Although there has been a lot of criticism against Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard’s omissions from the West Indies’ ODI squad for South Africa and later the World Cup, their recent statistics indicate the axe might be justified

Noel Kalicharan 14-Jan-2015When Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, among others, engineered the pull-out of the tour of India, I wrote that the players involved should never play cricket for the West Indies again.However, in recent days, we have heard that Bravo and Pollard were “victimised” by being dropped from the ODI team. They are talking as if Bravo and Pollard have consistently played important roles in the 50-over game, as if they have been making regular, sterling contributions to the team effort. Their recent record does not support this.In the aborted series against India, Bravo had scores of 17, 10 and 0. He bowled a total of 20 overs and took 4 wickets for 130 runs. Hardly awe-inspiring. Go back, if you will, to the previous series against Bangladesh. He had scores of 5, 6 and 3 not out. He bowled 12 overs and took 5 for 64. His batting average for his last six innings was 8.2. One has to go as far back as February 2014 to find a good score, 87 not out in the first match of England’s tour to the Caribbean. This was followed by scores of 20 and 27. One good score in nine innings.Forget that he belongs to your cricket club. Do you really consider such a performance worthy of your ODI captain? If a player is dropped for such poor performance, why would anyone claim that he is being victimised?Now let’s look at Pollard. In the tri-series with India and Sri Lanka in June 2013, he played four matches and scored 0, 4, 0 and 0. He retained his place for the Pakistan series which followed, but after scores of 3, 30 and 0, he was dropped for the remaining two ODIs. His average in seven matches before being dropped was 5.3, hardly the stuff on which a claim of victimisation can be made.In August 2014, Pollard was back in the squad to play Bangladesh. He started off well with 89 in the first match. But, like Bravo, faltered to 26 and 10 in the next two and finished with one good score in 10 innings since the tri-series in 2013.And then came India in October 2014. Pollard played three matches with scores of 2, 40 and 6. He also bowled 3 overs, taking 0 for 22 and a workload so slight might indicate that even his captain does not consider him an allrounder. Bravo did not give him a single over in the Bangladesh series.So, in his last 10 innings for West Indies against decent opposition, Pollard’s batting average was 8.5. If you include the matches against Bangladesh, his average in his last 13 innings climbs to 16.2. An improvement but, still, hardly remarkable.So, based on their recent performances, the selectors’ decision to drop Bravo and Pollard from the ODI team, should not be construed as an act of victimisation.If you have a submission for Inbox, send it to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Feb-2015Viv Richards 181 in 1987: He walked out to face the hat-trick ball, and gave himself time to settle down, his first 50 runs coming in 62 balls. He then opened out and there was no stopping him. He finished with 181 off 125 as Sri Lanka wilted and were left facing a gargantuan target of 361•Getty ImagesSourav Ganguly 183 in 1999: Sri Lanka had a torrid day in Taunton as Ganguly shattered several records. Besides notching up the second-highest score in World Cups, Ganguly was involved in a 318-run stand with Rahul Dravid, the highest in limited-overs internationals at the time.•Getty ImagesGary Kirsten 188*in 1996: Kirsten’s batting style was the opposite of Chris Gayle’s but, against the amateurs of the UAE in Rawalpindi, he cranked up the tempo to produce 188* off 159 balls, the highest score in the World Cup. Until Gayle wreaked havoc•Getty Images

As has been the case throughout their history, Bangladesh show promise, fail to build on it, and are ultimately left wondering what could have been

Jarrod Kimber26-Feb-20155:05

Holding: Bangladesh need to give players longer run

If Tamim Iqbal gets going.That is the essence of a conversation between two people in the press box. The conversation is longer than Tamim’s innings.A photo of Tamim facing Lasith Malinga would have looked fairly close to perfect. He was on the front foot, his bat and pad were together, and the full face of the bat was right there. It was only the ball that made him look silly. The ball came into him, yet Tamim missed it on the outside of his bat. It was actually hard to tell if Tamim was leaving or playing, he was so far inside the ball. Had the stumps not been taken down, people might have assumed it was a good leave.That was, and maybe is, Bangladesh. A team that looks good at times, but ultimately, the stumps are broken. If only.

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A short, dangerous gully, and a short catching mid-off is just a part of Bangladesh’s plan to dismiss Lahiru Thirimanne.It looks good, but actually Thirimanne keeps edging behind. One is dropped by slip. Another is not attempted by Mushfiqur Rahim behind the stumps. Later, Mushfiqur misses a stumping as well. While the edges and general edginess of Thirimanne continues, the slips aren’t added too, or even restructured. There is a hint of a good idea, some very decent new ball bowling, and a bunch of missed opportunities.Eventually Bangladesh do take Thirimanne, but by then, the match is all but gone. If only they had taken him early.Bangladesh look fit. They look fit, and they look young. They look fit, they look young, they look well drilled. But they don’t always field like those three things. They should be, at worst, a competent fielding side. They often aren’t. On top of the several missed chances, they added shoddy ground fielding.They missed and fumbled simple balls, and at one stage, a shy at the stumps is backed up, but the fielder backing up is not actually watching, and so Sri Lanka collect some extra runs. It is not always like this, but today it is like this, all day. If only they had held their chances, kept the pressure on, and made Sri Lanka take more risks.The Bangladeshi plan is obvious, they have their men all out on the leg side, they have their men up on the offside. They try to bowl to that plan, but Sri Lanka keep hitting through and over the off side. Conferences are had, bowlers, captains and leaders discuss this plan.They stick with it, and the Sri Lankans stick with theirs of backing away and hitting the ball through the off side. The Sri Lanka batsmen know the plan, they see the plan, they react to the plan, and the Bangladeshis let them. If only Bangladesh had practiced their plans better.If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were wickets and runs, Bangladesh would probably be the greatest ever ODI side. But they aren’t.•AFP

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There is a Bangladesh woman in the crowd who looks close to tears. She wears a Bangladesh t-shirt and face paint. She holds her hands over her mouth as Mominul Haque walks off. Mominul has played two horrendous cut shots. One was reviewed by Sri Lanka, the other was caught by Sri Lanka. In Test cricket, Mominul averages 63. He averages over 50 both home and away against Sri Lanka in Tests. But in ODIs, he more often than not only makes women almost cry. If only he could turn his Test form into ODI results.A six from Anamul Haque gets the Bangladeshi press core screaming in the box. Unfortunately, there are few, virtually no other scream-worthy moments from him. Anamul spends most of his time at the crease scoring to fine-leg and facing dot balls. One over from Herath, he faces five balls without a run, and then pushes one off the last ball to take the strike.It was almost as if he was trolling his team-mates. Recently, Anamul said “Even if I am wasting balls, my team’s score crosses the 250-mark when I am in the middle”.Here, they needed well over 300 and it’s hard to see how they will do it as his 43 balls have produced only two boundaries. And he appears allergic to rotating the strike. Eventually Anamul is run out, oddly attempting a single for the non-striker. If only he had more experience taking ODI singles.

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Shakib al Hasan plays back to a ball he should have come forward to from Dilshan. Somehow, the ball doesn’t bowl him. In the confusion, Sangakkara fumbles it. Mushfiqur Rahim sets off and almost causes a run-out. In what was one of the straightest, easiest balls to face in human history, Bangladesh have manufactured two chances for wickets for Sri Lanka. And not just two normal batsmen, their best two ODI batsmen, sitting far enough down the order that by the time they come in, their chances of winning are non-existent. If only they had batted when it mattered.On Twitter, R Ashwin gushes, “My god this guy Soumya sarkar looks a solid bat”. He looks more than solid; he looks explosive and full of boundaries. As much as you can when you only face 15 balls. Soumya hints at something special. Soumya is out shortly after. He often is. In three ODIs, he has scored, 20, 25 and 28. His ODI career is 58 balls long. Twelve of them have gone to the rope, one more over them. If he ever stays in. If he ever stays around. If he ever builds on his house of dynamite.If.

Despite the nervousness caused by the weather, Australia’s professional victory secured their preferred route for the knockouts

Brydon Coverdale in Hobart14-Mar-2015At 6.02pm, the rain blew in over Bellerive Oval, the sky darkened and so did the faces of Australia’s cricketers. Washed out against Bangladesh in Brisbane, surely it would not happen against Scotland too? The consequences would have been severe: finish third in their group, face South Africa in a quarter-final, take on New Zealand in Auckland in a semi-final. There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but that one would be prone to avalanche.A nervous hour-and-a-half ensued, Australia still needing 39 runs to overhaul Scotland’s total of 130. The rain eased up, the covers were removed, and then the weather turned once more. Only 13.2 overs had been bowled, 40 balls short of what is required to constitute a match and bring Duckworth-Lewis into play. When play resumed at 7.35pm, 12 balls was all David Warner and James Faulkner needed.The overwhelming feeling amongst the Australians was relief. In their quarter-final in Adelaide they will now face the winner of Sunday’s game between Pakistan and Ireland, and should they reach a semi-final it will be at home, at the SCG, against India or Bangladesh. It must certainly be their preferred side of the draw, given their success against Asian teams at home.Australia’s desperation for a fourth victory was apparent from Michael Clarke’s decision to send Scotland in. Pragmatism is not always a strength of the bullish Australians, but Clarke read the forecast and sniffed the breeze. The Hobart crowd jeered his choice to bowl first, but this was not a day for a 400-plus score. This was a day to get the job done, and get it done quickly.The first ball of the match was a bouncer from Mitchell Starc, keen to immediately put Scotland’s top order on the back foot. The slip cordon stayed in place for the fast men through the whole innings. Wickets fell, the Australians moved quickly back to their positions. The drinks break was an obstacle; with time of the essence, they waited in their places for Scotland’s batsmen to have a sip and return.Eyes constantly glanced above the new Ricky Ponting Stand on the west side of the ground, nervously waiting for the rain. When it came it was light, but Ian Gould and Richard Illingworth were taking no chances. Play was suspended with Scotland eight down. The Australians dawdled, miffed by the decision. They could have played on, and probably should have. But there is no DRS for rain interruptions.When play was set to resume, the Australians were all in their fielding positions before the umpires or the Scotland batsmen made it onto the field. They wanted a quick kill, and through Starc they got it, the last two wickets falling in four balls. Part one of their job was done, Scotland were skittled for 130 in the 26th over. Part two required beating the rain again.But still there was a chance to ensure their second priority could be achieved as well, getting some batting time into Clarke, Shane Watson and James Faulkner. Criticised for not batting against Afghanistan in Perth, Clarke here took the opposite route: for the first time since 2009, he walked out to open in an ODI innings.There were scratchy moments. He copped one in the groin and another in the shoulder when he missed his pulls and hooks. Watson came out at No. 3 and struck a few boundaries but was notably grumpy, bickering with Scotland bowler Rob Taylor. Clarke too had been terse at his pre-match press conference: Australia wanted this pool stage over, and over on their terms.Their Brisbane match had seemed more like the swimming pool stage, not a ball bowled due to a deluge. In Hobart the rain was just frustrating. After Australia went off with 39 runs needed, Duckworth-Lewis calculations began. They already had the runs required for the 20-over mark, they just didn’t have the 20 overs.It was not out of the question that they could have lost overs, had the target reduced and have play nominally start but with their new target already reached. In the end, no overs were lost, just a few fingernails. After the win, Clarke was a relieved man.”There was obviously doubt about getting a result,” Clarke said. “There was rain forecast and it didn’t look great. There was always a fair bit of wind so we had confidence that would continue and blow the rain away – but it could also blow rain in.”The fact we already knew we’d qualified for a World Cup quarter-final was positive. It’s just that we wanted to win this game to finish second, rather than third or fourth. That was our main focus, on making sure we did everything we could to win this game.”I think we did whatever we could. We made the most of our opportunity. Most importantly, everyone in the squad mentally is ready to go. I still felt a little bit rusty there with the bat. I don’t think Watto would’ve played that shot if he wasn’t putting the team first, and Jimmy Faulkner came in and tried to smack it at the end there. We made the most of it. All three of us got a bat, so it’s better than it could have been.”The whole day was much better than it could have been, despite the nervous moments. Australia won as comfortably as they could have under the circumstances, in only 41 overs of cricket. It was pragmatic and professional, a quick kill, if an interrupted one. Crisis averted.

Plays of the day from the match between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in Chennai

Devashish Fuloria10-May-2015The scoop that worked
A few years ago, the scoop-shot was a novelty; now, there are a million versions of the shot. Brendon McCullum added one to it. In the eighth over, he got into the position early but was made to wait for the slower ball from Rajat Bhatia. Instead of going towards the ball, though, he stayed beside the line, let the ball pass him and just before it was about to reach the wicketkeeper’s gloves, he shovelled it over Sanju Samson’s left shoulder.The scoop that didn’t
By the 17th over, McCullum was exhausted in the Chennai heat. He tried to play a scoop, but the length was a bit too full from Shane Watson, and the ball went in front of the batsman rather than behind him. As Faf du Plessis charged down the pitch, he should have known McCullum was not going to run. By the time he got the message, he had come too far. Watson, the bowler, picked up, turned back and hit the stumps direct.The defensive punch
Watson found his timing in the fifth over of the chase as he hit his first boundary – a crisp cut shot. The next ball confirmed it. As he defended the length ball solidly, the connection was so sweet that the ball bounced on the sluggish pitch and leapt so high that by the time the bowler got to the ball and threw at the non-striker’s end, the batsmen had sneaked a comfortable single.Jadeja’s wait
Ravindra Jadeja’s wait for a wicket was on its 15th day. Since taking three wickets against Kings XI Punjab, he had drawn a blank for five games. He hadn’t been scoring runs either. To top it all, he had also dropped a catch in Super Kings’ previous match. Then, just when he thought he had beaten Steven Smith’s sweep and hit the leg stump, the umpire’s made him wait some more as they checked with the TV umpire. To Jadeja’s delight, the finger was raised.Bravo’s leap of faith
Dwayne Bravo loves to dance for the crowd. And invariably, he does something every match to give himself an opportunity. When Watson drove Jadeja towards the sight-screen, he would have not expected Bravo to come in between. Even Bravo, moving to his left from long-on, did not expect to intercept it. But he jumped up a couple of feet anyway, stuck his right hand out and came down with the ball. He ran towards long-off, eyes on the crowd, then pulled off his favourite moves.

Plays of the day from the match between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai

George Binoy04-May-2015The mis-match
Dwayne Smith will be embarrassed to watch a recording of the first over of the game. He did not get bat on a single ball from Mitchell Starc. Smith tried to play at four of the first five deliveries – having left the other one – but was extremely late on the shot every time and beaten outside off stump. Starc simply readjusted his radar for the sixth delivery, homing in on the stumps instead of just outside. Smith, with stagnant feet, was woefully late again and his off stump took a beating.The injury
Raina drove the last ball off the eighth over firmly towards point, where Mandeep Singh – the hero of Royal Challengers’ chase against Kolkata Knight Riders – dived smartly to his right to cut off the shot. The ball rolled a short distance away from Mandeep, though, and the instant reaction was to wonder why he wasn’t up and haring after it to prevent runs. Immediately it was apparent that all was not well because Mandeep got up and wrung his right hand in pain, his little finger appearing to have been dislocated. His team-mates converged on him in concern and he needed to go off the field for treatment.The huge hit
Super Kings boast a line-up filled with muscular batsmen who can bash the ball – Smith, McCullum, Raina, du Plessis, Dhoni, Bravo and Jadeja. The biggest six of the evening, however, was struck by small and wiry Pawan Negi, and it was humongous. He danced down the pitch to Yuzvendra Chahal and lofted straight and far with a mighty swing. The ball travelled so high that when it bounced, it bounced on the roof of the MA Chidambaram Stadium.The failed experiment
Royal Challengers had a misfiring opener of their own. Having replaced the resting Chris Gayle, Nic Maddinson was intent on charging Ishwar Pandey repeatedly. He was struck on the pad once and then missed a few other deliveries. There seemed to be little method to his aggressive approach and when the end came it was to one off the tamest deliveries he could hope to get. Maddinson charged at a straight full toss from Pandey, simply missed it with his clumsy swing, and was bowled.The hammer and feather
AB de Villiers could have beheaded Ashish Nehra had he hit the ball lower. So fierce was the drive off the front foot that all Nehra could do – and no one would have expected otherwise – was duck as the ball rocketed over him and to the straight boundary. A few balls later, de Villiers displayed a more delicate touch. With the keeper up to the stumps for the seamer, first slip standing back and a short third man in place, he dabbed Pandey late from off stump, placing it between the fielders with precision.

Sri Lanka’s quicks have now taken 24 wickets in this series, to the spinners’ combined tally of 13. Is a little revolution taking place in Sri Lanka’s Test cricket? Is their gameplan fundamentally changing?

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Jul-2015There is no doubt that at present Sri Lanka are experiencing change. It’s too early to tell if the team will be better off in coming years, or worse. For now, change is just change. But as Sri Lanka fast bowlers claimed six wickets on a seaming pitch in Pallekele, one thing became clear: this change is strange.Ever since DS de Silva sent down his first legbreak in the 1982 inaugural Test, spinners had claimed the island for themselves. Through the years, the Test team has trotted out every kind of slow bowler in the book, as well as a few for whom the book had to be rewritten. Seamers were glorified sandpaper. Pramodya Wickramasinghe reports sometimes being told to “just make the ball old”. Spinners would waddle around the infield in the early overs, then saunter over to dispatch the seamers to fine leg, saying, “Let the big boys handle it from here, kid.” For about 30 years, Chaminda Vaas had been the only exception to this.But in the last two years a mini resistance has built. King Rangana Herath held court, of course, but around him a squad of quicks came together from around the coast. Shaminda Eranga emerged from north-western Chilaw. Suranga Lakmal from southern Dabarawewa. Nuwan Pradeep won soft-ball competition in Negombo, before Dushmantha Chameera was discovered in the same town. Even Dhammika Prasad, though an SSC stalwart, is from outside Colombo city limits.As they broke Pakistan open on day two, Prasad occasionally getting seam movement as crazy as his eyes, Pradeep getting swing to provoke strokes as poor as his haircut, Sri Lanka continued their upending of stereotypes. Sri Lanka’s quicks have now taken 24 wickets in this series, to the spinners’ combined tally of 13. On the opposition, legspinner Yasir Shah has 22 wickets for himself. Is a little revolution taking place in Sri Lanka’s Test cricket? Is their gameplan fundamentally changing?The transformation has been a while coming. Lakmal and Eranga enjoyed a good tour of the UAE last year, then the quicks blasted Bangladesh out twice in a four-day Mirpur Test. For so long, Sri Lanka had been the team that spent days in the field wishing a Muttiah Muralitharan or a Herath could bowl from both ends, because all the seamers did was give away runs. Suddenly they were actually contributing. Though they remained works in progress, the belief in them accumulated. Their self-confidence rose.

Head coach Marvan Atapattu on Sri Lanka’s seamers

• On their achievements during the series: “All the fast bowlers who have played in this series have been fantastic. They have brought us back in all three games, starting in Galle when they got Pakistan to 90-odd for 5, when we were bowled out for 300. Then they helped dismiss Pakistan for 128 all out in Colombo. Here, after having scored only 278 in the first innings, to get nine Pakistani wickets is a remarkable effort.”

• On their development: “Programmes for managing the fast bowlers have been happening for the last 16-20 months. We’re lucky to have some of the fast bowlers that we have today. If all goes well, hopefully, everybody will be fit and available for selection, which hasn’t really happened. Having said that, we’re lucky to have about eight good guys in our ranks.”

• On their potential to improve: “Staying fit is key, but everyone has different strengths. For example, Dushmantha Chameera has a different strength to Suranga Lakmal. Dhammika Prasad has a different strength to both of them. It’s about improving and gaining experience to progress in your style of bowling.”

By the middle of 2014 Sri Lanka’s quicks went overseas and even had the gall to attempt bouncing out the opposition after choosing to bowl first at the home of cricket, of all places. It didn’t work, at the time of course. Joe Root and the England tail murdered the bowling up and down the hill at Lord’s, then dragged the attack to a dodgier neighbourhood to stuff into a dumpster. But the mere fact that: a) Sri Lanka’s thinktank imagined a short-ball plan could end in anything but profound humiliation, and b) 30,000 spectators didn’t break en masse into laughing fits upon seeing the first few bouncers, was the kind of progress that should bring a tear to every Sri Lankan eye.How incredible is it that this Pallekele pitch even had real, live grass on it on the first morning? This is a country in which surfaces are so closely tailored to the team’s demands, curators basically send pitch-sample swatches to captains before a series, along with a bouquet of flowers and a card that reads: “I’ll give it to you any way you like.” More than likely, Sri Lanka were after a seaming track for this match. Not so long ago, things were very different. If a pitch had had a green tinge, say, in the mid-noughties when Murali’s play-doh wrists were at large, the curator would have been summoned to Colombo, marched to the zoo and fed to the animals there.On Saturday, when rains rolled through the venue you could almost imagine the match was being played in the seam-bowling wonderlands of early-summer New Zealand or England. The only difference is that the staff are more efficient at protecting the field from rain here. If you ever need to build a bonfire in a lake, a Pallekele groundsman would figure a way to keep the wood dry.When play resumed after each rain break, Sri Lanka’s seamers emerged energised, positively slavering for the ball, which they quickly had shimmying around the surface. Prasad jagged one in to nail Asad Shafiq in front of the stumps soon after the first disruption. Azhar Ali lost fluency after the second interruption, almost nicking Prasad, before leaning out to send Pradeep to second slip. Shan Masood had been nailed by a swinging yorker. Ahmed Shehzad was teased into sending the ball to the wicketkeeper, off almost the face of his bat.In this bold, new pace-bowling age of Sri Lanka, Tharindu Kaushal still flies the flag for unorthodox spin. But as he furiously ripped every ball he bowled on Saturday, slipping in the occasional doosra, he seemed like the guy trying a little too hard to bring a retro trend back. When Kaushal turned balls into Ehsan Adil and Rahat Ali’s front pads late in the day, he showed spin was not obsolete. But if Sri Lanka’s selection for this game is any indication, the team is not buying it.Perhaps in the post-Herath era, Sri Lanka will give in to the military-medium revolution, and Kaushal will wind up playing many more home Tests as the side’s sole spinner.  For now, Sri Lanka are well placed in a ball-dominated Test series. Not many would have thought it would be the quicks that got them here.

In Bangladesh on a commentary stint, Morne van Wyk is exploring an aspect of life outside the game. His focus, however, remains on staying prepared for any opportunities to play for South Africa again

Mohammad Isam09-Jul-2015During the T20 series between Bangladesh and South Africa at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, the commentary box had a surprise visitor. Morne van Wyk, the man who scored a century in South Africa’s last T20 at home in January this year, was doing commentary for the first time.The mild-mannered wicketkeeper-batsman was one of three commentators for the first game, alongside Athar Ali Khan and Shamim Ashraf Chowdhury, and was joined by former South Africa allrounder Jon Kent for the second game of the series. He has worked as a studio expert back home but is enjoying this new experience, shifting from a role behind the stumps to one behind the microphone.He admitted he was disappointed at being dropped from the national side after getting a good score, an unbeaten 114 he made against West Indies in January this year, but stated he was focused on the 2016 World T20 that is less than a year away.”I think I scored 60-70 odd off 40 balls but also got dropped,” van Wyk told ESPNcricinfo. “I think it was in 2010. It was a T20 game in the Moses Mahbida Stadium. And then I scored a hundred and got dropped [in 2015]. Maybe I should not score runs once or twice and then see what happens [laughs]. I cannot tell you why or how but clearly it is very disappointing. It takes a couple of days to get over it.”Sometimes it is not really about understanding, but focusing on what you have. Certainly that’s what I am going to try to do going forward. It is not over yet. There’s a World Cup in February and I just have to keep myself ready; stay fit, stay in form. If an opportunity comes knocking, I have to use it.”Van Wyk was realistic about his exclusion saying that he had come into the T20 side in January – his first international appearance since March 2011 – as a replacement for Quinton de Kock, who had injured his ankle. Once the incumbent was deemed fit, van Wyk knew the selectors would have to make a tough choice. But he said that the commentating stint was a good opportunity for him to get a taste of a different profession albeit one connected to cricket.”It was an honor to score a century. It was little disappointing at not being picked but that’s the way it goes,” he said. “The selectors decided to put Quinton back in. I only played the game because he was injured. I suppose they had to decide whether to give me another game after the hundred or not.”Clearly they decided to give Quinton another opportunity. Life’s got a way of working out. Because of that I got an opportunity to come to Bangladesh and to commentate. It is my third time to Bangladesh. I thoroughly enjoy it. I love the passion people have for cricket. (Commentary is) Something I am thoroughly enjoying and if it becomes something I can do after my career, I will count myself very lucky.”I feel very blessed in my career. I have experienced a lot from World Cups and numerous records, highlights to winning trophies, international Man of the Match, the hundred. I have been privileged to captain teams for a long time. I am loving my time at the Dolphins,” said van Wyk.He revealed he had hopes of a shot at a World Cup spot if de Kock was not fit. “I think my name was definitely in the hat. But you know in all fairness, the hundred was in a T20. I think it all depended whether Quinton’s ankle came right or not. If he hadn’t gone, I would have gone I assume.”He turned out to be fit enough to play. So they took him. I was in the mix. I have been in the mix for a couple of World Cups. If it was a squad of 16-17, I would have been to a couple of World Cups. It wasn’t the case, it wasn’t meant to be,” he said.Van Wyk said he felt like he was making his debut all over again when he started doing commentary on Sunday. By the next game, he was out conducting the toss with Mashrafe Mortaza, his one-time Kolkata Knight Riders team-mate, and Faf du Plessis, his captain from last January.”I think from a cricketing point of view, I have played first-class cricket for 16-17 years. A lot of those things are very natural to me now. As a commentator, it is a completely new ball game so it almost felt like I have made my debut again on Sunday. Everything has been so different,” he said.

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Oct-2015James Anderson picked up two wickets in an over to leave Pakistan wobbling on 3 for 2•Associated PressMohammad Hafeez helped calms nerves and, although he was run out after lunch, there was no hint of the drama to come when Pakistan were 102 for 3 at tea•Associated PressMisbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan seemed to have guided Pakistan to safety…•Associated Press…but Younis gave Adil Rashid his first Test wicket and a collapse ensued•Associated PressMisbah was bowled aiming a slog at Moeen…•Associated Press…Wahab Riaz did not last long either…•Getty Images…and Adil Rashid took the last two wickets with consecutive deliveries to bowl Pakistan out for 173•Getty ImagesRashid finished with 5 for 64, the first five-wicket haul by an English legspinner since 1959•Getty ImagesThat left England needing only 99 to win but although there were plenty of overs left, the light was fading•Getty ImagesJoe Root provided much of the impetus but England were 25 short on 74 for 4 when the umpires decided to call a halt and declare the match a draw•Getty Images

On a steaming Colombo day, victory did not come easily to India. But the team kept its focus, intensity and clarity of thought going, and reaped the benefits

Sharda Ugra at the SSC01-Sep-2015It was a sweltering afternoon in Colombo, the kind that is never understood unless it is experienced. Sweat drips everywhere, off fingers, arms, legs, off the forehead, stinging the eyes. It is heat of a kind that gets behind the eyes and as the sun continues to burn and beat down, the mind feels like it is being baked. That is what it was like under the roof of the media centre at the SSC, watching India push for victory – in the match, in the series, in the history books.On a still, cruel afternoon, where a small crowd huddled under whatever shade they could find, waiting for something to happen, all that was heard was the claps of the Indian fielders and voices calling out in cricket’s global lingo. “Come on, lads…” “One more wicket, boys, one more wicket…”. Was that Stuart Binny? Or wicketkeeper Naman Ojha? Or Ajinkya Rahane?The voices floated up over the ground as Umesh Yadav and R Ashwin tried to keep the Sri Lankan batsmen pegged down. They were bowling to captain Angelo Mathews, arguably the game’s current Superman, and debutant wicketkeeper Kusal Perera, pocket-sized but with extra helpings of daring. Fifty overs completed, the partnership bustling along, the target of 386 shrinking, one boundary an over, suddenly 40 scored off ten. And still Ashwin whirling his arm over and over, tossing it up on occasions, bowling slightly quicker on others, Umesh hurling it down between 139 and 141 kph.The first wicket of the final morning at the SSC had come quickly. In the fourth over, Umesh banged one in short to Kaushal Silva who tried to drag-pull it somewhere but it ballooned straight into the sky. New man Lahiru Thirimanne had already found himself with the match referee, but at this point no one cares about the match referee and what is about to happen on the disciplinary front. That is for afterwards.Now, it’s six wickets left. Kohli switches from Binny, who kept Thirimanne quiet, to Ashwin. He is the lead spinner but without a wicket in this match, only eight overs in the first innings. Ashwin would later say he had wanted to be a “good foil” for the seamers in the first innings.”Thankfully they bundled them out and I didn’t have much to do. But in the second innings I knew that winning a Test on the final day, there is that bit of responsibility attached to it. I wanted to take them.” He does. Thirimanne is gone in his very first complete over of the day, trying to release pressure and create a shot against the spin. KL Rahul, centurion and leaver of balls, dropper of catches and snaffler of blinders, is at silly point. He has leapt up and bunted the leading edge into the air before the completing the catch. Half the Sri Lankan batting line-up is gone.For a short while, it feels like a slice of India’s victory at the P Sara, where, with eight wickets needed on the final morning, things had rushed along in fast-forward mode. Ashwin had raced through the batting like a long-distance runner on a sprint finish. But here at the SSC, it is drip, drip, drip. In keeping with the weather, in which bowlers feel as if they sweat out a mineral water bottle every over. Mathews and Kusal are turning the screws and starting to cut off the air for the Indian fans. It is at points like these that intentions can start to melt away, and the way ahead look a little hazy, impossible, mirage-like.India did not let the heat nor the opposition’s mid-afternoon resistance get to them at the SSC•AFPAshwin and captain Kohli later sat next to each other at the media briefing, India Test shirts Nos. 271 and 269. That doubt of “what if”, they said, was never going to happen. Regardless how long the partnership, Kohli said, “you have to sit there and think about how the game goes. The averages of people giving away chances in the number of overs. In Test cricket, on a fifth day, there will be hundred-run partnerships, that happens in international cricket. But you will have that one opportunity or that one chance to get someone out, and you have to make sure that you grab that.”Ashwin talked of the ball getting softer, not swinging for the fast bowlers anymore, the fact that resistance had been expected. “Even before the game, we had identified this as the phase where runs would go. We were always stacking it up for the second new ball to come, so we were really prepared to take the game as deep as possible.”Before the new ball, there was Ishant Sharma, who contained within himself his entire team’s spirit on the final day of the series. At the tail end of the fourth day, he had gone loco with Dhammika Prasad and knew that the match referee would be sending him a love note about the same. His attention though was on matters at hand.Ishant turned up at the start of every bowling spell on the final day looking like he was ready to tear up everything in front of him, the batting, the pitch, the stumps and then move over to the stands and take them down too. An hour after lunch, he was bowling back-of-a-length lifters which clocked 145, offering 139kph at the least in the 65th over of the day. He conceded the one boundary of his 19 overs on Monday evening. On Tuesday, he offered batsmen only hellfire and damnation.On both sides of tea come the opportunities the Indians have spent two steamy hours waiting for. Kusal reverse-sweeping Ashwin to Rohit Sharma at point is followed by the arrival of the new ball. First over after tea, Mathews misses one full and straight and Ishant has his 200th Test wicket; he punches his fist into the air, shakes his head of hair, knowing that the Test is as good as won. As the Indians gather around Ishant, high-fiving, Kohli leaves their little knot and pats the departing Mathews on the back. An appreciation of Mathews’ leadership and courage with the bat.The two spinners are quickly put to work and the last three wickets slide quickly, within the next five overs. Amit Mishra’s googly is far too arcane for Nuwan Pradeep to understand and the bowler is hugged by his captain for putting the final seal on the game. Pujara and Ishant are asked to lead the team off the field. Kohli is waving a stump at the support staff in the dressing room, pulling at his India t-shirt in what is his aggro-boy avatar. An instant later, he has his own private moment and everything sinks in. He is walking off looking down at the ground, shaking his head and giving the stump one final swish. It is done. From an afternoon of gloom in Galle to victory over the buckets of sweat at the SSC.Kohli said afterwards that he had noticed a single significant change in this series, when compared to the team’s long round of overseas travels since South Africa, 2013: “We have capitalised on the important moments in the game. We have done well to maintain our composure and do well in those moments, and that is why we have been able to win two Test matches after being 1-0 down. Just the way the guys have responded to situations, that has changed. It only shows the hunger of the guys in improving as cricketers and actually wanting to close out games of cricket rather than hesitating.”For almost an hour and a half after the presentation, the Indians sit around on the balcony of their dressing room, savouring the afterglow of victory and tossing over shirts, caps and other pieces of their kit to the ground staff on the floor below. No hell-raising noise or spraying of champagne. Just smiles, laughter and a few cans cracked open. If they knew of it, the Indians would surely have raised the great Sinhala toast that Sri Lankans offer each other. It would have been the most fitting of wishes for their future: . May you win.