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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

For the second consecutive match torrential rain has forced Worcestershire to abandon a Championship game without a ball bowled. This time the clash against Lancashire has been called off on the first day after further rain lashed New Road. Worcestershire are now bracing themselves for their home season being a write-off if the ground floods for a second time.The band of heavy and thundery rain moved slowly up the country overnight and came to a standstill over the Midlands. The umpires called off play well before the scheduled 11am start and later in the afternoon news came through that the whole match was off.A statement said: “Due to severe weather and a warning from the environment agency about the impending flooding of Worcestershire’s ground it has been decided to abandoned the County Championship match against Lancashire.””Another flood would probably put us out of action for the remainder of the season,” Worcestershire chief executive Mark Newton told Cricinfo earlier. “There are not any flood warnings out for the River Severn or the River Teme but we are monitoring them closely. We are not expecting the ground to flood but clearly it becomes a possibility the longer the rain stays around.”A decision to stage the current Championship match was taken by Worcestershire, Lancashire and the ECB on Monday and Newton says that even if they had relocated to another venue it wouldn’t have helped them in this situation.”No ground in Worcestershire, or the country, could cope with this rain,” he said. “There would have been no point moving to an outground because they don’t have the same level of covering and hard-standing areas to take the rain.”We could have staged a full day of cricket here yesterday without any problems. The ground was fully prepared and up to standard but there is nothing we can do about the rain. And another month of this is forecast.”The ECB now face a potentially difficult situation after their decision last week to order a replay of the match against Kent later this month. It has set a precedent and Lancashire, along with Yorkshire and Hampshire, have already registered their protest at the ruling. It has gone before an ECB appeals panel and the outcome is still awaited, but this further torrential rain will put more issues on the table.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

In the days following Pakistan’s defeat at Headingley, Bob Woolmer has been consoling himself with the fact things are not be as bad as they seem for his team. On the first day at The Oval he was given a glimpse of what might have been as Mohammad Asif, returning to the side after recovering from his elbow injury, helped skittle England for 173. Asif and Umar Gul finished with four wickets apiece before Imran Farhat cemented the advantage with a shot-filled half-century.Asif’s last Test match was in April against Sri Lanka, at Kandy, and he ended with figures of 11 for 71. Since then he’s been sorely missed by a team also shorn of Shoaib Akhtar and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan but spent the early part of this summer showing his potential with Leicestershire. It was a gamble by the Pakistan management to select him for this match – he only arrived back in England three days ago – but that makes his figures of 4 for 56 in 19 overs even more commendable.The pre-lunch action was limited to just eight overs as heavy showers scudded across the ground, but Asif had already slotted into the ideal line and length for the muggy conditions, after Inzamam-ul-Haq’s brave call to bowl first. The first breakthrough went to Gul, as an out-of-sorts Marcus Trescothick slashed to gully, but it was Asif that opened up the match for Pakistan.His wickets came from perfect swing and seam bowling at a lively pace. Andrew Strauss, after again producing some fluent shots, was pushed back before reaching out for a pitched-up delivery. However, Asif outdid himself with the next ball as he produced a full, swinging beauty that kissed the edge of Kevin Pietersen’s bat as it moved late in the air. A little under 12 months ago Pietersen secured the Ashes with 158 at this ground; his stay couldn’t have been any shorter this time around.England’s man for a crisis in recent times has been Paul Collingwood, but Asif soon added him to the wicket column with a delivery that nipped back and would have taken middle. Asif was making the ball move at will, but also knew how to utilise the conditions to his advantage and made clever use of the short ball.For the first time in the series England’s batting had its back to the wall and Inzamam took the chance to give Danish Kaneria a bowl. As if to epitomise the turnaround he struck with his fourth ball after having to wait an eternity in the previous three Tests. Ian Bell propped forward and got an inside-edge onto his pad and out to silly point as England stumbled to 91 for 5.Chris Read played two fine innings at Headingley but the situations were not quite as tricky as the one facing him this time. His task became no easier when he lost Alastair Cook, who had played with a calm assurance as all around him fell, when he was trapped by a yorker from Shahid Nazir. Billy Doctrove eventually raised his finger as he started to wander away from the stumps.

The innings was given a brief revival through its best stand with Read and Sajid Mahmood adding 46. Kamran Akmal missed a chance to stump Mahmood before he had scored but the rally was unlikely to last long with the ball now reversing, a potent threat against the tail.After Asif’s work against the top-order it was Gul – deservedly so – who wrapped up the tail in a manner that revived memories of Pakistan’s last visit to The Oval, in 1996, when Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis produced a fine display of reverse swing. Gul has been the stand-out performer in Pakistan’s struggling attack and here benefited from having a reliable partner at the other end. He ended the innings in two balls by bowling Read – who’d faced just five balls out of 31 – then yorking Monty Panesar first ball.England’s bowlers didn’t heed the lessons of watching the Pakistanis and fed Hafeez and Imran Farhat – the fourth opening combination of the series – a series of loose deliveries. Still, though, Pakistan’s opening jinx struck when Hafeez was forced to retire hurt with a leg injury as the pair were on the verge of a rare fifty stand.Mahmood handed England a fillip before the close when Younis Khan was caught down the leg-side but Farhat moved to an aggressive fifty off 63 balls. However, Mohammad Yousuf was spilled twice when Read and Trescothick couldn’t decide between them who should take an edge off Hoggard, on 5, then Cook missed a low effort in the gully four runs later from the same bowler. For a day, at least, it was hard to believe which team holds the 2-0 advantage.

How they were out

Click here to read Cricinfo’s description of each wicket

Ramnaresh Sarwan and 20-year-old offspinner Omari Banks have been drafted into the West Indies squad for the second Test against Australia in Trinidad starting on Saturday (April 19).If the recall of Sarwan, who has recovered from a fractured finger in his left hand, was not surprising, then the continued omission of Chris Gayle was. Gayle was left out of the squad for the Guyana Test after he opted to play in a double-wicket competition rather than the Carib Beer Series final. His continued exclusion indicates that despite comments to the contrary, he is still very much out of favour with the selectors.The 15-man party retains the entire squad chosen for the first Test, including the injured Ridley Jacobs. A decision will be taken on his fitness in the next 24 hours, although it seems extremely unlikely that he will recover from his groin strain in time to play. Jamaica’s 20-year-old Carlton Baugh is likely to be brought in for his Test debut.The inclusion of Banks is a reward for a solid first-class season in which he took 25 wickets at 36.40 and scored 270 runs at 33.75 for the Leeward Islands. He is the first cricketer from Anguilla to be picked for a senior West Indies side.West Indies squad Wavell Hinds, Devon Smith, Daren Ganga, Brian Lara (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs/Carlton Baugh (wk), David Bernard, Omari Banks, Vasbert Drakes, Mervyn Dillon, Pedro Collins, Jermaine Lawson.

As a child I can remember the headlines when Lance Gibbs passed Fred Trueman’s then world record of 307 Test wickets. In an era when sport was given a page – occasionally two – in most newspapers, and when saturation radio and television coverage was a generation away, the column inches devoted to the feat were the modern equivalent of a week of nonstop programming.There were few dissenting voices back in February 1976 when Gibbs overhauled Trueman – although Fred himself muttered that Gibbs, an offspinner, had bought many of his victims.On Saturday, Muttiah Muralitharan passed Courtney Walsh’s record of 519 wickets. The media coverage was extensive, the celebrations in Harare more exuberant than they were in 1976, but the overall reaction – outside Sri Lanka, anyway – has been more low-key. Lingering doubts regarding Murali’s action have led to a less-than-comfortable recognition of his achievement.In The Times, Tim de Lisle wrote that the reaction was “muted, hollow, underwhelming”. He continued: “There were two reasons for this. The first is that Muralitharan was playing the Zimbabwe 3rd XI. He would have faced stiffer resistance from Devon or Ireland. The second reason concerns Muralitharan himself and the legality of his bent arm. Until very recently, almost everyone in cricket, bar Bishan Bedi and a couple of Australian umpires, was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. But with his latest trick, the doosra — or offspinner’s legbreak — Muralitharan has tipped the balance of opinion against him.””Few world champions have divided opinion like Muralitharan,” wrote David Hopps in The Guardian. “For every person who proclaims him a wonder of the age, there is another lining up to condemn him as a cricketing pariah. It is best to adopt a position from the outset: Murali is a genius, a flawed genius perhaps, but a bowler who deserves to have his greatness universally recognised. Sadly, this will never be the case. His world record will forever be tarnished by the endless debate over his bowling action.”In The Independent, Angus Fraser admitted that the action might not be perfect, but added that “I turn up at cricket matches hoping to be entertained, and Muralitharan seldom lets me down. What if Muralitharan does throw the odd ball? Cricket is littered with bowlers with questionable actions, and he is not going to kill anyone. It still takes an enormous amount of skill and practice to bowl as he does, and if it was that easy, why is the game not full of similar bowlers?”Peter Roebuck espoused similar sentiments in the Indian Express: “Now Murali stands at once as a champion and an outcast. His record-breaking performance will provoke a mixture of congratulation and resentment. Even in triumph, Murali cannot command the respect sought by every man and craved by every performer. His head must be spinning as much as his sharpest offbreak. He has deserved better from the game than a mixture of hysterical support and abject condemnation.”And that theme was amplified by Kevin Mitchell in The Observer. “Whatever the earnest mien of some Test players, cricket is a game best played with a smile and a flourish. Give me Gower before Boycott, Sehwag ahead of Ganguly. And most definitely give me Muttiah Muralitharan above his army of mean-spirited critics.” And Mitchell dismissed those who accused Muralitharan of having an illegal action. “Why is chucking inherently wrong?” he asked. “Because the rule-makers, who have always sided with batsmen, say it is. Once, bowling roundarm was illegal. So, too, was bowling overarm. The action has evolved, not always smoothly and often with a lot of arguing. He is unquestionably a genius and should be cherished, not admonished.”The reaction in Sri Lanka was, quite understandably, whole-hearted and enthusiastic. Most major newspapers devoted their front pages to the feat. “Murali on top of the world,” proclaimed the Sunday Observer, which went on to add: “Had Muralitharan been a boxer like Muhammad Ali, the former world heavyweight champion, he would have proclaimed to the world in typical Ali style: 1I am the greatest’.” The Sunday Island‘s headline was “King Murali”, while Colombo’s Sunday Times echoed: “King Murali does it!”Meanwhile, the former Indian offspinner Erapalli Prasanna expressed happiness at Murali’s feat. Speaking to The Telegraph newspaper in Kolkata, he said: “I am delighted spinners can now be placed on a par with fast bowlers. That spinners are setting targets for pacers is highly satisfying. It caused a lot of pain to hear that spinners have no role to play in modern cricket. People started saying cricket lacks quality spinners. It’s a matter of great pride that Murali and Warne’s achievements will be widely talked about now.”If one person was unhappy about Murali’s achievement, and had no problems saying so, it was Barry Jarman, the former Australian captain and wicketkeeper. Jarman was the first match official to raise suspicions about Murali’s actions. “It makes a joke of the game – it makes me sick talking about it,” Jarman was quoted as saying in the Sydney Daily Telegraph. “Everyone knows he bowls illegally. I saw his photo in the paper the other day and put an old school protractor on his arm. It was bent at 48 degrees [the legal limit for spin bowlers is 10]. I put it up in the pub to show everyone. He is a lot worse than the University of Western Australia people reckon he is.”

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Veteran fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad returns to the Indian cricketteam for the three Test series in Sri Lanka which comences on August14.The national selection committee, which met in Mumbai on Thursdaypicked a squad of 16 for the tour which included one three day game.Sourav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid (vice captain), Shiv SunderDas, Sadagopan Ramesh, Hemang Badani, Javagal Srinath, HarvinderSingh, Dinesh Mongia, Samir Dighe, Rahul Sanghvi, Mohammad Kaif,Sachin Tendulkar, Sairaj Bahutule, Zaheer Khan, Venkatesh Prasad andHarbhajan Singh.Sachin Tendulkar has been picked conditionally. He has to undergo afinal bone scan on his injured foot on August 10. If after that,Tendulkar is still unfit, Baroda’s Jacob Martin will replace him inthe squad.Ashish Nehra and VVS Laxman were both ruled out through injury.

Such were the exertions that Alastair Cook had put himself through in nearly 14 hours at the crease in temperatures easily in the high 30s – and the convention that the England captain usually only speaks after a Test match is finished, except for the occasional TV grab – that for the second day running it was left to a team-mate to marvel at the captain’s qualities.This time it was Joe Root, seemingly leader-elect and a player who will go onto challenge whatever stack of records Cook leaves behind, after he made 85 in dominating a fourth-wicket stand of 141, who was the spokesman.”As you can imagine being out there for two days it’s taken a lot out of him, but I’m sure it’s a good pain and one at the start of the week he’d have loved to have had,” he said. “I’m sure he’ll rest up tonight and be as fresh as a daisy tomorrow.”It was a hell of an effort, two days in that heat showed huge amounts of skill, concentration and fitness. We spoke a lot as a side about batting long periods of time out here and how important it will be if we are to give ourselves a chance of winning. Our captain has led from the front and set the example for the rest of the series.”Such have been the conditions in the UAE that even Cook – who is well known for not sweating – has had to change his gloves more than ever. There is, as yet, no count on the exact number of pairs or volume of shirts that the third longest Test innings required. Root did, though, say that while Cook may have changed gloves he did not change persona at any stage whether in the middle or the dressing room.Joe Root shows his frustration at a century that eluded him•Getty Images

“He was just the same as always, pretty down to earth chats about rubbish. It’s a bit like batting in the middle, he doesn’t give you any banter or doesn’t look like he’s overly concentrating. He’s just a model professional, he knows what he needs to do and he can switch off when he needs to. I think that’s one reason he can bat long periods of time.”Cook’s innings, which made him the leading non-Asian batsman in Asia ahead of Jacques Kallis, eventually ended with a top-edged sweep to short fine leg – a shot that had been a key part of his stay – but replays showed that Shoaib Malik’s delivery was a no-ball. Although Malik’s foot did drag back, it is the first point of planting that matters and he had nothing behind the line. It was one of the increasingly rare dismissals where the front line was not checked, so there was no recourse.Root, though, acknowledged how the energy-sapping conditions that the players have gone through are the same for the umpires, two men who have to stand in the middle throughout.”It’s disappointing,” he said of Cook’s dismissal. “It’s tough, the umpires are in a position where they can never win. If they make a good decision they are expected to do it, if they make a bad one everyone wants their heads. I have a little of sympathy for the umpires out there in that heat as well, they have to concentration for just as long as we have but you want to see those decision go the right way. Unfortunately everyone makes mistakes.”

Languishing at the bottom of the table, Deccan Chargers were dealt another jolt when VVS Laxman, their captain, ruled himself out of the rest of the Indian Premier League after failing to recover from a hairline fracture just below his right wrist.”I was very keen to play in yesterday’s (Sunday) match and the coming one. But I found it nearly impossible to hold the bat and face even a tennis ball,” he said just before a practice session at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium after another visit to the orthopaedic surgeon.”It’s sad that I had to miss some of the matches. It is all the more disappointing since the injury came when I was getting into the groove,” said Laxman, whose right hand was encased in plaster.Laxman injured his wrist during his 52 in a losing cause against Bangalore and missed the games against Chennai and Rajasthan.

Andy Atkinson, the ICC’s pitch consultant, has slammed those who argue against importing soil to try to improve the poor quality of the pitches at the National Sports Centre.Atkinson is of the opinion that the only way the surface can be raised to a standard to allow full ODIs to be played is for soil to be brought in from overseas, but that idea has been attacked by the United Bermuda Party and local farmers, who maintain the government would be recklessly endangering the environment if they allowed such a plan.”If you want pitches that last longer than a day and are capable of hosting international games in the future, then importing high-quality soil is the only answer and all the controversy being stirred up at the moment seems like a bunch of political claptrap to me,” Atkinson, who has been reviewing the square at the venue since 2004, told The Royal Gazette.”The square at the Sports Centre is good enough for club cricket, but when you’re talking about ODIs or longer games then I’m afraid it’s a no-go.”Ina report he submitted last year, Atkinson concluded that there was no local soil available which could withstand the demands of international cricket.And in May Richard Done, the ICC’s high performance manager, warned that Bermuda faced not being able to stage any ODIs on the island unless remedial action was taken, and that could lead to them forfeiting their status as an ODI-playing nation.”The soil in Bermuda, no matter where you look, is just not strong enough, it’s too sandy and won’t hold together,” Atkinson continued. “There are no short cuts. Soil can be imported safely and has been in other countries. As long as you are strict about sterilising it at it’s place of origin as well as when it arrives in Bermuda then there won’t be a problem.”I cannot understand what all the fuss is about. I’ve tried everything that I know and I’ve been preparing pitches all over the world for the best part of 30 years. If you want to build a house, you’ve got to make sure it is built properly and with the right materials, otherwise it will fall down.”I don’t mean to upset people but I can only give my honest opinion and no matter what anybody else tells you, the soil is just not good enough.”