ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from Chittagong

Alan Gardner in Chittagong18-Mar-2014The charge
Mark Chapman, Hong Kong’s No. 4, is not a tall man and plays most of his shots along the ground with a compact technique. But against Dawlat Zadran, he came forward to try pull off the front foot, only to wear the delivery on the grille of his helmet. His legs buckled but, after whirling back to his feet, he appeared to be looking for the possibility of a single as the ball trickled to midwicket. Stunned he may have been but, after a squirt of water and some time to collect himself, he continued to walk at the decidedly nippy Dawlat and narrowly missed being hit again after failing to connect with another flailing pull.The first ball
Jamie Atkinson’s decision after winning the toss might have been different but, for the second match running, he found himself out in the middle to face the second ball of the Hong Kong innings. Irfan Ahmed was again the opener to depart at the earliest possible opportunity, this time pushing tentatively around a full delivery from Shapoor Zadran that kissed off stump and dislodged the leg bail. Irfan became the second player to be twice out off the first ball of the innings at a World T20, after Ireland’s William Porterfield at the last tournament – being Irfan’s first two knocks at this level, his, er, achievement is unique.The first ball II
A wicket off the first ball occurred in Afghanistan’s opening match too, as Mohammad Shahzad carted Bangladesh’s Mashrafe Mortaza straight up in the air. This time around, Najeeb Tarakai took guard against the new ball but Shahzad was quickly down the striker’s end. What would he choose from his ample locker of shots? The straight thump? The back-foot slash? His own version of the helicopter? No, on this occasion, Shahzad left his first delivery alone outside off.The drop
Shahzad’s bloodlust eventually got the better of him, when Hong Kong’s left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed came on to bowl. A heave went straight up in the air, barely beyond the square towards mid-on, and even as it was climbing, Shahzad chopped his bat down on to the pitch, bellowing at his mistake. Perhaps the tremors caused the earth to move under Aizaz Khan’s feet because a regulation catch went straight through him like an undercooked .The catch
Several chances were missed on another night of ropey fielding at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury but there was one piece of world-class fielding and it came from Irfan to remove Shahzad. A venomous drive over cover looked to be dropping short of the fielder coming in off the boundary but he flung himself forward full length to catch a rocket with Fairy-soft hands, sliding along the turf to scoop it two-handed.The missed run-out
When Waqas Barkat squirted the ball to backward point and Chapman came halfway down the pitch looking for a single, it appeared as if Afghanistan would break Hong Kong’s second-wicket stand with a simple run-out. Chapman had barely put his breaks on as Mohammad Nabi threw a flat, hard throw to the bowler’s end, where all Hamza Hotak needed to do was collect it and break the wicket. In his excitement, he managed to flatten all three stumps without having the ball in hand, diving forward and unsuccessfully trying to deflect it with his open palms. Not the way to do it, Hamza.The six
Afghanistan cleared the boundary ropes several times in a rambunctious innings but the best of the match was struck by Atkinson, showing his side the way as Hong Kong’s batsmen gave a much-improved account of themselves. When Gulbadin Naib dropped short and Atkinson hammered a swivel-pull on a high arc into the stands to the longest part of the ground at deep square leg it could have been a more well-known wicketkeeper-batsman, AB de Villiers, at the crease.

Yuvraj Singh was hardly convincing to begin with against Delhi, but a big dose of crowd support and a helping of poor bowling meant he had the opportunity to hint at a possible return to form

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Sharjah18-Apr-2014″I’ve got a feeling,” sang the PA system at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, not long after Yuvraj Singh had walked in to bat. Before the song could proceed any further, and declare that Thursday night was going to be a good night, the DJ stopped it abruptly. He or she was a Yuvraj fan, perhaps, and didn’t want to put a jinx on him.This was Yuvraj’s first innings since that 21-ball 11 in the World T20 final, and his first innings since a group of fans had reacted unreasonably to that 21-ball 11. It was also his first innings for Bangalore, who had paid a not untidy sum of money to buy him at the auction, despite the fact that he hadn’t made a half-century in his last 19 IPL innings.The man at the other end, meanwhile, was Virat Kohli, whom he had denied the strike during that 21-ball 11. Kohli, Bangalore’s captain, had played a persuasive role in signing him.This, then, wasn’t just another innings.Yuvraj couldn’t have chosen a more congenial setting in which to begin such an innings. He had the crowd’s sympathy, yes, but he would have had that at any stadium; only a tiny fraction of sports fans, surely, are mean enough to revel in a player’s house reportedly getting stoned. Sharjah, though, was also showing itself to be a stronghold of Bangalore fans.In India, it’s often hard to get an accurate picture of the extent of home support at the league’s venues. At most stadiums, someone has placed a home-team flag on your seat well before you’ve parked your car. Most emcees, meanwhile, only ask the crowd to cheer for the home team. If you support the other team, you seldom get a chance to voice it. Here, given equal opportunity to cheer for either side, the Sharjah crowd voted with their vocal cords.Granted, for the most part, the spectators did or chanted whatever the emcee asked them to, no matter how ridiculous it made them look or sound. What they didn’t do, though, was chant “Delhiiiiiiiii, Delhi!” Each time the emcee tried to get them to follow his lead, they drowned him out with shouts of “R-C-B! R-C-B!”It was as much a show of approval for Bangalore as it was a sign of Delhi’s lack of appeal. They haven’t tasted too much success in past seasons, and, perhaps because of that, haven’t retained an easily identifiable core group of star players. For Bangalore, on the other hand, the signing of Yuvraj added yet another highly marketable name to an already swollen roster. It cost them a lot of money to sign him and that may well have caused gaps to form in other areas of their squad, but Sharjah didn’t seem too concerned. As soon as Yuvraj had swung Rahul Sharma over long-on for his first six, a bearded man in a red T-shirt held up a hand-drawn banner. “More risk = More profit,” it said. “Great bid Mr Mallya.”There is no doubt Bangalore and Yuvraj had all the support they could possibly hope for. It is far too early to say with any certainty, though, that Yuvraj has turned a corner with his unbeaten 52.At the start of his innings, he was late on a couple of short balls from Mohammed Shami, both of which went whistling off his top edge. Right after that over, Dinesh Karthik, Delhi’s captain, took Shami off when he still had an over left. Having survived those few discomfiting deliveries, life became much easier for Yuvraj, with Jimmy Neesham serving up length balls and Rahul Sharma dropping his legbreaks right into his hitting zone.Sometimes, though, you want bowlers to feed Yuvraj’s strengths, just to marvel at the way he strikes the ball. One pick-up shot off Neesham left you missing your TV, left you wanting to watch slow-motion replays from 15 different angles. Since that wasn’t possible in the West Stand at Sharjah, you wanted the DJ to at least play the rest of that song.

A look at how the Associate teams fared in Group B of the qualifying round of the World T20

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Mar-2014

UAE

Several of UAE’s batsmen got in before giving it away•ICCProgress: UAE were the only side among the eight teams in the first round to end without a win, and that really told the story, in a format where even Test nations Bangladesh and Zimbabwe were downed once each by Associate sides. They did seem to get it together in their last match, giving Zimbabwe an almighty scare, showing they were capable of competing, but that was when they were under no pressure – their exit from the tournament had already been confirmed. As their captain Khurram Khan said, just turning out at this level had taught his side so much.What to work on: Professionalism exists at top rungs of the Associate level and UAE were clearly found out, their poor fitness as part-time cricketers not allowing them to keep up with their opponents. Their fielding and catching was abysmal in their opening game against Netherlands, and even against Zimbabwe, they dropped crucial chances that, if taken, could have perhaps conjured a different ending. Better fitness will only come if are in a position to devote more time to the game. Also, too often they lost wickets in clumps after building a partnership, undoing all the hard work done till that stage. Their bowlers were nothing more than steady overall, although they didn’t get enough runs from the batsmen and support from the fielders.Player to watch: Led by the veteran Khurram Khan, UAE’s middle order showed potential, batsmen such as Shaiman Anwar, Swapnil Patil and Rohan Mustafa got in before giving it away. They never seemed to be able to resist having a slog or two to break free from the stranglehold of dot balls, and if they can work on that, they seem to have a promising, spirited line-up. Kamran Shazad was one seamer who worked up some pace in UAE’s ageing attack.

Ireland

Progress: Their shock exit is an anomaly. Ireland are a team primed for big-time cricket, and it showed in how they dominated Zimbabwe in their first qualifying match. They will have to quickly forget what happened in those 13.5 overs against Netherlands in Sylhet and begin focusing on the 2015 World Cup, for which they qualified last year.What to work on: Ireland need to fill the gap left by Boyd Rankin, who left to play for England. They are missing a genuinely quick bowler who can wrest control in situations like when Netherlands ran riot in Sylhet.Player to watch: One bad over against Netherlands should not dissuade the progress of the otherwise impressive Andy McBrine. The 20-year old bowled impressively against Zimbabwe, and was sparingly used by Ireland. He is one for the future, forming a partnership with George Dockrell.

Zimbabwe

Progress: Zimbabwe would not have wanted to be left searching for
positives after an early exit from the World T20. Netherlands did raise their hopes briefly before dashing them, but Zimbabwe know that they were left with too much catching up to do after going down in their most critical game, their opener against Ireland. They did what they were expected to against Netherlands and UAE, but both wins were not without stutters. Two wins out of three for a side that had not played any international cricket for around six months may be seen as an achievement, but that will be scant consolation for Brendan Taylor and his men.What to work on: Zimbabwe missed thrust up the order, something Netherlands relied so much on. They could have had Elton Chigumbura batting higher up, a move that did not succeed against Netherlands. The decision to open with Sikandar Raza instead of the more experienced and explosive Vusi Sibanda did not work through the tournament. To their misfortune, both their key bowlers Prosper Utseya and Tinashe Panyangara had off days against Ireland, although Panyangara came back strongly with a top spell at the death.Player to keep an eye on: That spell of Panyangara’s nearly brought back Zimbabwe from the dead against Ireland, who needed just seven off 13 but had to rely on a last-ball bye to win. He found swing, he got the yorkers in, and he had Ireland panicking. Tendai Chatara was superb through the campaign with his cutters and controlled changes of pace.

After their first seven games in IPL 2014, Kolkata Knight had only two wins. Their recovery and charge to the title is a story of belief, assured decision-making, and man management

Nagraj Gollapudi03-Jun-2014On May 5, Kolkata Knight Riders were cruising to victory against Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad: they were 121 for 0 and needed 50 in six overs. Gautam Gambhir’s dismissal, however, triggered one of the worst collapses in the IPL. Six wickets tumbled for two runs and Knight Riders eventually lost by 10. It was their fourth successive loss and their fifth in seven matches.In the dressing room, no one spoke but there was no recrimination. People were angry but did not lose hope. “Everyone was hurting bad,” Robin Uthappa, the Knight Riders batsman, says. “It was a morose atmosphere. Everyone’s self respect was hurt. We could see it in every player’s eyes: each wanted to play for his own pride and wanted to make the most in every subsequent match. There was a different energy post that defeat.” Uthappa finished the IPL wearing the Orange Cap given to the tournament’s highest run-maker.Vijay Dahiya, one of Knight Riders’ assistant coaches, remembers the defeat as a huge disappointment. “It was unacceptable. I would be lying if I don’t say it was a big, huge disappointment. I remember Trevor Bayliss (head coach) saying it was good to see players hurting. They were angry that they could not finish it. That shows the character of this team.”Dahiya says it was not a case of the opposition winning convincingly; Knight Riders who were not playing smart cricket. A week before the Ahmedabad collapse, they had lost to Royals in Abu Dhabi, where they had needed 16 off 12 balls with six wickets in hand before tying the game and the Super Over but going down on boundary count.”Nobody was willing to leave it for the other guy from then onwards,” Dahiya says about the 6 for 2 debacle.Joy Bhattacharjya, the team manager, says Knight Riders did not let the pressure get to them, even when they had to win six of their last seven matches to qualify for the playoffs. The players did not look too far ahead.”The best part of the story would be the team stayed calm throughout,” Bhattacharjya says. “It was always about the next match. If we win it, we have a chance. It was never about the tournament. KKR kept it shape despite pressure.”Knight Riders did not fall over even when on the edge of the precipice. Instead they bounced back with a record nine-match winning streak, all the way to the title.***Like all teams, Knight Riders had also started their campaign at the player auction in February. They had a well-defined strategy. Venky Mysore, their chief executive officer, says the focus was to create a strong stable of bowlers with emphasis on buying high-quality Indians.Legspinner Piyush Chawla, and fast bowlers Vinay Kumar and Umesh Yadav, were bought to complement overseas players such as West Indies spinner Sunil Narine, South African quick Morne Morkel, Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan and young Australian quick Pat Cummings. “All of these people have played at the international level so they have the experience, skill and temperament to perform under pressure,” Mysore says. “And that is why it was not a case of hell for leather with us chasing big totals.”The success of those selections, Mysore says, can be gauged from the consistency of the Knight Riders attack, which almost always restricted the opposition to a manageable target. “The one common thread in all matches, even in the five games we lost, we contained the opposition which put us in a position to win.”Despite the pervading influence of technology in the sport, cricket is a lot about communication between people, about man-management. Mysore says one of the biggest factors behind Knight Riders winning their second title was the return of Wasim Akram, who had been absent from the coaching staff in the 2013 season.”He is a tremendous influence on the team. We missed him last year,” Mysore says. “I have to come to the conclusion that ultimately it is about being in the right frame of mind, creating the right environment and creating opportunities for conversations. When someone can facilitate it with integrity and credibility it goes a long way. Someone like Wasim is very unique: anybody from a youngest member like Kuldeep Yadav, who follows him around everywhere, to a great player like Jacques Kallis, who could have a one-on-one conversation, can easily strike a conversation with him.”***Leaders have always been the fulcrum of champion IPL teams – Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, MS Dhoni, and Gautam Gambhir in 2012. When Knight Riders retained Gambhir, questions were raised because he was not part of the Indian team anymore. Mysore and his think tank, however, believed in Gambhir, in his hunger and leadership.That faith was tested immediately, when Gambhir began the season with three consecutive ducks and Knight Riders lost more than they won. It looked ominous from the outside but within the team no one was perturbed. “To conclude he [Gambhir] was not in form when he had just faced five or six balls is not fair at all,” Mysore says.The highlight for Mysore was how Gambhir did not let his slump affect his leadership. “I never saw any difference in the way he approached the game, the way he led the side, the conversations he had during team meetings,” Mysore says. “I do not see him taking pressure on his captaincy by virtue of his batting – whether he is doing well or not doing well. That was a big thing.”Yusuf Pathan, a senior player at Knight Riders and a three-time IPL winner, is of the same opinion. “He never let his bad form in the first four matches have any effect on the team. That is a very big thing,” Yusuf says. “If a batsman gets out without scoring runs it is easy to get irritated, but he never let that have any impact on his captaincy and the team. He has been a champion in the past and he always held that belief. A good captain can make the team stand out and take it to a different level. Gautam has done that at KKR.”Yusuf also had a lot of critics after his bad form from last season continued into the early stages of 2014. He managed to turn it around, though, and struck the fastest fifty of the IPL in Knight Riders’ final league match, against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Yusuf credits his form to Gambhir, who supported his elevation to No.4 in the batting order.”In the first part of the tournament I was batting lower down and was not getting too many overs to settle down,” Yusuf says. He did not ask for a promotion, but considering Yusuf performed well in the middle order in domestic cricket, Gambhir decided to send him in earlier. “In the second half of the tournament he (Gambhir) said he knew I would win a few matches. And that did happen. So he supported me and remained confident about my role.”Gautam Gambhir had a terrible start to the season as a batsman, but he did not let his struggle affect his leadership•BCCIThe Knight Riders environment was such that tough decisions, such as dropping Jacques Kallis after he played eight games, were possible. According to Dahiya, Kallis was forthright during the meeting where he was dropped. “He said I will sit out if the selection panel thinks it would benefit the team combination for certain pitches,” Dahiya says. For Dahiya, Kallis set the benchmark in terms of team spirit. “He had the option of staying back at the hotel but he came for every match and was involved in our strategies. On training days he would move around and have a one-on-one with everyone. You don’t need team meetings. You need such interactions to help learn and build confidence.”Immediately after the final, Mysore said on Twitter that Kallis was the heart and soul of the team. “I have the greatest respect for Jacques. He did not play the final. But he was the most excited and happiest after winning the championship,” Mysore says. “He could have easily caught a flight and gone back home but he said he was staying back for the celebrations in Kolkata. In 2012 he had missed it due to FTP commitments.”***On the day of the final, immediately after a team meeting at the hotel, Mysore asked co-owner Shahrukh Khan to speak to the players. “Initially he was reluctant, but Shahrukh eventually spoke about the opportunity at hand. He told the players that this is what we live for, an opportunity to compete. He told them to enjoy the moment, not take any additional pressure, cherish it and whatever happens, happens.”There are many moments that contributed to Knight Riders’ march to the title. For Mysore, it is Yusuf’s blitzkrieg against Sunrisers, when he reached fifty off 15 balls and finished on 72 off 22. The innings led Knight Riders to a second-place finish in the league. “It changed the entire complexion of the knockouts. It gave us two bites at the cherry by virtue of finishing No. 2,” Mysore says. “It also allowed us to play the playoff against Kings XI Punjab in front of a home crowd at Eden Gardens. We got a couple of days to relax before the final. In this format every mini break always helps.”For Yusuf it was “one of the most memorable innings”, one that also brought him one of his favourite compliments. “Wasim told me he had played 20 years of cricket and has been doing commentary on TV for more than a decade but he had never seen such an innings,” Yusuf says.Uthappa says to finish as champions was a dream. It was his fourth title of 2013-14, having won three domestic trophies with Karnataka. “To have our backs against the wall at the start and then to finish as the winner is mind boggling.”Piyush Chawla, whose timely boundaries denied Kings XI in the final, recollected the words of Mike Horn, an adventurer hired by the franchise to help the players. “He would say in his game he does not lose his wicket. He loses his life. That kind of statement makes you put your body on line and play to win,” Chawla says. “At the halfway stage we were on the edge of falling out of the tournament. So we had to put our body on the line.”This was the first time Chawla has won the IPL, having previously played for Kings XI. He cannot forget what Shahrukh told him. “Shahrukh said many things but the one that stood out was when he told me in all the four matches I played against Kings XI, my previous franchise, I had delivered. That to him was incredible.”Knight Riders had been trying hard to “solve the jigsaw” in the first half of the season, according to Bhattacharjya, and the last piece slotted in once the Uthappa-Gambhir partnership took off. They had five fifty-plus opening stands this season, the most by any pair, and are one of only three opening pairs to hit two century partnerships in a season. “The rest were all good pieces, but the last one we were searching for desperately to solve the jigsaw came in the form of the success of that opening partnership.” Bhattacharjya says. “That is when the juggernaut started to roll.”***Immediately after Knight Riders had won their maiden IPL title in 2012, their coach Trevor Bayliss closed the dressing-room door to address the team. “He said, ‘This is it. Mission accomplished. Let us spend some minutes with ourselves and savour the moment before everyone else comes in,'” Bhattacharjya recollects.This time, when Bhattacharjya asked Bayliss if he wanted the door closed, the coach said there was no need. “The way we treated the 2014 campaign was like it was a job that needed to be done. It was not that we were scaling impossible heights [this time],” Bhattacharjya says. That is a terrific illustration of knowing, as a team, that we were not over-reaching to win.”

In 16 previous ODIs against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, there’d been only one century for South Africa; in three matches in this series, there were four

S Rajesh12-Jul-2014 Before the ODI series began, South Africa had played 13 ODIs against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka since 2000, and had won exactly one; their 1-12 win-loss record was as bad as Bangladesh’s in Sri Lanka. With this 2-1 series win, they have improved that record considerably, and also won their first ODI series against Sri Lanka in that country. They had drawn their first series 1-1, in 1993, and then lost the others quite handily. The big difference for South Africa this time was their batting: in three games they averaged 41.15 runs per wicket, and 5.95 runs per over; in their previous series here, they had never gone beyond 25 runs per wicket, and 4.55 per over. Twice in three games they went past 300, whereas their previous-highest in all visits to Sri Lanka had been 264. There were four centuries for them in three games, with Hashim Amla getting two, and Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers scoring hundreds in the decider. In 16 previous matches against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, they had had only one centurion: Jacques Kallis made 101 in Colombo in 2004. This time, ironically, Kallis was the one batsman who couldn’t buy a run, with scores of 0, 1, and 4 in three games. As a bowling unit, South Africa conceded 5.60 runs per over, which is their poorest economy rate a series in Sri Lanka, but they took wickets regularly, averaging 25.10, and their batsmen outperformed Sri Lanka’s as well. The hosts, on the other hand, were hampered by the lack of big scores from their top-order batsmen. While South Africa’s top seven batsmen scored four hundreds in 21 innings, Sri Lanka’s top order played exactly the same number of innings, but managed only three fifties, with a highest score of 88, by Kumar Sangakkara. Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 86 in Pallekele was their only other score of more than 60.

TeamInngsRunsAverageStrike rate100s/ 50sSouth Africa2175144.1795.544/ 1Sri Lanka2166331.5788.400/ 3 The highlight of the final game of the series was South Africa’s batting. Their total of 339 is their third-best in Asia – the two higher ones were both in India. They also had two centurions in the match, which was the 15th such instance for them in ODIs. For the third time in a row, one of those two batsmen was de Kock: he had also scored centuries against India in the second and third ODIs of the series last season, with Amla in the second, and with de Villiers in the third. The total of 339 ultimately turned out to be more than enough, but in the first ten overs of the run-chase it seemed Sri Lanka might do a repeat of Johannesburg 2012, when South Africa scored 312 with hundreds from Graeme Smith and de Villiers, but lost by two wickets with a ball to spare, as Kumar Sangakkara scored 102 off 97. After ten overs of the chase here, Sri Lanka were 99 for 1, which is the highest ten-over score for any team in an ODI in Sri Lanka since 2001. The next two are both by Sri Lanka against Bangladesh – 93 in Hambantota last year, and 82 in Dambulla in 2010. One of the disappointments for Sri Lanka was also Lasith Malinga’s lack of effectiveness: in 23 overs he returned figures of 4 for 161 – an average of 40.25, and an economy rate of seven. He was the most expensive among all the Sri Lankan bowlers in the series. In Hambantota he went for 85 in his ten overs, the most runs he has conceded in a home ODI, and the second-highest in all ODIs. With two centuries in three innings, Amla was the batting star for South Africa, and finished with an aggregate of 258 runs, the highest for a South African in an overseas ODI series of three or fewer matches (or in a series in which a player has played no more than three games). De Villiers’ aggregate of 212 is the fifth-best. Among the bowlers, Ryan McLaren was similarly outstanding with the ball, taking nine wickets at an average of 13.11, and an economy rate of 4.91. He joined Allan Donald as the only South Africans to take nine in an overseas ODI series of three or fewer matches. Donald took nine in South Africa’s first ODI series upon readmission, in India in 1991-92.

After being pushed on to the defensive in the field, it is up to India’s batsmen to try and prevent a return to the bad old days of touring

Sidharth Monga at the Ageas Bowl28-Jul-2014A five-Test series was always going to be a challenge for India. In the second half of the first back-to-back Tests, at Lord’s, they gave it their all: batsmen showed discipline for long hours, bowlers bowled long testing spells, MS Dhoni went against the grain and showed rare aggression and tactical nous as captain. But the question always was, how much did it take out of India?In Southampton, Ishant Sharma was ruled out with an injury broadly described by India as a “sore leg”, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was down on intensity, with the ball not seaming as much as it did at Lord’s, and Mohammed Shami’s lack of discipline became exposed when others around him didn’t bowl that well. Now it’s down to the batsmen once again to make sure India do not fall back to the bad old days.It didn’t help India that their slips give no confidence to the bowlers – another catch went down, another catch that the wicketkeeper should have gone for – but the bigger concern would be that they decided too early that the pitch was too flat and that they couldn’t win the match. As early as the middle session of the second day, India went to Ravindra Jadeja as their main bowler, who darted balls into the pads with a six-three leg-side field.There wasn’t much success for India’s bowlers to celebrate over the first two days•Associated PressThe pursuit, like it was in Durban when they didn’t take the second new ball until they were forced to after 146 overs, seemed to just contain and delay England’s declaration. It is up for debate if thinking of a draw when your enforcing bowler is injured, you have a long series to go through, and you have the series lead, is such a bad thing, but that attitude can lead to dropping of intensity. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who bowled tirelessly at Lord’s for six wickets in the first innings, echoed what was happening out there.”Wicket is flat, easy for batsman,” Bhuvneshwar said. “We tried our best as a bowling unit but we have had two long days.”The two long days led to extreme steps by Dhoni. In the middle session of day two, he had his bowlers bowling one-over spells for a long period. The 16th over after lunch was the first time a bowler had bowled two continuous overs from the same end. When Bhuvneshwar created an opportunity in the second half of the session, he was rewarded with another over. He was testing still, but that’s all he got. Debutant Pankaj Singh was brought on for the next over, and the first ball he bowled was a leg-side loosener. That can happen when you don’t let the bowlers get into any rhythm.Bhuvneshwar, though, said the number of overs they have bowled justified that extreme rotation of bowlers. “I found that really easy, being in the field for one-and-a-half days we were really tired,” Bhuvneshwar said. “Skipper wanted us to bowl one-over spells. By then we were in rhythm as well and we were not getting tired. Personally we found that easy.”When asked about conceding boundaries on both side of the wicket, Bhuvneshwar brought up fatigue again. “When [Gary] Ballance and [Alastair] Cook were batting, the situation demanded that we bowl on one side,” Bhuvneshwar said. “Sometimes we were tired, been a long day in the field, it is natural, we are human beings. We tried our best to bowl in a particular area. We tried different strategies.”The slips’ slips can’t be put down to tiredness, though. Bhuvneshwar sounded forgiving, although you can’t expect him or a lot of other India players to accept in a press conference that there is something wrong with them. “Being a bowler you have to know they are going to take some catches, and they are going to drop a few,” Bhuvneshwar said. “Every team drops a few catches, but you have to trust the fielder. You can’t ask anyone to come out of the slips. All you want is to give them confidence. It happens in cricket that catches are dropped. So far, in all three matches it has been good for us.”Tired bowlers, one injured bowler, dropped catches, dropped pace, captaincy waiting for declaration, an early wicket before stumps, it all sounds like a perfect recipe for disaster. India will dearly love to go to Old Trafford still ahead in the series but their batsmen have a long way to go to ensure that, going by how well James Anderson bowled in that seven-over burst and how the pitch has responded to his pace as opposed to India’s put-it-there bowlers.

Papua New Guinea have impressed, despite their limited resources and talent. Now, as they head into their first ODI, they’re hoping for a brighter future

Tim Wigmore07-Nov-2014On November 8, Papua New Guinea will become the 23rd country to play a one-day international. One Papuan village will be watching especially closely.Hanuabada is on the northwestern outskirts of the capital Port Moresby. Houses are made of corrugated iron, lifted above the sea by stilts. It has no electricity and safe running water is hard to find. The coastal village is the home of cricket in PNG. Members of the London Missionary Society introduced the town to the sport in the late 19th century, and it has exerted a powerful hold on Hanuabada ever since.In an essay on Papuan cricket, Gideon Haigh recounts the former Tasmania legspinner John Watt’s observations of the sport in the early 1900s. “If you visit any native village about Port Moresby, small boys can always be seen playing cricket right on the water’s edge, with material of their own make,” Watt wrote. “Every other hit the ball goes into the water, while the two batsmen ‘run them out’.”A significant majority of all those who have worn the PNG baggy black have hailed from Hanuabada, which still dominates the national side today.”They just play on the road, and if you hit one house, you could be out. If you hit that house, it’s six,” explains Greg Campbell, the former Australia Test player who is now the CEO of Cricket PNG. “They have their own markings on the road, sometimes games are played with back-to-back to stumps. They’re just cricket-mad in the village – they grow up in it, they raise money to buy their own uniforms.”While the vitality of Hanuabada is remarkable for a village of 20,000, it also speaks of some of the obstacles cricket faces in PNG. Geography prevents easy transport links: the only way to travel between Port Moresby and Lae, the second largest city, is by air. “With the average wage, a lot of boys and parents can’t afford their kids to come from Lae to Port Moresby,” Campbell explains. Eighty seven per cent of the population lives in rural areas, and enthusiastic cricketers often endure arduous journeys by boat, bus and foot to play.Geography was not the only challenge Campbell faced when he arrived in PNG almost four years ago. On the day he arrived, initially as Cricket PNG’s operations manager before later becoming CEO, he stayed in a flat that had neither a bed nor electricity. He admits that for the first six months “there was a thought every week I should be out of there, but I always pride myself on not giving in”.

As far as the Barramundis have come, they remain hampered by inconsistency and a penchant for collapsing like a 1990s England cricket tribute act

His patience has been vindicated. Four years ago the Barramundis were ranked the 23rd best one-day side in the world. Now they are 16th. In January, they defeated Kenya, Uganda and Namibia in the World Cup Qualifiers. They finished fourth in the tournament, two places short of a World Cup berth, but gained ODI status for the next four years. And, as Campbell notes, while the squad used to “get there at 9.30 for a 9 o’clock training” they now arrive in time.

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In the 1982 ICC Trophy (the qualifier for the World Cup) PNG beat Bangladesh in the third-place playoff, effectively making them the tenth best side in the world. It should have been the Barramundis’ springboard, but as Campbell reflects, “there was nothing in the future for them”. This was a world without ICC regional officers or any coherent programme for non-Test sides. They essentially existed only to play in the ICC Trophy every four years. When PNG resurfaced in the 1986 ICC Trophy, Netherlands promptly thumped them by 219 runs in their first game.At least this time PNG have a decent base of fixtures to build on. Their performances in the World Cup Qualifiers ensured their place in the World Cricket League, and even more intriguingly, the Intercontinental Cup. In theory, this offers the winners the prospect of playing in the Test Challenge and earning Test status. In preparation for that, PNG are also playing a three-day game against Hong Kong this month: their first ever multi-day match against another international side.PNG have some recent experience of multi-day cricket. A couple of years ago, South Australia wanted to form a Premier League to bridge the gap between club and state cricket, and were keen for sides outside of the state to be included. Campbell put together a proposal and successfully lobbied his old Tasmania team-mate Jamie Cox to invite PNG to participate in the inaugural South Australian Premier League in 2013-14. “I guaranteed that we’d be very competitive in the T20 and 50-over games, and said when we start playing the two-day games, it will be a learning curve for us, because our boys have always been set up to play T20 and 50,” Campbell explained.Kids play cricket on the street in Port Moresby•International Cricket CouncilSo it proved. While PNG found two-day cricket a challenge, struggling to maintain their fielding intensity, they won the T20 competition. Participation in the South Australian Premier League does not come cheap – it involves around 50 days away and costs 380,000 kina (about US $150,000) – but no one disputes its value to PNG cricket. “You can only train so much but actually playing matches is the best way to improve your game and your cricket awareness and mental strength,” explains Chris Amini, the current national team captain. “We’ve come up against some international and first-class players and have learned a lot from them – just watching them go about constructing their innings or their approach to their game and how they prepare themselves.”Links have been cultivated with Australia in other ways. The most obvious is in personnel. Bill Leane was CEO from 2009 to 2011 and did much of the heavy lifting in transforming PNG cricket, including creating an annual Legends Bash tournament, which has hosted Arjuna Ranatunga, Dwaye Bravo, Kemar Roach and numerous Australians. One of Leane’s first steps was to appoint Andy Bichel as head coach. Bichel “provided the foundation” for PNG’s rise with his relentlessly high standards, according to Chris Amini. Peter Anderson, who was coach until he stepped down this year, is yet another Australian influence.The Brian Bell Future Stars Programme allows up to 14 players a year to play abroad for up to six months, with Australia by far the most common destination.Big Bash franchises have also cultivated Papuans: several have been signed, though a Papuan is yet to play a game. Thanks to some smart lobbying from Campbell with Cricket Australia, Papuans might not count as overseas players this year, increasing their chances of being selected. Lega Siaka, a 21-year-old opener from a fishing family in Hanuabada who scored two belligerent centuries in the World Cup Qualifiers in January, will sign for Melbourne Renegades this year.Links are being established with New Zealand too. Former Test offspinner Dipak Patel was appointed as Papua New Guinea coach in July. He is the first Barramundis coach to live in the country full time and have day-to-day contact with the squad.On September 1 this year, 16 leading players became full-time cricketers for the first time. PNG are not stopping there: they hope to pay a development squad of around 20 young boys and girls from next year, smoothing the transition to professional cricket. Campbell hopes that “in two or three years’ time, we’ll have a squad of 25 people that can play in our national team”.An A side is being formed to give the team more depth. Yet Campbell also remains conscious of the need to equip players with jobs beyond cricket. “We can help them with that, whether it’s learning to be a mechanic, accountant, driving a truck, working in a bakery, we’ll go out and do the player-welfare thing for them.”Increased professionalisation is one by-product of PNG’s increased financial clout. Tim Anderson, the ICC’s head of global development, praises their “ability to source their own income”: the ICC provides under 30% of PNG’s income, much less than for many comparable Associates. Cricket PNG has 14 sponsors, reflecting the skill of Campbell and Leane but also cricket’s huge national appeal. It survives on around 6.5 million kina a year (about $2.5 million).

“We could build something like the Allan Border Field, just a nice little ground which can hold 10-15,000 people but with great facilities”Greg Campbell

“We make sure that money goes a long way, and the money we get is tagged for specific projects,” Campbell explains. The money is sufficient to fund a significant development operation. Nearly 200,000 children a year participate in the BSP School Kriket program, a sort of Papuan version of Kwik Cricket. “They have a huge junior participation base and are working hard to transition those big numbers into regular hard-ball players,” notes Adam Cassidy, the ICC’s regional project officer for the region.

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When the Barramundis make their ODI debut, they will do so in Townsville, in Queensland. This reflects one of PNG’s most fundamental problems: no ground in the country has yet obtained ODI status. Campbell is optimistic that this will soon change and Amini Park (named after the brother of Chris Amini’s grandfather for his Australian Rules prowess) will soon be granted ODI status. It has only acquired turf wickets in the last four years.”We could build something like the Allan Border Field, just a nice little ground which can hold 10-15,000 people but with great facilities,” Campbell believes. “We need to have something concrete that we have an international team coming in, because then you can push the right people in PNG to make it happen.” ODIs against the lowest-ranking Full Members would help to convince the Papuan government to invest in a flagship national ground: it is remarkable that the Barramundis’ progress to ODI status has come without any direct investment from the government. “It’s only an hour and a half from Cairns, so we could look at a Zimbabwe or a Bangladesh coming out to PNG to play,” Campbell says. “We want to hold these games in PNG to get crowds in and showcase our players.”One member of the side will not be celebrating his first ODI but his 50th, 3052 days after his 49th. Former England keeper Geraint Jones spent the first six years of his life in Papua New Guinea until the deteriorating security situation led to his parents uprooting from the capital. “It’s not got a great reputation, Port Moresby. But from what I understand from the guys it’s getting better,” he said.After the end of his England career, Jones began playing for PNG at the start of 2012. His second international career could hardly be more different from his first: he receives only a modest allowance, accommodation and travel fares for playing for the Barramundis. “He doesn’t want money,” said Campbell. “He wants to give something back, and he enjoys playing.” While Jones bats in the middle order, his role is almost akin to that of a player-coach. “Jonesy’s there to calm them down and say, ‘Right, now, just think through this,'” Campbell explains. “They feed off him big time.” The hope is that Jones will be involved in a coaching or ambassadorial capacity in PNG when he eventually retires.Cricket in PNG is at an intriguing juncture. While rugby league continues to outstrip it in terms of crowds and media attention, cricket is narrowing the gap. It may now even be the biggest participation sport in PNG. Although cricket is strongest in Port Moresby and the surrounding Central Province, it has a genuine cross-class appeal. Thousands of children play Lik Lik cricket in tournaments on roads in Hanuabada every Saturday. Wealthier families like the Aminis have also embraced cricket: both Chris and his brother Charles benefited from spending three years in Melbourne when their father worked for Shell. He himself also played for the Barramundis, and his father, Brian, was the first native Papuan to captain the national team in 1977. With the exception of Jones, the side today is completely made up of indigenous players.The challenge now is to expand the cricket-playing base beyond Port Moresby and establish an infrastructure to harness PNG’s copious talent. Training facilities, including an indoor centre, synthetic nets and more turf wickets are all being developed. Campbell believes Test cricket “could be ten to 15 years away from us, and it might be longer. We’re realistic: you’ve got to have the facilities, you’ve got to have the set-up to do it in the country. We just want to climb that ladder of the rankings.”Cricket PNG’s most pressing aim is to retain ODI status in the next four-year cycle.As far as the Barramundis have come, they remain hampered by inconsistency and a penchant for collapsing like a 1990s England cricket tribute act. PNG lost a playoff to reach this year’s World T20 despite reducing Hong Kong to 19 for 4. “The boys were very disappointed, you saw a few of them had tears,” Campbell reflects. “It was a case of probably not knowing how to do it or what to do, when to do it, and just playing some bad shots at certain times.” After a sterling start to the World Cup Qualifiers this year, PNG lost their last three matches.Lega Siaka, a rising PNG star, will soon feature in the Big Bash•ICC”The boys haven’t played enough top-quality cricket to understand that the tour goes from day one to the end of the day,” Campbell said. “They start really well, then they have a bit of a downward pattern, and that could be homesickness, so we’ve got to work on that, and all that comes with experience of playing more and being at the top level.” Charles Amini, who was in the Sydney Sixers squad last year, admits: “We have to be smarter for longer periods of time”.PNG’s location in the world is also problematic. They are easily the strongest Associate side in the East Asia-Pacific Region. Cricket PNG made overtures to try and join the Asia region – which would also open up the possibility of qualification for the Asia Cup – but are now resigned to staying where they are. Extra emphasis will be put on maximising gains from the geographical proximity to Australia and New Zealand. PNG are lobbying to be included in future A team tournaments in Australia, and the Papuan prime minister, Peter O’Neill, will attend this year’s Australia-India Test at the Gabba.The sense is that more achievements are within tangible reach. Campbell believes that the effect of a Barramundis player thriving in Australian cricket could be transformative. “We just need a boy to crack a KFC Big Bash game, or even a Shield game, and then it’s like everything – once you see someone playing on telly, you keep saying, well, I want to play that game.” Qualification for a global event could have a similarly galvanising effect on the game, although with the 2019 World Cup reduced to ten teams, making the 2016 World T20 in India is PNG’s only realistic chance of doing so this decade.Cricket has already had a profound impact on Papua New Guinea. “Make a lifestyle for these boys, change their lives that way, make a better life for their family – that’s what cricket can do,” Campbell asserts. His first night working for PNG, bereft of a bed, now seems an age ago. “I definitely make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else who comes up here to PNG. We’ve moved on a long way since then.” If exactly where the Barramundis go next remains unclear, theirs is a tantalising future.

A look back at the key numbers from MS Dhoni’s Test career, as batsman, captain, and wicketkeeper

S Rajesh30-Dec-2014Most Tests as keeper-captain |60 The number of Tests in which MS Dhoni captained India, the highest among all Indians, and sixth among all captains. It’s also easily the highest for a wicketkeeper – the next best is Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim, with 19 matches as captain.294 Test dismissals for Dhoni, the fifth highest among all wicketkeepers, and the best for an Indian by far: the next best is Syed Kirmani’s 198 dismissals in 88 matches.27 The number of Tests India won with Dhoni as captain – the next highest for India is Sourav Ganguly with 21. Only six captains won more Tests than Dhoni did.21 The number of home Tests India won under Dhoni, which puts him fourth in the all-time list – only Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh captained in more home wins. The next best for India is Mohammad Azharuddin with 13 wins. However, in overseas Tests India won only six out of 30 under Dhoni, and lost 15. In contrast, India won 11 out of 28 overseas Tests under Ganguly, and five out of 17 under Rahul Dravid. Since the 2011 World Cup, India lost 13 out of 18 overseas Tests under Dhoni, winning only one and drawing four.9 Number of dismissals Dhoni affected in his last Test (eight catches, one stumping), which is the highest for an Indian wicketkeeper. There are five instances of eight dismissals by an Indian wicketkeeper, of which Dhoni was the protagonist three times. In Test history, there are only four instances of wicketkeepers affecting more than nine dismissals in a Test.38 The number of stumpings by Dhoni, which is the joint third highest in Test history, along with Kirmani. Only Godfrey Evans (46) and Bert Oldfield (52) have more stumpings.224 Dhoni’s score against Australia in Chennai last year, the third best ever by a wicketkeeper in Tests. Only Andy Flower (232* against India in 2000) and Kumar Sangakkara (230 versus Pakistan in 2002) have made bigger scores. Before Dhoni’s double-century, the highest by a wicketkeeper for India was Budhi Kunderan’s 192 against England in 1964.Most runs as a Test wicketkeeper |4876 Runs that Dhoni scored in Tests, which is the third best for a wicketkeeper, after Adam Gilchrist (5570) and Mark Boucher (5515). Among Indian wicketkeepers it’s easily the best, well clear of Kirmani’s 2759 and Farrokh Engineer’s 2611. He averaged 38.09, the best among Indian wicketkeepers who played more than three Tests, while his six Test hundreds is three times the next best for India.47.21 Dhoni’s batting average in Tests in Asia. In 72 innings he scored six hundreds and 18 fifties. He played exactly 72 innings outside Asia as well, but didn’t manage a single hundred, and averaged 29.79. His highest outside Asia was 92, at The Oval in 2007.3454 Runs scored by Dhoni as Test captain, which is the highest among Indian captains. Sunil Gavaskar is next, with 3449 runs in 47 Tests as captain, while Azharuddin made 2856 runs in 47 matches. Dhoni averaged 40.63 as captain; when not captain, his average dropped to 33.06.2871 The Test runs Dhoni scored from the No. 7 position, the highest for India at that slot; Kapil Dev is next with an aggregate of 2861. No other Indian batsman has scored more than 800 runs from that position.15 The number of overseas Tests India lost under Dhoni. Only Stephen Fleming (16 losses from 42 Tests) and Brian Lara (16 losses from 20 Tests) have lost more overseas games as captain.78 Number of sixes Dhoni hit in Tests. Among Indians only Virender Sehwag, with 90 sixes, has more.22 The number of century partnerships that Dhoni was involved in. His most prolific partnerships came with VVS Laxman: in 27 stands they aggregated 1361 runs, at an average of 56.70 runs per completed partnership, with three century stands. Laxman was the only partner with whom Dhoni put together more than 1000 runs. Of the four double-century partnerships he was involved in, two were with Laxman.2 Number of Man-of-the-Match awards Dhoni won in Tests. Both were against Australia – in Mohali in 2008, and in Chennai in 2013.

Over-coached, over-analysed, overwrought and, very often, over all too soon. The enormity of the entire cricketing structure in England and Wales is the burden these young men must carry. If they succeed, it is despite of it

George Dobell28-Feb-2015England can still qualify for the quarter-finals of the World Cup if they lose to Sri Lanka. Such is the bloated nature of the tournament, they can even qualify if they lose by a similar overwhelming margin as they did against New Zealand.But if England are going to move into the knockout stages with any confidence, with any credibility, with any realistic hope, then they have to start winning games now. Expecting to turn up for a major game and suddenly find form is naive. And a multi-million pound organisation that has supposedly planned for this event for several years should really not be trusting to luck.If England were to produce a highlights DVD of their last five-and-a-half World Cup campaigns it would be found in the horror section of any shop.The unvarnished truth is that, since losing the World Cup final of 1992 in Melbourne, England have only won five games against teams from the top eight of the Test rankings and none against Australia, India or New Zealand. Their other 12 victories have come against the likes of Netherlands (three times), Kenya (twice), Canada, Scotland, Ireland, UAE, Namibia, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. And there have even been some defeats along the way.The usual suspects are blamed for such a record: the coaches, the players, the standard – and amount – of county cricket, the draining international schedule. Perhaps there is a grain of truth in each of them.But a detailed analysis does not support such a conclusion. In between World Cups, England have played some very good limited-overs cricket. In 2012, they topped the ICC’s ODI rankings. In 2013 they contested – and probably should have won – the Champions Trophy.They won a tri-series in Australia in 2006-07 and the four-nation Sharjah tournament in 1997. They beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in 2007 and made the final of the Champions Trophy in 2004, which they probably should have won too. In 2009, they got the better of South Africa in South Africa. It is a patchy record, certainly, but it is not as hopeless as their recent World Cup record.That suggests, perhaps, a propensity to underperform on the biggest stage. Just like their counterparts in the national football side, when England’s cricketers find themselves in global events, the 2010 World T20 is an obvious exception, they seem to not so much revel in the spotlight, but become frozen in it.While players from other teams seem inspired, England seem overawed. They seem more likely to buckle and cower than flourish. Fear of failure may well be at least as big an impediment as domestic structure or any inherent lack of talent.It is not hard to see why. Put yourselves in the shoes of these young men for a moment: imagine your 24-year-old self addressing a press conference. Imagine your words being used against you. Imagine having a net while a member of the England support staff makes notes on a clipboard. While members of the media judge you.Imagine, too, the last time any of this England squad played this great game for fun. Just for fun. Many of these players were talented -spotted before they were 10 and have been hot-housed ever since.Peter Moores wakes to another destruction of his methods most mornings•Getty ImagesOh, sure, they’ve enjoyed it many times. They will have enjoyed success. But they will also have been expected to lead the way for every team they have represented. They will have been promoted beyond their age group and, at every level, felt pressure to perform and to climb to the next rung of the ladder. Most of them will not have played a game for years without their dismissal being analysed by the media, their opponents and their own coaching team.Add to that the layer of coaches and analysts and support staff – some excellent, some looking to justify their own existence, nearly all well-meaning – at every level. School, county age-group, England age-group, Academy, Lions… all with their views and their advice and their note-taking.One recent England player observed that the England dressing room during Andy Flower’s tenure was the most claustrophobic environment they had experienced. An environment where every movement was catalogued for dissection. The environment where a member of the support staff was told not to celebrate their birthday lest it create a distraction.Those of us in the media do not help. Our scrutiny, propensity to over-praise and over-criticise – neither benefits in the long term – and, most of all, the sense that we are always there: watching training, watching games, watching in press conferences and on Twitter.Former players are often the most critical. While some simply tell it as they see it – Geoff Boycott and most of the Sky team, for example – others have a clear agenda or need to produce hard-hitting comments to ensure they remain commercially popular.Peter Moores wakes to another destruction of his methods most mornings. It must be hard for him not to ignore that and not pass on his anxiety to the team.In recent days, “stories” have circulated about England players enjoying nights out and Eoin Morgan declining to sing the national anthem. Some even complained that, following the defeat to New Zealand, the coach and some players were seen smiling as they walked through the airport.None of these things is the reason England have been losing. And none of them would be much of an issue if England were winning. But, coming now, they tighten the noose a little more. They increase the sensation that every move is analysed; that the world is closing in; that they’re under pressure.Cricket, in England at least, is a serious business.And while England’s joyless methodology can still work, up to a point, in Test cricket, it is an impediment to limited-overs success. For while success in Tests can be earned by denial and discipline, in limited-overs cricket success requires other skills. It requires freedom and raw skill. It’s ever more about allowing instinct to take over. It’s ever more about allowing the joy to suppress the pressure.Ah, but players of every other country have the same issues, I hear you say. But no other team carries with it the same press pack. No other team has to stage an almost daily press conference. No other team has such a deep professional structure, meaning their players never develop without the complication of coaching. No other team is under quite the same sort of constant, unyielding, joyless pressure.And we tell them to relax and be themselves? It’s the last thing they know how to do.Over-coached, over-analysed, overwrought and, very often, over all too soon. The enormity of the entire cricketing structure in England and Wales is the burden these young men must carry. If they succeed, it is despite of it.

Identified as a natural talent by Viv Richards, Jermaine Blackwood showed his attacking instincts during a fighting, maiden Test hundred

George Dobell at North Sound15-Apr-2015Twenty-nine years to the day since Viv Richards thrilled Antigua with one of the greatest – and certainly the fastest – centuries in Test history, his latest protégé announced himself to the world with a maiden Test hundred.Jermaine Blackwood is, in many ways, an old-fashioned West Indies player. In an age where most young players are taught to defend and leave and take their time, he likes to give the ball a whack.Coming to the crease with his side in some trouble, he responded in bold style. From the second ball of his innings, with West Indies teetering on 99 for 4, he skipped down the pitch and carved James Tredwell for six over extra cover.A few minutes later he played a similar stroke off James Anderson. While he was only able to slice the ball over the in-field for a single, the message was clear: here was a young man who was not going to be intimidated by situation or reputation. Later he lofted Ben Stokes, bowling with pace and aggression, for another six over long-off. It was a shot of which even Sir Viv would have been proud.We probably shouldn’t have been surprised. His second scoring shot in Test cricket was a lofted drive for six over long-on off Trent Boult. Blackwood plays Test cricket like West Indies’ players used to play Test cricket.It was a point made by Richards, who first came across Blackwood when asked to cast his eye across the batting talent in the Sagicor High Performance Centre in Barbados, and he admits to being “very impressed” at first glance.”I love his confidence,” Richards told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s not often you see a young man who has the confidence to take on these well-known fast bowlers as soon as they come into the game.”He has that Caribbean style. He’s a bit like Collis King; he can tear an attack apart on his day. Any attack.”Sure, there are some rough edges. But I would rather have a guy who can play the shots and teach him the defence than a guy who doesn’t have any shots. He’s a natural. It’s all natural instinct. And that’s the way it is with most of the best players.”Blackwood hails from St Elizabeth, the same parish in Jamaica as Andre Russell and Jerome Taylor. Russell has been an especially significant figure in his development: he took in him as a teenager and ensured that, while other young men strayed and faltered, Blackwood kept his head down, worked hard and did not squander his natural talent. The pair have lived and trained together for a couple of years.”Andre is like my big brother,” Blackwood said. “I’ve known him for about 10 years and I’m staying with him in Jamaica. We live under the same roof. We train at home and we talk a lot about cricket. Even this morning he sent me advice on my phone. He said stay focused, stay positive, bat for long and make sure I score a century for him.”I met Viv at the HPC last year. He’s been a very important person. He’s taught me a lot. He talks to me always about staying positive. He tells me to play the way I play, but be patient. He was always telling me to be patent but positive at the same time.”With such a range of strokes, Blackwood could become the latest West Indian talent to be lost to the IPL. For now, though, his priorities are representing the West Indies. “I can play all formats, but I really love Test cricket,” he said. “I really want to play Test cricket for a long time, so right now my main focus is Test cricket and making as many runs as possible.”He has long been seen as a highly promising player. He scored a double-century in an otherwise low-scoring game against Guyana in U-19s regional cricket – a rare achievement in a format that tends to be played at a fast and furious pace – and was taken into the Sagicor High Performance Centre.While his scores in domestic cricket this year have been modest – a reflection, perhaps, of Caribbean pitches more than anything – he has now passed 50 four times in nine Test innings. Twice he has been unbeaten.”They have to stick with him,” Richards said. “He is still learning and there will be bad days along the way. But he can damage teams. He can make a difference.”When you hit the ball like that, and when you have a passion to hit a ball like that, you don’t try and curb it. You may channel it. But it’s a natural talent and it is to be encouraged and celebrated.”He enjoyed some fortune. Once he was caught at slip off a no-ball, once he was dropped in the gully and once he edged through the vacant second slip position. On several occasions, after being beaten outside off stump, he forced himself into exaggerated forward defensive practice shots. They do not come entirely naturally. There will be times, no doubt, on green pitches in England or bouncy tracks in Australia, where the technique looks a little loose.On other occasions, he was troubled by the short ball. Stuart Broad, at his bullying best, struck him on the arm with one delivery and Stokes also made him uncomfortable in a particularly good, hostile spell. “It’s Test cricket. I’m used to it,” Blackwood said. “I’m from Jamaica. We have a lot of fast bowlers. I’m not afraid of any short balls. The bowlers will get tired and that is when I will damage them.”Indeed, he never took a backward step and, when Stokes overpitched he leaned into a perfect on drive that might just have been the stroke of the Test”He corrected himself,” Richards said. “He stopped following the ball outside off stump and he showed some restraint. It shows it can be done. And it’s better to brush up on these things than try to look for something that isn’t there.”It’s hard, you know. The breeze was strong and taking the ball away from him. But he worked out how to combat everything that was thrown at him – the short ball – whatever. That’s how he will learn. That’s how all batsmen learn.”This innings will give him a lot of belief. It’s like a golfer winning their first tournament; they feel they can win them all after that. He’ll have days when he doesn’t win, but West Indies need players like Jermaine Blackwood.”