Wriddhiman Saha might not have the charisma of India’s former Test keeper or the last star player from Bengal, but there’s no denying his solidity both behind and in front of the stumps

Sidharth Monga01-Oct-2016Five-day Tests might be under debate right now, but the last two times before this Test that two seasoned Bengal players played Eden Gardens Tests together five-day Tests weren’t yet the norm. In 1952-53, when Pankaj Roy and Kohkhan Sen played against Pakistan, there used to be four-day Tests in India. In 1969-70, when Ambar Roy and Subrata Guha played together, India were playing six-day Tests. Forty-seven years later, when Wriddhiman Saha and Mohammed Shami came to bat together, India were still some way from their desired total of 325-330. The two added 35 runs in entertaining fashion to take India to 316 and deflate New Zealand’s spirits, but this potentially match-sealing partnership between two Bengal players at the home of cricket in Bengal was witnessed by a disappointingly small Saturday crowd.There are reasons for the small turnout. This is festival season and end of the month both at the same time. Salaries are running out, and the newer ones are being saved for Puja shopping, when everyone must have at least new clothes. The two Bengal players don’t draw the same emotion from the locals those earlier ones did. Shami migrated to Bengal from Uttar Pradesh only after he was well into his development as a cricketer. Like many folk from UP and Bihar, he did so for employment. And Saha, to quote a local, is not “glamaraas” enough.We focussed on blocks of 10-15 runs – Saha

On his run-scoring approach
“The wicket was seaming a bit, so in those conditions if we didn’t play our shots and convert loose balls into boundaries, we might have reached only 260 at the maximum,” Wriddhiman Saha said. “So our effort was to convert loose balls into boundaries, so that we can get 280-plus and that went well for us.”
On his secret of batting with the tail
“There is no secret. The understanding we have among us is very good, and we are able to rotate the strike well. In our team, almost everyone plays his shots, so whether you get singles or boundaries, we end up having good partnerships.”
On his plan today
“We focussed on blocks of 10-15 runs and thought that the more we take it forward the better for us. We initially thought of getting to 270-280 and if all was going well to aim for 300-plus. That is what happened. There was a 40-odd run partnership with Jadeja and 30-odd with Shami.”

The biggest cheer during this Test so far has been for Sourav Ganguly, now the Cricket Association of Bengal president, as he spoke at a lunch-time discussion on day one. Saha can’t match the pull of the last Bengal superstar or the charisma of India’s last Test wicketkeeper, but the few that turned up saw their unglamorous wicketkeeper do a job for his team. He does the job by being inconspicuous behind the stumps, and with vital and timely contributions in front.When Saha came in to bat on day one, memories of Kanpur – when he had become part of a collapse that was arrested by Ravindra Jadeja in the end – would have been fresh. When Saha came out to bat here, India had lost three wickets for 13 runs. More importantly, these three wickets had fallen in the lead-up to the new ball becoming available. Trent Boult was ready. Matt Henry was ready. This was a pitch different from the one in Kanpur, where there was no bounce on offer for the quicks. Here there was bounce, some seam, and India were going at well under three an over. India needed to arrest this collapse badly because a score 220-230 in the first innings hardly puts any pressure on the team batting second. And the collapse had to be arrested without getting bogged down, because the new ball might do tricks and New Zealand could have gone flat out with just 10 overs to stumps.Saha attacked dextrously, hitting a six in the last over before the new ball. The shot was selected perfectly. He got one too full from Jeetan Patel and wristily lofted it over cow corner. In Kanpur Saha had been caught inside the line of a Boult delivery, but that didn’t put him off his game plan. Saha likes to stay beside the line of the ball and score through the off side. He did that to two Boult deliveries before stumps to end the day with 14 off 22.Still, having lost R Ashwin to a questionable umpiring call just before stumps, Saha had it all to do on the second morning against the new ball. He continued to bat enterprisingly, punishing errors, running hard, and then farming the strike with his Bengal team-mate, the last man Shami. Along the way, he wore one in approximately the same place as he did during his St Lucia hundred. Just like St Lucia he batted with a swollen forearm, but that clearly didn’t take away the punch from his shots.Towards the end Saha, in the company of Shami, had frustrated New Zealand enough to make them veer from their plans. He did so by playing out the first halves of overs, and then hitting boundaries when the field came up. One such was an inside-out beauty to clear long-off and bring up his fifty. As the dressing room applauded, he reacted – not with flashy celebrations, but a thumbs up. He had had a job, he had done it. But he shouldn’t always have to do so.The good news for the team is that the lower order is no longer a pushover. Since the start of the England tour of 2014, around the time this lower order came to its own, India’s last four wickets have averaged 23.16, behind only England and Australia. The bad news is, India’s top six wickets have averaged only 38.94 over this period, which is in the bottom half of the Test-playing nations. It shouldn’t always be Saha risking injuries to rescue India. It shouldn’t always be Ashwin showing the specialist batsmen how to defend. It shouldn’t always be Ravindra Jadeja wielding his bat like a sword. The lower order might be due a failure.

This is the first time India are officially visiting the USA, and the excitement among their local fans is tangible – even if match tickets are stiffly priced

Peter Della Penna in Lauderhill26-Aug-20162:13

Fans in the USA want to be a part of history in Florida

For the last decade, and probably longer, administrators in the United States of America have sung a familiar refrain to validate the country’s latent market potential, one that almost always traces back to every host nation’s most desirable suitor: “If India showed up and played team X here, it would be a sell-out.”This weekend is an opportunity to test that hypothesis. In a historic maiden official visit to American shores, India take on World T20 champions West Indies in two Twenty20 Internationals at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida.The BCCI’s online marketing machine has been on overdrive in the build-up to the weekend. #TeamIndiaInUSA has been used to generate online buzz from several high-profile athletes. Among them are New York Mets All-Star pitcher Noah Syndergaard, Demaryius Thomas, wide receiver of Denver Broncos, the Pro-Bowl Super Bowl champion, and a host of UFC fighting superstars. The illusion is as though cricket is making a major crossover into the American mainstream.However, this isn’t necessarily the first Indian touring side to go to America.Sunil Gavaskar played exhibition matches regularly in the 1970s and ’80s with an India XI, mostly at makeshift venues. As recently as 1999, an India A side played five 50-over matches against Australia A in Los Angeles. The sides were captained by VVS Laxman and Adam Gilchrist, with the India line-up also featuring Harbhajan Singh. Television footage that survives show an uninspiring brand of cricket played out on under-prepared pitches in front of mostly empty stands.What makes this visit unique and historic is that it’s the first full-strength BCCI sponsored side sent to America, for a series that wasn’t on the cricket calendar until a month ago. The haste with which these matches have been arranged has been matched by a seemingly insatiable demand due to the scarcity of the product.Capacity for the venue was capped at 15,000, and the delay in launching ticket sales managed to make Indian fans’ appetites more ravenous. Unprecedented traffic on the official ticket-seller’s website forced a crash, only for them to restore service a day later, but that hasn’t dimmed the excitement.The tickets, however, come at some price. VIP seats have been priced at USD 250, just 25 more than the commensurate rate for the Caribbean Premier League, but basic uncovered bleacher mound tickets have been set at USD 100. Chair-back seats in the covered grandstand have been priced at USD 150, five times what that section was priced at for the CPL last month. It’s a hefty but justifiable price many fans will pay to take in the day, going by the demand.”I didn’t even think about it,” said Vishal Ghadia, an Indian expat from Ahmedabad who has been living in Fort Lauderdale for the last 16 years. “This is the first time India is coming here, first time ever. I’m going to tell my grandkids I was here when India first played in USA.”Ghadia and four of his Ahmedabad-origin friends have grandstand tickets for both days. Despite living locally, all of them booked rooms at the same hotel where the India and West Indies teams are staying, just to get a glimpse of and a selfie with the players. They readily acknowledge their passion comes at a price, and insist they would have paid up to USD 500 per day for the weekend. Whether they are the exception or the rule remains to be seen, but the mini-circus scenes that have played out with eager fans in the teams’ hotel lobby and the broader build-up to the event seem to suggest the latter.

Nathan Lyon came close to being discarded for the Adelaide Test. Given the opportunity, he banked on scoreboard pressure and his variations in pace and spin to pin South Africa down

Daniel Brettig in Adelaide26-Nov-2016Nathan Lyon collected his baggy green cap from the umpire in mid-afternoon with figures of 0 for 27 from five overs and a glum look on his face. His most recent six balls had been taken for 10 runs by Hashim Amla, and it was no surprise when the captain Steven Smith chose to remove him from the attack.Watching on from the outfield as the pacemen were rotated, Lyon must have pondered his situation. He had broken a lengthy wicket drought in the first innings, but the thought of a single victim in the course of five first-class innings can only have been the slightest consolation. A career tally of 214 Test wickets offered more robust reason for self-belief, but increasingly Lyon has seemed alone in keeping the faith. He is the team’s most experienced player, and custodian of the team song. But somehow, unfairly, he had seemingly become expendable.How close did he come to being dropped for this match entirely? About as close as it is possible. Steve O’Keefe, Lyon’s New South Wales team-mate, would almost certainly have been chosen in his stead if not for the recurrence of a calf problem during the Sheffield Shield round played between Hobart and Adelaide. On local radio, the coach Darren Lehmann said as much: “Lyon was in because we couldn’t select O’Keefe, he was injured beforehand.”Having made it narrowly to Adelaide, much of the talk leading into the match surrounded how Lyon could find himself making way for a fourth seamer in either Jackson Bird or Chadd Sayers. All despite Lyon’s own fine record in Adelaide, and the absence of an allrounder making it vital to have someone capable of long spells. At a ceremony to name the players’ viewing area after the loveable Barry “Nugget” Rees, Lyon prompted the guest of honour to nominate him as a favourite player. Laughs were had, of course, but Lyon was certainly in need of some love.So close to being discarded despite being Australia’s most prolific-ever offspinner, Lyon had to be pondering whether this still Adelaide night would be among his last in the national team. He has a captain in Steven Smith who does not share his predecessor Michael Clarke’s dynamism when dealing with spin bowlers, and a coaching staff that oddly does not feature a full-time spin minder – South Africa’s spinners have Claude Henderson on tour.It is true that Lyon has been able to spend time this week with John Davison, his longtime mentor and trusted confidante. That has undoubtedly helped his technique, flight, shape and spin. “It hasn’t been an emergency call,” Lyon said. “Davo’s been planning before the summer to come down to Adelaide. It’s been great to have him around, he’s someone I trust very highly and work great with him.”He’s one guy who is very handy to have in my corner. There’s a bit of that [reassurance], but Davo also challenges me to try to get better and better each and every training session that we go into. He’s just someone I can go to and say ‘What do you think about this, this and this?’ and he’ll come back and say agree or disagree and we can have a conversation.”But he still needed to find a way to get himself into the game. After a brief flirtation with David Warner’s medium pace after tea, Smith handed the ball back to Lyon. The dismissal of Amla in the interim helped Lyon, giving him a left-hander to size up in JP Duminy.The following spell brought gradual improvement from Lyon, as he worked with variations in pace and spin. A major factor in the way he was able to get into the spell was a different level of pressure from the scoreboard, after Australia’s batsmen finally produced something of substance after five matches of failures.Nathan Lyon was masterful against the nightwatchman Kyle Abbott, his efforts culminating in an lbw dismissal•Cricket Australia/Getty Images”It’s always handy to have some runs on the board, and it’s up there with the best innings by a nightwatchman that I’ve seen, so hats off to Usman,” Lyon said. “It’s been an exciting feel this week with a couple of debutants, we want to come out buzzing and prove to Australia that cricket’s in good hands.”I didn’t feel under pressure to be honest. I know on the scorecards there’s been no wickets in the columns but I feel like I’ve been bowling really well and being able to create chances. I haven’t been feeling under pressure that much to be honest. I look at this as a young, exciting team and I’ve played 60 Test matches now and I’ve got a massive role in this team.”It’s not about being different it’s about being there in a supporting role, taking a few of the younger guys under your wing and supporting them. I know how hard it is to play Test match cricket, and if someone in the team can lend that support on and off the field it’s crucial. I know Mike Hussey was my mentor when I first came in, so if I can play my role with the young guys coming in I’m more than happy to do that.”The role to Duminy was to open up an end so that Smith could return to attacking with his pacemen under the Adelaide floodlight. A straighter, quicker delivery that skidded off the pitch did just that, beating Duminy’s absent-minded flick across the line and knocking out off stump. Lyon’s auxiliary role at this point was underlined when Smith withdrew him an over later to try tandem pace to Faf du Plessis, a decision rewarded with a sliced drive off Mitchell Starc and a tremendous catch by Pete Handscomb in the gully.As stumps crept nearer, Smith returned the ball to Lyon’s hands for a critical period. Temba Bavuma and Stephen Cook had the chance to forge through to the close and keep the dangerous Quinton de Kock safe from harm. But Bavuma’s innings had grown skittish under pressure, from Starc in particular, and Lyon was able to exploit this by coaxing out a sweep, a top edge and a catch for Smith. Bavuma reviewed, somewhat oddly, but the HotSpot was clear.This whole sequence showed how match circumstances, a hint of good fortune and a supportive Adelaide crowd make as much of a difference to Lyon as anything from the ball or the pitch. Against the nightwatchman Kyle Abbott he was masterful, working a tall man over with spin and bounce, before straightening one ideally for an lbw verdict.De Kock was left to face the final few balls of the night, and for the first time all series it was Lyon who held the whip-hand. As the ball bit and spun past a groping bat, the crowd transfixed by the moment, it seemed difficult to imagine an Australian team without Lyon in it, when hours before the opposite felt true. How quickly things can change.

Australia took the extra half hour, much after the scheduled close, in anticipation of a win. But at the end of an everlasting gobsmacker of a day, Pakistan dared to dream

Brydon Coverdale in Brisbane18-Dec-2016When this day began, stumps was meant to be 8pm.Then it rained, and an hour was added to make up the overs. Stumps was meant to be 9pm.Then Australia failed to get through their overs, so an extra half hour was added. Stumps was meant to be 9.30pm.Then Steven Smith thought ‘I reckon we can win this tonight’ – Australia needed three wickets for victory. So he asked the umpires for the extra half hour. Stumps was meant to be 10pm.But the wording of the ICC’s playing conditions is such that the extra time allowed to achieve a result is “30 minutes (a minimum of eight overs)”. Australia failed to bowl their extra eight overs within half an hour.And so, stumps was finally called at 10.09pm.Australia had not won. Not just that, they also allowed the match to reach a stage from where Pakistan could dream of victory. That was as unthinkable at the start of this day as the idea of Test cricket at 10pm would have been to WG Grace.Nothing in the preceding 150 minutes suggested an extra half hour was warranted. In the previous 27 overs, Australia had claimed just a solitary wicket, and Pakistan had added 111 runs. A chance had been let off when Smith put down a catch at slip, and the momentum was with Pakistan.Not even Australia’s coaches wanted the extra time taken: they would have preferred their fast bowlers to rest, rejuvenate, and return fresh on day five. It was, assistant coach David Saker said, “a bit frustrating”.When extra half hour was granted, a cynic in the press box suggested that the umpires wanted a day on the golf course on Monday. It was meant as a joke, but later Ian Gould was seen at square leg practising his golf swing.The umpires had granted the time, but Smith must have asked for it. The wording of the ICC’s playing condition 16.2 is that extra time may be granted “if requested by either captain” and if “in the umpires’ opinion, it would bring about a definite result”.A definite result.Smith thought Australia would win. Not win. win. The umpires thought Australia win.Pakistan disagreed. Pakistan had fought tooth and nail throughout this day. Pakistan had earned respect. No objective observer would have viewed the situation at 9.30pm and said that a result would be achieved with eight more overs.So Pakistan said “f*** you”. Metaphorically, of course.Wahab Riaz helped Pakistan score at more than a run a ball in the extra eight overs bowled•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesWahab smashed Nathan Lyon through square leg for four, and next ball slogged a six over long-on. In Lyon’s next over he deposited him over midwicket for six more.Asad Shafiq, the well-set batsman on 77 when the extra time was granted, used it not block out the day’s play, but to move calmly to his ninth Test century at No.6, breaking the all-time record held by Garry Sobers.Only in the eighth over of the eight overs of extra time did Australia finally take a wicket, when Smith held a chance at slip off Jackson Bird to remove Wahab for 30.But Pakistan scored 51 runs in the extra eight overs. That, for the mathematically challenged, is more than a run a ball. Pakistan started that period needing 159 more runs to win, with three wickets in hand. They ended it needing 108 more to win, with two wickets in hand.Make no mistake, with Shafiq at the crease, this result is far from a certainty.To win, Pakistan need a total of 490, which would smash the previous record for the highest successful run chase in Test history. But already they have equalled their highest fourth-innings score in all of Test cricket. Pakistan have always been unpredictable, and therefore dangerous.They walked off at the eventual stumps time – 129 minutes later than the originally scheduled stumps time – with hope.The amazing, ballooning final session had finally ended. This everlasting gobsmacker of a day – eight hours and nine minutes from first ball to last – had given Pakistan a chance.Only 4890 fans turned up on the fourth day, a Sunday, a flaccid figure after the huge crowds of the first three days. Entry is free on day five. Perhaps Australia will take only two balls to wrap up a win. But remember this: at Edgbaston, in 2005, the last day opened with Australia needing 107 runs and England two wickets. Here, Pakistan need 108 runs and Australia two wickets.One thing is certain: day five will bring a result. But which result is anyone’s guess.

Karun Nair showed little stress during his epic knock against England, and celebrated his triple without a trace of flash. Here’s why

Sidharth Monga in Chennai19-Dec-2016In the 188th over of India’s innings, Ravindra Jadeja cut Moeen Ali slightly wide of deep point. Karun Nair had batted the whole day in the Chennai heat and humidity with all his armour on. He had added 223 to his overnight 71 in close to six hours on his second day of batting. He had run 146 of his 294 runs until then. He was visibly struggling running his runs, walking some of them. On some occasions he sprinted for the first, but would stop dead as soon as he realised the second was not available. Towels, gloves and fluids were being sent out.When Jadeja hit that ball into the gap, Nair ran just as hard for Jadeja’s runs as he did for his own, and initiated the second, and somehow stumbled into his crease. The declaration was perhaps delayed because of his proximity to the landmark, but Nair was not making any distinction between his runs and the team’s.About nine overs earlier, during the drinks break, the big screen at the ground began to show the highlights of Virender Sehwag’s triple-century at the same venue eight years ago. The similarities were unmistakable: weather-affected Test, consequently a flat pitch, big score by the visiting team after winning the toss, and then a triple-century in response. You could see Nair was watching it even as Ben Stokes ran in. You wondered if that was when the thought struck him. Or if that was when he started feeling he was on to something beyond just special: a debut hundred turned into a triple-century. Like Sehwag, he could become now the fifth man to bring up his hundred, double-hundred and triple-hundred all on the same day.His opponents didn’t forget to congratulate the young man on his monumental achievement•AFPNair, though, is a level-headed man. He didn’t let such thoughts get into his head. If they did, he got rid of them quickly. “I think it never took place in my mind,” Nair said of the thought of scoring the triple. “After I crossed 250, the team management had certain plans of going after the bowling and declaring. So I think within the space of five overs I got to 280-285, that’s when I started thinking and Jaddu [Jadeja] kept egging me on to not throw it away and get to 300 easily.”Like KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, Nair too didn’t visibly have to change gears although his pace went up dramatically. The three hundreds came off 185, 121 and 75 balls. The last fifty took just 33 deliveries. Yet, apart from the flat-bat pull over mid-on, you couldn’t pick a shot a traditional Test fan should scoff at.”I think after reaching hundred the pressure is off,” Nair said. “You just go out there and play the shots that you can and you just look to hit the gaps. Once you cross 150, it is just playing freely like how you always do and just expressing yourself.”My game doesn’t change much. It’s just the mental approach that changes. In Test matches, obviously you have a lot more time to get settled and play big. I think the approach doesn’t change at all. I don’t play any different shots in any other format. I just play the same way.”Over 27% of Nair’s runs against the spinners came off the sweep or a variation of the sweep•Associated PressIt helped that Nair swept and reverse-swept the England spinners to distraction. Fifty-three of his runs – out of 195 against spin – came through the various varieties of the sweep. “I have played the sweep shot almost all my life,” Nair said. “You do have to practice a lot. You have to work hard at it. It is my go-to shot whenever I need some boundaries. If the gaps are open for it, I go for it.”Like his India A and Rajasthan Royals coach, and a great from his state of Karnataka, Rahul Dravid, Nair internalises his emotions. With his parents watching – his mother for the first time because she feared she was an unlucky charm – this would have been quite an emotional moment for him. Yet what you saw was arguably the most subdued celebrations on reaching a triple-hundred.”There are a lot of things that go in my head that I want to do, but at that moment it just doesn’t come out,” Nair said. “I think I will just have to get more hundreds for me to show emotion.”Until then where does he show emotion? “There is always the shower to do all these things.”

The story of a Pakistan collapse isn’t new. But this one saw them getting hit on helmets, struggling under lights, and they didn’t lose their heads, they gave them away

Jarrod Kimber at the Gabba16-Dec-2016Matthew Wade almost loses his head. While Sami Aslam might not have had a problem with Mitchell Starc’s fourth ball of the innings, as it is full and wide down the leg side, when it goes past the batsman it flies up at Wade’s head, swinging back at him. There is no actual danger to Aslam, but it is inferred, and this was not going to be like facing the Pakistan attack. Starc showed more menace in a rubbish ball than Pakistan had mustered for most of their first day. The Pakistan bowlers bowled well on day two but compared to them, Starc looks like a sexual tyrannosaurus – a furious beast.

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Josh Hazlewood gets straight and short, Aslam turns his head and lets it hit him in the helmet. Hazlewood asks if he is ok, Aslam waves him away. Aslam does not take the helmet off, or even seem overly worried by the substantial hit; it’s either manly stupidity or he’s in a bit of shock. His face, that solid chunk of granite that rarely changes and makes him look a decade older, seems to say, “I ain’t got time to bleed”.  It is the umpires who come in to check on him, make him check his helmet, but still, he bats on. A few overs later he sweeps one into his helmet off Nathan Lyon. Much like Pakistan, he is under attack from outside and within.

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Somehow, in the minute it takes Younis Khan to make it out to the middle, it suddenly feels much, much darker. The man who was born before day-night internationals started, who is walking out confidently for his 202nd Test innings, is now coming out to face under lights, against a pink ball, just as the Australian bowlers smell blood. For a man who has seen everything in a 16-year career, this is different, this is dangerous, this is brief.

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Misbah-ul-Haq tries a forward defence, a shot he was playing long before Hazlewood was born, and this time it hits his pad before he is even ready to play the shot. He laughs, not because he is happy, but at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. Misbah is more pragmatist than others, and when life is like this, others might get concerned, but he laughs. The next over he is hit on the gloves by Bird by a ball that he cannot get away from. Soon after he will be prodding at a ball outside off stump that he would have been just as close to if they turned the lights off. Aslam gets hit in the head again, and again he shrugs it off in just as silly a way as he keeps playing the short ball. Like he is telling Australia to keep coming at him, old painless is waiting.

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Jackson Bird induced outside edges, strangled Sami Aslam down the leg side and threw in a few bouncers•Getty ImagesThe team 50 is brought up by Asad Shafiq off his first ball, on the last ball of the 27th over. It is not a landmark you usually notice, the first 50 runs, but this one seems like the only one Pakistan will see today, this innings, and if you are a true pessimist (read Pakistan fan) this game. Starc looked dangerous in the nice light, bowling friendly balls down leg, now Pakistan seemed to be hoping he missed them and their edges. But Aslam keeps plugging on. He has faced 89 of the 162 deliveries; he has 12 runs, three hits to the head, and he has dug in deeper than an Alabama tick.

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Aslam greets Sarfraz Ahmed to Pakistan’s world of hurt; Sarfraz is too busy to notice. Straight away he is not edging to slip, but getting an eager leading edge off through the covers, and scampering through. Aslam is not one who scampers, he is like a small tense ball of muscle that has out-batted his entire top order, and is more interested in surviving than runs. He shuffles across the line of his stumps to protect his wicket so much he has not seen how far he has gone, and instead of protecting his wicket, he accidentally gives it away. After all the pain, the fight, the trouble, he loses his wicket to a leg-side strangle.

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Bird bowls a bouncer to Wahab Riaz; it is outside off and safe, but Wahab can’t see that as he closes his eyes, ducks his head and backs off for square leg. By the time he stops moving backwards, it takes him six steps to get back to the crease.

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The scoreboard, so surprised at the quick nature of the wickets, still has Pakistan at six wickets down. It is the only respite Pakistan get. Even Lyon coming on to bowl feels intense, as the crowd cheers each ball like it’s a hat-trick ball.Pakistan make it to the end of the day only eight wickets down. Only. Sarfraz plays his typical innings, of complete and utter disregard for the conditions, the situation and life in general, Mohammad Amir stays with him.The rest of the Pakistan batsmen sit around and think of how they just got completely smashed by Australia. And how, that despite the hits on the head, the balls flying through, and the darkness, they lost their wickets mostly through a series of limp pushes at length balls. It was tough out there, but Pakistan were not. They didn’t lose their heads, they gave them away.

Even though the pitches at the MCA Stadium in Pune have usually been flat or have assisted seamers, preparing a rank turner for its Test debut meant there was an accident waiting to happen

Sidharth Monga26-Feb-2017The first Test in Pune must have been a near déjà vu for Cheteshwar Pujara. Exactly a year to this day, he was part of a mauling with his side bowled out for 235 and 115 in a three-day innings defeat at the same ground in Pune. Pujara scored 4 and 27 then, and 6 and 31 this time. Except in that whole match, the Ranji Trophy final between Mumbai and Saurashtra, only five overs of spin was bowled. There is a reason to it: the MCA Stadium in Pune has one of the flattest pitches in India and the only way to get results in four-day matches here is through seam and not spin.The Pune pitch in numbers

Overall – 19 matches
Pace – 401 wickets, ave – 32.24, ER – 2.99, SR – 64.6, 11 five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul
Spin – 90 wickets, ave – 63.01, ER – 3.44, SR – 109.5, one five-wicket haul
Outright results – nine matches
Pace – 250 wickets, ave – 28.16, ER – 3.10, SR – 54.4, 10 five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul
Spin – 28 wickets, ave – 58.50, ER – 3.58, SR – 97.9, 0 five-wicket hauls
Draws – 10 matches
Pace – 151 wickets, ave – 38.98, ER – 2.86, SR – 81.5, one five-wicket haul
Spin – 62 wickets, ave – 65.04, ER – 3.39, SR – 114.8, one five-wicket haul
For winning teams – nine matches
Pace – 160 wickets, ave – 21.81, ER – 2.76, SR 47.3, eight five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul
Spin – 18 wickets, ave – 45.33, ER – 3.02, SR – 89.9, 0 five-wicket hauls

The Ranji final last year was one of those matches. Otherwise fast bowlers do twice as well as spinners in first-class cricket here. Not counting the Pune Test, they average 32 against spinners’ 63. In outright results, the fast bowlers’ average drops to 28 as against 59 for spinners. In drawn matches, the quicks fare worse than the overall where the spinners’ average remains somewhat similar.Every square has core characteristics, and Pune’s is carry. The curator Pandurang Salgaoncar, former Maharashtra tearaway, wears the bounce as a badge of honour. Yet Pune’s Test debut was played out on an extreme turner that resulted in ignominy for India: a three-day defeat by 333 runs, 12 wickets to unheralded spinner Steve O’Keefe and a match total of 212, their lowest for two all-out innings in India.This was an accident waiting to happen. Ravi Shastri, former director of the Indian team, has said on air, in his role as commentator now, that he had asked for the pitches India laid out for South Africa in Mohali and Nagpur. Both were three-day wins for India, but in both those Tests India won the toss. Such pitches stay okay for about a session, and they get progressively worse. India’s score of 107 in the second innings in Pune was about par for such pitches. That makes winning the toss crucial, which can’t be good news for the No. 1 side in the world who have the superior skill in normal Indian conditions.The other thing such pitches do is level the playing field for spinners. A spinner like O’Keefe, who is not the most threatening bowler on good pitches, can become as unplayable as Ravindra Jadeja through proper tactics and application. Most importantly, unlike South Africa, Australia came prepared for exactly this. They spent hours in Dubai playing the line of the ball, training their mind to not worry when beaten and their hands to not follow when a ball turns big. They batted without the front pad on, making sure they trained themselves to play with the bat and avoid the lbw to the unpredictable straight bat.India were out-strategised. Their spinners kept bowling the traditional spinner’s lengths, and their batsmen played the old-fashioned way in the second innings when you needed street-smarts to master such tracks, the way Steven Smith did. Apart from Kanpur, the first Test of this season, India have played the whole season on pitches that turned out to be traditional Indian tracks. There was one that helped the New Zealand seamers, in Kolkata. Yet India had stayed unbeaten in a long home season by the time Australia came calling. They came prepared for conditions that were part lottery, and lottery they got.The only question that remains is: did Salgaoncar go too far in ensuring home advantage or whether this was exactly what India had asked for. These pitches don’t show up out of the blue, especially when the opposition lost the series in Sri Lanka on rank turners. Let’s look at the preparation first. In the week leading up to the Test, Dhiraj Parsana, zonal head of the BCCI Ground and Pitches Committee, joined Salgaoncar. Two days before the Test, Daljit Singh, the chairman of the Pitches Committee, landed up.India scored only 212 runs in the first Test in Pune•AFPESPNcricinfo has learnt from sources that over the four days leading upto the Test, the pitch got only about half the water it gets before a usual first-class match. Brushes were used to remove the grass and rough the pitch up. Only 2mm grass was left. Information of highs of 37 degrees over the week was readily available on every weather forecast site.The curators are now not accessible. Salgaoncar was not at the ground the day after the Test, and refused to meet at his residence in Pune. Daljit is back in Chandigarh, but calling his phone drew no response.ESPNcricinfo understands that given the nature of the soil, a mix of two different black clays, the pitch needed some grass to hold it together in such heat. That it was too big a risk to leave it as dry as it was left. The curators had relayed this information to those in power, but were overruled and were asked to give in to the team’s demands conveyed to them through the BCCI top brass.While experts called this a lottery pitch – Harabhajan Singh refused to even call it a pitch – and while Australia called this a pitch unlike any other they had played on, India’s captain and coach didn’t find much wrong with it.When asked if there had been any demands made by the team, Virat Kohli said at the press conference: “I don’t know. I didn’t speak to anyone.”About the nature of the pitch, Kohli said: “I don’t think it was any different from the turners that we played in the past. We just didn’t play good cricket. You can ask me any sort of questions or any perception about the loss. We know exactly what happened, the mistakes that we made. External perceptions don’t matter to us; they have never mattered to us.”The chances of India losing the Pune Test, though, had increased well before any cricket was played.

Meg and Anna Lanning talk about backyard cricket, their idols growing up, and how the women’s game has grown

Brittany Mitchell24-Feb-2017Meg Lanning is considered the best female cricketer in history, she captains the national team and has just won a third Belinda Clark Medal – the highest honour in Australian women’s cricket. It would be easy for such a talented athlete to believe her own hype, but Meg Lanning’s younger sister Anna makes sure to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground.Meg made her Australian ODI debut in 2011, at 19, and her Test debut in 2013, since when she has developed into one of the most recognisable players in world cricket, but Anna Lanning says “she’s pretty humble herself, she doesn’t really like the limelight, and I think that shows in her cricket and everything like that”.”She’s obviously done really well for herself and I don’t think that anyone else could lead the country better,” Anna, herself a player with Victoria in the Women’s National Cricket League and Melbourne Stars in the Women’s Big Bash League, tells ESPN.Growing up as typical Aussie children, Meg and Anna each got their taste of cricket in the backyard; Anna has been following in her older sister’s footsteps ever since Meg first picked up a cricket ball.”I probably started playing competitively first, we played a lot in the backyard early on,” Meg tells ESPN. “I played in some regional teams in Sydney where we grew up, and I think Anna came along and watched and sort of saw how much fun it was and how much we enjoyed it. So that’s where it sort of started I guess.”

“Brett Lee was my hero when I was a bowler”Anna Lanning

There were definitely more than a few smashed windows, but it was in the backyard that Meg and Anna chose their respective disciplines of batting and bowling.”Sometimes there was brothers and an older sister as well as five of us who would join in and play [in the backyard],” Meg says. “We were all very active and wanted to play to run around as much as we could, so we just loved playing any sport and cricket was one we enjoyed at the start and continued on with.”I actually started my career as a bowler, as hard as that is to believe now given how we’ve come out, but we’d take turns. I certainly loved batting growing up; that was the real thing I enjoyed so we had some good contests, that’s for sure.”Women’s cricket was not televised while they were younger so the Lanning sisters grew up worshipping the work of many of the Australian men’s players; Meg spent years mirroring her game on that of five-time Allan Border Medal winner Ricky Ponting, and her third Belinda Clark Medal saw her move one step closer to her idol. Now, however, she herself is the inspiration for young female aspiring cricketers.Having grown up competing in the backyard, Meg and Anna now play together for Melbourne Stars in the WBBL•Cricket Australia/Getty Images”I supposed I did watch a lot of men’s cricket and Ricky Ponting was my hero growing up,” Meg Lanning tells ESPN.”I guess now the great thing is that the young girls coming through can watch their heroes and female cricketers on TV rather than it being just men’s players; I think that’s the best thing about the WBBL.”It showcases the best women’s players in the country and around the world, and really shows young girls coming through what the pathway is.”Anna, meanwhile, was happy to emulate her favourite player, Brett Lee. Even attempting his famous lengthy run-up in the backyard.”Hit the nail on the head there, Brett Lee was my hero when I was a bowler,” she says. “Like Meg said, it’s great to see now that young girls can watch their female heroes on TV in whatever sport that may be [AFL, cricket, netball].”Up in Sydney we had, it was just concrete, basically just the size of a cricket pitch, so it was a bit hard to get the full-on run-up there. It taught us to play straight because it was just windows across the house, so if you hit anything square, mum wouldn’t be happy.”

“Everyone in our family is very competitive and enjoys sport so that was just what we grew up on”Meg, on the sporty culture in the Lanning family

A family of five children, Meg and Anna sometimes had their siblings out in the backyard playing alongside them; but it’s been their family support – and competitiveness – that has truly helped them rise throughout the cricketing world.”They’ve been great supporters of us, they were quite competitive at sport growing up so they sort of know what it’s all about,” Meg says.”Our family has been great supporters of both of us; that certainly makes it a lot easier in being able to go out there and enjoy yourself knowing everyone is behind you off the field. It’s nice to have that I guess, and sport’s in the family so they enjoy it as well.”I mean they did a lot of sport. Lots of swimming, and me and Anna would often go to their training and play other sports while we waited for them to finish. That sort of helped drive our love for sport early on; everyone in our family is very competitive and enjoys sport so that was just what we grew up on. “Meg Lanning: “I’ve had to learn on the run a bit, but I think that’s really helped me […] I’ve really enjoyed captaining so far”•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesNamed Australian captain at just 21 years old, Meg Lanning had to learn on her feet when it came to taking on the leadership role.”It wasn’t something I’d given a lot of thought to when I took over. I’d only just sort of got the vice-captaincy and Jodie Fields got injured so I had to step in pretty quickly; that in a way kind of helped me because I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to it or about my style of leadership.”I’ve had to sort of learn on the run a bit, but I think that’s really helped me and every day is different on the field and off the field … there is always a lot to learn. I’ve really enjoyed captaining so far.”Anna’s journey hasn’t seen her in the green and gold uniform yet, but the 22-year-old made sure to step out from behind big sister’s shadow by travelling to England to further her cricket education.”It was cool,” she says. “I was away for five months … the first time I’ve been away from home for that long. So it was just an amazing life experience and to play some cricket against some really good English players was awesome for my cricket.”

Thilanga Sumathipala’s board has done as much for Sri Lanka’s cricket as any other, but the chairman’s desperation for the limelight does them no favours

Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Apr-2017Five men stand in front of the sponsors’ backdrop at the presentation that follows Sri Lanka’s T20 win over Bangladesh.Four of them are holding cheques; the man who holds nothing is Thilanga Sumathipala, SLC president and unelected deputy speaker of the House. He stands closest to the presenter. His presence seems gratuitous at first.When proceedings begin, however, it becomes clear that the camera is smitten with Sumathipala and that he is smitten with it. When Kusal Perera comes up to be interviewed about his Player-of-the-Match performance, there Sumathipala is, looking paternally over the player’s shoulder, grinning benevolently. While other awards are being handed out, the camera may stray, but as if bound by fate, always has a way of finding its way back to Sumathipala, to capture his coy smirks and his firm handshakes.It is tempting to wonder if Sumathipala is just presentation eye candy, because he is the fifth man and there are only four awards to be handed out. Is he like the placard-wielding model at a boxing match? The sex scene in an episode of ?

In 16 months in office so far, Sumathipala has pursued publicity with unmitigated desperation – fronting up to every camera in his vicinity, schmoozing every journalist who has made his acquaintance

But no, it seems – he does, in fact, have a purpose here. To him goes the honour of bringing the presentation to its climax. When it comes time for Sri Lanka’s captain to receive his winners’ cheque, an unusual announcement is made by the presenter: “You can collect the $2000 cheque from Mr Sumathipala, who will receive it from Mr Arosha Athukorala.”If Athukorala feels miffed here, he can at least take some satisfaction in having broken new ground: in the fabled history of South Asian cricket presentations, no man, perhaps, has previously stood at a presentation merely to present a winners’ cheque to the eventual presenter of the cheque.The whole shenanigan was peak Sumathipala. This had been a fortnight in which SLC was endlessly besieged, following the Test loss to Bangladesh, and a tied ODI series. So why not seize on the chance to have your face beamed across the nation immediately after a clinical win? Why not milk this winning performance from Perera – a player Sumathipala had played a substantial role in rescuing from doping allegations last year?In fact, in 16 months in office so far, Sumathipala has pursued publicity with unmitigated desperation – bouncing up to every camera in his vicinity, schmoozing every journalist who has made his acquaintance. A relentless carousel of PR stunts has been his term: if there is a media dinner this month, there will be a pre-series song-and-dance tamasha the next; if there is a high-flying hour-long press conference this week, a charity dinner or a grandiose tournament announcement is perpetually around the corner.Sumathipala (right) chats with chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya. Some suspect that Sumathipala is using SLC as a tool to further his political goals•AFPAll that effort, and yet, for what? What does Sumathipala think he is achieving? Sri Lanka’s public certainly hasn’t been fooled by his overtures. When Sumathipala took on Mahela Jayawardene over his consulting position with England ahead of last year’s World T20, for example, fans flocked almost unanimously to Jayawardene’s side. “[He knows] the team’s strengths when [he is] inside the team,” Sumathipala had said. “England didn’t hire me to give information on the Sri Lankan team – they have analysts and coaches to do that,” Jayawardene responded. Sumathipala found it difficult to argue with that.Later that year, mounting a similar campaign against Muttiah Muralitharan, who took a temporary position with the visiting Australia team, Sumathipala deployed the Sinhala word – literally: “ourness” – in a brazen appeal to Sri Lankan nationalism. In attempting to play to the gallery, however, he found the gallery was not having it. Fans rallied around Murali, who was ordained into the ICC’s Hall of Fame later that week. “Sri Lanka didn’t want me, and Australia wanted me,” Murali spat. “How could I be a traitor to this country […] my foundation has built 1000 houses.”So much of SLC’s past year has been spent lurching from one PR gaffe to the other. Ahead of last year’s World T20, the board organised a lavish send-off event for the side, was panned in the media for wastefulness, and had the team perform abysmally in the tournament in any case. This year, the board launched its club-based limited-overs tournament with another extravagant production, only for that competition to be halted by a judicial injunction, and a low-brow district tournament to be played in its stead.At the ICC last month, Sumathipala suffered his greatest humiliation of all. In jockeying for the position of chairman, he galvanised the other ICC directors into convincing sitting chairman Shashank Manohar to reverse his resignation from the post. “What we did not want was to have a whole load of toxic electioneering, which Sumathipala exemplified,” one director had said at the time. “His conduct actually brought the board very fast together.”

What does Sumathipala think he is achieving? Sri Lanka’s public certainly hasn’t been fooled by his overtures

It is a shame Sumathipala seeks public validation, because by one measure, he has been as impressive an SLC president as there ever has been. For the special-interest group that is Sri Lanka’s clubs, there have been large financial grants and increased security and status – where last year only 14 first-class clubs existed, this season there were 23. And it is the clubs, of course, that really matter: their votes have put Sumathipala in his current position.So why bother with this endless pursuit of positive press? If you have the clubs in your pocket and next year’s election all sewn up, why pretend to care about a provincial first-class tournament that has failed to materialise in your two seasons in charge? Why continue to attempt points-scoring decisions that almost never end up scoring any actual points?Fans seem to understand a Sumathipala presidency is the product of SLC’s broken constitution, which grants board votes to an array of clubs and vestigial cricketing institutions. Many, perhaps, have guessed he is attempting to use SLC as a political tool, with which he might regain the favour of the public, who voted him out of parliament in the most recent election (though he was later appointed to parliament through the national list).Eventually, if the lackeys he has surrounded himself with ever stop flattering him, Sumathipala may realise his PR blitzes have backfired spectacularly. He has sold and sold and sold himself as SLC president. Not many seem to be buying.

Did Virat Kohli get his tactics right on the final day in Ranchi? Going by his fast bowlers’ lines and R Ashwin’s late introduction, the Indian captain took a few puzzling calls

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Ranchi20-Mar-20174:32

Manjrekar: Kohli didn’t have a great final day as captain

Ranchi. What a match, eh? Having gone neck-and-neck till the very end of a four-day dogfight on an up-and-down Bengaluru pitch, India and Australia showed they could sustain the same kind of intensity over a longer period and on an entirely different surface.For the neutral fan, Bengaluru and Ranchi were both perfect Test matches. Just different kinds of perfect. Given how closely matched the teams turned out to be, and given the conditions, the draw was probably the ideal result.India, however, may just feel like they let an opportunity slip, given the position they were in at stumps on day four, and then at lunch on day five.There were mitigating factors. Apart from the rough outside the left-handers’ off stump, there was little else about the pitch to suggest it was a fifth day in India. Darren Lehmann had suggested after the fourth day’s play that batting had only been difficult when the ball was new and hard, and Virat Kohli echoed him after day five.”Obviously, the way the wicket is expected to break on days three, four and five, it happened, but I think the hardness of the ball was a very big factor,” Kohli said. “Yesterday evening, when the ball was hard, it was turning a lot, fast. Even this morning it was doing so, but in the second session, it was not so hard, so to generate pace off the wicket becomes difficult for a bowler.”When you get to the fifth day, as it is the pace becomes lesser. After that, we tried with the second new ball, got a couple of wickets, but in the middle session, the hardness of the ball was a factor.”This certainly seemed to be the case. Australia lost four second-innings wickets before the first new ball was 30 overs old, two before the second new ball turned 15, and nothing in between.Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh, moreover, batted as calmly and astutely as any pair has in a match-saving situation in India in recent years. Sometimes, a partnership is just too good.Having said all that, though, there were times during the course of the fifth day when India’s tactics may have made life easier than it could have been for Australia’s batsmen.Kohli started the day with Ravindra Jadeja bowling from the press-box end and Umesh Yadav from the pavilion end. Jadeja was expected to be India’s most potent weapon and to get the most out of the surface by bowling into the rough. Umesh had been sharp and probing in the first innings, taking three wickets to Jadeja’s five. Perhaps Kohli wanted to use Umesh in a short, sharp burst right up.Umesh, instead, bowled a six-over spell and spent most of it bowling a long way outside off stump to Steven Smith. Then, Ishant Sharma replaced him and bowled a seven-over spell. He dismissed Matt Renshaw, and Jadeja took out Smith in between, but before that, he spent a fair amount of time bowling wide outside Smith’s off stump as well.In all, Smith faced 43 balls from the two quicks, and didn’t play a shot off 23 of them. Bowling as wide as Ishant and Umesh did made obvious sense as a defensive tactic for a team that is playing catch-up in a Test match. India, however, were looking to force a win.0:52

‘Condition of ball played a big part’ – Kohli

Kohli did not divulge the thinking behind this tactic in his post-match press conference. “I don’t want to expose the thinking behind it,” he said. “We obviously have our plans; we’ve got one more match to go, I’ll tell you after the last Test, probably, the plan behind it.”Fair enough. We’ll have to try and work it out ourselves.India’s lead at the start of the day’s play was 129. It was sizeable, but Australia still had the chance of wiping it out quickly if one of their batsmen got in and started scoring quickly. Smith had made an unbeaten 178 in the first innings. By getting his quicks to bowl a defensive line to him, Kohli was perhaps trying to ensure India kept Australia’s scoring in check, thereby enabling Jadeja to bowl with an all-out attacking field for longer.If that was the idea, it worked. Even though Australia did not lose a wicket in the first hour of the day, they only scored 25 runs in that time, in 16.4 overs.Kohli could point to the wickets of Renshaw and Smith – within four balls of each other – as further proof that his plans had worked. Neither dismissal, however, was a direct result of his plans.Ishant, bowling from around the wicket to Renshaw and attacking his stumps, had him lbw with a ball that moved in a touch and kept a little low. Smith, a few overs earlier, had toe-ended a ball from Umesh that had also kept low – except it was a fair way outside off stump, just like most of the balls he faced from the fast bowlers. Smith may have been tested a little more, perhaps, had they actually bowled at his stumps the way Ishant did to Renshaw – Smith was, after all, lbw to a shooter in the second innings in Bengaluru.Eventually, Smith was bowled by Jadeja, failing to pad away a delivery that pitched outside his leg stump. It wasn’t all that special a delivery, turning square out of the rough. It was among the fullest balls Jadeja had bowled, and Smith could well have kicked it away had he put in a longer front-foot stride.There was one direct consequence of Kohli using Umesh and Ishant for so long during the first session. R Ashwin only bowled one over before lunch. . It led one mediaperson, at the end of the match, to ask Kohli if Ashwin was carrying some sort of injury.”No, there’s nothing wrong with Ashwin, there are no problems as such,” Kohli said. “You obviously want to choose ends – fast bowlers from the far end were more effective and the spinners were more effective from the commentary end.”Obviously, we have to understand where the game is placed, and what bowlers you want to use. Whenever Jadeja came on to bowl, he picked up a wicket every two-three overs. It was very difficult to change him at that stage because he was bowling in good momentum. So, I think, that was one of the factors.”In the second innings, [Ashwin] bowled quite a few overs, we bowled him from both ends. It was difficult for the bowlers to generate much from the pitch. Jadeja, you can leave him aside in this game, because he really stood apart among all the bowlers. But I think in general the bowlers found it quite difficult to make things happen from the centre of the wicket. The key was to keep trying and that’s what Ashwin does always and put his best efforts in both the innings.”While Virat Kohli did not divulge much about the plan to bowl wide to Steven Smith, it was perhaps his way of ensuring Australia didn’t wipe out the deficit in a hurry•PTI Ashwin ended up bowling 30 overs in Australia’s second innings, the most behind Jadeja, who bowled 44. But he only bowled four overs with the first new ball – all on day four – which was 34 overs old by the time he came back into the attack.Given what he said about the ball doing very little after going soft – during the presentation ceremony, he even suggested that the SG balls that were used for this game had been going soft too soon – it was a little puzzling that he hardly used Ashwin when it was still hard and potentially helpful.”See, as I said, we wanted to choose ends as far as spinners are concerned,” Kohli said, when asked about this. “We wanted to give Jadeja a longer go because he was hitting the rough consistently and the ball has to spin back into the batsmen. If you see right-handers or left-handers, from the rough it was always attacking the batsmen. That’s one factor we used.”And as I said, it depended on who’s bowling from which end, not which bowler has to bowl from where. Sometimes one bowler bowls more in a Test match. A lot of times, Ash has bowled plenty of overs in a game and the others haven’t. You know, roles are always reversed, it’s not such a big factor for us.”This wasn’t the first time in this series that Kohli had under-utilised one of his bowlers or turned to him belatedly. In the first innings in Pune, Umesh only came on when Australia were already 81 for no loss in 27 overs. He ended up with figures of 4 for 32. In the first innings in Bengaluru, Jadeja bowled the fewest overs among India’s specialist bowlers, and ended up with a six-wicket haul.There was no such belated success for Ashwin here, and he looked below his best through most of his spells, perhaps striving too hard for a wicket, and in that effort, not quite going through his action as smoothly as he otherwise would.But Ashwin frequently gets through one or two less-than-spectacular spells before settling on the ideal pace for a particular pitch and discovering his rhythm. As tea approached in Ranchi, there were a couple of signs of this happening: a slow, loopy offbreak drew Marsh forward and beat his outside edge with turn and bounce. Then, Handscomb stepped out to Ashwin, tried to work him with the spin, and didn’t get to the pitch of the ball; a big lbw shout followed.Then, in his first over after tea, Ashwin drew Marsh forward again, this time out of his crease. The ball dipped and spun sharply to beat his outside edge, but spun so much that the wicketkeeper’s hands had to move a long way to his left and the same distance back to try and stump the batsman. Marsh dragged his foot back well in time.Ashwin’s next ball landed in the rough outside Marsh’s off stump – Jadeja’s area. Kohli said he used Jadeja far more than Ashwin because he wanted the ball spinning towards the stumps from the rough rather than away from them. Well, this was Ashwin’s carrom ball, and it turned towards the stumps and bounced enough for Saha to collect in front of his face after Marsh left the ball.This was among the most testing overs any batsman had faced on day five, and it came with nearly a full session left and with Australia still to erase their deficit. It could have led to something. We will never know. As soon as that over ended, Kohli took Ashwin out of the attack.