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Use your bowlers well, pick the best batting line-up, and keep an eye on the time-outs and over rates

Aakash Chopra08-Apr-2010Adam Gilchrist said earlier this week that as the game gets shorter, the role of the captain is getting bigger. Nothing could describe the Twenty20 situation better.Why is leading a Twenty20 side different and more difficult than leading in other formats? Cricket played over five days or spread over two 50-overs innings should logically be far more taxing than the slam-bang three-hour Twenty20. Well, Twenty20 defies logic time and again, for it isn’t a thinking man’s game; which is not to say that you don’t need to be smart to play it.Not too long ago, just as this format was beginning to gain popularity, players tended to treat Twenty20s like ODIs. In the 50-over format the best bowlers are kept for the Powerplay and the death overs, under the assumption that batsmen are most aggressive during these periods. The other bowlers are reserved for the middle overs, when the batsmen are expected to go a little easy. But when applied to Twenty20, this strategy failed. With eight an over considered par, and the luxury of being able to lose 10 wickets over 20 overs, batsmen remain on the offensive all through.Bowling changes
It’s no longer mandatory to give your best bowler the first over. In fact, it’s often smart to start with a part-time bowler, since most batsmen take at least a couple of deliveries to gauge the pace and bounce of the track. But you must know the batsmen’s strengths and pick the bowlers accordingly. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to start with a spinner against David Warner, who is usually more comfortable against pace.Also, you need to not get carried away by an economical first over, because the same bowler can go for plenty in his next. Batsmen tend to size up the bowler in his first few deliveries and mark their scoring areas for the next over. More often than not, the second over is more important than the first, so that should be bowled by your best medium-pacer.Rotating your bowlers in the first six overs will work if your bowlers are comfortable bowling one- or two-over spells. Shane Warne does it successfully, often using up to five different bowlers in the first seven overs without letting the batsmen get away. Gautam Gambhir used Daniel Vettori and Amit Mishra to counter Bangalore’s overseas openers in the first six overs. It’s like a game of chess, where you try to preempt the opposition’s moves. At times you let the opposition score in the first six overs because you think it will be easier to pull things back once the ball gets old, and on other occasions you stifle the batsmen at the top to create pressure.There are no foolproof methods to succeed, so you have to go with hunches. One wrong choice can change the momentum of the game. Brett Lee went for 25 in an over against Bangalore and Cameron White 19 in his solitary over against Delhi. A captain makes more bowling changes in a Twenty20 than he would in a 50-over game. You can always recover from a bad over in an ODI, but in a Twenty20 it is 5% of the innings and can cost you the game.In terms of bowling, captains also have to keep in mind the hefty fines they can be slapped with for slow over-rates.Batting line-up
Deciding the batting order isn’t easy in Twenty20s. When do you send in your best striker? Warne uses Yusuf Pathan according to the demands of the situation and Tendulkar has done the same with Kieron Pollard. It’s tempting to give the big hitters the chance to get the most strike, but it may not always be the wise option. Bangalore have assigned Kallis the sheet-anchor’s role, and given the rest the licence to go berserk around him. Most other teams haven’t done the same. Kings XI Punjab tried to give Ravi Bopara the same role but he never had in-form hitters around him.

A captain makes more bowling changes in a Twenty20 than he would in a 50-over game. You can always recover from a bad over in an ODI, but in a Twenty20 it is 5% of the innings and can cost you the game

The captain also has to pick the right overseas players for every game. He’s usually spoilt for choice and it must be tempting to want players like Tillakaratne Dilshan or Sanath Jayasuriya in the XI even when they aren’t in form, and difficult to leave out someone like Dale Steyn.Changing the field
The captain and the bowlers need to work out the fielding positions for every delivery: get third man inside the circle for a slower one, have mid-off in the circle for a bouncer. Bowlers need to assume leadership and the wicketkeeper and the fielders must chip in too, because it’s hard for the captain to keep tabs on everything. The keeper is often assigned the role of getting the fielders in the right positions. In the match against Bangalore, Gambhir didn’t notice there were only three fielders inside the circle, but the keeper, Dinesh Karthik, stopped the game to get a player in.But there is still more to leading a Twenty2O side, particularly in the IPL. You have to know and remember the strengths of all your players, understand their temperaments, and how they will react to different situations in the middle.The time-outs
We have seen teams lose momentum and falter after the breaks. Fielding captains can use the time-outs to their advantage – as the batsmen tend to take a few deliveries to get back into the groove – and slip in an over from a part-time bowler.The teams that try to continue playing the way they did before the break often pay dearly. Mumbai lost two wickets against Deccan in the over after the break.I wonder if Yuvraj Singh and Brendon McCullum will really complain about having lost the captaincy of their sides. It’s certainly not an enviable job. Most captains will have aged a bit by the time the IPL ends.

The Sri Lankan bowling unit showed in one session that it is better equipped in these conditions than its opposition

Sidharth Monga in Galle20-Jul-2010Sri Lanka have done their best to keep this match, which has lost close to 114 overs of play in three days, alive. Even when India were threatening to come back to level terms in the first session, the hosts maintained a run-rate of four. Rangana Herath and Lasith Malinga provided some unexpected entertainment with the bat and, more importantly, ruled out India’s victory. Then they made an aggressive declaration, leaving Herath unbeaten 20 short of a maiden Test century. It was later that they did the most telling damage.The Sri Lankan bowling unit showed in one session that it is better equipped in these conditions than its opposition. It was a gripping session of play post tea, also facilitated by a poor attempt at a second run by Rahul Dravid.Lasith Malinga came roaring back into Test cricket, attacking the stumps, getting swing, bowling full, removing Gautam Gambhir with the second ball of the innings and obsessively chasing the toes and ribs of Virender Sehwag. Muttiah Muralitharan, who would have found it tough to not get emotional with the grand reception he got when he walked on to the field, put behind him the lean run of form and performed like a champion. If there was any fear that his farewell Test might be a distraction, it was squashed when he got Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket.The final 42 minutes of the day, after Dravid and Tendulkar were dismissed within 33 runs of each other, and India were still 320 short of saving the follow-on, brought drama with almost every delivery. Only 8.4 overs were bowled, but Malinga’s long run-up was full of promise.Virender Sehwag, already 67 off 73 including a majestic six off Murali, was made to dig out yorkers just to save his toes, forget his wicket. He was made to get the bat up in time to protect his ribs, but also keep the ball down, lest it flew to the accurately placed leg gully or short leg. Even when he managed to expertly bisect the keeper and the leg gully, he got just the single to the fine leg placed for the top edge. The one yorker Malinga missed, bowling a low full toss, Sehwag crashed it through the covers.Against Murali he fared better, reading the variations well, despite claiming to the contrary in his column. He even cut from in front of the stumps. In perhaps the most watchful 42 minutes of his batting since Adelaide, Sehwag scored 18 runs off 25 balls, at a mere mortal’s pace.Murali troubled VVS Laxman much more, who didn’t read the doosra at all. On one occasion Laxman left alone one that pitched within the stumps, expecting it to turn down leg, and then saw it bounce over his off and middle stump. Another doosra he played at, and was beaten by what was almost a legbreak. He was lucky it missed the off stump. Bowling with four men around the bat, he kept pitching it on around the same spot, turning it either way.Just as the clock approached the scheduled close of play at 5.45 pm, the sun peeped out of the clouds and shone as brightly as it had through the last week to heighten the drama. The play went deep into the evening, Yuvraj Singh must have waited anxiously, the Sri Lankans tried their darnedest to pick one more wicket before stumps, but India just about hung on. The series was alive, there was tension around. It can do with more of it.Rangana Herath later said Sri Lanka can force a result even if India avoid a follow-on. “They [Sehwag and Laxman] batted very well,” he said. “But at the same time, the bowlers were bowling really well, so if either of them had had done one mistake, it would have cost them their wicket. We expect to do the same thing tomorrow.” Amen to that.

ESPNcricinfo brings you the plays of the fifth day of the third Test between South Africa and India at Newlands

Firdose Moonda at Newlands06-Jan-2011The luckless bowler
When Lonwabo Tsotsobe bowls, the fielder’s fingers evidently start sweating butter. Today, he had another catch put down off his bowling in his very first over. Tsotsobe invited Sehwag to cut with a short, wide, ball and the Indian opener obliged. JP Duminy, standing at point, had to lunge to his left to grab what was admittedly a tough chance. Even though Duminy went with both hands, Tsotsobe was still out of luck, and the chance was spurned. It took Tsotsobe’s match tally of dropped catches to four, and his series tally to many more.The pain
The parade of the walking wounded continued when Gautam Gambhir came out to open the batting despite an injury to his elbow. He must have expected to experience some discomfort but probably didn’t think the hurt would come with the first ball he faced from the world’s springiest bowler. Morne Morkel was always going to be a threat because of the variable bounce on offer, and he showed that when the first ball he bowled bounced so sharply that as Gambhir tried to take his bat out of the way, it hit his elbow. The sore elbow. The ball flew over the slip cordon and gave Gambhir his first boundary, together with some treatment from the physiotherapist.The offspinner
South Africa needed a right-arm offspinner to make use of the patch of rough that Harbhajan Singh exploited to such good effect on day four, and Graeme Smith decided he was the man for the job. His first three overs were fairly tight, going for just 14 runs but when he returned for a second spell, it all went a little pear shaped. Three lollipop deliveries were dispatched to the boundary, the first two by Rahul Dravid and the third by Gautam Gambhir, and Smith suddenly had figures of 4-0-27-0. He then went back to fielding.The effort
Getting Gautam Gambhir out seemed to fire up Dale Steyn considerably and he even though he his next delivery wasn’t particularly quick, there was a lot of spark in it. A vicious bouncer that was aimed at VVS Laxman head sailed over the batsman and Mark Boucher to race away for four.The last hope
With the match clearly petering out to a draw, the captains could have shook hands on a draw with 15 overs left in the day. Instead, South Africa continued in the field and waited for the opportunity to take the second new ball. With ten overs to go, it was optimistic to think that seven wickets would succumb to the new ball. After just one over from Dale Steyn and one from Morne Morkel, enough was finally enough and the series was drawn.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the IPL final between Bangalore and Chennai

Nitin Sundar28-May-2011The start
It took Chennai 7.5 overs to produce their first four of the day. It was a problem that had bogged them down in the league stage as well, especially in the matches against Kolkata and Bangalore. Unlike in those games, though, the four-drought did not bog down their run-rate tonight, as four sixes and innumerable well-run couples meant they were motoring along at well over eight an over when that first four came.The contest
Whatever M Vijay did, Michael Hussey tried to better, and vice versa. Vijay swung S Aravind majestically over midwicket off the last ball of the second over. Hussey responded by carting Zaheer Khan for a bigger six off the next ball. Hussey then trotted out to the last ball of Syed Mohammad’s over and lofted him for another six, only for Vijay to respond with a bigger six off the first ball of Chris Gayle’s following over.The overthrows and the outcomes
Chennai had played the first over quietly before Hussey steered the first ball of the second straight to Virat Kohli at point. Neither batsman was looking for a single, yet Kohli threw, missed and conceded the first of several overthrows. Vijay got strike, and played his first shot of assurance – the patented swat-pull – off the next ball. Three balls later, he perfected the shot and sent it screaming for his first six. He might not have even had strike for those balls, had Kohli resisted the urge to throw needlessly. Bangalore were sent on a leather hunt, but did not seem to learn from their mistakes as Syed Mohammad slung in another needless throw in the 15th over to give Hussey strike. This time, though, it resulted in a wicket as Hussey perished off the very next ball. Too little, too late.The Caribbean flair
When Dwayne Bravo walked out for the final ball of the innings, Chris Gayle was on a hat-trick, and had conceded only a single off the first five. Gayle fired the last one full, on a length that was almost impossible to get under. Not for Bravo, though, who stayed back in the crease, hauled the bat up in a high back lift, and managed to lever the ball over the straight boundary. Chennai went from 199 to 205, the Jamaican did not wince, the Trinidadian did not smile, and Chepauk swayed to a moment dripping with Calypso flair as the players walked off.The bravery award
Most bowlers have tried to hide from Gayle, but R Ashwin isn’t one of them. He nailed him for the second time in two games, luring him into a classic offspinner’s trap. “I was always confident to go up against Gayle and take him on,” he would say later. Ashwin’s nemesis, though, was the other big-built left-hand batsman in the Bangalore line-up – Saurabh Tiwary, who had smashed a ball straight into his head the other night. He bowled six balls at Tiwary in the final, conceded four runs and escaped without damage. It helped that Tiwary wasn’t in very good form tonight.The variations
Chennai have two specialist spinners, but between them they have the ability to bowl at least six different balls. Ashwin, classified as an offspinner, produced a legbreak to go with his bag of his sliders, offbreaks and carom balls. Jakati, who normally bowls orthodox left-arm spin, bowled a Chinaman to dismiss Luke Pomersbach. He tried it again off the next ball, but this time it slipped out and was no-balled for height.The finish
The closing scenes of the IPL were a lot like the tournament itself: long-winding and a touch contrived. Unlike last year, though, there was no gaudy closing ceremony featuring inflated, large-size replicas of batsmen and bowlers dancing to Bollywood tunes. There was also no passionate speech from Lalit Modi, who instead tweeted: “Atmosphere absolutely electric at the Wembley stadium. No comparison to the earlier game today.” What the final presentation did include, was prizes in several categories including one for the ground with the best outfield and pitch. It all ended in ironic fashion as N Srinivasan, in his capacity as BCCI secretary, presented the winners medals to players of the Chennai Super Kings, the team he owns. Conflict of interest, anyone?

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the first day of the second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia, in Pallekele

Daniel Brettig in Pallekele08-Sep-2011The failed reviews of the day
During the Ashes last year, Ryan Harris had the unfortunate distinction of being effectively given out four times in two balls for no score. In each innings in the Adelaide Test he was given out for a golden duck, and referred the decision only for the umpire to raise his finger a second time. Nine months on in Sri Lanka and Harris was again on the wrong end of the DRS. In the final over before tea he had two fervent lbw appeals against Suranga Lakmal turned down, and both were also refused on referral. The first would have been out had umpire Tony Hill raised his finger in the first instance, for according to Hawk-Eye the ball would have clipped the top of the stumps. But the second was missing everything, and Harris had to be content with three wickets rather than the four he might have had. No wonder the amiable Hill gave him a conciliatory pat on the back after further frustrations on resumption after the break.Father-son moment of the day
Australia’s captain Michael Clarke had a choice between two significant figures when he deliberated over who would hand Shaun Marsh his baggy green cap. On one side Tom Moody, in Sri Lanka as a commentator, is the coach Marsh credits with turning him from an undisciplined youth to a player of international claims. But on the other was Shaun’s father Geoff, the grizzled opening batsman who was Allan Border’s loyal lieutenant at the time Australia began to build the foundations for the great teams that would follow. Clarke went with family ties, and the sight of father and son together surrounded by the huddled Australia squad before play was a memorable one. Marsh senior played 13 of his 50 Tests before he experienced the thrill of victory, and he can only hope his son does not have to wait anywhere near as long.The tricky call of the day
Following the dust of Galle, both sides and the match-referee Chris Broad were glad to see a Pallekele pitch with decent grass coverage and a firm constitution. Neither side would have been game to bowl first in the circumstances, but Tillakaratne Dilshan’s confident call to bat did not account for the early assistance available through the air and off the seam in Pallekele, which is some 500m above sea level. A glance back at the scorecards from the last two Tests between these two countries in Kandy, which is near Pallekele, shows the top order is invariably in for a dicey start: in 1999 Steve Waugh’s tourists were a dire 61 for 7 at lunch, and in 2004 Ricky Ponting’s team reached the interval at 61 for 4. This time it was the local batsmen under the cosh as Harris and Trent Copeland seamed it around corners, and the lunchtime score of 76 for 5 was a significant nod to the early atmospherics.

The furores artfully drummed up to hawk this book might obscure that it’s a cracking read. More’s the pity

Saad Shafqat08-Oct-2011The first thing you realise when you read Shoaib Akhtar’s autobiography is that much of the media reaction to it is a distraction from the book’s true merits. Yes, he has admitted to ball-tampering, delivered questionable opinions on Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, and blasted some of the high priests of Pakistan cricket. But he has also said a great deal that is more interesting, more important, and evidently more heartfelt.As a device to enhance your pleasure of the game, this book delivers. Perhaps the most absorbing, at times even riveting, parts of it are the first four chapters, which detail Shoaib’s ordeals before he became a celebrity. He was born into modest circumstances, a sickly child who at one point nearly died of whooping cough. The family struggled with money and would sometimes go hungry.Despite the financial constraints, his parents worked hard to instill upright values in the children and ensure them an education. Shoaib tells us he was an ace student, and also a natural prankster. As a result, he was frequently in trouble. The pattern of conflicts that marked his international career was set early on.Cricket did not become a focus until his teenage years, when Shoaib’s passion for bowling fast was unleashed. Before that, he played informal street games, including , and ran a lot – everywhere, aimlessly – because it made him feel free. Once he discovered cricket, he was drawn to role models, finding instant inspiration in Imran Khan’s dynamic and towering figure. At the Pindi Club he saw his idols Imran, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis practise under lights. That was when he made a personal vow to don the Pakistan colours.All through the book Shoaib confronts his bad-boy image head-on, but his reflections are unlikely to sway anyone. He admits having little patience for rules and regulations, resents being preached to, and hates restrictions of any kind. He complains about never having had a proper mentor, but more likely it would not have been possible for even the most well-meaning mentor to get through to him.His self-indulgent nature comes across loudly, as we are told of his love for money, girls, and even his own company. Speed, above everything, is his true love, and garners a long chapter by itself. All this underscores his ability to polarise. Shoaib’s supporters will find him refreshingly honest; his detractors will deride him for confirming their worst assumptions.When we come to the chapters covering his international career, it is disappointing to see a lack of serious introspection. All his great spells are glossed over, leaving the connoisseur unfulfilled. You keep expecting to be placed inside the fast bowler’s head as he psycho-analyses the batsman, adjusts the field, and contemplates his wicket-taking plans, but it never happens. Shoaib could have entertained his readers with a ringside view of these intricacies; it feels like a golden opportunity lost. Also slightly disappointing are the book’s occasional typos and misspellings. The persistent insertion of a hyphen between “T” and “20” is especially grating.Nevertheless the overall package is a highly enjoyable one. Co-author Anshu Dogra has polished the material into a coherent and flowing narrative, yet still allowed Shoaib’s first-person voice to be heard clearly. Urdu and Punjabi phrases are interspersed here and there, conveying the thought precisely and to the understanding reader’s great amusement.Anecdotes, often the choicest part of a memoir, are peppered throughout. There are accounts of Shoaib in college as he drives a motorbike through the principal’s office, gets suspended for playing cricket in front of the girls’ building, and convinces a to serve him free meals because one day Shoaib will be a famous cricketer.Shoaib tells us about the anxiety of appearing for domestic cricket trials in Lahore, and the joy of catching the eye of Zaheer Abbas. We learn how, just before breaking into Test cricket, he spent an emotionally wrenching period in Karachi rooming with his buddy Saqlain Mushtaq when they were struggling cricketers and the city was in turmoil.The book’s tone is sometimes conversational, sometimes argumentative, with seamless transitions into languid storytelling one minute, breathless rhetoric the next. In this, the narrator sounds every bit the Shoaib Akhtar we know from his public persona.Every now and then there is also some touching human moment – getting tongue-tied when an attractive Irish girl starts a conversation in a bar, buying his first car, looking up an old benefactor after becoming a star, revisiting old haunts in his hometown of Rawalpindi.Naturally there is a good deal of score-settling as well, some of which – including targeted jabs at the likes of Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad, and Tendulkar – has been the subject of recent news cycles. Among all these, I found the description of Shoaib’s administrative duel with former PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf particularly valuable. The drama is vividly sketched over several pages as Shoaib struggles and eventually succeeds in getting his PCB-enforced ban reversed by pulling political strings. His account provides sharp insight into Pakistan cricket’s backroom ploys and validates a great deal of drawing-room chatter.All said and done, you have to commend the man for a job well done. The very appearance of his book is a feat in itself: written output from Pakistan’s cricketers has been sparse. Shoaib may have carried an image of carefree indiscipline for most of his career, but he has certainly demonstrated he has the discipline to produce a book with impact. In this he has outdone several other famous cricketing names from Pakistan.Controversially Yours
Shoaib Akhtar
Harper Collins, 2011
Rs 499, 272pp

This summer, under the tutelage of Craig McDermott, Peter Siddle has managed to approximate something of the complete fast bowler

Daniel Brettig at Adelaide Oval26-Jan-2012For much of his career, the depictions of Peter Siddle tended to focus on what he didn’t have. He wasn’t the quickest, nor the tallest, wasn’t the biggest swinger of the ball, and certainly wasn’t the most cerebral bowler for Australia. He wasn’t considered the fittest fast man going around, either. Siddle had plenty of heart of course, and plenty of aggression. But it was easier to define him by what was missing rather than by what was there. To borrow the words of Jack Dyer, the revered Australian Rules footballer and coach, Siddle was “a good, ordinary player”.This summer, all such categorisations have become obsolete. Under the tutelage of Craig McDermott, Siddle has managed to approximate something of the complete fast bowler. He is moving the ball at high pace, bowling an intelligent and unrelenting line and length, spicing it up with the odd bouncer, and never allowing a natural enmity for batsmen to cloud his judgement of the best ball to deliver. Moreover, Siddle has proven himself to be remarkably fit and durable, slogging through nine Test matches in succession with no perceptible drop in speed or vigour.On day three in Adelaide, he sliced through India’s batting with a combination of all the aforementioned attributes, and his efforts were even more meritorious for the fact that he did it on the flattest pitch of the summer. Thanks to Siddle’s nipping out of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir, the tourists lurched to 4 for 87 by the time Nathan Lyon was asked to probe for a wicket with his off spin, and were destined for a haplessly inadequate first innings no matter how well Virat Kohli played. The best bowler does not always reap the most outstanding analysis but this time Siddle did, and he deserved every one of his five wickets.They have not always been plucked so easily. Siddle earned his Test cap in India in 2008, called into Ricky Ponting’s team due to the elbow injury that was to shorten Stuart Clark’s career. He marked his first day as an international cricketer by cracking Gautam Gambhir on the helmet with the first new ball then having Sachin Tendulkar taken at slip with the second. They were two rare moments of ascendance for Australia in the series, which was lost 2-0 to be the formal start of a slide from No. 1 in the world to the mediocrity of mid-table.Then, Siddle’s energy and spirit impressed Ponting, who also delighted by the fact they both shared a love of the same AFL club, North Melbourne – a not insignificant point of common ground in the world of a cricket team on tour. Ponting would come to rely on his fellow Kangaroos supporter over the following year, as Siddle bowled long spells as the steadier counterpoint to the enigmatic Mitchell Johnson, while the likes of Clark and Brett Lee faded out of Test match contention due to injury. He was wholehearted in defeat against South Africa at home, and dangerous in victory over the same team away, before bowling serviceably in England during an Ashes series that the tourists let slip from their fingers.

Siddle has proven himself to be remarkably fit and durable, slogging through nine Test matches in succession with no perceptible drop in speed or vigour

His improvement was stalled by a back ailment that held Siddle out of Test cricket for most of 2010. He spent part of his time on the way towards a recall in training with another AFL club, Carlton, in an experience that provided him with a greater appreciation of the fitness required at the top end of sporting competition. He won his place back in time for the Ashes, and on the first day of the series brought the Gabba to its feet with a hat-trick. It was about as jubilant as Australia were able to get all last summer. But as the enforcer “Sid Vicious”, Siddle’s own role seemed to grow increasingly pigeonholed. In Perth he barely bowled a delivery in the batsmen’s half of the pitch, and took only one wicket out of a match in which Johnson and Ryan Harris made merry. He bowled well at the MCG in a cause that had already been lost by the batsmen, but by the end of the summer he had been found, alongside Ben Hilfenhaus, to be short of the standard required.Ponting and Troy Cooley, McDermott’s predecessor, appeared to think that Siddle was not capable of much more subtlety than he had already produced, but in the off-season he was encouraged to try for something more ambitious. In line with the rest of Australia’s attack, Siddle was urged to bowl fuller in search of swing, and was aided in this by adopting a wider grip down the seam of the ball. His initial adherence to what might be termed the McDermott method was not altogether convincing, and he effectively bowled himself out of the Test team with a poor display in the warm-up match at the start of the Sri Lanka tour. While Ryan Harris, Johnson and Trent Copeland occupied the pace spots in Galle and Kandy, Siddle spent even more time with McDermott, and gradually found the rhythm and swing that was previously beyond him.An injury to Harris offered a path back, and it was telling that Siddle’s first Test wicket on his return to the team in Colombo was a left-hand opening batsman, bowled between bat and pad by a full delivery that straightened through the air – precisely the kind of dismissal that had been missing from Siddle’s Test repertoire. Though he experienced some growing pains in his new method in South Africa, with the support of Michael Clarke’s adroit captaincy Siddle continued to build towards the peak that he reached against New Zealand and India. His Adelaide wickets were emblematic of the new bowler he is: Sehwag bunting a full delivery back for a return catch, Tendulkar probing at a ball aimed inches outside off stump and moving subtly away to edge to slip, and Gambhir fencing a brutish bouncer to gully.Later Siddle helped fire out the tail, and held up the ball in acknowledgement of an appreciative Australia Day crowd. There is admiration among the masses as well as the dressing-room for his knockabout persona and unstinting effort. As a character, he fits the everyman description that Dyer had coined years ago, but his bowling has now transcended it. No longer will Siddle be defined by what he cannot do, unless it is to say that in 2012 – so far, at least – he can do nothing wrong.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day for the fifth ODI between West Indies and Australia

Brydon Coverdale25-Mar-2012The dribble
If Australia’s former prime minister John Howard was watching this match, he could take comfort from a delivery sent down by Ben Hilfenhaus. Footage of Howard awkwardly rolling his arm over and thudding the ball into the ground a few inches from his feet has been a staple of Australian TV comedy shows for years. Now he knows it can even happen to professionals. Hilfenhaus appeared to be trying to send Adrian Barath a slower ball when he ran in and thumped the ball into the turf just in front of him. It bounced six or seven times and dribbled off the side of the pitch.The collision
It was impossible not to think of the sickening crash between Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie in Kandy in 1999 when Matthew Wade raced back and collided with the fine-leg Hilfenhaus in an attempt to catch Carlton Baugh. Hilfenhaus steadied with one knee on the ground and took the catch, while Wade careened into him and copped a knee to the midriff. Wade immediately collapsed on the ground and appeared to be in serious pain, but after a few minutes he regained his composure and resumed his place behind the stumps.The save
It is not uncommon these days for fielders to toss the ball back into play as they fall over the boundary, but even so Andre Russell’s effort in this match was something to behold. Shane Watson slogged the ball to long-on and it seemed destined to clear the rope when Russell leapt high into the air and clasped the ball cleanly in one hand, then lobbed it back into play as his momentum carried him over the boundary. It was the height and athleticism that made Russell’s effort stand out, and while he didn’t take the catch, he turned a six into a two.The promotion
Australia lost their third wicket less than two overs into the batting Powerplay and a surprise was in store as Watson sent Brett Lee to the crease as a pinch-hitter. Lee was fresh from a half-century in the previous game but it’s rare that a pinch-hitting promotion truly works, and while he managed to score a couple of boundaries he was soon out for 12 from 10 balls, and normal service was resumed as Michael Hussey came to the crease.

The Plays of the Day from the second day of the second Test between West Indies and New Zealand in Jamaica

Subash Jayaraman in Jamaica04-Aug-2012The Finn Effect
In the 26th over of the West Indies innings, Doug Bracewell bowled a delivery to Shivnarine Chanderpaul that slid down the leg side. Chanderpaul seemed to be attempting a glide down to fine leg but the ball took the thigh pad and rolled to the boundary. Everyone was surprised to see umpire Paul Reiffel signaling a dead ball. Given the drama surrounding Steve Finn at Headingley, everyone quickly looked towards the stumps at the non-striker’s end to see whether Bracewell had knocked off the bails in his delivery stride. He didn’t. It was just a strange call from the umpire, because he reckoned the batsman wasn’t offering a shot.The Tavaré Effect
It was an uncharacteristically sedate innings from Chris Gayle. In his comeback innings at Antigua, he biffed Chris Martin for four consecutive boundaries in the first six deliveries he faced. He had to work a bit harder today, but in his 55-ball innings he ended with a strike rate of only 14.54, drawing comparisons with a dour former England opening batsman. Chris ‘Tavaré’ Henry Gayle?The shot
Darren Sammy had claims to that when he smacked a length delivery off Trent Boult so straight, that he nearly injured the umpire Marais Erasmus. When Samuels neared his century with only the No.11 for company, he unfurled a few audacious shots and Tim Southee bore the brunt of it. It included a loft over the sightscreen, and another one over long-off but the slap shot over cover to get to his first Test century at home stood out as the shot of the day.The near miss
Tim Southee was in the middle of a very good spell without much luck. He had earlier induced an edge off Gayle which was dropped by Ross Taylor at slip. He later had Marlon Samuels edge towards second slip, where Brendon McCullum dived to his right to try and pluck it with his right hand. He quickly suggested that he wasn’t sure if the catch was clean. Upon review, the ball had bounced. Such was Southee’s luck on a day when he had bowled good enough to pick up a five-wicket haul.The welcome distraction
Cricket may not be a part of the Olympics, but for a brief moment, the Olympics was part of the cricket. During a stoppage in play, the Women’s 100m heats were shown in the big screen. As the camera skimmed past the contestants, Jamaica’s very own and reigning Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce was shown. The Sabina Park crowd roared in approval. There will also be a “strategic drinks break” on Sunday to show the Men’s 100m final from London on the big screen.The dodgy ball-tracker
In the 54th over, a full, swinging delivery from Southee hit Darren Sammy low on the front foot, but the umpire Reiffel turned down the LBW appeal. Even as he was in his follow through, Southee made the “T” signal and Taylor followed up instantaneously. The video replay made those who were watching to believe it would have gone on to hit the leg stump, but the ball-tracking system showed it to be hitting bang on middle stump. Either Reiffel completely flubbed it or the ball tracker did. The consensus in the press box is it was the latter.The sightscreen
It’s quite common in grounds around the world having someone walk right behind the bowler’s arm at the wrong time, or a faulty sightscreen not turning from sponsor ads, causing a stoppage in play. Samuels wasn’t too bothered. He didn’t notice the background hadn’t turned white and yet continued to face the bowler.

England didn’t bowl that much better than at Headingley but they enjoy the rub of the green that eluded them in the second Test

George Dobell at Lord's16-Aug-2012Had the figure of Father Time, the familiar weather vane that has presided over Lord’s for more than 80 years, been replaced by an image of a switch-hitting Kevin Pietersen, the presence of England’s missing player could hardly have loomed more obviously in advance of this game.Whatever the rights and wrongs of dropping the man of the match from the previous Test, it was a brave decision. But it would be simplistic to state that England’s best day in the field in this series to date owes anything to Pietersen’s absence. It is not until England bat that any judgement can be made about the cost of his omission.Perhaps, for those who are so inclined to find them, there were one or two signs of a renewed spirit within the England side. While they have long made a point of running to congratulate each other with a pat or a handshake after a good stop in the field, on the first day of this game they took such behaviour to a new level. At one stage Matt Prior, the wicketkeeper, ran all the way to cover to pat Ian Bell after a diving stop; at another James Anderson, the bowler, wandered over to mid on to congratulate Stuart Broad. Whether such episodes are the manifestation of improved team spirit or an attempt to convince sceptical on-lookers remains to be seen. But, at a vital stage of a vital game, it may just be relevant that England produced their best bowling of the series.But the main difference between the first day of this game and much of the rest of the series was simply fortune. England did not bowl so much better than they had at Leeds but, for the first time, enjoyed some luck. And, ultimately, it is on results, not performances, that players and teams are judged. Just as a good batsman can nick a ball early in his innings and be on his way, so a lesser one can miss by a foot, but go on to register a century. Sometimes blind luck plays more of a rule than we care to admit.

South Africa are tough to finish off, though. From 54 for 4 shortly before lunch, they recovered to add 208 more runs for the loss of only three more wickets in the rest of the day.

Certainly several of South Africa’s top order will reflect with regret at the large part they played in their own dismissals. Hashim Amla received a good ball but will reflect that he could have allowed Steven Finn to park his car in the gap he left between his bat and pad, Jaques Rudolph played across the turning ball and JP Duminy had to unleash his go-go Gadget arms to reach across to the ball that dismissed him. The truth is that South Africa, having batted with such application and discipline in the first two Tests of the series, showed uncharacteristic frailty.But England’s biggest stroke of fortune came in two controversial umpiring decisions. To dismiss one top-order batsman caught down the leg side might be considered fortunate, but to dismiss two in the innings – Alviro Peterson and Jacques Kallis – was extraordinary. Both might have legitimate gripes about the decision to give them out, too, with replays suggesting that the glove that the ball brushed was off the bat at the time. While sympathy for Peterson might be tempered in the knowledge that he failed to take advantage of the Decision Review System (DRS) – another stroke of luck for England – the decision of third umpire, Rod Tucker, to overrule on the scantest of evidence to adjudge Kallis out was hard to fathom. Those who distrust the DRS will feel they have more ammunition for their case, though this was surely a case of human, rather than DRS, error.While England later claimed they would have bowled anyway, losing the toss might also have been considered a significant stroke of fortune. It allowed their bowlers use of the pitch in the narrow window when it provided some assistance and, after South Africa opted to bat in bright sunlight, the weather changed markedly and the ball began to swing. At Lord’s such atmospheric conditions always play a disproportionately large role and, on a pitch that is expected to improve, Graeme Smith may come to regret his decision to bat.”We bowled beautifully in the first session,” Finn said afterwards. “We made use of the conditions but, as the day went on, the sun came out, the ball got softer and the wicket didn’t do as much. But we stuck to our guns really well and we are very happy with where we are.”We’re a little bit ahead of the game. The wicket was tacky in the morning so the ball nipped around, but it didn’t do much later on. As the days go on and sun bakes the wicket, there may be some help for Graeme Swann, but it’s a good cricket wicket.”Obviously wickets caught down the leg side are always a little bit fortunate. We deserved some luck like that and we did have a leg gully and we had plans for each batsmen and bowled well to our fields.”South Africa are tough to finish off, though. The loss of Mark Boucher may well have strengthened them as a batting unit and, from a position of 54 for 4 shortly before lunch, they recovered to add 208 more runs for the loss of only three more wickets in the rest of the day. Duminy, the beneficiary of Boucher’s misfortune, was the one man to register a half-century and helped add 72 with Vernon Philander for the seventh-wicket. It has left the game tilted only slightly in England’s favour.