All posts by csb10.top

In some ways Kieron Pollard represents this West Indies team. He is the ronin of world cricket – the samurai with no master. Pollard plays Twenty20 cricket around the globe. He also plays for West Indies. And on days like today, when he does well, you see hope filtering through the cracks.Some say that West Indies has been economically, politically and socially dislocated. That those bricks of anti-colonialism that once held the wall of solidarity among cricketing fraternity have fallen. In this age of rootless culture, the way forward for this team might be individual salvation. Fire in Babylon is passé. It’s fire in the individual belly that counts. Pollard is flag bearer of this new generation. As Tony Cozier wrote once on a West Indies tour of Australia, “it could be individual self-interest that strengthens the team ethic on this tour and beyond.”Pollard says he doesn’t find much of a difference playing in an IPL team or West Indies team. “It’s not much different. When you go out to bat it’s got nothing to do with the team. It’s you alone with the bat against the opposition. I don’t think it has got anything to with the atmosphere of the team. You have to find a right way to train and fit into the team.”Things rolled out very well today. For someone who plays so imperiously straight down the ground, he has perplexed with his heaves across the line, when playing quality spin. When the ball dips rapidly on him and he is not quite up to the pitch of the ball, he just heaves across. In a previous game, he was trapped lbw by one such attempt against Amit Mishra. Today, though, he changed that approach. When the ball wasn’t in his arc, he defended. The bat came ahead of the pad, the bat-face was straight, and he rarely played across anything in desperation.It didn’t come without some early nerves though. Off his eighth delivery, he went hard at a leg break from Manoj Tiwary but it flew off the edge to safety. A ball later, he again went for a big swing but it spun away from the edge. There is a thin line between imperiousness and foolhardiness. He was living on that edge. He had described what runs through his mind in those states. “If it’s the first ball or the last ball, it doesn’t matter if the ball is in my arc.”Another Tiwary over saw him really settle. The first ball crash landed on the sightscreen, the second flew past a startled Tiwary, and Pollard was on his way. This was the moment of danger. Will the adrenalin surge through too much? It was also the moment that the captain Suresh Raina got into the act. He placed himself at mid-off with a long-off behind him. It was almost the field setting that MS Dhoni had set once to entrap Pollard in an IPL game. Tiwary floated the ball across and Pollard leaned forward to push it quietly to the off side. And he stayed quiet for the rest of the over, tapping it gently to the off. It was the moment you realised that it’s a very determined Pollard who is out there today.The next four came 25 deliveries after that four against Tiwary. Yet again, it was straight down the ground. The next four boundaries too came from careful shot selection. Each of those deliveries were either on the legs or so short that he could flick or swing them to the on side boundary. There were no hoicks or heaves. It wasn’t a slugfest out there. By the time he fell, Pollard had pushed West Indies towards a competitive total. With little bit of help from the Indian batsmen, who displayed poor shot selection, and a strong hand from Anthony Martin, the home side would win the day.Rewind to the day before the third ODI. Pollard is asked a direct question. How hungry are you to play for West Indies? “I am very very very very hungry to do well for West Indies. I try my very best to do well for West Indies or any side that I play for.” The ronin did it for West Indies today.

Jonathan Trott has been named England’s cricketer of the year at the annual ECB awards function, held at Lord’s on Tuesday. The award, voted for by the British cricket media, is given to the player with the greatest impact upon England’s performances from the start of the 2010 international season until the end of the World Cup.”I am both extremely humbled and proud to have been named England cricketer of the year after what has clearly been the most enjoyable year of my cricketing career so far,” Trott said. “It is an honour to represent England and it has been a privilege to be involved in such a successful, hard-working team.”I wouldn’t have won this award without the commitment and support of my team-mates. This award really belongs to the entire England squad and management team that have provided such a supportive and professional environment that has allowed me to prosper as a cricketer and a person. There is still much hard work to be done and improvement to be made and I look forward to making further contributions to a successful England team for a long as possible.”During the assessment period, Trott played 32 matches for England across formats, scoring an astonishing 2246 runs at an average of 68.06. While his Test prowess has never been in doubt, Trott’s success in ODIs came as a surprise to some who questioned his skills in the format. He aggregated 422 runs in the 2011 World Cup, averaging 60.29 with five half-centuries in seven games.He has carried his good form into the new season, hitting a double-century in England’s dramatic innings victory in the first Test against Sri Lanka, in Cardiff. That left him with a Test average of 66.67 – second only to that Donald Bradman’s mark of 99.94 among batsmen who’ve played at least 20 Test innings.”I don’t think about that. I find numbers are for people to look back on afterwards,” insisted Trott. “I don’t focus on my average. As a youngster I used to set myself goals – 1,000 runs by a certain point, so many by the end of the season. But what happens is you go out and take guard in April and you think you are miles away from that number, and you put unnecessary pressure on yourself.”There’s lots more to life than cricket, but at the moment it is very important to me,” he added. “I just try to do the best I can, without putting any massive goals ahead of me.”After a handful of Twenty20s, Trott was handed a Test debut in the pressure cooker of an Ashes Test and responded in fine fashion, cracking 119 in the second innings at The Oval to help ensure that England reclaimed the urn in 2009.”Career-wise, you don’t really start playing your best until you’re about 27, so I was quite fortunate to get picked when I was 28. I’d been a work in progress. At the end of 2007, I sat down with [Warwickshire coach, and England selector] Ashley Giles – and we planned about how we were going to go about making me one of the best players in England.”I’d had a try [in limited-overs matches for England] but wasn’t ready then – and in a way, that was a good thing. It made me realise how far I had to go. I was sure I had the talent to do it but I wasn’t sure how I was going to get that best out of myself. It was all about having a plan, how I was going to go about it.”Lydia Greenway was adjudged England women’s cricketer of the year, while Umesh Valjee won the award for the best disabled cricketer.

Former Pakistan offspinner Akram Raza was arrested on charges of betting on Indian Premier League matches in Lahore on Sunday, reports . The 46-year-old Raza was among was one of seven men arrested from a busy Lahore shopping area when police raided a gang of bookmakers who were taking illegal bets.”Seven men were arrested after a tip-off that they were taking bets on IPL matches, and one of them has been identified as Raza, a former Pakistan player,” a police officer at Gulberg police station told .Raza, who played nine Tests and 49 ODIs for Pakistan, was one of the six players Pakistan players fined in a match-fixing inquiry conducted by Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum in 2000. Raza currently officiates as an umpire in Pakistan’s domestic matches.Police said they recovered telephones, computers, televisions and a large amount of money in the raid, and will charge the arrested men later on Sunday.

Stumps
Scorecard
It took Surrey six games to record their first Championship victory last season. When Northamptonshire slid to 163 for 7 on the second day at The Oval, Surrey looked on the way to winning at the first attempt this time round but Andrew Hall and James Middlebrook fought back with an unbroken 120-run stand to leave the game intriguingly poised.After the first day rattled along, proceedings were more meandering on another heady afternoon of London sunshine. The patience on show from both sides was in stark contrast to the flamboyance of Surrey’s batsmen but Tim Linley’s four wickets and Northamptonshire’s eighth-wicket pair demonstrated all the merits that dour discipline can still have.Linley found the perfect rhythm early on with his unflashy wicket-to-wicket medium-pace, barely venturing from back-of-a-length on off stump, to ensure Surrey might yet come away with a first-innings lead.It was his morning spell that set the tone. Nine splice-jarring overs for 11 runs and the key scalp of Steven Peters, pinned on the crease lbw for 19. Though Yasir Arafat was below his best Stuart Meaker provided useful support and – but for overstepping – would have had Rob White, who eventually top-scored with 78, out for a duck. A ball that nipped back on a lowish-surface struck White plush in front only for the no-ball to be signalled. Having grimly resisted all morning, Mal Loye suddenly ran down on at Gareth Batty on the stroke of lunch, only for a quicker ball to slide past him onto middle stump.After lunch, White made use of his no-ball reprieve by picking off the few loose offerings and when he swung an Arafat half-tracker over deep square to bring up his half-century Northamptonshire were looking comfortable. Linley then returned, this time from the Vauxhall End, with another nip-backer which, thanks to Alex Wakely’s generous leave, uprooted off stump.That sparked a mini-collapse as Northamptonshire lost three further wickets for six runs in 15 balls. First Meaker found David Sales’ edge, to make it four ducks in five Championship innings against Surrey, then Niall O’Brien squeezed a full, wide Linley delivery low to Steve Davies to fall for a duck. O’Brien felt he had jammed into the ground though and was disgusted with the decision.Chaminda Vaas fell soon after, missing an ill-advised and ambitious sweep to give Batty a second wicket and leave Northants wobbling at 163 for 7.It needed captain Hall to shore his side up. Together with Middlebrook he scrapped in the lengthening shadows and made use of a tiring attack. Hall and his Surrey counterpart, Rory Hamilton-Brown, could hardly appear more contrasting but his rugged, sensible 55 not out was every bit as crucial to Northamptonshire’s innings as Hamilton-Brown’s polished 74 was to Surrey’s.Middlebrook, ending the day unbeaten on 49, was equally accomplished and the pair batted through the entire evening session to surpass Rob Bailey and Paul Taylor’s Northamptonshire record for the highest eighth-wicket stand against Surrey. With the pitch dusting anything around 300 will be difficult to chase on the final day which leaves the game resting on Surrey’s inconsistent batsmen on day three.

Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka allrounder, will miss the upcoming IPL because of the leg injury that also caused him to miss the World Cup final against India in Mumbai. He is expected to be out of action for eight weeks. Mathews has a $950,000 contract with Pune Warriors, having played for Kolkata Knight Riders in previous seasons of the IPL.”I have pulled a muscle,” Mathews said in Colombo after the Sri Lankan team returned from India. “I am finding it difficult to walk, it will take about eight weeks to heal.”Mathews left the field during the semi-final against New Zealand with a minor quadriceps muscle injury, and his movement was hampered when he came out to bat with a runner. He played a crucial role in Sri Lanka’s campaign, as back-up seamer and middle-order batsman, and Sri Lanka missed his all-round skills in the final, which they lost by six wickets. His place in the squad was taken by offspinner Suraj Randiv.Mathews will now aim to be fit in time for Sri Lanka’s tour of England from May to July, which includes three Tests and five one-day games.

India had a three-hour nets session with the focus mainly on batting at the National Cricket Academy grounds in Bangalore. Sachin Tendulkar, who underwent a MRI Scan at a Mumbai hospital on Sunday after feeling uneasiness in his knees, had light weight training at the gym and didn’t bat or bowl.Ashish Nehra, who did not play the game against Bangladesh due to a back spasm, joined the team late and opted for some light weight training. Yuvraj Singh did not bat and opted for some stretching exercises. Virender Sehwag, Sreesanth and R Ashwin didn’t come to the training on Tuesday.Bulk of the attention was devoted to batting, though Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan and Munaf Patel did have a bowl. Gautam Gambhir faced the seamers, including the local net bowlers, for the longest time while MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Virat Kohli shared the spinners’ nets, each tackling a few balls each.Interestingly, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan didn’t bowl but to chose to face throwdowns from the coach Gary Kirsten. For the entire duration of the training session, Harbhajan and Zaheer faced only Kirsten. They started playing the drives before they practiced pulling against the short-pitched deliveries. The session was punctuated by Kirsten offering them advice, especially against the bouncers. India have another practice session on Wednesday morning.

ScorecardShadab Jakati contributed with ball and bat in Goa’s thrilling win•AFP

Goa squeaked past Andhra by one wicket with one ball to spare in a thrilling encounter at the Perintalmanna Cricket Stadium in Malappuram. The win was Goa’s third in five games, leaving them tied on points with Karnataka though after playing an extra match, while Andhra languished close to the bottom of the table after their fourth loss in five games.Goa chose to field and the decision was vindicated by the opening bowlers who restricted Andhra to 17 for 2. Satyakumar Verma hit five fours in his 23 to revive the innings, but his dismissal in the 17th over prompted Venugopal Rao into consolidation mode. Bodapati Sumanth played in a similar vein and the pair played through the bulk of the innings, adding 112 in 33.1 overs before Rao departed for 82 off 96 balls. Sumanth lost his wicket soon after, and the lower crumbled in a spate of wickets, depriving the innings of late momentum. Harshad Gadekar and Shadab Jakati snared seven wickets, making up for the fact that they conceded 117 runs between them, as Andhra were bowled out for 241.Goa’s chase was stalled by Ajay Kumar and Deepak Kumar and, when Ajay Ratra departed at 42 for 4 in the 13th over, they seemed in line for a defeat. Reagan Pinto, however, had other ideas and calmly revived the innings in the company of Jakati and Amit Yadav. The duo helped Pinto add 45 and 66 runs respectively, before the game changed once again. Goa crumbled from 153 for 4 to 192 for 9 in the 44th over, raising Kerala’s hopes of a second win. Pinto kept going, bringing up his maiden first-class century, while No. 11 Gadekar swung a four and a six in his 17 off 16 balls. The pair scored the winning runs off the penultimate ball, with Pinto unbeaten on a memorable 119, with ten fours and a six in his innings.

Match Facts

An impressive show in the Twenty20 match and strong batting skills could help Wayne Parnell make the final XI•Getty Images

January 12, Durban
Start time 14:30 (12.30 GMT, 18.00 IST)

Big Picture

The Test series between the top two teams in international cricket was meant to be this tour’s biggest draw, but the ODI series that starts on Wednesday is almost as significant. Bilateral one-dayers are an after-party to a grand event, though not in this case with the World Cup just over a month away and with the teams required to finalise their fifteen-member squads for the event by January 19. Three of the five games in this series – the last official 50-over preparation for the two sides ahead of the World Cup – will be played out before the deadline and they are likely to influence the composition of the final squads.Injuries to Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have led to call-ups for Rohit Sharma and M Vijay for the ODI series, though Virat Kohli appears to have done enough in the middle order for his place to be in any risk. There is more competition in the bowling, with a possible tussle between Sreesanth and Munaf Patel for a spot alongside Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra in the fast-bowling attack. Praveen’s eleventh-hour injury gives Ishant Sharma, who had an ordinary Test series, another go at the one-day level, though he is almost certain to miss the first game. Piyush Chawla returns to the 50-over format after more than two years, but R Ashwin is the favoured second spinner in the squad, while Harbhajan Singh will look to build on his performance in the Tests.South Africa have roped in legspinner Imran Tahir and left-arm spinner Robin Peterson, as potential slow-bowling partners to Johan Botha; Colin Ingram, who scored a century on ODI debut, fills in for the injured Jacques Kallis at No.3, and could be in the running for a top-order spot in the World Cup, while David Miller will possibly be fighting for a middle-order slot along with the leg-spinning allrounder Faf du Plessis. The battle for the third seamer’s position will be between Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell, though Ryan McLaren, not playing this series, has also done the job in the past.South Africa, at home on lively tracks, go in as the favourites. The team coming on top will go into the World Cup on a high, but individual performances in this series could be just as important as the scoreline itself.

Form guide

South Africa: WLWLW
India: WWWWW

Players to watch out for…

Virat Kohli: One of India’s in-form batsman, Kohli comes into this series with two centuries and two half-centuries in his last six matches. Almost a certainty in India’s World Cup squad, given a successful 2010, an impressive performance in tougher conditions – his only ODI series outside the subcontinent has been in Zimbabwe – should further reaffirm his chances.Faf du Plessis: He was signed up for US$120,000 at the IPL auctions and will be eager for an ODI debut here. An impressive List A batting average of 44.37 and his abilities as a legpinner makes him a strong contender as an all-round option in South Africa’s middle order.

Team news

The teams could shuffle their line-ups for the first few games. Sachin Tendulkar returns to the 50-over format after a self-imposed break – his last ODI was in Gwalior, where he scored that record-breaking double-century against the same opposition.Praveen’s absence puts Munaf in the frame for the third seamer’s spot, but India will want to take a good look at the conditions before taking a call on whether to go with two spinners and two fast bowlers.India (possible): 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 M Vijay, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 R Ashwin / Munaf Patel, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish NehraParnell’s impressive show in the Twenty20 match will make it tough for Smith to ignore him. Tsotsobe was in good form against Pakistan in the UAE when Parnell was injured, and the latter’s batting credentials could be the clinching factor.South Africa (possible): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 AB de Villiers (wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Faf du Plessis / Robin Petersen, 7 David Miller, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Wayne Parnell / Lonwabo Tsotsobe, 11 Morne Morkel

Stats and trivia

• India’s have won only three matches and lost 16 against South Africa in South Africa – their worst record in any country
• Sachin Tendulkar has scored 1422 one-day runs in South Africa, but only 522 of those have come against the hosts, at an average of 26.10

Quotes

“It’s something that I have dreamt of throughout my captaincy.”South Africa captain Graeme Smith is excited at the prospect of having an attacking spinner in Imran Tahir in his squad

“You have to start respecting the bowlers right from the very start.”India captain MS Dhoni knows conditions in South Africa are different from the ones the India team is used to at home

Group B

Subramaniam Badrinath’s 72 helped Tamil Nadu capitalise after their bowlers had skittled out Gujarat for 173•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

With Uttar Pradesh struggling against Karnataka, a win for Haryana against Orissa would take them through to the next phase. Their bowlers put them on course for exactly that, reducing Orissa to 64 for 5 in their second innings, at the end of the second day at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium in Rohtak. Orissa are effectively 37 for 5 after Haryana took a 27-run first innings lead.Haryana started the day in trouble at 75 for 4, but Hemang Badani and Sachin Rana extended their partnership to 63 runs. Badani, who made 31, then put together another useful partnership with allrounder Joginder Sharma, before captain Amit Sharma chipped in with 31. Those contributions took Haryana to 202 and it later proved a strong total, as their bowlers then took charge. Joginder picked up a couple of early wickets before seamer Rana got into the act and took 2 for 3 in his eight overs. Mishra dismissed Govind Podder just before stumps to give Haryana the perfect end to the day.

A century by wicketkeeper Pinal Shah gave Baroda control in their match against Himachal Pradesh at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara. Himachal were 108 for 4 at the end of the second day, still needing another 123 runs to make Baroda bat again. Earlier, the hosts were in trouble after Kedar Devdhar was out for early for 81 and Sankalp Vohra followed for a duck to leave them at 191 for 7. But Pinal went on the attack, smashing 132 off 157 balls and scoring a bulk of Baroda’s 177 runs on the second day. By the time he was out, Baroda had reached 350.They then tormented Himachal early in the second innings, reducing the visitors to 7 for 2 and then 28 for 3. Captain Paras Dogra offered some resistance with his 53 but could not stop Baroda from moving into striking distance of victory and a place in the quarter-finals. A loss for Himachal would mean relegation to the Plate League next year.

Wicketkeeper CM Gautam and the tail pushed Karnataka to 416 after they had started the second day at 274 for 7 against Uttar Pradesh at Green Park in Kanpur. Gautam, who had reached his half-century on Wednesday, went on to get 115. He played the anchor role while the tail-enders attacked from the other end. He didn’t add a run to his overnight score for nearly 25 minutes, but he got going with a cover drive. He proceeded to drive, cut, and pull his way and brought up his hundred with a sweep shot. He found great support in Udit Patel, the No. 10 batsman, who biffed 12 fours and a six in his 72.UP, who need at least three points to make sure Haryana don’t overtake them and claim a quarter-final spot, were in trouble at the end of the day, reduced to 163 for 5, still 253 runs behind. They were on the back foot from the outset, once left-arm seamer S Aravind dismissed Shivakant Shukla lbw in the fourth over of the innings. Vinay Kumar grabbed two quick wickets to push them to 44 for 4. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Piyush Chawla played fighting knocks and were unbeaten on 51 and 43 respectively at stumps. But UP are still a long way away from Karnataka’s score.

Group A

Form Guide

Tracking ESPNcricinfo’s players to watch this season
R Ashwin: Took five wickets for 57 for Tamil Nadu against Gujarat in the first innings
Ravindra Jadeja: Took five wickets and top-scored for Saurashtra with 84 against Assam
Piyush Chawla: Took five wickets and then made another useful contribution with the bat for UP, getting 43 not out against Karnataka
Abhinav Mukund: Was out for just 7 against Gujarat

Dehli’s chances of reaching the quarter-finals were severely damaged on the second day at the Roshanara Club Ground in Delhi, as left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla’s five wickets helped Mumbai take the first innings lead. Abdulla wrecked Delhi’s bottom half, as the hosts lost their last seven wickets for 51 runs to finish 66 runs behind Mumbai’s first-innings total of 267. “”Looking at the wicket my main aim was to support the pacers and put a check on scoring but I got good bounce which helped me get those wickets,” Abdulla said. By the end of the day Mumbai had extended the lead to 140 and lost just two wickets. Delhi now need a win to get to the next phase.Seamer Aviskhar Salvi started Delhi’s collapse, castling their captain Mithun Manhas, whose 66 had taken his side to a position of comfort. Abdulla got the next five to finish with figures of 5 for 25 in 17 overs. Mumbai had Sahil Kukreja and Suryakumar Yadav at the crease at stumps, with the might of Wasim Jaffer and Rohit Sharma still to come. Manhas believed that they could fightback if they pick up early wickets on Friday. “If we get Wasim Jaffer and Rohit Sharma early, anything can happen.”

With Delhi struggling, the match between Railways and Bengal at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi could end up as a straight shootout for a quarter-final shot, and after the second day it was Railways who held the aces. They rode on gritty half-centuries by Prashant Awasthi and Mahesh Rawat to take the lead and finish the day at 250 for 6.Bengal were hoping their spinners would restrict Railways on a turning track, but the only bowler who looked effective was seamer Laxmi Shukla who got some movement from the wicket and finished with 2 for 25. Awasthi held the innings together for Railways, scoring 73, while Rawat ensured Awasthi’s wicket did not cause a collapse. He scored 52 and put together an important 53-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Dhiran Salvi, which took Railways past Bengal’s score of 201. Sourav Ganguly took an active part in Bengal’s decision-making, having plenty of discussions with captain Manoj Tiwary, but could not come up with enough ideas to bowl Railways out cheaply.

Tamil Nadu’s spinners gave them the advantage as they knocked Gujarat over for 173 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Their batsmen then capitalised, getting to 158 for 3 at the close of play, with Subramaniam Badrinath still unbeaten on 72. Gujarat began the second day at 69 for 4 after a rain-hit first day, and were soon 80 for 6 after offspinner R Ashwin dismissed Niraj Patel and Rujul Bhatt. Pratharesh Parmar was the only Gujarat batsman who looked capable of handling the tuning track, hitting three sixes and four fours in his 67. But he could not stop the fall of wickets at the other end as Ashwin finished with 5 for 57 and offspinner Suresh Kumar got 4 for 42.Tami Nadu lost Abhinav Mukund early in their reply, but Arun Karthik, who scored 60, and Badrinath gave them a firm base with their 115-run stand. Legspinner Salil Yadav managed to dismiss Arun Karthik and Dinesh Karthik, whose poor form continued, before stumps, but the hosts were still in the ascendancy. A first-innings lead should be enough for Tamil Nadu to go to the next round, given events in other Group A matches.

After a dismal season, Saurashtra have given themselves a chance of staving off relegation, by taking a 246-run lead against Assam at the Khandheri Cricket Stadium in Rajkot. Ravindra Jadeja scored the only half-century of the match so far and his 84 helped take Saurashtra to 233 for 9 by the end of the second day’s play. It was a productive day for Jadeja, who completed a five-wicket haul with his left-arm spin in Assam’s innings as the visitors were bowled out for 127, having started the day on 107 for 7. The spinners were the main threat on the second day: offspinner Kamlesh Makvana took 4 for 45 for Saurashtra, while Assam’s offspinner Arlen Konwar took four scalps in Saurashtra’s innings.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outJesse Ryder fought hard despite an injured calf, but his resistance ended before the close•AFP

Until the toss, even at it, it was all going New Zealand’s way. The pitch was expected to be flat, the wet outfield had done away with the morning session, the toss had been won, India’s best bowler had been ruled out due to injury, and yet it all went wrong for New Zealand. Once again, India’s bowlers put in an important performance just when people had stopped expecting one from them, giving the hosts a big chance of finally putting one across New Zealand.Sreesanth found swing and accuracy in his first spell to remove the openers, then Ishant Sharma, playing his first Test since his batting heroics in Mohali, got a change of ends, extracted occasional inswing, and was rewarded with the wickets of Ross Taylor and Daniel Vettori.Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum – struggling with injured calf and sore back respectively – fought heroically, but India stayed in control through patient cricket. Since they were carrying injuries in to the match, neither of the batsmen was allowed a runner. They could run only about half the runs they would have, and their hobbling association added only 42 in 19.3 overs, which didn’t hurt India too much after they had restricted the visitors to 51 for 5, and then 82 for 6.It did look like India, too, had been distracted by the injuries, for they stopped doing what had got them wickets. Instead they spread the field, asking the batsmen to run all their runs, and asked their fast bowlers to bowl bouncers to put more stress on the batsmen’s injured bodies, giving up the fuller lengths that had brought them the early returns.To use a tennis analogy, India were wary of the winners a wounded player often starts scoring when swinging blindly. They were now making the wounded players run all over the court. Unlike normal tennis matches, though, cricket goes on for days, and Ryder and McCullum fought their way to come close to a break. That would have given New Zealand hope.Ryder, who pulled his calf muscle when sweeping Pragyan Ojha for a single that took him to 36, added 23 more, running all but four of them. In fact all of New Zealand’s last 88 runs came in either fours or ones. Eight overs before bad light intervened, though, a Ryder cut off Harbhajan Singh became a low catch for Suresh Raina.McCullum continued to fight it out, staying unbeaten on 34 off 80 balls, getting into the stance to face each of which seemed to strain his back. He seemed to have edged one when on 3, but capitalised on the umpire’s mistake then, which in turn only put him through more pain.Around noon, such pain wouldn’t even have been thought of. When Vettori was walking out for the toss, though, he saw McCullum land awkwardly during fielding practice, and then come down with a back strain. A quick decision had to be made, and New Zealand went with the man who scored a double-century to save the Hyderabad Test, prepared to have him bat in the middle order.However, the specialist batsmen hardly gave McCullum any recovery time as all but Ryder joined him off the field by the 16th over. McCullum wasn’t ready to bat even when Vettori became the fifth man to fall, in the next over. Playing McCullum is a decision that will be debated long and hard in New Zealand, for it could have upset the whole team’s mindset, but it should not take away from Sreesanth’s first spell, or Ishant’s second.Sreesanth took some time to get into rhythm. He failed to involve the batsman for the first seven balls he bowled, operating wide outside off. Perhaps it helped that there was no McCullum eager to hit him as he warmed himself up into a rhythm. By the time he started making the batsmen play, he also started getting swing. Martin Guptill, who scored 85 at No. 3 in Hyderabad, got the best of Sreesanth. It was a back-of-a-length delivery, pitching off, making Guptill play, then shaping away a bit to take the edge. What’s more, it wasn’t a no-ball.By now Sreesanth had started getting the ball to swing in towards the left-handed opener, Tim McIntosh. One of those squeezed through the gap, although the loose defence made it look more spectacular than it was.Ross Taylor did something similar against Ishant. With his across movement on the crease, he was always going to be susceptible to anything moving in sharply. Ishant produced one of those, and Simon Taufel correctly judged that he was hit just in front of off.Vettori, usually just the man for these situations, was bent on pulling everything short and paid the price for it. It is a shot that has got Vettori many runs, but today he could play it only twice. One of them got him an ungainly single, and the other he dragged onto the stumps from way outside off. Between those two Ishant strikes, Kane Williamson’s dismissal summed up New Zealand’s day. It was a full delivery from Ojha, innocuous, promising to land close enough to him, but somehow Williamson managed to scoop it to short cover.