Hygiene, nicknames, freeloaders, arson and more in this interview with the Mumbai Indians’ enfant terrible

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi20-Apr-2009Is it true that you have 20,000-plus songs on your iPod?
Yes, it is true.Which one do you listen to the most?
The one am hooked on to these days is [What’s the point of living without you].Who is your (partner)?
I’m trying to find one.Tell us a secret about yourself.
For what?There must be something we don’t know.
I take a shower every day.What was the most naughty thing you did as a kid?
I was very naughty. I’m still like that. Once, at school, I shot at a beehive, after which there was complete chaos. When they found I was the culprit, the teachers gave me a lot of stick.Name one mistake you try never to repeat on the field?
I don’t want to give loose balls. I don’t want to drop a catch, especially off my own bowling. And I don’t want to get out by giving a direct catch.You are supposed to be a specialist at giving your team-mates nicknames. Give us some examples. And which one was your best?
Viru’s [Virender Sehwag] is good – “Lala”. Yuvi’s [Yuvraj Singh] is “Buggi”, [Suresh] Raina’s is “Bhabhi”.What’s the one ball you’ve bowled that you will always treasure?
My best ball in Test cricket is the one that got Michael Hussey in Bangalore last year. He left the ball and it turned in to him like a legspinner. I don’t know how it happened and it was like a mystery ball even to me. I was shocked when I saw it again later, because it turned in big time.One sledge you won’t forget?
Actually a lot of people are scared to sledge me, because if they do so they know they will have to hear a lot of crap from me later.Batsman you most enjoy beating?
Brian Lara. Toughest.What’s the best thing about playing cricket for a living?
God has been kind that I can actually do something I love.One compliment you won’t forget?
I’m still waiting for it. Perhaps I will get it when I pick up my 500th Test wicket.What do hotel rooms need to make them more enjoyable?
I don’t want to say. You will land me in trouble.Which ground has the most hostile crowds?
Sydney.And the most amusing crowds?
Kolkata and Mumbai.Which tour do you look most forward to?
Going home. That is a very short tour, but the one I enjoy the most.What do you like to drink to celebrate a victory?
I enjoy a glass champagne or wine with my team-mates after a victory.How often do your friends ask you for free tickets to matches?
All the time. Once someone asked, “Can you get 70 tickets please?” Seventy! stadium, [I don’t own the stadium]. People feel we get tickets easily, but we only get three each. It’s hard to explain to friends. They think we are lying. That is not the case.If you could have one thing from the likes of Anil Kumble or Sachin Tendulkar, what would it be?
The thing I would like from them is the way they handle things: they are very calm. Of course, apart from that, I would try to be like them – they are champions. And I hope people remember the day I leave cricket.If you were to design a t-shirt, what five words you would put on it that describe you best?
Emotional, straightforward, prankster, fighter, no-nonsense.If your house was on fire what would you grab first?
I will grab the guy who burned my house and make sure I burn him first.

A look at the far-reaching life of Learie Constantine, which successfully captures his extraordinary achievements

David Conn23-May-2009

The premise of this illuminating biography is to revive appreciation of Learie Constantine, the original West Indies cricket icon and pioneer in so many fields that he seems to have packed four lives into the one he was born into, in Trinidad in 1901. Readable, well-researched, admiring but not wholly uncritical, the book achieves its purpose, bringing to vivid life a remarkable man and period of history.Constantine’s journey was epic. The grandson of a slave in racially segregated Trinidad, Constantine bowled, batted and most notably fielded his “panther-like” way to a distinctively West Indian cricketing style. He fought endemic English racism, became a writer and broadcaster, was a key political figure in Trinidad’s 1962 independence, becoming the first black man in the House of Lords, his national-treasure status confirmed by an appearance on . Peter Mason delivers the facts, stats and details comprehensively and sums up authoritatively.In childhood Constantine and his brother, Elias, would practise throwing and catching by hurling crockery at each other while washing up, but adult life was a struggle and cricket became Learie’s escape. At 26 he determined to make his name on West Indies’ tour of England in 1928 and win a professional contract.He landed it with heroics against Middlesex at Lord’s; 86 in the first innings, 7 for 57 in the opposition’s second innings, then a match-winning 103 that had Lord’s members “hoarse from cheering” and boys dashing on to the pitch. Denis Compton, who joined Middlesex years later, found the old pros in the dressing room still talking about it.Constantine, his wife Norma and daughter Gloria then spent 20 years as the only black people in the Lancashire mill town of Nelson – surely one of cricket’s great stories. He was one of Britain’s highest-paid sportsmen and delivered consistently good value for it in the Lancashire League. They were objects of curiosity, but bore it well and made crowds of friends. Constantine even experienced his political awakening there, helping to finance the publishing of the , written by his friend and collaborator CLR James.There are many other achievements: Constantine’s landmark 1944 legal victory after his family was turned away from London’s Imperial Hotel by a manageress saying “We will not have niggers in the hotel”; his welfare work for Caribbean workers during the war; a career in island politics for which he was not ideally suited, his contribution important nevertheless.This fine account thoroughly justifies Mason’s concluding judgment of Constantine as “a great man”, or in James’ words, “a man of character”.Caribbean Lives: Learie Constantine
by Peter Mason
Signal Press, pb, 212pp, £9.99

When the moment came, the graceful Mahela Jayawardene didn’t shy away from the ugly swipe over midwicket or a slog to the cow corner

Sriram Veera in Kimberley09-May-2009Twenty-five men were in the Deccan Chargers’ huddle at the 10-over strategy break. All the support staff had come out. Out in the middle, Mahela Jayawardene rested on his bat. Alone. Tom Moody had just left after a chat and Irfan Pathan, the new batsman, had run to the dug-out. The equation was 83 needed from 60 balls with six wickets in hand.Jayawardene had just seen two of his best batsmen implode in a brain freeze. Kumar Sangakkara stood motionless for a few seconds after being cleaned up, trying to paddle-sweep a seamer, and Yuvraj Singh miscued a pull shot on the last ball of the 10th over. Jayawardene shook his head when Sangakkara fell and looked up to the skies when Yuvraj followed.When Irfan came up, they had a chat and the plan ahead was charted. “We spoke about batting for five overs and try to get six runs per over,” Jayawardene later said. “Leave the rest for the last five. You just need to plan your chase. Bat till the end overs and see what can be done.” And we saw what he could do.Jayawardene is a delightfully graceful batsman with such languid movements that it’s always a treat to watch him bat. He usually seems to waft his wand and the ball speeds away. Today, though, the situation needed him to get his hands dirty, dig deep and graft. When the moment came, there might have to be a ugly swipe over midwicket or a slog to cow corner. Would he? He did.That’s the difference between a world-class player and the merely pretty, who don’t seem willing to play – or may not even possess – the slog hits. Dwayne Bravo, for instance. Against Hyderabad, in a crucial over at the end of the run-chase, Bravo kept trying his conventional big hits like the flick over midwicket or the lofted shot over long-on but couldn’t pull it off. Never did he try to clear the front foot and have a swing over midwicket. The game sunk with that over, as has happened in a couple of other chases as well. Not so with Jayawardene.After two quiet overs with Irfan came the first blow – a hoick over midwicket but with the same signature economy of hand movement. His hands don’t seem to move an inch more than necessary for the chosen shot – unlike most other batsmen, who usually have a full swing, with the bat ending behind their head when they play the hoick.In the stands, at the beer counter, one man commented loudly: “This bloke is going to win the game for his team. What a stylish player.” Another, who had been barracking every fielder standing in the deep in front of him, guffawed. “He looks too weak. He won’t be able to hit the big shots.” The equation then was 62 needed from 47 balls. In the middle, Jayawardene was quietly picking the singles. It was almost risk-free cricket for a couple more overs; he was delaying the assault, saving the wickets. That was the plan.However, Irfan fell and Wilkin Mota ran himself out, turning for the second run after Jayawardene had pinged long-on. As Mota walked back, Jayawardene kept staring at the big screen; thinking, planning, calculating. It’s been just over two months since he and his Sri Lankan teammates survived a terrorist attack in Lahore. He told Cricinfo earlier in this tournament how playing in the IPL has been therapeutic for him: “Your mind is busy working on tactics and how to face the next game. So it keeps you occupied.”Two had departed in two overs. Would he ask the new batsman Brett Lee, who is capable of swinging his bat, to go for the big shots or would he try to do it? The answer came when he got strike two balls later and, facing T Suman, turned on the aggression. He swung a six over midwicket on bent knee and lifted the next over long-on. The game had turned around. He brought the equation down further in the next over with a four to square leg but was run out, trying to retain the strike for the last ball. He couldn’t beat a stunning throw from Ravi Teja from deep backward point and as he neared the crease, cramps had set in as well.As Gilchrist & Co. celebrated, Jayawardene was hobbling in pain a few feet behind the stumps. He turned, threw his bat in disgust before picking it up and trudging off. It must have been the same sinking feeling he had when he had got out in the last game against Chennai after being involved in an almost match-winning partnership with Yuvraj. He needn’t have feared today. Brett Lee and Piyush Chawla got them home in the end and Punjab, courtesy Jayawardene, won a very important game to stay in the hunt for the semi-final spot.

The ominous question still lingers: is the win a sign that England are going to dominate cricket for the next decade, and what could that mean for the future of other nations?

Alice Dean21-Jun-2009New Zealand coach Gary Stead put it best. His side’s defeat to England
in Sunday’s ICC World Twenty20 final was, he said, like the amateurs
playing the professionals. He only meant it figuratively, insofar as his team were outclassed on the day against a surprisingly clinical England. At last, the home
side’s bowlers and fielders truly rose to the occasion in a way which
they hadn’t throughout the rest of the tournament.Stead was almost correct in the literal sense too, and therein lies a potential problem. The ECB has invested in English women’s cricket for more than a decade now, but the tree naturally takes a long time to first take root and then bear fruit. Only in the last 18 months have England looked like world-beaters. Now they have the World Twenty20, the World Cup and the Ashes in their pockets, and better investment than ever before.The ominous question goes thus: is this a sign that England women are
going to dominate cricket for the next decade or more, and if so, what
does that mean for the future of other nations?England’s women are, through Chance to Shine coaching contracts, the
nearest thing the women’s game gets to professionals; the gulf
between them and the rest of the teams is in serious danger of
widening. They have beaten world No. 2 New Zealand seven times in their last
meetings, while India, the third-best in the world, have been their whipping girls for several years.Only Australia – whose players have a contract-lite version of England’s, but still have to work – have presented anything of a challenge. Players can attend the Academy in Brisbane and have funding through grants, but one wonders what’s going to happen in the next few years when Karen Rolton, Shelley Nitschke and Lisa Sthalekar cart all their weighty experience off with them into the sunset.New Zealand lost captain Haidee Tiffen earlier this year – she wrote
on Cricinfo that this was partly down to a lack of funding – while
players such as Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine are in eternal danger of
defecting to their other international sports of basketball (Bates)
and hockey (Devine). The players are desperately keen to get more
financial assistance and, given their record, certainly deserve it.
Investment can only make the powerhouses stronger.England, partly due to the funding, have a well-gelled team who can
concentrate as much as they like on cricket. They have a young team
but one which is already very experienced and Charlotte Edwards – who
is the same age as Tiffen – intends to be around for many years yet.
And even though they have hardly played perfect cricket in either
tournaments this year, it’s still been more than enough to reign
supreme.So the future is certainly an issue. But at the same time, the
present is very much worth celebrating. England’s women already beat
their men to an ICC trophy when they took the World Cup in March, the
first tournament under ICC regulations. They promptly did the double on Sunday and
are flying the flag in style.The investment from the ECB continues to pay dividends and Edwards was
keen to note that the World Twenty20 success shows the 50-over tournament “was no
fluke”. The victory is also a win for women’s sport in England. While the
impact on the press may not be long-lasting in terms of a general lift
in column inches, the fact that writers and editors witnessed the
play at Trent Bridge, The Oval and Lord’s for the first time might lead them to look more kindly on the women’s game in the future.The double-header staging of the tournament has been an unmitigated
success. While there were no upsets in any of the games, the
cricket was exciting and there were some superb performances, such as the West Indies
batsman Deandra Dottin’s fastest international Twenty20 fifty against
Australia in Taunton, and New Zealand captain Aimee Watkins’ 89 not out
in Nottingham against India. The most memorable game will long stand
out as Australia versus England at The Oval where Claire Taylor, the player of the tournament, stroked her side home in thrilling circumstances.The ICC took a gamble on embracing the women’s game, or perhaps it
would be more accurate to say a calculated risk, the women having
already been on the same stage as the men in domestic and
international games. And the decision paid off handsomely.Women’s cricket has arrived on the world stage, and nobody tried to
boo them off. Rather, they applauded a surprisingly entertaining new
act which represented good value for money, and has the chance to
shine again in the future.With the format to be repeated next year in the Caribbean, the ICC can
both breathe a sigh of relief at the successful staging this time
around, but also give itself a pat on the back.The ECB, too, should be applauded for setting the example – and now
it is hoped other countries can catch up with their view to a golden future.

Between the foreword, written by pets, and the afterword, written by a two-year-old, lies an honest, funny and fascinating account of life as England cricketer

Andrew Miller20-Jun-2009

Mark my words, Matthew Hoggard will never play for England again. He will no doubt be mentioned in dispatches when the Ashes injuries begin to stack up this summer, and the Barmy Army will sing hymns of praise if his gurning mug appears on the giant screen midway through the Headingley Test. But England’s sixth most successful wicket-taker of all time is already ancient history, thanks in no small part to this wonderful, honest and characteristically unhinged autobiography.”A suicide note to rank alongside Labour’s 1983 manifesto” was how Mike Atherton described , which is some achievement for a book that opens with a foreword (actually a paw-word) from Hoggard’s dogs, Billy and Mollie, and closes with a postscript from his two-year- old son, Ernie. But in between the doodles and digressions, and cutting through an (at times contrived) air of silliness, this is a painful but laugh-out-loud sign-off from one of the most popular England cricketers of recent times.The book’s style is utterly puerile at times, littered with block capitals, quadruple exclamation marks and all manner of devices to make his detractors harrumph, and by referring to the press pack as a “cunch of bunts” he has probably diddled himself out of several favourable reviews. But Hoggard has come up with an autobiography in the fullest and frankest sense. It is often felt that he cultivated an air of mild lunacy to mask his insecurities, but he clearly missed nothing in his near-decade as an England player. To the delight of his fans but the chagrin of his former employers he has collected a massive pile of dirty laundry and is happy to parade it just as his Yorkshire team-mates used to do with the Y-fronts of the second-team coach.The grubbiest underpants on show are those belonging to the England and Wales Cricket Board, whose methods and man-management are held up for ridicule in almost every chapter. In many ways Hoggard’s gripes are ungracious, considering he was one of the earliest beneficiaries of the central contract system that transformed the livelihoods of England’s players. Then again, the brutality of his axing in Wellington and subsequent banishment from the national set-up, coming at a time of intense personal stress, makes his indignation entirely righteous.No doubt emboldened by Marcus Trescothick’s candour in his own book last summer, Hoggard is not afraid to tackle the dark side of England life. The chapters co-written with his wife Sarah, addressing their struggles to conceive and the descent into post-natal depression that turned that last tour of New Zealand into a living nightmare, are poignant and brave. But whereas Trescothick’s tale was groundbreaking yet bleak, humour remains Hoggard’s default setting. His book is the more readable thanks to that essential levity.At any rate those newsworthy chapters come late in the proceedings, by which stage the tale has all but written itself thanks to a single relationship that creates enough friction to carry the entire narrative. Perhaps uniquely among those players who thrived in the England “bubble” Hoggard’s relationship with Duncan Fletcher was never better than suspicious: he felt, with some justification, that the coach never rated him, and as he dryly notes in his chapter on the 2005 Ashes, it could so easily have been James Kirtley making up the famous “Awesome Foursome”.Without such a powerful figure in his corner it is little wonder that Hoggard could not be persuaded to buy into the wider team ethic. But conformity’s loss is literature’s gain. From first chapter to last he goes triumphantly off message, not least on the subject of diet and fitness, in which he sounds like the reincarnation of Fred Trueman as he concludes a rollicking diatribe with the declaration: “Fast bowlers do not eat salad!” (although even Trueman might have stopped short of advocating Roast Chicken Monster Munch as the ideal energy food).If at times it feels as if he is playing to the gallery, clowning around for the Barmy Army on a tedious final day in Galle, then the only response is “Hoggy is a monkey, tra-la-la-la!” This book will surely prove to be the vehicle that has whisked him into the sporting afterlife, but at least he has chosen to travel in style.Hoggy: Welcome to My World
by Matthew Hoggard
HarperSport, hb, 352pp,£18.99

Suresh Raina’s hundred in the tri-series final may not have resulted in victory but, given the context of his career and recent criticism, it is a significant effort on the personal front

Sriram Veera at the Shere Bangla National Stadium13-Jan-2010It wasn’t a match-winning knock, it certainly wasn’t a great innings but it is an effort that Suresh Raina won’t forget in a hurry. The match situation and his troubles in the recent past provided the context to make it an interesting innings to watch. Raina has been a marked man recently, slowly slipping towards anonymity even as another young man Virat Kohli was stealing the thunder. Nothing has gone right for Raina ever since the Twenty20 World Cup when he was grounded by the bouncers. Word caught on and even domestic bowlers started to serve the short stuff. Humiliation was at his door step. Raina went for advice to the likes of Rahul Dravid, sought out Gary Kirsten, faced throw-downs, faced balls blasted from tennis racquets, but it is not an ailment that vanishes overnight.Even today, his start wasn’t promising. He kept going back even as the bowlers kept it full and it seemed like he was expecting the short stuff – may be this one will be a short, may be this, surely this will rear up at least? It was almost painful to see the otherwise gorgeously fluent batsman retreat deep inside the crease on a flat track as if he expected a bouncer every ball. He looked a like a man walking the Green Mile.And there were curious little brain-freezes from time to time that made you question his temperament. Off the ninth ball he faced, he went for an ambitious shot, that had more than a tinge of desperation to it, and would have been caught had mid-off not be stationed slightly wide. India were 63 for 5 then. If it was an attempted counter-punch, it was a very lame one, something that was borne out of hope rather than conviction. Clarity of thought seemed to be missing as he teased short cover a couple of times with uppish push-drives. It was around this point that Sri Lanka should have tightened the noose but they failed to and Raina effected the jail-break. Sri Lanka ran out of steam, they pulled back, the bowling definitely lost sting and they let the game drift away. Raina went on to seize the day.Sri Lanka bowled less than five short deliveries at him through the innings. Only one climbed to a potentially disconcerting height. Perhaps the pitch wasn’t conducive; perhaps they wanted to hurt him with the thought of bouncers rather than actually unleashing them on him and perhaps, the bowlers were spent after the initial burst. Slowly but surely, Raina started to look the part.Even that signature shot over cover returned. In international cricket today, only Herschelle Gibbs’ hit over cover comes close to Raina’s but though Gibbs’ strike matches his in brutality, it lags behind, slightly, in beauty. It is a shot that shows that all is well in the world of Raina. It means he is not thinking about the short one, it means the weight transfer to the front foot has been completed quickly and confidently, and it means that the bat-swing has come through without any self-doubt lurking in the back of the brain. It is a here-and-now shot. The toughest bouncer of the day arrived almost immediately but by then Raina had turned the corner; the short-pitched lifter was upper-cut to the third-man boundary, the fifty was brought up, and Raina had turned the clock back to his good days.He lofted and swept Suraj Randiv for boundaries, played a delightful inside-out lofted cover drive against the same bowler, and sent Chanaka Welegedera to the cover boundary. The hundred came up and he celebrated with a hop, skip and jump for joy routine. It was a special moment for someone who had been haunted by his short-comings in the recent past.

Plays of the day from game five of the Asia Cup, between Bangladesh and Pakistan

Siddarth Ravindran in Dambulla21-Jun-2010Watching the watchers
With the home side not in action and the finalists already decided, hardly any spectators turned up at the stadium. Still, every 20 yards along the boundary, there was a policeman intently watching stands in which there wasn’t a single person during the afternoon. By the time the floodlights came on though, some policemen took up a few seats in the stand, giving their colleagues someone to keep an eye on.What’s to celebrate?
Pakistan had plundered 47 runs in the previous three overs, and moved to 312 for 4 after 44 overs with the batting Powerplay still in hand. In the next over, Umar Akmal was bowled by a yorker but Bangladesh’s chances were so slim that only the in-fielders came up to congratulate the bowler. After some more mayhem, Shahid Afridi was dismissed. By then, Pakistan had moved to 347. None of the Bangladeshis bothered to celebrate the wicket.Keeping the spirit
Shafiul Islam had a horror day with the ball. By the 48th over, he had leaked 72 in nine overs and Pakistan had racked up a total Bangladesh had no hope of chasing. But when Abdul Razzaq carved one towards deep extra cover, Shafiul hared after it and made a diving stop to keep Pakistan to three.Afridi makes Mashrafe pay
Afridi gave a simple chance to Mashrafe Mortaza at mid-on when on 32. Mortaza shelled it. Afridi made him realise just how expensive it was through a spell of hitting that was breathtaking even by Afridi’s explosive standards. In the next 20 deliveries, he slammed 12 fours and a six to ransack 62 runs and set Pakistan on the way to their highest ODI total.Getting out of neutral
Perhaps to restore the balance between bat and ball after Pakistan’s rampage towards the end of their innings, Imrul Kayes started off in Test match mode. Chasing the small matter of 386, he took 24 deliveries before finally getting off the mark, that too off an outside edge to third man. Old-timers reminisced about Sunil Gavaskar’s infamous 36* in 60 overs during the 1975 World Cup in the face of a similarly monumental target, but Kayes eventually perked up to lift his strike-rate to 60.

Under pressure after a poor batting effort, on a pitch that had eased out but was still lively, Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth missed Zaheer Khan, the leader of the attack

Sidharth Monga at SuperSport Park17-Dec-2010Harbhajan Singh was bullish when asked, at the end of the first day, whether Zaheer Khan’s absence had done India psychological damage already. “We have not bowled a single ball yet, so I can’t say if we have missed Zaheer Khan or not,” he said. “We have got other bowlers. If you see previous games, Ishant Sharma bowled really well in Nagpur. The other guy, Sreesanth, bowled really well. Spinners also bowled really well. So we don’t depend on one particular bowler. And we have bowlers who can adapt to any condition and get us wickets. We are no more a team that depends on one particular batsman or bowler. We believe everyone can perform in given conditions.”On paper, or even on websites, that sounds good. In reality though, under pressure after a poor batting effort, on a pitch that had eased out but was still lively, Ishant and the “other guy” missed the leader of the attack. The man who could show them what lengths to bowl, the man who would stand at mid-on, put an arm around their shoulder, and suggest slight corrections to get them wickets.It could be argued that the Indian medium-pacers didn’t have the pace of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, and were hence ineffective. Sreesanth and Ishant, however, have always relied on movement as opposed to pace. When he won India the Wanderers Test on the previous tour, Sreesanth did it with movement, and not pace.There was movement to be had here too. And both Sreesanth and Ishant had it aplenty in the first spell. Except that Sreesanth kept erring on the shorter side, not bringing Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen forward at all, which is where the edges would come. Loud tuck after loud tuck followed off Sreesanth’s bowling as both the batsmen could stay back and cover the movement, and also leave balls on length. The stares that he gave the batsmen after they defended balls back to him smack off the middle of the bat grated, and also earned him a lot of heat from the crowd who cheered when he misfielded, and had a lot to say to him. One of them seemingly had to be asked to leave too.Ishant looked likelier to get a wicket, especially with the seam movement he obtained at the start. The first ball he bowled beat Smith, but it was pitched outside leg. The second missed the edge slightly outside off. However, despite the movement Ishant failed to make Smith play enough. His lengths created doubt, his lines ruined the effect. The openers chose to leave 17 deliveries from him, and Smith deliberately played inside the line of several others. Ishant didn’t go round the wicket to Smith, nor did he try a bouncer like he meant it. The new ball would set the tone, and there was no doubt as to what kind of music it played.The bouncers arrived when the ball was some 40 overs old, and had some sort of impact on Hashim Amla, but one wonders if that sort of variation would have taken so long coming had Zaheer been there. By then, a selection blunder had also been put on display. Jaidev Unadkat, about as non-violent as the other man from Porbandar who came to South Africa decades ago, clearly is not the fourth-best fast bowler in the country. He didn’t swing the ball, he didn’t have pace, he wasn’t Test-ready. Nor is Umesh Yadav the fifth-best.Rahul Dravid, speaking after the day’s play, admitted Zaheer could have made a difference. “He has obviously got a lot of experience,” Dravid said. “He is someone who has played all over the world, and is the leader of our attack, so obviously you are going to miss him. You can’t help it. These things happen. People get injured. Especially when you fall behind in a game, you need somebody to step up and Zaheer has usually been our go-to man in the last couple of years. He wasn’t there today.”The other guys tried their best. [But] South Africans batted really well, and the wicket eased out really considerably. It’s a learning experience for a lot of our younger bowlers, in terms of their lengths. Maybe we could have bowled a bit fuller, maybe we could have made them drive a bit more.”Abhimanyu Mithun impressed the team management with his strength and spirited bowling on the Sri Lanka tour, where India drew the series on unhelpful tracks in the absence of Zaheer, Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh. He will now be wondering what wrong he has done to not be on this trip. Knowing the Indian selectors’ ways, in all likelihood nobody has told him. To send two rookie fast bowlers on such a big tour, one of whom has played four Ranji Trophy matches and the other who failed to create any impression in two ODI defeats against Zimbabwe, was as big a blunder this selection committee – used to making blunders – has made. There could be an argument worth considering that the selectors have been frustrated by Munaf Patel, but against Mithun there is no case.Two days into India’s tour of reckoning, both their wings have malfunctioned, and they find themselves facing one of their worst defeats in recent times. While they have been at the wrong end of conditions to an extent, neither did the day-one conditions merit 136 for 9 nor did those on day two merit 366 for 2. Test cricket provides a second chance though, a shot at redemption. This team has redeemed itself in the past, but the players know if they are to get out of this one – without the help of weather – it will take the very best of their efforts and huge improvements in all aspects of their game.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the World Cup, Group A match between Pakistan and Australia at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo

Brydon Coverdale and Osman Samiuddin at the R Premadasa Stadium 19-Mar-2011Referral of the day
Pakistan haven’t been too hot in their usage of the DRS in this World Cup, their batsmen and bowlers both too eager to go upstairs to challenge decisions that, to the naked eye, have mostly looked right in the first place. But when Ricky Ponting edged Mohammad Hafeez – and it was so huge, it nearly came off the face of the bat – and Marais Erasmus turned it down, they asked for it straight away. They’d already wasted one early in the innings but as replays confirmed, the edge was so massive Kamran Akmal did remarkably well to hold on to it. Perhaps Akmal holding on to an actual edge was what Erasmus couldn’t believe? We’re not sure what Ponting
was hoping to achieve by hanging around but this is surely why the DRS exists.Scrap of the day
Bragging rights and a favourable quarter-final draw were the only incentives in a game of two sides already assured knock-out spots. It could’ve been a low-tension stroll through the Premadasa but low intensity is not something associated with these two sides. Pakistan announced their intent by not giving into emotion and keeping Shoaib Akhtar out. Through
the day there was chatter among opponents, though Umar Akmal and Brad Haddin took it to another level with their feisty tete-a-tete after the Ricky Ponting referral. Words were exchanged – not nice ones – and fingers pointed, before Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan tried to calm things down. They didn’t and the situation seemed to get worse with what appeared to be a little shove of Younis by Haddin. Ah, dead group games…Double of the day
The result was drifting towards foregone-conclusion territory with Pakistan needing 79 more runs with eight wickets in hand, when Brett Lee gave the game some spark. Lee had removed both the openers in his first spell, and as soon as he came back for his second, he struck a double blow. Younis Khan edged behind from the fourth ball of Lee’s second spell and the next
delivery Misbah-ul-Haq also nicked through to Brad Haddin. It was the lift the Australians needed, but unfortunately for Lee, his was proving to be a solo effort.Soccer of the day
Lee did some fine work with the ball in this match, but this was not his best moment. He dug the ball in to Umar Akmal, who kept it out, though not without a certain awkwardness, and in his follow-through Lee looked set to collect the ball. Instead, he decided to kick it off the ground towards the wicketkeeper – the only problem being that it skewed off the side of his boot and ran away towards fine leg for an overthrow. Or, more correctly, an overkick.

Stats highlights from Sri Lanka’s remarkable collapse on the final day of the first Test

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan30-May-2011In an extraordinary finish to a rain-affected game, England pulled off an innings victory when it seemed that a draw was a foregone conclusion. When Sri Lanka started their second innings trailing England by 96 runs, only 51 overs were left in the game. Incredibly, they didn’t even survive half that many, losing six wickets for 19 at one stage to slump to an utterly demoralising defeat. The stats highlights from their innings won’t make pleasant reading for their fans.Sri Lanka faced only 24.4 overs in their second innings and were bowled out for 82 to lose by an innings and 14 runs. It is the lowest number of deliveries faced by Sri Lanka in a completed innings in Tests. Their previous lowest was 24.5 overs against Pakistan in 2006, when they were bowled out 73.The 24.4 overs is also the least number of overs in which England have bowled out any team since they bowled India out for 42 in 17 overs at Lord’s in 1974. It’s also 14th in the overall list of least deliveries faced by a team which has been bowled out in their second innings.Sri Lanka’s total is their fourth-lowest score in Tests and their ninth score below 100. It is also their second-lowest score against England, after the 81 in Colombo in 2001. Their lowest score in Tests is 71 against Pakistan in 1994.The innings defeat is Sri Lanka’s 28th in Tests, their 22nd overseas, and only their second against England. The previous innings defeat against England came in 2002 when they lost by an innings and 111 runs in Birmingham. Sri Lanka’s innings had four ducks, which is one short of their record. Only twice have they had more in an innings: against India in Chandigarh in 1990 and against New Zealand in Wellington in 2006-07.This became only the fourth instance of Sri Lanka losing after scoring 400 or more runs in the first innings. The last such instance came against India at Colombo SSC in 2010 when they lost after scoring 425.For the first time, three English batsmen scored a century in a single innings in a Test against Sri Lanka. Their overall record is four, against Australia at Nottingham in 1938 and against West Indies at Lord’s in 2007.Graeme Swann’s 4 for 16 is his best bowling against Sri Lanka in Tests, surpassing his 3 for 78 in the first innings. It is also the sixth-best performance by an English spinner against Sri Lanka.