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Stats highlights from the third day’s play of the second Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Hamilton

Bharath Seervi20-Dec-20151984 The last time Sri Lanka were dismissed for a lower score than the 133 they made today, by New Zealand in Tests. On that occasion Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 97 runs in Kandy, chasing a target of 263. Apart from this, the only other instance when Sri Lanka were dismissed for a lower total in Tests against New Zealand came in 1983 – in only their second Test against the hosts – when they were dismissed for 93.62 Runs for which Sri Lanka lost their entire side after the opening pair added 71 runs. There have been only five other instances when a team has lost ten wickets for 62 or fewer runs after the opening wicket had put on a 50-plus run stand. The last such instance had also come in New Zealand in 2001 when the hosts were bowled out for 131 chasing a target of 431 runs against Pakistan. On that occasion, New Zealand’s opening pair had put on 91 before the entire side collapsed for just 40 runs. Incidentally, four of the six such instances have involved New Zealand and three of them, including this one, have happened in Tests in New Zealand.2 Number of times Sri Lanka’s last nine wickets have added fewer than 62 runs in a Test innings. The last such occurrence was at the SSC in 2000-01 against England when they lost their last nine wickets for 60 runs. This is also Sri Lanka’s worst such collapse in a Test outside home.36.3 Overs Sri Lanka’s second innings lasted – their eighth-shortest innings in which they have been bowled out in Tests. This is also the second least overs in which they have been bowled out by New Zealand. Their shortest innings in Tests came against Australia in the Boxing Day Test of 2012 when they were bowled out in just 24.2 overs.4 Number of times 16 or more wickets have fallen in a day’s play in Tests in Hamilton. On the third day of this Test, New Zealand lost six wickets – one in their first innings and five in their second – and Sri Lanka lost all ten wickets. The last time 16 or more wickets fell on a day in Hamilton was in 2013-14 when 17 wickets were lost on the third day of the Test between the hosts and West Indies. The most wickets that have fallen in a day’s play at this venue are 22, in Hamilton in 2002-03 in a Test involving India.2 Five-wicket hauls by New Zealand bowlers in home Tests in the last 24 innings, since March 2012. In the same period, there have been nine five-wicket hauls by visiting bowlers in New Zealand; seven of those being six-fors. No New Zealand bowler took five-for in this Test as well, Tim Southee had the best figures in both innings – 3 for 53 and 4 for 26.15 Catches by BJ Watling in four innings in this series – joint-highest by a wicketkeeper from two or fewer matches in a Test series. Kamran Akmal did it against West Indies in 2005 and Watling himself in the series against India at home in 2013-14.5 Fifty-plus scores for Kane Williamson in his last six innings against Sri Lanka: scores of 69, 242*, 88, 71, 1 and 78*. Overall, he has made 797 runs in 12 innings against them at 88.55, including two centuries and five fifties.6 Number of New Zealand batsmen to face at least 8000 deliveries in Tests before Kane Williamson, who completed facing as many deliveries during his unbeaten innings of 78. Stephen Fleming has faced the most for New Zealand – 15652. Williamson has batted an average of 94.21 balls per innings in his career which is the third highest after Mark Richardson (113.83) and Andrew Jones (100.58) among all New Zealand players who faced at least 5000 balls (since balls-faced information is available).5 Instances of Sri Lanka fast bowlers taking nine or more wickets in a Test match, including Dushmantha Chameera in this Test. He has taken four of the five New Zealand wickets to fall in the second innings so far and had taken five wickets in their first innings. Incidentally, three of the five such instances have been in New Zealand.

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Feb-2016Australia, who were playing their first Test in New Zealand in six years, chose to bowl on a lively pitch•Getty ImagesJosh Hazlewood made the new ball talk, and soon enough removed both New Zealand openers•Getty ImagesBrendon McCullum’s landmark Test did not start his way. He was caught in the slip cordon for a duck•Getty ImagesAustralia’s quicks scythed through the middle order, reducing NZ to 97 for 7•Getty ImagesDespite handy lower-order resistance, New Zealand were bundled out for 183•Getty ImagesNew Zealand began their comeback through Tim Southee, who had both openers caught behind•Getty ImagesHowever, Steven Smith and Usman Khawaja’s counter-attacking stand took Australia into the ascendancy•Getty ImagesMark Craig removed Steven Smith just before stumps, but Australia finished the first day on top, trailing New Zealand by just 36•Getty Images

In the second part of a two-part interview, West Indies board president Dave Cameron talks about the CPL money the players receive, and why he keeps his distance from them

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi07-Apr-2016We have asked players whether they have spoken directly to or met Dave Cameron.
And what do they say?No one has.
But I am available. I have told them directly. I have told them through the manager that I am available. They are next door in the Trident [hotel in Mumbai].Have you gone out of your way to reach out?
I have gone out of my way on more than one occasion. In South Africa I went to dinner with them.Is it true that more than half the players did not turn up there?
Not as much as half. A few of the players did not turn up. It was shortly after October 2014 [when the team pulled out of their tour of India]. It is a lot of emotions, and emotions wrongly placed because a lot of players sat down and analysed what West Indies has done. Those “India 15” players have benefited tremendously since 2013, with the CPL coming in. You should ask them about that – how much more money they are making from when West Indies used to run the Caribbean T20 to what they are making now. The CPL is WICB’s product.Again, WICB has received the flak for selling the CPL to a foreign entity. But who has benefited? Our players. We did that so that our players could move from earning US$5000 per season to $150,000-160,000 at the top end. All of those 15 players are earning at that level. Have they lost $150,000-160,000 due to the new restructuring? No, they have not. I can categorically show you that these players are making a lot more money solely from the WICB.Let us go to October 2014. It was one of the saddest chapters in West Indies cricket. Reacting to the pull-out last January, you said: “I don’t believe they are even aware about what they have done.” Why did you say that?
Because we are two years behind where we could have been now had we not had that situation in India. We have struggled for the last two years with our finances, etc. And look at what we have been able to achieve with winning Under-19 [World Cup] and being here in the semi-finals of both men and women’s World T20. My whole objective is about the players and how we can use our players, once we are on the same side, to generate more revenues for WICB and for them.The underpinning thing about the MoU with the players is that they get 25% of our commercial revenues over a four-year period. And that is very, very critical. So they have fixed payments – match fees, retainer – but on a four-year rolling cycle the WICB would review how much of the commercial revenues are there, based on how much players have received. Then they will all get bonuses once the numbers exceed. If numbers don’t exceed, we are not taking back their money. It is a genuine partnership.So once we make more money, the players stand to benefit. The upside is for the senior players, not for regional players. Our percentage payments to our first-class and international players are in line with all the major Full Member countries, like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

“Winning the World T20 or being here in the World T20 is because of [what] the WICB has done. The players here, where did they come from?”

According to you, who pulled out of the India tour – the WICB or the players?
We have been having a lot of discussions about that. The fact of the matter is, the tour was called off. I don’t necessarily want to go into that.The press releases sent by the BCCI stated the WICB had abandoned the tour.
If the WICB pull out, what is the difference? If the players walked out, what is the difference at this point? The happy thing is, that is behind us and the future is ahead of us. Again, we have not been credited enough for how we took it on the chin, because all those players were sent to South Africa right after that India tour.Except for Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard.
The president has no veto in selections, as is the case in some countries. The West Indies selection process is totally independent of the board. The only job we have is telling who becomes captain.You were derided for not flying down to meet the players in India at the time. You said that past WICB presidents, Pat Rousseau and Wes Hall, had reached out to players in times of strife, but what purpose did that serve?
I absolutely don’t believe that that would have changed anything, because immediately after I found out that there was an issue, I offered to Skype all the players and speak to them. One day you will get the full story about that.And that is not an arrogant view, as people might conclude?
No, not an arrogant view at all. My response to Sir Wes, when he asked me that question, was: “Sir Wes, we have had strikes or potential strikes for the last 14 years. And we have all gone and met the players and given in. And we are ranked eight or nine [on ICC rankings]. I am not sure going and meeting them would have solved it.”As a matter of fact, for the first time my board said to me, “President, you are not authorised to do anything to this agreement because you paid the guys money for the last year and a half when you had the opportunity to change the agreement. You have demonstrated good faith. You have worked with the WIPA to get the MoU done. For the last how many years, every time we are trying to move the process forward, so that we can create a professional set-up, we get held to ransom. We are just tired as an organisation.”Wes Hall had strikes against him. Sir Julian [Hunte] had a couple of issues. It started under Pat Rousseau. It happened to Teddy Griffith. Everybody went and gave them [the players] what they wanted. Did our system get any better? It got worse. We have moved from No. 1 in the world in 1995 to eight and nine in Tests and ODIs.”We have 11 women players who are on retainers and that is why our women’s cricket is growing strong. Track and field and basketball have been the sports that have taken away all our athletes”•Getty Images/ICCWhat is happening to the previous BCCI administration’s claim of $42 million in damages for the aborted tour?
We will do a joint media release for you as soon as both boards are ready.Moving back to the first-class structure, right through your tenure you have said the lack of professional structure set West Indies cricket back by 20 years. How much have things improved since the CPL, PCL and Super50 have started?
It is tremendous. We are not where we need to be at. I don’t believe the administration we need around the players is at the level we want to be at. The coaching is something we are working on seriously. We need to upscale our coaches.The big advantage is just that we now have players who can actually see themselves as cricketers without having to go elsewhere and try and find a job in far-off places like the UK. For the first time we have a bunch of umpires who are on retainers.We have 11 women players who are on retainers and that is why our women’s cricket is growing strong. The positive coming out is that cricket is now a career. Track and field and basketball have been the sports that have taken away all our athletes. Now parents can look at cricket and say: if my son gets into the lowest rung of the regional cricket structure, he can make $30,000 as a starting salary, which is more than what a lawyer makes coming out of a university in the Caribbean. Once you start attracting talent, you are forcing people to get better.Around 1998, when England changed their county set-up, where only two overseas players were allowed in per county, we got hurt the worst. As our players got exceedingly worse, we lost all of those contracts. England was our finishing school. That is where players really went and learned professionalism.Take the example of England batsman James Taylor, who scored a hundred in the last Ashes [he made a hundred in the ODIs that followed]. He is only 25 years old. He has somewhere in the region of 65 [131] first-class matches. At 25, in the Caribbean, prior to last year, you would have had played a maximum of 25 first-class games. It is very difficult for anybody to get good playing 25 games by time you are 25.

“My response to Sir Wes, was: ‘We have had strikes or potential strikes for the last 14 years. And we have all gone and met the players and given in. I am not sure going and meeting them would have solved it”

With the PCL you will have the opportunity to play at least 50 first-class matches. Then there are home and away A team matches. So in a year a good second-tier player should play at least 15 first-class, ten List A matches, which helps you identify who are going to be your best players.What has happened to the $360,000 that the CPL said would go to cricket development? Reportedly, it has been diverted to paying the salaries of the domestic cricketers. Is that correct?
That money has gone into the professional set-up. It is not ring-fenced that this money must do that. We give every franchise $45,000 every month; $27,500 of that amount is earmarked for the payment of the players and the balance is for the administration, which includes the coaches, support staff, administrators. That $27,500 is part of the 25% being paid to the players. Have you met the players here in India during the World T20?
I haven’t met all of them. I have seen them.They are staying next door?
They are staying next door [in a hotel in Mumbai]. I haven’t been around them too much. And that is very, very deliberate. I am staying next door and not in the same hotel because sometimes players get a little nervous when the management is around them. They probably feel a little defensive. I don’t want to feel like I am spying on them.No, man, the relationship is good. It is where it needs to be. I’m the president of the organisation. They are the stars and they know that the WICB is supporting them in winning these tournaments. We are happy with that.What if a player thinks, “Oh, he is here. Not even meeting us. We are in the World T20 semi-finals.” Or he might think, “My boss is here. We have come this far in the tournament. Do I get a pat on my back, will he come and talk to me in person?”
I am tweeting and supporting them. They are aware. I have reached out and I have told the manager that I am here if anybody wants to speak to me. A lot of them are very busy – their schedule, practice.”I would love for Chris Gayle to play for as long as possible, but it is based upon his willingness and fitness”•Getty ImagesWhat is your relationship with Phil Simmons, West Indies coach, since his suspension?
We have met. We have spoken. We are professionals. Phil is the coach and I am the president. One other thing I try not to do is get too involved in processes. I have a CEO. I know people think I am the guy directing the ship, but I am really at 100,000 feet [above]. The CEO is running the organisation. There is a director of cricket who Phil directly reports to. My relationship with Phil is on a professional basis.What if the players say: we won despite the WICB. How would you take it?
! Well, I don’t know you get “despite”.Only because they are saying 14 of us 15 are not part of WIPA. We are not talking to WICB.
So who is the team representing here? (Laughs). It can’t be “despite of”. It is really about having those discussions and both parties wanting to sit down. You asked me about going to meet players and trying to talk to them. If they don’t want to speak to me, it is a waste of an attempt. So both parties have to say: this is where we are at, let me hear what you have to say, let me give you my views, and then we can think of going forward. Winning the World T20 or being here in the World T20 is because of what the WICB has done. The players here, where did they come from?This relationship between the two parties, which is very important, is not there.
I don’t necessarily agree with you. When you get a chance, speak to the players of 20 years ago. Most of them did not even know who the president of the WICB was. And we were No. 1 in the world. So I think you are making this relationship more than it needs to be.My role is to run the business and your role is to play cricket to the best of your ability. I am providing you with the best compensation that we can afford, that will allow the product to develop and for us to be able to produce the next [set of] players.What is the question these players are asking you?
That is a good question. When you find out, you let me know. Every match you win, there is a cheque, and the players are getting 100% of that. Some of these players are also on retainers. They keep forgetting. They are playing T20 but they are still on a retainer. The retainer is anywhere between $100,000-150,000 [per year].I don’t want to dwell on money. Money is never enough. West Indies cricket is so critical to us as a nation, as a region that sells tourism, that sells the warmth of our people, the warmth of our islands. That is what we need to be able to communicate to our players.Respect and trust are very important, as you point out. Would you admit that the way Shivnarine Chanderpaul retired and the way it was handled was not appropriate?
It has been called interference by myself because I felt he should not have been dealt with that way. But the selection process is very independent. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and I have a very good relationship.It may be a West Indian thing – that our players seem to not take it upon themselves to communicate to us in a timely manner when they are going to or would like to go.On the other side as well, our selectors, our people who are around the set-up, don’t communicate and don’t give us enough warning about when they believe players are at that point in time.

“We are two years behind where we could have been now had we not had that situation in India”

When I took office in 2013, I asked the selectors to tell us when our senior players are at that point so that we can honour them and treat them with the respect they deserve. Myself and the vice-president were vocal about how Chanderpaul was treated. Chanderpaul has signalled he has retired. We have our awards later on this year [during the tri-series in June] where we will certainly award the Under-19s. Maybe an opportunity to honour Chanderpaul as well.Another example is Chris Gayle. He is the biggest name for West Indies. What is your plan for him?
Chris Gayle and I actually grew up together. We have played together, played against each other. He is at Lucas. My club, Kensington, is literally next door. We have a very cordial relationship. Chris is at a point in time where it is very important how the selectors handle him. I have had those discussions with the selectors. It is not something I want to get involved in. It is important that I stay at a certain level. I would love for Chris to play for as long as possible, but it is based upon his willingness and fitness. I am aware that he is still struggling with some fitness issues. Test cricket is quite rigorous, so I am not sure how long he will play. But it is good to know that he has signalled he would like to play for a few more years. Once he is fit, once the selectors believe he can contribute positively to the team, [then it is up to them].Then there is this hostile relationship you share with the media. You have locked horns with eminent names like Michael Holding. Why is he not commentating in the Caribbean?
I want to leave alone that one.Do you think you are the Sepp Blatter of West Indies cricket?
No, I am the opposite of Sepp, because everybody loved Sepp. When Sepp came to our country, he was worshipped.Our governance systems in the West Indies have been the best they have ever been. We have four independent directors and I have used them to chair some of the important committees. We have an audit, risk and compliance committee, chaired by an independent director. We had a surplus of $3.5 million last year – first time we had such a surplus outside of 2007. All our financial statements are on our website. Two-thousand eighteen is going to be a very difficult year for us because we don’t have inbound tours. We only make [money] when we have inbound tours. The only inbound tours that make money are England and India, and to a lesser extent, Australia.What is your challenge in the remaining time you have as WICB president?
We are at a point now where West Indies cricket has never been in a better place. Financially, we can see our way forward. We have put in a professional structure. We will continue to fiddle with that. Do we increase the matches as our resources get better? Do we pay the players more money, and that kind of stuff? But we are in a place now where we have set the platform and the sky is the limit, and we are on our way up.One of the next steps is, we are creating a commercial entity called Cricket West Indies. Cricket West Indies will be the corporate name for the organisation and the entity in which we will be looking at the performance of our teams will be a separate one. That way we feel we can somehow isolate some of the issues which will always be so, so political [away] from the performance and far from commercialisation of the team. That is happening soon.Read part one of the interview here

13-Aug-2016Kusal Perera struck three fours en route to a 32-ball 16, before Nathan Lyon found his outside edge with a quicker one that turned sharply•Associated PressDimuth Karunaratne left a big gap between bat and pad on the drive, which allowed a Starc delivery to sneak past the inside edge and shatter his stumps•Associated PressStarc didn’t miss the chance to remind the departing batsman that he had dismissed him five times in the series•Associated PressLyon had his second wicket when Angelo Mathews top-edged a sweep to Starc, who ran in from long leg to complete a fine diving catch•Associated PressSmith had a busy morning in the slip cordon and pouched his third catch of the day when Kusal Mendis edged one to give Starc his third wicket and leave Sri Lanka tottering at 26 for 5•AFPThereafter Dhananjaya de Silva, playing only his third Test, led a brilliant fightback to frustrate Australia•Associated PressWith the experienced Dinesh Chandimal lending a brilliant supporting hand at the other end, the duo combined for an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 188•AFPAustralia failed to capitalise on their chances to break the stand. First, Chandimal was offered a reprieve on 11 when Mitchell Marsh missed a tough chance at gully, before de Silva was put down on 104 by Shaun Marsh at short cover•Associated PressDe Silva raised his maiden Test century and remained unbeaten on 116, while Chandimal was 64 not out as Sri Lanka recovered to 214 for 5 at stumps on the opening day•AFP

New Zealand spinners had the conditions to work with. They do not have the experience bowling in them, but they will need to be more consistently accurate to give their batsmen a chance of competing

Sidharth Monga in Kanpur25-Sep-20164:00

Agarkar: New Zealand spinners didn’t create enough pressure

As India struggled in England and Australia in 2011 and 2012 you imagine a scenario how their batsmen would do if they were facing their own bowlers. The Indian batsmen were handcuffed by the accuracy of England and Australia bowlers that year. What if, you wondered, there was a loose delivery every now and then. A gift on the pads. Something short and wide. Something to assure them runs will come if they wait. The England and Australia bowlers for sure did not make them feel that way.When the New Zealand batsmen fought and fought and fought in their first innings in Kanpur, it was tempting to imagine a scenario where these batsmen faced their own bowlers. When after tens of minutes of concentration they could get a loose ball. What they got instead was this. In the second innings, R Ashwin took the new ball, bowled to their right-hand batsmen from round the wicket, had only two men on the off side, and the first time he was hit there was in the sixth over.Since the start of the last home season, India’s captain Virat Kohli has had the luxury of setting fields where even taking a single has been an almighty effort for the batsmen. There’s Ashwin turning the ball sharply in, there are backward and forward short legs, there is another ring of short square leg and short midwicket behind them, and if you manage to beat them there is either a long-on or a deep midwicket or at times, both. A batsman will not take the aerial route with that field because with the turning ball chances are the ball will travel vertically more than horizontally. To add to this, in the second innings, you have a man on the sweep too.So if you are facing Ashwin you have to pierce two gaps for one run. You get that only now and then. The field sounds good, but on the other side Ashwin bowled with only three fielders on the off side in the first innings and two in the second. One of them was a slip. In the first innings he had a man at mid-off and one between point and cover. In the second, there was no mid-off either. On the third morning, by which time he had got his rhythm going, Ashwin bowled the first boundary ball on the off side, in the eighth over of his spell. In the second innings, this happened only in the sixth, by which time he had taken three wickets to become the second-fastest bowler to 200 Test wickets.Ravindra Jadeja often bowled without a point to the left-handed batsmen. Asking them to cut against the turn if they so fancied when he was not going to be that short anyway. In the first innings – let’s take that as a comparison yardstick because in the second innings New Zealand bowlers would have been demoralised and India batsmen under no pressure – India’s two specialist spinners were cut 21 times. Only six of them were boundaries. An attempt at a cut nearly brought them a wicket, and another resulted in the big one of Kane Williamson.Kane Williamson did not have the luxury Virat Kohli had of experienced spinners who could bowl accurately for long periods•BCCIIn fewer overs bowled between them, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi and Mark Craig were cut away for 11 boundaries. Not to mention the pulls off Sodhi’s bowling. Williamson did not have the luxury Kohli had. He had to have five-four fields for longer durations because his bowlers – not experienced enough in being the mainstays of their bowling – were not as accurate. The second innings, after New Zealand had fallen behind by 56, was worse, and doesn’t need retelling.Shane Jurgensen, New Zealand’s bowling coach, was later asked what his bowlers could learn from India’s. “They basically create a lot of pressure,” Jurgensen said. “They make you play the ball consistently, they bowl straight and they are very experienced. It’s shown in the little adjustments they make, positions on the crease, angles, field placements, they are obviously very good at that. Like we saw with their batters in their conditions, we saw the way they bowled in their conditions. We have to take the positives out of the way we bowled today and learn from that.”It is no surprise that the Ross Taylor kind of run-out tends to happen with teams under such relentless pressure. When the bowlers are not giving you any opportunities to relax and switch off, you tend to switch off at times you should not. New Zealand spinners had the conditions to work with, they obviously do not have the experience of bowling in them, but they will need to get closer to the relentlessness of India’s spinners to give their batsmen a chance of competing.

Stats highlights from the second round of Ranji Trophy 2016-17 matches

Bharath Seervi16-Oct-20163 Players who scored first-class triple-centuries at an younger age than Rishabh Pant, who got there at age of 19 years and 12 days. He scored 308 for Delhi against Maharashtra at the Wankhede. The youngest player to score a first-class triple-hundred is Javed Miandad at age of 17 years, 311 days, followed by two Indians: Wasim Jaffer at 18 years, 265 days, and Abhinav Mukund at 18 years, 303 days.

1 Number of Delhi batsmen who had scored a triple-century in the Ranji Trophy before Pant’s knock in this round. Raman Lamba had made 312 against Himachal Pradesh in 1994-95. Pant had scored 146 runs in the first match of this season against Assam.7 Wicketkeepers to score a triple-century in first-class cricket. Pant became the seventh wicketkeeper to do so. The only other wicketkeeper to score a triple-century in the Ranji Trophy is Andhra’s Srikar Bharat who made 308 against Goa in 2014-15 season.

2 Instances of two batsmen scoring triple-centuries in a first-class match. The Maharashtra versus Delhi match is only the second such match. The first was also in the Ranji Trophy, between Tamil Nadu and Goa in 1988-89, when WV Raman and A Kripal Singh scored triple-centuries in the same innings. This match is also the first to have three batsmen scoring 250-plus – Swapnil Gugale 351*, Ankit Bawne 258* and Pant 308.594* The partnership between Gugale and Bawne – the second-highest in first-class cricket history. They missed out on surpassing the 624-run stand between Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara in a Test against South Africa in 2006 when Maharashtra declared. More on the records related to the Gugale-Bawne partnership here.2012-13 The last time Tripura won a match in the Ranji Trophy before beating Services by 219 runs in this round. This is their eighth win in 153 Ranji matches since debuting in 1985-86. It is their biggest win in the Ranji Trophy in terms of runs.4 Bengal players to score centuries in both innings of a Ranji match. Abhimanyu Easwaran, who made 142 and 110 not out against Uttar Pradesh, became the fourth Bengal player to achieve this. Pankaj Roy had done it twice (in 1953-54 and 1962-63), Ashok Malhotra did it in 1991-92 and Sourav Ganguly in 1993-94.0 Five-wicket hauls for Kuldeep Yadav in Ranji Trophy matches before this round, where he took 5 for 115 against Bengal. He did not have a fifty either in the Ranji Trophy, till this game where he made 63 batting at No. 8. He had taken a five-for and made a fifty in the recently-concluded Duleep Trophy as well, but in different matches. Yuzvendra Chahal also took the maiden five-wicket haul of his first-class career, against Hyderabad, in this round.239 Runs accumulated by Yuvraj Singh in his previous 13 first-class innings before this round. In this match against Madhya Pradesh he scored 253 runs (177 and 76). He had not scored a single fifty in his 13 innings prior to this; his last fifty-plus score was 187 in the last Ranji season. His last few first-class centuries have all been big ones: 204*, 208, 131, 130, 136, 182, 187, 177. The innings of 177 in this game is his third-highest score in the Ranji Trophy.8/102 Ishwar Pandey’s figures against Punjab – his second-best in first-class cricket. He took 11 for 127 in the match, also his second-best match figures, and his third ten-wicket haul.

Stats highlights from India’s 246-run win in Visakhapatnam

S Rajesh21-Nov-2016246 The winning margin, by runs, India’s second best in Tests against England; at Headingley in 1986, they won by 279 runs.97.3 Overs batted by England in their second innings, which is the fifth highest by any team in the fourth innings of a Test in India since 1990. The best is South Africa’s 143.1 in Delhi last year.1.62 England’s run rate in their second innings. Only once have they batted 40 or more overs and scored at a slower rate in all Tests since 1980 – against Sri Lanka at The Oval in 1998, when they scored 181 in 129.2 overs (run rate 1.39).R Ashwin went past Rangana Herath to become the highest wicket-taker in Tests in 2016•ESPNcricinfo Ltd55 Test wickets for R Ashwin in 2016, the most by any bowler. He went past Rangana Herath, who has 54 in eight Tests, compared to Ashwin’s 55 in nine.5 Ben Duckett’s average against Ashwin in this series: he has scored 15 runs from 40 balls and been dismissed three times. Overall in the series, Duckett has 18 runs from 52 balls at an average of six. In his first 13 balls against Ashwin, Duckett had scored 13 runs including three fours, but in the last 27 balls against him, Duckett has scored two runs and been dismissed three times.

10 Number of England batsmen who were out lbw in the match, England’s highest ever in a Test. There were two previous instances of nine for England – against West Indies in 1984, and against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in 2012. There have been only three instances of more lbws for a team in a Test – two for Pakistan and one for New Zealand.21 Number of times both teams used the DRS in this Test – 12 times by England and nine by India. On six occasions the on-field umpires’ call was overturned, with each team getting it correct three times. Four of the six overturned calls were for on-field decisions made by Rod Tucker, while Kumar Dharmasena’s on-field calls were overturned twice. In the first Test the DRS came into play only nine times.1906 The last time before James Anderson’s first-ball ducks in this match that an England batsman had bagged a king pair in a Test – Ernie Hayes suffered that fate against South Africa in Cape Town in 1906.

Steven Smith’s Australia were supposed to be left distraught by a nightmarish Pune pitch. Virat Kohli’s India were supposed to continue on their merry way. That’s not what happened

Jarrod Kimber in Pune25-Feb-2017The left-arm orthodox spin floats with that familiar arc. The batsman, whose team is struggling, knows that he has to be patient to score big. He has been in the middle long enough to know how to handle the spinners who have already taken out his top order. As the ball pitches, just around the off-stump line, he decides not to play a shot. The ball crashes into the stumps, and the fielding team is ecstatic while the batsman is bereft.That was Ravindra Jadeja bowling to Steven Smith in the fourth and final Test in Delhi, 2013.

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Whether this was a doctored pitch, or just one that the groundsman got horribly wrong, it was clear that the best time to bat on it was always going to be day one. The toss suddenly became so important; if Australia were to lose it, it was hard to see how they could win the match. But Australia also won all four tosses in 2013. For India, who lost the toss a few times against England, it would make the inevitable victory just that little bit tougher.When Kohli brought R Ashwin on for the second over, when the ball was ragging a few overs later, and when the pitch started having little explosions, it didn’t look like the toss would matter. Australia were having trouble laying bat on ball from the massive spin.According to CricViz, Australia played and missed 44 times in the first innings and 50 in the second. That is basically a play and miss every second over. But not only did this not get them out, it didn’t even seem to create many worries for them.Perhaps the Indian spinners bowled too short, and apparently Australia were playing inside the line on purpose, but that first session ended up being exactly what happened all match.

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Australia struggled to put on a big total in the first innings, they gave away soft wickets, were undone by themselves more than the bowling or pitch, and, at nine wickets down, they were struggling. Then Mitchell Starc hit out while Virat Kohli made a series of choices.He chose to take Ashwin off, take the new ball, give that ball to Jayant Yadav, and by the time Ashwin came back on, Australia had put on 30 runs. They would put on another 30 runs after that. Starc’s hitting accounted for over 20% of Australia’s total. And instead of ending day one on a high, India ended it frustrated; it was the first time that Australia were on top.

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Starc was bowling fast, his wicket of Pujara came from pace and savage bounce. Australia were just starting to get a sniff, but there was one man they not only wanted to get out, they needed to get him out. Kohli’s first ball was just outside off stump and was left with complete ease. He might have only been in the middle for a minute, and facing one of the world’s best bowlers, but he looked like he was over a hundred already.His second ball was wide and full, it didn’t really need to have a shot played off it. But a cover drive rarely needs to be played. Maybe that was Australia’s plan: tempt him early, he will want to hit the ball, dominate, show who is in charge, whose world Australia are living in. So a wide fast tempter might just work. He chased it, late, and the ball took the edge and went to slip.Australia might have thought they had a chance to win this Test before that ball; after it, they knew they could.When Steve O’Keefe was made into R Ashwin…•AFP

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India were 70 for 3 at lunch. Ajinkya Rahane was still looking a bit out of form and KL Rahul was verging towards out of control, but with sensible batting in the middle session, they could be only a hundred runs behind Australia by tea. But it didn’t look like Rahul wanted to do sensible; either he was doing game theory and decided that Starc had to go, or he just got carried away. He was up and over the slips, he was through the slips, just past gully… if that looked reckless, it was nothing compared to his shot off O’Keefe.Taking on long-off when your non-striker is not in good nick, the last two specialist batsmen in the line-up are at the crease, your team is almost two-hundred runs behind the opposition, on a pitch that is probably only going to get tougher to bat on, is just, well… what… something. It’s something. There needs to be a word for something being at once bizarre and crazy, because this was grotesquely demented.Had it been followed by Rahane finding form, a plucky 30 from Wriddhiman Saha, and a 70 from Ashwin, it may not have felt like a big moment. Instead, Rahane followed two balls later, Saha two balls after that, and Ashwin a whole three balls later. India had turned O’Keefe into Ashwin.

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People were claiming Smith’s hundred to be the best they had seen before Smith had even raised his bat. And there is no doubting the skill or problem solving that went into it. Australian batsmen are not bred to make runs on pitches like this – they usually just stare at them slack-jawed, complaining about their dryness.But you cannot talk of the hundred without mentioning the many, many, chances that had allowed it. Smith was missed either three or four times, depending on your thoughts about what a chance is. He also had a DRS call overturned. While that makes his innings harder to qualify in terms of greatness, it’s clear as anything that India stuffed up.Australia had just showed them a masterclass of catching – Peter Handscomb alone was a human highlight reel – and now India, needing to take all ten chances, ended up having to create 15 of them. You cannot lose the toss, allow the tail a rearguard, collapse in a hysterical heap and then drop Steven Smith once. India needed to be perfect in the second half of the game; instead they were somehow every bit as abjectly awful as Australia were supposed to be.Indian cricket is going through a dream run that no other team in the history of cricket has ever gone through. Mostly because no other team has ever played this many teams in such a short space of time, and, even if they did, chances are they wouldn’t have won this much.The Indian team looked like a giant snowball getting bigger and bigger, and the visiting teams looked like scared badgers in the face of an angry man with a shotgun. It was all a bit like an LSD hallucination of cricketing perfection. The team, the country, couldn’t believe what was happening; serious foes became battered memes, commentators the new cheerleaders, and the public made so much noise that any whispers of the fact that this was all happening at home were drowned out by a tri-coloured hurricane of awesomeness.This is India’s season, India’s world; you come here not at your peril, but to perish.Australia were splendid in the field. India, not quite•AFPWhen Australia were last here in 2013, they were in disarray; they were about to lose a coach, they had misplaced a player mid-tour. This time, too, the signs pointed to another horror series. In Australia, there was a complete collapse of belief. A South African team that couldn’t keep its stars went through them. A keeper was dropped because he wasn’t as hard as his replacement. A guy famous for eating a sandwich, a bloke with a weird technique and a kid were given a go. There was a crisis of faith in the way they played cricket.Even when they got it right, they almost allowed the Pakistan tail to chase a world-record total against them. And that was before they thought about the fact they hadn’t won in India for 4502 days – back when Matt Renshaw was eight. They had lost their last nine Tests in Asia, and their last win here was 2003 days ago, when Steven Smith was averaging 28. They were picking random spinners, like they always did on their bad tours, putting their hopes in cricketers that didn’t seem to have the skills to survive a normal Asian tour, leave alone taking down the Godzilla of India.Such was the inevitability of the whole thing, it seemed like it should hardly take place, like we should just etch in a 3-0 or 4-0 and instead use the time to make both teams travel around India promoting healthy living and the benefits of physical exercise.

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The left-arm orthodox spin floats with that familiar arc. Kohli’s team is struggling, he does show patience, and he has been in the middle long enough to get a handle on the spinners who have taken out his top order. He thrusts his leg forward decisively, he raises his bat above his head, and he watches the ball carefully. He sees it bounce around off stump, he sees it pass under his nose, and then it disappears. And there is just a noise.First a rattle, then a scream – of joy.Kohli stays in the leave-alone position, he just brings his bat down and rests on it. His eyes go to the pitch, back to the broken stumps, he repeats this several times, back and forth, in confusion, shock, disappointment. It’s like he believes that by continually looking back, he can somehow magically change what has happened. And why wouldn’t he believe in magic – he has seen it for 19 Tests. It included one of cricket’s greatest runs, in which the great cricketers on earth bowed down at his feet, in which teams tamely rolled over, in which India didn’t just go to No. 1, they danced down the track and smashed it out of the park.And now, Virat the Merciless had just let himself be bowled.Behind him Australia celebrated like they had just won the match, and they had. They had slayed their demons, their critics, the best team in the world, and their most feared surface. Smith was ecstatic; later he would say: “Everyone expected India to win 4-0. Well, that can’t happen anymore.” The least they have done is stave off complete humiliation; the most, well, they can now truly dare to dream.That staring, distraught, destroyed captain was supposed to be Smith. It wasn’t.This was Virat Kohli and Steven Smith in the first Test in Pune, 2017.

Also, which players have the most half-centuries without ever having made a hundred?

Steven Lynch20-Mar-2017Shivnarine Chanderpaul and his son Tagenarine recently scored fifties in the same first-class innings. Is this unique? asked Rajiv Radhakrishnan from England

That double by the Chanderpauls came for Guyana in their recent match against Jamaica in Kingston: the son opened and made 58, being joined by his dad when the score was 128 for 3. They put on 38 before Tagenarine was out, but Shivnarine went on to 57, as Guyana inched to a narrow lead. It is a remarkable feat, especially in the modern era, but not quite unique. It is, however, the first time a father and son have scored half-centuries in the same first-class innings since 1931, when Nottinghamshire’s 521 for 7 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston included 183 not out from 53-year-old George Gunn, and 100 not out (a maiden century) from his son, George Vernon Gunn, who had just turned 26. I think the last father and son to play together in the same first-class match before the Chanderpauls were Denis and Heath Streak, for Matabeleland in Zimbabwe’s Logan Cup final in Bulawayo in April 1996.Who has scored the most half-centuries in Tests without ever getting a hundred? And what’s the record for ODIs? asked George Robinson from England

The leader for Tests remains the Indian opener Chetan Chauhan, who reached 50 on 16 occasions during his 40 Tests between 1969-70 and 1980-81 without ever quite making it to three figures: his highest score was 97, against Australia in Adelaide in 1980-81. Next come the Australians Ken Mackay (13 half-centuries), Shane Warne (12) and Bruce Laird (11); the West Indian wicketkeeper Deryck Murray also reached 50 on 11 occasions without getting to 100. The leading current player is Mitchell Starc, who has nine half-centuries to his name – with, like Warne, a highest score of 99. The clear leader in one-day internationals is Misbah-ul-Haq, who reached 50 on no fewer than 42 occasions but was stuck with a highest score of 96 not out, against West Indies in the Champions Trophy at The Oval in 2013. The New Zealander Andrew Jones made 25 one-day half-centuries, and Graham Thorpe of England 21.Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi: they can hurt you with bat or ball (or, quite often, both)•AFPHow many times has someone scored a fifty and taken three wickets in the same ODI, and who has done it most often? asked Savo Ceprnich from South Africa

This particular all-round feat has now been achieved 199 times in one-day internationals, most recently by Ireland’s Paul Stirling, with 95 and 6 for 55 against Afghanistan in Greater Noida last week. The first to do it was Majid Khan, with 61 and 3 for 53 for Pakistan against Australia at Trent Bridge during the 1979 World Cup. Two other Pakistanis lead the way overall: Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik both managed it eight times. Chris Gayle and Sanath Jayasuriya did it on six occasions, Jacques Kallis and Shakib Al Hasan five, and Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lance Klusener, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar four.What is India’s lowest total in a Test at home? asked Allan Alexander from the United States

India have been bowled out for under 100 on seven occasions in home Tests (plus once more for exactly 100, as England won in Mumbai in 2005-06). Their lowest of all was 75, against West Indies in Delhi in 1987-88 (Patrick Patterson took 5 for 24); they were also skittled for 76 – in just 20 overs on the first morning – by South Africa in Ahmedabad in 2007-08, when Dale Steyn claimed 5 for 23. India’s lowest all-out total in a home Test they ended up winning is 104, against Australia in Mumbai in 2003-04.Meg Lanning, hundred machine•Getty Images and Cricket AustraliaIs Meg Lanning the first woman to score ten hundreds in one-day internationals? asked Cherise Asha Clarke from Trinidad & Tobago

Meg Lanning’s unbeaten 104 in the Rose Bowl decider against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui earlier this month was indeed her tenth in one-day internationals, which put her clear at the top of the list, ahead of Charlotte Edwards (nine), and Karen Rolton and Claire Taylor (eight). The New Zealand captain Suzie Bates comes next with seven, one more than her team-mate Amy Satterthwaite.What’s the highest tenth-wicket partnership to win a one-day international? And what is the Sri Lankan record? asked Rajeeva Indiketiya from England

The highest last-gasp stand to win a one-day international remains the 64 of Deryck Murray and Andy Roberts for West Indies against Pakistan at Edgbaston during the first World Cup in 1975. The nearest a side has come to this record was in Brisbane in 2013-14, when James Faulkner and Clint McKay put on an unbroken 57 to spirit Australia past England’s 300. Sri Lanka’s record last-wicket partnership to win an ODI is a modest 12, by Ajantha Mendis and Suranga Lakmal against West Indies in Colombo in 2015-16. Overall, there have been two 100-plus tenth-wicket partnerships in ODIs and a further 35 worth 50 or more.Post your questions in the comments below

West Indies were woeful in the first Test at Edgbaston. But how could things be better when they have no experienced players, and barely any of quality either?

Jarrod Kimber at Edgbaston19-Aug-2017Failing to run hard. Poking at wide ones. Not moving one’s feet. Hands in pockets as the ball is bowled. Not backing up. Not enough singles. Fielders too deep. Running down the middle of the wicket. No control over line. Playing across the line when it’s swinging. No diving to stop boundaries. Balls going through legs. Boundary balls served to order. Lifeless fielding. New ball not taken. Rash shots. Impatient bowling. Terrible techniques. Wasting the new ball.If you had a list like this as a coach of a school team you’d be angry. But this is not even a complete list of the mistakes the West Indies made in the first Investec Test.***Alastair Cook brought up his fifty with a misfield to cover. He brought up his hundred when the ball was hit straight to a point fielder who was either set too deep, or simply asleep. His 150 came from an overpitched ball on the pads. His 200 was guided away to the vacant third man … well not vacant in a cricket sense; there was a fielder there, Kyle Hope, he just didn’t stop the ball.At the start of day two, West Indies committed three fielding errors before drinks that would have embarrassed a stressed-out mollusc. For most of the first innings they looked about as interested in stopping runs as they were in penning love letters to donkeys. They wandered around the field like bored children, hands in pockets, no dives.At one point there was a misfield, and the ball wriggled out behind the fielder. And no one chased it. Not the player who had missed it. Not the other players around it. For a couple of seconds, a ball that had been delivered in a Test match was trickling out towards long on, and not one West Indian fielder was chasing it.***The England players average 51 Tests each, the West Indies 17. There is one England player, Toby Roland-Jones, who has played fewer than 100 first-class matches, and even he has played 93. There is one West Indies player who has played over 100 – Kraigg Brathwaite with 110.Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Moeen Ali have played 821 first-class matches between them; the entire West Indies team have amassed 675.It’s always been the case that there isn’t enough first-class cricket played in the Caribbean. But this situation is even worse than it seems, because this team isn’t even particularly young.Kyle Hope has played only 34 matches, and while that makes him sound young, he isn’t, he’s 28. Mark Stoneman, two years older than Hope, has played 112 more first-class matches and scored 17 more hundreds. Hope was picked to bat at No. 3, yet he had just one first-class hundred coming into this series. Not the ideal hinterland for surviving English conditions and England’s two leading wicket-takers of all time.There are only two players in this team under the age of 24; this isn’t a bunch of kids, this is a bunch of mid-20s cricketers who have neither experience nor decent records.The short and the tall of it is that West Indies aren’t good enough•Getty ImagesThe bowlers were supposed to be the strength of this team. Sure, they lost Shannon Gabriel to fitness (and rhythm) concerns. But they still had a five-man attack apparently good enough that they could leave out Devendra Bishoo.And Kemar Roach aside, none of the bowlers did the job that they were supposed to do. Alzarri Joseph wasn’t quick, and he completely wasted the new ball on both occasions he was given it. Miguel Cummins was expected to come on as first change and keep the pressure up. He bowled horrendously to Joe Root at the start of his innings, and their good start was ended right there. Jason Holder’s role is to clog up an end, not clog up the opportunity to take a new pink ball under lights. And Roston Chase was supposed to give the seamers some extended breaks and work for the bowler at the other end – most of the time he seemed to struggle to land the ball within a metre of where he intended.No one was entirely horrendous, all of them had moments when they got it right, but aside from Kemar Roach, not one of them looked like they were of Test quality. And they produced a staggering amount of boundaries.Alastair Cook hit three in one over. Enough said.***A West Indian batsman has made a hundred in a game that featured James Anderson and the pink ball this summer. His name is Shivnarine Chanderpaul. And this season for Lancashire he is averaging 67. At 43, he might still be the best West Indian Test batsman in the world.The second-best batsman may well be Darren Bravo; he is also not playing. At 28, with a Test average of 40, an overseas double-century, he should be at the peak of his powers, and instead, he was in litigation with CWI after tweeting that the board president Dave Cameron was a “big idiot”. He did apologise to resolve things with the board but the Test squad for England had already been picked by then.Both of these players have played a part in their own downfall, but when you are taking on Anderson and the ball is swinging around like an alien super missile, you want to call upon the guy who averages over 50 away from home and the guy who was your best player for the best part of 20 years.But it isn’t just two players that West Indies are missing, it’s almost an entire team. Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer both play in county cricket but were born and raised in Barbados. Jordan has already played for England; Archer will soon enough. Both could fit into this West Indies side as it stands. Jordan could even be its captain. Archer’s first-class bowling average is 23; his batting average is 30.And, for all the fears of a talent drain inspired by Patrick Ewing’s basketball career, West Indies continue to world-boss T20 cricket. Kieron Pollard is 30, he averages 37 in first-class cricket (more than most in this current team). Contrary to any reputation as a limited-overs slugger, he is a very smart cricketer, and can wobble a few overs if needed. Then there is Andre Russell, on a drugs-code violation maybe, but he can bowl 90 miles an hour, and can change a game in a session with the bat. He averages 20 with the ball in first-class cricket, took two five-wicket hauls against India A in consecutive games, and hasn’t played a first-class match since February 2014.And then there’s Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine, Darren Sammy, and Jerome Taylor, if you so please. They could, in theory, also call upon Daniel Bell-Drummond and Keith Barker, two other county players who would qualify for West Indies. Oh, and Chris Gayle, a former captain with a couple of Test triple-centuries to his name.Chris Jordan, born in Barbados, is now an England international•Getty ImagesA team of Gayle, Bell-Drummond, Bravo, Chanderpaul, Simmons (he kept once), Pollard, Jordan, Russell, Archer, Narine, and Taylor would beat this current team. And it could be coached by Phil Simmons, who turned Ireland into a Test team, and helped West Indies win a World T20. Then he was sacked for suggesting that some of the players in this list should actually be selected.This is a fantasy team, and could in no way exist in the real world for many reasons. The most important factor is the financial lure: whether that is of playing for England, of playing in England, or of playing for franchises whose salaries completely dwarf that which the West Indies administrators are able to pay their players. In some cases, the political problems have been caused by a poor CWI board, who have created extra tensions by acting like big idiots for much of the last few years. And to some extent that is changing under the new CEO, Johnny Grave, and Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams, but the money problem still endures.Since Learie Constantine played for West Indies as a means of getting a gig in English league cricket, West Indies players have always looked to leave if they wanted to be paid appropriately for their cricket. Garfield Sobers had to be convinced by Bradman and Benaud to play for West Indies over playing league cricket. County cricket after World War Two often had West Indies players in abundance, and they had their own team in Kerry Packer’s World Series too.So this problem isn’t new, and without a global Test cricket structure in which the players are paid from a fixed pool fed by shared TV rights, there is no real way to stop the drain. The best players will continue to go where they have the brightest and most secure future, and West Indies cricket will continue to send out A teams for marquee Test series.***West Indies fought through their first session of batting in this Test match. The ball was moving around, they lost their most dependable player, Kraigg Brathwaite, early, but they didn’t give up. And when the rain came they were a respectable 44 for 1.The next day, however, all that fight vanished. They couldn’t make a run, they couldn’t get off strike, and they couldn’t keep a batsman in. Five balls after losing Kyle Hope to a good ball, Kieran Powell tried to take a single.The last time Powell came to England, in 2012, he averaged 14.2 and never passed 33. This time, he was pushing the ball to mid-on and taking a single, but he never got up to top speed, he never dived, and he never made it to the other end. This meant that they lost two early wickets and managed the rare feat of having two players out in the middle who hadn’t faced a single ball. Not surprisingly one of them went early too, so they lost 3 for 2 in 24 balls.Later Shai Hope, who is probably the most talented batsmen in this side, drove loosely on the up while the ball was still moving and was bowled. Jason Holder tried to be aggressive against Moeen Ali, played and missed for three balls straight, then finally got the edge he’d been looking for.Jermaine Blackwood was the only batsman who looked like he could make runs, or stay out there. In the end, he made more runs in one innings than any of his team-mates managed in two. They ended up 75 runs short of Alastair Cook.***There is an unspoken law that forbids you from talking about the current state of West Indies cricket without talking about the glory days, Let’s call it Clive’s Law. Every bad moment of West Indian play must be immediately compared to a great player, moment or feeling from the past. Look how bad these bowlers are, remember the four fast men of death. That was a terrible way to play the short ball, remember when they used to hook like Gods. They all look like timid schoolkids, remember when they owned every blade of turf.When the current West Indies team takes the field, they aren’t just playing the opposition; they are playing the ghosts of the greatest cricket dynasty that ever lived.Every time they land in England they are bombarded with articles about how great the team once was. The former West Indians are in the press, being asked what they think of a bloke with a first-class average of 33. The loudest sound in current West Indies cricket is the sigh people emit when they talk about the old days.Shivnarine Chanderpaul remains a run-machine in county cricket, but he’s deemed surplus to international requirement•Getty ImagesEngland don’t enforce the follow-on often, but even they couldn’t see any need to continue this match a moment longer. West Indies were entirely defeated, they could have batted in four innings and there would only have been an outside chance of England batting again.There was no fight in the second innings; they were a boxer standing unconscious being propped up by the ropes. Brathwaite nudged for a little while; no one else went past 24. The footwork was horrendous. They lost a wicket every 16 minutes and 15 seconds. When Stuart Broad hit the pads of Roston Chase, he didn’t even look back at the umpire, he didn’t appeal, or even celebrappeal. It was quite clear that, when an English bowler delivered a ball, a West Indian batsman would be soon be out.***At nine wickets down in the first innings, Miguel Cummins came out to bat. Blackwood had just made an error in allowing Joseph the strike early in an over which lead to his wicket, so he was now trying to control the strike, and he hit a ball early in the over to deep point and didn’t run.To make sure there was no confusion, he came down the wicket and chatted to Cummins explaining the whole plan. Cummins listened and nodded. Blackwood went back to his stance and guided a beautiful boundary to third man, then clipped another ball into the leg side and took two. Off the fifth ball, with the field up, he inside-edged and failed to get his single. So, off the last ball, it was clear that he had to get to the other end.So Cummins backed up, and started sprinting from the moment the ball was released, and stole the single that gave Blackwood the strike and kept him on course for his hundred.No, sorry, that’s not what happened. Cummins didn’t back up. Or even react to the chance of a run, and he ended up well short.It wasn’t the biggest error of the day. It was just another mistake for the Schoolboy XI.