The duration of the Test series will allow Alastair Cook and MS Dhoni to reassess the strategies, or provide enough time to get thoroughly exposed

Sidharth Monga04-Jul-2014Roger Waters might well have been thinking of Alastair Cook when he wrote in that “hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way”. Take some license and add MS Dhoni to it, for their stories as captains have a lot in common. Starting July 9, over 42 days packed with 25 possible days of Test cricket in England, the two captains will be under intense scrutiny. Knowing them as captains, they are likely to hang on and on until the desperation is not quiet anymore.Cook and Dhoni both like order, set-pieces so to speak. The ball is 60 overs old; let’s get a spinner and a part-timer on. The opposition is six down; let’s attack only the tailender. Let’s not change batting orders mid-series. Even in personal lives, the highs and lows of cricket don’t seem to be a matter of life and death. Both men are conscious of not expressing too much despair or joy on the field; neither wants attention on himself. At the best of times, they bring this predictability to their operation that calms their teams down. No wild celebrations on winning, no rockets given after losses. When the cricket is over, Cook goes to his farm and tends to sheep; Dhoni opens up bikes and reassembles them, gets acquainted with army weapons and army ways. They won’t be able to get away over the next month and a half.They have had massive highs and lows. Dhoni has won the World Cup, World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy, but he has also gone three years without an overseas Test win, or a defining contribution with the bat over these 13 Tests. Cook has won an Ashes each off his bat and as a captain, has done the unthinkable by leading a series win in India, which are probably two of the most cherished results in England cricket, but he has also overseen the devastating whitewash in Australia, has done the unthinkable by losing a home series to Sri Lanka, and has now gone 25 innings without a century. Over this English summer, they must lay themselves bare on the field. One of them, or both, or even neither, will get the monkey off the back.Cook and Dhoni. Dhoni and Cook. Possible mates. Possible nemeses.•BCCIYou can imagine Dhoni and Cook will like each other over a drink. They might love to discuss how not many in the outside world understand their ways. Surely they believe there is merit to what almost the whole world considers defensive, non-instinctive captaincy? “A hundred and eighty-seven Tests between us, and people are still questioning us.” “A hundred and eighty-seven Tests between them, and they are still letting Tests drift on the field.” They might even enjoy a game of poker, sitting expression-less, keeping their cards close to their chest, not letting anyone know what they are thinking. Except there won’t be a lot of raising done. They could spend hours talking about Duncan Fletcher, who holds both of them dear. They might discuss how one of them was saved by his board president, and how the other’s boss considers him and his family “the sort of people we need”.Cook and Dhoni. Dhoni and Cook. Possible mates. Possible nemeses. For Cook has given Dhoni as much grief as anyone else in international cricket. Piling on those runs in the home series, leading a side that consigned India to their most rueful Test defeat in recent memory, winning after conceding 325 on the Bombay Bunsen. Dhoni had his own back when he pulled out an Ishant Sharma-sized rabbit out of his hat in the Champions Trophy last year, cruelly ending England’s quest for their first big title in 50-over cricket.Even when Shane Warne says that the fourth day against Sri Lanka at Headingley was the worst bit of captaincy he has ever seen in Test cricket, Dhoni can pull out a few examples of his own to steal that thunder from Cook. Wonder if Dhoni found that fourth day all too familiar. Then again, Cook can claim Dhoni doesn’t have such days at home. It takes a really awful day of cricket to be able to manage this in home conditions.

They might even enjoy a game of poker, sitting expression-less, keeping their cards close to their chest, not letting anyone know what they are thinking. Except there won’t be a lot of raising done

Consequently Cook will be under more pressure than Dhoni, who still has the limited-overs success to fall back on. After all he did survive the two whitewashes and the home series loss to England. Cook’s selectors and public are not likely to be that forgiving. Cook need not look past Dhoni if this feels like pressure. It matters nought to Dhoni what the public or the pundits think. It doesn’t affect his game, it doesn’t affect his team’s game. They won the Champions Trophy weeks after the biggest scandal in Indian cricket in this century, and it had involved Dhoni’s IPL team and his biggest supporter in India, N Srinivasan.Srinivasan does his bit by protecting the team, by making sure nobody who will criticise them – like Shane Warne or anyone at Sky might England – will be employed by the host broadcaster. It is still unlikely Warne will be able to send Dhoni into a public meltdown. You need a thick skin to be India captain for this long.It’s not all doom and gloom for the series, though. It won’t all start at 11am in Nottingham with third man, deep point, deep cover and deep midwicket as the brave new version of three slips and a gully. These two are exceptional international cricketers, and you don’t achieve what they have achieved in their careers without mental strength. When Cook hammered India in 2011, it was part of a resurgence after almost a summer where he couldn’t buy a run. Dhoni began India’s turnaround at home with a series-turning double-century against Australia.Michael Clarke and Mark Taylor might not approve of this, but with both the captains evenly matched as tacticians, preferring attrition to assault, this has the makings of a tight series. The duration of it will allow the leaders to reassess the strategies, or provide enough time to get thoroughly exposed. The stakes – surely higher for Cook than Dhoni, but he has the better bowlers – could even make the captains come out of their shells. Just as long as a proper batsman is not batting with a tailender.

For all their looking out for each other, M Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan have still not added fifty in an innings outside Asia.

Sidharth Monga at the Ageas Bowl30-Jul-2014When Shikhar Dhawan hit an innocuous full toss back at Moeen Ali at Trent Bridge he had fallen one short of what would have been his and M Vijay’s first 50-run opening stand outside Asia in 14 innings together. The 49 in what began mostly as a dead innings remains their highest outside Asia. The longest the opposition has had to wait for a wicket is 14 overs.Opening partners are usually good mates. They look out for each other. They are open with each other. They don’t mind letting each other know of their insecurities, their fears. Matthew Hayden used to say he and Justin Langer were almost like a couple. Might have good times, might have bad, but there for each other.Shikhar Dhawan has struggled on this tour•Getty ImagesVirender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are friends off the field. Sehwag never minded asking Gambhir to take most of the strike when chasing a small total because Sehwag had a streak of losing interest when not facing a big task and thus throwing his wicket away. “Whenever I go onto the field and I have Sehwag at the other end, it gives me a lot of confidence,” Gambhir once said. “No doubts about that. He has been one of my very good friends.”Vijay and Dhawan wouldn’t have been great friends when they were picked to open the innings for Rest of India against Mumbai early in 2013. They had played against each other plenty of times in domestic cricket but had batted with each other only once in first-class cricket and four times in List A. They had both been in and out of the Indian team, and quite a few would have thought their best cricket had come and left them.Vijay had scored 138 runs at 17.25 in Ranji Trophy yet had been picked in the Rest of India squad. Dhawan had been better, but 461 runs at 51.22 in Ranji Trophy is hardly the look-at-me-I’m-here stuff. Vijay was 29, Dhawan was 27. This punt from the new selectors allowed them a new lease of life. The existing India openers, though, were on their way out. Some might argue they should have been out earlier. These two now added 144. Vijay got a hundred, Dhawan a half-century, both were given what might have been one last India chance, and they added 289. They might not have known each other well earlier, but their comeback began together; a bond had been built.By the time India went on to win their first overseas Test in three years – at Lord’s – you could see the two were looking out for each other. When, fielding in the slips, Dhawan has something stuck in his eye, Vijay rushed to pluck it out. Vijay had batted exceptionally well at Lord’s but had fallen five short of a century. When the win was achieved, Vijay looked to settle into the background in the celebrations, but Dhawan went back, plucked a stump and handed it over to Vijay. A quiet little acknowledgement from an opening batsman to the other when he might have been lost in the euphoria of Ishant Sharma and the bouncers.Who knows they might have even have talked of a more public satisfaction when they score runs together. They haven’t. In the last seven Tests, India have been 22 for 1 on an average. Vijay has scored runs in South Africa and here, Dhawan in New Zealand, but not together. Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli have been walking in to face tricky circumstances. “It is frustrating,” Dhawan said of the lack of runs between the two. “Vijay has been batting really well, but unfortunately I haven’t contributed much. I have been working hard on my game, sometimes you can’t do much when you get out to good balls.”But the bond between Vijay and Dhawan has remained. The two look out for each other, running almost in Twenty20 fashion, pouncing on every slight opportunity they might get of getting the other guy off strike, making the bowler change his line of attack from a right-hand batsman to a left-hand batsman or the other way around. In the second innings here, with India needing a long opening stand to give them any hope of saving the Test, they were watchful, they ran 14 of the 26 runs together, they had seen off what looked like the first spells of Anderson and Stuart Broad. With the last ball of his sixth over, Anderson had sent square leg back, and Dhawan bunted one in that direction for a single. Singles, the building block these two have been after.To the first ball of a bowler other than Anderson and Broad, Dhawan bunted one towards square leg again. Broad wasn’t at the boundary this time, but was a little deep. This single was fair game for the pair. Dhawan set off right away, Vijay hesitated mildly. Yet they were making it comfortably. Vijay took it easy in the end. A moment of switching off. No stretch, no desperation to get the bat in. The bad Vijay, who takes catches casually, who takes his eye off the ball in the field. Not the one who has been leaving balls like his life depends on him. Not the one who has been sprinting hard to get his partner off strike. And bang, Broad hits the stumps direct. Well, not quite bang. The bails came off softly. They took their time. It will make Vijay even more distraught when he sees the replay.For all their looking out for each other, Vijay and Dhawan have still not added fifty in an innings outside Asia. Pujara, who might have wanted to walk in at a big score for one, should be so lucky.

Our correspondent takes in tea at Lord’s, fish and chips at Headingley, and a heady Sri Lankan series win

Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Jun-2014June 10
Arrive at Heathrow after a long flight. Acquiring a visa for the UK was such a drawn-out ordeal, I was almost expecting to be waterboarded at the airport. The reality is far more pleasant. The border-control officer – probably of Indian descent – asks me what I’m here for.”I’m covering the cricket over the next couple of weeks,” I say.Her eyes light up.”Oh, brilliant! I’ve got tickets for one of the matches. But aren’t the games a few weeks away? The team hasn’t arrived yet, I don’t think.””No, I’m here for the Test that starts on Thursday.”She looks down at my passport for the first time. The words “Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka” are emblazoned on the front.”Oh,” she says.The smile disappears. She stamps the page. 

”Enjoy your stay.”June 11
Stroll down Abbey Road of Beatles fame, in St John’s Wood, where Lord’s is. I approach pedestrian crossing, and a group of European teenagers are taking pictures, recreating album cover.There are five of them. They each take a photo so every combination of four can be photographed, frozen mid-stride, evenly spaced, and in single file. A blue BMW pulls out of a nearby driveway and waits for them to finish posing. 

You would expect him to have tooted the horn, but the man behind the wheel is way beyond that. His face is a picture of long-standing, inconsolable defeat. When our eyes meet, I feel like I know his story.Years ago, he bought a house near Abbey Road, thinking, “Oh that’s nice. I’ll have something to tell people if I’m ever stuck for conversation at a party.” Two weeks after moving in, the streams of tourists, seeking out the painted lines for the same reason, began to grate.In the years since, he has stopped at the crossing a million times. He has spent more of his life watching French teenagers pretending to cross the road than he has spent with his children.This is his life now. He is the broken man in the background of ten thousand hackneyed Facebook posts. None of the “likes” are for him.June 12
Lord’s. The ground is full. The bell tolls and play begins with a reverent hubbub. I take a walk around the stands, as patrons sip wine and pour Earl Grey out of steel flasks. I answer a phone call and am immediately approached by three stewards, insisting phone calls are not allowed. A man in a bacon-and-egg tie yells at me: “Sit down, or get out of the stand!”But the press box is excellent, the local journalists are friendly, and the afternoon tea is varied and delicious. A proper Lord’s experience.

We drive past beautiful old churches and sun-bathed fields on the way to Headingley stadium. When we get there, two stewards, both locals, trip over themselves to give me directions

June 13
The “Unity Team”, a squad of 14 Under-19 players from all parts of Sri Lanka, is at the ground. Last November, they played a tournament back home in support of post-war reconciliation, and the boys who have come to the UK have been picked from each of the schools and provinces represented in that tournament. They are from Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Seenigama and Badulla; and two are from Colombo’s St Peter’s college, among others.Vinoshan, a fast bowler from Mullaitivu, whom I have met before, gives me a rundown.”We beat the Trinity College combined team first. That was a good game. We had to bowl really well. But then we played Eton College 1st XI yesterday, and they were rubbish. It was barely even a decent match.”I can’t stop laughing for five minutes. Here is an 18-year-old from the most embattled place in Sri Lanka’s modern history – a town devastated by shelling, bombs and firefights, with shops and schools still wearing bullet holes – arrogantly bagging some of the most privileged kids on the planet. Four years ago, most of Vinoshan’s friends were in an internally displaced camp. Almost everyone in his village has lost a family member to the war.”We smashed them,” he says.I hope I meet him again.June 15
Heading back to my hotel at Seven Sisters late in the evening, I hear Elton John’s “Sacrifice” over the tube station’s PA. I walk a little further and realise it’s actually a busker, on a keyboard, dressed in a shiny Elton jacket and round pink-tinted glasses, doing a pitch-perfect cover.There are about six people standing around watching. Surely he can earn more at a bar or something, I think. I look into the case laid out in front of him. There is at least £50 in there.June 16
The mood in the press box is impossibly tense during the final over. We’re all supposed to be impartial, but how can we call ourselves cricket lovers if a finish like that doesn’t get our hearts pumping? Nuwan Pradeep is given out on the penultimate ball, and a cry of jubilation goes up around me. The journalists who cheered immediately realise what they have done, and regain their businesslike mien at lightning speed. 

I kind of wish they didn’t feel they had to. We’re professionals but we’re also fans. Press boxes are often sterile enough already. A little unbridled passion keeps us tethered to the game.June 17
A day at the ESPNcricinfo Hammersmith offices, followed by a beer with my colleagues by the Thames. We swap touring stories. “There aren’t that many days in the year that are this beautiful, so we may as well enjoy it,” Andrew “Gnasher” McGlashan says.
The conversation snakes towards county cricket in the 1990s. Gnasher remembers almost everything that happened in domestic cricket that decade. He gives a blow-by-blow of Aravinda de Silva’s epic 1995 season with Kent. 

There was a time in my life when I thought myself an ardent cricket fan. Then I met people like Gnasher.They’re coming to take you away: men in white coats lend flavour to the second day at Headingley•Getty ImagesJune 18
The first I ever heard of Yorkshire was on my radio, at the age of about 11, when Monty Python’s “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch came on air. Since then I accumulated what is probably the stereotypical picture of Yorkshire: a cold place populated by no-nonsense, outspoken people. 

That was until a few months ago, when I read Bill Bryson’s . His view of Yorkshire was dramatically different to anything I had read before. Bryson fell in love with the gentle, soothing beauty of the dales, and felt the county’s inhabitants were as friendly and giving as those anywhere in the world.We drive past beautiful old churches and sun-bathed fields on the way to Headingley stadium. When we get there, two stewards, both locals, trip over themselves to give me directions on how to get on the field. 

”Ya go down th’steps ere and left out th’door, then straigh’ through to th’vomitory,” one says.”Or y’could take th’lift if ya prefer,” the other offers. “Ah can take you, if y’like.”All through the week, “Yaarkshire” could not have been kinder. Bryson was right.June 19
The series sponsor, Investec, has generously set up a tab at a local bar for journalists to watch the England v Uruguay football match. Speak to Lawrence Booth, a long-time Manchester City fan who fell out of love with the England football team some time ago.”But I’d rather see them playing exciting football and losing than what they used to be like,” he says.The room is hushed by Luis Suarez’ second goal. “Come on ref! That was miles off side,” one patron bellows. A while later, the same man sees a replay and pipes up. “Oh no! It was off an England head. Oh god.”June 20

Realise the hotel we have been booked into is in the middle of Leeds’ small but noisy gay bar district. Wander into one of these establishments that evening to find a group of people standing around watching two other people eat, like it is the most riveting thing they have seen in their lives. We ask what’s going on but no explanation is given. We exit quickly, thoroughly perplexed.June 21
Jarrod Kimber has a hot tip about an American-style barbeque restaurant in town, so we decide to try it. We put away ludicrous amounts of meat and bourbon. George Dobell uses any excuse to turn the conversation towards how great Moeen Ali is, but the evening’s ramblings wind up, as always, at the ironic focal point of this “new era” of English cricket: Kevin Pietersen.June 22
The Cricket Writers Club puts on a meal for the travelling Sri Lankan journalists at a fish and chips establishment in Headingley. It’s difficult to be impressed by seafood when you come from Sri Lanka, but even the visiting food snobs are impressed by what’s on offer. The restaurant doesn’t do waiters or wine lists, or even menus. Just outstanding fish and chips.June 24
Angelo Mathews is standing outside the press conference room as Alastair Cook gets a grilling, following the series loss. Mathews is going through all the congratulatory messages on his phone, smiling like a madman when he sees a message he likes.Someone tells him Suarez has bitten an opposition player. 

”Again?” Mathews says in Sinhala. “What is wrong with that guy?”As the Sri Lanka team and support staff pile out of their dressing room and into the team bus, they are all grinning from ear to ear. It’s a parade of exposed teeth. Leeds might be seeing a lot more of their teeth tonight, before the team departs for home tomorrow.

The weird and wonderful city that has made a hero out of a groundsman

Paul Ford04-Nov-2014Most days the jury is out as to whether Central Otago or the Hawke’s Bay is the fruit bowl of New Zealand. But for the 2015 cricket World Cup it is decided the mantle is claimed by the Bay because neither Molyneux Park (Alexandra), Queenstown Events Centre or Anderson Park (Cromwell) made the cut for the big games.Most cricketing roads in the Hawke’s Bay lead to McLean Park. The exceptions include Gordon Road, home of the magnificent Clifton County Cricket Club (“Keep driving along dusty roads and across paddocks until you reach a piece of lush turf surrounded by undulating hillside… and if you get lost, just follow someone else”).McLean Park has been around for more than 100 years, having been created as a 10-acre memorial to a bloke who used to be a VINZGP: a very important New Zealand government person. His name is Don McLean but he never wrote amazing folk songs with cryptic lyrics. Instead he was a Scottish farmer and was the ominously and imperiously named Minister of Native Affairs and Colonial Defence in the 1870s.Apparently – and weirdly – in the early years, Sir Donald McLean’s Park was mainly used by the Highland Society for eccentric and wonderful games like caber tossing, hammer throwing and maide leisg-ing.Now it is best known as the home of eccentric and wonderful sporting games like rugby and cricket.

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McLean Park is the primary home ground for the Central Districts Cricket Association and base camp for the roving Central Stags. It is unusual in that you can see the sea from the park, so if you are watching on TV then expect to see epic montages of the glittering Pacific Ocean through the line of Norfolk pines along the Napier waterfront.Central Districts is an eclectic region that essentially ring-fences Wellington, and runs the game in Horowhenua Kapiti, Manawatu, Taranaki, Wairarapa and Wanganui in the North Island – and Marlborough and Nelson at the top of the south.Central Districts legends include the one and only Mathew “Skippy” Sinclair (the bloke responsible for the greatest catch I have ever seen live), who was on the dole but is now training to be a real estate agent in the Bay, and is coaching the local Hawke’s Bay provincial team. He has the most appearances for the province, followed by Mike Shrimpton, who went on from first-class cricket to be prominent as the coach of the White Ferns when they won the World Cup back in 2000.Other household cricketing names who have worn the Central Districts greens and whites many times over the years include Scott Briasco, Michael Mason, Mark Douglas, Glen Sulzberger, Gary Robertson and wicketkeeping stalwart Bevan Griggs. Golf nut and Hastings schoolteacher Stu Duff is also a Central Districts legend – his dulcet tones can often be heard when he parks up atop the Harris Stand at McLean Park to jabber on over the radio airwaves.And who can forget Cleckheaton’s only black-belted wicketkeeper-batsman, Tony “Chill” Blain (an irregular correspondent on the BYC podcast)? His sensible hats with the neck flap are an iconic cricketing memory for watchers of Kiwi cricket in the eighties and nineties.

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The deck in Napier is notoriously as flat as a pancake, and most batsmen around the globe would be keen to pack it up and roll it out wherever they were plying their trade. In Tests, John Wright averages 201 there, VVS Laxman 200, BJ Watling 180, Imran Farhat 178 and Jesse Ryder 158. And in ODIs, MS Dhoni averages 124 there, ahead of Virat Kholi on 123 and Ricky Ponting on 107.5.The Tasmanian devil’s magnificent unbeaten 141 (off 127 balls) in an ODI in 2005 was a frighteningly good innings to watch as a local fan – “clean-hitting dominance” that ended the series from hell. It didn’t help that the same day Brett Lee unleashed a 99.9 mph thunderbolt and Adam Gilchrist monstered 91 from just 61 balls.

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Napier groundsman Phil Stoyanoff with Kris Srikkanth and Anil Kumble in Bangalore•Associated PressThe Park’s road maker is Phil Stoyanoff, the Napier groundsman who has also carved out his own little niche in Kiwi cricketing folklore. I’ve often said there is a lucrative market waiting to happen if someone wants to start making “I Love Phil” t-shirts. Why? Because he’s as blunt as a trauma injury, with a delicious turn of phrase:

“Any of this mythical talk about slime outbreak on the wicket, or algae or the fungal attack, is a lot of rubbish.”
“My most endearing memory of Phil is when he turned up to a Saturday game, and Collegians were bowling first. Phil had obviously had a late – very late – Friday night, and it would have been optimistic to say he’d had more than a couple hours sleep. Phil slumped in the dressing shed, unshaven, eyes red-rimmed and with the breath of a brewery. When a team mate half-seriously suggested he wasn’t in a fit state to bowl, Phil had the perfect retort: ‘Mate – when I’m hungover it makes me bloody angry and I’ll take if out on the f***ken opening batsmen.’ And he did.”
“Depending on what the samples say I base my plan of attack for the day around that. I have to think about what roller I’m going to use and if I need to mow.”
“Yes, because both sides have such bad batsmen. That’s my honest opinion: they’re useless.”

Stoyanoff has cut an interesting path on the Kiwi cricketing scene. He played one first-class match for NZ Under-23s against Canterbury back in 1980, scoring 4 and taking 0 for 15 from five overs. Fellow first-class debutants in that match included Robbie Hart, Trevor Franklin, Alan Hunt and Rockin’ Roddy Latham.He was also flown to India to prepare the turf at Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium for an Australia v India series using soil core samples, weather charts and mathematical equations. As he said at the time: “Preparing a pitch is science… We decide based on the data what type of roller to use. It is real artwork, which they don’t know about here. They don’t regard curators as professions, but we are as important as the cricketers.”I love Phil.

Plays of the day from the seventh ODI between Sri Lanka and England in Colombo

Alan Gardner and Andrew Fidel Fernando16-Dec-2014The headwear
When Fawad Alam bowled with his cap on backwards during the recent series between Pakistan and Australia, it caused a bit of a stir. Joe Root is not quite as part-time as Alam but, when called upon to chip in with a few overs here, he promptly came in off a few steps and delivered the ball with his head still covered, peak pointing down the wicket. He then took his cap off and gave it to the umpire but not before a few comparisons with Geoffrey Boycott had been made. Proof, if any were needed, that cricket can be a strange game.The premature arm-raise
Chris Woakes returned to bowl during the batting Powerplay and targeted Dinesh Chandimal with a familiar short-pitched attack. A wild hack resulted in a top edge that went soaring in the direction of third man and Woakes immediately threw his hands up in celebration. He might have hesitated had he realised who the fielder running in was, though. Harry Gurney is not the man you would pick to catch for your life and on this occasion he didn’t even get close, there was no attempt at a dive and the ball then spun past him anyway, nearly going for four. Woakes’ hands dropped to his sides and on the replay he could be seen exclaiming: “Harry!”The good bad impressions
When you have hit 13,158 runs in each other’s company, across formats, perhaps it is inevitable that bad habits are shared, along with the good times. Batting for the final time in ODIs at home, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara fell mimicking mistakes more often seen at the opposite end of their bromance. Jayawardene had batted imperiously for his 28, but sent a leg-side half-tracker down the gullet of fine leg. Sangakkara had collected his 33 with typical care, but in his efforts to gently manoeuvre the field, chipped an offspinner straight to short midwicket.The compensatory celebrations
Colombo had wanted to see Sangakkara and Jayawardene rack up some milestones with the bat, but as neither managed to get past the thirties, it fell to the other senior batsman, Tillakaratne Dilshan, to give the full house its fill. He was most emphatic when celebrating his ton. Completing the two that took him to triple-figures, Dilshan dropped his bat by the wicketkeeper, his helmet at short third man, leapt, punched the air, and blew two kisses to the same stand that houses the dressing room. He was more reserved, but no less joyful when celebrating his wickets, embarking on a skip around one side of the pitch after his second scalp.Colombo gets its wish
Sangakkara has been involved in more ODI dismissals – 480 – than any other wicketkeeper in history. Jayawardene is by a huge margin the most prolific catch-taker (among non-wicketkeepers) in 50-over cricket, having successfully pouched 215 off the blade. But never before have the two combined on any scorecard. When Angelo Mathews tossed Jayawardene the ball with one England wicket remaining, the 25,000-strong crowd began baying for their perfect finish. Almost by their force of will, it came together. James Tredwell walked past a turning offspinner in Jayawardene’s second over, and Sangakkara whipped off the bails, as the stadium erupted, and the team broke out in big grins.

Back in the day, there was a certain audacity and spark to the Australian triangular; now, though, cricket seems to have outgrown the genre

Sidharth Monga15-Jan-2015There is this honest moment during the extended version of – the concert film during whose interviews Pink Floyd basically bully the interviewer most of the time – when Nick Mason goes, “We mark a sort of era. We’re in danger of becoming a relic of the past. And for some people we represent their childhood: 1967, Underground London, the free concert in Hyde Park…” You can imagine, at some point during the 2000s, when life and sport moved on to T20 and other things, the ODI triangular – or World Series Cricket as it was called in Australia – said: “I am becoming a relic of the past. For some I represent their childhoods of the ’90s and ’80s: best-of-three – sometimes five – finals, catches taken behind the sightscreen, the best jerseys…”The triangular series in Australia for years broke the rules, or convention at least. They dressed Pakistan in blue. They used to play ODIs between Tests at times. In 1991-92, India played a Test, then came five triangular matches, then two Tests, then the rest of the triangular, and then two more Tests. All the while West Indies remained in Australia. Hrishikesh Kanitkar once leaned against the fence and pulled the ball out of the crowd to take what then constituted a legal catch. For two years they had best-of-five finals. In 1980-81 they had teams playing each other five times before playing best-of-five finals. No wonder Greg Chappell asked for an underarm delivery.The triangular series in Australia was all the more awesome in the ’80s: West Indies used to show up every other year. They went there seven times for ODIs tournaments in the ’80s. A cigarette company used to sponsor the triangular, and fans could be seen smoking in the open.There was a certain brashness, audacity, to the triangular. One year they put together a group of players who couldn’t make it to the Australia 1st XI and introduced them as the fourth team because Zimbabwe were not expected to draw crowds. Guess who made it to the final? Australia and Australia A. The finals back then were not even ODIs but List A games – which Australia said and proved were more competitive and financially attractive than ODIs.The coverage of the triangular series was innovative. From the khhraaasssh sound the amped-up stump mics broadcast when someone got bowled to the initial stages of day-night cricket with white balls, to those weather walls that Tony Greig used to carry to the pitch report, to Dawdles the Duck, who accompanied batsmen who failed to score on their walk back. Even the peddling of the overpriced memorabilia seemed bearable. I was a kid. For a long time I didn’t realise the Bush in “Bush Great Catches” was Bush TV. Or that Benson & Hedges was a cigarette brand.The cricket wasn’t without innovation either – remember Adam Dale, who used to bowl nine or 10 overs at one go at the top of the innings? The critics of the Australian triangular, though, will say it was all too gimmicky, like a band relying too much on the instruments. To which the triangular’s response always was, like Roger Waters’ in to the contention that they relied too much on instruments: “It’s like, you give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton, and of course that’s not true. And if you give a man an amplifier and a synthesiser, he doesn’t become, you know, whoever; he doesn’t become us.”And so we kept waking up early – in India’s case – to see what the new innovation was going to be this season, what new jerseys the triangular would come up with, and we enjoyed the cricket. Asif Mujtaba tying a match where 17 were required in one over, Sachin Tendulkar tying one with the ball where India defended 126, Michael Bevan’s last-ball four off Roger Harper, Dion Nash’s aerial hit landing on the overlapping rope and New Zealand losing by one run.Slowly cricket outgrew the Australian triangular. For a long time, the non-Australia matches remained a problem for the broadcasters. T20 came in. Demands made of the players became more specialised. There is an increasingly disturbing notion now in Australia – at least among those who make decisions in this regard – that the public is not interested in anything that doesn’t involve Australia. Apart from ABC, few news channels bother with world news. Big news loses out in prominence to the premiere of a Hollywood movie that features an Australian actor. James Brayshaw, for example, a Channel Nine commentator through the Test series, knew nothing about the Indian team. It’s apparent the public doesn’t like his commentary, but those who are making decisions don’t seem to see it.So even if there might have been some life in the relic, the triangular era was duly ended. Except once in a while, when the broadcasting money from India’s visits revived the triangular. India and Sri Lanka played the last triangular here, three years before now, and four years after the previous triangular, which also involved India. Even in 2011-12, Channel Nine was not too keen to telecast the India-Sri Lanka matches. Some of them were shown on Gem, a free-to-air channel.For one last time, perhaps – since there is unconfirmed news that India will next travel Australia for a seven-ODI bilateral – the triangular has come back, featuring Australia, England and India. There is no best-of-three final, though. And the teams face each other only twice each. And it is just a warm-up to the World Cup. More than the Floyd reunion for Live 8 at Hyde Park.

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Mar-2015However, after putting on 75 runs, Shikhar Dhawan was stumped off Shakib Al Hasan in the 17th over•Getty ImagesEight balls later, Rubel Hossain had Virat Kohli caught behind and sent the batsman off•Getty ImagesBut Rohit Sharma remained firm, collecting his 50 off 70 balls•Associated PressBangladesh made it difficult again by removing Ajinkya Rahane for 19, and celebrated the wicket with botched chest-bumps•Associated PressSuresh Raina’s arrival, though, gave India a boost in the batting Powerplay. He struck 65 off 57, and added 122 off 95 with Rohit for the fourth wicket•Associated PressWith his seventh ODI hundred, Rohit propelled his strike rate towards the end to finish with 137 off 126 balls and India ended on 302 for 6•Getty ImagesTamim Iqbal showed intent to get Bangladesh off to a brisk start•Associated PressBut his dismissal, for a run-a-ball 25, in the seventh over put Bangladesh in a spot of bother•Associated PressImrul Kayes was involved in a terrible mix-up with Soumya Sarkar the very next delivery, and was run-out•Associated PressMahmudullah’s attempt to revive the innings appeared to succeed before India’s fielding pegged Bangladesh back•Associated PressFirst, Shikhar Dhawan balanced himself well to take Mahmudullah’s catch at fine leg•Associated PressThen, MS Dhoni pulled off a one-handed stunner diving to his left to dismiss Soumya. And Bangladesh were four down for 90•Getty ImagesAfter Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim didn’t contribute significantly, Sabbir Rahman and Nasir Hossain stitched together 50 runs for the seventh wicket•Getty ImagesBut it was only a matter of time before India knocked out the tail, and completed their 109-run win. It was India’s 11th win on the trot in World Cups, and Dhoni’s 100th ODI win as captain•Associated Press

He does things his own way and so far Neil D’Costa has an impressive record in helping future stars get a leg up

Sharda Ugra23-Mar-2015When the second semi-final of the ICC World Cup 2015 gets underway at the SCG on the afternoon of March 26, in a south-west corner of Sydney, one man will boast of an involvement among the XIs on both sides. Neil D’Costa, one of the more maverick coaches working in Australia, has been associated with two players in the Australian XI and spent three years in the home state of one of the Indians.D’Costa, 44, was involved in the formative years turning Mitchell Starc from wicketkeeper to fast bowler and working and managing Michael Clarke from a very young age until the two parted ways a few years ago. He spent three years as head coach of the Vidarbha Cricket Association residential academy in Nagpur from 2008 to 2011 and watched a young raw tearaway called Umesh Yadav find his feet. There is a good chance all three will feature in the semi-final and D’Costa said watching players he had worked with develop and get to the highest level of the game was about satisfaction and pleasure: “You have pride that you helped that person get there.”There is a fourth character in this story, whose presence, or rather absence will also be a part of the semi-final story, and with whom D’Costa had very close links. The semi-final will be the last international match to be held at the SCG in the season that began with the awful on-field accident that led to the death of Phillip Hughes. D’Costa was Hughes’ mentor and guardian when he moved to Sydney. “Emotionally Philip and I were more alike. I was the person Philip saw to for his health and welfare, he didn’t have mum and dad, they were 800ks away.”The idea of life without Philip has been baffling: “Straight, honest answer I still forget he’s gone. I still forget and when I get reminded of it, it feels like a shock. I still can’t believe I am never going to see him again, I can’t get my head around it.”D’Costa describes himself as a “life coach, who uses cricket as a vehicle” and describes his job as being about “developing a human being’s motivation at being good at what he does. Everyone’s story is different.” Name the young players whose early years featured passing through D’Costa’s coaching regimen – Clarke, Hughes, Starc and later as an England pro Nick Compton among others – and D’Costa asks with a straight face, “is it a coincidence I am involved?”

D’Costas’ ambition is to flood the New South Wales team with the best players from his region and gives himself seven years to get there

Of all the stories, it is Mitchell Starc’s that contains in itself, a touch of whimsy. When head coach at Western Suburbs CC, D’Costa wandered over to see what was happening at ‘green shield’ (under-16) trials. He watched a gawky, self-conscious, spindly teenager throw the ball, hard, flat, fierce with an arm so powerful that he startled him. When he took the boy aside and asked him to have a bowl, he replied, “I’m a keeper I don’t bowl.” D’Costa replied, “humour me, bowl the ball.” At first sighting from a rudimentary run-up and action, D’Costa saw that his hunch was spot on. “We put Mitchell into a high performance programme, grabbed a bucket of balls and showed him how bowl first off one step.” Starc was asked to empty out four buckets bowling off one step and “go home.” A week later two steps, “and the week after that three.” Then the run up and it was from there D’Costa says that, Starc and his bowling had been “manufactured from scratch”. Once when D’costa found Starc “mucking around” during training, he sat the younger man down and said, “Do you realise you could play for Australia? Not like them”, he said, pointing to other players killing time joshing about. Left-arm whippy, quick, athletic Starc got picked for state sides and moved up the ranks. In Sydney on Thursday, he will be Australia’s key strike bowler in the semi-final.The Michael Clarke story starts when the Australian captain was seven or eight and put in charge of D’Costa by Clarke’s father who had bought a sports centre in Liverpool, NSW where D’Costa, a regular in Sydney grade cricket, trained; “you could see even at that age, he was better than most, he had a bit of pizzaz about him.”During his stint with Vidarbha, D’Costa said while he did not coach Umesh with this bowling as there were specialised bowling coaches to do so, the two men have had important conversations. Umesh was told about the responsibilities of being a professional, understanding what a professional psyche was all about, about looking after his body. The two men met the last time the Indians came into Sydney for a lengthy interval: D’Costa met with Umesh again and says, “I am so happy to see him doing well.” He has worked with Ross Taylor briefly, conducted a few sessions with VVS Laxman and England batsman Nick Compton, whose ghosts he set free by starting with a simple exercise: remove the pads, face tennis balls and play freely like you did when you were five.D’Costa is now head coach/coaching director of the Campbelltown Camden Districts Club and the Ghosts Cricket Academy. The Ghosts just happen to be the collective nickname for all local sports teams, based on a local legend about the disappearance of a farmer, Fred Fischer, and, four months later, a sighting first of Fischer’s “ghost” and shortly after, his body. Every team that plays out of Campbelltown are called the Ghosts.Campbelltown is a 48km train and cab ride south-west of Sydney, where on a Monday afternoon, boys around the ages of 8-12 had turned up on time and headed to their indoor nets with the head coach’s messages written on the walls. As they learn the finer points of full-blooded and check drives, time out in between is spent air-batting showing off a shot named “the Virat Kohli” – pick the ball from outside off stump and flick it away for a four.Despite his regular success as a development coach of young players, D’Costa works outside the ‘elite pathway’ in which the rest of official Australian cricket operates. The son of Anglo-Indian parents who moved to Australia in the 60s, he says there are times when he wonders about his identity: in Australia, growing up, he was thought of as an Indian boy. When he travels to India, he is considered Australian and the absurdity of it makes him laugh.He says boldly his ambition is to flood the New South Wales team with the best players from his region and gives himself seven years to get there. He is proud of the cream of his under-15s and under-17s at Campbelltown and where they stand in terms of talent from other parts in both bowling and batting. He speaks with as much affection he did about Hughes, Clarke and Starc about a cricketer named Jordan Gauci, of Maltese origin and brimming with promise.D’Costa is known to be a rocker of boats, has been called a “veteran coach” – ready for pipe and slippers at age 25 – and is hardly acknowledged by the Australian cricket establishment as that coach with a rare “eye.” He remains confident that, as his players keep coming through (and they will) they will be all the proof needed if not the recognition of his knowledge, experience and abilities.After all, look at what happened to three boys with whom he crossed paths not so long ago. They will turn up as key protagonists in a tight, tense match, adding another chapter in the one of the biggest rivalries known to world cricket in what will be their biggest 50-over game in years.

In an otherwise strong campaign, India will be wary of the fact that their openers have struggled to come out firing and are time and again being bailed out by others down the order

Sharda Ugra at Eden Park14-Mar-20153:32

‘Gained a lot out of this game’ – Dhoni

On Saturday, Eden Park turned into New Delhi or Mohali, with an IPL match being played well into the night. The ground was not quite full, but the noise was the unmistakable sound of Indian fans at high volume backed by bangra pop and Bollywood.A fortnight ago though, the perfect storm had broken over Eden Park when New Zealand took on Australia and windowpanes had shattered around the neighbourhood. Saturday night was not half bad either, with 30,000 Indian expats in the house as India chased down their highest World Cup score in beating Zimbabwe by six wickets.The partnership between Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni gift-wrapped the final leg of India’s seamless progress in what is the their best ever performance at a World Cup going into the knockouts. The game ended with sounds, lights and dazzle; Dhoni and Raina opened up shoulders and stances, cleared their front legs and tried to reach all parts of the ground.Naturally, a Dhoni six had to end it. He and Raina had put up 196 runs in 26 overs, coming together in the 23rd over and first pushing, then racing through the game. Raina’s first World Cup century was marked by scratchiness at the start, a dropped catch in the middle, and a shepherding through the testy parts by Dhoni, who must play at such a sober pace that he is virtually last man on the bridge at No. 6.Dhoni described his frequent conversation with Raina afterwards; “I just have to ask him to go from fifth gear to third gear as there was not really any batsmen after us.”Over the last 10 years, it should surprise no one that it is these two, ax man and flaky stylist, who have formed India’s most prolific ODI partnership in terms of runs.Besides the game against Ireland, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have added just 104 runs together from five innings, with a highest stand of 35•ICCThey have scored 3480 runs together at 62.14, with nine century stands. This was a tighter World Cup game than the other slightly hairy chase India had against West Indies, with Dhoni coming in the 18th over with 105 to get. Here, he walked in during the 23rd, marshaling India’s chase as usual, ending with eight balls to spare. It is the closest India have gone to the very end of a match in this tournament and once again, they came out on the winning side.Dhoni was satisfied: “It couldn’t have been better. If you’re playing the last game of the league stage, and if you get an easy win, you don’t get a lot out of that game. What was good was the spinners were put under pressure, and also we lost quick wickets initially, and that actually put our middle and lower middle order under pressure, so we gained a lot out of it.”Now to the pointy stuff. After teams get repeatedly get clobbered, their captains are asked about ‘positives’ they may have extricated from the debris. When teams get to where are India are at this World Cup, with a smooth factory-line efficiency, the general tone of the, (thank you, KP) “mood hoovers” is ‘negatives’, ‘worries’, and ‘areas of improvement’. While Dhoni was content about the spinners being pushed with the slog overs costing India 80 off the last 10, there is another slightly dodgy issue, which is central to the Indian top order turning up fully switched on at the business end of the event.Over the next two weeks, the attacks India are about to face, all things going well, will not comprise the combined strengths of UAE and Ireland. They will pose more questions than Zimbabwe’s effort and energy did today. India’s opening stand at the World Cup so far, has been far from steady or confidence-inducing. Outside an opening partnership of 174 against Ireland – India’s highest opening stand in the World Cup – in five innings, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have managed just 104 runs with a highest stand of 35.In this World Cup, the Dhawan-Rohit partnership has been a minimum of a modicum. Other than Ireland, together they have traveled without conviction. They have neither blitzed the first 10 overs and thrown the opposition’s bowling into disarray, nor been able to play clatter along into the mid-innings and give any free-hitters following them a good tilt in the last 15 overs.India have never started panicking after a wicket because they know that someone or the other down the order will step up•Getty ImagesThe top-order combination which, in the averages taken over a ten-year period (minimum of 1000 runs), has done the best and remains a part of the current team, is in fact Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane with 1106 runs at 69.12. In terms of pure average, Dhoni and Gambhir head the list with 1270 runs at 74.7. India may have done themselves no favours by not tinkering or fidegeting around with options in the lighter games. They may yet still win the thing, but the openers’ numbers remain unpleasant.Dhoni had a somewhat mystifying answer to this dilemma, saying that in many cases when India were chasing, the opposition had “not scored too many runs” and therefore the openers “can’t score the same number of runs.” He did try to clarify though that it was India’s start that had been important. That start has been as follows: 34, 9, 29, 11, 174, 11. Exclude that Ireland game, and all the importance the start appears to contain is that Dhawan and Rohit simply turned up together.The defence for Rohit, whose World Cups scores are 15, 0, 57*, 7, 64 and 16, was stout.”I feel Rohit has batted really well so far. He looks quite calm and composed, and at the same time he’s playing the shots really well,” Dhoni said. “That’s something that’s a key factor. It’s not always about the runs. We have seen batsmen who are playing really well but they have not scored runs, and all of a sudden you see a game where they score really big and they come back. So it’s not really being out of form. What’s important is to spend time in the middle, and I think Rohit has done enough of that.”The group stages are now done with, and India find themselves once again in the middle, where the white light of the knockouts will be training on them with greater intensity than they have over the last month. India’s World Cup will now start over, and the openers have a chance to wipe a fairly grubby slate clean.

Amid a hostile atmosphere at the SCG, Mitchell Johnson’s blows with bat and ball sent Australia soaring into the World Cup final

Daniel Brettig at the SCG26-Mar-2015Mitchell Johnson walked to the wicket at a moment when the SCG was more Pune than Paddington. Shane Watson had holed out to deep square leg, the Australia innings had stalled at the death and India supporters were rejoicing in anticipation of chasing something in the region of 310. A few overs before, the hosts and heavy favourites had been 232 for 2 and galloping, but now the quieter home contingent of supporters might easily have been in a library, so silent they had become.In years gone past, Johnson had been unnerved by crowds. In England his brain and limbs were so scrambled by personal taunts relating to his family that he went into something of a meltdown at Lord’s, just a few months from displays in lower-profile South African climes that led to him being named ICC cricketer of 2009. At this very SCG in January 2011 he was heckled all the way to the wicket and laughed all the way back, bowled by Chris Tremlett for a first-ball duck.This time Johnson walked out into a similarly intimidating tumult, knowing that Australia did not have enough runs and there was precious little time left to get them. They needed a late burst and Johnson took it upon himself to provide it. He had only faced 11 balls all tournament, six weeks in all, and been dismissed by two of them. Somehow Johnson found a way to cajole his first three balls, from Mohammad Shami, to the boundary.In the final over Johnson struck again, clattering Mohit Sharma’s fourth and fifth balls for four over mid-off and then for six beyond wide long on. He walked off with 27 runs from nine balls to his name, and Australia had the sprint finish they so badly needed. Arguably, Johnson had just made his most pivotal contribution so far of a tournament at which he has sat behind Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood as the team’s third paceman.It was after Australia’s reboot following the loss to New Zealand in Auckland that Johnson assumed the role of first-change bowler. He had been battered by Brendon McCullum with the new ball at Eden Park, though getting some of his own back by bruising New Zealand’s captain with one of the few balls he put where he wanted. Instead of setting the agenda, Johnson would exploit gaps opened up by Starc and Hazlewood or probe for his own should they fail to strike early.

Johnson bored in on Kohli and the vital extra kilometres of pace he had been missing in his last Test match meeting with India proved the undoing of their No. 3

The tactic did not work against Sri Lanka in Sydney, when Tillakaratne Dilshan pulled off the trick of cuffing Johnson for boundaries every ball of an over. But there were no protests, no expressions of irritation that he did not get the new ball, and no sulks. Johnson was here to help win the tournament in whatever way he could. The runs at the back end of Australia’s innings against India proved that beyond doubt, but he would add two spinal wickets to their number before the night was out.During the India Tests, Johnson had slipped back a gear or two in pace as an acknowledgement of how flat the wickets were and how Australia needed him to bowl longer spells. It was an exhausted Johnson who was withdrawn from the team for the final Test with a minor hamstring strain, but also one who knew he could be faster again later in the summer. At the SCG it was his pace that would provide the difference Australia so desperately needed after Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan had made a fine start.While Josh Hazlewood accounted for Dhawan, Johnson bored in on Virat Kohli, and the vital extra few kilometres of pace he had been missing in his last Test match meeting with India at the MCG proved the undoing of their No. 3. In December, Kohli had hooked and pulled Johnson with something like impunity. In the late March he was surprised to find the ball arrived faster and higher than before, a skied top edge plopping gently into Brad Haddin’s gloves.Next over, Rohit was intent on regaining momentum lost by the earlier wickets. One short ball was swung lustily for six in front of square, returning the crowd to the ecstasy of late afternoon. Johnson, though, was as focused as when he walked out to bat. Unable to summon swing, he instead looked for variation off the pitch, bowling a delivery cross-seam that skidded on while deviating just enough to catch Rohit’s inside edge and his leg bail. That cheer for the six became a more guttural roar for the wicket.Like the runs, these wickets were brief moments in a wider narrative. But they were as central to the tale as anything longer lasting. Michael Clarke said as much after the match, marvelling at Johnson’s resolution but also pointing out how he has been steeled by past experiences, whether they be in England, Sydney or two previous World Cup campaigns.”I’ve always said Mitchell making runs gives him confidence with the ball, I think tonight was a good example of that,” Clarke said. “Mitch is a class performer. He probably hasn’t had the standout tournament everybody expects of him all the time, because he’s such a great performer you expect him to take five wickets every time he walks out on the field. But I think he’s done a fantastic job for this team throughout this tournament.”He’s a wicket-taker, he’s an X-factor, but he’s got experience under pressure now. So a dangerous weapon to have. He’s an example of someone who always puts the team first – he would love to open the bowling but he knows it’s best for the team at the moment that he bowls first change. He hasn’t blinked once at it, it doesn’t bother him. He wants to win, that’s what’s most important.”Bowling first change, facing a raucous Indian crowd, pondering elimination, tiring at the end of a long summer. None of this fazed Johnson, as he made a contribution every one of his team-mates will remember. By the end of the night it felt once more like Australia’s home World Cup, and Johnson had played large part in making it so.