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The six
In the 46th over of India’s innings, Rahul Dravid did something he has done only 14 times in his Test career, and not once since May 2007. He had just been beaten by a straight ball from Jeetan Patel, when he saw an over-pitched flighted delivery. He got onto the front foot and swung cleanly over long-on for only his 15th six in Tests. To put that figure in perspective: Sunil Gavaskar hit 26, Geoffrey Boycott hit eight, and Chris Tavaré none.The banner of the season
There have been quite a few but one at McLean Park today read: “Doull for PM”. However the real winner is: “Jesse is our dad”, two days after a reader wrote to Cricinfo saying “I want Jesse’s babies.”The longer walk
Yesterday Dravid was an irritated man after he got out. He had thrown away a century and a collapse had followed. Today when he got out, Dravid’s reaction was similar, but for a different reason. He hadn’t hit the ball when given out caught at bat-pad. It was an innings of immense concentration that ended in an unfortunate manner and the reaction was natural. Dravid shook his head even as New Zealand appealed, and was visibly shocked when the finger went up. He kept hitting the ground with his bat until he left the ground.New-ball bogey no more
Dravid’s second-innings dismissal came in a similar situation to his first – minutes before tea just before the second new ball was due. New Zealand ran through the Indian batting line-up with the new ball on the third day, but today the new ball traveled to all parts of the ground. Sachin Tendulkar hit three boundaries in the third over with the new ball: a tickle from outside leg, a whip off the pads, and a lovely cover drive on one knee.Bull’s eye again
Iain O’Brien had struck the blow which cost Tendulkar a possible double-century in the Christchurch ODI, when he had to retire-hurt on 163 with five overs to go. Today, two balls after he had been punched to the boundary by Tendulkar, O’Brien went for a bouncer. Tendulkar tried to pull but the ball didn’t rise as high as he expected. Tendulkar got hit in the ribs again roughly in the same area as the first hit.

Dwayne Bravo has been named in the 13-man West Indies’ Twenty20 squad to take on England in Port of Spain on Sunday, marking his return to the international game after a six-month absence through injury. He had surgery on his ankle in New York in August last year after carrying the injury for two years.Bravo last played a Twenty20 international back in June 2008 against the visiting Australians and took his first steps back to a full return when he came on as a substitute fielder in the fifth and final Test against England in Trinidad.Andre Fletcher, Kieron Pollard and Darren Sammy, who have been impressing with their performances in the domestic regional four-day competition, are also among the inclusions in the side, to be led by Denesh Ramdin in the absence of the injured Chris Gayle.Daren Powell, Ryan Hinds and Brendan Nash are some of the others missing from the Test squad that won the five-match series 1-0.West Indies Twenty20 squad: Denesh Ramdin (capt & wk), Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor

Although an official announcement has yet to be made, it is being widely reported that Allen Stanford is set to confirm a substantial reduction in his investment in cricket both internationally and in the Caribbean.Last December, Stanford shut his cricket office in Antigua and dissolved his self-styled board of legends. And in January signs that the global economic downturn was hitting home came with the announcement of 200 redundancies at Stanford’s Antigua-based investment company.It is believed that the 20/20 for 20 event, which was unveiled with a garish launch at Lord’s last June but took place amid unflattering headlines and negative reporting in November, will not happen again.And while Stanford is expected to honour his commitment to take part in a quadrangular Twenty20 tournament in England this summer, it might well turn out to be a one-off rather than the first of five annual events as planned. Both Stanford and the ECB are understood to have break clauses in the contract signed last year.The one crumb of comfort for Caribbean cricket is that his Stanford 20/20 tournament, in effect the West Indies domestic Twenty20 event, seems likely to continue, albeit in a reduced form. Of all Stanford’s ventures, that was the most successful in terms of publicity and also spreading cricket throughout the region. Whether the various islands will benefit as handsomely as in the past remains less certain.

West Indies 160 for 1 (Gayle 71*, Sarwan 74*) trail England 318 (Pietersen 97) by 158 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary

Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan turned the first Test at Sabina Park emphatically in West Indies’ favour with a classy second-wicket stand of 142 which spanned the final 48 overs of the second day. By the close, the two men were in total command of an England attack that lacked venom but also failed to match the dogged consistency that West Indies themselves had shown on the first day. England, who had initially thought that their first-innings total of 318 was a par score on a tricky pitch, were left wondering if they had short-changed themselves.The stand between Gayle and Sarwan was a curious blend of diligence and flamboyance. Gayle, in front of his Kingston faithful, was the principal aggressor, predictably enough, although his boundary-count was curiously low by his usual blade-flashing standards. He struck just three fours and three sixes in 120 deliveries, but all three of his maximums were statements of bold intent. The first, off a bewildered Andrew Flintoff, came in only the second over of the innings, while Gayle had faced only three balls from both Steve Harmison – overlooked for the new ball in spite of his 7 for 12 on this ground five years ago – and Monty Panesar, before belting each of them into the stands.But in between whiles, Gayle was content to sit back in the crease and invite England to tire themselves out under the Caribbean sun. His languid presence brought the best out of Flintoff in a feisty duel with the new ball, but it had the opposite effect on Panesar who began his spell with purpose and sharp spin reminiscent of Sulieman Benn’s first-day efforts, but as the day wore on and the task at hand grew stiffer, he once again resorted to the flat, predictable darts that had been so condemned on the tour of India before Christmas. Stuart Broad also had a poor day with the ball, and though Ryan Sidebottom found appreciable swing with the new ball, he offered too much width to be a real threat in his first Test appearance since August.At the other end, Sarwan was right in the thick of things – counter-punching gamely with his favourite off-side repertoire, particularly against Broad whom he cracked for three fours in four balls, and Panesar, who was elegantly threaded through the covers on the many occasions he overpitched. England, however, will feel aggrieved that Sarwan was still there to torment them at the close, after he was reprieved on 5 via the new referral system that will doubtless remain one of the talking points of the Test.Though West Indies encountered the process on their tour of New Zealand last month, for England it was a brand new experience and one that brought mixed results. It did enable them to claim an early breakthrough when a not-out appeal for lbw against Devon Smith was overturned by the third umpire, Daryl Harper, but they were later denied a second wicket when Sarwan was reprieved on review, after doubts about the height of Harmison’s successful lbw appealUmpire Tony Hill was at the heart of both instances. The first came in the sixth over, when Smith completely lost sight of a Flintoff yorker, and was trapped plumb in front of the stumps. Hill initially turned down the appeal because, to the naked eye, Smith appeared to have been struck outside the line, but after a quick glance at the captain, Andrew Strauss, the decision was sent upstairs, and duly reversed. Flintoff, to his credit, sought out the umpire amid England’s celebrations, and gave him a quick pat on the shoulder.The second referral was rather more controversial. Harmison was working up a good head of steam when he pinned Sarwan on the crease with a full-length lifter. Hill initially raised his finger to prompt wild celebrations from England, although up in the replay booth, Harper was not so convinced. Under the provisions of the system, the umpire is not permitted the full HawkEye replay, he can only see up to the point of impact. After imitating that there might be an issue over height, Hill took the decision to reverse his initial judgement – and moments later the rest of the world was able to see that the bails would indeed have been removed.

England, who have never encountered the system before, were actually rather naïve in its use. Twice in their innings they made unsuccessful attempts to reverse lbw decisions against Harmison and Panesar (although given how late in the innings those moments came, that was fair enough). What was less sensible, however, was the hot-headed decision to refer an lbw appeal against Sarwan, on 2 at the time, that was clearly sliding down leg. With only two referrals per innings, it was a bad waste, and had they held their horses, they might have been able to claim Sarwan’s wicket from the final ball of the second session, when Broad was shown to have had a case for a second opinion from a delivery that would have clipped leg stump.In the first session of the day, England’s lower-order made light of the early dismissal of Flintoff, who cut Daren Powell to point without adding to his overnight 43, to chisel their way past the all-important 300-mark. The bulk of their runs came thanks to a classy 64 from 109 balls from Matt Prior, whose cover-drive was in fine working order as he bombarded the off-side with a fusillade of full-blooded strokes. Any hint of width was flogged through the covers, three times in three overs, and he even picked off a rare on-drive when Taylor strayed onto middle-and-leg.Prior brought up his fifty with an edged drive through third man, but it was due reward for the counterattacking instincts he had brought to England’s innings. It was the man of the first day, Benn, who finally brought his stay to an end. From the third ball he faced, Prior attempted to loft a drive back over the bowler’s head, but Benn used his 6’7″ frame to reach coolly to his left and intercept the chance.That was Benn’s third wicket of the innings, and when he wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Panesar, he finished with the hugely creditable figures of 4 for 77 from 44.2 overs. If that was a measure of how the rest of the match would pan out, however, it was alarmingly wide of the mark. In reply, Panesar’s first 15 overs were both wicketless and uneconomical, and the ease with which Gayle and Sarwan pushed through to the close left England with more than a few worries as they headed towards the mid-point of the match.

As the selectors prepare to pick the Indian team for their first assignment in 2009 – five ODIs and a Twenty20 in Sri Lanka – they know that they do not need to make many changes to an ODI outfit which has had a fine year under Mahendra Singh Dhoni.They recovered from the occasional bump, in the Bangladesh tri-series and the Asia Cup, to win in Sri Lanka – after the Test team was mauled – and entertained thoughts of a 7-0 win over England before the terror attacks in Mumbai cut short the series. The highlight of the year, though, was the first ODI assignment of 2008 – the tri-series win in Australia.The two big questions are whether the performers in the Ranji Trophy will get a look-in, and whether the selectors will look at this series as an opportunity to test the form and fitness of players who could be important for the full tour of New Zealand in March.Even if the answers to both questions are affirmative, the winning combination will not be tampered with too much. India last played international cricket on December 23, so the chances of resting key players are remote.If one eye is already on the New Zealand tour, it could be worth testing Sreesanth’s form and fitness in Sri Lanka. He played only one Ranji match for Kerala, in which he took seven wickets against Jharkhand, and has, for all practical purposes, made himself available for national selection. A more likely alternative, though, is that the selectors will give Sreesanth a chance in the Duleep Trophy, where he will get between one and three games to prove himself.One player who has made a strong case for himself by weight of his Ranji Trophy performances is Saurashtra’s Ravindra Jadeja who was, by a fair margin, the allrounder of the season. He was the leading wicket-taker, along with Mumbai’s Dhawal Kulkarni, with 42 wickets and he scored 739 runs at 67.18 to finish sixth on the top run-scorers’ list. Being a left-arm spinner, Jadeja could take the spot of Pragyan Ojha, who last played in Sri Lanka and was among the reserves against England. Therefore Jadeja’s inclusion in the squad to Sri Lanka will not be a surprise for he brings hefty hitting and a strong arm from the outfield to the table.The other dispensable member from the last ODI squad could be Irfan Pathan but he got only one game after he was dropped following the Sri Lanka series. If Irfan is overlooked, either Kulkarni or L Balaji could make the cut. Balaji took 36 wickets at 17.50 apiece in his comeback season but there are many who believe he isn’t at his best yet.Virat Kohli, who was part of the squad against England but didn’t play any of the games, is expected to keep his place. He held his own in his only five ODIs, which were incidentally in Sri Lanka last year.The solitary Twenty20 does not require a separate squad.Likely squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja/Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan/L Balaji/Dhawal Kulkarni.

Scorecard

Karnataka, led by Sunil Joshi, breezed into the quarter-finals, overwhelming Maharashtra by 155 runs on a spinners’ paradise at the RSI Ground in Bangalore. Joshi marked his 100th Ranji Trophy game with his fifth ten-wicket haul to bowl out Maharashtra for 116 in their second innings.Maharashtra had no hope of an upset on this track once B Akhil and Joshi had hit out in the morning to set a target of 272. The visitors lasted only 136 minutes in their second innings; Joshi running amok to grab 7 for 29.It was Akhil who set up the stiff target with a splendid 62 though Joshi also used the long handle effectively in a breezy 35 to push Karnataka to an unassailable position. Karnataka, a lead of 173 overnight, added 98 runs on Saturday. Akhil, who didn’t make the squad at the start of the season and was drafted in later in place of Bharat Chipli, had hit a vital hundred against Uttar Pradesh in the last game and upped it with a fine knock today.He was one of the few batsmen to come down the track repeatedly to the spinners, and started off with two fours – an off-drive and a sweep – in the first over of the day. Time and again, he punctuated his charges down the track with a hard sweep and once even reverse-swept a boundary.Joshi joined him at 186 for 5 and he too started off with a first-ball boundary – a clean hit over mid-on. He deployed his two favourite shots – the swing over mid-off or mid-on and the slog-sweep – to good effect. Both Akhil and Joshi knew there was no point in defending on this track as they were just one unplayable ball away from getting out. However, a tad strangely, Akhil got bogged down when Joshi began to hit. He was scoreless for 20 balls before getting out. Joshi kept swinging and was the last man out, holing out to deep midwicket.The chase was over in a blink. Joshi struck in his first over, the fourth of the innings and the last before lunch, with his signature ball on this track – pitching middle and leg and hitting off – to remove Harshad Khadiwale. The Maharashtra innings went downhill from there as Joshi kept taunting and teasing out the rest. He removed Ameya Shirkhande two balls into the second session with a snorter that turned and bounce to take the glove en route to slip.Karnataka continued their good catching form on a poor outfield. Rohan Bhosale, who offered brief resistance, flicked Joshi hard to short-leg where KB Pawan held on to a sharp chance and KP Appanna dived low to his right at square leg to remove Deepak Shilamkar. Joshi varied his length and pace to run through the tail and when Pawan dived to his front from short leg to hold on to a catch to remove Enamul Haque jnr, it was all over. The game ended in the second session of the third day and the sparse crowd rushed in to shake hands and back-slap Robin Uthappa and Joshi.

Pakistan will rely heavily on pace when they take on the West Indies in an ODI series later this month in Abu Dhabi. The interim selection committee, headed by former fast bowler Saleem Jaffar, named a 15-man squad with five fast bowlers for the three-match engagement starting November 12.Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar Anjum and Abdur Rauf make up the pace options and inevitably, all eyes will be on the first name. Shoaib returned to the national team in the T20 Canada in August, the first time this year he had played for Pakistan after a string of disciplinary scrapes kept him out.He appeared to be short of full fitness at the tournament but two four-day games for Federal Areas in the ongoing Pentangular Cup have confirmed that he is working his way back. He bowled 22 overs in each game, steadily building up the length of his spells and it culminated in a hostile spell yesterday against Punjab in which he ended with figures of 4-14 from 10 overs, seven of which were maidens. From the two games, he has nine wickets.”There has been significant improvement in his fitness and bowling since August and even just over the course of the last two games,” Jaffar told Cricinfo. “He was very good in this game [against Punjab] where his rhythm was back and his stamina was there too.”A series with India in January was also on their minds. “We want him to be with the team and get back into it because the India series is an important one. He is one of the best bowlers around and we expect him to play a big part in that series,” Jaffar said.The performances of the other fast bowlers so far will bring some cheer to Pakistan. Gul has fully recovered from the rib injury he picked up at the Asia Cup in July, taking 6-39 in his only Pentangular game so far this season. Tanvir was the leading wicket-taker with 11 wickets and both Anjum and Rauf have also been impressive. As a result, no place is available for promising fast bowler Sohail Khan, the domestic find last season.The rest of the squad, in essence, picked itself. Mohammad Yousuf was included but reports of him joining the unauthorised ICL raised questions about his availability. “Once we get written confirmation from the PCB (that Yousuf has signed up with the ICL) we will name his replacement but it is likely that Khalid Latif will take his place,” Jaffar told AFP.

Shahid Afridi’s return to some semblance of batting form – domestically at least – helped him retain his place. As the inexperienced Saeed Ajmal is the only spin option, Afridi’s leg-spin will also prove handy.”It’s an experienced and balanced side. The team was selected after giving due consideration to the opinions of both captain and the coach,” Jaffar said. “It’s unfortunate that we didn’t play a Test match this year, but hopefully the players will be tuned up with this short series against the West Indies before we take on India.The only minor concern is over the health of Nasir Jamshed, the left-handed opener who has impressed on several occasions for Pakistan this year. He has just recovered from malaria and will undergo a fitness test before boarding the flight to Abu Dhabi. “He is 99% okay to go and play,” Jaffer said. In case he doesn’t, Khalid Latif will take his place.

Shaun Tait, the former Australia quick who recently signed a five-month deal to be bowling coach with the Afghanistan national team, has also been roped in as bowling coach of Puducherry in the Indian domestic circuit. Afghanistan remains a priority, though, and Tait will link up with Puducherry only when available.”I’m with [Puducherry] throughout the season based on availability from my commitments with the Afghanistan team,” Tait confirmed to ESPNcricinfo on Saturday. Puducherry have Dishant Yagnik as their head coach – both Tait and Yagnik have been players with Rajasthan Royals in the IPL in the past, and Yagnik has more recently been Royals’ fielding coach.”Tait has expressed his willingness to join the Puducherry team later this month. However, if he gets a call from Afghanistan he may join them and stay with the team before rejoining Puducherry for his duties,” a Cricket Association of Puducherry (CAP) official was quoted as saying by PTI, which said that Tait was expected to mentor the quick bowlers at the CAP academy in Puducherry too.Related

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India’s domestic calendar for 2021-22 will begin with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy on November 4 this year, while the Ranji Trophy, the country’s premier first-class competition, starts on January 13, 2022. The 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy will get underway on December 8, with neutral venues being used for all tournaments.Tait’s appointment with Afghanistan was confirmed in early August, and his first assignment there was expected to be the three-match ODI series against Pakistan in Hambantota in early September. But that series was postponed indefinitely because of logistical concerns, and Tait will now link up with the team only prior to the T20 World Cup in late October. He was never expected to move to Kabul, and had said the agreement had been that he would join the team whenever they travelled.”There have been talks for a few months now about me possibly taking up the role,” 38-year-old Tait told ESPNcricinfo earlier about his Afghanistan gig. “It eventuated because head coach Lance Klusener wanted someone else to oversee the bowling side specifically.”Everyone talks about Afghanistan’s spinners, so one of the specifics of my role is to get people talking more about their fast bowlers. There is some improvement to be done and hopefully, I can add that side of things. With all the concentration on the spin, a couple of guys get picked to do the role at the death and they’re gonna need some guidance. That’s where I come in.”Tait is a level-two certified coach from Cricket Australia and has worked as a bowling coach with Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League and Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10 league.

Small targets. Big drama. The story has done the rounds for as long as there has been Test cricket and yet another riveting chapter was added to it at Sabina Park.West Indies were set 168 to win. But they ended up battered and bruised and barely standing as Pakistan, and especially Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali, went into mode.A match that had ebbed and flowed, forever refusing to reveal a clear winner, had come to an unbelievable climax. One team needed 17 runs. The other needed one wicket. Anything was possible.”I have never been in a situation like that before, batting with the tail,” Kemar Roach, a professional cricketer of 13 years, said after play. “I am part of the tail, so for me it was to go out there and believe. That was the biggest thing – to believe and stay positive – and it worked, and I give thanks.”Roach’s strength of will translated into 30 unbeaten, match-winning runs. His experience shepherded the 19-year old Seales, who had already announced that he was ready for the big stage by picking up 5 for 55 on Saturday, through a last-wicket partnership that just wouldn’t be broken, even across four high-pressure overs.”The plan was to just stay positive. That’s me,” Roach said. “I was just trying to take on every ball as it came. This is by far the most important innings so far. I was just trying to pick the gaps and run hard. My advice to Jayden was just protect the stumps. The biggest threat is the straight ball. He did it very well. He is a star for the future. His five wickets today speaks wonders about our cricket. All the best to him, and I wish him a great career!”Seales’ contribution to West Indies’ victory – eight wickets and an equally crucial two runs off 13 balls – earned him the Man-of-the-Match award. It also left him speechless. “Test cricket has been a dream come true for me,” he managed in the end as he picked up his prize and walked away during the presentation.So it was up to his captain to come up with some suitable words, much as it had been down to him to come up with a suitable total in the first innings. Kraigg Brathwaite’s 97 off 221 deliveries was the highest individual score across all four innings of an extremely tight game. “We never lost hope,” he said. “It was truly amazing. I thought Pakistan bowled really well. It is about patience – who has more patience will come out on top.”Last week, Phil Simmons, the West Indies coach, had pulled his batters up, demanding more runs from them, but he has rarely had a bad thing to say about his bowlers. And in the end, with light fading and tensions rising, they were the ones that stood up to be counted yet again.

The anti-doping tribunal hearing West Indies allrounder Andre Russell’s case is set to deliver its verdict on January 31. The independent tribunal is looking into whether he breached the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) code by being negligent about filing his whereabouts three times between January and July 2015. If found guilty, Russell faces the danger of being banned for two years. According to the WADA code, if an athlete misses three tests in a 12-month period, it amounts to a failed dope test.The charge was pressed by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) last March. JADCO said Russell had been negligent about filing his whereabouts despite several reminders over phone, email and through written letters. Still Russell failed to file his whereabouts on January 1, July 1 and July 25, 2015.In his defence, Russell told the tribunal that he had not been properly trained to file the whereabouts. And considering he was busy fulfilling various cricket commitments he had authorised his agent and travel agent to file his whereabouts on his behalf.The three-member tribunal comprising Hugh Faulkner, Dr Marjorie Vassell and Dixeth Palmer, a former Jamaica cricketer, was due to deliver the verdict in December. But no reasons were offered by the tribunal in public behind the delay.The delayed verdict has kept not just Russell, but also various T20 franchises waiting in anticipation. Although not contracted with the West Indies Cricket Board, Russell is one the most valuable players in the various Twenty20 domestic leagues across the world. Kolkata Knight Riders (IPL), Sydney Thunder (Big Bash League), Islamabad United (PSL), Nottinghamshire Outlaws (NatWest T20 Blast) and Jamaica Tallawahs (Caribbean Premier League) are some of the teams he has represented, and he has been the most valuable player for more than one team and tournament.