All posts by n8rngtd.top

The Pakistan captain has had some time to reassess his career and he is looking forward to leading the team during the three Tests in the Caribbean in April

Umar Farooq18-Feb-20171:11

‘Enjoying the game again’ – Misbah-ul-Haq

Pakistan tour of WI 2017

1st T20I, March 31, Port of Spain
2nd T20I, April 2, Port of Spain
1st ODI, April 7, Providence
2nd ODI, April 9, Providence
3rd ODI, April 11, Providence
Tour game, April 15-17, Trelawny
1st Test, April 22-26, Kingston
2nd Test, April 30-May 4, Bridgetown
3rd Test, May 10-14, Roseau

Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan Test captain, has said he is “most likely” to be on the tour to West Indies in March with the PCB open to his playing another series before taking a call on his retirement.Misbah has been under immense scrutiny having led the team to six successive defeats in Test cricket, although it was under him that Pakistan were ranked No. 1 in the format last year. A dip in his batting form and his being 42 years old added to the drama that reached its peak after the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last year when Misbah admitted to being unsure about his future as a cricketer. He has since had time to reassess and is in a better frame of mind.”It was tough on me recently with my form but now overall everything is going well so far,” Misbah told ESPNcricinfo. “I am spending time in middle, hitting the ball pretty well. Played practice matches before the PSL started and had sessions of range hitting so getting confidence with every passing game.”I am also enjoying the game so it’s most likely that I am going to the West Indies. I always believed if had to go [and play cricket] then I have to go with form and confidence otherwise there was no point of going.”ESPNcricinfo understands that the PCB and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq are putting plans in place for a smooth transition by which Pakistan can move on from the senior players like Misbah and Younis Khan. Recent meetings between the board and the selection panel have indicated their preference for having one captain for all formats but Shaharyar Khan, who has the constitutional right as PCB chief to appoint the captain, is happy to leave the call with Misbah himself. “We will respect Misbah’s decision, whatever it is. But if he is willing to play then he is my captain.”Misbah has led Pakistan in more Tests than any other player, and the 24 wins in his tenure is a national record as well. However, in comparison with some of his peers – Imran Khan or Javed Miandad – he has also lost a lot more matches. Misbah’s contribution as batsman has been significant. Since he took charge of Pakistan in 2010, he averages 50.55 which is on par with the best in history.Head coach Mickey Arthur has been in talks with Misbah as well regarding his future. Both of them are currently in the UAE for the Pakistan Super League. “I am scheduled to have another chat with Misbah next week and we will see how that all transpires. The one thing that for certain is Misbah has been fantastic for Pakistan cricket. He has been a great leader and he has been a great servant and he deserves all the accolades that he will get eventually whether that is now or whenever he does go. So I can’t shed any more lights on that because I don’t know and I am not even sure that Misbah knows it himself.”

On the field, Mashrafe Mortaza performs one of the most thankless jobs in cricket: spearhead the fast bowling attack of a subcontinent team

Sidharth Monga in Chittagong18-May-2007

There’s a mad man loose at the Bangladesh nets. It has been raining incessantly in Chittagong; the third one-dayer between Bangladesh and India looks improbable, and the players have moved to the indoor facility. Mashrafe Mortaza spots a mini football and wants to dribble past his friend Abdur Razzak. Next, he wants to keep heading it forever – cap in one hand, the other gesturing towards the forehead, as though saying “I have magic there, I can make it talk with my head”. He wants Syed Rasel to bowl him bouncers with that ball and he hooks them. He wants to beat up Rasel and chases him all over the nets. He aims with the ball from one end and hits Rasel smack in the head. All the while his face, his hands and legs keep moving, expressing, telling the story. This isn’t body language, more a conference of polyglots.On the field, Mortaza performs one of the most thankless jobs in cricket: spearhead the fast bowling attack of a subcontinent team. He does that remarkably well. Only a few days ago, he had missed a match because of injury. On his comeback, the first ball flew at 86mph.Where does he get all this energy from? “I think I am strong,” he says with a confidence that in anyone else would have sounded arrogant. Mortaza’s strength comes from his first love: the river Chitra, which flows just opposite his house in Narail. “I loved swimming from childhood; I’d swim, with friends or kids tied to my back, from noon to 3 pm or so.” He also had a penchant for climbing coconut trees; on his wedding day last September, one of his guests joked that there were no coconuts. Mortaza made for the nearest tree in a flash; it took a lot of effort to keep him down. Anyway, he swam in the Chitra that night.His team-mates and friends call him , an affectionate term loosely translated as madman. “Maybe I am a bit like that”, he acknowledges. When he was young – he’s 23 now – he was a veritable circus on the road. “I did a lot of tricks with my bike.” When he was younger still, he would jump 20 feet off a bridge and on to moving trucks. “I used to do it everyday. Not now,” he says. “I have stopped the bike antics too. My father doesn’t like it. He thinks as a player I shouldn’t be doing all this.”Mortaza was so in love with Narail that he didn’t like travelling. At the age of 17, a grand-uncle who was a coach at Dhaka’s Mohammedan Sporting club, asked Mortaza to join the team, which was short of players, for a match about an hour’s journey from Narail. He agreed only after his grandmother convinced him, and took six wickets against Kashim City. He returned, but the bug had bitten; soon he was bound for the under-17 zonal camp, where he was picked by Malcolm Pareira for a tour of Sri Lanka; then to the under-19 side, and finally the national side. All this, and stints with Andy Roberts too.The lows are as clear in his mind as the highs. Mortaza remembers the worst day of his career. “Once Zimbabwe [at Harare last August] needed 17 runs off the last over.” He looks down, smiles, and says, “I gave them. That was the worst day for me.” The simplicity conveys the anguish.Dav Whatmore, the coach, was good support then. “He said, ‘When you wake up the next day, it will be hard for you. But don’t worry, just keep working.'” A day later, Mortaza was heard telling a friend, “This will never happen to me again. Even if I try to do it, this will never happen.”He remembers when he dropped Ricky Ponting in the Fatullah Test last year, a catch which, if taken, might well have caused the biggest upset in cricket history. “There was a breeze, and I was three seconds late.” It plays on his mind whenever they are close to winning an important match.He fondly remembers his Man-of-the-Match performance against India at the World Cup, and also Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket at Chittagong in 2004-05. He has seen and felt the change of the other teams’ attitude towards Bangladesh. “They used to ignore us earlier. They would think, ‘Bangladesh is coming; we will win easily.’ Nowadays, they cannot afford to do this,” he says. “It used to hurt a lot.”But it was nice”, he adds wryly, “to see India celebrate so much after beating us.”
At 23, he has seen a lot of cricket, has travelled the world, yet he still misses the good life of Narail. “I miss everything. Friends, family,” he says, sounding like a 17-year-old on his first tour. “But as a professional cricketer, you have to do all this.” All of a sudden the country’s leading paceman takes over. In three seconds, his face has changed from a child’s to that of a grown-up.Mortaza is, if possible, a wise mad man. Part of the maturity stems from a long list of injuries and operations – three operations on his left knee, one on the right, many stress fractures of his back, shoulder problems and two torn ankle ligaments. He has spent agonising days in hospitals – injury after injury, operation after operation. He recently lost Manjural Islam Rana, his close friend and team-mate, in a motor accident.Most significantly, Mortaza has started to realise his responsibility as Bangladesh’s leading pace bowler. He has become more measured. That shows in his bowling. “I love bowling fast but in the past two years I haven’t been bowling really fast,” he says. “I am getting fit and back. I think I can bowl really fast now but I like to bowl in the right areas. [Glenn] McGrath, [Brett] Lee, everyone told me I should bowl in the right areas.” He also believes he has the ability to raise his speed whenever he wants to. He has started to read the batsmen and started to work them out. “This is an aspect I have improved a lot in. I like to read a batsman.”His goal is to become one of the world’s top-10 bowlers in Tests. In one-dayers too, but Tests especially. “Test match is the real cricket.” He has started taking his batting seriously. “The coach tells me I can be a good batsman.” Dinesh Mongia will testify to that.On an average, he goes back home once about two months. “I love the river. I like sitting there and chatting with my friends. Even if I am not swimming, I like to just sit there.”Mortaza has changed. There’s a price he is paying. “I can’t injure myself anymore.”

Christian Pulisic says he feels "nothing but love" to AC Milan after receiving death threats from Lazio fans following Friday's fiery Serie A victory.

Article continues below

Article continues below

Article continues below

• Pulisic got two Lazio players sent off
• Milan snatched a 1-0 victory
• USMNT forward sends love to Rossoneri family

• Getty Images
  

  WHAT HAPPENED?

  Noah Okafor might have won the match for Milan but it was Pulisic who was responsible for getting two of the three players sent off on Friday evening that opened up spaces in defence. The American midfielder's clash with Luca Pellegrini resulted in the Roma star's dismissal, while a late altercation with Matteo Guendouzi saw the former Arsenal man receive his marching orders as well.

Advertisement

• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Following the game, Pulisic received death threats and vile messages from Lazio supporters, prompting concerns about the player's safety. However, the USMNT player has kept his composure and sent out a message of "love" for his teammates and the fans amid a difficult situation.

• WHAT PULISIC SAID

  In an Instagram post, Pulisic said: "Nothing but love for this squad and the entire Rossoneri family ❤️🖤"

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

• Getty
  

  WHAT NEXT?

  Pulisic has been in inspirational form in Serie A with seven goals and six assists in 25 appearances. He will now look to perform in the same vein in the Europa League when the Rossoneri welcome Czech club Slavia Pragu, to San Siro for the first leg of the last-16 tie on Thursday.

Marco Asensio has been a revelation in a central role for Paris Saint-Germain, keeping big-money signing Goncalo Ramos out of the side

Marco Asensio is not a striker. At least, that's what we were told.

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti, at various points last year, had a hole to fill through the middle. First, Karim Benzema was injured. Then, Rodrygo picked up a knock. Meanwhile Alvaro Rodriguez, despite scoring a memorable last-minute header to equalise in the Madrid derby, wasn't trusted to play 90 minutes as a pure No.9.

Asensio, for his part, never really had the chance to prove himself leading the line. Instead, Ancelotti favoured the Spaniard as an occasional right-winger, an emergency presence who has never quite reached the heights of his early, pre-knee-injury career. It made sense, then, that Asensio was allowed to leave without being handed a new deal. Ancelotti couldn't really fit him in the side, while the presumptive arrival of other key players would have made him an expensive backup.

Now, it appears, Ancelotti might have made the wrong call. Asensio, now of PSG, has been tasked with playing through the middle for Luis Enrique's side — and has done so with aplomb. The Spaniard has scored 2, set up 1, and been a constant source of chance creation in the role where Ancelotti simply would not play him. It has become clear, albeit in just a month of play, that Madrid might have let the wrong guy go.

• Getty
  

  A messy summer in Madrid

  Madrid, of course, weren't to know this at the time. Their whole summer, in fact, was a bit of a mess. Things started well with the pre-arranged arrival of Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund, but quickly took a turn. Karim Benzema was allured by the big money of the Saudi Pro League, while Kylian Mbappe, a potential target, elected to stay at PSG — and might even extend his stay if the Parisians enjoy a successful 2023-24 campaign.

  Los Blancos, in turn, went after a number of attacking players, but never signed a reliable striker. Joselu, brought in from Espanyol, is the kind of auxiliary option most mid-table sides would love to have. Arda Guler, snatched from under the nose of a complacent Barcelona, is more right-winger than out-and-out striker. Brahim Diaz, finally given a shot to impress after a two-year stint at AC Milan, has much the same problem.

  They reportedly made a massive bid for a yet-to-be-named top-tier striker. But no deal was ever agreed. Bellingham has been the unlikely provider in attack so far, with five in four games for Los Blancos. Still, despite his fine form, there are no guarantees that he can fill such a role long term. This is an elite, do-it-all centre-midfielder who can nick a goal, not a striker who has been used out of place for years. Madrid, then, have a problem.

Advertisement

• Getty Images
  

  A poor World Cup for Spain

  In a sense, it's hard to criticise them for not finding a solution. Ancelotti, 24 major trophies and all, is a reasonably good manager. When he elects not to deploy a player at any given position, he probably knows what he's talking about.

  Luis Enrique is perhaps deserving of the same tactical respect. Although he is not as accomplished of a coach as Ancelotti, this is still a Champions League winning manager who set up one of the most dominant attacking sides in recent memory in trophy-laden 2014-15 Barcelona. Trebles, contrary to popular belief, are not so easily won.

  But, ironically, Luis Enrique has been here before. He was an ardent supporter of an out-of-form Asensio during the World Cup, and deployed the player as a centre-forward for three out of four of Spain's games — and brought him off the bench in another. In those contests, Asensio had 10 shots, put two on goal, and scored just once.

  He was worryingly uninvolved in play, too. Spain routinely pinged the ball around their opponents, amassing over 60 percent possession in every game. Asensio still didn't see the ball much, amassing his most touches, 53, in a 7-0 battering of Costa Rica to open the tournament. Here was a right-winger awkwardly deployed as a centre-forward, and proving remarkably ineffective in the process. Spain's lack of finishing proved costly in their round of 16 exit, and Asensio was certainly among those to blame.

• Getty
  

  A turnaround for PSG

  Many were puzzled, then, when Luis Enrique once again called on Asensio to start through the middle when he took the PSG job in late June. The Spaniard was deployed as a centre-forward for each of his four preseason starts, and only found the back of the net once — an inconsequential finish during the 88th minute of a 3-0 rout of Jeonbuk FC. PSG, certainly, were short of striking options, but Hugo Ekitike had impressed in brief spells for the Parisians, and seemed more deserving of a look than his Spain counterpart.

  Luis Enrique changed his mind for the Parisians' drab draw to open the season, but moved Asensio back to a central role for their third fixture. The results were impressive. This time, Asensio was immensely influential. With Mbappe on his left and Ousmane Dembele on the right, Asensio roamed and linked play expertly. He wasn't expected to score as much as facilitate, find the right spaces and allow the legs and trickery of Mbappe and Dembele to do the hard work. He scored the opener against Lens — a fine curled effort — and provided two goal contributions a week later against Lyon.

  Asensio's numbers in possession were remarkably similar to those he recorded for Spain nine months before. He amassed 45 touches against Lens, and just 38 against Lyon. But he had space to operate in, and with PSG stretching opponents on the counter, Asensio was seldom forced to play away from goal. The result was the Spaniard at his best — influential when on the ball, and clinical in the right moments. It's exactly the kind of player Real Madrid need.

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

• Getty
  

  His long term future?

  This could all change rather quickly, though. PSG spent big this summer, and signed two No.9s to round out their squad. Goncalo Ramos — who disappointed on his PSG debut — was brought in from Benfica. Meanwhile, long-term target and friend of Mbappe's, Randal Kolo Muani arrived from Frankfurt. Both are young, proven goalscorers who would start through the middle for most teams in Europe. These are not the players that Asensio should be in the squad ahead of.

  But there's little room elsewhere. Dembele, although injury prone, is probably too talented to drop on the right. Mbappe isn't losing his place any time soon. And Enrique is likely too much of a 4-3-3 loyalist to try Asensio in a deeper role — one he wouldn't be an ideal fit for, anyway.

  Instead, then, Asensio might keep almost €150 million worth of strikers out of the team. Kolo Muani is just returning to fitness, while Ramos will need time to adjust to a new league. And perhaps there's something to be said for depth, too. Kolo Muani and Ramos could be expensive backups, but with Champions League and Coupe de France football — as well as what could be a surprisingly tough Ligue 1 slate — the Parisians will need legs.

  Until then, Asensio will likely be given his chance through the middle. And what seemed an unlikely experiment might just become a long-term solution, as well as a signal to the Spanish capital that they might have let the wrong player leave.

Kent dented Worcestershire’s promotion tilt by mopping up the visitors last four wickets in barely an hour and knocking off the 12 runs required to clinch a 10-wicket win

ECB Reporters Network06-Aug-2016
ScorecardDarren Stevens claimed three wickets to help seal Kent’s victory•Getty Images

Kent dented Worcestershire’s promotion tilt by mopping up the visitors last four wickets in barely an hour and knocking off the 12 runs required to clinch a 10-wicket win in their Specsavers County Championship match.The marquees – bursting and busy for the first three days of the 165th Canterbury Cricket Week encounter – stood empty and silent, all bar the CAMRA real ale tent where a gaggle of happy and hardy Kentish supporters applauded their side’s deserved victory, wrapped up with more than two sessions to spare.Having dismissed Daryl Mitchell’s side for 251 second-time around, Kent openers Sean Dickson and Daniel Bell-Drummond needed only six minutes to knock off the runs to inflict a second defeat of the summer upon Worcestershire.Resuming on their parlous overnight score of 213 for 6 – an overall match deficit of 27 runs – the Midlanders were soon even deeper in trouble.Kent started making inroads as early as the 15th ball of the day when Matt Coles, having just taken the second new ball, struck with his fifth ball of the day.Pushing defensively at one just outside off stump, Ben Cox (39) found a thick outside edge for James Tredwell to claim a comfortable catch at second slip with the visitors still 20 runs in arrears.Without addition to the total Joe Leach (3) sparred at one from Darren Stevens to nick behind and give Sam Billings his eighth catch of the match.Stevens struck again with Worcestershire still six runs in arrears. Having played and missed at one that clipped his front pad, Kyle Abbott lifted his back foot during a half-hearted lbw appeal allowing Sam Billings to whip off the bails for a gift stumping. Billings became the tenth Kent keeper to claim nine dismissals in a match.Ed Barnard struck out lustily to move his side into an 11-run lead before his sliced drive against Stevens flew to Will Gidman at short third man to end the Worcestershire innings soon after noon. Stevens finished with 3 for 31, while Gidman and Tredwell bagged two apiece as Kent banked 23 points for their third win of the summer. Worcestershire went home with only four points.Having enjoyed runs and wickets on his home championship debut for Kent, Gidman, the on-loan Nottinghamshire allrounder said: “To get those two second-innings wickets with a slightly older ball and just as Worcestershire were forming a decent partnership was really pleasing. On the whole I’m delighted with the way the bowling has gone since coming here.”I got slightly lucky with the first wicket. The lad George Rhodes was playing really well, but he started batting way out of his crease and, when I bowled him a really full one, he ended up yorking himself. Then, against Daryl Mitchell, that was one that moved back up the him and hit him full in front.”I’d have loved to have scored a hundred, but batting at No8 it’s the last thing you’re really expecting. I’m more thankful that ‘Tredders’, ‘Colesy’ and Mitch hung around as long as they did and, in the context of the match, formed some vital partnerships with me.”Worcestershire’s head coach said the defeat was simply a blip in an otherwise excellent season for his side. “Kent played really well and the fact that we were a little under par was mainly due to the fact that Kent played some really good stuff over the four days. On this performance they’re becoming a very good side.”Brett D’Oliveira will come back in but it won’t be a case of wholesale changes just because we’ve lost one match. Sport is all about winning and losing and I don;t know many teams who just keep winning all of the time. Sometimes these lads deserve another chance to get themselves into some better form and we’ve played plenty of good cricket already this season to know that we’re capable of producing better than this.”

Dan Christian’s 37-ball hundred was the second quickest in England and the seventh fastest of all time as Notts Outlaws ruled the roost at Wantage Road

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jul-2018
ScorecardDan Christian struck the one of the fastest hundreds in the history of T20 to get Nottinghamshire off the mark at the second attempt in the Vitality Blast with a 58-run win at Northamptonshire.Christian’s 37-ball century with seven fours and eight sixes was the joint-seventh fastest in the history of the format and the second-fastest in the domestic game. It was Christian’s second T20 hundred and the third T20 hundred by a Notts batsman.His brutal hitting saw Notts rack up 219 for 6 – equalling the highest T20 total at Wantage Road only set on Wednesday – and despite Ben Duckett’s 88 from 45 balls, Northants were bowled out for 161.Northants’ captain Alex Wakely said: “I was pretty proud of the response after our defeat in the first game. We were a bit of a shambles on Wednesday but we were on the ball today and put them under early pressure before one bloke came out and played a pretty special knock.”Christian arrived at the crease with Notts 81 for 4 in the 10th over having been sent in and set about dismantling the Northants bowling with some of the cleanest hitting seen at Northampton. He struck three consecutive sixes off Graeme White’s left-arm spin – over deep midwicket, long-off and then a huge strike a long way back over long-on.

Download our T20 Blast Podcast

Dan Norcross and Jarrod Kimber preview the Vitality T20 Blast 2018
Listen on ESPN Radio
Subscribe on iTunes

He saved his biggest strike for Nathan Buck who was hammered over his head and onto the roof of the Ken Turner Stand among an over that cost 28 before the final over of the innings, bowled by Rory Kleinveldt, disappeared for 22 with two more Christian sixes. 80 runs came from the final five overs.Christian’s partnership with Samit Patel added 97 runs in 45 balls to take Notts to a total beyond their ambitions at the half-way stage. Patel skipped down to lift White over long-on and heaved him through midwicket for four in his 35 in 26 balls.Northants had removed their usual tormentor, Riki Wessels, for just 6 – bowled trying to pull Ben Sanderson – and also picked up Tom Moores for 15 and Steven Mullaney for 21 in a Powerplay that yielded 50 for 3 but Christian’s brilliance from there effectively won the game.Duckett kept Northants in the game for the first half of the chase, by flashing past fifty in only 17 balls. He took 30 from the third over, bowled by Samit Patel with a succession of sweeps. Three consecutive sixes preceded three consecutive fours. He swung Mullaney into the sight-screen at the Wilson End but trying to hit the same bowler over the off side, top-edged to Paul Coughlin who claimed a fine catch on his Notts debut.But Duckett was the only batsman to show for Northants who lost Richard Levi to a leg-side strange for just 3 and Josh Cobb caught at deep-midwicket for only 6. The chase suffered a huge blow when Alex Wakely was sent back by Duckett trying to come back for a second run and was run out for 11 after a diving save on the boundary by Will Fraine.After Duckett’s dismissal, Northants subsided and when Harry Gurney took out Buck’s leg-stump, victory was completed by a handsome margin to get the defending champions underway for 2018.

Durham opener Mark Stoneman was dropped on 19 and never gave the sniff of a chance again as he reached the close on 139 not out

David Hopps at Chester-le-Street25-Apr-2016
ScorecardMark Stoneman recorded his first century of the season•Getty Images

Celebrations might be taking place around the country to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, but if the ghost of the Bard had put in an unexpected appearance at Chester-le-Street there would be little chance of him writing how “proud-pied April, dress’d in all his trim hath put a spirit of youth in every thing.” More likely something about the cold turning county cricketers, and all those of us who religiously watch it, into fools and madmen.It was hardened professionalism, not youthful disposition, that got Middlesex’s fielders through a day of intense cold during which the temperature read 5C at start of play, a stiff Arctic breeze whistled down the ground and hands in pockets was a basic necessity. This was not the sort of day to feel the joy of being alive, not until back in the warmth of a local hostelry at any rate.In such conditions, Mark Stoneman’s dependability must have worn even more heavily on Middlesex’s attack. The Durham opener was dropped at long leg by James Harris on 19, pulling Tim Murtagh down wind, and never gave the sniff of a chance again as he reached the close on 139 not out. Middlesex’s pace attack started loosely and although they upped their standards later, Durham maintained their grip.When the arrival of snow drove the players from the field with two overs left, Middlesex’s fielders stood politely by the outfield gate to applaud Stoneman off. He seemed to take an awfully long time to reach them. Not only had he batted for most of the day, he was now walking as slowly as an Arctic explorer across a glacier. They must have felt like leaving him to it.Stoneman, who batted in a long-sleeve sweater for the first time, symbolises the toughness of Durham cricket. To be fair, quite a few do. He has survived for a decade on challenging pitches and, presented by more encouraging batting conditions this season, he is not about to treat the opportunity lightly. Middlesex’s top seven all flared brightly, but none made a century, and as they set their eyes to the wind it was with the suspicion that their 389 was far from impregnable. Stoneman, with great selectivity of stroke, insisted that was so.Keaton Jennings, against Somerset in the opening round, had become only the third Durham batsman to score two centuries in a match and he looked in good order, driving in spritely fashion before Steven Finn defeated him on the pull – a bottom edge down the leg side. Finn also removed Jack Burnham, lbw to one that came back, and Ben Stokes – a carefully constructed leg trap which worked at the second attempt as Stokes flicked off his pads. One that Sri Lanka and Pakistan might log away for the summer.Finn’s greatest achievement, though, was to field throughout the morning session in a short-sleeved sweater. They would even have been impressed with that in Newcastle’s Bigg Market, where imperviousness to cold comes naturally. “Even pre-season was a lot warmer than this,” he said. “The only time I’ve experienced anything this bad was Delhi in early January.”Burnham, prolific in the recent Under-19 World Cup, impressed greatly for his 61. A skip down the ground against the offspin of Paul Stirling and successive boundaries – a pull and drive – off Toby Roland-Jones to reach his half-century suggested a player of verve capable of holding down his place in Durham’s middle order. Durham’s seam stocks, lower than we have come to expect (although they have given the young South African Brydon Carse a development contract) suggests they may struggle, but that struggle need not end in failure.The sheer willpower of county spectators never fails to amaze on such days. The romantic link between cricket and languid summer days suggests to the non-believer that enjoyment must be in short supply, but beneath the winter overcoats and array of headgear there was a sense of rapt attention. There again, they might have been iced to the seats.This season’s flatter pitches are logically better for the standard of English cricket, but in such conditions whether they are better for the game, rather than The Game, is debatable. Sport also needs to fit well with its environment and at least the unpredictability of a green seamer provides the sort of constant action to warm the cockles of the heart on taxing days like this. It also provides a better chance of a result in matches ravaged by rain. It is a quandary that will never be solved.

Remarkable control from the Australian bowlers resulted in massive pressure being built up which led to a steady supply of wickets as India folded for 189 on the first day

The Report by Alagappan Muthu04-Mar-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:15

‘Surprised by the Bengaluru pitch’

First there was control, then panic and eventually wickets. Most of them went to Nathan Lyon, whose 8 for 50 was the best ever haul by a visiting bowler in India. He personified Australia’s ability to adapt to unfavourable conditions – which included a lost toss – and by the end of the day they had ransacked 10 wickets for 189 runs, put up a score of 40 for 0 themselves and did their chances of retaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy no harm whatsoever.Most teams coming to the subcontinent will be aware they have to invest heavily in maintaining tight lines and lengths for pressure is as good as any help they might receive off the pitch to pick up wickets. The batsman starts to feel trapped, doubts begin to fester, he searches for release and…India know this template well. Yet they lost Cheteshwar Pujara on the stroke of lunch. Virat Kohli gave his wicket away – and then a review as well – by padding up to a straight ball. Were it not for KL Rahul’s 90 on his home ground in Bengaluru, they would have been in far worse shape. And that is saying something considering they were bundled out for under 200 for the third time in as many innings.Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were in prime form with the new ball. Six of the first 12 overs on Saturday were maidens, the result of their getting just enough movement in the air and off the pitch. Lyon was precise with his line and smart with his length. He got the ball to turn and bounce sharply on some occasions and on others he made it drift and go straight on. His biggest strike, though, was simply down to a set up.Kohli was new to the crease and only a few seconds ago had a good length ball jumped past his inside edge and hit his thigh pad. Something told the Indian captain he could trust the bounce here, that if he was playing on the back foot, the ball was unlikely to threaten his stumps. That made picking length very, very important. Lyon flattened his trajectory, Kohli left the ball, suckered into believing it was short, it thudded into his pad in front of middle stump and umpire Nigel Llong put his finger up. While the error in judgment can be forgiven, the gamble with DRS was less so for it was driven not by logic but hope, and even a little bit of fear at losing the best batsman in the team giving Australia the kind of momentum they would love.Watching all this from the other end was Rahul. His innings spanned 205 balls – the next best was a mere 66 – was a battle all through. He was struck on the glove as Starc peppered him with bouncers. He was often unsure against Hazlewood’s two-way movement. He could have been caught on 30 but even Peter Handscomb, whose agility is already becoming legend, was unable to hold on to a rather difficult chance low to his left at silly mid-off.Nathan Lyon’s 8 for 50 was the best figures by a visiting bowler in India•Associated Press

Rahul had the mettle to work past his troubles, to not buckle to pressure and go looking for that boundary that makes him feel better for but an instant. He had had enough of that in Pune. Normally a free-flowing batsman – evidenced by his striking the first ball of the match to the point boundary – he understood the importance of a big score and buckled down to get it. With time at the crease, his defensive game grew tighter but most of all, he was able to absorb all the pressure Australia piled up on him.The same could not be said of his team-mates. Ajinkya Rahane hurtled down the pitch against Lyon only for the straighter ball to beat his outside edge. He was so far past the crease that Matthew Wade even had time to recover from a fumble and pull off the stumping. The 17 runs he made marked the ninth time out of 10 innings that he has fallen for a score under 30. Karun Nair, who was brought in to lengthen the batting line-up, playing for the first time since his 303 not out in December, committed the same mistake against O’Keefe and this time the ball turned sharply to leave him stumped too.Against the vagaries of the M Chinnaswamy strip – hosting a Test for the first time since large-scale renovations of the outfield – and the discipline of the Australian bowlers, it was difficult not to imagine India as those kids waiting for Mum and Dad to slack off so they can raid the sweets in the pantry. But by the end of the day, with no hope of their craving being satisfied, they could only fold their hands over their chest and go “this sucks”.By tea, Australia’s GOAT had gutted India’s middle order and sent back their big three. The first of his wickets was a major turning point. He had a set Pujara caught at short leg off what became the very last ball before lunch and a 61-run second wicket partnership was broken.Against a bowler in such rhythm, the lower order folded quickly. R Ashwin was undone by a spitting cobra. Wriddhiman Saha edged one that didn’t turn as much as he thought. Ravindra Jadeja inside edged a catch off the pad to slip – which was only confirmed when Smith made fine use of the review available to him. Even there, Australia were thumping India. And it all tied in to Lyon’s skill. A newfound skill.In the early part of his career, he couldn’t figure out how to bowl on turners. He would either be too slow and too full and get driven a lot, or too quick and too short leading to outcomes a lot worse. Here all of his wickets came off the 5 to 6m mark. For a batsman, that meant even if he came forward, he couldn’t reach the pitch of the ball. To then make connection, he has to push his hands out in front and that compromises his balance. Playing back is a risk too because Lyon’s overspin generates awkward bounce.Against that, the extra batsman was of little use. M Vijay, however, was not among of the XI having injured his left shoulder in the 333-run defeat in Pune and in his place came Tamil Nadu team-mate Abhinav Mukund. The 27-year old was representing India for the first time in over five years and his team was using their eighth opening pair in the last 12 months. He got an eight-ball duck, the partnership yielded only 11 runs, the position is clearly cursed, it time to call Scooby Doo yet?

Surrey’s Kumar Sangakkara and Scott Borthwick added a partnership of 256 on the final day to ensure a draw against Lancashire

Tim Wigmore at Kia Oval17-Apr-2017
ScorecardIf Surrey are to make the title tilt that many consider within their grasp, they will seldom be able to bully teams as they did Warwickshire at The Oval last week. To thrive in a Division One that appears more competitive than ever, Surrey will need resilience, stubbornness, and the savvy to escape from precarious positions with minimal harm. Kumar Sangakkara and Scott Borthwick displayed plenty of such qualities in adding 256 to ensure a draw against Lancashire.Both played magnificently. In recent times Sangakkara’s innings for Surrey have taken on the air of a father playing with children in the park without wanting to be too mean-spirited: he has thrashed the bowling around a little and then generously chipped the ball to the on side, as in his tame dismissal for 46 on the third day.His brilliance for Surrey has been more fleeting than a club would hope from their overseas star; a year had passed since his last Championship century, during which there have been seven half-centuries, each containing wondrous shots yet none leaving an indelible mark on a match. But here, dreamy batsmanship fused with tenacity, as if Sangakkara was piqued by the notion that this game would be defined by another retired Test great, Shivnarine Chanderpaul.After Surrey’s inertia against Lancashire’s spin twins in their first innings, Sangakkara resolved not to let the opposition attack establish such a hold again. Each of his 16 boundaries were hit so sweetly that the fielders themselves seemed inclined to applaud. Three particularly stood out: caressing Kyle Jarvis down the ground, generating ferocious power from nothing more than a nonchalant push; shimmying down the pitch and contemptuously lifting Simon Kerrigan into the second tier; and then slog-sweeping Kerrigan to reach his century, a shot in keeping with the determination to dominate that infused his innings.Borthwick, meanwhile, moved to The Oval hoping to construct innings such as this. He batted rather more austerely than Sangakkara, underpinned by a firm forward stride to inoculate his stumps from harm. If there was less for aesthetes to savour from Borthwick, he was no less effective, sweeping efficiently against spin, greeting any width on the off side by thrashing the ball through the covers, and scything anything short through his favoured leg side, as when he received an egregious long-hop on 99 to reach his century.”It’s something I’ve dreamt of for the last five or six months,” he said. On a day when Durham lost their opening game in Division Two, this, following Mark Stoneman’s debut century for Surrey last week, was another reminder of the talent that Durham has produced and now has lost.It is a little over three years since Borthwick’s solitary Test cap, as a legspinner, and a little under a year since he was primed to be picked against Pakistan as a specialist Test batsman, only for his batting returns to fall away just as the scrutiny increased. On this evidence, the first cap of the new stage of his career might not be far away, though the scramble for England places has seldom been fiercer.Borthwick believes that batting alongside Sangakkara, just as he used to for Durham, will aid his prospects. “Batting with him it’s almost like you’re learning by watching him and the way he’s talking to you. He’s a bit of a batting coach as well, he gives you tips, especially against spin,” Borthwick said. “At Durham you don’t get to play against spin much so it’s good that I did what I did today, and can learn from Sanga – he’s the master.”Yet, as well as Borthwick batted, he knows that honing his legspin, restricted to nine overs so far in 2017, will increase his chances of another England cap.”I don’t want to be a frontline anything – I want to score runs and take wickets and be an allrounder,” he said. “If we get wickets that can turn I might be able to get more wickets. Looking at that wicket there we’ve just batted on, it’ll spin. So hopefully if we do produce wickets like that than myself, Gareth [Batty] and Zafar [Ansari] can come into the game because I think it will definitely spin. Hopefully we can help each other. There’ll be times when it’ll be my day and times when it’ll be their day.”Lancashire’s flag was removed prematurely from the ground in the afternoon, as if preparing the side for an early getaway, and it seemed a recognition that this was not their day. Yet that detracted little from an admirable display in south London, with the return of James Anderson for their next fixture providing a further source of comfort.

San Jose Earthquakes star and USMNT winger Cade Cowell has been linked with a Liga MX move to Chivas after recently obtaining a Mexican passport.

Article continues below

Article continues below

Article continues below

• Cowell linked with Chivas move
• Called into USMNT January camp
• Recently obtained Mexican passport

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  have linked the 20-year-old with a move to the Liga MX giants. With the January transfer window open, Chivas can go about negotiating with the Earthquakes, ahead of the proposed move south.

Advertisement

• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Cowell recently obtained his Mexican passport, making him an officail dual-citizen of both Mexico and the United States. Regardless, though, he is committed to the USMNT and is cap-tied to Gregg Berhalter's side. If his move to Chivas comes to fruition, the USMNT youngster will hope that it helps him earn a spot on the U23 USMNT Olympic roster for 2023.

• WHAT BERHALTER SAID ABOUT JANUARY CAMP INCLUSION

  "I wouldn't get ahead of ourselves here with Cade. He is an example of having a ton of potential and he is a great teammate. He has experience with the senior national team, but now it's also about him applying this in his every day, first at his club by becoming a starter, becoming a high performer on his team, scoring goals in Major League Soccer. That is going to be important. And then when he gets the opportunity with our team, it's about making an impact. For him, it's straddling between can he make an impact for this Olympic age group? Can he perform at the level that's needed to be an impact player there? And then we'll see what's next. I think for us, it's really about supporting him, and really giving him the opportunity to play his best and then continue to watch how he develops at his club, but that's definitely going to be a crucial part."

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

• DID YOU KNOW

  Chivas has never fielded an American player in their club before, meaning Cowell has the potential to be the first-ever.