Ian Botham in disguise
Yusuf Pathan went into the match against Bengal with a highest score of 92* and three five-fors to his name. It must be the confidence that comes with having won the World Twenty20 on your international debut, because by the time the match got over he had taken two more five-fors, scored his personal best – 183 runs in 150 balls, and had almost single-handedly taken Baroda to an innings win. When he came in to bat, Baroda were 180 for 5 in reply to Bengal’s 370 (thanks largely to his effort after Bengal were 221 for 0 at one stage), and when he left Baroda were 86 runs in the lead. Then he opened the bowling in the second innings and struck in the first over, and then four more times as Bengal were bowled out for 86.The power of one
At the Roshanara Club Ground in Delhi, Cheteshwar Pujara scored a typical grind-to-save-the-match unbeaten 148 against Delhi. Set 327 runs in a day, Saurashtra were 33 for 2 when Pujara came in to bat in the seventh over. He saw the state worsen to 107 for 8 with more than 40 overs to play. That’s when he found able support from Sandeep Jobanputra. The partnership frustrated Delhi for 157 minutes and after Jobanputra got out, Sandip Maniar came in to do more of the same. Bad light helped too, as play was called off with five overs to go and a wicket still standing. So frustrated were Delhi they bowled five different bowlers for the last five overs.A year ago, Saurashtra would have got nothing for the fight they put up in the second innings. But a change in the points system, which awards one point for drawing a match even though the team has lost on first-innings basis, meant they were also playing for something on the final day. A good suggestion, then, by Sanjay Bangar in the pre-season captains’ conference.For more of Bangar’s thoughts, read his blog on Cricinfo on the train journeys he has made while playing domestic cricket over the years.Bundle of nerves
After eight years of having excelled in Indian first-class cricket, Ramesh Powar was nervous going into a second-round match against Tamil Nadu in Chennai. Dropped from both the Indian ODI and Test sides, Powar, according to team-mates, was upset, kept to himself and often cursed his fate, the reported.None of the nerves were on show, though, once the match started as he picked nine wickets to get Mumbai an outright win against Tamil Nadu. The performance followed his impressive show against Karnataka in the first round.Although the Indian team seems to have moved on, Pravin Amre, the Mumbai coach, can’t get enough of Powar. “Experience can’t be bought in a super market,” he reminded us. Lest we forgot it since the last time he said it, which can’t be more than a fortnight ago, at the most.

300
Sreekumar Nair became the first triple-centurion for Kerala and only the second in Ranji Trophy overall since the 2000-01 season. Nair’s unbeaten 306 against Services overtook the previous best for Kerala – 262 set by Balan Pandit in 1959.The Kerala Cricket Association was quick to recognise the effort and gave him a grand cash award of Rs1 lakh. The cash award was more than thrice what Shiv Sunder Das, the last triple-centurion got from his state association – Rs30,000.And before Nair starts splurging, may we remind him that Das was fined 25% of his match fee in the very next game, because he got the sightscreen to move a few times too many.The milestone man
Nair is not the only one raking in the moolah: Pankaj Dharmani, the Punjab captain and wicketkeeper, was also awarded for becoming the highest run-getter for Punjab in Ranji Trophy. After he became richer by a lakh during the lunch break on day one against Hyderabad, he showed more of the greed by getting his 8000th run in first-class cricket, when he scored his 42nd run during the second day’s play.And with 258 dismissals to his name, a little help from his bowlers will take him to 300 soon. The PCA better start saving.Baroda outdoes BCCI
Baroda gave the BCCI a gentle wake-up call last week. While the BCCI is still inviting applications for creating and managing its website, the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) became the third state association in India to have a website of its own. Baroda follows the example of Mumbai and Punjab state associations: Sharad Pawar, the BCCIpresident is also MCA president, and MP Pandove, the BCCI joint secretary, is also the PCA joint secretary.We’re right behind you, captain
“Laxmi Ratan Shukla, incidentally, opened his account as a skipper. Having got out for two ducks in his previous two knocks, Shukla in his third innings as Bengal captain lasted two balls and scored one.” Thus read the Telegraph‘s match report after Bengal lost to Baroda. They are not missing anything, are the Telegraph?

Even before the match started, the paper had labelled it as a “battle of coaches”, keeping the captain aside. Paras Mhambrey, the Baroda coach, had coached Bengal to two finals over the last two year. And the Bengali papers had gone as far as to suggest that Bengal were up against the “Mhambrey factor”. Mhambrey had chosen a spin-friendly track and eventually the Baroda spinners did get 15 wickets, they even took the new ball in the second innings.Quote hanger
Turned out Karnataka coach Vijay Bharadwaj’s caution was unfounded as Karnataka beat Himachal Pradesh easily by an innings and 126 runs.

Scorecard

Matthew Elliott’s tenth one-day domestic hundred fired South Australia to third in the table, a leap from fifth, as they closed out a 70-run win against Western Australia in Perth on Wednesday. Elliott struck 146 from 141 balls, the highest one-day innings for a South Australian, to take the visitors to 3 for 329, their largest one-day total, and was backed up by a disciplined bowling performance which ensured the Warriors fell away.Elliott moved past his previous best this season of 133 and then overhauled Darren Lehmann’s 142 in 1994-95. He rode his luck, dropped on 11 and out to a no-ball on 97, but overall his was an entertaining innings, and one which consigned the Warriors to their fourth successive defeat.Mark Cosgrove added a weighty 70 while Daniel Harris made 46. Daniel Christian continues to reward his new side, posting a quickfire 32 not out and then bowling tidily, although without a wicket.Justin Langer fell early in the Warriors’ chase, Jason Gillespie trapping him with an inswinger, before Shaun Marsh and Luke Ronchi led the reply, though their half-centuries were in vain. Paul Rofe bowled well and got the vital wickets of Marsh and Luke Pomersbach that broke the back of the Warriors’ batting.Nathan Adcock then replaced the wayward-but-wicket-taking Dan Cullen, and grabbed three of his own to complete the job. The Redbacks continued a good run of one-day form that was punctured only by Queensland’s recent win in the rain-affected match at the Gabba. They will hope to get a further Christmas bonus on Sunday when they host the Bulls.

Western Australia 4 for 160 (Marsh 67, Ronchi 52, S Smith 3-18) beat New South Wales 7 for 159 by 6 wickets
Scorecard
Luke Ronchi and Shaun Marsh blasted Western Australia to a home final, both smashing half-centuries to take them to a comfortable six-wicket win against New South Wales in Sydney. Ronchi faced 26 balls in his 52, while Marsh took 50 for his 67, as Western Australia chased down the target of 160 with 15 balls to spare. That was despite three late wickets from Steven Smith, who also top scored for the Blues with 33.Brett Dorey and Aaron Heal both took two wickets, but the home side kept fighting throughout their innings. It was, however, not enough and the Warriors, as one of the top two, have now secured their chance to not only go for the prize, which Adam Voges said earlier this week was important as they have lacked silverware of late, but also to go forth to the Twenty20 Champions League where US$2 million is up for grabs. “I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t motivation,” Voges said earlier this week. He and his side are one step closer now.Victoria 9 for 142 (Hussey 50, Tait 3-28) beat South Australia 137 (D Harris 48, Christian 40) by five runs
Scorecard
Victoria pulled off a victory against South Australia in a tight encounter in Adelaide, ensuring their place in the final for the third year running, and a chance to defend their title. Clinton McKay had the honours of the last over, and Daniel Christian took his first ball for six, leaving eight needed off five. He sneaked two the next ball with a push to space at mid-on. But with six needed from the last four he holed out at long-off, the half-centurion David Hussey fittingly taking the catch.Hussey had rescued Victoria from 4 for 26 with a thrilling 50 from 37 balls to lift them to a par of 9 for 142 on a slowish track. It ultimately proved the difference as the Redbacks, though starting well enough, just couldn’t push them past the line. Daniel Harris set a platform with 48 before being trapped plumb by Dirk Nannes, then Christian took them close with 40.Shaun Tait, meanwhile, had continued with his fire displayed on Tuesday, trapping Cameron White lbw in between ripping out the stumps of Aiden Blizzard and Andrew McDonald like an evil dentist. But it was Victoria who extracted the most pleasure and will now head to the WACA on Sunday.Queensland 1 for 177 (Watson 69*, Hopes 60) beat Tasmania 8 for 174 by nine wickets
Scorecard
Tasmania slipped from top spot and out of contention for the final thanks to a convincing win for Queensland in Brisbane. Luke Butterworth’s 36 was the top score in a Tasmania innings where most contributed, and crucially when they lost wickets they did not lose momentum as they reached 8 for 174. It wasn’t enough, though, as James Hopes wreaked havoc with 60 off 29 balls, before being scalped by Butterworth, and then Jimmy Maher (35*) and Shane Watson (69* off 32 with two fours and seven sixes) pummelled them home, quashing Tasmania’s dreams along the way.

Barring a few months in the middle of 2005, it is India v Australia that’s been the marquee series this decade and Anil Kumble felt India would continue to be the best challengers to Australia’s supremacy. Starting with the sensational series back in 2001, the overall tally stands at 6-5 to Australia’s favour, a scoreline which no other team has even remotely approached.”We probably play our best cricket against Australia,” said Kumble after an eventful series, “and we play them not too far from now, in September this year. We’ve been travelling well for the last four or five years and done well everywhere. You have a few people who might not be a part of the Test squad in a couple of years but there is a lot of talent there, as this series has shown. Our young bowlers have done well and this experience will stand them in good stead.”Ricky Ponting, while admitting that India were the second-best side in the world, felt the biggest test would come when their senior players retire. “Even though they’re the No.2 ranked team in the world, they’re going to lose 4-5 of their top players pretty soon,” he said. “They’re going to go through a phase that we’ve gone through over the last few months. It will be interesting to see how they back up from that. They are No.2 but will be rebuilding soon. I’m happy the way we’ve gone through the phase but it’s all ahead of India. So time will tell.”Having lost four of their top players last season [Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath], Australia watched Adam Gilchrist walk away here. Ponting, though, felt there was enough ammunition in the domestic tank to keep the side going. “We’ve got enough talent to maintain our No.1 ranking. We’ve done a lot of work over a period of time and are a fair bit ahead of the next team. Test cricket is about big moments and we’ve won those through the summer. How we do from here on will determine how good a group we are.”We’ve coped well with the loss of four players last summer and now we’ve lost one more. Our cricket this summer has been terrific, especially the way we’ve covered for these guys. Nobody can say they’re not impressed with [Phil] Jaques or [Mitchell] Johnson. Sri Lanka and India are very good Test teams and we’ve played very well to beat them.”The scoreline could have been different had India’s batsmen hung on for eight minutes in the final stages in Sydney and Kumble looked back at the pivotal moment. “We came pretty close in Sydney and I really hoped we had batted for seven or eight minutes (sic.) to get a draw in Sydney. But the Aussies played really well and credit should be given to them. Having said that I’m proud of the way we played. In the last five years, India are the only team to have competed with them so well.”We didn’t come with our full strength bowling line-up and lost Zaheer Khan mid-way. Looking back I think the young fast bowling unit responded brilliantly. Ishant Sharma was probably the find of the series – he’s 19 and this was his first series in Australia. He impressed with both his aggression and attitude, troubling every batsman who came in.”The series was marred by the controversial Test in Sydney but Kumble felt it was a something both teams managed to put behind. “We always had a good relationship and it was one of those moments in Sydney. I look at it as a hurdle from where we moved on.”

Mark Vermeulen, the former Zimbabwe batsman, has been cleared of arson due to mental illness after being on trial for burning down the Zimbabwe Cricket Board’s headquarters and academy in Harare.Vermeulen, 29, had admitted setting fire to the two buildings in 2006 but pleaded not guilty to arson on psychiatric grounds, adding that he suffered from partial complex epilepsy and impulsive behaviour disorder after he was hit and injured by a cricket ball during a match in Australia.After considering testimonies from Zimbabwean government psychiatrists, Dr Sekai Martha Nhiwatiwa and Dr Munyaradzi Madhombiro, that Vermeulen was a psychiatric patient under treatment, provincial magistrate Mr Mishrod Guvamombe ruled in his favour.Vermeulen’s lawyer, Eric Matinenga, said that Guvamombe had delivered a “special verdict” which meant Vermuelen had not been in control of his actions when he carried out the attacks.”A special verdict is retained when a person commits an offence while they are not well up there. If the person is considered to be dangerous to society, he is committed to an institution,” the lawyer told AFP. “If he does not pose a danger to society, as was found in this case, the person is freed.”If he’d been found guilty Vermeulen would have faced up to 25 years in prison with hard labour. He played the last of his eight Tests in 2004.

Bryce McGain, the 35-year-old Victoria legspinner, has won support from Shane Warne and Kerry O’Keeffe as the contenders line up to replace the retiring Brad Hogg. At the end of last season McGain was told by Victoria there would not be room for him in the one-day team, but he led the FR Cup wicket list with 15 and is currently on top at his state with 29 victims at 32.96 in first-class games.McGain’s late blooming has him being mentioned alongside Stuart MacGill, Dan Cullen and Nathan Hauritz as replacements for Hogg. “I wasn’t in the picture last April and that spurred me on,” McGain said in the Australian. “I guess you don’t know if you can swim unless you get in the pool, and you have to be allowed in the pool before you can find out. I am hopeful I can do the job [for Australia] if I am asked.”Warne said McGain had been the “standout spinner from all over Australia over the summer”. “He has done exceptionally well in all forms of the game,” Warne said in the Courier-Mail. “Australia can go for someone like Bryce or try a young bloke, throw a young guy in there. Maybe for Pakistan they might pick two or three spinners.” The tour, which is currently in doubt over security concerns, is due to begin late next month but Australia’s selectors may not have to make a slow-bowling decision until the trip to the West Indies in May.O’Keeffe, who played 24 Tests in the 1970s, said in the McGain was bowling as well as he ever has. “In a [Bob] ‘Dutchy’ Holland-like selection I think they’ll talk about him at length,” O’Keeffe said. Holland played his first Test as a 38-year-old in 1984 and O’Keeffe didn’t think age should be a factor.”The fact no other wrist-spinner around the place has done anything, and McGain’s a leading wicket-taker in Pura Cup cricket, he’s got wickets in all forms of the game, he deserves a chance,” he said. Hogg, who will step down after the CB Series, is 37 while MacGill, who is recovering from wrist surgery, is the same age.Adam Gilchrist is retiring alongside Hogg and he said whoever Australia chose as the veteran spinner’s replacement would need to match his enthusiasm. “It doesn’t matter what age, if we can get one that has the energy, intensity and passion that Brad Hogg had, we’re very much on the right direction,” Gilchrist said. “There’s several options out there. There’s a guy from Victoria Bryce McGain that’s really impressed, but we’ll just wait and see.”[Hogg] has just been an extremely under-rated member of this team, often gone unacknowledged. If you look at his numbers … he stacks up right next to the greats of one-day cricket, including Shane Warne.”

New South Wales 281 (Katich 86, Siddle 5-66) & 8 for 563 dec (Hughes 116, Lee 97, Siddle 4-101) beat Victoria 216 (Hodge 84, Lee 4-71) & 372 (Jewell 99, Casson 4-128) by 256 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
5th day
Bulletin – Blues’ all-round power delivers Pura Cup
Quotes – Cup caps off perfect year for Katich
Gallery
4th day
Bulletin – Lee’s 97 puts Blues on the brink
News – Siddle faces another shoulder reconstruction
Gallery
3rd day
Bulletin – Hughes and Katich put Blues on top
Quotes – Katich unfazed by Pura Cup record
Gallery
2nd day
Bulletin – Lee stirs as team of champions starts to surge
Quotes – Hodge confident Victoria can fight back
Gallery
1st day
Bulletin – New South Wales suffer from Siddle shocks
News – Siddle’s pain is Victoria’s gain
GalleryLead-up coverage
Preview – Blues hold aces in high-stakes match
News – Beau wraps up successful summer
News – Siddle eager to step up against stars

James Anderson has known some dramatic peaks and troughs during his five-year England career, and his recent tour of New Zealand provided a perfect microcosm. He was recalled for the second Test in Wellington and starred with five first-innings wickets en route to a series-turning victory, but one match later in Napier his form had fallen away, and he was dispatched for more than six an over by Stephen Fleming in the first innings and Matthew Bell in the second.”It was very frustrating, and I can’t really put my finger on why it happened,” said Anderson during the launch of adidas’s new England kit at Lord’s. “It’s just the way it goes I guess. The pitch was flatter in Napier, but in both innings I started off reasonably well and it was coming out quite nicely. Then I had one bad over, and I tried to chase it from there.”Bad overs are a bit of a feature of Anderson’s game. In Kandy before Christmas, he was clubbed for six fours in consecutive balls by Sanath Jayasuriya, and in Napier, he suffered arguably a greater ignominy, as Bell – a batsman who had failed to pass 30 all series – hurtled towards a half-century with four blows in a row of increasing authority.The impression is that Anderson’s head drops as soon as a batsman gets after him, but the man himself disagreed with that suggestion. “It’s not getting down on myself, but when you’ve gone for 30 off five, you have got to pull it back from there,” he said. “My thought process is to bowl maidens, and I want to be pretty economical, keeping the run-rate below three. I was probably chasing it a bit too hard rather than being patient and letting the rhythm do it like I did in Wellington.””I call myself a strike bowler, and the way I see myself is getting wickets,” he said. “But when you play against a team like New Zealand, who want to hit boundaries, you want to stop them doing that. Sometimes that might be about bowling maidens to get that pressure.”Anderson suffered an injury setback during the Wellington Test, when he twisted his ankle in a warm-down game of football, but by and large, he said he felt as comfortable in his run-up and action as he has been for several years. There was a period around 2004-05 when Anderson’s action, which involves an awkward dipping of the head at point of delivery, was completely deconstructed by the England coaching staff. But all that, he believes, is now behind him.”I think I have gone full circle now,” he said. “I have played for five years now, and I think technically and physically my action is as good as it is going to get. I am comfortable now it feels really natural, and I don’t think there is an awful lot more I can do with it. When I first started, my leading arm was somewhere behind the back of my head. Now it is somewhere where it feels comfortable.”Anderson returns to competitive action for Lancashire next week, but the countdown is already on for the first Test of the rematch against New Zealand at Lord’s on May 15. It is a venue at which Anderson enjoys bowling, and against India last summer, he picked up his second five-wicket haul in three visits.”It’s a nice place to bowl – there is a nice slope, and it generally swings here,” said Anderson. “My mentality might change if the ball is swinging. Like in Wellington, I might bowl more attacking lines and I might be happier going for more runs than I would do if it wasn’t swinging. I just think you do better at some grounds than others. I don’t up my game when I play here, it just happens.”There is no guarantee that Anderson will feature in the first Test, however. His poor showing in Napier has given hope of a recall to Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison, the men who made way for his Wellington comeback, and also looming on the horizon is Anderson’s Lancashire team-mate, Andrew Flintoff, who has completed 28 overs in his comeback match at Surrey – his heaviest workload since the Brisbane Test in November 2006.”It’s going to be a real battle for places. No-one’s place is set in stone,” said Anderson. “We have all got to perform in the first couple of games of the season. Hoggy and Harmy are going to be fighting like mad to try and get their places back, then you have got the other guys like Chris Tremlett, Liam Plunkett and Saj [Mahmood] at Lancashire too. There are a lot of people in the hat.”As for Flintoff, Anderson was cautiously optimistic that – after four ankle operations – he might this time get back to his best form. “Every time he has an operation he has come back strong,” said Anderson. “So it is just whether this time it is for good. He has always been pretty fit, and his bowling always seems to look after itself. He gets it down at good speeds when he needs to.”From his own point of view, Anderson knows what he needs to do to cement his place in the England team. “Fitness wise I am fine, so the only issue is mental,” he said. “I know I can bowl that well, it is just about figuring out what went wrong in that game [at Napier]. A lot of it is about rhythm and just being relaxed, and not trying to fight myself and bowl quicker when it is not going so well.”

Nach Balliye
That means dance, my love. Well, it wouldn’t be wrong to say cricket has become the better half of Bollywood when it comes to Twenty20. Even before the first ball was delivered the DY Patil Sports stadium was houseful. The 55000 die-hard fans were in well before time. You wouldn’t be off the mark to think they had all come to pay their paeans to their demi-god – Sachin Tendulkar. Real picture soon emerged. Even as Tendulkar didn’t take the field the crowds were busy elsewhere: dancing, shaking, whitstling to the various Bollywood tunes.No more indecent proposals
In India there are many rules. But bending a rule is a rule by itself. So as tempers flared amidst soaring mercury around the country on whether cheerleaders should be allowed to be part of the IPL entertainment, the event organisers didn’t break a sweat. They just found a way out: to appease the authorities and the traditionalists the cheerleaders were asked to cover-up their legs with the mini skirts being replaced by calf-length leggings. Perhaps a good and safe move for the girls, too, who were getting annoyed and disturbed by lewd remarks from certain sections of the crowd.(Un) Suitable boy
VVS Laxman for all his charm and modesty seems stranded in the hurried world of Twenty20. If he is yet to find ways to score with the bat, he has constraints while fielding too. Valiantly he positioned himself at cover and was found out when Abhishek Nayar flogged one over-pitched delivery from D Kalyankrishna which the Hyderabad captain was too slow to even bend, forget stopping.Boss, we wanna fly too…
Even as his team is yet to open their account on the points table, Mukesh Ambani, owner of Mumbai Indians franchise was riding high, rather flying, when he arrived along with his family for the game from his pad in South Mumbai in a chopper. If he could also help his team’s fortune soar, too.Hail Gilly
His ninth six brought him his maiden Twenty20 hundred but Adam Gilchrist mesmerised the thousands of Mumbai fans who were left with no other option but to bow to him and acknowledge his feat.

Match facts

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

The bottom-placed Mumbai Indians are running out of time to salvage their season as they prepare to take on the Kolkata Knight Riders. After going four matches without a win, and with their top stars failing to deliver, their strategies at the auction are on the verge of being exposed. Besides their desperate search for their first points, they have added concerns – Harbhajan Singh has been banned for 11 matches, and the wait for Sachin Tendulkar to overcome his groin injury continues. Kolkata, on the other hand, will be trying to get back on track after the loss to the Chennai Super Kings, their first in the tournament. Meanwhile, the match will be played on a new surface after the pitch for the first game at the Eden Gardens came in for considerable flak.

Watch out for …

… the probable return of Tendulkar, and if he does, his face-off with Ishant Sharma, as well as a dream opening partnership with Sanath Jayasuriya. This will be the last IPL game this season for Brendon McCullum and Ricky Ponting, and both of them will be keen to sign off with a bang. Sourav Ganguly is under the scanner after scoring just 36 runs in three games, while David Hussey has an opportunity to make up for his second-ball duck against Chennai. Kolkata’s bowlers took just one wicket among them in their previous game, and they will look to put in an improved showing.

Team news

Tendulkar was seen doing the rounds ahead of Mumbai’s match against the Deccan Chargers, indications that he might be close to being 100% fit. He is slated to lead the side, but if he fails to make it Shaun Pollock will continue as captain, a role he has taken over in Harbhajan’s absence. Luke Ronchi’s place is uncertain as he has managed only 34 runs from four matches at 8.50, and Mumbai may consider bringing in Loots Bosman, the South African opening batsman in his place with Pinal Shah keeping wicket.Mumbai: (probable)1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Luke Ronchi (wk), 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Shaun Pollock, 6 Abhishek Nayar, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Musavir Khote, 9 Ashish Nehra, 10 Dhaval Kulkarni, 11 Siddharth Chitnis.Kolkata are likely to retain the same combination that they have fielded in their first three matches.Kolkata: (probable) 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 5 David Hussey, 6 Mohammad Hafeez, 7 Laxmi Rattan Shukla, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda.