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India’s selectors can congratulate themselves on new additions to the bowling attack succeeding but conceding a 95-run lead to modest opposition should sting the team

Sharda Ugra at the Feroz Shah Kotla09-Nov-2011The Feroz Shah Kotla Test ended with a short burst of mirth and entertainment: Yuvraj Singh was bowled with one left to win, the West Indies fielders came in to stop the single, MS Dhoni inside-edged his first ball, Darren Sammy pantomimed the start of his run-up to the hoots of the crowd. VVS Laxman then whipped one to square leg and put an end to all the tomfoolery. After eight innings of misery in England, victory was to be shown full respect. In the last 15 months, Laxman has been involved in three 200-plus chases for India and was not about to mess with that track record.The 0-4 loss in England must not be forgotten but the win at the Kotla comes accompanied by a sigh of relief. Control needed to be seized quickly in the three-Test series against West Indies so that the selectors can tinker and tailor before Australia. While Kotla, Eden Gardens and the Wankhede are as far removed from Australia as Oxford is from Ouagadougou, this is an ideal time for Indian try-outs against opposition that can stir but not quite shake.In less than 24 hours, the selectors will meet to pick the team for the next two Tests and can indulge in some self-congratulations at how their choices for Delhi worked out. The most significant changes were made – as the bowlers will always grumble about – in the attack.In their first Test after the England tour, India’s bowling attack at the Kotla, barring Ishant Sharma, was completely remodelled from the line-up at the Oval. Making his return to the Indian team after a year out, Pragyan Ojha became the lead spinner and two new men were included. One of them, R Ashwin, ended up with nine wickets on debut, the Man-of-the-Match award and the biggest smile to take to his wedding day on the eve of the Kolkata Test.The other, Umesh Yadav, held up manfully on a low, slow wicket. In his first showing, he bowled at full pace, hurrying the batsmen in short spells, before fading away slightly in his final spell. In the second innings, he came on after the spinners, and broke through with key wickets. Kirk Edwards’ off stump went first as the batsman shouldered arms and opened the door for the West Indies’ middle order to be taken apart by Ashwin.West Indies are not the most formidable opposition for a debutant, and to their credit both Yadav and Ashwin did not treat their lesser batsmen like they were. It is their wagon wheels against Shivnarine Chanderpaul, though, that should give them clues about what life may be like against more-accomplished batsmen.Captain MS Dhoni was pleased overall. “You weren’t 100% sure what you would get from players who have not played this format like Ashwin and Umesh Yadav. With Ishant and Ojha, we knew they’d perform at this level.” Ojha’s first-innings performance has gone somewhat unnoticed due to Chanderpaul’s century and India’s first-innings collapse. But on a wicket that offered little help on the first day, he was able to extract some turn, get a bit of drift and keep asking questions of the batsmen. “Ojha has been in and out of the XI. It was good to see him bowl well in the first innings when the pitch was flat and it was not easy to bowl.”Umesh did well and there was an improvement in the way he bowled in the second innings. Of course he bowls a fraction short but that will get better as he plays more and more Test matches. In the second innings, Ashwin did well. He did not get a lot out of the wicket but it was his variations that helped him. He was flighting the ball nicely and then he has the carrom ball and the topspinner.”Asked whether Ashwin’s performance would make it difficult for Harbhajan Singh to return to the team for the Australia tour, Dhoni, who has backed Harbhajan against selectorial opposition, was deadpan. “Let us see because Ashwin has played one game, Ojha has done well. Let us see how it goes.”While describing the Test, Dhoni used his favourite adjective, a word he uses to tackle questions that are best left unanswered: “difficult.” The Test, he said, “was not easy; there was nothing much for the bowlers in the pitch and there was nothing for the batsmen. The batsmen had to play a lot of deliveries to score their runs. The scorecard will say the match got over in four days but it was a difficult game.”India’s batting gains from this Test will revolve around the sight of Virender Sehwag lashing the ball to all parts (his sudden dismissals will continue to be discussed even after he retires) and the runs accumulated by the experienced middle-order triad across both innings. There was, however, the disconcerting awareness that Dhoni at No.7 is followed by a tail so long, snow leopards would envy it.Regardless of the final result, conceding a 95-run lead to West Indies at home should sting. “If we had got the first-innings lead I would have thought it was a perfect way to start the series,” Dhoni said. “We lacked a few things when we batted first but there’s nothing we can pinpoint about the performance. There was not much turn yet more than 20 wickets fell before the start of the third day, so the batsmen from both sides will feel they could have played better.”A darn sight better is what you’d expect from India.

Stats highlights from the third day of the Adelaide Test between Australia and India

S Rajesh and HR Gopalakrishna26-Jan-2008

De Kock and Jennings shared a common cricket path till their under-19 days, after which the latter left South Africa for England

Firdose Moonda29-Jun-2017Two schoolboys spent their summers preparing to become professional sportsmen and one took the road less travelled. Their paths will cross again over the next three days in Worcester, 13,500 kilometres from their original path in Johannesburg, and though theirs is the sort of story that is not new to the globalised world, its contrasts hold charms.Twenty-five-year-old Keaton Jennings and 24-year-old Quinton de Kock are not just any pair of players, they are contemporaries of the closest kind. They attended the same school, King Edward VII, in the same year and played in the same teams, both batting left-handed.While de Kock was the rebel who relied on sheer talent, Jennings was drilled to work meticulously on his game from the age of five under the guidance of his father and coach, Ray. As irony would have it, it was the carefree character who fared better early on.”I remember our head of cricket at the time gave Quinton a free weekend – so he could leave hostel on a Friday night – if he got a hundred the weekend before,” Jennings told ESPNcricinfo at the unofficial Test between the Lions and South Africa A in Canterbury last week. “And there weren’t too many weekends he didn’t get hundreds.”Any hint of envy Jennings might have had quickly evolved into admiration. “Quinton was a sensational player ever since I was 13. He was very driven, very clinical in the way he went about trying to achieve success in cricket. He hit the ball cleaner than most other guys.”It takes all sorts to make a solid batting line-up: the fearlessness of de Kock and the fastidiousness of Jennings. They progressed to the same provincial side and the national Under-19 team together.The time Jennings spent fine-tuning his technique and his temperament had matured him. He emerged as a leader and was made captain of the side, while de Kock remained an explosive enigma. The pair took turns sharing the spotlight.Less than a year apart, both Quinton de Kock (left) and Keaton Jennings are left-hand batsmen who started their careers in the same school•Getty ImagesIn early 2011, Jennings led the U-19 team to a 5-0 win over Zimbabwe and topped the batting charts. Later that year in England, de Kock was the leading run scorer. It seemed Jennings and de Kock would be in a race for franchise and, eventually, international honours, but Jennings had already been directed elsewhere.Jennings senior, who was the coach of that U-19 side, encouraged Keaton to make use of the British passport he had courtesy his English mother and seek a career in the UK, because he thought his son would struggle against the “serious talent” that was coming through the South African system at the time – talent he had had a first-hand look at; talent like de Kock.Perhaps Jennings senior realised de Kock would be the biggest obstacle in his son’s way. As top-order batsmen, they could ultimately compete for a similar spot, and though de Kock was, by his own admission, not a big believer in hard work in the early years, Jennings must have known that could change. He pushed his son to apply the meticulousness he had learnt in South Africa to a county career, even as he grappled with the frustration of trying to tame de Kock at home.”My dad is a passionate guy and he cares. If he is sitting on your back, it’s because he cares about you and he sits on my back like nobody else’s,” Jennings said. “He will try and push you to new heights. It’s when he turns the other way, that’s when you worry.”De Kock was not as receptive to the disciplinarian style of Jennings senior and only began to see the value of extra work after he was picked for the South Africa side. In 2013, de Kock had a first stint at the highest level and a top score of 31 in his first seven ODIs. He knew that was not good enough and he went to his franchise coach, Geoffrey Toyana, to ask for extra hours in the nets. When de Kock returned to the South African side, he scored four hundreds in eight matches, including three consecutive centuries against India.In that time, Jennings had been working his way up from the Durham Academy to the second side and eventually into the county first XI all while studying an accounting degree through the University of South Africa. In 2013, he tasted his first major success when Durham won the County Championship, but he then had to wait three more years before he would put on an international shirt. When he did, de Kock was among the first to congratulate him. “Quinton sent me a lovely message after I got picked for the India series, which was awesome after not hearing from him for a while,” said Jennings, who went on to make a century on Test debut.Keaton Jennings: “My life brought me here and I am really thankful it has. I am happy with the way things have worked out”•Getty ImagesThe two have continued to keep an eye on each other’s careers, though they are not necessarily close. “I wouldn’t say we’re friends, we don’t stay in touch, but I’d say we are friendly,” Jennings said. “If we walk past each other, we catch up over a beer or chat about school times. When you’re in different countries, it’s hard to stay in touch with guys you went to school with.”Harder still, perhaps, because of their journeys continue to differ. De Kock is a regular on the international stage and a sought after T20 player in leagues around the world. Jennings has only played two Tests and, at the time of this interview, knew he was not necessarily a shoo-in for the South Africa series. The Lions squad included two other openers who are also vying for the English Test side: Haseeb Hameed and Mark Stoneman, who outscored Jennings.”In a way, its healthy competition,” Jennings said. “When you’ve got a lot of players scoring good runs, vying for limited opportunity at a Test level, that’s really healthy. You put us all in the same side and we’ve all got to score runs in order to be picked and that’s the main currency we deal in. It’s a cutthroat environment and you need to score runs to be able to stay there. Simple as.”De Kock lives by the same mantra.”See ball, hit ball,” is the philosophy he underlined at the launch of the CSA’s Global T20 last week. Even in the longest format, he has retained his aggression and Jennings knows how destructive he can be. “To see Quinton perform the way he is no surprise. To see the way he has handled international cricket is awesome.”Now Jennings wants to be able to show that he can handle it his own way, especially after having taken the scenic route. “When you’re 13, that’s the way you look at it [that you will play together as adults], but as you go up through the school levels, it doesn’t. My life brought me here and I am really thankful it has,” Jennings said. “I am happy with the way things have worked out and it would be awesome if I can play against him in a Test in a couple of weeks.”

Amid a spluttering start to England’s Test summer, Alex Hales played with the sort of discipline that suggests he has the game to succeed at this level

George Dobell at Headingley19-May-2016Like a sprinter running a marathon or a sports car delivering bricks, Alex Hales took on an unfamiliar role for England on the first day of the Investec Test at Headingley.Hales came into this side with a reputation as a dasher. He was, at least up to a point, meant to be England’s answer to David Warner: an aggressive opening batsman who took the attack to the opposition and set the tone for the way in which “new England” see themselves as a team.But here, as his colleagues perished to overly aggressive shots – pushing at balls a fraction too short or wide for the stroke on a typical May pitch that offered enough movement to keep the bowlers interested – Hales left with a discipline that will have surprised those who witnessed him batting in South Africa.It was exactly what England required, too. While fashion dictates that modern cricket has to be played at full speed, fashion also gave us mullets and double corduroy. While Test cricket survives, there will be a place for the leave, the block and the patient accumulation of runs. And in conditions such as this, with the ball swinging and the pitch offering a little seam movement, trying to hurry is akin to driving as quickly as possible to get through fog.The surprise was more that Hales supplied the foundation that England required. While his captain, the notoriously obdurate Alastair Cook, was drawn into a drive well away from his body, Hales showed that the old-fashioned attributes by which Test openers used to be judged – crease occupation, shot selection and patience – still have value in the modern game.There were still some classy strokes. When the bowlers strayed on to his pads, he whipped through midwicket and when the ball was over-pitched he drove elegantly. Rangana Herath was cut nicely, too. But we knew Hales could play the attacking strokes; it was the defensive ones of which we had to see evidence.Under the easy-going veneer, there is a steel to Hales. It took confidence to sit out the first few weeks of this county season; confidence to sit out the IPL; confidence to ignore those he knew would want him to push on the scoring rate here.While the likes of Sam Robson were plundering early season runs, Hales had the wisdom to understand that what he required most, after an emotionally draining winter in which he featured in the England team in all three formats, was a mental break. And while few would have blamed him had he capitalised on his white-ball reputation – he has been rated No. 1 in the world in T20 cricket – and pursued a future as a T20 specialist, he has instead demonstrated his ambition by taking the higher-risk option and prioritised a Test career.Most of all, he has learned that you have to earn the right to score quickly in Test cricket. You have to see off the new ball, wear down the bowlers and gain experience. Those urging him to push on in such circumstances are doing him no favours.None of this should come as a surprise. Marcus Trescothick, arguably England’s last quick-scoring, successful Test opener, took 25 deliveries to get off the mark on Test debut and 122 balls to reach his half-century. His strike-rate in Test cricket was only 46.34 for the first two years of his Test career, which is very similar to Cook’s overall (46.30). From 2002 until the end of his career, it was 57.45.But Trescothick understood, as Hales appears to now, that he had to give himself a chance to score quickly in Test cricket.

Under Peter Moores at Nottinghamshire, Hales has noticeably tightened up his game and now appears to have the confidence in his defence to endure long scoreless spells

The most pleasing aspect of this innings from Hales was that it suggested he had learned from his previous experience. His performance in South Africa was characterised by fragility outside off stump. Unsure which balls to play and which to leave, which balls to attack and which to defend, his uncertainty was exploited to the tune of five catches in the cordon during the series.Recognising his weakness, he returned to the nets at Nottinghamshire. Under the watchful eye of Peter Moores, a consultant coach at the club, he has noticeably tightened up his game and now appears to have the confidence in his defence to know he can endure relatively long scoreless spells. He took 115 balls to make 34 for Nottinghamshire against Yorkshire at the start of the month – a mature innings in demanding circumstances – and, after only one scoring shot in his first 26 balls here, has already produced, in terms of balls received, his longest Test innings. He will resume 29 short of a maiden Test century.”I’ve tweaked a couple of things just outside off stump,” Hales said. “In South Africa I was caught between defence and attack a couple of times and that’s something I’ve been working upon. It’s still a work in progress and I think that’s going to be key to whether I’m successful as a Test player.”I didn’t feel out of my depth in South Africa. Even when I wasn’t scoring runs, at no point did I feel out of my depth. It was more about me making mistakes than bowlers getting me out and, at the start of my career, I think I would prefer that. I know I’m still a work in progress.”I took an extra couple of weeks to recharge myself. And that’s done me the world of good. When I came back to practice it was a lot more intense. I knew what I wanted to improve and I feel like I’ve come a long way in the last six months. There was no inkling from the selectors whether they would stick with me.”It was a challenging pitch and a challenging situation today. It was tricky. There was swing all day and some nibble and some bounce. I had to rein myself in a bit.”This does not mean England’s search for a partner for Cook is over. On another day, the thick-edged drive that bypassed third slip and gully when he had 4 would have gone to hand; on another day, one of his slightly uppish cuts could have gone to a fielder. It is telling that he used the phrase “work in progress” about his game twice and he will be aware that both Robson and Adam Lyth hit Test centuries at Leeds only to be dropped within a few months. But this was an encouraging step forward.As an aside, it is amusing to consider how such an innings from Nick Compton might have been received. Would he have been hailed for his determination or criticised for his limitations? While Hales was lauded for playing himself in and giving himself a chance to build an innings, would Compton have been criticised for putting too much pressure on his partners? He gave his detractors too much ammunition here with an edge to a regulation delivery in the channel outside off stump, but it does not always seem he is judged by the same standards as his colleagues.The difference, perhaps, is that when Hales bats in such a manner, he is playing within himself, while Compton probably does not have that extra gear. But for an England side that again found themselves five wickets down uncomfortably early – they lost 3 for 2 at one stage – it is not the speed of scoring that is the issue so much as the speed of wickets falling.But what a shame that only 9,436 people should be on the ground to witness an absorbing day’s play. Everyone understands the importance of satisfying the broadcasters and the level of their investment to the English game. But there remains little evidence that there is an appetite – or a climate – to watch Test cricket in England in May outside London. While recent initiatives announced by Andrew Strauss may help generate a little more interest in international cricket, the more pressing issue is gaining greater exposure for the sport as a live spectacle either online or on TV. Ticket sales for Durham are significantly worse than those for Headingley.

Four years ago, he took India to the title. Today, he was scratching around at barely a run a ball, almost as if he had given up himself

Jarrod Kimber26-Mar-2015MS Dhoni nurdled. Not ones or twos but a cacophony of nurdles. Flays were nowhere to be seen. There was little flashing, let alone flashing hard. Tracer bullets were left in the dressing room. There were no helicopters.Dhoni was calm, Dhoni knows only calm. Panic was for mortals, not Indian World Cup-winning captains. The nurdles, the nudges, the pokes, the prods. They were all building towards something big. Five overs of solid accumulation. No need for panic. Plenty of time left, plenty of Dhoni left.There was one big swing coming, maybe this was it. Maybe it would start here, with an edge to third man and a quick-run two. No.Two overs later, there was a smash down the ground. And then a flash, one that was quite hard. Two boundaries in the over. Here it was.Then the batting Powerplay. Dhoni and Rahane. Both set. Both ready. Dhoni was giving himself room. Those brutish arms were ready. When he could reach the ball, he guided it to the fence. This would be it. Then eighth ball of the Powerplay, Rahane was out. Dhoni questioned the umpire about the decision while readjusting his gloves.Dhoni faced a lot of balls after this. There were no big shots, there were dot balls, singles, and one two. The two was a drop. Dropping Dhoni in an ODI chase is like inviting India to defeat you. There is an asylum filled with former cricketers who have never gotten over this moment in their life. But when Clarke dropped Dhoni, he looked very serene. There was frustration, but not that much frustration. There were jokes about him dropping the World Cup, but few really believed it.Soon after, Dhoni was using soft hands to guide one into the off side. He looked unsure if there was a run there. Jadeja told him there was.Earlier in the match, Jadeja hit Finch on the pads. Jadeja thought it was plumb. The umpire thought different. Jadeja pleaded with his captain to review. Dhoni gestured that the ball hit outside the off stump. It was a typical Dhoni gesture – laid-back, calm, but very clear. Jadeja ignored it. He pleaded more. He had to have this review. And Dhoni, against his own judgement, reviewed it. It was hitting outside the line.In the single, it was again Jadeja, the impetuous, the passionate, and the mistaken. Dhoni had let Jadeja make two big decisions in the match. The referral, as annoying as it was, meant very little. The call for the single meant everything .Out of gas: there was no helicopter to glory, no helicopter to safety, no helicopter at all•Getty ImagesDhoni’s next two deliveries went for six. Finally, with seemingly all hope gone from his support cast, he had been stung into action. It was 121 from 48 before his sixes. But that was cricket maths; Dhoni does Dhoni maths. The first six was a waddle and a whack over cover. The second was a dance and punch over mid-off.He was here. The saviour. The hero. The man generations of Indians will tell their grandkids about. The man who promised and delivered victory. The man who thanked Sachin Tendulkar personally. The Dhoni.But no, it wasn’t. For the next eight balls there were only five runs. Dhoni was struck on the body. He picked out fielders. And even the believers, even those who had grown up only in the era of believing in Dhoni, couldn’t believe anymore. It seemed, that even Dhoni didn’t believe. He wasn’t holding himself back. He wasn’t calculating when to attack. He was defeated. Out on his feet, not the Dhoni, but just an ageing wicketkeeping batsman from Jharkhand.Four years earlier, in the final, this same man had come in even earlier in the innings. He scored 91 from 78 balls. He helicoptered to victory. He looked invincible, untouchable, supreme, like he had been placed on the earth for only this purpose.Now he was scratching around at barely a run a ball. He couldn’t middle his pull shots. Even his biggest hits weren’t reaching the fielders. He had no faith in his lower order. Seemingly little faith in himself.Dhoni then clipped a Starc ball into the leg side. It went straight to Maxwell’s right hand. Maxwell flung it at the stumps. Dhoni slowed down. There was no dive, no real run, not even a reach with his bat. He didn’t make his ground.It was like, mid-single he decided to retire. It was like mid-single, he decided there was no point just putting his bat over the line.Dhoni had run out of nurdles. He flashed hard, in vain, rarely, and had only two tracer bullets left. There was no helicopter to glory. No helicopter to safety. No helicopters at all.

It wasn’t a big crowd at the PCA Stadium, but the lucky ones who turned up were treated to beats and a last-ball finish

Anmol Singh17-Apr-2013Choice of game
This game was on top of my must-watch list right from the time the IPL schedule was released. Firstly, it was an early-season game, so both teams were sure to still be in contention. Additionally, Kolkata were the defending champions, and the prospect of my team – Kings XI Punjab – beating them early in the season was too good to resist.Team supported
Kings XI Punjab all the way. Nothing is better than seeing your home team win, that too against top opposition. Punjab came into the game on the back of two successive losses, and another one could have derailed their campaign. This made their victory even more special.Key performer
After having a good opening IPL season which subsequently led to an India cap, Manpreet Gony lost form and was eventually lost in the crowd. He didn’t get too many chances for his new franchise, Punjab, in the lead-up to this game. When it came, it was upto him to seize the opportunity and he did it in style. He resurrected another faltering batting display from Punjab to set up a very competitive total. Punjab’s indifferent batting had silenced the crowd, but he changed that with some decisive hitting. Later, he came back to bowl an outstanding spell which turned the game Punjab’s way. It was fitting that the crowd chanted his name as he bowled the final two overs of his spell.One thing I’d have changed about the match
The game had everything I could have asked for. The weather was excellent, and the match was close. The one thing that wasn’t up to the mark was the crowd – there were a lot of empty seats across all the stands. Even the people who had turned up were quite subdued – there wasn’t a single attempt to get a Mexican wave going.Accessories
A large Kings XI flag, a zoozoo hat, and a couple of ‘6’ and ‘4’ charts was all we carried. We also had a vuvuzela and a blow horn, but they were confiscated by the police at the entrance.Wow moment
Sunil Narine’s hat-trick was easily the big moment of the day. Everybody was on their feet as the hat-trick ball was bowled and it turned out to be an absolute ripper. The crowd later clapped for his achievement even though he was from the away team, which was a nice gesture.Close encounter
Yusuf Pathan and Manpreet Gony were fielding close to our stand. There were shouts from some kids as Yusuf came near us, but he denied them the joy of an acknowledgement.Most memorable shot
There weren’t many sixes in the game but the few that were hit were huge. The last six hit by Kolkata’s Rajat Bhatia was special because it landed just two rows ahead of where we were sitting.Crowd meter
I have been a regular visitor to the PCA Stadium for the last couple of years, and this was the most sparse crowd I’ve seen here. There weren’t long lines for entry to the stadium and the passage was hassle-free, and the atmosphere inside wasn’t up to the mark. Given the team’s poor run, perhaps IPL fever hasn’t yet caught on in the city. The fact that it was a day game on a week day didn’t help matters. As things transpired, though, this was probably the best game I’ve been to. The atmosphere leading up to the final ball was unreal.Entertainment
The one thing I like about the IPL over international cricket is the amount of ‘side entertainment’ you get. The last time I was here, for an India v England match, there weren’t any announcers or music. This time though, the announcer kept the crowd busy with his innovative and catchy lines. The music was also exceptionally good and included some foot-tapping Punjabi numbers which enhanced the overall experience.Twenty20 v ODI
Yesterday, I would have probably said ODI, because it’s a more complete form of the game which adequately puts the abilities of players to test. But after this game I have changed my opinion. Though I have been to quite a few ODIs, I haven’t ever seen a game going this close. T20 is quick, fast, competitive and has great entertainment value. Having said that though, the longer version of the game is far from dead.Star spotting
There were a couple of celebrities watching the game, namely Bollywood stars Preity Zinta, who co-owns Kings XI Punjab, and Juhi Chawla, who has a stake in the KKR team. During the mid-innings break, Preity took a round of the stadium waving to the home crowd which got everyone excited.Overall
On the whole, the game was quite superb. It had all the twists and turns you expect from a T20 game, including the drama of a hat-trick. At one stage it seemed like Punjab weren’t going anywhere, but Gony powered them to a fighting score. Again, Gautam Gambhir and Eoin Morgan seemed to shut out Punjab, but Kolkata’s regular loss of wickets towards the end meant that the Kings picked up an unlikely win.Marks out of 10
I will go with a 9.5 rating for this one. The match experience was perfect, but the fact that the stands weren’t full makes me deduct half a mark.

It may be the internet age, but with Cook at the controls, England reverted to a tempo last seen in the steam-age as they subjected India to a resounding marmalisation

Andrew Miller at Edgbaston12-Aug-2011There is a very 21st century term to describe what happened to India on the third day at Edgbaston. To use the jargon of the internet age, they were “pwned” – statistically, athletically, temperamentally, and comprehensively, as England chose the occasion of their coronation as the world’s No. 1 side to subject their predecessors to one of the most resounding marmalisations in Test batting history.According to urban legend, the verb “to pwn” was spawned by fat-fingered online gamers, who, in their haste to gloat at the demise of their opponents in some virtual-reality shoot-em-up, would regularly slap the ‘p’ key instead of the ‘o’ while typing the word “own”. It’s ironic, therefore, that for the best part of 13 hours, England’s progress was dictated by a player who didn’t produce a single twitchy key-stroke until, with a slice of immortality at his fingertips, he pulled the trigger too soon to a long-hop from Ishant Sharma, and toe-ended a looping chance to deep backward point.It may be the internet age, but with Cook at the controls, England reverted to a tempo last seen in the steam-age. When he’s not rewriting English batting records, Cook the part-time farm-hand can often be found steering a tractor through country lanes in Wiltshire, and next time he’s back there, the squelch of the mud beneath his tyres may well bring to mind the squelch of India’s resolve beneath his every prod and nurdle.Not since Len Hutton powered England to a legendary 903 for 7 in 1938, had the team posted so much as 700 in a single innings. Today Cook’s modus operandi had little in common with the slash-and-burn nature of modern batsmanship, but rather brought to mind the sepia-tinged Englishmen whose Test-bests he ticked off along the way.Geoffrey Boycott’s 246 not out against India in 1967 fell by the wayside before tea, as did Dennis Amiss’s 262 not out at Kingston seven years later – an effort that earned him the nickname “Sacker”, because his knackered and sweaty carcass looked like a “sack of s**t” as he slumped back down in the dressing room. Cook, by stunning contrast, looked as fresh as a choirboy from first ball to last. As he memorably declared during his epic Ashes series, he does not sweat much, and though he admitted to feeling “heavy-legged” at the close of the second day, his disappointment at spurning a triple-ton outweighed any remote feelings of weariness at the end of the third.Alastair Cook got the runs at his own pace, but that was only because India allowed him to do so after collapsing on the first day•AFP”It’s mad, isn’t it, how you can still be disappointed when you score 290-odd?” Cook said. “I suppose only cricket can do that to you. There’s a tinge of disappointment, but if I’m being realistic, I’m absolutely thrilled. It’s taken almost 13 hours of hard work to get the opportunity [to make 300]. When you don’t make it, you’re going to have a little bit of disappointment. But you’ve got to look at it properly, and the fact that I actually scored 294 runs rather than the six I didn’t get.”Up in the press box, opinions were divided. Shane Warne, ever the antagonist, declared on Twitter that the day was “officially the worst” he’d ever witnessed, and granted, a mid-afternoon fiasco involving bad light and a power cut did not help the image of the contest. But those who quibbled about the tempo of England’s performance ignored the fact that India had dug their own grave. In little more than two sessions on the first day, they surrendered first use of what proved, very quickly, to be a totally blameless wicket, and therefore lost any right to dictate the terms of the action.After all, it wasn’t until the mid-afternoon drinks break, with England coasting towards a lead of 350, that the halfway point of the contest was reached. Bat once, bat deep, were the orders, and Cook and his cohorts obliged. “There were no time restraints. We just wanted to get as big a score as we could, and I think 700 is a pretty decent effort,” Cook said. “When you bowl a side out in two sessions, you can bat as long as you want. We knew the wicket wasn’t going to get any better, and we wanted to make the most of that by batting when it was at its best.”After a ding-dong pair of contests at Lord’s and Trent Bridge, in which India clearly had their chances but were denied the right to capitalise, this Edgbaston bout is becoming the sort of mismatch not seen in England-India contests since England themselves were pummelled from pillar to post on their woeful tour of 1992-93. Back then, a single massive innings in each of the three Tests, from Mohammad Azharuddin, Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar, was sufficient to crush a team that arrived with airs of grandeur but departed with prawn curry on their faces.That grandeur was in part set up by the events of the previous series between the two teams, in England in 1990, for which Cook’s day-long pursuit of Graham Gooch’s 333 established clear parallels. As seemed the case throughout that series, India’s attack on this occasion looked popgun at best. After his brief burst of wickets at Lord’s, for instance, Ishant Sharma looked about as threatening as his 1990 namesake Sanjeev, whose medium pacers were never again seen after Gooch had had his say.Amit Mishra, meanwhile, may one day enjoy a day to rival that of Narendra Hirwani, who claimed 16 West Indian wickets on debut in 1988 but was plundered at nearly four an over in that same Gooch-dominated contest. The point is, this England team has the ability – like the Australians of recent vintage – to make sides look a lot worse than they probably are. The acid test for their credentials won’t arrive until they are tested by a chastened opposition in the return series in two winters’ time, but on a day when Virender Sehwag’s contribution to the contest read like a sick joke, Cook and England’s old-school virtues looked timeless in every respect.A measure of their gargantuan appetite is England’s current tally of double-centuries – six in the past 14 months alone, compared to eight in the previous 21 years, and 50 all told in their entire Test history. The influence of Gooch is tangible in that respect, as Cook reiterated, after his pursuit of a “grand-daddy” hundred had fallen six runs short.”He was ‘quite’ happy,” Cook said. “He’s quite proud, but I’m sure he’ll be throwing [balls] at me in the morning – put an innings to bed, and move on. That’s why you do the fitness work, to allow you to do it, and then the mental concentration is something you pick up over time. With Gooch on board, we never have enough. That ethos has really rubbed off on everyone, and we’ve all bought into it.” Pwned indeed. Even in this age of instant gratification, there’s a place for a bit of old-fashioned grind.

Wretched limited-overs tournaments, upset wins, Gilly’s hundred, Sangakkara’s run, and more

02-Jan-2008

Australia v Zimbabwe: ‘blow by blow, run by run, a miracle’ © Getty Images
Sambit BalBest: Zimbabwe beating Australia
It is not a coincidence that some of the warmest sporting memories happen to involve heroic feats by underdogs. Victories for Ireland and Bangladesh were the only redeeming feature of the 2007 World Cup, but the best of them was without doubt Zimbabwe’s stunning upset of Australia in the World Twenty20 in South Africa. The shortest format of the game is said to bring the teams closer. Still, the gap between Australia and Zimbabwe was so wide that it was virtually insurmountable. But blow by blow, run by run, a miracle unfolded. A few of the Australians fell to arrogant strokes, but the Zimbabwe bowlers held their line and the batsmen their nerve – none more spiritedly than Brendan Taylor, who marshalled the chase and managed to knock off the 12 runs needed off the last over.Worst : The end of the World Cup final
The whole World Cup will qualify – it seemed to carry on forever, soullessly and joylessly – but zeroing in on one moment isn’t that difficult. Australia and Sri Lanka ended up playing out a farce in the dying moments of the final because four ICC officials – three umpires and a match referee – couldn’t correctly interpret a rudimentary law. Thirty-three overs had been bowled in Sri Lanka’s run-chase when fading light forced the players indoors, and that should have been that: 20 overs had been completed, the minimum required for a result to count, and Australia were ahead on run-rate. But after the officials insisted that a further three overs had to be played the next day, and the players emerged to play out a charade in near-darkness. Australia’s spinners lobbed the ball down and the Sri Lankans patted it back. It was a fitting end to a dire tournament.Kanishkaa BalachandranBest: New Zealand winning the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy
Battered after being eliminated in the CB Series in Australia, New Zealand had an opportunity to redeem themselves before the World Cup with a three-match formality at home against a depleted Australian side. The world could scarcely believe what followed, as Shane Bond, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Craig McMillan and Brendon McCullum combined to script an incredible 3-0 whitewash and bring smiles to millions of fans sickened of Australian supremacy over the years.Without their stars, who were either rested or injured, Australia got a taste of what was to come in Wellington when they were rolled over for 148. At Eden Park, New Zealand overhauled the target of 336 with room to spare, and sealed the series. In Hamilton, Australia made 346, but it still proved inadequate, as the two Macs, Craig McMillan and Brendon McCullum, bailed New Zealand out of trouble from 116 for 5 and got to the finish line with three balls to spare. Ross Taylor made it to the front page of the country’s leading newspaper for his hundred in the second game, and McMillan, who had earlier contemplated quitting the game and starting a new career as a salesman, had announced an emphatic return.

Virender Sehwag and AB de Villiers go through the motions in the Afro-Asia Cup © AFP
Worst: The Afro-Asia Cup
The ICC had its heart in the right place, conceiving the tournament as a means of pumping funds into developing the game in lesser-privileged countries in Asia and Africa, but it failed to generate enough crowds and excitement. The primary reason was the scheduling – April is easily the worst month in which to play an outdoor sport in India. The news of star players from either side pulling out was a big turn-off. Then Nimbus, the broadcaster pulled out, and worse still, the Asian team couldn’t find sponsors. The sapping weather in Chennai, which hosted two of the one-dayers, took a toll on the Africans: four players were reportedly unwell for the last match. Apparently the venue-rotation policy of the Indian board was to blame for the scheduling. And while the games were well contested, a 3-0 victory to the Asia XI was a poor advertisement.Andrew MillerBest: An ICC hoarding falling on Malcolm Speed
After an apology of a World Cup, the world was finally given an apology – but it didn’t quite go as intended. On the morning after the farcical twilight finish to the tournament, the ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed faced the media to grovel on behalf of his organisation. But at the very moment the word “sorry” was passing his lips, the fold-up ICC hoarding behind his head decided to fold up. Slowly and inexorably it teetered forward, as journalists shouted their warnings and Speed braced for impact. In the end it merely brushed his shoulder but the moment was captured on camera and formed the centrepiece of a thousand news bulletins. It was arguably the most symbolic moment of the tournament.Worst: The death of the ARG
Earlier in the World Cup I took a tour around the husk of the Antigua Recreation Ground. Once, it had been the most vibrant focal point of the island, arguably even of the Caribbean. Now it was a decaying hulk, with paint and splinters peeling off the stands, and weeds and rubbish spilling out of every nook and cranny.Sir Viv Richards’ house was just a brisk walk down the road; the newly built stadium that bears his name, however, was half an hour’s drive out of St John’s. A grand design, maybe, but oh so soulless, and perpetually disowned by the island’s people. Nowhere was the World Cup’s betrayal of the West Indian heritage better encapsulated.Nishi NarayananBest: Gilchrist’s 100 Test sixes
If records could be held only by those who symbolise the feat in question, then no one deserves a hundred sixes in Tests more than Adam Gilchrist. He reached the landmark during the second Test against Sri Lanka in Hobart with back-to-back sixes off Muttiah Muralitharan. “There is a point in time when you and you only know – the rest know it a second later – and it’s the best feeling as a batsman,” he said later.A six is not only one of the most exciting sights in cricket but also one that most often brings the spectator into the game for a brief moment. Gilchrist has allowed spectators to be part of the proceedings a hundred times over, and that is what sets him apart from the other top batsmen in the world.

Make it big: Sangakkara made just under a thousand runs, including two double-hundreds and two scores of 150-plus © Getty Images
Worst: India’s fielding in the ODIs against England
India went into the one-dayers having won the Test series 1-0. They had the momentum, the confidence, and the team to take a lead and clinch the series against a side with a very patchy one-day record. Instead, they chose to forego the advantage and lose their confidence with some very shoddy fielding. Their throws from the outfield were weak, they allowed singles to be converted to twos, dropped catches and mucked up run-outs. By the end of the third game, in Edgbaston, India had conceded 134 runs through errors on the field, while England had given away only 42. England won the series 3-2, but if India’s fielders had anything to do with the close result, it was contributing considerably in the three defeats. What is worrying is that there seems to be no difference in India’s quality of fielding four months on.Ashok GangulyBest: Sangakkara’s golden run
Kumar Sangakkara produced two of the finest innings of the year on his way to becoming the No. 1 Test batsman in the ICC rankings. One was his valiant 192 against Australia in Hobart and the other his 152 against England in Kandy. With that he became the first batsman to make 150-plus scores in four consecutive Tests.Sangakkara’s batting in Australia was magnificent. He displayed fortitude while adding 107 runs for the fourth wicket with Sanath Jayasuriya, but it was only after reaching his century, when five wickets fell for 25, that he launched his assault. His shots were executed with pinpoint precision. Farming the strike to ensure that Lasith Malinga stayed on, he carted the fast bowlers over the covers, and when the ball was pitched short, pierced the packed slip cordon with remarkable frequency. Bad luck robbed him of his double-century, when Rudi Koertzen did not see the ball miss bat and brush his shoulder.Sangakkara’s prolific run continued at home. His 92 in the first innings at Kandy carried Sri Lanka to 188 when theybatted first. They had conceded a 93-run lead, which was made insignificant in the second innings, where he continued his tryst with the off-side boundaries and made England pay for dropping him on 98. Graham Ford changing his mind about coaching India
Graham Ford plunged Indian cricket into further chaos when he declined to become coach days after accepting the job. His reason: family, which was why he declined a a stint with Sri Lanka in 2003. The Indian board was left red-faced after going to the press about his credentials; the one thing that missed their eye was his staying power. Ford is now enjoying his low-profile stint as director of Kent’s academy.

A review of how India, Bangladesh, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Afghanistan fared between 2010 and 2019

28-Dec-2019Indiaby Sidharth Monga
A decade in which India, already a superpower in cricket commerce, became one on the field too. Under MS Dhoni, they achieved the Test No. 1 ranking, and won the World Cup and the Champions Trophy. A transitional blip that lasted upwards of two years gave way to another surge under Virat Kohli. This team had a battery of fast bowlers to go with two spinners who will end up among the greats. They were unbeatable at home and competitive away, winning India’s first ever Test series in Australia, in 2018-19. A T20 world crown eluded them in the decade, but they were the most consistent side at ICC tournaments: in nine of those tournaments they won two, and they lost two finals and three semi-finals.India’s Test XI of the decade

M Vijay
Rahul Dravid
Cheteshwar Pujara
Virat Kohli (c)
Sachin Tendulkar
Ajinkya Rahane/VVS Laxman
MS Dhoni (wk)
R Ashwin
Ishant Sharma
Mohammed Shami
Jasprit Bumrah/ Ravindra Jadeja

High point
The Test team’s dominance under Kohli has to be India’s biggest achievement in the decade, but you can’t perhaps point to a series that was the high point for Indian cricket in the 2010s. Had Steven Smith and David Warner played the series that India won in Australia, it would have eclipsed the World Cup win in 2011, India’s first such triumph since 1983.Low point
The two tours of England and Australia in 2011 and 2011-12, where India sleepwalked to eight overseas Test defeats in a row. The batting stars were ageing, the bowlers were unfit, and the preparation was poor for both trips.Results
Tests: P107, W56, L29, D22
ODIs: P249, W157, L79, T6, NR7
T20Is: P106, W68, L36, NR2In this decade Bangladesh have a win-loss ratio of 1.12 in ODIs at home,•AFPBangladeshby Mohammad Isam
This was Bangladesh’s decade of progress. They became a strong Test team at home, and made great strides in ODIs, whitewashing higher-ranked opponents and rising up the rankings. Although they are yet to fully catch up in T20Is, in all, Bangladesh performed remarkably for a side constantly referred to as “minnows” during the previous decade.Much of their progress owed to five of the country’s best cricketers – Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza and Mahmudullah – who forged a partnership strong enough to pull the entire team forward. They took on the responsibility of winning matches and instilled the winning mentality in the rest.Bangladesh’s Test XI of the decade

Tamim Iqbal
Imrul Kayes
Mominul Haque
Mahmudullah
Shakib Al Hasan (c)
Mushfiqur Rahim (wk)
Nasir Hossain
Mehidy Hasan
Taijul Islam
Robiul Islam
Mustafizur Rahman

In form, Bangladesh can now beat any top team at home, particularly in ODIs. In this decade they won home series against India, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies. They have also had some memorable Test wins, over England and Australia at home, and Sri Lanka away.High point
Beating India 2-1 in the 2015 ODI series at home was the pinnacle of Bangladesh’s decade of progress. Mashrafe Mortaza marshalled his emerging side superbly against tough opposition, relying on newcomer Mustafizur Rahman but balancing youth and experience in equal measure.Low point
Hong Kong beating Bangladesh by two wickets was the nadir, particularly as it came in a home World T20. Bangladesh lost seven wickets for 23 runs, and despite reducing Hong Kong to 100 for 8 in a chase of 109, they lost with two balls to spare.Results
Tests: P56, W10, L36, D10,
ODIs: P162, W70,, L87 NR5
T20Is: P79, W27, L50, NR2The stuff of dreams: New Zealand players take a lap of honour around Eden Park after winning the 2015 World Cup semi-final against South Africa•ICC/Getty ImagesNew Zealandby Andrew McGlashan
It was the decade in which New Zealand were no longer being called “dark horses” or “underdogs”. Rising to No. 2 in Tests on the back of a formidable home record, thanks to an outstanding pace attack and a strong top order, and reaching consecutive World Cup finals was reward for what could be considered their finest era ever.There was turmoil in 2013 when Ross Taylor was ousted as captain and replaced by Brendon McCullum, but from the depths of being bundled out in a session at Newlands the Test climb started – a trend continued by one of the finest leaders and batsmen in the game, Kane Williamson.New Zealand’s Test XI of the decade

Tom Latham
Brendon McCullum
Kane Williamson (c)
Ross Taylor
Henry Nicholls
BJ Watling (wk)
Colin de Grandhomme
Daniel Vettori
Tim Southee
Neil Wagner
Trent Boult

Overseas Test victories in the UAE and Sri Lanka showed it did not need to be all about home conditions. However, although there was a famous seven-run win in Hobart in 2011, Australia, their final opponent of the decade, remained a nemesis.High point
That heady Auckland evening in 2015 when Grant Elliott wrote himself into New Zealand cricket history with a six off Dale Steyn to take them the team to their first World Cup final. The noise and emotion was incredible. McCullum’s triple-century against India in Wellington – the first triple by a New Zealander – is a close-run second.Low point
“By the barest of margins…” Four years later, on an equally heady day, at Lord’s, a deflection off Ben Stokes’ bat, a missed catch on the boundary, and the agony of Martin Guptill’s forlorn dive left New Zealand ruing a rule that was never expected to be needed. Their grace in defeat (or when tying) was extraordinary.Results
Tests: P83, W32, L30, D20
ODIs: P192, W98, L82, T2, NR 10
T20Is: P96, W49, L40, T4, NR3Class of 2012: South Africa pose with the Test mace after enjoying a series win in Australia in 2012-13•AFPSouth Africaby Firdose Moonda
Successive Test series wins in Australia in 2012 and 2016 and over Australia at home in 2017-18 are highlights of a decade that started with South Africa a dominant side and ended with them struggling to make an impact.They were No. 1 in Tests between August 2012 and November 2015, but their record in Asia left a lot to be desired: they won only three Tests out of 19 in the continent, and only one series, in Sri Lanka (2014). A victory in India remained elusive, with heavy defeats in 2015-16 and 2019-20.South Africa’s white-ball form was consistent between major tournaments but non-existent at the big moments. They crashed out of the 2011, 2015 and 2019 World Cups, the 2013 and 2017 Champions Trophies, and the 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 World T20s. Their major trophy cabinet only holds a solitary piece of silverware from more than 20 years ago, the 1998 ICC Knockout Trophy.South Africa’s Test XI of the decade

Graeme Smith (c)
Dean Elgar
Hashim Amla
AB de Villiers
Faf du Plessis
Quinton de Kock (wk)
Vernon Philander
Dale Steyn
Kagiso Rabada
Keshav Maharaj
Morne Morkel

Off the field, Cricket South Africa went through three permanent CEO stints and two acting ones (the same person both times) and suffered its worst governance crisis since readmission. High point
Winning the Test mace in 2012 was the culmination of a period of excellence for South Africa’s Test side. At the time, they had the experience of Graeme Smith as captain, the serenity of Hashim Amla, the sensational AB de Villiers, and the most skilled bowling attack around, with swing and speed from Dale Steyn, bounce from Morne Morkel, and subtle seam movement from Vernon Philander. South Africa didn’t quite have the right spinner in the mix at the time, Imran Tahir, but he went on to become the best limited-overs bowler in the world. Low point
There was their choke in the 2011 World Cup quarter-final, their dramatic crashing out of the 2015 semi-final, and their twin 0-3 series losses to India in 2015 and 2019, but ultimately the manner in which South Africa exited the 2019 World Cup, losing five of their first six completed matches, marked rock bottom for the team – and subsequently for the administration.Results
Tests: P89, W44, L25, D20
ODIs: P188, W114, L68, T1, NR5
T20Is: P89, W51, L36, T1, NR1Rashid Khan: Afghanistan’s world-beating leggie•Getty ImagesAfghanistanby Peter Della Penna
In the late 2000s, Afghanistan produced one of cricket’s great Cinderella stories to rise from Division Five of the World Cricket League all the way to ODI status in the space of 14 months. The 2010s were all about proving that they could sustain that ranking after a meteoric rise. And they did, burning brighter through the decade and ultimately securing Full Member status in June 2017.Afghanistan demonstrated they could pull their own weight against Full Members, beginning in 2014, when they defeated Bangladesh in the Asia Cup for their first win against a Test nation, then followed it up four months later by drawing a four-match series in Zimbabwe. By the end of the decade, Sri Lanka and West Indies would be at the receiving end in limited-overs cricket, thanks to Afghanistan’s champion T20 franchise bowlers. It’s those men – Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman – who are emblematic of the vast potential that continues to exist in Afghanistan, despite the country having never hosted international matches, due to security reasons. Until then, the nomads continue their quest to roam and conquer.Afghanistan’s ODI XI of the decade

Mohammad Shahzad (wk)
Nawroz Mangal (c)
Rahmat Shah
Asghar Afghan
Samiullah Shenwari
Mohammad Nabi
Najibullah Zadran
Rashid Khan
Dawlat Zadran
Hamid Hassan
Mujeeb ur Rahman

High point
Unlike Ireland, who can call upon two famous World Cup wins, over Pakistan and England, as signature moments in their history, Afghanistan have to arguably still score a truly stunning win. Instead, their biggest point of pride may be Rashid Khan’s Rs 4 crore (approximately US$560,000) bid from Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2017 IPL auction. His subsequent performances in the IPL helped legitimise Afghanistan’s individual players and the national team across the board.Low point
Losing their maiden Test match by an innings inside two days to India in Bengaluru in 2018. In spite of an outstanding record in the ICC Intercontinental Cup prior to being awarded Test status, Afghanistan’s batsmen looked out of their depth and their prized bowling unit mostly had a case of the yips on day one.Results
Tests: P4, W2, L2
ODIs: P123, W57, L62, T1, NR3
T20Is: P78, W53, L25Ireland are yet to top their World Cup triumph over England in 2011•Getty ImagesIrelandby Peter Della Penna
After seminal World Cup success in 2007, Ireland spent the first three quarters of the 2010s capitalising on that foundation to graduate out of the Associate world, which they had dominated for the better part of a decade, and into Test cricket. But since being christened with Full Membership in 2017, their adjustment to the next level has been a baptism by fire, as an ageing squad and a string of retirements have highlighted a worrying lack of depth.Ireland’s struggles in Tests have spread to limited-overs cricket as well. Their streak of three straight World Cup appearances was snapped after a failure to make it through the Qualifier last year. Having held a 21-match winning streak at the T20 World Cup Qualifier from 2012 through 2015, which included tournament titles in 2012 and 2013, they failed to reach the finals in 2015 and 2019. From the time the streak was broken by Papua New Guinea in Belfast, Ireland won just 19 of 49 T20Is.Ireland’s ODI XI of the decade

Paul Stirling
William Porterfield (c)
Ed Joyce
Andy Balbirnie
Niall O’Brien (wk)
Kevin O’Brien
John Mooney
Trent Johnston
George Dockrell
Tim Murtagh
Boyd Rankin

High point
Few nights in Irish cricket history can top their win over England in Bangalore in the 2011 World Cup. Apart from recording the highest successful chase in World Cup history, they did it on the back of the fastest World Cup century: Kevin O’Brien’s pink-dyed hair rampage.Low point
Ireland’s T20 form has seemingly never recovered from the fateful night in Sylhet when Netherlands ambushed them to chase 190 in 13.5 overs and pass them for a spot in the main draw of the 2014 World T20. As for ODI cricket, a symbolic gut punch was delivered with a six-wicket defeat by England in Malahide in September 2013, when that team’s stars with bat and ball were both Irish-reared: Boyd Rankin (4 for 46) and Eoin Morgan (124 not out off 106 balls).Results
Tests: P3, W0, D0, L3
ODIs: P112, W50, L55, T2, NR5
T20Is: P83, W36, L41, T1, NR5More in the decade in review, 2010-19

Richard Gleeson is another late developer to make his mark for the most resourceful Twenty20 county around

Jon Culley10-Aug-2017Nobody would wish upon any county the hard financial times that Northamptonshire have been through in the last few years but their plight has not been without consolations. Had the purse strings at Wantage Road not needed to be drawn so tight, for example, the careers of several players who have worn the Tudor Rose badge with distinction might never have happened.Working with a perennially small squad of senior players, the county are never more than two or three injuries away from a selection crisis and have had to be more resourceful than most in finding candidates to fill the breach. Plucking names from obscurity has become something of a speciality.So much so that Northants coach David Ripley is advocating that England consider their latest find – a player still largely unknown – for a T20 debut against the West Indies next month.Jack Brooks is the most high-profile example of a fast bowler who blossomed late, a revelation for Northants and subsequently Yorkshire but already 25 when he made his first-class debut after stepping up from minor counties cricket with Oxfordshire.Ben Sanderson, 28, the wicket-taking hero last summer of the county’s second odds-defying T20 finals day triumph in four years, arrived at Wantage Road by a similar route, having played in minor counties for Shropshire, although he had sampled the beginnings of a professional career with Yorkshire before being released in 2011.Now Ripley thinks he has struck gold again with a third fast bowler. Richard Gleeson, the 29-year-old former Cumberland player took 14 debut-season wickets in last summer’s NatWest Blast and has another 10 this time in what is shaping up as another successful Northants T20 campaign, which sees the county second in the North Group ahead of Friday night’s home match against Leicestershire.Gleeson was still being paid on a match-by-match arrangement last year, having never played in a professional game before the 2015 season, but he was given his first contract this year and is making an impact, too, in red-ball cricket, in which he took his first five-wicket haul in Northants’ rain-ruined Championship match against Gloucestershire this week.He was selected for the North v South matches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi before the current season only to be ruled out by injury and Ripley rates him so highly he thinks England should be considering him for the T20 fixture against West Indies at Chester-le-Street next month.

‘From what I’ve seen in T20 cricket, I really hope he can be involved in that England-West Indies T20 game’

“He’s got pace, he does things with the ball and he gets good players out,” Ripley said. “From what I’ve seen in T20 cricket, I really hope he can be involved in that England-West Indies T20 game. He holds his nerve in the Powerplays with good players coming hard at him, is hard to hit off a good length, has a yorker he seems to be able to deliver at will, and some improving slower balls.”Blackpool-born Gleeson’s professional contract at Wantage Road fulfils a dream he thought would never be realised, having been overlooked by his native Lancashire, for whose cricket board he worked as a community coach until last year.”I played in under-16s festivals for one of the area teams but that was as close as it got to playing for Lancashire,” Gleeson said. “I didn’t play any Second XI games or even in age-group teams.”He played club cricket for Blackpool and a sports coaching degree helped him find work with the Lancashire board. It was only after he had been invited to play for Cumberland in minor counties that a professional career finally became a possibility.”What had started out as a six-month position with Lancashire Cricket Board had turned into a full-time job, doing a lot of Chance to Shine work with schools,” he said.”I worked in a factory for a few months after university, so it was great to be working in coaching, which is what I’d set out to do with the course I chose at university.”But when I was playing in a match for Cumberland against Bedfordshire, their captain, James Middlebrook, told me he thought I had something and said he could put me in touch with Northants. They played me in a Second XI game and then threw me in against the Australians in a tour game. I got a couple of wickets and it went on from there.”Ripley admits Gleeson’s prowess as a T20 bowler was an unexpected bonus. “The white ball stuff was actually a surprise because he had caught the eye in red ball cricket,” Ripley said. “He had a little bit of pace and could hold the ball up a little bit from a slightly angular action and we liked the look of him.”But then he got into the white ball team and the speed he bowled with the white ball in short spells, to which he has added a yorker which he has improved this year, means he now looks like a banker in all formats.Australian pinch-hitter John Hastings gets the Gleeson treatment•Getty Images”We have had some ill luck with injuries in T20 this year and Richard has been a key to us keeping our roll going.”Gleeson himself missed T20 finals day in 2016 through injury – the consequence perhaps of his over anxiety to make the most of his opportunity in the professional game, something that has cost him two long lay-offs, on the second occasion after taking a chance to play in the Bangladesh Premier League.”I played in the 50-over Blast quarter-final against Surrey and bowled probably faster than I had ever bowled but I ended up with a side strain,” he said. “So I missed T20 finals day, which was really gutting, although I was pleased that Ben Sanderson stepped up and delivered because we came through at about the same time and we get on really well.”I didn’t bowl again all season and when I went to Bangladesh I was probably a bit undercooked. I ended up getting tendinopathy in both knees and it was a long, slow process to get that sorted out and get back.”The knee problems meant he was forced by circumstance to concentrate on bowling in short bursts in white-ball matches, although his success in his Championship comeback in the pink-ball match against Leicestershire, backed up by this week’s 5 for 46 against Gloucestershire, confirmed the potential Ripley originally saw as a red-ball bowler – and confirmed that Northants’ need to look for players that others might ignore had thrown up another gem.”If our budget grew and we were able to have more players I don’t know whether we would find players like Gleesonbecause when an opportunity arose it would probably be a young 20-year-old on the staff that got it,” Ripley said.”But we have a small staff and that’s one of the reasons we are able to offer opportunities to players like him because it only takes a couple of injuries for us to need players who can go straight into our first team.”So we’ve had the opportunity to take one or two out of left field and maybe they have that little bit of extra hunger, because they realise they have to make the most of this opportunity, and that maybe gives them a bit more steel in addition to the skills.”Ben Sanderson was slightly different in that he was well regarded at Yorkshire but just couldn’t break through. But once he got the chance to play some cricket here he grabbed his opportunity.”There is a parallel with Jack Brooks, too. He was a slightly different age but again a late developer, and we put him straight into second team cricket on a recommendation. He loved it, couldn’t believe his luck and really threw himself into it.”With any career it is about being in the right place at the right time. You get some good young players who don’t quite get in at the time and then someone younger comes along and the opportunity is gone.”That happens a lot, and obviously happened with Richard. He was doing a bit of coaching, a bit of club cricket and I’m sure he was enjoying being in the game. But this is a bit different from what he has experienced. He is a professional cricketer and he has that bit of hunger to succeed.”