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India Under-19 batsman Ricky Bhui has brushed aside his torrid form from the World Cup with a good string of scores and is ready for his maiden IPL experience

Amol Karhadkar29-Mar-2014India’s Under-19 side had a forgettable World Cup earlier this year and they failed to defend their title. One player, however, went through a worse campaign. Ricky Bhui, one of India’s in-form batsmen going into the tournament, managed only 15 runs in four matches and also lost his place in the side.Bhui had spent the last two years preparing for the U-19 World Cup and after such a torrid run, one would have expected the batsman to get bogged down. The 17-year-old, however, struck form soon after his return to India. Instead of going home to Visakhapatnam, Bhui joined the Andhra senior side midway through the south zone one-day league and his three unbeaten knocks, including a century and a fifty, helped Andhra revive their campaign and end the league on a high.Bhui’s most remarkable innings came against Goa, where he made his List A debut. With Andhra chasing 269 and his side shaky at 109 for 3 in the 25th over, Bhui came into his own, making short work of experienced and in-form spinners Shadab Jakati and Amit Yadav to race to an unbeaten maiden century and help Andhra secure the win with eight balls to spare.While many were surprised with Bhui’s quick resurgence after the World Cup, the batsman himself was pleased with his smooth transition to the senior league.”The best thing that happened to me was I didn’t have time to go into a shell after the U-19 World Cup and had to enter the field straightaway,” Bhui told ESPNcricinfo. “Moreover, I found it easy to make the transition of playing at the higher level. What I found was here bowlers are more consistent. Most of the times, they bowl according to their field, so you kind of know where the ball will be pitched and where to score. At the junior level, bowlers tend to spray the ball around.”Bhui’s tally of 204 runs off 190 balls wasn’t enough for Andhra to make the cut for the knockouts, but it did earn him a place in the South Zone squad for the Prof DB Deodhar Trophy. While he didn’t play the side’s semi-final game against North Zone, Bhui was excited to share the dressing room with the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa and R Vinay Kumar.The South Zone experience was a sort of prelude to the Indian Premier League, where he will share the Sunrisers Hyderabad dressing room with some of his idols. Bhui was the youngest player at the IPL auction and was bought by his home franchise for the base price of Rs 10 lakhs (approx. $16,000).”Money just doesn’t matter,” Bhui said. “I am looking forward to learning the tricks of the trade from some of the biggest names in the game. The thought of being around them in itself is exciting. If I can get an opportunity to make a mark for Sunrisers, it would be like icing on the cake.”And with the IPL’s first leg scheduled to be played in the UAE, Bhui may get a chance to exorcise the ghosts of the U-19 World Cup. Over the last three weeks, Bhui has had plenty of time to analyse what went wrong for him in the event.”I won’t say I failed to cope with the pressure. In fact, it was the first time that I experienced loss of form,” he said. “I had never been dismissed for single-digit scores for four successive innings in the past. I am pleased I managed to regain my touch as soon as the tournament ended.”Bhui has had a topsy-turvy time on the field recently but he would not have come thus far had his love for sweets overcome his passion for the game. In early 2013, when the probables for the India Under-19 World Cup squad were named, he was overweight and on the verge of being obese. His talent with the bat was never in doubt but a bulging waistline threatened to hinder his progress.What followed was a strict diet and fitness regime, which resulted in Bhui, the son of a Bengali businessman, doing extra yards in practice and cutting down on sweets. in the last year, the batsman lost more than 12 kgs.”Initially, my mom used to be so upset to see me eat salad instead of all sorts of Bengali mithai. But now she has realised this is the way forward. So have I.”

The temporary change in wicketkeeping duties, even for a Test, could indicate how South Africa’s new-look batting will present itself, with at least three young players waiting to be tested

Firdose Moonda in Galle15-Jul-2014

Amla on the impact of the ODI series win

South Africa’s ODI side made history when they won their first-ever one-day series in Sri Lanka and breaking through that barrier has had significant run-on effects. Although they have not won a Test match in Sri Lanka in 14 years since their seven-run victory in Kandy in 2000 and a Test series on the island in 21 years, Hashim Amla said they are confident they can turn that record around too.
“The one-dayers have given the team a lot of confidence and a lot of belief that we can win here even though Test cricket is a largely different game,” he said. “We take confidence from the ODI win. The wickets were pretty good to bat on and they it got slower as the day progressed. That’s no different to Test cricket.
“After a series like that you need a bit of down time. Although it was only three or four days, that was a good call from the management (to give the players a break). We had a training session yesterday and today to slowly get the boys back in.”

First there was the change of captain which automatically brought about a change in the opening batsman but now South Africa are faced with a third major difference to the team of old as their new Test era begins. AB de Villiers is unlikely to keep wicket in Galle after hurting his hamstring while batting on Saturday. Quinton de Kock will take his place behind the stumps and although the move may only be temporary, it is a sign of where the team’s future is headed.Although de Villiers was a prominent figure in South Africa’s pre-practice football game, Hashim Amla said he is “unlikely,” to appear behind the stumps in the first Test because his right hamstring has not fully recovered from the strain it suffered in the ODIs. The niggle will not rule de Villiers out of participating completely and he should still be able to bat in his regular position.As a result, South Africa seem to be planning their XI around the possibility of de Villiers batting only and de Kock keeping. “With Quinny playing, it changes the dynamic of the team,” Amla said. “We will probably have one spinner and then JP – luckily he played a pretty significant part in the one-day series as well. If need be, we will use Dean Elgar (to bowl) as well. He’s had a bit of a golden arm. But it would be great if we don’t need him.”South Africa were unlikely to go into the match with two specialist spinners in Imran Tahir and Dane Piedt so their bowling plan is as expected but the inclusion of de Kock impacts on their batting strategy. For now, it will likely keep last season’s first-class competition’s top run-scorer Stiaan van Zyl on the sidelines but in the long-term it could affect the top three.De Kock is an opening batsman by trade and has excelled in that role for the Lions. His first-class average sits at 47.15 and includes four centuries. He has not always kept wicket for the franchise and was not among the top run-scorers last season when international duty interrupted his domestic availability, which will probably keep him confined to the lower middle-order at the moment, but that could easily change.Effectively, de Kock’s inclusion has put both Alviro Petersen and Elgar on notice. Petersen has not scored a century since January 2013 – 18 months and 17 innings ago. That probably means the pressure is higher on him than Elgar who, if he opens, will only be doing it for the second time despite it being his regular position. A lean run for either of them could see de Kock move up and van Zyl slotted in lower down.It has also opened the door for de Villiers to move up the order if needed. To properly explain this, the de Villiers debate needs to be dusted off. One of the chief reasons de Villiers was not slotted into Jacques Kallis’ place higher-up was because it was considered a strain on him given that much was already expected of him at No.5 and he was keeping wicket.If the gloves are taken away and with de Villiers also not weighed down by the responsibility of leadership – he was one of the frontrunners for the captaincy as well – there would seem little reason not to make best use of him higher in the order. At the moment, Faf du Plessis is in the position and has done fairly well with two half-centuries against Australia so it would take a lean run or a rethink of tactics to displace him but neither are impossibilities.To put the wide-angled lens on it, de Kock’s probable presence in Wednesday’s XI, albeit forced, shows that South Africa are thinking of how their new-look team will present itself. They have a variety of combinations to consider and an impressive calibre of players to choose from. The trio of de Kock, Elgar and van Zyl have all proved their capabilities in the first-class set-up and all three of them could soon be playing alongside each other in the Test team.But in the immediate term, it means South Africa also have the excitement and the anxiety that comes with uncertainty. They are conducting experiments at the moment not operating as the well-oiled machine that rose to No.1 in August 2012 and stayed there for 20 months. At the same time, they are trying to regain that position and the only way they can do that over the next few months is by beating Sri Lanka in this series.Ordinarily, a task that tough would have weighed South Africa down but they appear genuinely buoyed by what is being asked of them. The infusion of youth, not just in age terms because both Elgar and van Zyl are 26 and not all that young anyway, but in terms of fresh mindset it is obvious in the current set-up. There are new ideas and the unburdening of de Villiers is only one of them that may be applied in the near future. Who knows what the others may be?Things stayed the same for so long in South African cricket that perhaps this time change is being embraced so tightly, South Africa don’t mind it coming in threes.

The normally aggressive Tamim Iqbal shed his attacking instincts on Monday to score an infectiously boring, but immensely vital half-century for Bangladesh

Devashish Fuloria in Khulna03-Nov-2014Tamim Iqbal used to be a good fielder once. Now, he is one of the slowest movers in the Bangladesh team. Even if some light concession is made for the rigours of seven-year long international career, Tamim’s fitness can be a cause of frustration mainly because he is only 25. While his team-mates spent times at the nets batting and bowling the day before, he was being made to run up and down the pitch in the middle.However, Bangladesh had no reason to complain about the slowness of Tamim’s innings on the first day. The opener shunned his often over-aggressive approach for a remarkably restrained effort, scoring an unbeaten 74 in 250 ball through the day. It may have not been Tamim’s best, but in terms of the time spent and the deliveries faced, it was his longest Test innings and given the year Bangladesh have had, by far his most important one.Yes, it was a first-day batting pitch on which there was zilch for either the seamers or the spinners once the ball got soft, but Bangladesh needed reassurance about their ability to bat long after the near-debacle in the first Test. Before the match, Mushfiqur Rahim had talked about playing for five days and had asked for more from his top order. Once he opted to bat, he wouldn’t have asked for anything more than one full day of boring batsmanship.In that sense, Tamim’s batting was infectiously boring. It engulfed Mominul Haque, who played 101 balls for 35, and Mahmudullah, who was out after scoring a 152-ball 56. But it was the kind of sleep-inducing pill Bangladesh would have been happy to swallow after the Mirpur roller-coaster.Since his consecutive hundreds in England during the summer of 2010, Tamim has gone 33 innings without a century before this Test. Those innings had come two years into his Test career and could have been the stepping stone of a smoother ride in Tests. The last four years have, however, been frustratingly static. And not just for Tamim, but for the team itself. He is one of the best batsmen to come out of Bangladesh and he has known it all along.The problem for Bangladesh was that Tamim through the years has been consistently brilliant in his shot-making and frustratingly inconsistent in hitting high scores. In allowing their opener to feed his naturally aggressive game, the middle order has often had to deal with the loss of their top batsman and the need to build an innings at the same time. There is also the added pressure on individuals to be charismatic, and ambitious like Tamim. For a talented but inexperienced batting line-up, that is too heady a cocktail.So it would have been disconcerting and refreshingly soothing for his team-mates this morning to see Tamim leave and defend. The only fielder in the deep for most part of the first session was the fine leg. There was a packed cordon behind him and only two men in front of square on the off side. Few of Tamim’s drives were cut off by the cover fielder who stood back a few paces but if that irked Tamim, he did not show it. He resisted, and defended, and left the others alone. By lunch he had played out 83 balls for 27. Mominul followed the senior partner, playing out 75 balls.

Tamim’s batting was infectiously boring. It engulfed Mominul Haque, who played 101 balls for 35, and Mahmudullah, who was out after scoring a 152-ball 56. But it was the kind of sleep-inducing pill Bangladesh would have been happy to swallow after the Mirpur roller-coaster.

Tamim lost Mominul after lunch, but didn’t budge from his method. It took him 86 deliveries in the second session to score the 23 he needed for his half-century, his slowest in Tests. Mahmudullah joined in and made an attempt changing the tempo of the innings. That probably helped Tamim stay in his bubble. Towards the latter half of the day, he battled cramps, first in his legs, then in his right hand, but there were no cracks in his concentration.Mahmudullah complimented Tamim’s batting after the game, saying, “He batted very well, played 250 balls today. He might have had reached century if he had played his own game which is aggressive. I think he worked very hard the whole day and batted respecting the behaviour of the pitch.”It was a statement of intent on how Bangladesh were going to approach this Test. For once, scoring runs was not the priority, staying in the middle was. The expectant Khulna crowd waited and waited to let their team know they were there to support them, but for once, the batsmen derived the strength from within. By no means have they turned a corner or taken control of this match, but among the umpteen processes the team often refer to, it could be the one that needs perfecting.Although they did not score many runs, Bangladesh did not lose wickets in clumps. That is immediately better than lots of wickets for not many runs, whatever the run rate. The pitch will break and will provide the necessary excitement, but till then, Bangladesh would hope Tamim and other batsmen continue to spread some boredom.

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2015Tillakaratne Dilshan also got among the runs, unleashing several blistering strokes•Getty ImagesDilshan and Thirimanne added 122 runs for the first wicket•Getty ImagesBangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza bowled an impressive opening spell but without any luck. He nursed figures of 10-0-53-0•AFPBangladesh’s first, and only, wicket arrived in the 25th over when Thirimanne hit Rubel Hossain straight to third man•AFPKumar Sangakkara, playing his 400th ODI, ensured the momentum wasn’t disrupted, muscling 13 fours and a six•AFPIt gave Dilshan the space and freedom to bring up a 21st century•Getty ImagesThere was no end to Bangladesh’s fielding woes, as Taskin Ahmed dropped a return chance offered by Sangakkara•AFPAnd the batsman took full advantage, completing his 22nd ODI ton, the fastest in his career•Getty ImagesDilshan and Sangakkara shared an unbroken partnership of 210, as Sri Lanka posted a total of 332•Getty ImagesBangladesh started the chase poorly, with Lasith Malinga bowling Tamim Iqbal in the second ball of the innings. Soumya Sarkar counterattacked with a quickfire 25 but was dismissed by Angelo Mathews in the sixth over•AFPSri Lanka’s fielding, though, was just as shoddy as Bangladesh’s; Suranga Lakmal cut a dejected figure after Dilshan put down Anamul Haque•Getty ImagesShakib Al Hasan, who scored 46, put on 64 runs for the sixth wicket with Mushfiqur Rahim•Getty ImagesBut they were unable to push on and really threaten Sri Lanka’s score. Sabbir Rahman, coming in at No.8, was the only Bangladesh batsman to pass 50•Getty ImagesMortaza was the eighth batsman to be dismissed with the score on 228•AFPDilshan finished with two wickets to top up a great day with the bat, and was adjudged the Player-of-the-Match. Malinga picked up three wickets, too, as Sri Lanka won by 92 runs, their second victory of the tournament•AFP

Plays of the day from the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals

Karthik Krishnaswamy16-Apr-2015Point-blank RahaneKL Rahul had just come to the crease, and David Warner, having raced to 21 off 14, was eager to get back on strike. So when Rahul tried to work Tim Southee into the leg side and sent a leading edge running away to the left of Ajinkya Rahane at backward point, Warner set off for the single. It was going towards Rahane’s weaker hand, so he had to move around the ball to get within throwing range, but maybe the batsmen hadn’t realised how close it was to him. Or how quickly Rahane would move to it. By the time he had swooped down low and set himself up to throw, Warner still had plenty of pitch to cover, and gave up sprinting, slowing to a trot and hoping Rahane would miss the stumps. He wouldn’t. Warner was out by a good four feet.Faulkner’s foot-faultSunrisers Hyderabad had stuttered to 55 for 3 in 10 overs, and they looked to have lost their fourth wicket off the second ball of the 11th, when Naman Ojha, hurried into a pull by a quick short ball from James Faulkner, top-edged a catch to the wicketkeeper. The umpires asked Ojha to wait; they wanted to check Faulkner’s front foot. Had he overstepped? The third umpire pondered this question for what seemed the duration of a normal Twenty20 innings, including strategic time-outs, from every possible angle. And all the care and attention was warranted; it really needed that many replays to confirm that while Faulkner’s heel had landed right on the back edge of the popping crease, no part of it was behind the line.Pravin and outIn his previous over, Pravin Tambe had bowled Ojha, ripping a quick, sharp legbreak past his outside edge. Now, with the left-handed Eoin Morgan on strike, he tossed the ball up a bit slower, enticing him to try and drive him down the ground. Morgan fell for the bait, didn’t get to the pitch, and saw the ball turn away from him rather than into him. Overbalancing, he turned back, expecting the keeper to have stumped him, but Sanju Samson had failed to deal with the extra bounce, and the ball had cannoned off his gloves. Having survived that close call, Morgan played his favourite shot off the next ball – the reverse-sweep. The ball was too full for the shot, though, and it hit his pad in front of middle stump, almost on the half-volley. The umpire’s finger went up, and Tambe roared in celebration.Plumb, not givenAjinkya Rahane was on 9 when Trent Boult swung one into him from left-arm over. The ball thudded into Rahane’s front pad, which had wandered across the stumps, and left his bat no room to come down and connect with the attempted flick. Boult spun around to appeal, arms imploringly wide. It looked plumb – pitching on middle, hitting below the knee-roll, hitting middle stump – and replays only confirmed it. But umpire Paschim Pathak didn’t think so.Pandemonium at the deathSomehow, having had seven wickets in hand to get 12 runs from 12 balls, Rajasthan Royals had managed to get themselves into a potentially losing situation. They needed 4 off 5 when Praveen Kumar bowled a wide-ish yorker that Stuart Binny jabbed away to the left of point. Eoin Morgan stopped it with a full-length dive, and bounced onto his feet to find an uncertain Binny stuck halfway down the pitch. Morgan fired a throw at the bowler’s end and missed, with Binny still yards short. Ravi Bopara, running in from mid-on, also failed to collect the ball properly.

Plenty of rain, blistering innings, game-changing spells and other stand-out moments from the final week of the group stage of IPL 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff18-May-2015The rainmen
Looking for monsoons? Don’t check satellite pictures, check Royal Challengers Bangalore’s schedule. They had two of their first 11 games affected by rain. In the last week, though, that strike rate improved to 100%. They found rain in Mohali, then found some more in Hyderabad, and as they returned to Bangalore, the clouds arrived one more time.The commentary pearl
“It is the googly that will help the boys from the Hoogly,”
IPL presenter Gaurav Kapoor, on the possibility of a double wash-out on Sunday, which would have helped Kolkata Knight Riders qualify for playoffs.The ball of the week
Despite the cacophony from the sound system, quiet prevailed at the Wankhede the moment Sunil Narine bowled Rohit Sharma with his best slow-motion impression of a Dale Steyn delivery – the ball angling in, then turning away past the outside edge to hit the top of off.The slip of the week
With four needed off two balls, Virat Kohli swung Bhuvneshwar Kumar down the ground. David Warner took the catch in the deep and was even starting to celebrate just before he stepped on to the boundary. This is what he had to say:

Kids if you watched tonight's game make sure you check for the boundary rope. Costly mistake.1 more game to go we can fight back @SunRisers

— David Warner (@davidwarner31) May 15, 2015

The set-up
Chennai Super Kings had crawled to 16 for 0 in five overs, with Zaheer Khan keeping the openers on leash. In the sixth over, a twitchy Brendon McCullum tried to reverse-scoop, then charged down the pitch, played a cut, but couldn’t score. Desperate, he could only mis-time the last ball to mid-off, giving Zaheer a wicket maiden.The shot of the week
With12 required off four balls, Bhuvneshwar bowled a perfect yorker. Kohli calmly guided it to the point boundary. Seeing the batsman premeditating a scoop over short fine leg, Bhuvneshwar then bowled a wide yorker. At the last instant, Kohli adjusted the stroke and bisected point and short third man.The innings of the week
Shane Watson’s return to the Rajasthan Royals side had coincided with the team’s poor run this year. Under pressure, Watson even gave up the captaincy. Then, in a must-win match, he brought his top game. He started with crisp boundaries in the first over, then reached his second T20 century off 59 balls with a boundary in the last over of the innings.The scare
Kings XI Punjab were all but out of the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad when they needed close to 15 an over from the last six overs. David Miller, however, started teeing off and brought it down to 28 off the last over. Sunrisers waited nervously as Miller smashed the first four balls from Ishant Sharma for 16 runs, but missed the penultimate ball. Just to make a point of how close he was, Miller smashed the last ball for a six too.The spell of the week
In a game that saw batsmen ransack 389 runs from 40 overs, one bowler stood out with figures of 4 for 23. Rajasthan Royals’ Chris Morris picked up a wicket in his first over and just when Kolkata Knight Riders were threatening the 200-run target, he returned to pick up three more.The thunderbolts
A bowler getting smashed by Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers is a given. A bowler picking up the two batsmen off consecutive deliveries is a rarity. And no, it wasn’t Trent Boult.Moises Henriques was having an excellent day: he had hit a 22-ball 57 and it got better as Gayle pulled one straight to midwicket before de Villiers mistimed a loft to long-on.The guest appearance
Sachin Tendulkar still rules the Wankhede. As the camera focused on the actor Amitabh Bachhan being interviewed on the sidelines, the fans began to roar. But the moment it moved to the tiny man standing next to the tall actor, the noise rose to deafening levels. “Saaachin, Sachin,” still echoes.

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jul-2015Rahat Ali struck early to bowl Dimuth Karunaratne in the seventh over•AFPIt was Ehsan Adil’s turn to celebrate as he removed Kaushal Silva in the very next over•AFPThree overs later, Rahat bowled Lahiru Thirimanne for a duck to leave Sri Lanka struggling at 35 for 3. They went to lunch on 55 for 3•AFPHowever, captain Angelo Mathews got Sri Lanka out of trouble with the help of an 81-run stand with Jehan Mubarak. Sri Lanka went to stumps on 228 for 5 in their second innings, stretching their lead to 291•AFP

For many Indians across North America, the three-match All-Star series has turned into a chance for a pilgrimage – partly to watch legendary cricketers playing but mostly to see one man

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan 08-Nov-2015For Rahul Shrivatsav, a 38-year-old catering director in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the events of February 28 and March 1, 2003, are etched in his head. He was holidaying in Florida, celebrating his first wedding anniversary, but his mind was fixated on spending the night in a local Pakistani restaurant, to watch India play Pakistan in the World Cup.”I tried everything I could to convince my wife that I had to watch Sachin play that game,” he says, “but she said, ‘No, our anniversary is more important.'”Twelve-and-a-half years later Shrivatsav’s wife, Sarah, surprised him by booking a ticket for the first All-Star game in Citi Field in New York – an event that required him to take a one-and-a-half hour flight one way.”You have been feeling bad about 2003 for all these years,” she told him. “If you don’t go now, you will feel bad forever.”When Shrivatsav arrived at Citi Field on Saturday and caught a glimpse of Tendulkar gearing up – the first time he had seen Tendulkar in the flesh since 2001 – he broke down.”I didn’t even realise I was crying initially,” he says. “But then I thought, it would actually be a shock if I didn’t cry.”‘He is moving on from his father’s death by doing what he does best. Why can’t I do the same? Why can’t I too put my mother’s death behind and make her proud’ – Rahul Shrivatsav•Rahul ShrivatsavShrivatsav moved out of India in 1997, first to Australia then to the US. From the time he moved out, he is certain he has seen “almost every ball that Sachin faced in international cricket on TV or online” – mostly live but occasionally recorded “because sometimes one has to work also.”Over the last few years Shrivatsav has maintained a daily log on Facebook and Snapchat – “I want to document how I feel at different points of my day: when I run, when I cook, when I travel.” There is an update every hour or so – “sometimes more sometimes less” – and when he revisits the log every few days he finds most of his updates have a reference to Tendulkar.”If I ever write my memoir,” he says, “it will actually be Sachin’s memoir.”***For many Indians across North America, the three-match All-Star series has turned into a chance for a pilgrimage – partly to watch legendary cricketers playing but mostly to see one man. A group of engineers from Toronto, another group of graduate students from State College in Pennsylvania, an IT consultant from Connecticut, an assistant professor from North Carolina: all undertaking journeys (in cars or flights) to be in Citi Field, for Sachin.For some, who moved to the US in the 1990s, Tendulkar was first a gaping absence. The internet was at its infancy and unless you invested in a satellite dish of your own, it was close to impossible to watch international cricket live. Every trip to India was a chance to hoard VHS tapes (on which relatives had recorded international games, especially ones with Tendulkar’s dazzling knocks) and, later, Video CDs. Graduate students ravaged college libraries for Indian newspapers and magazines; some caught scores on BBC’s radio service; others called home during important games – with extra money they had saved up through the month – to find out if Tendulkar was still batting, how he was batting and why nobody was lending support.

If they were all not there applauding every little thing I did I would not have got even one-tenth the satisfaction and happiness that I have got in my lifeSachin Tendulkar on his fans

Sometime in the early 2000s the internet provided them a new lease of life. But not without its own challenges: connections were unreliable, streams were hard to find and a number of games weren’t telecast live. For graduate students, their best bet was to make a trip to their computer labs (mostly late at night) and take in the action in low volume. College work took a backseat. Sleep patterns went for a toss. And often, after a three-match or five-match series, the body was jet-lagged for a few days. Social life? What’s that?All through these years – studying in small towns in the US, shivering through icy winters, acclimating oneself with the accent, the food and limited (and often nonexistent) public transport – there was one unchanging factor: they had watched Tendulkar batting when they had lived in India; they were watching Tendulkar batting when living in the US. They had gone nuts watching his cover drive when back home – holding the follow-through for that millisecond longer, as if posing for the cameras, then nodding his head. They were watching the same cover drive – same tock, same pose, same nod – when living abroad. Life was variable; Tendulkar was constant.***Rohan Shirwaiker (right), an assistant professor in North Carolina State University, lost sleep watching Sachin and Amit Goda (left) has a friend who has a friend who taught Sachin how to tie a tie•Siddartha VaidyanathanRohan Shirwaiker, a 32-year-old assistant professor in North Carolina State University, drove ten hours to get to Citi Field on Saturday for his first sighting of Tendulkar in ten years. A few minutes before the game, he was “terribly nervous”, still coming to terms with the fact that he is within touching distance of “him”.Over the last ten years Shirwaiker estimates that he has slept on fewer nights than he has not. “It’s Sachin, man,” he says with a blush. “You have to stay up. In the mornings, my students tell me, ‘Sir, we fell asleep but we knew you would tell us about all that happened.'”On March 30, 2011, Shirwaiker was scheduled to attend a job interview in Florida. “I requested them if I could postpone it because India were playing Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final in Mohali on the same day. They said no. So I cancelled my flight and booked another one a few hours later, so that I could see as much of the game as possible. I couldn’t see the whole match but Sachin’s innings, I saw.”Does he think he played a small part in India’s win by delaying his flight? He blushes again but quickly adds, “One of my wife’s relatives once took a restroom break when Tendulkar reached a hundred. So from then on, every time Sachin was in the 90s we used to request that relative to take a restroom break.”Shirwaiker was at the game with his friend, Amit Goda, a 32-year-old chemical engineer based in New Jersey. They are part of a Whatsapp group that discusses cricket “but before he retired, mostly Sachin”. Goda has a friend whose friend apparently taught Tendulkar to tie a tie. This may sound like a useless bit of information but in the Tendulkar universe this is an essential tidbit: everybody has a friend (or a friend’s friend or a friend’s friend’s friend) who has a connection with Tendulkar. Usually, the farther you get from the man, the more interesting is the yarn.***Ankur Jhaveri (right) and Ayush Gupta (left) at the Cricket All-Stars game in New York•Siddartha VaidyanathanTendulkar has friends who moved to the US in the 1990s. He kept in touch with some of them – “many of them have become big doctors and big businessmen now,” he told ESPNcricinfo – and is aware of the lengths they have gone to watch him bat over the years. “My friends would invariably tell me, ‘We sat in a big group and watched you bat.'” Some would fly to watch him live. Some others would send a kind word via email.Tendulkar may be playing cricket in the US for the first time but he has always known that the expatriate population has been tracking him like a hawk. “Their support has given me the strength to go out there and perform,” he says. “If they were all not there applauding every little thing I did I would not have got even one-tenth the satisfaction and happiness that I have got in my life. All the good moments have been multiplied many-fold thanks to them. The reason to come here is to get them to come to stadiums and to watch us play.”

They had gone nuts watching his cover drive when back home. They were watching the same cover drive when living abroad. Life was variable; Tendulkar was constant.

And turn up they did. Mayank Jhaveri, a 23-year-old IT consultant, flew in from Connecticut. His cousin, Ankur Jhaveri, an engineer, drove from Toronto. Ankur’s friend Ayush Gupta, another engineer, says he might have thought twice about coming if Tendulkar wasn’t there but “there was no question once he was here. No question.”Back in 1997 Shrivatsav, the catering director from Ann Arbor, lost his mother. He also lost his passion for cricket and entered a downward spiral. He still watched Tendulkar batting but the rest of the time, he was “moping around, grieving, lost”. Then came the World Cup in 1999, a time when Tendulkar had to fly back home owing to the death of his father.”And then he came back and played that game against Kenya,” says Shrivatsav, his eyes enlarged. “Now that was a huge turning point in my life. I told myself, ‘Look at Sachin. He is moving on from his father’s death by doing what he does best. Why can’t I do the same? Why can’t I too put my mother’s death behind and make her proud.”The moment when Tendulkar looked up the skies in Bristol, after completing his century against Kenya, was a moment that Shrivatsav says he can never forget. “Every time I see that image or that match, I burst into tears. It was a great moment, I tell you. A great, great moment.”

Geraint Jones plays the final match of his 16-year career at Lord’s tomorrow, ten years on from the defining moment of his life

Andrew Miller18-Sep-2015Geraint Jones is back in familiar surroundings. Leaning on the upper balcony of the Underwood Knott stand at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, he’s back at the county that he’ll always call home.”Kent has been a huge part of my career, the major part of my career,” he tells ESPNcricinfo. “Without the opportunities here I wouldn’t have had the career I had. I do enjoy coming back here, I know all the Kent guys, it’s easy to come and have a chat with them. I’ve watched all the changes in the ground from when I first arrived – the old [lime] tree was still standing, none of the development had happened. I’ve really seen Kent evolve over the years.”His 15 seasons with the club were spent living up to some of the grandest reputations in English wicketkeeping, and he let no-one down in that regard – 14 hundreds and more than 450 dismissals in 150 first-class appearances, plus 34 Test caps, confirm his right to be mentioned in the same breath as Les Ames, Godfrey Evans and Alan Knott, the most illustrious of his precedessors.But Jones’s last hurrah comes as neither a Kent player nor a wicketkeeper. It takes place tomorrow against Surrey at Lord’s, as Gloucestershire’s No.4 in the final of the Royal London Cup.It’s a send-off that Jones could hardly have envisaged at the start of what had threatened to be a tricky final summer. With the emergence of Sam Billings encouraging his quest for pastures new, Jones’ initial plan after relocating from Canterbury to Bristol had been to serve a two-year term as the county’s four-day captain. However, it quickly became apparent that the fire in his belly was not burning quite as brightly as it once had.In July he stepped down as captain and announced his impending retirement, having read the runes in a fast-developing changing-room and recognised that, in the twilight of his career and with a glut of young players seeking first-team opportunities as well as an ambitious new coaching partnership of Richard Dawson and Ian Harvey at the helm, his presence in the side was proving more of a hindrance than a help.”I could have hung on and carried on playing, but it got to a point that it felt right,” he says. “A young squad needed to work out a few things about some players moving forward. At 39 I’m not getting any younger, so it was in the best interests of the squad. This is Daws’ first year, he inherited the squad, he inherited me as captain of the four-day stuff. And I had my family to consider. It just felt all right.”But then, barely a week after he’d made his decision, Iain Cockbain, Jones’ replacement as four-day leader and a shoo-in in all formats, suffered a broken wrist while batting in the nets at Cheltenham. And, as Dawson succinctly put it, Gloucestershire responded by putting another token in the coin-op, as the old stager was restored to centre stage for the Royal London leg of the summer.”Iain Cockbain was our first name on the team-sheet in white-ball cricket,” Jones says. “I might not have featured had he not been ruled out. But his injury gave me my chance and to go all the way to a Lord’s final and hopefully lift the trophy at the home of cricket, it’s incredible really.”Gloucestershire go into the final under no illusions about their underdog status. The phenomenal form of Michael Klinger, with 531 runs at 132.75, has been the single biggest factor in their re-emergence as a one-day force. But Jones’ role as the experienced old lag in the middle-order has been invaluable at several crunch stages of the competition, not least the quarter-final victory over Hampshire, when he sealed their progression with a six in the penultimate over.”I’ve been very happy with my contribution,” Jones says. “I’ve batted at 4 which is new to me, but it’s a responsibility that I’ve really enjoyed. The fact that the games were pretty regular allowed me to stay in form, and I felt that I did really contribute in the early rounds, and the quarter final.””The good thing about us playing Surrey is they are a known factor,” he adds. “We played them in the T20s and lost off the last ball, then in the rounds of the competition we lost a fairly close game. We know what we are getting. They’ll have Jason Roy back who’s been playing well for England and Kumar [Sangakkara] had that incredible knock [in the semi-final against Nottinghamshire] but we quietly fancy our chances because we know what we are up against.”The big factor will be to enjoy it. To get to the final, the hard work has been done in a way. The more you can enjoy it, the better your day will be. I won’t put too much pressure on myself, I just want to enjoy the day, enjoy it with my team-mates, and hopefully at the end of the day the right result for us will have happened.”There’s a clear serenity to Jones’ final days in the game. His time is up and he’s not afraid to embrace it, but his future is mapped out to a greater degree than that of many retiring sportsmen. He’ll always have his family farm to keep him busy – (“There are a few jobs that need doing,” he concedes, “a bit of weeding and some fences to mend”) – but his next full-time step will be a job as the cricket professional at Brentwood School in Essex, where he’ll be doubling up as the third XI football coach during the winter months.Jones has played some key roles in Gloucestershire’s run to the Royal London final•Getty Images”I knew I wanted to stay within cricket,” says Jones. “I’ll be working with talented youngsters, nurturing guys in the Essex set-up, and maybe helping a few guys get to first-class level. But it’s not just the upper end, hopefully I’ll be showing my love for the game to anyone who wants to do it at the school.”It is a role, he admits, that had been bubbling in the background even before his move to Gloucestershire. “As a cricketer you do worry when you’re coming to an end,” he says. “Getting a real job, taking the next step, what are you going to do? So to have this opportunity helped me make my mind up.”If the timing seems apposite, then it is merely a continuation of a season-long theme for Jones, for whom barely a day has been allowed to pass without reference to the summer of all summers, ten now-distant years ago.It is ten years to the week, in fact, since Jones was recovering from the greatest hangover of his life, following the open-top bus celebrations and the party in Trafalgar Square that heralded the end of England’s 18-year wait for the Ashes.”It’s reaffirmed to me how great a summer that was,” Jones says. “The matches, the way the public got involved, the disbelief at the people who came to watch us on the bus. People are still thinking about it, but for me it was the best time of my life, without doubt.”The summer wasn’t without its stresses, however, with Jones’ glovework in particular coming under scrutiny from first ball to last. And yet, when it came to the crunch, on that unforgettable Sunday morning at Edgbaston, his nerve held firm as he swooped to scoop that catch off Michael Kasprowicz, to seal the two-run victory that changed Ashes history.”It’s the only moment I’ll be remembered for, to be honest,” he laughs. “That’s what I tell everyone. I’ll be remembered for one catch. It came to me in slow motion in my mind, I’m watching it go into my gloves and rolling over, then seeing Billy [Bowden]’s crooked finger go up, and then me going a bit mental.”Again I’m happy with that. It was a big moment, not only in that series, but such an iconic moment in Ashes cricket. To be the man with gloves at that moment, taking the catch, is a very special memory to have.”He’s been storing up the memories in the final days of his career, but Jones still hopes that there’s one last triumph to come.”Gloucestershire are a side who, two or three years down the line, can be a very competitive team so to get to a final this year has probably surprised me,” he says.”The bowling aspect has really impressed me. They are local lads in their early 20s, who’ve really stood up in white-ball cricket. Liam Norwell has had a breakthrough year, Craig Miles is in the development programmes, David Payne has been brilliant bowling at the death.”And then there’s Jack Taylor, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with the amount of belief he has, he’s won two or three games off his own back, with the bat more than anything. As a group they can get better with that belief in each other, but individually they are very exciting.But Surrey are a good side, a young side themselves, the transition they’ve been through is what you are seeing with English cricket as well, and it’s the right way to go about things. Graham Ford had some wonderful years at Kent and I’ve a huge admiration for him and Alec Stewart. But I’d still like to beat them, that’s for sure.”

ESPNcricinfo’s wrap of the third week of the Women’s Big Bash League

Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins01-Jan-20164:02

Thunder move to third spot

If only we could write down a guitar riff as a headline
Thunderstruck. That’s what the Perth Scorchers were on the fourth weekend of the WBBL, after the angry limes of the Sydney Thunder travelled across the Nullarbor to smash the home side twice from two outings.A win is one thing, but this was something else: the Thunder nailed the biggest second-innings score of the tournament to nail an imposing chase, the day after a dominant fielding display bowled out Perth well short of a smaller target.Put simply, the Scorchers never got near them.West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor was central. She’s hardly been noticed, but she’s 30 runs from top-scoring for the tournament, with innings in hand over Charlotte Edwards and Beth Mooney. Her consistency has been the thing: 59*, 30, 35, 11, 43, 59 and 57, as well as chipping in to bowl 22 overs.With Alex Blackwell at the helm for the Thunder, Taylor must be feeling liberated by being able to just play. There was a sense of calm when she faced down a target of 153, combining with Rachael Haynes for a 118-run opening partnership that wasn’t broken until the 16th over. On the back of that effort, the Thunder surged to 2 for 156 with two balls to go on.Taylor was also central to the Thunder’s first score of 139, and dismissed Perth captain Nicole Bolton in the chase. Three run-outs showed the tension in the middle and the concentration the Thunder had mustered, and every one of their bowlers chipped in.This might be the most underrated bowling attack in the comp, but it might also be the best, featuring two Australian internationals and two future Southern Stars. Seamer Rene Farrell was player of the match in defending a small target in England to clinch the Ashes with a game to spare, and off-spinner Erin Osborne is one of the most experienced players around. At the other end of their careers, are Lauren Cheatle and Nicola Carey.Cheatle is a left-arm seam sensation who has just turned 17, has played in every Thunder game so far, and has never failed to take a wicket. The 22-year-old right-armer Carey has perhaps had the most consistent tournament of anyone: she’s bowled her full allotment in every match so far, returning 1 for 16, 2 for 18, 0 for 18, 1 for 27, 1 for 20, 1 for 25 and 1 for 18, as well as nailing the winning runs in that big chase. Higher honours await.Perth sun ends up scorching its own
The Scorchers bought trouble for themselves, when the Perth sun that gives them their name baked down at near 40 degrees the day after Boxing Day. They’d already beaten the Melbourne Stars the previous day, and did the same the next morning, but had to follow up with a match against the Thunder that afternoon and another on December 28. It was an overly demanding schedule for a professional team.The best part about the weekend was the return to form of Charlotte Edwards. The England captain had struggled through the early stages of the competition, making 12, 8, 6 and 7 in her previous four games before this round. One she got going on the fourth weekend, her three successful innings yielded 210 runs for once dismissed, which has rocketed her to third on the table.Her pair of 61s meant that Perth easily chased down the Stars’ two scores of 102 and 127, aided by fellow opener Elyse Villani in one instance. Captain Nicole Bolton continued shifting herself around in the order, the Australian opener having surrendered her opening spot to Edwards now dropped to four to accommodate West Indies belter Deandra Dottin.Dottin duly hit the first six of the weekend, but admitted to nerves as her four innings included a duck and a 0 not out. In the end the problem wasn’t the batting, especially with Edwards’ majestic 88 not out propelling Perth to what should have been a winning score. It was their bowlers’ inability, Katherine Brunt aside, to contain the Thunder bats. After that weekend, Perth sat very much mid-table with 10 of their 14 games played.No Lanning, no Stars?
When a team has a player on the books as premier as Meg Lanning it is easy to fall into the trap of over-reliance. That increasingly looks the tale of the Melbourne Stars, who in the space of three games have dropped from top of the ladder to sixth.Halfway through their regular season fixtures, and now very much back in the pack at 4-3, the pressure is on the Stars to find alternatives to winning beyond than depending on their genius skipper.Their unbeaten run of four wins at the start of the tournament corresponded with Lanning contributions of 90, 75 not out, 58 and 37 not out. In a word: dominance. Her last three hands, in losing efforts, would be satisfactory for normal players, but relative fails by Lanning standards: 20, 27 and 19.The problem is highlighted when looking down the Stars’ depth chart. Only one other player – opener Katie Mack – has scored more than 100 tournament runs, and none has passed 50 in any innings.One who needs to step up is England’s marquee all-rounder Natalie Sciver. She is playing her part consistently with the ball, but in the women’s Ashes we saw how effective she can be with the bat; a modest 92 WBBL runs doesn’t reflect her talent or poise.Without some other players stepping up, the Stars will be more a mid-table tease than a legitimate contender.Lights, camera, action
We’re enjoying a treat over the fifth weekend, with a carnival of five games in Hobart between the competition’s three leading teams, the Hurricanes hosting the Heat and the Thunder.The biggest stage in world cricket, the MCG, will be the venue for a pair of Melbourne derbies. The Renegades have been well off the pace so far, but the incentive to do damage to their cross-town rivals will ensure those contests are keenly fought.The first will not only appear on TV, but has been moved to Channel Ten’s main channel, signaling the early success of commercial television coverage for the WBBL.In Adelaide, the round began with the Strikers defeat of the Scorchers on New Year’s Eve, and continues with two games on New Year’s Day.