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Match facts

Wednesday, September 14
Start time 1730 (1530 GMT)
Mahela Jayawardene will want to make up for his duck in Wayamba’s opening game against Warriors•Manoj Ridimahaliyadda

Big Picture

There were a couple of surprises in the first phase of the Champions League Twenty20, but Chennai Super Kings emerged with their reputation unblemished after a clinical victory over Central Districts in Durban. Chennai’s opponents for Wednesday’s clash in Centurion, Wayamba, have been quite understated in the build-up to the tournament but promise to present a stronger challenge to the IPL champions. They were beaten by Warriors in their opening game but not before overcoming a horrid start with the bat and creating several chances in the field. Some of their experienced crew, including Mahela Jayawardene and Farveez Maharoof, however, failed to perform, and they’ll be the focus in their attempt to stay in the hunt in this competition.Chennai’s ruthlessness with the ball, on show against Central Districts, will be hard to replicate. Muttiah Muralitharan and R Ashwin shared four wickets in miserly spells. But how they cope in this tournament against a side more accustomed to handling such variations remains to be seen. For Wayamba, the worry remains their pace attack comprising Maharoof, Chanaka Welegedera and Thisara Perera; they conceded 82 in 8.2 overs between them, a performance that does not augur well for a contest against a power-packed batting line-up.

Team news

Wayamba have pace allrounders Isuru Udana and Shalika Karunanayake in their squad and they could feature in the team’s calculations should they choose to replace any of their seamers. Legspinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi had an off day against the Warriors, conceding 25 in two overs, and could prompt the team to revisit its pre-match plans.Wayamba (possible): 1 Mahela Jayawardene, 2 Jeevantha Kulatunga, 3 Mahela Udawatte, 4 Jehan Mubarak (capt), 5 Kushal Perera (wk), 6 Thisara Perera, 7 Farveez Maharoof,, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Shalika Karunanayake, 10 Isuru Udana, 11 Ajantha Mendis.Given their comprehensive win against Central Districts, Chennai could go in with the same XI.Chennai (possible): 1 M Vijay, 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 S Badrinath, 5 MS Dhoni (capt and wk), 6 S Anirudha, 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Doug Bollinger, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 L Balaji.

Watch out for…

The success of Doug Bollinger has been one to savour for Chennai.He was one of their star performers during their IPL triumph with 17 wickets in eight games at 17.25 and is a huge asset with his persistence and combativeness with the new ball. He picked up 2 for 10 in his team’s tournament opener and will target the Wayamba top order with some of its bigger names searching for form after the first game.Mahela Jayawardene fell for a second-ball duck against the Warriors, a rarity in his stint for Wayamba as well as Sri Lanka in the opening slot. He remains best-equipped to handle Chennai’s pace arsenal up front as well as their spin threat. Watch out for his face-off, if we come to that, against the other half of one of the most successful bowler-fielder combinations in cricket.

Key contests

Bat v Spin: Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath conceded just 43 in eight overs against the Warriors while Murali and Ashwin tasted success in Chennai’s opening game. Wayamba will be relying heavily on their slow bowlers given the lackluster show their seamers put forward against the Warriors. But against a bunch of batsmen with a penchant for finding the ropes, the ability of Mendis and Herath to contain the scoring faces a stern test.

Stats and trivia

Jeevantha Kulatunga is Wayamba’s highest run-getter in Twenty20 cricket with686 in 23 games at 40.35. His average is the best in the team followed by Mahela Jayawardene with 31.28. Thisara Perera is the highest wicket-taker with 28 in 23 games at 17.84. Isuru Udana averages 14.12 for his 25 wickets in 15 games.Albie Morkel will be playing his 129th Twenty20 game on Wednesday, keeping him tied with Victoria captain David Hussey for the most Twenty20 matches played.

Quotes

“Most of our boys know how to handle him”
Jeevantha Kulatunga backs the Wayamba batsmen against Murali.

Ricky Ponting is not planning to retire from Tests after the Ashes and Australia’s selection chairman is hoping he maintains the desire to stay on. Ponting’s camp has dismissed speculation he is considering standing down and Andrew Hilditch has stepped in to support the 35-year-old’s long-term ambitions.Hilditch does not believe Ponting, who has been in charge for 71 matches, is mapping out his retirement plans. “I’d be expecting Ricky just to be focussing at the moment on trying to win back the Ashes, which is the highest priority for him and the team,” Hilditch said. “I suspect he hasn’t thought much about his future past then, [the Ashes] is just a high priority for him at the moment. I’m hoping he achieves that goal and is playing well and wants to play on.”Last month Ponting again toyed with the idea of going back to England in 2013 in an effort to correct the mistakes of the past two Ashes tours, but his batting has begun to wane to the point he is now successfully attacked by rival teams. Since The Oval defeat Ponting has averaged 40.61 in 10 Tests, the figures of a good player instead of a great of the game. When his 209 against Pakistan is taken away, an innings which began with a dropped catch, his mean falls to a modest 29.5.It is hard to believe Ponting will continue if he can’t recapture his elite standards, and a farewell involving the Ashes and the World Cup could be enticing. One thing Ponting won’t do in the meantime is back down, not from pulling early in his innings or demoting himself in the order.There has been talk of Ponting slotting in at five or six, like Steve Waugh and Allan Border when they finished their careers, and allowing Michael Clarke to enter at first-drop. Hilditch won’t be suggesting a move. “I’d be expecting him to play out his career at No.3,” Hilditch said. “That’s where he’s always batted, and played such a great role for Australia in that position, so I wouldn’t envisage it changing.”Australia’s next Test duty is a two-match series in India in October, with the Ashes beginning in Brisbane on November 25. Shane Warne has called the schedule “a shambles”, but Hilditch is not concerned and believes the contest against the No.1-ranked side will be ideal ahead of England’s visit.”Two hard Tests against India, I think it’s a really good preparation,” he said. “It will be tough, this is their first real break for a couple of years, and they are playing in somewhere we haven’t been terribly successful.”It’s a real big challenge, it will be a monumental one for them, but it will get them very quickly Test-match hardened for the Ashes. All I can say is that preparation won’t be an excuse. There’s plenty of cricket.”Australia are currently on a two-month break after finishing a disappointing tour of England, which included a lost one-day series and a drawn Test campaign with Pakistan. The time off gives some key players a chance to recover from injury and Hilditch expects Nathan Hauritz, the offspinner, to have overcome his foot problem in time for the India tour.He said Brad Haddin was also on track for the trip and had resumed batting following a lingering elbow problem that prevented him from going to England. Peter Siddle, the fast bowler, won’t be ready for India, and is due to return from back stress fractures in the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa next month.

Lalit Modi’s legal counsel has asked the disciplinary committee formed by the BCCI to hear his case to provide him with minutes of meetings of the special general body of the board and the IPL governing council. The suspended IPL chairman has also asked for a copy of the amended agreement between the board and Sony-MSM, the parent company of the league’s Indian broadcaster.”We have asked for some documents. These are crucial to the proceedings which are already underway as the disciplinary committee and the jurisdiction of the disciplinary committee flows from these documents,” Modi’s lawyer Mehmood Abdi told .”It is essential for us to have access to these documents since the contents we’ve asked will have far-reaching implications for us. BCCI should provide us these documents as the same have implications on the core-issue of recusal, which the disciplinary committee is scheduled to finally decide at its meeting on July 27, 2010 in Delhi.”Modi had filed additional documents to bolster his demand for the removal of interim IPL chairman Chirayu Amin and BCCI vice-president Arun Jaitley from the disciplinary committee that is hearing his case. Modi has repeatedly demanded the removal of Amin from the panel, claiming he holds a grudge because Modi revealed he was part of a failed bid for one of the two new IPL franchises. Modi’s lawyers have also argued Jaitley should not be on the panel either because he had voted to ratify the charges against Modi at the board’s special general body meeting on July 3.”The Board has pleaded before the Bombay High Court that the appointment of the present committee and its charter flows out of the decision taken by the members of the Board in the said meeting,” Modi said. “The jurisdiction of the present committee stems from the said minutes hence it is necessary that these be provided to the applicant.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outTatenda Taibu hustled Zimbabwe to their second-highest Twenty20 score, but it proved insufficient as India strolled home•AFP

Suresh Raina and M Vijay made light work of Zimbabwe’s second-highest total in Twenty20 internationals, smacking five sixes and eight fours between them to set up a seven-wicket win, and with that the 2-0 sweep of the Twenty20 series. Sweeps and reverse-sweeps from Tatenda Taibu and a late cameo from Charles Coventry took Zimbabwe to their mildly competitive total, but it could be argued they lost the match in their Powerplay that went for only 21 runs.After paying for too many strokes too early in the first match, Zimbabwe erred on the side of caution in the second. There were 48 dot balls in the innings, five of them because Hamilton Masakadza shouldered arms to the first six deliveries he faced, one of them a wide. He was out to the first aggressive shot he played, hitting straight down mid-off’s throat. Brendan Taylor and Chamu Chibhabha didn’t try any big shots off the seamers, and Chibhabha fell to an expansive slog-sweep in the sixth over, bowled by Pragyan Ojha.By the time Taylor, who struggled to get singles in his 31-ball 26, got out to a superb catch on the long-off boundary by Yusuf Pathan, Zimbabwe had reached only 64 in the 13th over. Taibu, though, was playing a different game: sweeping, reverse-sweeping, running fast, hitting the spinners off their lengths. He may have hit only two boundaries – a sweep of each variety – but had raced to 25 off 18 when Taylor got out. Coventry came out and made one wonder just why the top order batted so slowly. He reverse-swept R Ashwin for two boundaries in the 16th over, and between those two hits fit an exquisite six over extra cover. Vinay offered him length in the next over, and Coventry got another six.Dinda removed Coventry with a perfect yorker in the 18th over, for a 13-ball 28. Elton Chigumbura played a mini cameo, looting Ashwin in the penultimate over for six, six and four, but Suresh Raina took a blinder running from midwicket towards deep midwicket to control the damage.Raina was in damage-inflicting mood when he came in to bat, with 32 runs up in five overs. Vijay had by then – not entire convincingly – converted a slow start into an acceptable one. He kept clearing his leg and swinging, he missed a couple, but the ones he connected travelled. Raina’s method involved fewer risks. He kept targeting midwicket and extra cover, and connected well on most occasions.Raina wasted little time, and punched the third ball he faced past extra cover for four. It was all India after that. Vijay hit two massive sixes, Raina responded with a four and a six over midwicket, and India had reached 89 in 12 overs. Two boundaries either side of square leg in Ray Price’s 14th over, and Raina had caught up with Vijay in quick time.Vijay fell four short of fifty, but Raina kept timing them beautifully. The six that brought up his half century, a low full toss hit over long-off, was effortless, and brought the equation down to 23 off 29, putting the matter beyond any reasonable doubt.

Lalit Modi has requested the BCCI for documentary proof relating to the charges levelled against him•AFP

Lalit Modi: Page 1, Para 2- I have been charged that IPLcontracts have been executed by me without the authority of thegoverning council, but no copies of the agreements have been provided.N Srinivasan: Page 1, para 2A reading of the show cause noticewould establish that the Governing Council of the IPL authorized thesigning of an agreement with the successful franchise ‘Emerging Media(IPL) Limited’ and not ‘Jaipur IPL Cricket (Pvt) Limited’. This isclear from page 5 of the show cause notice. Similarly, the agreementsand cancellation documents referred from para 3 till para 8 on pages17, 18 and 19 of the show cause notice were without approval of theGoverning Council. This fact is mentioned in para 9 of the show causenotice at page 20.Modi: Page 1, Para 3- I have been charged with tarnishing BCCI’simage through my statements in the media and alleged misdeeds, butit’s not substantiated with proof.Srinivasan: These communications received by the BCCI Presidentfrom Senior officers, Committee members and others expressing theirconcern about tarnishing the image of the BCCI and the game of cricketwere all oral communications. I am sure that even you would have beenconcerned at the adverse image suffered by the BCCI and the game ofcricket on account of the media reports which had appeared at the timeof issuance of the show cause notice.Modi: Page 2 Para 2- If any written record of consultationexists, please provide me with the same.Srinivasan: The consultation referred to in the paragraph withthe BCCI President was oral. There is no written record of theconsultation.Modi: Page 2, Para 1- The show cause states I have proxy stakein 3 IPL franchisees, but there are no copies of such reports.Srinivasan The reports which suggest that you have proxy stakesin the three franchisees of the IPL had all appeared in the media,particularly in the electronic media. I am sure you have also seensuch reports. The BCCI does not maintain a record of these mediareports.Modi: Page 5 Para 4- your notice refers to the ‘register ofmembers of Jaipur IPL cricket Pvt Ltd. Please supply me with a copy of thesame.Srinivasan: The Register of members of the Jaipur IPL Pvt.Limited will be supplied.Modi: Page 6 Para 5- you stated that details have been gatheredfrom documents apparently submitted by the Franchisee subsequent tothe agreement. Kindly provide me with copies of such document.Srinivasan: Details which have been gathered from documentssubmitted by the franchise subsequent to the agreement will besupplied.Modi: Page 11- Show cause states that subtle messages were sentto corporate entities that they were unwelcome to bid. But no names orcopies of messages have been provided.Srinivasan: It was brought to the notice of the BCCI by areliable source that such messages were given to him. Since thiscommunication was privileged and confidential, the name of the personis being held up. This information was provided orally.Modi: Page 15- It has been stated the Kochi contract had to besigned under a directive of the BCCI president. But, no copies of thewritten directive exist.Srinivasan: President BCCI on hearing that there was a delay inexecuting the contract with the Kochi franchise, orally informed you,Ms. Akhila Kaushik and Shri Sundar Raman that this was completelyunfair and he wanted the contract to be signed and executed forthwith.This communication was given to you orally on telephone.Modi: Page 27- You have stated that MOU with LCM dealt withrights already committed to Nimbus with who BCCI has an ongoingcontract. Provide me the agreement between BCCI-Nimbus.Srinivasan: The copy of the agreement between Nimbus and BCCIwill be supplied.Modi: Page 27, Para 2- you have referred to objection raised byNimbus, supple (sic) me with copy of the same and the BCCI reply.Srinivasan: Copies of the letter written by Nimbus will be supplied.

Man of the Match Brendan Taylor has put down Zimbabwe’s six-wicket win over India to a combined effort that was unlike many of his team’s performances in the past. “This was a thoroughly good all-round performance on a flat wicket, and it’s nice to see the guys chipping in,” Taylor, who top scored for his team with 81, said. “We’ve always struggled in the past when one guy chips in and everyone struggles.”Taylor, during his 103-ball stay, was involved in two major partnerships that set up Zimbabwe’s successful chase of a seemingly formidable 285. He added 88 in 13 overs with opener Hamilton Masakadza, and followed it up with a further 63 with Greg Lamb. The second stand consumed 16.3 overs, and when Taylor fell with the score on 176, Zimbabwe’s required rate had crept to more than seven-an-over. The flat wicket and the presence of some power-players down the order, however, meant Zimbabwe had to preserve their wickets for a good part of the chase, Taylor said.”The plan was to basically just keep knocking the ball around. We know we have Andy Blignaut and Elton [Chigumbura] at the bottom there and Charles [Coventry] coming in too. So we’ve got the firepower to catch up in the end with the batting Powerplay. There wasn’t really too much risk to be taken.”We were trying to bat the way they [India] sort of started; construct the innings pretty well. It was a nice wicket to bat on, [the strategy was to] not lose too many wickets and back yourself to really have a go.”Chigumbura, leading Zimbabwe for the first time, was off the mark with the ball, conceding 26 in an over which included 14 wides and a no-ball, but chipped in during the chase, combining with debutant Craig Ervine in an unbeaten 58-run stand to steer his team home. “It wasn’t easy for me,” he said of his first match as captain. “I thought I let the team down in the first half but some of the guys played well. We had a good partnership first up which gave us a good foundation to win the game.”The plan was for the seamers to get one or two wickets to make it easy for the spinners, but it went the other way – only one seamer bowled well. I thought the rest of the spinners bowled well.”It’s a good start for Craig Ervine to score a half-century on debut. The main focus now is to be consistent as a team.”Suresh Raina, unlike his Zimbabwean counterpart, had a poor start to his captaincy, as his bowlers, particularly the inexperienced seamers, failed to measure up in a determined chase by the hosts. The batting Powerplay available to Zimbabwe at the death, with Chigumbura and Ervine cashing in, cost India the game, he said. “It [the target] was defendable. Amit Mishra bowled really well, [Ravindra] Jadeja also. But they still had a Powerplay left at the end, and a couple of their players batted really well. That’s what cost the game for us.”The highlight of India’s performance was a maiden ODI century from Rohit Sharma, who helped them recover from 67 for 3. The bowling, though, according to Raina, needed improvement if India were to challenge Sri Lanka in their next fixture. “The way Rohit was hitting the ball was remarkable,” Raina said. “We need to work on our bowling. A couple of players are playing for the first time, but hopefully they will learn from this mistake.”India take on Sri Lanka in the next game of the series on May 30 in Bulawayo.

Afghanistan have been breaking new ground for the last two years. Their rapid rise up the world rankings, and ultimately a place at the World Twenty20, has captured the hearts and minds of the cricket world. Now comes another new challenge for them. On Saturday, in St Lucia, they will play India in front of a sell-out crowd with pictures being beamed back to local television in Kabul and beyond.It’s a lot to take in, but Afghanistan show no signs of a backward step after their five-wicket victory against Ireland on their first full day in the Caribbean. Even for what was, ultimately, nothing more than a practice game there will be huge celebrations back home at the result. There always are when Afghanistan win, which they’ve done a lot lately, but it leads to some huge expectations for the 15 players on duty in West Indies.”We met our president, Hamid Kharzai, a month ago and he just asked us to win the World Cup,” the coach Kabir Khan said with a laugh and a smile, sitting alongside his captain Nowroz Mangal. “Even when it’s a friendly game the scores are live on the internet and the TV shows them at the bottom.”So now we’ve beaten Ireland in a friendly game they will be celebrating, that’s how big it has gone. It’s a lot of pressure on us. They don’t want us to lose. The demands are very high, they expect a lot from us and it can go both ways, but so far the boys have given them a lot of trophies.”That run of success – starting with the World Cricket League Division Five and cumulating in February’s victory in the World Twenty20 qualifiers – has brought much joy to a troubled nation, but at the same time the fans, many of whom are new to cricket, expect the team to win every time they walk onto the field.”They don’t know a lot about cricket, they just see the team is winning so think it should be good enough,” Khan explained. “If they can win one tournament why not the World Cup? It’s all the same for them. We often get asked when we are going to beat Australia or Pakistan, so those are the questions we have to answer sometimes and we just have to calm them a little.”Most teams talk about the pressure of expectation, and in Afghanistan’s case it’s plain to see. However, they are likely to receive an extra boost from the crowds, because if their warm-up against Ireland was any marker, they will be everyone’s second-favourite team – much like West Indies used to be.”The good thing about the team is that at every level they have lifted their game. Everything about them has improved at each stage,” Khan added. “I know there will be pressure; there will the pressure of television, the pressure of the crowd but they are quick learners and I hope they will adjust to it.”Mangal has the daunting task of dealing with the hopes of a country who are now expecting nothing less than victory every time. However, he can only see the positive in Afghanistan’s situation and is happy to dream about more memorable days.”It’s a great honour for us to be playing at this level and it’s a great achievement for us to be here at a World Cup,” he said. “The team we qualified with, Ireland, we have come here and beaten so it shows our standards are there and obviously we hope something very special will happen over the next week.”Surely, though, they don’t have realistic hopes of causing an upset when the tournament proper starts? India and South Africa are at the top of the pile in world cricket, packed with powerful batting, bowling of the pace Afghanistan have never seen and, in India’s case, no shortage of spin quality.”Obviously we have got two very good teams in our group, we know that, but we have seen in Twenty20 anything can happen,” Khan said. “It can be anyone’s game on the day if you play well and if we play well there is a chance of an upset. The boys are very well prepared and the best thing for them, and for me, is that we aren’t just here to participate – we are going to play hard cricket, we are going to play tough cricket.”We are positive, but win or lose, for me as a coach, achieving this status in the World Cup is a much bigger thing for me. But if they can give me a win I’ll be delighted.”Delighted probably wouldn’t be the right word to sum up the reaction in Afghanistan if India and South Africa are humbled in the coming days.

As Cricket Scotland look to increase the professionalism of their side, Richie Berrington, one of Scotland’s most promising young players, has been awarded a full-time contract. He becomes the sixth player to receive such a contract, joining Dewald Nel, Majid Haq, Gordon Goudie, Kyle Coetzer and Calum MacLeod.”Richie has demonstrated a desire to work hard at developing his game,” said head coach Peter Steindl. “This full-time contract will enable him to take the next step and fulfill his potential as one of Scotland’s most talented cricketers.”Berrington, 22, had been one of four Scotland players on seasonal contracts, which come into effect between April and September. The allrounder, who was born in Pretoria, has already collected 34 senior Scotland caps since graduating from the Under-19 side, proving particularly effective in twenty20 and first-class cricket.

England XI 155 for 3 (Cook 51, Prior 64*) beat BCB XI 151 for 8 (Alauddin 43*) by seven wickets
ScorecardRyan Sidebottom is congratulated after taking a wicket•Getty Images

England completed their warm-ups for Sunday’s first ODI by easing to a comfortable seven-wicket win against the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI at Fatullah. In a rain-reduced contest, the result was never in doubt after England’s bowlers reduced their opponents to 80 for 7 inside the first 22 overs of the match. An eighth-wicket stand of 55 between Tanvir Haider and Alauddin Babu ensured a reasonably competitive total of 151 for 8, but the target was knocked off with 11.4 overs remaining.Alastair Cook did the damage at the top of the order, easing to 52 from 51 balls before retiring at 81 for 1, whereupon Matt Prior – relieved of the gloves to give Craig Kieswetter a chance to show the full range of his abilities – did his best to keep his own place in the starting XI with an unbeaten 64. Prior did, however, survive in peculiar circumstances shortly before the conclusion of the match, when he holed out to deep midwicket for 51, only for the umpire to call dead-ball, apparently because of some interfering music from the stands.Genuine alarms were few and far between for England’s batsmen, although Kevin Pietersen missed out on time in the middle for the second match running. He was promoted to open after his controversial first-ball duck on Tuesday, but managed just 6 before slashing Babu to Junaid Siddique at slip. Eoin Morgan was the other man to fall, as he sized up a reverse sweep off Mahmudul Hasan, and was bowled for 9.After torrential overnight rain, the match began more than two hours behind schedule, with the overs reduced to 37 per side. When the BCB XI top-order collapsed to Ryan Sidebottom and Tim Bresnan, it seemed that the recalculation would be immaterial. But Haider instilled a measure of calm with a well-constructed 35, before Babu cracked five late boundaries to top-score with 43 and give the innings some respectability.Sidebottom made the first breakthrough when Shahriar Nafees prodded a simple chance to Bresnan at mid-on, only two balls after his opening partner, Siddique, had been put down at second slip by James Tredwell. Siddique was unable to make his good fortune count, however, as Tredwell soon made amends to give Bresnan his first wicket of the innings.Aftab Ahmed has a hard-hitting reputation, and he briefly thrilled a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd by clobbering Sidebottom over square leg for six, before belting Bresnan straight back down the ground. But in the same over, he nibbled outside off, to give an easy catch to Kieswetter behind the stumps.One over later, and Imtiaz Hossain missed a straight one from Sidebottom to be pinned lbw for 0, leaving the hopes of the innings in the hands of Raqibul Hasan. He responded cautiously at first, picking off the singles to reach 19 from 39 balls, in a 28-run stand for the fifth wicket with Mahmudul Hasan.But Liam Plunkett lured Raqibul into a poked edge to the keeper, before Tredwell’s offspin accounted for two wickets in three overs – Mahmudul chipped a soft catch to Luke Wright at midwicket, before Mashrafe Mortaza, whose arrival was greeted with the biggest roar of the day, dampened the spirits of the crowd by holing out to Plunkett at long-on for a third-ball duck.A spirited performance from Alauddin and Haider at least gave the BCB a nominal total to defend. Haider batted sensibly in a 55-ball stay, before aiming a wild heave at Shahzad only for Cook to make good ground with a low take at wide mid-on. Alauddin, whose only half-chance came when Kieswetter was slow to react to a top-edged pull off Bresnan, then carried his team past 150 with a handful of lusty blows.

Scorecard
There was plenty to cheer for the South African seamers, but the spinning pair of Johan Botha and Paul Harris struggled to make an impression•Associated Press

The South African bowlers started their first day of cricket on the tour with a sharp delivery that hurried a batsman, and ended it with one that lifted sharply and took the edge through to the second slip. In between they saw the whole spectrum that India could present them in this series, at least as much as is possible in day of practice.There was lovely bounce and carry in the morning, seam movement on occasion, an edge that fell short in the first over – as if to remind them of where they were. And then there was some reverse-swing, and a lot of punishment for their spinners, from Abhishek Nayar, Manish Pandey and Shikhar Dhawan. If there was confidence to be drawn from the efforts of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell, who took seven wickets in 29.4 overs between them, there would be fair amount of concern over the ease with which Paul Harris and Johan Botha were taken for 115 in 24 overs between them for just one wicket.It has become a bit of a tradition for the Indian A sides to go after the opposition lead spinners, somewhat like the Aussies used to go about trying to “mentally disintegrate” opposition captains. Famously in 1997-98, Amit Pagnis, a Mumbai batsman, during his 60-ball 50, started inflicting on Shane Warne, punishment that would end with nightmares of Sachin Tendulkar coming down the track and hitting him for straight sixes. On Australia’s last tour to India, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli hit Jason Krejza so bad Australia didn’t select him until the last Test of the series – where he incidentally took eight wickets in an innings.One day into the tour, and the onslaughts from Pandey and Nayar might have already lost Harris the mantle as the lead spinner, and Botha couldn’t manage much better either. Harris was introduced in the 18th over, and in the next over Ajinkya Rahane would become the fourth wicket to fall, with the score at 56. Cheteshwar Pujara started off with a square-cut boundary in Harris’ second over, and Pandey then absolutely got stuck into him. In his next four overs, Harris went for five boundaries and two sixes, all thanks to Pandey’s unorthodox hitting.That Harris didn’t enjoy a lot of Graeme Smith’s confidence showed in how mid-on and midwicket went back after the first two hits. Pandey still managed to flick-sweep him through the gap, and also hit a straight six and a slog-swept one. Harris’ figures read 6-0-43-0 going into lunch, and it was time for Botha straight after lunch. With his first ball, a quick delivery, Botha took out Pujara’s middle stump, but that was to be the most joyous moment of his day.Nayar, not the most aesthetically pleasing or the most talented batsman going around, played him with typical grit and sensibility, along with Dhawan. They started off by working him around for ones and twos, but Botha never looked like getting a wicket in his seven-over first spell that went for 23. After a short breather, Botha was asked to come back, with Smith relatively assured about his pace trio by then.With the spinners bowling in tandem, Nayar and Dhawan were at their most fluent. In his second over back, Harris was hit for three back-to-back boundaries by Nayar, a straight loft, a paddle sweep, and an orthodox one. With the 3-6 field not working, Harris went back to attacking outside off, and was immediately cut and driven inside-out by Dhawan for boundaries. An over later, it was Botha’s turn to be swept for consecutive fours by Nayar. By the end of 64 overs of the innings, Smith had seen enough of the spinners, who had gone for 71 and 44 in their 12 overs each. By then Dhawan had crossed fifty and Nayar was nearing a century.