Stats of the day with Haydos and the MCC

'Thousands': The number of balls Matthew Hayden had to hit with the Mongoose before he felt 'mentally prepared' to play with it.

One: The number of days it took for bowlers to start complaining about the pink ball.

Notes on stat one: Even Haydos admitted he found the short blade 'intimidating'. How glad Mongoose must be he gave this interview.

Notes on stat two: If we're going to continue to play matches on pitches like roads in forty degree heat, it won't matter if they bowl a Rubik's Cube, it ain't gonna swing or seam. It's not the ball we should be talking about...

Harbhajan Singh and the divine power of willow

Last year it was Sreesanth. This year it was Deccan that felt the implacable wrath of Harbhajan Singh [surely it's no coincidence that the name A. Symonds appeared on their team sheet]. His 18-ball 49 was the kind of innings that provoked a deep, chesty laugh and a shit-eating grin. 

For those who believe in the divining [and divine] power of willow, he was using a bat given to him by Sachin. That thing must have some universal vibes pulsing through it. But beyond that, Harbhajan is an example of a rarely discussed and probably underrated phenomenon, the bowler who can bat. 

It's a genre of its own, distinct from the bowling all-rounder [a group  that includes players like Graeme Swann and Daniel Vettori]. It's populated by men who came into the game to bowl, but then - by stealth, utilising a natural talent and via experience - batting ability, and often flair, asserts itself.

It's not usually measurable by average because performances will probably be sporadic and also late-flowering, meaning there is an early career's worth of stats to overcome. Bhaji's Test average is 16.86, his ODI 12.93. Shane Warne, a prime example of the breed, averaged 17.32 in Tests and 13.05 in ODIs; another goodie, Malcolm Marshall, averaged 18.85 in Tests and 14.92 in ODIs. In first-class cricket, you might pick out a player like John Emburey, who ended his career with seven first class hundreds, and ten Test fifties. 

All are or were dangerous. They have or had a little more to their batting than just tail-end hitting. It's a genre that, in T20 cricket and all of its freedoms, is likely to expand, because that style of batting is well-suited to a clear eye and a swing freed up by the lack of expectation. 

Congratulations, Ricky Ponting!

Yes, after Daniel Vettori did him with a direct hit yesterday, Ricky Ponting is now Test cricket's most run out batsman. 

Well done Punter! To celebrate the achievement, let's enjoy this one again. And not forgetting this one, of course. 

NB: The next two on the list are Aussies too, AB and Haydos. Sometimes it's the only way to get rid of 'em...

Not done yet

When Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier for the third time in Manila, as Frazier hit Ali with another thunderous left, Ali said, 'They told me you were finished Joe'.

'They lied,' was Smokin' Joe's reply.

The great ones usually find something even as the fire glows rather than burns, just as Shane Warne did yesterday in Ahmedabad. He's almost ready to let go - just not quite yet.

NB: Maybe it's the poems Mandira Bedi's writing for him...

Trotters: the long walk to freedom

A tour of Bangladesh, for batsmen, is supposed to be like one of those all-inclusive holidays for the languorous rich. Sure, it's hot, but everything's served up on a plate. You just help yourself to what you want.

So it proved for four of England's top five. The exception was Jonathan Trott. Poor old Trotters' postcard home read 'given out caught off helmet, given run out by third umpire on unavailable footage, bowled off foot, pad and bat, dropped world's easiest catch. Wish you were here'.

When your luck's out, your luck's out, but Bangladesh has brought the curtain down on the first wave of Trottmania, initiated at the Oval when almost everyone proclaimed England's search for a number three over.

One thing, though, was obvious about Trott's batting from the start: he was the kind of player who Test teams would dry up. The strike rate stats from Bangladesh bear that out. While Pietersen [74.18], Collingwood [73.26], Prior [64.48], Cook [63.33] and Bell [61.84] scored their runs freely, Trott went along at 41.59.

Trott is the inverse of Ian Bell. Mentally, he's all over Test cricket like a rash. It's his game that lags behind. Batsmen tend to come into Tests with a lot of shots and then learn to rationalise their games [ergo KP and the sine qua non Steve Waugh]. Trott needs to do the opposite, which is harder to achieve. He needs to be backed while he does it.

NB: Steve James, intent on proving that having played the game professionally is no guarantee of judgement [or being able to write] is backing Ian Bell for number three. What's that saying again, about history repeating itself the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce...?

There's nothing new under the sun

I'd speculated here as to how many, or rather how few, professional players it would take to beat a club team. As with all things, someone else had got there first.

The inaugural Wisden Almanack, published in 1864 ['post-free for 13 stamps' at the time - worth a little bit more now] reported on Parr's team in Australia, 'including scorecards of matches in which EM Grace and either Jackson or Tarrant had taken on and heavily defeated elevens of places like Otago and Castlemaine'. I like the 'heavily'.

EM, older and possibly even more maverick brother of WG, 'had on one occasion singly challenged the best six of the opposition, batting first and making an unbeaten century'.

And even as the Grace dynasty rose in Downend, learning the game on their orchard pitch, the All England Eleven would take on teams of up to 22 players in odds matches, rarely losing.

NB: Derek Birley's Social History Of English Cricket points out that John Wisden's Almanack also included 'a short history of China, results of the classic horse races and useful facts about coinage and canals'. He worked up the formula after that, obviously...

Use your proper bat next time, eh?

This time last year, Matthew Hayden had, quite plaintively, gone barebat. Now our favourite pigeon-chested, gum-chewing tough guy has a deal, and it's the deal everyone is talking about. He's only gone and called for the Mongoose. And what's more, he's had the minerals to call for the original Mongoose, too, the little one, as opposed to the full-sized bats they're now making.

It's been interesting, and a little complex. The first time that Haydos issued the call [and surely it's only a matter of time before Mongoose provide him with some sort of pocket-sized Viking horn which he can blow when he wants it brought out], he bludgeoned five fours and seven sixes from the next 34 balls he faced. The second time he pulled it out, for the highly entertaining super over between CSK and Punjab yesterday, he was knocked over first ball, a ball he missed by a spectacular and not undisturbing distance.

First the obvious point. The Mongoose is not aimed at a player like Matthew Hayden, who can clear any boundary on earth with a regular bat and thus need not increase his risk. Until Lalit Modi decides to reward big shots with runs commensurate to the distance hit [oh, it'll happen...], the only value Hayden gained was novelty. The trajectory of his hits seemed slightly shallower, the forward momentum slightly greater, not unlike a punched iron shot in golf. He also selected his moment well, a flat low pitch on a day where pitching short was even more fraught with risk for the bowler. On those terms, it was a marketing stunt, nothing more. Unless you have an eye like Hayden's the bat remains essentially useless, or at least disadvantageous, in a match situation.

In short [and it is short], it's a very IPL bat. And yet a new piece of kit is teaching an old lesson. Hayden's power with the Mongoose came from the batspeed. The long handle helped, but the force of the hit came from the overall lightness of the bat. If the club player is to draw some value from the Mongoose, it's that weight is key. There's no point in having a bat so heavy you can't swing it fast. It's nothing new. As WG said of his first coach, his uncle Pocock, 'he made sure I had a bat to suit my strength'. 

What would be truly interesting would be to see Hayden using a full-size blade of around 2lbs 7oz. My guess is he'd hit it as far as the Mongoose. There's another interesting bat about to come onto the market, the Joker. It is more traditional in shape, but with the kind of profile you'd find on John Holmes in tight shorts. It weighs 2lbs 8ozs, and I guess [again] that it is the VHS to the Mongoose's Betamax. 

A final thought. If I was captaining against Hayden, I'd have the bowler try and knock his head off, and not bother about him being called for no balls. That'd be controversial, and Lalit would love it, of course...