A clanger from Philander
With the Indians struggling to get a move on, Robin Uthappa decided he must take charge. Johan van der Wath pitched one short, Uthappa executed his favourite front-foot pull, and was so disheartened when the top-edge looped towards mid-on that he didn’t even bother to run. Waiting under the ball, though, was the ever-generous Vernon Philander, who made an absolute hash of the catch. Uthappa survived, but not for long.Sharma’s smashing maiden fifty
Rohit Sharma started slowly, but then showed that he is more than capable of wielding the willow. With only one ball to go, he had worked his way up to 44. Then came the perfect finish: van der Wath bowled a high full toss, Rohit got under the ball and pulled it high and handsome over square leg for six. He ended exactly on 50, and the way he played, it’s surely the first of many in his international career.Done in the by the lights
Morne Morkel bowled with plenty of fire, but it wasn’t quite as good for him in the field. In the 15th over, Mahendra Singh Dhoni completely miscued a pull and the ball sailed towards long-on, where Morne Morkel ran in, then lost the ball in the lights and realised he had run in too far. The ball dropped behind him but inside the boundary, and you could be sure that Albie, the unfortunate bowler, wouldn’t have felt much brotherly love at that moment.Perfect placement
Two balls after the Morne miss, Dhoni tempted fate again when an attempted flick lobbed up in the air just beside the pitch. Three fielders – the bowler, the wicketkeeper, and short square leg – all raced in, only for the ball to fall perfectly in between.One for the classic catches series
Graeme Smith’s eye would have lit up when he saw a wide and full delivery from RP Singh. He wouldn’t have known, though, that the ball would fly off the edge, or that Dinesh Karthik, at second slip, would fling himself to his left, get to the ball with both hands, and bring off a stunning catch.Jonty in Indian colours
Justin Kemp had beaten New Zealand almost single-handedly yesterday, but his knock here was nipped by a sensational piece of fielding. Stationed at cover, Rohit Sharma swooped in on a Mark Boucher drive, picked up the ball one-handed, was airborne and almost parallel to the ground as he flung the ball at the stumps. Direct hit, Kemp gone. Could the evening get any better for Rohit?Bowled, or four?
Sreesanth bowled it full and slightly wide, Mark Boucher got an inside-edge, the ball raced to fine leg, and Sreesanth hung his head in despair. The reaction seemed justified, except that he hadn’t seen the ball clipping the off bail on its way to the boundary. The expression of despair suddenly turned to glee as everyone realised what had happened. Boucher trudged back, and South Africa slipped further into the mire.

India have made one change to their 15-member squad for the fourth and fifth ODIs against Australia, bringing in left-arm spinner Murali Kartik in place of offspinner Ramesh Powar, said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah.Kartik played for Middlesex during the 2007 season and took 51 wickets at 24.96 from 12 Championship matches, including 9 for 73 in an innings victory against Glamorgan at Lord’s. In the Pro40 competition, Kartik took 12 wickets at 20.75 from eight games. Based on his performances the county signed him up for the next season as well.Powar, who enjoyed a successful tour to Ireland and England earlier this year, wasn’t successful in the first two ODIs at Banglaore and Kochi, conceding 80 runs off 11 overs without taking a wicket and was dropped for the third game in Hyderabad. “A left-arm spinner is always helpful in Indian conditions,” said India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, “and since Kartik is also experienced, I am sure he will indeed be helpful”Shah also said that Sourav Ganguly was fit for the third one-day international but was not picked for the match because he did not fit into the best team combination. However, Dhoni put forth a contradictory view in the press conference that followed the third one-dayer in Hyderabad: “He (Ganguly) was very eager to play but the team thought that he should be rested for this match as well because anything can happen on the field and then we might have to rest him for more matches. So that’s why he did not play.”Ganguly had played the first match but missed the second ODI because of a hamstring strain. He took part in a training session on the eve of the Hyderabad match and was passed fit. He was, however, named in the squad for the next two games.Meanwhile, the selectors have retained the winning ICC World Twenty20 squad for the one-off Twenty20 international at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on October 20. However, legspinner Piyush Chawla is the only exclusion as he is yet to recover from an ankle injury which had ruled him out of all seven one-dayers. No replacement has been named.Squad for 4th and 5th ODIs
Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Zaheer KhanTwenty 20 international squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, Yusuf Pathan, Joginder Sharma

Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has urged its member countries to follow a zero-tolerance policy towards racism and adhere to the anti-racism code.In the wake of Andrew Symonds being subjected to monkey chants during the tour of India, Speed said: “If people are seen or heard behaving in a racist way then our message to the ground authorities and host boards is clear: find the culprits, throw them out and keep them out because racism has no place in our sport. It is pleasing to hear that some offenders in Mumbai were ejected and that is the type of zero tolerance we want in relation to this despicable behaviour.”The Mumbai police held four spectators for allegedly passing racist comments against Australian players at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai during the seventh ODI of the series. The four, who were booked under Section 110 of the Bombay Police Act (behaving indecently in public), were immediately released after paying a fine of Rs 1,200 each as per the provisions of the law.Speed also confirmed the ICC had received a response from the Indian board (BCCI) to a previous request for information on reported incidents during the fifth ODI between Australia and India in Vadodara on October 11. “The BCCI has undertaken to obtain reports from independent sources concerning that match and we look forward to receiving those as soon as possible,” Speed said.Speed had written to the BCCI again on Thursday to get its comments concerning the behaviour of sections of the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. An Australian photographer captured some spectators in the North Stand enacting monkey chants.

"I won’t be seeing you tomorrow, sir. I am going out of town," says an eight-year-old to the 70-year-old grey-haired gentleman in whites.Nari Contractor chuckles. "You see they are not in awe of me," he says to this reporter. "This is the result of interaction." Contractor is the director of the Cricket Club of India’s (CCI) Cricket Academy, and Interaction and Correction are the two buzzwords of the guardians of this academy. Contractor’s colleagues in this venture are: Hanumant Singh, the former director of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, and Vasu Paranjpe, former Mumbai player and coach.Interaction is an important tool coaches forget when they impart training to the players, feels Contractor. "If you can make the player express his viewpoint then half the job is done." Contractor says that the age gap between the coaches (average age: 60-plus) and the trainees (under-16) doesn’t matter, because the kids have respect for the elders and the transparency means that the unit gels well together.The unique thing about this academy is that players from across the country, plus a few from outside, get to hone their skills during the two-month-long camp at the spacious lawns of the Brabourne Stadium. The academy invites two players from each state association and prunes it down to 20 players after the selection trials. These players are not the top players of the individual state as the cream visit the NCA or the NCA’s three zonal academies or the state academies. Two players each from Kenya and Nepal respectively also took part in the camp this year.The normal day of the CCI trainee lasts up to six hours split into two sessions – morning and afternoon. The morning session starts at around 7am with stretching exercises, nets, a mini-break for breakfast and then nets again. The players come back in the afternoon sun to go through another session of nets along with physical training. Three days a week, there are yoga sessions, and then there are random, strenuous fielding practise slots.The academy is two years old and keeps adapting to the modern standards of the game and its various demands. Video analysis of each player is carried out, once when the trainee is inducted and again when the camp is ending. The video helps the player understand how he has progressed and also aids the coaches in correcting any defects that they may see.Films on cricket are also shown so that the trainees learn about the game from the likes of Don Bradman, Garfield Sobers et al. Fitness tests are carried out at the beginning and at the end of the camp to monitor the physical condition of a player. The player is given a programme he can work on after he leaves the academy and a CD about his progress at the camp.Bob Simpson paid a week-long visit and religiously worked with the players which boosted their spirits. One of the trainees who met Simpson’s eye was the 24-year-old Nepali Raj Kumar. Already a national player, Kumar is a short, sturdy, legbreak bowler and has impressed the coaches here with his fielding. Speaking in Hindi, Kumar says, "my action was very clumsy and back in Nepal there are no coaches to correct the faults. But this visit has taught me many things … like my body movement when I bowl. He [Simpson] told me the importance of each part of my body movement as I deliver the ball and now it has helped me get into a nice rhythm."Maurice Ouma, who was there for a week during Simpson’s visit, impressed everyone with his glovework behind the stumps. In fact, Simpson mentioned him in his column in The Sportstar as being better than their [Kenya’s] World Cup wicketkeeper.Contractor delivers the final word. "We can only take the horse to the well," he says. "From there, what it does is its business." Outside, the youngsters run, and run, and run.

Saqib Ali, the UAE captain, says his win over Bermuda yesterday has given his team tremendous confidence ahead of the World Cricket League Division Two which gets underway in Namibia on November 24.”The victory has lifted our spirits and has done a world of good to our confidence,” Saqib said, reflecting on the 138-run win in Abdu Dhabi. “Obviously there was a situation where we could have ended up on the losing side and had it happened, it would have been the worst possible preparation for an important event like the World Cricket League.”The victory was sweeter because of the way we earned it. We made a mess of things on the first two days, crawled our way out on the third day before delivering the killer’s blow on the last day.”It was a fine match for Saqib on a personal level, notching 142 as UAE swept to a 138-run win over a pitiful Bermuda. Not a bad way in which to begin your captaincy tenure. “We killed two birds with one stone in this match – collected 14 points from a precarious position and had a much-needed match practice ahead of the World Cricket League,” Saqib said. “The WCL Division Two is a tournament that will inch us closer to our dreams of playing in the 2011 World Cup.”Division Two of the WCL will be staged from November 24 and December 1. Other than UAE, Argentina, Uganda, Denmark, Oman and Namibia will take part.While the bottom two teams will be relegated to Division Three, the top four teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier (formerly the ICC Trophy) in UAE in April 2009 where they will be joined by Kenya, Scotland, the Netherlands, Canada, Ireland and Bermuda. Reflecting on his team’s victory over Bermuda, Saqib said: “I think there were three key moments that turned the tide in our favour.”Firstly, Arshad and Naeemuddin Aslam gave us a glimmer of a hope by featuring in a 133-run partnership, secondly Arshad and I put on 155 for the fourth wicket in quick time, and lastly Irfan Ahmed bowled a superb opening spell on the fourth morning to claim 3 for 35, including the prized scalp of an in-form (David) Hemp.”I think we were all over the place on the first two days because we are not used to playing four-day cricket. It was our first game in nearly two months but once we settled down, we showed that we definitely belong to this format provided we get regular matches.”We have played well here and would have liked to take the momentum forward but the schedule is such that our next game is after two months. It’s very hard on the players to perform as individuals and as a team.”

Warwickshire have signed Sanath Jayasuriya to play in next year’s Twenty20 Cup.Jayasuriya, 38, retired from Test cricket earlier this month but will continue to play ODI and Twenty20 games for Sri Lanka.”Sanath has vast experience in all forms of cricket but especially the one-day format,” said Ashley Giles, the county’s director of cricket. “He’ll be a great man for the younger members of our squad to learn from and his knowledge of the game will be crucial in the Twenty20 format of the game. I’m looking forward to working with him next summer.”Jayasuriya played in the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa earlier this year, beginning the tournament in his typically blazing fashion with half-centuries against Kenya and New Zealand before a string of poor scores. He was dismissed for a duck in his most recent international, against Australia.

Adam Gilchrist has hinted that his retirement might be further away than he originally planned and says there is “a good chance” this year’s Boxing Day Test will not be his last. Gilchrist, 36, was mentally and physically fatigued at the same time last season during the Ashes campaign and at that stage he felt the end of his career was beckoning.”This time last year I probably would have thought this one would be my last but I’m really enjoying it now and I don’t know,” Gilchrist told the . “It might be but there’s a good chance it won’t be as well, so I’m not looking for any swansong or farewell. I’m just playing it as I go along and really enjoying it as well.”Gilchrist needs only five dismissals to pass Ian Healy’s Australian record of 395 victims and 14 dismissals would push him past Mark Boucher’s world mark of 403. Gilchrist has 391 victims from 92 Tests – Healy took 119 games to reach his total and Boucher has played 106 matches.”Just as it’s inevitable I’ll get to Heals’ Australian record, even if I was to go past and catch Boucher, he’s about four years younger than me so it will be inevitable that he’ll end up finishing his career with the world record,” Gilchrist said in the . “It’s something you don’t focus on too much.”During the Boxing Day Test Gilchrist will wear pink wicketkeeping gloves to raise money for the cancer cause the McGrath Foundation. Gilchrist’s sponsors will donate $18,000 per dismissal he claims in the Melbourne match.

Day 2
ScorecardA four-wicket haul by Tushar Saha, the left-arm spinner, helped East Zone bundle out South Zone for 204, in the process gaining a first-innings lead of 109 on the second day at the Wankhede Stadium.East, resuming on their overnight score of 265, added 48 before the seamer NC Aiyappa wrapped up the innings with his third five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Halhadar Das, who led East’s revival on the first day, fell seven short of his ton, The last-wicket pair of Shib Shankar Paul and Ranadeb Bose took the score from 290 to 313 before Aiyappa accounted for Paul to finish with figures of 5 for 84.South failed to get the partnerships going early on, the maximum being 59 for the fourth wicket between M Vijay and Arjun Yadav. Vijay, who hit eight fours in his 46, was Saha’s first victim, caught by Debasis Mohanty. Yadav fell for 41 to the offspin of Palash Das and at that stage South were struggling at 151 for 5. The lower order failed to build on their starts as Saha pegged away at the wickets and wrapped up the innings for 204, finishing with 4 for 47 in just under 23 overs. East extended their lead to 114 after the openers played out one over before stumps.
ScorecardPankaj Singh grabbed four wickets as Central Zone shot out England Lions for 155 and gained a healthy 115-run first-innings lead. Central, though, lost two wickets in the seven overs they had to face before stumps on the second day in Vadodara.In the morning session, Central, resuming from 238 for 7, could only add 32 runs to their first-innings effort before being bowled out. Alan Richardson, the right-arm medium pacer, took two more wickets to be the Lions’ most successful bowler with four wickets.The Lions’ batting effort got off to a poor start with Joe Denly, winner of the NBC Denis Compton award for four successive years at Kent, falling to Pankaj, who was part of the Indian squad that toured Australia recently, in the first over. Michael Yardy, the Lions’ captain, was Pankaj’s next victim, managing only 5. After some brief resistance, both Michael Carberry and Ed Joyce fell in quick succession to leave the Lions at 66 for 4.Uttar Pradesh’s left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta ably assisted Pankaj as the Lions were unable to put together any partnerships of note, tumbling to 120 for 8. It was thanks to No. 7 Adil Rashid’s 40 that the visitors managed to post their modest score – their innings ending when Sanjib Sanyal struck twice in the same over. Pankaj finished with 4 for 43 while Gupta had returns of 3 for 32 in 23 overs.

The pain of being labelled a “backstop” has helped drive Adam Gilchrist from being a gloveman who had to swap states to get regular first-class games to the world-record holder for dismissals. Gilchrist overtook Mark Boucher’s 413 on the second day against India and then spoke of his constant battle to prove himself to a small band of critics.”With my keeping I’ve always had to maintain the highest standards and if I didn’t people pounce on it very quickly,” he said. “I’m not sure if that’s because of my batting, people suggesting I’m just a batsman and a backstop. I’ve used that as incentive to help motivate me and feel like I’vemaintained a high standard.”Gilchrist’s work has slipped during the series and he has dropped four catches and missed two stumpings, including a regulation offering from VVS Laxman on the first day in Adelaide. He blamed himself for setting the poor tone in the field – Australia grassed seven chances as Indian reached 526 – but is not downbeat.”I’m probably the main culprit,” he said. “In Sydney I dropped about three or four and another one here [on day one]. That was disappointing. Sometimes they stick, sometimes they don’t, and it’s not something that’s a great concern.”His simple advice for improvement was to “close your hands around the ball” but he admitted his focus had left him down. “In a nutshell, it comes down to concentration,” he said. “Are you switched on for every ball? Very rarely, if ever, can I remember dropping a catch or missing a stumping, and when asking myself whether I was concentrating 100%, have I been able to sayyes. Normally I’ve had something on my mind and wandered off. You just get exposed.”Retirement is something Gilchrist, who is 36, is being asked about more often these days. He refused to open up on when he will step down or if he will reduce his duties. “It’ll be my decision,” he said. “At the end of the day you might try not to listen to comments and someone will text you and say: ‘don’t listen to them’. Then you listen and get angry. At the end of the day it’s got to come from within.”Gilchrist chose to leave his home state of New South Wales in 1994 to switch to Western Australia, unseating the popular Tim Zoehrer. When he replaced Ian Healy in 1999 there was similar angst from the home supporters, but he won most of them over as he redefined the role of the wicketkeeper-batsman.”I’m thrilled to be the world-record holder,” he said. “It’s a really nice, satisfying achievement. I might have got there a bit quicker if I’d gloved a couple a bit more cleanly.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

A valuable half-century from Michael Clarke kept Australia afloat before a tigerish bunch of fielders backed up accurate bowlers to pull off a memorable 50-run win in Adelaide. Few would have given Australia a chance from the depths of 5 for 73 but so tenacious was the fightback that they pocketed a bonus point as well.A scorching day saw the bowlers take centrestage. Irfan Pathan led India’s charge before another left-armer, Mitchell Johnson, played a big part in the fightback. At 1 for 55, India seemed on course for an easy win but the contest opened up after they lost three wickets in nine balls, all to injudicious swings outside off. Once Mahendra Singh Dhoni fell to a moment of fielding brilliance, the match was headed only in one direction.Australia were revived, quite fittingly, by James Hopes, a medium-pacer who surprised with extra zip off the pitch. He broke a promising stand, inducing an edge from Pathan, before luring Rohit Sharma into a false drive. Johnson managed to pocket a wicket in between, tempting the in-form Gautam Gambhir into a fatal flash to point. India were still in the hunt, though, especially with Yuvraj Singh showing signs of regaining form. But Yuvraj’s shoddy swipe across the line to a long-hop and Dhoni’s poor call shut the final window of opportunity.Australia’s intensity rarely wavered. Adam Gilchrist missed a simple chance against Sachin Tendulkar early on, when neither him nor first slip went for the catch, but made up with five dismissals by the end. With 73 dismissals against India, Gilchrist now has the most for a wicketkeeper against any country. He didn’t do much with the bat but his performance behind the stumps, including a diving catch to finish the game, sealed a fine Adelaide farewell.Australia’s early slide began with Gilchrist falling, smashing his bat in the dressing room after his dismissal. To Ishant goes the credit of providing the initial breakthrough. Gilchrist was laying into Sreesanth when Ishant castled him with one that came in a fraction. Even before the dismissal it was clear that Ishant had sussed up the conditions early. He clocked up serious pace, going beyond the 152kph mark on one occasion, and extracted plenty of bounce from what was a good batting surface. He was duly rewarded with another wicket in his second spell – Andrew Symonds failing to gauge the bounce and chopping straight to gully – and showed the rest the value of a disciplined approach.Pathan picked up the baton effortlessly. He moved the ball enough to create doubts in the batsmen’s minds before slipping in the sucker punch of a ball outside off. Hayden didn’t account for the extra bounce, snicking one to the wicketkeeper, and Michael Hussey wafted lazily at one outside off. Like all of India’s bowlers, Pathan used the bounce in the track well and came back to nab two more wickets.Clarke, who fell to Pathan towards the end, turned in an invaluable knock, adding 72 with the gritty Brad Hogg. The duo, coming together when James Hopes was left hopelessly stranded outside the crease to a Harbhajan doosra, played the percentages well. They decided to cut out the risks and chipped away with singles and twos.Clarke began slowly but upped the strike-rate as his innings went along. He struck six fours but the signature strokes were the taps in the gaps followed by quick running between the wickets. He didn’t go on to his hundred, holing out to midwicket in his first real slog attempt, but his knock was crucial in helping Australia post a competitive score.