All posts by h716a5.icu

The numbers confirm that this is Australia’s worst bowling performance in their 137-year Test history. By a huge margin.

Brydon Coverdale in Abu Dhabi02-Nov-2014There is no delicate way to put this. Australia’s bowling in the UAE has been the team’s worst ever in a series. That is not subjective hyperbole but measurable fact. And here are the numbers that confirm it.Before this tour, Australia had played 210 Test series. Their worst collective bowling average for any one of those series came when India toured in 1985-86 and drew all three Tests. Allan Border’s men claimed 26 victims at an average of 62.46 per wicket.Pretty bad, huh? Well, get this.In the UAE, the Australian bowlers have collectively picked up 20 wickets across the series at an average of 80.15 per wicket. Never in their 137-year Test history have Australia leaked so many runs per wicket in a series, including one-off Tests. Never have they even come close.It is nearly twice as bad as when they were crushed 4-0 last year in India, where each breakthrough cost them 43.80 runs. It is worse than India’s worst, than Pakistan’s worst, than England’s worst, than West Indies’ worst, and much worse than South Africa’s worst. They have been so toothless it is hard to imagine they ever had teeth at all.Perhaps a caveat is required here, for the bowlers did create more than 20 chances. Australia’s fielding throughout the two Tests has been poor. Half-chances have gone down and so have easy ones. On the fourth day in Abu Dhabi, Misbah-ul-Haq equalled the record for the fastest hundred in Test history, having been reprieved on 4 when Peter Siddle grassed a straightforward chance at cover.Phillip Hughes fumbled another simple one at gully later on, to give Azhar Ali a life on 68. By then, such errors hardly mattered, other than to allow Azhar to register a century in each innings of a Test. But it was the continuation of a trend. Chances went down in Dubai, chances went down in Abu Dhabi.Chris Rogers, Alex Doolan, Brad Haddin, David Warner, Steven Smith, Siddle, Hughes – they all missed catches, some easy, some hard. Warner also missed a stumping when filling in for Haddin behind the stumps. It would not quite be accurate to say Australia missed more chances than they took, but they weren’t far off. It was quite an initiation for fielding coach Greg Blewett.But so many runs were conceded that even five more wickets wouldn’t have stopped this being Australia’s worst bowling in a series. Siddle took two at 108.50. Nathan Lyon got three at 140.66. Mitchell Starc had two at 71.00. Steve O’Keefe claimed four at 54.75. Steven Smith winkled out three at 48.33. The only bowler who could boast figures considered acceptable was Mitchell Johnson, whose six wickets came at 29.50.A sore left hip stopped him taking the field after lunch on the fourth day in Abu Dhabi. The team doctor and physio didn’t seem too worried about Johnson, and you’d hardly have blamed him if he just gave up and said he wasn’t going out there again. It was his birthday, after all. The series has been hard work on surfaces that offered little pace and bounce, but Johnson’s speed meant he could still threaten.Robbed of any appreciable swing or seam, Siddle’s wicket column became as barren as the Arabian Desert. Starc has not played first-class cricket for 14 months, and looked like it. Mitchell Marsh went wicketless and failed to find the reverse swing that would likely have been a feature of Shane Watson’s bowling, had he been fit. Who’d have thought Australia would miss Watson’s bowling this much?Pakistan’s bowlers got the ball to reverse, and their spinners were also far more effective than Australia’s slow bowlers. Part of that was down to Australia’s woeful batting, and it is hard to separate the two aspects of Australia’s game because of that. But Pakistan’s two frontline spinners, Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah, together took more wickets in the series than Australia’s entire attack.Lyon, turning the ball into Pakistan’s exclusively right-handed batting line-up, needed to tempt the batsmen wide of off stump more often instead of using a straighter line. In Dubai, he went for 60 runs through the off side and 163 through leg. In Abu Dhabi it was 64 through off and 138 through leg. It has been a difficult 2014 for Lyon, but there has been no tougher month than this.Of course, the bowlers are not the only ones at fault. David Warner is the only batsman certain to finish the series with a pass mark. The Argus report after the 2010-11 Ashes nadir found, more or less, that Australia couldn’t bat, bowl or field. The same could be said of their efforts in the UAE. But taking their wickets at an average of 80 is not just bad, it is history-making bad.”I want to take 20 wickets,” Michael Clarke said before this series began. He meant in a Test, not a series.

How Twitter reacted to Afghanistan and Scotland’s nail-biting clash at the World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2015Afghanistan’s one-wicket win over Scotland, while striking another blow for the Associates, would count among one of the more heartwarming stories of this World Cup. Relief and vicarious elation were, understandably, the dominant emotions on Twitter.

Congrats to #Afghanistan for their win over #Scotland in the Cricket World Cup #CWC15 #AFGvsSCO

— U.S. Embassy Kabul (@USEmbassyKabul) February 26, 2015

That was fun. I think that's what it's meant to be. #AFGvSCO #CWC2015

— Mpumelelo Mbangwa (@mmbangwa) February 26, 2015

They will be dancing in the streets of Kabul all day and all night. Come on, Big Three of the ICC: invite Afghanistan to tour your countries

— Scyld Berry (@scyldberry) February 26, 2015

I feel for Scotland but that was another most compelling cricket match. Associates nations are providing so many highlights @ this CWC2015.

— ian bishop (@irbishi) February 26, 2015

I don't care how long the tournament is, if it means more results and matches like that, play on Associates, play on…

— Derek Alberts (@derekalberts1) February 26, 2015

Stallone should definitely approach Shapoor Zadran and Hamid Hassan for the next Expendables! The Rocky n Rambo duo fit the bill #AFGvSCO

— jatin sapru (@jatinsapru) February 26, 2015

Three journos and an ICC official in the Sydney press box reduced to behaving like 12-year-old fans. Felt brilliant. #CWC15 #AFGvSCO

— Dileep Premachandran (@SpiceBoxofEarth) February 26, 2015

For places like Afghanistan, even if its short-lived, moments like this erase the pain and bring hope. Thank you #BlueTigers #AfghanCricket

— سميرة (@SamiraaSR) February 26, 2015

2:42

Social Dugout: Stan and Deliver

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Apr-2015Rohit Sharma, having pushed himself down to No. 4 again, held steady and then accelerated to make 50 off 31 balls•BCCIHarbhajan Singh was promoted to No. 5 and assisted Rohit in a 45-run partnership off 35 balls•BCCIBut 57 for 4 had been a wobbly position to be. Kieron Pollard changed all that with his 64 off 30 balls and powered Mumbai to 183 for 7•BCCIDwayne Smith provided Super Kings with a blazing start, scoring 62 off only 30 balls•BCCIBrendon McCullum wouldn’t be left too far behind as he struck 46 off 20 balls•BCCIAn opening stand of 109 in 44 helped Chennai Super Kings run down their sixth target of 180 or more with 20 balls to spare•BCCI

Plays of the Day from the second T20 between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in Lahore

Mohammad Isam24-May-2015The oldies’ collision
Pakistan’s two old-timers Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Sami were trying to cut off a whip by Vusi Sibanda but as they got closer to the ball, they banged into each other. Precisely, Malik headbutted into Sami’s knee and the two collapsed.Sami had enough presence of mind to throw the ball back to the bowler Shahid Afridi but Sibanda and Sean Williams had taken three runs. The physio made his way out and after a few shakes of the head and some cold water, Malik was up. Ahmed Shehzad checked if Malik was fine before the two, Malik and Sami, hugged it out. No harm done, it seemed.The slippery slower one
Bilawal Bhatti was struggling for a proper length when he started to dish out slower deliveries in the sixth over. The first one went down the leg side and the second one was comical.The ball, released from the back of the hand, reached the ducking batsman high on the full. However, it wasn’t as bad as Abdur Rehman bowling the three successive high full tosses that got him barred from the attack in the Asia Cup against Bangladesh last year.The stare’s short stay
Imad Wasim, making his international debut, was introduced into the attack in the fifth over. He readied himself quickly and bowled the first ball, a full delivery, which was driven back by Hamilton Masakadza.Wasim stared at Masakadza, before turning back to bowl the next delivery, which was blasted over his head for a boundary. There wasn’t much of a stare as he quickly walked back to his mark.The comeback in the stands
Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan announced on Twitter that he would be present at the Gaddafi Stadium to watch the second T20. He said this would be the first time since the 1996 World Cup final that he would be at the ground.He perhaps forgot that he had vented his anger at Pakistan’s losses to India in the ODI series in 2004, while near the press box. This time, he wanted to watch a thriller as it was his “day off”, and he had his wish fulfilled.The catch
Sikandar Raza saw Shahid Afridi sky one and ran in, and so did Vusi Sibanda who had taken three catches in the game.As the ball came down near the advertising mats behind the bowler, close mates Raza and Sibanda nearly collided, but Raza clung on to the catch. He screamed in delight, turned and gave Sibanda a big smile.The floored appeal
Chris Mpofu has a few dance jigs for wicket celebrations but couldn’t find a reason to bring them out until the 17th over, when his celebration was by accident and not choice.When he hit Umar Akmal’s pads in the 17th over, Mpofu turned around and appealed. So earnest was his shout that he fell on his back. The umpire took his time and gave it out. Mpofu celebrated on the floor.

ESPNcricinfo staff01-May-2015Shannon Gabriel struck in his first over as Jonathan Trott fell to the short ball and collected his third duck of the series…•Getty Images…but Alastair Cook made a solid start for the tourists•Getty ImagesJason Holder then produced a beauty to take out Gary Ballance’s middle stump…•Associated Press…and Holder followed up with a caught and bowled to remove Ian Bell for a duck•AFPEngland recovered steadily but were pegged back again when Joe Root edged Veerasammy Permaul behind•AFPCook remained firm and went to his latest half-century looking in good touch…•Getty Images…and in league with Moeen Ali, England moved into calmer waters, Moeen going past his own fifty•Getty ImagesBut Moeen was run out and Ben Stokes caught in the gully as West Indies fought back•Associated PressCook went through to his first Test century since May 2013, and roared his relief, only to fall in the last over of the day•Getty Images

Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan teamed up to take Bangladesh past a few small milestones on the third day. Shakib shepherded Liton along the way, but the youngster may have to do the same on his own, very soon

Mohammad Isam in Chittagong23-Jul-2015When Bangladesh’s 82-run, sixth-wicket partnership ended with a skier caught easily by JP Duminy, no one in the ground was more distraught than Shakib Al Hasan. The bowler, offspinner Simon Harmer, reckoned Shakib was trying to reach his fifty; the skier he offered two balls earlier strengthens that claim. Such dismissals can be derived in various ways but what Shakib had done in that moment does not really give away what he had done in the preceding two-and-a-half hours: he helped keep Bangladesh and Liton Das stay afloat.The final assessment of their innings was almost similar to how Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes and Mahmudullah applied themselves on the second day but got out after getting settled at the crease. Shakib and Liton ensured that Bangladesh took the first-innings lead, got to their longest innings, and secured their highest score against South Africa. They were also at the crease when Bangladesh completed 100 overs in the first innings – their first time against South Africa. Bangladesh have now batted 100 overs against all Test playing nations. These are tiny factoids for many, but this is how a Test side builds confidence.Liton was at the other end batting on 39 off 84 balls when Shakib got out. He faced 17 more deliveries and 7.1 more overs to reach his maiden Test fifty. He watched as Mohammad Shahid plundered four fours and a six in 28 minutes and got out trying another big hit. Though Liton’s dismissal was perhaps a result of getting influenced by who he was batting with, Harmer deserves more credit for the wicket.When Liton did have the guarantee of Shakib at the other end, he batted with more purpose. He had walked in with Bangladesh still 53 runs behind South Africa, and captain Mushfiqur Rahim just done in by Dale Steyn’s mastery; he had made Mushfiqur drag towards a mentality to play leg-stump glides before making one dart back in from a short angle, trapping him plumb. Liton had to face arguably the world’s most skillful fast bowler in addition to Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel, with the knowledge that things had not gone to plan since his international debut in June.Liton was asked to keep wickets in this game as Mushfiqur felt his finger injury from April had not healed enough. The team combination kept Soumya Sarkar, the Man of the Series in Bangladesh’s historic ODI series win over South Africa less than a week ago, out of the playing XI. After his 44 on Test debut against India, Liton scored just 100 runs in six ODI innings and 32 runs in two T20s. In a batting line-up where everyone was grabbing their chances, Liton knew he was walking the tight rope.He made just three runs in his first 54 minutes at the crease, consuming 40 balls. He faced more of Stiaan van Zyl and Harmer, but there were testing overs from Steyn, Morkel and Philander. Shakib, during this period, added 19 runs off 31 balls. He also kept most of his shots to himself until cutting and driving van Zyl in the 81st over. At the end of the 85th over, Liton finally got his first four, past a diving square-leg. Morkel set up the bouncer trap, knowing that the youngster liked to pull and hook. Liton, though, saw it a couple of times and did not flinch. He only ducked and kept the bat out of harm’s way.When Shakib took a single off the last ball of the 88th over, he made it Bangladesh’s longest ever innings against South Africa. Remember, they had lost all eight of their previous Tests against South Africa, seven of which were innings defeats. Liton opened up a few overs later, driving Steyn absolutely straight with a high elbow to bring up Bangladesh’s lead. This was only the fifth time in their Test history that they had gone past a team’s score in the first innings, batting second. Liton stood still as he watched the ball go past Steyn’s boot, the stumps and the mid-off and mid-on fielders.Shakib Al Hasan dropped an attacking approach in favour of calming his partner at the other end•AFPThat Bangladesh went to lunch losing just one wicket and batting at 2.61 was unusual, but in a good way. Shakib kept South Africa at bay when he could have easily favoured a more attacking approach knowing that Liton was the last recognized batsman. After the rain, Shakib was in his element with the two pulled boundaries, but he was largely calm, trying to play Liton in once again.”Our plan was to cross their score and then take it from there. A batting partner is a batsman’s friend. We were helping each other,” Liton said. Since coming back from his suspension, Shakib has averaged 51 with the bat and is batting at a slightly higher strike-rate, too. He has scored three fifties and a century during this period of six Tests, and has often shown far more responsibility than he did till 2012.Liton struck a boundary in the 99th over to give Bangladesh their highest score against South Africa, and the pair ensured they batted past the 100-over mark. Liton was happy with his contribution, but said that he had eyes on a bigger score.”I wanted to make a bigger score. I was the only regular batsman at the time, the rest were lower-order batsmen,” Liton said. “I think I played quite well, as long as I batted. I wanted to play the maximum number of deliveries with the bowlers. I tried to bat for the team. I think the 50 runs would help the team. I think maybe I made a wrong decision with the shot that got me out.”Liton came into Bangladesh’s picture after a stellar 2014-15 domestic season. He was the top scorer in the National Cricket League and No. 2 on the scorer’s list in the one-day Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League. With his style of play, he has blundered several top domestic attacks over the last 18 months.. Of course, the gap between Bangladesh’s domestic scene and international cricket is huge, but Liton said that he still tried to replicate the way he scored in the domestic competitions last season.”We get a lot of loose balls in domestic cricket, but it is the opposite in international cricket,” Liton said. “The wicket was slow so it wasn’t also easy to play shots. I had to be careful. There is a different need everyday so today the demand of the situation was for me to play this way. I am trying to play the way I play in domestic cricket. There’s more pressure in international cricket.”Liton would not get to play many such innings in the future where the man at the other end bats with such care to ensure his partner’s longevity under pressure. He should take help as much as he can because a time will come – it could even be in the second innings of this game – when he will have to bat as the senior, and shepherd the tail-enders through choppy waters.

Yorkshire have won their second successive County Championship. Do you think their first-choice XI would beat the Rest of England?

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Sep-2015See how Yorkshire compares with the Rest of England, and take the poll below.

Or: Four Stats I Have Dug Up and Polished Before Deciding it Was Bedtime and They Would Have to Do For the Stats of the Year

Andy Zaltzman19-Dec-2015Stats correct up to the start of the Hamilton TestSTAT 1. In their recent tweak-aggravated demolition by India, South Africa were bowled out in less than 50 overs on three occasions – as many less-than-50-over skittlings as they had suffered away from home in the previous 83 years, in a total of 152 Tests.
After being demolished at the MCG in February 1932 – bowled out for 36 and 45 in a total of 54.5 overs – the South Africans had been bowled out in fewer than 300 balls only at Lord’s and Nottingham in 1960, and in Ahmedabad in November 1996. Then they went to India. And India saw them coming. In the space of five weeks of remorseless slow-bowling cross-examination on pitches that must have made Hedley Verity and Clarrie Grimmett contemplate comebacks from their long-occupied graves, the Proteas added Mohali, Nagpur and Delhi to that list. They lasted a comparatively heroically long-winded 59 overs in their one innings in Bangalore before the merciful rains denied them the opportunity to subside again.Furthermore, South Africa had not posted a sub-150 score in 33 Tests over four years, since November 2011. They failed to reach the 150 mark in four innings in the four Tests in India. Away from home, they had been bowled out for under 150 only once in 57 Tests since August 2003.Overall it has been a good year for collapse fans. In the 40 Tests played this year, teams have been bowled out for under 150 on 15 occasions, ranging in length from Australia’s 111-ball, Ashes-surrendering, Broad-immortalising 60 all out at Trent Bridge, to South Africa’s epically ineffective, Boycott-shaming 143.1-over 143 all out in Delhi.Seventeen times in 40 Tests has a team been dismissed in under 50 overs, the most in a year since 2005, and a rate of 2.35 Tests per sub-50-over blast-out. From 2000 to 2014, teams had been bowled out in under 300 balls once every 3.56 Tests. In all Tests played from 1920 to 1999, the rate was once every 7.05 Tests.Stat conclusions:
a) Modern batsmen possess many skills that previous generations did not have. Disappearing down a collective plughole in an array of technically questionable shots is one of the less useful of those skills.b) There have been some silly pitches this year, and even sillier batting, and not just in the recent Indian triumph.c) Bring back Kallis. And Gary Kirsten. And Jackie McGlew. And Bruce Mitchell. Will there ever be a true South African grinder again?STAT 2. West Indies have completed a 21st consecutive year in which they have failed to win more Tests than they have lost.
The last time West Indies had a “winning year” was 1994, with four wins and two losses. They had the same number of wins and losses in both 1995 and 1996, then 15 consecutive losing years from 1997 to 2011. Wins over Bangladesh helped them achieve results parity in 2012 and 2014, either side of a dismal 2013, when they were thoroughly clouted in India and New Zealand.In 21 consecutive years from 1976 to 1996, West Indies never lost more Tests than they won, and posted 17 winning years out of 19, up to and including 1994. Watching their “display” in Hobart, it was possible to conclude that some of the current side would have struggled to get in as spectators in the 1980s, let alone as players.A loss in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG would be West Indies’ eighth Test defeat in 2015, equalling their record number of defeats in a year, set in 2004 and 2005.It would also make them only the second team in Test history to play 10 or more Tests in a year and lose at least 80% of them, after England in 1993 (played 10, lost eight).Stat conclusions:
a) I really don’t want to think about it.b) Cricket doesn’t really want to think about it.c) Someone should really think about it.STAT 3: Test stumpings have occurred at their highest rate since 1956.
If you like seeing bails whipped off by grinning wicketkeepers, this has been a fun year for you. There were 37 stumpings in the first 40 Tests of the year this year. With three Tests remaining (including the Hamilton Test now underway), that is already the second most stumpings in a year, behind the 41 sets of bails whipped off by glovemen in 2004 (in 51 Tests).Even if there are no more Test stumpings, and the current figure of 0.92 stumpings per Test drops to 0.86, it will remain the highest rate since 1956, when 16 batsmen were caught out of their ground in 15 Tests (although only two of Jim Laker’s 46 Ashes wickets was a stumping).Before Hamilton, there had been one stumping every 338 overs of Test cricket this year, again the highest rate since 1956 regardless of whether or not there are any more such dismissals before the end of December.This decade as a whole has seen the highest rate of Test stumpings since the 1950s. Up to the end of the 1950s, 3.46% of all Test dismissals were stumpings. Since then, that figure has fallen to 1.61%, suggesting that as the world became more sexually liberated in the Swinging Sixties, batting became considerably more prim and less willing to be caught with its metaphorical trousers down.Hedley Verity: said to be contemplating a resurrection-induced comeback in the wake of the pitches for the recent India-South Africa series•Getty ImagesThe least stumpedous decade was the 1980s, when there was on average only one stumping every two and a half Tests, or one every 808 overs, making stumping less than half as frequent as in the 1950s.Of the years in which more than five Tests have been played, the stumpiest was 1921 – 20 stumpings in 11 Tests, one every 178 overs, suggesting that, having survived the world’s most devastating conflict, batsmen were not too fussed at the prospect of being stranded a yard or two down the wicket having a swing at a cricket ball. Perspective is a wonderful thing.Stat conclusions:
a) Perhaps, T20 has made batsmen more willing to come down the pitch, but not necessarily better at it.b) There have been some silly pitches this year, and even sillier batting, and not just in the recent Indian triumph.c) I love stumpings.STAT 4: 2015 was, comfortably, the best year for ODI batsmen, with record scoring rates (5.51 per over), the highest collective batting average (31.40) (excluding 1974, when only six ODIs were played), the highest strike rate (87.1), and the most centuries (106, smashing the previous bests of 77 in 2013 and 79 in 2014).
The 2013-2015 ODI fielding regulations unsurprisingly resulted in a deluge of run-scoring, such that even England, who began their ODI year apparently trying to bat their way back to the 1980s, found themselves scoring 400 without being unduly surprised or even slightly disappointed. There were six 400-plus scores in total this year; there had been only one between March 2010 and October 2014, and 11 in all ODIs played up to the end of last year. There have been a year-record ten individual scores of 150 or more.Those 106 centuries have been scored at a rate of one every 1.33 ODIs, comfortably a record, and down from 1.55 in 2014 and 1.77 in 2013. From 2000 to 2012, ODI hundreds were scored at one every 2.42 matches; up to 1999, it was one hundred per 3.24 games. Furthermore, in 2015 the conversion rate of ODI fifties into hundreds hit a record high of 24.8%. It was 21.5% in 2013 and 2014 combined; in the 2000-2012 period, it was 16.2%, and in the 20th century, it was 13.5%.Stat conclusions:
a) It is easier to score hundreds when there aren’t so many fielders on the boundary. And when the ball never gets more than 25 overs old.b) Modern batsmen possess many skills that previous generations did not have.c) If things keep progressing at this rate, by the year 2143, every single ODI innings will be a triple-century.

Lord’s might be widely considered the pre-eminent cricket ground in England, but The Oval has a strong claim to the title too

Aditya Gadre16-Feb-2016In the Seinfeld episode “The Doll”, Elaine gets her boyfriend an autograph of Jose Carreras – his favourite of the Three Tenors. Throughout the episode, the characters tend to always remember Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo but keep forgetting Carreras’ name – referring to him as “the other guy”.It is very hard to argue that Carreras lacked talent compared to the other two or that he was any less of a legend or about the value he brought to the Three Tenors. Yet, some things lend themselves to fame and recognition more easily than other equally capable or deserving ones. People at large always remember the Pavarottis while the equally important but lower profile contributors like Carreras – are forgotten, the “other guys”. There has been enough written about the Pavarottis of the world, let’s talk about the Carreras.Last year, I got the opportunity to visit two iconic cricket grounds – Lord’s and the Kennington Oval. One common theme I noticed in my interactions with several cricket fans was that Lord’s is the pre-eminent ground, while The Oval is the “other ground” in London.Both the grounds are similar, yet vastly different. In the opulent borough of Marylebone, unassumingly stands among several residential buildings Lord’s, perhaps the most famous ground in world cricket. Across town, The Oval is also located in what is currently an upmarket neighbourhood – Kennington. However, while Marylebone has always been a posh area, when The Oval was founded in the mid-1800s, Kennington was not even a part of London. In fact for large parts of its history up until the 1970s, the area was a largely working-class neighbourhood – the iconic gasometers visible in all TV coverage of The Oval are testament to this. It is perhaps these differences in the local social circumstances that lead to the grounds giving off vastly different vibes.Both grounds are similar in that they have been controlled by influential and wealthy figures throughout their history. The big difference is that while The Oval is the ancestral property of the Duchy of Cornwall, Lord’s has always been a privately owned ground, completely controlled initially by the aristocrat Thomas Lord and later by the all-important Marylebone Cricket Club. The way sports developed in the 1800s, there was a flurry of private clubs that emerged to control the sporting scene, leading to most of the common folk having to ask the royals to allow usage of some of their private land for sporting activity. This meant Lord’s always hosted only games of other cricket clubs, or reputed schools or counties, while The Oval hosted anything the Duke of Cornwall gave permission for – which was mostly everything the local government asked for.In light of these differences, it becomes a little clearer why everything at Lord’s (starting from the ground’s name itself) seems to scream “aristocracy” while The Oval seems significantly more inclusive.To illustrate, even today the MCC members in their mustard and tomato jackets gather outside the Grace Gates to enter Lord’s while non-members have to walk around the corner to a smaller gate at the back of the ground to get in. The good-natured guard tells me this entry is possible for the common folk after a mere 29-year wait for MCC membership. At The Oval, one just walks in through the main gate heading straight to the entry lounge through the lovely red stone façade.The stadium tours at both grounds also reflected to a large extent the “other ground” status of The Oval. The one at Lord’s was crowded – over 40 people from all cricketing nationalities coming to pay homage to the game they love. The green blazer clad tour guide joked that there were enough Indians and Australians to make teams and start a game of cricket. By contrast, at The Oval, I was literally one of two people in the walking tour, both of us Indians.It is not just the composition of the tourist population that is a contrast – the contents of the tour are vastly different as well.The Lord’s tour starts at the spectacular cricket museum. The first thing one sees is a glass enclosure – with the word “War” written in big, upper case letters at the top. Inside we see the story of Sir Edward Creasy, a jurist and historian remembering that when Lord Wellington was walking past children playing cricket on the playing fields of Eton he remarked: “Here grows the stuff that won Waterloo.” This quote (most likely misattributed to Wellington) accompanies a cartoon showing Wellington hitting a ball representing Napoleon. Next to this are a few more similar glass boxes for “Politics”, “Race”, and “Religion”. The cricket museum at Lord’s is structured to give the visitor an insight into the other aspects of life that shaped and were shaped by cricket over history before leading the visitor on a journey into the history of the game itself.By contrast the museum at The Oval focuses almost entirely on the history of Surrey (who lease the ground from the Duchy of Cornwall). The Oval museum is charming, endearing and cosy, but constrained by the fact that it exhibits only its own history and not of the game as a whole.The Lord’s museum’s proudest artefact, its priceless crown jewel, stands behind a wall of bullet proof glass – the Ashes urn. Most of the people who huddle around to grab a glimpse of the tiny trophy are ignorant of the origin of the term “the Ashes” which came about when the ran a mock obituary for English cricket after a loss to Australia, not at Lord’s but at The Oval, during the 1882 tour. Oddly enough, even though the Ashes were born there, there are only a few references to the Ashes at The Oval.Outside the museums, as you walk around the stadiums, greatness surrounds you at every corner – reminders of brilliant performances adorn the walls and the doorways. Once you get over this, what also becomes apparent that The Oval is perhaps a better sports ground. The rectangular patch that is Lord’s also has a slope of 2.5 metres – the most for any Test venue in the world. The Oval by contrast is nearly perfect in all respects. One cannot help but think that it is perhaps the blinding brilliance of history that hides some of the obvious shortcomings of Lord’s as an international sporting venue. One wonders if not for the history steeped in aristocracy, would this pre-eminence be justified? Would Lord’s by any other name still be considered the greatest ground in the world?Even outside of cricket, I have always maintained that The Oval, having hosted England’s first international football match, the first England v Wales and England v Scotland rugby internationals, the first FA cup final, and the first cricket Test match in England, has perhaps the strongest claim over the title of the most important sporting venue around. Yet, Lord’s is the home of cricket, Wembley is the home of football, Twickenham is the home of rugby – and The Oval is the “other ground”.There is not much to choose from between the actual cricket played at the two venues – the histories of the grounds don’t seem to rub off on the type of cricket played. At Lord’s, for every sublime 254 from Bradman, there is a gritty 11-hour long controlled epic by Sidath Wettimuny. And at The Oval, for every imperious 364 from Hutton, there is the aggressive, savage 158 on the final day from Kevin Pietersen. So, like most such comparisons in sport, this is largely a subjective viewpoint and not a definitive statement of how important the two grounds are in their own right.I am certain there are several people out there for whom Lord’s is the “other ground” – much like in the Seinfeld episode we spoke of at the beginning, where Elaine’s boyfriend is thrilled that he has the autograph of his favourite tenor, Jose Carreras, who sings with those two other guys.Want to be featured on Inbox? Send your articles to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

On the eve of the World Twenty20’s marquee clash, both India and Pakistan were doing their best to block out the constant swirl of India-Pakistan

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Kolkata18-Mar-2016India’s cricket team is undoubtedly, indisputably, unarguably, and by a massive distance, better than Pakistan’s cricket team. At football.It was probably the only definitive bit of knowledge anyone could have gleaned from watching the two teams’ training sessions on the eve of their World T20 clash at the Eden Gardens. If Saturday’s big match involved goalposts and a large, inflated ball, India would lose no sleep over it.It is, instead, a cricket match. And not just any cricket match. It is the cricket match that causes a spike in the frequency of Venkatesh Prasad sightings on Indian television in the days leading up to it. And of Aamer Sohail and Kiran More and Javed Miandad and Ajay Jadeja and Waqar Younis and Joginder Sharma and Misbah-ul-Haq.It is an India-Pakistan clash at a World tournament, and it will come with the inevitable trappings. Famous people will sing national anthems. Massive names will be present among the massive numbers in attendance. Sachin Tendulkar will be there. So will Imran Khan. And Sunil Gavaskar. And Wasim Akram. And Kapil Dev. And Inzamam-ul-Haq.In the middle of all this, India and Pakistan, the cricket teams, will try and tune out the constant swirl of India-Pakistan.R Ashwin reinforced this during his pre-match conference on Friday, in a packed and insufficiently air-conditioned media room that evoked the pressure cooker cliché.”This rivalry is huge,” he said. “It’s very hard to put a finger [on it] and say how huge it is. It’s probably bigger than the Ashes is. As far as the Indians go and the Pakistanis go, I don’t think they watch this as a game of cricket. It’s more of a border rivalry, they want to get one up on each other.”So there is much more to this game rather than the game itself taking centrestage. As far as people are concerned, they put their emotions into it. For the players it’s about trying to keep the emotions aside and playing the game the best we can.”It is something India have invariably managed to do against Pakistan at World events. In six World Cup meetings and four in the World T20, they have never lost. It’s the sort of record that can put pressure on both sides, but on this occasion India are under more of it, given that they are playing at home, and given that they were beaten soundly by New Zealand in their first game and therefore to win this one. Over recent years, Pakistan have usually been underdogs going into matches against India, and on this occasion have the cushion of a big win in their opening game against Bangladesh.”History can change, too,” Waqar Younis, Pakistan’s head coach, said. “We are confident, a little more this time because [India] can go out of the tournament also. They will be under a lot of pressure. We have to take it positively. We have won the last match, so there are lots of things going in our favour, hopefully. Yes, there is no doubt that our history hasn’t been so good but history can always be changed.”In all the previous games, the pressure was on Pakistani team. This is the first time that the pressure is more on India – not arising from victory or defeat at the hands of Pakistan but because this is a very big tournament. I have been a cricketer all my years and it is impossible that India won’t be feeling the pressure. I am sure they will be feeling the pressure and we are going to take advantage of that.”India arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday night, but only had an optional training session – which only Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane and Pawan Negi attended – on Thursday. Their first full session ahead of the match was on its eve. Ashwin said the light schedule was followed to allow the players to relax after the loss to New Zealand, and not put themselves under too much pressure.”I think it was more about trying and relaxing,” he said. “It had nothing to do with who we are playing, what game we are playing and all that. We have been on the road for the last three months and we thought it’s time now to sit in the hotel room and revisit what we did in the last game. The best thing that we can do is to think for ourselves than sitting together and practising.”What happens after a game like that is we tend to go into nervous practice, try and overdo everything, and eventually end up going into the match a little more tired than we actually should be. That’s the idea behind it.”India’s practice session on Friday reflected this mindset, with the bowlers hardly taxing themselves and only the middle-order trio of Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya spending any real length of time batting. Pakistan – after their unconvincing footballing warm-up – had a more traditional nets session, with the fast bowlers coming off their full run-ups and sending down a relatively large quota of deliveries.Two training philosophies, neither definitely better or worse than the other, both geared to the same end: to keep minds focused on bat and ball, to tune out the crowds and the last-minute venue changes and the razzmatazz of the build-up. As Virat Kohli said before the start of the tournament, “On the field is the safest and quietest place for you”. And until they actually get on the field, the match will live a parallel existence that has little to do with the actual cricket. It might as well be a football game where Mohammad Irfan and a magically young-again Venkatesh Prasad are goalkeepers in a penalty shootout.