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Going into the tri-series opener against West Indies, South Africa may need to choose between Chris Morris and Wayne Parnell for one spot in their eleven

Firdose Moonda02-Jun-2016As much as Chris Morris enjoyed “connecting” with his South African team-mates on their first assignment together in two months, he also issued a warning to one of them: Wayne Parnell, his chief competitor for a place in the starting XI. Morris and Parnell are the two pace-bowling all-rounders in the current squad and there is likely to be space for only one of them to take the field and Morris made it clear he wants that one to be him.”It’s quite a big responsibility to be the all-rounder in the team,” Morris said. “It’s an opportunity I am trying to grab with two hands. I am trying to grab it and go because it’s what I want to do.”Morris was South Africa’s preferred allrounder at the World T20 after eye-catching performances in the limited-overs matches against England in February. He single-handedly kept South Africa in the ODI series with a swashbuckling 62 in Johannesburg and he hopes his batting could set him apart. “I have put a lot of hard work on especially my batting,” Morris said. “I look at it as an exciting phase of my career. I am at an age where I think I can cement my spot and it’s an opportunity to do it so I am going to give it my all.”At 29, Morris is three years older than Parnell and he is also ahead in game-time terms. While Parnell has been at home in April and May, Morris has been toiling at the IPL, where he justified his million-dollar deal. “The IPL was one a good one personally,” he said. “It’s a good place to learn more about yourself as a person and as a cricketer. It was a very good year for me. I will take a lot of confidence out of the IPL.”Morris’ Delhi Daredevils finished third from bottom on the IPL table after winning as many of their 14 matches as they lost. Morris played in 12 of those and was their leading wicket-taker with 13 scalps at 23.69 and also did his bit with the bat. Morris finished as Delhi’s fifth run-scorer with 195 runs at 65.00 which included an unbeaten 32-ball 82.Still, Morris admitted the international game was “a different animal,” and that it would take more than a few strong performances in a T20 competition to succeed in making the step up. “I have never been [in the West Indies] before,” he said. “It’s going to take a couple of overs to adjust.”Neither has Parnell, which could leave South Africa with an interesting choice of who to include. For all Parnell’s recent inactivity, he has fought his way back to into the national side with strong performances in the 50-overs format for his franchise, the Cobras. He was their highest wicket-taker, and third highest overall in the domestic one-day cup and his coach Paul Adams said he has “never seen Wayne play better.”

In part one of a two-part interview, Mickey Arthur talks about the success stories in the Test series in England, and dealing with unfit players

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi13-Sep-2016Read part two of the interview hereIn the little time you have spent with Pakistan, is this the most difficult job of your career?
No. It is not. It has been fantastic. It is frustrating at times because we were almost starting from a very low base in terms of structure, player plans, injury and fitness assessments etc. But the scope of the job is so good and so broad. I really do enjoy it.We are trying to create a culture of excellence. To create that culture has been tough. It hasn’t been there in Pakistan cricket for a while – whether that is cultural or a product of the environment, I am not sure. But we are getting very structure-based. Low fitness levels will not be tolerated. If we want to catch up with the rest of the world, certainly in one-day and T20 cricket, we have got to be doing those little things well. So it’s been lovely, fantastic, exhilarating, but also frustrating.You have marked your priorities already, but before we dive into them, firstly what made you take up the job?
When I lost the job with Cricket Australia, I almost felt I had unfinished business to do. I felt that my reputation with South Africa and internationally had been very good. And then you lose your coaching job, it is tough. It kept me three years out of it.I really missed the adrenaline rush of international coaching. [But] I kept myself in the coaching loop: I coached in the Bangladesh Premier League, Caribbean Premier League and the Pakistan Super League. That pricked my enthusiasm again for the international job. So when this Pakistan job came up, because I had coached in the PSL, I thought it could be quite a good one.What were you asked during the interview?
Nothing really. I just had a phone call and they [PCB] asked me if I would like to do it. I didn’t have an interview as such. There was a little paper you had to write on and that was it.Were you given a blank slate?
The chairman [Shaharyar Khan], executive chairman [Najam Sethi], and COO [Subhan Ahmed] had given me almost a blank piece of paper to come in and create a structure and get Pakistan cricket back to where it should be. Success needs to be measured with team success, but also down the line with structures that have been created and standards that have been put in place.I have been really disappointed with players who have joined this tour [ODI squad] unfit. But that has just been the norm. That won’t be tolerated again going forward because now everybody knows what the minimum requirement is.

“Every player who arrived on this ODI and T20 tour has been below standard in fitness, which is not a good place to be”

Barring Bob Woolmer, Pakistan players, media and fans have rarely warmed to overseas coaches. Do you reckon you started from a point of disadvantage?
I spoke a lot to Bob when I was coaching South Africa and he was in Pakistan. Bob loved every minute of coaching Pakistan. He loved the people, and I can see why. The people are fantastic. It is just that they need to be pushed and challenged all the time. Otherwise they get into comfort zones very easily. I am trying to create an environment that does that: stimulates them, lets them enjoy their cricket and have fun, but also challenges them. Those three things are so important.Does that style suit your coaching philosophy?
Yes, it does. I intend to be pretty much a hands-on coach in that I like the challenge of creating those environments. It worked fantastically well working with Graeme [Smith, in South Africa]. It didn’t work that well with Australia. For me, coming in and building a team is something that I really enjoy. I enjoy seeing young players given the opportunity and then perform and go on to have fulfilling careers.You said this elsewhere about coaching Pakistan: “It’s totally out of the comfort zone. It’s cricket I’ve never played and never coached – what a treat!” Can you expand on those thoughts?
It is out of my comfort zone because you are coaching a completely different nation. It is not like coaching Australia or South Africa. That was particularly hard, but culturally [in Pakistan] it is very, very different. So it challenges me as a coach every day. Every night before going to bed I analyse: have I done well, have I been too hard, too soft on the players, have I stimulated them enough in training, was the practice session good, did I deliver the right message?Generally with the nations I have coached, you get a feel straightway, because culturally it is very similar for me. But with Pakistan it is different. I am working with good skills, good talent and a population that is very demanding and very passionate about their cricket. You put all that in the melting pot, it becomes fantastic.Sometimes I look at myself and think: have I been too hard in terms of pushing and challenging the players? But I only think about that for five minutes and then I say I am doing okay because they need to be pushed and challenged.I have found with this team that you have to continually be driving home those standards. I have probably been the toughest I have ever been in my coaching career with Pakistan for the simple reason that it is needed. Hopefully it is taking the team in the right direction, but more importantly it is teaching good habits that go with professional sport.”Technically, Asad Shafiq is our best batsman. At times I could almost visualise Sachin Tendulkar”•Getty ImagesWhen you took over the job you said you were excited about working with individual players as personal projects where you can help them evolve and improve individually. You said you are good at that. There are many in the Pakistan set-up who could benefit from this kind of personalised treatment. It is almost what Woolmer did with Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf.
Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali are good examples. What you need with them is, they go back with the fitness programme, they go back with an injury assessment, with a total assessment on how they are physically, mentally and technically. So we send those reports back to the NCA [academy], which then takes over the coaching and the monitoring of those players while we get another set of players for the ODIs and T20Is. When the players are not with us, they are directed by Mudassar Nazar [NCA head]. So I can pick up the phone at any time and say, “Mudassar, tell me how’s Sohail Khan doing? What is his fitness level? How many overs has he bowled this week? And the front arm that we wanted to work on, what is that looking like? Is that allowing him to drive through the crease more?” In other words, we have got control and ownership of those players.I will give you another example, Mohammad Irfan. Before he came for the ODI series, nobody could tell me where he was with his fitness levels. There was no data. It was very amateurish. And now we are trying to put those individual player plans in place so we can monitor those players all the time. Hopefully those notes are going to the coaches in domestic cricket and they are hopefully giving the same message as we do. So when you talk about player projects, that is what I am talking about. And when the players come back to us, I want the comments from the NCA on what the coaches there have worked on, this is how they are progressing. But there also needs to be some accountability with the NCA, the club coaches, the department coaches, so that the players are getting one message and they are not confused. There is a stream of communication going all the way down.Would you say you are creating a structure that is transparent, where information is shared among everybody and both coaches and players are on the same page?
Mohammad Irfan comes out here [in England] and he is clearly not fit enough to play one-day cricket. If there were individual player plans and definite markers on where he should have been, we would have known. We didn’t know.Are you being harsh on Irfan?
Of course not. Irfan is a fantastic cricketer. I had him in my room after the Cardiff ODI. I told him, “I can’t select you for the next game [because] I am not sure you can get through ten overs. I can’t select you for the T20 because I am not sure you can get through even four overs. You started cramping in your fourth over the other night, so how can we take the risk and play you?” But now Mohammad Irfan has gone back to Pakistan with a training programme that is custom-made for him, which gives him the best possible opportunity to come back and play for Pakistan.There is nothing personal, but enough is enough. We have to set some real standards to make people understand that we are pretty serious about players arriving unfit. Every player who arrived on this ODI and T20 tour has been below standard, which is not a good place to be.

“I have told the whole bowling attack they need to control the run rate. Every time we took the new ball England got off to a flier”

Has that been a big hurdle for you, then?
Well, it is because we can’t train them here. We train them technically, tactically and mentally, but if we have got to do it physically as well, we’ve not got enough time. It is not the system’s fault only. There needs to be player responsibility as well and there has been no accountability from the players. I will take Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan as examples. They are 42 and 38 respectively. They are the fittest players in Pakistan cricket. And there is no coincidence that that’s why they are the best performers over the last year. They drive themselves. They take responsibility for their fitness. Shoaib Malik, in the one-day squad, in his mid-30s, fantastic, fitness-wise. He is lean, he is mean. I want the young guys to do that. That is true professionalism. I don’t think that has been driven in the youngsters properly.We have got a responsibility to the people of Pakistan and I have got the massive responsibility to the PCB to get it right. And I certainly won’t be compromising on any of that. And the players know that: I have spoken to them directly. You arrive like that again [unfit], you won’t play.Moving towards the positives, do you agree the Pakistan Test side is a settled unit with players knowing their role and performing accordingly?
I do agree. There has been a little movement in that Sami Aslam has come in and done really well. Asad Shafiq batted at No. 4 (at The Oval), really took his chance and scored a hundred. There will be another batting position that becomes vacant at some stage. How we fill that I am not sure. That will probably be No. 6.Whose position?
Asad Shafiq was moved to No. 3 [No. 4, because Yasir Shah came in as nightwatchman at 3] because [Mohammad] Hafeez was dropped. So that position has become available. There are people who want that position and somebody who fits the bill in terms of physical, mental, tactical and technical will get that role. But going back, that Test team is a very good cricket team. I was so excited when I saw the Test team train and play. We had everything: we had the pace of [Mohammad] Amir and Wahab [Riaz], Sohail Khan did something different, Rahat Ali got some bounce, and we had Yasir Shah, who was brilliant.”Sohail Khan impressed me so much because he was always batting and bowling in the nets. He swings the ball, bowls at a decent pace, he can bat a little bit”•AFPDo you agree that it is mainly down to Misbah that the Test team is in a healthy state and form?
A lot of it is down to Misbah. He took over in 2010 and what he has done for Pakistan cricket has been immense. I have had the pleasure of working with some very good captains in Graeme and Michael Clarke and Misbah is right up there. He is respected. When he talks, people listen. He is a general. He is a man of very few words.Misbah has his own style of leading and playing. Could you adapt to that?
We have worked really well because I have taken a lot of the off-field stuff off Misbah. I have driven the culture, I have driven the communication with players, I have taken the lead in working out the selections with Inzy [Inzamam-ul-Haq, chairman of selectors]. That has allowed him to go out and concentrate on the team and on his batting. I had a honest one-on-one chat with Misbah before the England tour and we clarified our roles, we spoke about where the team is, and we have worked as one. I still think we can get better. I still think we can challenge ourselves a bit more.Which are the areas you want the Test team to improve on?
I just want to see them get better and better and not be happy with where they are at the moment, because I believe we can get a lot more out of them. I know we will face challenges when Misbah and Younis eventually go. And that is why it is so important to get some game time into young batsmen who can then step up into those roles.You have admired Misbah’s strength of mind as well as that of Younis. They like setting an example as leaders, right?
When we arrived in England it was Ramadan and we were training. Misbah, Younis and a lot of others observed Ramadan to a T in terms of their eating habits etc. At the outset I said to Misbah: it is going to be quite tough. This is our preparation time and we are going to be putting in a lot of work. He said, “Coach, don’t worry about us. We can work as hard as you like and we have to.” He worked extremely hard. It was an inspiration to see him go about his work ethic.Misbah and Younis have played a massive role in motivating younger players. They are very meticulous in their preparations. They are fit, they do their gym work, rehabilitation, recovery, they hit enough balls, they know their games at all times, their routines are so structured and they get their rewards for doing that. Younis went through a rocky road in the first three Tests [in England], but he still backed what he was doing. He still knew that was the right way to go about his preparation. Every day he would do the same whether he got a nought or a fifty. He just had that strength of mind.

“He is everything that Pakistan cricket needs. He is talented, fit, very intelligent. He will be the heart of any team because of his work ethic and everything he puts into his game”On Shan Masood

Were you worried when Younis failed in the first three Tests?
I wasn’t, to be honest. I had not seen a hint of panic in his eyes, or desperation. He listened to the advice we gave. He took it on board. And yet he knew there was a big score round the corner, because he was just ticking every box. Myself and Grant [Flower, batting coach] just wanted him to stay still at the crease. We thought he was moving too much, and when he was moving, his weight was going across the crease and not forward, not at the ball. So it was impossible to hit the ball straight. In the last Test he did that. And the strength of mind that he had in him, he just continued backing himself, still being a brilliant team man, still being brilliant around the changing room.Can you talk about Mohammad Hafeez who struggled and was eventually dropped?
Hafeez is a very good cricketer. And all cricketers go through this little period where they don’t make as many runs as they would like. He had one or two starts which he did not capitalise on. Opening the batting in international cricket is tough. You are facing [James] Anderson and [Stuart] Broad and they are quality bowlers.I also feel so sorry for Shan Masood. He is everything that Pakistan cricket needs. He is talented. He is fit. He is very intelligent. He will be the heart of any team because of his work ethic and everything he puts into his game. I felt so sorry for Shan because he kept getting out to Anderson. And Anderson has done that to plenty of batsmen around the world. If you compare the two, Shan would just go and work and work, whereas Younis knew what his routines were and he used his experience. I hope Shan learns from this experience. He will be back at some stage. If you want to build a team culture, Shan Masood is a guy you are building it around because of what he brings to the table.Was it your decision to drop Hafeez and push up Asad Shafiq at The Oval?
Yes. Technically, Asad Shafiq is our best batsman. When he gets forward he is sideways on. Look at him: short, balanced, punches well off the front foot, cuts exceptionally well. At times I could almost visualise Sachin Tendulkar. That is high praise, and I have told him that.So you are going to continue bat him at No. 3?
Technically your best player should be batting at No. 3. I was really impressed with Asad, who really wanted the opportunity to bat up the order. He batted up the order at The Oval after getting a pair in Birmingham. And then got a hundred, and that says so much for his temperament and skill.Sami Aslam is another player who seemed impressive straightaway.
Again, he worked so hard at his game, his fitness, his fielding. It is all interrelated. He was not slow on his feet anymore, he was making good positions with his bat, and he came and took his chance and batted beautifully. With him coming into Hafeez’s position and batting really well with Azhar Ali, then with Asad Shafiq alongside Misbah and Younis, there is more competition for places now. And that has to be good. And that is when we can challenge more as a support staff because players must meet standards. It makes fielding so important because if it is a fifty-fifty call, we look at who is a better fielder. Steve Rixon [fielding coach] drives the fielding standards every day. Fielding might be your ticket into the team because we are still very poor in that department.”He [Mohammad Amir] is an awesome bowler and such a nice fella. And the way he handled himself through the series was impeccable”•Getty ImagesOne success story – and Misbah credits this man for being a catalyst for levelling the series – is Sohail. How do you look at him?
Sohail Khan came in and did exceptionally. He gives so much effort. But he realises that his fitness levels need to improve. I have had this conversation with him, but he thinks he is fit enough. I had Sohail in my BPL side and he impressed me so much because he was always batting and bowling in the nets. He has got skill. He swings the ball, bowls at a decent pace, he can bat a little bit. He had five wickets at Edgbaston. He had five wickets at The Oval. But he needs to improve his fitness.Let us talk about Mohammad Amir. Despite being off the circuit, Amir has come back after six years and bowled like he never left. Was it a challenge for you to make sure his and the team’s focus was not diverted going into the Lord’s Test?
I can’t speak more highly about Mohammad Amir as a cricketer, as an individual. He is an awesome bowler and such a nice fella. And the way he handled himself through the series was impeccable. He always was going to get the stick. He wanted to win the English public over by his actions, by the way he performed, by the way he continually ran in for Pakistan. And he did all that. He told me he was incredibly nervous going into that first Test. I felt it. But once he got that out of the way, he was just getting better and better. He did not get just rewards on the England tour because there were a lot of dropped catches off his bowling.There seemed to be a moment in the Test series where you threw your cap down.
There was a moment of frustration where I threw my cap down where Amir had a catch dropped off his bowling, because he deserves better. There were about six catches dropped off his bowling. Amir ended up taking 12 wickets in the series at 42. If those six catches were taken he would have ended up with an average in the early 20s. Then you would have said he has had an unbelievable series.What has been your advice to the bowling attack?
I have told the whole bowling attack they need to control the run rate. Every time we took the new ball, England got off to a flier. We would bowl three good balls, cut for a four. We have got to be able to eliminate those bad balls. There is going to be times where there will be streaky fours, but I am talking about the rank bad balls.

“I have had the pleasure of working with some very good captains in Graeme and Michael Clarke, and Misbah-ul-Haq is right up there. He is respected. When he talks, people listen”

I have told my bowling unit that if you get your line right you cut the field in half. If you get your length right you cut that half of the field in half as well. Then you can defend quarter of the field, but if you are getting your lines, and lengths wrong you can’t defend. People can score all round the wicket. So I would like us to be able to bowl our stock ball a lot better because we need to control the run rate a lot better than we did with the new ball. And that gets masked in the UAE because if the run rate gets out of hand then the spinners come in and then you start controlling the run rate. I want us to be able to be control the run rate with the new ball, particularly in the Test series in New Zealand and Australia coming up.Honestly, did you think it would be 2-2 going into the Test series? Misbah said Pakistan should have never lost at Edgbaston in the third Test.
Both sides would be sitting and saying they had opportunities to win the series. It was an unbelievable Test series, so 2-2 was probably the right result. Those are the expectations we must always set. We are never going to lie down. We are going to be at you all the time, even away from home conditions. The best teams in the world have to be able to win away from home. So for us to have a 2-2 series draw almost validates the No. 1 position. Away from home is hard to win now: even Australia, England, South Africa find it hard to win overseas. I took the last Australian team to India and we lost 4-0.Do you feel being with Pakistan is like being with South Africa, where you had the trust of Smith along with other senior players?
I feel very comfortable with the Pakistan team. I feel very comfortable with the captain. They have allowed me to create the structure that I wanted to create. And I am very thankful for that because they could have made things difficult. They know that Pakistan cricket has so much scope to improve. The job of a head coach gives you the respect early on, but over a period of time you’ve got to earn the trust. And I think I have earned the trust. Younis acknowledged me and the support staff when he scored the double-century. That was a real nice gesture.What’s the succession planning for when Younis and Misbah leave?
It is hopefully too premature to think about that at the moment. They will be around for a while. I hope they don’t go out together as that would create a hole at No. 4 and 5. But Younis has just got a double and Misbah has played exceptionally well. So I think there is still time.End of the year Pakistan will be in Australia. Will you be happy to lead Pakistan to victory in a country of which you recently became a citizen, but which sacked you as cricket coach?
I am a citizen of that country and very happy living there. It would be a proud moment to go there as the No. 1 team. I am certainly not going there gloating. I am just looking forward to playing in Australia, where the cricket culture is second to none.How do you now maintain the No. 1 Test ranking?
I said to Misbah the other day: how do we do it? He said, “We just have to win every Test we play.” India are playing 13 Tests at home and barring three Tests against West Indies in the UAE, we are playing three Test series overseas – in New Zealand, Australia and the West Indies.Read part two of the interview here

Stats highlights from the second day’s play of the Mumbai Test between India and England

Shiva Jayaraman09-Dec-201623 Five-wicket hauls for R Ashwin in Tests – the third highest among India bowlers alongside Kapil Dev. Only Anil Kumble (35) and Harbhajan Singh (25) have taken more such hauls. Ashwin is playing his 43rd Test. Harbhajan, Kumble and Kapil took 75, 81 and 114 Tests for their 23rd five-wicket haul respectively. Among bowlers from all teams, only Sydney Barnes has been quicker to 23 five-for in Tests. Barnes took just 27 Tests.7 Five-fors by Ashwin this year – the second time he has taken seven or more such hauls in a calendar year. Ashwin took seven five-fors in 2015 as well. Only one other bowler – Muttiah Muarlitharan – has taken seven or more five-wicket hauls in a year more than once. Muralitharan did it in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2006. Ashwin’s 14 five-wicket hauls in the last-two years equal the most any bowler has taken in a two-year period. Muralitharan had taken 14 such hauls between 2000 and 2001 and again between 2006 and 2007.18 Five-wicket hauls by Ashwin in just 26 Tests in India. Only Anil Kumble’s 25 such hauls is higher than Ashwin’s in India. Harbhajan also took 18 five-fors from 55 Tests at home.56.16 Jos Buttler’s batting average against India in Tests; his 76 in England’s first innings was his fifth score of 40 or more runs in six innings against them. Buttler’s 76 is the highest by a visiting batsman at Wankhede batting at No. 7 or lower since Adam Gilchrist’s 122 in 2001-02.1975 The only time in 13 Tests before this a team posting a total of 400 or more runs in the first innings a Tests has lost at the Wankhede Stadium. On that occasion though India had ended up trailing West Indies by 198 runs in spite of putting up 406 runs on the board. Since then, teams posting a total of 400-plus have ended up winning on seven occasions, with other six Tests ending in a draw. This is England’s third 400-plus total in their first innings at the Wankhede Stadium in their last three Tests here. England defeated the hosts after posting such totals on the previous two instances.2013 The last time before this India spinners took all the ten wickets to fall in the first innings of a Test. Ashwin had led the India spinners on that occasion too, taking seven of the ten Australia wickets to fall to spinners, in Chennai in 2012-13. Overall, this was just the eighth instance of India spinners taking all ten wickets in the first innings of a Test.1983 The last time before this India had a century stand for their second wicket in Tests at the Wankhede Stadium. Anshuman Gaekwad and Dilip Vengsarkar had added 133 against West Indies on that occasion. Overall, there have been only four such stands for India at this venue. M Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara have added 107 runs in this innings – their seventh hundred-run stand in Tests. So far, the pair has added 2251 runs together at an average of 66.20 – the highest for an India pair that has added 2000 or more runs in Tests.

Despite the acquisition of the experienced Dav Whatmore as coach, the 2015 runners-up threw away a good start to lose six consecutive games, and never recovered thereafter

Mohammad Isam04-Dec-2016Tournament overview

Barisal Bulls finished at the bottom of the table, mostly due to their own shortcomings, with batsmen not finding form and dropped catches which in turn affected the bowling.Barisal’s performance must have particularly irked the franchise owners given they were runners-up in 2015. The period between the two tournaments was marred by a life-ban imposed on one of their owners, but it didn’t seem to affect them too much during the players’ draft.Given his experience in Bangladesh, Barisal’s acquisition of Dav Whatmore, who replaced Graham Ford as head coach, seemed like the perfect fit. In fact, Barisal started well under Whatmore, winning three of their first four games. But they imploded thereafter to lose their next six games consecutively, ending hopes of qualifying for the knockouts.Mushfiqur Rahim and Shahriar Nafees were their best batsmen, and Dawid Malan sporadically hit form, but their bowling was quite poor. Taijul Islam was their highest wicket-taker, but his 10 wickets didn’t figure among the top ten in the tournament.High point
Barisal’s best moment in the tournament came on November 14 when they picked up their third successive win, crushing Chittagong Kings by seven wickets, with Dawid Malan and Shahriar Nafees hitting half-centuries in a chase of 164.Al-Amin Hossain, one of Barisal’s two retained players, had a forgettable time on and off the field in BPL 2016-17•Getty Images/ICCLow point
Fifteen days later, against Comilla, Barisal hit the nadir, losing for the sixth time in as many matches. Barisal looked out of sorts in every department as Comilla chased down their 142 with ease. It was saying a lot, given Comilla were languishing at the bottom at the time.Top of the class
Mushfiqur Rahim finished yet another successful BPL campaign with 341 runs in 12 matches, at a strike-rate of 134.78. Mushfiqur would also be reasonably happy with his wicketkeeping, but his captaincy record was severely hit by the eight losses.Under-par performer
Al-Amin Hossain was one of the top bowlers in the 2015 season, and was one of two players retained by Barisal. However, he only played five games this year and conceded 9.27 an over. BCB also fined him heavily for a serious disciplinary breach, and some introspection may be due.Tip for 2017
Whatmore should continue as coach, unless he takes up a role with an international team, but Barisal will need to rethink most parts of their playing roster.

Stats highlights from the second day of the second Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at the P Sara Oval

Shiva Jayaraman16-Mar-201764 Test innings taken by Dinesh Chandimal to make eight Test hundreds – the second fastest by a Sri Lanka batsman. Mahela Jayawardene had taken ten fewer innings than Chandimal to get his first eight hundreds. Thilan Samaraweera is next on this list having made his eighth Test hundred in his 74th innings.4 Number of hundreds by Chandimal against Bangladesh in just eight Test innings. Only three other batsmen – Kumar Sangakkara (7), Mahela Jayawardene (5) and Sachin Tendulkar (5) – have hit more hundreds against them. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Tillakaratne Dilshan too have hit four Test hundreds against Bangladesh. Chandimal has made 578 runs against Bangladesh at an average of 115.60.2010 Previous instance of an overseas opener getting three or more fifty-plus scores in a Test series in Sri Lanka. Virender Sehwag had scored two hundreds and a fifty in the three-match series on that occasion. Overall, Soumya Sarkar is only fifth visiting opener to get three fifty-plus scores in a series in Sri Lanka.1 Number of Bangladesh openers before Soumya Sarkar to get three fifty-plus scores in a Test series. Tamim has done it thrice: against Zimbabwe in 2014-15, and twice against England, in 2009-10 at home and in 2010 in England.4 Number of Bangladesh batsmen before Sarkar to make three or more consecutive fifty-plus scores in Tests. Habibul Bashar, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Nasir Hossain are the batsmen to do so. While Tamim has had a streak of five consecutive fifty-plus scores, Bashar had three separate such streaks in Tests.2010 Previous instance of an opening pair adding three or more fifty-plus stands in a Test series in Sri Lanka. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana had added four such stands against India on that occasion. Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar have added 118, 67 and 95 in this series so far. Tamim and Sarkar are only the third Bangladesh opening pair to make three consecutive fifty-plus stands in Tests. Tamim and Imrul Kayes have done it twice. Javed Omar and Nafees Iqbal are the other pair to do it.143 Runs added by Sri Lanka’s last-three wickets – which amounted to 42.3% of their first-innings total. This is the second-highest percentage of runs added by Sri Lanka’s last-three wickets when they have put up a total of 300 or more. Their last-three wickets had added 207 runs out of a total of 486 in Galle against South Africa in 2004 – a contribution of 42.6% to the team total, which is the highest.0 Number of fifty partnerships by Sri Lanka for their ninth-wicket in Tests against Bangladesh before the one between Suranga Lakmal and Chandimal. Sri Lanka have added more runs for their ninth or tenth wickets in a Test innings against Bangladesh only once before this. Charitha Buddhika and Chamila Gamage had added 64 runs for the tenth wicket at the SSC in 2002.3 Wickets Bangladesh lost in the space of seven deliveries in the last half hour of play on the second day. They lost two settled batsmen in Imrul Kayes and Sabbir Rahman, and the nightwatchman Taijul Islam, who was sent in ahead of Shakib Al Hasan. Before that run of play, Bangladesh had progressed to 192 for 2 – their fourth-highest score in away innings before the fall of their third wicket. This was the highest they had made before the fall of their third wicket in an away Test since the second innings of the Lord’s Test in 2010.

How a hotel takes care of players and teams for the two-month season

Vishal Dikshit23-May-2017Virat Kohli said once that he felt like eating bedsheets. “I was craving taste.” Such was the strictiness of his dietary regimen when he was transforming into the fitness freak he is now.It can’t be easy being a cricketer today – travelling non-stop, living out of suitcases and in innumerable hotel rooms, and having to stay in peak physical shape in all that time. For overseas players in the IPL, it’s even tougher – months of foreign food, foreign conditions, and being besieged as a celebrity. Your hotel room becomes your home away from home.”During the IPL, the only message that is sent down to my team is to expect a lot of room-service requests,” says Joy Bhattacharya, executive chef at the Trident, the hotel in Nariman Point, Mumbai, that has hosted the city’s IPL side for close to nine years now. “Especially since players are hounded in restaurants by guests, not only in-house but non-resident guests also, they prefer to have their meals mostly in their rooms.”In the competitive hospitality industry, five-star hotels try their best to provide the personalised touch and warmth that will make their establishment stand apart. But how do they even begin to go about doing that when you’re talking about a party of close to 200 IPL team members and support staff?Preparations start about a month in advance, and the teams usually first arrive sometime in the second half of March.”They come in with a lot of luggage, or they may send it in advance,” says Devendra Bharma, executive vice-president, Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, Mumbai. “You have to move luggage in a particular manner because bags are tagged. They have to go to the right places, they have to go in time, because in the IPL it’s pretty much back to back for them, so it’s quite stressed.”Just like we offer personalised service to every guest in the hotel, we do the same thing with them [the teams]. Except that, yes, there are more specific requirements in their cases.”Housekeeping is among the key departments of a hotel when a cricket team stays for such a long period. From coordinating the luggage-handling, to documenting how some players personalise their rooms and passing on that information at the end of the shift or day, staff need to be on their toes all the time. Since players and teams periodically return to the same hotel in their home city, some also prefer to return to the same room, or at least the same floor. That means more work for the hotel, arranging to accommodate such preferences while also keeping in mind those of other guests. “Dedicating floors is usually the norm because the players stay together, they have their team meetings,” says Bharma.A typical IPL player’s menu, according to the chef at the Trident•Suvarna PatilIn contrast, there isn’t too much coordination involved in allocating use of the gym. When two teams are staying in a hotel at the same time, they rarely use the facilities at the same time because their schedules for practice and rest invariably differ.What about food? Is it all salads, vegetable juices, oats and fresh fruits?”You think light, healthy, nutritious, full of protein and fibre will be ordered,” Bhattacharya says. “They definitely form a part of the meal, but not necessarily the entire meal. Through the ten seasons that have gone, I’ve seen that it’s about how many calories you burn throughout the day.”Their meals are pretty stout, I would say, because they need that protein intake through the day to build their muscles and body mass and to have energy in the form of carbohydrates, maybe two-three glasses of milkshakes for breakfast.”Breakfasts are spaced out, prolonged and heavy, says Bhattacharya. To avoid monotony, the kitchen changes the pre-match and breakfast menu every day. A favourite with players, he says, is Eggs Benedict.Though all sorts of players have stayed at the hotel through the seasons, the chef hasn’t really encountered any bizarre orders. Players usually stick to the menu, skip lunch or order light lunches in their room.”It ranges from lamb chops to spit-roast chicken, or a grilled spatchcock with potatoes and wild mushrooms,” Bhattacharya says. “Dim sums, chilli chicken with ginger. Maybe hardcore meats or maybe a few pastas here and there to pep up the carb content.”One thing I need to say is they are not very fanatical about desserts.”Before the matches, I have witnessed [grilled aubergine] going with rotis. It’s nice and light vegetarian food.Yusuf Pathan (left) and Piyush Chawla wrestle with the eternal question: what to order for lunch?•Getty ImagesWhenever the team is rejoicing after coming back to the hotel, we think it’s party time, but the consumption of food is in moderation. If they are not playing for the next two-three days, they can afford a couple of drinks extra. But if you are travelling the next day, then it’s very conservative ordering.”Shaun Tait, who played four IPL seasons in India for Rajasthan Royals, says room service and the comforts of luxury hotels kept him happy.”You can order whatever food you want – international food, Indian food, it’s usually all there,” Tait says of the hotel experience in India during the IPL. “Room service is probably No. 1 [on the list of amenities], and obviously the swimming pool, gym facilities. You can make yourself feel at home with whatever food you usually eat.”When you are trying to get your skinfolds down, it can be a bit of an issue sometimes. I like south Indian food. I used to eat a lot of dosas and, to be fair, even the parathas and the big curries [from the north].”What about the attention from fans? The IPL makes superstars of all sorts of players and they have to get used to not being mostly anonymous anymore.Tait says greeting fans was “not a bad thing” once a day or so but it would get “a little bit annoying” when there would be 40-50 people waiting every time he would go down to the hotel foyer.Hotel managements are also aware of the need to manage fans. “Our security teams are very alert in these couple of months because of movements in and out, making sure that there is ease with which the players go in and out, because again there are guests who would like to come and meet them, take their autographs, take photographs with them,” Bharma says. “Some teams and some players enjoy it, some are strict about it.”Brad Hogg, who represented Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders from 2012 to 2016, “never had a complaint” with hotels in India because of the “unbelievable” hospitality that would make him feel at home. The only thing he missed the chance to cook what he felt like eating at that moment.”It’s about making the most of what’s there and adjusting to it,” Hogg says. “For me, the hotel’s got to have a good bed, good internet connection, good food and a gym.”I try and eat like I eat at home. I like to try the different varieties of food the hotel offers because you’ve got different cuisines. So you try it, but you make sure that you have the healthier options of those dishes and pick the nights when you want the unhealthier options.”Comfortable hotels can make players’ hectic schedules that much more bearable•Associated PressSecurity, reservations, housekeeping, food requirements, gym and swimming pool schedules are all small fry compared to the hotel’s biggest challenge during any IPL season: laundry.Apart from casual clothes, players also throw in their practice bibs, match uniforms, gym clothes, all of which have to be returned quickly.”The laundry is under a lot of pressure during the time the teams are here because each player will have x number of attires, multiplied by 40, 50 or 70 people,” Bharma explains. “The volumes are very big. We may need to run [laundry services] two or three hours more. A regular guest in the hotel will have maybe two or three garments to give for pressing or laundering, but a player will have many sets of their uniforms or playing attire to wash because of the way they are used.”Bharma says service is the difference between teams choosing to stay at one hotel regularly over seasons and moving over to a competitor.”Why they will go to another hotel is usually because of lack of service, what was committed and was not delivered. If the team feels special, they’ll always come back to you.”The Trident, Bharma says, gets a fair amount of thank you notes, mentions on Twitter from players, and “tons” of compliments for the staff. The familiarity with the hotel staff over the two months, he says, plays a crucial role in making players comfortable and feel at home.

Two new captains will face each other at Lord’s, but while Dean Elgar is just a stand-in, for Joe Root it is the beginning of his era of English cricket

George Dobell at Lord's05-Jul-2017So, Gary Ballance is England’s No. 3 and Liam Dawson has been promoted to be the No. 1 spinner. For a man criticised for some conservative selections in his first Test squad, these are bold decisions from Joe Root. The decisions of a man who knows what he wants and has the confidence to argue for them. It is not thought there was complete consensus over the Ballance decision, in particular.There’s a certain irony in Ballance winning a recall at Lord’s. It was after the Lord’s Test in 2015 that he was dropped; a decision that hit him hard and led to a period of introspection that eroded his confidence and resulted in the somewhat nervy batsman we saw for much of the subsequent 18 months.But if the selectors lacked confidence in him then, they have shown it in him now. And he owes his recall, above all, to the faith shown in him by his old flat-mate and new captain, Root.Ballance probably was a little unfortunate to be dropped in 2015. He had a poor Ashes Test at Lord’s in July, for sure, making 23 and 14, but he was not alone there. He had also made 61 in the first innings of the Cardiff Test and added 153 with Root to help their side recover from 43 for 3. In the context of the series, that was a vital partnership. It was less than three months since he had become the third-fastest England batsman in history to record 1,000 Test runs, too.But he was probably recalled too quickly, as well. He made one eye-catching century at Scarborough against Middlesex in July 2016 and found himself back in the Test side before his confidence had returned or he had settled back into a method that he truly trusted against top-quality bowling. His subsequent struggles in Bangladesh, albeit in tough conditions, saw him dropped again. Possibly permanently.But Root’s confidence in him has seen to an early recall. And he currently looks in terrific form. He is averaging 98.55 for Yorkshire this season and, while his technique – with little foot movement – will never be to everyone’s taste, it is not so unlike Marcus Trescothick’s. He has, he says, not changed – despite advice to do so – but rather reasoned that he is better to stick to what he does – and do it better.It’s not hard to see why Root likes Ballance. He is low-maintenance, good-humoured and managed to show – on the surface at least – an upbeat demeanour on the India tour when he must have been going through some turmoil under the surface. He also has a wonderful first-class record – he averages 49.95 – and, at county level, has started to dominate in the manner that Graeme Hick once did. It will have escaped nobody’s notice, however, that Hick was rarely able to translate his domestic dominance to international consistency. But Root knows he can trust him, has seen him succeed under pressure and believes in him. In short, he is the sort of man Root wants at his side when the going gets tough.Gary Ballance knows he is unlikely to get a fourth chance to cement his Test place•Getty ImagesDescribing Ballance’s current form as “phenomenal”, Root insisted his new No. 3 was “a completely different player” to the last time he represented England in October.”I look at how he has performed this year and the amount of runs he has scored and he has been phenomenal,” Root said. “He has generally scored runs when the side has been up against it. He is that sort of character and a lot of people asked questions about the last time he played for England but I look at his game now, as do the other selectors, and he is a completely different player. He is desperate to prove a point and score some runs in this series.”A fourth recall, in this day and age, is unlikely. So Ballance will know he has to make this chance count. Root admits that both he and Ballance would probably prefer to bat at No. 4 – Ballance has batted there for Yorkshire this season and for England Lions as recently as last week – but Root has concluded, reasonably enough, that he should decide where he bats.”I think No. 4 is where I play my best cricket and where I have scored my best runs,” Root said. “Hopefully moving forward that can be settled and help the team.”Among the doubts the England management expressed over Ballance was his ability to play the short ball. In particular, they felt he needed to pull or hook more often in order to put pressure back on the bowlers and lessen their ability to push him onto the back foot. He has certainly been pulling this season, though South Africa’s attack – blessed with pace as it is – are sure to test him in that regard. If he gets runs against this attack – and a green pitch at Lord’s may have them licking their lips – he will have earned a prolonged run in the side. If not… One way or another, Ballance’s future looks set to be decided in the next few weeks.”Gary is very aware of his game,” Root said. “He has worked very hard at it and looks like he has found ways of putting pressure back on bowlers and making sure he does not waste opportunities. In terms of his defence, he looks very assured.”The other interesting nugget from Root was the suggestion that Dawson was now considered the team’s No. 1 spinner. As he claimed only 20 wickets in the 2016 Championship season – 11 fewer than his team-mate Mason Crane and three fewer than Adil Rashid managed in the five Tests in India – that is some surprise. He was not, after all, one of the four spinners England named in their original Test squads ahead of the Asian tours at the end of last year.But he bowled tidily on his Test debut – he claimed 2-129 from 43 overs – and weighed-in with a half-century. While Rashid is certainly unfortunate, it seems England have wearied of his unpredictability (and Root, as a Yorkshire colleague, will know Rashid better than most). Instead they favour – as they have so often – a spinner who can tie down an end and offer a semblance of control. It is a reminder that England are not in a golden age of spin. The harsh would suggest they may not even be in a bronze age.”Dawson bowled with great control in India,” Root said. “He looked very at home and he will complement the rest of the attack as well.”And where does that leave Moeen? England’s utility player, the man who has batted everywhere from No. 1 to No. 9, now finds himself, for pretty much the first time in his Test career, playing as a batsman. Oh, yes, his batting has kept him in the side on many occasions. But he was picked originally as a spinner; a role Root now describes as “an add-on”.”We have our seven best batters in the country in our line-up,” Root said. “Moeen is one of our best batters. He will bat No. 7 and Jonny Bairstow No. 5. Moeen’s bowling can be an add-on to that and he can be very aggressive when he gets opportunity to bowl.”These are bold calls from Root.

Cohesion is important in team sport and results in the Big Bash have promoted the ideal of a largely settled side

Tim Wigmore02-Jan-2018In 1967, a group of 15 men from Glasgow landed in Lisbon to play a game of football. All but one of the squad were born within ten miles of Celtic’s ground. Together, they won the European Cup.Half a century on, the team are an emblem for a lost age in which elite sports teams often were genuinely representative of their local communities. And yet one lesson of the Lisbon Lions endures: the value of cohesion in sport.The Big Bash League is not really one sports league at all. Instead it is two, of four teams each – those who are the sole team in a city, and those who are one of two. In this season’s BBL, the single city teams – Adelaide Strikers, Hobart Hurricanes, Brisbane Heat and Perth Scorchers, the defending champions – have now won ten of their 13 games against the four teams from Melbourne and Sydney.It is the continuation of one of the most significant statistical trends in the BBL: that single city teams start far better than those from cities with two teams. Over the first six seasons of the BBL, single city teams won 60% of their games against those from two-team cities in the first half of the competition. But in the second half of the season, single city teams won only 45% of games against two-team cities.The discrepancy speaks of how, in a league with strict salary cap and limits of overseas players, those with more settled playing groups initially have a distinct advantage over teams who have just been banded together. In T20, the notion of team cohesion is not a romantic illusion; what players call ‘role clarity’ provides a statistically significant advantage in winning cricket matches.Before last year’s Big Bash League, the Melbourne Stars asked Gain Line Analytics, a sports analytics company, to conduct research on the league. Gain Line found that success in the BBL correlated with team cohesion. Teams who had less player turnover – both from their state first-class teams to their BBL sides and year-on-year in their BBL squads – performed most strongly.And so as T20 leagues enter a new and more mature age, achieving continuity looms as one of the next frontiers on the field.Gain Line found that the value of continuity extends well beyond the BBL. It can also be seen in Premier League football, where Tottenham Hotspur, with unusual player and coaching continuity, got more points than anyone else between 2015 and 2017 despite having the sixth biggest wage spend in the league.Gain Line’s research has highlighted the importance of accumulated continuity – the cohesion of the team, which is acquired from players working together and knowing each other – in helping a side over-perform their talent, showing how even elite performers tend to need years to replicate their form shown at their old club. What Gain Line term the Team Work Index shows that, when levels of talent are equal, sides with less player turnover tend to be more successful and more durable under pressure.No BBL side has shown the virtues of continuity better than the Perth Scorchers, who have won three of the last four titles with an almost identical playing and coaching staff to Western Australia in first-class and 50-over cricket. Yet their model relies on being the only team in the city, and is helped by Western Australia’s geographical isolation – which renders it far less attractive for players to uproot for two seasons than, say, moving between Melbourne and Sydney – as well as the links between the BBL team and state side. As such, there may be limits in how much this model can be transported, in Australia or beyond.But cohesion can come in different ways. The Melbourne Stars – the competition’s most successful side from a two-team city – provide one example. While other teams have tinkered endlessly with their overseas players, like indecisive children vacillating over their choice of ice cream, the Stars have consciously embraced stability in their overseas recruits.Uniquely, Luke Wright has been the Stars’ overseas player in all seven seasons; for the last four years Kevin Pietersen has been with him too. The Stars have also had unusual continuity in the make-up of their squad: Ben Dunk was their only recruit this season. Still, this stability has not precluded the Stars from repeatedly starting the BBL abjectly – perhaps not helped by Pietersen always flying home to spend Christmas with his family, which has forced other players to shuffle around. After their thumping by Brendon McCullum and Chris Lynn, Melbourne Stars have now won just two of their opening three fixtures across the last five BBL seasons, though they have recovered to reach the semi-finals on all previous occasions.Brisbane Heat have shown another way to cultivate continuity: prioritising the captain-coach relationship. Both coach Daniel Vettori and captain Brendon McCullum, who are former New Zealand teammates, are in their third season for the Heat, and have signed contracts until the end of the 2019-20 season, which will be their fifth year working together in Brisbane. They have also taken their relationship to Middlesex in England’s T20 Blast – though McCullum left midway through for the Caribbean Premier League, which emphasises how difficult it is to develop a captain-coach synergy across T20 leagues and continents.Perhaps the best hope of developing meaningful continuity across leagues is the Knight Riders model. The Kolkata Knight Riders have bought two teams in different leagues: the Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL, and the Cape Town Knight Riders in the still-born T20 Global League in South Africa. Coaching and analysis staff are shared across the different teams, opening up the possibility that successful tactics, training methods and general learnings from one league can be imported into another.While their IPL rivals only have one season a year, the Knight Riders will effectively have three, accelerating their opportunities to innovate and educate themselves in T20. They can also – like the City Football Group, the umbrella company who own Manchester City and affiliated teams in Melbourne, New York, Yokohama and beyond – build a global database of players to help their recruitment to the individual sides.Yet, if it is to thrive, ultimately the Knight Riders model requires players to be involved in multiple Knight Riders teams. Last year only two – Sunil Narine and Darren Bravo – played for the Knight Riders teams in both India and the Caribbean. It is impossible for the Knight Riders to contract players across multiple leagues because each league has a distinct system for allocating players. In any case, Indian players are barred from playing in foreign leagues. While those two obstacles remain, the Knight Riders model is unlikely to do more than hint at the on-field possibilities of crossovers between teams in different leagues.That leaves T20 franchises trying to build continuity in less perfect ways. For all the impossibility of mimicking the Lisbon Lions’ team dynamics, T20 sides increasingly recognise that cohesion in T20 is worth much more than just another marginal gain.

An “amateur moment” with the bat and “blunders” at slip left the South Africa opener less than satisfied on a day when his 199 helped his side take control of the Potchefstroom Test

Firdose Moonda in Potchefstroom29-Sep-2017Is there one word to describe a day in which you achieve a career-best but fall short of another significant milestone, or when you’ve played your part in giving your team the advantage and then also done your bit in making it harder for them?For Dean Elgar there is: “anticlimactic.”That’s how the South Africa opener described the feelings of reaching 199 and then having an “amateur moment” when he half-left-half-pulled to midwicket, and the “blunders” of dropping two catches later on. “It was quite an up and down day for me personally. The mishaps are just part of the game and getting out for 199 is also part of the game,” he said, but he still managed to see the bright side. “I look at the positives in things. I will still have another opportunity to get a Test double-hundred, which is fine with me.”This match may not present the chance for that, but it may provide several for Elgar to rectify his catching off Keshav Maharaj. Twice Elgar put Mushfiqur Rahim down, both were simple chances off the outside edge and though it did not cost South Africa much in this match – Maharaj had Mushfiqur caught at short leg for 44 – it is part of a larger issue. Elgar put down similar chances on South Africa’s tour of England in the winter, also off Maharaj, which has led to questions over whether he is the best person to field at slip to the spinner.

Elgar on the Markram run-out

There was another disappointment for Elgar and it came on day one. Elgar he was on 99 and Aiden Markram, his new opening partner who was on 97 on debut, tried to sneak through the single that would take Elgar to a century but was sent back and did not make his ground. Markram was dismissed and Elgar wants to set the record straight.
“I was bitterly disappointed in the way things ended. I would have loved to have seen Aiden get his first Test hundred in his first innings,” Elgar said. “It would have been brilliant with the way things started for us as opening partners. I think I was more disappointed than he was.”
“He was just doing something that a batting partner does when he is trying to get you over the line. Maybe if I got 200, I would have said to him that was for you, but I know that’s not going to change anything. It’s sad and makes yourself scratch your head and wonder why you play the game. The sun actually came up this morning, irrespective of all the abuse I got on Twitter. I was very frustrated and still am – speaking about it really makes angry. I’d like to put it to bed.”

Usually South Africa only insert one slip fielder when Maharaj is bowling and until quite recently that was Hashim Amla but “he doesn’t want to stand there anymore”, according to Elgar. So they’ve had to find someone else. Elgar is part of the cordon to the quicks and because Faf du Plessis, the regular second slip, wants to captain from the outfield when Maharaj is operating, Elgar is the natural choice. He expects he will make some mistakes but accepts that his recent performances have been below-par. “Blunders are going to happen. It doesn’t make you a crap cricketer or a rubbish fielder,” Elgar said. “But I know I’ve set myself standards and it’s not good enough.”On the second afternoon of this match, Elgar explained the drops as a result of an inconsistent pitch where it was hard to judge where to stand at slip. “Originally we thought because the wicket is quite slow, I have to come closer,” he said. “It’s almost like the ball is increasing in pace off the wicket when the spinner is bowling and then off the seamer it’s coming quite slowly. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the way Kesh bowls because he does put a lot of spin on the ball and the ball does sometimes generate pace off the wicket. I was standing too close. The second one, there was discussion between me and Quinny [de Kock] and we thought we maybe I should go closer. But the ball seems to generate pace off the wicket. It’s not every ball, it’s inconsistent. That’s something we need to negate tomorrow.”More so because the surface is offering very little and Bangladesh have already proven fairly stubborn; Elgar expects wicket-taking opportunities to be few. “It’s going to be hard work. The Bangladeshis aren’t a pushover team anymore, their cricketers are highly skilled now. They made scoring quite tough at times and now they are making taking wickets quite tough. There is not a lot of assistance, so, as a bowling unit, we will have to be on it and the first hour could be big for us. If we can squeeze them then I’d like to think we have enough in the tank to roll them early tomorrow and potentially have another crack with the bat.”Maharaj will be key to South Africa’s hopes. “Tomorrow is going to be a big one for him,” Elgar said. “The wicket offers him [something for] what he does and he spins the ball. The odd one will turn and the odd will skid like we saw with the bat-pad catch – very much like the subcontinent style.”Hearing the conditions described as subcontinental will come as a surprise to those who associate South Africans surfaces with pace and bounce, none more so than Bangladesh. Both Sabbir Rahman and Taskin Ahmed admitted to expecting more grass but that was not the only thing that caught Bangladesh unawares. Du Plessis’ tea-time declaration with South Africa four short of 500 and plenty of the time in the game did too.At first it was thought to be a strategic move by du Plessis: Tamim Iqbal had been off the field for quite a while before the interval and so would not be able to open, and because du Plessis had done that before in Adelaide against Australia. But Elgar denied that: “I know he went off when I was still batting but I don’t think we thought about him being off the field. The plan from lunch onwards was to declare at tea, we were going to try and take the game on a bit.”Instead its more about how much time South Africa will need and if it turns out they don’t have enough, Elgar will likely see the whole event as an anti-climax even though he has become Test cricket’s leading run-scorer this year in the process. “That does not mean anything to me,” he said. “My ultimate goal is to score runs for the Proteas. The accolades that come with it are totally external to why I play the game. If I am scoring runs, the team will be in a good position. I play the game to score runs for the badge and the team. My personal pride I put it aside, and focus on what our Test side needs. We’ve had a few rough tours as a batting unit. It was up to me and some senior guys to take the batting unit by the throat and get it over the line.”

After rollicking opening against KKR, Rajasthan Royals had the momentum to build a mammoth total. Their captain’s batting robbed them of that

Sreshth Shah In Kolkata16-May-20181:32

‘Lost because of our batting’ – Rahane

It’s no mean feat silencing the home crowd at Eden Gardens, but here they were, battered into submission inside the first ten minutes of their final home game of the season. They were shellshocked after the Rajasthan Royals openers had just struck ten consecutive boundaries.Rahul Tripathi had just hit a six and a hat-trick of fours off young Prasidh Krishna. The other young pacer, Shivam Mavi, was creamed for 28 runs by Jos Buttler the very next over. In all – before Tripathi fell in the fifth over – Royals had posted 63.Early evidence suggested Kolkata Knight Riders would be chasing a mammoth total. The platform was set, Buttler was galloping towards yet another fifty at breakneck speed, and the Royals dugout still had Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson, Stuart Binny and K Gowtham waiting to have a go. But out came Ajinkya Rahane, who took six deliveries to get off the mark, and that signalled a change in Royals’ fortunes.Yes, he was facing Sunil Narine inside the Powerplay, and the early blitz had given him the cushion to start slow, but Rahane looked uneasy. A glance to gully couldn’t breach the field, the drive to cover couldn’t beat Robin Uthappa. More importantly, all this starved Buttler of the strike. Rahane lasted 12 deliveries and in that 15-ball partnership for the second wicket, Buttler faced only three. Not only did Rahane not get going, he also disrupted Buttler’s rhythm.The pressure – of continuing to step on the gas after a flying start – was telling. Never more so than when Rahane tried an uncharacteristic reverse sweep off Kuldeep Yadav only to be bowled around his legs. Not a pretty way to get out. From 63 for no loss after 4.4 overs, Royals were 79 for 2 after 8. The silent crowd had once again started to roar.

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A blazing start is best built upon by a batsman who can keep the run-rate from dipping. KKR had done that against Kings XI Punjab when they smashed 245, promoting Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik up the order after a rollicking opening stand.Royals themselves had done the same only a fortnight ago, when in 72 balls they smashed 146. They had used Buttler as opener for the first time that evening, and he rewarded Royals by smashing 67 off 26 balls. But what of Rahane himself that evening? In a bid to keep his team’s run-rate up, Rahane chose not to bat despite them losing five wickets. Royals might have forced into that move by the situation of that chase, but on Tuesday – when they had a choice – Royals went for the conservative option.ESPNcricinfo LtdAccording to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, Rahane’s batting has cost Royals 36 runs this season. That’s the fourth-worst among all batsmen. The three batsmen worse than him – Quinton de Kock (-41), Gautam Gambhir (-41) and D’Arcy Short (-39) – no longer feature regularly for their team. It was important to keep the momentum going, force the KKR bowlers into submission, but using Rahane on current form as Royals’ No. 3 at that stage was equivalent to axing one’s own feet.When all their momentum fizzled out, Royals’ batting unravelled quickly. Buttler’s reverse sweep found short third man, Samson was deceived by Narine’s guile as he tried to pull, Binny failed to pick a Kuldeep googly to be stumped and Gowtham was too slow to react to a short ball from Mavi. As their fabulous start slipped away, each fell trying to do too much. Suddenly, KKR’s bowlers had begun to thrive on momentum very similar to what their opponents had possessed only a handful of overs earlier.At the end of the game, Rahane said Royals’ batsmen cost them by being too adventurous. “I think we didn’t apply ourselves in the middle,” Rahane said. “It was all about applying yourself, get that partnership going, especially when you get a start like that. You have to back yourself and apply your mind. We lost because of our batting.”I felt we were too positive with our batting tonight, but that’s the way it goes. In T20s, when you play like that, sometimes you get 200-plus and sometimes you get 140-odd.”

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Kolkata was way too humid and warm for the Eden Gardens to be full on a Tuesday evening, but the city’s schools had already closed for summer break and that meant a large influx of children at the ground. Kids love making noise of course, but the early onslaught from Tripathi and Buttler had kept them quiet. Perhaps that’s why Royals’ first wicket – Tripathi edging Russell to the wicketkeeper – earned the evening’s biggest cheer.The chase was pretty much chance-less, KKR never gave Royals a look in. The languid pace of proceedings forced some of the children to fall asleep on their parents’ laps, while the others found their attention drifting to the applications on their phone.When Karthik hit the winning runs, it was time to wake up and head home. A family of four – all wide awake – began to make their way out of the ground. The youngest, in a bittersweet manner, said: (we’ll see them again next season).” The least I could do was remind the kid that his team remains very much in contention to play at the Eden in a week’s time, in the Eliminator.