'If the critics think I could have taken four, I feel I could have taken six'

The latest entrant to the 400-club aims for another 200, beats himself up for his bad spells, and talks about how he's better when he's calm and composed

Interview by Sriram Veera

July 12, 2011

"Sometimes I just get over-excited. I see the pitch and I think I have to get this wicket. When I am just looking to bowl, most of the time I get it right"

Do you think you can end up with 600?
That's where I should be. If I don't reach there I will be disappointed. It will be my fault if I don't reach 600. It will depend on how badly I want to get there. Anil Kumble, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan are way better bowlers than me, and I would like to get close to them. I have nothing to lose. I have everything to gain from here on. I want to win games on my own.

 How big is getting 400 wickets for you?
Four hundred is a lot. When I was young, I remember Kapil Dev getting it, and it was quite a big thing. An Indian had taken it. I feel honoured and proud that God has given me a chance to reach 400 wickets. It's a big thing for me, I don't know about others.

It seems sometimes that you are two different bowlers. When you are bowling well, you are so good. Then, on days you slip to the middle and leg line - quick, defensive. What do you have to say about that criticism?
If the criticism is that "One day he does well, the second day he doesn't, third he does well" then fine. But without any reason, just because I didn't take any wickets today, "chalo isko uda do [let's slam him]"… If I take a wicket - be it off a full-toss - then "well bowled". That's not fair.

Yes, with me there have been days when I bowl well [but] I don't take wickets. When I have bowled bad - as you say when I bowl leg and middle and take a wicket at backward short-leg - as a cricketer you know, it isn't satisfying. I don't mind criticism if it's fair - that I didn't bowl a good line.

I do try a lot of things. I want to bowl outside off, bowl from close to the stumps, from round the stumps. I keep changing my seam position, [try] small things - I don't know whether you guys are able to pick it from there. There are lots of times these small things work. The revolutions on the ball are different, the amount of turn is different. My effort is to bowl to the best of my potential. I am human after all. I will bowl well, I will bowl badly. I must have done something good or I couldn't have lasted 13 years. I am making sure my mistakes reduce.

What about the leg-stump line criticism?
I am disappointed with myself when I do that. For example, in the Jamaica Test, I think I could have taken at least 10 wickets. I am very honest about it. I didn't bowl as well I could have done there. There was nothing much to do but just hit the spot on that wicket. But for two days I just couldn't land the ball where I wanted. I tried my best, but it didn't happen. I felt disappointed and hurt.

In Indian conditions the leg-and-middle line seems to make sense sometimes. You have a backward short-leg in place, and there is that bounce and turn…br> Let me tell you something. Even if you have a backward short-leg, it doesn't mean that your line should change. If the spin can come from outside off, you want to make the batsman play to mid-off or covers, and not to midwicket or mid-on.

What happens on those days when we see you drift down leg?
Sometimes I just get over-excited. I see the pitch and I think, "I have to get this wicket." When I am just looking to bowl, I am calm and composed, and most of the time I get it right. The ball lands where I want it to. When I see a pitch like Jamaica, I get excited. So the focus shifts from basic things. I start thinking [of doing] magic stuff. I will pitch it here and get it to do this. I will bowl this ball. And in trying to do all that you end up trying so hard, you lose it.

So you bowl a few overs like that. Can't you then change?
By then sometimes it gets too late. You are bowling like that and the batsman starts getting used to you, the pitch, the bounce. The impact that you have early is different from when he is playing the 30th or 35th ball. Of course you try to change, and you do change, but I am saying sometimes the effectiveness gets lost because of that initial bad spell.

When you have had two bad spells, does the pressure get to you and affect your future spells?
Of course. I put myself under pressure. Every bowler - if you talk to Shane Warne - wants to bowl a magic ball and get people out. Try to make the guy play a flick and catch him at slip. You start thinking: the pitch has so much, so why is nothing happening for me? You look to bowl fast, cross-seam, and not give him time. Sometimes that results in a couple of boundaries. That builds up pressure on you. I think what I have to do is make sure I keep things simple. When I have done that, things have worked for me.

What does "keeping things simple" mean to you? What's your ideal line and pace?
I don't rely on pace. See, every bowler is different. Lots of people say I bowl very fast and [Erapalli] Prasanna used to bowl slow. Obviously he was a great bowler in his era, but my bowling is different. My pace is different. I know my strength.

It all depends on the wicket. You can't have a set format. I will give you an example. In South Africa - in the first Test in Centurion - they normally say an offspinner should make the batsman cover-drive. I tried it whole day: I tried to make them drive through the covers and kept getting hit through there for fours. And many times I could see Jacques Kallis' two stumps because he was shuffling towards off to sweep me. He got 200. [Hashim] Amla also kept cover-driving me. Later I was thinking that the balls were good. It's not as if I was cut or pulled. Yet they were driving and sweeping me easily. I spoke to Ravi Shastri and he said, "Your first-day bowling will have to depend on the pitches. In India, or in Centurion, wherever there is no turn but good bounce, a lot of these good players will try to play on the up, with the bounce, and against the turn." So I was getting hit.

	"When I was so young my action came in to doubt. I had to go abroad and clear it. Those days I didn't even speak proper English. I couldn't talk at all with anyone. Then I was thrown out of the NCA. Then my father died, which was my lowest phase. Then that Sreesanth incident. I thought my cricket will be over after that"

In the next game I changed my line. I bowled very straight. I made them play every ball. If he misses the sweep I will get him lbw. So I didn't bowl outside off. If he plays across, there's a chance of a slip catch or a bat-pad catch.

Shastri told me that on days and pitches like that you don't want the batsman to drive to cover. You want him to play to mid-off or towards you. You can push mid-off wider and make him drive between you and the mid-off on a first-day wicket. If it's spinning then you, of course, try to bowl wider outside off. I tried that and it worked. Amla got out trying to sweep in Durban and in Cape Town. On a given day, on given conditions, you have to change your line and length according to the batsman. If Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman are batting together, the ball that is good for Dravid is not good for Laxman. You have to keep thinking. Any time you are bowling you are trying to make sure the ball is hitting the stumps. I try to do that. Most days it happens. Some days it doesn't. Wickets have a way of coming in a bunch for me. Four hundred wickets is not a fluke. Utne bhi gaye ghuzre hote toh ghar pey baithe rehte [If I was so ordinary, I would be sitting at home].

In the New Zealand tour in 2009, you seemed to be at your best. The turn, the drift, the bounce...
I think I bowled my best there. We were playing three seamers and one spinner. Your role demands that your seamers remain fresh and you bowl a tight line. Don't try and do lots of different things. Make sure things are under control.

There wasn't much in the pitch, and I bowled well. On that tour I was consistently landing the ball in the spot. I was just doing normal things. There is bounce in overseas wickets. I bowled the best because I was calm and I knew my role.

I think I am a strike bowler - even in New Zealand. I want to take wickets and not put pressure on Zaheer [Khan. My job is to take wickets, but at the same time I was very calm and composed and aware of my role in New Zealand. I was in good rhythm.

I had played a lot of Test cricket before that series. Here I have come on the back of lots of ODIs and Twenty20s. Your body takes time to adjust from one format to the other. Especially six months of one-day cricket, you can take time to adjust. This is not an excuse, but it does take time to bowl slower in the air and make the batsmen play in a different channel.

In ODIs sometimes you want him to play with the turn. In Tests you want him to play against the turn. The channels are different. It takes time.

You say you did well because you were calm. But sometimes the perception is that if you put Harbhajan in a fight, you get the best out of him. You are aggressive, emotional, and things start to happen.
Yeah, people say that, and it has worked for me. When I am in a contest, it gets the best out of me. I respond well to challenges. I do get pumped up. But in New Zealand there was nothing like that. They are very quiet out there. So which is the best mood I should be in? I think the calm, composed mood I was in in New Zealand is the best. I was enjoying the company of my team-mates. It's not that I am not now, but when you are playing good, you enjoy everything. But obviously when you put me in a ring for a fight, I am for it. You will see a different Harbhajan that day, and I hope that doesn't change. But, yes, I want to be calm and composed going forward.

How much can you plan in these days of computer footage and studying the opposition? How much do you think on your feet?
I am not a great fan of computers. I do watch videos and analyse which batsman is playing how. Batsmen can play different shots on different days. A batsman may not play cover drives well, but if he connects with two such shots, he starts playing the drive well on that day. I go in with a plan that I should get my rhythm first, and not go for the kill straightaway. I have to bring in that zone. Bowl four overs to get into the groove. I need to set up my pace, see how the track is playing, and then after five overs, after I am settled, I decide this is the field to set, this is the line to bowl.

A lot of people said [Shivnarine] Chanderpaul has been getting out to offspinners in his last six innings. But it's not that he will get out to an offie in the next six too. I go with an open mind. I am there to bowl well.

Then you keep adapting within the game. This batsman is looking to sweep, this guy is coming forward, this guy is looking to play to the on side. I have learnt this from Anil bhai. I have not seen him come and straightaway say he needs a short leg. Same with Warne. He told me, "I see if I can keep a man in the deep for, say, someone like Sehwag, then I keep one right away. I drop my midwicket or mid-off back. Then if I bowl four good overs, I start getting the field in." I have learnt from these guys and also from my own experience.

You use a lot of over-spin and get bounce. Many offspinners use side spin more.
It has been natural with me. I always had the bounce; it was the biggest thing I had. I get a lot of bat-and-pad gap. I try to stick to that. The rest are add-ons. My action is completely natural. This is the way I bowled from the first day. My muscles have trained that way. I don't get tired through my action.

	"Earlier the responsibility was shared between Kumble and me. Now it's my responsibility as the senior bowler to take most of the pressure" © AFP Enlarge

In the press conference the other day, you said you had more downs than ups. Do you really think that?
I wasn't talking about wickets and such. I was talking more about life. In cricket too I have been dropped, not taken wickets, not performed over a couple of months, in a few series… Obviously those are low phases, but I was talking more about my life. When I was so young my action came into doubt. I had to go abroad and clear it. Those days I didn't even speak proper English. I had to go to England. I had no clue what to do. I couldn't talk at all with anyone. That was a low phase. Then when I was thrown out of the National Cricket Academy, that was a down phase. Then my father died, which was my lowest phase. Then that Sreesanth incident. I thought my cricket will be over after that, because just then the whole Australia [Symonds] thing had happened.

Yes, as a cricketer I have risen a lot. I didn't think I will reach here. And I have the time to rise further.

Are you an emotional person?
I am very emotional. It took me many years to recover from the death of my father. Even when I was playing cricket, I wasn't happy. I would just sit and cry. I was very young. He was too young; he shouldn't have gone. Cricket is all right. We all play sport. Good and bad days come. You feel bad when you are not doing well, but you can always come back. But when things go bad in life, you feel… that Sreesanth incident, I should not have done what I did.

Did you have to sit and think about how you were going to handle sharing a dressing room with Andrew Symonds?
We didn't talk about it at all. That was finished in Sydney, both for him and for me. And he actually mentioned it, saying it was over right there in Sydney and not to worry about what people were writing or saying on TV. For me it was over then and there.

For those who like you, you are like a loveable rascal. For those who don't, it's arrogance and bad character. How do you handle that?
I don't think many people know me. I come across as "akhadu" [arrogant], but when they talk to me, they tell me I am not like how they thought I would be. Even lots of journalists think I am arrogant, but people close to me know the real me. I am a jolly person.

It's important what people close to me think. They know what I am. I don't live for the whole world. I live for the people who are close to me. I can't please everyone. I don't wish bad for anyone. My conscience is clear.

You used to react a lot earlier on. You seem to be more relaxed these days.
I used to react a lot before [laughs]. If someone said something [to me] I'd react. [Now I understand] they have their opinion and they are doing their job. I am learning to handle it better. In our profession there is lot of scrutiny. It's not just a sport in India. It's way bigger than that. Every day we have an exam. It's big pressure, not just for me but for everyone.

A guy like him [pointing at Virat Kohli, who was briefly in the room during the interview] is just 21-22, but the pressure he is going through by not scoring in a few innings is huge. The next time he goes to bat, in the back of his mind there will be the things people said. He will be thinking, "They are saying, Virat Kohli is not a Test player." Slowly we all learn to adjust. Isn't there a song, "Kuch toh log kehenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna" ["People will criticise, that's what they do"]?

When people close to me get annoyed with me, it affects me. It still does. I say something and I regret it. I am very emotional. I play hard in cricket, but when it gets to my life and friends it affects me. I am a human being. I have feelings.

It's like your critics expect greatness from you and they're disappointed that you are letting them down.
Yeah. It's nice for them to think that way. I also expect big things from me. I go out and give it my best shot. When I come back to my room, I have to look at the mirror and be honest with myself. Everyone wants to do better. Hopefully when I retire, those people will say I justified my talent. That I was not doing as much as I could have done in that period of time but I went on to make the most of my talent. Those sorts of people actually inspire you to do well.

How do you separate your expectations from what others expect of you?
When you are doing it for yourself, you are doing it for everyone. You do well for your country. I don't think expectations burden me when I am on the field. I just try to focus on what I am doing. If I start thinking of all those things, I can't do what I should do at that particular time. At the end of the day you go out and try your best. That's what I have been doing for the last 13 years. If you ask Sachin Tendulkar, he will tell you the same thing: you can only do your best.

What was the impact of Kumble's retirement on you? How long did it take for you to adjust to his absence?
I want to clear one thing. After that 2001 series against Australia, I never thought I want to be the second spinner in the team. I never felt I was the fourth bowler and that it my role was to get two wickets and go. I wanted to win games. I wanted to take five wickets. When Anil bhai was there, he was a very competitive cricketer. He wanted to take wickets. I also wanted to take wickets. It's not competition, per se. He is a bigger bowler. He is a legend. But I wanted to do well too. When he left there was added responsibility on me. There is no bowler like Kumble at the other end. These guys are good but they will take time to get a feel of international cricket. So I took more responsibility. My role has become bigger. I have to ensure the young guys don't feel pressure. I have to bowl the crucial overs. Earlier the responsibility was shared between Kumble and me. Now it's my responsibility as the senior bowler to take the burden and most of the pressure.

	"When I bowl normal offspin my seam is clear and easy to pick. And when I bowl my doosras the seam is scrambled and so it became easier to pick. So I started to bowl offbreaks with the scrambled seam"

Do you doubt yourself?
I don't doubt myself. People do. They ask if I am good enough. I know I am good enough, and that's why I have taken 400 wickets. Lots of people talk about other greats, but very few people have taken 400 Test wickets. It's not a small thing. I am a very confident guy, and not just about cricket. I do what I feel is right. It works for me. I never think my bowling deteriorated. If you doubt yourself, sit at home and watch cricket on TV.

What are the things you are developing in your bowling?
I am working on my angles: to bowl closer to the stumps, bowl wider. A lot of these guys are bowling new and different balls. When [Ajantha] Mendis came, it was different, but then batsmen adjusted to him. I don't want to complicate myself.

Warne used to bowl two balls - legbreaks and the flipper. And he used to vary so much within those, with his angles, pace and trajectory. His googly wasn't great. Anil bhai always was about tight lines. Murali was offspin and doosra.

If you master your stock deliveries and the variations that you want, then that's the best. It's nice to bowl different kinds of balls, but you have to make sure you don't forget what you know. Bowling different kinds of balls is not my strength. And to practise them you need to allot special time. You can't try them in a match. If we have 600 runs on board, then I can try sliders, back-spinners. I have tried them, in fact. They mostly went for boundaries!

You have not been bowling doosras much these days; you are using topspinners more. Why?
I bowl doosras too, but the batsmen have started to read it better. If you overuse it, it can get ineffective. You set up the batsman with offbreaks and then try to slip one in. I will increase it a bit more now that you have brought it to my attention.

You also come round the stumps more often these days.
Earlier it used to be considered negative bowling. Now they get you more lbws. That round-the-stumps angle is very good, especially when the ball is turning. You just to have to spin it a bit.

When bowling over the wicket, you have to pitch it wider, because you have to turn it within the line of stumps and not down leg. From round the wicket, the batsman has to play across his body, and that line gets really dangerous. Then I can slip in a topspinner so it can go off the edge to silly point or slip. I have really worked hard on that angle.

You use the scrambled seam a lot.
Yeah. If it lands on the shiny side, it skids on faster. If it lands on the rough, it spins more. As a bowler, when you don't know where it's going to land, how can the batsman know? This is with respect to the scrambled seam. With a normal grip, with the seam pointing across, you know the ball is going to land only partly on seam. When you are bowling with a scrambled seam you don't know where it will land. If it lands on the seam it kicks up. If it lands on the shiny side, it skids. I have started to use it a lot more.

When I bowl normal offspin my seam is clear and easy to pick. And when I bowl my doosras the seam is scrambled, and so it became easier to pick. So I started to bowl offbreaks with the scrambled seam. Some batsmen just see the revolutions of the ball. Those who pick it from the hand play it better. With the cross seam it's not clear if it will be an offbreak or go straight.

How much do you analyse your bowling?
I am my worst critic. That's why it doesn't matter to me what other people think. They feel I am arrogant, but it's just that I am my harshest critic. If they think I could have taken four wickets, I feel I could have taken six. I still can't get over that Jamaica Test. I should have taken 10 on that track. How did I mess that up? The amount critics blast me is nothing compared to how much I blast myself once back in the room. But I don't carry it to the next day. I don't want to repeat my mistake. I want to start the day fresh.

	"I am trying to reduce my mistakes in the middle. I have scored runs only when I haven't gone out and started playing my strokes straight away" © AFP Enlarge

Who are the cricketers you speak to? So many former players criticise you. Who do you turn to?
Sunny bhai [Gavaskar], Kapil paaji [Dev], Anil bhai, of course. Murali, who is a gem of a person. He always tells me what I should be doing. Warne is there to help you. He will talk to you. Saqlain Mushtaq is a very dear friend. Mushy bhai [Mushtaq Ahmed] and Wasim bhai [Akram].

Do you feel you are now the best spinner in the world?
I don't know. [Graeme] Swann is doing a fantastic job for England. [Daniel] Vettori is doing it for his team. Saeed Ajmal is a brilliant brilliant bowler too

How would you describe your game over the last six months?
I think I have bowled well, but I haven't got the results to show for it. I haven't got a big number of wickets. There were a few catches which went down. But that's part of the game. Some days great catches will be taken off your bowling and certain days simple chances will be dropped. The South African series was very satisfying for me. I was really happy I bowled well in South Africa. I think I should have taken more wickets in West Indies. I think I have bowled well here, except for the first Test. In patches I think I bowled okay in Jamaica too, but not up to my best.

You look like a proper batsman these days.
It's very important to think like a batsman when you are out there. When I bowl, no one gifts me their wickets. Then why play stupid shots, get out, come back into the dressing room and think, "I should have spent more time in there"? When you are in the middle, make the most of it. Don't throw your wicket away. If you get a good delivery then it's fine. I am trying to reduce my mistakes in the middle. I have scored runs only when I haven't gone out and started playing my strokes straight away.

Previously I used to go and swing my bat, hit a few boundaries and the dressing room would applaud wildly. But then I'd get out for 20. I still play my shots, but I am more judicious in my approach. Hitting sixes is not too difficult. It's taking singles that is tough. I think in that sense, the century against New Zealand really helped me a lot. Until you do something for the first time, you don't know what it is worth.

How would you describe yourself: an emotional person, a fighter or a lovable rascal?
I come from a land which has produced a lot of warriors. I am a warrior. I will put myself against anyone and I will give my best for all my friends, my team-mates, my country and myself. These guys come first, and for them I am ready to do anything. I am emotional and I am aggressive and at the same time. I am a wise thinker, though not many people think I am one [laughs].

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo

Feeds: Sriram Veera

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Opening credits

Mike Selvey

July 12, 2011

The first session of a match is Test cricket at its most compelling: the hard new ball against the men who have to see off its threat - or, as is common these days, send it packing


 

	The main event: fast bowler v opening batsman © Getty Images Enlarge

Let us liken the first morning of a Test match to a theatre where a new play is to be performed by great actors. The audience arrives, chattering. What will the play bring? What interpretation will the players put on it? It is about the anticipation, and sometimes this is the stronger element. The lights dim, the audience hushes and the curtain rises.

At its best, Test cricket is a theatrical production, and the anticipation like in no other sport. From the buzzing decorum of the first morning at Lord's or the Boxing Day ballyhoo at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, to the joyous cacophony of the Eden Gardens and the clamour of the Kensington Oval in the glory days. Each and every person looks out on the ground and 22 yards of pristine untrammelled turf and wonders what the day will bring, what great deeds will be performed.

All things are equal until the first ball is bowled. But cricket has its variables. The possibilities are endless. How will the pitch play? Why has Brown been included at the expense of Bloggs? Should they not have a spinner? Will it turn? Will it seam? The imponderables. Each and every Test match is a journey into the unknown. The anticipation rises.

When, 16 years ago on a Birmingham morning, Curtly Ambrose sucks in through pursed lips in that Caribbean way and tells Michael Atherton, "You have a nice day, now", as his first ball of the match flies from a length straight over the batsman's head, clears the keeper and careers first bounce to the boundary, the spell is broken. We get the picture, just as we did on the same Edgbaston strip five years previously, when John Wright put England in, and, to a collective dropping of heads, saw Richard Hadlee's first delivery bounce twice before reaching the keeper.

Central to all this is the contest between new ball and openers. There is something gladiatorial about this, one of the few constants. Generally we know who the protagonists will be. There is a ritualistic element to both sides of the contest here. The new ball is cricket's holy relic, a revered object on which hinges seniority in a hierarchy. When an umpire takes a second new ball from its wrapping and holds it aloft, it is as if a priest is performing a sacrament.

Within the game, the status that goes with being regarded not just as a new-ball bowler but the new-ball bowler is immeasurable. In a team of great fast bowlers, Clive Lloyd threw the ball to Andy Roberts. He became the senior man. Later Viv Richards accorded the status to Malcolm Marshall. When the great Michael Holding was demoted from new-ball bowler to a supporting role it was a tangible acknowledgement of waning powers and it hurt him deeply.

It is this leader of the pack who will gaze into the box of balls before a match and select the one to be used, like first pick from a box of chocolates. Bowlers have their ideas. They will look for the deep tone, the one that makes it shine like a dark, sweet cherry rather than scarlet. Batches of balls are dyed the same but some, the darker ones, appear to take the dye better than others. Bowlers believe these polish better and swing more. It matters not if it is true as long as they believe it to be so.

We remember the great bowlers as individuals, but equally we recall them as associates, as pairs. Only a few became great on their own. For the rest, the partnership was essential. There was a balance. And the names trip from the tongue, from Gregory and MacDonald, Larwood and Voce, Lindwall and Miller, Trueman and Statham and Hall and Griffith, into a modern era that began with Lillee and Thomson, and graduated, through any combination of West Indian giants, to the most prolific pairing of them all in Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis (although their most profound work was done with the old ball), and on to Donald and Pollock and McGrath and Gillespie.

Against them come the openers, the vanguard of the batsmen. They too are treading into the unknown when they walk onto the pitch. These are the pathfinders, the ones who pave the way for those that are to follow. They are there to weather the assault but to lay down a marker too, to set the tone. Their task, according to the rulebook, is to ensure that the hardness has disappeared from the ball by the time the strokemakers join the fray; to "see off the shine" in that hackneyed cricket phrase.

	Like parents and policemen, teachers and politicians, the new ball, revered once, does not command the respect it once did. It doesn't stay new for very long these days

What do they feel as they stand in the dressing room, padded, playing their air shots? On practice days and on match mornings, they can often be seen standing in the crease, doing their visualisation, seeing in their mind's eye Ambrose striding in, or Shoaib at full tear-arse tilt. No batsman wants to go into the fray nervelessly or without adrenaline. On one occasion Atherton, who opened the innings more times than any other Englishman, deliberately picked an argument with a close fielder for no reason other than he felt uncommonly relaxed and was uncomfortable as a result. And when the contest starts, at its best, it is the most compelling spectacle of them all, the salvo from the quick men, the riposte from the batsmen. Duck and sway, cut and pull, scamper the singles. Between them, pacemen and openers set up the contest.

The nature of the task has changed over time, though. Once it happened discreetly, stealthily. Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe, the most silkily productive of all opening partnerships, dissected the opposition, wore them down. There was no hurry, no frills or frippery. First see it through to lunch without mishap. By then the pitch will have quietened, the rage of the fast bowlers doused, the ball no longer polished, the gold lettering no longer glistening.

But sport evolves. Conventions get tested. There was an old adage in Yorkshire that said "no cutting before lunch, no hooking before August", and it served good purpose in principle. Risk nothing, it was saying, while there is sap in the pitch and devil in the ball and bowling. You are the protectors.

Nobody appeared to have told Gordon Greenidge, the most ferocious cutter of a ball the game has seen, or Roy Fredericks, the happy hooker who sent the Perth scoreboard into meltdown. No mention was made to Desmond Haynes, Marcus Trescothick or Michael Slater, Matthew Hayden, the giant piratical bullying paradox, who with, his faithful parrot, Justin Langer, on his shoulder, formed the most formidable of the Australians. Or Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Tamim Iqbal. And most certainly the message failed to get through to Virender Sehwag, for whom every delivery from the very first is not a battle for survival but a challenge to score. Vandalism against the new ball is the new stoicism.

Between all of these and their peers the rule book has been shredded. The old ways still pertain, like pockets of resistance. Watch Alastair Cook tot up his runs in the credit column and you witness a throwback: he could have played in any age. Sehwag? A chancer, they would say back then. This is not how you play Test cricket. Save it for the village green. Like parents and policemen, teachers and politicians, the new ball, revered once, does not command the respect it once did. It doesn't stay new for very long these days.

Former England and Middlesex bowler Mike Selvey is cricket correspondent of the Guardian

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Afridi disappointed with Butt's 'petty' statements

SHAHID AFRIDI  has said he was disappointed by the "petty things" PCB chairman Ijaz Butt brought up while justifying Afridi's axing as Pakistan's one-day captain.

"I am disappointed because such petty things coming from the head of the board were unwarranted," Afridi told the Daily Times. "He himself made me captain, and everyone, from experts to fans, had praised my leadership and the unity in the team."

Afridi led Pakistan to the semi-finals of the 2011 World Cup, their best performance at cricket's flagship one-day event since 1999. After that, he led Pakistan to an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match one-day series in the West Indies before a selection meeting bust-up between him and coach Waqar Younis sparked off a controversy. Pakistan went on to lose the two dead rubber games, and Afridi was stripped of the one-day captaincy. He responded by announcing a "conditional retirement" from the game.

Last week, Butt defended the move to axe Afridi by blaming him for the losses in the West Indies, and deeming him as "not captaincy material", in an interview with Geo Super television channel.

Afridi, who is currently in England playing in the Friends Life t20 tournament, said he would consult with his lawyers before planning his next move. "I will unmask all these people who are running a smear campaign against me," he said. "I don't want to say anything right now because I am enjoying my time with Hampshire but when I return I will respond to them."

Meanwhile, Afridi's legal counsel, Syed Ali Zaffar, said the player would have a case if he chose to take Butt to court over his statements. "Ijaz Butt's statement that Shahid Afridi will not captain the Pakistan team again is not only very irresponsible but is like an order or direction to the governing council members [who choose the captain in consultation with the board chairman] and to the selection committee not to even consider him," Zaffar told the Nation. "In this regard, Mr Butt is usurping the authority of the governing council members and selection committee and is clearly acting illegally.

"Afridi can take him to court if he so chooses. I will however add that I have had no discussion with Afridi in this regard. Mr Ijaz Butt is a loose cannon. Under Pakistan Cricket Board's constitution the chairman virtually enjoys dictatorial powers." 

source of post:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/

Bradman's last to Tendulkar's 50th

June-August 1948
The Invincibles tour and Bradman's retirement
Don Bradman led the Australian team to England for the first Ashes after the Second World War, his last tour as an international cricketer. Thousands flocked to the five Tests (the first five-day Tests in England), which Australia won 4-0 - including a chase of 404 runs in a day to win the Headingley match - earning them the nickname the Invincibles. In his final innings Bradman needed four runs to finish with an average of 100; he was out for a duck and immortalised on 99.94.

June-August 1950
West Indies' first series win in England
Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine took 59 wickets to spin West Indies to a series win, but it was the batting of the three Ws - Everton Weekes, Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott - that drew and mesmerised the crowds that summer. They lost the opener at Lord's but came back to win the next three by 326 runs, 10 wickets, and an innings and 56 runs respectively.

October 1952
Pakistan make their Test debut
With the partition of India in 1947, Test cricket gained another team, albeit five years later. For Pakistan's first Test, they returned to India, playing in Delhi. Abdul Kardar, who had played for India, led the new team, who lost by an innings. Vinoo Mankad took 13 wickets, including a career-best 8 for 52.

June-August 1953
England regain the Ashes
England regained the Ashes for the first time since the Bodyline series, with a 1-0 victory in the Coronation year. It was the first Ashes series captained by Len Hutton, England's first full-time professional captain. They won by eight wickets in the final Test at The Oval, where Tony Lock and Jim Laker took nine second-innings wickets.

November 1954-March 1955
England retain the Ashes
Frank Tyson helped England retain the Ashes with a series performance no one could have predicted at the end of the first Test, in which he took 1 for 160 in an innings defeat. Tyson tore through Australia, taking 10 in the second, nine in the third (including 7 for 27 - the spell so fast and furious, it earned him the nickname "Typhoon"), and six in the fourth as England sealed the series 3-1. Brian Statham provided good support with 18 wickets.

January 1955
Pakistan's first home Test
Three years after their maiden Test, in India, Pakistan hosted their neighbours for their first Test on home soil, in Dacca. The match was the first of five drawn Tests in the series, a sign of the times, when both teams played attritional cricket, preferring draws to risking losing to the other. Forty-five years later Bangladesh hosted India at the same venue for their maiden Test.

March 1955
The lowest Test innings total
New Zealand were bowled out for 26, breaking South Africa's record for the lowest innings total in Test history, in a rain-affected game in Auckland. They managed 200 in the first innings and conceded a lead of 46 to England, but in their second innings lasted just 27 overs on a slow, dry pitch that had variable bounce and was taking spin.

July 1956
Laker takes 10
Jim Laker became the first Test bowler to take all 10 wickets in an innings, in the Ashes Test at Old Trafford. He had achieved the feat two months earlier as well, for Surrey against the Australians, but while he had taken 12 in that game, Laker managed 19 in Manchester. England won the Test by an innings and 170 runs, and the series 2-1.

January 1958
The longest innings
Hanif Mohammad batted heroically for 16 hours and 13 minutes to save the Barbados Test after Pakistan had conceded a first-innings lead of 473. It was the longest innings in Test history in terms of minutes - 970.

February-March 1958
Sobers makes 365
In the same series in which Hanif Mohammad failed to break Len Hutton's record of 364 runs during his marathon innings, 21-year-old Garry Sobers succeeded with an unbeaten 365 at Sabina Park. Incredibly it was Sobers' first Test hundred. He was supported by Conrad Hunte's 260 - the two added 446 - and West Indies won by an innings and 174 runs.

December 1960
The first tied Test
Australia needed one run off the final two balls of the Brisbane Test against West Indies, with a wicket in hand. Lindsay Kline hit to square leg and the non-striker, Ian Meckiff, raced down the pitch, but Joe Solomon threw down the wicket with only the width of one stump for a target. Frank Worrell's West Indians became hugely popular with Australians fans on that tour. The two teams have competed for the Frank Worrell Trophy since.

August 1964
Trueman gets to 300
Fred Trueman became the first bowler to take 300 Test wickets, during the drawn Ashes Test at The Oval. When he dismissed Ian Redpath and Garth McKenzie off successive balls, it seemed possible he would get to the landmark with a hat-trick. Neil Hawke survived the hat-trick ball but did end up as Trueman's 300th victim. Trueman played two more Tests and finished with 307 wickets.

1960s
Covered pitches
Through the 1950s there had been a lot of debate over the merit of covering pitches during Test matches. There were trials at different levels - pitch ends and bowlers' run-ups being covered wh¬ile the rest of the pitch remained exposed once play began - mostly to find a solution for the time lost when rain ruined a pitch. In the 1960s in England, and then elsewhere, uncovered pitches were gradually phased out. Not everyone supported the move, especially since it made pitches more or less uniform across the world, and made batsmen susceptible on any wicket that offered more than a little support to bowlers.

1969
The front-foot no-ball rule
In the 1950s many bowlers started developing a dragging action with their back foot, which made it difficult for umpires to judge no-balls, and allowed these bowlers to deliver the ball off 19 yards or so. The front-foot rule was brought in to counter these illegal deliveries. According to the rule the bowler's back foot must land within and not touching the return crease and the front foot must land with some part of the foot, whether grounded or raised, behind the popping crease.

October-November 1969
New Zealand's maiden series win
Nearly 40 years after they made their Test debut, New Zealand won their first series, in Pakistan, 1-0. Their victory came in Lahore, where spinners Hedley Howarth and Vic Pollard bowled Pakistan out for 114. The visitors then hung on for a draw in Dacca after a valiant tail-end stand between Bob Cunis, who batted for close to two hours, and Ken Wadsworth.

	Since 1969 bowlers have had to land part of their front foot behind the popping crease while bowling © PA Photos Enlarge

January-March 1970
South Africa are isolated
The South African government's practice of apartheid, and its cricket board's whites-only policy, forced the international cricket fraternity to end relations with the country. South Africa were fresh off a 4-0 battering of Australia at home, and while the move was a social necessity, it meant international cricket lost several talented players, among them Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, Mike Procter and Eddie Barlow.

-December 1970-February 1971
A seven-Test Ashes
England won the only seven-Test series ever played, 2-0. The third match, at the MCG, was washed out (the first-ever ODI was played on the last day, a 40-over game organised to entertain the crowd), and England won the fourth - by a huge margin after John Snow took 7 for 40 - and the seventh. But the series is mostly remembered for its controversies - there was a lot of hostility between the teams, the umpiring was poor, and England's bowlers used short-pitched bowling to intimidate Australia's young line-up.

February-August 1971
India's overseas series wins
Sunil Gavaskar's debut year marked two historic series wins for India, in West Indies and England. He made half-centuries in his first Test, in Port-of-Spain, where India beat West Indies for the first time. After taking the five-Test series 1-0, they replicated the scoreline against England with a win at The Oval - where Bhagwat Chandrasekhar took eight wickets.

December 1974-February 1975
Australia win back the Ashes
After Dennis Lillee had proved a menace in the 1972 Ashes, a young Jeff Thomson took on the role of battering England's batsmen into submission in a notoriously bloody six-Test series that Australia won 4-1. In Perth, Thomson hit David Lloyd so hard in the groin, his protector turned inside out. In the four and a half Tests he played in the series, before getting injured, Thomson took 33 wickets at 17.93.

March 1977
The Centenary Test
In a startling coincidence, the match marking 100 years since the first Test had the same scoreline as the one it paid tribute to. Max Walker and Dennis Lillee bowled England out for 95, after which Australia extended their lead considerably, thanks to Rod Marsh's maiden hundred, and an impressive half-century by the 21-year-old David Hookes - all in the presence of 218 former English and Australian Test cricketers and the Queen. Derek Randall's 174 took England close but in the end Australia won by 45 runs.

October-November 1978
India and Pakistan renew cricketing ties
Eighteen years after the two sides last played each other in Tests, Pakistan invited India for three matches - a series that also marked the debut of Kapil Dev. Pakistan were leading 1-0 going in to the third Test, in Karachi. Sunil Gavaskar scored two hundreds and it looked like India would draw the game, only for Javed Miandad, the permanent thorn in their flesh, and Imran Khan to pull off a thrilling chase of 164 on the final afternoon.

March 1979
The end of eight-ball overs in Australia
Australia was the last country to give up eight-ball overs, in 1979, 55 years after they began using them. The last Test played there using eight-ball overs was the Perth match against Pakistan in 1979.

June 1980
West Indies' reign begins
After West Indies' humiliating defeat in Australia in 1975-76, Clive Lloyd began putting together a team - centering on a high-quality pace attack - who went on to be indomitable for 15 years. Their run started in 1980 and they went undefeated in 29 series up until 1995, powered by the batting of the likes of Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Alvin Kallicharran, Desmond Haynes and Richie Richardson, and the bowling of Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.

July 1981
England pull off a miracle
On day four at Headingley there were 500-to-1 odds on an England victory. When Ian Botham came out to bat during the follow-on, England were five down and still trailing by 122 runs. Even after he produced a savage, run-a-ball 149, they had little chance of saving the Test. But Bob Willis triggered an Australian collapse of 8 for 55 and England sneaked home by 18 runs. It was only the second instance of a team winning after following on.

February 1982
Sri Lanka's first Test
Test cricket's eighth team didn't do too badly when they hosted a strong England side for their maiden Test in Colombo. Ranjan Madugalle, Arjuna Ranatunga and Roy Dias made half-centuries, and Ashantha de Mel and Somachandra de Silva ensured England only got a first-innings lead of five runs. But John Emburey took better advantage of the spin-friendly conditions than the home side did, with a spell of 5 for 5. Sri Lanka won their first Test three years later, in their 14th game.

December 1983
The first man to 30 hundreds
With an unbeaten double-century against West Indies in Chennai, Sunil Gavaskar became the first man to score 30 Test hundreds. His 236 in the innings was also the highest score by an Indian at the time. Just over three years after reaching the landmark, Gavaskar set the bar for run accumulation by becoming the first batsman to make 10,000 Test runs. It was his 124th and penultimate Test.

June-August 1984
West Indies blackwash England
West Indies won all five Tests against England, making it the first time such a feat had been achieved in the country, and only the fifth in Test history. Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding were at their menacing best, prompting Wisden to remark that "the batsman himself has become as much a target... as the wicket he defends". The batsmen were just as dominating, especially Gordon Greenidge, whose 214 at Lord's helped West Indies chase 342 in five and a half hours.

	Allan Border led a young, inexperienced side to a 4-0 Ashes win in 1989 © Getty Images Enlarge

September 1986
The second tied Test
Dean Jones, battling dehydration and a bad stomach in the unrelenting heat of Madras, set up Test cricket's second tie. Jones batted more than eight hours to make Australia's first double-hundred. India narrowly avoided the follow-on and were set 347 to chase on the final day. They looked set to win when they needed 158 off 30 overs, and it was only when Ray Bright took three wickets to reduce them to 344 for 9 that the game swung firmly back towards Australia. Ravi Shastri, taking strike for the last over, took two off the second ball and a single off the third. Maninder Singh blocked the fourth but was lbw off the fifth, giving Greg Matthews his first ten-for, and cricket its second tied Test.

November 1986
Neutral umpires make their appearance
The first Test that had two neutral umpires in charge was a Pakistan match in Lahore in 1986. Imran Khan, tired of listening to complaining about biased umpiring in Pakistan, invited two Indian umpires, Piloo Reporter and VK Ramaswamy, to stand in the game against West Indies. He then invited two Englishmen to umpire the 1989-90 series against India. The ICC caught on to the idea in 1992, though it was only in 2002 that two neutral umpires began to stand in every Test.

January-February 1988
The bicentenary Test
Australia and England played a one-off Test in Sydney to mark 200 years of settlement in Australia. But unlike the thrilling Centenary Test, which celebrated 100 years of Test cricket, this match was a dull draw. Chris Broad's hundred gave England a big total, which looked more imposing once Australia followed on. But David Boon batted more than eight hours to make 184, saving the match.

April 1988
Pakistan draw in West Indies
Pakistan became the first team in 10 years to win a Test in the West Indies. The series was full of drama and entertainment: Imran Khan came out of retirement to lead Pakistan, they lost the one-day series 5-0, won the first Test by nine wickets (Imran took 11 wickets), launched a spirited chase in the second before drawing it with the last pair batting it out, and lost the third by two wickets.

June-August 1989
Australia win back the Ashes
Allan Border had won one out of eight series as captain, and Australia just five of their last 30 Tests, when they landed in England in 1989. The home side weren't strong either, but no one expected Australia to win the series 4-0. Border and coach Bob Simpson inspired a young side - of future stars like Steve Waugh, Dean Jones, Mark Taylor and Ian Healy - to massive wins, at Headingley, Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. This series is often considered the first milestone in Australia's journey to the top.

February 1990
Hadlee gets to 400
Richard Hadlee made history on his home ground, becoming the first bowler to take 400 Test wickets. Hadlee took seven in the game, against a struggling Indian side, who followed on and ended up making New Zealand chase two runs to win in the second innings.

1991
One bouncer per over
Intimidatory bowling - primarily by West Indies - and consequent slow over rates led the ICC to introduce a "one-bouncer-per-over" rule. And though they amended it to two per over in 1994, after protests from bowlers, the rule tilted the game further in favour of batsmen.

April 1992
The return of South Africa
After receiving a warm welcome at Eden Gardens on their return to international cricket, and then getting to the World Cup semi-final, South Africa headed to the West Indies for a one-off Test to mark their comeback. They dominated the first four days in Barbados - Andrew Hudson's 163 gave them a first-innings lead - but collapsed against Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh's bowling, losing their last eight wickets for 25 in a chase of 201.

October 1992
Zimbabwe play their first Test
Zimbabwe became the ninth team on the Test circuit when they hosted India in Harare. They impressed by getting a first-innings lead - captain Dave Houghton became the country's first century-maker - and became the first side since Australia in 1876-77 to avoid defeat in their maiden Test. Offspinner John Traicos, who had played for South Africa previously, set the record for longest gaps between Tests - 22 years and 222 days.

November 1992-February 1993
West Indies win in Australia
A young West Indian side, with a 23-year-old Brian Lara, won an exciting five-Test series in Australia 2-1. The series is best remembered for Lara's sparkling 277 in Sydney, and West Indies' one-run win in Adelaide . In that match, Australia, needing 186 to win, lost their eighth wicket for 102, but the last two pairs took them up to 184 before Courtney Walsh got Craig McDermott to glove a short one to the keeper and give West Indies the closest margin of victory in history. Curtly Ambrose had 10 wickets in the match and 33 in the series.

	West Indies' reign ended when Australia beat them at home in 1995 © Getty Images Enlarge

April 1994
Lara makes 375
Thirty-six years after Garry Sobers set the record for the highest individual score in Tests, Brian Lara broke it by 10 runs, in Antigua against England, in a remarkably chanceless innings that ran two days. Sobers was at the ground to congratulate Lara and pass on the title.

May 1995
The end of West Indies' reign
"After 15 years and 29 series, world cricket's longest-lasting dynasty was overthrown by the relentless, underestimated Australians," was how Wisden described West Indies' 1-2 loss at home to Australia. The star of the series was Steve Waugh - 429 runs at 107.25 - who scored his maiden double-hundred, taking Australia to an innings win in Jamaica.

August 1997
The biggest innings total
After India declared at 537 in Colombo, they picked up a wicket before stumps on day two. That was the only wicket they would have for the next two days, as Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama went on to add 576 runs - then a world-record stand - and Sri Lanka piled up 952 for 6 by the final day. Jayasuriya made a triple-century but narrowly missed out on breaking Brian Lara's record of 375.

November 1998-January 1999
South Africa whitewash West Indies
West Indies' senior players were fighting their board over pay increases when their tour of South Africa began, and the dispute, and the disunity within the side, reflected in their performance in South Africa, as they became the first Caribbean side to suffer a whitewash. South Africa's fast bowlers ran through West Indies' weak line-up, and an out-of-form Brian Lara couldn't resist them either.

February 1999
Kumble takes 10
Anil Kumble became only the second Test bowler to take 10 wickets in an innings. On a sub-standard Kotla pitch, which had been vandalised a month previously, Pakistan were set 420 on day four. Kumble went wicketless in the first session, but after lunch he changed ends, and in 20.3 overs claimed 10 for 47. India won by 212 runs, their first Test win over Pakistan since 1979-80.

February-March 1999
The Asian Test championship
The first triangular Test tournament since 1912 was won by Pakistan, who started by collapsing to 26 for 6, but ended with an innings win over Sri Lanka in the final. Pakistan dominated the tournament: Wasim Akram picked up two hat-tricks in successive games, Saeed Anwar carried his bat in the victory over India, Wajahatullah Wasti scored twin centuries in his second Test, and Ijaz Ahmed and Inzaman-ul-Haq, made double-hundreds in the final. A second championship was played in 2001-02, where India were replaced by Bangladesh, and was won by Sri Lanka.

February-March 2000
South Africa win in India
South Africa notched up the first victory by a visiting side in a bilateral series in India since 1986-1987 when they took the series 2-0. The chief contributions came from Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and debutant spinner Nicky Boje. Donald and Pollock took 10 wickets on a turner in the Mumbai Test, which South Africa won in three days despite conceding a first-innings lead, after which Boje took seven in the innings win in Bangalore.

November 2000
Bangladesh make their first Test appearance
After India lobbied successfully for Test status for Bangladesh, India went to Dhaka to play the new team in their inaugural match. Bangladesh impressed with 400 in their first innings - Aminul Islam became the country's first Test centurion - and conceded a narrow lead. But their second-innings score of 91 was an indicator of their future ineptitude. India won by nine wickets. It took Bangladesh five years to register their first win, against Zimbabwe.

February-March 2001
India end Australia's winning spree
When Australia comprehensively beat India in the first match of the series, in Mumbai, it was a record 16th consecutive Test win for them. But that was followed by one of the greatest Tests of all time - only the third win by a team following on - in Kolkata, where VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid batted India out of trouble and into a position of dominance, after which Harbhajan Singh bowled Australia out to give the home side a huge win. Another thrilling Indian victory in Chennai set the tone for an enthralling rivalry over the next decade.

March 2001
Walsh takes 500
When he dismissed Jacques Kallis for a duck in South Africa's second innings, in Port-of-Spain, Courtney Walsh became the first bowler to 500 Test wickets. Walsh, playing his 129th Test, took eight in total, but South Africa won the match, and the series. Walsh ended his career three games later with 519 wickets.

May 2003
West Indies break the fourth-innings chase record
No one expected West Indies to succeed in the biggest chase ever - 418 runs, against Australia - especially after they lost their top three for 74. And when Brian Lara fell for 60, a routine collapse looked likely, but Shivnarine Chanderpaul, batting with a broken finger, and Ramnaresh Sarwan didn't show any nerves during their stand of 123. By the end of day four West Indies needed 47 with four wickets in hand. Vasbert Drakes and Omari Banks showed the same calm their middle-order colleagues had, to complete the incredible win.

March-April 2004
India go to Pakistan again
India's first tour of Pakistan in 14 years was a success on and off the field - the home side and the host fans rolled out the red carpet for the Indian players and visiting fans; the one-day series was closely contested and set the stage for a delectable Test leg. Virender Sehwag's triple-century in Multan gave India their first Test win in Pakistan in 21 years, and though the hosts bounced back with a nine-wicket win in Lahore, India completely dominated the Rawalpindi Test, and went on to win their first Test series away from home in a decade.

April 2004
Lara makes a quadruple century
At the same venue where he made his record-breaking 375, Brian Lara reclaimed his record - which had briefly been taken by Matthew Hayden - with the first quadruple-century in Tests. On the receiving end, same as 10 years previously, were England, but though West Indies made England follow on, they couldn't bowl them out a second time. The home side lost the series 0-3.

October-November 2004
Australia win in India after three decades
Australia's 2004 tour of India was anticipated as a great clash, following India's 2-1 win at home in 2001, and the 1-1 draw in Australia three years later. Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, who had missed the 2003-04 series, were back in the side for this one, though Ricky Ponting was out for three Tests. But India showed none of the magic, or fight, they had previously. They lost big in Bangalore and Nagpur, while rain ruined their chances in Chennai. They only won the dead rubber, a thriller in Mumbai. For Australia, the "final frontier" - as Steve Waugh had nicknamed India - had been crossed after 35 years.

November 2004
The 15-degree rule
While the debate raged over whether Muttiah Muralitharan's action was suspect or not, retrospective biomechanical tests showed some of the cleanest bowlers of the past had bent their elbows past the legal limit. So the ICC set the legal limit for straightening the bowling elbow to 15 degrees. It also took away the umpires' power to call a bowler for throwing during a game; instead, they had to report the bowler in their post-match report.

July-September 2005
England win the Ashes after 16 years
England regained the Ashes for the first time since Mike Gatting's side won it in Australia in 1986-87, and the series revived spectator interest in the contest, though Australia won the first Test in their customary emphatic manner. It was the Edgbaston Test, which Australia lost by two runs, that sparked the series to life. England won again at Trent Bridge and took the series 2-1 when they held on for a draw at The Oval. Andrew Flintoff - who took 24 wickets and made 402 runs - assumed godlike status in the country. Shane Warne, who took 40 wickets, became the first bowler to 600 Test wickets.

September 2005
Zimbabwe's last Test
Zimbabwe's ten-wicket loss to India in Harare became their last Test for nearly six years and counting. The interim board in charge of the country's cricket suspended the team from Test cricket in January 2006 - initially until 2007, but the suspension was later extended - as a reaction to falling standards.

October 2005
The Super Test
The Super Series was conceived as an event that would run alongside the World Cup and the Champions Trophy to fill a year in the ICC's four-year cycle when there was no global event. But the failure of the star-studded World XI (among the players were Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Inzamam-ul-Haq) to give Australia a run for their money in the six-day Super Test in Sydney, which was also probably an indication of how far ahead Australia were from the rest, prompted the ICC to shelve the idea.

December 2005
Tendulkar's 35th century
Having equalled Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 Test hundreds a year previously, Sachin Tendulkar went past the milestone in Delhi, in his 125th match - the same number that Gavaskar had played to score his 34 hundreds. It was a stroke-filled innings, though not chanceless, and he reached the landmark with a single off Chaminda Vaas to backward square leg.

	Muttiah Muralitharan got his 800th wicket with the final ball of the match against India in Galle in 2010 © ESPNcricinfo Ltd Enlarge

August 2006
The first forfeited Test
Pakistan's 2006 tour was heading towards an un-dramatic finish (England had already won the series) when on the fourth day of the final Test, at The Oval, umpire Darrell Hair penalised Pakistan five runs for alleged ball-tampering. Inzamam-ul-Haq and his players didn't return to the field at the end of the tea interval; Hair took Pakistan's action to be a forfeit and awarded the match to England - it was the first forfeit in Test history. The ICC overturned Hair's decision into a draw in 2008 but changed it back to a win for England a year later.

November 2006-January 2007
Australia win the Ashes 5-0
Sweet revenge for 2005. From the first ball of the series, which Steve Harmison bowled to second slip, Australia trampled all over a mostly clueless England, led by a bewildered Andrew Flintoff. The margin of victories left no room for doubt - 277 runs, six wickets, 206 runs, an innings and 99 runs, and 10 wickets. Shane Warne became the first bowler to get to 700 Test wickets, during the Melbourne Test, and at the end of the series he bowed out - on 708 wickets - along with Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer.

January 2008
Sydneygate
India's series in Australia in 2007-08 was one of the most controversial in recent history. Umpiring errors and a race row involving Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds tainted the Sydney Test, after which the BCCI threatened to boycott the rest of the tour if the ICC suspended Harbhajan. The tour eventually went on, and India once again halted Australia streak of victories at 16 - they had previously done it in 2001 - with a win in Perth, but they lost the series 2-1.

July 2008
The Decision Review System makes its appearance
When Anil Kumble asked for a review of an lbw appeal against Malinda Warnapura in the first Test in Colombo, it marked the first referral in Test cricket. Sri Lanka and India had agreed to trial the system during the series, but by the end of it, India strongly opposed it, and the BCCI blocked its use in future bilateral series involving India. While the argument continued on who should foot the bill for the use of the technology - the broadcasters, the home board or the ICC - other countries began adopting it and adapting their strategies to it.

December 2008-January 2009
South Africa win a series in Australia
Australia were beaten at home for the first time in 16 years, and their opponents were a side who had always struggled against them. South Africa won the series in style - chasing a record 414 in Perth, where AB de Villiers made a fighting hundred, and debutant JP Duminy shone with a nerveless half-century, and then winning by nine wickets in Melbourne, where Duminy's sparkling 166 was nearly overshadowed by his ninth-wicket partner, Dale Steyn, who scored 76 and took 10 wickets in the match. South Africa's real hero was their captain, Graeme Smith, who batted through chronic elbow pain for 326 runs at 65.20, and came out to bat at No. 11 at the SCG despite a broken hand.

July 2010
Murali gets 800
When Muttiah Muralitharan announced that he would retire after the first Test against India, he needed eight wickets to reach 800. By the end of day three he had inched to 793. But the fourth day brought 12 Indian wickets, five of them to Murali. On the final day, with India following on, Sri Lanka pushed for a win. When VVS Laxman was run out with one wicket remaining, many feared the record wasn't to be, but Murali got Pragyan Ojha to nick one to slip and finished with a wicket off his final ball in Test cricket.

August 2010
The spot-fixing scandal
Ten years after the first big match-fixing scandal broke, news came that the ongoing Lord's Test was under investigation. In a sting operation, English tabloid The News of the World filmed Mazhar Majeed, a Pakistan player agent, accepting £150,000 to arrange a fix in which Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif bowled no-balls at specific moments of the match. Majeed also alleged that Pakistan captain Salman Butt and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal were involved, along with three other unnamed cricketers. After a tribunal hearing, the ICC handed Amir, Asif and Butt bans for five, seven and 10 years respectively.

December 2010
Tendulkar's 50th Test hundred
Not satisfied with just breaking records, Sachin Tendulkar set a well-nigh ungettable one. In Centurion against South Africa, with India batting to save the match after conceding a 484-run first-innings lead, he hit his 50th Test century, bringing his tally for 2010 to seven. What was nearly missed in the frenzy surrounding his incredible achievement was Rahul Dravid going the 12,000-run milestone. Despite these feats India lost the Test by an innings after Jacques Kallis scored his maiden double-century.

November 2010-January 2011
England win in Australia after 24 years
The end of Australia's reign at the top of the Test cricket pile ended with a humiliating 3-1 loss to England at home - all three defeats were by an innings. It was the first time England had won in Australia since Mike Gatting's team achieved the feat in 1986-87. Ricky Ponting, who led his team in three Ashes defeats, relinquished the captaincy after the series.

Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo

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© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

England seal series in thrilling finale

 

England 268 for 9 (Trott 72, Morgan 57, Randiv 5-42) beat Sri Lanka 252 (Mathews 62, Chandimal 54, Bresnan 3-49) by 16 runs
Scorecar

            Four one-sided games preceded this match at Old Trafford, but with the series at stake England and Sri Lanka traded blows in a see-sawing encounter that had no clear winner until the closing minutes of the match. England prevailed by 16 runs in a thrilling finale to Sri Lanka's tour, the bowling attack operating as a unit to defend 268 for 9 as the visitors were dismissed for 252 in the penultimate over.

Two fluent partnerships, firstly between Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter then from Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan, bookended by clutches of wickets, had carried England's innings. However, offspinner Suraj Randiv helping himself to 5 for 42 to spark a collapse of 6 for 55 as the hosts slipped after being well-positioned to score over 300.

Sri Lanka, who showed their vulnerability against the new ball at The Oval, when they stumbled to 15 for 4, and Trent Bridge, when the damage was 20 for 4, once again struggled first up and needed two fighting stands of their own, the first a counter-attacking 94 between Dinesh Chandimal and Kumar Sangakkara, and the second a backs-to-the-wall 102 between Angelo Mathews and Jeevan Mendis to get close before Jade Dernbach's two wickets in consecutive balls sealed the result.

Tim Bresnan had done the early damage to Sri Lanka, catching the edge of debutant Dimuth Karunaratne's bat before Tillakaratne Dilshan, who has managed just 17 runs in five innings since coming back from a fractured thumb, hooked him straight to Dernbach at fine leg. Sri Lanka were wobbling at 12 for 2 and soon lost Mahela Jayawardene, who had been given a reprieve when he was badly dropped by Dernbach but chipped straight to Alastair Cook at mid-off not long afterwards.

With England surging Chandimal, who hit a match-winning - and controversial - century at Lord's, provided a stylish counterpunch, displaying all the temerity of youth in a series of crisply-hit strokes, stepping out to thrash mighty sixes off both Bresnan and Swann. With Sangakkara ticking along in unpretentious style at the other end Sri Lanka's chase was put back on track.

Chandimal eventually tried one shot too many, however, and was beaten in the flight by Swann and stumped for a 64-ball 54. When Sangakkara chopped the impressive Bresnan onto his stumps to be out for 48 Sri Lanka were 131 for 5 in the 30th over and England appeared to have complete control.

Mathews and Mendis slowly pulled their side out of the mire, and Sri Lanka needed 116 from 18 overs when the batting Powerplay was taken. The batsmen managed to take a boundary from all but one of the Powerplay overs, milking 37 with the field restrictions in place and as they found fluency the pressure was back on England.

Mathews took their stand past 100 with a firm clip to the wide long-on boundary but Pietersen then kept his nerve to hold a good catch running in from the midwicket boundary - and looking into the sun - to get rid of Mendis for a career-best 48. It was now Sri Lanka's turn to panic, Nuwan Kulasekara and Randiv falling in consecutive deliveries as they stumbled to 246 for 8.

Unbelievably, Lasith Malinga strode to the crease and charged down the track to mow the first ball he faced high over long-on for six and the match hung in the balance once more. Cook tossed the ball to Dernbach for the 49th over, with 17 needed, and a contest that could have gone to the wire came to an abrupt end as he deceived Mathews with a slower one that took the leading edge and looped to point. Next ball he fired a searing yorker at the base of Malinga's stumps to spark frenzied celebrations.

Smart stats In eight home series since the start of 2008, England have won six. Three of them have been won by a margin of 3-2 and their worst loss was the 6-1 loss to Australia in 2009. This is England's second bilateral-series win against Sri Lanka after the 5-0 home defeat in 2006. Jonathan Trott's 72 is his 12th half-century in 29 innings in ODIs. His average of 52.44 is comfortably the highest among all England batsmen with 1000-plus runs in ODIs. The 118-run stand between Trott and Eoin Morgan is the second-highest partnership for the fourth wicket for England in ODIs against Sri Lanka. The highest is 154 between Graeme Hick and Neil Fairbrother in 1999. From a score of 213 for 3, England lost six wickets for the addition of just 40 runs. The 40 runs added is fifth on the list of least runs added between wickets five and nine for England against Sri Lanka in ODIs. The 102-run stand between Angelo Mathews and Jeevan Mendis is the highest sixth-wicket stand for Sri Lanka against England in ODIs surpassing the previous best of 93 between Russell Arnold and Kumar Sangakkara in 2003.

There had been a suspicion before the game that this could be a low-scoring encounter as this was the first international match at Old Trafford since the pitch was rotated 90 degrees. What was once the best strip in the country now had lost much of its pace and bounce, but Kieswetter and Cook showed that a hard new ball could still bring runs as the first Powerplay brought no less than 75 runs, 38 of them in boundaries.

England looked to press home their advantage by taking the Batting Powerplay in the 13th over after Sri Lanka had set the field back in defence, but it was the Sri Lankans that profited from the restrictions as Cook ran past a fizzing Randiv offspinner to be stumped for 31. Dhammika Prasad removed Kieswetter and Pietersen in quick succession as England lost 3 for 10 in 19 deliveries, but Trott and Morgan settled quickly and complemented each other well in their contrasting styles to keep England on course for a challenging total.

They didn't score many boundaries - England only hit five after the ninth over - but both men rotated the strike with ease, Trott reaching a 63-ball fifty and Morgan following him to the landmark soon after, from 54 deliveries. A total of over 300 looked a given, but Dilshan got the vital breakthrough when Morgan was beaten by flight and spin to be stumped for 57.

That opened up England's middle order, and a succession of batsmen fell trying to force the pace before they had been given a chance to adjust to the variable pitch. Randiv bowled with exceptional control as the batsmen tried to get after him, removing Ian Bell and Trott - via a fortuitous inside edge that rolled back onto the stumps, and had his fourth and fifth wickets in the space of three deliveries as Samit Patel and Tim Bresnan both fell to failed slogs.

There was a feeling that England had wasted an opportunity when a much more substantial total had loomed, but the good work of the bowlers powered them to a rousing win to extend their successful summer.

Innings Dot balls 4s 6s PP1 PP2 PP3 Last 10 overs NB/Wides England 145 13 1 75/0 14/3 35/0 40/4 0/15 Sri Lanka 146 19 3 34/3 38/0 37/0 56/5 0/4

Liam Brickhill is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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