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David Collier, the ECB chief executive, has claimed that members of the South Africa squad ‘provoked’ Kevin Pietersen into the exchange of messages that led to him being dropped by England earlier this summe

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Oct-2012David Collier, the ECB chief executive, has claimed that members of the South Africa squad “provoked” Kevin Pietersen into the exchange of messages that led to him being dropped by England earlier this summer.Last week, the ECB announced a process of “reintegration” for Pietersen following his exile from the team during the summer after it was revealed he had sent provocative messages to the South Africans. Initially it was claimed these included tactical advice on how to dismiss Andrew Strauss although this has since been denied.Speaking for the first time about the issue, Collier said the belief was that it was instigated by the South Africans as a tactic to unsettle Pietersen. “That’s our understanding,” he told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme. “It is a very thin line between fair and unfair. These were responses to messages from certain members of the South Africa team and I would not condone an England player doing it if it was the other way around, and I certainly think they provoked the situation.”However, Collier added that the situation should have been handled better within the dressing room. “There was definitely a policy that was happening but we shouldn’t blame the South Africans, we should be above that,” he said. “I think there was a tactic which was used. I think that is sadly some of the ways of modern sport but as I say we have plenty of people who are strong in the dressing room who provide very good leadership who can deal with those situations.”Collier said he had not seen the Blackberry messages at the centre of the controversy – and no evidence of them is believed to remain – but that it was an attempt to disrupt the team ethic.”Those messages were of a nature that Kevin, with definite hindsight, would have refuted straight away and moved on. It is trying to undermine another team and another team ethic.”Cricket South Africa described the messages as “banter” when the story first emerged in August and a representative of CSA denied Collier’s new claims: “That is rubbish. That is not the case at all. No one was trying to rile KP.”Pietersen has not played for England since the second Test against South Africa at Headingley, where he scored 149 and followed it with a press conference where he hinted at a split in the dressing room. The process has now started to bring him back into the fold, possibly for the Test series against India which starts next month, while a series of meetings are due to be held between Pietersen and senior England players in the coming weeks.The final decision of when Pietersen is recalled now rests in the hands of Andy Flower, the team director, who admitted it “hadn’t been a great couple of months”. Pietersen is due to fly back from the Champions League T20 for discussions ahead of England’s training camp in Dubai in a couple of week’s time and Collier has complete trust in Flower’s judgement.”When Andy Flower says to me ‘I am ready to select this player’ I would trust his judgement every single time. If the team director says he is ready, that is good enough for me,” Collier said. “It takes two seconds to destroy a building and it takes a long time to build it, it is the same with trust therefore we have to have face-to-face meetings.”We have an Ashes series and we don’t want a divided dressing room, we want to make sure we can move collectively. People can’t build relationships without meetings – that is the starting point. They will happen this month and Giles Clarke met Kevin earlier this week.”The meeting had this week was described by both sides as cordial – direct but cordial. It is important to be honest and say our concerns and allow Kevin to say what his concerns were.”

Ian Bell’s masterful, captain’s hundred carried Warwickshire to the Clydesdale Bank 40 title in a three-wicket victory at Lord’s that condemned Somerset to second prize for the third time this season

The Bulletin by Sahil Dutta at Lord's18-Sep-2010
ScorecardIan Bell sealed his side the title with 107 off 95 balls•Getty Images

Ian Bell’s masterful, captain’s hundred carried Warwickshire to the Clydesdale Bank 40 title in a three-wicket victory at Lord’s that condemned Somerset to second prize for the third time this season.Leading the side ahead of regular captain Ian Westwood, Bell steadied Warwickshire’s chase after three early wickets with one of the finest hundreds seen in a domestic one-day final to ensure that Imran Tahir’s remarkable spell 5 for 14, which instigated a dramatic Somerset collapse – from 176 for 3 to 199 all out – did not go in vain.Bell’s stature has grown in his injury-enforced absence from the Pakistan series but his form since returning for Warwickshire has lived up to the heightened billing. Starting with pair of fifties against Nottinghamshire and then Yorkshire in the semi-final of this competition, he then collected a Championship century against Hampshire.He was always going to be pivotal in Warwickshire’s chase and his unflustered dominance ensured no slip-ups in the evening dew as he resisted a fiery Somerset attack, desperate to salvage some silverware after missing with the last ball in the Twenty20 final and a dramatic finish to the County Championship on Thursday.Defending a below-par 199 after Tahir’s heroics, Somerset leapt out of the blocks, fielding electrically and bowling with a passion that seemed to add a yard of pace to the new-ball pairing Ben Phillips and Alfonso Thomas.Neil Carter fell slicing a cut to third man and Keith Barker was unsettled by a fearful clatter to the helmet off a Thomas bouncer before falling to the same bowler two overs later. When Jonathan Trott was caught behind off a ball that bounced and jagged away it looked Somerset might burst through.Instead Bell serenely progressed through the gears, picking off deft singles and flowing boundaries to bring up a fifty from 53 balls. He found willing support in Jim Troughton and together the pair looked to be steering Warwickshire to a comfortable win before Thomas, the competition’s leading wicket-taker, returned to remove Troughton and end a stand of 79.As the target neared Warwickshire’s nerves frayed but Bell launched a calculated assault on the helpless Mark Turner during the batting Powerplay, taking 20 off the 38th over to reach his hundred and all but seal the result. He began by flicking an upper-cut past the short third-man, before skipping down the wicket and driving over mid-off. Two balls later he pulled gloriously to the fine-leg boundary before, with four more needed, celebrating prematurely when his drive down the ground was fielded on the ropes. Visibly riding on the adrenaline he marked each of the three boundaries in the over with a passionate roar and fist-pump which hammered home, a touch endearingly, his new-found reputation for revelling on the big stage.Under lights Lord’s was a spectacle for everyone bar the fans who turned up to the ground. Huddled under blankets, hats and jumpers the conditions were every bit as chilly as an early April morning, but they were treated to a close encounter with two teams desperate to perform on the domestic game’s biggest stage. It was a pity that Lord’s was barely half full but perhaps that will be enough to persuade the administrators to rethink the scheduling for next year.When Somerset reflect on yet another missed opportunity they may well come back to one point. James Hildreth and Nick Compton were cruising at 172 for 3 with 10 overs remaining in a 95-run stand when Compton called through a suicidal single to Trott at backward point that left Hildreth with no chance. It opened a chink which Tahir burst through dramatically.Returning for a second spell after an anonymous opening four overs, Tahir trapped Jos Buttler, who had been cheered warmly to the crease after a memorable debut season, lbw second ball with a top-spinner. Two overs later he lured Arul Suppiah down the pitch and spun the ball past his outside edge to clip off stump before removing Compton lbw three balls later to cue wild celebrations. The procession continued when Phillips punched straight to Bell at short cover and Tahir collected his fifth thanks to a sharp leg-side stumping by Richard Johnson.It will probably be Tahir’s last game for the county. With Warwickshire his 14th first-class team, Tahir is the very definition of a journeyman and returns to Hampshire next season after spending this year in the Midlands on loan. Born in Pakistan he almost made a Test debut for South Africa against England last winter before he was hastily disposed of when it emerged he hadn’t yet qualified to play.Traditionally, the Lord’s final is a platform for domestic English players to showcase their international credentials but on this evidence, and after a season that has brought 56 scalps at 24.57 in the Championship, Tahir could well nudge the South African selectors ahead of the World Cup. But for one more night he was a Warwickshire man.

Despite missing several important players New Zealand have swept past Bangladesh with ease in each of the matches so far

The Preview by Siddarth Ravindran10-Feb-2010

Match facts

Thursday, February 11
Start time 14.00 (0100 GMT)Mushfiqur Rahim has rescued Bangladesh in several matches•Getty Images

Big Picture

As aficionados of crime fiction know, for a narrative to be gripping, you need a good twist, something this series has sorely lacked. Despite missing several important players, New Zealand have swept past Bangladesh with ease in each of the matches so far. Coach Mark Greatbatch could not have asked for a simpler initiation to his stint in the top job – his charges have already won the series with minimum fuss, and New Zealand have also managed to blood newcomers ahead of tougher contests against Australia. Completing a clean sweep in Christchurch on Thursday will be the cherry on top for the new regime.The tracks in New Zealand have neutralised Bangladesh’s primary weapon – spin – forcing the visitors to use a three-pronged pace attack, which has proved less effective, especially with Mashrafe Mortaza absent. The wretched form of key middle-order batsmen, Mohammad Ashraful and Shakib Al Hasan, who have scraped 14 runs between them in two ODIs, is another huge setback to Bangladesh’s chances of winning their first game in New Zealand. Bangladesh fans looking for crumbs will take heart from 20-year-old Shafiul Islam’s performances, topping the wickets chart after two matches.For New Zealand, one area where their captain Daniel Vettori wants improvement is the death bowling – Bangladesh clubbed 92 runs in their final 10 overs on Monday, despite already having lost six wickets. Tim Southee will have to shoulder some of that responsibility on Thursday, but he won’t have pleasant memories of Christchurch after being slammed for 105 runs by India in his previous ODI there.

Form guide (most recent first)

New Zealand WWWWL
Bangladesh LLLLL

Watch out for

Andy McKay got his first international game last week at the ripe old cricketing age of 29, and has impressed the team management with his pace, clocking 147kph in the first one-dayer. In the second ODI in Dunedin, he showed off his control, sending down a first spell that choked the Bangladesh top order: 7-3-4-2.A team whose batting regularly resembles a house of cards, has had to thank Mushfiqur Rahim for saving them from utter embarrassment with his lower-order efforts. His fire-fighting skills were on display in Dunedin as well, where he made a gutsy 86 after the team was floundering at 46 for 6.

Team news

Daryl Tuffey has been left out due to a hamstring strain, and Nathan McCullum has been drafted into the squad. He is unlikely to get a look-in, though, with Southee expected to take Tuffey’s place.New Zealand: (probable) 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Peter Ingram, 3 Martin Guptill, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 James Franklin, 6 Neil Broom, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Ian Butler, 11 Andy McKay.
Bangladesh have yet to announce their side for the final ODI. Opener Junaid Siddique flew in from home on Sunday, so he could take Imrul Kayes’ spot.Bangladesh: (probable) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Junaid Siddique/Imrul Kayes, 3 Mohammad Ashraful, 4 Aftab Ahmed, 5 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 8 Naeem Islam, 9 Shahadat Hossain, 10 Shafiul Islam, 11 Rubel Hossain.
“You need to have multiple guys who can bowl at the death. You almost want all your seamers to [be able to] bowl then, and it’s a real focus area to improve on.”

“We are bowling well with the new ball but we need a lot of improvement in our batting, and our fielding.”

Former Gloucestershire captain to assist ex-teammate Jon Lewis after leaving Kent

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Oct-2023Alex Gidman has been appointed as England Women’s assistant coach, after moving on from his batting-coach role at Kent.Gidman, the former Gloucestershire batter who went on to coach Worcestershire to the 2019 T20 Blast title, will be working under his former county team-mate Jon Lewis, England Women’s head coach, whom he succeeded as Gloucestershire’s captain back in 2009.His appointment means that Lewis will now be supported by three permanent assistant coaches, with Gareth Breese and Matt Mason making up the trio. Gidman’s first involvement will be for the tour of India in December, where the team are due to play three T20Is and a one-off Test in Navi Mumbai.”Alex joins us at a very exciting time as we start to prepare for what will be the busiest 15 months of women’s international cricket,” Jonathan Finch, the director of England Women’s Cricket, said. “To be able to bring in someone of Alex’s experience is fantastic news and will only add to the support we can provide to players to continuously move the team forward.”I would also like to thank Kent CCC in allowing Alex to make the move to his new role so quickly and support our preparation for the upcoming tour to India.”Gidman added: “I am delighted to join the England Women’s coaching team.”There is a great blend of experienced and young players within the squad and I can’t wait to get started and add value over the next few years during what is an exciting period for the women’s game.”I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Kent. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time there and wish them all the best for the future.”An England A squad will also tour India this winter, and in preparation for that, another Jon Lewis – JJB Lewis, the former Durham head coach – has joined the ECB on a permanent basis as performance batting coach. A performance pace bowling coach will be appointed in due course.”The performance coach roles will ensure we can provide more consistent coaching and leadership to our England Women A and England Women U19s programmes as we look to develop a group of players ready to perform for England Women moving forward,” Finch added.”Having these roles will enable us to grow the opportunities to those players looking to make the transition into the England Women squads across all formats.”

Former Scotland captain addresses findings ahead of New Zealand T20i

Sam Dalling27-Jul-2022Former Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer hopes the “shocking” findings of the Changing the Boundaries report published on Monday can be the catalyst for change in Scottish cricket.Carried out by consultancy firm Plan4Sport, the report cited 448 examples of institutional racism, with Cricket Scotland failing all but two of the 31 tests used to measure the scale of the issues.Last Sunday, ahead of the report’s publication, Cricket Scotland’s entire board resigned, in doing so offering an apology to those affected by institutional racism.Most notably that included the former Scotland internationals whose allegations had set the review in motion, Majid Haq and Qasim Sheikh.Both were present at The Grange for the first match of Scotland’s series with New Zealand. Coetzer, who recently retired from T20I cricket but will continue to represent his country in one-day internationals, was speaking as part of the ICC’s live-stream coverage.”The report obviously showed some shocking findings,” he said. “Everyone processes things in their own way and everyone will have their own emotions around this. Everyone’s probably trying to take a chance to reflect and understand everything and learn as best we can.”But nobody should face racism and discrimination in the sport or any sport for that matter. And I know, being part of the playing group, we wholeheartedly hope that everyone can get through this, and I hope that things can move forward in a positive way.”More than 100 participants from across Scottish cricket were spoken to as part of Plan4Sport’s investigations. The report outlined 68 individual concerns that have been referred for further investigation. This includes 31 allegations of racism against 15 different people, two clubs and one regional association.It was also recommended that Cricket Scotland be placed under special measures by SportScotland until at least October 2023. An urgent review into Cricket Scotland’s governance was also proposed, while it was suggested that a minimum of 25% of new board members should be Black, South-East Asian, or other mixed or multiple ethnic groups.Coetzer, though, believes that the report should just be the starting point: “There’s a number of findings in there that need to be addressed and looked at so that’d be a good starting point,” he said.”But it’s also about trying to learn and trying to understand about this whole process and speak to each other to try and find out what would be best moving forward. It’s important that we can all work together and move in a more positive way and find positive changes in our sport. Hopefully, we can be a leading light for that in Scotland.”

BCCI awaiting exemption for family members of squad

Nagraj Gollapudi17-May-2021The Indian contingent that will head to the UK for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and the five-match Test series against England this summer will undergo a hard quarantine, spanning two weeks, starting May 19. Also part of this plan will be the Indian women’s squad, which is scheduled to play a one-off Test followed by three ODIs and three T20Is. Both the Indian squads will assemble in Mumbai and are likely to fly out together on a charter flight to London on June 2.As per the BCCI’s plan, the 20 players in the men’s Test squad, excluding those residing in Mumbai, will start their quarantine at the team hotel from Wednesday. The BCCI has arranged charter flights that will pick up all the players, coaches and support staff from different parts of India and bring them to Mumbai.From May 24 onwards the rest of the squad and members of the team management residing in Mumbai, including Indian captain Virat Kohli, his deputy Ajinkya Rahane, senior batsman Rohit Sharma along with head coach Ravi Shastri, will enter the bio-secure bubble at the Mumbai team hotel. The Mumbai group will also serve a strict home quarantine starting on May 19.To ensure the bubble is completely secure, the BCCI has arranged for all members – both the men’s and women’s squads – to get three negative tests before they board the flights to Mumbai. There will be further testing done at the team hotel in Mumbai before they embark on the London flight.Saha to join Mumbai bubble later
Wriddhiman Saha, who is one of the two wicketkeepers along with Rishabh Pant for the WTC final and the England series, will join the Mumbai bubble in the week leading to the England departure. Saha had tested positive for Covid-19 during his stay in the Delhi leg of the IPL where he plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Saha, who has been in quarantine for two weeks, has got the BCCI permission to visit his family in Kolkata before he heads to Mumbai to join the Indian Test squad.Related

• India players' families given clearance for England tour

• WTC final: India and New Zealand to share trophy in case of a draw or a tie

• Wriddhiman Saha, Amit Mishra, Prasidh Krishna recover from Covid-19

• Sunrisers' Saha tests positive for Covid-19

• Rahul to undergo surgery for appendicitis

Saha was one of the three players, along with KL Rahul and Prasidh Krishna, whose availability, the BCCI had said while naming the squad, was subject to fitness. Rahul had undergone surgery to treat appendicitis during the IPL where he is captain of Punjab Kings. Krishna, who plays for the Kolkata Knight Riders, had tested positive for Covid-19 a day after returning from the IPL to his home town Bengaluru recently.Ten-day quarantine in Southampton
The men’s squad will head directly to Southampton where India will play New Zealand in the inaugural WTC final between June 18-22. ESPNcricinfo understands that as per the permission sought from the British government by the ECB, which will coordinate with the ICC in hosting the WTC final, the Indian Test squad will undergo a 10-day quarantine at the team hotel which is located within the ground premises in Southampton. However unlike the hard quarantine in Mumbai, the Indian squad would be allowed to train in a controlled fashion within the Southampton bubble, which will comprise the team hotel and the ground and training facilities.BCCI awaits exemption for family members
One significant question still facing the BCCI is getting exemptions for the family members of the Indian contingent. It is learnt that the ECB is working with the UK government on seeking these exemptions.With the number of Covid cases nearing 25 million overall, India is only behind the US globally and also has the third-largest death count since the pandemic hit. Recently the UK government had put India on the red list of countries for travel – both outbound and inbound.
Despite most of its adult population having received at least one shot of the vaccine, the UK government has been cautious about incoming travellers from India mainly due to concern over the growing number of cases related to the coronavirus variant, B.1.617.2, which originated in India. On Monday, Matt Hancock, the British Health Secretary said there were about 2,323 cases of the Indian variant.At present, the BCCI has allowed family members to be part of the Mumbai bubble. The family members will undergo the same bio-safety protocols meant for the team while living in the bubble.

Australia’s assistant coach said Labuschagne reached a level he had never seen before

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-202025:46

‘IPL is No. 1 when it comes to quality of cricket’

The rise of Marnus Labuschagne into the prolific Test No. 3 who dominated the Australian home summer even surprised some who had seen him close at hand.In five Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand, Labuschagne scored 896 runs at 112.00 with four centuries including a maiden double at the SCG. It followed his dramatic return to the Test side during the Ashes as Steven Smith’s concussion replacement at Lord’s and two matches later he was handed the No. 3 spot which he has now made his own.Andrew McDonald watched Labuschagne’s monumental season at close quarters having been appointed as Justin Langer’s assistant coach at the start of the summer. Though he had studied Labuschagne during his time as Victoria’s head coach, McDonald admitted the player who emerged was beyond what could have been imagined.”The real surprise for me, and it’s been pretty well documented, was Marnus. His growth into that Test No. 3 position was phenomenal and great to witness,” McDonald told ESPNcricinfo’s One-on-One series. “I’ve done a fair bit of coaching against him at the state level and had never seen the level he has been able to play at and long may it be the case.”Labuschagne also had his first taste of ODI cricket earlier this year when he made his debut in India on the tour where McDonald stood in for Langer as head coach. Across seven ODIs, Labuschagne is already averaging 50.83 with a strike rate of 94.42 and made a maiden century against South Africa in Potchefstroom.Marnus Labuschagne celebrates his double-hundred•Getty Images

“He was good in the 50-over game batting in the middle order, him and Steve Smith, he’s a very good player of spin,” McDonald said. “So going forward to a World Cup in 2023 think he’ll be a part of that one-day team with a view to being on the big stage in 2023 assuming all goes well. His ability to play spin, fast bowling, rotate [strike], he’s a good fielder, so there’s a handy package there. A good find for the selectors who persisted with him – no one saw that, so full credit to those who picked him.”Australia’s ODI form during the 2019-2020 season – mostly away from home with series in India and South Africa – was poor as they suffered five defeats in a row before returning to winning ways against New Zealand at an empty SCG, in what became the final match of the Australian season as the coronavirus pandemic shut sport down.However, their T20I cricket was much more impressive as they comfortably defeated Sri Lanka and Pakistan early in the home summer before clinching a 2-1 victory in South Africa. The notable tactical shift at the start of the season was to play five frontline bowlers with left-arm spinner Ashton Agar at No. 7, putting the onus on specialists rather than allrounders, before Mitchell Marsh was recalled for the series in South Africa.McDonald suggested a flexible approach will continue as Australia look to build their T20 side – although the T20 World Cup in October is now in doubt due to the pandemic – and that the return of Glenn Maxwell to the top order would further bolster the options.”We’ve seen Australia play five out and out bowlers – two spinners and three quicks – and finish their batting at No. 6 with Agar at No. 7. In that combination you have five strong bowling options, so your all-round option in the top six isn’t that critical. Whereas if you flip it around and want to lengthen your batting slightly then clearly your allrounder becomes pivotal.”We’ve seen Mitch Marsh come back into the fold, so he looks as though he has a little handle on that position at the moment and there are some other options in Australian cricket as well. Glenn Maxwell is missing as well so he could be classified as a spin allrounder.”

The Royal Challengers captain asked each of his team-mates for self-introspection

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Apr-2019For the sixth time in a row, Virat Kohli was asked to explain the freefall his team Royal Challenges Bangalore are experiencing this IPL. The defeat against Delhi Capitals on Sunday meant Royal Challengers have started the season with six successive defeats, equaling the record for the joint-worst start previously held by Delhi Daredevils in 2013.Royal Challengers Bangalore lost their sixth straight match this season•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

As pointed out here, Royal Challengers were embarrassing for the second successive game in the field, allowing the opponent to capitalise on the let-offs. Still recovering from the knockout punch to their gut from Andre Russell in the defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders two evenings ago, they once again dropped chances, failed to convert run-out chances, misfielded and bowled no balls.Instead of being harsh at the post-match presentation, Kohli just asked each of his team-mates for introspection. “When the mind is cluttered you wouldn’t be able to focus on the chances that come your way, so clarity of mind is very important in the game especially if you want to convert the half chances and pull the game back,” Kohli told the host broadcaster .Shreyas Iyer was dropped by Parthiv Patel on 4 on the last ball of the first over of the innings in which Tim Southee had already dismissed Shikhar Dhawan. Iyer proceeded to finish with a 50-ball 67.”Look, in T20 cricket no one is going to keep giving you chances. We got two there – Shreyas got 65 (67). He was on 8 (4) when he was dropped first and then on 20-odd again. Look that takes the game to a different dimension altogether. Like at the end they panicked a little bit.”Kohli admitted his team was once again not “good enough” when it mattered. He thought the under-par total of 149 was actually competitive only because the pitch was “dry underneath” and was hence behaving slow. “We thought 160-165 would be a very competitive total. Even 150, had we held on to our chances, would’ve been very difficult for them. Look, we need to grab our chances when they come our way. We can’t give excuses every day saying something or the other. We weren’t good enough on the day again, and that’s the whole story of RCB so far.”Although he was the top-scorer for Royal Challengers with 41, it was an unusual innings from Kohli who didn’t get much strike for the 17 overs he batted, facing only 33 balls, and when he did, his punch lacked any impact. Kohli explained that he decided to drop anchor once AB de Villiers fell in the sixth over.”When two senior batters are there in the team and one gets out, the other one has to take it deep. So that was the whole idea of that (my) innings. The pitch also didn’t allow us to play our shots that much in the first innings. I wasn’t too happy getting out to a ball like that. I thought if I had stayed [we] could have added maybe 25-30 more to the total. In hindsight you can look at all the things possible, but even with the total in hand, we thought 160 (150) would have been very competitive.”So what should Royal Challengers do to avoid further embarrassment? Kohli did not have much energy or words.”There’s nothing more you can say to the team,” he said. “We have asked the guys to take responsibility, come out here and perform to the best of their abilities. It hasn’t happened so far. That’s the reality of the situation. We do accept it. The more we get frustrated, the more it is going to get tougher and tougher. So the key is to just enjoy ourselves as much as we can, play expressive cricket in the remaining games. Personally as well, not trying to control the situation too much. There is to a certain extent that you can control, which is your own personal skill and try to give your own effort as much as possible and we expect that out of the team, too. Yeah, the team should just take it easy, relax. Whatever it is in front of us, it is in front of us. We can’t really change the situation.”

For the first time since 1974, two Indian bowlers – R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – occupy the top spots in the ICC Test bowling rankings

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Dec-2016Ravindra Jadeja’s maiden ten-wicket haul in the fifth Test against England in Chennai helped him rise to second in the ICC Test bowling rankings, a list led by team-mate R Ashwin. This is the first time since 1974 that two India bowlers occupy the top spots in the bowling rankings. The last pair was left-arm spinner Bishan Bedi and legspinner Bhagwath Chandrasekhar. Having gained 66 points, Jadeja is now eight behind Ashwin.In the recently-concluded Test series against England, Ashwin took 28 wickets at an average of 30.25. Jadeja claimed 26 wickets at 25.84, and an economy rate of 2.31. Of the 93 England wickets to fall in the series, both combined to take 54. Jadeja overtook Josh Hazlewood, James Anderson, Dale Steyn and Rangana Herath on the list. Ashwin has held the top spot since overtaking Dale Steyn and James Anderson in October this year.Jadeja also leapfrogged to No. 3 on the allrounders list, also topped by Ashwin. Jadeja contributed with 224 runs at an average of 37.33 with two fifties. Ashwin chipped in with four fifties with the bat, making 306 runs at 43.71.Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc also moved up to a career-best sixth position after picking up seven wickets in the first Test against Pakistan at the Gabba. ‘

ESPNcricinfo previews the game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers in Kolkata

The Preview by Abhishek Purohit10-Apr-2011

Match facts

Monday, April 11
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Kolkata will look to get over their choke in the opening game•AFP

Big picture

Both batting line-ups faltered in their opening games; Deccan Chargers never got going, and Kolkata Knight Riders choked. Kolkata definitely have more class and power in their batting, but until Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan return from national duty, their bowling looks thin. In their absence though, Kolkata’s bowling held up decently against Chennai Super Kings, but it was the star-studded batting line-up that failed to get them home in a modest chase, blowing away a winning position.
Deccan have a world-class bowling attack, but it was given too few runs to defend by a misfiring batting unit. They tried hard, but Pragyan Ojha had an off day. Their bowling relies on Dale Steyn for making maximum impact, and the way he was played out by Rajasthan Royals after they had conceded two wickets to him, could be one approach teams would look to use against Deccan. The rest of the bowlers will be targeted, but there is no reason why they cannot step up, given their pedigree.

Team talk

Gambhir said that he had come lower down the order against Chennai in order to hold the line-up together, as Jacques Kallis had got off to a good start. The move of sending Yusuf Pathan at No. 3 and demoting himself to No. 6 did not work, and Kolkata would look at rejigging the order.

In the spotlight

Gautam Gambhir has acquired a reputation for some brain fades of late, getting run-out, stumped and bowled after a blind charge in the three World Cup knockout games. He followed that up with another run-out in the IPL opener. He has been in fine touch otherwise, but will have to stay in the middle long enough to make the runs. And would also need to bat at his natural position, in the top order.
Rajasthan targeted Pragyan Ojha who went for 44 in 23 deliveries, blunting a bowling performance that had otherwise been largely on target in defending a small total. Ojha, the top wicket-taker in the previous IPL, will have to complement Steyn’s efforts with the ball.

Prime numbers

• Kolkata’s 67 against Mumbai Indians in 2008 is the second-lowest total in the IPL
• The longest losing streak in the IPL is eight matches by Kolkata in 2009

The chatter

“These things happen. If they did not happen, we wouldn’t call cricket an unpredictable game.”
Gautam Gambhir is not too worried over his run-outs