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They adjusted on the fly having built a team for certain conditions and then getting only one match in Chennai, but CSK rode the wave to finish as IPL champions

Sidharth Monga28-May-20183:47

CSK review: Big names contributed at the right time

The most enduring connection between practitioners of top-level sport and the outside world has been that of secrecy. Our quest for the inside knowledge is endless. We want to know how they do what they do, we want to experience what they experience and why they make the decisions they make. We want to be in their shoes.Sportspeople, though, don’t want us to know any of that. Being secretive is an almost formalised part of sport. They guard their secrets fiercely. They talk with hands covering their mouths. They speak cliches about the right areas. They want stump mics turned down. It drives us mad.Let Jerry Seinfeld explain. Women and men know what men want. Women. But men don’t know what women want. “How do we get women?” Seinfeld says in one of his routines. “Oh, we don’t know . The next step after that we have no idea. This is why you see men honking car horns, yelling from construction sites. These are the best ideas we’ve had so far.”We read all those banal biographies for insights, watch re-runs, listen to interviews. The books are just an extension of scorecards, interviews guarded. We want to know. We don’t know how to go about it because the teams and the players don’t want us to know. We have just been honking car horns and yelling from construction sites.Until T20 and data analysis came around, that is. This format was a blank slate for starters. Data was our in, our window into their world. Teams were actually putting people who were one of us in their dugouts. People who didn’t play cricket professionally but could work with numbers, have the memory to remember how a certain bowler got a batsman out in that obscure league three months ago and then work out numbers to back that observation, who could tell you what the go-to shot for a batsman is once you put him under pressure.So quickly we learnt so much about this game through data analysis. Why a certain bowler bowled a certain over. Why the sweeper cover moved to point after a certain batsman had faced three dots in a row. The game was changing at a rapid pace, faster arguably than it ever had, and we ran wild with our theories. When will players stop thinking about personal milestones, when will slow batsmen start to rule themselves out so a bigger hitter can use the limited deliveries available, when will John Buchanan’s dream of using live analytics to influence live games materialise, when will teams introduce internal fielding metrics.Last year, ESPNcricinfo sat Stephen Fleming down for a long chat on all things T20. This was an interaction between a modern coach with modern methods and an interviewer who was provided a rare in. Fleming listened patiently, spoke about all the changes, especially in the training methods, but there was something essentially old-fashioned about him. He appreciated all external inputs, including his own, but knew at the end of the day the job has to be carried out by those human beings in an uncontrolled environment. That you can equip and empower them with all the knowledge, expertise and analysis, but on the field, under the pressure, the game has to be run by the players themselves.Fleming also happens to be the No. 1 man for three-time IPL champion, seven-time finalist and winner of the first World T20 – MS Dhoni. His feel and instinct for the limited-overs game is unparalleled. Chennai Super Kings’ latest triumph was reinforcement that T20 is still a sport played out in the middle, by humans who react differently to pressure. That when all is said and done, a human being has to rock up and bowl a final over to him or Dwayne Bravo. That at these times it is not enough to know that the wide yorker is the ball to bowl to Dhoni; you have to actually execute it. That when you respect and play out one or two bowlers, you are at the same time letting the others – inexperienced Indian bowlers in the case of the IPL – know that you are coming after them, which brings pressure on them.BCCIThe whole campaign of Super Kings was in effect a reminder that while analysis is instructive, it is not set in stone. That the numbers we have for analysis come from what these players do, and not the other way around. Dhoni left alone 25 balls in this IPL, way more than any other batsman. In a format that starting quickly is fast becoming the holy grail, especially for those who bat in the second half of the innings, Dhoni had the fourth-worst strike rate in the first five balls and ninth-worst over the first 10 balls this season. Yet he was just outside the top 10 smart strike rates for the season.In a chase of over 200 against Kolkata Knight Riders, Dhoni ends up with 25 off 28, slowest innings of 15 balls or more. Super Kings win. In a chase of 198 against Kings XI Punjab, he is 23 off 22. Super Kings come within a blow of winning with Dhoni unbeaten on 79 off 44. In the high-pressure qualifier against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he takes nine balls to get off the mark, scores 9 off 18, and tells his partner Faf du Plessis, who is himself going at a strike rate of 50, to just play out Rashid Khan. Du Plessis wins them the match with time to spare. In the final, against the same opponents, Shane Watson takes 11 balls to score his first run before scoring a match-winning century. These are the times when cameras pan to the dugout for anxious faces. Not with Super Kings because they don’t have anxious faces; they have taken after their captain.More than analysis, what is important for Dhoni is to realise in that moment what the opposition is trying to achieve and look to deny them. If Bhuvneshwar Kumar is bowling an extra over at the top, Dhoni wants his side to show knowledge that the opposition is desperate for a wicket. If you feel the scoreboard pressure and try a silly shot in this extra over of Bhuvneshwar, that annoys Dhoni more than any slow strike rate. Ride the storm, minimise the damage when things are not going for you, take the game deep, make the opposition close it out. And when your time comes – and it does come – take full toll.Fleming and Dhoni concur. “If you are finding it tough, chances are others will too.” Stick it out. ESPNcricinfo asked Fleming how far the game was from batsmen ruling themselves out when nothing is coming off and they are wasting important deliveries. “That’s part of the battle, isn’t it?” Fleming said. That constant struggle. Don’t give up the ghost. There is a romantic in both Dhoni and Fleming.All through the season Super Kings confounded. Middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu became opener. Opener Sam Billings batted in the middle. Ravindra Jadeja kept batting ahead of Bravo, often resulting in opposition not using up their spinners. They even performed the rare act of winning a completed T20 despite scoring fewer runs in boundaries than the opposition. They adjusted on the fly, having built a team for certain conditions and then getting only one match in those conditions.MS Dhoni nonchalantly removes the bails•BCCISuper Kings’ campaign was also practical. They knew of their weaknesses. Dhoni asked for certain levels of fitness but didn’t want players like Watson to bust a hamstring trying a quick single or stopping one. There were games when all Jadeja did was bat ahead of Bravo just to disrupt the opposition’s use of spinners. The format is so short, teams can often carry a surplus player, which they use tactically to either give a misfiring matchwinner some rope or to use a super-specialist for a match-up with an opposition matchwinner. Dhoni, it seems, does so just to take the piss.Take the piss he did when at the trophy presentation he spoke of important numbers in their final: 27th, the date; 7th, Super Kings’ final; 7, his jersey number. As users of social media might say, he was trolling us for having questioned him. It doesn’t dismiss analysis entirely – Mumbai Indians are a side that use it a lot and have won three titles themselves – but it creates a conflict between philosophies that co-exist, which is half the fun.Yet there is a certain joy in being proved wrong by Dhoni, being trolled by him. It makes sport human. As analysts sitting outside, you want to be able to explain everything, to even call events before they happen, as ESPNcricinfo’s Live Report did in the other two playoffs, correctly raising question marks over Ajinkya Rahane’s effectiveness outside the Powerplay overs and Andre Russell’s chasing prowess based on their past record. There is a thrill to be able to do so, to know something, to be proven right. At least we are not just honking car horns and yelling from construction sites by dissecting body language in retrospect or questioning the passion and commitment of the players.Then again there is joy to be told by Dhoni there is only so much we know. That there are things in sport we can’t explain, they just happen in that moment. As Naz Khialvi told God in his song immortalised by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s voice, How is it God if it can be explained?

Against India in 2002, Hooper, Dillon, Chanderpaul and Co. gave their fans something to cheer about

Colin Benjamin21-Jul-2016West Indies go into their Test series against India with fans expecting more of what transpired in their recent series versus Australia and Sri Lanka.The last time West Indies defeated India in Test cricket was in 2002, when under the coaching and captaincy leadership of Guyanese duo Roger Harper and Carl Hooper, they clinched a surprising 2-1 win that remains possibly their most significant series win this millennium.The story of this unexpected triumph dates back to the beginning of 2001. While West Indies’ decline was well underway, there was some cause for cheer that season when Hooper returned to international cricket after a premature retirement in 1999. India meanwhile were busy pulling off their remarkable 2-1 home series Test victory versus Steve Waugh’s mighty Australians.Though far from perfect, West Indies produced many encouraging performances under Hooper and Harper between the 2001 home series against South Africa and the 2003 World Cup, and were the most stable a West Indies team had been as a group since 1995 – the current T20 side under Darren Sammy excepted.In those early days of Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy, India had still not shed their reputation of being lions at home and pussycats abroad, underlined by them losing a Test away in Zimbabwe after that Australia series win. Still, with the players they had at their disposal, India seemed to have all the bases covered to clinch their first series victory in the Caribbean since 1971.For West Indies coach Harper, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Pedro Collins, that India series was the highlight of their playing and coaching careers, given West Indies’ less than stellar record before it and after. “Although we won the 2004 Champions Trophy, beating India that year I’d have to rank as the most memorable series I’ve played in for the West Indies,” Sarwan said.”West Indies wasn’t winning a lot, so to win at home versus such a strong Indian team was out of this world, and it meant a lot to the people of the Caribbean,” Harper said. “It was certainly a coaching highlight. It really helped to give our young team at the time some confidence that we could be competitive against top opposition.”Javagal Srinath on Anil Kumble in Antigua: “The bravery Anil showed that day didn’t totally surprise me or the team, because it was the kind of attitude that defined his career”•Associated PressJavagal Srinath led India’s fast bowling attack on the tour. “My memory of that wonderful series, although we lost, was the way Mervyn Dillon and Collins bowled and surprised us,” he said. “Then, well, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Hooper were a real pain to bowl to – they showed tremendous patience.”During the first Test, in Guyana, India got an early glimpse of the Hooper and Chanderpaul show. “If batting was a beauty contest, Hooper would be Miss World,” it has been said in the Caribbean, and his double-hundred in Georgetown was his most clinical Test innings since he made 178 not out against Pakistan in Antigua in 1993. The way he dominated Anil Kumble was akin to Tendulkar humbling Shane Warne in India 1998.”Carl Hooper put a lifetime of underachievement finally and firmly behind him yesterday, appropriately on the ground he has always called home,” Tony Cozier wrote at the time. He went on to refer to it as “belated vindication for the thousands of Hooper’s celebrating fellow Guyanese in the stands and his host of loyal fans throughout the Caribbean who have always been adamant that it was only a matter of time, but for whom time was running short.”For Chanderpaul the series was the turning point of his career. It was then that he began to own the nickname Tiger. Before it, he had scored just two Test hundreds and 23 half-centuries from 51 Tests, at the average of 38.60. By the end of the series, he had scored three more centuries, and he averaged 57.63 over the next 13 years and 113 Tests.Before the rain came to end the first Test, Rahul Dravid, batting at No. 5, produced a typical rearguard. “Rahul played many great innings for India, especially overseas,” said Srinath. “You could say that was a bit of forgotten masterclass from him because we were under pressure before the rain came, when Sachin got out, to first avoid the follow-on and get close to West Indies total.”Winning the second Test, in Trinidad, was very significant for India, as it was the first time they had won outside the subcontinent since defeating England at Leeds 16 years previously.”Test victories outside Asia was something many of us had not experienced in our careers and wanted to get right,” Srinath said. “We started very well, winning in Trinidad in our attempts to rectify this on that tour, but unfortunately we couldn’t maintain that level in the final three Tests.”Merv Dillon bowled like a true leader of the bowling attack•Associated PressHarper noted he was encouraged by what he saw from his team, especially the bowlers, in the opening two Tests and was looking forward to the final three, two of which were in Barbados and Jamaica, the bounciest wickets of the series.It was in Bridgetown that India blew a famous chance of a win in 1997. Outside of that 1997 Test, in four of the five Tests played in Barbados from 1996 to 2001, West Indies bowled first and made major inroads in the first hour. India were shot out for 102.Sachin Tendulkar, who had scored his 29th Test hundred in the Trinidad win to equal Donald Bradman, could not negotiate Collins.”I was very nervous, playing what was just my second Test in front of my home crowd,” recalled Collins. “Everyone in Barbados was hyped about seeing Tendulkar and I remember him getting a standing ovation coming out to bat.”I remember I was going to my mark thinking I was bowling to the best batsman in the word, trying to stay relaxed. And the first ball I bowled at him, he edged, and that released all the pressure on me, so much that I felt the Test was over.”Led by Dillon, who for perhaps the only time in his career bowled as a true leader of the attack, West Indies’ four-man pace attack (journeymen Cameron Cuffy and Adam Sanford completed the line-up) in the final three Tests pulled off a reasonable imitation of the great Caribbean quartets of the ’70s and ’80s.”One of things we worked on with Dillon was cutting down on his no-balls,” Harper said. “He always had the ability to bowl wicket-taking balls, and everything simply was perfect for him that series.”The imitation of the hostility of the West Indies attacks of yore was underlined in the high-scoring drawn Antigua Test, where Kumble had his jaw broken by Dillon but heroically decided to battle the pain and bowl.”The bravery Anil showed that day didn’t totally surprise me or the team, because it was the kind of attitude that defined his career,” Srinath said. “It’s a cliché that is often said: fight until the last drop of blood. And he epitomised that by bowling in that situation. Any sportsman watching that incident would have been inspired by it.”Harper thought the long hours India spent on the field in Antigua played a key part in West Indies winning in Jamaica. “After they spent all that time in the field, when they put us in and didn’t get any early wickets at Sabina, the memories of those long hours began to tell on them as Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds got us off to that positive start.””With our batting, we felt once we had scored runs, we were going to be competitive, since India were still vulnerable away from home,” Sarwan said. “No doubt the way Hooper and Shiv batted was the major factor in us winning that series.”While Srinath only played three more Tests after that series, he believes learning from the mistakes made on that 2002 tour helped India become better tourists. “Ganguly as captain and all the other great players in the team made a conscious effort to do better away from home, and much of our away performances over the next decade after that West Indies series was testament to the effort they put in.” Indeed, India produced their best string of away Test performances in their history in the decade after, which eventually saw them being ranked No. 1 in Tests at one point.

Brendon McCullum moves past the World Cup with a very fine side still intact, the task is now to prove those heady seven weeks at home do not come to be viewed as their peak

Andrew McGlashan08-Jun-2015During one of the intervals of the Lord’s Test last month, there was a captaincy debate aired on between Shane Warne, Ian Smith and Michael Atherton. The conversation, naturally, included much reference to Brendon McCullum and at one point Smith became particularly impassioned, jabbing his finger in the air. The gist of his point, without wanting to misquote, was that McCullum would be remembered as a great captain because he had reinvented, and therefore helped revive, the 50-over format.There can be no doubting the legacy he and his team left during the World Cup, even though they were out-gunned by the equally aggressive Australians at the MCG. Packed slips cordons, the endless push for wickets, almost a refusal to look away from the strike-bowlers and an unbridled aggression with the bat led by McCullum (although that bubble was pricked by Mitchell Starc’s opening over at the MCG when McCullum’s duck led to a more inhibited display) ensured there was rarely a dull moment.Ricky Ponting could rightly argue that his Australian team that won the 2003 and 2007 World Cups played that style of cricket, but they were an established as a cricket powerhouse. With McCullum, and New Zealand, there remains – with no disrespect meant – the feel-good story of the little guys who (so nearly) ruled the world.The bounce that New Zealand were given by that tournament – and also the lead-up during which they forged the identity that has now become their trademark – was continued last week at Headingley when they showed their character in recovering from what could have been a debilitating loss at Lord’s.Shortly after victory at Headingley the news emerged that New Zealand Cricket were in discussions – which are likely to come to fruition – to remove one the scheduled three Tests they were due to host against Australia next February and replace it with a three-match Chappell-Hadlee one-day series. In a breath, there is the conundrum facing them: on one hand they have built arguably their greatest Test team that should be given as many opportunities as possible, yet on the other the 50-over format, which captured a nation earlier this year, remains their lifeblood.Two-and-a-half months on from the moment Grant Elliott wrote himself a place in New Zealand sporting history, with the six over long-on against Dale Steyn to win that extraordinary semi-final at Eden Park, they return to white-ball cricket for the five-match series against England.There are three enforced absentees from the World Cup squad. Daniel Vettori, a significant loss to the one-day side, has retired along with Kyle Mills, while Adam Milne, the fast bowler with a brittle body, has again been struck by injury. A full-strength XI would include just one change from the tournament, with a spinner needed to replace Vettori, although there is likely to be some rotation among the pace bowlers.

England did come out on top in the Champions Trophy fixture in Cardiff in the last 50-over meeting of these sides in the UK

Vettori has left big shoes to fill. He enjoyed a wonderful swansong, taking 15 wickets in the World Cup with an economy rate of 4.04, and pushed himself to breaking point to limp through the final. Who can forget the hang time on that catch at third man against West Indies? In the hierarchy, his place would go to Nathan McCullum, the offspinning allrounder, who has always proved a capable understudy – or partner – for Vettori. But at 34 he is not one for the future.Mitchell Santner, a left-handed batsman and left-arm spinner, is one of two uncapped players in the squad and may yet push McCullum. Not much should be written into his spell against a weakened Leicestershire team, but he did find purchase off a pitch not known for spin. “It’s nice to have a left-arm spinner who turns it,” is the tongue-in-cheek talk from the New Zealand camp. But currently Santner is viewed as a batsman who bowls and made 94 batting at No. 3 in New Zealand’s first-class warm-up for the Test series at Taunton.Elsewhere there will be plenty of familiarity about the New Zealand line-up. When Corey Anderson is fit, the top order will replicate that of the World Cup; the outright aggression of Brendon McCullum merged with accumulation of Kane Williamson and Elliott, then the later punch that Luke Ronchi, despite a lean World Cup, can provide. It will be interesting to see how they play should the ball nip around under lights or on a cloudy English day, but given they batted at a one-day tempo in the Headingley Test they are unlikely to move away from their script. But Williamson becomes key as an anchor.New Zealand have every right to start this series as considerable favourites, and not just because they reached the World Cup final and demolished England in Wellington on their way as Tim Southee dismantled them with 7 for 33. They have a commendable record on English soil: since the turn of the millennium they have won a triangular series in 2004, and the bilateral series in both 2008, which involved angry scenes at The Oval involving Elliott’s run out, and 2013. That latter series included Martin Guptill’s unbeaten 189 at the Ageas Bowl, which was New Zealand’s highest individual ODI score until Guptill broke his own record, with 237 not out, in the World Cup quarter-final against West Indies.But England did come out on top in the Champions Trophy fixture in Cardiff in the last 50-over meeting on home soil but the most recent clash, on February 20 at the Cake Tin, saw them thrashed in a match that lasted just 45 overs as McCullum slammed 77 off 25 balls to follow Southee’s haul. At 33, McCullum is highly unlikely be around for the next World Cup. The 2017 Champions Trophy in England is a potential finale for him if the body can last two more years, with perhaps Test cricket being shelved first.For McCullum and New Zealand, the challenge to prove that those heady seven weeks at home do not come to be viewed as the peak of a very fine team starts now.

The more desperate Rohit Sharma got for a Test cap, the further it slipped from his grasp. But when he did get his chance, Rohit showed no anxiety, working hard for his runs and playing astutely against the West Indies bowlers

Sidharth Monga at Eden Gardens07-Nov-2013Rohit Sharma got his first taste of Test cricket’s quirks two days before his debut. He didn’t even know back then that he would be debuting at Eden Gardens – he merely wanted to look at the pitch on which he could be batting in two days’ time. It’s something you don’t do in ODIs or T20s; only in Tests do you start thinking about the pitch so much in advance. Eden’s eccentric chief groundsman, Prabir Mukherjee, intercepted Rohit, told him off and, when Rohit protested, pointed to an old sign – dangling at 90 degrees – that said only captains and coaches were allowed to inspect the pitch.You can see how Test cricket’s traditions and rituals, and the recently heightened stature because of the threat from shorter formats, can make it feel like a monster to some of the youngsters. While succeeding in Test cricket is no longer necessary to make a lavish living out of the game, it has in a way become even more important for youngsters to succeed in Tests, as if to prove their love for cricket.Especially for someone like Rohit. He holds the record for the most ODIs before Test debut. And, in Rohit’s case, the more desperate he got, the further the Test cap receded from his grasp. He was injured minutes before what was to be his Test debut against South Africa in February 2010, then travelled the world with the squad before eventually losing his place because of his ODI form. He was unfairly ridiculed and dropped based on his ODI form, although he averaged much higher in first-class cricket than he did in the domestic limited-overs formats. Ironically, he had put in his third Man-of-the-Series performance in ODIs to get this chance.So here he was, two days after hitting seven sixes in 18 balls in his ODI double-century, being put in his place by a veteran groundsman. He would redefine his place soon.The debut came about just in time for him to come face to face with what has been the reality of Test cricket in India. He walked out to the deafening collective silence of over 30,000 spectators because Tendulkar had just been dismissed. The opposition was at its most charged up, another wicket soon fell, and India were 151 behind with five wickets down and due to bat last.The pressure had mounted, there was no release shot available, and Shane Shillingford, who had taken four wickets, was pretty accurate. Fine leg, deep midwicket, deepish mid-on, short midwicket and two short legs complemented the turn Shillingford was getting into the pads. He left third man and point open, asking Rohit to take the risk of cutting bouncing offbreaks if he so wished.Even getting desperate for a single would have involved some risk. For the first 12 balls he faced, he didn’t get a delivery that would give him a free single. The previous 12 balls he had faced, at that ODI in Bangalore, had yielded four sixes and 35 runs. He might even have felt that Test cricket was really a monster. Ever since he found success at the top of the ODI order, he has been insisting that it was just the start. He was in the right frame of mind to play cricket, any cricket.There was no anxiety over scoring, no itching to find release; and he waited for the loose ball, which, when it arrived on the hip, he glanced it to fine-leg for four. It was not an easy pitch, he said, and it was imperative that Shillingford be played off. Rohit’s partners – MS Dhoni and R Ashwin – were great help. Unlike the West Indies batsmen on day one, they kept working the singles, not letting the bowler build pressure on just the one batsman. As time passed, the bowlers tired, the field eased, the deficit decreased. All gradually, and at its own pace.Rohit said he knew Test runs won’t come easy. “Runs don’t come so easily in Tests,” he said after the day’s play. “You must have seen, I only played 150 balls to get a 200 in that ODI, but here I’ve played 220-something balls to get 127. So this shows Test cricket is not easy, you’ve got to work your way around and score your runs.”He was prepared to work hard. If along the way a ball presented itself to be hit, he would play some of his special shots, like the flick past midwicket off Darren Sammy, which flew away in no time to the boundary. The first time he lofted the ball he had already reached 72, India were already in the lead, and the ball was 80 overs old and not bouncing alarmingly. The joy on his face when he reached the fifty, followed by an elaborate acknowledgement to every gallery of the ground, told you how much it meant to him when the Test chance finally arrived. Something also seemed to be saying, “This is just the start.”Rohit might have brought up the hundred through an edge, but it brought massive relief. You could see he almost wanted to remove the gloves and sit down in the middle and just savour the moment. And nobody can stop him from looking at that pitch now, because he is still batting on it. Maybe Test cricket is not such a monster after all.

The former Pakistan allrounder enjoyed his first taste of the IPL when he turned out for the Kings XI Punjab this year

Interview by Jack Wilson02-Jun-2012Your first IPL is over. A good one for you even though your side, Kings XI Punjab, just fell short of the playoffs. How did you find it?
I’m pleased with my performance in my first IPL, but I have been playing good cricket for the last few years now, in England, New Zealand and Bangladesh. You’re always learning as a player, and although I’m 37 now it doesn’t mean you just stop all of a sudden. You’re always finding stuff out about the game.The experience has been brilliant, unbelievable. The atmosphere was great, and everywhere you go – home and away – you’re playing in front of full houses. The crowd is always loud and the fans are very passionate. Playing cricket in India is always incredible as they love the game so much.I see playing as a bit like being an actor. As an actor you want people to come and see your film and that’s just what it’s like as a cricketer. The more people that come, the more it inspires me to do better and better. The packed houses gave me energy, which I thrived on. I play best in that kind of environment.Kings XI’s performances picked up once you got into the country after missing the first five games with your visa problems. Do you think about how well the team might have done if you had joined the side that little bit earlier?
We could have made the playoffs, but saying we would have if I’d arrived earlier is just ifs and buts – you can’t reflect on what might have been. It was frustrating to miss out on a few games and I was relieved when I took to the field in the first game. As a side we played some good cricket and I had a wonderful time playing under Gilly [Adam Gilchrist]. We all know what he can do on the field as he’s been a terrific player for many years, but off the field he’s a great human being too. He made it a happy team to be a part of and as a group we were very close, which helps when it comes to playing out on the field.You ended up as one of the IPL’s best allrounders, with 186 runs at an average of 23.25 and 14 wickets at 23.5. Your economy was under eight too. Your contract was for one year but are you hopeful of getting back out there in 2013?
[] Hopefully, yes. I signed a one-year contract and I think they might want to try and keep me. It depends when we can negotiate a deal but Kings XI have the first right to keep me in their squad. After having such a good tournament, people want me, and I want to go out there and play again as I loved every single minute of it. They seemed to love me too, and I enjoyed being a part of their side. Allrounders are so valuable to the balance of the team, so hopefully we can sort something out.I’m at the age now where I want to be playing cricket. I would much prefer to play and show what I can do than go somewhere and get paid the money and not play any games.

“I see playing as a bit like being an actor. As an actor you want people to come and see your film and that’s just what it’s like as a cricketer. The more people that come, the more it inspires me to do better and better”

Chris Gayle made headlines for his batting but you picked up his wicket when you played the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It’s the toughest question of all: how do you stop him?
He’s a remarkable player, and he’s shown that, but I know how to dry up his runs. I’ve bowled against him in the Bangladesh Premier League and in the IPL, and he’s hit me for just one four. It’s not easy but I know his strengths and I know his weaknesses, and when I bowl to his weaknesses, I know I can win the battle.He doesn’t try and hit every single ball. He picks the ones he wants to go for. He doesn’t go from ball one, like some of the other batsmen.How about solving one of the IPL’s other mysteries – picking Sunil Narine. You didn’t get to face him but what did you make of his performance for the Kolkata Knight Riders?
I don’t think anyone can argue that he’s a terrific talent. On a turning wicket he’s basically unplayable. I stood behind the nets and watched him and I couldn’t pick him at all. He can turn the ball both ways. I’m looking forward to seeing him in international cricket. There’s no doubt that he is some kind of special talent who can go a long way in the game. It will be interesting to see how he goes. Some people might think he will fade out like Ajantha Mendis, but I think he might be different.You went over to the IPL as an Englishman but there were relatively few of you out there. Owais Shah and Kevin Pietersen were the exceptions. Do you think more will follow as time goes by?
It’s a tough one. It’d be nice to see more English players out there but that might not happen because of the international schedule, which is a shame. KP was amazing out in India. He made a stunning hundred, but he’s been playing good cricket for a while now for England. The fans love him too.

Tendulkar and Laxman’s contributions helped India save the Test and will rank among their more significant

Cricinfo staff13-Oct-2008
Between them, Tendulkar and Laxman scored only 91 runs but they blunted Australia’s attack for 268 balls and spent nearly six hours at the crease © Getty Images
In time, the innings played by Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman today will be forgotten among their more glamorous conquests. It shouldn’t be so; their contributions, though humble in purely numerical terms, are immense when seen in context – they helped India save the Test – and will rank among their more significant.Tendulkar is the elephant in the fourth-innings room. His repeated failures in the final leg of a Test have forced admirers to look towards Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag for a saviour. He averages 33.60 in the final innings with three half-centuries. His hundreds are so rare that they are easily recalled: Old Trafford 1990, Chennai 1999.Tendulkar had started the tour of Sri Lanka needing 172 runs to break Brian Lara’s record but after six innings he was still 77 short. He wasn’t clueless against Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan, like some of his team-mates, for he often began confidently only to get out in unorthodox ways or to soft shots. It was the same in the first innings in Bangalore, when a spooned drive to short cover off a slower ball brought about his dismissal.The situation when he walked out this morning hinted at India’s bugbear: a calamitous final-day collapse. Sehwag and Dravid had been dismissed and 74.3 overs remained. Tendulkar received his routine rousing welcome from the crowd but the half-empty ground, on a day when he needed only 64 runs to become Test cricket’s leading run-scorer, was perhaps a sign of the times. If this was 1998, the Chinnaswamy Stadium would have been packed, irrespective of it being a Monday.Tendulkar did not face Stuart Clark in the first innings. When he did in the second, Clark had Haddin stand up to the stumps, a tactic he used successfully in Sydney. Tendulkar was immediately bowled on that occasion while coming forward but today he negotiated Clark primarily from his crease, using his wrists to open the face and steer the ball through point for his first boundary.Mitchell Johnson operated with the first-innings trap in place: a slip, two men at short cover and a point waiting for the lofted drive or the outside edge. Tendulkar was able to slip right through it, square-driving his first ball from Johnson through point for four. He then fended a couple of short balls awkwardly towards leg gully but, when Ponting moved himself into that position, Tendulkar found other ways to counter that line of attack.Apart from one ambitious appeal from Michael Clarke, the bowlers barely had a chance against him. His three-hour vigil spanned the decisive passage of play – the post-lunch session – and included partnerships with Gautam Gambhir and Laxman that virtually ensured India’s safety.The Australians don’t sledge Tendulkar because they think it fires him up. Watson, though, had a go at Laxman after bowling several short balls. Laxman didn’t respond but Tendulkar walked towards Watson and had a word. He was in a mood for battle.Tendulkar’s well-knit innings began to fray as the light deteriorated during the final session. He played out 11 balls on 48 and talked with umpires, presumably about the conditions. His concentration lapsed moments later and a lofted drive to cover gave the debutant Cameron White his first wicket. His contribution was immense but he had left the job of saving the Test, and the quest for the world record, incomplete.Until then Laxman had batted in Tendulkar’s shadow but now he was critical to India’s chances. He had found scoring opportunities difficult against a strong leg-side field in the first innings. They remained hard to come by in the second for Ponting had two men at short midwicket, a leg gully, a silly mid-on, a conventional mid-on, and a square leg at various times but patience underlined Laxman’s approach.He wore down the fast bowlers with terrific defence and, once the fading light ensured only the spinners could operate, Laxman was at ease. Four men hovered around the bat – leg slip, first slip, silly point and short leg – for Clarke and White but Laxman’s supple wrists and swift footwork nullified the threat.Between them, Tendulkar and Laxman scored only 91 runs but they blunted Australia’s attack for 268 balls and spent nearly six hours at the crease. Their gritty, unfashionably restrained efforts are the reason why the series is still level.

The CA Green vs CA Gold match had been organised to provide more red-ball cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Mar-2024Alana King and Heather Graham nearly bowled CA Green to victory over CA Gold in the red-ball fixture in Adelaide as the bowlers had a say on the final day in a match that had previously been dominated by the bat, including a double century for Georgia Voll.The game, aimed at providing more red-ball exposure, ended in a draw with CA Gold having been set 265 after dismissing Green for 259. They were 173 for 7 with Emma de Broughe, who scored a century in the first innings, unbeaten on 86 after King and Graham had shared seven wickets to run through the middle order.The first two days at Karen Rolton Oval had been heavily in favour of the batters as Voll hit an unbeaten 200 from 238 balls for CA Green which was followed by centuries for de Broughe, who was named Young Player of the Year at this year’s CA awards, and Nicole Faltum.”I haven’t faced a red ball since I was 12,” Voll, who averaged 41.72 in this season’s WNCL, said after the opening day. “It was nice to get the opportunity to face a red ball and face the girls for a long period of time and test my skills.”I didn’t want to change the way I play too much because I’ve been pretty happy with the way I’ve been playing in the WNCL in the back end of the year. So I wanted to play the same style but just do it for longer.”Late on the second day, Gabby Sutcliffe claimed three wickets to open up the contest and on the final morning Darcie Brown made further inroads including Voll for 56. When Brown removed Maddy Darke for a duck three balls later, Green were 104 for 5 and only ahead by 109. King and Chloe Piparo, who scored a half-century in each innings, extended the advantage with King eventually being last out for 81.King, who will head to Bangladesh on Saturday with the Australia squad, was then among the wickets in the second innings while Graham helped give CA Green a chance of victory when she removed Sianna Ginger and Amanda-Jade Wellington.

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Além da confusão no entorno do Mangueirão, onde dois torcedores do Corinthians foram atingidos por rojões, a organização para a entrada dos visitantes para o jogo contra o Remo, realizado na cidade de Belém, no Pará, também registrou problemas. A capacidade total foi ocupada e impediu até mesmo que corintianos com ingressos em mãos entrassem no local da partida. Cerca de 40 mil pessoas estiveram por lá.

De acordo com informações levantadas pela reportagem, essa confusão era prevista por conta do movimento contrário à divisão do estádio, como aconteceu em encontros entre o Remo e outros clubes da elite do futebol nacional em outros anos. Apenas 10% da carga foi disponibilizada para a Fiel.

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+Lázaro erra nas escolhas, Corinthians sofre pane coletiva e se complica na Copa do Brasil

Outro problema foram os altos valores cobrados inicialmente aos visitantes, que foram impedidos pelos órgãos regulamentadores. Por fim, as mudanças de preço causaram confusões e a quantia cobrada, mesmo assim, foi considerada alta: R$ 200.

Em contato com o LANCE!, o presidente do Remo, Fábio Bentes, garantiu que a carga de ingressos vendida foi abaixo da lotação do estádio. O mandatário disse que o clube sempre foi contrário a decisão de barrar os torcedores e confirmou que a instituição abriu um Boletim de Ocorrência para que a Polícia Civil apure o ocorrido.

– Temos tranquilidade em afirmar que a carga vendida para o jogo hoje foi abaixo da lotação do estádio. Tinham espaços, principalmente nas cadeiras, dos dois lados, também nas arquibancadas. Tivemos a preocupação de fazer os espaços ao receber as informações que os portões tinham sido fechados. A decisão não partiu do clube e somos contra essa decisão. Registramos um boletim de ocorrência e pedimos que a Polícia Civil apure o ocorrido – disse Fábio Bentes em pronunciamento.

O presidente do Leão também alega que a torcida corintiana ocupou parte da arquibancadaque não estava prevista.

-Houve situação de ocupação de parte da arquibancada pela torcida do Corinthians que não estava prevista. Queremos entender como isso foi autorizado. Até então, os 10% mínimos do visitante estavam previstos para ficarem na cadeira B, e foram direcionados para a arquibancada sem a nossa concordância – explicou Fábio Santos

Em campo, o Remo dominou o Corinthians e venceu por 2 a 0, com gols marcados por Richard Franco e Muriqui. O confronto de volta acontecerá no próximo dia 26 de abril, na Neo Química Arena, em São Paulo. O Leão pode perder por até um gol de diferença para ficar com a classificação às oitavas de final da Copa do Brasil. Em caso de triunfo por dois gols do Timão, a decisão irá para os pênaltis.

اتخذ نادي نيس الفرنسي قرارًا بشأن المحترف المصري محمد عبد المنعم، فيما يخص قائمة الفريق في بطولة الدوري الأوروبي، موسم 2025/26، مرحلة الدوري.

وأجرى الاتحاد الأوروبي لكرة القدم، يويفا، مراسم قرعة مرحلة الدوري من بطولة الدوري الأوروبي، الموسم الجديد، يوم الجمعة الماضي.

وأسفرت القرعة عن 8 متنافسين لـ نيس في تلك المرحلة من البطولة، وهم: “روما، بورتو، براجا، فناربخشة، فرايبورج، لودوجورتس، جو أهيد إيجلز، سيلتا فيجو”.

وأرسل نيس قائمة الفريق المستدعاة للمشاركة في مرحلة الدوري من الدوري الأوروبي، لـ يويفا، حيث شهدت استبعاد محمد عبد المنعم.

اقرأ أيضًا.. هل يعود محمد عبد المنعم إلى الأهلي بعد إصابة الصليبي؟

وتعرض محمد عبد المنعم لإصابة بقطع في الرباط الصليبي في أبريل الماضي، ولم تُحدد مدة غيابه حيث يتوقف الأمر على تعافيه التام، ولكن يبدو أن نيس شعر أنه لن يكون لائقًا حتى نهاية مرحلة الدوري من البطولة، ليقرر استبعاده.

وفي حال تأهل نيس إلى دور الـ16، يمكن للنادي تحديث قائمته بإضافة 3 لاعبين كحد أقصى، حسب قواعد يويفا، ومن ثم يمكنه إدراج محمد عبد المنعم في ذلك الوقت إذا كان جاهزًا للمشاركة.

وانضم محمد عبد المنعم إلى نيس قادمًا من الأهلي، في أغسطس 2024، وشارك في 18 مباريات في مختلف المسابقات مع الفريق الفرنسي.

Glamorgan 370 for 3 (Northeast 186*, Carlson 77, Root 67) vs MiddlesexIn a dank start to the year, few would be able to state with any confidence that they’ve yet heard their first cuckoo of spring. But cock an ear to the shires on this cold grey day in April, and you’d hear loud and clear the mocking laugh of the Kookaburra – an invasive species in these parts, and one that’s been flown in direct from the Antipodes to disrupt the habitat of county cricket’s native seamers.By the close, Glamorgan’s own man from the south east, Sam Northeast, was laughing longest and loudest. Ashford in Kent is not quite so far flung as the Eucalypt forests of Queensland, but for Middlesex’s toiling bowlers, Northeast might as well have been Ricky Ponting at the Gabba in 2002-03, for all the effortless dominance he exerted after being handed first use of a characteristically flat Lord’s deck.For it was a case of four washouts and one wipeout on the opening day of the 2024 County Championship. The legendary status of the Lord’s drainage meant that London’s morning downpours were never likely to cause the issues encountered at Derby or Old Trafford, but when Toby Roland-Jones won the toss for Middlesex and chose to bowl first, he could not have envisaged a first-day scoreline of 370 for 3 grinning back at him, or that his incorrectly calling counterpart would be sitting pretty on 186 not out from 266 balls.Perhaps, like Nasser Hussain in that fateful Brisbane Test 20 years ago, TRJ’s was an instinctively defensive decision, borne of his team’s memories – almost exactly a year ago to the day – of being reduced to 4 for 4 by Essex’s Jamie Porter and Sam Cook. More likely, though, it was an unthinking assumption that the ball, any ball, would do enough talking to fast-track Middlesex’s bid for an instant return to the top flight.Not so fast. Although the impact was more apparent at Lord’s than elsewhere, if you squinted through the clouds that enveloped this first day of county action, a common theme emerged, with many of the contests reflecting precisely the type of clear-skied Ashes scoreline that this ball-switching experiment has been designed to do away with – a smattering of breakthroughs within the first 15 or so overs, including Ethan Bamber’s snicking-off of Zain-ul-Hassan for this year’s maiden Championship wicket, then scant reward and a lot of hard yakka thereafter.Billy Root notched a fifty after moving up to open the batting•PA Photos/Getty Images

Both Billy Root and Kiran Carlson might have had designs on centuries of their own when each fell to a glaring misjudgement – with Root’s waft across the line to a decent deck-hitting delivery from Henry Brookes giving Middlesex’s new signing his first and only scalp in 12 energetic but under-threatening overs.Northeast did had a moment of luck on 11, when Max Holden spilled him at backward point off Bamber, but he could hardly have made it count with more aplomb. With a short boundary down the hill to the Mound Stand, he peppered his drives as the shine went off the ball and the Kookaburra’s more slender seam resolutely refused to grip.Notwithstanding a schoolboy hundred for Harrow versus Eton in 2007 (when Gary Ballance, no less, had been a team-mate), in three previous Championship matches at Lord’s, dating back to his first-ball duck for Kent as a 21-year-old in 2011, Northeast had mustered a total of 50 runs at 10.00. Now, en route to what he later described as a “bucket-list” century, he rushed past that total from just 51 balls in a joyous spring offensive. At the other end, Root was scarcely any more sluggish in getting to his fifty from 63 balls, in a second-wicket stand of 129.And, in a direct rebuttal of one of the most pervasive pre-season narratives, by mid-afternoon, the home attack was being carried by the unlikely spin twins of Josh De Caires and Leus du Plooy, a man who might already be feeling a touch of buyer’s remorse after his high-profile move from Derbyshire. Du Plooy even found some purchase in his six exploratory overs, including a snorter that bit past the outside edge to clip the back pad, but it wasn’t enough to dislodge a free-flowing Glamorgan captain.By the time he’d flicked the under-used Ryan Higgins off his toes for the 26th and final four, Northeast had romped along to 179 from 241 balls, and with almost an hour of the day still remaining, he seemed odds-on to rack up a remarkable first-day double-hundred.Instead, with the second Kookaburra offering perhaps just a fraction more assistance than the first, he took his foot off the throttle as the close approached – as is the wont of a man who, two seasons ago, racked up the Championship’s most recent quadruple-century. At the rate this innings has progressed, and with the new ball already primed for its mid-life crisis at the age of 16 overs, there’ll be plenty more where those have already come from.”I plan to be very greedy on day two,” Northeast said at the close. “It’s been a fantastic day and I’m not sure we could have dreamt of it this morning. I want to lead from the front, so it is a nice way to start that, but I’d like to be walking away from here with a victory, that’s the most important thing.”It’s been a good toss to lose at the minute. I would have had a bowl as well, but that’s the way things go. We’ll see what it’s like when our bowlers get on it. We were expecting the wicket to do a little bit more, maybe that is the Kookaburra ball. We may have to get a bit imaginative with how we go about things.”Brookes added: “The Kookaburra is different. You don’t get as much movement and the ball doesn’t stay as hard for as long, but it’s here to stay for a few games this year so we have to work hard with it, see what movement we can get and do things a little bit differently.”