Cricket roundup: This week around the world

By Indian Cricket Fever
December 26 2004

India in Bangladesh:

The cricket goings-on in Bangladesh were briefly overshadowed by the sad news of the passing away of Vijay Hazare, one of the true legends of Indian cricket. Hazare was one of the greatest servants of the sport in India, and a batsman who had the steel and style to be considered as one of the greatest batsmen to ever have doned the India cap. His record at test level was impressive; 7 hundreds in 30 games and an average just below 50, and this too against bowlers of the like of Alec Bedser and Ray Lindwall, leaving one to wonder just what all he could have accomplished had he gotten the chance to play test cricket earlier or for a more prolonged period of time.

Meanwhile, as expected, the Indian side dominated Bangladesh through the test series. India began by piling up a mammoth total of 540 in the first innings at Chittagong, with Dravid and Gambhir both slamming tons, and some useful contributions from Saurav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh. Bangladesh though didn't capitulate - with Mohammad Ashraful counterattacking with a defiant unbeaten 158; later judged by Ganguly as the innings of the series. Even then, it wasn't enough for Bangladesh to evade the follow on mark, as Ganguly re-inserted them - for Pathan this time to get his line and length right, and to rip Bangladesh apart with another five wicket haul as they fell apart for 124 in their second innings. Pathan ended up with the man of the series award for his 18 wickets, but the bigger story was the reporting of Harbhajan Singh's doosra.

The report was made by the on-field umpires, Aleem Dar and Mark Benson, TV umpire Mahbubur Rahman and match referee Chris Broad after scrutinising Harbhajan's action during the last Test against Bangladesh. Bhaji is now the 3rd well recognised off break bowler from Asia, to be reported this last year, after Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, and Pakistan all rounder Shoaib Malik. Zimbabwe’s Blessing Mahwire is the only non-Asian player of 6 reported during 2004 under the ICC’s revised process to deal with potentially flawed actions.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed stated: "Having closely reviewed the action Harbhajan Singh employs during this delivery, the match officials decided to report the bowler to the ICC and, in line with the protocol, notified the India team management of this course of action.This issue now comes under the ICCs bowling review regulations which stipulate that, over the next six weeks, an expert biomechanist from the ICC's approved list should be appointed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to work with the bowler to clearly identify and address any flaws that may occur during the delivery action." (More here)

Pakistan in Australia

Everybody expected Pakistan to struggle at Perth, where the WACA pitch and the extra bounce there have troubled most quality batsmen. After Pakistan win the toss and put Australia in, their only hope was to get some quick wickets to peg the Aussies back. Shoaib Akthar and Sami responded to their captain's call, reducing the hosts to 78/5 in one session. But unfortunately you don’t win games by winning one odd session. Adam Gilchrist led a rearguard movement with a quickfire 69 to complement a mammoth hundred from Justin Langer to get them back into the game with a total of 381.

After wayward bowling spells from McGrath and Gillespie to counter the Pakistani response, under-rated Kasprowicz immediately got his act together to reduce Pakistan to 4 down. Salman Butt, Imran Farhat and Yousuf Youhana were all guilty of playing with an open face, while Inzamam was bowled by a beauty from Kasper. There has been lot of occasions when Pakistani late order has saved the day for them. After working hard for 42 runs and putting 48 with scratchy Razzaq, Younis Khan played an atrocious short against Warne to throw away his wicket.

With the top order collapsing, it took Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami to get anywhere near the follow on mark - and despite Australia still ending up with a lead in excess of 200, the follow on wasn't enforced. Hayden was again dismissed early by Shoaib, but the rest of the batting clicked as Ponting declared to leave Pakistan with a target of 564 runs (highest ever set by an Australian team in a 5-day Test).

Pakistan had no option but to play positively and hope for the best with the alternative being blocking out three days. But after eight overs from Glenn McGrath, Pakistan were 5 down for next to nothing. One batsman after another poked outside offstump with no sense of purpose and in just 31.3 overs, the Pakistani misery came to an end - they were bowled out for 72, with McGrath cleaning up with 8/24, a career best. Pakistan will need to hope for major improvements if they are to put up any sort of fight in the following tests. Their hopes won't be helped by the news that Inzamam ul Haq will be out of the side for the Melbourne test match.

England in South Africa

Following an atrocious performance against South Africa A, England bounced back to go 1-0 up in the series at Port Elizabeth. Despite a gritty 93 from Jacques Rudolph and a hundred from Boeta Dippenaar, South Africa were only able to put 337 - far too few - runs on the board, with 5 players falling in single figures. England responded with Andrew Strauss slamming another ton and continuing a golden year for England's biggest find in recent years, as they took a vital lead with 425 in their response - before Simon Jones then ripped through the Proteas with 4/39 to bowl them out for 229.

Requiring 142 to win, England suffered early scares as Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher fell for ducks, with Michael Vaughan being bowled all ends up by debutant Dale Steyn right after. However, Andrew Strauss followed his first innings century with an unbeaten 94 to control the chase and see England home by seven wickets. With strike bowler Steve Harmison yet to hit his straps, South Africa will need to regroup and raise their performance levels if they are to put up any response and deny England their first series win in South Africa. It's a task that'll be made even harder with several of the South African players having injury worries - Graeme Smith, Zander de Bruyn and Andrew Hall are all having stomach upsets, while Boeta Dippenaar is down with food poisoning.

New Zealand against Sri Lanka, and the domestic season - "Donsteppa's Digest"

So far the weather this summer has been even worse than the notorious Indian Summer two years ago but we haven't seen enough cricket to find out how the pitches will utlimately be affected. Despite his best efforts, the pitch in Donsteppa's back yard is greener than a bowl of peas, though this could possibly be due to the lack of covers and a roller...

Sri Lanka have had washouts in both tour warm-up matches. The first against Central Districts was washed out with Sri Lanka on 20/2 after 4.5 overs chasing CD's 220/7. CD had a horror start with crap attack bully Craig Spearman out for 2, Matthew Sinclair out for 5, and recent 3 times in 4 innings centurian Jamie How also out for 2. Jacob Oram saved the day with 74 off 78 balls. Sri Lankan left-arm paceman Nuwan Zoysa injured a finger during the game and will miss the next few games on tour. Lasith Malinga has been called up to join the tour as cover.

The second tour game scheduled against Northern Districts in Hamilton was washed out without a ball being bowled, despite the best efforts of Donsteppa to help the Sri Lankans by nearly running over two members of the ND squad in a carpark the day before the game. The first ODI between the Black Caps and Sri Lanka will be on Boxing Day at Eden Park in Auckland. Brendon McCullum will be fit to play despite a minor fracture on his kneecap thank to being hit there twice by Jason Gillespie.

The domestic State Shield one day competition starts on December 27th with games between Central Districts & Auckland, Otago & Canterbury, and Wellington and Northern Districts. After two rounds in the domestic 4 day State Championship Auckland is top of the table followed by CD, ND, Wellington, Otago and Canterbury. The games so far were notable for Hamish Marshall scoring his first century in a first class game for last seasons bunnies ND while chasing down 400 in the last innings for a win - the irony being earlier in the game CD could have made ND follow on - and a dismal batting effort from Canterbury against Auckland which saw the likes of Craig McMillan gift Kyle Mills two 5 wicket bags.

In failing to make Auckland bat a second time, Canterbury left Mark Richardson stranded on 9994 first class career runs upon his retirement. Despite suggestions that he take up a game for an invitational side like the MCC to get the remaining 6 runs to make 10,000, Richardson likes the idea of a final run tally that - but for a decimal point - looks like The Don's test batting average of 99.94 (and looks nothing like The Donsteppa's back yard batting average of substantively less). Farewell and thanks for the memories to "Rigor".