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.

Kumar Sangakkara left the ground after almost everyone he knew very closely had. Then it rained a little. Sangakkara had played his last match for Sri Lanka; even the elements allowed themselves a bit of emotion

Sharda Ugra in Colombo24-Aug-2015Test match days in Sri Lanka are relaxed – gates are usually wide open, the guards cast a sideways cursory check at the accreditation dangling around the neck and there is a general hand-waving in which direction to go. Of course, there are a handsome number of policemen around; this is Asia and cricket, the constabulary always turns up in large numbers.But Monday morning at the P Sara Oval suddenly felt serious. Very serious. The main gates at the stadium were sealed shut, a single-file entrance, bags opened, scanners passed over computers and other equipment. With, it can safely be said, such a thorough, highly personal frisking by security guards that were it any more thorough, it would have become a civil rights violation.This had happened because the President and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka were arriving because Sanga was leaving.It was Kumar Sangakkara’s final day as a Sri Lanka cricketer and the country’s two most powerful people had come to say goodbye. There was a Test match to be concluded and it took about 111 minutes for the Indians to take the last eight Sri Lanka wickets and level the series. Once the game ended, the occasion that its end contained took over. Only a small heart or a narrow mind or both would not understand or absorb what that occasion stood for.The first sight of Sangakkara on his final day of Test cricket was of him walking out dressed in his Sri Lanka blue to shake the hands of the India team, who walked towards the home dressing room entrance after leveling the series. Sangakkara was hugged by every India player, then the umpires, other officials on the ground, the team’s official fans and even some groundstaff who felt emboldened; for a man, who always knew how to keep himself together in victory or defeat, Sangakkara didn’t hold back from letting everyone who wanted a piece of him get close.The farewell ceremony took a while to get organised but the crowd waited patiently, not merely in the most posh stands, where Tamil Union members and officials occupied seats covered by spotless white cloth, but in the public stands, on the grass bank near the old ivy-covered scoreboard.There were ten dignitaries including his President and Prime Minister waiting to present him with “special mementoes” and Sri Lanka’s head of state Maithripala Sirisena produced the most presidential of them all – an open invitation to Sangakkara to take over as the Sri Lankan ambassador to the United Kingdom.The crowd heard the other shorter speeches, clapping approvingly at the many good words and gestures but they wanted to hear the man speak himself. Sangakkara’s was a short eight-minute address, his voice wobbling only when he thanked his parents. He got the formal opening to his speech absolutely right – “Your excellency, the President of Sri Lanka, the honourable Prime Minister, Members of Parliament, all the well wishers and the invitees, fans, all my friends, my family – who are all here, which is a rare occasion that all of us are together – Virat Kohli and the Indian team, Angelo and my team, I have got so many people to thank here.” Working his way through that long list, he forgot, he was to tell reporters later, to mention his wife and children by name. He smiled, “I’m quite a chaotic person. I’m only organised in my batting.”When Sangakkara’s speech was over, the cheers and applause from the T. Murugaser and Tryphon Mirando stands from where the President and the Prime minister had watched the game, were loud, rousing. He moved into the knot of the Sri Lanka players; like fast bowler Dhammika Prasad had strenuously promised on Sunday afternoon and had done with both Muttiah Muralitharan and Mahela Jayawardene, he was going to take charge of Sangakkara being carried by his teammates around the ground.Prasad and young quick Vishwa Fernando hoisted him onto their shoulders and the gathering moved away from the members stands into where the general public waited. In what are only referred to as the “tennis court” stands only because they adjoin the club’s tennis courts, where men squeeze through gaps in the wall to dodge the gatemen, boys clamber onto any scaffolding to get a better view and from where the papare band plays.When they saw Sangakkara come towards them lifted above the heads of everyone around him, the noise from the tennis court stands became a sonic embrace, an aural welcome. Louder than any other crowd in the ground had managed, coming from somewhere inside their core, their gut, gathered up in one voice up from the soles of their feet almost.For Sangakkara had spoken to them in his speech, like he was talking personally to every man and woman there or watching on television all across his country. Six-odd minutes into his speech, he said, “thank you to the Sri Lankan fans, it has been an immense pleasure and privilege to represent all of you.”From his perfectly grooved English, Sangakkara switched to Sinhala. These were his words to his people: “It’s been one of the most special privileges of my life to play in front of the Sri Lankan people and Sri Lankan fans. I’m especially thankful to your love and support.” He went on to tell them that “my innings has ended. I won’t play international cricket again.” He then made a promise. “But I’ll come with you to Khettarama, to Galle, to Tamil Union, and to SSC to watch the young Sri Lanka players.”Kumar Sangakkara didn’t hold back from letting everyone who wanted a piece of him get close.•AFPIt was why when he went past them in his lap of honour, their goodbye carried an echo into the future.There emerged from Sangakkara’s speech and later, through his 20 minutes of media interaction, the cricketer and the competitor. He said to the Indians “thank you for the toughness, for giving no quarter” referring to both to this series and his many previous contests with his country’s closest neighbours – large, loud but still kindred on a cricket field.When someone questioned how he went from being a “just a good” Trinity College cricketer to an international “legend” he smiled widely and said, “For me it was a case of working, changing, working, changing and trying to find a formula. More often than not, I was fortunate that what I tried worked. I wish there was a secret like I knew exactly what’s working. At time you just don’t know what is working and you keep doing it. You don’t count the teeth of a gift horse when it’s running. You change it only when you hit a stumbling block and try something new.”What he had learnt about himself from the game, Sangakkara said, was to rediscover and tap into its fundamental joy. “You need to play it with an almost childish wonder, where you just play and you enjoy. If it doesn’t work, you give up with disappointment, come back and try and enjoy the game. If you have that attitude and that kind of perception of the game, and I think that’s kind of changed in me. I have been able to let it go and come back with a bit of balance. I don’t know how that happened.” But it had happened and the latter half of his 15-year career turned out hugely successful and prolific – for himself and his team.Sangakkara appeared weary when he turned up for a short media interaction, but retained both generosity and humour. Whether he was asked what he liked to cook or whether the offer by the President was intended to be a step from cricket to diplomacy to politics.Or some comparison to Bradman. Or the future of the game. And Sri Lanka cricket. Outside there were people waiting, reporters and cameramen were asking him to sign their accreditation cards, match tickets, notebooks. It took a while before the questions could actually begin and it took a while for him to leave the room after it ended.Amid this tumult, a young schoolboy, reed thin, wearing a green t-shirt and white trousers streaked with mud and grass stains. “From practice.” Cricket nets at the famous Royal College. Where Cheran was an allrounder, not a wicketkeeping allrounder though. He’d come to put his hands together and doff his hat at Sanga. Who’s side was he on in Sri Lankan cricket’s subterranean Big Match? Cheran leans forward and says, in a low voice, “Mahela.”You think both men would guffaw and the sniping between Maheliacs and the Sangaphiles would continue forever more. Sangakkara’s words to his team rose above the argument: he spoke to captain Angelo Matthews, or as he is endearingly called, “Angie”, and told him that he had an “amazing team, you’ve got an amazing future” and asked them to enjoy the sport.”This sport we only play for a short time, it comes and goes … take pride in what you do, don’t be afraid to lose when you are searching for a win, and keep Sri Lanka and the flag flying high.”Sangakkara left the ground after almost everyone he knew very closely had. After his teammates, who got into their team bus and headed back to their hotel.After his entire clutch of friends who had filled into a “Sangakkara Box” on a Monday morning. After his parents and his siblings and his wife. He got into his car with his six-year-old twins, a son and a daughter, in the back seat and did what dads do, sweeping out of a cricket ground to take them home.The P Sara Oval had been emptied of its dignitaries, cricketers, celebrities, people and their colour, noise and feeling and then it rained a little. Not a torrential, tropical downpour, but a brief, slight late afternoon drizzle, with a dipping sun slanting in from over a shoulder of the stands. Kumar Sangakkara had played his last match for Sri Lanka; even the elements allowed themselves a bit of emotion.

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.

Historically, the Mohali pitch has had a reputation for good true bounce but the focus, ahead of the first Test between India and South Africa, is on the seemingly dry appearance of the track

Sidharth Monga in Mohali 02-Nov-20152:06

Manjrekar: SA batsmen will be tested on turning pitches

– Faf du Plessis on the Mohali pitch
– MP Pandove, secretary of Punjab Cricket AssociationThe intrigue surrounding a pitch just before the start of a Test series is one of the things to behold in our storied sport. Perhaps in no other ball game does the surface where the ball bounces vary as much as it does in cricket. In tennis, for example, you go from grass to clay to hard courts, but the Paris clay behaves somewhat similarly every year. You can look and tell. Cricket pitches can have minds of their own despite best efforts.Everybody who is allowed near the pitch looks at it eagerly. On Monday afternoon, around 3pm, three Indian players and India’s three assistant coaches came to the PCA Stadium in Mohali for an optional training session. Daljit Singh, the chief groundsman, got a call immediately that they had arrived. So he took an assistant with him and walked towards the pitch. The first thing Virat Kohli and the coaches – Sanjay Bangar, B Arun and R Sridhar – did was walk to Daljit and the pitch. Oh the suspense around the pitch.Like a good Punjabi boy, the first thing Kohli did upon reaching the square was touch Daljit’s feet. Daljit patted the youngster’s back. Intense discussion around the pitch followed for about 10 minutes in which Kohli spoke little. Arun, the bowling coach, seemed to do most of the talking. Bangar shadow-practised at the top of the pitch, and looked intently at a good-length area. Before the Indians arrived, Daljit had asked his groundsmen to make brushes by intertwining a coir rope. Four of the groundsmen then began to scrub the surface with those brushes. To bring some sheen without shaving off the grass, a groundsman said.Most of the curators guard their pitch zealously. Daljit did too. On Monday you could have a conversation with him about any old thing but the pitch for this Test match. The pitches are so in focus because towards the end of his Test captaincy, MS Dhoni finally managed to convince Indian groundsmen to prepare pitches that began turning from day one. More intrigue is added by the controversy around the pitch in the last match that India played. Sudhir Naik, the head groundsman at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, complained to his state association that he and an assistant were abused by India team director Ravi Shastri and Arun, because they didn’t like the surface on which South Africa batsman amassed 438 in 50 overs. Dhoni’s parting shot after the ODIs was a call for surfaces similar to the ones on which India beat Australia 4-0 in 2012-13.

The pitches are so in focus because towards the end of his Test captaincy, MS Dhoni finally managed to convince Indian groundsmen to prepare pitches that began turning from day one

There is every reason for South Africa to not trust the surface even though it looks green. The grass will obviously be taken off closer to the Test. Du Plessis says the pitch is unnaturally dry for a surface three days before the start of a Test. He says it would be a concern for them if they were not expecting it. He has followed with some amusement the whole saga of the Mumbai pitch.”I don’t think they would be complaining about the wickets if they were winning,” du Plessis said. “I think it’s a reason to perhaps shift their attention from losing. For me one-day cricket is about runs. You don’t pitch up to a game expecting 180 plays 190. One-day cricket is about entertaining the crowd. That last ODI game in Mumbai was great for the fans.”I do think they are perhaps putting a little bit of pressure on the groundsmen to give them the wickets that they want because they know the slower the wickets the more they are in the game. But we are expecting that – and we did expect it in the one-dayers – and if on the day it changes then you have to just adapt your game plan to it. The way the wicket is looking at the moment perhaps that [India’s complaining] has worked.”Historically Mohali has had a reputation for good true bounce, but this is now a 23-year-old square when it is advisable to relay squares about every 12 years. Spinners have won India Tests recently. The quicks have become effective mostly with the reversing ball. Yet it has never offered alarming turn to the spinners.From a distance the pitch doesn’t look alarming: an even covering of yellowish grass. How much of it will be retained depends on the weather over the next couple of days and perhaps more such discussions between Daljit and the Indian think-tank. From a distance, though, you can’t tell how dry or hard it is. It must be said, though, that it is no longer hot in north India, which means it won’t lose too much moisture in the coming days.Three days to go, either South Africa are being alarmist or the PCA doesn’t want to make a song and dance about a turning pitch tailormade for the hosts. This is not the end of conversations around the surface.

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.”

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jan-2016Masakadza struck a pleasant 79, leading Zimbabwe to a promising position•AFPBangladesh, however, pulled things back with five wickets in the last five overs, restricting Zimbabwe to 163 for 7•AFPTamim Iqbal got a start before falling for 29, and Zimbabwe struck with quick wickets•AFPSabbir Rahman took charge of the chase, striking a 36-ball 46 to lead the side’s recovery•AFPSabbir found support from Mushfiqur Rahim, and the pair added a quick 44 to help the side keep pace with the equation•AFPZimbabwe fought with quick wickets but Bangladesh, led by Shakib Al Hasan, calmly completed a four-wicket win•AFP

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

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

Stats highlights from the Irani Cup, where Rest of India chased down 480 to clinch the title

Bharath Seervi10-Mar-20162 Number of higher successful chases in first-class matches in India, than the 480 chased by Rest of India in this Irani Cup. The top two successful chases in India are: 536 by West Zone against South Zone in Hyderabad in the final of Duleep Trophy 2009-10 and 501 by South Zone against England A in Gurgaon in 2003-04. The previous highest chase in Irani Cup was 421, also by Rest of India, against Delhi at Feroz Shah Kotla in 1982-83. This is overall the tenth-highest successful chase in first-class cricket history. The total of 482 is the fifth-highest fourth-innings total in first-class cricket in India.603 Mumbai’s total in this match, which is the highest first-innings total in a losing cause in first-class matches in India and the fifth-highest in overall first-class cricket. The highest losing total in Indian first-class cricket, irrespective of the match innings, is 604 in the fourth innings by Maharashtra against Bombay in the 1948-49 Ranji Trophy final, which is also the highest fourth-innings total in India.421 The difference between Mumbai’s first and second innings totals, which is the highest for a team in the Irani Cup and the ninth-highest in first-class matches in India. They scored 603 in first innings but were dismissed for 182 in the second innings. The highest difference in first-class matches in India is 521 by Punjab against Mumbai at Wankhede in 2012-13 – 580 in first innings and 59 in the second.297 The first-innings deficit for Rest of India after which they went on to win the match – highest in first-class matches in India. The previous highest was in the Eden Gardens Test of 2000-01 where India won after having faced a deficit of 274 in the first innings.0 Number of times in Irani Cup history the first six batsmen of a team had scored 50 or more previously. Mumbai’s first six batsmen all scored 50 or more in their first innings in this match.2 Number of higher totals than Mumbai’s 603 in the Irani Cup by the Ranji Trophy-winning team. Delhi had made 628 for 8 in 1980-81, and Karnataka 606 in 2013-14.9 Number of times in the last 11 Irani Cups that the Rest of India team won the title. The two times the Ranji Trophy-winning side won the Irani Cup was Karnataka in the last two seasons. Click here for the results of the Irani Cup.8 Consecutive Irani Cups lost by Mumbai. The last time they won was in 1997-98. They have lost in all their eight appearances since then.1 Number of scores in the nineties for Karun Nair in his first 50 first-class innings before this match. He was out in the nineties in both innings in this match: 94 in the first innings and 92 in the second. Incidentally, his first score in 90s was also in the Irani Cup, 94 for Karnataka in 2013-14.5 Consecutive scores of 50 or more in first-class innings for Shreyas Iyer. He scored 81, 90, 58 and 117 in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the Ranji Trophy before making 55 in the first innings in this match. He has ended the 2015-16 Indian domestic season with 1414 runs in 21 first-class innings at an average of 67.33 and strike rate of 92.23. He hit four centuries and eight half-centuries.0 Ducks for Shreyas Iyer in first-class career, before he was for duck in Mumbai’s second innings in this match. He had played 42 innings before his first duck. This was only his third single-digit score in his last 37 first-class innings; he was out three times for less than 10 in his first six innings.