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South Africa’s Thami Tsolekile has talked down his non-selection in the Test team, following Makhaya Ntini’s comment about race playing a role in him being consistently overlooked for the wicketkeepers’ role

Firdose Moonda18-Nov-2012Thami Tsolekile has talked down his non-selection in the Test team after being nationally contracted in February. His statements come after former Test bowler Makhaya Ntini implied race played a role in Tsolekile being consistently overlooked for the wicketkeepers’ role despite the retirement of Mark Boucher.Tsolekile was identified as Mark Boucher’s successor even before his injury-enforced retirement in July, but has not played a match because AB de Villiers was tasked with the keepers’ role. While Tsolekile’s omission has been put down to strategy, with South Africa using Boucher’s absence to lengthen their batting line-up, two weeks ago Ntini presented another argument.He said Tsolekile “would have been playing if he was white” and questioned why there is only one black African player in the Test squad, 20 years after South African cricket was unified. But Tsolekile said Ntini may have been reacting out of hurt.”Having played most of my cricket in the township and, with Makhaya, also growing up in the township, obviously he was an icon,” Tsolikile said. “He has done very well over the years. What he said was quite disturbing and I wouldn’t know why he said that.”He was speaking on behalf of himself. Maybe he has got his own reasons for why he said that. The fact is that he is talking from a point [of view] where he wishes to and would love to see more African players playing for the Proteas. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what he meant.”Ntini was the only black African to consistently represent South Africa at international level after readmission in 1991. He is one of only seven black Africans to play for the country in any format. Five of those have played Test cricket but under Gary Kirsten no black African has worn the whites. Since Ntini’s retirement in November 2010 the only black player to take the field has been Lonwabo Tsotsobe – he played just five Test matches but rose to the top of the ODI rankings in the last year.Tsolekile was believed to be the next black African Test player but has yet to make his comeback. Instead of delving into the race politics, though, Tsolekile was softer in his approach: “I feel good that I have been recognised and I’ve spoken to the selectors. I’m happy because I know exactly where I stand. I had a long chat with Gary in England and again in Australia, and I think he made it clear where I stand and I am happy with that.”He did not elaborate on where that is but he believes that he will, eventually, play a Test. “It might take three weeks, three months or a year for me to play another Test match. I don’t know,” he said.De Villiers has shown no signs of giving up the gloves, despite the effects on his back and his batting. He said his body is coping with the extra burden even though he suffers from chronic and recurring back pain, and he feels on the verge of a big score though he has not managed a single half-century since taking over from Boucher.”I got a lot of value out of both my innings [in Brisbane]. I was in in both innings. I felt like I could score a hundred in both innings and I had the energy to do so. It’s a little unfair to look at the stats. I’ve only had seven or eight innings as a wicketkeeper and there’s still a lot to come. It’s got nothing to do with wicketkeeping, or energy levels, or mental fatigue or anything of that sort. I just haven’t been able to push through.”With Duminy being ruled out of the series with a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, Tsolekile – who played three Test matches in 2004 and was quickly replaced after appearing out of his depth – may yet get his chance on the Australia tour. He said that whenever it comes “it will feel like I am making my debut”.

Division One leaders seal second win from three games inside first session on day three

ECB Reporters Network21-Apr-2024Jamie Porter and Shane Snater blasted through a brittle Lancashire batting line-up to give Essex victory by an innings inside three days at Chelmsford. The Essex pace bowlers exploited a pitch playing low by taking three wickets apiece as Lancashire capitulated in just 41 overs for the second time in the match.Porter set the ball rolling with the first of nine Lancashire wickets to fall in the session to finish with 3 for 24 before Snater took his match figures to 7 for 59 with 3 for 17 in the second innings. Essex’s second win of the season, worth 22 points, took them further clear at the top of the Vitality County Championship with only three games played.”We have started the season fantastically well,” Essex captain Tom Westley said. “Even that last game against Kent we were a bit unlucky with the weather so potentially, it could have been three wins from three.”We’ve been successful for a while now as a club so every game is a big game and we look to win every single game. We’ve just played some fantastic cricket and I think this is one of our better, most complete performances.”I thought the bowlers bowled amazingly well and I think our challenge is to maintain this momentum and keep the standards as high as they currently are.”We know what a good side Lancashire are, they are always identified at the start of the year as contenders to win the division. So to control the game and win every session is a huge pat on the back for Essex.”Lancashire had started day three on 10 for 1 and requiring another 221 runs to make Essex bat again. They lost five wickets in the first hour and never recovered with the game wrapped up in extra time before the scheduled lunch interval.Essex were forced to field 19-year-old Ronnie McKenna as substitute behind the stumps when Michael Pepper pulled out with a finger injury suffered the night before. The Basildon-born 2nd XI wicketkeeper, the third to do the job for Essex in three Championship matches this season, had four leg byes sail past him down the leg side in the first over from Cook.However, 11 balls into his first-team appearance, he was celebrating a first significant contribution as nightwatcher Will Williams edged Porter into his gloves having hung around for 36 balls.That precipitated a catastrophic collapse with four wickets falling in 16 balls. Josh Bohannon lasted 25 balls before he walked across a delivery from Cook and was lbw, while Luke Wells was beaten all ends up by Snater to be bowled for a 54-ball 21. In the same Snater over George Balderson saw the umpire’s finger go up as he played down the wrong line before Tom Bruce had his off stump sent cartwheeling by Porter.There was a 10-over hiatus while Matty Hurst and George Bell put on 30 runs before the wicketkeeper scooped Snater into square leg’s hands.Offspinner Simon Harmer had not bowled much on this seamer’s paradise, but in his fourth over of the innings he had Tom Bailey walking down the wicket and patting the ball back for a simple caught and bowled. Next over Jack Blatherwick followed Bailey’s lead and gave Harmer more catching practice by chipping the ball back to the bowler.Bell had hung around for 40 balls and appeared to be heading for a third fifty in four innings at Chelmsford when he nicked Cook to Dean Elgar at first slip to wrap up the match.

Sanju Samson scored a half-century for Royals, but struggled to cut loose on a slow Wankhede pitch

Deivarayan Muthu02-May-20221:09

Vettori: KKR superb with their bowling plans for Buttler

Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh offset an early wobble and ensured Kolkata Knight Riders chased down 153 to snap their five-match losing streak, on a slow, grippy Wankhede Stadium track. After Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna had made early inroads for Rajasthan Royals, Rana and Rinku dismantled R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal respectively to bring the target within Knight Riders’ reach.Rana cracked Ashwin for 23 off 14 balls on Monday, taking his overall head-to-head to 99 off 52 balls without being dismissed by the spinner in the IPL. He first forged a 60-run third-wicket partnership with Shreyas Iyer (34) and then a livelier 66-run stand with Rinku to usher Knight Riders home.Sanju Samson’s wretched luck with the toss continued – he has won only one out of ten tosses this IPL – but despite that Royals made a decent fist of their defence by dragging it deep. However, with 31 needed off 18 balls, Rinku whacked back-to-back fours off Chahal to effectively kill off the game. It was Rana who ultimately finished it with five balls to spare, with an uppercut six off Kuldeep Sen.Sanju Samson began brightly but slowed down considerably after the 30-ball mark•BCCI

Royals’ go-slow
Umesh Yadav got the new ball to swing both ways to threaten both edges of Jos Buttler in his first over. Ankul Roy, who was picked in place of the out-of-form Venkatesh Iyer, kept Buttler – and Devdutt Padikkal – quiet with his stump-to-stump darts. Umesh struck in his second over when he had Padikkal spooning a return catch for 2.After watching Royals gulp down 18 dots in the first four overs, Samson got a move on in the fifth over, hitting Umesh for back-to-back fours. Buttler uncharacteristically dawdled to 22 off 24 balls before Shivam Mavi combined with Tim Southee to dismiss him. Southee had bowled one in his slot – or perhaps just short of it – and Buttler shovelled it away in the air with his powerful bottom wrist. For a moment, the ball seemed to sail away for six, but Mavi intervened by leaping athletically to his right at long-on to pluck the ball out of thin air. At that stage, Royals were 55 for 2 in the ninth over.Samson, Hetmyer give Royals a leg-up
Samson was more fluent, often jumping outside leg to manufacture swinging room and scoring opportunities. He progressed to 40 off 30 balls, but managed only 14 off his last 19 balls. The pick of his eight boundaries was a regal cut off Mavi, but the seamer bounced back to remove Samson for the fifth time in seven IPL innings. During the toss, Shreyas explained that Mavi had slotted back in place of Harshit Rana because of his favourable match-ups against the Royals batters. Mavi did his job, returning 1 for 33 in his four overs.Riyan Parg only flickered briefly (19 off 12 balls), but Shimron Hetmyer fired in the slog overs, as he has often done in the recent past, clattering an unbeaten 27 off 13 balls. He was particularly brutal on Southee, taking him for 17 off just five balls.Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh added an unbroken 66 for the fourth wicket•BCCI

KKR’s go-slow
Samson’s early impetus and Hetmyer’s late blows gave Royals’ attack something to work with. Trent Boult swung the new ball and bothered both Aaron Finch and B Indrajith – Knight Riders’ fifth different opening combination this IPL. It was Sen who made the first incision when he rushed Finch and had him chopping on for 4 off 7 balls.Indrajith showed a glimpse of his improved white-ball potential when he ramped Prasidh over short fine leg for four. Prasidh, however, banged in a head-high bouncer next ball to have Indrajith top-edging a hook to fine leg, who had been pushed back onto the boundary after that four. Knight Riders stuttered to 32 for 2 in the powerplay.The Rana-Rinku show
Ashwin was introduced into the attack in the next over, and Shreyas carved his first ball away between backward point and short third man. Rana then laid into him in his third over, picking him off for 4,6,4 with a variety of sweeps, including the reverse-hit.Boult had Shreyas caught by Samson down the leg side for 34 off 32 balls, but Rana and Rinku completed the job for Knight Riders without much fuss. With Rana vulnerable to rapid pace and bounce, Rinku took on both Prasidh and Sen before lining up Chahal too. Often confined to being KKR’s regular substitute fielder in the IPL, Rinku showed off his batting chops by contributing 42 off just 23 balls to an unbroken 66-run stand with Rana.

Teams agree on draw after Jharkhand extend lead to 1008, the biggest in the history of first-class cricket

Himanshu Agrawal in Kolkata16-Mar-2022Their first-innings lead – a mammoth 591-run lead at that – over Nagaland took Jharkhand into the quarter-final of this season’s Ranji Trophy. Nagaland’s struggle finally ended just after halfway on the fifth day, as the two teams shook hands at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, with Jharkhand having taken a lead of 1008, the highest in the history of first-class cricket, when they finished on 417 for 6 in their second innings.When the final day’s play started, Jharkhand were 132 for 2 in their second innings, already 723 ahead, and could have pushed for a win, as they might have when they bowled Nagaland out for 289 after putting up 880 in their first innings. But they chose to bat on, taking a result out of the contest. As a result, opener Utkarsh Singh and middle-order batters Anukul Roy and Kumar Kushagra, who had scored 266 in the first innings, added to their numbers.Jharkhand added 285 runs in just over 53 overs of play on the day. Roy followed his first-innings 59 with an entertaining 159 off 164 balls, smashing 14 fours and seven sixes in his knock. He added 163 with Kushagra, who scored 89 in 104 balls. Utkarsh was the first wicket to fall on the day, caught off Shrikant Mundhe for 73 after resuming on 50.Kushagra joined Roy at the start of the 51st over, and after the 58th, the two started to up the scoring rate. They took 41 off four overs as Roy edged closer to a century, and he got to the landmark, his second in first-class cricket, in the 66th over by hitting a six off left-arm spinner Imliwati Lemtur.He continued to have fun against the spinners, taking four and six off consecutive balls from Rongsen Jonathan in the 77th over, before cracking two successive sixes off Lemtur in the next. Though Roy fell to Jonathan for a career-best 153, Kushagra continued to go big, launching Jonathan for two sixes before being dismissed off the third ball of the 91st over, which turned out to be the final delivery of the match.The Ranji Trophy quarter-finals begin after the IPL concludes on May 29, the tournament having been split into two chunks this season. The fixtures for the knockouts have not been released yet.

In Dhaka, Shahriar Nafees’ 82 helped Agrani Bank to a six-wicket win against Rupganj, while Mohammedan signed off their DPL campaign with a hard-fought two-wicket win over Kalabagan in Savar

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Mar-2018Sohag Gazi and Elias Sunny powered Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club to the Dhaka Premier League’s Super League phase, after their 74-run win over Brothers Union in Fatullah. The spinners took three wickets each as Brothers Union were bowled out for 110 runs.Pace bowler Abu Jayed took two wickets while left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam and pacer Robiul Haque picked one apiece. Earlier, Shykat Ali top scored for Dhanmondi Club with 55, as they made 184 all out in 47.1 overs.Pacer Khaled Ahmed took three wickets while there was two each for Sohrawordi Shuvo, Shakhawat Hossain and Alok Kapali.Shahriar Nafees’ 82 helped Agrani Bank to a six-wicket win against Legends of Rupganj at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.Nafees struck 10 fours in his 103-ball knock, in which he shared a 76-run opening stand with Soumya Sarkar, who was among several Bangladesh players to appear in the DPL the day after their return from Colombo.Later, it was another 76-run fourth wicket stand between Shamsul Alam and Dhiman Ghosh that sealed the win. But it wasn’t enough for Agrani Bank who are rooted at 11th place and will have to battle for relegation in the three-way playoffs with Kalabagan Krira Chakra and Brothers Union.Mohammedan Sporting Club signed off their DPL campaign with a hard-fought two-wicket win over Kalabagan Krira Chakra at the BKSP-3 ground. The game was delayed by 30 minutes after both teams and match officials were stuck in traffic on the highway leading up to Savar.Batting first, Kalabagan were bowled out for 260 in 47.3 overs with Mohammad Ashraful reaching his third century in the league. He made 127 off 124 balls with 13 fours and three sixes. He added 85 runs for the second wicket with Waliul Karim, and 82 for the third wicket with Mahmudul Hasan.But the rest of Kalabagan’s batting line-up crumbled quickly, with Qazi Onik picking up career-best figures of 6-49 from his 8.5 overs.Rony Talukdar and Enamul Haque struck fifties and shared a 98-run second wicket stand to provide Mohammedan with a good start.Shamsur Rahman’s steady 38 kept them going for a while but when he fell as the eighth wicket, Mohammedan still needed 27 to win.Taijul Islam and Onik batted well, to add the remaining runs as they won with four balls to spare. Sanjit Saha took three wickets for Kalabagan.

In Sylhet, North Zone and East Zone played out a low-scoring draw with only Mominul Haque hitting triple digits in the match

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jan-2018Tushar Imran passed 10,000 first-class runs while Abdur Razzak took his 500th first-class wicket as South Zone drew with Central Zone in a high-scoring fixture in Savar.After being sent in to bat, South Zone racked up 448 on the back of wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan’s 133 off 129 balls. Opener Shahriar Nafees, Imran, and Al-Amin hit fifties to help swell the total. Seamer Abu Hider and Ebadot Hossain picked up three wickets each for Central Zone.Central Zone then mounted a strong reply with five of their top seven passing fifties. Though none moved to a hundred, it was enough to secure a 57-run first-innings lead. Razzak was the pick of the bowlers for Central Zone, finishing with 4 for 152 in 52.4 overs.In their second innings, South Zone scored 120 for 3 before the match ended in a draw.In Sylhet, North Zone and East Zone played out a low-scoring draw with Mominul Haque the only one to hit triple digits in the match. The East Zone captain hit 107 off 147 balls around a middle-order wobble in a chase of 261. Alok Kapali then played out an hour for eight runs to ensure a draw.Mominul, though, had bagged a duck in East Zone’s first innings after Abu Jayed’s 5 for 71 dismissed North Zone for 187 in 49.5 overs. Yasir Ali (45) and Mehedi Hasan Rana (46*) were the only East Zone batsmen to pass 30. No. 11 Khaled Ahmed also pitched in with 26 to hand his side a 24-run lead. North Zone then produced a better batting performance in their second innings, making 284 on the back of Farhad Hossain’s 85 to set East Zone 261.

The women’s Ashes will retain the points-based format used in the current series when England travel to Australia in early 2014

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Aug-2013The women’s Ashes will retain the points-based format used in the current series when England travel to Australia in early 2014. There will be six points on offer for the winners of the sole Test match (or two for the draw), with two points for victory in each of the limited-overs matches.The schedule and venues have also been announced, with the series beginning in Perth on January 10 with a four-day Test. That will be followed by three one-day internationals and three T20s, which will be played as double-headers with the England and Australia men.The team with the most points from the seven matches will be awarded the Ashes. In the current series, England are 6-4 up, with three T20s still to play. The Test match was drawn and England won the ODI leg 2-1, thanks to a five-wicket victory on Sunday.Schedule for 2014 women’s AshesJanuary 10-13, only Test – WACA, Perth
January 19, 1st ODI – MCG, Melbourne
January 23, 2nd ODI – MCG, Melbourne
January 26, 3rd ODI – Bellerive Oval, Hobart
January 29, 1st T20 – Bellerive Oval, Hobart
January 31, 2nd T20 – MCG, Melbourne
February 2, 3rd T20 – Stadium Australia, Sydney

Rob Nicol’s hundred and James Fuller’s six wickets see Gloucestershire comfortably beat Netherlands in Amstelveen and keep their CB40 campaign on course

27-Jul-2012
ScorecardNew Zealand batsman Rob Nicol scored a century•Getty Images

Rob Nicol and James Fuller were the stars of the show as Gloucestershire boosted their hopes of making the Clydesdale Bank 40 semi-finals with a comprehensive victory over high-flying Group A rivals Netherlands in Amstelveen.New Zealander Nicol scored a brilliant 133 with seven fours and seven sixes as Gloucestershire ran up an imposing 290 for 6 batting first, with his countryman and opening partner Hamish Marshall contributing 47 while Fuller added a quickfire 40 late on.Fuller, who conceded 38 off one over as Gloucestershire lost their Friends Life t20 quarter-final to Sussex on Tuesday, then shone with the ball, taking 6 for 35 off his six overs as Holland were bowled out for 146 in the 22nd over. A rain interruption had seen Netherlands’s victory target changed to 237 off 28 overs, but they never seriously threatened and ended up losing by 90 runs.Tom Cooper top-scored for the Dutch with 51 but he was part of a major Netherlands collapse which saw the home side lose their last eight wickets for 43 runs in under eight overs.Gloucestershire’s victory sees them join second-placed Netherlands on 11 points in Group A, one point behind leaders Middlesex but with the Westcountry side having played a game less than both their rivals. Lancashire are fourth in the group on 10 points but with two games still in hand on Gloucestershire, who they meet at Old Trafford on Monday.

Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan captain, has questioned England’s status as the No. 1 side in the world Test rankings after their defeat inside three days against Pakistan in Dubai

Umar Farooq20-Jan-2012Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan captain, has questioned England’s status as the No. 1 side in the world Test rankings after their defeat inside three days against Pakistan in Dubai.Miandad, one of England’s most redoubtable opponents in his playing days, always relishes a chance to revive battles of old and he did so again when he suggested England’s rise to the top of the rankings owed much to home advantage and took little account of their perennial weakness in Asia.”I don’t believe much in rankings because it doesn’t give a clear picture of the team’s overall performance in the world,” Miandad said. “England is mainly the top side without playing in Asia and you must give credit to Pakistan that they have been playing with no home advantage and still they are winning. England are now the No. 1 team because they had the home advantage and never lost in their backyard.”Miandad, who made 260 against England at The Oval in 1987 as Pakistan piled up 708, freely admitted that victories against them had a special piquancy.”I always feel an extra sense of satisfaction when Pakistan beat England or Australia – it always carries a special importance,” he said. “Practically everything clicked against England. A circle that includes every aspect of the game rotated smoothly. Batsman scored runs; bowlers did accordingly to the expectations.””We experienced a very bad time in 2010 and because of that our cricket was suffered a lot. Our victories always were overshadowed by the controversies. But the victory against England was a special one.”More criticism of England’s performance came from Abdul Qadir, a former Pakistan legspinner and selector. He expressed surprise that England had lost in such an “unprofessional manner”.”I was never expecting that England could go that low, to be packed up in just three days,” Qadir said. “The most pathetic things I observed about the England batting was that on the first day, when fast-bowlers were supposed to take wickets they were exposed by spinners and later on in the second innings, when the spinners were supposed to dominate they fell into the hands of fast bowlers.”This is a buzzer for the English think tank, about their strategy. It’s like they didn’t do their homework and that fact was exposed cheaply. I always deemed England a very professional side but the way they played [casts] doubts [on] my views about them.”Waqar Younis, Pakistan’s former fast bowler and coach, said that the spot-fixing scandal had made the players stronger and was a driving force behind their consistency over the last 18 months.”I’m really proud of the way they’ve responded to all the criticism and scepticism that they had to deal with after the spot-fixing scandal,” he said. “The players were determined to show everyone what Pakistan cricket is all about after the scandal. They realised that the only way to respond to the crisis was to perform well and let the results speak for themselves.”

Boeta Dippenaar, the former South Africa batsman, thinks Jacques Rudolph can become “the Michael Hussey of South African cricket,” after playing against him on the weekend

Firdose Moonda04-Oct-2011Boeta Dippenaar, the former South Africa batsman, thinks Jacques Rudolph can become “the Michael Hussey of South African cricket,” after playing against him on the weekend. Dippenaar, who last played for South Africa in 2007, still turns out for the Knights franchise and was in the field for both of Rudolph’s brisk half-centuries for the Titans in their SuperSport Series opener.”He looked like a batsman that is worlds apart from the rest and that includes some national players,” Dippenaar said. “The Jacques Rudolph that I played with [for South Africa] and the Jacques Rudolph that I saw last weekend are two very different players.” Rudolph and Dippenaar played 13 Tests together and shared in a 429-run third wicket partnership against Bangladesh in 2003. Both their international careers simmered without ever exploding and although Dippenaar, at 34-years-old, is unlikely to stake a claim for a national place again, he believes Rudolph will.Rudolph returned to South Africa last year, after spending three years with Yorkshire in England. He topped the SuperSport Series batting charts in his first season back for the Titans. His time in county cricket appeared to have revolutionised his game and Dippenaar said the difference was noticeable. “I sense that Jacques knows his game inside out. He plays with lots of confidence, he is so calculated, there are no risks and he takes the game to the bowlers in a very clinical way.”Although Rudolph could not convert either of his half-centuries into hundreds in the last match he played, he was pleased with the way he performed on a challenging Centurion pitch. “It was the kind of wicket where I felt I had to play attacking cricket and it worked for me until I got out,” Rudolph said. “The two months I spent back in Yorkshire this winter was very good for me, it was the right move to have a bit of a pre-season.”Rudolph has been putting pressure on Alviro Petersen for a slot as opener in the South Africa Test side. Petersen started the domestic season with 186 and 64 for the Lions, but Dippenaar still sees room for Rudolph in the Test team. With AB de Villiers’ finger injury, Dippenaar feels Rudolph could even be moved down the order to slot in at No.5 and prove himself. “I will bat anywhere from one to six,” Rudolph said. “I just want a foot in the door again.”Dippenaar has some insights into what the coaching staff may be thinking, having served on the six-man panel that interviewed applicants earlier this year. Gary Kirsten was given the job in June and chose Russell Domingo and Allan Donald as his assistant and bowling coach respectively.According to Dippenaar, the selectors would do well to include Ryan McLaren in the Test XI. McLaren had a Man-of-the-Match performance with a century and four wickets for the Knights. Dippenaar said he would be an ideal No. 8, would lengthen the batting line-up and be the third seamer, a role that has been occupied by Lonwabo Tsotsobe. Dippenaar thinks McLaren’s all-round abilities will be better for the balance of the side. “His seam bowling is very accurate and he reminds me a bit of the great Glen McGrath of Australia.”Dippenaar is also in favour of JP Duminy at No. 6 instead of Ashwell Prince. “Not that Ashwell has done anything wrong. But Duminy will be able to bowl as well and that would give South Africa three seamers, a legspinner [in Imran Tahir] and an offspinner. And Duminy can do the job of containing as well.”Hashim Amla, who scored the third double-hundred of his career three days ago, also gave Dippenaar reason to be cheerful. “He is one of those players that never gets tired of batting. I am always very nervous of players like that, particularly when you play against them, because if you don’t get them out quickly, you will be spending a long time fielding.”