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

An imposing century by Jacques Kallis gave South Africa the honours on the first day of the first Test after Graeme Smith had won the tossand elected to bat on a hot Karachi morning. They ended the day on 294 for 3, with Kallis unbeaten on 118.Starting cautiously and taking 14 deliveries to get off the mark, Kallis hit his stride soon with elegant drives square of the wicket.The slow pitch and hot weather made bowling difficult and anythingshort in length was ruthlessly cut and ended up penetrating a strongoff-side field. Dropped on 36 and 61, Kallis ensured an otherwise fluent innings playing majority of his strokes along the ground.He dominated the 170-run third wicket partnership with Hashim Amla,in terms of both strike and runs, and relieved the pressure when Amla got bogged down against the spinners. Kallis was not afraid to use his feet against the slower bowlers and scored at a quicker rate than normal, reaching 50 off91 balls and his hundred off 147 balls.The foundation for the innings, however, was laid by a confident opening stand of 87 between Smith and Herschelle Gibbs that punished some wayward bowling by Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul. Not getting any early movement off the pitch or in the air, the bowlerserred in line and length and allowed South Africa reach50 in the 12th over. Striving for the yorkers he delivered so successfully during theWorld Twenty20, Gul was frequently driven through extra cover and wasduly replaced by Danish Kaneria in the tenth over.The slowness of the pitch was apparent as Asif, trying to bowl short,was pulled by Gibbs to square leg on several occasions. Pakistan lacked energy and creativity in the field and Shoaib Malik,the captain, tried six bowlers before lunch, including debutantAbdur Rehman. It was, however, Mohammad Hafeez who got the firstbreakthrough as Smith went back to a straight ball and got hit on theback leg in front of off stump.Gibbs slashed at a wide Gul delivery after lunch and was caught at gully byHafeez but it was all Kallis and Amla from then on. Though the bowlers were able to swing and spin the older ball, aplay-and-miss was the best they could achieve on a deteriorating pitch. It was the new ball, taken in the 82nd over, that brought the wicket of Amla, who fell for a sedate 71. Beingovershadowed, and perhaps awed, by Kallis’ performance, and finding it difficult to get the spinners away, Amla dealtmostly in singles but dispatched Rehman into the sighstcreen after hehad managed to dry up the scoring.With Kallis unbeaten on 118 overnight, and not having scored adouble-century yet in his 107-Test career, a long day in the field lookson the cards for the home team while they rue the dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities.

ScorecardThomas Odoyo’s maiden ODI century led a remarkable Kenya fightback in the opening match of their short series against Canada in Nairobi. He came in with the home side in tatters at 49 for 5 chasing 231, but calmly set about a recovery before taking the game away from Canada with a flurry of boundaries alongside a composed Jimmy Kamande who helped add a match-winning stand of 98 in 13 overs.Odoyo, who opened his first-class century count against Bermuda last week, was again in commanding form and highlighted his importance to Kenya and also his standing among Associate players. Kenya were falling apart when he arrived in the 11th over, but he was quickly into his stride. Any half volley that came along was emphatically dispatched through the covers, while short balls didn’t cause any problems. As the requirement was reduced to double figures he began using his feet to the spinners and finished the chase in fine style with a straight drive off Sunil Dhaniram. The paltry crowd of a hundred or so spectators grew as Odoyo expanded his shots and a large group of schoolchildren arrived to cheer him on.But Odoyo wouldn’t have succeeded without support from his team-mates, in particular Alex Obanda, the nineteen-year-old. Obanda might have missed out had Tanmay Mishra been picked, but Mishra didn’t attend training and, to compound the confusion, he is preparing to go to university in India. They didn’t miss him today, however, with Obanda repairing the initial damage with 30 in a stand of 86. Kamande, who earlier bowled an economical spell of offspin, then showed his batting skills with a 31-ball 37.The result was hard luck on Umar Bhatti, the left-arm opening bowler, who had produced an outstanding spell, bowling his 10 overs straight through for three wickets. He had David Obuya caught at mid-off, removed Nehemiah Odhiambo with a first-ball edge to the wicketkeeper and accounted for Steve Tikolo for a duck in similar style.Canada had wasted a promising position with the bat after racing to 89 for 2 in the 13th over. They slipped to 131 for 6 as Kamande and Tikolo conceded 62 in 20 overs between them. But 36-year-old Arvind Kandappah, making his ODI debut, ensured against a complete collapse. He added 52 with Jason Patraj (20) then Umar Bhatti contributed a 17-ball 22.Kandappah reached fifty off 73 balls and hit three sixes, but Canada couldn’t bat out their 50 overs. Patraj was taken at extra cover and Bhatti heaved to mid-on, although they had at least given their side something to bowl at. For a while it looked like enough, but then Odoyo made his presence felt.

Steve Elworthy, the former South Africa fast bowler, has been appointed as the tournament director for 2009’s ICC World Twenty20, to be held in England and Wales.Elworthy, who oversaw the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa in September, will join the ECB in January 2008. “The 2007 event was a festival of world-class cricket which captured the imagination of the world,” he said. “My goal is to ensure that the 2009 event is even more successful.”David Collier, the ECB chief executive, welcomed Elworthy on board and said: “His experience of managing an ICC World Twenty20 tournament coupled with his international playing experience, commercial background and knowledge of our grounds in the UK provide the all-round skills required to run a world class event. He is the ideal candidate to lead the event in England and Wales in 2009.”Elworthy said he was looking forward to the challenge of running the event. “The opportunity to join the ECB and run the 2009 event during an amazing summer of cricket in England and Wales with the ICC World Twenty20 Tournament, ICC Centenary and the Ashes is an honour and a challenge which I am relishing.”Elworthy played four Tests and 39 ODIs for South Africa between 1998 and 2002 and had county stints with Lancashire and Nottinghamshire.

Bangladesh’s players’ association, the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), has been given full membership of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association ( FICA).The CWAB was established in 2004 with a primary objective of promoting and protecting the general welfare of cricketers within the country, and it also engages in numerous projects for the benefit of the wider community.All first-class cricketers registered with the Bangladesh board are entitled to be members of CWAB. It currently has around 170 players on its books.”I am delighted to welcome CWAB as a member of FICA,” Tim May, FICA’s chief executive, said. “Bangladesh are young in International cricketing experience and have much to offer the world of cricket. FICA believe it is imperative that the players’ positions and concerns of all countries are represented with equal vigor to the ICC and the addition of CWAB to our membership obviously is a significant step to achieving this objective.”

Mumbai face a quarter-final situation when they take on group leaders Saurashtra in their last Group stage match on Tuesday. While a loss will most likely eliminate them, an outright win will ensure a place in the semi-finals. If they draw, they will have to hope Delhi do worse than them. The two teams are currently tied in second place with 18 points each.Mumbai are cornered, but they have scripted successful escape acts in the past. Last season, they were without any points going into the fourth game, but won five in a row to lift the Ranji Trophy. “Been there, done that” is the fuel behind their confidence and Amol Muzumdar, the captain, is banking on it. “We have been in this situation before and everybody knows the importance of the game. We can do it.”But even Muzumdar admits the situation this year is precarious. The bowling has been severely depleted with injuries to Ajit Agarkar, Aavishkar Salvi and Rajesh Verma. Meanwhile, Ramesh Powar’s recent form has been a cause of worry. He has picked up just nine wickets from the last four games, after grabbing 15 in the first two. The inexperienced Murtuza Hussain leads the seam attack and Mumbai will hope that Powar, along with Nilesh Kulkarni, the replacement for Iqbal Abdulla, can raise their game when it matters the most.Muzumdar knows where the problem lies. “It has been an up and down season. Obviously the injuries have not helped. The replacements are very young; Murtuza is playing his third game, [Mondeep] Mangela has just played one. [Usman] Malvi has been around but he has been in and out. We have been struggling to get 20 wickets and that’s why we have not been able to finish games.”That has been the story of their season. In their opening game, Mumbai had Karnataka reeling with a 142-run lead, but Rahul Dravid imposed himself in the second innings with a double century. In the third game, against Delhi, they came back from an 85-run deficit to set a target of 387, but could only pick up three wickets as Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra put up an 188-run opening stand.And in the next match, they fell 15 runs short of Maharashtra’s 451 to give away the lead and three points. From a wobbly 197 for 6, they were steadied by a 185-run partnership between Powar (107) and Agarkar (95), but both fell in quick succession to leave Mumbai just short of the line.Mumbai picked up five points next time out, but it was only because Rajasthan chose to go for a win and lost three wickets in the last over. Again the bowlers had not done a great deal as Rajasthan lost five wickets in the second innings to run-outs. In their last outing, Hossain picked up a six-wicket haul to force Himachal Pradesh to follow on, but injury to Agarkar – who limped off after just 5.2 overs – and Powar’s indifferent form meant they couldn’t kill the contest and Himachal batted their way to a draw.The batting too has been a bit up and down. Abhishek Nayar and Sahil Kukreja, the opener, tapered off after a good start, Muzumdar has gone the other way – coming into form after an indifferent beginning, Ajinkya Rahane has been steady, but not spectacular while Rohit Sharma has been struggling for runs with just 150 from four games.Pravin Amre, who helped in Muzumdar’s revival by rectifying problems with his footwork and head position, has been working a lot on Sharma. “The change of format [from Twenty20 to ODIs to first-class] has been a reason for his loss of form. A few errors have crept in. We are working hard on his pick up and his down swing and he is improving rapidly. I am hoping he scores a big one in this game to set up things for us.”Hope is the operative word in the Mumbai camp – they hope Powar and Kulkarni will perform, they hope the batsmen will raise their games and they must be hoping Tamil Nadu can help their cause by upsetting Delhi – but they are also waiting to see how Saurashtra handle pressure. And that could be the real factor in this game.As Muzumdar put it, “The pressure is on them. They are leading the table. We just want to treat this game as a quarterfinal and we need to play good aggressive cricket. We know how to play that kind of cricket and we are focussed.”And a national selector said, “Mumbai have this knack of getting out of trouble, they will somehow make it.” Time will tell.

Gary Kirsten, the former South African batsman who will take over as the India coach on March 1, feels this a good time to join the Indian team, mid-way through an Australian tour marred by controversy.”Maybe it’s not a bad position to be in because I’ve been so far removed from what’s been going on,” said Kirsten, who arrived in Perth on Saturday to join the team in his interim capacity as a consultant coach ahead of the third Test, starting on January 16.Kirsten, who had flown from Johannesburg, appeared fresh this morning and, along with his wife Deborah, awaited the arrival of the Indian team from Canberra. “It’s probably a healthy position and I bring a fresh perspective,” he told Cricinfo. “The important thing for me is to focus the Indian players back on cricket. I would certainly want the Indian players to play their brand of cricket on Australian soil. I don’t want them to play any other brand; they must play to their strengths. I’m sure they are already doing that.”Kirsten says the only way the Indians can now bounce back into the series, which they currently trail 0-2, is to stay calm. “It’s a cricket tour full of emotion but one needs to calm oneself and create some composure; that’s the only way you can be at your best. If you sidetrack to the other issues you are going to have problems. I’m a looking at it from a distance so I was trying to look at it very objectively as to what went right and what went wrong.”So where did it go wrong for India in Sydney? “The Indians are naturally disappointed with the last game. There’s no doubt that they came over here to win a Test series. They can’t anymore. That’s why they felt that at the SCG they were back in the series after being outplayed in Melbourne. And they felt they were right in the Sydney Test and naturally the emotions started to run high when things didn’t go their way.”They played well and they played like anyone knows that they can play,” he said of VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. “For a period of time India dominated that game. That’s what they were looking to do and they were able to achieve that.”

Having said that, he was critical of the way they approached their second innings, considering how dependent they are on their batsmen. “When you get to the last day of a Test match and Australia are still batting you always have to be aware of these guys, that they are capable of doing something and knocking teams over very quickly. It was disappointing to see India get bowled out in effectively two sessions and I am sure the players would have been hit hard.”At the MCG we lost in the first innings after being bowled out in the 100s. You are dead [after that], aren’t you? Then you really have to bowl very, very well. But we know the strength of the Indian team is weighted towards their batsmen and they knew from the outset that their batsmen needed to be in good form.”India, who were crushed by 337 runs in the opening match in Melbourne, took refuge in their lack of preparation ahead of the game. Kirsten, though, doesn’t think the argument holds water. “More time helps but players are fully aware that one can’t use that as an excuse for losing a game,” he said, not wanting to come across as harsh. “It’s uncontrollable.”Kirsten felt Anil Kumble had towered over the rest in this series, picking up 15 wickets in the first two Tests. “I have tremendous respect for his captaincy and he has certainly led by example, taking plenty of wickets,” he said, revealing that he had been exchanging text messages with Kumble throughout the series. “Equally his performance in the last hour-and-a-half in Sydney was testament to his character as a person, where you could see he was desperate to save that game. I’m sure he would have an influence on other players in the team.”The tour of Australia is a very much a mental battle,” he said, drawing on his experience of touring Australia three times, in which he managed a healthy average of 43. He said he had prepared a report for the players once he went back to South Africa after his brief visit to Bangalore during the Pakistan series. That visit, he said, was to acquaint himself with the players; they hadn’t much discussed the Australian tour.”Before the Australia series began I sent a document with my thoughts of the experiences I’d had in Australia,” he said. “It was quite lengthy but for their benefit, with my opinions and my ideas of how I think things are going to pan out on a tour like this and maybe how they should play against the Australians.”They have to start thinking very seriously about how they can win the next two Tests. The only message I’m going to pass on is: ‘You must believe you can win the next two’. It would be crazy to try and just exist in the next two Test matches. Each individual needs to think seriously about what special thing he can do to come back.”

Mark Boucher wanted Adam Gilchrist to extend his career by a year so the world’s top two Test wicketkeepers could have one final showdown on the field. Australia are hosting a three-Test series against South Africa next season before a return series in South Africa and Boucher said he was disappointed Gilchrist would not be part of it.Boucher will almost certainly reclaim the world Test wicketkeeping record from Gilchrist when he next plays a match and there will be no ongoing battle for the title as there was with Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan’s bowling mark. Boucher is only 31 and therefore has plenty of time to put a significant gap between his final tally and Gilchrist’s record of 416 dismissals.”I sent him a message to say how disappointed I was to hear that he was calling it a day because the last time I saw him I told him he’d better keep his incredible career going so that we could have one last showdown at the end of the year,” Boucher told the . “It was a big shock to hear he was going. But everyone knows how important his family is to him so I’m sure he made the right call. I’ll miss him a lot.”If I think of the great innovators of my time, guys who revolutionised the game and made people see it in a different way, I’d say Jonty Rhodes and Adam Gilchrist would be top of the pile. Jonty changed the way people thought of fielding and Gilly has set the bar so high for the next generation of keeper-batsmen that it’s almost unfair.”Boucher’s captain Graeme Smith said Gilchrist would always have his respect. “The way he made an effort to contact Boucher when he broke the world record was typical of him,” Smith said. “We were in Pakistan and Australia were in India. It just wasn’t a question of dialling a local number.

Tim Nielsen wants Australia to emerge from their first-final loss with an aggressive mind-set during the key moments of their must-win encounter at the Gabba on Tuesday. Nielsen was disappointed his team stumbled a couple of times when it had control at the SCG, where India won by six wickets, and asked the players to sharpen their outlook after two sloppy defeats in three days.”It’s probably the mental side of the game that’s let us down in the last couple of games,” Nielsen said. “We had a couple of situations [at the SCG] when we felt we were on top and then gave our wickets away, which then put us back under pressure. For us to have some success in this series we have to make sure we take the game by the throat when we have the opportunity and don’t give up that momentum.”The 100-run partnership between Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds threatened to revive Australia after they were 3 for 24 in Sydney, but both batsmen departed to outfield catches in quick succession and they were in more severe discomfort at 5 for 135. The home side also sensed a chance shortly before the halfway stage of the India innings and was unable to maintain the bowling or fielding intensity required to prevent India from cruising to victory.Team meetings were held in the dressing room after Sunday’s game and in Brisbane on Monday as they contemplated how to fight back. “The biggest challenge for all of us is not to get too carried away with one loss,” Nielsen said. “We certainly had a chat last night and Ricky put it pretty clearly what he expected from the group, not just about playing cricket but the way we present ourselves and the way we go about our things. We want to make sure we’re competing for 100 overs of the game.”Australia’s players feel comfortable at the Gabba and are excited to be playing on a pitch with bounce and carry, especially when compared with the lower and slower surfaces around the country. The team will accept any advantage knowing that it has to win the second match to extend the series to a third final in Adelaide on Friday.”It is a tough challenge, it’s not the ideal situation to be in, to be 1-0 down,” Nielsen said. “India played better than us and we didn’t play to our potential, so our challenge now is to have a quick turnaround and get ready to go and put our best foot forward.”

A decision on whether or not Mohammad Yousuf will be allowed to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is expected to be made on March 29, following a final hearing of the Mumbai-based arbitration court looking into the dispute.Yousuf had initially signed up for the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League (ICL) last year, seemingly in protest after he was dropped from the Pakistan squad for the Twenty20 World Championships. The Pakistan board, however, eventually convinced him to change his mind and renege on his contract, luring him back with the promise of an IPL contract.The ICL, understandably, took the matter to an arbitration court, claiming that Yousuf had already signed up and his contract prevented him from playing in any rival league. The matter has been stuck in a legal limbo since then, a few hearings this year so far not resolving anything.Yousuf was the only player whose services remained unsold at the recent IPL auctions, franchises undoubtedly hesitant over his legal status. Yousuf himself is said to be annoyed that the Pakistan board hasn’t resolved the matter yet, but officials maintain that full support is being provided.”The PCB is fully defending Yousuf’s decision to play in the IPL,” Nasim Ashraf, chairman PCB, told Cricinfo. “We have lawyers in India handling the matter and a legal representative from the board has also been there at the hearings. The last hearing went on for considerably longer than expected but a final decision is now expected on March 29.”Ashraf also revealed that though Yousuf had not been ‘bought’ by any franchise, the IPL had guaranteed to match the package that the ICL had offered to him initially.

Brett Lee is not surprised that Twenty20 looks set to expand beyond the existing tournaments and he has repeated calls for the ICC to do what it can to accommodate the format in its existing calendar. Lee is in Mohali preparing for his first match in the Indian Premier League (IPL), for the Kings XI Punjab against Chennai on Saturday.However, this year’s IPL could be just the beginning of the Twenty20 explosion with suggestions of two IPL tournaments to be held next year, while Allen Stanford is planning a US$20 million match. England are also considering developing their own domestic version of the IPL.”Twenty20 is now a proven form of the game and, as we have seen all over the world in the last few years, it is something the fans love,” Lee told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s not too hard to see other people wanting to get on board and competitions popping up around the place, especially if the IPL is successful.”But the last thing you want to see is players leaving their countries to sign up with Twenty20 competitions. My heart is always with the baggy green cap and that is where my loyalty will always lie, but I can’t see why there can’t be room for both types of cricket. I think the people who run the game need to allow a window of opportunity for players to play in the IPL to avoid problems in the future.”Lee believes the first IPL will be a success and he is confident that after the recent fractious Test series, tensions between Australia and India players have eased. His team-mates at Mohali include Irfan Pathan, Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth, and Lee hopes playing together will help men from the two nations better understand each other.”Everyone knows there was an incident or two in Australia last summer, but that is water under the bridge,” he said. “It’s a competitive game and players can occasionally cross the line, and that can get blown out of proportion sometimes with the way the media portrays it.”From my experiences in India, I genuinely think people love the Australian team, despite everything that’s been said. I also think that with players from different countries now sharing the same dressing room, it is a great opportunity for all of us to learn more about each other, about our cricket and cultures, and improve the whole mood of the game.”