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Greg Chappell and Inzamam-ul-Haq voiced their concerns over the pitch at Lahore which has aleady yielded over 700 runs inside two days. Chappell said that it reminded him of the pitch at Faisalabad in 1980 which Dennis Lillee descibed as a bowlers’ graveyard. Australia made 617 in 211 overs and Pakistan replied with 382 for two as the match was drawn.Chappell who scored 235 in that match said at a news conference, “I still think that was the best batting pitch I played on. But I would say this one is 75 percent close to it. It’s a good flat batting wicket with not a blade of grass seen on it and I don’t think the wicket would change much, but we have to wait and see because there are still 270 overs remaining in the match.”Chappell, however, pointed out that the end result could not be taken for granted. “What I know is that we are under pressure and need to bat well for the next few days to save this Test.”Inzamam-ul-Haq said he feared for a drawn first Test if his bowlers failed to enforce a follow-on on India on the third day. “I know it will be tough for the bowlers because there isn’t much in the wicket. But we need to give our best shot because not every day you post a huge score at an average of over four runs an over. We will come out all guns firing and see what happens. But one thing is for sure; we need to grab even the half chances on this track,” he said.Inzamam indicated that Danish Kaneria could hold the key to extract some turn from the surface. “Danish is a lanky bowler who turns the ball. He has improved tremendously over the years and mixes his deliveries well. But he needs to keep a cool head on his shoulders because there would be times when he would be hit against the turn or good balls would be punished severely.”Inzamam was full of praise for his batsmen, especially Shahid Afridi. He said, “Younis Khan played a gem and it was so sad to see him run-out for 199. But Shahid Afridi is someone who keeps everyone on the edge of their seats when he is batting. After he struck four straight sixes, I thought he had a good chance of hitting two more because Harbhajan (Singh) looked confused by then and had again came over the wicket after being struck for two sixes while bowling round-the-wicket.But Harbhajan is not a bunny and bowled the last two balls intelligently and avoided from going into history as the only bowler to be hit for six sixes.”Chappell added that he had not seen anything else like it. He said, “It’s one of the best hitting I’ve seen. I’ve seen Ian Botham, Clive Lloyd and of course Adam Gilchrist, but Afridi’s innings is up in the top group. No ground is big enough to keep him quiet. Our bowlers tried their best.”

Match facts

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Start time: 2000 (local) 1430 (GMT)

The Big Picture

The Deccan Chargers’ powerful batting line-up will quickly want to forget their experience on a volatile Eden Gardens surface, as they prepare to take on a confident Delhi Daredevils outfit at their home base, the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal. Hyderabad will be keen to live up to their billing as one of the title favourites, but Delhi are no pushovers, and are riding on the confidence gained from their nine-wicket mauling of the Rajasthan Royals at home.After Sunday’s match, the pitch will be under scrutiny, but Kanwaljit Singh, Hyderabad’s assistant coach, felt there were no worries of a repeat act. “It will be a fair wicket, and will be good for batting,” Kanwaljit told Cricinfo, suggesting it would not be as “disastrous” as the Kolkata minefield.

Watch out for …

… a closely-fought contest. Hyderabad will be banking on their batting as they head into the contest. Andrew Symonds is the team’s fulcrum, and his only previous outing at the ground fetched him rich dividends – he hammered 89 in Australia’s 47-run win over India in the ODI last year. Adam Gilchrist showed brief glimpses of his touch in Hyderabad’s opening match, and could make a real impact. Additional reinforcements come in the form of two big hitters, Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi, whose all-round prowess makes him a shoo-in for the game.Delhi have weapons of their own; Gautam Gambhir’s reputation grows with every outing, and he will be taking first-strike alongside the aggressive Virender Sehwag. Shoaib Malik can also clear the field with ease, while Dinesh Karthik can improvise effectively. Among the lesser-known names in the team, Shikhar Dhawan has displayed his attacking instincts in the domestic circuit, and looked solid at the crease during his unbeaten half-century in their first game. Besides, Delhi’s bowlers had a good outing against Rajasthan: Glenn McGrath showed he had not lost his famed accuracy, while Farveez Maharoof claimed the Man-of-the-Match award for his figures of 2 for 11. And to top it all off, they have the quality left-arm spin of Daniel Vettori at their disposal

Team news

Delhi will be bolstered by the arrivals of Malik and Mohammad Asif, but that in turn gives them a selection headache as they can only select four foreign players. They used four overseas bowlers in their opening match, and Brett Geeves, who conceded 41 runs without taking a wicket, is likely to make way for Malik.Delhi: (probable) 1 Gautam Gambhir 2 Virender Sehwag (capt) 3 Shikhar Dhawan 4 Shoaib Malik 5 Manoj Tiwary 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk) 7 Rajat Bhatia 8 Mithun Manhas 9 Daniel Vettori 10 Farveez Maharoof 11 Glenn McGrath.Hyderabad now have the full mix of their buys to choose from, and Chaminda Vaas might stand to miss out if the think-tank decide to go full throttle on the batting front. It is unlikely that any other changes will be made in the squad, though Hyderabad may need to be bold and reward promise instead of experience by bringing in young Ravi Teja instead of Arjun Yadav, who has an average of 22.50 from 60 List A games.Hyderabad: (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk) 2 Venugopal Rao 3 VVS Laxman (capt) 4 Andrew Symonds 5 Rohit Sharma 6 Scott Styris 7 Shahid Afridi 8 Arjun Yadav 9 Sanjay Bangar 10 RP Singh 11 Pragyan Ojha.

Stats and trivia

Scorecard

Pakistan made the most of their only warm-up game ahead of the five-match ODI series against India by easing to a seven-wicket win over Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Shoaib Malik’s decision to exploit conditions suited for swing movement worked in his favour, as his bowlers, inspired by surprise package Younis Khan, restricted Delhi to 213 for 9. Salman Butt then led the chase with a stylishly brisk 83 before he retired hurt, but the middle order knocked off the runs with 44 balls remaining.Umar Gul dealt the first blow when he had Gautam Gambhir caught in his crease in the second over, but it was Younis, bowling gentle slow-medium pace, who extracted good swing and shocked Delhi. Younis trapped opener Aakash Chopra leg-before for a 42-ball 16 and bowled captain Mithun Manhas first ball with one that pitched and came in. Imran Nazir ran out Virat Kohli for 8 and the hosts were 46 for 4.Delhi rallied around a 91-run fifth-wicket partnership between Rajat Bhatia and Shikhar Dhawan but a slew of wickets down the order brought the visitors right back into the game. Dhawan was watchful but confident, and looked set for a big score when Younis hit back to run him out for 52 from 80 balls. From here the spinners, Fawad Alam and Shahid Afridi, nipped out the lower order. Bhatia played the fast bowlers well, hooking and cutting Shoaib Akhtar for powerful boundaries. He was run out going for a suicidal single to short third man and it was left to Gaurav Chabra’s slogging to get the score above 200.In reply, Nazir slammed 34 from 22 balls even as out-of-form wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal endured another poor score. After Nazir was removed by Amit Bhandari, the medium-pacer with national experience, Butt and Misbah-ul-Haq added 116. Butt, who did not play any of Pakistan’s five ODIs against South Africa recently, was strong either side of the pitch. His cutting and driving were especially good, and he opened up with a flurry of boundaries against the medium-pacers.He did not slow down much after his half-century but left the field when on 83 from 84 balls. With victory in sight Misbah drove Pradeep Sangwan towards mid-off, where Gambhir plucked off an excellent catch, diving backwards to his right as the ball was passing him. Yasir Hameed finished the affair with an unbeaten 30 as Pakistan cashed in on their only chance to acclimatise themselves before the first one-dayer in Guwahati on Monday.

Shaun Tait expects the next couple of days to count for little, Mitchell Johnson doesn’t plan to lift his training intensity above the usual level and Stuart Clark is pretty happy to be in Brisbane after his thigh injury recovered ahead of schedule. The three fast bowlers began the in-house push for Australia’s undecided bowling spot today and all were unsure who had the best claims to join Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Brett Lee in the first Test.Practice form will give Ricky Ponting a guide when he considers which two men to shear from the squad for Thursday and he had an early chance to monitor Johnson and Clark during the squad’s first training session at a Brisbane private school. As planes accelerated to various destinations from the city’s nearby airport, the pair resumed a battle for take-off at the Gabba.Johnson started his day against Ponting and Clark joked that when it was his turn he unleashed a couple of bouncers to gain the captain’s attention. “We’ve had a laugh about the situation,” Clark said. “Me and Mitchell were both down to bowl to Ricky today, so I said to Mitch this is a bowl-off. I’ll get the newest ball and you get the newest ball. It’s good competitive fun, but we’re all in it for the cause to get back the Ashes.”While Johnson and Clark were warming up, Tait was winding down after ten days of shock therapy directed at England batsmen. He did not bowl during the session and was on light duties after flying to Brisbane from South Australia’s three-day game against the tourists.Two weeks ago Tait felt he had no chance of being in the squad. “No, God, definitely not,” he said. After surging through England with 3 for 21 for the Prime Minister’s XI and taking another three wickets in Adelaide he forced the selectors into choosing an expanded squad. Six fast men, including the injured Watson, were stalking the two main ovals and nets today.”It’s strange, really, having so many in the squad, but I like it,” Tait, who is the youngest of Australia’s bowlers at 23, said. “Fast bowlers get along well and are pretty laid back. But the next couple of days aren’t going to make much difference. The selectors know what we can do.”

Each man offers something different and the final decision will depend on whether the selectors want variation, speed or sense. Johnson, 25, is a promising left-armer but is yet to play a Test while Tait’s high-level speed has already upended England’s keys of Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss. Clark, the 31-year-old right-arm seamer, is the more thoughtful option and not just because he completed an exam for a university subject in company valuation on Friday.Ponting had Clark, who excelled on South Africa’s seaming pitches in March, pencilled in for the Gabba months before the bowler hurt his right thigh. “It got a bit close there and the doctors were telling me it wasn’t that great,” Clark said. “I did all the rehab and it worked very well. It now feels normal again.”The trio knows the decision will be tight, but for Johnson and Tait it is the exciting part of adventures that have been disrupted by back and shoulder injuries. “I’m just going to do the same thing I’ve done for last 12 months,” Johnson said. “If I try to impress that’s where I can come undone.”Tait was surprised and excited to return to the set-up for the first time since suffering a shoulder problem before last year’s Super Series, and his throwing has improved to the point where he is confident hurling from the boundary. “I’m so chuffed to be part of the 13,” he said. “If I don’t play at least I know I’m close.”And which way will the selectors go? “I really don’t know,” Tait said. “I don’t think anyone knows.” If the other two candidates were listening they would have nodded.

Ricky Ponting believes Brad Hogg will play a key role when Australia take on South Africa in Wednesday’s semi-final in St Lucia. Hogg, the left-arm wrist spinner, took 4 for 29 as Australia thrashed New Zealand by 215 runs in Grenada and only Glenn McGrath (22) is ahead of Hogg’s 19 wickets in the tournament.”South Africa probably won’t play a spinner in their side,” Ponting said. “Those conditions and the way our spin bowlers are going, probably give us a bit of an edge.”Ponting also said New Zealand were fooling nobody but themselves in their attempts to downplay the defeat. Stephen Fleming tried to minimise the impact of the largest loss inflicted upon a Test nation at the World Cup, saying his side would just “wipe it off”.”I’d rather be in our dressing room than theirs,” Ponting said. “I’m sure they will be having all sorts of meetings over the next few days to talk about today’s game.”If they don’t think that’s going to affect them at all, then how is any psychological edge ever gained in any game? If we don’t take something out of today’s game, nobody ever can. We’ve just beaten New Zealand by 215 runs in a World Cup game, so they’ve got a lot of thinking to do.”Fleming said the one positive was they did not waste a good performance. “We haven’t wasted anything at all really, so we’re just going to get up, wipe it off and look forward,” he said. “Now it comes down to two games, and if we start analysing too much we won’t look forward to what is coming up – we have an opportunity to win two games for the World Cup.”Australia’s imposing total of 348 for 6, against a New Zealand side missing Shane Bond and Jacob Oram, was built around Matthew Hayden’s 103 and half-centuries for Ponting and Shane Watson.”We knew they’d have a weakened attack going into the game,” Ponting said. “We knew if we kept our partnership going we’d get a lot of bad balls.

“Our batting has been excellent and it’s getting better at the crucial part of this tour. It’s a really exciting time.”Fleming said his side was totally outplayed. “Once again, we’ve gone for more than 340,” he said. “It is a concern. It happened twice in New Zealand, and again here. If you keep going for that many runs, the flip side is at some point you are going to get bundled out cheaply.”However, Fleming is confident Bond and Oram will be back for the semi-final against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. “We are a dangerous side,” he said. “We can play like we did today, or we can play a semi-final and chase down 350. We are even more dangerous now that we have two games to win.”Asked if South Africa could beat Australia Fleming replied: “I do and that’s because it’s a one-off game. It could be the toss, Australia have a bad day or Herschelle Gibbs plays extremely well. There are so many factors in one day cricket.”

Victoria have been boosted by the inclusion of Brad Hodge and Mick Lewis in their 12-man squad for the Ford Ranger Cup match against New South Wales at the MCG on Wednesday. But the Bushrangers will be without Shane Harwood, who is expected to miss two to three weeks with a calf injury.Hodge has recovered from a quadriceps strain and Lewis from a hip muscle injury. Both found form immediately upon their return in the Pura Cup game that finished on Monday, with Lewis claiming eight wickets and Hodge scoring 88. Grant Lindsay has been omitted from the one-day team.New South Wales have named Matthew Nicholson and Aaron O’Brien in their squad, while Jason Krejza and Aaron Bird, who has been reported for a suspect bowling action, have been left out.Victoria pulled off a remarkable win when the two sides met at Canberra last Sunday, thanks to centuries from Cameron White and Michael Klinger. Both sides have three wins this season and victory on Wednesday will put one state a step closer to catching competition leaders Queensland.Victoria squad Michael Klinger, Jon Moss, Brad Hodge, Cameron White (capt), David Hussey, Aiden Blizzard, Rob Quiney, Andrew McDonald, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Clinton McKay, Mick Lewis, Darren Pattinson.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Ed Cowan, Simon Katich (capt), Brad Haddin (wk), Daniel Christian, Dominic Thornely, Aaron O’Brien, David Warner, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Nathan Bracken, Scott Coyte.

Rafiqul Alam, Bangladesh’s newly-appointed chairman of selectors, has said pumping more money into domestic cricket is the easiest way to improve the game at that level.”I rather think that if domestic cricket is spruced with more money, competition will go up and there will be more close matches,” Alam told the ,a Dhaka-based newspaper. “The first-class competition [National Cricket League] should be taken seriously by all concerned,” he said.The Bangladesh board has set up a ten-member committee to review the structure of the domestic game as it feels the weakness of domestic cricket is hampering Bangladesh’s performance at the international level.Alam, who replaced Faruque Ahmed in the selection panel, outlined the goals for his two-year tenure. “My personal point of view is that we should have a short-term goal and that should last three to four years, if not more.” He said Bangladesh had shown considerable improvement in one-dayers over the past few years and should continue to build on the positive work to progress further.The side also has the potential to do well in Tests, according to Alam, and should aim at pushing the game to the fifth day and getting more draws out of their opponents.”We have pushed teams like Pakistan [in 2003], done well in West Indies [in 2004] and almost won against Australia here in Fatullah last year,” he said.Alam played two one-dayers during the tour of Sri Lanka in 1986. He was also a match-referee with the board and has been involved in coaching as well.

Zimbabweans 304 for 4 (Rinke 104, Taylor 80) beat Antigua & Barbuda 253 (Joseph 46, Mupariwa 3-30, Dabengwa 3-49) by 51 runs
ScorecardA hundred from Piet Rinke, who also top-scored in the tour opener, and a breezy 80 from Brendan Taylor guided the Zimbabweans to a morale-boosting 51-run win in their second warm-up against Antigua and Barbuda at Antigua’s Jolly Beach ground.Rinke, whose no-holds-barred approach made a mark in the recent series against Kenya, attacked from the off on his way to 104, and was third man out when the score was 191. If the hosts hoped that his departure would stem the flow, they found that Taylor, the side’s most experienced batsman, took up the cudgels.Faced with a daunting target, Antigua and Barbuda were given a good start by Ralton Philip and Sylvester Joseph, but both fell within two overs and thereafter the innings never regained sufficient momentum to seriously worry the Zimbabweans.Keith Dabengwa and Tawanda Mupariwa shared six wickets, and the only real concern was the poor form of strike bowler Edward Rainsford, whose four overs were hammered for 33.

Kapil Dev has challenged the Indian board (BCCI) to remove him from his position as chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for associating with the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The ICL was launched by the Essel Group a few months ago and intends to organise a Twenty20 tournament in October.Kapil, who joined the ICL’s executive board as its chairman and was sent a letter from the BCCI on the issue, told an Indian news channel, “I have already sent my reply to them. They can remove me from the NCA if they want to.”They only wanted me to contribute to the game of cricket, and when I am doing so they cannot challenge me. If I can do something for the game and the young cricketers through the Indian Cricket League, I will not budge.”Kapil also reacted to the BCCI decision concerning pensions for players joining ICL. “I did not go to them asking for pension, and if they want to stop it, what can I do? Let them stop it.”Kapil, India’s only World Cup-winning captain, didn’t know what made the BCCI see a potential rival in the ICL.”Why do they see ICL as a parallel or rebel body? The BCCI is trying to promote the game in India and if somebody else is pumping in more money why is it a problem with them?”This league can help the BCCI only. This can help Indian cricket and shape so many careers. What is BCCI’s problem?”Speaking to the same channel, Niranjan Shah, the secretary of the BCCI, made it clear that players like Kapil would have to make a choice. “We have decided not to recognise ICL in our Working Committee meeting as no state association was in its favour. We don’t want to promote anybody who wants to be a parallel body. We have a policy and there will not be any re-think on this.”Kiran More, another former player to join the ICL, had resigned from his post as secretary of the Baroda Cricket Association.

Greg Chappell has praised the selectors for taking some brave decisionsbefore the series against Sri Lanka and said that the emphatic win was achieved due to theattitude, spirit and confidence that prevailed in the squad. Talking to Cricinfo before the last one-day international at Baroda, Chappell said that the team had been in need of reinvigoration and added that their tactical and strategic changes were successful because of the refreshingattitude of the new-look side.”The selectors showed a bit of courage going with a bit of youth for thisseries,” he said, “and I think they deserve credit for the couragein moving down that line because the team was really in need ofreinvigoration. And they took that calculated gamble and the players haverepaid them. We needed to change a few things and our tactics and strategiesneeded a good rethink. I think it would have been hard to do that with theold group. As a coach one thing that I do know is that you can’t teachanything to anyone who doesn’t want to be taught. If you’re not looking tolearn something, you’re really going to struggle. And the one thing aboutthese young guys is that they’re soaking up the information. They want toknow what more can we do to be better. And that attitude makes thecoach’s life much easier.”According to Chappell, the team hadn’t allowed Sri Lanka to play as well asthey could have and said that the youngsters should be judged by the mannerin which they went about their tasks. “Sri Lanka are still a formidable sidebut I think they’ve only played as well as we’ve allowed them to play. We’vebowled with discipline and persistence, fielded really well, battedpositively, built partnerships and continually put pressure on Sri Lanka. Idon’t think they were prepared for the reinvigorated team they came against.I’m not sure they are as bad as people are making out. I just think weoutplayed them and part of that was the way the young blokes went aboutdoing what they did.”He also felt that the spectacular success of promoting Irfan Pathanto No.3 in the batting order, during the opening game atNagpur, was a big factor in the outcome of the series. “The first gameprobably couldn’t have gone any better than it did,” Chappell said, “notleast of all in the choice of Irfan at No.3. We attacked the bowlers, theyweren’t expecting it, and they weren’t expecting Irfan to come in at No.3. Ithink that shook them a little bit. Then probably they might have spent sometime looking at tactics for Irfan at No. 3 and then [Mahendra Singh] Dhoni came in at No.3 inthe third game and was in fact even more successful. I think they struggledto recover from that and it gave our group a real shot in the arm.”Chappell also attributed much of India’s purple patch to Rahul Dravid’sinfluence, and thought that he’s done an impeccable job both as a batsman andas a captain. “Rahul took the job with gusto and he was obviously ready forit,” he said. “It was very important that it became his team. It wasn’t myteam but his team. I’ve said many times that the coach’s role is in helpingprepare the team and in working with the captain and supporting the captain.It’s the captain’s team and certainly on game days, he’s the most importantman. The support staff’s role is to take as much pressure off him during thepreparation period so that he’s got time to devote to developing his owngame and preparing himself properly. And the way he went about the lead-upto the first game, the way he captained the team in the first game and theway he played in that first game has had a huge impact on the team and ahuge impact on the result of this series.”Looking ahead to the five-match series against South Africa, starting onNovember 16 at Hyderabad, Chappell warned that it could be a hard-foughtseries. “We still have the home advantage but South Africa are a toughteam,” he said. “They don’t get beaten easily. The one thing they do is tofight hard and even when they’re down they’re dangerous. But if we can shockthem the same way we shocked Sri Lanka, there’s no reason we can’t push themback and make it hard for them to play to the best of their ability.”