Stars Of World Cricket

Pakistan v Australia, 2nd Test, Sharjah, 2002-03

Raging bull

Pakistan were home away from home. In Sharjah, the on-field temperature was touching 50 degrees. Andy Bichel, one of the fittest men in the game, bowled five overs and was put on a drip. This was extreme sport. "I just told her to switch on the fan-forced oven, turn it up and let it blow over here; that's what it was like," was how Matthew Hayden, the Aussie opener, explained the conditions to his wife.

But Shoaib Akhtar wanted to turn up the heat further. He had taken 5 for 5 in 15 in a losing cause in the first Test, in Colombo. Pakistan had been bowled out for 59 on the first morning in Sharjah. Shoaib was required for retribution.

You can't help but admire his chutzpah, but there's part of you that worries about how unhinged he might have been to pick Hayden as a target. Shoaib was fighting the odds: the scoreboard, the heat, Hayden's form, and his aggressive nature.

Shoaib started the feud by complaining to umpire Steve Bucknor that Hayden was backing up too far. Words were exchanged.

Later, with Hayden past 100, Shoaib returned to the attack. First he bounced Hayden, who swayed out the way. More chat. Next ball was edged to third man for four. Shoaib not happy. Next, he stopped at the crease after a full run-up, warning Shane Warne this time that he was backing up too far.

In he came again and Hayden, for no apparent reason, pulled away at the last second. Shoaib had already expended an over's worth of energy, but there were still two balls to go. The next ball was short and Hayden ducked into it. Shoaib's reaction was predictable and verbal. And Hayden, once he was back on his feet, responded in kind.

The match and series was one-sided. So, in truth, was this contest but the raw, brutality of it, in such extreme conditions, left an indelible memory.

India v West Indies, second Test, Delhi, 1983

Hook-filled and Bradmanesque

It can be almost impossible to figure out which is the best innings one has watched. Memory can play tricks with you and nostalgia can exaggerate the worth of an event and make it appear more valuable than it seemed when it was played.

Taking inspiration from what Marquez said, "Life is not what one lived but how one remembers it", I go back 27 years to an innings I think is among the very best, if not the best, I have seen.

Sunil Gavaskar had perhaps the most balanced stance in the history of the game, a perfect blend of elegance and grace, even before he had made his first move to address the ball. So it was hard to believe the man who had tamed the most furious fast bowlers of his time had his bat been knocked out of his hand by a Malcolm Marshall bouncer in the 1983 Kanpur Test against West Indies. India lost that match by an innings and the critics began to ask that he step down. Gavaskar was on the retreat.

The next Test was in Delhi, where he was once again subjected to a vicious short-ball attack by Marshall and Michael Holding, two of the most intimidating fast bowlers the world has ever seen. That day Gavaskar, the calm and cool builder of an innings, decided to take fate in his own hands and launched a blistering counterattack, the memory of which has stayed in my mind despite the amount of cricket I have watched over the years.

His footwork that day was almost divine. He did not weave and duck at the crease, but played what I still think is the best exhibition of hooking I have watched. As if knowing the intent of the bowlers before they had released the ball, Gavaskar got into perfect position to hook, and raced to his half-century off just 37 balls. He took 57 more to record his 29th century, a feat achieved by only man before him - Donald Bradman.

Gavaskar had reserved his best to match the greatest batsman the history of the game has known.

England v Australia, first Test, Lord's, 2005

Great balls of fire

At the time it seemed momentous and its meaning has not diminished with the passing of a few years. The first session of the 2005 Ashes series was always going to be important. Not that it would determine the outcome of the series exactly, but it would tell us loads about the nature of the contest. Were England, after 16 long years, ready?

The answer arrived with the second ball. Stephen Harmison jammed a short, fast delivery into Justin Langer's elbow. The batsman needed treatment. England meant business all right.

Five overs later Harmison did it again when a bouncer pierced Ricky Ponting's grill and cut his cheek. England offered neither apology nor succour.

The interpretation of body language is by and large a spurious art, up there with astrology and pitch reading, but here it was clear. England, led - it should not be forgotten - by a magnificently hostile spell from Harmison, were a team whose moment had arrived and they knew it.

The atmosphere in the ground, already redolent with expectation, grew more fervent as the morning wore on. Australia, who had come out to intimidate, were swiftly in disarray. It was stirring stuff, not only because Australia were losing wickets but because England, by their every movement and look, were so clearly prepared. At lunch the tourists were 97 for 5 after 23 quite gripping overs.

True, England went on to lose that match by 239 runs, which might seem to give the lie to all the above but a pattern had been set. England were so assured by now that they were able to regroup, and at Edgbaston they had another scintillating opening session. Of course it became the greatest series of all, but it was created at Lord's that balmy July morning.

Australia v South Africa, second Test, Melbourne, 2008-09

From hopelessness to neverland

Sports history and tradition "dictate" that older is better - most of the time, anyway. After 20 years of watching cricket for a living, and a few more before that in real life, there is a peculiar reluctance to acknowledge that the best might be very recent.

Having devoured every delivery of South Africa's December 2008 Test match against Australia in Perth, which resulted in the tourists chasing down 414 for victory, I fully expected to wait another 20 years to see something so special.

Instead, it came a week later.

Ricky Ponting's century on Boxing Day set Australia up for a total of 394, and by the close of play on day two South Africa were 198 for 7, a deficit of 196 with just three wickets intact. The situation was hopeless enough to be pathetic.

On the third morning JP Duminy, in his second Test, and Paul Harris added 67 for the eighth wicket to lighten the gloom but raise no hopes, let alone expectations. And then Duminy added 180 for the ninth wicket with Dale Steyn, who made a shudderingly impossible 76. It was like a never-ending journey into JM Barrie and Peter Pan's Never Land. Duminy scored 166, one of the greatest maiden centuries.

South Africa won by nine wickets shortly after lunch on the fifth day. Completely and unarguably silly. Impossible. Graeme Smith's team had become the first South Africans to win a series on Australian soil, and the first from anywhere for 16 years.

Four hours later, when they thought nobody was watching, they lurched around trying to catch seagulls on the outfield and never stopped hugging each other.

From beginning to end, it represented the drama, surprise and emotion that international sport is supposed to be all about. But only Test cricket can supply everything in such commodities. It took days for the hair to lie down again.

Australia v England, second Test, Adelaide, 2006

The thrill, the magic, the horror

It was supposed to be a quiet day at work. Seven hours of watching the second Test drift to sleep while typing a few words for the Guardian over-by-over report. It turned into the most unforgettable day's play imaginable: a numbing, traumatic and downright magical defeat. The vivid sensation of the day was exacerbated by the fact that I was alone in a huge office in the mezzanine hours, bleary-eyed yet simultaneously manic on free coffee; wondering if my eyes were deceiving me; desperate to share the wonder of Warne with anyone.

Of course, the main reason the memory endures is because of the astonishing performance of that rogue psychiatrist Warne, who got England on the couch and drove them doolally with demons that didn't even exist. Warne only took four wickets, two of them lower-order batsmen, but he got inside England's heads, numbing them into submission. And he was responsible for the moment the day snapped viciously into the horror genre, like the scene in the film when the wide-eyed teenager walks round the corner and into a swinging pickaxe.

That occurred when Kevin Pietersen was bowled round his legs - having boasted in his autobiography that such a dismissal would never happen. Even after claiming Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell, you suspect Australia did not really believe they would win, but the symbolism of Pietersen's dismissal changed everything. England were four down and suddenly every single delivery crackled with unimaginable menace.

England held on grimly through the afternoon session, and Paul Collingwood's strokeless defiance brought a lump to the throat, but throughout it all there was the grisly awareness that there could be no happy ending for them here. A glorious era of English cricket died that day, and many fans can't even say the Macbethian word "Adelaide", referring instead to the "South Australian ground". Yet we should forget the parochial and marvel in one of the great days of sport, a heist that makes no more sense now than it did then.

England v India, World Twenty20, Durban, 2007

The thirty-sixer

My 15-year-old brother would have told me when it happened, but in 1968 I was only five - and Swansea was a long way from Kent. So I have no actual recall of the great Garry Sobers despatching poor Malcolm Nash for six sixes in an over.

Yet for me, my mates and much of the cricket-obsessed world I was about to inhabit, those six shots became the embodiment of sporting genius. What must it have felt like to be there? To see that last six floating out of the St Helen's ground?

Almost 40 years later and on a balmy South African evening I am in Durban for the first-ever Twenty20 World Cup. But I am also heading for Swansea, because history is about to repeat itself. Another left-hander gifted with a sublime touch is toying with a seamer, lofting him into streets that lead down to the sea. And this time I am there.

This is Yuvraj Singh. To live on in the tournament India, batting first, must beat England, and they're not doing badly. Yuvi comes to the crease at 155 for 3, just 20 balls left in the innings. But 20 is plenty. After six balls he is on 14, whereupon Freddie Flintoff chucks a few words at him.

It is the spur Yuvraj needs, though it is the 21-year-old Stuart Broad who suffers the consequences. The first six is all power and timing, pummelled over midwicket with the pace (if not the pedigree) of a thoroughbred charging into the South African night. The next is an exquisite, wristy pick-up, and the third stroked to long-off.

Thoughts turn to Swansea, though Yuvraj later said the idea of six sixes took hold only once the fourth, a full-toss, was flailed beyond point. The fifth, almost a mishit, towers over square leg.

Broad, his youth and innocence making the slaughter all the more terrible, has switched from over to round the wicket and back, but his role in the drama is of perpetual victim, and all he does is doomed to utter futility. The wait is endless, but eventually the ball describes an elegant arc from Yuvraj's bat and into the stands.

The Best I've Watched

second-closest Test win ever - it was enough to make a man turn against his friend

The morning of Sunday, August 7, 2005. The scene is an increasingly noisy living room in Cardiff, Wales. And the noise is not coming from the children of the house.

"Daddy, what are you doing? Why are you shouting at the TV?" says the little girl. "That's Michael, isn't' it? He's your friend. Why are you shouting at him and saying nasty things?"

My daughter Bethan was just seven then. How could she understand that I was screaming at my mate Michael Kasprowicz - and he is one of the finest men with whom I have ever shared a cricket field - because he was inching Australia ever nearer a second Test win, which would surely have killed the series stone dead?

It truly was a remarkable morning. Australia began the bright, sunny day requiring 107 more to win, but with just two wickets remaining. It appeared a formality for England. But it soon became a cliffhanger. The session only lasted 100 minutes, but there was enough action to last a lifetime. It is a session I will never forget.

Shane Warne scythed a few and then trod on his stumps. And so Kasprowicz joined Brett Lee. It was a partnership that touched extremes of emotion that few others have managed. And its ultimate failure presaged an unforgettable summer of English success.

This was cricket in the raw. Lee took blows to various parts of his body. Kasprowicz was plumb lbw - not given - and then dropped at third man by former Glamorgan team-mate Simon Jones. All the while boundaries flowed, from a bewildering assortment of edges, byes and meaty blows.

The tension was unbearable. And I wasn't even there. Just three were needed to win - and I admit I'd given up hope of an England win - when Steve Harmison ran in to Kasprowicz. A short ball aimed at the batsman's body - England's unsuccessful tactic all morning - was gloved to wicketkeeper Geraint Jones. No matter that Kasprowicz's right-hand glove was actually off the bat handle at the moment of contact. It was over and England had won.

Pakistan v South Africa, 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi

Smith, Kallis doubtful but heat on Pakistan batsmen

October 30, 2010October 31, Abu Dhabi

Start time 15:00 (11:00 GMT)

The Big Picture

Pakistan's batting is going through one of its worst phases, not far behind the shambolic Sharjah Test in 2002 against Australia when their 20 wickets scrounged a total of 112 runs. For 30 overs of Friday's game, Pakistan seemed to have overcome their woes: Younis Khan and Mohammad Hafeez resorted to the old-school formula of conserving wickets and setting up a late surge, a method that has been the cornerstone of Pakistan's many memorable one-day successes. However, the middle order imploded once again; Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq exited to strokes whose replays should have made them cringe, while Abdul Razzaq fell fending lethargically at one that angled in. The fact that some of their most accomplished players were at the forefront of the collapse suggests the current phase is a crisis of confidence and attitude, more than a question of talent.

Pakistan's senior batsmen have to do some serious introspection, and they don't need to search too hard to find inspiration. After nine months of upheaval, when he possibly visited tribunals and disciplinary committees more often than the batting nets, Younis walked into the middle overs with the assurance of someone completely at ease with his methods. Inevitably, there was some rust - he survived a palpable lbw shout, and managed only two boundaries in the sapping conditions - but unlike his colleagues, the rust was restricted to the physical aspect of Younis' game, while his mind remained uncluttered. Can Afridi rally his team-mates to follow Younis' example?

Having sealed three easy wins on the trot, South Africa's main concern will be that they are not being stretched enough in subcontinental conditions, ahead of the World Cup. Their batsmen were challenged more by the elements than by Pakistan's attack in the opening ODI, and the question mark over Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis' availability for Sunday could even things a bit. Lonwabo Tsotsobe has been the star of the tour so far, but even he will be a little surprised by the success his honest off-cutters and in-duckers have courted. The conditions, and a look at the schedule, may prompt South Africa to consider rotating their players, but they won't want to give Pakistan an opportunity to draw level either.

Pakistan Vs South Africa 2nd One Day International 31 Oct Live

Pakistan play South Africa in the second ODI of the five-match series at Abu Dhabi. South Africa lead the series 1-0 after winning their third successive game in the series and will look to make it 2-0 when the two sides meet again on Sunday.

It is very evident that the Pakistanis are struggling with their batting and have crumbled on more than one occasion. In fact, in the previous game, the Pakistan looked like they could get to 270 plus at one stage - having got to 140/1 in 35 overs with the batting powerplay still remaining. However, a strange looking, but now familiar collapse after the fall of Mohammad Hafeez's wicket meant that the side had struggled to get to 200.

Really, if anything, the law of averages now needs to catch up with the Pakistanis and they need to get going with the bat. If not, captain Shahid Afridi will need to answer a lot of questions and it will remain to be seen how they overcome it.

Thankfully, the side had shown some intent in the first ODI. However, what could be an issue is that on three successive occasions, the Pakistanis have batted first - if they bat second and chase under pressure, things could get more difficult for the team. Umar Akmal exclusion wasn't totally surprising.

South Africa have been clinical so far. Again, there was no sign of Dale Steyn in the previous game but and yet, Lonwobo Tsotsobe bowled like a champion. His 4/27 was his best spell in international cricket and that pegged the Pakistanis back. Apart from him, the spinner Johan Botha also bowled well enough and the middle-order just did not take enough responsibilities.

However, what stood out was the way that South Africa batted in the innings. The heat was so bad that most players who played for a certain lengths of time were getting cramps and yet the batsmen stuck it out and did not give it away. That is something that the Pakistani side will need to learn from the South Africans given that the heat will probably not go away throughout the series.

Jacques Kallis' 50 and Duminy's continuing form is a good thing for South Africa and they will look to get into the driver's seat by going 2-0 up.