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How they were out

	Salman Butt capped his outstanding series with a career-best 136 © AFP

It was as if the series result was decided even before Bangladesh agreed to tour the country. Pakistan took their second consecutive 5-0 series sweep at home – their first was against Zimbabwe – with a comprehensive 150-run victory in the fifth and final one-dayer at the National Stadium and extended their winning streak to a record 11. The win was set up by a career-best 136 off 124 balls by Salman Butt, and his stand of 179 for the second wicket with Younis Khan propelled Pakistan to a massive 329 which proved way beyond reach for Bangladesh who effectively lost the game after Mohammad Asif inflicted a top-order wobble.Shoaib Malik had no hesitation in batting first after winning the toss, a move prompted by the fact that there was little chance of dew troubling the bowlers later in the evening. It was a good toss to win, as the batsmen were rarely challenged under the blazing afternoon sun.The pitch had a sprinkling of grass, though it only helped to bind the cracks together. The opening bowlers, Mashrafe Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain, bent their backs early, hoping to get some pace and nip, but the pitch wasn’t very cooperative. That was to be the trend through Pakistan’s innings after Kamran Akmal’s early departure, when Butt and Younis took control and milked the bowling authoritatively.The feature of Butt’s innings was the ease with which he lofted the ball into the gaps while staying rooted to the crease. The surface wasn’t by any means quick, and Butt merely stayed back, waited for the ball to come to him before powering it past the infield. The outfield was lightning quick and all Butt had to do was to place it just wide of the fielders to get a boundary. All this meant that the margin for error was minimal for the bowlers and once again it was Butt who made them pay. Bangladesh could have had him on 57 had Mortaza hung on to a difficult diving catch to his right at mid-off after the batsman had given Shakib Al Hasan the charge.Younis was his usual busy self at the crease, pushing the singles, and the pair brought up the 50 stand in 49 balls. The introduction of the spinners did little to stem the run rate. Shakib and Abdur Razzak, the left-arm spinners, varied their lengths, pushing it in quicker, sometimes giving it more flight, but the lack of turn allowed the pair to get the singles. Younis brought up his half-century with a reverse-sweep and by then the pair had gone past Pakistan’s highest second-wicket stand against Bangladesh, beating the 123 between Rameez Raja and Saeed Anwar in 1997.Mohammad Ashraful decided to bring on his seamers in the middle overs and the move paid off when Younis fell to a miscued pull off Shahadat. Mohammad Yousuf joined Butt and the pair clattered 17 off one Shahadat over, before Butt finally fell to a well-judged catch at long-on by Shakib. With two centuries and as many 70-plus scores, Butt entered the record books by going past Javed Miandad for the most runs scored by a Pakistan batsman – 451- in any tournament or series.Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq later added a breakneck 52 off just 5.4 overs to take Pakistan past 300. In the middle of the carnage, Mortaza managed 4 for 65, the only bright spot for the visitors.Batting, however, didn’t appear as easy under lights when Bangladesh took guard. Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddique faced some quality seam bowling from Asif and Umar Gul and the pair lacked the technical nous to see off the new ball and then attack. Shakib was squared up by a brute of a delivery which beat him for pace and shaved the top of the off stump. With that wicket, Bangladesh lost their in-form player and it was only a matter of time before the rest tumbled.There were only two periods of resistance in the chase, though very contrasting in nature. Ashraful went on the attack in characteristic manner, peppering the on side with pulls and hoicks. Though not all came off the middle of the bat, it was entertaining all the same. The cameo knock of 30, off 26 balls, ended thanks to Misbah’s quick reflexes at slip. A slow seventh-wicket stand of 57 between Mahmudullah and Dhiman Ghosh was never threatening, as it was only to prevent them from being rolled over quickly. Razzak then delayed the inevitable with some lusty blows before the chase ended in the 41st over. The Twenty20 international on Sunday gives Bangladesh the only chance to save face on this tour.

The UAE wound up a woeful trip to the Greater Toronto Area with a six-wicket win against Ontario on Wednesday. Ontario made 228 for 7 from their 50 overs, with UAE reaching the target with nine overs to spare.Saqib Ali starred for the UAE with 64, including seven fours and three sixes, while Nayeem Aslam sealed victory with a drive for six. Khuram Khan took 3 for 27.Earlier, Saad bin Zafar made 64 for Ontario and the captain Zahir Haniff hit a breezy 51 not out from 42 balls.This was a consolation win for the UAE after losing the Intercontinental Cup match to Canada by an innings. Canada top the standings in this competition where the top two of the eight competing countries will play off for the title.

Tearaway: Munaf Patel has looked the genuine article in his brief career © Getty Images

Munaf Patel, the Indian fast bowler, has acknowledged the rapid change in his lifestyle since stepping into international cricket. After having his mobile number changed and his house in the tiny village of Ikhar in Gujarat hounded by the media, Munaf, 23, admitted that he was learning to deal with fame.”I have lost my privacy,” Munaf told a day before the Indian team left for the Unitech Cup in Sri Lanka. “There is someone always at the door wanting to meet me or my phone is ringing. As it is, as an international player there is so much travelling involved and I get so less time to spend with my family.”As India prepare for the tri-series in Sri Lanka, also featuring South Africa, Munaf singled out the home side as the bigger threat. “They leave nothing to chance while playing at home,” he said. “They know their conditions and take full advantage of that. Lanka just had twin series wins against England and South Africa and have hit a good patch.”Munaf felt that bowling in the West Indies would definitely be an asset in the tri-series. “Surprisingly the wickets in West Indies this time were very slow and low. That has helped me figure what line and length to bowl on slow wickets, like the ones we’ll get in Sri Lanka,” he said.”On tour I had fruitful chats with former West Indies greats like Andy Roberts too. As for the future I plan to bowl stump to as per coach Greg Chappell’s instructions. I know I will have to work hard to get wickets on the slow tracks and am ready for the challenge.”I can still bowl as fast whenever I want to,” he continued. “But speed is not always important, one needs to out-think the batsmen and that’s possible with accuracy and consistency. I am working towards that.” And as far as reverse-swing was concerned, Munaf was straightforward: “The fact is that in one day matches the white ball reverse swings well, but the opposition batsmen usually get it changed before it reaches the stage where you can make it swing the wrong way. So it’s wise to stick to the conventional swing and get wickets.”

Imagine three or four Shane Bonds competing for the right to take the new ball for New Zealand into a Test match.Unlikely, improbable, impossible, could never happen?As they say in Porgy and Bess, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”Hamilton-based Rene Ferdinands is doing a PhD study into bowling actions.It is a study that is breaking new ground.He has already done 10 years study into a qualitative biomechanical analysis of batting technique based on thousands of hours of video footage, and the specified methods of Sir Garfield Sobers. This study has resulted in a practical set of optimal batting techniques which will be the subject of further biomechanical testing soon.One of the findings already made is the answer to a long-standing question for cricket players: What is the difference between a good batsmen and an elite batsmen?Ferdinands’ study showed that it may be due to a difference in contact point of about six inches.The optimal batting stance is used by the world’s greatest players and Ferdinands has found that even average batsmen can significantly improve their batting ability by using this stance, which often involves just a slight change in posture and a small redistribution of body weight.The prospective benefits for New Zealand cricket from having research work of this type done here are inestimable but will be dependent on his being able to secure employment here once his studies are completed.But it is bowling techniques that have captured his attention at the moment.The 33-year-old Sri Lankan-born academic, who made a first-class appearance for Northern Districts after living in Australia for 20 years, said the primary objective of his study was to get a biomechanics position in New Zealand to work with bowlers and batsmen in this country and to help develop New Zealand cricketers to be the best in the world.His research is ground-breaking as no-one else in the world has done dynamic analysis of bowling actions. There have been other types of studies in other aspects but not in the area Ferdinands is working in.He earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Australia and then did a Masters in biomechanics and his PhD involved developing a model through mathematics and dynamics to allow him to study bowling actions.At the core of his study has been dynamics, which is the analysis of a moving system using forces and torques. Forces accelerate a body in a straight line, whereas torques cause a body to rotate faster.One of the first accepted norms that he has had to dispose of is the notion of bowlers having to “bend their back” to get extra speed.The torque on the lower back acts to resist the rate of flexion. This means that the lower back is flexed passively, resulting from the motion of other body segments.”If you want to bowl a ball fast, you don’t have to make a conscious effort to bend the lower back,” he said.Pace is actively generated from other parts of the action, hip rotation or arm action being two aspects.Ferdinands said one of the major problems facing cricket in New Zealand is over-coaching of bowlers.”A lot of established beliefs about how a bowler generates power don’t seem to stand up under dynamic analysis.”There are too many theories which have not been substantiated and which in fact compromise the bowling actions.”Slowly, by his progressive research, Ferdinands is getting to the position of being able to address these issues.He doesn’t believe there is a perfect action but there are definitely some that are more optimal than others.Any bowler who bowled faster than 140km/h had a good action and in New Zealand he placed Richard Hadlee, Bond and Ian Butler in this category.The reason was that bowlers of this pace either tended to have developed naturally without a lot of changes being made to their actions or developed efficient techniques that suited their natural characteristics. Though their actions may look quite different, all other things being equal, the fastest bowlers generally use more efficient actions.”Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose had different actions but they were efficient.”A lot of fast bowling has got to do with natural ability and the issue for coaches is to know when to let a bowler deliver the ball naturally, and when to intervene and make a judicious technical adjustment,” he said.Other aspects were important in developing speed, such as how to brace the front leg.”Coaches will tell you to brace the front leg, but not how.””How to use the front arm is another thing.”Ferdinands said it was his experience that New Zealand was more guilty of over-coaching its bowlers than most other countries. England and New Zealand were similar in this, he said.”If you look at Pakistan, they let their bowlers just come in and bowl, and the West Indies in the 1980s had no coaches to change their bowlers’ actions for the worse,” he said.While Ferdinands has been working on a special programme with New Zealand Cricket and its bowlers, through an arrangement with the University of Auckland, he was finding that there was more interest from overseas in what he was doing than there was in New Zealand.He hopes that doesn’t always remain the case as the whole objective of his work is to use his expertise to help develop New Zealand’s batsmen and bowlers of the future.”There is an opportunity to make a significant improvement in the bowlers in the future. We could have three or four Bonds rather than one,” he said.There would be short-term benefits from his work, but the real benefits would be 10 years into the future.New Zealand Cricket’s sports science co-ordinator Warren Frost said Ferdinands’ work was essential to further develop New Zealand’s player pool.The valuable point in his work was the modelling he was doing.It allowed an assessment to be made of the effects of possible changes to a player’s action before they were implemented.”There is a lot of exciting potential in his work but the question is whether we will be capable of keeping him in New Zealand.”Hopefully we can. What he is doing is at the sharp end of being at the edge which is where we always want to be,” Frost said.Because of his interest in cricket, Ferdinands was bringing mathematics to bear to go alongside the work of bio-mechanists and that was where he was unique.”It is not often you get a mathematician who is interested in sport,” Frost said.

The dates for the triangular one-day tournament in Holland in Augusthave finally been announced. The tournament is a warm-up event for theICC Champions Trophy in England in mid-September, although India – one ofthe participating teams – are also playing three one-dayers in Englandbefore the Champions Trophy.All four matches will be played at the VRA Ground in Amstelveen. Thefinal will be held there on August 28.Tournament dates
Aug 21 – India v Pakistan
Aug 23 – Australia v India
Aug 25 – Australia v Pakistan
Aug 28 – Final

Selection chairman Sir Richard Hadlee threw a positive spin on New Zealand’s early exit from the World Cup today.Speaking on Radio Sport, the national sport station, he said that New Zealand had gone into the tournament ranked No 8 in the world and could claim to be ranked No 4 or 5 now which indicated the side had made some progress.The side had also won 11 of its last 16 games which had not happened before.Hadlee defended the side selected from claims that not enough specialists were named by saying the top five or six batsmen had been selected as specialists while several of the bowlers had been selected on a similar basis.He said the side had won five games in a row and apart from the last one and a half games, the side had been winning.The loss to Australia had not been a selection issue, it was one where the players had to take a degree of accountability for what happened, he said.Hadlee said the balance of the side had been ‘absolutely right’ and it needed to be remembered that the side had to be picked by December 31, or January 2 in New Zealand’s case.He said the choice of opening with Daniel Vettori as a batsman had been a calculated gamble against the West Indies which had done reasonably well. It was attempted against Australia as an unorthodox move to try and break up the Australian game plan.It hadn’t worked on that occasion, he said.Hadlee also confirmed that he had been part of the selection process of the side, along with coach Denis Aberhart and captain Stephen Fleming and all teams chosen had been a unanimous choice.The opening batting had been an unsettled problem for 15 years and the decision to bat Nathan Astle at No 3 was because of the fact he was so crucial to the side. It was done in an attempt to make it easier for him with five overs or more having been bowled when he batted, and when that had happened the tactic had worked. But on other occasions he was facing in the first or second over.Hadlee added that the failure to go to Kenya had impacted on the chances for players like Mathew Sinclair and Daryl Tuffey. If New Zealand had gone to Kenya and picked up four points, they would have qualified for the Super Six before having to play Canada and that would have allowed those players a chance.Hadlee had been delighted with the form shown by Fleming who he described as superb while Shane Bond had been electric with his bowling.Hadlee said he and the selectors now had to look forward to Sri Lanka and it was time to reflect and reassess on the World Cup while also taking into consideration some very good performances in domestic cricket.”Maybe there are one or two players who may be introduced for the tour,” he said.

More new ground was broken in Zimbabwe cricket as the small Midlands city ofKwekwe hosted a full international touring team in a first-class match forthe first time. West Indies enjoyed a good day of batting practice,finishing with a total of 374; Zimbabwe A finished on 26 without loss. Thestar, for the second game in a row, was West Indian opener Chris Gayle, whoadded 162 to his unbeaten 257 against the President’s XI.The Zimbabwe A side included Alistair Campbell, desperate to find his battingform. Zimbabwe A won the toss and, as has become usual on winter mornings when the conditions often give inordinate help to the bowlers, put the West Indiansin to bat.The bowlers found little or no movement off the hard, flat pitch, but didfind the ball swinging early on. Daren Ganga and Chris Gayle dug a firmfoundation before the latter began to unleash some powerful offside drives.After the first hour the boundaries began to flow across the fast outfieldand the home bowlers appeared doomed to being on the receiving end of aserious pasting.The openers sailed past their century partnership; after the openinghalf-hour or so, none of the bowlers succeeded in troubling them and onlyBryan Strang appeared capable of restricting them, as Travis Friend, RaymondPrice and Mluleki Nkala all proved expensive. Gayle at one stage looked oncourse for a century before lunch, when the score was 154 without loss(Ganga 60, Gayle 92).He reached three figures shortly afterwards, and set his stall to run upanother double-century. Crouching in slightly ungainly fashion at thecrease, he nevertheless drove elegantly, especially straight and on the offside, flicked with superb timing off his toes and adding the occasional glidepast the slips.Just as the pair looked on course to eclipse the first-wicket record forZimbabwean cricket, 280 by Ray Gripper, when he scored his 279 not out, andJono Clarke against Free State in 1967/68, Ganga skied the hard-workingRaymond Price to extra cover and was caught for 79 (Gayle had 160), with thetotal 242. Then, without addition, new man Shivnarine Chanderpaul was givenout caught at slip.Gayle now lost his fluency and, four overs later, was dismissed lbw for 164,trying to swing Price across the line. Price struck again in his next over,as Sarwan (0) chopped a ball on to his stumps, and four wickets had gonedown for 21 runs, most of those scored by Carl Hooper.A brief stand followed between Hooper (36) and Marlon Samuels, which wasbroken soon after tea when Barney Rogers had Hooper caught at slip with hisoff-breaks; 305 for five. But then Ridley Jacobs joined Samuels and thepair added 60 together before Jacobs was out to a brilliant diving catch byStuart Matsikenyeri at mid off, giving Bryan Strang a well deserved wicketwith the second new ball. Immediately afterwards Samuels (50) was caught atthe wicket off the same bowler.With only their tail left, West Indies might well have declared, but insteadtheir lower order pottered around at the crease to little effect. The WestIndians were all out for 374, the last five wickets having fallen for just nineruns. Price was applauded off the field by his home crowd for his figuresof five for 121.Alistair Campbell, in poor form recently, had clearly decided to take thepositive way back, driving two fours in the opening over from Marlon Black.Hamilton Masakadza also played some good drives, and Zimbabwe A finishedwith 26 without loss (Rennie 10, Masakadza 16).

According to Sky Sports, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has insisted that fans should not get used to the club spending as extravagantly as they have in recent transfer windows. 

The Reds have spent almost £250m in 2018, and while it looks to be paying off so far, the German has said that it will not continue in an interview before his side’s narrow loss to title rivals Man City yesterday.

While this may disappoint a lot of Liverpool fans, who may have grown accustomed to the number of high-profile signings that have arrived at Anfield over the past 12 months, it also sends out a very encouraging message.

The former Bundesliga winning manager is obviously content with the team that he has at the moment, and is not particularly enticed by huge signings of the likes of Virgil van Dijk last January or Alisson this summer. That does not rule out the club making signings this January, with Timo Werner and Nabil Fekir on the radar, but it does perhaps rule out the possibility of the signings that break records as they have done.

The Reds currently sit at the top of the Premier League, four points clear of second place Man City, which is an indication that they have the resources and players to get themselves this far. Klopp may not see it necessary to continuously add to something that is working so well already.

However, the danger here is that rivals Man City are likely to splash the cash this month, and Liverpool would not want to be caught out by failing to strengthen their squad in the same way. But for now, Klopp has sent a very positive message about his confidence in his team.

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	Carlton Baugh is also part of the 13-man squad © AFP

West Indies batsman Brenton Parchment will lead a Jamaica Select XI in a three-day match against Australia at Trelawny next week. Xavier Marshall and Carlton Baugh are the only other players in the 13-member squad to have Test match experience.Left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, who took 32 wickets at an impressive 15.71 in the Carib Beer series, was also included but there was no place for Jamaica’s prolific batsman Brendan Nash. Several players in the squad such as Donovan Sinclair and Shacaya Thomas have no prior first-class experience.The match which gets underway on May 16 is Australia’s only practice game before the Test matches.Squad:
Brenton Parchment (capt), Xavier Marshall, Simon Jackson, Shawn Findlay, Lorenzo Ingram, Carlton Baugh Jr (wk), Donovan Sinclair, Shacaya Thomas, Nikita Miller, André Dwyer, Gavin Wallace, André Russell and Neive McNally.

The ECB have announced two squads to take part in a spin bowling masterclass, spread over three days, starting on June 25 at the academy in Loughborough.”Following last year’s success we are pleased to be able to repeat the event,” David Parsons, England’s official spin bowling coach said. “The format provides the opportunity for many of the most promising young batsmen and spinners to test themselves against one another, to learn more about the game and to develop their own games technically and tactically.”The event will also include advice and training from John Childs, Jack Birkenshaw, Ashley Giles and Mike Gatting. A number of match scenarios will be designed to test batsman, bowlers and wicketkeepers the art of spin bowling and how to bat (and keep wicket) to spinners.Parsons was named England’s spin bowling coach in January 2006 and introduced the first “spin match” last September.Batsmen:
Varun Chopra (Essex), Andrew Gale, Joe Sayers (both Yorks), Billy Godleman (Middlesex), Ben Wright (Glamorgan), Karl Brown (Lancashire), Alex Wakely (Northamptonshire), Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Billy Godleman (Middlesex)Wicketkeepers:
Ben Brown (Sussex), Paul Dixey (Kent),Spinners:
Vikram Banerjee (Gloucestershire), Graeme White (Northamptonshire), Christopher Morgan (Hampshire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Azeem Rafiq (Yorkshire), Sachin Vaja (Essex), Thomas Winslade (Surrey), Moneeb Iqbal (Durham)