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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

A spirited bowling performance from Dilhara Fernando in conditions that tested fast bowlers complemented a wholesome batting display from his teammates as Asia sealed the second edition of the Afro-Asia cup with a degree of comfort. It was another tall scoring match but Asia were always in control.As in the first ODI at Bangalore, Asia won the toss, elected to bat on a flat pitch and batted the opposition out of the game, only this time the victory was more comprehensive. Mark Boucher and Boetta Dippenaar showed their mettle with fluent half centuries but their untimely dismissals ultimately dictated the course of the match, as their side fell 31 runs short of the target.Requiring 338 to square the series, Africa needed one batsman to go the distance and play a big innings, and the loss of three wickets within the first 15 overs didn’t help their cause, despite a healthy run rate. AB de Villiers, sliced in half by a Mohammad Asif away swinger, fell to a brilliant take by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, diving to his right. Vusi Sibanda, a player starved of international cricket, showed no signs of rustiness as he managed to get nicely behind the line of the ball and caress it past the infield.Dippenaar, often given the cold shoulder by the selectors in the South African one-day squad, found his feet and piloted the chase with Sibanda for company, adding 60 for the second wicket. The trump card for Asia was Fernando, and he rewarded his captain almost immediately, sending back Sibanda and Justin Kemp in the same over. Both dismissals were characterised by intelligent seam bowling – Sibanda succumbed to the pull after being softened up by a vicious lifter off the previous ball, while Kemp was squared up by an inswinging yorker which knocked back his middle stump.

Dippenaar carried on, reaching his half century with an effortless straight drive past Fernando. Boucher, let off by Harbhajan Singh at midwicket, rotated the strike and played the supporting role. Just when the pair was beginning to cast doubts among the Asians, Dippenaar holed out to deep midwicket, leaving the repair work to Boucher and Shaun Pollock. Boucher relieved the pressure, carting boundaries off the part-time bowlers, including thundering sixes off successive balls off Virender Sehwag.However, Boucher chanced his arm once Fernando returned and a skier was taken easily by Mohammad Asif at long-on. Pollock entertained, albeit briefly, with a fluent 35 but his dismissal took the fight out of the Africans. Fernando prised out Johan Botha and a flurry of boundaries by Morne Morkel were only of entertainment value as the innings folded up for 306.Earlier, Sehwag laid the foundation with a typically belligerent half-century, allowing Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Yousuf to propel the side in conditions where the batsmen were hardly tested, given Africa’s inexperienced attack. The pitch was a front-foot thumper’s dream and Sehwag merely had to hit through the line and bisect the gaps on the off side, forcing Kemp to make some early bowling changes and field adjustments. Sehwag’s dismissal – lobbing a catch to deep mid-on – immediately slowed the scoring rate as both Ganguly and Dhoni, earning a promotion in the batting order, seemed prepared to graft it out.Ganguly began with a silken drive past the covers and grew in confidence, targeting Botha on quite a few occasions, using his feet and getting to the pitch of the ball. Dhoni added the spark in the middle overs, treating himself to two sixes. However, he succumbed to another of Kemp’s intelligent bowling changes, playing all over an Albie Morkel-yorker.The conditions were such that the batsmen needed very little time to get their eye in and unleash strokes to all corners of the ground. While Yousuf, Mahela Jayawardene and Sehwag took the attack to the bowlers, Ganguly played the steadying hand. The plan was probably for him to stay till the end but he fell 12 short of the ton that has eluded him for a while and it was Yuvraj Singh who added the finishing touches with a 13-ball blitz that yielded 30 runs. Having amassed a solid total all it needed from the Asian bowlers was to be patient and slowly tighten the noose around the Africans. In the event Fernando’s incisive bowling made the Asian task even more easy.

George Binoy at ChennaiBrothers in arms
A sibling rivalry – in good spirit or not – is an extremely effective motivator. The older one is generally under greater pressure for it’s not pleasant to be outdone by the kid. The brothers Morkel – Albie and Morne – shared the new ball at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Albie, three years older than Morne, got hit by Virender Sehwag for three fours in his first over. Morne, on the other hand, began with a maiden. Albie was the first to take a wicket when he bowled MS Dhoni with a yorker but Morne ended the day with the scalps of the Mohammads – Yousuf and Rafique. Bigger isn’t always better.Insignificant for most, but not Botha
It’s difficult to take the Afro-Asian Cup seriously. The number of last-minute withdrawals, because of injuries or just plain whims and fancies, is a clear indication that the players don’t either. But for Johan Botha it was a rather big deal for he was playing his first international game since the tour of Australia in 2005-06 when he was reported for a suspect action. He had an encouraging start with a close shout for lbw against Sourav Ganguly with his second ball. Thereafter the only moments of excitement in his spell was when MS Dhoni got stuck into him for two sixes, one of saw the ball land on the roof.You’re in my way Mr Umpire
If a team-mate somehow stops you from getting a wicket, you could be forgiven for venting your spleen (in a respectable manner) on the field. But what do you do if it’s an umpire? Ask AB de Villiers. Rafique pushed the ball towards mid-off and charged for a single, de Villiers sprinted across from cover, picked up, took aim and fired at the stumps. Had he hit, Rafique would have been out by a long way. He didn’t hit, because umpire Tony Hill, instead of running towards the leg side, ran between de Villiers and the stumps and promptly intercepted the throw. Imagine if this had happened in the 1999 World Cup semi-final.AB gets his man
The umpire might have saved Rafique once but he would have had to out-run de Villiers to do it again. Rafique slashed at a wide ball from Morne Morkel and got a top edge high and far over the infield. de Villiers sprinted after it from cover, reached the ball just in time and, with arms outstretched, took the catch while running at full tilt. He tumbled to the ground as soon as the catch was taken but the ball was as safe as the snitch in Harry Potter’s hand.Deja-vu?
In the first ODI at Bangalore, de Villiers began Africa’s pursuit of 318 with a four off Mohammad Asif but lost his off stump the very next ball when he shouldered arms to one that cut back in. Today, chasing 338, de Villiers hit his first boundary off Asif – a powerful golf-swing over cover. The next ball was pitched on a good length on middle stump, seamed away from de Villiers, squared him up and took the outside edge. Dhoni, who was initially moving the wrong way, dived low and to his right to take a stunning catch inches above the ground. Remember to be careful after you hit Asif for four on Sunday AB.Sweet chin music
The last thing you expect on a flat batting pitch is to see a ball that is potentially life-threatening. Vusi Sibanda, having cruised to 35 off 37 balls, was batting with minimum fuss. In the 13th over, Fernando jolted him out of his comfort zone with a brute of a delivery. It was short-pitched on leg stump and it rose so sharply that Sibanda, in his hurry to get his head out of the way, arched backwards, lost his balance and hit the turf. He was shaken no doubt, and when Fernando let him have another short one next ball, Sibanda top-edged the pull and was comfortably caught by Dhoni.

All doubts over the nature of the surface were dispelled when Harbhajan Singh coined a sweet term for it. is a term used to describe a benign, flat surface with very little in it for the bowlers but Harbhajan felt it right to call the pitch provided for the first Test as a super . So dopey was the track that WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] might send a few officials to Chennai soon.”It was a first-day wicket and you can’t rely on the patches [on the pitch]. You have to vary your line and length according to the wicket,” Harbhajan said. “Let me tell you one thing. The wicket is very, very flat and it is hard for the bowlers to keep running in with the same intensity in this heat.”The irony about India preparing such tracks for home Tests is that their recent successes abroad have all come on bowler-friendly surfaces. Spiced up pitches in Kingston and Johannesburg have produced Indian wins; so have swing-fests at Headingley and Nottingham; so has a sporting pitch in Perth. It’s high time someone realised that India’s best chance of winning is on a track with some life.The Chennai ground staff point out to the lack of preparation time. As recently as February 27 a Ranji Trophy one-dayer was played on this ground and 12 days of rain in between meant there was little time for producing a quality wicket. They probably have a case but the earlier India start putting some life into their pitches, the more advantageous it could be. Through the 1990s India relied on their spin formula to torment visiting teams but this is an era when their strength lies in seam and swing. Even their spinners thrive with a bit of bounce on the surface.”I think it was very important to win the toss,” Harbhajan said, “but the Madras [Chennai] wicket has always been like that. It has always been good for the batsmen for the first two-three days and then the spinners come into play. You can’t really keep complaining.”The moment the toss plays such a big part in fortunes, you know something is amiss. Which brings us to the kind of bowling attack India choose for such death-beds. The conditions were always going to be hot and humid, the batsmen were bound to apply the pressure, and the bowlers were expected to tire. Neither Sachin Tendulkar nor Sourav Ganguly were given a bowl [the former was off the field for an extended period] and it meant long spells for the frontline bowlers. With 14 days to go in the series, it could well turn into a long and tiring one.Choosing Irfan Pathan would have probably been one seamer too many and going with Piyush Chawla would have required one of the middle-order batsmen to sit out – a possibility which might have been pushing it too far. So in a way India probably had their hands tied but there should be a thought given, in the long-term at least, for playing five specialist bowlers. Even if one of them has an off day, the others could share the responsibility.Where India really lost out was the amount of boundary balls they gave through the day. Forty- five fours on the first day of the match is probably twice as much as they would have targeted. Even more interestingly they managed 400 dot balls out of 540. So while they did the right things for most of the day, they kept taking off the pressure with the loose deliveries. Handcuff the batsmen for a while before opening the back door at exactly the wrong time.Harbhajan agreed. “I think we have given a lot of boundary balls,” he said. “In the first session we gave around 60-70 runs in boundaries. The first session is always important in a Test match and they dominated it. We did very well in the last two sessions and got those four wickets. It would be nice to have got one or two more wickets, but they batted well today.”I think we have given around 20-30 runs in our fielding and that makes a big difference. I hope tomorrow we put in a good performance in bowling, batting and fielding. It would have been nice to stop those 30 runs and see the scoreboard at the end on 270 for 4.”

Match facts

Saturday, July 11, 2015
Start time 1000 local (0430 GMT)A young Sri Lanka side will be boosted by the presence of Lasith Malinga and Tillakaratne Dilshan•Getty Images

Big picture

Pakistan have recently been whitewashed in Bangladesh. Sri Lanka’s last ODI outing was that traumatic Sydney World Cup quarterfinal against South Africa. Both teams have lost key men. Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi have stepped off the one-day planet. Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have disappeared over the horizon. These teams are not so much waging high-octane battle in the five-ODI series, as conducting experiments. Is Kusal Perera a viable long-term opener, for example? Or can Sarfraz Ahmed learn to transplant his knack of playing vital Test innings, into his ODI game, and where should he bat? What is each team’s top attack? Which batsmen will take the middle order into the future.The stakes are much higher for Pakistan, though. Presently ninth in the ODI rankings, they must defeat Sri Lanka to displace West Indies, and move up a spot. A proposed ODI triangular in Zimbabwe has added uncertainty to Champions Trophy qualifications, but a healthy margin of victory in this series would put a small buffer between them and the next team.The hosts are coming off a dispiriting Test series, but have often rebounded in the limited-overs formats. Lest we forget, Tillakaratne Dilshan still plays one-dayers, and Lasith Malinga leads the attack. Along with Angelo Mathews, they are capable of rallying a young team to at least present a challenge to transitional Pakistan.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)Sri Lanka: LWLWWPakistan: WWLLL

In the spotlight

With Rangana Herath omitted from the squad, Mathews said Sachithra Senanayake was Sri Lanka’s premier limited-overs spinner. Senanayake appeared to have returned successfully following the remodeling of his action, in the series against England at home last year. His returns in Australia and New Zealand, however, were less encouraging. With Nuwan Kulasekara’s experience also overlooked for this squad, pressure mounts on Senanayake to prove he remains a high-quality one-day bowler.Who else but Yasir Shah? They tried to attack him in the Tests, and Yasir took wickets. They tried to block him in the Tests, and Yasir still took wickets. They tried a mix of both, Yasir’s wickets still came. In the end, Sri Lanka only succeeded by tiring him out, at Pallekele. They will not be able to do that in an ODI. Even the batsmen who made big scores in the Test series didn’t have him worked out. He is the hosts’ top threat.

Team news

With Tillakaratne Dilshan back at the top, Upul Tharanga and Lahiru Thirimanne are likely to slot in at No. 3 and 4.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Kusal Perera, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Upul Tharanga, 4 Lahiru Thirimanne, 5 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 6 Angelo Mathews (capt.), 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Seekkuge Prasanna, 9 Sachithra Senanayake, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Suranga LakmalAsad Shafiq suffered a groin strain in the third Test, but has now recovered. He will likely face off with Babar Azam for his middle-order spot however.Pakistan (likely): 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Azhar Ali (capt.), 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Mukhtar Ahmed, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Babar Azam/Asad Shafiq, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Yasir Shah, 9 Anwar Ali, 10 Mohammad Irfan, 11 Rahat Ali

Pitch and conditions

With a little bit of rain around all across the island, there is likely to be a little seam movement at Dambulla. This doesn’t mean the spinners are out of it either. The weather is expected to be fine.

Stats and trivia

• Sarfraz Ahmed’s average as opener is 43. This is roughly twice his average in the middle order.
• Pakistan were blasted out for 102 the last time they played in Dambulla, in August last year.
• Angelo Mathews averages 53.69 from 42 innings at no. 5. This is again much higher than his average in other positions.

Azhar Ali has said he and Mohammad Amir had “moved on” from the complications that beset Amir’s reintegration to the Pakistan team, in the approach to the New Zealand tour. He said he would focus on captaining Amir, and helping create an environment in which the bowler could thrive.The first ODI on Monday will be the first occasion in which the two will play together, since Amir’s return to international cricket. “He bowled well in the T20s I think,” Azhar said. “As the captain my job is to take the best out of him. Hopefully we will all be united and with Mohammad Amir, and we will allow him to bowl really well and get wickets for Pakistan.”

Elliott credits diligence for bowling contributions

New Zealand allrounder Grant Elliott said his recent effectiveness with the ball in T20s was thanks to “hard work”. Elliott took nine wickets on the four occasions he bowled in the recent T20 series, against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“As an allrounder sometimes your batting’s not going as well and you want to be able to get into the game,” Elliott said. “I always think about what I wouldn’t want to face, when I’m bowling. For me in T20s, it’s about taking pace off the ball. In the one-dayers it’s slightly different. I want to try and swing the ball and hit the back of the length.”
New Zealand are without Ross Taylor in the ODI series, after the batsman sustained a muscle injury in his side during the final T20. Brendon McCullum is also injured, but Elliott said the team had enough skill and experience to cope with the absences.
“It’s unfortunate what’s happened to Ross, but that always creates opportunity for guys to step up. We’ve got a lot of experience in this team. I think what we’ve seen in the past is that guys have come in during the recent tours of South Africa and Zimbabwe, filled gaps and done pretty well.”

Four weeks ago, Azhar had been among two players who sought to avoid a pre-tour conditioning camp, stating: “I will not attend the camp as long as Amir is there.” He had also attempted to resign the ODI captaincy over Amir’s inclusion, before the Pakistan Cricket Board intervened. He struck a more philosophical tone in Wellington.”Whatever my stance was, my job is to lead this side and keep harmony in the dressing room,” he said. “We are all united and keen for this challenge.He did not want to be drawn on what has allowed his position to change since December. “We should not discuss more about it. We’ve moved on.”In the event Azhar is the passive-aggressive type, the Basin Reserve does present him with a unique opportunity. Bowlers who have upset their captains sometimes find themselves bowling into the stiff wind that is a feature of the Wellington climate. A strong northerly breeze is forecast for the day.”We already discussed it and we’re practicing in this wind,” Azhar said. “So everyone is prepared for that.”In addition to Amir, Azhar has a legion of left-armers in the squad. Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan and Rahat Ali are likely to play at some point in the series, and left-arm spinning allrounder Imad Wasim has also been effective with the ball since making his debut last year.”A lot of the good bowlers that are coming in – most of them are left-armers, in Pakistan,” Azhar said. “Sometimes it’s an advantage because not every team has left-armers. They bowl at good pace as well, so we’re lucky to have them.”With bounce and pace expected in the Basin Reserve surface, Azhar said he hoped Irfan could trouble opposition batsmen. New Zealand allrounder Grant Elliott said Irfan’s height and pace made him an “exciting” bowler to face.”I think I made the comment that playing Irfan was like batting on a trampoline,” Elliott said. “The height that he comes from is very different. It takes a little bit of getting used to – the first couple of balls. He’s another great player for the crowd to see bowl. He’s seven foot and bowls at 140 clicks.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Junaid Siddique and Tamim Iqbal showed there was plenty of fight in the Bangladesh camp, adding a record 148-run opening stand on a slow track to reduce the deficit to 72 on day two at Dunedin’s University Oval. Inspired by a new-ball burst that checked New Zealand’s lower order – the first time in seven Tests they bowled a side out – the debutant left-handed openers bravely chipped away at a 220-run first-innings lead and left the hosts with plenty to think about.New Zealand dominated the first half of the day as Matthew Bell made his comeback Test one to remember, converting his excellent provincial form into a second Test century, and Jacob Oram thumped a brisk fourth century, but they will be kicking themselves for not getting a larger total.If Tamim and Siddique were under pressure in their first Test, it rarely showed. Their association didn’t start pretty – Tamim was dropped by Iain O’Brien and a slog off Daniel Vettori was misjudged by Chris Martin in the deep – but the openers fought through a testing passage against a moving new ball. Initially eager to manufacture runs, they wisely settled down to press for time. But that didn’t mean the scoring rate reduced. Ticking along at around five runs an over, Siddique played some convincing drives down the ground while Tamim, happier to get onto the back foot, hooked and pulled fours. The team fifty was on the board in the 11th over.The two played on New Zealand’s mind. Anything full was driven firmly by Siddique, prompting the seamers to hold back the length, at which time Tamim flashed hard and picked the gaps, more often than not. Siddique got to fifty first, thumping O’Brien for four, and his maiden effort was well appreciated by a raucous dressing room. Tamim slogged Vettori to bring up the 100 in the 20th over and soon celebrated his second fifty of the match, driving Vettori against the spin for four. While Vettori struggled to locate his angle Tamim put him away through cover-point.While they were near impeccable in defence, both waited for the short stuff from Vettori and when it came, they thrashed behind point. As the pitch flattened out, so did the bowling. About 15 minutes before stumps a record was achieved with a nudge past square leg – it was the highest opening stand for Bangladesh. Even in the last over of the day Tamim and Siddique were playing their shots, such was their positive mindset.There was nothing in the first half hour which suggested it wouldn’t be a good batting day. With six wickets left New Zealand were in the position to command. The pitch played a lot better on day one than expected. Bangladesh needed early wickets but there were far too many loose balls that allowed Bell and Oram to start confidently.When he decided to put them away, Oram was clinical, and such was his power and placement that the fielders had little chance of stopping shorts. Putting his height to good use, he drove and punched with power, his on-drives especially well-timed. Enamul Haque jnr bowled a touch too short and was easy pickings for Oram on a slow pitch.If Oram was eager to get to a hundred, Bell was understandably patient to reach his second, seven years after his first. Making the most of an umpiring reprieve on 97 – umpire Peter Parker failed to see pad first on a very good leg before shout from Mashrafe Mortaza – Bell moved out of a tense couple of overs in the nineties with another dab between gully and the slips, to cheer from his home town crowd. For a team whose opening combinations have been poor all season, Bell’s hundred was a whiff of fresh air.Mohammad Ashraful struck twice before lunch, getting Bell and Brendon McCullum, but Oram didn’t keep the crowd waiting long after lunch, easing one to the midwicket boundary to raise three figures at a healthy strike rate of 70. To celebrate, Oram lifted an Ashaful long hop into the car park.The new ball, taken with New Zealand 320 for 6, worked straight away as Oram bottom-edged onto his stumps. Kyle Mills pushed his first ball into the wicketkeeper’s hands to lift sagging shoulders and Vettori tried one shot too many and chipped a simple catch to mid-on. Mortaza’s fourth wicket curtailed the innings at 357, a total that seemed extremely healthy at the time.After a largely unsuccessful first day with the bat Bangladesh had put themselves under pressure, but thanks to two teenagers with an appetite for a scrap they’re almost matching New Zealand step for step.

Mike Smethurst and Peter Martin hit back for Lancashire after Kent’s MartinSaggers had plunged them into trouble as bowlers dominated the first day atOld Trafford.Lancashire looked set for a big score on a good pitch after John Crawley won the toss, chose to bat and steered them to 94 for one.But they then slumped to 236 all out with Saggers claiming four for 54 and Min Patel picking up three wickets, although many of the Lancashire batsmen had only themselves to blame.They were rescued, not for the first time this season, by their bowlers. Martin, playing his first Championship match since breaking his thumb onMay 31, had Rob Key lbw and David Fulton caught at second slip by AndyFlintoff.And Smethurst trapped Rahul Dravid lbw and had Ed Smith caught behind withconsecutive balls to leave Kent on 14 for four before Matthew Walker deniedhim a hat-trick and linked up with Alan Wells to steer Kent to 41 for fourat the close.Wells was leading Kent with Matthew Fleming ruled out by a calf injury,leaving them missing no fewer than eight seam bowlers. They looked set for a long hard day, especially when Flintoff was racing to 29 with five powerful boundaries including a straight six off Patel.But he was the first of Saggers’ four victims and with Sourav Ganguly goingfor a duck, only Crawley and Neil Fairbrother of the recognised Lancashirebatsmen threatened to make a half century.Crawley was a bat-pad victim for Patel in the last over before lunch for apatient 42, and Fairbrother, who was dropped on one, batted for most of theafternoon session until edging Saggers to first slip, where Fulton took thelast of his three catches.

Munaf Patel is determined to regain his firepower in order to book a berth in the Indian team for the upcoming limited overs series in England. Munaf, undergoing rehabilitation and training at the MRF Pace Foundation, said that he was progressing gradually to regain his rhythm and fitness and was close to bowling with his usual venom.”Currently I am using 85 per cent of my run-up. Hopefully I will be able to use my full run-up soon”, he said.Indian team physio John Gloster is advising Patel on his current rehabilitation schedule. Munaf said his prime target was to become fully fit. “After the back muscle spasm problem in the Bangladesh tour, I am concentrating on regaining full fitness. Had it been some other injury, it would have taken a longer time to cure.”Patel, who has taken 26 wickets from 22 ODIs, was not unduly perturbed about the new pacers competing for berths in the national team. “The competition is always there. There will be pressure also. Whoever performs well under tough conditions will surely get picked to play for India.”I am not looking at the past. I am positive about my future. I am working hard to achieve my target. I will be able to bowl with the same pace as before,” he said.Javagal Srinath, the former Indian fast bowler, felt that Munaf looked promising during the sessions at the pace academy. “It’s been pretty good,” Srinath told ANI. He has been open, open for ideas. He is learning fast… He seems good. The match fitness is something, which he has to declare on his own, but otherwise you can see the spark in Munaf, pace is good. He looks alright.”

The unluckiest dismissal
By inducing an edge, Pakistan’s bowlers nowadays enter a lottery. Kamran Akmal may catch it, he may not. Shoaib Akhtar started perfectly, put one in the channel, got Sourav Ganguly to commit to the shot, got his edge, celebrated prematurely, saw Akmal do that thing he does, turned and looked at Shoaib Malik, his captain, saying in effect: “I can’t play this game, man.” The wildchild of the old would have reacted a bit differently, one can be sure.Sachin Tendulkar, though, could not see the irony as he was disgusted that he edged one to Akmal and was acrobatically caught. That’s two in a row now for Tendulkar. He’ll do well to stay away from casinos.Wily old
On a difficult wicket, Sourav Ganguly used his bag of tricks perfectly. The start he provided, along with Tendulkar, helped India put up the total they did. Making room, stepping out, he used every trick to unsettle Umar Gul. But the real trick came out when Sohail Tanvir had a big shout for lbw going against him. The ball was full and it was headed towards the stumps. It had hit the pad first, but Ganguly ran with his bat lifted to suggest he had hit the ball. The umpire obliged and gave it a run. Amid the fearlessness of youth, Ganguly showed that experience helps.Boom boom too brief
Back to the haunt where he had scored his last century, ShahidAfridi was sent in to open again, chasing a big target on a tricky wicket. Sure enough the first ball he faced, he hit RP Singh back over his head for four. Three balls later, he crashed RP through the covers. A sense of guarded déjà vu took over, fielders ran hither and thither, conferences took place. And then – boom boom – anti-climax. Afridi swung mightily, Irfan Pathan swung gently, the ball kept low and crashed into the off stump.Brilliance, by chance
This has to be the conglomeration of the worst 22 fieldsmen one can possibly assemble on a field. The London Bridges, the butterfingers, the Gateways, the mosquito nets, have all arrived. And although they have been putting up their wares for the last two games, they reached their absolute crescendo in RP’s fourth over. When Salman Butt punched the first ball, Ganguly first dived over it at short cover, and Yuvraj Singh, at point, instead of diving tried to stop it with his foot, which lost all the gravitational pull and arrived late. Immediately, Ganguly was moved to mid-on.The next ball RP bowled was full and driven straight to Murali Kartik at mid-off. Kartik went down in slow motion, the ball came at live speed and RP had given eight runs off two balls for no fault of his.It was fitting that the only piece of brilliance turned into a run-out by chance and not by design. When Yuvraj Singh dived to save a sure boundary, Mohammad Yousuf had taken off for a run. Zaheer Khan, running to collect the throw [slow and loopy], missed it completely and somehow it hit the stumps.

South Africa will stick to their aggressive bowling strategy of drawing India’s heavyweight batting line-up out of the comfort zone, and will take a call on a second spin option only after having a look at the Kanpur pitch on Wednesday, revealed Mickey Arthur, the team’s coach.Arthur told Cricinfo that India would be committing a blunder if they prepared a pitch for the third Test that would crumble because “nobody in the world would want to face our bowlers at 150 kmph on a surface where the ball would go through the top from day four”.”We have our bases covered either way,” Arthur said. “If India are gambling on working on a pitch that will crack, as media reports suggest, they might be in for a shock. We could be looking at uneven bounce then on the fourth and fifth days, and fast bowlers could prove quite a handful. But we have not closed out options yet, we also have another option in the left-arm spin of Robin Peterson.”Arthur, who is currently in Ahmedabad with the team, said he didn’t believe that the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) had distracted the Indian team. “Look, when things go badly, the media pin the blame somewhere. If things had gone well for India, this issue would not have come up at all.”Looking back on the second Test in Ahmedabad, where South Africa won by an innings and 90 runs, Arthur said Rahul Dravid’s dismissal was the turning point on the first day when India were embarrassingly bowled for 76 runs, their second lowest total ever at home. Dravid lost his off stump to a Steyn special that pitched on middle and swerved just that bit to beat the bat.”It was an unbelievable ball, wasn’t it?” said Arthur. “It was really an important wicket because Rahul is the kind of batsman who could have stayed and thwarted us on this wicket. He has so often done that before, so when that wicket fell, we knew we were through.”Arthur said that some credit for the Ahmedabad win would go to a bowling strategy that was quickly revised after the first Test in Chennai ended in a dull draw.”The mistake we committed in Chennai [where India replied with 627 to South Africa’s 540] was we focused on swing,” said Arthur. “After that game was over, we spent a lot of time with the bowlers to work out the best way forward. We realised we needed to be a lot more aggressive, we spoke about really hitting the deck at the right length, over after over. We talked about roughening up the Indian batsmen with short deliveries, and more importantly, the follow-up deliveries after the bouncers.”The key, or rather the theme of the revised strategy, Arthur revealed, was to get Indian batsmen out of their “traditional” comfort zone. “We realised after all those discussions that the crucial aspect was to force India’s batsmen to play outside their comfort zone, which is the front foot. We decided we will never allow them to settle down in that forward zone, but instead force them back with aggressive bowling. Hit the deck, hit the deck in the right area – that is what we kept repeating to ourselves.”Arhtur admitted he was “happily surprised” by the pitch that was on offer at Motera, which contributed significantly to the South African gameplan. “I would say a lot of credit would go to Vincent Barnes [the assistant coach] because of the hard work he has put in with all the bowlers, especially Makhaya Ntini.”Even though Steyn walked away with five wickets, it was a pacy Ntini who forced the door open for South Africa with the wickets of opener Wasim Jaffer (9), VVS Laxman (3) and Sourav Ganguly (0) to leave India reeling at 30 for 4 in the first hour of the Test. “In fact, if you look back, Makhaya had started regaining his rhythm on the fourth day of the Chennai Test [when India lost their last eight wickets for 146 runs]. Here, he has finally got it just right with that special bounce that hits the top of off stump,” said Arthur.

Scorecard

New Zealand may only have three-quarters of their squad assembled in England, but their new opening batsman, Aaron Redmond, got his tour off to a useful start with a solid 72 against MCC in the traditional opening match at Arundel. Rain interrupted the game throughout the day, and it dribbled into a draw after nine overs of MCC’s run-chase.Jamie How, New Zealand’s stand-in captain in place of Daniel Vettori – who is on leave with the Indian Premier League – shared in an opening stand of 91 with Redmond. How smacked 10 fours in his slick 46 from 56 balls before he was caught off Chris Cairns, his former team-mate, who was captaining MCC. Redmond, who played for Wigan in the Lancashire League last year, fell to a brilliant one-handed catch by Paul Nixon for 72.New Zealand’s innings fell away thereafter, not helped by frequent rain interruptions, but Tim Southee clattered two huge sixes to lift their total to a challenging 239 for 7 from 47 overs. Mark Gillespie nipped out the MCC openers in quick succession before the final rain break terminated the match, and attention now turns to New Zealand’s first proper warm-up against Kent at Canterbury tomorrow.New Zealand have always struggled to find a reliable opening combination, and Redmond, 28, is their latest. He was once a middle-order batsman but reinvented himself as an opener when he joined Otago in 2004, and was awarded with a contract with New Zealand two weeks ago.”I was a little bit nervous at the start because it’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to play for a New Zealand side, but it was great to find my feet,” Redmond told PA. “It’s a great opportunity and the best thing I can do is keep performing and training hard. I thought it would give me a better chance to play for the Black Caps and I tried to work on my game and make it nice and tight and it’s worked for me.”Redmond is the son of Rodney who played one Test for New Zealand and was highly successful, scoring 107 and 56 against Pakistan in Auckland in 1972-73. However, he then struggled to adjust to new contact lenses on the visit to England later that year and managed only 483 runs at 28.41 and had to settle for being remembered as a one-Test wonder.The first Test gets underway at Lord’s on May 15.