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Match facts

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Start time 14.30 (13.30 GMT)Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke have led Australia to victory in the one-day series with three matches to spare•Getty Images

Big Picture

The series is in the bag for Australia after a crushing seven-wicket victory at Lord’s. Now they have their eyes on a whitewash, while England are left trying to save face and build a modicum of momentum ahead of the Champions Trophy. The teams now square up in the first of two day-night clashes at Trent Bridge as England’s longest international season at home reaches its final week.Throughout this series the atmosphere at the matches has been flat, not helped by a combination of England playing poor cricket and the come-down after an intense Ashes campaign. However, there was one passage of play at Lord’s on Saturday that rose above the mediocrity as Brett Lee produced a thunderous display of pace bowling to blow away the lower order.Lee, for one, has made the most of these one-day matches after missing the Ashes series and his 5 for 49 made a strong point about his form and fitness. While some players are longing for a break, Lee is desperate to keep going having faced a year on the sidelines.England need someone to produce an inspirational performance to match Lee’s, but it is difficult to see where it will come from. Apart from Andrew Strauss, the batsmen have suffered a collective loss of confidence and the bowlers haven’t looked like blowing Australia away either.

Form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)
England – LLLLW
Australia – WWWWW

Watch out for…

Callum Ferguson has quietly, but effectively, been going about his business during this series. He began with two crucial half-centuries and, in the following two matches, he has been at the crease to seal the run-chases. He has fitted into the middle-order role that used to belong to Michael Bevan and Michael Hussey, adept at pacing the closing stages of an innings. Already there is talk that he is a future captain, but in the short-term he is shaping as a key player for the Champions Trophy.The pressure is growing on Owais Shah, who is one of the most experienced players remaining in the England line-up. Strauss needs someone to take the pressure off him and, after 64 ODIs, Shah should be taking control in the middle of the innings. However, he has struggled for form and appears low on confidence at the crease while finding a myriad of ways to be dismissed. Already he has trodden on his stumps and been involved in another run out. He wasn’t happy at the full toss he pulled to midwicket at Lord’s, standing his ground for a few moments, before being sent on his way. England want him to play a crucial role in the years to come, but Shah has to justify his place first.

Team news

Luke Wright suffered a toe injury when he was struck by the bowling machine during practice and is doubtful and Dimitri Mascarenhas has been called up as cover. Graham Onions could be in line for his ODI debut as England try to freshen up the team, or Graeme Swann is the other option depending on whether the conditions suit two spinners.England (possible) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Joe Denly, 3 Ravi Bopara, 4 Matt Prior (wk), Owais Shah, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Stuart Broad, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Tim Bresnan, 10 Ryan Sidebottom, 11 Graham Onions.Australia’s one-day machine continues to run smoothly and the only reason to change would be to assess various options ahead of the Champions Trophy. James Hopes missed out at Lord’s with Ricky Ponting returning, while Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle haven’t played a game yet in the series.Australia (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Tim Paine (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Callum Ferguson, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Cameron White, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Brett Lee, 11 Nathan Bracken.

Pitch and conditions

It’s a day-night game in the middle of September so batting first is likely to be the preferred option for both captains. However, the permanent floodlights at Trent Bridge are excellent and the forecast is also good, if slightly chilly as the autumn evenings continue to close in.

Stats and trivia

• Andrew Strauss has won all four tosses in the series to date, but might hope that Ricky Ponting has to decide what to do this time given England’s poor efforts batting and bowling first
• England and Australia have only met in one previous ODI at Trent Bridge, in 1989, when the match ended in a tie. Allan Lamb made an unbeaten hundred in the first innings, but Carl Rackemann managed a bye off the final ball after Steve Rhodes fumbled

Quotes

“We’ve been told our roles and we know our game plans, we’re just not executing them. There’s nothing really that the management or coaching staff can do – it’s up to the players to take responsibility and perform.”
“Being part of this team, everyone has a specific job they’ve got to do and we all have to be doing our jobs if we’re going to win and win well. We don’t rely just on one player to make all the runs or to be the match-winner. We’ve all got to chip in and do our bit.”

Chandan Madan, the Punjab wicketkeeper-batsman, has been rewarded with an IPL contract with the Mumbai Indians after his Man-of-the-Series performance in the recent BCCI Corporate Trophy.Madan, 26, opened the batting for Air India Blue and was instrumental in taking them to the finals, making two half-centuries and a 114 in his three innings to top the tournament scoring chart.”I am really excited to be in the same team which has great players like Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasurya,” Madan told the . “The Corporate tournament was such a big platform for a cricketer like me. It featured big names and even the national selectors were watching the players.”Madan has had a stop-start first-class career with Punjab, playing only 13 matches despite making his debut in 2003. “I owe my success to Bhajji paaji [Harbhajan Singh, who captained Air India Blue] who asked me to believe in my abilities and play my natural game,” he said. “The IPL contract is the icing on the cake for me.”Another big-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman, Indian captain MS Dhoni, was among Madan’s team-mates in the Corporate Trophy. “Dhoni said I was hitting the ball well and he praised my batting,” Madan said. “Coming from the Indian skipper, someone who is himself a big hitter, it will give me confidence to look ahead.”

Moments after England started celebrating their Ashes success, it was confirmed that Andrew Flintoff will undergo exploratory arthroscopic surgery on his injured right knee on Monday. He has been withdrawn from the England one-day and Twenty20 squads for the matches against Ireland and Australia during the summer as well as the Champions Trophy in South Africa.Flintoff was severely hampered by his injured knee during the Ashes after he first damaged it at the IPL, before further aggravating it at Cardiff during the first Test. He managed to play at Lord’s and Edgbaston, but was forced to miss the fourth Test at Headingley after Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower decided he wouldn’t make it through the game despite Flintoff insisting he was fit. He returned for a triumphant finale at The Oval but was below full pace with the ball.The ECB haven’t revealed any further information on the procedure. “A further update on the outcome of the operation and the likely timescale for rehabilitation will be released in due course,” the statement said.Andrew Strauss, however, was confident that there would be “some great times” in Flintoff’s career in the future. “Obviously he won’t be playing Test cricket for us again, which is a very sad thing, but clearly his body can’t take it anymore and I think we all understand that,” Strauss said after regaining the Ashes. “He’ll be desperate to contribute to England in any way he can going forward, whether it be 50-over cricket or 20-over cricket, but the most important thing is that he gets his body in good shape again which means taking whatever steps he needs to do that.””At least he knows what he’s going to go through, but it must be soul-destroying to have to go through that. But when you are there on the field when you win an Ashes series it makes it all worthwhile and there will be some great times in his career going forward I’m sure.”Earlier this week it was reported that Flintoff would undergo the same micro-fracture procedure that Michael Vaughan had in 2006 after his knee gave way on the tour of India. It took Vaughan more than a year to recover and the expectation is that Flintoff could be out of action for as long as nine months.”My future now is Twenty20 and one-day internationals. I want to be the best one-day international player in the world and not playing Test cricket will let me concentrate on that,” Flintoff told Sky Sports before The Oval Test. “I still want to play two more World Cups and there is still plenty for me to go on. I have got lots of ambition and want to play for England as much as I can in the short form of the game.”

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram believes fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar’s international career is virtually over. Akram said the warning bells had been sounded with Shoaib’s omission from Pakistan’s list of probables for the forthcoming Champions Trophy, to be held in South Africa.”I don’t think he has got a chance, unless and until some miracles happen,” Akram said. “Even though it depends on the captain and selectors, I think Shoaib has fallen out with the selectors and the board itself. The board still supported him and he went to Abu Dhabi and played two of the five games [against Australia] before getting injured again. We all saw that.”Akram also said the emergence of young fast bowlers like Mohammad Aamer had made Shoaib’s comeback tougher. “I think Pakistan’s bowling unit is doing well and they have to look ahead and think about the future,” he said. “They have to back the youngsters who will do the job for them, even if you look at the 2011 World Cup. Also in this year’s Champions Trophy and the next Twenty20 World Cup, the team would have to rely on the youngsters. I don’t know where you can place Shoaib Akhtar in the current picture of Pakistan cricket.”Akram predicted a difficult future for Mohammad Asif as well. The 26-year-old fast bowler, however, made the cut for the probables for the Champions Trophy, following a tumultuous two-and-a-half years in which he failed dope tests and was embroiled in a detention case in Dubai.”My advice to Asif would be – learn from your mistakes. I sincerely hope he learns from the 300 mistakes that he has made in the last two years,” said Akram. “He’s young, talented and one of the best Pakistani bowlers but it will take him some time to return because Aamer is now bowling really well.”He pointed out that international returns were not easy and cited the cases of Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir. “Even Sohail Tanvir was struggling in Twenty20,” Akram said. “Umar Gul is phenomenal but I don’t think he bowled well enough in the Test matches [in Sri Lanka]. My advice to Gul is: Twenty20 and ODI are fine but if you are to be recognised as a good bowler you have to do well in Test cricket too.”

Sri Lanka A 101 for 4 v Pakistan A
Scorecard

Another day of delays and interruptions due to poor weather conditions allowed only 34.2 overs of play on the second day of the first unofficial Test between Sri Lanka A and Pakistan A at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy.Play did not get underway till 2.15pm, whereupon Sri Lanka A added 51 runs to their overnight 35 for 1, before suffering the all-too-familiar middle-order collapse. Within a matter of 14 minutes and 13 balls Sri Lanka A lost the wickets of Ian Daniel, Michael Vandort and Russel Arnold to slide to 89 for 4.The captain, Jehan Mubarak, was in need of a big innings, and he and Malintha Gajanayake survived the next half-hour against some testing bowling, before the light was offered to the batsmen, soon after Gajanayake had survived a confident lbw shout against Asif.Weather permitting the match is scheduled to resume tomorrow at 10 a.m.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
In their first game against a professional side in this format, Ireland did make their mark. And how•Associated Press

Ireland beat Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup and, pitted against the same side in a must-win clash in more familiar conditions, produced an encore to surge into the second stage of the World Twenty20. This will go down as one of the biggest moments in Ireland’s cricket history – but another disappointment for Bangladesh, who were knocked out of the competition.The hungrier side was always going to come up tops and Ireland took a massive stride by keeping a reckless Bangladesh to 137. Bangladesh batted with the freedom of a team that believed they were already in the next stage and paid the price, stumbling after a shaky start. Mashrafe Mortaza’s late heroics ensured at least a fighting total, which is where some self-discipline could have changed the outcome of this game. Ireland applied themselves to their chase and got home by six wickets – the O’Brien brothers again proving their worth – to yells and whoops from their dugout.Twenty20 isn’t a format where you can check in and book yourself for bed and breakfast but there still is a need for stability. Instead Bangladesh started like a runaway train, scoring 30 of their first 39 runs in boundaries, despite losing a wicket early. Three boundaries in five balls are plenty, but Junaid Siddique took a silly dance down the track and started the rot.Mohammad Ashraful briefly threatened to make Ireland pay for a drop at first slip, pulling – a la Gordon Greenidge – over deep square leg and hitting Boyd Rankin over mid-on for sixes in one over, but then again steered to slip where Kevin O’Brien atoned for his earlier lapse. Predictably, William Porterfield turned to spin as the fielding restrictions were lifted and immediately Bangladesh tried to dominate, unsuccessfully. Johnston picked up the third as Shakib Al Hasan picked out long-on, before tidy spin from both ends and a sudden spring in Ireland’s step further confounded Bangladesh.Tamim Iqbal paid the price for misjudging a single, caught inches short – and with his foot in the air after he dropped his bat – by a smart pick-and-throw from Niall O’Brien. Niall was in action minutes later, brilliantly stumping Mahmudullah, his foot an inch off the ground as he heaved, when standing up to Alex Cusack’s medium-pace. Consolidation was the need of the hour but instead of taking a couple overs to consolidate, Mahmudullah swung recklessly across the line. The buzz around Ireland was stirring, the fielding now top-notch, and you could sense an upset.This was a time for Bangladesh to take a step back. Instead they kept swinging, clearly fraught at not having managed a boundary for 71 deliveries – a result of excellent work from Johnston and Ireland’s spinner. West and Kyle McCallan plugged way splendidly, tidy with their lines, and accounted for Mushfiqur Rahim and Raqibul Hasan. Ireland had crawled all over Bangladesh, strangling runs and keeping the batsmen guessing as to where the next run would come from. McCallan returned exemplary figures of 4-0-17-1, but there was a bit of gas in Bangladesh’s tank still. Mortaza’s lusty hitting earned him two sixes in the final over, a handy cameo.Mortaza then struck with the ball to dismiss Jeremy Bray in the third over Ireland’s openers started watchfully, aware that a daredevil approach could harm them. Then Niall stuck it to Mortaza, flicking three sixes with immense power in the sixth over, and taking a pair of boundaries in Mahmudullah’s first over. Niall played off the back-foot with power, but a late cut off Naeem Islam’s first ball showed he could perforate the gaps with grace too. Irish supporters in the crowd cheered raucously, aware that what their team was doing was stunning.However, Porterfield’s sluggish approach forced Niall to improvise and he fell for 40 from 25 balls. Ireland were on track with the asking rate when Porterfield chipped a return catch to Adbur Razzak, and a similarly soft dismissal from Gary Wilson, driving the first ball of Mortaza’s second spell to extra cover, sent Bangladesh into raptures.Ireland still needed 49 from 34 but Kevin shut the door with some clutch hits, flicking a full toss from Mortaza to fine leg, dumping Razzak over midwicket and creaming Rubel Hossain over and past extra cover twice. John Mooney wasn’t to be left behind, reverse-sweeping a four to ease the pressure, but it was Kevin who had the final word, clubbing another effortless six and sealing victory with a four off extra cover.”I will be very disappointed if we don’t make our mark in this competition,” said Ireland coach Phil Simmons on the eve of this match. In their first game against a professional side in this format, Ireland did make their mark. And how.

Match facts

May 20, 2009
Start time 12.30 pm (10.30 am GMT, 4.00 pm IST)
Ravindra Jadeja has been Rajasthan’s mainstay in a crumbling middle order•Associated Press

Big Picture

The IPL, much like India’s political system in an era of coalition governments, is resembling a numbers game with spots for the semis set to be narrowed down by net run-rate and the fortunes of other teams. Kolkata Knight Riders’ upset win over Chennai Super Kings in Centurion gave an indication of their prominent role in spite of being knocked out, and they may wreck another team’s hopes of reaching the top four on Wednesday.The scenario for Rajasthan is: lose and you’re out of the tournament, win and stay alive. A victory does not guarantee them a place in the semi-finals; they’ll have to rely on other results and net run-rates to see where they finish. More than a win, Rajasthan will have to beat Kolkata by a large margin to boost their chances, as their negative net run-rate may work against them. But their task is a stiff one, for Kolkata – who saw off a horrific run of eight consecutive defeats – have finally redeemed themselves somewhat. They will be strongly determined to end their IPL on a high by inflicting a heartbreak on their opponents.

Form guide (completed matches, most recent first)

Rajasthan Royals – LWLLW
Rajasthan have serious problems with their batting. They’ve shuffled around the openers but none have proved consistent, including Graeme Smith. In the middle order, Yusuf Pathan’s slump has hurt them badly. He’s managed 53 runs in his last five innings, but is one among several who’ve failed. Nos. 3 to 8 have only averaged 14.81 between them in the same period, indicating a let down across the board.Kolkata Knight Riders – WLLLL
Kolkata’s batting is in good health with Brendon McCullum returning to form, Brad Hodge remaining highly reliable and David Hussey marking an excellent return to the IPL. Their pace attack has been their major weakness, and McCullum has often had to turn to Murali Kartik and Hodge to stem the scoring. Ajit Agarkar has been especially poor, going at over ten runs an over over in each of the last three games.

Watch out for

Ravindra Jadeja – In an ailing middle order, Jadeja has proved the mainstay, notching up scores of 27, 19*, 42 and 24 in his last four appearances. With the batting around him crumbling, he does merit a promotion up the order. He’s also proved extremely useful as a left-arm spinner, taking six wickets at an average of 23, but had an off day against Mumbai Indians when Sachin Tendulkar took him for 18 in an over.Brendon McCullum – The innings of 84 against Bangalore sparked a reversal in fortunes, and his 81 against Chennai immediately brought back memories of his murderous assault in the IPL opener last year. He’s struggled as captain, which had affected his own form, and despite the encouraging win in the last game, he is likely to step down after tomorrow.

Teams

For a must-win game, Rajasthan have to consider their options carefully. They have to strengthen their batting, and may just draft in Swapnil Asnodkar. Abhishek Raut has hardly made any contribution in the last five games, scoring 19 in three innings, and hasn’t done much with the ball. He could step out to make way for Asnodkar. Naman Ojha has been disappointing in his last four games, managing just 26 runs but given the untested reserves, leaving him out could prove a big gamble.Rajasthan Royals (probable): 1 Rob Quiney, 2 Graeme Smith, 3 Swapnil Asnodkar, 4 Ravindra Jadeja, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Johan Botha, 7 Naman Ojha (wk), 8 Shane Warne (capt), 9 Amit Singh, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.Kolkata might make some changes, giving those have spent all their time at the bench a look-in for their final game of the tournament. Charl Langeveldt’s inclusion is long overdue, and he should come in for Ajantha Mendis. Agarkar’s continued presence in the playing XI has surprised many, and after three successive failures, he could make way for Shoaib Shaikh, who didn’t do anything in his debut game.Kolkata Knight Riders (probable): 1 Brendon McCullum (capt), 2 Sourav Ganguly, 3 Brad Hodge, 4 David Hussey, 5 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 6 Laxmi Shukla, 7 Ajit Agarkar, 8 Charl Langeveldt, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Ashok Dinda, 11 Shoaib Shaikh.

Stats and trivia

• Munaf Patel conceded 25 runs in the 19th over of the game against Delhi Dardedevils, the second-most expensive of the tournament.
• Both Munaf and Shane Warne are the highest wicket-takers for Rajasthan with 14 each.
• McCullum scored 62 of his 81 runs against Chennai in boundaries, the third-highest in the tournament.
• The 90-run stand between Hodge and McCullum is the highest for any wicket for Kolkata this IPL.

Head-to-head record

The teams fought a thrilling tie earlier in the tournament, which was then decided by a super over where Yusuf knocked off 18 in four balls off Mendis to shut out Kolkata. Last year, Asnodkar and Yusuf helped Rajasthan thump Kolkata by 45 runs in Jaipur. Yusuf again starred for them in the second game between the two teams, making a quickfire 48 to seal a comfortable six-wicket win.

Ehsan Mani, former ICC president, believes Pakistan was manoeuvred out of its hosting rights for the 2011 World Cup by a split within the Asian bloc, led by India, and an inert ICC approach to examine viable solutions. Pakistan, said Mani, was thus left with no choice but to begin legal proceedings against the decision.Mani, who served as president from 2003-06, is acting as an advisor to the PCB in the dispute and is widely thought to be man who prompted the move to initiate legal action. He has told the PCB, however, to keep “back-channel communications” with the ICC open throughout the dispute.”I’m afraid so and I’m very sorry to say it,” Mani told Cricinfo, when asked whether India had manipulated the situation to its advantage in order to squeeze Pakistan out of the tournament. “This was a time when India should have come forward, shown leadership and said ‘It’s all four of us as hosts, or none of us.'”Asia got worried they would lose the 2011 World Cup altogether and decided to dump Pakistan. It is the first time in my 20 years association that I have seen Asia split this way. It speaks volumes of the PCB’s PR perhaps,” Mani said.Mani also took aim at the ICC, saying it had not shown enough initiative in searching for a solution to Pakistan’s plight. “The ICC should have looked at the security situation as a whole, they should have at least met with Pakistan beforehand. When I was president, there was a lot of pressure to suspend Zimbabwe. I refused, until I had met them personally. I did and eventually they asked to be suspended themselves.”There was no pre-meeting dialogue with the PCB here and ICC should have taken the lead in that. Pakistan is a problem, so let’s talk to them. I said to the ICC you should have thought of alternative solutions. They said the PCB had not put any such proposal forward but the ICC should have been examining these things.”Many things were wrong. The ICC should have done an assessment of all four countries and gotten governments involved. Also, if Pakistan gets the Champions Trophy hosting fee even if that event was taken away, why does the same logic not apply for the World Cup?”Acknowledging that the relationship between the ICC and the PCB are “not good,” Mani said Pakistan was left with no other option. “They were between a rock and a hard place. They were marginalised, losing the hosting money – what was their choice? Roll over quietly, or make some noise? Pakistan feel they were misled at the meeting and had no idea this was going to happen. One should have been upfront about it.”Mani has advocated swapping the World Cups of 2011 and 2015, so that the next tournament is switched to Australia and New Zealand and the 2015 edition comes to the subcontinent. He asked the ICC about the swapping option and was told that “Australia and New Zealand were happy to host the 2011 World Cup but also wanted to keep the 2015 tournament.”But Mani urged the PCB to keep the doors of communication open with the ICC. “Ties between the two are not great. What I’ve advised them is to keep the legal process on but along with a high-level diplomatic process. Keep that channel open. I told the PCB that professional advice was needed but keep talking to them. I tried to speak to the ICC but couldn’t get through to them. They kept saying ‘you don’t know all the facts’ which I found disappointing.”

Johan Botha, the South Africa captain, praised the performances of Mark Boucher and Albie Morkel after they showed why they get paid “the big bucks” in the tight four-wicket Twenty20 win over Australia. Boucher and Morkel concluded the hosts’ recovery from 83 for 5 to reach 168 for 6 with four balls remaining.”It got a bit tight but you know with those two out there, that’s why they get paid the big bucks,” Botha told AAP. “They do it under pressure and they did it again tonight.”With those two in with a long way to go, we knew we still had a chance. [Boucher] has done it many times before and he just showed us tonight that he is probably our best finisher with Albie.”Botha said Morkel, who made his Test debut in Cape Town last week, would be a huge asset for South Africa during Sunday’s second Twenty20 and the following one-day series. “His bowling is also going to be important,” he said. “He’s a world-class allrounder.”Ricky Ponting was also impressed by the effort of Morkel, who took 1 for 36 before his 37 off 19 deliveries. “He probably won a couple of games single-handedly with his batting in Australia,” Ponting said. “His power hitting tonight probably got them over the line again.”So he is a very, very dangerous hitter. They use him very well. They hold him off as late as they possibly can and let him go in for the final onslaught really.”Ponting said Australia got into a position where they should have won. “That’s the disappointing thing about it,” he said. “If we had got blown off the park then I would not have been as disappointed.”[Brett] Geeves and [Shane] Harwood deserved their opportunity to play and both of them would have learnt a lot from their experience. They are bowling to good players on good wickets and it just goes to show in this game, you’ve got to execute everything every ball almost perfectly as a bowler or you are going to go around the park.”Despite the first-up success, Botha is looking for improvement for Sunday’s match in Centurion. “We want to play a lot better than we did tonight,” Botha said. “If we can win there, it will definitely give us momentum for the one-dayers.”

There were ten wickets and two hundreds on the first day of the Hamilton Test. The second day was always going to struggle to live up to such excitement and sure enough, India scored only 249 runs and lost just the four wickets. But what the second day lacked in drama, it made up in intensity.If it was fun watching Daniel Vettori’s punchy drives on Wednesday, it was interesting today to watch Gautam Gambhir walk out to pace bowlers to counter the swing. Where it was heart-stopping to watch the minutes before Jesse Ryder reached his century, there was typical sedateness in how Rahul Dravid reached his half-century. The return of the square-cut in the classical mould was an added bonus. If there were several twists and turns on day one, it took a determined effort from Sachin Tendulkar to prevent any towards the end of day two.The second day had few surprises, but nevertheless it kept the spectator involved. The batsmen were prepared to not play at balls outside off stump. The bowlers realised wickets were not easy to get and were prepared to toil according to their fields.That said, had Virender Sehwag not got out early – and it needed an almost freakish direct hit – we could have been in for a completely different day. Gambhir, however, put that mix-up behind him and focused on the testing conditions. He might have been given out lbw off the first ball of the day had Kyle Mills not over-stepped. Gambhir was rarely caught on the crease by a swinging ball after that. He was beaten at times when he stepped out and he was slow in the first half of his innings. However he stuck at it and finished with a strike-rate of over 50 after scoring only 11 runs off his first 40 balls.Dravid displayed immaculate judgment about the location of his off stump and showed that while his kind of batting might be becoming rarer by the day, it is still very important for his team. Dravid left seven out of his first eight balls, two of them close to off and another that moved in, getting close to the line whenever he did so. His second instinct was to take singles, the short boundaries and the fast outfield could wait. Between them Gambhir and Dravid took 33 singles and wore the bowlers down.When the pitch became easier for batting in the second session, and just when the second-wicket partnership seemed like putting it beyond New Zealand, the bowlers reaped rewards for disciplined bowling. Gambhir got out to a delivery that moved away from round the stumps. Dravid was allowed only two runs off his last 15 balls.New Zealand utilised their limited resources excellently and did not allow India to run away with the game. If they could be faulted it was for being a touch on the shorter side, especially when the ball lost its hardness. Their other blip was the two difficult chances they failed to take either side of the tea break.One of the beneficiaries, Sachin Tendulkar, made them pay. He was not his fluent self at the start but was not beaten often either; it was just that New Zealand made it hard for him to score. But Tendulkar waited, taking 11 balls to get off the mark, and once he was settled he played lovely shots. The straight drive off Vettori, the flick off Kyle Mills, and the backfoot punch off Chris Martin to bring up his fifty were his best.Tendulkar’s real test came against Jesse Ryder, who provided New Zealand with imagination when they were running short of ideas. Ryder gave nothing away, got the ball to move a bit, and almost had Tendulkar lbw but for an inside edge.Tendulkar survived that period, and after Laxman fell in the first over with the second new ball, he stepped up a gear. He hit the new ball six times to the boundary, scoring 30 off 29, and provided India with the decisive edge, which was expected at the start of the day. In achieving that goal though, a new – in terms of this series – route had to be taken. New Zealand made India work hard for runs, India showed they were prepared to do so.