Stuart Broad broke his nose after being hit by a Varun Aaron bouncer, but the pacy, bouncy track made the Englishman very happy. Broad is happy despite a broken nose because India are in trouble.

M Vijay epitomises India's escalating troubles. India's first runs in the series came off the bat of Vijay, in the first Test at Nottingham. Third ball of the series, he got one outside off from James Anderson; he tried to withdraw the bat but was late. The ball hit the bat and went past third slip for four. The next ball was outside off, too, and he opened the bat-face and manoeuvred it past the fourth slip. Another four.

Vijay got tons of runs behind square on both sides of the wicket; in the 146 runs he made in the first innings at Nottingham, 12 of his 25 fours were hit in the region behind square on the offside — 48 runs merely in fours in that quarter of the ground.

In the second innings at Nottingham, Vijay made 52 off 119 balls; four of the seven fours he hit were placed behind square on the offside. Vijay has made 146, 52, 24, 95, 35, 12, 0 and 18 in the eight innings; that's a very impressive total of 382 runs, at 47.75 per innings. A very high number of his runs were made behind the wicket — which means that Vijay was cutting, manipulating, edging or tricking the ball behind the square.

He's hit 56 fours in all, and exactly half of them were hit behind square on the off side.

Vijay, clearly, was using the pace of the ball to get his runs; the wickets were not particularly quick or bouncy, and that facilitated Vijay's plans. Most crucially, the ball didn't bounce and rise in the first two Test matches; this enabled Vijay to beat the field on the offside, and the ball fell short of the slip cordon when he did edge it.

His returns diminished when the wickets were faster and bouncier; the ball came faster and higher to his bat. In the first innings of the Southampton Test, his indecision in leaving the ball had him chopping it into the stumps. He got the best ball in that disastrous first morning of the Old Trafford Test. Anderson angled that ball in and then curved it away — Vijay was drawn to it by some invisible force; he edged it, and the ball flew to Alastair Cook in the slips.

The ball flew up and carried, that was the crucial part — it didn't descend and die beneath the fingers and toes of the England slip cordon.

Stuart Broad, who ended up with six wickets as India were routed for 152, said the bounce off the wicket was a huge factor. “The big thing was that the nicks were carrying and as a bowler that is a huge advantage,” he said. Bounce has troubled Vijay — he has faced 974 balls in the series so far and he's left the highest number of balls outside off.

But the movement in the air and the bounce have tested him; he's getting sucked towards the curving ball. Before Old Trafford, the balls he edged were falling short of slips or going through the vacant gully region. When the wicket is bouncy, as it was at Old Trafford, he's likely to edge the ball. This could be said of the whole team as well.

Vijay has been India's best batsman in the series. If bounce and pace and a good line outside off combine to bother him, the others will be in still deeper trouble.

That was why Broad loved the bounce at Old Trafford.

Manchester, August 11
Alastair Cook has been touched by the generosity of Ravindra Jadeja. After the draw at Nottingham and the loss at Lord's, everyone here was baying for the blood of the England captain. He was deemed too mild a leader, too unimaginative as captain, apart from being out of form as a batsman and opener.

Jadeja gave him a lifeline, dropping him off the luckless Pankaj Singh in the first innings at Southampton. Now everyone is talking up Cook as a tough man, a man of steel.

“He's one of those characters, the more criticism he gets, the more determined he becomes,” coach Peter Moores said of Cook. “He just gets steelier. He would openly admit that he's had a really tough ride. But that often can forge somebody into something special.” With a bit of help, it must be said.

“The significant point came when he made it clear he was in it for the long haul. He made it clear he wanted to do the job. If other people didn't want him, then fine, he'd move on, but he made public his desire to captain England. He just said that he was going to give it everything he's got and he still has the same approach now.” That's the way Cook doesn't crumble, after all.

Masked Broad!

We've seen Malcolm Marshall bowl — and demolish England — while wearing a plaster cast over his broken left arm. We've seen Kobe Bryant playing with a face mask on in the NBA. Now there's intense speculation here that Stuart Broad might sport a face mask in the final Test at The Oval in London.

Broad was hit by a bouncer from Varun Aaron on the third day of the third Test. The ball rose, Broad went for a pull, and the ball went through the gap between the grille and peak of his helmet. The ball had been edged, too, and that added speed to it. Broad seemed dazed, blood trickled from his nose, and he walked off the field as if in a daze. But England named an unchanged squad for the fifth Test, including Stuart Broad despite his fractured nose. “We'll see what the specialist says but my thought is that, if he's fit and there's no risk to him, we will play him,” Peter Moores, the England coach, said. “It is a big game at The Oval and we want to play him. He may end up playing in one of those football face masks.”

Met news

As if to rub it in, it rained hard today too in Manchester. This excited those who were interested in the 'what if' question — what if India had managed to bat out the 61 overs left in play day-before yesterday, the third day of the Old Trafford Test match. India were bowled out in 46.4 overs. There was a deluge of sorts yesterday that would definitely have ruled out play on Sunday, and perhaps allowed only a delayed start today.

New Delhi, August 11
India suffered a humiliating innings defeat against England in the fourth Test to continue with their disappointing recent form in the longest format but former captain Sunil Gavaskar was not ready to criticise the young players and pleaded the public to keep faith on them.

“The team is in transition as some of the best players in the world have retired a few years back. It is difficult for these youngsters to fill into their big shoes. We need to be a little bit patient with them,” Gavaskar said.

“I agree that India has been struggling in Test format for some time. But look, with those some of the best players in the world, India still lost 0-4 to England and then with identical margin to Australia in 2011. So, I will not just point a finger on these current players,” he said. England off-spinner Moeen Ali tormented the Indians at the Old Trafford with figures of 4/39 in the second innings but Gavaskar refused to buy the line that Indians were no longer the best players of spin.

“Apart from the one delivery which dismissed Virat Kohli, I would not say that Moeen had bowled some extraordinary deliveries or which turned a lot. It was just that the Indians wanted to score runs off him as they were not getting boundaries from the other end from the likes of James Anderson,” he said. “They thought they could score some easy runs from Moeen. If you are not getting runs from one end, you naturally try to get runs from the other. It happens in cricket and players may get out in doing that. That had happened to the Indians.

“One should not generalise things. It is one unfortunate happening that virtually all of the current Indian team members are experiencing their leanest periods,” Gavaskar told NDTV. Gavaskar went to the extent of saying that Indian cricket team gets “unnecessary” criticism due to the fact that the country virtually controls the game due to its financial clout. “India has now become a cricket team to be picked on.

There is a certain element of jealousy here. India now controls the game financially and so people want to bring down the Indian team,” he said. “When India won the second Test at the Lord's, England players were struggling to play short-pitched deliveries.

England players were hit on the helmet. The same happened when Mitchell Johnson of Australia bowled in the Ashes. But nobody wrote that England players cannot play short-pitched deliveries.

“So can one conclude that Indians struggled to play spin on the basis of Moeen's performance? I will criticise the Indian players when needed but I will not also criticise them unnecessarily. They belong to my cricketing fraternity,” added Gavaskar.

The former captain also said he would not believe that a commensurate sense of hurt was not felt by the Indian players after the Old Trafford debacle. “It is a matter of how one accepts a defeat or a win. So it is hard to find out how much they are hurt by the defeat.

It is a subjective thing. But I will be surprised if the Indian team was not hurt by the defeat (at Old Trafford).” Gavaskar also advised the team management and the BCCI to make it compulsory for Indian players to feature in first class cricket if they want to play Tests. — PTI

New Delhi, August 11
G Manoharan (boxing), Mahaveer Prasad (wrestling), N Lingappa (athletics), Gurcharan Singh Gogi (judo) and Jose Jacobs (rowing) have been recommended for this year's Dronacharya Awards by a selection panel headed by former hockey capyain Ajit Pal Singh. The 11-member selection panel met here for the first time to recommend names for the highest honour for coaches to the Sports Ministry. The Ministry is expected to put its stamp of approval on the recommended names within this week.

The panel also shortlisted three names for this year's Dhyan Chand Awards — lifetime achievement in sports — which include KP Thakkar (swimming), Zeeshan Ali (tennis) and Gurmail Singh (hockey). However, the biggest omission for Dronacharya awards remained Haryana wrestling coaches Vinod Kumar and Mahavir Phogat. Despite training three Glasgow CWG gold medallists, women's coach Phogat, father of wrestlers Geeta and Babita, was ignored for the third consecutive year. Chief national men's freestyle coach Vinod was also overlooked even after producing double Olympic medallists Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt

For the 90-year-old athletics coach N Lingappa, it was a case of better late than never, having produced ace sprinters Ashwini Nachappa and quartermiler Vandana Rao (a member of the gold-winning 4x400m relay quartet at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games).

Gogi could become the first judo coach to be honoured with the Dronacharya award.

LOUISVILLE (USA), August 11
Pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy recovered from a stumbling start to overcome a series of challengers and clinch his fourth major title by a shot at the PGA Championship on Sunday.

A stroke in front of the chasing pack overnight, the world No. 1 lost the lead but regained control after the turn, signing off with a three-under 68 at Valhalla Golf Club for a 16-under total of 268.

Phil Mickelson, the 2005 winner, birdied 18 to finish alone in second with a closing 66, with Swede Henrik Stenson (66) and American Rickie Fowler (68) a stroke further back in third.

“I didn't think in my wildest dreams I'd have a summer like this,” British Open champion McIlroy said after being presented with the coveted Wanamaker Trophy, which he hoisted high in celebration.

“I've just played the best golf of my life and just really gutted it out today. It was a little different from the previous major wins that I've had and I think I showed a lot of guts out there today to get this job done.”

Trailing by three at one point, McIlroy got within a stroke of the lead with a spectacular eagle at the par-five 10th where he hit his second shot from 281 yards to seven feet, before effectively sealing the title with birdies at the 13th and 17th.

In gathering gloom at Valhalla, where play was suspended for just under two hours earlier in the day due to water-logged conditions, McIlroy parred the last to win his third consecutive title on the PGA Tour, and his second major this year. — Reuters

Rory’s major titles US Open (2011) British Open (2014) PGA Championship (2012, 2014) Young gun Aged just 25, the Northern Irish becomes the fourth youngest player to win four majors The world No. 1 also becomes just the fifth player to win the British Open and PGA Championship in the same year

Toronto, August 11
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had one more surprise in his bag of upsets, beating second seeded Roger Federer 7-5 7-6(3) to cap a scintillating march to the Rogers Cup title on Sunday.

BRIEFLY

Ajmal reported for suspect action in Galle Test
Dubai: Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has been reported for suspect bowling action during his side's seven-wicket loss in the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. Ajmal, who registered his 10th five-wicket haul in the second innings of the Test match, was reported by the match officials' and they cited concerns over a number of deliveries that were considered to be suspect. The official's subsequently sent the report to team manager Moin Khan informing him that the off-spinner's action will now be scrutinised under the ICC process relating to suspected illegal bowling actions reported in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. As per ICC regulations, Ajmal, who has 174 Test scalps in 34 matches, will have to undergo testing of his action within 21 days, but can continue bowling until the outcome of the results.

Sanga top Test batsman, Ashwin best all-rounder
Dubai: Former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara has regained the number-one Test batting spot in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen while there was some good news for India as Ravichandran Ashwin moved to the top of the all-rounder’s list. Ashwin has displaced South Africa’s Vernon Philander as the number-one ranked all-rounder, while England’s Stuart Broad has moved ahead of Australia’s Mitchell Johnson in fourth position.

Gul considers retirement from Test cricket
London: Experienced Pakistan bowler Umar Gul is considering quitting Test cricket due to a chronic knee injury. The 30-year-old paceman, who has claimed 163 Test and 173 One-day international wickets, said he would make a decision on his future if he is unfit to play against Australia in the UAE in October-November. “Right now, I don't know what lies ahead for me because I am still not comfortable with the knee,” he said on Pakistani sports channel Geo Super. “I am hoping to make a comeback in the Tests against Australia but if that doesn't happen I could quit Tests.”

German striker Klose retires from national team
London: German veteran striker Miroslav Klose announced his retirement from the national team on Monday. After lifting the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Klose becomes the second German player, after Philipp Lahm, who announced his retirement from the national team, reports Xinhua. The 36-year-old striker closed the chapter after 13 years with the 'Nationalmannschaft'. “With the triumph in Brazil a childhood dream came true for me. I am proud and delighted that I was able to shape this great success for German football... For me there is no better time to close the chapter,” said Klose . — Agencies