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Following India’s demoralising defeats in the first two Tests of the England series, Paddy Upton, their former mental conditioning coach, has suggested that the increasingly relentless schedules could be draining the players and leaving them with little mental energy. Upton feels that there is little understanding of the “mental fatigue” a player goes through if he is on the conveyor belt all the time and that not only ends up reducing the quality of cricket but also results in situations such as those experienced by India’s players during the World Cup, when they struggled to keep their food down and Yuvraj Singh was physically sick because of the anxiety.”The current schedules ask players to be machines,” Upton told ESPNcricinfo from South Africa. “We can guess the physical impact on players but what is very little understood is the mental fatigue the players experience when crossing the ropes in every single game where there is that much amount of pressure.”By the end of the England series, India would have played seven Tests in a span of nine weeks. This comes on the back of a lengthy and high-pressure World Cup followed, just six days, later by the IPL that lasted a further seven weeks. Upton feels preparing for the World Cup and then working through the plans diligently had taken a large toll on the India players and without a suitable break, many of the players would have remained vulnerable to injury or a drop in performance.”That World Cup was a monumental process, both preparing for the tournament and enduring it for seven weeks. It was a very, very long tournament. The physical drain on the players, I don’t think even the players realise the extent to which they were absolutely stuffed. I spoke to Yuvraj Singh who said he was sick for nearly two weeks after the World Cup and I know there were a lot of players who were mentally down after the World Cup.”The troubles for India started long before the tour of England. Virender Sehwag opted for shoulder surgery only after his IPL team, Delhi Daredevils, were eliminated from play-off contention. Gautam Gambhir picked up an injury in the World Cup final but that was only revealed during the knockout stage of the IPL. Sehwag was ruled out until at least the third Test of the England series while Gambhir missed out on the Caribbean tour.The troubles didn’t end there either. In less than a month in England, India have been knocked cold by a combination of a general loss of form and injuries to key players. Zaheer Khan left the field at Lord’s on the first day of the series and Gambhir injured his left elbow while fielding and was declared unfit for the second Test. Then Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh picked up injuries in the second Test that have ruled both of them out for the rest of the series.If that wasn’t enough, there is the issue of form, especially in MS Dhoni’s case. India’s captain walked out to bat at Lord’s and Trent Bridge only to return to the dressing room in a matter of minutes each time. Adding to his woes is his unconvincing glove work behind the stumps.Dhoni said that the inability of his batsmen to stay at the wicket has exacerbated the workload on the fast bowling trio of Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Sreesanth. Though Zaheer Khan is expected to return for the third Test at Edgbaston, starting August 10, it remains to be seen whether he can go full throttle or will have to bowl within himself.According to Upton, the need of the moment is to understand exactly why the India ship has suddenly found itself listing in high seas. “The team knows what to do and how to win, and are good enough to bounce back. By giving players so much cricket, there is a potential of diluting the quality of the product. We are possibly seeing the evidence of it now.”Upton said the Indian board was responsive to many of the suggestions made by him and Gary Kirsten, who was the head coach from 2008 through the World Cup. Most of those requests had to do with keeping the players in peak shape. “The Indian board accepted suggestions like allowing players to go home between Test matches while in India, allowing players to miss games during ODI series, so strategically resting players certain times,” Upton said. “That went some way to alleviating the mental and physical fatigue of players.”Still, a player like Dhoni has barely had a break over the last few years, mostly because as captain and one of the country’s most in demand celebrities, sponsors would like him to be on the team’s roster no matter how important a series might be. “It is an ideal situation for sponsors and for the revenue streams to have so much cricket, but it is not ideal for the quality of the product,” Upton said. “It seems there are other things that are dictating the schedules.”

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Zimbabwe XI batted out the second day against Australia A as their game ended in a draw. Elton Chigumbura, the former Zimbabwe captain, led the response to an imposing 427 for 4 declared, top-scoring with 95. After being reduced to 54 for 3 at one stage, the Zimbabwe XI middle order put up a fight.Regis Chakabva supported Chigumbura in a stand of 80 for the fourth wicket, Malcolm Waller made a quick 25 and Forster Mutizwa contributed 67 in a partnership of 81 with Chigumbura. Mutizwa’s innings was an attacking one, coming off 70 balls with five fours and two sixes. Michael Beer, the left-arm spinner, was the star for Australia A, taking 6 for 109 but Zimbabwe XI put up a spirited performance in reaching 306 for 9 at the close.

Steve Rixon wants to bring more intensity to Australia’s training regime, especially among the younger players, after being named the fielding coach on Tuesday. Rixon believes the standards of fielding in the Australia team have dropped since the glory days when Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were creating catching opportunities, and that’s something he wants to change.After a decade of working with the American Mike Young, the Australians will be drilled by Rixon during the next two tours, to Sri Lanka and South Africa. The initial short-term appointment is likely to become a longer association as Australia try to force their way back up from fifth in the ICC Test ranking table.Their slump was not helped by the Ashes debacle, which began with a draw at the Gabba, where the Australians dropped seven catches. Rixon said in a developing side, it would be all the more important for such key moments not to missed, with less experienced bowlers less likely to find edges and force mistakes over and over again.”We’ve got some world-class fielders, Ricky Ponting is one, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey,” Rixon told ESPNcricinfo. “They’re three of the older boys. That tells me there are a lot of youngsters that need to get back to some simple basics in the field like they do in the other aspects of their game and see if we can’t move them forward. I have no question they are crying out to be helped and I think they will improve. But we’re definitely not leading the way in the fielding anymore.”If you think back to a lot of these eras, it was a little bit different when you had Warne and McGrath in your side, because even if you did drop a catch, it wouldn’t be too much longer before McGrath would give you another opportunity. That, to me, is something we’ve got to be realistic with. In the changing of the guard, you don’t have that … So what we’ve got to do is make sure that when we have an opportunity, we’re going to make the best of it.”And while the batting and bowling coaches, Justin Langer and Craig McDermott, have plenty of work to do in order to bring the younger players up to scratch and keep the veterans in form, the same can be said for Rixon. He said the struggles in Australian fielding could be traced to the quality of fielding at state level, and that was an area that needed to be addressed.”It is a reflection on our domestic game, which is a bit sad,” Rixon said. “I’ve seen some [domestic] games where the fielding is very, very good, and I’ve seen some games where the intensity level is down. Your intensity level comes from your preparation. If you prepare and train smart, you’ll probably find you’ve got a little bit of an edge.”It’s not by accident those three older guys I talked about turned out to be very good fielders. They’re all quite athletic, but more importantly, who does that little bit extra every time from a young age all the way through? These guys have done the extra work, so to me I just think there’s a little bit in that as well. So we need to focus on the intensity of training.”Rixon, 57, will be by far the most experienced member of Australia’s coaching staff, with 15 years as a first-class player and two decades as a mentor. That coaching resume includes four Sheffield Shield titles with New South Wales, two IPL triumphs and a Champions League victory with the Chennai Super Kings, and an impressive stint at the helm of New Zealand.Although his official brief is as the side’s fielding coach, Rixon is keen to help the side in other areas as they rebuild under the new captain, Clarke. He said he was looking forward to assisting the head coach Tim Nielsen in whatever ways he could as they aimed to arrest the slide down the Test rankings.”I’d be very surprised if they didn’t want to hear from that new set of eyes around the place,” he said. “It’s not about individuals, this is about a group going together and trying to get Australia back on track, to get away from looking at fifth position on a Test table ever again. We don’t want to ever be seen or thought of in the same breath or thought as, say, the West Indies after their reign at the top of the tree. We need to recover quicker than anything the West Indies have done.”

Reece Topley has been rewarded for his sterling start to the season with a one-year contract with Essex.A product of the Graham Gooch Essex Cricket Academy, the 17-year-old left-arm seamer made his first-class debut in April and took 14 wickets for Essex in his three opening Championship matches – including five-wicket hauls in each of his first two games against Kent and Middlesex.His season was interrupted after a sensational start as he had to return to Royal Hospital School in Suffolk to start revising for the summer exams, and he will make a decision on his academic commitments at the end of the end of the season.”I am really happy and excited to have signed a contract with the club,” said Topley. “This is where I have been playing since the age of nine years old and I’ve grown up watching the players, which I now play alongside. In the future, I look forward to performing for Essex and developing as a player with the club.””Reece is a very exciting prospect and I am delighted for him that he signed his first professional contract with Essex,” added Paul Grayson, Essex’s head coach.”He has already made a big impact in First Class cricket at a young age taking two five-wicket hauls against Kent and also versus Middlesex at Lord’s. He will now look to continue developing and learning all the time as a player.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA century by Stiaan van Zyl and a five-for by Craig Alexander completed a victory for South Africa A against Bangladesh A in Potchefstroom that had been coming ever since the hosts had made an aggressive declaration on the first day. They started the third day 250 runs ahead with seven wickets remaining, and van Zyl’s 101 not out helped set Bangladesh 458 to win, and the visitors couldn’t even extend the match into a fourth day, as they were bowled out for 185 in 37.5 overs.van Zyl’s hundred came at a steady pace, and it was wicketkeeper Heino Kuhn who helped lift South Africa’s run-rate with his 89 runs coming off just 83 balls with eight fours and two sixes. That allowed captain Jacques Rudolph to declare with plenty of time left in the day.Bangladesh had only managed 156 in the first innings, and barely improved on that batting effort in the second one. Nadif Chowdhury waged a lone battle, scoring 70 off 77 balls, but no-one else got more than 20, and Alexander helped himself to figures of 5 for 36, giving him eight wickets for the match.

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Andrew Hodd’s 67 rescued Sussex from a precarious position at Chester-le-Street•PA Photos

An onslaught by Ian Blackwell lifted the pressure off Durham and put themfirmly in command at the end of the second day of the County ChampionshipDivision One match against Sussex at Chester-le-Street.Despite a first-innings lead of 98, Durham were rocking on 79 for 4 and thevisitors must have scented further success as Blackwell initially looked all atsea.He survived a chance to slip off James Anyon on four and a return chance toMonty Panesar on five and then hit Panesar just over the fielder at long-on, whowas 10 yards in from the rope.But that blow opened the floodgates and three sixes followed, two of themfiercely pulled in one Anyon over, as Blackwell reached 50 off 44 balls.He holed out off Anyon at deep square leg for 51, leaving Dale Benkenstein andMichael Richardson to take Durham to 166 for 5 at the close, leading by 264.On a day when 14 wickets fell there was some variable bounce and the ball swungin the haze. But there was little hint of trouble for the batsmen in the firsthour.Sussex resumed on 31 for 1 and the tentative Luke Wells departed for 10 whenhe edged Callum Thorp to first slip, but Chris Nash and Joe Gatting played wellto take the score to 108 for 2.Then three wickets went down on the same score. Ruel Brathwaite struck in hissecond over, when a hint of away movement had Nash lbw for 65. Although Thorp had bowled for over an hour, he switched ends after a short restand took two wickets in his first four balls.Gatting was lbw for 27 and Ben Brown edged to third slip, then acting captainMurray Goodwin departed in the last over before lunch, popping up a catch toshort leg off Blackwell’s second ball of the day.Sussex were 119 for 6 and got to 198 only because of Andrew Hodd’s excellentinnings of 67. He had to bat with a flimsy tail and was last out when he liftedBlackwell to mid-off.Durham struggled to build on their lead against some fiery bowling from RanaNaved-ul-Hasan and Amjad Khan.Rana steamed in for 11 overs in a superb opening burst but his only reward camefrom perhaps the worst ball he bowled. Gordon Muchall had a dab at it and edgedto Hodd.Michael Di Venuto lasted only until the ninth ball of the innings, clippingKhan to midwicket, while Anyon struck in his first over for the second time inthe match, having Will Smith caught behind.Ben Stokes played several fine strokes in reaching 26 but then fell lbw to aball from Panesar which kept very low. That brought in Blackwell and by the timehe departed Durham’s jitters had vanished.

ScorecardBaluchistan put up a much stronger batting show in their second innings compared to the first, but given the huge lead Sind had secured, they found themselves only marginally ahead with five wickets standing and two days to go.Zain Abbas, Saeed Anwar jnr, and Imranullah Aslam made half-centuries as Baluchistan scored at a healthy rate, but left-arm seamer Sohail Khan struck thrice to ensure the advantage remained firmly with Sind. While Abbas fell ten short of his century, Imranullah cracked ten fours in his 59 off 51 deliveries and stands in the way of Sind and the title. Earlier in the day, Sarfraz Ahmed (71) took Sind past 500 before Abdur Rauf took the last two wickets for his 46th first-class five-wicket haul.

The Guyana bowlers gave Windward Islands a serious scare on the third day of their encounter in St Vincent but Windwards held their nerve to seal a four-wicket win. Guyana had been reduced to 98 for 9, a lead of just 17, in the second innings and were on the verge of a big defeat at stumps on the second day. But the last-wicket pair of Rajindra Chandrika and Brandon Bess stretched it to 57. It proved insufficient but it was one that gave the Guyana bowlers a window of opportunity. The spin pair of Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo had Windwards reeling at 35 for 6 at one stage and had given Guyana a fair chance of a shock win. But captain Liam Sebastien resisted with a 46-ball vigil for seven runs while Gary Mathurin made an unbeaten 14 to steer their team to a tight win.A five-wicket haul from Jerome Taylor gave Jamaica a two-run lead over Barbados at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. Barbados had been in a strong position at the end of day two, on 220 for 4 against Jamaica’s 324 in the first innings. But Taylor’s strikes and the Barbados’ middle order’s failure to convert starts into substantial scores tilted the scales. Among the right Barbados batsmen who went past 20, only two reached a half-century, the highest being 76. Jamaica extended the lead to 116 by stumps with eight wickets still in hand. Marlon Samuels led the response, unbeaten on 58.Combined Campuses and Colleges were in a dominant position against Leeward Islands at the end of the third day in Antigua. Kjorn Ottley made 84, supported by opener Romel Currency and wicketkeeper Kyle Corbin. The lower order, with Kevin Mclean and Floyd Reifer, also chipped in to set Leewards a target of 370. Leewards struggled in their chase, slipping to 70 for 5 and are in danger of being defeated. Carlos Brathwaite picked up two wickets.England Lions fought back to seize the initiative on the third day against Trinidad and Tobago in Port of Spain. T&T had been in a strong position at 173 for 2 with their experienced hands Runako Morton and Daren Ganga on the second day. But seamers Jade Dernbach and Liam Plunkett, backed up by the spin of Adil Rashid and Danny Briggs, dismissed the middle and lower orders cheaply to secure a 42-run lead. In their second innings, the England Lions had been coasting at 157 for 1 but lost three wickets in a space of nine runs. Jimmy Adams and Andrew Gale struck half-centuries. At stumps, they led by 227 with six wickets in hand.

The Warriors were the toast of South African cricket last season, winning their first two franchise trophies and dominating the limited-overs forms of the game. Just a few months later, they found themselves in free-fall, sitting at the bottom of the SuperSport Series table and bringing up the rear of their pool in the MTN40. Their chance at redemption comes now, with the Standard Bank Pro20, which starts on Friday.”We said we want to defend one of our two trophies,” Davy Jacobs, the Warriors captain, told ESPNCricinfo. He offered two plausible reasons for the Warriors failing to live up to last season’s glory but was quick to say his explanations were not excuses.”One of the things that happen when you do well is that you lose a lot of players to the national side and we lost a few more than we thought we would,” Jacobs said. Colin Ingram, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Wayne Parnell and Rusty Theron have all spent a substantial amount of time away from their franchise as they were selected in South African squads. “What hurt us more was that we also lost some of our domestic players through injury.” Jacobs was sidelined since the end of the Champions League T20 in October with a hip injury and seamer Garnet Kruger was also out of action because of stress fracture.Jacobs is now fully fit and played his first innings in almost three months during a warm-up match against Sussex on Thursday. He scored 54 off 32 balls and said it “felt so good to be playing again.” He will not be keeping wicket in the tournament because South African stalwart Mark Boucher will be participating after being left out of the World Cup squad. Jacobs also has Ashwell Prince, Theron and Nicky Boje at his disposal, making up a strong Warriors contingent.With no more national call-ups to disrupt the setup, Jacobs hopes his men can defend their title, so that they can play in the Champions League T20 again. The tournament was special for Jacobs because it led to him securing an IPL contract with the Mumbai Indians and he hopes his experience will serve as example to other players in his team. “There’s a massive incentive to play in the Champions League. As a domestic player, it’s the biggest thing you can play in and it can be life changing. The only reason I got my IPL deal was because of the Champions League.”Jacobs is not the only one thinking about the lucrative tournament. Ryan McLaren of the Knights, who participated in the Champions League in 2009, also said the competition is a “major incentive.” Daryn Smit of the Dolphins, who qualified for the inaugural tournament in 2008 but never got to play in it because it was cancelled after the Mumbai terror attacks, said his side would like to get back an opportunity they never had. “We still feel a bit sore because we were never able to get to the Champions League and I hope this is our season. The work ethic under Graham Ford is the best I’ve seen in seven years of being here so we are ready.”Alviro Petersen, captain of the Lions, who participated in last season’s Champions League was quick to warn that the competition can make the final of the domestic Pro20 an ordinary affair. “When we got to the final we relaxed a little because we knew we were in the Champions League and didn’t go out wholeheartedly to win it.” This time, they have no intention of doing only half the job and will be bolstered by the addition of Gulam Bodi and Alfonso Thomas for the tournament.Most of the teams are heeding Petersen’s warning and remain focused on winning the local Pro20 before thinking of bigger things. The Titans, who have not won the competition since the 2007-8 season, are hankering after a trophy and captain Jacques Rudolph is targeting Pro20 silverware. “We pride ourselves on a being a stand-out franchise,” he said. The Titans have big-hitting allrounder Albie Morkel as their trump card after he missed out on World Cup selection.They kickstart their campaign against the Cobras, a squad brimming with former national players – Herschelle Gibbs and Justin Kemp are their headline acts with Charl Langeveldt, Justin Ontong and Claude Henderson adding international experience.This will be the last Pro20 sponsored by Standard Bank and Cricket South Africa is reportedly in advanced negotiations with another company to back the tournament from next season.

Watto wipeout
When Shane Watson was unexpectedly recalled as an opening batsman for the Edgbaston Test in the 2009 Ashes, England’s pacemen assumed their Christmases had come early. In actual fact, they had to wait until the following year’s Boxing Day for Watto to produce an innings in which he looked anything other than totally at home in the position. Dropped on 0 by Paul Collingwood at slip, and then again by Kevin Pietersen in the gully, he eventually fended a Tremlett splice-jangler to backward point to fall for 5. And so, for the first time in 17 months and 12 innings, he failed to reach double figures. And only once before in that time, at Perth last week, had he fallen for less than 34.Mr Cricket misses a trick
Michael Hussey’s early season anxieties have been a thing of the past in this Ashes. At the Gabba he resurrected his career with a career-best 195; at the WACA he resuscitated Australia’s campaign with 61 and 116, having bobbed to the surface at Adelaide with 93 and 52, the only redeeming features of a sorry collective performance. With six consecutive fifty-plus scores in Ashes contests since The Oval 2009, England had run out of ways to combat him. But on a juicy first morning at the MCG, James Anderson found a jaffa to dislodge him for a lowly 8. With minutes to go until lunch, an off-stump delivery grazed the edge as it nipped away inperceptibly. And a remarkable run of form had been interrupted.Cook saved by the snick
As one run was halted, another was resumed. Alastair Cook suffered a hiatus at Perth as he fell for 32 and 13, but in his fifth innings of the series he picked up where he had left off in knocks one, two and three, reaching the close on 80 not out to take his series tally to 575. He did, however, require a stroke of technological intervention – just as had been the case when he was given out caught off the arm during his 148 at Adelaide. On 27, he was adjudged lbw as Ben Hilfenhaus rapped his pads, but almost before Aleem Dar’s finger had reached the vertical, he allowed himself a wry smile and made the ‘T’ sign for a referral. Sure enough, replays showed a big inside-edge, and on he ground, with Australia’s morale at their bootlaces.Skipper steps up
Andrew Strauss knows how to lead from the front. In the Caribbean in 2009, in his first series as full-time captain, he responded to England’s 51 all out with three big centuries in consecutive Tests. In the Ashes that summer, he was not only the leading series run-scorer but the only Englishman in a sea of Aussies at the top of the series batting averages. And at the Gabba back in November, he responded to the shock of a third-ball duck on the first morning with a largely forgotten 110, England’s first hundred of a now-bountiful summer of centuries. Today, he put his boot on Australia’s throat with his 42nd half-century of his 81-Test career. And in the course of his innings he become only the 11th Englishman to pass 6000 Test runs.Crowd capers
A world record crowd was tipped – just like it was four years ago – but the latest Boxing Day attempt fell short at 84,345. That’s still a number only Eden Gardens could manage, but with all the hype it was disappointing not to topple the 90,800 of the second day of the 1960-61 West Indies Test. Stephen Gough, the Melbourne Cricket Club chief executive, said there would be a review of the ticketing arrangements after the crowd was well under its capacity of 96,500. He blamed the shortfall on the MCC members’ reserve and public, corporate and AFL members.Shortly before play there were 55,000 in the ground and there were 80,084 when the players went off for rain at lunch. Throughout the day the stadium was generally subdued, just like in the previous Ashes Test here. On that occasion 89,155 turned up even though the series was already over. Those spectators got to see Shane Warne’s 700th wicket and England dismissed for 159.Warne immortalised
Warne is a Victorian hero who grew from a chubby kid into the game’s most successful legspinner with 708 wickets. At the end of next year he’ll be an MCG statue, hoping not to attract some of Bill Lawry’s pigeons. He will be the first subject in the ground’s “Avenue of Legends” project and will add to the 10 statues already outside the MCG, which include Dennis Lillee, Keith Miller, Bill Ponsford and Don Bradman. There has also been a push to get Warne out of retirement, but that can now stop after he was taken for 20 hypothetical runs in the nets at tea by the actor Hugh Jackman. Life as a public figure will have to do.