He tasted Test cricket briefly more than two years ago but, ahead of another Lord’s final with Hampshire, Michael Carberry has not given up hope of playing for England again

David Lloyd10-Sep-2012Once upon a time – and not so long ago, either – Michael Carberry would have had one last chance to do some serious selector-nudging. But the days of players winning a tour place on the strength of an eye-catching performance in a Lord’s final are now part of England’s history. And no bad thing, most would say.So, barring a late decision to postpone the naming of the Test squad to travel to India next month, Hampshire opener Carberry will walk into Saturday’s CB40 final against Warwickshire knowing precisely what the future holds for him in international cricket. And, either way, he will be desperate to help his county land a second trophy in a fortnight after their T20 triumph.Carberry’s name has been regularly mentioned, in the same sentence as several other batsmen, ever since Andrew Strauss announced his retirement at the end of last month and thereby created a vacancy at the top of England’s Test order. But, unlike many hopefuls, he already has a cap to his name and his dream is to add some more.Two and a half years have not dimmed the memory of playing against Bangladesh at Chittagong, where he contributed 30 and 34 to a 181-run win. Carberry, it seems, can recall every little detail. But when he spoke this week at West End, his focus was very much on a huge game ahead and the task facing Hampshire.”Finals at Lord’s are arguably the most enjoyable days of your career,” he said. “The home of cricket has a special place in every player’s heart and finals there are a massive occasion.”Carberry, 32 at the end of September, has experienced both the misery of defeat (to Durham, in 2007) and the joy of victory (against Sussex, in 2009) as Hampshire reached two 50-over finals in the space of three seasons. But for many of his team-mates, a September showdown at Lord’s will be a new experience.”I have full confidence the young guys will step up to the plate,” said Carberry, whose form in this summer’s CB40 competition has been stunning – with 563 runs, and two hundreds, in eight innings at an average of 93.83. “I’ve told them to soak up the occasion but a lot of them seem to thrive under pressure, anyway.”Our opponents, Warwickshire, have had an outstanding year and they will be very high on confidence after winning the county championship. But whatever you’ve done, it’s all on the day when it comes to a Lord’s final – names and past achievements go out of the window.”Carberry’s name has not disappeared from the England frame since he played in that 2010 Test against Bangladesh. But, as a result of circumstances beyond his control, he is but one of several vehicles waiting hopefully in line rather than first cab off the rank.Having deputised for the resting Strauss and opened with Alastair Cook, Carberry was left out of the second and final Test of that short tour because England felt the need to accommodate a fifth bowler in Dhaka. But it was later that same year when his world turned upside down: he suffered a blood clot in his lung, ruling him out of England’s performance squad trip to Australia and putting his whole career in jeopardy.It must have been a desperately worrying time for Carberry and it is hardly surprising that, having now fully recovered, he no longer wishes to talk about that illness at any length. It meant, though, that he missed the first three months of the 2011 season – and there was much happiness, in Hampshire and beyond, when he returned to Championship side in sensational fashion by scoring a triple century against Yorkshire.Out of sight, though, can mean out of mind. And while England reassured Carberry that he was still on their radar by picking him for the Lions team to play West Indies earlier this season, a knee injury – requiring surgery – forced him to miss the middle chunk of this summer while other international candidates, like Somerset’s Nick Compton and Yorkshire’s Joe Root, were scoring heavily.Michael Carberry hopes to add to his solitary appearance for England, against Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2010•Getty ImagesThankfully, though, the left-hander is now fully fit and firing again. “I’ve been a little bit in and out this summer, but conditions have been pretty bowler-friendly,” he said (Carberry has scored heavily in limited-overs contests but is without a century in the Championship going into the last game of the season, having missed five matches because of his knee problem). “I was very disappointed to get injured when I did, on the back of spending time out of the game last year as well. But these things happen, the rehab went well and now my knee is as strong as it’s ever been.”And so is Carberry’s health. The only hint of a cloud, during an otherwise sunny discussion, appeared when he was asked whether long-haul flights might be a problem after that serious lung condition.”I’ve said for the last two years, and it has become a bit of a broken record, that I’ve been to pre-season with Hampshire [overseas] and I don’t remember catching a bus,” Carberry said. “I’m more than able to fly.”Asking Carberry to think back to 2010, and his England debut, is to tread on safer ground: “I don’t think you ever forget your Test call up. It was something I had worked 13 or 14 years towards. I remember it like it was yesterday – getting my cap from Mike Atherton, then walking out to bat with Alastair Cook, getting my first run down to fine leg, itching to get one out of the middle of the bat and then getting a square cut away… I probably had a bit of a rush of blood on 30 but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s something I would like to do again.”And what of his chances of an India tour spot? “There has been a lot of speculation over the last couple of weeks, ever since a certain Mr Strauss decided to retire,” Carberry said, with a smile. “I’m flattered that my name has come back around for that opening spot. I’ve played pretty well in the last few years and I’ve kept my performances to a high standard so I’m glad I’m back in the melting pot.”England will probably be looking at all options. I’m two years older and probably at that stage where people will ask: do you take a 32-year-old? Hopefully they will, based on experience. But whoever gets the nod then the best of luck to them. And if it is me who misses out then at least I can look back and say I’ve achieved something I set out to do as a kid – and I’ve still got a lot to achieve in my career with Hampshire.”I’ll be brutally honest and say there will always be a little element of frustration because I feel over the last two years I’ve played some fantastic cricket for Hampshire, and scored a lot of runs, in and around some difficult personal times as well. But it’s how the selectors view things – they’re the ones who make the decisions. I’ve had to make peace with a lot of things – and one of those things is that I might finish with one Test cap. I would be a bit of a difficult pill to swallow but you learn to deal with these things.”

Stephen Chalke’s book on Micky Stewart is neither a biography nor an autobiography, but it works because it tells fascinating stories about its very likeable subject

Paul Edwards14-Oct-2012Micky Stewart’s father, Hector, was a professional gambler. One day, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, he came home from the races having won a lot of cash, only to find that his success prompted a disagreement about money. So Hector Stewart took a £10 note and, to the consternation of his wife, told his young son to throw it in the fire. Micky did so. “Never let money be your god,” the father told his child.It was a curious command from someone whose life was filled with the intricacies of odds and the realities of financial loss, and one of the pleasures of Stephen Chalke’s book about the former Surrey and England player and manager is that its 300 or so pages are filled with such intriguing recollections, vividly and unfussily told. They help unpack the fascinating life story of a man who has been closely involved with cricket for over 60 years and whose outlook on the world was formed by his parents’ values of integrity, dislike of hypocrisy, and belief in hard work.Stewart needed a strong ethical code too, not least as England manager in the late 1980s, when he had to deal with foolish players, dictatorial TCCB officials, and rapacious journalists who were keen to report any scandal and not averse to setting one up if nothing juicy was immediately available. Indeed, after a summer in which off-field issues have been dominated merely by the KP affair, during which England’s Test captaincy passed from Andrew Strauss to Alastair Cook with the ease of a boardroom handover at a successful multinational, it is useful to be taken back to a period that saw rebel tours to South Africa, an on-field slanging match between a Test captain and an umpire, and a five-Test series against West Indies into which England contrived to squeeze four captains.Facing such a variety of pressures, Stewart reminded one rather of the character Jim Prideaux in John le Carré’s novel : an essentially decent man with simple loyalties who was betrayed by some of those around him. He found it difficult to understand those who would endanger the interests of English cricket for financial gain.”As an Englishman, are you proud of this?” he asked a tabloid journalist after the headline “GATT THE PRAT” had appeared in his paper. All these travails, as well as the successful 1986-87 tour of Australia, are faithfully recorded by Chalke. Stewart’s own recollections and observations, along with those of other players and administrators, are quoted at length. It may not be the definitive history of a troubled time – indeed, it is not intended to be – but it is a very good read and a revealing insight into the thinking of a man whose management style married the strict with the sympathetic.The book is full of forward thinking and fond reflection. Stewart’s ideas for the development of the English game were ahead of their age, and his stress on fitness foreshadowed the detailed physiological analysis and preparation of the modern era. Indeed, can almost be seen as a prequel to face did not change. Hector Stewart would be proud of his son.Micky Stewart and the Changing Face of Cricket
by Stephen Chalke
Fairfield Books

The CB40 final provided a glorious end to a forgettable season, with a match to stand alongside the many dramas of this remarkable summer of sport

Alex Winter at Lord's16-Sep-2012Cricket seems to have been surplus to requirements in this Great British summer but at Lord’s, the Clydesdale Bank 40 final provided it with a memorable send off. It was a match the competition badly needed and restored the glory of cricket’s cup final.The one-day competition has been in almost terminal decline since the advent of Twenty20. The switch to 40-overs and a day-night timeslot pushed the tournament further into the wilderness: the inaugural edition in 2010 finished later than the last train home for Somerset fans. But a walk into any of the pubs around St John’s Wood on Saturday evening brought a feeling that the magic was back. 16,500 fans had seen a thriller.Hampshire’s last ball win was their second success in three years by virtue of losing fewer wickets, having taken the 2010 Friends Life t20 by the same condition, but this victory usurped that and this year’s FLt20 title put together. Players, supporters, commentators, coach drivers, were all kept wondering throughout an afternoon that bobbed and weaved and had more shifts of tide than the River Severn. It came down to one ball; a ball which Kabir Ali used to put himself back on the cricketing map.He wouldn’t have played in this match were it not for the absence of Danny Briggs or Dimitri Mascarenhas. Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams admitted it was a “tough pick” but Kabir’s experience and good showing in practice won him a place in the side. He proved a worthy selection, has been included in Hampshire’s squad for the T20 Champions League and possibly earned himself a new contract for next season. “I’m very happy for him, he’s had a tough couple of years,” Adams said.Kabir began in the Warwickshire academy before making New Road his home and excelling for Worcestershire, earning 14 ODI caps for England, all but his debut in 2005 and 2006. His move to Hampshire, for a generous salary, was the move to springboard him back into the England team but injury has seen his two years on the south coast turn him into a forgotten man. But he got over a long knee injury to play his part in one of the great Lord’s finals.”Obviously I was a bit nervous but I’ve worked hard on the yorkers in the last few weeks and it paid off,” said Kabir, who played with a hand injury that he was “a bit lazy” about and didn’t tape up. “I think with seven off the last over, you’re in a situation where you expect the batters to win the game so in a weird way there’s not that much pressure until the last two balls.”The last ball wasn’t exactly where I wanted it but if you get a half-decent Yorker in it’s always difficult to hit, especially with the keeper standing up.”I played a lot of youth cricket at Warwickshire and I’ve grown up with many of the boys so it was special. Neil Carter has hit me a long way a few times.”Carter seemed destined to finish his Warwickshire career in Roy of the Rovers perfection. His boundary off the penultimate ball tied the scores but he failed to get anything on the final delivery and bowed out in desperate defeat. But the old campaigner showed no sign of it dampening his send off as he chatted merrily in the Lord’s Tavern, a return to Cape Town and an international debut for Scotland await.”We thought it was written in the stars for him, especially when he hit that one through extra cover,” Warwickshire captain Jim Troughton said. “I thought it was a gettable total, we posted 250 in the semi-final on a not-as-good wicket, and I backed us in that last over.”It didn’t help losing Chris Wright after three overs. He’s our death bowler but he went in the side and made us jig things around a bit. But we would have taken that total with the batting we’ve got.”Wright removed Michael Carberry after he blazed two sixes in 35 from 31 balls, looking set to replicate his hitting in the semi-final. Wright’s injury forced Troughton to use five overs of Darren Maddy but it was his new-ball pair, Chris Woakes, who conceded 59 in eight overs, and Carter, bowling four wides and going at almost eight-an-over, that accounted for Hampshire’s late-innings surge.It was Simon Katich, Hampshire’s overseas player, who played the best hand in helping Hampshire score 88 in the final 10 overs. He adapted his awkward technique to shuffle around on the crease, deflecting and flicking 35 in 26 balls. He and Sean Ervine, who knows all about crucial innings in finals, added 69 in 43 balls.Katich continually used the word “special” in his post-match comments and it was very apt for an afternoon that restored pride to domestic cricket fans. A season of steady showers and damp squibs was burned away by a glorious September afternoon.Adams seemed ready to talk about it all night. “It’s just brilliant,” he said, accepting that Hampshire enjoyed their slice of luck. “You dare to have a think about how it might be like but I wouldn’t have scripted it like that. Thankfully we’ve come out on the right side of it.”Special mention to Chris Wood, I thought he was outstanding. His first seven overs were fantastic. I had him waving at me saying I’ve got to bowl now and he comes on and takes a wicket. The guy has got an amazing appetite for the game.”David Bowie has been the soundtrack to the summer and Wood, Adams and Kabir made themselves

Stats highlights from the eighth round of Ranji Trophy matches

S Rajesh25-Dec-2012 In the eighth round of this Ranji Trophy season, five out of 12 matches produced decisive results, with wins for Gujarat, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Vidarbha and Kerala. Punjab, the group A leaders, suffered their second defeat of the season, despite which they finished on top with 32 points from their eight matches. In 96 matches in this season so far, 38 have produced decisive results, while 58 have been drawn. The eighth round was a better one for bowlers than the previous ones: the runs per wicket in this round was 29.03, compared to 33.60 in the previous seven rounds. Eighteen hundreds were scored in this round, while 155 had been scored in the previous seven (an average of 22 per round). There were also 12 five-fors in this round, taking the overall tally for this season to 103. The strike rate improved to 60.2 balls per wicket, from 70 in the previous seven rounds. The two highest scores in this round came from No.9 and No.7 batsmen, in the same match, as Haryana’s Jayant Yadav and Amit Mishra scored double-hundreds against Karnataka in Hubli. Yadav made 211 while Mishra was unbeaten on 202. Among the bowlers, Ali Murtaza’s 7 for 80, against Tamil Nadu, were the best figures of the round – he also scored a century and took ten wickets in the match. Among those who took five-fors was Zaheer Khan, whose 5 for 79 in the second innings helped Mumbai eke out a seven-run win against Madhya Pradesh in Indore. (Click here for the list of highest run-getters, and here for the list of leading wicket-takers, in the Ranji Trophy season so far.) The batting highlight of this round was the 392-run eighth-wicket stand between Mishra and Yadav, against Karnataka in Hubli. Coming in to bat at an uncomfortable 168 for 7, they turned the tables on the home team with that stunning partnership which completely shut Karnataka out of the match. Coming into this match, Mishra’s highest first-class was 84, and Yadav’s 66. Here, though, both scored double-hundreds, and their partnership is the highest for the eighth wicket in Ranji Trophy history. It’s the second-highest for that wicket in any first-class match, next only to the 433-run stand between Arthur Sims and Victor Trumper in a match between Canterbury and the Australians way back in 1914. Karnataka were so numbed by that onslaught that they collapsed for 272 in their first innings, with only Kunal Kapoor batting more than two hours. He scored 106 in that innings, and then followed that with an unbeaten 100 in the second, thus becoming the first batsman from Karnataka to score a century in each innings in Ranji Trophy. The all-round performance of the round – and indeed the season – came from Uttar Pradesh’s Murtaza: he scored 106 in the first innings, and then took 7 for 80 and 3 for 62 – match figures of 10 for 142 – as Tamil Nadu were thrashed by 195 runs in Chennai. It’s the first time in five years that a player has scored a century and taken ten in a match in a Ranji Trophy game: the last player before Murtaza to do so was Baroda’s Yusuf Pathan – he scored 183 and took 10 for 119 against Bengal in Vadodara in 2007. Murtaza is the third player from Uttar Pradesh to achieve this feat, after Praveen Kumar and Anand Shukla. Of the 18 centuries scored in this round, six were by openers, but only one of them batted through an entire team innings and remained unbeaten: Mumbai’s Kaustubh Pawar scored 111 not out, out of Mumbai’s total of 304 against Madhya Pradesh in Indore. He is only the second opener from Mumbai to carry his bat through an innings in a Ranji Trophy game, after Madhav Mantri, who scored an unbeaten 64 out of a team score of 229 against Gujarat in 1951.

South Africa’s marks out of ten, for the Test series against Australia

Firdose Moonda04-Dec-20129
Hashim Amla (377 runs at 62.83) Hashim Amla’s assault on the second day in Perth shifted the momentum of the game in favour of South Africa•Getty ImagesTwo sides of Hashim Amla were on display in this series: the one who can survive a series of streaky shots and chances and still score a century and the one who incorporates flair and flamboyance to achieve the same thing. Amla’s hundred in Brisbane helped South Africa build a foundation in the match but it was his innings in Perth that took the series away from Australia. In a frenzied second afternoon, his scoring rate was at times above seven an over as he and Graeme Smith batted the morale out of Australia’s attack. He fell four short of a double-ton and will end the year as second on the run charts behind Michael Clarke, but he has a Test mace to go with it, unlike the Australian.Faf du Plessis (293 runs at 146.50) For the second successive tour, a South African debutant has been the catalyst for creating history. Du Plessis showed immense presence of mind when he batted out more than four sessions against a talkative Australian side to save the Adelaide Test. There, he also became the first South African to score a half-century and a hundred on debut. With South Africa again in trouble in Perth, du Plessis knuckled down to post 78 and his knock was the reason the team had a first-innings lead. Beyond a solid technique, it was his temperament that stood tall. When South Africa held their post-match fines’ meeting, du Plessis was named their man of the series because of the impact he had. Few would disagree.8
Graeme Smith (255 runs at 42.50, 10 catches) Likely to be judged South Africa’s best captain, Smith led the team to a second successive series win in Australia by example. His only hundred came in Adelaide, after South Africa had conceded 550, and the recovery by du Plessis in the match saved Smith’s record of always winning after scoring a century. He also contributed a meaty 84 in Perth in a towering stand with Amla. His slip catching was unmatched as he pouched wickets from all angles and there was only one instance in which he let one through, with the ball going between him and Jacques Kallis. While the numbers speak of his ability to perform, the trophy tells the story of his work as captain. Smith continues to inspire the team to new heights. Having taken them to No.1 in the world, he also played a significant role in defending the crown.Morne Morkel (14 wickets at 28.50) The highest wicket-taker of the series, South Africa’s most loved big baby has grown up. Morkel’s control was better than ever before, his cleverness in the using the short ball and varying his lengths was seen, and he was rewarded in every match. Despite taking wickets off no-balls in Brisbane, he was South Africa’s best bowler there and in Adelaide, where he was also the most economical in the second innings. He was overshadowed by Dale Steyn in Perth but still displayed exemplary ability to make batsmen feel awkward. It seems that Morkel now understands his own capabilities better, and they were aptly displayed on conditions that suited him.7.5
Jacques Kallis (339 runs at 56.50, 2 wickets at 24.50, 5 catches) In the shadows of Ricky Ponting’s retirement, talk has drifted to Kallis and the legacy he will leave when one day he too plays his last. Widely acknowledged as being among the best batsmen and all-rounders in the world, Kallis proved his worth in Australia again. His century in Brisbane was the perfect complement to Amla’s, and his 58 and 46 in Adelaide was the stuff of legend. Battling a hamstring strain, Kallis did his bit to save the match even while clearly in pain. It was also in that match that his worth as a bowler was underlined. He turned around the South African effort with two wickets before pulling up. Kallis could not bowl in Perth and only scored 39 runs, but without him South Africa may not have gone to Perth with a chance to win the series.7
AB de Villiers (276 runs at 55.20, 8 catches, 1 stumping) He left it late but when AB de Villiers returned as the batsmen we knew, it was spectacular. After struggling with the bat in Brisbane, he showed signs that he was coming back in Adelaide when he partnered du Plessis in an epic match-saving effort. For 220 balls, de Villiers showed enormous restraint as he concentrated on safety first. By the next Test in Perth, he was ready to explode, and once he had found his front foot again, he did. His innings was a fireworks display of reverse paddles and cheeky cuts but it is worth remembering that it came after the least amount of overs spent in the field. De Villiers’ keeping has also been considered adequate and he upped that a gear too. He was nifty behind the stumps, efficient in his catching and pulled off the stumping that dismissed Michael Clarke in Perth.Dale Steyn (12 wickets at 30.83) Dale Steyn saved his best for the final Test•AFPHaving provided an entrée with a fiery spell in the warm-up match at the SCG, Steyn served cold food until Perth. He did not get his pace up and did not have the success he normally does as the go-to man. He was aggressive in the lead-up to the final Test and took it out on the field. On the second morning, Steyn decimated the Australian top-order to turn the match and the series South Africa’s way. He found swing, and bowled with speeds in the early 140s throughout, and when Steyn builds up a head of steam that hot, batsmen can only fear. He saved the best for the last and ended the series one wicket short of 300.6.5
Alviro Petersen (200 runs at 33.33, 1 catch) The lowest scorer in the top six, Petersen did not have a defining innings on the tour, although he looked well set for one twice. His 64 in Brisbane was a glimpse into his promise which ended in a soft dismissal, and his 54 in Adelaide was cut short by a needless run-out. The quality is evident but the ability to convert affected him in this series. He also took a stunning catch on the boundary to deliver one of the best entries in the scorebook, .5.5
Robin Peterson (6 wickets at 28.50) Having thought he would do nothing but carry drinks on this tour, Robin Peterson was surprised with a Test recall. It came after four years on the fringe, and it showed a more mature player who has obviously benefitted from the experience of being around the side. He contributed sensibly with the bat in the first innings in Perth and claimed three wickets in each innings with the ball. Some of the time, that was based on luck. Peterson was expensive, but he had the runs at his disposal to be, and showed his lack of fear in flighting the ball. His game-plan of drawing Michael Clarke forward paid off and he also accounted for Ricky Ponting’s last dismissal as a Test batsman.5
Vernon Philander (4 wickets at 49.75) Philander had to wait until the Perth Test to get his first wicket of the series. In Brisbane, he was as ordinary as the rest of the attack, and the second highest no-ball offender. It looked as though batsmen were learning to leave him better and his usual fourth-stump channel was not working. A back injury kept him out of Adelaide but he returned to Perth to find swing and create havoc with Steyn on the second morning. Both Ponting and Shane Watson were added to his tally of big scalps in that innings, and he had an impact with the new ball in the second innings too. It’s been a long time coming, but this series was the gliding back to earth for Philander.4.5
Rory Kleinveldt (4 wickets at 60.75, 1 catch) As part of a four-pronged pace attack in Brisbane, Kleinveldt was the weak link on debut. He was nervous and it showed. He overstepped 12 times and was wasteful due to an over-reliance on the short ball. He would not have played in Adelaide if not for Philander’s injury and proved an opportunity for him to give a better account of himself. Kleinveldt took the first three Australian wickets and demonstrated his ability to extract bounce and produce seam movement.3
Jacques Rudolph (74 runs at 18.50) Having struggled to settle in at the top of the order a year ago, Rudolph is now battling to do the same in the middle order. A technical fault is stunting his progress as he struggled with offspin in this series. He was out all four times to Nathan Lyon in the first two Tests, to take his tally to seven in the last eight innings. Rudolph was dropped for the Perth match.1
Dean Elgar (1 match, 0 runs, 1 catch) In the match after du Plessis debuted for South Africa, Elgar was handed his first cap. He could not have had a more contrasting maiden appearance. He was worked over by Mitchell Johnson in the first innings by three pitched-up deliveries and then fell to the pull shot off the short ball and trapped lbw by the same bowler in the second, having been barraged with bouncers on that occasion. His only mark on the game was the catch he took at deep square leg to dismiss Ed Cowan, a well-judged one taken over his head.0
Imran Tahir (1 match, 0 wickets, 260 runs) It’s not often that at the culmination of a series, a player has performed so poorly that he does not deserve a rating at all. It’s probably even rarer that a player on the winning side has to endure this embarrassment. But, for Tahir, there is no escaping it. He was amateur in the only Test he played in Adelaide, persisting with the full toss and short ball even though he got tonked. To make it worse, he overstepped seven times and took a wicket with one of them. Tahir was sent home early in the hope that he would be able to do soul searching and restore confidence. After a showing like that, he may need to.

Going into the final day in Rajkot, hardly anyone from both the camps got sound sleep overnight, but the Saurashtra players won’t mind as they secured a spot in the Ranji Trophy final – their region’s first since 1937-38

Amol Karhadkar in Rajkot20-Jan-2013The wind that had picked up mid-week in and around Rajkot seemed to have taken it easy on the weekend. But that didn’t make the players any more relaxed as they went through their warm-up drills at the Khandheri stadium. What was startling to see before the start of the day’s play was that almost everyone from both Saurashtra and Punjab camps had red eyes and/or dark circles under their eyes.It was evident that with the match being tantalisingly poised, hardly anyone from both the camps got sound sleep overnight. Though Saurashtra had the upper hand since they had 349 to defend with Punjab having lost two batsmen on the fourth evening, it was understandable that they had a sleepless night – never before had they made it to the Ranji Trophy final as a team representing Saurashtra; the last time the Kathiawari region was represented in the Ranji final was in 1936-37 and 1937-38 when Nawanagar, the princely state which later merged into the Saurashtra Cricket Association, made back-to-back final appearances, winning the first.But as the spin duo of Vishal Joshi and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja started weaving their web around the Punjab batsmen early on the fifth day, the sleep-deprived faces of the Punjab camp started appearing more and more hapless. A few yards away, the Saurashtra reserves and the support staff looked increasingly fresh with the fall of each wicket. Finally, the excitement turned into a sense of relief with Joshi finishing off proceedings with a legbreak that last man Sandeep Sharma had no answer to.What followed for the next half an hour or so was unprecedented. After the customary post-match handshakes between the both the teams amid chants of “Saurashtra, Saurashtra” by 100-odd spectators on Sunday morning, the Saurashtra players went into a huddle. While captain Jaydev Shah took a backseat, it was left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat who churned out the pep talk before the whole squad burst into shouts of “hip hip hurray”.SCA head Niranjan Shah, Jaydev Shah’s father, was in attendance along with his daughter and son-in-law, who refers to himself as Saurashtra’s “lucky mascot”. Also present were the wife and son of veteran Shitanshu Kotak, who will be playing his maiden Ranji final next week after being around for two decades. While the congratulatory pats and hugs were in abundance, it was heartening to see all the SCA officials, including Niranjan, pat curator Rasik Makvana on his shoulders for preparing an “ideal” pitch for a five-day match.It was followed by a photograph of the winning team. And it came as a surprise that captain Jaydev refused to show the ‘V’ sign when prompted by a local photographer. “We still have to play the final. Let’s celebrate victory after winning that,” Jaydev said.The feeling was unique for everyone involved in Saurashtra cricket, since none of them has ever experienced how it feels to have entered the Ranji final. “It has been a sense of achievement. Playing the Ranji Trophy final is something that all of us have been only dreaming of. It’s still sinking in that the dream is in fact going to be a reality next week,” Unadkat said.Jaydev Shah appeared to be more composed than his young pace bowler. “It’s a proud moment for all of us involved in the Saurashtra team. People said that Saurashtra was all about (Cheteshwar) Pujara and (Ravindra) Jadeja. But we have proven ourselves by winning the semi-final without both of them who have been with the national team.”Jaydev, though, hoped against hope for both Pujara and Jadeja to be released from the India squad. Sensing that Saurashtra were favourites to win this game, Niranjan Shah, who is a BCCI vice-president, had asked to have the final begin from January 28 instead of the originally scheduled January 26. “It would have allowed both the teams in the final to play with full strength. If Mumbai make it, both Mumbai and Saurashtra have two players each with the Indian team [playing against England] but unfortunately, it’s not possible to postpone the final,” Niranjan Shah said.The mood, expectedly, was the opposite in the Punjab camp. It was disheartening to see them go down without any fight on the last day and captain Harbhajan Singh minced no words in criticising his batsmen’s lack of application: “It wasn’t the best pitch to bat on. But this wicket had just one spot for the off-spinner; apart from that, nothing much was happening.”But if one ball bounces viciously, people start thinking “isse pehle mujhe ude, main uda doon” [I would rather go for it rather than getting such a ball]. I have played on worse pitches than this. This is probably still a good wicket. You need to apply yourself. Kotak applied himself and got 50-odd runs on the same wicket [on day four]. You need to back yourself in terms of what sort of shots you’re playing on it and you need to have a good defensive technique. Our youngsters just didn’t apply themselves. That’s why we are here, on the losing side.”For Harbhajan and his team-mates, Saturday night could again be a sleepless one. Saurashtra though were set for some well-deserved rest earlier than expected. “I am so relieved that it finished early. It didn’t get very close in the end and now that it’s over early, I can get some deserving sleep in the afternoon,” coach Debu Mitra said, as his team revelled in their biggest achievement so far.

An incisive preview of the big one, a mere seven or so months early, and the horrors of a childhood encounter with fast bowling

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013

Shaun Tait: that’s Mr Grumpy to you
© Getty Images
England have chosen a very good time to register a convincing win over Australia. It has dovetailed extremely neatly with the hydraulically hyped football team exploring hitherto uncharted territories of incompetence in a World Cup humiliation that is being widely viewed as the nation’s biggest embarrassment since King Harold was tricked by the Normans into a game of Catch The Arrow With Your Eye. (In relative terms, watching England’s World Cup unfold was the footballing equivalent of sitting in a darkened cellar, watching Steve Harmison’s first ball of the 2006-07 Ashes on a continuous loop for two weeks.)The one-day series triumph has also coincided with the government’s jovially portentous forecasts of continuing economic gloom. So by playing to their potential, and by offering genuine promise for the future, Strauss’s team have surely thrust cricket back to the top of English children’s favourite-hobbies lists, ahead of football and macroeconomics.Congratulations are due to England not only for the all-round excellence of their play in the first two-and-nine-tenths matches, but also for cleverly raising then crushing Australian hopes by collapsing spectacularly to the point of defeat in the final one-tenth of match three, and then convincingly losing match four in order to maintain public interest in the build-up to the Ashes. If the whitewash that was obviously inevitable had been allowed to happen, who would have bothered tuning in to see Ponting’s men ritually humiliated yet again this winter? Only true sadists with no love of a genuine sporting contest.Perhaps I read too much into it. But England have now played well enough often enough in recent limited-overs matches to suggest that their current run is not an uncharacteristic blip in a long era of carefully nurtured underachievement.This five-match effective whitewash spread over a mere 12 days will sadly be of little value when the World Cup comes around next year. The tournament will be a test of psychological endurance as much as cricketing ability, as it crawls slowly onwards like the asthmatic brontosaurus it is. In fact, the gaps between games are mostly long enough to allow teams to commute to and from home to minimise the chances of homesickness.Perhaps the much-and-rightly-criticised World Cup schedules of recent tournaments have been designed with this specifically in mind – not, as most people had assumed, in order to render the events so stultifying that by the time they finally ended, no one really noticed Australia winning, thus taking the gloss from their triumphs, but as a means to reduce the unfair advantage enjoyed by the host nation, by enabling all the teams to nip home to spend some quality time with their family and check their post.Nevertheless England look a well-balanced team with plenty of batting power. Whether they can adapt to subcontinental conditions and take enough top-order wickets early in their opponents’ innings will probably dictate how far they can progress. However, the tournament basically involves a largely ceremonial month-long group stage to whittle the seven teams with an ICC ODI ranking score of 100 or more up to eight teams, followed by a three-round shoot-out featuring all the potential randomness of tosses, conditions, weather and Daryl Harper. Therefore, any team could win it with a well-timed streak of (a) form, (b) luck and (c) Daryl Harper.It was good to see Shaun Tait damaging the speed gun again. The world needs a few more bowlers who waddle up the crease and then wang it as fast as possible. It makes for unavoidably exciting cricket. Especially if “as fast as possible” clocks in at above 95 mph, as Tait did in that fourth game.He has played one wicketless Test in the five years since his 2005 Ashes debut games, in which he proved himself to be fast, erratic, occasionally dangerous, and, as I witnessed first-hand at The Oval, exceedingly (and self-defeatingly) grumpy in the face of mild crowd banter. Since playing a major role in Australia’s 2007 World Cup campaign, he had played just a handful of ODIs before this series, so let us hope he will feature considerably more in coming years. Too many properly fast bowlers have played far too little top-level cricket this millennium, in particular Shane Bond, Shoaib Akhtar, Jermaine Lawson and, more understandably, Harold Larwood.I well remember my first encounter with fast bowling. It was in my second ever game of cricket, as an eight-year-old. On the back of a battling, almost heroic, innings of 1 in my debut match, I was promoted to open the batting. Having taken two extraordinary slip catches – extraordinary at least to all those who had seen me attempt to catch before – I had helped my school Under-9s reduce our opponents to 63 all out. At the age of eight, with a career best of 1, this was a daunting target, the mental equivalent, I imagine, of chasing 500 to win a Test match.I walked out to bat with the confidence of one who had never known true failure, like a pre-1991 Graeme Hick but smaller. I was the non-striking batsman. The umpire said “Play”. I looked round to see the bowler. He was not there. Odd, I thought. I looked again. He was there. Standing on the boundary with the ball in his hand. At this point, I was 90% defeated. I had seen Michael Holding on TV. In thundered the bowler, if an eight-year-old can indeed thunder, before flinging his missile of destruction towards my opening partner. I barely saw it. Perhaps because my eyes instinctively closed in anticipatory terror. I heard a distant thud, as the ball hit the batsman on the pad. He called me through for a single. It was an easy single. It was also a single that was extremely low on my priority list. My partner was half-way up the pitch, I had to run. I now had to face the demon. I took a nervous middle-and-leg guard, and surveyed the potential gaps in the field, for the sake of convention if nothing else, and also for potential escape routes. I settled into my stance. The run-up began.As the bowler’s long approach unfolded, like a lion sprinting towards a 2-for-1 offer in a zebra shop, I steeled myself to be brave, watch the ball, and trust my brand new pads, gloves and box to avoid life-threatening injuries. He passed the umpire, uncoiled like the eight-year-old Garner-Croft-Holding-Roberts hybrid he clearly was, and whanged it. I studiously played the perfect forward-defensive. The ball smashed into the stumps. I looked up to see a disapproving teacher looking at me as if I had just betrayed my team-mates, my school and my country. I looked at the stumps. Which were further away than I had remembered them being. I looked at my feet. They were just off the edge of the pitch, heading towards square leg. It transpired that what would today be called my “trigger movements” had let me down. And taken me a good four feet out of harm’s way. A technical glitch to be ironed out, certainly. My career average slumped to 0.50. I batted at eight in the next match.

From Jacob Astill, Australia

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013
Which of these two men is better suited to lead Australia?•AFPPlease excuse my brief philosophising, but in cricket, as in life, you need to ask the right questions to get the right answers. With some ordinary records under his belt and baffling tactical decisions, quite obviously the conclusion of Ricky Ponting’s tenure as Australian captain is at its when and not if stage. But the thing that astounds me is that while questions are quite rightly being asked of Ponting, the sound of those questioning Michael Clarke’s seemingly inevitable progression to new skipper is being drowned out by a butterfly’s wingbeat ten miles away.The Australian Test captaincy has always been a much more serious job than in other Test countries, perhaps because of the usual abundance of potential candidates or the pressure to succeed placed on the eventual victor to follow in the footsteps of some of the most successful captains and teams in history.In recent times, current captain Ricky Ponting has fallen foul of this pressure, with Australia falling from one of the greatest teams in history and undoubtedly the No. 1 in Tests and ODIs, to a miserable fifth in the ICC’s Test rankings. Although I am an outspoken critic of Ponting’s captaincy – I still maintain that Australia lost the first Test in the recent series in India because of terrible captaincy from Ponting during VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma’s match-winning partnership – it has been an extremely difficult period for the Australians regardless, losing some of the greatest players in history and having to go along with some ordinary selections.But it is this slip in the rankings and some weaknesses in the side that have led many of us to contemplate Australian cricket post-Ponting, and depending on how the Ashes plays out this summer, this period could be upon us sooner rather than later.But (there’s always a “but”) is Michael Clarke the right man to lead Australia? It may surprise some of you to learn that I firmly believe no. There are three main reasons behind this: Firstly, he has no experience. A dozen or so dead-rubber fill-ins as one-day captain should not be the requirements for graduating to your captaincy diploma. Clarke has absolutely no experience captaining in first-class cricket, and I think that for him to have any chance of fulfilling his aspirations to captain the Test side he should serve his apprenticeship as a first-class captain learning the unique tactical nuances of the extended game.Secondly, we need a fresh approach. A side-effect of not having had a protracted period (or any period) in charge of a first-class side means that basically everything Clarke knows about captaincy has come from Ricky Ponting, Australia’s worst captain in at least 25 years. All the talk about Australia being in a rebuilding phase is completely true, and to grow as an international side we need to see a captain with fresh ideas and an unbiased outlook on the side, not the same old stale ideas just coming from a different player.And last but absolutely not least, I think there are better candidates. Cameron White and Simon Katich seem to fit the criteria; they firstly deserve a place in the Test side (White in particular would solve Australia’s first slip issues), tactically they add something more than Ponting or Clarke, and they’ve shown that they can successfully lead cricket teams. Before leaving the State scene a couple of years ago to be recalled as an opening batsman, Simon Katich led NSW to the Sheffield Shield and showed that his cricket didn’t suffer under the burden of captaincy, totalling over 1000 runs in that 07/08 season. He also led NSW to the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 title in 2009, showing that he was not a static captain devoid of ideas. If nothing else, Twenty20 cricket does promote tactical innovation. Perhaps the only item in Katich’s con list is his age; at 35 he should really be looking to vacate the international scene around the same side as Ponting.Still, he remains a genuine but ultimately short-term option. Cameron White would be my choice as Ponting’s successor. Under him, Victoria have become the undisputed leading side in Australian domestic cricket, making umpteen finals in the Sheffield Shield, one-day competition, and Big Bash over the last few years. Unfortunately for him, he’s been labelled as a limited-overs specialist and gaining a recall to the Test side as a specialist batsman does not seem to have crossed the selectors’ minds, despite averaging over 40 in first-class cricket, and having flourished as a batsman in recent one-day series for the international side.Regardless of the end result, Michael Clarke, for me, will remain unfit to captain the Australian cricket team in the long term. We can only hope that a grave mistake is not made by anointing a man who is unfit to take the role, because in a “rebuilding phase” the wrong leadership could potentially cause the Australian side to drift backwards

It may be the first of many England versus Australia clashes over the next few months but both teams have their eyes on the initial prize at Edgbaston

George Dobell07-Jun-2013And so it begins. Not just the Champions Trophy campaigns of England and Australia, but a saga that will see these two sides play up to 66 days of cricket against one another across 26 matches within the next 34 weeks. It may well prove, in time, that such exploitation of this fixture damages “the brand” but, for now, Edgbaston is a 25,000 capacity sell-out and this event has the high profile it required to capture the public imagination.This will be the 100th international match – including women’s games – at Edgbaston. If it lives up to some of the previous encounters involving Australia – the World Cup semi-final of 1999 and the Ashes Test of 2005, for example – then it will prove to be quite an occasion.It says much for how the balance of power has changed between these two nations that England go into Saturday’s game as favourites. Despite Australia having won both the two previous Champions Trophies and despite England having just lost an ODI series against New Zealand, England are still expected to prevail. It was no doubt a slip of the tongue when Alastair Cook delivered the faint praise that his side would have to play “close to their potential” to win, but there may also be some truth in that.While Australia make-do without their captain and finest batsman, Michael Clarke, all 15 of England’s squad are fit for selection. And while there is a doubt over Tim Bresnan’s availability due to his wife’s impending labour – she was due last Monday – both Steven Finn and Stuart Broad have returned to something like full fitness and are highly likely to play. The final selection decision will almost certainly come down to a choice between Ravi Bopara and Bresnan.Bearing in mind the fine weather and excellent batting surface expected for this match, then Bopara has a decent chance of playing. England have based many of their plans around the idea that two new balls in English conditions will aid the seamers and require technically correct top-order batsmen. That may still prove to be true but in an attempt to cover their options, Bopara may well come into the side in order to not just strengthen the batting, but provide a little more freedom to Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler. Besides, Bopara is a much-improved bowler over the last 18 months and has an ability to work on the ball and help his colleagues gain reverse swing.Certainly Cook admitted that the white ball might not provide as much help to bowlers in such fine conditions and agreed that England may alter the balance of the side to reflect that.KP’s comeback

Kevin Pietersen may take the next step on his return to cricket in a second XI county game where he would be allowed to bat but not have to field.
He trained with England at Edgbaston on Thursday and could still play for Surrey against Sussex at Arundel on June 12.
Pietersen is reluctant to hurry back too soon and may well wait for Surrey’s trip to Headingley on June 21. That would leave him with only one further first-class match, for England against Essex, before the first Ashes Test on July 10.

“Last year we played some one-day cricket when there was some rain around and the ball did a lot for a long time,” he said. “But thankfully we’ve got some good weather and in England that normally determines what the ball does.”We are thinking about the balance of the team. I think it’s a good position to be in. It’s nice that the option of having three seamers and one spinner, with the fifth bowler being Ravi and Joe Root, has worked well. So it gives us the option. We can change the way we play, which we probably haven’t been able to do in the past. It gives us a selection headache in one way, but a good one.”It will not be helpful for either side to look too far ahead. While there may be some truth in the suggestion that previous limited-overs encounters – the Champions Trophy semi-final encounter at this ground in 2004, for example, or the T20 match at the Ageas Bowl in 2005 – have proved important blows in establishing dominance in subsequent Ashes series, this event deserves to be treated as important in its own right.England are the only side in this tournament who have never won a global 50-over event. They know that the habit of defining success by the results against just one other side has led to underperformance in limited-overs competitions for decades. The Ashes may have tradition and a marketing industry all of its own, but in terms of global appeal, the Champions Trophy could arguably be defined as more important. Indeed, you could argue that England’s obsession with the Ashes was unhealthy for a long time.”The Champions Trophy is such an important event in itself,” Cook agreed. “Clearly everyone is going to talk about us playing Australia with the Ashes coming up. But I think both sides will be seeing it just as a game they need to win to get the tournament off to a good start rather than anything else.”We’ve spoken about trying to win a 50-over tournament. This is an opportunity to do that. Alongside the World Cup in 2015, it’s a very important tournament. We know what we can do. It’s about us delivering it in these two weeks.”Cook also dismissed the relevance of the warm-up match against India in which Australia were bowled out for just 65.”Those warm-up games are irrelevant,” he said. “You’re not going to be remembered for what happened in the warm up games. You’re going to be remembered for what happened in the actual tournament. Just like what happened to us against New Zealand. In the ideal world, we’d have beaten New Zealand in that series. We didn’t play as well as we could have done, but that will count for nothing when we start this game.”

Hampshire are one-day kings but they can also add promotion to their CV

George Dobell30-Mar-2013Last year: 4th, CC Div 2; Winners, FLt20; Winners, CB40.2012 in a nutshell: Excellent in limited-overs cricket and mediocre in the Championship. Hampshire won the limited-overs double in 2012 and, with three games to play in the Championship season, were in a promotion position. They lost all three (against Leicestershire, Essex and Derbyshire) and slipped into mid-table. They topped their CB40 group with seven wins from 10 completed matches and then defeated Sussex and, in the final, Warwickshire off the last ball to lift the trophy. In the T20 they reached finals day in Cardiff, beating Somerset in a low-scoring semi-final and outwitting Yorkshire in the final. Glenn Maxwell proved an astute signing, with slow bowlers Liam Dawson and Danny Briggs maintaining excellent control and Dimitri Mascarenhas providing a reminder of his excellence as a T20 cricketer.2013 prospects: Hampshire should continue to challenge in the shorter formats and must be considered one of the promotion favourites. Their top-order batting, containing Jimmy Adams, Michael Carberry, overseas player George Bailey and, from June, Neil McKenzie, is as strong as any in Division Two. Adam Wheater, Sean Ervine and James Vince will add impetus while Liam Dawson will be asked to bat long and slow. The bowling is, at first glance, slightly less impressive but, led by David Balcombe, strong as a bull and determined to make up for lost time in his career, and the left-arm swing of James Tomlinson, it will also be augmented by the spin of Saeed Ajaml for the last few weeks of the season. Having won four limited-overs trophies in the last four years, they clearly have a decent formula and there is little reason why that should change .Key player: Signing Adam Wheater as a wicketkeeper batsman was somewhat controversial. Not only did Wheater have a year of his contract to run at Essex, but his arrival threatens the position of Michael Bates, a homegrown Hampshire keeper who has made such a fine impression with the gloves. But Wheater, at 23, only eight months older than Bates, is a vastly superior batsman – he averages 20 more an innings – and will add depth to Hampshire’s batting line-up.Bright young thing: Such is James Vince’s talent that the England selectors ignored his largely unsuccessful season in Division Two last year – he averaged 24.52 and only passed 50 once – and took him on the Lions’ one-day tour to Australia. He struggled there but, at 22, remains a talented and unusually elegant young batsman, capable of scoring freely against decent bowling. His strength, at present, remains in the limited-overs formats – he averaged 55.50 in the CB40 and was Hampshire’s leading run-scorer in the FLt20 – but if he can curb his attacking instincts just a little, he can flourish in all formats.Captain / coach: Jimmy Adams will continue to lead the side in a positive, cheerful manner, leaving Giles White, the head coach, to continue in unobtrusive style. The days when Hampshire could rely upon being bankrolled by Rod Bransgrove are gone – it didn’t really work, anyway – leaving the club more reliant on player development. They seem stronger for it.ESPNcricinfo verdict: Hampshire look capable of winning promotion this year. The batting is unusually strong and the acquisition of Saeed Ajmal on late-season pitches is a major scoop. The one concern is the pre-Ajmal bowling attack which, with the heavy roller back in operation this year, may face some long days in the field. It won’t be easy to follow up a double-winning season, but Hampshire should continue to be a threat in the shorter formats.