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Since his debut in December 2014, Soumya Sarkar has already played a few key innings for Bangladesh, with trademark languid grace

Mohammad Isam09-Jun-20152:43

Soumya Sarkar: I don’t compare myself to anyone

One of the things you want to do after observing Soumya Sarkar in the field is to reconfirm that the word ‘lithe’ is the most appropriate one to describe his demeanour, posture and height.Among the members of the Bangladesh Test squad for the match against India, only Shakib Al Hasan comes close to Soumya’s height and gait. The two pace bowlers, Rubel Hossain and Mohammad Shahid, walk as if their strut is slowly giving away to a hobble. Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque and Jubair Hossain amble across the turf while Taijul Islam hot-foots from one spot to another.Some of Soumya’s agility was tested when Wahab Riaz gave him a working-over in the second Test in Dhaka last month. He was peppered with short balls, hit once and then tamely drove to the lap of the cover fielder. In the second innings, he edged down the leg side, again to a short ball. Against India, he can expect another barrage.But he has retained his composure by getting domestic runs, more precisely a maiden first-class hundred, between the two series. The usual languid strokeplay was present during that innings in Chittagong, too.In an international career that began on December 1, 2014, Soumya has played his share of important knocks. The first impact was the 28 against Afghanistan during the World Cup league game in Canberra which kick-started a flagging Bangladesh innings. Against Sri Lanka, he bumped off five boundaries and got a start before getting out. His influential innings of 40 against England gave Mahmudullah and Bangladesh the momentum to build a base that the opening batsmen had failed to provide. His first ODI fifty was an enterprising innings against New Zealand and his first ODI hundred was a delightful knock, against Pakistan in April.Soumya said that he had enjoyed the win over England in Adelaide the most so far. The hundred against Pakistan is also on his mind, particularly after everyone kept telling him that the Pakistan attack would be too tough for him. He had thought playing Umar Gul would be hard but ended up pumping the pace bowler repeatedly through midwicket for fours, and even struck a straight six.”I would say the win over England in the World Cup was one of the most memorable days for us,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I think I will remember it for a long time.”I didn’t do anything differently as such. Everyone asked me ‘Pakistan has top bowlers, how are you going to face them?’ But I didn’t think anything out of the ordinary. I tried to play quite normally against them. At the start I thought playing Umar Gul would be tough but after I went to the middle, it didn’t seem that hard. It seemed that I could handle him.”Soumya bats with minimal footwork. He bowls off a short, nimble run-up and eases into the delivery stride. And he fields wearing the white brimmed hat. He likes to enforce shots by balancing off the front foot on both sides of the wicket. He is fond of the cover drive but says that he focuses on the execution and result more than the aesthetics. If people watching him compare him to another batsman, Soumya says it’s not something he does consciously.”I feel comfortable playing the cover drive,” Soumya said. “I haven’t seen myself playing that shot much but I like it from within. I have never thought about it that way. I try to play the ball to its merit. It doesn’t matter whether it looks great or not. We can think about it later. Maybe I myself can’t realise but other people can see how I am playing. When people compare me to someone else, then maybe one can realise. But I don’t compare myself to anyone.”Soumya, by the looks of it, has nearly all the ingredients to launch himself towards a successful international career for Bangladesh. One wouldn’t want to form an opinion about a player who has only been around for 10 ODIs, one T20I and two Tests in seven months. The Test against India, if he gets picked, will be the first of many tests to prove that what is seen through his languid movements will indeed be the real deal.

The former Sri Lanka legspinner was nearly 40 when he played his first Test, but that didn’t stop him from calling time on the game – and going on to serve off the field

Janaka Malwatta16-Jul-2015In the build-up to Sri Lanka’s first Test in England in 1984, a throwaway line in a newspaper article caught my eye. The Sri Lankan bowling attack was to be headed by a 42-year-old legspinner. That a bowling attack could be said to be headed by a spinner, in a summer headlined by fearsome West Indian pacemen, was unusual enough. That he was 42 was even more beguiling.Thirty years later, I met Somachandra de Silva and sated my curiosity. De Silva is an enviably fit-looking 73-year-old, who is still able, as he demonstrated, to turn his arm over. His story is of a lifelong, if peripatetic, involvement in cricket. He is too good to be described as a cricketing journeyman, but he is certainly a man of cricketing journeys.De Silva hails from Unawatuna on the south coast. It is now a seaside resort, but in the 1940s it was the quintessential sleepy village, a place where the bicycle and the ox cart were the customary means of transport. His cricket career started when he moved as a schoolboy to Moratuwa, outside Colombo. An attacking right-hand batsman, he graduated from school cricket to club cricket with Nomads; he was one of three brothers to play for both Nomads and the national side. His bowling was restricted to the occasional over in the nets. It was a chance conversation with the Sri Lankan great of the era, Stanley Jayasinghe, that put him on the path to a bowling career.”He told me to stop fooling around and take my bowling seriously,” recalls de Silva. His application to legspin, the cricketing discipline with the most demanding apprenticeship, was not immediately successful. When he represented his country for the first time, he was picked as a batsman. But his bowling improved, and before the 1975 World Cup, he was established as a legspinning allrounder.De Silva believes that tournament was a seminal moment in the development of Sri Lankan cricket. “So many of us had the chance to play in England after the World Cup. Ashantha de Mel, Ravi Ratnayeke, Tony Opatha, Rumesh Ratnayake. It helped us so much.” In de Silva’s case, it led him to league cricket with Scunthorpe, West Bromwich and Middleton (where he followed Rohan Kanhai as the team pro), and to Minor Counties cricket with Lincolnshire and Shropshire.The Sri Lankans line up ahead of the 1984 Lord’s match – de Silva’s final Test•Getty ImagesIn the World Cup, my memory is of Jeff Thomson seemingly knocking Sri Lankan batsmen over at will. The first-hand account is no less terrifying. Duleep Mendis was struck flush on the forehead by a Thomson bouncer. This was, of course, the pre-helmet era. “He spun around and around before falling. We thought he was dead,” said de Silva. He remembers waiting to bat with a heartfelt, “I was shivering!” An obdurate stay at the crease by Michael Tissera and Anura Tennekoon spared him the ordeal of facing Thomson.The pinnacle of his career – full Test status – was regrettably brief. Time was against him. He considers himself lucky, however, to have had that opportunity. He listed the contemporaries who were not so fortunate, including former captain Tissera, whom he tried to persuade to stay on to play Test cricket. De Silva himself was 39 years old when he made his Test debut in 1982 – he remains Sri Lanka’s oldest international debutant. He is also the first Sri Lankan to take five wickets in a Test match, in Faisalabad against Pakistan.That match at Lords’ in 1984 – his last Test – was a disappointment for de Silva. On the first morning of the match, while warming up in the nets, he turned his ankle. He declared himself unfit to play but was persuaded by the team management that his experience was essential. He had two days to rest his ankle, as Sidath Wettimuny and Mendis battered a flagging English attack, but when it came to bowling, he was a shadow of himself. “It was my standing foot, and I couldn’t land properly,” he explains, stamping his left foot down in illustration. Despite the injury, he bowled 45 overs for two wickets, but the memory remains a frustration.His international career ended the following year, in Australia, at the World Championship of Cricket. De Silva also had a five-year stint in club cricket in Melbourne, first with Northshore Geelong, and then with Ringwood, until he finally retired as a professional cricketer aged 49.He then embarked on a coaching career, taking over the Sri Lanka Under-19 team, which made the World Cup final in 2009. That year he was appointed chairman of the interim committee to run Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), a position he held until 2012. During his tenure, Sri Lanka were ranked third in the Test rankings and reached two limited-overs World Cup finals. He also served as a national selector.His time in charge of SLC, however, was not without controversy. Under his leadership, SLC built stadiums in Pallekele and Hambantota, with questions asked about the choice of location. De Silva denies any political influence in that choice. SLC remains hamstrung by the loan repayments for those stadia.At the conclusion of his tenure as chairman, de Silva was appointed ambassador to Poland. His cricketing journey has taken him from a sleepy seaside village to an ambassadorial residence, from Nomads to northern English leagues, Victorian club cricket and back to Colombo. Astonishingly, he played cricket professionally in the unforgiving leagues of England and Australia until he was 49. Along the way he rubbed shoulders with some great cricketers, and made a living from the game for over 40 years. As cricketing journeys go, it will take some beating.

Younis Khan, Pakistan’s fourth-day centurion, believes his side will have to fight hard to secure victory in the second Test in Dubai, despite sweeping England aside with little resistance in the first innings

Umar Farooq in Dubai25-Oct-2015Younis Khan, Pakistan’s fourth-day centurion, believes his side will have to fight hard to secure victory in the second Test in Dubai, despite sweeping England aside with little resistance in the first innings.England reached the close on 130 for 3 after 54 overs of at-times comfortable batting, particularly against the spin attack of Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar. And yet, given that they lost their last seven wickets for 36 in 18 overs on the third day, there is plenty reason to believe that the end could come swiftly tomorrow.However Younis, who passed 1,000 runs against England in the course of his 118 and is therefore well qualified to comment on the strengths of this vintage compared to the previous England teams that he has faced, is sure that they will be stronger in the closing stages of the match.”I have always said that this is not an England team which succumbs to the spin,” said Younis. “You can’t expect that they will get out to a spinner that easily.”This is a changed team, which fights, and I think they are very much capable of a fightback tomorrow. It will not be easy to finish the game in the next two or three hours, we will still need to do the hard work and will have to bring in some good plans, only then we will be able to do well.”After two early breakthroughs, including the captain Alastair Cook for 10, Pakistan struggled for penetration for much of the afternoon, especially while Joe Root and Ian Bell were adding 102 for the third wicket.”At times things come towards you and the momentum gets on,” said Younis. “But today it felt that, when we went to bowling, things did not come towards us. We might have got two wickets but then the partnership started to built up.”The way Ian Bell and Joe Root put up a partnership, they are experienced players, top batsmen and are playing for quite a time now so this fightback was very much expected, because they are a top side after all. So I would say that, in this last session we got three wickets, but tomorrow will not be easy, it will need hard work.”England’s target of 491 remains unassailable but the draw is not entirely unassailable, especially if Pakistan fail to dislodge Root early.Younis Khan recorded his 31st Test century•AFP”We are thinking like that [a sense of victory] at the moment but they will fight back, the way Root is playing at the moment, it is fantastic to see a young guy from Yorkshire. He plays spin bowling very well and I think there is still hard work for us if we want to win this game.”At the age of 37, Younis has now scored 31 Test hundreds, taking him into the all-time top ten, beyond Shivnarine Chanderpaul Matthew Hayden, who have 30 each. He now has the most hundreds among active Test cricketers, with Cook close behind on 28, while today’s century was his eleventh since turning 35. Only three other batsmen have made more at a later age. Already ahead of Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s leading run-scorer, he has now crossed the 9,000 mark with five figures firmly on his mind.”I remained focused, that is the main thing, and I feel that I don’t have much time so I want to cash everything and make every opportunity count,” he said.”Probably I will not be there after three or four years so I am happy to perform whenever I get the opportunity and to convert it into a big innings, and an innings which helps Pakistan. So these are the things kept me motivated and take me forward.”I just want to keep things simple, I want to perform and I can’t say that I am at my peak,” he said. “But the effort is to play to my best ability and do the best for my country, move ahead in my career and I am thankful to Almighty that He holds my hand, and I am giving performance.”

West Indies had brief moments of ascendancy on the first day in Hobart but they were undone by familiar shortcomings in bowling and fielding

Daniel Brettig10-Dec-20151:34

‘Conditions might be challenging tomorrow’ – Voges

“I think we can forget sometimes that it’s not always about the contest, it’s sometimes about seeing great cricketers put on a show, and we certainly saw that at the WACA.”With these words on ABC radio during the Perth Test, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland made a pre-emptive apology for what was likely to be witnessed in the series against West Indies in the prime weeks of summer, Christmas and New Year holidays. Not a contest, but an exhibition.The decision to place Jason Holder’s hapless, harried tourists under the brightest spotlight of an Australian season has seemed wrong-headed for some time – certainly over the past three years in which New Zealand, the team handed the “curtain-raiser” series in November, have risen significantly from a low base of performance to become legitimate challengers to most opponents. They showed as much in Adelaide, a close-run thing for Steven Smith’s men.There was nothing of the sort to be witnessed in Hobart, on a beautiful, shimmering day when the Derwent River glistened behind Bellerive Oval. For all the stirring rhetoric offered by Sir Curtly Ambrose two days out from the start of the series, the reality of West Indies in their current state was shown rather more accurately when the coach, Phil Simmons, had clean-bowled the reserve batsman Shane Dowrich with a throwdown in the nets. This was meant to be West Indies’ stronger suit: by day’s end they had conceded the most runs in a single day in the team’s long history.For much of their recent past, West Indies have specialised in performing for a few days of a Test match, only to give the game away by being unable to sustain that effort. Day one of this match showed that syndrome in accelerated form – after Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach bowled a fine first two overs and created a chance, the rest of the day turned into the most unedifying pageant of shoddy bowling, casual fielding and uninspired captaincy.Their day was epitomised by the contribution of Shannon Gabriel. Chosen on match morning in the expectation that his pace would be disconcerting for some of the Australia batsmen, he delivered an expensive opening spell before briefly finding his line to beat Joe Burns between bat and pad. Later, having bowled only 10 overs at a cost of 59, Gabriel left the field complaining of ankle pain, and is set to have scans overnight. His best was all too fleeting.In the morning, Smith’s side had permitted Holder’s collective to think they were actually in the contest by giving up three wickets. Burns and Smith each got decent individual deliveries, and David Warner was somewhat unluckily snaffled down the leg side on the stroke of lunch – his innings having already set the breakneck pace of Australia’s first innings, even if he was unable to carry through in the fashion of the WACA Ground.Yet, even in their brief moments of ascendance, the tourists were unable to use these wickets as a way into the Australian middle order, even though it was the exact scenario Ambrose had foreshadowed in his imperial, threatening tones.
Instead Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh were able to gallop away, piercing porous fields repeatedly and peeling off a pair of sparkling hundreds for a crowd of approximately 5,927.It had already been well established that Voges enjoyed these opponents. His debut hundred in Dominica had been an innings of rare quality against a team that had been far more lively thanks to the regular incisions made by Devendra Bishoo, a skillful leg spinner. Bishoo is in Hobart but was left out for Jomel Warrican, who had caused Voges a brief moment’s pain in Antigua during that tour’s warm-up fixture by getting him lbw when he thought his Test spot was pending.This time, Voges confronted a scenario not quite so fraught as that he faced at Windsor Park, and his batting rhythm was of the same metronomic kind that took him to a prolific Sheffield Shield aggregate last summer. He took a heavy toll on Warrican, tucking away four boundaries from one over, while also feasting on a liberal supply of balls delivered short and wide of the off stump – England had never been this generous to his pet cutting zone.”It’s fairly different to Dominica, the conditions were fairly different, there wasn’t a lot of spin today,” Voges said. “It’s a pretty good wicket, I thought our openers did a terrific job to get us off the mark, I think we were 70 after 10 overs and that really set the tone for the day. To come in when I did, we lost Smudger and Davey in pretty quick succession, but we put on 120 in the first session and West Indies were a little inconsistent with their lengths today, and we were able to capitalise on that.”Marsh, meanwhile, carried on with the certainty and improved defensive technique he first exhibited in Adelaide, albeit against bowling of a lesser standard than that provided by New Zealand. Only once all day was he beaten outside off stump, by a Holder delivery that moved away off the seam. Otherwise he presented the broadest of bats to clatter the ball repeatedly through the covers. He has created a dilemma for selectors obliged to recall Usman Khawaja when he returns to fitness ahead of Boxing Day.”I was pretty relaxed today, and with Adam going so well and scoring so freely that got me going as well,” Marsh said. “I felt really confident coming into the game, I was just happy to get a good start and build on that, and to get my first hundred in Australia I’m very happy with that. I definitely feel comfortable at this level, I’ve just got to keep working on my consistency. I’m really enjoying being around the guys at the moment, they’ve made me feel really welcome. I’ve got to keep working hard, keep enjoying it and keep having fun out there.”As Peter Siddle, Voges and Smith had all stated during the week leading up to this day, it is not for Australia’s players to worry about the troubles of the team they are facing. It is their job to be professional, ruthless even, and that is exactly how Voges and Marsh performed. In doing so they are exposing the many and varied faults built up over a long period of time in West Indian cricket, exacerbated by the Twenty20 age but primarily created by the world’s most dysfunctional cricket governance.As one-sided as day one appeared, it is better for the future of cricket in the Caribbean that such events force true introspection and thought about the game in the region, not only from West Indians but also from the administrators of other, more prosperous nations.That takes us back to Sutherland’s interview in Perth, where he stated the old line that these are problems beyond the remit of CA. “It’s something we don’t have control over,” he said. “The West Indies are going through a difficult period in terms of performance.”Indeed they are. But if other nations do not work at restoring the cricket strength of a region that was once so central to the game, there are likely to be many more days like this, and many more crowds propped up by school children admitted to the ground for free.

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Nov-2015Hashim Amla, the overnight batsman, then combined with Faf du Plessis to play out a tough session•BCCIThe pair added 72 runs for the fifth wicket, the highest partnership of the game•BCCIHowever, Amit Mishra provided the breakthroughs, sending back both batsmen in the space of two overs as India inched closer to a series victory•Associated PressAshwin then cleaned up South Africa’s tail with the second new ball, claiming seven wickets in the innings, taking his match tally to 12 for 98•BCCIIndia eventually completed a 124-run victory to seal the series. It was Virat Kohli’s first as Test captain at home•BCCI

There may be many reasons given for Nepal’s exit from the Under-19 World Cup, but they should not overshadow a group of talented cricketers eager for more success

Mohammad Isam and Vishal Dikshit05-Feb-2016When discussing Nepal defeat in the Under-19 World Cup quarter-final, topics such as captain Raju Rijal missing a stumping off Mehedi Hasan Miraz, their batsmen’s inability to accelerate in the last 10 overs and conversely their bowlers giving away too much runs in the death may crop up. But they should not overshadow Rijal’s 72 off 80 balls, made amid questions raised over the legitimacy of his participation in the tournament, or Nepal’s spinners badgering the Bangladesh batsmen for long periods, or the team’s tremendous fielding skills.Bangladesh felt the pressure of expectation in the quarter-final chasing 212, and Nepal made sure it stung. Sunil Dhamala bowled a fine early spell, trapping Saif Hassan and Joyraz Sheik lbw. When Nazmul Hossain Shanto fell for eight in the 23rd over, Nepal were naturally in control.Then came the missed stumping. “It was a very big mistake,” Rijal said. “I didn’t realise that the ball was coming to me. May be I was not alert that time. It was a very big loss.”We feel good to be an Associate nation reaching the quarter-final by beating a Test nation. But I feel sad for this match. I think we were 20 to 30 runs short. I thought our bowling was very accurate and fielding very good. That’s why at the half-time break we thought we will win. But they [Mehedi Hasan and Zakir Hasan] put pressure on our fielders, took ones and twos, and the game away from us.”Three days ago, a 25-year old Mumbai cricketer Kaustubh Pawar had alleged that he had played with Rijal and that he was too old to participate in an Under-19 World Cup. The ICC investigated the matter and gave the Nepal captain a clean chit, but it had still bothered him. “Little bit yes, but I forgot about it in the dressing room and played my natural game when I went to the field,” he said.Before his statement, the team manager Sudeep Sharma took over the microphone and said: “We provided all the legal documents we have from the Government of Nepal to the ICC. They took time and went through it and there was no fact behind the rumour. According to ICC, he has no age issues and Raju can play all matches.”Although the age controversy grabbed headlines, Nepal’s tournament had a lot more to it than that. For someone like the legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane, coming from the Syangja district some 200 km to the west of Kathmandu, this was a chance to show his talent on the world stage. He took a hat-trick and converted it into a five-wicket haul against Ireland. He dismissed Shanto in the quarter-final and has eight wickets from four matches.”In the last six months, I’ve had to stop my studies because of the training camps,” Lamichhane told ESPNcricinfo. “I haven’t seen my classroom for six months. What I am today is because of my coach Tamata. I like to give flight. If batsmen are taking risk, it’s a good sign for me. I used to watch videos of Shane Warne and my coach helped me become a legbreak bowler. I’m also following Adil Rashid these days but Shane Warne forever.”That Lamichhane is serious about cricket is clear from how much he has invested in it. He even moved cities to get better opportunities and said it has helped that his family are fans of the game. “I grew up in Syangja and then moved to Chitwan, which is my hometown now,” he said. “I moved to Chitwan three years ago because of parents and better cricket opportunities. I started playing at nine. My father and older brother supported me as they are both fond of cricket.”The team’s vice-captain Aarif Sheikh has been decent with the bat; his 39 off 60 balls in the middle order helped Nepal beat New Zealand in their opening match of the Under-19 World Cup. Since then he has made 31, 26 and 21 but is yet to pick up a wicket with his medium-pace.Sheikh said that his favorite cricketer is Kevin Pietersen and no one else, and he has a similar role of being the enforcer in the middle-order. “I prefer batting, of course. I enjoy batting at No. 5, when the team is under pressure I enjoy it more. KP is my favourite. I like how he can picks singles, rotate the strike. When I get time I try to catch his matches.”Sheikh also made it a point to highlight the contributions of the Nepal support staff. “The coach said not to take too much pressure, play what you have and he believes in us and we believe in ourselves too. All the players have been given their roles and that’s what we are focusing on.”Nepal now turn their attention to the playoffs and are determined to ensure automatic qualification to the 2018 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand.

He cannot match the big hitters for power, but his numbers are as good as theirs – if not better

Aakash Chopra04-May-2016Virat Kohli has scored 11 fifties and a hundred in his last 19 T20 innings at an average of 96.18 and a strike rate of 138.48. He has scored 40 or more in 14 of the 19 innings that he has batted in in 2016. These are Bradmanesque numbers, particularly in a format that allows only 120 balls to be distributed among the top five or six batsmen.T20 cricket forced us to adjust our statistical benchmarks: 30 has become the new 50 when it comes to batting averages. No longer is it about digging in and playing a long innings, for T20 doesn’t allow you the luxury of time. When you start biding your time, you fall so far behind in the game that it is almost impossible to recover.In fact, the essence of T20 cricket is to keep going regardless of how many came off the previous over or the previous ball, and that means inconsistency. I remember chatting to Rahul Dravid during the first year of the IPL and he voiced his reservations about the fact that it was being considered okay to get out after scoring a quick 30. (And 30 is still considered a decent score in T20, unless your name is Virat Kohli.)When ODI cricket came along, everyone treated it like a shortened Test match and went about their business as they would in a Test match innings – save for the last ten overs. It took some time and some rule changes to force teams to start viewing ODI cricket as a different sport, and that changed the momentum of the format forever. Nowadays batsmen go on the offensive from the first ball and don’t take their foot off the accelerator till the end. Earlier, scoring a run a ball was limited to only the death overs, but now 300-plus scores are achieved as a matter of course.Similarly, when T20 started, everyone treated it as a 120-ball slogfest. But as the approach to ODI cricket changed, so is it changing with T20, as players approach T20 innings with a slightly different method.While they still go hard at most stages of the game, they no longer see the need to slog every ball to score 12 an over. And that is where Kohli leads the pack. T20 cricket is fast becoming synonymous with power-hitting and innovative stroke-making, but Kohli is still doing his stuff the old-fashioned way. He doesn’t go aerial all the time, he doesn’t hit sixes as often as some of the top T20 batsmen do, and he doesn’t play the lap or the reverse lap shot. So how does he manage to not just stay relevant but also rule the shortest format?The importance of the basics
AB de Villiers spoke about (and demonstrated) his method of playing, where he referred to an imaginary box around him that he ensures to stay within. In short, he talks about how keeping arms and legs close to each other allows him to maintain better shape.While Kohli hasn’t spoken similarly about his method, he’s quite like de Villiers in his approach. The key to his consistency is his ability to play almost everything close to his body and right under his eyes, especially while playing defensive strokes early in his innings. While most T20 batting stars hit the ground running, Kohli tends to take a bit more time and looks to play only orthodox cricket shots in the beginning.

His innings almost always show a steady upward curve till the end, which takes his overall strike rate to a very acceptable 138. Kohli’s commitment to this method makes him consistent.Not getting too far ahead of oneself is the key to succeeding regularly. How does a batsman move from being in top form to being out of form? Well, when you’re in form, you try to do things that you wouldn’t do otherwise, and those lead to your dismissal a time or two. An ordinary umpiring decision, a bad call from your partner, and a couple of terrific deliveries follow (not necessarily in that order), and before you realise it, you’re in the middle of a dry spell.Kohli has managed to keep this tendency at bay. For him, a red flag goes up when he strays from his brief. He played an out-of-character shot against Mashrafe Mortaza in the first Asia Cup game earlier this year and acknowledged his mistake straightaway. In the next game he went back to his method, got runs, and in the post-match interview said how he had learned from the error in the previous match. No great batsman worth his salt is bereft of ego, but most manage to keep it in check, and that’s the case with Kohli too.Finesse over muscle
Kohli by his own admission doesn’t possess the ability to regularly clear the fence. Not only do players like Chris Gayle, de Villiers and David Warner take the aerial route often, they also hit sixes at almost every stage of a T20 innings.Those players have the ability to hit sixes without stepping out. While Kohli can also hit sixes, he needs to use body momentum to generate the power required more often than not. But good players don’t fret over what they don’t have; they find a way around it to be successful. Kohli has managed to score 12 an over without hitting sixes. Most great players have two shots to the same ball; Kohli has two variations of the same shot – one where he gives it a proper whip to hit the boundary and one in which he just pushes the ball to steal a couple.Kohli has run 83 twos in his 19 innings this year. The next highest, at close to half that, is Hamilton Masakadza, with 45. Among 26 batsmen who have faced 300 or more balls in T20s this year, only Steven Smith has a higher percentage of twos (11.35% to Kohli’s 10.86).Kohli’s ability to know how hard the ball has to be hit to take two runs makes him a master of chases, for it allows him to put immense pressure on the opposition captain and fielders. We saw him do it against Australia in the World T20 and wondered if it had something to do with the size of the ground, for Mohali is a lot bigger than most Indian grounds. But he did the same against West Indies at the Wankhede, and that takes some doing because you either get singles or fours on a smaller outfield like the one at the Wankhede.A lot of credit for Kohli’s phenomenal speed between the stumps must go to his supreme fitness. That also comes in handy when he needs to step out. In T20 you don’t often see batsmen step out and successfully execute the shot they’re looking to play, for not only do spinners in T20 cricket bowl faster, they also bowl flatter, so it’s difficult to leave the crease after the ball has left the bowler’s hand and gather yourself before hitting the ball. If you step out before the ball is released, the bowler will drag it short, and if you step out too late, you tend to be on the move when the ball reaches you. In Kohli’s case, he seems to be able to time his stepping out better than the rest, and so he manages to hit the ball to the fence more often too.

Only Smith steps out more than Kohli does, but Kohli’s strike rate is 202 for the balls he steps out to, while Smith’s is around 154. Also, when he steps out, Kohli hits one in every 3.3 balls to the fence, as compared to Smith, who hits one in 5.6.Kohli’s trainer claims that his current fitness standards are comparable with those of Novak Djokovic. While we will never see those two play each other in the same sport, and so won’t know how true that statement is, nobody will deny that Kohli is one of the fittest cricketers going around.In every era, we get cricketers who redefine the rules and Kohli is doing just that, redefining batting in T20.

Shorter matches spell good news for spectators and broadcasters. Cricket has a little to lose and a whole lot to gain by truncating its premier format

Tim Wigmore27-Jul-2016It is a game that, uniquely, lasts for five days, stubbornly impervious to the time pressures of the outside world. This simple idea is wired into the very identity of Test cricket.It has not been ever thus, of course. Tests have been played over three, four, five or six days, and even been timeless. But, barring the anomaly of the Super Test in 2005, every match in the format over the last 37 years has been scheduled to last for five days.Yet the notion of a Test match as an entity that lasts for five days is now imperilled. In recent months, board representatives from England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand have all spoken in favour of Test cricket switching to four days. Proposals will be discussed at an ICC meeting in September. Four-day Test matches could be the norm from as soon as 2019.Many will see such an intrinsic part of Test cricket’s identity even being up for debate as another sad step in the decline of the format, platitudes about “protecting the primacy of Test cricket” counting for nothing set against the greed and myopia of administrators.The administrators are not oblivious to these criticisms, but consider that the real risk to Test cricket lies in inertia, and that it is better for Tests to be a vibrant game played over four days than a moribund one played over five. They think that four-day Test cricket can help the longest form adapt and thrive.Four-day Tests. Two divisions, with promotion and relegation. An ODI league. That all of these are now being seriously discussed highlights how much world cricket is in flux. But while these changes might seem new and radical, they have actually been brewing for many years. Two divisions in Tests was first mooted in 1968.Four-day Tests were first proposed by Andrew Wildblood, then a senior international vice-president for International Management Group, to the ICC in 2003. His rationale was that four-day matches, while preserving the fundamentals and nuances of Test cricket, would lead to more exciting cricket. For cricketing and commercial reasons, Wildblood remains a firm advocate of four-day Tests, and is categorical that “there would be no loss of revenue from broadcasters or sponsors if this happened. Zero.”In 1895, Mark Hanna, credited with creating the modern political campaign, said: “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember what the second one is.” The same often seems true in cricket administration, which bodes ill for the chances of Tests remaining five-day matches.Broadcasters are known to be in favour of a move to four-day Tests. In place of the current hotchpotch of start dates – beginning on Thursdays in England was once considered sacrosanct, but now Wednesday and Friday starts are routine, and in 2014, one Test even started on a Sunday – Test cricket’s schedule could be rationalised.A shortened Test format will make better economic sense for smaller countries like Sri Lanka and West Indies•AFPAs David White, the chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, said recently, the hope is that Test matches will always begin on Thursdays, progressing to a denouement on Sunday evenings. So instead of finishing at a time when fans are stuck at work, Tests would now finish exactly when TV audience numbers would be at their peak. The spectacle of a full crowd in the ground, rather than a few thousand on a final day, might also make Test cricket more appealing to watch on TV. Broadcasters say nothing puts channel-hoppers off cricket quite like an empty stadium.”The likelihood of the game coming to its climax and finishing over a weekend would improve TV ratings and ticket sales,” Wildblood says, believing this would compensate for the reduction in advertising spots. “Broadcasting sport is not only about number of hours broadcast. Were that so, all sport would be valued equally on a per-hour rate card. It is more importantly about quality, because quality drives interest, which drives ratings. If the anticipated consequential increase in interest and excitement are correct then an increased concentration of value delivered by increased ratings will follow, at a minimum making good any revenue losses from a fifth day.”The romantic notion of the consummate Test is of a match that finishes a little after tea on the final day, with all four results looming as possible going into that last day. Yet the recent Lord’s Test was a classic, its narrative evolving over four days until it reached a climax on a glorious Sunday afternoon. This was not a match that felt remotely lacking for the absence of a final day. Essentially, it provided a template for administrators who favour four-day Tests becoming the norm.Such abridged Tests are increasingly common. According to statistician Ric Finlay, 28.6% of all Test matches have ended before the fifth day. In the last five years that figure is 41.5%. In England, only one of the previous ten Tests have had any fifth day at all.As well as providing greater justification for losing the fifth day altogether – if it is being used less, then ditching it will change the nature of Test cricket relatively little – the spate of early finishes has also had important financial repercussions for grounds, where the associations involved often have to cover some costs in advance. Playing without a fifth day “would save a hell of a lot of money from the ground’s point of view and the broadcasters,” ECB Chairman Colin Graves said last year. He has argued that even games that go on to a fifth day often lose money if they finish early, or during the working week, struggle to get many spectators.The introduction of four-day Tests could also help maintain the overall number of Test matches played. Three-Test series now normally occupy about 26 days from start to finish because of the need to provide rest after a set of back-to-back matches. If Tests were reduced to four days, then a three-match series could take only 18 days, with each match commencing on consecutive Thursdays.A four-day Test starting on Thursday is likely to be completed on Sunday evening in front of a big crowd•Getty ImagesWhite says this would make it easier for New Zealand to play three-Test series. That reduction of eight days might not seem like a lot, but it is significant in the context of the onerous schedule faced by international cricketers today, and the challenges for countries, especially those with smaller economies, like New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, to organise enough international cricket to generate the broadcasting rights necessary to fund grass-roots development, but not so much as to tempt players into premature retirement to take up T20 full-time. In this sense, four-day Test cricket could be consistent with those hankering for less Test cricket but to be of better quality. Better to have a West Indies side at full strength in four-day matches than an under-strength team being flogged in five-day Tests.None of this is to deny the challenges involved in four-day Test cricket. Graves initially suggested days of 105 overs each, which seems far too demanding of players; even 100 overs a day – ensuring 400 overs in a Test, compared to 450 now – would be burdensome. In the era of DRS, over rates are going down, not up. At Lord’s this month, none of the three completed days had a full allocation of overs bowled. Administrators would finally need to impose draconian penalties for teams slumberous in delivering their overs. Pitches, too, would need to be designed for a match to last four days rather than five, although as this is happening with increasing frequency anyway, the changes need not be dramatic. The impact of poor weather would also be heightened. If one day was rained off, most games could virtually be written off as draws.Four-day matches could rid Tests of much of their essence. There would be less scope for the epic rearguard to secure a draw, that rich tradition that extends from Hanif Mohammad’s 337 in 1958 to Mike Atherton’s 185 not out in 1995, and the strokelessness of Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers in Adelaide four years ago. A game would be created with a subtly different rhythm, which could bode ill both for adhesive batsmen and for spinners with a penchant for exploiting wearing pitches – even if Yasir Shah’s wondrous performance at Lord’s had no need for a final day. Such fears explain why the ICC Cricket Committee recently opposed the idea of four-day Tests. The MCC is also understood to have reservations.Yet for all the concerns that four-day Tests would represent the apex of financial expediency over cricketing logic, growing support for four-day matches from administrators is palpable. Test cricket has constantly evolved throughout its history. Now a rare spirit of radicalism has taken hold in the boardrooms of the ICC. Four-day Tests are one manifestation of the simple belief that David Richardson expressed earlier this month. If Test cricket is to remain vital for cricket lovers of future generations, “doing nothing is not an option anymore.”

Pat Howard, Australia’s team performance manager, talks about the challenges of shaking things up over five years of mixed results for the national side

Daniel Brettig24-Aug-2016Walking behind the scoreboard on day three of the Pallekele Test, Pat Howard crossed paths with a pair of Australian cricket followers. The tale on the other side of the board was looking increasingly sickly for Australia. One spectator said loudly to the other, “A lot of high-performance work needed here…” Without breaking stride, Howard retorted, “very funny”, and continued on his way.If the result at Pallekele was instructive as to where the Test team must improve, then the above exchange was as telling about the way Howard is still perceived by many in and around Australian cricket. October will make five years for him in the job as Cricket Australia’s executive general manager – team performance, a role sculpted specifically through the review chaired in 2011 by Don Argus.This has been a most turbulent period, and Howard’s tenure has been marked by conflict and change. He has needed plenty of resilience in seeking to implement many of Argus’ recommendations. Through that time, Howard’s instinct has been to do much as he did in response to the “high performance” jibe – keep striving forward, if offering the occasional backhander along the way.

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In August 2011, at the time the Argus review findings were announced, Howard was chief of operations for Cromwell Property Group in Brisbane, having left a high-performance role with the Australian Rugby Union in 2008.”I was assistant coach of a rugby team at Queensland University helping out a mate, and by chance John Buchanan’s son was in that team,” Howard tells ESPNcricinfo. “I was chatting to him and away it went. Five years is a long time ago, my kids were a lot younger then, I can say that.”

“I’m very much a link between the playing group and CA, between the strategy and the team. I’m well aware I want to win as much as anyone”

Through rugby, Howard had experience in just about every role around the game, from representing the Wallabies and coaching Leicester, to serving on the board of the players’ association. Being based in Brisbane meant he could work out of CA’s Centre of Excellence – later expanded and renamed the National Cricket Centre – and in being the first post-Argus appointment, he had a say in the choices of John Inverarity as selection chairman and Mickey Arthur as coach. Quickly it became apparent that while Howard was willing to learn about the game, he was an equally hawkish advocate of change.”I have to really justify every decision, and that was the really hard bit about it,” Howard says. “I got a reputation as a bit of a data guy there for a while, but that was all about trying to justify decisions and justify points. The first couple of years you have to deal with differences if you want to make change, and that can upset people at times.”Without question at times I probably went too hard for change, but to a certain extent you’re always going to have positive and negative views on things. Hindsight is brilliant, you never have it beforehand, but we’ve made some good decisions, we’ve made some decisions where you think, could I have handled it better, could I have given people more time to digest it, sometimes less time to digest it and just go through with it. That’s aiming for perfection. Overall I think we’re pretty happy but not satisfied.”Howard’s level of energy is hard to match. One colleague remarks that it is difficult to work out when he sleeps, given the varied hours of the day and night that Howard emails tend to buzz their way into CA inboxes. Customarily visible in the early days of any cricket tour, he will help out in drills occasionally, and one morning at Pallekele could be seen juggling cricket balls in a nod to a childhood job, working sideshow alley.”We’ve got the highest regard for Mickey Arthur as a person, but at the same time we felt it was the right time of change and we needed to make a change”•Getty ImagesThe juggling balls have not always gone to hand, in private or public. The years of 2012-13 were marked by numerous spot fires, whether getting into shouting matches with Channel Nine commentators over the decision to rest David Warner from ODI matches following the home Tests, or in alienating Shane Watson by declaring he was prohibited from using the external physio Victor Popov. Howard also found himself negotiating the players payment MOU with the Australian Cricketers’ Association, an arrangement that irked many, as Howard had been styled as the national team’s man in the executive rather than the bad cop at the collective bargaining table.”It was really challenging, but a role I’d done before,” Howard says. “In many roles your manager has to decide where your remuneration is but also be really positive about where you’re going to grow. I’m very much a link between the playing group and CA, between the strategy and the team. I’m well aware I want to win as much as anyone and make sure the team has the resources to win. How do we give ourselves the best chance of winning?”

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The first half of 2013 placed Howard squarely in the spotlight as what Argus had defined as “the single point of accountability for the performance of the Australian team”. When the team management on that year’s India tour, primarily the coach Arthur, the manager Gavin Dovey, and the captain Michael Clarke chose to summarily suspend Mitchell Johnson, Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja and James Pattinson in response to mounting disciplinary problems on tour, Howard found himself having to defend a decision of which he had not been initially part.At a press conference in Brisbane on March 12, Howard’s bluntness got the better of him. Responding to a question about Watson, the vice-captain, he replied: “I know Shane reasonably well, I think he acts in the best interests of the team sometimes.” That comment drew a furious response from Watson and many in Australian cricket, including the following missive from Alan Jones on radio show 2GB: “You’ve got this other nobody Pat Howard, who knows nothing, saying he’s not a team man.”

Howard’s level of energy is hard to match. One colleague remarks that it is difficult to work out when he sleeps, given the varied hours of the day and night that his emails tend to buzz their way into CA inboxes

In keeping with his reputation for endless energy, Howard had been a hard-driving manager for Arthur, pressuring the coach for success and heightening his already prevalent outsider’s anxiety. Arthur felt compelled from several directions to act in India, and was then advised when Howard arrived for the final Test of the series in Delhi that “this better work”. The reason, of course, was that Howard’s own job would be placed at risk should further issues arise. When they did during the Champions Trophy in England, Howard and the chief executive James Sutherland began secret deliberations around replacing Arthur with Darren Lehmann. It was the tensest of times.”These decisions don’t come lightly. There was a fair bit of work done there and we understood this,” Howard says. “Mickey’s with Pakistan now and he’s obviously a very good coach, but that environment wasn’t working well. We made a change. We knew how good Darren was [with Queensland], we put him in the Australia A tour, he was with Rod [Marsh], so we knew that combination was going to be there and ready to go. I think we’d all admit that worked well and it’s credit to Darren in terms of how he’s come along.”Sutherland made rare appearances around the team either side of Arthur’s firing and Lehmann’s appointment. “That was a really difficult time for everyone,” he says. “It wasn’t personal; we’ve got the highest regard for Mickey Arthur as a person and we wanted to be as sensitive about it as we possibly could, but at the same time we felt it was the right time of change and we needed to make a change. It was a difficult time and history will ultimately be the judge as to whether that decision was vindicated, but you have to make decisions from time to time and we did.”Less edifying than the sacking itself was its aftermath. Howard handed Arthur only three months’ worth of severance pay, a decision the affable South African disputed after speaking to friends back home in Perth. That led to a statement of claim being lodged with Australia’s industrial arbiter, and the airing of dirty laundry in the days before the Lord’s Test match, namely the allegation that Clarke had referred to Watson as a “cancer” on the team. Arthur finished up with a fair settlement, and has rebounded admirably to mentor Pakistan. The terms of CA contracts and their internal oversight were understandably reviewed and changed to avoid a repeat.Nevertheless, Lehmann’s appointment proved to be a circuit breaker, not only in terms of the team’s fortunes but also the definition of Howard’s role. Having chosen a coach with very strong opinions, Howard was content to take a backward step from the team, and to support whatever Lehmann and the captain, Michael Clarke, needed. That changed dynamic helped in an improving display across the Ashes tour, and ultimately the raucous 5-0 sweep of England at home. Where Howard had started 2013 highly visible, he ended it much more in the background, working on the underpinnings of national teams rather than dictating as much at what he calls “the front end”.Having appointed Darren Lehmann as coach, Howard was content to take a backward step, and to support Lehmann and Clarke•Getty ImagesVarious measures at lower levels have included an overhaul of the Sheffield Shield points system, the addition of a CA XI to the Matador Cup, and moving that tournament into a carnival-style event at the start of the season. There has also been the increasingly strategic use of substitute players in the Shield to allow CA to manage the workloads of fast bowlers in particular, and injury incidences have declined steadily.Earlier this year a Shield fixture was played in New Zealand for the first time, in the absence of a tour match before Australia’s Test series win. Howard was also an advocate for the reduction in the number of grassy strips being prepared for first-class matches in order to help batsmen build bigger innings. That diktat, and the installing of spin-friendly wickets at the NCC, are yet to reap Asian dividends.”For everything you implement, three go well and two go poorly,” Howard says. “I am happy to change things that haven’t gone well. I’m absolutely free to admit there are things we’ve tried that haven’t worked. But at the same stage there are things we’ve tried where we’re not quite sure of the end product yet. The Sheffield Shield points change, I wasn’t sure it was going to deliver what we were after, but we’ve seen a lot more spin bowling played, seen a lot of young players score centuries, and the balance between bat and ball, both anecdotally and by the stats, has been better.”There are things you try and say, ‘Gee, I hope this works well’, and for all the planning you do sometimes once you’ve had enough information you have to try it, and then adjust. That’s what we’ve done with the Shield points – we’ve put it in, it’s worked pretty well, then we’ll just tinker around the edges to get it even better.”

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The sense that Lehmann was now running the show took something of a hit in 2015, when the Ashes were given up with a pair of horrendous batting displays in Birmingham and Nottingham. Subsequent to that result, it is said that Howard took back a measure of control over proceedings, as reflected by how the support staff around Lehmann has been turned over in large measure. Howard is adamant he doesn’t mind working with others of strong opinions, highlighted by the hiring of David Saker as Lehmann’s new assistant.”We’re not after yes-men,” Howard says. “I remind Darren we had some challenges in this period [before hiring him], and David’s the same. A challenging environment helps cricket grow. So we want to stay ahead in Test cricket, and that means people challenging you. David with England won in India, he’s come in for a year of Shield and has been a head coach, so we know he can step up into that role when required and he will.”We thought Justin Langer went very, very well in the West Indies [for the triangular ODI series] with a new group. We want to keep investing in coaching and coaching depth to strengthen the whole system. Rod and I have fantastic conversations and challenges. “You can imagine how different our views are sometimes. The same with Darren, the same with David Saker, and I’d have to say the state coaches. We have them up in May all around the table. I was in the room, so was Rod, so was Darren, and we want that challenging environment where we’re all trying to improve.

“For everything you implement, three go well and two go poorly. I am happy to change things that haven’t gone well. I’m absolutely free to admit there are things we’ve tried that haven’t worked”

“Introducing people like Saker, people like Darren, that stream of professional conflict is a way of challenging how we do things. Sometimes you come out of those meetings thinking, ‘You know what, we’re doing the right thing, let’s keep going’, or ‘Why don’t we try this.’ That to me is a really good way to do things. Not throw the baby out with the bath water all the time, but continue to grow and try things as you progress.”

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Howard is presently under contract until 2017, but is yet to receive the same two-year extension granted to Lehmann. Whether it is healthy to keep Howard on for any longer than his current term is a matter for conjecture, as is the question of whether, having had a change agent in place for half a decade, it is now time for CA to choose someone else with greater cricket pedigree to re-examine the fundamentals that have gone so badly awry in Sri Lanka, the UAE and India.”[We’ve been] No. 1 in two of the three formats, there’s been a World Cup, Ashes at home was comprehensive but the two Ashes away weren’t good enough,” Howard says. “What’s most disappointing for some people is, most of us believe we had the capability to win there. Playing well in the subcontinent and improving in those conditions is obviously a huge thing for us.”As we’ve seen, playing in different countries is hard, and we’ve got to adjust and adapt, and just because you see something on a video doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to translate that on the ground straight away. But over time, with as much lead-in as you can, multiple Tests as well, how people learn. We’ve got that India tour again coming up and we’re seeing we’ve got to continue to improve. It’s hard, and we know we’ve got to continue to grow.”While Australian cricket is much better aligned in 2016 than it was in 2011, Howard’s presence will always be a source of scepticism so long as results divert from the strongest possible. No matter how long he stays, he will always be seen by some in the disparaging terms Jones offered a little more than three years ago. How justified they are remains a matter for debate; more certain is the fact that Howard will keep arguing his corner.

Previously seen as someone who could chip in with a few overs and hit out down the order, Hardik Pandya is displaying pace with the ball and maturity with the bat

Arun Venugopal in Mohali22-Oct-2016September 15, 2016. India A were unravelling against Australia A in Brisbane. Kane Richardson and Jackson Bird were zipping the pink ball around, and the lights hadn’t even come on. It wasn’t a toss Naman Ojha wanted to lose. He resisted for 52 balls – the longest among the top six – before Bird had him lbw. India A were now 46 for 6.Hardik Pandya walked out to replace his captain, having had an eventful few months leading up to the match.After a heady start to his international career that peaked with the World T20, a reality check arrived through a dismal IPL which then led to him being dropped for the tour to Zimbabwe. Pandya wouldn’t have even been in Australia if not for injuries and curious, last-minute changes to the A team.He had done alright as a bowler in the quadrangular one-day series that preceded the four-day games, but the runs were missing. In fact, after he made 0 and 7 batting at No.7 in the first unofficial Test, he was demoted a spot.Pandya ensured his team survived the night and was the last man out the next afternoon. He had contributed 79 runs to India A’s total of 169. The innings convinced Ojha that Pandya ought to be playing with the senior team.”The pink ball was seaming around under lights. It was a slightly new experience for us, but he dealt it with brilliantly,’ Ojha told ESPNcricinfo. “He has all the qualities an international allrounder should have. As soon as he gains more experience, he will become a trump card for India.”The national selectors must have thought so too. They knew India needed a seam-bowling allrounder and, with only eight ODIs in 2016-17 before the Champions Trophy, they needed to find one fast. That performance for the A team in Brisbane put Pandya front and centre.

“He has all the qualities an international allrounder should have. As soon as he gains more experience, he will become a trump card for India.”Naman Ojha, Pandya’s India A team-mate

Pandya made his ODI debut in Dharamsala, clocking over 140 kph and troubling New Zealand with seam and swing. Then he produced an outstanding cameo in Delhi with the match on the line.India needed 60 to win off 55 balls and had only two wickets in hand. It was a difficult pitch to score rapidly and New Zealand had Tim Southee and Trent Boult bowling intelligently at the death. But with each passing over Pandya kept slicing the target down, playing proper shots. That 36 off 32 balls signaled a marked change in his game because, until then, he was seen as a T20 specialist who hit some lusty blows and squeezed in a few overs in during the middle stages.An India A team-mate believes Pandya’s interactions with Rahul Dravid, the India A coach, has brought about the transformation in his batting.”He learnt a lot from Dravid not just about batting, but also about staying mentally strong. So long as Pandya remained disciplined nobody had a problem with his happy-go-lucky attitude.”He showed good work ethic in terms of his training and recovery pattern and diet. When he was out of the team, he focused on becoming physically stronger and that helped keep the negative thoughts away. It also helped that he was out of the team for only two months.”While it is understood both India’s captain MS Dhoni and coach Anil Kumble had praised Pandya’s efforts which nearly aced a difficult chase in Delhi, they had also reminded the 23-year old about the lessons to be absorbed from that experience.With 11 runs needed from eight balls – and only Nos. 10 and 11 left – Pandya flat-batted a bouncer from Boult, who had been New Zealand’s best bowler, and was caught by the sweeper on the off side. India lost by six runs.”It will be harsh on him, he could have [taken it to the end] the option is always there,” Dhoni said after the match. “You always have to target who are the bowlers you want to hit and in these kinds of situation even the last ball counts. May be if that shot would have gone over point it could have been a boundary and everything would have been different. He is still learning and more often than not he will be alone along with the tail.”With the likes of Kumble and Dravid to guide him, however, Pandya knows, at least off the field, he is never alone.