CricketViewer.com

Andrew Symonds says he got “darker at the world” during Australia’s tour of India last year, when he was subjected to monkey chants by the crowd, and by his subsequent altercations with Harbhajan Singh, who was charged for racist abuse against Symonds earlier this year.

Symonds was left out of the Test squad for Australia’s ongoing series in India on disciplinary grounds – he skipped a team meeting to go fishing ahead of the ODI series against Bangladesh – and he said the events in India and then in Australia had made him “physically tired and mentally worn down” by the end of the season.

Ricky Ponting has said he was approached by a senior member of the India touring party during the acrimonious Sydney Test and asked to drop Australia’s complaint against Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan was alleged to have racially abused Andrew Symonds during the game and Ponting said that even before Harbhajan’s three-Test ban was handed down it was clear the matter would not be straightforward.

Ponting’s recollections are revealed in his Captain’s Diary 2008, an extract of which has been published in the Weekend Australian. “On the night after we made our on-field report about Harbhajan, I had a phone conversation with a senior member of the Indian touring party, who asked me straight to drop the complaint,” Ponting wrote.

A purposeful, fluent and unbeaten 92 from Simon Katich kept Australia ticking at the end of a day that saw effortless batting on either side of a dramatic bowling spell. India batted smoothly through the morning, and Katich’s 115-run partnership with Michael Hussey gave Australia plenty of breathing room in the late afternoon, but the collapse of five Indian wickets for 19 runs in between was scripted by the day’s unlikeliest hero, Jason Krejza.

India must use its growing power in world cricket to keep the game on the right path rather than becoming obsessed with short-term issues like code-of-conduct hearings, James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, has said. He said there was little the rest of the cricketing world could do to match India’s power, so Indian administrators needed to take greater responsibility for the game’s welfare.

Sutherland was speaking in Melbourne in the lead-up to the Nagpur Test, before India confirmed that their starting line-up would not include Gautam Gambhir, who was suspended for one Test for elbowing Shane Watson. It was unclear whether Gambhir was in the side or out of it – even India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on the day before the match, said he was “almost sure” he wouldn’t be playing.

Match facts

Nov 6-Nov 10, 2008
Start time 9.30am (0400 GMT)

Big Picture

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy heads for a climax with much more at stake than the bragging rights in cricket’s most enthralling current rivalry. The events of the next five days in Nagpur will be watched with keen interest not just in Mumbai and Melbourne but in London and Lahore and across the cricket world. Apart from a flurry of celebrations and farewells, there are two key questions: Do Australia have the mettle to perform under this intense pressure? And will India’s new captain, now in a permanent role, apply his usual attacking instincts when a draw will give him the series?

Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden led a solid collective effort from Australia on the third day in Delhi, although by the close there was no guarantee they would avoid the follow-on. Virender Sehwag went from fifth bowling option to major striker with three wickets, including two key breakthroughs in the final session that left Australia needing 76 more runs to ensure India would bat again.

It was a difficult day for Australia and the stumps scorecard did not fully reflect the gripping nature of the contest. There were no mammoth individual efforts like those from Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman; the most impressive aspect of Australia’s batting was simply their group fight.

Matthew Hayden, Australia’s out-of-form opener, wants to continue to test the temperament of Zaheer Khan in the third Test starting Wednesday despite his own struggles against the India fast bowler. Hayden said there was “method behind my madness” in the second innings in Mohali, where he blasted to 29 from 20 balls, as a way of getting on top of Zaheer, who has dismissed him three times in the series.

The Australians feel the aggressive approach, which included Hayden charging the first ball of the innings from Zaheer, has worked already. Zaheer was fined 80% of his match fee for his subsequent wild celebration and dance around Hayden when the batsman was dismissed by Harbhajan Singh in the second innings.

India’s ace off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was in doubt for the third Test against Australia starting here on Wednesday, according to coach Gary Kirsten.

Harbhajan, 28, suffered a toe injury during the second Test in Mohali which India won by 320 runs to go 1-0 up in the four-match Border-Gavaskar series. The first Test in Bangalore ended in a draw.

“We are not sure about Harbhajan,” Kirsten told reporters on Monday. “He picked the injury towards the end of the last game. It is probably because of overuse. We will have to wait and see how he goes. We will assess his condition again tomorrow. There are still 48 hours for the match.”

Adam Gilchrist has told Sachin Tendulkar that his comments questioning Tendulkar’s evidence in the Harbhajan Singh racism case had been taken out of context. Excerpts from Gilchrist’s new book, published in the Sydney Morning Herald, questioned Tendulkar’s sporting spirit and his role in the hearings into the alleged racist remark made by Harbhajan. In True Colours, Gilchrist suggested Tendulkar had changed his statement.

“Gilchrist called me up and clarified this issue,” Tendulkar told news channel Times Now. “He said his comments have been taken out of context.” To another channel, IBN-Lokmat, Tendulkar defended himself against Gilchrist’s remark that he was “hard to find for a changing-room handshake after we have beaten India”.

India’s top order set the table, and two of Australia’s familiar tormenters tucked in to leave the home side five wickets away from a crushing win, and the series lead, against the No. 1 side in the world. Gautam Gambhir scored his second century – and first at home – while Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni raced to half-centuries to set Australia a mammoth 516 in a little over four sessions.

To drive home their advantage, India dismissed Australia’s openers in the last over before tea, tore the heart out of their middle order, and had them haemorrhaging at 141 for 5 . Harbhajan Singh, who took 3 for 23, and Ishant Sharma had once again turned on the heat when India needed it most.