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The players enjoy each other’s success, back each other, protect each other both on and off the field. All these virtues have been evident in the team’s success over the last five years

Amol Karhadkar13-Mar-2015Karnataka travelled to Mumbai for their Ranji Trophy final with a 16-member squad, besides the eight support staff. On the fourth evening, Mayank Agarwal, Ronit More, Kunal Kapoor and Abrar Kazi were brought over. The Karnataka team management and state association ensured everyone, except Stuart Binny who is at the World Cup, who had contributed to their dominant campaign was at the Wankhede Stadium to get their hands on the trophy.In today’s fiercely competitive domestic circuit, seldom do we see a group of cricketers playing for each other. Enjoying each other’s success. Backing each other. Protecting each other, both on and off the field. All these virtues have been evident in the Karnataka team over the last five years. And the results are showing now as they defended their title and barely let their guard down in the entire season.The seeds of team bonding were sown at a dinner in Robin Uthappa’s house midway through the last season. He had discussed the idea with batting coach J Arunkumar and the other seniors and the informal meeting was a success. The camaraderie between the players has increased not just on the field, but off it as well.”We all get together very well. Even when there is no match, we all get together at Robin’s or my house and have a good time. There is a sense of family in the team,” Arunkumar says. “We had to get certain things right. We had to start certain patterns of team bonding. We made a conscious effort to get some pattern into the team and slowly it became a habit. There is a way to make sure that people enjoy what we are doing also, so we added an element of fun.”The unity in the team has added another dimension to Karnataka. During their last league game in Mumbai, wicketkeeper CM Gautam was involved in a scuffle with Mumbai batsman Siddhesh Lad. For the remainder of the match, and during the sem-final as well, the Karnataka players kept sledging Lad.”We have each other’s backs,” Uthappa says. “You cannot say one thing to us – you will have 16-17 guys after your life if you say one thing to us. I think you got an example of that in the Mumbai game here, when Siddhesh threw the ball on CM Gautam, and we had 15 of us standing there and we said ‘you just come in and bat, we’re going to eat you up’. That’s the kind of unity we have in our side.”This is us and we care for our unit. We love our unit and we’ll protect it no matter what. Even if someone from inside is trying to do something funny, we set them right. We put them in place. We know what works for us and staying together is what makes this team really, really successful. We train hard together, we train really well. Our work ethics have been excellent in the last two-three years, and it’s a young bunch of boys, all of us want to play the next level and we’ve got all the ingredients to be a successful team.”Both of Karnataka’s successful triumphs were special in different ways. Their victory ended a 15-year title drought. This year they came in as favourites and that came with a lot of expectation. Karntaka simply welcomed it and showed champions thrive under any kind of pressure.’You will have 16-17 guys after your life if you say one thing to us’ – Robin Uthappa•PTI “It is many years of hard work I would say,” Vinay Kumar says after becoming the first Karnataka captain to two successive Ranji titles. “Last year we won the Ranji Trophy, we worked really hard as a group. When we lost to Mumbai in Mysore [in the 2009-10 final], that was a bunch which was growing as a team. Once the confidence level and maturity level increased, everything came good in the last season and we played Ranji trophy. Winning it last year really helped us to motivate ourselves to perform this year.”Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the last Ranji captain before Vinay to win back-to-back Ranji titles, agrees that Karnataka have been playing like “a champion team” for a while now.”Being confident, highly motivated and being tenacious are the primary requisites for a team to succeed. And Karnataka have been ticking all these boxes. The hallmark of a champion team is it doesn’t give up irrespective of the position of the game and the conditions it is playing in. That can only come if the whole team is committed and moving in one direction,” Kanitkar says.”Karnataka have been showing all these skills for the last four-five years. Even when we [Rajasthan] won the titles [in 2010-11 and 2011-12] or Mumbai won [in 2012-13], Karnataka was the team to beat since they made the opponents work for every single run, every single wicket. We knew we had to fight against them for every ball for four or five days. That’s setting them apart at this moment.”Karnataka began the league stages with an emphatic victory, were assured of a place in the knockouts halfway into the league stage and earned room for experimentation. They rested each of their three seamers – Vinay, Abhiamnyu Mithun and S Aravind – before the quarter-finals.The top-six batsmen hadn’t clicked in the first three games. So Arunkumar started his hunt for the best combination. Although Karnataka were made to struggle in a drawn game with Baroda and conceded the first innings lead to Mumbai later, they were not deterred. They knew they were setting themselves up for the knockouts, to field their best XI from the quarterfinals and there on.Assam found that out when they were buried under a huge first-innings total. Mumbai found that out when they were bundled out for 44. And Tamil Nadu found that out when they were left in Karun Nair’s slipstream.Uthappa and Vinay emerged as the Ranji Trophy’s leading run-getter and joint-highest wicket-taker respectively. Their contributions off the field have been just as important.”The best part about these guys is they are leading by example. I have seen a lot of seniors in other states also who set bad examples,” Arunkumar says. “They will just bowl their quota of overs, or bat and sit outside, so even the juniors see that and start doing the same when they become seniors,””But these guys are setting all the right examples. They know equality in the team is very important. If a Vinay goes out and sits in the dressing room for two hours, he knows it’s going to send a wrong vibe to the younger lot. That doesn’t happen. Vinay doesn’t do that. Robin doesn’t do that. They set very good examples. When the captain is motivated, the teams also gets motivated.”Vinay Kumar has been one of the pillars of Karnataka’s success, and his guidance of the younger players has been standout•PTI Uthappa admits he and Vinay revel in their roles as seniors. “For me, one of the most integral things is, as a senior, you want to make the juniors most comfortable. You want to make sure there is no gap between a senior and a junior. Everyone’s treated equally, taken care of, given a work ethic and helped. My job is to make sure that everyone is thinking and feeling right, that’s my responsibility in the side.”At the same time, the youngsters in the team should also be given some sense of responsibility and belonging and sensing their generation doesn’t like to be lectured too much, Arunkumar and head coach Mansur Ali Khan made them talk rather than talking to them.”We gave responsibility to all the boys to talk and take the lead. In our team meetings, we have one batsman and one bowler talk about the team in each of the meetings. He may not be playing in the XI in that match but he along with everyone gets a sense of belonging. That’s where the rest follow,” Arunkumar says.With all the ingredients in place, Karnataka look set to dominate the domestic scene for a long time. Vinay and Arunkumar feel they can continue their supremacy for the next five years, Uthappa raises the bar even more.”I think we’ve got that stuff now. This bunch of boys, we have it in us to win domestic tournaments for a good five-seven years,” Uthappa says. “We’re a very young lot, so easily the next five-seven years. I think Karnataka must protect this lot.””It’s something that we take pride in, our pride depends on being successful. So when we win tournaments, we feel like ‘Yes, we have accomplished this. We have done this, let’s move forward to the next one.’ So we know that we want to win the Irani Cup. No one’s ever won three tournaments – the domestic, the one-day and then the premier one-off. No team in the world has done it. And for us to do it twice in two years, I don’t think people will do it for a hundred years.”Kanitkar is of a similar opinion and sees the attitude that the old Mumbai teams – which he faced for well over a decade during his stint with Maharashtra – in the current Karnataka lot.”Experienced players are secure. Youngsters are hungry for success and also willing to learn to seniors, something that doesn’t necessarily happen everywhere these days. As a result, the team is playing only for a united goal. That is what the old Bombay teams used to be like earlier. And this Karnataka group is very similar to that.”

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2015Overcast conditions promoted Eoin Morgan to insert Afghanistan and his bowlers vindicated the decision by nipping out both the openers early•Getty ImagesThe England bowlers found consistent swing and 20 for 2 soon became 34 for 4•Associated PressThen rain arrived to provide some respite for Afghanistan•Getty ImagesThree balls after second rain break, Boprara struck to have Nasir Jamal caught behind for 17 off 52 balls•ICCShafiqullah was left ploughing a lone furrow. He made 30 off 64 balls, before he was undone by James Tredwell in the 35th over•ICCRain then returned and got heavier, resulting in a delay of two and a half hours. Afghanistan’s innings was closed at 111 for 7 and Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculations meant that England needed 101 in 25 overs•AFPIan Bell and Alex Hales, who was dropped on 0 and 12 by Najibullah Zadran, launched a brisk start as England reached 52 in nine overs•ICCJust as England were motoring towards a ten-wicket win, Hamid Hassan had Hales nicking behind for 37•ICCIan Bell, joined by James Taylor, then notched up a fifty and completed the formalities with 41 balls to spare•Getty Images

They had Pakistan by the collar, but at the end of the Test, it was somehow the hosts who ended up pants-less

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Galle21-Jun-2015Late on day five, Angelo Mathews stands at slip, glum faced, chin resting on knuckles as the ball skids towards the straight boundary off Ahmed Shehzad’s bat. Rangana Herath turns around grimacing in his follow through and puts hands on hips. Having watched Sri Lanka’s young batsmen throw the game away again in the afternoon, old man Kumar Sangakkara wears a resigned look in the infield. At this late stage of his career, he looks more and more like a dad fed up with telling his kids not to pee into the public pool. Dilruwan Perera is going at 10 an over. Kithuruwan Vithanage is averting gazes.How did it come to this? Sri Lanka had had Pakistan by the collar, but somehow it is they who have ended up pants-less.After the match, Mathews said he was disappointed in his batsmen, but asked for patience to allow them to mature. What else could he say? The team Sri Lanka fielded was genuinely very close to the best top order they currently have. Only the No. 7 position is contentious.Mathews has said that he has virtually been on his knees pleading for Sangakkara to stay another year. Who could blame him? Begging is almost not enough. On today’s evidence, Mathews would be justified in holding Sangakkara’s family for ransom in exchange for a few more Tests. Surely there is more the Sri Lanka team can do to keep the man from retiring? Keep sabotaging planes so he can never leave to Surrey? Dress like Mahela Jayawardene and stand next to him at slip? Sangakkara is quite clearly ready to begin the next phase of his life, but Sri Lanka need him as their No.3. Perhaps in perpetuity.The third-innings collapse in Galle would be dispiriting if it was not so bizarre. All but three Sri Lanka batsmen fell playing aggressive shots. There were some that were justified: Lahiru Thirimanne’s attempted punch-drive off Wahab Riaz made sense, given it is one of his better strokes, and the ball was roughly in the right place for it.Vithanage’s slog-sweep on one, however, is a little more difficult to decipher. Was he launching a campaign for a T20 place? Usually a handy lower-order batsman, Herath was seemingly intent to show Vithanage how strange a shot that was, by performing a pantomime mimicry of it. Almost as if he had planned it, Herath’s shot finished in the deep fielder’s hands as well. Yasir Shah was in the midst of one of the best spells of his life, but Sri Lanka were barely even making him work for his wickets.

On today’s evidence, Mathews would be justified in holding Sangakkara’s family for ransom in exchange for a few more Tests. Surely there is more the Sri Lanka team can do to keep the man from retiring?

Some batsmen almost literally played as if they had a train to catch. Three took off in the general direction of Galle station, sprinting clean past Yasir deliveries in the process. Sunday was the first occasion more than two Sri Lanka batsmen were out stumped in the same innings.Maybe they had last year’s Galle Test with Pakistan on their minds. On that occasion, the opposition had been too defensive, and Herath had hurled them into the sea. But in attempting to avoid this fate, Sri Lanka’s afternoon played out like a B-grade horror film: panicked characters stumbling to escape the snake in the woods, only to run directly towards the maniac with a chainsaw.After the match, Mathews conceded Sri Lanka made plenty of mistakes, but suggested his team be given the time to learn from them. “I’m very happy with the way that Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva batted,” he said. “Dinesh Chandimal fought pretty hard as well. Unfortunately, the rest couldn’t hold on. It might take a little bit of time and the batsmen need matches to mature, but that’s not an excuse. This is Test cricket – we have to try and find a way to win. Sanga’s going to retire soon so it’s up to us to stand up and do what’s possible. It’s going to be tough, but most of the boys have played up to 15 Test matches. In time they’ll learn.”Things change quickly in Sri Lankan cricket. They rise and fall in a space of few weeks, though Pakistan’s cricket is even more dramatic. There is plenty of time for tides to turn in this series yet, whether Sangakkara stays for its entirety or not. Sri Lanka’s cricket has also rarely languished for long. When greats have retired, unlikely others have risen to replace them. But in this match, at least, Sri Lanka’s young batsmen have failed to dispel fans’ fears that the team is heading toward a lull.

What implications could Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd’s writ petition have for the BCCI working committee meeting?

Nagraj Gollapudi26-Aug-2015What is the petitioner’s plea?
The petitioner filed a writ on August 17 asking the court to first put an interim stay on the Lodha committee decision, quash the decision to suspend the Super Kings franchise and ask the BCCI to reinstate it into the IPL.What is the petitioner’s argument?
The basic premise is that the Supreme Court never asked the Lodha committee to determine the culpability of the franchise under the IPL Operational Rules, specifically Rule 4.1.1, which deals with failure to ensure that any team official does not violate any regulation.The petitioner cites that the Lodha committee was entrusted by the court with determining the quantum of punishment for Gurunath Meiyappan, a Super Kings team official held for betting in matches during the 2013 IPL, and also the franchise for violating the IPL’s anti-corruption code of conduct.The petitioner believes that the gravity of the offence warranted that such a high-power committee examine whether the franchise was guilty or not by scrutinising the findings of the Mudgal probe panel, which it had at its disposal.What does IPL Operational Rule 4.1.1 say?
Each franchisee shall ensure that each of its team officials complies with the regulations, including without limitation, the BCCI Anti-Corruption Code for Participants (and the attention of franchises is drawn in particular to Article 2 of the BCCI Anti-Corruption Code for Participants for a list of offences under that Code). For avoidance of doubt, all of those persons who are accredited as representing the franchisee, whether accredited for the league by the BCCI either centrally or locally, shall be deemed to be a team official for the purpose of the regulation.Who are the respondents in the case?
The BCCI is named as the first respondent and India Cements Ltd (ICL) as the second. (In April Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd got the rights from ICL to the Super Kings franchise, which was approved by the previous BCCI dispensation.)What was the court’s response?
While asking for responses from the BCCI and ICL, the two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam said that they would like to first hear from the petitioner as to why the petition is maintainable if the Supreme Court had delivered the finding of guilt in case of Super Kings.(The court said: “We would like to hear the concerned parties on the issue of maintainability of the petition first in the context of the relief sought in the past proceedings and orders passed by Honourable Supreme Court before we proceed to examine the issue on merits.”)How will a stay order affect the decision taken by the BCCI working group?
The general perception within the working group is that the writ will have no bearing on its decision. The BCCI working group, a five-member team lead by IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, set up to decide on the suspension of Super Kings and Royals, is likely to make its recommendations to the IPL governing council late evening Thursday and then to the board’s working committee on Friday in Kolkata. And hence the step to obtain interim relief is being perceived as a desperate step by Super Kings to stall the BCCI from taking the final decision.How is the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) involved in this writ?
The CAB, which filed the original petition in the Bombay High Court in 2013 in the betting scandal, requested the court that it be allowed to implead – respond – in the case, too, considering it had been involved from the beginning.The main reason behind the CAB forcing itself in is because it feels the BCCI, which is one of the respondents, is unlikely to argue against the writ. The BCCI, CAB maintains, has never taken a stand against Super Kings in the past two years and is likely to once again remain quiet. In such a scenario, the CAB feels someone needs to highlight what it feels are misconceptions expressed in the writ with respect to the Lodha committee findings.

Tests where spinners took the most wickets

Siddarth Ravindran07-Nov-201537 – New Zealand break new groundIndia v New Zealand, Nagpur, 1969
This was one of New Zealand’s only two Test wins in India, and it came on a proper turner when the home side’s spin line-up was Erapalli Prasanna, Bishan Bedi and S Venkataraghavan. New Zealand’s spinners didn’t have as lofty a reputation, but some calculated batting helped the visitors reach 319 and gave the bowlers some runs to play with. Left-arm spinner Hedley Howarth then produced the stand-out performance of his career, part-timer Mark Burgess took four of his career’s six wickets and offspinner Vic Pollard chipped in with five strikes as New Zealand got their first Test win in the subcontinent.35 – No answer to BenaudIndia v Australia, Calcutta, 1956
India have traditionally depended on their slower bowlers, but this Eden Gardens track provided so much help to spinners that their lone medium-pacer Gulbarai Ramchand bowled only four overs across two innings. India’s original spin trio – offie Ghulam Ahmed, left-arm orthodox Vinoo Mankad and leggie Subhash Gupte – bowled out Australia for less than 200 in both innings, but that was still not enough as the great Richie Benaud ran through India’s batting twice to deliver a 94-run victory.35 – Sunny’s last standIndia v Pakistan, Bangalore, 1987
There were three all-time great quick bowlers in the game – Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Kapil Dev – but they could only prise out five wickets on a minefield in Bangalore. In the series decider, the move to bring in offspinner Tauseef Ahmed for an out-of-form Abdul Qadir proved the decisive one. Tauseef took nine, as did Iqbal Qasim, and though Sunil Gavaskar signed off from Test cricket with a masterful fourth-innings 96 (next highest score 26), Pakistan closed out a narrow victory.34 – Jadeja’s back in businessIndia v South Africa, Mohali, 2015
In a match that didn’t even reach stumps on the third day, Ravindra Jadeja made a triumphant comeback to Test cricket, taking eight wickets and scoring an important 38 in the first innings to take the Man-of-the-Match award. He was one of India’s three-pronged spin attack, each of which played a part – R Ashwin continued to be unplayable at home with eight scalps in the match, and Amit Mishra had the world’s most feared batsman, AB de Villiers, bowled twice.33 – Those two little pals of mineEngland v West Indies, Old Trafford, 1950
Test debuts for West Indies’ greatest spin pair – Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine – as Lancashire’s decision to reduce watering the pitch led to a surface that was turning big. Valentine began brilliantly, taking the first eight wickets to fall in the game, but Godrey Evans and Trevor Bailey pushed England past 300. It was another debutant spinner, Bob Berry, whose performance made the difference, as he wrecked West Indies in the first innings to set up England’s only Test win of the summer. The next Test at Lord’s was where Ramdhin and Valentine got their famous nickname, and it also proved to be Berry’s final Test.

Just a few months after their World Cup flop show, the nucleus of a vibrant England one-day unit has emerged. And, unlike previous episodes of the team trying to embrace 50-over cricket, this one feels as though it has some longevity to it

Andrew McGlashan21-Nov-2015Two hundred and fifty seven days. On March 9, England exited the World Cup in the group stages after a 15-run defeat against Bangladesh in Adelaide. On November 20, Jos Buttler broke his own record with England’s fastest ODI century, a brutal 46-ball demolition of Pakistan in Dubai, which set-up a series-clinching victory.Anyone who watched England’s insipid World Cup campaign could scarcely have believed how their year in 50-over cricket would develop. A barnstorming series victory against New Zealand, a hard-fought 3-2 loss against World Champions Australia and finally a convincing series win in Asian conditions which tested various facets of a young side’s game.The Ashes series success will define England’s 2015, but it is the resurgence of the one-day side under Eoin Morgan and the shrewd stewardship of Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace that should really be seen as the stand-out achievement of the latest “new era”. Unlike previous incarnations of England trying to embrace one-day cricket, this one feels as though it has some longevity about it.Driven by Andrew Strauss’ demand that English cricket casts off its dismissive attitude to one-day cricket, the nucleus of a vibrant 50-over unit has emerged in barely six months. Those associated with the World Cup campaign insist that the freedom now being displayed was how they wanted to play in Australia and New Zealand. They never came close, though, after Morgan inherited Alastair Cook’s team and was unable to implement his own ideals in such a short turnaround.However, given the complete backing by Strauss to retain the captaincy – one of the decisions buried on that tumultuous day at Lord’s in May when Kevin Pietersen’s career was ended and the mud-slinging resumed – Morgan was handed the authority to make it his team. He has been immense as a captain and a batsman; it is all well and good to tell batsmen to play without inhibition, but that desire had to be followed through from the top and Morgan was true to his word. Since the World Cup he has made 754 runs at 58.00 with a strike-rate of 101.75.A couple of decisions in the final match against Pakistan in Dubai also highlight his sharp captaincy mind. Firstly, he promoted Buttler to No. 4 and then, with Pakistan throwing the bat, saw Sarfraz Ahmed dispatch Adil Rashid down the ground. It would have been easy to drop a fielder back to long-on, but instead he kept mid-on inside the circle. Off the next ball Sarfraz picked out the man. Neither was a ground-breaking captaincy manoeuvre, but such thinking in the one-day game has not often been natural within an England set-up.Jos Buttler’s century in the final ODI in Dubai was the 12th by an England batsman this year, the most in a calendar year•Getty ImagesWhile inconsistency remains, as shown by an overall tally of eight wins and six defeats since the start of the New Zealand series, the highlights of England’s last three series have been plentiful. Against New Zealand they crossed 400 for the first time, chased down 350 with six overs to spare and secured the series having been 45 for 5 in the chase at Chester-le-Street.Facing Australia, they fought back from 2-0 down to take the series to a decider. At Old Trafford, spinners Rashid and Moeen Ali came to the fore and at Headingley, Morgan marshalled a chase of 300. Back in Manchester, the top order folded with the series on the line and when they started against Pakistan by being 14 for 3 in Abu Dhabi, there was a thought whether progress would stall, but the response was emphatic.For individual players, there have been important career milestones. In the last seven matches, three batsmen have registered maiden ODI centuries: James Taylor, Alex Hales and Jason Roy. Taylor did not play against New Zealand, having emerged from the World Cup carnage with his reputation intact and captained the washout against Ireland in Dublin, but has proved to be an immensely versatile batsman. His century came at No. 3 against Australia and then in Sharjah he nursed a run chase at No. 5 in conditions favouring spin that would have undone many an England side. Do not underestimate his power, either, while his speed between the wickets adds another dimension.The hundreds for Hales and Roy in the UAE showed the value of letting players settle into a position; both have had their ups and downs – Roy started unconvincingly against New Zealand and Hales stuttered against Australia – but there is a long-term view about this one-day team with Bayliss and the selectors content to soak up the occasional hiccup.Centuries win one-day matches and in 2015 England have started to crack the code. Before the series against Pakistan, they already had their most three-figure scores for a calendar year (nine), and the 12 they have finished with – crowned by Buttler’s effort – is evidence of a top order that is quickly learning its trade at the top level, although it also reinforces how far behind the pack their game was. The overall strike-rate, too, of 93.07 is comfortably their best for a year.The bowling depth has been tested and the results have been encouraging. James Anderson and Stuart Broad have been moved aside from the one-day team – the former probably for the good, the latter may remerge – while in the UAE the side was shorn of Steven Finn who had become the senior figure in the team during the summer and Ben Stokes was due to be rested even before his collarbone injury. What David Willey and Reece Topley lack in pace they have made up for in nous, both producing eye-catching spells of swing against Pakistan, while the management have already been impressed by Topley’s variety. Player rotation means that the notion of a first-choice attack may be a thing of the past and the by-product is that the pool of players who can fill a role has expanded.All the bowlers have had to take a deep breath at times – especially in the series against New Zealand which was the fastest scoring bilateral series in history – none more so than Rashid, but England’s commitment to him embodies their new approach. He has conceded more than six-an-over, yet has not been overawed as 19 wickets in 14 innings would attest to. His 3 for 78 in Dubai was a case in point: two of the wickets came after he had been clobbered for a boundary, responding by finding Mohammad Rizwan’s edge with a sharp legbreak and having Sarfraz taken at mid-on.There will be more rough days with the smooth for this side. The first major staging post for them is the 2017 Champions Trophy in England – by when they will also have played series in Bangladesh and India that will challenge other areas of the team – and that tournament will be a good gauge as to how the side is shaping up for 2019. That World Cup, on home soil, is crucial to English cricket on a multitude of levels in terms of performances on the field and spreading the game off it – the challenge of the latter as important as the former. There is reason to believe, though, that there is a team being formed that can deliver.For England in one-day cricket, 2015 was on one hand another but on the other a year where an exciting future emerged.

Three books on the master commentator and Australia captain offer you the wisdom of Benaud

Paul Edwards20-Dec-2015Sometimes it is wise to succumb to temptation. Asked to review three books that celebrate the life of Richie Benaud, this cricket writer is itching to respond in the pithy style of the great man himself:And now he has. Not a word wasted there, and potential readers can get on with the business of ordering.Yet even sitting at a desk, one intuits the late Benaud’s distaste for hyperbole. If you must, Benaud might say, but can we please dispose of this idea? Before long, Benaud’s list of truly great men and women is produced and one recalls his dismissal of the idea that Shane Warne getting out for 99 might be labelled “a tragedy”. Words are not candyfloss.All of which illustrate one of the beguiling paradoxes of Benaud’s career – that while no one in cricket was more easily or frequently impersonated, there was still nobody like him.All three of these books are anthologies and each has plenty to commend it. The ideal stocking-filler is probably , edited by Rob Smyth, which does not suffer in the least from being confined to extracts from the but might have benefited from the inclusion of a contents page. A particular strength of Smyth’s book is that the last third of it includes a season-by-season chronicle of Benaud’s career, but we also have a host of tributes to his skill as a commentator and his shrewd assessments of his countrymen. For example, there is this from the 1973 on Dennis Lillee:

“Though he looks flamboyant in action on the field, Lillee is essentially a man of simple character, preferring a king-size steak to the more spicy continental dishes, and the occasional glass of beer to the magnum of champagne… On the field, a man who shows an obvious dislike to batsmen, he is of equable temperament once the day’s play is over, and the only thing he is prepared to dislike in cricket at the moment is the type of field set for him in one-day fixtures on the England tour.”

, seems on first glance to be a slighter book, one that can easily be placed in the coffee-table category. But it is not so. For one thing, the photographs have been well-chosen and are superbly reproduced. For those of us currently thinking about how the camera supplies a different history of the game, they provide a wonderful chronicle of Benaud’s career from the multifaceted springtime of Worcester in 1953 to the not-too-grand elder statesman speaking alongside a statue of himself at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2008.Some of the writing is very fine, too. Consider this from AG (Johnny) Moyes:

“No slow bowler can reach the top of the hill – it is a difficult upward climb – without much planning, perseverance and hard work. There is no proper pathway to success except through blood, sweat and tears, for the spinner must learn to take a hiding without giving ground. Purposefulness, endurance and brains are prime necessities. Benaud has these qualities, and that is why he finally emerged from the clouds into the sunshine of rich and continued success. He is without doubt one the most gifted slow bowlers in cricket’s long history.”

For some of us, Richie Benaud was always there, a soundtrack to our cricketing lives. Shrewd, articulate, wise, he was the perfect antithesis of RC Robertson-Glasgow’s one-way critic. He was commentating when we fell for the game and he policed our love with astute observations.As the cricketing world spins ever more rapidly we will wonder what he might have said about it all. Richie himself might observe that there are other commentators and we should listen to them. He might also add that it might not be such a bad idea if we made up our own minds a little more. Quite true, but when we need to be reminded of Benaud’s unique voice we will have these three fine anthologies and his own books on our shelves. Marvellous, indeed.Benaud in Wisden
Edited by Rob Smyth
Wisden
198 pages, £10.99Remembering Richie
Richie Benaud and friends
Hodder and Stoughton
334 pages, £20Those Summers of Cricket – Richie Benaud 1930-2015
Hardie Grant
185 pages, £20

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-2016Taylor’s series faded after a promising start in Durban•Getty ImagesDane Piedt claimed Joe Root as England’s slide quickly set in•AFPKagiso Rabada was in the wickets again as he ripped out the rest of England’s batting, finishing with the second best figures in South Africa history•AFPDespite the defeat, the series was already England’s and they were able to get hold of the series prizes•Getty ImagesBen Stokes was named Man of the Series•Getty Images

ESPNcricinfo staff05-May-2016Scott Boland then removed Sanju Samson for 20 in the sixth over•BCCIKarun Nair made a fluent 32…•BCCI…before he sliced a Rajat Bhatia legroller to sweeper cover. The seam-bowling allrounder would finish with figures of 2 for 22•BCCIJP Duminy and Sam Billings lifted their team with a 45-run partnership for the fourth wicket•BCCIThe stand ended when Billings mistimed a switch-hit to long-off•BCCICarlos Brathwaite then slammed three sixes during his 8-ball 20•BCCIBrathwaite and Duminy fell off successive balls, but Pawan Negi’s cameo took Daredevils to 162 for 7•BCCIIPL debutant Usman Khawaja gave Supergiants’ chase a brisk start•BCCIHe benefited from reprieves on 8,9,22, and 27•BCCIKhawaja failed to cash in and was stumped by Amit Mishra’s googly in the ninth over, for 30 off 27 balls•BCCIAjinkya Rahane, though, kept Supergiants ticking with pushes and dabs•BCCISaurabh Tiwary struggled for timing but hung on to add 45 for the second wicket with Rahane•BCCICaptain MS Dhoni promoted himself to No.4 and slammed back-to-back boundaries off Mohammed Shami before holing out for 27•AFPRahane finished the chase with a flicked four and stayed unbeaten on 63 off 48 balls, his fifth half-century of the season•BCCI

As Tim Southee and Kane Williamson gear up to play their 50th Test, ESPNcricinfo looks at the biggest moments from their careers

Firdose Moonda05-Aug-2016Kane Williamson and Tim Southee will both play their 50th Test for New Zealand, against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. Both men have done their bits, with bat and ball, respectively, to build New Zealand into a competitive Test outfit that has steadily climbed the rankings. Their mini-milestone makes them part of an elite club. Only 18 other New Zealand players have racked up 50 caps, and of those, just three have gone on to double the number. — BJ WatlingESPNcricinfo takes a look at three of the biggest moments in the careers of New Zealand’s Northern Districts team-mates.Dazzling debutsBoth Southee and Williamson made an immediate impact after making their Test debuts.Southee was drafted into the XI for the third Test of the 2008 home series against England on the back of performances at the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia, after Kyle Mills was injured. By that stage, Southee had already made his debut in the shorter formats. Daniel Vettori believed he was ready and Southee showed exactly that.In his second over, he had Michael Vaughan trapped lbw, and went on to remove Andrew Strauss as England’s top order crashed to 4 for 3. Later, Southee claimed Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom to finish with 5 for 55, but it was not enough to prevent a New Zealand defeat.Two years later, Williamson, who had been on New Zealand’s radar from the age of 14, but whose international career began with a couple of ducks in ODIs, was picked for the first Test of the tour of India, in Ahmedabad. After watching India pile on the runs, he saw his own side slip, before pulling them up to level terms through a 194-run stand with Jesse Ryder – New Zealand’s second-highest fifth-wicket stand in Tests. Both batsmen notched up centuries, with Williamson’s back-foot technique particularly standing out. His efforts helped New Zealand draw the match.Subcontinental success Making an impact on the surfaces in the subcontinent is seen as a defining moment in a cricketer’s career. For Southee, that came in 2012, when Williamson had a second success.Southee’s swing got the better of India in Bangalore where he accounted for all but three of their batsmen on his way to 7 for 64. Southee dismissed Gautam Gambhir and Cheteshwar Pujara in his opening spell, Suresh Raina later on, before engineering a lower-order collapse in which India lost four wickets for 19 runs. Of note was the way he consistently moved the ball away from the right-handers and used the offcutter. New Zealand took a 12-run first-innings lead, but still lost the match. Southee followed up with a five-for against Sri Lanka in Colombo later that year.After a successful debut in 2008, Tim Southee has gone on to establish himself as the spearhead of New Zealand’s attack and forged a successful new-ball partnership with Trent Boult•Getty ImagesIn that same Colombo Test, Williamson scored his third Test century and put on a defiant 262-run third-wicket stand with Ross Taylor. Having already lost the first match, New Zealand had slipped to 14 for 2, when Williamson and Taylor came together and showed fight. In a chanceless five hours at the crease, Williamson’s work off the back foot was particularly impressive, but his ability against spin too made the century special. New Zealand won the match and squared the series. Williamson has since struck centuries in Chittagong and Sharjah.On the Lord’s honours board Being recognised at the Home of Cricket is also an important step in a cricketer’s career. Southee’s moment came in the first Test of their 2013 tour, when he kept New Zealand in the match after England had taken a slender first-innings lead. At 159 for 2 in the second innings, England were 184 ahead when Southee flattened Joe Root’s middle stump and took out Johnny Bairstow’s entire set, before bouncing out Matt Prior to take three wickets in 16 deliveries. He went on to remove Ian Bell and Graeme Swann to finish with 6 for 50. New Zealand had a gettable 239 to chase, but were bowled out for 68.Williamson’s inscription on the board came two years later, in 2015. After England posted 389, New Zealand began a solid reply, but it was Williamson who allowed them to edge ahead with another solid stand with Taylor – of 189 runs – and an assured century, his 10th in Test cricket. Williamson had not batted for more than a month before that innings, but his timing, especially through third man, and his concentration at the crease were the complete opposite of a man who may have been out of touch. He ensured New Zealand took a healthy 134-run lead, although they eventually lost by 124 runs.