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Reverse swing. The bane of Australia’s existence on the 2005 Ashes tour. The skill that Troy Cooley was hired to teach Ricky Ponting’s men but was conspicuously absent on this year’s return trip to England. Who’d have thought that the team’s best exponent of the art would turn out to be their opening batsman?Shane Watson considers himself a batting allrounder but his bowling has become an increasingly useful weapon for Ponting over the past six months, not least because he can get the old ball – and even the not-so-old ball – to move in the air. It’s a talent he has demonstrated throughout this summer and it continued in Pakistan’s second innings in Hobart, where he trapped Mohammad Yousuf and Umar Akmal lbw with a ball barely 20 overs old that tailed in to them.Watson had no doubt it was reverse rather than regulation swing. The Australians had established earlier in the match that the Hobart conditions would suit the style, and Watson was tipped to benefit.”I could tell when we took the second new ball in the first innings that the ball got chopped up a lot on both sides so I knew the ball could go reverse very quickly in the second innings,” Watson said. “I was lucky enough that it did. As soon as I started bowling it just about started going. That’s one thing that I’ve learnt with my tour to India, where the Indians bowled beautifully well and were able to get the ball to go reverse very quickly.”It does make it such a big challenge as a batsman with a newer ball going through a bit more and it’s actually reversing. We’ve been lucky throughout the summer, the conditions have helped us. We’ve also worked very hard on being able to maintain the ball so we can continue to keep it in the condition to be able to make the most of it. I’m lucky the way I bowl is a bit more conducive to reverse swing as well, the way I release it.”The breakthroughs were vital for Australia, as Yousuf and Akmal are Pakistan’s two most dangerous batsmen. It continued a happy wicket-taking trend for Watson this summer, when he has collected 13 victims in addition to being Australia’s most consistent batsman with 609 runs. He was also able to put together nine consecutive overs, a good sign given his history of injuries.”I think I’m bowling the best I ever have, there’s no doubt about that, because I’ve been able to string so many games together,” Watson said. “When you do that you’re able to continue to work on little things and continue to improve. There’s no doubt my bowling is in a really good place.”Watson’s strikes meant Pakistan closed the fourth day with only six wickets in hand and he believes two more breakthroughs will place the visitors in an extremely vulnerable position. That is contingent on the weather improving after play ended an hour prior to the scheduled stumps due to rain, with further showers forecast on the final day.”The ball is in such a good condition that as long as the rain stays away for a little bit, I’m sure if we get a couple of breakthroughs early that it’s going to be very difficult to bat for the tailenders with the ball going the way it is,” Watson said. “Also there’s a bit of turn there for Haury, there’s quite a bit of rough there for him as well.”

Peter Siddle must get through Wednesday’s FR Cup match against New South Wales to play in Saturday’s opening Test against Pakistan. Siddle missed the final West Indies game in Perth with a nagging hamstring complaint but has been picked in the Boxing Day squad.However, his last hurdle before the MCG is a 50-over game at the SCG as the defending champions aim to shift from fourth place. “The funny thing was I was actually better before the Perth Test than I was in Adelaide, so it’s not as big a deal as everyone thinks,” Siddle said in Melbourne.”I’ve had a couple of bowls the past two days and I had a good hit-out yesterday in the middle of one of the district grounds and it’s come up fine. I don’t feel any different to when I was bowling a few months ago. It’s feeling ready and I’m feeling confident.”Siddle was pleased to be able to test the problem before he ran into Pakistan. “I’ve got to get through this game with no worries and I am confident of doing that,” Siddle said. “Hopefully I get my spot back now and get back in there.”He comes into the squad for Rob Cassell while another boost for the Bushrangers is the fitness of Brad Hodge, who had to pull out of what was meant to be his final Sheffield Shield appearance with a knee injury.New South Wales have called in Dominic Thornely for the encounter after losing Phillip Hughes to the Australia squad. The allrounder Steven Smith missed the four-day Shield game against Victoria but has been cleared for the one-dayer as he looks to impress further ahead of Australia’s limited-overs fixtures next month.Victoria squad Rob Quiney, Chris Rogers, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Cameron White (capt), Aaron Finch, Andrew McDonald, John Hastings, Matthew Wade (wk), Peter Siddle, Jon Holland, James Pattinson.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Ben Rohrer, Moises Henriques (capt), Daniel Smith (wk), Steven Smith, Dominic Thornely, Stephen O’Keefe, Grant Lambert, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc.

Andhra seamer Syed Sahabuddin has agreed to join the Mumbai Indians for the third season of the IPL. Sahabuddin, who quit the rebel ICL with a host of other Indian players, was recommended by the franchise’s new coach Robin Singh.”I immediately gave my acceptance as it will be a great learning experience to play along with world’s greatest cricketer Sachin Tendulkar,” Sahabuddin told the . “The paperwork is on.”Sahabuddin has taken 180 wickets in 56 first-class games since his debut in 1998-99. His first-class career stalled for two years when he represented the Hyderabad Heroes in the ICL, taking 17 wickets in 21 Twenty20 games. Sahabuddin is also a useful lower-order hitter and he fittingly announced his comeback to the Andhra side with a century in the season opener against Kerala earlier this month.Sahabuddin said the experience gained from the ICL will serve him well in future. “ICL enabled me to learn the intricacies of the Twenty20 format. Coach Steve Rixon was of great help to me.”

Kolkata Knight Riders have recruited Rohan Gavaskar and left-arm seamer Eklak Ahmid – both former ICL players – into their ranks. The Bengal duo were part of a two-day training camp at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata under the supervision of Dav Whatmore, KKR’s new coach.Gavaskar, son of Sunil, has represented India in 11 ODIs. He’s played 116 first-class games, scoring 6914 runs at 44.60, and also bowls occasional left-arm spin. He played for Royal Bengal Tigers in the ICL, so did Eklal, who just has two first-class appearances to his name.”It’s certainly great that I am now a part of KKR after joining the Bengal Ranji Trophy squad. Twenty20 suits my style as I have scored good amount of runs in the ICL as well,” Gavaskar said at the end of the day’s practice session. “The association with someone so successful like Dav Whatmore should benefit me. Dav has certainly had loads of success as a coach, especially during his stint with the Sri Lankan team”.The third edition of the IPL, in 2010, runs from March 12 to April 25.

England’s tour of South Africa gets properly underway in Bloemfontein on Friday when they take on the Diamond Eagles in their opening warm-up match, and for Paul Collingwood, the fixture provides the first chance to lay the team’s foundations ahead of what promises to be a hotly contested winter.Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, has been quick to crank up the psychological pressure ahead of a long tour that encompasses two Twenty20s, five ODIs and four Tests, but Collingwood believes that the task of taking on one of the top-ranked sides in the world will be more than enough to keep England’s thoughts on the job in hand.”I think there have been a few comments in the press, but we’re honestly 100% focused on what we need to do,” Collingwood told reporters at the conclusion of the team’s final training session at the University of the Free State. “We don’t need any more motivation, this is a huge series for us. Playing the No. 1 side in the world in their back yard is going to be a big challenge for us. We’re very, very excited to get going and looking forward to playing against them.”England’s form in limited-overs cricket is rarely better than patchy, although they can currently boast an improbable run of successes against South Africa, with five wins and a wash-out in their last six meetings. The most recent encounter was particularly galling for Smith’s men – a 22-run defeat in the Champions Trophy in September, a result that knocked South Africa out of the competition on home soil.Nevertheless, Collingwood believes that recent history will count for nothing when the teams reconvene next Friday in the first Twenty20 in Johannesburg. “I wouldn’t say we have a psychological edge, no. I think it’s safe to say they’re the No. 1 side in the world and you don’t become No. 1 just overnight. That takes a long time. They’re a very well-drilled unit, we know that.”I think we can take a lot of confidence from how we’ve played against them – the last five or six games, obviously we’ve won them all. But it’s going to be a tough series, and we’ve got a long way to go before we play to our best. But we know that if we do play to our best, we can beat anybody on the day. So hopefully we’ll have more days like that.”Collingwood will once again lead England in the Twenty20 leg of their tour, and believes that confident cricket is the best route to success against South Africa. “We’ve probably played our best cricket when we’ve been bold, going out there and taking it to the opposition,” he said. “But on the other hand, you have a bit of a hiccup playing like that all the time as well. We’ve just got to make sure we attack on the right times and on the right wickets.”Obviously we’re playing around the country on different wickets, so we’ll just have to adjust on each and every ground we turn up on. We want to start off well, we want to win the games, but also get the right kind of practice out of it as well.”

Shoaib Malik, the Man of the Match for his 126-ball 128, expressed his surprise at MS Dhoni’s decision to bring on Harbhajan Singh to bowl only by the 26th over, by which time he and Mohammad Yousuf had nearly built a half-century partnership.”I think he [Dhoni] should have brought on Harbhajan early,” Malik said. “We were three down and another wicket would have hurt us.” Pakistan lost their third wicket in the 15th over with the score at 65 and after Malik batted out a maiden over by RP Singh, Dhoni brought in part-timers Virat Kohli and Yusuf Pathan, instead of Harbhajan.Dhoni justified his move, saying if a part-timer bowled along with Harbhajan then the batsmen would score off him while playing the senior bowler’s overs out. “We wanted to force the batsmen to play shots against him,” Dhoni said.The Pakistan captain Younis Khan, by contrast, has fewer headaches to resolve and he aims to reach the ICC Champions Trophy final without dropping a game. The team leads Group A with two wins out of two. “It was a good toss to win and even a score of 260-270 was defendable. Even though they [India] started their chase brilliantly, I thought we only needed a wicket or two to get back in the match. After all, this score has never been chased at this venue,” Younis said.Most of the attack chipped in, especially the spinners Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal. He was happy with the efforts of offspinner Ajmal who took 2 for 31 in 8.5 overs but typically cautioned against building him up too much. “There is this tendency in our part of the world where youngsters are immediately compared to Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Inzamam-ul Haq,” Younis said. “This can make a youngster lose his bearing. But yes, Saeed is coming up very nicely. We now have good youngsters in Umar Akmal, Mohammad Aamer and Saeed. If they keep performing and learning, we can be the best in near future.”The only one to have a real off-day was Umar Gul, generally the leader of Younis’s attacks. But Younis played down concerns over Gul, who was the leading wicket-taker in the World Twenty20 in England: Gul went for 55 runs in six overs against India but Younis attributed it to a rare bad day. “He bowled too short and when he needed to bowl up.”

South Africa’s captain, Graeme Smith, believes that Andrew Flintoff’s decision to turn down his ECB central contract in favour of a “freelance” career has set a precedent that the ICC cannot afford to ignore.Speaking to Cricinfo on the eve of the Champions Trophy, the second-biggest event in the ODI calendar, Smith said that the international game was going to have to adapt to its changing environment and cut down on the current glut of “meaningless” contests, if more of the world’s leading players are to be prevented from following Flintoff’s example.As tournament hosts and the No. 1 ODI nation in the world, South Africa start next week’s Champions Trophy as favourites, and with a proper challenge to whet the appetite after a rare three-month break, Smith reiterated that international cricket remained his absolute and over-riding priority. But, he added, unless the ICC tackles the thorny issue of the Future Tours Programme head-on, the riches on offer in the IPL and beyond will prove an even more tempting alternative to many cricketers who, by the very nature of their careers, have a finite period of time in which to make the most of their talents.”I don’t think you can blame the individual, but it’s an interesting time for cricket, and interesting to see where it goes now,” Smith told Cricinfo. “The crucial aspect is the decisions the leadership makes in the future. The ICC needs to give cricket a good direction, and crucial to that is how they look at the Future Tours Programme, because the decisions they make around that are going to be so important for the future of the game.”For me international cricket is still the pinnacle,” he said. “But you can’t hide the fact that huge financial rewards and benefits for players have come into the game in the last few years, and it’s obviously such a short career, so you want to make as much money in that time as possible. But I think playing for your country is the best, and the most important thing for us is to carry on being as successful as possible and try not to be distracted by other things that are taking place.”The FTP is a six-year calendar during which all nations are required to play each of the others, home and away, in at least two Tests and three ODIs. However, it expires in 2012 and a replacement has yet to be agreed upon, with some nations favouring the implementation of a World Test Championship to replace the often haphazard bilateral arrangements that are currently in place. But whatever solution is reached, Smith believes that a greater importance has to be attached to future international matches, and cited the current seven-match ODI series between England and Australia as a classic example of poor scheduling.”With the greatest respect, the seven ODIs taking place in England at the moment are more for financial benefit than meaningful cricket,” he said. “People want to see strength for strength, they want to see international sides trying their best in competitive tours. I mean, the Ashes was great to watch, it was competitive down to the last Test match, and speaking for myself as a cricketer, that’s how you want to see all cricket being played.”But all these meaningless tours just sap your body, especially when you are playing away from home for a long time,” he added. “I think the ICC needs to really look at the format going forward, and really take control of the international game.”In the absence of such leadership from above, Smith was sympathetic with Flintoff’s reasons for taking his career into his own hands. “I don’t think you can blame Fred for the decision that he’s made,” said Smith. “He’s had a very successful career, and at this stage of his career, he wants to maximise his worth and really take control of things. He’s had a number of injuries, and for his own good, he needs to take control of the few years he has left in him.”Smith’s immediate priority, as South Africa’s captain, is to lead his country to glory on home soil in the Champions Trophy, and he is determined to put all other thoughts about the future of the game out of his mind.”It’s a terrific time to be a sportsman in South Africa, and to be a role model,” said Smith. “When you think about our readmission after the apartheid years, we’ve got a young country in many ways, and our sport is going from strength to strength at the moment. The opportunity is there to grow, and the better that South African teams can be, the more the youngsters will want to be the heroes of the future. The Champions Trophy is another opportunity for that.”

To pick him or not to pick him, that’s still the question for England. Andrew Flintoff has become this series’ Glenn McGrath, missing the Ashes Test which his side lost, and will spend the next week trying to prove he is capable of getting five more days out of his brittle knee.Told by Andrew Strauss on the first morning he was not playing, Flintoff’s future will be determined much earlier at The Oval, where England need him more than ever. However, any Flintoff appearance comes with conditions: he must be able to be able to bowl two spells a day and can’t break down in his final Test before retirement.He won’t play as a specialist batsman despite the problems in the innings-and-80-run defeat at Headingley, which meant England have to win in south London to lift the urn. “Ideally we’ll be in a better situation to get a result early for that final Test,” Strauss said of Flintoff’s condition. “Hopefully we’ll know two or three days out whether he’s fit or not.”Flintoff’s late withdrawal from the team added to England’s muddled moods on the opening day, when they were dropped for 102, and they also missed his ability to hurry the batsmen during Australia’s confident first innings of 445. “He’s still desperate to play in that final Test but he realises he’s got to be fit enough,” Strauss said. “I’m very hopeful he will.”Ricky Ponting said England could win without Flintoff but the task would be much harder. Flintoff is the only player in the home side that the Australians fear and they would say so if they knew he wasn’t going to be available. “We prepared this week as if he was going to play,” Ponting said, “and we will prepare for the next Test as if he’s going to play as well.”England can’t do that because Flintoff creates such significant changes in the side’s balance and attitude. If he’s out the hosts must consider picking a batsman at seven or keeping the bowler-heavy line-up that failed in Leeds. With a fitness clearance Flintoff clears up all their worries and can come back in for Steve Harmison.”If he’s going to play he’s got to be fit to play his role and that’s as an allrounder,” Strauss said. “Maybe he doesn’t need to bowl 28 overs a day but he’s got to be able to bowl more than one spell. We felt for this game that he was unable to do that. But having had a couple of weeks’ break, hopefully he’s in a better position.”

The has reported that Andrew Flintoff had declared himself fit for the fourth Ashes Test only to be overlooked by England’s captain and coach. At the Headingley post-match presentation, Michael Atherton – who wrote the story in the – asked Andrew Strauss who was responsible for not picking Flintoff and the answer was Strauss and Andy Flower.According to Andrew Chandler, Flintoff’s agent, England did not want to gamble after the allrounder failed to allay fears over his knee injury. “I’ve seen a few disappointed sportsmen over the last couple of months but I’ve never seen anybody as low as Flintoff was on Thursday night when he was told he would not be selected,” Chandler told the . “He told them that he was fit enough to get through, that he felt no different to how he felt at Edgbaston and that he could get through and do his bit. They didn’t want him.”He was prepared to do whatever it takes, was prepared to put whatever needed to be put into his knee. The whole point of announcing his retirement when he did was to clear his head and prepare to do whatever needed to be done to play the final Test matches of his career.”He [Flintoff] just didn’t see it coming. He wanted to play and they didn’t want him, and he didn’t see that coming at all.”Chandler said Flintoff could have played through the pain barrier purely on adrenaline, as he did at Lord’s for a match-winning performance. “What they didn’t take into account during Thursday’s practice was that there was no adrenalin,” he said. “That was why he looked as though he was struggling so much and why he became so much worse on the final day at Edgbaston, when it was clear the game could not be won.”He was hurting at Lord’s but the adrenalin got him through. It would have got him through this week as well. His presence would certainly have lifted the crowd and the team, because without him they don’t have much inspiration.”However Geoff Miller, the national selector, has defended the decision not to pick Flintoff, insisting that he and the selectors had to listen to the medical advice they were offered. “We had to guarantee that Fred could do the job required to bowl the overs,” Miller told BBC Radio Five Live. “We’d been monitoring his injury day by day and the selectors felt that it was better that he didn’t play in that game. Yes, he might have thought he was fit to do a certain job but we had to work out whether he’d be fit to do a constant job, meaning bowl the amount of overs required to get the 20 wickets.”We have to go on the medical advice. We know that Freddie’s passionate to play for England, I accept that, but there are a lot of other ideals we have to work to, such as taking medical advice. If the medics say there’s still a problem there, then we have to accept what their viewpoint is.”Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting had said before the fourth Test that England would be taking a massive gamble if they risked playing a half-fit Flintoff.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outShoaib Malik put recent indifferent form behind him with a beautifully paced hundred and was involved in two century stands•Associated Press

At 67 for 4, with both Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf back in thepavilion, Pakistan were in danger of subsiding to another defeat, but twocentury partnerships utterly transformed the game in the final twosessions on the third day. The common factor was Shoaib Malik, the formercaptain, who put recent indifferent form behind him with a beautifullypaced hundred. Misbah-ul-Haq and Kamran Akmal were perfect foils, scoringhalf-centuries, and by stumps, the Pakistan lead had swelled to 366.Sri Lanka had started the final session promisingly, with the runs dryingup and Misbah perishing to an indiscreet shot. Having given Angelo Mathewsthe charge, he was surprised by the extra bounce and the thin edge waseasily taken by Kumar Sangakkara. With the lead then at 252 and the secondnew ball looming, it was Sri Lanka’s big chance to wrest back theinitiative. Instead, Malik and Akmal took it away with some wonderfullypositive batting, as a tiring attack started to leak runs.Throughout the series, Sri Lanka had sparked collapses with the second newball, but after tea at the SSC, there was only a torrent of runs. Akmalset the tone with a lovely drive and a powerful pull off Nuwan Kulasekara,and Malik joined in with booming drives through midwicket and cover offThilan Thushara. When Chaminda Vaas came on for perhaps his final spell ininternational cricket, Akmal responded with a mighty heave over long-off,and Sri Lanka’s woes were compounded when Sangakkara muffed a stumpingchance off Rangana Herath when Malik was on 91.Having breathed a sigh of relief, Malik didn’t look back. A four and a sixdown the ground off Herath took him to his hundred from just 178 balls,and when Akmal brought up his half-century moments later, there was plentyfor the dressing room to smile about.The game had turned after lunch though, with Malik and Misbahconsolidating against bowling that was steady without being undulythreatening. Both rotated the strike cleverly, and as the afternoonsession drew to a close, the big strokes were unveiled. Herath, the pickof the bowlers, was pulled for four and then straight-driven for six,before a glance to fine leg off Thushara took Misbah to his thirdhalf-century in Tests. Malik, who had been the most positive of thebatsmen in the first innings, also smashed Herath for a straight six, andwhen Misbah ended the session with a sweet on-drive off Angelo Mathews,Pakistan were right on top.It was a far cry from the morning when a poor shot, an ordinary umpiringdecision and a beautiful delivery boosted Sri Lankan hopes as Pakistanstruggled to 86 for 4. They had started the day on 16 for 1, and there wasto be no period of consolidation. Fawad Alam once again got a start, butthe shot that cost him his wicket would hardly have thrilled his captainat the other end. The ball was short and at the body, and Fawad’s attemptto work it wristily through midwicket merely lobbed back to Thushara offthe top edge.Mohammad Yousuf got going with a vicious slash behind point, and there wasa lovely pull too from Younis Khan off Thushara, but by and large, runswere very hard to come by. The pair were finally starting to show signs ofsettling when Ian Gould intervened to send Younis on his way. The deliveryfrom Kulasekara nipped back, but there was a hint of inside edge before itstruck him very high on the pad.The other half of Pakistan’s experienced combo didn’t make it to luncheither. Yousuf had struggled against Herath for much of the series, and hewas undone by a magnificent delivery that pitched on his pads beforeleaping up and turning wickedly enough to take the edge. It was the sixthtime that Herath had dismissed him, and it left Sri Lanka to contemplate agood morning’s work. What followed wasn’t quite according to the homescript. Pakistan weren’t going to complain though.Given that no team has made more than 352 to win a Test in Sri Lanka, itis safe to say that Sri Lanka face a steep-mountain climb to achieve aseries whitewash.