Three promising newcomers in the USA side are hoping to help their team break its Division Three jinx

Peter Della Penna22-May-20173:21

USA cricket welcomes three new faces

Camilus Alexander
Perhaps the coolest cat prowling around the USA squad, 35-year-old legspin allrounder Alexander oozes confidence on and off the field.The Grenada native was a strong prospect for West Indies in his youth, having been part of the squad that went to the 2000 U-19 World Cup. His team-mates then included future Test players Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Lawson, Narsingh Deonarine and Brenton Parchment. However, Alexander struggled to find a regular place in the Windward Islands side once he graduated to senior level. His mentor Rawle Lewis was entrenched as the first choice legspinner, and offspinner Shane Shillingford was a frequent pick.”After a while I decided I wanted to try something new and have a different avenue,” Alexander said. He got a call one day from Clayton Lambert, the former West Indies opener who had migrated to the USA in the late 1990s and wound up playing for the country at the 2004 Champions Trophy, before later going on to coach the US team. Lambert, based in Atlanta, said one of the club teams in the strong local competition was interested in a bowler who could bat. At age 30, Alexander packed up and came to Atlanta, where Lambert, who works as a truck driver, helped him get a job in the same field. As if that wasn’t enough of a helping hand, Alexander also became roommates with Lambert for the first year he lived in Atlanta.”I came over and gave it a shot and it’s just gone on from there,” Alexander said. “I knew him from first-class cricket back in the Caribbean, so it wasn’t too hard to get along, and he helped me a lot. Coaching-wise, he gave me a lot of inspirational advice and how to go about playing different situations. He helped me in a lot of ways.”

“I’m looking to make a name for myself. Try to perform in the best way that I can, try to get at least two or three fifties and get at least 10 to 12 wickets”Camilus Alexander on his goals for the season

Alexander has been piling up runs after shifting to more of an emphasis on his batting than his bowling, which helped put him on the selection radar. He was the top scorer at the most recent selection camps in Houston. Along with Lambert, Alexander says Lewis and Darren Sammy, who captained him at Windwards for a brief period, were also helpful in developing his game.”[Sammy] was always an inspirational guy in the Windwards team so we learned a lot from him,” Alexander said. “He always told me, ‘Nothing comes easy. If you need to achieve something, you need to work hard at it’, and he really worked hard at his game and just moved from one level to the next really quick.”Alexander’s role in the USA squad is to shore up the middle order – a problem area for USA in the recent past – while also offering spin in the middle overs.”I’m looking to make a name for myself,” he said of the Division Three challenge. “Try to perform in the best way that I can, try to get at least two or three fifties and get at least 10 to 12 wickets. Doing that, the team will benefit and it will help the team to go on and win the cup, which is our ultimate goal.”Camilus Alexander credits his erstwhile captain Darren Sammy as a major inspiration•Peter Della PennaIbrahim Khaleel
Though he is new to the USA squad, Khaleel has a distinguished resumé built up over the course of a decade with Hyderabad in Indian first-class cricket. He played for the state, beginning at Under-13 level, working his way up through each junior squad before making his Ranji Trophy debut in 2002, under the captaincy of Venkatapathy Raju.Khaleel was arguably in his prime around 2008, when he took a chance on the rebel Indian Cricket League. He was named Player of the Series playing for ICL’s India XI against a World XI.”ICL changed me as a batsman, as a keeper, the way I approached the game, it just made me better,” he said. “The confidence that Steve Rixon [as coach] gave me was just unbelievable. The work ethic, the way he shows you the drills for wicketkeeping, the way he tells you how to bat, how to approach batting and keeping, it was just unbelievable. He took me to a different level. The confidence level I had was great but he made me a better keeper and a better batsman.”After the ICL folded, Khaleel took the BCCI up on its amnesty offer and came back to the Hyderabad fold, while also trying to find a place in the IPL. He signed a squad contract with Mumbai Indians but never made it into the starting XI, and by 2010 they had cut ties with him.

“ICL changed me as a batsman, as a keeper, the way I approached the game, it just made me better”Ibrahim Khaleel, who played domestic cricket in India, before moving to the US in his 30s

He was still a regular with Hyderabad over the next few years, though, and one of his biggest career highlights came in November 2011, when he set a world record with 14 dismissals (11 catches and three stumpings) in a first-class match against Assam.”I didn’t know it was a world record,” Khaleel said. “We just finished the game and I went back to my room. That’s when my phone starts ringing. ‘What’s going on? I know we won the game but why is everybody calling me?’ You just created a record. ‘What record?’ There was a guy who got 13 [dismissals] and you have 14 now.”In 2013, he married an American doctor, and the couple agreed he would continue to play in Hyderabad, spending the season in India before coming back to Beloit, Wisconsin, where she had established their home near her hospital job. After the 2014-15 season, though, the “commute” was wearing, and Khaleel says he made the decision to stop playing Ranji Trophy cricket for good at age 32.In the USA full-time, he initially played sporadic league cricket casually in Chicago, a two-hour drive from Beloit, a town of 36,000, just over the Wisconsin border from Illinois. But in 2016, ICC Americas organised a regional combine tryout in Chicago, and a fire that had been barely flickering grew strong once again with the prospect of representing USA. Khaleel already had a green card, thanks to his wife, and the Milwaukee, Wisconsin US Customs and Immigrations Services office fast-tracked his citizenship application. He got his passport a week out from the squad submission deadline to be eligible to play for USA at Division Three.Khaleel: “Everybody is a fantastic player in our team. When I look at them as a player, as a team-mate, to me the only thing I look at is how confident they are in their approach”•Peter Della Penna”My wife was like, ‘You know what, we decided that you don’t want to play cricket and you’re gonna chill. Now you’re gonna travel?'” Khaleel laughs. “I told her I’d do that but I always wanted to play for the country.”She’s one of the biggest reasons that I’m here, because she supported me a lot. She knew that I always wanted to play for the country, and when I had this opportunity, she helped me with all my stuff, getting the paperwork done for the citizenship and stuff, and then when I got selected, she was just very happy for me.”Even with worn knees and a sore back from 20 years’ worth of wicketkeeping through the Hyderabad system, Khaleel’s skills with bat and gloves are still undeniable. He was USA’s second-leading scorer – behind USA’s Jamaica Tallawahs allrounder Timroy Allen – on their warm-up tour in Potchefstroom ahead of landing in Uganda, and hopes some of his experience will rub off on his new team-mates.”My experience is all about confidence,” Khaleel said. “Everybody is a fantastic player in our team. When I look at them as a player, as a team-mate, to me the only thing I look at is how confident they are in their approach. The only thing I go and tell them is just back yourself.”

“My wife was like, ‘You know what, we decided that you don’t want to play cricket and you’re gonna chill. Now you’re gonna travel?'”Khaleel on his wife’s reaction to his decision to play for USA

Nosthush Kenjige
The two other USA debutants have more than two decades of first-class cricket between them. Kenjige on the other hand is neon green by comparison, in terms of his high-level cricket experience. But the 26-year-old left-arm spinner’s work ethic goes a long way towards helping bridge that gap.Born in Alabama, where his father worked as an agricultural researcher at Tuskegee University, he and his family moved back to India before he had turned one, to Chikmaglur, outside Bengaluru, where his father runs a coffee farm. Kenjige played university cricket in Bengaluru, as well as for Jawans Cricket Club in the city’s Sir Mirza Ismail Shield competition.The only one in his family with American citizenship (since he was born there), he decided to move back to the US in 2015, first to Virginia and then to New York, where he found work as a biomedical technician. He applied and was granted an invite to the New York Combine organised by ICC Americas in June 2016, where he impressed enough with his left-arm spin to be named in USA’s 30-man training squad ahead of Division Four at the end of July.Kenjige: “To just have stars and stripes on the chest, it’s a dream for anybody”•Peter Della PennaThough he holds a USA passport, a quirk in the ICC’s eligibility criteria for Associate teams below the WCL Championship meant that Kenjige had to fulfill 100 days of “community service” to become eligible. This can consist of playing in matches, coaching players, or undertaking other development activities. So desperate was Kenjige to play for USA that he would commute one to two hours – depending on traffic – from Manhattan to New Jersey after work, three days a week, and again on the weekends, to the CricMax complex in Old Bridge, the nearest indoor facility where he could train and coach.Officially, eight hours equals a day of credit for the ICC 100-day stipulation so if he made it by 6pm and stayed until 10pm, he could log a half-day on weeknights, and then put in two full days on the weekend. The owners gave him a set of keys to lock up if he was the last to leave. After starting his mission in August, Kenjige met the threshold in February, in plenty of time to be eligible for Division Three.”It’s just that I enjoyed cricket and I didn’t necessarily count it as commitments or service of any kind,” Kenjige says. “The fact that I was just enjoying the work that I was putting in every day, even though the commute was bad. I could have given a thousand reasons [to stop] but it was just the passion in me. I just loved to go to the place and get myself working at it and just get better every day. I think everybody in my position would have done it if they loved cricket.”

So desperate was Kenjige to play for USA that he would commute one to two hours from Manhattan to New Jersey after work, three days a week, and again on the weekends, to the CricMax complex in Old Bridge, the nearest indoor facility where he could train and coach

Kenjige took a brief period off work in January to train in South Africa with the Knights franchise before returning to New York. At the team’s selection camps in Houston this March and April, he finished as the leading wicket-taker. That achievement, and his phenomenal fielding – he is often stationed at backward point – made him a shoo-in for the tour to Uganda. He said it was “the happiest day of my life” when he got the selection call.Kenjige’s fanatical quest to give himself the best chance of being selected came at a price, though. Just before leaving for Uganda, he was fired from his job. He says he saw it coming, considering the amount of time he had taken off from work and to go to selection camps, but says without hesitation that he would do it all again.”It was always my dream to play for the US. It was a no-brainer. If they hadn’t asked me to leave, I would have left at some point, because this is where I’ve always wanted to be. Looking back at it 20-30 years from now, I don’t think I’m gonna regret it.”Any sportsperson for that matter, when we start playing cricket, you always dream of playing for the country. To just have stars and stripes on the chest, it’s a dream for anybody. You know that you’re playing for your country, you represent your country. It’s been a dream so I can’t ask for anything more.”

With the upcoming release of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two, in cinemas May 4, we present an all-time T20 XI that might represent cricket in an intergalactic showdown

Andrew Miller03-May-2017Chris Gayle

There’s the Universe Boss, then daylight, then every other T20 batsman who has ever played the game. Gayle’s list of records in the format is simply awe-inspiring – more than 10,000 T20 runs (almost 2500 more than the nearest challenger), 18 centuries (no-one else has made more than seven), the highest total (175 not out), the fastest hundred (30 balls), the most sixes (743 and counting)… you name it, he’s bossed it.Virat Kohli

In the multi-millon-dollar goldfish-bowl of modern-day Indian cricket, it takes a cricketer of unrivalled stature to absorb the pressures of performing day-in, day-out in front of the most demanding fans in the universe. Kohli has done just that, across formats and franchises, leading the line for India and RCB alike with a ferociously brilliant attitude that carries the attack straight back to every bowler in the game. He is the face of the modern-day game, and he’s not just a pretty one at that.Viv Richards

The Master Blaster never had the chance to play T20 cricket, but just imagine how cowed the world’s bowlers would have been had he done so. The most imperious batsman ever to play the game, Viv would swagger to the middle in his maroon cap (no helmet for him, no matter how ferocious the bowling) and intimidate with the merest gum-chew and jutting-jawed stare. His 56-ball Test hundred against England in 1986 remained a record for 30 years; his 189 not out in an ODI against the same opponents at Old Trafford in 1984 was a hint of what he could have achieved in this bat-dominated era.AB de Villiers lays into a pull shot•BCCIAB de Villiers

The arch-exponent of 360-degree batting, de Villiers makes boundaries from deliveries that his predecessors would have been pre-conditioned to write off as unplayable. Second only to Gayle among overseas heroes at the IPL, de Villiers’ most destructive moment came in an ODI against West Indies in Johannesburg in 2015. With flick after flick for six over fine leg, he rattled along to a 31-ball hundred, and a 149 from 44 balls all told.MS Dhoni (wk)

The keeper of the galaxy’s wickets, and the coolest, most calculating finisher the format has ever known. No runs/balls equation can ever faze Dhoni, who captained India to the inaugural World T20 title in 2007, before hitting the winning six in the 50-over World Cup final four years later. If he’s still batting when the match reaches its climax, woe betide the bowling side.Garry Sobers

The greatest allrounder in the sport’s history, and the most versatile weapon that any T20 team could hope for. His formidable power with the bat is legendary – just ask Malcolm Nash, whom Sobers launched into outer space with six sixes in an over at Swansea in 1968 – but just imagine trying to face his lethal variations with the ball. Hooping swing from a left-arm line with the new ball, or tantalising orthodox spin if the conditions demand. And he was also a mean wristspinner to boot. Then, throw in his ability to catch flies in the outfield, and it’s little wonder that no less a judge as Don Bradman described him as a “five-in-one” cricketer.Garry Sobers: a five-in-one cricketer•Getty ImagesWasim Akram

Arguably the most skilful fast bowler the galaxy has ever seen, Wasim was another who missed the T20 revolution but who would surely have dominated given half a chance. His finest moment (or two) came in the 50-over World Cup final against England in 1992 – a stunning two-card trick to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis, bowled past the outside and inside-edge respectively, as he snaked Pakistan to the title with peerless command of reverse swing. And, as a hard-hitting batsman who once struck 12 sixes in a Test-best 257, his ability to biff the beejaysus out of the death overs wouldn’t have gone amiss either.Shane Warne

Arguably the greatest spin bowler in the universe, with one of the greatest game-brains ever conceived, Warne’s command of line, length and revolutions was second to none, while his ability to keep cool under fire transcended formats. T20 cricket came too late for him to showcase his fullest repertoire but, as an ever-conniving captain of Rajasthan Royals, he chivvied his unfancied squad to the inaugural IPL title in 2008. With an endless repertoire of variations – some real, several imagined – he would doubtless have outpsyched a host of hard-hitting sluggers in his pomp.Malcolm Marshall: a weapon for every situation•Ben Radford/Getty ImagesMalcolm Marshall

With his sidewinder approach, searing pace and skiddy action, Marshall was arguably the most unnerving fast bowler the world has ever known. The most skilful member of West Indies’ pace battery of the 1980s, Marshall’s unerringly accurate bouncer would spit like a cobra before any batsman had enough time to size up its length, but it was his ability – in his latter years – to throttle back the speed and concentrate on devious swing and cut that underlined what an intelligent player he was. He’d have had a weapon for every situation, not least – one suspects – when guarding his team at the death.Derek Underwood

“Deadly” Derek Underwood was nominably a slow left-arm bowler, but his pace through the air was startling at times and, with the exception of his peerless Kent sidekick, the wicketkeeper Alan Knott, few players at the business end ever had the measure of his bottomless bag of tricks. He was at his most lethal on drying wickets in the days of uncovered pitches – witness his mopping-up of Australia at The Oval in 1968 – but he could adjust his pace and flight to suit any surface. He was a mystery spinner before anyone had even coined the term.Lasith Malinga

“Slinger” Malinga honed his extraordinary round-arm style as a means of skidding tennis balls out of the surf on the beaches of his native Sri Lanka, and he’s been bamboozling generations of batsmen throughout a long and storied career. In an era when opponents like to get “under the ball”, via ramps, slogs and lofted drives, Malinga’s almost subterranean line of attack instantly ups the ante, and few deliveries are more deadly than his low-slung wicket-to-wicket yorkers. He’s the only player to have claimed three ODI hat-tricks, and even made it four in four balls against South Africa at the 2007 World Cup.

He coughed and spluttered, but then Kevin Pietersen was riding the wave as a capacity crowd at The Oval lapped up the start of his valedictory tour of England in the NatWest Blast

Tim Wigmore20-Jul-2017Behold, the power and the glory of Kevin Pietersen. At The Oval on Wednesday night, a sell-out crowd did just that.Here was a sight most had presumed they would never see again: Pietersen captivating an English audience, and at the venue where he had played his most celebrated innings of all.The boisterous cheers that greeted Pietersen when he arrived at the crease 12 years after the innings that secured the 2005 Ashes in a sea of cricketing fervour were exactly as he would have wished.His Surrey return, which he says will be his final season of county cricket, is doubling as a valedictory tour to the English cricket public – a chance for the crowds to prove how much they still love him, even if Andrew Strauss and co do not.The early stages of Pietersen’s innings against Essex in the NatWest Blast gave off the air of a boxer who had unwisely returned to the ring for one bout too many. He took 17 balls over his first 14 runs and was reprieved twice – a regulation catch at midwicket, and a stumping. It all seemed to betray a man who had not played professional cricket for almost six months.As Living On A Prayer bellowed out at The Oval, the same could be said of Pietersen’s innings.But it is never wise to reprieve Pietersen, much less so at this ground. Like a surfer waiting to ride the perfect wave, Pietersen chose his ideal target – an offspinner, the type of bowler he scores quickest against in T20. Not just any old offspinner either, but Simon Harmer, also South African-born and the leading County Championship wicket-taker of 2017.The first ball was struck off the front foot over midwicket for six. The next, pitched short, was pulled over the same region. A single followed; then Harmer went wider outside off stump and endured another heave over midwicket. Harmer’s final ball, a rank full toss, was dispatched to the same heaving throngs in the OCS Stand,It attested to one of the enduring traits of Pietersen’s greatness: how he can intimidate fine bowlers off their game. With four sixes in five balls, each hit with more ferocity than the last, and cheered more raucously, Pietersen was back. And so was the love.The initial rust was hardly surprising. Pietersen had not batted in a T20 game in England for 1061 days, and not played a T20 at all for almost six months. He chose not even to put himself up for this year’s Indian Premier League auction, with IPL insiders suggesting that he was unlikely to have been picked up.The lack of cricket has provided ample time for other pursuits, which were not even curtailed by the start of this year’s Blast. Instead, he arrived fashionably late.Filling time, KP style

(i) Saving the rhinos – impassioned advocate for the campaign, persuading Melbourne Stars, and now Surrey, to stage fund-raising matches for the cause.

(ii) Playing golf – and lots of it.

(iii) Flirting with an international comeback – mischievously suggesting that he could play for South Africa in the 2019 World Cup.

(iv) Hanging out with Piers Morgan – still his loyalist fan.

(v) Developing the KP Cricket Academy in Dubai – offering “a completely unique and bespoke coaching experience”.

He has become an impassioned advocate for the Save the Rhino campaign, using stickers on his bat to draw attention to the cause and even persuading Surrey to stage a double-header at the Oval next month to raise funds.In keeping with this love of nature, he is having a lodge built on the edge of a nature reserve in South Africa; time spent there will preclude him from returning to play in county cricket again. And he spent last week on a game reserve in South Africa, breaking up his time on the safari and golf course to berate the third day of the Trent Bridge Test – marked by Hashim Amla’s disciplined plotting of a route to victory – as tedious.Only on Monday did he resume training with Surrey, two days before trying to make light of a six-month absence and invigorate his career at 37.On the day of his return, he played golf in the morning, and then went on TalkSport to declare that Gary Ballance and Keaton Jennings were not Test batsmen. He even speculated that he might play for South Africa in the 2019 World Cup: all rather bewildering, not just because the timing jarred with his return to the English game but also because he has not played a List A game for four years and seems in no hurry to change the fact. But, in another sense, the timing of his bizarre claim was perfect: for Pietersen, like John McEnroe, the only thing worse than being criticised is being ignored.Here, once again, he was impossible to ignore with the bat. A straight six off Ryan ten Doeschate was the finest shot of the evening – a fusion of quick hands and peerless timing, the sort of stroke that purist members and post-work revellers can take equal delight in. When Pietersen brought up his 50 soon after, it was, remarkably, his first ever in a T20 match for Surrey and, even more absurdly, his first half-century in the T20 Blast (or Twenty20 Cup, as it was back then) since 2004.It is a stark illustration of how Pietersen has struggled with the bitty nature of English domestic T20 – he had played 24 innings without a fifty in the tournament since. He will hope that this year’s more condensed schedule proves altogether more amenable.Pietersen’s innings was the major factor in Surrey’s 10-run win. But, for all the majesty of those five sixes, it was a curious innings, one of biff or block with nothing in between. It contained not a single two and the sense of a batsman feeling his way back into the game never entirely dissipated. Haring between the wickets, once a Pietersen trademark, was absent; instead his singles were ambled with the pace of someone double his 37 years. He pleaded a mild calf strain, another complication to surmount.Yet his achievement was a remarkable one, suggesting that, even in an age of uber-professional T20, Pietersen can still lead a remarkable double life, moving seamlessly between a life of effective retirement from the sport to being a leading player on the T20 circuit.He differs from most other T20 specialists in being much more selective about when he plays. He had a seven-month break in 2016, before this year’s six months off – making his challenge more onerous. Yet he continues to rise to it. In the last year, Pietersen has averaged 38.28 in the Big Bash League, 39.60 in the Ram Slam in South Africa, and 34.42 in the Pakistan Super League.Pietersen revels in the attention again at Kia Oval•Getty ImagesHis innings at The Oval – not quite vintage Pietersen, yet still almost twice what anyone else managed in the match – suggested that, like Roger Federer, he can pick and choose his matches as he enters sporting middle age, and that gaping gaps between games need not dilute his effectiveness.He does not train as much as he used to but he trains smarter. Across sport, a combination of science and assiduous management is helping elite athletes thrive later in their careers. Pietersen could yet maintain his double life for several more years, if he is so inclined.When he skied a ball to midwicket, he removed his helmet, walked off slowly and acknowledged the crowd’s applause. His night’s work was done; that calf strain, perhaps not inconveniently, rendered Pietersen unable to field, though he still reckons he will be able to play against Middlesex in the London derby on Friday.A little older and a little stiffer, Pietersen is back – and with his sense of theatre undimmed. Enjoy him while you can.

Lyon also became only the second offspinner – the first in over 110 years – to take two ten-wicket hauls in Tests for his country

Gaurav Sundararaman07-Sep-201722 – Number of wickets taken by Nathan Lyon this series, the joint second-most wickets in a two-match Test series along with Muttiah Muralitharan. Only Rangana Herath has taken more (23).13/154 – The best match-figures by an Australia bowler in Asia. Lyon went past team-mate Steven O’Keefe, who had picked up 12 for 70 earlier this year against India in Pune. Lyon is the only other visiting bowler apart from Ian Botham to take 13 wickets in a Test in Asia.2 – Ten-wicket hauls in Tests for Nathan Lyon. This is also Lyon’s first ten-for in Asia. Lyon also became only the third offspinner from Australia – the first in over 110 years – to take two ten-wicket hauls.46 – Total wickets taken by Nathan Lyon in 2017 – the most for any bowler this calendar year. Lyon went past both R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja who have 44 wickets each.3 – Consecutive five-wicket hauls for Nathan Lyon in this series. The last Australian to achieve this was Shane Warne when he took four consecutive five-fors against Sri Lanka in 2004.

Over the course of 13 balls delivered from his favourite Wynberg End, Vernon Philander set Virat Kohli up and sent him back with the most artful of knockout blows

Sidharth Monga in Cape Town08-Jan-2018Vernon Philander’s pitch map to Virat Kohli in the second innings of the Cape Town Test is a thing of a beauty. Philander bowled 13 balls to Kohli over two spells; all of them pitched outside off, not one was full enough to drive or short enough to cut. Nothing fuller than 6m from the stumps, nothing shorter than 8m. That’s not where the beauty ends. Philander’s stock line to Kohli is not the usual fourth- or fifth-stump line usually bowled to batsmen. With Kohli, you shift the line wider because he is extremely good at the drive, and tends to play further away from his body than most batsmen. Eleven of those 13 deliveries are bowled a set of stumps wide of off stumps but not any wider.Kohli is left frustrated. There is no length for Kohli to drive, the line is not close enough for him to take a risk, and with every ball he is moving across his stumps to try to get close to the ball. To the fifth ball of the 20th over, Kohli finally manages to move across enough to cover the line and push the ball for a single. Now the plan is reaching its final stages.Philander comes back for the next over, the third he is bowling from the Kelvin Grove End, with the endgame on his mind. This is his home. He likes the Wynberg End. He is given the Wynberg End most of the time. This is not most of the time. Dale Steyn has injured himself. There are only three quicks left in South Africa’s attack. There is no allrounder to bowl change-up overs as Philander recovers for a new spell from the Wynberg End. South Africa can’t afford to wait here after being bowled out for 130 and setting India 208. This match has been a big gamble: an unnaturally quick and seaming Newlands pitch, four fast bowlers, batting after winning the toss. This is a match South Africa just can’t lose.1:13

‘I wanted to make a difference in this game’ – Philander

So Philander comes back for a new over. He bowls well outside off, Kohli moves across and pushes to cover. Wide outside off again, and Kohli moves across again, and then defends. Wide again, and this time he leaves. With the fourth ball, Philander goes the closest he has to Kohli all afternoon: it’s 6.5m on length, and the fourth stump on line. It seams back in, beating Kohli’s inside edge to trap him plumb in front.”I think it was two-and-a-half overs of away-swingers, and then the one back into him,” Philander says. “It was definitely a plan to keep him quiet, and also to drag him across to make sure that when you do bowl the other one, he’s on the other side of the off-stump.”Virat is an aggressive player, and the key thing is to keep him quiet and to make sure you set him up for the other one. Initially it was for me to keep him quiet, and I always knew I had the one coming back.”Philander is fired up now. South Africa too. They let R Ashwin have it. “Not quite a bowler, not quite a batsman, this guy Vern,” they shout. There is definite previous then between Philander and India from 2015-16, when South Africa toured India and lost 3-0. Philander has a reputation. People question his record in conditions where the ball doesn’t seam. David Warner has questioned his intent to play in difficult conditions. Graeme Smith has questioned his fitness and work ethic.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I like people to be constructive and open and honest with us as players,” Philander says. “There are two ways of taking it: you can take it personally and fade away, or you can take it on board and make a play. I took it a bit personally up front, you are all obviously human, but you try to get over it as quickly as possible, get better, do some work behind the scenes and come back stronger.”All this doesn’t matter now. There is a Test to be won, and he has the conditions and the home crowd behind him. He keeps coming back over after over. He bowls the most overs for a South African in this Test. He walks back to applause at the end of every over. His final one is not meant to be. Faf du Plessis wants to bowl Morne Morkel. Philander tells him he has just got warm, and needs another. Du Plessis tells him to do so with the wicketkeeper up because R Ashwin has been taking stance outside the crease.Philander swallows his ego and calls Quinton de Kock up to the stumps. He gets the edge first ball. Then two more wickets. The match is over but this is a day on which Big Vern could have bowled forever.

A new autobiography tells of the self-doubt and fears that beset the man probably best known for his wayward Ashes-opening delivery 11 years ago

Alan Gardner25-Nov-2017Of all the demons that Steve Harmison has faced, his infamous opening delivery in Brisbane to kick off the 2006-07 Ashes – which ended up in the hands of his captain and best mate, Andrew Flintoff, at second slip almost exactly 11 years ago – is one he seems most at peace with. It was, he admits, “the worst opening ball in the history of Ashes cricket” and one he knows he will always be remembered for. But, he adds, one bad ball does not an Ashes whitewash make. “When people say that set the tone for the series, that’s bollocks.”Such is the uncompromising tone taken by Harmison through his revealingly frank autobiography, , published four years after his retirement in 2013. It is a raw retelling of a career that touched heights few Englishmen have achieved but ended with him battling a dependency on sleeping pills and antidepressants, uncertain as to what his post-playing days held in store.”I never set out to be a cricketer,” he writes early on, and it seems the game was both bane and cure. It provided a way for a school-averse teenager with few qualifications to go from being an apprentice bricklayer to representing his country in short order, as well as giving him the means to support a young family; but it was also responsible for taking him far away from home and hearth, where he felt most comfortable, and triggering the psychological issues that remain with him today.The “homesick” label was attached to Harmison almost from the outset. On an Under-19s tour of Pakistan, he ended up repeatedly waking Flintoff in the middle of the night to confide his feelings of anxiety. There began a mateship that undoubtedly played a key role in Harmison eventually going on to take 300-plus wickets for England: “[Flintoff] always jokes now that he spent a week trying to convince me to stay – and then a week trying to convince the management to send me home because he wanted some sleep!”Harmison’s natural attributes, as well as his own determination and the support of friends such as Flintoff, Rob Key and England physio Kirk Russell, would ensure many more sleepless nights to come. Full international recognition meant having to overcome his aversion to travelling, but taking part in the 2002-03 Ashes and the subsequent World Cup led to him seeing his daughter Abbie for just five days in the first six months of her life.The following winter, Harmison exaggerated shin soreness to avoid going to Sri Lanka, though he had begun to realise he was actually dealing with a serious illness. “I wanted to tour. I didn’t want to finish my career with 50 caps when it could have been 85. I just had a mental health problem.” During the summer of 2004, which he began as the world’s No. 1-ranked bowler, Harmison was diagnosed with clinical depression.It is testament to his grim-faced ambition to battle on through that one of his career peaks came while on tour. After getting into shape training at his beloved Newcastle United, Harmison lived up to his youthful billing as the “white West Indian” when he blew away the hosts with a spell of 7 for 12 at Sabina Park. England, with their 6ft 5in, 90mph spearhead, went on to win ten Tests out of 11 against West Indies and New Zealand.Yet the clouds were already gathering again and his lowest moment came before setting off to the airport for the 2004-05 tour of South Africa:”At night, I lie there and stare into the dark. I am alone with my thoughts, and for me that’s a dangerous place to be. Now, alone in my car, those thoughts are with me again. ‘There are plenty of roundabouts on the short drive to Newcastle airport. What if pull out on somebody at one? If I do it right, I’ll buy myself another few days at home.'”Harmison did not deliberately crash his car to get out of touring, but that it even crossed his mind illustrates how debilitating his supposed “homesickness” had become. Still, throughout his playing career, he preferred to hang his issues on that peg – at least publically – in the belief that admitting to suffering from depression would have led to being dropped. Even when contemporaries such as Marcus Trescothick and Mike Yardy opened up about similar conditions, Harmison kept the hatches battened down. “I’d spent so long telling myself that my head was not going to beat me that when other people began going under, it gave me even more determination.”For obvious reasons, it is therefore troubling that Harmison uses his book to question the reasons given by Jonathan Trott for leaving the 2013-14 Ashes tour. Having described how Trescothick was among those team-mates who questioned his commitment, only to re-evaluate in light of their own experiences, Harmison commits a similar error. The chapter entitled “Cricket’s Problem”, five pages that seem to exist purely to comment on Trott, who is labelled “not poorly” but “weak”, could surely have been done without.But then, it is a reminder that Harmison is also still finding his way. He remains, as most humans do, a collection of contradictions and impulses: a giant fast bowler who flinches from the memory of drawing Ricky Ponting’s blood during the 2005 Ashes; a straight-talking Geordie who doesn’t bear grudges, but nevertheless lists numerous fallings out that remain unresolved; a man who conquered his sphere but must now fill the “void” of retirement.Life has slowed down but Harmison’s demons abide with him. It’s to be hoped that setting down his story has been a cathartic experience. He should be remembered for a lot more than one ball in Brisbane.Speed Demons
By Steve Harmison
Trinity Mirror Sports Media
383 pages, £20

Sourav Ganguly talks about making the decision to retire in this extract from his new book

Sourav Ganguly27-Feb-20185:31

Thirty-eight questions for Sourav Ganguly

It was Durga Puja. As with all Bengalis, it’s my favourite festival.Our Puja pandal is just a stone’s throw from my house. Every year, I would not just visit it and offer my prayers but also play the occasional , distribute prasad to the public and even do a bit of dancing during evening .I knew that I was being watched as I celebrated. That there were people taking photos as I danced and played the drum. But I couldn’t care less. During the Puja I was just like everyone else – the local boy enjoying his favourite festival with all the glee of boyhood.I am so hooked to the Pujas that I make it a point to always accompany the deity on her final ride. In Bengali there is a semi-tragic word for it – . This is when the deity is immersed in the Ganga. The scene is amazing – the energy is sky-high, the crowds full of joy and sorrow at seeing Durga Ma going away, it’s truly memorable. The area around the river is so crowded that once, during my Indian captaincy days, I decided to go disguised as one of Harbhajan’s tribe. Yes, disguised as a sardarji.Now I could have been mobbed big time. The situation could have gone out of control. But the thrill of accompanying the boys and family members on the truck carrying the deity was just too irresistible.

Me dropped? The Asian batsman and player of the year left out from a Rest of India team, I asked myself. After having scored consistently for the last three and a half years for India? But why?

My wife, Dona, had arranged for a make-up artist to come home to turn me from a hardcore Bengali into a convincing-looking Sikh. My cousins all mocked me, saying I would be recognized. I gave as good as I got and took up the challenge.They turned out to be right. I was not allowed on the truck by the police and had to follow it in our car with my daughter, Sana. As the car reached the Babughat area the police inspector peered in through the window, looked closely at me and smiled gently in recognition. I was embarrassed but asked him to keep my secret. The escapade was worth it. The immersion scene around the river is just indescribable. You have to see it to understand it. Durga Ma after all comes only once a year.Little did I know that the toughest decision of my life was to be announced on a Puja day in 2008. On Mahastami, when celebrations are usually at their peak, two days before the Bengaluru Test, I took part in a press conference. There I announced that I would retire from international cricket at the end of the series, after the last Test match in Nagpur. The was still two days away but I had decided to bring an end to my cricketing career. It was ‘The End’ as they say in the movies. I was so emotionally drained that the Pujas that year passed me by in a blur. I don’t remember a thing.Almost a decade has gone by. Yet journalists and the Kolkata press still gossip about the events leading to my decision, and what I felt at the time. Surely I couldn’t have felt as decisive and calm as I appeared that Mahastami day. Even this week as I write this, a close journalist friend asked me with a raised eyebrow, ‘Come on, you don’t expect me to believe that after so much trauma you did not cry after playing the last innings in Nagpur?’I replied, no. I don’t shed tears. I did not cry even at my father’s death. Most of you, like my friend, won’t believe me. Sourav is not telling the truth, you’ll be saying to yourself. But some of you will be nodding your head in agreement. You know my type. We are a minority who tend to think tears are the easy way out of sadness. But don’t let our masks fool you. Maybe it’s because we hold our emotions in check that they remain within us even more. We look tough on the outside, but inside we bleed.One last time: Ganguly waves to the crowds from the pavilion after the 2008 Nagpur Test•Global Cricket Ventures-BCCIThe events of that summer afternoon in 2008 still remain a raw wound for me. I was going for practice at Eden Gardens and had almost reached Fort William, which was just two minutes away. Suddenly my mobile rang. The caller happened to be a journalist. He had heard the news that I had been left out of the Rest of India squad, which is a clear indicator of how the selectors feel about you.Me dropped? The Asian batsman and player of the year left out from a Rest of India team, I asked myself. After having scored consistently for the last three and a half years for India? But why? It can’t have been my skill as I had only failed in one series in Sri Lanka where, apart from one batsman, none of my colleagues had done well. Yet they had all got picked.I was angry. Disillusioned.Hanging up, I told the driver to turn back and go home. I was in no mood to practise. This action made it clear to me that my chances of playing for India were now pretty low. My driver was unsure. He hesitantly looked at me, as if to get a final confirmation. My face must have said it all – he turned the car around quietly. I reached home and sat in front of the television, wondering to myself, so what’s next?People talk about the plusses of being a successful sportsman. The fame, the money and the high that it brings. Not many understand the tough side of the lives of sportsmen. Not only does age catch up with you but even after a glittering career you continue to be judged by others. This scrutiny decides your fate.

We are a minority who tend to think tears are the easy way out of sadness. But don’t let our masks fool you. Maybe it’s because we hold our emotions in check that they remain within us even more

Never forget that through their career sportsmen often have only a single option for work. Rejection from national selectors or the cricket team closes all doors. Most of you can switch jobs. If you are not happy with the Ambanis, you can apply to the Tatas. If the Tatas reject you, you can try Infosys. The paths are many. For us cricketers, we have only one job. India placement. There is no other job. It is simple – India or nothing.I have rarely missed a practice session. But that day I wanted to get away from all the hustle and bustle. I wanted a peaceful mind to chart out my future. I decided to call up the captain of my team and try to get to the bottom of the mess. Anil Kumble had been a friend and dear colleague for a long time.I asked him point-blank, did he think I was no longer an automatic choice in his eleven? Kumble – the gentleman that he has always been – seemed embarrassed with my call. He told me he hadn’t been consulted before the selection committee chaired by Dilip Vengsarkar took this decision.I believed him. I believed he had the courage to tell me honestly if he had been consulted. I had one more question for him. Did he still believe that his team wanted my services? I had been a captain for a long time and knew such a clarification was the best way forward.Kumble’s reply consoled me. He said if it came to him taking the call, he would pick me again for the upcoming Test match selection. I heaved a great sigh of relief. There was hope after all. I had two choices then. One, do nothing – sit back at home, watch TV and wait for the team selection. That would have been nerve-racking.MS Dhoni unofficially handed the captaincy to Sourav Ganguly, who was playing his last Test•AFPChoice number two. Go and play domestic cricket and convey a strong message to the selectors. Attitude is important. It is what separates the men from the boys. I was confident of my ability and knew if I was selected on the basis of my batting, no one could stop me. Around that time I could only think of one cricket tournament that was coming up, the JP Atrya Memorial Trophy in Chandigarh.I called M.P. Pandove, the lifeblood of the Punjab Cricket Association, to tell him I desperately needed a team to play. He was of immense help and quietly obliged me even though my request had come in at the last minute.I mean no disrespect to the tournament but most of you outside the northern cricketing belt have probably never heard of the JP Atrya Memorial Trophy. Even I knew of it only vaguely. But now things were different. In cricketing terminology the asking rate was climbing up and I urgently needed to respond. Look, no one has and no one will stay at the top forever. The more you condition your mind to the worst, the more you will feel ease at the top. I felt I needed to go and play. So I did. No ego. No negative thoughts. I just reacted to the situation.It was the seven toughest days of my cricketing career. After having played in more than 400 international games, I had to play a tournament where I did not even know any of the players. Although I had scored more than 18,000 international runs, the runs I had to score here felt as urgent to me as in any international Test match. These runs were talking to me from the inside. Telling me, you are still good enough, still capable of scoring runs anywhere. Your love has not deserted you. The love for the game.Alone in my Chandigarh hotel room, I thought to myself that this was truly surreal. Just three months ago at a glittering function in Karachi I was awarded a prize for being Asia’s best batsman. Due to my commitments I couldn’t make it to the ceremony. Dona had flown down to Karachi and accepted the award on my behalf. And here I was in this mess. It was like driving a Rolls-Royce one day and sleeping on the pavement the next.

In Mohali a journalist asked, ‘Did the hundred give you special pleasure because Greg Chappell was watching it from the Australian camp?’ I said, I had got past all that. For me he didn’t exist any more

I have had rejections, disappointments, tragedies all my cricketing life. I have been at the receiving end of truly vicious gossip. I have lost count of how often I have come back from the jaws of getting rejected. At times I felt my life resembled a roller coaster. As they say in Hindi, . It could have broken the spine of someone who was talented but emotionally weak. But I have always been a fighter. I have handled the bad news head-on, and embraced pressure as part of the package.I told myself that this too was an investment. My experience had taught me that I played best when I worked the hardest. So I continued to believe that my time would come. I knew I was a winner. Being a winner is about what happens in your head. And I had never lost the belief in myself. I looked at a cricket ground and believed it was mine. Looked at the pitch and believed we would win. Looked at the bat and told myself I would score runs. I woke up every morning to succeed.The Indian team for the first two Test matches of the Australian series was soon announced. I found my name in it. Simultaneously a Board President’s team was also announced. This was the secondary team that would take on the Australians in Chennai. The Board President’s XI is traditionally used to vet the potential of promising youngsters or assess veterans whose Test future is uncertain.I was included in it as well. These teams got picked by the new selection committee under Krishnamachari Srikkanth. But its mindset seemed to be no different from the previous committee’s. The message was crystal clear – that a veteran of 100-plus Test matches, a certain Sourav Ganguly, was again on trial.I felt extremely agitated. That is when I told my father that I needed to call it a day. Enough was enough. My father was a bit surprised. In the past when Greg Chappell had kept me out of the team and I was desperately fighting to claw my way back, he had wanted me to retire, unable to bear his son’s struggle.The bubbly is out and the celebrations begin•AFPThen I had resisted. I had told him, Bapi, you wait. I will be back. I still have cricket left in me. When I grow older I don’t want to sit on my sofa and tell myself, Sourav, you gave up when the going was tough. You should have tried harder. I wanted to catch the bull by its horns and win.So three years later when he heard the same person was throwing in the towel, he was surprised. I also told my wife and my mother but no one else. None of my friends had a clue. The story didn’t leak. Not even in the Kolkata media, which I was often accused of favouring.I of course had a chat with Anil before I reached Chennai. He told me, don’t decide anything in a hurry. Give it some time. I assured him I would. But deep down I knew my time was up. I made up my mind that I would give everything I had to be successful in this series.But I wouldn’t let anyone else decide my future any more. I wouldn’t go through the ordeal again. I had had enough! Yes, I was angry. After reaching Bengaluru I informed Kumble that my mind was made up and I would announce shortly.Cricketing history has recorded that I had an outstanding final series. Got a hundred in Mohali and narrowly missed the second in Nagpur. I was surprised at how good I was feeling. I saw the same attitude in Sachin when he played his last Test match at the Wankhede. His innings was one of the best I had seen him play towards the later stages of his career. I felt that no one could do me any harm any more. I could fly freely.In Mohali a journalist came and asked, ‘Did the hundred give you special pleasure because Greg Chappell was watching it from the Australian camp?’ I said, at this stage of my cricketing career it didn’t matter at all. I had got past all that. For me he didn’t exist any more.

The man the Indian selectors had kept on an indefinite trial did stand up to the Australian attack and walked away with a solid 85. I missed the coveted three-figure mark only by 15 runs but my friend Sachin lent an additional flavour to the party by getting a rock-solid hundred

I still remember the walk out to the pitch in my last Test. As I went out to bat, the Australian team under Ricky Ponting gave me a guard of honour as a sign of respect. It was very moving, and I felt very honoured by their gesture. But I knew, irrespective of the respect shown, the moment Brett Lee went back to his bowling mark, his first delivery would be aimed at my nose.That is always the reality in top-class sport. In the end all that matters is to win. The man the Indian selectors had kept on an indefinite trial did stand up to the Australian attack and walked away with a solid 85. I missed the coveted three-figure mark only by 15 runs but my friend Sachin lent an additional flavour to the party by getting a rock-solid hundred. What made the occasion happier was that we won the Test.I ended my final innings in Test cricket in a first-ball duck. Looking back I still feel it was a loose shot as I tried to play Jason Krejza against the turn. The bat had closed early and Krejza easily accepted a low return catch. I have no regrets. It was a bad shot and I paid the price. But I still regret missing the hundred. It was mine for the taking.As the match came to a close, Mahendra Singh Dhoni in a surprise gesture asked me to lead. I had rejected his offer earlier in the day, but could not refuse a second time. Ironically, my captaincy career had begun exactly eight years ago on this very day. I handled the bowling changes and field placements while the last Australian wicket batted. But I must admit, at that stage, I found it difficult to focus. So after three overs I handed it back to Dhoni saying, it is your job, MS. We both smiled.I was filled with mixed emotions. I felt extremely sad that the biggest love of my life was going away. On the other hand, I felt deeply satisfied that I had held my head high right till the end. I had competed with the best cricket team in the world in my final series and performed admirably. It proved that a certain Sourav Ganguly was still good enough.Juggernaut BooksAnil had retired a week before at the Kotla. The Vidarbha Cricket Association had organized a joint farewell reception for both of us. The entire board was present to hand over mementos to us. I asked Anil, are you ready to finish? He said he was.His answer consoled me. I felt if the captain of the team didn’t want to continue, my decision was right. Notwithstanding selectorial whims and fancies, I could not see anyone taking our places in the side. Yet he thought this was the right time to go.Once the felicitations finished, the party began. Members of the team had organized a night for us at the hotel. All of us really let our hair down. Some of us even went berserk. I have been around in Indian cricket for more than fifteen years and I have never experienced anything as warm, as wild and as fun as this party was.It was a night neither Anil nor I will forget. One’s fellow cricketers’ admiration counts a lot for a pro, however big he may be. I received a shirt from my teammates which was signed by all of them. It said, we will miss you. I was truly moved.And so it was all over. From 11 November 2008 Sourav Ganguly was a retired Test cricketer. I was also not part of the one-day team.I always knew that this day would arrive and I was extremely happy at what I had achieved. It was time to march on. Think of the magical moments I had experienced along the way and remind myself that it had been an extraordinary run. There really was nothing more I could have asked from life.A Century is Not Enough

As Australia vice-captain Alex Blackwell retires from international and state cricket, her team-mates and opponents – across countries – paid tributes on Twitter to the 34-year old’s path-breaking career

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Feb-2018Team-mate Ellyse Perry was among the first people to react to Alex Blackwell’s retirement on Twitter.

To echo many voices, congratulations @AlexBlackwell2 on an illustrious career. I will always be incredibly grateful for the way in which you and Kate Blackwell took me in as a young player. Something I witnessed you do for many, many others too! #thanksalex https://t.co/6eTRJdfsrk

— Ellyse Perry (@EllysePerry) February 19, 2018

Former England captain Charlotte Edwards congratulated her on a long career as well.

Congratulations @AlexBlackwell2 on an outstanding career, so so much to be proud of. You’re a true great of the game and always the ultimate professional. All the best for whatever is next 🙂

— Charlotte Edwards (@Lottie2323) February 19, 2018

Current Australia captain and NSW team-mate Rachael Haynes underlined Alex “Seal” Blackwell’s commitment to hard work.

I’m going to miss you Seal. The ultimate professional and that shone through with how she led. She left no stone unturned in her preparation and that of her team. Looking forward to sharing the field with you one last time as a @NSWBreakers #ThanksAlex https://t.co/j13OFQzpP0

— Rachael Haynes (@RachaelHaynes) February 19, 2018

Reactions on Blackwell’s retirement came from all over the world. The former Pakistan captain weighed in…

All the very best for your future @AlexBlackwell2. You have been a brilliant leader for Australia as well as for other cricketers. Thank you for always being so helpful and forthcoming to young cricketers from all over the world who wanted guidance in cricket. https://t.co/IPw57xDeYO

— Sana Mir (@mir_sana05) February 19, 2018

…And so did the Pakistan batsman Javeria Khan

A player so well- @AlexBlackwell2 !

Your service to the women cricket extends far beyond words. I am proud to have played and interacted with such a commendable, skilled, generous and approachable player like You. Farewell, my friend. You rule many hearts. Keep in touch. pic.twitter.com/y9D9PYEINm

— Javeria Khan (@ImJaveria) February 19, 2018

India’s Jhulan Goswami, too, was all praise for Blackwell.

Congratulations on a fantastic career @AlexBlackwell2. Fantastic cricketer for @SouthernStars, great human being. All the best for your future. Stay healthy, stay happy. #Alexblackwell

— Jhulan Goswami (@JhulanG10) February 19, 2018

Australia team-mate Jess Jonassen underlined how Blackwell has inspired many through her career.

It saddens me to hear the news of @AlexBlackwell2 retiring from the game. She is, and will continue to be a fantastic role model for a large number of people for her efforts both on and off the field.

All the best Alex, you are a true Aussie legend #ThanksAlex pic.twitter.com/KaXTlG9oVe

— Jessica Jonassen (@JJonassen21) February 19, 2018

As did Erin Osborne…

Congratulations Seal on an outstanding career. Am fortunate to have played for many years under your leadership @AlexBlackwell2 #ThanksAlex https://t.co/Iu47qbP8xE

— Erin Osborne (@eosborne67) February 19, 2018

Rene Farrell, too, followed suit

Congratulations @AlexBlackwell2 on an outstanding career. Absolutely gutted..but feel so privileged to have played alongside you. Fantastic captain, cricketer and an even better human…you will forever be a legend of the game.

— Rene Farrell (@Fezzy88Rene) February 19, 2018

England captain Heather Knight wished well for a ‘fierce competitor’ of hers.

Congrats @AlexBlackwell2 on a top career. Fierce competitor and the most annoying person to try and hit the ball past at extra cover #seal Happy retirement!

— Heather Knight (@Heatherknight55) February 19, 2018

One of Blackwell’s Trans-Tasman rivals wasn’t too far behind.

Congratulations @AlexBlackwell2 on an outstanding international career. It was a privilege to play alongside you and against you for so many years #ThanksAlex

— Suzie Bates (@SuzieWBates) February 19, 2018

Former England batsman Lydia Greenway lauded Blackwell’s off-field contribution as well.

What a career @AlexBlackwell2! A brilliant player, and always a fantastic competitor. You have done everyone who knows you extremely proud, on and off the pitch. Now for more off pitch fun! #favepic pic.twitter.com/7LttctKhTJ

— Lydia Greenway (@lydiagreenway) February 19, 2018

A young team-mate of Blackwell had a message for her fishing buddy.

Congratulations to @AlexBlackwell2 on your career! It’s been a privilege to play alongside you in the green & gold! The amount of achievements and milestones you have made throughout your career has been incredible & amazing to watch!

Going to miss my fishing buddy https://t.co/to7IeDTzMx

— Amanda wellington (@amandajadew) February 19, 2018

The Australia men’s captain joined in soon.

Congrats to @AlexBlackwell2 on a stellar cricketing career with Australia and NSW. I hope you enjoy retirement!

— Steve Smith (@stevesmith49) February 19, 2018

A word on Blackwell’s love of cricket, by Mel Jones

One amazing playing career! Great team mate, super passionate about game, record breaker, fighter, leader… congrats on a brilliant career for the @SouthernStars & @NSWBreakers @AlexBlackwell2 #ThanksAlex https://t.co/T05jeA8MjK

— Mel 'MJ' Jones (@meljones_33) February 19, 2018

Blackwell, however, will continue to play franchise cricket: as captain of Sydney Thunder in the Women’s Big Bash League.

The best of the stats from the second one-day international at the Gabba as Aaron Finch continues his fine form

Bharath Seervi19-Jan-20183 Instances of Australia losing the first two matches of a series at home. The previous instances were against New Zealand in 2008-09 and against Sri Lanka in 2010-11. Australia did not win either of those series.1-9 Australia’s win-loss record in their last 10 completed ODIs. Their only win in that period came against India in Bengaluru.1 Number of bigger successful chases against Australia at the Gabba than the 271 by England in this game. West Indies chased 282 in 1997, which is the highest. Australia had lost only once in their previous ten ODIs at the Gabba before this loss.83 Number of innings taken by Aaron Finch to score 10 centuries in ODIs – the least among Australia batsmen. He is the sixth Australia batsman to score 10 or more hundreds and the fastest among them. He edged past David Warner, who had reached the milestone in his 85th innings. Mark Waugh took 125 innings, Matthew Hayden 138, Ricky Ponting 149 and Adam Gilchrist 174.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 Batsmen to have completed 10 hundreds in fewer innings than Finch’s 83. The fastest is Quinton de Kock in just 55 innings followed by Hashim Amla in 57, Shikhar Dhawan 77 and Virat Kohli 80. Overall, Finch is the 50th batsman to score 10 or more centuries in ODIs.2 Players to have scored 10 ODI hundreds without playing Tests. Apart from Finch, who has played 87 ODIs and 33 T20Is, Ireland’s William Porterfield is the only other to have those many ODI centuries without playing in Tests. However, Ireland haven’t played any Test cricket yet and are set to make their debut this year.38.26 Finch’s career ODI average, which is by far the lowest among all players who have scored 10 or more centuries since his debut. Apart from him, 11 others have scored as many centuries and the lowest average among them is 45.85 by de Kock. In the last 10 years, among 16 batsmen with 10 or more centuries, only Mohammad Hafeez (37.64) has a poorer average than Finch.5 Centuries for Finch against England, in just 18 innings. He has only five hundreds against all other teams in 65 innings. He’s now alongside Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene on the list of most ODI hundreds against England.62-6 Australia’s score in the last 11 overs of the innings, after being 208 for 3 in 39 overs. They could score more than six runs in only in three of the last 11 overs and finished on 270 for 9.100 Wickets for Liam Plunkett in ODIs. He’s taken 64 ODIs to get there – the third-quickest among England bowlers after Darren Gough and Stuart Broad, both taking 62 matches each. Also, he’s taken just over 12 years to reach the milestone having made his debut December 2005. He has taken 55 wickets in 30 matches since June 2016, the most among England bowlers and third-most after Hasan Ali and Rashid Khan.5- Wickets by England spinners in the first innings – the joint-most by spinners in an ODI innings at the Gabba. The last time spinners did this at Gabba was back in 2006 by Sri Lanka’s and the only previous time spinners took five wickets in first innings was by South Africa in 1993-94.

Despite the blistering form of Jos Buttler, England were undone by a familiar inability to play high-quality wrist-spin

George Dobell at Old Trafford03-Jul-20182:14

Can England get better against legspin in two days?

Had the theme played around Old Trafford the moment Kuldeep Yadav was thrown the ball, the sense of foreboding could not have been more apparent.For England were confronted by an old and familiar foe in Manchester. A foe that has seemingly taunted and tamed them for as long as most of us can remember. A foe that, in various guises, has inflicted Ashes defeats, subcontinent whitewashes and global event exits. Even as recently as the Under-19 World Cup. Wrist-spin. Even the words are enough to have them throwing salt over shoulders and standing on one leg at Lord’s.This was the second T20I in succession between these sides in which an India wrist-spinner has claimed a five-for and defined the game. On the previous occasion, in Bangalore, it was the legspin of Yuzvendra Chahal that inflicted a collapse of eight wickets for eight runs upon England. This time it was the left-arm wrist-spin of Kuldeep who, within three minutes, dismissed the cream of England’s limited-over batting on the way to achieving the first five-for by a spinner in a T20I in England. Turning the ball both ways, varying his pace by more than 20 mph from one delivery to the next, and retaining his control either way, it was fine bowling, certainly.But if something keeps happening, it can’t be dismissed as an aberration.It wasn’t just the number of wickets taken by Kuldeep that was striking (though that was plenty alarming enough). It was the manner of them. To see England’s two best batsmen of the last couple of years, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, prodding hopefully at the ball, no idea which way it would turn, was to see men confronted by something they didn’t recognise or understand.To see Alex Hales – the man with three of the four highest scores made by England batsmen in T20Is – rendered strokeless (his 8 occupied 18 torturous deliveries) was painful. England had no answer to India’s spin attack. And this on a fresh, if dry, track that offered no undue assistance to the bowler.”It wasn’t a case of us chipping it up in the air,” Morgan said. “He completely deceived us. He took three wickets in four balls and deceived us. I thought he bowled well.”But we know we can play him better than that. We need to. Between now and the next game, we need to assess our plans, make sure they’re the right ones and stick with them.”Might it be relevant that none of the three men Kuldeep dismissed in the 14th over – Eoin Morgan, Bairstow and Root – had played in the IPL in the past year? It might be. Just as it might be relevant that Buttler, who excelled in the IPL, was the one man to pick him. Either way, it underlined the impression that England lack exposure to such bowling. They face little – or any – of it in their own domestic cricket and they play few games on surfaces that encourage it. Indeed, as the example of Somerset shows, counties are actively discouraged from preparing such pitches. It means that, when they are confronted by it, the results are usually ugly.”It’s like any challenge,” Morgan added. “If you’re facing a guy who bowls 95mph it’s very difficult to replicate. And if you’re facing a guy who turns it both ways and disguises it well, it’s very difficult to replicate because there is nobody else who bowls like that.”Jos Buttler clobbers one off the back foot•Getty ImagesIt is not an ideal time to learn, then, that the ECB have cancelled both their pace programme and spin placements due to budget cuts. While there is some doubt over how much benefit the pace programme provided – too many pace bowlers have sustained injuries for its loss to be mourned – the system of placing young spinners under the mentorship of experienced pros, such as Jeetan Patel in Wellington, or Stuart MacGill in Sydney, during the English winter had clear benefits. Choosing that as an area to cut costs – rather than the increasing sums spent on bureaucracy, legal fees and consultants – suggests, once again, that cricket isn’t always the priority at the ECB.There were some positives. England’s running between the wickets was excellent, their ground fielding was good – it is the one area where they might be better than India – and David Willey, with the bat in particular, seems to be growing in stature as an international player. He is the only man in the side with a better strike-rate than Buttler. And Buttler’s enduring form and flair provides hope of many better days ahead. Nobody has ever made seven half-centuries in eight T20 innings before. He is a class act.Meanwhile, up the road, Ben Stokes returned to cricket with some success. Opening the batting for Durham in a warm-up match ahead of the T20 Blast, he thrashed an unbeaten 85 from 45 balls against a North East Premier League XI containing several players with international experience. It was his bowling that was missed here, but any England side is stronger for Stokes’ inclusion and his return is not far away now.Most of all, this was a chance to learn. England might have been lulled into thinking they were a little better than they are by playing an Australia side lacking several of its best players. Here they were given a masterclass in T20 cricket and a reminder of how far they have to go in this format. If they can learn from some of India’s tactics – the excellent use of the wider ball, in particular – and incorporate them into their own game, this could be a valuable experience.That problem with quality spin remains, though. While England continue to fail to nurture the skill among their own bowlers, their batsmen will continue to be exposed to it at international level. In Test, ODI and T20I cricket.