Ever since Virender Sehwag became the new Tendulkar, the old Tendulkar’s been given a right bollocking for not being his old self. Pressure, burden, caution, restricted are the words used to describe his batting now. He used to be free-flowing, manic, electric and risky. Commentators say that he needs to play his own game, that his back foot moves across too much, among other things. Newspapers mourn the old days, when good ol’ Sach gave the ball a wholesome tonk. Sniff.Tendulkar repeatedly said that not much had changed, and all he was trying to do was bat for longer periods. But his words were buried under pages and pages of opinions on how he could get his batting magic back, disregarding the fact that he didn’t think he had lost anything in the first place. It was needless, harsh, and probably annoying. Last night, after shutting Bangladesh out of the game, he let fly in one of his more ferocious post-match performances.”People who are talking about me not enjoying my batting, better get it right. It’s a wrong perception. Those who understand the game wouldn’t be talking about it.” It had been building to this. A private man had had enough and he was going public. It could not have been easy. Try empathising with him. You score 40 in 30 balls and you’re offered advice on how to stay put for longer. You then score 80 in 110 and everyone says you’ve lost your groove. You try not to read what the papers say because it messes your head. So does the telly. Everywhere you look, someone has a reason for the way you play, and no one seems to understand that your changing game is a conscious decision. It’s like being 16 with a billion parents.Yesterday, for a brief while, Tendulkar batted on a different plane. He started slowly, with his bat and feet not coordinated with his mind, but gradually, the ball went where he meant for it to go. Out of the blue, he slog-swept a ball for six, and then charged at a bowler and changed his shot as the ball headed towards him. For a small period of play, there was raw energy. It was free-flowing, manic, electric and risky. Tendulkar hadn’t lost it, nor was he short on enthusiasm. The tools were all there. He’s just choosing which ones to use.It’s useless to compare him now with what he was then. He’s 31 now, not 16, when he could bat with a bugger-the-world freedom. It’s been 15 years. . It would be silly, and very worrying if he didn’t change in that time. We’d have been calling him one-dimensional by now. Even Rahul Dravid changed. Chances are, Sehwag will grow old and not thwack three fours an over. He’ll become more responsible. After all, who wouldn’t want to bat for a while longer if it means cutting out a few shots?His 241 at Sydney was like that. Remember how ball after ball went by his off stump teasingly, taunting him to drive? Remember how he restrained his drives and cuts, knowing they had failed him earlier in the series? This was a changed player, a player who knew his game, and was finding out what to do in different situations.At the highest level of anything, change is gradual. So it is with Tendulkar. He’s finding his balance in this new method of batting, and is getting it right more often. Sure, he doesn’t play like he used to, but it doesn’t mean the magic isn’t there. And here’s what makes the future even more tantalising. He spoke to Dileep Premachandran a few weeks ago, and said the thought of retiring hadn’t occurred to him. His batting would have changed even more by then, and considering the manner in which he began batting in 1989, that, in its own way, is a magical thought.

Nick Knight, currently in his 10th season with Warwickshire, has agreed to a three-year extension to his contract. In his benefit year Knight has lead Warwickshire to the top of Division One in the County Championship, and has been in excellent form personally, scoring 981 runs, including the first triple-century of his career, at an average of 75.46 this season. He is also Warwickshire’s leading run scorer in one-day cricket this year, with 681 runs at just over 60.”Although I was flattered to be approached by a number of other counties, it was never in my mind to leave Warwickshire,” he told the Stellar Group. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Birmingham and during my time here the county has been at the forefront of the game, both on and off the pitch. Once again we are well-placed to win some silverware and with the strength and depth of the younger players coming through, I can only see good times ahead.”Personally, I am enjoying an excellent season with the bat and feel like I am capable of scoring well every time I go into bat,” he added. “The side are all playing well and at the moment and it makes my job a very simple one.”

The former Zimbabwe allrounder, Sean Ervine, whose international career has been cut short by the ongoing dispute with the Zimbabwe Cricket Board, will play his first matches as an Australian state cricketer this weekend, as Western Australia’s squad takes part in two trial games at Lilac Hill.Ervine impressed Australian audiences during Zimbabwe’s two-Test tour Down Under last winter. He scored a one-day century against India during the VB Series, and it was at Perth that he scored his maiden Test half-century, in the same match in which Matthew Hayden scored 380 to claim Brian Lara’s world record – albeit only briefly.The trial matches – between North and South – will feature several other prominent names. Their captain, Justin Langer, will have his first run-out of the season, before joining up with the Australian squad for their tour of India, while the fast bowlers Brad Williams and Michael Clark will be testing their fitness after back problems.All of Western Australia’s contracted players will be playing, except for Chris Rogers, who is recovering from hamstring surgery. Entry to the match is free.

Two-Test series are criticised in a land that considers four matches an abbreviation, but there was significant relief when Chris Martin finally fell and ended an unfair contest. A wrestle marked down for 13 days dragged out November as New Zealand were squeezed and crushed by an outfit focussed on precision.Free entry was granted for the final five wickets to conclude a series that the Australian’s front page shouted wasn’t worth the admission price. Highlights have been hidden by a mechanical performance of a world champion side that toyed with their opponents before disposal. Justin Langer’s double-century stands alone as the pinnacle of this match as Australia relied on contributions of fifties and a couple of wickets.The last wrenching stretch came when New Zealand’s misery was extended by the lunch break, and they ate with nine wickets down. Expecting a quick ending, 3,760 spectators arrived for the opening session and many raced for the exit at 12.58 after Daniel Vettori drove Darren Lehmann to Jason Gillespie. Those who stayed either held long-standing Shaky Island grudges or wanted to see Lehmann’s crawl with Mark Richardson. Play resumed and was over after six balls.Light rain fell on the way to the ground and Vettori sprinkled resistance with a half-century, but any hanging hope of holding on for a draw disappeared when Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum, the two overnight batsmen, quickly departed. New Zealand were more than outclassed by Ricky Ponting’s men, who teased and humiliated them.By batting past lunch yesterday, Ponting almost turned torturer and hoped his opponents would remember the treatment next year in New Zealand. Hypnosis would struggle to make anyone forget the four-day thrashing in Brisbane, ending in a second-innings 76, and this drawn out death.

Oram and Vettori enhanced their reputations but the rest have been unable to display the traditional stubborn traits of touring New Zealand teams. Stephen Fleming, Mathew Sinclair, Oram and Vettori were the only batsmen to make half-centuries while the bowling literally revolved around Vettori’s fingers. The fast men got no wickets in Adelaide.In the other dressing-room Glenn McGrath was named Man of the Series and introduced as “Australia’s newest allrounder”. Someone had to win it because, as Ponting said, many players put their hands up at different times. Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist, McGrath and Jason Gillespie battered New Zealand at Brisbane and five half-centuries joined Langer’s double in Adelaide’s first innings.Five bowlers got two wickets in the second-innings as they again divided the wickets. What made Australia’s performance so unusual and business like was that no bowler captured a large haul. “They had three Richard Hadlees and the greatest legspinner of all,” Stephen Fleming said. It was shared excellence.

Scorecard

Victoria completed an amazing turnaround at the Gabba, dismissing Queensland for 169 to win their Pura Cup game by 156 runs. It was only the fourth time in the 112-year history of the competition – which was originally known as the Sheffield Shield – that a team had won after following on.”We had to find a way back into the game, it was graciously given to us by the opposition captain,” Greg Shipperd, Victoria’s coach, told the Australian Associated Press. “We took full advantage. A couple of times in the last couple of seasons I think Queensland have seriously underestimated our ability to play at the level that we have.”Resuming at 6 for 472, Victoria declared their second innings on 8 for 508, setting Queensland an improbable victory target of 326. A more achievable aim for them was batting out almost five-and-a-half hours to force a draw, but their batsmen proved hopelessly inadequate to the task, lasting just 59 overs.They started well, reaching 1 for 51 at lunch, but the slump came about in the afternoon session, when six wickets went down. The slide started immediately after the break, when Martin Love and Shane Watson fell in quick succession. Clinton Perren made 52, but wickets continued to tumble at the other end, with Michael Lewis and Ian Harvey taking three wickets apiece. Ashley Noffke provided some resistance, remaining unbeaten on 45, but Victoria were not to be denied.Shipperd pointed out that Victorians aren’t the type to give up. “Last year they [Queensland] scored 600 down at the Junction Oval, and expected us to roll over – it was another indication of that sort of thinking,” he said. “In the last couple of years, Victoria have deserved to be respected, probably more than they are by the opposition.”Jimmy Maher, Queensland’s captain, denied any lack of respect on their part. “I’m sorry if it’s disrespectful for enforcing the follow-on,” he said. “Next time I’ll give them 100 runs as well to show them a lot of respect. My bowlers were fresh. They wanted another go at them because we only bowled 45 overs [in the first innings]. And then in the second we had them 6 for 100 effectively, so I think he’s looking at the wrong things.” After being 6 for 293, a lead of 110 overall, Cameron White and Ian Harvey rallied for Victoria, and put on 205 for the seventh wicket, the first stage of a remarkable turnaround.The win lifted Victoria to fourth spot with 12 points, but Queensland continue to lead the Pura Cup table with 22 points, two clear of New South Wales.

Reacting to a story about the possibility of Muttiah Muralitharan missing cricket for eight to ten weeks, the Australian surgeon who treated Muralitharan’s shoulder downplayed the injury, saying it wasn’t as bad as the MRI suggested.David Young put Muralitharan through an arthroscopy following a scan that revealed a tendon tear, and was pleased with what he found. AAP quoted Young as saying, “I’m rapt. I’m very, very reassured by the scope compared to what the MRI had suggested. It was a quick scope, little more than diagnostic. It’s a partial tear, he doesn’t need it repaired and he will head home on Friday.More reassuringly for fans who missed Muralitharan for much of last year, he added that Muralitharan had a chance of participating in the tour of New Zealand.

Scorecard

Played at an advanced stage of the league phase of the 2003 World Cup, with all sorts of permutations and combinations adding to the pressure of an India-Pakistan tie, this was a game that crackled with tension from ball one almost till the time Rahul Dravid made the hit that brought victory to his side and spent Pakistan spinning ever closer to relegation.Pakistan had played India in each of the three previous World Cups and never won a game, but by the time the 1st of March came Waqar Younis’s side had lost to both Australia and England, and it was time to skip the history lessons and launch a do-or-die effort. India, by contrast, were in a more comfortable position, having won four games out of five, but there could be no loss of momentum in such a crucial tournament.Pakistan won the toss and chose the standard big-game option of aiming to put up runs on the board first, but both teams took time to settle, and play in the opening overs was nervy. Then Pakistan slowly began to break away, led by a veteran of many an India-Pakistan clash, now in the last stage of this career, Saeed Anwar. Even though wickets fell regularly, and Inzamam-ul-Haq, suffering from the leanest trot in his career, was comically run out, Anwar kept the scoring-rate at five an over almost singlehandedly. By the time he was fifth man out at 195 in the 41st over, shortly after bringing up his hundred, Pakistan were well set for a late thrash. They eventually totaled 273. Now history, it seemed, was on their side: India had never successfully chased more than 222 in a World Cup match.The game had been simmering slowly upto this point, but in the first five overs of the Indian response it rose to a boil, and how. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were quickly out of the blocks, taking a boundary each off Wasim Akram’s first over, but the game really took off in the second over, when three balls from Shoaib Akhtar were dispatched by Tendulkar over point for six, through square leg for four, and then down the ground for another boundary.50 was up inside five overs, and Tendulkar, rising to the occasion, was in the most gorgeous touch he had been for some time. Undisturbed by the loss of Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly to successive balls, he lashed the ball to all corners, cutting and pulling viciously and driving powerfully on the up. After 15 overs India were 120 for 2, and Tendulkar had ensured that the run-rate would no longer be a problem for India: now it was all about keeping wickets in hand.Shoaib, returning for a second spell, caught him out just short of a hundred with a well-aimed bouncer that he fended to point, but by this time India needed less than a hundred with more then twenty overs remaining. Dravid, just the right man for such a situation, and Yuvraj Singh, radiating confidence, saw India home by six wickets. But the final margin of victory gave little hint at how tempestuous the drama of the day had been.

Sri Lanka have agreed to a last-minute ODI tour of India in April that will leave three English counties without one of their overseas professionals for at least the first three rounds of the Frizzell County Championship.Sri Lanka have agreed to play five one-dayers during the India tour and are expected to depart on April 19, just three days after the completion of the second Test against New Zealand in Wellington.The exact dates and venues for the tour have not been confirmed yet by the Indian board but Sri Lanka cricket officials expect the final itinerary to be completed very shortly, probably after the end of the ICC executive meeting that started in Delhi on Thursday.Chaminda Vaas (Worcestershire), Sanath Jayasuriya (Somerset) and Upul Chandana (Gloucestershire) will all be expected to tour and will probably not arrive in England until the first week of May. "The players have been warned that they will be needed," a cricket official told Cricinfo, "and we’ve agreed to an April 19 start so that the tour does not disrupt their plans too much."Sri Lanka’s board may have to consider financial compensation to the trio to cover lost earnings with their respective clubs. The players’ annual contracts with Sri Lanka Cricket expired at the end of February and they are yet to sign fresh agreements.Muttiah Muralitharan is also scheduled to play a third season with Lancashire, but he is not expected to be sufficiently fit for the ODIs after a second shoulder operation in February. He had planned to resume bowling on March 17 but has since been advised by his surgeon, Dr David Young, to rest it for a few more days and only resume net bowling at the end of next week when he returns to Sri Lanka after getting married in Chennai.Muralitharan may travel to Lancashire to participate in pre-season training and gradually step up the pace of his rehabilitation. Realistically, his best-case-scenario is to be available for Lancashire’s second game against Worcestershire on April 27.

South Africa fought hard on the fifth day of the first Test against West Indies to draw the game, after being outplayed on the first four days. Bennett King, the West Indies coach, has expressed disappointment over the result and expects improvement in future matches.”We are not really enjoying a draw, we are all not as happy as we could be,” said King to Stabroek News. “I just think that there are a lot of times when the players are really working hard, and really trying to put plans together, and really are trying to come up with results other than bowling all day, and hoping. They [the team] are really trying to set some people up and get them out; and that is really encouraging.”South Africa were asked to follow on after getting dismissed for 188 in the first innings. Jacques Kallis’s unbeaten knock of 109 saved the game for them. “At the moment, not every ball goes into the area as we want, but the more we practise the better we will get.”Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the new captain, was fairly satisfied with his team’s performance, who were tipped as underdogs due to the omission of several players including Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle from the side. “It was a good five days. We came in as the underdogs. In batting, the guys went out and put up a pretty good total. The bowlers also came out and did well. I don’t think that there is much we would change from this here. Going into the next game, to be in a position like this, we would be happy.”Chanderpaul pointed out that the one area the West Indies would need to work on for the rest of the series is their fielding. “We were pretty much on top, just the fielding side of it [we need to work on].”However, spirits were high in the South African camp. Graeme Smith praised Jacques Kallis for his resilient knock which saved the match for them. “I am running out of words for Jacques [Kallis]. He is superb, rock solid, did what he had to do, carried the innings again. In the middle there, it is so important to have a solid batter, a guy you can rely on. And we relied on him [Kallis] today.”Smith felt that his team underestimated the Guyana pitch. “I think that we, maybe, underestimated the surface. I don’t think that our bowlers realised how low and flat it was going to be, and how much effort we would have to put in. And the batters, I think, kind of played with a little too much freedom.”Smith pointed out that South Africa needed to improve their bowling for the second Test in Trinidad. “I think that the batters are focused and have been scoring runs of late, and I think that the hardest thing is for the bowlers to get these wickets. You have to bowl differently, you have to be able to take 20 wickets to win Test matches. And hopefully, Trinidad offers a more even battle between bat and ball.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
Photo Gallery
Bulletin – Pakistan level series after fantastic run-chase
Verdict – Clinical and full of steel
Roving Reporter – Cut to the chase
Quotes – ‘My contribution was very small’ – Inzamam
News – Ganguly banned for six matches
Plays of the Day – Can’t do nothing right
Preview package
Preview – Series comes alive before Ahmedabad clash
Quotes – ‘Can’t say anything till the game begins’ – Ganguly
Stats – A high-scoring trend