Plays of the Day from the match between Pune Warriors and Delhi Daredevils at the DY Patil Stadium

George Binoy17-Apr-2011Costly change of mind
Ashok Dinda had the new ball. He was all set to bowl the first over of the match when Virender Sehwag, spying two left-hand overseas opening batsmen, changed his mind and gave the ball to the offspinner Venugopal Rao. The spinner-with-new-ball ploy had worked wonders during the World Cup, but Ryder was a world-class batsman, and Venugopal was not a world-class bowler. Three deliveries later, Ryder leaned forward and nonchalantly chipped the ball over the long-on boundary. The next one was more emphatic – a powerful swing, down on one knee, over long-on once again.The edge no one heard
Graeme Smith smashed his first ball, absolutely smashed it, straight to the wicketkeeper, who caught it. Curiously neither the bowler, Dinda, nor the keeper, Naman Ojha, made strong appeals. The umpire was Amiesh Saheba and he wasn’t convinced either. Smith kept his poker face, took strike again, and whipped the next ball off his pads for four.The shot at redemption
Ryder had just been dropped at deep midwicket – Dinda had grassed a sitter – after which he clubbed Shabaz Nadeem over the long-on boundary. And then he slog-swept with power and Aaron Finch mis-fielded at deep square leg to allow four. Dinda didn’t get a chance to make amends, but Finch did. A ball later, Ryder swept again, this time in the air, and Finch held it safely at deep-backward square leg.The hat-trick
Three balls, three sixes. Yuvraj Singh ended Pune’s innings by destroying Dinda with three powerful clubs that sailed into the stands between midwicket and long-on. All three times he cleared his front foot to create hitting space, all three times the lengths were different, but the result the same. Yuvraj was on a hat-trick with the ball too, but that one escaped him.The near collision
Sehwag had skied the ball and gravity was bringing it down in the region between mid-on and long-on. It was long-on’s catch, and so Mohnish Mishra sprinted in from the boundary towards the ball. And as he approached the catch, he saw Yuvraj had run back from midwicket, eyes fixed on the ball. Mishra hesitated and then bailed out of the attempt, averting a high-speed collision. Yuvraj lunged, got hands to the ball, but spilled it.

Shahid Afridi has been a true leader of men, with them on bad days and good days, taking Pakistan ultimately to a place few expected them to reach

Osman Samiuddin in Mohali29-Mar-2011Until two weeks before this World Cup began, it mustn’t be forgotten, Shahid Afridi wasn’t even captain of Pakistan. Misbah-ul-Haq was a strong contender and a number of players were said to be unhappy with Afridi’s gift – and curse – for public straight-talk, particularly when criticising players.Yet, in four days time, he may well be a World Cup winning captain. He continues to be appointed on a series-by-series basis and he must be the only captain in the world who doesn’t complain about that unstable arrangement. Every game, he insists after all, he plays as if his first or last. He thrives on it.So now he leads his team into a World Cup semi-final, precisely as he said he would before the tournament began. It’s India, so it will be among the biggest games he has played, and for many of his younger players, a game that can make a career. Ian Chappell has criticised him, but really? Afridi, as captain, taking Pakistan this far? If you’d said it two years ago, you would have been committed.The success of any Pakistan captain lies basically in his own individual success. Players respond naturally to the man who does well, because they think that makes him strong, the man who can get stuff done, the man who can make ’em or break ’em. Afridi has done it by becoming arguably the most important player in the side and its very personification. Few would have expected him to be the leading wicket-taker at this tournament so far but here he is, having bowled vital, wicket-taking spells throughout. Take him out and the nature, to say nothing of the threat, of the side is greatly diminished.Without ball in hand, on the field, he has led by energy, keeping his players alert and on edge. Occasionally he has shown tactical awareness. No Pakistani captain had opened with spin, for example, until he did so with Abdur Rehman against New Zealand. Against West Indies, he picked Saeed Ajmal to combat their left-hand batsmen but opened with Mohammad Hafeez, whose spell set up the game. He has brought back his strike fast bowlers at the right time, early when needed.Behind him, Waqar Younis has provided a very organic assistance. They haven’t used any gizmos, there is no nutrition expert or fitness guru or mental conditioner. They’ve just made the players work damned hard in practice and allowed them to play a game of bat and ball on the field.Probably the two smartest things Afridi has done have been away from the play. One, he has taken on board a clutch of senior players in the side, men such as Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq and Umar Gul. He has mostly just let them be, trusting their experience, but involving them as well on the field and in training, where Younis and Misbah have been particularly influential.And in the public eye he has backed each and every one of his players, making some tough calls. Players from the periphery, like Razzaq, to the under-fire, like Kamran Akmal (apart from a brief period of wobble in the immediate aftermath of New Zealand) to the out-of-form, like Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez, have been persevered with. He has backed them in the name of stability, in the name of a winning combination. Not all has made sense, but togetherness has been built, hardly a murmur from the dressing room.”Some things I do very emotionally in team meetings, to get the boys fired up and they do get fired up because of that,” he said ahead of the semi-final in Mohali. “We are an emotional people, both countries. I don’t think that the unity of the team, or where we have reached, it is not down to me. I don’t want to take credit for that. When the team does well, 15 out of 15 do well and that is when you get a proper unit. All the credit I will give to the 15 guys, the seniors, our management, our coaches, they have made all the effort.”It was a good appearance ahead of the game, full of humour, bonhomie, wisecracks and digs; Afridi in a good, relaxed mood, comfortable as captain of Pakistan. To follow him through Sri Lanka and Dhaka has been to humanise him, an expressive man given to moods, but a naturally charismatic presence in any gathering. Over the last month and more, he has also been surprisingly focused, surprising given his generally short attention spans.But in every sense, come what may on Wednesday, Afridi has been a true leader of men, with them on bad days and good days, taking them ultimately to a place few expected them to reach.

Shakib Al Hasan’s fourth instance of taking a five-for and making a half-century in a Test helped Bangladesh twice today: first to prevent a big total by the opposition and then to lift his side from a desperate collapse

Mohammad Isam30-Oct-2011Shakib Al Hasan’s five-for and half-century on the second day of the second and final Test against West Indies was a repeat of a not-too-distant memory. His fourth double in the last three years helped Bangladesh twice on the day: first to prevent a big total by the opposition and then to lift his team from a desperate collapse.The previous three times he achieved the feat, it came in different circumstances; twice in 2008 (against New Zealand and Sri Lanka), he couldn’t force a victory with the first instance in Chittagong being the heartbreaker. The third time, Shakib famously took his side to a landmark victory in Grenada in 2009, missing out on a century as he had finished the fourth-innings chase slightly earlier. Though it came against a second-string West Indies line-up concocted after a players’ strike, Shakib’s effort underlined his standing as a world-class all-rounder who could take his side to a win.His innings with the bat on Sunday began under utmost pressure, akin to Chittagong when his second-innings 71 came during a disintegration and against Sri Lanka when centurion Mohammad Ashraful had fallen after he arrived at the crease during a humungous second-innings chase.This time around, the normally cool Shakib was up against a hat-trick ball from a rampant Fidel Edwards who had just removed Raqibul Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim with sheer pace. Shakib kept out the yorker, only just, and went about his business despite the state of the scoreboard.He opened his account by caressing Edwards through cover for four, though the shot was more of a warning for his trigger-happy team-mates who had faltered in the preceding 30 minutes. What distanced Shakib from the rest though was the fifth ball he faced.A huge swathe of emptiness that was the leg-side field was hardly used by the Bangladesh batsmen before him. Shakib, who is often pragmatic, mostly technically correct and almost always unruffled, tucked into Edwards’s short ball with a pull that was as much sensible as was Shakib who went on to handle anything above his waist with a lot of logic. After he reached his half-century, Shakib laid into Darren Sammy for three boundaries in an over – two placed square on the off side and one driven through mid-on.His dismissal to legspinner Devendra Bishoo, with Bangladesh requiring another 13 to avoid the follow-on, was slightly disappointing because he was the first person who knew that the Mirpur track had begun to take turn.His first act of the day had been to remove Carlton Baugh, who edged a delivery that bounced a bit more than he expected. Sammy’s back leg tripped onto his stumps as Shakib began to take control of the West Indies tail. Soon, Kirk and Fidel Edwards became his fourth and fifth victims as his second spell on the day yielded four wickets for just nine runs in 4.4 overs.When Bishoo’s big turner found the large gap between Shakib’s bat and pad, though, it ended hopes of a rare five-for and century on the same day. His Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan protégé Nasir Hossain followed in his footsteps with his temperament but the unnecessary run-out with Naeem Islam dampened an otherwise faultless final session. Unbeaten on 34 and having taken a superb catch to start off the day, Nasir would have to just look across the dressing room for inspiration.

The hosts played reckless shots and lost six wickets for 25 runs after tea at the Wanderers. Jacques Kallis says it may be due to difficulties in adjusting from the limited-overs formats

Firdose Moonda at the Wanderers 17-Nov-2011South Africa lost six wickets for 25 runs in the evening session on the first day at the Wanderers. It was not, of course, the worst collapse of the series but their clumsy showing in the 69 minutes after tea came close to matching the recklessness of Australia’s infamous 21 for 9 at Newlands.AB de Villiers and Ashwell Prince resumed after the interval, both well set and the partnership going strong on 84. Prince had started out as the aggressor, scoring runs on the leg side, but was happy to pass the baton to de Villiers and let the natural order of things resume. de Villiers attacked, Prince was the perfect foil and the rate at which they scored their runs – nearly four an over – set South Africa up for what should have been a meaty first-innings total.Jacques Kallis said, after the first day’s play, that the team were aiming at a score of “350 plus” and with de Villiers and Prince at the crease that seemed possible. The pitch was perfect for batting and Australia were without Shane Watson but still the pair returned after tea far less confident. They scratched around, looked anxious and out of touch. Prince edged three consecutive boundaries to take him to the brink of his half-century and bring up the century partnership but instead of growing in confidence, he appeared more jittery.The pair looked to target Nathan Lyon, Australia’s offspinner, without success. Prince charged down the pitch to him twice before coming out of the crease to hole out to mid-on. With Prince gone, de Villiers wanted to attack and when he tried to pull Siddle he managed only a top edge. After Vernon Philander was dismissed lbw, Mark Boucher should have played responsibly but he top-edged a short ball to become the fourth South African wicket to fall in as many overs, for as many runs.The strikes put South Africa in a situation they could not recover from, allowed Michael Clarke to end with figures of 2 for 6, and brought up issues that passed unnoticed, and consequentially unsolved, in the first Test. The talk of South Africa being underprepared before Newlands – they had not played a Test since early January and five senior squad members had not played a first-class match in the lead-up to the series – was shelved when they issued a comprehensive beating to Australia. What was forgotten in the madness was that part of the victory included a South African innings in which they were dismissed for 96.The middle and lower order, in particular, appeared vulnerable then, and did again during the first day’s play at the Wanderers. Kallis said the collapse had more to do with shot-selection than lack of match-time. “At 240 for 4 you are dominating the game; we had far too many soft dismissals and it’s something that we need to address,” he said. “It hasn’t got anything to do with the amount of cricket we played; its poor execution and shot making.”Kallis hinted that the South Africa batsmen may be struggling to change their mindset as they shift between different formats of the game. “The game has moved forward. Twenty20s and ODIs have forced change. In our case, it was poor shot making which shouldn’t happen in Test cricket. There has also been some really good bowling in between all of that.”He was, perhaps, pointing to the lack of patience shown by the South Africa batsmen. Australia’s bowlers, barring Pat Cummins, who managed good pace and bounce, were unthreatening for much of the day. Mitchell Johnson was often too full, Peter Siddle a tad loose on occasion and Lyon appeared to be in for a pasting in the early stages of play. Their challenging deliveries were interspersed with wayward ones, which South Africa did capitalise on, but could have continued to take advantage of had they allowed themselves more time.Instead, every time they got the advantage they appeared in a rush and relinquished it. “As soon as one side started to dominate the other side came back,” Kallis said. “They [de Villiers and Prince] got us well ahead of the game and then Australia came back.”To Australia’s credit, when they broke the stand between Prince and de Villiers they made full use of the opening. “The main aim was to keep the pressure on and build up dot balls. Siddle stayed really attacking and got the breakthrough,” Cummins said, indicating that it was patience from the bowlers that paid off.South Africa will need the same mindset in the field and will want the bowlers to show a better temperament than their batsmen did. Kallis said there was “enough” in the pitch for the seamers to make something of in the morning but warned that they “should not try and bowl Australia out,” but “be more patient and keep driving our areas.”

New Zealand hope a man who brought professionalism to lawn bowls in Australia can do the same to the selection process in cricket

Brydon Coverdale22-Sep-2011John Buchanan’s decision to appoint Kim Littlejohn as New Zealand’s national selection manager didn’t just come from left field, but from somewhere over the bleachers and into the car-park. Giving one of the most influential positions in New Zealand Cricket to an Australian lawn bowls manager was startling, even by Buchanan’s standards.But for all Buchanan’s quirks, he is a man of precision, who speaks of systems and processes. Rash decisions do not fit with his style. So who exactly is Kim Littlejohn? Who is this man who beat former Test stars like Glenn Turner, Mark Greatbatch and Ken Rutherford to become the coach John Wright’s co-selector?The short answer is that Littlejohn, 47, is a former club cricketer, who has made a career in sports administration, first in baseball and then in lawn bowls. Renowned for his meticulous planning and analysis, traits that fit with Buchanan’s modus operandi, Littlejohn has spent the past seven years as the high-performance manager with Bowls Australia.He joined the organisation at a time when bowls was considered primarily a social game, but a sophisticated high-performance programme was needed. Australia’s lawn bowls team had fared poorly at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and government funding was made available to turn that performance around.”That’s where the degree of a level of professionalism needed to be introduced,” the Bowls Australia chief executive officer, Neil Dalrymple, told ESPNcricinfo. “That meant performance measures and more analysis was introduced into the programme. Kim introduced some biomechanical analysis, statistical analysis, the use of video and tracking of player performance. In individual matches there was a lot of analysis of where the bowls were being delivered – bowl-by-bowl analysis. That was used as a coaching technique to feed back to the players.”The real focus of the programme was with the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the introduction of part-time coaches and sports science, sports medicine, more of a fitness programme, which hadn’t been part of bowls programmes in the past. He was the person who was employed to manage the introduction of those systems and personnel.”The results spoke for themselves. In 2002, Australia had not won a gold medal in Manchester, and managed just one silver. At the Melbourne Games, the team claimed three of the six gold medals that were up for grabs.Dalrymple described Littlejohn as “very focussed”. “He’s a very hard worker and he’ll stick to the task,” he said. “He ticks the boxes. He’s very careful on detail. Planning and detail are his strengths.”Littlejohn had joined Bowls Australia after serving for a year as operations manager at Baseball Victoria. The move into sports management was quite a change; he had previously worked in investment banking.But Littlejohn’s background had been in cricket, albeit at sub-elite levels. In 1983-84, he played 15 first-grade games – the next step down from state cricket – for the Southern Districts side in Perth. In more recent years, he was an assistant coach with the Melbourne University club, again one level below first-class cricket, and he ran the club’s junior pathways programme.

Buchanan hopes Littlejohn can introduce to cricket selection, which has traditionally been based around part-time selectors, the kind of professionalism he brought to bowls. For his own part, Littlejohn believes cricket is the sport where he can offer the most

“He was a fantastic guy and very well organised,” John MacWhirter, Victoria’s chairman of selectors, who was at the time Melbourne University’s director of cricket, said. “He was obviously highly intelligent and was fantastic with the kids. He was a student of the game.”That cricket background, combined with his administration skills, was enough to convince Buchanan, New Zealand Cricket’s director of cricket, that he was the right man for a job that will be heavy on planning and analysis. As the national selection manager, Littlejohn will use the major association coaches as his key source of information on players.”He can have good conversations with coaches or former selectors or former players because of the amount of cricket background that he has,” Buchanan said. “I think that is sufficient for the job. One of his key roles is his ability to harness the knowledge and experience of so many experts over here. I think he’s excellent at doing that.”Buchanan hopes Littlejohn can introduce to cricket selection, which has traditionally been based around part-time selectors, the kind of professionalism he brought to bowls. For his own part, Littlejohn believes cricket is the sport where he can offer the most.”Of all the sports I’ve worked in, cricket is the one that I really understand the most about and can talk the language of cricket,” Littlejohn said. “When I went and worked in baseball and lawn bowls I hadn’t actually had any experience of those sports when I started to work in them, so it was a very steep learning curve for me to get up to speed on the sport itself. I can hit the ground running in cricket because I understand the sport back to front.”That’s half the battle. Now all New Zealand need is for cricket in the country to understand Littlejohn back to front.

Sri Lanka laid out a royal feast of bad bowling on day one at Cape Town. Jacques Kallis and Alviro Petersen tucked in and chalked up important runs.

Firdose Moonda at Newlands03-Jan-2012If two men are hungry, they can only eat if food is plentiful. Luckily for Alviro Petersen and Jacques Kallis, Sri Lanka brought everything from the placemats to dessert and laid out a royal feast.Petersen admitted that South Africa were “surprised” that Sri Lanka asked them to bat, on a pitch that looked “quite dry”. At first, they may have suspected a poisoned apple but no such dangerous food emerged. All that lay before them was a land of milk and honey: batting paradise with the chance for the two at the crease to prove their differing, but equally important, points.Petersen’s need to make a statement is obvious. He has just been recalled to the national team after being dropped, for no real doing of his own, but the hard-to-ignore form of another – Jacques Rudolph. If there was any glaring fault in Petersen’s previous nine Tests it would be that he failed to notch up milestones often enough. His century on his debut Test was memorable but fifties against West Indies and Pakistan were achieved against forgettable, below-par opposition or in equally forgettable batting-friendly circumstances.His last series, against India, was characterised by difficult opening partnerships, on both sides, as the hosts prepared seamer-friendly pitches as part of a ploy against the sub-continental side. He was dropped, despite managing 77 in the first Test, because Rudolph was the popular choice, having made a stirring comeback to South African cricket.

Kallis had three forgettable innings and would have had a fourth if Chanaka Welegedera had caught the pull he played. He showed Sri Lanka what happens when you give one of the world’s best players a second chance.

Petersen always knew that if he continued grinding away at the domestic scene, the pendulum would have to swing back in his favour. “I always believed I had the chance to get back and I had a few good performances at domestic level,” he said. “I always believed I could do it. It all depended on me getting runs on the board.” Since being dropped, he has scored three first-class hundreds, showing his patience, maturity and composure and forcing his way back into the national team.Even that was not enough for vindication. Like Ashwell Prince, who scored a century in the opening position in 2009, Petersen had to be able to show that he was good enough, not just anywhere but in an international match. He realised the value of a big score and adopted the same attitude as he has had in domestic matches this season to get there: the wait, watch and then stealthily attack. “A hundred is a big milestone and it was quite satisfying to get to that,” he said. “In other games, I got to 30 and 40 and I was a bit disappointed. For me, it’s about pushing the bar and would have liked to have scored more.”It was an innings that could be remembered as being a turning point in Petersen’s career because it has likely bought him time and flights to New Zealand and England next year. South Africa’s opening pair has long been a conundrum but Petersen appears to have solved that, with the help of the opportunities he was fed by the Sri Lankan bowlers.Kallis is on the opposite end of the spectrum. After 150 Test matches, some may think Kallis has nothing left to achieve. They would be wrong. Before today, he had not scored a century against Sri Lanka, the only Test playing nation he had not managed three figures against. Perhaps more fresh in his mind was the pair he suffered last week at Kingsmead, something that was foreign to Kallis, who had gone 16 years in international cricket without ever enduring a duck in both innings.Combine those two factors with Kallis’ age and the need for him to come good emerges. He is now 36 years-old – not yet old enough to be hard of hearing – so would have picked up the whispers in the wind that are suggesting he is getting on and that team management should start considering his future. His recent vulnerability against the short ball, particularly against Patrick Cummins, highlighted those very things Kallis would have wanted to remain in the dark: signs of age.He had three forgettable innings against Sri Lanka and would have had a fourth, if Chanaka Welegedera had caught his top-edged pull. At that stage, Kallis was on just one. But, like Kumar Sangakkara in the last match, he showed Sri Lanka what happens when you give one of the world’s best players a second chance and went on to record a magnificent 150, in perfect symbolism with his 150th match.As the run machine rolled on, Sri Lanka continued to pepper Kallis with short balls. “We were surprised at the lines and lengths bowled,” said Petersen. By then, Kallis had adjusted to keeping the pull down and went on to record one of his classiest knocks. In the process, Kallis owns Newlands the way Mahela Jayawardene does the SSC in Colombo and Graham Gooch did Lord’s. He passed 2,000 runs on his home ground, a sign that the grass really is greener for some at Newlands.

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the Day from the 1st ODI between Pakistan and England in Abu Dhabi

George Dobell in Abu Dhabi13-Feb-2012Shot of the day

The cut that brought Alastair Cook his third ODI century: confident, clean and classy. Cook’s place in the side had been questioned by some – mainly former players – in the run-up to this series. His vastly improved record as a batsman since he became captain had largely been ignored. As had the fact that England beat both World Cup finalists in the English summer. Cook, shrugging off the struggles of his teammates, produced his second century since assuming the ODI captaincy. If you want to put his innings in context, look at the next highest scores in the match: 50 in the England innings and just 28 in the Pakistan innings. Cook stood head and shoulders above them all.Mistake of the day

Umar Akmal’s missed stumping of Ravi Bopara was not the easiest chance – the ball from Mohammad Hafeez passed between Bopara’s legs – but it may reignite the perennial debate about the balance between selecting a specialist wicketkeeper and a batsman who keeps wicket. Umar Akmal is very much the latter. Bopara was one at the time. By going on to score 50, he became one of only two men in the England side to pass 17. It was a costly miss.Ball of the day

Shahid Afridi’s legbreak to dismiss Kevin Pietersen was a thing of beauty: drifting in, luring the batsman into a stroke, then turning just enough to clip the off stump. And all at around 60mph. Whatever the state of his batting – and one half-century in his last 26 ODIs tells its own story – Afridi would surely win selection in any side simply on the strength of his bowling. It also put Pietersen out of his considerable misery. Promoted to the top of the order to provide England with a bit of impetus, Pietersen instead laboured over 36 balls for his 14 runs. It was painful to watch.Catch of the day

Craig Kieswetter’s catch to dismiss Younis Khan came in the middle of a distinctly sharp spell of well-directed seam bowling from Steven Finn. Younis, drawn forward by Finn’s excellent length, was beaten by one that nipped back just a fraction, resulting in an inside edge that flew at pace to the keeper. Kieswetter, obliged to change direction, made a tricky chance look deceptively simple. He might not be scoring the runs required of him but the evidence suggests Kieswetter is continuing to improve as a wicketkeeper. The stumping of Umar Akmal was impressive, too.Confusion of the day

It would appear that Shoaib Malik does not understand the rules of DRS. Having called for a review of an lbw decision given against him when he had scored just one, Malik started to walk off when the replay on the big screen showed the ball hitting the stumps but having made impact with his pads outside the line. He had to be called back to resume his innings.

A timeline of events and decisions that has affected the implementation of the Decision Review System (DRS)

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jun-2012June 2008
A decision is made to trial the DRS in the Test series between Sri Lanka and India starting in July 2008.July-August 2008
Virender Sehwag becomes the first player to be given out after the on-field umpire’s decision was overturned by the use of DRS. In three Tests, India make only one successful review; Sri Lanka make 11. The system reveals some glitches in its first experiment and receives mixed reviews.March 2009
ICC expands the scope of DRS by including Hot Spot as a tool for decision-making, allowing it to be trialled during the second and third Tests between Australia and South Africa.November 2009
There is serious opposition to DRS after the BCCI decides against using the system for the Tests against Sri Lanka, and other boards begin to complain over the costs borne by the host nation. Instead, they call on the ICC to fund DRS.October 2010
The ICC says the DRS will be used in the 2011 World Cup. While ball-tracking, it said, would be used for all games, Hot Spot would be available for the semi-finals and final.February 2011
Hot Spot, it is announced, will not be used for the World Cup as the “supplier advised it was not willing to supply its cameras for the tournament.”February 2011
A controversial moment in the World Cup when Ian Bell is ruled not out, with Billy Bowden sticking to his original decision as a result of the 2.5 metre rule. It triggers a spat between the BCCI and the ICC. The rule is subsequently tweaked to ensure consistency.May 2011
The BCCI reiterates its opposition to the DRS following a recommendation by an ICC committee to implement the system in all internationals.June 2011
A compromise is struck when the ICC unanimously agrees to make DRS with Hot Spot – subject to availability – mandatory in all Tests and ODIs, with ball-tracking removed from the compulsory list. The ICC also moots raising a sponsor to fund DRS.August 2011
The BCCI and Hot Spot reach an agreement to use the technology for India’s home season.September 2011
Hot Spot is criticised by the BCCI after it proves inconclusive on several occasions on India’s tour of England. It decides to revisit the agreement reached with the ICC in June.October 2011
Hot Spot, it is decided, will not be used for India’s home ODIs against England. Its owner cites disappointment with performance, and not having the BCCI’s support, as the reasons.October 2011
The DRS is no longer mandatory, says the ICC, leaving it subject to the bilateral agreement between the boards.February 2012
The ICC decides on testing the effectiveness of the two ball-tracking technologies – Hawk-eye and Virtual Eye – independently at Cambridge University.June 2012
Following successful testing of DRS technology, the ICC Chief Executives Committee reiterates its commitment to making DRS mandatory in international cricket. The BCCI, however, says its stand remains unchanged.

For one Test in the summer of 2003 against South Africa, he was golden. Then everything went pear-shaped

Tanya Aldred27-Jul-2012James Kirtley cut a slight figure in his cricket whites – all limbs, pint-pot ears and a face straight out of the ’50s – but what he lacked in menace he made up for in intelligence.If you were following county cricket in the noughties, you looked for his name. He was a diamond in Sussex’s jewel of a team, a reliable, accurate, effective, nippy bowler with a knees-up action and clockwork-dog arms, who could produce extravagant swing in the right conditions. He took 50 or more first-class wickets seven times between 1998 and 2005, including 75 in 2001, and was a crucial reason why Sussex, historically an also-ran side, became something special, winning the Championship in 2003, 2006 and 2007. And yet he was only able to pull at the hem of Test cricket, playing just four times. A nice guy who didn’t quite make the cut.Kirtley was haunted throughout his career by claims that he had an illegal action. He was found to have a hyper-extending elbow and was cleared by the ECB before making his one-day international debut, in 2001, but was reported by the match referee. He returned home and worked to keep his action more upright, and was cleared six months later – only for the ECB to find his action illegal again, in October 2005. Kirtley returned after remedial work, but right to the end the whispers followed him. The strain was sometimes hard to bear. “It has been a stigma in my career. It is a taboo in cricket and sticks like mud.”In the early summer of 2003, he was bowling well and without adverse comment. He’d taken 19 wickets in his first three matches. When one of his team-mates shouted at him down at Hove that he was picked in the squad for the two-Test series against Zimbabwe, it came as a huge surprise. Although he never made the final XI, he spent a lot of time hanging around and getting to know the other players. England demolished Zimbabwe in both Tests and won the triangular one-day series that included the second visitors of the summer, South Africa. However, the Test series that followed was a far more difficult challenge.South Africa were a grown-up side, albeit one in transition, under a new leader, the 22-year-old Graeme Smith. Smith was titanic, in size, talent, aura and self-confidence, and had stamped his authority on the side by leaving at home talisman Lance Klusener. When the England captain, Nasser Hussain, referred to Smith as “Wotsisname” in a pre-series press conference, he little knew what he was provoking.In the first Test, at Edgbaston, Smith scored 277 and 85. At Lord’s he made 259. He was like Thor, relentless and grinding. England were saved by the rain in Birmingham, but lost Hussain, who felt he no longer had a hand on the tiller of the team and resigned in favour of the one-day captain, Michael Vaughan. Vaughan then lost his first Test as leader by an innings. Darren Gough retired. A summer of ridicule and frantic blueprints seemed written, and by the time Trent Bridge rolled along, the public were ready for change.David Graveney had called up reinforcements from the counties and there was a battle for the final bowling place between two faithful county bloodhounds, Kirtley and Lancashire’s Glen Chapple. Kirtley had been picked and discarded for four successive Tests – would it be a fifth? He remembers: “There was a bit of a shootout, but because I’d spent a lot of time around the side that summer, I got my chance.”It was a short-sleeved-jumper sort of day at Trent Bridge. Kirtley was only told he was playing on the morning of the game. He and Ed Smith, the other debutant, were presented with their caps out on the boundary. “It was a great moment but I can’t remember much else from that other hour and a half,” Kirtley said.

“I did feel an electricity in the atmosphere. Trent Bridge is a fun and knowledgeable crowd – they are aware what people are playing for. You are embraced by all of these factors. It’s like a drug, I guess, and you can get so caught up in it”

England won the toss and batted first on a pitch that looked as if it had been put together by a toddler with unsupervised access to a Pritt stick. Mark Butcher made a beautiful century, which included 21 courtly fours, and Hussain a pugnacious, liberating one, which reached its climax with a raised fist and cathartic rage at the world in general. Ed Smith, on debut, and Alec Stewart, in his final series, made fifties. Kirtley contributed one run, but “managed to hang around a bit with Stewie, and it was nice to be able to ease myself into the game”.With 445 on the board, England had something to work with. Kirtley was thrown the second over of the South African reply. “Herschelle Gibbs promptly smashed me through midwicket for four. Thankfully Trent Bridge was a good pitch for me. I took six [seven] wickets there earlier in the season.”When Graeme Smith trod on his stumps for 35, the whole team, the whole crowd, perhaps the whole country relaxed. On the third morning, with the fifth ball of the day, Kirtley got what he wanted. “I got one to leave [Jacques] Rudolph and I was up and running. When you’re a batsman you just want to get off the mark and as a bowler it is exactly the same feeling. The fact that I only needed the next ball for the second one – I got [Boeta] Dippenaar lbw – all helped.”Vaughan had James Anderson and Kirtley, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison in his armoury – guile and hammer. But guided by Neil McKenzie, South Africa dragged themselves well past the follow-on target and only 83 behind.Kirtley felt relaxed. “It was a friendly dressing room. I think because of the degree of recent change everyone was open. I knew Michael Vaughan well enough – not brilliantly because I hadn’t done the youth tours as much – but I’d played against him in county cricket.”I think that he listened to my views over field placing. I remember in county cricket I often had my square leg far too square, and with England it wasn’t. And I remember realising what detail went into international cricket.”But we never really had to strive for plans because we were regularly taking wickets.”Fourteen wickets fell on the fourth day. Shaun Pollock – accurate, miserly – bowled England out in the second innings for just 118. He finished with 6 for 39 – his last bowling before he flew home and became a father. The pitch was doing what it had always promised, to behave badly. Hussain and Flintoff guided England past three figures and Kirtley tripled his first-innings score, with 3. South Africa needed 202 to win and Kirtley had his chance.”I always had a bit of a reputation for delivering in the big games. I had been bowling well that year and was ideally suited to bowling wicket to wicket, and lbws were massive in the game.”You just get the feeling that things are going your way. There is an expectation, a buzz.”Kirtley made the initial incision: Smith, with “what replays suggest might have been a dubious lbw”, and two balls later, Rudolph legitimately leg-before. By the close South Africa were five down.Kirtley, his slingy action well suited to the conditions, wasn’t going to loosen his grip. The next morning one shot along the ground to McKenzie, there was a half-volley to Andrew Hall, and Paul Adams was the fifth wicket, a caught-and-bowled.”It was a special one, to get it all by myself. He just popped it back at me, and the tears did well up,” Kirtley said.”I did feel an electricity in the atmosphere. Trent Bridge is a fun and knowledgeable crowd – they are aware what people are playing for. You are embraced by all of these factors. It’s like a drug, I guess, and you can get so caught up in it. It is such a great place to deliver and perform. You can’t play at a higher stage than Test cricket. It was everything I wanted and it went well.”England won by 70 runs and Kirtley finished with 6 for 34, the Man-of-the-Match award, and the best figures for an Englishman on debut since John Lever. But he found the immediate aftermath of the game rather gruelling and unsatisfactory.”It sort of got washed away by the press,” he said. “I know that interviews go with the territory, but it was a shame not be in the dressing room and revel in the win. It is a bit of the system which is such a special part…”But Vaughan winning his first Test match, lots of people I respected in the game wanting to buy me a drink – those are the special moments for me. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by players that I respected.”There was a degree of feeling that you were being watched – they had started using slow-mo actions a bit – but the fact that the cricket was never dull got me off the hook a little bit.”Kirtley was picked for the next Test, at Headingley, but developed shin splints. “I limped off in the second innings, unable to bowl. I had bowled so many overs in the two Tests, 100 overs in the week, and with that sort of workload maybe it was inevitable.”Kirtley gets England the win at Trent Bridge with the wicket of Mark Boucher•Getty ImagesHe was distraught; his Test career was starting to slip from his fingers before he’d even enjoyed it properly. “I had waited this long for the opportunity, and I knew there was no way I’d be able to play in the final Test, at The Oval. And I missed matches for Sussex – not being on the pitch when they won the Championship was a tough one. I had ambitions after a good couple of Tests to tour that winter, and I felt that the injury left me with unfinished business.”Kirtley did play two Tests against Sri Lanka in the autumn, after Anderson twisted his ankle playing squash against him. “I remember bowling a lot of overs, but come March, Simon Jones was there, [Matthew] Hoggard was back to his best, Harmison was back to his best, and that side was together again. It is a shame because you learn to bowl on the pitches of the subcontinent, and my bowling got better after I played for England?”Now I’m quite phlegmatic about it. I was never as quick as some of the others bowling, I couldn’t make it bounce like other bowlers, I didn’t have the skills that Jimmy Anderson has now. I probably wasn’t quite any of those things, but I knew I could perform and had a desire to do well. Ultimately I wasn’t good enough, but it is very difficult to be judged on four Test matches.”He looks back now at his cricket career with pride and the knowledge that comes with distance and time.”I achieved everything I wanted to, both with Sussex’s double-winning side and delivering on the best stage you can. Being a cricketer is quite an insular, slightly institutionalised environment. I’m not knocking it, but the more time passes, the more you have chance to reflect that there might be other things that are a little bit more important than bat and ball – but at the time you are playing, it is the be all and end all.”James Kirtley is now the MD of MKK Sports, a sportswear company he jointly set up in 2004. Sussex, Middlesex, Surrey, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire and London Broncos, amongst others, wear their clothes.

Plays of the day for the Champions League match between Auckland and Perth Scorchers in Centurion

Firdose Moonda in Centurion23-Oct-2012Flop of the day
Herschelle Gibbs has had a tournament to forget. Despite starting with an unbeaten 66 in the warm-ups, the rest of his scores did not read very impressively. He managed 19, 0, 6 and 6 in the main draw with his latest failing coming against Auckland. Gibbs was the first wicket to fall today, hitting the ball straight to Colin Munro at mid-on.Chance of the day
Auckland’s anchor Azhar Mahmood offered a rare chance early when he was hurried into playing a bouncer. The ball went high between wicket-keeper, slip and third man and all three called for “catch it,” but none of them made any real effort. The ball may have come off the shoulder and there could have been no reason to risk a dive but the Scorchers’ fielders didn’t even go for the “just-in-case” effort.Number of the day
Cricket is a game for the number crunchers and often there will be something quirky about them. Today’s was fairly straightforward. After ten overs in each innings, both teams had an identical score – 62 for 2.Names of the day
Another one for the eccentrics. How often do you have a man called Beer bowling to someone called Kitchen? Maybe only once, because that’s the number of balls Anaru Kitchen faced from Michael Beer.Wicket of the day
Beer was the man responsible for Auckland’s sometimes punch-drunk batting and he made his best statement when he snuck a yorker under captain Gareth Hopkins’ bat. Hopkins tried to get the bat down in time but couldn’t and off stump was uprooted. With that wicket, Auckland were 90 for 6 and victory was all but out of their grasp.