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It was surprising that, with one hand apparently firmly on their first overseas Test series victory since 1986, India should relax their grip and allow Zimbabwe to scrape home to level the series in the Second Test match.Well though Zimbabwe played at Harare Sports Club, the result was perhaps due more to India’s failures with the bat than any other factor. Both Test matches had in common the fact that the team winning the toss wasted that advantage by batting badly and eventually lost the match. In Bulawayo it was Zimbabwe; in Harare it was India.India’s 237 on the first day of the Harare Test was a poor effort that reflected on the lack of application of their batsmen, most of whom fell to soft dismissals. They fought back with three quick Zimbabwean wickets before the close.The first turning point of the game came when Grant Flower dug in and shared fighting partnerships with the all-rounders in the team, earning Zimbabwe what was really no more than a useful lead of 78 on first innings. The pitch was sound for batting, even if the ball did not come on to the bat as well as the players would have liked, and with India’s batting power it was quite possible that in the second innings they would be able to set a target that was beyond Zimbabwe’s reach.The Zimbabwean team is still not as confident with the bat as it should be. The Flower brothers and Heath Streak have shown they can handle pressure, but the rest, for the most part, have too many failures under pressure behind them or were untested in that kind of situation. 63 all out when chasing 99 against West Indies last year, under admittedly more difficult circumstances, is an example of what can still happen all too easily under pressure. I said at the time that if Zimbabwe failed to bowl out India for less than 200 in the second innings, they could be in trouble.One over from the end of the fourth day, Zimbabwe were indeed heading for trouble. India were 197 for three in their second innings. The second new ball was available for just one over before the close, and Zimbabwe took it. This was the second turning point of the match. Andy Blignaut had Rahul Dravid caught at the wicket, and they followed it up in the first half-hour of the fourth day with four more wickets for just 10 runs.Zimbabwe were set 157 to win, in theory not a difficult target under the circumstances. But, with Zimbabwe’s past record, it was not a foregone conclusion, and it was indeed to prove a tense struggle. The final turning point of the game was the innings of Stuart Carlisle.Carlisle has no great record in Test cricket, with an average in the twenties and, before this innings, only four fifties to his credit, the highest of which was 58. He often stabilized an innings at number three with a solid twenty or thirty, before getting out just as he was looking well set. But the Zimbabwean players and selectors know him as a man with a big heart, one who is dedicated to his game and a wonderful trier.On this day Carlisle got his reward with what must, under the circumstances, go down as one of the most vital innings ever played for Zimbabwe in a Test match. With Andy Flower suffering a finger injury, the team as a whole must have suffered a psychological setback in chasing their target. But Carlisle was the man who put his hand up, with an innings of superb temperament and judgement. He played scarcely a false shot in seeing his team home with a new Test best of 62 not out. Single-minded determination was the hallmark of his innings, evident in every ball he faced. It is to be hoped that this innings will give him the confidence to go on to greater things and higher scores in future.There was much good bowling from both sides. Zimbabwe had to struggle for runs throughout the match against the Indian pace attack of Javagal Srinath – below his best in the first innings but magnificent in the second – Ajit Agarkar, who was most unlucky, and Ashish Nehra, perhaps the find of the tour for India. Then there was Harbhajan Singh, who was never mastered by the Zimbabweans, but neither did they let him intimidate them.Zimbabwe, for their part, also benefited from fine bowling by Heath Streak, Travis Friend, on his debut, and Andy Blignaut, who won the Man of the Match award and was often superb. They bowled a tight off-stump line, perhaps a little too defensively at times, but it kept the Indian batsmen in check during that crucial second innings when they looked ready to take the game out of Zimbabwe’s reach.Both sides fielded superbly. Zimbabwe have always been known for this virtue, but India often matched them. The Indian close catching in the series has frequently been brilliant, with Shiv Sunder Das, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman all worthy of special mention.It has been a good series, and it was a pity the Zimbabwe Cricket Union were unwilling to play a three-match series, for financial reasons, so there could be a decider. The series draw will no doubt increase India’s desire to win the triangular tournament, starting on Saturday, so as to salvage a rare triumph from an overseas tour.

Aston Villa have been one of the more proactive clubs in England when it comes to being busy in the transfer market and seeing new players make the move to the Midlands side.

The previous January transfer window was a prime example of this as Steven Gerrard’s side brought in four new faces to help strengthen their squad.

Looking ahead to the upcoming summer window, it seems as though the presence of one of Villa’s recent recruits could put the club in a good position to secure a big name once the next window opens.

What’s the news?

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT about the future of Atletico Madrid striker Luis Suarez, who has been linked with a move to Villa Park in recent weeks and months, journalist and transfer insider Dean Jones had this to say on the matter.

He said: “He will have seen what it’s done for [Philippe] Coutinho, playing under Gerrard.

“He would love the chance to come back into the Premier League again and be that impact player that makes a big difference in a squad.”

Villa must sign Suarez

Since arriving at Villa Park, the Brazilian attacker has scored four goals and provided three assists in ten league games, showing that it didn’t take him long to get back into the swing of things in England after leaving Liverpool in 2018 for his mega-money move to Barcelona.

With this in mind, it’s easy to see why Jones has suggested that not only would Suarez be tempted to follow in the footsteps of his former Liverpool and Barcelona teammate and make a return to England with Villa but also to have another one of his former teammates as his manager in Gerrard.

Labelled as a “phenomenal” player in the past by Jordan Henderson, the Uruguayan has racked up a total of 435 goals throughout his senior club career, including 82 in 133 appearances with the Merseyside club, highlighting why he was dubbed a “killer” in front of goal by Luis Enrique and what he’d offer this Villa side if he did join them in the summer.

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If Suarez, who is currently picking up a weekly wage of £263k-per-week according to Salary Sport, is keen on making a return to the Premier League, then Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris should jump at the chance to get the striker in a Villa shirt and potentially firing in lots of goals for Gerrard’s side to give the manager his dream transfer.

In other news: Lange plotting crucial summer deal that will leave Villa supporters jumping for joy

	Mickey Arthur thinks South Africa’s tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh have given them enough exposure to subcontinental conditions © Getty Images

South Africa’s coach Mickey Arthur played down concerns that the team will be under-prepared for the Test series against India, which they go into without any practice games.A scheduled warm-up game against India A was cancelled but Arthur said South Africa’s tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh in the last six months have given them enough experience of subcontinental conditions. “There have been a lot of noises about not playing a warm-up match, but we’ve been in the subcontinent a huge amount lately and the guys are sound in terms of the different techniques required,” he told .”Warm-up games tend to be good for the first day and a half, and then the intensity wanes,” he said. “We believe we can replicate a warm-up game quite easily with some intensive centre practices.”Coming home (after the successful Bangladesh tour which ended on March 14) has allowed the team to be refreshed and re-energised, and we thought it was the best way to re-focus on getting back into the swing of things. We know it will be hard work, but it’s a mental shift more than anything else.”After a week which saw Charl Langeveldt pull out of the India tour saying he did not want to be included on the basis of his colour, South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith admitted the team had been affected by the selection controversy. “The evidence of this week shows that the off-field stuff does have an effect on the team,” Smith said. “There are a few things we need to work through, they can’t be left undealt with. We need to find a way to deal with these issues so we can concentrate on the cricket.”The first Test of the three-match series starts in Chennai on Wednesday.

Matthew Maynard will return to Glamorgan next year after some time off © Getty Images

Matthew Maynard, who was axed as England’s assistant coach on Sunday, has been offered a role at his home county, Glamorgan. He will return to Sophia Gardens in 2008, where he will be the director of cricket – but not until next season.Maynard, who scored 22764 first-class runs in his 20 years with the club, plans to have a rest this summer and spend some time with his family, although he has been linked to a role with India’s academy.Glamorgan chairman Paul Russell told newspaper, “It is no coincidence that we have not replaced John Derrick [as director of cricket] and I believe Matthew would bring a lot to that role.”Maynard will not give up his dream of becoming England coach, and working alongside Adrian Shaw, Glamorgan’s coach, next season will give him the chance to have county experience which is another route to the top role.

Shaun Pollock will be given as much time as possible to recover from a back injury © Getty Images

Shaun Pollock is set to take his place in the final Test against New Zealand at Johannesburg, after recovering well from the back injury that forced him out of the second match at Cape Town.”Shaun is making good strides towards his recovery and I don’t foresee any further problems,” said the team physio, Shane Jabaar, after Pollock bowled six overs in the nets without any sign of discomfort.A decision on whether or not to include Pollock will still be left as late as possible, after he pulled out at the very last minute from the drawn second Test. South Africa need only a draw to win the series, and Haroon Lorgat, the convener of selectors, will have to choose between Pollock and Andre Nel, the man who replaced him at Newlands.Nicky Boje, who injured his right hand during the second Test, is also on course to retain his place. He received five stitches between his thumb and forefinger after fielding a ball on the third day of the second Test, but yesterday fielded and bowled in practice without experiencing any discomfort.As a precaution, he wore a bandage while batting in the nets, and Jabaar added: “If selected to start tomorrow, he will be strapped to remove the risk of any further damage.”And a further bit of good news for South Africa is that their captain, Graeme Smith, is expected to resume his duties at first slip, but will remain playing with a splint on the ring finger of his left hand, which he injured during a fielding practice before the final match of the Australia series in Johannesburg last month.

Shane Warne got Adam Gilchrist’s vote of confidence© Getty Images

On the resilience of India’s tail this morning
I wasn’t particularly surprised that it took a while. If you’d said to me at the start of day one, that we’d wrap the game up after lunch on day five, I’d have taken that. Four wickets is four wickets in India. You’ve got to work hard no matter what, and today we reaped the benefits of some great work last night, and in the first innings when we batted. It’s no surprise, we knew it would be a challenge.On the margin of victory
I wouldn’t say it’s an easy Test win. It’s a convincing win for sure, 200-plus runs, but in these conditions, those sort of margins of victory can come around more easier than elsewhere. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a huge gap between the teams, and it was certainly not a crushing win. I expect India to come back strongly. We’ve been here before, three years ago, but we’ve a different sort of confidence this time. I certainly didn’t know what it was like to lose a Test back then [in 2001]. I know now. I know what it means to lose and I know what it means to win, and I think that personifies what the team thinks.On the completeness of Australia’s performance
That was a very, very complete game of cricket for us. It went as close to our match plan as we could have hoped. I’m sure we’ll analyse our plans before Chennai, but I’m thrilled at how the guys went about their business. Our gameplan has certainly changed since 2001. There’s no need to delve into match plans or theories, but we’re a different team now, a bit more versatile.On the importance of the toss
In my experience, you do not just win the toss and win the Test. Whatever you do first, whether it’s bat or bowl, you must do it well. We won the toss here and batted well, and India will probably admit they didn’t bowl quite as well first up, although Harbhajan turned it around in the second innings. We fully expected that, and next time, it will be helpful for gameplan. But whether you bat first or second, that’s the crucial innings. You’ve got to set up your runs while the wicket is in a good state.On Shane Warne’s lack of penetration this morning
Let’s face it, in reality, India did not have a lot to lose this morning, other than a Test match [chuckles] … if that makes sense. I thought [Irfan] Pathan played Warne very well indeed. He’s an intelligent cricketer with experience beyond his years. The others rode their luck and took him on. They were not expected to perform heroics, so their approach was relaxed.Shane’s figures are sure to be analysed and scrutinised, and people will claim he was ineffective. I beg to differ. I thought he played a fantastic role. We have an attack based around fast bowlers, so if people want to call him a support bowler then so be it. I wouldn’t call him that. He got the most dangerous batsman that we’ve met in world cricket twice in two innings. If hetakes just eight wickets in the series and they are all VVS Laxman, I’ll take that.On the umpiring
There have been a great deal of words written about the umpires, and lots of airtime on TV, but it goes without saying that some decisions will go against batsmen at some time, and on this occasion, India were on the receiving end more often than not. It’s easy to say get on with it, take the good with the bad, but I don’t remember reading on day two in Kolkata, that the crucial wicket of Harbhajan’s hat-trick [Gilchrist himself] was a certain fairly dubious lbw decision. You’ve got to move on.And what’s more, there aren’t many people in this room who’ve played in front of a crowd like that. The noise is extraordinary. When I went into bat, I had to say to Billy Bowden: “Mate, I wouldn’t do your job for quids”. You have no ideaif a batsman has bat-padded, or got an inside-edge, or whatever. It’s a very, very difficult job, made more difficult in these conditions. You have to accept it and move on, and not get too critical.I understand the frustrations of the Indians in this game. But then, apart from two umpires, no-one’s ever congratulated me for walking. And yet today, I was made to feel bad for appealing for Virender Sehwag’s dismissal. As far as I knew, it was out. I’ve since seen there was some bat involved, but why should we be made to feel bad? Let’s be consistent.On the lessons learned from Australia’s various matches against India
We’ve focussed a lot on three years ago, but let’s not forget how India played in Australia last year. That Adelaide victory was a real shock, and it wasn’t that we didn’t rate India, but we scored 500 in the first innings and no team should lose from there. Somehow we did, and we’ve learnt a great deal from the Indians. There’s a wonderful aura around these series, whether it’s one-day cricket or Tests. This was another great battle, we’re thrilled to have won and we’ll celebrate tonight. But tomorrow it’ll be all hands on deck for Chennai.

Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden went on a roaring rampage of revenge. And Murali Kartik came in for some very special attention. By the time Anil Kumble dismissed both openers, Kartik had given away 64 runs in eight overs.In the end it came unstuck, but Australia had a plan for the spinners. It involved using the sweep, and if the ball was flighted, using their feet to get to the ball. Both tactics were used to good effect. Kartik was not allowed to settle down, with 39 deliveries to the openers resulting in 57 runs. Fifty-four of those runs came in 24 balls, as the batsmen swept and used their feet to drive the spinners. Even Kumble, who later dried up the runs, had a hard time containing the openers.

Openers against Kartik
	Balls	Runs
Stepped out	12	27
Swept	12	27

Australia against the spinners
	Balls	Runs
Stepped out	34	56
Swept	38	53

Stopping the flow of runsWhile Kartik went for runs, Kumble kept his end under some semblance of control, picking up both openers, and then getting rid of Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn. By dismissing the top two, Kumble stopped the torrent of runs that threatened India’s aspirations for victory.Australia’s openers scored 184 runs between them to lead the assault. It wasn’t the volume as much as the manner in which they collected the runs that pushed India back for a while. Runs came at a strike rate of 77.3, that’s nearly five an over. Almost 70% of these runs came in boundaries.However, after Hayden and Langer were dismissed, the next six batsmen scored 129 runs between them in 261 deliveries, at 2.9 runs an over, with the help of 16 hits to the fence. And Irfan Pathan’s late strikes, which gave the Indians access to Australia’s tail, pushed the run rate down even further.

Openers v middle order
	Openers	Other batsmen
Runs	184	129
Balls	238	261
Runs per over	4.6	2.9
Boundary percentage	69.6	49.6

Indian coach John Wright won’t be attempting to stifle his players’ batsmanship as they go out to bat in the second National Bank Test against New Zealand starting in Hamilton tomorrow.While India were twice dismissed in less than 100 overs in total in the first Test, Wright said it would be dangerous for him to be telling his batsmen how best to do their job.”Coaching is more of a process. Obviously you can hope for the outcome but you don’t necessarily control that,” he said.It was unrealistic to expect the Indians to change their approach overnight.They had come to New Zealand from playing a series against the West Indies on some of the flattest pitches they had ever seen.His side were definitely the most attractive batting line-up in the world and he was hopeful that New Zealanders would get to see them playing their natural game.”It’s very important that you may give a message to players of what you want to achieve, it’s very dangerous when you start telling them how to do it.”I really don’t think that Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid and [V V S] Laxman and [Sourav] Ganguly have achieved what they have in the game by playing a certain way. They have to express themselves.”Obviously there are guidelines about how to play in the conditions, and they have to work that out for themselves. If you start changing natural inclination, the way you play, that’s what’s got them there. I believe that from a coaching perspective. So hopefully, we will perform better with the bat and we know we’ve got a reasonable chance of getting 20 wickets.”It is dangerous to tell players how to achieve what you try and set out to do.”The biggest thing they need to achieve is the self-belief and confidence to go out and play their game,” he said.Because all of them wanted to go out and get runs, he added.India had shown several times in recent years that it could come back from 1-0 down in the series. While it was a little disappointing that this series only involved two Tests that was the way circumstances dictated.But a three-Test series at least allowed the chance for a comeback because players got to know each other better, he said.

The South Africa A tour of India which was planned forSeptember this year has been postponed, the United Cricket Board has announced.It is understood that the reason for the cancellation is the monsoon conditions prevalent at that time of the year.The South Africa A team, however, will play against Kenya, India and Australia during the 2001/2 internationalseason.

West Ham have enjoyed an exciting campaign which has seen attacking midfielders Jarrod Bowen, Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma kick on and develop into key players for the team, with the trio scoring a combined 19 goals to help the club fight for European football once again next season.

However, one of their star midfielders could be headed for the exit door this summer, much to manager David Moyes and the West Ham faithful’s frustration.

What’s the news?

The Hammers could be about to lose one of their fan-favourites Manuel Lanzini, as according to La Pagina Millonaria, he has already met with representatives from former team River Plate – including their vice club president, ahead of a potential summer move.

At 29-years-old, the creative midfielder still has a number of years left at the top of his game, and despite that and also his recent career revival at the east London club, according to the report he also wants the move back to his native Argentina.

Disaster if he doesn’t stay?

Despite having started just 12 games in the Premier League this season, he has become a critical cog in Moyes’ machine – starting in all of the team’s last six games in all competitions as we head towards the business end of the season.

In the league, he has scored four goals and set up a further two, averaging a 6.92 –  ranking above the likes of Benrahma (6.90), Andriy Yarmolenko (6.73) and £27m signing Nikola Vlasic (6.52).

Since signing from United Arab Emirates outfit Al-Jazira back in 2016 for £10.8m, he has gone on to provide some incredible moments in his West Ham career which has seen him rack up 191 appearances in total – including one which saw him score a last-minute screamer to complete a stunning 3-3 comeback away to rivals Tottenham.

Labelled as a “special player” by teammate Declan Rice, Lanzini is statistically one of the best passers in Europe right now, ranking among wingers and attacking midfielders across the top five leagues and continental competitions over the last year in the top 1% for passes completed per 90 (56.71), pass completion percentage per 90 (90.6%) and top 5% for passes into the final third per 90 (4.16).

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Moyes needs to keep the £69k-per-week earner, for at least another season, in order to build on the positives that can be taken out of this campaign and continue their steady progress towards eventually reaching the top four – and avoiding disaster by letting him go.

In other news: “Good chances..” – Romano drops big West Ham transfer claim, supporters surely buzzing