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The Big Picture

As expected, India shrugged off the Twenty20 aberration to hand New Zealand a heavy defeat in the first ODI. The hosts have to do all the running now. The pitch looks slow and is not expected to assist seam movement. Virender Sehwag has already said that if India’s batting clicks, they can score 300 in every game. Even so, New Zealand couldn’t have chosen a better venue to level the series. It’s their favourite venue and Daniel Vettori said his players feel very comfortable playing here.However, they have a key injury worry ahead of the game. Brendon McCullum has a thumb injury and Peter McGlashan has been called up to the squad in case McCullum doesn’t recover in time. If McCullum doesn’t play then Martin Guptill will open. Without McCullum, New Zealand might struggle to get someone to guide the inexperienced batting line-up.India will again be without the injured Ishant Sharma. But it is their batting that hurt New Zealand in the first game. As they did in Sri Lanka, India have continued to shuffle the batting order. Dhoni came in at No 3 in the last game and if you believe Sehwag, New Zealand were caught unawares wondering if Dhoni had come to pinch hit or bat as a regular No. 3. The Indians are incredibly confident but occasionally, as happened during the Twenty20, they become complacent. The twin losses may actually have done India a lot of good.

ODI form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)
India – WLWWW
New Zealand – LNLLW

Watch out for …

Jesse Ryder: He has already become one of New Zealand’s key batsmen. He has a healthy strike rate of 80.61 but is yet to successfully convert his starts. New Zealand would hope that Ryder can improve on his average of 31.Suresh Raina: This series offers Raina another chance to display his consistency. He has begun well; can he carry on? During his injury and absence from the Indian team, Rohit Sharma got a chance but contrived to waste it. In Sri Lanka, Mahendra Singh Dhoni said publicly that Raina is ahead in the pecking order and will get to stake his claim. So far he has done well.

Team news

If McCullum plays, Neil Broom is most likely to miss out. Allrounder Grant Elliott, who replaced Nathan McCullum at No 7, and Kyle Mills, who returned from injury, didn’t have a great first game but are expected to bounce back strongly. Mills had a good tour of Australia, picking nine wickets at 20.New Zealand: 1 Jesse Ryder, 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Martin Guptill, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Jacob Oram, 6 Neil Broom, 7 Grant Elliott, 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Ian Bulter/Tim Southee, 11 Iain O’Brien, 12 Peter McGlashanIndia are not expected to take any risks with Ishant Sharma. Praveen Kumar, the man who replaced Ishant, had a stellar first game but Munaf Patel will have to step up.India: 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Munaf Patel, 11 Zaheer Khan.

Pitch & conditions

The teams haven’t managed to get used to the conditions yet since they practised at the Basin Reserve. The wicket is supposed to be similar to the Twenty20 game – slow and not much seam movement on offer. Rain is expected; watch out for Messrs Duckworth and Lewis to get into the equation at some point.

Stats and trivia

New Zealand have a good record at the Westpac Stadium, winning ten ODIs and losing five. They have won the last five contests at the groundThe team winning the toss has opted to bat first on nine occasions in 16 ODIs at the venue.

Quotes

“In a five-match series, you need to be at least 1-1 at this point. So we realise how important it is. I suppose we do have a little bit of reputation coming into Wellington for these sorts of games and playing reasonably well. So we are confident that we can bounce back pretty quickly. The position we put ourselves against England when we lost the T20s pretty comprehensively and came back here and played well. It’s a ground we enjoy playing at and hopefully all those things move towards a win for us.”
“If we don’t lose wickets early,we can easily score 300 in every game [of this series]. New ball is important for us. In the last game we scored 273 off 38 overs, we could have gone on to 350-360 if it had been a 50-over game. Our batting is our strength, and if we can play the new ball well we invariably manage 280-290 at least.

Mark Greatbatch batted for 655 minutes and 435 balls for his unbeaten 146 to save the Perth Test in 1988-89. It wasn’t too different from the innings Gautam Gambhir played – 643 minutes and 436 balls for 137 runs, to save the Napier Test.Greatbatch talks about how he set himself small targets. “You are following on, 290 behind, and it was about batting out time,” Greatbatch remembers. “[Set] little targets. An over meant four minutes, four overs were 15 minutes. Eight overs meant half an hour, and 15 were an hour.” Taking that formula forward, 15 overs would mean a drinks break, the same cycle repeated would mean a session break, and that repeated three times a day would mean stumps.For Gambhir, the cycles started with 74 minutes remaining on the third day. By the end of the fourth day, he had seen through four such drinks breaks, two session breaks and another two interruptions for stumps. He got breaks from the intense concentration by opting for a cap when the spinners operated together, and then switching to helmets as a fast bowler approached. He would have been a really tired man last night, physically, and more importantly, mentally. Suppressing his natural dominating game for more than seven hours and showing fierce focus to take India into the final day would have drained his mind.That was not the tough part, though. It was more difficult knowing that his job had not yet been completed – the team needed to bat through at least two more drinks breaks and two more session breaks to save the Test. He would need to get the adrenaline down, get a good night’s sleep, and then get himself up again. It was difficult to imagine how much more Gambhir could dig into. Did those reserves of concentration exist?It would have been tempting to take the easy route, though. To go for quick runs. No one would complain if he had got out. There were two of the best Test batsmen of this era around him, with another talented batsman to follow. The pitch was flat and Gambhir could have easily gone for quick runs. But he didn’t leave the job unfinished, rather he started it anew.In the first hour today, he added eight runs. In that first hour, Sachin Tendulkar got out as well. The team was still in deficit as the spinners kept tempting him with wide balls thrown up outside off. He still didn’t give in to the temptation.In the end, he added only 35 to his overnight 102. But runs didn’t matter today. Crucially he added 209 minutes to his 434 minutes of stay overnight. And that’s what mattered.Not long ago, Gambhir was an impetuous young man not doing justice to his quick footwork and wide array of strokes. There were technical flaws that the bowlers gleefully exploited. But he has taken care of the front foot that used to fall over. He may elbow a bowler now and then, but he has shown he can concentrate for long periods of time.After close to 11 of his finest hours in top-level cricket, Gambhir will be seen in a different light, the temperamental tough kid is left far behind. His indebted captain, Virender Sehwag, has taken the lead. “I think Gautam played an innings of a lifetime,” Sehwag said. “I can say that because hardly any player plays for almost 11 hours nowadays. He is the one who saved the game for us. I think we can call him the second Wall of the Indian cricket team. This one comes from north.”

Scorecard
Dinesh Chandimal’s brisk 95 and solid contributions from two other top-order batsmen helped Sri Lanka Under-19 reach a match-winning total in the first youth ODI against Bangladesh Under-19. Chandimal was supported by Banuka Rajapaksha and Kushal Janith Perera, who scored 52 and 61, as Sri Lanka reached 274. Bangladesh were dismissed for 236 in the 47th over in reply.Sri Lanka, though, were on course for a much larger score after their top order had set a platform of 200 for 2. However, the rest of the batsmen caved after Chandimal fell leg before to Taijul Islam. None of the last six batsmen made more than 5 and Sri Lanka had to settle for 274.Bangladesh lost opener Mohammad Rubel in the first over of their chase but recovered through an 87-run stand between Amit Majumder and Saikat Ali. Ali top-scored with 76 but the batting collapsed after Majumder’s dismissal for 46. Bangladesh lost wickets at regular intervals and the lack of a partnership in the middle-order deprived them of the momentum necessary to challenge Sri Lanka’s total.

Grant Bradburn will stay on as coach of the Northern Districts after having replaced Andy Moles, who left to coach the New Zealand team, in November 2008, NZPA reported.Bradburn played for Northern Districts for 16 years and also coached the A team for the last four years. He has also coached the Cook Islands team in International Cricket Council competitions.Northern Districts finished fourth in the State Championship this year, and won the one-day State Shield final against Otago by 49 runs.

Andy Flower has made it clear in the early days of his official reign that only those with strong character and a big heart need apply to take on the Australians later this summer. Those with suspect temperaments will not be considered. He made a statement by leaving out the likes of Ian Bell and Steve Harmison, who have previously been accused of lacking the necessary ticker, in favour of those he feels have the bottle required.If you’d looked at the England side only a couple of years ago and tried to pick out those who had what it takes, James Anderson’s name wouldn’t have been anywhere near the top of the pile. However, over the last 12 months he has gone from the quiet man of the England team to an attack leader of some stature. His opening spell here was a prime example, where he had complete control of his swing and took out three top-order wickets.When he returned to the side against India, mid-way through 2007, he said he wanted to be the captain of the bowlers. During the winter tour to the Caribbean, during a low-key and almost anonymous practice session, the squad was split into two teams. The choice of each captain was fascinating. Stuart Broad led one side and Anderson the other. The captain of the bowlers had become a captain in his own right. It probably wasn’t an insight into a future role – bowling captains are a rare breed in international cricket – but Anderson has clearly become a senior figure.Yet, it isn’t only with the ball and in the field that Anderson’s growth as a player has become apparent. He has taken over the role vacated by Matthew Hoggard’s departure as England’s nightwatchman and has still managed to extend his extraordinary run of never collecting a duck to a world-record 48 innings.The merits of the nightwatchman role are there to be debated and Steve Waugh certainly wouldn’t approve of England’s desire to protect the specialist batsmen in any situation. Flower has admitted it was wrong to use Anderson in the second innings in Antigua, where the lead was already over 300, and a strong case could have been made here of a negative choice when he walked in at 282 for 2.However, Anderson rarely lets his team down when told to do the job despite often coming in when the quick bowlers have their tails up with a new ball. No bowler gets more excited by the sight of Anderson walking out than Fidel Edwards. “I’m not sure what I’ve done,” he said. “He just seems to crank it up each time I bat and I seem to get a few words. I honestly don’t have a clue what is going on. I really didn’t want to get out to him.”It’s a duel that started back in Antigua and simmered throughout the Caribbean, while last week at Lord’s Edwards pinned Anderson with a nasty blow on the helmet that left him momentarily on his back and not sure what day of the week it was. This time Anderson stayed upright, but still took some body blows. However, he stood up to the barrage and even managed an elegant square drive much to the annoyance of Edwards, who was close to boiling after Denesh Ramdin dropped a catch down the leg side and a no-ball was edged to third slip.Edwards’ response to eventually grabbing the wicket was an elaborate version of the DX crotch crop, a wrestling celebration, as Anderson thought about his revenge. “It does spur you on and I also had in the back of my mind that he still has to bat yet,” he said. “I’ll keep that in the locker.”When asked if the verbals from Edwards would be printable, Anderson replied: “Probably not.” Even Edwards’ own camp is none the wiser as to why he gets so charged up, but if Anderson keeps reply with devastating bursts of swing they may be telling him to stop. “It’s very strange, I can’t explain that,” said coach John Dyson.Anderson’s detirmination to front up to a battle head-on is mark of his development. It shows in his bowling, when he now longer becomes insipid when the ball doesn’t swing. Movement remains his greatest weapon – as he showed in his 11-over burst with the new ball, especially the wicket of Devon Smith bowled through the gate – but he is learning to take wickets in all conditions.”I think on any wicket, if you have a general idea of where you are going to pitch the ball and hit the top of off stump as people always say, you can’t go far wrong,” he said. “It could be tricky at times because it is a good wicket, but if the conditions are right and we ask as many questions as we did today we should have a good chance.”Two months of bowling on Caribbean featherbeads has had its benefits. Conditions may be too damp over the next couple of days, but Anderson is now mastering reverse-swing – such a key weapon for England in 2005 – which will become vital later this summer when, hopefully, the sunshine greets the Ashes series.It hasn’t been a seamless transition into the role of figurehead, but now that mantle is resting firmly on his broad Burnley shoulders. He has clearly made a strong impression on Flower. The early battles of the summer are being easily won by England, but that won’t remain so. When the going gets tough, Flower knows he’ll be able to call on Anderson. After six years in the shadows of England’s Test side, he’s ready to burst into the limelight.

Graham Onions will compete for a place in the first Ashes Test at Cardiff•Getty Images

Graham Onions will compete with Monty Panesar for England’s final bowling spot in the first Test at Cardiff on Wednesday, after he and Ian Bell were named in a 13-man squad that includes all 11 of the players who took part in England’s three-day warm-up against Warwickshire last week.Onions, who played in England’s last two Tests against West Indies in May, was chosen ahead of his Durham team-mate Steve Harmison, who impressed with a six-wicket haul for the England Lions against Australia at Worcester, but has been overlooked by the selectors since slipping out of favour during the winter tour of the Caribbean.”We were keen to show consistency in selection and retain the nucleus of the side that performed so well against West Indies earlier this summer,” said the national selector, Geoff Miller. “Graham Onions has made an excellent start to his Test career and gives us a different option when we consider the make-up of our bowling attack and the type of conditions we will encounter.”There is healthy competition for places in our starting line-up at present and the strong performance by the England Lions against Australia at Worcester demonstrated that we are starting to develop a larger squad of players who can compete effectively with international class players.”If the heart called for Harmison’s inclusion, after the fury of his performance against the Australians this week, the head always suggested that Onions would be permitted to continue in the role in which he excelled, in albeit subdued circumstances, earlier in the year. Having claimed five wickets on debut at Lord’s, including four in seven balls, Onions impressed with his versatility in the second Test against West Indies at Chester-le-Street, where at various stages of the match he found swing, bounce and aggression to meet his team’s requirements.”It’s a great feeling,” Onions told . “I feel I’ve learnt a lot from the two games I’ve played. It shows the hard work pays off eventually. Everything is clicking, I’m pitching the ball up and doing a little more with it. The Australians are ahead of us, so bring it on.”Despite talk of England playing two spinners in Cardiff, Onions remains highly likely to complement the chosen triumvirate of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff, given that the venue’s reputation as a raging turner has resulted in a mere 17 wickets for spinners, out of a possible 120, in three Championship matches this season. Regardless of his three morale-boosting wickets at Edgbaston on Thursday, Panesar’s own figures for Northamptonshire at Cardiff last month were 2 for 149.Continuity called for Onions’ inclusion, even if Harmison is the last man that the Aussies would wish to line up against right now. Besides, the impression gleaned from the winter campaign in the Caribbean is that Harmison still has a lot of ground to make up with the management – not least the hard-bitten new coach, Andy Flower – after a lacklustre series of performances. His inclusion would have been expedient in the circumstances, but having gone to such lengths to arrange that squad bonding exercise in Flanders last week, it would have been peculiar if England went fishing outside their initial squad of 16 at this crucial stage of the series.What is more, it is arguable that Harmison may already have done his job for this summer. In 2005, his furious five-wicket onslaught on the first morning at Lord’s was the performance that spelt out to the Aussies the extent of the challenge that awaited them. If truth be told, he was rarely as effective thereafter – he made vital incisions, most notably the dismissals of Michael Clarke and Mike Kasprowicz at Edgbaston, but claimed just nine wickets at 50.22 in the remaining four Tests of the series.What Harmison has done, however, is put on the sort of welcoming committee that Australian sides have habitually laid on for English touring teams. His unbridled hostility with the ball has been coupled with a selection of choice barbs that reveal an astonishing appetite for a tussle from a man who came across so meekly in Australia three years ago. It hasn’t quite been like watching the long-retired Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson chopping England down to size in regular tour openers at Lilac Hill, but it’s not far removed.It was evidently a close-run decision, however, as suggested by the sight of Miller’s fellow selectors, James Whitaker and Ashley Giles, joining him on the balcony at Worcester for the final day of the Lions match on Saturday. As fate would have it, the England captain, Andrew Strauss, arrived at the ground as well, just as Harmison and Onions were about to take the new ball in Australia’s second innings.Harmison himself had said he did not expect to feature at Cardiff, but the lurking menace of his Worcester performance is quite enough national service for now – in particular, the manner in which he has dissected the technique of Australia’s wunderkind opener, Phillip Hughes. “I have put loads of doubt in him [Hughes],” said Harmison. “I imagine I’ve put doubt in a lot of the batsmen’s minds.”As for the remaining 11 names in the squad, the speed with which they as a team left the field at Edgbaston on Friday afternoon revealed plenty about their mindset in the lead-in to the first Test. The time was 5pm on a perfect summer’s afternoon, and the opportunity had been there for at least another hour and a half of fine-tuning. However, it was not deemed necessary by England’s think tank, who have seen enough already, and just want to get the proper action underway now.”We were delighted with the way in which the team performed in the warm-up match at Edgbaston and it was very encouraging to see Andrew Flintoff bowl so well on his return to the side,” said Miller. With the exception of Kevin Pietersen, who was never likely to raise his game in such a low-key fixture, each of the top six made at least a half-century, while the bowlers enjoyed a useful work-out, with Anderson starring with 5 for 34 in the first innings.As for the 13th man in the squad, Michael Vaughan’s retirement had cleared the clutter quite nicely as far as the selectors were concerned. Regardless of his first-ball duck for the Lions, Bell’s class is such that he was unlikely to be shunned at this stage of the series, even if his temperament has yet to convince everyone – including, quite possibly, the man himself.”Ian Bell has performed well in county cricket this summer,” said Miller. “He will act as cover batsman for this Test match should any of our established batsmen be unavailable through injury.”Test squad Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Matt Prior (wk), Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar.

ScorecardA terrific all-round performance from Andrew Hall helped Northamptonshire knock out the Friends Provident champions, Hampshire, and secure the last semi-final spot in Twenty20 finals day. Defending 134 at Wantage Road, Hall took the last two wickets during a lower-order collapse to help the hosts bowl out Hampshire for 121 in the final over.Hampshire’s batsmen struggled from the start and they lost wickets frequently which deprived the chase of any sort of momentum. Hall struck the first blow, bowling Jimmy Adams for a duck during an impressive wicket-maiden, and Northamptonshire seized the advantage after Michael Lumb (26) and Sean Ervine (28), who was well held by Lee Daggett, departed mid-innings.Dimitri Mascarenhas held up one end and threatened to pull off the chase single-handedly by steering the innings to 121 for 6, only 13 runs away from a place in the final four. However, his dismissal for 36 – bowled by Johan van der Wath – triggered a rapid demise and Hampshire lost their last three wickets without further addition to the score. Hall took the last two wickets and finished with 3 for 25.Hall was his team’s batting hero as well. Northamptonshire had slipped to 16 for 3 and 40 for 4 after bring sent in, with Mascarenhas taking two top-order wickets, before Hall counter-attacked with 39 off 24 balls, his team’s top score. He added an unbeaten 52-run stand with van der Wath which lifted the total to 134 and although not a daunting total it proved enough.

As expected, the West Indies selectors have named a squad without most of the leading players for the Champions Trophy in September, giving an indication that there might not be an early resolution to the long drawn out contracts dispute.The mediator in the impasse between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA, Shridath Ramphal, had said that the ongoing negotiations between the disputing bodies in no way affected the obligation of the board to select the best available team for the Champions Trophy. He had hoped that the row would be resolved by the end of August, but the retention of a makeshift team for the tournament implies that little headway has been made in resolving the problem.Last month, a weakened 30-man pool had been chosen from among those players who declared themselves available for selection for the tournament within the deadline date. Daren Powell, the fast bowler who reportedly turned down the chance to be part of the West Indies side after Chris Gayle and Co. decided to strike, has been picked.Floyd Reifer, who captained a depleted West Indies side in the Test and one-day series losses to Bangladesh recently, has been appointed as captain. There are three omissions from the squad that played the ODI series against Bangladesh – Devon Thomas, the wicketkeeper-batsman, fast bowler Nelon Pascal and legspinner Rawl Lewis. The squad features two new inclusions; rookie Guyana batsman Royston Crandon receives his maiden international call-up while Chadwick Walton, who played the Tests against Bangladesh but was left out for the ODIs, earns a place.West Indies squad: Floyd Reifer (capt), Darren Sammy, David Bernard, Tino Best, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Nikita Miller, Daren Powell, Kieran Powell, Dale Richards, Kemar Roach, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton (wk).

Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, has been appointed chairman of Cricket Association of Bengal’s (CAB) new Cricket Development Committee. The panel will assess the accountability of Bengal’s selectors at the end of the domestic season. Ganguly, who had expressed an ambition to join cricket administration in his home state of West Bengal, will head a committee of three other former first-class cricketers.”We have decided to form the committee which will also have Arun Lal, Ashok Malhotra and Pranab Roy as the other members,” Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the CAB, told reporters in Kolkata.While describing the responsibilities of the committee, Dalmiya said: “The committee will receive a report from the selectors (senior and junior) at the end of every cricket season, assess the accountability of the selectors and will make necessary recommendations as well.”Dalmiya said the committee will also handle issues related to umpiring standards, the technical aspects of all tournaments organised by the Bengal board and will have advisory powers concerning cricket-related matters at various levels to improve the standard of cricket in the state.

A batting collapse in Toronto cost Hong Kong a match they ought to have won. Chasing 114 against Netherlands, they lost their last eight wickets for 21 runs to the spinners and eventually lost by 32 runs. Lucas Brouwers (4 for 13) and Vinoo Baldewpersad Tewarie (3 for 11) were the chief destroyers. Tewarie’s spell rounded off a fine all-round show, following his 46 that took Netherlands to a total their coach Roland Lefebvre felt was about 50 runs below par on a difficult wicket.”It was some kind of Houdini escape to win the game. We were quite a few runs short even though the outfield is quite slow and the wicket is not that easy. A score of 113 definitely wasn’t enough as we were looking for at least 160,” Lefebvre said.”When they were 50 for 2 we were certainly up against it but then the spinners came on and bowled superbly and took the last eight wickets for 30 runs.”Seamer Raymond Haoda starred in Papua New Guinea’s second consecutive win, taking three wickets to upstage the hosts Canada at the Maple Leaf South-West Ground. PNG, opting to bat, PNG posted 245 thanks to half-centuries from Heni Siaka and Sese Bau. Haoda’s opening burst then reduced Canada to 22 for 4, a position from which they never recovered. The lower order then resisted, batted out the 50 overs to finish on 193 for 9.John Reva, the PNG captain, was happy with his team’s all-round effort. “I thought we played very well with both bat and bat and we also did well with our fielding,” Reva said. “We want to qualify for the U-19 World Cup and get the experience of playing against some of the Test playing countries.”After losing their opening game, Uganda bounced back to beat Vanuatu by four wickets at the South-East Ground.Chasing 214, Uganda were driven by half-centuries by Deusdedit Muhumza and Andrew Ochan, the opening batsman. Ochan’s 57 led a strong opening stand of 118, but the innings suffered a hiccup. Four wickets fell for six runs, before Muhumza came to the rescue and he stuck on to guide his team through. Earlier, Vanuatu were lifted by Patrick Matautaava’s breezy 35-ball 52, batting at No. 7.”I am very happy as we were under pressure after losing out first game. I am happy with my boys and we are all confident we can now do well,” Ahmed Yakub, the Uganda captain, said.