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Tracing the story of the great English bowler’s time as a commander leading a battalion against the Germans in Sicily

James Holland09-Apr-2013The Plain of Catania in Sicily, and a pilgrimage of sorts. It is one of the most fertile parts of the island, largely flat and low-lying, bisected by rivers and dominated by the towering presence of Mount Etna. Hedley Verity would have seen Etna from the moment he landed at first light on Saturday, 10 July 1943, as part of the biggest seaborne invasion the world has ever known. There’s always a halo of cloud surrounding the summit; there would have been when Verity was here, and there is when I visit the place nearly 70 years on. Cloud, or is it smoke? I am not sure but it hangs there, a contrast to the deep and cloudless blue of the sky.Working out precisely where the 1st Battalion, the Green Howards made their attack on the night of 21 July, 11 days after landing, takes a while. I am armed with a copy of an original hand-drawn map, found in the battalion war diary, but one that is remarkably accurate. At any rate, I have managed to marry it up easily enough with an image from Google Maps: the tracks running down from the railway line, the curving dykes that were such a feature of this part of the plain, and even the buildings that had once been battalion headquarters.Getting there, however, is another matter. New roads run to the south and north of the site, there is now a large factory to the east of the map, roughly where D Company began their attack. It is difficult getting off the main road and down to the rough lane that leads under the railway embankment, but eventually we manage it, and suddenly we are driving down the very same track marked on the hand-drawn map back in July 1943.And there are the remains of an old barn or farmhouse, also shown on the map. The roof has gone and inside it is wild and overgrown, but we are now at the point where Captain Verity led his B Company into battle. The start line, to use the parlance of the day. We park up and walk along another rough track, also marked on the map, climb a dyke and look north. Up ahead was where Verity walked, behind the creeping barrage of artillery fire. It’s where the enemy were dug in: the railway embankment and the curving dyke, the Massa Carnazza, was where the Germans had their forward machine-guns, each set up with interlocking fire. These were expensive in ammunition, and not the most accurate weapons, but in any initial assault, there was nothing to beat the MG42 for weight of fire. These beasts could pump out 12 bullets per second, enough to slice a man in half.We walk on, over water meadows in which creamy cattle with bells around their necks peacefully munch grass. We are nearing the site where Verity and his B Company had been left in the open, the barrage suddenly lifted, but still with more than 200 yards to the curving dyke and the enemy positions.A high fence bars our way. Beyond, orange groves with large ripe fruit dangling from branches now stand where 70 years before had been cornfields. We retrace our steps, and eventually manage to approach the old battleground from the side. Some farm workers spot us and ask me what we are doing. A poor explanation in pidgin Italian ensues. They let us walk on, so that we are now behind the old German lines. But the place where Verity made his charge is hidden; those same orange groves, protected by more high fencing, now cover the spot. Later, I mention this to an Italian friend. “Ah,” he says, “Mafia estates.”What is striking is how completely the din and violence of war has gone from this quiet corner of the world. But for many of the same features remaining, it is hard to imagine that it ever happened at all. I feel wistful, standing there beneath the oranges, their sweet scent heavy on the air, thinking of one of the greatest of English bowlers lying out there, bleeding, gasping for breath, on this patch of Sicilian soil, knowing he would most probably die.The Second World War affected the lives of every man, woman and child who lived through it, and that included sportsmen. Hard though it may be to imagine Kevin Pietersen or Graeme Swann being packed off to war, that is exactly what happened to the vast majority of first-class cricketers between 1939 and 1945. In Britain, conscription had been reinstated in May 1939 for men between the ages of 20 and 21, and on the first day of the war, 3 September 1939, Parliament passed the National Service Act, under which all men between 18 and 41 were made liable for conscription into the Armed Forces. There were, of course, exceptions – those with skills or jobs that would benefit the war effort, such as farmers, physicists, even trade union officials and lighthouse-keepers. But not cricketers. They had to put away the whites and the bat and put on battle dress and pick up a rifle instead, and like every other Tom, Dick, and Harry, go off and fight for King and country.The County Championship was suspended, as were Test matches. For many, the war robbed them of what should have been the finest years of their playing careers. For others, it robbed them of their lives. Nine Test cricketers, five of them English, were killed during the Second World War.The 1939 season was almost over when war was declared – West Indies had already gone home and Yorkshire had won the Championship for the third time in a row, the sixth that decade, so it wasn’t so important that the remaining few matches were cancelled immediately.During the so-called “Phoney War” of the winter and spring, there was talk of holding a limited county season, but the Blitzkrieg that began in May 1940 put paid to that. In any case, quite apart from the logistical difficulties of holding a regular first-class season in a time of war, many of the country’s leading cricketers were already in uniform.A map of central and southern Italy: Catania and Misterbianco (in the Sicily insert) on the eastern coast•UIG via Getty ImagesOne of those was Hedley Verity. That Yorkshire had won the Championship so regularly was in no small part due to Verity, who took an astonishing 1956 first-class wickets in just ten seasons at an average of 14.87. Not only did he top the English averages five times – including in the 1939 season – he also took ten wickets in an innings twice – including 10 for 10 against Notts. His record also included nine wickets in an innings seven times, eight wickets in an innings 13 times, and an extraordinary 34 seven-fers. In 1934, he took 15 for 104 against Australia at Lord’s, including 14 wickets in a day – a record never to be bettered. Included among his victims was the great Sir Donald Bradman, dismissed for 36 and 13. It was England’s biggest victory over Australia at Lord’s, by an innings and 38 runs.Hedley Verity was, without question, one of great spin bowlers, arguably England’s best ever spinner. Who else compares? Laker perhaps? Swann is not in his league, for all his flair. But more than that, Verity was, by all accounts, a lovely fellow. His face strongly suggests this – there is determination there but a gentleness too. Quiet, unassuming and always generous towards others, Verity volunteered for the army out of conviction. He believed that Hitler and the Nazis were an evil that had to be stopped.He first considered joining in the autumn of 1938, during the Munich Crisis. Meeting with an old friend, Colonel Arnold Shaw, of the Green Howards, whom he had first met during the India tour of 1933-34, he asked his advice. Shaw suggested he read some military textbooks and told him to get in touch again should war break out. The Colonel sent him a number of books about military tactics during the South African tour of 1938-39, which he read avidly.When war was declared he got in touch with Colonel Shaw, who now commanded the 1st Battalion, Green Howards, and arranged for him to go to Officer Cadet Training Unit. It seems Verity quickly showed a natural aptitude for military tactics. The best spin bowlers have sharp intelligence and a tactical mind, and Verity brought these skills to soldiering. The 1st Green Howards remained in Britain until the autumn of 1941, by which time he had become a captain and a company commander.He was also still playing plenty of cricket, mostly for the Green Howards’ XI. In fact, there was still plenty of cricket being played all around the country, albeit not officially first-class, and especially so at Lord’s. The ground was looking rather sorry for itself by the second winter of the war, and had already suffered badly – a bomb had damaged the Nursery Ground and a number of incendiaries hit the grandstand and pavilion roofs. But despite this, and the fact that the ground was being used as an RAF recruitment depot, cricket continued. Sir Pelham Warner, former England captain of the Golden Age, manager on the Bodyline tour and knighted in 1937 for services to cricket, had become acting Secretary of the MCC for the duration of the war and devoted enormous energy to ensuring that cricket continued. It was considered essential for morale that sport was played and so a number of matches were laid on – MCC versus the Public Schools and also lots of inter-service matches, which included a host of well-known pre-war names. There was a British Empire XI and a London Counties XI, for example. As Warner pointed out: “If Goebbels had been able to broadcast that the war had stopped cricket at Lord’s, it would have been valuable propaganda for the Germans.”And there were, of course, the regimental sides as well. Most of these games – whether regimental or otherwise – were one-day affairs, a format that had been, until then, strictly the preserve of the village and league sides only – but they proved incredibly popular.Verity played his last game on British soil in Northern Ireland in September 1941. Soon after, the battalion was posted to Ranchi in India and then to Persia and Syria, before finally arriving in Egypt in March 1943. By this time, the war in North Africa was almost over. Alamein had been won, Rommel chased back into Tunisia and an Anglo-US force had landed in north-west Africa. Soon the Allies would be masters of the North African shores, and then they would turn to Sicily. It was the obvious next step and a move that was hoped would hasten Italy’s exit from the war.The 1st Green Howards were to be part of the Allied assault on Sicily, attached to 15th Brigade, 5th Infantry Division, in Eighth Army. While the Americans of Patton’s Seventh Army were given the western flank of southern Sicily, Eighth Army had the task of capturing the south-east, with its key airfields and ports.All seemed to go to plan initially, with the Italian defences swept aside. Resistance, however, stiffened as they encountered the better trained, equipped and motivated German forces who had set up a blocking position, known as the Hauptkampf Line, to isolate the north-east of the island.

Quiet, unassuming and always generous towards others, Verity volunteered for the army out of conviction. He believed that Hitler and the Nazis were an evil that had to be stopped

Suddenly, Eighth Army found itself up against the veteran 1st Fallschirmjäger Division, newly arrived in Sicily from the Eastern Front, and the Fallschirm Panzerkorps Hermann Göring, barely less formidable. The immediate British targets were the port and airfields of Catania, but what was worrying General Alexander, the Allied Commander-in-Chief, was that if the Allies were held up for too long, then more and more German troops could pour in as reinforcements across the Straits of Messina, the narrow channel of sea that linked Sicily to the mainland.The Plain of Catania is an easy place to defend and a difficult one over which to attack. Beyond lie the hills around Misterbianco, in which enemy guns could be easily concealed, while in the plain itself any attacker had to negotiate horrible amounts of water channels and ditches as well as the major River Simeto. All along were teams of machine guns and mortars. Yes, the Allies had big reserves of artillery and air power, but these could only support the attackers. Ultimately, it was the job of the men on the ground to get the task done.There is a misconception that those fighting through the Second World War got off lightly compared with those battling it out on the Western Front. In fact, for a front-line infantryman in the Second World War the chances of survival were as bad, as they had been a generation earlier, if not worse. And in many ways there was not a huge amount of difference in the method of attack. Enemy positions were usually softened up with air and artillery barrages, and then the infantry advanced out across the open.So it was that 5th Division were ordered to continue the push towards Misterbianco. On the night of 18/19 July 1943, 13th Brigade managed to gain a shallow bridgehead across the River Simeto, but the following night it was the turn of 15th Brigade – and the 1st Green Howards.There were two schools of thought about how to conduct night-time attacks. The first was to infiltrate as silently as possible in the first glimmer of dawn. The other was a night attack with artillery support – a heavy bombardment of enemy positions followed by a creeping barrage behind which the infantry would advance. The advantage of the latter was that it meant the enemy were cowering – or better, being blown to bits – while the infantry began moving forward. One major disadvantage, however, was that the enemy knew an attack was coming. Another was that invariably, the reality didn’t live up to the plan. Successfully following a creeping barrage was all about timing – and being able to stick to timings that had been carefully worked out on paper, in daylight. The trouble was that at night, walking over unfamiliar ground and with little means of communicating with the companies either side, and with the noise of battle all around, it could be very difficult to stick to those timings.B Company was to lead the Green Howards’ attack, and Verity was B Company Commander. In effect, he was leading the entire battalion assault. One can only imagine what must have been going through his mind. As Company Commander, he would have had around 100 men – 10% were always left out of battle – made up from three platoons and his own company headquarters. He was responsible for them, for leading them, for getting them to the right positions, and for urging them into potentially lethal enemy fire. It was an incredible responsibility, one that he was no doubt equipped to handle, but which must, nonetheless, have weighed heavily upon him.They had been moved up to their start position by lorry at around 10pm, then before the attack the barrage had opened up. In any attack, officers had to lead by example, and especially so company commanders. The noise would have been deafening. Shells hurtling over, screaming as they sped through the air. Explosions up ahead, the flashes of light blinding in the darkness. This was Verity’s first taste of combat. Nearly four years of training had come to this moment. His heart would have been pounding – adrenaline coursing through him.A 1943 photo of Catania•Getty ImagesThey crossed the road behind the barrage at around 2am on the morning of 20 July, but were still struggling across the open ground, lined with ditches and water courses.When the barrage finally ended, it must have been apparent to Verity that already the attack was far from going to plan. His B Company had done well. They were well ahead of the other companies, but still some distance from the enemy, which meant they were both exposed and isolated, with no support on their flanks. Without the deafening barrage, the abruptness of artillery silence would have been alarming. Ahead were fields of corn which gave comparatively good cover, but night attacks – especially the first experienced – were incredibly confusing and disorientating. Machine guns would now have been rattling, bullets hissing and zipping all around, and flares rising into the sky with a hiss, then a crack as they burst, and a crackle as they slowly descended, lighting up the ground like the floodlights at a day-night match.As they approached a curving dyke, at first mistakenly thinking it was the railway line, they began crawling under withering machine-gun fire. It was now around 4am. The Germans used tracers in their machine guns, which would have been arcing towards them at knee height, little stabs of light, fizzing over their heads. Then mortars began falling around them too. They pressed on and managed to push the enemy in front of them back across a dyke, the Massa Carnazza. Behind them, the corn and few trees were catching fire, which silhouetted the Yorkshiremen as they tried to advance.Captain Verity, desperately trying to take stock and think clearly, recognised that with their limited resources – a few light machine guns, grenades, sub-machine guns and rifles – the key immediate objective was the farmhouse. He therefore ordered one platoon round towards the farmhouse and another to give covering fire. No sooner had he done so than he was hit in the chest by a piece of flying shrapnel. Still leading his men, he continued to shout: “Keep going! Get them out of the farmhouse and me into it!”A moment later, Lieutenant Laurie Hesmondhalgh, who was Verity’s second-in-command, was also hit and killed outright. Beside the wounded Verity was his batman, Private Tom Rennoldson. The Company was still struggling to make headway and it was clear that, unless they were quickly relieved by A and D Companies, they were going to remain trapped.In fact, A and D Companies were desperately trying to help their stranded colleagues, but were being pegged back by the same withering machine-gun and mortar fire that was decimating B Company.By 4.30am it was all over. The attack had failed. B Company, without their commander and second-in-command, began to fall back, as did A and D Companies, so that by the time dawn broke Verity, with Rennoldson still beside him, was stuck firmly behind enemy lines.Smoke hung over the battlefield while the dead and wounded lay where they had fallen as the sun slowly began to rise. Verity and Rennoldson were soon captured. The Germans brought a broken mortar carrier from the farm, packed it with sheaves of corn, lifted Verity onto it and took him, with Rennoldson still in tow, to their field hospital a mile or so to the north. It was a farmhouse, nothing more.

He was in increasingly terrible pain; the wound was festering badly, and part of a rib was broken and pressing against his lung. Eventually, three days later, on 31 July, he was operated on again, and had part of his rib removed. Only a local anaesthetic was used

That afternoon, Verity underwent an emergency operation in a stable at the farm. As he was lifted onto a table, a grenade fell from his shirt. After a moment of panic, Rennoldson was ordered to unprime it, which he did. He remained with Verity until that evening, when he was taken away. It was the last time he saw him.As darkness began to fall again, the makeshift hospital came under British artillery fire. It had clearly already been hit – there were holes in the roof and the windows were glassless. As Verity was recovering from his operation, a German ambulance was hit and exploded, killing all on board. Two doctors worked ceaselessly through the night.He and the other wounded – British and German alike – survived the night and the next day were taken to Misterbianco and put onto open railway trucks, ferried up through Sicily and then transferred onto a ship and across the Straits of Messina to Reggio on the southern tip of Italy. Bundled off again, put into trucks, Verity and his fellow wounded were taken to a hospital and then the next day placed on another goods train, on straw, to begin a slow journey north to Naples. It is a journey of less than 300 miles but it took two whole days. All this travel, and being lifted on and off trains with little water or food, was not helping the wounded man. His bandages were filthy and he had been given no relief for the pain. By the time he reached Naples he was very ill indeed. Fever gripped him and his wound was now infected.Nor was this hell-journey over. From Naples he was taken by truck to the Italian military hospital at Caserta. There Corporal Henty, another wounded Yorkshireman, recognised him. Word soon spread amongst the wounded British troops that the great English bowler was there with them. Verity talked to Henty, showing him photographs of his wife and sons, Douglas and Wilfred. He was in increasingly terrible pain; the wound was festering badly, and part of a rib was broken and pressing against his lung. Eventually, three days later, on 31 July, he was operated on again, and had part of his rib removed. Only a local anaesthetic was used.At first the operation appeared to have been a success, but then he suffered the first of three haemorrhages. He remained conscious to the end, talking about his repatriation and getting home again once the war was over. But he was in a bad way. The fever already suggested his wound was infected. The haemorrhage could have caused a Curling’s ulcer – a gastric condition brought on by extreme stress – or the break in one of the blood vessels caused by the operation could have resulted in bleeding into his lung; either way it would have been very distressing and frightening indeed. In any case, one of English cricket’s great bowlers finally died later that night. He was just 38.Bill Bowes, his great friend and Yorkshire bowling partner, was in a nearby POW camp when he heard of Verity’s death from some Canadians. Bowes had been a gunner when captured in North Africa, and was dumbstruck by the news. Verity was buried in Caserta with full military honours, and now rests in the military cemetery in the town. It’s a beautiful place – a real corner of England. But it’s not Yorkshire…Tragically, the attack on the Plain of Catania was to have been Verity’s first and last action. Before they had left Egypt, Verity had played in a cricket match with Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey, commander of XIII Corps. Dempsey, a keen cricketer, was anxious to have Verity on his staff. Verity initially declined; he did not want to abandon the men he had trained with and commanded before experiencing any action. However, he had agreed to leave the Green Howards and join Dempsey’s staff following the attack on the Plain of Catania, and so he would have done had he not been wounded that night. Dempsey later commanded Second Army in Normandy and beyond; Verity could have finished the war as a colonel or higher, playing an important role as a witness to the high command of the Allied war effort. It was not to be.It is hard to find anyone who had a bad word to say about him. Comrades and cricketing foes alike lined up to sing his praises, not just as one of the finest English bowlers ever to play the game, but as a person too. Perhaps one of the most touching stories, however, came from Douglas Jardine. Despite their very different backgrounds, Verity and Jardine had become firm friends during their playing days together with England. Verity had even named his elder child Douglas in Jardine’s honour.Jardine (extreme left, in hat) and Verity (second from right, hand in pocket) along with the rest of the MCC players on board the Orontes to Australia, 1932•Getty ImagesThey hadn’t played together for years, and before the war Jardine had joined the Territorial Army and been sent to France with the 1st Royal Berkshire Regiment, part of the British Expeditionary Force. His battalion fought well, first along the River Dyle and then shoring up the southern line near St Omer as much of the rest of the BEF retreated to the coast. Eventually, with the Germans pressing hard from the south and having been shelled incessantly and bombed from the air, the Berkshires had been given the order to fall back too.Exhausted and hungry, they had eventually reached the beaches. Dunkirk had been hard to miss: thick, acrid smoke shrouded the town from where the oil depot at the port had been bombed and set ablaze. Along the beaches, the scene was one of desperation: half-sunken ships lying off the shore, abandoned or ruined vehicles, upturned boxes of rations and ammunition, and thousands upon thousands of men, all waiting to be evacuated home.Somehow, Jardine became separated from his men, but was spotted in the nick of time and ushered aboard a waiting destroyer.”We’re bound to be all right, sir,” said one of his men. “She’s named after your favourite bowler.” The ship was HMS Verity.

After financial trouble and player walkouts, Zimbabwe enjoyed a day filled with nothing but joy as they bested a top Test team for the first time since 2001

Firdose Moonda in Harare14-Sep-2013When Tendai Chatara hit Adnan Akmal on the knee roll to strike for Zimbabwe early on the final morning, he ran to fine leg to celebrate. Somewhat bewildered, his team-mates followed.For each of the two wickets he claimed afterwards, they did the same thing. The area of the ground they enjoyed their successes in was not near the supporters’ club stand or the main building. In fact, there were hardly any people there at all.So, what was so special about it that the entire team congregated there as they approached victory, Brendan Taylor was asked after their thrilling 24-run win over Pakistan in the second Test. “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Tendai,” he said. Andy Waller concurred, adding that he too didn’t know why the wicket-taking glee was on the opposite end of the ground from the change room. The question was asked and Chatara, a shy 22-year-old overawed by media attention, just laughed. “I also don’t know,” he said.It turns out the place he ran towards on instinct is the direction of his hometown, Mutare. “The ghetto,” he called it, when talking much more seriously about how a small-town man felt on making it on the international stage. “Coming from the ghetto to here… it just feels nice to contribute,” he said.A few years ago, the chances of Zimbabwe finding someone like Chatara would have been slim. He is not from one of the main cricket centres – Harare or Bulawayo – does not have the same advantage of going to a traditional cricket school and was considered a “raw talent” until very recently. That Zimbabwe Cricket unearthed and nurtured him and that he put in a match-defining performance, picking up his maiden five-wicket haul, is testament to how the game has changed and even progressed in the years since Zimbabwe last beat a top team.Victory against an opposition other than Bangladesh last came 12 years ago, when Zimbabwe beat India at the same venue. The team that played then and the circumstances they played in are completely different to the one who took the field this time. In 2001, salaries were being paid, the game had yet to undergo the efforts to make it more accessible to the majority and the country was still relatively stable.Fast-forward to the present and Zimbabwe and its cricket have been through significant change. Economic crisis and dollarisation has taken the economy from difficult times to a new kind of security, which has still left many ordinary people struggling to keep up with increased prices. The white-player walkout, transformation and a self-imposed exile from Test cricket left the game in tatters and triggered its slow and painful recovery.Success on their Test comeback in 2011 after six years in exile was quickly overshadowed by five straight defeats in the longest format. The construction towards a competitive team seemed to have unraveled with crushing defeats at the World Twenty20 last year and the ODI series against India. The very fabric of the game itself seemed to have worn thin because of the financial difficulty Zimbabwe Cricket found itself in.The first signs of money problems were brought to the world’s attention through Tatenda Taibu on the Test comeback. The since-retired wicket-keeper said “nothing had changed” in terms of unkept promises. They mounted up more steadily recently.Heath Streak was laid off as bowling coach ahead of the April series against Bangladesh because of a financial concern. And the players who were not centrally contracted wanted to strike because the winter contracts they were being offered were not considered adequate. ZC reached an agreement with everyone except Craig Ervine, who opted for club cricket in Ireland.

A few years ago, the chances of Zimbabwe finding someone like Chatara would have been slim. He is not from one of the main cricket centres – Harare or Bulawayo – and does not have the same advantage of going to a traditional cricket school. That Zimbabwe Cricket unearthed and nurtured him, and that he put in a match-defining performance, is testament to how the game has changed in the years since Zimbabwe last beat a top team

Matters ballooned before this series. Having not seen their July or August salaries, the players formed a union, for the first time in decade and threatened to boycott first the whole tour, then the third ODI, then the Tests, unless paid.Each time, they extended their deadline and eventually ZC showed them the money, at the expense of some staff. Still, they lost Kyle Jarvis to premature retirement and Graeme Cremer and Sean Williams, who did not want to play unless paid. Williams has since committed to Zimbabwean cricket.But if you were at Harare Sports Club (HSC) on Saturday afternoon and you did not know any of this, you could not have suspected it. What you would have seen were a triumphant group of players, tumbling over each other as though there was not a care in the world.At the heart of that, you would have seen Chatara. The man with a five-wicket haul in his fourth Test, surrounded by team-mates, many of whom would not have had the opportunity to play for Zimbabwe before because underlying prejudices would have kept them out.You would also have seen Taylor, the captain who a decade ago decided not to join his compatriots in a walk-out because he was “too young to understand or want to get involved in the politics,” and because he wanted to play international cricket.Taylor’s desire to compete at the highest level is what has kept him in Zimbabwe despite offers from afar like one rumoured to have come from Hampshire. “This is the ultimate,” he has said in previous interviews. This time, it really was.

****

Two of Zimbabwe’s most loyal cricket supporters are a fifty-something year-old white man called Neil and a black man of about half his age, Eddie. Neil has been coming to matches at HSC for as long as many can remember. He does not miss a ball. Neither does Eddie, who travels from his home more than 200 kilometres away for matches in the capital. Often, especially early in the morning, they are the only two supporters in the ground.The largely empty stands have led some to believe cricket is not a popular or marketable game in Zimbabwe. Others think the ticket prices are too steep but at US$2 all ZC can do is open the gates for free – which may not be the worst idea – if any reduction is sought. The truth is that just like elsewhere in the world, Test cricket attendances are dwindling because people have other commitments. That does not mean they aren’t following in some way.As the day grows longer and some of them have hours to spare, they start filtering in. One of the open stands is occupied by the supporters’ club – a vociferous group who break out into popular songs, which those who know Zimbabwean cricket will recognise. , accompanied by saluting to attention as a soldier does, is one of them. chanted when someone is a run or wicket away from a milestone, is another. made only a brief appearance in this match, after Zimbabwe took the ninth wicket and before the last man was run out. When that happened, there was only joy. The players’ huddle, Shingi Masakadza charging down the stairs with the Zimbabwean flag in hand and groups of people who were in the ground celebrating would be some of the lasting image of this win.Afterwards, Eddie waited for the post-match press conferences to end so he could congratulate his team. Neil seemed to have already left. No doubt he would have been overjoyed. He had said, on all the previous days that he wanted nothing more than a Zimbabwean win, especially because he had persisted in coming to support them through everything.The team did a quiet victory lap of the ground, waving and taking photographs with those who remained. They began with the groundstaff, who the umpires had applauded for getting the pitch Test quality in just two and a half days and who often go unnoticed and underpaid despite the hours they put in.In Zimbabwe, cricket is small enough to be about the people who may not command any attention at all in other places. Those who rolled the pitch and cut the grass were among the first to be thanked and to join in the festivities. A fines meeting, a party at the Centurion and all the usual revelries followed.People will talk about this win for years to come. But one gets the sense that tomorrow life will go on. Zimbabwe’s cricketers will put their feet up but could be back in training by Monday. What they will have to work towards is continuing playing a game that’s getting better, more inclusive and more competitive with every passing series. And then one day, they may have even bigger things to celebrate.

The three-match ODI series was a special one for Quinton de Kock, who became only the fifth batsman to score three successive ODI centuries

Shiva Jayaraman12-Dec-2013Quinton de Kock’s ODI career figures weren’t remarkable till November this year, having scored just 399 runs from 13 innings at 30.69. In one of those innings he had scored 112, which means that he averaged just 23.91 in the other 12 innings. These were quite ordinary figures that didn’t quite justify replacing Graeme Smith, who has had similar numbers in ODIs in 2013. Smith has scored 291 runs at 26.45 from 11 innings, with one century against New Zealand in Potchefstroom.But de Kock showed promise with his 112 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi last month. He became the youngest South Africa batsman – at 20 years and 326 days – to hit an ODI century, replacing Jacques Kallis from the top of that list. Kallis was 22 years and 92 days old when he hit his maiden ODI century against New Zealand in Perth in 1998.The three-match ODI series against India, though, has expelled any doubts about de Kock’s place in South Africa’s ODI team. He has scored 342 runs in this series at 114.00 – the most any batsman has scored in a three-match bilateral series in ODIs. Only two other batsmen have scored in excess of 300 runs in such series – Martin Guptill, in New Zealand’s series against England earlier this year, and Brendan Taylor, against New Zealand in 2011. De Kock’s 342 runs in this series are also the seventh-highest runs scored by a South Africa batsman in any bilateral ODI series.No batsman has scored more than three hundreds in a series, bilateral or otherwise. Including de Kock, there are 15 instances of batsmen scoring three hundreds in an ODI series. But all the those batsmen, aside from de Kock, have batted more than three times to score those hundreds.He’s become only the fifth batsman in ODIs to hit three consecutive hundreds. AB de Villiers was the last one to do this back in 2010. Before de Kock, Zaheer Abbas was the only batsman to get all his three hundreds against one team, with India on the receiving end of that little spell as well. In fact, of these 15 hundreds scored, nine have been against India.Three centuries in a row in any format of the game usually signifies a hunger for getting runs. De Kock’s shown that hunger at a fairly early stage of his career compared to the others who’ve achieved this feat. Before de Kock, Zaheer was the youngest in terms of experience, at 40 ODIs when he hit three consecutive hundreds, but by then he was aged over 35. Herschelle Gibbs and de Villiers, the other South Africa batsmen to hit three consecutive hundreds in ODIs, achieved it when they had played 105 ODIs and 93 ODIs respectively.

All four of de Kock’s hundreds have come before he’s aged 21. He is only the second batsman in ODIs – after Paul Stirling of Ireland – to hit as many before turning 21. Only two other batsmen have managed three hundreds before that age – Tamim Iqbal and Shahriar Nafees of Bangladesh.

Those are not the only records that de Kock’s made in this series. He took four catches behind the wickets, in addition to the 106 runs he scored, in the second ODI against India – only the fifth player to do so in ODIs. Like with the consecutive hundreds, de Kock emulated de Villiers again, who was the last wicketkeeper-batsman to do so. Matching the rest of de Villiers’ achievements in international cricket won’t be easy, but de Kock’s first year in ODI cricket has clearly raised expectations.

It was a long time coming but England finally beat Australia and it was the all-round performance of Ben Stokes that went a long way to ending the barren run

Vithushan Ehantharajah at the WACA24-Jan-20140:00

England win; nothing else matters

Alastair Cook smiled. There were definitely teeth. Teeth that were not hidden behind a frown or his own consoling palm. Then there were hugs – the sort of hugs miners give each other upon finally seeing daylight after months of being trapped underground with nothing but your own thoughts and a dead budgie for company.England had won their first competitive game on this tour, and done it in some style. No one was more surprised than Cook, who momentarily lost the ability to speak post-match. When he regained it, he muddled his words, referring to “bowling plans” as “bowling machines”, before smiling some more. Relief, for one night, thy name is Alastair.It was the batting what done it. Maligned in the Tests, England’s ODI form has been a major plus. Yet again they set a target of greater than 300, with this 316 becoming England’s second-highest ODI score on Australian soil. It’s a score they will have to be able to reproduce elsewhere, but it does look to be developing into a habit.They were professional with the ball, as Ben Stokes finished with four wickets. He was hot-headed yet focused, but it was his 70 in the first part of this encounter that really mattered.The Perth track, with its deep running cracks, is probably the hardest in the world to roll up and carry around with you. Stokes would probably have to pull it out, piece by piece, before eliciting the services of a puzzle-shrewd nan to reassemble at his behest. He should seriously look into it.

Cook on Stokes, Buttler contributions

“Ben has had a really good tour. I just said to him, he likes playing at the WACA; obviously he had a very good Test match here and very good one-day game here. He was doing everything right until he dropped that catch at the end.
“The thing I love about Stokesy, he had a tough last over in Brisbane and didn’t get it right, but there was no stopping him coming back today and wanting to bowl in those last ten. And you saw he improved from Brisbane and if he keeps on that curve of learning and dusting himself off when it doesn’t go well, he’s going to be a hell of a cricketer.
“I’ve seen Jos do that a huge amount of times for Somerset, and actually a couple of times against Essex. I think he will be the first to admit it took him a little time to find his feet in international cricket but he’s growing all the time – obviously the game is very different to a county game. What’s impressed me is how he’s adapted his shots to be able to still do the damage at the end. Seventy off forty balls, you’re thinking how you would captain against it, it’s very, very hard.
“They’re guys that are going to take this side forward – they’re going to have some tough times along the way, because that’s what international cricket is. But there’s a lot of talent there.”

Unflustered by the crumbling mosaic before him, his maiden Test hundred in the fourth innings at the WACA was a silver lining on the mushroom cloud of England’s capitulation on the day they handed back the Ashes.The most impressive thing about Stokes is the extra force he puts into shots, without losing his form. This extra strength means he can stick to a relatively orthodox game between Powerplays, and back himself to beat boundary riders to the rope.Deep leg-side fielders were given the run around, particularly off Mitchell Johnson, as Stokes used express pace on the ball to time perfectly through square leg and midwicket. More timing was evident when he went to fifty, as he danced down to Glenn Maxwell and helped him over his head for six.Quite whether Stokes at No. 3 is a viable option in home conditions remains to be seen, but on today’s evidence he looks a good bet on these quick batting tracks which will host next year’s World Cup.Stokes’s departure, and that of Ravi Bopara, set England back in their pursuit of 300 and more, until Jos Buttler arrested the funk and then brought his patented noise, to the tune of 71 off 43 balls.For all the deserved fanfare that comes with the England’s keeper ability to hit far and true over and under his shoulders, the highlights of his 34-ball fifty were his shots along the carpet. He drove Johnson expertly past mid-off early on, before pulling him in front of square as if time wasn’t an issue, before repeating the trick off Nathan Coulter-Nile.Immediately past 50, he took 14 off three consecutive balls from James Pattinson with a lap shot, wide swipe and a shot down the ground for six into the off-beige seats in the Prindiville Stand. He had time to dish out one more clubbed six before he departed.Those on the grassy bank to the left of the press box didn’t quite know what to do with themselves. It could have been the heat, as a potentially raucous bunch of Bucketheads went from cheering every wicket to applauding sixes between reapplying sun cream. But there was an audible sigh when Buttler holed out to third man. He clearly looked frustrated that he wasn’t there at the end.No one in the dressing room would have told him to take solace in his herculean effort. On the field, he’s a ruthless operator. Off it, he’s shockingly docile.Watching him hold court with the media earlier in the week was an oddly enlightening experience. The first time you hear him speak you wonder how someone so shy in front of tens can perform so emphatically in front of thousands. All his words are delivered with the good grace of the well behaved do-gooder at school that your parents wished you were.His conversation on the eve of this fourth ODI contained a healthy smattering of management speak, punctuated by the odd “obviously” and “if you want to win games of cricket” (they do, by the way). But such was his delivery, each word showcasing seemingly bottomless dimples, you wanted him to feel like you were hearing it all for the first time: “That’s a good point, Jos; you do have to be confident to be a professional sportsman.”Ben Stokes impressed with bat and ball•Getty ImagesStill, there was one moment where the charm dissolved in an instant and, as his brow furrowed, his eye tightened to adopt a stern, almost reptilian, stare. It’s a look county and, slowly, international bowlers are all too familiar with. It’s a look that promises calculated malice.This time, away from the middle, we were treated to it at close quarters when he was asked if there was any chance of him moving up the order. “No,” came the frank reply.It wasn’t as ridiculous a question as Buttler made it seem. Admittedly English cricket, particularly in the limited-overs form, gets twitchy when a player below No. 5 displays any sort of aptitude with the bat. But the truth is England can get more from Buttler simply by moving him up one space, ahead of Ravi Bopara, who has proved ineffective in the second Powerplay.Of the 120 deliveries England have had between overs 35 and 40 during the first four ODIs, Bopara has faced 44 of them and only managed to score 38 runs. By comparison, Eoin Morgan has scored 62 runs off the 45 balls he has had. Buttler has only batted for 12 of them.This is no new issue for Bopara. By Opta’s calculations, since the rule change came into effect at the end of October 2012, Bopara, against Test playing nations, has faced the joint-highest number of deliveries in this particular Powerplay (96) yet has a personal tally of 81 for 7. Buttler on the other hand is 77 for 4 from a less wasteful 68 balls.With Kevin Pietersen to slot back in, re-reintegrating pending, not to mention Jonathan Trott, who is said to be “in great fettle”, Bopara’s position will only come under further scrutiny, soon; though his bowling performances in this series work firmly in his favour.But not tonight. Maybe not even on this tour. For now, let these men who have been hammered, from pillar to post, bask in the glory of victory and sweat out disappointment with its warm glow. Just don’t mention the series score.

Sri Lanka’s captain insisted his team had not lost because they had been negative. He would be hard pressed to find many who agree with him

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Sharjah21-Jan-2014On the fourth evening of the third Test, Sri Lanka spurned the chance to press their advantage and crawled, bat in hand, slighting spectators, opponents, and in turn, the game itself. Before the last day’s play was done, cricket had bit back, bloodied Sri Lanka to mindlessness, then left them for dead in the gloom. The team did not just lose a Test match in Sharjah, when they slowed play deliberately in the final overs, Sri Lanka lost the cricket world’s respect.Only Test cricket can take two-and-a-half hours of seeming idleness – a session where nothing appeared to happen – then retrospectively assign it haunting, definitive meaning. Among Sri Lanka’s greatest successes had been their ability to subdue Saeed Ajmal, but on a surface that by Sri Lanka’s own admission had not begun to take menacing turn, they lay voluntarily immobile as Ajmal put men around the bat and worked himself into one of his best spells in the series.He dismissed Mahela Jayawardene that evening with one that ripped more than the batsman expected, and the following morning claimed the key wicket of Prasanna Jayawardene – Sri Lanka’s top scorer in the innings (who, strangely enough, had also been their most positive batsman). Abdur Rehman had wheeled himself into a rhythm in the fourth day’s evening session, when Sri Lanka had been only marginally less conservative. Together, the pair wiped out Sri Lanka’s final four wickets on day five, leaving the door to victory ajar.After Pakistan had run their opponents down, Sri Lanka’s captain presented a weapons-grade denial that negativity did not cause their demise, suggesting instead that his batsmen should have been even more patient in their second innings. How Sri Lanka arrived at that conclusion is unclear, because six of their batsmen fell playing defensive strokes in the innings, and they had in fact lost two wickets in the session they had almost brought to a standstill, by scoring only 45.If they truly believe they were not cautious enough, Sri Lanka are like a man who attempts to capture a castle by charging head first into its walls, then when he regains consciousness, determines he should have sprinted at the granite a little harder. The directive to revert to ultra-defence had actually come despite each of Sri Lanka’s top eight batsmen having crossed fifty in the four innings prior to their second dig in Sharjah. The great peril in playing conservative cricket is that in two good sessions, Pakistan could lurch forward to obliterate four days of slow work from Sri Lanka.If they required any evidence supporting the merits of positive cricket, they can look to their own meltdown in the field on day five. Boundaries early in Pakistan’s innings prompted immediate deployments at the fence, and as Pakistan pressed harder and harder Sri Lanka prepared a feast of risk-free runs into the outfield. Almost three-quarters of Pakistan’s 302 had come in singles, twos or threes.As the final ten overs of the match approached, Sri Lanka spread the field even further, expecting a man nearing a scintillating ton and a captain who has only missed getting 50 in one innings in the series to slog one brainlessly to their outfielders. They needed less than a run-a-ball. Pakistan were having one of their superhuman days, but Sri Lanka felt they would suddenly begin batting like children. All nine fielders were routinely placed on the fence for Misbah-ul-Haq, and possessed of sound mind, Misbah did not take the ludicrous bait. He hit out hard, attempting to pierce the gaps, but he never put the ball long enough in the air to risk his wicket, because every time he got bat to ball, he was guaranteed at least one run.”We wanted to get a wicket in that period,” the Sri Lanka captain said after the match. “The ball was a bit old and also reversing a little bit. We actually knew in the last ten overs that they would go for the big shots. Even when we had our nine fielders down at the boundary, they still went for it. We wanted to get a wicket and when the newcomer comes in, to sort of bring in the field and put pressure on. They were going to go for it and it was getting dark. That’s why we had the fielders out.”No neutral fan of cricket could have barracked for Sri Lanka on the fifth evening. On social media, the reactions of Sri Lanka’s own supporters turned from disappointment to anger to disgust, before reaching the consensus that this was Sri Lanka’s most craven showing in the professional era. If their captain’s comments after the match can be taken at face value, the team remains staggeringly out of touch not only with the spirit of their sport, but the with will of the fans who sustain it.After the scheduled finish time of 5:30 pm had passed and it became clear that only bad light could halt Pakistan, Sri Lanka’s fielders began complaining they could not pick up the red ball under lights. When the winning run was hit, a pair of senior players went first to gripe to the umpire instead of shaking hands with the deserved victors, and then, Sri Lanka’s cowardice was complete.

Sri Lanka’s august senior batsmen made 23 collectively, but a 23-year-old’s belligerence ensured his team triumphed nonetheless

Alan Gardner in Chittagong22-Mar-2014When a team has three players of the calibre of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan approaching the twilight of their careers, there are bound to be fears about the future. That august trio have nearly 4000 T20I runs between them; against South Africa they made 14, 9 and 0 respectively. That those failures did not extinguish Sri Lanka’s chances of victory was largely down to a 23-year-old named Kusal Perera.If you have heard Kusal’s name mentioned without that of Sanath Jayasuriya in close proximity you probably weren’t listening hard enough. With his low, southpaw stance and flashing blade, particularly in a wristy ability to clip the ball off his pads, Kusal has an uncanny likeness for the man who is now Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors. Jayasuriya built his reputation with a series of dashing assaults as opener during the 1996 World Cup and Sri Lanka will believe that Kusal can have a similar catalytic effect at this tournament.T20 continues to push back the limits of the possible in cricket, as anyone who has seen the scorecard from Friday’s afternoon match in Sylhet – let alone the shots played by Netherlands’ batsmen – would know. This was a more sedate affair, despite the tension at the end, but still it showed how the world has changed, from Kusal’s early assault to Albie Morkel’s brief dalliance with seeing South Africa home.Coming into this match, after 11 innings, Perera’s T20 strike rate was a touch under 130 – coincidentally, almost the same as Jayasuriya’s when he retired (eventually) in 2011. Jayasuriya may have been ahead of his time as a batsman, but that does not mean time won’t eventually catch up. Of players to face 500 balls in T20 internationals (Jayasuriya faced 487 despite being indelibly linked to the expansion of one-day cricket a decade or so before) 14 currently score at above 130 per 100 balls, led by Yuvraj Singh at 152.72. Kusal seems likely to join them.The beefy silhouettes of Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and Aaron Finch tower over the World T20 but power comes in different guises. Kusal and, during South Africa’s innings, Quinton de Kock showed that you’ve got to look out for the little guys as well.The opening over of the match contained most of the ingredients used to spruik the tournament as a non-stop feast for the senses. Dale Steyn, a man who has razed small towns with a 145kph swinging ball, was slapped for two fours and a six – flicked over deep midwicket from outside off – by Kusal, three impudent blows that mocked the senior man.Steyn bowled wides on both sides, perhaps a little peeved at being buttonholed like this so early on, having only passed a fitness test on the morning of the game. Then Kusal took a single. Dilshan, also coming back from recent injury, is perhaps at the age where he hopes for a little time to limber up before he gets going. Instead he got ripper that clattered through him and into the top of off. Zing went the bails – they really do look good from the stands – and Steyn’s figures read 1-0-17-1 (2w)

“I think he’s got a bright future ahead. For many years to come he’ll be a dangerous player to bowl to”AB de Villiers on Kusal Perera

While South Africa worked out what to do with Kusal, they attempted to mitigate the damage he was causing by keeping him off strike. Having faced 16 of the first 24 balls, hitting three fours and two sixes, he was given only 24 of the next 57. Steyn came back – Steyn always comes back – and tested him against the short ball, a top edge landing safely between the bowler and mid-on. Irman Tahir worked further on his patience by pushing his top-spin through wider and Kusal succumbed.”I think he’s got a bright future ahead. I’m not sure how old he is, but for many years to come he’ll be a dangerous player to bowl to,” South Africa’s stand-in captain, AB de Villiers, said afterwards. “I thought he played really well, put us under pressure from the word go, probably caught Dale by surprise with the first couple of balls, going after him. I don’t think Dale expected that but he recovered really well after.”The short ball had hinted at a vulnerability and Sri Lanka reported afterwards that Kusal had suffered a blow to the head which required hospital treatment for concussion. But, just as he did last month during a T20 against Bangladesh on the same ground, Kusal had laid the platform for victory. Sri Lanka have played plenty of cricket in this country over the last few weeks and navigated their way around the terrain a little better than South Africa.Spin proved a little more influential than had been expected, with Sachithra Senanayake and Tahir the most successful bowlers, as pace on the ball merely seemed to help it off the bat. Sri Lanka’s seamers, having been able to size up the pitch from the dressing room, shortened their lengths accordingly – with the exception of Lasith Malinga who dealt with another punkish assault from de Kock with a low-slung yorker and proved himself just too difficult to put away until the final ball, with the match already won.Ahead of the game, Sri Lanka’s captain, Dinesh Chandimal, was under orders not to talk about the impending retirements of Sangakkara and Jayawardene. Afterwards, thanks to Kusal, nobody was.

Who is England’s best bowler? The debate rages on

Bill Ricquier01-Sep-2014″He is the best bowler England has ever produced.”Alastair Cook’s verdict on his opening bowler, James Anderson, delivered on the eve of England’s fifth Test against India at The Oval, was entirely understandable. Anderson, with help from Stuart Broad, Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Ian Bell among others, had given Cook a get-out-of-jail-free card. In fact Cook’s most generous benefactors were the Indians themselves. Their precipitate decline into incompetent submissiveness was reminiscent of the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire after the battle of Austerlitz.Anderson played a major part in this. His ability to swing the ball either way, seemingly at will, presented the Indian top order with questions they were simply not capable of answering.He is peerless in English conditions, fast-medium rather than fast, but with a mastery of line and length that recalls the discipline of a bygone era. And his effectiveness is not limited to the home front. Like most Englishmen he will want to cast a veil over the 2013-14 visit to Australia but he was pivotal to England’s victory Down Under three years earlier.But England’s best bowler ever? Of course comparisons between cricketers – or performers of any sort – of different eras are notoriously difficult.Almost fifty years to the day before Cook’s accolade, Fred Trueman became the first bowler to take 300 wickets in Tests, when Colin Cowdrey caught Neil Hawke at slip in the fifth Ashes Test at The Oval. Trueman had started life as an out-and-out quick. He and the great Alec Bedser (the Anderson of his day) reduced India to 0 for 4 in their second innings at Headingley in 1952, which makes Manchester’s 8 for 4 seem almost respectable. Trueman, rarely sure of a regular place in the England line-up boosted his natural talent by turning himself into a really clever bowler, like Anderson. At his peak, in the early 1960s he won Test matches virtually single-handed against Richie Benaud’s Australians in 1961 and Frank Worrell’s West Indies in 1963.Trueman finished with 307 wickets in 67 Tests at an average of 21.57 and a strike rate of 49.4: Of the 300-plus brigade only Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Glenn McGrath took their wickets at a better average, and only Dale Steyn, Waqar Younis, Marshall and Allan Donald have better strike-rates. Anderson has 380 Test wickets in 99 games at an average of 29.72 and at a strike-rate of 58.1.One is tempted simply to say QED but of course times have changed. Averages in particular have changed. Just as in life, fifty is the new forty so cricket statistics have to be re-assessed (so what do we do about Steyn, expressly compared by Cook to Anderson, who has taken 383 wickets in 75 Tests at an average of 22.56?)Things have got easier for batsmen. Covered wickets, heavier bats, bouncer restrictions, the arrival of Bangladesh as perennial whipping boys (Bell averages 158.25 in six Tests against them) are calculated to drive up batting averages and put a corresponding dent in bowling figures. Of the 43 Test batsmen with batting averages of over fifty, nineteen have had careers which stretched into or have been comprised totally in the twenty-first century. Anderson – like Steyn – has been bowling in a batsman’s paradise.Fred Trueman had a better record than Jimmy Anderson’s, but his era was a kinder one to bowlers•Carl Sutton/Picture Post/Getty ImagesWhen Trueman got his 300th Test wicket in 1964, the top twelve Test wicket-takers of all time were either Englishmen or Australians. It was similar with the batting, though Everton Weekes of the West Indies sneaked, or rather blasted, in at number ten. England’s Walter Hammond had been Test cricket’s leading run-scorer since 1937 and remained so until 1970.How things have changed from the days of that Anglo-Australian duopoly! Ian Botham, who retired over 20 years ago, remains England’s leading Test wicket-taker, with 383. He is only 14th on the all-time list; every Test playing country except Zimbabwe and Bangladesh has someone ahead of him. Things are not quite as bad with the batting. Graham Gooch (retired 1994) remains in front but there are no Pakistanis or New Zealanders ahead of him. Cook, still only 29, is fewer than 500 runs behind his mentor.There are all sorts of explanations for this. But the fact is that Trueman was playing in a golden age of English cricket. His contemporaries included five middle-order batsmen who could genuinely be called great – Peter May, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, Ken Barrington and Ted Dexter. Have there been any since, apart from Kevin Pietersen? (Sure, David Gower and Graham Thorpe will have their champions.) Trueman’s bowling contemporaries, apart from Bedser, included Brian Statham, Frank Tyson and Jim Laker. The wicketkeeper, Godfrey Evans, was one of the best ever.Trueman, asked if he thought anyone would emulate his unprecedented achievement, famously replied that if anybody did they would be bloody tired. Well maybe. But a succession of bowlers from all around the world, culminating with Muttiah Muralitharan’s surely impregnable 800 Test wickets, have put things in perspective.Anderson clearly shares some of Trueman’s chippiness. But he does not appear to have his distinguished forebear’s almost disarming lack of self-awareness. In the final chapter of his magnificent biography of Trueman – unquestionably a must for any cricket library purporting to be “complete” – John Arlott recalls asking the great Yorkshireman what the book should be called.The response came without a moment’s hesitation: “T’Definitive Volume of T’Finest Bloody Fast Bowler that Ever Drew Breath”.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line

Stats highlights from the opening day in Port Elizabeth, where Dean Elgar made his second hundred in four Test innings

S Rajesh26-Dec-201447 Percentage of his Test runs that Dean Elgar has made at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. His sequence of scores here read 103*, 83, 16 and 121 – 323 runs at an average of 107.66. At all the other grounds he has scored 362 runs in 17 innings at an average of 22.62.- Also, the opening partnership between Elgar and Alviro Petersen, which is South Africa’s highest for the first wicket here since 2001. In 12 partnerships during this period, they’ve managed only 195 runs at an average stand of 16.25.3 The number of South African openers who’ve scored Test hundreds in Port Elizabeth. The only others, apart from Elgar, are Herschelle Gibbs (196 against India in 2001), and Barry Richards (126 against Australia in 1970).179 The partnership between Elgar and Faf du Plessis, which is the second-highest by any pair at this ground and the best for South Africa. In 1950, Neil Harvey and Arthur Morris had added 187 for the third wicket. The previous-best for South Africa here was 157, between Barry Richards and Eddie Barlow against Australia in 1970.4 The number of century partnerships between Elgar and de Plessis in Tests. Elgar does not have century stands with any other batsman in his 14-Test career so far.685 The partnership runs in ten innings between Elgar and du Plessis, at an average of 68.50 runs per partnership. It’s also Elgar’s Test aggregate so far.54.03 The average second-wicket partnership for South Africa in Tests since the beginning of 2008, the best among all teams. In 108 innings, they have 15 century stands.5 Number of 50-plus scores for de Plessis in 14 Test innings in 2014. He hasn’t converted any of them into hundreds, though; a couple of innings ago, he was dismissed for 98 against Zimbabwe in Harare.2-3 South Africa’s win-loss record in their last five Tests in Port Elizabeth. They beat Australia and New Zealand, but lost to West Indies, England and Pakistan.

Rohit Sharma’s 138 at the MCG had a refreshing urgency, the lack of which has often confounded observers who believe he doesn’t necessarily have to go slow at the start

Sidharth Monga19-Jan-2015Some will find it absurd that India had an ODI opening issue before the start of the triangular series in Australia and leading into the World Cup. It will come across as even more ridiculous that the problem part of the combination was Rohit Sharma, who has scored two double-centuries in the last 15 months. Both from the opening slot. Yet it was a problem.The problem was, Rohit is not a natural opener. He likes gaps in the field when he starts an innings. At the top of an innings he doesn’t get going. He eats up too many dots in the first 20 overs of an innings. Since the start of the Champions Trophy in 2013, which is when he and Shikhar Dhawan emerged as a strong opening combination for India, Rohit has struck at 3.58 runs an over in the first 10 overs. In comparison, Ahmed Shehzad has gone at 3.87 an over, Ajinkya Rahane at 4.11, Alastair Cook at 4.26, Mohammad Hafeez at 4.31, Hashim Amla at 4.66, Aaron Finch at 4.98, Dhawan at 5.07, Ian Bell at 5.10, Quinton de Kock at 5.26, Tillakaratne Dilshan at 5.27, Kusal Perera at 5.30 and David Warner at 5.48.The counter-argument to this would be that the other openers haven’t gone on to convert slow starts into double-centuries. Rohit was, after all, 25 off 36 at the end of 10 overs when he scored his first double, against Australia. He was only 12 off 25 after 10 overs before he smashed the record books with his 264. If somebody has this ability to go mammoth after building a slow platform, why not let him?The problem arose when he couldn’t lay bat to ball when opening in South Africa. In New Zealand he began to eat up the dots and get out before repaying them. Real doubts arose. At the heart of the problem was missing singles and doubles at the start of the innings. Dhawan could keep picking those up while Rohit would bottle one end up. India could manage to set themselves up for 20 big overs in the end at home, but away it got difficult; they needed a more even scoring pattern.In between, injury to Rohit sent Rahane up the order. Rahane was industrious, got a century in England, and presented a dilemma. Rohit in the meanwhile insisted he liked the opening slot, and when he came back in Dhawan’s absence, walked the talk with that 264. What would happen away from home, though?If Melbourne is to be any evidence, Rohit has come back an improved opener. His century in India’s opening match of the triangular, the highest score by any Indian at the MCG, was one of his more accomplished knocks. He built the innings with care and craft. By the end of the 10th over, he had reached 24 off 29. There had been calculated risk involved. There had been runs run – 14 out of the 24. In out-of-Asia matches in which he has lasted for 10 overs, this is the fewest dots he has faced in that period.There was a refreshing urgency to Rohit’s innings, the lack of which has often confounded observers who believe he doesn’t necessarily have to go ultra slow at the start, thus putting all eggs in his own basket. There is caution required what with two new balls and only six batsmen in the side, but Rohit was getting too cautious too often. This innings is more the happy middle ground that India need from an opener.Don’t underestimate the physical demands of the innings either. In India you can push the ball into a gap and admire it as it rushes to the short boundaries on a fast outfield. Here you have to run your runs. Even if you hit a boundary, hardly any is a certainty as soon as it beats the in-field. Only 60 of Rohit’s 138 came in boundaries.There was situational awareness too. You could see he was getting tired towards the end, and would have been forgiven a slog, but once he saw Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni get out, Rohit restrained himself again, and looked to bat through till the end. This was Rohit’s third-longest innings, and the first time he has faced 100 balls or more in an innings outside Asia and Zimbabwe. He couldn’t quite give it the usual Rohit finish, but the more he sets himself up in this fashion the higher his chances of big finishes.Rohit has an amazing gift for clearing boundaries towards the end of an innings. Which is why you wondered if India were making a huge sacrifice by pushing Rohit down the order. If he bats more often like he did in Melbourne, though, he can offer India the best of both worlds.It will be an on-going tussle, though: in Melbourne you could see the biggest difference was the 22 singles he took behind square on the off side, making a conscious attempt to open the face whenever given the length or width. Expect teams to block that area better in the future. What will Rohit’s next move be?

Plays of the day from the ODI between Australia and England in Sydney

Daniel Brettig & Melinda Farrell16-Jan-2015The Mitch
It was perhaps a case of same-same but different for England. A tall Australian left-armer called Mitch creating havoc with the new ball. But figures of 4 for 42 were just the latest reason Mitchell Starc deserves to be judged in his own right and not constantly compared to Mitchell Johnson. He carried the aggression shown in the fourth Test against India straight through to this match and swerved the ball in beautifully in his first over to claim the vital scalps of Ian Bell and James Taylor.The wrist
Eoin Morgan may have driven England to something approaching respectability after their disastrous start to the match, but the shot of the afternoon was played by Moeen Ali amid a breezy 22. Mitchell Starc was still armed with the new ball, but a delivery veering towards middle and leg was picked up quickly by Moeen, and with little more than a flick of his wrists sailed majestically beyond the long-on boundary. There was an air of the opulence about this stroke, suggesting Moeen’s promise and contrasting with the poverty of England’s early overs.The stumble
Steven Finn has become synonymous with hitting the stumps on his approach to the wicket, an ailment that became so vexing, it ruined his confidence and rhythm in 2013 and resulted in an early return home from an Ashes tour. On his return to Australia, Finn struck them again, though in somewhat different circumstances. As he entered his delivery stride at the Randwick End, Finn’s right ankle twisted and he landed heavily on the turf, his momentum carrying him into the stumps. Shaken by the incident but apparently unhurt, Finn continued to bowl, though a certain former zip still appears to be lacking.The sprint
Apart from a couple of early haymakers, for the most part David Warner guided Australia’s chase with a considered air, knocking off regular boundaries but not pushing his luck too far. But a trio of wickets caused Australia a brief moment’s pause – until Brad Haddin marched out to the field with the sort of business-like strut that suggested he would not waste time. What followed was a flurry of target-busting boundaries, raising cheers among a crowd of 26,045 and ensuring that when Warner fell for 127, his exit was cause for only the most perfunctory England celebration.