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The icy conditions may have had Sri Lanka supporters fearing the worst but this was a glorious day of competence in the field by Angelo Mathews’ side

Andrew Fidel Fernando at Chester-le-Street27-May-2016Before this match Angelo Mathews said he thought Sri Lanka fielded and caught well at Headingley. They dropped at least three catches in their one innings in the field. Yet he was probably correct in suggesting this represented improvement. Often this year, they have fumbled the ball, fallen over in pursuit, fist-bumped it, chest-bumped it, caressed it lovingly over the rope, escorted it gallantly to the fence, and danced flailingly around it like it was the wooden idol in a tribal ritual.So when Mathews said he was hopeful his team would field well in Durham, it was easy to doubt him. It had been the coldest approach to a Test many of his team had experienced. Sri Lanka do not field well in the cold. With their most-athletic seamer – Dushmantha Chameera – now gone, they also had three ungainly quicks whose bodies seem to consist only of limbs. Rangana Herath, is at least 90% torso. Sri Lanka were, in short, primed to have an atrocious day in the field.But there Dimuth Karunaratne was at second slip, diving to his left to hold the ball flying quickly off Alastair Cook’s blade. There Suranga Lakmal was at fine leg, flinging his rangy limbs in supplication to the heavens to soon find the ball lodged in his palms. This had been made all the better by his seeming to dart in several directions at once, after initially misreading the hook off Nick Compton’s bat.Lakmal even held the ball close for a few seconds after he came to a screeching stop just inside the boundary. Was he just enjoying the feeling of leather on skin? Was he happy at how surprisingly well his whole manoeuvre had gone? On another day, he could have easily traveled over the line, into the boundary boards, and on to Sri Lanka, because going by track record, there is no way a Sri Lankan quick can twist his body like that and not be injured for several months. Most fielders didn’t really believe he had caught it at first. Why would they? They are not idiots.Later, Mathews himself led by example when he went aerial to his right to hold a slippery slip catch, close in, off Alex Hales. Lahiru Thirimanne was the next to take flight, climbing in an instant to his right to cling to James Vince’s uppish cover drive. This was the most athletic take, but perhaps the least surprising, as Thirimanne has recently been involved in many wonderful dismissals off expansive drives. Usually he is the batsman. But still, it is one thing to see this kind of catch repeatedly at close quarters; another entirely to emulate it.Towards the end of the day, the fielding slipped a little. Third man running around to deep cover could have dived to stop four, but offered only an unsuccessful boot instead, allowing Jonny Bairstow an undeserved boundary. Dinesh Chandimal let another ball wriggle between his sore wicketkeepers’ fingers to concede a bye in the 86th over. There were unnecessary shies at the stumps, and questionable backing up as well, but who could dwell on such minutiae after the year this team has had? Catches aside, even in the other fielding disciplines, this was Sri Lanka’s sublime day of near-competence; three sessions of glorious adequacy.With their two best quicks of the past 18 months now out of the series, it is just as well the fielders lifted their game to make up for the weakening of the attack.”We have to catch everything that’s possible,” coach Graham Ford said. “If you have a really express bowler or very skillful ones – like perhaps England have – even if you miss one or two catches, there’s still more chance of another one coming fairly soon. For us, it’s very important that we latch on to everything to stay competitive in the series.”The catching was especially heartening, because on Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s fielders had kept their gloves on during drills, so chill was the wind blowing off the North Sea. “Everyone in the team was happy to see those catches as they were really special catches,” Ford said. “Hats off to boys. At training they have worked hard with very cold hands at times. They have really put in the hard efforts and they deserve the rewards.”If just one more wicket had fallen in the day, Sri Lanka might have even left the field on even terms with their hosts. If two marginal lbw calls had gone their way early on, who knows, Sri Lanka could even have been ahead.The temperature is not forecast to climb higher than 13C on day two. If Sri Lanka finish the innings without having spilt a single catch in such conditions, 10,000 kilometres away, their fans may not be able to hold back joyful tears.

Plays of the day from the first quarter-final between South Africa and Sri Lanka at the SCG

Andrew Fidel Fernando and Firdose Moonda18-Mar-2015 catch of the World Cup?Very little had gone Quinton de Kock’s way at this World Cup until Kusal Perera edged a Kyle Abbott delivery and he was called into action. De Kock had to dive to his left, across Hashim Amla, stretch out as far as he could and then a little further. As the ball found the glove, it popped out and de Kock reach even further, mid-dive, to ensure he’d caught it. A good catch can be the catalyst for renewing confidence and that may just be what it did for de Kock.The popping veins Dale Steyn’s quiet tournament was always expected to explode in sound and it did when Tillakaratne Dilshan edged to second slip and Faf du Plessis reacted quickly to take a dying catch. Steyn put away the chainsaw and simply let out a roar in celebration, that seemed to stem from the veins popping in his temples and the demons dancing in his eyes. Steyn seemed possessed by the moment Later that over, he touched his the base of his neck in discomfort and received a massage from the physiotherapist Brandon Jackson on the boundary. The muscle tension may have had nothing to do with the celebration, or more likely, it may have had everything to do with it.The unnoticed hat-trickJP Duminy had Angelo Mathews caught at midwicket off the last ball of his eighth over when the Sri Lanka captain tired to clear the infield but did not get enough height on it. That was just reward for disciplined lines and it got better when, with the first ball of his next over, Nuwan Kulasekera walked after edging behind. Duminy could see the batsmen playing for turn, something he does not offer too much of, and when Tharindu Kaushal did the same and missed, he knew he has his man. Kaushal was hit plumb in front and Duminy had two in two … from that over. He actually had three in three, and the ninth hat-trick in World Cup history.The instinctive retreatBatsmen despise being run out at the non-striker’s end when their partner hits one straight, and most have now conditioned themselves to dart back into the crease if the striker appears to be hitting down the ground. There is a chance Kumar Sangakkara could have prevented Lahiru Thirimanne’s wicket when Thirimanne pushed early at a Imran Tahir ball and softly lobbed one to the left of the bowler. If he had stood his ground after backing up, Tahir’s path to the ball might have been blocked, meaning the return catch would not be pulled off. But almost by reflex, Sangakkara saw the shot and moved quickly back into his crease, and with his way cleared now, Tahir completed the take and ran halfway to the boundary in celebration.

Vote on our shortlist of classic Ashes moments that have taken place in England since 1981

30-Jul-2013To coincide with the 2013 Investec Ashes series, we are asking you to vote on our shortlist of classic Ashes moments that have taken place in England since 1981. You can watch each episode of our series and then vote for your winner.

Part 3 – most memorable bowling performance

We have chosen the following shortlist from the great Ashes contests in England over the past 30 years.Bob Willis (Eng) 8-43, Headingley 1981
Bob Willis went to Ian Botham’s barbecue on the rest day at Headingley in 1981 convinced he would never play for England again. Then he summoned one of Test history’s greatest spells.
Scorecard | Wisden reportCraig McDermott (Aus) 6-70, Lord’s 1985
Craig McDermott rarely looked more impressive in an Australia shirt than when he took six wickets at Lord’s in 1985, a summer in which his 30 Test wickets announced his arrival on the fast-bowling scene.
Scorecard | Wisden reportShane Warne (Aus) 6-48, Old Trafford 1997
Shane Warne began 1997 by storming out of a Madame Tussauds media conference when references were made about his expanding waistline. But he was no waxwork at Old Trafford as this display silenced his critics.
Scorecard | Wisden reportGlenn McGrath (Aus) 8-38, Lord’s 1997
England made only 77 at Lord’s when Glenn McGrath took advantage of ideal bowling conditions at a ground he always loved.
Scorecard | Wisden reportJason Gillespie (Aus) 7-37, Headingley 1997
Gillespie took his Test-best figures at Headingley in 1997 and had such fond memories of the ground that he went back there to coach Yorkshire.
Scorecard | Wisden report
Most memorable bowling displaysBob Willis (Eng) 8-43, Headingley 19810% Craig McDermott (Aus) 6-70, Lord’s 19850% Shane Warne (Aus) 6-48, Old Trafford 19970% Glenn McGrath (Aus) 8-38, Lord’s 19970% Jason Gillespie (Aus) 7-37, Headingley 19970%

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Mahela Jayawardene doesn’t hold back on the odd show of theatrics. Given the troubled circumstances, his style of captaincy is responsible for Sri Lanka’s reversal of fortunes

Sidharth Monga at the Adelaide Oval06-Mar-2012The cricket world is full of too many nice and cool captains. Virender Sehwag is so afraid of breaching the spirit of cricket that he doesn’t want to claim a dismissal that he believes is rightfully his side’s. Michael Clarke finds mankading immoral, takes runs off overthrows off his bat but wants them reversed, and is generally conscious he is not seen as pushing the line. MS Dhoni maintains his cool, not changing things despite his team’s poor results, because then he will be seen as getting flustered.Mahela Jayawardene is refreshingly different. Just watch him respond to appeals turned down. Just watch him try to pull every possible trick within the cricket laws. Just watch him argue with the umpires today when they had missed a no-ball, and called it upon the batsman’s insistence. He just let rip. He argued with the umpires while they were arriving at the decision, went to the square-leg umpire a ball later and continued doing so, and at the end of the over had a go at the other umpire, throwing his hands up frequently.There are some who will call it poor behaviour, but here was a captain of a side whose fielders had dropped more catches than acceptable in a whole tournament, a side that could be proud of having come so far, a side that was playing its fourth game in eight nights, but Jayawardene didn’t want it to end this way; he wanted to make it five games in 10 nights. And what is wrong with losing your cool once in a while as long as it is not banal abuse?You want to see desperation, you want a losing side to pull every trick before accepting defeat, you want somebody to stir a side up when it begins to go through the motions. Sri Lanka were going down at that time. Two batsmen were approaching centuries, Sri Lanka’s grip on the game had come off, and Australia looked good to score 300. Jayawardene agreed it is good for a captain to sometimes let it go.”I guess so,” Jayawardene said. “Just to get hyped up a bit more. Probably the bowlers also felt that, you know, that it was unjustified, and backed me in the last few overs, I guess. Overall it was a good game. Credit to the boys. We had to make a few tough calls.”Is there a bit of Arjuna Ranatunga in there? Jayawardene said he wouldn’t go that far, but said he feels the need to break the status quo at times. “Just sometimes I tend to argue myself into things,” he said, “and I know I have a good partner in crime in Sanga [Kumar Sangakkara] if I don’t get it right. So one of us will always try and make sure we argue to the point, and then that’s it.”

He moved up the order, which coincided with Sri Lanka’s first good opening stand and their first win. It couldn’t have been an easy move, because it involved telling Upul Tharanga that on current form he was not good enough to open in testing conditions

Of course, this altercation wasn’t the reason why Sri Lanka won. Jayawardene’s total involvement as captain has been part of the reason why the floundering side has turned it around under him. He took over an unpaid and broken side, and began the campaign with two defeats in the hometown of the coach who had just been sacked without reason. One of his openers was a walking wicket, his best bowler hadn’t had a great tournament. As captain on the field, Jayawardene has had just one off day, when India chased 321 in 36.4 overs.However, Jayawardene also had to shake things up as a batsman. He moved up the order, which coincided with Sri Lanka’s first good opening stand and their first win. It couldn’t have been an easy move, because it involved telling Upul Tharanga that on current form he was not good enough to open in testing conditions. “Everyone has taken it positively,” he said. “Not just Upul. The other day he batted at six and batted positively. We have to sometimes play purely tactically.”Jayawardene was an angry man today. “Definitely I was disappointed,” he said. “Especially when you are playing just four bowlers, and depending on Dilly [Tillakaratne Dilshan] to be the fifth, and he did a great job. We knew we had to pick up wickets, and that’s the only way we could control that batting line-up. And our guys were dropping everything. We can laugh about it, obviously because we had a very comfortable win today, but it would have definitely cost the match and the tournament.”The fury showed in his batting, in how he stepped out to hit James Pattinson for his first boundary, in how he swept Daniel Christian for a six, in how he went at a rate higher than Dilshan’s, in being in full control of the game. It was unfortunate when, for whatever reason, Jayawardene quit captaincy. Now that he is back, it is fun to watch him lead Sri Lanka.Edited by Kanishkaa Balachandran

For a change, West Indies are ahead in the series and the issues of unfitness, absenteeism and leadership that have stalked them in recent times are now attending their opponents

Tony Cozier26-Feb-2009

West Indies find themselves in an unfamiliar position entering today’s Test at Kensington Oval. For a change, they are ahead in the series and the issues of unfitness, absenteeism and leadership that have stalked them in recent times are now attending their opponents.A shift in self-confidence, another irritant they seemed unable to overcome during their decade of decline, is also evident. What doubts there are now lie with England.Andrew Flintoff’s strained hip muscle, the latest setback in a medical history that would fill several episodes of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, has eliminated their talisman from a match that is likely to determine the outcome of the series.His influence is such that Shane Warne commented on Wednesday that if he doesn’t play in the Ashes series in the summer, “Australia will win, no doubt”. It was a typical case of Aussie hyperbole but, whether in the Ashes or at Kensington over the next five days, England are undeniably weaker without him.No sooner than his absence was confirmed than Matt Prior, the highly accomplished No. 7 who also keeps wicket on the side, hopped on a flight back to London to be with his wife who had given birth to the couple’s first child, a son, a day earlier.It is the modern way – the present captain Andrew Strauss and the South African Shaun Pollock are among others who have interrupted tours for paternity leave – but it hardly does anything for team unity when his replacement, Tim Ambrose, is told it is a stop-gap measure until Prior can tear himself away from the little one and return for the final Test in Port of Spain.As it is, the two have engaged in the cricketing version of musical chairs over the past two years – Prior out, Ambrose in, Ambrose out, Prior in. Competition is good but, in such circumstances, it can be divisive.England’s reservations extend to a piece of floating bone in the right elbow of Graeme Swann whose eight wickets at the ARG were reward for quality off-spin bowling. He has postponed the required surgery but, even though he has declared himself fit enough to play, it is hardly the ideal situation.West Indies can relate to all such upheavals. Over the past two years they have been repeatedly diminished by injuries and illnesses to key men, although not yet by any new-born babies. That day will, no doubt, soon arrive.Over the period, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo have all missed matches, or parts of them, at critical times. On this occasion, Bravo, an allrounder as important to the balance and energy of the West Indies as Flintoff is to England, remains unavailable while his right ankle mends after surgery. All the others are fit, in form and now believing they can win.Such contrasts extend to the captaincy. The controversy over Gayle’s elevation to the helm for West Indies in 2007 has been simulated by Strauss’s hurried replacement of Kevin Pietersen a fortnight before England touched down in the Caribbean, and the predictable aftermath. Gayle is now well established in the position. He has scored hundreds in two of his last four Test innings and three in his last eight ODIs and is undefeated as captain for five Tests.In his first match back at the helm, Strauss presided over the 51 all out loss at Sabina Park. It was an experience that might have prompted his unnecessarily delayed declaration in the following Test in Antigua. Even after his own commanding 169 in the first innings there, it suggested a captain still unsure of himself and his team.The core question over the coming five days is whether West Indies can capitalise on such a favourable state of affairs. The answer will divulge just how far they are on the road back to respectability.

In the fourth of a five-part series in conjunction with BT Sport, we look at the variety of conditions that England will have to overcome in Australia’s five Ashes venues

Sponsored by BT Sport17-Nov-20171:34

‘It can fly through… It’s like England on steroids’

Think of a Test match in Australia, and your mind’s eye will probably conjure up images of rock-hard pitches, fast bowlers slathered in zinc cream, and sunlight so bright that you can feel the burn through your TV screen.And while this can often be the case, the reality of an Ashes tour is that the five Test venues are spread across an island the size of Europe, meaning that each contest tends to be conducted within its own microclimate.And so, in the space of a two-month campaign, a touring team can be exposed to the tropical humidity of up-country Brisbane, the dry-roasting heat of the Waca in Perth, and everything else in between – not least at Melbourne, the most bamboozling venue of them all, where the Boxing Day Test has often been staged in dank, green conditions that can make Headingley seem like the Sahara.These, in turn, create a set of pitch conditions that can stretch any squad – pace and bounce on one ground, spin and sluggishness at the next – which, when allied to Australia’s enduring reputation for Test excellence, help to explain why England Ashes wins Down Under are so few and far between.”One of the reasons that Australian cricket has always been pretty strong is that you need a team with all those bases covered,” says ESPN’s Mark Butcher, who played on two Ashes tours in 1998-99 and 2002-03. “You need good batsmen against new ball, hot strokemakers to push the game on and buy yourself time, and the attack needs to have everything. Quicks, accuracy, and hopefully a spin bowler to unlock the door.”And, despite having had three warm-up games in which to lay out their game-plans, the calibre of the opposition that England have encountered on the tour is unlikely to have given them much insight into what Australia plan to throw at them when the series gets properly underway at the Gabba on November 23.A general view of the Gabba•Getty Images”I can see what Australia will do,” says Michael Vaughan, England’s former Ashes-winning captain turned BT Sport commentator. “They will throw some Tom Noddy’s out to play against them – no pace, pitches slow – then arrive in Brisbane – rock hard, bouncy, pace – good luck. The Aussies aren’t going to throw them any quality so they’ve got to hammer those teams, beat them well, and make it as tough as they possibly can in their own practice.”To be fair, the boot would be on the other foot if Australia were the team warming up for the Ashes in England – in fact, it invariably is – but the bigger concern for Joe Root’s men is that they will need to be fully up to speed in less than a week’s time in order to surmount the unique challenge of Brisbane’s “Gabbatoir”.”The Gabba is the best cricket wicket in the country,” says Graeme Swann, an Ashes winner in Australia in 2010-11 and now a BT Sport pundit. “There’s always a result possible in Australia. Most games are a result these days because players can’t bat for five days, they want to go home after three hours.”It was more like a case of wanting to be home after three balls on England’s 2013-14 visit to Brisbane, when a certain Mitchell Johnson took advantage of the Gabba’s juicy conditions to rout England’s batting in the first of what turned into five crushing defeats. And for Kevin Pietersen, who played in the last of his six Ashes campaigns that winter, the ferocity of Australia’s cricket will always trump any variety in the venues.”I’m not so sure it’s the Ashes environment, the hostile environment, I think it’s more the cricket that’s being played,” Pietersen says “The Aussies are up you, they’re at you. On our last trip there, when you’ve got all your tail-enders there scared to go and bat and scared to face Mitchell Johnson, it’s the cricket that’s bothering you.”A view of the WACA on the first day of Australia’s Test summer•Getty ImagesIf, by some miracle, England can emerge from the Gabba unscathed, as they did so memorably on the 2010-11 tour, then a completely different challenge awaits at the Adelaide Oval. Root’s men have played one floodlit Test to date – a somewhat underwhelming affair against West Indies at Edgbaston this summer – but as preparation goes, that match will be about as much use as the soporific warm-up that took place with the pink ball in Adelaide earlier this week.Not that the change of format will necessarily be a bad thing for England, for Adelaide’s traditional day-time Test matches have tended to be among the more attritional affairs that touring teams can encounter – often with searing temperatures and spin bowling to the fore on a surface that can offer little to toiling fielding teams.”At Brisbane, it can fly through – swing, seam, almost like England but on steroids,” says Butcher. “But, at Adelaide, unless you’ve got a world-class spinner in your side, it can be a really tough place to take 20 wickets.”I remember playing there in 1998-99, nearly 50 degrees, a hot wind from the interior and it was extraordinarily uncomfortable, to the point where blinking was difficult because the moisture in your eyes dried up the second you headed outdoors.”Batting-wise it can be difficult too, because you have to be slightly attritional in the way you play, or have someone like a Kevin Pietersen who can really take the bowlers on. You’re trying to take time out of the game when you bat and then need to have a genius to unlock the door with the ball.”That genius, in 2010-11, was none other than Swann, who was presented with a chance to seal victory in the second Test of the series, and duly fronted up with five second-innings scalps in a memorable innings win.”If you go into a Test thinking it’s a 500 pitch, you’re a waste of time for your team,” he says. “We bowled Australia out for 240 in 2010 because we believed we could. We could have looked at that pitch and thought, 550, we’re screwed, and if any of our bowlers had thought that, it would have been.”The Melbourne Cricket Ground during the Boxing Day Test•Getty ImagesThen, after Adelaide, the two teams hot-foot it across the Nullarbor Plain to Perth, a venue whose reputation for pace and bounce has transcended into folklore.”Only two places come close,” says Butcher. “Sabina Park [in Jamaica], like glass in the old days, but the ball ripped through, and it could be uneven as well so it wasn’t a great deal of fun. And Barbados.”There’s a great tradition of quick bowlers in both places and the reason was the pitches were quick and bouncy. That produces the cricket that crowds want to see, because for all that the batsmen don’t like it very much, a bit of physical danger and the risk of someone getting cleaned up every once in a while keeps people on the edge of their seat.”Vaughan, however, isn’t convinced that the Waca is quite the pacy venue it once was. “I think it’s a bit of kidology,” he says. “South Africa played there last year, there was spin, a bit of reverse swing, it was a completely different surface. There’s a bit of extra tennis-ball bounce on the first day that you have to watch out for, but it’s the psyche and intimidation that the Aussies will talk about, and the press will big it up too.”And yet, as if to prove what a challenge that triple whammy of venues can present, the Ashes is often over as a contest by this stage of the tour – England have been down and out after the Perth Test in three of the last four tours, dating back to 2002-03.”I always feel that, if you can get to Melbourne and still be in the series, you’ve got a great chance,” says Vaughan. “It’s intimidating because of the size of the ground but it’s not got the pace. There’s generally a bit of movement there for the seamers – it can have four seasons in one day, so the conditions can help England.””Melbourne is the flattest of the lot now,” says Butcher. “Drop-in pitches have taken some of the intrigue out of the cricket at the MCG. But Sydney is one of the great Test-match venues anywhere in the world. You can have swing, pace and bounce on day one and, by day five, it’s a raging turner. It’s a really fabulous place to play cricket.”Who knows how the series will have played out by the fifth Test, but Butcher is adamant that England will not be able to blame the heat in Australia’s kitchen if they have been unable to keep themselves in contention by then.”I don’t physical conditioning is ever an excuse for touring teams anymore,” he says. “I feel sorrier for the Sri Lankans coming over to England in May and playing up in the north-east than our guys going over to Australia.”Yes, you can get some hot days, but I’d venture that Sri Lanka and India at certain times of the year are more difficult.”

24-Apr-2016AB de Villiers got going with a couple of cover-driven fours•BCCIHis promising innings ended when Pravin Tambe had him caught at short cover•BCCIVirat Kohli continued to pierce the gaps with ease…•BCCI…despite an ankle sprain•BCCIKL Rahul, a last-minute replacement for the injured Mandeep Singh, contributed 51 in an 121-run stand with Kohli•BCCIKohli shifted gears and scored his maiden T20 century off 63 balls. Royal Challengers finished with 180 for 2•AFPDwayne Smith, opening in place of the injured Aaron Finch, got Lions’ chase to a flier•BCCIBrendon McCullum also found his bearings right away•AFPThe 47-run partnership ended when Kane Richardson dismissed Smith for 32. Three overs later, South African chinaman bowler Tabraiz Shamsi removed McCullum for 42•BCCISuresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik kept Lions on course with a third-wicket stand of 53•BCCIRaina fell for 28 in the 16th over, but Dinesh Karthik held his own and brought up his first T20 half-century after 21 innings•BCCIWith three needed off four balls, Dwayne Bravo struck a four to seal Lions’ fourth win. He celebrated the victory with the dance•BCCI

ESPNcricinfo’s correspondents at the World Cup pick their best moments from the fourth week of matches

15-Mar-2015Andrew McGlashan: The brilliance and insanity of being McCullum

There were gasps. Then people held their breath. Brendon McCullum had charged down a ball towards the boundary – it has become one of his trademarks for the tournament, and is a dynamic sight. Few people eat up the ground like he can. He wasn’t going to reach it, but then put in one final mighty dive. The hang-time was incredible. The still images just needed a cape superimposed. Then he thudded to the ground. Surely not? Not in a group match of, largely, little significance to New Zealand. He lifted himself up, checked all limbs were still in position. People started to breathe again. He needed some tape on his palm, but that was the limit of the damage. All’s well that ends well. McCullum’s attitude is infectious, but was this worth it?Andy Zaltzman: Vettori ends his sixlessness

This World Cup has been replete with players doing things they have not done before, or not done for a long time. Daniel Vettori had hardly taken any wickets in ODIs since December 2010 – 15 in his previous 27 games, interspersed with lengthy absences. He has taken 13 in six during the tournament. In the match before this anti-splurge of inactivity began, Vettori took 3 for 32 against Bangladesh, the last time he had taken three wickets for less than 50 until this tournament. That was also the last match in which Vettori the batsman had cleared the boundary ropes. In Hamilton, on Friday, also against Bangladesh, with New Zealand stumbling towards their target amid a curious collection of careless thwipes, and still needing 17 off 13 with three wickets left, Vettori ended his four and a half years of sixlessness with an inside-out peach over deep extra cover. New Zealand’s oldest, most experienced player still has it then.Jarrod Kimber: Test venue, house, home

The bathroom at the Bellerive Oval press box has a shower. It looks more like a hotel bathroom than a press box toilet. When you come out of the toilet, on the left there is a sign that says “Private Residence, No Admittance”. This is the home of the maintenance and facilities supervisor of the ground. After Sri Lanka beat Scotland, the private residence door opened, out came a normal-looking man. For someone reason I thought he would he some grizzly, gnarled-up old man, but he was just a guy, a normal middle-aged guy. Carrying a Sri Lanka flag. I asked him if he was the guy living in there – I might have asked with a bit too much excitement, as he seemed a put off by my question. But how often to you meet a man who lives in a Test venue?The crowd gives Brendan Taylor a standing ovation in his last match for Zimbabwe•Getty ImagesSharda Ugra: Brendan Taylor’s fitting farewell

The match pitted the big bucks of cricket against the no-bucks, the world’s richest and largest cricket nation, in terms of supporter numbers, against a side that has fights every day for its relevance and survival. The retirement of Brendan Taylor, former Zimbabwe captain and their most experienced ODI player, however, served to bring together the best things that the game stands for. The crowd, which certainly sounded like more than 90% Indian, warmed to Taylor’s innings. When he reached his century and punched his fist into the air, the applause was thunderous. When he was out for 138, the Indians on and off the field gave him a farewell as if he were one of their own. As he walked off, a few Indian fielders ran over to shake his hand. Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, one from a fielding position, another breaking away from the team group, patting Taylor on the back, saying goodbye and well played. Taylor was not the only one “overwhelmed” by the crowd’s response and “moved” by the fielders’ reactions. He said, “They didn’t have to do that. They’re very established players, it was a very nice touch.” Oh, but they did, we did. This was “spirit of cricket” risen above platitude.George Dobell: Moores the pity

In the final moments of England’s defeat at the hands of Bangladesh – as it became clear that the team was slipping to a new low and all the high hopes, hard work and brave talk would come to nothing, Peter Moores became embroiled in a heated exchange with the reserve umpire, Ranmore Martinesz. Moores, the England coach, is normally a mild-manned fellow. Always calm, always in control. But he, looking drawn, tired and grey, was unhappy at the decision of Simon Fry, the TV umpire, to adjudge Chris Jordan run out after replays provided inconclusive evidence as to whether his bat had bounced into the air as he dived for his ground. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the decision – and in reality, it probably made little difference – to see the usually controlled Moores wagging his finger and berating the perfectly innocent Matinesz, gave an insight into the frustration, the desperation and the pain within the England camp.Devashish Fuloria: Tamim’s tangle

Trent Boult has been making the ball dance for the last few years, but in Hamilton, his swing left Tamim Iqbal inadvertently in a pose more fitting of a ballet dancer than a batsman. To Tamim’s credit, he remained positive against the swinging ball despite it seldom hitting the middle of the bat, sometimes missing it altogether. But then one landed just back of length, swerved away, opening up Tamim. His front foot was down the pitch, but hips were parallel to the crease. His left toe on the pitch, but the ankle turned outwards, the body in perfect balance. Full marks for the graceful pose but unfortunately, the bat wasn’t in the line of the ball. The edge flew to slips and Tamim was cha-chaing his way back to the pavilion.A shoulder to lean on: Glenn Maxwell celebrates his maiden ODI hundred with Shane Watson•Getty ImagesNikita Bastian: The big, big bash

One of the most intriguing sights on the cricket field, personally speaking at least, is when one fast bowler has a go at another when he’s at his most vulnerable: as the tailender with bat in hand. Add to that scenario sheer physical presence, in Morne Morkel and Mohammad Irfan, two Goliaths of world cricket, and you can’t help but feel that twinge of excitement at the impending contest. And the pair did not disappoint when they faced off at Eden Park last Saturday. With Pakistan looking for a competitive total, Irfan faced up to Morkel in the 47th over, the bat reaching just a little higher than his knees with him in his stance. What does Morkel do? Sends one buzzing past Irfan’s ears of course, forcing the seven-footer to hurriedly duck. Visibly annoyed, Irfan backed away to have a mighty swipe at the next one, a length delivery, and missed, before french-cutting a yorker for a single. Unfortunately, Pakistan lost their final wicket the next ball, and that was the end of that.Brydon Coverdale: Williams keeps walking

It was a case of walk and don’t look back for Sean Williams at Bellerive Oval, where confusion reigned when he was caught in the deep by Ireland’s John Mooney. With Zimbabwe 32 runs away from a potential victory and Williams four runs from a maiden ODI hundred, he crunched the ball out to deep midwicket only to see Mooney position his feet deliberately just inside the boundary and take the catch. Mooney turned around to inspect his foot position and then cheered. The umpires wanted to check the legality of the catch but it seemed as though Williams had walked off before their deliberations were complete. Nobody seemed to know what was going on as replays continued on the big screen – and showed what may or may not have been contact between foot and boundary – even as the next batsman took position. Whatever the case, Williams was gone, and Ireland went on to win.Daniel Brettig: Maxwell, Watson embrace

In isolation, Glenn Maxwell’s hundred against Sri Lanka was arresting enough. Coming in with a decent platform set by Michael Clarke and Steven Smith, Maxwell teed off with devastating effect, consummating his promise as one of the world’s most destructive batsmen with his first century for Australia in any format. But his partnership with Shane Watson told another tale – the older man had been dropped from the team and then reinstated in the space of a week, and found new direction coming in at No. 6 rather than his more customary first drop. Even through this personal trial Watson had shown himself to be a fine team man by spending time with Maxwell, who has battled various personal problems this summer, most notably his struggle with the emotional mess wrought by the death of Phillip Hughes. So when Maxwell’s hundred came up, the pair lingered in their celebratory embrace, as Maxwell shed a tear or two. Not only was this innings an achievement in itself, but the partnership that made it possible looked a new beginning for both Maxwell and Watson.Dinesh Chandimal was forced off the field because of a hamstring injury•Getty ImagesAndrew Fernando: A World Cup dream cut short

Dinesh Chandimal had not been in the XI for the first two matches. Sri Lanka didn’t lose enough wickets for him to bat in the next two. When his first ever World Cup innings finally began, gone was the scramble-minded plodder that had been his limited-overs avatar for much of the past 18 months. Returned was the blinding homespun talent that had seen him marked out as a future star four years ago.But he is luckless. Here, he was playing the one-day innings of his life, setting Sri Lanka on track for a famous chase, but just as his fifty beckoned, his right hamstring decided to snap. For a while Chandimal refused to accept his fate. He hobbled between the stumps to complete Sri Lanka’s quickest World Cup fifty at the time, pleaded with Angelo Mathews to be allowed to stay on the field despite the injury. Even when Mathews told him, in no uncertain terms, that he was to leave, Chandimal just turned around and took guard for another ball. He would limp through for one more single before finally accepting his fate. Sri Lanka would lose that match. His World Cup dream, for now, was ended.

The 18th over of Chennai Super Kings’ innings, bowled by Thisara Perera, cost 34 runs. Here’s how MS Dhoni did it

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Sep-201317.1, 1 wide, starts with a wide down the leg side
17.1, SIX, pitches it up and where does it go? Straight into the stands over the sight screen. MSD took a step towards off and slammed it 92 metres away from him, the crowd erupts
17.2, 1 wide, well outside off and wide again. Pressure is showing on Perera
17.2, 2 runs, low full toss outside off, Dhoni doesn’t connect properly and a misfield at midwicket from Ishant gives them two
17.3, SIX, full toss and where does this one go? Over the fine leg boundary. Dhoni didn’t have to use much power their, he used the pace of the bowler to whip it towards a short boundary
17.4, SIX, this one’s on a length and Dhoni has played an inside-out slice over deep backward point for another six. He used his wrists to swivel this one and got the distance
17.5, SIX, on length outside off and CRASH BOOM BANG! This has gone over wide long-on for a huge six. It was a repeat of the six he struck to finish the World Cup
17.6, SIX, short outside off, third man in the circle and Dhoni reaches out for an upper cut and it lands on the rope for the fifth six of the over! Took some time to find the ball