This match exposed the deep chasm between a consistent champion team like Chennai Super Kings and the desperate and frazzled Kings XI Punjab unit. Here are five moments from the game that underline the differences.

NAGRAJ GOLLAPUDI IN MOHALI16-May-2015The first whipAfter his 12-ball 31 proved to be the difference for Kings XI Punjab against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Wriddhiman Saha was the danger man. He had been shuffled between the top and middle order in the tournament but was sent out to open against Chennai Super Kings. MS Dhoni asked left-arm spinner Pawan Negi to open the bowling and it was a smart move to tempt Saha and Manan Vohra to take on the slow bowler. Saha remain rooted in his crease for the better part of the first over and even lofted an easy four over the cover fielder. In Negi’s next over, the batsman tried to create room to once again hit over the offside but was badly beaten by turn and offered a simple catch to cover.  It was an effortless kill.A desperate, ultimately futile, promotionGeorge Bailey rushed in to replace Saha. Most fans did not even notice him and in fact thought it was their favourite Glenn Maxwell at the crease. Even the big screen had Maxwell as the new batsman, but it was indeed Bailey. It was another experiment by Kings XI Punjab in their final match. But why? Before this game, Bailey had batted at No. 3 only twice in the IPL, managing 19 runs. Despite a terrible season he has been the second-best batsman for Kings XI this year behind David Miller but those runs have come in the lower order where his calm proved crucial at times. Today, Bailey started confidently, hitting a couple of fours, but facing the first ball from Ashish Nehra – a slanted delivery moving away – Bailey edged the ball into Dhoni’s gloves.Maxwell’s empty bag of tricksThe crowd erupted as soon as they saw Maxwell walk in, but the batsman started with an uncharacteristic waiting game. He did unleash a Ponting-esque pull on the front foot nonchalantly for his first four, but only six runs came off 14 balls. He had even managed to just nudge and dab against his once famous whipping boy, R Ashwin but facing the first delivery from left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, Maxwell went for a reverse sweep. The ball had pitched on leg stump and was too close for him to attempt the stroke. Not surprisingly, next ball Maxwell once again attempted the same stroke. Once again Jadeja had pitched it on leg stump and on length and, once again, the ball hit the pads. Then Maxwell suffered a brain fade and failed to react to a ball that pitched on middle stump and straightened to knock back the off stump. Maxwell stood there for a moment, amazed and appalled. On his way back, he kicked the stump in disgust. Kings XI’s best batsman last season, who had set the IPL alight with his audacity and creativity, was a minimal presence this season.One-dimensional strategyDefending a low score is never easy, but ask Dhoni and co. who have on numerous occasions managed to turn a low-scoring affair in their favour through a combination of expert leadership, good fielding and an experienced bowling attack. An attacking field customised to each batsman’s weakness is also something successful teams usually deploy immediately.  Sadly Kings XI were lacking on all these fronts today. The best chance to dominate came once the Super Kings opening pair of Michael Hussey and Brendon McCullum returned in quick succession, but the Kings XI bowlers bowled predictable lines and failed to attack Faf du Plessis and Suresh Raina. It did not help when Maxwell was surprised by a return chance from Raina and failed to latch on to the catch. Raina was on 20 and Super Kings were 54 for 2 in the seventh over. Both Raina and du Plessis took advantage of the vast gaps in the field and picked easy singles and twos and, whenever the bowler faltered, hit easy boundaries to exhaust and negate the opposition.The helpless walkOn Saturday afternoon Sanjay Bangar, the Kings XI coach, walked four times on to the field –  during the strategic time-outs – to have a word with his players. There was never an urgency in his walk to and from the dugout. What Bangar told his team is irrelevant but as Rahul Dravid wisely said, if players need a pep talk on match-day then they are playing for the wrong team. This season has been a learning lesson even for Bangar, who took over the role only last year. Bangar, a phlegmatic man, will work hard but he needs to improvise and adapt quickly. Without altering too much, he still needs to get the best out of his players. It will never be easy but he needs to put an end to the defeated walks from the dugout to the pitch.

Sticking to a set formula has worked in the past for Chennai Super Kings and it helped them top the league stages, but things didn’t go so well in play-offs of IPL 2015

Arun Venugopal25-May-20155:38

Do Chennai Super Kings need a revamp?

Tournament overview

MS Dhoni said at the presentation ceremony after the final that Chennai Super Kings “never reached 100% efficiency.” That was pretty much the story of their tournament. They haven’t quite exuded the menace they used to in the past, and even looked vulnerable on many occasions. That they still topped the table in the league stage and made it to the final tells you how good they are at winning games when not completely on top of things.Their third defeat in IPL finals since 2011, though, has shown how much other teams have caught up with them. Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, with two titles each, are now level with Super Kings.Their most vaunted strengths – consistency of selection and a reliance on familiar methods – have lost some sheen. Super Kings might have often been rewarded by their continued investment in a few players, but there is a hint of intransigence to their strategy.It mightn’t be a bad idea to look at a more optimal use of their squad players. They used only 14 players in the tournament – not a bad thing in itself – but the likes of Irfan Pathan, acquired at Rs 1.5 crore, and Rahul Sharma didn’t get a game even when someone like Ravindra Jadeja was struggling.Their batsmen, except Brendon McCullum, underachieved throughout the tournament. This was best indicated by Suresh Raina’s failure to pass 400 runs for the first time in eight seasons. On the brighter side, the performances of players such as Ashish Nehra and Pawan Negi – on opposite ends of the age spectrum – and Dwayne Bravo, who finished with the most wickets in the tournament, must have been heartening.This was the first season in eight years that Suresh Raina could not tally 400 runs•BCCI

High Point

It came in the early part of the competition, when they won six of their seven games. They demonstrated great range in their victories during this phase. While most of their wins were by comfortable margins, they held their nerve at the clutch to close out tight games against Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders.

Low Point

Defeat in the final wouldn’t have rankled them as much as the way they lost it. Everything that could go wrong did. After making a not-so-sound call at the toss, Super Kings conceded 202, easily 20 more than they would have wanted to. To make matters worse, they ambled during the Powerplay, helping Mumbai put the contest to bed inside the first 10 overs.

Top of the class

Brendon McCullum’s contribution went beyond being the leading run-getter for Super Kings. He scored 436 runs in 14 games with two fifties and a hundred, but perhaps more valuable was the daring he displayed at the top that covered up for some sluggish batting from his team-mates.His acrobatics set the tone for an already competent fielding unit as well. So McCullum’s absence in the climactic phases, as Dhoni and head coach Stephen Fleming conceded, was a body blow. And it showed with fumbles and dropped catches becoming a more regular occurrence.

Under-par performer

Ravindra Jadeja hasn’t quite been the same cricketer after his shoulder injury. After modest returns in the World Cup, there was no redemption for him in the IPL. Even as he produced the odd good performance with the ball, he couldn’t do justice to the finisher’s role. It was only after Negi’s arrival, and his strong hitting towards the end, that Jadeja the batsman could relax. Despite his obvious talent, Super Kings could have considered benching him at some point in favour of either Pathan or Rahul Sharma.

Tip for 2016

They might need to reassess the make-up of their squad. Michael Hussey might dig deep to conjure a gem every once in a while, but, at this point, it appears beyond him to deliver consistently as a player. More than anything, Super Kings need to be a lot more flexible on the tactical front.

With 11 consecutive Test fifties, he has more than proved his worth to the team. Yet, there still remain doubts over his supposed problem against short-pitched bowling and his apparently low strike-rate

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur09-May-2015Even without his face hidden behind a visor, Mominul Haque can often be difficult to read, so when Asad Shafiq dived full length to take his catch at cover, you couldn’t quite see the batsman’s face. However, as his upper body dropped in disappointment and his head bowed, it was clear what little fight Bangladesh had in them had evaporated on the fourth day. Not that there many signs of a fight.Mominul walked off after making 68. He has been getting at least one fifty-plus score in every Test since his 181 against New Zealand in 2013. Mominul now has a score of fifty or more in 11 consecutive Tests, joining an elite club of Viv Richards, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Only AB de Villiers has managed more, in 12 successive games, and Mominul will have a chance to catch the South African in the only Test against India next month. Mominul had also broken Bangladesh’s record for successive fifties in Khulna last year with a 54 against Zimbabwe. Tamim Iqbal had made fifty-plus scores in seven successive matches in 2010.Mominul’s batting average is exactly 60.00, and there are very few players in Bangladesh’s short history of Test cricket who has shown such stability in their first two years. He started off as a No. 4 batsman and since the Zimbabwe series last year, he has been batting at one-drop.But there is very little focus on Mominul’s consistency. Mushfiqur Rahim did not mention him even once in the post-match press conference on Saturday. There wasn’t even so much as a question about him. Bangladesh will only know the value of Mominul’s run of fifties when it ends.In fact, Mominul himself does not want to talk about his scoring spree. After the first day of the first Test when he fought to make 80 on a low Khulna pitch, he was asked to comment on a tenth consecutive Test in which he scored a fifty. “I didn’t know about this feat, and I don’t even want to know,” he said.Mominul is a shy, soft-spoken individual. The world knows very little about him. Those who know him know that Mominul was born in Cox’s Bazar and by the time he was a teenager, he was sent to study and learn cricket at the BKSP, Bangladesh’s largest sporting institute. He came out as one of the brightest in his batch and after a couple of years of domestic cricket, he was picked in the senior team in 2012. All four of his Test hundreds have been either in wins or draws for Bangladesh. He remained unbeaten during three of those tons.Apart from avoiding attention from his feat, the other reason why Mominul has regularly stopped short of talking about his consistency in Test cricket is because there is a lot more focus and questions about his batting in the limited overs format. Mominul is no longer an automatic choice in Bangladesh’s ODI team, and the last time coach Chandika Hathurusingha was asked about his view on the batsman, he said that Soumya Sarkar’s emergence in the top order will keep Mominul out.Soumya has been a breath of fresh air with his stroke-play, particularly in the first Powerplay. His opening stands with Tamim in the ODI series against Pakistan would also have done enough to establish his spot in the side. He also impressed at No. 3 in the World Cup.On the other hand, Mominul’s lack of big numbers or flashy stroke-play in ODIs and T20s has meant very few people show interested in him. When he was among few batsmen failing in an ODI series against Zimbabwe in 2013, he was the first to be dropped. The same happened in the India and West Indies ODI series last year. He played one ODI against India, and none against West Indies.There was also some whisper that he cannot handle short-pitched bowling, but in his career so far, he has not been dismissed once with a bouncer or a short ball. In Gros Islet last year, he failed once against Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel but made up for his first-innings 3 with a second-innings 56. It couldn’t help Bangladesh avoid a large loss, but it showed Mominul knew how to handle short bowling.”I didn’t know about this feat, and I don’t even want to know,” Mominul had said when asked about his current run of form•AFPMominul has acknowledged that he has a problem with his strike-rate in limited-overs cricket, but a low strike-rate is common among Bangladesh batsmen considered aggressive. Nasir Hossain, Tamim and Mushfiqur all have strike-rate in the seventies like Mominul. The likes of Mahmudullah, Mohammad Ashraful and Anamul Haque have a lesser strike-rate despite playing more than Mominul. But still, only Mominul’s batting is deemed slow, and he has missed 15 out of the 41 ODIs played since his debut in November 2012.His lack of game time in ODIs means that he has to sit out a lot between Tests. Spending time on the bench also makes him miss domestic first-class cricket, his last match being in May last year for East Zone in the Bangladesh Cricket League. He was sent with Bangladesh A to the West Indies in mid-2014 and got a hundred in the second four-dayer there.His fifties in the 11 consecutive Tests have come in 18 months and 26 days. It took Sehwag 10 months and 15 days, Richards a year and 26 days, Gambhir one year and three months to do the same. De Villiers reached 12 successive Test fifties in just over 14 months. It clearly shows that Mominul has had to bring back his focus after long gaps during which he was paused as a cricketer.That doesn’t mean he is being rated as well as any of these great batsmen, but it is hard to ignore Mominul has climbed steadily since the start of his international career. But in a country where only limited-overs cricket is held to the highest regard, Mominul has every reason to not feel appreciated.And what is it that every Bangladesh cricketer, coach and official say of striving in international cricket? Consistency.

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2015Harshal Patel then broke the partnership when he had Iyer holing out to backward point for 20 by the seventh over•BCCIQuinton de Kock, joined by another South African, JP Duminy, kicked on and flayed 69 off 39 balls before perishing to Yuzvendra Chahal•BCCIEven as Delhi lost regular wickets and slipped from 110 for 1 to 141 for 5, Duminy took charge, remaining unbeaten on 67 off 43 balls•BCCIHowever, the rain in Bangalore refused to relent, forcing a washout, and denying Royal Challengers the chance to seal second place in the table•BCCI

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jul-2015Johnson was in a fearsome mood in the opening minutes of the second day, the wicket of Bairstow was his 300th in Test cricket…•Getty Images…and two balls later, Ben Stokes became his 301st•PA PhotosJoe Root kept the scoreboard moving with a fluent half-century to carry England into a first-innings lead•Getty Images… but he then chased a wide one from Mitchell Starc to be caught behind•Getty ImagesStarc looked sheepish after striking in a wayward spell•Getty ImagesJos Buttler was lbw to Nathan Lyon but could have saved himself with a review•Getty ImagesMoeen Ali struck a vital 59 to give England a lead of 145•Getty ImagesStuart Broad was a vital foil in an eighth-wicket stand of 87•Getty ImagesAli’s second fifty of the series carried England to a first-innings total of 281•Getty ImagesChris Rogers couldn’t drop anchor for Australia this time…•Getty Images… he fell lbw to Broad for 6•Getty ImagesBut David Warner counterattacked with a 35-ball half-century•Getty ImagesSteven Finn tore the momentum back for England, removing Michael Clarke for 3…•Getty Images… and Adam Voges for a first-ball duck•Getty ImagesFinn’s rhythm was irresistible as he ripped through Australia’s top order•Getty ImagesJames Anderson came back to remove a well-set Warner for 77, making the score 111 for 6. But he soon left the field with a tight (left) side•Getty ImagesIt was only Peter Nevill after that for Australia who batted with the tail to save them from an innings defeat and end the day on 168 for 7, for a thin lead of 23, with a gritty unbeaten innings of 37•Getty Images

Stats highlights from an action-packed second day at The Oval

S Rajesh21-Aug-20151 Number of times England have been eight down for less than 92 in their first innings of an Oval Test. (In England’s first innings here, they were 92 for 8.) The only such instance was in the 1948 Test against Australia, when they were 45 for 8, and eventually fell for 52. That is also the only instance of England being bowled out for less than 100 in their first innings at The Oval. (Click here for England’s lowest totals in their first innings at The Oval.)32 England’s highest opening partnership of the series so far. Their other stands have been 30, 19, 17, 12, 11, 7 and 0. Australia, on the other hand, have had six 50-plus opening stands in the series.90.23 Steven Smith’s batting average in the first innings of a Test match – ten of his 11 hundreds have come in the first innings. In the second innings he averages 35.30 (one century), in the third 38.06, and in the fourth 29.75.508 Smith’s aggregate in the series, which is the highest for Australia in an Ashes series in England since Matthew Elliott’s 556 in ten innings in 1997. His tally equals Don Bradman’s series aggregate in 1948.105 Adam Lyth’s aggregate in the series. Among openers who’ve batted at least eight times in an Ashes series – there are 148 entries that meet this criterion – only Graham Gooch, in 1981, has scored fewer runs. Gooch managed just 97 in eight innings in that series.6 Number of times Peter Siddle has dismissed Ian Bell in Tests. Only three bowlers – Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Ishant Sharma – have dismissed him more often (seven times each). However, Bell has also scored 294 runs off Siddle, giving him an average of 49 against him.11.42 Jos Buttler’s series average. Only five England wicketkeepers have had a poorer average in an Ashes series (minimum seven innings). Four of those five were before 1930, but the last one was Steve Rhodes, who averaged nine from nine innings in 1994-95.481 Australia’s total, which is the highest first-innings score at The Oval for a team which lost the toss and was sent in to bat. The previous-highest was 476, by South Africa way back in 1935.

When Colin Povey arrived at Edgbaston he found a ground – and a club – in a state of disrepair. Although issues remain, both have been transformed

George Dobell at Edgbaston17-Sep-2015
ScorecardEdgbaston was in a bad way when Colin Povey became chief executive•Getty ImagesThe first time Colin Povey visited Warwickshire in his position as chief executive – but before his appointment was announced – the first member of staff he found was too busy to welcome him as he was studying – if that is the correct terminology – a porn mag.As Povey explored the ground, he found a “water feature” – actually a serious leak – in the committee room, a “broadcast facility” that was actually a garden shed perched precariously on the roof of a dilapidated pavilion, a club with an ECB staging agreement that was close to expiry and a coach – Mark Greatbatch – who was hopelessly out of his depth. The data cables to the broadcast facility were fed through a cat-flap, which was fine except for the fact that it also let in cats, and there were no commercial deals in place for the following season. In short, the club was living on past glory and was in no way prepared for the cold wind of modernity that was about to hit.A decade later, he leaves with the ground established as among the best in the country. He leaves with the club having regularly challenged for trophies and regularly provided England players. He leaves with the club guaranteed an excellent package of major matches – an Ashes Test in 2019, an India Test in 2018 and several top games in the Champions Trophy of 2017 and the World Cup of 2019 – with membership rising, with 27 commercial partners tied in for next year and the non-cricket business growing rapidly.At a time of recession, despite planning objections, despite covenant issues and membership resistance, despite battling an amateur culture that did not understand the gravity of the club’s situation, he raised £36m – that figure, the real figure, has never been quoted before – for the new pavilion they had been trying to fund since the 1940s and negotiated a £20m loan from Birmingham City Council. The ground went from one that was rated as no longer fit to purpose by the ECB, to one that surpassed all required specifications.Where would Warwickshire be without him? Not at Edgbaston, that is for sure. While the club might – at a push – have been able to continue to host domestic cricket, they were in danger of part of their ground being shut for health and safety reasons. There was talk of ground-sharing with football and rugby clubs; talk of relocating to Coventry. It is no exaggeration to state that Povey saved the club in recognisable form.There have been setbacks. Not long after the completion of the pavilion, the ECB declined to award the package of matches that were required to begin the repayments. There was no Ashes Test for them in 2013; no India Test in 2014. Povey, it was said, was paying the price for having met the IPL founder Lalit Modi – an arch enemy of the then chairman of the ECB, Giles Clarke – in a fact-finding mission to India.A repayment holiday was agreed with the council, tickets were pre-sold for future series, non-cricket income was driven up and a professional management team was installed. It was tough, but Warwickshire survived. And, in the middle of all that, Greatbatch was sacked and Ashley Giles appointed to his first coaching position. It was to prove a happy union.There is debt to service, it is true. Substantial debt that will focus the mind of the next chief executive long into the future. Work continues to unlock the potential in the largely Asian inner-city community that is only starting to thaw in its attitude towards a club that has not always welcomed them as it should. Encouragingly, the final of the Parks Leagues is to be played on the main square at Edgbaston in the coming days.Povey hasn’t been to everyone’s taste. He is a man who get things done and sometimes, on the journey from amateurism to professionalism that Warwickshire have undertaken, he has ruffled feathers. Things needed ruffling at Edgbaston, though, and his was to prove a wise appointment. Make no mistake, Warwickshire owe Povey as much as they have owed any player at any stage of their existence.But while players leave the pitch with a raised bat and ovation, administrators hand back their car park pass and shuffle out with a wave from the gateman. The day Warwickshire won the County Championship in 2012, Povey found himself fielding angry calls from a club member who was unhappy with the quality of coat pegs in the women’s toilets. He will slip away in the next few weeks – earlier than originally planned – with little fanfare.So perhaps it was fitting that his final day overseeing a professional match at the club should be such a low-key affair. While Nottinghamshire may, if they finish second in the table, look back on it as an important couple of days, two days of rain had reduced this contest to an accumulation of bonus points. It made for a prosaic spectacle.Warwickshire, wearied and disappointed, lacked the intensity required to sustain a competitive performance. While their bowlers found the edge of James Taylor’s bat on four occasions, the fielders were unable to cling on to the chances. Keith Barker, swinging the ball dangerously, deserved his five-wicket haul, while Jeetan Patel finished the innings off with consecutive deliveries, claimed his 50th wicket of the Championship season.”It shouldn’t be difficult for the players when there are only bonus points to play for,” Patel said. “There shouldn’t be a loss of motivation because we have lost two days to rain. You have got a job to do and as individuals we probably weren’t up to it over two days.”We bowled well, but when you drop the same player four times… And we didn’t bat very well. We had 64 overs to bat and batted for 45 of them. That’s not good enough.”By contrast, Nottinghamshire’s trio of young seamers – Brett Hutton, Jake Ball and Luke Wood – appeared to be relishing the contest. In claiming full bowling bonus points for their side – and denying Warwickshire any batting points – they surpassed 100 Championship wickets for the season between them.For a club that has not always done everything it might to encourage their young players, it was a pleasing performance. Luke Fletcher, far too good a performer to spend much of the season in the seconds, is home-grown, too. Warwickshire, with eight points from the encounter, slip to fifth; Nottinghamshire, with 12, retain hopes of second.”It was a satisfying draw,” Nottinghamshire coach, Mick Newell, said afterwards. “We wanted to give ourselves a chance of overhauling Middlesex next week and we can do that if we have a big win.”And, credit to bowling coach Andy Pick, it was great to have four Nottinghamshire-born young bowlers in the team. Chris Tolley and Paul Franks deserve credit for discovering them.”

England’s reliance on three all-rounders to bowl spin has failed to offset the critical absence of a specialist slow bowler able to exert control

Andrew McGlashan in Sharjah04-Nov-2015The final numbers are in.
The bowlers finally completed their work for this series in the final session of the fourth day. James Anderson and Stuart Broad tried all they could, but the support just wasn’t there.Anderson, weary after his herculean efforts, was frank in his assessment of the challenge facing England’s spinners ahead of next year’s series in India and Bangladesh.”In international cricket, you have to learn fast; if you don’t, you don’t stick around in it. So they’re going to have to if they’re going to improve and help us win next winter,” he said. “They’re bowling at batsmen who have grown up playing against spin. I’d say some of their guys are experts at it. They’re going to take a lot from it.”There was an over from Samit Patel which encapsulated where English spin bowling currently sits. Here’s how ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary recorded it:104.1 Patel to Sarfraz Ahmed, FOUR, a low full toss, swept, with a slight top-edge, but safely through fine leg to bring up a vital 50-run stand104.2 Patel to Sarfraz Ahmed, no run, forward and blocked104.3 Patel to Sarfraz Ahmed, FOUR, swept majestically, that went like a tracer bullet, as Ravi Shastri would doubtless say104.4 Patel to Sarfraz Ahmed, no run, forward and blocked104.5 Patel to Sarfraz Ahmed, OUT, bowled him! Samit lands one on the money, tweaks past the edge and smashes middle and off!104.6 Patel to Yasir Shah, FOUR, low full toss, and pumped for a straight four! That’s not the way to greet the tailenders!Two full tosses, two blocks, another boundary and a beauty to bring a wicket. England’s spinners have bowled some good deliveries in this series, and on the fourth day here Adil Rashid produced some hard-spun leg-breaks and googlies, one of which brought a missed stumping in the first over of the day, but there has been too much dross in between. Not every good ball will take a wicket, but most of the bad ones have been dispatched.England’s spin struggles have not just begun in this series – this situation has been building since Graeme Swann retired and Monty Panesar’s career hit crisis – but to provide some context, the 1992-93 tour of India is often considered a nadir for England in Asia. Still, the spinners used in that series – John Emburey, Phil Tufnell, Ian Salisbury and Graeme Hick – fared better collectively than the three here, taking 17 wickets at 50 with an economy rate of 3.16.This series is the first time a group of England spinners have conceded more than four-an-over, while the average of 60.01 (a notch higher than most records will show due to Ben Stokes’ over of offspin in Abu Dhabi) places it third worst. Above it are the 2003-04 series in Bangladesh, where England’s quicks were able to do most of the damage and the limited resources of Gareth Batty and Ashley Giles were not punished, and the 2005-06 series in Pakistan.It is that tour, a decade ago, which provides a neat bookend for 10 years of English cricket alongside this one, a period within which they have had a period where Swann and Panesar gave them as rich a spin resources as they had had for 30 years.Samit Patel’s celebration after dismissing Sarfraz Ahmed had a hollow feel•Getty ImagesPanesar made his debut on the tour that followed the 2005-06 series in Pakistan, when England visited India, and he formed a motley crew in Nagpur alongside Shaun Udal and Ian Blackwell. Udal had made a surprise debut in Pakistan, partnering Giles in the first Test, before becoming the lone spinner by the end as Giles flew home injured.Through Panesar, and then Swann when he finally made his debut in late 2008, England emerged from a period where they had used spin firmly as the second-string to an attack which, like now, had a strong hand of pace bowlers. Duncan Fletcher had demanded that a spinner could bat – because he could not see a matchwinner in county cricket – but also that he could contain. Giles ticked both boxes and did superbly as England built towards the 2005 Ashes success.Fletcher never quite bought into Panesar – preferring a half-fit Giles at the start of the 2006-07 Ashes despite Panesar’s success the previous summer – but that was Fletcher’s last Test series. Peter Moores, on his first overseas assignment, to India in 2008, handed Swann his debut in Chennai. Two wickets came in his first over. The rest is history.For five years, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook (for the record, Kevin Pietersen captained Swann in his first two Tests) knew they had a world-class spinner who could attack and defend. England could field a four-man attack that was effectively five. Did the vast workload shorten Swann’s career? Probably, but while he was on the park the results were emphatic with three Ashes victories and the win in India in 2012-13 when he and Panesar dovetailed wonderfully.Since Swann’s shoulder finally gave in on the 2013-14 Ashes, which coincided with Panesar’s problems emerging, life has become much harder. Better spin did not always mean victories, as the 2012 series in UAE showed, but the decline England are suffering is currently stark.Now it has to be decided what the role of the spinner is in the England side, especially in Asia. The notion to be attack-minded is well intentioned, but this series has been crying out for a holding spinner and, unless significant improvement takes place over the next 12 months, the same will be the case in Bangladesh and India this time next year.It was the right time to play Rashid, and he should not be completely discarded, and Moeen Ali will continue to develop but with the over-riding strength being in the pace attack, this series has shown that a different type of support is also necessary in these conditions. If a holding spinner helps to offer the control that bring Test victories, why should it be viewed as negative?The methodology in 2000-01 in India did not bring victory, and perhaps Nasser Hussain took it a step too far against Sachin Tendulkar when Giles hung it outside leg stump for over after over, but at the time it was a means to an end given the resources available.You probably would not see England go to those lengths now. It is not in Trevor Bayliss’ outlook or, increasingly, Cook’s but surely coach and captain would be grateful for some economy. There is no way of knowing if, for example, James Tredwell or Gareth Batty would have done any better out here (or how well Zafar Ansari may have gone) but those two are at least spinners who can land six deliveries in roughly the same place.At 38, Batty’s time has probably passed him by, but Tredwell should not be forgotten for next winter. He is not a long-term, or exciting, solution but could be better value than conceding runs by the bucketload and help buy a little time to try and begin the revolution that has to take place in English cricket to nurture a new generation of spin bowler.

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jan-2016Both batsmen scored fifties as they added a 101-run opening stand inside 11 overs•Getty ImagesSri Lanka then pulled things back by dismissing both batsmen soon after they had reached their fifties•Getty ImagesCorey Anderson – playing his first international game since May 2015 – failed to make an impact, as Sri Lanka’s bowlers thwarted New Zealand’s momentum in the death overs•Getty ImagesNuwan Kulasekara was Sri Lanka’s best bowler, with returns of 2 for 26, as New Zealand were pegged back to 182 for 4•Getty ImagesTrent Boult and Matt Henry gave New Zealand the upper hand in chase, with four wickets in four overs to reduce the visitors to 42 for 4•Getty ImagesDanushka Gunathilaka, however, kept Sri Lanka’s runs flowing, taking his side to 84 before he fell in the tenth over•Getty ImagesSri Lanka’s lower order, steered by Milinda Siriwardana, then took the visitors closer to the target with handy contributions…•AFP… as the equation was reduced to 13 off the last over•Getty ImagesGrant Elliott, however, pulled it off for the hosts, giving away just one boundary, to seal a three-run win•Getty Images

Plays of the day from the third T20 between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in Khulna

Vishal Dikshit20-Jan-2016The stand-out debutantBangladesh let loose as many as four debutants in the match and three of the them in the bowling attack – Muktar Ali, Mohammad Shahid and Abu Hider. While two of them picked up wickets, it was Hider who stood out. All Zimbabwe wickets were falling when the batsmen were offering catches while going for big shots. Five of the six batsmen were caught, except Hider’s maiden international wicket. In the last over of the innings, he sent down an accurate yorker to left-handed batsman Sean Williams who shuffled down the pitch for a flick. Williams missed and Hider trapped him low right in front with the same weapon that had reaped him benefits in the BPL last year.The effective DJThe toss for the match had already been delayed by 20 minutes and the first ball was bowled just in time after a rain interruption. The match got underway and officials, groundsmen, players and fans, all kept getting distracted by the overcast skies that kept the rain threat looming. Just when nobody wanted any more rain, the DJ at the ground played Pitbull’s ‘Let it rain over me’ after the Powerplay and the rain obediently came down right after the seventh over was completed. Not sure if he/she will do that again even when sitting at home on a non-match day.The screamerBangladesh cricket fans and followers are familiar with the noise Mushfiqur Rahim has been making behind the stumps right from the start of his career. Nurul Hasan seemed to have taken over from Mushfiqur, ensuring that there was no respite for the stump microphones. Nurul kept screaming after nearly every ball for catches, fielders, appeals, run-outs, everything. The most cacophonous of the lot came in the 12th over when Williams tried to sweep Mosaddek Hossain and missed. Nurul then let out the loudest squeal the walls of Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium would have heard. With legs spread apart and both hands high in the air, Nurul screamed and jumped as if to let out an SOS call to a helicopter above him. And that too when Williams had gloved the ball onto his pad.The other debutantAs far as reverse hits go, Glenn Maxwell had already started the day in Canberra with a reverse lap to collect four runs in the last over of Australia’s innings to help them amass 348 for 8. A debutant in Khulna – Mosaddek Hossain – displayed a much better version, though. Legspinner Graeme Cremer pitched a ball on length in the tenth over and Mosaddek switched his position around to look just like a left-handed batsman and reverse pulled that well behind square for a cracking four from the middle of the bat. “Shanked it”, as Maxwell would say.The Vettori-like VitoriSabbir Rahman and Soumya Sarkar had been going after the bowlers in the initial overs of the chase as the asking rate approached ten per over. Left-arm pacer Brian Vitori conceded 13 in his first over and changed ends to come back in the fifth over. He was hit for two more fours by Sabbir – both to the leg side – and Vitori then replied with a delivery that would have done Daniel Vettori proud. He dug in a short ball by rolling his fingers over it, sucked the pace out of the ball to make it a slow offcutter and got the reward he wanted – a dot ball.