Chris Gayle is back in Test squad

Chris Gayle is set to play his first Test in more than 18 months after being named in the West Indies squad for the first Test against New Zealand.

Gayle has not played Test cricket since the tour of Sri Lanka in December 2010, and he will provide a major boost to the West Indies batting line-up, which also includes Shivnarine Chanderpaul after he missed the final Test against England due to a side strain.

The selectors have left out an injured Darren Bravo from the 13-man squad. Bravo sustained the injury during the England tour.

'Out of favour' Shoaib Malik set for ODI recall

Karachi, July 24 (ANI): Pakistan selectors are reportedly planning to recall some of the discarded batsmen, including Shoaib Malik, in order to strengthen the national team's batting line up.
According to the Daily Times, sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said that in the first stage the selectors were planning to recall discarded opener Yasir Hameed, middle-order batsman Fawad Alam and Shoaib Malik into the one-day squad.
Malik has been named in the national Twenty20 squad for the Australia series and T20 World Cup, but the selectors are yet to announce the One-day squad for the Australia series.
Yasir has not been selected to play for Pakistan since 2010, and Fawad has also been out of favour with the selectors.
"Their feeling is that the time is right to start planning ahead to stabilise the batting line-up in the ODI and Test formats," the source said.
"The selectors feel that the batsmen are not scoring consistently, and secondly they are not getting big scores as was the requirement of the team. The plan is not only to recall some discarded players like Yasir and Fawad but also to give more responsibility to Malik and also try out some new faces," the source added.
"The idea is to start rebuilding the batting line up by adding fresh players. That is one reason why the selectors have also picked the top performers of the last domestic season to attend a conditioning camp at the National Cricket Academy," the source further added.

Sri Lanka thrash India by nine wickets, square series

Perera was declared Man of the Match for figures of 8-3-19-3.

HAMBANTOTA: Medium pacer Thisara Perera ransacked India’s vaunted batting card in blustery conditions as Sri Lanka thrashed India by nine wickets in the second ODI here on Tuesday.

The victory, achieved with more than 30 overs to spare, helped the hosts square the five-match series 1-1, and is India's second worst ODI defeat in terms of balls remaining.

India elected to bat as a strong breeze raged across the field, and after a devil-may-care beginning from Virender Sehwag found themselves shorn of their top-order in the face of smart bowling by Perera (who at one stage boasted figures of 3-3-0-3) and Angelo Mathews (7-2-14-3).

Unable to recover from repeated setbacks, India was shot out for 138 in 33.3 overs, with Gautam Gambhir (65) playing the lone hand.

Sri Lanka faced no trouble in chasing down the paltry target, with a little help from India who bowled 14 wides in 20 overs and grassed Tillakaratne Dilshan when he had score just one.

The openers Dilshan (50) and Upul Tharanga (59 not out) thwarted the Indian attack for 64 runs in eight overs before the early dinner break, necessitated by India’s hasty demise.

On resumption, more of the same fare was on the menu. The two extended their alliance to 119 in under 17 overs, helping themselves to half-centuries and reeling in victory in a shade under 20 overs, for the loss of Dilshan’s wicket.

India could have Dilshan earlier when the opener had scored one, but a loafing Sehwag grassed a straightforward attempt at slip.

The visitors bowling arsenal, spearheaded by Zaheer Khan and shouldered by Irfan Pathan and Umesh Yadav, was ineffective in the face of purposeful batting.

It was a comprehensive win considering the hosts’ awry beginning.

Earlier, India won the toss and in blustery conditions capitalized on some wayward bowling and fielding from the hosts.

Debutant left-arm seamer Isuru Udana marked his first ODI with a wide-strewn 11-ball over, conceding 16 runs and sending India into overdrive at 31 without loss in under four overs.

And then it was time for Perera, who rocked India with a triple strike. The medium pacer strangled the runs by keeping a persistent off-stump line, claiming a wicket in each of his first three overs and had figures of 3-3-0-3 at one stage, as India’s batsmen struggled against the away-moving delivery.

Sehwag was first to go. The opener threw caution to the wind (of which, incidentally, there was plenty) and swatted Perera hard, only to be plucked out of this air for a sensational return catch with the bowler almost parallel to the ground in his reflex dive.

Having scored a century in his previous three matches against Sri Lanka, Virat Kohli perished when he tried to guide a widish delivery to third man and edged to Sangakkara behind the wicket.

Rohit Sharma played on to Mathews for a duck. Suresh Raina too departed in similar fashion, chopping Perera on to the stumps to become the Lankan’s third victim.

Perera could have had his fourth had Mathews not dropped a sitter of Dhoni at slip when the Indian skipper was yet to get off the mark. But Mathews atoned for his lapse soon after by cramping Dhoni with a gorgeous off-cutter, which the batsman could only snick to a graciously accepting Sangakkara.

India were 60-5 after 15 overs and it only went downhill from there.

All this while, Gautam Gambhir held one end firm. He launched a quasi rearguard with R. Ashwin, but the off-spinner was run-out farcically when he sought, lethargically, to retrace his steps back to safety from an aborted third run attempt.

Gambhir was finally the last man out, having scored a responsible 96-ball 65, but all his stoicism counted for naught when appended to the callous batting of his teammates.

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Pattinson puts pace spearhead Lee's place in doubt for tri-series finals

Brisbane, Mar. 3 (ANI): Victorian fast bowler James Pattinson has performed well enough in his comeback match to put a question mark on veteran Brett Lee's inclusion in the Australian squad for the best-of-three Commonwealth Bank series finals against Sri Lanka.

On Friday, Pattinson took four wickets for 51 in the 12th one-day international match of the series to bundle out Sri Lanka for 238. But he could not prevent the islanders from sneaking a nine-run win off the Kangaroos to ensure a place in the finals.

Lee, 35, had to miss the match with a foot injury, and now, Pattinson (21), has clearly emerged as the former's fast bowling heir apparent, reports Fox Sports.

Pattinson also has 25 Test scalps in four matches against India at an average of only 18. He has overcome a foot injury and is fired up to resume his international career.

South Africa sweep New Zealand ODI series

Reuters: Paceman Marchant de Lange picked up four wickets on his one-day international debut as South Africa completed a 3-0 clean sweep against New Zealand with a five-wicket victory in the third and final ODI in Auckland on Saturday.

South Africa's bowlers bundled out New Zealand for 206 in 47 overs after the visitors had won the toss and opted to bowl in wet and windy conditions at Eden Park.

Hashim Amla, who made 92 in the last ODI in Napier on Wednesday, continued his impressive form by scoring 76 as South Africa reached their target with 40 deliveries to spare.

The stylish right-hander, who was dropped on 30 by Nathan McCullum off Kyle Mills, added 80 runs for the first wicket with makeshift opener Wayne Parnell (27) and 58 runs with Albie Morkel (41) for the second to anchor the chase.

Amla hit seven sublime boundaries in his knock before he mistimed a pull shot to be caught by New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, giving seamer Kyle Mills his 200th wicket in ODIs.

The visitors, who had also won the preceding three-match Twenty20 series 2-1, lost some wickets after Amla's dismissal but it was not enough for New Zealand to post an unlikely win.

South Africa pacemen Dale Steyn and Lonwabo Tsotsobe pegged New Zealand back with some hostile fast bowling at the start and the hosts struggled for momentum from there on.

The 21-year-old de Lange, who made his test debut last December against Sri Lanka, also extracted good pace and bounce from the track as New Zealand lost wickets at regular intervals to be bundled out with three overs left in their innings.

The 55-run stand between James Franklin (36) and debutant Colin de Grandhomme (36) for the fifth wicket was the only half-century partnership in the New Zealand innings.

De Grandhomme, who hit three sixes and a four in his 36-ball knock, and Kane Williamson were run after some athletic fielding by South Africa while left-arm spinner Robin Peterson lopped off the tail with two wickets at the end.

The three-test series between the two sides begin in Dunedin on Wednesday.

India's disastrous tour of Australia is finally over

Indian team members attend the presentations after Australia won the fourth Test match at Adelaide. (AFP/Getty …

Sydney, March  3: India leave for home on Saturday after a disastrous tour of Australia to face likely recriminations after Sri Lanka ended their hopes of reaching the finals of the tri-nations one-day series.

Sri Lanka held their nerve to end India's late bid for a spot in the best-of-three finals with a gripping nine-run win over Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.

That result means the deserving Sri Lankans will do battle with Australia in the finals, starting in Brisbane on Sunday.

India, who arrived Down Under in December as the second-ranked Test nation and reigning World Cup champions, return home to face questions over their poor tour, which included a 4-0 drubbing in the Test series against Australia.

As Cricinfo's Sidharth Monga observed: "In their own cocoon of denial, living in the past, out-batted, out-bowled, out-fielded, out-captained both on and off the field, out-coached, out-jibed by the hosts, India didn't really turn up."

Symptomatic of India's miserable time was the failure of batting star Sachin Tendulkar to claim his 100th international century.

Test and one-day cricket's revered leading runscorer missed out on scoring a century for the first time in five tours to Australia, where he was given standing ovations to and from the wicket each time by respectful crowds.

In eight Test and seven ODI innnings Tendulkar could not deliver the ton that has been eluding him since his 111 against South Africa at last year's World Cup.

It was difficult to gauge Tendulkar's feelings on the subject as he was cocooned away from the media and did not appear at press conferences while all his teammates daily trotted out their reasons for each successive failure.

India's tour record does not make for pretty reading.

Their 4-0 Test humiliation included defeat by 122 runs in Melbourne, innings losses in Sydney and Perth and a 298-run thrashing in Adelaide.

M.S. Dhoni's men set out to prove their doubters wrong in the triangular one-day series against Australia and Sri Lanka. After all, they were the reigning World Cup champions.

Yet India again failed to measure up and despite an astonishing Hobart run-chase where they reeled in Sri Lanka's 320 with 80 balls to spare to give them late hope of squeezing into the finals, they ultimately missed out.

There have been calls back home for India's ageing stars - Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, even Tendulkar - to move on and questions over the strategy and approach of skipper Dhoni and thebatting lethargy of Virender Sehwag.

Former captain Sunil Gavaskar even questioned whether the Indian team was hurting enough from the crushing losses they endured.

Touring journalist Amol Karhadkar of the Hindustan Times observed on the final night in Brisbane that while cricket fans back home hoped and prayed for an Australian victory over Sri Lanka, a number of players appeared little bothered.

"While most of the players watched the first half of the match together in the team hotel, they ventured out for dinner later on," the reporter said.

One unnamed Indian player told The Times of India newspaper: "A team (Sri Lanka) which knocks down Australia three times on the trot has to be in the final."

"On the positive side, we will get to spend a few days at home before going to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup. We have been away for almost three months and were feeling a bit homesick."

Presumably not as sick as Indian cricket fans feel about the past few months.