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Given India’s impressive record at home, a one-sided contest waspredicted on the eve of the five-match one-day series againstZimbabwe. Some pundits even wrote of a 5-0 whitewash for the hometeam. On the face of it, this did not seem to be far-fetched,especially in the wake of the visitors losing both Tests. But twoimportant factors were conveniently overlooked. One, that Zimbabwe area better limited-overs team than a Test side, and secondly, that theIndian team would be weakened by the absence of Sachin Tendulkar,Virender Sehwag and Javagal Srinath, all unavailable for variousreasons.In my column on the eve of the one-day series, I had cautioned thatthe Indian team would do well to not take the Zimbabweans too lightly.I had mentioned that the visitors were not the same side that had lostseven of eight matches played on two previous tours and had evenpointed out that one could not brush aside a team that had won a oneday series in New Zealand just a year ago. But even I had notbargained for a scenario that envisaged India being down by twomatches to one in the series.

Indeed, the fourth game too was evenly poised until Yuvraj Singh andMohammad Kaif came up with their timely rescue act. Which means thatIndia came quite close to losing a series that, according to theexperts, was to have been a romp. Rather than blame India for huffingand puffing their way to victory over opponents who seemingly were notin their class, one should give Zimbabwe some credit.I am inclined to agree with the views expressed by Stuart Carlisle.The visiting skipper said that he was getting pretty much tired of hisside not being given enough credit for their good performances.”Whenever we win, it is said that our opponents played badly. Whydon’t the same people pat us for playing well?” was the gist of whatCarlisle said. For example, when Zimbabwe won at Kochi, much was madeof the poor batting of the Indians, while not enough credit was givento Douglas Hondo’s opening burst that paved the way for the victory.Credit, however, was duly given to Douglas Marillier for playing whatwas surely the knock of the series ­ and in a contest that saw somehigh-quality batting. A number 10 batsman hitting an unbeaten 56 off24 balls is by itself a truly astonishing statistic. What made thefeat really astounding was the manner in which he batted.The scoop – off the faster bowlers, mind you – that sent the ballhurtling past the ropes behind the wicket-keeper was a stroke thatwill not be found in any textbook. Even in limited-overs cricket,where one has become used to seeing innovative shots like the reversesweep and hitting the ball inside-out to the boundary, “theMarillier,” as it will undoubtedly be termed, was a revelation. Thathe did it repeatedly ­ even with only the last man at the crease forcompany – gave a storybook touch. Indeed, that first game at Faridabadhad the a storybook finish, with Zimbabwe winning by one wicket withtwo balls to spare.

Already without three key players, the Indians suffered anothergrievous blow when Anil Kumble was out of the series after the secondgame through injury. But overcoming these handicaps, the Indians didshow some resilience in winning three of the next four games. Thecredit should go mainly to the reserve strength. The non-availabilityof the leading players gave the chance to fringe players like DineshMongia, Kaif and Yuvraj to take center-stage, and it must be said thatthey made the most of their opportunities.There has been much talk of late that the Indian team relies too muchon the established stars, leading to question marks being raised overthe reserve bench. The three youngsters proved that there is enoughdepth in the batting should the stars be unavailable or go through alean trot. This is also a sign to the established players that theycannot take their place for granted, and this has got to be a healthysign for Indian cricket. The series also underlined the fact that,whatever his failings at the Test level, there is no mistaking AjitAgarkar’s match-winning qualities when it comes to the limited-oversgame.It must have been galling for the Zimbabweans to come so close tocreating an upset and then getting pipped at the post. But, to becandid, whatever the strength of their batting, their bowling wasquite amiable. Hondo’s dream spell at Kochi was just one occasion wheneverything came off. In the remaining matches, the bowlers made noimpression at all, a fact highlighted by the Indian totals of 241 forsix (in 48.1 overs) and 274 for six, 319 for six and 333 for six (allin 50 overs). From Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Alistair Campbell andTravis Friend, the Indian crowds saw batting of high entertainmentvalue. But in the ultimate analysis, it was Zimbabwe’s weak bowlingthat saw them lose the series.

Australia’s cricketers have been rated in the same class as golfing icon Tiger Woods after enhancing their reputation as the world’s best team during a ruthless South African tour.Proteas captain Shaun Pollock has placed the Australians on sport’s top shelf even though South Africa ended its losing streak with a 65-run victory in therain-marred final one-day match in Cape Town last night.”You look at Australia and think they’re the Tiger Woods of cricket at the moment,” Pollock said.”They’ve raised the benchmark of how the game must be played. I believe other teams have got the ability to play that way, it’s just a matter of fine tuning and making sure that you can.”But in 10 months’ time come the World Cup, things may be going a bit different, certain players aren’t in the form they are at the moment, and maybe you get a few lucky breaks.”The South Africans will need some luck because they have not been up to Australia’s standard this summer, crashing to a 5-1 loss in the one-day series against new captain Ricky Ponting after a 2-1 loss in the Test series.Over the course of the summer, Australia won five of the six Tests and eight of 11 one-dayers, with one tied.Ponting was named the player-of-the-series for his shining performances as captain and batsman in one of the brightest signs for an improving team trying to cover for the loss of dumped veterans Steve and Mark Waugh.The runs were shared, with Ponting tops among five batsman scoring at least 200 in the seven matches, while the frontline bowlers claimed wickets in challengingconditions.With Darren Lehmann becoming a significant on-field adviser and 20-year-olds Shane Watson and Nathan Hauritz playing well, Australia left South African fansdreading their return next January 28 for the World Cup defence.But the Australians lacked their killer edge last night and Ponting admitted his players had half their thoughts on cricket and half on the plane, which will today take some of the team home for a much-needed rest.”It’s been a long tour for us and a tough tour and the guys have been looking forward to going home and having a bit of break,” Ponting said.”Our next 12 months are huge. That’s why this rest period when we get home is vitally important for us.”A lot of the guys have niggling injuries and have got to get over those and have a good break to freshen up mentally.”The Australians took a longer-term view with their Cape Town tactics, reshuffling their order so all-rounder Watson could bat at three behind opener Jimmy Maher, who replaced his Queensland mate Matthew Hayden.The tourists never hit top gear, reflecting the dismal weather which delayed the start of the match by almost two hours before South Africa scored 7-249 from themaximum 39 overs.Australia was dismissed for 185 in the 33rd over in a flat finish to the eight-week tour.Michael Bevan’s 55 from 63 balls and Brett Lee’s run-a-ball 28 were the main batting contributions but Australia was always struggling after losing Maher and Adam Gilchrist to consecutive deliveries in the third over.

BRISBANE – Queensland proved a pest for Western Australia tonight when itsent its arch-rival limping into next weekend’s one-day cricket final with aloss at the Gabba.The Bulls – and the Warriors for that matter – had little to gain fromtonight’s contest but Queensland ignored the points table and cruised to a65-run win in their final preliminary match of the Mercantile Mutual Cup.With Martin Love (124) and Jimmy Maher (87) stoking the fire, the Bullssurged to 8-306 from their 50 overs before dismissing the Warriors for 241in the final over.The visitors were already assured of hosting next weekend’s final beforethey walked on to the Gabba but they will need a better showing at home todefend their title.They were down and virtually out in the second over after the dinner breakwhen Ryan Campbell (four) and Simon Katich (zero) fell within three balls.The small crowd then watched the Bulls end their disappointing season on asound note, defusing a century stand from Murray Goodwin (59) and MikeHussey (57) to record their third consecutive win.The Bulls batsmen had hoped to hit one of the eight sponsor’s signs aroundthe boundary to collect a $250,000 jackpot but they at least garnered someconfidence ahead of Sunday’s first-class match between the teams.Love’s innings could yet prove lucrative if it pushes the talentedright-hander closer to his first Australian touring berth.The Ashes trip in four months isn’t out of the question if Love continuesthe form which delivered his maiden domestic one-day century in front ofnational selector Trevor Hohns.The 26-year-old played a typically calm but effective innings, reapingplenty of runs from the pull shot he added to his artillery this season.His 174-run partnership with Maher laid the foundations for the Bulls,enabling Maher to pass a significant milestone.The colourful left-hander became just the fourth batsman to reach 2000 runsin Australian domestic cricket, moving to 2,035 runs behind Matthew Hayden(2,162), Darren Lehmann (2,130) and Dean Jones (2,122).The Bulls were well on the way to a big total when Maher was the secondbatsman out after skying a catch to Murray Goodwin from the bowling of BradHogg (1-54 from 10 overs).Kade Harvey (3-47 from 10) and Jo Angel (2-52 from nine) also chipped in butan expensive three-over stint from Brendon Julian (0-32) did nothing for theWarriors’ cause.The Warriors were even spared the venom of Australian all-rounder AndrewSymonds, who was pushed down the batting order in a mysterious reshuffle.Instead of coming in at 2-178 in the 29th over, Symonds was held back untilthe 43rd over with Queensland 4-254.He added just 10 runs in seven balls while Love completed his 129-ballknock.The Bulls were then well-served by returning paceman Joe Dawes (2-29 from10) and rookie off-spinner Nathan Hauritz (2-56 from 10) as the bowlersshared the wickets.

Second placed Hampshire chose from 12 for the visit to Derby, for the CricInfo Championship match starting on Friday.Lawrence Prittipaul is included after coming through a fitness test that saw him hit a sparking 175* for the seconds at Hove last week.The Hampshire 12: Giles White, Derek Kenway, Will Kendall, Robin Smith (captain), Neil Johnson, Lawrence Prittipaul, Adi Aymes (wicket keeper), Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shaun Udal, Alex Morris, Alan Mullally and John Stephenson.

Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has said he was fortunate to have lost the toss to bowl first as the dew in Abu Dhabi in Pakistan’s innings helped them chase 249. The Australian bowlers found it hard to grip the ball as the opener Nasir Jamshed led with 97 in a series-levelling victory in the three-match series.”It was a good toss to lose because both the teams were not sure what may happen. The day before the match there wasn’t much dew and also in Sharjah it wasn’t that bad, but today dew really played a major factor,” Misbah said.Australia recovered from 87 for 4 to score 248, courtesy Michael Hussey’s 61 and contributions from other middle-order batsmen, but the total proved inadequate as Pakistan reached the target with more than six overs to spare. Misbah said the batsmen were given instructions to bat through the innings, as he knew runs would be scored quickly as long as the likes of Jamshed and Mohammad Hafeez stuck at the crease.”Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed are [naturally] aggressive batsmen. If they stay at the crease they will score runs quickly. [Jamshed], especially, played many shots and [had a] wonderful balance. The key for us [was that] he batted through and he made this chase easy.”[In] chasing a big total there is bound to be pressure, especially against a good [Australian] side. We got a good start and that added to the confidence and made our task easy. [Importantly] dew helped.”The target, however, may have been a lot more had Pakistan’s spinners not pegged Australia back for brief periods. The spinners, led by Saeed Ajmal, have been successful against Australia on the slow UAE tracks, with 12 out of 15 Australian wickets in the two games falling to them. Misbah said he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of playing an extra spinner in the third ODI in Sharjah, though the decision would depend on the pitch.”[Playing a fourth spinner] depends on what sort of wicket we get [in Sharjah]. One more thing we have to keep in mind is that we may have to bowl second again, so it might be a problem for the spinners [because of the dew factor]. We have to look into everything.”Misbah praised the fight the side showed in the first ODI, as the spinners made it difficult for Australia to chase 198, which gave the side the belief to beat them in the next game.”The way we fought despite having only a total of 198, we were nearing a win at one stage. It was this performance that gave us the courage to come into this game and all of us believed we could win it.”Australians are the No.1 side in the world, so we have to play really well in the next game. They will come hard at us and we have to get ready for the next game.”He said he wasn’t certain, however, whether Shahid Afridi, who missed the second ODI due to injury, would be ready for the next game on Monday.

The phenomenal heavy-scoring of Ian Ward continued yesterday to the detriment of a Barbados team that made no impression in spite of a change of pitch at Kensington Oval.Ward, a 27-year-old left-hander who came into the fourth round Bustamatch with an unbelievable 444 runs and a staggering average of 111,batted through the day to complete his third hundred of a fairy-taletournament.Solid from his first ball to his 306th, the England ‘A’ openingbatsman attempted nothing rash and hardly played a false stroke in anunbeaten 133 that carried his aggregate to 577 runs.He must be somewhat disappointed that the US$50 000 on offer to thefirst Caribbean batsman to reach 1 000 runs has not been extended tothe visitors. At the rate he is going, he is almost certain to comeclose to the landmark that many felt was unattainable.It was a busy day for statisticians after a rare double-century firstwicket stand between Ward and Mike Powell in which third-placedBarbados toiled long and hard without success.They were finally able to break the stand after exactly five hours inwhich Ward and the right-handed Powell put on 224, which was 66 shortof the 290 put on by the Leewards’ Richie Richardson and LivingstoneLawrence against Trinidad and Tobago at the Antigua Recreation Groundin 1984.There were very few times yesterday that Barbados threatened todislodge Ward and Powell.The change of surface that was supposedly expected to offer moreassistance to the faster bowlers made no difference to the Barbadiansafter the visitors chose to bat first.During the first two sessions in which the scoring rate averaged 45runs per hour, the closest Barbados came to separating the openers waswhen Sean Armstrong, stationed at forward short-leg, failed to clutchonto an offering that was firmly played into his chest.The fortunate batsman was Powell, who was 33 at the time and having acouple of problems against teenaged off-spinner Ryan Austin.By then, however, England ‘A’ had posted 75, with 63 coming in thefirst hour when most of the lashes were reserved for Barbados captainIan Bradshaw.In spite of his rich form in the tournament, Ward came to Barbadoswith a reputation as a dour batsman who steadily accumulates his runs.It was a comment made on the basis that he spent very long periodsover his 49, 69, 109, 13 not out, 118 and 86 not out in the firstthree matches which were reportedly played on very slow pitches in St.George’s and Port-of-Spain.On the evidence of what he displayed yesterday, no one could suggesthe was merely a blocker. He was fluent in his strokeplay from the wordgo and even outscored Powell, who was the much faster scorer when theyput on 134 in the first innings of their previous match.For most of the day, they were on each other’s trail. In a lunch-timescore of 97, Ward was 47 and Powell 44 and when the pair returned tothe Garfield Sobers Pavilion two hours later to another standingovation from about 40 of their countryman on the balcony upstairs, thetotal was 183 with Ward nine shy of his seventh first-class centuryand Powell on 81.Ward reached his hundred with his eighth boundary, a sweep off legspinner Dave Marshall and Powell appeared set to join him in tripledigits when he inexplicably gifted his wicket at 4 p.m.Powell was on 96 when he attempted a reverse sweep against a straight,faster ball from Austin. It ended an innings that included seven foursand a six from 212 balls.The six was lifted over mid-wicket off Austin from the ball afterArmstrong missed the difficult chance, and it was the first of twosixes struck off Austin.Outside of those, the 19-year-old off-spinner, playing in only hissecond first-class match, created a favourable impression in the 35overs he sent down.Of the other Barbadian bowlers, only Hendy Bryan looked like taking awicket. He came on at a stage when the openers were in full flow andimmediately stemmed the flow of runs with a seven-over spell that costeight runs.Corey Collymore surprisingly only delivered nine overs in two shortspells and was nothing more than tidy. The same could be said of legspinner Marshall.The untidy Barbados bowler was Bradshaw.The left-arm fast medium bowler was banged for 27 runs from his firstthree overs and when he came back for a second spell after lunch, hewas immediately cracked for three boundaries in an over that cost 17and never bowled again for the day.

The West Indies selectors have invested in youth by selecting a young squad with an average age of 21 for England’s solitary first-class warm-up ahead of next month’s first Test in Jamaica.England, who fly out to the Caribbean on Wednesday, January 21, will play a three-day practice match against a St Kitts XI at Basseterre from January 25-27 before taking on West Indies A at the same venue two days later.There has been one change to the original squad with fast bowler Kevin McClean replacing Nelon Pascal, who was injured in the second round of the regional four-day competition.Of the 12 players named for the second fixture, only Darren Sammy – who claimed seven wickets on his Test debut at Old Trafford in 2007 – has faced England at the highest level, although Lendl Simmons played in a Twenty20 international at The Oval on the same tour.Simmons, Amit Jaggernauth and Darren Bravo were also part of the Trinidad & Tobago side that came within one run of beating England in their Stanford Series warm-up in October.West Indies A 1 Adrian Barath, 2 Brandon Bess, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Amit Jaggernauth, 5 Leon Johnson, 6 Kevin McClean, 7 Keiran Powell, 8 Kemar Roach, 9 Darren Sammy, 10 Lendl Simmons, 11 Devon Thomas, 12 Gavin Wallace.

N Srinivasan will remain on the sidelines of the BCCI after a meeting of the board’s working committee in Delhi was scrapped on Friday. Jagmohan Dalmiya will continue running the BCCI’s affairs in the interim, a continuation of the status quo on a day that could have had Srinivasan resume functioning as board president.The BCCI will also appeal the ruling of the Bombay High Court, which declared the appointment of the independent probe panel “illegal and unconstitutional,” in the Supreme Court of India.A meeting of the IPL governing council had preceded the scrapped working committee meeting in Delhi and Srinivasan had been present for that meeting but had to recuse himself. “It was only after that the meeting started and the decisions were taken,” Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s game development officer, said. “Mr Arun Jaitley explained the important points of the Bombay High Court order. There was a discussion in the committee and the committee decided to file an SLP (Special Leave Petition) in the Supreme Court.”The BCCI said that the probe panel had been appointed in accordance with IPL rules. “As a matter of principle, the members confirmed that it was important that the [IPL] governing council’s actions be and be seen to be both legally and ethically correct,” the BCCI said. “The governing council believes that the probe commission was properly constituted in accordance with the IPL operational rules, and has consequently decided that an appeal should be filed in the Honourable Supreme Court.”This decision having been made, Mr N Srinivasan rejoined the meeting and, in the light of the pending appeal to the Supreme Court, requested Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya to continue discharging his functions at the BCCI for the present.”The cancellation of the working committee meeting, however, was because of a technicality, according to BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel. “Every member knew what the meeting was called for. The meeting was called off as there was a slight mistake in issuing the notice,” he said. “By mistake the word ’emergent’ was not written. A normal working committee meeting requires more time. Unfortunately it was just four days time. To avoid the technicality of it, the meeting was cancelled.”On Wednesday, Srinivasan had declared his intention to attend his first working committee in two months, after the two-man panel cleared the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals of any wrongdoing with regard to the betting and spot-fixing scandal in IPL 2013. However, the Bombay High Court’s ruling on Tuesday that the appointment of the probe panel had been unconstitutional had undermined Srinivasan’s position.The governing council also took the decision to replace Ajay Shirke and Sanjay Jagdale, who had resigned in the wake of the betting scandal, with Patel and treasurer Ravi Sawant on the IPL’s code of behaviour committee.

Ed Cowan and Mitchell Starc have been dropped for Usman Khawaja and Ryan Harris in Australia’s XI for the second Investec Ashes Test at Lord’s.The changes were not unexpected, after Cowan struggled through arguably the poorest of his 18 Tests at Trent Bridge in the unfamiliar No. 3 position and Starc’s form oscillated throughout.Khawaja’s inclusion provided him with the first chance to show his improvement as a batsman since he was left out of the Test team in late 2011, serving consistently as a reserve since.Harris was always a likely call-up for Lord’s, as his consistent line, swing and skiddy pace appear ideally suited to the ground and its idiosyncratic slope. Importantly, Harris has played twice at the venue before, and as a senior bowler his temperament will be useful for the tourists as they seek to reverse a 1-0 series deficit.While Starc can be expected to come back into the team at a later date, Cowan may have played his last Test. He had taken part in 18 consecutive matches since his debut on Boxing Day 2011, but a record of only one century and an average of 31.28 always left him vulnerable to omission.Australia: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Chris Rogers, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Steve Smith, 6 Phillip Hughes, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Ashton Agar, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 James Pattinson, 11 Ryan Harris

England’s bowling performance at The Oval has been branded one-dimensional and “inept” by a leading bowling coach.Ian Pont, who has coached Dhaka Gladiators to back-to-back titles in the BPL and, as a specialist fast bowling coach, has worked with Dale Steyn, Shoaib Akhtar and Darren Gough among others, has criticised England for “a lack of a plan” and “a complete failure to bowl yorkers.”England scored 293 at The Oval on Thursday, but saw Sri Lanka chase it down with 23 balls to spare. The bowlers, unable to find any conventional or reverse swing, looked bereft of ideas as they attempted to stem the flow of runs.Now Pont, who recently published a book about fast bowling called , has urged England find alternative options and learn from the experience.”England’s tactics need to be reviewed,” Pont told ESPNcricinfo. “Because the decision not to bowl in the block-hole was clearly a mistake.”On a pitch so good for batting you have to get the ball in the block-hole. The yorker is the clear and obvious delivery to bowl in that situation and for England not to use it is simply wrong. It is a one of a bowler’s key tools.”It wasn’t so much that England didn’t have a Plan B, it was that they didn’t have a plan. They want the ball to do something in the middle overs of the innings, but you can’t rely on that. There will be times when it doesn’t happen and you have to be able to cope with that. You can’t just rely on a ball swinging.”Even if you just bowl line and length you are sticking to a plan. It’s not a great plan, but it is a plan. And yes, they were confronted by some brilliant batting, but that happens. You can’t serve up pies or bowl wide.Pont compared England’s tactics with those of Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga, who has developed into one of the great limited-overs bowlers with a reputation for delivering penetrating yorkers.”Malinga is unique due to his action,” Pont said, “but he practises in the nets bowling at a pair of boots to ensure he is bowling right in the block-hole. Maybe the fact that some of England’s seamers don’t get the opportunity to play much T20 cricket is counting against them. But their slower balls are too easy to pick and they seem either unwilling or unable to bowl yorkers. They aren’t poor bowlers, but it was an inept performance.”There are basic skills, really, and if I was coaching I wouldn’t come out of the nets until I sure that every one of the bowlers could deliver a yorker to order.”England’s bowling was under scrutiny for different reasons elsewhere. Bob Willis, speaking on , appeared to suggest that the umpires had not changed the ball midway through the Sri Lanka innings because it had gone out of shape, but because someone in the England team had tampered with it.An England team spokesman, while acknowledging that Willis had made the remarks, declined to comment but did reiterate the official ICC line: that the ball had been changed because it had gone out of shape and there had been no suggestion of tampering.Meanwhile, Jonathan Trott has emerged as an injury doubt ahead of Sunday’s game against New Zealand in Cardiff. Trott did not field for much of Sri Lanka’s chase and will be accessed at training on Saturday before any decision is made over his involvement.”He had a tight right quad and we thought the best thing to do was to get him off before things got significantly worse,” England’s assistant coach and fielding coach, Richard Halsall, said. “We have to have a look at him at training. We don’t know yet if he’ll be fit.”There are those, of course, who would suggest that Trott’s absence would be of little loss to England. They claim that Trott’s contributions are too slow to win games for England in modern ODI cricket.The evidence suggests otherwise. Trott’s ODI batting average of 52.56 is more than 10 runs higher than anyone with a minimum of 20 ODI innings for England while his strike-rate (of 76.42 runs per 100 balls) means that only seven specialist batsmen have scored quicker than him in ODI cricket for England. Perhaps more importantly, England have lost only five of the 22 ODIs in which Trott has played since the start of 2012. In the six games without him, England have been beaten four times.Certainly Halsall dismissed any suggestion that England were better off without Trott and said that it was the bowlers, not the batsmen, who were more culpable for Thursday’s defeat.”Trott is rated in the top 10 one-day batsmen in the world and he builds a magnificent platform for us,” Halsall said. “It’s always reassuring to have him there.”People who continue to talk about him haven’t really looked at the black and white facts. He continues to put us in a position to score big scores which we should defend, as was the case at The Oval.”We were expecting to win the game having scored 293. We didn’t bowl in the disciplined manner we did against Australia and we couldn’t hammer out the consistent lengths we did against Australia. Against world-class batsmen you have to be world class when you’re bowling and we weren’t. Our bowlers would say we should defend that total and we didn’t.”