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Here’s to you
As soon as he had stepped out against Muttiah Muralitharan and hit him over mid-off for four, Sachin Tendulkar pointed his bat towards India’s dressing room in celebration of his first fifty of the series. It was, perhaps, a gesture of thanks to his team-mates for showing patience as he walked out of the shadows of doubt that had enveloped him in the tri-series till now. Before this match Tendulkar could muster only 128 runs in seven innings but chasing a small target, he dazzled a relatively small Hobart crowd.Getting out of the web
Humour is never lost on Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Having neatly completed an easy offering off Kumar Sangakkara’s outside edge, Dhoni flapped his gloves and mocked at the webbing, making sure there was nothing wrong this time after he had to change his gloves because in India’s previous game, against Australia, the webbing was against the laws of the game.Ripper!
Point is the toughest position to field in the game. The fielder is moving in and normally the ball travels at a high speed. Reflexes and agility are the key. Mahela Jaywardene slashed hard at a short one from Praveen Kumar and it went straight and low to Rohit Sharma, who picked it up cleanly shoe-laces level. Calm, poised, alert – full marks to Rohit, in a position previously occupied by Yuvraj Singh, now placed at mid-off.Free falling
Speaking of Yuvraj, one of the best fielders inside the 30-yard circle till a niggling knee injury acted up further, he has been abysmal by his standards. Its obvious that Yuvraj, knee brace in place wherever he’s been for over a month now, has been slow to move and that has allowed opposition batsmen to capitalise. Today was one such case again: Chamara Kapugedera drove uppishly off Munaf Patel towards mid-off, but a static Yuvraj dived on top of the ball. It sneaked past him and the batsmen ran four. Munaf was understandably disgusted, while Yuvraj had his head down.Converting a six into two
The ball was sailing over the square-leg boundary when Gautam Gambhir, running a few yards to his left, leaped, caught the ball with both hands, but realised he would cross the rope in trying to regain balance, so he flicked it to the ground. A catch dropped, but a six avoided.

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Graham Manou was unbeaten on 99 at stumps, pushing South Australia to 7 for 303 after Brett Geeves rattled the top order with his first Pura Cup five-wicket haul. Geeves did his damage either side of the lunch break as the Redbacks lost 6 for 31 before Manou built two fighting partnerships, first with Ryan Harris and then with Jason Gillespie.After a demoralising 2006-07 in which he lost his wicketkeeping spot due to his lack of runs, Manou is set to reclaim his position permanently with what should become his second first-class century. Harris made a valuable 60 and with Manou added 112 for the seventh wicket, while Gillespie was 48 not out at the close.But South Australia’s fragile top order remained a major concern, with only Matthew Elliott (55) troubling Tasmania’s bowlers. Geeves finished with a career-best 5 for 49 and his first four victims came in a five-over spell that helped reduce the Redbacks to 6 for 92.Geeves broke the 61-run opening stand by removing Shane Deitz for 18, then had Nathan Adcock lbw and Mark Cosgrove caught behind within the space of three balls. He ended his destructive period with the crucial dismissals of Darren Lehmann and Elliott, while Ben Hilfenhaus chipped in with 2 for 99.

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Last week, in a twist that few predicted, Sharad Ghai, the former chairman of the Kenyan Cricket Association who left office in 2005, started on the comeback trail. From almost nowhere he re-emerged as one of the three delegates representing the Nairobi Gymkhana club at the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association’s Special General Meeting held on Saturday July 7 to discuss, among other matters, the long-overdue overhaul of the NPCA’s constitution.The meeting followed an acrimonious Annual General Meeting of the NPCA held on June 20 at which it transpired that the NPCA executive had, in breach of its existing constitution, failed to convene any general meetings involving its member clubs for over two years. Both the NPCA acting chairman’s report and the treasurer’s report were rejected by the members. Following this meeting, 10 of the 14 member clubs of the NPCA who attended signed a petition of no confidence in the NPCA executive. The three delegates representing Nairobi Gymkhana subscribed to the petition.The Nairobi Gymkhana chairman, Bharat Shah, disapproved of his own club delegates’ stance and promptly replaced them, drafting himself, Ravindra Patel (the club secretary) and Ghai to represent the club in their place at the July 7 meeting.Cricinfo had heard that Ghai had been in contact with several clubs, but given what happened when he was involved in the old Kenyan Cricket Association, few believed the rumours were anything more than that.But it now emerges that he has received backing from two surprising sources.Firstly, the Gymkhana club, who were owed a large sum of money by the old KCA. In 2004 they had a dispute with the board and threatened to prevent any official matches being played at their ground. Only the personal intervention of Ghai staved off a showdown, but, even so, the club was left out of pocket when the KCA was wound up.The second ally is even more eyebrow-raising. Sukhbans Singh, the acting chairman of the NPCA, was one of leading figures in attempts to remove Ghai and the old KCA executive between 2002 and 2005. But it now seems that Singh, under fire from his own clubs, and Ghai have struck up a relationship. It is the most unlikely of alliances.That Ghai has regained a foothold in Kenyan cricket will surprise many. When he left office in 2005 Kenyan cricket was a shambles. The board was broke – Samir Inamdar, who replaced him as board chairman, estimated that he inherited debuts of US$500,000 – and virtually all the High-Performance money from the ICC was gone. The national side was in chaos – it had played only two ODIs in the previous two years and for six months the bulk of the national team had been on strike over non-payment of monies owed. There were no major sponsors willing to be associated with the game, and other international boards gave Kenya the cold shoulder. The KCA executive had fallen out with many stakeholders, and even the minister of sport had had enough and stepped in to dissolve it.In the intervening two years the finances have been put back on an even keel, sponsors are beginning to come back and the board has done a six-year TV and marketing deal. On the field, the side has played 28 ODIs and in February they won the World Cricket League which means they will take part in the Twenty20 World Championship in September. Internally, there has been a period of relative peace and development. There is still a long way to go but things are heading the right way.At this stage, Ghai is only one of three representatives for one of 17 registered Nairobi clubs. But there will be many who remember Kenya cricket’s recent past who will be watching events with interest. Some of them are already expressing the view that the Gymkhana post may the springboard for a tilt at something bigger, perhaps even a challenge to Inamdar in 2008.As things stand, Coast and Rift Valley provinces, who would both strongly oppose Ghai, muster enough votes to be able to prevent him succeeding. But there is talk that Centrals, who were booted out by Cricket Kenya last month after it became apparent that, to all intents and purposes they did not exist as a viable province, may be set to mount a challenge to that decision. Centrals was the creation of the old KCA.It all might be a storm in a teacup. A Ghai comeback would be one of sport’s most remarkable stories but stranger things have happened. It could be an interesting few months.

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Twenty wickets fell on a dramatic opening day in Siliguri as Sourav Sarkar, the medium-pacer, helped Bengal sneak ahead by eight runs in the first innings. Orissa, who chose to field first, had a near-perfect bowling session, bundling Bengal out for 107 but their batsmen surrendered the advantage, collapsing for 99 in 38.4 overs. Basanth Mohanty, the debutant medium-pacer for Orissa, stole the show with 6 for 28 in just 8.3 overs, but he was overshadowed by Sarkar’s maiden five-wicket haul. Bengal’s openers played out the final 1.2 overs without any further loss.
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A 201-run stand between Karan Goel and Ravi Inder put Punjab in firm control on the first day of their match against Baroda at the Gandhi Sports Complex Ground in Amritsar. Baroda’s decision to field first was followed by an early wicket, when Ravneet Ricky fell in the eighth over, but Goel and Inder ensured it was only a false dawn. Goel notched up his maiden first-class hundred, with the help of 16 fours, while Inder gave him good company by carting 13 hits to the boundary.
ScorecardIt was a bowlers day out in Uppal as Andhra gained the upperhand in their derby against Hyderabad. Choosing to bat first, Andhra managed only 159 but their bowlers, led by medium-pacer P Vijay Kumar, reduced Hyderabad to a perilous 52 for 5 by the end of the day. Hemal Watekar and Gnaneshwara Rao boosted the Andhra innings before Bodapati Sumanth eked out some runs with the tail. Kumar and Kalyankrishna, the new-ball bowlers, then responded splendidly to rattle Hyderabad’s top order, reducing them to 18 for 4. Arjun Yadav, the captain, warded off further trouble and ground out a 78-ball 15 to keep Hyderabad in the hunt.
ScorecardMumbai’s decision to bat first backfired as Pankaj Singh’s five-wicket haul restricted them to 290 for 9 at the end of the first day in Jhalawar. Pankaj, the tall fast bowler who has been a consistent domestic performer over the years, snapped up his fourth five-wicket haul to break the backbone of the Mumbai middle order. He struck with the wicket of Sahil Kukreja early and went on to dismiss Amol Muzumdar, the captain, Ramesh Powar, the centurion in the previous game, Vinayak Samant and Iqbal Abdulla. It was mainly thanks to a fighting 90 from Ajinkya Rahane, the opener, and 62 from Rohit Sharma that Mumbai stayed afloat.
ScorecardS Badrinath’s 111 propped up Tamil Nadu on the opening day in Chennai but it was Ashok Thakur, with 6 for 34, who seized the initiative for Himachal Pradesh. Tamil Nadu seemed to be making the most of winning the toss as Badrinath and K Vasudevadas added 97 for the third wicket but Thakur, the medium-pacer, got stuck into the middle order. Tamil Nadu lost their last eight wickets for 89 runs with Badrinath the last man to fall after reaching his 14th first-class hundred.Delhi 23 for 1 trail Maharashtra 219 (Kanitkar 67, Bhatia 5-) by 196 runs
Scorecard Rajat Bhatia grabbed his maiden first-class five-for to dismiss Maharashtra to 219 on the first day in Nagothane. After Maharashtra had recovered from the loss of their first wicket in the second over of the day, Bhatia exploited the inconsistent bounce on the track and got five middle-order batsmen to edge to the waiting slips. Only a stodgy half-century from Hrishikesh Kanitkar and handy contributions from Vishal Bhilare and Kedar Jadhav got Maharashtra past 200. (Click here to read the full report.)
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Medium-pacer R Vinay Kumar grabbed his fifth five-wicket haul, which included his 100th first-class wicket, as Karnataka kept Saurashtra down to 229 for 8 on the opening day of the fifth-round clash in Mysore. Karnataka’s decision to field first paid off as their bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals. Almost all the Saurashtra batsmen got starts but none went on to score a half-century. Kumar and his opening partner NC Aiyappa accounted for seven of the eight wickets to fall, with left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi claiming the other.

New South Wales 7 for 512 dec beat Tasmania 214 and 263 (Butterworth 116, Birt 77, Bollinger 6-63, Bracken 4-53) by an innings and 35 runs
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Doug Bollinger picked up his second six-wicket haul to complete an emphatic victory for New South Wales by an innings and 35 runs. He had reached a career-best 6 for 68 in the first innings, but improved on that again in the second, with 6 for 63.Nathan Bracken also added four, all taken on the final day, to press his Test claims as Tasmania subsided in the morning and were wrapped up before lunch. They began the day 157 behind with six wickets remaining, but were pushing for parity as Luke Butterworth converted his overnight 62 to a century.He finally fell on 116, bowled by Bracken, who had earlier picked up Brett Geeves. Bracken then went on to clean up Brendan Drew and had Ben Hilfenhaus caught at second slip to close out the match.But the main excitement came early on with Bollinger’s double strike earning him the first 12-wicket haul by a New South Wales player at the SCG since Richie Benaud in 1959-60. Travis Birt was Bollinger’s first wicket of the day, leaving one that clattered into his stumps on 77. Sean Clingeleffer followed soon after, edging to second slip, and the writing was soon on the wall for Tasmania.Bollinger’s haul comes amid a rich vein of form that started in Pakistan in August on Australia’s A tour. This season he has taken 26 first-class wickets at 12.50, just behind the leading wicket-taker Ashley Noffke, who has played one extra match with five. Bollinger, however, has the most wickets in the Pura Cup so far.New South Wales once tried calling him Bubbles because of his surname. That may not have stuck, but it’s a fair bet there will plenty of champagne tonight.

Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan allrounder, has opted out of the Test series against South Africa, indicating he did not want to play while fasting in the holy month of Ramadan.Salahuddin Ahmed, chief selector confirmed that Afridi had asked to be rested for the Test series and his request had been accepted. “Afridi asked the board to give him a rest because he wanted to fast during the remaining part of Ramadan,” Salahuddin said. “We have decided to accept his request and allowed him a rest. He will be in consideration for the one-day series.””I asked the Pakistan board to allow me to skip the two Tests against South Africa because it would be difficult to fast and play in Ramadan,” Afridi told .Afridi dismissed suggestions that he had withdrawn because of his poor show in the final of the ICC World Twenty20 against India. “We lost the final due to poor batting and I apologised to the fans for not doing my part in the final but that did not influence my decision of not playing Tests.”Afridi was named Player of the Tournament in South Africa with 91 runs at a strike rate of 197.82 and 12 wickets at an economy rate of 6.71.Pakistan’s squad for the first Test against South Africa is scheduled to be announced on Friday.