Plays of the day from the third match of the ODI tri-series, between Australia and South Africa at Providence

Firdose Moonda07-Jun-2016Technology not needed and not usedAustralia had the opportunity to make first use of the Decision Review System when Josh Hazlewood had an appeal against Hashim Amla in the first over. Hazlewood delivered a full fourth ball of the over, which moved in as the others had, and struck the opener in front of leg stump. Umpire Joel Wilson probably thought it was going down leg and gave it not out. Had he thought it was clipping and given it out, he would have been just as correct. Replays showed that a major chunk of the ball would have gone on to hit leg stump and that Wilson’s on-field call – whatever it was – would have stood. Luckily for Amla it was not out. Luckily for Australia, they did not ask for the review.Technology needed and used Four overs later, Hazlewood was asking questions around the pads with a full length. He got one to curl into Quinton de Kock, who missed the flick and subsequently ran a leg bye. Umpire Wilson gave it as runs, even as Hazlewood appealed. Steven Smith decided to ask for the third umpire to have another look. Several replays revealed two noises but with no evidence of an inside edge, they seemed to come from the ball hitting the front pad and then the back one. Ball tracking showed it would have gone on to hit the stumps. Still, the evidence was scant and the South African dressing room thought so as they crowded around to peer at a television screen. When Wilson’s call was overturned, all of them, including coach Russell Domingo, demonstrated their disbelief but de Kock had to go.Technology not needed but used South Africa were in early trouble and their top-scorer from the opening match, Rilee Rossouw, was given out to a Nathan Lyon delivery by Umpire Richard Illingworth. Rossouw called for a review even though he looked out, with the ball straightening and striking him in front of off stump as he pushed forward and missed. The tracker revealed he was as out and Illingworth was vindicated.Forget technology – out is out In the second over of the chase, another batsman’s pads were rapped. Wayne Parnell, making his return after 11 months out of the national team, delivered a full, straight ball that jagged back and hit David Warner in front of leg. It was given out and Warner decided it would stay out. He walked off without even considering the review – which would likely have been umpire’s call – to give South Africa an early breakthrough, setting the tone for the rest of the innings.Beginner’s (bad) luck In his first appearance for South Africa, chinaman bowler Tabraiz Shamsi got the biggest endorsement a new player could ask for when AB de Villiers decided to review his first appeal. Shamsi believed the second ball he bowled, to Aaron Finch – a flat, ripping legbreak which pitched outside off and struck him in front of off – would have gone on to hit the stumps and de Villiers agreed. The ball was turning so much that initially it seemed it would miss leg stump, but replays showed the ball to be clipping. It was South Africa’s most convincing review of the game, even though it was unsuccessful. Beginner’s good luck Shamsi did not have to wait long to get his first wicket. Three balls later, Shamsi delivered another leg break, around middle stump, to Glenn Maxwell and it seemed to be missing leg but Umpire Wilson did not think so. He sent Maxwell on his way and Shamsi into celebration. A review would only have spoilt his mood as replays showed the ball was missing leg stump.

There was enough logic in Alastair Cook’s decision not to enforce the follow-on to make it understandable at worst and reasonable at best

George Dobell at Old Trafford24-Jul-2016It tells you something about the mentality of English cricket that, leading by 489 with two days to go, their assistant coach spent much of the post-play press conference defending his side. Well, perhaps not his side as much as his side’s captain.There had been so much to praise in the England performance on day three. There was the beautifully executed slower-ball cutter from Stuart Broad that fooled Asad Shafiq into slicing a drive to point. There was the pace generated by Ben Stokes in a wonderfully hostile spell on a slow pitch and his athletic fielding that, at one stage, saw him field at vacant mid-on off his own bowling and stop a single.There was the selflessness of James Anderson, who sprinted from mid-off to the extra-cover boundary, dived and turned what appeared to be a certain four into a three off the bowling of Chris Woakes. And there was Woakes displaying such hostility that he was able to strike a batsman of Misbah-ul-Haq’s class on the helmet despite the docility of the pitch.Most of all, there was the fact that England bowled Pakistan out for 198 on a blameless surface. It was one of their better flat-pitch performances in recent years.But Alastair Cook’s decision not to enforce the follow-on appeared to push all that into irrelevance. It wasn’t so much it divided opinion as united it: to judge by the comments in the media or on Twitter – not the most reliable barometer of public opinion, admittedly – it seemed to be pretty much Cook on one side of the debate and the rest of the world on the other.Even Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan coach, admitted he was surprised by the decision and that it probably gave his side “a bit better chance” of escaping with a draw. “We fully expected to be batting again,” he said with a bemused smile. “Yes, it’s probably more likely there will be a draw.”Cook’s decision was surprising, for sure. Only twice in their Test history have England chosen not to enforce the follow-on with a larger lead than the 391 they had here. The last such occasion came in 1930.

“We wanted to keep Pakistan out for as long as we could. We want to make sure they spend as much time bowling possible as there is a knock-on effect of that”Paul Farbrace

Their bowlers (and they have five of them these days) did not appear to have exerted themselves especially hard – none of them had bowled more than 16 overs – and, this being Manchester, the threat of rain can never be totally discounted. The next Test does not start until August 3, so there need have been no concern about retaining energy for a back-to-back match.By the time they reduced Pakistan to 119 for 8, England had every intention of enforcing the follow-on. Anderson and Broad were taken out of the attack with a view to keeping them fresh for the second innings and it looked as if Pakistan could be polished off within 50 overs.But then Misbah and Wahab Riaz added 60. It was not only Pakistan’s third-highest ninth-wicket stand against England in England, but it showed how flat this pitch remained. Stokes and Woakes, clearly England’s faster bowlers these days, were obliged to deliver a few more overs than England might have liked and Cook made the decision that, with the pitch fine for now but likely to deteriorate a little more over the next couple of days, his side should make use of it rather than potentially face a tricky fourth-innings target on a surface helping Yasir Shah. Equally, he hoped that his bowlers would have a slightly easier job once the surface had worn a little more.”The key was wanting to bat while the wicket is still good,” Farbrace said. “We don’t want ourselves under any pressure of having to chase a score in the fourth innings. We still think the pitch will deteriorate over the next couple of days and the bounce will become variable.”We had been hoping to bowl them out a lot quicker. Then Anderson and Broad would have been fresh to take new ball when we enforced the follow-on. But the longer their innings went the more we decided to bat again.”There were a couple of other considerations. England also thought that Pakistan’s bowlers, who have already spent five sessions in the field this match and were now without Wahab, who sustained a knock on the elbow when batting against Woakes, would shudder at the thought of pulling on their bowling boots once more. Pakistan’s first-innings batting clearly suffered for the wearying effects of their hours in the field; England reasoned they had time to inflict a little more pain upon them. Judging by the way Yasir started in the second innings, they may have had a point. If not exhausted, he certainly looks stiff and tired.”Yes, we wanted to keep them out for as long as we could,” Farbrace said. “We want to make sure they spend as much time bowling possible as there is a knock-on effect of that.”Farbrace insisted the decision was not about protecting either Anderson or Stokes, though. Both are making their return from injury in this game but, as Farbrace put it: “at no stage was this decision about protecting them.”England’s decision to bat again was not met with universal approval•Getty ImagesSo, was Cook’s decision negative? Perhaps. It suggests that England were concerned about the potential threat of Yasir in the fourth innings and, arguably, did not send out the most confident statement of support in his bowlers. It suggested, not for the first time, that Cook’s safety-first approach sometimes threatens England’s best chance of victory. It appeared to clash with England’s much-repeated modern mantra to play positive cricket.In the century-and-a-half that people have been playing Test cricket, no team has ever successfully chased more than 418 to win and, excluding the timeless Test of 1939, no team has ever scored more than 451 in the fourth innings of a Test. It does seem abundantly cautious. But we probably shouldn’t have been surprised.Wasn’t this decision entirely typical of the most pragmatic batsman England have ever produced? A man who has denied himself the cover drive for months at a time in a bid to cut out risk and give himself the best chance of accumulating the runs required to help his side into strong positions. A man who has picked a side with Moeen Ali batting at No. 8 and who still utilised a nightwatchman on the first evening with his side 311 for 4. A man who has built a magnificent career on a pull, a nudge and a cut. A man in whom the victory for substance over style is overwhelming.Might it even have been a little brave? Might it have been brave to risk the opprobrium of the media in the knowledge that, should this decision backfire, he will be open to harsh criticism but feeling he was protecting his bowlers and backing them to bowl Pakistan out in five sessions or so over the last day-and-a-half? The weather forecast is not brilliant, but it suggests rain will not play a significant role.We have been here before. In 2013, at Leeds, England beat New Zealand by 247 having declined to enforce the follow-on and taken some fearful criticism in the process. Some players in that side point to it as the moment they lost respect for the media who, they suggest, had forgotten that England had just been fortunate to draw 0-0 in New Zealand (the series in which Matt Prior and Monty Panesar were obliged to bat for a draw in Auckland) or the burden upon their four-man attack. Some players felt the criticism was motivated by the fact some in the media had made plans to play golf on the scheduled final day and were disappointed that the game was still progressing.What Cook’s decision was not is ridiculous. There is enough logic in the decision to make it understandable at worst and reasonable at best. Indeed, bearing in mind England’s record against quality spin bowling, you might even argue it was sensible.England will still have the best part of five sessions to dislodge Pakistan’s batsmen. Batsmen who have only reached 300 once in their three innings so far this series. If they survive, they will have earned their draw. And if England win? Maybe Cook will deserve some plaudits.

The South African allrounder’s career almost ended twice – first when he was 18 and then 23 – because of injuries, but at 27, he finds his career beginning again, having broken into the ODI squad

Firdose Moonda13-Sep-2016Dwaine Pretorius’ cricketing career was just beginning when it almost ended. It was 2008, he was 18 years old and had been named in South Africa’s Under-19 World Cup squad, but he never got to the event. On the first of January that year, Pretorius tore the cartilage in his right knee and decided to study instead of play sport, at least for a while.”I realised that sport is unpredictable and it would be a good idea to get my career sorted so that I would have something if cricket didn’t work out,” Pretorius, who has been named in South Africa’s squad for the one-off ODI against Ireland, told ESPNcricinfo. “But my dad said that after I got my degree, he would financially support for a year or two to see if I could make it as a cricketer.”Pretorius enrolled in an Accounting degree course at the University of Pretoria and for three years concentrated on his academics. He played for the student team but never ventured into anything more serious until he graduated. Even then, he contemplated furthering his education to become a chartered accountant (CA) before remembering the deal he had made with his father. “We went on a family holiday and I said to my dad that when I am lying on my deathbed, I’m not going to think that I should have tried to become a CA but I might think that I should have tried to become a cricketer.”To pursue that ambition, Pretorius returned to his home province, North West, even though the team’s coach, Monty Jacobs, warned him that there was little chance of breaking into the team. “Monty said to me the squad was pretty settled and it would be tough to get a game but that I should come through and we could see,” Pretorius said.The ‘seeing,’ meant exactly that. For months, Pretorius trained and watched his team-mates play but did not take the field himself. “It was very frustrating,” he said. “I felt like I was doing nothing and I started to wonder whether that was the best decision for me. Every time the thought came into my head, I reminded myself that I would regret not trying.”Finally, in the last game of the season, in 2011, Pretorius got a look-in. He was selected for a three-day game against Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland and went wicketless in the first innings. Things got better when his turn to bat came. He scored 53 and then took 5 for 38 to set up the team’s victory.

“I want to be in a position to win games with bat or ball. I don’t want people to say if Dwaine gets runs, we will be lucky. I want people to expect me to get runs and take wickets.”Dwaine Pretorius

The following summer, Pretorius was a regular and made a name for himself as an allrounder in the shortest format. In five T20 matches he took six wickets at 21.50 and scored 179 runs including two fifties at 59.66. He was awarded the T20 Amateur Cricketer of the Year award at CSA’s 2012 prize-giving and was included in the Lions’ franchise squad to play in the Champions League T20 but his knee had other ideas.He suffered a second injury and required major surgery. At 23, he again thought his career had ended but after fighting his way back, he found a way to resuscitate it by changing his approach. Instead of trying to get quicker, he decided to get cleverer.”In my rookie years I was obsessed with pace and I felt like I would never play for South Africa if I didn’t reach 140kph. But after that, I shifted my focus,” he said. “I thought about what makes Vernon Philander so good as a player and I asked guys at the Lions and the answer they gave me was that he never misses his spot. In business terms, I thought that was part of the market I would carve out for myself.”Pretorius put his efforts into accuracy, an awayswinger, and developing his all round game. He spent hours with Lions’ bowling coach Gordan Parsons and in the 2014-15 season was rewarded with a franchise contract. He became an important member of the Lions side and in the following year was judged the South African Cricketers’ Association’s most valuable player across all formats. He was included in the South African A side to play in a quadrangular series in Australia this winter and is now one of three new names in the ODI squad, alongside Andile Phehlukwayo and Temba Bavuma.Unlike the other two, Pretorius isn’t part of the squad for the five-match series against Australia that follows the Ireland game. “There’s nothing I can do now, no more performances I can put before those matches, so it’s just about enjoying the experience,” he said. “It will give me a toe in the door and hopefully I will be able to show what kind of a player I am.”So what kind of player is that? In his own words: “A genuine allrounder who can offer something different. I want to be in a position to win games with bat or ball. I don’t want people to say if Dwaine gets runs, we will be lucky. I want people to expect me to get runs and take wickets.”South Africa are still searching for a two-in-one player they can rely on regularly and Pretorius will be up against Wayne Parnell, Chris Morris and Phehlukwayo in trying to claim the spot. “Competition for the allrounder role is stiff but I think if I can get my batting solid, I can put some of those guys under pressure for their places,” he said. “But at the same time, I am not focused on trying to be better than someone else but on trying to be my best.”For Pretorius, that means ensuring he puts himself in a position not just to play ODI cricket but to play Test cricket. “That would be the ultimate. Maybe if I can score 500 or 600 first-class runs in a season, I will come into contention for a Test spot,” he said. And so, at 27, Pretorius finds his career is beginning again.

Mumbai’s Amol Muzumdar tells us about his first-class debut in Faridabad, when he channelled his inner fire and just kept on batting to set a record that still stands

Amol Muzumdar14-Oct-2016Haryana v Bombay, Faridabad, 1993-94I remember it precisely – February 12, 1994. It was the day I made my first-class debut, in the pre-quarterfinal of the Ranji Trophy. We were missing Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Sanjay Manjrekar and Salil Ankola at the time, as they had been called up for the New Zealand series.Prior to this game, every time they announced a team, I was included in the squad but not in the XI; instead, I was sent to play for the Under-19s. Although that made me unhappy, I never showed it. It was a good build-up – it kept a fire burning inside me.That year, we had won the U-19 tournament after a long gap. I had captained the side and got a hundred in each innings of the final. Just prior to my Ranji debut, we had also played the MA Chidambaram Trophy against a Rest of India U-19 team that had the likes of VVS Laxman and Hrishikesh Kanitkar. I had got a hundred in the second innings of that game, where we came close to chasing 426.I was picked to play for the India U-19s against a touring Australia U-19 side, so I had to make a decision whether I wanted to play in that match, or show up for the Ranji pre-quarterfinal. Luckily, Ravi Shastri, who was the Mumbai captain at the time, had given me a message seven days prior that I would be batting at No. 4 for Mumbai in that game. So the decision was a no-brainer – playing for Mumbai was my dream.Ravi Shastri was a towering figure, and the Mumbai dressing room could be daunting at times. As a youngster I might have felt a little nervous, but thankfully I was too preoccupied to be bothered by it. Besides, it was a breakthrough season for a lot of other guys in the Mumbai team. The team had gone through a transition and most of us – Sairaj Bahutule, Jatin Paranjpe and Paras Mhambrey, to name a few – were making our debuts in that season or had just broken into the squad in the previous season. We had all played together previously and this made things more comfortable.When Ravi handed me my Mumbai cap on that cold Faridabad morning, it was a special feeling. After putting in years of hard work, I felt like I had accomplished something.We won the toss and elected to bat. I had a routine: I would put my pads on and then wear my cap, with my gloves resting on my thighs. I also had a habit of walking around the dressing room and skipping for a bit. I watched the game but – I can say it easily 23 years later – I never liked to talk about cricket. I followed this routine that day, and was talking about other things with Paras – who was also my room-mate – while waiting to go in.Just after the drinks break, Sunil More got out and I walked out to the crease. I was nervous, but fully aware of what was happening around me. I defended the first two balls from the offspinner Pankaj Thakur, and stepped out to the third, driving it past cover for three runs. Jatin was at the other end, and he said later that he had crossed his legs – a superstition – when I was on strike. He was hoping everything went right for me on debut. It seemed to have worked, as I went on to score 260, which remains the world record for the highest first-class score on debut. You don’t just go and snatch world records unless you are Brian Lara. It just so happened that everything went right that day.When I was close to my hundred on the second day, Ravi was batting with me. He pepped me up a little bit when I got to 90, when I was, understandably, a little nervous. He said, “Just graft these 10 runs. Once you get them, I can guarantee the next 30 will flow like a river.”I have a habit of keeping snapshots in my mind. I can usually picture the exact place and moment that something happened. I recall taking a cab – a kilometre or two into town – to find an STD booth to call my dad. I was on top of the world when I told him about my hundred. I needed somebody to keep me grounded and my dad was the perfect person. He reminded me how I had got into the Mumbai team after a long wait.”Now that you are batting on hundred, don’t let go of it,” he said. “Even when the stars come back, make sure your place is there.”That kept ringing in my ears constantly and I just carried on. By tea, I was batting on 197 and a scorer reminded me about Gundappa Viswanath’s record of 230 on debut. There wasn’t much cricket in Faridabad at the time and people kept coming into the dressing room. So I asked Kaddu (Karsan Ghavri), my senior, if he could keep them away. I didn’t want to be rude, but I needed to be in my zone. I think Clive Lloyd had been at the game too. He had come to meet Ravi and seen my innings, but had left before I came in at tea.At the end of the second day, I was not out on 245. After play, I was sitting quietly in my chair and letting it all sink in. I remember Ravi coming in, putting his arm around my shoulders and saying, “How are you feeling now, young man?” Ravi was my hero and I was thrilled at that moment. It is another one of my precious snapshots.That night, BCCI president IS Bindra might have visited because his secretary was around and asked me if I knew I had made a world record. My reaction was: “Really? Can I tell my parents about it?”After the 260, the press was all over the shop. There were about three or four centuries scored in that innings and we had quite a tall score. Jatin and Ravi got hundreds as well. We only batted once and bowled them out twice to win by a huge margin.I used a SG Sunny Tonny bat that day. I only played four games with it and retired it after we won the Ranji Trophy that year. As a batsman, you tend to use your luckiest or most precious bats for a long time, but I said to myself, “This bat has given me recognition. It now goes in the vault.”

Shiv Sunder Das recalls being excited about playing against Test players on his debut as a 17-year-old

Shiv Sunder Das08-Dec-2016Madhya Pradesh v Orissa, Pre-quarterfinal, Indore, 1993-94Making my Ranji Trophy debut was a dream come true because as a child, I always wanted to start with first-class cricket. I had just finished playing Under-19 cricket and had had a good season. I scored a double-hundred, two centuries and an 80. On the basis of those performances, I was selected for the Ranji Trophy that year.I had previously captained the U-17 Indian team that went to England and had also represented India at the U-19 level. That year was massive for me because I was batting really well. The selectors told me that they were keeping a close eye on me and asked me to continue doing well. Luckily, that year, I got the chance.I was training with the school team when I got the news. Amiya Ray, who was my senior, congratulated me, saying I had been selected. I was very excited as I was hoping I would get through that year in Ranji Trophy. Ranjib Biswal was the captain at the time and he gave me the cap. It was a great feeling. Both Ranjib and Amiya were from my club and I had been training with them for a long time.More than nervous, I’d say I was excited. My captain said it’s a bit different from U-19 but asked me not to change anything and just enjoy the four days, so I just trusted my technique and ability. I had the confidence because I knew even if I failed, the management was going to back me.When I walked out to bat, there were three slips, a gully and a short leg. I don’t think they sledged me, but when you are making your debut at 17 or 18, there will obviously be a lot of noise around. It was just a matter of taking that out of your mind and focusing on the ball; I had been through a similar phase in the U-19s as well. So I had to focus really well for the first 10-15 balls. Once you get through that phase, you know what to expect from the bowlers and how the wicket is behaving. The outfield was barren and really quick, so I knew once I timed the ball, it would race away to the boundary. All I had to worry about was spending time at the wicket.I remember Narendra Hirwani was playing for Madhya Pradesh and I was excited to play against a Test player. They had an experienced attack that had been doing well all season. At the Ranji level, bowlers hit consistent lines and good areas, so it was a matter of playing them out.I was batting well before I got out in the first innings. It was a short ball, outside off-stump, and I tried to play a backfoot drive to a spinner. The ball spun a bit and I edged to the slips. It was not a ball to get out to. I was disappointed not to get runs because the pitch was really good. A couple of seniors came up to me and said there is nothing to worry about.But, luckily, I did really well in the second innings. The key was to get a good start again and break down the innings into installments of 10 runs. I remember batting with Sushil Kumar, who was a very jolly guy. He was cracking jokes and calmed me down a lot. After crossing 15-20 runs, I knew if I stayed around for two-three more hours, given that it was quite humid and hot, the bowlers weren’t going to bowl long spells.When I scored my 98th run, they brought the field up. There was a forward short leg, a backward short leg and a silly point. The ball I got out to was well outside off stump. I offered my pad, but it came back in before brushing the flap and lobbed onto my stump. I was shattered to have missed out on the century. But I told myself that I had at least got to bat these many number of overs and had played well.I could not make the next match (quarterfinal against Maharashtra) as I had to appear for my exams. Those days, the Ranji Trophy was a big deal for us and getting into the side and competing against the best players in India was a big deal. And I was lucky to have had the great senior players of our side around — Ranjib, Amiya, Prasant Mohapatra – when it happened. To get an opportunity that early in my career helped me a lot.

All week they have spoken about the confidence they gained in Brisbane, in spite of their losing the Test. To be fair, in training at least, they have walked the talk

Osman Samiuddin in Melbourne25-Dec-20162:44

‘More self-belief in the team now’ – Misbah

Well, this is a turn up. Though, given 2016 is the year everything that has not died has been turned on its head, it is only apt we should enter the last Test this way round. This way round being, Pakistan talking all week of the confidence they took from Brisbane, and the confidence with which they approach among the most hallowed venues in cricket, on one of the game’s most hallowed dates.If there is a player or official in the squad who is anything south of that, then he has not shown himself publicly at least. Misbah-ul-Haq doesn’t count; he could win the lottery and we would never guess. Steve Rixon, the fielding coach, has been so emboldened as to go on radio and talk about Steven Smith’s vulnerabilities as captain as well as the panic he saw in Australia’s dressing room. The scenes, eh? Has a failed run-chase ever lifted a side that failed quite like this?To be fair to Pakistan, all week, in training at least, they have walked that talk. They have practised hard but they have done so with vibrancy and spirit. The japery of Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir and Sarfraz Ahmed, in particular, has established the mood – or, a better Urdu capturing, – as much as Misbah or Younis Khan’s paternalistic focus.The fast bowlers have sweated it out and if Amir’s right knee and thigh has bothered him a touch at the start of training sessions, by their end he has been gliding around. The batsmen, meanwhile, have gotten down to the grim business of Test batting. The marble slab has seen heavy use and Misbah has spent longer than most at the other end of it. According to Grant Flower, Younis has netted better than he has for some time. And Yasir Shah has been around, turning deliveries more than any he did at the Gabba, to the obligatory chorus of ‘oohs’, ‘aahs’ and ‘ai hais’ from the support staff.It is, to be honest, all a little bit unnerving. This is not how Pakistan sides are meant to be in Australia, least of all after a first-Test loss. It is certainly not how it was the last time Pakistan were here, seven years ago. Then, under the second of what would be five captains in a year, they were a collection of cricketers – not an ostensibly fractious one, but with little binding them together. Misbah was one of them.”Because we got good confidence behind us especially after the last game, and what we have done over the years with this team, the kind of achievements we have, I think you could say, there is more self-belief at the moment,” he said, ever careful not to sound like he’s sniping, but clear in what he meant nonetheless.”The guys are relaxed, confident that they can perform well here. And obviously it is a Boxing Day Test, it is an important Test and people will come in huge numbers, a lot of Pakistani fans. So looking forward to a good Test and an important one.”Perhaps what is needed is a shot, neat, of David Warner, the straightest of straight shooters, just to put things in crystal-clear perspective. “We won the game at the end of the day so, if they can take confidence out of losing… I don’t know,” he said on Saturday.Australia did win at the Gabba and what’s more, for much of it, Pakistan did not play that well. Forget the first-innings collapse, bad enough as it was. They dropped chances. They didn’t look especially sharp in the field and struggled visibly with the size of the outfield. And, the bowling.

Sometimes you can really get a lot of punishment here. And to get 20 wickets is always a challengeMisbah-ul-Haq on Australian conditions

It is Pakistan’s bowling that, counter-intuitively, is of greater concern – more proof that this year the world is truly upside down. Attacks, great, good and otherwise, have come to Australia, a country for fast bowlers, and flown back deflated, overworked and mind-boggled.Six times in Pakistan’s last seven Tests in Australia, the bowlers have had an Australian innings declared on them. On their last tour, with Amir, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Mohammad Sami and Danish Kaneria, Australia declared four times in three Tests.Additionally, since the 1999-00 tour – the beginning of Pakistan’s ten-Test losing streak here – there are four successful Australian chases, by ten wickets, four wickets, nine wickets and nine wickets. Dennis Lillee used to think Faisalabad was a graveyard for fast bowlers; what might Pakistani pacemen make of Australia?In Brisbane, as at venues in England and New Zealand, the bowlers have been slow to work out what lengths to hit. It has been bothersome enough for Misbah to feel he is better-placed at mid-on or in the covers, away from the cordon, so that he can be in constant communication with his bowlers.”We are hoping they can adapt,” he said. “It’s always difficult, which is what I said before the tour that it isn’t only a challenge for the batsmen, it is for bowlers. Whoever comes here, especially Asian teams, the conditions are totally different and sometimes it can get very flat.”You need to adjust to those conditions as bowlers, otherwise you’re leaking too many runs, giving away too many boundaries. You need to be very precise in line and length because of the true bounce and pace [in these wickets]. Sometimes you can really get a lot of punishment here. And to get 20 wickets is always a challenge. I hope these guys are capable of that in any sort of condition.”The eagle-eyed Misbah-watcher among you will have noticed the use of the word ‘hope’ twice there. It may or may not have been deliberate but it is revealing of Misbah the bowling captain. As one allergic to leaking runs, the nature of Australian pitches, their batsmen and their boundary-hitting ways, as well as the inconsistencies of his own pace attack, will be a perennial frown on Misbah’s brow.There is a possibility that Imrah Khan could join team-mate Wahab Riaz and play the Melbourne Test•AFPPerhaps the composition changes. Nobody has trained with greater gusto than Imran Khan this week, whose back-of-length ways – as well as the ability to reverse – could prove useful. Mickey Arthur has had plenty of interaction with him as well, though his publicly aired worries that Imran lacks the pace for Australian conditions could have something to do with that. Misbah does think he can do well here.The other natural worry might be about Pakistan’s confidence tipping over into overconfidence, a mood that has never reaped them much reward. But that is one thing about this side, and how much its key players take their cue from Misbah. There is little chance men such as Asad Shafiq or Azhar Ali will get carried away by Brisbane. It is not their DNA.”No, I don’t think there is a danger [of that]. You can see everybody is spending a lot of time in the nets, working on their basics and they don’t want to leave anything behind. It is a good sign that we are confident. But at the same time we are determined and focused. Overall I am comfortable with the position we are at as individuals and as a team.”And if Misbah-ul-Haq is feeling comfortable, who are we to argue?

M Vijay approaches his 50th Test having played important innings for the side all over the world, yet he has not quite dominated a series like his peers in the India team

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Ranchi13-Mar-20173:16

Archive: ‘When I bat, I want to play as many balls as possible’

Three days before the Bengaluru Test, M Vijay appeared at a press conference in which two major talking points went un-talked-about. The first was the fact that Vijay was carrying a shoulder injury that could – and eventually did – keep him out of the Test match. Neither did Anil Kumble the next day nor Virat Kohli on the eve of the game mention it, even when asked if the team had any injury concerns. It seemed, in the end, that India had kept this bit of news well hidden to keep Abhinav Mukund – who replaced his Tamil Nadu opening partner at the Chinnaswamy Stadium – out of the spotlight, and out of Australia’s pre-match planning.The other fact that went unnoticed at Vijay’s press conference was that he had played 49 Tests. No one asked him about his thoughts on playing his 50th Test, or about the long, winding and sometimes precarious path that had taken him there.It felt somehow appropriate, befitting a batsman who, while playing the innings of his life, a first-day 144 in the scorching heat of the Gabba, caressed Shane Watson through the covers, ambled back to his crease, looked up, bemused that the crowd hadn’t stopped applauding, and only realised he had moved from 96 to 100 when told so by his batting partner Ajinkya Rahane. There has always been a streak of absentmindedness in Vijay’s cricket.Fifty Test matches. Twenty-eight Indian cricketers have reached this milestone, of whom only four – Sunil Gavaskar (125 Tests), Virender Sehwag (103), Gautam Gambhir (58) and Navjot Singh Sidhu (51) – have been full-time opening batsmen. Shoulder permitting, Vijay will join them in Ranchi.It will have taken Vijay an awfully long time, by the standards of his day, to get there. He made his debut back in 2008, in Sourav Ganguly’s farewell Test, and has missed 37 of India’s 86 Tests since then. He spent three years making sporadic appearances whenever Virender Sehwag or, more often, Gautam Gambhir was out injured. He went through an identity crisis as to what kind of batsman he wanted to be, and spent two years out of the side before coming back to establish himself, belatedly, as India’s first-choice opening batsman.While Cheteshwar Pujara has averaged over fifty seven times while playing more than one match in a series, M Vijay has done so only twice•AFPAll of this has contributed to a Test record that is, at first glance, a little underwhelming: 3307 runs at an average of 39.84, this while he has been part of a batting line-up whose three other long-standing members – Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Rahane – average over 45.The average is a product of all the contradictory forces that make Vijay one of the most fascinating and frustrating batsmen of our time.There are few obvious weaknesses in his game: he leaves as well as anyone of his generation; he defends with soft hands, close to his body, and against spin is seldom caught on the wrong foot; he doesn’t have a huge array of attacking shots against the short ball, but is seldom hurried by it; he is beautifully balanced against balls aimed at the stumps, and is almost never forced into playing around his front pad.If there has been any pattern to his recent dismissals, it’s a tendency to fend at rising balls in the fourth-stump channel, but if it’s a hard ball to negotiate, it’s just as hard to deliver accurately. It isn’t, in short, a massive weakness.Vijay’s technical gifts have allowed him to play innings of substance all over the world: at Kingsmead, Trent Bridge, Lord’s, the Gabba, the P Sara Oval, and at various Indian venues against seam and spin. Hardly a series goes by without at least one significant contribution from him.But he seldom dominates a series. Through his entire career, he has only averaged more than 50 twice while playing more than one match in a series. Compare that to Kohli (8), Pujara (7), or Rahane (6). When they are in form, they really make it count. Vijay, for some reason, doesn’t.And so, the average. 39.84. It isn’t what it could be, but it is what it is. Much like Vijay himself. His fans will hope his 50th Test will bring with it a series-defining hundred, but they will not be too disappointed if he only makes 31. It’s all part of the Vijay experience.

Steven Smith talks about the challenges that an India tour presents, lessons from Sri Lanka, and how the side’s senior players need to step up

Interview by Daniel Brettig23-Jan-2017Looking back over the Test summer, was Hobart your wits’ end?
We had lost five Test matches in a row, and that is unacceptable from my point of view, so we had to do something to turn that around. We had some changes in personnel and got some younger guys in. We probably didn’t think they would perform as well as they did straight away, which has been very pleasing. I felt a shift in energy and enthusiasm and attitude around the group, and that was from the very first time we got together in Adelaide, before the Test match. Since then everything has gone pretty well.Important for you as a captain, then, to “crack the whip”, both publicly and within the team?
I wasn’t overly happy with what was going on, so things had to change and we had to start playing better cricket. Since the change, it’s been good, the way we have gone about our cricket has been the most pleasing aspect. We have worried about the processes and everything that we have done has been good to get us into positions where we can win games of cricket. We are not the end product yet, we have got plenty of work to do, particularly with India coming up. It is going to be a difficult tour, we are going to lose games of cricket along the way, but as long as we stick to the processes and do the basics well regularly, we are going to win a lot more games than we lose.“Attitude” is a word you have used there. How key will the team’s attitude be to tackling India – knowing it’s difficult and having the right mindset to respond to that?
It’s a difficult place to tour. India play incredibly well in their own backyard, and each individual is going to have to have plans in place. Ashwin and Jadeja have been incredible for a while now. They have got a couple of good quicks who bowl good reverse swing, and their batsmen score big runs. Looking at the India-England series, England actually played reasonably well, they scored big runs, but India just went bigger and bigger. We are going to have to find ways to get them out and we are going to have to find ways to bat for long periods – 150 overs in your first innings and set the game up from there.

“If the game is dead and buried and we can’t win, you want to see the fight to do everything you can to stay out there and get the team a draw. That is something we haven’t done overly well in the past”

Your vice-captain, David Warner, hasn’t made a hundred overseas since the UAE in 2014. What do you want to see out of him?
It’s pretty important that our senior players step up in those conditions and take control. It’s something we didn’t do overly well in Sri Lanka, and we didn’t get the results that we wanted there. The senior players – myself, Davey, [Mitchell] Starcy, Josh [Hazlewood] and Nathan Lyon – need to step up and really take control. I’m going to do it differently to Davey. You don’t want to get rid of someone’s natural flair and the way they play. But if he gets to a hundred, it might be about knuckling down again and going big, get 200 or 300, like Karun Nair did a few weeks ago. Those are the big scores that set your team up, so just being hungry and willing to keep going and not let up.Something else the team has been missing for a while is avoiding defeat if you fall behind early on in a match. You haven’t played in a drawn Test match since the first week of January last year, and that was rain-affected. Is that something you want to see change, particularly overseas?
Absolutely. Obviously you want to win first and foremost, but a draw is a much better result than a loss. If the game is dead and buried and we can’t win, you want to see the fight and the willingness to put your natural game away and do everything you can to stay out there and get the team a draw. That is something we haven’t done overly well in the past. When we are a long way behind the game and chasing 500 or something in the last innings, guys have still just gone out and played, rather than do what Faf [du Plessis] did at Adelaide a few years ago and just block it and give yourself a chance to survive.In Sri Lanka last year, something you and Darren Lehmann both spoke about was needing to throw out what the Australian team knows and look for something different to win over there. But when you have an Australian summer and you finish the Test series winning, as you have, how challenging is it to get that mindset again?
It’s just a completely different game altogether. You have got to let go of what has come before and worry about what is in front of you. It’s so different, the way you play there relative to here, there are no similarities at all. You have almost got to forget what you do in Australia and find another method, a way to play in those conditions and have success. It’s hard to say, because each individual does it differently, but you don’t get conditions like that here. The ball does not bounce as much there, so you need to have a strong defence, first of all.I think we have been guilty in the past of saying, “A ball is going to have your name on it, so get them before one gets you.” To be honest with you, that’s rubbish. I think if your defence is good and you back that, then the one that has got your name on it generally spins past the bat or does too much. So get that out of your mind,. It’s going to be about backing your defence and making sure you can bat for long enough. Everyone in our team has got the shots, but get yourself in; things get easier, and then be willing to go big.”[David Saker] has seen what England did when they won [in India], so he can bring different ideas to the table about how to play in those conditions”•Getty ImagesWhen you have a home summer as it is, with blocks of Tests, ODIs and T20s going on underneath, how much time realistically do you get to prepare specifically for that challenge?
It’s not easy. I know over the last Test match in Sydney a few of us did some skill development as much as we can in the conditions. We got some balls thrown to us, we faced spinners in the nets, batting at the end where the bowlers usually bowl from, so balls hit the rough and do some unpredictable things. Just trying to get outside your comfort zone a little bit and facing something unpredictable is part of what you get over there. That’s a good start, but it is difficult here in Australia to prepare for what you get over there – there is too much bounce in the wickets and things like that. So it’s hard to get the replication of the ball spinning and skidding on. You have got to try to find ways and time to do it as well, because we are playing in a series at the moment and every series is important. Difficult to find adequate measures to get it done, but you have got to try to do what you can.How much do you cast your mind back to 2013 and all the time you had there to learn about how to bat in India, not playing until the third Test?
It was really fortunate we had such a big touring party and so we were able to have a couple guys running drinks at a time, and then the other guys going to the nets and facing the net bowlers. Diva [Michael Di Venuto] was out the back a lot of the time throwing balls and things like that. I reckon I was spending close to two hours a day just in the nets, batting and learning about the conditions. It was some of the best development I’ve come across. I wouldn’t say I wrote anything down about what I did, but it was just the experience of doing it on the job and finding out what you needed to have some success over there and find the right method for you. For me it was about either getting down the wicket or [going] deep in my crease and getting a good reach out in front of myself when I’m defending, trying to get my pad out of the way and things like that. Because I was doing it for such long periods of time against some pretty good net bowlers, the two hours a day I was spending in the nets during the Tests were some of the best development sessions I’ve done.Is that the sort of thing you’re hoping to get out of the time in Dubai before you reach India?
Batters will try to replicate the conditions we are going to get as much as we can. Speaking to David Saker, that’s what England did a few years ago when they had success. The bounce you get is more similar to India than anywhere else. Hopefully we can get wickets that spin and things like that, and guys can get some good volume in. A few of our guys haven’t played Test cricket in India before, so they need to find a method they can succeed with; it’s so different to here and they need to find the right one for them.

“I think we have been guilty in the past of saying, ‘A ball is going to have your name on it, so get them before one gets you.’ That’s rubbish”

Your own spin bowling will be vital too. How much is that going to be about consistency, simply landing ball after ball in the same spot?
It’s that and being able to, at the same time, mix up the seam positions you bowl with. If you look at Ashwin, who has done incredibly well, he has a seam that is a side seam, a 45-degrees seam that goes over the top to go with a carrom ball that he doesn’t bowl that often. He is able to do that and generally bowl extremely consistently. He hits the same spot with the different seams and the ball reacts differently from there – the pitch does a lot of that. Jadeja is pretty similar; he maybe doesn’t have as many seam positions, but he just hits a good area – some spin more than others, some skid – and just challenges your defence the whole time and lets the wicket do that work.Steve O’Keefe’s injury in Sri Lanka was pretty damaging to your chances. You have known him for a long time at New South Wales. Does it seem to you like the penny has dropped for him in terms of making sure he makes this one count?
He has had some issues with his body, and I think he has done the right thing to take the BBL off. It’s a pretty fast-paced game and knowing how competitive SOK is, he doesn’t have another level – he either goes 100% or he’s not playing. So I think it’s good we are not risking him there with how fragile his body is. I think he is going to be a big player for us in those conditions. He understands how to bowl in those conditions. He had a bit of success on the A tour of India. He was a big loss for us in Sri Lanka. He looked like taking a wicket every ball, and he has worked with Sri [Sridharan Sriram] from India who understands how to bowl in those conditions as well, understands the different arm angles and seam positions and paces you have to bowl on those wickets. That’s a big plus. If we are going to have success on this tour, he is going to be a big part of it.You mentioned David Saker before. How useful is it to have someone on the support staff who was part of a successful India tour in the recent past?
It is very important. He has seen what England did when they won over there, so he can bring different ideas to the table about how to play in those conditions, how to get the ball shifting in the air, things like that. They had a pretty good team, England, when they won over there [in 2012]. Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann understood how to bowl in those conditions, they bowled very fast and similarly hit a good area consistently and let the wicket do the work, along with the good reverse-swing bowling of Anderson and Broad. They had a very good mix of bowlers, and their senior batters stood up as well. If we are going to have success, it is going to have to be the same as that.One difference between this tour and Sri Lanka and the UAE before that is the level of expectation. On both those tours Australia were expected to win, whereas few are predicting anything other than an India victory this time around. A different mental approach?
We know it’s going to be hard. I wouldn’t say a different mental approach – we go on each tour expecting to compete and play well. It’s nice that people are writing us off and calling us the underdogs; hopefully we can turn that around once we get over there. But we are under no illusions that it’s going to be a difficult tour.

From Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket to West Indies’ walkout of their tour of India in 2014, five instances when player-pay disputes affected international cricket

Brydon Coverdale24-May-20171884-85
If you idly scanned through the scorecards of the 1884-85 Ashes – and let’s be honest, which of us hasn’t spent our leisure time doing exactly that? – you would be struck by the fact that in the second Test, Australia had nine debutants and a completely different XI from the one that played the first Test. Why? Australia captain Billy Murdoch had, after the first Test, led his players in demanding 50% of the gate takings. When their demand was refused, Murdoch’s men sat out of the Melbourne Test and Tom Horan captained Australia, who sunk to a to a 10-wicket defeat. Several members of the side returned for the third Test, although it was six years before Murdoch played another Test for Australia. And two years after that, he switched allegiance to England.1977
The daddy of all pay disputes was the one that led to the World Series Cricket schism. Kerry Packer, the media magnate who ran the Nine Network in Australia, had unsuccessfully tried to wrest cricket’s broadcast rights from the ABC. If he couldn’t buy the rights, he set about buying the players. The Australians were, in effect, amateurs at the time, so appallingly paid that Packer said cricket was “the easiest sport in the world to take over … nobody bothered to pay the players what they were worth”. The result was that most of Australia’s – and many of the world’s – best cricketers ended up playing World Series Cricket, and the matches now historically recorded as “official” Tests at the time featured second-string Australia, and then, West Indies sides. It took only a couple of years for the authorities to agree to negotiate with Packer, who gained the Test cricket TV rights for the Nine Network, and the WSC era was over.1989
The Indian dispute of 1989 had its origins in a testy relationship between the BCCI and a group of senior players. The captain, Dilip Vengsarkar, had defied the board’s instructions during a home series in 1987 by writing newspaper columns, and incurred a six-month ban. And by 1989, he and several other senior players were unhappy about certain clauses in their contracts. Following a disappointing tour of the West Indies, a group of players returned home via the USA and Canada to play in exhibition matches against the wishes of the BCCI. That led to bans for Vengsarkar, Kiran More, Arun Lal, Mohammad Azharuddin and Ravi Shastri, while other, more junior players were let off with fines. The suspended players took the BCCI to court, and a settlement was reached.1997
Talk of strike action for this year’s Ashes is not quite correct, for if that was to happen, the Australian players would be uncontracted, and thus unable, technically, to strike. Back in 1997, strike action was also mooted when the players were locked in a tense negotiation with the Australian Cricket Board (ACB, now CA) over pay. Still relatively new at the time, the Australian Cricketers’ Association eventually secured a deal by which the playing group would be granted roughly a quarter of Australian cricket’s revenue streams. One of the results was that it became more financially rewarding to play domestic cricket in Australia. Twenty years later, Mark Taylor, who as national captain in 1997 was in danger of being sacked over his support of the ACA stance, is now a Cricket Australia board member, and believes that Australia’s players will be no worse off under the proposal CA has put forward.2009 and 2014
The relationship between the WICB and its players has been rocky for much of the past two decades, since Brian Lara and his men initially refused to travel to South Africa for a series. Since the turn of the century, two particular flashpoints have stood out. In 2009, the West Indies Players’ Association boycotted a series against Bangladesh, which led to a farcically weakened West Indies squad being named as replacements under the captaincy of Floyd Reifer, who had not played international cricket for a decade. Not surprisingly, Bangladesh won the Tests 2-0 and the ODIs 3-0. Five years later, another contractual dispute between the players and the board led to West Indies walking out on their tour of India midway through. It was an embarrassing situation for West Indies cricket and Dwayne Bravo, the captain of the West Indies side in question, was never seen in a Test or ODI team again.

A Pakistan quick with a shuffling action, a slower-ball master and a yorker specialist – there are many ways to top the wicket charts

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Mar-20172016 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sunrisers Hyderabad
23 wickets at 21.30
Bhuvneshwar Kumar had two solid seasons – he took 20 wickets in 2014 and 18 in 2015 – coming into the 2016 IPL. He had shown he could get swing early on and nail his yorkers and slower balls in the end overs. So, it wasn’t a surprise that he was Sunrisers Hyderabad’s key bowler during their winning campaign. After Sunrisers had lost two of their first three games, Bhuvneshwar bowled a match-winning spell of 4 for 29 against Gujarat Lions to bring their season on track. He then picked up at least a wicket in all but two of Sunrisers’ group games. In the elimination final, his 3 for 19 was crucial to Sunrisers’ win against Kolkata Knight Riders. Although he did not pick up a wicket in the final, he was Sunrisers’ most economical bowler as they defended 208 and bowled two crucial overs towards the end to seal the title.2015 – Dwayne Bravo, Chennai Super Kings
26 wickets at 16.38By 2015, Dwayne Bravo had established himself as one of the finest Twenty20 bowlers in world cricket. His specialty was bowling in the end overs, when his mixture of yorkers, bouncers and dipping slower balls proved difficult to handle. He had won the purple cap in 2013, but missed the next season with an injury. In 2015, he reclaimed the cap, as Chennai Super Kings once again made it to the final. His standout performance came against Kolkata Knight Riders when Super Kings were defending a modest 134. He came into the attack with Knight Riders requiring 45 runs from five overs with six wickets in hand. He struck with his second ball, and two more wickets in his next over derailed Knight Riders’ chase and earned him the Man-of-the-Match award.2014 – Mohit Sharma, Chennai Super Kings
23 wickets at 19.65It was only Mohit Sharma’s second season in the IPL, but he had already shown his quality as a limited-overs bowler. Early in the 2014 season, he took 4 for 14 against Mumbai Indians and then followed it with five wickets in his next two games. He picked up another three-wicket haul in the group stages, against Rajasthan Royals.Morne Morkel had an explosive start to the 2012 season, but was controversially left out of the qualifying final•BCCI2013 – Dwayne Bravo, Chennai Super Kings
32 wickets at 15.53Dwayne Bravo struck in every one of Chennai Super Kings’ 18 games in the 2013 IPL, racking up a wicket-tally that is still the highest for any bowler in a season. He played the role of finisher to good effect too. Unfortunately for him, his best performance, 4 for 42 against Mumbai in the final, came in a losing cause, as Super Kings’ batsmen could not haul down the target.2013 – James Faulkner, Rajasthan Royals
28 wickets at 15.25Though not officially a purple cap winner, James Faulkner deserves a mention because his 28 wickets in 2013 would have won him the cap in seven of the other eight seasons. He had barely featured in his previous two seasons in the IPL, but played 16 games for Royals in 2013. He ended up with two five-wicket hauls, both against Sunrisers Hyderabad.2012 – Morne Morkel, Delhi Daredevils
25 wickets at 18.12In 2012, Delhi Daredevils topped the table in the league stage, and Morne Morkel was one of the major reasons why. He started the season by bowling Kolkata Knight Riders’ Jacques Kallis and Manoj Tiwary with consecutive yorkers in the third over of Daredevils’ first game of the season. By the end of Daredevils’ sixth game, he had taken 15 wickets at 10.80. In Daredevils’ final game of the league stage, he took 4 for 20 to restrict Kings XI to 141. Strangely, he was left out of the second qualifying final, which Daredevils lost to Super Kings.Lasith Malinga has taken 20 or more wickets in four IPL seasons•BCCI2011 – Lasith Malinga, Mumbai Indians
28 wickets at 13.39The all-time leading wicket-taker in IPLs, Lasith Malinga had the first of four 20-wicket-plus seasons in 2011. Bouncers, yorkers, slower bouncers, slower yorkers – all were on show as he helped Mumbai reach the knockouts. He took 5 for 13 in Mumbai’s first game. Not only did Malinga take wickets, his economy rate stood out. On eight different occasions, he completed his four overs for less than 25 runs, and he finished with an economy rate of 5.95 in the season. In the elimination final, he conceded just 19 off his four overs in Mumbai’s win.2010 – Pragyan Ojha, Deccan Chargers
21 wickets at 20.42Pragyan Ojha was one of the most successful spinners in the early seasons of the IPL. He had taken 18 scalps in Deccan Chargers’ successful campaign in 2009 and in 2010, he helped them reach the semi-finals. His 2 for 24 against Royal Challengers was the standout bowling performance in a match in which no other bowler conceded less than eight runs an over. Against Delhi Daredevils, he helped defend 145 with figures of 2 for 16.2009 – RP Singh, Deccan Chargers
23 wickets at 18.13Adam Gilchrist will be remembered as the face of Deccan Chargers’ unexpected triumph in 2009, but RP Singh was every bit as important to their success. In the final, with Chargers defending just 143 against Royal Challengers, he took the crucial wicket of Jacques Kallis in an economical first spell. He then finished the job with two economical overs in the 18th and 20th, finishing with figures of 1 for 16 in four overs. He started the season with a four-wicket haul against Knight Riders, and then dismissed Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar off consecutive deliveries in a game against Mumbai.2008 – Sohail Tanvir, Rajasthan Royals
22 wickets at 12.09Sohail Tanvir only played 11 of Royals’ 16 games in 2008, but it was enough for him to be the first winner of the purple cap. His 6 for 14 against Super Kings in Jaipur remains the best bowling performance in the tournament’s history. He also took 3 for 10 against Royal Challengers and 4 for 14 against Mumbai. Pakistan players did not feature in the IPL from the 2009 season, and Tanvir never had a shot at retaining his purple cap.