Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, the first Afghanistan players in the IPL, talk about life with Sunrisers Hyderabad, being role models, and travelling the world for cricket

Interview by Arun Venugopal12-Apr-20175:03

‘We are good examples for Afghan cricketers’

After both of you were picked up in the IPL auction, who was the first to give the other a treat?
Nabi: () I think when we were selected for IPL, it was early morning six o’ clock [in Zimbabwe, where Afghanistan were playing]. I went to Rashid’s room to congratulate him for being picked up for Rs 4 crore [approximately US$615,000]. He was in shock. He was like, is it a dream or what? I said it was a part of cricket, part of life.Didn’t your Afghanistan team-mates ask you for a party?
Rashid: Actually, they didn’t. We were busy for the last three months; there was continuous cricket. So we didn’t get enough time to celebrate, to throw such parties. Hopefully after the IPL, we will have some.Since you were constantly on the road, did you have a sense of how people back home reacted?
Nabi: Everyone in Afghanistan was waiting for the IPL auction. When we were selected for Sunrisers Hyderabad, everyone was calling and messaging, especially people from our cricket board – the chairman, the CEO. There were calls and messages from family and friends to congratulate us, and tell us that it was a wonderful achievement for us as well as the country.Who was the first person from the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise to congratulate you?
Nabi: I think Tom Moody, the coach, congratulated me on Twitter on behalf of the Sunrisers family. He was the first.Rashid, do you remember your first day with the franchise when you got here? What was the welcome like?
Rashid: When I landed here in the night of the first of April, they came to the airport and took me to the hotel. It was a nice gathering here in the hotel and they gave me a good welcome. It was a good night and I really enjoyed it.

“He always motivates and supports the youngsters who come into the team. He gives us time and supports us to play good cricket. I really enjoy playing with him”Rashid on Nabi

What have your interactions with the rest of the Sunrisers team been like? Have you made new friends?
Nabi: All team-mates are very good and very supportive. It is like a good family. Starting from the players – the big names like [David] Warner, Yuvraj [Singh], [Shikhar] Dhawan and [Kane] Williamson – and the support staff, everyone is very good and keen to talk to you. Nabi, when Rashid took his first IPL wicket against Royal Challengers Bangalore the other night, the cameras were on you. We saw that your arms were aloft and you looked absolutely delighted.
Nabi: It was a very good feeling to see an Afghan playing in the IPL for the first time. He would have been under a little bit of pressure as well, because it was a huge crowd and it was a good opposition. When he got his first wicket, I don’t know what happened to me. I started celebrating. It is a good start for his tournament and for his career.Nabi tweeted saying he was flooded with happiness when you were picked in the auction. Is he like an older brother to you in the team, Rashid?
Rashid: Yeah, exactly. I have been with him in the national side for the last one and half years, and he has supported me from that time. He always motivates and supports the youngsters who come into the team. He gives us time and supports us to play good cricket. He has supported me through my career and I really enjoy playing with him and spending some time with him. So it is great for me to have Nabi in the IPL as well.Nabi, Rashid looks like a calm fellow, but does he have a mischievous streak?
Nabi: No. Right from the time he came into the team, he has been very quiet. He is a really nice guy as well and not that much naughty at all. All the time he is just focused on his cricket. Off the cricket field, he is just a silent guy.Rashid, tell us something about Nabi that the wider world doesn’t know about – some sort of an inside secret.
Rashid: I think there is nothing secretive about him, nothing that people don’t know. What you see is what he is. I don’t think there is anything he hides from his people.What are your first memories of meeting Nabi? Do you have recollections of watching him play before you met?
Rashid: I met him when we were in the academy and he came there. We had already watched him in the T20 World Cup. The innings which I really love is the one he played against Australia in Sharjah. I have great memories of him from that innings. When I met him, it was again a wonderful day because he is like a star in Afghanistan.Nabi does a Starman impression of his own, after the win over West Indies in the World T20 last year•IDI/Getty ImagesNabi, did Rashid tell you that he was a big fan of yours?
Nabi: Ah, yeah. The coach said he was a good talent and a promising youngster. When he was bowling to me, I could see that he was very quick through the air but the line and length was not in the correct area. I just told him, you have good talent and you must work hard and get into the national side very soon. After a few months, he was selected in the Under-19 team.Did you also tell him that his action was similar to Shahid Afridi’s?
Nabi: () Yeah, when he gets a wicket, he goes like Shahid Afridi [in unleashing the Starman celebration].Have you ever had a chat with Afridi, Rashid?
Rashid: I actually had a chat with Afridi while I was playing in the BPL.Actually, it is just my own style [of celebration], you know. He celebrates with two hands and I celebrate with one hand, so it is a little bit different. Yeah, I like him and grew up watching his bowling and that of Anil Kumble. Both were good legspinners and were quick through the air, so I was always watching their videos and learning from them.Who were your heroes growing up, Nabi?
Nabi: Many heroes, . Kevin Pietersen is my idol, and then MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.What’s the story behind your Twitter handle, Nabi? There is a 007 in there. Are you a James Bond fan?
Nabi: Ah, no, I was looking for 07 but 007 popped up as an option. That’s why I picked it.But, you are a big fan of Aamir Khan, aren’t you?
Nabi: Yeah, Aamir Khan is good.Do you guys do anything together when you have some downtime?
Nabi: When we are not training at the nets or swimming, we are resting in our rooms. Otherwise we are with our families.

“When he was bowling to me, I could see that he was very quick through the air but the line and length was not in the correct area. I just told him, you have good talent and you must work hard and get into the national side very soon”Nabi on Rashid

Speaking of family, your wife said some time ago that she wasn’t very impressed with you being away for long periods of time. Now that you are also going to play in the CPL, you will be away for longer. How is she taking it?
Nabi: Ah, the wives of all the players are unhappy that we are away all the time, playing cricket! Also, my kid is going to school, so the family can’t travel with me. That’s why it’s a little bit of a problem. It’s a busy year for me this time. From here I go straight to the West Indies for three ODIs and three T20s. After that we will be back home for a month before going to Lord’s for a match in July. After that I have a little bit of time at home before the CPL starts. You also have home games in Greater Noida [outside New Delhi]. How are you coping with all the travel?
Rashid: We have been busy for the last two years with continuous cricket. We played in the UAE and we went to Zimbabwe for five ODIs, and then came here and spent one month [in Greater Noida for Afghanistan’s “home” matches] and now the IPL. So it has been quite a long journey for us. But, you know, too much travel is difficult only in the beginning. Once we got used to it, we became more relaxed, and now we are actually enjoying it.The Afghanistan practice session usually features many intense football games. Who is the best player in the team?
Nabi: Football isn’t allowed in our warm-up sessions any longer; it has been banned. Some players picked up injuries, so we didn’t want to take the risk.Have you ever played [the national sport of Afghanistan which resembles polo, but with ball replaced by the carcass of a goat]?
Nabi: Not so far. It is a very tough game. You have to be a good rider and have a good pick-up as well.If you guys could play football for a club side, which one would you pick?
Rashid: I think I will pick up… I forgot the name.Nabi: [I will pick] Barcelona.Rashid: [I will go with] Real Madrid.So you will go up against each other?
Rashid and Nabi: Yeah, yeah. ()If a Hindi film were to be remade with both of you in it, which film will you pick and which parts will you play?
Rashid: I will choose .Nabi: Yeah, is the best.And Nabi will play Aamir Khan?
Rashid and Nabi: Yeah.Looking out for No. 1: Rashid picks up a wicket in his first over on IPL debut•BCCISo Rashid, you get to play the nephew who gets beaten up and chided by Aamir Khan throughout the movie?
Rashid: Yeah, exactly. ()I am going to put you on the spot here, Rashid. Both Nabi and Hamid Hassan have developed a lovely new hairline. Whose hair transplant do you think worked better?
() Rashid: I think… both are nice.Okay, Nabi is sitting right next to you, so you have to be diplomatic.
Rashid: No, no, I think both are looking good with that.Is that a cue for everybody in the team that is losing hair to go the Nabi or Hassan way?
Rashid: Exactly, it is a good message for all. Once you lose your hair, you have a good example to follow. ()Nabi, tell us how popular Rashid is with the girls back in Afghanistan.
Nabi: I think he isn’t popular. He is studying now. He is a star hero only from the last one year. Nabi, you seem to be enjoying playing snooker with the Sunrisers team. You seem to have done well.
Nabi: Not that well, but it’s a team game. There were three teams playing against each other. But I was looking good. ()Rashid: He can play well.

“You know, too much travel is difficult only in the beginning. Once we got used to it, we became more relaxed, and now we are actually enjoying it”Rashid

Do you think you are a better player, Rashid?
Rashid: No, I don’t think I am good. I can only hit the white ball.Which other game do you like play?
Rashid: I love playing badminton and also football.Do either of you cook? Who is the better cook?
Nabi: No, but I barbecue sometimes.Of the places you have travelled to, which ones do you like best?
Rashid: I have visited Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and all those places, but I love Scotland. I think when we were in Scotland, it was the Ramzan month and we were fasting every day. So we were unable to go outside and enjoy things. We were in the room all the time.Nabi: It is good, yeah. Dubai is best.On a more serious note, how big an influence do you think you are on the kids growing up in Afghanistan?
Nabi: It is a big lesson for the youngsters back home in Afghanistan. We are both good examples to them that Afghanistan have good talent as well, and if there is no violence in Afghanistan, everyone will come up.Rashid, you tweeted a video a few months ago of you joining a group of fans for a game of street cricket in Afghanistan. What is it like to be appreciated at such a young age, as you are?
Rashid: When we were travelling for a match, I saw on the way that kids were playing with the tennis ball. I told the driver to stop so that I could enjoy a game of cricket with them. When I went there, it led to many great moments and they really enjoyed the game with us.Being a youngster, it is always good to perform. It is a great message to all the youngsters back in Afghanistan that if you work hard and believe yourself, you can reach wherever you want to. So it’s a good example for all those youngsters who have just started playing cricket. They should believe in themselves, and not think that it is Afghanistan and nobody is watching me. If you play well and work hard, you can achieve everywhere.Have both of you learnt the Sunrisers team song?
Nabi: It is very difficult.Rashid: When we won the match, they were singing [the team song] in the dressing room. But, we didn’t understand, so we were just shouting with them. ()

With a 48-point deficit against their name, Durham have their work cut out in Division Two this year. Their captain knows it’s going to be a slog

Jon Culley11-Apr-2017It was the smell of the grass that made up his mind, Paul Collingwood said, looking out over the expanse of it that he knows best.We are taking in the lush spring green of Emirates Riverside, as Durham prepare for the start of their season and reflect on the price they have been forced to pay for overstretching themselves in their lofty ambitions to become a major international centre.It is the same expanse that Collingwood contemplated six years ago, in the wake of being told that his own international status had effectively been terminated, and wondered if he had the will to carry on. He had already retired from Test cricket, but having led England to their first global silverware in the World T20 title the year before, the decision by the selectors to hand the T20 captaincy to Stuart Broad hit him “like a juggernaut.”He thought seriously about quitting altogether. “But then I thought about things and realised there was so much I would miss massively, even the negative things like having to pick yourself up mentally when you are making low scores,” he said.”I played my first competitive cricket match when I was seven. It’s in my blood. And I know it sounds ridiculous but I thought about the smell of the grass and how much I’d miss that and I realised that I didn’t want to stop.” He still hasn’t, even on the eve, virtually, of his 41st birthday, as he prepares for his sixth season as Durham captain.”I think I’ve probably surprised a few people that I’m still here, but I still believe I have something to give. I’m still learning new things, and honestly, I’ve worked hard in the gym and I don’t think I’ve ever felt fitter.”There is the matter of motivation, too, which, despite the high probability of being marooned in Division Two of the Championship for at least two seasons, thanks to the draconian penalties imposed by the ECB in return for keeping the club alive, is still strong, if not stronger. If anything, he says, the pain of forced relegation and the challenge of starting 48 points behind everyone else, has fuelled it.

“I know it sounds ridiculous but I thought about the smell of the grass and how much I’d miss that and I realised that I didn’t want to stop”

“You can sense a real determination among everyone to get the most out of the season,” he said. “There is a real motivation. You know what it’s like when you have adversity, it brings everyone together. The response from the players has been fantastic.”Like the chairman and chief executive and everybody else grateful that the club still has a future, Collingwood has been obliged to take the punishment on the chin. He admits that the dressing room has not found it easy.”There was a lot of anger when we learned what was happening,” he said. “The thing that hurts more than anything is that we go out there year in year out and perform as well as we can and we have carried on doing that despite all the cutbacks.”From the players’ point of view, we felt like we are the ones being penalised when we didn’t really have anything to do with it. That doesn’t seem fair.”Is it too harsh? It depends which way you look at it.”From the club’s point of view, they have done everything they were asked to do [in terms of developing an international venue]. From the ECB’s point of view, they might say that a county should never get into such a financial position where they are unable to pay the players for two months, and that’s got to stop.”But it has happened. It is not the end of the world, we are still playing first-class cricket. At some point you have got to put it on the back-burner and get on with the job.”That job begins with the visit of Nottinghamshire to Chester-le-Street on Good Friday, bringing an immediate chance to measure Durham against a side expected to be among the front runners in Division Two, and already with a win under their belt.”A good start would be very useful, especially against a good team like Notts,” Collingwood said. “On paper you are looking at pretty much an international side, so to get off to a good start against them would give us some momentum and be great for confidence.”But if we are being honest we are going to need everything to go our way if we are to overcome the 48 points.”I heard what the chairman [Ian Botham] said about us being the best side and I love Beefy’s optimism, but I know county cricket and we’re not going to roll teams over. There is a lot of talent in Division Two and we have to respect that.Graham Onions and Chris Rushworth spearhead Durham’s attack•PA Photos”And losing Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick – that’s pretty much 3000 runs out of the dressing room.”We’ve got the addition of an overseas player this year, which we haven’t had too many times in the past. Hopefully he will bring a lot of runs at the top of the order.”I am confident that we will take 20 wickets. Our bowling attack is very strong. We have a great blend, seasoned professionals such as Graham Onions and Chris Rushworth and some fantastic up-and-coming bowlers as well. In addition, we will have Woody [Mark Wood] at the start.”Although 48 points is a lot of points you can’t write us off completely. It will need two or three players to have the season of their lives but something special could happen.”It could be an 18-year-old having that exceptional season, it could be a 40-year-old like me.”Which brings the conversation back to Collingwood’s future. The body remains willing, the appetite sharp. But for how much longer? Will the grass still smell sweet this time next year?”I’m just taking it year by year, and at the end of each season we review where we are. I’ve got things to consider. I don’t want to be a player who outstays his welcome. I have to look at the fact that I’m on a decent wage and as the wages bill comes under pressure I will have to look at whether I’m blocking the way for a couple of younger players joining the squad.”I’d like to think I have something to give in international cricket in terms of coaching, and I’m ridiculously lucky in that I have been able to spend 55 days last year and 60 days this winter with England, while still playing county cricket in the summer.”I think I’ll know when it’s time to go and I’ll be honest about it.”But if I still feel I am pushing this team forward, still contributing in the dressing room, still scoring runs, taking wickets and taking catches – if I’m doing all those things, I want to continue.”

Amid tumult, Dimuth Karunaratne has been Sri Lanka’s lynchpin; he is the team’s leading Test scorer this year, and fifth in the world

Osman Samiuddin28-Sep-2017A nothing day the scorecard will tell you. Not even close to three runs an over. No hundreds. Two boundaries in the entire morning session where cricket’s bloodlust is such that two sixes off one ball will not satiate it, and not many more over the rest of the day. Where was the intent? The aggression? What is 227 for 4 at the end of a day on which you won the toss and chose to bat? What is this – win the toss and bat draw? It’s nothing.If you’re Sri Lanka right now, having been thumped at home by India in a way you’ve never been thumped at home before, lost a Test at home to Bangladesh, lost an ODI series at home to Zimbabwe, nearly lost a Test at home to Zimbabwe, been through six captains since you last changed your clothes, had the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit suddenly stick its head out and take note of you, lost a coach, dropped more catches than the world has dropped bombs on itself – I could go on because we haven’t even got to the comparing-them-to-Pakistan yet – then a day of play on which nothing happens is day to cling on to for dear life.Right now nothing is great. No, nothing is outstanding.Over the years Pakistan have, justifiably, got sympathy for playing at this home away from home, but don’t discount the ways in which it has helped them. Cloistered away here in a once-new, now-slightly-jaded cricketing outpost, with nobody watching, relatively limited distractions, away from the heat and rage of their own public, they have done what they didn’t always get the chance to do in Pakistan: head down, get on with their game.Sri Lanka have been here often enough to probably be aware of the benefits but they’ve never come here in quite the state of distress as they have this time, so desperately needing some quiet time away from it all. A series in the middle of nowhere, playing to no one, with nothing obviously on the line (apart from whatever is on the line in any professional sporting contest) – this is something they could get used to. Australia-India is playing, as are England-West Indies so, hello, if you’re even reading this you must be some kind of tragic. And in case you hadn’t noticed, Ben Stokes made the . Nobody’s watching.Dimuth Karunaratne didn’t mind all this nobody and nothingness. Without meaning to make it sound like a slight, it is the kind of batsman that he is, perfect, in fact, for a day like this. No shot of his will lodge itself in your head. To no passage of play in which he is prominent, will you say, yes, this, this the day, this was its soundtrack. The only time you might have noticed him was when he got out and that too because one, he never looked like getting out and two, because it was one of those comedy run-outs cricket can never get enough of.What did he do? He batted. He didn’t get out. He ran well after lunch because the outfield was thick and boundaries weren’t coming. He scored some good runs, runs which held Sri Lanka in place. Because, for a while in that morning session, when a couple of wickets were given away, Pakistan could still have been India and all of us in Sri Lanka, looking as if the opponent had merely to bowl for Sri Lanka to roll over. Instead, his runs give them a fair shot of going past at least five of their six totals against India (reminder: 291, 245, 183, 386, 135 and 181).Nobody should care too much about this functionality and minimalism because the bottom line is that in this mess of a year for Sri Lanka, he is comfortably his country’s leading Test scorer and fifth in the world.”We just needed to bat for longer periods of time,” he said later, as if that isn’t the most difficult and unnatural thing for many modern batsmen to do. “When we played against India, we were not able to get big totals. That was the difference. It doesn’t matter if we take time, we can capitalise later on.”Despite top-scoring in that series, Karunaratne sought out his old St Joseph’s school coach Harsha de Silva, just to be completely right ahead of this series. “He has been with me since I played Under-15,” he said.”He knows me well and when he was in Colombo I asked him to do a session with me. He just wanted to check how I was going and after the session he said that there was nothing technical I had to adjust, but perhaps the mindset. He said if you want to score more, be positive. I tried to be positive today and it helped me to score some decent runs in the first innings.”The first innings, unusually, is an issue – he is an opener who averages higher in the second innings than he does in the first, and by a margin that you can’t help but notice (28.25 to 44.10). It is in the mind more than anywhere else.”Everyone was asking me the same thing when I came down. I wasn’t too worried about technique but was just trying to adjust my mindset. I wanted to play my natural game in the first innings. When I play in the second innings I don’t think whether the wicket is turning or whatever, but just try to bat positive. That’s what I tried to do here.”In the end, that 93 enabled Dinesh Chandimal’s unbeaten 60 and it enabled, perhaps even more significantly, Niroshan Dickwella’s little half-hour burst at the end which may have turned a nothing day into a definitively good one.

Take our quiz on some of the biggest names to feature in the 11th Women’s World Cup in England

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jun-2017

And what are the highest Test innings totals with individual scores of not more than 20?

Steven Lynch12-Dec-2017I noticed that although Allan Lamb made three centuries against West Indies in 1984, he only scored 386 runs in all. Has anyone ever scored three centuries but fewer runs in a single Test series?asked Robert Crichton from England

Rather surprisingly, perhaps, there are three lower series aggregates than Allan Lamb’s 386 in 1984 to include three individual centuries. Polly Umrigar made 382 runs in the five Tests of India’s 1960-61 home series against Pakistan, while Ian Bell made 375 in four Tests for England at home to Pakistan in 2006. But leading the way (if that’s the right phrase) is England’s Peter Parfitt: in the five-Test home series against Pakistan in 1962, he made 340 runs in five innings, with three centuries. Lamb does lead the way in one respect: he batted ten times in that 5-0 blackwash, and his average of 42.88 is the lowest of anyone who scored three centuries in a Test series. Next comes Michael Slater, with 460 runs at 46.00 in the 1998-99 Ashes; no one else who scored three hundreds in a series averaged under 50.How many wicketkeepers have scored a century on Test debut, as Tom Blundell did in Wellington? asked Nick Harvey from New Zealand

Tom Blundell’s 107 not out for New Zealand against West Indies in Wellington last week gained him admittance to a surprisingly small club: only three previous players have scored a century on Test debut in a match in which they kept wicket. The first was Sri Lanka’s Brendon Kuruppu, with a 13-hour unbeaten 201 against New Zealand in Colombo in 1986-87. He was joined by another Sri Lankan, Romesh Kaluwitharana, who scored 132 not out against Australia, also in Colombo, in 1992-93. And Matt Prior hit 126 not out on debut for England, against West Indies at Lord’s in 2007.This excludes Test-debut centurions who kept wicket at some stage in their career but not in their first match, such as Paul Gibb and Billy Griffith of England, and Australia’s Wayne Phillips. For the full list of players who have scored a hundred on Test debut, click here.The highest score in Australia’s second innings of 138 in Adelaide was just 20. Have there been any higher totals than this with no one making more than 20? asked Justin Thompson from Australia

That’s a good spot, as Australia’s 138 in Adelaide last week turns out to be the highest completed innings in which no one passed 20. The previous highest was 134, by Bangladesh against Pakistan in Multan in August 2001, when the best individual score was Mehrab Hossain’s 19 (seven of his team-mates made double figures).Netherlands have made the two smallest ODI team totals that include an invididual half-century•Peter Della PennaThere have been 12 other all-out totals of 100 or more which did not feature an individual contribution above 20: 118 by New Zealand against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2012-13 (highest score 20 by Daniel Flynn); 114 by Australia v West Indies in Melbourne in 1988-89 (20 by David Boon and Allan Border); 110 by England v South Africa at Lord’s in 1998 (Nasser Hussain 15); 107 by West Indies v Australia in Melbourne in 1930-31 (Ivan Barrow 17); 107 by Pakistan v Australia in Melbourne in 1989-90 (Ijaz Ahmed 19); 106 by Pakistan v West Indies in Bridgetown in 1957-58 (Imtiaz Ahmed 20; in their second innings Pakistan made 657 for 8, with 337 for Hanif Mohammad); 104 by Australia v England in the very first Test of all, in Melbourne in 1876-77 (20 by Tom Horan); 104 by Australia v England at The Oval in 1997 (Ricky Ponting 20); 102 by Zimbabwe v South Africa in Harare in 1999-2000 (Neil Johnson 20); 102 by Bangladesh v South Africa in Dhaka in 2002-03 (Khaled Mahmud 20 not out); 100 by Pakistan v England at Lord’s in 1962 (Nasim-ul-Ghani 17); and 100 by India v South Africa in Durban in 1996-97 (Sourav Ganguly 16).I know that Colin Cowdrey was the first man to play 100 Tests. But who was the first to 50? And 150? asked Derek Harman from England

The first man to complete a half-century of Test appearances was Australia’s Syd Gregory, who managed to make eight Test-playing tours of England between 1890 and 1912. Gregory’s 50th Test was the fourth one of the 1909 Ashes series, at Old Trafford. At that time another Australian, Monty Noble, was next on the list, with 41.Colin Cowdrey became the first to 100 caps at Edgbaston in 1968, the third Test of that year’s Ashes series. At the time Cowdrey’s old Kent and England team-mate Godfrey Evans was in second place, with 91 appearances. The first to 75 had been England’s Wally Hammond, in 1939.The first to 150 was Allan Border, in December 1993; his nearest challenger was Kapil Dev, with 127 caps. The first to play in 125 Tests had been Sunil Gavaskar, in 1986-87. Sachin Tendulkar became the first man – and only one so far – to play 200 Test matches, when he rounded off his stellar career against West Indies in Mumbai in November 2013.What’s the lowest one-day international total to include a half-century? asked Abhay Thatte from India

Before the Sunday ODI in Dharamsala, where MS Dhoni made 65 in India’s total of 112*, the lowest all-out total in one-day internationals to include an individual half-century was 115, by Netherlands against West Indies in Delhi in the 2011 World Cup: Tom Cooper top-scored with 55 not out. There are two cases of 117: by Netherlands again, against Scotland in Dublin in 2008 (Eric Szwarczynski made 54; Daan van Bunge with 34 was the only other man in double figures); and by Pakistan against West Indies in St Vincent in April 2000 (Inzamam-ul-Haq 51 not out).Leave your questions in the comments*December 13, 7:03 GMT: The answer was tweaked to reflect the Dharamsala ODI’s record

Greg Chappell recalls the events of the Centenary Test, played 40 years ago at the MCG

Daniel Brettig26-Dec-2017Greg Chappell never worked harder for runs in Australia. Day one of the Centenary Test, the 40th anniversary of which is being marked at the MCG this week, was heavy with cloud overhead, moisture underfoot, and a sense of the occasion’s uniqueness in every player’s mind.If there had been any sense of routine about a match tacked on to the end of the Australian season to mark 100 years since the very first Test in 1877, it was soon washed away by the presence of so many of the game’s greatest Australian and English combatants, all of whom rubbed shoulders with the teams led by Chappell and Tony Greig at the Hilton Hotel (now the Pullman) a few hundred metres up the hill from the MCG.”I think both teams turned up thinking it was just going to be another Test match, maybe a little ho-hum because it was a one-off thing,” Chappell recalled. “But once we arrived in Melbourne it was pretty obvious that it was actually quite a historic moment and there was a lot of gravitas around the game.”Seeing some of the old players arriving in Melbourne and going to functions before the Test match, hearing speeches from Sir Donald Bradman and others, and meeting some of these names that I grew up reading about or listening to on the radio was quite amazing. By the time the Test match started, we were aware that it was something a little bit special.Rick McCosker is tended to by a doctor after he was hit in the face•Getty Images”It was the first real promotion of a Test match that I’d been involved in. My first Test in Perth was pretty special to Perth, there was a build-up to that in the media, but this one was very different to a normal Test match, no doubt about that.”The clang of a specially minted coin on the surface suggested this was going to be a fair pitch for both sides, and Chappell admits he had considered batting first. But once Greig called correctly and sent the Australians in, it was soon apparent that the day would be one for bowlers. “The game probably came about 36 hours too soon for the pitch,” Chappell said. “From memory it was a bit cloudy around the lead-up to the game and he [curator Bill Watt] might have just got his timing out a little bit.”Australian worries about the surface were to be compounded when Rick McCosker misjudged a short ball from Bob Willis and was struck an awful blow to the jaw, made doubly maddening when the ball then dropped onto the stumps. McCosker’s re-emergence later in the match, to add a critical 54 runs with the wicketkeeper, Rod Marsh, was to become part of its legend.”It was a double blow, insult to injury, because not only did he get hit but his wicket was broken as well, so he was out and knocked out,” Chappell said. “It was a pretty gruesome-looking sight when he came in, but mind you, it wasn’t a pretty sight when he went out to bat in the second innings with the head swathed in bandages and totally distorted by the bruising and swelling.”I’m sure the Englishmen would’ve been very surprised when they saw him walk out to bat. I never considered asking him to bat. He came and told me he wanted to. I wasn’t convinced it was a great idea, but he was firmly of the conviction that he was capable, that he should do it, and as the game turned out, we were grateful that he did.”Greg Chappell runs past Derek Randall, who led England’s chase with a spectacular 174, to field the ball•Getty ImagesBatting No. 4 behind Gary Cosier, Chappell slogged through six minutes short of four hours for 40, as a crowd of more than 61,000 spectators kept atypically quiet. Greig rotated his seamers handily, and when the swift left-arm spin of Derek Underwood was introduced, he gave away barely one run an over.”Greigy kept the seamers going for a long time,” Chappell said, “but in those conditions, with a little bit of moisture in the pitch, Underwood was as dangerous as anyone, very hard to score from. I never had to work harder for runs in Australia.”A final Australian total of 138 seemed paltry, but the response of Dennis Lillee and Max Walker was to deliver an unexpected first-innings lead. From there, the pitch dried and flattened out, bringing about a very different second act in the drama and a surface of the sort of quality Chappell never saw again in Melbourne.”Melbourne was always a very different wicket from anywhere else,” Chappell said. “By day three and four of a Shield game, you knew you didn’t play back to anything, no matter how short it was. You had to try to get forward to it, because they’d tend to stay down a bit and crack a bit, so the ball would deviate off the surface, but it was always a very firm surface.”By the time I came back to the MCG, it was a dustbowl, there was very little grass on the square, the titular groundsman really had no experience. Ian Johnson as secretary of the MCC wanted to have control of the preparation of the wickets and it just went from bad to worse. I played every year until 1984 and never saw another decent wicket in that time. It was disappointing because as your showcase ground, we could’ve been scoring 300s in one-day cricket but we were only getting low 200s because the wicket was just such hard work.”Both the change in the pitch and the arrival of more limited-overs games came about following the two years Chappell and others spent with Kerry Packer’s breakaway World Series Cricket. Though much has been written and said about clandestine meetings around the Centenary Test and even the sight of Austin Robertson handing out sign-on cheques to players in the dressing room in the guise of “theatre tickets”, Chappell was not yet sure whether the concept would get off the ground.”I’d had an initial approach but I’d told them I wasn’t interested in talking about it until they were much further down the track and all the players they wanted to talk to had been spoken to,” Chappell said. “I really wasn’t consciously aware of it at all. I wasn’t convinced at that stage that it would even happen. From my point of view it was so far back of mind it was out of my mind.”Much like the impression created by that damp first-day pitch would be overturned before the Centenary Test had played out, Chappell’s expectations of World Series Cricket were to be utterly confounded.

Mark Stoneman, James Vince and Dawid Malan took the first step to justifying their much questioned Ashes selections

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Nov-2017

Stoicism is an admirable trait that serves the country well, but it’s time to get really rather cross about the state of English cricket

George Dobell at Sydney08-Jan-2018There’s a pattern of behaviour prevalent in England which dictates that, in times of extreme stress or emotion, we should do almost anything but acknowledge the truth.So we sit around the hospital beds of the dying, telling them they’ll soon be back on their feet. We tell doctors we hardly drink, never smoke and go the gym almost every night. We go to funerals and tell each other the wife-beating alcoholic had a heart of gold. Her bottom never looks big in that and there’s almost nothing – not nuclear war or zombie apocalypse – that can’t be overcome with a nice cup of tea.It is, in some ways, a wonderful quality. It was that stoic refusal to acknowledge reality that enabled a previous generation to win a war that, in cricket terms, had them following on in gloomy light and on a pitch showing signs of uneven bounce. And the band on Titanic – just like the Barmy Army – played all the way down.But there are moments when it is also an incredibly irritating characteristic. And damaging. So, just as you really should get that mole checked out, just as that lump probably won’t go away, England really should acknowledge that this Ashes series really wasn’t close.There were moments – flashes might be a better word – when it looked as if England could compete. When James Vince reached 83 in Brisbane; when Australia were reduced to 76 for 4 in the same match; when Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan took England to 368 for 4 in Perth. On these occasions, it appeared England were working their way into a good position.But they only made 302 in that first innings in Brisbane. They trailed by 215 on first innings in Adelaide (even though Australia declared their own first innings with eight wickets down). Only three men passed 25 in England’s first innings in Perth, and only two men in the top seven managed more than 22 on the flattest Melbourne pitch you ever will wish you hadn’t seen.This was a team trying to snatch a goal on the break. This was Frank Bruno catching Mike Tyson with his left hook; Greg Thomas dislodging Viv Richards’ cap; England’s openers enjoying a good start (they were 101 without loss) against West Indies at Lord’s in 1984; Graham Dilley reducing them to 54 for 5 at Lord’s in 1988. Looking back now, they were far from reflective of the general balance of power. They were the cat hissing at the dog; the condemned man cursing his firing squad. To suggest they represent squandered opportunities is largely delusional.Another drubbing down under•Getty ImagesSo, while it’s true that Steve Smith was a difference between the teams, he wasn’t the only difference. The same could equally be said about Nathan Lyon and the Australian pace attack. So that’s the batting, pace bowling and spin bowling covered, then. England were out-gunned from the start. They haven’t squandered moments of great promise. They’ve occasionally caught sight of them in the distance when the clouds parted for a moment. But, actually, now they look again, it may have been a cow.You can’t really blame players for buying into the narrative – a narrative repeated several times by Joe Root and most recently by James Anderson – that the series was decided by a few key moments. It comes with the territory in top-level sport that the protagonists have to maintain high levels of self-belief. They have to believe they can win. It’s part of the make-up of a champion.But you would hope that none of those in positions of power fall for such nonsense. You would hope they reflect on this Ashes series – a series in which Australia scored in excess of 600 twice, won by an innings twice (despite losing the toss on both occasions), had the three highest run-scorers and four highest wicket-takers – and understand that it was a rout.Nor should it be dismissed as an aberration. England have now lost nine of their most recent 11 overseas Tests. Sure, playing in Australia and India is tough. But England didn’t win in the Caribbean, either. Or Bangladesh. Or New Zealand, the UAE or Sri Lanka. Living off their success against South Africa in 2015 – excellent result though it was – is a car driving on fumes.It’ll keep happening, too. Sure, they may snatch the odd series – perhaps in New Zealand in a couple of months, perhaps in the Caribbean at the start of 2019 – because they have, in Ben Stokes and Root and Anderson, a few top-quality players. But generally, such wins will come very much against the norm while England prioritise their white-ball development at the expense of their red-ball team. Until they can develop more spin and fast bowlers, until they stop hiding behind wins on home surfaces, they will remain also-rans in Test cricket.Some will say this tour went wrong in September. And it is true England lost a key player – and just a bit of their energy and equilibrium – when Stokes was arrested that night in Bristol. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the affair (and the proper authorities can decide that) there are lessons to be learned about the level of sacrifice inherent in the life of an international sportsperson. There might well be some justification for some of Stokes’ actions that night. But should he have been there in the first place?But it went wrong long before that. It went wrong when the ECB continued their exclusive relationship with a subscription broadcaster long after it had become clear it was damaging the long-term health of the game. As a result, cricket lost relevance in the public consciousness. The talent pool on which the game relies has grown shallow and is absurdly over-reliant upon the private schools, Asian and ex-pat communities.

England haven’t squandered moments of great promise. They’ve occasionally caught sight of them in the distance when the clouds parted for a moment

It went wrong when the Championship was shoved into the margins of the season, when counties were incentivised for fielding teams of young, England-qualified players, when the ECB stopped believing in their own domestic competitions and allowed them to be diluted and devalued.While the suspicion lingers that Root caught the bug that laid him low on the final day of the series while eating jelly and ice-cream at a kid’s birthday party (it was his son’s birthday on the fourth day of the game), that will do nothing to derail the narrative that he lacks the maturity or gravitas of a leader, even though there is no evidence for that save his boyish face.To see Root in the field, coaxing and cajoling his side into another effort, was to see a born leader. To see him behind the scenes, handling each crisis with calm good humour and ensuring this tour did not sink to the levels of the 2013-14 debacle, was to see a young man with strength, energy and integrity. He simply wasn’t dealt a handful of aces. He’s not the problem here.And nor is Trevor Bayliss. Sure, he’s not a technical coach. And nor is he a selector in the sense that he has the knowledge of county cricket to offer much there. His job, in essence, is to keep the first-team environment positive and focussed. And he’s good at that. It’s not his fault that England can’t produce pace or spin bowlers. He’s not an alchemist.No, the trouble is much higher up the pyramid than that. The problem is the ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison, trying to kid us that English cricket is in good health, and Andrew Strauss who has achieved little in his time as director of England cricket other than settling a couple of old scores: getting rid of Peter Moores and Kevin Pietersen. If teams are judged by their success in global events – as Strauss has always said – it is worth remembering they did worse in the 2017 Champions Trophy than the 2013 Champions Trophy.Blaming Stokes or Bayliss or Root for this loss will solve nothing. It’s more fundamental change – and an acknowledgement of their problems – that England require. And a nice cup of tea. Obviously.

All the stats and milestones from England’s 2-1 series win against India in the ODIs

Bharath Seervi17-Jul-201813- Centuries for Joe Root in ODIs – the most among England players. He went past Marcus Trescothick, who had held the record with 12 hundreds. England’s captain Eoin Morgan, who made 88 not out, is third on the list with ten centuries. This was Root’s second century in a row in the three-match series. He was named Player of the Series.ESPNcricinfo Ltd9- Number of successive bilateral ODI series wins for India before this defeat. The last time they had lost a bilateral ODI series was in early 2016 against Australia, in Australia. This was also the first defeat for India in a bilateral series under Virat Kohli’s leadership. They had won all their first seven series under Kohli.8- Number of consecutive bilateral ODI series wins for England. They hadn’t lost any such series since the 2-1 loss against India in India in early 2016. This was also England’s first series victory against India since winning 3-0 in 2011 at home. They did, however, lose a one-off ODI against Scotland in May this year.186*- Partnership between Root and Morgan for the third wicket – the highest for England against India for any wicket. This bettered the previous record of 185 between Marcus Trescothick and Nasser Hussain at Lord’s in 2002. The pair also broke the record for the pair with most runs for England, going past the 2118 runs added together by Ian Bell and Alastair Cook. This was the ninth century stand between the two, whereas no other England pair has had more than five.3- Number of times Virat Kohli got out to spinners in this series, compared to none against pacers. Kohli scored 75 runs at a strike rate of 79.78 against spinners, whereas, against pace, he scored 116 runs at run-a-ball. His numbers had a similarly vast difference in the recently-concluded IPL season: average of 110.66 against pacers with three dismissals, and 24.75 against spinners with eight dismissals. However, Kohli was the highest run-getter among India batsmen in the series and also completed 3000 runs as captain in his 49th innings, the fastest by any player.

Bowling style Runs BF SR Wkts AvePace 116 116 100.00 0 -Spin 75 94 79.78 3 25.0066.66- Strike rate of India’s batsmen from No.4 to No. 6 in the series – their second-lowest in any series in the last five years. In seven innings from batsmen in those positions, they scored 156 runs off 234 balls with a highest score of 46. They did not hit any sixes either.9- Wickets taken by Kuldeep Yadav in the series, which is two more than all the other Indian bowlers combined. The other India bowlers could manage only seven wickets at an average of 98.14. Kuldeep claimed nine scalps at16.44.

Bowler Wkts Ave Eco SR 3+ wksKuldeep Yadav 9 16.44 4.93 20.00 2All others 7 98.14 6.01 98.00 25`

As England take on India at Lord’s, try our quiz on previous encounters between the two teams at the venue

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2018