet to mature, and Lendl Simmons is yet to learn the art of converting starts. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is now as well known for the strips under his eyes as the excess baggage he carries on his shoulders from his tiffs with the board. Brendan Nash clearly needs more match practice, and Carlton Baugh and Darren Sammy both seem to have plenty of ambition without the skills to match it.And the mess extends beyond the field of play. Chris Gayle is in the stands, he is at Courtney Walsh’s restaurant, he is on the radio, he is at the hair salon, he is in the newspapers, he is in the media releases, he is on Twitter, but he is not where he should be – on the cricket pitch. Sammy’s position as captain is constantly questioned. He is asked about why he didn’t go to the West Indies Players Association’s awards, whether he asked the players not to attend them, whether he is just a puppet of the board, does he fit into the Test XI, can’t he score runs, can’t he do this, can’t he do that? Chanderpaul is asked to meet the board before a Test match. There is plenty of smoke clouding West Indies cricket, but little fire out on the pitch.Meanwhile, the attitude of the men who brought glory to West Indies cricket in the past ranges from disgust to hopeless acceptance. Richie Richardson, now team manager, unwinds from this mess by playing rhythm guitar. Desmond Haynes, batting consultant to the team, must be tearing his hair out. Another former Test player, now blowing his life away on drugs, says he can’t watch this cricket because the “quality is poor”. Former Test players reminisce about the old days; nostalgia is a good way to forget the present.The fans seem almost apologetic. On the third day, when Dravid was approaching his hundred, a section of the crowd turned to say, “Sorry about this lack of fight. Sorry about our cricket.”In 2000, during India’s disastrous tour of Australia, Robert Craddock, a journalist, wrote: “Come on India. Get angry. Get aggressive. Shake a leg. Fight back. For goodness sake, do something.” It would be unfair to say that sentence applies to the whole of the West Indies team. Their bowlers shook their fists, pounded their legs, and did nearly everything possible to put India under pressure. Even Sammy, a man who has to prove he belongs in Test cricket, took four wickets in the second innings. Edwards, making a comeback having replaced Kemar Roach, breathed aggression. Ravi Rampaul has skill and fight, and Bishoo belongs, and knows that he belongs, at Test level. The bowlers fought hard even with the bat and rarely give up tamely. Russell and Roach did it in the ODIs and now Rampaul and Bishoo in the Tests.The specialist batsmen, however, let all those efforts dissolve into inconsequence with their indiscipline. Perhaps people overreact when they talk about how poor West Indies cricket is today. But it is only because the past was so great. That is what causes so much sadness. Without the romance of the past, perhaps the present wouldn’t hurt as much. However, for the fans who still cling on to hope, for the ex-players who still turn up at games, for the sake of providing a decent contest, it’s time the West Indies batsmen shook a leg and did something.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the match between Mumbai Indians and Trinidad & Tobago in Bangalore

Siddarth Ravindran at the Chinnaswamy Stadium26-Sep-2011Laidback Lendl
Trinidad & Tobago’s first wicket had fallen since Barath couldn’t get his bat down in time, a Malinga yorker proving too good for him. T&T’s second wicket also fell because the batsman didn’t get his bat down in time, but this time the dismissal was due to a schoolboy error from the batsman. Lendl Simmons tucked the ball towards deep backward square leg and had plenty of time to take two. He ambled the end of the second run, thinking he was in no danger, and failed to drag his bat. The throw came in and the wicketkeeper whipped off the bails. The replay on the giant screen showed Simmons’ foot was on the crease – the crowd erupted, Mumbai celebrated and Simmons started to trudge off. He stopped midway to the dug-out though as the third umpire watched endless replays to be absolutely sure. The crowd heard the ‘heartbeat’ sound, which plays as the TV umpire ponders his decision, for several minutes before Simmons was ruled out.The Malinga special
With the home team not playing today, the biggest draws for those who turned up at the Chinnaswamy were the superstars of Twenty20, Lasith Malinga and Kieron Pollard. Malinga didn’t disappoint, giving the crowd what they wanted see as early as the third over. He fired in a full ball that sneaked under Adrian Barath’s bat to dramatically flatten off stump. Few bowlers in world cricket uproot stumps with such frequency.Yes-no-sorry
T&T were already in deep trouble when Ravi Rampaul came out to bat. He punched his first ball to mid-on and set off for a single. The non-striker Jason Mohammed took a couple of paces before deciding against the single, while Rampaul continued to run. Belatedly, he scrambled back but the fielder Aiden Blizzard had the time to wait a couple of moments for the wicketkeeper to come up to the stumps before sliding the ball in for Rayudu to break the stumps. Rampaul had dived in a frantic bid to make his ground. He knew he was short and lay prone on the ground long after as the Mumbai fielders had converged in celebration.Rare Twenty20 sighting
Given the regularity with which batsmen attempt the big hits in Twenty20s, the fields are usually spread out after the Powerplay overs with the four mandatory close fielders staying hugging the 30-yard circle. That wasn’t the case during Mumbai’s chase though, particularly when offspinner Sunil Narine was bowling. In the 11th over, there were as many as three close-in fielders: a slip, a silly point and a leg slip. A great sight for fans of attacking bowling.Barely surviving a hat-trick
Much of the build-up to this match was about Kieron Pollard coming up against his home team. He had had disappointingly little to do on the field, so there was a buzz when he came out to bat, with Ravi Rampaul on a hat-trick having already accounted for James Franklin and Andrew Symonds. Rampaul very nearly completed the feat as well, but the uppish shot from Pollard landed short of Darren Bravo. T&T could have at least had the satisfaction of dismissing their former team-mate for a golden duck, but squandered that as well as a Bravo misfield allowed Pollard time to hare back to the crease after an unresponsive non-striker left Pollard midway down the pitch. At slip, Samuel Badree kicked the turf in disgust, indicating just how badly T&T wanted that wicket.

The Plays of the Day from the second day of the first Test between New Zealand and South Africa, in Dunedin

Firdose Moonda in Dunedin08-Mar-2012Cheers of the day
New Zealand had enjoyed taking the lead for only a few seconds before Dale Steyn bowled Doug Bracewell with a fast, full delivery that sneaked onto the stumps past the outside edge. It brought to the crease one of the great sights in world cricket, Chris Martin striding to the crease, bat in hand. The sizeable crowd was on its feet, welcoming him to the crease for what they anticipated would be a short but entertaining stay. He did not face a ball in the over that was bowled before stumps as Trent Boult refused a run that would have seen him on strike. The good news is that he will back tomorrow morning, to start day three.Super-sopper substitute of the day
Play was due to start half an hour early because of the time lost on day one but a wet patch on the outfield prevented that. A soggy strip in the shadows of the trees bordering the ground had no access to sunlight or heat of any description and overnight dew caused the area to be too moist for day two to start as scheduled. With no super-sopper in sight, groundstaff used rolls of hessian, known for its ability to hold water, to mop up.First-ball of the day
Most bowlers start with a loosener, either a lazily full ball inviting the drive or too much effort put into a short one that asks to be put away. Not Vernon Philander. Having made his name through nagging consistency and the ability to hardly ever bowl a bad ball, Philander started with a good length ball that seamed away from Rob Nicol and beat the bat as he moved forward to defend it. Never mind the opportunity to score a boundary off the first ball, Philander made sure there was not even room for a quick tap and run as he immediately asked a question of New Zealand’s opening batsman – whose wicket he later claimed.Cover-destroyer of the day
On what locals have called the most sunshine Dunedin gets all year, one of the least expected things was a wet ball. However, after Brendon McCullum whipped a ball through midwicket and caused it to land on the covers which were still moist from the overnight dew. After lolling around in the puddles for a few seconds, Morne Morkel made his way to recover it. Without any thought for what he was standing on, Morkel trod over the covers with his spikes. Every step drew a grimace from grounds man Tom Tamati and he was eventually pictured on camera with an expression that suggested he was counting the dollars it will cost to replace a few of his covers.Non-celebration of the day
Imran Tahir usually pulls out his impression of an aeroplane, and a lap of honour, after taking a wicket but his celebration after dismissing McCullum was somewhat subdued. With a ball that probably didn’t deserve a wicket, Tahir got McCullum to play a sweep that got a top edge to the midwicket region. Although the man from short leg was moving to take the catch, he let Tahir have it after the legspinner indicated he could get there. Tahir watched nervously and settled under it, before holding the ball gingerly. Once it was safely in his hands, the arms came out like wings and he was about to take off when he stopped, punched the air near Mark Boucher and searched for Graeme Smith to hug.Four of the day
South Africa’s fielding was terrific most of today but slipped up as the day was 10 overs away from being complete. Graeme Smith placed himself on the long-on boundary and had to make a diving attempt to stop the ball when Doug Bracewell pushed it past non-striker Kruger van Wyk. The captain got to the ball and laid hands on it but let it go as he rolled over only to see it escape under him and trickle towards the rope. Morne Morkel raced after it and reached the boundary just as the ball touched the rope, causing all Smith’s effort to be in vain.Edited by Siddarth Ravindran