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David Munden, photographer and former county batsman, has died at the age of 60 after a battle with Parkinson’s Disease

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2018David Munden, the renowned cricket photographer and former county batsman, has died at the age of 60 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease.Munden, who was a fixture on England cricket tours in the 1980s and 1990s, had been on Leicestershire’s books from 1975 until 1981 when, as captain of their second XI, he signed off with a century in his final appearance against Worcestershire at Grace Road.He was a contemporary of David Gower’s at the club, with whom he also represented England Under 19s on their tour of the Caribbean in 1976.”His passion for cricket was evident in the way he took to photographing the game once he realised he would not go on to enjoy a senior county career,” said Mark Baldwin, the chairman of the Cricket Writers’ Club.”He was a highly popular and much-respected colleague in and around press boxes at home and abroad. Cruelly, David’s illness eventually forced him to retire from his photographic work and he fought against the debilitations of Parkinson’s for many years.”In 2015, Leicestershire held a fundraising testimonial for Munden at Grace Road, where his father Victor and uncles Donald and Paul had also represented the club.The news of Munden’s death comes in the wake of the loss of Dave Callaghan, the BBC Yorkshire broadcaster, and Neil Bell, the BBC South East sports reporter.”In different ways and across different mediums the three of them contributed much to the promotion and presentation of cricket to a wide audience,” added Baldwin, “and they will be remembered with huge affection. What they shared, meanwhile, was a deep love of cricket and respect for the game.”

Chris Woakes wasn’t the England allrounder who gained the most attention in the IPL auction, but he proved his value to England once again with a match-winning contribution in St Kitts

George Dobell in St Kitts27-Feb-2017
ScorecardJahmar Hamilton and Rahkeem Cornwall added 123 for the sixth wicket•Getty Images

Chris Woakes wasn’t the England allrounder who gained the most attention in the IPL auction, but he proved his value to England once again with a match-winning contribution in St Kitts.England, set 234 to win, were reeling at 177 for 7 in the 40th over before Woakes calmed the situation with a run-a-ball innings of 47 not out. It was the third highest List A score of his career and saw England to a two-wicket victory with seven deliveries remaining. He had proved the pick of England’s bowlers, too, claiming 2 for 37 from nine well-controlled overs.England were grateful for his contribution. With only Jake Ball, who had earlier been forced off the field with a knee injury, left to bat (England later confirmed that he would have batted if required), they were facing an embarrassing reverse against a modest-looking WICB President’s XI side hit by withdrawals with 55 required from the final 10 overs.But Woakes added 35 for the eighth-wicket with Adil Rashid and then an unbroken 22 for the ninth with Liam Plunkett to help England squeak home. Despite taking just one run from the 48th over of the innings – 10 were required from the start of it – bowled by Kyle Myers, he laced Ronsford Beaton for four from the next over to all but end the contest. He had earlier driven Myers for a straight six and produced a couple of sweetly-timed drives through the covers.But this was an unconvincing performance with the bat from England. With Sam Billings, caught off the shoulder of the bat by one that reared at him, again failing to take his opportunity at the top of the order, England were heavily reliant upon an innings of 86 from Jonny Bairstow to get them anywhere near their apparently modest target.Bairstow, thrust into the unusual position of opener, responded with his highest List A score since August 2014 and looked in fine touch. But when he fell, failing to time an attempted paddle and spooning a simple catch to leg slip, it exposed the lack of contributions from the rest of the top order.While Joe Root added 117 with Bairstow, Jos Buttler cut to point, Eoin Morgan missed a reverse-sweep and Ben Stokes was punished for being stuck in the crease when he was bowled for a second-ball duck. When Moeen Ali was beaten by some turn, it seemed England’s familiar nemesis – spin bowling – might be their undoing once more. But while Woakes may not be England’s most glamorous cricketer, he showed again what a reliable allrounder he has become with a match-winning contribution that revived memories of England’s tie against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge in 2016.To be fair to England, conditions appeared to become more difficult for batting as the day progressed. On the same pitch used for Saturday’s game, the ball both spun and appeared to stick in the pitch for the seamers as the match wore on. Chasing the sort of score that Jonathan Trott might have made look simple, they instead exposed a slight lack of sophistication by continuing to attempt to blast their way to success in conditions where accumulation was required. The pitches for the ODI series are expected to be similar.”It was the sort of pitch that got tougher and tougher,” Paul Farbrace, England’s coach, said. “Cricket out here tends to be four quarters: the first 25 overs is a lot easier to bat than the last 25 overs. I don’t want to make excuses, but it got tougher and the ball stopped.”But even so we made it a lot harder for ourselves than we needed to. If one bloke gets 130 not out you win the game comfortably.”Earlier the President’s XI were grateful for a stand of 123 for the sixth-wicket between Jahmar Hamilton and Rahkeem Cornwall. Coming together with their side on 55 for 5, they counter-attacked attractively, with Rashid hit for a series of vast sixes.Cornwall, in particular, is a fascinating cricketer. Standing at six feet, seven inches and carrying a significant amount of surplus weight – he looks as if he thinks of strength and conditioning coaches as a small snack between meals – he still manages to be a good striker of a ball and a more than decent offspinner. Despite his obvious mobility issues – he dropped Bairstow at slip on 46; perhaps a match-defining moment – he has bowled more overs than anyone in the regional four-day competition (and only two men have more wickets) and is a genuine contender for an international place.Those two apart, the President’s XI batsmen struggled against an impressive display from England’s bowlers. Plunkett, learning from the first game, delivered a series of cross-seam deliveries that stuck in the surface and claimed two wickets with catches at leg gully, while Stokes also claimed three wickets as reward for much improved control.When Root and Bairstow were ticking over in their century stand for England’s second wicket, it seemed victory would be straightforward. And had offspinner Andre McCarthy not been bizarrely withdrawn from the attack having just claimed two wickets in three balls, the President’s XI might have exploited England’s familiar weakness against spin. But Woakes held firm and ensures England head to Antigua on Tuesday with victories from both warm-up games.It remains to be seen who lines up in that team. Ball is one obvious injury doubt – Chris Jordan and Sam Curran appear to be the leading candidates to replace him – while it also seems that Alex Hales, who joins up with the squad on Tuesday, will not be considered for the first game or two. That means that Billings is likely to remain as opener and Bairstow may rue is failure to make his excellent start here count. Jason Roy, rested here due to a bruised hand, is deemed fit to play.

Brian Lara has expressed his disappointment at Shivnarine Chanderpaul not getting a ‘proper send-off’

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-20162:29

Bishop: I’m thankful I played with him

Former West Indies captain Brian Lara has expressed his disappointment at his long time team-mate Shivnarine Chanderpaul not getting a ‘proper send-off’ in international cricket. Lara called Chanderpaul, who announced his retirement on Saturday, one of the giants of West Indies cricket.”I was very disappointed that Shiv was not allowed a couple of more Test matches, not necessarily to break the record but to have a proper send-off. Something I think he is very disappointed [about] and unfortunately that did not happen,” Lara said.”That guy with the most Test matches for the West Indies, playing for over 20 years, I don’t think people in the West Indies understand exactly his contribution.”Chanderpaul is West Indies’ second-highest scorer with 11,867 runs in 164 Tests, 86 behind Lara who scored 11,953 in 131 Tests. At 41, Chanderpaul had not played for West Indies since May 2015; the selectors dropped him after a poor home series against England.”Shiv, who played since 1994, had a tremendous career. I started with Shiv in Guyana and remember his first Test match against England,” Lara said. “He has been a great servant for West Indies cricket and he has done some tremendous things throughout his career, and credit must be given to the man for how he has played.”When I do have the opportunity to give him a call and thank him, I will because for me he was one of the giants of West Indies cricket.”

The ICC has defended the performance of the umpires and the DRS after criticism following the Trent Bridge Test between England and Australia

George Dobell16-Jul-2013The ICC has defended the performance of the umpires and the DRS after criticism following the Trent Bridge Test between England and Australia, whilst also admitting to errors in cases involving Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad.The ICC has taken the unusual step of revealing its assessment of the umpires and the DRS analysis from the Test, arguing that the figures vindicate both. Some mitigation was provided for the errors that did occur, the ICC suggesting the “added intensity” of a first Ashes Test had increased pressure on the officials.According to the ICC, the umpires made a total of 72 decisions, which is well above the average (49) for a DRS Test match. The umpiring team, made up of Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus, was assessed to have made seven errors during the match, out of which three were uncorrected decisions and four decisions corrected using the DRS.As such, the correct decision percentage before reviews stood at 90.3% but climbed to 95.8% as a result of the use of the DRS. This represented an increase of 5.5% in correct decisions, which was the average increase from DRS Test matches in 2012-13.The three decisions that were marked as uncorrected errors included one against Trott when a correct lbw decision (not out against the bowling of Mitchell Starc) was overturned. The others involved Broad, both the edge that carried to slip via Brad Haddin’s gloves and a leg-before shout where he did not offer a stroke, but neither but these could be corrected as Australia had no reviews available.”When coupled with the conditions, with reverse swing and spin playing an important role, and the added intensity of the first Ashes Test, it was a difficult match to umpire,” read the ICC statement.The ICC’s chief executive, David Richardson, added: “The umpires did a good job under difficult conditions. This reflects the calibre of umpires Dar, Dharmasena and Erasmus who have consistently performed at a high level. Like the players, umpires can also have good and bad days but we all know that the umpire’s decision, right or wrong, is final and must be accepted.”While the ICC has complete faith in the ability of its umpires, our confidence in technology is also strengthened by the fact that there was an increase in the number of correct decisions in the Trent Bridge Test through the use of the DRS.”Technology was introduced with the objective of eradicating the obvious umpiring errors, and to get as many correct decisions as possible. If it can help increase the correct decisions by 5.5 percent, then it is a good outcome, but we must continue to strive to improve umpiring and the performance of the DRS.”

Stuart Williams, the assistant coach of West Indies’ A side, has said that the series against India A will be a good platform for Lendl Simmons to prove his fitness and return to the West Indies national team

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jun-2012Stuart Williams, the assistant coach of West Indies’ A side, has said that the series against India A, that begins on Saturday in Barbados, will be a good platform for Lendl Simmons to prove his fitness and return to the West Indies national team.Simmons, who scored 1100 runs from 36 ODIs at 34.37, hasn’t played top-flight cricket since he injured his left knee during the WICB Regional Four-Day Tournament in February this year. “Simmons will want to use this series to prove his fitness and readiness to return,” Williams said. “He was excellent for West Indies in limited-overs cricket last year and he will want to get back in the groove and re-start his international career.Williams said that the series also gave legspinner Devendra Bishoo and batsman Kraigg Brathwaite, who played in the Test series against Australia in April, a chance to find form. “The ‘A’ team serves several purposes, and sometimes players lose form, and this series will be a chance for players like Bishoo and Brathwaite to regain their form and look to get back into the senior side,” Williams said. “They are both young, talented players and they have a lot to offer West Indies cricket.”Speaking after a training session on Thursday, Williams said that the ‘cohesion and camaraderie’ between his player would help them challenge the visitors. “They have brought a team with some experienced players (at the international level) so this series will be a good test for us,” Williams said. “It is always good to compete against good, strong opposition and push yourself to the limit. Our players recognise that this will be a ‘big’ series for them as they look to show continued development and progress.”Both India and West Indies have a mix of youth and experience in their side on the tour. Bishoo, Brathwaite and Simmons are among the capped West Indies players in the squad, while India have Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma and Ashok Dinda in their mix.Williams said that he was confident his side would put on a good show, as a number of players have competed at this level before. “We have a great bunch of players and it is clear we have a very good team spirit,” he said. “We have formed a good unit and everyone is familiar with each other. The team has quite a few players who were part of the Sagicor High Performance Centre, as well as others who have played together for the West Indies A team before.” The series will feature three four-day matches, two Twenty20s and three 50-over matches.Edited by Carlyle Laurie

Terry Jenner’s former team-mates have remembered him as “a lovable rogue” who transformed from a good spin bowler into an outstanding coach

Brydon Coverdale25-May-2011Terry Jenner’s former team-mates have described him as “a lovable rogue” who transformed from a good spin bowler into an outstanding coach. To a generation of cricket fans, Jenner, who has died in Adelaide at the age of 66, was known as the mentor who helped Shane Warne develop from a promising young cricketer into the world’s greatest spin bowler.It was quite a leap for a man who took 389 first-class wickets but managed only nine Test matches. An attacking bowler in his younger years, Jenner later relied too often on the safer delivery out of the front of his hand than the loopy legbreak, but he found a way to instil confidence in Warne, who would turn to Jenner whenever he needed advice.”I think one of the reasons he was able to relate to spin bowlers was that he’d been through the mill,” said Greg Chappell, who played with Jenner at South Australia and captained him in the Test side. “He’d found it pretty tough himself as a spin bowler. It’s not an easy art. I think there were probably times that TJ didn’t have the confidence in himself that perhaps he was able to imbue in others as a coach.”I think TJ could relate to Warnie’s personality and perhaps the fact that he wasn’t one that handled authority very well, because TJ never did. TJ found spin bowling pretty tough and had obviously thought a lot about it and what was important about it … was to have the confidence to back yourself and trust what you had. There were probably times in TJ’s career where he didn’t do that, and having learnt from that experience I think helped him greatly when he was talking to others, but particularly someone like Shane Warne.”Jenner battled to hold down a spot in the Test team in the early 1970s, when Ashley Mallett, Kerry O’Keeffe and later Jim Higgs were all competing for the spin position. Jenner and Mallett had been close friends since they were 14, having played together in Perth when a teenage Jenner was trying to make his way as a wicketkeeper.They moved to Adelaide at the same time – Mallett to seek coaching advice from the great Clarrie Grimmett, and Jenner to pursue a relationship – and ended up bowling together for South Australia for many years. Mallett praised Jenner as a great communicator and thinker on the game, and said the pair worked well as a team, while maintaining a healthy rivalry at the same time.”I played a lot for South Australia with him, bowling in tandem, and we never had to discuss strategy or who we should be bowling to, it just happened instinctively,” Mallett told ESPNcricinfo. “We were very competitive in the nets. If you talk to the Chappell brothers, you’d know that it was on in the nets. We always figured that if we could bowl well to the Chappells, then the next day’s Test or Shield game would be easy.”There was always a beer hanging off a wicket. He’d always claim a wicket. If Ian would drive TJ half an inch off the ground, that was caught at cover! We had a lot of fun but it was extremely competitive in the nets. TJ and I were competitive, we were always trying to outdo each other. We’d always done that as kids.”Mallett and Jenner played together twice in Test matches, both times in 1975. The second of those games, against West Indies at the Gabba, was Jenner’s last Test match, and Chappell’s first as Australia’s captain. Chappell said one of his most vivid memories of playing with Jenner was when he was felled by a bouncer in the final Test of the 1970-71 Ashes series.”I was at the non-striker’s end when he got hit in the head by John Snow at the SCG. I always thought there was a single in it, but TJ never responded,” Chappell joked. “It’s fair to say that TJ was a lovable rogue. There was always a bit of fun just around the corner wherever TJ was.”Max Walker, who toured the West Indies with Jenner in 1973, said he would be remembered not only as a fine coach, but as an uplifting presence around the squad in his playing days.”He was always full of mischief,” Walker said. “To try and read his eyes it was a bit like, what’s coming next? Is it the zooter, the toppie, the wrong’un, the slow one or the wide one? As such, he was always an energiser in the team. Quite often he carried the drinks, but he was always very much one of the lads.”

Andrew Strauss admitted he was “annoyed” that England had let slip the chance of a 5-0 whitewash

Andrew Miller at The Oval01-Jul-2010Andrew Strauss admitted he was “annoyed” that England had let slip the chance of a 5-0 whitewash against Australia, but played down suggestions that he had erred tactically in once again choosing to bowl first after winning the toss. After allowing Australia first use of a fast and true wicket, England were set an imposing target of 291, their highest run-chase of the series so far, but were bundled out by Ryan Harris for 212 in 42.4 overs.”We didn’t get enough things right today,” said Strauss. “We got off to a pretty good start with the ball, but [Michael] Clarke and [Ricky] Ponting played really well in the middle period, where we had done best in the first three games. We struggled to find ways of ‘dotting them up’, which was a little bit frustrating. We tried seven bowlers, but on a flat wicket it was easy to hit through the line of the ball.”Bowling first has been England’s modus operandi throughout the series to date, even though such a tactic flies in the face of conventional wisdom. With a varied attack that had helped to carry England to a run of eight ODI victories in a row – their best run of form since the 1992 World Cup – and batsmen of the calibre of Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen, England believe they have the personnel to keep any target within reach. But that notion received a bit of a reality check on a chastening day at The Oval.”It wasn’t as good a performance as the first three, and we’ve got what we’ve deserved,” said Strauss. “The idea of chasing down anything Australia set us has worked pretty well in the first three games – and we didn’t see any particular reason to change that today. When you lose in that fashion, you always think ‘Well, maybe we should have batted first’. But I’m pretty comfortable with that decision. I just don’t think we did enough things well today.”England have improved markedly as a one-day unit in recent months, but as Ponting made clear with his memorable “bragging rights” comment at Cardiff, they have an awfully long way to go to match the achievements and consistency of Australia’s one-day side – who, after all, haven’t lost a single World Cup match in the whole of the 21st Century. Another victory at Lord’s on Saturday would transform that 5-0 ambition into a far less imposing 3-2 result. It remains to be seen whether Strauss sticks to his guns by fielding first in that game.”You’ve got to play to your strengths, it’s as simple as that,” was Ponting’s take on the tactics. “If they think it’s in their interests to keep chasing they’ll keep doing it. They obviously like bowling first and trying to chase the runs down, although it’s not my preferred way of playing. If it’s dry when you start, it always gets that little bit tougher and it makes chasing hard.”But I wasn’t as surprised they bowled first as I was at Manchester,” Ponting added. “That was a wicket I thought looked particularly dry and hard to chase on, and as the game went on it certainly was that. But they seem to be very structured in everything they are doing at the moment, the way they are playing their cricket. We’ll see what they do at Lord’s.”For Strauss, the disappointment of the result was tempered by the small successes that came out of the game, such as Michael Yardy’s maiden ODI fifty – a tenacious but even-tempoed 57 from 63 balls that prevented England’s challenge from disintegrating until the final ten overs.”He played really well, and has played a lot of innings like that for Sussex – knocking the ball around, accumulating pretty quickly, and clearly we needed him to do that today,” said Strauss. “He stepped up to the plate – and on the back of his bowling in the first three games, it was good to see him scoring some runs. If you haven’t scored a one-day international fifty before, the first one is very important – regardless of the situation of the game.”The whitewash wasn’t a secret hope. We were very hopeful we could do it,” he said. “What we were trying to focus on was getting it to 4-0, trying not to look too far ahead. But Australia did what you expect them to do; they came back hard at us today and put in the better performances. They had three excellent performances in the game, and that’s why they won.”

Unbeaten half-century lacks support as Sunrisers fall short in 18-over chase

ECB Reporters Network15-Jun-2024 South East Stars 153 for 4 (Redmayne 38*, E Jones 36) beat Sunrisers 111 for 5 (Scrivens 62*) by 19 runs – DLSGrace Scrivens’ stylish half-century proved in vain as Sunrisers slipped to a 19-run defeat under the DLS method to finals day-bound SE Stars in a game reduced to 18 overs aside at The Oval.The England A captain in New Zealand last winter struck 62 not out off 48 balls with a six and eight fours, but with only Jo Gardner (23 from 16) offering meaningful support, the visitors were 111 for 5 and behind the clock in the chase for 154 when the rain drove the players off with 13 balls remaining. Dani Gregory took 2 for 21 while Tilly Corteen-Coleman (1 for 14) kept up her remarkable record of taking a wicket with her first ball.Earlier, Stars’ impressive score of 153 for 4 was built around Australian debutant Georgia Redmayne’s patient 38, the fireworks being provided by Emma Jones (36 from 23), Phoebe Franklin (23 from 21) and Bryony Smith (21 from 11). Mady Villiers was the pick of the Sunrisers attack with 2 for 23.Morning and afternoon rain delayed the start until 3:50pm, but Smith made up for lost time after losing the toss and being put into bat, plundering four boundaries from one Eva Gray over, the pick a back-foot drive creamed through extra-cover.Smith fell in the next over bowled by Villiers, the spinner luring her down the track to be stumped by Amara Carr, who then caught England opener Sophia Dunkley, holding onto a skied top edge.Franklin though picked up the baton, a delightful square cut and a bludgeon over the head of mid-on among her four fours. Villiers cut the innings off in its prime when Franklin hoisted one into the hands of Gray at cow corner but that was the cue for Jones to unleash her power.The all-rounder hit two mighty sixes, the first at long-on where Jo Gardner got fingertips to it but could only parry the ball over the rope. No such doubt about the second blow however which sailed five rows back into the seats at deep square.Left-hander Redmayne was content to play second fiddle in a stand of 57 and when Jones departed to a catch on the fence, the Aussie gave the stage to Alice Davidson-Richards, who smote a six and a four in reaching 16 off 6.Chasing 154 for an unlikely win, Sunrisers were soon in tatters. They lost Villiers without a run on the board, Jones in the action with a catch on the fence from the bowling of Stonehouse.Lissy Macleod then top edged one from Ryana MacDonald-Gay into the hand of keeper Redmayne and when Corteen-Coleman produced her latest party trick to trap Carr lbw for a duck the visitors were 19 for 3.Skipper Scrivens, who’d watched the carnage from the other end, responded with the first six of the reply, before being given a life by Aylish Cranstone, who spilt a regulation chance at point from the bowling of Jones. By then though Gregory had struck twice in three balls to remove Amu Surenkuma and Flo Miller.Scrivens continued to hit boldly, reaching 50 in 41 balls and Gardner too cleared the ropes but the task was just beyond them.

Australia recovered from a difficult loss in Delhi to win in Indore and draw in Ahmedabad

Andrew McGlashan13-Mar-20232:22

Chappell: Australia didn’t learn a lot about their play in this series

The anguish of knowing their chances of regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Indian soil were potentially scuppered by one horrific session of batting will continue to linger for Australia, but they were able to finish the series with a ringing endorsement of their spin attack which was termed the best to visit the country in a decade.Australia knew coming to the ground in Ahmedabad for the final day of the series that their best hope was to survive and keep the margin at 2-1, something they achieved with ease through Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne on a surface that though it started to turn had not done it nearly early enough.The second half of the series was in stark contrast to the first where Australia’s limp batting in three out of the four innings cost them, most dramatically when they lost 8 for 28 on the third morning in Delhi having been well placed on a tricky pitch.”We really hurt after that game in Delhi,” Steven Smith said. “Guys were pretty upset with the way we went away from our methods in that game, it was disappointing, but obviously at that point we knew there was plenty to still play for in the series and guys responded really well and as a group we are proud of the way we bounced back and played some good cricket in the last couple of Test matches. You take the hour of madness away and things could certainly have been different.”Related

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However, even in the opening defeats, the performances of Todd Murphy (seven wickets on debut in Nagpur) and Nathan Lyon (a five-wicket haul in Delhi) stood out and they then combined with left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann during just his second Test in Indore to secure a famous victory.India’s coach, Rahul Dravid, revealed that the quality of Australia’s spin attack had been noted by the home side with some of their batters who could recall rating it the best since they had faced Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar when they earned England a 2-1 series win in 2012-13.”A lot of times you see with overseas teams they have one good spinner but tend to leak runs at the other end and you can control the game from the other end,” Dravid told . “But credit to the two young spinners, they maintained that pressure, [and] they took wickets. A lot of the guys… were full of praise for the quality of spin they had to play which made the series win all that much more sweeter.”Some of the guys were saying since probably Panesar and Swann they’ve not played over the last decade a couple of spinners of this kind of quality or this quality of spells. They’ve played individual spinners who have been brilliant over the last 10 years, including someone like Nathan Lyon, but to have the quality of spin attack, probably since Panesar and Swann it’s been the best quality of spin we’ve played over the last 10 years in these conditions.”The collective average for Australia’s spinners of 26.28 places it second in that time period, behind the 2016-17 combination of Lyon and Steve O’Keefe who shared 38 wickets at 24.73. The England side of 2012-13, dominated by Swann and Panesar, claimed 39 wickets at 28.61.Smith, who took over the captaincy for the last two Tests when Pat Cummins returned home, praised the way Murphy and Kuhnemann, neither of whom were the first-choice spinners for their states in Australia before this tour, had dealt with the pressure.”Debuting in Test cricket in India, it can be quite daunting at times and the way they came in and performed was outstanding,” he said. “The way they have developed and learnt to bowl over here on the go has been outstanding. I thought Murphy in the last game and this Test match as well, how tight he kept it, bowling in a defensive way was outstanding.”Lyon took 22 wickets in the series to finish equal second with Ravindra Jadeja behind R Ashwin, the India duo being named joint players of the series. After the third day’s play, Lyon said he felt he had bowled better in Ahmedabad than in Indore, where he claimed 11 wickets in the match including eight in the second innings, and it was a view endorsed by Smith who even went a step further.”I’ve stood at slip to him for a very long time and the way the ball was coming out, the revs and drop and everything he had on the ball on a surface that wasn’t offering a great deal, I said to him at the end of play, that’s probably the best I’ve seen you bowl,” he said. “For someone who’s played 115-odd Tests to keep getting better, I thought was outstanding.”

The pair patched up a top-order collapse before Siraj and Prasidh dominated West Indies

Sidharth Monga11-Feb-20221:24

Chopra: Rohit’s tactics as a captain as good as Dhoni, if not better

India completed a clean sweep of the ODI series with yet another win from early strife of a top-order collapse. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer pulled India up from 42 for 3, Washington Sundar and Deepak Chahar provided late runs, and then the bowlers ran through West Indies to deny them a single score of 200 in the series.This was yet another satisfying win for the team management from a team-building point of view: apart from yet another middle-order comeback, they welcomed back Kuldeep Yadav, who bowled with zip and took two wickets in his first international since last July, when he was part of a second-string squad sent to Sri Lanka.All three pitches in the series have been challenging ones. The extra bounce and dual pace off this surface kept the tall West Indies bowlers in the game. Not only did India make a host of changes to their XI, they also chose to bat first to test themselves in possible dewy conditions in the evening.Once Alzarri Joseph and Kemar Roach found their lengths after the first two overs, they proved to be a difficult proposition for the batters. The wickets themselves were not off magic deliveries. Rohit Sharma played a loose drive to chop on, Virat Kohli tickled a ball down the leg side to get out for a duck in the same Joseph over, and Shikhar Dhawan top-edged a cut to slip. However, it was the dot balls in between because of the tackiness and extra bounce that created the pressure.On this pitch, back from his opening duties in the second ODI, Pant looked the most comfortable even as Iyer scratched around early on. Without playing a shot in anger – an upper-cut here, a targeting of left-arm spin there – Pant scored 56 at better than a-run-a-ball. Iyer found himself stuck on the other end, faced 84 balls in 20.3-over partnership and needed some early luck to survive.Pant, though, perished to the late-cut to a flatter trajectory from legspinner Hayden Walsh jnr, a shot that had brought him runs. This allowed West Indies a way back in as India kept trying to press on. Suryakumar Yadav ended up slicing an aerial cover drive, and Iyer found long-off just before the 40th over, which is when an extra fielder goes back. Iyer scored 55 off the last 51 balls he faced.Deepak Chahar made a strong comeback•BCCI

Washington and Chahar then provided another recovery with a 53-run seventh-wicket stand in just 8.3 overs. Chahar in particular looked threatening with four fours and two sixes in his run-a-ball 38, but Holder intervened with a slower bouncer to dismiss him. Kuldeep met the same fate. Washington, though, batted into the last over for 33 off 34. It was, again, Holder, who restricted the damage he might have caused in the end.Kuldeep was not the only bowler making a comeback. Deepak Chahar, who nearly won India the last ODI he played, has been kept out for more hit-the-deck bowlers. For this match, he replaced Shardul Thakur, the bowler who most closely resembles his style. Chahar, though, gets more swing than Thakur and relies on fuller lengths. They accounted for Brandon King and Shamarh Brooks in the same over, the fifth of the innings. Both of them failed to catch up with the away movement.Even before that, Mohammed Siraj had accounted for Shai Hope with the wobble-seam nipbacker for the second time this series, making it the first time since October 2018 that India had taken more than two powerplay wickets. Again it was not just the wicket-taking deliveries. They regularly hit the higher part of the bat with the extra bounce in the pitch.If these two were troubling the batters with extra bounce, Prasidh Krishna was going to be a handful. Darren Bravo and Holder will testify, getting the higher parts of their outside edges for catches to slips.It was a good time for Kuldeep to ease his way back in. He consistently made the ball drop shorter than the batters’ expectations, getting sharp turn and bounce. Fabian Allen was done in by a wrong’un, playing for the turn back in on the big drive, but getting a faint outside edge. Nicholas Pooran fell to the orthodox delivery, done in again by the dip, edging to first slip.Odean Smith presented a nice little challenge from 82 for 7, hitting Kuldeep for three sixes in his 18-ball 36. This is the kind of pressure you want to see Kuldeep under and see how he holds up. However, it was Siraj, who came back and ended the fun with his hard lengths, drawing a catch to cover an over after Smith was dropped at mid-off.Joseph and Walsh jnr frustrated India even as the dew set in, but they were never going to challenge the target. Siraj and Prasidh came back to end the proceedings with hostile short bowling.