Nagpur, December 14
The future of India in Test cricket seems to have arrived, and it looks rather bleak.

A 3-1 annihilation of India is very much on the cards —India haven’t been thrashed so badly at home since 1983. With spin and guile, India expected to crush England easily. But swiftly, it has turned into a rout of the home team. It’s a nadir to match, even surpass, the nadir of 1983; for that hiding was administered by a fearsome West Indies team.

After England, 139/5 at one stage, were allowed to crawl to 330 all out, India’s innings combusted quickly. At stumps, they were 87 for four. Nothing except some extremely solid, and unlikely, defensive excellence is going to save India from defeat; and even a draw would leave England very worthy winners of the series.

After probably their penultimate disastrous innings of the Test series, each Indian batsman must be made to write this a thousand times: ‘I must bat like Joe Root, the real god of Test cricket’. Each of them must get this tattooed on the back of his left hand: “WWJD -- What Would Joe Do?” For Joe Root, the fresh-faced kid from Yorkshire making his debut here, knows how to play on difficult tracks better than India’s famous batsmen.

Joe Root, anonymous yesterday, is the boy every batsman in the Indian team must aspire to be if they wish to be great Test cricketers, and not remain or become merely club level Twenty20 superstars. Root is 21, and he has batted less than five hours for England. Yet, he’s shown better technique and temperament for Test cricket than most of the Indians have for most of this series. He batted for 289 minutes in his first Test innings, and not for one minute did he lose his bearings or his head. He faced 229 balls and hit only four of them to the fence; only one of the first 140 balls he played did he hit to the fence. It was a tough grind at Nagpur, on a tough pitch, and Root epitomised England’s spirit and fighting qualities better than anyone else. India came to bat hoping desperately for a Virender Sehwag special — he’s the only gamechanger in this team. Within three balls of the start of the innings, James Anderson killed that hope with one that swung in. Sehwag completely misread the line of the ball, played half a foot inside the line, aiming for an off drive. The ball jagged in, yet missed the outside edge easily and knocked back his stumps.

Sehwag played like Sehwag does, and any score over 50 from him would have helped India greatly. However, it is a wicket on which a 300-ball century was more likely to be made than a 100-ball one. It’s a wicket that rewards patience. The team’s second big hope, Cheteshwar Pujara, played with confidence and fluency; in the company of Gautam Gambhir, he made the wicket look less painful to bat on than the England innings had suggested. But then he was hacked off by umpire Rod Tucker, given out caught off Graeme Swann at forward short leg when the ball had hit his elbow, rather than bat or glove. India 59 for two. Five runs later, Sachin Tendulkar’s latest shocking failure occurred — bowled once more. It was sad to see Tendulkar being nearly brought to his knees by Anderson; the ball came in a bit, kept a bit low, touched the edge of his bat and broke his stumps. Anderson was nearly laughing with joy or derision; Tendulkar walked off with a grimace, inspecting the edge of his bat, looking at the pitch as if mystified by the low bounce. Maybe the fault lies with the uncertainty that has wracked his mind — more decisive footwork, reaching the ball rather than waiting for it, could have saved him. Gambhir, who has already caused run-outs of the team’s two key batsmen, Sehwag and Pujara, again ran dangerously; again he cut the ball dangerously, exposing his stumps, reminding the watchers of his two earlier dismissals in the series. He fell as he lived, dangerously, trying to hit Anderson to the boundary. Seventy-one for four, and two smashers at the pitch, trying to play defensively. Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni have 9.2 overs together. Can they take the score close to the England total? Can they reach even half of England’s total? Kohli is a fine talent, but he’s already shown impatience, attempting a wild slog, T20 style. That way lies calamity, someone should warn him. A video of young Root’s debut innings could be a fine teacher.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND 1st innings

Compton c Dhoni b Sharma 3

Trott b Jadeja 44

Pietersen c Ojha b Jadeja 73

Bell c Kohli b Jadeja 1

Root c&b Chawla 73

Prior b Ashwin 57

Bresnan lbw b Sharma 0

Swann lbw b Chawla 56

Anderson c Pujara b Chawla 4

Panesar not out 1

Extras: 17

Total: (all out in 145.5 ovs) 330

Fall of wickets: 11-3, 2-16, 3-102, 4-119, 5-139, 6-242, 7-242, 8-302, 9-325

Bowling: Sharma 28-9-49-3, Ojha 35-12-71-0, Jadeja 37-17-58-2, Chawla 21.5-1-69-4, Ashwin 24-3-66-1

India 1st innings

Gambhir c Prior b Anderson 37

Sehwag b Anderson 0

Pujara c Bell b Swann 26

Tendulkar b Anderson 2

Kohli not out 11

Dhoni not out 8

Extras: 3

Total: (4 wkts; 41 ovs) 87

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-59, 3-64, 4-71

Bowling: Anderson 9-2-24-3, Bresnan 10-1-25-0, Panesar 14-4-24-0, Swann 7-3-9-1, Trott 1-0-2-0 

Nagpur, December 14
In England’s slow and steady innings, while Ishant Sharma looked the most penetrative of the Indian bowlers, Piyush Chawla was the most successful with four wickets for 69 off 21.5 overs.

In his Test return, Chawla was much, much more successful than he was in his previous Ranji Trophy match, also played at Nagpur, which ended two days before the Test. Chawla bowled 32.3 overs in that match and got only one wicket — Sandeep Singh, the No. 10 of Vidarbhha.

The Vidarbha innings ended with Sandeep’s fall, which meant that Chawla had bowled 194 balls without getting a wicket in that game. He was also the most expensive bowler of the match. Chawla is seventh on the Uttar Pradesh bowling averages table, averaging 54.3, for his 10 wickets. He’s the third among wicket-takers, behind two mediumpacers.

On the basis of this performance, Chawla got into the Indian team. He got four wickets, but his inclusion in the team shows India’s desperation, and the fact that the spin cupboard is practically bare. It appears that specialist spinners are being replaced by bits-and-pieces players in our cricket — possibly due to the excess of limited-overs cricket? In fact, three of the four spinners in this Indian team could claim to be allrounders.

Aswhin batted like a top-order batsman in making 91 in the second innings of the Kolkata Test. Jadeja, the debutant, came on too bowl before Chawla and Aswhin in the England innings; and he’s in the team not because he’s a spinner, but because he has made two triple centuries in this Ranji Trophy season.

The value, or the lack of it, of such monstrously huge scores in the Ranji Trophy is brought into sharp relief by Chawla’s batting exploits. Chawla, believe it or not, is currently Uttar Pradesh’s top batsman. In the match against Vidarbha, he came in at No. 8 and smashed 85 off just 113 balls. He hit eight fours and three sixers in his innings.

From four matches, and five innings, Chawla has made 303 runs for UP this season, topping the averages with 75.75, with a scoring rate of 91.54, the best in the team. He has hit 13 sixers, and the next best in the team is five.

Chawla got four wickets, though he never looked remotely threatening. Three of his victims played bad shots against him, the fourth was the opposition No. 10.

India’s bowlers were rendered helpless by England’s lower order — perhaps they badly miss Kumble, who had the knack of running through the tail. Perhaps India need penetrative bowlers.

Nagpur, December 14
Notwithstanding Indian top order's pathetic show once again after the bowlers did a decent job to restrict England to 330, leg spinner Piyush Chawla said the hosts can still make a comeback in the fourth Test if Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni manage to put on a good session tomorrow.

"We lost a few quick wickets but we still have two quality batsmen at the crease and they are having a good partnership (Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni) and seeing the ball really well. Let's hope for the best because the way these guys are middling the ball we could have a good session tomorrow," said Chawla after the second day's play here.

India, in reply to England's 330 in the first innings, were tottering at 87 for four with the fiery England fast bowler James Anderson having grabbed three quick wickets for 24 runs at the VCA Stadium. Virat Kohli (11) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (8) were at the crease, even as the home team were still trailing England by 243 runs. "The morning session will be important. If we manage to play around 30-45 minutes without losing a wicket then we will be in a good position," insisted Chawla. The bowler dismissed suggestions that the poor form of the Indian batsmen was affecting the bowlers, saying on every occasion the team has put up scores in excess of 300 in the four-Test series, in which the hosts are 1-2 down.

"This is a phase that happens. It is not that our batting has flopped big time as we have managed to get around 300-350 in every match. It has not affected the bowlers. As a bowling unit we have done well," he said. The 23-year-old Chawla, who took a career-best 4 for 69 in his third Test here, said he was under some pressure after being recalled to the Test side after a gap of four years. "There is always pressure whenever you play but there was little bit more pressure this time because I was making a comeback to the Indian team after a long wait of four years.

But the way it has started I think it has been good," he said. Asked about his poor run in the Ranji Trophy despite which he was recalled as replacement for senior bowler Harbhajan Singh, Chawla said, "If you consider the type of wickets on which we played the Ranji Trophy matches this season I would say I did well. "We were playing mostly on seaming tracks so I would say my performance was good in that sense." — PTI

Nagpur, December 14
Debutant Joe Root, who impressed one and all with his patient knock of 73 stated that adapting to situations as quickly as possible is the main recipe of his success against India in the fourth cricket Test.

"I was trying to understand and adapt to the situation as quickly as possible. I just tried to do that. I was thinking more about adapting than anything else," Root said at the post-match media conference.

Root's main focus was to grind it out for long hours. "More than anything else, I had to keep my footwork precise and work very hard and just grind it out. It was a very defensive field and I had to be patient and keep things as simple as possible," said the 21-year-old Yorkshire man. "I have dreamed about this opportunity for a very long time and very proud I finally got this opportunity," he added.

Root, who said he was told he was playing the crucial game only on the eve of the match, said he was definitely nervous going into his maiden Test and was pleased to score some runs for his team. "Yeah, I am obviously delighted to get the opportunity and score a few runs. It won't be wrong to say that (was nervous) when you go in to bat in Test cricket for the first time, but you have a great team around you and I was very relaxed when I went into bat out there in the middle," he said.

Root lavished praise on his senior teammate James Anderson, who got the trio of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar. "Jimmy bowled fantastically. Great stuff. He has bowled fantastically well throughout the series. Big day tomorrow morning and hopefully we can keep bowling well. We are in a very good position now, so hopefully, we can come tomorrow and do more damage in the morning," he said. — PTI 

Mohali, December 14
Kanpur’s Green Park cricket stadium could lose its right to host the third Test between India and Australia, starting March 14,2013. A five-member delegation from the Australian Cricket Board, Cricket Australia (CA),was not not very impressed with preparations and playing conditions at the stadium.

The delegation also visited PCA Stadium, Mohali and was satisfied with the arrangement here.

One of the members of the delegation, Sean Cary, Senior Manager (Cricket Operations), Cricket Australia, said there was no problem with the facilities at the Kanpur ground but the renovation was not of international standards.

About the fate of the venue,he said the final decision rested with the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) but they had submitted their report to the Indian cricket board.

The Australian delegation would also submit their report to its respective cricket board too. Meanwhile the PCA, Mohali will host the second test match between India and Australia from March 2-6 next year. Australia will play four test matches here in India between February and March.

Chandigarh, December 14
After scoring three points against Mumbai, Punjab now travel to Gwalior for their Round Seven match against hosts Madhya Pradesh on Saturday

The star spinner Harbhajan Singh will be missing from action but Yuvraj Singh will join the team there. Punjab, on a bull run, are favourites in this match. Madhya Pradesh failed to close out a win on day four against Railways in Bhubaneshwar recently.

MP is desperately looking for points but hoping to get against table toppers Punjab will be tough task. MP have 14 points after five matches and they need to go past Group A members Saurashtra and Gujarat who have 15 each and catch up with Uttar Pradesh, Baroda and Services (each on 20 currently). Punjab, meanwhile, will be smarting from a second-innings total of 59 in Mumbai, sparked by Chavan's remarkable analysis. In another Group Himachal Pradesh will be up against Goa at Porvorim. HP will be riding on in-form batsmen - one of whom has four centuries and 617 runs in six matches - and the season's leading wicket-taker Rishi Dhawan. However, Himachal Pradesh have failed to win a single match. With 11 points and two matches to go, they too face a mountain to climb to stay alive.

Goa, meanwhile, have 9 points from five matches without a victory. Haryana will take on Uttar Pradesh at Lucknow. Hosts Uttar Pradesh stand to gain significantly from victory over last-year's semifinalists, Haryana, who hung on for a draw against Maharashtra. UP are top of the group on 20 points. 

Ludhiana, December 14
After two weeks of world cup kabaddi matches, some insipid and some highly enthralling, the decks have been cleared for a high voltage India-Pakistan final slated to be played at the floodlight Guru Nanak Dev stadium on Saturday.

The will be the third successive final between the two nations. The women’s final to be played between India and Malaysia, which was to be held at the Guru Gobind Singh stadium, Jalandhar, yesterday, will also be played here tomorrow as the Jalandhar match had got delayed due to the rain Gods playing havoc with the proceedings.

The Pakistan Punjab Chief Minister Shabaz Sharif who was expected to be the Chief Guest is not coming and the fireworks are expected to be provided by film actress Katrina Kaif.

Giving company to the Bollywood starlet will be Punjabi singers Daljeet Dosanjh and Sukhwinder. In tomorrow’s contest, the spotlight is expected to be on the famous troika of Bhutt brother-Safeek Bhutt, Sadeek Bhutt and Vikas Bhutt. On the Indian side, Gurlal Ghanour who has proved to be the best raider from the host country will be the man to watch out.

Interestingly, the men from across the border have entered the finals banking on the strength of these three brothers.

Natives of ‘Sat Zebe Nalka Kohala’ adjacent to the town of Faisalabad, these three brothers have been playing the local matches.

New Delhi, December 14
Compared to the crores invested in buying players for the cash-rich IPL T20 Tournament, the money on offer for the inaugural Hockey India League (HIL) is small change.

But unlike the IPL, in which the costliest players have all been foreigners, the HIL will have the highest reserve price of $27,800 against the names of two Indian hockey stars—drag-flick specialist Sandeep Singh and defender and Indian captain Sardar Singh. Two hundred and forty six players will be put on auction on December 16 to be drafted into the six franchisee-based teams. And top players from India, Pakistan Australia, Holland, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Malaysia, New Zealand, Argentina, France, UK and Poland feature.