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ScorecardJoe Denly scored his first County Championship hundred since 2009 as Kent’s batsmen enjoyed a prolific opening day in the bottom-of-the-table Division Two clash against Leicestershire at Tunbridge Wells.By stumps Kent were 376 for 3, with 25-year-old Denly making 143 before he was bowled by Matthew Hoggard with the second new ball. Rob Key had earlier hit 91, also a season’s best for him, in a first-wicket stand of 198 with Denly, while Sam Northeast scored 99 before being dismissed by what became the last ball of the day.Northeast, trying to get to three figures before the close, attempted to flick a ball from Andrew McDonald wide of mid-on and was lbw to the fifth delivery of the 96th over. Kent, anchored to the foot of the Division Two after losing four of their first six Championship games, have targeted this match against second-from-bottom Leicestershire to try to reverse their fortunes after an injury-ravaged opening seven weeks of the season.Importantly, Key won the toss and first use of an excellent pitch and, on a blustery day, set about a Leicestershire attack missing England Lions fast bowler Nathan Buck, who has a stress fracture of the foot.By lunch Kent were 134 without loss, and it was almost an hour after lunch before the opening pair were split when Key drilled a return catch to seamer McDonald. The Kent captain had faced 146 balls, hitting nine fours and a six over long-on off slow left-armer Claude Henderson.But Denly was then joined in an equally productive second-wicket partnership of 140 by Northeast, as the two young Kent-born batsmen kept up the pressure on Hoggard’s team. There were 19 fours in Denly’s hundred, made from 147 balls, while Northeast found the boundary ten times in his half-century, which came up off 80 balls.Denly has made three centuries and three ducks in his last six first-class innings at Tunbridge Wells and this was his 11th first-class hundred. Last season he made only 610 runs in County Championship cricket, at an average of 21, and this summer he had previously scored just 82 runs from eight championship innings and had also suffered a broken finger.The 21-year-old Northeast, who made 112 in the first match of the season at Essex, has also largely struggled for runs, but this fluent innings underlined his rich promise. It was just a shame for him that he played across the line in the final over of the day – in search of what would have been a third championship hundred – instead of waiting to complete it at the start of the second day.Northeast’s 99 came from 157 balls, with 15 fours, while Denly faced 247 balls in all and hit 22 fours. Denly and Key’s partnership was the first century stand for any Kent wicket this season, and was full of superlative shots.A fast outfield meant that Denly, Key and Northeast gained full value for their strokeplay, and their fine batting has already given Kent a big advantage in this game.

Malcolm Speed, the former chief executive of the ICC, has added his voice to the call for world cricket to be run by an independent commission instead of the existing board structure. However, while he believes a governance model without vested interests would be good for the ICC, Speed does not anticipate such a move being made.”I think an independent commission would be great, but I don’t expect it to happen,” Speed told ESPNcricinfo. “For it to happen, the member countries would have to vote for it, and I don’t think they’re going to give up their seat at the table.”During my time there, there was a proposal that the board be restructured so that there be two boards, one as a smaller executive board and then the bigger board that included all the countries. That was fine until we started talking about who might be on it and who might not be on it, and it just disappeared off the agenda.”One of the problems caused by a structure in which member nations are guaranteed representation at board level is that the system can become too politicised. Speed said one of the major challenges for the ICC in future would be to ensure that India used its power at board level and its financial clout for the good of the game.”I think the two big challenges are balancing the three forms of the game and accommodating India’s position as the financial superpower of the game,” Speed said. “It will be difficult. It will require goodwill on the part of the Indian administrators and the leaders from the other countries. From time to time, I think there will be disagreement which will require the leaders of the other countries to stand up to India from time to time.”But Speed said the idea that the ICC was often split along lines of geography or race was not correct. “That’s sometimes overdone. From time to time countries would come together when they had a common view, but it wasn’t as if there was a constant pairing of Asian countries and African countries all with the same view.”Sometimes, for instance, Pakistan would take quite a different view from India on key issues. The sense of there being an Asian bloc that votes together on all issues certainly wasn’t the case in my time.”Speed, who has recently released his book of memoirs, , said he remains philosophical about his being removed as chief executive after his refusal to back the board’s position on Zimbabwe. Speed was sent on “gardening leave” for the final two months of his tenure after a board meeting in Bangalore, in April 2008, made it clear that he had lost the support of the majority of the ICC directors.In the book, Speed recounts the events that led to his departure from the ICC, which came after the board considered a KPMG audit of Zimbabwe Cricket’s finances. Speed writes that the audit found Zimbabwe Cricket’s financial records had been falsified for the 2005 financial year, but the board ignored a recommendation from its own audit committee to have the matter referred to the ICC’s ethics officer.”I asked for my disagreement to be minuted … I felt ill. The whole issue had been swept under the carpet,” Speed wrote of the meeting, which took place in Dubai in March 2008. He added that some members of the board, including the then vice-president David Morgan and New Zealand’s Sir John Anderson, had also agreed that the issue be referred to the ethics officer.However, the board decided against that course of action, and Speed declined to attend the press conference that followed the meeting, where he and the ICC president Ray Mali had been scheduled to speak to the media. A month later, Morgan and Speed negotiated the terms of Speed’s departure from the ICC.”I’m philosophical. I think I was philosophical at the time. It’s an occupational hazard,” Speed said this week. “It wasn’t surprising. I thought once I’d refused to go to the press conference there was a risk I’d be asked to leave. It didn’t surprise me, although I was surprised that it happened the way it did.”In his book, Speed describes several clashes he had with Mali, especially over Zimbabwe, and he said their relationship had “fractured completely” in November 2007. Speed writes that at the Bangalore meeting six months later – a meeting he did not attend – it became clear that Mali and other board members wanted him out.Three years on from his departure, Speed said he was “very pleased” to observe from the outside the success of the 2011 World Cup, and that the game appeared to be “in an extremely healthy position”.

Scorecard
Reece Topley’s second five-wicket haul in as many innings was not enough to give Essex the edge against Middlesex in murky conditions at Lord’s.Like Steven Finn a few years ago, Topley’s gangly 6’7″ frame has drawn plenty of excitement and his 5 for 64 here, to follow up seven wickets in the game against Kent, emphasised his immense potential. Operating from the Pavilion End he pinged the ball down on a length, swung it in and found enough bounce to trouble all the batsmen.After the blazing sunshine that brought spinners to the fore on the first round of Championship matches last week, proceedings here reverted to more familiar April type. Cloudy, cold and barely a slow bowler in sight. The battery of fast-mediums may have been a bit samey but the ball swung from the first over to the last which made Middlesex’s 277, after being stuck in by James Foster, better than it felt.What will frustrate them is that in testing conditions against a good attack, all bar the captain Neil Dexter and the No.11 Corey Collymore, got in and nobody went on. The lowest score of 15 and highest of 38 tells its own story. Wickets fell in clumps with two in three overs before lunch, three in seven balls just after lunch and two in four balls before tea. Each time both set batsmen fell but Essex were unable to grab the initiative.Topley was introduced after 12 overs and immediately ruffled Middlesex’s opening pair, having Scott Newman dropped at third slip in his third over. He soon found deserved reward though as Chris Rodgers, on his Middlesex debut, edged a drive to a diving Tom Westley at third slip for 25. An over later Topley got his second when a full ball had Newman caught behind for 38, which ended up the highest score of the day.Having arrested the decline Dawid Malan’s bright 29 from 36 balls was ended after lunch by a loose drive as David Masters swung a full ball through a gaping gate and Dexter was lbw for a duck three balls later. It became three wickets in seven balls when Topley had Dan Housego caught at midwicket for 20 and Middlesex were tottering at 115 for 5.John Simpson and Gareth Berg rebuilt the innings with a smart 66-run stand but they too fell together. Chris Wright, in the side for left-arm-spinner Tim Phillips, made up for a poor day by claiming them both within three balls of each other and again Essex had control. Once more, however, they were thwarted though as Ollie Rayner and Tim Murtagh to until tea.Ravi Bopara removed Murtagh in his second over after the break but Steven Finn joined Rayner and together they merrily swung Middlesex to a competitive total. Bopara was kept on a couple of overs too many and a blend of flashing edges and thumping drives brought a rapid 60-run stand in 12 overs.It took Topley’s return to break the stand, finish the innings and seal his second five-for in as many games. Finn had made his highest first-class score before heaving across the line to lose his middle stump and Collymore was bowled three balls later. The prospect of an all-England battle between Finn and Alastair Cook was denied by gloomy light which took the players off after 1.5 overs but if conditions repeat on day two, it should be a intriguing battle.

The injury to Ashish Nehra has put the Indian team management in a dilemma over who should be his replacement for the World Cup final against Sri Lanka. The likely choices are Sreesanth and R Ashwin, but MS Dhoni said that he was yet to make up his mind on whether to go for a third seamer, or play two seamers and an extra spinner.”That is a tricky one,” Dhoni said 24 hours before the final. “If you see the Mumbai track there is a bit of pace and bounce for the seamers initially. Also if there is reverse swing going on, the third seamer can have an impact on the game. At the same time if the three seamers are bowling well I can easily manoeuvre the bowling.”According to Dhoni, playing only two seamers along with four spinners including part-timers did not afford him the same flexibility. Yet, on the two occasions India adopted that strategy, they won: in the final group match against West Indies, and in the quarter-final victory over Australia.”If one of the fast bowlers has an off-day it gets difficult,” Dhoni said. “Still we should not forget that, in whatever opportunities Ashwin has got so far he has done really well. We have confidence in him. But we have not thought out our bowling combination yet.”Dhoni disagreed that playing Sreesanth – who leaked 53 runs in five overs in his only game – would be a gamble. “He is one player who gets excited when it comes to big games,” Dhoni said. “If he is playing he will be in a good frame of mind. Sree is one character who can swing the ball and get you early wickets. It would be an exciting choice we would need to make.”But he did admit that being a volatile character, Sreesanth could easily disappoint. “The only person who can control Sreesanth is Sreesanth,” he said. “It is beyond my control and I don’t think too much about.”Dhoni, however, clarified that Sreesanth’s unpredictability was not the reason behind him not featuring in India’s campaign after the opening game against Bangladesh. Dhoni said that India had played the line-ups most suited to the conditions in the knockout matches, and Sreesanth did not fit in with the requirements. “It has been unfortunate that we could not give him any further chances after the first match where he did not bowl that badly,” Dhoni said. “But after that we gave chances to quite a few other individuals, which was needed at that point. After the last match in the group stages we have fielded the best XI, which suited the conditions.”Going by the two league games played here, the Wankhede pitch has proved beneficial to teams batting first. In the first of those games, New Zealand made 358 against Canada after being put in to bat. Four days later Kumar Sangakkara’s century helped Sri Lanka set a challenging target of 265 against New Zealand, who were flattened by the trickery of Muttiah Muralitharan. Dhoni was certain Muralitharan would play tomorrow despite fitness worries, and he believed the teams would prefer to bat first. “Being the final, more often than not most of the teams would love to bat first, put runs on the board and put pressure on the opposition,” he said. “You might see the wicket getting slower as the game progresses. There will not be too much of a difference apart from handling the pressure which might be more in the second innings compared to the first.”

The format for the 2011 World Cup was designed to give the top teams the best chance of qualifying for the knockout stage, tournament director Ratnakar Shetty has said.”Economically, we all know that India is the financial powerhouse of cricket,” Shetty said in an interview with . “The exit of India and Pakistan from the 2007 World Cup was a disaster for the tournament. The sponsors, broadcasters, tour operators, West Indies board – all lost a lot of money. The format was changed in such a way that it gives all the top teams a chance to compete. We have gone back to the same format that was used in 1996.”Shetty was satisfied with the improvements at the Wankhede Stadium, one of the four World Cup venues that were running behind schedule. Talking about the Eden Gardens fiasco, he said the BCCI and ICC could not have averted the situation by being more involved. “Unlike in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where the Boards run the show completely, in India, the BCCI doesn’t run daily cricket. In our case, the stadia are completely managed by the state associations. The ICC has documented the progress of each venue. The BCCI monitored the reports of the venue, but to ensure that the work is completed was the responsibility of the state association.”Apart from security, Shetty identified filling up Indian grounds for non-India matches as the biggest organisational challenge posed by the tournament. “We have directed all the state associations to throw the gates open to the school children to enjoy a good day out. The tickets have been very reasonably priced too. The ICC is running a lot of contests, and free tickets will be issued to the contest winners, so in our capacity we are doing the best to ensure that the stadia will not see empty stands.”Shetty also stressed that the Indian board made a conscious effort to make the Indian grounds more spectator friendly, something that hasn’t been a concern in the past. “To a large extent, the BCCI have taken the spectators for granted, because irrespective of who India plays, the crowds turn up,” he said. “There was a serious discussion in the board to make the stadiums spectator-friendly. We didn’t want to go by just the numbers. Wankhede’s capacity could have been increased, but we have reduced it from 45,000 to 32,000. Similarly the Eden Gardens capacity has been reduced to 65,000. There is more space between the seats.”The toilet facilities, food courts and the media facilities have all been given a massive facelift, so I am sure people will not complain this time. The IPL has brought a lot of female fans to cricket. Female following has tremendously increased, so we have taken all this into account before redeveloping the stadia.”

Match Facts

January 21, Port Elizabeth
Start time 14:30 (12.30 GMT, 18.00 IST)
Will Yuvraj Singh come up with a match-winning performance?•Associated Press

Big Picture

India are on the verge of a rare series win in a land where they have their worst win-loss record. Prior to this series, they had just won just three ODIs against South Africa in South Africa. It was that bleak. The start to this series hinted at more of the same as they capitulated against bounce in Durban. However, they bounced back in style, with a little bit of help from South Africa, to go 2-1 up.The last pieces of the World Cup puzzle are slowly falling in place too. Yusuf Pathan sealed the No. 7 slot with a violent knock, and Virat Kohli continues to put pressure for a spot in the top order with impressive performances. It’s the opening position that seems a bit wasted on players who aren’t in the World Cup squad. And neither M Vijay nor Rohit Sharma has seized their chances. Vijay has combusted cheaply and Rohit has looked out of the depth. Will India replace one of them with Parthiv Patel in the next game? Rohit might stay for he offers an extra option with his offbreaks.South Africa have lost two in a row now but there have been a couple of positives: JP Duminy played two responsible knocks and is beginning to show that he can lead the lower order through crisis situations and Faf du Plessis showed promise. He played a responsible and restrained knock in the last ODI and will have two more games to show his hitting prowess. Albie Morkel, who was drafted in for the last two games, has since been released from the squad, leaving South Africa without a suitable all-round option to replace the struggling Wayne Parnell. They may be forced to stop shielding legspinner Imran Tahir against India and give him a chance to prove his worth.

Form guide

South Africa: LLWWL
India: WWLWW

Players to watch out for…

Hashim Amla has looked in great touch, and got off to great starts but has rarely converted them. He has paid the price for attacking all the time. If he can temper his approach and make more judicious shot selections, he can really boost this South African batting line-up.Yuvraj Singh hit a half-century in the second ODI and was looking fluent in the third when he fell. There are enough indications that Yuvraj will play at No. 4 in the World Cup. One hour of his batting can win games for India, while his nagging slow bowling adds immense value in suitable conditions.

Team news

Parthiv Patel, who came in as replacement for Sachin Tendulkar, might take M Vijay’s opening slot. The Port Elizabeth pitch aids spin and Piyush Chawla, who is in India’s World Cup squad, might get a game.India (possible): 1 Parthiv Patel, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Piyush Chawla / Ashish Nehra, 10 Munaf Patel, 11 Zaheer KhanSouth Africa are likely to bring in Imran Tahir in the place of Wayne Parnell.South Africa (possible): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 AB de Villiers (wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Faf du Plessis, 7 Johan Botha, 8 Dale Steyn, 9 Wayne Parnell / Imran Tahir, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Stats and trivia

• At Newlands, Zaheer Khan became the 21st bowler to get 250 ODI wickets. He is the third left-arm seamer, after Wasim Akram and Chaminda Vaas, and the fifth Indian to capture 250 or more. Harbhajan Singh is currently on 246
• Yusuf’s 59 was the first half-century by an Indian No. 7 batsman South Africa. The previous best was 47, made by his brother Irfan

Quotes

“South Africa have got a bit of problem with their selection issues. They must select seven coloured players out of 15. Their tail will be too long. They have a problem with the batting down the order.”

It has been a dream Ranji season for Bhargav Bhatt, and the left-arm spinner’s run continued when he picked up five wickets in Rajasthan’s first innings to move past Pankaj Singh as the highest wicket-taker with 45 victims. The Moti Bagh track was assisting spin, there was a rough to be exploited, and Bhatt capitalised, bowling Robin Bist with what is surely one of the best deliveries of this year’s tournament. The ball pitched outside leg stump from over the wicket, and turned sharply past Bist’s forward push to take out the off stump.”It was a planned move,” Mukesh Narula, the Baroda coach, said. “Bhargav saw that Bist was playing with an open face of the bat, and felt that he should go for the changed angle from over the stumps. It was good thinking on his part.”Aakash Chopra, the Rajasthan opener, told ESPNcricinfo that Bhatt was pretty accurate throughout his 42.1 overs. “He didn’t bowl many loose deliveries, and obviously the wicket suited him. He looks good. Of course, he must have done many things right to have taken 45 wickets.” Bhatt, who is playing in his first full Ranji season, said that he has had to learn fast about the importance of accuracy at the first-class level compared to the age-group levels, where one could get away with maybe one or even two bad balls in an over.Despite Bhatt’s heroics, Rajasthan managed 394, a total that will take some getting on a track where uneven bounce is becoming a regular feature. “It is not a huge score, but one that can be defended, with the kind of bowling that we have,” Chopra said. “However, unless it is a huge one, I don’t think the first-innings lead will matter that much. This game has a long way to go. I think tomorrow is the most important day, and by evening we should have a much clearer picture of who is ahead.”Baroda began promisingly in their first innings, with Jaykishan Kolsawala stroking his way to an unbeaten 46, but Chopra felt that was because the ball came on better due to the extra pace of the Rajasthan bowlers. “We also attacked more in the quest for wickets, and that led to some extra runs being conceded. But I don’t see the scoring rate jumping up much on this track.”With many deliveries rising barely above ankle length, Chopra felt that the horizontal shots needed to be avoided, but the overall approach would have to be positive. Narula said that it was possible to score runs on the wicket with a few adjustments. “The deliveries that are keeping low are mostly from short of a good length, and it is possible to go on the back foot and tackle them. It is difficult and requires application, but it is definitely possible to score, as Kolsawala showed today. Only Connor Williams in our line-up plays very steadily. All the other batsmen are aggressive in their approach. And I believe that is the way to go tomorrow.”With the Baroda spinners picking up eight wickets between them, the onus will be on the Rajasthan spinners, Vivek Yadav and Madhur Khatri, to deliver as well, something they haven’t been required to do this season. “I can’t really say that our spinners haven’t done well, the fact is that they haven’t been tested as Pankaj and Deepak Chahar have done the job for us so far,” Chopra said. “But tomorrow will be the big test for them.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Sachin Tendulkar’s 51st Test ton was made special by the circumstances in which it came•AFP

On the third day of the deciding Test in Newlands, the world’s best fast bowler terrorised the acclaimed batsmen of the No. 1 team with frightening spells of accurate outswing bowling at high speed. Most did not survive the menacing attack, but the world’s best batsman did, and he dragged his team forward through the harshest of circumstances. The battle between Dale Steyn, oozing aggression every ball, and Sachin Tendulkar, who remained steadfast despite being beaten probably more often than on any other day, was alone worth the ticket money. Both champions were winners, for Steyn ripped out five in the innings, while Tendulkar fought hard for his 51st century. Their efforts left the contest even – India lead’s was merely 2 – and ensured that the series would be decided by a second-innings shootout in the shadow of Table Mountain.The absence of the same degree of pace, swing, seam movement and hostility when India’s fast bowlers attacked South Africa’s batsmen only increased awe for Steyn’s efforts. Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen made a promising start to the chase, adding 50 runs for the first wicket. Only Harbhajan Singh’s twin strikes close to stumps, fizzing the ball off a wearing pitch, brought the game back into balance.Steyn bowled only 18 overs today, but to India’s batsmen it was an eternity. He charged in at full pelt on the hottest day of the Test, his sinewy body taut, and delivered a barrage of outswingers that curved in towards middle stump before searing away off the pitch. His spells in the first session were among the finest unrewarded efforts and India, with luck and application, survived them to claw forward. After lunch, however, Steyn’s luck changed with the second new ball, and his sustained hostility during a spell that incredibly was more aggressive than the first, yielded two wickets and set India back considerably.For India, there was Tendulkar, pulling them along when all others apart from Gautam Gambhir failed, relying on the strength of his mind, faith in his technique and a little bit of luck. His 146 will rank among his finest hundreds because of the rigorous examinations he passed. Tendulkar was beaten innumerable times by Steyn’s outswingers and Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s extra bounce outside off stump, and cut in half repeatedly by Morne Morkel’s jagging in-cutters. But Tendulkar survived, and attacked when he could. His 176-run stand with Gambhir gave India the edge, which vanished once four wickets fell for 43 runs. In Harbhajan, Tendulkar had a fighting partner, and their partnership of 76 for the eighth wicket once again helped India claw ahead.The tone for a crackling day was set in the very first over, delivered by Steyn. The first ball sped towards Tendulkar, landed on good length, reared up, seamed away late and beat the bat. The second was fuller, swung away and took the edge as Tendulkar lunged forward. Mark Boucher caught it too, diving forward to take a low chance, but strangely his appeal had little support from Steyn. The third fell short of gully, again off Tendulkar’s edge, and he brought up his half-century, having resumed overnight on 49. The fourth beat the bat as well. For the fifth, Tendulkar stood out of his crease to counter the swing and drove to the extra-cover boundary. He defended the sixth, and had survived the best over of the Test.

Smart Stats

• The 176 run stand for the third wicket between Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir is the highest for India in Tests in South Africa.

• Tendulkar’s 146 is his second century in Cape Town. He now has 475 runs in six innings at an average of 79.16 with two centuries and two half-centuries.

• Harbhajan Singh put on 76 for the seventh wicket with Tendulkar, which is second on the list of highest partnerships for the seventh wicket for India in Tests in South Africa.

• Harbhajan has been involved in 20 fifty-plus partnerships in his Test career, of which 11 have come since the beginning of 2008.

• Dale Steyn picked up his fourth five-wicket haul against India in Tests. It was also his second five-wicket haul of the series.

• Steyn also reached the landmark of 50 Test wickets against India in just his tenth Test. Steyn’s average of 18.53 is fourth on the list of bowlers who have reached this mark against India,.

Morkel began his spell by testing Gambhir’s patience with a succession of short-of-a-length deliveries that bounced steeply outside off stump. Only in the eighth over of the day did Gambhir’s discipline in leaving deliveries outside off waver, and he was beaten often.For 53 minutes, the spectators at the Kelvin Grove only got to see Tendulkar batting from behind, while those at the Wynberg End had the same view of Gambhir. Tendulkar faced all five overs of Steyn’s first spell, while Gambhir negotiated Morkel. The runs came only in twos and fours, a lot of them through edges, and 42 out of the first 50 balls were dots.Tsotsobe replaced Steyn for the 61st over and continued the trend of beating Tendulkar’s bat. Tendulkar responded with a powerful pull to the midwicket boundary and a carve over gully. In Tsotsobe’s next over, the 13th of the morning, Tendulkar flicked through midwicket for the day’s first single.Soon Paul Harris’ deliveries were jumping at Gambhir for he was bowling wider, aiming for the rough. One ball in the 72nd over leapt at Gambhir and kissed the glove but Boucher failed to take a tough chance. The next ball was straighter and took the edge, this time Boucher held it. Harris could have had Tendulkar as well, had he been quick enough to catch a ball that was travelling at scary speed. Instead, he got Laxman out, as the ball split his fingers and crashed into the stumps at the non-striker’s end.India resumed after lunch on 237 for 4 and Steyn was back at his best. After five dot balls, he produced an outswinger to rival the famed one that bowled Michael Vaughan. This time, Cheteshwar Pujara’s pad was in the way. MS Dhoni lasted three balls, wafting at one that swerved away to slip. Harbhajan looked like he would get out every ball, so hapless was he against Steyn. One outswinger even clipped his off stump but the bails, incredibly, stayed on.Tendulkar tried to take strike as Steyn approached his five-overs-per-spell limit and shielded Harbhajan. He had earlier brought up his century by top-edging a hook off Morkel for six over the wicketkeeper, after being cut in half by the previous ball. The plan worked, for Harbhajan mowed Tsotsobe for six over the leg side, and when Steyn returned for a fiery burst just before tea, Harbhajan was confident enough to loft him over the long-on boundary to bring the deficit below fifty. Through it all, was Tendulkar, cutting and driving India forward.Both batsmen didn’t last long after tea, with a refueled Steyn claiming his fifth when Harbhajan top-edged a hook to square leg. With Zaheer for company, Tendulkar took the responsibility of playing Steyn and succeeded in adding valuable runs. He eventually fell to Morkel, losing his off bail to a delivery that straightened past his bat, when so many had jagged into him previously. He departed with India 21 runs behind South Africa, but had taken them far closer than seemed possible when Steyn was blowing red-hot.

The West Indies team management has said they are fully behind offspinner Shane Shillingford, who was reported for a suspect bowling action by ICC officials after the first Test against Sri Lanka on Friday.”I had a very good chat with Shane and he understands what is going on,” said West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson after a training session at the Sinhalese Sports Club on Sunday. “We are 100% behind Shane. The entire team is behind him and he knows he has our full support. Our job is to keep Shane focussed on the upcoming match and the series.”From what we have been told, he can play and he comes into our thinking as normal, as we look ahead to the match. We are building towards doing well in the second Test, as we did in the first Test. As a team we are looking forward to the upcoming match. Shane bowled very well for us in the last Test, and he’s a key part of our bowling unit.”The 27-year-old spinner had figures of 4 for 123 and 1 for 79 in what was his fourth Test match. He has 21 days from the time the West Indies Cricket Board received the report to submit an independent analysis of his bowling action. Until the WICB receives a report of the assessment, however, Shillingford will be allowed to continue bowling in international cricket, which means he will be available for selection for the second Test against Sri Lanka that begins on November 23 in Colombo.Shillingford was reported by on-field umpires Steve Davis and Richard Kettleborough, along with third umpire Asad Rauf and fourth umpire Tyron Wijewardene. The umpires’ report cited concern over the straightening of Shillingford’s arm while he bowled some deliveries.

Match abandoned
ScorecardIndia won the three-ODI series 1-0 as the final match was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Margao. Heavy rain on the eve of the game clogged the ground and, though the weather was clear on match day, the outfield was not suitable for play.The result meant a winless tour for Australia. The last time they experienced something similar in India was on their tour in 2008-09 where they drew the tour game and lost the Tests 0-2.The first ODI in Kochi was also washed out in similar circumstances. It was an unfortunate result for the locals who had turned up at the stadium. The series was effectively reduced to a solitary game in Visakhapatnam and both teams took a couple of positives.For India, Virat Kohli scored a century to move ahead of Rohit Sharma in the selection pecking order and R Ashwin impressed with the ball. India, though, struggled in the end overs with Australia looting 84 from the final five overs. For Australia, Michael Clarke made a century after a disappointing performance in the Test series, in which he managed just 35 runs in four innings. Mitchell Starc, the 20-year old left-arm seamer, made a promising debut and the other debutant John Hastings too had a decent outing.