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Back in 2007, Zaheer Khan and Murali Kartik pulled off a late show to give the scoreline (4-2) a slightly more respectable look, and that’s as much as India can aspire to at the DY Patil Stadium

The Preview by Dileep Premachandran10-Nov-2009

Match facts

Wednesday, November 11
Start time 14.30 local time (09.00GMT)

Big Picture

India have struggled to counter Doug Bolinger’s pinpoint accuracy•Getty Images

For India, it’s a bleak and depressing one. Three successive losses have cost them the series against a patchwork-quilt Australian side. Despite an appalling injury list, Australia have managed to hold their nerve at key moments. India have lapsed back into 1990s mode, with stellar individual performances like Sachin Tendulkar’s 175 in Hyderabad expected to paper over collective weakness. That hasn’t happened, and the pre-series hype of going for the No.1 ranking now sounds pathetic.For the second series in a row at home, they head to Mumbai, the heartland of Indian cricket, with the cause hopelessly lost. Back in 2007, Zaheer Khan and Murali Kartik pulled off a late show to give the scoreline (4-2) a slightly more respectable look, and that’s as much as India can aspire to at the DY Patil Stadium. As for Australia, having won the Champions Trophy and now swatting aside the challenge of one of their big rivals away from home, this is a happy time, an occasion to revel in the success of a system that can produce stand-ins like Doug Bollinger and Clint McKay. Even with half the first team back home nursing injuries and niggles, they’ve been far too good.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia -WWWLL
India – LLLWW

Watch out for…

Sachin Tendulkar: That dazzling century at Hyderabad aside, he has contributed just 100 in five innings. This, though, is a special game, the first time he’ll be playing in front of his home crowd since the terror attacks in Mumbai a year ago. Some of his greatest innings against Australia have come in Mumbai (twin fifties in the Test in 2001, and 90 in the World Cup of 1996), but they never resulted in Indian wins. He’ll be desperate to change that.Doug Bollinger: A generation ago, Brett Schultz’s left-arm pace caused India immense discomfiture on a tour of South Africa. Bollinger, who’s as quick and more accurate, has had a similar impact since his introduction into this series, taking nine wickets at 19.33. The caught-and-bowled dismissal of Tendulkar was the big moment in the six-wicket romp in Guwahati, and there should certainly be enough bounce at the Navi Mumbai venue to keep him interested.

Team news

India have to make a choice. Do they opt to give the fringe players a chance, or do they focus on the victory that would claw back some pride? Had the series been won rather than lost, Sudeep Tyagi and Amit Mishra would certainly have been given outings. Mishra could yet play in place of Ravindra Jadeja, but Virat Kohli is unlikely to get a game, given how the frontline batsmen have struggled at times. Ishant Sharma could make a return with the Test series against Sri Lanka now just four days away.India: (probable) 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 7 Harbhajan Singh, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashish Nehra.With Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson flying home on Tuesday night to get some rest ahead of the upcoming home season, Australia are certain to give one-day debuts to Andrew McDonald and Burt Cockley. There could also be an opportunity for Jon Holland, the left-arm spinner who has watched from the sidelines, while Nathan Hauritz has been the most economical bowler in the series.Australia: (probable) 1 Shaun Marsh, 2 Adam Voges, Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Cameron White, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Andrew McDonald, 7 Graham Manou (wk), 8 Clint McKay, 9 Jon Holland, 10 Doug Bollinger, 11 Burt Cockley.

Pitch and conditions

The DY Patil Stadium can seat 55,000 and has one of the best facilities in the country. Even the square was prepared with the help of 200 tonnes of soil flown in from South Africa. There should be enough pace and bounce to keep the quick bowlers interested, though no one can be certain how it will play given that it’s the first international match at the venue. During the IPL final in 2008, the slow bowlers had some joy, and the batsmen also enjoyed an outfield where the ball raced to the ropes.Rain is forecast for tomorrow and the overcast conditions should further encourage the seamers. India’s practice session on the eve of the game was cancelled due to persistent showers.

Stats and trivia

• Australia have won two of the three one-day matches they’ve played in Mumbai. The loss came in the dead rubber in 2007.
• Michael Hussey averages 104.33 in the series and is the only batsman on either side with more than 300 runs.
• The top six for Australia have averaged 42.96 in the series so far, as opposed to India’s 34.70

Quotes

“Even though the series is won, it’s not as if we’re going to leave everyone out now and not worry too much about the last game. We feel we’ve started something here with this group, not only here but since the one day series in England, we’ve started to get a really good feeling around the group and I don’t want to abandon that or let that go. It’d be nice to finish off on a winning note.”
“We haven’t backed the opportunities that we have got. A majority of the batsmen haven’t contributed at the same time.”

Australia’s batsmen’s failure to capitalise on starts ensured West Indies gained a first-innings lead in Adelaide

Alex Brown at Adelaide Oval06-Dec-2009Tim Nielsen addressed the media after the second day’s play in Adelaide and declared Australia’s bold intention to push for an innings victory. He might well have wished to retract those comments when Shane Watson fell to Sulieman Benn’s second ball on Sunday – a dismissal that prompted a chain of events that left Australia slumping from 0 for 174 overnight to all out for 439. But the fault for Australia’s 12-run first-innings deficit was hardly that of the coach.Instead, it was the batsmen’s failure to capitalise on starts that ensured West Indies gained a lead after the opening innings for the first time on Australian soil in 12 years. In what is fast developing into a worrying trend, only one of the last 12 Australian batsmen to have passed 50 has gone on to reach triple figures. Nine of those half-centuries have been scored in the opening two Tests against West Indies but, as yet, no one has bettered Shane Watson’s 96 in Adelaide.Certainly, much of the credit for this belongs to West Indies, whose bowlers have shown levels of discipline and consistency at the Gabba and Adelaide Oval their batsmen have yet to match. The towering Sulieman Benn was always going to prove a handful out of the footmarks on a hard, turning Adelaide wicket, while the pace and unrelenting accuracy of Kemar Roach have proven a constant menace.But disciplined West Indian bowling is not the only factor behind Australia’s century drought. Whether it is lack of focus and application at crucial junctures, big-game pressure or technical deficiencies, Nielsen will be most keen to find the source of the issue before England’s arrival in 10 months. That so many of Australia’s batsmen are reaching 50 indicates form is not the issue, but their inability to assert themselves thereafter is posing problems for the coach.The last Australian batsman to post triple figures was Michael Hussey, whose fighting 121 at The Oval in August may have saved his Test career but not the Ashes. Speaking after the third day in Adelaide, Hussey played down the significance of the team’s lack of recent Test centuries.”We had some good partnerships but we couldn’t quite break through that barrier and go on and get a really huge partnership and get ourselves into a real position of strength,” Hussey said after being dismissed by Roach for 41. “It’s often the case here in Adelaide, you can find it difficult to get some real scoring momentum going and then if you do lose a couple of wickets suddenly the fielding team have the momentum.”It would have been nice to go on but it wasn’t actually easy out there. It was quite hard work. You make one mistake and unfortunately you’re on your way. It’s certainly the goal of the team to go on from good starts but I don’t think we should make an issue of it because if you start making an issue of getting to 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, then you start tensing up at those times when you still need to keep playing your natural game. Hopefully we’ll turn those starts into big scores soon in the future.”One of the cornerstones of Australia’s decade of success from the mid-1990s was the ability of their batsmen to convert starts into imposing totals. Steve Waugh was among those to speak of the mental discipline required to push through the 50s and beyond, but such powers of concentration have eluded the Australians of late.Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting have surpassed 50 a combined five times in Australia’s last three Tests, but have lost their wickets to rash strokes on more than one occasion. Michael Clarke added his name to the list when he fell to Benn for 71 on Sunday, prompting the Bajan spinner to wonder aloud as to the reasons behind Australia’s lack of converted centuries.”The pitches that we’ve played on so far at Brisbane and here have been good,” Benn said. “Even I have got starts on them so I can’t see it being that hard to get starts for anyone. I guess if you keep plugging away and bowling hard and be patient you can get some results as a bowler.”

Australia are praying their final-session surge of seven wickets will motivate the batsmen into a significantly improved performance as they battle to avoid giving up their series lead.

Peter English at the SCG04-Jan-2010Australia are praying their final-session surge of seven wickets will motivate the batsmen into a significantly improved performance as they battle to avoid giving up their series lead. Pakistan have dominated the first two days against a struggling home side and hold a 204-run advantage after finishing at a healthy 9 for 331.Doug Bollinger, the left-arm fast bowler, led the Australian charge by snatching three victims with the second new ball in an action-packed conclusion, but whether the hosts can remain in the game depends on the batsmen. “It was a good fight-back by the guys,” Bollinger said. “It was frustrating early, but they were two-for at tea and now they’re nine down. We just need to try and get the last one tomorrow and then get our batting hats on for a certain amount of time and get something to bowl at in the second innings.”Australia got into trouble when Ricky Ponting won the toss and batted on an unusual SCG surface, sliding to 127. Bollinger would not admit his personal feelings on Ponting’s decision, which has attracted heavy criticism, but said he had never seen an SCG pitch as green as this one. “It doesn’t bother me, it’s just the way it goes,” he said of Ponting’s call at the toss. “I can’t change anything now. It’s gone, we’re just worrying about the second innings now. Everyone’s really positive and we all back Ricky 110%.”While Bollinger said the pitch offered less movement on the second day, the bowlers still failed to take their opportunities before lunch as Salman Butt and Imran Farhat opened with a 109-run stand. There were regular plays and misses, although the fast men seemed reluctant to change to a consistent, fuller length.”It is frustrating, but it is the second day and we kind of knew that was going to happen,” Bollinger said. “We’ve just got to be as patient as they were [when we bat]. I think we bowled well and we fought really well and they’re nine down. It’s good that the guys never gave up.” Bollinger finished with 3 for 70 while Shane Watson, who succeeded against the slogging tail-enders, and Mitchell Johnson gained two wickets each.

Laxman hasn’t fully recovered from the injury to his left hand, sustained while fielding on the fourth day in the Chittagong Test against Bangladesh last month

Cricinfo staff04-Feb-2010The Indian selectors have called up Rohit Sharma to the squad for the first Test against South Africa as cover for VVS Laxman. Laxman hasn’t fully recovered from the finger injury he sustained while fielding during the first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong last month.Captaining the Indian Board President’s XI in the tour game against the South Africans, Rohit managed just 20 but was delighted with his selection. “It feels good that I’ve been asked to stay back… (I’m feeling great),” he told the Kolkata-based .This is the first time Rohit is part of the Test squad since the 2008 visit to Sri Lanka. He was in fine form during the Ranji Trophy this season, making 527 at 87.83, including a highest of 309* against Gujarat.Meanwhile, Laxman skipped the team’s fielding practice on Wednesday afternoon, but did have a bat at the nets.India will be sweating over the injuries that have dogged the side of late – key batsmen Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and fast bowler Sreesanth have already been ruled out of this match.Captain MS Dhoni, though, looked to have recovered fully from the back spasms which forced him to miss the Chittagong Test. “One can’t have any control over injuries. Obviously, we’ll miss Dravid. It’s like a captain having no control at all over the toss.”

The Sehwag storm struck South Africa with full force and pretty much blew everything in its way to a 13th 150-plus score

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga15-Feb-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
HawkeyeVirender Sehwag brought up his 19th century in 87 balls•Getty Images

The Sehwag storm struck South Africa with full force and pretty much blew everything in its way to a 13th 150-plus score. Amid the mayhem, it was easy to forget the cool, pleasant breeze that was Sachin Tendulkar’s 92nd international century – his fourth in four Tests. They added 249 runs for the third wicket and kept South Africa wicketless for 57.4 overs but, once the two quietened, South Africa struck back with three quick wickets to retrieve some of the momentum in the match.Sehwag rattled them with a vicious assault on the new ball, put behind him the Gautam Gambhir run-out and, after a brief quiet, punished them some more. His 87-ball hundred would have been even faster but for a relative lull of 10 off 21 balls. Tendulkar enjoyed playing in the shadow of Sehwag’s strike-rate, kept scoring at an even pace and, unlike Sehwag, didn’t give South Africa a single chance.Two critical moments in the first session determined the flow of the game. Sehwag – 43 off 21 then – had the fastest Test fifty and a few other records in sight when he ran Gambhir out, and he chastised himself by playing disciplined cricket for a while. Around the same time Morne Morkel indulged in some reverse-rattling, took out M Vijay, troubled Sehwag with accurate bouncers and induced an edge only to see JP Duminy – at first slip because of the finger injury to Graeme Smith – drop him on 47. Sehwag could have gone at an even more frenetic rate but for the run-out. South Africa could have been in control had Sehwag fallen then.Sehwag’s onslaught started when Dale Steyn failed to get any swing. Somehow the ball didn’t come out right, the seam wobbled, and Nagpur was a distant memory. When there is no swing, Steyn’s pace is his biggest enemy so today the faster they came the faster they went. Nor did he get the Morkel’s bounce, which meant that when Steyn went for the ribs, Sehwag could easily flick it past midwicket.The storm started with that gentle little flick and then came three boundaries in three balls in the third over: placed over point, whipped to square leg, and slashed past point. Morkel got the treatment in his third over too: three boundaries through the off side, one off a delivery that clocked 152.6kmph. Wayne Parnell replaced Morkel immediately, and immediately he was carved for a four and a six into the rubble of a stand under reconstruction.The next ball Sehwag faced he hit an off-drive for four, and then came the run-out. It was time for drinks and Sehwag threw away his protective gear in disgust. That was when Morkel came back but his charged-up, accurate burst seemed to have ended with that dropped chance.When Sehwag came back from lunch, the cautious approach had been thrown out and he was blazing away again. For company he had Tendulkar. If you were a bowler, there was nowhere to hide.Sehwag showed that to Steyn early in his second spell. Punch, whip, steer, 10 runs off three deliveries. Steyn to Sehwag then: 11 balls, 25 runs, five boundaries. Tendulkar joined the fun, defending everything full but steering Steyn for two boundaries. Paul Harris, meanwhile, didn’t have the luxury of a big score, bowled round the stumps, and was slog-swept and hit inside out by Sehwag for a six and a four.Back came Morkel, the best bowler on the day, to be given the worst sort of treatment a best bowler can be given. This time Tendulkar took the lead. Two fullish deliveries, two clips to the on side, one to the left of square leg, one to the right. In his next over, he gave Sehwag width with three deep fielders on the off side. One to the left of deep point, and one to the right. Sehwag 89 off 72, Tendulkar 38 off 61. India were 165 for 2 in 30.2 overs, with the bonus of South Africa’s two best bowlers negated.In between the hard-hitting there was some toying, with paddles from outside off, reverse-sweeps, clips past midwicket as Sehwag reached his hundred and Tendulkar his fifty without further incident. Harris eventually started bowling over the wicket, and was called wide 12 times because, unlike in Nagpur, he was not looking to get wickets here.The runs slowed down post tea. When Sehwag was 128, AB de Villiers, the replacement keeper, missed an easy stumping. By the time Duminy made good his mistake, getting Sehwag in his first over, it might just have been too late. Not quite. Harris went round the wicket in the next over – inexplicably it took him until the Sehwag dismissal to do so – and got a false shot out of Tendulkar.Steyn came back right away, got his swing back, and beat S Badrinath in the man-versus-boy contest. VVS Laxman struggled to fight the momentum and edged Harris in the next over. It flew wide of slip, the light deteriorated and India ended the day retaining the upper hand despite that late South African surge.

The possibility of a Pakistan domestic side participating in the Champions League Twenty20 this year – though bleak – has not been entirely written off yet

Osman Samiuddin13-Feb-2010The possibility of a Pakistan domestic side participating in the Champions League Twenty20 this year – though bleak – has not been entirely written off yet, either by the league or the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).Pakistan did not have a representative in the inaugural tournament last year, the only Test-playing nation other than Bangladesh to not have a representative in the 12-team league. Sialkot Staliions – then Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 champions – had been invited to participate in the very first Champions League, but that was postponed because of the
Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008.Since then, as ties between the governments and cricket boards of India and Pakistan have become frostier not only have the two countries not had a bilateral series, Pakistan’s players have not participated in the IPL and not been invited to the Champions League.Relations have worsened further following the decision of the IPL franchises this year to not pick any Pakistani players, despite Pakistan being the World Twenty20 champions and having as many as 12 players up for auction. The PCB eventually decided to revoke all NOCs it had given to players hoping to participate in the IPL, but the door may remain open for participation in this year’s Champions League, which is a multi-board venture and may not be played in India.Discussion on a Pakistan representative was expected to take place in the last meeting of the league’s governing council between officials from the Indian board, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa. But a senior league official said the number of teams in this year’s tournament – to be held in September – has not been finalised.”No final decision on participating countries/teams has been made for this year’s event,” Dean Kino, the league’s director of business and legal affairs and key member of the core management, told Cricinfo when asked specifically about the possibility of a Pakistan side being invited.No contact has yet been made with the PCB and though the IPL remains off-limits, the Champions League is a possibility. “Nothing has been discussed with us by any of the boards involved in the tournament as yet,” Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, told Cricinfo. “The IPL remains persona non grata for us, but if there is some contact about the Champions League we will consider the situation, where it is played and when. We would be amenable to sending a team should we get an invite and the situation is feasible.”Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 tournament has not yet been held this season; it is scheduled to be played between late February and early March. Pakistan’s ODI series with England in September also clashes with the dates of the Champions League, which makes it unlikely that any domestic champion will be able to call on its best players should there even be an invite.

England won the first Twenty20 in Mumbai by two wickets off the last over

Cricinfo staff04-Mar-2010
Scorecard
Jenny Gunn top scored with a 24-ball 34•Getty Images

With England needing six runs off the last over, with four wickets in hand, it looked like an easy win for the visitors in the first Twenty20 in Mumbai. But four balls later they needed two with two wickets in hand. A dot ball off the fifth meant two from the final ball. Nicky Shaw hit the last ball back to the bowler Gouher Sultana and scrambled a run. Sultana turned to run her out at the non-striker’s end, missed, and with no one backing up the ball went for an overthrow and England won by two wickets. They had held their nerve better than India, but marginally so.The England bowlers had done well to keep India to 125 and though their batsmen eased into the chase, the target was too low to cause any worries. In the last four overs they needed 30 with four wickets in hand. Jenny Gunn and Danielle Hazell scored 19 off the next two overs – Gunn hit the only six of the match when she lofted Jhulan Goswami over long-off and Hazell then pulled her for four to fine leg. They had required just 11 off the last two overs before the drama of the final over.Gunn top scored with 34 and her 40-run seven-wicket partnership with Hazell came at more than seven an over. But before their stand, the captain Charlotte Edwards led the chase with a 32-ball 28 and added 37 with Beth Morgan (16) and 32 with Lydia Greenway (16). The rookie spinner Soniya Dabir, playing only her third international game, dismissed both Edwards – caught at midwicket – and Greenway – stumped. Dabir also had Laura Marsh stumped for 6 and ran out Danielle Wyatt for 0.For India, Mithali Raj top scored with 30. After her dismissal, Priyanka Roy and Harmanpreet Kaur tried to increase the scoring rate, pulling and edging their way to 19 off 15 balls. England fielded well, keeping India under pressure with singles and twos. In the 18th over Ebony Rainford-Brent made a superb diving effort to stop a boundary. Then in the final a direct hit from Katherine Brunt ran out Harmanpreet, going for the second run. India were good in patches on the field.Both teams have a lot of introspect after this match: England will have to question their near mess-up and the number of extras they conceded, while India, who did admirably to bounce back after posting an under-par score, will need to work harder on their fielding. Though they managed three run-outs and two stumpings in the match, the overthrows and misfields cost them.