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Match facts

Mumbai v South Australia, Tuesday, September 14
Start time 1730 (1530 GMT)Solos from Sachin Tendulkar will not do for a side with Mumbai’s depth•AFP

Big Picture

Mumbai Indians seem to have everything a team might need to become the best club side in the world. They have Sachin Tendulkar at the top, who has taken Twenty20 batting to a new risk-free plane. They have talented Indian domestic batsmen in the middle. They have Lasith Malinga, perhaps the best bowler in the format, to go with Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, who more than hold their own against international sides, leave alone club teams. Their owners are one of the richest families in India, and they have spent merrily in acquiring the services of Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and JP Duminy among others.
Still they are neither the IPL champions nor have they got off to a good start in the Champions League, losing to the Lions, a team whose collective fame and earnings pale in comparison to Pollard’s from one IPL season. From their last two matches, Mumbai will know they can do with better captaincy and pre-match strategy. In the IPL final, Pollard was given just three overs to win a match. They have been almost apologetic in using their rich resources. In the Champions League opener, neither Malinga nor Zaheer opened the bowling. Why not hit some helmets and break some toes straight up? Despite the presence of five specialist bowlers in the side, the part-timers bowled four overs for 49 runs.Now Mumbai are up against a side that has won a match based on a captain’s solo. Michael Klinger, a Victorian, moved to South Australia two seasons ago, didn’t play a single Twenty20 for them last season, but walked into the Champions League side as captain. Their first match showed why. While the rest of the top order struggled, Klinger got a golden bat emblazoned on his cap, a rather subtle recognition for the tournament’s highest scorer at the time, breaking away from the IPL’s honourable tradition of gaudy caps.Tendulkar nearly did a similar solo in the first game, but in a team of Mumbai’s quality he shouldn’t be required to do solos, only better strategy shall do.

Team news

A niggle to Saurabh Tiwary cost Mumbai some firepower in the middle order, and they will be hoping he is fit to play. They also need to realise that Dwayne Bravo is a better, classier, more valuable cricketer than Pollard, and they can’t afford to keep benching him. Not when their fourth overseas player, Ryan McLaren, is bowled for just one over and has hardly any role with the bat. Abhishek Nayar has been called up as cover for the injured Dhawal Kulkarni, but is unlikely to figure in the final XI even if he makes it in time.
Mumbai Indians 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 3 Ambati Rayudu (wk), 4 JP Duminy, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Saurabh Tiwary/R Sathish, 7 Dwayne Bravo/Ryan McLaren, 8 Ali Murtaza, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Lasith MalingaSouth Australia would like to retain their winning combination.South Australia Redbacks 1 Michael Klinger (capt.), 2 Daniel Harris, 3 Graham Manou (wk), 4 Tom Cooper, 5 Callum Ferguson, 6 Cameron Borgas, 7 Daniel Christian, 8 Aaron O’Brien, 9 Shaun Tait, 10 Gary Putland, 11 Cullen Bailey

Watch out for …

Kieron Pollard has played for so many teams it was inevitable he would come up against old mates one of these days. Good job that he plays a sport where who he is playing for is clearly defined. He is not at the risk of, say, instinctively passing the ball to the wrong team.
Callum Ferguson is back from his knee reconstruction, and his 27-ball 47 in South Australia’s first game suggested he had never been away. Watch out for more improvisation from the man whose Australia limited-overs career was on its way when he got injured.

Key contest

Shaun Tait v Lasith Malinga It will be a day to rejoice for the slingers of the world. Which of these round-arm hounds does better might just determine the course of the match.

Stats and trivia

• Sachin Tendulkar has hit just 20 sixes in his 1437 runs. Among those who have crossed 1000 runs in the format, only Gautam Gambhir (20 sixes out of 1844) and Murray Goodwin (21 sixes out of 1671) have higher runs-to-sixes ratios.
• Lasith Malinga has bowled 34 batsmen in his Twenty20 career. Only five men have found the stumps more often. Shaun Tait has 25 bowled victims.

The West Indies Cricket Board has approved the review committee’s recommendation to include former wicketkeeper Courtney Browne in the West Indies selection panel. The decision was taken at the last meeting of the board of directors in St Lucia, as the previous selection panel’s term concluded on July 31. Browne replaces former West Indies spinner Raphick Jumadeen in the three-member panel, while chairman Clyde Butts and Robert Haynes have been reappointed for the next two-year term.Butts thanked the WICB for being reappointed, and extended a welcome to Browne. “I’m pleased to be reappointed chairman of the selection panel and I am confident that we will work closely as a group as we continue on a restructuring pathway.”I welcome Courtney to the panel and look forward to working with him and Robert, along with head coach Ottis Gibson as we put our best efforts together to move West Indies cricket forward,” Butts said.Browne made his West Indies debut in 1995, playing 20 Tests and 46 ODIs in a ten-year long stop-start career during which he was one of the first-choice wicketkeepers. “It is a privilege to be afforded the opportunity to serve West Indies cricket again. I feel honoured and I will put my best foot forward,” Browne said.”I would have played cricket with some of the players who are still in the West Indies team and there is a lot more involvement in cricket now and so I think I will be able to relate to the players a lot better.”Browne had served as an alternate selector on the previous selection panel alongside former players Stuart Williams and Nehemiah Perry. The one-time Barbados captain has also served as the chairman of the Barbados Cricket Association selection panel for the past two years, in addition to being the team’s manager.Browne’s tenure begins in a period when West Indies cricket has hit unforeseen lows on the field, having managed only 18 Test victories since January 2000. Against this background, the board has set out to prepare a selection policy document with guidelines chalking out the WICB’s action plan with regards to selection.The review committee comprising Ernest Hilaire, Joel Garner, Clive Lloyd and WICB chief cricket operations officer Tony Howard, interviewed several candidates before recommending Browne.

India fast bowler Zaheer Khan is heading to Johannesburg to undergo rehabilitation for an injured shoulder. The injury forced Zaheer to miss the upcoming Test tour of Sri Lanka and possibly the following ODI tri-series as well.”Leaving for Joburg today, visiting Rosebank sports injury rehab clinic, the place where I did my shoulder rehab last year after surgery,” Zaheer said on his Twitter page.Zaheer was rested by the BCCI for the recent tour of Zimbabwe in order to preserve himself for the busy season ahead. He participated in the Asia Cup in Dambulla and played in all four of India’s games. The BCCI did not reveal the cause of the injury or for how long he has been advised to rest. He was replaced by Karnataka fast bowler Abhimanyu Mithun in the Test squad.

ScorecardIt says much about Warwickshire’s season that the loudest cheer of the day came when they avoided the follow-on. How their supporters’ ambitions have fallen. Once they targeted victories and championships; now they seem pleased if their side makes the opposition bat twice.Perhaps such an attitude is not surprising. This was the fourth championship game in succession in which Warwickshire have failed to pass 150 in their first innings (after scores of 113 against Lancashire, 127 against Somerset and 100 against Durham) and none of their top seven in this match have yet recorded a century this season. After eight championship matches, Warwickshire have claimed just nine batting bonus points. It’s the least of any side in either division.There are, on this occasion, some mitigating factors. This is a desperately difficult pitch for batsmen and losing the toss – as they have done in all home fixtures this season – is a notable disadvantage. Indeed, bearing in mind their struggles against spin bowling, Warwickshire may reflect on the wisdom of preparing pitches that offer so much assistance to them.Somerset’s bowlers also harnessed the conditions well. Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, gaining sharp turn and bowling with pleasing flight and variation, was particularly impressive in claiming the 28th five-wicket haul of his career. He must wish he could play Warwickshire every week. Barely 10 days ago, he took 6 for 61 against them at Taunton.But the loss of 17 wickets in a single day tells its own story. This is a not a good pitch. The bounce is irregular – with some balls rearing and a few beginning to scuttle – rendering it an unequal battle between bat and ball. It was something of a surprise when the umpires declared themselves content with the pitch and ruled out a call to the pitch inspector.In the context of the game, Ben Phillips’ belligerent innings of 44 was the performance of the day. Coming to the crease with his side wobbling on 72 for 6, Phillips batted sensibly. He used his long reach to nullify the spin, his strength to put away the poor ball and, unlike many of the top order batsmen on either side who lunged forward hopefully, played back to the spinners with some success. While Phillips crunched six fours and one pulled six off Rikki Clarke, no-one else managed more than 27 on the second day.Until Phillips’ late contribution, the bowlers had been on top. Though Warwickshire showed welcome fight, it was always an uphill struggle to defy the bowlers in such circumstances. Troughton overcame painful blows to the hands to both his first two deliveries, while Chopra survived an edge between slip and gully, but neither hinted at permanence.Chopra and Clarke were both drawn into playing at probing deliveries on or around off stump, before Troughton was caught off bat and pad at leg slip and Botha missed a slog-sweep. Johnson and Woakes were both beaten by sharp turn and edged their defensive prods to slip.Not that all the batsmen were blameless. Darren Maddy pulled directly to the man positioned for the shot on the square-leg boundary while Imran Tahir edged a wild slash. Apart from them, all eight wickets owed more to good bowling and tricky conditions than poor batting.Somerset had things little better in reply. Trescothick played down the wrong line to one that swung back at him, before Buttler was set-up by an outswinger and beaten by one that came in. Suppiah was bowled off the inside edge, prodding forward to one that bounced on him, before Hildreth fell to a googly, Kieswetter to a topspinner and Trego was powerless to keep one out that kept low.The flurry of wickets briefly raised Warwickshire’s spirits, but their joy may well prove short-lived. While a fourth-innings target of around 300 may not look intimidating in normal circumstances, on this pitch it seems mountainous.

Bangladesh are hoping their captain Shakib Al Hasan recovers quickly from chickenpox so that he can be out of quarantine by the time the first Test against England begins at Lord’s on May 27. Shakib missed Bangladesh’s tour game against England Lions, which the hosts won by nine wickets.Jamie Siddons, Bangladesh’s coach, was positive that his captain would play. “He’s [Shakib] much better. He bowled and batted today [Saturday] and walked some laps,” he told AFP. “I’m pretty confident he’s pacing himself well and will definitely be putting his hand up to play. That’s good news for us because he’s an integral part of our line-up and balances our team out nicely.”Siddons hoped for a “really good performance” from Bangladesh at Lord’s. “We’ve played good Test cricket over the last six months and pushed England in Bangladesh and hopefully, all things being even, we will play really well at Lord’s.”

ScorecardDanza Hyatt scored 73 for Jamaica•Associated Press

Marlon Samuels failed to fire on his return to the Jamaica team but the rest of the top-order batsmen contributed significantly to a match-winning total against USA at Lauderhill in the first of three matches. Jamaica made 307 in their 50 overs after which their bowlers skittled the hosts for 175, securing a comfortable 132-run victory.The game was a comeback for Samuels, who was slapped with a two-yearban for breaking International Cricket Council rules relating to “receivingmoney, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game of cricketinto disrepute.”Jamaica’s openers, Danza Hyatt and Donovan Pagon, added 122 for the first wicket after Tamar Lambert won the toss. Hyatt made 73 off 84 balls, and was the first wicket to fall in the 23rd over, while Pagon went on to reach 97. He added 40 runs for the second wicket with Samuels, who was dismissed for 11, and found support in his captain Lambert.Lambert went on to make a half-century at nearly a run a ball to steer Jamaica past 300. USA used as many as eight bowlers, among whom offspinner Asad Ghous has the best figues – 2 for 42, including the wickets of Hyatt and Lambert.USA’s chase got off to a disastrous start with opener Carl Wright getting run out off the first ball. His partner, Jamaica-born Orlando Baker, top-scored with 56 but left-arm medium-pacer Krishmar Santokie struck twice in the eighth over to reduce the hosts to 25 for 3. From there a steady fall of wickets crippled the chase and USA were all out for 175 in the 49th over.

Cricket Canada has settled on a squad for their upcoming engagement at the ICC America’s Division One Championship in Bermuda, but it does not include regular captain Ashish Bagai, who is being rested ahead of what is to be a gruelling push to the 2011 World Cup. Rizwan Cheema, who deputized for Bagai during the tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year, will captain the side in Bagai’s absence.”With Ashish unavailable for this tour we are looking to Cheema and Chohan to lead this team to a good performance,” said Chris James, chairman of selectors. “We have confidence in our young players to perform in this competition but are looking to see some good contributions from the senior players as well.”The head coach of the national side, Pubudu Dassanayake, was pleased with the squad and expressed his hopes that the team could return the America’s championship trophy to Canada. “We have just come out of a tough tour of the West Indies and are looking to build up into the WCL Division 1 and continue on into the World Cup,” he said. “Our expectation for this team is high and we are looking to reassert ourselves in the region.”Dassanayake will hand the team over to former Canadian captain and current Cricket Operations Officer Ingleton Liburd for the Bermuda tour as he will be participating in the upcoming Cricket Australia Conference in Australia at the time. This annual conference involves the majority of Australia’s full-time state and national coaching, sports science and sports medicine staff.Second Vice President Vimal Hardat backed Liburd to do well with the team, saying “Ingleton Liburd is one of our all time great players and we feel very comfortable handing over the reigns to him for this tour. The expectation will be high but we are confident he can deliver.”The team training camp has already started in Toronto, and the squad will leave on May 27 for the championship in Bermuda, which runs from May 28 to June 6.Canada squad: Rizwan Cheema (capt), Khurram Chohan, Harvir Baidwan, Trevin Bastiampillai, Umar Bhatti, Rustam Bhatti, Parth Desai, Sunil Dhaniram, Jimmy Hansra, Calvert Hooper, Sandeep Jyoti, Nitish Kumar, Usman Limbada, Zubin Surkari

Aimee Watkins will lead the 14-member New Zealand women’s squad in the World Twenty20 to be held in West Indies from April. The final squad was pruned from the 30-strong longlist of probables that was announced earlier this month.The core of the squad is from the team that beat Australia 3-0 in the recent Twenty20 series. Allrounder Lucy Doolan returns after successful rehabilitation from knee surgery. Rachel Priest is the only specialist wicketkeeper in the squad, with cover provided by Maria Fahey and Doolan.The White Ferns are in Group B alongside India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan with their first match against India on the May 6. All women’s Twenty20 matches are based in St Kitts.”We have an exciting blend of youth and experience in this squad with plenty of versatility to cover the different options that are required in the variable West Indian conditions,” said Gary Stead, the team coach.”With the exception of Wellington Blaze middle-order batsmen Liz Perry, who was in excellent from during the North-South series, each member of the team has international experience. There are a number of power hitters in the team and that could be a key on the small Warner Park ground,” Stead said.The team will begin its final preparations for the tournament with a training camp at Lincoln on the 10th and 11th of April.Squad: Aimee Watkins (capt), Amy Satterthwaite (vice-capt), Suzie Bates, Erin Bermingham, Kate Broadmore, Nicola Browne, Sophie Devine, Natalie Dodd, Lucy Doolan, Maria Fahey, Sara McGlashan, Liz Perry, Rachel Priest (wk), Sian Ruck

Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, has said Shashank Manohar and N Srinivasan, the Indian board’s president and secretary, took the call – backed by other members of the league’s governing council – to shelve the tender process for the two new franchises at Sunday’s meeting in Mumbai. Modi’s disclosure of the last-minute intervention – and the consequent drastic down scaling of the contentious tender clauses – seems to confirm reports of differences at the highest level in the IPL.The process has been deferred to March 21 in Chennai, where the new tenders will be opened.”That is correct. The president and secretary, and a few other members, did not agree with it,” Modi told Cricinfo on Tuesday, when asked if the original clause, which required the bidder to have a net worth of $1 billion, was the reason behind the tender process being dropped. “So based upon complaints received from various companies they decided even before the (tender) process began the process should end.”As a result, the IPL amended the tender by removing the $1 billion net-worth clause. It also reduced the advance deposit from $100 million to $10 million and stipulated that the winning bidder would have to pay 10% of their bid within 48 hours instead of 100% of the amount.At his media briefing on Sunday, Modi had conceded that the net-worth clause had put off many potential investors. Today, he confirmed to Cricinfo that the IPL had received two bids despite the barriers. “There were two letters produced, by the Sahara and Dainik Jagran groups, saying they could afford (to bid),” he said. “Sahara said, ‘if we can afford to pay Rs 500 crore ($100 million) a year for the Indian team sponsorship, why are we being excluded? We can easily afford to pay Rs 150 crore ($30 million) a year for a franchise’.”Modi sought to put a positive spin on the tender process being deferred by two weeks, saying the league was extending the playing field. “I was happy we had two legitimate bids and [also] a late bid. As in the first tender, in 2008, when late bids were cancelled, so my recommendation was to accept the first two and cancel the third. But the governing council members felt we should allow more people to enter. [So] there will be more people coming in.”The abrupt cancellation of the tenders certainly upset one of the bidders, a consortium comprising the Videocon group, led by Venugopal Dhoot, Panchshil Realty’s founder chairman Atul Chordia and Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. “We had a very good consortium between Saif, Kareena, Videocon and myself,” Chordia told the . “Our mood is off now, I don’t think it will happen now. For the last eight days, we have worked so hard on it – things like branding, merchandising, paper work.””When the BCCI have an efficient team with eminent lawyers and businessmen, why did they put stringent conditions in place and then take a U-turn? There were three legitimate bids. I just can’t understand the motive behind this.”They just cancelled the bid without giving any reason. We were completely legitimate, we had completed all the paper-work, we had fulfilled all the conditions. If they didn’t want a stringent tender, why did they float one in the first place? The manner in which it was done was not at all sporting.”The minimum valuation was $225 million, which is about Rs 1100 crore. So we had definitely put at least Rs 1100 crore. We must have spent more than Rs 10 crore to get everything organised.”When this was put to Modi, he said he sympathised with the sentiment but it was not the end of the road. “Of course, they put in a lot of hard work and I am sure it is hurting them at the end of the day. But it is important to understand that the governing council said many, many people had approached them and the criteria laid down by us was too stringent. And, so, we revised it.”

Martin Guptilland Brendon McCullum were satisfied with their record-breaking stand that rescued the New Zealand innings from a precarious position in Hamilton. “We just tried to get a significant partnership together at the start and we were happy to provide the runs that were needed by the team,” McCullum said.During the course of his career-best 185, he eclipsed Ian Smith’s record for the highest score by a New Zealand wicketkeeper, but McCullum chose to focus on the significance of the effort from a team’s perspective.”Once we built a substantial partnership we knew that those sorts of things are always around the corner, but the important thing is that we were able to take the team to a good position.”Guptill was pleased to bring up his maiden Test ton. “Getting your first Test hundred is always a great feeling,” he said. “It was also fantastic to get past that 150-mark, there was a lot of elation.” In his short international career, Guptill has featured mostly at No.3, and said that the shift to No.5 was initiated by his coach.”It was Mark Greatbatch who suggested I move to No.5, and I’m pretty pleased with the way it went.” McCullum too, was appreciative of Greatbatch’s impact, claiming “it was helpful to have someone like [Greatbatch] to talk to during the innings, someone who had played for New Zealand and been in similar situations.”McCullum acknowledged New Zealand’s stranglehold on the match. “We just have to keep hitting the good areas and execute our plans and there is every chance that we can effect the follow on,” he said.Rubel Hossain, who picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests with the scalps of the two centurions, was optimistic about his sides chances. He believed that if the Bangladesh top order batted well, as Tamim Iqbal had done thus far, there was no reason they couldn’t avoid the follow on.