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Former India opening batsman Navjot Singh Sidhu has been appointed the chairman of Punjab cricket association’s technical and coaching committee. Sidhu’s role will incorporate advising the association on technical issues connected to effective management of cricket in the state. Two former Punjab captains – Chaman Lal Malhotra and Vinod Sharma – have also been included in the committee.Sidhu represented Punjab in first-class cricket in a career spanning 19 years. He scored 9571 first-class runs from 157 matches, including 3202 from 51 Tests for India. He also played 136 ODIs, starting with four consecutive half-centuries during the 1987 World Cup.

With South Africa’s preparation for the final Test in the series against England almost complete, they have called on a special assistant to add the finishing touch. Explorer Mike Horn, famous for his solo full circle of the globe without motorised transport, has joined up with the camp in London to complete a journey that began at his home in Château d’Oex, Switzerland, before the tour began.The squad spent four days with Horn before arriving in England on an excursion that was focused on gaining mental strength through physical exertion. Their challenges included cycling up Alpine slopes, hiking for miles and skiing. Although they will not be doing anything similar with Horn this time, his presence will serve as motivation as they approach the match that will determine whether they are crowned world No.1.”He is an inspiration for us, he played a big role in our preparations before the tour and he will no doubt add value to our current team environment,” Gary Kirsten, South Africa head coach, said.Horn and Kirsten are friends who have worked together before, most notably during India’s 2011 World Cup campaign, which ended in victory. The Indian squad did not shy away from crediting Horn with helping them believe they could achieve and Kirsten is hopeful he will have the same effect on the South African side.”I can’t come here and teach the players how to bat or to bowl,” Horn admitted. “I am here to bring something away from the game. They have proven that they are a better team than before. There is a good ambience in the camp and the players are looking forward to performing better as a team. I’m not going to say much, I think my presence will say a lot.”Horn’s impact on the changes made to the South African mindset are obvious. Jacques Kallis referred to it as simply a “very positive frame of mind,” but it is more complex than that. There is a sense of confidence that did not run as deeply as before. Even Mark Boucher, the toughest, hardest member of the squad whose retirement was forced in the first match at Taunton after a horrific eye injury, admitted he had never been so severely challenged as he was in Switzerland.Along with Boucher, other members of the squad called the camp the toughest few days of their lives. Dale Steyn remembered the a day when they scaled a 3,300-metre peak, which included a rope climb and an ice-field which exhausted most of the squad but left Horn looking like he had “just pitched up home after a stroll in the park”.The day did not end there as Horn then led them to the top of a 750-metre peak, on an uphill cycle for 7 kilometres. “Players used every swearword in the book, until they were too exhausted to swear… and there was still more to climb,” Steyn wrote on his blog. “I had never been so physically exhausted in my life. But I was in Mike Horn territory, so I refused to get off my bike, refused to rest, refused to walk. I found reserves that I never knew I had.”AB de Villiers said that he had never been that exhausted before and that he pushed harder than he had ever had in his life. He now knew he could do more than he believed.”A lot of the rhetoric the team squad has sprouted since that trip has been of a similar nature. It sounds contrived and candyfloss but the expedition to the Alps appears to have made a major difference to the South African mindset. Often criticised for collapsing at the crucial moment, South Africa have shown displays of fortitude in the series so far.After a lacklustre start on the first day at The Oval, they returned to knock England back on the second morning and then batted them out of the match. When it looked like Kevin Pietersen was going to seize the series back for England at Headingley, South Africa returned to remove him swiftly the next morning. Having arrived in England with the mantra that winning crucial moments will win the series, South Africa have done that so far.Their most crucial moments await at Lord’s. Having Horn on the balcony to remind them of the things they have already conquered is what South Africa hope will spur them on to triumph in their biggest Test to date.

Scorecard
Faf du Plessis led from the front, smashing an unbeaten 89 in South Africa A’s comprehensive seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka A in Harare. South Africa’s third straight win also took them to the final of the tri-series.Sri Lanka chose to bat and put together 245 for 7, driven by half-centuries from opener Udara Jayasundara and Dilruwan Perera. Sri Lanka, though, would have hoped for more, after their openers Jayasundara and Dimuth Karunaratne, also their captain, added 87 at almost a run-a-ball. Once South Africa started making steady inroads, they slipped to 166 for 6, before a 73-run seventh-wicket stand involving Perera and Sachitra Serasinghe, who made 27, gave them a competitive total. Seamer Rory Klienveldt picked up 2 for 38 and Chris Morris was the most economical, going for just 27 in ten overs.In their response, South Africa lost opener Dean Elgar early but Richard Levi hit a quickfire 63, including five sixes and a four. Sri Lanka still had a chance with South Africa on 126 for 3 around the halfway mark, but du Plessis, supported by an unbeaten 51 from Reeza Hendricks, ensured victory for his team with four overs to spare.

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, expects offspinner Saeed Ajmal and allrounder Shahid Afridi to be Pakistan’s key players in the five-ODI series that begins in Pallekele on Thursday. He said Ajmal and Afridi were much-improved cricketers; Ajmal because of his controlled variations and Afridi because of his enhanced bowling.”What makes him a world-class bowler is his variation and control,” Jayawardene said of Ajmal. “You have the variation, it’s always an added bonus, but the important thing is the control. Even Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan], why he was so successful was that he had the control. You create pressure on the batsmen. That’s what Ajmal’s been doing.”Initially, when he came onto the scene, I don’t think he had that kind of control even though he was bowling a couple of variations. The more he’s played he has improved as a bowler. “Pakistan’s captain Misbah-ul-Haq concurred and said Ajmal was their “main bowler”. “Whenever we need wickets, whenever we need to put pressure on the opposition, he just came and delivered. He is a really important member for us,” Misbah said. “What’s makes him so special is his variations, especially nowadays he bowls the doosra, a straight one, and a good offspin. He’s got a very good temperament and he’s got aggression, which normally spinners don’t have.”Pakistan were superior in all departments when they beat Sri Lanka 4-1 in the UAE last November. Their dominance against Sri Lanka goes back farther, with eight wins in the previous ten matches. Misbah, however, wanted to look forward. “That kind of record builds your confidence a little bit but it’s a new series and different conditions. You have to perform again from the start.”It is better to take one game at a time to fulfill your roles as a team and try to play good cricket. First we have to focus on the first game, try to win that and play good cricket, then go game by game.”Jayawardene acknowledged Sri Lanka had struggled against Pakistan in recent times. “Pakistan’s record against us speaks for itself; they have played much better cricket than us during the Asia Cup and even in the UAE. It’s up to us to lift our game individually as well as a group and try and come up with game plans and execute them.”Pakistan and Sri Lanka came to Pallekele after drawing the Twenty20 series in Hambantota, where the pitches were not easy to bat on. The team batting first made middling scores and the team chasing was dismissed in the 90s in both matches. Jayawardene described the Pallakele pitch as “a very good wicket with lots of runs” and expected two good games. He did not rule himself out as an opener for the series with Tillakaratne Dilshan.”We’ve got the option of me opening or [Upul] Tharanga. It’s always good to have that option open and keep that flexibility to use against different opposition. It worked for us in Australia, we’ll see how it goes.”

Martin van Jaarsveld, the former South Africa batsman, has signed for Glamorgan to play in the Friends Life t20. The move sees him return to county cricket after deciding to cancel his deal with Leicestershire in November to return to South Africa.He is a British passport holder so Glamorgan could still recruit a second overseas player for the FLt20. The county’s main overseas signing for 2012 and 2013, Australia batsman Marcus North, will arrive this week after remaining in his home country for the birth of his second child. He is also recovering from a finger injury that forced him out of the end of the Australian season.Van Jaarsveld, 37, played for seven years at Kent, scoring 3,546 List A runs and 1,585 T20 runs. He was released at the end of the 2011 season and had agreed to join Leicestershire before his U-turn.His decision to return to England was inspired by his successful season with the Titans in South Africa, who are coached by former Glamorgan director of cricket Matthew Maynard. He scored 316 at 28.72 to help his side to the T20 title. “This has re-ignited my passion in the game,” van Jaarsveld said.Glamorgan’s head of elite development, Matthew Mott, said: “”Martin is an experienced, quality cricketer and his record speaks for itself. We have been looking for genuine match-winners to make us a more potent force and, off the back of a very successful season in South Africa with the Titans, Martin fits the bill.”Glamorgan’s drastic change of regime during the 2010-11 close season had the main intention of improving their fortunes in one-day cricket. Maynard and captain Jamie Dalrymple both left the club in a winter of discontent. Mott and Colin Metson were installed in a new coaching set-up but results last season suggested little had changed. Glamorgan finished seventh in the south group of the FLt20 and fifth in group C of the CB40.

Match facts

Tuesday, April 10, Delhi
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

Big picture

Delhi Daredevils have played Chennai Super Kings twice at the Feroz Shah Kotla, and both times the Daredevils have posted imposing totals (187 and 185), only for the Super Kings to overhaul them. The Daredevils’ overall record at their home ground isn’t impressive either – they have lost 13 of their 23* games here.But when they take the field on Tuesday, the Daredevils will be relieved to have Mahela Jayawardene and Kevin Pietersen joining them. Both batsmen were in good form in the recently concluded Test series and should find a place in the playing XI that appeared a bit low on ammunition in Bangalore. At the bowling front, Umesh Yadav, who had a bout of cramps in the last game, is available for selection and will add sting to the attack with Morne Morkel and Doug Bracewell. If Irfan Pathan can support the trio with his swing bowling, this line-up has the ability to spice up even a slow pitch at the Kotla.Super Kings struggled in their first game against Mumbai Indians but found their groove against Deccan Chargers. Their well-oiled batting artillery has power hitters all the way down to No.8. However, MS Dhoni hasn’t hit a boundary in the first two matches and he is due for some big shots in this game.The match has the potential of turning into a bat-out, however, the subplot – a contest between Daredevils’ pace attack and Super Kings’ slow bowlers – could be just as interesting to watch.

Players to watch

Mahela Jayawardene scored 354 runs in the two Test matches against England and he brings that form and ability to score quickly with nimble shots. Besides bringing solidity to the team, Jayawardene’s presence could help Virender Sehwag relax.R Ashwin has bowled seven overs for 32 runs in his last two games for Super Kings without a wicket. As a lead spinner, he has been economical, but with big names in the opposition, will he rise to the challenge?

2011 head-to-head

Last year, the two teams played each other only once, in Chennai, where a Dhoni onslaught (63 off 31 balls) helped the Super Kings beat a Sehwag-less Daredevils by 18 runs.

Stats and trivia

• Suresh Raina has hit 79 sixes in his IPL career, which is second behind Adam Gilchrist’s 83.
• Virender Sehwag’s strike rate of 169.15 is the highest in IPL, six points more than Chris Gayle’s.
• Super Kings lead Daredevils in the head-to-head 4-3.
• Daredevils’ home record is the second-worst, after Deccan Chargers.
  

  Quotes

  “I know the Delhi Daredevils fans would have liked the Colombo Test to end in three or four days so that we could play last night’s [April 7] game against Royal Challengers Bangalore. But KP and I had other ideas.”

  “I try to think what the batsman might want to do before each delivery. But I’ll stick to bowling flat and quick. Taking wickets in one match doesn’t mean I will suddenly start tossing up the ball.”
  *Includes three Champions League matches

ScorecardNick Compton played a crucial hand to keep Somerset’s second innings afloat•Getty Images

When the good people of Somerset come to renew their county memberships it is, no doubt, largely in the hope of watching the likes of Trescothick and Trego, Hildreth and Buttler, Kieswetter and Gayle. Each one of them is an exciting stroke maker and the sort of player that marketing types refer to as ‘box office’.For all their style, though, Somerset are so often grateful for the substance of Nick Compton. Here, as so often before, he provided foundations for an innings that could so easily have faltered. Somerset are still on the back foot in this game, but without Compton’s defiance, Warwickshire might have won already.That is not to say that Compton is an unattractive player. But, while several of his colleagues are liable to make Somerset followers gasp – and not always for the right reasons – Compton allows them to relax. Last year he averaged 56.11 in the Championship and was the only man at the club apart from Trescothick to pass 1,000 runs. In a team full of Sehwags, he is the Trott.Compton is in golden form at present. Having scored a century in a pre-season warm-up game against Glamorgan, he made a double century against Cardiff MCCU followed by 99 in the first Championship match against Middlesex. Here, taking advantage of improving batting conditions, he was watchful in defence, accumulated patiently and put away the bad ball without fuss. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But nobody else on either side has managed it with such calm assurance.Neither side have taken their opportunities in this game. Having bowled out Somerset cheaply, Warwickshire, resuming 36 behind and with seven wickets in hand, were unable to take their chance to establish a dominant position. Varun Chopra, who received his county cap on the first day and was watched by national selector Geoff Miller on the second, never settled and edged an outswinger to slip, while the middle-order’s attempt to be positive backfired. Miller cannot have been overly impressed by the Craig Kieswetter’s tally of 17 byes, either.Somerset had chances, too. Had Steve Kirby, in his follow through, been able to retain his footing, then he would surely have held on to the simplest of return catches to dismiss Keith Barker for 20 and limit Warwickshire’s lead to 61. As it was, Barker and Chris Wright eked out 47 runs for Warwickshire’s tenth wicket and extended the lead to 96 runs. It could yet prove vital.Then, just as Arul Suppiah and Compton were establishing a dominant position in a second-wicket stand of 86 – easily the highest of the game – they suffered a mix-up that resulted in both of them standing at the same end. Trescothick was undone once again by Barker’s swing and Hildreth was beaten by a beauty from Neil Carter, bowling around the wicket, that held its own and hit middle stump.As the conditions eased, though, Somerset settled. Compton, driving sweetly and cutting nicely, became the first man in the game to register a half-century. Warwickshire’s bowlers, failing to adapt to the altering conditions, conceded runs as they strove for the magic ball, allowing Compton to reach the milestone from just 61 deliveries. More importantly, Compton negated the movement by leaving well and displaying a compact, straight technique. They are not, perhaps, the most marketable qualities, but from Somerset’s perspective they are highly valuable.There is still plenty in this pitch for the bowlers. Jeetan Patel, finding sharp turn, bowled Kieswetter through the gate in the dying minutes of the game to suggest that, with a lead of 200 and George Dockrell in their side, Somerset could yet win this game.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMorne Morkel unleashed a ferocious spell once movement began to dwindle for his team-mates•AFP

A gripping second day of Test cricket at the University Oval in Dunedin left precious little separating the teams, with New Zealand five runs ahead of South Africa’s 238, with a wicket in hand. New Zealand’s top order battled swing bowling of the highest quality before lunch and aggressive short pitched pace after it, but could not definitively wrest the advantage, as South Africa prised wickets at regular intervals.No New Zealand batsman crossed fifty, though Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor and Daniel Vettori all came close, with 40s to their name. Taylor and McCullum had survived a brutal encounter with Morne Morkel after lunch, but could not apply themselves long enough to consolidate, while Vettori fell to a brilliant low take from Jacques Kallis on his follow through.Vernon Philander rarely strayed a few inches from off stump in his first spell of the day, and was rewarded with the wicket of Rob Nicol, who had struggled on debut. Philander finished the day with 4 for 50 – another performance that will embellish a growing reputation as one of the most exciting seam-bowling finds in recent memory. Morkel finished with two, having peppered McCullum and Taylor with as hostile a spell they are ever likely to encounter, while Steyn will feel he bowled better than 1 for 71 suggests.Martin Guptill and McCullum may have thought they’d blunted the worst of South Africa’s assault in the hour before lunch, but the interrogation continued well into the afternoon session, as Morkel unleashed a ferocious spell once movement began to dwindle for his team-mates. The slower Dunedin track had hampered Morkel prior to lunch, but a return to the crease with renewed vigour yielded immediate results, as Guptill was late on a defensive stroke, and tested the mettle of New Zealand’s most experienced batting pair.A smattering of welts on Taylor’s arms, chest and shoulders will let him know he has been in a fight. He wore several in his first exchange with Morkel – two on the fingers, one on the ribs and two more glancing blows just below the helmet grille. Edges deflected off the body, landed short of the slips or flew just wide. Though New Zealand had done well to lose only one wicket to an artful hour of swing and seam bowling in the first session, they were now examined gruffly with the next weapon in South Africa’s armoury.Though clearly intimidated, Taylor and McCullum refused to be shaken. While Morkel was often unplayable, the runs started to tick at the other end when Philander’s impeccable line began to waiver. Movement from earlier in the day had all but disappeared, and the drives down the ground that had grown more profitable became New Zealand’s favoured currency.But as has been the case so many times in their careers McCullum and Taylor’s belligerence proved to be their downfall. Having battled through two terrific spells from one of the world’s finest attacks, they aggressed too early, and too mindlessly, just as consolidation beckoned. Their 65-run association was broken when McCullum attempted to sweep Imran Tahir hard against the turn, serving up a high top edge, before Taylor chased a wide one and was caught behind. He’d already hit two fours in the over.Vettori mounted a familiar recovery alongside Kruger van Wyk, working the South Africa attack square of the wicket with so little fuss his team-mates’ innings seemed grating by comparison. Sweetly struck boundaries to the cover point fence and the swivel pull shot to the leg side were as productive as ever, pushing Graeme Smith to deploy four men on the fence – the most defensive field across both days of the Test.Debutant van Wyk meanwhile was steady and organised. South Africa’s pacemen towered over him, and Morkel gave him the perfunctory working over – but if van Wyk was intimidated, there were few signs. The back foot defence gave was his favoured reply to the seamers, but he was equally adept against spin – picking Tahir better than most in the order, and even tickling him fine with the occasional paddle sweep.Vettori was eventually undone by indecision, as he was cruising towards a fifty that would have been New Zealand’s first of the innings, when Jacques Kallis dived low on his follow through to snaffle a half-hearted bunt. Doug Bracewell then joined the resistance – showing the kind of batting prowess that has earned him three first class fifties, but hasn’t yet been evident at the top level. He put on 41 alongside van Wyk, ensuring first his defence was in order before attempting the more expansive strokes – five of which brought him a boundary, as New Zealand edged towards the first-innings lead.van Wyk and Tim Southee fell in quick succession to the second new ball, as Philander embellished an already-menacing career average. But Bracewell was good enough to edge his side ahead, before losing his off stump to Steyn.The first session lacked the drama of the two to follow, but Steyn’s new-ball partnership with Philander was unlucky to have only gleaned one reward. In bright sunshine, Steyn found the movement in the air that had eluded New Zealand’s bowlers under cloud cover the previous day, after South Africa’s tail added 47 to the overnight score before being finished off.Steyn beat both opener’s edge repeatedly and emphatically, with Philander doing the same at the other end – he did it with his pinpoint line and movement off the seam. McCullum and Guptill were forced to call on every sinew of expertise to ensure survival, and they hobbled to lunch, at 40 for 1, only to be bombarded by Morkel when play resumed.Edited by Nikita Bastian