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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 Jamaican leg of India’s tour to the West Indies later this year might be scrapped or switched to another venue after fears that the ground at Sabina Park, Kingston, currently being spruced up for the 2007 World Cup, might not be ready to host the matches.India are scheduled to play two one-day internationals there on May 18 and 20, and the fourth Test from June 30 to July 4. However, cement shortage in Jamaica has meant that the US$29 million renovation project at the venue is behind schedule by at least two weeks, according to a report in . Robert Bryan, the chief executive officer of Jamaica Cricket 2007, indicated that a final decision on the matches will be taken soon. “We are at an advanced stage of evaluating and as soon as a decision is taken, an announcement will be made in short order,” Bryan was quoted as saying by the daily.Paul Campbell, the vice-president of the Jamaica Cricket Association, also indicated that getting the venue ready for the Indians will be tough. “As we speak there is no final decision, [but] it was brought to our attention last week [by the Sabina venue development team] that under the current circumstances meeting the deadlines will be really, really tight.”The focus is World Cup 2007. That’s the big picture,” said Campbell. “What is being assessed is whether hosting international games in the short term will impact negatively on our hosting the World Cup next year. How will it affect our delivery of the venue on time? That’s the question.” A decision on the matter could be taken as early as Tuesday (April 11).Sabina Park will host seven World Cup matches, including the first game and a semi-final, but work on the ground has been hit first by labour problems, and then by the cement crisis. The problem was further exacerbated when batches of cement were recalled as they were of substandard quality.

John Buchanan, Australia’s coach, is excited by the World XI squads that will take on Australia in the Super Series in October. The lists of probables include nine players from Pakistan, seven each from England, India and South Africa, four from Sri Lanka, three from West Indies, and two from New Zealand.”Many of the players selected have great records against Australia,” said Buchanan, “and I am very excited about the prospect of having them all in one team. It will be interesting to see how the players from very diverse backgrounds meld into a team, but on paper the names are impressive.”Australia is certainly going to have to play at its best,” he continued, “but I am confident that the calibre of our guys is such that they will relish the opportunity to display their abilities against the best the world has to offer.”Buchanan said Australia would not take the matches lightly. “The team will not want to surrender its unbeaten run in either form of the game,” he said, “so there is a lot at stake. Knowing who we will be playing gives the whole concept more reality and we can begin thinking about how we will approach the matches. The standard of cricket and competition that we will see in the Super Series has the potential to be better than anything we have seen in Australia.”Australia are due to play a three-match one-day series against the World XI at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne on October 5, 7 and 9, and a six-day Super Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground from October 14.

The Tasmanian Selectors have today announced the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers team to play New South Wales in the Cricket Australia Cup match at the TCA Ground in Hobart, from Monday 9th to Thursday 12th February 2004.

Second Test, v New Zealand, at Harare Sports Club; 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 November 1992. NEW ZEALAND 335 (M J Greatbatch 55, M D Crowe 140, K R Rutherford 74; D H Brain 3/49) and 262/5 dec (M D Crowe 61, K R Rutherford 89, D N Patel 58*). ZIMBABWE 283/9 dec (K J Arnott 68, A D R Campbell 52, A J Pycroft 60; M L Su’a 5/85) and 137 (D N Patel 6/50). New Zealand won by 177 runs.ScorecardZimbabwe were the only Test team ever to survive their first two Test matches without defeat, but they lost their third after, by their own admission, being conned into chasing an unrealistic target on the final afternoon.The first day was notable for an outstanding century by Martin Crowe, and Zimbabwe quickly resorted to guarding the boundaries and keeping him away from the strike at all costs. He had scored 140 by the time he eventually allowed his patience to expire and hit a catch in the deep. He shared a century partnership with Ken Rutherford, but only three of the New Zealand batsmen scored more than 20.Dave Houghton: "Martin Crowe batted absolutely magnificently, I remember that. Eddo Brandes made a bit of a comeback at last and got a couple of wickets in both innings, but again they played really well. We bowled them out for 345, which wasn’t a bad effort, and they scored it quickly. Martin Crowe was outstanding and that really was a fantastic innings."Dave Brain: "I remember him (Crowe) hitting old Traics time and again with the slog-sweep shot."Andy Pycroft: "The highlight of the Test match was Martin Crowe’s knock, which was absolutely outstanding. There were a couple of spells where Eddo Brandes bowled very quickly, and swung the ball, and Martin Crowe played him absolutely beautifully. In fact, if he hadn’t played so well, and Rutherford played with him for a time, they would have been in trouble. Eddo bowled well; his figures of two for 49 don’t necessarily show that in 22 overs, but he was quick and hostile, and an excellent line and length."Again we bowled pretty well at them; Traics bowled a lot of overs but wasn’t as effective against New Zealand as I thought he might have been. But, as you’d expect without a lot of venom in the attack apart from Eddo, the wickets were shared."Dave Brain: "I got pretty friendly with Mark Greatbatch and I got him out quite a few times on that tour, twice in this match. They were actually a really good bunch of guys, until that final innings, when I was batting and got chirped big-time, but that’s what happened. But Greatbatch was a good player – he could blast it."After the first day’s play, there was a mercifully unique experience in Test cricket as the Test match stopped so that a one-day international could be played in front of a big Sunday crowd. Ian Robinson said, "That was a crazy situation. The umpires were at pains on the first day to keep the players off the strip that was to be used for the one-dayer."Zimbabwe were not far behind on first innings, with fifties from Kevin Arnott, Alistair Campbell and Andy Pycroft, who it turned out was playing in his final Test match.Kevin Arnott: "I enjoyed my innings for the fact that it was a lot more fluent than some of my previous innings. By then I had found some form. I also discussed my batting with a person I had a great admiration for, Mark Greatbatch. I think he was a wonderful sportsman, and even though he was a more aggressive opening batsman he and I discussed my ability to play some more positive shots, and I think I started to show a little bit."Andy Pycroft: "Kevin Arnott was quite unsung; he played four Tests while I played three. He got a hundred in the second Test and runs in this one as well; he played very well. I got a sixty in the first innings, 30 overnight and another 30 the next day. I was well set and should have got more than that."Alistair Campbell played well; in fact, if you take him now and compare him to how he played in the early stages of his career, is that he didn’t play strokes all around the wicket. He had them all, but he played more to his strengths. For the middle part of his Test career, until about a year ago, he was trying to play shots all around the wicket and not selecting them properly. But as a youngster, when he first came into the Test arena, he looked a very good player indeed. I think he’s a lot like Marcus Trescothick, but Trescothick plays better to his strengths than Al does."Dave Houghton: "Fifty-odd behind wasn’t a bad effort and we actually declared. We were a little bit influenced by Martin trying to get us to make games of things."New Zealand aimed to build on their lead, with Crowe scoring 65, despite suffering from leg strains. They declared just before lunch on the final day, setting Zimbabwe a target of 315 in 71 overs. Perhaps overconfident after playing two Tests without defeat, the Zimbabweans decided to go for it – with disastrous results."The Second Test is probably one of the biggest regrets I’ve had in cricket," Andy Flower recalled, "We played some reasonable cricket; again, watching Martin Crowe bat was something special, as he got a hundred. Then they set us about 300 to win in less than a day, on the last day."I remember John Hampshire and Dave Houghton, coach and captain, telling us that we were going to go for this target, and I couldn’t believe it because I thought 300 in less than a day, on a Harare Sports Club pitch, with a very heavy outfield, was unrealistic. I honestly believe they felt the pressure of Martin Crowe’s constant moaning about us playing negative cricket, and I think we were conned into chasing the target."They knocked us over really easily in the end, at about teatime on the last afternoon. Guys had gone in and played big shots, a couple of them caught on the boundary, a couple caught in the slips having huge hits outside off – it was silly cricket, and very disappointing to lose our first Test. I remember being very downhearted afterwards."I don’t think they had a good bowling attack, to be honest. Murphy Su’a was fairly quick, but inaccurate; Willie Watson was just a steady little seamer; Dion Nash a good away-swing bowler. Then I thought Patel was a good off-spinner, but nothing special, and their left-arm spinner Haslam was fairly ordinary, no huge mystery about him. In reality it was a nice gentle way for us to be introduced to Test cricket."Then we had the incident of Martin Crowe jumping on top of the Beverley tent and taking down the banner that was up there, which said, merely in jest, `Zimbabwe the only unbeaten Test nation’. He dragged it down with much glee written all over his face. The incident itself didn’t cause much hostility, but there was definitely a hostile atmosphere throughout that tour."Ian Robinson: "He made a very obvious point of parading it in front of the spectators to indicate that Zimbabwe had now been beaten. It was rather an aggressive move that riled a number of spectators there."Andy Pycroft: "I remember that banner irking Martin Crowe particularly. He was a decent enough guy off the field, and I got to know him reasonably well, but a funny guy, quite aloof, and that sort of thing could rankle him more than anybody – he was that sort of personality. They weren’t as friendly as the Indians were."Dave Houghton: "Although Martin Crowe hoodwinked us a bit then and talked us into being more positive, a lot of the things he told us then were things we actually used three or four years later when we had a bit more experience – about being more positive, about going into Test matches to win them – and I still remember his comment to me that you can play ten Test matches, and if you draw eight and lose two it means nothing, but if you lose eight and win two, everyone remembers the two you win. It’s very, very true." But Zimbabwe were still building their foundation then and were not in a position to do that because they had not learned how or had enough experience – as Crowe must have been aware."They gave us 315 to win in just under a day and left us to go chasing after it." He remembers the decision to chase it rather differently from Andy Flower. "We were foolish enough to do it – against Hampshire’s wishes, I have to say. We decided, in our wisdom as novices, to have a crack at this, and we failed miserably. I think Hamps let us have our head so he could say afterwards in the changing room, `I told you so.’ And he did!"We played all sorts of silly shots. We learned a lesson – but we also walked into the changing room and thought, `Well, we were in with a chance of winning the game.’ In only our third Test match we were actually going at a target to try and win. It cost us the Test match, so we learned a lesson from that, but we still felt pretty pleased with what we had done."Kevin Arnott: "Unfortunately, on reflection, we adopted a bad strategy in our second innings, to reach certain totals by a certain time, which led in my view to our downfall. That was our first step in a learning curve, but it brought us down to earth, because we had been a side that by most people’s expectations should have been hammered in our first Test match. It was good for us because there are no short cuts in Test cricket. I only played in one Test match after that, in India, but I certainly enjoyed it, learned a lot from it and met some good people."Mark Burmester: "We lost it in one session after we had done all the hard work. We hadn’t pegged them back that badly, but we knew it was a score we could get to. We didn’t bowl well for a session and let Greatbatch and Crowe score quickly, which took the game away from us. It meant we had to bat for too long a time to hold on to the game. But I enjoyed batting in that last Test match; I got 30 not out in the first innings and ended up in the second innings putting on 46 with Gary Crocker for the ninth wicket – in a losing match, but it gave something to watch for those guys who came late on the Thursday and at least it wasn’t over too early. It gave me time at the crease and if it wasn’t for an injury soon after that, who knows? Maybe I could still be playing."Dave Brain: "We made one major blunder. They left us over 300 to get on the last day and I remember how Dave Houghton came and said, `Let’s go for it.’ We were never going to get it; we should have told him to shove it up and just batted it out! I remember when I came in to bat getting chirped by that little guy Rod Latham, how he was going to see me at the cocktail party later and they had given us such a hiding."Andy Pycroft: "My biggest memory of that Test was not so much the fact that we got beaten but the reason that we got beaten. It was inexperience, and going against the coach as well, in trying to win a Test match when we were so new into the arena, when we didn’t have the time to win it even if we were a decent side and had the ability to score at a big rate, where the pitch was playing a little slower than it had done."I remember being very disappointed that we had even tried to win it, and being a lone voice in the changing room, saying, `This is not on; we shouldn’t even be looking at it,’ and then going out and trying to play shots myself, which I knew I shouldn’t be doing, and got out, as a few of us did in the top order. Once we had lost those early wickets, we were always going to lose that Test match. I put that loss down more than anything to inexperience, but also the mental and physical fatigue of every one of us. Three Test matches (and three one-day internationals!) played for the first time in Test cricket was too demanding for us, and I think with hindsight the administrators would admit that they should never have given us such a heavy schedule."Grant Flower: "We over-rated ourselves and we should never have gone for it, but we were talked into it by the New Zealanders. We didn’t play well enough in the second innings. Once again there was quite a bit of sledging. But we were outplayed by the better side in the end."Ian Robinson: "We showed our naivety, and I think we were still thinking in one-day mode. I think we thought we could probably have got that target, but you can’t do that in Test cricket."It has been suggested that it was perhaps a good thing that Zimbabwe lost this Test match, otherwise they would have finished the two tours with the impression that Test cricket was easy after all and been less prepared for the sterner tasks that lay ahead. "They may be right," conceded Dave Houghton. "India and New Zealand weren’t at the top of the rung then, by any means, but still it was probably a good thing to lose in our third Test match just to get the monkey off our back."We had to lose at one stage. We had achieved three games going five days and had got two good draws out of them, and we had lost a game trying to win it. I know Hamps and I sat back and said, `Well, we’ve done what we wanted to do.’ It would have been nice to win a game, but we did what we set out to do. We had two blokes with Test hundreds, we had a bloke with a five-wicket haul; Gary Crocker played really well; Andy Flower, Grant Flower and Alistair Campbell both got their Test-match fifties, so we had accomplished a lot.Dave also differs from Andy Flower in his memory of relationships with the New Zealanders. "It wasn’t the first time we had encountered sledging because we had played two or three New Zealand A sides, and Australian A sides. It was a little bit of a `sledgy’ affair – just as well it started then so the guys could get used to it because it hasn’t stopped. But New Zealand have always been one of the most vocal sides on the field. I think they realized they were the junior brother to the Australians and had been taking it for years, they decided to get a bit tougher and start handing a bit out."Ian Robinson: "There may have been sledging, but with the shift changes of umpires it was quite difficult to get a handle on this, because you don’t get a pattern; you’re just on for one day at a time and then not again until tomorrow. But this Test was well before the ICC Code of Conduct and match referees had only just started. We had Peter van der Merwe, but their role hadn’t been defined."Malcolm Jarvis: "This first New Zealand Test series I was involved in, they were a pretty sociable bunch. They were like the old school where they mixed, but they keep very much to themselves nowadays. The sledging wasn’t really a problem. I think what goes on on the field stays on the field. You’re there to win a game and if you play hard on the field that’s how cricket should be, and when you’ve finished the game you can go and have a few beers afterwards and it’s fine. I think that’s the way it should be played. It was maybe a big eye-opener for some of the guys to get the verbal treatment but at the end of the day I suppose that’s how cricket was. They were out to assert their authority on us."It was a great honour to have played at the highest level and I have no regrets. I just wish I could have played more Test cricket and one-day cricket."Andy Pycroft: "New Zealand were a lot more aggressive than the Indians on the field and I think they were more interested in showing the newcomers who was boss."Our fielding in those first three Tests was of a high quality, although we did drop catches, especially in the first innings of the First Test against New Zealand, but in general terms our fielding was top-drawer. That is one of the requirements: if you’re not one of the fancied sides in the arena, if you don’t have a fielding department that I better than anyone else’s, you are not going to make it."I don’t think our fielding today is anywhere near what it was then. If you go back to the eighties, 1982 to 1985, and it was Duncan Fletcher’s influence more than anyone’s, we were clearly the best fielding side in the world. And it didn’t come by accident; we worked harder at it than these guys do today. I know they play a lot more cricket and the demands on the body are heavy, but look at it the other way: we were part-time cricketers and we put in the hours. That’s the only way you become a decent fielding side."Overall the feeling that sticks out the most about those first three Tests was the tiredness. Too much in too short a time for guys who were out on their feet. That was unfortunate, because I don’t think we would have been beaten in that third Test match had we been able to take a break."Having said that, you’ve got to say that coming into Test cricket the way we did was a pretty good performance. People look at stats the whole time, but being part of it I can say there was a great deal of pride that we can say, `We got it there, we did our stuff, we showed the world that even though we had slipped in terms of the ability of the side from where we were perhaps five years earlier, we were a decent side and still had a lot of talent."

“I haven’t seen too many of those games,” was Kevin Shine’s reaction to Somerset’s 10-over victory over Surrey in the Norwich Union National League on Sunday at the Oval.”It was an excellent all round performance, and we were very happy to come away with four points. All the bowlers performed well, particularly Ian Jones who came in at the last minute to replace Richard Johnson who went down Sunday morning with food poisoning. Rob Turner was also missing with food poisoning and Mike Burns had to keep wicket.”When it came to the batting he said: “there was some pretty brutal hitting from Ian Blackwell who made an unbeaten 33 to help us home with more than three overs to spare.”

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 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.

Australia will aim to maintain their supremacy over South Africa when they play a “dead rubber” third Test starting at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Friday.Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, said there would be no let-up despite winning the series after the first two Tests. Asked whether the series win might open the door for other members of the touring squad to play in the final match, Ponting said “I wouldn’t think so. The guys who are in the side at the moment are playing well and deserve their selection for the next Test as well. Everyone’s put their hand up and done the job.”South Africa, though, might make some changes. Batsman Hashim Amla and fast bowler Dale Steyn were added to the 16-member squad after they lost the second Test by 112 runs in Durban.Graeme Smith, the South African captain, said some of his team-mates were feeling the effects of a gruelling programme, with the current series following a 10-week tour of Australia. South Africa still have a series against New Zealand to play, with three matches in successive weeks starting April 15.”The selectors have decided to have a few extra options,” said Smith. “I wasn’t a part of the decision. We’ll go to the Wanderers and make a decision on what is best for this Test match and for the New Zealand series.”Smith admitted it would not be easy for his team to bounce back from losses in the first two Tests. “We’ve been outplayed in the Test form of the game. With the quick turnaround time and the amount of emotional and mental strain that it takes with such important Test matches it’s always going to be tough.”History is on South Africa’s side. On their two previous tours Australia won the first two Tests but lost the third. It will, however, need a major improvement from South Africa, whose batsmen have not been able to build big enough totals, while the bowlers have lacked the strike power to dismiss Australia cheaply.”We want to put up a better performance,” said Smith. “We had a terrific one-day series but we’ve just been outplayed on some of the days in the Test matches. We seem to get close and get ourselves into decent positions and we let ourselves down.”Smith’s own poor form as an opening batsman has been one of the reasons why South Africa have struggled. In six Tests against Australia this season, including an appearance for the World XI in the Super Series, his highest score was the 40 he made in the second innings in Durban.Justin Langer, the Australian opening batsman, will be playing in his 100th Test. He will become the third member of the current team, behind Shane Warne and Ponting, to reach this landmark.South Africa Graeme Smith (capt), AB de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, Jacques Rudolph, Mark Boucher (wk), Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel, Boeta Dippenaar, Hashim Amla, Andrew Hall, Garnett Kruger, Dale SteynAustralia (likely) Ricky Ponting (capt), Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Michael Hussey, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Michael Kasprowicz, Stuart Clark

West Indies 347 for 3 (Hinds 188*, Chanderpaul 102*) v South Africa
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

For the past decade, West Indies cricket has been in a perpetual state of crisis, but it is fair to say that they have rarely looked as downtrodden as they did in the build-up to this match. And yet, by the close of the first day at Bourda, their two remaining senior batsmen, Wavell Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, had compiled a wonderful unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 241, to make a mockery of the pre-match predictions that West Indies, minus their seven Cable & Wireless-contracted players, would be unable even to stand their ground.An end to the sponsorship row may be in sight, but the impending return of the likes of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle was never going to happen in time for this first Test. And so, when a skeleton West Indies team had slumped to 24 for 2 after six overs, with Andre Nel steaming in for both wickets, the omens were pretty depressing, and the crowds at Georgetown even more so. South Africa, who had just completed a miserably one-sided series against Zimbabwe, must have wondered if there was any resistance in the pipeline.By the close of an extraordinary day, however, Graeme Smith and his toiling team knew they were in a struggle. Though the man of the day was indubitably Hinds, who closed on a career-best 188 not out, the final word went to the man of few words, Chanderpaul, who was making his captaincy debut in front of his hometown fans. As the shadows lengthened, Chanderpaul first refused an offer to leave the field for bad light, and then – gloriously – brought up his 12th Test century with a steer for four off Charl Langeveldt’s last ball of the day.Chanderpaul’s quiet commitment to the West Indian cause was yet more proof that the patient still has a pulse, but Hinds’s performance was even more extraordinary. As vice-president of the West Indies Players Association, he has been deeply embroiled in the off-field events, and last week he reportedly came close to withdrawing from the team out of solidarity.But he’ll be glad now to have stuck to his guns. Had Herschelle Gibbs held onto a sharp chance in the gully when Hinds had made 13, West Indies would have slipped to 24 for 3 and the game could have taken on a very different complexion. But on a slow, low Bourda wicket, his flamboyant approach began to pay dividends, as he peppered the off-side boundary with a succession of flashy drives, often holding the pose in his followthrough, just to give the snappers some extra time to focus. It was far from being a poseur’s performance, however, and with 30 fours and two sixes from 230 balls, he was on the verge of one of the fastest double-centuries of all time.At the drinks break in the final session, Smith had pointed to the scoreboard and read the riot act to his fielders, but to no avail. Hinds used his height and power in precisely the manner that the absent Gayle would have adopted. He brought up his hundred with a furious flurry of runs – first belting Nicky Boje out of the attack with 21 runs in two overs, before clobbering Smith’s offspinners over mid-on for a one-bounce four. Boje was not recalled until late in the final session, whereupon an edge from Chanderpaul flew unchallenged to the boundary between the keeper and slip.

If that moment summed up South Africa’s day, then so too did the performance of Jacques Kallis, who had helped himself to an obscene wickets tally in the two-Test mismatch against Zimbabwe. Here, he was far more reluctant to turn his arm over, and was slapped for 66 runs in eight wicketless, maidenless overs. Hard though Nel and Makhaya Ntini persevered, it was apparent just how badly South Africa miss the services of Shaun Pollock, their one true class act in the bowling department.If Hinds and Chanderpaul were the stand-out performers, then the unsung hero of the day was West Indies’ debutant batsman, Donovan Pagon. Coming into this match, Pagon’s career statistics were nothing much to write home about – 25 matches in a three-year career, 1201 runs at 31.60, with a top score of 110. But not even Sarwan, the man into whose shoes he was being asked to step, could have done more to arrest West Indies’ top-order slump.Standing tall and still at the crease, with a sound awareness of his off stump and a temperament to match, Pagon punched his first ball into a gap on the off side, and followed up with six measured fours, the pick of them a sweetly timed on-drive as Andrew Hall entered the attack. It was only after the lunch break that his nerves began to take hold, and when Nel returned to the attack, Pagon’s first false stroke was also his last, as he chipped a nothing shot to Jacques Kallis at silly mid-off.Nevertheless, Pagon had made his mark, and as news of West Indies’ progress spread through the city, the stands began to sway with ecstasy once again as Chanderpaul and Hinds informed South Africa in no uncertain terms that they do, after all, have a fight on their hands.How they were outWest IndiesSmith c Boucher b Nel 11 (24 for 1) Regulation edge, pouched one-handed in front of first slip.Ganga c Boucher b Nel 0 (24 for 2) Pushed at a wide one, simple catch at knee-height.Pagon c Kallis b Nel 35 (106 for 3) Early on a defensive push, skewed to silly mid-off.