Dale Steyn: The cricket ball becomes a weapon of mass destruction in his hand

Dale Steyn.... Sizzling skill on pace like fire © Getty Images

Dale Steyn, born June 27, 1983, is by far the best pace bowler of his generation, a supreme combination of pace and skill. Arunabha Sengupta looks at the journey so far of the man who holds the fifth best strike rate in the history of Test cricket. 


Phalaborwa is tucked away in the Mopani District Municipality, Limpopo province. The rivers Ga-Selati and Olifants meet in that region, almost exactly where the town is situated, halfway up along the eastern border of the Kruger National Park in the Lowveld.
 
The area is known as the Valley of the Olifants, and temperatures soar to intolerable levels in the summer. The mercury rises as far as 47 °C, and it is difficult to imagine someone running in quick and honing his fast bowling skills over and over again under the tyrannical sun.
 
The town is known for mining. It still houses the Palabora Mining Company, and boasts the widest man-made hole in Africa, a crater with a 2000 metre diameter. However, tourism and wildlife have now taken over as the main industries. The town is flanked by game reserves and the lush Merensky Golf Estate.
 
And, surprisingly for a region experiencing such extreme heat, other claim to fame of the town is that from its unassuming quarters hailed the pace-bowling phenomenon called Dale Steyn.


Poker-faced assassin
 
It is perhaps the scorching heat that conditioned Steyn as one of the fittest athletes the game of cricket has seen. Bowling at a searing pace, he picks up wickets every 41.1 deliveries, and yet has never been claimed by one of those injuries that waylay the career of so many a bowler as fast as he is. It is also perhaps the heat that nurtured him which enables him take a wicket every 39 balls on the heartless Asian pitches.
 
It is may also be that his predominant and primary need to conserve every ounce of energy makes Steyn abstain from the theatrics one has grown to expect from fast bowlers. There is no sneer, no snarl, no sledge, no scowl. There is aggression aplenty, but all of it in his action and delivery. His face, apart from the perpetual pinch approximating a faint frown, remains suited for a table laid out for professional poker players. Even the most diabolical swing at the most frantic of pace merely emits merely a quizzical look from him, as if confused by his own dazzling repertoire. And dazzling it is. He is genuinely fast, and swings at that remarkable pace, equally at ease with the traditional and reverse forms of the art. He can skid on and dart in, and his deliveries often veer away from the right hander at alarming angles.
 
There are fans who would happily leave the ringside view of an on-going match to get a glimpse of him at the nets, even when he is merely polishing his modest batting abilities. And even when mobbed by these ardent admirers, Steyn remains expressionless, with perhaps the faint frown fading into the semblance of a slight smile. He knows fully well that he is the best fast bowler in the world, but seems perennially flummoxed by his own abilities. That he boasts the fifth best strike-rate in history of Test cricket — considering at least 2000 deliveries — becomes apparent only when one takes the focus off his face and watches him run in with his excellent economical action and send down those wicked, poison tipped deliveries. None of the four who lead him on the strike rate table have played more than 18 Tests. Steyn has managed to knock batsmen over at this alarming frequency over a period of 65 Tests spanning 332 wickets. Among the ones with the top five strike-rates, the next highest wicket-taker is George Lohmann with 112. And he hailed from the 19th century, when standardisation of wickets was still more than three decades away.
 
It is remarkable that one other member of the top five club is Vernon Philander, who shares the new ball with Steyn for South Africa. The history of the game has seldom witnessed a more potent pair of opening bowlers.


The journey of speed
 
If he seems to exude quiet confidence now, Steyn had reached just halfway there when he entered the Test scene. And it was not the better half. He was quiet all right, but more confused rather than confident, stumbling along with his bustling bundle of brilliance.  He even bowled at a restrained pace when he played his first three Tests against England in 2004-05, ending with a wayward spell of 47 runs from nine overs, including eight no balls. His initial returns were eight wickets at 52 apiece and he was dropped from the team.
 

Dale Steyn in his rhythmic run-up © Getty Images

It was against New Zealand that he came back a season later and captured five for 47 at Centurion on return.Makhaya Ntini captured the other five wickets as the two bowled the Kiwis out to snatch a victory for the home team. This did make him a bowler to watch out for, an able successor to Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock. However, it was in November 2007 that the world got the indication that he would match those illustrious predecessors ball for ball and even surpass them. His first great hit was launched on the same Centurion ground, and once again his opponents were the New Zealanders. By this time his skills had been honed, and loads of experience gathered on the way. Two county stints, two years apart and for Essex and Warwickshire, stood him in excellent stead.
 
He picked up 10 in the 2007 Centurion match, for just the second time in his career. The previous occasion had been in the preceding Test in Johannesburg — indicating the lethal strike rate to follow. But, what made the biggest impact were not his many wickets, but his other victim. It was the ball that thudded into the face of opening batsman Craig Cummins, resulting in 23 fractures as he lay pitiably in the Intensive Care Unit. The previous month he had swung the ball at full pace to have the Pakistan batsman hopping in their own backyard, but this delivery underlined his place in the highest echelon of the menacing quicks.

Wickets continued to tumble at an extraordinary rate, and in the following March, while demolishing the hapless Bangladesh batsmen, he reached 100 scalps in just his 20th Test, the fastest by a South African. The record is now in increasing danger of being smashed by the intriguing deliveries of his partner Philander. Not that Steyn will object if that takes place.
 
Following the landmark, he crossed the border into India and had the strong line-up in shambles with five for 23 in eight overs at Ahmedabad, dismissing the home side for 76 in 20 overs, before lunch on the first day. His destructive self was showcased by that one delivery that got Rahul Dravid during the innings. It pitched on the off-stump, seamed away just a shade, beat the wall-like willow and peeled the varnish from the off-stump to dislodge the bails.
 
By the end of 2008, South Africa enjoyed the best phase since return to the Test scene. The team travelled to Australia and beat them in a three Test series. Steyn captured 10 at Melbourne and batted with extraordinary poise to score a vital 76, his best yet, while adding 180 with Jean-Paul Duminy. The win gave the Proteans the series and removed the last remnant of doubt about his supremacy as a fast bowler. The final arguments were provided with an eloquently talking ball. The Test match also saw him race to 150 wickets.


No limits — in speed or success
 
Since then, the cricket fraternity has accepted Dale Steyn as the premier pace bowler of the world. Since the retirement of Glenn McGrath and before the arrival of Philander, there had been no serious contenders to challenge his status. And after being acclaimed as the best fast bowler, Steyn continued to bowl as one. He routed the Englishmen at Johannesburg. He came back to India and knocked over seven men for 51 at Nagpur, two with conventional swing and five with the old ball. The wickets continued to come across Johannesburg, Perth, Trinidad and The Oval.
 
With each passing year, with Philander at the other end and Morne Morkel to back them up, Steyn has turned increasingly lethal. Steyn ended last year with seven wickets at Perth, bowling South Africa to another series win over Australia and bringing his tally to 299. Since then he has been engaged in two very short series this year. Two Tests against New Zealand got him 13 wickets at 11.53. The following three against Pakistan added 20 to his tally, at 12.90 with a best of 8.1-6-8-6.
 
The only blemish in his career probably was when he was riled by Suleiman Benn in Barbados in 2010, and let fly a spit in his direction after being dismissed. He was fined his entire match fee. Surprisingly, no such burst of temper has been witnessed when he is armed with his weapon of destruction, charging in with the new ball.

With 332 wickets in his bag at 22.65, with 21 five wicket hauls and five 10-fors in just 65 Tests, it is incredible when we reflect that today he is celebrating only his 30th birthday. The mind boggles when one considers the peaks he may scale if blessed with a few more uninterrupted, injury-free years as the gold-tipped spearhead of South Africa.

Source: http://www.cricketcountry.com/cricket-articles/Dale-Steyn-The-cricket-ball-becomes-a-weapon-of-mass-destruction-in-his-hand/28360

Ten lessons from the Champions Trophy

The best side always wins
India went into this tournament ranked as the world's best ODI side. Granted this was according to the ICC rankings that usually contain as much truth as your average political party press release, but they were number one none the less. Before the tournament India's bowling looked suspect and the IPL-weary squad was weighed down by the spot-fixing mayhem at home. All of this seemed to suggest that India may struggle. We were wrong. India won every game, the bowlers took wickets and kept it tight, the top three were phenomenal and the fielding was dynamic. There's no doubt now over who the No. 1 side in ODIs is.

Duckworth-Lewis is still a work in progress
Only the British could invent a sport that was dependant on weather that was rarer than an off-side shot from Ross Taylor. As a result Messrs. Duckworth and Lewis got further royalties by setting totals in rain-affected Champions Trophy matches. Despite D/L being the formula of choice for a while now, there are still some issues. The method seems to play into the hands of the chasing side, especially when combined with the new fielding restrictions in ODIs. It may be the best method we have, but it needs tweaking.

People who question Jonathan Trott are wrong
Jonathan Trott has the best ODI record of any England player in a generation. He was the second best batsman in the tournament. His strike-rate is on par with some of the very best players in the world. It's ridiculous that some people still question his place in the side.

People who question Misbah-ul-Haq are wrong too
There are Pakistan fans who don't like Misbah. This is despite him being the most consistent player they have had in years. He has led Pakistan with grace and integrity, and has always given his 100%. In the Champions Trophy he was virtually Pakistan's only batsman. While his team-mates looked about as solid as ice cream in an oven, Misbah scored twice as many runs as any other Pakistani at an average that was two times better.

India are donkeys no more
During India's 2011 tour of England, Nasser Hussain referred to the Indian fielders as donkeys. This caused much outrage, but despite the unfortunate choice of words, Hussain had a point. They were lacklustre and lazy in the field. This time around, the Indian fielding was electric. In the final England's fielding was sloppy as the occasion got to them. They conceded five overthrows, and the margin of India's victory was five runs. Perhaps England are the donkeys now.

	Shikhar Dhawan has arrived. And he's here to stay © International Cricket Council

Shikhar Dhawan has come of age
Most cricket fans would not have heard of Shikhar Dhawan before this tournament, even fewer would have heard of him before his amazing debut Test ton versus Australia in March. He has no fear, but he isn't reckless. He is an Indian batsman that can play the short ball and can cope with swing. As I write, Shikhar Dhawan is the No. 1 name on ESPNcricinfo's player search. His name could well be there every day for the next ten years.

English conditions are less English these days
Much was made of how two new balls in English conditions could be a deciding factor in this tournament. However the ball didn't swing for 90% of the tournament. Granted when it did it was tough for batsmen. In the semi-finals, both South Africa and Sri Lanka struggled when the ball moved around, but this was the exception rather than the rule. Reverse swing became more of a talking point. England got the ball moving the other way quicker than people had seen before. This led to some ball-tampering allegations - some explicit, some implied. As ever, without evidence allegations remain just that.

MS Dhoni is the first wicketkeeper-bowler
Conditions assisting swing, and two spinners in the attack - for MS Dhoni this did not present a problem. He handed the pads to Dinesh Karthik and bowled his medium-paced seamers. When he had Mahela Jayawardene adjudged lbw this seemed like the greatest piece of leadership since Winston Churchill took to the radio following the Battle of Britain. An inside edge saved Jayawardene on review, much to the disappointment of the massive Indian crowd. Dhoni went on to bowl four impressive overs. The wicketkeeper-bowler could be the future of ODIs.

South Africa didn't choke, England did
The choke is a much-discussed topic at ICC events, and usually comes up when South Africa are playing knockout games. When they failed to set a competitive total batting first at the Oval in the semi-final versus England we were assured they had choked. They didn't. A choke is when you are in a position where winning is all but assured and you still manage to lose. In the final England needed 20 runs from 16 balls with six wickets and two overs of Powerplay left, and they lost. That is a choke.

The ICC always gets away with it
There were no reserve days in this tournament. Despite rain being an ever-present threat during the period that is loosely referred to as summer in the UK, the schedule provided no wriggle room to provide extra time in the event of a rain-affected match. As the final approached the weather Edgbaston forecast veered towards the apocalyptic. The rage from cricket fans reached thermo-nuclear level as it became more and more likely on the final day that the trophy would be shared. A wholly unsatisfactory result for everyone concerned. By fudging the playing conditions at the last minute the ICC got a match in, just. As with holding the World T20 during the Sri Lankan monsoon season the ICC managed to get away with it. As the old saying goes, it is better to be lucky than good.

Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/thestands/content/story/645155.html

India's tough selection policies bear fruit

The Champions Trophy win is an important landmark in India's rebuilding effort, and credit must be extended to the team's selection committee that has been unafraid of taking a few tough decisions.

When you saw India jubilant in England after winning the Champions Trophy, you couldn't help but go back to the second day of the Kolkata Test last year, against the same opponents. England ended that day at 216 for 1, a day that summed up everything that was wrong with Indian cricket: lacklustre bowlers, poor catching, fielders who didn't want to be there and probably - as a consequence of these factors - a defensive captain. Cruelly, that day, the team management sent Trevor Penney, the fielding coach, for the press conference.

Penney had no explanation for India's poor fielding. Rather, he didn't have an explanation he could speak publicly about. The team was carrying at least four players whose contributions in their first discipline had long ago begun to pale in comparison with their poor fielding. And then there was R Ashwin, who had lost form, or patience. While Ashwin's issue was personal, and he has addressed it with aplomb, the other rot was systemic. And it won't be unfair to believe that - yet again - amid the debris in Kolkata, India began a turnaround.

Only this time it began in a selection committee meeting. And this panel led by Sandeep Patil has clearly shown that the scorn heaped on Kris Srikkanth and Co was earned and deserved. One by one, they dropped, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, in that order. Look at the replacements. M Vijay has scored more Test centuries in one series than Sehwag did in two years. Shikhar Dhawan outdid in one Test Gambhir's achievements over the last three years. Debatably Yuvraj's ODI place went to Ravindra Jadeja, and the results are for all to see. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has not let India miss Zaheer yet, although that arrangement could change.

The obvious question that will arise is: if it was that simple, why didn't the team management ring in the changes? They had the reserves in the squad. First, it wasn't that simple. While improvement was guaranteed - it was scarcely possible to do worse than the outgoing players - such a huge improvement has been surprising. More importantly, though, the captain just can't drop seniors in India, or in many other teams.

Call it the team management's weakness, call it a cultural weakness, call it whatever, but the Indian team management had time and again made it clear that if the underperforming players were part of the squad, they would be part of the playing XI too. All four of the players dropped - despite their poor record - were part of the playing XIs before they were dropped altogether. Zaheer and Yuvraj played the Kolkata Test, which is when the selectors met. Gambhir played the last Test of the series, and was only dropped after it. Sehwag played on until the mid-series selection in the next series.

Only once had MS Dhoni tried to disturb the apple cart when he decided during the 2012 CB series in Australia that Sehwag, Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar could not be part of the same playing XI because that meant giving the opposition a headstart of 20 runs. Clearly it was not well received. Sehwag, who never really opens up in press conferences, chose to selectively give out details from the team meeting. There was bad blood. Dhoni was criticised for looking ahead, and he didn't have any backing from the selectors.

	India must enjoy this, and they will, but the ultimate test awaits when they begin touring away for Tests, at the end of this year. That will tell you for sure what the real progress has been. However, this combine of team management and selectors has already done better than the previous leadership, in that they have tried to stop that treadmill of defeat.

Earlier on that tour, when India lost every Test with the same set of batsmen batting in the same sequence, the touring selectors enquired with the team management if they had given thought to leaving out VVS Laxman who had been faring poorly in particular. They were told squarely that the selectors would have to do that. And the selectors weren't going to touch the seniors. Somebody needed to make the unpopular calls, and Patil's group has begun to do so. It's not as if the previous selectors didn't have reason to make changes; India had lost eight away Tests in a row.

Dhoni's refusal to disturb the status quo had another ugly side. The previous selection committee knew there would be little room for a new player in the XI even if they selected him in the squad. It came to head when - bizarrely - India selected a 15-man squad with just six batsmen for the Nagpur Test against South Africa in 2010. One of those six was uncapped, and had not found his way into the XI previously. It was clear the captain's hand was being forced here.

How it backfired. One of the six fell ill, his last-minute replacement injured himself just before the toss, and Wriddhiman Saha had to make Test debut as a specialist batsman. The chairman of that selection committee is now a paid expert on a TV channel, and questions Dhoni's captaincy even though he did nothing about it when he was in a position to do so. Dhoni's captaincy is an issue for another day.

Crucially, now, the selectors have decided to make the calls that will not be liked. They were criticised for dropping Yuvraj for the Champions Trophy, arguably India's biggest match-winner in ODIs after Tendulkar and before Dhoni. The selectors, though, looked at just the performance: 181 runs in the last 10 ODIs, and not at the peak of his fitness.

Consequently, for the first time possibly since India began rebuilding under Sourav Ganguly and John Wright, they had a squad of 15 that were at their best fitness. Ashwin made up for his slowness with some good slip-catching. Ishant Sharma is never short of effort, and Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar kept themselves inconspicuous in the field, which was a job well done. Thirteen of the 15 had earned their places with performances in either recent international cricket or domestic matches. Rohit Sharma and Ishant were picked because of a lack of alternatives, but they were not what you would call blind prayers. Patil and team can afford themselves a quiet pat on their backs.

India can't afford to get ahead of themselves. They must enjoy this, and they will, but the ultimate test awaits when they begin touring away for Tests, at the end of this year. That will tell you for sure what the real progress has been. However, this combine of team management and selectors has already done better than the previous leadership, in that they have tried to stop that treadmill of defeat. Not trying to do so was the most frustrating part of India's poor show from July 2011 to January 2013.

Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-champions-trophy-2013/content/story/644897.html

India a force in cricket (and facial hair)

India were surgical in the Champions Trophy  © International Cricket Council

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"Deciding a 50-over ODI tournament with a 20-over match is an empty experience. But, as empty experiences go, it was one of the best" 
-- Woody Allen, senior cricket correspondent, The New York Un-American Sports Gazette, 24 June 2013

Sunday's Champions Trophy final could have been one of the most anticlimactic anti-climaxes to a sporting competition. For much of the day, it seemed that the title was set to be shared, as the rain dribbled mercilessly on Edgbaston. ICC chief executive Dave Richardson was seen donning his ceremonial karate kit, preparing to chop the precious silver and gold trophy in half with one brutal swipe.

It seemed that the post-non-match analysis would be awash with justified frothing at the myopic lack of a reserve day, whilst official ICC spokesfolk held press conferences in which they claimed that no one could have legislated for such meteorological misfortune. "Our research shows," they would have giggled, "that it has not rained in England at this time of year since 1838, when the new queen, Victoria, banned all airborne liquids in the month of June after being spat at by a rogue escaped horsie with republican sympathies during her coronation procession."

It seemed that England were about to half-break their ODI tournament duck with a tie in the unthrilling new Zero0 format that the weather, the merciless fixturelust of the international schedule, and the short-sighted absence of a retractable roof over Britain had concocted. (They should have built one in the 1980s, when the North Sea oil money was still flowing. Thank you, Thatcher.)

It seemed that a tournament that began with a sequence of gripping matches would, after two undramatically one-sided semi-finals, fizzle out like a poorly timed barbecue on the Titanic.

As it transpired, the rain reluctantly relented, and the ICC, in their generosity, allowed a degree of clock flexibility - not quite as much as Salvador Dali might have granted had he been a cricket administrator instead of a painter, but enough to allow a cricket match to take place.

Fortunately that cricket match proceeded to cram in all the fluctuations, excellence, errors and drama that you could wish for in a major final. Bowlers dominated throughout, although, ironically, the two decisive blows were struck by Ishant, who had conceded a seemingly match-losing 35 in his first 3.2 overs. Fielding bloopers and brilliance had a significant impact on the course and outcome of the match, and ultimately, India's superior play in the final stages of each innings deservedly won them the tournament. From 67 for 5 after 14, they scored 62 for 2 in the final six overs; then, in those tumultuous panic-stricken/ice-cold (delete according to nation) 18th and 19th overs of England's innings, Ishant struck with a well-executed slower ball and a tempting bouncer, before Jadeja all but sealed the game by luring England's undercooked slugger Jos Buttler into swiping at an imaginary ball that was travelling approximately two feet away from the real ball. Buttler had faced 13 balls in the tournament, 13 balls since clouting his 16-ball 47 against New Zealand in England's pre-tournament ODI series. It was unsurprising that the 14th did not go quite where he would have wanted it to go, nor off his preferred piece of wood.

Luck, as always in tight matches, played its part. But it was not decisive. If the spinning pitch favoured India, they were hampered by rain breaks that significantly disrupted the flow of their batting. The third umpire's decision to give Bell out through the now rarely used "possibly stumped" mode of dismissal was curious, but it brought Morgan and Bopara, England's two most experienced T20 players, together with sufficient time to consolidate, then build a match-almost-winning partnership, so it cannot be said to have significantly damaged England's prospects. England paid for their own mistakes, and for the excellence of their opponents at several key moments - Ashwin's superb deception of Trott with a dipping, hard-turning offbreak being one of the clankiest of those keys.

Clearly, a 20-over match was an unsatisfactory way to settle the destiny of what (a) may be or (b) may not be the final Champions Trophy. (I vote for option b). The teams being selected and the toss being tossed several hours before the start, for what was in essence a completely different game, added further to the game's wonkiness. (Should the regulations of limited-overs cricket be tweaked to deal with such situations? It was a little like a caterer preparing some delicious satay beef sandwiches as snacks to serve at a conference, before subsequently being told that the delegates are all members of SWIVPA (the Society of Wheat-Intolerant Vegetarians with Peanut Allergies). (But only a little like it, admittedly.))

The rain reluctantly relented, and the ICC, in their generosity, allowed a degree of clock flexibility - though not quite as much as Salvador Dali might have granted had he been a cricket administrator instead of a painter

Ultimately, however, it was a game that tested the skills and nerve of the teams and the individuals, and, I think, the better ODI side won. This rapidly reinvigorated Indian team looks set to be a major one-day force. And a hugely entertaining one. In terms of cricket and facial hair. England, assuming Pietersen is restored to the side, will be strong, but would probably benefit from embracing greater strategic flexibility.

The other six teams were largely unimpressive, with occasional outbreaks of quality. They all have time to rectify their various problems before the 2015 World Cup, which, like the 2011 version, will essentially boil down to a three-round knockout, probably involving the same eight teams as competed in this tournament. They all have a chance of winning. India have shown how swiftly a team can be transformed. Which should both inspire and concern their opponents.

● Dhoni's captaincy, which was calmly excellent in the knockout stages of the World Cup, was superb again in this tournament, authoritative and intuitive, as you would expect from a man who has now skippered India in 140 ODIs. Pertinently for Sunday's abbreviated match, he has also led India or Chennai Super Kings in a total of 151 T20 matches, including seven finals (the next most T20 games skippered is Adam Gilchrist's 83). There can be few scenarios he has not encountered in a 20-over contest.

Cook, by contrast, has captained a side in just one T20 match - a T20I in Centurion, against South Africa, in November 2009. That match provided little applicable experience for Edgbaston's taut classic, given that 13 overs into his T20 captaincy career, he was looking at a scoreboard that read "South Africa: 170 for 0", on their way to a rather challenging score of 241 for 6, the second-highest score in T20I history.

● Thanks to his own scintillating glovework, and a TV umpire with eyesight that was either quirky or incredible, Dhoni became the first wicketkeeper to make two stumpings in the final of a World Cup, Champions Trophy or World T20.

● A couple of minor statistical quirks… England have managed to lose two Champions Trophy finals at home without any opposition batsmen scoring 50. India have now won two ODI finals in England without any of their own batsmen scoring 50, and the last two major ODI finals without any of their bowlers taking more than two wickets in an innings.

● Some of the Indian players appeared rightly perplexed at the post-match ceremony by the gift of a white jacket, a rather baffling sartorial prize, which resulted in them celebrating their triumph whilst looking as if they would, at any moment, break into an a cappella rendering of a 1950s love song.

Perhaps the victory jacket will become more prevalent in world sport - although the various shirt sponsors cannot have been overly chuffed to have their precious logos hidden by the gleaming garb of glory - but I hope it remains restricted to the Masters golf at Augusta. The presentation of the fabled green jacket to the winner, in a log cabin, hermetically sealed from (a) the rest of the world, and (b) the fans who have cheered on the victor in his moment of golfing apotheosis, is a magnificently awkward ceremony that seems more like the induction of a new recruit into a highly questionable cult than the pinnacle of a sportsman's career. Beware the jacket of triumph, cricket.

● Ravi Jadeja in ten ODIs in 2012: with the bat, 105 runs, at an average of 17, with a strike rate of 72; with the ball, four wickets, at an average of 97, and an economy rate of 5.4. Ravi Jadeja in 12 ODIs in 2013: with the bat, 248 runs, at an average of 62, with a strike rate of 97; with the ball, 25 wickets, at an average of 14, and an economy rate of 3.5.

Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/645145.html

MS Dhoni possesses a rare and charming combination of intuition, judgement and experience  © Getty Images

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As the rain came down at Edgbaston, many blurry TV hours were filled with punditry, most of it lost on the airwaves to heaven. Somewhere along the way though, someone, and I don't recall who, said something like this: "At heart, MS Dhoni is a gambler… "

If that's so, he's the man you want to be standing next to at the roulette wheel; the chips are piling up, and there's nothing his India have not won.

But is he? As anyone closely affiliated with actual professional gambling (not spot-fixing or bookmaking, but making a living from betting legally) will tell you, done properly, it is for the most part a boring and pragmatic assessment of odds and value. There are very few coups de theatre to be had.

What Dhoni did in offering Ishant Sharma the 18th over of England's innings with Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara at the crease and 28 runs required from 18 deliveries, was something altogether more instinctive, a rare and charming combination of intuition, judgement and experience that carried with it inherent risk. Here was the match, in the hands of the team's most profligate bowler.

Ishant, still coltish at 24 and with a career that often seems to be gripped by slow but inevitable entropy, was nervous - which he had the grace to admit afterwards. Morgan and Bopara had timed their charge, and both had begun to clear the boundary. Ishant began with a slow, short ball, a dot. Having got a look at him, Morgan dispatched the next over backward square leg.

Spooked now, not quite in rhythm around the wicket, Ishant bowled consecutive wides. He galloped in again, this time cutting his fingers across the ball for more control and slowing it down enough for Morgan to spoon him up wristily to Ashwin on the edge of the circle, a shot miscued to the degree that the batsmen had time to cross as it fell. Then a faster, shorter one on the line of the stumps that Bopara flat-batted straight to Ashwin, who had materialised as if by magic in the right place once more.

There was an element of Napoleon's dictum on luck about Dhoni's decision, and there is no doubt that had things gone the other way, he would have come under heavy fire

The game that was England's mid-way through the over was India's by the end, and hearteningly for all of us who love a trier, it was Ishant Sharma's, too. Dhoni applied his coup de grace, the mugging of England completed by the estimable partnership of Jadeja and Ashwin.

There was an element of Napoleon's dictum on luck about Dhoni's decision, and there is no doubt that had things gone the other way, he would have come under heavy fire. But one of his great qualities is a calm fearlessness that he has shown so often. The underlying logic behind using Ishant was sound; Dhoni knew that England would take the batting Powerplay in the last two overs, and he wanted his spinners for them. But his decision was proactively to bowl Ishant rather than Umesh Yadav or Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and that was at the heart of India's win.

It would be fascinating to hear Dhoni talk about it in depth, to know exactly where it came from. He has played so much cricket now, and so much of it under tremendous pressure, he has a deep feeling for the rhythm of the game; he hears its heartbeat acutely. It informs his subconscious, it leads what we might call intuition or instinct, but in reality it is something more weighty and useful. Let's call it intellect.

England have a great sense of order to their cricket, but they, and Alastair Cook, don't quite have what Dhoni has. It makes an eloquent argument for harmonising the calendar and allowing the players to go to the IPL and suchlike, to get game time in front of huge crowds when there is something on the line and they can absorb the kind of rhythm that Dhoni runs to. At heart he is a gambler, but beyond that, at heart he is a cricketer, in every sense of the word.

Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/645057.html

Monday 24th June 2013

India were theoretically the away side at Edgbaston but were roared on by a crowd that was weighed heavily in their favour.

After the game was reduced to 20 overs a side following almost six hours of rain, Dhoni's side looked set to send them home disappointed.

From 66 for five, Virat Kohli (43) and Ravindra Jadeja (33no) hauled India to the relative respectability of 129 for seven, but England still appeared favourites.

At that stage a washout and a share of the trophy seemed India's best prospect.

But Dhoni refused to let his players hope for rain and instead gave them the confidence to secure outright success as England fell short on 124 for eight.

"Before going on I said 'let's get rid of the feeling that this is a 50-over game'," he said.

"It was a 20-over game and we have seen at the IPL and in Twenty20s that 130 can be a very difficult target to achieve.

"Also I said nobody could look to the left side of the pitch where the rain was coming from.

"I said 'God is not coming to save us, if you want to win the trophy we have to fight it out'.

"We are the number one ranked side, let's make it show. Let's make them fight for 130 runs and not look for outside help."

Dhoni, as magnanimous a leader as India have had, even found time to query the very format that had brought his side success.

"I think it is a bit unfair in the ICC Champions Trophy that we had to play a 20-over game to find a winner of the 50-over format," he said.

"Still, they (the ICC) needed a result. This means a lot because we are playing here against some of the best sides in the world and to beat England in a 130-run game is very difficult."

Dhoni was left to offer individual praise for man of the tournament and top run-scorer Shikhar Dhawan and leading wicket taker Ravindra Jadeja for their efforts in the competition.

"Shikhar is a slightly different character. He's a fun-loving guy but he backs himself to play big strokes. That has helped him in this tournament and he'll gain a lot from the way he has played over here.

"And Jadeja is someone who keeps it very simple. He looks to hit the right area and the ball does the talking."

Cool India steal title in 20-20 sprint

India 129 for 7 (Kohli 43, Jadeja 33*, Bopara 3-20) beat England 124 for 8 (Morgan 30, Ashwin 2-15, Jadeja 2-24) by 5 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

	Ishant Sharma's over, the 18th, turned the game on its head© Getty Images  Enlarge

Pinch yourself again and again. This match was completely out of the realms of reality. After the ICC - who hadn't considered it fit to have a reserve day for the final - added 75 minutes to the rainy day to accommodate 20 overs in the final, both sides panicked in the compressed environment; Ravi Bopara was the bowling demon for England; India defended 129 with slip, gully and silly point for spinners; Ishant Sharma, the most expensive bowler, was the first to bowl out and took two crucial wickets in his last over; and MS Dhoni led superbly to become the first captain in the world to have won all ICC trophies.

The only aspects of this game remotely real were the effectiveness of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, and the early fluency of Shikhar Dhawan and Jonathan Trott. Around them, everything went topsy-turvy. The pitch turned square, despite all his efficiency Jadeja didn't attempt a crucial run-out, the third umpire seemed to make a big dubious call with Ian Bell's stumping, but then again there was Dhoni making a superlative call under pressure.

You can spend hours debating it, and wonder how it worked. On this turner, Ishant had been the easiest bowler to hit. His three overs had gone for 27, and you asked yourself why he got even the fourth. That third had brought the target down to 48 off 30 thanks to a six smoked clean by Bopara. However, with three overs left and 28 to get - Umesh Yadav had two to go, Ashwin, Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar one each - Dhoni went to Ishant.

Even if Yadav had been injured, Bhuvneshwar - three overs for 19 - had one left. The only possible explanation for that choice could be that England would want to kill off the chase in ishant's over and thus take an undue risk.

Dhoni's hunch, though, seemed to be going bust after a pulled six and two wides from either side of the stumps: 20 off 16 now. Who knows how these things in big limited-overs matches work with Dhoni, but Ishant bowled a slower ball and Eoin Morgan mis-hit to midwicket. It was a front-of-the-hand slower ball, pretty much common fare in limited-overs cricket today, but Morgan didn't pick it.

The next ball seemed even more innocuous on the face of it. Short ball, no sting, head high, pulled down clean, but straight to the fielder at square leg. Roll that dismissal back, though. And it is difficult to figure out the logic here, but there was no midwicket for that ball. That man inside the circle was at square leg, next to the umpire. Ishant Sharma was Dhoni's new Joginder.

The bizarre events weren't quite over. In the 19th over, Jadeja, almost unplayable and wise so far, had a chance to run the diving Stuart Broad out but he chose not to try. Jadeja could be forgiven a moment after having bowled well all through the tournament, after having scored the pivotal 33 after India had been 66 for 5, and after having begun India's turnaround with the ball. That was India's last mistake too.

In the 20th, bowled by Ashwin, when Stuart Broad hit a leg-side four, Dhoni brought everybody on the off side asking the batsman to clear it if he thought he was good enough. Broad wasn't on this occasion. Surprisingly Broad didn't try to dominate the strike, leaving Tredwell to get 10 off the last three balls. The only way England could have won was for Broad to hit two fours or a six, but two couples later the six off the last ball was a bridge too far for the lesser batsman on a turning pitch. The last ball was cue for an expressive celebration - by his standards - for Dhoni who has been through a tough time over the last two years.

India had won a thrilling final of what has been a good tournament, but all was not right. This was hardly the ideal match. The ICC had only tried to cover its backside by stretching the match to 8.30pm. This match should never have been played today after the amount of rain Edgbaston had taken, but there was no tomorrow. So we had a match that put both the sides out of their comfort zones. The Indian batsmen had no rhythm going in and out, and England were playing essentially a T20 with three men who don't make the T20 side. Remember when the XIs were named at the toss, this was a 50-over game.

In the first exchange, though, India seemed to struggle more. On the wrong side of the toss, with two rain breaks in the first half of their innings, they couldn't really have planned their innings, and soon found themselves struggling when it came to the run-rate. That brought panic, and Bopara was the beneficiary with the wickets of Dhawan, Suresh Raina and Dhoni - for his first duck in ODIs since October 2010. In the last seven overs, though, Virat Kohli and Jadeja brought India back with a punchy partnership of 47 off 33. Kohli couldn't see India to the end, but Jadeja did, his knock including an inside-out six off James Anderson.

For some reason, the England batsmen panicked in the chase too. Trott was fluent, but spin brought the turnaround. Jadeja began with a tight fifth over, and Ashwin got Trott stumped in the next with a dipping offbreak outside leg. Kohli, at backward short leg, had begun to move even before Trott had had an opportunity to strike the ball, but the umpire either didn't notice it or didn't consider the movement significant enough to call it a dead ball. Had Trott connected and had Kohli caught it, scenes would have been less savoury.

In the next over came another less-than-ideal play. Bell was given out stumped when the third umpire couldn't have been sure that the foot was in the air when the wicket was put down. England were so displeased Eoin Morgan even made a sign for the review.

Morgan managed to put it behind him and, with Bopara, nearly pulled off a special win with calculated hitting and smart running between the wickets. But that was before England imploded, losing four wickets for three runs. You can watch replays of that Ishant over that took out both Morgan and Bopara many times over, but will struggle to explain it logically. Sometimes you just can't from the outside. Sometimes you have to pinch yourself.

Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-champions-trophy-2013/content/current/story/644431.html