Wide of the mark
Australia normally don’t give an inch on the cricket field but today their bowlers misplaced their radar and conceded an awful amount of wides. Brett Lee began the glut by firing the first ball of the third over down the leg side for five wides and the disease spread rapidly. James Hopes was the best, conceding only one wide, while Andrew Symonds and Brad Hogg also gift-wrapped five wides. The runs in wides totalled 31, the second highest that Australia have ever conceded in an ODI. Zaheer Khan began to return the favour by bowling two wides in the first over of Australia’s innings and RP Singh followed suit.Tendulkar at sea
An outstanding opening spell from Lee made Sachin Tendulkar look helpless at the crease. He was beaten on the drive by fast outswingers, surprised by a couple of bouncers, survived two close appeals; for caught behind when Snicko suggested an inside edge and a lbw shout when the ball might have clipped leg stump. Tendulkar had his troubles against the other bowlers as well; Nathan Bracken rapped him on the pads first ball and Mitchell Johnson’s bounce hit him on the shoulder of his bat. Tendulkar changed his bat twice during his innings and managed to weather the storm.An extraordinary wait
The spectators had cheered six boundaries off Sourav Ganguly’s bat but none had been forthcoming from Tendulkar despite the fielding restrictions. It was only in the 15th over, bowled by Hopes, that Tendulkar freed his arms and cut to the backward point boundary for his first four. The shot had broken a 42-ball drought and the crowd received it with robust applause.Nimble feet, clumsy hands
Brad Hodge, patrolling the square leg boundary, sprinted to his right to stop a flick from Tendulkar. The ball was winning the race and Hodge too realised that he wouldn’t be able to get there in time. As a last ditch effort, he slid feet first, like a football tackle, and prevented the boundary with his legs. In the next over, Hodge had to move quickly on the boundary to stop Tendulkar’s well-timed cover drive. This time he put in the conventional dive, hands first, but the ball bounced off him and went over the ropes.Caught napping
Tendulkar had battled to survive and reached a well-earned half-century before a utter lapse in concentration brought about his dismissal. He tried to paddle-sweep Hopes but missed and was hit on the pad. The Australians went up in appeal for leg before while Tendulkar had wandered to the middle of the pitch, his attention focused on Steve Bucknor’s finger. No one realised that the ball had gone to Lee at short fine leg who swooped on it and threw down the stumps while Gilchrist was still appealing and Tendulkar was yards short.The perfect finish
The Indians hadn’t hit a single six in their innings despite the boundaries at the Sector 16 Stadium being on the smaller side. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Robin Uthappa had taken 14 runs off the 50th over and one ball remained. Almost unnoticed, Dhoni had moved on to 44 off 34 deliveries and he lofted the last one cleanly over long-on to hit India’s first six and bring up his fifty as well.Déjà vu
In Hyderabad, Yuvraj Singh completed a stunning piece of fielding and fired the throw to Zaheer who reprieved Matthew Hayden by breaking the stumps with his hand. That let off cost India only 13 runs. Today Yuvraj once again threw the ball to Dhoni with Hayden just short of his crease but once again the stumps were broken with the hand. Hayden was on 53 and went on to make 92.India ambushed
Australia had made a strong start to their innings but India had picked up Adam Gilchrist and the match was poised at 59 for 1 after nine overs. Australia went on the offensive in the next two overs and hit India hard. Ricky Ponting cut RP Singh fiercely for four and followed up with two exquisite drives, through mid-on and cover. Hayden pounced on Pathan in the next over and swung him over the midwicket boundary before drilling another four in the same region. Australia scored 26 runs in those two overs and the run-rate escalated.Stunned by a stumping
Ponting had leaned forward to drive Irfan Pathan but was beaten outside off stump. Dhoni quickly whipped off the bails and pointed to Ponting’s back foot, indicating that it was on the line. Umpire Suresh Shastri jogged in to replace and took his time in calling for the third umpire. The Indians didn’t seem too excited and they had returned to their fielding positions while the third umpire pondered over the decision. Ponting too was unperturbed, calmly waiting to take strike again, until he appeared shocked when the giant screen flashed “OUT”. He stood his ground a while, muttered for what it was worth, before striding off in a huff.

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene has said that if his country was to make any headway in the Twenty20 format, the Sri Lankan cricket authorities must plan out a proper structure for it domestically.”Twenty20 is something unique and provides a lot of challenges to cricketers,” said Jayawardene. “If we are to go forward we need to play more Twenty20 cricket domestically at a highly competitive level, not just clubs competing with each other day in and day out.”We have to look into getting the best players involved and have a high quality tournament,” he said. “Twenty20 is going to be a part of the international calendar, so we need to develop specialist players for this type of game.”Jayawardene said that with every game Sri Lanka played in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, they learnt a lot.”Hopefully we should get a few more good cricketers coming through this system who will be really good Twenty20 players. Guys who are in the middle should be able to handle tough situations, not panic, be cool-headed and have confidence in what they are doing and bat according to situations. Bowlers with a lot of talent and variation who can adapt to different conditions will also come into play.Jayawardene stated that it was disappointing that his team won only one of their three matches in the Super Eights, against Bangladesh, but had words of praise for his bowlers.”We started off very well and we had our chances, but we made a few mistakes especially in the batting department. We never batted to our potential. We tried to do too many things which were not in our control,” he told the . “If we had stuck to our strengths and batted accordingly we probably would have given a better account of ourselves.”He praised his bowlers’ performance at the Twenty20 event. “The bowlers bowled really well throughout the tournament. Even without Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan] they put their hands up and performed really well. Credit should go to them.”Jayawardene was of the opinion that the ICC would not allow Twenty20 to replace the fifty-over game.”Twenty20 has been brought in to get in more crowds for the game. We need to strike a proper balance between Test cricket, one-day cricket and Twenty20. That’s the right way to go about it. The more we play Twenty20 the more we get kids involved. It’s obviously good for the game, but the real challenge for individual professional cricketers would be Test cricket and one-day cricket to test their capabilities.”Twenty20 cricket will develop individual skills. It will improve the one-day version just as one-day cricket improved Test cricket – run-scoring became faster, and Tests became more interesting and result oriented. I’m sure Twenty20 will have the same impact on one-day cricket as well.”

Stuart MacGill has been given a clear run into the first-Test team after Brad Hogg was trimmed from Australia’s 13-man squad in Brisbane. Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, watched Hogg bowl in the nets before making the decision, which was helped by the cloudy and damp conditions.MacGill, who made light of his “bowl-off” with Hogg after training on Monday, is now in the prime position to play against Sri Lanka at the Gabba on Thursday and resume his Test career after an 18-month break. He needs only two wickets to reach 200 and should line up alongside Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson, who is eyeing a debut on his home ground.The Australians held on to Ben Hilfenhaus, the Tasmania fast bowler drafted into the squad at the weekend, but picking four fast bowlers is unlikely despite the swing-friendly conditions. Hogg was due to return to Perth to prepare for Western Australia’s Pura Cup match against Queensland on Friday.Sri Lanka’s choices are more difficult as they have four quality options to shoehorn into a probable three-man attack. Trevor Bayliss, the coach, will consider a pace quartet but the hamstring injury to Kumar Sangakkara, which has ruled him out, means the safer option is to pick another batsman and let the wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene slot in at No. 7.If that happens Farveez Maharoof appears to be the unlucky bowler despite his strong performances in the tour game against Queensland. “Dilhara Fernando will be the first quick picked,” Bayliss said. “He’s been the leader of the attack for the last few months. We gave him a rest in the last match because we thought he’d be the first pick.”Depending on whether we go into the match with four quicks or three, there might be one guy who is desperately unlucky.” Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga add necessary variety to the unit and the forecast of more rain in Brisbane over the next couple of days increases the chances of the visitors preferring their experienced bowlers.Sangakkara is hoping to play in Hobart and his place at No. 3 will be taken by Michael Vandort, leaving Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu in strong positions to return as openers. Both Jayasuriya, who started the tour with a century followed by two failures at Allan Border Field, and Atapattu have been out of the side for long periods, but they have been used at the top of the order in both tour matches.”Marvan looked good in both games,” Bayliss said. “In the game against Queensland he got almost 50 on a difficult wicket and looked very at ease, hopefully he brings that into the Test and we get a good start.”

Michael Hussey shook off his fears over a short Test lead-up to register his sixth Test century and continue an impressive rebuild of Australia’s team after the loss of three greats. A torn hamstring suffered in the World Twenty20 limited Hussey’s preparation to a first-class game for Western Australia, but he was not hampered by his body or lack of play as he set up a massive total with Michael Clarke.”I was a little concerned,” Hussey said. “I’d done a lot of batting in the nets and had one game against Victoria, but nothing can really prepare you for a Test. I was quite relieved to score a hundred.”Hussey’s 245-run partnership with Clarke allowed Ricky Ponting to declare at 4 for 551 and ensured a smooth transition after the side lost Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer after its previous Test in January. Despite the strength of the position, Hussey was cautious about the state of game – “It’s just a start” – but was more confident about the prospects of improvement from the regenerating squad.”You can’t replace champions, but we’re still trying to raise the bar again and that comes down to the guys working collectively to raise their own games and our team to keep growing,” he said. “But it’s a lot different not having Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath around.”Hussey has quickly developed into a great international player and his 133 was the spine of the innings. On reaching three figures he waved to his family in the stands, where his daughter Molly, who was born prematurely in May, was attending her first Test. “I don’t think she’ll know too much about it,” he said, “hopefully she slept most of the day.”If she watched she would have seen her father excelling against one of the game’s greatest spinners. Hussey’s plan against Muttiah Muralitharan was to stay in the crease while Clarke was prepared to use his feet during his unbeaten 145. Clarke was picking the doosra “sometimes” – “I’m definitely not saying yes or I’ll get stumped next time” – and felt the duo did a good job against Muralitharan.”We played him pretty well,” he said. “I was looking for the ball to come out of his hand differently and trying to get to him on the full so it didn’t get a chance to spin.”A year ago Clarke was feeling his way back into the team and now he is entrenched after three centuries in his past five Tests. “I don’t think too much has changed, I still try to be as positive as I can,” he said. “My shot selection has probably improved and I’ve grown up a bit.”Australia’s day got better in the final 16 overs after Brett Lee struck twice, although Hussey warned things might not be as easy on day three. “The wicket has flattened out,” he said, “and we’re going to have to work hard to prise out the Sri Lankans.”

Queensland will rely on an inexperienced line-up to push them to a fourth FR Cup victory in a row when they encounter New South Wales in Brisbane on Wednesday. After beating South Australia last week, the Bulls have had their team cut down by representative calls and will miss Matthew Hayden, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Ashley Noffke and Andrew Symonds, who are preparing to face New Zealand this week.The fringe fast bowlers Scott Brant, Chris Swan and Grant Sullivan were promoted and the batsman Nathan Reardon was also included. Michael Kasprowicz and Shane Watson will provide the side with much-needed nous while Jimmy Maher, the captain, has extra batting responsibility as his team tries to close the gap on the leaders Tasmania.Both Watson and Kasprowicz showed strong patches of form on Wednesday after struggling with injury. Kasprowicz put Queensland on track for victory with 3 for 38 while Watson helped finish the match with 70. The Bulls are in second on 16 points, seven behind the Tigers.New South Wales have made one change with Daniel Smith replacing Brad Haddin, who is also in Australia’s Chappell-Hadlee squad. The Blues’ match against South Australia at Wollongong on Sunday was abandoned without a ball being bowled and they have not won an FR Cup game since November last year.Queensland squad Shane Watson, Jimmy Maher (capt), Clinton Perren, Aaron Nye, Craig Philipson, Nathan Reardon, Chris Simpson, Chris Hartley (wk), Michael Kasprowicz, Chris Swan, Scott Brant, Grant Sullivan.New South Wales squad Phillip Hughes, Phil Jaques, Peter Forrest, Simon Katich (capt), Dominic Thornely, Steve Smith, Daniel Smith (wk), Moises Henriques, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Mark Cameron, Doug Bollinger.

England’s plans to host the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009 would be threatened if the UK government imposes a ban on the Zimbabwe side entering the country.Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, told the BBC that it was a condition of hosting an ICC event that all member teams would be able to play.”We haven’t yet had to deal with a situation whereby a country isn’t allowed by the host nation’s government to take part in an ICC event. If that happens, the board would have to meet and take whatever action it deems necessary.”However, at the moment all we have are media reports, so I would say that all this remains speculative. The board next meets in March so to suggest what action might be taken would be premature.”A source close to the ICC told Cricinfo that it was inconceivable that the competition would proceed without Zimbabwe and that contingency measures would be drawn up to enable the tournament to be switched should the need arise.

The British government is set to ban Zimbabwe from touring England in 2009, removing the pressure from the ECB to make a decision on sporting relations with the country.An article in The Sun quotes a government source as saying: “We can’t pretend it’s not a matter for the government any more. It’s quite clearly our job to stand up and be counted. Mugabe needs to be given clear signals from all quarters that his regime is unacceptable.”Under Tony Blair, the ECB was encouraged not to play against Zimbabwe but his government refused to go any further, leaving the board with the choice between carrying on or boycotting games and facing massive fines from the ICC. Gordon Brown has shown a firmer approach, staying away from a summit in Portugal because Mugabe had been invited to attend.”England’s cricket authorities wanted assurances from us about what to do,” the government source added, “and now they have it.”A spokesman for Gordon Brown confirmed that the government will hold talks with the cricket authorities on a possible ban, but said it was too early for any decision. “I think that it’s very early to be making these sorts of decisions. We obviously will need to discuss this with the ECB closer to the time. A decision will have to be made about this at some point but we are not at that point at the moment.”New Zealand’s government banned the Zimbabwe side from entering the country in 2006, leading to the cancellation of their tour, and in May 2007 John Howard, the then Australian prime minister, ordered the Australian board not to fulfil a tour to Zimbabwe.While few will shed tears over Zimbabwe not playing a series in England, there are greater possible ramifications as in June 2009 the ICC World Twenty20 is scheduled to be held in the country. It seems unlikely that the ICC would allow a tournament to go ahead when one of its Full Members is barred from participating, and so it is possible that the event might be moved elsewhere. The financial implications for the ECB were that to happen would be far more devastating that any ICC fines.An ECB spokesman declined to comment on what he said was a “speculative story based on insider quotes”.

Not only is there a divide between the haves and have-not counties, if Leicestershire chairman Neil Davidson is to be believed, but there is also disagreement between the chairmen themselves.On Wednesday Davidson claimed there was a gulf between the counties who host international cricket and the rest. He said that the major counties, plus Kent and Sussex, earned £17.6 million between them in 2006 while the other nine shared £6.6 million. He also claimed that Surrey received the most – £10.1 million – while Derbyshire at the other end of the scale got £2.4 million.Clarke, whose relationship with Davidson is best described as civil, dismissed the claims in coldly polite terms. “It was deeply regrettable that Mr Davidson saw fit to release a paper which contained factual inaccuracies and ignored the findings of last year’s independent KPMG report, which concluded that the international grounds did not obtain financial benefit after taking into account facility and operating costs from international matches.”And in today’s Daily Telegraph Surrey chairman Paul Sheldon also disputed Davidson’s comments. “We can refute every financial argument that he puts,” he said. “The Test-match playing counties give £2 million a year to the centre, which is then redistributed among the smaller counties.”His research and reporting, although some of it is quite interesting, is flawed by the fact that his figures are erroneous. I cannot understand why he would do this without checking his facts. It does not seem anyone supports his views because his facts are just wrong.”

As fitness tests go, it was unconventional but effective. All week long, Ryan Sidebottom has been struggling to recover from the grade one hamstring tear that ruled him out of England’s final warm-up match in Dunedin, but with six deliveries in the nets at Hamilton’s Seddon Park, he confirmed that, come Wednesday morning, he’ll be ready to resume his new-ball role.Granted, the over was a sideshow as the target was the team’s security advisor, Reg Dickerson, who has been so under-employed on this sleepy trip that it was decided his own safety should be put on the line. But Sidebottom’s zip and swing were very much in evidence, as was his snarl of frustration when his prey avoided dismissal, as all doubts about his fitness were allayed.”I’m fighting fit and available for selection,” said Sidebottom. Earlier in the afternoon he had been put through an exhaustive series of shuttle runs by the team physio, Kirk Russell, and later returned to the nets for a proper work-out. “It’s a bit of relief because it’s a worry when you get injured, but I’m not getting on the plane home so I’m happy with that and I’m raring to go now.”The New Zealand series will be the culmination of a remarkable year for Sidebottom, who wasn’t even a blip on the international radar during the dying days of Duncan Fletcher’s England regime. But then last May came the new coach, Peter Moores, and within the month, he’d recalled from the wilderness a man whose only previous Test had come six years previously, at Lord’s in 2001.And for that, ironically, Sidebottom owes a debt of gratitude to Stephen Fleming, his captain at Nottinghamshire, who is now chief among his targets for the Test series. It was a phone call to Fleming from Moores’ deputy, Andy Flower, that set the chain of events in motion. “I had to give him an honest appraisal of Ryan’s bowling,” said Fleming, “and that killed me because I knew if I told them how good he was then he’d get taken away from us and he’d do bloody well for England. But I thought Ryan had been overlooked for too long.””He’s had some lovely words to say about me,” said Sidebottom after hearing of Fleming’s praise. “He’s a lovely bloke, a great character and a really nice man. For him to say those things about me is a great honour, and I’m looking forward to bowling at him. Hopefully I can knock him over.”New Zealand will be hoping that Fleming’s influence on Sidebottom is not too detrimental to their series prospects. “He’s a very positive captain, so I’m a lot more positive as well,” said Sidebottom. “He was always very attacking so that helped my bowling. He taught me to keep plugging away and never give up, because he always had the slips in so you had to bowl well and on the money more often than not. “So far, Fleming has been spot-on in his predictions. Sidebottom has been arguably England’s bowler of the year with 29 Test wickets at 32.27, and undoubtedly the unluckiest – innumerable chances have been missed off his bowling, not least by the former wicketkeeper Matt Prior, who has paid for his errors with his place in the side.The missed chances have been hard for Sidebottom to bear, especially on the pancake-flat decks at The Oval and Galle where he toiled lucklessly in consecutive series-deciders against India and Sri Lanka. “The lads keep going on about me having a bit of white-line fever, but aggression is part of my game,” said Sidebottom. “When I’m pumped up I’m bowling well. Sometimes go over the top and react too much so I know I’ve got to curb it a little bit, but sometimes you do get frustrated. You just have to get on with it, and keep bowling.”Happily for England, that is exactly what Sidebottom intends to do in the coming week. With England’s other injury concern, Paul Collingwood, also coming through practice unscathed, the team is taking shape nicely with one day of practice to come.

Scorecard
Points table

Mathew Inness retired in style by bowling Western Australia to a 222-run victory over Tasmania at the WACA. The Tigers began the day still 336 short of their target with seven wickets in hand, but any thoughts of a dashing chase ended when they lost 3 for 5 in five overs before lunch.Inness picked up two of those wickets, George Bailey caught behind for 33 and Tim Paine bowled for 5, and he finished the job by trapping Tim Macdonald lbw to secure the win. It capped off a remarkable year for Inness, who collected 4 for 44 to take his season tally to 40 wickets at 20.12. Only Doug Bollinger and Ashley Noffke had more prolific campaigns than Inness, who was overlooked for every match last summer.After Paine departed Tasmania were 6 for 161 and Luke Butterworth’s 79, which included four sixes, was the only bright spot as the defending champions ended their season in fourth place. Although Inness’ seven wickets were the most from any bowler during the game it was another retiree, Justin Langer, who was named Man of the Match for his first-innings 131.