Australia’s captain Michael Clarke has signed off from the West Indies by opening up the possibility of Matthew Wade retaining his Test place as a batsman should Brad Haddin return as the Test gloveman next summer

Daniel Brettig at Windsor Park28-Apr-2012Australia’s captain Michael Clarke has signed off from the West Indies by opening up the possibility of Matthew Wade retaining his Test place as a batsman should Brad Haddin return as the Test gloveman next summer.Wade’s pitch-defying century in Dominica earned him man-of-the-match honours in the final Test of a 2-0 series win over West Indies, and also demonstrated his skills as a batsman. It is an exceedingly rare thing in Australian cricket for a wicketkeeper to make the national side on his batting alone, though Adam Gilchrist and Haddin both played as batsmen in the ODI team while waiting for their predecessors to step aside.”I think if he plays the way he’s been playing there’s no doubt about it [he could play as a batsman],” Clarke said. “And his numbers say that for Victoria. He’s a wonderful wicketkeeper but I think that his batting’s got a lot of potential too. He plays spin as good as anyone.”Like I said, I think he has learned a hell of a lot throughout the one-day series about different conditions and playing spin in Australia compared to playing spin in the Caribbean, which will help him going into the subcontinent. And we’ve got a Test tour coming up over in India.”There’s a lot of cricket to be played before any of the selectors have to worry about the next XI or the next squad of 15 for our next Test series, but Wadey, hopefully, will continue to perform in the shorter form until the next Test match comes around.”Clarke, an avowed friend and supporter of Haddin, declined to repeat his pre-Test assertion that his New South Wales team-mate would automatically return to the keeping spot for Australia’s next Test, against South Africa in November, should he make himself available. However he remained staunch in his support for Haddin, who withdrew from this tour due to a serious family matter.”I’ve made it very clear that think Wadey’s done everything in his power to put as much pressure on the selectors as possible,” Clarke said. “What I also said was that if Brad was available for this tour he would have played the first Test match. I think it’s great there’s competition as a batter, as a bowler, as a wicketkeeper. It’s fantastic for the game. How lucky are we in an Australian cricket team to have either Brad Haddin or Matthew Wade available for selection in the Test team?”I think, Wadey, if he plays like that, certainly will continue to put pressure on not only the wicketkeeper’s spot but a batsman’s position too. That’s something the selectors will have to worry about in time.”I will still continue to support anybody that plays for this Australian team. Even though Brad’s not here on this tour. My friendship, yes … but also [because of] his experience, his knowledge, his success as a Test player, I’ll continue to support him, as I will always support Wadey. I think he’s done fantastically in the shorter form of the game. He got his first opportunity here in Test cricket and he’s grabbed it with both hands so there’s nothing more he can do and now it’s up to the selectors, when the time comes, to make a decision.”For his part, Wade said he had derived great satisfaction from developing as a wicketkeeper and a batsman in conditions as foreign as any he has experienced. He also felt the tour would work in his favour ahead of the 2013 tour of India, which serves as the prelude to that year’s dual Ashes series.”Probably the all-round experience of coming over here in the one-day series without knowing too much about these conditions,” Wade said, when asked what he had found most rewarding. “Learning a lot in the first three one-dayers, as I’ve spoken about, in St Vincent and then continuing to develop my game in the nets with Justin Langer and Mickey Arthur, and trying to find my way in difficult conditions against spin bowling. So, probably that’s most pleasing thing, going home knowing that I’ve learned a hell of a lot and I’m improving.”I’ve been to the subcontinent a couple of times but only to play the short formats of the game. These conditions are very similar, I’ve been told. So, fingers crossed, if I get an opportunity to play, hopefully I can bring what I’ve learned here to the subcontinent and do my stuff.”

England have taken the oppportunity to rest Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann from the final match at Headingley on Friday

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jun-2012Having wrapped up the one-day series against West Indies with victory at The Oval, England have taken the opportunity to rest Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann from the final match at Headingley on Friday.Stuart Meaker, the Surrey fast bowler, Warwickshire allrounder Chris Woakes and Kent offspinner James Tredwell have been added into the squad. Woakes had already been drafted in as cover after Jade Dernbach was given compassionate leave following the death of Tom Maynard on Monday but Dernbach remains in the squad for the final ODI.Broad, who is the Twenty20 captain, was also rested for the final Test against West Indies at Edgbaston but for Bresnan and Swann, both part of the Twenty20 squad, it is the first England match of the season they will miss. Since the retirement from one-day cricket of Kevin Pietersen this trio are the only first-choice selections in all three formats.The players called into the squad all have previous ODI experience with Meaker making his debut against India last October and playing two matches in the series. Woakes, who was originally on that tour before pulling out injured, has played four matches which include taking 6 for 45 against Australia at Brisbane, the second-best figures for England in ODIs.Tredwell, meanwhile, was the reserve spinner in the Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year and last appeared in a one-day international in the World Cup quarter-final against Sri Lanka in Colombo. In the game before that, against West Indies, he took a match-winning 4 for 48 to keep England alive in the tournament.Geoff Miller, the national selector, said: “The fact that we have already won the NatWest series means we are able to take the opportunity to rest three players ahead of next week’s series against Australia and take a closer look at players who are likely to feature in our limited overs planning going forward.”England played the same side in both the first two matches, winning by 114 runs at West End and eight wickets at The Oval, meaning Dernbach, Samit Patel and Jonny Bairstow from the original squad have yet to feature.Revised squad Alastair Cook (capt), Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Craig Kieswetter, Jonny Bairstow, Samit Patel, Chris Woakes, James Tredwell, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Jade Dernbach, Stuart Meaker

Prashant Chopra, the Himachal Pradesh batsman, has been recalled to the India Under-19 squad for the World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-2012Prashant Chopra, the Himachal Pradesh batsman, has been recalled to the India Under-19 squad for the World Cup. Unmukt Chand will continue to captain the team, assisted by Akshdeep Nath.

India Under-19 squad for the World Cup

Unmukt Chand (capt), Akshdeep Nath (vice-capt), Manan Vohra, Akhil Herwadkar, Vijay Zol, Sandipan Das, Baba Aparajith, Prashant Chopra, Sandeep Sharma, Kamal Passi, Rush Kalaria, Mohsin Sayyed, Smit Patel (wk), Harmeet Singh, Vikas Mishra
In: Prashant Chopra
Out: Sanju Samson, Ravikant Singh

Chopra had played in the quadrangular series in Australia in April, which also featured New Zealand and England, but was not picked for the recently-concluded Asia Cup. He played five List A games for Himachal in the 2011-12 domestic season, scoring a half-century that helped set up a win against Services.Wicketkeeper batsman Sanju Samson and seamer Ravikant Singh, who were part of the Asia Cup squad, have missed out. Ravikant did not get a game at the Asia Cup, but Samson – who played as a specialist batsman – registered a highest score of 9 in four innings. India were joint-winners in the series, after tieing the final with Pakistan.India are placed in Group C for the World Cup, with West Indies, Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea. Their first match is on August 12, against West Indies. The tournament runs from August 11 to August 26 in Queensland, Australia.

South Africa’s batting line-up will have the equivalent of little more than two days of cricket before the first Test at The Oval next week

Firdose Moonda at Canterbury14-Jul-2012South Africa’s batting line-up will have the equivalent of little more than two days of cricket before the first Test at The Oval next week. Wet weather has dampened their preparations for the series, which they need to win to earn the No.1 ranking, but the team management remain confident that the players will be ready.”I think even if we were here for a month, we’d still struggle to get in a lot of preparation time,” Russell Domingo, the assistant coach said. “We knew this was going to happen but guys were saying, ‘We are mentally ready to play,’ after our camp in Switzerland.”When rain ended the second day’s play of the tour match in Kent after 22 overs, the South Africans had faced only 35 overs in the match to added to the 76.3 overs they had in Taunton. Even if they manage a full day in the middle on Sunday it will be little more than 200 overs before facing James Anderson and Stuart Broad.Some of those who have made it to the crease have not made full use of their opportunities either. Graeme Smith made 21 to follow the 10 he scored against Somerset, and has faced 57 deliveries across the two innings, while Alvrio Petersen, who missed the first warm-up match with a foot injury, also fell for 21 against Kent. Before this tour started Smith had not batted in a competitive situation since March, as he spent the off-season recovering from ankle surgery. Petersen at least has his stint in the County Championship with Essex to fall back on.These two men will face the first wave of attack from the English bowlers, who have all played over the last fortnight albeit in the one-day format, but Domingo was unconcerned about their lack of crease time. “There is just something about England and the way Graeme hits the ball in the nets, he really looks in good technical shape,” Domingo said. “Alviro has got two hundreds from his last four Test so he will take a lot of confidence from that. He batted for quite long in this innings and that’s as much as we could have hoped for.”Apart from Hashim Amla, who scored a half-century against Somerset and is undefeated on 36 in this match, South Africa’s middle order is also short of practice. Importantly though, JP Duminy, who is expected to come in at No.7 in the first Test after Mark Boucher withdrawal scored 53 in Taunton and looked comfortable against the short ball and spin – two types of bowling he has struggled against in the past – albeit against bowling of lower quality than he will face next week.Duminy’s second coming as a Test player was completed with his century in Wellington, earning him a place in the squad to play England ahead of Ashwell Prince, and Domingo believes the depth he brings will be important. “Having JP in the side is a good boost,” he said. “He adds a lot of depth and a lot of stability to our middle order which could be important considering how easily conditions change in England. With the ball swinging around and teams likely to lose two or three wickets in a cluster, depth in batting order is going to be very important.”Although Domingo would not confirm a Test XI, the team that South Africa are using in Kent is expected to be the same as the one they will field in the first Test. If that is the case specialist wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile, who replaced Boucher, will be on the sidelines bu Domingo said the team management have been transparent with Tsolekile as possible.”Initially when the squad was selected, Boucher was first-choice and AB de Villiers was the back-up keeper so that is the order of procession,” Domingo said. “I think Thami is very comfortable knowing that he is probably back up to AB for his Test series. He probably expected that before he got here and I think he knows where he stands. It’s important for players to know where they stand.”De Villiers has accepted the role of gloveman but admitted that he will have to monitor the state of his back. At the 2011 World Cup, he could not keep in five of South Africa’s seven matches but has since done the job in limited-overs cricket.South Africa’s bowlers have had two decent run outs so far and key players showed important improvements against Kent. Morne Morkel recovered from a poor showing in Taunton with a much more disciplined performance, taking 3 for 49 in 18 overs, and of particular interest was Imran Tahir’s bowling against the tail on the opening day.He picked up four wickets, which Domingo said reward for all the efforts Tahir has put in during training. “It’s refreshing seeing that type of spin bowler as an option for South Africa,” he said. “Graeme is learning how to deal with him, when to bowl him and who to bowl him to.”

Pakistan came within one wicket of compensating for a calamitous batting performance in the Under-19 World Cup quarter-final against India. Their captain Babar Azam said the narrow loss was very disappointing

George Binoy in Townsville20-Aug-2012Pakistan came within one wicket of compensating for a calamitous batting performance in the Under-19 World Cup quarter-final against India. They will now begin the contest for fifth place by playing West Indies on August 22.Having travelled north from Brisbane to Townsville, Pakistan were playing at the Tony Ireland Stadium for the first time. It had rained in the early hours of Monday and the skies were overcast. Yet, unlike most sides when playing strong bowling attacks at this venue, Pakistan chose to bat after winning the toss.The first hour has often yielded several wickets. England were 61 for 4 against Australia, and India were 50 for 4 against West Indies. Pakistan were 0 for 2 in the first over today.”We’ve been batting well [in the World Cup], so we’d thought we’d bat first, make 250,” Babar Azam, the Pakistan captain, said when asked why he did not choose to bowl. “But that did not happen, early on the boys played some bad shots and we got out for a low score – we made 136.”The first two wickets weren’t to bad balls or bad shots though. Sandeep Sharma’s swing from leg to off stump made the left-handers Sami Aslam and Iman-ul-Haq play and edge to second slip. The duty of stablising the innings was left to Azam.”When two wickets fell, I just decided to play carefully and try and take the team towards 250,” he said. “But I couldn’t do it, when I got to 50 I played a loose shot and got out.”Having seen off the more potent threats from India’s seamers, Azam had just brought up his half-century when he chipped an offbreak from Baba Aparajith straight to Unmukt Chand at midwicket, the softest of shots.”We thought if we made 150-160 we could beat India, we had that much confidence in our bowling,” Azam said. “Our score was too low, but we still managed to take it until the final overs.”Defending 137, Azam’s confidence in his bowlers was not misplaced. The first wicket to fall – Chand for a duck – was via a spectacular catch on the backward point boundary and every fielder and substitute ran towards Ehsan Adil to congratulate him. Two edges were caught in quick succession. After five overs Pakistan had India at 8 for 3.”In the first five overs we dismissed three batsmen. I thought we could make a comeback,” Azam said. “There was a partnership and at the time we thought the game was slipping. But again the boys came back and we tried really hard.”India recovered through a partnership between Aparajith and Vijay Zol, but just when an Indian win seemed an inevitability, Pakistan claimed 4 for 7 to reduce India to 127 for 9. The next seven overs were fraught with tension as India’s last pair successfully toiled towards the target. “When the boys came back, and nine batsmen were out, we thought we could win the match,” Azam said. “The bowlers gave 100% but it didn’t happen. Sandeep Sharma and Harmeet Singh played really well.”We’re very disappointed. We had confidence against India, having played them in the Asia Cup – one match was tied and the other we won. When seven runs were remaining, we thought we could get the last wicket and win. When two runs were remaining, everyone was a bit down. A lot of us were very tense out there.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the third ODI between England and South Africa at The Oval

The Preview by David Hopps30-Aug-2012

Match facts

August 31, The Oval
Start time 1300 (1200 GMT)AB de Villiers: captain, wicketkeeper and key batsman in the world’s No. 1 ODI side•PA Photos

Big Picture

South Africa are tempted to smirk at England’s captaincy predicament, with Andrew Strauss’ resignation after the defeat in the Test series still fresh in the mind, and gossip sounding about how much damage Kevin Pietersen’s stand-off with the powers-that-be is causing English cricket. The England dressing room was a sad place in Southampton when Strauss stood down and if the opposition are not at their best it all helps South Africa implant their status as the best side in world cricket.Delve too deeply, however, and before too long they will have issues of their own. Nobody is sure quite how long Graeme Smith will want to continue as Test captain and whether South Africa’s rise to No. 1 in the Test rankings has silenced for the time being his occasional musings that he would like to finish his international career as a respected senior player with no leadership responsibilities.The odds are that Smith is a leader in Test cricket until the day he retires, but that all puts the spotlight on his replacement in the one-day side, AB de Villiers. He has recently taken on the triple role of batsman, wicketkeeper and captain in one-day cricket, but surely to do that at Test level, after Mark Boucher’s tragic accident, would be unthinkable. Comparisons with MS Dhoni, who fulfils all three roles but bats at No. 7, are not entirely valid.This is de Villiers’ third series in charge and in Southampton it all went swimmingly. Already he seems to be confirmed to keep wicket in the Test series in Australia before the New Year. Ranked No. 1 in all three formats or not, those youthful looks could soon be coming under pressure.

Form guide

(Most recent first, completed matches)
South Africa WWWWL
England LWWWW

Players to watch …

Ravi Bopara‘s place seems assured in England’s top six because of his ability to share a bowling spot with Samit Patel so that makes it hard to include the new kid on the block, Jonny Bairstow. One way to balance things up would be for England to play five specialist bowlers. The lack of Graeme Swann at No. 9 – he is rested for the last three ODIs – as a dangerous tail-ender makes this less likely, if not out of the question.Robin Peterson, once forced into a stock bowler’s role, now regards himself as South Africa’s attack dog in one-day cricket. When he conceded runs, captains and coaches used to question his ability. Then two years ago, he was given more licence to attack, finished the World Cup as South Africa’s leading wicket-taker and is now established in the side.

Pitch and conditions

It has rained in England seemingly since time began. It is not going to be quick.

Team news

Swann’s withdrawal from the rest of the series means a probable return for James Tredwell, while Chris Woakes could oust Tim Bresnan after the latter’s expensive showing at West End.England (probable) 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Ravi Bopara, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 7 Samit Patel, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 James Tredwell, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steve Finn.South Africa have not taken their media commitments very seriously since the end of their victorious Test series. They were an hour late for the media conference for The Oval by which time pretty much everyone had lost interest so it is hard to know what they will do. Albie Morkel is ruled out, though Dale Steyn could be closer to a return.South Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 JP Duminy, 4 Dean Elgar, 5 AB de Villiers (capt, wk), 6 Faf du Plessis, 7 Wayne Parnell, 8 Ryan McLaren, 9 Robin Peterson, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Stats and trivia

• England’s appointment of Alastair Cook as Test captain in succession to Andrew Strauss ends their unique reliance on different captains for all three formats of the game.
• Paul Collingwood first suspected that Strauss was planning to retire when he told him he had bought a dog.
• South Africa last won an ODI at The Oval against England in 1999.

Quotes

“I jagged one down to him, he ducked under it and fell over. I remember the coach shouting from the back of the net, ‘You just got put on your arse by a 14-year-old!'”
“I like to take wickets instead of containing people. It’s probably the way one-day cricket has gone these days: the only way to control the run rate is by taking wickets all the time.”

Niall O’Brien, the Ireland wicketkeeper-batsman, has signed a three-year deal with Leicestershire

Alex Winter25-Oct-2012Niall O’Brien, the Ireland wicketkeeper-batsman, has signed a three-year deal with Leicestershire, extending a career in county cricket that he sees as an effective way for Irish cricketers to gain the experience that is denied to them at international level by a lack of fixtures.Ireland failed to qualify from Group B of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, playing only one full match, and currently only have four fixtures scheduled in the next 12 months. O’Brien praised county cricket for giving him the opportunity to develop. He has scored 5,317 first-class runs at an average of 35.91 and moves to Grace Road following three seasons at Kent and six years at Northamptonshire.”Most of the Irish boys are playing full-time in England. We love playing county cricket; it’s a very good standard and a good way to learn your trade,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “We play three different competitions, which is very very helpful. But it’s not for everyone. A few of the lads are fully contracted and based in Ireland.”There’s not a lot of cricket for Ireland and that’s disappointing. We’d like to be playing cricket year round and to develop we need to be on the future tours programme playing against the best sides in different conditions. The odd games here and there are great occasions but they’re few and far between. As a professional sportsman, it’s difficult playing against big sides just once a year. I accept that teams have busy schedules but hopefully we can be involved on a more regular basis.”For the immediate future, O’Brien 30, joins Leicestershire with the chance to work with a young side, aided by the experience of captain, Matthew Hoggard, Claude Henderson and former West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan. “There’s some good young players there and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and setting a good example,” O’Brien said. “There is talent and I’m hoping to help it grow.”Leicestershire chief executive, Mike Siddall, said: “We are delighted that Niall is joining. With the untimely retirement of Will Jefferson the club needed an experienced opening batsman and Niall fits the bill perfectly. He is a top-class international cricketer who will bring his personality and knowledge to the dressing room and we are really pleased he has chosen Leicestershire.”The deal was being sounded out while O’Brien was in Sri Lanka, as Ireland went out of the World T20 with two inadequate batting displays: 123 for 9 against Australia and 129 for 6 against the eventual winners, West Indies.”We were disappointed with how we played, especially against Australia,” O’Brien said. “If we’d have played even five to ten percent better we would have got through the group ahead of West Indies. But we competed well and batted our allocation twice having been in poor positions – we didn’t get bowled out cheaply like England, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe did.”To make the step from competing well to winning on the world stage, Ireland are seeking more international fixtures, with Bangladesh and Zimbabwe the most likely opponents. But O’Brien described a “reluctance” for those teams to commit to fixtures against Ireland – a subject fast bowler Trent Johnston was vocal about at the World T20.

A wrap of the third day of the first round of Ranji Trophy matches in Group C

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2012
Scorecard
Sunny Gupta took three wickets on the third day to keep Jharkhand’s target down to 213 (file photo)•K Sivaraman

In the match of this round, Jharkhand and Assam promised a tight finish on a turning track. At 56 for 2, Jharkhand needed 157 to win this top-of-the-table clash. Assam began the day effectively at 32 for 2, and the innings went this way and that before setting Jharkhand the highest total of the match.Amit Sinha and Hokaito Zhimomi began the day with a threatening stand, but offspinner Sunny Gupta kept Assam honest with a double-strike. His captain Shahbaz Nadeem turned the screws further with a run-out and two wickets to reduce Assam to 127 for 7.Keeping in with the trend of the match, a turnaround was around the corner. Tarjinder Singh added crucial runs with the tail. He put on 33 with Abu Nechim for the eight wicket, 18 with Arup Das for the ninth, and 31 with Arlen Konwar for the last. Konwar scored only three of those 31.Tarjinder then followed it up with the run-out of Jharkhand opener Manish Vardhan, which J Syed Mohammad topped up with the wicket of Ishank Jaggi. However, the last comeback of the day belonged to Jharkhand as first-innings half-centurion Rameez Nemat and Saurabh Tiwary added an unbeaten 37 for the third wicket to leave the game in the balance.
Scorecard
Paras Dogra joined Jiwanjot Singh and Mukul Dagar as the men with two centuries in the first two matches this season to help set up a declaration for Himachal Pradesh. He made it a nice double, his personal best, and went at a strike-rate of 63 to make sure he gave his time enough time to entertain an outright win.Himachal secured the first-innings lead early enough in the day, and were all intent since then. Dogra hit 25 fours and a six in his effort, and while Amit Singh might have been a little slow in his 91, Sumeet Verma and Rishi Dhawan scored 42 off 40 between them.Dhawan was not done for the day. Opening the bowling, he got rid of Soomik Chatarjee and Shadab Nazar before stumps. Himahcal were looking to avoid the same fate as the first game when Kerala lost only three wickets on the final day to deny them an outright win.
Scorecard
The home side’s openers made big scores in Porvorim, helping Goa close in on Jammu & Kashmir’s first-innings score of 338 in a slow-scoring game. Amogh Desai, who was making his first-class debut, and Swapnil Asnodkar, who was banned for two matches last season, put on 178 for the first wicket, to lay the base for Goa.Desai was dismissed 15 short of his century by Parvez Rassol, who had top scored for J&K with 171, but Asnodkar went on to complete his ninth first-class hundred. He fell soon after, but Manvinder Bisla, star of this year’s IPL final and playing his first first-class game in two years, made a relatively brisk unbeaten 74 to keep Goa on track to overhaul J&K’s first-innings score. They ended the day only 50 runs behind, with eight wickets in hand.
Scorecard
Andhra’s openers, Prasanth Kumar and Hemal Watekar, completed their patient centuries to set up the team for a big lead against Tripura in Anantapur. Tripura finally took their first wicket with the score at 227, with Andhra just 33 runs in the arrears, through a run-out by a substitute.Andhra captain AG Pradeep fell cheaply, and Watekar followed after a 44-run stand with B Sumanth. After his duck in the opening game, Sumanth made amends by taking charge of the innings after the openers were dismissed, scoring briskly to make 83 and stretch Andhra’s lead beyond 100. He fell before getting to triple-figures, and his exit sparked a collapse – the last five wickets going down for 39 runs. Still, the first-innings lead was a healthy 176, of which Tripura knocked 21 off before stumps.

Mitchell Starc is edging closer to a place in the XI for the second Test in Adelaide starting from Thursday, his speed, swing and height augmenting the natural variety provided by his left arm

Daniel Brettig in Adelaide20-Nov-2012Like Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc admits his rise to a place in Australia’s Test squad has been spotted with bouts of self-doubt. Unlike Johnson, Starc has a left-arm fast bowling method that has grown increasingly likely to hold up under the stress of that self-doubt reappearing in the cauldron of the series against South Africa.Starc is edging closer to a place in the XI for the second Test in Adelaide starting from Thursday, his speed, swing and height augmenting the natural variety provided by his left arm. Ben Hilfenhaus appears the most probable fast bowler to make way, though the younger James Pattinson is slipping ever closer towards the sorts of prescient workload red flags that suggested he would be a casualty at the SCG last summer.Whoever he replaces, Starc will be doing so as a far more confident and accomplished bowler than the one who strode nervously onto the Test stage at the Gabba against New Zealand a little less than 12 months ago. Despite having played only four Tests, Starc is already spoken of by the coach Mickey Arthur and the national selector John Inverarity as a success, his skills and durability both benefiting from a careful program that has melded development and match-play over the past year.”Still being in one piece is obviously a great thing,” Starc said. “Mickey has said right from the get-go, there’s a plan for everyone, he’s been quite honest. He’s spoken to me a lot about coming in around the team and times when I would go back to state cricket. They have kept me informed and it’s been pretty successful over the past 12 months.”I feel I have improved my game and learnt so much being around the Australian team, then gone away and been left alone a bit as well, to my own devices.”Starc’s education has also factored in his personality, which carries less swagger than Pattinson though occasionally given to bouts of aggression. Gabba spectators once discovered this during a domestic limited-overs appearance for New South Wales, in which Starc gestured upon taking a wicket with triumph and no little anger at a handful who had baited the wiry southerner.In this, Starc shares some ground with Johnson, whose shy and retiring character was sometimes pushed to one side in attempts to play the role of enforcer. This never sat with complete comfort on Johnson’s shoulders, and Starc is glad to have the more demonstrative Pattinson to engage in the verbal battle while he concentrates on keeping his arm and action higher than Johnson’s has ever been.”I’ve had it [white line fever] a few times but I will probably leave it to Patto,” Starc said. “I’m not as verbal as Patto is. I am probably more [about] actions rather than words. Jimmy’s pretty good at it, so I’ll let him keep doing that. I’m probably not going to have a crack at anyone. Hopefully I can do that with the ball.”Through the past two years Starc has built his sense of self-worth, helped by mentors including Wasim Akram and Jason Gillespie to first realise what a talent he had, and then set about making sure it is used for maximum returns. “I’d done a lot of work on that though my time at the academy, I probably didn’t have the greatest self-confidence but I worked through that and I’m probably better off for that now,” Starc said. “At the academy we have sports psychologists and that sort of thing who we have sessions with every week, so they worked for me.”The recurring sight of cartwheeling stumps after another inswinger has curled through a batsman’s defences has no doubt helped Starc’s belief, and even if the formats are wildly different, his success for the Sydney Sixers and the national side in Twenty20 will be an aid of sorts should he take the new ball at Adelaide Oval.Among Starc’s skills is a penchant for subverting his left-armer’s angle by moving round the wicket with the older ball and gaining enough reverse-swing to bend the ball away from right-hand batsmen, when with the new ball they had been wary of it bending back in. In this he shows the influence of Akram, who was fearsome enough with the new ball from over the wicket but often lethal from round it with the old.”It is sometimes a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing, a change of angle. I like to do it a lot more in limited-overs cricket towards the death,” Starc said. “It doesn’t happen as often in four-day cricket for me. I am sticking to over the wicket and hopefully getting that line across the right hander.”We had it swinging around in the nets yesterday so hopefully we can bring that out into the game, and hopefully get the ball to reverse a bit where it’s more abrasive on the drier track. Hopefully the quicks can make full use of the reverse-swing and the conventional swing. We’ll do as much as we can to get that ball off the straight.”

A return to a problem of old hampered South Africa the last time they played in the shortest format at the World Twenty20

Firdose Moonda19-Dec-2012A return to a problem of old hampered South Africa the last time they played in the shortest format at the World Twenty20. Middle-order batsman Farhaan Behardien suggested instability in the line-up was to blame for the team returning empty handed.”Where we struggled in Sri Lanka was that we lost early wickets and then the slow bowlers come on and it was difficult to rebuild,” he said. Apart from the match against Zimbabwe, which South Africa won by ten wickets, they lost their first two batsmen for a maximum of 28 runs in the other fixtures.The combination of Richard Levi and Hashim Amla did not work and when Levi was dropped for the final match, Jacques Kallis partnered Amla also with little success. Neither Kallis nor Amla is part of the current squad, although Levi is. If he plays, he is expected to be joined at the top by either the captain Faf du Plessis or the uncapped Henry Davids , who could also form a partnership of their own.While different pairs could solve the issue to an extent, South Africa’s floating middle order also unsettles them. As they aim to build a new-look T20 side, starting with the matches against New Zealand, role definition and countering the spin threat have become two of the major areas under consideration.Behardien indicated that the first of those had already been ironed out, especially for him. “My job is assessing the risk. If we lose early wickets upfront, my job is risk management and seeing how we can maximise the remaining overs to get to a high total. And to play the spinners low risk,” he said. “But if we have a good start, without too many wickets in the first few overs, we can take on the spinners. That’s one of our focuses going forward.”Even without Daniel Vettori in the New Zealand line-up, South Africa are wary of New Zealand’s spinners. Ronnie Hira, the left-armer, took three wickets in the warm-up match against South Africa A, including that of Justin Ontong, while Nathan McCullum was economical in his three overs of offspin. “We’ve had a lot of practice against spin in the one-day cup,” Behardien said.With the major emphasis on technical aspects, South Africa could forget that a transition phase also involves building a new team culture but Berhardien said that has been equally high on their agenda. With regular limited-overs captain AB de Villiers opting out of the series, stand-in leader du Plessis will have to create his own environment for the players to excel in.Du Plessis captained South Africa A against Sri Lanka A in June and the players who were involved in that series, like Behariden, got a taste of his leadership style. “He is very big on team culture. Everybody is not for themselves. You’ve got to give, you’ve got to be selfless, whether it be throw-downs, extra catches, helping generally, packing up the kit- those very small things.”Most importantly, with the pressure of a major tournament not hanging over them, Berhardien hopes the mood in the camp will lighten. “It’s all been a bit serious over the last while and sometimes we forget that we need to have fun and express ourselves.”As players we get stiff and we get tight because we want to do so well and perform for our country. So you forget that this is what you’ve been wanting to do since you were a little kid and when you forget about those values then you don’t really perform at your best, because you are too tense and worrying the whole time about the results.”Russell Domingo, South Africa’s new Twenty20 coach, said he will not look as far ahead as the 2014 World T20. The upcoming matches are more about laying the groundwork for a short-form unit that can go on and replicate the successes of the Test side.”The team culture won’t be much different to what is in the Test side,” Behardien said. “It might be tweaked a bit with a new captain and a new coach. Sometimes the same thing can be said in a slightly different way and it could make a world of difference to the individual and something could click. I think it is a fresh approach and I am quite excited to be a part of it.”