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I believe that the Indian team must look to Greg Chappell to guide them through this tough tour to South Africa. Chappell has got it in him to mentally prepare this Indian team for the aggression which would come from the South Africans. We all know his background and we all know how the Australians think. Being a typical Australian, it’s in-built in him to be hard and tough.Despite a few notable wins abroad in this decade, the Indians have never been good travellers. They sometimes appear so soft and laidback that they get threatened by the aggressiveness of the Australians and the South Africans. If the players do not get rid of that attitude, they are going to get a hiding wherever they go. Chappell has a big role to play in getting the Indian team to be hard and tough. I think if he instils that attitude then India can beat any side away from home. They have the players in their ranks.I have been amused by all the criticism directed at Chappell and his experiments. Knowing how the Australians think, I feel he has been trying to take a few of the Indians out of their comfort zone, and shake those cricketers who were happy with their performces and were not willing to go the extra mile. Chappell’s experiments must have been intended to make the cricketers think on their feet. The softness and the shyness of the Indian cricketers is perhaps what he has been trying to eliminate.I feel it is important that the captain must buy into the coach’s thinking. I have played under a few of the very best captains and coaches of the world and they all tended to lead from the front. Starting with Kepler Wessels and Hansie Cronje and knowing what influence Bob Woolmer had on all of us, I am saying this from experience.Even though Rahul Dravid has appeared laidback to me, we South Africans rate him very, very highly. He is one guy we used to discuss in team meeting a lot because he always does well in South Africa. He just values his wicket so highly. So if that’s Chappell’s plans then Dravid must relay this to his team quickly. There’s little doubt in my mind that this tour is going to be very tough for him.When we come from India, we always promise ourselves that they will find it a very different story in South Africa. I don’t expect anything less this time around. I think South Africa will be very aggressive. I don’t think they will prepare green pitches. The strips in any case have been good, perhaps too good in the last four-five years. One thing South Africa might like to ensure is that pitches are not too perfect and right up India’s street.They will be very aggressive but it’s also important to channel that aggression. I think the South African bowling, in the last year and a half, has not shown the kind of patience they need to. Sometimes the skill factor has also let them down. They have depended too heavily on Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini.The Indian bowlers can all swing the ball and that’s going to be a test for the South Africans. I am not so sure about Zaheer Khan at the moment as he still looks to be trying to find his feet. He is certainly not the Zaheer Khan I know. Still, he has got great control and he swings it late. Sreesanth, though, has got lovely action, and he looks a hungry cricketer, and someone who could go a long way in the future. He seems to enjoy his cricket and appears very uncomplicated. He has an injury-free action and I am very impressed by him.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

An uncharacteristically watchful hundred from Sourav Ganguly, who became the eighth Indian batsman to pass 5000 runs, shut Zimbabwe out of the contest at Bulawayo before a sensational collapse brought them to their knees on the third day of the first Test. Once India’s batsmen, choosing graft over flamboyance, had stretched the lead to an imposing 275 it was only a matter of time before Zimbabwe surrendered. Crumbling to 18 for 5 in 44 minutes, though, was just too rapid.The reason for the debacle was fairly straightforward: Irfan Pathan bowled as though he was hurling Frisbees at high speed – curving the ball at perfect arcs, zeroing in on a precise line – and he made the batsmen play at most, beat them with vicious swing, rattled stumps, thudded pads and eviscerated the top order. Brendon Taylor and Heath Streak plonked their front foot in the line of the fire, Dion Ebrahim left a gaping channel open between bat and pad while Hamilton Masakadza swished wildly out of sheer frustration. Amid this carnage, Zaheer Khan uprooted Terrence Duffin’s off stump with another in-dipper as the vultures hovered around the mess created in the Queens Sports Club. Charles Coventry fell on the stroke of stumps, after he and Tatenda Taibu had added 49 in quick time, and handed Harbhajan Singh his 200th Test wicket in his 46th Test – the second-youngest bowler, after Kapil Dev, to reach the landmark.However, Zimbabwe’s predicament at the end of the day didn’t reflect their spirited fightback in the first session. They were much more disciplined with the ball, put the brakes on India’s scoring-rate and eked out three vital wickets – two through the batsmen’s sloppiness and one through a sensational catch by Taibu behind the stumps. VVS Laxman’s artistic hundred came to an abrupt end through a terrible mix-up with Ganguly; Yuvraj Singh yorked himself against the innocuous left-arm spin of Keith Dabengwa; and Dinesh Karthik watched in awe as Taibu acrobatically lunged to his right and plucked out a beauty. India managed only 71 runs in the first session and an imposing total was still a way off.That was when they ran into a determined Ganguly. Through a blend of nudges, glides and cautious punches Ganguly gradually ground his way to his 12th Test hundred, his first after the career-defining century at the Gabba in December 2003. He didn’t even take too many liberties against the spinners – several notches below the sort of bowlers he has massacred – and showed a steely resolve to drag himself back into form after experiencing an abysmal few months. It might have been 101 off 262 balls against a thin attack on a featherbed of a pitch but the enormity of the burden lifted off his shoulders cannot be underestimated and a crucial corner might just have been turned.

He found an able ally in Pathan, who brought up his second Test fifty, and the duo patiently moved the score into unreachable territory. Pathan was also not at his positive best, defending compactly against the spinners, but the substance-over-flamboyance approach enabled India to gradually turn the game into a one-horse race. Harbhajan Singh was soon flogging the dead horse with a 18-ball blitz, including three huge sixes, as India soared to a mammoth total. Pathan went one step further and put an emphatic end to a no-contest.

India

Push to short midwicket, terrible mix-up with Ganguly
Yorked himself as he tried to flick a full ball
Edged full ball, sensational one-handed catch
Flick to leg, leading edge
Tried to clear the field but chipped to mid-off
Holed out to long-off
Went for a big hit, lofted straight to long-offZimbabwe
Big inswinger, trapped in front
Flashed outswinger to gully
Missed an in-dipper, uprooted off stump
Bowled through the gate by inswinger
Shouldered arms to inswinger
Inside edge onto pad. Ball pops up to short-leg

India’s one-day batsman, Dinesh Mongia, has joined Lancashire on a short-term basis as a replacement for the injured Carl Hooper, and makes his debut against Warwickshire in today’s championship fixture at Stratford-upon-Avon.Mongia, 27, is regarded by India as a one-day specialist, and has yet to play Test cricket despite 48 ODI appearances, including the World Cup final against Australia in 2003. This season, he has been playing club cricket in England in an attempt to regain his place, and back in May, he actually played for Staffordshire against Lancashire in the C&G Trophy, scoring 31 and picking up two wickets with his left-arm spin.Hooper, who scored 66 in Lancashire’s defeat against Yorkshire on Tuesday, will be sidelined for at least three weeks after fracturing a thumb during that game.

SAMDA, India, March 1 AFP – For the residents of one small Indian village, it took 15 days of hard work and generous donations to ensure they could see the World Cup cricket tournament.The village of Samda, some 15 kilometres from the state capital Lucknow, did not have cable television until a group of local men took the task of providing it on themselves.Villagers chipped in to raise 30,000 rupees and pulled in a 6.5-kilometre cable wire to ensure telecast of the mega event from southern Africa.”It was a difficult task for us to have such a long wire, but we wanted to make sure we did not miss the match,” said Shambhu Mishra.”It took us 15 days to manage the show. It’s a collective effort and every family of this village donated money for the cause.”Villagers have been gathering in common areas to watch the World Cup – and today offered special prayers to ensure India defeated its arch-enemy Pakistan.Tractors were used as television stands and generators and car batteries put on stand-by in case of power failure during the high-profile match.”After doing so much we had to have a contingency plan,” said Jagdish, who risked his life by connecting a television set to a high-voltage overhead electricity wire when the power went off during India’s match against England.Watching cricket is important for the villagers – even if some did not know the names of prominent Indian players who enjoy nearly godlike status in more developed parts of the country.

One of Zimbabwe’s most promising black cricketers, Trevor Nyasha Madondo, died at Parirenyatwa Hospital in the capital on Monday morning at the age of 24.Madondo, who was single at the time of his death, was attacked by a severe bout of malaria at the end of last month. He was admitted to Mutare General Hospital last Monday and was later transferred to Parirenyatwa on Thursday (7 June). He was buried at Yeoville Cemetery in Mutare on Tuesday afternoon.Trevor, who represented Zimbabwe in the national team, the Board XI and Zimbabwe age-group teams, was born on 22nd November 1976 in Mount Darwin, about 180 kilometres north-east of Harare.Nicknamed Baby Chingokes due to a supposed resemblance to ZCU president Peter Chingoka, Trevor was the first black cricketer to be selected for Zimbabwe as a batsman. His three predecessors, Everton Matambanadzo, Henry Olonga and Mpumelelo Mbangwa, are all pace bowlers.As a right-handed batsman, Trevor played three Tests for Zimbabwe, scoring 90 runs. His Test debut was in the First Test against Pakistan at Queens Sports Club in March 1998. His last match was the drawn Boxing Day Test in Wellington, New Zealand, last December, when he made his highest score, an unbeaten 74.Trevor played 13 one-day internationals in which he scored 191 runs. His debut was against India at Queens Sports Club while his last match was against the West Indies in a Carlton and United triangular series in Perth in January.Trevor had not had time to perform at his best and in the few matches he played for Zimbabwe, he had looked talented but inexperienced. He tended to go for big shots rather than concentrate on working the ball around the field for singles. Unfortunately he was never in the national team for a long enough time to get the necessary experience.The only notable exception was the 1999/2000 season, when he was given four one-day internationals in a row, but his top score was only 29.His stint with the national team was interrupted by injuries, a slump in form and on some occasions his undisciplined lifestyle which landed him in trouble with the authorities.Trevor has no family background in the game. He was sent to boarding school at Lilfordia, about 20 kilometres west of Harare, for his primary education. The headmaster at the school was Iain Campbell, father of former national captain Alistair. He inspired and nurtured Trevor’s cricketing talent.Trevor won a place in the Colts cricket team in Grade 3 and by the time he was in Grade 5, Trevor was already playing in the school’s first team. He played as an opening bowler, right arm medium pace, and batted at number four. He also played for the school’s rugby and hockey teams.In Grade 6 he was selected for the Partridges, the national primary schools cricket team. In 1989 he won selection for the Mashonaland Country Districts primary schools select team which toured England.Trevor then went to Falcon College in Bulawayo for his secondary education. The institution has produced many of Zimbabwe’s Test players.After two dormant years, Trevor began to keep wicket and this led to his selection for the Fawns, the national Under-15 team, and he went on the tour of Namibia in 1992.He also represented Zimbabwe Schools in South Africa for two years. While still at school, Trevor was chosen to make his first-class debut, as a wicket-keeper, for Matabeleland against the touring county side Glamorgan. By then he was already playing club cricket for Old Miltonians, making thirties and forties with the bat.After leaving school in 1995, Trevor won a place at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, to study for a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He played in the first team at Rhodes where he made a highest score of 77.His university commitments prevented him from playing more regularly for Matabeleland in the Logan Cup. But he was a regular selection for the Zimbabwe Board XI to play in the UCBSA Bowl competition, when available. His best score was 86 against Transvaal B in a three-day match. In 1999 he was part of the first intake of the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy.Trevor’s death came at a time when the Zimbabwe Cricket Union was making genuine efforts to encourage black players with the formation of the Integration Task Force. He would, no doubt, have featured prominently in the latest plans.ZCU president Peter Chingoka acknowledged that the country had lost a talented cricketer. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Former South African captain Graeme Smith has shifted the spotlight off the field and onto the management in the aftermath of South Africa’s second successive series defeat. Speaking on television channel Smith explained the responsibility for the recent performances should be shared by several senior personnel, including the coaches.”The players have to take responsibility for their performances, there’s no doubt about that, but the management do too. They haven’t quite come into the equation of late. At the end the day the performances of the Test team for the last year haven’t been good enough, so you have to ask questions of everybody,” Smith said.”How is management getting the best out of them, how are they preparing them, are they directed in the right way, do they need to be firmer, do they need to be softer? I don’t know.”Smith spent a session before the New Year’s Test in the nets with South Africa’s batsmen and was said to be in talks to take on a consulting role for the remainder of the series. But he was also contracted as a commentator for and and those prior commitments were in conflict with a coaching stint which has confined him to being behind the microphone and not in the dressing room which has left South Africa without a batting coach.Since Russell Domingo took over the coaching job in June 2013, he has made use of three former internationals to assist in the batting department. Gary Kirsten, Domingo’s predecessor, had a 50-days-a-year deal with South Africa through 2014 and Mike Hussey was on the support staff during the 2015 World Cup and briefly before the first Test on the tour to India in November. South Africa did not have any other batting experts with the squad for the rest of the India series, which they lost 3-0, or before the England matches.In India, they managed a highest innings total of 214, were shot out for their lowest score since readmission when they were bowled out for 79 in Nagpur and did not boast a single century-stand. When Smith criticised them on air, he was called in to help.His short time with the team did not have too much of an impact on their fortunes. Although South Africa showed more fight at Newlands, racking up 627 for 7 to put pressure back on England, they struggled at the Wanderers where they were dismissed for a paltry 83, their lowest at home. They have gone 12 months without a Test victory since beating West Indies in January 2014 and have conceded the No.1 ranking.With several issues raging in the background – the push towards aggressive transformation, a mid-series change of captain and injuries to key members of the pace pack – the squad appears to be struggling to keep morale up and Smith has sensed that.”Some of the decision-making around the space looks a bit worrisome for me. The team seems a bit flat. Some of the messages coming out in the press conferences don’t seem positive and it’s coming from senior players,” he said. “You’re in a big series and there is a lot of negativity among your senior players. It looks like someone needs to grab the bull by the horns and say, ‘listen guys, let’s wake up and let’s pull our finger out and let’s go and play some Test cricket’.”AB de Villiers has been of particular concern, especially for his pre-match comments ahead of the Wanderers Test, his first as captain. He did not deny reports suggesting he was considering early retirement and admitted he was “searching for answers,” on how to manage his workload. After the Test, he offered some reassurance by committing himself to Test cricket but the mood was still sombre. “I almost feel like all hope is gone,” de Villiers said.That kind of talk is what Smith is urging South Africa to avoid while still encouraging them to pay attention to what is being said in the public domain about their performances. “These are all questions that need to come out of the environment. When you are not performing well, people are going to ask questions and you’ve got to live with it,” he said.Smith is not the only former player to express this opinion. Mark Boucher posted a message on Twitter saying South Africa should go “back to the drawing board,” while Daryll Cullinan encouraged them to embrace, rather than ignore the chorus or criticism coming their way.”There is nothing wrong with criticism as long as it is backed up by facts and has credibility behind it,” Cullian wrote on Facebook. “One of the things that our cricket lacks is the maturity to embrace it, work with it and evaluate its value. This can only come from people who are secure enough in the own opinions and credibility. When they are not, they surround themselves with like-minded people, have a laager [siege] mentality, label the critics as negative who have nothing good to say and only out to breakdown our game.”

Scorecard andball-by-ball details
How theywere out

South Africa duly converted their domination of Pakistan from the first day of this Test into a resounding 160-run win, a rare feat for them on the subcontinent. Dale Steyn’s third five-wicket haul in Tests was enough for South Africa as Pakistan failed to capitalise on a scintillating century by Younis Khan and lost their last five wickets for 33 runs.South Africa head into the second and final Test at Lahore, beginning on Monday, knowing they cannot now lose this series.Needing to score another 278 runs with seven wickets remaining, Pakistan were off to a good start as Younis Khan, unbeaten on 93 overnight, flicked Andre Nel over midwicket to bring up his first century against South Africa. Mohammad Asif’s dismissal soon after – gloving a sharp bouncer from Nel to short leg – prompted Younis, who was all agression yesterday, to cut down on rash strokes and concentrate more on placement. Sweeping Paul Harris and guiding Nel past the slips, he kept a decent scoring-rate while Misbah-ul-Haq struggled to score.When Jacques Kallis bowled three consecutive maidens, it looked like the match was heading for a draw. But Younis broke the shackles, and kept the game alive, by fiercely driving Kallis past mid-on.Dale Steyn’s introduction to the attack, however, caused Pakistan a major setback once again – he’d accounted for both openers on the previous day – as a delivery on the off stump shaped in slightly and barely rose above Younis’ ankles to hit the stumps as the batsman went down late. With Younis, out for 126, went Pakistan’s best hopes of winning the match. Steyn, who lacked accuracy in the first innings and managed only two wickets, bowled a much better line in the second, generating a lot of pace and movement.As Misbah and Shoaib Malik played defensively, the South African bowlers started piling on the pressure. However when Graeme Smith came into the attack to unsettle the partnership just before lunch he was hit for three boundaries in the over – Pakistan’s firstboundary for 80 balls – as both batsmen started using their feet.It was probably Pakistan’s defensive mind-frame that accounted for Misbah straight after lunch; He played a forward-defensive shot to Nel and got hit on the back leg as he missed.Kamran Akmal, after a quickfire 42 as an opener in the first innings, did not last long and became Harris’ only victim of the day. The new ball was taken straight away and as Steyn returned to dismiss Abdur Rehman prodding forward and Umar Gul driving loosely tomid-on.As Malik went after the bowling with only Danish Kaneria to partner him, it was always going to be an all-out attack and a top edge off his bat provided Makhaya Ntini his only wicket of the match as the visitors handed Pakistan only their second defeat in the 40 Tests in Karachi. A rare off game for Ntini but an excellent performance by Harris – seven wickets – and Nel – four wickets and 33 runs in the second innings – proved enough on a pitch where Pakistan bowlers, bar Rehman, failed to impress at all.

Adam Griffith, Leicestershire’s Australian fast bowler, has been forced to return home due to a persistent ankle injury, the club has confirmed.Griffith, 28, was signed in June when Mohammad Asif joined up with the Pakistan squad for the tour to England.The injury to his left ankle ruled him out of the Twenty20 final earlier this month and last Thursday a specialist administered a cortisone injection and advised him to rest for two weeks.”It has compromised his whole delivery because he hasn’t been able to slam that foot down in the way he would have liked,” Leicestershire coach Tim Boon told the club’s website.He is now heading home in attempt to gain full fitness with Tasmania before the Australian season starts in October.It means that Leicestershire will finish the summer without an overseas player after the Pakistani leg-spinner Mansoor Amjad was ruled out of the rest of the season with a finger injury.It will, however, create opportunities for some of the county’s younger bowlers.”We have an opportunity to take a good look at some of the younger seam bowlers over the remaining few weeks of the season, which is not such a bad thing”, explained Boon.”With Stuart Broad away on England duty, there is an excellent chance for the likes of Ryan Cummins and Chris Liddle.””It is disappointing in some respects that Adam’s spell with us has ended this way, but a decision has been reached that he should return home and both parties are happy with that”

Michael Vaughan does not feel his substitute-fielding method is against the rules, but Rudi Koertzen, who will umpire the fifth Test, has vowed to crackdown if anyone abuses the regulation. Vaughan said his players were drinking so much that they had to leave the field for toilet breaks, although Ricky Ponting believed the continual rearranging was against the spirit of the game.”It is a situation Australia are not happy with but we feel we are doing nothing against the laws,” Vaughan told . “I am certainly not telling my team to go and have an extra five minutes’ rest. If a player needs the toilet he has to go to the toilet. We are not a team that is going to try to bend the rules. We are quite an honest team.”Koertzen told England had not taken advantage of the situation while he umpired in the first two Tests, but he did not watch the third and fourth matches. “I always allow players to go off as they need to, so long as they don’t abuse the system and are not acting against the spirit of the game,” Koertzen said. “You can’t go overboard and do it all the time. If that’s the case, then I will put a stop to it.”Billy Bowden, who will also stand in the decider, told the paper he would meet with Ranjan Madugalle on Monday to discuss the issues. “Until then, it is hard for me to talk about [them].”Vaughan said the debate should not get in the way of a fantastic series. “I do not want to get into an argument about it,” he said. “There has been a lot of talk and I am sure there will be a little more.”

Glenn McGrath, the Australian fast bowler, is to play for Middlesex for a month later this season. McGrath has not played in a Test for almost a year due to injuries, and, even though he has been picked to play for Australia against the touring Sri Lankans, he still needs to prove his fitness to the national selectors.McGrath marked his comeback from injury with a disappointing one-day series against Zimbabwe last month, taking only one wicket in three matches. He has also effectively been put on notice by Trevor Hohns, Australia’s chairman of selectors, who suggested this two-Test series against Sri Lanka could be his last if he doesn’t perform.After that series, McGrath, 34, will replace Lance Klusener, one of Middlesex’s overseas players, who is likely to tour Sri Lanka with the South Africans later this summer. McGrath, who had a successful season with Worcestershire in 2000, will be available for four County Championship matches and five National League games between July 18 and August 15.Middlesex have lost four of their last five matches, and yesterday announced that Ed Joyce had replaced Owais Shah as captain after their poor run of results. The arrival of McGrath, who has played 95 Tests and taken 430 wickets, is sure to be a boost.