Former England batsman Mal Loye recalls his time coaching in Dhaka, and looks at Bangladesh’s recent form

Tim Wigmore06-Oct-2016After most days as Bangladesh high performance coach, Mal Loye would go to the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Dhaka, 50 yards away from his home. He liked to go for a scone and cappuccino as a “little treat” after training. The staff used to teach him a few words of Bengali every day, to help him fit in.On July 1 this year, the café was attacked by terrorists. Twenty hostages and two police officers were killed and the Islamic State claimed credit for the attacks. “It was all a bit close to home,” Loye says. “It was upsetting to know what happened to people that worked there.”

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In May last year, Loye set off for Bangladesh in the spirit of adventure. As an ambitious young coach, he had stumbled upon a fine opportunity, a long way removed from his previous job, as a coach at Wellingborough School, a plush English private school.He was not oblivious to security concerns before moving to Dhaka, especially with a young child back home in England. Yet these did not prevent him from hurling himself into local life. “I had my own driver. You could not drive – it’s just different rules on the road. That was about the only security I had. I wanted to be part of the culture, so I probably put myself in situations I shouldn’t have as a westerner. I got really involved in downtown Dhaka, but that was my choice.”Loye also immersed himself in his “fantastic job”. His role was to develop the next generation of Bangladeshi cricketers, and those on the fringe of the national side, with a particular brief to develop players’ ability in overseas conditions. “We knew they could compete at home, in Test cricket as well, but it’s how they were going to adapt overseas, because they’ve never travelled well.”He attempted to develop batsmen’s proficiency against pace bowling by changing their mindset. “Using the depth of the crease and understanding how to be more attacking against fast bowling, rather than just surviving, was a big thing.”Of the batsmen Loye worked with, two stood out. Sabbir Rahman is “very, very talented. I’ve tried to broaden his mind really to become a Test player as well.” He was also impressed with Mosaddek Hossain, a 20-year-old who made his debut in the series against Afghanistan after outstanding returns in Bangladeshi domestic cricket: Hossain’s first-class average is 70.89. “He’s an exceptional player against spin. Part of the programme was how to make him better against pace bowling. I do see him as a real superstar of the future in Bangladesh cricket.”While Loye’s expertise is with the bat, one bowler also caught his eye: Mustafizur Rahman. “The first time I saw him I thought this guy can be very, very special. I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about a bowler since Wasim Akram. He has so much ability: natural pace, great variations, very competitive, a really good athlete.”

“I wanted to be part of the culture so I probably put myself in situations I shouldn’t have as a westerner. I got really involved in downtown Dhaka, but that was my choice”

Loye’s time in Bangladesh coincided with the best spell in the nation’s cricketing history – the ODI series victories at home against Pakistan, South Africa and India. He had been told about Bangladesh’s infatuation with cricket, but Loye had not appreciated quite how deep it went until Bangladesh had beaten India. “When they won that series, I hadn’t quite seen a reaction like it – the noise and roar, it was a street party like I’d never seen before. It’d be a bit like if England won the football World Cup in England.”Though Loye was not involved in the national squad during their triumphs, he believes the high-performance programme helped to improve players who broke into the side – and, just as significantly, that the extra competition drove those already in the team to better themselves.And yet the success Bangladesh enjoyed during Loye’s stint there stands out as a glorious exception in the country’s cricket history. “They have underperformed. They are a cricket-mad country. There’s 170 million people and there’s a lot of players coming through.”When asked how well the Bangladesh Cricket Board is run, Loye’s response is instructive. “It could be better,” he laughs. “It’s got so much potential, but people have been saying that for 20 years. One thing we noticed is, there wasn’t a record of the work that the coaches had done previously, so the next coach that comes in has to pretty much start again.” And while the national squad’s training facilities are good, they “potentially could be a lot, lot better”. Cricket in Bangladesh is “a little bit like the traffic, it somehow gets through – that’s the best way of describing it”.Chandika Hathurusingha, Bangladesh’s coach since 2014, has been instrumental in the side’s rise, and fielding is a particular focus. “Last year the goal was to be the best fielding side in one-day cricket in the world,” Loye says. “They really take pride in that.” He reckons that Sabbir* is among the ten best fielders in the world today.So immersed was Loye in his role with Bangladesh that he had intended to return to the country full-time to continue his work, bringing his family with him. Indeed, he’d hoped he might even progress to working with the national squad full-time.Loye on Mustafizur Rahman: “I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about a bowler since Wasim Akram. He has so much ability: natural pace, great variations, very competitive, a really good athlete”•Associated PressBut a few days after he returned to England last September, an Italian man was shot near where Loye lived in Dhaka. Soon after, Australia received threats and postponed their tour. Loye received “inside knowledge that there were a few security issues”. Though sad to leave a job incomplete, he left for good.”That’s the real disappointment. We put a lot of time and effort into the high-performance and A team and young players coming through,” he says. “It was a great job. I loved the culture, the players and the set-up there. But I’ve got a young family and I just weighed the whole thing up. It wasn’t really an option in the end.”

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Yet while Loye did not feel safe enough to continue living in Bangladesh, he would have no problem touring as a player. “I would definitely tour. They’ve ticked every box in terms of the security, the position of the hotel, their journey into the ground. I’d go, I definitely would. It’s crucial that international cricket happens for Bangladesh as well.”He has told some English players as much. “They’re going to be apprehensive. I remember being apprehensive before I went out there but I was on my own. With a national team and a very well-organised security set-up, I reassured them that I’d be more than comfortable touring Bangladesh.”When England’s series with Bangladesh begins, Loye fears that Bangladesh will struggle to replicate their stirring limited-overs form of 2015. The ODIs against Afghanistan were Bangladesh’s first for ten months.”I just feel that with western coaches probably not going to Bangladesh anymore, with the security situation, and the lack of cricket they’ve played, it’s almost as if they’ve gone a few steps back,” he says. “I don’t think they play enough cricket at international level – in Bangladesh or overseas.”They look as though they’re rusty. This time last year, they’d just beaten Pakistan, India and South Africa, and saw themselves as hot favourites going into that Australia series. They were in a really confident mood, especially in one-day cricket.” Then, Loye would have backed Bangladesh to beat England at home in ODIs; now, he considers England favourites.And for all his affection for Bangladesh, and many of those in the team today, Loye’s loyalties in the series are not divided. “I’ve played for England. I want England to win.”14:34:54 GMT, October 7, 2016: *The article originally said Mustafizur

Moeen Ali survived five reviews for lbw in an extraordinary innings which held England together in Chittagong

George Dobell20-Oct-2016Similarities between Moeen Ali and Croatian music teacher Frane Selak may not, at first glance, appear obvious.But Selak has been dubbed both the world’s luckiest and unluckiest man. His first brush with death came when he was involved in a train crash that resulted in the carriage he was travelling in ploughing into an icy lake. His next came when he was sucked out of a plummeting plane but landed relatively safety in a haystack.If that wasn’t enough, three years later, the bus he was in skidded off the road and into a river, while he has also been hit by a bus, seen his car catch fire twice and been thrown free from another car crash – he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt – and found himself in a tree as his vehicle fell down a mountain side.In later years, however, he won more than $1m in a lottery. Which presumably has helped compensate for the difficulty he has trying to find travel companions.While Moeen’s close calls on day one of this series were, by comparison with Selak, relatively mundane they were, by cricketing standards, extraordinary.Three times in six Shakib Al Hasan deliveries, Moeen was given out leg before – each time by umpire Kumar Dharmasena – only to win a reprieve on each occasion thanks to DRS. No player has been reprieved so often in a Test innings. Moeen also survived two further reviews – both called for by Bangladesh after the umpires had declined leg before appeals – and an appeal when he had scored one which, had Bangladesh reviewed, would have been out.Whether that makes Moeen lucky or unlucky is debatable. It was noticeable that conversation between him and Dharmasena – the man whose advice revolutionised his bowling – evaporated in the afternoon session and Moeen could have been forgiven a smile when he saw Dharmasena call for a fresh pair of glasses (presumably sunglasses) midway through the afternoon session.”We are normally pretty tight,” Moeen said afterwards. “But we didn’t speak for a session. It was a tough pitch to umpire, but what can I say? The guy gave me out three times!”Either way, Moeen responded with a vital innings. Coming to the crease with England reeling at 21 for 3 – their lowest score at the loss of their third wicket in the first innings of a Test in Asia – he recorded his highest score in the top six in Test cricket (he has batted in the top six 18 times and at No. 7, 8 and 9 32 times combined) to give England a foothold in this match.Moeen Ali was given out – but reprieved – three times in quick succession•Associated PressThey may even have their noses in front. At one stage, they were talking of 250 as a good score. While the pitch will not necessarily deteriorate markedly, it is most unlikely to become easier to bat upon. The prospect of batting last is daunting for Bangladesh.It was, at times, a desperate struggle for England. On an unusually dry pitch – some in the England dressing room rate it the driest surface they have ever seen for the start of a Test – the ball spun sharply from the start and, in stifling heat and humidity, retaining concentration was tough and ball beat bat often.Ben Duckett looked talented but loose, Alastair Cook looked rusty and Gary Ballance was somewhat unfortunate to be adjudged leg before to a ball that just brushed the pad before meeting the middle of the bat. It is a dismissal that would have been unthinkable before the days of DRS.But Moeen, adopting the logic that served him well in the English summer, imagined he was batting at No. 3 for Worcestershire and approached the innings not as a bowling all-rounder but a specialist batsman whose side required him to fight through the tricky periods and provide what may turn out to be a match-defining platform. He did not allow the reviews to disturb his concentration, he did not lose patience when runs dried up and he did not miss out when the rare poor ball was delivered.We knew Moeen could score pretty runs. We knew he could come in down the order, time the ball sweetly and provide important contributions. But here he was asked to do more than that. He was promoted to No. 5 – one of five left-handers in the top six – and required to battle like a top-order player; not waft like a bonus batsman.The result may have been, as Moeen described them, “dirty runs” but from England’s perspective they were wonderfully dirty. It was not his most memorable or pleasing innings for England, but it was one of his most mature. It took a beautiful delivery, which drifted in to draw the stroke and spun to take the edge, to end it.”It was very tough,” he said. “The hardest 60 I’ve ever made. They bowled well; very accurately. I kept missing the ball and it kept hitting my pad. I couldn’t figure out why. It was a massive mental challenge – especially with the reviews – but it was a good mental challenge.”That positive mindset is obvious in every aspect of Moeen’s approach to this tour. While some players have declined to tour on security grounds, Moeen has brought his wife (who is from Bangladesh and who, he met here on tour a few years ago) and son and is relishing every aspect of the trip.He was not alone here. Not only did Joe Root score a polished 40 – easily the most fluent batting of the day – but he insisted Moeen utilise DRS on the second and third occasions he was adjudged to have been out leg before. While Moeen was confident he had some bat on the first such appeal – a view that was eventually vindicated by replays – he admitted he may not have called for a review on either of the other two occasions. “Root saved me,” he said.Later Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes also provided valuable runs. Bairstow, who might consider himself unfortunate to be moved down the order, contributed his fourth half-century in successive Test innings and his fifth in six. He fell one short of equalling Andy Flower’s record for the most runs in a calendar year by a Test keeper but, with a maximum of 13 more innings to come this year, he will surely break that record by a huge margin. He has, at present, played only one innings more than Flower.It was another example of England’s strength in depth rescuing them. Here, for the first time since 1992, they have fielded a Test XI in which every man has scored a first-class century.It will be interesting to see how England respond tactically to what they witnessed on day one. Moeen reasoned that the spin was most dangerous with the new ball as some deliveries skidded on off the shiny surface and some gripped and turned. The ball continued to spin with the older ball, but just a little more predictably.So, will England take the same approach? Or will they conclude that would negate their strength in three seamers? Bangladesh bowled only 17 overs of seam on day one, conceding 4.35 runs per over from them and failing to take a wicket. The 75 overs of spin – yes, we had 92 overs in the day – brought seven wickets at a cost of just 2.21 runs per over despite the utilisation of two or three part-time bowlers.Bangladesh were not without fault, though. For a start, they dropped Bairstow at slip on 13 but, just as damaging was the introduction of Kamrul Islam Rabbi who conceded 5.12 runs per over and released the pressure almost every time he came into the attack. After one early over, he was reintroduced into the attack when England were 35 for 3 and Moeen was on 1. He conceded 10 in his first over back and 22 from the four-over spell.So England – and Moeen in particular – had some fortune. But they retained their composure and took advantage. It was a far from perfect day, but it could have been much, much worse. Frane Selak would understand.

Johnson’s 392-page autobiography is exhaustive in its chronicling of how a boy from Townsville came to be Australian cricketing royalty

Sam Perry26-Nov-2016There has never been greater competition for sports-loving eyeballs in bookstores this Christmas, and jammed in amid the glut of cricket memoirs comes . Peter Lalor of the ably managed the words.The cover fronts with a close-up of Johnson’s face; he looks at once stern and gentle. When you learn his story, that stands to reason. That his name is embossed in gold on a sleeve wrapping a weighty hardcover is less understandable, because Johnson has never pretended to be a stately figure. But when it comes to Australian cricket, alpha showdowns don’t cease upon retirement – they extend to autobiographies too.Johnson’s journey to Australian fast-bowling royalty – and he does belong there – is genuinely compelling, and never more so than when one contemplates the sheer rapidity of his elevation into the heady world of professional cricket. He literally didn’t own a pair of cricket boots when Rod Marsh thrust him into Australia’s Under-19s team (to the chagrin of many of the other players’ parents).But like so many modern-day players with stories to tell and sell, Johnson in his memoirs struggles to shine a light on his professional years that hasn’t already been shone.It’s barely his fault. The ubiquity of media means that many of us are well-acquainted with each star’s road. With Johnson, we know about the potential, the pace, the doubt, and the glorious return. At 392 pages, is nothing if not thorough in its chronicling of each plot point in Johnson’s career. However, like so many other books, it does settle into a mechanical rhythm of moving from match to match to match, serving more as a reminder than much else more. This isn’t to say there aren’t some highlights: his account of South Africa away and England at home – especially his 7 for 40 in Adelaide – will provide sweet tidings for Johnson’s Australian readers looking for something soothing after Christmas (and the South African series).When you can’t bring the matches to life, many ex-players understandably go where punters can’t, by turning their autobiographies into titillating tales of the dressing room. To Johnson’s great credit, it should be said, admirably resists joining this race to the bottom. Yes, he covers “Homeworkgate” and Katich v Clarke, but not gratuitously. It would be incorrect to put this down to any kind of naiveté or aloofness on Johnson’s part. While he makes no pretensions to social over-analysis, he does have a discreet sense of old-school decency (as opposed to the chest-beating type), and it emerges in the book. So rather than view Australian cricket’s great in-house stoushes through the prism of base-level gossip, he places them in an altogether more relevant context: that of Australian cricket’s struggle for cohesion under Michael Clarke’s influence. His notes are diplomatic, subtle, but communicate enough. Upon Ricky Ponting’s departure, Johnson writes, “When he left he took something with him”, and while he describes Clarke as “tactically excellent”, there is a seismic difference in the superlatives he chooses to use for each captain.But where Johnson’s cricket yarns might lack mystery, his upbringing does not – at least in a cricketing sense. While Dennis Lillee’s description of him as a “once in a generation” fast bowler probably belongs in cricket cliché scrabble, how Johnson arrived at the moment is probably less well known. He was a genuine “roughy” from the bush, who, at the time of Lillee’s spotting, claims he didn’t even know he was quick. The image he paints of arriving two days later to the Australian U-19 camp in Adelaide, long-haired, clad in a black Slayer T-shirt, owning no cricket kit, illustrates just how naturally talented he must have been. It also leaves you desperate for a picture of Johnson bowling in the nets with said T-shirt and hair. His emergence from the back of Townsville nonetheless provides an instructive backdrop to his entire career. With respect to the concept of lifelong learning, here was a guy who was picking up how to play cricket while competing in the Sheffield Shield.Von Krumm PublishingJohnson’s rawness of talent and technique lent a youth to him that seemed to remain for his career. To that end, it’s easy to forget that his formative cricketing years were spent alongside Shield warhorses like Jimmy Maher, Andy Bichel, Michael Kasprowicz, Andrew Symonds, Ashley Noffke and James Hopes. Johnson, who at one stage says that all he ever did was “just wang it down” – writes with pride about the influence of their old-school values on him. It was an influence that remained with him until the close of his Test career in 2015.The stories of so many champion players tell of being chastened by early and unexpected failure, and Johnson’s mid-career walk through the shadows of cricketing decline are surely as dark as any. His description of the relentless carousel of international cricket travel, and the collapse of his body, technique and confidence, does help the reader appreciate the triumph that followed. We all know the Barmy Army song about him, but to properly consider that Johnson often could not rid his mind of it is illustrative of the difficult mental space he occupied for years.The book isn’t written completely in Johnson’s voice, however. There are welcome flourishes of content from people close to him, most of whom exist outside the insular cricketing sphere. Their inclusion here speaks of a man who never originally defined himself through his performances, but one who nonetheless harnessed his considerable abilities to achieve greatly in an unerringly human way.Mitchell Johnson: Resilient
by Mitchell Johnson
ABC Books, 2016
A$49.95

R Ashwin’s angle of attack and the slip fielders’ conundrum also feature in Aakash Chopra’s analytical observations from the first day of the Rajkot Test

Aakash Chopra09-Nov-20163:27

Ganguly: Root’s positivity against spin paid off

Variable bounceWriddhiman Saha collected the first ball of the day with his fingers pointing skywards. The second ball was a lot shorter but this time Saha collected it around his waist. Later in the same over, one ball hit the lower half of Alastair Cook’s bat and the ball bounced a few times en route to the fielder at slip. If there is variable bounce as early as the first over, you know what to expect for the five days. Expect the lines to be a lot straighter for faster bowlers and most wickets to come through leg-before and bowled.Slip fielding in the subcontinentIndia grassed a few catches in the first half hour of the game. Catching in the slips is an art and, at the highest level, it is assumed that you have mastered it and thereby earned the right to stand in the slips. But pitches in the subcontinent pose a challenge of a different kind. Since you are not sure about the bounce, you are best advised to get closer to the bat. It is better to drop the catch than for the ball to drop in front of you. So, for the same bowler, you would stand four steps closer in Rajkot than at Old Trafford. But the closer you get to the bat, the shorter the reaction time and the tougher the catch becomes. There might be less bounce on subcontinent pitches, but the pace off them is not radically different from the pace off pitches around the world. Given this, you might be a little less harsh the next time you see a catch dropped in slips in this series.Slip fielders in India have to stand closer to the bat, thereby substantially reducing their reaction times•AFPAshwin finds a work-aroundR Ashwin started from over the stumps to right-handed batsmen, bowled full and maintained an attacking line outside off. It did not work. On a pitch that is not offering anything substantial from the surface, the line outside off ceases to be as threatening as it is on a turning pitch. It is easier to counter the occasional lateral movement off the surface. That is why Ashwin went around the stumps, which enabled him to expose both edges. Suddenly every ball started finishing within the stumps, and that led to Haseeb Hameed’s wicket. Moreover, Ashwin’s economy also improved – he did not concede a single boundary to right-handers off the first 44 balls he bowled to them from around the stumps, conceding only 17 runs off those deliveries.45.5 – Umesh Yadav, Joe Root and alarming seam movementThe ball has started reverse swinging and both Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami have exploited it well. But this particular ball pitches and changes direction alarmingly, and hits Joe Root on the body. While reverse swing is par for the course in dry conditions, movement off the surface is not, especially on the first day. But this pitch at Rajkot is a little different, with cracks running all through the 22 yards. The ball in question must have hit one of these cracks and deviated. Expect the cracks to widen as the sun beats down on this pitch. That will bring seamers into the picture.Joe Root scored an assured century despite staying inside his crease to the spinners•Associated PressRooted to the creaseRoot hit ten boundaries against spinners, and not even one boundary was while stepping out till he reached his century. There was only one boundary through the sweep and that too was off a full toss. Aren’t we told that the only way to succeed against spin in India is to either step out to smother spin or sweep as often as you can? Granted, it is the first day of a Test match on a decent pitch, but Root has shown that it is possible to succeed with a different game plan. His driving was meticulous, with a long forward stride and the precise transference of body weight at the point of impact.Moeen Ali was not tested with the short ball tactic•ESPNcricinfo LtdThe bouncer barrage that never cameDuring India’s last tour to England, Ishant Sharma and co. had exploited Moeen Ali’s discomfort against bouncers. So much so that it felt that the moment he walked out to bat, bowling a bouncer was the obvious thing. He tried ducking, fending and attacking them, but was not successful with any of these approaches. That led one to believe that it would be worth trying the same ploy again but it did not happen today. Out of the first 30 balls that Moeen faced, 18 were bowled by the seamers and yet there wasn’t a single bouncer whistling past his nose. Later, of course, the absence of a fully fit Shami made it impossible to have an extended spell of bouncers.

Joe Root is the red-hot favourite to succeed Alastair Cook as Test captain – but might there be a few other contenders in the Test squad?

Andrew Miller07-Feb-2017Barring a shock change of heart, Joe Root will be confirmed as England’s 80th Test captain at some point in the next two weeks. But supposing the selectors don’t want to over-burden their most important multi-format batsman. Where else might they turn?Ben StokesA left-field selection – and one from which the selectors will almost certainly run screaming in the opposite direction, given what happened when their last world-class allrounder, Andrew Flintoff, was handed the leadership (and in an Ashes year to boot). It’s not that Stokes does not boast considerable leadership attributes – he was, after all, Jos Buttler’s deputy for the recent ODIs in Bangladesh, and there is a burgeoning maturity to his game that leaves his days of punched lockers and tour expulsions as ever more distant memories. But, let’s face it, he is simply too precious to England’s balance, in all forms of the game, to risk cluttering his free spirit with too many field placings and management issues. Verdict – Don’t even go thereJos ButtlerHe was quietly impressive in his brief stint as stand-in ODI skipper – or not so quietly, as was the case on one occasion in Bangladesh, when he took vocal exception to the antics of Sabbir Rahman during a heated contest at Dhaka. That incident showcased a fiery streak that contrasts with his otherwise softly spoken demeanour and, perversely, lends a touch more authority to any leadership claims that he might have. Then again, Buttler has only just been restored to the Test line-up after a year dominated by the demands of white-ball cricket, and – for all that Trevor Bayliss is a fan – with the twin objectives of the Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup firmly in the ECB’s sights, the Test captaincy would be an extraordinary distraction for one of their most likely trophy-winners. Verdict – Wrong ball-gameJonny BairstowBairstow’s breakthrough year in 2016 was simply remarkable. From the moment of his emotional maiden Test century at Cape Town in January, he announced himself as one of England’s most reliable sources of runs, and in the process, he shattered Andy Flower’s long-standing record for runs by a wicketkeeper-batsman in a calendar year. Admittedly, his glovework isn’t to everyone’s taste, but if captaincy is about balancing the demands of run-making with extra on-field duties, then Bairstow’s prior experience gives him an edge. Of course, it is about much, much more than that as well, and where he might struggle is in his often hot-headed approach to interpersonal relationships – not least with the media. Perhaps revealingly, despite being a regular on the county circuit during his long absence from the England set-up, his captaincy experience at Yorkshire has been limited to a solitary T20 match. Verdict – Stick to the battingKeaton JenningsThere would be shades of Graeme Smith’s appointment as South Africa captain in 2003, were England to take the bold step of promoting a little-known Johannesburg-born opener after just a handful of senior-team appearances. But there is clearly something about Jennings’ credentials that impress the men who make such decisions. In the space of a few weeks, he scored a century on Test debut, was put in charge of England Lions in Sri Lanka, and then named Durham’s 50-over captain; and as the hard-drilled son of a disciplinarian former South Africa coach, he has been primed from a young age to take responsibility for his actions, and presumably those of others. This time around, the role might have come too soon, but at the age of 24, he’s likely to be in his prime if he can make himself a regular England pick between now and the next change of leadership. Verdict – Next time, maybe?Stuart BroadIn the course of his series-sealing 6 for 17 at Johannesburg last year, Stuart Broad romped past Bob Willis to become England’s third-highest wicket-taker in Test history. And who’s to say he couldn’t finish his career by emulating Willis in another manner – by becoming England’s first fast-bowling captain since 1984? He has been an England leader before, of course – he was T20 captain until Eoin Morgan was quietly handed the joint white-ball role in 2015 – and, aged 30, he is still young enough and good enough to remain a first-choice Test pick for several seasons to come. Plus, he was one of the few England players to emerge with credit from the wastelands of England’s last Ashes tour in 2013-14. As he showed by grinning his way through a newspaper vendetta at the Gabba three years ago, Broad has broad enough shoulders to take the heat when the going gets tough Down Under. Verdict – The best of the rest?

Five times in the past 12 months, the usually unflappable Pakistan captain has been dismissed playing careless shots

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jan-2017At 42, Misbah-ul-haq, Pakistan’s Test captain, has to constantly face questions about when he will retire. In the past 12 months, a period in which he has scored 561 runs in 11 Tests at an average of 31.16, his critics have been armed with a series of seeming lapses of concentration that have led to ugly dismissals. This is how ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentators recorded those moments of madness.Misbah c Bird b Lyon 18 – 3rd Test v Australia, Sydney, January 2017
Lyon to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, oh no. Misbah, what have you done, again? He always wanted to tee off against the spin of Lyon. Flat delivery with a bit of drift, it doesn’t stop Misbah. He goes down on one knee and aims for a heave over midwicket, in typical Misbah style. Like he did against Moeen in the England summer, he mistimes one. Hangs in the air for a while. Bird circles around the catch but settles underneath and completes an easy catch.Misbah c Maddinson b Lyon 0 – 2nd Test v Australia, Melbourne, December 2016Lyon to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, what is Misbah up to? This is poor Test-match batting. Premeditation. Big-time premeditation. Sweeping everything. And the bounce for Lyon does him in. He sweeps this from outside off but is nowhere close to it, leaving himself prone to the bounce. The top edge is gobbled up at short fine leg.Misbah c Boult b Southee 13 – 1st Test v New Zealand, Christchurch, November 2016Southee to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, what a rush of blood from Misbah! Six runs off the previous two balls and Southee gives him the bouncer from over the wicket, Misbah responds with the hook and gets a top edge. Boult is waiting on the long-leg boundary to catch the Pakistan captain. Pakistan 93 for 4, effectively 26 for 4A top-edged sweep ended Misbah’s stay on the final day in Melbourne, when Pakistan were looking to save the Test•Getty ImagesMisbah c Bishoo b Chase 4 – 3rd Test v West Indies, Sharjah, October 2016Chase to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, they’re committing hara-kiri or what? This was a long hop and Misbah has pulled it to the lone man at deep backward square leg. It was short and sitting up for him to pull it wherever he pleased, Misbah rocked back and found the hands of Bishoo, who moved low to his right to complete the catch. Misbah can’t believe what he’s just done. Chase can’t believe his luck. He has a wry smile on his face. What is happening in Sharjah?Misbah c Hales b Ali 0 – 1st Test v England, Lord’s, July 2016Ali to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, Misbah attacks, slogged into the leg side… and Hales takes a brilliant catch running along the deep midwicket boundary! HUGE wicket for England and a little bit of revenge for Moeen, who tossed it up in the knowledge he had a man out there, encouraged Misbah to go after him and gets his reward. Lord’s erupts!

Before they can talk details, Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association must end an increasingly toxic cycle and find a way to be able to talk at all

Daniel Brettig16-May-2017In explaining the landscape in which the catastrophic 1994-95 Major League Baseball lockout took place, the columnist George F Will stated that bitterness and suspicion between league owners and the players’ union “festered because a number of owners frankly were unreconciled to not just the behaviour of the union but the existence of the union”.The result of that bitterness, and the refusal of either side to back down over the league’s insistence on imposing a salary cap, was the loss of the entire post-season for 1994, including the World Series, and part of the following season too. When baseball did resume, after 232 days, the owners were court-ordered to continue under the game’s former revenue-sharing arrangement, while players and teams alike slipped enormously in public esteem. The result? Huge declines in attendance, ratings and revenue – estimated to have cost the MLB more than US$700 million.For 20 years Australian cricket has sailed through without even the faintest whiff of a similar standoff, but now Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association stand, as Will put it, at “daggers drawn”. Their disagreement over the current fixed-revenue-percentage model – CA wants to get rid of it, the ACA to retain it – is the key technical point at issue. But the inability of either party to communicate effectively with the other is the greater problem, one with roots going back at least five years.Two key events took place in 2012 to set the scene. First, the most recent MOU was agreed to by CA’s chief executive, James Sutherland, and his ACA equivalent, Paul Marsh. In 1998, Sutherland had been, alongside Marsh’s predecessor Tim May, the chief architect of a model that ensured players received around 26% of Australian Cricket Revenue each year, divided up between international, state and Big Bash League players.

Three elements pay talks need to acknowledge

• Australian cricket does need more grass-roots money. Cricket Australia will soon release an audit of all facilities around the country that will illustrate numerous problem areas, including a lack of adequate change rooms for women. Equally CA is mindful of matching the AFL’s vast game-development resources in each state.

• Women need pay equity. The WBBL has already shown how quickly the women’s game can grow with some marketing and television muscle. Greater financial incentives for the players, allowing full professionalism, will accelerate that process.

• Domestic men do contribute to financial returns. The Sheffield Shield is Australian cricket’s equivalent of research and development, while the BBL is soon to bring in vastly increased amounts via the next TV rights deal. A broad pay base is also in the game’s interest by making cricket less of a gamble for prospective players – an area where the AFL has always held an edge.

“We believe that this agreement and its player-payment model strikes a strong balance,” Sutherland said of the 2012 model, which added a variable, performance-based component. “Players are well rewarded for playing senior representative cricket within a system that emphasises accountability for performance and ensures the right players are receiving the right payments at the right times.”At the time of that agreement, Sutherland and the CA board chairman, Wally Edwards, were engaged in a project aimed at revolutionising the governance of the game down under, and also its financial model. The board was to move from a hodgepodge of 14 state representatives to an independent body of nine corporate governors. Meanwhile the financial model changed from states each receiving an equal portion of television revenue, balanced by gate receipts in the larger states, to each association receiving a fixed amount, with CA distributing to rest on a strategic basis. The upshot of all this was far more central control and unified strategy in Australian cricket.CA’s AGM in October 2012 heralded the start of the new regime, including the arrival of three independent directors – two of whom were David Peever, the former Rio Tinto managing director in Australia, and Kevin Roberts, former global senior vice-president of Adidas and a Sheffield Shield cricketer for NSW. The new directors were referred to as “captains of industry”. Peever held strong industrial-relations views, and had spoken at a mining conference that year in favour of direct engagement between companies and employees, “without the competing agenda of a third party constantly seeking to extend its reach into areas best left to management”.Peever became CA chairman late in 2015, around 18 months after Marsh had decided to quit the ACA to take up the role of chief executive for the AFL Players’ Association, following a rapid deterioration in his relationship with Sutherland. In that same year Marsh had been a key consigliere for Sutherland, Edwards and the team performance manager Pat Howard in the decision to replace Mickey Arthur with Darren Lehmann, a former ACA president, as Australia’s coach. Over the years, Marsh and Sutherland often played golf together.Marsh’s value in helping CA reach a decision that would reap rich rewards in the home summer of 2013-14 was ignored when an ACA “state of the game” report hit CA desks. As a document it was ignored, even ridiculed, for segments, including a proposal to move the BBL to October. Marsh was rounded on by Sutherland and state CEOs at one of their regular meetings. Marsh, bruised, walked out; he would soon find himself moving to the AFLPA.What next became clear was that this fracture would not be repaired when Marsh’s replacement, Alistair Nicholson, joined the ACA. A former key defender for the Melbourne Football Club, Nicholson had worked at the sports marketing firm Gemba, and had plenty to learn about the intricacies of the cricket landscape when he arrived. The death of Phillip Hughes provided a major initial jolt, but Nicholson’s work with Sutherland during that harrowing time did not grow into a relationship. The pair have never interacted outside official channels.In 2015, Roberts moved from the CA board to join the board’s executive management team. He appeared a standout candidate to replace Sutherland as chief executive whenever the incumbent made way. There was an echo of Sutherland’s beginnings, too, in Roberts’ appointment as the lead MOU negotiator for CA, sidelining Howard.CA’s strategic decision around this time was to create distance from the ACA, while attempting to get closer to the players. Internally and externally the ACA was increasingly characterised as “the opposition”. Female players, for a long time ignored financially by both CA and the ACA, were brought into the fold with rapidly improving contracts negotiated directly. Senior male players were courted with the sorts of social occasions never afforded to the ACA – most notably a dinner held by the board last November, at which the national captain Steven Smith and his deputy, David Warner, joined Lehmann and looming pay talks were discussed.Meanwhile CA’s board, management and negotiating team drew up their own pay model for the next five years, breaking up the fixed revenue-sharing model and freezing wages for domestic players. Women were to again be given a pay hike, but only the top male and female players would be entitled to anything above fixed wages.Unlike in the past, CA viewed their new model, rather than the existing agreement, as the “starting point” for talks. Similarly, the board openly questioned why they were funding the ACA via annual grant, to the tune of around A$4 million.The pay structure for cricketers on the men’s domestic circuit is a major point of contention in the current dispute•Getty ImagesPeever has always pushed the increase of grass-roots investment and greater equity for women as the touchstones of his chairmanship, dating back to an interview with the in November 2015: “I think about the tens of thousands of volunteers who help our game. You don’t get the Steve Smiths and Meg Lannings unless you have a strong foundation. You have to keep driving hard at the grass roots.” The board’s pay offer states that extra money can be found for grass roots, and other areas like the growth of CA’s media unit, by breaking up the MOU model.Things came to a head for the first time last December, during the Gabba Test between Australia and Pakistan. The acrimony centred around the leaking of emails about a pregnancy clause in contracts for women, with the ACA openly questioning the legality of the clause. CA responded by suspending talks until the new year, cutting time from the process while intensifying suspicion and mistrust on both sides.When they did resume, the two parties continued to talk across, rather than to, each other. CA’s formal pay offer added more detail to their original proposal but did not deviate from a path charted long ago in the boardroom at Jolimont. The ACA response likewise did not budge from the players’ strong view that a fixed revenue-percentage model must remain.Impatience at the process was relayed to CA’s management, including Sutherland and Roberts, at board and state CEOs’ meetings held in Brisbane last week. But the ink had barely dried on the minutes from the board meeting by the time the next escalation began – each effort pushed back by the ACA.First, Australia’s top five players were offered multi-year deals by Howard, something all rejected without a second thought. Secondly, Roberts spoke icily to Nicholson at last Thursday’s scheduled meeting between the negotiating teams, reinforcing a “take it or leave it” position. Thirdly, Sutherland’s letter to Nicholson offered the threat of unemployment for all players out of contract if the ACA did not cave in before the June 30 deadline. The ACA’s recent request for mediation was rebuffed with the contention that “they didn’t agree to it in the first place”. Tit for tat.On Sunday, the board director Mark Taylor offered insight into CA’s thinking in his other role as a Nine commentator. “It doesn’t make business sense for Cricket Australia,” he said. “Every time you make money you have to give away a certain percentage of it. The costs of revenue are going up in sport all the time, every sport will say that.”If these acts were intended to cause players to quake, they appear to have done very much the opposite, as attested by Warner. There remains the chance of negotiation, perhaps encouraged by the looming announcement of a pay deal between the AFL and Marsh’s AFLPA. But there is also now the possibility of a thoroughly damaging stand-off, in which Australian cricketers fall out of contract and look elsewhere for opportunities, both to play and make commercial deals.Avoiding further ugliness would require the reversal inside six weeks of a toxic cycle of deteriorating relations that has taken far longer to build up. Those familiar with the poisonous 1994-95 MLB lockout will already be bracing themselves.

The Indian captain did not find the fluency with which he usually scores his runs, but he stayed the course and took his team through to a big finish

Nagraj Gollapudi at Edgbaston04-Jun-2017Virat Kohli punched his gloved hands hard and let out a shriek. The India captain had just hit Hasan Ali for a six over long-on. It was his first hit over the boundary. The shot, which came three overs before India’s innings ended, brought Kohli his half-century. Kohli, however, was in no mood to celebrate.Yuvraj Singh walked up and put an arm around Kohli’s helmet, like an elder brother. Almost hugging him, Yuvraj tapped Kohli’s shoulder and asked him not to get too bothered. Kohli hit his pads hard with his bat. He was releasing his pent-up frustration. It was an expression of how things had nearly gone awry for India in the middle overs.Both Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma took off smoothly but left the safety belt on a little longer than they should have. Such caution is the basis of the Dhawan-Rohit partnership. It looks good when at least one of them converts the start into a big score. Today fell for half centuries.Dhawan was more free-flowing of the two, but he made a mistake while trying to hit a full toss over deep midwicket. The onus was now on Rohit to carry forward the momentum. This was Rohit’s first match for India since returning from a thigh injury he picked up in October. Having survived the opening spell of Mohammad Amir, who troubled him with away-going deliveries, Rohit steadily hit his straps. He passed fifty with a six over deep midwicket off legspinner Shadab Khan.But the grim, overcast conditions and the on-and-off drizzle that disrupted play annoyed the Indians. The two rain breaks also slowed the outfield. Under normal circumstances, Rohit and Kohli may have played with more freedom. Here, they had to check their drives.This phase coincided with the Pakistan bowlers, especially Amir and Hasan, keeping things tight. Between overs 22 and 35, India could manage just three boundaries and 55 runs. Rohit did not hit any.On 74, Rohit played a casual drive away from his body against a slower delivery from Hasan. He was lucky to get away with it because the ball died well before the fielder at mid-off could charge in. He also struggled with his running between the wickets and a mix-up with Kohli eventually cost him his wicket.Until then, India had played old-school cricket: keeping wickets in hands, scoring at a steady pace, and waiting for the end to accelerate. Although he was sluggish by his own standards, Kohli realised the need to stay till the finish. He had to take risks, but calculated ones.Virat Kohli’s flourish ensured India made up for a middle-overs stutter•Getty ImagesThe presence of Yuvraj gave him a second wind. Yuvraj had sized up the situation. The first ball he faced was a 92mph bouncer from Wahab Riaz, and Yuvraj ducked under it nicely. He got his eye in quickly and took charge. His electric half-century transformed the flow of play. It also allowed Kohli to relax a little and have a laugh at the other end.Immediately after he got to 50, Kohli dug out an off-stump yorker to the third-man boundary. It was a no-ball. Having read the free-hit delivery quickly, Kohli played one of his favourite strokes: the bat came down swiftly and the early pick-up ensured the flick sent the ball flying to the midwicket boundary. His confidence was soaring and Wahab was left standing mid-pitch with his hands on his hips.With eight balls to go, Hasan bowled a yorker. The big expanse behind cover was not lost on Kohli and he fluently punched the ball for four. Hasan responded with a near-perfect yorker on off stump. Kohli stood his ground and with a straight bat and straight elbow, hit a powerful drive that flew high over the cover boundary for another six.It was a stunning stroke to play in any form of cricket; Kohli’s high elbow, his elegant follow through and balance were the standout features of the shot. Hasan dug in another yorker. Kohli played it out before tapping his bat to acknowledge the bowler’s efforts.On the eve of this match, Kohli was asked how he managed to maintain his intensity despite performing the high-pressure roles of leading India and being a match-winner.”It’s just that captaincy gives you much more responsibility on the field,” Kohli had said. “And handling your players on and off the field is something that captaincy requires. It’s a big skill to have. And that’s something that I’m focusing on more rather than putting myself under pressure. I’m just trying to make sure that all the guys are in a good mindset and they’re feeling confident about their skills.”At different times on Sunday, Kohli patted his batting partners – Rohit, Yuvraj and Hardik Pandya – and encouraged them to express themselves. He did not show emotions when the India started sedately, and did not show show distress when Kedar Jadhav misfielded and then dropped a catch.As he gains experience as a leader, Kohli is beginning to understand that he does not need to be at the forefront of everything. He understands that if he can be the spark that ignites India’s intensity, his job is done.

The IPL has pulled all stops to engage India’s cricket-watching public over the years, and while we can argue over the extent of their success, there has been no want of trying

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Apr-2017CheerleadersAt the World T20 in 2007, cheerleaders and fireworks by the boundary-side were a feature across stadia, and the IPL saw no reason why they couldn’t have their own. With the American notion of franchises imported into the shortest format of cricket, the introduction of cheerleaders followed suit: Royal Challengers Bangalore got themselves a cheerleading troupe from the Washington Redskins, while Kochi Tuskers brought in an ensemble of Ukrainian models. However, it was Pune Warriors who added an ethnic touch to the phenomenon, with the introduction of Indian-classical dancers, who broke into Bharatnatyam or Kuchipudi routines every time Pune Warriors cleared the boundary or picked up a wicket.Strategic time-outsThe IPL’s marketing mavens have consistently invented new dimensions to the T20 game, while managing to garner sponsors to christen them with. One such commercially successful innovation was the strategic time-out, which, in the words of the league’s founder Lalit Modi, was designed “to help teams re-strategise and confer among themselves”. The time-out in its original avatar lasted a snooze-worthy seven-and-a-half long minutes at the half-way stage of the innings, but was split into two sets of two-and-a-half minutes each, after the completion of the inaugural edition.The trumpet tuneOr, as its Spanish originators know it, of Paso Doble fame. From a tune that was part of a Spanish music composition popularised by French DJ-producer John Revox, the IPL’s trumpet tune has become the go-to for DJs at every other stadium, apart from being transformed into the casual fan’s ringtone of choice. A peppy piece of music without any linguistic affiliations, the tune is now played at most limited-overs international fixtures and franchise T20s the world over.Umpire Simon Fry models the umpire cam•Getty ImagesHelmet cams, umpire cams and spider camsWhile the IPL cannot claim to have introduced any of these sports-broadcast innovations, it can, at the least, boast the bragging rights for having revolutionised the way cricket is viewed in the drawing room. The spidercam, came to India via the Indian Cricket League, whereas the helmet cam found its way into the game about 45 years after American sport had introduced it. Regardless of their context of origin, these bits of remodelled video-recording equipment provide breathtaking live shots of what may be otherwise deemed routine occurrences in a cricket field. Run-out decisions and emphatic shots down the ground look more real than ever before, courtesy the cameras attached to the umpire’s hat that follow the movement of their eyes and give the TV viewer a whole new perspective on close calls.MaximumAnother of IPL’s additions to the cricket vocabulary, this Latin term, previously only a favorite of math nerds working out calculus, made its way into the mainstream to describe sixes. After a few seasons with different sponsor plugs, TV commentators have now come to apply it to sixes of all manners and distances. The word, an embodiment of the IPL’s success in wedding commercialism with hyperbole, perfectly corresponds to the inversely-proportional relationship between shrinking sizes of boundaries in the modern-day game and the hunt for new philological varieties of existing cricketing terminology.Fan umpiresIn a move to “increase involvement of viewers”, the think-tanks behind the showpiece event, came up with an innovation in 2016 that allowed fans in the stands to express their views on decisions referred to the third umpire. As part of this exercise, fans could participate in the decision-making – albeit only to the extent of holding placards that carried ‘out’ and ‘not out’ – while letting the cameras pan around and show the most animated ones on the screen. Given that the decision of the umpires was final and binding regardless of the fans’ verdict, the hype around this innovation quietened as the season progressed.Fan ParksAmong the IPL’s newer ventures, fan parks have taken the tournament to India’s second- and third-tier towns, attracting massive turnouts that are known to shoot up to 300,000, as per the organizers’ estimates. Fans turn up to not just watch the game on large screens, but regale in the entertainment that accompanies the visual experience offered by any IPL match. From covering just 16 cities two years ago, the runaway success of these parks is touted to spread its reach to 36 cities across 21 states in the tenth edition.Danny Morrison, up to one of his gags, during an IPL game in Mohali•BCCIDanny MorrisonIn Morrison’s own words, his commentary career post-IPL can be summarised thus – . Team names and player initials, all became spelt-out acronyms, as “Double G”s and “Double R”s rang out at tens of decibels louder than cricket fans were used to. A mix of on-the-spot analogies, pantomime gags and an all-too-ready approach to embracing local flavour, Morrison’s idiosyncrasies have made him every franchise T20 tournament’s commentator of choice.BlimpDebates over the classification of the flying object aside, the hot-air balloon, which was sold as a ‘blimp’ on air, was yet another consumerist trope experimented with in the IPL that died down after a solitary season in the spotlight. Commentators, throughout the 2010 edition, could not stop themselves from going on about the object every IPL stadium, often invoking and praising the sponsors for being at the forefront of technological innovation. However, when the 2011 edition hit us, the much-vaunted object above the stadia vanished quietly into thin air, contrary to the manner in which it first appeared.Mic’d up players and umpiresMic’d up players, often a feature of Channel Nine’s broadcasts in Australia, predate the IPL by a few years. However, the tournament has taken the concept to a whole new level; be it Billy Doctrove speaking in Tamil with a Caribbean accent to launch the 2011 edition, or Faf du Plessis doling out insights on coconut water in its natural and bottled forms – these hilarious moments were nothing short of live-broadcasting gold.

Much of South Africa’s annoyance on the third day stemmed from one man’s display of resolve and skill, a performance that showed why he sits among the modern-day greats

Firdose Moonda in Hamilton27-Mar-2017The only thing that stood between South Africa and the back of Kane Williamson was their 58-over old ball. Or so they thought.It was a ball which South Africa started preparing, yesterday, before Williamson was even on their minds. With one side as shiny as a family’s prized silver and the other scuffed up by strategic throws from the outfielders, that ball had started to reverse and would soon do the damage that South Africa wanted.So you can imagine the visitors’ annoyance when, two balls into the 59th over, the players were told by the umpires that the ball had gone out of shape and that it needed replacement. While the ball was being checked with the aid of the hoop that the umpires keep handy, Faf du Plessis was having a word, doubtless to try and convince them that said-ball was still in good working order. South Africa, though, had to accept a replacement ball – and not their ball – to try and dislodge Williamson.The replacement ball would be in the same age-bracket but not nearly as carefully cared for; the Harrison Ford to a Keith Richards. Williamson’s first dealing with it was to punch it through midwicket off Keshav Maharaj to reach a half-century. On the other end, Vernon Philander had not quite accepted that he can’t always get what he wants and five overs later he complained, asking for the old ball back. His request was denied and, for good measure, Williamson smacked him for six as if to say, “I like this ball just fine, thanks.” Philander saved his response for when he was taken off and the new (and despised) ball dared to come near him. Instead of throwing it, he rolled it back in protest.Call it petulance, call it wounded pride but Philander was not the only one feeling the frustration in the post-lunch session. It was the only time in the series South Africa had gone wicket-less and the only time all their attempts to make something happen were blunted. The ball was one reason, but Williamson was the bigger one.The class and calm he brings to the crease can be summed up in one shot: the straight six off Maharaj, when he shimmied down the pitch, picked the ball up, as though holding a baby bird and then letting it fly, over the sightscreen. In that shot was all of Williamson, from timing and technique to calculated risk and delicate aggression. And that was before South Africa lost their precious ball before they decided that they needed to hatch some special plan to rid themselves of another problem-player in Jeet Raval, who was greeted after lunch with three slips, two gullies and a snarling Morne Morkel.South Africa already had some idea of Raval’s staying power because he had been simmering all series. He was tight outside off, showed patience and valued his wicket. His 80 in Wellington was already the highest score by a New Zealand opening batsman against South Africa this century. They didn’t want Raval to become the first New Zealand Test opener to score a hundred against them since 1953 and so they laid a trap and asked Morkel to bait him by bowling outside off stump.Williamson and Raval frustrated the visitors, especially captain Faf du Plessis•AFPIt worked almost immediately when Raval followed a fuller delivery but the edge fell short of the fielder at second gully. Morkel moved in closer, getting the ball to angle in and Raval left one that went close enough to off stump to leave him wondering if he should have played. He went after the next tester, angled across him, and again fell in the region of the close-in fielders. For 40 minutes in the middle session, Raval had to navigate the combination of a fired up Morkel and a feisty cordon but he survived and reached fifty in the process.What followed was a battle against Maharaj, with balls spitting out the rough, and when Raval came through that, a maiden hundred seemed just reward. Nobody wanted Raval to get there more than Williamson, who managed to craft his own century while simultaneously outscoring his partner, and coaxed the young batsman.The captain performed the ultimate multitask, making Raval feel “like a clown on one end with a master batting at the other”.Williamson’s run-making off an increasingly impatient South African attack caused them to default back to a short-ball approach which simply wasn’t threatening enough on this surface. He sensed that the bowlers were tiring and began to apply pressure. In doing that, he ensured the total never stagnated, even while Raval did. As the second new ball arrived and Raval entered the 80s, he spent 24 balls stuck on 83 and began to look more fidgety than he has all series.At the other end, Williamson was playing a different game, which is why South Africa placed a higher price on his wicket before this series even began. They knew he was capable of something like this.The century Williamson struck in Dunedin was quickly spoken about as one of the best of his career because it came in a tough situation – Ross Taylor was out injured – but this one confirms him as a modern great. At 26, Williamson is already one of only six New Zealand players to have 5,000 Test runs to his name, has equalled Martin Crowe’s record for the most number of Test centuries for his country – 17 – and has hundreds against every other Test playing nation. And he is doing it at a time when New Zealand’s line-up is fragile.Though they may have found an opening pair in Tom Latham and Raval, their middle-order, in Taylor’s absence, only has Williamson to really add gravitas. That’s a lot of responsibility for a man who also has to lead the team on the field but, so far, he is handling it well. Even after South Africa caused a wobble when they took 3 for 20, Williamson put New Zealand in the lead for the second time in the series. And the ball – both the new and the old one – was not what stood between South Africa and the back of the home captain. It was Williamson’s resolve and runs that did.