Captain Courage

Captain courageous
Barely an hour after Cricket Australia released a statement confirming that Ricky Ponting would not bat again in this match unless desperately required, he was, ah, desperately required. Ponting suffered a tendon injury just above his left elbow when struck by Kemar Roach in the first innings and had planned to rest it for the remainder of the game, but when Australia slipped to 7 for 125 in their second innings, Ponting made his way to the crease. It wasn't quite a spine-tingling Graeme Smith moment but it was an impressive show of character from a captain hoping to finish the series on a high.

Slippage spillage
Michael Clarke doesn't field at first slip to Australia's fast bowlers but he does move to that position as a specialist catcher for the spinners. Nathan Hauritz was starting to wonder why, after Clarke put down two gettable chances off his bowling. On the second day, Clarke put down Chris Gayle on 81 and on the third day he spilled what should have been taken when Brendan Nash was on 34. But Clarke eventually showed why he is installed in the cordon to slow bowlers when Nash edged again on 44 and Clarke took what was by far the hardest of his three chances, low and one-handed, diving to his left.

Benny boo
It was always going to be an interesting moment when Sulieman Benn came to the crease after the second-day fracas with Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin that led to Benn being suspended for two ODIs. The WACA crowd was certainly up to date with the previous day's proceedings, booing Benn as he came to the crease. Haddin thought he had the last laugh when he caught Benn for 3 but the spinner didn't back down when Australia batted, regularly chatting to the Australian batsmen in between overs as he walked from end to end. In the end it was Benn who went out smiling, when he had Haddin caught.

That's what gloves are for
Denesh Ramdin wears gloves all day in the field and when he's batting, so it's understandable that he might want to take them off when he's not on strike. He might reconsider that habit after he carried his gloves while running two for his partner Benn. Doug Bollinger's throw from the outfield came to the non-striker's end and struck Ramdin on the unprotected fingers as he made his ground, sending his gloves flying out of his hands.

Billy idle
The umpire Billy Bowden suffered some criticism on the second day for not stepping in earlier to prevent the physical confrontation between Sulieman Benn and Mitchell Johnson. That was a split-second judgment call, but Bowden should at least be able to count the correct number of balls in an over. On the third day he seemingly forgot he'd called a no-ball and let an over go by with five legal deliveries - the second time in the match he had called a five-ball over.

A comedy of errors
Barely anyone looked good when there was a horrible mix-up between Clarke and Shane Watson. Clarke nudged a ball into the covers and took off for a single, but Watson stayed firmly planted at the non-striker's end. However, Dwayne Bravo's fielding effort was even worse as he fumbled, fell and finally threw the ball well wide of the stumps at the striker's end. It allowed Watson to get through for a single but there was more to come: a lazy piece of backing up allowed the batsmen back for an overthrow as well.

Jaipur could host first India-SA ODI

The Indian board is yet to finalise the schedule for the home series against South Africa early next year but has decided on Jaipur as the venue most likely to host the tour's first ODI. A decision is also yet to be taken on whether the series will include Tests, as India have sought.

Lalit Modi, chairman of the board's tours and fixtures panel, said the final schedule will be worked out at a later date - it was held up by the absence of some members at the board's working committee meeting today.

Jaipur, he said, was picked because it had missed out during the Australia series earlier this year. That match was shifted to Vadodara due to a dispute at the Rajasthan Cricket Association between Modi and Sanjay Joshi, the then president. "As chairman of the BCCI's tours and fixtures committee I'm going to recommend to the first ODI should be allotted to Jaipur because they had missed their term last time. In principle we have decided to give it to them," Modi said.

It was also decided that Ahmedabad will host the first four Rajasthan Royals games in the next IPL, with Jaipur allotted the final three. "The last three games will happen in Jaipur, as we have recommended some upgrading to be done. The first four will happen in Ahmedabad as they have already done a lot (of preparations)," Modi said. The arrangement was only for 2010, with Jaipur restored as the host venue for the 2011 edition.

But barring that, the schedule as well as the venues for the other planned fixtures weren't confirmed. "We are just fixing the schedule," Modi said after the two-hour meeting at the Cricket Centre in Mumbai. "Unfortunately all the members were not present so the committee would be meeting in the next ten days to finalise the schedule," he said.

Last week the BCCI had sent a revised itinerary to Cricket South Africa requesting to play two Tests and three ODIs instead of the originally planned five-match ODI series. CSA is yet to approve the new schedule, though Gerald Majola, the South African board's chief had given an in-principle nod.

Modi also took the opportunity to make a public show of bonding with CP Joshi, the newly-elected RCA president, but said his gesture should not be read as a "compromise". Earlier this month Joshi had defeated Modi in an acrimonious tussle to the RCA president's post, winning the elections 19-13. Joshi was attending his first board meeting and cordially nodded to Modi's suggestions.

Ireland to play T20 quadrangular in Sri Lanka

Ireland will play a quadrangular Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka, involving Sri Lanka A, Afghanistan and Canada, as part of their preparations for the ICC World Twenty20 qualifier in the UAE in February.


Ireland will travel to Sri Lanka after the completion of their Intercontinental Cup match against Afghanistan and the four-team tournament will be held from January 31 to February 4,

"This will give the squad a good work-out ahead of the UAE leg of the tour. It'll get the players into the mindset of the shorter format of the game," Phil Simmons, the Ireland coach, said. "We still haven't played a lot of 20-over cricket, although the experience of playing in the finals in England last year will help us. There are only two places up for grabs for the finals in the West Indies, so it will be difficult for all the teams. There will be a lot of pressure games with so much at stake, but we have a lot of experience in our camp, which is so vital as we showed last year when we won the World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa."

"I and the players want to make it four in a row in terms of qualifying for the major tournaments - when you get a taste of the big time, you want more. The players are still hungry for more success, and for me there would be the added bonus of coaching Ireland in the West Indies. We did fantastically well there in 2007, as that's where we really announced ourselves on the world stage. Ireland has happy memories of the West Indies - it'd be great if we could have a few more in 2010."

Kenya gain comprehensive revenge

Kenya 105 for 1 (Patel 57*) beat Uganda 104 (Obado 3-10, Oluoch 3-23) by nine wickets

Kenya gained some revenge for back-to-back Twenty20 defeats earlier in the week with a comprehensive nine-wicket win over Uganda in the first ODI at Nairobi Gymkhana. The result also buys a little relief for Kenya's under-fire selectors after recent poor results.

In the two Twenty20 matches it was Kenya's batsmen who let them down - this time it was the Ugandans whose inexperience was plain to see. None of them was able to play an innings of any substance or to take the attack to the bowlers, so much so that there were only eight boundaries in their innings.

There was the briefest worry when David Obuya fell to the fourth ball of Kenya's reply, but then Rakep Patel (57*) and Maurice Ouma (44*) chased down the target in 17.2 overs with no further alarms. Patel played with increasing confidence, cracking five fours and two sixes in his 59-ball innings.

Ponting in doubt for Boxing Day

Ricky Ponting could miss his first Test in five years after Australia's physio confirmed Ponting's elbow injury has left him in doubt for the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan. Ponting was struck just above the left elbow by a delivery from Kemar Roach in the first innings at the WACA and scans revealed a tendon injury, although there was no bone damage.

The Australians did not want Ponting to bat in the second innings, to give him extra recovery time, but when they stumbled to 7 for 125 he came to the crease. However, Ponting had not taken any painkillers and was clearly hampered by the problem, and he survived for only six balls before fending a short delivery to bat-pad.

Although he did not make the injury worse during his second innings, Ponting is still no certainty to play at the MCG in eight days. The team physio Alex Kountouris said Ponting was better on Friday than he was the previous day but he remained a day-by-day proposition for the time being.

"He is in doubt for Melbourne," Kountouris said. "His arm has been quite sore. We were really worrying about this game first, which was why we were trying to avoid him batting today and see if we can get him to recover a little bit more and see how he pulls up tomorrow. He's better today than he was yesterday, which is a good thing, but we're not sure how he's going to go by Melbourne."

Ponting batted on for 40 minutes in the first innings after taking the blow, before he retired hurt. He later said that he could have stayed at the crease but "wouldn't have been able to hit the ball off the square", and he didn't look much better in the second innings.

Kountouris said the injury was unusual but Damien Martyn had once missed a Test due to a similar problem. Although the injury could potentially turn into a long-term issue for Ponting, Kountouris was not expecting that to be the case.

"It can be, of course, it's in the tendon so that's a possibility but I don't think that's going to happen," he said. "I think it will settle down with time.

"It's almost like when you get meat and bash it with a mallet to soften it down. That's what's happened, the fibres have been squashed and have been disrupted in the tendon so now every time he uses that muscle, he can get little tearing of the muscle fibres."

Ponting has not missed a Test since October 2004, when he was ruled out due to injury from the first three Tests on the tour of India and Adam Gilchrist stepped in as captain. As the vice-captain, Michael Clarke would be the man in line to take over should Ponting not recover for Boxing Day.

Dilshan, Mathews help Sri Lanka draw level

Sri Lanka 302 for 7 (Dilshan 123, Mathews 37*, Zaheer 3-63) beat India 301 for 7 (Dhoni 107, Raina 68, Kohli 54) by three wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out



Tillakaratne Dilshan's aggression set the platform for Sri Lanka's successful chase © Associated Press



Related Links
Players/Officials: MS Dhoni | Tillakaratne Dilshan | Virat Kohli | Angelo Mathews | Suresh Raina
Matches: India v Sri Lanka at Nagpur
Series/Tournaments: Sri Lanka tour of India
Teams: India | Sri Lanka


The second humdinger between these two teams this week ran the gamut from wonderful to what-the-heck as runs and wickets flowed in equal measure in good batting conditions. Sri Lanka leveled the series with a three-wicket win in a match defined by two individual innings, contrasting in style and strength, at either end of a collapse that threatened to give India the advantage and a 2-0 lead.

With another evening of thrilling batting, Tillakaratne Dilshan proved right every single reason behind Sri Lanka's decision in January to open the innings with him permanently. Dilshan's fifth one-day century, and second in a row, was the dominant force in Sri Lanka clinching this win but it so nearly ended up in another lost cause, if not for Angelo Mathews.

Dilshan contributed 63 to a 102-run opening stand, playing with the freedom and control fans have grown accustomed to; then, in the period where India followed up a double-strike with 12 boundary-less overs, he collected his century while ensuring the asking rate stayed in control. There was a massive scare as Sri Lanka lost three wickets, and a limping Mathews was called on to douse the flames. That he did, standing one on leg and coolly striking out the threat of a revved-up India. With eight needed from nine balls the match was on a knife's edge, but Nehra bowled a full toss, Mathews bunted it to mid-on, and Zaheer let it right through his legs for four.

While India's attack had been spread through the line-up, with Virat Kohli, centurion MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina playing dominant roles, Sri Lanka rode on Dilshan's shoulders. Needing to score at over a run a ball, he got the chase off to a brisk start. And as often happens, India failed to apply pressure from both ends. If Zaheer allowed just a run off his second over, Praveen Kumar leaked three consecutive fours in his, veering between too wide and too full. Ashish Nehra wasn't allowed to settle, with both openers punching aerial down the ground, and Zaheer's length was offset by a manipulative Dilshan. Sri Lanka's fifty came up in 6.3 overs, most of the runs coming down the ground.

It was enthralling batting from Dilshan. Zaheer and Nehra tried to push him back but he rode the bounce, and at times his luck - such as when he danced out to Nehra and edged for four. Whenever the ball was pitched up, Dilshan, at times batting out of his crease, plonked his front foot further forward and clunked powerful drives over mid-off and mid-on.

After Virender Sehwag Dilshan comes closest in today's era to being able to make the bowler bowl where he wants them to. Dhoni turned to Harbhajan Singh for the eighth over, slip and leg gully in place. Having come out and gone back to pick the gaps in Harbhajan's first over, Dilshan had the bowler in two minds. At one point, he twice hurried out to thump the ball down the ground, as he'd spotted the extra flight. Then Harbhajan bowled it quicker and wider, hoping Dilshan would come out to that one as well. Instead Dilshan read it perfectly, stayed in position, and cut it past point for four. The batsman had set the bowler up.

When Harbhajan purchased some turn, Dilshan used his crease to get over the ball, nudging it off his pads. A streaky but deliberate edge off Harbhajan for four raised a 31-ball fifty. Harbhajan had some success against Upul Tharanga, who was lured out and then edged a breaking ball to slip where Sehwag snapped a good catch to his left (102 for 1). Dilshan was then responsible for running his captain out, and for the next 55 deliveries India, through Nehra, Praveen and Ravindra Jadeja, pulled Sri Lanka back.

Dilshan spent 16 deliveries in the nineties, reached his century, raised his arms, and promptly clubbed Nehra for two dingers that snapped a 12-over barren run of no boundaries. He featured in a 66-run third-wicket stand with Mahela Jayawardene, which ended when Nehra bowled Dilshan with a fine yorker.


MS Dhoni ensured that the momentum didn't fall away after Virat Kohli departed © Associated Press




Zaheer delivered a further twist in the tale when, with 70 needed from 66, he got Jayawardene to nick for 39. With the rate within grasp thanks to Dilshan, Thilina Kandamby cut out the risks until his first aerial shot, in the first over of the batting Powerplay, was excellently held by a leaping Kohli at mid-on. Two legal deliveries later, a perfect yorker cleaned up Chamara Kapudegera, and the game was India's to win. But Mathews controlled his eagerness to flat-bat marvelously, nudging and pushing the ball around with the occasional aggressive drive to remain unbeaten on 37. He was outstanding under pressure, and aided by a runner (Kapugedera) picked out the deliveries to put away. Zaheer's gross error sealed Sri Lanka's fate.

At the halfway mark, the visitors would have considered the target within their reach as the wicket was still good for batting. After deciding to make first use of a pitch virtually devoid of grass, a century stand between Dhoni and Raina, after a shaky start, picked up the tempo for India. Coming together at the fall of Kohli (54), Dhoni and Raina gave India their best phase.

Dhoni ensured that the momentum didn't fall away, working the ball around superbly from the outset, and immediately showing the rich vein of form he is in this year. It wasn't a pure innings though. Dhoni had edged his first ball for four, was nearly taken at third man when on 11, edged wide of Kumar Sangakkara on 24, and got two more lives in three balls from his counterpart off Ajantha Mendis. Dhoni raised his half-century off 70 balls and thumped a six to celebrate.

Dhoni picked the batting Powerplay after 40 overs, just after Raina dumped Chanaka Welegedara for six over long-on. Two more sixes, again hit down the ground with power, pushed Sri Lanka onto the back foot as the pair took on Mendis and Suraj Randiv on in a three-over burst that bled 35 runs. Raina's fifty came up off 44 balls and that five-over block yielded 50. Looking for his fourth six, Raina picked out deep midwicket, and soon after, Mendis dropped a clanger at cover when Dhoni was on 94. In the same over, Dhoni raised his century, his second in consecutive innings in Nagpur, to a rousing reception.

Those cheers were nowhere near as boisterous when Dilshan raised his, but the resonance of the game's second century was definitely louder.

Marsh brothers give Warriors a boost

Western Australia 7 for 309 (S Marsh 82, Noffke 59*, M Marsh 55, Robinson 54) v South Australia
Scorecard



Shaun Marsh top scored for Western Australia with 82 © Getty Images



Related Links
Players/Officials: Cullen Bailey | Mitchell Marsh | Shaun Marsh | Ashley Noffke | Wes Robinson
Matches: South Australia v Western Australia at Adelaide
Series/Tournaments: Sheffield Shield | Australian Domestic Season
Teams: Australia | South Australia | Western Australia


The Marsh brothers combined for half-centuries but Western Australia had to rely on a late contribution from Ashley Noffke to take them to 7 for 309 on the first day against South Australia. While Shaun Marsh started with 82 and Mitchell Marsh, the 18-year-old captain of Australia's Under-19 team, chipped in with 55, the side was wobbling at 6 for 238 when the younger sibling was lbw to Cullen Bailey.

Noffke made sure the total was expanded with 59 not out while Aaron Heal (19) was also unbeaten. After Shaun Marsh set Western Australia's platform, Dan Christian changed the tempo for the Redbacks with two wickets in four deliveries. Shaun Marsh went to an edge to slip while the dangerous Luke Ronchi was bowled, leaving the Warriors at an uncomfortable 5 for 175.

Shaun Marsh and Wes Robinson put on 98 following the early loss of Luke Towers, who was bowled by Peter George on 2 in the third over. Robinson moved to an aggressive 54 before he was caught at short cover off Bailey. Shaun Marsh took over, hitting 15 fours in his useful display, and then left his brother in charge. The legspinner Bailey was impressive with 2 for 55 off 25 overs while Christian and Jake Haberfield also gained two wickets.