ScorecardCentral Province made a nightmare start just before the close in reply to North Central Province’s 314: they lost three wickets for six runs on the first day at the P.Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. Nandika Ranjith took two wickets, and Omesh Wijesiriwardene picked up the other to leave Central with much work to do as they head into the second day.All of North Central’s top order made decent starts, but their real stars were the middle order batsmen Jeevantha Kulatunga (93) and Janaka Gunaratne. The rest of the tail fell away, but it didn’t matter as North Central posted 314 and soon had Central in trouble. Scorecard Western Province blew Southern Province away for 134, then rattled up 120 for 5 before the close of play to leave them in a strong position on the end of the first day at Khettarama, Colombo. They now trail by just 14 runs with five wickets heading into the second day of four.Thilan Thushara was the star bowler for Western, taking 4 for 46, with only Harsha Vithana (46) offering any resistance for Southern before he fell victim to Thushara’s left-arm pace. In their reply, Ian Daniel struck a solid 40 to lift Western to a firm position by the close.
It is amazing how one good performance can transform attitudes and breed belief. While it is not lost on them that they will be faced with even greater resolve from their formidable opponents at the Adelaide Oval, there is a quiet confidence about Sourav Ganguly’s Indians. Having savoured Brisbane, they are not getting carried away by the moment, but “competing with the Australians” is no longer a mere platitude to be mouthed at press conferences. The Indians now believe that they can indeed compete. It is a sign of that belief that the team management is now contemplating playing two spinners in the second Test.The plans may still change if the weather gets heavy on Friday, but there are strong indications that the Indian strategy is veering around towards bringing Anil Kumble into the playing XI and retaining Harbhajan Singh despite his tepid performance at Brisbane. The man most likely to miss out would be Ashish Nehra, who was flat if inexpensive in the first Test.It is a plan fraught with grave risks. For the gamble to pay off, India will need to win the toss and bat first on what is considered to be the best batting pitch in Australia. It sported a tinge of green on Wednesday, but below it is a true surface, baked dry by the sun. It isn’t expected to break up, but if the weather holds good, it will dry further and the spinners could come into play on the last day if India bat well enough to take the match the distance. Ganguly admitted: “We need to score at least 400, preferably more, to give ourselves a chance of winning here.”Talk has centred on Harbhajan’s indifferent showing in the first Test, and Ganguly readily conceded that he was less than enamoured. But he is not ready to write off a bowler who he has turned to, by his own admission, every time he has needed a wicket over the years. “He’s been my matchwinning bowler. I know, and he knows, he has to bowl better than he did at Brisbane. But this is a test of his mettle. I have faith in him.”Kumble’s record in Australia is not inspiring, but he was at pains to point out yesterday that India must pick their four best bowlers in the XI, and he has a right to reckon he is one of them. The logic can be argued with, but not discarded outright. The Australians will come hard at the Indian bowlers at Adelaide, and if Kumble can stick to his line and length – no mean task against batsmen who back their intent to upset the rhythm of opposition bowlers with exceptional strokemaking abilities – he can expect to pick up a few wickets.Of course, the plan could backfire horribly if India have to bowl first and find themselves a pace bowler short even before lunch on the first day, or worse, Ajit Agarkar, who came back from a horrible start to bowl well at Brisbane, decides to have an off session. Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar can send down their little seamers, but for them to share 20 overs in a day is an unrealistic demand.But India’s thoughts have now moved from mere protection of dignity to sneaking in an upset, and if they believe their best chance lies in spin, they must take it.
India’s press have acknowledged that not all the fault was with their cricketers during their 2-0 series loss to New Zealand but they still lament the fact that India struggles to win away from home.A sampling of opinion is listed below:The Hindu:”There are hopes, there are dreams … and then they die. Life’s like that and cricket’s like that.”It was a 26-year-old quest. Could the Indians finally win a Test in New Zealand after several futile attempts?”In a low scoring game that twisted and turned like a slippery snake, they certainly were in with a chance on the fourth day, with the Kiwis still requiring 136, even if they had all the wickets in hand.”But, by now, the pitch, having become drier under the sun, had settled down well, and batting was less of a challenge. The odds were in favour of New Zealand.”And when Robbie Hart turned Ashish Nehra, who otherwise bowled with heart to grab three wickets, for a single to clinch the second National Bank Test for New Zealand by four wickets, it meant the Indians would have to wait much longer.”Kris Srikkanth in The Hindu:”New Zealand managed to reach the target in Hamilton and win the series 2-0, but let’s not blame our bowlers, who have been outstanding in this series. It was the bowlers who fought back magnificently after India was dismissed for 99 in the first innings, and had we batted better in the second innings, the series could have been squared. There was little application from our batsmen, and they were hardly prepared to wait at the crease …”There is something wrong somewhere in our cricket structure, and we have to root out the cause. The time has come for us to take some brave moves. We have to start by preparing pitches with pace and bounce at home, and have domestic cricket played on such surfaces. Only then would we be able to produce batsmen who can score on all conditions.”The Times of India:”In the end, the four-wicket win by New Zealand over India at Hamilton on day four would look comprehensive, but the second Test was a study in moves and counter moves with Dame Fortune sometimes favouring the tourists and sometimes the hosts.”Chasing 160 to win, New Zealand were made to stretch as India took the game down to the wire by claiming six wickets.”This time round it was Ashish Nehra who stood up to be counted by taking the three vital wickets of [Mark] Richardson, [Stephen] Fleming and [Craig] McMillan. With the win at Hamilton, New Zealand have swept the two-Test series 2-0 after they beat India in the first Test at Wellington by 10 wickets.”[Sourav] Ganguly’s dream of winning a series overseas after a gap of 16 years has suffered a setback once again. To add insult to injury, this is the first time that New Zealand has beaten India in two consecutive Tests.”The most worrying factor for the Indians has been the failure of their famed batting lineup that has struggled to negotiate rising deliveries and handle lateral movement.”The Hindustan Times:”Another series defeat that too, 2-0 against New Zealand will weigh heavily on the Indian team and will also re-emphasise the fact that the team of many so-called great cricketers cannot win outside their country. Like the mythical albatross this voodoo hangs around India’s neck.”Most cricket teams, apart from Australia find it difficult to win outside their country and the recent bad record of Pakistan which could not even perform up to mark in Sharjah is another example. The tour of West Indies and now New Zealand was the best chance to break the voodoo and stamp some sort of authority in the world of Test cricket. There too India failed.”If at all any team was fit to pull it off it was Sourav Ganguly’s. The team had character, the team had stars, the team had some new players who give everything to the team and a captain who has rallied his men well. Yet the team fared disastrously in the under-prepared pitches. It happened in the home of John Wright who has done a lot to change the temperament and character of the team. To take a team to his home country and beat the hosts could have been a great professional achievement for him, though not emotionally easy. Wright must be the saddest of them all.”Sourav Ganguly in the Hindustan Times:”For the first time since 1934, a Test match has been completed with 36 wickets falling and not one fifty being scored. This could be one of the reasons why spectators don’t turn up to watch Test cricket in New Zealand, and if such pitches are prepared in the future, not many will turn up to buy tickets for the game.”In total, five days were played in a two-Test series and none but the groundsmen deserved the silverware of the series. The comments and the attitude around the venues just gave the impression that more attention was paid to prove that Indian batting was good enough only on sub-continent pitches – but the track record reveals some other stories.”Surprisingly, people who are supposed to have been brought up on these pitches and have played on them throughout their lives, could not put bat to ball. Of course, Mark Richardson was an exception – he looked an organised player.”
Continued emphasis on the replenishment of its batting stocks looks like remaining a key theme of the South Australian state team’s development. Or at least that seems to be the case from viewing the Redbacks’ initial list of contracted players for the 2001-02 domestic season.The South Australians possess an excellent bowling attack and two of the most outstanding batsmen in Australian domestic cricket in Darren Lehmann and Greg Blewett. However, their middle order has struggled at different times in recent seasons and the quest for more consistent performances from the entirety of their batting line-up remains high on the agenda.In this squad – which contains nineteen fully contracted players and three on new rookie deals – there are as many as eleven specialist batsmen. Together with Lehmann and Blewett who, with speedster Jason Gillespie, hold Australian Cricket Board (ACB) contracts and are therefore not on this list, that now gives the Redbacks’ squad significant batting depth.Although each of them featured in a number of matches for the state in 2000-01, newcomers to the contracted list from last season are batsmen Ben Higgins and Nathan Adcock and all-rounder Mick Miller. Experienced left arm orthodox spinner Brad Young can also be considered as something of a new recruit this year after he missed the entirety of the domestic season because of a serious knee injury.The three players who have secured rookie contracts – the newly-introduced deals which allow each of the states to offer $A10,000 retainers to a small group of previously unsigned cricketers under the age of 23 – are batsmen Cameron Borgas and Matthew Cosgrove and paceman Matthew Weekes. All three are among the current intake of scholarship holders at the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy, and have been a key part of South Australian underage squads for a number of seasons.Under existing ACB rules, each of the six state associations completed their initial lists of at least fourteen signings (and allocated the bulk of their player payment pool) for 2001-02 by last Friday. Behind Queensland’s announcement last week, South Australia is the second state to have formally unveiled its new squad. The other four states’ lists are each expected to be announced inside the next twenty-four hours.
It’s safe to say that Yannick Bolasie’s best years are behind him, but those best years were certainly during his time at Crystal Palace.
The now 32-year old moved to Selhurst Park in 2012 for £567k from Palace’s fellow Championship side at the time Bristol City.
Current director of football at Palace Dougie Freedmen, who was manager when the transfer took place, described the transfer as ‘easy’ in an interview for the club’s Amazon Prime documentary.
According to him, Bristol City ‘felt sorry for the player’ after Palace had just thrashed them 4-1.
As far as signings go, easy or not, it turned out to be a good one for the Eagles. He was a key part to their promotion success and had ten goal contributions by the end.
However, it was his form in the Premier League that raised eyebrows, particularly in the 14/15 and 15/16 season where he tallied 24 goal contributions in 60 games.
Described as “wonderful” by Tony Pulis’ assistant, Gerry Francis, he was also dubbed ‘dazzling’ and ‘an entertainer’ and it wasn’t long until he was attracting interest from some bigger clubs in the Premier League.
A move eventually came and it was to Everton for £25m, but he failed to repeat the form he showed in south London when he moved to Merseyside.
Bolasie saw out his five-year contract but it was a transfer nightmare for the Toffees with the Congo international only making 32 appearances and being involved in just six goals during his time at Goodison.
The period included various loan spells to Aston Villa, Anderlecht, Sporting Lisbon and Middlesbrough. It’s also worth noting that he missed a year’s worth of action due to an injury.
So what went wrong? Well whilst the 32-year-old record at Palace was good, at the time £25m seemed a lot, and if he was that good then why weren’t clubs like Manchester City or Chelsea snapping him up at the time?
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Maybe it’s because they were able to attract a higher quality of player due to being in the Champions League and therefore not having to shell out £25m for a player who turned out to be ‘average’.
After leaving Everton last summer Bolasie joined Turkish side Caykur Rizespor on a free transfer and is now worth just £608k. On that evidence, it’s safe to say they struck gold by selling him when they did.
IN other news: Vieira now heading for huge disaster over CPFC’s £27m-rated “absolute tank”…
Karachi’s new pace-bowling sensation Sohail Khan created a Pakistan first-class record, ending with a match-haul of 16 wickets on the third day of Sui Southern Gas Company‘s tenth round Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship encounter against Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), at the Asghar Ali Shah Stadium in Karachi.Already the highest wicket-taker in the ongoing competition, the 23-year-old Malakand-born Sohail captured a career-best 9 for 109. Added to his equally splendid figures of 7 for 80 in WAPDA’s first innings, Sohail completed 16 for 189 in the match. It beat the earlier record set by Fazal Mahmood (15 for 76) for Punjab against Pakistan Combined Services in Lahore during the 1956-57 season.In what must rank as one of the most sensational entries into first-class cricket, Sohail, who made his debut as recently as October, has now captured 65 wickets at just 18.43 runs apiece. He has taken five in an innings on eight occasions and 10 in a match twice.In spite of Sohail’s heroics, WAPDA compiled 353 runs yesterday, leaving SSGC to make 328 runs to achieve an outright victory. There were several resolute batting displays in the WAPDA innings: Nawaz Sardar, who struck 18 fours and a six, missed a maiden first-class hundred by two runs. Along with skipper Aamer Sajjad (40), Nawaz helped add 80 runs for the fourth wicket. Bilal Khilji (80) and Sunny Irshad (75) then joined together for fine 146-run association for the sixth wicket. However, the last five WAPDA wickets added only a further 19.Neither team might have done enough for a final slot though one thing is clear: third-placed WAPDA will not make it to the top of the 11-team Group A ranking.Leaders Habib Bank Limited (HBL) took another step towards qualifying for the tournament final on the third day of their tenth round, Group A Quaid-e-Azam Trophy against National Bank of Pakistan (NBP). They took a crucial 44-run first innings lead in the match against NBP Sports Complex Stadium in Karachi.Thanks to a fine 137-run fourth-wicket partnership between Aftab Khan and Khaqan Arsal, Habib Bank responded with 341 against National Bank’s 297 all out. The 23-year-old Khaqan, who brought up his third first-class century, remained unbeaten till the end with 109, a knock involving 16 fours.Aftab cracked a 210-ball 80 in a little over four-and-a-half hours. Skipper Hasan Raza perished for a rare duck as did Salman Qadir, but a 42-run seventh-wicket partnership between wicketkeeper Humayun Farhat and Khaqan allowed Habib Bank to gain the lead. By the close of play, with opener Nasir Jamshed having made an unbeaten 58, National Bank gained a slender edge of 42 runs with nine wickets in hand.Habib Bank are in a must-win situation here. A draw will take their points tally to 66 after nine matches. National Bank will then still have two more games to go and the full points from two wins will keep them in contention for the final.After having dominated Sialkot for much of the first two days, Lahore Ravi were in some trouble, on the third day of their tenth round match, at the Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) Ground in Lahore.Sialkot, who had restricted Lahore’s lead to 77 after being shot out for a pathetic 88, recovered to score 288 runs in their second innings. Needing 212 to win, Lahore Ravi were 177 for 7 by the close of play, needing 35 more to wrap up the win.For Sialkot, skipper Ayub Dogar hit a splendid century, a 240-ball 124 that included 15 fours and two sixes. Lahore pace bowler Waqas Ahmed, meanwhile, continued with his excellent display in the match taking 6 for 70, ending with 10 for 118 in the match. Medium-pacer Mohammad Ali Bhutta continued his devastating form, ending with 4 for 54 in the second innings, adding to his 5 for 38 in the first.Multan scored 446 runs in their first innings, taking a 111-run lead over Hyderabad in the Multan Cricket Stadium. A double-hundred by their left-handed opener Usman Tariq, who’s knock contained 20 fours and five sixes, formed the bedrock of the Multan innings.Centuries by Asif Iqbal and Zahoor Elahi allowed Pakistan Customs to compile 338 runs against Karachi Whites at the National Stadium. In reply, Karachi managed to reach 154 for 4 at close, still 184 runs in deficit. Iqbal scored his second first-class century and his highest individual score after batting for over five hours and hitting 13 fours. With Elahi, he added 159 runs for the fourth wicket. For Karachi, Khalid Latif continued his impressive form with the bat and scored 42 while Asim Kamal is still unbeaten on 47.
Group B
Making their debut in the competition this season, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) became the first team to qualify for the tournament final when, on the third day of their tenth round, they easily defeated Lahore Shalimar by ten wickets in the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.After having gained a first innings lead of 135, SNGPL bowled out the opposition for a modest 206. This left them just 72 runs to win, which they attained without loss in a matter of 7.1 overs.With 63 points from nine matches, and a game in hand, SNGPL have raced ahead of second-placed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in the Group B table. PIA have their last match coming up and, with only 48 points in their kitty, don’t have a chance of making the final.Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited rattled up a big first-innings lead of 327 over Karachi Blues, on the third day of their tenth round, Group B Quaid-e-Azam Trophy at the United Bank Limited Sports Complex Ground No.1 in Karachi.Opening batsman Afaq Rahim’s unbeaten 205, his second double-hundred of the tournament following his career-best 275 against Quetta last month, was a record-breaking milestone. It was the 100th double century achieved by any batsman in the 50 editions of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.The 22-year-old Afaq, from Mirpur in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, had already reached his career’s seventh hundred with his 107 on Friday afternoon. He batted just a minute over 10 hours in an innings that comprised 450 balls with the help of 24 fours. Afaq added 232 vital runs with Wajahatulla Wasti, who cracked his 15th first-class hundred with the help of 13 fours and three sixes.Having bowled the Blues out for 188 on the opening day, ZTBL reached a massive 515 for five yesterday before skipper Wasti declared. By the close of play, Karachi Blues had lost two wickets — both to medium-fast Kashif Dawood, the five-wicket hero in the first innings – while adding 51. They still need another 277 to avoid an innings defeat.This match is really of no importance in the context of the teams getting to the final. ZTBL are placed fifth in the 11-team Group B ranking with 27 points from nine matches. They are making their last appearance in the pool round. The Blues are down at No.9, just above Abbottabad and Quetta, with just 12 points from eight matches.At the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad, the hosts, took the first innings lead against Quetta. Ameer Khan missed a century, managing a 170-ball 92, but had done well to help his team to the lead. Quetta responded with 237 for 4 in their second innings, mainly through an unbroken 96-run fifth-wicket stand between opener Shoaib Khan (95) and Jalat Khan (46), and are now 199 ahead with six wickets intact.Rawalpindi took a 60-run lead over Peshawar at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar, after compiling 316 in reply to the hosts’ 256. Youngster Usman Saeed (94) missed his hundred by six runs. Peshawar erased 45 runs off the lead while losing one wicket in their second innings by the end of the day.The left-handed Saeed Anwar attained the 12th century of his first-class career, as he made 107 runs in the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) score of 356 for 7 against Abbottabad at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium. The two teams had earlier forfeited their respective first innings after the opening day on Thursday had been completely washed out. The highlight of the innings was Saaed’s 151-runs stand with Bazid Khan (78).
Confusion over the match between India and Pakistan Legends sides, originally revealed by Cricinfo on October 18, appears to have been slightly eased with the announcement at the weekend that the game is set to take place on March 3 at the 60,000-capacity Rogers Centre in Toronto.Ben Sennik, the president of the Canadian Cricket Association, confirmed the game was going ahead at a press conference in Toronto. He said that the event has the full support of the Canadian board and added he anticipated a sell-out crowd. “We should make it a point to be part of this event to show our support for Cricket in Canada,” he concluded.S Madan Lal, the former India Test player who is managing the Indian side, insisted that the game was being taken very seriously and that two well-balanced teams were being brought to Toronto. Players such as Ajay Jadeja, Venkatesh Prasad, Wasim Akram and Saeed Anwar were among those who would play.There was, however, no mention of Mohammad Azharuddin who was originally announced as the captain of the Indian side.
Justice Ahmed Ebrahim , the Zimbabwe Cricket vice-chairman, said Wednesday’s follow-up crisis meeting should find a lasting resolution to the meltdown blighting the game in the country.”When you have a crisis situation, you have to take action, and those are the sort of decisions we may have to make,” Ebrahim said. “I am very worried about what is happening. That is one of the reasons I called for this crisis meeting. Since the first meeting was held on Monday some circumstances have changed. So we are meeting tomorrow for these issues to be discussed and decisions to be taken on what the board should do.”I am concerned about our international well-being, and the very least of what came out of the Monday meeting is a significant commitment from the players to serve the country. I regard the players as the core product in our effort to have the game survive in this country. I am very much confident that the quality we have in these players is very much good enough to compete on the international stage.”Justice Ebrahim’s comments comes in the wake of Zimbabwe’s national team players making a resolution at the Monday meeting that they still had their hearts behind Zimbabwe cricket. “I am very pleased to indicate that that the national team captain [Tatenda Taibu] and the players’ representatives indicated their total commitment, and recognition of their responsibilities to the game of cricket in this country. The players that are present in the country would participate in squad training in preparation for our future commitments.”Ebrahim, a retired Supreme Court judge, also spoke of the departure of Taibu to play domestic cricket in Bangladesh, saying it was a positive move for the former national skipper. “I think it’s very good that Tatenda has been given an opportunity to play in Bangladesh,” he said. “He is one of our national heroes, but he also has a tremendous following in the international arena, especially in Bangladesh, where he scored his maiden Test century.”The stakeholders meetings, which were called partly because of the 11th-hour cancellation of the board meeting which was due to be held last Saturday, also tasked Ebrahim to resolve the problems existing in the provinces, especially the infighting in Mashonaland that has impacted heavily on the national set-up in Zimbabwe.
Looking down across Johannesburg from the top of the Wanderers stadium, it can feel as though you are situated at the highest point of the highveld. Though the city itself is as unprepossessing as they come – a loose alliance of hilltop settlements, lured here in the last century by the prospect of gold, and loitering ever since – from the birds’-eye view of the fourth-storey press-box, it is possible to appreciate the subtler side to the city.Everywhere you look, there are trees, which comes as something of a surprise to the uninitiated. Apparently, in that respect, Jo’burg is the greenest city in the whole of southern Africa, but it is only when you reach a high enough elevation to see across the security fences that you grow to appreciate that fact.As you stare down the length of the Wanderers pitch, your line of vision takes you through the twin floodlights of the imposing Centenary Stand, which wraps itself around the northern end of the ground, and off into the distance, over and beyond the adjoining Wanderers golf club, and all the way to the tip of the Sandton City shopping and hotel complex. It is here that the teams are based for this final fortnight of the series, and the roof of the main tower is clearly visible, as it pokes through the canopy like Cleopatra’s Needle.For more than 74 years, the Wanderers Club has provided the focal point of Johannesburg’s sporting aspirations, whether they be cricket or golf – which between them dominate the district of Illovo, where the club is based – or tennis, squash and bowls, which can also be found tucked away in the back streets. But tragically, in October last year, the clubhouse itself was entirely gutted by fire. It began in the kitchens and spread through the ventilation ducts, and by the time it had incinerated the venerable wooden rafters, there was little that could rescue three-quarters of a century of tradition.A vast section of the roof collapsed, taking with it the club’s imposing clock-tower, and as a match between South Africa A and New Zealand continued unawares down the road, the devastated members were left to salvage what they could of a mass of sporting memorabilia. Among the trophies, photographs and cricketana lost forever was the bat with which Graeme Pollock scored 274 against Australia in 1966-67, which to this day is ranked among the finest innings of all time.The stadium itself is a fair way removed from the clubhouse, however, and if you arrive late at the ground on a matchday, you soon discover that the Wanderers lives up to its name. It is a veritable hike from from the car-park to the ground, although for the morning stroll, at least, it is downhill all the way. Upon arrival, you then take a further plunge into the basin of the ground itself, which is entered through an imposing gateway that sports a banner declaring the Wanderers to be “our battleground”.It is unequivocal stuff, and when play takes place in front of 20,000 fans, as was the case on the Saturday of this match, the ground certainly takes on a gladiatorial feel. It is universally known as “The Bullring”, a nickname that is amply backed up by the sheer scale of the stands at either end. These are four storeys vertical, and leer over the events in the middle with such intrusiveness that the slightest whisper is echoed and amplified as it bounces between them. But never mind careless whispers – the throaty roar that greeted Herschelle Gibbs’s hundred came close to matching the din created by the South African Airways fly-past that launched the World Cup final here in March 2003.For all the imposing splendour of the main stands, however, perhaps the finest seats in the ground are those at midwicket. On the one side, there is the grassy bank in front of the pavilion, with its preponderance of beach towels and umbrellas, and of course, the ubiquitous bikinis. The players are shielded from all this by a neatly trimmed hedge, which marks the boundary of their viewing area and stands in stark aesthetic contrast to the intimidating perspex tunnel through which they must walk to reach the boundary’s edge.The opposite side of the ground is served by a magnificently rickety wooden stand, so steep that, at this rarefied altitude, anyone who gallops up it too quickly can require an oxygen mask by the time they reach the summit. On the first day of the match, this entire area was claimed by a local primary-school outing, not that any of them had any qualms about scurrying up and down the benches all day long. In fact, while Andrew Strauss and Robert Key were rattling along in that afternoon session, the majority of the kids found that the safety netting beneath the stand was of far greater entertainment, as they slipped through the slats and turned the Bullring into their very own adventure playground.
Rahul Dravid turned in his second heroic innings of the match, as India etched out a magnificent four-wicket victory at the Adelaide Oval to go 1-0 up in the four-Test series – their first win in Australia since their triumph at Melbourne in 1980-81. Following up his 233 in the first innings, Dravid remained undefeated on 72 – and hit the winning runs, a cut off Stuart MacGill – as India nailed their target of 230 just after tea on the final day.In the end, the win came easily enough, with VVS Laxman providing the impetus to the innings with a breezy 32 of 34 balls, but for much of the day, it was a struggle, as the Australians fought all the way despite being severely hampered by injuries to two of their bowlers. Jason Gillespie walked off with a groin strain midway through his tenth over, while Brad Williams showed plenty of heart in bowling despite an injured left shoulder.In an intense and tension-filled morning session, the Australian bowlers came at the Indians with plenty of fire. Williams gave Dravid a thorough working-over, and was desperately unlucky not to nail him: Adam Gilchrist dropped the chance after Dravid edged a delivery which pitched perfectly in the corridor. Dravid was on 9 then, and India, who had already lost Akash Chopra early, trapped in front by Gillespie for 20 (47 for 1), would have been 73 for 2.The second wicket did fall soon after, but it was Virender Sehwag who fell, after making an uncharacteristically restrained 47, from 81 balls. With the runs drying up, Sehwag charged down the pitch to MacGill, missed, and was comfortably stumped (79 for 2).Sachin Tendulkar and Dravid took India to lunch, and well past it, with a 70-run stand. After missing out in his first two innings of the series, Tendulkar was far more assured this time around. He started off with a paddle-sweep off MacGill for four, then unleashed some confident drives and pulls whenever the bowlers erred in length. Williams came back for a second spell, and, despite bowling at a reduced pace of about 130 kmph, tested both batsmen with his reverse-swing. The partnership threatened to shut Australia out of the match when MacGill, who had until then bowled mostly from round the wicket, changed angle, and struck. Tendulkar failed to read a straighter one which pitched on middle-and-leg, shouldered arms, and was trapped in front for 37 (149 for 3).When Sourav Ganguly departed soon after, scooping a drive off Andy Bichel to Simon Katich at point for 12 (170 for 4), India needed a further 60, and Australia were back in the contest.Laxman changed the momentum of the match in a flash, taking full toll of the loose balls that MacGill threw up. Dravid had missed out on a couple of full tosses earlier, but Laxman made every bad ball count, caressing drives through cover and midwicket, and then cutting a short delivery to the point fence, as three fours came from a MacGill over.Dravid grew in confidence too, dispatching a long-hop from MacGill through cover, as the pair added 51 in quick time. Laxman played a shot too many and was dismissed soon after tea, mistiming a hoick off Katich to Bichel (221 for 5), but by then, with victory only nine runs away, the issue had already been decided. Parthiv Patel contrived to delay the moment, when he was bowled round his legs by Katich, but that only allowed, fittingly, Ajit Agarkar and Dravid – India’s heroes in this Test – to be together when the winning runs were hit.