End of the road for Sachin?

It looked as if it was waiting to happen. A rare sight which is fast becoming a common one — stumps all over the place and Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar walking back amid the ruins.

Since the time Sachin took guard on Monday, with India at a precarious 83 for two chasing 261, New Zealand knew what exactly they needed to do to get rid of the world’s best batsman.

The plan was set — attack the stumps, and Sachin’s defence would be breached. Twice in the series, the master blaster had been bowled through the gate.

A hat-trick followed in the second innings of the Bangalore Test. Fast bowler Tim Southee crashed through Sachin’s defence and was fittingly rewarded with the prized wicket. Not one to let emotions get the better of him, it was uncharacteristic of Sachin to lift his bat in rage with the intention of almost smashing it to the ground.

On his way back to the pavilion though, he pulled himself back and shook his head.

Sachin faced 34 balls and hit five fours for his 27, but all the while New Zealand bowlers kept the ball up to him, making him play every delivery.

They waited patiently for Sachin’s defence to fall apart. After 78 minutes of battle in the middle, Sachin caved in, setting tongues wagging it is time for him to retire.


Senior cricketers have also started suggesting that Sachin should call it a day. Captain of the 1983 World Cup winning team Kapil Dev said: “From what we have seen in the last three months, he (Sachin) should have announced his retirement after the World Cup ( 2011) or even earlier.

It's important to know that every cricketer has his time. Having served India for 22-23 years, there surely is no greater cricketer than him. But he should have announced his decision to retire from the shorter format soon after the World Cup.” Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar wondered whether age has made Sachin slow on his feet after he was clean bowled in the first innings of the Hyderabad Test. When his stumps were shattered for the third consecutive time on Monday, Abbas Ali Baig felt Sachin was perhaps overconfident.

Ajit Wadekar, also a former coach of the Indian team, said it was wrong shot- selection that caused his dismissals. “He seems to be going through a bad patch,” Wadekar added.

So what ails Sachin’s batting? Is it the fact he has not scored a Test century in 24 innings, spanning more than a year? Or is there something wrong with his technique? Or is it, if someone dare ask, a mental thing? Fact is that Sachin’s last century came in January 2011, against South Africa in Cape Town, and since then he has got out twice in 90s and once in 80s.

And he has hasn’t scored a half century in the last seven innings.

Sachin has ruled out retirement as of now. Even if he is thinking about his future, he hasn’t shared it with the media so far.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly felt the little master’s presence was justified in the team. “Sachin knows when he has to retire. He is just going through a lean patch as he is playing after quite some time. There is no dip in his ability. He cannot be judged in just three innings. And he is obstructing no youngsters’ entry into the team,” he said.

If the captain’s words make any difference to a player’s performance, Sachin has every reason to believe Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Backing the senior- most player in the team, the India captain said: “The good thing is that whenever people talk about Tendulkar’s form, he comes up with a brilliant performance and I’m waiting for that. I don’t really get worried about that.”

Cricket: Irish coup as McDermott signs

Ireland have pulled off a major coup with the signing of former Australia paceman Craig McDermott as their new bowling coach and consultant.

McDermott held a similar role with Australia until earlier this year and links up with the Irish squad at a pre-World Twenty20 Cup training camp in Sri Lanka.

McDermott's decision to quit after a year as Australia's bowling coach in May was a major blow for the Aussies as he had been cited as the main reason for the recent improvement of their pacemen.

The 47-year-old will now face his home country as Ireland have been drawn in the same group as the Australians at the World Twenty20, which begins on September 18.

"I am looking forward to working with (coach) Phil (Simmons) and his team at the World T20 in Sri Lanka," he said.

"Ireland has done well in the past World Cups and I am sure they will do again at this one. They have a well balanced squad and I am looking forward to getting stuck into preparing them for the World T20 in our training camp in Colombo.

"I see this as another opportunity for me to work with another international team and to further my coaching career."

McDermott, whose son Alister won a first call-up for Australia's current tour of the United Arab Emirates, is his country's fifth-highest Test wicket taker having claimed 291 scalps in 71 appearances.

Cricket Ireland performance director David Holdsworth hailed McDermott's signing and revealed the International Cricket Council had helped finance the move.

"I am delighted that we have brought Craig on board as part of our coaching set-up," he said.

"He is vastly experienced both as a top-class player and more recently specialist bowling coach.

"Craig's enthusiasm, experience and knowledge will add further strength to our coach support staff and we thank the ICC high-performance programme for their financial support towards achieving this.

"Having recently been bowling coach to the Australian team, his insights into their players will help the team prepare for our match against them on 19th September."

Clarke says Australia proud of win over Pakistan

Captain Michael Clarke on Tuesday praised a professional Australia on foiling Pakistan's bid to win a limited over series, saying the players were really proud of their performance.

Australia edged out Pakistan by three wickets in a hard-fought third and final match here early Tuesday, preventing their rivals from winning a limited over series for the first time in ten years.

Australia won the first match here by four wickets before Pakistan levelled the series with a seven wicket win in Abu Dhabi.

The victory meant Australia, who had fallen to world number four in one-day rankings, bounced back after their 4-0 thumping by England in a one-day series in July.

"The feeling around the group is great, especially after losing 4-0 to England," said Clarke. "The guys should be really proud of this series. It was a tough victory against a very good one-day team."

Australia successfully chased down a challenging 245-run target on the back of contrasting half-centuries from Michael Hussey (65) and Glenn Maxwell (56 not out), overcoming a serious threat from off-spinner Saeed Ajmal who took 3-37.

Australia not only combatted the spin well but also the sapping heat and perturbing humidity during all three matches, with the temperature rising to 35-plus even though the start to the matches had been delayed to 6:00 pm in the evening.

"We worked really hard before coming on this series. We were up in Darwin as a team and worked hard against spin bowling. We found conditions so different to what we tried to prepare for up in Darwin, especially in the heat.

"I've never played in heat like this, in humidity like this. The most pleasing thing is the whole series was won by the whole team, it wasn't one individual player."

Clarke said the team combination was important.

"As captain of this team and the Test team it's important for me to have a mix of youth and experience. I think that showed. You saw Maxwell, who is young and hasn't played too much cricket go out and play his natural game."

For Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq it was a third one-day series loss, after going down to England and Sri Lanka.

"I think we have to improve in every department of the game, especially we have to find the right combination of fast bowling and also we have to improve our batting and fielding," said Misbah.

Pakistan dropped as many as four catches and a stumping, the most costly of which was Maxwell when dropped by Azhar Ali off paceman Junaid Khan on 34.

Pakistan also wasted good starts in batting in the first and third matches.

"At important stages of the game we collapsed in batting and we have to make good use of batting power-plays," said Misbah, who will not be part of the Twenty20 squad.

Pakistan and Australia play three Twenty20 matches -- all in Dubai -- on September 5, 7 and 10.

'Ageing' Martin still 'rallying point' for young Kiwi pace attack, says captain Taylor

Wellington: New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has said veteran fast bowler Chris Martin, who has led the Kiwi pace attack for almost a decade, still has an important part to play in their current set up despite a number of young quicks making their mark.

The Black Caps suffered yet another defeat in the longer version after losing to India in the second and final Test match of the series at Bangalore.

The five-wicket beating nonetheless, saw them put in an improved effort following a horror show at Hyderabad, where the team lost out by an innings margin.

The renewed fight was built on the back of strong bowling contributions from a trio of young pacers in Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Doug Bracewell.

Excited by the future of New Zealand cricket, Taylor still sees Martin as an important member of the side and one who could help youngsters take advantage of his experience and knowledge of the game.

"With young fast bowlers, they need someone to learn off. There are going to be times in the next few months when Chris will play and there will be times when he might not play at all," Stuff.nz.com quoted Taylor, as saying.

"He's obviously a very experienced person and he's willing to give his time. He knows where he stands in the team, he's still got a part to play," he added.

De Villiers says ODI top spot not in Proteas' minds during England tour

Johannesburg: South Africa one-day captain AB de Villiers has claimed he wasn't even aware of team's limited over rankings prior to their England tour, and added the becoming world's number one team was not on their minds.

Proteas need to win the final one-day match at Nottingham on Wednesday to tie the five-match series two all after the first match of the series was washed out due to rain.

South Africa pipped England to become world's number one ODI team after winning the second match, but consecutives defeats in the series has again pushed them back to second position.

Even winning the final one-day match would keep South Africa behind England, and when asked about losing the numero uno status, De Villiers said it was immaterial.

"It was never our focus before this tour. I didn't even know where we were ranked," Sports 24 quoted De Villiers, as saying.

"Anyway, you can't think or talk about world rankings when you are only playing at 70 percent capacity," he added.

Hussey, Maxwell help Australia to a series win

Australia ended up successful against the trial by spin and the heat in the UAE as they won the 3rd ODI to clinch a 2-1 series win.

Michael Hussey was one of the stars for the team from Down Under, scoring a fine 65 while Glenn Maxwell came up with a crucial 56 to help Australia beat Pakistan by 3 wickets in the final ODI at Sharjah. Hussey scored his 39th fifty and Maxwell hit his maiden half-century in ODIs to round off a challenging chase of 245 in 47 overs, spoiling Pakistan's chances of beating Australia for the first time since 2002.

Hussey added an invaluable 51 for the fifth wicket with Matthew Wade (22) after Saeed Ajmal (3/37) had threatened to wreck their rival's batting as Australia were struggling at 108-4. But the 37-year-old Hussey, regarded as one of the best finishers in limited overs cricket, kept his cool during a 72-ball knock. Even when Wade was bowled by Abdur Rehman, Hussey fought hard, adding 67 with Maxwell. When Hussey was bowled by Khan, Australia still needed 19 but Maxwell ensured the chase was successful, hitting four fours and three sixes in a vital knock that saw his team through.

Australia got off to a rapid start with David Hussey, who came out to open, putting on 44 by the ninth over with David Warner (21). Both took the attack to the Pakistanis from the outset with David Hussey hitting three sixes during his 45-ball knock of 43.

But once Ajmal came on the Australian innings faltered as the off-spinner dismissed David Hussey, Michael Clarke (32) and George Bailey in his first five-over spell.But David's elder brother foiled Ajmal in his second spell to keep his team on track before Maxwell completed the formalities.

Earlier, Mohammad Hafeez came up with a fine half-century and was involved in a century partnership with Nasir Jamshed, which happened to be Pakistan's first century stand by their openers against Australia since 1985. The 31-year-old right-hander hit 78 off 97-balls for his 13th one-day fifty and added 129 runs with Jamshed (48) to give Pakistan a good platform.

At that stage, it seemed likely that Pakistan would post a total in excess of 300. However, a persistent Australian seam attack restricted the sub-continent team to 244/7. Mitchell Starc did most of the damage, finishing with figures of 4/51, while Mitchell Johnson contributed his bit with 2/33.

Jamshed, who hit 97 in the previous match, was again at his fluent best as he hit six boundaries during his 75-ball knock. Jamshed, along with Hafeez, laid a solid platform for Pakistan to capitalize upon before he became the first one to depart when he was out caught behind off Johnson.

Shahid Afridi was promoted up the order to accelerate the scoring but he did not do much as he was caught by Glenn Maxwell at deep mid-wicket for seven, giving Johnson his second wicket. Pakistan's momentum was further hindered when Hafeez fell, trapped leg-before by Michael Clarke in the 33rd over, which left Pakistan hard pressed for runs.

Starc, who took a career best 5-42 in the opening game, accounted for Asad Shafiq (27) and Umar Akmal (0) in the 39th over before bringing about the dismissals of Misbah-ul Haq (25) and Kamral Akmal (2) in the 47th over. Azhar Ali and Abdur Rehman managed a few boundaries towards the end which helped Pakistan post a competitive tota.

Pakistan series good prep for World T20: Watson

Fit-again all rounder Shane Watson hoped a three-match Twenty20 series against Pakistan will give a good preparation to his side for next month's World Twenty20.

The 31-year-old joined the Twenty20 squad here after missing the three-match one-day series due to a calf injury sustained on the team's tour of England in July this year.

Pakistan and Australia play the Twenty20 matches in Dubai on September 5, 7 and 11.

Watson believed playing a dangerous Twenty20 side like Pakistan will give good preparations to Australia, who are ranked ninth in the shortest form of the game.

"These matches are very important and will give us a good lead to the World Twenty20," said Watson of the event starting in Sri Lanka next month. "We haven't really had a long time together as a Twenty20 team so it will be good playing Pakistan."

Australia were the losing semi-finalist of the first World Twenty20 in 2007 before they were thrown out of the second edition in the first round in England two years later.

They lost to England in the 2010 event final held in the West Indies.

"We have played well in Twenty20 and were unlucky on missing out on the final the last time. This team has got good balance of young and experience and on our day we can beat the best teams in the world," said Watson.

Australia earlier this year appointed George Bailey as their Twenty20 captain. They are placed in Group B of the 12-team World Twenty20, alongside the West Indies and Ireland.

Watson hoped all players will get to know their roles in the team.

"These three matches (against Pakistan) will be challenging and it's going to be a great period for us to continue to know what exactly are our roles in Twenty20," said Watson who has so far scored 643 runs in 27 Twenty20 matches.

He also has 21 wickets as a medium pacer.

Watson admitted Pakistani spinners and oppressive heat in United Arab Emirates will be a big challenge.

"The heat is always there, you play throughout the year so heat is part and parcel for both the sides," said Watson. "Pakistan have got high class spinners with (Saeed) Ajmal and (Shahid) Afridi and they can certainly change the game.

"In Twenty20 cricket you don't have much chance to be able to work the ball, when the ball is turning a score of 130 140 is good. There is no doubt they are good spinners but we will work hard," said Watson.

"It (UAE) is a great place to play cricket and I am excited and at times these are similar conditions we get in Sri Lanka ao it gives us a good chance to combine as a team and understand our roles," said Watson.