Bangladesh’s capital has produced several of its leading Test players, and has a thriving club culture

06-Nov-2010The capital and largest city in Bangladesh, Dhaka is the country’s cricketing hub. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was the city’s international venue for many years, before the action shifted to the Shere Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) in Mirpur, a suburb of Dhaka, in 2006. The SBNS is the new, proud home of Bangladesh cricket. It also houses the Bangladesh Cricket Board-operated National Cricket Academy which churns out several promising cricketers. The academy uses the facilities at the SBNS at present, and is set to get its own state-of-the-art centre very soon.The city has a number of private cricket academies, including the government-run Bangladesh Institute of Sports (BKSP) where cricket is one of its major sports.The venue
The SBNS is situated about 10 kilometres outside the centre of Dhaka. The move from the Bangabandhu to Mirpur was met with much resistance, but the BCB had decided they needed a stadium dedicated exclusively to cricket, and carried on despite criticism. The venue is more than just a cricket ground. The triangular space underneath the stands has been used to the maximum, rented out as shop space. It houses perhaps the biggest furniture market in Dhaka. The shops shut when an international match is in progress. The grassless plot next to the venue is used for several simultaneous tape-ball games every evening and morning. The most striking feature of the ground is the impressive drainage facility.The stadium is undergoing a renovation ahead of the World Cup. The city has the privilege of hosting the opening ceremony on February 18, as well as the first match, between Bangladesh and India. It will host three more Group B games, as well two quarter-finals.Ground page | Fixtures | Map | PicturesGreat matches (Only two ODIs have been played at the new stadium)

Bangladesh v Zimbabwe, 5th ODI, December 2006

Bangladesh were made to sweat chasing a modest 194 and it was left to their captain Habibul Bashar to show the way with an ice-cool knock. They were coasting to victory before a middle-order collapse, orchestrated by Gary Brent, pegged them back. Bashar marshalled the lower order and saw his team to a 5-0 sweep.Bangladesh v New Zealand, 1st ODI, October 2008

One of Bangladesh’s more special wins against a major nation. It turned out to be quite a cakewalk with them coasting home by seven wickets after restricting a sorry New Zealand to 201. Mashrafe Mortaza did the early damage with a four-wicket haul, while Junaid Siddique and Mohammad Ashraful were the heroes with the bat, hitting 85 and 60 respectively.Bangladesh v Sri Lanka, tri-series, January 2009

The match that brought out the best in Shakib Al Hasan, the batsman. The game was almost a non-starter due to morning fog and bad light, but the elements were kind enough to allow a shortened 31-over game. After restricting the Sri Lankans to 147, the hosts started poorly, losing three for 11. But Shakib unfurled some brutal drives and sweeps against the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan to score an unbeaten 92 off just 69 balls, giving the crowd plenty to cheer after a frustrating morning.Top performers in ODIs
Most runs Tamim Iqbal, 801 runs at 30.80 | Top score Salman Butt, 129*
Most wickets Abdur Razzak, 37 wickets at 24.56 | Best bowling Abdur Razzak, 5 for 29Major players
Shakib Al Hasan | Mushfiqur Rahim | Shahadat Hossain | Naeem Islam | Naimur Rahman | Mohammad Ashraful | Mohammad Rafique | Javed Omar | Shahriar NafeesHome team
The stadium is the home base of Dhaka Division, one of the leading first-class sides in the country. They have won the National Cricket League first-class competitions in 2001-02, 2003-04, 2004-05, and 2006-07. They also won the one-day competition in 2006-07.

Australia’s win at Perth felt like a lifetime ago as they were blown away for 98 on Boxing Day

Peter English at the MCG26-Dec-2010This is what happens to Australia when Michael Hussey and Shane Watson fail. Following the bowler-inspired revival in Perth last week, the real Australia re-emerged after Hussey and Watson were unable to carry the batting line-up. Australia are currently so reliant on them and Brad Haddin at No.7 that it’s three-out, all-out. Today that left them with 98 in 42.5 overs and by the end of a Boxing Day to forget they were wicket-less and 59 behind.Hussey is having a fantastic series with 525 runs and Watson is in the middle of a solid one, but they picked bad times for their first single-figures contributions of the campaign. Not that this embarrassment was their fault. Just that with no superhero in the middle order with a cape marked H, and no muscular start from Watson, the side face-planted on the biggest occasion of the cricket calendar.It is not possible for two batsmen to cover for a top six throughout a five-match contest. Ricky Ponting (93), Michael Clarke (135), Phillip Hughes (30) and Steven Smith (49) have combined for less runs in the series than Watson’s 298. That has left a cavern for Hussey, Watson and Haddin to attempt to patch up, but today they ran out of putty.Buoyed by their stunning WACA performance, which looks more like a fluke with every session in Melbourne, Australia started on equal terms with England but quickly fell back through indiscipline and poor technique. Having been delivered a surface with life, they seemed to forget that their run-makers would have to survive against the moving ball, a perennial weakness. Sent in to deal with the seaming conditions, the batsmen kept aiming drives through cover instead of playing straight, edging to the cordon one lemming at a time.Bowlers are told to feed the slips and England’s were sated with eight of the ten catches, with the other two going to Kevin Pietersen at gully. Watson popped an edge to Pietersen after being dropped twice on the way to 5 while Hughes swung fiercely but misguidedly at one going away from him. He had spent an hour attempting to avoid such risk. Ponting started cautiously and correctly, ultimately doing well to get a nick on a Chris Tremlett ball that lifted and darted towards the slips. From 3 for 37, things really turned ugly.Hussey survived a couple of close lbw calls until driving at one going away eight minutes from lunch. Smith arrived to play and miss badly from his only ball before rain sent the players off and he was even less convincing when he returned. Only 21, Smith will be a fine cricketer in the future, but he owns a limited-overs technique and is desperate to follow the ball when it curves. When he saw James Anderson’s delivery leaving him he kept chasing it and was caught behind. More is expected from a Test No.6 in this type of situation.Five for 66 became 6 for 77 when Clarke did the same thing as Smith, reaching for a ball he could have left. Haddin drove hard and nicked to first slip while Mitchell Johnson was caught behind at the same score. In the end, 98 was better than expected.Such is the current frailty of the batting that it’s only necessary to look back six months for a smaller Australian total. They made 88 after winning the toss against Pakistan in Leeds in July when the ball seamed and swung. It has been a horrible year for the batsmen, whose first day of 2010 included them being dismissed for 127.The order has drifted with the ailing form of Ponting, a captain under immense pressure as he moves closer to becoming the second Australian to lose three Test series against England. Ponting finished the day fielding at mid-off due to his broken little finger and at times in his lonely position must have wondered if he would have been better off staying away.While he is a brave leader who will live with the consequences, he is now desperate for runs from a group that can’t be depended on to provide them. Ponting has become one of the unreliable, a shadow of his great days as a world-beating No.3. His men say they adore him, but not enough of them have been playing to keep him in charge. Last week Ponting experienced the fantasy of an Australian Ashes revival. Today he was back in reality.

If Bangladesh stay in the World Cup, it will do more than just give the competition life. It will give it boisterousness, it will give it energy, it will give it a new character. But South Africa are standing in the way.

Firdose Moonda in Mirpur18-Mar-2011The Lobby Café at the Sheraton Hotel where the South Africa and Bangladesh teams are staying emptied out faster than a stadium does after England beat West Indies. The romantic cricket-watching scene of noses pressed against glass with curious eyes straining to see the screen had played out when Andre Russell and Ramnaresh Sarwan were batting. When the collapse began, those cricket lovers disappeared, their hopes of Bangladesh easing into the quarter-finals gone with them.At the end, only one smiling policeman remained. “I am very happy,” he said. “I am very happy because if Bangladesh were to get into the quarter-finals because of the West Indies beating England, that is not good. They should rather get in by beating South Africa. That is very good.”Pride is what he was talking about. In recent weeks, Bangladesh have had plenty to be proud about. Their role as hosts of the World Cup is something that they are treasuring, something that they hope will put them on the global map in the same light as South Africa has been since the football World Cup. Tourists are welcomed with the words “Thank you for coming to Bangladesh,” Dhaka is transformed into something magical at night with fairy lights on all the streets and there are posters advertising the tournament and the team everywhere.The Bangladesh team are a dominant feature in the marketing campaign, because without them the tournament would hold far less value to the public. The team, in good touch before the event when they blanked New Zealand at home, came in as a strong contender to qualify for the knockout stage. It was the first time in the history of Bangladesh cricket that there was pressure on the team of this nature – the pressure of expectation – and now the moment has arrived where the limits of testing that pressure will be reached.Bangladesh could not have expected it to be easy – with India, South Africa and England in their group. They probably eyed West Indies as the soft targets, the men in decline with a record of inconsistency that could see them fold at some stage of a six-match league. That didn’t go according to plan and West Indies earned the most resounding of wins against them. It was a serious reality check of everything, from where they stand in world cricket to what they need to do to qualify for the quarter-finals.In a beautiful twist of irony, one of the things they needed was for West Indies to beat England. That would have given Bangladesh a clear passage to the knockouts. It meant that the same team whose bus was stoned, accidentally or not, when they beat Bangladesh, was being cheered on in earnest. It would have been a less dignified way to qualify for the quarters, but it would have been a way, and that may have been all that mattered.The team themselves don’t seem to have placed too much importance on the West Indies loss, knowing that they can’t expect favours on the road to success. Shakib Al Hasan didn’t even watch the whole match. “When Chris Gayle was batting, I was watching. After that, I watched Hindi movies,” he said. It may have been that he wanted to get away from the cricket for a while, but it’s likely that he was avoiding the goings-on in Chennai because he wanted to get the mindset right and it seems he has.”We have to fight to get to the quarter-finals ourselves,” he said. It’s a tough ask, but they can take comfort in knowing that the World Cup has usually provided the stage to pull off a big upset. In 1999, they did it against Pakistan, in 2007 they did it twice, to make up for not doing it in 2003. First, they axed a giant, beating India by five wickets and ultimately sending them out of the tournament. Then, they were a banana skin for South Africa in the Super Eights, something that will no doubt be a source of motivation ahead of tomorrow’s match.Bangladesh are enjoying their role as World Cup hosts•Associated PressThe biggest inspiration should come from within though. Bangladesh have made strides towards being a credible cricketing nation in the recent past. Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, said the “knockouts will make the World Cup because it will feature the best teams in the world.” Bangladesh would dearly love to be counted among those.Beyond wins over Associates and the odd triumph against Zimbabwe, they whitewashed the West Indies away from home and did the same against New Zealand. The only way they can prove how much they have improved and how seriously they can be taken is with their actions on the cricket field.Their fans will come into the fray – with the passion they are showing for the game seeing Bangladesh talked about as the new market for cricket. It’s no secret that keeping a host in a tournament for as long as possible keeps interest alive in the event, but for this host to stay in the tournament will do more than just give the competition life. It will give it boisterousness, it will give it energy, it will give it a new character.It will give all those people the reasons they need to keep believing and to keep supporting. It will bring back those who turned away from the café, because they didn’t think Bangladesh could do it for themselves.At the far end of that restaurant a few South African players were sitting as the support dwindled. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Morne van Wyk, Colin Ingram and Johan Botha watched with amused smiles as the West Indies did the ch— better than South Africa in Chennai. They saw, first-hand, what it will mean for the public if Bangladesh get through and they will be braced for a tough fight when the players step onto the Shere Bangla field.

The third over of Bangalore’s innings, bowled by Prasanth Parameswaran, cost 37 runs. Here’s how Chris Gayle did it

ESPNcricinfo staff08-May-20112.1 SIX, Sorry, it’s Gayle who is into the attack, makes room, gets under a length ball, opens the face, and clears point easily.
2.2 (no ball) SIX, this is ridiculous. Demolition. Slower ball, in his swinging arc, and he lofts it over point again. What’s more? It’s a no-ball.
2.2 FOUR, Short ball, at this gentle pace, murdered past midwicket.
2.3 FOUR, Mahela said at the toss he had plans for Gayle. Right. The plan seems to have four to five men on the off-side circle and bowl back of a length. PP does just does that, and he punches it between extra cover and cover.
2.4 SIX, Carnage. Gayle makes room, wallops a length ball over cover. He has taken this Go Green campaign seriously, and will finish this before flood lights can come on
2.5 SIX, Where do you hide when Dilshan and Gayle are going like this? He is toying around with them. Comes down the track and goes straight this time. 91 metres. Over the sight screen.
2.6 FOUR, inside edge, but that too goes wide of the keeper for four. This is robbery in day light. Bangalore are demolishing Kochi. In case you didn’t notice, 37 runs came off this over.

The batting line-ups of both teams have been inconsistent, but Pakistan’s better bowling attack gives them the edge

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan22-Mar-2011Despite there being few doubts about Pakistan qualifying for the knockout stages, their top position in the group stages has come as a bit of a surprise. Their performances over the years have always been characterised by sheer unpredictability, which makes them a formidable opponent on any given day. As per their seeding, Pakistan were expected to finish behind Australia and Sri Lanka, and beat New Zealand. But what happened was quite the opposite. They pulled off stunning wins over Sri Lanka and Australia, ending the latter’s 34-match unbeaten streak in World Cups. However, they lost heavily against New Zealand after an inept batting and bowling performance. West Indies, who were expected to face stern tests against Bangladesh and the other two lower-ranked teams, comfortably triumphed in the three matches. They bowled Bangladesh out for just 58 in Mirpur and went on to ensure their qualification for the next round. What has been less inspiring is their performance against the top teams. While they were not expected to topple India, England or South Africa, they have had their chances in all three teams and failed to grab them.Pakistan better against top teams
West Indies have been more ruthless than Pakistan in the matches against the lower-ranked teams. They beat Netherlands by 215 runs and thrashed Bangladesh in Mirpur by nine wickets. Pakistan, on the other hand, comfortably got past Zimbabwe and Kenya, but fell for 184 against Canada before eventually defending the score with some disciplined bowling. In matches played against lower-ranked teams, West Indies have the better average and run-rate difference. The story is very different against the top teams. West Indies have a poorer bowling average and economy rate than Pakistan. West Indies, who have chased and lost on two out of three occasions against top teams, might prefer to bat first and post a big score against Pakistan, who floundered in a big chase against New Zealand. In 1996, fourth-placed West Indies faced top-ranked South Africa in the quarter-finals and pulled off an incredible win defending 264, which was set up by a stunning century by Brian Lara. One of their batsmen will have to stand up and deliver a similar emphatic performance for them to upstage Pakistan.

Batting woes for both teams
Pakistan and West Indies have finished top and bottom of their respective groups, but the batting performances of both teams have been inconsistent. In the match against Sri Lanka, Pakistan’s batting came good and enabled them to post an excellent score of 277 which they defended successfully. Against Australia, Pakistan’s brittle batting was nearly exposed while chasing a modest 176. New Zealand, however, thoroughly exploited the weaknesses in Pakistan’s top order, by reducing them to 23 for 4 in pursuit of 303, from which Pakistan never recovered. Pakistan’s top order has been unconvincing except for Asad Shafiq, who top-scored against Zimbabwe and Australia. Their middle order has been doing much better, but is likely to be severely tested if faced with a competitive target and quality bowling attack.West Indies’ problems have been quite the opposite. Strong starts in almost every game have been frittered away and incredible middle order collapses have meant that they have finished well short. After the early loss of Chris Gayle against South Africa, they recovered and looked set to reach a score of 280 before a flurry of wickets in the end kept them down to just 222. Gayle provided an explosive start against England but again the middle order failed to capitalise. In their final group game against India, West Indies lost their last eight wickets for just 34 runs and lost by 80 runs after being in a comfortable position in their chase of 269.

Powerplay performances reflect batting worries
The consistent batting performance of the top order of West Indies is clearly reflected in the stats in the mandatory and bowling Powerplays. Their batting average and run rate are much higher than Pakistan’s in the same phase of the innings. However, Pakistan have been the more incisive and economical bowling team in the first ten overs. The powerful lower-middle order of Pakistan has scored at a run rate close of 9.81 in the batting Powerplay. In the same period, though, West Indies have been unable to create an impact as a result of major middle-order collapses.

The batting for both teams has been a let down in the tournament so far. Not surprisingly, Devon Smith is the only batsman from both teams to figure in the top 20 run-getters in the tournament so far. Kieron Pollard and Gayle have been good on occasions, but will need to step up if West Indies are to challenge the top teams in the knockout games. Not a single Pakistan batsman figures among the top 20 run-getters with Umar Akmal coming in much later on the list with 211 runs.Pakistan the better balanced bowling side
Shahid Afridi, the most successful bowler in the World Cup with 17 wickets, could be a huge threat to West Indies, given that they haven’t been comfortable against spin. Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq found form against Australia, and the right blend of pace and spin gives Pakistan a bowling edge over most teams. Pakistan’s pace bowlers have been more impressive against right-handers, though, and the presence of a number of left-hand batsmen in the top order of West Indies could be a test for Pakistan’s bowlers.The West Indies pace attack has been quite a revelation all through, with Kemar Roach and Andre Russell being the pick of the bowlers. Ravi Rampaul also impressed with a five-wicket haul against India, and could get another game despite the return of Roach. Devendra Bishoo has been quite economical in the two games he has played, while Sulieman Benn did well in Mirpur against Bangladesh. Like Pakistan’s attack, West Indies’ bowlers have also relished bowling to right-handers.

Even record in recent times
In recent head-to-head clashes in global tournaments, the teams have been evenly matched. Pakistan won by five wickets in their most recent meeting in the Champions Trophy while West Indies won comfortably in their last World Cup meeting in the opening game of the 2007 World Cup. West Indies have an 8-3 record in global tournaments against Pakistan. Since 1999 though, both teams have won two games each when they have met in the World Cup and Champions Trophy. Overall, in matches played since 2000, Pakistan enjoy a much better record.Mirpur, the venue for the match, has generally been a good batting wicket, but stats here are distorted because of the two batting failures by Bangladesh, when they were bowled out for 58 and 78 against West Indies and South Africa respectively. In recent games teams chasing have done much better in Mirpur, but in a crucial knockout game batting first might be the better option.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Pune Warriors

Siddarth Ravindran29-Apr-2011Welcome back
Kamran Khan made his name with a nerveless Superover against the Kolkata Knight Riders two years ago, shackling the likes of Chris Gayle to set up a Rajasthan Royals victory in Cape Town. He was up against Gayle again in his return to the big time, and this time it was Gayle who emerged triumphant. Kamran was dismantled in his first over as Gayle walloped him for two sixes and two fours.The crowd catch
There were some questioning the wisdom off Bangalore’s decision to retain Virat Kohli. He continued to prove the naysayers wrong with another outstanding innings during which he took over as the tournament’s leading run scorer. Two deliveries after taking the orange cap from Sachin Tendulkar, Kohli played the shot of the innings: a fluid whip which sent a full delivery on the pads screaming over the backward square leg boundary. The fielders watched helplessly, but a man in the crowd snaffled it, on the second attempt.The crowd silencer
Bangalore were on top for most of the match, with Gayle and Kolhi giving the crowd plenty to cheer. Perhaps the only time that the Chinnaswamy crowd was anxious was during Yuvraj Singh’s onslaught on left-arm-spinner Syed Mohammad in the 16th over. The decibel levels dropped in the stadium as Yuvraj bludgeoned six, four and six off the first three deliveries to signal that Pune Warriors weren’t finished, though the asking-rate was nearing 15.Killing the contest
With most of Pune’s batsmen struggling to time the ball, hopes of a miraculous back-from-the-dead win rested with Yuvraj. Zaheer Khan has got used to being called on whenever the team is in trouble, at both franchise and international level. He was given the ball in the 17th over, and he duly delivered, getting Yuvraj to slice the ball to midwicket and end Pune’s chances.

Before the World Cup, both struggling for form. Now, they have a partnership that will go down as one of India’s most memorable one-day stands

Sharda Ugra at Motera25-Mar-2011Two left-hand batsmen, two diverse career paths, one partnership. Within a week, India will truly understand just how far Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina took them in this World Cup. On Thursday night, Yuvraj and Raina left Motera like the man they have named its cricket ground after. They were their team’s iron men who held up against the driving will of four-time world champions Australia and at the Sardar Patel stadium, lifted their team into the World Cup semi-final.Their partnership and its significance resonated well after everyone inside Motera had left; the two exhausted and emotionally-spent teams and the 42,000-odd spectators who produced a monstrous wave of sound and support for the Indians. The pigeons who reside in the stadium roof burst into rounds of startled night flight over the cricketers below them as Yuvraj and Raina gave wings to India’s World Cup aspirations. Despite four fifties and a century in the match, their sixth-wicket stand of 74 over 10.1 overs was the highest of the game.Before this World Cup, Yuvraj had been dogged by injury and poor form, his image as a cricketer tattered and taunted at. At the same time, Suresh Raina seceded the young batting tyro spot to Virat Kohli, and was on the verge of finding himself regularly edged out of the Indian World Cup XI due to the power-hitting gifts of Yusuf Pathan. He, first stepped into the team only for the last group game in Chennai, an injury to Virender Sehwag settling that debate for one night. The Raina for Pathan swap in Ahmedabad had been, Dhoni said, because “Raina is technically better and we were keen on batting 50 overs.” Raina rested his own case with emphasis on Thursday night.When he arrived at the crease, there were 12.3 overs left in which India needed 74 more runs with five wickets remaining. It looked reasonable but a clutch of middle-order wickets – Gautam Gambhir was goofishly run-out, Virat Kohli hit a full toss right into Michael Clarke’s hands and Dhoni cut Brett Lee in his second spell straight to point – had brought about a rumbling of anxiety. One more wicket and the tail was exposed. One more mistake and India could say good bye to its World Cup. These were not Associates nor main line underperformers, these were the monstrous Australians, non-stop World Cup winners for 12 years, men capable of ripping throats to extract victory.At the other end, Yuvraj watched with alarm as Lee’s stinging wicket maiden sent Dhoni back. It was, he said afterwards, “a bit of a shock” to lose a trusted partner. It was his ever-growing World Cup equanimity, that had him coolly set about making new calculations. “I just thought that if I could have a 30-40 run partnership with Suresh, we can take it till the end,” Yuvraj said.Through this World Cup, Yuvraj has remained the fulcrum of India’s batting; the centre who has held it together through top-order wobbles and Powerplay collapses. He told Raina to ignore the climbing asking rate and take his time. “I told him I know we are chasing a run-rate of six, but play a few balls, see what is happening around and let us get a 20-30 run partnership.”Raina began his innings with three dot balls from Lee’s wicket maiden and the bowlers were shown respect in four of the next 11 balls. In the first half of his 28 ball innings, Raina was made to play seven of his eight dot balls. Once the frugal few were out of the way, he did his best to rotate strike for Yuvraj and put his head above water, to pounce on anything slightly lenient by the bowling.It was as if using the drib-drab philosophy of these two partners is what broke Australia and its ambitions down. The fielding still stayed committed but the backups began to get wayward, bodies were flung in the direction of the ball but the throws began to return to the centre of the wicket. Ricky Ponting called his two 6th wicket adversaries, “terrific.” Their control of their innings, he said, “didn’t allow us back in the game.” It was a typical Raina innings, as support cast to senior colleague, but what made it exceptional was where it had materialised. In a World Cup knock out game against a high quality opposition. Men of lesser will could have melted.Again, it was Raina who broke free the spell of the Brett Lee wicket maiden with a muscular pull to the boundary in his very next over. Two balls later Yuvraj stepped in with two boundaries to attack the rhythm and confidence of the opposition’s leading strike bowler. It is perhaps 40th over that actually established that the match was now India’s for the taking.Yuvraj said Raina had a run of average games earlier but Thursday’s performance, “showed Suresh’s nerve in a very crucial stage.That must have given him a lot of confidence,” Raina on Thursday was more than second fiddle to an older partner. He was a more than handy decoy for diverting the aggressive attention of the bowlers. In Ahmedabad, Raina was the perfect foil to Yuvraj’s epee. The senior man laid out for his younger colleague the manner in which to lead a chase, by breaking it down to a simple instruction, to stay grounded. The ball on terra firma, the eyes focussed on the next clutch of runs, to obliterate panic through partnership.When Yuvraj crossed his fifty, there was no bat-stabbing at those sitting outside the dressing room. He just put his head down and crossed over to his crease because his job was not actually over. When it did end, close to 11pm, the winning runs were manufactured by a flashy, lofted cover drive over the infield. He then broke free, pulled out a football-style slide on the turf and let himself roar. Raina sprinted across the length of the pitch and leapt into his arms, the PA system began playing thumping celebratory music and the ground began to reverberate.This partnership will entrench iself in India’s ODI folklore. It will be remembered alongside other stands like Ganguly-Dravid in Taunton, in the 1999 World Cup, or Yuvraj-Kaif in the 2002 Natwest Trophy final or Dravid-Yuvraj in the 2003 World Cup game against Pakistan in Centurion. Yuvraj’s presence in three of India’s most memorable one-day stands has already set him aside to be thought of, according to Sanjay Manjrekar, as “one of the all time greats in 50 overs cricket.” If Raina pays close attention, he may be able to understand what it takes to get that far.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the second semi-final of the Champions League T20, between Somerset and Mumbai Indians in Chennai

Nitin Sundar at the MA Chidambaram Stadium08-Oct-2011The terror throw
The strip may have been slow and low, but that did not completely protect the batsmen from safety hazards. In the second over of the game, Aiden Blizzard worked Steve Kirby straight to wide mid-on, and Sarul Kanwar sprinted halfway down the pitch in search of an optimistic single. He changed his mind quickly, but had to dive to ensure he would reach his crease in time. The throw was, however, off target and thudded straight into Kanwar’s throat even as he tumbled into the crease. For a fleeting moment, one wondered if the tournament organisers might consider restoring Mumbai Indians’ fifth-foreign-player privilege, but Kanwar was back on his feet soon.The persistent placement
Roelof van der Merwe’s darts, fired in from wide of the crease, are not the easiest to carve inside-out through cover-point. Somebody forgot to inform R Sathish, though, as he backed away and uncorked the wrists twice in the space of three balls in the 18th over. The first time, Arul Suppiah at deep cover put in an athletic effort on the boundary to keep him down to two. Sathish was, however, rewarded on his second attempt as Suppiah made a mess of a marginally easier save.The fast full tosses
When faced with a slow pitch, don’t pitch the ball. Lasith Malinga took the strip out of the equation right at the start of Somerset’s chase. His first ball was a low full toss delivered just outside off stump at some pace. Peter Trego wasn’t even close to getting bat on it, and looked bewildered as the thunderbolt shot past him. The next ball was faster, straighter, fuller, and swinging away even more viciously. Trego was squared up by the yorker as he tried in vain to cover the line, and looked back in shock to see the ball nearly carry to Harbhajan Singh at slip after shattering the stumps. In his next over, The full length continued to work well for Malinga through the game, and he literally yorked Somerset out of the competition.The replaced retriever
Suryakumar Yadav’s inclusion meant Andrew Symonds was consigned to carrying the drinks today. He had more work to do, though, than he would have imagined. In the fifth over of the chase, James Hildreth skipped out of the crease twice to Yuzvendra Chahal and played the lofted on-drive. Mumbai did not have a fielder inside the park to save the boundary, but Symonds was on hand just beyond the boundary line. Both times, he moved quickly to his right from the team’s dug-out and stuck out a nonchalant right arm out to stop the ball before it crashed into the advertising hoardings.The half-hearted gaffe
Overthrows are generally a result of over-eagerness, but not if you are Chahal. James Hildreth played the last ball of Chahal’s third over back to the bowler. Chahal picked the ball up, and since the over had come to an end, prepared to pass the ball to the wicketkeeper. He then realised that Hildreth was in the way, and tried to stop himself from throwing. The result was a half-hearted lob that carried easily over Ambati Rayudu’s head and allowed the batsmen to sneak a freebie.The bewildered batsman
In the 14th over of the chase, Hildreth walked across his stumps towards silly point and attempted to sweep Harbhajan Singh with the turn. The ball happened to be a topspinner than hurried on to Hildreth, who played it onto his stumps. He was completely befuddled by the dismissal, though, since he was looking at backward square leg when he attempted the shot. He looked on, bewildered, at the broken stumps, and even seemed to suggest that the wicketkeeper may have disturbed them with his gloves, before trudging off disconsolately.The fateful forearm
With Somerset needing boundaries in the penultimate over of the chase, Jos Buttler butchered a full toss from James Franklin straight back down the ground. The non-striker Craig Kieswetter was charging down for the single, and was in no position to react when he found the muscular blow was heading straight at him. Kieswetter was a deer caught in the headlights as the ball thudded sickeningly into his left forearm, denying Somerset a sure boundary, and all momentum.

Twenty-three wickets in all, Australia’s ludicrous scoreline of 21/9 and a selection of other exotic ingredients went into producing one of the most exhilarating days of Test cricket

Siddarth Ravindran10-Nov-2011Australia’s lowest score in a century:
You’ve just rolled over the opposition in a little over two hours and taken a substantial first-innings lead. Time to return and pummel the dispirited opponents into the ground. Like the Australia of old. Nope. The visitors imploded to 47 all out, their tiniest total since 1902.The run-rate:
When the bowlers are dominating to the extent they did today, it would be natural for the batsmen to decide to shut shop and bide their time. Instead this was a day in which nearly 300 runs were scored in less than 80 overs, at the decidedly brisk Test run-rate of 3.7.The last-wicket pair doubling the score:
Australia did tumble to an embarrassingly miniscule total, but it could have been infinitely worse were it not for the tail-enders Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon. At 21 for 9, Australia were staring at the ignominy of subsiding for the lowest score in Test history. The final wicket pair were the only ones to get into double-digits – Siddle’s unbeaten 12 was enough to briefly make him one of the world’s most discussed topics on Twitter, while No.11 Lyon’s 14 was the top score of the innings.Watson’s five-for:
Lyon’s topping the batting chart complemented the fact that the man at the top of the batting order grabbed the most wickets for Australia. It had been a fairly anonymous day till lunch – Australia’s tail hung on gamely for a while after which South Africa put on 49 for 1. Shane Watson was given the ball to kick off the second session, prompting an astonishing South African collapse. In a 21-ball stretch he waylaid the batting, completing one of the quickest five-wicket hauls in Test history.An unlikely destroyer:
Coming into this Test, discussions of South Africa’s bowling threat centred on the fast-bowling pair of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. The legspinner Imran Tahir was less known, but seen as a new breed of South African slow bowler, one who attacks instead of being content with containment. The third seamer was generally pointed to as the weak link, but it was the man filling that role, debutant Vernon Philander, who ripped through the heart of Australia’s batting, finishing with 5 for 15 in seven overs – not as dramatically rapid as Watson, but impressive nonetheless.All four innings in a day:
This Test joined select company when both teams batted twice in a day, a feat that has occurred only twice in the previous 2015 Tests. The only other occasions were when India and New Zealand played out a thriller in rainy Hamilton in 2002, and when West Indies were blown away for 54 by England in 2000.The DRS dramas:
An extraordinary nine decisions were reviewed on the day, prompting one television commentator to quip that he hoped the TV umpire was paid as much as the on-field officials. Those nine included an Australian hot streak of successive successful referrals which accounted for the big three of South Africa’s batting – Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers – leaving the innings in shambles at 77 for 6.The drops:
In a match featuring two of the best fielding sides in the world, on a day with 23 wickets went down, you’d expect every chance to have been gobbled up. Instead, three regulation chances were grassed, including a potentially pivotal one from Hashim Amla off the final ball before stumps.Rudolph’s return:
Like the old cliche about London buses, Jacques Rudolph waited a long time for a Test innings, only to have two turn up one after the other . With a bucketload of runs behind him in domestic cricket, Rudolph walked out in the morning for his first Test innings since August 2006. He was dismissed for 18 before lunch but got another opportunity to showcase his Test batting skills after tea, this time making 14. “It must be some sort of record. I’ve finished my batting and my fielding within two days – and we had rain yesterday,” Rudolph later joked.Mr Cricket’s flop:
Michael Hussey came into this match on the back of three consecutive Man-of-the-Match awards in the Sri Lankan Test series, during which he stacked 463 runs in five innings, took blinders in the field and even made breakthroughs with his dibbly-dobbly bowling. Today, he picked up a duck to go with Wednesday’s 1, and also shelled a straightforward chance from Amla at slip.Kallis’ duck:
Another of the game’s most reliable batsmen also flopped. Since December 2007, Kallis has put together a stretch of 56 Test innings without a duck, a run that finally came to an end today at his home ground, where he has a particularly formidable record.

Jason Gillespie’s stint as the their coach coincided with a period of off-field improvement for the Zimbabwean franchise. But now they need to dig lower

Firdose Moonda04-Mar-2012Zimbabwe’s Richard Muzhange has moulded his yorker on the one Australia’s Jason Gillespie used to bowl. He fires it in fast, aims low and produces late inswing. On one of the 16 turf nets at the Kwekwe Sports Club in the Midlands, he practises it over and over again, motivated not by a magazine clipping or television footage of Gillespie, but by a lucid memory.”Because Jason showed him how to bowl the yorker, he knows how to do it now and he wants to make sure he gets it right every time,” said Kenyon Ziehl, chief executive of the Mid-West Rhinos, where Muzhange plays his franchise cricket.The Rhinos are one of the less glamorous of Zimbabwe’s five franchises. They have not won a trophy since the competition was introduced in 2009 but are steadily improving. For the past two seasons they have had the expertise of Gillespie to guide them. His enthusiasm resulted in the discovery and grooming of seamers Muzhange and Michael Chinouya, both among the top wicket-takers on the domestic scene, and generated an air of excitement and hope in the squad as a whole. “We’ve discovered a lot of young bowlers here and things are looking very promising,” Ziehl said.Most visitors to Zimbabwe do not venture further afield than Harare or Bulawayo but Gillespie did. He was offered the job with the Rhinos in 2010, when his youngest son was only nine weeks old. He was tempted by the opportunity to coach a first-class team but says he did not take the decision lightly. “My thoughts focused on how I can develop my coaching, how I could help the Rhinos players individually and as a team, how grassroots cricket could be improved,” Gillespie said.He found a fairly basic facility that had deteriorated during what Ziehl calls Zimbabwe’s “lean years” – the mid 2000s. The structure of a multi-purpose sports facility that had hosted an ODI (against Kenya in December 2002) was there, but it needed serious sprucing up. With funding from Zimbabwe Cricket and bits of sponsorship, Kwekwe began to transform.”The change has been immense,” Gillespie said. “There is a swimming pool and gym, and the new turf training facility, once fully completed, will compete with Harare and Bulawayo as the best net training set-up in the country. The old scoreboard from Harare is now in Kwekwe, and hopefully by next season it will be operational.”What inspired Gillespie was the personnel. In an area thirsting for cricket development, he found players eager to learn and succeed. When the franchise system was formed, Zimbabwe Cricket ensured the national players were evenly distributed across the five franchises. The Rhinos were given current captain Brendan Taylor, opening batsman Vusi Sibanda, legspinner Graeme Cremer and allrounder Malcolm Waller. Most of the other players at the franchise were also from the main centres.Finding and grooming local talent – one of the few national players actually born and brought up in Kwekwe is Charles Coventry who plays for Bulawayo’s Matabeleland Tuskers – was essential, and Gillespie found that it was difficult.

In late 2011, the Australian embassy funded the building of a ground in Mbizo, a high-density area just outside Kwekwe. Mahindra, the Indian automobile manufacturer, also lent support, and Gillespie and members of the Rhinos squad held coaching clinics for the local children

Zimbabwe Cricket cannot afford to maintain more domestic competitions than the current franchise system caters for, so all second-team tournaments were cancelled. Players who came to training but did not make the first XI were often demotivated by the lack of opportunity. “We had upwards of 20 players coming to all the skills and fitness sessions for months on end and [they would] then be told there was no cricket,” Gillespie said. “Their only cricket was club cricket. It’s difficult to judge a player’s form from sporadic club cricket and net form, and the frustrations of the lads were quite clear.”Like in most of Zimbabwe, Kwekwe’s club structures are virtually non-existent because of lack of funds. Matches are infrequent and the standard is poor. Ziehl said it was one of his goals in the next few seasons to revive club cricket in the area. “We hope to get a proper league system going so our development can kick on from there.”Financial support and interest have increased, so Ziehl’s ambition is not unrealistic. In late 2011, the Australian embassy funded the building of a ground in Mbizo, a high-density area just outside Kwekwe. Mahindra, the Indian automobile manufacturer, also lent support, and Gillespie and members of the Rhinos squad held coaching clinics for the local children. “We simply wanted kids to have fun. I must credit the players for making themselves available to come and teach these kids the basics of the game which they enjoyed immensely,” Gillespie said.Such initiatives will allow more players like Muzhange to start competing with established franchise players for places, which Gillespie thinks is crucial. “The first-class players in the country are not being challenged from below, and for the standard to improve across the board, more consistent and meaningful cricket is needed at the lower level,” he said.For that to happen, a more aggressive effort has to be made to take the game to the people, by building facilities in areas that previously had none – Gillespie is passionate about Chitungwiza, a suburb south of Harare, being given a franchise – and assistance from foreign players like him. The Rhinos have two international players, Gary Balance (born in Zimbabwe but who is aiming for England qualification) and Riki Wessels, son of former South African captain Kepler, playing for them.Wessels senior has also played an informal consultancy role with the franchise, which may become official in the coming season. The Rhinos are on the hunt for a new coach because Gillespie has taken up a position with Yorkshire and settled his family in Leeds. “We were very happy to have Jason with us for two seasons,” Ziehl said. “He took a gamble coming here and he made a big difference.”Gillespie hopes to continue contributing, and said a part of his heart remains in Zimbabwe. “I have made some great friends in Zimbabwe and I love the country, the people and the lifestyle. My business back in Australia has an agency agreement with Cricket Tours Africa to bring cricket teams from Australia out to Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya,” he said. I believe I can help promote Zimbabwe as a cricketing option for players and coaches by communicating my experiences in Zimbabwe over the last couple of years.”