Adam Gilchrist inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame

Adam Gilchrist inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame during the third Ashes Test in Perth.

The International Cricket Council today inducted Adam Gilchrist into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, during the tea interval of the third Ashes Test match between Australia and England at the WACA.

Gilchrist received his commemorative cap from Cricket Australia Chairman and ICC Director Wally Edwards, in front of a large and appreciative crowd as England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chairman and ICC Director Giles Clarke, WACA Chairman and Vice-President Sam Gannon, and WACA President and ICC Cricket Hall of Famer Dennis Lillee looked on.

Gilchrist has become the 71st male member of the Hall of Fame, and is the second 2013-14 inductee to be announced after Waqar Younis.

After Richie Benaud, Allan Border, Don Bradman, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Neil Harvey, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Rodney Marsh, Keith Miller, Bill O’Reilly, Steve Waugh, Victor Trumper, Clarrie Grimmett, Frederick Spofforth, Alan Davidson, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, Gilchrist is the 19th male Australia cricketer to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Gilchrist, who was born in Bellingen, New South Wales in 1971, was one of Australia’s most prolific wicket-keeper batsmen, having represented the country in 96 Tests in a career that spanned 12 years. He amassed 5,570 Test runs and claimed 416 dismissals from behind the stumps for Australia, while he captained the team on six occasions.

He scored 17 Test centuries and 26 half-centuries while his best performance with the bat was against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2002 when he scored 204 not out in an innings that saw Gilchrist hit 19 boundaries and eight sixes.

In 287 ODIs, he amassed 9,619 ODI runs and dismissed 472 batsmen behind the wickets. Gilchrist also captained Australia 17 times, and hit 16 centuries and 55 half-centuries with his best innings being 172 against Zimbabwe in Hobart, Tasmania.

Opportunity for Pakistan to top T20I rankings

If Pakistan wins the series 2-0, then Mohammad Hafeez’ side will earn four ratings points.

Sri Lanka will defend its number-one ranking on the Reliance ICC T20I Team Rankings when it takes on Pakistan in a two-match series at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai Sports City, on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka has remained in the number-one position since 8 October 2012 following the ICC World Twenty20 2012, where it reached the final. It leads fourth-ranked Pakistan by eight ratings points.

However, this will change if Pakistan manages to win both T20Is.

If Pakistan wins the series 2-0, then Mohammad Hafeez’ side will earn four ratings points while Dinesh Chandimal’s side will drop six ratings points. This swing will mean Pakistan will jump to the number-one position on 125 ratings points and Sri Lanka will join India and South Africa on 123 ratings points, but will be ranked above those sides when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.

However, if the series result is reversed, then Sri Lanka will retain the number-one spot, and move to 133 ratings points while Pakistan will drop behind the West Indies into fifth position on 118 ratings points. If the series ends in a one-all draw, Sri Lanka will finish in the number-one spot on 128 ratings points and Pakistan will stay in fourth position on 121 ratings points.

Meanwhile, only two batsmen from either side feature in the top 20 of the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for T20I Batsmen. These are Tillakaratne Dilshan (12th), Kumar Sangakkara (16th) (both Sri Lanka), Mohammad Hafeez (19th) and Umar Akmal (20th) (both Pakistan).

Pakistan and Sri Lanka bowlers dominate the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for T20I Bowlers with Saeed Ajmal second, Ajantha Mendis third and Hafeez fourth. Outside the top 10 are Nuwan Kulasekara (11th), Shahid Afridi (12th), Angelo Mathews (18th) and Lasith Malinga (19th). Sohail Tanvir is in 26th position and will be aiming to break into the top 20.

Hafeez in second position is the highest-ranked player on the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for T20I All-rounders while Afridi is in fifth position. Hafeez trails Australia’s Shane Watson by 10 ratings points and can potentially top the rankings if he performs well with both bat and ball.

Mathews in 10th position is Sri Lanka’s highest-ranked all-rounder.

The T20I team and player rankings will next be updated at the conclusion of the series on Saturday.

Reliance ICC T20I Rankings (as of 10 December, after Pakistan-Afghanistan T20I and before Pakistan-Sri Lanka T20I series)
Rank   Team               Rating
1          Sri Lanka         129
2          India                123
3          South Africa    123
4          Pakistan           121
5          West Indies      120
6          England           112
7          Australia          102
8          New Zealand   102
9          Ireland             87
10        Bangladesh      72
11        Afghanistan     70
12        Netherlands     56
13        Scotland           50
14        Zimbabwe        46
15        Kenya              42
16        Canada            2
      

Jayawardena leads Sri Lanka's resistance

Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka plays a hot on the third day.

Mahela Jayawardena helped Sri Lanka gain a lead of more than a hundred runs in the second Test at Headingley after Moeen Ali proved his utility with the ball for England on Sunday (June 22). Sri Lanka was 214 for 4, with a lead of 106, in its second innings at stumps on Day 3.

In what is only his second Test, Moeen, the occasional offspinner, took Sri Lanka by surprise with two wickets for no runs in three balls when he removed Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne.

At the end of the day, Jayawardena was unbeaten on 55 while Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka captain, was 24 not out.

With two days left, all results are possible and it will ultimately decide the outcome of the two-Test series after the drawn first Test at Lord's.
 
Sri Lanka had started the day promisingly, with Mathews achieving his Test-best figures of 4 for 44 and Shaminda Eranga grabbing 4 for 93 as England -- 320 for 6 courtesy Sam Robson's maiden Test century -- were all out for 365.

The pick of the four England wickets that fell came when Mathews produced a superb off-cutter to clean bowl Liam Plunkett, the tailender.

England's bowlers, however, were wayward at the onset. James Anderson did induce an edge from Dimuth Karunaratne, then on four, but second slip Chris Jordan dropped the catch.

England had to wait for Plunkett, who in the first innings had taken a Test-best 5 for 64, to give it the much-needed breakthrough when he had Kaushal Silva (13) caught behind off a full-length delivery.

Plunkett picked up another wicket when Karunaratne, on 45, gloved the fast bowler down the legside to Matt Prior. The batsman reviewed, but replays confirmed he was out, having faced 51 balls with three boundaries.

Sangakkara then struck two crisp boundaries off Anderson to become only the fourth batsman to score fifties in seven successive Test innings after West Indies greats Everton Weekes and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Zimbabwe's Andy Flower.

However, Moeen outfoxed Sangakkara when the batsman played down the wrong line and was leg before for 55. Sangakkara too reviewed the decision, but replays confirming his dismissal. Sangakkara's 103-ball innings contained six fours.

Moeen wasn't done yet though. He struck once more when he bowled Thirimanne for his second duck of the match with a superb delivery that drifted in towards middle-and-leg and then turned past the outside edge to hit the left-hand batsman’s middle stump.

Thirimanne, the Sri Lanka vice-captain, has now scored just four runs in four innings this series.

But Jayawardena was still there, alongside Mathews who had made a hundred at Lord's. Jayawardena's single off Moeen helped him reach a 103-ball fifty, which contained five fours as Sri Lanka kept England at bay for the moment.

Dhoni, and the art of controlling the mind

One win away from becoming the first captain to hold all three ICC titles, India skipper explains how thinking practically, and not emotionally, makes him tick

One win away from becoming the first captain to hold all three ICC titles, MS Dhoni explains how thinking practically, and not emotionally, makes him tick

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the epitome of composure on the cricket field. It takes something exceptional for Dhoni to express himself emotionally – usually, it’s a fantastic piece of fielding; sometimes, like on Friday, it is a special delivery of the sort R Ashwin sent down to Hashim Amla; very rarely, it’s a poor piece of cricket from a team-mate at a crunch situation.

For the most part, however closely you scrutinise Dhoni’s face, if you didn’t know the match situation, you wouldn’t ever guess if his team was winning or losing. An emotional, hand-waving, finger-pointing captain can sometimes rouse his troops into action but he can also end up sending the wrong signals. With Dhoni, all you get is a sense of calmness. In any team sport, the players that make up the team take their cue from the leader; India’s unflappable approach on the cricket field generally, Virat Kohli’s occasional bursts of aggression notwithstanding, stems from the manner in which Dhoni conducts himself, his serenity extending from the centre outwards and engulfing even the men in the outfield.

By his own admission, Dhoni wasn’t always so. He had his fair share mood swings during his younger days, but with the passage of time and with responsibilities being heaped on his shoulders, Dhoni has come to embrace the monk-like face of the Indian cricket team.

“I don’t think I was calm from my childhood,” Dhoni was candid enough to admit on Saturday (April 5), unfazed, though the title clash in the ICC World Twenty20 2014 against Sri Lanka was a little over 24 hours away. “I’m someone who doesn’t like losing much. When I was young, I had trouble controlling the emotions associated with getting defeated. Over a period of time, I have learnt how to control this emotion. I’m a believer in the fact that your emotions are yours alone and hence you should be the one who knows how to control it. Over time, I found dealing with emotions easier. I feel it is important because in a game, there are so many stages where you don’t want to take a decision emotionally. Practically, you decide what’s the best option.”

It sounds pretty simple, but it’s in the conquest of the mind that the genesis of Dhoni’s success story lies. India’s most successful captain is a solitary win away from becoming the first international skipper to lead his side to the grand ICC treble – the 50-over World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the World T20.

“For us, what is important is doing well in the final. The other factors we don’t really focus on, because it is more important to win a World cup for your country than focus on stats,” he said, offering gently to deflect any extraneous pressure that might be brought to bear upon his team, even if pressure is something that has accompanied him from the time he was made the captain of the T20 International team at the first World T20 in South Africa in 2007.

India takes series 2-0; final ODI abandoned

India aims to close the gap with South Africa

South Africa enters the series as the clear leader with 131 ratings points.

ODD-Test series against South Africa on Wednesday 18 December in Johannesburg with an aim to close the gap with the number-one ranked side on the Reliance ICC Test Team Rankings Table.

South Africa enters the series as the clear leader with 131 ratings points, while India is in second place at 119 ratings points.

Whatever the outcome of the series,both South Africa and India are assured of retaining their pre-series ranking.

However, if India manages to win both the Tests against South Africa, it will gain five ratings points to move up to 124, while Graeme Smith’s side will drop down to 125 ratings points, thereby reducing the gap between the two teams to just one ratings point. 

A 1-0 series win for India will mean a rise of four ratings points to 123, while South Africa will end at 126 ratings points. A 1-1 or 0-0 series draw will mean India gains one ratings point to move up to 120, while South Africa will move down to 130.

On the other hand, a 1-0 series win for South Africa will see India concede two ratings points, while a 2-0 series win will mean a loss of three ratings points for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side.

With the top four sides as of 31 December 2016 qualifying for the inaugural ICC World Test Championship scheduled for 2017, every Test counts towards the qualification.

To find out exactly how the forthcoming series will affect the Rankings Table, please clickhere. The Test Ranking Table, unlike the ODI and T20I Rankings tables, are updated after every series.

Meanwhile, South Africa starts the series with the top two ranked batsmen and the top two ranked bowlers in its side.

While AB de Villiers leads the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, Hashim Amla is second. The Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers is headed by Dale Steyn with compatriot Vernon Philander in second.

Reverting to the batting table, South Africa captain Graeme Smith is the third batsman from his side to feature in the top 10, in ninth position.

For India, Cheteshwar Pujara, the winner of the ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year Award for 2013, is the highest-ranked batsman in sixth position.

South Africa's Jacques Kallis in 12th and Virat Kohli of India in 20th are the only other batsmen from either side inside the top 20.

Outside the top 20, the batsmen likely to be seen in action are MS Dhoni in 21st, Alviro Petersen in 39th, Murali Vijay in 42nd, Faf du Plessis in 43rd, Ravichandran Ashwin in 44th, Rohit Sharma in 54th and JP Duminy in 58th.

In the bowlers’ list, India’s spin pair of Ravichandran Ashwin in fifth and Pragyan Ojha in ninth are the only bowlers from their side to feature inside the top 20.

Morne Morkel in 12th is the only other bowler inside the top 20.

Outside the top 20, Zaheer Khan in 22nd, Ravindra Jadeja in 25th, Ishant Sharma in 31st, Jacques Kallis in 34th, Mohammed Shami in 46th, Umesh Yadav in 49th and Imran Tahir in 53rd are likely to be in action in the Johannesburg and Durban Tests.

About ICC World Test Championship

The inaugural ICC World Test Championship (ICC WTC) will be hosted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2017.

The qualification pathway for the ICC World Test Championship is through the Reliance ICC Test Team Rankings, with the qualifying period being from 1 May 2013 to 31 December 2016.

The top four teams at the conclusion of the qualification period will qualify for the event in 2017.  The results of all Test series ending after 1 May 2013, and the results of all Test series starting before 31 December 2016, will be included in the period that determine qualification for the ICC WTC.