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On a crucial day, Kusal Mendis used his immaculate technique to find success where his team-mates failed, and it gave Sri Lanka some reason to celebrate after a recent bleak period

Andrew Fidel Fernando28-Jul-2016Kusal Mendis’ first run after lunch takes him to 87. It is 13 short of a hundred. It is the number men in the opposition will say is unluckiest for a batsman. But Mendis doesn’t know that. Or at least, he doesn’t play like he does.Soon, he squirts a single to square leg. Soon after, he puts a Josh Hazlewood ball through midwicket with that homespun punch-pull. When he sweeps Nathan Lyon for six in the following over, he has moved clean through the nineties in eight balls. He owns 72% of the team’s runs. He is living out the fantasy of anyone to have held a bat. If at the time Mendis knows that, he doesn’t celebrate like he does.The defence has been immaculate since his amble to the crease. To the spinners, he pushes feet forward, sticks bat close to body, watches and waits. Here is a player who drags his feet at the non-strikers’ end. Who lets his blade trail along the ground when strolling to his partner, mid-pitch. In so much of his demeanour, he is the team’s kid brother – he is the youngest man on the field. But if a ball is to be blocked, Mendis is the Michelin-starred joint just as doors open for dinner service. He is the Special Forces unit, awaiting orders to move in.”He’s one of our guys who really has a technique,” coach Graham Ford had said of him last month. How rare that is in a nation where pure technique is a breakthrough, rather than a birthright. There were at least seven years in international cricket before Kumar Sangakkara worked out a set-up that satisfied him. Aravinda de Silva needed a summer with Kent to unlock his gifts. Yet, seven Tests in, and 21 years old, Mendis sees through the dip and away-spin from Steve O’Keefe in the morning. He milks the turn into his body from Lyon. He pushes away and picks off Hazlewood’s full length. Then in the afternoon, when the ball begins to reverse-swing, the drives come fresh and flowing, like a scent on the breeze. Hazlewood is drilled past his right foot. The straight drive off Mitchell Starc is more delicate, but as delectable – teasing fielders who nearly collide, and give chase all the way in vain.Only in the stroke to get to a hundred, and in one other shot in the day, was there violence. Starc had venom for him all morning, of the verbal variety as much as with ball in hand. But when the bowler went wide, Mendis upper-cut him behind point. Next ball, the overcorrection skidded past fine leg.Late in the day, there is that lofted on-drive flick too – the one that had the crowd sitting up and taking notice on a bleak afternoon in Leeds. Yet it was not Headingley, but Hyderabad that made a man of Mendis. Having led an unsuccessful Under-19 World Cup campaign in 2014, Mendis breezed to 156 in the little-loved Moin-ud-Dowlah three-day tournament last year, then suddenly found himself in the Test XI against West Indies, just one first-class hundred and a fifty to his name.If he has layered improbability upon improbability in producing this innings – defusing the spinners where others have lunged and groped, scoring quickly off the fast men who have had team-mates prodding and jerking, it is because he has stacked improbabilities all his life. The son of a Moratuwa three-wheeler driver, Mendis became Sri Lankan cricket royalty when he was named 2014’s Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year. Two years later, today, he put a three-hour frown on the captain of the world’s top Test team. He threaded balls through the gaps of a five-man leg-side infield. He turned the Test in a new direction, and along the way, the opposition’s mouthy spearhead into a mute.”Angelo told us that they come at you very hard in the first few spells and the main thing is to get them bowling into their third and fourth spells,” Mendis said after play. “So we stuck at the wicket in the best way we could. During the last couple of hours, they came with a plan to have more fielders on the leg side. We also knew that, and played the situation well.”By the time he went to stumps on 169*, the team 196 runs ahead, Sri Lanka fans had begun to hope Mendis is the man they have been waiting for. Following perhaps the bleakest seven months for this team since the turn of the century, there is a reason to fry up the fish cutlets in celebration, to break out the arrack for joy (Mendis brand, why would you even ask?).As composed after the day, as he was against O’Keefe, or Lyon or Starc, Mendis didn’t know he was playing one of Sri Lanka’s great innings. Or at least it didn’t seem like he does.

Stats preview of the fourth Test between West Indies and India at Port of Spain where the visitors have a chance of registering a rare third win in an away series.

Shiva Jayaraman17-Aug-20163-3 West Indies’ win-loss record against India in Port of Spain; the last Test played between the teams at this venue was won by India by 37 runs. The hosts last beat India here in 1989 when they won by a huge margin of 217 runs. This will be the 13th Test played between the teams at this venue; six of them have been drawn.1968 The only time India have won three Tests in an away series. They had beaten New Zealand by a margin of 3-1 on that occasion. India are leading 2-0 in this series. Should they win the Port of Spain Test, it will also be only the sixth time that they win three Tests in any series, away or home. The last such win for them came against South Africa at home when they beat the visitors 3-0 in a four Test series.112 India’s ranking points if they win the series by a margin of 3-0, which will help them retain their newly acquired No. 1 rank on the ICC ranking system. Australia’s 0-3 loss to Sri Lanka has meant that India are currently at the top of the rankings, before they are updated again after the West Indies-India series. A 2-0 result or worse for India would leave the top rank with Pakistan.2-1 West Indies’ win-loss record at Port of Spain in the last ten years – their best at any home venue in Tests. They beat New Zealand by 10 wickets in their last Test here, in 2014. Their other win came against Sri Lanka in 2008. They drew their Tests against England and Australia, and lost to South Africa in 2010.5 Number of India batsmen who have scored at least 200 runs in this series at an average 50 or higher. Apart from Ajinkya Rahane, whose 243 runs in the series have come at an average of 121.50, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha are the other India batsmen to have done so. None of the West Indies batsmen have managed to aggregate 200 runs in the first three Tests. Should five India batsmen manage to finish this series with 200-plus runs at an average north of 50, that would be a first for India in an away series.46.11 West Indies pacers’ current bowling average in this series. This is only the eighth time that they have averaged 40 or worse in a series at home. Their captain, Jason Holder, has taken just one wicket from the 86.4 overs he has bowled and has given away 239 runs. Their only five-wicket haul came in the second innings of the last Test when Miguel Cummins reaped 6 for 48. Excluding that spell, West Indies’ fast bowlers have taken 12 wickets in the series at an average of 65.17.20.77 Batting average of West Indies’ top three batsmen in this series – their third-worst ever in a Test series at home involving three or more matches. They have scored a total of 374 runs from 18 innings in this series with a highest of 74. Kraigg Brathwaite averages the best at 28.00, among the four batsmen that have been tried by the home team, having scored 168 runs including two fifties from six innings.29.91 Shikhar Dhawan’s batting average in Tests outside Asia; he has made 718 runs including one hundred and three fifties in 24 innings. After the Test series in New Zealand in 2013-14 – when he made 215 runs at an average of 53.75 in two Tests – Dhawan’s average in Tests outside Asia has been 26.68. The career statistics for India’s other opening option Murali Vijay aren’t significantly better than Dhawan’s in Tests outside Asia: 1187 runs at 33.91. However, Vijay did well in India’s previous two series outside Asia: he made 482 runs at 60.25 eight innings in Australia and 402 runs at 40.20 in ten innings in England.1 Away Test venues at which India have played more matches than the 12 they have played at Port of Spain – they have played 17 Tests at Lord’s. India have played 12 Tests at three other venues – at the Oval, the MCG and Sabina Park in Jamaica.

Four Tests into their Test tour of Bangladesh and India, George Dobell provides a half-term report on the England squad

George Dobell23-Nov-2016Good:Ben Stokes:
Averaging 20.84 with the ball and 51.57 with the bat, it is hardly surprising that Stokes is rated England’s “golden player” by captain, Alastair Cook. He has looked England’s most dangerous purveyor of reverse-swing and at times troubled batsmen – he has hit several on the head or body – with his hostility even on slow surfaces. But it is his improvement against spin bowling that has been revelatory. More secure in his defence and more mature in his shot selection, he has a century and two half-centuries on the tour so far. This trip was always likely to offer one of the defining Tests of Stokes’ career: so far he has been deeply impressive. He is England’s best fielder in just about every position, too.Haseeb Hameed:
An impressive start. Described as “unflappable” by his captain, Hameed has taken to Test cricket with a sense of calm proficiency that bodes well for his future. Slightly unfortunate to miss out on a century on debut – he fell as England tried to set-up a declaration – he nevertheless demonstrated a sound technique and more scoring options than many had expected in registering the highest Test score made by an England teenager. While the short-ball remains an area of potential weakness, he has looked more secure against spin than several more experienced colleagues and promises to answer half of England’s opening questions for a decade and more.Stuart Broad:
Has bowled better than the figures (8 wickets at 26.37 apiece) show. Immaculate in conditions offering him little (he conceded fewer than two runs per over in Chittagong), he delivered 29 overs in the first innings in Rajkot (nine of them maidens) and has offered his side control even at times when the spinners have struggled. He was especially impressive in Vizag, where he demonstrated his mastery of the leg-cutter and gained just enough seam movement from the cracked surface to trouble all the batsmen. The only downside is the foot injury sustained in the opening moments of that Test. The manner in which he shrugged it off to produce by fair his best performance in Asia was though, in Cook’s words, “extraordinary.” He has gone a long way to answering the questions facing him in these conditions. Only judged as a bowler; the all-rounder days are long gone.Chris Woakes:
Proving the point that you can’t judge a player simply on statistics (he has taken four wickets in the three Tests he has played), Woakes has contributed heavily without personal reward. Impressively accurate – he conceded 63 runs from 35 overs in Rajkot – he has also impressed with his hostility on slow surfaces and troubled Cheteshwar Pujara, in particular, with his bouncer. Rotated out of the side for the Vizag Test, England missed his batting notably.Jimmy Anderson:
A controversial selection in this category, perhaps. But Anderson’s determination to regain fitness and play a part on a tour where conditions offer him little is reflective of his whole-hearted commitment to this side. Despite finding almost no swing, he was England’s best seamer in the first innings in Vizag – to bounce out an opener on that surface must have been especially pleasing for a man whose pace is questioned these days – and produced a peach of a delivery to bowl Pujara (set up by cutters, he was then bowled through the gate by a quicker inswinger) in the second.Adil Rashid:
Rashid has shown improvement after an undistinguished start. Slightly flattered by his figures in Bangladesh – he picked up some cheap wickets in Dhaka but conceded more than four-an-over in both innings and wasn’t trusted to bowl in Chittagong as the game built to a conclusion – he has bowled better in India. It is probably no coincidence that his improvement has coincided with Saqlain Mushtaq’s arrival. Encouraged to back himself and forget about previous instructions to bowl faster, Rashid has looked more confident, bowled fewer release deliveries (he conceded only seven boundaries – five fours and two sixes – in 34.4 overs in the first innings in Vizag) and claimed 13 wickets in the two Tests so far. He was referred to as “our best spinner” after the Vizag Test by the coach, Trevor Bayliss, and has contributed a couple of useful innings, too.Jonny Bairstow:
Standing up to the stumps used to define a keeper’s ability and Bairstow has generally kept well in demanding conditions. Certainly he has demonstrated that he has improved greatly with the gloves. While he does not have a substantial score to show for his good form with the bat – only once in seven innings on this tour has Bairstow failed to 24, but he has not passed 53 – he made key runs in both innings in Chittagong, rebuilt nicely at Vizag and fell selflessly trying to push on in Rajkot.Gareth Batty:
A bit unfortunate to be dropped after a one-match recall in Chittagong. He opened the bowling in both innings and bowled more than respectably – he looked to have the most control of the England spinners, though possibly lacks just a bit of pace for modern international cricket – but has paid the price for being a second off-spinner (Moeen is first choice) in India against a line-up stacked with right-handed batsmen.Could do better:Joe Root:
Only because of the high standards Root has set himself does he find himself in this category. He has once fluent century, albeit in fairly benign conditions, but has twice been out just after making a half-century – his dismissal in Vizag, caught at long-off was especially frustrating – and is averaging a relatively modest 38 from the four Tests. From most players, that would be fine. But England need more from Root.Alastair Cook:
Averaging 37 over the four Tests, Cook looked some way below until well into the Rajkot Test. Cook scored 89 in four innings in Bangladesh – 59 of them in the second innings in Dhaka – but, after a torturous start to his second innings in Rajkot, found his form with his 30th Test century. He followed that up with a typically defiant 50 in Vizag – his slowest Test half-century – and looked to be back in form. He has generally juggled his bowlers OK – he has a difficult task because of the modesty of the spin attack – but will surely regret the lack of a gully with the second new ball in Vizag and the failure to post one of his best catches at deep backward square when setting up a hook trap.Moeen Ali:
Only because of the high-standards that Moeen sets himself with the bat does he find himself in this category. While he made an important half-century in Chittagong and a typically pleasing century in Rajkot, those are the only occasions he has reached 15 in seven innings in the two series. Now batting at No. 5, more is required than a batting average of 30.28 over the four Tests. With 18 wickets at a cost of 27.27, his bowling has been better. He has looked very dangerous for left-handers but has found life against right-handers harder. Still not quite able to offer his captain the control he would like – 3.20 an over is not a disaster, though – his strike-rate of a wicket every 51 balls remains impressive.Steven Finn:
Bowled 11 overs in conditions offering him little in Dhaka. Too small a sample-size to make a judgement.Disappointing:Ben Duckett:
Dismissed in strikingly similar three times in the four Tests – with foot planted on leg stump he has been undone by off-spinners’ turn – this tour has so far suggested the elevation to Test cricket might have come a little early. One counter-attacking innings in Dhaka apart – his 50, either admirably uninhibited or oddly reckless depending on your point of view (there was probably an element of both) – took 61 balls – he has not passed 15 in his other six innings. Uncharacteristically, he missed a relatively simple chance in the field in Dhaka and is expected to be dropped ahead of the Mohali Test. Young and talented enough to come again it was, in retrospect, asking a great deal of Duckett to cope with a trial by spin at this level at this stage of his career.Zafar Ansari:
It’s harsh to put Ansari in this category. He has only played three Tests – all of them in demanding circumstances – and the last one of them saw him suffering from illness and injury. But a batting average of 9.80 and a bowling average of 55 leaves little alternative. He has also conceded more than four-an-over. After a nervous start in Dhaka – he bowled several full-tosses – he performed much better in Rajkot with bat and ball. He is up against fine players of spin, though, and the decision to introduce him before the other spinners in Vizag resulted in a release of pressure.Gary Ballance:
Dropped after four single-figure scores in Bangladesh. Conditions were demanding, for sure, but a batting average of six left the England management with little options.

England were the better team in the drawn Rajkot Test, but the series is still 0-0 and India are still playing at home, on a Visakhapatnam pitch that looks likely to favour their strengths

Alagappan Muthu in Visakhapatnam16-Nov-2016Is momentum in cricket real?Captains talk about it in earnest. Commentators go one step further, looking for the actual tipping point. It becomes part of the answer to why a player is in form and can even lay out why he isn’t. It impacts a side’s performance no matter the format. It even supersedes arguments such as conditions being different or that not all people tend to be affected by something in the same way.Clearly, physics was never big enough to hold momentum all to itself and having transcended into the sporting arena, it has become a buzzword that nobody can escape.In Rajkot, Virat Kohli said momentum “sort of defines if you have an advantage of a disadvantage as a team”. By that logic, can England consider themselves as being on top going into the Visakhapatnam Test? They made more runs in Rajkot. They took more wickets. They even took the awards. Assuming momentum is as powerful as everyone says, perhaps.Only, before the series began, India had crushed New Zealand, a team that seemed well-equipped to handle spin-friendly conditions. They hadn’t lost a Test in over a year and the last time they did so at home was in 2012. If momentum was such an irresistible force, Kohli and his men shouldn’t have been given the scare they were. Besides, they’ve insisted it wasn’t a scare. That tense situations like being six down with 10 overs left on a fifth-day pitch are a learning experience. You can imagine how desperately disappointed they must have been as kids when school was out.Momentum seems to have a tendency to vary with points of view as well. Alastair Cook is buoyed by the strength of England’s performance in the opening Test of one of the toughest series of his career. Kohli believes he will get a track that is conducive to India’s strengths so he is barely bothered about the events in Rajkot. Ask them who has the momentum, both men, would likely say they do. Makes sense. Not.Look at the things that have changed. India have brought back their first-choice opener. KL Rahul comes into the second Test on the back of a first-class century which not only points to his form but importantly establishes that he has recovered well from a hamstring injury. On the other hand, England are worried over the availability of Chris Woakes, who has been among their best performing players since the start of their home summer.Then there is the surface, which may start out better than hoped but would certainly deteriorate a lot quicker than the one at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Ground. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have exploited such conditions in the past. All they need is one to spin big. That combined with their ability to undercut the ball and make a few go straight has led many a batsmen to confusion. It is not an easily replicable skill. A spinner hoping for as little deviation as possible has to avoid the seam hitting the deck. Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Zafar Ansari may have made a fine start to the series, but can they match the Indians’ tricks? None of them is experienced enough in this format to carry a bowling attack.Finally, the batting. It is never black and white in touch conditions, which arguably, neither of these sides has had to deal with so far. Visakhapatnam – from day three onwards – appears set to remedy that. So defensive techniques need to be tight. Partnerships become crucial for any time a new batsman comes in, the likelihood of him getting out quickly may as well be a blaring red light on top of his head.Even if someone is in form, he has to be mindful of the ways in which the bowler is targeting him. Just because he made a hundred in the last innings doesn’t give him the right to pass go and collect 200 the next time. Monopoly rules sadly don’t apply in cricket.All these factors – the pitch, each team’s plans, each individual’s plans, the outcome of the toss – dispute the impact momentum can have across matches. Within a match then. Does one team pulling ahead immediately set them up in a match? Four years ago, in Ahmedabad, Cook made a resoundingly defiant 176 while following-on which forced the Indian bowlers to tire themselves out and may even have had a bearing on their potency in the next Test in Mumbai.Hard work, skill, and just that little bit of chance, make up a cricket match. Momentum – whatever it is – is a far weaker influence.

Pakistan will need every player to throw themselves into their fielding; every player to commit to a more positive approach with the bat; every player to remember they’re playing a team game

George Dobell in Birmingham06-Jun-2017It’s amazing how one defeat can change plans.Going into Pakistan’s opening match in the ICC Champions Trophy, Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur remarked: “We have a lot of faith and a lot of confidence in our opening pair. The two guys that we’ve been working with have done exceptionally. We’ve worked massively on our ball rotation, on our strike rates. It’s something we’ve prioritized in our preparation.”So what’s changed? Why is that, just one game later, Pakistan have abandoned that opening partnership? Or half of it, anyway, with Arthur confirming on Tuesday that Ahmed Shehzad would not feature in the game against South Africa.The answer is, in part, the nature of the defeat against India. So crushing was it, so overwhelming, that it left no room for doubt: something has to change in the manner in which Pakistan play ODI cricket.But it’s more than that. It’s also because of the way Shehzad played. It wasn’t just that he didn’t come off with the bat and mis-fielded a few times with the ball – these things happen – it was that he didn’t seem to have bought into the team culture.Maybe, at the start of the game, Shehzad was nervous. Maybe that explains why he was so slow to get down to the ball at point when Shikhar Dhawan punched his first delivery in that direction. As a consequence, the batsman was able to get off the mark immediately – something any batsman will tell you helps them settle – and, as Arthur put it later, the “tone was set”.Putting aside the fact that Shehzad seemed rattled by the big-match atmosphere – a worry in itself since it was his 79th ODI, meaning only two men in the side had played more – it was a forgivable error. Even the best fumble at one time or another; you don’t drop someone on such flimsy evidence.

It wasn’t just that Ahmed Shehzad didn’t come off with the bat and mis-fielded a few times with the ball – these things happen – it was that he didn’t seem to have bought into the team culture

But it wasn’t a one-off. Later in the innings, Shehzad failed to back-up a throw. He simply hadn’t moved into position and didn’t seem to be following the run of play in the detail you might expect. As a consequence, another run was conceded. It wasn’t an error as much as it was sloppy. It demonstrated not just human fallibility, but a lack of care. And that’s a lot harder to ignore.On both occasions, the unfortunate bowler was Imad Wasim. That’s relevant not just because it took a bit of the gloss off his figures, but because Pakistan’s team management was criticised for opening the bowling with Imad.Was the tactic wrong or was it the execution? Had Shehzad pounced on that first delivery, as he should have done, might Pakistan not have had a better chance of applying a bit of pressure on the India batsman? It was the only run scored off the bat that over, after all. But with Pakistan’s fielding porous as a colander, they had no hope of building pressure.Shehzad didn’t impress with the bat, either. While there was much pre-match talk about Pakistan’s new-found aggression, Shahzad barely played a shot in anger in his 22-ball stay. After cutting his second delivery for four, there were just eight singles before he departed at the end of the ninth over. The strut you see in training was replaced by an alarming timidity.Compare that to Azhar Ali.Azhar Ali is a trier in ODI cricket•Getty ImagesAzhar may well not have Shehzad’s inherent talent in this form of the game. He might not have his range of stroke or his easy timing. But you can feel Azhar trying to improve; you can feel him buying into Arthur’s desire to show more aggression at the top of the order. To see him driving Jasprit Bumrah, on the up, over mid-on or upper cutting him for four, or skipping down the pitch to Hardik Pandya and attempting to hit him over the top, was to see a man who has been prepared to develop his game; a man who was prepared to risk his wicket for the good of the team; a man who had bought in to everything his coach and captain had asked of him. He’s not the ideal ODI opener – of course he isn’t – but he’s trying his best. Coaches and captains respect that. Spectators, too.So disillusioned are Pakistan by Shehzad’s performance that he is to be replaced by an older man who has never played an ODI. Fakhar Zaman averages 50 in List A cricket, but it is asking a great deal of him to bring that form into an international match against the world’s top-rated ODI side.But if he buys into the team culture, if he is utterly committed in the field, if he risks his own average in a bid to make an important contribution for his side, he will be a man worth further investment. Pakistan’s limited-overs cricket has to change and if the likes of Shehzad won’t be part of that process, it’s hard to see how there will be room for him in the side.This being Pakistan, we cannot say he is at the end of the road yet. He is young, he is talented and, with the likes of Sharjeel Khan and Nasir Jamshed currently sidelined, he isn’t facing the competition for his spot he should be. But he’s been given a pretty clear warning about what is expected of him with this omission.We might have seen the last of Wahab Riaz•Getty ImagesThis may prove the end of the road for the injured Wahab Riaz, though. He is 32 later this month and, for all the pace, for all the excitement he generates, he takes few wickets and concedes too many runs. Since the World Cup his ODI bowling average is 47.08; in his most recent 14 ODIs – a period that dates back to November 2015 – it is 84.44 and he has conceded 6.47 runs per over. Pakistan may well look to younger men now.There is some reason for hope ahead of the South Africa game. With poor weather compromising pitch preparation, it has been decided not to use the fresh surface originally planned for this match and instead revert to the track utilised in the first two games at Edgbaston. As a result it is possible, just possible, that Pakistan’s spinners (and they will play four of them) will get just a bit out of the surface.They will also have Mohammad Amir in their side. Just for a moment, when he was hit on the shoulder while batting during training, it looked as if he was in trouble. But the team management insists the blow was not serious and he is expected to take his place in the side.With such players, an upset is always possible. But Pakistan will need every player to throw themselves into their fielding; every player to commit to a more positive approach with the bat; every player to remember they’re playing a team game. If they do that, they’ll have a chance. And they’ll be making progress.

With the verdict against Khalid Latif on Wednesday, all but two of the players charged with allegations related to spot-fixing in the PSL have had their sentences pronounced

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2017

Christian Ryan’s book about Patrick Eagar’s photographs celebrates the experience of watching the game

Paul Edwards10-Dec-2017″The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there,” writes JA Baker in . Yes.In 1975, Patrick Eagar photographed an English cricket season that included the first World Cup and a four-Test Ashes series. Now Christian Ryan has written a book about that summer, those photographs, Eagar’s art, and much else besides. He has helped us see what this great craftsman preserved from an age when taking pictures cost money and photographers knew what they had only when they had developed each roll of film. Baker’s words might have served as an epigraph for this book.There are no scorecards in , no session-by-session accounts, no chapter headings, and only the roughest sense of chronological order. There are many times when Ryan strays far beyond any of cricket’s wide boundaries. There is a photograph of Muhammad Ali knocking out Sonny Liston, another of the Bee Gees, and even a section of Monet’s . The penultimate picture in the book is Joel Meyerowitz’s famous shot of the North Wall of the World Trade Center after 9/11. This is appropriate, and probably intentional, not least because title is taken from Meyerowitz’s words in a 1981 documentary. It is about the only unoriginal line in the book.To a limited extent, might be seen as a companion work to Gideon Haigh’s . In both books there is a deep curiosity about the technical aspects of the photographer’s craft and the skills of cricketers; one difference, of course, is that Ryan has interviewed Eagar on Skype, whereas Haigh had to discover more about George Beldam’s technique by using more conventional historical methods.There is also the distinction that Haigh’s book is a biography of one cricketer, Victor Trumper, and a history of the game’s most famous photograph whereas Ryan and Eagar’s collaboration ranges across many players and a vast range of images. So let us be done with comparisons; there has never been a cricket book like this.One of the best things about is Ryan’s detailed commentary on specific photographs. In late May 1975 the Australians practised at Lord’s. Jeff Thomson faces the camera, hands on hips, while Dennis Lillee stands a little more side-on. Ryan writes this:

“Thomson was standing, so close they were touching, beside Lillee, one’s are the supple fingers of a cellist, dainty nearly, and his partner, though powerfully built, has a footman’s humble air, these two most glamorous cricketers on earth. On an exposed arm, fair hairs are sprinkled. Something of their beginnings comes through, an asbestos house, anxiety nosebleeds, magpies that swooped, too shy to dance, tensed up and leaving pages blank at school exams, sport all weekend, eaten-out soup cans for golf holes, zonal hockey, fishing, soccer in the Protestant Churches League, cricket in the Municipal and Shire competition.”

It is some writer who can change tenses in a sentence, risk the momentary giggle provoked by an image of shy magpies and still carry off a 98-word prose poem about what it was to be a young Australian athlete in the late-1960s. One does not need to agree with all of Ryan’s observations in order to be enriched by them. And maybe it is intentional that there are white spaces at the bottom of most pages of ; they could accommodate a reader’s own queries and observations. It might therefore be useful to have two copies, one to annotate and one for best. This is one of those relatively rare books that seems to welcome argument. “What are we looking at?” wonders Ryan. “What did I take?” asks Eagar.riverrunSome of Eagar’s photographs prompt us to reconsider cricketers we thought we already knew. A particular favourite is the shot of Steve Waugh playing a forward-defensive shot, almost certainly to a ball from John Emburey, in the 1989 Lord’s Test. Jack Russell has the gloves and Dickie Bird is at square leg. Neither wicketkeeper nor umpire repels a lens but it is Waugh’s angular precision that commands the attention. Everything is right; there is a beautiful Aussie obduracy about the stroke but also a quietness. England lost 25 out of the next 38 Ashes Tests in which Waugh played.The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there. Cricket often seems a game which is meant to be played rather than watched. We spend years of our lives watching it. And then a book like comes along, which justifies all that time and extends the parameters of our understanding.If is your thing, this book is probably not for you. If, on the other hand, you have looked at a game of cricket or even a group of players warming up and wondered, in both senses of the word, at the narratives such moments contain, one hopes your Christmas morning may be brightened by a stocking-filler richer than ripe Reblochon.And if you have a mild interest in cricket but know someone who is all but lost to the game, you should buy this book for them. Actually, buy two, because once you open , one doubts you’ll fancy parting with it. It helps us to see and then invites us to look again. In certain respects this is one of the bravest cricket books ever written.Feeling is the Thing That Happens in 1000th. of a Second – A Season of Cricket Photographer Patrick Eagar
By Christian Ryan
riverrun

Andile Phehlukwayo or Chris Morris. Temba Bavuma or AB de Villiers. Dale Steyn or Morne Morkel. “As a captain it’s probably the hardest selection I’ve had,” captain Faf du Plessis said

Firdose Moonda04-Jan-20182:05

Three selection questions for South Africa

“Bavuma-AB; Andile-Morris; Steyn-Morkel.”Captain Faf du Plessis knows his three major choices ahead of the upcoming Test summer. Apart from the pitch, South Africa’s selection of their starting XI, given that they have a full strength squad available, has been the major talking point in the lead-up to the series against India, both outside the dressing room and in it.”As a captain it’s probably the hardest selection I’ve had. But it’s certainly much better than having three seamers injured,” du Plessis said.For much of the last two years, South Africa have grappled with having frontline fast bowlers unavailable, and have had to make do with a second-tier pack. While Vernon Philander has been through torn ankle ligaments and lower-back spasms, Morne Morkel’s career was almost ended by a back issue and, more recently, a side strain. Chris Morris has also been out with a back problem while Dale Steyn has been front and centre of the injury list.In fact, he has barely played since South Africa and India last met in India in 2015. There, Steyn suffered a groin injury ahead of the second Test. When he returned against England in Durban a month later, he sustained a shoulder injury mid-match. He briefly recovered to take on New Zealand in August 2016 but in November broke a bone in his shoulder which has kept him out since. Given his lengthy absence and subsequent lack of game time, Ottis Gibson suggested South Africa will think hard about how soon they want him to return, but du Plessis seems keen for that to be as soon as possible.”For me, he is the best bowler in the world. He hasn’t played for a while and he hasn’t got the overs under his legs that he would have wanted, but facing Dale in the nets, it feels like the skill hasn’t gone anywhere,” du Plessis said. “He has got the same pace, and the same swing. Skills wise it’s like he has just jumped back on that bicycle and is riding again.”Du Plessis toned down his enthusiasm with the same reasoning Gibson had earlier in the week: that it may make more sense to send Steyn out as part of a stronger bowling attack later in the series. “It’s a possibility up on the Highveld to play four seamers,” du Plessis said. “But we’re still talking about what could be our strongest XI. I would like to give you a bit of insight into it but not quite yet.”The inclusion of Steyn could also depend on whether South Africa want to make room for the allrounder, which would be a choice between the incumbent Andile Phehlukwayo and Chris Morris, who last played in England. While Phehlukwayo has made an impressive start to his Test career, Morris offers pace and a reliable pair of hands in the slips or at gully. So, once again, the choice will likely depend on conditions. If that’s the case, Morris could be the man to play up country at SuperSport Park and the Wanderers and Phehlukwayo more suited to Newlands.”With the make-up of our squad now we have so many different options you can look at picking a different team for different venues. That’s our thinking,” du Plessis said.But both Phehlukwayo and Morris could find themselves on the bench if South Africa opt for seven batsmen, instead of six, and decide not to choose between Temba Bavuma and AB de Villiers. Of the three decisions they must make, this one is the toughest because it is a question of choosing between proven potential and reputable experience, between a small name and a big one.AFPSouth Africa’s transformation targets – which are applied over the course of a season and require the national side to field a minimum average of six players of colour of which two are black African – will also play a part in selection. If not now, then at some point over the season. In a six-batsmen strategy, if Bavuma plays, its easier to get Morris into the side; if de Villiers plays, the same applies to Phehlukwayo.To some, it seems an absurdity that de Villiers is even in a selection debate because he is considered an automatic pick in any side. However, de Villiers took a break from the game and not even du Plessis expected he would return to Tests. As recently as the end of the England series in early August, du Plessis said he would “be surprised” to see de Villiers back in whites. Knowing the toll a heavy workload takes on de Villiers is likely to prompt South Africa to proceed with caution when it comes to their former captain.”What’s important with AB is that he is fresh and hungry to score big runs,” du Plessis said. “He has had a good break. He feels mentally strong and he wants to put in big performances, so I think that’s half the battle already. When you have got a high-quality player like himself, if you get the mental side of things right, he can be a good asset.”All that musing takes us no closer to knowing what South Africa will do, but du Plessis will lead them in doing it. The captain has been sidelined since October when he sustained a back injury against Bangladesh, and missed the domestic twenty-over competition and one-off Zimbabwe Test. In that time, he also had surgery on a problematic shoulder and recovered from a viral infection.The focus on players making a comeback has not been on him, but it may as well be, because the captain wants to make plain that he is as ready as anyone to steer the ship. “I sent the Ferrari into the panel beaters, just to get fixed,” du Plessis joked about himself. “It was frustrating at times because everything happened slower than I thought it would. It’s 11 weeks now and I just feel now like I’m ready to play. Obviously time at home is nice, and the good thing is I didn’t miss much cricket for South Africa. I’m extremely hungry to play again.”

Nepal’s four last-gasp wins this year may have been too much to take for some, but for hardcore Nepal cricket fans, they are quickly becoming addictive

Peter Della Penna05-Aug-2018Walking along the Museumplein on a weeknight evening in Amsterdam, the sights and smells of the pedestrian mall between the Rijksmuseum and Het Concertgebouw might be characterised as medicinal. The pungent scent of cannabis is unmistakable as it wafts through the air.The scene is not much different the more you wander north towards De Wallen. Anyone who makes prolonged eye contact with suppliers loitering the streets, the ones who make their business by scanning the bustling night-time crowds looking for partiers, is bound to be asked, “You need me to get you anything?”But it’s hard to imagine any of the products they have for sale – tucked discreetly in their pockets – could be as intoxicating as Nepal’s 2018 cricket roadshow. Amidst the euphoria of the post-match celebrations from the 100 or so hardcore addicts who lined the boundary at the Mulder End of the VRA Ground in Amstelveen on Friday to witness Nepal’s one-run win off the final ball to defeat Netherlands, one sign stood out that summed up how they get their fix: “NEPALI CRICKET is our DRUG, PARAS is our DEALER!!”For those who are hooked and can’t shake the habit, Nepal’s manner of victories on tour this year may be starting to produce a hallucinogenic effect. Is it really possible to experience four matches in the space of six months that have all come down to the final wicket, final run, or final ball, wind up on the winning side every single time and not wonder if this is some kind of psychedelic acid trip?According to the kingpin of the entire operation of smuggling victories out of the jaws of defeat, the elixir for success is much more mundane than it seems.”More than experience, I call it a lot of fortune favours the brave as they say,” Paras Khadka said, after his country’s first ever ODI win on Friday, of his gang’s ability to consistently come out on top with pressure at its peak.In each of these four victories this year, the most salient characteristic is how Nepal have held their nerve while the opposition has become a bit twitchy. The streak started against Namibia in Windhoek. Nepal appeared to have lost the match as per the DLS calculations when heavy rain stopped play at 111 for 8 in 43 overs, chasing a target of 139.A handshake line seemed imminent when all of a sudden the skies cleared, giving Nepal’s tailenders a shot in the arm. The equation was whittled to seven off six with one wicket in hand when medium-pacer Jan Frylinck cracked, leaking a two and four behind point to Basant Regmi before sending a wide down leg for the clinching run.Four days later, Kenya had Nepal’s batting backbone of Khadka, vice-captain Gyanendra Malla and Sharad Vesawkar all dismissed at 82 for 5 chasing 179 and could be heard shrieking in delight as victory seemed a foregone conclusion. But 15-year-old Rohit Kumar and Aarif Sheikh took Nepal to the last two overs, and by the final ball two runs were needed to win, just like Friday in Amstelveen. Sompal Kami flicked a full ball to deep midwicket for one but Shem Ngoche muffed the collection haring off the rope to cut off the second as Kami and Paudel scampered to victory.Captain Paras Khadka and the rest of the Nepal team take an impromptu celebratory selfie•Peter Della PennaAgainst Canada, a legendary last-wicket stand by Karan KC and Sandeep Lamichhane, that had already accounted for 43 runs, was on the verge of being a footnote in history after four Cecil Pervez yorkers turned the last over equation that started with eight off six needed into eight off two. But in a mano a mano staredown for a place at the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, Pervez blinked first. Karan stepped back to carve him over extra cover for six, a wide down leg levelled the scores before a full toss was swatted over the leg side to see Nepal through.Even with the deck stacked heavily against them on all three occasions in Namibia, Nepal waited patiently for the bowling side to falter and then pounced ruthlessly. Friday was different, though. And not just because it was Nepal in the field.With two needed off the final two balls, the last Dutch pair at the crease and the ball in Khadka’s hand, the field was brought up to cut off a single. The shoe was truly on the other foot when Khadka floated one down the leg side to Fred Klaassen. With fine leg up, all that was needed was a slight tickle for the winning boundary but he whiffed off the pad flap, negating a wide to rub salt into the miscued shot attempt.Still, Klaassen had one more chance. Khadka floated up a juicy half-volley on off stump and Klaassen didn’t hold back in smashing it past Khadka before he could get his hand down to stop it. Mid-on and mid-off were up and the ball looked certain to bisect the gap for a game-winning four.Instead, three wooden sticks anthropomorphised into Nepal’s 12th man. It was divine intervention that the stumps behind Khadka not only blocked the drive but provided the perfect carrom relay to the captain, who was only too grateful to pick up the ball and best Klaassen in a race to the non-striker’s stumps, ripping one out briefly before chucking it to the ground as he ran towards a delirious Nepal team tent. When that happens, it’s hard not to think Khadka has got Nepal’s opponents under a magical drug-induced spell.When asked at a press conference before the 2001 World Series if there was a particular “mystique and aura” at Yankee Stadium that was responsible for the New York Yankees dramatic wins at home during the playoffs, Arizona Diamondbacks pitching ace Curt Schilling scoffed at the idea. Schilling famously quipped that mystique and aura “are dancers at a nightclub”.Schilling pitched a marvellous Game Four in New York and exited holding a two-run lead for the bullpen to close out. The Yankees were down to their final out in the ninth inning when Diamondbacks closer Byung-Hyun Kim gave up a game-tying home run to Tino Martinez. It happened again the following night in the ninth inning with two outs to Scott Brosius after which Kim sunk to his haunches, looking on the verge of tears on the mound, and was immediately taken out of the game. The Yankees won both games in extra innings to take a 3-2 series lead as broadcast cameras panned to a fan in the crowd holding a sign that read, “Mystique and Aura, Appearing Nightly!”Nepali cricket fans aren’t shy about their devotion to Paras Khadka•Peter Della PennaNepal might not have mystique and aura, but perhaps another mystical combination is behind their winning magic: madal and momo. The first is the drum that can be heard in the background played by the fans while Nepal is on the field, giving them the rhythm to keep them performing in sync. The second is the food that fuels them.As happens from time to time after indulging in certain chemical habits, the munchies can periodically come on. For Nepali cricket fans, that means feasting on momo, a traditional dumpling. A speciality food tent set up at the VRA Ground was producing them like a factory line during both ODIs. In Kathmandu, they can be had almost for a dime a dozen, but at the VRA they were going being sold in trays of five for five euros, as though it was a Ritz-Carlton delicacy.On Friday, the owners of the makeshift momo tent had planned to stop selling them as soon as the match ended in order to pack up and get home in quick time. But when the final ball left the visiting Nepali supporters high as a kite, fans were thumping a madal and the rush was on for more momos, and more money for the owners. After a while though, they had to put a stop to sales as a member of the staff shouted, “We’ve got to keep some for the players!”On this day, the mind-bending experience was a communal one shared between players and fans at the VRA. After handshakes were exchanged between the players and Kami was presented his Man-of-the-Match award, Khadka broke out a bottle of champagne. The initial spray was contained within the circle of the 15-man squad, but Khadka saved half the bottle. He then sauntered over to the fans hooting and hollering with “NE-PAL! NE-PAL!” and gave them a champagne shower to remember.Team manager Raman Shivakoti usually has a habit of toting around a selfie stick for post-match team photos, but on this occasion he brought it over to the fans. A spontaneous selfie shared by fans and players with Khadka smack in the middle of it all, getting a rush from all the adulation.The Nepal cricket junkies and their dealer have scored a mutual fix. Witnessing it all made it clear how hard it is to break the addiction, though Khadka says he’ll do his best in future to wean the fans off “600-ball” wins.”To the fans, I know it’s very hard to get that nail-biting finish,” Khadka said. “It’s hard I can understand. Having said that as players we are pushing ourselves. We are trying our best and hopefully, in future, we can try and get victories with bigger margins, which can help the fans as well as ourselves.”They’re very, very vocal. We can hear them as we are batting, bowling and on the field and that really motivates us. For us to get our first victory and to celebrate it among them adds it up. More victories, more champagnes, more victory laps, more cheering and a lot more smiles.”

There were notable performances from Ben Foakes, Moeen Ali and Keaton Jennings but almost everyone contributed to England’s first away Test win in two years

George Dobell in Galle10-Nov-2018For all its imposing ramparts, ownership of the fort in Galle has changed hands often over the years.At one stage the Dutch, struggling with the attentions of the French closer to home, invited the British to look after it for a while in the expectation they would retake control when resources allowed. It was a bit like asking the fox to mind your chickens while you have a snooze.Sri Lanka were almost as obliging at moments during the second Test as the Dutch had been at the end of the 18th century. To see Kusal Mendis slice to mid-off, Angelo Mathews pull to midwicket (where the chance was spurned), Kaushal Silva playing against the spin or Dhananjaya de Silva attempting to thrash a wide ball for seven was to see a side lacking the discipline or determination required at this level.The Sri Lanka coach, Chandika Hathurusingha, compared his batsmen to “school kids”, which seems about right. It is a side that could learn much from the scrupulous professionalism and commitment for which Rangana Herath was known.For that reason, this was not quite an England victory to rate with similar subcontinental Test triumphs in India in 2012, Pakistan in 2000 or those here in 2001.It was significant, though. Given England’s away record – they were, remember, in the midst of their longest winless streak away from home in their history – and their record against spin, in particular, any victory in Asia is worthy of respect. It was Joe Root’s first win overseas as captain and England’s first win with a Kookaburra ball since Stuart Broad’s inspired spell in Johannesburg in January 2016.This Sri Lanka side, flawed though it may be, had some decent scalps, too. Pakistan in the UAE, for example, and Bangladesh in Bangladesh. England couldn’t manage either of those results.The most pleasing thing from an England perspective was that just about everyone contributed. James Anderson and Sam Curran only took a wicket apiece but, by striking with the new ball in the first innings, they played their part. Ben Stokes only took one wicket, but the hostility he generated – remarkable given the docile surface – unsettled the Sri Lanka middle order. And while Adil Rashid bowled well below his best, he did make the vital breakthrough in the first innings, breaking the partnership between Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal, and was an affordable luxury in a three-man spin attack.But more than that, it may have marked something of a changing of the guard. There was no Alastair Cook and no Stuart Broad – England had only won Test without either of them since the 2005 Ashes and that was in Mumbai in March 2006 – and, such was Ben Foakes’ excellence, it raised the possibility that neither Jos Buttler or Jonny Bairstow will ever again keep in a Test. Keaton Jennings provided grounds for belief that he may yet develop into a reliable Test opener and Buttler provided two key supporting contributions.Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler celebrate the fall of Angelo Mathews•Getty ImagesEngland used their one unique selling point – the remarkable number of allrounders they currently have – to ensure they had a deep batting order and both variation and contingency plans in the attack. So Curran, at No. 8, and Rashid, at No. 9, produced valuable runs while the presence of six bowlers seemed to take the pressure off Moeen Ali. He has never had better match figures in an overseas Test and rarely bowled better in a fourth innings.And then there’s Foakes. It is naive to pretend we can ever return to a time when keepers could hardly bat, but it’s also foolish to suggest the value of a keeper’s run can offset a missed chance. In Foakes England have a batsman good enough to bat at No. 7, at least, and a better keeper than they have had since the days of James Foster. Matt Prior, who watched this match in his role as a commentator, suggested Foakes may already be better than Foster, who was once rated the best there has ever been by Jack Russell.They are strong words and time will tell, but there is huge value in having such a skilful keeper. While there may be a temptation to classify his first Test dismissals as routine, it’s worth remembering that, between November 2012 and December 2015, England didn’t take a single wicket by a stumping in Test cricket. The best tend to make things look easy.There is a lesson to learn from Galle, though. While the instinct of most batsmen on both sides is to counterattack in almost all circumstances, the key innings in this match were old-school, patient affairs. England remain insistent that their first-morning batting was appropriate – Root suggested his side could have been “50 for 5 if we had sat in our bunker and waited for a good ball” – but the fact is they were dug out of trouble by Foakes’ century, while Jennings shut Sri Lanka out of the game in the second. Neither tried to take the attack to bowlers as much as they sought to defy them and accumulate steadily.If England want to go the next step, from being an attractive and dangerous side to one of the very best, they need to tailor their aggression just a little more. Three-session centuries might not be as much fun as 60-ball 50s, but Tests are still won more by the former than the latter. Root, in particular, will get more out of his substantial talent if he realises that.England need to develop their defensive game – there’s no way they should be 50 for 5 if they trust their defensive techniques – and remember the old adage about allowing bowlers the first session of a Test. This match ended more than a day early; there’s plenty of time to defend, or even leave, a few more balls. Even Lewis Hamilton slows down for corners.