New Delhi, January 5
Just when you thought you had heard the worst, the news has become worse. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the only Indian batsman who has shown some fight in the series, could miss the third and final One-day International against Pakistan tomorrow due to a sore back.

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Perfect — that's what India sorely needed at this moment, losing the batsman who’s scored 167 runs in two matches without being dismissed. That’s 106 runs more than the next best for India, Suresh Raina.

India, thus, go into the inconsequential third match with crushed pride and sore bodies; Pakistan, on the other hand, look robust and confident, none more than their towering pace bowlers.

The series that was being billed as India’s shot at redemption has become a tale of calamity. The team is like an abandoned child left out in the cold. It is helpless, confronted with dark fears and questioning voices, but no answers are forthcoming.

Thus, after their worst home defeat in Test cricket to any team since 1983, the Indians grimly look at the prospect of their first whitewash in a home ODI series since 1983. The possibility that this momentous, crushing event would arrive with clockwork precision on Sunday evening is overwhelming.

India are truly left out in the cold — and that’s not merely a metaphorical statement. The bitter Delhi winter tends to chill you to the bone; the frosty fog seems to enter the very marrow of your bones. Dhoni, harking back to the coldest he’s felt in international cricket, said Belfast in 2007 and IPL in South Africa in 2009 were pretty bad, too. In 2007, India won the series in Belfast; in 2009 in the IPL, an Indian team won — as an Indian team will always win, mercifully, in the IPL.

Here, the series is lost already, and this cold is a different kettle of fish. Dhoni thinks the temperature here tomorrow — the daytime highest here is likely to be below 15C — could be less than it was in Belfast or South Africa.

Five in the squad are from Delhi — Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Virat Kohli and Amit Mishra — and Yuvraj Singh is from further north, though they’ve all been playing in much warmer regions in the recent days. They, and the others more than them in the squad, are struggling with the cold. Dhoni says he’s hopeful that no one would catch a chill, or that his own back soreness would respond to the treatment despite the terrible cold.

Venkat Sundaram, the chief curator, says he had advised the BCCI to not hold any international matches in the northern region (Delhi, Mohali, etc) in January. No one in the BCCI listens to expert voices, clearly, while making the plans.

That leaves India with a mountain to climb tomorrow. The conditions are going to help the excellent Pakistani pacemen; the brittle Indian batting line-up could quake in their boots due to reasons other than the cold.

The openers have failed; Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja have failed. There’s great speculation that Sehwag or Gambhir could be dropped to make way for Ajinkya Rahane.

But as Dhoni says, these are the best players in the country. Their woeful show leaves India without a place to hide.

The Pakistan bowlers aren’t going to allow anyone to hide -- they’ll go after the Indian batsmen, chasing them to the edge of the precipice. Left-arm pacemen Junaid Khan and Irfan Khan have made the batsmen look helpless. Should the wicket assist spin, Pakistan have excellent options in Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik. They very much look like a team without obvious weaknesses, except perhaps the wicketkeeping of Kamran Akmal.

The Indian bowling presents complete contrast to the Pakistani attack. Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have not looked like winning matches for their team. Ravichandran Aswhin remains a worry. The part-timers who bowl 10 overs are extremely friendly. Opener Nasir Jamshed has hit three centuries against India in three matches, including the one in Asia Cup in March last.

As Dhoni says, with the new rules -- no more than four, instead of the earlier five, fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle for all of the game — have made part-time bowlers especially vulnerable. Now you need a proper specialist to bowl those 10 overs. In case Dhoni doesn’t play, Dinesh Karthik, flying in today, will keep wickets and Gautam Gambhir will likely lead the team. Change of personnel, but change of fortunes? Looks unlikely. 

New Delhi, January 5
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a patient man with a strong, unflappable mind. In this team of splintering personnel, coping with a string of defeats, he’s the one who has managed to keep his head. He says that if he were likely to be affected by “all this pressure I had felt, then I would have been broken and crushed by now”.

The regularity of defeat, which is closely followed by the monotony of inquisition by the media, seems to be testing his patience, however. “We are looking to find the solution (to India’s problems),” he said today, with just a hint of testiness. “Every day you turn up at the press conference and keep answering the same question... Each press conference is no different from the previous one.”

The questions have centred around Dhoni’s captaincy in all three formats of the sport burdening him, and the role of the invisible, voiceless, smile-less Duncan Fletcher, the coach of the team.

“If we go by what the media says, then we have to keep 30-40 teams ready because they want changes after every loss,” Dhoni said. “Get a new team each time. It is important to back the players. Everyone knows we are going through a tough period but at the end of the day, the 15 in the squad are the best. And if the best XI is not performing as a unit, you have problems to deal with. If you keep changing the 15 or the 18, you won’t get the solution.” He also categorically absolved Fletcher of all blame for India’s slump since he took over as coach -- he said it’s the players who’ve got to perform. “Coaches help you, they guide you if there is a technical flaw,” Dhoni said.

“But ultimately, the coach can’t play on the ground... I think it will be wrong to blame the coach for anything.”

New Delhi, December 22
It was not just the combined effort of bowlers but also the preparatory training camp under former skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq back home which helped Pakistan to tame the Indians on their own backyard, skipper Misbah-ul-Haq said. "Fast and spin bowling is key to our success. Our pacers performed really well and exploited the conditions while our spinners have always won us the game. It's a combined effort," Misbah said. "We prepared well for the series under our batting consultant Inzamam-ul-Haq.

The training camp back home really helped the team to perform well," Misbah added. While Pakistan's pace duo of Mohammad Irfan and Junaid Khan troubled India's top-order batsmen with their swing and seam movement, the spin combination of Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik bowled well in tandem to create problems for the middle-order. The 38-year-old skipper said they will settle for nothing less than a win in final one-dayer at Feroze Shah Kotla Ground. — PTI

New Delhi, January 5
The life of a fly can’t be a particularly thrilling one, but the horde of journalists watching the Indian team practise here desperately wished to be turned into flies, for an hour or so today. Because for around this period, after spending some 25 minutes batting in the nets, Virender Sehwag chatted with two selectors present in the practice area.

For over an hour, Sehwag was with selectors Vikram Rathore and Saba Karim. It must be added that Sehwag -- who has been having a bad time of it in the recent weeks — looked quite cheerful. As they watched the others bat in the nets, Sehwag first talked to Rathore and then with Karim — though it very well could have been the selectors talking to Sehwag.

Sehwag does need some talking-to done to him, for his recent record has been less than exemplary. His last 10 ODI innings have fetched him scores of 31, 4, 34, 3, 15, 96, 30, 5, 0 and 20 — a total of 238 for an average of 23.80. His last century was the 219 he flogged against the West Indies in Dec 2011; the century prior to that was the 175 against Bangladesh in the 2011 World Cup. The big scores are few and far between. You expect more of the Delhi blaster.

Sehwag’s opening partner, Gautam Gambhir, has failed in the two innings against Pakistan. However, he’s got two centuries over the last one year, apart from 88 three innings ago — all of these both against Sri Lanka. This could act as a short-term insurance for him. The two selectors had a long chat with captain Dhoni, too.

The Indian selectors meet here tomorrow to pick up the team for the five-match ODI series against England. Do the long chats with Sehwag and Dhoni signify anything, or were all of them simply discussing the terrible Delhi cold? Dhoni blames the batting for much of India’s troubles — would he push for a change in the team?

We might get the answers tomorrow. “It’s just that we have not scored enough runs in this series, so we need to take up responsibility and put up enough runs on the board,” Dhoni said. “The thing is we know are not batting well. In the games where we bat well, our bowling hasn’t been so good,” he added.

“In some games we bat well, in some games we don’t...” That’s the likely complaint of a team that’s trying to rebuild, knocking from one disaster to another. 

Jamshedpur, January 5
Jharkhand Ranji team captain Shahbaz Nadeem today said presence senior spinner Harbhajan Singh in the rival Punjab team would not be a factor in their quarter-final match, here tomorrow.

"I don't think that a single player alone can affect the outcome of the match," Nadeem said when asked about presence of the off-spinner in rival camp.

"We have five to six cricketers, who have been playing in Indian Premier League for different franchises including me and off-spinner Sunny Gupta for Delhi Daredevils, batsman Saurabh Tiwary for Royal Challengers, Bangalore, and Ishank Jaggi for Decan Chargers," the left-arm spinner, said.

He said that the team was in good form and had a good track record of performing well at the upper stages of the tournament. Referring the team composition, Jharkhand captain said it was yet undecided, but he would like to field four bowlers in the match against Punjab.

J&K player Parvez Rasool during India ‘A’ camp. — PTI

He hailed the performance of openers Akash Verma and Rameez Nemat, who struck aggressive half centuries to share 151 runs against Services in the last league encounter.

"We have no plan to disturb the opening pair even though the regular opener Manish Vardhan, who was out of the team due to injury, will be included in the team against Punjab, he said, adding that Vardhan would likely play one-down. Stating that he would opt for batting if he won the toss, Nadeem said a 300 plus run at Keenan wicket would provide a bright opportunity to the home side to mount pressure on the rivals. The quarter-final qualification for Jharkhand would be a first as the team had last played in the quarter-final stage of the Ranji in 2002 against Haryana as the undivided Bihar Ranji team.

Sachin to bat at No 4: Agarkar

Mumbai skipper Ajit Agarkar today said veteran batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who recently retired from ODIs, will bat at number four in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal clash against Baroda. "We have got Sachin back, which is great. Someone like him showing keenness to play, it obviously helps. That experience in the dressing room will always help," Agarkar told reporters here.

Asked if Tendulkar will play at number five, the position where he played his last Ranji match against Railways and scored 137, Agarkar replied in the negative and said he would bat a bit higher up the order. "He was sick that day, that is why he batted at five that day. Sachin will bat at four," he said. — PTI

cHANDIGARH, January 5
Imagine Sharmila Tagore and Shashi Kapoor singing "Vada karo nahi chodoge tum mera saath.." from Aa Gale Lag Ja (1973) not on roller but on ice skates.

Imagine that crooning chemistry, not inside an obsure hall, but amid snowy whites. The romance in the song would have touched beautiful heights, just like the hills around, had it all happened inside Shimla's hallowed Shimla's Ice Skating Club. There would have been no space for awkwardness, but only for freeflowing hand movements coupled with the big glides and the sound of skates cutting through the cold ice. Pure chemistry and sparkling love in the heart of Shimla.

That's the old world charm of ice skating rink, where winters welcomed the ice skating season on Wednesday morning. It all begins an evening before when the dusty ground, devoid of any activity, metamorphoses from water blocks into one smooth, ravishing layer of ice, the neat rows of halogen lamps hanging over the arena adding to the charm.

The club arranged a Fancy Dress Carnival and various competitions such as ice hockey, speed skating, during the national championships (January 3-4).

The morning after, the scene is one of commotion, activity and organized chaos. One can see teenagers with their skates on assidously shaking off the year long rust and getting into the groove.

Kids try out their games in one corner and lovestruck Romeos get a chance to zig-zag, criss-cross their flames in full showmanship. Daring ones succeed in striking conversation, lucky few make friends and the rest have to be content with doing endless rounds of the arena, evincing platonic love for the sport. But there are things even a novice can do while skating. You can try and try and still fall. Or you can skim the surface momentarily and grin till a thud leaves you up flopped on the floor and everyone else in splits. If you are tired, you can outdo the kids in a game of blowing steaming breath. You are permitted to rub your gloved hands vigorously and grin, while you learn the nuances of the skill.

Alas! figure skating hasn't cut much ice in this conservative town. Beeline of spectators, tourists, bookworm kids, porters, shopkeepers and sundry can only pine for that luxury standing on the way to Scandal Point and be satisfied with what is on in fair. At most, a game of ice hockey may be on. But you have to come early and stay late in the night to enjoy this sport. If you wake up early and see a red balloon flying over municipal corporation building, you know it's on.

The only one of its kind in South East Asia, employs natural methods to freeze an ice layer (3-15 cm) on a 54x26m arena. “The national championship saw a lot of participants," said Bhuvnesh Banga, Club Secretary.

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