And other lessons from the World Cup so far, y’all

Andy Zaltzman03-Mar-20151. Pre-tournament form is irrelevant
Jimmy Anderson began this World Cup as the second highest-ranked ODI bowler in the tournament. Whatever other failings were obvious in the England squad, Anderson at least promised reliable control and incision with the new ball, commodities many sage pundits predicted would be decisive.In between the last World Cup and this one, 49 bowlers bowled at least 360 balls in the first ten overs of ODI innings. Anderson, in 45 innings, had the best average (19.47), the best economy rate (3.43), the eighth best strike rate (34), and the third-most wickets (36, behind Malinga (47) and Kulasekara (37), who bowled in 84 and 75 innings respectively. In short, Anderson had been the best new-ball bowler in ODIs in between the last World Cup and this one. In both tournaments, he has been, at best, statistically useless, and at worst, cricketing cannon fodder.In four innings so far in England’s almost implausibly dreadful campaign, his first-ten-overs figures are 1 for 117 off 19 overs, his sole victim courtesy a wild swipe by Scotland’s Calum MacLeod. (And, to slightly dull the already imperceptible glory of that one new-ball scalp, Anderson is the only bowler to have conceded a run to MacLeod in three innings thus far.) In 2011, in five innings, Anderson’s equivalent figures were 1 for 93 off 17.The locations of the tournaments have not been in his ideal conditions, but he had had ODI success in Asia early in his career, and in his previous one-dayers in Australia and New Zealand, he had taken 46 wickets at 27.9.Stuart Broad’s ODI struggles are a long-term problem – 43 wickets at 39 in between the World Cups, and a pre-tournament ODI ranking of 54th. But Anderson, alongside Moeen Ali, was the strategic lynchpin of the team. Perhaps he is in a rapid-onset form glitch at an inopportune time. Perhaps England’s many upheavals – the sackings, the reshuffles, the unfair and sneaky revolution in ODI cricket that no one at the ECB noticed – have discombobulated the entire squad. Perhaps more than 5000 overs of international bowling over 12 years and more than 20 tours have caught up with him. Perhaps he ate a poisoned iguana on a team-bonding evening and is hallucinating that he is Curtly Ambrose, which might explain the oddly short length he has been bowling. Perhaps it is a combination of all these. And more.Bouncing rather more contentedly at the other end of the form see-saw is veteran Kiwi tweak-sage Daniel Vettori. The Spectacled Spinster had not been a significant force in ODIs for years – he has already taken as many wickets in this World Cup as he had taken in all ODIs since the last World Cup, with 8 for 118 in 36 overs of wile, scheme and craft. His economy rate of 3.33 is the best of the 65 bowlers who have sent down at least 15 overs in the tournament; his average (14.75) is tidy by any measure, although only fourth amongst the rampant New Zealand team.The comparison with his pre-tournament form-line is as striking as Anderson’s, even given the troubles he has had with injury. Whilst his economy rate had remained characteristically excellent, Vettori had essentially stopped taking wickets – 15 in 209 overs spread over 27 matches, from December 2010 to February 2015. He had comfortably the worst strike rate of the 134 bowlers who had delivered at least 100 ODI overs during that period (83.6; the next worst was Elton Chigumbura’s 69.2), and he had the fifth worst average (57.8, behind part-timers Joe Root, Chigumbura, Kieron Pollard and Samit Patel). Since his return to the side last October, he had taken 1 for 280 in seven home ODIs.What does this show, other than that form is a capricious and flighty devil who should not be trusted with the keys to your car, or with the strategic planning of your World Cup campaign?Perhaps it merely highlights that even top-level players can inexplicably and utterly fail at World Cups, as Inzamam and Mahela did in 2003, and Allan Border in 1992; and that an ageing star can, with restored fitness and a potent team firing around him, rediscover a touch that appeared to have withered years ago. It certainly highlights the glorious/harrowing uncertainties of sport (delete according to which end of that see-saw you currently reside on). And it lays bare how urgently England need the strange, pallid World Cup Anderson to become the Regular ODI Anderson who began this tournament ranked second only to Dale Steyn among bowlers competing at this World Cup.Steyn himself – 70 wickets at 22 since 2011 – has taken 3 for 143, with an economy rate of 5.50. Thanks be to cricket. Which can simultaneously barbecue the perfect prawn and the most inedible sausage, and serve them both in the same partly charred bap.2. England will not win a World Cup in a year beginning with 2
At least, not until they start playing World Cups as if they are happening in a year beginning with 2. Which this one is. As were the previous three.3. The six-week duration of the tournament does have a purpose
I am currently back home in London, after two highly enjoyable weeks covering the early group matches. I will return after spending some time with my wife, children and accountant, in time for the quarter-finals. No tournament should be long enough for someone to do that. The thunder of the gladiatorial shoot-out between the two hosts in Auckland on Saturday was slightly diluted by the knowledge that their next genuinely important match was two and a half weeks away, and the final lurking a month in the distance. No team that has been demolished three times should still have a chance of winning. Albeit that that chance is extravagantly hypothetical.The purpose of the tournament being so elongated, other than the scurrilous and unfounded rumours that it has undermined its own dramatic quality in order to please and saturate its TV masters, is pure sadism. No other tournament gives its struggling participants such prolonged Stewing Time. England will take the field against Bangladesh in Adelaide after seven clear days of Stew. They will travel, practise, pretend to relax, and Stew.

Form is a capricious and flighty devil who should not be trusted with the keys to your car, or with the strategic planning of your World Cup campaign

Pakistan, should they beat UAE and lose to South Africa, face a similar seven-day Stew before their potentially decisive final-match showdown with Ireland.The best way to avoid The Stew, of course, is to not be absolutely clobbered in such a way that every single facet of your individual and collective games is dismantled. When New Zealand next play, they will have had one match in 15 days of anti-Stew. Neither is ideal. Or necessary.4. Mitchell Starc is unusually good at taking five wickets in ODIs
Starc’s glorious, stump-splattering spell in Auckland was probably the greatest World Cup bowling performance by a defeated player, and possibly the greatest in any ODI. Shane Bond, New Zealand’s bowling coach, might disagree – he took 6 for 23 bowling first against Australia in 2003, but ended up well beaten as New Zealand were skittled for 112. Starc’s 6 for 28 is the third best ever analysis by a bowler on the losing side of an ODI, behind Bond and Imran Khan, who took six Indian wickets for 14 in defeat in Sharjah in March 1985. Starc’s effort perhaps surpasses these two by virtue of it being delivered in pursuit of victory, and coming so close to achieving it.It was statistically unprecedented. It was the first ever six-for by a losing bowler in the second innings of an ODI. In World Cup matches, no bowler had ever taken even five wickets in an unsuccessful defence, and only two had taken four wickets for fewer than 40 runs.It was the left-armer’s fifth five-wicket haul in his 35th ODI. When you compare him with the elite of ODI bowling, this is a staggering beginning to his career. Only 19 other bowlers have taken four or more five-fors in one-day internationals, and none have done so at a rate of more than one every 20 innings. Between them, they have accumulated their 115 five-fors in 4281 innings, at a rate of one every 37 innings.(By another comparison, the other 29 members of the Top 30 Lowest-Averaging ODI Bowlers With At Least 50 Wickets have taken a five-wicket haul once every 36 innings.)Starc’s one five-for every seven innings, albeit from a brief career, is remarkable, and confirms the long-held suspicion that people who can bowl 150kph yorkers at the stumps are useful to have in a cricket team.Some stats:- England will need to win five matches in a row to win the World Cup. They have won seven of their last 24 ODIs, since May 2014. Their longest winning streak in that time: one. If one match can constitute a streak. Rather than a smudge.- Stumps flew in Auckland during that New Zealand v Australia classic. The eight players bowled out was the most times the bowlers have shivered the timbers in a World Cup match since 1987. Only once have more players been bowled in a World Cup game – when three English and seven East African players had their ash crashed in 1975.- I’m not finished with that stat yet. The five players bowled out for ducks in Auckland equalled the ODI record. It had previously happened only in the 1979 World Cup final.- I am now finished with the stat. Your witness.

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2015Overcast conditions promoted Eoin Morgan to insert Afghanistan and his bowlers vindicated the decision by nipping out both the openers early•Getty ImagesThe England bowlers found consistent swing and 20 for 2 soon became 34 for 4•Associated PressThen rain arrived to provide some respite for Afghanistan•Getty ImagesThree balls after second rain break, Boprara struck to have Nasir Jamal caught behind for 17 off 52 balls•ICCShafiqullah was left ploughing a lone furrow. He made 30 off 64 balls, before he was undone by James Tredwell in the 35th over•ICCRain then returned and got heavier, resulting in a delay of two and a half hours. Afghanistan’s innings was closed at 111 for 7 and Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculations meant that England needed 101 in 25 overs•AFPIan Bell and Alex Hales, who was dropped on 0 and 12 by Najibullah Zadran, launched a brisk start as England reached 52 in nine overs•ICCJust as England were motoring towards a ten-wicket win, Hamid Hassan had Hales nicking behind for 37•ICCIan Bell, joined by James Taylor, then notched up a fifty and completed the formalities with 41 balls to spare•Getty Images

Daniel Vettori’s one-handed blinder at the boundary among the plays of the day from the fourth quarter-final

Andrew McGlashan and George Binoy21-Mar-2015The chant
“Maaaartin Guptill,” clap, clap, clap. “Maaaartin Guptill,” clap, clap, clap. The chant reverberated around a jam-packed Cake Tin as an unlikely New Zealand batsman stood on the verge of a double-hundred. It was so loud the West Indian players couldn’t communicate on the field. Sulieman Benn, at cover, was being signaled by his captain but he looked lost in the din. Andre Russell seemed to have had enough of the confusion and ran in to deliver, Guptill smashed the ball back over the bowler’s head to move on to 203, and the Cake Tin shook once more.The classical stroke
“And to clarify, the shot is called the back away, look away, deliberate cut through point …” is how Glenn Maxwell described his bizarre boundary of Wahab Riaz in their quarter-final in Adelaide on Friday. Kane Williamson also hit a boundary through point in New Zealand’s quarter-final against West Indies in Wellington, and it could not have been more different to Maxwell’s smear. Williamson got on tiptoe, riding the bounce of a delivery that rose towards his chest and wasn’t too wide, and punched in measured fashion. The ball split two fielders at point and sped away, the timing on it a thing of beauty.The illegal run
In the 18th over of New Zealand’s innings, Guptill dug out a yorker and then whirled around and hit the ball away because it was a bit close to the stumps. The ball trickled towards the wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, who threw at the striker’s end and conceded an overthrow. The amended Law 34, however, indicates no runs should be allowed if the batsman hits the ball a second time, even via overthrows, which were allowed before the amendment. The finer print eluded everyone involved in the play.The catching lesson
It occurred in New Zealand’s innings but it wasn’t a West Indian fielder who took it. Brendon McCullum hooked a short ball from Jason Holder for six but the trajectory was flat and the ball didn’t look like it was going to carry into the stands at long leg. A fan standing in the lowest tier in one of those orange t-shirts leant over the railing, stooped low and plucked it one-handed. He was far more alert than Marlon Samuels had been when he dropped Guptill on 4 in the first over.Daniel Vettori rolled back the years with a stunning one-hander•Getty ImagesThe real thing
If New Zealand win the World Cup there will be a few million dollars to share among the players, but perhaps Daniel Vettori fancied bagging himself a little extra along the way by having a share of the prize pool the above gentleman is now a part of. Marlon Samuels’ upper cut soared towards third man – initially it looked straight down Vettori’s throat, then it looked like a sure six. In a split second, Vettori leapt off his feet, stuck his left hand in the air and plucked out the most incredible catch. For a second, time froze, almost in disbelief. Vettori stood there, hurling the ball nonchalantly into the air as team-mates sprinted from all corners to mob him. This tournament is very likely Vettori’s last hurrah as a player. He’s banking a few memories to take with him.The skimmer
Chris Gayle could barely move, but he could still swing the bat. He had made a sedate start, reaching 1 off eight deliveries, before unleashing a pull stroke that went quicker than anyone could keep up with. Flashing off the blade, it skimmed a few metres off the ground before thudding into the concrete wall which runs around the bottom of the stands. A member of the stadium personnel had the fright of his life, just pulling his head out of the way at the last moment.

What does Cook’s decision to use a freelance coach say about Loughborough? What does it say about the value for money the ECB are gaining from all the millions invested

George Dobell31-May-2015Alastair Cook was quick to praise his long-term mentor, Graham Gooch, for his return to form in Test cricket, but it turns out there was another coach whose influence might have been just as important.In the early months of this year, with his career seemingly at a crossroads, Cook made his way to a sports hall in Oxfordshire to consult Gary Palmer. Dropped from the ODI side and without a Test century for almost two years, Cook was far more concerned about his decline than his calm appearance may have suggested. The decision to work with Palmer was almost a last resort.It was Gooch who suggested it. Having been contacted by Palmer, who thought he could help Cook, Gooch recommended the England captain explore the opportunity further. Many hours travelling backwards and forwards to Oxfordshire followed. Sometimes Palmer had to squeeze Cook’s secret visits in between group coaching of school sides and one-to-one sessions with the kids of wealthy parents. A freelance cricket coach rarely has the opportunity of turning down work.Palmer, the son of umpire and former Test player Ken, was one of the first ‘new Bothams.’ A seam-bowling all-rounder, he made his debut for Somerset as a 16-year-old but, perhaps due to a lack of height, perhaps due to a lack of pace, never quite developed as hoped. His playing career was over by the time he was 25.His progress in coaching has not been smooth, either. Having developed his own techniques, Palmer, now 49, found himself on the outside of the cricket establishment. Despite gaining a strong reputation among professional players as a batting coach, he continually found himself overlooked for jobs within the county system. Like Ian Pont, the bowling coach, he has often seen players in secret and been dismissed as something of a maverick.Palmer declined to confirm he was working with Cook – it was Cook who confirmed it – and declined to contribute to this article least he be thought to be betraying a confidence or seeking to capitalise on the development. He also declined to confirm the identity of the other England players he is currently working with, though ESPNcricinfo understands at least one other member of the current side is utilising him at present and one player on the fringes – Nick Compton – has done so.In an age when it sometimes appears players suffer from over coaching, Palmer’s methods are intriguing. Crucially, he believes in a slightly more open batting stance – a feature of Cook’s modified technique – to aid balance and a full completion of strokes with the open face of the bat.Insisting that cricket “is not a sideways game,” Palmer believes the open stance prevents players from falling towards the off side – an issue for Cook throughout much of his career – and helps batsmen “complete” their strokes. He also believes that hours of drills against bowling machines set at relatively low speeds help engrain foot patterns and build ‘muscle memory.’ Neither he nor Pont are understood to favour prolonged working with the ‘dog-thrower’ that Gooch and co. utilise so often.But what does Cook’s decision to use a freelance coach say about Loughborough? What does it say about the value for money the ECB are gaining from all the millions – £4m a year in wages alone according to their own accounts – invested in the 90-odd people they employ in coaching and cricket development?It certainly isn’t a ringing endorsement. Equally, it doesn’t reflect especially flatteringly on Mark Ramprakash, England’s new batting coach who is out of contract in September, or the culture at the ECB that players feel the need to seek outside help in secret.Palmer and Pont have, in recent years, been consistent in their belief that coach development in England is lagging well behind the development of the world game. Both have suggested that the ECB’s reliance on coaching protocols that are out-dated is holding back its players and that there is too much emphasis on fitness and not enough on skill.And the fact that neither have, to date, been utilised in an official capacity by the ECB might suggest that their theories – theories that rock the boat and threaten some in long-established positions at Loughborough – have been prematurely dismissed.But if Palmer has enjoyed such success with Cook, surely it would make sense to utilise his knowledge more often?

Be it breaking a world record or refusing an offer to play for his country, Charles Coventry has always been one for making a statement. So what has the batsman been up to since leaving Zimbabwe’s structures in 2013?

Firdose Moonda12-May-2015Charles Coventry used to regard his bat the same way a writer does a keyboard. It was for making his statements.The most common statement was the lofted drive, his signature stoke introduced in 2002, when he topped Zimbabwe’s run charts at the Under-19 World Cup. The most powerful statement was a world record, blasted in August 2009, when he hit what was then the highest individual score in ODIs, 194 not out. The most defiant statement came five years later in 2014, when put the bat away and refused Zimbabwe Cricket’s offer to rejoin the national squad ahead of the World T20.Now Coventry has dusted the machine off and is ready to start typing again, in a different font.”There were times in the past when I just used to go out and swing at everything but I feel that now my game is more controlled. I actually feel I am batting better than I ever have,” Coventry told ESPNcricinfo.The proof does not lie in his recall to the national team after a four-year absence, because Coventry does not have domestic statistics to back up his return. He has not played in Zimbabwe’s structures since 2013. It lies in the more measured, mature outlook Coventry has on the game, which he learned through stints at club level.He has been part of a Dubai’s Wings SRT XI and Johannesburg’s Wanderers. With them, Coventry has been part of teams that have won the league. The former was a job, where Coventry played as an overseas professional, the latter a hobby while he set himself up as a resident in South Africa.Since January, Coventry has been coaching cricket at the King Edward VII Preparatory School, the junior school of King Edward High School, which produced players like Jimmy Cook, Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith. Down the road, at St Johns, Stuart Matsikenyeri has a similar position. Matsikenyeri was recalled for the World Cup and Coventry made contact with Zimbabwe shortly after to discuss the possibility of a comeback to the highest level, albeit in limited capacity.”I can’t go back to Zimbabwe permanently because I have a full-time job but I jumped at the chance to be involved somehow, especially with 20-over cricket,” Coventry explained. It’s not very dissimilar to the many freelance T20 cricketers who play across various premier leagues, but are limited to one country. “My plan is to go up a few days beforehand when there is a series, train with the squad and play a few games. I also plan to play in the Zimbabwe domestic T20 competition.”The World T20 next year is in his sights, but only peripherally so. Instead, it’s just the opportunity to play some international cricket and contribute to a Zimbabwean set-up that is making strides towards recovery following years of stagnation and strife.Coventry doesn’t mind even if he is “just there doing throwdowns in the nets”•AFP”From guys I’ve spoken to, it sounds as though things are really moving in a positive direction. There’s a good bunch of players and a good environment with Alistair Campbell back, trying to make things better for the players,” Coventry said. “That’s great for Zimbabwean cricket because it has a lot to offer. It would be good to be part of that.”Coventry, like Chris Mpofu and Vusi Sibanda, is being called on to be part of that because Zimbabwe are adding experience to their ranks in the absence of Brendan Taylor. Coventry, however, does not see himself in the same league as the former captain.”A lot of the younger guys have played a lot more than me so I don’t think of myself as a senior player but one of the things I hope I can bring is to be a good team man with good team ethics. If I don’t play a game and I’m just there doing throwdowns in the nets, that’s also fine.”If he does take the field, Coventry has promised he will not just be brandishing the bat like the way he used to with a microphone, but will use it as an instrument to play a slightly different tune. “I’ve been training really hard and been working on some technical things – there used to be talk about how I approached the short ball and that’s something I’ve concentrated on,” he said”I am not going there to prove any point or to try and be the best player in the world or to chase statistics or anything like that. I don’t want to make a big thing of me making a comeback. I just want to be the best that I can be. If it doesn’t work out, that’s fine.”Another statement, but this time, a quiet one.

His 131-ball 154 may not mean he is destined for international greatness, but it showed how well he thinks with bat in hand, and how well he susses up conditions

Alagappan Muthu in Chennai07-Aug-20152:13

‘Tried hitting down the ground as much as possible’ – Burns

It was not in sequence, but Joe Burns hit 84 runs from 14 balls in Chennai. In tamer words, he hit 14 sixes from 131 balls. Each shot was deafening, riskless and the impact it had on the India A bowlers deserves not to be underestimated. Burns hit 84 runs from 14 balls.Six-hitting can sometimes be blindly frenetic, like slogs off length balls or top edges flying over the keeper. In such cases though, the bowler’s spirit is not brought down; an error in length was punished and luck was not his friend in the second instance. The bowler can correct himself, and he can hope. He has options.Six-hitting, though, can also be clever, like an inside-out loft over extra cover, or the extension of a straight bat to deposit the ball onto the sightscreen. These can happen to good balls, and are tantamount to a batsman establishing his class. Such hits leave bowlers’ brains scrambled.Burns hit 14 sixes. Nine of them were straight, and twice he hit them back-to-back. That is indicative of his strength – he is over six feet tall, has a lovely long reach and almost cheats when decides to come down the pitch – and clarity of thought. Homing in on the sightscreen gives you the shortest distance to cover. On a pitch that was slow, but not quite turning as much, it is a sound tactic to mess with a spinner.Parvez Rasool tried bowling around the wicket. But Burns took guard outside leg stump and created his own room. Karn Sharma flattened his trajectory, but Burns did not care. He was quick enough to step down and when he did, a length ball was waiting for him. That is another example of effortless dominance. By regularly wading down the track, Burns frightened the spinners into giving up their most potent weapon – flight and turn. India A’s spin trio of Rasool, Karn and Axar Patel bowled flatter and flatter. They are not known for getting the ball to hoop around corners anyway, and when they are threatened to not even try, where will the wickets come from?That is another feather in Burns’ cap. He realised if he left the crease, chances of missing the ball and being stumped were lesser than say if he were facing Yasir Shah or Rangana Herath.Burns played the odds, and hit 14 sixes, just one less than Shane Watson’s Australia ODI record of 15. Thirteen of those hits were against spin. However, Burns himself was rather matter of fact about it.

That is another example of effortless dominance. By regularly wading down the track, Burns frightened the spinners into giving up their most potent weapon – flight and turn

“I think it was just one of those days where the ball seemed to land just over the rope and it’s a game of fine margins, isn’t it?” he said.”I tried to hit the ball down the ground as much as possible. The wicket wasn’t really turning massively, it was just a little bit slow. So I felt that if I could get to the pitch, it meant that I could either hit it straight or if it beat me, I could hopefully get one square. It’s probably the way I try and play spin in Australia as well. Seemed to suit this wicket”This knock does not necessarily mean Burns is destined for international greatness. He might find those small margins working against him in this very series. He will certainly play on much tougher pitches and he will be put under a lot more pressure by spinners who back themselves to give the ball flight and will it to turn. He will no doubt find rushing down the track and using a straight bat might actually be detrimental when the pitch is worn and has a lot of rough. Such cases require the batsman to play the angles and be far less gung ho.This knock – his highest List A score of 154 off 131 balls – is simply a measure of how well Burns thinks with bat in hand and how well he susses up conditions.There was a time when it was recommended that Australia’s domestic teams be incentivised to include more young players. But a tangential consequence was they were found out in international cricket when the situation demanded too much of them. So the selectors opted for older and calmer heads like Chris Rogers and Adam Voges. With mountains of domestic runs and matches under their belts, their muscle memory also invariably included a template for most twists a match might take.Burns is 25 years old. He won the Bradman Young Player of the Year award in 2013. His credentials are rated outside of Australia as well, with English county Middlesex signing him earlier this season. He might not be the best player they have, but as a batsman, he seems to know what he is doing. He is stable and sensible, and that is what experience translates to. It is also something Australia would dearly like at the moment.

Plays of the day from the fifth ODI between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Hambantota

Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Jul-2015The first touch
Umpire Ian Gould has worn his share of balls this tour, but he has rarely done so with as much skill as he managed in the 14th over of Sri Lanka’s innings. Kusal Perera’s cut off Imad Wasim was headed for the space between Gould’s legs, but instead of being nutmegged, Gould moved his right leg and stopped the ball in its tracks, just like a Barcelona Football Club forward would control a fast pass from the midfield. Unlike a footballer, though, Gould resisted flopping about on the ground after being hit on the shin.The shy
Anwar Ali was aggressive and demonstrative in his first spell, but he might have had slightly better figures if he had not been so hostile in the 10th over of Sri Lanka’s innings. Fielding a gentle push in his follow-through, Anwar aimed the ball at the batsman, who was well back in his crease, and let fly, missing the stumps by a distance and the wicketkeeper by almost as much. The ball went fine of long leg as well, and wound up costing the bowler and his team four unnecessary runs.The throw
It’s rare enough for Sri Lanka’s infielders to run a batsman out, but when a fast bowler removes a batsman with a throw from the boundary, you know the stars have aligned. Running around from third man, the normally ungainly Suranga Lakmal bent down, picked up and threw in one fluid motion. He found off stump with no interference from the wicketkeeper, to have Sarfraz Ahmed well short.The blows
Having found no reply to Kusal’s controlled aggression on Sunday, Pakistan’s bowlers managed to at least rough him up a little, maybe contributing to his eventual dismissal. In the 26th over, Rahat Ali dug in a short ball that followed an arching Kusal and struck him in the helmet grille. A little shaken up by that, Kusal progressed to a hundred, but wore a yorker flush on the boot a few overs later. He got medical attention in both instances, and the injury to his foot may have prevented him from making his ground when he was run out later in that same over.

A challenger for the title of the ball of the century

Saad Sultan07-Sep-2015For years now, one of Shane Warne’s delivery in an Ashes Test in England has been touted as the ball of the century, i.e. the Mike Gatting ball. That regulation legbreak, drifting in as it pitched outside leg, fizzing away to beat Gatting stretching forward, clipping the top of off to send the disbelieving batsman on his way as the umpires looked on mesmerised.But why was that ball not the ball of the 20th century?The clue lies in the name. No disrespect to Gatting, but with an average of 35.55 across 79 Tests he deserves to be damned by faint praise. He didn’t achieve the heights he would have wanted to in his 17-year Test career and, therefore, that ball will always be a highlight in his career. The ball of the century may have already been bowled to a player who has done more on the field than merely face that legspinning ripper from Warne.If it was the sheer aesthetics of the ball delivered that counted, then which delivery could match Wasim Akram’s mindboggling “double-swing” yorker to Dominic Cork? The ball was angled in from around the wicket to the right-hander and seemed initially to swing in with the angle, only to change direction and move away about a third of the way down, squaring Cork up, beating his outside edge and hitting him flush in front of middle. Now there would be a couple of problems with calling this the ball of the century. Firstly, the batsman wasn’t given out. Secondly, the batsman was Cork. And the ball of the century cannot, by default, be one that was delivered to a bowler who bats a bit. It doesn’t matter how great the delivery was. It just doesn’t fit.Besides, the ball Warne delivered to Gatting wasn’t that great. It was just a case of Gatting making a delivery look a lot better than it actually was. Don’t take my word for it, take the word of Garry Sobers, one of the sport’s all-time greats, who writes in his autobiography:

“… this dismissal was as much Gatting’s fault as it was Warne’s ability. If a bowler bowls a ball outside leg stump on a turning wicket, you should cover your stumps – that’s basic. You cannot be out leg before wicket. If Gatting had gone across instead of trying to play the shot or stand up, it would have been no problem.”

Yes, if ever an innocuous legspinner pitching outside leg was forced to look like a magic ball, this was it.To call the Gatting ball as the ball of the century is similar to calling Muhammad Ali versus Chuck Wepner the fight of the century. You were very courageous, Chuck, but a fight can’t be the fight of the century if you’re in it. Or it’s a bit like calling Rosaline the greatest love of Romeo’s life. The truth is, Rosaline, you were just a silly crush, nobody remembers you; where’s Juliet? Or like saying that Frodo and Sam taking back the Shire from Saruman was the most valuable thing they did for Middle-earth. Nobody cares about what happens after you’ve destroyed the ring; it wasn’t in the movies.So don’t be fooled by the hype, cricketing world. To call that ball the ball of the century is, in fact, a travesty.So which ball was the best in this century?The Gatting ball, for all of its flaws, was undoubtedly bowled by one of the all-time greats of the game, Warne, the Earl of Twirl. But that, as I say, is not enough. There has to be greatness at both ends for a delivery to count as the Ball of the Century. And what delivery could be greater than one that not only gets the greatest batsman of his time out, but actually brings him to his knees?It is 1997. On a sweltering afternoon in Rawalpindi, Brian Lara, the Prince of Trinidad, is facing up to Waqar Younis, the Sultan of Swing. Lara has already taken ten off the over, going onto the back foot to relatively well pitched-up deliveries, and smashing them through cover and mid-off. Waqar, undeterred, steams in from over the wicket, hurtling down a yorker that looks certain to go well wide of off with the angle. Lara shapes up to go through the off side again. But before he can blink, the ball, as if by magic, changes direction, tailing into his toes. Lara tries to adjust but looks completely flummoxed as the ball clatters into his stumps. The best that he can do is to avoid having his toe broken, desperately moving his feet out of the way of the swinging thunderbolt, and in the process knocking himself off his feet, splattering down embarrassingly on all fours.Now here is a ball that even Sobers would approve of; unplayable off front or back foot, even by the best in full flow. This is the image, the image of Lara brought down to his knees by Waqar, that the Ball of the Century needs and deserves. So, cricketing world, the next time you are asked about the ball of the century, don’t make a reference to the Gatting ball. Let the world know that we have higher standards than that. Our ball of the century will be nothing short of greatness bringing greatness to its knees.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid suffered the most unrewarding innings in Test history for a spin bowling combination as Pakistan milked them unforgivingly on a placid surface

Andrew McGlashan14-Oct-20151:27

‘Rashid was never going to be a holding bowler’

In the 144th over of Pakistan’s innings, as tea approached on the second day, Ben Stokes marked out his run. But it wasn’t his normal run. He briefly tossed the ball from hand to hand, pointed a few fielders in various directions and sent down an over of offspin – just his second in first-class cricket.He was the fourth spinner used by England. While not quite a white flag, it certainly was not the Plan A, B or even C that England had spoken about before the series. Stokes has worked on his offspin in the nets from time to time – “mucking around more than anything,” he said – but he can hardly have envisaged needing it on the second day of a Test match.When Misbah-ul-Haq declared on 523 for 8 – after Stokes had collected three quick wickets with his normal style of seam-up – England’s spin attack of Rashid, Moeen Ali , Joe Root and Stokes solitary over had collective figures of none for 302. Quite how to measure the worst of something in cricket is often up for debate, but this was the most expensive wicketless analysis for a spin attack in an innings in Test history, beating South Africa’s none for 273 against Sri Lanka, in Colombo, in 2006.In mitigation, spin in the first innings when Australia and New Zealand bowled here last year amounted to 3 for 585. It might also be wise to hold full judgement until Pakistan – minus Yasir Shah – have tried to bowl out England with Zulfiqar Babar and Shoaib Malik their spinners. Still, the innings was as barren for England’s slow bowlers as the landscape that stretches towards the horizon in this region.Feeling the pain the most was Adil Rashid as he finished with none for 163, the most expensive figures by a bowler who’s gone wicketless on debut. At least the man he knocked off the top spot will understand the feeling. Bryce McGain, the Australian legspinner, ended with 18-2-149-0 in his only innings against South Africa, at Cape Town, in 2009.Rashid, whether in this match or in the subsequent matches, should get another chance at least to open his wicket account, but as far as the first innings was concerned this was another chapter in a tough history for English legspin.Since Eric Hollies, the man who removed Don Bradman for the most famous duck in history, finished his 13-Test career (which was interrupted by World War 2) with 44 wickets at 30.27 – relative riches for English legspin – a varied cast have tried without much success or longevity.Moeen Ali was part of a spin attack that set an unwanted record•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesPeter Smith played four Tests, Roly Jenkins nine, Tommy Greenhough four. Robin Hobbs had seven matches and then it was a 21-year gap to Ian Salisbury followed by the fleeting appearances of Chris Schofield and Scott Borthwick.Now there is Rashid. Twice he has come close to a Test debut. Against West Indies, in Barbados, the selectors weren’t confident to throw him in on a pitch that demanded two spinners (even though Moeen was struggling) and then at Lord’s, against Australia, there was a finger injury that has never quite been satisfactorily explained when, again, there was some doubt over Moeen. This sort of debut performance may have happened in either of those two matches, but the odds would have been slightly more in Rashid’s favour.Stokes backs level-headed Rashid

Ben Stokes has backed Adil Rashid to bounce back from the most expensive debut in Test history, praising his laid-back approach to the game which he believes will serve him well.
Rashid finished with none for 163 off 34 overs – without a maiden over – but Stokes said he was a cricketer who did not get carried away with emotion in good days or bad.
“He doesn’t seem to get down too much, or get too high,” Stokes said. “I’ve played a bit of one-day cricket with him and when he’s done well he hasn’t got outside of his box or celebrated over the top. I think he’s a pretty level-minded cricketer, and I think he’ll be able to put this behind him.”
“It hasn’t gone the way he would have wanted it to, but I heard Asad [Shafiq] say they looked to target him so it could easily have gone the other way as well. We’ve been here for two weeks and know how well he’s been bowling in practice. Next time he has the ball in hand hopefully he can deliver something big. Legspinners can go for runs but they can also change games.”
On his own brief foray into the spin department – one over of offspin before tea – Stokes said it could be a way to not have to keep up his back-breaking role of fast bowling in these conditions even though he managed to chip out four wickets in his day job.
“If Cooky gives me the ball again to bowl some offspin hopefully I can do a better job than that because if there’s any way of getting out of bowling seam around here it’s bowling off spin.”

Given the dominance of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, Rashid was only the sixth spinner of any variety to debut for England since 2008 after James Tredwell, Samit Patel, Borthwick, Simon Kerrigan and Moeen. Tredwell could always land it on a length, Patel was there as a third spinner, Borthwick took some tap but at least claimed four wickets and Moeen had a stellar first season.For Kerrigan and Rashid their debuts have been painful, but whereas Kerrigan’s was ended by a brutal onslaught from Shane Watson at The Oval in 2013, Rashid had to face the unrelenting accumulation of three Pakistan batsmen. A little like pulling of a plaster off slowly rather than ripping it away.Was it as bad as it looks on the scorecard? It is difficult to pick too many positives from his 34 overs, but there was a spell on the second day when he switched to around the wicket and started to pose a few questions for Pakistan’s batsmen to suggest he could be a threat with a little more in his favour.He made one bounce on Asad Shafiq and the glove fell short of slip. Another zipped past the shoulder of the bat and two balls later Shoaib Malik received a similar delivery. But he could not open that wicket tally. Salisbury’s final Test wicket was a slog to deep midwicket by Inzamam-ul-Haq in Faisalabad in 2000; Rashid would have taken that.Pakistan played him very shrewdly, as you would have expected, to put pressure on him. On the opening day Mohammad Hafeez quickly used his feet; neither him nor Shoaib Malik missed out on the full toss and all the batsmen were sharp to pick his length, using his slowness through the air – averaging under 50mph – to despatch him regularly off the back foot.”It was his debut so we didn’t want him to get settled,” Shafiq said. “We started off with singles and then hit the odd boundaries so that he couldn’t.”It really was a baptism of fire in the sweltering heat. More than once Rashid would stand there in his follow through, hands on hips and let out a sharp intake of breath. There was one moment where he almost slumped in the crease as Malik, having taken consecutive balls for four and six to push Rashid’s tally beyond McGain, lofted one just out of reach of Jonny Bairstow at mid-off.The difficulty for Cook was compounded by Moeen, his senior spinner, conceding four an over against masters of milking spin. Control only came from the quicks, who were impressive in the conditions, taking 8 for 196 between them, but if two spinners are not taking wickets on pitches such as these – and Rashid’s role was never going to be one of economy – it is a major problem if they both go at over four runs.The last time England went through a similar era of trying to find a spinner, at the turn of the millennium, post Phil Tufnell and pre Swann and Panesar, they turned to Ashley Giles. He did a superb job for five years, not least on the 2000-01 tour of Pakistan when he gave Nasser Hussain priceless economy while chipping out vital wickets – none more so than Inzamam on the penultimate day in Karachi. It is not exciting to call for a spinner who can provide control, but it is practical.The ECB are trying to do something about the situation. It will take time. There could be more innings like this, even in the next couple of weeks. Talk of playing some county cricket in the UAE is, in part, designed to encourage spin development. Performance squads have been based in India, Sri Lanka and next month in Dubai.Daniel Vettori, a template for a spinner who had no special tricks but was brilliant at his job, will work with the young spinners who are hoped to be part of a brighter spin future for England. Rashid can still be part of that future, but this has been a chastening start.

They lost the chance to bargain with the board on equal footing in the matter of World Cup earnings, but they cannot ignore the need for a proactive players association

Tristan Holme19-Nov-2015When Zimbabwe’s national players refused to turn up for training in August 2013 and announced that they were forming a union, their main goal was to get the money that Zimbabwe Cricket owed them. Over the years it had come to be expected that match fees would be paid several months late, but when monthly salaries stopped arriving, the players decided enough was enough. Higher match fees were also among their stated demands, but at that stage the idea that their collective heft might be able to secure a lasting future for cricketers in Zimbabwe was almost an afterthought.In March 2014, however, the process towards that idea was set in motion when ZPCA representative Eliah Zvimba presented ZC with a Memorandum of Understanding and Collective Bargaining Agreement, which drew on agreements in place between other player bodies and their boards. Zimbabwe’s cricketers had been dictated to for almost a decade, but the MoU was designed to balance the scales of power. Not surprisingly, ZC was in no hurry to sign.A Bulawayo labour lawyer, Zvimba had caught the eye of the players when he managed to extract payments towards medical bills from a reluctant ZC on behalf of a Matebeleland player who had been involved in a car accident. When I met him in Harare in May last year, Zvimba said that repeated attempts to get a meaningful response from ZC on the MoU had been fruitless, and claimed that he was largely being treated with contempt. He produced a text conversation in which a ZC human resources manager responded to his query over certain player payments with nothing more than a series of emoticons.Over the course of the year his frustrations continued, although a ZC spokesman denies that there was a reluctance on the board’s part, saying the MoU was “undergoing our due process”.Yet as the World Cup drew near, time was running out for the governing body. ZC needed the players to sign participation agreements for the tournament, but the players, who were being advised by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), first wanted a commitment to the MoU as well as US$2m from ZC’s World Cup earnings. As ZC dragged out the discussions, the players knew that they had a World Cup-sized bargaining chip.Prosper Utseya (left) a surprise pick for the World Cup was blamed for Zvimba’s exit from the players association•Getty ImagesThe stand-off was summed up by Ian Smith, FICA’s chief operating officer, in an email to the ZPCA executive, which Prosper Utseya included in his infamous racism letter. “My take on the current state of ZC,” Smith wrote on January 2, “is that, as far as they’re concerned, as long as they send a team to the World Cup and get their ICC payment, the rest can go to hell – that is tomorrow’s problem and that includes how the professional game will be funded for the next few years. ZPCA’s leverage only exists in your ability to determine whether a team goes to the World Cup… This is a crucial juncture in the history of cricket in Zimbabwe and how it proceeds is largely in your hands.”This was not news to the players, but Smith had good reason for impressing the importance of the situation upon them: Utseya, in his capacity as the ZPCA committee’s vice secretary, had informed Smith that the association intended to release Zvimba because of a lack of communication around funds that FICA had been supplying. FICA for their part had clearly come to respect Zvimba, inviting him to their annual general meeting in Australia to discuss the ZPCA’s potential FICA membership, and agreeing to pay $1500 per month towards the ZPCA’s office expenses. Yet the latter gesture became the bone of contention around which the entire project fell apart. Utseya says that the players were unaware of the payments until some time in December, and two other ZPCA committee members back his claim up.Zvimba points out that the five players on the executive were the only signatories on the association’s bank account, that a Harare office was indeed set up, and that invoices for expenses were sent to FICA as proof. Furthermore, he claims that his relationship with some of the players on the ZPCA executive broke down when they demanded that their wives be employed by the association.Nevertheless Zvimba’s contract was not renewed when it expired at the end of 2014. According to the ZPCA’s own constitution, the decision ought to have been voted on by the entire membership, but it wasn’t put to a vote until after Zvimba’s contract had already expired and those picked for the World Cup had signed up to ZC’s terms, which promised $650,000 to be shared among the World Cup squad, rather than $2m for the wider player pool. Tony Irish, FICA’s executive chairman, is in no doubt about why that happened, saying that the work put in by FICA and Zvimba “was undermined by a very small group of players who got rid of Zvimba and did a separate deal with ZC to enrich themselves at the expense of the wider player group”.If Zimbabwe players choose to tour countries that other teams won’t, they need an organisation behind them that will look after their interests•AFPThe spotlight falls on Utseya, who had been banned from bowling offspin in October 2014 when he was found to average 51 degrees of flexion, and only cleared to bowl legspin in December, but was nevertheless picked in the World Cup squad in early January. In a report in the , a colleague accused Utseya of orchestrating Zvimba’s dismissal in return for a place in that squad, a charge Utseya denies. “My selection was criticised, but when I look at it, none of the spinners performed in Bangladesh [in late 2014], and I did better than the other spinners against Canada,” he told the earlier this year. “No one can tell me that I didn’t deserve to go to the World Cup, because it was based on statistics.”Yet what is undeniably true is that without a representative, talk of the MoU and a $2m share of the World Cup earnings fell away, and after eleventh-hour discussions as they waited to board their flight at Harare airport, the 15 World Cup squad members agreed on a formula for how they would split the $650,000 pie amongst themselves. In turn, FICA withdrew its support because, Irish says, “it believed that little could be achieved in an environment where players were divisive and not prepared to stand together for the greater good of the overall current player system and for its future generation of players”.Masakadza, the ZPCA’s president, insists that FICA “didn’t listen to our side of the story – they heard Eliah’s side of the story and took that as gospel truth”. But aside from Utseya’s emails to Smith, the players don’t appear to have gone to great lengths to present their point of view. Irish says that he emailed Masakadza after things went sour in January, but is yet to receive a reply.With Zimbabwe increasingly travelling to parts of the subcontinent where other teams are not willing to venture due to security threats, a functioning players association seems like a crucial decision-making body.While Zimbabwe’s national players are reasonably well paid, the majority of their franchise counterparts do not earn enough to maintain the sort of professional lifestyle required of players aspiring to international cricket. For Zimbabwe to move forward, that needs to change so that the level of franchise cricket can rise accordingly. But it won’t happen unless the players formulate a coherent plan and stand together as one.