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England has been a happy hunting ground for the man who replaces Symonds in Australia’s order

Brydon Coverdale12-Jun-2009Early next week a planeload of Australian Test specialists will reach London to prepare for the Ashes, and try to put the team’s Twenty20 humiliation firmly in the past. Most of the five-day men have created Fleet Street headlines already. Not Marcus North. Despite his shaping as a pivotal player the tabloids have found him as interesting as a bowl of porridge.There have been howls of protest at Phillip Hughes’ acclimatising with centuries for Middlesex, Stuart Clark has caused indignation by trying for a county stint before visa problems arose, and Andrew McDonald has been photoshopped into a fast-food clown. Although North, who will turn 30 during the Ashes, has avoided the spotlight, he knows what it’s like to be an Australian in England in an Ashes year.”I had a very short stint at Lancashire for about seven or eight weeks in 2005,” North told Cricinfo. “I was watching it on TV, so it wasn’t a great time for me. The English supporters and public were waiting for that day to beat us. I got plenty of stick over there, that’s for sure.”Back then there was nothing North could do to help Australia’s cause. This time, despite his career being just two Tests old, he looms as a key man for the team’s balance. A century on debut in Johannesburg sealed his spot as a calming influence at No. 6, and his part-time offbreaks will be important if spin-thin Australia choose an all-pace attack.But it’s his batting that ought to earn him England’s respect. Of Australia’s 16-man touring party only Simon Katich and Michael Hussey have played more first-class cricket in England than North, whose tally includes stints for five counties and an average of 50 or more in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Australia’s selectors admire his ability to score his runs in tough circumstances, and a reverse-swinging Duke is nothing new to North.”That’s probably going to be the key to the batting, to adjust and combat that swing quickly,” he said. “We’ve seen that Jimmy Anderson is swinging the ball consistently both ways, and that’s something I think proved a big weapon in the 2005 Ashes campaign.”They’re both very strong attacks. The English will be suited to their English conditions. Jimmy Anderson has really come of age, Stuart Broad is maturing each Test that he plays, and Ryan Sidebottom has got an extremely good record in England, as well as [Andrew] Flintoff if he’s fit. They’re going to be a tough opposition. They’ve got a pretty well-balanced bowling attack.”Not that many bowling outfits are scarier than Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel, who North saw off to become the 18th Australian to score a century on Test debut. It was the first time in a decade-long career that North, who eschews the on-field flashiness favoured by his Test predecessor Andrew Symonds, had truly grabbed the attention of the Australian cricket public.”Three months have gone past and it feels like yesterday,” North said. “I’ll be honest, I still pinch myself a little bit. It’s an achievement I’ll remember for the rest of my days, but that’s gone now, that’s the last series, and my focus is on doing well and trying to establish myself as a player in England.”Marcus North has represented five counties, so the reversing Duke should not be news to him•Hampshire County Cricket ClubHis preparation has involved a couple of trips to the Centre of Excellence, although Australia resisted the temptation of sending him for specialist spin training in the lead-up to the Ashes. He collected his maiden first-class five-wicket haul during a tour match in South Africa, and his presence will tempt the selectors to squeeze out Nathan Hauritz and choose four fast men.”In the past I’ve looked at myself as a part-time bowler, but it’s something that I’ve identified in the last 18 months to really work hard on,” he said. “I feel that I can hold my own with the ball, and I can offer Ricky a good option, not just as a holding role, but an attacking role as the wickets get a bit more worn on the fourth and fifth day.”Unlike most Test rookies North knows plenty about what a leader requires from his troops. Two seasons ago he was named captain of Western Australia, and it sharpened his focus on his own role in the team. Runs began to come on difficult surfaces when his side needed him the most, and it pushed him to the top of the queue when Symonds became unavailable.”One of the best things that happened in my career was getting the captaincy of Western Australia,” he said. “That was a huge honour and gave me a real focus to try and improve Western Australian cricket. It gave me that responsibility, which carried into my game as well.”I felt that it was in tough conditions or when the team needed it the most that I performed. I felt that’s probably given me a hardened edge as a first-class player, which hopefully will hold me in good stead at Test level.”It started well in South Africa. The next phase begins a couple of days earlier than expected, after his flight was brought forward because of Australia’s premature exit from the ICC World Twenty20. But until the Tests begin, expect North to keep flying under the radar.

The Australian captain’s decision to bat on a testing surface was a result of an overestimation of his team’s abilities

Peter English at the SCG03-Jan-2010Ricky Ponting has experienced major bouts of discomfort over the past month but his team’s self-inflicted pain on the opening day in Sydney could turn into the most damaging of the summer. Boosted by Australia’s resurgence in Melbourne last week and convinced that his hastily re-jigged order could perform like his men of three years ago, Ponting ignored the specks of green across the pitch, won the toss and batted. Just like Mark Taylor or Steve Waugh would have done.Ponting doesn’t have charge of the same quality as that duo and just when he thinks his side is ready to dominate again in every terrain, his emerging men show they aren’t. After 44.2 overs of struggle in extremely challenging conditions, Australia dripped to 127 on a slippery day, their third total of 160 or under since The Oval in August.Since Edgbaston in 2005, when England scored 407 in a day on the way to a series-turning victory, Ponting has stuck rigidly to a bat-first policy during 23 toss wins. Despite his leadership and tactical gains over the past year he refused to be flexible and the decision has given Pakistan an opening to level the three-match series.Still remembering those increasingly hazy days at the start of his captaincy reign, Ponting expected his openers to shoulder arms and shovel through the hardest situation of the summer. Except he no longer has a Matthew Hayden or a Justin Langer. Not even a Simon Katich, who was scratched shortly before the toss with an elbow problem. Even before then it was always going to be a day for the bowlers whenever the showers stopped, which they did after lunch.Michael Hussey didn’t have a say in the decision, but he knew what Ponting would do. “I did joke with Ricky a day before the game saying he batted at Jo’burg in first Test against South Africa [early last year] and that wicket had branches growing on it,” Hussey said. “I didn’t think he’d bowl first on any wicket in the world and there’s proof again today.”Ponting’s over-confidence in his outfit left Shane Watson, a stroke-maker in conventional conditions appearing in his third series as opener, as the senior partner with Phillip Hughes, a 21-year-old in his sixth Test. Hughes has little experience of green tops, although the conditions were similar to his debut innings when he lasted four balls, and had a rushed entry after replacing Katich. Ponting demanded his openers to swim in the damp conditions, but by the time they had both sunk, the captain had joined them at the bottom of the dressing room.It’s acceptable to flap about after being sent in, but there is less sympathy for a side after it has selected the method of execution, and then added to the torture by sharpening the tools. Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Asif were outstanding, but both were helped by some Australian gifts on a day when reputations could have been made or, in Ponting’s case, reconfirmed.Ponting knew it would be tough and understood that intense application would be required to survive the swing and seam. Then he played a soft shot to his opening ball, being hurried into a pull to deep square leg. Other batsmen contributed to their respective dismissals, but none was more culpable than Ponting.

It’s acceptable to flap about after being sent in, but there is less sympathy for a side after it has selected the method of execution, and then added to the torture by sharpening the tools

Mark Taylor had been this brave at the toss at Old Trafford in 1997, but he was certain someone would emerge from that jungle and watched Steve Waugh return with two centuries. Ponting doesn’t have anyone of that class except himself, and he hasn’t been the same since his left elbow was squashed by Kemar Roach’s bouncer in Perth. At the WACA he was caught at short leg fending in the second innings, a justified reaction to another Roach lifter given the bruise in his arm, but in an effort to protect his injury and show he is not frightened by the fast men, he has been determined to pull. Twice in a row he has fallen that way against Pakistan.A captain needs to realise when self-expression and personal battles have to be shelved to show an impressionable team how to wade through a Test’s most difficult day. That can’t be done when the No.3 exits at 2 for 2 in the fourth over.Hughes had already departed for 0, being fortunate to stay for as long as 10 balls on his comeback. Caught between swaying and swinging, he aimed a drive without moving either foot and was taken at second slip, missing out on a chance to impress at home. A gritty half-century would have created a lasting memory for the selectors and those seeing him bat in Australia for the first time.Watson (6) was undone by his front-foot press and as he forced himself on to the back foot was unable to deal with the seam of Sami, sending a catch behind. Michael Clarke, Australia’s most bankable batsman last year, stayed 51 minutes before his self-control departed on 3 and he walked a big drive at Asif. Having seen a couple of outswingers, he left a hole between bat and pad for an off-cutter to slice through.A similar lapse occurred to Michael Hussey, who knew plays and misses were to be ignored, but he couldn’t eliminate his occasionally compulsive tendency to hook. When the ball arrived faster than Hussey calculated on 28, he was caught off the top edge at first slip. It wasn’t a shot to be playing at 4 for 51 and he called it “silly”.Marcus North edged behind in familiar fashion and Brad Haddin walked out wanting to smash his team to 300 before stumps. Some days it works – usually when the wicket lacks spice – but today it didn’t. He left after an ugly skew to mid-off and seven specialist batsmen had gone for 62.Under these conditions batting a long time is the key, and defence the most important weapon. The surface looked like how distracted parents paint ceilings, with a decent coverage through the middle and patchy sections closer to the edge. Bowlers crave such green patterns and Australia’s fast men begged to use it first but were over-ruled by Ponting. At the end of the day the attack, led by Mitchell Johnson’s team-high 38, had already batted on it, praying it would retain its darting seam for another day.

The stadium in Pallekele is designed to look and feel like the SuperSport Park in South Africa

02-Nov-2010Kandy has long been one of the major centres of cricket in Sri Lanka, where the sport has been nurtured by the rivalry between the city’s many prestigious schools, such as St Anthony’s, Trinity and Dharamaraja. Much of the high-level cricket in the city used to be played in the grounds of these schools. Trinity’s Asgiriya was developed into a major international venue around the time Sri Lanka gained Test status in 1981. The new stadium, built for the 2011 World Cup in Pallekele, about 30 minutes away from the heart of Kandy, has since displaced Asgiriya as the international venue of choice in the region.The venue
One of the two new stadiums built in Sri Lanka for the 2011 World Cup, the Pallekele stadium hsa been designed along the lines of Centurion’s SuperSport Park, and replicates the South African venue’s famed grass banks. After the World Cup, the venue was handed to the navy indefinitely because the cost of constructing it and the stadium in Hambantota, and redeveloping the R Premadasa in Colombo, left Sri Lanka Cricket financially crippled.Ground page | Fixtures | Map | PicturesGreat players
Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara, Ruwan Kalpage, Ranjan Madugalle, Chamara Kapugedera andTB Kehelgamuwa.Home team
The Pallekele Stadium is the base of Kandurata, the team which represents Central Province in Sri Lanka’s domestic tournaments. Almost everyone in the current first XI has international experience, which helped them win the one-day tournament in 2009-10.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the World Cup, Group A match between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in Pallekele

Osman Samiuddin in Pallekele14-Mar-2011Decision of the day
Overcast conditions, worried about a top order that has performed in just one game so far, against a side with a dangerous pace attack but a potentially wonky batting order; what do you do when you win the toss as captain of one of cricket’s weaker sides? You don’t bat Elton.Catch of the day
Never has a straightforward edge behind to the wicketkeeper brought as much relief to the XI on the field and millions back home as that held by Kamran Akmal in the very first over of the game. Brendan Taylor had timed one through the covers beautifully, but off Abdul Razzaq’s fifth ball of the innings he stepped out and nibbled at one. Kamran moved to his right easily to pouch it; it was probably one Taylor too late, but there you go. It set up a near-flawless performance behind the stumps.Dismissals of the day
One day a thesis will be written: “Ego and bluster – A history of Pakistan batting failure against left-arm spin.” Who knows what goes on in their heads the second a left-arm spinner comes on? Clearly not much, given what has gone on in the past. Kamran Akmal has already done it twice in this tournament and you just knew way back when the schedules were drawn up for this shebang that the moment Ray Price came on, some young, brash kid would charge down the pitch, hit only air and be stranded halfway down the pitch, close enough to hear Price giggling away. It took ten balls on this occasion for Ahmed Shehzad to meet that very fate. And Shahid Afridi? Well, the only surprise was he wasn’t charging down the pitch.Surprise of the day
Pakistan v Zimbabwe in Pallekele you say? Wouldn’t have thought that to be in many people’s plans for a rainy Monday evening 15km outside Kandy? You would think wrong. Nearly ten thousand people turned up for this rain-interrupted, and to be honest, fairly predictable game at this spanking new stadium. If that doesn’t seem a lot, it certainly sounded a lot through a day with heavy showers and more than two hours playing time lost. They didn’t get bored easily either, only attempting the Mexican Wave once.Cheer(s) of the day
The charismatic Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was greeted by rapturous cheers every time he did, well, anything: when he was introduced as a bowler, as batsman, or when shown randomly hanging around in the dressing room on the big screen.Stat of the day
This was Pakistan’s first successful chase in a World Cup match since the 1999 semi-final against New Zealand in Manchester. They have won six World Cup games in that time, but all while batting first.

Plays of the Day from the IPL game between Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors in Jaipur

Nitin Sundar01-May-2011The reverse-jinx
It wasn’t a good day for practitioners of one of the most popular unconventional shots in the game. Robin Uthappa got more than half his runs against Rajasthan against spin with that shot. Johan Botha got half his runs in IPL 2011 playing that shot. But today, both of them perished attempting the reverse-sweep. Uthappa had already reverse-swept Shane Warne for two fours in seven balls when he went for the shot again, to a ball landing well outside leg stump and bouncing. He top-edged, and the wicketkeeper completed the catch. During the chase, Botha had already reversed his stance to redirect Yuvraj Singh to third man, before trying the same against Rahul Sharma. It was fuller and quicker than he thought, though, and jammed into his boot before the bat could come down, leaving him plumb in front.The lull after the storm
Uthappa v Warne was one of the most exciting mini-battles of the season. In eight balls of thrill-a-second action, it included two reverse-sweeps for fours, one sweep for four, one lofted flick for four, three near lbws, and finally a wicket. With Yuvraj walking out at Uthappa’s dismissal, one expected the excitement to continue. Warne played along, tossing one up full and wide outside off. Yuvraj leaned out with intent, and the anticipation was unmistakeable. Will he drive against the spin? Will he loft him straight? Will he pop a return catch? None of that happened. Yuvraj shouldered arms. Anticlimax.The imitation
From the moment Ashok Menaria first appeared on the scene, he has been compared to Yuvraj. The same build and gait, the same demeanour, the same swagger that suggests extreme confidence, and even the tendency to bowl seemingly innocuous left-arm spin. Today Menaria played a shot straight out of the Yuvraj book of audacity. It was a pacy ball from Jerome Taylor, homing in on the pads from a length. Crouched stance in place, Menaria calmly skipped inside the line, and whip-lashed it with minimal effort for one of the biggest sixes of the match. It wasn’t helping his team’s cause, but the opposition captain would have approved of the execution.The namesakes
Rahul Sharma got only two balls at the most illustrious Rahul to have played for India – Rahul Dravid. He dismissed him with the second, despite dropping it really short. Dravid went for the pull and hit it hard, but straight back at the bowler. Later in the day, the Taylors – Jerome and Ross – went up against each other. This time, Jerome could have dismissed Ross almost immediately. It was a length ball on the stumps, and Ross went for his bread-and-butter slap-slog over the leg side and mis-hit it. Two fielders converged from the deep, but it landed safe.The unintended seamer
Not too many balls moved off the pitch on this slow and low Jaipur wicket, where both teams opened with spinners. Rajasthan’s medium-pacers did not look to get the ball to move much, with Siddharth Trivedi resorting to slow offcutters, and Shane Watson to a bumper barrage. Later in the evening, though, one ball moved away magically off the seam. Alfonso Thomas angled in from slightly wide of the crease, and nipped it sharply away from Watson, who went for the drive and ended up edging it behind. Funnily, though, replays revealed that the movement was accidental. Thomas had released the ball with a crossed seam, and it happened to land on the thread and jag away.

ESPNcricinfo presents plays of the day from Cardiff where Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell piled on the runs

ESPNcricinfo staff29-May-2011Shock of the day
It happened on six occasions in the course of this winter’s Ashes, so it’s not as if the sight is completely alien to Test-match viewers. Nevertheless, the dismissal, in the 97th over, of Alastair Cook for 133 still came as quite a shock – not least to Sri Lanka’s bowlers, who had hardly induced so much as a play-and-a-miss in the course of his 251-stand with Jonathan Trott. Farveez Maharoof, playing his first Test since November 2007, extracted a touch of lift outside off, and for once Cook’s cut shot let him down, as Prasanna Jayawardene reached to his left to intercept.Shot of the day
Kevin Pietersen was, in Cook’s words, feeling a bit of “pad-rash” by the close of day three, having been sweating in the hot seat throughout Cook and Trott’s alliance. But when Ian Bell’s turn came to bat, he showed no signs of similar anxiety. He got himself off the mark with a cool-as-you-like dab for two, then strode out of his crease to the left-armer Rangana Herath, and stroked him up and over the sightscreen at the River Taff End.Sight of the day
Midway through the afternoon session, a man in a skin-tight yellow morph suit decided to go for a jog round the perimeter of the ground. He demonstrated a serviceable bowling action as he skipped along the seating at midwicket, and later bowed to a posse of nuns down at third man. It was, by common consent, a more memorable passage of play than anything produced by the unquestionably admirable Trott.Comic fielding of the day – 1
It would be harsh to suggest that Sri Lanka’s fielding standards went to pieces in the course of England’s innings, because their bowlers forced so few chances that no-one was properly tested. Nevertheless, early in Bell’s innings, the substitute fielder Suraj Randiv suffered a moment to forget, when his despairing dive towards the rope turned into an anti-athletic belly-flop on the quick-drying and, consequently, un-slide-friendly outfield.Comic fielding of the day – 2
Sri Lanka showed there were several ways of diving too early. If Randiv showed the head-first method to get a close look at the ball dribbling past, Maharoof demonstrated the slide like a footballer desperately trying to keep the ball in play. He slid to a stop well before the trickled past him to the boundary.Non-milestone of the day
With the play meandering, the main interest after Trott reached his double-century surrounded whether Bell could post his 13th Test century before stumps. He needed two off the final over, and Eoin Morgan turned over the strike after three deliveries. Bell blocked the first ball, before the crowd cheered as Dilshan tossed one down the leg side past the keeper. Bell started to sprint, and as he completed the runs he looked hopefully at the umpire, who raised his hand to signal byes, much to the crowd’s disappointment.

The Nawab of Pataudi showed spirit, courage and a touch of anger when he made 75, batting with an injured leg, at the MCG

22-Sep-2011’s list of the top 25 Indian Test innings.Pataudi batted with a cool head and brought authority and intelligence to the innings•Getty ImagesKN Prabhu Pataudi’s 75 was, as one observer termed it, “an innings played with one leg and one eye” in a thin drizzle on a dark day. To add to the handicap of his vision, he had also suffered a pulled hamstring, but he played stirringly despite these problems, in difficult batting conditions. One school of thought has it that Pataudi’s and his team’s struggles were partly of his own making, for he himself chose to bat on a pitch that was so green that I could only distinguish it from the rest of the ground because the grass had been rolled. But he did not have much by way of pace bowling, and he must have been hoping that his spinners would come into their own in the fourth innings. As it happened, his batting line-up fell around him on the first day, but he found some support from Rusi Surti, and as the day went on he proceeded to play some thrilling leg-side strokes, including several hooks. I remember Lindsay Hassett coming up to me during the game and saying, “That’s the way Bradman used to attack the bowling.”
Times of IndiaAjit Wadekar I was lucky enough to watch Pataudi’s first-day 75 from a very unusual vantage point: square leg, where I stood as his runner. We had lost the first Test in Adelaide, and the MCG wicket was supposed to be lively in the first session. But we didn’t have the fast bowlers to make use of that, and maybe that prompted Tiger to elect to bat, a decision I am sure he went on to rue as the match progressed. As expected, the ball was swinging both ways under the clouds, and the Indian batsmen ran for cover against Graham McKenzie and Co. By lunch we were six down, and even 100 looked distant. Tiger was bravely waging a lone battle in the middle. He had suffered a hamstring injury in the first tour game and had been unavailable till the Melbourne Test. He was keen, I guess, to prove that his decision to bat was correct. And in that anger he started middling the ball, lifting it over the inner circle. He was not afraid at all, and in this way he put question marks in the bowlers’ minds as to where exactly to bowl to him. With these unusual methods he pushed the team along from 47 for 6 to 162.
Jack Fingleton Pataudi was an interesting study as captain. I always felt that he batted too low in the order, mostly at No. 6, and he advanced as the reason for this his leg disability. He thought, being unable to run sharp singles, that he would rob his best batsmen of runs if he batted higher, but such was his skill, such was the authority which came into the Indian innings as soon as he appeared, that, on balance, I do think he erred in not batting at least No. 4. Melbourne was a case in point. India made a woeful beginning, 25 for 5. Pataudi entered at this crisis, and looked a tragic figure as he walked in, dragging his injured leg. But, immediately, there came into the Indian innings character, intelligence and respectability. He showed first of all that he had a cool head and was not going to toss his wicket away. Pataudi played a glorious innings, taking the Australian bowling by the scruff.
Indian Cricket 1968

Stats highlights from another day that belonged completely to Australia

S Rajesh05-Jan-2012Michael Clarke became only the second batsman, after Don Bradman, to score a Test triple-century from the No.5 position•Getty Images Michael Clarke’s 329 not out is the 25th triple-century in Test history, of which ten have been scored since 2000. It’s the seventh by an Australian, and also the seventh by a Test captain, four of which have come since 2004. Clarke’s hundred came at No.5, which makes it the second by a batsman not in the top four. The only other such instance was by Don Bradman, who scored 304 at Headingley in 1934 from No.5. India conceded a first-innings lead of 468, which is their fourth-highest in Tests. Three of those have come when they’ve batted first and got bowled out cheaply, and all have been in the last 13 months – at Edgbaston last year they conceded a lead of 486 after getting bowled out for 224, while in Centurion in December 2010 they conceded a lead of 484 after scoring 136. On all of those instances, the lead could have been even higher had the opposition not declared their innings. The 334-run stand between Clarke and Michael Hussey is Australia’s third-highest for the fifth wicket in Tests, and their highest against India. It’s also the highest by any team against India for that wicket, surpassing the 293-run stand between Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper in Georgetown in 2002. There were two 250-plus partnerships in the Australian innings, the first time this has ever happened in Test cricket. There have been 20 instances of two 200-plus stands, of which Australia have contributed five, but this was the first time they’d managed two consecutive 200-plus partnerships. India have been at the receiving end five times. The previous such instance in Test cricket also involved India, in Centurion in 2010, when there were double-century stands by South Africa for the third and fourth wickets. Michael Hussey notched up his 16th Test hundred, but this was only his third score of 150 or more. This was also his highest against India. Clarke’s knock means the SCG has become the 19th venue to witness a Test triple-century. Antigua and Headingley are the only grounds where three triples have been scored. Rahul Dravid has been bowled 52 times in Test cricket, which is only one short of Allan Border’s record. In his last nine Test innings, Dravid has been bowled six times.

Sri Lanka dug themselves a hole in Galle but had their captain to thank for digging them out of it again

Andrew McGlashan in Galle26-Mar-2012Sri Lanka have been playing one-day cricket for the last three months and it showed on the opening day in Galle. With one notable exception. Mahela Jayawardene has the ability to make batting effortless even when others around him are digging a hole and he single-handedly defied the England attack to ensure Sri Lanka had enough runs on the board to be firmly in the contest.To say that Jayawardene has jumped at the chance to captain Sri Lanka again, after replacing Tillakaratne Dilshan, is stretching his enthusiasm for the job. “It’s a new challenge for me and I’m enjoying it at the moment,” he said the day before the Test started. The captaincy, though, does appear to inspire his batting as he averages more than 70 as as leader – not that his overall mark of 51.14 is shabby. Perhaps the more remarkable statistic is his 13 hundreds from 29 Tests as captain, a phenomenal conversion rate of nearly one every other match.And this one, his 30th overall and seventh against England, can go down as one of his best partly because, unlike many of his team-mates, he has seamlessly switched from one-day cricket to Test mode. He was at the crease in the third over after James Anderson struck twice in two balls and set the tone by calmly playing out the hat-trick delivery. There is not much that gets Jayawardene flustered. His first scoring shot was a cut behind point and three deliveries later he whipped another boundary off his pads to send ominous warnings to England.”Everyone is very aware what a special innings it was,” Graham Ford, the Sri Lanka coach, said. “It’s very tough to go in in that situation on a pitch that doesn’t look to be that easy to score freely on. When you are under pressure you need to absorb and it was a fine example of that. Gradually he fought into the innings then put the pressure back on the opposition.”Not that Jayawardene entirely shelved one-day mode. His play of Graeme Swann showed all the hallmarks of the limited-overs game as he milked the offspinner, having greeted him third ball with a slog-sweep for six, to the extent that he took 59 runs off the 68 balls Swann delivered to him.”He’s been around the game for such a long time and everyone knows what a great cricketing brain he’s got,” Ford said. “That was a decision to try and disrupt things, he was battling like crazy to get us out of a hole and one of the ways to do that was to disrupt the bowlers and he’s a good enough player to carry it out.”The importance of his wicket was shown when Andrew Strauss used up England’s final review – the first having been wasted in the opening over the match – for an lbw shout by Swann during the first session. It was perhaps worth a gamble with two in the bank, but England were desperate to remove Jayawardene.He was dropped on 90, when he chipped a slower ball back at Anderson, and next ball swung a good-length delivery over midwicket. Yet even that was grace mixed with power. The innings, already a gem, became a masterclass as he farmed the strike with the lower-order for company. The eighth and ninth wickets have so far added 100 runs with Rangana Herath and Chanaka Welegedera contributing 15 between them.”It’s one of the better Test innings I’ve seen, considering no one else got much above 20,” Anderson said. “He had the knack of knowing when to go for a big shot and when to grind it out a bit.”Last year when Australia played at Galle the pitch received an ICC warning for excessive early turn. Yet Jayawardene still managed to score 105 in the second innings. By comparison, this first-day pitch will have felt like a featherbed. That’s not the reality, however. This surface is far better than the one produced last August – Galle could not afford another dodgy strip – but there was still enough turn to suggest spin will play a key role as the match develops.One delivery, in particular, from Swann leapt from a good length and took Jayawardene’s glove only to loop just out of the fingertips of a diving Anderson running back at slip. It was the exception rather the norm but, as often in Sri Lanka, batting last won’t be easy. Yet the ease with which Jayawardene batted as shadows lengthened also showed that all is required is a bit of application.It should come as no surprise that Jayawardene has made runs at Galle. When he collected a boundary off Monty Panesar to move to 69 he reached 2000 runs on the ground and became the first batsman to cross that landmark at two venues, the other being the SSC in Colombo. After being reminded of what Jayawardene can produce England will be grateful that the second Test is at least being staged at the P Sara Oval where he averages a positively human 41.Edited by David Hopps

The recent failures of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are a reminder of the bad old days of 10-15 years ago when the No. 3 Rahul Dravid was virtually opening the innings after the openers flopped

Siddarth Ravindran in Bangalore01-Sep-2012One of the central planks of India’s ascent to the No. 1 spot three years ago was the stability provided at the top of the order by the free-scoring Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. For a country that had perpetually been on the lookout for a quality Test opening partnership since the retirement of Sunil Gavaskar in 1987, the reliable Sehwag-Gambhir combination ensured India’s vastly experienced middle-order was finally shielded from the new ball.Since Gambhir’s recall to the Test side in July 2008, the pair established themselves as one of the most feared opening partnerships in world cricket. By the end of 2010 they had become India’s most prolific first-wicket pair, but since the capitulation in Centurion in December 2010, they haven’t put on a century stand and the drought of individual hundreds stretches even further back.The Australia tour was the nadir, with a highest opening stand of 26 runs spanning eight innings, and Indian fans were reminded of the bad old days of 10-15 years ago when the No. 3 Rahul Dravid was virtually an opener, given how quickly India’s top two were easily separated.That feeling that a wicket was imminent with India’s openers at the crease returned again when New Zealand’s quicks had the new ball swerving around at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Gambhir was beaten for pace by the deceptively quick Trent Boult in the first over; New Zealand were convinced they had Sehwag dismissed twice in the second over, lbw off the first ball and caught-behind off the last but Sehwag survived both close calls; Gambhir nicked a away-going delivery to third slip in the third only for Brendon McCullum to put down an absolute sitter, before the shaky opening stand ended in the fourth with Gambhir shouldering arms to a delivery from Tim Southee that took the off bail.Failing in seamer-friendly conditions of Australia is one thing, but fumbling at home against one of the weakest Test teams around raises alarms. Particularly since three of the India’s middle-order legends have retired, to be replaced by three youngsters.India batsmen over the past decade have found it notoriously difficult to convert a successful limited-overs career into a long Test one. Since VVS Laxman established himself in the Test team in the late 90s, only two Indian batsmen have consistently retained their spots in the Test line-up over several years: Sehwag and Gambhir.In the new-look Indian line-up, the two are now senior statesman, and expected to deliver the performances that will ease Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina’s journey in Test cricket. All three have tightened their hold on their middle-order spots with runs in this series, but with sterner tests lying in wait they would like a better platform than they have been given this series.While Sehwag and Gambhir’s form has fallen away, neither is in any danger yet of losing his spot. Sehwag remains a man who can change a game in an hour, especially in subcontinental conditions, and Gambhir’s tenacity in difficult situations, highlighted during the 2010-11 tour of South Africa when he helped save the decisive Cape Town Test, makes him a valuable member of the side.The question for India is how long they should continue with the same opening combination. When either of them has been missing through injury or suspension, India have tried out a couple of replacements in M Vijay and Abhinav Mukund, neither of whom has done enough to deserve a permanent place. While Abhinav is still a regular in the A squad, Vijay has slipped off the selectors’ radar, ignored for the A tour of the West Indies in June and the forthcoming trip to New Zealand. Ajinkya Rahane, Mumbai’s domestic run machine, is now the frontrunner for the position of back-up opener, but is unlikely to force himself into the team when both seniors are fit.One option that had opened up after the retirement of Dravid and Laxman this year was to push Sehwag down to the middle-order, a position that he has long said he wants to bat in. That could have opened the door for Rahane, and also allowed India to groom an opening pair for future overseas tours. Sehwag had a miserable time at the top of the order on the tours of South Africa, England and Australia over the past two years, and his devil-may-care batting approach is perhaps not best suited for those testing conditions. That option isn’t available at least in the near future as the middle-order batsmen have all performed in the limited chances provided in the current series.That means India will persist with Sehwag and Gambhir at the top of the order at least for the England home series starting late October. James Anderson and Co. will consistently ask more searching questions of India’s batting than New Zealand’s young attack, and an escape from a top-order collapse will be much harder than it was on the second day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, making a sturdy opening pair all the more important.