Best goes wicket-less but helps tail wag

SOUTHAMPTON, England, CMC – Barbados and ex-West Indies speedster Tino Best ensured Hampshire’s tail wagged but then went wicket-less as Middlesex made a steady reply on a rain-hit second day of their County Championship game here Monday.

Resuming the day on 315 for seven, Hampshire were eventually dismissed for 336 in their first innings, nearly three-quarters of an hour into the day’s play.

Liam Dawson, unbeaten on 86 overnight added just three before giving England seamer Steven Finn his second wicket of the innings but Best smacked an unbeaten 23 to hand Hampshire precious runs at the end.

Unbeaten on eight overnight, the right-hander entertained with a massive straight six off pacer Tim Murtagh as wickets fell around him.

Best then kept things tight with the new ball, sending down seven overs for just 19 runs as the visitors made it to 84 for three, before rain ended play prematurely.

Dawid Malan top-scored with a breezy unbeaten 40 from 52 deliveries.

The 34-year-old Best is making his debut for Hampshire as a replacement for the injured ex-Windies pacer Fidel Edwards, who underwent surgery on a broken ankle last week.

Tino did pick up in a wicket in the second innings on his Hampshire debut, finishing with match figures of 1-111. Given that, Chris Wood re-injured himself again, I would imagine Tino's run in the side will undoubtedly continue.

Tino sat down for an interview with Cricbuzz this week in which he expressed a desire to move into coaching after his playing days are over:

[QUOTE]Best was recognised as one of the better talents in the country, bowling at a good pace but he received no coaching until he played his first Test match in 2003 at Bridgetown against Australia. Yet, he managed to produce noteworthy performances, albeit erratically. "Everyone would say, 'Tino, you're fast and erratic,' but I was never coached. 'You can bowl at 95 miles an hour, let me just throw you into international cricket' that's how the Caribbean is...just raw talent. I figured out that if I had my action in order, I would've done a lot better."

"One of my aspirations is to be a strength and conditioning fast bowling coach," he cooed. "I have so much knowledge that has been passed on to me from people like Wayne Daniel, Wes Hall, Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar and a lot of great cricketers, who have passed on their knowledge of fast bowling. I'd like to be able to share that with kids and also because I love training.

"People often ask me, 'Tino, you're nearly 35 and you're still bowling at 145 kmph, what is it for you?' It's just the desire. I just want to let kids understand that fast bowling is one of the greatest adrenaline rushes ever. You have to have the desire to do anything in life, but I believe that bowling fast is something special. Everyone always say, 'fast bowlers are nutters, fast bowlers are crazy', but you got to have a little bit of madness. On the field, I'm really wired in, off it, I'm really chilled. You cannot be a friendly fast bowler; you have to be aggressive and mean. That's the funny part of being a cricketer for me - the Jerkyll & Hyde theory," he chuckled.

http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/797...-tino-best