Jenny Thompson speaks to Adam Hollioake on the eve of his return to big-time cricket

Jenny Thompson21-Jun-2007

Adam Hollioake is hoping for more Twenty20 success – but this time with Essex © Garry Bowden
In cricket’s worst-kept secret since Michael Vaughan resigned as England one-day captain earlier this week, Adam Hollioake has signed up to make his Twenty20 return. It’s four years since he captained Surrey to success in the inaugural tournament, but he won’t be turning out for them this time: he will be playing for Essex.”I wanted to play for Surrey,” he admits. But despite excelling for them in 2003 and ’04, times have moved on. Surrey’s focus is understandably on their younger players – Hollioake is now 35 – and so he had to settle on Essex instead. Then again, it was their coach’s idea that he should return to the game.Graham Gooch spotted that he still had the talent earlier this year while they were playing beach cricket in Australia – where Hollioake was born and is now settled, with a slight Aussie twang to boot – and suggested he make a comeback. Business commitments Down Under prevented Hollioake from considering a full-time role but a month out for Twenty20, and a charity event, was plausible.While Surrey are experts in this short game, Essex have made the finals day only once in four seasons – and they snapped him up. It must be hard to parachute straight into a side, almost as an overseas player must feel. I ask if he feels like an Essex player yet. He pauses. “I met the guys for the first time on Monday. I think once I start playing I will be more part of it.”Netting has gone well. “I started off scratchy last week. But I had good net on Monday. It’s all coming good at the last minute!” Indeed, he signed just three days before his first match in Essex colours, against Sussex, this Friday.He’s super-fit at least, a self-confessed fanatic, fitter even than in his playing days. “Cricket prevents you from getting fit – you spend so much time on the pitch.” This includes training for his recent boxing match in London with the former All Black Eric Rush. Hollioake has boxed since his youth and enjoyed the experience hugely, even though he lost on points.”It was a tough fight,” he says. “It was exactly what I expected. It was hard, a hard game. It didn’t hold any surprises. I love fighting. I’m a bit of a sicko!” [laughs] “Anything… as long as it’s legal.”

Hollioake is keen for more silverware © Getty Images
Would he do it again? “I’d do anything for charity.” Yes, he would. This fight was for a children’s charity, Sparks. Earlier this year he did the marathon for the CHASE Ben Hollioake Fund, set up in memory of his brother who died in 2002. Over the last few years he’s done treks, bike rides and sailing events for good causes. He even played ice cricket.Ben’s death has inevitably made him a more sober character, and charity commitments are an example, but his sparkling, cheeky spirit remains. He giggles naughtily, for example, when I ask if playing for Essex is his biggest act of charity yet.The marathon went well. While most were sweltering on a surprisingly warm April day, it wasn’t so hot for Hollioake, used to the Perth heat. “I was one of the only ones running in the sun and I had a free course. My cricket bat began to get heavy towards the end!”Despite being weighed down by full kit, he completed it in six hours. Then again, he is fiercely competitive. This streak came out in beach cricket. “We’re sportsmen. None like losing – even with a game of cards.” Gooch wants to sign him up for another stint next year, and he has provisionally agreed. “I love it. It’s great fun.”With all these commitments, it’s amazing he does find the time to fit in his property development business, set up in 1998. “Originally it was me, dad and Ben… It’s moved on a lot.” It’s now a full-time occupation and the main reason he won’t consider a full comeback.Time may judge Hollioake as an excellent one-day and Twenty20 player, but it’s worth considering his first-class stats, too. Although he played just four Tests, his first-class average is 38.7, higher than Vaughan, Flintoff or Trescothick. His innovative Brearley-esque thinking helped Surrey to three Championship titles, while there’s a touch of Imran Khan to the way he melded disparate individuals.Surrey haven’t been anything like the first-class side they were since he left. Still, he has no regrets. There’s plenty away from cricket to occupy him, including school runs for his five-year-old daughter Bennaya.It’s the holidays, now, though, which make the Twenty20 campaign convenient. So, how will he feel when he has to face his old teammates when Essex play Surrey at the end of the month? “I’ve not had time to think about it. I’m just worrying about myself to be honest.”He has actually played one Twenty20 since retiring, a one-off charity match for the Tsunami Fund at The Oval, and he took a hat-trick.If he can slip so easily back into the groove this time around, what would he think if England came knocking for the World Twenty20 Championship this September? “I hadn’t considered that.” Then, a pause… And a glimmer. “If that came up I’d have to think about it!”

Andrew Miller reviews

Andrew Miller21-Aug-2006

One of Pakistan’s famous five, Mushtaq Mohammad may not have
been as prodigiously gifted as his elder brother Hanif, but he went
on to score more first-class centuries and take more wickets with his
wrist-spin than any of his elder siblings. In an international career
that spanned three decades, he emerged from the classroom to become
the youngest Test centurion in history, and 40 years later, he was
still at the sharp end of Pakistan cricket, as coach of the side that
reached the final of the 1999 World Cup.Mushtaq’s is a story that has been waiting to be told, not least
because his career virtually spans the entire history of Pakistan
cricket, starting as it did with his family’s trek from Western India
to Karachi at Partition in 1947, whereupon he spent his formative
years living and learning his cricket in a former Hindu temple. In 281
pages of honest and evocative narration, Mushtaq takes us at a jaunty
pace through the highs and lows of a life in cricket.”There may be portions that will ruffle some feathers,” Mushtaq
promises in the preface, and in that regard he doesn’t disappoint, as
he hits back at Allan Border’s claims that he asked him to fix an
Ashes Test in 1993, before laying into his own underperforming World
Cup team for their suspicious defeat against Bangladesh in May 1999.
“They were just such talented players,” he wrote, “and I couldn’t
comprehend that these boys could get out in the way they did.”The controversy, however, is just part and parcel of Pakistan cricket.
The real appeal of the book is the enthusiasm of the narration. Aided
by an excellent working relationship with his ghost, Richard Sydenham
– whose use of short snappy paragraphs gives every sentence the feel
of an anecdote – Mushtaq has no need for the hackneyed clichés that
litter the autobiographies of your average English pro.There are gems to be found in every chapter – the confusion he felt as
a Test cricketer on the one hand and the classroom dunce on the other;
the day he was heckled to pieces by a Jamaican known only as “Big Bad
John”, and some first-rate bluster and bullshit as delivered by Fred
Trueman at Trent Bridge in 1962.There is an appealing absence of self-justification in the manner that
Mushtaq compiles his memoirs, even when describing the chain of events
that led to the abrupt end of his career ahead of the 1979 World Cup –
a typical tale of backstabbing and duplicity that others, particularly
former captains, have related with greater gusto and bitterness.
Mushtaq comes across as a man content with the mark he made on the
game, and as a result his recollections are a pleasure to share.

After three days of swinging fortunes, this gripping, exhilarating Test is now poised for a grand denouement and if you love Test cricket that’s what you would wish for irrespective of who wins

Sambit Bal at the WACA18-Jan-2008

Irfan Pathan has been India’s most impressive player of the match, starring with both bat and ball © Getty Images
After three days of swinging fortunes, this gripping, exhilarating Test is now poised for a grand denouement and if you love Test cricket that’s what you would wish for irrespective of who wins. A draw is the only result ruled out; India have history and the runs on their side; Australia must break one record to create another. They are perhaps the only side that can do it.It was a day when the odds kept shifting. It started with India as favourites, by lunch the bookies were backing Australia and the day ended with India 4/11 favourites against 2/1 for Australia. That sort of sums up the day.Australia will feel the match slipped away from them a bit in the final session, when RP Singh added 50 rollicking runs with VVS Laxman for the ninth wicket and Irfan Pathan swung two batsmen out, but it was a mixed day for both teams. India ended up getting 50 more than Australia would have wanted them to, but perhaps 50 fewer than they would have liked when the day began. Which of course makes for the sort of finale this Test deserves.Throughout the day, commentators kept saying how good the pitch was for batting, yet seen in isolation, the bowlers had another good day. Eleven wickets fell on Friday; four in the first session (India had lost four wickets for 46 runs at one point), three in the second, and four in the last. The second session is where India started to take control as Ponting, mindful of the over-rate, was forced to turn to Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds. Though Mahendra Singh Dhoni took an age to get going, the quiet period allowed India to consolidate.VVS Laxman scored the most runs – it was perhaps his least sparkling innings against an opposition he continues to torment, but it was among his most matured and cultured, and RP Singh provided a nasty twist at the end. But it was an assured performance from Pathan that kept India going in a difficult period.In many ways, Pathan has been India’s most impressive player of the match. He has been called on to bat in the dying moments on consecutive days and then to take on fresh bowlers in the morning, and he did the job with the calmness of an accomplished batsman. With the new ball, he has removed the openers in both innings: not bad for a man who got his break because of an injury to a team-mate. Had Zaheer Khan been here, Pathan would probably not have played; now he looks as though he has always belonged.It’s been a remarkable comeback for a man who has already experienced the best and the worst in international cricket in four years. It was in Australia in 2003 that he first announced his arrival – coincidentally because of an injury to Zaheer – with two crunching, reverse-swinging yorkers that cleaned up Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist – but the fall began just as he was being anointed, somewhat misguidedly, as the heir to Wasim Akram. The pace dropped and the swing disappeared and from Indian cricket’s poster-boy he came to be described as competition to Murali Kartik, India’s slow left-arm orthodox spinner.It has been a hard climb from there, and Pathan has done it gradually, by first bowling cutters in Twenty20, then restrictively in the 50-over game, and batting impressively to score his first hundred in his return Test, and now the zing seems to back in his Test bowling.In the first innings, not only did he get rid of the openers, he bowled the longest spell bowled by a quick bowler so far in this match (ten overs) without dropping his pace, now in the healthy 130s, or losing his line. And his wickets today were due as much to swing as they were to the bounce he managed off an awkward length. The ball that got Phil Jaques was his second successive ripper: the first had been a swinging yorker that barely missed the edge and then the stump; a second, barely short of length, reared and moved just enough to catch the edge. It is up to the Australian batsmen, who haven’t been allowed to dominate the way they like to by the Indian bowlers, to chase the improbable. Rule nothing out – this is a Test that has refused to be taken for grantedEarlier, a sprightly bowling effort from Australia kept India to 242 runs for nine wickets on a third-day pitch, which was even more remarkable because only two of their bowlers ever looked capable of taking a wicket. Shaun Tait, who was trusted with only six overs on a day Symonds and Clarke bowled 23 between them, looked lost and listless and, though he got rid of Sourav Ganguly, Mitchell Johnson was criminally profligate, going for nearly six runs an over.It was left to the magnificent Brett Lee and the impressive Stuart Clark to keep Australia in the game. Clark must be sick of being compared to Glenn McGrath and in fact he has added something to his bowling that McGrath never had: a touch of swing. As ever, he bowls pretty straight but occasionally, just when the batsman thinks he has the line covered, the ball snakes away, just a bit, to beat the bat. He bowled one of those to Dhoni today: it beat the outside by a fraction, and the off stump by the same distance. His second-best ball of the day got Australia the early breakthrough: Virender Sehwag, on whom rested India’s hopes of taking the match away quickly, was cleaned up.Lee’s brief sparring with Sachin Tendulkar showcased how Test cricket can provide the stage for individual contests within a team game. Lee’s first ball squared up as Tendulkar shaped to clip it to the leg side and ran past the third slip for four. The next couple of overs, Lee kept probing away, an inch out side the off stump, a foot wide next ball, then a bit closer, and then one tantalisingly wide, to which Tendulkar looked drawn for a fraction of a second. When the full ball arrived, three deliveries later, back it went, gloriously past the bowler. Round one to the batsman.Lee, though, wasn’t to be denied. Tendulkar tucked the first ball of the next over for a couple and Lee went wide and homed in outside the off stump; Tendulkar, almost by instinct, looked for the clip to midwicket but was nailed for pace, and there was no doubt where the ball was headed but for the pad. That’s the way Lee looked to get him out in the Test, and that’s the way he has got him both times.Now, though, it is up to the Australian batsmen, who haven’t been allowed to dominate the way they like to by the Indian bowlers, to chase the improbable. Rule nothing out – this is a Test that has refused to be taken for granted.

Stats highlights from the eighth match of the CB Series, between India and Sri Lanka in Adelaide

S Rajesh and HR Gopalakrishna19-Feb-2008

Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie mounted the most monumental of fightbacks on the fourth day at Lord’s. Even if South Africa do lose the Test, they wouldn’t have gone down without a fight. And more than anything else, Test cricket is alive and well, argues

Sambit Bal at Lord's13-Jul-2008
A rare stroke of attacking intent from Neil McKenzie, whose hundred came from 307 balls © Getty Images
Seen in isolation, this was a pitifully dull day, the kind that can be used to illustrate why the longer form is an anachronism in these pacy times. Runs were scarce, wickets scarcer. Fifty-four runs came in the first session, 61 in the second; fours were occasional and there was no hint of a six. But Test cricket is all about context, and in the context of this match, and the series, it was a compelling day: slow, but always simmering; lacking in action, but not plot and intrigue. It was just the kind that makes watching Test cricket a varied, rich and rewarding experience. If South Africa manage to draw this Test, it will be counted among the greatest of escapes in the history of the game, and this seemingly dull day will be regarded as the one that made it possible.Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie mounted the most monumental of fightbacks. The wicket remained benign but the pressure was so enormous that it tested the character of these batsmen to the limit. Batting is only half about skills; it was the mental aspect that made the contribution of the opening pair remarkable. All through their vigil, they played with the knowledge that their team was only a mistake away from disaster, and they fashioned their response accordingly.Smith’s application was particularly remarkable. And in some ways, he owed it to his team even more than what would be expected in normal course. He would have consulted the team management for sure, but ultimately, the decision to insert England was his; and his captaincy on the second day, when he didn’t choose the right bowlers or place the best fields, had been diffident and tentative. South Africa didn’t merely need runs from Smith: they needed him to bat and bat.Smith is no stranger to long innings. He batted for more than five hours while scoring each of first four Test hundreds, three of which were doubles. In fact, two of those were back-to-back doubles scored on his first tour to England and on both occasions he batted for more than nine hours. But he had then batted imperiously, repeatedly muscling balls from on or outside off-stump to the midwicket boundary and scoring virtually four runs an over throughout. The situation today demanded him to bat against his natural instincts and he tempered his game admirably. The product was an industrious hundred, and perhaps the most valuable of his career.Smith had spoken of his maturity before the start of the Test, and this innings stands as an eloquent confirmation. Last evening, he even exchanged a smile with Kevin Pietersen after Pietersen, in his new role as England’s opening bowler in the dying light, had cheekily appealed for a catch off Smith’s pad. And he was still smiling when he walked off the ground in the dying light, his side with a mountain left to climb. The image was of a man who had come to terms with his job and to the realisation that life doesn’t begin and end on the cricket field.So out of character was his innings today that it shone with character. Against the quicker bowlers he resisted playing across the line, focussing on scoring his runs square of the wicket on the offside, watching the ball late. But against Panesar, who was turning the ball sharply into him from the rough outside the offstump, he was quick to jump outside the line, almost exposing all three stumps to negate the possibility of a leg-before. Most of his runs against Panesar came on the leg-side. But more than scoring runs, his innings was about denying England a breach, and Smith stuck to task with the solemnity it demanded. The stroke – a cross-batted swat against the new ball — that brought about his dismissal didn’t do justice the rigorous application that preceded it.Smith was only half of the story though and mercifully for South Africa, the other half is unfinished yet, and in a sense, it is even more stirring. Turning 33 later this year, few would have blamed McKenzie had he taken the easy route to join the multitude of South Africans in taking the Kolpak route to England after four years of wilderness. But, as demonstrated by his latest hundred – the third since his comeback seven Tests ago – patience is a quality he has in abundance.And on the evidence of his run so far, it would seem he was an opener trapped in a middle-order batsman’s role. Sometimes, awareness of one’s own strengths eludes you until an unfamiliar challenge presents itself. McKenzie now resembles the classical Test opener, an endangered tribe in a world enamoured by breathtaking starts. In fact, despite all the evidence pointing against it, there was a degree of consternation in the South African media about the absence of Herschelle Gibbs in the squad.The image was of a man who had come to terms with his job and to the realisation that life doesn’t begin and end on the cricket fieldIn spite of three difficult days, Graeme Smith has showed his maturityIt was self-evident that South Africa needed McKenzie’s watchfulness today. He possesses more strokes than he allowed himself, relying instead on the compactness of his technique to see the day through. For a Test opener, his manner of leaving the ball – drawing the bat inside the line of the ball – might project a lack of assuredness, but it is clear that McKenzie has keen awareness of his offstump. Though he did edge the ball once while playing a defensive stroke, his judgement was impeccable throughout the day.When the ball reverse swung for a short period after lunch, James Anderson induced a degree on uncertainty, and even a wild swipe, by moving the ball both ways, but composure never deserted McKenzie. Michael Vaughan pried on his nerves by setting fields that denied him the drive, his most preferable scoring option, but McKenzie wouldn’t be driven to distraction. Nor did he allow the slow clapping from an impatient crowd to disrupt his resolve. It was a slow and low pitch, and the situation demanded watchfulness, which McKenzie supplied unwaveringly.South Africa aren’t out of it yet, but they can now be called the favourites to draw the Test. Of course, it’s a comedown from the pre-match hype, but it is a huge turnaround from the hole they had dug themselves in three successive days of under-performance. Even if they do lose the Test, they wouldn’t have gone down without a fight.And more than anything else, Test cricket is alive and well.

Few cricketers in the World Cup bear the responsibility that Wayne Parnell does: he is the captain, a powerful middle-order batsman, and most importantly their new-ball bowler

George Binoy in Kuala Lumpur28-Feb-2008

Multi-skilled cricketers. That was what South Africa were looking for while picking their squad for the Under-19 World Cup. The emphasis was on players who were fit, had the right attitude, and could bat, bowl and field. Obviously all 15 of their players in Malaysia don’t fulfil the criteria, but Wayne Parnell comes close. Few cricketers in the World Cup bear the responsibility that Parnell does: he is the captain, a powerful middle-order batsman, and most importantly their new-ball bowler. And he has led by example through the tournament.Parnell, a left-arm fast bowler, is South Africa’s best bowler by some distance, having taken 14 wickets in four matches in the lead-up to the semi-final. He began poorly as a batsman, scoring a duck against West Indies but hit his stride in following games. His all-round performance in the quarter-final against Bangladesh ensured that the match was a no-contest: Parnell lifted his team from 135 for 5 with an aggressive 57 and then broke the back of the Bangladesh challenge by taking 6 for 8 in five overs, routing them for 41. Parnell’s effort hid the fact that he had the flu, and had been struggling with fever and a sore throat.He undoubtedly has the five qualities but puts a premium on attitude. “If you have a good attitude then your routines will be good while batting, bowling, fielding and in fitness,” he said. “I think attitude is probably the most important of the lot.”Parnell’s words are almost out of U-19 coach Ray Jennings’ coaching manual for he also looks for attitude and toughness in his charges at the age-group level. “I look for more character: someone who gets knocked on the head and can wake up in the morning and start growing again,” Jennings said. “If you haven’t got that [character] then what is talent.”He’s [Wayne] a very tough cricketer. He’s probably the best cricketer in our country [at U-19 level]. From what I’ve seen he’s probably in the top five in the world as an allrounder. There’s no allrounder in Malaysia at the moment that bats and bowls at Wayne’s standards.”Parnell, however, didn’t begin his career as a genuine allrounder and says that his coach at Eastern Province Christo Esau had a lot to do with his development.”When I started, my bowling was better than my batting,” Parnell said. “And then Christo said though I would make most sides with my left-arm bowling, which is quite rare in youth cricket, I needed to up my batting to make it as an allrounder. So from 2004 I worked really hard on my batting and that’s paying off now.”South Africa, unlike the other two contenders for the World Cup – India and Pakistan – put together their U-19 side only in December 2007, giving Parnell a home series against India and Bangladesh to settle into the captaincy. He said the pressures have increased since 2007 as he’s become a senior in the U-19 set-up.”The players respect him because he’s a performer: he bats and he bowls,”
Jennings said. “That’s what you want from leaders – to lead from the front
and to lead by example. And knowledge – he has experience because he went
to the last World Cup.”Parnell, who is 18, began playing for Eastern Province’s U-13 side when he
was 12 and was captain the following year. He didn’t make the U-15 side
initially but at the age of 15 began to play for Eastern Province and
South Africa at the U-19 level. He made his first-class debut in October
2006.Parnell plays a tremendous amount of cricket at school, club, age-group and provincial level and because he performs a dual role in the team, he has to monitor his physical condition carefully.”Most of my coaches don’t over-bowl me,” he said. “They set out a log book
so that I can log my overs. So I haven’t over-bowled myself and picked up
little niggles. I try to bat as much as possible maybe three-four times a
week for about an hour and a half.”It’s a big step up from U-19 level to first-class cricket and the national
team, however distant, is Parnell’s goal. There are several allrounders already in the South African set-up but Parnell is one to watch for the future.

Stats highlights from the second day of the first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Karachi

Cricinfo staff23-Feb-2009
Mahela Jayawardene scored his fifth double-hundred, and is only one short of equalling the Sri Lankan record © AFP
Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera’s partnership of 437 is the highest for the fourth wicket in Tests. It’s also only the second 400-plus stand for that wicket in Tests, after Colin Cowdrey and Peter May’s 411 against West Indies in Birmingham in 1957. This is the fourth instance of two Sri Lankan batsmen – and the 15th overall in Tests – scoring double-hundreds in a single innings, which is the most by any team. Australia and Pakistan have achieved this on three occasions each. The last time this had happened in Pakistan, Sri Lanka had been at the receiving end, as Qasim Umar and Javed Miandad hammered doubles in Faisalabad in 1985. In 27 innings, Jayawardene and Samaraweera have averaged 68.80 together, which is marginally higher than the 68.59 that Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara average. Click here for Jayawardene’s average stands with each batsman. Jayawardene scored his fifth double-century, and his first outside Sri Lanka. Only two Sri Lankans – Marvan Atpattu and Sangakkara – have scored more double-hundreds. Click here for the full list of Sri Lankan double-centurions. There were no sixes in the Sri Lankan innings. It’s the eleventh time a team has scored 600 or above in an innings without hitting a six. Sohail Khan conceded 131 runs in 21 overs. His figures are the fourth-worst in terms of runs conceded for debutants who’ve gone wicketless in an innings. In their epic stand, Jayawardene and Samaraweera scored 110 runs behind the point region – 60 of them in boundaries. Most of these runs came on the first day, as Pakistan did not keep a third man.

Stats highlights from the last day of the first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Karachi

Cricinfo staff25-Feb-2009

Despite another horrendous start with the bat, Rajasthan stole this game because they had the players that made sensible decisions when the going got tough

Cricinfo staff02-May-2009″It’s a high-pressure game, and you need cool heads,” said Darren Berry, the Rajasthan Royals director of coaching. He was replying to a question on ageing stars, and the selection of two players who could be considered part of his playing generation – Lee Carseldine and Shane Harwood.Both were playing their first games of the tournament, and both came through with big performances when it mattered. Despite another horrendous start with the bat, Rajasthan stole this game because they had the players that made sensible decisions when the going got tough. It was no coincidence that Harwood was in the middle to help complete the recovery job that
Carseldine had started.Once again though, it was the Rajasthan’s unheralded collection of Indian talent that caught the eye. Kamran Khan may be out for the season with his knee injury, but in Abhishek Raut, a 22-year-old Maharashtran with no claims to fame, they appear to have unearthed another finisher in the Pathan mould. In a previous game, he pillaged 18 from the final over, and here, his 36 from 23 balls saw his team home after both Shane Warne and Yusuf Pathan had succumbed to Bollywood strokes.Jeremy Snape, who takes care of the mental conditioning side of things for Rajasthan, called Raut an “effervescent cricketer”, and he was certainly bubbling at the end after the risky single that clinched the game. The key moments though had come a little earlier, with Yusuf clobbering sixes over extra-cover and square leg. Shoaib Ahmed had starred in the domestic one-day season, with more than 20 wickets, but Yusuf in rampant mood was a completely different proposition. Those two hits brought down the run-rate to such an extent that the rest of the game was a stroll.”There’s so much coaching in the game now that you can complicate things,” said Snape. “Some players overthink. With Yusuf, we keep it simple. He’s one of the cleanest strikers of the ball in the game. So we stick to a simple plan, and a simple thought process.”The decision to keep Yusuf down at No.8 was certainly a gamble, but it worked primarily because Carseldine, Player of the Year in Australia’s Big Bash this season, batted with such composure before a horrendous decision sent him on his way. “The one thing that we really knew about him was how composed he is under pressure,” said Berry. “With Shane Watson [last year’s star] now missing, we needed someone like that at the top of the order.”Deccan Chargers are now in the midst of a slump after four successive victories. In addition to Rohit Sharma’s embarrassing boundary-line gaffe in the penultimate over, there were a couple of missed run-out chances and the simplest of fluffed return catches [Venugopal Rao letting Shane Warne go]. “On another day, the 20 percent that’s bad goes unnoticed,” said a rueful Adam Gilchrist later. “But today, those were the key moments. In general, I thought our fielding was exceptional.”They do need more runs from other sources though. Gilchrist started brightly today, but Gibbs failed, and it was left to Rohit to lead them to a competitive total. But like Rajasthan, there doesn’t seem to be enough depth to the batting. T Suman, who has replaced VVS Laxman in the side,
showed promise again, but with Fidel Edwards leaving for England this weekend, Andrew Symonds can’t arrive soon enough. He could well be the X-factor that Deccan lack in mid-innings. Rajasthan, for all their worries, continue to find the most unlikely ones.

Australia’s raw attack struggled to cope with pressure of play at Lord’s, but apart from Andrew Strauss England failed to make them pay

Andrew Miller at Lord's16-Jul-2009For approximately half of the first day at Lord’s, Australia bowled as badly as they have done in any Ashes Test for a generation. All the while that Mitchell Johnson was spoon-feeding England’s openers in a ghastly new-ball spell, a packed Lord’s crowd that has witnessed five Australian wins in their last six visits was left blinking incredulously through their pint-glasses. Who were these impostors, and what had become of the men who pushed England to the brink in Cardiff last week?By the close of the first day, we knew. While Andrew Strauss settled serenely into the innings of the day – his fourth century in 12 Tests at Lord’s, the ground on which he learnt his trade as a young buck at Middlesex – Australia’s rookie cricketers were quite simply crushed by the expectant weight of history. Nobody in the ground can have been unaware that the Baggy Green has reigned supreme at this venue since 1934, and nobody seemed more acutely aware of that fact than the Australians themselves.No fewer than eight of the men who followed their captain out of the visiting dressing-room, down the central staircase and through a packed and buzzing Long Room were playing in their first Test at the grand venue, and not one of the six bowlers used on the first day had ever had to contend with the vagaries of the slope, let alone follow in the matchless footsteps of the great GD McGrath, who etched his name on the dressing-room honours board three times in three occasions.Last week, Australia were deprived of the victory that could have settled their nerves for the summer, and at the close of play, Brad Haddin mentioned the tension of the occasion on five separate occasions in a ten-minute press conference. Contrast that anxiety with England’s ease with their surroundings. Of the 14 men who vied for selection in this game, only two – Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad – have yet to make their mark on the walls of their dressing-room, and it’s fair to suggest that time is on their side.”We’ve all batted pretty well at Lord’s in the last few years,” said Strauss, and with 17 Test centurions since Australia last had a hit, that’s something of an understatement. “It has been very batting friendly to be fair, but there’s a lot of confidence in our batting unit here, and hopefully we can continue to display that over the coming days.”But confidence in English batsmen is a very dangerous thing, especially when coupled with Australia’s ability to rise above adversity. By the close, the two traits had collided to create a perfect cliché – a day of two halves. In their first 47.4 overs, England managed 196 for 0, and then 168 for 6 in their last 42.2. By the time they retreated to their dressing-room, no doubt for the sort of talking-to that their opponents received over lunch, they had squandered their second priceless toss of the series.England squad members with hundreds at Lord’s 2009 AJ Strauss, Australia 161*

2009 R. Bopara, West Indies 143

2008 I.R. Bell, South Africa 199; K.P. Pietersen, South Africa 152

2007 K.P. Pietersen, India 134; K.P. Pietersen, West Indies 109; I.R. Bell, West Indies 109*; M.J.Prior, West Indies 126*; P.D. Collingwood West Indies 111; A.N. Cook, West Indies 105

2006 A.J. Strauss, Pakistan, 128; I.R. Bell, Pakistan 100*; P.D. Collingwood, Pakistan, 186; A.N. Cook, Pakistan, 105; K.P. Pietersen, Sri Lanka 158

2004 A.J. Strauss, West Indies, 137; A.J. Strauss, New Zealand, 112

2003 A. Flintoff, South Africa 142At Cardiff last week, England attempted to seize the momentum, but ended up taking the piss. Their desire to dominate translated into arrogance, as ten starts and a top-score of 69 amply testified, and their first-day scoreline of 336 of 7 was soon revealed to be entirely inadequate. What, then, will be made of this effort? As Strauss proved by piling on through to the close, the opportunity was there to atone for those first-Test errors, and convert a confident start into a formidable finish.But the recriminations will abound if, as Australia suggested with their end-of-day rally, their stage-fright has dissipated by the time their turn comes to bat. “The whole occasion of Lord’s got too big for a few of us,” admitted Haddin, “but late in the day we got into our rhythm and started to build a bit more pressure, and relax more into our work. We were looking down the barrel of a very bad day at 0 for 200, and I thought we fought back well.”They certainly did, but England assisted them in their downfall. Superbly though he played for the first 146 balls of his innings, Alastair Cook missed pretty much the first straight one he received (just as he had done at Cardiff), and once he had gone nobody else could muster the necessary application – not even Paul Collingwood, whose out-of-character shovel to mid-on with the new ball looming was the most culpable failure of the day.Coming so soon after Ponting’s agenda-setting 150 at Cardiff, Strauss’s hefty performance was timely in one ways than one. But as he admitted at the close, it had been a better day for him personally than for his team, and nothing telegraphed his frustration more pointedly than the look of daggers he gave Collingwood, his Cardiff hero, as he made his way back to the pavilion.”It is a slightly disappointing [position] from 190 for 0, but I suppose Collingwood was the only one you could say had a hand in his own downfall,” said Strauss, “He was trying to push things along before the new ball came along, which can sometimes happen. But otherwise it was a bit of swing and a bit of nip that did for most of our batsmen, which was pretty encouraging.””There are more wicket-taking opportunities here than at Cardiff, definitely,” he said. “The ball swung around more, and when it swung at times batting was quite tricky. At the same time, in between that there were opportunities to score. It’s always a fast-scoring ground, so if you’re slightly off it’s going to go. If we can get up to 450 tomorrow, we’ll be in a pretty good position in the game, but we’ll have to bat better than in Cardiff.”They’ll have to bowl better as well, and in that respect, the percentages selection of Graeme Onions over Steve Harmison may in hindsight prove to be prudent. On his last appearance at Lord’s, Onions claimed four wicket in seven balls, on his way to becoming the latest notch on England’s honours board – and while the quality of his West Indian opponents were barely worth mentioning in the same context, he can at least claim that Lord’s rarefied atmosphere did not affect his performance in the slightest.Today, that was not remotely true of the Australians. If they can recover their poise from this position – and this evening they made a fantastic fist of a comeback – then they truly are worthy to follow in Bradman’s footsteps.