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Monty Panesar, the first Sikh to play cricket for England, has said he never imagined that his first Test wicket would be master batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

“It (getting Tendulkar out) was beyond my imagination – I never dreamed of taking his wicket as my first Test wicket,” the spinner said.

The Northamptonshire left-armer was drafted into the touring side to India after Ashley Giles was unable to make the trip due to injury.

“Playing against the Indians and interacting with them was a good learning experience,” Panesar said.

Police fired tear gas on cricket fans who turned violent after the fifth One-day International between India and England was abandoned without a ball being bowled here on Sunday.

Spectators threw missiles on to the field and set advertising hoardings on fire after umpires Rudi Koertzen and Arani Jayaprakash decided no play would be possible due to the wet ground conditions following overnight rain.

“I am disappointed that there was no match today. But if such things (crowd violence) happen again, Guwahati might not have a game again,” said South African umpire Koertzen. Two policemen and one spectator were injured in the violence.

[tag]England[/tag] cricket team’s coach [tag]Duncan Fletcher [/tag]has given a strong indication that spinner [tag]Shaun Udal[/tag] will replace seamer [tag]Liam Plunkett[/tag] for Saturday’s third and final Test against India.

The tourists face a must-win situation to level the series after losing the second Test at Mohali by nine wickets and the Mumbai surface is likely to be most spin-friendly of all.

Udal, who will be 37 on day one of the Test, took only three wickets in his first three Tests in Pakistan. “We think it is a two-spinner pitch but we’ll look at it, then look at number eight position,” Fletcher said.

- Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla made their Test debut. They became the 254th and 255th players to represent India in Test cricket.

- At 17 years 75 days Piyush Chawla became the second youngest to appear in a Test for India. Only Sachin Tendulkar (aged 16 years 205 days) has played a Test at a younger age for India. In all Test cricket, Chawla became the 16th youngest player to make debut.

- A total of five Patels have now represented India in Test cricket. They are: Jasu, Brijesh, Rashid, Parthiv and now Munaf.

Pacer [tag]Munaf Patel[/tag]’s key role in [tag]India[/tag]’s win over [tag]England[/tag] in his debut Test match at [tag]Mohali[/tag] sparked spontaneous celebrations at his village in [tag]Gujarat[/tag], with one man comparing it to [tag]Eid[/tag] festivities.

‘Today is like Eid for us,’ a young neighbour of Patel’s jubilant family said in Ikhar village in central Gujarat’s Bharuch district, about 120 km from here, as others burst crackers, distributed sweets and played drums.

The villagers were celebrating the sterling performance of Munaf Patel in the nine-wicket victory.

A British national of Indian-origin was arrested by police on charges of cheating, fraud and impersonation during the second Test match between India and England.

Rajiv Moolchandani was also charged under the Gambling Act.

Meanwhile, embarrassed by the controversy, the host Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) ordered an inquiry into the episode. PCA president I.S. Bindra told reporters that an internal probe would be done to see how the punter got a media accreditation card.

The role of certain PCA officials, especially treasurer G.S. Walia, who gave the accreditation card to the punter without verifying his antecedents, would also be investigated by the police.

England’s [tag]Kevin Pietersen[/tag] was fined 30 percent of his match fee for dissenting with an umpire’s decision during the second Test against India.

‘Pietersen was charged with breaching Level 1.3 of the International Cricket Council ([tag]ICC[/tag]) Code of Conduct by the on-field umpires Darrell Hair and Simon Taufel and TV umpire A.V. Jayaprakash after he showed dissent upon being given out on day four of the match,’ said an ICC statement received here.

‘He subsequently pleaded guilty to breaching the ICC Code at a hearing conducted by ICC match referee Ranjan Madugalle (of Sri Lanka),’ it said.

India beat England by 9 wickets in the 2nd test match at Nagpur. Muanf Patel and Anil Kumblee rocked England in second innings as they took 8 wickets between them for 95 runs. Incidentally the duo took 8 wickets in the first innings as well. Munaf was tremendous as a debutant, shining in second innings with his 4 wickets for 25 runs, overall getting 7 wickets for 97 runs. Patel’s 7 for 97 is the best performance by an Indian fast bowler on debut, beating Abid Ali’s 7 for 116 against Australia at Adelaide.

Gareth Batty, Sajid Mahmood, Owais Shah and Vikram Solanki were all called up into [tag]England[/tag]’s One-Day squad Saturday for the forthcoming series against India. Shah and Solanki replace top-order batsmen Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick after the duo’s involvement in the ongoing Test series in India was cut short.

England captain Vaughan was forced out with a recurrence of a persistent knee injury while vice-captain Trescothick returned home for personal reasons.

[tag]Andrew Flintoff[/tag], the shy giant of a cricket player, got himself involved with captaincy when Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick returned home due to knee and domestic problems respectively. It seems that Freddie is enjoying his captaincy days out in the field as he is leading the team both with the bat and ball. Flintoff made 70 runs in first innings and took 4 wickets including that of Dravid and Tendulkar. Now he is playing on 16 not out at end of Day 4. The match still has some spark in it. Although England has a lead of 74 runs with 5 wickets remaining, it is still possible that India can bowl them out before 300 runs and chase the target to victory.