The quality of cricket was high, the noise levels in the ground were high. The only downer was the struggle to get into the stadium

Hamza Khan24-Feb-2016Choice of game
Watching the PSL final live with friends was a no-brainer.Predicting the winner of the final was difficult as Quetta Gladiators (the best team in the PSL) was facing a very strong and resurgent Islamabad United side that had won four games on the trot including two eliminators. I predicted that Quetta will achieve a narrow win. As it happened, Islamabad won comfortably.Team supported
Ever since they released their official team song (the best in my opinion out of all PSL teams) and the choice of captain, my support was firmly with Quetta, reinforced after their unexpected and strong win on the opening day of the PSL. Hence I was doubly delighted to see my team in the final.Key performer
Brad Haddin to me was the most influential player, and deserved to share the Man-of-the-Match award with Dwayne Smith. Although the West Indian scored more runs, I feel it was Haddin’s presence at No. 3, and his complete calm and assurance at playing pace and spin that created an illusion of no pressure. In addition, after Smith’s dismissal when the game could have potentially turned, Haddin hung in till the end to close off the game.One thing you’d have changed about the day
I would have bowled Zulfiqar Babar in the Powerplay instead of Nathan McCullum during Islamabad’s chase. Babar had done brilliantly in the first six overs throughout the tournament, and I felt Babar was both more aggressive and a more skillful option. Also, I can’t resist watching his twirling arms.The face-off you relished
The biggest face-off in the match was the battle of captaincy between the old warhorse Misbah and the emerging leader in Sarfaraz. Some people in Pakistan are backing Sarfaraz for a leadership role, including me, and were relishing this contest. Although Sarfaraz had already beaten Misbah twice in the tournament, you felt the winner of the final would be the real victor. Sarfaraz lost it this time.The inclusion of Mohammad Sami in the World T20 and Asia Cup squads had given real context to his battle with KP and Sanga. I wanted to assess how Sami would respond when bowling in pressure and against great batsmen. Sanga was the clear winner.Plenty of fireworks lit up the start of the PSL final•Chris WhiteoakWow moment
A guy had brought an African djembe to the match and I borrowed it from him to play. Pakistanis love dancing to their respective cultural beats, and as I started playing the drums, hundreds of people around me in the lower stands joined in the fun, clapping, singing, shouting and dancing. It went on for over an hour and it was incredible fun, and a great joy to see people from all cultures and backgrounds join in the celebrations of an incredible tournament and two fantastic teams!Shot of the day
Ahmed Shehzad’s flick off his legs over square leg for 6. Sami was bowling fast and the ease with which Shehzad picked him up over square leg was breath-taking. A split second before the crowd started to celebrate, there was a discernible murmur oh ‘Ohh’ – the crowd was equally impressed. To add to the majesty of the shot, Shehzad held his pose for a second.Crowd meter
Overall Quetta had more support, but not overwhelmingly so. Tickets were already sold out about three days before the final. About an hour into the match, the stadium was completely full and it was difficult to find seats once you left yours. The noise was deafening and I went home with a sore throat. Mexican waves had been a regular feature throughout the tournament and it was the first time I had the chance to be a part of a Mexican wave – we had four consecutive 360 degree Mexican waves at one point in time.The biggest cheers were reserved for Afridi and Darren Sammy. Yes, they were not part of the match, but their mere presence in the VIP stands being broadcast on the big screens at the stadium was enough to get the crowd into a frenzy. Afridi’s supporters in particular, easily beat the crazy levels of his detractors.Inflatables and stuffed toy obsessions
And then there is the stuffed toy obsession with Pakistani men in UAE stadiums that just fascinates me. And not just standard sized, those toys are always huge. Varieties on display today were teddy bears, tigers and sea lions.Fancy-dress index
There were many Quetta supporters with gladiator masks on, a successful merchandising idea. It is also impossible to go to a Pakistani game without seeing one of its beloved ‘chachas’; three of them were present today. The most entertaining is the newest ‘chacha’ in Pakistan cricket, the guy in his green outfit and yellow headgear, tossing his long hair from side to side as part of his Pushto dance routine! Hard to believe, but there were V for Vendetta masks as well.However the most smartly dressed were the PSL’s commentary team, all showing up in traditional Pakistani dresses. Pat Symcox looked the best.Entertainment
For each small milestone, the PA blared out the relevant team’s official songs. During over breaks and timeouts, many of the famous Punjabi numbers and Coke Studio hits were also played. I personally am not a huge fan of constant music during a match though. The PA kept prompting the crowd to do something or the other, the highlight being when they were asked to whistle; for about 15 seconds, the stadium was filled with extremely shrill whistles.ODI v Twenty20?
ODIs. I prefer context, narratives and time for stories to build within a game. Although Twenty20 is proper thrill-a-minute format, it just doesn’t give you that time. Hence I’ve watched more Tests in stadiums than ODIs or T20s.Overall
The quality of cricket was really high. Quetta made a good score, and yet there were pockets of some high-class bowling. So while you could marvel at Sanga’s silken class and Dwayne Smith’s brutality, you could still appreciate the steep bounce and seam of Irfan or the guile on display from Mohammad Nawaz. The fielding however, was below par, even though the standard of fielding has been very impressive throughout the tournament. Watching a tournament final in a full-house was a privilege.Marks out of 10
Eight out of 10. Could have been 10 if Quetta had won, or if the management of ticketing and security was a little more organised. Although the experience within the stadium was fantastic, getting into the stadium remains a big hassle in Dubai, and is a mood destroyer.

An international team is likely to have a few cracks, but Pakistan seem to be sitting on a fault line

Alagappan Muthu in Mirpur02-Mar-20161:48

‘We batted very poorly’ – Waqar

Amid the joyous tumult at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, there were a few quiet voices searching for answers.”I feel like the batting plan was all over the place,” tweeted Wasim Akram after Pakistan were knocked out of the Asia Cup.”These are the boys we have,” said Shahid Afridi but he seemed a bit disappointed by that.”You really think so?” wondered Waqar Younis in response to a question that their bowlers had missed an opportunity. They had taken on the defence of a total of 129 in earnest. Mohammad Irfan struck in the second over – that’s a tick in the early wicket column. Mohammad Amir spearheaded a hostile takeover of Soumya Sarkar’s stumps and then pulled off a coup by toppling Shakib Al Hasan’s too – that’s the set batsman and historically their best batsman dismissed with the target still 26 runs away and 15 balls to go.Pakistan’s moxie with the ball is expected. It’s when they feel at home on a cricket field. But the same ball seems to stupefy them when coming from 22 yards away. Pakistan’s opening batsmen have scored 152 runs in six T20Is in 2016, an average of 12.67, including eight scores of 10 or less from the 12 innings at the position with three of those produced by Khurram Manzoor in his T20I tournament debut. Look at that stat from the perspective of the opposition. Taking into account the rate of scoring in the shortest format, that’s virtually a wicket within the first two overs.”Both openers are new for Pakistan, Khurram Manzoor and Sharjeel is coming back after a long time so I think…”Pitches are helping the bowlers a bit and I think that’s put the batsmen in their shell. Even if you look at all the matches, in the first six overs, all the teams have lost two or three wickets. There was the odd innings – Malik played well, today Sarfraz did – but overall, it’s been a batting failure for Pakistan.”

Shouldn’t Pakistan, the team that’s played the most number of matches in the format, know their way around by now?

More than the words themselves, the pauses that Waqar had to take seemed to speak louder and it was a recurring theme during the post-match press conference.”We batted very poorly in the first 10 overs, I think that’s where the match was sort of…”We just gave too much of a lead to them. This should have been easily a 160-170 pitch, but unfortunately losing wickets early on is not helping us. Even in the previous games also [that has happened]. So I guess, bowlers gave their best and tried to pull the game back, and yes it did come toward us for a while, but that’s the way Twenty20 cricket works.”But shouldn’t Pakistan, the team that’s played the most number of matches in the format, know their way around by now?A lot of their problems seem to point to a lack of depth in their squad. Sharjeel had a strong PSL, but international cricket had found him wanting before and has done so again. Hafeez appears out of form, and copped a poor lbw decision tonight. Umar Akmal plays a fine innings one day and an awful shot the next. Shoaib Malik is left with too much to do. Shahid Afridi has himself admitted his primary role in the team is as a legspinner.And Sarfraz’s innings wasn’t necessarily special. In fact, his 58 off 42 balls seemed much like a man trying to siphon the water out of a sinking boat. There was a lot of frantic running, hard-handed hammering and a hopeful look to the heavens when he reached his half-century. It was the end of the 19th over and the score was only 117.An international team is likely to have a few cracks, but Pakistan seem to be sitting on a fault line.The first casualty might be Manzoor. He has innings of 10, 0 and 1, and his presence has kept out one of Pakistan’s recently regular one-day players Imad Wasim.”I don’t know. It wasn’t my decision. Like I’ve said before, the selectors have taken the decision and whatever the squad I am given, I try to get the best out of them and I guess they will probably look into it. What is necessary, what is unnecessary and then decide.”So will they look at Mohammad Rizwan, who can be a busy player in the middle and an electric fielder wherever he is placed? Or Babar Azam, a former Under-19 captain, who was tipped for success in the international arena? Will they give Ahmed Shehzad another try at the top of the order? Or call up Sohaib Maqsood, who at his best inspired comparisons with Inzamam-ul-Haq? The batting looked helpless on the field, and their coach was left morose at the press conference.”It is a sad story,” Waqar said. If Pakistan want a happy ending, there needs to be a lot of changes both on and off the field.

Plays of the day from the game between Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants in Rajkot

Nikhil Kalro14-Apr-2016When Jadeja bowed to DhoniThere aren’t too many secrets between Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni on the field. They’ve been team-mates for over seven years now and Dhoni knows only too well how Jadeja rushes through his overs in limited-overs cricket. So after Steven Smith holed out to deep cover in the 17th over, Jadeja tried to take his opportunity, but Dhoni did not let him. Jadeja hurried in, Dhoni pulled out of the delivery. Jadeja tried again next ball, and was even quicker, but Dhoni had not even taken his stance. He finally bowled, but on Dhoni’s terms. Bhatia’s lucky break When Dhoni is at the striker’s end in the slog overs, the non-striker is expected to keep him there. Off the second ball of the final over, Dhoni hit to long-off and returned for the second run. Rajat Bhatia, his partner, was not interested but Dhoni powered through regardless. Bhatia finally went but had no chance until a poor throw at the bowler’s end reprieved him. Luckily for Dhoni, Bhatia rose to the challenge and they completed a brace of twos that left the latter panting. RP’s banana swing Despite standing outside his crease, Aaron Finch had shimmied down to RP Singh’s first delivery, a nippy inswinger that caught the batsman off guard. The ball swerved in after angling across the right-hander from over the wicket and struck Finch on the pad with no shot offered. A big appeal ensued but Finch had been hit too high. Or was he? No one was sure, but the umpire was convinced the ball wouldn’t have hit the stumps. When Bravo foxed Pietersen Like with Mustafizur Rahman’s offcutters, the batsmen know what’s coming from Dwayne Bravo. His slow, dipping cutters have been mighty effective in recent times. After Glenn Maxwell and David Miller in the previous game, it was Kevin Pietersen’s turn today. In the 14th over, Bravo brought out four of those deliveries in succession. The last of those slower ones flummoxed Pietersen, as he brought his bat down late only to drag on to his stumps, bringing a switch in Supergiants’ momentum.

Virat Kohli hit his first T20 century after a long wait. Here’s a look at the players who have scored the most T20 runs without a century

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Apr-2016Kieron Pollard
Runs: 5948 Innings: 272 High score: 89*•BCCIOwais Shah
Runs: 5509 Innings: 217 High score: 84•PA PhotosGautam Gambhir
Runs: 5107 Innings: 196 High score: 93•BCCIJP Duminy
Runs: 5002 Innings: 191 High score: 99*•AFP

With little consistent support from the rest of his batting line-up, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain had to play the dual roles of superhero and sidekick to lift them to their maiden IPL title

Nagraj Gollapudi in Bangalore29-May-2016Virat Kohli might have earned a considerable amount of applause for his mesmeric batting in this IPL. But in the biggest match of the season, the one man who had been challenging Kohli’s claim for the tournament’s MVP crossed the finish line ahead of the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain. David Warner was that man.He had dared Kohli by electing to bat first, telling Royal Challengers that he possessed a formidable bowling attack. But first, Sunrisers had to put a challenging total on the board.Unlike Chris Gayle, later in the evening, Warner was not destructive. As he has been throughout the tournament, he was attentive to the possibilities, his placement inch-perfect.Take this instance: Sachin Baby stood at short third man, Gayle at backward point. Barely 10 yards separated the two. Shane Watson erred for the third time in his first over, bowling full and wide outside off stump. Warner stretched to chop the ball neatly into the narrow divide. The fielders held their heads. Warner did not even look up. He knew what he was doing.Gayle then came on to bowl. He was firing his offbreaks into the batsman’s legs. But the first time he opted to flight the ball, the last ball of his third over, Warner swept him powerfully over mid-on for his second six.In no time – 24 balls – Warner raised his bat to mark his ninth fifty of the season, the most by any batsman. Kohli might have won the Orange Cap with four centuries, but Warner was not far behind – he finished with 848 runs to Kohli’s 973, his strike rate, 151.42, nearly identical to Kohli’s 152.03.Yuzvendra Chahal, the best spinner in this IPL, became a little predictable, bowling too many googlies at the left-handed Warner. Offered width, Warner cut Chahal for two fours in the ninth over.S Aravind finally forced Warner to edge one in the 14th. Did Aravind take the wicket or did Warner throw it away? Probably it was the latter. Offered a low full toss on off stump, Warner had punched Aravind for a straight boundary as soon as Kohli had brought the left-arm seamer back. Aravind’s next ball was a fraction wider, on the fourth stump. Warner went for an expansive drive, attempting to hit over cover, and ended up slicing into the hands of Iqbal Abdulla at short third man.Warner has not had the kind of support Kohli enjoys in Royal Challengers’ batting line-up. He has had to be both Batman and Robin for Sunrisers. For half the tournament he did not have the services of Yuvraj Singh, who proved a catalyst as soon as he returned from injury. Barring Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj, none of the Sunrisers batsmen – overseas or Indian – crossed the 200-run mark. At times Warner lost his cool and made his anger public: when the batsmen at the other end were throwing their wickets away in a tight chase in the second Qualifier against Gujarat Lions, he bared his emotions in the face of head coach Tom Moody, who remained speechless.Warner eventually took Sunrisers home with some late help from Bipul Sharma. He finished short of a century by seven runs, but he had won Sunrisers their first IPL final ticket, in their fourth season.On Sunday, late into the match, when Sunrisers had all but sealed the win, Warner was still fully switched on. In the penultimate over of the match, Sachin Baby hit a straight drive off Mustafizur Rahman. Warner was at wide long-on. He set off swiftly to his right, threw himself into a sprawling dive and interrupted the progress of the ball, relaying it two-handed to the fielder coming the opposite way from long-off.Moody said Warner had set high standards for himself, and inspired his team-mates to do the same.”The most important thing that I draw from him is he has a relentless passion to win,” Moody said. “He is a born winner and that rubs off on others. He has got incredible work ethic, incredible discipline and all those things are so important from a leadership point of view and that has rubbed off on the group.”David Warner thumped his chest. David Warner shrieked. David Warner was a proud winner.

Suddenly Yorkshire are confident in white-ball cricket but it was not always that way. The change over the past few weeks has been dramatic

Paul Edwards19-Aug-2016Suddenly Yorkshire are the masters of white-ball cricket. Alex Lees and his players will arrive at Edgbaston for Finals Day in the NatWest Blast expecting to do well and, to add to their pleasure, there is also a 50-over semi-final against Surrey in prospect.But it was not always this way. Just two months ago Yorkshire’s best chance of getting points in the NatWest T20 Blast seemed to be an abandonment. So how has the team that was regularly beaten turned into the team to beat? What has changed?Having won five of 14 games and finished next to bottom of the North Group in 2015, Yorkshire had won none of their first five matches this year (although two were abandoned) and seemed to have little chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals.Then they played Derbyshire at Headingley on June 19 and, when rain swept across the ground, their nine-over score gave them a grimy one-run Duckworth-Lewis victory. That was the first of seven wins Yorkshire were to record in this year’s Blast and, following last Thursday’s demolition of Glamorgan at Cardiff, they will arriving at Edgbaston on Saturday in confident mood.”I think most people were writing us off but we had that self-belief that if we got one win, we would get on a roll and do well,” said the T20 skipper, Lees. “As a team we’ve bought into the ideology of backing yourself and backing your team-mate. The key is to do the same thing when things are not going so well.”We sat down and had a couple of chats and said that we knew we were better than the way we had performed. We’ve been poor since 2012. We’ve done it as a team, as a collective, and that’s our blue print.”All of which is fine, of course, but rather similar things might have been said by any skipper whose county was playing pretty dismal short-form cricket. And yes, T20 is a game of frustratingly daft narrow margins. The key is to ensure that, far more often than not, you end up on the right side of them. The reasons go deeper than that.Let’s go back to that game against Derbyshire because it was important for more than just the result. The game saw the return to Yorkshire’s T20 team of Adam Lyth, whose confidence had received a fillip when he had hit successive 50-over hundreds against Northamptonshire and Lancashire a few days previously. Lyth blasted 30 off 16 balls, hitting three fours and a couple of sixes. Muck or nettles, he has carried on blasting ever since.But the match against Derbyshire also saw the return to Yorkshire’s T20 side of Azeem Rafiq, who had been released a couple of years earlier, yet whose form has been such since his re-engagement that he has been awarded his first-team cap. Rafiq is currently bowling his short-form overs at 6.9 runs apiece and he has taken 13 wickets, making him second only to Adil Rashid and Tim Bresnan in Yorkshire’s list of successful T20 bowlers this season.

“There’s never just one voice in our dressing room. There are 11 players who voice their opinion and that’s the Yorkshire way”Yorkshire’s T20 captain, Alex Lees

“Azeem was a revelation for us, particularly in those middle overs with Adil,” Lees said. “He gives you consistency. His bowling has made my job a lot easier. I was assured he’d be back at some point in the next few years but I didn’t know in what capacity and now he’s been rewarded with his first-team cap.”And the biggest thing for Adam is that he’s been backed. There is a carefree attitude that we’re going to go out and have a good time. The same thing can be said of David Willey, who didn’t get the runs he would have liked early in the season.”There is a sense in all this that Yorkshire’s cricketers have taken the brakes off in T20 cricket. Those brakes may not have been applied at all times in all games but they do not need to be. You only need to have four bad overs in the short-form stuff and it’s Goodnight, Vienna.Perhaps something of this approach was communicated to Lyth and his players by Kane Williamson, the New Zealand leader to whose team talks Rafiq has paid particular tribute.”There’s never just one voice in our dressing room,” said Lees. “There are 11 players who voice their opinion and that’s the Yorkshire way in all our cricket. Kane came in at the right time, he was a great character to have around the dressing room and he gave us a bit of direction as to the way we should go, particularly when we were unsure.”Kane give us that calmness as well as his own view. We got on a roll when no one believed we should be at a Finals Day and here we are.”The results of any change of attitude have been different with each player but they have been particularly evident with two cricketers at very different stages of their career. Jack Leaning has found that hitting sixes is something he can do on a regular basis while Bresnan is suddenly mixing up his deliveries like a drunken postman.”Jack’s gone from nudging and nurdling it around to whacking it out of the park,” said Lees. “He’s found his method in white-ball cricket and that can only come from confidence and he’s now very confident in that format.”Tim is experienced and he probably looked at how he went last year and just adapted things a little bit. May be he has mixed it up a little bit. This year it seems he’s bowling tight and he was exceptional in the game at Cardiff but in his own words his first ball was ‘a pie’ and he got a wicket with it. Last year, it would have gone out of the ground.”Liam Plunkett has been some rapid spells, proof that simple, searing pace has a home in Twenty20 and Lees himself, in his first season as a youthful captain, has worked on his own game well enough to enter Finals Day as Yorkshire’s leading run-scorer.Some would argue that Yorkshire are the form horses at this year’s Finals Day and they will be boosted by the availability of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow et al. Whatever else, they will play without fear and with a brio that was absent in the grim days of May and early June. It has been some transformation but at Edgbaston it will receive its most searching test.

Asked to play a bits-and-pieces role for England, Moeen Ali has seemingly lost confidence in his game – he may not have many more chances left

George Dobell at Old Trafford21-Jul-2016It was the emphasis that was telling. Alastair Cook’s stressing of the word “this” in the sentence “Moeen Ali is our first-choice spinner for game” told us more than the words used.It wasn’t quite a “last chance” warning, but it wasn’t far from it.Moeen cannot have too many complaints. He has only passed 25 twice in seven Tests (though one of those was a pleasing century at Chester-le-Street less than two months ago) this year and he is averaging 92.00 with the ball in the same period. Even a larger sample size, going back to the start of 2015, is not flattering: he averages 29.23 with the bat and 47.86 with the ball. He has never been dropped in his Test career – though he has missed games for other reasons – but he goes into the Old Trafford game needing a performance to ensure he in the side for his “home” Test at Edgbaston.It is possible that England will go into the second Investec Test with two spinners. But, bearing in mind that they have not won a game at home with two specialist spinners since 1985 (and the spinners bowled one over between them in the final innings), bearing in mind that Joe Root was bowling more than usual in training, bearing in mind how well Pakistan play spin – Adil Rashid averaged 69.50 with the ball in the series in the UAE – and that approach seems unlikely. Besides, Manchester has been overcast since England named their XII with a view to seeing how the pitch developed in the next 12 hours.Rashid has impressed in training, though. He bowled Gary Ballance (deceived in the flight and losing his middle stump as a consequence) in the nets on Thursday and then took the edge of Chris Woakes’ bat. As Woakes played Yasir Shah’s legspin as well as anyone at Lord’s, that is a decent effort. “He’s coming along nicely,” Cook said. “He is improving all the time and he bowled really nicely in the nets today.”In current form, Rashid is not miles behind Moeen as a batsman, either. He may be unorthodox and he may have been the No. 11 in England’s recent white-ball teams, but he has 10 first-class centuries to his name and, crucially, he has a confidence in his game that Moeen does not.Moeen Ali has lost some of the mentality and rigour that a top-order batsman should posses•Getty ImagesMoeen looks a little lost at present. He has paid for his versatility and the failure of the English system to produce spin bowlers. He doesn’t quite know what he is or how he should play. The natural confidence he once had in his batting has evaporated. The ‘bits and pieces’ allrounder tag sits uncomfortably on a man who once oozed class as a batsman.He has become confused in his role – especially batting in the low middle-order and being asked to produce aggressive cameos with the tail for company – and lost some of the mentality and rigour that a top-order batsman should possess. His selflessness, a quality that is respected by his colleagues, has led to him selling his wicket too cheaply, too often. That’s a bad habit for a batsman.But he has had opportunities. There have been times when he has been asked to bat higher up the order – notably when he opened in the UAE – and times when he has had the opportunity to build innings with recognised batsmen. He has not taken many of those opportunities.In early Tests, he benefited from the opposition underestimating him as a bowler. Remember Steve Smith and Michael Clarke in the first innings in Cardiff? At times, batsmen seemed to want to hit him out of the attack and sacrificed their wickets in the process.But then they learned better. They learned not just that he is a dangerous bowler armed with drift and flight, but that he bowled enough loose deliveries that there was no need to go after him; if they waited, the release ball would come along soon enough.His doosra, one of the attributes that made his package of skills attractive to the selectors, has become almost irrelevant. With the ICC cracking down on bowling actions, Moeen became reluctant to bowl it in matches (even though there has never been a whisper of a suggestion that his action is suspect and even though few could see any change of action between his offbreak and doosra) and, as a result, practised it less often in the nets.He did not, by any means, bowl badly at Lord’s. It was more that he bowled against very good players of spin on a pitch that offered him nothing. Many spinners would have paled by comparison next to Yasir Shah.

“In a richer playing age, Moeen would not have played almost 30 Tests as a first-choice spinner. But English cricket has made a fearful mess of its spin development and it will take time to get it back on track”

But Moeen has struggled to come to terms with the fact that, even bowling well, there are times when he faces batsmen who are too good for him. And, while he might vary his pace a little more in such circumstances, there are times when a player hits a ceiling; when their best isn’t good enough.Again, he is paying the price for others’ faults here. In a richer playing age, Moeen would not have played almost 30 Tests as a first-choice spinner. But English cricket has made a fearful mess of its spin development and it will take time to get it back on track. Moeen really is among the best there is at present but in trying to be something he may not quite be to gain his chance in Test cricket he may have sacrificed his real talent.The team management have a choice of trying to make him feel secure and valued – as they clearly have – or allowing him to regain some form and confidence in county cricket. They also know that, when Rashid does get his chance, he will soon be put under the same pressure. Bowlers of his pace are rare in international cricket and, while he probably turns the ball more than Yasir, he does not have the same accuracy.Whatever happens over the next few days, though, it may well remind us of the adage that players’ reputations often improve for not playing. The selectors have come in for some fearsome bashing in recent days – much of it unfair – but it might be worth reflecting on how they would be perceived right now if James Anderson had played at Lord’s against medical advice and sustained an injury.Writing in the , Michael Vaughan claimed he decided to go into Tests with a “50 percent fit” Andrew Flintoff “on several occasions”. That’s the Andrew Flintoff who was obliged to retire from Test cricket aged 31 and whose last few years in the game were blighted by injuries. Maybe playing him when unfit wasn’t so clever, after all? Thankfully, Anderson is treated as the precious, but increasingly fragile, asset that he is.

Stats highlights from Pakistan’s ten-wicket win at The Oval

S Rajesh14-Aug-20165-3 Pakistan’s win-loss Test record at The Oval. It is the only venue in England where Pakistan have won more Tests than they have lost. In their last seven Tests here they have won four and drawn two; the only defeat was the forfeiture in 2006. The five wins by Pakistan here is also the most Tests they have won at any away venue.4 Defeats for England, from the last seven Tests they have played at The Oval, since 2010. They have lost twice to Pakistan, and once each to South Africa and Australia. Their win-loss ratio here is the poorest among all home venues during this period.6 Number of consecutive home series of four or more Tests that England had won, before this 2-2 draw against Pakistan. They won three Ashes series (2009, 2013 and 2015), two series against India (2011 and 2014) and one against Pakistan (2010) since the 1-2 defeat to South Africa in 2008. Between 2004 and 2015, England won ten out of 11 home series of four or more Tests.1998 The last time a spinner took a five-wicket haul conceding fewer than 100 runs at The Oval, before Yasir Shah’s 5 for 71 in England’s second innings: Muttiah Muralitharan took 9 for 65 in England’s second innings in 1998. Yasir’s haul was also the first five-for by an overseas spinner at The Oval in more than a decade: the last one was by Shane Warne, who took 6 for 122 and 6 for 124 in the two innings of the 2005 Ashes Test. The last five-for by any spinner was Graeme Swann’s 6 for 106 against India in 2011. Six of the last eight five-fors by spinners at The Oval have been by wristspinners, including two by Muralitharan in 1998.992 Runs scored by Jonny Bairstow in Tests in 2016, the second highest by a wicketkeeper in a calendar year. The only higher aggregate was by Andy Flower in 2000, when he scored 1045 runs from nine Tests at 80.38.140 Runs scored by Moeen Ali, the second highest by any No. 7 batsman in a Test against Pakistan. The highest was also by Moeen a week ago, when he scored 149 runs (63 and 86 not out) in the previous Test at Edgbaston.1 Pakistan’s rank in the ICC Test ratings, if Australia don’t win the ongoing Test against Sri Lanka. However, India can go past them if they beat West Indies in the fourth Test and win the series 3-0.

USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake rates Ali Khan’s new-ball skills so highly that he deemed it worth a gamble to play him in a crucial game against Oman despite a hamstring strain, and the debutant answered the call with two key new-ball wickets

Peter Della Penna in Los Angeles02-Nov-20160:56

‘Ali Khan is at a different level’ – Dassanayake

Lost in the brilliance of Steven Taylor’s thumping century and another five-wicket haul for Timil Patel in USA’s eight-wicket win over Oman was a performance that might not have been as statistically impressive but no doubt had an inspirational impact on the hosts. It’s not often that a player is picked to make his debut when practically half-fit, especially when the injury in question is a hamstring strain for a fast bowler.But Ali Khan’s skills with the new ball are rated so highly by USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake that it was deemed worth a gamble to pick him for the first time. It paid off handsomely. Khan took the big scalp of Zeeshan Maqsood in the first over, then claimed one more to finish with 2 for 27 in six overs. Dassanayake told ESPNcricinfo after the win that USA knew going into the game that Khan would only be able to bowl one spell, but it was worth the risk in USA’s biggest match of WCL Division Four and the win put USA in the driver’s seat for a promotion spot.”It was a tough decision for us because Jessy [Singh] was really performing well and all our fast bowlers are doing well but when you compare Ali, Ali is in a different level,” Dassanayake said. “He has that pace, he has that swing; especially against left-handers he bowls very well. The last two games we didn’t pick up enough wickets early and so we were looking for that.”Once he said that even with a shortened run-up he can come and bowl, we were okay for that because the swing that he has normally with the new ball definitely is going to bring wickets. We are not even worrying about him to bowl a second spell. It’s just about the six or seven overs with the new ball and get a couple of early wickets so we’re gonna keep doing that.”Dassanayake says what cemented his call to play Khan was his performance in a training session in the lead-up to the game where he continuously troubled USA’s opening combo of Fahad Babar and Steven Taylor. Despite bowling off a shortened run-up and not at full pace, his swing was a valuable commodity that made him a must have in the line-up.”We had one practice session just before the tournament where Steven was batting early in that session and Ali came and bowled some brilliant balls for the left-hander,” Dassanayake said. “So that’s the time we thought he can do the job even with a short run-up. Doctors and the physios are working behind the scenes to get him in whatever best fit.”I think he is one of the most valuable players that we have. I have to be careful that we don’t hurt him for the future but we’ve just got to manage to get through this tournament with him if he’s willing to take that pain and play the next few games.”It wasn’t just Khan’s bowling that uplifted the team. After his six overs, he remained on the field for the entire innings rather than coming off. Though he dropped two catches, he is regarded as one of USA’s better fielders. Khan said after the game that he wanted to show his USA team-mates that he had their back in the field after they supported him coming into the XI and that he wasn’t going to slump off the field after bowling his spell.Dassanayake says Khan is continuously being monitored but at the moment his hamstring injury hasn’t become any worse. The plan is for Khan to play against Denmark because if USA wins it will clinch their promotion into Division Three, allowing him to sit out the last two games. Dassanayake, though, doesn’t want to push Khan too hard and risk injuring him more severely and hurt his chances in the future, particularly since he is contracted with Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL as well.”I think we still need one more win and I know that Denmark also has left-handers in the top of the order,” Dassanayake said. “Those are kind of gambles. I think we are playing with his fitness. We don’t want to hurt him too much but then still we need to manage and also he is a very strong character.”He wants to perform for the team. He knows how important his role is for the team so I think overall everybody is putting in that effort and I’m very happy how things are moving.”

But it’s all rosy and cosy in our Twitter round-up

Alex Bowden15-Oct-2016Tino Best’s preferred reading matter is of course…

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… his own autobiography.He’s also partial to an empty glass and an unopened bottle of wine, it seems.But who are we to judge? People relax and indulge themselves in all sorts of different ways.

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A poor return – but then it was also a poor investment.Sticking with dietary matters, last time around, Ravi Bopara was attempting to introduce Chris Gayle to the concept of “brunch”. Did he make any headway?

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Still not quite got it.Gayle also saw fit to treat us to this photo.

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We don’t have much to say about that, but felt like we should share it.We’re similarly lost for words with this one.

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Meanwhile, TMS’ Charles Dagnall is lost for letters.

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By this point you’re probably wondering why there hasn’t yet been anything from column regular, Kevin Pietersen.Fear not! Despite his growing fear of social media…

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… he’s been as noisy as ever, sharing nuggets of wisdom such as this.

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The strength of the immune system is apparently measured in hours.Such an explicit renunciation of anger invites an easy follow-up for an irreverent social media column that can scour his tweets for examples of just that emotion.Never let it be said that we have a fear of making obvious jokes.

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Watch that immune system, Kev. Maybe reserve your ill temper for issues of greater significance than teenagers’ sartorial idiosyncrasies.Issues such as differences of opinion on the merits of Wayne Rooney as a footballer, for example.

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If there’s one thing all sports stars agree on, it’s that it’s for some reason impossible for a human being to perceive flaws in someone else without having first mastered the activity in question themselves. Let’s say a fireman for some reason added fuel to a fire rather than extinguishing it. By Pietersen’s reasoning, only fellow firefighters would be qualified to take issue with that.Returning to more familiar ground, we all know by now that selfies should always be taken in-flight.

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But sometimes the excitement gets to a man and he just can’t wait.

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Then again, it can sometimes be a long wait.

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That’s right – cricketers are now so adept at air-travel selfies, they’re taking them in their sleep.