Mohali, March 12
Soon after finishing their nets, having got their hands on their mobile phones, the Australian cricketers silently filed out of the PCA Stadium. Each player had his eyes glued to the screen of his handset, to perhaps catch up with the world that had moved ever so much in the three hours they had been away from their phones.

If they sought words of comfort, some soothing news from sweet home, they wouldn’t have got that. One, Cricket Australia gave a ringing endorsement to the action against four player.

Worse, news from Australia would have told them of Pat Howard — Cricket Australia’s general manager of team performance — taking pot-shots at their recent teammate Shane Watson. And Watson responding quickly, and in anger.

Watson had left his team, Chandigarh, India, in a hurry yesterday after being disciplined for not turning in a presentation on how he and the team should go about improving after the defeats in the first two Test matches. He said he would have missed the fourth Test anyway, to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. But the move out of India was clearly a decision taken in anger.

If his anger had subsided on the long flight home, it would have been stirred again by Howard’s comments that greeted him soon after touching down. Howard had said earlier today that vice-captain Watson and captain Michael Clarke have had “normal difficulties that anybody has in a relationship” and that the two “have to sort their issues out, if Michael wants to raise it as a greater issue, he can come forward”.

More painful would be Howard’s implication that Watson isn’t a team man. Howard said: “I think he (Watson) acts in the best interests of the team — sometimes.”

Then in whose interests does Watson act in at other, most of the times? Howard didn’t say, but he did manage to rouse Watson again.

Watson reacted, suggesting that Howard, a former rugby player, doesn’t really know much about him. “Pat Howard doesn’t know me particularly well, he’s come from a rugby background... the best people to talk to are those who played cricket with me,” he said.

“I love playing cricket, it’s a privilege to play for my country,” he went on. “I accept that I did the wrong thing with what I did... But I will always find it very hard to accept being suspended for a Test match for my country.”

In India, James Pattinson, one of the other three to be suspended from the third Test, displayed greater remorse. During practice, Pattinson and Michael Clarke spent a lot of time together, chatting and laughing — they were a perfect picture of brotherly love.

Pattinson is clearly shattered by having to miss the second Test. He is young — two months short of his 23rd birthday — and this blow is heavy. Yet, he was sent out to discuss this issue, and anything concerning the Australian team, with the media. Sending him out sent a strong message — ask him whatever you want to ask for there’s nothing underhand here, Australian cricket is strong and forthright.

Pattinson admitted that the when he learnt he was being sacked, he initially didn’t cope well with it. “At the time I was told I was quite upset. At the start I didn’t take it as well as I probably could have,” he said. “The easy thing for me was to make excuses and say it’s a harsh punishment.”

Pattinson said that he and the others realised their mistake and apologised to their teammates. “We had a training session yesterday and we apologised to the team about it,” the fast bowler said. “It does hurt, missing a Test match. It’s not only that, you let your team down as well.”

It defies belief that four top-level players could be axed for not making a presentation; Clarke has also said that there it was not “just about one incident”. Pattinson repeated this, but he cited only one instance of behaviour that could be termed disruptive — being late for meetings. It certainly doesn’t seem a massive error — perhaps more so to us in India. “It’s been an ongoing thing, these are not massive things,” he said. “A lot of people are saying it’s not for handing something (presentations) in. It’s more than that, like being late for meetings sometimes.”

“I think we’ve got to get this in our heads straightaway that it’s all about coming together as a team, doing everything as a team and then really pushing for success,” went on the unfortunate paceman. “It’s not massive things, it’s little things that could help us in doing the one percent right. If we’re not doing that one percent right (off the field), we’re not going to get the one percent right in the field either.”

Pattinson said he’s young and can take the punishment in his strike. “I am glad it happened in my career at such a young age because I can learn from that,” he said.

Mohali, March 12
The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops — thus wrote Samuel Beckett in his iconic absurdist drama. The same is true of the laugh.

After one year, the wheel of time has turned a full circle and India’s disastrous tour of Australia (0-4) is far away from everyone’s mind. Here in Mohali, it’s the Australians who are coming face to face with their moment of truth. The visitors are having nightmares full of incomprehension. Their raw team is up against the challenge of their short cricketing lives. And the spectre of indiscipline has crept up, much to the dismay of the team management.

Not surprisingly, tears of remorse are welling up in James Pattinson’s pigeon-eyes. No sooner did Pattinson — who had become the bane of Indian batting order in Australia last year — left Mohali after the nets, the Indians landed smiling and giggling. Not at poor James, but assured in their belief that everything is under control. There is panic in the other camp and all they need to do is do the simple things right.

So, they began with light session of football with a little horsing around as Sachin Tendulkar toyed with the soccer skills of his favourite bunny Harbhajan Singh. There were goals scored on both sides but the scoreline was totally irrelevant. What stood out was the intent to be competitive.

When it came to the nets, it was a busy day for India. None other than skipper MS Dhoni orchestrated the nets from the very outset by passing on instructions to the support staff.

While the top three began with pacers, Sachin started with spinners, all three (Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha) lined up. With a virtual field set, the bowlers tried to contain the master batsman with their tweak, Bhajji throwing the challenge with a bark, “square pe lagana hoga,” and the little master obliging. Ojha messed up a bit with field placements and Sachin numbered the imaginary players, then glared and chided him for his folly. Watching intently, a net bowler on the sidelines made sort of fun of Sachin’s short stature; his coach sitting next chided with — “World’s best batsman!” Silence prevailed.

But out there in the middle, Sachin was having fun. It was a day when Sachin was the standout figure in the whole session, be it horsing around with players or practising with full intent. The senior batsman also had a word with the captain and the team coach. As usual, there was a special word of advice for Bhajji on his bowling. Nothing special, just routine affair. Coach Duncan Fletcher too passed on tips to Sachin on his front foot play. Just as Sachin wound up, the session effectively got over, with everyone packing their bags and rushing to fielding drills.

Mohali, March 12
The pitch for the third Test has been the centre of much speculation over the past few days. The local officials have said that it’s going to be a “competitive” pitch. “We have done exactly this (made a competitive pitch) so that spectators also enjoy and players also put in their best,” Punjab Cricket Association president I.S Bindra said.

The Australians have been encouraged to hope that the Mohali pitch won’t be a the soft, crumbling surface they endured in Chennai and, to a lesser extent, Hyderabad.

There has been a light stubble on the pitch, which gladdened the Australian hearts. It was sort of brushed today, with Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni around.

The pitch had not been watered until late evening; it was chalky-white, presenting a stark contrast with the adjacent pitches, which were dark green with still darker blotches that suggested wetness.

In the evening, the pitch was watered a bit with a hand-held sprinkler and then rolled. 

Guwahati, March 12
Yusuf Pathan continued his fine run in limited overs format as his smashing half-century helped West Zone crush South by five wickets as they entered the final of the Deodhar Trophy.

West will now take on North Zone in tomorrow`s summit clash. Put into bat, South made a decent 258 for five in their stipulated 50 overs riding on half-centuries from Stuart Binny (65) and Sachin Baby (58).

In reply, West knocked off the runs in 41.1 overs courtesy Yusuf`s 53-ball-68. The India discard hit eight boundaries and two mighty sixes — one each of offie Baba Aparajith and left-arm spinner B Sudhakar. This is his third consecutive 60-plus score having scored a century and a half century in the successive matches in Vijay Hazare one day meet.

India U-19 star Vijay Zol also hit a matured 75 off 88 balls with the help of 11 boundaries and a six.

The only time that South looked like making a match of it was in the first seven overs when West were reduced to 26 for two with opener Parthiv Patel (14) and Manpreet Juneja (1) back in the hut. However a 71-run stand between Zol and Ambati Rayudu (31) helped West steady the ship.

Once Rayudu was dismissed by left-arm spinner Sudhakar edging an away spinning delivery to the glovesman, Pathan walked in. Initially, he didn`t take any risks but once he got set, he just stuck into the bowling. He hit Aparajith over deep mid-wicket for maximum and Sudhakar`s delivery was sent soaring over the sightscreen. The duo added 66 runs in a shade over 11 overs after which Zol was dismissed by R Vinay Kumar.

Kedar Jadhav (56 no) then sent the South bowlers on a leatherhunt smashing eight fours in 44 balls to finish off the contest.

Brief Scores: South Zone 258/5 (Binny 65, Baby 58, Munaf 2/48, A Nayar 2/49); West Zone 259/5 in 41.1 overs(Vijay 75, Yusuf 68, Jadhav 56 no). — PTI

Ipoh, March 12
A spirited India beat Pakistan in a must-win match to keep alive their hopes in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament by notching up a come-from-behind 3-1 win here today. India were in a spot of bother ahead of the match after losing their opening two encounters and another loss today would have virtually shut the door on them.

But it was not to be, as India scored through Rupinder Pal Singh (5th minute), Akashdeep Singh (9th) and Mandeep Singh (56th) to seal the issue after Mohammad Waqas gave Pakistan the lead in the fourth minute of the game.

India have moved to the fourth position ahead of Pakistan with three points from as many games.

It was an enthralling encounter between the two Asian giants, who adopted a cautious approach in the initial stages of the match.

by the share of ball possession, Pakistan, by far, were the better side on display at least in the opening half. The Pakistanis put the Indian defence under tremendous pressure in the opening few minutes of the game. Their efforts produced result immediately when Waqas deflected in skipper Muhammad Imran’s flick after Pakistan tried a variation from their first penalty corner.

But the Indians took little time to bounce back as they pumped in two goals in a span of five minutes.

Rupinder restored parity for India in the fifth minute converting India’s only penalty corner of the match with a fierce drag-flick which beat Pakistan goal-keeper Imran Butt all ends up. Four minutes later, an opportunist Akashdeep put India ahead, slamming in a rebound after Nithin Thimmiah’s initial shot was stopped by Pakistan custodian Shah.

Pakistan only managed to convert one out of the eight penalty corners that came their way. The Pakistanis also found it difficult to get the better of an agile P R Sreejesh, who was brilliant under the Indian goal. Sreejesh was in ominous form as he pulled off as many as six to seven brilliant saves, one of which came just at the stroke of the half time, to deny the Pakistanis any scoring chance.

Leading 2-1, the Indians looked more organised after the change of ends.

Mandeep scored India’s third goal in the 56th minute, off a rebound, after his initial touch was gloved away by Shah. — PTI

BRIEFLY

India win one gold, one bronze in Asian Archery GP
New Delhi: The Indian men’s compound team clinched a gold while the recurve trio bagged a bronze medal in the Asian Archery Grand Prix in Bangkok today. The compound team of Sandeep Kumar, Abhishek Verma, Jignas Chittibomma emerged 226-218 victorious over Vietnam to win the gold. The recurve men’s team of Atanu Das, Rahul Banerjee, Binod Swansi defeated Russia 217-201 in the bronze-medal match in four sets.

Nadal advances after Mayer withdraws with injury
Indian Wells: Twice champion Rafa Nadal was gifted a place in the last 16 of the BNP Paribas Open on Monday when Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer withdrew before their third-round match with a back injury. Spaniard Nadal, who said he had been “very scared” after experiencing his first earthquake a few hours earlier, will next face Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 5-7 6-3 6-4.

Inaugural Avantha winner Dodt eyes second title
Noida: Inaugural Avantha Masters winner Andrew Dodt of Australia is eyeing his second European Tour title this weekend and says he can’t wait to come back to India for his “favourite” tournament. “Yeah, it’s one of my favourite events on the Tour, so I’m really looking forward to it. It’s obviously a different course this year and I haven’t been out there yet so don’t know what to expect, but hopefully it suits my game and I can have a good week,” said 26-year-old Dodt who won in 2010. Speaking of his memories of that win in 2010, he said: “It really kick-started my career on The European Tour. It probably hasn’t gone as well since as I would’ve liked it to, but I managed to keep my card by the skin of my teeth and had some decent results at the start of this season.” — Agencies