On August 20, 2006 Pakistan forfeited a match after ball tampering allegations were levelled against them. On August 20, 2010 they stand tall and clean

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval20-Aug-2010That old Pakistan trait for doing the unthinkable has resurfaced. At tea on Friday afternoon their miserable series seemed to be getting worse as Alastair Cook laid a platform for a large England lead with a belligerent century. Kevin Pietersen had started off with positive intent and was forming a steady alliance with Jonathan Trott, who demonstrated his typically unflappable patience at the crease. Pakistan’s bowlers had toiled hard through the first two sessions for the paltry return of two wickets.Then something bizarre started to happen. The sellout crowd, which was clapping and joyously celebrating England gaining the upperhand suddenly started to grimace before eventually falling silent. In the penultimate hour of the day, England lost six wickets with the A-team of Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Amir playing destroyers-in-chief. Not for the first time Pakistan had pulled the rug from under the opponent’s feet.Turn back the clock and you will find many moments where Pakistan’s bowlers have stunned the senses with their wizardry: through the tumultuous English summer of ’92, then the one-off Hamilton Test a year later when New Zealand plunged from 67 for 3 to 93 all out chasing 127; At Lord’s in 1996 England, batting for a draw on the fifth day, were going steady at 171 for 2 chasing an unattainable 408 before being shunted out for 242. Move on to Old Trafford in 2001 when England again were aiming for a draw on the final day before Pakistan snapped up eight quick wickets in the final session. If Australia do not give up till the very last minute, Pakistan have a unique ability to surprise at any time.Coming back to The Oval, Pakistan were playing second fiddle in the first two sessions. The demons of the past defeats on this tour returned when Cook was dropped in his 20s as a thick outside edge flew between the yawning divide between the first two slips: Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed. Both men stared at each other like wax models. Salman Butt rushed across and moved them into the right positions.Far from being hilarious, it was getting frustrating for the bowlers. The prevailing blanket of grey cloud was the right canvas for Mohammad Asif to paint England’s doom. But the slowness of the pitch restricted him from using a free hand. Still he persevered by trying to inject more pace and force the batsman to play on the backfoot. Immediately after lunch Trott played out three maidens from Asif before taking his first run after a 22-ball score-less sequence. Asif was growing tired and his frustration spilled out when he gifted Cook a comeback century with an unnecessary shy which flew over the wicketkeeper’s head.At the other end Ajmal was constantly firing in his which both Cook and Trott, and later Pietersen, struggled to read, but they kept getting easy runs off the loose balls in the over. Wahab Riaz, who had celebrated his debut with a five-for on the first day, had only one wicket, that of Cook mid-way through the second session. England’s lead was building. All this was not going according to script for Pakistan.There had already been signs of spin and bounce, which Graeme Swann utilised cleverly yesterday. The combination of a dry surface and an old ball also made conditions ripe for reverse swing. Yet Amir was given just two overs between lunch and tea. Allied with Ajmal’s struggle to find his rhythm early on, it all amounted to further frustration. Butt, however, had a plan and stuck to it. The reason he did not unleash Amir, he later explained, was because he did not want to exhaust all his bowlers at the same time.When Amir returned for the final session he immediately cupped both hands to hide the shine on the ball and got enough reverse swing to force doubts into the batsman’s mind. Once again, he got a wicket in his first over. Trott, despite his long vigil, chased a wide, angling delivery to offer a simple catch. Paul Collingwood was beaten by subtle away movement while Matt Prior, England’s best batsman in the series, was clueless. It was not that Amir was unplayable. He just invaded the batsman’s psyche with the thought that he could do something special.It proved to be a catalyst for Ajmal at the other end, who mixed his variations cleverly from around the stumps, and quickly got the big scalps of Pietersen and Eoin Morgan. “The mystery ball [] has done the trick for him as most batsmen find it hard to pick,” Butt said. “Even till today we can’t pick it in the nets.” The biggest problem for the batsman, Butt reckons, is Ajmal is the only bowler who delivers both the straight one and the one comes back a little bit with the same action.Saturday could mark a special day for Pakistan. Their foot soldiers, the bowlers, have got them once again to the doorstep of victory. The significance of a win at The Oval will not have escaped them. On August 20, 2006 Pakistan forfeited a match after ball tampering allegations were levelled against them. On August 20, 2010 they stand tall and clean with a chance for redemption.

It would be sensible not to judge Peter George on the basis of this one performance, but after coming through when his team needed him most, he’ll certainly feel less of an outsider

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2010Two other Australian cricketers have dismissed Sachin Tendulkar in their debut Test. One, Cameron White, will probably not play Test cricket again. The second, Peter Siddle, has to start from scratch, after a back injury that’s kept him out for nearly a year and forced him to remodel his action. Peter George, as awkward as the ugly duckling when first thrown the ball, will hope that he has better luck after showing signs that he has a big role to play in Australian cricket’s future.After the skittish start, the coltish-looking George finished with an impressive return of 2 for 48 from 21 overs. It’s unlikely that George will be waxing eloquent to his grandchildren about the wicket of Zaheer Khan, but it’ll be hard to stop him talking about the first scalp: a swinging delivery that induced an inside edge from a bat that had appeared to be a feet few wide until then.”I definitely wasn’t giving up hope,” he said after the day’s play. “It just came down to patience. We had to keep plugging away and trusting in the plans we had. To get Sachin was just great … a shock. I was elated.” When asked how his team-mates had responded, he grinned. “Most of it was just ‘congratulations’ and ‘well done’. Just relief from most of the guys to see the back of Sachin after a lot of hard work.”After just 19 first-class games, he admitted that it had taken him a while to find his Test-match feet. “I’ve felt a lot more comfortable each day,” he said. “I had a bit of a nervous start. Today, there was a bit of swing in the air and it made me feel more a part of the game.”My first over the day before was especially nervous. I hadn’t really experienced something like that. I definitely calmed down [during] my next spell back. This morning, I felt comfortable. I could run in and do my own thing, without worrying too much about trying too hard.”A raucous crowd was part of the learning experience and for a young man asked to bowl his first over to Sehwag, it was nearly too much. “The crowd was something I’ve never experienced,” he said. “When Sachin brought up his 14,000th Test run, it was an unbelievable experience … all those screaming Indian fans going nuts. It was quite deafening to be out in the middle and it’s something I’ll always remember. To make my Test debut in front of such a crowd is special for me.”He was responsible for a couple of humorous moments too, with the super-slow bouncer that had both batsmen and team-mates staring in disbelief. “I told a few of the boys about that the night before [the game] and they looked at me like: ‘what’s he talking about?'” he said a smile. “So I bowled it and went: ‘there you go’. On a wicket like that, without too much bounce, I thought it was an opportunity to try it and see what happens.”Australia were on the rack on Monday morning, with the Indians leading by eight runs and five wickets still to take. Tendulkar’s wicket changed the game completely, with the tail offering next to no resistance. But with the pitch now playing tricks and Australia poised to set a target of 200 or more, George was confident that a series-levelling win wasn’t beyond his team.”It looks like the wicket is getting harder to bat on. We’ll try and make as many as we can in the morning and we’ll be confident of defending that.”We learnt a lot from the last game and how we played. We did a lot of things right. A narrow defeat like that can be a learning experience, and hopefully we can turn it around this game.”Had he been a more seasoned pro or more of an extrovert, he would probably have scoffed at the suggestion that he might be the next Glenn McGrath. But as it was, the question just prompted another half-smile and a soft-spoken answer. “To be compared to McGrath is a great honour for me,” he said. “If my bowling action’s similar, it’s because I watched him as a child, growing up. Kids generally resemble their favourite cricketers in the way they bat or bowl, so there’s a fair bit of McGrath in my action. If I do half as well as he did in his career, I’ll be a very happy man.”McGrath finished with 3 for 142 in his debut Test, and no one marked his card for greatness. It would be sensible not to judge George on the basis of this one performance, but after coming through when his team needed him most, he’ll certainly feel less of an outsider, going into a final day when Australia has the chance to pull off one of its greatest-ever victories.

Kenya were such miserablyunequal opponents, Lasith Malinga’s hat-trick was too underwhelming

Osman Samiuddin in Colombo01-Mar-2011To begin with some brutal honesty, Lasith Malinga’s hat-trick and bowling generally were wasted on this encounter. It was watched by a surprisingly large number of people gamely creating an atmosphere and it was, as feats of statistics go, worthy of celebration. But Kenya were such miserablyunequal opponents that it was too underwhelming.The press conference afterwards confirmed this. About as much time was spent on what will most likely be an entirely pointless handbag scuffle between two players and Sri Lanka’s state TV channel, even though this was Malinga’s second hat-trick, both taken at World Cups. And even thousands of miles away, four years ago on TV, Malinga’s four in four against South Africa inGuyana was felt so much more than this as an act of freakery. Despite losing that game, Malinga rated that spell higher. This game had drifted along so casually, a few didn’t realise that he had taken a hat-trick immediately, broken as it was over two overs.Malinga is actually so compelling a sight you don’t need to take into account any opponent at the other end. Watching him bowl pre-game at some stumps was enough. The double-take at his action has worn off. He doesn’t run as much as scurry in. In fact, the angry blonde curls dominating hisappearance are more distracting; this scribe, though, was always partial to his cornrows phase. He is at least as cool as Chris Gayle though half his size, so that there could also be something cartoonish about the whole picture. Few really fast bowlers have been this small.He has lately relied on more than just yorkers but there cannot be many around who bowl it with more purpose and greater control than he does: he has them available on tap. Today his 7.4 overs seemed to consist wholly of yorkers, with a couple of short ones and leg-side wides thrown in, perhapsout of boredom. There wasn’t a huge amount of late swing, more late dip and curve, but he was getting it early. Kenya had no chance, jerking their bats down late and down the wrong line.Later, as he sat looking more like a man who had completed the worst spell of his career and answering questions, he name-checked Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as influences. Like that duo, he takes wickets in short and sharp clusters. Akram had four international hat-tricks to his namebut he was a hat-trick countless times. Once, against the West Indies in 1990-91, Akram took four Test wickets in five balls and the only ball he didn’t take a wicket on, the middle one, was a catch dropped by Imran Khan. If you were to predict one bowler in international cricket today to be a serial hat-trick taker, it would have to be Malinga and if we’re lucky they might come on grander occasions than this.He is back in time for Sri Lanka, having missed the first two games with a back injury. That has been and probably will be a recurring theme. He doesn’t know how long he’ll keep playing for, though it has already been seven years since he weirded out Stephen Fleming and New Zealand. Sri Lanka’s attack has variety without him, but with him it becomes a different beast, more teeth and hair. On Saturday, Australia and their fast boys are in town and for one match at least, this World Cup will be all about pace.

A fan so dedicated to watching the Test she passed out because of the heat. Or maybe it was the dull cricket…

Trish Plunket19-Jan-2011Choice of game
I’d been there for four bloody days, I wasn’t going to leave now!A confession
Okay, maybe I didn’t watch all day there. The sun was hot, and after four days of wind, sunburn, sticky heat, rain, great cricket, average cricket, and the beating sun, I passed out in the bathrooms during the second session. This is a lot less rock and roll than it sounds. Our heroes, the paramedics, came and pronounced me as “too hot” and “too horizontal” and after some discussion as to whether hospital was in our mutual best interests (they said yes, I said HELL NO!) sent me home to watch the last session from the couch.Key performer
Daniel Vettori. In that he bowled all day and didn’t get any wickets. Didn’t seem to like Kane Williamson at all. For some reason he had the first two overs with the new ball bowled by himself and Brent Arnel, the least threatening of the four quicks. Maybe he was addled by the heat too.One thing I’d have changed

Apart from staying fully conscious, the last session. Even from my couch it looked dull. I got reports from the ground saying that watching the pickets spontaneously fall off the fence was the most exciting thing to happen. It would have been great for Pakistan to throw themselves at the total, have a real go, and maybe make themselves a bit vulnerable to getting out. You know, actually have a competition.The interplay I enjoyed the most
One thing you get at home is close-ups – in this case, close-ups of Jesse Ryder cheerfully chatting away to the Pakistani batsmen. I’d like to think Jesse was offering advice on the sightseeing opportunities for the next few days in Wellington, rather than questioning anyone’s parentage.Wow moment
Tim Southee’s first wicket. Wow, we were sure it was going to be a great day! Depressingly, it all went downhill from there.Player watch
We got a lot of the bowlers at fine leg, being amusingly lanky in their fielding efforts and signing autographs for the kids. All together now… Aww.Crowd meter
It was a great crowd as Wellingtonians came out for the last of their holidays and sat on the boundary and in the old stand. There were lots of picnickers on the bank and kids roaming around – and they were cheerful and well-behaved. Can’t beat Wellington on a good day.Food meter
Fail, Basin retailers, fail. We went from the weekend where there was the likes of a mobile deli and a delicious delicious curry vendor, to one caravan selling chips and battered hotdogs. Want a sammich? Sorry, you’re out of luck.Tests v limited-overs
Ah, well, yes. While I get five days in the sun not confined to a plastic seat, I sit for five days in the sun until I fall over. I’m a redhead. I was never meant to see the sun. A day-nighter will be a bit of a relief.Accessories
Macintoshs! We did not offer them to Tim McIntosh. But we really wanted to. I don’t think that makes us bad people, merely lovers of bad puns and yummy toffee.Oh, and I got a Test shirt from my family, so I was kitted out in style.Overall
Not my best day watching cricket, it must be said. But I now have a cracking tan, and an even more cracking headache. It was such a pity neither team could get up and win the game, and that it petered out into the averageness that has plagued the whole Test.A word to fans of following
I’m really stoked how many people like these fan following reports. It makes me feel all shiny. But if you like them, please leave a comment down the bottom of the page. Please DON’T message me on Facebook, unless you want to offer me money to write things. (I’m good to exchange writing for cash.) It’s getting a little weird, and my mum always told me not to talk to strangers.

The story of a man who had the courage to stand up to a tyrant

Dileep Premachandran04-Dec-2010Henry Olonga still plays the odd game of cricket, but it’s through his music that he now propagates his message best. “For one day they will rise again,” he sings in “Rise Again”, a song co-written with Bruce Izzett. “Above the emptiness and shame / With dignity restored once more / As your oppression is here no more.”His life changed with a press release given to Geoffrey Dean, an English journalist, on February 10, 2003. The statement, drafted along with Andy Flower, the greatest player Zimbabwe has produced, included the following extracts: “It is impossible to ignore what is happening in Zimbabwe. Although we are just professional cricketers, we do have a conscience and feelings. We believe that if we remain silent that will be taken as a sign that either we do not care or we condone what is happening in Zimbabwe. We believe that it is important to stand up for what is right…”In all the circumstances we have decided that we will each wear a black armband for the duration of the World Cup. In doing so we are mourning the death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe. In doing so we are making a silent plea to those responsible to stop the abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe. In doing so we pray that our small action may help to restore sanity and dignity to our Nation.”Had Flower protested on his own, Robert Mugabe and his green-shirted thugs could have brushed it off as racism. But Olonga was a different story, the first black cricketer to play for the country. As the world’s photographers zoomed in on the black armbands made from insulation tape and the press release found its way to news agencies, it became clear that the son of a Kenyan father and Zimbabwean mother had burnt his bridges.The death threats started soon after and but for the rain in Harare that knocked Pakistan out and gave Zimbabwe a place in the Super Sixes, Olonga might never have been able to leave the country. As it was, he flew to South Africa with the rest of the team and never returned, then making his way to England and exhibition cricket with Lashings while also exploring his interest in music.He tells his story with candour and no little wisdom. Unlike many player autobiographies filled with inanities and self-delusion, this is a wonderfully candid account of a career that promised much but delivered only a handful of highlights reels. Olonga’s self-deprecation doesn’t ring hollow, and his assessment of many of his peers is clear-eyed without being tinged with malice.Right from the traumas of childhood – his parents separated when he was four, after his mother found out that his father had neglected to mention a first marriage that included a dozen children – to the mean-spiritedness of team-mates and officials, Olonga documents facts without being judgemental. Several extracts in the book deal with his faith in God, and how it shaped both his life and career. But the most riveting passages concern the other omnipotent figure in Zimbabwean lives.Olonga, like most others, started out believing that Mugabe was a revolutionary hero. It was only with exposure to the world at large and tools like the internet that he began to discover otherwise. By then he was already a gifted sportsman, having taken the boarding-school route to excellence. Eschewing the possibility of careers in athletics or rugby, Olonga made his Test debut in January 1995, dismissing Saeed Anwar with his third ball. Called for throwing in the same match, he had to go and remodel his action, and later cope with a variety of injuries.In his own words, Olonga was no superstar. He was, however, a genuinely quick bowler who had his moments when everything came together. One of those came against India at Grace Road in the World Cup of 1999, when he knocked over Robin Singh, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad to seal a famous victory. By then, though, the team was already being divided into cliques, with the uncertainty back home ensuring that the split happened along racial lines.While critical of Mugabe, Olonga doesn’t spare some of his own team-mates, whose attitudes have helped keep the tyrant in power. He narrates an incident where he took exception to a young black team-mate being told that he was “like charcoal”. “From that day on my life in the dressing room was never the same, as clear venom emanated from some of them,” he writes.His relationship with the father who even built a house for him, and the falling-out with Victor, his older brother, who played rugby for the country, make for poignant reading, but if you want to sum up the book, you must go back to the Edmund Burke words that start the first chapter: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”Blood, Sweat and Treason: Henry Olonga – My Story
by Henry Olonga
Vision Sports Publishing
£14.49

England have stood by their man, but Kevin Pietersen is yet to find a solution to his struggles against left-arm spin or chart a route back to form

Andrew Miller in Cardiff29-May-2011New beginning, same old ending. England’s cricketers may have embarked on a new four-year cycle of international commitments, but on the batting front at least, certain facets of their play have scarcely changed since the end of 2010. Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott still bat with the rigidity of guardsmen at the Royal Wedding; Ian Bell still exudes the air of a man whose repertoire is wasted at No. 5. And Kevin Pietersen still succumbs to left-arm spinners with a regularity that no-one can write off as a coincidence.In print if not in deed, Pietersen launched the 2011 summer with an onslaught of ambition, as he sought to draw a line under the events of an eventful winter, and reassert his credentials as one of the greatest England batsmen of his age. A solitary failure in a featureless contest hardly counts as evidence that his world is collapsing around him, but nevertheless, he knows, as we know, that already sceptical tongues are now wagging ten-fold.Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner Rangana Herath had bowled 122 balls without reward when, in the 102nd over of the innings and his second since the arrival of Pietersen, he skidded one through from round the wicket, and pinned his man dead in front of middle. The ball, in mitigation, kept a fraction low and required a review to send him on his way, but such was the tangle of limbs with which KP had repelled his previous four deliveries, such a scenario had never seemed far from the surface.It was typical of Pietersen that, even on a day when he contributed less than 1% of England’s total, he nevertheless deflected attention from a man whose second Test double-century, and fourth 150-plus score of the past 12 months, showcased none of the jitters that are so visible in his colleague’s performances. Cold-blooded accumulation is Trott’s watchword, and for 409 deliveries spanning eight-and-a-half hours, he drained his performance of all emotion, and set about Sri Lanka with the precision and patience of a brain surgeon.Pietersen would not, could not, seek to emulate such a method – and nor would anyone wish him to try. The only sort of brain surgery he’d ever seek to carry out is a frontal lobotomy, preferably on the spinner who dares to toss one up in his slot. That is his way, and he’s never seen fit to change throughout his career. From his berserk introduction to Shane Warne in 2005, to arguably the apotheosis of his confrontational strokeplay on Sri Lanka’s last tour a year later, when he first unfurled the switch hit against an incredulous Muttiah Muralitharan, he’s attempted to impose his will on slow bowling of all shapes, sizes and reputation.It just so happens, however, that right now the reverse is true. These days the hunter has become the hunted, by one breed of spinner above all others, and the nervous energy that used to translate into slash-and-burn performances has given way to nerves, pure and simple. Even at Adelaide, during his Ashes 227, the appearance of the long-since-lampooned Xavier Doherty brought him out in an instant rash. It might not have changed the game, but how different would Pietersen’s reputation look had he succumbed to his nervy first-ball charge against Doherty, or holed out to cover when the third delivery skewed off a leading edge?Pietersen’s desire to dominate in that innings was so intense, in fact, that when, in the aftermath of that match, Nasser Hussain asked if he had now answered all doubts about his ability to play left-arm spin, he peevishly denied there was an issue in the first place. That assertion was at odds with the statistics that state he has now been dismissed by left-arm spin in 19 of his last 61 Test innings (having never fallen to the format in any of his previous 63), and on 43 occasions in international cricket all told.What is more, it also goes against the very heartfelt admission that Pietersen himself made on the tour of Bangladesh in March 2010, when he had worked tirelessly on his leaky technique against bowlers of the calibre of Shakib Al Hasan and Abdur Razzak, and ground his way to scores of 99,32,45 and 74 not out in four innings. Such a visible Achilles heel need not be a long-term issue – as Graham Gooch famously demonstrated after his struggles against Terry Alderman in 1989 – but any attempt at denial seems set to compound the problem.”With Kev it’s a case of things just not going his way in the last couple of months,” said Trott. “We saw how he can play in Adelaide, when I was quite happy to get out the way and watch him bat and score a double-hundred the way he did. Everyone in the dressing room backs Kev to the hilt, the way he has played for the last couple of years. With a tough couple of months he’s still averaging over 48 in Test cricket, so the guy’s a special talent to have in our dressing room. With Kevin Pietersen on song we’re definitely a better team.”For Trott to be talking averages was ironic on a day when his own mark briefly exceeded 70, and as players like Jimmy Adams and even Mike Hussey have demonstrated in the past, such astronomical figures may not be sustainable in the long term. Nevertheless, there was a time when it seemed that Pietersen would never settle for anything less than an average of 50. But then, in 2008, he fell to Daniel Vettori on four occasions in eight innings, and that little nugget of unease was planted in his mind.It was later that year, during his captaincy stint in India, when the first shoots of doubt started to emerge, most notably in Mohali, when the part-timer Yuvraj Singh was tossed the ball with the score on 2 for 2, and all but lured Pietersen into a fatal drive to mid-off. Since that day, every cack-hander in the industry has fancied his chances of a breakthrough, including last month the Cambridge University student Zafar Ansari. A batsman nicknamed “Ego” by the Australians has yet to find a convincing means of combating the taunting.”Everyone probably gets out to right-arm seam a third of the time as well,” said Trott, a man who could hardly be more oblivious to mindgames right now. “It’s one of those things. The best thing is not to worry about it, just go out and play. A lot of the factors…left-arm spin, left-arm this and left-arm that …I just try and go out and do the best I can and keep it as simple as I can. As cricketers you can make the game more difficult for yourself and overhype things. It’s a simple thing, a bat and a ball and you just see it and hit it.”That, in a nutshell, is the problem for Pietersen. He used to be able to do just that to such a high standard, with such an impenetrable mindset, that in the summer of 2006 it was seriously being suggested that he did not have a single weakness in his armoury. Contrast that mental fortitude with the paranoia he displayed on the eve of the series, when the assembled press corps, this writer included, found themselves reassuring England’s highest-profile cricketer that they bore him no malice, but simply wished to understand what makes him tick.”For Kev, whenever he is hitting the ball well, you know he’s in for a good day and hopefully at Lord’s he will be alright,” concluded Trott, and it’s hard to argue with that assertion. For all the excellence of the batting on display in Cardiff, there’s an aspect of the accumulation which has left many observers non-plussed. Even Trott and Cook would happily concede that there is no sight in English cricket quite like Kevin Pietersen in full flight. Sadly those flights seem as rare as Concorde these days.

South Africa and Australia have similar stats in several parameters, but South Africa’s spin options could make a decisive difference

S Rajesh18-Oct-2011Overall, there’s little to choose between Australia and South Africa as ODI teams. Australia are currently ranked No.1 on the ICC table with 130 points, while South Africa’s 116 points puts them in third place, with Sri Lanka sandwiched between the two teams. However, in terms of win percentages in ODIs over the last three years, South Africa are marginally in front: since 2009, they’ve won 31 out of 46 matches, giving them a win-loss ratio of 2.06. Australia are marginally behind with a ratio of 2.03. The biggest difference between the two sides is the number of ODIs they’ve played during this period: Australia have racked up 86, which is 40 more than South Africa’s tally. The other difference is the percentage of matches each team has played against the weaker sides: both sides have 14 against West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and the other non-Test-playing sides. But while this number is only 16% of the matches that Australia have played, for South Africa it’s more than 30%. That’s also part of the reason why South Africa’s rating is lower than Australia’s despite a marginally higher win percentage.In matches between the two teams too, the difference isn’t much at all: overall Australia have won 39 to South Africa’s 35, while in South Africa the tally is 18-16 in Australia’s favour. The only major difference in the wins for both teams is when they’ve played in multi-team tournaments since 2000. In bilateral series since 2000 South Africa have won more matches – 14 to 12 – but in tournaments consisting of three or more sides Australia have clearly dominated, winning eight out of ten. The key stat for South Africa, though, is that they have won each of the last three bilateral series between the two teams – in South Africa in 2006 and 2009, and in Australia in 2008-09.

South Africa have the advantage of playing at home, but the absence of AB de Villiers due to injury could be a huge blow. de Villiers has been South Africa’s best batsman over the last three years, but he has also done exceptionally well against Australia. In 16 ODIs against them he averages more than 51, and the outstanding feature of his batting has been his consistency: he has six fifties in 16 innings, and five other scores of more than 35.In de Villiers’ absence, though, South Africa will rely heavily on their other senior batsmen, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis. All three have reasonable ODI records against Australia, with Smith doing much better against them at home than away. However, in the home series in 2009, Smith wasn’t so prolific, scoring only 140 runs in five innings.

Australia’s strength in ODIs over the last few years has been their power-packed batting. Since 2009, four of their top-order batsmen – Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke – average more than 40, with Watson and Hussey combining that with a 90-plus strike rate. Comparing the top-order batting for all teams in ODIs since 2009, there’s again little to choose between the two sides: South Africa average 41.18 at a strike rate of 89.88, to Australia’s 38.97 at a strike rate of 83.37.Watson has been a star for Australia with bat and ball over the last few years, but he’ll have a point to prove: in seven innings against South Africa in South Africa, he has a highest of 27 and an average of 15. All those innings, though, we played more than five years ago, before Watson made his name as a top-class opener.Among the current batsmen, Hussey and Ponting have the best records against and in South Africa, where they both have 40-plus averages and 90-plus strike rates.

In the bowling department too, the two teams have very similar stats: South Africa’s overall bowling average in ODIs since January 2009 is 28.79, at an economy rate of 5.03; Australia’s is 29.32, at 4.85 runs per over. No other side has a bowling average of under 30, which suggests that these two are the most effective bowling sides going around in ODIs.Break up the stats into pace and spin, and the numbers for fast bowling is again remarkably similar. That’s further exemplified in the numbers for the leading strike bowlers of the respective teams: Mitchell Johnson is under a bit of a cloud for his lack of form recently, but in ODIs since 2009 he has 98 wickets in 62 matches – an average of 1.58 per match – at 26.52 and an economy rate of 4.95. Dale Steyn, meanwhile, has 56 wickets from 34 games – that’s 1.65 per game – at 26, and an economy rate of 4.93.The difference is in the quality of spin bowling. South Africa have been extremely reliant on spinners over the last three years: almost 30% of their wickets have been taken by spinners, compared to just 19% for Australia. The spin average for South Africa is the best among all teams, while Australia’s is the worst. A significant reason for that is the performances of Imran Tahir and Robin Peterson in the 2011 World Cup on the spin-friendly surfaces of the subcontinent. If they can replicate at least some of that success in the forthcoming series, then South Africa will have the edge due to their better-balanced bowling attack.

After the crazy 23-wicket day, this home fan enjoyed watching South Africa win, even if it meant just a session’s worth of play

Samantha Smith12-Nov-2011Choice of game
With exams done and dusted, I couldn’t imagine a better way to kick start my summer vacation than with a day at the cricket. The last time the Proteas played a Test match at Newlands was against India, which ended in a dreary draw. After the theatrics of day two, only a snowstorm could prevent a result. And with the Proteas full of momentum and effectively having three days to bat, only a die-hard Australian fan would predict anything other than a South African win.Team supported
South Africa. They briefly held the status of the world’s best Test team in 2008. The road to reclaiming the No. 1 spot begins with a win against the Aussies and an army of cheering supporters.Key performer
Graeme Smith manufactured a true captain’s innings, simultaneously silencing his critics, who could only stand and applaud his resilient knock, and hopefully signalling the end of his worrisome form. However, the player who truly stood out today was Hashim Amla. A clear crowd favourite, he combined class with fluency and made the most of his chances after Michael Hussey and Shane Watson each grassed the opportunity to dismiss the flashy right-hander. He was particularly harsh on Ryan Harris, sweetly timing three consecutive boundaries off him in the 45th over, much to the noisy cheers of the healthy Newlands crowd.One thing you’d have changed
In the interest of cricket, notwithstanding South Africa’s tremendous effort to pull off a win after narrowly avoiding the follow-on, I would have preferred the Test to have at least lasted three full days. After yesterday’s mayhem, a fighting and nail-biting finish would have provided the icing on the cake of what has truly been an unforgettable Test. Perhaps a few early wickets and intermittent grey skies would have given the Australian bowlers something to work with. But alas, the commanding strokeplay of Amla and Smith, coupled with lots of pitch-flattening sunshine, meant the game was wrapped up within the morning session. I now find myself having to exchange my day four and five tickets for a domestic match.Interplay I enjoyed
At one point, it looked like Amla’s aggressive batting would deny Smith a deserved hundred. I don’t doubt the chat in the middle included a plea from the captain to Amla to block a few deliveries. Fortunately, and in fairytale fashion, Smith reached his century when South Africa needed two to win.Wow moment
At 11:11 on 11/11/2011, the Proteas needed 111 runs to win. The Newlands faithful were instructed to stand on one leg for one minute. For those who had already indulged in a couple of beers, this proved challenging! I can’t decide if watching grown men hop about is as funny as seeing all those 1s on the scoreboard is spooky. Either way, nothing out-of-the-ordinary today could compete with 21 for 9 – just ask the Aussies.Close encounter
President’s Pavilion, Block K, Row O. Right below the Australian balcony and almost directly behind the slip cordon, my friends and I are convinced it’s the ideal place to sit. The verbal protagonists must have gone to the beach instead of the cricket because I don’t recall hearing any of the usual heckling. However, one loud bare-chested man, wearing what looked like the South African flag as a pair of shorts, attempted to engage with Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke. Given his inaudible slurs, his efforts were met with laughs. Well, at least he gave the Aussie captain to smile about!Shot of the day
Amla brought up his fifty with a magnificent cover-drive off Mitchell Johnson. It was a half-volley, but he timed it superbly. Pure, unequivocal class.Crowd meter
The ground started to fill up as Capetonain cricket lovers slowly realised that the game would likely end before lunch. As is customary, the Oaks grass embankment was filled to capacity and provided the loudest cheers. They started a number of Mexican waves but the rest of the stadium simply couldn’t keep up. Smith and Amla each received a prolonged standing ovation when they brought up their respective hundreds. And debutant Vernon Philander’s effort was duly appreciated by his home crowd when he collected the Man-of-the-Match trophy.Fancy-dress index
Newlands was invaded by a group of Smurfs, a couple of Hashim Amla wannabees (complete with detachable beards) and a bunch of guys wearing watermelon hats, excessive body paint and green skirts. Just your average day at the cricket.Entertainment
Apart from the characters identified above, there wasn’t much entertainment. The PA system made sure the spectators knew when to ”do the Nelson” and drew our attention to the fact that Amla and Smith had broken the record for the highest second-wicket partnership by South Africa against the Aussies. After the post-match presentation, a cacophony of kids invaded the pitch.Accessories
Those pesky security personnel confiscated my Vuvuzela and I neglected to bring my binoculars. Nevertheless, I had a secure supply of water, great company and a good pair of UV-blocking shades. What more could one ask for?Tests v limited-overs
There is simply no comparison. A Twenty20 is a snack, an ODI is an early dessert and a Test match is a three-course meal. You can up the scoring rate in any format, but only Test cricket assesses the true stamina, ability and character of an international side.Banner of the day
There were very few banners around the ground. Someone thinks ”Hashim is King”, another believes Ricky Ponting should retire, and a young boy wanted the South African batsmen to hit a six in his direction. Without a doubt the best banner of the day was my friend Graham’s makeshift placard that referred to Smith finally scoring a hundred: ”Enjoy it while it lasts because it won’t happen for another few years”. Let’s hope he’s wrong.Marks out of 10
7.5. Although the match ended prematurely and the stadium was not near capacity, the atmosphere was fantastic, the passion of the crowd evident and the weather ideal. South Africa came from behind to register an unthinkable win, and Smith and Amla displayed their class in what proved to be a relatively easy chase. A good day at the office for a South African cricket fan.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the first day of the second Test between Pakistan and England in Abu Dhabi

George Dobell in Abu Dhabi25-Jan-2012Surprise (or not) of the day

The inclusion of Monty Panesar as one of a four-man attack marked a sharp departure from the norm for England. It was the first time they fielded two spinners as part of a four-man attack since December 2003, when they drew with Sri Lanka in Kandy. This was also the first time England had picked two specialist spinners since Panesar last played, in July 2009, against Australia in Cardiff. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised: excluding Tests against Bangladesh, England’s only victory in Asia in the last decade – at Mumbai in 2006 – came with an attack including two spinners.Shot of the day

England were on top; Pakistan had lost 4 for 53 – and 2 for 5 – and their fifth-wicket pair had faced 29 balls between them and scored just three from the bat. But if Misbah-ul-Haq was intimidated, he was not showing it. Instead of allowing England to crowd the bat with close fielders, he planted his left foot down the pitch and thumped Panesar for a six over long-on. And again next ball. On the face of things, it was as audacious as it was surprising but, with the field in, it was a relatively safe shot and forced Panesar to rethink his field. Remarkably, Misbah repeated the stroke twice in the final over of the day.Poor shot of the day

Asad Sahfiq had played so well. With his captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, he steered Pakistan away from the rocks with a partnership of 100 and registered his own 50. Playing straight and waiting for the poor ball had served him well. But suddenly he launched into a fierce sweep against a straight delivery and was hit in front. It was an unworthy end to a fine innings and led to Pakistan losing 3 for 40 at a time when they could have been consolidating.Drop of the day

The partnership between Misbah-up-Haq and Asad Shafiq was already worth 64 when Panesar drew Misbah forward, spun the ball away and took the outside edge. James Anderson, usually so reliable wherever he finds himself in the field, reacted late at slip and was unable to cling on to the chance. Misbah was on 30 at the time. Whether the batsman then turned to Anderson – à la Steve Waugh to Herschelle Gibbs in the 1999 World Cup – and remarked “You’ve just dropped the Alfalah Bank-presents-the-Mobilink Jazz Cup” seems unlikely. But it might well prove to be the moment that England allowed their best chance of fighting their way back into this series to go begging. Misbah finished the day unbeaten on 83.Disappointment of the day

It would be wrong to use the word “crowd” to describe the number of spectators at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. Low attendances at Tests aren’t unusual but the disappointment on this occasion was compounded by the fact that entry was free. It does beg the question: is international cricket sustainable in the UAE? The answer to that is unclear. While Pakistan are unable to play international cricket in their own country – and it will probably be some time before all Test-playing countries are happy to return – these grounds are well-placed to retain international cricket. But once Pakistan are able to host games again, who will play here?Delivery of the day

Graeme Swann set up Taufeeq Umar up beautifully with the delivery before the dismissal: a sharply spinning off break that drew Umar into a grope outside off stump. Swann then delivered a well-disguised arm ball that convinced Umar to shoulder arms and allow the ball to crash in to his off stump. Who needs a doosra?

The game is supposed to be in all sorts of trouble. But you wouldn’t know that from watching the BBL final

Scott Hazebroek29-Jan-2012Choice of game
With the Western Australia cricket trophy cabinet being quite bare recently, I wasn’t going to miss the chance to see the Scorchers win some silverware. The inaugural Big Bash League shaped up to be a ripper. The Scorchers had been in hot form, so I predicted them to win in a very close match.Team supported
Perth Scorchers.Weather
It was a… well… scorcher! It reached 42 degrees during the day, and was still 38 degrees when the game started at 5 o’clock. Luckily, it wasn’t very humid. However, the heat didn’t harm the Sixers, in the end.Key performer
Moises Henriques made a fantastic 70 off only 41 balls. It set up the platform for Sydney’s innings. But the game could have been a whole lot different if Brett Lee hadn’t removed Herschelle Gibbs off the first ball of the match and Luke Ronchi four balls later. It’s worth mentioning that Lee was booed by the crowd every time he went near the ball after that.One thing I’d have changed about the day
I would have made the first-ball Gibbs hook go 15 metres to the left or right of Dominic Thornely for four instead of straight into Thornely’s hands. If that ball had gone for four, anything could have happened.Face-off I relished
Although the contest ultimately lasted one ball, it was always going to be fascinating watching Lee v Gibbs. Lee won out this time. It was also good watching Henriques v Brad Hogg. Henriques started off well, but when Hogg got him stumped, he’d only scored eight runs off seven balls off Hogg. It was a great contest.Wow moment
Nathan Coulter-Nile bowled two superb overs early in the Sixers innings. They went for just three runs. The batsmen, Henriques and Steve O’Keefe, had no idea what to do. He got the crowd going. Unfortunately, he was smashed in his next spell!Close encounter
During the Scorchers innings, Ian Moran was fielding below me for most of the time at long-off/long-on. I didn’t see him give any autographs, and he wasn’t the subject of any heckling from the crowd. Moran had a quiet night in the field. When the Sixers were batting, Coulter-Nile was fielding below me for much of the innings. He didn’t seem to give out any signatures either. However, a high ball was hit towards him, but it sailed into the crowd for six. He did a little frustrated jump as it went over his head.Shot of the day
Having playing a reverse-paddle a few balls earlier, Paul Collingwood played an amazing reverse hook off Ian Moran. Although it could have gone anywhere, it outran Stuart MacGill to the third man boundary. It was awesome.Crowd meter
It was packed, all around the ground. There was a good atmosphere, although during the Sixers innings, some people started Mexican Waves and threw beach balls. Towards the end of the match there were a huge number of beer cup “snakes”. One almost stretched across a whole block! This gave the security men a job to do, and they were loudly booed whenever they took the cups away. One ball was smashed into the Lillee-Marsh stand and caught by a man on the other side of the stand. The “Hoggy” chant was once again popular, as most of the crowd obviously supported Perth. However, Hogg didn’t have his best night.Entertainment
Most of the songs were very similar to the ones in previous matches: “Good Old Collingwood Forever” and “Another One Bites the Dust” were two popular ones. theme song was played often too. There were several fire shooters and fireworks were shot out often when a four, six or wicket occurred. Once again the orange men were up to their silly antics and the butterfly ladies on stilts wandered around the ground. There was also a “kids zone” with various activities, including a weird boxing game, where you used a big soft pole to hit each other. I didn’t get it, even looking at it myself.Security
The head security guy obviously had some thoughts after seeing the security guards’ orange vests clashed with the Scorchers’ outfits. Security turned up in yellow tonight, and it was actually way easier to distinguish Perth.Twenty20 v ODIs?
This Big Bash has been one of the most exciting and entertaining series I’ve ever seen. I loved it and it made the one-dayers seem bland. The boundaries, wickets and catches have been awesome to watch, and I believe that Ryobi (one-day) Cup, and possibly even ODI, crowd numbers will suffer.Banner of the day
One banner said “Cricket is OK”. I thought it was quite clever, with all the talk of too many Twenty20s and ODIs, the DRS, illegal streaming, etc. this game showed that cricket is OK indeed.Marks out of 10
As a Scorchers fan, I’ll give it 7.5, but it was a good contest and the entertainment was getting closer to being (but not quite just yet) IPL-esque.Overall
The Sixers were good, the Scorchers were average, the crowd was distracted, the entertainment was nice, but I was disappointed the Scorchers couldn’t come through yet again.