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The two sides have the slowest scoring top three in the competition, and find themselves near the bottom of the table

Alagappan Muthu20-Apr-2024Match detailsPunjab Kings (P7 W2 L5; 9th) vs Gujarat Titans (P7 W3 L4; 8th)
Mullanpur, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)Big picture – Top-order troublesIn an IPL season where batting has reached new heights, both Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans are circling the drain, their top-order performances in particular letting the team down on various occasions.Even after seven matches, Shubman Gill is the only half-centurion in his team. Sam Curran, though he was addressing the incredible rise of Ashutosh Sharma, couldn’t help but voice his disappointment at the lack of support.Related

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Big scores, of course, aren’t always necessary in T20 cricket. Rapid 20s and 30s are often enough to put up a team on top. But Kings (SR 128.80) and Titans (130.54) aren’t even managing that. In fact, they have the slowest scoring top three in the competition.Rashid Khan, Shashank Singh and Ashutosh have each bailed their sides out of trouble coming in down the order a fair few times but sooner or later, the others are going to have to start pulling their weight.Form guidePBKS LLLWL (Most recent match first)
GT LWLLWTeam news and Impact Player strategyPunjab Kings
Last Sunday, Kings said Shikhar Dhawan would need a week’s time to recover from a shoulder injury. So this game might be coming a touch too early for him. They also dropped his opening partner Jonny Bairstow after a poor run in the previous game. Will they stick to that or bring him back considering top-order muscle is where they’re most lacking?Probable XII: 1 Sam Curran (capt), , 3 Rilee Rossouw, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Shashank Singh, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Arshdeep Singh, Gujarat Titans
Titans are likely to continue using R Sai Kishore or Shahrukh Khan as their Impact Sub depending on the need of the hour. They may also consider bringing in Azmatullah Omarzai or Josh Little for Noor Ahmad given the lack of help for spin in Mullanpur.Probable XII: 1 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 2 Shubman Gill (capt), , 4 David Miller, 5 Abhinav Manohar, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Mohit Sharma, 9 Azmatullah Omarzai/Josh Little, 10 Spencer Johnson, 11 Sandeep Warrier, Ashutosh Sharma played an innings to remember against Mumbai•BCCIIn the spotlight – Jitesh Sharma and David MillerWhen the IPL began, Jitesh Sharma might have considered himself as India’s first-choice wicketkeeper. Now, after seven innings in which he has been unable to cross 30, and showing worrying signs of regression against pace bowling (average of 11.8 and strike rate of 109.2 in 2024 as opposed to 33.7 and 182.4 in his breakout year in 2022), he might have dropped down the pecking order. Can he pick himself up and dust himself off in time for the squad announcement for the T20 World Cup in May?Titans looked half the side in the games that David Miller missed out this season due to injury. A lot of their success has been down to the South African’s consistency, which he was able to provide without sacrificing on his strike rate. Now that he’s fit again, the team will be looking to him to take control of their middle order.Pitch and conditions – Pace vs spinThe average first-innings score in Mullanpur this IPL is 187. The conditions, as much as they have lent themselves to the batters, have also allowed fast bowlers to prosper. They have picked up 47 wickets – roughly five times as many as the spinners (9) have managed in four games so far.Stats that matter – The Ashutosh and Shashank show Rashid Khan has dismissed Liam Livingstone three times in four innings in the IPL, while giving away 26 runs in 19 balls. But expand that to all T20s and Livingstone holds his own with a strike rate of 172. Among batters who have faced at least 50 balls of Rashid, no one hits him longer or harder. Ashutosh and Shashank have contributed 343 runs at a strike rate of 190 and average of 57. The rest of Punjab have contributed 820 runs at a strike rate of 127 and an average of 20. Titans have slowed down in every phase of play this season when compared to the last one – powerplay (7.42 vs 8.54), middle overs (7.47 vs 8.54) and death (10.21 vs 11.86). An IPL team’s premier strike bowler typically tends to operate in the death and that’s how Kagiso Rabada had been used previously. He did nearly 30% of his work during overs 17 to 20. This season, however, it’s gone down to 10%, potentially because Punjab rely on Arshdeep Singh in that stage of the innings. Rabada has benefited from this switch. He’s still contributing wickets. He’s got 10 this year which puts him joint-fifth, and his economy rate is 8.32 – only in 2019 and 2021 has he been more miserly. Quotes”We would like him back as soon as we can. He is an experienced head at the top of the order, so we’re hoping that he is available for selection soon. He has started to progress well. We have seen some good signs over the last couple of days. We will decide on Sunday morning.”

Statistical highlights

Kanishkaa Balachandran11-Feb-2006 India have now won their last ten matches while chasing a target. This represents a complete reversal in fortunes, where in the ten matches prior to this sequence, India lost nine times while batting second. Click herefor a summary of India’s results in ODIs in the last 20 matches. The partnership of 102 between Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik is the highest for the fifth-wicket at Rawalpindi bettering the previous record of 66 between Michael Bevan and Mark Waugh in 1994-95.

Two weeks before Geoff Lawson arrives to start a new era, Pakistan is buzzing with talk of player unrest and defections to the ICL

Osman Samiuddin16-Aug-2007

The controversy relates to an alleged argument between Shoaib Malik and a board official © AFP
Five months on from the lowest point in their cricket history and into another fresh era, disruption and uncertainty have seemingly crept back into Pakistan cricket.Following persistent reports linking several top players with the Indian Cricket League (ICL), news has also emerged of an impending showdown between a group of senior Pakistan players and a board official, a confrontation that some say may lead to the group boycotting the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.A senior player, speaking to Cricinfo, alleged that an argument between Shoaib Malik, the captain, and Zakir Khan, director cricket operations, PCB, had led to the group of players demanding Zakir’s immediate removal. The players are said to be keen on sending a letter of protest against Zakir’s behaviour to the chairman of the board and to its patron, President Pervez Musharraf.The argument was reportedly over an appeal filed by Shoaib Akhtar against a fine imposed on him by the board for leaving the national training camp in Karachi earlier this month without informing the team management. Akhtar, fined Rs 300,000 [approximately US$5,000], maintains he left the camp after informing the captain.The story, which appeared in several local papers, has been strongly denied by several players and officials. “There is absolutely no truth to this whatsoever,” Malik told Cricinfo. “I was in Karachi and have come straight to Sialkot [his hometown] so where and when was this supposed altercation meant to have taken place? As for the boycott, there is nothing in it at all.”Shahid Afridi, also allegedly part of the group, echoed Malik’s claims. “This is complete rubbish. We are busy preparing for the Twenty20 World Championship and there is no question of any boycott. We have a good relationship with our board and there is no reason to damage it.”Zakir also expressed disbelief at the reports, claiming that his relationship with the players was strong. “My relationship with the team is very cordial. I have a good rapport with them individually and I don’t understand how this story has come about. It is absolutely baseless,” he told Cricinfo.Other management officials have also expressed doubts over whether the players would consider a boycott. One told Cricinfo, “Zakir doesn’t have that much interaction with the players so I am surprised to hear first of an altercation. And I don’t think the players would seriously consider a boycott – they are committed to playing for Pakistan.”Yet there is no smoke without fire and bubbling away in the background is an issue of potentially greater concern: The ICL. Since their omission from the 15-man squad to South Africa, reports have consistently linked Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq with the ICL.Neither has yet signed their central contracts with the board, despite being given an extension in the original deadline to do so. Until August 15 – the extended deadline -neither player had got in touch with the board to reveal their plans. Younis Khan and Danish Kaneria, the others who haven’t yet signed their contracts, have been in touch with board officials to explain the delay (both are playing county cricket currently), further fuelling speculation that Yousuf and Razzaq may shun the PCB for the ICL.Though Razzaq has said publicly he is considering the ICL offer – and risks facing sanction for doing so – Yousuf told Cricinfo earlier in the week that nobody from the ICL had been in touch with him and so there was no question of signing on.Imran Farhat, until recently Pakistan’s first-choice opener, has all but finalised his deal with the ICL while at least two other players still a part of Pakistan’s national selection equation are seriously mulling over ICL offers. Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain, has signed up with Yorkshire for the remainder of the county season but is still keen on the ICL.Asim Kamal, another discard and one of 27 players kept on a retainer by the board has also been approached. “I have to think about it seriously. I want to play cricket and I need to make a living too,” he explained.Geoff Lawson arrives next week to begin his stint as coach. It is meant to formally mark a new beginning. Like many before him, however, he may not be aware of what exactly he has let himself in for.

The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:

Steven Lynch15-Jan-2007The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:

Fred Trueman … in the wickets against India © Getty Images
What is the lowest score at the fall of each wicket in Tests? Has anyone ever been 0 for 6? asked Javed Muhammad from Quetta
The worst is actually 0 for 4, by India against England at Headingley in 1952, when Fred Trueman (who was making his debut) removed three men for ducks and Alec Bedser one. Later in the same series, at The Oval, India slumped to 6 for 5, with Vinoo Mankad making five of those runs. At Old Trafford in 1888 Australia were 7 for 6 in their second innings. For a list of the lowest score at the fall of each wicket, click here. And if you’re rather more excited by the thought of the highest score at the fall of each wicket (which team was once 615 for 1?), then click here.Mike Hussey has now played 16 Tests without losing one. What’s the record for a whole career? And who has played the most Tests without ever winning one? asked Carey Kominsky from Perth
Mike Hussey does indeed have a remarkable record in Tests: he’s played 16 and finished on the winning side 15 times, with one draw (against South Africa at Perth in 2005-06). The record for going unbeaten through a complete career is held by the Indian offspinner Rajesh Chauhan: he played 21 Tests between January 1993 and March 1998, winning 12 and drawing nine. Colin McCool, one of Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles, never finished on the losing side in 14 Tests in his four-year Test career. Eldine Baptiste played ten Tests for West Indies between 1983 and 1990, and ended up on the winning side in all of them. As for losing, the record for a whole career is 42 Tests, by the great New Zealand batsman Bert Sutcliffe. He managed to be absent with an injury when the Kiwis finally won a Test, after 26 years of trying, against West Indies at Auckland in 1955-56, and never did finish on the winning side. A rather surprising name making his way up this particular list is Dwayne Bravo, who has so far played 19 Tests for West Indies without winning one.Why was Adam Gilchrist sporting the name “Church” on his back during the Twenty20 match against England the other day? asked Ashok Mithra from Mumbai
The Australian players had their nicknames on their backs for that Twenty20 match at Sydney. One of Gilchrist’s nicknames is “Church”, or “Churchy”, dating from a time a few years ago when someone called him “Gilchurch” by mistake.Assuming Jason Gillespie does not play another Test match, will his double-century be the highest score by a player in his last Test? asked D. Jackson from Australia
If Jason Gillespie doesn’t play another Test, then his 201 not out for Australia against Bangladesh at Chittagong would only make him the fifth man to score a double-century in his last Test match. Two of those achieved the feat in their last innings, like Gillespie: at Christchurch in 1968-69, Seymour Nurse hit 258 for West Indies against New Zealand. Nurse, who was 35, smashed 34 fours and a six in his innings. After announcing his retirement at the start of the tour he had also scored 95 and 168 in the first of the three Tests. The only other man to sign off with a double-century in his last Test innings is Aravinda de Silva, with 206 for Sri Lanka v Bangladesh in Colombo in July 2002. Andy Sandham (325 for England against West Indies at Kingston in 1929-30) and Bill Ponsford (266 for Australia against England at The Oval in 1934) both exceeded 200 in the first innings of their final Test, but batted again in the second innings. Ponsford also scored 110 on his debut, against England at Sydney in 1924-25, making him the only batsman to start his Test career with a century and finish with a double.According to the records England played Test matches in New Zealand and the West Indies at the same time in 1930. Is this correct? asked Neil
Yes, that was the only time one country has been engaged in two separate Test matches at the same time. Both England’s opponents were new to Test cricket – West Indies had played only three Tests (and lost them all by an innings) in 1928, and New Zealand hadn’t played any at all – so MCC, who organised England’s tours then, probably felt that such an arrangement was feasible, even though several first-choice selections weren’t picked for either tour. The team for New Zealand, led by Sussex’s Harold Gilligan, left first, while the other set of tourists, captained by The Honourable Freddie Gough-Calthorpe of Warwickshire, left shortly afterwards for the West Indies. The first Test at Christchurch (which England won) started on January 10, 1930, and the first one at Bridgetown (drawn) began the next day. The third Test at Georgetown started on the same day as the fourth Test at Auckland. England won the series in New Zealand 1-0, and drew 1-1 in the Caribbean. Plans to play the final Test in the West Indies out to a finish, at Kingston (the one in which Andy Sandham scored 325, as mentioned in the previous question), were scuppered by rain and the need for the England team to catch their boat home – so the match was left drawn after nine days.With Mark Boucher playing his 100th Test, how many other wicketkeepers have reached this landmark? asked Jamie Visser from Cape Town
Mark Boucher became the 43rd player to appear in 100 Test matches – 99 for South Africa, and one for the World XI against Australia at Sydney in 2005-06 – during the first Test against Pakistan at Centurion, but only the second out-and-out wicketkeeper to do so. The first was Australia’s Ian Healy, who won 119 Test caps between 1988-89 and 1999-2000. Alec Stewart played in 133 Tests for England, but only started 82 of those as wicketkeeper. For a list of the most-capped Test players, click here. Steven Lynch’s new book, The Cricinfo Guide to International Cricket 2007, is out now. Click here for more details, or here for our review.

A stats analysis of Muttiah Muralitharan’s 710 Test wickets

S Rajesh and HR Gopalakrishna03-Dec-2007

Paul Collingwood walks back, and Muttiah Muralitharan owns the world record © AFP
Fittingly, it was the doosra that brought him the world record. When Paul Collingwood played down the wrong line to lose his middle-and-off stumps, Muttiah Muralitharan took over from Shane Warne as the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket, in 29 fewer Tests than it had taken Warne to get to 708.The feature of Muralitharan’s career, which has already spanned more than 15 years, has been his phenomenal consistency. In 44 series that he has played in (excluding one-off Tests), only 10 times has his bowling average exceeded 35, and seven of those were before 2000. In the last eight years, his average for each year has never gone beyond 23. (Click here for his career summary, and here for a complete list of his wickets.)The presence of another spin wizard in the same era has meant Murali’s numbers have always been compared with Shane Warne’s. The table below charts the journey for each bowler. Warne was faster off the blocks than Murali, getting to 100 wickets in just 23 Tests, compared to Murali’s 27, but since then Murali has got his wickets at a much quicker rate in terms of dismissals per Test.

The wicket-taking journeys of Murali and Warne

Wicket no. Murali – Tests Average Warne – Tests Average

100 27 31.49 23 24.19 200 42 26.90 42 22.92 300 58 25.17 63 23.56 400 72 23.53 92 26.11 500 87 22.89 108 25.51 600 101 22.35 126 25.24 700 113 21.33 144 25.36 709 116 21.67 – – Murali’s ability to spin the ball was never in doubt from the moment he entered Test cricket, but through most of the first half of his career, the turn was predictable, making him a much easier bowler to tackle. The doosra, though, has added a whole new dimension to his bowling, and made him a far more dangerous proposition for opposition batsmen. The table below tells the story.

Murali’s career in two halves

Wickets Average 5WI/ 10WM

First 58 Tests 302 25.17 24/ 5 Last 58 Tests* 408 19.08 37/ 15 As a matchwinner, Murali has no rival. In the 45 Tests that Sri Lanka have won with him in the team, he has taken a phenomenal 373 wickets – that’s more than eight per match – at an average of 15. Only Warne, with 510, and Glenn McGrath (414) have taken more wickets in wins.

Best matchwinners in Tests (at least 200 wickets in wins)

Bowler Tests Wickets Average Strike rate 5WI/ 10WM

Muttiah Muralitharan 45 373 15.19 41.4 36/ 16 Malcolm Marshall 43 254 16.78 38.1 17/ 4 Curtly Ambrose 44 229 16.86 44.4 13/ 3 Waqar Younis 39 222 18.20 35.0 14/ 4 Dennis Lillee 31 203 18.27 39.0 17/ 6 Shaun Pollock 48 218 18.33 47.8 9/ 1 Anil Kumble 41 279 18.41 44.1 20/ 5 Wasim Akram 41 211 18.48 42.3 13/ 2 Glenn McGrath 84 414 19.19 47.7 18/ 3 Courtney Walsh 52 239 19.72 46.2 10/ 2 Shane Warne 92 510 22.47 51.2 27/ 7Murali’s record has few blemishes, but the two teams he hasn’t quite conquered have been Australia and India. He had a disappointing series in Australia recently, averaging 100 runs per wicket, while in eight Tests he has played in India, he has only managed 31 wickets at 39.58 apiece. Everywhere else, though, his stats are impeccable.

Murali in Australia/ India and the rest

Tests Wickets Average 5WI/ 10WM

In Aus and Ind 13 43 49.58 2/ 0 In all other countries 103 667 19.87 59/ 20The other criticism sometimes levelled – quite unfairly – against Murali is the number of wickets he has taken against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. He has done exceptionally well against them, but remove those matches from his career numbers, and the stats still look very good.

Murali v Zim/ Bang and the rest

Versus Tests Wickets Average 5WI/ 10WM

Zim and Bang 23 163 14.57 16/ 5 All other teams 93 547 23.79 45/ 15 More Murali milestones He is the only bowler to take more than 50 wickets against every opposition team he has played. Collingwood’s wicket was also Murali’s 50th against England at home, making him the only bowler to take 50 home wickets against four sides – Bangladesh, South Africa and Zimbabwe are the others. With 20 ten-wicket hauls in Tests, he is clearly the leader in that category, with the second-placed Warne having managed only half that number. In fact, Murali has taken a ten-for at least once against every opposition that he has played against. His 60 five-wicket hauls is a record as well. Murali’s presence has been good news for the close-in fielders too: Mahela Jayawardene has taken 63 catches off him, which is the most by a bowler-fielder pair, excluding a wicketkeeper. On 30 occasions he has caught a batsman off his own bowling, which is a record. Anil Kumble is next in line with 29. Muralitharan is one of only six bowlers who have dismissed all the eleven batsmen in a Test match. Jim Laker. S Venkataraghavan, Geoff Dymock, Abdul Qadir and Waqar Younis are the others. Murali remains the only bowler to capture 100-plus Test wickets at two venues. He has 143 at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, and 112 wickets in Kandy. He is the only bowler to take 75 or more wickets in a calendar year on three occasions, achieving it in 2000, 2001 and 2006.

Kumble reduced bowling to its essentials, like an artist who simplifies but still retains the meaning of his work

Suresh Menon02-Nov-2008
Anil Kumble: polite, gentle, supremely gifted and modest to a fault © AFP
The spirit was willing but the flesh was 38 years old. Ultimately time, the sportsman’s greatest enemy, claimed Anil Kumble. Pragmatic and inevitable it may be, but Kumble’s decision will bring a lump to the throats of his fans, for he was not just a great bowler, he was a great inspiration. It has become a cliché to say that he was a great competitor; he fought hard without once compromising on dignity or integrity, and that is as important as the number of wickets he took.The sight of Kumble emerging from the pavilion in Antigua six years ago, ready to bowl, his face bandaged, is one of cricket’s most inspiring. He sent down 14 consecutive overs and became the first bowler to dismiss Brian Lara while bowling with a broken jaw. He was due to fly back to Bangalore the following day for surgery, and as he said, “At least I can now go home with the thought that I tried my best.””It was one of the bravest things I’ve seen on the field of play,” said Viv Richards.There is something about sportsmen from Karnataka. The best are polite and gentle, supremely gifted but modest to a fault; they are old-fashioned gentlemen who respect what they do. Think Prakash Padukone or Gundappa Viswanath or BS Chandrasekhar or Rahul Dravid. Kumble fit into this category easily. He remains the same, unaffected soul who began his international career 19 years ago, slightly surprised at being elevated to the highest grade so early.Every time I called him to wish him luck before a landmark, he would respond with, “Hope you’ll be there.” After claiming ten wickets in an innings in Delhi, he sent me a copy of the scoresheet signed by him.He played 41 Tests fewer than Kapil Dev to go past Kapil’s Indian record of 434 wickets; he bowled India to more victories than the entire spin quartet of the 1970s, yet he was condemned to being defined by negatives. The pundits told us he did not spin the ball, that he did not have the classic legspinner’s loop, that he did not bowl slowly enough to get the ball to bite. Kumble was described by what he did not do rather than by what he did.Why do we underrate Kumble, India’s greatest match-winner? There are two reasons. One is the nature of the man himself. Kumble is undemonstrative and quietly confident rather than a noisy performer drawing attention to his deeds. The other is the nature of the aesthetics of cricket appreciation. This involves snobbery of a kind that is not associated with any other sport. It is more blessed to make a stirring 30 full of poetry-provoking strokes than a dogged half-century that might lead to a victory. This is the game’s conceit – it is better to score a flamboyant 25 than to win, or to bowl that extravagant googly that has 50,000 spectators catching their breath than to get a batsman bowled with a straight delivery.The Australian legspinner Arthur Mailey summed it up when he said, “I’d rather spin and see the ball hit for four than bowl a batsman out by a straight one.” This is romantic but ridiculous. Neville Cardus gave this attitude a wide press. He famously wrote: “Who cares for the tussle for championship points if a Ranji be glancing to leg?” By equating the artistic with the beautiful Cardus divorced performance from result and ensured that in the mind of the “true” cricket lover the means would be more important than the ends.As befits an engineering student, Kumble was comfortable with angles and understood that the difference between a good delivery and a bad one is only a matter of inches The dramatic and the vivid can be artistic too, and if there is no great beauty in Kumble’s bowling, there is certainly drama; and by being on the winning side in 43 Tests Kumble has displayed effectiveness too. Erapalli Prasanna once suggested uncharitably that Kumble would not have found a place in the Indian teams of his time. Yet, of the 98 Tests in which one or the other of Prasanna, Bishan Bedi, Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkatraghavan played, India won only 23. This is not to show who was the better bowler but simply to lend some perspective. In the combined 231 Tests that the quartet played, they claimed 853 wickets. Had Kumble played that many he would have finished with 1083 wickets, for his strike-rate per Test, 4.69, is the best among that group. To look at it from another angle, Richie Benaud’s is 3.93 and Shane Warne’s 4.88.Another way of looking at the figures is from the perspective of balls per wicket. Here too, among Indian spinners Kumble leads with a ball every 65.5 deliveries, just ahead of Chandrasekhar. Benaud needed 77 deliveries and Derek Underwood 74. Kumble is among the finest to have played the game.He reduced bowling to its essentials, like an artist who simplifies but still retains the meaning of his work, or a dancer who cuts out unnecessary flourish.There is no percentage in spinning across the face of the bat. The ball has to deviate only a couple of inches to miss the middle and take the edge instead. As befits an engineering student, Kumble was comfortable with angles and understood that the difference between a good delivery and a bad one is only a matter of inches. The amount of bounce he was able to generate often surprised batsmen; spin by itself is harmless unless accompanied by bounce. Above all he was able to create a doubt in the batsman’s mind.It is not necessary for beauty and effectiveness to work together. A Bishan Bedi is the exception rather than the rule. Beauty without cruelty is meaningless in sport. Dismissing batsmen is a cruel trade (from the batsman’s point of view). You don’t need beauty for that; just skill and a large heart. Anil Kumble had both. Let us celebrate that.

The saddest part of this tournament has been watching Brendon McCullum slowly go to pieces

Karna S05-May-2009The saddest part of this tournament has been watching Brendon McCullum slowly go to pieces. The swaggering, tattooed hard-hitting batsman has become almost a thing of memory, replaced by a lonely figure wearing an increasingly haunted look as his team stumbles from one nightmare to another.His trials have not been on the field alone; they have come in the press conferences, where he has attempted to explain the inexplicable. At Port Elizabeth, he snapped at a journalist who asked him whether the exodus of Sanjay Bangar and Aakash Chopra was a sign the team would crack down on poor performers. “What are you trying to get at, mate?” was the terse reply. In Durban last week, asked whether his announcement that he would quit as captain was an emotional reaction, he said, “That’s your call. Captains all over the world feel the pressure and I think should be accountable.”Like any top sportsmen, McCullum is a very competitive man and though his national side, New Zealand, don’t win everything, they don’t lose as badly as Kolkata Knight Riders or look as pathetic. And he has never captained before. “It hurts 20 times more when you lose as a captain,” he has said. Especially captain of a team that can’t bat, can’t bowl and can’t field itself through to a win.Worst of all, the captain has been among the chief non-performers. A man who scored 69 off 55 balls in his last Twenty20 international just over two months ago has been out first ball, has patted short wide balls to fielders, dropped sitters, demoted himself and reinstated himself.He has tried everything but nothing has worked. That has probably hurt the most. “I have found it difficult to deliver messages to the team without having individual performances to stack up,” he said. Only good captains can pull off that trick. Mark Taylor went a year without any batting performances and Sourav Ganguly has been known to get angry with his players for fielding lapses despite being the slowest on the field. It takes strong character and a sense of ownership to achieve it. McCullum’s lack of captaincy experience has been shown up in this tournament. He might have made the offer to quit on grounds of accountability but it has perhaps led to an image of a weak captain and a sensitive man under duress.And alone. Most of his visits to the press conferences have been solo; he’s tried to be frank but has often meandered into an emotional ramble. At various times, he has looked like he could do with a comfortable hug.He got one today in public view. He had just finished the post-match ceremony and was heading towards the press meet when his coach, John Buchanan, stepped from the shadows of the dug out, put a hand over his shoulder and led him all the way to the media room, all the while talking in his ear. It was like an uncle comforting a young nephew over a deeply personal grief.Buchanan tried to deflect the tough questions to himself and butted in with words of encouragement even when the question was directed to McCullum. “It’s no use focusing on the negatives; we have positives to look and something to pat ourselves on our back.” Finding water on a desert must be easier than finding positives from this game or indeed this tournament.Yet he’s maintained his dignity and sense of humour. After an earlier match, when presented with an envelope at the end of the press conference, he peered into it before breaking out into a weak smile: “Does it have any ideas for me?” Today, he handled a tough question with a soft touch. “In this competition, where the points table has been a very close thing, only one thing has been constant. Knight Riders have been always at the bottom.” There was a collective gasp of silence in the room following the question and all eyes turned to McCullum. His lips somehow managed a smile before he said, “That point has not been lost on us as well. But we can’t dwell on that. We need to look at ways to increase our performance; if the results don’t go our way it’s fine. At least we know we tried.”It’s that attitude, that sense of pride, that has won him compassion from even the usually cynical press pack. The talk before the conference today was whether anyone would remind McCullum about his captaincy-quitting promise. In the end, no one asked. Some lines just can’t be crossed.

Wrestling, soccer, digging into some Jamaican cooking, and dishing it out to batsmen – are what keep West Indies’ fiery spearhead ticking

Nagraj Gollapudi11-Jun-2009How may tattoos do you have?
About five – all on the arms. Mostly my son’s name – Thierry Edwards – and his pictures. He is going to turn three on June 25.Is he named after Thierry Henry?
Yes, though I’m not a Barcelona fan. I root for Manchester United.Who is your all-time favourite soccer player?
Diego Maradona. He was very skillful, played with a lot of touches, and had a lot of imagination.Who is the best soccer player in the West Indies squad?
Probably me!How do you make Chris Gayle angry?
Chris Gayle angry?! No one makes him angry.What was the fastest ball you ever bowled?
Probably against Jacques Kallis on my first tour to South Africa. It was around the 97mph mark. What did he do? Nothing. It went for four byes.If you had Allen Stanford’s million, what would you buy?
I don’t have it so I can’t say.You seem to be a John Cena [WWF wrestler] fan. If you were him for a day, which cricketer would you like to face on the mat?
I really don’t know, but I would like to come out on top.Who has the most mojo in the Windies dressing room?
I can’t answer that either.You look like you have a fascination for wrist bands.
I like to be colourful – I have about 10 of them.Who is the fastest bowler you have seen?
Brett Lee and Shoaib AkhtarLet’s test your IPL knowledge. What does VVS in VVS Laxman stand for?
It means Very Very Special.You seem to have a thing with James Anderson. You were after him with bouncers in the recent Test series.
That is part of the game, right? I won’t say what gets me angry, but I can get pretty angry at times.Who is the fastest runner on the West Indies team?
Dwayne Bravo.You missed Andrew Symonds by a few days while playing for the Deccan Chargers in the IPL.
Yeah, yeah, I did. It is a shame we couldn’t celebrate the win in the IPL. I had to join the West Indies squad for the England series.Who’s the best batsman you’ve bowled to?
Maybe not the best, but the one who has given me most trouble is Kallis. He is a solid player who watches every ball very closely and gives you hardly any chance.Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I love Jamaican food.

Praveen Amre’s insistence on getting his bowlers to improve their batting is responsible for Mumbai getting this far

Siddarth Ravindran in Mysore13-Jan-2010Last Ranji season, Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane laid domestic attacksto waste, each stacking up in excess of 1000 runs – a touchstone of Ranji batting excellence. On the back of their performances, Mumbai swept to the title.This season, Jaffer and Rahane are Mumbai’s heaviest run-getters as well,but haven’t shown the magical form of 2008-09. Still, Mumbai enter thefourth day of the final in good shape to retain the crown. That has beendown to their coach Praveen Amre’s Duncan Fletcher-esque insistence on gettinghis bowlers to improve their batting. Their record of not having beendefeated outright in a Ranji game for more than three years remains intactmainly due to the lower order dousing the flames each time the top ordercombusted.In their first match,they were seven down and 31 short of Punjab’s first-innings score -Ramesh Powar and Onkar Khanvilkar secured the lead with a 173-run stand.AgainstHimachal Pradesh, they were only 160 ahead and seven down in thesecond innings – Ajit Agarkar makes a century and puts on 91 withIqbal Abdulla, and Mumbai go on to win.It was a similar theme in Mysore. After Wasim Jaffer bravely chose to bat,the swing and accuracy of R Vinay Kumar had them gasping at 106 for 6. Noproblem. Vinayak Samant grinds out a half-century despite being struck on the helmet by an Abhimanyu Mithun snorter, and Mumbai reach the respectability of 233.In the second innings, Mithun scythed through the top order to leave thevisitors at 51 for 5. Enter another unlikely batting hero, Dhawal Kulkarni, whose only half-century was way back in 2005 for Mumbai Under-17s. Unfazed by the bouncers hurled at him at the start of theinnings, he set about blunting the Karnataka attack with Abhishek Nayar.The trouble for Karnataka was the back-up for Mithun and Vinay wasinadequate. In both innings, they got the breakthroughs with the new ball,but the rest of the attack couldn’t follow up. S Aravind was ineffective,Sunil Joshi’s experiments with Saqlain Mushtaq-like deliveries bowled frombehind the stumps didn’t yield results and Stuart Binny wasn’t even usedin the second innings.Mithun and Vinay had already sent down 16 overs and couldn’t carry on muchlonger when Kulkarni walked out. Once they were seen off, the Mumbaibatsmen got the breathing space they needed to play themselves in. Withhardly any alarms they collected 36 runs, prompting the captain Robin Uthappa to bringback an exhausted Vinay into the attack just before stumps on the thirdday. The result? An uncharacteristically erratic Vinay was slapped forfive off-side fours in two overs by Kulkarni.It was a bizarre wagon-wheel for Kulkarni at the end of the second day -34 runs on the off side, and only one on the leg side, and that too when hefended a sharp bouncer to backward square leg.The trend continued on the third day. A wicket looked round the cornerwhen Mithun and Vinay had the ball, only for the batsmen to re-assertthemselves once the other came on to bowl. Kulkarni continued to slashthrough the off side, and when a square-drive for four took him to hishalf-century, he celebrated by joyously twirling his bat in thedirection the dressing-room. What better occasion for a maiden first-classfifty, when the team is in a crisis in the second innings of thebiggest match of the season.Kulkarni remained hard to prise out even after three quick wickets, andstarted stitching a partnership with the No. 10 Ramesh Powar. In a bid tocut the off-side runs, Karnataka adopted a 7-2 field, only to concede easyruns in the massive vacant arc between mid-on and fine leg. Again, itneeded a new ball and Karnataka’s spearheads to return and snap a 61-run ninth-wicket association, but by then Mumbai’s lead had stretched past 310, the highesttarget ever chased down in a Ranji final. Strengthening the lower-order has been a priority for Mumbai at the startof the season, and Amre said. “We worked with Dhawal and Iqbalespecially,” he said. “When you want to win the championship all the 11have to contribute, especially in the batting.”The investment has paid – Abdulla has three half-centuries this season,and Kulkarni’s 87 looks set to extend Karnataka’s Ranji title drought. “Iwas not expecting that many runs from Dhawal,” Amre said, “butI was sure he would be part of a good partnership and I think he has gotsound defence.”The mood of the festive crowd that will flock to the Gangothri Glades islikely to sour, unless Karnataka’s lower order emulate their Mumbaicounterparts’ heroics.

Plays of the Day from the fifth day of the second Test between India and New Zealand in Hyderabad

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Nov-2010Stamp of the day
Brendon McCullum was on 197. He had erased his previous best – a 185 against Bangladesh – and he had saved the Test. On the verge of his maiden double-century, McCullum displayed a wonderful sense of occasion by bringing it up with a shot he hadn’t played so far in the innings, and one that he invented. He moved slightly towards the off side, got down on one knee, waited for Suresh Raina’s delivery to reach him and played the McScoop over MS Dhoni to the fine-leg boundary. The celebrations were disproportionate to the magnitude of the achievement: he merely took off his helmet and raised his bat, acknowledging the cheers of the little boy wearing a No. 42 New Zealand jersey with McCullum’s name on it.Over-the-top reaction of the day
Another celebration on the final day was disproportionate to the magnitude of the achievement. Harbhajan Singh had just had his long appeal for lbw against Kane Williamson upheld by umpire Simon Taufel. And the moment he saw that finger go up, Harbhajan let out a fierce whoop and punched the air. It was probably a release of frustration rather than elation for he had been wicketless for 34 overs and victory had long slipped out of India’s reach. Replays indicated the ball would have missed leg stump comfortably as well.India’s chance of the day
It came just after the first hour, in the 92nd over of the New Zealand innings. McCullum was batting on 148 when he pushed forward at Harbhajan and got an inside edge and flew towards the left of the fielder at forward short leg. Cheteshwar Pujara had taken a sharp catch off Tim McIntosh at that position on the fourth day, but this time he was slow to react and the ball hit his hand before he was ready to grab the opportunity.Paybacks of the day
Daniel Vettori had suffered at Harbhajan’s hands. He had watched helplessly as Harbhajan charged and smashed him over long-on and long-off for several sixes. Today, facing his third ball from Harbhajan, Vettori got down on one knee and swept to the deep midwicket boundary. Small consolation. Sreesanth had also suffered at Tim Southee’s hands, wearing several bouncers on his body while he supported Harbhajan in a century last-wicket stand. He waited one ball before banging it into Southee’s chest this afternoon and followed up the bouncer with a lingering, cold stare.Mini-tussle of the day
The 129th over. McCullum decided it was time to let Sreesanth have it. He stepped out to the first ball and smashed Sreesanth over mid-off. The next delivery was shorter and wider and the fielder at point trudged to the boundary to collect it after a McCullum lash. The third was slower and McCullum attempted to whack it for six but skied it over the bowler’s head instead. As McCullum ran past Sreesanth, knowing that India’s best fielder Suresh Raina was settling under the ball, Sreesanth, who normally celebrates animatedly, folded his arms across his chest with a flourish and remained in mock motionlessness until and after the catch was taken.Attack of the day
Williamson had been struck flush on the helmet by Sreesanth late last evening. This morning, he was doing the striking. Williamson glanced his first delivery, from Sreesanth, to the long-leg boundary. The shot that followed a ball later was a little Tendulkar-like: a neat, compact punch between the bowler and the stumps for four. Williamson wasn’t done and he steered the next ball to the third man boundary. New Zealand took 13 runs off the first over of the day and a giant stride mentally towards saving the Test.