Anderson and Panesar thwart Australia’s push for victory

CARDIFF: The last wicket pair of Monty Panesar and James Anderson played 69 balls without being separated to enable England to cling to a dramatic draw against Australia today in the face of defeat in the opening Test of the five-match Ashes series.

England having conceded a first innigns lead of 239 runs was in deep trouble when Panesar joined Anderson at the wicket in the final session of the fifth and final day.

The two tailenders kept the Australian bowlers at bay till the scheduled end of the match in the opening Test at Sophia Gardens.

The last wicket stand of 19 in 69 balls between Anderson (21 not out in 53 balls) and Panesar (seven not out off 35 balls) helped the hosts to a draw as they finished on 252 for nine.

Earlier, Paul Collingwood scored a painstaking 74 in nearly six hours to set the stage for the heroics by the last wicket pair.

England, who had made 435 runs in the first innings, reached 252 for nine at the close of play. Australia had scored 674 in the first innings.

The second Test of this five-match series starts at Lord's where Ashes-holders Australia have not lost a Test since 1934 on Thursday.

big mouth John Buchanan

John Buchanan, the former Australia coach, has said India's 'Fab Four" batsmen - Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman - are not suited to Twenty20 cricket. Buchanan, who worked closely with several Indian players during his stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, made these and other observations in his new book, The Future of Cricket: The Rise of Twenty20.

Buchanan was otherwise in praise of Tendulkar - who has opted out of Twenty20 internationals but not the IPL. "Tendulkar has been lauded, and rightly so, as one of the very top batsmen in the history of cricket," he wrote. "But is he an effective T20 player at this stage of his career?

"In the position he plays - as an opener or No. 3 - the T20 game requires not only the finesse and skills he has, but also the power and domination, an ability to take the bowlers on while being creative. You have to be inventive and fearless. And I don't see those qualities as part of Sachin's makeup at this stage of his career. Sachin Tendulkar is still a great player but not in this arena of T20."

Buchanan had similar views on Tendulkar's contemporaries, none of whom featured in the ICC World Twenty20 in England.

"Homegrown heroes such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman, were expected to influence, and on some occasions single-handedly win IPL matches," Buchanan said. "Yet their subdued performances highlight that Test match temperament does not necessarily ensure prolonged success in the T20 game.

"The same could be said about Rahul Dravid. Dravid is a great representative of Indian cricket, a team man, humble, a well-spoken gentleman. But unfortunately he could not score a single run in the early rounds of the IPL, and in my opinion, is not suited to this form of the game. I am certain Dravid's performances were also affected by the off-field drama created by his franchise owner Vijay Mallya."

His opinions weren't restricted to India's ageing stars. He went on to question Yuvraj Singh's attitude, though he later clarified that there was no malice involved in his comments.

"Yuvraj Singh in a sense tries to be a modern-day Sourav Ganguly, but I don't think he has the charisma or the dignity with which Ganguly carries himself," he said.

However, Buchanan was full of praise for Ganguly, though the pair didn't have the best of times with Kolkata during the IPL. Buchanan's multiple-captain theory didn't go down well with the team at the start of the tournament and a host of off-field and selection issues saw the team finish at the bottom. It also cost Buchanan his job as coach.

"Ganguly was the model for the new breed of confident and combative Indian cricketers. Ganguly showed that Indian cricket could stand up for itself. He is similar in that way to Ian Chappell who stood up for what he believed and was not afraid to take on the administration."

Sri Lanka 292 (Paranavitana 72, Aamer 3-74, Younis 2-23) and 217 (Ajmal 3-34, Aamer 3-38, Younis 2-27) beat Pakistan 342 (Yousuf 112, Misbah 56, Kulasekara 4-71) and 117 (Herath 4-15, Thushara 2-21, Mendis 2-27) by 50 runs. MoM : Rangana Herath

A collapse of Pakistani proportions led to a complete U-turn in the fate of the incredible Galle Test, the match eventually decisively going Sri Lanka's way. Pakistan started the day needing 97 with eight wickets in hand, and Salman Butt and first-innings centurion Mohammad Yousuf resuming after comfortably negotiating the last half hour yesterday. But Thilan Thushara and Rangana Herath bowled exceptional spells of varied left-arm bowling to help Sri Lanka take the last eight wickets for just 46.

Dravid among Champions Trophy probables!!!

Rahul Dravid is the surprise inclusion among India's probables for the ICC Champions Trophy in September this year. The selectors picked a longlist of 30 players for the tournament, to be held in South Africa, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan.

Dravid played his last ODI in October 2007 against Australia in Nagpur, where he managed seven runs. He averages 39.49 from 333 games with a strike-rate of 71.22 and is the third Indian to accumulate more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.

His inclusion follows the recent struggles of Indian batsmen against short-pitched bowling, brutally shown up in the ICC World Twenty20 where Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan were troubled by bouncers from the West Indian and England fast bowlers. The problem continued in the subsequent ODI series in the West Indies.

Dravid played a key role in the success of Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL's second season, scoring 271 runs at a strike-rate of 115.81 as the team finished runners-up in the tournament held in South Africa.

Probables: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, M Vijay, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, S Badrinath, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh, Wriddhiman Saha, Pankaj Singh.

INDIA WINS DIGICEL SERIES 2-1.....

India won the series 2-1 after torrential downpour terminated the fourth ODI. With this victory, India have won their fifth straight ODI series.

The game got off to a delayed start and Dhoni made the obvious decision to bowl on a damp pitch that offered some help to the seamers. Ishant Sharma, bowling a fuller length here, removed Chris Gayle and along with Ashish Nehra, didn't allow West Indies to get off to a breezy start. Ishant hit the good length and pinged the off-stump line and Nehra got some seam movement into the right-handed batsmen. Sarwan hit a gorgeous on-the-up square drive against Ishant in the sixth over to break free but just as he started to find his rhythm, the rains came down again to kill the contest.

India Wins A Thriller @ Gros Islet

IND 159 for 4 (Karthik 47, Dhoni 46*, Gambhir 44) beat WI 185 for 7 (Sarwan 62, Nehra 3-21) by six wickets (D/L method). MoM:M S Dhoni

M S Dhoni and India kept their nerve on a frustrating day of rain delays to take a 2-1 series lead in St Lucia. It was still anybody's game when India needed 11 off the final over, but Dhoni slammed the second ball over deep midwicket to put the visitors on course for victory.

India threatened to lose their way in the chase after a solid start provided by Dinesh Karthik before Dhoni hauled them past the line. The rain-breaks initially readjusted their target to 195 in 27 overs before a further shower reduced it to 159 in 22 overs.

When Karthik fell after a fine 47 India needed a relatively comfortable 111 from 89 balls, and at the next rain-break they needed 64 from 51 balls with nine wickets in hand, but a succession of wickets left India requiring 34 in four overs. It came down to the last over. Curiously, Chris Gayle turned to Jerome Taylor, who had a poor game, instead of Ravi Rampaul, who had bowled a pretty decent 20th over. Dhoni killed the contest in the second ball with a six over deep midwicket. He picked the slower one and used his bottom-hand to swipe it with the wind over midwicket boundary. Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan got the remaining four runs with a ball to spare.

DO U KNOW "Ball-tampering" ? ! ?

Players are barred, by Law 42.3, from rubbing the ball on the ground, interfering with its seam or surface, or using any implement that can alter the condition of the ball to thereby gain unfair advantage. There have been plenty of ugly incidents centring on accusations of ball-tampering through cricket's history: the John Lever "Vaseline" affair in 1976-77; the times England and New Zealand accused Pakistan of it in the early 1990s; Michael Atherton's admission that he used dirt to treat the ball against South Africa in 1994; and perhaps most infamously, the Oval Test of 2006 when Pakistan forfeited the match because they were accused of having tampered with the ball.