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Kolkata Knight Riders set up a first qualifier match against table-toppers Delhi Daredevils as they took the No. 2 spot with a comfortable win over Pune Warriors

The Report by Abhishek Purohit19-May-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBrendon McCullum struggled to adapt to the lack of pace but kept the runs coming•AFP

Kolkata Knight Riders set up a first qualifier match against table-toppers Delhi Daredevils as they took the No. 2 spot with a comfortable win over Pune Warriors. Like they had done against Mumbai Indians in their previous game, Knight Riders posted a decent total on a difficult pitch and their spinners choked the Warriors batsmen into a futile crawl. The home side ended a second disappointing season with their ninth consecutive defeat, an IPL record, and one that involved some questionable selections.On a slow and low pitch which Man-of-the-Match Shakib Al Hasan said reminded him of Bangladesh, Warriors gave only two overs to Ali Murtaza, the lone specialist spinner they played ahead of their two first-choice spinners, Murali Kartik and Rahul Sharma. While Shakib, the only batsman on either side to feel at home on the pitch, rode his luck to provide the boost Knight Riders’ stumbling innings needed, Warriors left out his Bangladesh team-mate Tamim Iqbal for the 16th and final time this season.Shakib’s onslaught and his 67-run stand with Brendon McCullum were crucial given Knight Riders did not have the luxury of a breezy start from the in-form Gautam Gambhir. McCullum, too, struggled to adapt his attacking game to the lack of pace but managed to keep the runs coming.Knight Riders reached 50 as late as the 12th over, when the innings shifted gears rapidly. From 49 for 2 after 11 overs, Knight Riders took 87 off the next nine, largely due to Shakib. It was McCullum, though, who began the onslaught, pulling and swinging Ashish Nehra for consecutive fours.Shakib could have been dismissed twice in the next over, bowled by Michael Clarke, instead Knight Riders looted 20 runs. Robin Uthappa failed to stump a charging Shakib, on 5, off the first ball and conceded four byes. Shakib charged again and lifted the second over deep midwicket for six. Off the fourth ball, a slog-sweep was put down by Parnell at deep square leg. The sixth disappeared over deep midwicket again.The first 50 of the innings had taken 68 deliveries; the next 50 took 19. At 101 for 2 after 15 overs, Knight Riders were eyeing 150, but Warriors hit back with the dismissals of McCullum and Shakib in the 17th and 18th overs. McCullum drilled Wayne Parnell to extra cover to depart for 41 off 43, while Shakib got a yorker from Bhuvneshwar Kumar to be bowled for 42 off 30. Yusuf Pathan got a couple of fours away as Knight Riders ended on a score that ensured their three spinners had the runs to squeeze Warriors.And that is what happened. Apart from Jesse Ryder, briefly, no Warriors batsman appeared comfortable against Knight Riders’ army of spinners and medium-pacers. Robin Uthappa did guide the first delivery of the chase to the third man boundary. That was to be the only four in the Warriors innings. Uthappa soon spooned a catch to cover off Iqbal Abdulla.Ryder skipped out to hit a couple of sixes and at one stage, Warriors were 51 for 1 in the eighth over. It was a matter of time though. Clarke, back from his wedding in Australia to play a lone inconsequential IPL game, ahead of Tamim, was stumped off a Yusuf wide for 13 off 18. In his next over, Yusuf, who has had a forgettable season, dislodged Ryder, bowled after a weak attempt at a sweep.Sourav Ganguly lasted eight deliveries before Shakib trapped him in front. A season that had started with three wins in four games soon ended in the ninth successive defeat for Warriors. Given their form, it is good for them that they ran out of games to play.Knight Riders now have two shots to try and get into the final. They will be playing Daredevils on this ground on Tuesday.

Michael Hussey has been allowed to skip Australia’s tour of Ireland and England to be with his family after the premature birth of his child

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2012Michael Hussey has been allowed to skip Australia’s tour of Ireland and England in June and July to be with his family after the premature birth of his child. Cricket Australia said he will be replaced by Queensland batsman Peter Forrest in the 15-man squad.”Due to our baby being born three months early, it is important for the family for me to be here at this time,” Hussey said. “It is always difficult to miss any tour for Australia and I thank CA for their understanding of our family’s situation.”Forrest, who has played 11 ODIs so far, had been named as the stand-by player when the squad was named in May. He will now be part of the touring party that leaves Australia on June 14.The Australians will play Leicestershire in a tour game on June 21 before taking on Ireland in a one-off ODI in Stormont on June 23. After another tour game against Essex, Australia will play England at Lord’s on June 29 in the first of five ODIs.

Notts were put in trouble after another top order collapse left Chris Read having to rebuild the innings

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge18-Jul-2012
ScorecardNottinghamshire do not care much for flat pitches that lead to dull draws. Their winning philosophy involves surfaces prepared with a more than even chance of a result, one way or another, the reasoning being that to chalk up enough victories to win the County Championship you have to risk the odd defeat.Not that they lose too many on their Trent Bridge pitches, even when they have been five wickets down before lunch on the opening day. Recoveries engineered by their under-appreciated captain, Chris Read, are as common as top-order collapses. There is another under way in this match.The signing of quality recruits such as Michael Lumb and James Taylor was supposed to bring stability to the batting, or at least limit the frequency of mishaps, but the pitch prepared for this match was revealed to have variable bounce as well as surface grass and Read must have feared it would be another day for his well-honed experience as soon as Surrey’s latest captain, Zander de Bruyn, won the toss and chose to field.De Bruyn was leading the side here, in the continuing absence, on indefinite compassionate leave, of Rory Hamilton-Brown, after the previous stand-in, Gareth Batty, was left out in favour of an extra seamer, which is an indication of how Surrey assessed the conditions.There was no Chris Tremlett, recovering from back surgery, who played against Lancashire in a four-day match last week but was rested from this one, nor Jade Dernbach, who is still missing with the side strain that forced him out of England’s one-day series against Australia.But the seam quartet that was wheeled out – with Tim Linley and Chris Jordan added – took the first five wickets for 84 in 23 overs nonetheless, although it might be argued that they could have done so at a smaller cost, given that only Jordan conceded runs at fewer than four an over, giving the Nottinghamshire batsmen width to play with on both sides of the wicket.They were helped by the vagaries of the bounce. Lumb’s dismissal leg before owed something to the ball keeping low, Taylor edged one that climbed on him more than he foresaw and Alex Hales, trying to defend on the back foot to Jon Lewis, misread the ball sufficiently to inside edge it on to the ground and into his stumps.In between, Samit Patel played a poor leg-side shot that had him caught behind off a thin edge as Nottinghamshire slipped from 35 without loss after five overs to 59 for 4 in the space of 11 more overs.This followed an extraordinary opening in which Hales and Riki Wessels, who had shared an opening stand of 89 in 9.4 overs in a CB40 match against Hampshire on Tuesday evening, seemed intent on continuing in that vein, Wessels taking three fours in Lewis’s first over before Hales took two more boundaries as Linley opened at the other end. Not surprisingly, this bold approach ran into trouble as Wessels, having rushed to 23 off 23 balls, edged Linley to first slip.Taylor’s dismissal ushered in Read to join Voges and what followed was the familiar story. Voges was missed on 5 without further addition to the score, which was a significant moment given that this Nottinghamshire side has a lengthy tail, but thereafter the pair took their chances without risking too much and added 34 in five overs up to lunch without further scares.In the afternoon, they had to negotiate two stoppages for rain before the last one proved terminal — limiting play to 42 overs – but maintained their concentration admirably and the partnership so far is worth 94 runs, which could prove invaluable if this match is a low scoring one.They have rattled along, in keeping with the pace of the innings overall, scoring their runs off 108 balls. Read has 49 from 63 balls with eight fours. The Notts skipper clocked up 11,000 first-class runs for the county during the match against Middlesex at Uxbridge last week. He has compiled 63 first-class half-centuries in 225 matches for the county, turning 19 of them into centuries, and more often than not it has been in circumstances similar to these.

Independent research that may have swayed the ICC’s executive board into approving mandatory use of the DRS was not shown at its meeting in Kuala Lumpur

Daniel Brettig09-Jul-2012Independent research that may have swayed the ICC’s executive board into approving mandatory use of the DRS was not shown at its meeting in Kuala Lumpur, despite being pivotal in convincing both the cricket committee and the chief executives’ committee of the technology’s accuracy.Wally Edwards, the Cricket Australia chairman, has revealed that the research on ball-tracking conducted by Dr Ed Rosten, an expert in computer vision technology, was left off the agenda of the executive board meeting, which concluded without the issue of DRS even being put to a vote due to India’s reluctance to accept its use.The ICC will now send a mission to India to show Dr Rosten’s research to the BCCI, alongside details of the enhancements made to Hot Spot, the infrared cameras used to detect edges that had their accuracy questioned after the 2011 Test series between England and India.Edwards told ESPNcricinfo that while other members of the board had also expressed some reluctance to go ahead with mandatory use of the DRS, he believed the tabling of Dr Rosten’s research may have resulted in a different outcome.”ICC had got some independent research done on the accuracy and all those issues. Now unfortunately they didn’t present that information to the board,” Edwards said. “India have agreed and the boards have agreed for ICC management to go to India and take all the information, take their presentations, take their technical support and talk to them over there.”India are willing to look at it, but they’re sceptical, and others are too – it’s not just India. I think it is part of the game for the future, but it’s a good time to review. Unfortunately if that presentation, or whatever it is they had, had been presented to the board it might have changed things. But we probably need another process, because people would have to go back to their boards and say ‘this is the latest, can we move from where we are to there’. Obviously Australia supports it, and we understand there’s still an error factor, but overall it’s better than what we had.”The accuracy of the DRS had been warmly endorsed by both the ICC’s cricket committee and chief executives committee, with Dr Rosten’s research a critical part of winning their approval. Following the CEC meeting, an ICC statement read: “CEC recommended to the Board the universal application of the DRS after being satisfied with the technology enhancements provided by new Hotspot cameras and the results of the independent research on ball tracking conducted by Dr Ed Rosten, an expert in computer vision technology. Dr Rosten had tested the accuracy and reliability of ball tracking in a recent Test series and concluded that the results were 100% in agreement with the outcomes produced from his assessments.”Much has been made of the back-room politics of the executive board, which appears to be far more consequential to the running of the global game than anything said in formal meetings. Edwards, however, said he did not find it unusual that the DRS was not tabled for a vote, based on his previous experience on various corporate and cricket boards in Australia. Instead, he awaited India’s response to the research they will be presented with.”Obviously if there are debatable issues we try to debate them. The more difficult the issue, the more you should talk,” Edwards said. “But in any boards that I’ve been on, there are very few decisions that will actually go to a ‘we’re going to count the votes here’ situation. Governance is one of them, but most others you’ll find a consensus that says ‘yeah right we’ll give that a run’. I didn’t find it unusual.”We knew where India stand on it, and at this point in time they’re not ready to change their thoughts. Those lines you see on TV, are they accurate, that’s the scepticism. It looks accurate, but from their point of view they are reluctant just to accept it as gospel. I think it is possible they’ll change, but we’ll have to wait and see how they go with this new information in India.”Previous attempts have been made to demonstrate the intricacies and accuracy of ball-tracking and other technology to the BCCI, notably via a planned trip to Australia during the 2010-11 Ashes series. On that occasion the visit was at first approved by the BCCI but then ruled out due to “scheduling difficulties”.

Andy Flower, the England team director, hopes James Taylor can take ownership of England’s problematic No. 6 position

Andrew McGlashan31-Jul-2012Andy Flower, the England team director, hopes James Taylor can take ownership of England’s problematic No. 6 position but has said that Ravi Bopara will be considered for future selection when his personal situation is resolved.Bopara, who returned to the side for the first time in a year at The Oval, was inked in for the second Test against South Africa at Headingley, despite a lean comeback match: he made 0 and 22 in the crushing innings defeat before informing the management that he would not be available. His withdrawal means England are set to use their fifth No. 6 of the year as the middle-order spot, which has not been consistently filled since Paul Collingwood’s retirement, continues to cause headaches.Eoin Morgan was the first to be given the role and had a sustained run through last summer and the early part of 2012 until paying the price for a poor series against Pakistan. Matt Prior then moved up the order in Sri Lanka, with Samit Patel playing an allrounder’s role at No. 7, before Jonny Bairstow was debuted against West Indies where he struggled.That laid out a clear route for Bopara to finally return to a position that would have been his earlier in the year but for injury but now another obstacle has been put in his way meaning a second debutant of the season in the role. It has also meant another tricky Test build-up for Flower to manage, following the issues revolving around Kevin Pietersen in the days leading towards The Oval.”It’s disappointing for him obviously but it opens the door for another player who has come through the academy system and worked really hard over the years to get his chance,” Flower said. “I certainly hope James can make six his spot for a while.”I don’t know him that well. We’ve had him down for the odd net and he’s worked with Graham Gooch. I watched him play against Sri Lanka at Derby last year. He looks like a young man that understands his game pretty well and he knows how to score runs. We don’t know how he’ll do but we wish him well and hope he has a wonderful international career. It doesn’t close the door on Ravi Bopara.”Flower all-but confirmed that Taylor will debut at No. 6 by saying that it was “unlikely” England would employ a five-man bowling attack despite only taking two wickets in 189 overs at The Oval. However, he did not completely dismiss the idea of an all-pace attack if the Headingley pitch looked particularly lively – although that is a trap England have fallen into before at Leeds. “An all seam attack is an option for us,” he said. “But we haven’t done that for a long time.”It would be a major departure from type if England were to leave out Graeme Swann even though the offspinner went wicketless in 52 overs against South Africa, has taken just six Test wickets at 72.16 this season and is carrying a long-term elbow problem. Flower said Swann’s elbow was “Okay… He has a chronic problem but it’s improving.”Some of England’s players, especially Swann and James Anderson, have been reasonably candid in the days following the defeat at The Oval about how the team have struggled to adapt to their No. 1 ranking, which will slip away if they lose this series. Swann went as far as to call England’s recent record as “dismal” but, perhaps unsurprisingly, Flower did not quite agree.”I wouldn’t describe our results as being dismal,” he said. “I think you have to look a little deeper than that. The series in the UAE was in different conditions and we struggled against their two spinners. You can’t compare that to the first Test against South Africa.”South Africa played very good cricket, we played some good cricket in parts but we didn’t capitalise on a great platform in the first innings. On a pitch like that you need a significant score. South Africa bowled well that second morning and that was where the momentum of that game changed.”And, as even with the measured Flower, he tried to keep the situation in perspective. “Sometimes you are outplayed, regardless of your attempts at dismissal or strategy implemented, so you have to give credit to the opposition,” he said. “It would be very hard for me to argue our strategies were successful. But in international sport you’ll have huge ups and downs, and our make-up has to deal with those ups and downs.”

James Foster and Steven Croft have agreed to play in New Zealand’s Twenty20 competition with the Northern Knights

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2012James Foster, Essex’s wicketkeeper and captain, and Steven Croft, the Lancashire allrounder, have agreed to play in New Zealand’s Twenty20 competition with the Northern Knights. Foster will replace Peter McGlashan, who announced his retirement in July, behind the stumps for the Knights’ 2012-13 HRV Cup campaign.Both Foster, who played for England during the 2009 World Twenty20, and Croft, named in England’s provisional 30-man squad for the ongoing tournament in Sri Lanka, are experienced T20 performers. Scott Styris, the Knights captain, played alongside Foster at Essex between 2010 and 2011 and welcomed his arrival.”He’s a tremendous signing for us,” Styris said. “He topped the MVP table after the group stages of the UK T20 competition and was called the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the world by Essex coach, Paul Grayson, such is the high regard in which he is held in the United Kingdom. He’s also a like-for-like replacement for Peter McGlashan, which is ideal from our perspective.”Styris has also been a team-mate of Croft’s, during the Lancashire man’s spell at Auckland Aces in 2008-09. Croft said: “I loved playing in New Zealand the last time I was there so I’m really looking forward to coming to Northern Districts and playing some T20 cricket. I want to continue developing my game and hopefully push my way into the England T20 side.”Foster was Essex’s leading T20 run-scorer on their way to a quarter-final defeat last season, scoring 270 runs at a strike-rate of 165.64. His record of 15 sixes in the competition was only bettered by Yorkshire’s David Miller, who hit 21. Croft hit 313 runs at a strike-rate of 129.33 and an average of 62.60, putting him fourth on the Friends Life t20 runs list despite Lancashire not making it to the knockout stages.Grant Bradburn hoped the additions would boost his side’s HRV Cup chances. “We’re the Plunket Shield champions, we’ve won the one-day title in recent years and even won the Cricket Max trophy when it was played,” Northern Districts’ head coach said. “But Twenty20 honours have steadfastly eluded us and we’re very determined to set that right.”Northern Districts CEO, David Cooper, said: “Filling the sudden void left by Peter McGlashan’s pre-season retirement was obviously of some urgency for us and we are very pleased to have been able to attract such a highly experienced, competitive player as James Foster so quickly. Steven Croft’s Twenty20 nous and experience was likewise very attractive as we look to succeed in the only format in which silverware has eluded us.”While Foster and Croft will join the Knights towards the end of October, ahead of their HRV Cup opener against Otago Volts on November 2, Northern Districts will be without the services of Hamish Marshall this season. Marshall, 33, who is based in the UK where he plays for Gloucestershire, will remain at home to be with his wife for the birth of their second child, due in January.”I’m spending the winter here training with the Gloucester squad and doing my level 3 coaching certificate,” Marshall said. “Surviving the English winter will be a challenge and I wish the lads all the best over the season.”

Suresh Raina requested Pravin Amre to help him with few technical issues with his batting ahead of India A’s match against England

Amol Karhadkar29-Oct-2012Immediately after arriving in Mumbai on Sunday morning for the warm-up game against England, India A captain Suresh Raina called Pravin Amre, the former India Test batsman who is now a coach, and requested him to come over to the Brabourne Stadium to help him with few technical issues with his batting ahead of the crucial game.Amre, who knows Raina since his age-group cricket days and had last worked with him before he left for Australia for the tri-series earlier this year, obliged and spent a long time with Raina during the A team’s practice session on Sunday.Amre has coached Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy team for five years and has been associated with the Mumbai Indians and the Pune Warriors. However, it wasn’t the first time Amre was dealing with an individual batsman. For the last three months, he has been working as a batting coach for Robin Uthappa, the Karnataka opening batsman, who has been trying to regain his spot in the India team.So is it time for top batsmen to appoint personal batting coaches? “It’s up to the players. I’m earning a lot of money in cricket and I can choose who I want to train with. If I’m not fit, I can ask doctors or physios at the NCA to come and train with me for two months to get me fit,” Raina said on Monday.”With so many formats to switch between, it sometimes gets difficult and you need somebody to observe you and guide you all the time. Look at sports like tennis and shooting, the coach always travels with the sportsman. So when you are making a lot of money, why shouldn’t you hire a specialist who can help you out? It’s something that I can look at in the future. Cricket is all about sharing one’s knowledge and it’s more about skills than technique, if a coach can tell you about your skills and improve them, it will help you play different formats.”Raina also spelt out his bond with Amre, who has been coaching his employer Air India’s team for almost a decade now. “When I was 14 or 15, I played a lot of matches at the Under-19 level for Air India and have known Pravin sir since then. He knows my batting well,” Raina said. “When you’re not in the team, you need somebody to work on your game all the time. Pravin told me I’ve been batting well, but the time has come to change my game now. The button has to be pressed. That’s somewhere England have done well. Graham Gooch has been a big addition to the side. Look at how he changed Alastair Cook’s game and performances.”I asked him [Amre] about [Graeme] Swann. He troubled me a lot in England and got me out four or five times. He asked me to keep my shoulder over the ball and my eyes in line with the ball.”While a player may feel the need of closer assessment from a personal coach, Amre feels it’s more challenging for a coach to work on an individual basis.”When I used to work for a team like Mumbai, I knew I had six batsmen to rely on. It didn’t matter who scored runs. What mattered the most was the team’s performance,” Amre told ESPNcricinfo. “Here, there is just one batsman who I am working on and I would be assessed only based on what he does. So it’s imperative that the player-coach partnerships works for the better. When it comes to Suresh, we share a personal bond and there’s no contract. Whenever he asks me to work on his batting, I cannot say no.”It remains to be seen if Raina makes the most of his time spent with Amre over the next three days.

Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus will not bowl before the first morning of the third Test against South Africa, as Australia try to freshen up the exhausted fast bowlers

Daniel Brettig27-Nov-2012
Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus will not bowl another ball before the first morning of the third Test against South Africa, beginning on November 30 in Perth, as Australia try to freshen up the exhausted fast bowlers after their unstinting but ultimately fruitless efforts in Adelaide.Siddle’s performance was particularly noteworthy, pushing through crippling fatigue to take the hosts to within two wickets of a 1-0 series lead. Those exertions mean both he and Hilfenhaus are in considerable doubt to be recovered in time for Perth, leaving open the possibility of a dramatically recast bowling attack that may feature Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, John Hastings and Josh Hazlewood.Australia coach Mickey Arthur indicated that a wholesale swap of bowlers for Perth was a distinct possibility, granting the captain Michael Clarke a far fresher line-up of bowlers while South Africa continue to rely on the same quartet they brought for the tour. The visitors have been helped by the stout batting display that not only secured a draw but also gave Australia’s bowlers an enormous workload while their opposite numbers reclined in the Adelaide Oval dressing rooms.”It’s certainly something we need to look at,” Arthur said. “I think both Hilf and Sids have been outstanding, especially Sids – I thought there was a huge effort, a really warrior-like effort. We’ve got a couple of days off, I can’t see them bowling any balls at training, so we’ve just got to see how they pull up, see how they come up in Perth.”Hence we’ve given ourselves cover, in case they don’t pull up well we’re in a position where we could go with a completely different attack into Perth. That will depend on how Hilf and Sids travel, and we’ve had Mitchell Starc with us and we know he’s ready to go as well.”The training becomes more individualised now with such a quick turnaround. We’ve got a lot of new bowlers coming in, those bowlers will be very keen to impress I’m sure. So the quality of bowling around the nets is going to be first rate – and I’m sure our bowlers are going to get a really good hit out and be ready to go, come Friday morning.”Johnson’s return to the squad for the first time since he suffered a serious foot injury while batting during the dramatic Johannesburg match a year ago is a nod to his formidable record in Tests at the WACA ground – 30 wickets at 18.13 in four matches – but also an acknowledgement of his improved consistency this summer.”That does play a role, he’s had good success at the WACA ground but he’s just shown really good progression through the whole summer so far and it’s really good to have him back. He gives that little bit of fire and if selected sure he’ll be ready to go,” Arthur said. “I thought Mitchell was outstanding for us in the one day series in Pakistan, he bowled superbly, arguably one of our best bowlers there during that one day series.”He’s been making good progress through Shield cricket, I went and had a look at him at the WACA just last week and he looked in fairly good touch … so I think he obviously thoroughly deserves his place and we’re very lucky we have a lot of depth in this bowling department right now. These two guys [Siddle and Hilfenhaus] have given it their all and we can have a look at how everybody comes up and make a really well-considered decision for Friday.”Another decision Arthur described as well-considered was that to play James Pattinson at Adelaide Oval after he pushed through 53 overs in the first Test of the series at the Gabba. Having bowled only 9.1 overs in South Africa’s first innings in the second Test, Pattinson was forced off by a side/rib injury that ended his Test summer. 
”He’s a young fast bowler, he’s going to get injured,” Arthur said. “Medical reports were that he should be ok, ultimately myself and Michael [Clarke] and the selector on duty make the call and we wanted to go with Patto because we thought he had bowled really well in Brisbane. Unfortunately, young fast bowlers get injured so it was disappointing to lose him during the Test match.”One of Arthur’s chief tasks will be to ensure his team looks beyond the disappointment of Adelaide, emphasising the positives of dominating the world’s No. 1 team for extended periods of both Tests rather than mulling over the two wickets they were unable to take to secure victory.”We’ve had a quick chat about that – it took a massive amount out of the blokes and I’m just so proud of the effort each and every one of them gave. The guys are gutted we didn’t pull this Test match off,” Arthur said. “We spoke to them about it, hopefully we can put that behind us now and it all starts again for us first ball in Perth on Friday.”

Michael Hussey and AB de Villiers have indicated that the verbal duel between the two teams, which reached its height on the final afternoon in Brisbane, will resume in Adelaide

Daniel Brettig18-Nov-2012Almost as inevitable as the sight of Michael Clarke and Graeme Smith walking out for the toss at Adelaide Oval on Thursday will be the sound of their two sides resuming a noisy and pungent on-field dialogue from the moment the first ball is bowled.Both camps expect the verbal battle to return in the second Test, particularly after a lively and even ill-tempered final afternoon in Brisbane passed without either the umpires Billy Bowden and Asad Rauf or the match referee Ranjan Madugalle raising a formal charge against either side. The umpires did, though, have a cautionary word to the bowlers at various points of the five days. This has effectively defined a generous line for the players’ on-field aggression, leaving Adelaide to witness more jousting from Thursday.”It’s part of the game, once you get out in the middle and emotions start to rise, it’s good for the game to see a bit of competitive spirit out there between the two teams,” Michael Hussey said. “A lot of the players in the past have used it as a mental battle against batsmen and it’s probably worked in the past as well.”Whether it works on these South African batsmen I don’t know. They’ve shown they’ve been a great team for a period of time now, they don’t get to No. 1 in the world without enduring these sorts of things before. But once you get over that white line, competitive spirit between bat and ball starts, and there’s always going to be things that are said, but as long as it doesn’t go too far and players [don’t] cross the line I think it’s fine.”Clarke spoke before the series about “pushing the line” of legal aggression in this series, whether it was in terms of short-pitched bowling or a pointed choice of words. Australia’s players make no secret of their use of verbal aggression towards the opposition as a way of firing themselves up, something witnessed quite pointedly earlier this year during the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka when the ears of the Irish among others were left ringing by fighting words from the mouths of Shane Watson and David Warner in particular.In Brisbane it was James Pattinson who vented his distaste for batsmen most freely, with Smith copping plenty on the final afternoon after he pulled away from one delivery as the bowler entered his delivery stride. Ultimately Pattinson, who won the duel, delivered a send-off to South Africa’s captain that might have forced Madugalle to act had it been even a fraction more prolonged.Smith had played the role of instigator earlier in the match, confronting Ed Cowan with an attempt to disturb the opener’s concentration as he prepared to face up to the first over of the fourth day’s play. Smith’s words were brushed aside by Cowan, but provided further proof that Australia and South Africa are most comfortable when flinging a little mud each other’s way in pursuit of victory.Nevertheless, AB de Villiers noted that Australia’s bluster proved unsuccessful in the 2008-09 series in Australia, a useful reminder of the fact that sharp words can quickly appear hollow if not backed up by sharper deeds.”They thought so in 2008 as well and it didn’t really happen that way, so hopefully we can prove them wrong again,” de Villiers said of the contention that Australia considered sledging to be a way to get into South African heads.”There’s always a bit of chat around. We’re talking about two very good teams who want to win the game. You do whatever you can to get a few wickets when the pressure is on. Whatever you can do to get an edge over the opposition, you will do it.”

Shane Warne did not take a wicket but left a mark nonetheless as the Melbourne Stars edged past the Hobart Hurricanes in the final over of the BBL match at the MCG

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Dec-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThis was Ricky Ponting’s first domestic match since his international retirement•Getty Images

Shane Warne did not take a wicket but left a mark nonetheless as the Melbourne Stars edged past the Hobart Hurricanes in the final over of the BBL match at the MCG.Adding an edge to a contest already noteworthy as Ricky Ponting’s first domestic match since his international retirement, Warne offered a barbed critique of the Australian Twenty20 captain, George Bailey, who battled to 28 from 26 balls before falling victim to Cameron White.Twice Warne drew edges from Bailey that were not held, leaving the former Australia spin bowler to remark while miked up to the broadcasters: “You would think the Australian Twenty20 captain would smack me out of the park, wouldn’t you? Rather than keep nicking me?”White eventually dismissed Bailey, as the Hurricanes were restricted to 8 for 134. Clint McKay snared three wickets after Tim Paine had tried to hold the innings together following Ponting’s exit in the second over for eight, coincidentally the same score he made in his final Test innings.The Stars’ chase was guided in its early stages by Rob Quiney and Brad Hodge, before cameos by Cameron White and Glenn Maxwell took the hosts close enough to make the final result a formality, despite a noteworthy spell by the limited-overs specialist Ben Laughlin.After the match, Bailey said he had no intention of getting into a war of words with Warne. “Is it disrespectful? Until I actually see it I don’t think I’ll get into a war of words with Warnie,” Bailey said. “I think he’s still the world’s greatest leg-spinner isn’t he, who’s going to have a Test comeback at the age of 43? So he needs a bit of respect.”