Ravindra Jadeja was relentless in his attack of England’s weaknesses, but he was just doing what he does

Sidharth Monga20-Dec-20162:39

Ganguly: Jadeja has grown as a cricketer in this series

Try running with your head tilted up towards the sky, your wide-brim hat on top, and the head parallel to the ground. Hang on. Focus on the ball that is already ahead of you and is coming down fast. Go full pelt while you are at it; if you go slowly you won’t make it by the time the ball lands. Careful. Don’t move your head or you will lose sight of the ball. Then, after 12 full strides, not straight but at an angle and back from midwicket towards the boundary, as the ball falls over your shoulder, stick your hands out at the exact right time even as you make the final two strides. Fourteen strides of magic. The stable head. The strong legs propelling him towards the ball. No need to dive.The leading edge from Jonny Bairstow wasn’t a skier but seemed to be travelling far enough from fielders. The bowler Ishant Sharma didn’t seem to be too hopeful of a wicket. Ravindra Jadeja didn’t have even half a second to decide which direction to run in and how fast he needed to go. He judged the direction perfectly, and put his head up and charged towards the ball. About 30-35 metres of smooth gliding run without any time to judge the catch because this was not a skier. No TV cameras can do justice to this bit of magic.Magic it was that India needed in the final two sessions of the day if they were to stretch their 3-0 series lead. Seventeen wickets had fallen in 13 sessions before that. The pitch had been flat. Moeen Ali had scored a century, England’s Nos. 8 and 9 had scored fifties without ever looking out, KL Rahul gifted his wicket on 199 and Karun Nair scored a triple-century in only his third Test. You needed some magic to bring this Test to life.

‘Jadeja perfect in any conditions’ – Kohli

Is he out of Ashwin’s shadow?
Kohli: We as a team don’t think of these things at all that everyone is playing in Ashwin’s shadow. Jadeja takes a lot of pride in his performance. Obviously as a bowler he wants to pick up as many wickets as he can. But if you see, every time Ashwin has picked up wickets, the economy rate from the other end is not more than two. Ashwin will himself tell you that Jadeja has played a massive role in him making those breakthroughs because there is literally no runs from both ends.
Is he no longer just a bad-pitch bowler?
Kohli: We don’t rely on Jadeja as a bad-wicket bowler. He is a perfect bowler in any conditions in Test cricket. He is accurate, and that’s what you need in Test cricket. You don’t necessarily need to have too many variations at your disposal. His strength is bowling at nice pace, not giving too much air to the ball and making the batsman think about how long they can defend. That’s his strength. On any wicket in the world, if you are bowling that accurately for a long time, invariably the batsman will make a mistake.

Magic came through getting little things right. The way Jadeja does. Like in that catch. It wasn’t a spectacular dive. There was no juggling involved at the boundary. It was the coming together of little things: the judgement, the head position, the legs, the extension of the hands. He hardly broke stride. He hardly bowled magic deliveries, but the little things he did right on that pitch came together to become magic.Bairstow’s was the fourth wicket to fall. The first three had fallen to Jadeja. One of them was Cook, for the sixth time in the series. A man whose career Jadeja gave a new lease of life back in 2014 when he dropped him in Southampton. A better tribute to Jadeja can’t come than from Cook. Jadeja is not a spectacular bowler. He doesn’t dip it or drift it alarmingly. So it is not always easy to spot what it is that Jadeja does to get all those wickets. It is a good idea to ask Cook what was special about Jadeja. After all he was averaging 98 against left-arm spin before he came to India: 1372 runs at 3.14 an over for just 14 dismissals.Cook started off by saying, “You can see why he was getting me out. I was missing straight balls or getting caught.”Yet another voice dismissing Jadeja, you thought, but then Cook went deeper. He said it was strange to struggle against left-arm spin for the first time in his career. Then he summed Jadeja up. Nothing like a little grudging respect.
“I found him hard work,” Cook said. “It has been a strange thing for me. Credit to him, he found a bit of a weakness there. And he was relentless at it. I wasn’t good enough to cope with it.”Find a weakness. Keep attacking it relentlessly. And with Jadeja’s fitness you never find a release. The weakness here was that Cook was getting a touch too far across when he played left-arm spin. Jadeja kept bowling in an area from where he would repeatedly threaten the inside edge or beat him. He would keep dragging Cook further and further to the left, and then slip one straight in. The accuracy meant you had to take risks lest you be sitting ducks to the one that misbehaves.Through the series, Virat Kohli acknowledged, Jadeja’s pressure helped Ashwin get wickets. On the final day of the series, though, Jadeja kept them all for himself. England will be rightly criticised for getting out to attacking shots – none of their first eight fell defending – but Cook could see why they were doing so. Stuart Broad eventually got one from Jadeja that he could do nothing about. The batsmen were mindful they didn’t want a similar end, and they knew Jadeja had found his rough and was going to keep hitting it relentlessly. They just didn’t back themselves to be good enough for so long that Jadeja starts making mistakes.Eventually Jadeja ended just two wickets behind Ashwin in this series, at five runs apiece cheaper and in 17 overs fewer. In that final dance of victory – when every ball is accompanied by an appeal from the stands – Jadeja was everywhere. Seven wickets, three catches, creating magic, but without tricks.

Stats highlights from the Hobart Test between Australia and South Africa

Gaurav Sundararaman15-Nov-20163 Consecutive series wins for a team against Australia in Australia. Before this South Africa had won in 2008-09 and 2012-13. They have become the third team to achieve this feat after West Indies and England. West Indies won three between 1984 and 1992 and England won three between 1884 and 1888.0 Previous instances of South Africa beating Australia by an innings in Australia. This is South Africa’s biggest margin of victory in Australia. The previous highest was by 309 runs in Perth in 2012.326 Runs scored by South Africa to complete an innings victory. This is the fifth-lowest total by any team to complete an innings victory in Australia and the lowest since 1993. West Indies had made just 322 runs at the WACA on that occasion and had won by an innings and 25 runs.2013 The last time before this Australia had lost five or more consecutive Tests. With the loss in Hobart, Australia have lost three in Sri Lanka and two at home. Before 2013, they had lost six consecutive Tests in 1984, all of them against West Indies.193.5 Overs bowled in this Test. The last time a Test match in Australia produced a result in fewer balls was in 1950, when Australia won an Ashes Test at the Gabba in 129.2 eight-ball overs.558 Number of balls faced by Australia match – second least in a Test at home in the last 100 years. They had survived just 457 balls against England in the Brisbane Test in 1928-29.32 Number of runs for which Australia lost their last eight wickets. This equals Australia’s worst such collapse in history. In 1888, they had again lost eight wicket for 32 runs against England in Sydney16 Number of single-digit scores by the Australia batsmen in the match – their joint-most in any Test. The last time before this they had 16 such scores in a Test was in 1912 at the Oval.246 Total runs scored by Australia in this Test match. It is their sixth lowest ever in home Tests. The most recent previous instance of Australia scoring lower and losing 20 wickets was 112 years ago when they made 233 runs against England in Melbourne6/77 Kyle Abbott’s bowling figures in the second innings of this Test – the best performance in an innings for South Africa against Australia since Shaun Pollock’s 7 for 87 in Adelaide in 1998. Abbott has taken 12 wickets in two matches against Australia at an average of 20.58.

Jimmy Adams, West Indies’ new director of cricket, hopes the lessons from both sides of the player-board divide can help to heal the Caribbean’s wounds

Interview by George Dobell in Antigua28-Feb-2017You’ve taken on a tough role. Can you turn things around?
I’m pretty realistic about where we’re at. That’s the starting point: to be very clear about where we are. I don’t know if I see my role as turning things around. There are a lot of processes that need tidying up in our cricket. It’s not an overnight job and I may not live to see the promised land. But I can certainly take the first steps.Where is West Indies cricket now?
Our standards aren’t good enough across the board, and it’s reflected in the cricket that we play. But we have the raw materials; we have good young players. What we need is a system that can take this raw talent and convert it into an international product that’s world-class.We saw when they won the World T20 that, when all the players are available, West Indies is still a top side. But the previous regime’s stance on considering for selection only those who play in the regional domestic competitions means that has rarely been the case. Now we hear that policy is being reviewed. What is your position?
I’m not the only person who is going to be involved in the decision. But I’m certainly of the view that it needs reviewing. There’s a process behind that, which means it probably won’t happen overnight. The review is ongoing and has started, but if a change of direction is to happen, it won’t be overnight, as there is a process that backs that up. But it is being reviewed. A lot of stakeholders in our cricket appreciate now that it does have to be looked at.Is the standard of T20 cricket in the Caribbean satisfactory?
I’ve only watched CPL from a distance in the last five years. I think, based on the quality of cricketers that we have here, and the quality of cricketers that have come in for CPL cricket, I think we can get better. But I also think that a lot of our international players – the Chris Gayle generation – will have started under Stanford, but will have developed and become battle-hardened in leagues outside the Caribbean. And if I’m waving a magic wand, I’d like to have the standard in the Caribbean, where, if they do play overseas, that’s fine – certainly from a financial point of view – but in terms of developing our own T20 to an international standard, then we want our cricket in the Caribbean to be a lot stronger.You want them back?
I’d like to have the best players available. I’m not going to stick my neck on the block. It’s a selection panel decision as to who the best players are, but ideally you always want the best players available for selection.There will have to be give and take on both sides?
I think so, yes.Are you encouraged by what you saw in the Super 50 competition?
I watched half of it. I saw the Antigua leg. I saw the semis and the final. I saw bits and bobs from Barbados. I was very encouraged. The first thing was, the players had an opportunity to play a long tournament. The finalists played ten games, the losing semi-finalists played nine, and everyone else eight.

“At the highest level talent is irrelevant. Everybody has the talent and it’s the other issues that become more and more important”

The facilities, for the most part, were adequate or good. We can eventually get even better wickets, but given where the Coolidge ground was three months ago, I’m quite happy with what we had there.Seeing batsmen produce three-figures performances was good, too. Going back a few years, that was a rarity. And players were starting to appreciate what sort of standard is expected from them if they are trying to make it to the next level. Communicating that clearly helps. And that’s going to be a challenge because we know we had a period in our cricket where we are trying to move our territorial boards from an amateur system to a professional one. There are tensions – you’d expect that – because mindsets won’t change overnight. But we do have one thing in common across the board: everyone wants to see stronger cricket. And let’s move away from the excuses that we have heard in the past.Any areas that needed improvement?
Generally speaking we could lift standards across the board in every area – batting, bowling, outfielding. Fitness as well.You’ve had many roles in cricket. But having spent a fair bit of time in a players’ union role, is it fair to expect you to be sympathetic to the players by inclination?
I’ve spent time in different roles. I represented the players’ association for a few years as secretary and actually worked as director of cricket – or technical director – with Jamaica, so I’ve already stood on both sides of the fence. So I can quite appreciate a lot of the issues that face both the board and the players. I think that we have the potential to achieve a lot more if we can get people singing off the same hymn book going forwards.The outstanding issue now is player eligibility: I’m encouraged by the fact that most, if not all, parties are in agreement that what is in place now is not sustainable and might not be helping our cricket in the short or long term. But I don’t see my former role with WIPA as being of detriment to me being able to carry on this role. I actually think it helps to give me a better understanding of some of the issues that are actually being faced at the moment.Can we expect you to utilise the knowledge and experience of former players? The likes of Lara, Sarwan and Chanderpaul?
I don’t see why not. I do think… this is more a philosophy than empirical evidence, but I think we all need it as a guiding light for what we do: I think the West Indies has more resources than we think we have. I think what we haven’t been good at is how efficiently we engage and use those resources. The names you’ve called – and I could mention many more – could potentially offer quite a lot to us. To me, they stand as potential resources going forward. It might not be one size fits all, but all those names have achieved so much by doing things well for a long time. Again, philosophically, we’re talking about finding consistency across the board: they have lived a life of consistency to achieve what they have on a cricket field. In any way possible that we can engage them in our cricket going forward, the key challenge is finding the right fit. Not square pegs in round holes. But I do think there are roles for these people if they are willing to get into West Indies cricket.Marlon Samuels helped win the World T20 but was not selected for the ODIs due to his non-appearance in domestic cricket•Getty ImagesDid you appoint Stuart Law?
No, I wasn’t involved. We were both appointed around about the same time. But we’ve come across each other going back many years. We both played in the first Youth World Cup in 1988 in Australia. The relationship started from there. We played against each other at international level as well, so there is a history. It might not be a big one, but we’ve both had conversations over the years. What little I know of him, I think he’s a fairly honest bloke. At the end of the day, that’s a huge starting point for me: let’s just be honest. He’s very down to earth in his views on the game, and if the early signs are an indication, he’s on his way to building a pretty strong relationship with the lads, which I think is critical.Is cricket as important to people in the Caribbean as it used to be?
I’d ask for empirical evidence. Without empirical evidence, my gut feeling is that far more important are the standards within the pyramid than the numbers at the base of the pyramid. I’m not saying we can’t do with more numbers – we always can. I think there will always be a challenge if you go back ten to 15 years with what is available for young people. I don’t think the West Indies are the only entity that have that challenge.But I do think there’s a big call to raise our standards within that pyramid. If I can loosely use New Zealand rugby as an example, or New Zealand cricket, I’m not sure their base has got significantly bigger in 30 years, but I do know that they’ve maintained standards or maybe even moved the bar a bit higher over that course of time. I would be probably a little bit more interested in making sure that happens [here] than necessarily growing the base by another 20%, or 15%.I’d take an increase in numbers playing junior cricket. I can speak for Jamaica: when I was there five years ago, we had more kids playing primary school cricket than when I was there [as a youngster]. But there was beginning to be a gap in the 13-to-17 age group. I think that’s pretty common across the world, for what 13- to 17-year-olds have available to them.But even as I was thinking, I was more interested in: could I raise the standards, could I provide better coaches for the players that we had, could I make sure competitions were the highest possible standard, that the facilities were better than when I played? I saw those as more immediate challenges.I put a high value on the face of our cricket, which is the international team. But ideally you’ve got to get right down to where it starts. So we need to ensure the Under-15s, which is the time we start with players, have the right lifestyle instilled by the time they get to 19. It’s about coaches, lifestyle managers and development people. It’s not just cricket but life development as well.

“It’s a challenging situation. I think what encourages me is, I think, we have some very good people involved in our cricket”

West Indies tend to perform well at that level.
Yes, but let me make the distinction. A very crude example is that, at that young level, it’s about 90% talent and 10% thinking and lifestyle. But at the highest level it is the other way around. Talent is irrelevant. Or 10%, anyway. Everybody has the talent and it’s the other issues that become more and more important. If they aren’t ingrained by the time they are in their early 20s, it becomes very, very difficult.Rahkeem Cornwall is clearly a talented cricketer but with fitness issues. Could he play international cricket?At the end of the day you’re talking about performances. I’m not duty-bound to support anything other than people performing on the field. I’m speaking personally, I don’t speak for the selection panel. We discuss a lot of things but he’s here playing for a representative team, which tells you a story itself. If he performs, I’m sure he’ll be in line for selection. I’m not a selector. There’s a close relationship between myself and the selectors, but I’m not a selector.You were one of the players involved in the standoff with the board at Heathrow airport many years ago. What did you learn from such situations?
I don’t know if we have enough time. I’m not trying to evade the question. I literally could go on until tomorrow morning… It’s a challenging situation. I think what encourages me is, I think, we have some very good people involved in our cricket. I keep saying again, you’re moving out of an amateur system into a professional one, and maybe, without speaking out of turn, maybe a lot of the drivers that have driven our cricket for a long time need to change. You’re talking about mindsets that have existed for a long time, except that changing mindsets is not an overnight thing. Also, processes that have been in place that I think in this day and age are outdated, they are tied into constitutional areas. You’re talking about changing the constitution of any entity that’s something that can drag on for a long time. Do we change our constitution or do we try and work around it?These are issues that have been going around for a while. Now, at the end of the day – I think, maybe, I’m saying this only being in the job for a month and a week – I think you can either put your hands up in the air and say, “It’s not worth it” or put your hand up and say, “Let me try and be an agent of change.”If I’m still here in two or three years’ time and I’m still looking fairly healthy, then it means we are getting somewhere. But these things have to happen. I sense more and more that more stakeholders appreciate that and are getting to the point where maybe, as an entity, we are all be more willing to give a little bit to make that happen. I think that has to happen. I don’t think everybody can keep holding on to their territories for much longer given where we are. I want to encourage that. I want to be an agent for that change to happen.

On a pitch that demanded a change of length instead of line, India’s spinners seemed to have missed a trick by not bowling a fuller length

Sidharth Monga in Pune 24-Feb-2017For those unfamiliar with Indian cricket lexicon, the pitch on which the Pune Test is being played is called an , a wrestling pit. The typical Indian wrestling pit is filled with clay and other dusty ingredients, while ghee – clarified butter – and limited amounts of water are used to level it. The obvious dust comparisons are behind the name, but that is where the comparisons end. The is meant for pure and technical wrestling. These pitches are more akin to professional wrestling rings than a wrestling pit. Cheap shots, eye rakes, low blows, outside interference, they are all fair play. You can have the most beautiful submission holds but they won’t guarantee wins. Watching the India spinners bowl in Pune, frequently going past the bat but not hitting the edge often enough, you wondered if they had taken amateur wrestling to a WWE ring.All through the series against England, the India spinners bowled in a lovely rhythm, regularly showing their superiority on good pitches. However, the the rank turners, do two things: they place heavy premium on the toss, and bring a completely different bowling skill into play. Bowling on such pitches, especially when you lose the toss, is not easy. The pressure of expectation is immense with so much happening off the pitch; every run scored by the opposition is one to get in much worse conditions. And you need to actually turn the ball less on these pitches.For a normal Indian pitch, the India spinners bowled in beautiful areas, short of the drive but not short enough for the batsmen to play off the back foot. In the first session of the Test, because of a combination of the pitch and Australia’s left-hand openers, R Ashwin, No. 1 ranked bowler in the world, sent down 16 overs. He bowled 94 balls to left-hand batsmen in that session, beat the bat on 12 of those occasions, and beat it by a long way.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the second innings, Ravindra Jadeja, No. 2 ranked bowler in the world, beat right-hand batsmen once every four balls, 22 out of 88 balls. On one such occasion, Steven Smith almost stood mocking the amount of turn after the ball pitched within the stumps and then missed his bat by six inches. Neither of those periods yielded India a wicket.It looked wonderful to watch. They looked like great spells. “It was one of those days,” India’s coach Anil Kumble said. “Where we saw Jadeja bowled in the last session, where probably every over he was beating the bat three times. It was one of those days where on another day, that could have all taken the edge or got a wicket. It was one of those things where Steve O’Keefe pitched it; he got the results.”It is indeed incredible that Jadeja spun the ball so viciously, but didn’t get wickets. Clearly the problem was too much turn on the pitch. Ashwin’s response was to try to start turning it from further away. He went down the leg side often. In the first session on the opening day, 21 of the 22 runs he conceded came on the leg side, against the turn. Australia were prepared to be beaten on the outside edge, and made it a point to not follow balls turning away from them with their hands. There was one trick that India possibly missed: instead of turning it from batsmen further, try to give it less time to turn so much that it misses the edge.To say that Jadeja was unlucky after beating the bat so often is a little like saying Ishant Sharma was unlucky when he used to bowl shorter than the ideal length. Experts believe that on such pitches you have to give up your superiority in classic spin. Instead of line you have to alter the length. Bowl fuller than what is a good length on good pitches, and have fielders at extra cover, short straight-extra cover and straight mid-off.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”You also need to be fuller,” Murali Kartik wrote in on how to bowl on such pitches. “You can afford to be two to three inches [feet] fuller than good length, because the batsman’s already in a muddle about whether he has to defend his pad or risk playing a drive. Even an over-pitched delivery on a turning wicket can get you an outside edge.”The ball that O’Keefe bowled to take Ajinkya Rahane’s edge was a perfect illustration. It pitched four metres from the stump, which is close to a half-volley on good surfaces. For majority of their spells when taking the ball away from the batsmen, Ashwin and Jadeja bowled the classic spinners’ length: between five and six metres from the stump.The pitch maps of Ashwin to left-hand batsmen in the first innings, O’Keefe to right-hand batsmen and Jadeja to right-hand batsmen in the second innings says a lot. Jadeja has predominantly bowled a traditional good length. Ashwin has got closer to four metres, but not often enough. O’Keefe kept persisting around that magic four-metre mark. Jadeja didn’t take any outside edge. Ashwin took one wicket off the outside edge of a defensive shot in 214 balls bowled to left-hand batsmen. O’Keefe took four outside edges in 67 balls bowled to right-hand batsmen, two of them to defensive shots.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the second innings, Ashwin has more yellows, denoting singles, on the pitch map than in the first, which means he bowled quicker to give batsmen less time to adjust, but the length still remained closer to the traditional good length. Australia kept playing inside the line, and the ball kept turning past the edge. During the lunch break on day two, Australia’s spin consultant Sridharan Sriram took O’Keefe to the nets and got him to bowl fuller.On pitches like this, luck, strategy and street smarts play a more significant role than traditional skill. While it is not clear whether India asked for such a pitch or whether the curator got it wrong in trying to ensure home advantage, India needed to be spot on strategically once Australia had the luck of winning the toss and getting to bat before manure hit the fan. It should hurt India that Australia did better on that front despite being the away side.

Twitter reactions to the retirement of Australia fast bowler Shaun Tait

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Mar-2017A key member of Australia’s 2007 World Cup victory, part of Australia’s run to 2010 World T20 final, and bowler of some of the quickest deliveries ever sent down, Shaun Tait has plenty to look back on.At Lord’s in 2010, Shaun Tait fired in a delivery clocked at 161.1kph•Getty Images

My mate @shaun_tait32 has hung up his boots.
Mate, be very proud of what you have achieved.#topcareer #greatman

— Jason Gillespie (@dizzy259) March 27, 2017

A few batsmen sleeping easier with the retirement of @shaun_tait32 fastest I ever faced and for a period as good as any. Congrats #greatman

— Chris Rogers (@BuckRogers55) March 27, 2017

Congratulations @shaun_tait32 on a great career, I'm sure there're plenty of batsman out there relieved! #wildthing #genuinepace

— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) March 27, 2017

Congrats @shaun_tait32. My fondest memory was you hitting me in the head at the AO and the ball being caught by mid off. Fun times.

— Theo Doropoulos (@TheoDrop) March 27, 2017

Congratulations @shaun_tait32 on a wonderful career. Very few will understand how much you put your body through over the years.

— Graham Manou (@GrahamManou) March 27, 2017

@shaun_tait32 well done on a fantastic career Taity. One of the nicest guys when he wasn't bowling 150k rockets. All the best

— Ryan ten Doeschate (@rtendo27) March 27, 2017

Retiring Shaun Tait bowled the two fastest overs I've seen since Jeff Thomson – T20 v NZ in Perth. Good fella without a ball in his hand!

— Malcolm Conn (@malcolmconn) March 27, 2017

Fans, journalists, cameramen and casual observers – all of them wanted to be amid the players who received a rousing welcome upon arrival in Mumbai

Annesha Ghosh in Mumbai26-Jul-20171:13

India women return home to a grand welcome

The felicitation function of the Indian women’s team on Wednesday served the perfect prelude to the more stately event that beckons in New Delhi on Thursday. At the press conference which Mithali Raj addressed soon after landing, there were at least 60 journalists and cameramen, five times more than the number she addressed while departing for England for the World Cup.The frenzy at the airport on arrival was such that it took Raj and ten others – part of the second batch of players and support staff who arrived from London around 9am – at least an hour to leave the premises and drive to the hotel that was no more than a five-minute drive.Through that one hour, it appeared as though the media had taken upon themselves to expiate for the sins of an entire nation that had conveniently chosen to be oblivious to the existence of nearly four generations of women cricketers. Raj, having endured non-recognition for the larger part of her career, like her peer Jhulan Goswami, however, didn’t fail to acknowledge what the reception meant to the team.”Obviously, it’s quite overwhelming to see such kind of a reception. It’s first of its kind for all of us,” Raj said. “I did face something similar [in terms of our outcome in the final], not exactly similar, but a little lesser in 2005. But then there was no BCCI. At that time, I was wondering had we been under BCCI, what kind of reaction we would have or what kind of feedback we would have got back home. But today I can actually feel it’s such a huge thing. It’s just the beginning of good times for women’s cricket.”When asked if the INR 50 lakh (approx US $77,800) cash reward announced by the BCCI was enough to do justice to the team’s commitment, Raj, with her trademark subtlety, volleyed the question towards her younger team-mates: “If you were to ask me, I’ve been playing since 1999, when there were no monetary benefits. You must ask this to the players who’ve just come into the side.”Among those who giggled at Raj’s response was Smriti Mandhana, who expressed her astonishment at the adulation the team received, not just upon landing, but also on social media in the aftermath of the final. “We, as women cricketers, saw it for the first time,” she said. “If we would have won, it would have been sweeter. But the team has done reasonably well and perhaps, India is acknowledging that – it showed at the airport.”That Deepti Sharma, India’s leading wicket-taker at the tournament, had to be assisted thrice to extricate the wheels of her kit bag, within the matter of 15-odd steps, from underneath the cables dangling around the jostling television cameramen, was only one of the many welcome oddities that played out during the team’s arrival. “I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to get to the bus with my luggage,” laughed Deepti later in the team hotel.Players happily posed with fans and journalists upon arrival in Mumbai•ESPNcricinfo/Annesha GhoshUpon arrival, it didn’t take long for the players to notice that the lobby of the hotel had transformed itself into an unofficial mixed zone. As the bustle around the player interviews gathered strength with each passing minute, out came the fans – some guests, some guests of guests, others possibly uninvited guests. What united them in their purpose, though, was the pride in their eyes as they walked up to the newly christened ‘Harmonster’ and the ‘queen of cool’ for selfies.Among the admirers, was Jyoti Parmar, a former Maharashtra player, who could barely resist getting the perfect snap with Veda Krishnamurthy, who unfailingly complied with every request despite looking haggard in her official travel kit. “It’s like when people are rushing in a very popular temple,” she said. “It was just like that and we were at centre stage.”Allrounder Shikha Pandey, too, echoed a similar sense of disbelief in trying to “make sense” of the atmosphere. “All of us still have the thing lingering on that we could have seen the team over the line. But seeing the reception here, you can’t help but think what would have happened if we had indeed won the World Cup,” she said. “I was wondering how the men cricketers feel like all the time.”That the day promised to have the most incredulous incidents in store had been established early. Ahead of Raj’s arrival, a group of four gathered around the space behind the photographers’ cordon facing the exit gate. As they began unfurling a polythene banner, whispers among the photographers, mostly male, took on the form of a guesswork game: are they part of a fan club?They wondered if it could be one of the newly-formed Madhana or Harmanpreet fan clubs that may have leaped straight out of Twitter and manifested their presence at the airport. Or, as opined by a creaky voice in innocuous jest, they could also be part of some “mahila morcha” (women’s rally) which wanted to drive home a bigger message by their presence. But the other-worldly beings dressed in corporate attire outright ruled out the last possibility.”Being an only-in-spirit kind of sponsor doesn’t cut it. We had to be here in person, for Mithali and her girls,” explained D Pooja Kumar, a leader of marketing with one of Raj’s sponsors, as she frantically helped the company, mount the roll-up standee.Moments after they had accomplished their job at hand, all hell broke loose when the news of Raj’s flight having arrived broke out. Every step Raj took thereafter was conveyed, via WhatsApp, to either one of the MCA officials or the group of the 15 former India and Maharashtra women players tasked with overseeing the felicitation. As information of Raj nearing the exit gate came about, chants of “India, India” and “captain, captain” rang loud. The change in tenor was seamless; the origin of the chorus symbolic.Junior female cricketers of the Mumbai Cricket Association were excited to greet the World Cup team•ESPNcricinfo/Annesha GhoshJust before Raj arrived, her sponsors expressed confidence in their potential plans for including more India players into their contract base. The utterance couldn’t have been timelier. “Until now, we didn’t have many of them [the players], but there’s a reason to sign more of these girls,” Kumar said.The scene that welcomed Raj at little over 9am was similar to how it was when the first batch arrived in the wee hours. Nearly 100 female cricketers – from Mumbai’s senior and Under-19 teams – had travelled from Virar and Shivaji Park, the city’s two vertically distant ends – to welcome the team. Among the young players was Jemimah Rodrigues, captain of the Mumbai Under-19 team.”Our off-season camp is on, but we came here because we wanted to thank the team and Mithali Raj,” she said. “They have set the standards for us in this World Cup, to look up to them and become like them.”While Rodrigues’ decision may have been founded on her cricketing connection, it was difficult to spot any visual clue to ascertain the reason behind Hafim Tamim, a 48-year old trader from Gujarat, lingering around the main exit from 2am along with a dozen other fans.”I had come to receive my younger brother. He’s already here, but I saw the banners [of the women’s team put up by the MCA] and we’ve decided to wait for them to arrive,” he said. “I hadn’t seen them play before this World Cup. I wanted see the India women’s team today. I had little idea girls play cricket.”For Tamim and millions others in the country, ‘seeing’ is now almost synonymous to ‘believing’ – in the trade of the women cricketers and their proficiency in the same. It is the same belief Harmanpreet Kaur, nearly 12 hours later, exuded when asked if the reality of the reception could likely take longer to sink in than her unbeaten 171 against Australia.”That was something. This reaction to our World Cup journey here in India is also something. It feels a little unreal being at the centre of it, but then, isn’t this what we’ve been waiting for so long?”

Zimbabwe’s abysmal recent record and Sri Lanka’s historic dominance at home didn’t stop Graeme Cremer’s men from breaking new ground

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jul-2017A 16-year drought has endedThis is the first time Zimbabwe have won a five-match ODI series away from home in their history, and just their third bilateral series win away against a Test-playing nation. The last time they won any away series was against Kenya in 2009, before which they had beaten Bangladesh and New Zealand in successive series in 2000-01.Zimbabwe had never won a bilateral ODI in Sri LankaPrior to this series, Zimbabwe had not beaten Sri Lanka in an ODI in their backyard. Their only win had come in a Champions Trophy fixture against West Indies in Colombo in 2001, and their overall record read 1-14. This time, they came back from 1-2 behind to clinch the series 3-2, thanks largely to a splendid chase in the 4th ODI and exceptional spin bowling today.Sri Lanka have had a difficult time at home of late•AFPZimbabwe have been losing to Associates regularlyIn the past few years, Zimbabwe have regularly lost to sides outside the top eight like Afghanistan, apart from suffering a reversal against Scotland last month. While that goes a long way towards explaining the growing strength of Afghanistan, it reflects Zimbabwe’s own dismal form in recent times. Between February 2012 and November 2015, Zimbabwe were 0-16 in bilateral ODIs away from home, in a period where they suffered five successive whitewashes. This result, against Sri Lanka on their home turf, is cause for optimism as they vie to make it to the ten-team ODI World Cup in 2019.Sri Lanka don’t lose against lower-ranked sides at homeBefore this, Sri Lanka had never lost a home bilateral series against any of West Indies, Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. This is their second successive setback, after a string of drawn series across formats against Bangladesh. Zimbabwe are ranked 11 on the ICC ODI rankings, behind Afghanistan, and 36 rating points behind Sri Lanka in eighth place.

India thumped New Zealand by 186 runs to book a place in the tournament’s semis for the fourth time

Shiva Jayaraman15-Jul-2017186 Runs India won this match by – their biggest win when batting first in the Women’s World Cup. Overall, there have been only three other instances when India have won by a bigger margin when batting first in women’s ODIs. They had beaten Ireland by a 249-run margin in an ODI in May this year, which is their biggest margin of victory.5/15 Rajeshwari Gayakwad’s figures in this match – India’s best in the Women’s World Cup. Ekta Bisht had taken 5 for 18 at the same venue in an earlier match against Pakistan, which was the previous best. Click here for a list of the best match figures in women’s ODIs for India, and here for a list of the best hauls in the Women’s World Cup.7 Fifty-plus scores by Mithali Raj as India’s captain in the World Cup – the most by any captain in the tournament. She went past Suzie Bates’ and Belinda Clark’s tally of six with her 109 in this match. Overall, Raj’s tally of 11 fifty-plus scores in the World Cup is the joint second-highest by any batsman. New Zealand’s Debbie Hockley has made 12 such scores. England’s Charlotte Edwards is the other batsman with 11 such scores.155.55 Veda Krishnamurthy’s strike rate in her 45-ball 70 in this match – the second-highest for an India batsman in an innings of 50 or more runs in women’s ODIs. Rumeli Dhar’s 31-ball 50 against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final in 2008 is the only innings that ranks higher.1086 Runs Raj has made in the Women’s World Cup – the fifth-highest by any batsman. She is only the fifth batsman to make 1000 runs in the Women’s World Cup. Her average of 57.15 among the five to hit 1000-plus runs in the World Cup is the second highest after Belinda Clark, who made 1151 runs at 60.57.2 Hundreds by Raj in the World Cup – the joint-highest by a captain. Suzie Bates and Charlotte Edwards also have hit two hundreds each. Overall, this was Raj’s sixth hundred in ODIs. No other India batsman has made more than two.1 Number of times India had beaten New Zealand from 11 matches before this in the Women’s World Cup. The only previous win had come in the semi-finals of the 2005 World Cup. Overall, New Zealand have a 27-17 win-loss record against India in women’s ODIs.80 New Zealand’s previous lowest all-out total in the Women’s World Cup, which had also come against India, in 1982. New Zealand, however, had won that match.3 Player-of-the-match awards won by Raj as captain in the World Cup – the joint second-highest by any captain. Only Belinda Clark’s tally of four such awards is more than Raj’s. England’s Charlotte Edwards has also won three. Overall, Raj has won five such awards in the tournament, the joint second-highest.3 World Cup semi-finals played by India before this edition. They have made it to this stage every time the Women’s World Cup has had a round of semi-finals. Including this edition, India have made it to the top four in five of the last six World Cups. They had failed to make it to the Super-Six stage in 2013.

The No. 1 ranked allrounder, who will be playing his 50th Test next week, said he does not have any regrets about not playing more matches than he has

Mohammad Isam24-Aug-2017A plate of was mounted in front of Shakib Al Hasan. He joked that people seeing this photo would assume he is the one eating at his own party. Moments later Imrul Kayes entered the hall-room and immediately pointed at his plate.”Didn’t I see you do a lot of running today?” asked Imrul.”Yes, and this is my reward,” replied Shakib.For the record, Shakib didn’t even go halfway through the pile of the rich concoction of rice, meat, ghee and potato – arguably the most famous dish in Bangladesh. During the opening ceremony of his business venture, he was more interested in telling his childhood stories. It is not every day that the country’s biggest superstar opens up in front of a crowded table, so everyone paid full attention.With his 50th Test just days away, it was quite appropriate for him to look back at the days of innocence when he was only a school kid, without all the trappings of a superstar lifestyle. It was a lifetime away, it seems, but Shakib remembered everything quite vividly.Through many attempts to take selfies with him and people constantly posing behind him, Shakib, through fits of giggles, told stories about his most embarrassing moment in school, the time he did better than his roommate who studied all the time, when he predicted the questions in an exam paper correctly astounding a teacher or when he held an impromptu press briefing in the middle of his college exam.A couple of hours earlier, in the press conference, Shakib had said he has no regrets at not playing more than he has – in his career span, 53 others have played more Tests than him, while Alastair Cook, James Anderson and Stuart Broad have played 100-plus Tests.”When I was about to make my Test debut, I didn’t think about how long I was going to play. I was enjoying the time. Not that the enjoyment has gone; it is still there. But now the environment and responsibilities have changed.”I don’t have too many regrets in life. I am glad about how much I have played. It would have been better to have played more Tests but I don’t have any regrets. Performance is more important to me. I want to do well in this Test series.”Shakib said he was pleased to see Bangladesh’s progress during his time as an international cricketer, adding that credit is due to everyone involved in the game in the country. “It is satisfying to see us progress in the last 10-11 years. The credit goes to everyone and it stretches back further. The board, facilities, support staff, coach, even the media, ball boys and the supporters, everyone deserves the credit. I don’t think cricket is loved as much in India these days as it is in Bangladesh.”Shakib said the highlights of his Test career has been the win against England last year, his double-hundred against New Zealand this year, his 7 for 36 against the same opponents in 2008 and his 96 against West Indies in 2009.This will be the first time he will face Australia in a Test match, more than 10 years into his career. “This will be the first time I am going to play Tests against them, having played ODIs and T20s against them at different times,” Shakib said. “Australia and England value Tests, so it is exciting to play Tests against them.”

Stats highlights from an eventful first session in Cape Town

ESPNcricinfo stats team05-Jan-2018Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck with the third ball of the series, and then struck again in each of his next two overs, providing India with one of their best starts ever in an overseas series. It was the earliest wicket for India on tour since Kapil Dev dismissed Jimmy Cook off the first ball of the first Test in the 1992-93 series in Durban.Bhuvneshwar is also only the third bowler to take three wickets in the first three overs of an overseas series since 2001. The two other instances were against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh: James Franklin achieved it against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2005, while Pat Cummins took three against Bangladesh last year.ESPNcricinfo LtdThose three wickets had South Africa struggling at 12 for 3, the second-lowest score at which India have taken three wickets in the first innings of a series outside Asia. The only instance of a lower such score was also against South Africa, in the 2006-07 series, when the home team slumped to 5 for 3 in Johannesburg.The Amla dismissals
The last couple of years haven’t been the greatest ones in Hashim Amla’s illustrious career. He has still averaged a healthy 46.63 since the start of 2016, but against the better bowling teams – Australia, England, India and New Zealand – it drops a bit further to 42.44. (He hasn’t played against Pakistan during this period.) Those are still reasonable numbers, but they pale when compared to an average of 65.62 in his golden five-year period between January 2010 and December 2014.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat is also noticeable is the manner in which his dismissal patterns have changed against pace over the last couple of years. In the 2013-14 period, he tended to get out bowled and lbw pretty often – those modes accounted for more than 50% of his dismissals against fast bowlers during this period. Since 2016, that has dropped to about 25%, perhaps due to a conscious decision to stay legside of the ball.

Hashim Amla’s bowled & lbw dismissals

Period bowled & lbw Total dis %age2013 & ’14 9 16 56.25Since 2015 9 35 25.71Career 45 118 38.14However, while the bowled and lbw dismissals have reduced, he has been caught behind the wicket – by the keeper and the slip cordon – far more often now: that percentage is up from 25% to 44%. That was the mode of dismissal again on the first day in Cape Town, when he played a loose shot away from the body and nicked it to Wriddhiman Saha to have South Africa tottering at 12 for 3.

Hashim Amla – caught behind the wicket

Period caught behind* Total dis %ageSince 2015 15 35 42.86Before 2015 21 83 25.30Overall 36 118 30.51Amla’s recent numbers show another trend – the tendency to start a series poorly. In his last 18 innings in the first Test of a series, he has averaged 24.17; in his previous 52 such innings, he averaged 70.42.

Amla in 1st Test of a series*

Period Inns Runs Ave 50+Since Jul ’15 18 435 24.16 2Before Jul ’15 52 3169 70.42 23