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After a summer disrupted by rain, Yorkshire can plead mitigating factors if they fail in their main objective and are unable to secure promotion from Division Two

Myles Hodgson at Headingley17-Aug-2012
ScorecardWes Durston made 84 but Derbyshire could still be asked to follow on•Getty ImagesAfter a summer disrupted by rain, Yorkshire can plead mitigating factors if they fail in their main objective and are unable to secure promotion from Division Two. They may also reflect on chances missed if they are unable to force home their advantage against Derbyshire, one of their main rivals, during another weather-interrupted day.Trailing Derbyshire, the Division two leaders, by 26 points at the start of this round of matches having played a game more, Yorkshire were always aware they would need to beat them at Headingley to have any chance of closing the gap and applying pressure during the final weeks of the summer.For the first two and a half days of a rain-affected match they had done nearly everything right in claiming maximum batting points while limiting Derbyshire to only one bowling point. They followed that by making early inroads, with Ryan Sidebottom’s outstanding display of swing bowling reducing them to 42 for 4, still a long way from matching Yorkshire’s 420, never mind avoiding the follow on.Facing a real opportunity to dominate a session that could have been pivotal to their promotion hopes, Yorkshire allowed Derbyshire to recover with Will Durston and Ross Whiteley forging a 112-run stand.Their defiance allowed the leaders to reach a respectable 233 for 8, but only after losing two late wickets at the end of a day that lost 24 overs to rain, still 38 runs away from avoiding the follow on.”We’ve performed really well since the start of the game, we’ve probably won more sessions and more key periods, but it counts for nothing if we don’t enforce that follow on,” conceded Andrew Gale, Yorkshire’s captain. “At the moment, it’s probably the only way I can see us winning the match.”If there was a sense of deflation within the home dressing room, it was understandable after a vibrant start to the day, led by Sidebottom, which gave Yorkshire a real chance of their first championship victory since May. Bowling from the Rugby Stand End, Sidebottom gave an exemplary display of swing bowling and provided another platform for Andrew Hodd, Yorkshire’s loan wicketkeeper, to prove his worth for a permanent contract.Hodd, who scored a useful 58 on the previous day to help Yorkshire claim maximum batting points, set down a marker in the fourth over of the day with a brilliant, one-handed, diving catch down the leg-side after Usman Khawaja flicked at Sidebottom. Having established his athleticism, Hodd helped earn Sidebottom two further wickets during a spell of 7-3-9-2 by taking catches in front of slip to remove Matt Lineker and Dan Redfern.While Sidebottom was impressive at the Rugby Stand End and Azeem Rafiq’s offspin a consistent threat from the opposite end, Yorkshire appeared to have all the tools at their disposal to really push home their advantage. That they failed to do so can partly be explained by the frustration experienced by Tim Bresnan and Steve Patterson, both of whom struggled to exploit the conditions as expertly as Sidebottom.Confidence lifted by his five wickets in Yorkshire’s first innings, Durston was happy to play aggressively and hit 14 boundaries in his 84 although he was given one reprieve on 78 when Adam Lyth failed to hold a sharp chance at slip off Rafiq. That escape was only temporary with Rafiq squeezing the ball past his forward defensive in his next over and onto the stumps.Whiteley was equally effective, batting for over two and a half hours for his 35, before Patterson squeezed some joy from an otherwise demoralising day when he induced an edge behind to earn Hodd his fourth catch. Forced to rely on spin through fading light, Gale was rewarded in the last few overs with Rafiq and Adil Rashid both winning lbw decisions to keep Yorkshire’s hopes alive of forcing home victory on the final day.The main obstacle to that objective may yet be David Wainwright, the left-arm spinner they considered surplus to resources at the end of last summer, who has battled for nearly two hours for his unbeaten 45 and may play a key role in deciding his former county’s fate.

While there is no doubt Jayawardene and his men will have a packed Premadasa cheering for them tomorrow, there is also no doubting who most neutral fans want to win

Abhishek Purohit in Colombo06-Oct-2012As Darren Sammy’s pre-final press conference ended, a few journalists and camerapersons standing at the back of the Premadasa media room actually clapped. If you were looking for evidence of just what West Indies, even a decade-and-a-half after their decline, mean to cricket and its fans, here it was. No one clapped after Mahela Jayawardene had finished speaking to the media; not even the local media men. While there is no doubt Jayawardene and his men will have a packed Premadasa cheering for them tomorrow, there is also no doubting who most neutral fans want to win.West Indies are the game’s original, and only, gladiators. In their prime, their bowlers put the fear of death in opposition batsmen’s minds, their batsmen fearlessly slaughtered opposition bowlers, and their team ruled the cricket world with sheer force. Everywhere, fans loved the raw skill and passion which West Indies brought to cricket. The skill and passion have dimmed over the years, but fans still keep waiting for some performances, or a performance, that will remind them that once, this was a side which forced you to sit down and watch it do its stuff.In these difficult times, West Indies have invested their faith in a man who has divided opinion in a way a modern captain scarcely has. Whether he should be there in the side or not is a debate which will probably continue as long as he is captain, but Sammy is the man who will go down in history as the one who led West Indies to their first World Cup final – albeit in the Twenty20 form – since 1983. Yes, it has taken just two outright wins, over Australia and England in the Super Eights, to make the final, but West Indies won’t mind that.Sammy has been nearly invisible with bat and ball through the tournament while Chris Gayle has soaked in most of the attention. He has had to face difficult questions over Gayle’s absence from the squad and his subsequent return. It was heartwarming to see Sammy jump around in the dugout with delight after every Gayle six in the semi-final. The captain has no pretensions to being a world-class player but has always maintained he’s there to bring the squad together, to involve everyone, and make it easy for his players to perform without inhibition. Even when he was asked about what the final meant for him as a leader, as someone who had worked for a united squad, he only spoke about the Caribbean people.”For me, it is going to be a memorable occasion,” Sammy said. “I am more focussed on the team and the Caribbean people. I have just been playing cricket for a few years but the fans have been supporting for a number of years. To me it is all about them. They are who come and watch us play, wake early in the morning and stay up late at night.”What if West Indies went a step further, what if they beat Sri Lanka tomorrow? “It would be massive,” Sammy said. “It’s been over a decade and the fans are craving for bigger success. That is the goal we left the Caribbean with. We have been saying it in the dressing room, it is one team, one people, one mission. We are just one step away from the World Twenty20. When we do well people in the Caribbean are very happy, work stops for a few hours back home. It would mean everything to us as players, as coaching staff. It would give us a big boost.”Sammy said the last man who won a World Cup for West Indies, Clive Lloyd, had a message for the side ahead of the final. “I got an email from Mr. Lloyd saying we are very proud in the Caribbean of what the team is doing, people are very happy and just go out and win it. ‘Success comes before work only in the dictionary. Continue to work hard so that you can reap success tomorrow,’ he said. It means a lot to everybody. That in itself will be the biggest motivation for us.”Lloyd and the people of the Caribbean won’t be the only ones rooting for West Indies tomorrow. There is a world title to be won, and probably the entire cricketing world, barring the Sri Lankans, will be behind Sammy and his men.

Marcus Trescothick has expressed a desire to continue playing for Somerset into his forties

Alan Gardner08-Nov-2012Marcus Trescothick may have suffered a premature end to his England career but he is determined to continue giving back to Somerset, the county where he has spent almost 20 years, expressing a desire to continue playing into his forties. Should he get there, then the life-enriching properties of sausages will have to be reappraised.The county circuit lost two old-stagers into their fifth decades in 2012, with the retirements of Mark Ramprakash and Robert Croft – both 42 when age finally caught up with them. Trescothick, who played the last of his 76 Tests and 123 one-day internationals in 2006 before a stress-related illness prompted him to put club above country, will be 37 in December and missed a large chunk of last season with an ankle injury. However, successful surgery on the problem has provided encouragement that he has a few more years of brutalising county attacks left in him.The loss of their captain for three months of the season was representative of Somerset’s campaign, as 24 different players were used in the Championship – joint most with Surrey. Such disruption made their second-place finish, 24 points behind champions Warwickshire, all the more commendable and Trescothick – who passed 1,000 runs in five consecutive seasons between 2007 and 2011 – hopes to have several shots left at ending Somerset’s long wait for a first Championship pennant.”My target is to get to 40 and reassess things then,” he said. “If my ankle and the rest of my body holds up, I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t still be playing then and beyond. There’s no more swelling now and there is an opportunity through the winter to strengthen it further.”I know there will be niggles along the way and I may need the odd injection. But I am adapting my training programme to manage things and don’t foresee any serious problems. I don’t see much changing over the next three or four years and it is certainly my intention to go on playing for as long as possible.”Professional sportsmen in the modern era might be expected to go on longer than their predecessors, aided by advancements in training, dietary awareness and fitness regimes, but few cricketers contemplate playing the first-class game into their fifties, as WG Grace and Jack Hobbs once did.The likes of John Emburey, Graham Gooch and Alec Stewart have, more recently, continued playing Test cricket into their forties, however, and Graeme Hick (who retired at 42) and Paul Nixon (40) continued to give good service to their counties until an age when it was once said life truly begins. Murray Goodwin, who was this year discarded by Sussex at the end of a season when the reactions appeared to have slowed irretrievably, was signed up by Glamorgan, two months before his 40th birthday.In attempting to reach the landmark, Trescothick may have to steel himself for more heartache: in the last three years, Somerset have lost five limited-overs finals, as well as twice finishing runners-up in the Championship. Alongside the chance to end that rum run, there are personal records to contemplate. With 13,641 runs for the county, he is unlikely to overhaul Harold Gimblett (21,142) but Peter Wight’s 16,965 is possibly within his reach. If form and fitness hold, he could become the first man to score 50 first-class hundreds for Somerset.He would surely prefer to end the county’s Championship hoodoo, though the sight of him carving cut shots across the Taunton outfield in four seasons’ time would be satisfaction enough for many in that part of the world. A permanent place on the Sky Sports sofa, where Trescothick makes an engaging pundit, surely beckons but he won’t be getting comfy just yet.

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has said his team earned the 3-2 ODI series victory over West Indies through skill and by building up towards peak form over the past four weeks

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur08-Dec-2012Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has said his team earned the 3-2 ODI series victory over West Indies through skill and by building up towards peak form over the past four weeks. The coming together of all three departments in the crucial final game of the series, albeit with some major scares along the way, he said, was what made the difference for Bangladesh.”We deserved to win this ODI series, judging by our performance since the Tests and our cricket skills,” Mushfiqur said after the game. “We would have at least drawn that first Test had we not made some mistakes. We didn’t bat and field well in the third and fourth [ODIs], though we bowled very well. Today our only plan was to get it right in all three departments.”This is what gave us the wins in the first two games of the ODI series. In this final game, we told everyone that we have to make sure we give 100% effort.”Bangladesh’s nerves could have frayed at two crucial points in the game, but they came out on top on both occasions. First, when Kieron Pollard began his assault, hammering eight sixes in an innings that was threatening to take the series away from the home side. As the big hits piled up at the feet of a sell-out crowd, Mushfiqur’s bowling choices were compromised. He tossed the ball to the innocuous Mominul Haque, who bowls part-time left-arm spin. Sensing an opportunity to get one more out of the ground, Pollard went for a big swish after clearing the front foot, but the ball had snuck below his bat and onto the stumps.Mushfiqur joked that he would like credit for that wicket but praised the maturity shown by Mominul: “Mominul is a fighting cricketer. That is how he is, one of my favourite young players. He takes up the challenge so when I gave him the bowling, I told him to just do what you can, don’t worry about the outcome.”The other crucial juncture was when the 91-run fourth wicket stand between Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah ended with the latter getting bowled by Sunil Narine in the 21st over, with Bangladesh still needing 97 runs to win. They had two more batsmen in the shed, Nasir Hossain and Mominul, and these two came together when Mushfiqur was also dismissed by the same bowler not long after. The two youngsters, Nasir playing the role of the senior batsmen for once, showed the guts required in these tight situations and on a 53-run fifth wicket stand that took Bangladesh almost to the victory.”When I was batting with [Mahmudullah] Riyad , I wanted to put up a partnership,” Mushfiqur said. “After I got out, another partnership was a must and credit goes to Nasir and Mominul. They handled the pressure situation very well, showed their maturity in such a game. Even Sohag Gazi’s 15 runs were vital in the circumstances.”The captain was happy with Shafiul Islam, who was a last-minute replacement for the injured Mashrafe Mortaza and the only pace bowler in the attack. He took 3 for 31 – his second-best bowling performance in terms of wickets taken and his most economical spell of bowling against a major team; he has been known to leak runs in the past.”I think 70% of [credit for] the win goes to him,” Mushfiqur said. “He bowled so well in such a final match, and it is not easy to bowl against Gayle, Pollard and Samuels. He hasn’t played for a long time [due to injury]. We kept telling him to be ready for an opportunity. He can use the inswinger with the new ball, so we were sure he could do the job.”Mushfiqur pointed out that the win had come against an in-form team that has just won the World Twenty20, and that Bangladesh were without their linchpin, Shakib Al Hasan. That, he said, made it a superior performance to the two previous series wins against teams ranked higher than Bangladesh. “I would put this above the West Indies whitewash [in 2009, against a second-string side] and the 4-0 win over New Zealand [in 2010]. This is a T20 champion side and all their top players were here.”We also missed a big performer in this series, so it became a huge challenge. I would say that this is the biggest win for us.”

Tim Ludeman steered South Australia to the brink of victory before the opener Sam Raphael struck the winning runs, completing his gutsy return to the crease after retiring hurt earlier in the innings

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jan-2013
Scorecard
Tim Ludeman made an important 49•Getty ImagesTim Ludeman steered South Australia to the brink of victory before the opener Sam Raphael struck the winning runs, completing his gutsy return to the crease after retiring hurt earlier in the innings. Raphael had been felled by a James Pattinson bouncer on the third day and he walked out again with the total at 7 for 163, which in a chase of 189 meant both sides had strong claims to victory.Raphael and Ludeman put on 21 runs and the Redbacks appeared to cruising by the time the score had moved on to 7 for 184, especially with Ludeman well set on 49. However, when he edged to slip off Scott Boland and was followed in the next over by the departure of Chadd Sayers, bowled through the gate by a sharp-turning offbreak from David Hussey, it left South Australia precariously placed.The No.11, Daniel Worrall, came to the crease with two runs still needed, and while he didn’t score any of them, he hung around long enough to allow Raphael to do so as the Redbacks limped over the line for a one-wicket victory. Raphael finished unbeaten on 27 when he struck the winning boundary off Boland, who finished with 3 for 30.The South Australians had started the day at 2 for 34 and they lost key batsman and first-innings centurion Phillip Hughes for 35, lbw to John Hastings. Boland got rid of Callum Ferguson and Johan Botha from consecutive deliveries to leave the Redbacks wobbling at 5 for 82, before a steadying stand from Ludeman and Travis Head (35) got the chase back on track. Man of the Match Joe Mennie also chipped in with 17.

Khulna Royal franchise owners have filed a Taka 100 crore ($12.6 million approx.) libel suit with a Dhaka court against I Sports Ltd, the owners of the Rangpur Riders, following a spot-fixing allegation against them

Mohammad Isam31-Jan-2013Orion Sports Ltd, who own the BPL franchise Khulna Royal Franchise, have filed a Taka 100 crore ($12.6 million approx.) libel suit with a Dhaka court against I Sports Ltd, the owners of the Rangpur Riders. The case was filed following allegations of spot-fixing during the BPL game between the two sides on January 25.Orion Sports Ltd chairman Mohammad Obaidul Karim filed the suit against Mostafa Raqiful Islam, the owner of the Rangpur franchise and director of I Sports Ltd, for making the derogatory statement against the Khulna team in a local newspaper, , on January 26. He said the news was ‘false, fabricated and concocted; it was fully malafide, defamatory and derogatory, and it caused a loss of Taka 100 crore to Orion Sports Ltd’, according the Dhaka-based The Daily Star.After the hearing, Judge Fazle Elahi Bhuiyan of the First Joint District Judge’s Court of Dhaka issued a showcause notice asking the director of I Sports Ltd to explain within 25 days why Mustafa shall not be restrained by an order of temporary injunction from making, publishing and repeating such prejudicial statements against the plaintiff.

Australia fielded three spinners in the tour match against India A and, apart from Xavier Doherty, they did not have much success

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Feb-2013Australia’s final practice match, against India A, before the first Test in Chennai has brought a general assumption to public notice: that in the spin department, Michael Clarke does not have the pedigree that was available to Alastair Cook during England’s historic series win in India three months ago.Spinners Xavier Doherty, Nathan Lyon and the teenager Ashton Agar went for 244 runs in the 49 overs they bowled to the India A batsmen at the Guru Nanak Ground. It was a large chunk of India A’s first-day total of 338 for 4.In comparison, the quicks Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle and Moises Henriques’ conceded 86 runs in 41 overs. Despite being the stronger half of the Australians’ bowling unit, they did not opt for the second new ball when it was due. The focus was on working on the old ball to keep it reversing, a strategy they hope will help them take 20 wickets in every Test.Doherty said the Australians had come to India after studying how Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann had bowled at a quicker pace than the Indians spinners, slightly higher than 90kph. “It’s not always going to work,” he said. “A bowler like Nathan [Lyon], he’s not going to bowl that fast. That’s not his game and he’s not going to change his game just because it worked for someone else.”Doherty, the quickest of the spinners today – “it comes naturally to me, all the way through my career I’ve been faster than the average spinner” – was also the most successful, taking three of the four wickets to fall, and the most economical.Australia’s spinners, he said, had struggled in several departments – finding the lengths and the pace at which to bowl on slow turners, and when attacked by the India A batsmen. Doherty said there was a little more ‘skid’ in his bowling, when compared to that of the two taller spinners. He said he found his rhythm in his final spell, and hopefully that would “bode well for a Test selection at some stage, but I’m not so sure… we’ve got plenty more work to do, training sessions, two more days to go.”Rohit Sharma, who scored 77 for India A, was more sangfroid about his assessment of Australia’s slow bowlers and said they had attacked too much. “Their fielders were closing in – we could take our chances and score those runs quickly. It’s a different ball game when it comes to a Test match, they were trying a few things so we took advantage of that … I am not saying that they are not good bowlers. You cannot underestimate anybody.”Rohit came in at No. 3 and was involved in two partnerships, 128 with the centurion Gautam Gambhir for the second wicket and 71 with Manoj Tiwary for the third. Siddle and Starc had conceded only 12 runs in the first 10 overs and Rohit said they had “bowled tight lines” on a pitch with low bounce and a slow outfield. “In the middle we saw them bowling reverse and … in a four-over period, it was doing a lot. That period was very crucial and we didn’t give any wickets.”He said India A would take a call after the first five or six overs of the second day whether to declare early.

Glenn Maxwell had to sit out of the Mohali Test because Australia needed all of their available specialist bowlers in order to have any chance of staying alive in the series, according to coach Mickey Arthur

Brydon Coverdale14-Mar-2013Glenn Maxwell had to sit out of the Mohali Test because Australia needed all of their available specialist bowlers in order to have any chance of staying alive in the series, according to coach Mickey Arthur. Due to the standing down of four players for disciplinary reasons and an injury to Matthew Wade, Australia had only 12 men available for the Test and, on Thursday morning, Maxwell was confirmed as the man who would miss out.Rain delayed the start of play and at lunch most of the ground was still under cover but the Australians named their XI anyway, with the offspinner Nathan Lyon recalled after being dropped for the second Test in Hyderabad. Lyon and Xavier Doherty will form a dual spin attack, with Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc as the frontline fast bowlers, who will be supported by the pace-bowling allrounder Moises Henriques.Maxwell took 4 for 127 on debut in Hyderabad, although he struggled to contain Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay on his first day of Test bowling when the Indians ran away with the match. Arthur said Maxwell was competing with Henriques for a place in the Mohali Test and the selectors decided that a three-man pace attack with two specialist spinners provided the best chance of the victory Australia needed to make the series 2-1.”He did have a good debut,” Arthur said of Maxwell. “We went with our two quicks and Moises, and we went with what we perceive to be our two specialist spinners. Nathan Lyon and Xavier Doherty were both brought here as specialist spinners. Maxi was brought here as the allrounder-type guy. I guess, in a way, he competes with Moises for one position and we’ve decided we’re going with our specialist attack. We need to take 20 wickets to win this Test match so we wanted our specialists out on the park.”The Australians also have the option of some overs of legspin from Steven Smith, who will play his first Test since the 2010-11 Ashes series. However, Smith has not bowled extensively in the Sheffield Shield this summer and he was brought on the tour specifically as a backup batsman. The selectors were keen on his work against spin and they believed his batting had improved significantly since he was last part of the Test setup.Brad Haddin was also named for his first Test since January last year. Haddin flew to India on Monday as cover for Wade, who sprained his ankle while playing basketball on Saturday. Wade struggled in wicketkeeping, fielding and running drills at training on Wednesday and was visibly uncomfortable on his right ankle.Haddin said he was excited about the chance to return to Test level, having lost his place to Wade when he flew home from last year’s West Indies tour to be with his ill daughter. His Sheffield Shield form this summer has been strong, and he has scored 468 runs at the average of 52, including two centuries.”I’m excited by it. It’s a big Test match here, if the rain stops,” Haddin said on the morning of the game. “From where we are in the series, there’s no second chance here. We’ve got to get a result to draw the series. It’s an exciting time to come in and I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”I have enjoyed my season so far at home but the beauty of Test cricket, and this is where you want to test yourself, is playing in foreign countries. It’s good to be back on this stage again and testing yourself out in the middle, which has been on some challenging wickets. I’m looking forward to it.”Haddin said his New South Wales commitments had meant he had been unable to watch all of the first two Tests but he was familiar with the Indian conditions, having played four Tests in the country in 2008.”We’ve been pretty busy at home with games,” Haddin said. “I haven’t watched too much but I’ve watched bits and pieces. I’ve played over here before so I know exactly what to expect and I’m excited about the chance.”When play eventually begins, the Australians will face the challenge of ensuring they are not distracted by the off-field issues of the past few days, when Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Johnson were told they would not be considered for this Test due to their failure to complete a task set by Arthur. Although Arthur said he would have preferred it if the matters could have been handled behind closed doors, he said it was important the team management made a stand.”It has to ultimately become public when it involves so many players,” Arthur said. “I don’t like it being public. That’s not my style but we had given the guys a year really to set culture and do what they wanted to do. We just felt we needed to right now put it all together. It’s not ideal out in the open but if this is the catalyst to get us to No.1 in the world then so be it. It’s all about the cricket now.”

A round-up of the Ram Slam T20 Challenge matches played on March 26, 2013

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Mar-2013
ScorecardUnbeaten innings from Roelof van der Merwe and Scott Styris ensured Titans beat Knights by eight wickets in Bloemfontein. Knights were put in to bat, and the openers were quickly dismissed by Morne Morkel with just 7 on the board. Dean Elgar and Pite van Biljon were involved in a 45-run stand to help steady the innings. Further contributions from Obus Pienaar (31) and Johan van der Wath (19*) helped Knights post a respectable 132 for 7. Morkel was the standout bowler with figures of 4 for 19, and he took vital wickets to keep the innings in check.Henry Davids was removed early for 4 in Titans’ chase, before Heino Kuhn and van der Merwe put together a 37-run stand. Styris and van der Merwe soaked up any pressure and paced their innings well to chase the Knights’ total with four balls to spare. With this result, Titans moved to the top of the points table, just a point ahead of Lions, who still have a game in hand.The match between Dolphins and Warriors was abandoned without a ball bowled due to intermittent rain.

Suresh Raina brought up his maiden IPL hundred on Thursday, one which helped Chennai Super Kings beat Kings XI Punjab by 15 runs at Chepauk

ESPNcricinfo staff03-May-2013Suresh Raina brought up his maiden IPL hundred on Thursday, one which helped Chennai Super Kings beat Kings XI Punjab by 15 runs at Chepauk. That meant Super Kings have won seven games in a row, an IPL record they now share with Royal Challengers Bangalore, and have all but sealed their place in the playoffs. The reason for the team doing so well, Raina said after the match, was the excellent dressing-room atmosphere this season.”Right now our dressing room is one of the best since IPL was introduced. We have been enjoying the moment,” Raina was quoted as saying by . “Michael Hussey has been my role model in IPL. When you have positive attitude in the dressing room, you tend to learn a lot of good things from the senior players. It is all about attitude and hard work.”There has been a lot of emphasis on getting to know team-mates off the field, Raina said. “We have a team room and we spend a lot of time together. We play table tennis and pool games and listen to music. We get to know a player as a person off the field. I think that has made us very close. Still, lot of matches are coming up and if we work hard on our fitness we can get through.”In T20, Raina said, mental fitness is as important as cricket skills. “It is all about attitude and hard work. Twenty20 is all about how you play your shots and at the same time, you need to work really hard on your mind.”Raina said Super Kings’ bowlers played an important role in the win against Kings XI. Defending 186, Albie Morkel and Mohit Sharma had taken the new ball and kept the scoring rate in check, Mohit accounting for both openers. Then Dwayne Bravo struck three times in a well-directed final, effectively halting Kings XI’s spirited final charge. “Albie and Mohit Sharma bowled really well today with the new ball. But still the fear was in our mind. Not fear, but we are facing lot of challenges [with the bowling] and we really need to bowl well. But Bravo bowled really well too. We are in a good frame of mind right now and we are focused.”