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In difficult conditions against one of the world’s best attacks, Virat Kohli remained unfazed, played his own game, and showed India could compete

Sidharth Monga in Johannesburg18-Dec-20130:00

‘Kohli reminded me of Tendulkar’ – Donald

India’s last two Test hundreds in South Africa, and three out of the last four, all came from No. 4. It was in a way fitting that the latest assertion that they can compete here despite the ODI poor showings, came from their newest No. 4 batsman. In terms of discipline – never mind the Cheteshwar Pujara run-out and his eventual dismissal – Virat Kohli matched Sachin Tendulkar. This is not a comparison between the two batsmen, but this hundred of Kohli was Tendulkar-like in its defence and its calculated stroke-play. Even Allan Donald, who is now South Africa’s bowling coach and has had many a contest with Tendulkar in the 1990s, was reminded of Tendulkar.”The one word that comes to my mind is responsibility,” Donald said. “I think he [Kohli] showed great discipline and responsibility. It reminds me of Sachin Tendulkar when they came here in 1996. I was the first one to say back in 1996 that India didn’t show much bottle, and that one person that jumps out and plays for the situation, plays for his team was Tendulkar. That’s what came to my mind when I saw Kohli batting – the way he left the ball and when we were slightly off the line he punished the ball. He paced his innings very well. But for me, he was responsible today. He put up his hand today, and showed real fight. He was tight, and didn’t give much away until the end.”An amazing statistic about Kohli’s innings is that he left alone 61 of the 181 balls he faced, but still went at a strike rate of 66. More instructive was when he left them alone. He didn’t offer a shot to 16 of the first 28 balls he faced after which he got a few loose ones and ran away with them. Then came lunch. A new innings began after the interval: he left alone 11 of the first 17 balls bowled to him. Then he got a short and wide delivery from Vernon Philander, and launched into it. In the next over he smack-pulled Dale Steyn and was back in a mood to score runs.Virat Kohli showed no glaring weakness in his game•AFPHe was confident of his game, knew he didn’t have a glaring weakness, read what the bowlers were trying to do, sussed out the pitch and match conditions, and wasn’t going to throw a good start away. Taking singles was an important part of India’s game today. Yes, M Vijay got caught at one end a bit, but you could see there was a lot of emphasis on not letting South Africa bowl at one batsman for a long time. It possibly resulted in the Pujara run-out – although they were also ball-watching a bit – but that only firmed Kohli’s resolve further.And then there were the shots. Crisp, clean, and loud and clear in the statement they made. The first two were pulls off Jacques Kallis and Steyn. This might have worked with Shikhar Dhawan, but won’t with me, Kohli seemed to say. And he was given quite a few short balls, which failed to push him back. Another Tendulkar-like aspect of this innings was that Kohli was right forward when he played the forward defence.The 18 fours that he hit – only one of them unintended – showed how much he punished the bad balls. It didn’t matter if it was Steyn, Morkel or Philander. A loose ball was a loose ball. Steyn bowled a limp short ball, and Kohli dismissed it from his sight, later saying that he didn’t remember many short balls bowled at him after that. The next ball Kohli left alone, and Steyn was in his face with verbals. Snarling bowlers is usually a sign that you are doing well. Morkel, who was the best bowler on the day with his steep bounce, was cut away for four when he bowled wide.Against Imran Tahir and JP Duminy, though, it was open season. Tahir’s first ball – he usually bowls the last over before lunch when South Africa are bowling on day one – was only slightly short, and Kohli rocked back to pull him. He added another boundary in that over. Who cares if lunch is around the corner? You are not going to get too many gentle legbreaks in South Africa and when you do, you make most use of them. Off the 27 balls bowled by Tahir, Kohli scored 31, including that trademark extra-cover drive which beat cover by a few feet and sweeper by several.That century celebration, which Kohli possibly never wanted to end, showed how much this knock meant to him. He later said that even when he was in Australia, he used to think about getting a hundred in South Africa, because the senior players had told him how special it was. To put it in perspective, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly never managed one here. Kohli has done it in his first Test innings in the country.There is a long way to go for India. Kohli knows he fell at the wrong time, and to a loose shot. He knows Tests in South Africa can turn in minutes because wickets can fall in a heap. One thing has been achieved, though: India know that they can compete. A message Tendulkar used to send across often in the ’90s.

Affected by the crushing loss to Sri Lanka and speculation over the proposed two-tier Test system, the BCB needs to appease the confusion of its players and adopt a pragmatic outlook

Mohammad Isam31-Jan-2014Every year since 2006, Bangladesh have had one very bad game. The one for 2014 has now come in their first international match of the year after Sri Lanka crushed them by an innings and 248 runs in the first Test in Dhaka.The margin of loss, and non-stop speculation on the proposed two-tier Test system, has further made it an inconvenient defeat, particularly when all the talk is about the country’s future in Test cricket. Bangladesh are No. 10 in the ICC rankings, making them one of two teams in danger of being relegated to the Intercontinental Cup from 2015 if the two-tier system is adopted.For now, the threat is still only on paper. The ICC press release summarising the guiding principles of the Big Three’s proposals on the January 28 did not contain the words ‘demotion’, ‘relegation’ or ‘I-Cup’. But the effect of discussions, speculation, statements and board meetings had been seen in the lead-up to the Dhaka Test.Two days before the game, Mushfiqur Rahim rightfully gave his views on the two-tier system and how it would affect the team. A few players, like Shakib Al Hasan, spoke briefly about their concern, while others, like Tamim Iqbal, joked about what their future would look like. Mushfiqur’s statement was definitive.The Bangladesh captain was worried, about the future of the team and about too much talk of other issues before a Test series. A similar thing had happened in March 2013 on Bangladesh’s tour to Sri Lanka when the visiting side lost players to injuries and the hosts were uncertain of fielding a proper line-up due to a tiff over contracts with SLC. Bangladesh shut off the distraction and drew their first game against Sri Lanka in Galle. They even won their first ODI against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka later on the tour. In Zimbabwe, however, Bangladesh faced poor training facilities, complained about it and lost the first Test by 335 runs.After his statement against the proposed system, Mushfiqur was mocked in some circles. But the ICC’s decision to grant Bangladesh Test status in 2000 or the BCB’s continued apathy towards Test cricket is not his burden to carry. He is a salt-of-the-earth cricketer whose life has been devoted to the game.There was half a chance that Bangladesh would be at their best against Sri Lanka because, in the past, they have reacted well when faced with difficult situations. However, one could not fault them if they were thinking of their future on the eve of a Test match. One would also have understood if the situation had worried them to the extent that the next morning, they picked three seamers, were put in to bat and lost four wickets before lunch.

From this point onwards, whether Bangladesh play more, or less, Test cricket will depend completely on the BCB’s strengths in building relations with other boards. The team’s performance would definitely be counted but given the climate in world cricket, diplomacy and finance are going to override how well the game is played.

Shamsur Rahman was making his Test debut, but it seemed the entire playing XI were just as nervous. They bowled poorly for the rest of the game and the captain led the way in dropping sitters. While this was happening, news from Dubai on the second day of the Test match suggested Bangladesh had been given the stay of execution and there was no direct threat to their status and international schedule. By then, however, Sri Lanka had run away with the game. In the second innings, all the batsmen looked like they wanted to be left alone but not out in the middle.The day after the game, coach Shane Jurgensen called the ongoing draft proposal controversy during the Test match a case of “bad timing”.”There were a few distractions before the game which probably didn’t help either, with the ICC thing,” Jurgensen said. “More than just discussions, there was disappointment. It was bad timing for the whole thing to happen ahead of a Test match. At the same time, we are representing Bangladesh in international cricket, and we didn’t play well.”There was a peculiar glare on the Bangladesh team throughout this game. While the seniors like Tamim, Shakib and Mushfiqur would know what it is like to play Test cricket when the rest of the cricketing world is questioning their status as a team, guys like Mominul Haque, Sohag Gazi and Al-Amin Hossain would have been oblivious of such a scenario.File photo – The BCB needs to adopt a proactive approach with its players and keep them informed•AFPNow the newcomers, too, would be feeling the burden of this pressure until Bangladesh rise in the Test rankings. For that Test matches have to be won, not something done by bowling dot balls or throwing wickets away.The last week would have been hard for Mushfiqur, who takes some time letting go of things. The reaction to the statement on the two-tier system must have rankled him and he may even have regretted it. When he spoke after the game, Mushfiqur sounded stricken, but he was brave enough to take the blame, when the prevailing culture in Bangladesh cricket is to do the opposite.From this point onwards, whether Bangladesh play more, or less, Test cricket will depend completely on the BCB’s strengths in building relations with other boards. The team’s performance would definitely be counted but given the climate in world cricket, diplomacy and finance are going to override how well the game is played.Mushfiqur’s team cannot stop being positive or stop trying to win Test matches. If they are disheartened by all the talk, they should imagine how the likes of Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Rafique and Mashrafe Mortaza played between 2001 and 2005. It was horrible, at times, but they held firm.Since 2006, Bangladesh have started to win matches, first against lower-ranked or equal-strength sides, and gradually against higher-ranked teams. In each of those years, they have had one disaster, either in Tests or limited-overs matches. In 2006, it was the Brendan Taylor’s last-ball six, followed by a New Zealand victory achieved in six overs in Queenstown.The ICL player defection in 2008, defeat to Ireland in the 2009 World Twenty20s, the losses to Netherlands in 2010 and 2012 and scores of 58 and 78 in the 2011 World Cup were subsequent low points. Last year, Bangladesh suffered a 335-run loss to Zimbabwe, Mushfiqur resigned on the tour and the BPL corruption controversy erupted.There could be more defeats for Bangladesh this year, as they have started off on the wrong foot. The optimists inside the dressing room, however, would see it as a customary blip that is now out of the way.The BCB also needs to be proactive and appease its players rather than shooting them down for being vocal on issues. The board needs to talk to the players and explain what is happening and how it could affect them. A general sense of practicality is necessary and expected over the next couple of weeks in Bangladesh cricket.

Imam-ul-Haq may not have too much in common with his famous relative Inzamam, but the hunger for run-scoring is the same all right

Kanishkaa Balachandran01-Mar-2014There was a time Imam-ul-Haq hated playing cricket. As a child, his ambition was to be a model, and he did not want his skin to tan, running about under the sun. His sedentary lifestyle meant he began to put on a few extra pounds. Cricket, he realised, was his best way of beating the fat.”When I was in school I was very, very fat,” says Imam. “I always loved food and never used to train. Then things started to change. I started to watch TV, see Shahid [Afridi], Younis [Khan] and my , and I too wanted to be famous.” The Imam refers to is his uncle Inzamam-ul-Haq. For years, Inzamam had to deal with tasteless taunts about his own weight and Imam wasn’t going to go down that road.Their names rhyme and both love to bat, but that’s where the similarity ends. Imam bats left-handed, is slimmer, and his spectacles give him a scholarly look. While Inzamam is sparing with his words, Imam is anything but reticent. Even the most seasoned shorthand expert would have trouble keeping up with the bubbly, articulate 19-year-old.It could be that the excitement of the semi-final at the Dubai International Stadium hasn’t yet sunk in. After Pakistan Under-19s’ eighth-wicket pair of Zafar Gohar and Amad Butt kept their World Cup hopes alive with a jailbreak against England, Imam was among the first to dart from the pavilion to celebrate with his team-mates, risking his injured hamstring.Imam, an opening batsman for his side, was the tournament’s leading run scorer at that point, with a century and two 80s, sharing an important partnership with his captain, Sami Aslam, at the top. He pulled his hamstring early in his innings against England and struggled between the wickets, but fought for as long as he could. Retiring hurt was out of the question, but an lbw sent him back for 28, and he spent the next couple of hours a nervous wreck in the pavilion watching his team-mates swim against the tide and claw back.That brings up another comparison with his uncle. “We both have very different personalities,” Imam says. “He was very cool and calm and I can be very impatient, aggressive and emotional. He always tells me to be calm because when you play for Pakistan, you will have to face this kind of pressure and challenges.Imam is already a veteran of two U-19 World Cups. Before embarking on his first in 2012, he learnt about conditions in Australia from Inzamam, who took part in the first-ever junior World Cup, in 1988. That Imam made it at 17, despite being a relatively late starter to the game, is testament to his rapid rise.Originally from Multan, his parents moved to Lahore because they wanted Imam to attend a better school. It was one that helped him with his communication skills, for it punished students for speaking in any language other than English. Badminton was his preferred sport at the time, and he even won the school championship. Before cricket came along, he would spend his time at a badminton court near his house. One summer, during the holidays, he enrolled in a cricket club and there was no looking back. “I was a very good student,” he says with a laugh. “I played an U-16 game and from then I started to take cricket very seriously.”Till then his summer holidays used to be spent in London, helping his dad in his business. Breaking into the U-16 team was a big deal, he says, given the competition in Lahore. He talks of an incident that spurred him to dream big. “I was watching the 2010 U-19 World Cup final [between Australia and Pakistan], and there were two players, Babar Azam and Usman Qadir, who played U-16 with me. I was thinking, ‘, they are so lucky.'”That year Imam got a call from Pakistan International Airlines when he was spending the winter holidays with his family and was asked to report for an U-19 tournament. “I scored 700 runs and, seriously, I don’t know how I scored that!” he says. “Then the Pakistan U-19 team went to South Africa and I was literally crying because my name was in the reserves but not in the team.”He didn’t have to wait long for his opportunity. The failure of the openers on that tour gave him a chance against the touring British Universities side and he made it to the Asia Cup in Malaysia, where he scored four fifties in seven games. That was his ticket to the World Cup a few months later. “I’d walk in my colony and people would recognise me and say that I will play for Pakistan,” he says.His rapid rise in age-group cricket was acknowledged by his father, but his mother insisted he take his studies seriously; it took a while for her to accept that professional cricket was his calling. “I spoke to her before the last game and she said that since I was the leading run scorer I was getting really famous on Facebook,” he says with a chuckle.He says doctors have advised him to switch to contact lenses from glasses, but he finds them uncomfortable and plans to have corrective laser treatment instead after the World Cup.Now that he is already a first-class player, Imam’s cricket commitments will only increase, but he says he hasn’t abandoned his studies. “In my opinion, education is very important whether you play cricket or not,” he says. “It will help me when I become a dad and I will tell my children they should study. I will try my level best to continue my studies.”Before that, four years after watching his former team-mates fail to get their hands on the trophy, he has a chance to help bring it home.

Nearly six years after his last ODI, Robin Uthappa returns to the Indian side, refreshed, more assured, and eager to contribute to the team’s success

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi10-Jun-2014The success in the IPL has now earned you an India cap after six years. How exciting is it to be playing again in the national shirt?
I am very excited. It means a lot to me that I’m playing for the country again. It makes me extremely proud that I am able to do what I love doing at the highest level. But I just see this as an opportunity. I cannot sit back and I say I have made it now. It is an opportunity to start all over again.You built your success in the IPL as an opener. The last time you played for India, you batted in the lower middle order. Would you be more comfortable opening?
Winning the treble with Karnataka gave me a massive understanding of what I need to do in terms of being able to perform my role to the best of my ability. I am very certain about my role as an opening batsman, because I do it day in, day out throughout the season for Karnataka. So it is just a matter of repeating the same process at a different level. Are you better aware about your role in the Indian side now?
I know that if I stick to what works for me, I will be successful. I need to stay in the present. I need to make sure that I focus on the most important thing: to play on the merit of the ball. If I can do that, the scores will come. I am pretty confident that I can perform the role of an opening batsman to my fullest potential. I believe that I can set up games for India to win. Winning games for India is what I want to do. That is an intense desire.You did that with Kolkata Knight Riders. You finished as the IPL’s best batsman. How important an achievement was that?
It is a wonderful feeling. I am happy that I was able to contribute to my team in a way that was meaningful. And I was able to do it consistently. I want to build on it. I want to move forward with that growth now. At the same time, I recognise places I can improve on, work on, get better at.It was an uncertain beginning for both Knight Riders and yourself. You started in the middle order and were only the fourth-choice opener?
I spoke with the team management and told them I wanted to open. So I did feel the pressure in the first match I opened. But that kind of nervousness is only a good thing. It makes you go out there and express yourself better. It makes you more alive in the moment. I came out better with that pressure on. I have got more clarity about my cricket and that has contributed to my success.

“I have become more of a touch player than someone who plays with so much power. That has been my biggest improvement”

I believe your personal coach, Pravin Amre, stressed on focusing on the basics?
Sir [Amre] has always taught me that if I had the right [technical] action, the end result would be good. The initial part of our training was a lot about making sure that my initial movements were correct, my set-up was correct, the way I picked up the bat, the way the backlift was, the [way the] downswing was. When all of that is proper, 60-70% of your work is done. The rest is about getting your head into position, holding that position well and playing the ball late into the gaps. It is important to remind myself about these things because when you achieve a momentum there is danger of getting carried away when it is important to stick to the basics.You are now showing the full face of the bat in your strokes as opposed to earlier, when it used to be closed. How big a difference has that made?
It has made a massive difference. As a cricketer I can experience certain stuff but I cannot explain to you in words what it feels to hit the ball from the middle of the bat with the right technique. Very early in our training, I remember telling Sir immediately after hitting a fluent cover drive that I have hit so many sixes in my life but this shot I just hit I would never forget. I hit it so sweetly. He told me not to worry because I would do it more often. It is just a feel, more like a sensation.Which is the most improved stroke?
Every shot in the V past the bowler on both sides has improved. I have worked a lot on the on drive. We spent hours on that stroke where earlier I was vulnerable against the lbw. You have to get a lot of things in place for that shot: your head needs to be on top of the ball, your legs in the right position, your body aligned correctly to get the power into the stroke. But the cover drive is the one that stands out for me. I have become more of a touch player than someone who plays with a lot of power. That has been my biggest improvement. But it will only stay with me if I continue to work on it.One of the most visible changes is that you have consciously cut down on hitting sixes. Was that planned?
It was not a conscious effort. The aim was to play to the merit of the ball and importantly bat responsibly. As much as opening is a challenge it is also about focusing on holding an end up. That only allows my team to be in a better position. In some games I was trying to chip the ball over the infield but it went straight to the fielder. I felt that in those instances, if I had gone all through, it could have only proved beneficial. One of the goals I set for myself at the outset was that I wanted to bat through 20 overs. But I started the tournament by coming to play in the middle overs before I started to open. Like I said earlier, there is a lot of scope to improve.You would appreciate the innings Suresh Raina played in the second qualifier for Chennai Super Kings – playing good cricketing shots. Was that the best innings of this IPL for you?
As far as skills are concerned, definitely. Raina held beautiful positions, played late, stood deep in the crease, made use of the bounce, played very clever cricket. I enjoyed watching him play without fear. Also, when you are chasing a massive score it gives a batsman the freedom to be brave. It was inspiring and I picked up some good things from Raina’s innings.”Every shot in the V past the bowler on both sides has improved”•BCCIYou batted with an injured toe against Mumbai Indians in a crucial match that Knight Riders won. You picked it as your best innings this IPL. Why?
Two days before the Mumbai match in Cuttack, I was hit flush on my left big toe by a yorker-length delivery from Pat Cummins. He was bowling with a new ball that swung in. I batted through, but when I removed my shoe I had a broken nail and it was bleeding profusely. Andrew Leipus [Knight Riders’ physiotherapist] gave me some painkillers.I was positive about playing the match considering we had to win it. I was wearing slippers the next day. But on match day, when I reached the ground, I realised I could not even get a sock on easily, let alone a shoe. I am a UK size 10, so Andrew suggested I try a bigger size. I tried one size bigger but that too was not going in. Then I tried Morne Morkel’s size 12. But I could barely walk in them even though I hit some throwdowns. I could not put too much pressure on my leading leg as I was unable to get up on my toes.I had doubts whether I would be able to play the match. I was feeling uncomfortable in Morne’s shoes. Andrew suggested I wear something with an open toe to take the pressure off. Jacques Kallis had his bowling boots, which were size 11. Andrew built a nice, thick protection cap over the cut part of the shoe to provide a good cushion.Fortunately we bowled first and it gave me little more time to adjust to the shoe. I finished with the Man-of-the-Match award with an 80. I thanked Kallis and played in them till the qualifier.WV Raman, an experienced domestic coach and part of the coaching bench at Knight Riders, says in all these years he has seen you, you have never been more calm about your batting.
I am in a place in my life where I understand how I can handle everything. If I can stay in the present I have got most things taken care of. I have grown as a human being in the last couple of years as well. I am surrounded by positive people, who add value to my life, which helps me perform better.Do you realistically believe you will be part of the Indian squad for next year’s World Cup?
I believe in my ability and that I will play in the World Cup and contribute to our country’s success in a meaningful manner. That is the hope. I am very, very consciously living in the present. I am confident but for the moment I am focusing to perform and succeed in Bangladesh to begin with and carry forward the confidence into subsequent tournaments.

To seek to exist as a T20 specialist is the most precarious of occupations. Cricket is not like the movies where Harrison Ford can still get the girl even though he is in his 70s

David Hopps20-Aug-2014Kevin Pietersen will make his most high-profile appearance in England since the plug was pulled so abruptly on his international career when he plays for Surrey on finals day of the NatWest Blast at Edgbaston on Saturday. He knows it is no ordinary game, even allowing for his limited regard for England’s professional circuit. It is an occasion that might give a clue to the state of a faltering professional career.Nothing is impossible for Pietersen if the mood takes him. He has played fast and loose with the game all year, appearing in only T20, presuming that he will eventually succeed on innate talent, but discovering that it is hard to sail up, up and away when a lack of competitive cricket keeps deflating his hot air balloon.If he succeeds at Edgbaston, and helps Surrey to their first T20 title since they won the inaugural tournament in 2003, it will seem like a huge confidence trick. It might even guarantee the continued interest of IPL, not a competition known for blind loyalty.Some will recoil at talk of a confidence trick. But it is fair to observe that his preparations for England’s major domestic final have been somewhat unconventional. Musings that he needs to play more cricket for Surrey to get in any sort of consistent form have been followed by him doing precisely the opposite – taking a holiday in Miami after his brief appearance in the Caribbean Premier League.Pietersen has prepared by travelling down the Everglades and taking pictures of beer glasses held in front of hotel pools. He has been swimming with sharks – which must have reminded him of his final dealings with the ECB. He has railed at the paparazzi pictures which showed him strolling down the beach with his family, the face of his son pixelated out in that rather eerie display of two-faced probity. At least they reminded him that he still existed.It looked like a contented family holiday, just one taken at an unusual time for a cricketer facing his biggest challenge of the summer. It was a counter-intuitive conclusion, to say the least, to decide that what he needed ahead of finals day was a rest cure, especially when it followed an admission to magazine that he could not successfully live like this.”I should have probably played a bit more cricket than I have,” he said. “I found out this year that just Friday night games doesn’t work, and it is good that I found it out because I am only 34 and I am still going to be playing for another four or five years. And I have understood that I need to play a lot more cricket in order to be successful and that is what I am going to do. And if I am playing in England next year I have to play a lot more cricket to be more successful in the shorter form of the game.”

However he envisages the future, this year at least he continues to walk on the edge, to demand the impossible of himself, hoping that the risk will help him rediscover his innate talent

Reality had dawned. To seek to exist as a T20 specialist is the most precarious of occupations. Cricket is not like the movies where Harrison Ford can still get the girl even though he is in his 70s. It is made even harder by England’s T20 structure with weekly matches stretched over a three-month period. No wonder Pietersen bemoans England’s lack of a big-city franchise structure with matches played in a compressed time frame. City franchises might not suit English cricket. They would suit KP.An inconsequential Royal London one-day game against Somerset at The Oval on Wednesday – Surrey are bottom of Group B, having failed to win a game – would have offered an ideal opportunity to have a hit ahead of their semi-final against Birmingham. Instead he was just boarding his flight from Miami. If not that, the Division Two Championship match against Leicestershire which preceded it when Surrey only drew and their promotion ambitions faltered as a result. That game, at least, had an undeniable value to his county.But Pietersen chose to stroll the beaches, breaking off to tweet his congratulations to Stuart Broad about England’s series victory against India, mentally back in a winning England dressing room to which he will never return. “BOOM,” he said, which for those not familiar with urban slang can be taken as an expression of approval. At a time far in the future, formal notes of congratulation from the ECB will probably be written this way.It feels like talk. Too much talk. But he has never been drawn to meaningless matches in front of small crowds. He has never rediscovered his game in such a fashion. However he envisages the future, this year at least he continues to walk on the edge, to demand the impossible of himself, hoping that the risk will help him rediscover his innate talent.And, in any case, Surrey’s response to Pietersen’s promises have been cagey. Richard Gould, their chief executive, is a strong contender as the next chief executive of the ECB, in succession to the outgoing David Collier, so he is not about to prejudge contractual negotiations he might not be able to conclude. “We’re not taking anything for granted,” he said. “We also need to look at what budget we have available.”For a sportsman who craves adulation – indeed, who draws positive energy from it – 2014 has been a sad sensation. As supporters and critics in England have indulged in an entrenched and repetitive debate about his worth, the likes of which have not been witnessed since Geoffrey Boycott divided English cricket more than 30 years ago, his runs have dried up; his sense of self-worth has become a parade in the face of adversity.Kevin Pietersen made a brief appearance at the CPL, the latest stop on his globe-trotting T20 route•LatinContent/Getty ImagesThere is a long-awaited autobiography out in early October when he will give his version of events that led to his enforced England retirement. A chat show love-in with his most vociferous supporter, Piers Morgan, is already on the cards, just as Parkinson interviewed Boycott sympathetically a generation ago.The autobiography is expected to be outspoken. So it should be. After the character assassination he has endured, he is entitled to some recriminations. The ECB is no doubt planning a damage-limitation exercise. It would be good to think that it can bring closure. But once again the next phase of his life is not about to endear him to those in charge of the England game.To survive as an outsider, he needs to provide incontrovertible proof of his cricketing worth. But in Birmingham, on what is expected to be a fresh, lightly breezy day, he will fear that he will feel further hints of autumn.He has made only one fifty since England’s managing director, Paul Downton, decided after the Sydney Test in January that he had never seen a cricketer so disengaged; that rebellion once again was in the air. Even that fifty, for Delhi Daredevils in the IPL, was hardly cause for celebration: his average of 29 was a considerable decline on his previous IPL return of 42. Delhi, under his captaincy, finished bottom.Little in the NatWest Blast has altered the perception that England’s rejection has knocked his career out of kilter. He sings to the game and it no longer sings back. Crowds flocked to The Oval to watch him in the Blast, but they were wowed instead by Jason Roy, the young pretender, as Pietersen averaged 23 and did not pass 39.He has looked upon Roy with pride, championing him as an England T20 star of the future, delighting in the association. He has doubtless been an influence in bringing his talent to the fore. If Roy turns out to be the star on Saturday, the least KP will want is to be leaping into the picture. He would have a right to be there.Then there was that strange liaison with St Lucia Zouks in the CPL. Only Pietersen could imagine that he could somehow flit between England and the Caribbean to play in two T20 tournaments simultaneously. Lured by the money, flattered by the recognition, he imagined himself as a jet-set cricketer. But Zouks were already out of the tournament by the time he got there.If Pietersen pulls it off at Edgbaston, expect protestations of love for Surrey and contented fulfilling of his offer to play in their last two Championship matches. If he fails, his promise may seem more of a chore. It’s still not easy being Kevin Pietersen.

His autobiography merely endorses the public image of the man, instead of giving us the insights we’ve been craving

Suresh Menon14-Nov-2014Cricket autobiographies are not to be judged on literary merit. Judging them by the standard laid down by George Orwell – “an autobiography is to be trusted only if it reveals something disgraceful” – might be too harsh.The best reveal character, place a career in the context of the times, light up aspects the public has no access to, and join the dots to present us with an unexpected picture.Autobiographies of sportsmen are played out in public, on television screens. Sachin Tendulkar is his cricket. As the greatest all-round batsman the game has seen, he has had more words written about him than most. In writing his own story, therefore, he is up against better written and more closely analysed stories already in the public domain.As a public figure, Tendulkar is politically correct, image-conscious, wears his patriotism on his sleeve, is the ideal Indian hero – not a hair out of place, not a word out of turn, espousing family values at all times; in private he is far more interesting, mischievous, full of beans, a prankster and a mimic. And he is deliciously incorrect politically. merely endorses the public image. You thought Tendulkar was a patriot; he thought so too. You thought Tendulkar was an important batsman, focused on scoring centuries; he thought so too. You thought Tendulkar was a loyal friend; he thought so too.The urge to confirm the public image is far stronger than the urge to tell the story of Indian cricket when he was its leading player. There is very little of the turbulence of his times – match-fixing, chucking, player depression, sledging – issues on which he maintained a studied silence when active, whetting our appetite to know his thoughts now.What we get here is a recitation of facts and figures, of matches played and series won and lost, all from the perspective of Tendulkar’s own performances. It is a bit like Richard Attenborough’s , where the supporting cast (Nehru, Patel, Jinnah) play bit roles.Sachin Tendulkar found match-fixing at the turn of the century “distasteful, disgusting and repulsive”. Over a decade later, when the spot-fixing scandal in the IPL broke, he was “disappointed, shocked and angry at the goings-on”.How did the Indian team deal with having its captain hauled up for match-fixing and other players banned? What were the conversations among Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble, Ganguly, Prasad, Srinath, Laxman – men of integrity, who ensured that Indian cricket would survive its biggest threat? We will have to wait till one of the others writes an insider’s autobiography.And that is the weakness of this book – it is an outsider’s autobiography of a private individual who reveals a bit of his family life but little else. It was said of Len Hutton that behind the mask was another mask. Ditto Tendulkar.Yet even in the most carefully orchestrated work, a writer does reveal himself. For writing is a matter of choices. And in making his choices, Tendulkar’s emphasis on family values, on the team being greater than the individual, on the inspiration of the national flag, on being the wronged man, on reducing matches to his individual contributions, all speak of someone who wants that particular self-portrait. Platitudes, however, cannot pass for insights.In an autobiography, the use of the first person singular is not to be condemned, yet a sentence like “The World Cup trophy was still eluding me” does stick out. Speaking of playing Pakistan at the same 2003 World Cup, he writes, “This is why I played cricket, to be out in the middle for my team, on the world’s biggest cricketing stage, against India’s arch rival.” Really?There is, too, the overdone humility: “…I managed to score a double hundred.” And the startling prayer during the 2011 World Cup final, where “I wasn’t asking God to help us win. All I wanted was that God should do whatever was best for us, for Indian cricket, and for the Indian cricket team.” This was god speaking to god.To what extent was Tendulkar motivated by vanity? After all, it is self-awareness that makes for great players. You can’t move a nation without being aware of your power to do so.There are occasional nuggets in the book. Tendulkar’s various injuries and his ability to retain his passion through the pain and self-doubt are touching. This is a man who cries when he is disappointed, sometimes locking himself up for hours. Sachin the man, as opposed to Tendulkar the legend, peeps out from behind the mask here. As it does when he speaks of his children, wife and parents. Sachin isn’t afraid to come across as an ordinary man, with the ordinary concerns of a son, husband and father.There are some interesting takes on batting. On focusing by following the ball everywhere, for example. Tendulkar gets almost philosophical when he says, “I’ve batted best when my mind has been at the bowler’s end of the pitch… in fact, for both bowlers and batsmen, cricket is played best when your mind is at the opposite end… problems occur when your mind is stuck at your own end.”The autobiography as a means to settle scores – Kevin Pietersen’s being a recent example – is well understood. Tendulkar’s feud with Greg Chappell, his disappointment with Dravid for declaring the innings when he was batting on 194, his anger against Ian Chappell for criticising him, are well delineated.It might have been a good idea to write to get it out of the system and then settle down to writing the real story. The one that provides perspective rather than what comes across as a trainee journalist’s essay on “my favourite cricketer”.From a great player, an icon, a Bharat Ratna, this book is a disappointment. Reticence is not a quality to bring to the writing of life stories.Playing it My Way: My Autobiography
By Sachin Tendulkar
Hodder & Stoughton
Hardback, 486pp, Rs 899

Stats highlights from the third ODI between West Indies and South Africa in East London

Bishen Jeswant22-Jan-20159 Number of wickets by which South Africa won this ODI, their biggest margin of victory against West Indies when chasing. South Africa have won five ODIs by a margin of eight wickets against West Indies.152 Balls remaining in South Africa’s innings when they achieved victory, in the 25th over of their chase, the most for them against West Indies and the third-most against a top-eight side. South Africa had never previously beaten West Indies with more than 50 balls to spare.151 Wickets taken by Dale Steyn in ODIs, making him the seventh South African bowler to reach the 150-wicket mark. His fast-bowling partner Morkel also has exactly 151 wickets. Morkel reached this mark in the previous ODI of this series, his 89th match. Steyn needed 96 matches.122 The score for which West Indies were bowled out, their second-lowest against South Africa. The only time they were bowled out for fewer was in 2004, when they folded for 54 in Cape Town.4-28 Imran Tahir’s figures in this game, his best in ODIs. It was also the sixth-best bowling performance by a South African spinner in ODIs.124 Runs scored by South Africa to win this ODI, the fourth-lowest in an ODI innings including individual fifties by two batsmen. Hashim Amla (61) and Faf du Plessis (51) made fifties in this game. The lowest such score is 113, also by South Africa, when AB de Villiers (50) and Graeme Smith (56) made half-centuries in an easy win against Pakistan in 2007.7 Number of bowlers used by West Indies to bowl 24.4 overs, the fewest in an uninterrupted ODI between two top-eight teams. The only other instance where seven or more bowlers bowled fewer overs in any ODI was when Netherlands used seven bowlers to send down 20.3 overs against Ireland in 2010.

After Sri Lanka became the sixth side to chase down 300-plus in World Cups, ESPNcricinfo looks back at the other five occasions and discovers Ireland well to the fore

David Hopps01-Mar-2015Ireland 329 for 7 v England, Bangalore, 2011
Kevin O’Brien summoned what was then the fastest hundred in World Cup history as Ireland secured their greatest victory with a monumental three-wicket triumph against England in Bangalore. O’Brien swung to leg mightily and often to register a magnificent 113 off 63 deliveries and, although he was run out in the penultimate over, Ireland got home with five balls to spare.
Sri Lanka 313 for 7 v Zimbabwe, New Plymouth, 1992
Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka took advantage of the bare pitch and short boundaries at Pukekura Park as both sides reached 300 for the first time in a limited-overs international. Andy Flower scored an unbeaten 115 on his full international debut as Zimbabwe anticipated a second-ever World Cup win, but Sri Lanka became the first team to chase down 300-plus, guided there by old fox Arjuna Ranatunga.
Ireland 307 for 4 v Netherlands,
Kolkata, 2011

Ireland own three of the World Cup’s six 300-plus run chases, two of them coming in their glorious 2011 campaign. Ryan ten Doeschate propped up Netherlands with his second hundred in the tournament before their innings ended bizarrely with four run outs in four balls. Ireland responded with Paul Stirling’s 72-ball 101, but it was their more disciplined bowling and superior fielding which also held sway as they won with more than two overs in hand.
Ireland 307 for 6 v West Indies, Nelson, 2015
Ireland issued a two-finger salute towards the ICC’s plans to reduce the World Cup to 10 teams as West Indies sleepwalked obligingly to defeat. Darren Sammy and Lendl Simmons rescued West Indies from 87 for 5, but their bowling was as flat as their top order as the adventurous Stirling, smooth Ed Joyce and nerveless Niall O’Brien coasted to the target of 305 efficiently with the loss of late wickets only causing brief uncertainty.
England 301 for 9 v West Indies, Bridgetown, 2007
A capacity crowd poured into Kensington Oval for Brian Lara’s farewell to international cricket. If Lara disappointed, they were treated to one of the best matches of the World Cup as England completed a thrilling one-wicket win with one ball to spare. Kevin Pietersen’s second World Cup century carried England to within touching distance and Paul Nixon, dubbed the Beaver for his busy eccentricity, edged England within touching distance.

Plays of the Day from the first semi-final, between New Zealand and South Africa in Auckland

Firdose Moonda and Andrew Fidel Fernando24-Mar-2015The sixWith straight boundaries just 40 metres long, it was not supposed to take half an innings for a ball to find its way over them but that’s how long it took. When New Zealand introduced their fifth bowler, Grant Elliott, Rilee Rossouw saw the opportunity to cash in and lofted a length ball straight back over the bowler’s head and over the sightscreen to breach the Eden Park boundaries. They are supposed to be breached.Two toes, three fingers‘Two toes, amazing feat,’ read the headline of the after Martin Guptill’s double-hundred in the quarter-final. They can add amazing hands to that now. Guptill was stationed at backward point when Rossouw tried to punch Corey Anderson away but ended up catching the ball with the shoulder of his bat instead. The ball threatened to fly over Guptill but he leapt off his feet, stuck out his right hand and reached high to cling on with jus a few fingers and give New Zealand the breakthrough they so desperately needed.The dropAB de Villiers does not give opposition teams too many chances to dismiss him but when he sunk his bat into a Anderson delivery, he did. De Villiers could not resist the width and smacked the ball to short cover. Kane Williamson had to reach to his left and got to the ball, only for it to burst through his hands. De Villiers was on 38 at the time and had faced 28 balls. Three deliveries later he crossed fifty. Six balls later he presented another chance off a top edge, which three fielders converged on and none called for. New Zealand never did get rid of de Villiers in this game, but Williamson will know he was the man who could have.The disrespect The captains promised there would be no sledging, pushing or shoving as this game would be played in the right spirit with all the talking done in action and neither was lying. De Villiers had done his bit and then Brendon McCullum did his, with just a hint of audacity. At the start of the fourth over of New Zealand’s innings, he charged Dale Steyn, not just any bowler, Dale Steyn and hit him over his head, over the sighscreen for six. Against another batsmen, Steyn may have had a few things to say. To McCullum, he only smiled.The rogue bootIt’s gloves that are usually said to come off when one combatant prepares to lay into the other, but as McCullum was about to trample all over South Africa in the mandatory Powerplay, maybe it was fitting that it was footwear he lost. He took a step forward after defending a short ball but when he slipped as he turned back to the crease, found that his boot had abandoned him. On his hands and knees, McCullum turned back and found it lying a metre-and-a-half down the track, in the developing rough.

The conditions in Chennai for the game against Rajasthan Royals were about as far removed from New Zealand as it could get. Yet Brendon McCullum found a way to succeed

Arun Venugopal in Chennai11-May-20152:40

O’Brien: McCullum’s runs pivotal to winning the game

The 16th over of Chennai Super Kings’ innings is nearing its completion. Brendon McCullum is on his haunches, trying to mine every remaining ounce of energy. Chennai’s heat and humidity have sucked out much of it. The stadium announcer urges the crowd to chant, ‘We want sixer,’ and they comply. McCullum, too, looks like he could do with one. He has just run a brace of twos, and appears too drained to even contemplate another quick single. All he manages off the last ball is a hit down the ground for one.McCullum grits it out for another over and a bit. He watches Faf du Plessis, his partner in a 101-run alliance off 76 balls, depart after being run out. McCullum then carts Shane Watson over long-on for a six in the same over. He is out in the next over, top-edging a pull. Out after playing an un-McCullum-like innings – 81 off 61 balls. Seven fours and four sixes. Still, un-McCullum-like.This was the longest he had batted since his unbeaten 56-ball hundred against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Not that the brevity of his knocks has impacted his numbers: with 419 runs at 38.09, he is far and ahead Super Kings’ highest run-scorer this year, besides being fourth on the overall list. His strike-rate, of 165.61, is second only to that of AB de Villiers among the top four.McCullum’s method has been that of a free-spirited bounty-hunter, galloping away – literally and figuratively -in the Powerplay with the intention of gunning down as many scoring opportunities as possible. He has been Super Kings’ force-multiplier at the top, but never quite the restorer or consolidator that batted deep.Sunday’s match against Rajasthan Royals, his and Super Kings’ last home outing for IPL 2015, had him playing a game he was “a little bit unfamiliar with.” Given the conditions, he rated the 81 higher than his century against Sunrisers. “Coming from New Zealand you don’t play a lot on a wicket that is slow and offers spin,” McCullum told iplt20.com. “So, given that and the situation of the game and tournament on the whole, this is more satisfying.”Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming acknowledged that it was an “absolute grind.” “The pleasing aspect for us was we needed an innings of substance from someone in the top four, and the fact that McCullum got through to 81 and had a 101-run partnership with du Plessis was where the game was set up for us.”McCullum weathered a disciplined spell from Royals, as Dwayne Smith and Suresh Raina fell to leave Super Kings 15 for 2. What McCullum did next was counter-intuitive: rather than go on an indiscriminate leather-hunt, he picked his targets, like Rajat Bhatia and Pravin Tambe, to ensure Super Kings stayed the course. Once they had reached a position of moderate comfort, McCullum brought into play the ramps and the flat-batted strikes even as du Plessis struggled to hike up his scoring-rate.And he had quite a bit of running to do which explains why he ran out of gas at the end. MS Dhoni put McCullum’s knock in context at the presentation. “He comes from New Zealand and it was difficult for him. There is a joke going around in the dressing room: If Brendon Mccullum bats for 6-7 overs, he will be cooked.”Cooked he certainly was, but that didn’t stop him from being his usual gum-chewing, vibrant self on the field later. McCullum’s contribution to Super Kings’ success this year has gone beyond his batting. Along with Raina, du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja, McCullum has formed an impregnable fielding core.His has been a tigerish presence at point and cover while swooping down on the ball or making those exaggerated tumbles after hurling himself on ferocious hits. So desperate was he to effect a run-out in one of the matches that he bolted towards the ball, and with no time to pick up and throw, knived it with his palm onto the stumps. That he actually dropped a sitter offered by Chris Morris on Sunday was as rare as snow in Chennai.McCullum seemed to embody the ‘greatness is contagious’ theme of the World Cup, and he has sustained it in the IPL. With the kind of influence he has had, Super Kings will find it difficult when McCullum leaves for New Zealand’s Test series in England. The Super Kings management confirmed he will available for their next two games before leaving on May 17.Michael Hussey, the man who has spent many an evening carrying drinks and enthusiastically cheering the players on, will be his replacement. Hussey was also on hand to help McCullum stretch and rehydrate while fielding. Super Kings and their fans, while missing McCullum, can take heart in the quality of his replacement.