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Match facts

Saturday, May 3 2008
Start time 16.00 (local), 10.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

It’s the tale of two captains under pressure. Rahul Dravid has tried everything – he has opened, moved down the order and come up again but without much success. VVS Laxman, after looking clueless in the initial encounters, is beginning to find some form but he has been unable to convert the starts into substantial scores. The captains’ desperation seems to have caught on to the teams. Bangalore should have won against the Chennai Super Kings but choked; they could have won against the Delhi Daredevils but couldn’t find that one big over that they desperately needed. Similarly, the Deccan Chargers have had their close encounters. Both teams have registered their solitary wins against fellow-strugglers Mumbai Indians.If the captains are under similar pressure, the teams, though, couldn’t be more different. Deccan were supposed to be the powerhouse team with attacking batsmen while Bangalore had batsmen who had great Test records but were not known for their big hitting. But both set of players have been unable to gel as a unit. In their last two games, Bangalore did seem to find some momentum but were unable to finish off.

Watch out for …

… Herschelle Gibbs. This could be the format to showcase his game, which depends a great deal on hand-eye coordination. His paddle-scoops, his pulls off the front foot and the innovative adjustments can make for a fascinating viewing experience. Also, look out for Misbah-ul-Haq. With Ross Taylor leaving for England, Misbah, the man who burst into prominence with his showings at the World Twenty20, should get a chance here. A veteran of domestic Twenty20 games in Pakistan, he has the nous and the wherewithal to shine in this format.

Team news

Bangalore are stuck with a problem more than one team has faced in the IPL: which foreign player to play and whom to bench. They have had starting problems, but if they play Shivnarine Chanderpaul, they might not be able to pick Misbah. Jacques Kallis is wanted for his all-round skills, Mark Boucher is the wicketkeeper and you can’t drop Dale Steyn. Dravid said that Anil Kumble will replace Sunil Joshi and either J Arun Kumar or Bharat Chipli could get a chance.Bangalore (likely): 1 Praveen Kumar, 2 Wasim Jaffer, 3 Misbah-ul-Haq, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Rahul Dravid (capt), 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Virat Kohli, 8 Zaheer Khan, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 R Vinay Kumar.Deccan came close to playing the aggressive Hyderabad opener Ravi Teja but have chosen to stick with the tried-and-failed Venugopal Rao. There is also Arjun Yadav who could slot into the middler order in place of Rao. The team landed in Bangalore only late on Friday evening and they will have a light practice session on the morning of the match.Deccan (likely): 1 Adam Gilchrist, 2 VVS Laxman (capt), 3 Hershelle Gibbs, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Shahid Afridi, 6 Arjun Yadav, 7, Sanjay Bangar, 8 Nuwan Zoysa, 9 D Kalyankrishna, 10 RP Singh, 11 Pragyan Ojha.

IPL form

Bangalore Royal Challengers: LWLLL
Deccan Chargers: LLLWL

Stats and trivia

Quotes

“You have to challenge yourselves to fight back when you have your backs to the wall. Playing Deccan (who are struggling) doesn’t make any difference because in Twenty20 the team that executes their plans best wins. They have a very good players, any one of them can crack the game open. But we have started gelling as a team in the last two games.”

Through all the months and years of work on James Pattinson’s bowling action, the prevention of injury was tantamount in everyone’s thinking. But in the middle of his first Test match appearance for nearly two years, Pattinson reached an epiphany of sorts – if he wasn’t taking wickets, he would find himself dropped no matter how fit he was.So it was that Pattinson that did some mid-match tinkering against the West Indies in Hobart, and duly found the rhythm that had been frequently missing at times over the preceding year. A rediscovered outswinger enabled Pattinson to claim his first wicket of the match, and a series of fast deliveries that stood up the seam which led to a return of 5 for 27 and a feeling of relief akin to the completion of a Test debut.At the same time, Pattinson acknowledged that by reverting to elements of his former bowling action – namely an arm path closer to his body that allows him to get his wrist position right – he was taking a risk of re-injuring his back, which still carries traces of the stress fractures that had stalled his career. He is hopeful that at a more mature age of 25 and 93kg, as opposed to the 86kg he once weighed in at, his body will be able to cope with the load.”I just ran in and wanted to bowl fast like I did when I first came on the scene,” Pattinson said. “I looked at a bit of vision the night before and I wasn’t releasing the ball in the right position, where I wanted to. So I did a little bit of work on it in the morning just to get my wrist behind the ball a bit more and get that seam good for out swing.”It was frustrating because I had changed my action and I didn’t feel completely comfortable with it and I think in the second innings here I just went ‘stuff it really, I’m just going to go out and try and bowl like I used to bowl’ and just run in and bowl fast.”And I thought if I bowl like I did in the first innings I probably won’t be getting too many more games, so you better change something. So it’s been a frustrating six months or so but it’s good to get a bag of wickets now. Every time I ran in to bowl I was just hoping and waiting for that bag of wickets and that confidence that I’ve been lacking over the last couple of years.”I’ve sort of gone back a bit now. It’s hard because when you run in and bowl you don’t want to be thinking about your action. I’ve made the change to try and stop injuries but hopefully now that I’m back in the team and I’m a bit older, hopefully my body will hold up and I can go back a little bit to where I was when I first started playing because that’s when I think I’m bowling my best.”Craig McDermott, the assistant coach, has worked closely with Pattinson for more than five years. Upon hearing of his pupil’s distress at how he bowled in the first innings, his advice was for Pattinson to simply run in and bowl fast, without thinking of the minutiae. A similar conversation with the captain Steven Smith also provided reassurance about the path Pattinson took.”I was speaking to Craig McDermott after the first day about where I was releasing the ball from and my action, and I said ‘I haven’t really been feeling that comfortable with it over the last six months’. And he said just run in and don’t worry about it and I did that. I’m a bit older now and hopefully my body will be right and I’m sort of somewhere in between.”I was really struggling to get it through to the keeper, and bowl that good channel and get that good outswing with my wrist behind the ball. That was the trouble. It felt like I was trying extremely hard to do that, whereas the second innings when I came out I was running straight lines and had my wrist behind the ball it felt pretty easy.”It’s all got to do with my arm path, it’s not much but it’s just little things that I can see on video and pick up and try and change along the way.”Injuries are something that have to become a commonplace part of the life of most pace bowlers. Technical changes designed to prevent them will never be 100% successful, as Pattinson knew from suffering a hamstring strain earlier this summer as a result of his new method. Therefore he has decided simply to go for it – whatever will be, will be.”At the end it’s a game so the big thing for me is having fun when I’m out there playing and that’s what I did in the second innings,” he said. “Coming back from a long spell out I felt like I was debuting again in the first innings, so there was a bit of nerves around but they soon settled.”I’m just looking forward to the next Test. It’s great to see Josh Hazlewood bowling so well again, he’s a great guy to have in the team and Sidds is doing his job and keeps it tight for all the bowlers. It’s really good to be back and a bit of relief to get some wickets and get some pressure off my back.”

Smiling, just as he was after overcoming the might of Australia at theWorld Twenty20 group phase, Robin Brown sits down to talk about a groupof internationals who don’t play Test cricket. Zimbabwe had just lost afour-day tour match in Karachi by an innings – albeit against a bunch of strongPakistan hopefuls – a detour possibly to their road back to Test cricket.Brown, appointed Zimbabwe’s coach in September last year, chose, however,to concentrate on the positives. “Yes, we lost by a big margin but wemanaged to get a lot out of it,” he told Cricinfo. “I think a result wasthe only thing we failed to achieve because our bowlers got a chance tospend time bowling to good opposition under new conditions. Our batsmen,even though only a couple went past fifty, spent time in the middle andadjusted to the low bounce and slowness that is the subcontinent pitch.It’s a learning process, whether it’s accompanied by a win or a loss.”He agreed that there were spurts of impatience from the batsmen – mostly due to a lack of match experience. Tatenda Taibu, for example, had justescaped with a rash stroke away from his body when, to the followingdelivery, he slashed again – to one close to being called a wide. Taibudeparted, having faced 131 deliveries.”Players need to own up, they need to take responsibility,” Brown said.”They all know how vital they are to the team’s cause. We have done awaywith the ‘senior’ tag so be it a debutant, or someone whose played overfifty matches, they are all equally responsible.”Zimbabwe cricket has been in turmoil for some time now. They voluntarilygave up Test status in 2006, having lost almost their entire first teamduring the player revolt of 2004. Brown admits that it greatly affected theside, but quickly adds that no player goes on forever in any case, sobackups should have been in place. It gave, he reasons, younger players achance to step up though the very basics, which, when he took over, had to berevisited.”Rebuilding is a gradual process, especially when you have a young sidewith limited international experience. When we set about the process, wetook players to nets to work on basics. Batsmen need to put their feet inthe right places, play balls on merit and learn how to spend time at thecrease.”Bowlers were given a channel to bowl in. We worked at those basics forsix-seven hours a day for six weeks. Players had a set routine. They knewwhat they would be doing two weeks ahead. There is a set plan now in placefor every member and that has helped immensely.”

Hard work is paying off, as is cooperation from Zimbabwe Cricket. Before, according to Brown, facilities were not provided simply because players never asked for it. Now there are professional trainers, sports psychologists and world-class training facilities. “The board is working with the players now. We have a lot of talent and the board has realised that and invested time, effort and money into it.”The return of some experience has also helped. Without delving into the reasons behind their exits, Brown welcomed back Taibu, Ray Price and Gary Brent, highlighting their value to the team from the tour match alone. Taibu scored 46 and 30, Price managed a four-for and Brent was involved in a defiant 96-run seventh-wicket partnership to delay the inevitable.”Experience improves the side. While they perform, they can share the magic with younger players and pass on advice. Their return also fires a warning to players whose spot they have occupied, as they now need to work extra hard elsewhere and warrant selection in the playing eleven. It’s healthy competition.”Vital to maintaining that competition will be the ability of the domesticstructure to churn out talent. Brown says matters are rapidly improving,pointing out that provincial sides managed to beat the Kenyans easily lastseason. “It was beneficial for Zimbabwe to have invited Kenya to play butit was pleasing for our players to be winning against them. It just showshow much depth we have in our talent pool. We also have A and B teams,with international coaches coming in. It is definitely on the rise.”There are still kinks, for example the fielding, which saw a number ofgrassed chances in Karachi. Brown recalled that it was Zimbabwe’s fieldingthat played a key role in the upset win over Australia, so giving away “60crucial runs due to sloppiness” against the Patron’s XI wasn’t good.”Sometimes they switch off on the field,” Brown admits. “It is difficultto keep them motivated as we, before this hectic schedule recently, barelyplayed any cricket. I would love to see them play more, ideally ininternational cricket but even if its club cricket. Playing under variousconditions different to back home would help the players develop a greatdeal.”So what does Zimbabwe need to get back into the Test arena?”Nothing,” Brown says without hesitation. “I think we’re right up therewith most of the teams on the Test circuit. Obviously, competing againstthe top two will be difficult, but against the likes of Bangladesh, WestIndies and New Zealand I’m sure the team will perform well.”So a humble enquiry is put forward: on the performance of the tour match,would a Zimbabwe Test against Bangladesh last five days? “Obviously it won’t. We will beat them in four.”

Zaheer Khan, India’s left-arm fast bowler, will take time to regain full fitness according to Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach.”I have been talking to him (Zaheer),” Prasad said. “As far as I am concerned, when you get a break, you have to work that much harder to get back into rhythm. He is working hard on fitness and bowling. It will take time.”Prasad also said that Anil , the Test captain, and Gary Kirsten, the newly appointed coach, will take a decision on whether Zaheer needs to be a part of the team for the first two Tests against South Africa starting March 26.Zaheer dropped out of the team after the first Test against Australia last year with an ankle injury, and has since visited the Centre for Sports Medicine in Johannesburg for rehabilitation.”When you are coming back after injury, you need to be slightly cautious as to how you are going to push,” Prasad said. “Zaheer is working hard on his fitness and slowly raising the load factor and am sure he will be fit for the Test matches.”Prasad also confirmed that he had formally signed on as coach with IPL’s Bangalore Royal Challengers and said that he had not heard from the BCCI in this regard. “I have no communication with board about this (IPL). I personally feel it should be OK.”The Indian Board had earlier told Cricinfo that they were yet to take a decision on allowing the Indian coaching staff to tie up with IPL teams, fearing a clash of interests.Prasad was speaking to reporters along with Bangalore’s IPL captain Rahul Dravid and their Chief Cricket Officer Martin Crowe hours before the Royal Challengers officially launched their team.While Crowe said Dravid would “reignite the great skills he has got in Test cricket in Twenty20”, the former India skipper said he was excited about “the chance to share a dressing room with international stars like Jacques Kallis”.”We are very conscious of the fact that they are going to come at the last minute because of international commitments,” Dravid said. “It is going to require some interesting moments. We are conscious of that fact that we wanted to pick people who will believe in the concept of a team, who gel well. We had a chance to interact with some of the players we picked, and all are excited to be part of it.”Among Bangalore Royal Challengers’ overseas signings are Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Cameron White and Misbah-ul-Haq.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:06

Nicholas: Batting was straightforward against inconsistent bowling

Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja adjusted from Twenty20 to Test match gears with all the smoothness of a well calibrated sports car, as Australia’s top order put their stamp on Boxing Day despite a well grassed pitch and a slightly improved West Indies.Both Burns and Khawaja had turned out for their BBL clubs in the gap between Tests, but it was the unsigned and rested David Warner who let adrenaline get the better of him in an early flurry that ended with his wicket after Jason Holder sent the Australians in to bat.The vast majority of a day delayed by an hour due to considerable morning rain was then taken up by a union that reaped 258 runs and centuries to Burns then Khawaja, who joyfully passed their milestones in the space of three deliveries after tea. Burns was ultimately out stumped at the hands of Kraigg Brathwaite, and Khawaja glanced Jerome Taylor into Denesh Ramdin’s gloves before the close.Their exits should not detract from the ruthlessness shown by Burns and Khawaja, two members of the Boxing Day selection triangle that ultimately cost Shaun Marsh his place. Burns showed excellent judgment around off stump while finding the boundary 17 times. Khawaja carried on with the rich vein of form and confidence that began at the Gabba against New Zealand: few batsmen in the world are capable of making the game look quite as simple as he does at his best.Australia’s batsmen were aided by another disappointingly muted display from the West Indies bowlers, who conceded runs at a lesser rate than they had done in Hobart but were nonetheless unable to create sustained pressure on the batsmen. The debutant Carlos Brathwaite was at one point reduced to bowling well outside off stump to a 7-2 field, a gambit the umpire Marais Erasmus opposed by calling a pair of disapproving wides.The tourists’ fielding was also indifferent – one Khawaja flick through the leg side was chased so languidly by Jerome Taylor that the batsmen might easily have run five. Later Marlon Samuels, who had juggled Warner’s skier, turfed a ball Khawaja struck more or less straight to him at cover. Melbourne’s smallest Boxing Day crowd since 1999 expressed appropriate disbelief.Holder had expressed hope that his pacemen would be able to exploit the moisture evident in the pitch after rain delayed the start by an hour. But they were stunned by Warner’s early salvo, striking five boundaries in the second and third overs of the day as 27 were heaped in the first three.Having stated his desire to make a century on Boxing Day – the MCG is the only Australian Test ground where he is yet to pass three figures – Warner was flushed with adrenaline, and overreached to his 12th ball when he tried to pull Taylor over midwicket and skied to Samuels at cover.This episode had been manic, and Khawaja’s arrival signalled something more orthodox as he tried to find his rhythm after playing only one BBL match for the Sydney Thunder on his way back to fitness following a hamstring strain. Not quite as initially fluent as he had been when making hundreds in Brisbane and Perth, Khawaja slowly found his range, while Burns looked safe at the other end having been retained in a decision that showed the selectors’ faith in him.The scoring rate built up once more as lunch neared, with Carlos Brathwaite, included for the injured Shannon Gabriel, going for 11 runs in his first two overs. Kemar Roach extracted one edge from Burns as the interval near, but it fell short of the slips cordon. Few such moments could be found in the afternoon, as Khawaja and Burns accumulated steadily while the MCG crowd swelled nearer to the gathering of around 50,000 hoped for by the MCC. Even so, 53,389 was the smallest Boxing Day attendance in at least a decade.They were witness to some attractive batting but also an assortment of bowling and fielding that veered from mediocre to awful. Holder’s control of proceedings was loose at times, his fields invariably defensive due to inconsistent bowling, and his choices of bowlers also odd – having exploited some moisture on the first morning in Hobart to gain useful spin, Jomel Warrican was unused this time until the day’s 42nd over, by which time there was precious little purchase for his slow left-arm.The evening session’s highlight was undoubtedly Burns and Khawaja passing three figures in the same Warrican over. It was otherwise something of a slog as the batsmen accumulated soundly while Holder tried with some success to limit the flow of boundaries. Khawaja was to reach or clear the rope seven times in his 144, a testament to his strike rotation but also the freely available diet of singles.There was a hint of tiredness in the dismissals of both Burns, advancing at Brathwaite but misjudging a ball fired flatter and wider, and a leg-glancing Khawaja. Their graft had left the match and series firmly in Australia’s lap, with the captain Steven Smith and the Hobart double centurion Adam Voges there at the close.

Umar Gul is due to travel to Australia for a medical check-up on a longstanding back problem, and one that prevented him from taking any part in the Test series against India last year. It puts in to some doubt his availability for the series against Australia, due to be held in March-April.”I will be going to Sydney in a couple of days’ time, but it is just for a check-up on the back,” Gul told Cricinfo. “It is the same problem that troubled me in India and though I have been doing my training in the gym, I haven’t bowled since. If they clear me, then I will begin bowling again.”Whether or not the problem is linked to the stress fractures of the back that kept him out of the game for over a year soon after his entry into international cricket in 2003-04 is not entirely clear.According to a board official, doctors confirmed that there was degeneration of a bone in his back, a condition that was initially spotted three years ago; around the same time of the first injury. “It was initially spotted three years ago and the MRI scan before the Delhi Test showed this again,” Shafqat Naghmi, the Pakistan board’s chief operating officer, told Cricinfo.”The doctor said he didn’t see further deterioration which is a positive but Gul complained of pain so it needs to be looked at. The board decided then that we should seek another opinion and that is why he is travelling to Sydney. If it had been a new injury, it would’ve been problematic but as it is the same one as before, it is a positive.”Whether or not Gul will be fit in time for Australia’s scheduled visit in March-April is unclear. Naghmi only said the situation will be clearer once the doctors have seen him in Australia. “We can’t say right now but let’s just keep our fingers crossed.”Indeed Pakistan will, for Gul has developed over the last two years, into one of their brightest fast-bowling prospects. He has been, unfortunately, an injury-prone one, having also missed an entire series in South Africa last year with an ankle injury. It has limited him to just 16 Test appearances since his debut. Gul wasn’t selected for the recent series of five ODIs against Zimbabwe, on grounds of fitness and selectors asked him to prove his fitness in the upcoming Pentangular Trophy, to begin from February 10. But he will definitely not play now in at least the first round of matches for NWFP.Pakistan are also waiting on their other promising young fast bowler, Mohammad Asif, to recover from an elbow injury that has kept him out of cricket since October last year. Asif underwent surgery on his right elbow in Australia at the start of the year and has since started bowling. But Naghmi said it would be another 2-3 weeks before his fitness could be properly assessed.

Australia 371 and 349 (Head 170, Carey 72, Tongue 4-70) beat England 286 and 352 (Crawley 85, Smith 60, Jacks 47, Starc 3-42, Cummins 3-48, Lyon 3-77) by 82 runsIn the third Test, they rose again, but there was to be no Christmas miracle. Despite a gutsy fight from England’s lower order that hauled an already lost cause deep into the afternoon session of the final day, Australia held their nerve – and their catches – to seal the 2025-26 Ashes with their third victory in a row on only the 11th day of the series.The winning moment was delivered by Scott Boland, who induced a thick edge from England’s No. 11 Josh Tongue, straight to Marnus Labuschagne at first slip, who swallowed his fourth take of a truly sensational display in the field. That left Brydon Carse high and dry on 39 not out; his efforts, alongside fighting but ultimately thwarted knocks of 60 and 47 from Jamie Smith and Will Jacks, had given England genuine hope that their performances at other key moments of the Test, and the series, simply hadn’t warranted.Labuschagne’s efforts included his second one-handed screamer of the match, this time to prise out Jacks at first slip, and it was a fitting reminder of one of the key differences between the sides. The winning margin of 82 runs was exactly the same score that Usman Khawaja had reached on the first day of the match, after being dropped by Harry Brook on 5, while the 71 runs that Travis Head made after the same fielder had reprieved him on 99 would prove to be the death knell of England’s series hopes.Related

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And yet hope is most certainly what England had, right up until the moment it was finally snuffed out… and by a familiar nemesis.For the first time in the series, the Player-of-the-Match award would elude Mitchell Starc, but his claim to the Compton-Miller Medal is now beyond any further discussion. On a day when Australia’s resources were stretched by a potentially series-ending injury to Nathan Lyon, Starc stepped up with the first three of the final four wickets required. His left-arm angles and command of seam and swing were able to extract rare life from an unthreatening Adelaide surface, and once armed with the harder new ball, the end was always nigh despite England’s doughtiest day’s work of the series.The day of reckoning had dawned with 17 overs remaining until Australia’s new ball, so Lyon and Cameron Green shared the early workload to keep the senior seamers fresh. Despite some early alarms against the short ball, Smith and Jacks settled quickly into a confident stand, with Smith smashing a brace of sixes over the leg-side off spin and seam alike to whittle the requirement below 200.Jamie Smith and Will Jacks made the running for England as Nathan Lyon suffered injury•Getty Images

It was a boon for the Barmy Army on an overcast morning, and their ever-mounting optimism reached an early crescendo midway through the day’s 11th over, when a persistent shower blew across the ground to force a 40-minute delay.Jacks brought up the fifty stand soon after the resumption, but the biggest moment of the morning came one over later. Lyon, at fine leg, dived valiantly to intercept a Jacks pull, but was in obvious discomfort as he clambered back to his feet. It was instantly apparent that he’d damaged his right hamstring, and as the physio came out to assist him back to the dressing-room, his involvement in the series – as with his torn calf at Lord’s in 2023 – appeared to have come to an abrupt end.That was the cue for England to step up their tempo. With the new ball looming, Smith cracked three fours in a row off the part-time spin of Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, and then – having taken a few sighters as Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins re-entered the attack – decided the new ball had to travel as well.Smith reeled off a quartet of superb, imposing boundaries – two in a row off each man, including a straight-batted launch through long-off off Cummins to bring up his first fifty of the series. But just when it seemed he’d rocked Australia back on their heels, Smith attempted one big shot too many: a wild pick-up across the line off Starc. Cummins at wide mid-on backpedalled to swallow the chance, before turning to the crowd to celebrate with a combination of triumph, and some relief.Jamie Smith brought up his fifty but it was not enough•Getty Images

It was all too familiar from an England point of view: opportunity not so much knocking as ding-dong-ditching, as another moment of optimism came and went with indecent haste. Jacks, however, stayed true to the methods that had served him well in adversity at the Gabba, remaining watchful outside off and dealing largely in nudged singles square of the wicket. Despite one alarming deviation from that norm – a pre-meditated whip to leg off Cummins that he was lucky not to snick to the keeper – he and Carse carried England through to lunch on 309 for 7, a deficit of 126.Australia thought they had their breakthrough shortly after the resumption, as Cummins pinned Carse on the pad, but umpire Nitin Menon’s verdict was a shocker – the ball was shown to be missing a second middle stump, and Carse, on 15 at the time, marched on. He responded to the reprieve by planting Head’s part-time spin over deep midwicket for six, and when he flicked Boland off his pads through fine leg, he had hauled the requirement down to double figures.Australia, however, were starting to create chances and pressure with seam at both ends, and two balls later, Starc served up a wobble-seam outside off, and Labuschagne sprung to his left at first slip to pluck a fat edge in one hand, almost out of Alex Carey’s waiting gloves.The end was nigh. Carse was dropped by Green at second slip – standing so close to ensure every half-chance carried – and even Carey, Player of the Match for a peerless performance both in front and behind the stumps, endured a rare blemish as Archer snicked one into his elbow: had he been standing back to Boland, it would have been a regulation take.It mattered not, however. Archer has been one of England’s batters of the series to date – which, for a No.10/11 is a damning indictment of their efforts – but this time he couldn’t be the hero. A slashing cut at Starc picked out deep point, and eight balls later, Australia’s fourth home Ashes in a row was in the bag, and once again at the earliest opportunity.

Adam Gilchrist has jumped to the defence of his Indian wicketkeeping counterpart Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was found to have worn illegal gloves during the match against Australia on Sunday. Gilchrist said there were no hard feelings after he fell to a diving catch from Dhoni, whose gloves had webbing that did not meet the ICC regulations.”I don’t think they were glaringly obvious to be different to what I use or anyone else at the moment or what is legal at the moment,” Gilchrist said. “But they were just a bit too big. And it was an outstanding catch.”A new regulation was brought in within the past decade which altered the amount of webbing that was allowable. Dhoni’s supplier also provides Gilchrist with his gloves, and Gilchrist said he liked to have match referees check the legality of his equipment at least once a season.”The guy that makes [Dhoni’s] gloves makes my gloves as well,” he said. “Not for a moment am I insinuating that MS Dhoni intentionally wore them out there. Whether it’s a manufacturing error I’m not sure. I know the gentleman that makes them and he’s the best in the world, they’re brilliant. Maybe just in the manufacturing process – they’re all hand-made and hand-stitched – so they may have just used a little bit too much leather in that area.”Dhoni’s gloves were found to have extra webbing between the thumb and the forefinger and the match referee Jeff Crowe asked him during Sunday’s game to switch to a different pair. Dhoni was not given a penalty by the ICC and Gilchrist said that was the appropriate result.”They’re nothing like what we were wearing when I first started my career,” he said. “We were wearing gloves that were almost like a baseball mitt. They were getting out of hand and the ones that Dhoni used the other day were nothing like that. I have absolutely no doubt that he hasn’t intentionally done that.”

Hampshire’s Rose Bowl will host its maiden Test match in 2011 when Sri Lanka tour England for a three-Test series in May and June. The decision was announced by the England & Wales Cricket Board as they unveiled their schedule for the next three seasons.”This is a truly historic day for The Rose Bowl and Hampshire Cricket,” said the chairman, Rod Bransgrove. “Staff, players, members, supporters, commercial partners, in fact anyone with an association with this fantastic ground can feel a huge sense of pride in what has been achieved.”The Rose Bowl has been fighting for Test recognition for the past four years, and in 2006 it suffered a major setback when Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens jumped the queue to land a prestigious Ashes Test for next summer. There was a feeling that the ground was hamstrung by a lack of direct transport links, not least during the Champions Trophy in 2004, but Bransgrove believes that a corner has been turned.”This is the culmination of an enormous amount of hard work and dedication and yes, it is the fulfilment of a personal dream,” he said. “It is important that this is not seen as ‘mission accomplished’ though, as we fully intend to be a permanent fixture on the Test-match calendar from 2011 onwards.”Bransgrove added: “This allocation of matches was hard-fought and demonstrates that with our new £45million development, turning the ground into the first ever model Test match ground, we are now one of the major sports and entertainment venues in the country. The allocation perfectly matches our proposed development timescale, due for completion in the summer of 2010 and fully tested, well before our historic first Test match in 2011.”The Rose Bowl will become the tenth Test venue in England and Wales, after the decision was reached by the independent Major Match Group, chaired by Lord Morris of Handsworth, and endorsed by the ECB Board which met at Lord’s this week.”We were presented with a more than 200 excellent and professional bids for the ECB major matches until the end of the 2011 season. It demonstrated to us the ever growing strength of international cricket in England and Wales.”We were delighted to note the increasing quality and quantity of world-class facilities provided by our venues,” said Lord Morris. “The MMG examined each and everyone against our balanced scorecard which specifically rewards grounds for the excellence of their facilities. We have nominated the venues that were best suited and most deserved to be awarded the major matches.”

Match facts

Sunday July 19, 2015
Start time 1pm (11am, GMT)0:34

‘Focussing on our own strengths’ – Uthappa

Big picture

Whatever rustiness India may have felt in their tour opener last weekend appears to have been well and truly shaken off. Their slick, measured performance in the first Twenty20 suggested they weren’t exactly stretching themselves, and Zimbabwe will need to step up their game enormously if they are to bridge the yawning gulf in experience between the two sides in this format.India charged to 178 on Friday on a pitch that wasn’t entirely conducive to strokeplay, and a slightly less frenetic performance from Zimbabwe’s bowlers could have helped them keep the visitors to a slightly more manageable total. The brevity of this format means that every delivery matters, and for Zimbabwe to gift India 25 extras was unforgivable. After Hamilton Masakadza and Chamu Chibhabha’s steady start to the chase, the middle order wilted with a string of soft dismissals.Their win on Friday made it 4-0 to India on the tour, and everything has gone to plan for them. In each match, someone has performed with both bat and ball, and they’ve also blooded a number of uncapped players. India are clear favourites and will also not want to blot their copybook with a slip-up in the final match.Zimbabwe’s inexperience in this format was clearly evidenced by their approach to the chase in the first game, in which their dot-ball percentage was 50%. Against tight bowling, on a pitch that didn’t immediately lend itself to aggressive batting, they were found wanting and this will be a key area for them to improve upon.

Form guide

(Last five completed matches, most recent first)
Zimbabwe: LLLWW
India: WLLWW

In the spotlight

It’s hard to believe now, but there was a time early in Hamilton Masakadza‘s career when he was considered too sedentary for limited-overs cricket. He’s yet to make a real impact in this series though, and Zimbabwe need Mount Masakadza to erupt at the top of the order if they are to take the pressure off their middle order and challenge India.Robin Uthappa‘s returns on this tour have been increasing with each outing, and though his innings in the first T20 match was less than explosive, it was the adhesive that held India’s lower order together. Given his position at No. 3 and the fact that he seemed to come to terms with the pitch and conditions quickly, he may be the key player to bat through and set up another big total.

Team news

Zimbabwe’s top six should be settled for the second match, although Craig Ervine is the sort of batsman who would probably be better utilised up the order. Offspinner John Nyumbu is the only man in the squad not to have played a game yet during India’s visit, and given the slowness of the pitch, and his control as a bowler, he could be a good pick.Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Chamu Chibhabha, 2 Hamilton Masakadza, 3 Craig Ervine, 4 Elton Chigumbura (captain), 5 Charles Coventry (wk), 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Graeme Cremer, 8 Prosper Utseya, 9 Neville Madzia, 10 John Nyumbu, 11 Chris Mpofu.Such was India’s dominance in the first T20 that they will probably feel safe giving a chance to a sixth debutant in Sanju Samson, who came in for the injured Ambati Rayudu.India (probable): 1 Ajinkya Rahane (captain), 2 M Vijay, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Kedar Jadhav/Sanju Samson, 6 Stuart Binny, 7 Harbhajan Singh, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Sandeep Sharma.

Pitch and conditions

The pitch being used for this game is the same one used in the second ODI, and though it will have had a week to recover from that match, one can expect it to behave sluggishly. While the Dukes ball has offered some movement through the air to the quicks throughout, the pitches have played slow and low in the afternoon, and Sunday should be no different. Expect another bright, sunny day.

Stats and trivia

• Hamilton Masakadza is Zimbabwe’s leading runscorer in T20 internationals, with 943 runs, including seven fifties, in the format.
• India’s 178 for 5 was the fourth highest T20I total scored at Harare Sports Club. At the top of the pile is Pakistan’s 198 for 4 scored four years ago.
• Axar Patel is now India’s leading wicket-taker on this tour, with eight scalps at an average of 17.13 in four matches across two formats.

Quotes

“You’re already basically cooked when you’re coming in here, so you’re ready for it.”
“Not many people will expect us to win, but if we go out there with the attitude that we have everything to gain I think we will come out with a victory.” .