Younus undecided about joining team for Australia tour

Karachi: Senior Pakistan batsman Younus Khan, who pulled out of the Test tour to New Zealand, still remains undecided about joining the team for the full tour of Australia from December.

Younus admitted at a launch ceremony held at Headingly on Tuesday for the Pakistan and Australia series next year in England that he had still not decided about going to Australia.

"I don't know whether I will be able to join the team in time for the series in Australia. I have not decided as yet.

Right now I am just resting and recouping and will start playing some domestic cricket soon," Younus said.

Younus pulled out of the Test tour to New Zealand after the national team lost the one-day series to New Zealand under his captaincy in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.

Due to his decision to take a break from international cricket, the board was forced to appoint Muhammad Yousuf as captain for the New Zealand Test tour.

The Pakistan team has already reached New Zealand and plays the first Test in Dunedin from November 24.

The team is scheduled to fly straight from New Zealand to Australia where Pakistan will play the Boxing day Test match and if Younus decides to comeback he will be joining the team in Melbourne.

Bookmark:

Fit-again Clarke returns to Aussie squad for WI series

Melbourne: A fit-again Michael Clarke today returned to Australia's 12-member squad as its vice-captain for the first cricket Test against the West Indies starting November 26 in Brisbane.

Clarke was nursing a back injury which had kept him out of the one-day series against India.

Australia, battling through a massive injury crisis, won the seven-match series 4-2 earlier this month.

Except for Doug Bollinger replacing Stuart Clark, Australian selectors have not made any changes to the squad which lost the Ashes to England a few months ago.

Regular wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has recovered from his finger injury that he picked up during the Ashes to make the cut for the series opener against the Caribbeans.

"The squad includes only one change from the side which played the last Test of the Ashes series in England. Doug Bollinger comes in forStuart Clark," Australia's National Selection Panel (NSP) Chairman Andrew Hilditch said.

Bookmark:

Mahela's double-ton raises Sri Lanka's hopes of victory

Ahmedabad, Nov 18 (IANS) Former captain Mahela Jayawardene cracked a chanceless double-century as Sri Lanka took a 165-run first innings lead against India by the close of third day's play in the first cricket Test here Wednesday.

At stumps, Mahela was unbeaten on 204 and Prasanna Jayawardene 84 as Sri Lanka piled up 591 for five, in reply to India's 426, at Motera's Sardar Patel Stadium here.

With a 165-run lead and five wickets in hand, the visitors can press home the advantage in the remaining two days to record their maiden Test victory in India.

It was Mahela's sixth double century, his second against India, while inspiring first Thilan Samaraweera (70) to stitch a 138-run partnership and then an unfinished 216-run stand with Prasanna.

The Sri Lankans maintained a brisk rate of scoring to accumulate 316 runs in the day after resuming at 275 for three.

Mahela and Samaraweera dominated the first session with their fourth-wicket stand and the last two sessions belonged to the sixth-wicket pair as India captainMahendra Singh Dhoni ran out of ideas.

Dhoni used six bowlers but none could stop Mahela and Co. from joining the run feast triggered by opener Tillkeratne Dilshan's 112 on the second day.

Indian bowlers toiled for their two wickets, Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews (17) who fell in the pre-lunch session.

The 32-year-old Mahela, who stepped down from captaincy in March to concentrate on his batting, played with skill and panache and the Indian bowling hardly made any impression on him.

Mahela hit 17 fours and a six in his knock which occupied 330 balls. Prasanna played a perfect foil to Mahela by rotating the strike and quietly raising his own score.

Dhoni started the proceedings with spinners, but both Mahela and Samaraweera hardly had any difficulty milking off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and leggie Amit Mishra for easy runs.

India took the new ball in the 10th over of the day. Ishant Sharma struck soon to remove Samaraweera, who mistimed his pull. Yuvraj took a good catch leaping to his right at square-leg. Samaraweera hit nine fours in his 145-ball innings.

Indians were lucky to get Mathews just before lunch, adjudged caught bat-pad, but the television replays showed the ball brushing the flap of the pad on its way toGautam Gambhir at short-leg. The two quick wickets brought some smile back to the Indian camp but it faded slowly as the day progressed.

Bookmark:

Scoreboard: India vs Sri Lanka, third day, first Test

Ahmedabad, Nov 18 (IANS) Scoreboard at the end of the third day's play of the first cricket Test between India and Sri Lanka at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera here Wednesday.

India first innings:

Gautam Gambhir b Welegedara 1

Virender Sehwag lbw b Welegedara 16

Rahul Dravid b Welegedara 177

Sachin Tendulkar b Welegedara 4

V.V.S. Laxman b Prasad 0

Yuvraj Singh c Dilshan b Muralitharan 68

Mahendra Singh Dhoni c Jayawardene b Prasad 110

Harbhajan Singh b Muralitharan 22

Zaheer Khan lbw Herath 12

Amit Mishra not out 7

Ishant Sharma st Prasanna b Muralitharan 0

Extras: (b 2, lb 2, w 1, nb 4) 9

Total: (all out in 104.5 overs) 426

Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Gambhir, 2.5 overs), 2-27 (Sehwag, 6.1), 3-31 (Tendulkar, 6.4), 4-32 (Laxman, 7.4), 5-157 (Yuvraj, 36.1), 6-381 (Dhoni, 87.1), 7-389 (Dravid, 92.4), 8-414 (Khan, 101.2), 9-426 (Harbhajan, 104.1)

Bowling:

Chanaka Welegedara 22-4-87-4

Dammika Prasad 22-1-106-2

Angelo Mathews 12-1-50-0

Muttiah Muralitharan 25.5-4-97-3

Rangana Herath 22-2-79-1

Tillakaratne Dilshan 1-0-3-0

Sri Lanka first innings: (overnight 275/3)

Tillekaratane Dilshan c Dravid b Khan 112

Tharanga Paranavitana c Dhoni b Sharma 35

Kumar Sangakkara c Tendulkar b Khan 31

Mahela Jayawardene batting 204

Thilan Samaraweera c Yuvraj b Sharma 70

Angelo Matthews c Gambhir b Harbhajan 17

Prasanna Jayawardene batting 84

Extras: (b 5, lb 13, w 3, nb 17) 38

Total: (for five wickets in 160 overs) 591

Fall of wickets: 1-74 (Paranavitana, 16.5 overs), 2-189 (Dilshan, 43.1), 3-194 (Sangakkara, 45.3), 4-332 (Samaraweera, 86.4), 5-375 (Mathews, 96.2)

Bowling:

Zaheer Khan 30-4-93-2

Ishant Sharma 28-0-108-2

Harbhajan Singh 39-3-151-1

Amit Mishra 43-6-152-0

Yuvraj Singh 13-1-49-0

Sachin Tendulkar 7-0-20-0

Toss: India chose to bat

Bookmark:

India v Sri Lanka first test scoreboard - close

Scoreboard at the close on the third day of the first test between India and Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad,

India, on Wednesday.

India first innings: 426 (R. Dravid 177, M. Dhoni 110, C. Welegedara 4-87)

Sri Lanka first innings (275-3 overnight)

T. Dilshan c Dravid b Zaheer 112

T. Paranavitana c Dhoni b Ishant 35

K. Sangakkara c Tendulkar b Zaheer 31

M. Jayawardene (not out) 204

T. Samaraweera c Yuvraj b Ishant 70

A. Mathews c Gambhir b Harbhajan 17

P. Jayawardene (not out) 84

Extras (b-5, lb-13, w-3, nb-17) 38

Total (five wkts; 160 overs) 591

Fall of wickets: 1-74 2-189 3-194 4-332 5-375

To bat: D. Prasad, R. Herath, M. Muralitharan, C. Welegedara.

Bowling (to date): Zaheer 30-4-93-2 (w-2, nb-8), Ishant28-0-108-2 (w-1, nb-3), Harbhajan 39-3-151-1, Mishra 43-6-152-0

(nb-6), Yuvraj 13-1-49-0, Tendulkar 7-0-20-0.

Relaxed Ponting gunning for 5-2

As the city woke up to a heavy cloud cover, intermittent drizzle and a misty morning, the lack of suspense about the result of the series wasn't the only reason the players didn't quite sweat buckets on the eve of the seventh and final ODI. The Aussies went through the ritual of warming up, padding up and marking their run-ups, but the weather would have tempted them to put their feet up after the six high-voltage games so far.

Later in the afternoon, the Indians had a similar approach, with the drizzle having intensified. With more rain forecast for Wednesday, there's a chance that the inconsequential match may just be washed out.

In the series so far, Australia captain Ricky Ponting has been a picture of concentration when it comes to preparing for a game. There have been days when his bat hasn't got any rest all through the session. A spate of injuries and an inexperienced squad made Ponting realise he couldn't afford to take chances. Such has been his impact on the series that it is tough to decide if it was Ponting the batsman or Ponting the captain who had a bigger role to play in Australia winning with a game to spare and sitting atop the world ODI rankings.

Finally, for the first time in the series Ponting looked relaxed. He jovially interacted with the net bowlers and joked with a top Australian rules football player who had dropped by. He even saw the lighter side of another mobile phone ringing at the media interaction, a common feature in the series that has annoyed the visitors with irritating regularity. As a cameraperson didn't heed the Aussie media manager's threat of a walkout and continued to speak on the phone, Ponting was still smiling. "I think it's his wife on the line," he said.

His opening answer hinted that the relaxed atmosphere at nets shouldn't be seen as an indicator that the Aussies will be complacent at the DY Patil Stadium on Wednesday. "We want to finish the tour on a very positive note. We've played some excellent cricket over the past few weeks and, while the series has been decided, it's certainly not over as far as we're concerned. To me 5-2 sounds a lot better than 4-3 does, so we're going to go ahead full steam," he said.

While Ponting the captain wants to motivate his team for one last push, the batsman in him would want to add to his batting contribution, which stands at 267 runs so far. For long, the leadership qualities of an Aussie captain have mostly been undervalued because of the presence of greats in the side. Ponting too hasn't been spared as even his World Cup triumphs have been attributed to presence of stars such asAdam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

But the Champions Trophy showed that even without big names, the Aussies are almost invincible. This series has shown that even their third-stringers can raise the level of the game.

Unlike the scoreline of the series or the possibility of the match on Wednesday, that's one thing which has no ambiguity about it.

Live on Neo Cricket from 2.30pm

Watson, Johnson return home

Mumbai: Cricket Australia announced on Tuesday that, after consultations with the medical and coaching staff, Australian fast bowlerMitchell Johnson and all-rounder Shane Watson would fly home as part of their workload management ahead of the upcoming Australian summer and the tour of New Zealand in March. Chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said: "In view of the extremely heavy workload shouldered byMitchell Johnson and Shane Watson since the World Twenty20, and the Australian summer which includes six Tests in eight weeks against the West Indies and Pakistan and a tour to New Zealand early next year, the committee has decided Mitchell and Shane will depart India as soon as possible."

Zaheer, Sreesanth back; Ojha included as third spinner

Looking for a reshuffle after the stinging setback against the Aussies at home, the selectors on Tuesday recalled four players for national duty in the 15-member squad for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka. Leading the surprise inclusions are fast bowler Sreesanth, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and middle-order batsman S Badrinath. Spearhead Zaheer Khan makes an expected return to the fold after injury.

Sreesanth's call-up comes based on his reputation of bowling well against left-handers � the Sri Lankan squad has six � despite the Kerala speedster returning empty-handed in the Ranji opener last week. Sreesanth, who spent considerable time in recovering from injury since playing his last game in 2008, was only last month given a final disciplinary warning from the board to improve his conduct.

Talking about his selection, he said: "I have changed a lot in these 19 months. I am looking forward to a fresh start. I will now focus on cricket only, all other things are secondary. I will try not to repeat the mistakes I committed earlier. My first target now is to get 100 Test wickets. It will be a long journey but I will do my best."

Ojha walks into the team as back-up option to Harbhajan and Amit Mishra while Badrinath has been awarded for his consistent performance on the domestic circuit. Ishant Sharma managed to keep his place while statemate Ashish Nehra failed to latch on to a Test berth after the selectors decided to keep him away from the rigours of five-day cricket.

Murali Vijay retains his place as the reserve opener after selectors decided to ink an extra 15th member in a home game to help the team management decide on the composition after having a final look at the wicket.

The Ahmedabad pitch is expected to assist seam bowling while Kanpur is known to help spinners and Sreesanth and Ojha's presence is seen as a move to help the management pick the side based on the nature of the track.

Munaf Patel again goes back to domestic circuit while Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman return to provide a familiar look to the middle-order withSachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni adding meat to a line-up that will figure Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir at the top.

The squad

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, Pragyan Ojha, S Sreesanth and S Badrinath