India draw breath between Tests

From the frying pan of Trent Bridge, where they prevailed in a feverish Test, India's cricketers have landed in an easy-chair at Grace Road. In an eight-day gap between Tests, almost a luxury in modern times, they take on Sri Lanka A who are coming towards the end of a highly satisfying England tour.

The post-match celebrations have been relatively muted compared to those following away triumphs in the past. Several players have spent time with their wives on tour and there hasn't been a united we-stuffed-them kind of party. Optimists will point out that an away win is no longer a shock, and the team has got used to winning abroad. As long as they continue winning, the pessimists won't get a look-in.

Either way, the Grace Road fixture should come as a welcome break. Two hard-fought Test matches left many of the team spent and here's a chance to wind down before heading back to London. It's a period in which they will work on overcoming a seven-year itch, in which time they have regularly gone down in an away Test immediately after winning one.

Statistics inform us that India picked up this poor habit at the Harare Sports Club in 2001, when they surrendered a 1-0 lead to end with a drawn series. Several bitter-sweet combinations have followed - Kandy-Colombo, Port-of-Spain-Bridgetown, Adelaide-Melbourne, Multan-Lahore, Johannesburg-Durban. They even managed to bring that form home with them last time they faced England - from victory in Mohali to defeat in Mumbai - and so all assistance needs to be sought to avoid Trent Bridge-Oval.

Less than half of India's squad had a net ahead of the match and most of the players who've been in form will be rested from the encounter. Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Ramesh Powar, Ishant Sharma and Ranadeb Bose were the ones who trained in the nets for about two hours, and it is they who will take the field. Rahul Dravid, who observed proceedings for half an hour without actually having a bat, is also likely to play, in an aim to rediscover his form before the Oval encounter.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni needs a game, mainly to get his glovework in order. He's seen his keeping fall to pieces during the tour, yet hasn't dropped a single catch in either of the Tests. He's struggled to come to terms with the late swing and has been more of a football goalie parrying the ball away rather than a wicketkeeper collecting with soft hands.

Robin Singh, India's fielding coach, has been on the case. "It takes time. I've been talking to Alec Stewart and others here. I even spoke to Andy Flower, who gave up the gloves in this sort of scenario. The important thing is he's not lost his confidence and not dropped any catches. In England the ball swings a lot and even their wicketkeeper was struggling a lot. Matt Prior has been keeping in England but he's not had the best time."

India's catching, after a butter-fingered series in Bangladesh, has been surprisingly secure. A drop-rate of one per match - Dinesh Karthik's howler at Lord's and Sachin Tendulkar's straight-forward miss at Nottingham - is definitely an improvement. "We've been concentrating a lot on our catching," said Singh. "If you look at the West Indies series earlier, so many catches were dropped. It changes the course of the game. Most of the wickets have been taken by medium-pacers and we've taken all the important catches. Our overall fielding has improved. As you know most of the guys are on the older side, if you have a younger side, you'll probably see a better fielding unit."

Up against the Indians will be a more athletic side from the subcontinent. Sri Lanka A will go into their penultimate game of the tour upbeat, especially after their one-wicket victory over Yorkshire two days back. Thilan Samaraweera's side have lost just one of their seven matches on this tour so far with Kaushal Silva and Mahela Udawatte stringing together some useful scores. The medium-pacer Ishara Amarasinghe and legspinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi, two bowlers who've worn national colours, have also posed plenty of problems for the batsmen around the shires.

India (probable) 1 Wasim Jaffer, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid (capt), 4 VVS Laxman, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Sreesanth 10 Ramesh Powar, 11 Ishant Sharma, 12 Ranadeb Bose.

India move up to 5th spot in ICC ODI rankings

India has moved up a spot to rank fifth in the International Cricket Council's rankings for one-day internationals, the ICC said Wednesday.

Sri Lanka too climbed one place to fourth but Pakistan dropped two rungs to sixth, according to an ICC table released after its annual update.

Australia stay on top of the table with 129 ranking points - seven more than second-placed South Africa - while New Zealand are in third place, 15 points adrift of their trans-Tasman rivals.

The annual update is carried out to ensure that the championship table reflects the recent form of teams with older results being discarded.

The table reflects all ODIs played since August 2005.

The fact that the table has undergone only minor changes is due to the fact that teams have not shown any dramatic changes in their recent performances, it said.

Down the table, England and the West Indies swapped places at seventh and eighth after the Caribbean side won the recent ODI series in England.

The big surprise in the list is the appearance of ICC associate-member Ireland in 10th place, ahead of both Zimbabwe and Kenya.

The table:

LG ICC ODI Championship (as of 1 August, after annual update)

Rank* Team Rating*

1 (1) Australia 129 (130)

2 (2) South Africa 122 (122)

3 (3) New Zealand 114 (113)

4 (5) Sri Lanka 111 (111)

5 (6) India 110 (109)

6 (4) Pakistan 108 (111)

7 (8) West Indies 102 (101)

8 (7) England 101 (102)

9 (9) Bangladesh 48 (44)

10 (10) Ireland 28 (27)

Sania to face Safina in third round at Acura

Sania Mirza is through to the third round of the $13,40,000 WTA Acura Classic in San Diego (California).

Sania beat Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in straight sets 7-6 (1), 6-3 and will now take on Dinara Safina of Russia in the next round.

Though the two have never played each other but given the current form of the the 20-year-old Indian, the match is likely to be a tough affair for the world No. 14 and eighth seed Russian.

Safina won her second round match beating France's Camille Pin in straight sets 6-1, 6-4.

In doubles, too, Sania continued with her winning form. She and Shahar Peer of Israel entered second round, beating Angelika Bachmann and Hana Sromova 6-4, 6-0.

Reaping the rewards of swing

Nottingham: In The Times, London, appeared a cartoon, sketched with economy of line: on the threshold of the Indian dressing room stands a cricketer with a severed head in each hand; an incredulous teammate accosts him with: “ Er most people collect stumps as mementoes.”

No doubt, the joke is on Sreesanth after his beamer to Kevin Pietersen, but, so far on tour, it’s his left-handed colleagues who have resembled bounty hunters most closely.

Between them, Zaheer Khan and R.P. Singh have 25 scalps in two Tests. Every one of England’s top seven batsmen has been scouted, softened, probed, and picked up.

That this is a formidable batting line-up puts the performance in perspective. The most obviously visible cause of the left-armers’ success is swing. Both at Lord’s and here at Trent Bridge, the ball has curled wickedly late for Zaheer and R.P. Singh.
Pleasing act

So pleasing has been the act — so smoothly snug the arc of the swinging ball, so apparently certain its repetition — that the work behind it has gone unnoticed.

Swing bowling is a difficult art requiring high skill. It demands a confluence of conditions, precise wrist positions, and great nerve: each unforgiving, and each apt to unravel very quickly indeed.

To illustrate: Rahul Dravid’s decision to bowl here in the second Test looked fairly straightforward; yet countless captains have discovered to their horror that in similarly damp conditions, wet balls haven’t swung at all.

Certain balls swing; others don’t.

“The Duke ball does swing,” said bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad, who himself found success in England. Zaheer pleaded, in jest, for the Duke to be used in all Test-playing nations. Yet, as Ian Botham said, even in a box of balls, there are some that do and some that don’t — even in this era of machine-stitched seams.

The two most outstanding aspects of Zaheer and R.P. Singh have been their ability to swing it both ways from both over and around the wicket, and their scarcely believable control.
Disguise

Disguise is everything. Neither changes his action or slants his wrist noticeably: for the batsmen looking for cues, few, if any, appear. Zaheer, at times, drags his fingers down the inside of the ball for the outswinger to the right-hander, but it’s done so fast, it’s barely detectable.

The least discussed aspect has been their pace. Swing bowlers tend to hold the ball further back in their fingers — Damien Fleming said he rested it in the hollow between the thumb and his first two fingers — to release the ball with back-spin. This controls the seam, keeping it upright, but robs the delivery of pace.

R.P. Singh has hit the high 80s (mph), while Zaheer has been timed in the mid 80s. It’s an exceptional effort to produce swing at this pace. And at this pace — as quick as their English counterparts, incidentally — the batsman has little time to adjust; his already difficult task of playing as forward as possible as late as possible made incalculably harder.

Length is crucial, and it is here that many falter. Swing presupposes a full length; but, a full length permits driving. It’s the classic contest — the drive against the swinger. It makes for enriching viewing, having as it does levels of strategy, skill, bluff, and execution.

Only bowlers of confidence and daring can play at this table; pertinent then that no English bowler, not even Ryan Sidebottom, landed it as full and swung it as much as Zaheer and R.P. Singh.

There are two further elements to their success in the two Tests. Both have used the bouncer well. R.P. Singh surprised Paul Collingwood at Lord’s; Zaheer heckled Michael Vaughan at Trent Bridge, hitting him on the helmet, nudging his ribs. This has kept the batsmen thinking. Even Kevin Pietersen in the second innings here wasn’t stomping as far forward as he normally does.
Using the angle

Both have also used the angle from around the wicket, evoking memories of the mercurial Wasim Akram.

Sometimes the ball has cut in the direction of the swing, augmenting the movement, as in Matt Prior’s dismissal, bowled middle stump from a ball starting well outside off. Other times, it has swung one way and moved the other. Both have been devilishly tough to combat.

Except for the first session at Lord’s and a brief period on the third day, Zaheer has been excellent. R.P. Singh was India’s most consistent bowler in the first Test; in the second, he contented himself with wicket-taking deliveries at critical moments.

“Whatever I’ve seen of R.P., he is a fantastic bowler,” said Prasad. “He is coming up really well along with Zaheer. They do make a terrific bowling combination. They needed someone to show them the direction. That is all I’ve been doing with them.”