India have had precious little to feel happy about during this tour of England. Ajinkya Rahane’s performance in the limited-overs matches is one of them

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval08-Sep-2011Ajinkya Rahane has gone from being India’s forgotten man to their man of the moment in the previous ten days. He’s played only four matches in England but made a favourable impression in each one: after the 19 against Leicestershire, he made 61 on Twenty20 debut in Manchester, followed by an aggressive 40 on ODI debut at Chester-le-Street, and 54 in Southampton. The numbers aside, it’s Rahane’s approach and maturity that has been striking. It’s led to questions being asked about why he was not part of India’s Test team.Called into an injury-ridden squad as a replacement for Virender Sehwag, Rahane joined the team a day before the tour match against Leicestershire. He lasted only 13 deliveries the next afternoon but managed to inject optimism into India’s batting, which had been toyed with during the 4-0 defeat in the Test series.Having been trained by former India batsman Praveen Amre, Rahane relies on his solid technique to gain the upper hand over the bowler. He is diminutive – 5’4″ – but makes up in batting intelligence what he lacks in physical presence.At Old Trafford, Stuart Broad and the rest of England’s fast bowlers tried to push Rahane on the back foot by bowling several short-pitched deliveries. They were shooting in the dark, though, considering they had never seen Rahane bat. He remained undeterred and got under the ball to pull and hook with power and confidence.At the Rose Bowl, Broad started with a perfect bouncer, but Rahane swivelled to pull over the deep square-leg boundary for a six. When Jade Dernbach bowled a slower delivery, Rahane waited patiently before glancing to the fine-leg boundary. Against full deliveries, he would move a step back, clear his left foot out of the way before chipping the ball over the in-field.During the last five years, Rahane has been one of Mumbai’s best batsmen at No. 3 and among the top five on India’s first-class circuit. Batting with the likes of Wasim Jaffer, a wristy and aggressive batsman and an India Test opener, Rahane learned the art of pacing his innings. He has never been a grafter, though.Rahane has had immediate impact for India in the limited-over games, constructing useful opening partnerships with Parthiv Patel, something the Test openers could not do. Ther right-left combination, as a result of injuries to Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar, has had stands of 52 39, 82 and 30.”I had not prepared at all before coming here,” Rahane said about his mental preparations for the tour. “I understood the conditions only once I reached here. I was not thinking too much. Obviously there are certain expectations when you play for India and I was nervous to begin with. But all the seniors and team-mates helped me settle down, supported me and gave me good guidance. It felt really good.”Rahane said that after working hard to get to this stage, there was no chance he was going to be casual. “Once I arrived I had a word with [Sachin] Tendulkar, [MS] Dhoni and [Rahul] Dravid. Every one of the seniors said not to think anything except to carry on playing the way I had played to get here.” They also asked Rahane to make sure he learned something new from each game.When asked by a journalist if he’d enjoyed climbing up to the Big Ben during the Indian team’s visit to the House of Commons, Rahane did not entertain the question, revealing where his priorities lay. “This is not the time to talk about such stuff. My focus is on doing my best for the team and making sure we win the one-day series.”

Michael Clarke’s century at Newlands should remove any doubts about whether he is the man to lead Australia

Brydon Coverdale at Newlands09-Nov-2011Before Michael Clarke took over as captain, he had made 14 Test hundreds but it was hard to remember a truly innings. He has now provided two in two Tests. If any doubts remained about whether Clarke was the man to lead Australia in the coming years, they have been expunged by his efforts in Colombo and Cape Town.It is easy to look at Clarke and see the tattoos and the metrosexual image and choose not to see the dedication, the single-mindedness that has led him to ignore the Indian Premier League and sit out of the Champions League T20. The hard edge. Ricky Ponting had it. So did Steve Waugh. And Allan Border’s toughness is the stuff of legend. Could Clarke really follow those grizzled leaders? His performance at Newlands shows that he can.For batsmanship and leadership, this was his finest innings. At the SSC in September, Clarke came in with Sri Lanka in a position to win the match if they could run through Australia’s middle and lower order. He refused to budge and scored 112, securing a drawn match and series victory on his first tour in charge. But that was on a pitch as flat as the top of Table Mountain.Clarke’s unbeaten 107 at Newlands – he can add to the total on the second morning – was a giant performance under the circumstances. Australia had been sent in on a surface that had sweated under the covers for two hours immediately before play after a shower slithered over the top of the mountain and surprised the players as they warmed up. It had also rained for most of the previous day.These were conditions Australia knew well, from past unpleasant experiences. At Headingley last year they were made to look incompetent by Pakistan’s swing bowlers and were skittled for 88 on the first day. And on Boxing Day at the MCG last year they made 98, every batsman falling to an edge behind the wicket as their techniques were exposed against quality swing bowling on another juicy surface.It could easily have happened again here. The openers lost their wickets to edges and Ricky Ponting was trapped lbw, surprised by a delivery that didn’t move in the air. Dale Steyn’s outswinger that had Shane Watson caught at slip was almost unplayable, starting from middle stump and curling away, the art of a master.It was against this backdrop that Clarke strode to the crease at 40 for 3. A captain’s innings was required and it was delivered. Steyn sent a series of bouncers towards Clarke, who ducked and weaved and didn’t always get out of the way. But Clarke did not intend to be cowed. A straight drive back past Steyn took him to 10, and it was a statement of intent.”I remember Warnie [Shane Warne] saying to me years ago that the better the bowling the more positive you have to be,” Clarke said at stumps. “That was my attitude today. I knew I was facing a pretty good attack in conditions that were going to do a little bit. But I thought I needed to do something to put a little bit of pressure back on them.”On wickets like that there are no real guarantees. You can try your hardest and that’s why you work hard on your technique in training, so you’ve got a base to be able to go back to when the ball is moving around. But you need a bit of luck as well. Today I had that. I played and missed a few balls, I hit a couple wide of the slips or over point. You’ve just got to have the confidence and courage to play your way.”A few loose balls from Jacques Kallis helped. Clarke moved to his half-century from 56 balls having been 3 from 20. He had a fine companion at the other end; Shaun Marsh’s calm belied his Test experience and it seemed to provide comfort to his captain. Notably, Marsh had not been part of the side in Leeds or Melbourne.But even after Marsh departed, Clarke continued to play with impunity while the rest of his team-mates were punished. Only Marsh and Mitchell Johnson made double figures. In reaching triple figures, Clarke appeared a class above his colleagues.Ashwell Prince said in the lead-up to the game that South Africa-Australia clashes were so hard-fought that “it’s not about the pretty cover drive”. It was when Clarke brought up his hundred with one, a super stroke off the bowling of Kallis. It was Clarke’s 108th delivery. His counterattacking plan had worked.Great captains combine tactical nous with personal performance. Clarke is four Tests into his leadership term but already it’s hard to fault him in either of those fields. If he can marshal his troops on the field like he led them with the bat, Australia might just have some hope of winning this match.After play, he would not be drawn on whether he considered this his finest innings. That, he said, was for others to decide. Yes, Michael, it was.

ESPNcricinfo presents Plays of the Day for the match between Australia and Sri Lanka in Hobart

Brydon Coverdale at Bellerive Oval24-Feb-2012The six
At the halfway point in the match, the six of the day was Michael Hussey’s flat, sizzling pull off Thisara Perera that could have caused serious damage if anyone had got in its way as it landed on the grass embankment. But Mahela Jayawardene bettered that in the fifth over of the chase, whipping a quick and straight Brett Lee delivery across the line and landing it in a similar spot to Hussey. Trying that shot against the pace of Lee is gutsy; pulling it off is remarkable. The most effective, though, was Perera’s six off Daniel Christian in the 49th over which turned the game decisively in Sri Lanka’s favour.The slower, slower ball
Lee generally delivers the ball at speeds in the 140s, sometimes in the 150s, and occasionally, if he’s tiring, he might slip into the 130s. His slower ball can be significantly slower, but it’s unlikely he’s sent down too many with less speed on them than the 13th delivery of his first spell. It moved so slowly in the air that it almost seemed like it had slipped from his hand, but it had the desired effect, as Jayawardene could do nothing but push it straight to a fielder. The speed gun registered the delivery at 94.6 kph. Some of left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty’s balls reached the batsman quicker than that.The single
It’s hard to imagine Peter Forrest has ever enjoyed a single run as much as he did his hundredth in this match. In his fourth game for Australia, and his first in the No.3 spot occupied for so many years by Ricky Ponting, Forrest found himself facing Perera on 99. There were no discernible nerves. He dropped the ball into the off side and raced off for a quick, but not risky, single to bring up his first century for Australia.The sign
On a day when Australia’s prime minister Julia Gillard was challenged to a leadership contest by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, one man in the Hobart crowd felt he had a better idea. He held a sign saying “Ponting for PM”, with a mocked-up photo of Ponting wearing Rudd’s glasses and with a tinge of his grey hair. If nothing else, Ponting and Michael Clarke could probably teach Rudd and Gillard a thing or two about successful leadership transition.The scare tactic
Spectators who run on to the field often face hefty fines in Australia – during the recent Test series, the maximum penalty was A$7300. But Bellerive Oval went to great lengths to keep pitch invaders at bay, the big screen informing patrons that “Unlawful entry on to the arena may face penalties of up to $600 and 6 months in prison”. Not surprisingly, nobody took the risk and the field remained free of trespassers.

At a time when batsmen the world over broke into a sweat at the thought of the West Indies’ quicks, Graeme Wood relished the challenge

Sidharth Monga23-Jan-2012In the ’80s you brought in Woody to face West Indies. Graeme Wood was a bit of a West Indies specialist in an era when Australian cricket was going through hell, and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse were at their dominant peak. There weren’t many batsmen in that decade who averaged better against West Indies than they did overall. Wood did – 33.65, against 31.83 overall.Clearly Wood didn’t master them; not many could. But he fought valiantly. He relished the challenge. So much so that he can now matter-of-factly say that he didn’t mind Malcolm Marshall. You won’t find many batsmen saying that.Wood didn’t mind Marshall because he was an outswing bowler, and thus brought the ball back into him. And also, being a swing bowler, Marshall didn’t bowl as many bouncers.Only halfway into his career did Wood get himself a helmet, but one without a grille to cover the face. He says he never felt scared of the ball. “If you did, you just wouldn’t survive.”More than a few of Wood’s many comebacks occurred when a West Indies series was around, and because West Indies were a popular team, there series against them were frequent back then. If it wasn’t Tests, it was ODIs, and the idea that an ODI must be a runfest hadn’t quite struck the curators, or the West Indies fast bowlers, then. If it wasn’t an ODI, a fast bowler would pop up in Shield cricket or for one of the counties helping the Australians warm up for the Ashes.To hear from Wood is to believe how difficult it was to face the champion fast bowlers of that age. Especially if all you have seen of them is brief footage in cricket documentaries. Facing four out of Marshall, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Colin Croft in one match, on spicy pitches with variable bounce, was a nightmare.One such pitch in 1988-89, when Marshall was joined by the younger crop of Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Patrick Patterson, ended Wood’s career. Dean Jones and Ian Healy took blows on that dodgy MCG track, and Allan Border – tough as they come – said there was absolutely no pleasure in facing that barrage. Wood fought for 130 minutes for 12 runs. “Twelve singles,” he reminds you.That was the thing about West Indies back then. You didn’t know when a run, or respite, would come – if it ever did. “The great thing about West Indies was that they always had four in the team,” Wood says. “And they tended to bowl 12 overs an hour at that stage. So someone like Malcolm Marshall, who opened the bowling, would bowl 36 deliveries in an hour, have an hour off, have lunch, and then come back after a 100-minute rest and bowl another six overs flat out.”And if you speak to someone like [Sunil] Gavaskar, that was the thing – it was hard to get momentum. Because you just weren’t facing the number of balls. Whereas now, when you are facing 90 overs a day the bowlers get tired. They know they have to bowl those 90 overs.”Once in a while West Indies made it even more interesting. “I remember playing a one-day game in Sydney, and Greg Chappell was captain,” Wood says. “Those days you had to try to get 50 off the fifth bowler. That sometimes was Viv [Richards] or [Larry] Gomes. On that day the team was Roberts, Garner, Croft, Holding, Marshall. I said to Greg, ‘Who is the fifth? Who are we going after?'”Adding to it was the competition within the West Indies unit. “When he [Garner] was given the new ball, he would grow an arm,” Wood says. “When he was bowling first- or second change, I noticed an enormous change between that and when he opened the bowling. He was a lot quicker, and from a left-hander’s perspective, he used to go across you towards slip, and it was hard work. Especially with his height.”Marshall wasn’t far behind. Once, at the WACA, West Indies batted 11 hours, leaving the Australia openers an hour to survive on the second day. Imagine their plight. “Malcolm bowled very, very fast,” Wood says. “I sort of looked back at the keeper and Clive Lloyd, and thought, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ About 50 metres back.”Wood once hooked Roberts. He then found the legend of Roberts’ two bouncers wasn’t a myth at all. It wasn’t even a serious competitive game. Western Australia had beaten West Indies inside three days and arranged a one-day game on the fourth. “I hooked Andy Roberts here at the WACA. It went for four. Didn’t have the helmet on,” he says. “And the next one he bounced me and just got the back, and it brushed past there. That was his second, quicker, bouncer. I didn’t hook anymore in that game.

“I remember playing a one-day game in Sydney, and Greg Chappell was captain. Those days you had to try to get 50 off the fifth bowler. That sometimes was Viv or Gomes. On that day the team was Roberts, Garner, Croft, Holding, Marshall. I said to Greg, ‘Who is the fifth? Who are we going after?'”

“He didn’t say much at all. It was like he was there to do business. He was a champion bowler. Because he had that variation. He definitely had one, two, three bouncers. The third one was very, very quick. He could hit you at will. Crofty didn’t mind hitting blokes either.”Wood, though, didn’t shelve the hook. It was the only way out. In the century he scored at the WACA, against Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh and Patterson, he hooked and pulled well. He says, though, that it didn’t always work.”I thought I was a good hooker,” Wood says. “I got criticised for getting out at times. But also got a lot of runs with it. Just picking your mark. Unfortunately, the Windies developed a strategy that if I hooked them and got a four, they’d put two back. That then made it very, very difficult because you had such quality bowlers bowling. You can’t really hook them. You had to put it in the closet.”If you couldn’t hook well, you got hit. Wood remembers two big blows he took during his career. “I got hit once by Jeff Thomson at Lord’s. He was playing for Middlesex. Just a tour game. I was hit another time by Winston Davis at Headingley, in a World Cup match on a pretty green wicket. I can honestly say I was never intimidated.”You couldn’t plan how to face those bowlers. “It was just about survival for the first few overs,” he says. “Get in and blunt the new ball, and try to make it as easy as you could for the middle order. We didn’t intentionally get out thinking we will take somebody on today. You just say you have got to survive, got to hang in there. If they did bowl a bad ball, you have got to try to dispatch it. Otherwise you weren’t going to score at all.” Try telling that to today’s batsmen.There also was the pressure of knowing that the last four wickets would amount to nothing. “They could really intimidate the lower-order batsmen,” Wood says. “It’s hard enough for the guys at the top of the order. It was real intimidation. That put extra pressure on the guys on top. You knew if you were five or six down, there weren’t too many more runs coming. I think the guys were just shell-shocked in the end. And they were very, very concerned not only for their wicket but for their lives.”Wood never had to conquer that fear, he says. “I think it never arose,” he says. “You have fear of failure, fear of getting out, but never of the ball. Never feared the ball. Just get in behind it. It’s like fielding at short leg without a helmet.”He did get two centuries against West Indies. Both are among his three favourite innings, the third being his hundred in the Centenary Test, at Lord’s in 1980. One of his two against West Indies came in Guyana against a World Series-weakened attack, but it was a chase of 359 after Australia had been 22 for 3. The third was in Perth, after which he flipped the bird to the Channel 9 commentators. That was his penultimate Test. In his next Test he scored 12 singles over 130 minutes.What was it about Wood and West Indies? “Used to get the call-up all the time,” he says. “Probably being brought up in WA. We had got very good district wickets at that time that were quite quick and bouncy. We had a strong district competition. Each grade side tended to have one or two grade players who played first-class cricket. You are playing at the WACA consistently, so you learn to play off the back foot. That held you in good stead. And I enjoyed playing against fast bowling.”Another one was Bruce Laird. He was always called up to play against the Windies because he played well off the back foot. Had a good technique. Those were very tough days, tough cricket, but I enjoyed playing against them because they used to just play their cricket. There was no talk, they let the ball do it. Tough times.”Australia could give it back through Lillee and Thomson. “We had a very good side,” Wood says. “[Len] Pascoe was mad as any fast bowler. We had Greg Chappell, Hughes, Thommo, Lillee. Overall it was tremendous cricket. They were great times.”

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Darren Sammy and their colleagues tested Australia like they haven’t been tested for some time

Daniel Brettig at Kensington Oval08-Apr-2012Not since March 2009 against England had West Indies enjoyed the luxury of declaring their first innings closed. Not since Sri Lanka, nine Test matches and more than six months ago, had Australia’s cricketers been made to sweat in the field like this. In their contrasting styles the old and new of West Indies cricket, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Darren Sammy, each found a way to enhance the visitors’ sense of disorientation.The Bridgetown pitch demanded a substantial first innings tally to do justice to its trueness of bounce and ease of pace, and after Kraigg Brathwaite, Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo had smoothed a path, Chanderpaul and Sammy made sure it was achieved. Their manner of doing so reflected the typical method of each batsman: Chanderpaul the ultimate survivor, Sammy the ebullient cameo artist. But they also demonstrated qualities in tune with the occasion, stretching Australia’s patience and leaving their spin bowler Nathan Lyon, in particular, with plenty to ponder about his technique and mode of attack on these shores.If Sammy’s innings of 41 was no more substantial in volume than many of those he had previously played for West Indies, its manner was highly significant. Fairly bristling with attacking intent, and the confidence derived from his firm-handed contributions during the limited-overs matches that served as the entree to this series, Sammy advanced boldly towards the tourists at the fall of Carlton Baugh’s wicket.His first target was Lyon, who had to this point bowled tidily without impact on a surface that offered only a fraction of the spin he had found at the Three Ws Oval during the Australians’ only tour match. Lyon has typically prospered via an enticing loop that finds the batsman short of the ball’s pitch more often than not, but here Sammy leapt into him, pinging boundaries and a six over the bowler’s head.Still possessing the aggressive attitude that had launched his international career so successfully in Sri Lanka last year, Lyon did not shirk from tossing the ball high, but Sammy’s attack narrowed focus on the bowler’s apparent wrestle with his technique. In his approach to the wicket, the position of his front arm and the torque of his body action, Lyon gave Sammy little trouble picking his length and swinging accordingly. Turn was elusive, and while Lyon furnished his figures with a tail-end wicket, he spent most of the innings reminding locals more of Greg Matthews’ destruction by Viv Richards and Richie Richardson on the 1991 tour than Lance Gibbs’ feats in the 1960s and ’70s. If that weren’t unsettling enough, David Warner claimed the best figures of the innings, his leg breaks now less likely to carry the prefix “occasional”.Having forced Lyon’s exit from the attack, Sammy turned next to Shane Watson, a commonly crafty operator on wickets offering little to others. Watson greeted his allround opposite number with a skidding bouncer that struck Sammy a fierce blow to the helmet, forcing its change. Now followed the most compelling passage of the day. Watson’s next delivery was fuller, on off stump and inviting a cautious prod down the wicket. However Sammy, still somewhat dazed and destined to call for further treatment at the end of the over, chose now to be the right time to launch into the purest lofted straight drive for six, sending Kensington Oval into raptures and obliging Watson to resort to another bouncer and a Bollywood villain’s stare next ball.Having been looked over once again by the team physio, Sammy renewed his attack, forcing Watson to join Lyon in exiting the bowling crease, spanking him straight for four then depositing him uproariously into the Greenidge and Haynes Stand for six. Ben Hilfenhaus resorted to a less than edifying string of bouncers at a batsman who had suffered a blow to the head, but after one more straight six Sammy miscued a hook and was taken in the deep. His performance offered a staunch example of the attitude Sammy wants from his team, and he need only add a little more duration to his stays at the batting crease to become a bowling allrounder of genuine chops.At the other end, Chanderpaul had simply done what he does, scratching his way to a substantial score via the legside nudges, third-man deflections and occasional forcing strokes that have driven all manner of international opponents – not to mention impatient spectators – to distraction. Apart from an lbw referral by Lyon when he was 85, Chanderpaul did not offer a chance for six-and-a-half hours, balls both good and bad treated without the merest trace of premeditation. Along the way he passed Brian Lara as the man to score the most Test runs at Kensington Oval, a marker of his persistence but also the commitment to the game that he had reasserted after Sammy and the coach Ottis Gibson sought to enlist him to their cause in 2010.As the innings wound down, Chanderpaul’s search for a 25th Test century was intertwined with another matter of some importance. Each ball the hosts kept Australia in the field would add to their fatigue when batting, and each run would enhance the hosts’ chances of pressuring the visiting batsmen when their turn came to take the ball. Chanderpaul trusted the last man Devendra Bishoo, his fellow Guyanese, with a little of the strike, and was not harried into a risky single or an attempt to turn one into two. Clarke became as preoccupied with denying Chanderpaul as ending the innings, but his efforts to do both were thwarted: the 37-year-old former captain kissed the Bridgetown pitch and added a pesky 28 with Bishoo before Sammy called them in. Bishoo’s innings meant that all 11 Caribbean batsmen had passed double figures for the first time in the region’s history: a statistic to warm hearts.Trudging off after 153 overs of sobering Caribbean reality, Clarke’s team was weary but also a little more worldly-wise. Over the next three days, and the next three weeks, they must find ways of blunting Chanderpaul, and of sapping Sammy’s enthusiasm before it filters completely through his team. The second day of the Barbados Test made these two tasks appear far more vexing than many might have predicted. Having given West Indies a foothold, Australia must locate the kind of resourcefulness not required in quite some time to prise them out.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the fifth day of the first Test between West Indies and Australia in Barbados

Daniel Brettig at Kensington Oval11-Apr-2012Drop of the day
Darren Sammy played with a good degree of sense early in his stay, but on 12 he tried to loft Peter Siddle down the ground and picked out Nathan Lyon, stationed a handful of metres in from the boundary at long on. Michael Clarke’s field placement was precise, Lyon barely having to move. But the ball’s trajectory was a little flat, and Lyon allowed it to burst through his reverse-cupped hands. Australia’s players had dropped numerous catches across the match, but none as straightforward as this.Assist of the day
Lyon was left alone with his apprehensive thoughts for the next three overs, wondering if he had not only dropped Sammy, but the match as well. Siddle was replaced by Shane Watson, who in his second over maintained a knack for critical wickets. Sammy played a short of a length ball defensively, but was late enough to have it spinning and screwing back threateningly towards the stumps. In an instant Sammy tried to kick it away, but his boot served only to ensure the ball would break the stumps and send him on his way. Among English Premier League strikers, Chelsea’s less than prolific Fernando Torres would have empathised with Sammy’s misfortune.Placement of the day
A slow pitch has necessitated plenty of creative fields across the match, and when Kemar Roach faced up to Watson, Clarke posted two men close on the legside, virtually within touching distance of each other. Gaining some reverse swing back into Roach, Watson was clearly bowling for the catch, and Roach obliged by pushing one such delivery in the general direction of the two fielders. But Roach’s placement was charmed – or extremely deft – and the tiniest of gaps was bisected in a manner that Brian Lara would have been proud of. Watson could only grimace at his misfortune, having hatched the plan but watched it fail by centimetres.Signal of the day
When Australia crawled to 61 for 1 at tea in their pursuit of 192, Kensington Oval’s spectators sat pensively, wondering how the final session would pan out. Ed Cowan in particular had shown little interest in scoring, seeming to lay a platform for the chase but also struggling for timing on a slow and deteriorating surface. However his first ball after the interval indicated that Australia would, beyond all doubt, be pursuing the target. Delivered straight and short of a length by Darren Sammy, it arrived in a spot Cowan had been quite happy to block before tea. After it, he swung with intent, pulling to the square leg fence and notching his first boundary. It had the same effect as a bell sounding to resume a fight.

Marlon Samuels has been to hell and back, for reasons well known, but no one could have predicted the kind of second coming that he is scripting

Subash Jayaraman in Jamaica04-Aug-2012It was as though Marlon Samuels was not challenged enough by the conditions and the opposition bowlers in Antigua, as though it was not the right stage to showcase his class and sublime skill. While almost everybody helped themselves to runs there in the first Test, padding their numbers on a flat deck at the Sir Vivian Richards stadium, Samuels showed why he was always considered a special talent in the second in Jamaica, with 123 on a pitch that had bounce and pace, against a youthful yet disciplined four-pronged New Zealand pace attack.Led by Trent Boult and Tim Southee, New Zealand, with a one-side-of-the-wicket line and some short-pitched aggression, nipped off early wickets and kept even Chris Gayle quiet. The early moisture of the track helped their quicks move the ball off the pitch, and also attain a certain amount of swing in the air. Samuels walked in at 17 for 2, with Gayle plodding along.There were few early jitters for Samuels, with the New Zealand bowlers on the ascendancy, but this pitch at Sabina Park is one he knows quite well. “It is never easy to go in and start flowing [on this pitch]. You have to spend a bit of time. It isn’t the easiest pitch to bat on,” Samuels said after Friday’s play. “It seems flat but isn’t. [A] ball here and there does something, and I had to apply myself, and concentrate a little bit harder.”There were some inside edges, a couple of glides through the slip region when he was not totally in control, but once he was set, it was going to be hard to remove Samuels. Even a sightscreen that got stuck, not switching from the red sponsor ad to a white background, could not distract him today. Once settled, he got boundaries at will, making pretty decent deliveries look very ordinary. It was only when he was saddled with the desperation of being stuck alone, that he eventually succumbed.Drives straight down the ground scorching his home turf, dismissive slaps through cover, delicate nudges, powerful pulls and expert scythes through the slip cordon, they were all there. He continued his fine form from the Test series in England and attributed this knock to the technique that is required to perform well in England. “This was the kind of pitch you have to play late on, like in England, because of the bounce.”The New Zealand bowlers stuck to their task, constantly questioning the West Indies batsmen. Only those that were ready to bide their time, giving themselves a chance to get set, were going to succeed and the only one who did today for West Indies was Samuels. “Patience is definitely the key, especially on a wicket like today’s. All the New Zealand bowlers bowled well, their lengths and their lines were proper. It was tough for us to score runs. It’s a wicket you can’t just come up and play shots and dominate. You have to spend some time.”There was a brief but brisk partnership of 49 with Darren Sammy but soon, Samuels was running out of partners as he neared his personal landmark – something that he has never done, score a 100 in front of his home crowd, with family and friends in attendance. Southee – as well as he had bowled throughout – bore the brunt of that final surge from Samuels. Three back-to-back-to-back sixes took Samuels from 98 to 116 with only No. 11 Tino Best for company. A tennis forehand sort of slap over cover brought up his first Test century in West Indies. One that was deposited over the sightscreen followed and another was flayed over long off, not too violently.This week marks the 50th year of independence from the British rule in Jamaica. Kingston has been painted in black, green and gold. And the local boy chose the perfect time to put on a show for his people. “It’s a special time for Jamaica, the 50th,” Samuels said. “To come out here and put in my piece of celebration with my people [is special]”.Samuels has been to hell and back, for reasons well known, but no one could have predicted the kind of second coming to cricket that he is scripting. Even though he made his Test debut in 2000, two of his highest scores in Tests have come in the last two series, 117 against England at Nottingham and the cool, almost nonchalant century today. Another famous former resident of Jamaica would have been proud of this “redemption song”.Samuels recalled the hard times: “There were so many problems, I played [and] I quit. It is just now I am over these hurdles. I’ve been through some tough times. I’m here still playing cricket.”It’s my time to enjoy my cricket. Waking up in the morning, I don’t worry about getting a game. I know I’m going to get a game. I worry about how I’m going to start my innings. It’s a different mindset [now]. I am definitely at peace with myself.”

ESPNcricinfo’s writers, who were at the World Twenty20, pick their best XIs and explain their choices

09-Oct-2012Sambit Bal’s picksTwenty20, I have always believed, is a game for specialists. Because every over is crucial and because a match can change course in a matter of balls, a team must employ at all times players capable of taking charge. So if you can bowl a bit and bat a bit, and do a job on the field, get yourself another job. I am looking for only match-winners.The openers pick themselves. Both Shane Watson and Chris Gayle failed in their final matches, but who’d dare keep them out? Between them they scored nearly 500 runs at 150, and hit 31 sixes. If they got going together, fielders could actually relax – the crowd would be busy catching. Behind them are the men of silk and style. Both have been pushed down a slot, but Mahela Jayawardene and Virat Kolhi can purr as well as vroom, and have the technique to find runs on tough pitches.Marlon Samuels would have been a serious candidate even before the final, but after that innings he just saunters in. That he can give a couple of overs of fast spin, though I would be loath to bowl him, gives him a few more points. Not considering Kieron Pollard is personal choice, and Michael Hussey, in this case is far more versatile cricketer. The wicketkeeper was a tough choice, and I did consider MS Dhoni before settling for Brendon McCullum. He doesn’t like batting lower down these days, but he has the goods to deliver at No. 7.For bowlers, their batting wasn’t even a consideration. Lasith Malinga wasn’t in the list even before the final because he is no longer the trustworthy match-winner he used to be. Mitchell Starc was the most impressive new-ball bowler of the tournament, both miserly, and attacking. Umar Gul was certainly an option, but I went for Steven Finn’s wicket-taking ability both at the top and at the death. Tall bowlers are always tough to get away, and they get wickets out of nowhere.There was hardly a doubt about the spinners. Greame Swann and R Ashwin did the job for their teams, but Saeed Ajmal and Sunil Narine were the best spinners of the tournament. If you can’t pick them, you can’t hit them.And yes, I still trust Jayawardene to lead.The XI: Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Virat Kohli, Marlon Samuels, Michael Hussey, Brendon McCullum (wk), Mitchell Starc, Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine, Steven Finn

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David Hopps’ picksShane Watson has surely been the most valuable player of World Twenty20. Jot him down as an opener and, as he consistently gave Australia devastating starts with his medium pace, he immediately provides the balance that all teams crave.To gain that balance, a batsman-keeper is also essential and, although Kumar Sangakkara came into contention, I wanted somebody with the power to bat at No. 7. I was tempted by Brendon McCullum, who had a fine tournament for New Zealand, but subcontinent pitches eventually swung it for MS Dhoni.Dhoni will not captain, though, or for that matter have any say in team selection. The captaincy goes to Mahela Jayawardene, whose relaxed approach and wise counsel drew out the best from his Sri Lankan side. His lending of the captaincy in the final Super Eights game against England to Sangakkara to escape a potential overrate ban was a bit cheeky, but I can’t get that annoyed about it; he retains my vote.Jayawardene will have to bat at No. 3, though, to allow Chris Gayle to open with Watson. No batsman has such an obvious capability to wreak destruction. In the middle order, I have preferred Virat Kohli, India’s next superstar, and Eoin Morgan, who likes games to be set up for him and who should have a better chance with this XI than he did with England. Michael Hussey’s immense knowledge of his own game and ability to manage the most pressurised situation was used by Australia at No. 3, but in this side he can revert to No. 6, where he has batted before. Nasir Jamshed was the young player I omitted with reluctance.That only leaves four specialist bowlers, with Gayle and Watson having to make up the fifth bowler – a vulnerability that opponents will have to punish if they are to have a chance of winning. Lasith Malinga, in front of his home crowd, and a left-armer, Mitchell Starc, who had a good tournament for Australia, get the new ball ahead of Dale Steyn and Steven Finn. Spin is left with the Pakistan pair of Saeed Ajmal and, for the sake of debate, Raza Hasan.The XI: Shane Watson, Chris Gayle, Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan, Michael Hussey, MS Dhoni (wk), Mitchell Starc, Raza Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Lasith Malinga

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Sunil Narine: miserly and mysterious•AFPAndrew Fernando’s picksThe trouble with picking batsmen from a Twenty20 tournament is that the men in the middle order rarely get the opportunity to make big contributions. Twelve of the tournament’s top 13 run-scorers bat in the top three, and I’ve given in to sheer weight of numbers and stacked my top six with three openers and two No. 3s. Mahela Jayawardene and Marlon Samuels are batting slightly out of position (although Jayawardene did bat at first drop in the group stage), while Brendon McCullum has been sent way down the order because he was once a good finisher.I had toyed with the idea of leaving Chris Gayle out of my XI before he proved me a fool by treating Australia’s attack like a piñata that had made a move on his sister. He is also in charge of the music on the team bus.Shane Watson’s inclusion is obvious and Jayawardene has made vital runs for Sri Lanka, quite apart from being the best captain on show for much of the tournament. Virat Kohli appeared to be batting in a different match from most of his team-mates, and Samuels muscles out Luke Wright with an incredible innings in the final. Staggeringly, Umar Akmal was the closest thing to a consistent finisher and McCullum takes the gloves ahead of Kumar Sangakkara who had a forgettable tournament behind the stumps.Sunil Narine’s three-ball sequence to bowl Ed Joyce around his legs was among the highlights of the tournament and, over the past three weeks, Narine has proved he has more strings to his bow than just mystery. West Indies team-mate Ravi Rampaul achieved quietly, but delivered a stunner to dismiss Tillakaratne Dilshan in the final. Ajantha Mendis also bowled his way into the XI in the final, while his team-mate, Lasith Malinga, bowled his way out of it.The XI: Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Marlon Samuels, Virat Kohli, Brendon McCullum (wk), Umar Akmal, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Ajantha Mendis

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Abhishek Purohit’s picksThe presence of Shane Watson and Chris Gayle in the XI pushes Luke Wright down to No. 3. Virat Kohli and Nasir Jamshed were considered for the slot, but the freedom with which Wright batted – he has the highest strike-rate in the XI – puts him ahead of the duo. Mahela Jayawardene is the overwhelming choice to lead the side, but he bats at No. 4, a position which he is not unfamiliar with at all. Marlon Samuels’ epic 78 in the final confirms his place, while the experience and adaptability of Michael Hussey is handy at No. 6, though he didn’t bat at that position for Australia in the tournament.The choice of a wicketkeeper who could score quickly at No. 7 was difficult, as most of them now bat up the order. Brendon McCullum makes it for having batted that low down the order before. Both Mitchell Starc and Steven Finn were impressive in foreign conditions, and fill the fast-bowling slots ahead of other contenders. It is very hard to leave out one of Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine and Ajantha Mendis. Ajmal and Narine make it for being consistently miserly through the tournament. As many as four batsmen are capable of filling in the fifth bowler’s quota.The XI: Shane Watson, Chris Gayle, Luke Wright, Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Marlon Samuels, Michael Hussey, Brendon McCullum (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine, Steven Finn, Mitchell Starc

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Jarrod Kimber’s picksPicking mythical teams is a pretty pointless pursuit, kind of like part-time offspin. I was at a lot of the World T20, and I remember a few of the matches. At the end of the day I didn’t pick Ajantha Mendis over Sunil Narine or Saeed Ajmal because I think he’s mentally weaker and only good if you can’t pick him (hello West Indies and Zimbabwe) and rotten if you can’t (New Zealand and England). He had a better tournament I suppose, if three games against two teams makes it a good tournament. But my team he is fighting off a horde cricketing ghouls, and I think they can pick him.I picked Mitchell Starc mostly because I have this theory that left-arm bowlers are scientifically designed to be better in T20. There is no actual team of cricketing ghouls, it’s mostly in my head, but if there was, they might struggle with left-arm pace.This whole exercise is just designed to get readers really angry (as is much of ESPNcricinfo), so I really should have picked Rohit Sharma over Virat Kohli, or just not picked an Indian at all. On stats I could have justified it, but Kohli was the bee’s knees when I saw him, and I’m picking him in this team. Rohit Sharma is my 12th man.Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Shane Watson are probably in everyone’s teams, as is Luke Wright, but I am bucking that disturbing trend.Nasir Jamshed is in the side mostly because I like him and when he batted well Pakistan looked like they could win the tournament. Dale Steyn is in the side because he deserves special treatment for having to carry South Africa. Michael Hussey beat Ross Taylor because although I think Taylor is the most complete T20 batsmen in world cricket, he couldn’t win against the West Indies, and I think in the same situation Hussey would have. Kumar Sangakkara is in because, I don’t know … as wicketkeeper and last-minute captain if needed. Maybe I have unresolved Brendon McCullum issues.I have picked two captains, George Bailey and Darren Sammy, both in the non-playing roles their critics despise.The XI: Shane Watson, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Nasir Jamshed, Virat Kohli, Kumar Sangakkara, Michael Hussey, Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Dale Steyn

Twenty20 may be cricket’s most unpredictable format, but the Titans way is to assign specific roles to their players

Firdose Moonda12-Oct-2012The IPL teams are likely to dominate most of the Champions League headlines, largely because of their star players. But those marquee men all came from somewhere and in this tournament they will be playing against the teams that hail from some of their breeding grounds.One such unit is the Titans, who have produced IPL favourites like AB de Villiers and Albie Morkel. Their coach Matthew Maynard thinks it no accident that the South Africa’s 20-overs competition manufactures players who go on to become successful in overseas leagues because, in his experience, it is specifically geared to do exactly that.”There’s a very high standard here in South Africa,” he said. “The format helps to develop that because each competition is held at a separate time in its own window.”South Africa’s season usually starts with the first-class competition, which runs for a few weeks until the summer’s first Tests. The one-day and 20-overs tournaments take place in their own blocs and are uninterrupted for their full duration. The scheduling is distinctly different to a place like the UK, where various formats are sometimes played back to back.”That doesn’t help preparation,” Maynard, who also coached in his home country, said. “With the structure in South Africa, we have time to prepare for each format and then concentrate on each format. And that enables the players to grow faster and become better players quicker. And it shows. The franchise system has been in place eight years or so, and look how strong the national side is. That’s because of the nature of the domestic competition; it plays a big part in getting people up and through the system to represent the national team.”Coaching in such a system is also easier, according to Maynard, because it helps him zone in solely on one format. In 20-overs cricket, his method is to assign roles to players, even though the game is unpredictable.”When you coach domestically, you have to try and get your plans allied to the talent you have,” he explained. “Clarity is absolutely key. If the players know their areas, whether it’s bowling at the death or in the middle overs and for batsmen, if they know where they have the best option to score, that is key. Then, if they get out or miss lines and lengths when they know what they are trying to achieve, you can make a proper judgment on them.”Maynard’s approach is in stark contrast to that of national coach Gary Kirsten, who kept South Africa’s batting line-up fluid and did not have set bowling plans at the recent World T20. He explained that the reason for the more rigid set-up could be the level of play. “Internationally you can set the plans and then find people to fulfil the plans because you have players from the six franchises who can fill those roles. But domestically you have to give the roles to the players that you have.”One player who benefits from the set game plan is Titans captain Martin van Jaarsveld, who returned to the team last season after an extensive run at Kent. “I like to be very clear on what we have planned,” he said. “There’s a lot of pressure on you when you are out there. Everything is happening so quickly so the more you know what your role is, the better.”Van Jaarsveld captained the Titans last season but handed the armband to Henry Davids this summer, although he has been retained as the leader for the Champions League campaign. Although van Jaarsveld does not immediately strike one as a 20-overs heavyweight, his record in the format is exceptional. He has played 124 matches, has a batting average of just under 30 and has scored 18 half-centuries. Overall, he lies 63 runs behind Virender Sehwag and could be one of those players Maynard says has been wrongly labelled as limited to certain formats.While the growth of 20-overs cricket and the separation of formats in South Africa further allows for that distinction to be made, Maynard said it has to be applied carefully because migration of talent between formats should be promoted.”Potentially you are going to have individuals who are stronger in a certain format but that shouldn’t limit them,” he said, endorsing Twenty20 as the format from which players can grow. “Players can work that way: from T20 to first-class. It’s more difficult to make a solid Test opening batsman into a smack-it-out-of-the-park T20 specialist.”With a squad that includes Test player Jacques Rudolph, former Test spinner Paul Harris and two first-class veterans in Heino Kuhn and Ethy Mbhalati, the Champions League could be a test for the Titans to prove Maynard wrong on that count.

The new-look Indian batting line-up struggled in the easiest assignment this season, a sign that it may not be ready yet for the English and Australian challenge ahead

Siddarth Ravindran in Bangalore03-Sep-2012With a slogged six over midwicket on a murky evening in Bangalore, MS Dhoni sealed a 2-0 Test series victory over New Zealand. For a team in transition, in their first series without two of their greatest middle-order batsmen, and after one of their worst-ever Test performances last season, you’d think it was a satisfactory result. You can’t do better than 2-0 in a two-Test contest, but the batting remains a worry after another tight home win for India.India’s formidable home record – just one series loss in the past decade, and that to the mighty Australians at their peak – has been built upon a powerful batting line-up rather than a world-class bowling attack. However, the struggle to match a lightweight New Zealand batting, which has been dismissed below 200 ten times in the last two years, on a fairly easy-paced track at the Chinnaswamy Stadium doesn’t bode well.Gautam Gambhir seemed to have put a fallow spell behind him when he began India’s chase of 261 with a confident bunch of boundaries. Unlike the first innings, there were no wobbles against the new ball, and the steer to third man which has cost him his wicket so often in recent Tests seemed to have been wisely mothballed. It re-appeared though in the 18th over, and again led to his downfall as he tamely steered Trent Boult to first slip. It extended a worrying trend of Gambhir being caught either by the wicketkeeper or in the slip cordon.MS Dhoni wasn’t too concerned by Gambhir’s struggles, sticking to an oft-repeated mantra about out-of-form batsmen. “I think Gautam is batting really well in the nets and it’s just a matter of time that he does the same in matches too,” Dhoni said after the match. “Today also he was batting really well. He started off really well. So we’re hoping he would come good in the coming games.”The only specialist middle-order batsman to emerge with his reputation enhanced from the Bangalore Test was Man of the Match Virat Kohli. Cheteshwar Pujara looked composed in the early part of his second innings in a high-pressure situation but was beaten outside off too many times after lunch by the gentle offspin of Jeetan Patel. The last remaining member of India’s famed middle-order quartet, Sachin Tendulkar, also didn’t have a series to remember, getting bowled in all three innings. His unparalleled career is winding down, and the team management need to get a clear idea of his future plans, especially whether he intends to be a part of the tour of South Africa next year. “The good thing is that whenever people talk about Tendulkar’s form, he comes up with a brilliant performance and I’m waiting for that,” Dhoni said. “I don’t really get worried about that.”The biggest concern remains the troublesome No. 6 spot, with Suresh Raina undoing the goodwill earned by his crucial first-innings half-century with a wild swipe that his critics will remind him of for a long time. With India having lost both set batsmen, Tendulkar and Pujara, in the space of six runs, the match was in the balance, and a cool head was required. Instead, after Patel tied him down with some tidy bowling, Raina went charging down the track for a high-risk heave. He missed, and was bowled for a duck, boosting New Zealand’s chances of a dream victory.The first-innings heroics and the subsequent failure in the second was a microcosm of Raina’s Test career – highs quickly followed by confidence-sapping lows. He began with a debut century against Sri Lanka, and was a vital part of a successful big chase in his second. When it was time to secure his place, he bafflingly failed against a workmanlike New Zealand attack in the 2010 home series and was soon dropped. Half-centuries in each of the three Tests in the tricky batting conditions of the Caribbean again seemed to bring him close to a permanent spot last year, before England’s high-quality bowling worked him out, with a pair at The Oval leading to his exclusion. This series was his third coming, and that too could be shortlived, given the number of contenders for the berth, and the new selectors will certainly take a dim view of his Bangalore brain-fade.Dhoni defended Raina, highlighting his Test inexperience and his naturally adventurous brand of batting. “There are two ways of fighting pressure – one is to take the fight on and look for big shots,” Dhoni said. “In the first innings, he went out there and played his shots. Then he could’ve nicked one and then the same question would have been asked. Otherwise, people say it was brilliant batting, it was counter attack and all. I still remember me playing against England a long time back in Wankhede, I played a similar kind of shot. You learn from your experience.”Dhoni pointed out another reason to persist with Raina. “It’s important to have a left-hander at six or seven. This series [Daniel] Vettori wasn’t playing but if a left-hander is there, the mix becomes ideal. Gambhir is at the top of the tree and then you have a fair number of right-handers. Then it’s useful if you have a left-hander at six if the wicket is turning. But that doesn’t guarantee anyone a place in the Test side.”The in-form Kohli and the ice-cool Dhoni ensured New Zealand didn’t pull off an upset victory, but this was the easiest of the assignments this home season and the batting hasn’t yet convinced that it is ready for the English and Australian challenge.