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Match facts

February 14-18, 2010
Start time 0915 (0345 GMT)

Big picture

VVS Laxman’s return means plenty to India•AFP

This is not merely about the ICC rankings. A series win in India is a big box any team other than India needs to tick if it wants to be the best in the world. Think Australia in their modern heyday and the frustration and the eventual satisfaction the “Final Frontier” brought them. India, on the other hand, pride themselves on their home record, and their claims to being the best will take a big beating if they lose.A hurriedly planned series plays into South Africa’s hands: they have to protect their lead for only one match. In 2008, before they beat both England and Australia in away series, South Africa were in a similar situation – a draw short of a series win in India. Then they failed at one of the more difficult tasks in Test cricket: beating India on a raging turner in India. When South Africans talk of that Kanpur loss now they don’t complain about the surface, but what they say has that “Final Frontier missed” ring to it.Less than two years later, Kolkata is not quite the raging turner. Kolkata is not quite the Final Frontier either: South Africa’s last two series have been a loss and a draw at home to Australia and England respectively. Yet this could mark the start of South Africa’s return towards the top a fortnight after turmoil hit them through the sacking of their coach and selection committee. The No. 1 ranking, should they win or draw, will be a bonus. Between that and now stands a hurt Indian side that will give it its all to protect that proud record at home.Not for no reason do India hold that proud record at home. South Africa know that. Only seriously good teams can win series in India, injury-hit or not. Of late this Indian side’s immediate response to a Test loss has been a resounding win. After Sydney came Perth, and after Colombo came Galle. After Nagpur, what?

Form guide (last 5 completed matches, most recent first)

India LWWWW
South Africa WWDLD

Watch out for

Nothing calms the Indian dressing room like VVS Laxman does. No one handles crisis like Laxman does. India are in right trouble, and Laxman usually delivers at such times.Dale Steyn is on a roll. Bowling fast, accurate, and swinging it both ways. He has got the ideal support from Morne Morkel and Paul Harris. He knows his job is not done yet.Gautam Gambhir is not known for going easy on himself. He may have scored five centuries in consecutive matches, and 11 fifty-or-above scores in consecutive matches, but his failure in the Nagpur loss will hurt him more than the preceding success pleased him. And once again, he will be facing Steyn and Morkel at their freshest.Graeme Smith has announced via Twitter that he is ready to play, despite a fracture in one joint of the small finger on the left hand. “It really is about dealing with pain…” he said in the pre-match press conference. Don’t worry about him, though. If he can hold the bat, he will be there. The sight of Smith, still in batting gear, mobbed by his mates, looking the biggest, the most imposing of them all, after the Edgbaston win that finally brought them a series win in England, is still fresh in memory. He won’t pass up a chance of similar heroics. Not if he can hold that bat.

Team news

Laxman will be back, but he might not bat at No. 3, as is being implored by many, the former coach John Wright included. The idea is to split up the two inexperienced batsmen in the middle order and have them bat at Nos 3 and 6, as opposed to 5 and 6. Amit Mishra is a doubtful starter with the ball after his wicketless sojourn in Nagpur. There are two scenarios that can see him out: Pragyan Ojha coming back or India playing three seamers on a pitch that has some grass, an eventuality MS Dhoni didn’t rule out. Sreesanth should come back in any scenario after Ishant Sharma went wicketless in the first Test. India could also fiddle with the idea of getting a left-hand batsman, Suresh Raina, in to break Harris’ leg-stump line to the right-hand batsmen.India: (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 M Vijay, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 S Badrinath, 7 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 8, Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Amit Mishra/Pragyan Ojha/Ishant Sharma, 11 Sreesanth.South Africa will like to go in with the same XI, but it all depends on how painful Smith’s finger fracture is. Should Smith be ruled out, Alviro Petersen is the back-up opener. It doesn’t help that Mark Boucher is still not 100% with his back. He passed the gloves to AB de Villiers midway into the training session on match eve and did some low-back exercises.South Africa: (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Ashwell Prince, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Paul Harris, 9 Wayne Parnell, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel.

Pitch and conditions

Ever since it became obvious India were losing in Nagpur, speculation was rife that another underprepared track might come to India’s rescue in the decider. Not this time. “There is a bit of grass on the wicket so I think the seamers will get a bit of help,” MS Dhoni said of the pitch. “It looks quite hard… I don’t see much turn happening on the first two days.”Because the Eden Gardens is being redone, the atmosphere won’t quite be the same. Forget 90,000, they will struggle to get 45,000 in. “There is no stands on one side of the ground so you can see a bit of breeze going across the field so there will be a bit of help for the seamers,” Dhoni said.

Stats and trivia

• Virender Sehwag’s 109 in Nagpur was only his fifth score between 100 and 150 – out of 18 centuries.
• Among bowlers with a minimum of 100 Test wickets, Steyn’s strike-rate of 38.7 is the second-best, behind only George Lohmann who took 112 wickets at 34.1. Steyn is also just five short of becoming only the fifth South African to have taken 200 wickets.
• Laxman and Harbhajan Singh are the big Eden Gardens players. Laxman’s average at the Eden Gardens is 81.63 as opposed to a career average of 45.70/ Corresponding figures for Harbhajan are 23.1 and 31.3

Quotes

“I know players have been saying that the rankings are really not at the forefront of our minds, and it’s the truth. For me, to look back and know that you have won a Test series in India, that is a terrific achievement. If you look back at some of the things you have achieved as a team, those are the sort of things to have memories of.”
“It is challenges that make our life interesting. We are looking forward to coming back in the series and doing well, but if it was so easy it would not be called international cricket. We are expecting from the players who are part of the side right now to try to level the series.”
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Middlesex have confirmed that they are in talks to sign Yuvraj Singh as their second overseas player for this year’s Twenty20 Cup, after their original target, Sachin Tendulkar, turned down an offer in a bid to prolong his international career.Yuvraj, who famously hit Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in the inaugural World Twenty20 in September 2007, has been earmarked as an explosive sidekick to the former Australian wicketkeeper, Adam Gilchrist, who confirmed back in November that he would be joining the county.”We have been in talks with Yuvraj about the possibility of him playing Twenty20 cricket this summer,” Angus Fraser, Middlesex’s director of cricket, told Cricinfo. “The contract is not in place at this moment in time, but we’re in communication, and it seems to be going quite positively.”With the deal being part-financed by the MCC, the major stumbling block to negotiations will be India’s as-yet-unconfirmed international schedule. The Twenty20 Cup group stages are scheduled to run from June 1 to July 18, with the finals to follow in August, although India are expected to announce a tri-series involving Sri Lanka, and possibly New Zealand, commencing on July 9.Middlesex were the winners of the 2008 Twenty20 Cup, and took part in the ill-fated Stanford Super Series in October and November that year, but they failed to qualify from the group stage of last year’s competition.

The ICC will possibly take a decision next week on whether to allow the Feroz Shah Kotla host World Cup matches in 2011, according to Sharad Pawar, the president-in-waiting, and former BCCI president. Two days ago David Morgan, the ICC president, said he was not in favour of a World Cup ban on the venue, which had been classified by the ICC match referee Alan Hurst as “unfit”, the harshest possible assessment after the abandoned fixture between India and Sri Lanka last month.”I am not going to give any opinion on this issue. The ICC is yet to finally take a decision and the process is on. The BCCI is expecting a response from the ICC probably next month or in two months,” Pawar said after chairing the meeting of the World Cup organising committee in Dhaka. “It is the biggest cricketing event in the subcontinent and I am sure the way the preparations have been going on it will be a hugely successful event and security will be no issue. India and Sri Lanka have the prior experience of hosting the World Cup and it will be a great event.”Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, said it would be premature to speculate on the matter given that a procedure had been set down to deliver a verdict on the Kotla’s fate. “The BCCI has sent their response and the ICC is examining it. Now that will go to two people of [ICC chief referee] Ranjan Madugalle and [ICC cricket operations manager] Dave Richardson before a final decision is taken.”Lorgat, also in Dhaka for the World Cup meeting, said that the preparation for the global tournament were going along smoothly. “All the three countries [India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh] have been working as a team not as three different countries. Mr Pawar has met the Bangladesh Prime Minister [Shiekh Hasina] and she has assured that she will attend the inaugural ceremony [to be held in Dhaka on February 17 2011]. That shows the importance of the World Cup. I think Bangladesh has started to build up the fervour of the World Cup.”

England batsman Claire Taylor will be awarded an MBE next year, after she was named in the New Year Honours List. The honour rounds off a successful year for Taylor, who was part of the England side that won both the Women’s World Cup and the Women’s World Twenty20. She was Player of the Tournament at both events and was named Women’s Player of the Year at the ICC Awards in Johannesburg.”Getting cricket-specific awards is great because it’s recognition within cricket,” Taylor, 34, was quoted as saying by the BBC. “But this is recognition in the wider community so this is special but in a completely different way.”Taylor’s international career has spanned ten years and she is currently the fifth-highest run-getter in ODIs and is among only ten batsmen to score over 1000 runs in Tests. She is also the joint record-holder for the most centuries in ODIs, and, in April, became the first woman to be named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.Taylor will be unable to represent England in their upcoming tour of India due to work commitments but expects to return to action in May for the World Twenty20, which will be held in the Caribbean. Taylor said she hoped the profile of the women’s game in England would grow further and wanted the sport “to be an accepted sporting path for a girl, and for younger and older women as well”.She added: “The elite players need to keep pushing forward and keep pushing the boundary of the quality of the game that we play and to keep building that respect that there is for the game.”Other countries will get better and it’s not just a matter of throwing money at it, I don’t think that’s the answer at all.”It’s making sure that we play the right competitions and we have the right opportunities to play against international opposition.”Taylor read maths at Oxford, where, in addition to playing cricket, she captained the hockey team. She also represented England’s hockey team at U-17 and U-19 levels.

Muttiah Muralitharan has expressed doubts over his participation in the two Twenty20s against India after damaging ligaments in his bowling hand.”I suffered the injury when I was playing football. I got hit and two ligaments are damaged in the fingers,” he said. “I was bowling with the injury the whole of yesterday [the third day’s play in Mumbai]. It will take a few days to recover. I am not sure whether I will be fit for the Twenty20s but I should be okay for the one-dayers.”The Sri Lankan team regularly indulge in a game of volley football after a day’s play as a means of keeping the team unity together. According to the manager Brendon Kuruppu, the players decide when to play it. “Especially when you come out on tours of this nature there is nothing the players can do once they get back to their hotel so they play a few games to keep the team unity together,” he said.Muralitharan, the highest wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs, injured the second and third fingers of his right hand during the on-going third Test but showed no discomfort while bowling 51 overs to take 4 for 195 runs during India’s innings.The two Twenty20s are scheduled to take place on December 9 in Nagpur and December 12 in Mohali. The five-match ODI series starts on December 15.

Match facts

Wednesday October 21
Start time 20.00 (14.30GMT)David Warner has hit form just at the right time, with impressive knocks in the last two matches•Global Cricket Ventures-BCCI

Big Picture

New South Wales versus Victoria in Delhi is a strange proposition if you’re an Australian cricket fan. Back in Australia, the Champions League Twenty20 has been shown on a digital TV channel that not everyone has access to, so it’s hard to judge the level of interest from the public. But there’s enough in this clash to suggest an intense contest even if the turnout is likely to be far less than a packed SCG would throw up.NSW, the champions of Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash, were the first team from Group B to secure their passage to the next phase, with points carried forward, to the second round of the competition. They were joined by Victoria, arguably Australia’s best Twenty20 side, having won the Big Bash for three consecutive years until this year’s final.The prospect of an all-Australian final was shot when Delhi Daredevils beat Cobras in a low-scorer in Delhi, which means Wednesday’s contestants will play on a slow-and-low track instead of the batsman-friendly Hyderabad surface. The pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla hasn’t been encouraging for batsmen – nine were bowled in the last league match – and NSW captain Simon Katich had earlier spoken of how keen the team was to leave Delhi. In that regard, NSW’s pace attack will be harder to handle.Brett Lee, Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark and Nathan Hauritz share the ball in that order when NSW take the field and, as Eagles, Sussex and Somerset found out, they can be a handful. Victoria have been the form team every year in Australia, but it is NSW who have the edge here by virtue of their top order and international-class bowling attack. Even without Brad Haddin, Michael Clarke and Nathan Bracken, NSW can still field almost an entire XI that has played for Australia.Both are long-time rivals, being the two most-populated Australian states, and there has always been a “healthy’ Melbourne-Sydney rivalry in Australia. In the past, Victorian fans have always been a bit envious of how many NSW players get selected for Australia; in fact, there was an old joke that when you made your debut for NSW, they also handed you a Baggy Green in a brown paper bag. That attitude isn’t quite as pronounced – as the presence of Cameron White, now Australia’s Twenty20 vice-captain, and Peter Siddle, the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year, will testify to. It all adds to an intriguing all-Australian clash.

Watch out for…

David Warner and Phillip Hughes v Victoria’s attack: Hughes is the tournament’s leading run-scorer and Warner smashed 63 from 41 balls and 40 from 16 in consecutive innings. Clint McKay, Shane Harwood and Andrew McDonald have been central to Victoria’s success here and how they bowl to a superb opening act provides an appetising entrée to this match.NSW’s attack v Victoria’s top order: Victoria’s top order has failed to fire collectively; three of their four games resulted in scores of 55 for 2, 68 for 4 and 59 for 4. So up against a red-hot pace attack, Victoria’s start must be strong. Rob Quiney has scored just 29 in three innings since his 40 against Delhi but he could take this stage to exact revenge on NSW. The last time he played them, in the Big Bash final, Quiney scored 91 from 56 balls in a losing cause.Cameron White and David Hussey: Victoria were without this pair, away on Australian duty, for the Big Bash final and they could make the difference between winning and losing this time around. Both have gained much more exposure from playing for Australia this past season and will undoubtedly be keen to avoid an NSW repeat. Hussey, the second-fastest century-maker in Australia’s domestic one-day history, is due some runs.Andrew McDonald: He has been Victoria’s bowler of the tournament so far – and the third leading wicket-taker – with eight wickets at 11.00 and an economy rate of 5.86. In conditions that are likely to help pace bowlers, he could be a handful yet again. McDonald has also yet to be dismissed in two innings.Andrew McDonald has been Victoria’s bowler of the tournament so far with eight wickets at 11.00•Global Cricket Ventures-BCCI

Road to the semi-finals

NSW

Match 1, v Eagles, Delhi

Scorecard
Match 2, v Sussex, Delhi

Scorecard
Match 3, v T&T, Hyderabad

Scorecard
Match 4, v Somerset, Hyderabad

Scorecard

Victoria

Match 1, v Delhi, Delhi

Scorecard
Match 2, v Wayamba, Delhi

Scorecard
Match 3, v Bangalore, Bangalore

Scorecard
Match 4, v Cape Cobras, Bangalore

Scorecard

Quotes

“He’s been a revelation in this tournament. I think, to the Australian selectors that this guy’s at the top of his game, is an all-round cricketer, a smart cricketer.”

The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) has proposed a West Indies Twenty20 Championship at the end of the year, to help choose the best side in the region, who will then go onto represent West Indies in future editions of the Champions League Twenty20.Deryck Murray, the TTCB president, said the board had approached the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and offered to host the tournament in Trinidad & Tobago, ahead of the regional first-class competition in mid-January next year.”We have sent in a proposal to the WICB to stage the regional T20 cricket series in Trinidad and Tobago from December 27 this year,” Murray told . “We have sent in dates that would see the tournament concluded by January 10, 2010 and this would give them enough time to stage the regional first-class series from the middle of January.”T&T, who were the Caribbean representatives at the recently-concluded Champions League in India and finished runners-up, had qualified for the inaugural edition by winning the Stanford 20/20 series last year. But that tournament was discontinued after Allen Stanford was charged with fraud.However, Murray said he was “awaiting word” from the West Indies board about the timing of the event and he expected a decision regarding the proposal to be taken at the WICB meeting on November 8.”There have been discussions at the board level into staging a regional T20 series and they have agreed to do such,” Murray said. “I guess they would have to enter into talks with prospective sponsors and would be looking at the feasibility of staging the tournament here.”Whoever is the sponsor would be the key in determining where the tournament is played. If for example they get a sponsor from Jamaica then the tournament might most likely be played across there. If they get one from America, they may want it up there, so we just have to wait and see what happens.”

Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi has been signed by South Africa’s Dolphins for the domestic Twenty20 competition for the 2009-10 season.This will be a big boost for the domestic team, which lost out on a chance to make the Pro20 finals after losing to the Cobras in the crucial home second and third legs of the semi-finals. Afridi was instrumental in Pakistan’s ICC World Twenty20 triumph, turning in Man-of-the-Match performances in both the semi-final and the final.Jay Naidoo, the Dolphins’ manager of playing affairs, confirmed the news. “We are over the moon at having one of the most exciting allrounders in the world of cricket,” he told Cricdb.com. “Besides what he offers on the playing field, I am sure he will be of great assistance in developing the younger players in our squad.”This will be his Afridi’s second stint in South African domestic cricket, having played for Griqualand West during the 2003-04 season. “I’m really looking forward to playing in such a strong league and God-willing giving my 100% for my team and fans,” Afridi told Cricket365. “As far as South Africa is concerned I had a few offers and chose Durban as it has always been a favourite cricketing destination of mine, and I have always enjoyed my times there as indeed I have in South Africa in general.”Also the chance to play with the Dolphins with players such as Imraan Khan, Hashim Amla and all the rest of the guys and to be coached by Graham Ford was a big factor.”Imraan Khan, captain of the Dolphins, welcomed Afridi’s inclusion. “He has been awesome in his last few international tournaments. I am really excited to have him on board and use his knowledge and skills in the team,” he said.Pakistan’s tour of Australia will mean that Afridi will miss the Dolphins’ first clash against the Titans at Kingsmead on February 3.

Old Trafford’s damaged reputation as an international venue suffered a further setback on Tuesday evening, when the second Twenty20 international between England and Australia was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to waterlogged bowlers’ run-ups at the Brian Statham End of the ground – leading to an ECB investigation into an untimely embarrassment for the sport, as well as recriminations among Lancashire’s beleaguered executive.Heavy afternoon rain in Manchester meant that the match was always likely to be under threat, just like Sunday’s first Twenty20, which was abandoned after seven balls of England’s reply. Umpires Nigel Llong and Peter Hartley conducted their first inspection at the scheduled start time of 7pm, and though the weather cleared sufficiently for all the covers to be removed from the pitch, they announced the abandonment one hour later, after a second inspection, much to the frustration of a capacity Lancashire crowd.”This is a disaster that could have been avoided, and I’m angry and bitterly disappointed,” Lancashire’s chief executive, Jim Cumbes, said. “Angry because, to my mind, we were told when we started playing Twenty20 cricket that you should be expected to play in conditions that you wouldn’t normally be expected to in first-class cricket, which I understand and accept.”If that had been Lancashire against Yorkshire with 16,000 people, we would have been playing. That’s my honest opinion,” he added. “If we can’t do that at international level – and I accept, if that’s the case, fine, then let’s not play it at international level – you are going to meet those conditions more often than not, especially in this country.”The problems arose due to a torrential afternoon thunderstorm, which was followed by steady showers until around 6pm. When the covers were finally removed there was a soft area just behind the stumps, right in the take-off zone for the likes of Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Broad, at the area where the pitch cover and the sheeting met.”Why should a two-metre square area stop a game of cricket?” asked Cumbes. “That’s my point exactly, I don’t think it should have. I don’t think it was unsafe, I don’t think there’s any explaining to do, and the ground did not tread water.”The umpires inspected on two occasions and told the captains, Paul Collingwood and Michael Clarke, that they thought conditions weren’t fit before play was abandoned to the sound of booing at 8pm. The ground authorities hadn’t even bothered turning the floodlights on, a sure sign that there were serious doubts about the contest all along. It completed a depressing double whammy for Lancashire following Sunday’s match which was called off with England limping at 4 for 2 after 1.1 overs of their run-chase.”I spoke to Michael and we agreed that if it’s an area where you are asking your boys to run in 100%, it’s going to be pretty dangerous,” Collingwood said. “I sympathise with everyone who has turned up, there was another full house. We were desperate to play the game but if conditions aren’t fit, they aren’t fit.”Clarke said: “We are all disappointed with the result, but I think the decision that has been made was the right decision. We asked the groundsmen to do everything they could to get the ground fit, unfortunately the ground wasn’t fit. The reason we tried so hard was because there was a full house and we gave it every shot possible, but the fact is the umpires made the decision the ground wasn’t fit and I believe it was the right decision.”Neither captain supported the theory that, because Twenty20 was essentially created as a tool to draw the crowds, the players should have come out regardless of the conditions. “It is entertainment but you’ve got to have the right conditions to play the game,” Collingwood said. “There are international cricketers who would be putting injuries at risk on that kind of surface.”Clarke added: “Any time you put on your country’s colours you want to play your best cricket whatever the form of the game. No doubt Twenty20 has become a huge part [of cricket], but you are still representing your country and what to do as well as you can.”The public will get their money back, but that doesn’t help Old Trafford’s tattered reputation as an international arena. They are currently in the first stage of a massive redevelopment plan with the hope of bringing Test cricket back to the North West, but sadly for Lancashire a roof is not part of the project.Old Trafford, as with all international grounds in the country, has installed state-of-the-art new drainage beneath a relaid outfield. However, because the club is turning the square to face north-south at the end of the 2010 season, the drainage doesn’t run right up to the square itself. Earlier this season the one-day international between England and West Indies at Headingley was abandoned without a ball bowled because their drainage system hadn’t bedded in and couldn’t cope with a morning deluge.”The new drainage system is fine, there’s no problem with it,” Cumbes said. “When I went out to look at the problem spot, I fully expected to be treading water, but there’s none there. It’s soft, of course it is. I know the umpires have tough decisions to make and I’m fully aware of player safety – I played the game for 20 years myself – but there comes a time when you have to think about the people who paid £50 to come in to the game. Sometimes I think we’d rather play in front of empty stadiums.”It hasn’t been a good season for Lancashire when it comes to hosting important Twenty20 matches. Their domestic quarter-final against Somerset was forced into a bowl-out in the indoor school after days of heavy rain left the ground saturated. On that occasion they didn’t have to turn 20,000 supporters away … but they still lost.

Though only around 25 overs were possible in the day, Pakistan A consolidated their advantage and are now just 53 away from victory with all ten wickets intact. Despite a sixth-wicket 161-run stand between Muthumudalige Pushpakumara (95) and captain Kaushal Silva (79 not out) which rescued Sri Lanka A from what seemed a hopeless situation at 30 for 5, the hosts could only muster a lead of 66 while following on. Left-arm fast bowler Wahab Riaz (3 for 52) broke the resolute stand and left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman (5 for 82) ran through the tail to severely restrict Sri Lanka’s lead and leave his team’s batsmen to chase a paltry target.The Pakistan openers, Khurram Manzoor and Umar Amin, had added 14 in four overs before the day ended. They just need to complete the formalities tomorrow to take the series 1-0, though they’ll hope the rain doesn’t play spoilsport.