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With Graeme Smith suspended and Nicky Boje having returned home for health reasons, Shaun Pollock, who was sacked after South Africa’s failure at the 2003 World Cup, has been asked to lead the side for the final two one-day internationals against the West Indies.Smith earned himself a four-match suspension after repeatedly falling behind the over-rate. Having been docked 10 percent of his match fee in the second game at Jamaica, he was fined 30 percent in Barbados, and his failure to learn from past mistakes provoked the strictest response from Jeff Crowe, the ICC match referee.South Africa decided against an appeal after learning that the suspension could be extended to as many as eight matches.Smith has 24 hours in which to appeal but the team management decided not to lodge an appeal as the punishment could be increased to a suspension of eight games by the International Cricket Council. South Africa’s next assignment is a home series against New Zealand but Smith’s ban could kick in even during the ICC Super Series matches in Australia later this year, provided he gets selected for the World XI. Smith’s place at the top of the order will be taken by AB de Villiers, who was in magnificent form in the Test matches.

Close India 523 (Dravid 233, Laxman 148) and 37 for 0 need 193 more runs to beat Australia 556 and 196 (Agarkar 6-41)
Live scorecard

An enthralling day’s cricket ended with India requiring just 193 more – with all ten wickets in hands – to pull off a stunning victory over Australia at the Adelaide Oval. After Rahul Dravid, with his 233, had steered the Indians to within 33 of Australia’s first-innings total, Ajit Agarkar turned in his career-best performance, taking 6 for 41 to bundle Australia out for 196. By close of play, the Indian openers had knocked off 37 from the original target of 230.On an increasingly wearing pitch, the Indian bowlers profited from bowling a good line and length, and allowing the footholds at the other end do the rest. The Australian batsmen responded to the challenge as they always do – coming hard at the bowlers and looking to dominate. However, the fourth-day track was no longer the batting beauty it was on days one and two – every time the ball pitched on the rough, it stopped, which made playing on the up fraught with danger. Four of the top six got starts, but they all fell playing one attacking stroke too many.India were helped by the start that Agarkar gave them with the new ball: Justin Langer was trapped in front by one which nipped back – a replica of his first-innings dismissal at the Gabba – while Ricky Ponting followed up his double-hundred with a duck, as Akash Chopra at gully snapped up an uppish back-foot drive (18 for 2). When Matthew Hayden scooped a drive to cover soon after lunch for 17, Australia were struggling at 44 for 3, and the lead was a mere 77.Then came the first of the two substantial partnerships in Australia’s innings, as Damien Martyn and Steve Waugh put together 55. Martyn uncorked some glorious cover-drives in another commanding display, and with Waugh overcoming a scratchy start and playing his trademark rasping square-drives, the Australian innings was back on track.Noticing that the drying track was increasingly aiding spin – even Anil Kumble’s legbreaks turned a great deal when they pitched on the rough – Sourav Ganguly brought on Sachin Tendulkar, and the move paid off spectacularly, as both Martyn (38) and Waugh (42) chased wide ones which spun off the footholds. Dravid held both catches – Martyn’s was a spectacular, one-handed effort, while Waugh’s was more straightforward – and suddenly Australia had slumped to 112 for 5 at tea.Adam Gilchrist then starred in the second mini-revival, bludgeoning a typically thunderous 43, off 45 balls. He survived a stumping chance off Kumble on 13, and made the Indians pay for it, tonking both Kumble and Tendulkar for sixes. His partnership with Simon Katich, who tackled the spinners and the pitch with plenty of confidence, had mounted 71 from a mere 15 overs when Gilchrist’s overconfidence did him in. Attempting to sweep a straight delivery from Kumble, he moved too far inside the line and found his leg stump knocked back (183 for 6).Agarkar then moved in for the kill, with a wicket in each of his last four overs, as Australia added just 13 more. The short ball, so profitable for Agarkar in this series, brought him more success when Katich holed out to Ashish Nehra at fine leg for 31, while the tail succumbed to old-fashioned line-and-length stuff.The Indian openers survived the ten overs left in the day with scarcely a scare, as Virender Sehwag thumped a couple of fours square of the wicket off the seamers, and clunked Stuart MacGill’s first ball – a full toss – to the midwicket fence. Chopra didn’t show any signs of nerves either, cover-driving Jason Gillespie and MacGill with superb timing.The events through the day completely overshadowed Dravid’s achievement earlier in the morning. Resuming on 199, he reached his double-hundred with the first ball of the day, cutting MacGill for four, and then pushed the Indian innings along to 523. He was the last man to fall, top-edging a catch to Andy Bichel off Gillespie, whose figures of 1 for 106 was scant reward for some lion-hearted bowling. It seemed then that Dravid’s innings would, at best, be a match-saving one. Now, it could well be a matchwinning effort.

HOBART, Dec 20 AAP – Queensland’s Martin Love emphasised his claims for higher honours today by hitting 190 and virtually ensuring there can be only one winner in the Pura Cup match against Tasmania in Hobart.Love’s long innings, a masterpiece of concentration on a variable Bellerive Oval wicket, enabled Queensland to declare its first innings at 8-408.At stumps on the second day, after bad light ended play seven overs early, Tasmania was 2-50, with captain Jamie Cox 19 and Scott Mason 15.Love, 28, must surely be at the top of the queue to go to the West Indies in April as the reserve top order batsman.He’s already hit two double centuries against England this season – for Queensland and Australia A.Love is a serial Tiger tormenter. In his career he’s hit eight centuries against them, all but two over 150.But a double century eludes him. Three times he’s got to the 180s and today’s was his highest score.It wasn’t his most fluent innings and he had his share of luck, but it was head and shoulders above what anyone else could manage on a wicket that sometimes kept alarmingly low and made sweet timing almost impossible.He batted for 514 minutes, hit 28 fours, gave one tough chance last night on 103 and was bowled off a no ball shortly after play resumed this morning.Love and Lee Carseldine, resuming at 4-249, buried Tasmania’s hopes by batting through the morning session.When Carseldine finally went for 55 – the second highest score – just after lunch, they’d put on 156 runs.That started a mini collapse, which included Love when he sliced a drive to gully.The damage, all too late from Tasmania’s point of view, was done by two part-time bowlers, Scott Kremerskothen, who finished with 3-53, and Dan Marsh, 2-79.However some lusty hitting by Wade Seccombe (25 no) and Joe Dawes (19 no) took the Bulls past 400 and enabled Jimmy Maher to declare and leave Tasmania five tricky overs to survive before tea.Cox and Michael Di Venuto did that, but not much more.Di Venuto fell for three – perhaps unluckily given lbw – just after the break and Michael Dighton went shortly afterwards, bowled for eight by Ashley Noffke with a ball that kept outrageously low.However Cox and Mason batted on for a further hour in the growing gloom.

The Highveld Strikers, who had set their sights on winning the Standard Bank Cup after a dismal defence of their Supersport Series first-class title this season, took another step backwards in the limited overs format when they lost to Free State by six runs at Goodyear Park on Wednesday night.In a match reduced by rain to 42 overs a side, the Strikers twice seemed to be cruising to their target of 223. First, when Adam Bacher and debutant Marthinus Otto were fashioning a third-wicket stand of 66.Then Bacher, who top-scored with 40, and Otto, who got 25, were caught in the deep off consecutive deliveries from Morne van Wyk. Van Wyk is an occasional left-arm spinner and had only been employed in that role when the man originally picked for the job, Johannes Mokoenanyane, picked up a back injury in his fourth over.The Strikers’ ship had seemingly been righted when Nic Pothas and Ottis Gibson were together, adding 37 for the sixth wicket off less than five overs, but Gibson too was caught in the deep, at long-off by Herman Bakkes, having been put down off the previous ball at long-on by Gerhardus Liebenberg, and the innings crumbled.With Pothas trying to keep the strike, but unable to hit boundaries off some superb bowling from Dewald Pretorius and Victor Mpitsang when he had it, the asking rate grew and the wickets fell. Mpitsang had Geoffrey Toyana caught by twelfth man Andre Abrahams and then trapped Clive Eksteen in front in the space of three balls in the 41st over, an achievement that also pushed the runs required to 14 off the last.Neil Fusedale lasted two Pretorius deliveries after Pothas had, perhaps unwisely, taken a single off the first, and Pothas, having got back to strike as Fusedale was picking out Van Wyk at mid-on, couldn’t get the 12 required off the last three. Pretorius jammed the first one into his pads and he was unable to get it away, rendering the last two balls academic, provided he could avoid wides and no-balls, which he did.Van Wyk’s catch, two wickets and a superb 62 in Free State’s 222 for five earned him the man of the match award. The platform had been laid by Kosie Venter (89) and Andrew Gait (41), who put on 90 for the first wicket, and after the cheap dismissal of Wiaan Smit, Van Wyk helped Venter maintain the early momentum.

Match facts

Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Start time 1230 local (1030 GMT)1:26

‘Baby’ Rabada may sit in Durban

Big Picture

Now for the excitement. A series absent of context and eclipsed by bigger contests around the cricketing world could finally come to the fore. The Ashes is over, the Test match in Colombo is over; Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers and Kumar Sangakkara’s farewells are over so there is no excuse not to be interested and the last match is a decider, with the teams locked at 1-1. South Africa will move to the third place in the ODI rankings if they win, overtaking New Zealand itself.So far, the cricket has been creative at times as was evident when both teams opened the bowling with spinners, which is rarely done in South African conditions and comical at other times, with dropped catches making as many highlights as runs and wickets but it has not been as competitive as some may have liked. South Africa’s 20-run victory in the first match was more about routine than ruthlessness and New Zealand’s eight-wicket canter in the second was won by the halfway stage. With a trophy on the line both teams should have more fire and fury in the belly.They would also have had the time to assess whether they have gleaned anything from their experimentation and probably found an equal number of solutions as problems. South Africa still have the No. 7 problem after David Wiese struggled but at least they know Morne van Wyk’s days are over. New Zealand have seen Tom Latham and George Worker come good but may be concerned about whether Colin Munro has a long-term future. Those are issues to mull over later – on Wednesday, it’s about claiming a series.

Form guide

(last five completed games most recent first)South Africa LWLLW
New Zealand WLWWL

In the spotlight

Rilee Rossouw has looked the most in-form batsman among his team-mates, although he does not have the numbers to show for it, and could use a big score to cement his position in the team in the near future. When Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy return, South Africa’s line-up will be crowded and Rossouw could be relegated to the reserves. A reminder of what he has to offer would be timely.With scores of 7, 29, 5, 6 and 1, it’s fair to say Luke Ronchi has not made a major contribution on this tour so far. He does not always get the opportunity to do so with New Zealand’s top order regularly leaving him with little time in the middle. However, like any good wicketkeeper, he is hardly noticed behind the stumps which means he is doing a fairly good job, but he will hope for the chance to bat a little longer or at least pull off a stunner behind the stumps.

Team news

Kyle Abbott is the only member of the ODI squad who has not played yet and South Africa may choose to give him a run on his home ground. With Vernon Philander bowling well, it may be a choice between Abbott and Kagiso Rabada with Aaron Phangiso likely to sit out in favour of Imran Tahir. Although Morne van Wyk has misfired, South Africa do not have another reserve batsman unless they choose to play Dean Elgar, who was included as cover after du Plessis was injured.South Africa (probable): 1 Morne van Wyk (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Rilee Rossouw, 4 AB de Villiers (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Farhaan Behardien, 7 David Wiese, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kagiso Rabada/Kyle Abbott, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Imran TahirA trio of tweaks to their starting XI saw New Zealand win the second game and they may be tempted to keep their victorious team but conditions could dictate otherwise. Two specialist spinners could be a luxury in Durban so Ish Sodhi or Nathan McCullum may have to make room for either Mitchell McClenaghan to come back in or Matt Henry to get his first opportunity. George Worker is likely to keep his spot because James Neesham, who missed out the second ODI with back pain, is unlikely to recover in time for the decider.New Zealand (probable): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 George Worker, 5 Grant Elliott, 6 Colin Munro, 7 Luke Ronchi (wk), 8 Nathan McCullum/Ish Sodhi, 9 Doug Bracewell, 10 Ben Wheeler/Mitchell McClenaghan, 11 Adam Milne

Pitch and conditions

There won’t be any more complaints or need for paint on the outfield as the dead, dry grass of the Highveld is being left behind for the lush green ground of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Kingsmead’s pitch was also the one that received the most praise by the teams after it hosted the first T20. It won’t be as slow or sticky as the surfaces up country and should have some spice in it for the quicks, but decent scores for the batsmen too. Another warm day is forecast for Durban with day-time highs of 27 degrees.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand have come back from a game down to win the next two matches in their last two series. In England, they then lost the last two to concede the series 3-2 but in Zimbabwe they won the three-match series 2-1.
• South Africa have not lost two bilateral ODI series in succession since 2009-10 when they suffered back-to-back defeats against England and India.

Quotes

“It’s a huge game. Decider. Winner take all — it’s a final, in essence.”
.”We’ve done it before, before a few big World Cup games in Australia. We’ve got a few niggles and I don’t think one practice session is going to make too much of a difference. We just feel it might be a good day to connect as a team and doing something other than cricket.”

Kapil Dev has filed a petition against the Indian board for stopping his pension after he joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL), an initiative not backed by the BCCI.Kapil levelled the charge that the board had “deliberately amended the rules” following his move to the ICL by altering the word ‘pension’ with ‘Benevolent Fund’.Kapil’s affidavit, which was filed in the Delhi High Court, read: “The only way of earning a livelihood for us retired cricketers is through the game and the board cannot, by illegally changing its rules and regulations, deprive us of the benefits.”He also contested BCCI’s decision to sack him as the chairman of the National Cricket Academy, a post he held till joining the ICL as the chairman of its executive board.The BCCI members met for a special general meeting last August where the decision to remove Kapil from the chairman’s post at the NCA was made along with decision to deny players the right to derive any benefit from the BCCI if they were associated with the ICL. This meant former players, Kiran More, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Sandeep Patil, EAS Prasanna, Madan Lal, Rajesh Chauhan, who joined the ICL in various roles, also had their pensions revoked by the board.

Australia have beaten England again, this time by getting Sir Steve Redgrave, the five-time Olympic rowing gold medallist, to speak to the team first. Redgrave, the Englishman, was staying in the same hotel as the Australians in Barbados and the team management, which is always keen for outside ideas, asked if he would talk to the side as it chases a third World Cup title in a row.”He spoke about the expectation of being a favourite, continually raising the bar, having the attitude of being a winner and preparing to win consistently,” an Australian team spokesman told AAP. “He said everyone would be looking at Australia because they had an aura about them.”Redgrave spent almost an hour with the group on a night when the Courier-Mail reported England had wanted him to speak to them. He is also expected to address Michael Vaughan’s squad, which beat Bangladesh on Wednesday to stay in the race for the semi-finals.”There are obviously a lot of parallels with the Australian team and Redgrave, who was basically never beaten in important competitions,” the spokesman said. “He also talked about dealing with adversity and national expectation.”Australia have won their opening six World Cup games and have not lost a match in the tournament since 1999, when Steve Waugh reversed a form slump to lead the team to victory at Lord’s. Ricky Ponting’s next match is against Ireland in Barbados on Friday.

Bangladesh’s one-day series at home to Kenya has been confirmed after weeks of delays caused primarily by Zimbabwe’s reluctance to confirm whether they would participate in a tri-series.Kenya will now play four ODIs on the 13-day tour which starts on March 13. They will meet Bangladesh at Bogra (March 17) and Khulna (March 20) before heading to Dhaka for two more games on March 23 and 25. The exact venue in Dhaka has yet to be confirmed.Kenya will leave on March 26, three days before they take on the Netherlands in the ICC Intercontinental Cup in Nairobi. The tour means that the ODI which had been discussed against the Netherlands to be played on March 26 will not now happen.The news is a great boost to Kenya, as these four games will mean that they have enough matches under their belt to qualify for a place in the ODI rankings. If they beat Zimbabwe, this might enable them to take the fourth and final qualifying spot for the ICC Champions Trophy.The Bangladesh Cricket Board is reportedly far from happy with the lack of communication from its Zimbabwe counterparts. Sources close to the board have been telling Cricinfo that Zimbabwe were not expected to travel for two or three weeks.Lovemore Banda, the ZC media and communications manager, told Cricinfo on February 17 that talks were still being held with the BCB, even though the ICC was informed three days earlier that Zimbabwe Cricket had pulled out of the series.

Dolphins 215 for 3 (Amla 67*, Mall 66) trail Eagles 334 (Bosman 74, Deacon 56, Klusener 3-101, Symcox 3-58) by 119 runs
ScorecardOn an attritional second day at Goodyear Park in Bloemfontein, the Dolphins made heavy weather of their reply to the Eagles’ first-innings 334, reaching 215 for 3 at the close. Having taken 45 balls to take the final two wickets of the Eagles innings, the Dolphins struggled to make inroads, but at least with wickets in hand are still well placed.Imraan Khan did not look comfortable in scoring 10 before he played on to give Cliff Deacon the opening wicket. Doug Watson (30) then became the tenth South African player to be adjudged handled the ball as he gloved the ball away from the wickets after it looped up off the pad.A patient 92-run partnership followed as Ashraf Mall and Hashim Amla cautiously occupied the crease for 37 overs before Dillon du Preez had Mall caught for 66. Amla’s return to form could not have come at a better time for the Dolphins as he nursed his way to a half-century, while Dale Benkenstein looked set for a long innings.At the close of play on the second day they had put on 55 for the fourth wicket with Amla on 67 and Benkenstein 27.

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the hero of the story never ages, but a portrait of him does. All his flaws and imperfections are highlighted in the picture, while in his person he remains fresh and youthful.A tour to Australia, in modern times, is a cricketing version of this portrait. However fine a team may appear playing other sides in other places, once it lands in Australia, all its illusions of wellbeing are shattered. Every weakness is brutally exposed, every defect mercilessly exploited, by the best team of our times in conditions that suit their cricket. Gazing into that mirror can chill the soul.The last time India went to Australia, in 1999-2000, they came back a broken side, demoralised and lacking self-belief. Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy was dealt a hard blow – he lost it a series later – and several promising careers were derailed – remember Vijay Bharadwaj, Devang Gandhi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and MSK Prasad? India’s current tour will be no less difficult. Inexperienced bowlers, an uncertain opening combination, a question-mark over the wicketkeepers … all the ingredients of disaster are present.The inability of India’s bowlers to take 20 wickets has often been cited as the reason for their failure to win matches overseas. Ravi Shastri and Javagal Srinath recently recommended that India play five specialist bowlers to compensate for this weakness – but what of the batting then? India’s batsmen averaged 207 per innings in that 1999-2000 series, with a full complement of six specialist batsmen. A similar performance will almost certainly lead to hefty defeats, and playing one batsman fewer would hardly help.Playing only five specialist batsmen will also necessitate makeshift openers. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly are all certainties in the final XI – Ganguly because he is captain – and playing five specialists means either that one of them must open, or the wicketkeeper will bat at the top of the order. India cannot afford to start on the wrong foot like that.As always, a lot will ride on Tendulkar. But while he’s done well in both his tours of Australia, that is more in comparison with his team-mates than with the standards he has set for himself. Tendulkar averages 46 in Australia, ten runs below his career average. He will need to lift himself if India are to make a fist of it – and he will need support.Laxman is the batsman best equipped to give him that support. The conditions in Australia suit Laxman – he enjoys playing on the back foot, hits the horizontal-bat shots well, and plays besides the ball with impeccable hand-eye coordination. He was in fine form in the home series against New Zealand – he was Man of the Series – and playing Australia seems to bring out the best in him. He also has a penchant for the long innings, with two first-class triple-centuries and India’s highest Test score to his name. He could be the star of this tour.

But should he bat at No. 3? While Laxman is well suited to that role, the man who currently occupies it, Dravid, is India’s best ever in that position. Dravid averages 54.4 in Test cricket, and 57.3 overseas, which is a remarkable figure. (His average at No. 3 is 57.2, which is equally stunning.) The only hole in his CV is his performance in Australia. He’s toured here once, and failed miserably. If he can continue his inspired form of the last two years in Australia, he will take his place among the alltime greats. But is his game suited to doing that?Sanjay Manjrekar recently said that you cannot play the waiting game in Australia – you might play out some time, but they’ll get you sooner or later, and your vigil will be pointless if you don’t have many runs on the board. A score of 25 in two hours achieves nothing – especially given the pace at which Australia play their cricket. Manjrekar and Dravid, in their tours of Australia, both made this mistake. But Dravid himself indicated recently that he intended to play freely during this series. He certainly has the shots – he epitomises the classical strokeplayer – and if he has the self-belief, he could do wonders for India.It would be unwise to expect anything of India’s bowlers, though – the fast bowlers are inexperienced, and these spinners have rarely done well abroad. Bruce Reid, the new bowling coach, may help them sharpen their bowling techniques, but playing in Australia requires mental strength, a quality that can only come from within. India’s young fast bowlers could come of age during this tour – or they could be scarred irreparably.And what of Australia? We take the result so much for granted that there seems no need to mention them, but this series is a great opportunity for them to blood their second string. Simon Katich, Nathan Bracken and Brad Williams are pushing for permanent places in the side, and it is stunning that players like Michael Clarke and Martin Love can’t find a place in it. Playing an Indian team softened by early defeat at Brisbane – as seems inevitable – will be the perfect platform to greater things. Steve Waugh’s retirement at the end of this series might symbolise, to the sentimental, the end of an era – but by no means will that bring an end to Australia’s dominance in world cricket.Amit Varma is managing editor of Wisden Cricinfo in India.