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The South African victory in the first Test was expected. What wasunexpected was a nine-wicket win with more than a day to spare.

There were really too many factors ranged against the Indians on theeve of the game. For one thing, there was the wide disparity in thepast records. Not having won even one of the seven Tests in SouthAfrica over the two previous visits, the Indians were at a seriouspsychological disadvantage. The South Africans, besides being aformidable outfit at home, were also aware that they had bearded theirrivals in their own den, sweeping a two-Test series in India 20 monthsago. Secondly, the visitors were badly affected by the pre-Test tourgame being washed out. The right build up is all-important, and a oneday competition is hardly the right way to prepare for a Test series.Moreover, there was nothing in India’s recent away record in Zimbabweand Sri Lanka to inspire confidence.When a team has so many factors going against them, it is imperativethat nothing is done to weaken the side further. The strongestpossible outfit must be played, the batsmen and bowlers must do theirjob in exemplary fashion, and half-chances have to be taken in thefield. Then, with some luck, maybe the Test can be saved.Unfortunately, things did not quite work out that way. True, eve-ofthe-match injuries to Sameer Dighe and Harbhajan Singh were, as thecliché goes, circumstances beyond anyone’s control. But Dighe couldnot have done any better than Deep Dasgupta, who in fact had a fairlygood match, and Harbhajan’s presence would not have made muchdifference to the final result. So marked was the difference betweenthe two sides in their approach that, at most, the victory marginmight not have been so wide and the match might have gone to the fifthday. For, if anything, the problem lay more with the batting than thebowling.True, the bowling was generally way off the mark. When the bowlersconcede a total of 563, it does put pressure on the batsmen. Certainlythe bowling quartet ­ three of whom conceded over 100 runs each andthe fourth gave away 98 ­ will not remember Bloemfontein with anysense of pride or satisfaction, even though Javagal Srinath emergedwith some credit. But then, what are the other options available tothe team management? The attack has to have two seamers and twospinners, and this would have been the case had Harbhajan been fit.But the seam attack is so weak that Anil Kumble and Harbhajan wouldhave to be at their absolute devastating best to do an adequate coverup job. Kumble would have to rework the Kotla magic of 1999 andHarbhajan the kind of wonders he pulled off against Australia earlierthis year. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, these are once in alifetime achievements.And now to the batting. I wonder whose bright idea it was to ask RahulDravid to open the batting. He is not a guinea pig to be tested in arole in which he has already shown his distaste and in which positionhis record is woeful. In the past, the guinea pigs were players likeNayan Mongia and MSK Prasad ­ and even VVS Laxman before he came goodin the middle order. Since when are highly successful middle-orderbatsmen, established players who are among the top two or threebatsmen in the team, with an average of 50 plus, used for lab tests?Let us stop these foolish experiments pronto. A specialist openingbatsman has been picked for the tour. Does he not deserve a chance?A disturbing point to ponder over is that there are not many optionsfor the team management as regards the composition of the finalplaying eleven. In the absence of an all-rounder, the only two choicesare six batsmen and four bowlers or five batsmen and five bowlers.Both options are fraught with danger given the Indian team’sinconsistency. But having gone in for the first choice and lost badly,perhaps there is no way out but to opt for the second choice, hope forthe five bowlers to dismiss South Africa twice, and hope that the fivebatsmen avoid the mistakes they made in the first Test. Or is thishoping for too much?

There is not a bowler on the planet who has more international wickets this year than Mitchell Starc. His tally of 75 puts him well in front of the second-placed Yasir Shah. Extend it to the combined first-class, List A and T20 formats, and Starc is even further in front: his 138 wickets across those forms have come at the remarkable average of 16.07, and John Hastings is next with 108 wickets.In short, Starc is in the form of his life. Player of the Tournament in the World Cup, he last month annihilated almost every team in the Matador Cup with 26 wickets at 8.11, then topped off his Test preparation with eight wickets with the pink ball in last week’s Sheffield Shield round. Now it is back to the red ball to see if that recent form translates.It has not always. In fact, with Starc, something has always seemed to get lost in translation between the white ball and the red. It meant that the first three years of his Test career resembled the hokey-pokey: Australia put their left-armer in, they put their left-armer out, they put their left-armer in. Now it’s time for him to shake it all about.He made a good start to a red-ball resurgence during the Ashes, when he was Australia’s leading wicket taker, and now the challenge is to sustain that same form over a six-Test home summer against New Zealand and West Indies. It was against New Zealand at the Gabba that Starc made his Test debut four years ago, but it is only now that he is starting to make himself a consistent Test bowler.”The last 12 to 18 months, to play a lot of cricket I think has been the best thing for me,” Starc said. “There’s only so much you can learn and work on in the nets. I guess I’ve had a bit of an extended run with the white ball and whether it be through form or through injury I haven’t had that with the red ball. To have a bit of that in the last six months has been nice and I think that’s probably shown in getting better with the red ball.”Starc played every Test during this year’s Ashes in England and was his country’s leading wicket taker, an achievement that encouraged not only Starc but the Australian coaching staff as well. Coach Darren Lehmann said that although there were times in England that Starc lacked consistency, he expected a big summer from him back home.”He’ll be fine, I think it’s just experience and confidence,” Lehmann said. “He’s had some really good spells for us over the last 12 months with the red ball. It’s probably about being really consistent with what he wants to achieve, getting the lengths and lines right. He was very good at stages in England and then sometimes he leaked too many runs. I expect him to bowl really well with the red ball [at home].”Starc’s form is so impressive at the moment – particularly his mastery of the fast, inswinging yorker – that plenty of Matador Cup batsmen must have wished the Bangladesh Test tour had gone ahead last month and he had not been let loose on them in Sydney. Cricket Australia insisted he rest from one of the matches, against Queensland, but he told them that he otherwise just wanted to keep bowling.”I had a bit of input, so I wanted to play a lot,” Starc said. “I didn’t want to rest that Queensland game but they got that one over the line – resting’s not going to do anything for my body. I just want to be available for every game, as long as I’m fit enough and bowling well enough.”Australia will hope that New Zealand still carry some of the scars from the World Cup final in March, when Starc’s inswinging yorker rattled the stumps of Brendon McCullum in the first over of the match, setting the tone for Australia’s win. Starc took 2 for 20 in that game, as well as 6 for 28 in the earlier group match against New Zealand in Auckland, and he hopes they remember.”We’ll definitely be reminding them that we’ve bowled them out for 150 and 180 on very good wickets,” he said. “It’s one-day cricket, it’s something we can look back on and take a bit of confidence from but it’s a different challenge and nice to be playing in Australia and taking on guys that probably haven’t played too much cricket in these conditions.”New Zealand opener Martin Guptill said it was important he and his team-mates prepared for Starc’s yorker, but did not let it dominate their thoughts.”He’s got a very quick yorker and it does swing, but you don’t want to just be preparing for that,” Guptill said. “He’s got other balls in his arsenal as well. You’ve just got to watch the ball and play each ball as well as you can. I’m just trying to go out there and do my processes, and if I get a yorker I try and clamp down on it.”

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Getting (back) into the Premier League might be tough, but imagine how difficult it must be for smaller teams to survive the whole season and live to tell the tale. Norwich City will once again experience that rush this year, and here are five key dates that just might decide if they can finish above the relegation zone or not.

9 August, Liverpool (A)

A true baptism by fire, as Norwich will immediately face the runners-up for the title at Anfield. It’s one of the two worst-case scenarios for the opening day, but it will be a good judge to see just what the newcomers are all about.

31 August, West Ham (A)

Facing a middle of the pack team sandwiched between Chelsea (H) and Manchester City (H), followed by Burnley (A) is a nice mixture of different kinds of opposition to face. This could tell us how they stand in comparison with both the top and bottom dogs of the PL, and if they have what it takes to survive.

5 October, Aston Villa (H)

Beating Aston Villa, their fellow promoted side, is going to be essential. Just like the Canaries, Villa will be hoping to survive, and getting points from someone you already know you can beat is key. Not to mention, this game is sandwiched between other fixtures in which they’ll definitely be looking to pick up a couple of Ws.

26 October, Manchester United (H)

Shortly after that, Daniel Farke’s side will welcome Manchester United to Carrow Road, and if they are going to take any top-tier scalps, the Red Devils just might be their best bet. Taking down a Goliath or two throughout the season is what “smaller” teams are best at, and it often turns out to be the deciding factor in the race against relegation.

14 March, Southampton (H)

Southampton are one of those lower-tier teams Norwich will absolutely have to bury into the dirt if they want to survive. The Saints will have similar goals going into the 2019/20 season, and the two might become big rivals in that respect. Picking up points in the final stretches of the marathon should be high on the priority list.

In signing two uncapped players for a joint-record INR 14.2 crore each at the IPL 2026 player auction, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have marked an unambiguous breakaway from the “experience-first” philosophy that had defined them through the first 18 seasons of the tournament. Reflecting on these signings, head coach Stephen Fleming has conceded that CSK may have been “a little bit slow” to keep up with the evolution of the T20 format.The shift in thinking, he said, began during IPL 2025, when Dewald Brevis and the uncapped pair of Ayush Mhatre and Urvil Patel, all signed midway through the season, brought a belated sense of adventure to a top order that had struggled to keep pace with other IPL teams. CSK finished the season in last place but with lessons they took into Tuesday’s auction in Abu Dhabi, signing Prashant Veer, 20, and Kartik Sharma, 19, for a combined INR 28.4 crore.Related

• Fleming: Mhatre has 'everything that we like about a modern-day T20 player'

• Uncapped Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma smash IPL auction records

“As the game has evolved, we might have been a little bit slow to evolve with it,” Fleming said. “Only halfway through the [2025] tournament we had a big shift and you saw with the players we got in as reserves, there was a shift in what we needed to do.”Sometimes you can hang on to theories and philosophies because of past success but we identified that we needed to shift and partly the work that we did last season halfway through has enabled us to continue that work done.”Mhatre, Urvil, Veer and Kartik represent a new generation of players who have grown up training to meet T20’s demands, and are as likely to catch IPL scouts’ eyes in local T20 leagues as they are to come through the traditional route of age-group and domestic cricket. Fleming said these “T20 babies” played in a way that was all about expressing their skills, where earlier generations may have second-guessed themselves looking to assess the match situation.”I just wonder if we’re now seeing the product of T20 coming to the fore,” Fleming said. “We witnessed at the start of last year, and certainly the year before that my view used to be that experience was going to win, but now you have this fearless athlete that’s been brought up on T20 cricket and has a skillset that’s mouthwatering, and they just have no fear about what environment they need to exhibit these skills.2:42

Fleming on Samson’s trade and CSK’s succession planning

“So that is one thing to acknowledge, that T20 babies are now coming through. And it’s just that mental aspect. Sometimes an experienced player can get caught up in himself, trying to work out where the game’s going and what’s going on. But these young players these days, they’re just very free and they only know one way.”So there’s real appeal, especially when the game is being played faster and faster. I think it’s a byproduct of T20 being around for some time now and we’re all learning, being involved with it, and the faster it gets, these young players seem to play better.”

‘Succession planning’ behind Samson-Jadeja trade

CSK departed from the past in another way before the auction, when they traded franchise legend Ravindra Jadeja, who had played 200 games in the team’s yellow, to Rajasthan Royals to secure the services of India keeper-batter Sanju Samson. Fleming suggested that Samson’s acquisition was made with one eye on shoring up CSK’s top order, and another on the fact that the talismanic MS Dhoni is now 44 and nearing the end of his career.”The opportunity was there,” Fleming said. “We felt we were still a little bit light in our opening batting. And we were also looking at [the fact that] at some point MS will move on.”Sanju is an international-quality player and he fills that role very well, so succession planning. And just opportunity really, just again looking at refreshing and seeing what Chennai will look like in six years’ time, not two years’ time. And just making sure that there’s a succession [plan] around the players we are introducing.”

Zaheer Khan, who missed the ICC World Twenty20, says he has recovered from a bruised ankle and is looking forward to the one-day series against Australia.”The break was critical for me. I bowled a lot during the England tour and I needed that break and it has gone well for me, ” Zaheer said.The series begins on Saturday and Australia have come without players like Michael Hussey and Shaun Tait but Zaheer said their absence did not concern the Indians. “We have to focus on our strengths and it depends on how we perform,” he said. “We have done well and should continue to do well.”Zaheer also expressed confidence about performing on the flat and unresponsive Indian tracks. “A bowler always stands a chance to earn wickets in any conditions and in any format of the game,” he said. “We still have to bowl well and on any track you have to give your best.”Robin Uthappa, a member of India’s Twenty20 squad, appeared bullish about the series ahead and said the pressure was on Australia. “We will fight fire with fire,” Uthappa said. “The pressure is not on us; we have done exceedingly well and we are raring to go.”Uthappa said he was amazed by the grand welcome accorded to the Indian team in Mumbai yesterday. “I have not seen anybody getting such a welcome,” he said. “It was nice to see people from all parts of the country joining together to welcome us. That made us realise how much the game meant to them and how emotional that win was. There were people of all age groups, and people were waving and blowing kisses from windows and balconies, I will cherish that forever.”

Andrew Flintoff has unsurprisingly brushed off suggestions England will now be under more pressure going into next month’s Ashes series after losing to Australia in the Champions Trophy on Saturday.England’s chances of qualifying for the semi-finals virtually ended on Saturday when they crashed to a six-wicket defeat, their second successive loss. They will now clash with West Indies in their last league game at Ahmedabad on October 28.”We took this match in isolation,” he said, “as a must-win game for both the sides to stay in the tournament.” Regardless of Flintoff’s attempts to play down defeat – “In the build-up people were trying to link it to the Ashes,” he said, “but the Ashes start when we go to Australia” – the Australians will be boosted greatly by their victory in India.Flintoff did concede his young side needed to improve considerably if they wanted to give a good account of themselves in coming months. “It is an exciting time in one-day cricket. But we need to improve,” said Flintoff. “It is a young side. We have to step up as a team if we have the aspirations of doing well later in this winter.”

A number of those involved in the Super Test at Sydney have voiced their opinions about the increased use of referrals to the third umpire – and while a few welcomed the innovation, the overall view seemed to be that either it needed more work or things should be left alone.Rudi Koertzen, the South African umpire, was one who made it clear he was against the extended use of referrals to the third umpire for catches and leg-before decisions.”We all make mistakes and I think the players actually make more mistakes than the umpires do,” Koertzen said. “So they should leave it up to us to make the mistakes. We’ve got to live with that. That [Super Series] is only a trial. Who knows how far they’re going to take it? Hopefully not too far.”Simon Taufel, Koertzen’s colleague at the SCG, was in agreement. “For us as umpires, it’s all a little bit disconcerting,” he said. “There’s an extra decision-making process, working out whether we use the third umpire or not. A lot of stoppages have harmed the momentum. It’s nice to have it but I’m just trying to umpire normally as though the technology isn’t there. If I’ve got no idea about what took place, the help is obviously there but …”We’ll have a de-brief at the end of the series and see how it’s worked out. It’s only on trial. There is also the belief that increasing the technology will breed mediocrity among officials, where they take the soft option.”Perhaps the biggest fan turned out to be Ricky Ponting. “I think we are going to have to use it more before we get a really good idea on it,” he said. “When you are trialing the technology the way that we have here I think that you are expecting every decision to be perfect just because you are using technology and I think the way the game is and the subtleties in some dismissals can be very hard to pick up and determine, so that’s still going to be the case even though we are using this technology. I’ve been pretty impressed with the way it’s worked during the one-day series and certainly in this Test match.”Graeme Smith, the World XI skipper, was less impressed. “It’s another thing that needs to be looked at and fine-tuned. I think there’s so much doubt on the television for us. We look at things that we thought were out and it was given not out or we thought was not out and it was given out. You try to take the human element out of the umpires, but you are still giving it to the third umpire so I think there’s a lot of things that need to be looked at with the technology, I think it’s a long way from being at a level where it can be used.”And Glenn McGrath was even more against an extension of the trial. “I think it’s shown already that you are still going to make mistakes using it,” he told a Sydney radio station. “I would prefer to keep it the way it is. Just use it for the stumpings and run outs, the things that I think are clear-cut. It is a funny one. We’ve watched decisions in the rooms and we’re divided in the rooms. If the guys who have played the game can’t make a decision by what the evidence shows on TV, it’s going to be tough for the third umpire.”All the feedback will be assessed by the ICC. Malcolm Speed, its chief executive, was non-committal. “We will take a cautious approach with it,” he said. “It was a good opportunity for us to trial it here. We’ve taken that opportunity. We’ll see where we go from there.”Referrals during the Super Test

Northern Districts 185 for 7 (Orchard 53, Canning 4-33) v Auckland
ScorecardNew Zealand’s first-class season got off to a wet and subdued start after a southerly blast traversed the country over the weekend. The State Championship match between Northern Districts and Auckland only started at 2pm, but fine weather at Hamilton later in the day enabled the players to continue till well past the scheduled close, with Northern Districts scoring 185 for 7 in 70 overs.Auckland won the toss and chose to field. Northern Districts have revamped their line-up this year with the infusion of some new blood, but the batsmen who opened their innings were two of their more experienced players, and they got the team off to a fine start. James Marshall, who has taken over as captain after the retirement of Robbie Hart, and Nick Horsley put on 58 for the first wicket in nearly an hour before Marshall (25) became the first of Tama Canning’s four victims during the day.Horsley fell for 38 when the score was on 74. Mark Orchard and Matthew Hart were just getting into their stride when Hart was caught by Richard Jones for 16 to become Canning’s second wicket.Orchard batted for 200 minutes in scoring his 53 runs but he too eventually succumbed to Canning, who showed impressive touch in the season-opener. His 24 overs cost only 33 runs and fetched him four wickets. None of the batsmen were able to get on top of him. Aaron Barnes, a medium pacer, played a fine support act, taking 1 for 27 off 16 overs.Two other matches will start tomorrow – Canterbury will take on Wellington in Christchurch, while Otago and Central Districts will play in Queenstown.

England should concentrate on winning the World Cup in 2007, rather than worry about the next Ashes series, according to Rodney Marsh.Marsh, the Australian wicketkeeping legend-turned-England cricket selector, made his point after naming a provisional 15-man squad for England’s cricket academy. Marsh, who heads the academy, said that the team was selected with the accent on one-day cricket.In his opinion, a drawn Ashes series in 2005 would be a good platform from which England could build towards 2007. He was perhaps mindful of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s mission statement, which aims to establish England as the game’s premier Test and one-day power by 2007.Australia have won eight consecutive Ashes series since regaining the urn in 1989.

A timely captain’s century by Northern Districts’ Robbie Hart revived his side’s fortunes against Otago in the State Championship match at Carisbrook in Dunedin today.Hart’s century, the second of his 71-match first-class career, made a mockery of the collapses that affected both sides in the match, and he commented afterwards that it had been a great thrill to complete the achievement, especially under the circumstances he found himself in.The drama started for ND when David Sewell had Mark Bailey and Scott Styris out from consecutive balls after only one run had been added to the overnight score of 69/1, which was 146 runs short of Otago’s first innings total.The Marshall twins, James and Hamish were then at the crease with Hamish avoiding the hat-trick and they added another 40 runs before the mini-collapse when four wickets fell for 13 runs, leaving Hart batting with the tail in a bid to restore some respectability to the situation.They were 123/7 when he and Graham Aldridge set about a stand that finally provided 64 runs for the ND cause.But when Aldridge was out, Bruce Martin had a record-breaking 96-run ninth-wicket stand for ND against Otago. They rubbed out the 85 scored by Brendon Bracewell and Peter Neutze at Gisborne’s Harry Barker Reserve in 1989/90.Martin scored 45 runs and when he was out debut player Ian Butler helped Hart add 20 runs for the last wicket. Hart was on 91 when Butler joined him and Butler scored nine in which time Hart reached 102 not out, scored from 157 minutes and in 205 minutes.ND had the first innings points and a lead of 88 runs. Interestingly, even freakishly, the only two Otago bowlers to take wickets, Sewell and Evan Marshall, both took five wickets for 79 runs, the both bowled four maidens and Sewell bowled 27 overs and Marshall 26.Brendon McCullum gave Otago another good start when attacking to score 41 from 37 balls and in an opening stand of 63, Otago was well on the way to wiping out the deficit.However, an untimely loss of three wickets for five runs just before stumps saw Otago slump to 100/4, a lead of only 12 runs with six wickets left. Key batsmen Chris Gaffaney and Andrew Hore were out for 0 and four respectively, leaving Craig Cumming needing to find a solid partner to try and build a solid position for Otago to put the pressure back on ND.Styris did the damage for ND by claiming two wickets for four runs from six overs. His first victim was Robbie Lawson who was caught behind for 37 and then he trapped Gaffaney leg before wicket.