EDEN LOSES IND-ENG FIXTURE??

 

In a major embarrassment to the BCCI, the ICC has ruled out Eden Gardens as the host of the game between India and England on February 27. The ICC’s inspection team, which included some of the leading experts in the field of stadium and ground preparation, felt that Eden Gardens would not be ready in time. No alternate venue for the match has yet been named. The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the three World Cup stadiums in Sri Lanka were all given the go-ahead by the ICC.

“Regrettably, Eden Gardens has not made sufficient progress to justify the level of confidence required to confirm that the venue would be ready in good time,” Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said. “This was no easy decision to take and while it is most unfortunate, it is absolutely necessary.” The Cricket Association of Bengal is having an emergency meeting to discuss the development.

Kolkata was to host three other matches in the World Cup, but the status of those games is still unclear. “At this stage no decision has been taken on those matches,” an ICC spokesperson said. The India-England clash was the only chance for fans in Kolkata to see the home side.

BCCI president Shashank Manohar said that there was no need for the BCCI to call any emergency meeting, but pointed out that he would consult his “office bearers” to finalise the venue for the match. It is learnt that Bangalore is tipped to be a favourite. “99 % it will be Bangalore,” an ICC source said.

The news of switching the match from Kolkata comes just two days after the tournament director, Ratnakar Shetty, waved away worries over readiness of World Cup venues. Media personnel had been barred from a recent inspection of Eden Gardens.

The venue, one of the largest cricket stadiums in the world, has hosted some of the highest-profile matches of the previous two World Cups held in the subcontinent including the final in 1987 and the semi-final in 1996. No international matches have been held in Kolkata since the Test between India and South Africa in February as the stadium was being renovated.

“All venues had ample time in which to prepare for World Cup matches,” Lorgat said. “We had been understanding and had provided extensions to the deadline dates but unfortunately we are now at a point where we must carefully manage our risks.

“The Central Organising Committee had provided venues with a deadline of 30 November 2010 to complete all construction work and then to be match-ready by 31 December 2010. An extension was granted by the ICC for five venues, which were again inspected over the past week. Sadly, Eden Gardens in Kolkata was unable to meet the final deadline date of 25 January 2011.”

The ICC is still deciding on the new venue for the India-England match. “We will work with the new venue, the tour operators and the ticket distributors to manage the logistical challenges that will surely arise,” Shetty said.

SAF TAKE SERIES DESPITE OF YUSUF BLITZ

Yusuf Pathan launched the sort of assault that has made him a rich man to ensure it wasn’t all one-way traffic in Centurion but it wasn’t enough to prevent South Africa from snatching the series with a 33-run victory. After a tough tour over the past month-and-a-half, the last day of the series seemed set to be an anti-climactic non-scrap courtesy yet another Hashim Amla century and a slew of reckless strokes from the Indians.

 

Yusuf, though, blasted a century of utter violence when all looked lost at 119 for 8, and after an hour of Yusuf, the South African bowling was looking clueless and India were 49 short, dreaming of a miraculous win. Yusuf clubbed a 68-ball century but holed out soon after, much to the relief of the Sunday crowd at Supersport Park.

The tour had begun with South Africa’s crushing Test victory in Centurion and ends with another defeat for the visitors at the same venue. One reason India’s bowlers will be thrilled to be heading back home will be that there will be less sparring with Amla, who has plundered more than 1100 runs in the past 11 months against India in Tests and one-dayers. He collected another 116 on Sunday to push South Africa to a tall total in a rain-hit match.

MS Dhoni had chosen to bowl on winning the toss, perhaps swayed by Supersport Park’s reputation of being a ground where it is easy to chase in day games. No matter what the past record, it is unlikely any team can win when its top order combusts so spectacularly and heedlessly as India’s did. Barring Virat Kohli, the rest of the top six were dismissed not by unplayable deliveries but by attempts at extravagant strokes.

Rohit Sharma’s horror series ended as he was bowled by Lonwabo Tsotsobe going for a loose drive through the line; Dhoni’s imperious cut ended as an edge to first slip; Yuvraj Singh edged two boundaries to third man before giving catching practice to JP Duminy at point; Suresh Raina smashed a couple of fours before an upper cut sailed to third man; Parthiv Patel was the only one in the top order to inspire confidence, middling nearly every ball for the second innings in a row before falling to a debatable diving catch by Faf du Plessis at cover. India were 74 for 6 in the 14th over, and their only hope of saving the series seemed to be if the ominous clouds circling the stadium brought a massive downpour which washed away the match before the 20th over.

Enter Yusuf. He fell over reverse-sweeping Robin Peterson for a six early in his innings, but the wickets kept tumbling at the other end. With Zaheer Khan adopting a blithe step-away-and-swing approach, the end seemed minutes away, but he knuckled down after some initial scares and kept turning the strike over to Yusuf.

Indian fans would have nursed little hopes even when intermittent bursts of hitting took Yusuf to 66 off 58, and India climbed to 175 for 8 in the 33rd over. All that changed as Yusuf pounded four sixes and three fours in the next three overs to reach his century – so quickly that few realised he had reached the milestone till he raised his bat. That frenzy, through which Yusuf remained completely calm, ended with a 21-run over from Tsotsobe that brought the required-rate below five. Yusuf skied another attempted blast down the ground soon after, which du Plessis clasped to settle South African nerves.

Yusuf’s ton was in absolute contrast to Amla’s in the morning, when the South African chose patience over pyrotechnics to coolly compile his runs – he reached his half-century on the back of 30 consecutive singles. After Graeme Smith’s troubles against Zaheer Khan continued, Amla let No. 3 Morne van Wyk be the aggressor. van Wyk grew in confidence as his innings progressed, unleashing a series of powerful cuts whenever he was given width, and even pulled off an audacious lap-shot off Munaf Patel for four.

India went in with only two quick bowlers, and their armada of spinners didn’t pose too many questions to the South African batsmen. South Africa glided to 113 for 1 before Yuvraj plucked a spectacular caught-and-bowled to send back van Wyk, and had AB de Villiers stumped with a sharply turning delivery.

Amla and Duminy, the home side’s two form batsmen this series, both had lives – Duminy surviving a close lbw shout and Amla dropped at square leg – and revived South Africa with a 102-run stand. The standout shot in Amla’s innings was the dab to third man, perfectly timing the ball as he opened the face to pick up several boundaries, one of which brought up his century.

In the four overs that remained after an 80-minute stoppage, South Africa lost their heads and plenty of wickets as panicky running, smart bowling and attempted slogging combined to result in a collapse of 6 for 24. Amla played only two deliveries in those last four overs. India went in to lunch on a high, but there was little joy for them after the break barring Yusuf’s heroics, and their dreams of a maiden series win in South Africa were shattered.

WILL SAF FREE UP OR FREEZE UP?

 

The Great Wanderers Choke only highlighted the concerns that were present from the first game. What if South Africa’s middle-order collapsed? Can David Miller and the men below him shoulder the burden? AB de Villiers and JP Duminy ensured that situation never arose in the first game with their serene approach but Duminy was the one who started the collapse in the second game, by holing out to long-on. Smith fell immediately after taking the batting Powerplay and the rest crumbled. The situation will, of course, change significantly once Jacques Kallis returns for the World Cup: The lower order wouldn’t remain so brittle and therefore this trial by fire is perhaps a great learning curve. If Miller, and Faf du Plessis, who is likely to play the next game, can get in a good knock under pressure in the remaining matches, it will help South Africa in the World Cup.

This injury to Kallis can be a blessing in disguise provided the hosts unearth at least one lower-order player who manages to perform under pressure in this series. It would also perhaps help the likes of Duminy to fast-track those youngsters’ path to maturity.

 

India, for their part, can now test their World Cup squad. Sachin Tendulkar’s absence does raise another hurdle but the likes of Yusuf Pathan and Suresh Raina will find that the pitches in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth don’t offer disconcerting bounce, providing them a better chance to succeed. It will be crucial for Raina to perform, for Virat Kohli, who despite his great form might still struggle to hold a place in the playing XI once Virender Sehwag, Tendulkar, and Gautam Gambhir return, is breathing down his neck. If Raina can put in couple of good performances with bat and ball, he can secure his No. 6 slot.

The World Cup selection has eased Ashish Nehra’s headaches but Munaf Patel is turning on the heat by stringing together some good performances. Until the fourth ODI against New Zealand, there was no contest; Nehra was the clear leader but suddenly he has failed four games in a row. His past performances under pressure in the Powerplays and with the new ball should still hold him in good stead but a couple of good shows in this series won’t hurt.

TENDULKAR TO RETURN HOME

India have pulled out a win out of nowhere to level the series 1-1, but their task of winning the series has become more difficult with SACHIN TENDULKAR  has become the fourth first-choice player to return to India, joining openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, and fast bowler Praveen Kumar. The nature of the injury or discomfort is not yet known, but MS Dhoni said that “most likely he is going back”. This leaves India with just one opener, M Vijay, who is not in the best of form.

Dhoni is no alien to such circumstances as India have hardly played cricket with their first-choice XIs over the last two years. “We will have to open with someone,” he said. “I don’t know what’s happening, whether we are getting someone from India [as replacement] or not. The visa will take three days at least, he will take the next flight, and by the time he comes here we will have just one match left. I don’t know who will open.”

Dhoni sounded hopeful that Vijay will find some form. “Vijay is looking a bit out of form, but he’s working well in the nets. Form is just a matter of a few strokes. Once you get those few strokes, all of a sudden you feel back in form.”

These fitness issues have left Dhoni not demanding too much of his fast bowlers either, with the World Cup just around the corner. He said that right now fitness is more important than form, because there aren’t too many choices, especially in the fast-bowling department.

Dhoni said he would need to rotate the fast bowlers in this series because there are a few niggles troubling them. “We will have to see what kind of niggle a bowler is having, and accordingly we will decide,” Dhoni said. “Of course right now we don’t have too many fast bowlers to choose from when it comes to the one-day side. You have two bowlers outside, Ishant and Sreesanth, who have not played a lot of ODI cricket recently. This series is important, but I don’t want any bowler to get an injury just because of over burden. We will try to avoid it because World Cup is big for us, but at the same time this series is important.”

Dhoni himself seems to be struggling after getting hit in the shin while keeping. If he becomes unavailable during this series, that will be some trouble because India don’t even have a reserve wicketkeeper here.

MUNAF CLINCHES STUNNING WIN FOR INDIA

 

 

South Africa made a mess of what should have been a comfortable chase of a below-par total at Wanderers, stumbling in the batting Powerplay and then sinking to a dispiriting defeat in a thrilling finish. In conditions less favourable for batting than what the venue has offered in the past, Graeme Smith had put South Africa on course with a positive innings but his wicket in the 33rd over triggered a collapse that was a product of panic, ill-luck and some needling Indian bowling. Munaf Patel’s spell proved decisive as he islodged Smith and ended the South African innings with two wickets in the 43rd over, when the hosts were just a shot away from victory.

 

The game was still South Africa’s when Munaf began bowling the 43rd over. Four runs were needed with two wickets in hand but what clinched the game for India were two short-of-a-length deliveries that the tailenders, Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell, who had batted calmly until then, felt were too good to resist. With three needed for victory, Morkel slashed one straight to the substitute fielder Yusuf Pathan at point and, off the last ball of the over, Parnell, keen to finish off the game, cut Munaf to Yuvraj Singh, sparking wild celebrations in the Indian camp while leaving South Africa shell-shocked at their sudden capitulation.

 

The result had seemed unlikely with Smith’s assured presence at the crease. He had been ruthless in his treatment of the bad balls, which the Indians doled out more often than their opponents had earlier in the day, and had eased the pressure despite periodic breakthroughs at the other end. Munaf was punished for consecutive boundaries through mid-off and point, while Zaheer Khan was pulled through midwicket when he pitched short. Initially a little rusty against Harbhajan Singh, Smith stepped out to the offspinner to combat the turn and take the ball off a length. He kept threading the gaps in the outfield to squeeze boundaries off the seamers and went past 6000 runs in ODIs.

 

Smith’s shaky yet productive stand with Colin Ingram, a fluent partnership with JP Duminy and an increasingly threatening association with David Miller had continued the one-way traffic set up by South Africa’s bowlers. But at 152 for 4, in the second over of the batting Powerplay, a reversal began.

 

South Africa’s bowlers had exploited the movement off the pitch in restraining India, and Munaf had managed to prise out the wicket of Hashim Amla with a delivery that nipped back in. In the 33rd over, he managed to dart one back in from outside off towards Smith, who played on. In the next over, after he had been flicked to the fine-leg boundary, Zaheer shortened his length and dismissed Miller with an offcutter that the batsman failed to pull and gloved to short fine leg. And when he returned in the 36th over, Zaheer was fortunate to dismiss Johan Botha, who was given out lbw playing back to a good-length delivery, when it seemed the ball had only made contact with the outer half of the bat, not with the pad.

 

Parnell calmed the nerves of a capacity Wanderers crowd with a square-cut boundary and a promising vigil with Dale Steyn. But Steyn’s attempt to risk a single and retain strike for the 39th over resulted in a run-out when Yuvraj barely managed to break the stumps before the ball slipped out of his hands. From 177 for 8, Parnell and Morkel braved a determined spell from Zaheer, managed a streaky boundary off part-time offspinner Suresh Raina and took South Africa to within four runs of a 2-0 lead. Only to throw it all away in the next over from Munaf.

 

South Africa’s bowlers may have unable to finish the job with the bat but they had impressed with disciplined bowling performance under overcast skies on a slowish track. India approached their innings cautiously and, using the movement, South Africa’s bowlers capitalised on their circumspection. Lonwabo Tsotsobe was the best. His role in ODIs has largely been a containing one but his accuracy amid India’s pressure to accelerate earned him his best match haul of 4 for 22. India, too, faltered in their batting Powerplay, losing four wickets for 14 runs to undermine what Yuvraj and Dhoni had achieved during their fighting recovery stand.

 

The pair had to build from scratch following the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli in quick succession. Displaying little signs of getting bogged down, neither batsman felt compelled to take undue risks and instead ensured a steady scoring-rate by working the field. Both used the sweep and the paddle, while Yuvraj often drove straight to pinch twos because long-on that was wider than usual. Bad balls were a rarity but Yuvraj was prompt to punish them when on offer: he slashed Morkel over point and glanced Tsotsobe to the fine-leg boundary to raise his half-century. The stand was worth 83 and with 13 more overs to go, a score of 240 was on. India didn’t get that far, though given the manic developments towards the end, they didn’t need to.

Australia search for that winning feeling

The Big Picture

 

Australia’s one-wicket defeat in the opening Twenty20 of the two-match series summed up the season that Shane Watson and his team are having. The stand-out performer on either side, Watson added four wickets to his rollicking half-century and was named Man of the Match, but still ended up on the losing side as England squeezed home from the final ball. Such are the vicissitudes of Twenty20 cricket, where victory can often depend upon a slice of luck at the right moment. Australia’s morale will not have been helped by yet another loss to add to their recent string of disappointments.

 

Wednesday’s match in Adelaide had the air of a new beginning for Australia, with Cameron White taking over the leadership of the T20 side and Tim Paine acting as his deputy. There were also a few fresh faces, with Aaron Finch and Steve O’Keefe, and the return of a veteran in Brett Lee, but the changes weren’t enough to secure the win Australia so desperately need. While they will hope for better in Melbourne on Friday, particularly from a sluggish middle order, England are developing a psychological hold over them that will be hard to shrug off.

 

The visitors are, of course, world champions in this format, but several members of the team have been relegated to the sidelines for much of the Australian tour. Ajmal Shahzad and Michael Yardy were still more than competent with the ball, however, and Eoin Morgan showed no rust whatsoever as he provided backbone to the middle-order with a fluent 43. It wasn’t quite the same story with Steve Davies and Luke Wright, who survived a combined total of four deliveries, and it was left to a nerveless Chris Woakes – on England debut – to see the side home.

 

It is surely a challenge for both teams to maintain focus on the task at hand with a World Cup just over a month away, but England are on a successful roll and Australia are headed in the opposite direction. The harder task for the hosts might be to re-discover the self-belief that makes all the difference in closely-fought games.

IPL AUCTION BREAKS NEW GROUND

Batsmen, Australians cash in during ground-breaking auction

 

At the end of the largest two-day sports ‘auction’ in the world, the Indian Premier League took the first clear, decisive step towards its fourth season. Ending months of controversy around the League’s own financial deals and its teams’ ownership holdings, the ten franchises finally shook hands with the 139 cricketers who will form the core of the high-profile domestic Twenty20 event that begins in India on April 8.

 Auction weekend in Bangalore oscillated wildly between extremes of spending, lavish as well as careful, and general sloppiness around its conclusion. What began with the first of four $2m signings on Saturday morning ended with Mohammed Kaif’s name finally pencilled into the IPL roster, after being met with silence across the floor not once, but twice on Sunday. Almost like a sudden afterthought, Kaif was hauled onto the IPL4 gravy train, the last cricketer aboard, concluding the 353-man auction used to reshuffle the League’s overall player pool.  After a prolonged two-day display of corporate wealth, cricket tactics and Bollywood showbiz (in that order), which ran live on national television across India, teams were left dealing with either a shrunken wallet or depleted ranks. If Gautam Gambhir broke the $2m salary mark on Saturday, the relatively-unknown Australia allrounder Daniel Christian, who has played three Twenty20 internationals, was the highest-paid player signed up on Sunday, at $900,000 by the Deccan Chargers. Deccan now have 14 cricketers in their roster, and still have $2.13m left unspent from their $9m salary ‘cap’. Current IPL champions Chennai Super Kings filled 18 slots, of the maximum squad strength of 30, during the auction itself. At the other end are the Rajasthan Royals, who signed just eight cricketers (Rahul Dravid and Pankaj Singh the only Indians among them) at the auction and are now left with a mere $800,000. They have less than Christian’s wage to hire at least another 18 cricketers to field a competitive team in the IPL.  Rajasthan and all the other teams must now find the remainder of their squad from among India’s domestic player pool, officially called the ‘uncapped’ players, who unofficially form the source of much confusion between the franchises. The uncapped players can only be paid a fixed sum depending on their experience in domestic cricket and there is doubt among franchises as to whether the guidelines imposed by the IPL governing council in this regard would, or indeed could, be legitimately followed.  The first XI’s of many sides were signed on as much as possible on the first day of the auction itself, and the second was spent trying to fill in the overseas quota and the remaining gaps in team plans. If the first auction in 2008 was marked by the stampede to nab names that create spectator interest and a ‘fan base’, 2011 had the franchises, not the concept of ‘icons’ players, calling the shots. No takers then for some of the high-earning cricketers of the first phase of the IPL like Sourav Ganguly and Sanath Jayasuriya, nor the need to seek random, occasional short-game performers from overseas like Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher, Jacob Oram or even the born-again Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Every soundbite that emerged on doting television channels talked about ‘youth’, the Twenty20 format, and the team’s ‘plans’ for the future.  The heavy sums during auction weekend were spent on impact players, who are now expected to win matches single-handedly, as well as those men meant to serve as genuine multi-taskers. If the player on auction was Indian, a fat pay cheque was a given, regardless of the cricketer’s core skill. Gambhir was the highest-paid specialist batsman at $2.4m, closely followed by the allrounders Yusuf and Irfan Pathan, who between them picked up $4m.  On the flat wickets, quick outfields and short boundaries of India, all long handles were welcomed. Of the top 25 earners from the auction (excluding the retained players), there are only six specialist bowlers: Dale Steyn at $1.2m, Muttiah Muralitharan ($1.1m), Johan Botha ($950,000), and Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth and Piyush Chawla (all $900,000).  Yet, the 35 slots between $900,000 and $400,000 are full of bowlers, as many as 17, with Sunday’s frantic buying including happy contracts for more than half a dozen Indian seamers. It opened with Umesh Yadav’s astonishing $750,000 bid, Munaf Patel got $700,000 and Laxmipathy Balaji $500,000. Vinay Kumar was bought for $475,000, Ashok Dinda for $375,000 and Manpreet Gony went for $290,000. The younger Indian seamers – Abhimanyu Mithun, Jaidev Unadkat and Sudeep Tyagi – were separated by $10,000 between the $260,000 to $240,000 bracket. Ajit Agarkar signed on with Delhi for $210,000.  The heavy presence of as many as six Australians – Darren Lehmann, Michael Bevan, Geoff Lawson, Geoff Marsh, Dav Whatmore, Shane Warne (player-coach) and David Shipperd – heading support staffs among the ten teams explains the signing of 38 Australians amongst the 87 overseas players who will compete in IPL4. The South Africans are next with 20 of their players getting contracts. The southern hemisphere’s cricket calendar works perfectly for both these nations’ players to accommodate the IPL into their schedule, even as their third rugby-playing partner New Zealand is unable to hustle its most competitive cricketers into the tournament.  England’s best will always find themselves having to grapple between their domestic season, early international fixtures and the IPL. The West Indian dispute over the unsigned board contracts may be settled by the silence from the entire League towards cricketers from the Caribbean as a whole.  While smaller nations may take some heart from Dutchman Ryan Ten Doeschate’s $150,000 contract with Kolkata, Bangladesh or Zimbabwe players’ entry into the IPL will still depend not on the team owners’ knowledge of the game, but on the open-mindedness of those in charge of a franchise’s cricket operations. Pakistan’s players’ entry, though, will have to rely on a thaw in both the political freeze between India and its neighbour, as well as the immovable timidity of the League.  The final round of the IPL auction ended in farce as 28 players were put back into auction, ostensibly because they had been asked for by the franchises. Yet 13 of the 28, including eight international cricketers, were not bid for by a single franchise, with no explanations given as to why they had been put onto the list in the first place. The three biggest names left out of the auction – Ganguly, Jayasuriya and Chris Gayle – were not on the second list and will not be a part of IPL4. Ganguly and Jayasuriya may have missed out because of their age but Gayle’s omission is as inexplicable as the man’s own persona. Among those bid for as second thoughts were Jesse Ryder of New Zealand, Rusty Theron of South Africa, Adam Voges and Moises Henriques from Australia, and Dmitri Mascarenhas and Michael Lumb of England. A few first-class cricketers, known mostly to the overseas coaches who make up most of the franchises’ support staff, pulled in some surprise contracts right at the end.  Only two more Indians made that final cut: left-arm spinner Murali Kartik and Kaif, whose name was suddenly called for the third time. He was one of the earliest on the leftover list to be called up again, but met with silence for the second time in a few hours. Third time around, Kaif drew bids from Pune, Deccan and Bangalore, and eventually went to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for $130,000. The auction finally drew to a close with the three groups of men and women who had been tossing around numbers for Kaif rocking back and forth with laughter. The heaviest wallets in Indian cricket had much to celebrate: for six weeks this summer, they will own and control the biggest and some of the most gifted names in the sport.

GAUTI,YUSUF,UTHAPPA HIT JACKPOT

Teams spend big to overhaul their rosters

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Shaking off months of controversy, litigation and uncertainty, cricket’s biggest, richest and most brassy domestic event, the Indian Premier League, sprang into life again, breaking records and banks on the first day of auction weekend in Bangalore.

From the 88 players auctioned today, 15 new millionaires were created by the ten IPL franchises who will compete in season four, but there was another sorry bunch of 16 players who were left ‘unsold’ when the auction finally ended at 6 pm. Minutes after his name was the first to be randomly pulled out from a list of ‘marquee players’ at 11 am on Saturday morning, Gautam Gambhir earned the highest playing contract in cricket, $2.4 million for two years with the Kolkata Knight Riders. With the top seven of the 15 new ‘millionaires’ being Indian, the day was marked by big spends for the small 48-strong pool of home-grown talent available to the ten teams, who must now compete to create new squads from scratch. Just over a month ago, the number of teams in the auction had been unclear, with Kochi trying to establish an undisputed ownership pattern and Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab fighting the BCCI against their sudden expulsion from the lucrative league. In Bangalore on Saturday though, with differences quelled for the moment, the auction diverted the IPL spotlight away from legal disputes towards the Bollywood and business-driven spectacle it was meant to be. There were 72 players (30 Indians, 42 foreign players) sold on the first day of the auction for $52.8m. If Gambhir was the highest-earning Indian ever in the league (going for more than Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag’s (‘RETENTION SALARIES’), Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene became the highest-earning overseas player, signed on for $1.5m by Kochi, the only team left to declare its formal, merchandise-friendly IPL name. They have until April 8 to decide, the IPL beginning just a week after the end of the World Cup. If there was a single trend through the giant auction player pool, it was this: younger, high-impact men, whether with bat or ball, and genuine multi-tasking allrounders went for the highest price, even if it was the sole big spend a team could make. The player’s marketability was an additional bonus. It is what explains the $1.9m for Irfan Pathan, who has spent a good portion of the domestic season injured and now finds himself out of India’s World Cup probables as well. The short supply of Indians in categories of all kind meant that a younger bunch of Indians suddenly found themselves receiving wages far higher than their more experienced colleagues. The Pune Warriors’ $2.1m spend on Robin Uthappa (only the third $2m man), for example, was well ahead of their $1.8m on Yuvraj Singh, who may well eventually be named Pune captain. South Africa’s Twenty20 captain Johan Botha went for almost double the price of his Test and ODI captain Graeme Smith to Rajasthan Royals, the team Smith had played for in the first three years. Along with the franchise owners and coaches present in the auction room, the team’s captain-coach Shane Warne spent the day in consultations over the telephone with the franchise. There were several approaches at work today: Kolkata made their intentions clear early on, first winning allrounder Yusuf Pathan at the second-highest bid for the day, $2.1m. By lunchtime, they had spent another $1.1m on South African allrounder Jacques Kallis. As the only team to have three millionaires on their payroll, Kolkata were willing to gamble early on spending more than half of the $9m salary cap on three players. Most of the other teams also tried to overhaul their personnel in an attempt to avoid the mistakes of the previous three seasons. Going against that grain, though, Chennai Super Kings, the current IPL Champions as well as the Champions League Twenty20 winners, retained as many as eight players from their successful campaigns. Four of those were retained before the auction which cut their salary cap by half and today, despite being the most infrequent bidder, Chennai managed to both sign on key members of their old squad and stick to their restricted budget. A Chennai official said the team’s approach was not surprising given that it had been asking the BCCI to allow it to retain players for the last year. “We had the strategy to retain as many players as possible. They players definitely wanted to stay back with us and it helps maintain the winning the form. Our aim has been that our team should gel well and hence we have always felt we shouldn’t change it. You can’t get a player only for two months and then discard them.” He said the men behind keeping the unit intact were the-captain-and-coach pair of MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming: “The coach and the captain believe in this same ethos and they are the ones who have established this trend.” The IPL, which has broad-based and transformed cricket’s entire economy, once again produced unexpected, unorthodox and some illogical changes as well. The returns from the IPL auction for the England players continue to remain uneven: three players from their World Twenty20-winning team, Graeme Swann, James Anderson and Luke Wright were unsold (along with wicketkeeper Matt Prior, while Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad, Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood were bought for a total of $1.65m). The Ashes may well be a sign of doom for the Australian cricket establishment but at the IPL, they remain the most sought after overseas hirings, with 18 Australians being signed on today. The three West Indian cricketers who have turned down central contracts with their board have been dealt with differently: Kieron Pollard had been retained by Mumbai Indians, Dwayne Bravo was bought cheap at $200,000 by Chennai, but the most experienced of the three, left-hand opener Chris Gayle found himself without a contract of any kind. On a day when franchises signed up as many as 42 overseas players, Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis found himself unsought after as did Bangladesh’s attacking opener, Tamim Iqbal, and New Zealand’s Jesse Ryder, who by all logic, is New Zealand’s leading impact man after Brendon McCullum. In the symbolic statement of representing both the shorter, sharper, faster and more demanding format of Twenty20 and therefore the ‘Gen Next’ cricketer, older men like the retired Brian Lara and the semi-retired Sourav Ganguly have been left on the shelf. Similarly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, mainstays of the Indian Test middle order, also struggled to get a bid any distance over their ‘base price’. Dravid finds himself in the cash-strapped Rajasthan Royals franchise on a $500,000 salary while Laxman went at his price of $400,000 to the first and only bidder Kochi. Three years ago, this would have been a handsome wage, but in the time of the $2.4m contract and in the IPL’s unreal pay scales, these are lean pickings. The presence of Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds in the same Mumbai Indians dressing room will serve as a handy marketing pitch for the tightly-controlled high rollers of the IPL. For all the advertising about the rationale and practicality of franchise purchase, several auction equations remained unbalanced: the $1.6m spend on Saurabh Tiwary did not exactly go hand in hand with the absence in the auction of some highly rated IPL names – Manish Pandey, Sidharth Trivedi, Ambati Rayudu. Piyush Chawla’s $900,000 compared to IPL 3’s top wicket-taker Pragyan Ojha’s $500,000 could not be explained but then again neither could the general silence around Murali Kartik, whose economy-rate for the struggling Kolkata last season was better than both younger men. One the men who has benefitted the most in the auction would be allrounder Ravindra Jadeja who was left out of the Rajashthan team last season for entering into discussions about a transfer to the Mumbai team. Jadeja came to within $50,000 of being IPL 4’s Mr Millionaire No. 16. At the auction tomorrow, there will be 71 more players up for sale, with the number of Indians now down to 18.

ENGLAND COMPLETE CRUSHING ASHES VICTORY

 

 

 

England ended 24 years of hurt in crushing style at the SCG as they secured an innings-and-83-run victory to take the Ashes series 3-1. The crowning moment came shortly before noon when Chris Tremlett found Michael Beer’s inside edge to bowl him leg stump. It was the first time in their history that Australia have suffered three innings defeats in a series and left nobody in any doubt where the balance of power now lies.

The England players immediately embraced at the striker’s end and savoured their moment in a tight team huddle. This has been a victory fashioned by exemplary planning and hard work where no stone has been left unturned. The defeat in Perth, by 267 runs, which levelled the series for Australia, only inspired the visitors to hit new heights and they proceeded to crush the hosts in Melbourne and Sydney.

England were frustrated for a while as showers scudded across the ground to cause a 45-minute suspension and then by an 86-run stand between Steve Smith and Peter Siddle. However, Graeme Swann broke through shortly before the new ball and a short time later Tremlett removed the last obstacle.

Smith and Siddle at least showed some fight as they came out and played their shots. Siddle’s batting improvement since his return from injury is one of few bonuses to emerge from a terrible series for the hosts, and it highlights their problems that his run-scoring record is not far off that of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke.

The England bowlers couldn’t quite recapture the intensity of the fourth evening when they claimed the extra half hour to try and wrap up victory. Tremlett appeared a little down on pace after his roaring burst the previous day, but England knew all they had to do was remain patient and their moment would arrive.

Swann had bowled well in the innings without reward so when he had Siddle taken at deep midwicket it was deserved success for giving Andrew Strauss control at vital stages. That was Swann’s final bowl, though, as the new ball was taken straight away and Anderson, who will head home for ten days’ rest, found Ben Hilfenhaus’ edge to give the impressive Matt Prior another catch.

By now the Barmy Army were in full voice. Smith had time to bash his way to a second Test fifty, but he knew the end was close as he swung from the hip. A single exposed Beer to three balls of Tremlett’s over and he only needed one delivery. England will party the day and night away in Sydney, yet knowing the focus of Strauss and Andy Flower they will soon be back preparing for the next challenge. Next stop: the best team in the world.

GRITTY GAMBHIR LEADS TO INDIA 1-1 DRAW

	Gautam Gambhir’s 64-run vigil led India’s resistance as they batted out the fifth day at Newlands and earned a 1-1 series draw

 

 

An insipid performance from India’s bowlers on the fourth day had broken their aspirations of a maiden Test series victory in South Africa but, on the fifth, the batsmen ensured they achieved at least a draw for the first time in the country. In an anticlimactic end to an enthralling contest, Gautam Gambhir was at the forefront of the Indian resistance, Rahul Dravid blocked lots of balls, and South Africa’s bowlers toiled 82 overs for three wickets, when they needed ten.

 

South Africa fell behind early in their pursuit of victory and eventually took only one wicket in each session. The key to their chances lay in how many they dismissed with the new ball, and India won a decisive battle by surviving the first 11 overs without damage. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel weren’t as hostile as they were in the first innings but still bowled aggressively in the morning. Once that threat passed, India’s passage was easier. They survived one more flutter of anxiety, soon after Dravid fell late in the second session, when AB de Villiers failed to catch an extremely tough chance off Gambhir. The game was called off with umpteen fielders waiting for catches that never came, and South Africa were still winless in a series at home since Bangladesh’s visit in November 2008.

 

India did not try to win this deciding Test on its final morning – the target of 340 was always out of reach – but because they focused on survival and scored at about two runs an over, Graeme Smith was able to place as many close catchers as he pleased. Steyn got the ball to seam and swing away, though he wasn’t as terrific as he was on the third day. Morkel posed the greater threat, targeting the bodies of both openers with balls that jagged into them from short of a length. One screamer from round the wicket rose so steeply that even Gambhir’s best efforts to avoid it failed. The ball thudded painfully into his left arm, just below the elbow. It was the same injured arm that kept him off the field during South Africa’s second innings and has ruled him out of the ODI series. Gambhir got it treated, and took guard again.

 

It made sense for Gambhir to try and face Steyn, while Sehwag countered Morkel. Steyn’s swing into the left-hander’s pads made it easier for Gambhir to face him. Sehwag, however, struggled against Morkel, getting hustled by deliveries that homed in at his body and beaten by others that straightened.

 

South Africa’s first chance came when Lonwabo Tsotsobe replaced Steyn in the 11th over and Sehwag slashed him. The ball flew towards JP Duminy, standing deeper at point, and burst through his hands as he mistimed his jump. The let-off cost South Africa only a few deliveries, though, for in the next over Sehwag hung his bat out and edged Morkel to Boucher. Umpire Ian Gould asked the third umpire to check if Morkel had overstepped. He hadn’t, by the smallest of margins. Sehwag’s dismal tour was over; 144 runs in six innings was all he got.

 

The pressure eased when Tsotsobe and Harris were operating. Gambhir and Dravid blocked, left, and blocked some more. Dravid was careful to play Harris with bat in front of pad, ensuring nothing would pop up to the close catchers. The ball was turning, and it was seaming, but it was doing both slowly. India passed 50 when Gambhir jumped down the pitch and drove Harris to the cover boundary, but runs were of little consequence.

 

On either side of the lunch break, Smith brought himself on to bowl offbreaks and a couple spun sharply. He changed his bowlers frequently but for the majority of the second session Gambhir and Dravid were untroubled and they collected easy runs by exploiting unprotected boundaries. Gambhir slashed and cut Steyn through point twice and reached a valuable half-century. Dravid simply used up deliveries and scored when he could, scoring three soft fours in a Smith over. Before those boundaries he had played 89 balls for 18 runs.

 

In the 44th over, just when the Test seemed to be entering a phase of defensive torpor, Harris began to make things happen off the pitch. He ripped and bounced one sharply across Dravid and later in the over struck him low on the back foot in front of middle stump. The ball hit pad before bat but Gould said not out. Dravid played only 15 more balls, though, before edging Tsotsobe off the front foot to the cordon.

 

The opportunity to dismiss Gambhir, on 62 off 146 balls, came soon after, when a leading edge flew quickly to de Villiers at silly point. He grabbed repeatedly at the sharp chance but spilled the ball and Harris held his head. Gambhir played 37 more balls. Tendulkar was solid for 91 deliveries and he remained unbeaten, walking off Newlands with the series shared. VVS Laxman too couldn’t be budged, after Gambhir had gloved Steyn’s short ball down the leg side for 64. It was Boucher’s 499th catch.

 

Steyn and Morkel’s spells after tea were South Africa’s last chance. They returned for one final attempt, an over each with the second new ball. Both were fruitless. India scored only 166 runs today and saved the series.