Batsman reprimanded for Level 1 offence following his dismissal in final T20I against New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2019England batsman Jonny Bairstow has been reprimanded and given one demerit point by the ICC after being found guilty of “use of an audible obscenity during an international match”.The Level 1 offence was levelled at Bairstow by the match officials after England’s fifth T20I against New Zealand in Auckland. Bairstow was picked up by the television broadcast swearing loudly after his dismissal by Jimmy Neesham. His 18-ball 47 had kept his side in contention to win the deciding match, and Bairstow subsequently went out to bat in the Super Over as England clinched the series.Bairstow currently has two demerit points on his record, having previously received a reprimand for swinging his bat at the stumps on being dismissed during an ODI against Pakistan in May. Accruing four during any two-year period leads to an automatic suspension.

BCCI president says India have no choice if Test cricket needs to attract crowds

Nagraj Gollapudi25-Oct-2019India are getting closer to playing day-night Test cricket. According to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, Indian captain Virat Kohli has told him he is “agreeable” to day-night Tests although there is no definitive date as to when it would happen.Ganguly said India had no choice and playing day-night Tests was the “way forward” if Test cricket needed to attract crowds. That is what he told Kohli during their meeting in Mumbai on Thursday at the BCCI headquarters. It was the first meeting between Ganguly and Kohli after the former captain took charge as BCCI president on October 23.”We all are thinking about this. We will do something about this,” Ganguly said on Friday at the Eden Gardens at an event organised by Cricket Association of Bengal to felicitate him on him taking charge at BCCI. “I am a big believer in day-night Tests. Kohli is agreeable to it. I see a lot of reports in newspapers that he is not, but that is not true. The game needs to go forward and that is the way forward. People should finish work and come to watch champions play. I don’t know when that will happen, but it will.”India, No.1 on the ICC’s Test rankings, and Bangladesh are the only teams (outside of newly promoted Ireland and Afghanistan) to never have played a pink ball Test cricket since Australia and New Zealand featured in the first one in 2016.Now, with the World Test Championship under way, the onus is on the host board to organise day-night Tests, but the BCCI had expressed its reluctance, mainly because India wanted to protect its points and Indian players had not played enough first-class cricket under lights.Sourav Ganguly holding his first press conference after being appointed the BCCI president•AFP

Ganguly has been pushing for India to play with the pink ball even when he was head of the BCCI’s technical committee. In the past, he had recommended that the BCCI continue to invest in playing Duleep Trophy under lights, an experiment first used in 2016. This season the board had initially planned for the Duleep final to be a day-night affair only to change its mind at the last minute.When day-night Tests were launched, the ICC had said that it was a way to let fans come back to the ground after work and have a nice time. The first one in Adelaide was packed on all three days.Earlier this week Kohli had suggested BCCI could limit Test cricket to five of the big venues in India, saying one of the advantages of doing that would be attracting large crowds. His comments came after the final two Tests of the South Africa series were played to sparse crowds in Pune and Ranchi. Ganguly thinks day-night Tests could be a good option to sort that problem too.”Cricket needs a change,” he said. “Who had thought that T20 cricket will be such a rage when it was first played? Even we (senior players) were asked to rest when the format was first played. See lifestyles have changed. No one can afford to bunk schools or offices these days to watch cricket. They need to be brought to the ground after day’s work.”India’s upcoming Test calendar includes a two-match series against Bangladesh in November and a three-match series in New Zealand next February and March

Tour match becomes three-day friendly with frontline bowlers at risk of no match practice before first Test

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Dec-2019England’s tour match against South Africa A starting on Friday has been downgraded from first-class status, due to the ongoing effects of illness in the touring party. Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad and Jack Leach all remain doubtful for the Benoni game, leaving England’s plans for next week’s Boxing Day Test in some disarray.All three players were forced to sit out the low-key tour opener against a South Africa Invitational XI earlier this week, after a bug swept through the England camp, and according to an ECB spokesman, their fitness for this weekend’s three-day fixture won’t be confirmed until the morning of the match.Unlike the opening match, the South Africa A game was due to be a first-class fixture, featuring a strong opposition including regular Test-squad members Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn and Andile Phehlukwayo. That would have meant England being unable to substitute the trio into the line-up should they recover later in the contest.However, the game will now be classified as a three-day friendly, with only 11 batting or fielding at any point in time, giving all squad members the opportunity for match practice in South African conditions ahead of the first Test in Centurion.Speaking at the conclusion of the two-day game on Wednesday, Chris Woakes acknowledged the sickness in the England camp.”A few guys have gone down a little bit ill, so obviously they’re back in the hotel trying to steer clear of everyone,” he said. “Hopefully it’s not too bad, hopefully it’ll be a couple of days out and they’ll be back on their feet.”While the timing of the illness is not ideal for the squad as a whole, it is particularly problematic for Leach, who was omitted from England’s most recent Test, against New Zealand in Hamilton last month, and then suffered a bout of gastroenteritis that would have ruled him out for much of the game anyway.In his absence, England gave an outing to the legspinner Matt Parkinson in their opening tour game in South Africa, but he endured some rough treatment as Joe Root emerged as the most economical spinner on the day.With a range of allrounders in England’s squad, including Ben Stokes, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes – all of whom are currently fit for selection – England could yet decide to take the field in Centurion without a frontline spinner for the second Test in a row, especially at a venue that has traditionally favoured seam bowling.Assuming he is fit in time for the Centurion Test, Archer seems guaranteed to take his place in England’s starting XI – even though he endured a tricky first taste of overseas Test cricket in New Zealand, claiming two wickets at 104.50 in the series.Broad, however, would doubtless benefit from time in the middle as he seeks to build on a decent display in New Zealand, where he was England’s most economical bowler on a flat deck in the first Test at Mount Maunganui. However, he had been omitted from three of England’s previous six overseas Tests in Sri Lanka and West Indies, amid doubts about his penetration with the Kookaburra ball.England also face a tricky decision over the fitness of James Anderson, who came through 11 overs unscathed in Benoni, but whose recent injury record invites caution at the start of a four-match series. He broke down after four overs of the first Test against Australia in August, and did not feature again in the series.

Hathurusingha has moved for compensation through the Court of Arbitration for Sport

Andrew Fidel Fernando14-Jan-2020Sri Lanka Cricket has decided to terminate Chandika Hathurusingha’s contract as head coach, while Hathurusingha has moved for compensation through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), following months of deadlock.Although SLC had suspended Hathurusingha as far back as August last year, they had continued to pay him for several months, while lawyers traded letters and the board sent Hathurusingha a list of alleged failings as head coach. The charges levelled by SLC include failure to adequately prepare the Sri Lanka side for various assignments, and failure to maintain good relationships with players.The board has finally resolved to terminate Hathurusingha’s contract, but the possibility that they will have to pay Hathurusingha a substantial amount for early termination remains. His contract was due to run until December this year.”At the last executive committee meeting, on Friday, it was decided that the contract would be terminated,” board CEO Ashley de Silva told ESPNcricinfo. “I can’t say by memory when we stopped the payments to [Hathurusingha], but I believe it was somewhere around October last year.”The board’s decision came after CAS, a global sporting body that aims to settle disputes related to sports via arbitration, sent them a letter listing Hathurusingha’s demands. De Silva confirmed that SLC is bound to the CAS process, and the board is now understood to be required to respond. This is likely because Hathurusingha’s contract with the board had stipulated that CAS could become involved if something like an early termination did eventuate. CAS will facilitate arbitration, and will effectively function as the intermediary between the parties for as long as this process lasts.Hathurusingha’s demands, conveyed to SLC by CAS, are understood to include not only loss of income from the early termination, but also compensation for damages to his reputation. He had remained in Sri Lanka through the early months of his legal tussle with SLC, but had returned home to Australia after the board’s payments ceased.Hathurusingha is the third head coach in the last five years whose tenure with Sri Lanka was ended before the contracted term was served. Marvan Atapattu and Graham Ford were both elbowed out of the position in 2015 and 2017 respectively.In 2013, SLC had also had to pay Geoff Marsh a substantial settlement after the board had terminated his contract early in 2012.

Roy, Morgan hit fifties before England lose four wickets for five runs needing seven off seven balls

The Report by Matt Roller12-Feb-2020A dramatic late collapse saw England throw away a winning position to lose the first T20I of the three-match series in South Africa by one run.Needing seven off seven balls after Eoin Morgan’s late acceleration looked like it had secured a win, building on the platform set by Jason Roy’s powerful, 38-ball 70, England managed to score only five while losing four wickets, as Lungi Ngidi dismissed Tom Curran and Moeen Ali before Adil Rashid was run out coming back for a second to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.South Africa’s total of 177 after being inserted was the highest T20I score at East London, but owed as much to England’s profligacy with the ball as to their efforts with the bat. Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock led a bright start as the hosts reached 105 for 1 at the halfway mark, but Dale Steyn (five off two balls) was the only other man to score at a strike rate above 120 as Rashid and Chris Jordan dragged things back.England were ahead for the majority of the run chase, with Roy imperious and Morgan gradually moving through the gears, but their muddled middle-order strategy saw Joe Denly, Ben Stokes and Moeen used in suboptimal roles, and South Africa’s seamers took the pace off to good effect to seal an improbable come-from-behind win.Moeen in the PowerplayMorgan made a surprise call to open the bowling with Moeen’s offspin, given that only 13 percent of his overs since the start of 2018 had come in the Powerplay in all T20 cricket. But the move could be explained by de Kock’s relative weakness against spinners in the first six overs: while South Africa’s skipper has been imperious against seamers with the field up (149.0 strike rate since Jan 2017), he has struggled against spin (119.2 SR) and against offspin in particular (112.2 SR).As all hell broke loose at the other end, with Curran and Mark Wood – who started his spell with consecutive high full tosses – both profligate, Moeen successfully tied de Kock down, conceding five runs from the five balls he had bowled at him before he holed out to long-on running in at the start of the fifth over.Ultimately, Moeen and Rashid’s eight overs of spin cost only 45 runs, prompting the question as to why Denly’s legbreaks went unused.England seamers struggleAs much as South Africa’s batsmen impressed, the main reason they were able to put such a competitive total on the board was the fact that England were so slow to adapt to the slowness of the pitch. It became apparent quickly that anything quick would fly onto the bat, while spin and pace-off deliveries were both effective. But England persisted in bowling pace-on, with Curran especially culpable despite his wide repertoire of slower balls.They did themselves few favours in the field, too: Denly had a torrid time, allowing one clip off the pads straight through his legs for four and dropping Bavuma, while Jason Roy shelled a high catch offered up by Jon-Jon Smuts. South Africa’s lack of batting depth and an impressive finish from Wood and Chris Jordan meant they could only post 72 for 7 in the final ten overs of their innings, but their total of 177 was higher than it should have been.Spin to RoySouth Africa looked to expose Jason Roy’s relative weakness against spin in the opening game of last year’s World Cup by opening the bowling with Imran Tahir, and it was no surprise when de Kock turned to Smuts’ left-arm spin in the fourth over of the run chase: Roy had averaged just 20.83 against spin in T20 over the last three years going into this game, while also scoring at a slower rate than against pace.But Smuts gave the ball enough air for Roy to target a short straight boundary – his favoured method against slow bowlers – and after David Miller palmed the second ball of the over for six, Roy dumped him for four, six, four to take 22 runs off the over and get England motoring.De Kock’s shufflingSteyn made an early impression in his first international appearance for 11 months: he was struck for two exquisite boundaries by Jos Buttler, who continued as England’s opener, but then dismissed him with the second ball of his second over as Buttler looked to chip one over the covers.Steyn’s bright start meant he was given three overs in the Powerplay, in which he showcased some dipping slower balls, but Roy’s onslaught meant that de Kock decided to bring him back for his last in the 13th over. Tabraiz Shamsi, who largely succeeded in subduing Roy and Eoin Morgan, was also bowled out by the end of the 14th as the skipper chased a breakthrough, by which point Beuran Hendricks and Dwaine Pretorius remained unused.Pace-off causes England crumbleWhen Hendricks did belatedly arrive, Roy belted his first ball – an 85mph length ball – for four through midwicket, and instantly responded by taking the pace off. His second, a very wide slower-ball bouncer, accounted for Roy and Andile Phehlukwayo removed Denly with a similar move, banging a cutter in halfway down which was heaved out to deep midwicket.Ngidi copied the set template, his back-of-a-length offcutter being skied up to deep midwicket by Stokes, but either side of that Morgan tucked into Hendricks, smiting two boundaries in the 17th over and hitting four, four, six as Hendricks tried to hit the blockhole in the 19th to take the equation down to seven off seven.From there it should have been a cakewalk, but Ngidi held his nerve to concede only five runs from the final over, with Curran holing out to deep midwicket, Moeen bowled by a pinpoint yorker, and Rashid unable to manipulate the ball past Steyn at short midwicket off the final ball.

Pakistan Test captain happy to play behind closed doors if that helps cricket return to TV

Danyal Rasool10-Apr-2020Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali has joined Misbah-ul-Haq, the head coach and chief selector, in asking for the World Test Championship to be extended looking at the way the cricket calendar has been affected because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ali, in an online video conference, said he could get behind the idea of playing behind closed doors should that be the only way to get cricket back on television.”If, hopefully, in the near future cricket is possible and the health of people is not compromised, I’m sure every cricketer will say we should get cricket back on, even if it is behind closed doors,” Ali said. “There is no sport on TV right now that people can watch. They will be happy to get sport back on TV. People’s health is more important, but if we can get sport going without imperilling that, I’d support it. I’m sure the ICC will look at this. The Test Championship was a long competition anyway, so I don’t think it would be a big deal to extend it if the series cannot be held in time; I’d support extending the Test championship.”The series coming up in the Test championship will determine where we stand. We have big series coming up in New Zealand and England, and we need to win at least three-four Tests across those series to give ourselves a good chance of reaching the final. That’s very much our aim, and we’re still looking at those series as crucial to our chances of going far in this championship.”Whether those series can go ahead at all is in severe doubt. That is particularly true of the series against England, which is scheduled to begin in July, with the prospect of the entire English summer being written off a real possibility. The series in New Zealand, in December, is far enough out for any speculation, but with cricket cancelled across the board, the likelihood of the championship squeezing in all scheduled fixtures without an extension appears close to zero.The break in the cricket calendar has also allowed Ali to take stock of his career. Having only recently been appointed Test captain, replacing Sarfaraz Ahmed last October, Ali has led Pakistan in five Test matches. Results have been mixed: a disappointing 2-0 loss in Australia followed by a 1-0 home win against Sri Lanka and a resounding win versus Bangladesh in the first Test in Rawalpindi.”I did want to bring fresh ideas into the team when appointed, and remove the fear factor that players have,” he said. “The players should feel free to express themselves. In a team culture, the captain bears great responsibility for the sort of culture they develop. I want to ensure that regardless of whether I’m in the dressing room or not, the environment is such that everyone thinks about the good of the team. Just as important, we want the dressing room to be a relaxed, not a tense place. We’ve seen – and not just in Pakistan – that when the team is under pressure, the dressing room becomes a very tense place. If you’re doing well, you’re all relaxed, but under pressure, people tend to find corners to hide in.”As long as you keep your emotions level whatever the situation, you take good decisions. Decision-making is affected by tension and pressure.”Ali’s predecessor Ahmed preferred taking central control of all decisions, ensuring he was constantly in his team-mates’ ears and insistent on micromanaging in a way that Ali does not appear to deem necessary. His more approach to cricket, and to leadership, means that according to him, players have the opportunity to relax, as well as understand the captain can only go so far to help them.”Players need to be reminded of their responsibilities, but cricket needs to be enjoyed,” Ali said. “You should know how to relax, and to stay calm when under pressure. I’m happy so far, but it’s still along way to travel. It takes a lot of time to develop trust. The players need to take responsibility for their own performances, too, and they can only give themselves the best chance of performing if they set their fear aside. Being honest, when I go out to bat, there’s as much pressure on me as a young player who just gets into the side. The experienced player has the advantage of knowing how to perform under pressure. What we have to teach young players is how to handle pressure to get the best out of their ability.”

He cracked 35 off 17 balls for Multan before wet weather had the final say 

The Report by Danyal Rasool06-Mar-2020
Multan Sultans put in arguably their worst batting performance of the tournament, but were bailed out by the Lahore weather. With Shan Masood’s side having limped to 102 for 6 in 16.5 overs, the heavens opened, with no further play possible. This had been a distinct possibility with rain having lashed the city for much of the past 24 hours, before the clouds cleared to allow the game to start on time.Karachi Kings started brightly, while Multan, playing their first game back in Lahore after three at home, found themselves under pressure from the outset. A disciplined start from Karachi produced dividends when Zeeshan Ashraf’s low-percentage swipe found a diving Chris Jordan at mid-on, before Moeen Ali, the only Multan player who looked in touch, top-edged Aamer Yamin to find Jordan prowling once more. What followed was nothing short of a collapse, with Rilee Rossouw edging Yamin to the keeper first ball, and Ravi Bopara lasted just two balls. Umer Khan removed Khushdil Shah for a tenuous 16-ball 8, and Multan were reeling at 64 for 6.It was a bitterly cold day for the crowd to endure, and they didn’t even get a completed game, but they may console themselves for one reason: they got to see Shahid Afridi in full flow with the bat once more. An exquisite, and effortless, flick off Mitchell McClenaghan flew over midwicket for six, before he repeated the dose the next ball to liven up a subdued crowd at Gaddafi Stadium. Next over, Umar Khan got the same treatment, and suddenly, Multan had brought up the 100, with Afridi having raced to 35 off 17.It was, as Afridi innings often are, ephemeral. Not, for a change, because of an ill-advised shot. Unseasonal rains were the culprit this time, and as they showed no signs of relenting, Karachi had to settle for a point Multan were only too glad to pocket.

Keeper will leave Bristol at end of season

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jul-2020Gareth Roderick, the Gloucestershire wicketkeeper/batsman, will join Worcestershire at the end of the 2020 season on a three-year-deal.Roderick, 28, has spent eight years as a Gloucestershire player, representing the club 168 times in all formats, and was part of the side that won the 2015 Royal London Cup. His place in the side came under pressure last year due to the emergence of James Bracey, who looks set to be the club’s long-term option as wicketkeeper.Worcestershire’s coach Alex Gidman was a team-mate of Roderick’s earlier in his career, and said that he was the “stand-out” amount the 134 out-of-contract players around the country. He will likely start as second-choice wicketkeeper at the club behind Ben Cox, but will compete as a specialist batsman in the County Championship.ALSO READ: Warwickshire size up move for Bess as Patel successor“Gareth is an established first-class performer and a top-order batsman which again, as we identify the areas in our squad that we need to strengthen, that is one of them,” he said.”Like most modern players, he is well suited to all formats. He wants to improve his T20 cricket as well, which is good to hear, and has a lot of experience in English first-class cricket, which is crucial.””Members were concerned last year, quite rightly, about the lack of runs at the top of the batting order and we’ve made some real effort to improve it,” said Paul Pridgeon, the head of Worcestershire’s cricket steering group.”We’ve signed Jake Libby from Nottinghamshire, had signed Hamish Rutherford as the overseas player, and have now signed Gareth as well. These new signings also help to provide competition and, if you are going to be successful, that’s what you need.””I’m very excited to be joining Worcestershire,” Roderick said. “When I spoke to Alex and he explained the kind of path he wants to take Worcestershire CCC on in the next five years, it became an exciting project to tie myself to.”It has been such a privilege playing for this great club [Gloucestershire]. There are so many people who deserve a massive thank you; from the coaches I have played under and who have helped me so much, through to the fans who have always been behind the team and myself.”

Along with data, “instinct comes in and ability to read the game, which Dhoni clearly has”, says Dravid

Deivarayan Muthu02-Aug-20201:17

Nehra: This IPL has nothing to do with Dhoni’s international career

T20 is a format that’s fickle and frantic, but MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings have somehow cracked consistency, reaching the IPL knockouts in each of the ten seasons they have been a part of. Rahul Dravid, who has come up against the Super Kings both as captain and coach, put down the team’s success to a combination of their use of data and Dhoni’s instincts.Dravid was speaking at a webinar hosted by the Great Lakes Institute of Management, where N Srinivasan, the former BCCI chief and head of India Cements, which owns Super Kings, was also present, and he labelled Dhoni a “pure instinct man”.”If you look at the success CSK has had, they’ve got really good access to data and they’ve got really good access to people behind the scenes and they’ve run cricket teams at the junior level,” Dravid said. “They understand talent and they’ve obviously got a good scouting process in place. But, what they also have is a captain who really understands instincts. So, I mean, look, I know Dhoni quite well and I hope he hasn’t changed, but I know Dhoni is probably not one to look at reams of data and statistics.”And he’s probably not going to get as involved in the auction process because when you’re looking at picking a squad of say 25 players or 28 players as CSK would, they need so much of information because there are so many players that they can pick from. They are probably not going to have the ability to see each and every one of the thousands of cricketers who play cricket in India and the overseas players, right?”So, you’re going to heavily rely on data and whatever metrics you put up. And, I think, the right metrics is critical because obviously CSK does that when assembling a squad. Then, what you do is once you’ve handed over the squad to the coach and to captain on the field, it’s critically important to have somebody with instincts and get the better of it, which obviously Dhoni is good at.”In the heat of the battle, you have your analysis, you got your coach and you’ve probably planned the game. But there are critical moments in a game, especially in a Twenty20 game, when every over matters. You can’t rely on data all the time… because you collect it from a past event. But, on that particular day, he (the player) might not be feeling very well or the captain might have noticed that his form is not good on that particular moment. That’s where instinct comes in and ability to read the game, which Dhoni clearly has.”Dhoni’s instinct and game-smarts came to the fore again during the 2010 IPL final, where he trapped Kieron Pollard with a funky field. Given Pollard’s propensity to hit the ball down the ground, Dhoni posted Matthew Hayden at straight mid-off and challenged Pollard to clear that fielder. However, Pollard only scooped Albie Morkel straight to Hayden as Super Kings went on to win their maiden IPL title.More recently, during the 2019 IPL final, Dhoni had one of his best fielders, Faf du Plessis, at straight long-off or straight long-on against Pollard. And when R Ashwin was at the Super Kings, Dhoni used the spinner as a powerplay option and often deployed a leg slip for him.During a Champions League T20 fixture in 2010 against Victoria in Port Elizabeth, Dhoni entrusted part-time offspinner Suresh Raina with the responsibility of defending 11 off the final over. Raina plucked two wickets and gave up two boundaries before Bryce McGain’s run-out off the last ball helped the Super Kings tie the game.Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Srinivasan agreed that Dhoni’s tactics and judgment had been central to Super Kings’ set-up. He also said that Dhoni didn’t really believe in team meetings, something Dwayne Bravo revealed last year.”We’re awash with data just now,” Srinivasan said. “To give you an example, there are bowling coaches and in a T20 game, they play videos of every batsman whom they’re going to come against and they see how he got out, what’s his strength, what’s his weakness etc. So, MS Dhoni doesn’t attend this, he’s a pure instinct man. The bowling coach, [head coach Stephen] Fleming will be there and everybody will be there, everyone is giving opinions, [but] he’ll get up and go.”In the context of instinct, he feels that he can assess a batsman or player on the field, that’s his judgement. On the other hand, there is so much of data that is available to help a person also analyse. It’s a very difficult line to draw [between data and instinct].”Srinivasan also outlined the challenges of bringing players from different cultures together and running an IPL franchise.”There was one outstanding player that we suggested to MS, he said: ‘no sir, he will spoil the team’. The cohesion within the team is important and see in America, franchise-based sport has been there for such a long time,” he said. “In India, we’re just starting and we’re new to it. But we at India Cements have had a lot of experience running teams at junior levels – Rahul has been part of us – [and] one aspect is that we understood from the beginning is when you manage and run a team, you own the franchise, not the player. You own the team, but not each and every player.”If we’re talking of competitive IPL or competitive T20, all of them are outstanding performers. To get 10-12 people together and to keep the peace between them itself is not an easy task.”

Young batsman describes ‘unbelievable feeling of elation’ as long, lonely nets flash before his eyes

George Dobell21-Aug-2020Zak Crawley experienced “an unbelievable feeling of elation” the moment he reached a maiden Test century on the first day of the final Test against Pakistan.Crawley, the 22-year-old from Kent, has earned a reputation as one of the hardest workers in game. But the moment he reached the milestone, he says his career “flashed before my eyes” and he knew all the hard work was worth it.”I could see the nets,” he said. “I could see all the times I’ve gone to hit balls on my own. You do question yourself when you’re in a run of ducks.”But it all seemed worth it. It was a feeling that it was all worth it.”It’s the best feeling I’ve had on a cricket field. Just how I imagined it. It was an unbelievable feeling of elation out there and it makes you want it more. Hopefully there are a few more to come after this.”Zak Crawley eases into a drive•Getty Images

Crawley, who had only three first-class centuries heading into this game, admitted he experienced some nervous moments as the milestone approached; not least when the tea interval was taken when he had 97.”I was really nervous,” he said. “It was good I didn’t see tea coming because I might have tried to play a big shot. I wouldn’t have chosen to be on 97 at tea.”As it was, he brought up his hundred in the first over after the break with a punch through the covers off Mohammad Abbas.”I was on 99 with one ball of the over left and I didn’t want to have to wait an over on 99,” he said. “So I was determined to play a shot to that ball.”To find the gap and to run two and come back knowing I had my first Test hundred… I was trying to stay calm but inside I was absolutely buzzing.”Early in Crawley’s career, he realised he had improvement to make against spin bowling, so he paid for himself to travel to Mumbai where he took part in a training camp. At other times, he has travelled to Perth to work with renowned batting coach, ‘Noddy’ Holder and spent a couple of winters playing Grade cricket.”I try to go over to Perth every year,” he said, “I’ve been four or five times. I’ve enjoyed working with Noddy. He’s a brilliant coach and I love the way he talks about the game.”I do as much work as I can with Rob Key over the summer. I try to see him once a month to stay in check. He has a great cricket brain.”I did go out to India, but most of the lads have done that. I’m no different. There’s been a lot of hard work, but I wouldn’t swap it for anything, I’ve enjoyed it. It feels worth it now.”