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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.

The Eastern Province Jumbos went to the top ofthe Standard Bank Cup log with a thrilling six-run win over the Border Bearsat Buffalo Park on Wednesday night.It was a victory which looked for muchof the game as though it would go the other way, as Border appeared to havejudged their tough run-chase perfectly. Once again, though, their frailtyunder pressure eventually told.Chasing a daunting target of 261, Border appeared to have laid thefoundations for vicotory as they reached 228 for four, with less than arun-a-ball required over the closing overs. But a couple of dubious shots,an unlucky run out and Mornantau Hayward’s slower ball proved decisive forEP, as Border lost their last six wickets for just 22 runs.Three timesHayward picked up wickets with his well-disguised slower ball, although hesaved himself some acute embarrassment after putting down two caught andbowled chances in the same over.It was a waste of some fine batting higher up the order from openersLaden Gamiet and Ian Mitchell who saw off the impressive Mfuneko Ngam andMeyrick Pringle before taking apart the rest of the EP attack in a stand of85.Gamiet’s demise for 57 only cleared the stage for Craig Sugden whose 84looked to have put Border on the brink of victory. But when he was part of amiddle-order collapse which featured a duck for Mark Boucher, the gameturned decisively in EP’s favour.With seven runs needed off eight balls,Makhaya Ntini skied Hayward to bring down the curtain on a compelling game.Earlier, man-of-the-match Carl Bradfield struck a fine 91 as EP builtwhat turned out to be a winning total after being put into bat by theirhosts. That the score was eventually as imposing as it was was also theresponsibility of the veteran Dave Callaghan, who struck an unbeaten 37 offjust 17 balls as the overs ran out.Callaghan and Justin Kemp combined totake 19 off the penultimate over from the otherwise impeccable West Indianpaceman Vasbert Drakes.

Marlon Samuels has been dropped from the 15-man squad for the four-Test series in England which starts next week. There are few surprises in the choices, although there is no back-up wicketkeeper or specialist spinner in the side. Ravi Rampaul returns while there is an overdue call-up for allrounder Darren Sammy.Gordon Greenidge, the former opener and current convenor of selectors, put his faith in the side when he explained the selection. “The task has not been easy, especially given the fact that the performance for the recently-completed World Cup wasn’t as great as we had all hoped,” he said during the announcement on local television. “We feel that this squad should perform credibly. We feel we have a good mix, and we’re hoping that this mix will start the ball rolling as far as the redevelopment or the re-defining of West Indies cricket for the future.”Greenidge also said he would address the squad prior to their departure regarding reports of indiscipline during the World Cup.Former West Indies selector Joey Carew expressed some surprise at the squad. “I can’t criticise the selections. The fact that [Marlon] Samuels and [Pedro] Collins are not there is noticeable,” he told . “I thought they would have chosen a spinner, Dave Mohammed, but they may think he is not up to Test standard.”Ramnaresh Sarwan, the newly appointed West Indies captain, insisted that the team needed support. ” I think it is important that the team gets the support which it needs to take West Indies cricket forward,” he said, while indicating that the team would struggle in the absence of Brian Lara.”I think it is an opportunity, obviously Brian was a tremendous player for us and a tremendous player for the world. I think that it is an opportunity for the younger players to actually show their skills and what they are made of. I am sure that they will be looking forward to it. It is very important for us to play as a team, as I have said before, and it cannot be a one-man show. I am sure that we will be able to pull together as a team and that the other players will be able to mature on the tour.”In regards to criticism of his game, Sarwan said the captaincy was an opportunity to step up. “Obviously, I have got out in different fashions – playing rash strokes – and maybe this is a blessing is disguise to give me more responsibility and this is something which I think that I need. So it is something which I am looking forward too and I am going to try and make the best of it.”The side leaves the Caribbean on May 8 and plays one three-day warm-up match against Somerset before the Lord’s Test on May 17. The squad for the three ODIs and two Twenty20 matches which follow the Tests will be named later.West Indies squad Ramnaresh Sarwan (capt), Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards, Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Sylvester Joseph, Runako Morton, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor, Ravi Rampaul.

It’s funny how some of the most celebrated batsmen’s best knocks aren’t hundreds: Sunil Gavaskar’s 96 in Bangalore, Gundappa Viswanath’s 97 not out against an Andy Roberts-led West Indies in Chennai, on a fresh track are two prime examples. Sourav Ganguly’s 87 today on a Kanpur minefield can safely join the company. And the man himself rates this as one of his best efforts. “Considering the surface and context, this is definitely one of my top Test knocks,” was his summary after a gripping day’s play.It was inevitable that comparisons would be made with the innings he played in Johannesburg to set up a famous win. As a pure innings, Ganguly said this one was better. “In terms of pressure, that 51 in Jo’burg was better, as I was making my comeback. In terms of quality of the innings and quality of the surface, this one was definitely better.”When he was walking out in the afternoon he must have crossed Rahul Dravid almost writhing in pain, throwing away his arm guard after being hit by Morne Morkel on the right wrist, but the way he batted it didn’t seem the pitch bothered him at all. And Ganguly would be lying if he said it didn’t. “The odd ball would bounce and go through the top, and that is not in my control. These are the pitches where how you think matters. You may get out to a normal delivery as well. You cannot worry about the ball, if it goes through the top it does.”I intended to be positive, just play my game and play my shots because there was no point in surviving there and not adding runs to the scoreboard. The key for me and others like Yuvraj, VVS [Laxman], and Mahendra Singh [Dhoni] was to move the scoreboard. That was the only way to take the pressure off us, scoring runs, and I decided that if the ball was there to be hit, I would hit it.”He also said he was “very” disappointed he did not get the century he so thoroughly deserved. But the way he got out was exactly what the situation required. Three wickets had fallen rather quickly to bring the tail in; the first, that of a reckless Dhoni, triggering the collapse when India were 17 runs away from South Africa’s 265 and 3.5 overs away from facing the new ball.Ganguly had to now start dominating the strike because he couldn’t have trusted Sreesanth the way he did Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla. Looking to score, he said, was the only way to go out there. “I don’t think we threw it away. To be honest, we didn’t throw away any of the wickets.”Ganguly said he, like others, didn’t know how the track would behave over the next few days and hence couldn’t tell if a 23-run lead was good enough. But he said getting to where they did was a difficult job. “It is important that we got till 280. The wicket was difficult, the South African bowlers are quite fast, and scoring against them is difficult. Their bowlers generally bowl well on a pitch with up-and-down bounce, [Dale] Steyn especially bowled well.”There is still one wicket standing and nothing would please India more if the last pair frustrated the South Africans on the third morning and actually got India to a sizeable lead. “I hope Ishant [Sharma] and Sreesanth do a bit of magic tomorrow morning,” Ganguly said. “At the moment we are 23 ahead. And if we can get that to 50 and take a couple of wickets before they get to 50 it will be good.”Ganguly doesn’t know what target India would feel comfortable with, but cited the way they took nine wickets for 113 runs as indication that India could get South Africa out cheaply in their second innings. And if they manage to square the series, Ganguly’s 87 will feel that much more special.

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.

James Anderson has been fined 50% of his match fee for shoulder-barging Runako Morton during the second one-day international at Edgbaston.The incident occurred during the closing stages of West Indies’ innings when, after finishing an over, Anderson dropped his shoulder into Morton as the batsman completed a run. Morton reacted to the incident by pointing his bat at Anderson and Brian Jerling, the umpire, had to step in to keep the players apart. When Morton was dismissed, Anderson gave him a send-off to the pavilion.Both players appeared in front of match referee Mike Procter on Wednesday night and, while Anderson was hit with the penalty, Morton was found not guilty of breaching the code of conduct.”I have no problem with players being aggressive on the field because our game is all about passion and commitment,” said Procter. “But, at the same time, they have to recognize they are role models watched by people all over the world.”Cricket is, after all, a non-contact sport and when players fail to recognise that fact and engage in needless nudges, the type of which we saw yesterday, then that is where we have to draw the line.”Anderson’s 10-over spell went for 78 runs, his most expensive analysis in ODIs, and his last four overs cost 50 against a fired up Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels.Following the match England captain Paul Collingwood said: “To be perfectly honest, I don’t mind the boys getting stuck if they need to get stuck in. I don’t mind that at all. That’s cricket. Simple as that.”Chris Gayle, his opposite number, also shrugged off the incidents, insisting there was nothing personal at stake. “These guys have been playing cricket against each other for quite some time now,” he said. “We were just trying to get on top of them as early as possible and they did the same thing, so it was a little bit of give-and-take. I hope no-one takes it too seriously.”It was a heated encounter throughout with Daren Powell also becoming involved in verbal exchanges with the England batsmen.Stuart Broad was also found to have breached clause 1.1 of the code, which concerns the ICC logo policy, and was handed a reprimand. Broad wore a visible white garment under his playing shirt on Wednesday, something not permitted under clothing regulations. West Indies won by 61 runs to level the series.