The Australians will no doubt celebrate their series win in typically exuberant fashion, and the man leading the way will be Andrew Symonds. His scores in the last four matches have been 87, 89, 75, and, on Sunday a 107 not out in Nagpur. Ricky Ponting was understandably overjoyed with Symonds’ contribution but spoke about the contribution of others in the team at the post-match press conference.”This series has been a good contest and today was really good one. We got the wickets when we needed them. The game can change very quickly in this part of the world,” said Ponting. “Today we kept partnerships going and Symonds played a really sensible innings. I think his innings was the defining moment. He has been confident and has been a changed player from what he was five-six years ago.””But we had a number of meaningful contributions, it wasn’t just Symonds,” said Ponting. “[Brad] Hogg picked up four wickets and Mitchell [Johnson] and Brett [Lee] bowled really well too.”Symonds, for his part, said that the fall of wickets at the other end motivated him to stay focused and play cautiously. “If you look at our innings, wickets fell at times when ideally we didn’t want them to fall, and this meant I had to knuckle down a bit and help build a big total. It was a special innings and I really feel proud about it.”Ponting also felt the total of 317 was a good one, given the conditions, but with a fast outfield and a good batting pitch India were always in with a chance. “In the break I told my spinners that they’d have to bowl really well and they did that,” said Ponting. “That made the difference as we pulled back the runs in the middle overs.”After India’s strong first-wicket partnership of 140, their best of the series so far, Irfan Pathan was sent out to bat at No. 3, and this surprised quite a few people, including Ponting. “Sending Pathan at No. 3 was a bit surprising. The way we look at it is that we always want our best batsmen at the top of the order.”Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for his part, said that it was extremely difficult for batsmen who were new at the crease to score quickly after set batsmen had been dismissed. “We lost couple of wickets at the wrong time. Sachin [Tendulkar] and Sourav [Ganguly] got out at a time when we would have liked them to go on and we never got any partnerships after it,” he said. “The asking rate was always high and it is difficult for a batsman who has just come in to score at that rate.”Dhoni also conceded that India had struggled to get their game all together in the course of the series. “I think we never performed well in all three aspects of the game – batting, bowling and fielding – in one game. The only time we did well was in Chandigarh, when we did well in all aspects, and the result was in our favour.”

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

South Africa will long remember this day, one when they sealed a major series in the subcontinent after seven years. Pakistan will hurt after the reversal but will evoke memories of one of their finest batsmen, Inzamam-ul-Haq, bringing down the curtains on a resplendent career. Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf ensured Pakistan won the day; South Africa had done enough to secure the series.Well as they tried, South Africa’s bowlers couldn’t get past a set of batsmen who had steeled themselves for the rearguard. The story might have been different had Younis not been reprieved on 83 or had the new ball been taken earlier or had some of the edges not eluded the slip fielders but to Pakistan goes credit for hanging on. Younis’ aggression during his second century of the series blended well with Yousuf’s caution and Pakistan saw out the day with six wickets to spare.”Inzamam’s Test”, however, didn’t live up to its name. If the first-innings 14 was short, this one, a two-ball 3, was too abrupt. The anti-climax came a few minutes before tea when Inzamam, two short of Javed Miandad’s Pakistan record for the most number of Test runs, charged left-arm spinner Paul Harris, only to be stumped by distance. As South Africa celebrated, Inzamam walked off to a guard of honour from his side. The stunned silence at the Gaddafi Stadium soon gave way to a warm final applause, putting a full stop on a riveting chapter.Younis and Yousuf shone through the rest of the day. Resuming on 48, Younis showed no sign of reining in his aggressive instincts. He brought up his fifty with a streaky four, driving away from his body in the third over of the day, and celebrated it by crashing the next ball through covers for another four. He chanced his arm against Jacques Kallis: two airy scoops beat the short midwicket fielder set specifically for that shot. He enjoyed a large slice of luck when on 83, popping one straight to short midwicket only for Hashim Amla to spill the simplest of chances.

Younis was forced to slow down once Harris was introduced, the batsmen kept quiet with a defensive line from over the wicket, but occasionally attempted slog sweeps and innovative paddles. He was quick to pounce on anything off length, tucking anything slightly short in front of square, but preferred to play him out and take the attack to the rest. South Africa didn’t find it easy to dislodge him and it required Kallis to go round the wicket to induce an error, Younis nicking to the wicketkeeper while flashing outside off.Yousuf’s was a risk-free, stodgy innings, preferring caution to adventure. He occasionally cashed in on the loose offerings but didn’t try anything fancy. His 156-ball 63 held the innings together and he never really appeared to be going for the improbable win. The full-tosses and long-hops were dispatched but there wasn’t a moment when he tried anything out of the ordinary. It was a workmanlike effort, one that ensured that Pakistan ended the series on a positive note.South Africa’s previous big series win in the subcontinent was made possible by a left-arm spinner – Nicky Boje running through India in Bangalore – but another one couldn’t take them to 2-0 here. Harris snapped up two wickets in the day, forcing an indiscreet whip from Akmal and a reckless charge from Inzamam, but could have managed more with a bit of fortune. A couple of return chances fell short and a number of deliveries beat the outside edge of the bat without taking the snick.The rest of the attack wasn’t far behind. Andre Nel struck a probing length, Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini hustled the batsmen, and Kallis created opportunities. The pitch didn’t deteriorate that much and the prodigious spin was thanks more to the rough than the crumbling nature of the track. Graeme Smith delayed taking the new ball, probably to shut Pakistan out of the game completely, but he was the first one to pluck out a stump when the umpires called time, becoming only the second South African captain after Hansie Cronje to triumph in Pakistan.

Australia’s selectors have cast an eye to the future with their Chairman’s XI for Sri Lanka’s first warm-up match in Adelaide starting on Saturday. The side for the three-day match is made up of those who were not picked for the round of state games and has focussed on youth.Ronchi, the aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman, missed out on Western Australia’s Pura Cup team to face Victoria due to Adam Gilchrist’s return, but he has the chance to shine as captain of the XI. Ronchi’s team-mate Aaron Heal, the left-arm slow bowler, will also play after making way for Brad Hogg while Mick Lewis, the veteran of the group at 33, will be back in Adelaide following a successful domestic trip with Victoria’s one-day side last week.Doug Bollinger has been included after being pushed out by Brett Lee and Stuart Clark at New South Wales, who are hosting Queensland from Friday. He was overlooked by the Blues despite taking eight wickets in the Pura Cup win over Western Australia.South Australia have four representatives in Cullen Bailey, Australia’s back-up legspinner who missed the state’s trip to Hobart, Paul Rofe, Tom Plant and Callum Ferguson. The match was hastily arranged following a request from the Sri Lankan management, which felt one warm-up was not enough ahead of the two-Test series in Brisbane from November 8.Chairman’s XI Lloyd Mash, Greg Moller, Phillip Hughes, Luke Ronchi (capt, wk), Callum Ferguson, Tom Plant, Cullen Bailey, Doug Bollinger, Aaron Heal, Mick Lewis, Paul Rofe.

Scorecard Jalaj Saxena hit an unbeaten fifty to guide Madhya Pradesh to a four-wicket win against Jammu & Kashmir in a low-scoring thriller in Jammu. Having resumed on 18 for 3, needing a further 113 runs to win on the final day, MP lost three wickets to reach 85 for 6. Jalaj, who resumed the day on 11, then shared a 48-run stand in 16 overs with Murtaza Ali (29*) to steer MP home. Out for a duck in the first innings, Jalaj could not have found a better time to register his highest first-class score. The game had turned on its head on the third day when Anand Rajan grabbed a career-best six-wicket haul to help MP, who faced a first-innings deficit, shoot J&K out for 91.
Scorecard Powered by a career-best 7 for 90 from Ashraf Makda, Gujarat registered an innings victory against Tripura in Ahmedabad. At the start of the fourth day, the last six Tripura wickets needed 200 runs to make Gujarat bat again. Makda, the left-arm medium-pacer, grabbed four wickets as Gujarat took the required wickets in 42.4 overs of play to earn six points from the game. Nishit Shetty offered the lone fight with an 80, but he only managed to delay the inevitable.
ScorecardJharkhand lost their last six wickets for 52 runs as Haryana beat them by 132 runs with only three overs’ play to spare. Apart from the captain Manish Vardhan who scored 106, not a single Jharkhand batsman reached 20, extras (30) being the second-largest contributors to their score of 223.Haryana, after having attained a first-innings lead on the third day, had declared overnight with a lead 354 runs. Sachin Rana, their medium-pacer, followed his first-innings effort of three wickets with three more in the second innings.
ScorecardAt Palakkad, Kerala took the last five Services wickets for 25, enforced a follow-on, took eight second-innings wickets, but ran out of time and could not enforce an outright win. Services, who resumed at 325 for 5, collapsed to the bowling of Tinu Yohannad and Prasanth Chandran.Following on, Services made a steady start, but they lost their first two wickets at the score of 36. After a 69-run third-wicket stand, Services kept losing wickets consistently. Jasvir Singh and Yashpal Singh scored 43 runs each to keep them afloat. Sadanandan Anish, Kerala’s right-arm offbreak bowler, bowled 34 overs for his six wickets.
ScorecardGoa dismissed Railways for 425 to walk away with the first-innings points in Margao. Railways, in pursuit of Goa’s 535, began the day at 291 for 5, with wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat approaching his first century for Railways. Rawat missed the ton by four, and his wicket at the team score of 348 triggered a collapse as the next four could add only 57 runs. Karan Sharma, who had scored a century in the previous game – his debut – was left stranded at 70. Harshad Gadekar and Robin D’souza took three wickets apiece for Goa.
ScorecardAfter rain had washed out close to three days of play, Assam and Vidarbha couldn’t force a first-innings result and took away a point apiece. Assam, resuming at 65 for 2, scored 216, thanks largely to S Sharath’s 60. Pritam Gandhe, the Vidarbha offbreak bowler, bowled 15.4 economical overs in which he took four wickets and gave way 20 runs.Alind Naidu, Vidarbha’s No. 3, made sure there won’t be any hiccups in getting the one point, by scoring 48 runs.

Geoff Boycott has urged the game’s administrators to consider revamping Test cricket to make it more appealing to a modern audience.He said that crowds at recent Tests in Australia, India and South Africa had shown that in most countries the public no longer bought into the traditional five-day format.”I think the national boards of all the countries should take responsibility,” Boycott told Cricinfo. “The pace of life has changed. [Years ago] an India-Pakistan Test would be sold out twice over and you wouldn’t be able to get a seat. But people today have jobs and they don’t want a Test match to last five days.”I would recommend four-day Tests. I would try to increase the over-rate, because people want to pack more into life, and I would play day-night Tests. Kerry Packer tried it in 1977-78 and ’78-79. He had a few Tests that were played at night and they got good crowds. I think it is time the administrators did something about this.”India is one of the places to try it because their board is forward-looking. It can do whatever it wants: it is wealthy and powerful and it can get crowds in at night.”In the second season of World Series Cricket the Supertests were played over four days starting at 2.30pm and continuing until 10.30pm with shortened intervals. The total playing time was 30 hours – the same as in a normal Test – and the matches were played under lights. They were popular and attracted much higher audiences than the traditional daytime games.

Imran Khan believes Australia should go ahead with their scheduled tour of Pakistan this year despite the unrest in the country after the assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Imran, an opposition politician in Pakistan, said Cricket Australia and its players should not be influenced by images of street violence after Bhutto’s death and he did not expect the unrest to last too long.”I don’t think the cricketers are under any threat at all,” Imran told the Melbourne radio station . “Obviously it looks much worse from there than it is living in Pakistan. This is not going to last two months to when the Australians appear. In the context of cricket, there will be nothing to worry about if the tour is in March. I don’t think the Australians should have any worries.”Imran’s comments came as Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan captain, offered to take calls from any Australian players who had concerns over their security if the tour went ahead. Andrew Symonds said on the weekend that he would be willing to pull out of the trip if he was not satisfied his safety could be guaranteed.”I would like to speak to them personally and tell them that we will have good security for them in Pakistan,” Malik told the . “India have come here and there was a lot of talk then, but in the end there was no problem. It will be the same for Australia.”I do not want to comment about the politics. I am a sportsman and not very good about talking about politics. But I would like to say that with what is happening in my country, it is getting under control, and it will get better. There is still more than two months. It would be bad for the game and for the people in Pakistan if they did not come.”Cricket Australia is still planning to send a security delegation to Pakistan in February to assess the situation and determine whether the team can visit as planned. But the date of the Pakistan election – and whether it proceeds as scheduled on January 8 – is looming as a critical issue in whether Australia will deem conditions safe for the security delegation to make its trip.Nasim Ashraf, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has again said there would be no repeat of 2002-03, when Pakistan’s home Tests against Australia were relocated to Sri Lanka and Sharjah. “Playing at a neutral venue is not an option with us,” Ashraf told , “because it’s not only cricket, it’s a matter of the development of the game and the fans’ interest so we are confident that Australia will not deprive our fans.”

Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen believes Mitchell Johnson might be the man who can unnerve India’s strong batting line-up if he is picked for the Boxing Day Test. Johnson was impressive in his first two Tests against Sri Lanka last month but the re-emergence of Shaun Tait has left him uncertain of a place for the Melbourne match.However, Johnson has an excellent record against India in one-day internationals with 19 wickets at an average of 16 and he was the leading wicket-taker for either side in the recent ODI series in India. Nielsen said that would work in his favour when the selectors decided on their final 11 for Boxing Day.”He’s had really good success,” Nielsen said. “He’s knocked over their top order consistently over the last couple of years. When the selectors sit down and have a look at the best mix for a team against India I’m sure the fact Mitchell’s knocked over the likes of Tendulkar and Ganguly and Dravid consistently over the last couple of years will be a big tick in his box.”Tait was still recovering from elbow surgery when Australia played Sri Lanka, leaving Johnson as the obvious candidate to back up Brett Lee and Stuart Clark in the pace attack. But Johnson was left out of the ODIs against New Zealand as Australia wanted to give Tait some match time and Tait’s success meant Johnson was suddenly being mentioned as a possible 12th man for Boxing Day.”He’s been so good in the Test match arena especially,” Nielsen said. “The biggest challenge for him is not to think ‘what do I have to change to get back in’ it’s just to understand that 12 doesn’t fit into 11 [for the ODIs].”Australia have not decided whether to experiment with a four-man pace attack in Melbourne as the MCG pitch remains a mystery. Rain has bucketed down in Melbourne over the past few days, meaning the centre-wicket area is still under cover.

A “vague” Indian Premier League (IPL) contract might be the reason why Shane Bond, the New Zealand fast bowler, opted to sign for the Indian Cricket League (ICL), a move that ultimately led to the end of his international career.Bond, speaking to the , said New Zealand Cricket (NZC) wanted him to sign up with the IPL, but by then was in negotiations with the ICL. “They [NZC] wanted me to go to the IPL because they were pushing their players that way. But I was really thorough with what I had gone through with the ICL,” Bond said. “I had a full contract that I had been through with the lawyers and they were really happy with it. It covered off every eventuality I could think of.”Then I was given the IPL offer, but it was a one-and-a-half page memorandum of understanding that was really vague.”Bond said he did what he thought was the right decision after consultation. “I spoke to the Players’ Association and with the lawyers and they both said ‘you can’t sign that because you don’t know what you’re signing’.” The New Zealand Players’ Association had slammed the contracts offered by the IPL last year.”At the time I had to make a decision and it was easy, really. One was thorough and I knew what I was getting myself into and the other one I didn’t really know what was going on,” Bond said. “It was a simple decision in some respects.”It’s been disappointing that everything has been clouded because I’m a very black-and-white sort of person,” Bond said. “With the various things being written and said in the media, it almost looks like it’s been clouded to make it reflect poorly on me. I wanted to do everything properly, to get a release, to let people know what was happening so we could move forward. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, I wasn’t able to do that.”But some people are always going to think you’re a traitor, and I can live with that,” he said. “There’s a right way and a wrong way of going about improving your circumstances and I think I went about it the right way, so I don’t understand why people would be calling me disloyal.”I find it strange that in any other job people accept that you try to improve your circumstances and get in a better position to provide for your family, but it’s almost like you’re not supposed to do that in sport. I don’t understand that; maybe it’s because professional sport is so new in this country. “He warned that cases similar to his will crop up in the future in New Zealand. “Even though I’m gone now, this is going to be an issue that keeps affecting the game here – whether it’s domestic or international players, or fringe international players who are looking at other opportunities. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.”He suggested his constant injuries did play on his mind as well, especially on contemplating retirement from Tests. “I got off the plane from South Africa and thought it was just going to be the usual rehabilitation then back into it. I had a scan and found out I was going to be out for two months and got really down in the dumps.”I started thinking about it and came to the realisation I didn’t want to go through that feeling of coming home from a tour early again. I looked at last year where I got through the whole year and went to the World Cup and everything went brilliantly.”The whole year was basically one-dayers, so I started looking back to when I had problems and it was almost always in Test cricket.”

Retired Australian stars such as Michael Kasprowicz, Damien Martyn and Jason Gillespie were named in the squads announced by the unofficial Indian Cricket League for its Grand Championships. The event which starts on March 9 features eight teams – including one consisting entirely of Pakistan players – up from the six in the inaugural Twenty20 tournament held last December in Panchkula.Kasprowicz called time on his first-class career last month, finishing with a record 501 wickets for Queensland. “The decision to join ICL was actually a no-brainer. I have played 19 years of first-class cricket for Queensland, have had my time at the top with Australia and have also played county cricket,” he told Cricinfo. “It would be a great opportunity for me to live in India and play here. I love coming to India, I love the passion, hospitality and the people here. My best days of international career were here.”Asked whether he would able to give his 100% commitment while playing a Twenty20 league, he said, “It’s about personal pride. You can’t relax while playing and I have always played my cricket hard.”He also questioned the rationale behind banning players who have joined the ICL. “It can only be good for Indian cricket,” he said. “So many domestic players get a chance to play with the players from around the world and the quality can only go up. It’s sad that the players are being banned.”The other big-name signings for the ICL include New Zealand pair Shane Bond and Lou Vincent, Justin Kemp, Heath Streak, Russel Arnold and Wavell Hinds.Squads for Grand championships
Ahmedabad Rockets Damien Martyn (capt), Murray Goodwin, Heath Streak, Wavell Hinds, Jason Gillespie, Abhishek Tamrakar, Anshu Jain, Baburao Yadav, P Bhima Rao, Parviz Aziz, Rakesh Patel, Pallav Vora, Reetinder Sodhi, Sachin Dholpure, KM Sanjeev, Sridharan Sriram, Sumit Kalia
Chandigarh Lions Chris Cairns (capt), Mathew Elliot, Lou Vincent, Andrew Hall, Daryl Tuffey, Amit Uniyal, Bipul Sharma, Chetan Sharma, Dinesh Mongia, Gaurav Gupta, Harpreet Singh, Ishan Malhotra, Karanveer Singh, Love Ablish, Manish Sharma, Rajesh Sharma, Sarabjeet Singh, Tejinder Pal Singh
Chennai Superstars Stuart Law (capt), Ian Harvey, Russel Arnold, Shabbir Ahmed, Adam Parore, Michael Bevan, G Vignesh, Hemang Badani, Hemanth Kumar, J Hariesh, P Vivek, R Jesuraj, R Sathish, Syed Mohammed, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, Thirunavukarasu Kumaran, V Devendran, Vasanth Saravanan
Delhi Giants Marvan Atapattu (capt), Avishka Gunawardene, Nic Pothas, Dale Benkenstein, Shane Bond, Abbas Ali, Abhinav Bali, Abhishek Sharma, Abid Nabi, Ali Murtaza, Dhruv Mahajan, Dishant Yagnik, JP Yadav, Mohnish Mishra, Raghav Sachdev, Shalabh Srivastava, Taduri Prakash Sudhindra, Ali Hamid Zaidi
Hyderabad Heroes Chris Harris (capt), Nicky Boje, Justin Kemp, Abdul Razzaq, Jimmy Maher, Alfred Absolem, Ambati Rayudu, Anirudh Singh, Ibrahim Khaleel, Inder Shekar Reddy, Kaushik Reddy, Pagadala Niranjan, Shashank Nag, Stuart Binny, Syed Sahabuddin, Vinay Kumar, Zakaria Zuffri
Kolkata Tigers Craig McMillan (capt), Lance Klusener, Upul Chandana, Nantie Hayward, Andre Adams, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abu Nechim, Deep Dasgupta, Mihir Diwakar, Pritam Das, Rajiv Kumar, Rohan Gavaskar, Sayed Akhlakh Ahmed, Shiv Sagar Singh, Subhomoy Das, Sujay Tarafdar
Lahore Badshahs Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Azhar Mahmood, Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Shahid Nazir, Hasan Raza, Naveed Latif, Humayun Farhat, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Sami, Arshad Khan, Riaz Afridi
Mumbai Champs Brian Lara (capt), Nathan Astle, Johan Van der Wath, Tino Best, Michael Kasprowicz, Anupam Sanklecha, Avinash Yadav, Dheeraj Jadhav, Kiran Powar, Nikhil Mandale, Pushkaraj Joshi, Ranjit Khirid, Robin Morris, Shreyas Khanolkar, Shridhar Iyer, Subhojit Paul, Suyash Burkul, Raviraj Patil

Scorecard
New Zealand jumped right back into Rose Bowl contention with a crunching 82-run win against Australia to leave the series level at 1-1. The home side made plenty of 240-plus scores at the Lincoln ground against England without always winning but found 238 was more than enough in the second match to conquer Australia, the current holders.Katey Martin’s good form continued with 45, while Nicola Browne and Amy Satterthwaite both posted 48. Sarah Andrews was Australia’s best bowler with two wickets, while Ellyse Perry, Shelley Nitschke and Lisa Sthalekar both took one.New Zealand’s new-ball pairing of Helen Watson and Sophie Devine then worked well together, taking two wickets each to set Australia on the back foot at 4 for 43. They could not recover, as Lucy Doolan chipped in with 3 for 42.Australia will take some comfort from a half-century from Jodie Purves, who was included as a specialist batsman while Leonie Coleman kept wicket. Her fifth-wicket stand of 82 with Perry made the score more respectable but by the time it was broken Australia needed ten an over from the last ten overs, which proved too much.